New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-16

got into the more expensive cnhNeydIISo1
c,mld see no difference between that ana the
humble quarters which had left. Both were
equally uncomfortable. AS you seat yOuTselI
i'm what is no better than shabby box you
remember the long, light. commandments at
home with regret Half the passengers are
riding backward. There is row OF them at
ono end of the car, and another row at the
other; and there you sit IN the most ueclueu
state of Uisd-viS conceivable staring each Other
ont of cOuntenance. There is, OF course, no
snch thing as making transfer from one car
TO another You arc locked in, and there is no
getting ont, unless the guard Dleases to lee you
out There are no appliances TOT WashliE'
There is no iCowatpr. There is no perpatetlc
dealer with cough candy, fruit and the morning
newspapers. You are there not to ENJOY the
journey. but simply TO make It, I on are 10 DC
transported like any other parcel OF meIchai-
disc. Everything is solid, but everything IS
sonare and hard, with not one pleas mt orna-
ment, not one alternating bit OF color Tor tle
eve to take comfort in. The CUSHIONS are Oh
green or black leather, instead OF push Ihe
padding only reaches about hah way up 1 tho
whole you are not deslrOus of having the Jour
ney prolonged for the sake OF any pnysicai en-
ioyment to be gained by it. You feel all the
lime ms # YOU were freight and so you are
Rnt Inv way of compensation, you also feel that
Won are handled with care, and that you VIII
he promptly delivered at the station for which
you have bought your tickct-lt It chances 10 De
at the end of the route: But II you WISH 10
exert all the faculties of your nature, ana ue-
yelop the station which you want from the
sagaciOus depths of your inner CONSCIOUSNESS
| No friendly Boanerges OF conductor Dello"S
| the name of it. A perfect stranger is eXpectru
| to knOwsit upon sight, and to aiight by Il kln9
of intuition as surely rs an Engshman WOuId
| if it happened to be his beloved birthplace 30
you bore your fellow passengers by asHlng CUES
| lions with true American freedom. You beg
to he informed if we are pretty near Stratt0Td
| If the next station is SlOughf How, soon shall
we be at Carllsle7 Sometimes they answer
You civilly, and sometimes, l am sorry to say,
they do not but always they appear to regard
| YOU, if not with contempt, Mt least WITH pity
SWhy here is a full -HOwn man," they seem 10
| saw "whO doesn't know where Slough is
| Where can he have been all his life You
feebly, but desperately explain that you are
stranger; and then they pity you more than
ever.
Our cOuntrymen however, as a rule get along
very well. had the pleasure OF travelling up
to London with sharp American geh!lelllaii
who had been there before, and who took good
care of himself and of me, and would have been
competent TO take sole charge OF one OF MI;
| Perham's caravans of school mlstresscs ana
school girls though it wended Its way to the
| ton of Mt Blanc. In buying the tickets tOl
London in Liverpool, my friend received about
ten shillngs less in change than he was entitled
to- All the way up saw that the fact, as soon as
he discovered 1t, lay heavily on MS nllhu; nc
| moment we arrived at the st. Panclas stanOh,
he left his luggage and everything else To late,
and made a rush to the office of the proper rail-
way functOnaTy, who was requested to inquire
| about the matter of the Liverpool ticket sellcr
| Inv telegraph In fifteen minutes came back an
! answer that the gentleman was right, and that
| the money was TO be pal0 to him; 1t was para,
and only then did he proceed to the next Dusl-
ness, which was to look for lodgings. d0uOt
if this little mistake would nave been seItIeu as
! promptly in our own country. In fact, l. doubt
| If in some parts of the Republic, 1t would ever
| have been settled at ALL
do not propose to make an itinerary, or to
preserve much order or method in these rccO-
lectiOns of brief and limited travel Our Journey
| from London to Liverpool was soon accom-
! plished, yet how thoroughly are the revelations
of that day implanted IN my memory 1t Is
| surely worth while to see nature, and not less
towns and cities and villages presenting ehtlLey
new aspects, or to behold in reality that which
| we have studied upon the pictured page. we
ran through broad green meadows; by placid
| streams which there were called rivers, nut
| which here we should hardly think OF naming
at ali; swiftly past manufacturing towns,
which looked so old, and 1t must be sald so
shabby; and caught our first sight of that Eng
llsh farmhouse which we have read OF IN
| DOems and novels, or seen somewhat ldeallZed
| IN the paintings of GainsbOrOugh or OF Col
Inns. | must confess that at first l was little
disappOmted. There seemed to be about these
places want of ntatness, OF trlmness, may
| saw of snugness, which we always expect TO
find in the homestead of prosperous American
| farmer The houses themselves may have been
comfortable enough, but they were low and
long, and out of all proportion to the barns
though l know that this is sign OF good
farming. If there was rural beauty IN the sur
| roundings the credit of it was due to nature
for man was apparently engrossed Ia feeding
cattle and in cOaXipg the largest possible crops
from the soil. The farm yards were full OF
| carts and great cattle and greater horses:
| Everywhere there was a suggestion OF hard
work, and of an agricultural population which
had no leisure for any other cultivation Inah
| hat % nd hOunfpOna Two
men who were jOuIncyIng with me, great stIong
farmers, whom we dropped at rural station,
would talk OF nothing but harvest prospects,
and did it in q dialect which may have Dten
English, but which could not easily understand:
In this days journey ! saw il Illustrated what had
all my life been reading abOut-the practical
solidity of the English character; It's lmpa-
thence. or heedlessnrss OF the merely orna-
mental its material bias, using these words in
no i'll -natured sense, but only as they express
sincerity of purpose and perfect tbOrOnghncss OF
| performance. Whoever would know exactly
why England is great, 0Dd hears real adversely
much better than many nations do prosperity,
| must see for himself this underlying honesty OF
the national character, this perpetual preference
of substance to show, which makes farming
there fruitful instead of fanCiful, which wastes
nothing upon what merely delights the eye,
when it is of so much more Importance that the
stomach should be filed, and the body clothed
and housed.
The manufacturing towns through which we
journeyed were like tue farms, not picturesque;
nor was there much enchantment in them,
though our view of them was distant and hasty.
Here everything was suggestive of kind
of immObility, except. the great engines.
| Everything here, too, was old ana neutral III
color. An American manufacturing village is
full Of smart hite houses, with green blinds and
other signs of gentiity inclpient or established ;
with church excessively ugly, but alsC, winter
| and CTeener than even the structure inhabited
by the proprietor of the nelghboring. cotton
| mills. An English town of the same kind is
gray and smoky ; its dismal houses built in long
blocks and full of little windows, might be pub
lie institutions if they were spruce enough for
that and there is general hint of ruin
threatened and arrested by the exercise of