The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1866-05-09
MISCELLANY.
On Bank Service in Canada.

Political and social life in America
have been often described. The diosyn-
crasies Of the peoplc---their hurry, i'm
pulsivencs and cxtravagancc-form the
staples of our tourists books All trav-
clcrs look through the same telescope,
but through alternate ends. Mr.. Puff,
resolving to write "a work" upon the
great republic" obtains a huge magni-
flying glass, and landing upon the pier at
New York, mounts the first wood-pile to
take an observation. lie is of course
lost in wonder and delight, for he has
resolved to make a great deal of his
theme. Not so with the astutc Doctor
Derogate, who sets his eye to the big
end of the glass, and reconnoiters the
most insignificant county in the world.
lie is satisfied of this when he walks
around his tripod, and looks back, through
the other end, upon the lands of his ma
tivity.
But there are many things in America
which neither Mcssrs. Puff nor Derogate
can see. The title phenomena which
furnish the best clues require microscopic
investigation. They must be observed
closely, carefully, continuously, and by
those who dtCell-not those who run.
What, for example, can fighty tourists
know Of homes in the far West? He
sees the forests and the prairies, but there
are huts amid them, where men and
children live. lie looks down upon vast
cities, which have sprung up in a night
the smoke of their thousand hearths curls
towards him, the church spires glitter
beneath, the river and the shipping cluster
around but deep in their intricacies
abide strange beings-the base, the want
on, the wretched. These have not en-
tered into our sage reports, though cr.mi-
nal life across the Atlantic is one of the
most unique and individual manifestations
of that anomalous society.
Crime is universal. 1t is the great
pioneer and colonist. Cramped in old
and dense populations, its restless instincts
impel it to wild and far-of' adventure.
From the fight of Cain to the exodus of
British convicts, the men of sin have
been the founders of nations They hew
down the wildernesses, throttle the vpers,
and slay the savages. Then come better
and more timid folk, to establish order
aud religion; and in course of time the
original knaves are canonized and sound
ing pedigrees are traced to them. Just
such transition is taking place now in
America. The young republic is still
the great Alsatia for the old worlds un-
worthy and disafiected subjects. The
enterprise of the country is legitimate
development of these classes so likewise
is its agressiveness, its peculation, its
recklessness. The new element is gaining
the ascendaney, at least in the older set
Elements but great deal of crime exists
though it is exercised in new curious
modes. Prior to the present civil war,
there existed no national paper currency
in the United States. Thousands of cor
porations, more or less irresponsible, issued
promises to pay, and the monetary inse-
curity thus engendered gave license to all
descriptions Of forging and counterfeting.
was sitting in the Office of my journal
one evening, when Detective Ballagan
came in. He had promised to notify me
of the first good cease" of which he might
have charge, and at present he was on
the track of Il notorious offender, by name
Jules Ingram, native of Martinique.
This man had been chief clerk in the
largest produce-house of the West India
islands, where he had swindled to the
amount Of fifty thousand dollars, and had
escaped to New York. He brought with
him blank bill-heads and drafts of every
business firm in the tropics, and had
deposited these at hotel on the quay.
After year of prodigious success, he
was caught in Missouri, and sentenced tc
live years Imprisonment. Ills discharge