Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-08-18

SKETCHES OF SUMNER TRAvBL.

RAILRoAp-AN AWFUL NIeHr on BOARD OF |
AN OvER-cRowDED STEAMER. 81
The habiliments air, and manners Of all Bos- |
tonans Of both sexes saw this morning at the |
Eastern Railroad Depot impressed me with the |
cockneyism Of the s'Modern Athens'' not more |
signally than almost all else Of Boston have seen
to-day. In 1885 1t was an American city in its |
attributes; as 1t is not now. Always, perhaps,
the best built city this contnent-that is, its
houses were generally more substantially built
than those Of any other city Of the United States
now, they are so incomparably more substantial
than the houses designed to answer the same puf-
pose to be found elsewhere, where Americans
dwell by thousands, az that the stranger, upon
viewing them, If knowing how they build In
Europe, Is almost cheated into the momentary be-
lief that he Is on the other side Of the Atlantic.
The lack Of width In most of the streets of the city
and the lack of matured plan in the original lay
ing Oh Of the streets, too, both favor the momen-
tary deluson; for realizes instantly that unlike
almost all other cities Of country Boston plan
after the fashion Of that of nearly every ancient city
in Europe s the result of the varying circumstances
OF its history Its habits and customs and its vehi-
elesand horses, well As its people, all conspre to
give 1t Its English air No other class of its deni-
zens, by the bye, are more English in appearance,
IL as much so, as its students and 'tyoung men
about town. Cockneyism seems to pervade
their every thought and motion. Generally they
are the least manly specimens OF humanity Of
their age ever saw-diminutve, emaciate half
blind, and dapper. They seem to have cultivated
intellect to the extent not only OF sacrificing all
their physique for its sake, but intellect ITSELF in
their chase after some imagi NATIVE perfection of
it, which has progressed from the sublimity Of
ideas based on oId-fashioned common sense, to
no nj uton
theories, running invariably into the extravaganza
of Characterization. Or, In other words, into
tue semi-craziness of trdnscendentalism upon all
subjects except the eminently practical one of
looking after number one, where the % root of all
evil'' is concerned. | have rarely known or heard
OF New England philosopher Of modern times
who, however crazy bis ultraism against the prin.
clPles, views, or rights Of others mis- ht be where
his own pecuniary interests are concerned, Is not
the most rational man conceivable. For half an
hour, day or two since, took occasion to note
closely three Boston students they sat near me
upon steamer In the harbor, and enjoyed their
cockney airs amazingly; being keenly alive to the
marked difference between them and their fathers
only twenty-five years before.
Apparently, Boston is more crowded than New
York anywhere out of Broadway there having
been no room for the expansion Of the limits OF
the city proper with that Of Its population and
business. Hence the fact that SO large proper
ton Of those engaged in carrying on its business
reside In the numerous really beautiful villages
surrounding it. Here and there one In these times
FEES few old fashioned New England people I'm
the streets, such as crowded them in the DAYS of
my boyhosd. But they were few, very few In
number, and really looked as essentially sh-out
ofwater, as | certainly felt when wandering
among the massive buildings that have IA ken the
places Of their more unpretending predecessors i'm
half hundred Of the streets of Boston which were
o ice almost as familiar to me as washington,s
thoroughfares are now
+. M.-After gaping about Boston for some
hours to-day, musing and Specializing upon their
altered appearance and the elements in the CHAR
acter of the citys original people that have made
II what 1t Is, socially, industrially, mentally &c.
am already OF again, for New York. Seated in
the hind car Of the train Of the Old Colony Rail-
road, my first destination is Fall River We have
rushed through the streets Of South Boston and |
across what was once the huge marsh that Law he
tween the island of South Boston and the main
land - Dorchester now hardly a marsh any |
longer, but fairly-built-up suburban city. / |
find the region traversed by the Old Colony Rail-
road-main stem-Dorchester, Quincy Braintree
Canton, Randolph and other towns, vastly changed
since 1 last saw It, Much Of the Immediate wi
cinity Of the railroads line Is unimprovabe even
by so dense, and, in such matters so adyan, ed
population as inhabit it being swamp to th,
north and rock ridge to the south Neyertbelts,,
where twenty square rods of soil could be re.
claimed, the demands Of the teeming population |
hereabout for bread has made It profitable to re-.
claim II at any cost The style Of building and OF
CULTIVATION seems to me to have changed less here
tnan anywhere else In Massachusetts, have visited
upon this trip; the country continuing to hold /
much OF l1 appearance In old times the only
sulklng difference being In the extent Of ground /
(and more numerous buildings now devoted IN
mans service. All the towns name above have
become manufacturing hives since knew them.
when, with Uncomfortable exceptions, the DUR
suit Of their people was agriculture or course |
strange and very mixed population now Inbabit
THEM; vastly more numerous than b. fore nome
oil these towns live by working up iroa others Inv
working up LEATHER or copper, or cotton or woo
or SAND Unto glass or wood into hundred useful
dfucies Win the exception Of their trade I'm |
the production OF cotton goods, those interested
Immediately In their prosperity are clmor-
Gus for increased protection for all their differ, nj
manufactures. Why II is more proper that va
OF the south should be compelled by law tn nav
them bonuses from our pockets-bounties- on
'heir labor, than that they should be compelled
70 pay us oounties from their pockets on our
l dor, shall never be able to comprehend
admire their industry and ingenuity vastly.
Du. oy no means feel ii a moral duty to contri-
nnte from my own means to make up the short.
innings OF the results tpecuniary) of their sew
efal (and very varied) callings. They look upon
'neir fgh' TO protection" at the expense of us of
'he south, very much in the light in which the
rulers OF Europe regard their alleged rio hts
divine, and blus'er over them quite as earnestly
Ere dark we reached the steamer Empire state
al Fail River, when knew 1t, hardly more than
an uncomfortable fishing village, though now a
city of fifteen thousand souls.
sIea ming, burning, believing and buzzinp in
all directions, and at a terrible rate The boat.
'nough large one for almost any other trade, IL
a small one for the immense business of thi.
line OF travel between New York and Boston
Crowded between decks and below with freIpb,
when the six hundred passengers travelling by
our train were Precipitated upon the hundred or
20 local travellers previously embarked upon her
The crowd was unbearable. Worst of an N.
ladies' cabin seemed to have been taken no..s.