Litchfield enquirer., 1880-09-02
NEW ENGLAND BY THEBACK DOOR,
! As Looked Into by a Southerner
of the Baltimore Sun.
BRIDGEpORT. Cow .Iulv 81 1890

3
What horrible country to live in ! No
sooner have you left New York and plunged
into the outera darkness of Yankeeland th an
the ladies' car is invaded by crowd of filthy
negr0es, . who straightway begin PLAYING
cards, making themselves as much at home as
if they were iii Five-P Points bar ROOM They
laugh, talk ia loud tones and jest without re-
straiht. The conductor quickly takes their
tickets; the passengers barely notice them.
At the table this morning the only woman
present appears to be the victim of some dis
ease. Her tired husband seems to be more
anxious. to cat than to talk. She asks him if
he was d ''brisader" in the rebel army They
laugh. That laugh has meaning-it is aim
ed at their vis-a-vis,$ whose complexion be-
trays the Cline he csme from. Opening the
mornug piper "a small! patent insdep affair
one. discovers about ten lines of editorial.
Another larger paper has absolutely no edi-
toTial at all. lo Yet these people claim to know
something about politics. 1t is relief to get
Out into the street.
Having heard so much about Northern
cleanliness, a Southerner naturally expects to
ind the cob5lestones whitewashed. They are
net. 'fhe dirt is perhaps no dirtier than other
DIRT but fully as dirty as any other dirt.
Turning from main thoroughfare into a
street leading up to the most fashionable part
OF the city,, what do you see? In the front
yard OF a most respectable residence you see a
clothes-lin laden with the newly-washed
linen of the family, actually not ten feet from
the sidewalk And this is Northern civilizaJ
, ton, not to say culture. forgot to mention
that all the walters at the hatel were black, the
BARRIERS all German, the razors all dull
Finally see nothing really high toned about
the place or the people, except what they Dor
rowed from us-I mean split, bottom chairs ;
you find them IN every piazza. .''-.
how easy it is to traduce community
with little or no departure from the truth. All
these incidents occurred much in the order
given above, but all are susceptible of quite a
different Interpretation. There was but one
passenger car beside the sleeper on the train {;
there were but four negroes, who played cards,
it is true, laughed and talked quite audibly,
but did not otherwise misbehave. The lady
at the breakfast table had simply cutaneous
aHectl0n and her remark about ssbrgadiers''
was drawn forth by an article in the New
York Times which she was then reading
And so of the other incidents, except, perhaps
the family washing exposed in the front yard
That certainly did not show the regard for
public opinion which one would expect to find
in this favored land.
Yes, it is only too easy to detect blemlshes
when one looks for them alone. But that is
not Abe object Of these letters. The Sun would
not an instant lend itself to that system of def
amation which some of the Northern papers
have pursued for years toward the South and
its people. 1t would be difficult if not impos.
sble, to name Southern newspaper that has
sent correspondents into the North and East,
instructed to find fault, and perhaps paid in
exact proportion to the humber of lies he con-
cocts, the bitterness and contempt which he
arouses in his deceived readers. Yet this has
been done over and over again by Northern
papers. 1t shall net be done in these letters
Their, aim throughout will be to tell the truth
about New England and its people, to praise
whatever is worthy of praise, to blame what
ever deserves blame but tods it in friendly,
not ." i'in,ical spirit
Inc hotel at Bridgeport, near the depot, is a
gooa- one. Arriving at one O'Clock in the
ting me in the third story. But there was
parlor, with bedroom adjoining, both admir-
ably furnished, an excellent bed, hot and cold
water-in fine, all the conveniences of New
York house. If the streets in the lower part
OF the town are not specially inviting, they
are on par with the business streets Of most
towns; and were they twice as uninviting as
they are, they would be more than redeemed
by the beauty of the upper portions of the
city, and the suburbs that look out upon the
sound. Upon Golden Hill and along the ave-
nue. that leads to the park there is a succession
OF tasteful residences, set back from the street
in highly ornamental grounds, the lots often
ii number Of acres. Many of the
houses are brand new; indeed they all look
new, but perhaps half OF them have been re-
vamped into the modern style. A fine sDeci-
men of Queen Anne style may be seen on
Golden Hill. and on the outlying avenues you
will occasionally find cottages original in de-
sign and exquisite in TASTE But as rule the
architecture is too ornate-it tires you to death
after awhile. ...
AS all the world knows, Bridgeport has
grown rapidly OF late years. In round num-
bers its population is n,w 80 900. The foreign
element is large, as one will infer who sees the
Catholic churches here and in East Bridge
port. But other churches are equally large
and fine-the Episcopal, the Presbyterian, the
Lutheran, and perhaps others still which did
not see. And they are all new. This does
not tally with that widespread skepticis,n in
New England of which we have heard SO
much. But fine houses may be no proof of
strong faith--let us not jump to conclusions,
In this beautiful dark gray house, trimmed
with buff sandstone, pure Gothic Or nearly so
i'll its style, every window, l am told. is
memorial. To what is so much display due.
pietY, pride or the habit of imitation? We
must be patient, inquire carefully, and make
no mistake, for this matter of a peoples re-
ligion is vital. -@if,
At all events the windows and thousand
other evidences betray wealth. Of this there
can be no doubt. Let us see the dunghili out
of which this splendid flower springs; for
have We not Been told that greater wealth is
always based on greater poverty Read
Taine's, or better still, Hawthorne's description
of the ipauper class in England. recall the pic
lures in Dumas, Sue and Victor Hugo of the
squaiid parts OF PARIS, or GO for yourself along
the avenues near East river. in New York, and
see the dark coil out of which the uptown
palaces grow. De the smaller manufacturing
towns show the same destitution or something
like it? will see.
Turning the corner of the new Catholic
Church on Golden Hill, with the unfinished
convent adjoining it, press quite through Hi
hernia. as the Irish. quarter is called, and do
not stay my steps till reach the old highway
to Boston. | see brawny women, healthy
brats by the score, here and there house put
forward that ought to be, hidden, but no
squalor or even the approach to it. The
houses are new, mostly large, and well-plan-
are handsome So, then, wealth does not nee
here. But we need be in no hurry about
reaching conclusions.
New Bridgeport is. but fifteen or twenty
years old, il, SO much Inherent diseases do not
show themselves in adolescent and dourishing
towns any more than they do in young consti-
buttons. 1t is age that tests alike men and the
cities they build. Fifty years hence we shall
know better whether Bridgeport, and Ameri.a
with it, is destined to escape the evils which
have befallen the older civilizations, aud, also
what new and unsupported evils have made
their appearance. Meanwhile the feeling
toward the foreign population, and particular
ly the Irish, is not to be mistaken. It cropped
out in chance talk had with a lad on the
street. > He believed that the priests extort
money to build the great churches; that the
Pope exercises a powerful rule in America.
and that it would be good thing if the Irish
poor could be shut off from the rest of the
town by a high wall. These, doubtless, are
opinions reflected from those of mature age
with whom he associates. The morning paper
reports eight cases of drunkenness yesterday,