The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1873-09-25
Especial correspondence of the Advertiser ]
BIRMINGHAM, Eng,
Sent al 1874

/
Lichfeld and stopped off to see Licl
field Cathedral. 1t is called, l al
told, "the gem of English Cathe
drals." ] have not seen enough otl
ers to be able to say whether it
worthy of the name or not. but it cer
tainly is very fine 1t is IS feet long
with main aisle 30 feet wide and 6
feet high, and side aisles l6 feet wide
making the entire width 62 feet. |
is built in the form of cross. and ha
three spires-a large center spire an,
two at the two western corners. In
side and out it is quite elaboratel
ornamented, but there is such an en-
tire harmony of parts and such al
airy grace and elegance in all, tha
nothing seems amiss. It is Of the few
buildings | have seen that gave m
an entire feeling of satisfaction.
Lichfeld is quaint old town, witt
little business; but just such plac,
as one would like to lose himself il
for a month, if he wished to do moth
ing but rest. l was quite anxious t,
see something of this part of tn,
country, so l walked about eigh,
miles of the road to Birmingham
The country is very pleasant, but n,
finer naturally than the road from
Upton 10 Stanwood; of course cult
walton has done more for it. thinl
the chief characteristic of English
scenery is its variety. There are nc
broad fields devoted entirely to grain
The land is divided into small parcels
generally by live fences, and nearl,
all the fields are dotted with trees
The climate, too, is moister and cool
er than ours, SO that the fields seem
to have a more cheerful green than
with US. 1t wants of the grandeur OF
Scotch Highland scenery, and much
of the brightness that | suppose be-
longs to Italy and parts Of France
but there is quiet homelike air abou,
to he proud of. Still for the farmer
it will not compare with Iowa. ]
had been told that this was a good
farming section: blt the whole eight
miles walked was almost a great
gravel bed; you could see the little
stones lying between the rows of tur-
nips almost as thick as We sow wheat
The finest country | have seen yet is
the section around Edinburgh.
am greatly amused still at Eng
lish methods of work | passed Sat
urday where some men were stacking
wheat. Five men were working on
one stack; the. pitcher threw the
sheaves upon the stack, and then there
were three men engaged in getting
them to the stacker. The stack was
only an ordinary round one, such as
two men often build with us. Some
Of your readers know that ! have
some knowledge ofthe uses Of pitch
fork, and ! could hardly control my
desire to get on the load and show
them how it might be done. am
sure FIVE men were not doing more
than two-,hirds as much as | have
seen two do. ! might have been dis
appointed in the tool | would have
had to use if had undertaken to
teach the pitcher; some forks ] have
seen are about as elegant as two
cows horns fixed on a handle
BY the way, | think the best solu-
ton that can be given of the fact that
is often observed by Americans as
well as Englishmen, that we are lean
er lllan our English cousins is that
we work harder. | am more and
more Of this opinion. Englishmen
will tell YOU the same. One of the
chief complaints oil the dissatisfied
Engiishmen who were coming home
in the ship | came over in was that
they had to do too much in America.
From all the excitement that is made
about shorter hours of labor. one
would expect to find the English
workman lean, wrlnkled. weary
looking man with the marks of over
work on face and limb. The truth is,
he is quite different fellow from
that, plump as partridge, and rosy
as June morning. candidly don't
think they hurt themselves.
Birmingham pleases me better than
Manchester. OF course the impress
sions of traveller who remains only
a week in a place are liable to great
many errors. ] don't give mine as of
any great value; but my impression
is quite clear and strong that Bir-
mingham is nicer town than Man
chester. 1t is little larger than
Manchester alone. considerably less
than Manchester and SolIord togeth-
er. There are not as many fine store
buildings as in Manchester, and no
more public places of interest, but
the streets are wider and the whole
town seems more cheerful; nor are
there as many places where one would
want policeman on each side if he
had to be out at night. Birmingham
is at least city of fine suburbs. |
have spent nearly two full days walk
ing round in them. | think must
have walked altogether twenty miles.
So ] have a pretty fair impression"
of the surroundings of the town. The
plan of building houses partly or
wholly detached from each .other is
much more in vogue here than it was
in Scotland; and as most of the hous-
es out of the heart of the town are
surrounded with trees it gives them
a homefike air that a long row of CON
tinuous houses can have. Indeed.
when one gets out near the city limits
the places become a succession of
country seats; and walk along them
seems more like a walk through a
park than through the streets Of a
city. A young Scotchman, whom
met on the boat. found fault with
Chicago because it was scattered
over SO much ground: | am sure he
had not seen Birmingham. However
! am not mentioning this to find fault
with it; rather like it.
visited Gillott's pen factory this
morning. 1t is a large establishment,
of course, and one likely to interest
any one by the ingenuity and simplic-
i,y of its machinery. 1t employs
about 400 hands, mostly girls, and
turns out about 1000 gross Of pens in
day. That would seem to be
enough to do all the writing done in
Emo land but I am Uritino with a non