The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1871-12-07
CONTRAST BETWEEN ENGLAND IN
The NEW WORLD AND IN THE
old,
PROF. BUTLER Letter To THE Pc
TERBoRoUGH ZINES, ONE OF THE
MosT PROGRESSIVE OF THE En-
GLIsH PAPERS.
BURLINGTON ON THE MISSISSIPPI, !

Nov %, 1871
A young English emigrant JUS
landed In America was lately talking
With me about Iowa and N braska.
Having been himself an employee il
an English mad house, he was curl
Gus 30 know what provision was
made beyond the MISSISSIPPI for the
insane. According | told him of the
establishments in Lincoln, the Capitol
OF Nebraska-a State mt yet f ar
years Old in an edifice costing $3.50,
900, yet built from the avaiIes of pub
nc lands, and So costing tax pa, ers
nothing. lspoke of this editice as
burned down hut Immediately re.
placed by another. Then / descrI.
bed the asylums of Iowa-at Mt.
Pleasant and | ndependence-as the
most magnificent editces IN the
State. Thereupon he asked me,
"For aChat class Of qatients are these
asylums 2"
/ had some trouble in making him
understand that these places were
built and fitted up with every modern
Improvement Of no class, but that
their doors open as freely to the
poorest as to the richest, and that
"without money and without price,
that they are maintained by tax on
all property for the benett Of all per.
sons who may stand in need OF EN-,
&c.
This inquiry regarding the class
for whom our insane Hospitals are
opened, led us talk of various points
Of difference between American ami
European Institutions:
FIRST there is no insane tao In
America on any man whose gains do
not exceed f4OO year, while ali
English incomes exceed 9lO0. are
taxed.
Again, while there is no charge
for attendance on public
schools 10 America, those schools
are not, and are not considered,
"charity schools" Nor is there any
class OF people by whose children
they are not irequented. Again, 30
compulsory mtit'tary seroice lis known
III America. There was very little
of it during the Shareholders REBEL
ION. Never, since the civil war was
over, has the Standing army of the
United States amounted TO one thou
santh part of the population, and
that army has jusC been greatly re-
,iuced. Further, the homesteader
who occnples 100 acres OF land tor a
fee OF G3, holus that land for the first
six or seven years free OF all tax,
nor can the Land at any time be at
tached for his debts. Nor can his
household stuff, or farming impli
nents, it not valued AT mere than
slOO In addition to this, there are
no guHae lars in America which for
bid any man from destroy ing all
Wild beasts or birds while trespass-
ing on his grounds. Again, 10 Amer
team dissenter pays tithes to any Els
ablIshed Church-indeed, there Is
no such church 10 which tithes could
be paid.
fne truth is that the early Ameri-
can settlers came from the British
middle class, and so have been sing
u;arly exempt alike from the roth
aud foam, as wells as from the dregs
and lees OF society. The former
would not, and the latter could not,
migrate. Hence it was natural that
america should be burdened neither
on the one hand with an aristocrat
royal family, nor on the other with
paupers.
Macoulay estimates English pau
pers, in Goodyear, at one thirteenth
of the population. On the MISSISSIPPI
pi such a class is scarcely known.
When a board of charities in one of
the United States last year sent a
circular to all the parishes asking !;
How do you MAINTAIN your poor p
The answers returned in hundreds
of cases was: we have no pau
pers.'
When certain wits were abusing
the English climate, Charles the
Second, declared there was no eli.
mate in Europe better, because no.
where could one comfortably be out
doors more hours IN the day, and
more days in the year. The Nebras
khan climate is not inferior to the
English. II has colder days, and al.
so hotter days than the English eli
mate, bat OF those days which John
Bull calls nasty" it has not one
fourth as many a. John Bull Grum-
bles at all his life long, and will for
ever grumble unless they drive him
TO suicide, or to emigration-one OF
the two.