The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-03

and as for the lake of the thousand isles over
which you expected to go into ecstasies, it is
very fiat and nothing to compare for beauty
and the varied charms that come from the
presence of leisured ease the Thames above
Richmond. American scenery is very good no
doubt, to people who have not seen any other
kind of scenery, that of Central Africa, for ex
ample but for those who have beer pretty nearly
all over the world, it is not worth talking about
the scenery, however is UNNECESSARILY better
than the cities
Il think was more disappointed in Broad
way, New York, than anything else | saw IN
America Everyone knows how New Workers
have cracked up Broadway. There never was
such street, and never will be, even In the
New Jerusalem Having heard so much about
it, | naturally expected to find a spacious and
handsome thoroughfare which would throw
Regent street far into the shade. 1t is,
therefore, not surprising that when l reached
Broadway | did not recognize it; needed
in fact, to be repeatedly assured that this
was really Broadway before I could realize
what fraud had been practiced upon the con-
idlng British public. Why, Broadway is not as
broad as the Strand and not half as handsome,
and it is iammed almost from end to end of its
buster portions by an unending line of tram cars
following each other almost as closely as car
rlages on railway train.
Crossing this street at right angles are other
tram lines, along which the cars struggle as best
they can, with the result that blocks are of con
slant occurrence, and, in fact maximum of in
convenience for the general public and mini
mum OF advantages, either in appearance or
iocomotion, is better secured in Broadway than
In any other thoroughfare that | know. Then
there is Fifth avenue, street that we have been
taught to believe was bristling with palaces
erected at lavish expense by the most magnificent
mlJhonalres OF this or any other age. When you
are set down at Fifth avenue you rub your eyes
and ask yourselves where are those palaces!
You need to go seeking for them with a candle,
as Diogenes used to seek for an honest man.
There some residences which are not had
but there is nothing in Fifth avenue to compare
! for one moment with such house as Mr. Hol-
fords, in Park lane, or even like Marlborough
house.
''And then the smells! The streets of almost
all the American cities that | visited are badly
paved, abominably sewaged, and most disagree
able to drive In short, in all the imFnunities
of city life, America seems far behind England
There are some curious contrasts between the
liberty allowed to companies to render streets
| uninhabita5le, as in the case of the elevated
railroads, where passengers are wh1sked along
the streete ct an eegati"nn sufficient to enable
them to have a close inside view Of every first.
floor room on the track and the prohibition rig
idly enforced at Baltimore against allowing loco
motives to convey cars from the terminus to the
Wharves. In villages and towns that have
sprung up along railway tracks the trains run
through the main street, a matter of course,
but in the older cities such thing as a locomo-
motive traction is unheard of. Cars arc all
hauled to the wharves at Baltimore by horses.
Then as to the parks. There is the farfamed
Central Park of New Nork, miserable little
strip in very poor condition, about half the size
of St James park 1t is true that there is big
park at Philadelphia, but it is couple of miles
from anywhere, and takes an hours drive to get
to it from the heart of the city And even when,
you get there is, for the most part a waste
and bowling wilderness" 5r~, .'
You don't seem to have very high opinion
of American cities, Mr. Capper. What do you
think of the Americans themselves" I'm the
United States" said Mr.. Capper, there are fifty
millions of human beings, most of whom-if
may judge by the samples-are, / say, among
the most miserable, disconnected restless, un-
easy creatures that | ever set eyes on in any
| corner of the world They are civil, hospitable
polite and, so far as l could see very much
more temperate in the matter of alcoholic drinks
than Englishmen. But there is on every face
a craving unrestful expression that is singularly
painful to note. Nor did ever see that genial
careless abandon which you find in almost all
other countries The contrast in this respect
between Canada and the United States was very
marked. The Cana 1ians a Jolly set of
fellows. who have all the geniality and repose
which We have. at home. But cross the border,
and you come upon an entirely different type of
| ulen-eagerl unsatsfied, and, it seemed to me-
unhappy, as compared with their northern neigh
bors
1--WE went through Maine, and we took par
ticular note of the people we saw in the street
to see whether under the Maine liquor law they
seemed any better, more happy, or more pros
porous than their fellow citizens in other States
ann bound to say there was improvement per-
ceptable to the naked eye,.. They ere very much
like everybody else, only little more misera
bic if any thing. There is very little liberty
! excepting the liberty of making yourself
nuisance, and the liberty of tyrannizing
| your neighbor If you get a majority of your way
of thinking in the United. States, A more com
| planning lot of people seldom saw than the
Americans, who put up meekly with impositions
which would drive an Englishman wild One of
the first things | saw entering Boston was
the row of hackmen penned in with their backs
to a wall by narrow rail which left them only
about eighteen inches to stand in. There they
were with their backs to the wall, not al
lowed to move inch outside their barrier,
shouting their lungs out to attract attention.
There are not dozen cabmen in England who
would consent to such degradation. But as it
was in Boston, SO l found it in nearly every
American city. There you are not allowed to
all over the railway platforms, and the result is
that the men have taken to chewing and spit
ting, which is far worse than smoking And
now they have stuck up notices. 'Nospitting all
lowed: on board the steamers AS soon as you
are fairly under way a board is hung up Gen
tlemen will spit over the ships side--others
must and what they will do next no one knows
Boston | like pretty well 1t was much the
best town and the most civilized of any of those
that saw in the States, but the extraordinary
number of doctors that seem to crowd it's streets
appeared to- indicate that it is not so desirable
residence as It's healthy situation seemed to
show. On the whole. if any young man thinks
of emigratinG to the States would emphatically
say: DON'T If you want to emisrate, go to
Canada ,....-
Two Ways for Cleveland to Crawl Out.
Washington Special in New York Post.
Two other prominent officials expreSsed widely