New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-07-09
AN ENGLIsH,TAN IN AMERICA.
What Tom Hughes il Telling His Country.
men About Great Country.

ANAA
Hughes.
Mr.. Hughes commenced by observing
that the subject he had to speak upon was
one which he Thought ought to interest
| Englsh men and women more than almost
any other on political and social grounds
| politically, because our relations with the
| United States are of more importance to us,
and, he believed, to the people of America,
| than any which we can establish with
other nations; socially, because in that vast
| country we may see almost all problems
| which are vexing us at home working
| themselves out in parallel lines under very
different cOnditions-no doubt different in
many respects, but under laws which are
almost Identical with our own, and through
the agency of men speaking our ewn lam
guage and inheriting our traditions; whose
principles, motives and habits are so like
ours that we can thoroughly understand
the actors, and may therefore learn some
thing from their successes and their
failures.
Mr.. Hughes then proceeded to say that
the st. Lawrence, the lakes, the Mississippi,
and the vast towns of only comparatively a
few years growth, were to him quite enough
to account for the special enthusiasm for
mere bigness in the American mind, which
is certainly characteristic of it. The rapid
growth of Chicago struck him as being par
ticularly wonderful. When he was there
the drainage difficulty had not been over
Gene. A proposal was under consideration
for carrying the sewage right away west
across the State OF Illinois into the Missis-
sippi, but the idea of draining ito the Gulf
of Mexico had hit the imagination of the
American people resident in the West, and
it was not unlikely that it would be carried
out
In big country there ought to be big
works, and Illinois was bent on having the
greatest engineering works in the world
OF course he stayed in the hotel which was
raised by machinery eight feet while some
five hundred guests were staying as usual
in it. He found that house-moving was
not confined TO the West. In Boston he
saw them moving back market-a solid
brick block sixty yards long and two stories
high-some twelve feet, to widen a thor
oughfare. 1t was wonder to him that we
in England never thought of moving houses
in this manner. He was assured that the
process was safe and not extravagant.
One of the results of American restless
energy has been the rapid building of lines
of railway, which are likely soon to cover
the West with network almost as close as
that OF Europe. These lines are not in the
least like those we are used to. Here, again,
the contrast of the Englishman shut up in a
little island, and the same man with unlim-
tied elbow room, came out very wildly.
The former builds a trumpery ten mile line,
as if it were intended to last until the last
man had been carried over it, The latter
just lays down one line of rails in the rough
est way, and knocks up the shakiest kind of
wooden bridge-in short, cares nothing
except to get a train along as soon and as
cheaply as possible. He puts no fence what
ever along it, as nothing can damage it
much. Then he sets to work it and out of
the profits improves, renews, lays down per-
manent double lines, fences them every
where except at crossings, and in few
years has splendid line, like the Illinois
Central, which for many miles out of
Chicago is as smooth and as well kept as
the London and Northwestern of England
In the several places he visited in the
West-as far as Sioux City-although there
were the usual indications of the settlers
life, SUCH as drinking and billiard rooms
and gambling houses, there were also graft
flying indications of religious and social
progress. In more than one place large
schools had been erected, and it was hoped
that in the course of time such establish
ments would have the effect of doing away
altogether with the gambling houses: but
he must say, in connection with the latter.
that the game INDUCED in called keno"
appeared to him to be remarkably fair, and
vastly more creditable than the system of
sporting and other gambling so extensively
lnuulged IN IN England.
The Americans seemed to him to be more
of newspaperreading community than
the English He was particularly struck
with the condition of the press in Sioux
City. The city had only four thousand in
when he was there, and it could
boast OF two daily papers, four weeklies
and two magazines In st. Louis-once the
great slave city-he saw in one of the thor
oughtares, not far from wtere, little more
than ten years ago, stood the slave market,
a black boy and white boy walking to-
gether, sharing one sugar stick between
them, one end being sucked by the black
child and the other end by the white.
Laughter. He took that As q conclusive
demonstration that slavery was effectually
banished from st. Louis.
While IN America he paid good deal of
attention to the land question. He found
the people generally Indifferent to land as
connected with family and social standing.
There was an edgerness on the part Of the
working classes tor land in the West, but
only from speculative point of view. A
movement had sprung up among the work
ing classes tor the purpose OF Matchmaking
land and appropriating all future increase
in value to public purposes. 1t was not
within his province to say whether this
would be good or bad for this country; but
as regards America, he believed that no
policy would be more unpopular in the
United States
Mr.. Hughes came next to what he could
not help considering the most important of
all our social questions, viz: the regulation
OF the sale of Intoxicating drinks. He would
say nothing about the Name liquor laws. as
hey had been already quite sufficiently de-
bated: but he must say that he did not see
a single drunken person in New England. |
At one time he thought, with the generality
OF hot tla
cans lacked patriotism, but the last war in
that country had completely removed that |
impression from his mind With regard to |
rellglon, his first impression was that the |
Americans were not religious. but his expe- |
renee in Chicago made him change his |
mind materially.
Life in the settled portion of the United |
States was tanner than in the West. and it |
also lacked the color, the picturesqueness, |
the perfect finish, the repose which mag be |
found IN some old countries, but there was
the compensation that men and women |
stand there in simpler relations than they |
do in the old country. They are not ham |
pered by the trappings of an old civilization, |
which has left behind it much that is cum |
brOus and superfuous to daily life. He |
should not forget the labor question. He |
met in America a good many old friends |
who had been members of the Working
mems College of London. The report he |
had received from them was that in large |
towns much higher wages were to be had |
more easily than at home, but everything |
was so dear that their position was much |
the same. In small towns the case was |
much better. The moment persons got to |
small country towns they quickly improve |
their position. 1t had been stated that the \
masons who went to Ithaca, at the invita-
ton of Mr.. Goodwin Smith, Jared very
badly. He found, on the contrary, that |
these men were not only earning higher |
wages than when at home, but they were |
bile TO oct little contracts which +ba1- ,,-ara