The Englishwoman in America

I >> Isabella Lucy Bird >> The Englishwoman in America

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We travelled the whole of that night, our fellow-passengers becoming more
extravagant in appearance at every station, and morning found us on the
prairies. Cooper influences our youthful imaginations by telling us of the
prairies--Mayne Reid makes us long to cross them; botanists tell us of
their flowers, sportsmen of their buffaloes [Footnote: At the present time
no wild animals are to be found east of the Mississippi; so effectually
has civilization changed the character of the ancient hunting-grounds of
the Indians.]--but without seeing them few people can form a correct idea
of what they are really like.

The sun rose over a monotonous plain covered with grass, rank, high, and
silky-looking, blown before the breeze into long, shiny waves. The sky was
blue above, and the grass a brownish green beneath; wild pigeons and
turkeys flew over our heads; the horizontal line had not a single
inequality; all was hot, unsuggestive, silent, and monotonous. This was
the grass prairie.

A belt of low timber would bound the expanse, and on the other side of it
a green sea would open before us, stretching as far as the eye could
reach--stationary billows of earth, covered with short green grass, which,
waving beneath the wind, completed the oceanic illusion. This was the
rolling prairie.

Again a belt of timber, and a flat surface covered with flowers, brilliant
even at this season of the year; though, of the most gorgeous, nothing
remained but the withered stalks. The ground was enamelled with lilies,
the helianthus and cineraria flourished, and the deep-green leaves and
blue blossom of the lupin contrasted with the prickly stem and scarlet
flower of the euphorbia. For what purpose was "the wilderness made so gay
where for years no eye sees it," but to show forth his goodness who does
what he will with his own? This was the weed prairie, more fitly termed
"the Garden of God."

These three kinds of prairie were continually alternating with belts of
timber and small lakes; but few signs of population were apparent during
that long day's journey. We occasionally stopped for water at shanties on
the prairies, and took in two or three men; but this vast expanse of
fertile soil still must remain for many years a field for the enterprise
of the European races.

Towards evening we changed cars again, and took in stores of refreshment
for our night's journey, as little could be procured along the route. What
strange people now crammed the cars! Traders, merchants, hunters, diggers,
trappers, and adventurers from every land, most of them armed to the
teeth, and not without good reason; for within the last few months,
Indians, enraged at the aggressions of the white men, have taken a
terrible revenge upon western travellers. Some of their rifles were of
most costly workmanship, and were nursed with paternal care by their
possessors. On the seat in front of me were two "prairie-men," such as are
described in the 'Scalp-Hunters,' though of an inferior grade to St.
Vrain. Fine specimens of men they were; tall, handsome, broad-chested, and
athletic, with aquiline noses, piercing grey eyes, and brown curling hair
and beards. They wore leathern jackets, slashed and embroidered, leather
smallclothes, large boots with embroidered tops, silver spurs, and caps of
scarlet cloth, worked with somewhat tarnished gold thread, doubtless the
gifts of some fair ones enamoured of the handsome physiognomies and
reckless bearing of the hunters. Dulness fled from their presence; they
could tell stories, whistle melodies, and sing comic songs without
weariness or cessation: fortunate were those near enough to be enlivened
by their drolleries during the tedium of a night detention. Each of them
wore a leathern belt--with two pistols stuck into it--gold earrings, and
costly rings. Blithe, cheerful souls they were, telling racy stories of
Western life, chivalrous in their manners, and free as the winds.

There were Californians dressed for the diggings, with leather pouches for
the gold-dust; Mormons on their way to Utah; and restless spirits seeking
for that excitement and variety which they had sought for in vain in
civilized life! And conveying this motley assortment of human beings, the
cars dashed along, none of their inmates heeding each other, or perhaps
Him

"----who heeds and holds them all
In his large love and boundless thought."

At eleven we came to an abrupt pause upon the prairie. After waiting
quietly for some time without seeing any vestiges of a station, my friends
got out to inquire the cause of the detention, when we found that a
freight-train had broken down in front, and that we might be detenus for
some time, a mark for Indian bullets! Refreshments were produced and
clubbed together; the "prairie-men" told stories; the hunters looked to
their rifles, and polished their already resplendent chasing; some
Mexicans sang Spanish songs, a New Englander 'Yankee Doodle;' some
_guessed_, others _calculated_, till at last all grew sleepy: the trappers
exhausted their stories, the singers their songs, and a Mormon, who had
been setting forth the peculiar advantages of his creed, the patience of
his auditors--till at length sonorous sounds, emitted by numerous nasal
organs, proving infectious, I fell asleep to dream confusedly of 'Yankee
Doodle,' pistols, and pickpockets.

In due time I awoke; we were stopping still, and there was a light on our
right. "We're at Rock Island, I suppose?" I asked sleepily. A laugh from
my friends and the hunters followed the question; after which they
informed me in the most polite tones that we were where we had been for
the last five hours, namely stationary on the prairie. The intense cold
and heavy dew which accompany an American dawn made me yet more amazed at
the characteristic patience with which the Americans submit to an
unavoidable necessity, however disagreeable. It is true that there were
complaints of cold, and heavy sighs, but no blame was imputed to any one,
and the quiescence of my companions made me quite ashamed of my English
impatience. In England we should have had a perfect chorus of complaints,
varied by "rowing" the conductor, abuse of the company, and resolutions to
write to the _Times_, or bring up the subject of railway mismanagement in
the House of Commons. These people sat quietly, ate, slept, and smoked,
and were thankful when the cars at last moved off to their destination.

On we flew to the West, the land of Wild Indians and buffaloes, on the
narrow rims of metal with which this "great people" is girdling the earth.
Evening succeeded noon, and twilight to the blaze of a summer day; the
yellow sun sank cloudless behind the waves of the rolling prairie, yet
still we hurried on, only stopping our headlong course to take in wood and
water at some nameless stations. When the sun set, it set behind the
prairie waves. I was oblivious of any changes during the night, and at
rosy dawn an ocean of long green grass encircled us round. Still on--belts
of timber diversify the prospect--we rush into a thick wood, and, emerging
from it, arrive at Rock Island, an unfinished-looking settlement, which
might bear the name of the Desert City, situated at the confluence of the
Rock River and Mississippi. We stop at a little wharf, where waits a
little steamer of uncouth construction; we step in, a steam-whistle breaks
the silence of that dewy dawn, and at a very rapid rate we run between
high wooded bluff's, down a turbid stream, whirling in rapid eddies. We
steam for three miles, and land at a clearing containing the small
settlement of Davenport. We had come down the Mississippi, mightiest of
rivers! half a mile wide seventeen hundred miles from its mouth, and were
in the _far West_. Waggons with white tilts, thick-hided oxen with heavy
yokes, mettlesome steeds with high peaked saddles, picketed to stumps of
trees, lashing away the flies with their tails; emigrants on blue boxes,
wondering if this were the El Dorado of their dreams; arms, accoutrements,
and baggage surrounded the house or shed where we were to breakfast. Most
of our companions were bound for Nebraska, Oregon, and Utah, the most
distant districts of which they would scarcely reach with their slow-paced
animals for four months: exposed in the mean time to the attacks of the
Sioux, Comanches, and Blackfeet.

There, in a long wooden shed with blackened rafters and an earthen floor,
we breakfasted, at seven o'clock, on johnny-cake, squirrels, buffalo-hump,
dampers, and buckwheat, tea and corn spirit, with a crowd of emigrants,
hunters, and adventurers; and soon after re-embarked for Rock Island, our
little steamer with difficulty stemming the mighty tide of the Father of
Rivers. The machinery, such as it was, was very visible, the boiler
patched in several places, and steam escaped in different directions. I
asked the captain if he were not in the habit of "sitting upon the safety-
valve," but he stoutly denied the charge. The vernacular of this
neighbourhood was rather startling to an English ear. "Who's the alligator
to hum?" asked a broad-shouldered Kentuckian of his neighbour, pointing to
a frame shanty on the shore, which did not look to me like the abode of
that amphibious and carnivorous creature. "Well, old alligator, what's the
time o' day?" asked another man, bringing down a brawny paw, with a
resounding thump, upon the Herculean shoulders of the first querist,
thereby giving me the information that in the West _alligator_ is a
designation of the _genus homo_; in fact, that it is customary for a man
to address his fellow-man as "old alligator," instead of "old fellow." At
eight we left Rock Island, and, turning my unwilling steps eastward from
the land of adventure and romance, we entered the cars for Chicago.

They were extremely crowded, and my friends, securing me the only
comfortable seat in one of them, were obliged to go into the next, much to
their indignation; but protestations were of no use. The engine-bell rang,
a fearful rush followed, which resulted in the passage down the centre
being filled with standing men; the conductor shouted "Go a-head," and we
were off for Lake Michigan in the "Lightning Express," warranted to go
sixty-seven miles an hour! I had found it necessary to study physiognomy
since leaving England, and was horrified by the appearance of my next
neighbour. His forehead was low, his deep-set and restless eyes
significant of cunning, and I at once set him down as a swindler or
pickpocket. My convictions of the truth of my inferences were so strong,
that I removed my purse, in which, however, acting by advice, I never
carried more than five dollars, from my pocket, leaving in it only my
handkerchief and the checks for my baggage, knowing that I could not
possibly keep awake the whole morning. In spite of my endeavours to the
contrary, I soon sank into an oblivious state, from which I awoke to the
consciousness that my companion was withdrawing his hand from my pocket.
My first impulse was to make an exclamation, my second, which I carried
into execution, to ascertain my loss; which I found to be the very
alarming one of my baggage-checks; my whole property being thereby placed
at this vagabond's disposal, for I knew perfectly well, that if I claimed
my trunks without my checks, the acute baggage-master would have set me
down as a bold swindler. The keen-eyed conductor was not in the car, and,
had he been there, the necessity for habitual suspicion, incidental to his
position, would so far have removed his original sentiments of generosity
as to make him turn a deaf ear to my request, and there was not one of my
fellow-travellers whose physiognomy would have warranted me in appealing
to him. So, recollecting that my checks were marked Chicago, and seeing
that the thief's ticket bore the same name, I resolved to wait the chapter
of accidents, or the re-appearance of my friends. I was scarcely able to
decide whether this proof of the reliance to be placed upon physiognomy
was not an adequate compensation for the annoyance I was experiencing, at
the probability of my hoarded treasures falling into the hands of an
adventurer.

During the morning we crossed some prairie-country, and stopped at several
stations, patches of successful cultivation showing that there must be
cultivators, though I rarely saw their habitations. The cars still
continued so full that my friends could not join me, and I began to be
seriously anxious about the fate of my luggage. At mid-day, spires and
trees, and lofty blocks of building, rising from a grass-prairie on one
side, and from the blue waters of Lake Michigan on the other, showed that
we were approaching Chicago. Along beaten tracks through the grass,
waggons with white tilts drawn by oxen were proceeding west, sometimes
accompanied by armed horsemen.

With a whoop like an Indian war-whoop the cars ran into a shed--they
stopped--the pickpocket got up--I got up too--the baggage-master came to
the door: "This gentleman has the checks for my baggage," said I, pointing
to the thief. Bewildered, he took them from his waistcoat-pocket, gave
them to the baggage-master, and went hastily away. I had no inclination to
cry "Stop thief!" and had barely time to congratulate myself on the
fortunate impulse which had led me to say what I did, when my friends
appeared from the next car. They were too highly amused with my recital to
sympathise at all with my feelings of annoyance, and one of them, a
gentleman filling a high situation in the East, laughed heartily, saying,
in a thoroughly American tone, "The English ladies must be 'cute
customers, if they can outwit Yankee pickpockets."

Meaning to stay all night at Chicago, we drove to the two best hotels,
but, finding them full, were induced to betake ourselves to an advertising
house, the name of which it is unnecessary to give, though it will never
be effaced from my memory. The charge advertised was a dollar a day, and
for this every comfort and advantage were promised.

The inn was a large brick building at the corner of a street, with nothing
very unprepossessing in its external appearance. The wooden stairs were
dirty enough, and, on ascending them to the so-called "ladies' parlour," I
found a large, meanly-furnished apartment, garnished with six spittoons,
which, however, to my disgust, did not prevent the floor from receiving a
large quantity of tobacco-juice.

There were two rifles, a pistol, and a powder-flask on the table; two
Irish emigrant women were seated on the floor (which swarmed with black
beetles and ants), undressing a screaming child; a woman evidently in a
fever was tossing restlessly on the sofa; two females in tarnished Bloomer
habiliments were looking out of the window; and other extraordinary-
looking human beings filled the room. I asked for accommodation for the
night, hoping that I should find a room where I could sit quietly. A dirty
chambermaid took me to a room or dormitory containing four beds. In one
part of it three women were affectionately and assiduously nursing a sick
child; in another, two were combing tangled black hair; upon which I
declared that I must have a room to myself.

The chambermaid then took me down a long, darkish passage, and showed me a
small room without a fireplace, and only lighted by a pane of glass in the
door; consequently, it was nearly dark. There was a small bed with a dirty
buffalo-skin upon it; I took it up, and swarms of living creatures fell
out of it, and the floor was literally alive with them. The sight of such
a room made me feel quite ill, and it was with the greatest reluctance
that I deposited my bonnet and shawl in it.

Outside the door were some medicine-bottles and other suspicious signs of
illness, and, after making some cautious inquiries, we found that there
was a case of typhus fever in the house, also one of Asiatic cholera, and
three of ague! My friends were extremely shocked with the aspect of
affairs. I believe that they were annoyed that I should see such a
specimen of an hotel in their country, and they decided, that, as I could
not possibly remain there for the night, I should go on to Detroit alone,
as they were detained at Chicago on business. Though I certainly felt
rather out of my element in this place, I was not at all sorry for the
opportunity, thus accidentally given me, of seeing something of American
society in its lowest grade.

We went down to dinner, and only the fact of not having tasted food for
many hours could have made me touch it in such a room. We were in a long
apartment, with one table down the middle, with plates laid for one
hundred people. Every seat was occupied, these seats being benches of
somewhat uncouth workmanship. The floor had recently been washed, and
emitted a damp fetid odour. At one side was a large fireplace, where, in
spite of the heat of the day, sundry manipulations were going on, coming
under the general name of cookery. At the end of the room was a long
leaden trough or sink, where three greasy scullery-boys without shoes,
were perpetually engaged in washing plates, which they wiped upon their
aprons. The plates, however, were not washed, only superficially rinsed.
There were four brigand-looking waiters with prodigious beards and
moustachios.

There was no great variety at table. There were eight boiled legs of
mutton, nearly raw; six antiquated fowls, whose legs were of the
consistence of guitar-strings; baked pork with "onion fixings," the meat
swimming in grease; and for vegetables, yams, corn-cobs, and squash. A cup
of stewed tea, sweetened with molasses, stood by each plate, and no
fermented liquor of any description was consumed by the company. There
were no carving-knives, so each person _hacked_ the joints with his own,
and some of those present carved them dexterously with bowie-knives taken
out of their belts. Neither were there salt-spoons, so everybody dipped
his greasy knife into the little pewter pot containing salt. Dinner began,
and after satisfying my own hunger with the least objectionable dish,
namely "pork with onion fixings," I had leisure to look round me.

Every quarter of the globe had contributed to swell that motley array,
even China. Motives of interest or adventure had drawn them all together
to this extraordinary outpost of civilisation, and soon would disperse
them among lands where civilisation is unknown.

As far as I could judge, we were the only representatives of England.
There were Scots, for Scots are always to be found where there is any hope
of honest gain--there were Irish emigrants, speaking with a rich brogue--
French traders from St. Louis--Mexicans from Santa Fe--Californians
fitting out, and Californians coming home with fortunes made--keen-eyed
speculators from New England--packmen from Canada--"Prairie-men,"
trappers, hunters, and adventurers of all descriptions. Many of these wore
bowie-knives or pistols in their belts. The costumes were very varied and
picturesque. Two Bloomers in very poor green habiliments sat opposite to
me, and did not appear to attract any attention, though Bloomerism is
happily defunct in the States.

There had been three duels at Chicago in the morning, and one of the
duellists, a swarthy, dark-browed villain, sat next but one to me. The
quarrel originated in a gambling-house, and this Mexican's opponent was
mortally wounded, and there he sat, with the guilt of human blood upon his
hands, describing to his _vis-a-vis_ the way in which he had taken aim at
his adversary, and no one seemed to think anything about it. From what I
heard, I fear duelling must have become very common in the West, and no
wonder, from the number of lawless spirits who congregate where they can
be comparatively unfettered.

The second course consisted exclusively of pumpkin-pies; but when the
waiters changed the plates, their way of cleaning the knives and forks was
so peculiarly disgusting, that I did not attempt to eat anything. But I
must remark that in this motley assembly there was nothing of coarseness,
and not a word of bad language--indeed, nothing which could offend the
most fastidious ears. I must in this respect bear very favourable
testimony to the Americans; for, in the course of my somewhat extensive
travels in the United States, and mixing as I did very frequently with the
lower classes, I never heard any of that language which so frequently
offends the ear in England. [Footnote: I must not be misunderstood here.
Profane language is only too notoriously common in the States, but custom,
which in America is frequently stronger than law, totally prohibits its
use before ladies.]

I suppose that there is no country in the world where the presence of a
lady is such a restraint upon manners and conversation. A female, whatever
her age or rank may be, is invariably treated with deferential respect;
and if this deference may occasionally trespass upon the limits of
absurdity, or if the extinct chivalry of the past ages of Europe meets
with a partial revival upon the shores of America, this extreme is vastly
preferable to the _brusquerie_, if not incivility, which ladies, as I have
heard, too often meet with in England.

The apparently temperate habits in the United States form another very
pleasing feature to dwell upon. It is to be feared that there is a
considerable amount of drunkenness among the English, Irish, and Germans,
who form a large portion of the American population; but the temperate,
tea-drinking, water-drinking habits of the native Americans are most
remarkable. In fact, I only saw one intoxicated person in the States, and
he was a Scotch fiddler. At the hotels, even when sitting down to dinner
in a room with four hundred persons, I never on any occasion saw more than
two bottles of wine on the table, and I know from experience that in many
private dwelling-houses there is no fermented liquor at all. In the West,
more especially at the rude hotels where I stopped, I never saw wine,
beer, or spirits upon the table; and the spectacle gratified me
exceedingly, of seeing fierce-looking, armed, and bearded men, drinking
frequently in the day of that cup "which cheers, but not inebriates."
Water is a beverage which I never enjoyed in purity and perfection before
I visited America. It is provided in abundance in the cars, the hotels,
the waiting-rooms, the steamers, and even the stores, in crystal jugs or
stone filters, and it is always iced. This may be either the result or the
cause of the temperance of the people.

Ancient history tells us of a people who used to intoxicate their slaves,
and, while they were in that condition, display them to their sons, to
disgust them early with the degrading vice of drunkenness.

The emigrants who have left our shores, more particularly the Irish, have
voluntarily enacted the part formerly assigned to the slaves of the
Spartans. Certain it is that their intemperance, with the evils of which
the Americans are only too well acquainted, has produced a beneficial
result, by causing a strong re-action in favour of temperance principles.

The national oath of the English, which has earned for them abroad a
horrible _sobriquet_, and the execrations which belong to the French,
Italian, and Spanish nations, are unfortunately but too well known,
because they are too often heard. Indeed, I have scarcely ever travelled
in England by coach or railway--I have seldom driven through a crowded
street, or ridden on horseback through quiet agricultural villages--
without hearing language in direct defiance of the third commandment.
Profanity and drunkenness are among the crying sins of the English lower
orders. Much has been said upon the subject of swearing in the United
States. I can only say that, travelling in them as I have travelled in
England, and mixing with people of a much lower class than I ever was
thrown among in England--mixing with these people too on terms of perfect
equality--I never heard an oath till after I crossed the Canadian
frontier. With regard to both these things, of course I only speak of what
fell under my own observation.

After dinner, being only too glad to escape from a house where pestilence
was rife, we went out into Chicago. It is a wonderful place, and tells
more forcibly of the astonishing energy and progress of the Americans than
anything I saw. Forty years ago the whole ground on which the town stands
could have been bought for six hundred dollars; now, a person would give
ten thousand for the site of a single store. It is built on a level
prairie, only slightly elevated above the lake surface. It lies on both
sides of the Chicago river, about a mile above its entrance into Lake
Michigan. By the construction of piers, a large artificial harbour has
been made at the mouth of this river.

The city has sprung up rapidly, and is supplied with all the accessories
of a high state of civilisation. Chicago, in everything that contributes
to _real use and comfort_, will compare favourably with any city in the
world. In 1830 it was a mere trading-post, situated in the theatre of the
Black Hawk war. In 1850 its population was only 28,000 people; it has now
not less than 60,000. [Footnote: By the last census, taken in June, 1855,
the population of Chicago was given at 87,000 souls, thus showing the
extraordinary increase of 27,000 within a year.] It had not a mile of
railway in 1850; now fourteen lines radiate from it, bringing to it the
trade of an area of country equalling 150,000 square miles. One hundred
heavy trains arrive and depart from it daily. It has a commerce
commensurate with its magnitude. It employs about 70,000 tons of shipping,
nearly one-half being steamers and propellers. The lumber-trade, which is
chiefly carried on with Buffalo, is becoming very profitable. The exports
of Chicago, to the East, of bread-stuffs for the past year, exceeded
13,000,000 bushels; and a city which, in 1840, numbered only 4000
inhabitants, is now one of the largest exporting grain-markets in the
world.

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