The Englishwoman in America

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

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Chicago is connected with the western rivers by a sloop canal--one of the
most magnificent works ever undertaken. It is also connected with the
Mississippi at several points by railroad. It is regularly laid out with
wide airy streets, much more cleanly than those of Cincinnati. The wooden
houses are fast giving place to lofty substantial structures of brick, or
a stone similar in appearance to white marble, and are often six stories
high. These houses, as in all business streets in the American cities, are
disfigured, up to the third story, by large glaring sign-boards containing
the names and occupations of their residents. The side walks are of wood,
and, wherever they are made of this unsubstantial material, one frequently
finds oneself stepping into a hole, or upon the end of a board which tilts
up under one's feet. The houses are always let in flats, so that there are
generally three stores one above another. These stores are very handsome,
those of the outfitters particularly so, though the quantity of goods
displayed in the streets gives them rather a barbaric appearance. The side
walks are literally encumbered with bales of scarlet flannel, and every
other article of an emigrant's outfit. At the outfitters' stores you can
buy anything, from a cart-nail to a revolver; from a suit of oilskin to a
paper of needles. The streets present an extraordinary spectacle.
Everything reminds that one is standing on the very verge of western
civilisation.

The roads are crowded to an inconvenient extent with carriages of curious
construction, waggons, carts, and men on horseback, and the side-walks
with eager foot-passengers. By the side of a carriage drawn by two or
three handsome horses, a creaking waggon with a white tilt, drawn by four
heavy oxen, may be seen--Mexicans and hunters dash down the crowded
streets at full gallop on mettlesome steeds, with bits so powerful as to
throw their horses on their haunches when they meet with any obstacle.
They ride animals that look too proud to touch the earth, on high-peaked
saddles, with pistols in the holsters, short stirrups, and long, cruel-
looking Spanish spurs. They wear scarlet caps or palmetto hats, and high
jack-boots. Knives are stuck into their belts, and light rifles are slung
behind them. These picturesque beings--the bullock-waggons setting out for
the Far West--the medley of different nations and costumes in the streets
--make the city a spectacle of great interest.

The deep hollow roar of the locomotive, and the shrill scream from the
steamboat, are heard here all day; a continuous stream of life ever
bustles through the city, and, standing as it does on the very verge of
western civilisation, Chicago is a vast emporium of the trade of the
districts east and west of the Mississippi.

At an office in one of the streets Mr. C---- took my ticket for Toronto by
railway, steamer, railway, and steamer, only paying eight dollars and a
half, or about thirty-four shillings, for a journey of seven hundred
miles!

We returned to tea at the hotel, and found our viands and companions just
the same as at dinner. It is impossible to give an idea of the "western
men" to any one who has not seen one at least as a specimen. They are the
men before whom the Indians melt away as grass before the scythe. They
shoot them down on the smallest provocation, and speak of "head of
Indian," as we do in England of head of game. Their bearing is bold,
reckless, and independent in the extreme; they are as ready to fight a foe
as to wait upon women and children with tender assiduity; their very
appearance says to you, "Stranger, I belong to the greatest, most
enlightened, and most progressive nation on earth; I may be the President
or a _millionaire_ next year; I don't care a straw for you or any one
else."

Illinois is a State which has sprung up, as if by magic, to be one of the
most fruitful in the West. It was settled by men from the New England
States--men who carried with them those characteristics which have made
the New Englander's career one of active enterprise, and successful
progress, wherever he has been. Not many years ago the name of Illinois
was nearly unknown, and on her soil the hardy settler battled with the
forest-trees for space in which to sow his first crops. Her roads were
merely rude and often impassable tracks through forest or prairie; now she
has in operation and course of construction two thousand and seventy miles
of those iron sinews of commercial progress--railroads, running like a
network over the State.

At seven o'clock, with a feeling of great relief, mingled with
thankfulness at having escaped untouched by the terrible pestilence which
had ravaged Chicago, I left the hotel, more appropriately termed a
"_caravanserai_" and my friends placed me in the "Lightning Express,"
warranted to go sixty-seven miles an hour. Unless it may be St. Louis, I
fancy that Chicago is more worth a visit than any other of the western
cities. Even one day at it was worth a voyage across the Atlantic, and a
land-journey of eighteen hundred miles.

CHAPTER IX.

A vexatious incident--John Bull enraged--Woman's rights--Alligators become
hosses--A popular host--Military display--A mirth-provoking gun--Grave
reminiscences--Attractions of the fair--Past and present--A floating
palace--Black companions--A black baby--Externals of Buffalo--The flag of
England.

The night-cars are always crowded both in Canada and the States, because
people in business are anxious to save a day if they have any expedition
to make, and, as many of the cars are fitted up with seats of a most
comfortable kind for night-travelling, a person accustomed to them can
sleep in them as well as on a sofa. After leaving Chicago, they seemed
about to rush with a whoop into the moonlit waters of Lake Michigan, and
in reality it was not much better. For four miles we ran along a plank-
road supported only on piles. There was a single track, and the carriages
projecting over the whole, there was no bridge to be seen, and we really
seemed to be going along on the water. These insecure railways are not
uncommon in the States; the dangers of the one on the Hudson river have
been experienced by many travellers to their cost.

We ran three hundred miles through central Michigan in ten hours,
including stoppages. We dashed through woods, across prairies, and over
bridges without parapets, at a uniform rate of progress. A boy making
continual peregrinations with iced water alleviated the thirst of the
passengers, for the night was intensely hot, and I managed to sleep very
comfortably till awoke by the intense cold of dawn. During the evening an
incident most vexatious to me occurred.

The cars were very full, and were not able to seat all the passengers.
Consequently, according to the usages of American etiquette, the gentlemen
vacated the seats in favour of the ladies, who took possession of them in
a very ungracious manner as I thought. The gentlemen stood in the passage
down the centre. At last all but one had given up their seats, and while
stopping at a station another lady entered.

"A seat for a lady," said the conductor, when he saw the crowded state of
the car. The one gentleman did not stir. "A seat for a lady," repeated the
man in a more imperious tone. Still no movement on the part of the
gentleman appealed to. "A seat for a lady; don't you see there's a lady
wanting one?" now vociferated several voices at once, but without
producing any effect. "Get up for this lady," said one bolder than the
rest, giving the stranger a sharp admonition on the shoulder. He pulled
his travelling cap over his eyes, and doggedly refused to stir. There was
now a regular hubbub in the car; American blood was up, and several
gentlemen tried to induce the offender to move.

"I'm an Englishman, and I tell you I won't be brow-beat by you beastly
Yankees. I've paid for my seat, and I mean to keep it," savagely shouted
the offender, thus verifying my worst suspicions.

"I thought so!--I knew it!--A regular John Bull trick! just like them!"
were some of the observations made, and very mild they were, considering
the aggravated circumstances.

Two men took the culprit by his shoulders, and the others, pressing
behind, impelled him to the door, amid a chorus of groans and hisses,
disposing of him finally by placing him in the emigrant-car, installing
the lady in the vacated seat. I could almost fancy that the shade of the
departed Judge Lynch stood by with an approving smile.

I was so thoroughly ashamed of my countryman, and so afraid of my
nationality being discovered, that, if any one spoke to me, I adopted
every Americanism which I could think of in reply. The country within
fifty miles of Detroit is a pretty alternation of prairie, wood, corn-
fields, peach and apple orchards. The maize is the staple of the country;
you see it in the fields; you have corn-cobs for breakfast; corncobs,
mush, and hominy for dinner; johnny-cake for tea; and the very bread
contains a third part of Indian meal!

I thought the little I saw of Michigan very fertile and pretty. It is
another of the newly constituted States, and was known until recently
under the name of the "Michigan Territory." This State is a peninsula
between the Huron and Michigan Lakes, and borders in one part closely on
Canada. It has a salubrious climate and a fertile soil, and is rapidly
becoming a very productive State. Of late years the influx of emigrants of
a better class has been very great. The State has great capabilities for
saw and flour mills; the Grand Rapids alone have a fall of fifteen feet in
a mile, and afford immense water-power.

In Michigan, human beings have ceased to be "_alligators_" they are
"_hosses_." Thus one man says to another, "How do you do, old hoss?" or,
"What's the time o' day, old hoss?" When I reached Detroit I was amused
when a conductor said to me, "One o' them 'ere hosses will take your
trunks," pointing as he spoke to a group of porters.

On arriving at Detroit I met for the first time with tokens of British
enterprise and energy, and of the growing importance of Canada West.
Several persons in the cars were going to New York, and they took the
ferry at Detroit, and went down to Niagara Bridge by the Canada Great
Western Railway, as the most expeditious route. I drove through the very
pleasant streets of Detroit to the National Hotel, where I was to join the
Walrences. Having indulged the hope of rejoining my former travelling
companions here, I was greatly disappointed at finding a note from them,
containing the intelligence that they had been summoned by telegraph to
Toronto, to a sick relative. They requested me to join them there, and
hoped I should find no difficulty on the journey!

It was the time of the State fair, and every room in the inn was occupied;
but Mr. Benjamin, the very popular host of the National, on hearing my
circumstances, would on no account suffer me to seek another abode, and
requested a gentleman to give up his room to me, which with true American
politeness he instantly did. I cannot speak too highly of the National
Hotel, or of its deservedly popular landlord. I found that I could not
leave Detroit before the next night, and at most hotels a lady alone would
have been very uncomfortably placed. Breakfast was over, but, as soon as I
retired to my room, the waiter appeared with an abundant repast, for which
no additional charge was made. I sat in my room the whole day, and Mr.
Benjamin came twice to my door to know if I wanted anything. He introduced
me to a widow lady, whose room I afterwards shared; and when I went down
at night to the steamer, he sent one of his clerks with me, to save me any
trouble about my luggage. He also gave me a note to an hotel-keeper at
Buffalo, requesting him to pay me every attention, in case I should be
detained for a night on the road. The hotel was a perfect pattern of
cleanliness, elegance, and comfort; and the waiters, about fifty of whom
were Dutch, attended scrupulously to every wish, actual or supposed, of
the guests. If these pages should ever meet Mr. Benjamin's eye, it may be
a slight gratification to him to know that his kindness to a stranger has
been both remembered and appreciated.

I had some letters of introduction to residents at Detroit, and here, as
in all other places which I visited, I had but to sow them to reap a rich
harvest of kindness and hospitality. I spent two days most agreeably at
Detroit, in a very refined and intellectual circle, perfectly free from
those mannerisms which I had expected to find in a place so distant from
the coast. The concurrent testimony of many impartial persons goes to
prove that in every American town highly polished and intellectual society
is to be met with.

My bed-room window at the National Hotel looked into one of the widest and
most bustling streets of Detroit. It was the day of the State fair,
consequently I saw the town under a very favourable aspect. The contents
of several special trains, and hundreds of waggons, crowded the streets,
the "waggons" frequently drawn by very handsome horses. The private
carriages were of a superior class to any I had previously seen in the
States; the harness was handsome and richly plated, and elegantly dressed
ladies filled the interiors. But in amusing contrast, the coachmen all
looked like wild Irishmen enlisted for the occasion, and drove in a
standing posture. Young farmers, many of them dressed in the extreme of
the fashion of Young America, were dashing about in their light waggons,
driving tandem or span; heavily laden drays were proceeding at a slower
speed; and all this traffic was carried on under the shade of fine trees.

Military bands playing 'The Star-spangled Banner,' and 'Hail Columbia,'
were constantly passing and re-passing, and the whole population seemed on
the _qui vive_. Squadrons of cavalry continually passed my window, the men
in gorgeous uniforms, with high waving plumes. Their horses were very
handsome, but were not at all willing to display themselves by walking
slowly, or in rank, and the riders would seem to have been selected for
their corpulence, probably under the supposition that the weight of both
men and horses would tell in a charge.

The air 'Hail Columbia' is a very fine one, and doubtless thrills American
hearts, as ours are thrilled by the National Anthem. Two regiments of foot
followed the cavalry, one with peaceful-looking green and white plumes,
the other with horsetails dyed scarlet. The privates had a more
independent air than our own regulars, and were principally the sons of
respectable citizens. They appeared to have been well drilled, and were
superior in appearance to our militia; but it must be remembered that the
militia of America constitutes the real military force of the country, and
is paid and cared for accordingly; the regular army only amounting to ten
thousand men.

A gun of the artillery followed, and the spectacle made me laugh
immoderately, though I had no one with whom to share my amusement. It was
a new-looking gun of shining brass, perfectly innocent of the taste of
gunpowder, and mounted on a carriage suspiciously like a timber-truck,
which had _once_ been painted. Six very respectable-looking artillerymen
were clustering upon this vehicle, but they had to hold hard, for it
jolted unmercifully. It was drawn by four horses of different colours and
sizes, and they appeared animated by the principle of mutual repulsion.
One of these was ridden by a soldier, seated on a saddle placed so far
upon the horse's neck, that it gave him the appearance of clinging to the
mane. The harness was shabby and travel-soiled, and the traces were of
rope, which seemed to require continual "fixing," to judge from the
frequency with which the rider jumped off to adjust them. The artillerymen
were also continually stopping the vehicle, to rearrange the limber of the
gun.

While I was instituting an invidious comparison between this gun and our
well-appointed, well-horsed, well-manned artillery at Woolwich, the
thought suddenly flashed across my mind that the militia forces of America
beat us at Lexington, Saratoga, and Ticonderoga. "A change came o'er the
spirit of my dream,"--from the ridiculous to the sublime was but a step;
and the grotesque gun-carriage was instantly invested with sublimity.

Various attractions were presented at the fair. There were horse-races and
trotting-matches; a trotting bull warranted to beat the fastest horse in
Michigan; and bands of music. Phineas Taylor Barnum presented the
spectacle of his very superior menagerie; in one place a wizard offered to
show the smallness of the difference between _meum_ and _tuum_; the
Siamese Twins in another displayed their monstrous and inseparable union;
and vocalists were awaiting the commands of the lovers of song.

There was a large piece of ground devoted to an agricultural exhibition;
and here, as at home, Cochin China fowls were "the observed of all
observers," and realised fabulous prices. In a long range of booths,
devoted to the products of manufacturing industry, some of the costliest
productions of the looms of Europe were exhibited for sale. There were
peep-shows, and swings, and merry-go-rounds, and hobby-horses, and, with
so many inducements offered, it will not be supposed that holiday people
were wanting.

Suddenly, while the diversions were at their height, and in the midst of
the intense heat, a deluge burst over Detroit, like the breaking of a
waterspout, in a few minutes turning the streets into rivers, deep enough
in many places to cover the fetlocks of the horses. It rained as it only
rains in a hot climate, and the storm was accompanied by thunder and
lightning. Waggons and carriages hurried furiously along; stages intended
to carry twelve persons at six cents were conveying twenty through the
flood at a dollar each; and ladies drenched to the skin, with white
dresses and silk stockings the colour of mud, were hurrying along over the
slippery side walks. An infantry regiment of militia took to their heels
and ran off at full pelt,--and a large body of _heavy_ cavalry dashed by
in a perfect hurricane of moustaches, draggled plumes, cross-bands,
gigantic white gloves, and clattering sabres, clearing the streets
effectually.

A hundred years ago Detroit was a little French village of wooden houses,
a mere post for carrying on the fur-trade with the Indians. Some of these
houses still remain, dingy, many-windowed, many-gabled buildings, of
antique construction. Canoes laden with peltry were perhaps the only craft
which disturbed the waters of the Detroit river.

The old times are changed, and a thriving commercial town of 40,000
inhabitants stands on the site of the French trading-post. Handsome quays
and extensive wharfs now line the shores of the Detroit river, and to look
at the throng of magnificent steamers and small sailing-vessels lying
along them, sometimes two or three deep, one would suppose oneself at an
English seaport. The streets, which contain very handsome stores, are
planted with trees, and are alive with business; and hotels, banks, and
offices appear in every direction. Altogether Detroit is a very pleasing
place, and, from its position, bids fair to be a very important one.

I had to leave the friends whose acquaintance and kindness rendered
Detroit so agreeable to me, in the middle of a very interesting
conversation. Before ten at night I found myself on an apparently
interminable wharf, creeping between cart-wheels and over bales of wool to
the _Mayflower_ steamer, which was just leaving for Buffalo.

Passing through the hall of the _Mayflower_, which was rather a confused
and dimly-lighted scene, I went up to the saloon by a very handsome
staircase with elaborate bronze balustrades. My bewildered eyes surveyed a
fairy scene, an eastern palace, a vision of the Arabian Nights. I could
not have believed that such magnificence existed in a ship; it impressed
me much more than anything I have seen in the palaces of England.

The _Mayflower_ was a steam-ship of 2200 tons burthen, her length 336
feet, and her extreme breadth 60. She was of 1000 horse-power, with 81-
inch cylinders, and a stroke of 12 feet. I speak of her in the past tense,
because she has since been totally cast away in a storm on Lake Erie. This
lake bears a very bad character, and persons are warned not to venture
upon it at so stormy a season of the year as September, but, had the
weather been very rough, I should not have regretted my voyage in so
splendid a steamer.

The saloon was 300 feet long; it had an arched roof and Gothic cornice,
with a moulding below of gilded grapes and vine-leaves. It was 10 feet
high, and the projections of the ceiling, the mouldings, and the panels of
the doors of the state-rooms were all richly gilded. About the middle
there was an enclosure for the engine, scarcely obstructing the view. This
enclosure was Gothic, to match the roof, and at each end had a window of
plate-glass, 6 feet square, through which the mechanism of the engine
could be seen. The engine itself, being a high-pressure one, and
consequently without the incumbrances of condenser and air-pump, occupied
much less room than one of ours in a ship of the same tonnage. Every
stationary part of the machinery was of polished steel, or bronze, with
elaborate castings; a crank indicator and a clock faced each other, and
the whole was lighted by two large coloured lamps. These windows were a
favourite lounge of the curious and scientific. The carpet was of rich
velvet pile, in groups of brilliant flowers, and dotted over with chairs,
sofas, and _tete-a-tetes_ of carved walnut-wood, cushioned with the
richest green velvet: the tables were of marble with gilded pedestals.
There was a very handsome piano, and both it and the tables supported
massive vases of beautiful Sevres or Dresden china, filled with exotic
flowers. On one table was a richly-chased silver tray, with a silver ewer
of iced water upon it. The saloon was brilliantly lighted by eight
chandeliers with dependent glass lustres; and at each end two mirrors, the
height of the room, prolonged interminably the magnificent scene.

In such an apartment one would naturally expect to see elegantly-dressed
gentlemen and ladies; but no--western men, in palmetto hats and great
boots, lounged upon the superb sofas, and negroes and negresses chattered
and promenaded. Porcelain spittoons in considerable numbers garnished the
floor, and their office was by no means a sinecure one, even in the saloon
exclusively devoted to ladies.

I saw only one person whom I liked to speak to, among my three hundred
fellow-voyagers. This was a tall, pale, and very ladylike person in deep
mourning, with a perfectly uninterested look, and such deep lines of
sorrow on her face, that I saw at a glance that the world had no power to
interest or please her. She sat on the same sofa with me, and was
helplessly puzzling over the _route_ from Buffalo to Albany with a gruff,
uncouth son, who seemed by no means disposed to aid her in her
difficulties. As I was able to give her the information she wanted, we
entered into conversation for two hours. She soon told me her history,
merely an ordinary one, of love, bereavement, and sorrow. She had been a
widow for a year, and she said that her desolation was so great that her
sole wish was to die. Her sons were taking her a tour, in the hope of
raising her spirits, but she said she was just moved about and dressed
like a doll, that she had not one ray of comfort, and that all shrunk from
her hopeless and repining grief. She asked me to tell her if any widow of
my acquaintance had been able to bear her loss with resignation; and when
I told her of some instances among my own relations, she burst into tears
and said, "I am ever arraigning the wisdom of God, and how can I hope for
his consolations?" The task of a comforter is ever a hard one, and in her
instance it was particularly so, to point to the "Balm of Gilead," as
revealed in sacred Scripture; for a stranger to show her in all kindness
that comfort could never be experienced while, as she herself owned, she
was living in the neglect of every duty both to God and man.

She seemed roused for the moment, and thanked me for the sympathy which I
most sincerely felt, hoping at the same time to renew the conversation in
the morning. We had a stormy night, from which she suffered so much as to
be unable to leave her berth the next day, and I saw nothing further of
her beyond a brief glimpse which I caught of her at Buffalo, as she was
carried ashore, looking more despairing even than the night before.

Below this saloon is the ladies' cabin, also very handsome, but disfigured
by numerous spittoons, and beneath this again is a small cabin with berths
two deep round the sides; and in this abode, as the ship was full, I took
a berth for the night with a southern lady, her two female slaves, four
negresses, and a mulatto woman, who had just purchased their freedom in
Tennessee. These blacks were really lady-like and intelligent, and so
agreeable and _naive_ that, although they chattered to me till two in the
morning, I was not the least tired of them.

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