The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1856-02-15
THE DAILY DISPATCH.
Nils. NIurrny,s Boak on Amrricn.


Maidef Honor TO Qaeen Victoria, on account of pro
slavery views expressed In her ''et,ers from the
United States Canada aud Cuba has just publish
ed tlrc voame. The greater part of the letters are
from the United States. Writing from Newport,
on the 18th of August she says
"There il certainly great beauty aud refinement
OF feature among the mass of the people but il il
accompanied by a frsgility of look which raises
painful feelings. As far as can judge at present
this Is owing partly to hereditary causes partly TO
actual habits. The excitement and anxieties of
business life in new country probably entail CON.
stitutonal decaey upon the children of parents
S eagerly occupied and the sedentary city educa.
ton and pursuits of the young of the last and pre
sent generation, unfavorable to outodoor interests
and amusements, do not harden and strengthen
the nerves and muscles.
II am already tempted to contrayert the asser.
ton of American ladies, that their generally deli
cate health Is TO be attributed to climate They
may have severer winters and warmer summer,
than ours, but these are accompanied by the ad.
vantsges of less damp, and of brighter sun shine
| have not had an hour too warm for exercise du.
ring any part of the day, for though the SUN is
brighter, it does not always beam SO fariously as
with US. The climate of Massachusetts seems to
me a charming one, and believe another genera.
ton will discover its merits. because | entertain
hopes that the children now growing up will ac-
quire more hardy habits The evil | am speaking
of cannot be remeded in day; and find Ameri.
can ladies are at this moment so little informed
with regard TO natural productions, and so united
for country pursuits, that their ignorance of these
matters is at once the evidence and the cause of
their lack OF physical strength"
''On Journey made about this time to Mount
Washington, the following comparison between
New and Old England is drawn:
The difference between us appears to be that
our higher classes have more principle, elegance
and refinement; the women more energy and ac-
tiIity, and the men more athletic ainusements;
while our middle and lower classes are less highly
educated, perhaps rather more narrow minded and
physically work harder, although in some respects
| think the Americans themselves are lower par.
tieuiarly those occupied in manufactures aud com
mercial affairs The race and appearance of
horses is an example which seems throughout any
they bear. There are none SO perfect as our most
perfect, but the animals generally go better and
are better fed than second aud third horses III
England"
Al Niagara Miss Murray, after having met with
nothing but ciyiity and Kindness among the people
OF the United States, begins 10 experience treat.
ment of another sort. She enters with young
lady room in which ST a circle of strangers from
various places, not one Of whom rises to offer
chair-whieh could net have occurred in the old
country"
At the same place, while engaged in sketchine
she feels hand familarly laid on her shoulder and
is addressed III strange voice, and turning ronnd
finds that the liberty was taken by perfect stran-
ger, "a young lady apparently but twenty just
arrived, WIN goes on to remark upon her sketch
with the most perfect cool less AT another time
the wish is expressed to her that the old country
might ge. thoroughly WHIPPED during the present
war Thereupon Miss Murray sets it down in her
tablets, not without some provocation, we admit,
that the Americans mistake rudeness for republi-
canism, and incivility for independence"
At Albany, November 6, Miss Murray be-
comes an inmate of Governor Seymour house. 1t
was in the midst of the election in which he was
second time candidate for the Office of Governor OF
New York, and was beaten by his competitor, My
ron c. Clark. Miss Seymour becomes interested III
the election, admires the calm Indifference of her
host to the result" and his freedom from weak
ambition"
AT Albany, she learns to like the American eler-
gy
Zone circumstance is to be observed of the
American Episcopal elergynen-and, as far as l
have been able to remark, the same thing may be
said OF the Presbyterian-that they all read well
without the nasal tone or the peculiar pronuncia
tion of the northeastern states. 1t is pity that
civilians, especially diplomatic men, do not initiate
their clergy in this matter. think the latter, as
body, superior to ours. Among those whose
churches / have attended, two ministers, educated
and ordained upon our side of the Atlantic, both
good men, were pompous and tedious in the read
ing desk aud pulpit. And we must confess that not
many in England either read or preach in an at
tractive manner
With Governor Seymour's family she visits New
York. and is dOmesticated with them In the St.
Nicholas Hotel the only fault she finds with which
Is that its furniture is rather in the extreme of mag
nihcence. On the fashionable society of New York
she makes these reflections:
People here are not at all less exclusive than in
London only the differences in rank and wealth
are eVinced by more minute and elaborate atten.
ton to dress, aud to trhng conventioraties, than
with us. have been surprised to hear some men
OF BUSINESS but OF wealth, assert that cultivation of
the hne arts Is proof of national effeminacy -
American ladies bestow those hours of leisure which
English women of the same class give to drawing
TO the study of nature and TO mental Guilty alton
almost wholly on personal adornment Although
II must De admitted, that owing to the bad training
of their servants, ladies this side ef the Atan
tic are compelled to look closely into the details
OF domestic economy yet it is odd that thew are
generally far less competent to the performances
OF everyday and sck-room duties than the daugh.
ters of our noblest hauses in Great Britain and So
long girls here devote whole hour for every
ten minutes allowed by us to the toilet they have
right to make domestic affairs an excuse for
want OF general information. OF course there are
brilliant exceptions hut fear the national char
acteI Of women in the United States more rese1n
bes that of selfindulgent Asatcs than of energet-
ic Anglo-Saxons. And, as far as can Judge, their
children are not being reared in better habits HUI
man nature is prone to extremes and these facts
explain why some individuals desirous of improve.
ment have fallen into mistaken imitation of man.
ly character, instead of cultyating feminine du-
ties" .--~
She remarks:
SIN this country, hear that though it has no
queen, all ao0pen are queens, should rather call
them playthings-dolls; things treated as if they
were unfit or unwilling to help themselves or
others and while we in England have
nearly cast aside arts of the toilet worthy only of
dolls here false brows, false bloom false hair
false everything mot always. but too frequently.
Dress in America almost genera rule, is full
of extravaganza and artifcality; and while wo-
men show such want OF reliance upon their ma
tive powers of pleasing their influence in society
will be more nominal than real."
'R- has had offers of marriage in America I;
butsh says no, / will never marry here-not
even if i could have the very President himself
Why in England may have my own station, and
I'm content but in America should never know
what was / find many charming people, a
great deal that is interesting, and much that is in
struetiye, in the United States but it appears to
me that only the fear of starvation would induce
an English man or woman to fix themselves for
life in America In whatever state of life you are
Herewith TO be content is lesson which can
hardly be learned this side the Atlantic"
In December Miss Murray proceeds southwark
At Baltimore she finds the relation Of mistress and
servant to possess "a more agreeable aspect than
at the North where it is commonly characterized
by complaints of annoyance ON the one side, and
saucy indifference on the other" Here also she