New-York tribune., 1871-06-28
AMERICA IN ENGLAND.
THOMAS HUGHES ON THE UNITED STATES.
OUR CITIES AND THEIR WONDERFUL GROWTH
AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE-LAND.
rFROM DIR OWN CORRESPONDENT

AMERICAN INTELLlGENCE-LAND'
IRON OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
LONDON. June 1O.-Imagine hall capable of
holding about SOO the form of halfcrele with seats
running M after the manner of an amphtheater; i'm
agine fun audience composed Of several nohlemeh'
several Members Of Parliament, a dozen American.
(among whom recognizes T. W. Parsons inc Poo "
Boston, who finds a cOngenial home In LondohI' anu
highly respectable Engshmen OF the miuuie anu w.
ing classes; imagine the author Of Tom Brown stand
ing in the pit behind large green counter anu
long pointer in his hand, with winch 20 '"'o
his travels through America and you nave
picture of Mr.. Hughes, he appeared to-day at inc
School OF Mines in Jermynst when he gave the mrs. Vi
series OF Saturday afternoon lectures IN Hu VI '"o
workingmen's Club, institution sadly IN heeu Vi
funds for moneyed men here are not given 10 enuo"
ing public charities Imagine further, large ana
earing map OF the Falls of Niagara, with an Indian
standing in the lehand corner and brother ked SKIN
seated sentmentally beside him; imagine skeleton
map OF the United states beginning with the ST. Law
renee going far south St. Louis and as far west as
Omaha, and you have the decorations upon the one
wall Of the dingy though Royal School Of Mines
The map is a delight to unprejudieed
American eye for II the size of letters be standard for
the size Of towns is OF artists paybis then mas
the Enelishman who painted that map, maryeiousy
accurate notion OF the land Of Columbus 1t Will DC sat
isfsoory TO Cambridge and Concord to know that IN
London they look quite big as Boston; 1t Will de-
is beside it, il will suuse Peoria with ecstacy 10 learn
that while this city assumes marvellous proportions,
Springfield completely ignored, which Is one more ex
celent reason why the capital OF Illinois should be re-
moved; and Chicago will have still another opportunity
of proving its superiority over st. Louis when told how
much blacker It appears on this unique map Is Chi
cago as black as IT is paintedf
"strange 10 see so many ladies here" excaims the
white-headed gentleman to the rghtof L shouldn't
think ladies would take interest in the subject for no
one would dream of taking ladies to America unless alb
soutely Obliged 10 do So" The old gentleman had been
in America when he could have bought land on the pres
ent site of Chicago from 50 to s. acre. and did not
seem TO have pleasant recOecons of the West He and
Mr. Hughes did not agree for the first remark made by
the atter-after being introduced by Mr. Andrew John
son. NJ p, who bears very different character from his
American namesakewas that the subject OF his lecture
ought interest English men and women more than al
all others, political and social grounds. Polti-
caly because Engands relations with the United States
of importance than any she can establish with
other nations Socially because in that vast country she
may see almost all her problems worked
out parallel lines, under very different con-
ditioDs in many respects, but under laws
which are almost identical with her own.
OF course the first thing that struck Mr.. Hughes was
the size of everything The lakes and the St. Lawrence
and the Mississippi quite enough to give that
special enthusiasm for bigness to the American
mind which certainly characteristic of it, but he
thought that the acquisition of California and the sub
sequent partial settlement of the "Great West" were
needed bring to perfection Mr. Appleton OF Boston,
one Of the west of Americans had said that his coun
trymen ought TO be very grateful for the discovery of
the great in the Yosemite Valley, because they
are the only things in creation which look bgas every
American feels And Mr.. Hughes thought this idOyn-
Grassy not badly illustrated in the story OF the sick
squatter, who, i'll answer TO wenmeant spiritual moni-
tons answered. that for his part he shouldn't care to
~. IA
wild country to the west of it," GLaughterl.
Dealing with big things, Mr.. Hughes plunged in
Nedas res and began his lecture with Chicago the
great natural center Of the West 1t very evident
that the honorable NJ. p had had uncanny things told
him of St. Louis for he declared Chicago to be the third
largest city in America, regardless of Mssours proud
boast that "S Louis beat Chicago by 1900" and
seemed TO think the Mound City far given 70
drunkenness. This belief is hardly founded upon sta
tstcs. Doubtless Mr.. Hughes took his coloring from
Illinois sources, and the fact that st. LOUIS was
the only city he visited that had been under the
influence of Slavery yet he found great consolation in
the contemplation of two boys, black and the other
white amcably walking beside another, metaphor
icaly smoking the pipe of peace by simultaneously suck
ing different ends of the sugarcane! This spec
ace in city that ten years before had been deed by
the negro auctOnbOck, spoke volumes Of progress to
Mr. Hughes, who does not know as we know that some
OF the best and bravest and OF the land have
homes in st. Louis and that its future is quite
as great that Of its energetic rival. Mr.
Hughes assumed that Chicagos forty years
history known to his audience, an
assumption he would have hestated to make, had he
overheard the remarks of several of my neghbors
of whom with the map before him, asked, helplessly
"but where's ChicagOP Geography Of the NewWorld
does not to be very extensively taught in London
judging from The Times which, several years ago, situated
the NarrOws in HudsOns Bay, and from a refined lady,
who, few evenings ago, desired to know where New
England was! Few Englshmen approach Mr.. Hughes
in either his knowledge fair estimate of America and
he takes for granted than an American would But
TO return. Short is ChicagO's history there
several miles covered with fine blocks of buildings
any in NewYOrk and the frontage on all the principal
streets fetches much the foot would pay in
the Of London Mr. Hughes does not believe the
same amount OF wealth before heaped up so
quickly. He extoled the vaterwOrks of Chicago. and
stated that the drainage difficulty had not yet been over
(t has snceJ When he in Chicago it was pro
posed to carry the sewerage the State Of Illinois,
into the Msssspp and he believed the idea Of dralsng
into the Gulf Of Mexico would hit the imagination OF
these Western people, and consequently might be put
through aughterl, for illinois is bent having the
greatest engineering works in the world.
Before leaving the Garden City, Mr.. Hughes saw a
sight that startled him not httle and brought these
engineering wonders home. little special train
came to one Of the broad avenues, the outskirts
OF Chicago which the line without any fence
whatever. CThe lecturer would have made this state
ment stronger had he declared that railroad
crosses Wabash and Michganaves, both fashionable
localities without gate fence, warnugl There ap-
parenty waiting for Mr. Hughess train to pass ust as
market cart might do country station in England
was goOd-sized house rollers, on it's way from the
center Of the town its foundations In the suburbs
Why asked tie lecturer do We never think Of moving
orr houses in this manneri What boon to London
were Cbeapsde the Poultry, and Eastcheap moved back
some twenty feet But the Engisbmans reverence for
foundations Of all kinds probably stands in the way.
Laughter John Bull likes TO feel that his institutions
public buildings and everything belonging to him. are
rooted in the everlasting hills and is little doubtful in