A Little Tour in America

Front matter

A LITTLE T0UK IN] AMERICA. J.omercierjTa _re Frinl.d inP_7T A LITTLE TOUR IN AMERICA. BY THE VERY REV. S. REYNOLDS HOLE, DEAK OF ROCHESTER. EDWARD ARNOLD, to tbe InHia Office, LONDON: NEW YORK: 37, Bedford Street, Strand. 70, Fifth Avenue. 1895. (Ml rights reserved.) Copyright by Edward Arnold, 1895. TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR IN ENGLAND, THE HON. T. F. BAYARD, THIS BOOK IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY ONE WHO KNOWS HOW GREATLY HE IS BELOVED ON EITHER SIDE OF THE ATLANTIC. THE AUTHOR. The Deanery, Rochester, November, 1895. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. " Hope told a flattering tale " that, having written a prefatory chapter to this book, no further prologue would be required ; but I have just received an intimation from headquarters : "No Preface. Please send at once." I hate Prefaces.

The writer always seems to magnify or to minimize his merits ; and the reader resents his self-conceit, or infers from his humility " that his deserts are small." Who cares to know what an author thinks about himself or his books ? The fond mother does not love her small boy the less because he has an appalling squint ; and she describes as "a lovely auburn" his hair of brilliant red. And why does he, the author, always assure us that he has done his best ? Of course he has. He knows that the critic is waiting to crown him with laurel or with foolscap, that the public are waiting to nod in approbation or in slumber, and that the publisher is waiting to send him a condolence or a cheque. They do not desire information about his modus operandi, they want to see the opus. They are not anxious to be introduced to the cook, but to taste his dishes ; and no ornamental Menu nor devout Grace before Meals will alter the organization of their palates or improve the flavour of their food. Let us omit the Preface. S. REYNOLDS HOLE. The Deanery, Rochester, December, 1895. CONTENTS.

Chapter I

-AGK I. Preparatory ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 II. Progressive ... ... ... ... ... 22 III. Arrival ... ... ... ... ... ... 31 IV. New York ... ... ... ... ... 43 V. Clcbs and Theatres ... ... ... ... ... 69 VI. The Parks ... ... ... ... ... 75 VII. Flowers and Florists ... ... ... ... 92 VIII. The Culture of the Rose ... ... ... 99 IX. The Political Crisis at New York ... ... 113 X. Education ... ... ... ... ... 122 XI. The Theological Seminary ... ... ... ... 133 XII. The Churches ... ... ... ... ... 151 XIII. Railways 163 XIV. Newspapers ... ... ... ... ... 175 XV. The Neighbourhood of New York. — Worcester City ... 193 XVI. Niagara ... ... ... ... ... ... 213 XVII. Toronto, Detroit, Whitewater, Milwaukee ... ... 232 XVIII. Chicago ... ... ... ... ■•• ••• 249 XIX. Cincinnati ... ... ••• •■■ ••■ ••• 272 XX.

Virginia ... ... ••• ■■• ••• ••• 277 XXI. Washington ... ... ... ••■ ■•• •■• 3"2 XXII. Philadelphia, Pittsbuiig, Baltimore ... ... 322 XXIII. Universities and Colleges ... ... ... ... 333 XXIV. Hartford and Albany ... ... ... ... 347 XXV. Rochester ... ... ••■ ••• •■• ••• 357 XXVI. Cleveland, St. Louis, Denver, and the Kocky Mountains LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Statue of Liberty ... ... ... ... Frontispiece sunnys1de : home of washington irving ... ... ... 11 The Lovers' Walk in Central Park ... ... ... ... 77 Bishop Potter of New York ... ... ... ... 85 The Victoria Regia ... ... ... ... ... ... 109 Son and Wife of an Indian Chief ... ... ... 137 Dr. Morgan Drx ... ... ... ... ... ... 155 Niagara in Winter ... ... ... ... ... 227 Armour's Sausage Machine ... ... ... ... ... 257 Dressing Beef at Armour's ... ... ... ... 259 Masonic Temple, Chicago ... ... ... ... ... 267 American Middle-weight Hunter ... ... ... ... 291 prre-blooded american hounds ... ... ... ... 293 An Embryo M.F.H. ... ... ... ... ... 295 Old Quaker Inn and Pine-tree Club-house ... ... ... 297 The Capitol, Washington ... ... ... ... ... 309 Independence Hall, Philadelphia ... ... ... ... 325 Washington Statue, Baltimore ... ... ... ... 329 Clio Hall, Princeton ... ... ... ... ... ... 335 Yale University Buildings ... ... ... ... 337 Yale Boat-house ... ... ... ... ... _ 339 Old Buildings, Harvard University ... ... ... 343 Capitol and Soldiers' Memorial, Hartford ... ... 349 Bishop Doane's Work, Albany ... ... ... ... 352 Bishop's Throne and Old Crozier, Albany ... ... 353 The Mountain Monarch, Colorado ... ... „, 375 Balance Rock, Garden of the Gods ... ... ... 37^

CHAPTER I. PREPARATORY.

AVhy should they, who have the opportunity, make a tour in the United States of America ? Because they will see such results of political and industrial progress as have never been achieved, according to all the records of history, in the same period of time. Where, but fifty years ago, there was silence and desolation, or where the only inhabitants were wild men and wild beasts, the Indian and the buffalo, they will find great cities with their churches and capitols, colleges and schools, libraries and institutes, museums and galleries, and parks. Where, little more than thirty years ago, all joy was darkened, and all work was stayed by the tragic interruptions of civil war, they will find universal peace ; and where, before that awful fio-ht, the negroes were sold as swine in the market, were branded and whipped, and manacled, and hunted down by bloodhounds if they tried to escape, there is freedom alike for all.

They will find j; an organization of government, designed by states men of consummate wisdom, vast information, and laborious thought, which, while it maintains the separate independence of the individual States, preserves the unity of the nation and the integrity of the common weal, through the recognition of a superior federal authority, and a final court of appeal. The scheme is complex, but the success has been so far complete ; and it will advance the admiration of Englishmen to note, that although free America could not, of course, condescend to copy the Kings, Lords, and Commons of the Old Country, there remains a pleasing resemblance in her President, and her dual Chambers, in her senators and members of Congress. There is a very striking contrast between the simplicity of the White House and the ceremonial splendour of Buckingham Palace, but " 'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball, The sword, the mace, the crown imperial, The inter-tissued robe of gold and pearl, The farced title passing 'fore a king, The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp That beats upon the high shore of the world ; ' it is not these, but the man, the woman, who, representing and concentrating the will and power of the people, commands our homage.

Nor are we anxious to discuss the relative advantage of hereditary or elected authority, so long as " the throne of our queen is in Englishmen's hearts," or so long as noblesse oblige. With regard to the members of Congress, they PREPARATORY. 3 may seem to be somewhat inferior to our representatives in the House of Commons, outwardly and intellectually ; but I must dissent from the cruel dis tinction, made by a quaint gentleman of Denver, when he said, that as the cream was formed upon the milk, so in England the best men were sent up to Parliament, but as in boiling potatoes the scum rose to the surface, so in America the worst men were sent to Congress. Many causes combine to deter the cleverest and most energetic men from offering themselves for election. Congress does not make millionaires, and £1000 per annum, with travelling expenses, and £25 for stationery, is not such an inducement in a country where great fortunes are sometimes quickly made, as it would be in ours.

It is said that further enrichments are accessible to the member of Congress who will hold out his hand to take them, and will give his vote upon certain specified measures in accordance with the donor's interest ; but while it is generally deplored that bribes have been, and are accepted by the weaker brethren, it is confidently affirmed that the number of those who yield to the temptation is grossly exaggerated. Nevertheless, Mrs. Mary Livermore, a well-known public lecturer in America, made the startling announcement at Detroit, in November, 1894, "that the English House of Parliament could not be compared with the lower legislative body of the United States, because the former was invulner able to bribery, while $200,000 would insure the passage of any bill in Congress." We accept the compliment, but not without a qualm of apprehension that if the censorious Mary came to England, she would have something to say about our Acts for the suppression of bribery, intimidation, and other corrupt practices, not quite annulled in this our virtuous isle.

Reverting from aberrations to inducements for a tour in America, I would assure the tourist that he will find himself in a land of infinite beauty and of inexhaustible resources, amid scenery which will delight him in all its varied forms, from the tree-clad slopes of fair Virginia to the stern grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, from rippling streams and silent rivers to the thunder and the glory of the " Falls." He will be reminded of the " land of wheat and barley and vines, and fig-trees and pomegranates, a land of oil-olives and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without weariness, thou shalt not lack anything in it, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." Herein, moreover, is " a vein for the silver and a place for gold." The coal-fields are said to extend over a third of the continent.

The forests occupy millions of acres ; and to prevent the enormous de mand for timber exceeding the supply, a national organization, known as the American Forestry Association, composed of delegates from all the States, meets annually. The President is authorized to make public forest reservations ; and the individual PREPARATORY. 5 States have striven to encourage the growth of timber by appointing a certain day in the year — the second Wednesday in April, to be known as Arbor Day — for the voluntary planting of trees by the people. The wealth of the United States is an amazement. As each successful worker " makes his pile " in rapid succession, "hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise." An interesting American census, recently issued, and quoted in the Times, April 8, 1895, shows that if this wealth could be realized and equally divided, there would be a sum of £200 for each inhabitant.

The actual valuation of all real and personal property is $65,037,000,000, or £13,000,000,000. The total has multiplied ninefold in forty years, and the increase of wealth is faster than the increase in population. In 1850 it was only equal to £60 per inhabitant. Of this wealth 60 '8 per cent, is real estate ; railways, 12 ; machinery, 4 "6 ; agricultural stock, 4*1 ; mining, 2. Nor must we forget how large a portion of this wealth has been wTon not only by patient labour, but by that inventive genius, which has done so much to accelerate the operations of our hands, and to diminish the burden of our toil in the factory and on the farm. What a development there has been, what a progress towards perfection in the crafts and skill of the workman ! One hundred years ago Eli Terry made wooden clocks at Plymouth, Connecticut, whicii cost £5 apiece.

Then Chauncey Jerome manufactured them entirely of brass, bringing down the price to a few shillings; and then the process of making watches was brought to its present excellence at Roxbury, and Waltham, and Waterbury. The total production is said to be about 10,000 a day ! Again, it will be good for the English traveller to visit a nation, which, in the prevision of the seel and the prescience of the thoughtful, will be here after, from its wonderful intelligence and wealth, from the fertility of its soil and the treasures beneath it, the unbroken continuity of its possessions, the identity of its language, and above all from that righteousness, for which men hope and pray, because that only exalteth a nation, a queen among the peoples. It can be said no longer that England holds the balance of powTer, or a supreme priority in com merce ; and if it should be her destiny to recede, and her fate be the common lot of all great dynasties — " Assyria, Greece, Eome, Carthage, where are they ?

" — what greater consolation can she have than that the heir-apparent is bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh ? And so, parva componere magnis, as the aged sportsman rejoices to contemplate from the back of his steady cob, like himself well stricken in years, his grandson gallantly charging and clearing on his pony "really quite a respectable fence," or in later years hitting a cricket ball into the pavilion at Lords, or better still to read his name at the top of some competition list ; or as the eyes of some fair mother glisten, and her cheeks glow, as she marks the homage of admiration which is paid to her daughter's charms PREPARATORY. 7 and " O matre pulchrd filia pidchrior" is whispered wherever she goes ; so may John Bull say, "Jonathan was an audacious child, and cut himself free with his long bowie knife from his mother's apron-strings, and made himself generally unpleasant, but he is going to be a first-class man.

He was a cantankerous colt, rearing, and jibbing, and kicking himself clear of his harness, but he has grown into a grand horse. If ever I have to climb down and take a back seat, Jonathan is the man for the box." Moreover a visit to the States will assure the visitor that this affection is reciprocal. They who sail over seas change their climate, not their character ; the old interests are entailed in the Anglo-Saxon heart, and will be always paramount above all other strains. There are everywhere bilious and discontented men, who love to stir up strife ; but the American instinct is homeward bound, and thinks of England as Wendell Holmes when he wrote of her — " Our little mother isle, God bless her ! " " We are brothers," so Tennyson wrote to Long fellow7, " as no other nations can be."

Northampton shire, in England, takes precedence of America in the biography of George Washington, and the mention of his name recalls an incident to my mind which charmingly and conclusively corroborates that which I have said. While at New York I received, through Bishop Potter, an invitation from the Eegent of " the Daughters of the Revolution," whom I had not then the privilege of knowing, to attend a meeting to be held on the 5 th of January, to commemorate the anniversary of the wedding of General Washington. I gladly accepted the summons in the kindly spirit which inscribed it, repeating to myself the motto of our Free Forester Club of Cricketers, "United though untied." I received a gracious, genial welcome, whicii I shall never forget, and when I was asked for the inevitable " few words," I acknowledged it con amove.

I told that brilliant convocation of ladies and gentle men — for there were sons as well as daughters met together, all lineal descendants of those who had taken part in the War of Independence— that my appearance in their midst was appropriate and opportune. That when the Generals of the Great Roman Emperors returned with their victorious armies from the battle-field, they were wont to include in their triumphal processions some huge barbarians who walked in chains behind their chariots of war, and testified to their conqueror's overpowering might. I at once confessed my complete subjugation to the irresistible influence of a foreign power, and was proceeding to express a willingness to hug my chains when it fortunately occurred to me that such an expression might be misconstrued and denounced as unbecoming an aged Dean.

Whereupon I pro ceeded to express my gratification that their gigantic prisoner was not to be turned into a gladiator, more Romano, and introduced to famished lions and bears, PREPARA TOR Y. 9 but was to be exhilarated by beauty and enlivened by wit ; that " grim-visaged war had smoothed his wrinkled front, and now instead of mounting barbed steeds to fright the souls of fearful adversaries," and subsequently dragging them ignominiously through the streets, to derision and dungeons, he was satisfied with Batailles des Fleurs, and his captives rode in carriages with grey horses, instead of walking behind them, American gentlemen overcome by English ladies and vice versd. These nuptials suggested, of course, the occasion and the man whom we met to honour, and when I had assured my hearers not only that we had forgiven his somewhat rude behaviour, but that (in all serious ness) we revered him as one of the greatest and best of heroes, I was decore by the Regent with the badge of the society, with a miniature flag of the stars and stripes,- and with a large rose named "American Beauty " placed over my heart ; and I went back to my astonished wife to inform her that "Europe was superannuated, and that my return was doubtful."

In the country, around the haunts, and it may be in the homes of those American authors who have impressed and instructed us from childhood until now, we are refreshed by pleasant memories ; and the times and the scenes in which we read them, and the thoughts which they induced, are presented to the mind once more. Again, as I stood before the home of Washington Irving, on the banks of the Hudson, I felt something of the implicit faith, and of the thrilling awe, with which, sixty years ago, I read his Tales of a Traveller. At Albany I grasped the hands of the grandson * and the great-grandson of Fenimore Cooper, and afterwards, in the places of which he wrote, I renewed the excitement which enthralled my boyhood, as I read by day, and dreamed by night, of "The Spy," "The Pioneer," "The Pilot," and " The Last of the Mohicans."

In Virginia and in Vermont, where Washington was born and died, I paid my homage to that dvd^ dvSpwv, not forgetting in the former place the honour due to that noble Christian soldier, General Lee, or his patriotic farewell to his defeated army, " I have done the best I could." " See, the conquering hero himself comes" before our imagination as we enter Ohio, the State in which General Grant was born, and as we travel elsewhere by many a battlefield, and thank God that America has passed the ordeal of that most tragic war. In Kentucky, with a reverent admiration, we re member President Lincoln, how he said in his youth, when he saw the slaves sold in the market, " If I have ever the power, I'll hit this business hard," and how he lived to strike the death-blow ; and that tyranny was overpast. * He told me that his grandfather, who lived at Cooper's Town, a village belonging to his family, did not wish at first to be known as the author of his books, and, to promote the concealment, presented them to his sister as " new publications, which he thought might interest her." bunnvside: home of Washington hiving.

A 31 ER ICA. In the State of Maine, " the manifold soft chimes " of Longfellow float on the air like bells at evening pealing, and the exquisite songs of the Chief Minne singer, with their solemn sweet vibrations, dignify our ambitions, soothe our sorrows, and sanctify our hopes. Here also we shall have in fond remembrance — for he was born at Waterford, Maine, a fellow of infinite jest, who has so often refreshed our spirit, from the merry heart which doeth good like a medicine — Charles Farrar Browne, better known as "Artemus Ward, Showman." Seven cities contended for the distinction of Homer's birthplace. Massachusetts boasts of seven Homers, seven wise men, of her own — Bryant, Pres cott, Emerson, Poe, Holmes, Motley, Lowell — four of these, Emerson, Poe, Holmes, and Lowell, born at Boston.

And it may be noted that the year 1809 was annus mirabilis in the history of American worthies, as introducing to the world a triumvirate, Abraham Lincoln, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Edgar Allan Poe. The Englishman can view the splendid conquests of the engineer without leaving England, and, when he visits other lands, will find the handiwork of his fellow-countrymen attesting their mechanical skill ; but he will be delighted, none the less, with the magnificent accomplishments of American science and labour, in their great viaducts over valleys and rivers,* * The Suspension Bridge between Kew York and Brooklyn has a clear span of nearly 1,600 feet, and, including the approaches, PREPARATORY. their railways amid precipitous rocks ; and, again, in their application of electric power, so far more exten sive than with us, to locomotion and to light in the street cars, the public buildings, and private houses of their principal cities.

Especially, he will find at Niagara a gigantic and momentous experiment, which promises results of a new and almost infinite force ; but of this I would speak more particularly, when I come to the " Falls." He will be brought face to face with the inventive genius to which I have already referred, and which has done so much to diminish the drudgery of manual labour, in the improvements, for example, which were first made by Mr. McCormick in the reaping-machine, and in countless instances of minor importance. A large number of my compatriots might derive much benefit from visiting a land in which the men and women are almost universally engaged in work. I believe that there are more idlers in Bond Street, London, than in all the city of New York — more lazy, tattling, maundering loiterers, wTho only live for the gratification of instincts which they share with the animal world, and have not a wrord of justifica tion or apology to offer for their limp and silly existence.

The Americans despise these dummies, whose literature is limited to the latest " scratchings " and " odds ; " whose chief correspondents are trainers and touts ; who shoot pigeons, and call it sport ; who is 3,455 feet in length. This, and the Niagara Railway Bridge, will be easily accessible to the tourist. regard their dinner as the supreme object and occupation of the clay ; who have no love but for themselves, and no fear but of their tailor. On the other hand, the Englishman will bring back over the Atlantic, with all this sympathy and praise, a more thankful appreciation of many advan tages which he enjoys in his native land. America may be compared to a magnificent palace rising in the midst of a fair ground, of which the boundaries are too distant for the eye to see ; but the edifice is as yet but a few feet above the soil, and the design of the landscape-gardener is little more than outline.

England is a venerable mansion on a much smaller scale, but complete without, and comfortable within, from parapet to basement, tastefully and abundantly furnished from the attic to the cellar-bin ; and all out of doors is garden. The surface of the land, and therefore the scenery, is more varied, and we have no long monotonous continuance of prairie desolation. The humidity of our climate gives us, as some small compensation for rheumatism, lumbago, sciatica and chronic catarrh, a luxuriant verdure, which seems to keep our " fields ever fresh, and groves for ever green," and which beautifies alike the pleasure grounds of the rich and the cottage gardens of the poor. Returning from the newT to the old country, we regard with a more earnest reverence our cathedrals and other churches, our ancient colleges and schools, our hospitals and almshouses, remembering what PREPARATORY. 15 Christianity has done for us before and since those days of which Lord Macaulay wrote that, if there had been no monastic institutions, the country would have been divided into two companies, beasts of burden and beasts of prey.

Dilapidations do not excite me, and I have no sympathy with the gushing girl who informed the unmarried proprietor of a castellated home with fallen towers that she " was awfully gone on ruins." I am convinced that " not to the past, but to the future looks true nobility, and finds its blazon in posterity ; " but I venerate, nevertheless, these ancient fanes and fortresses as teaching and illus trating history, as preaching sermons in stones, and as asking each generation, " Are you true sons of your fathers, who made those sacrifices and fought those battles, who said, ' I will not give to God that whicii costs me nothing,' and who went into the fight with this thought in their hearts — ' How can a man die better than facing fearful odds For the homesteads of his fathers, and the altars of his Gods?' ' And then there is the joy of return and re-union, the sight of those who care for us most, the sound of the voices which have been praying for us.

" And oh, the joy upon the shore To think of all our perils o'er ! " I had other inducements, personal, to visit the States — genial invitations from ecclesiastics and florists promising fraternal receptions and financial successes if I wTould give public lectures. This pecuniary incitement was decisive. Our funds for the restora tion of Rochester Cathedral were exhausted, and if I could bring home a substantial sum, I might evoke new generosities, energies and hopes, and should feel that, while I was enjoying my excursion, I was not neglecting my work and duty. And so, having the promise, " Where thou goest, I will go," from one whom I could not leave, and two dear friends having agreed to accompany us, I engaged berths on board the Majestic and commenced preparations. Then arose a commotion, which I had not foreseen — protests and prophecies of evil from kinsfolk and from friends.

These were uttered, in my presence, sweetly and with smiles ; but I detected from time to time, amid their playful banter, a severe rebuke of my temerity, and a sad commiseration of my ignorance ; and I heard, from those loquacious makers of mischief, who exult in repeating that which " perhaps they ought not to tell you," that in my absence their denunciations were remarkably fierce and free. " Had the amiable, but slightly obtuse, old gentleman for gotten that he was no chicken ? " — as though any man in his seventy-fifth year should liken himself to a cockerel !— " had he never noticed that the Atlantic beat the record for rolling and pitching, fogs, icebergs, tornadoes, collisions, and wrecks ? The idea was pre posterous, and suggested softening of the brain, for an old man to leave his comfortable home for perils by land and water, like the crazy old king in the PREPARATORY. play.

As soon as he landed at New York, he would be the dupe of the covetous, and the laughing-stock of the scornful. The Americans wTould jeer at his gaiters, and would classify him with that community wiiorn Dickens has described as ' a variety of humbugs in cocked hats.' Every one knew that the railway trains in the States were attacked and robbed almost daily by armed brigands, to say nothing of their falls from embankments and topplings into streams." They seemed to anticipate for me the reception which the cowboys gave to a tourist who had excited their anger, whom they denuded, tarred and feathered, gagged, and tied to a tree, and then questioned, with mock pobteness, " How he liked travelling in the West ? " They were credibly informed that in some of these Western States — they didn't quite know where — the Indians were still agile with their tomahawks and poisoned darts, and that the custom of scalping and cooking strangers wTas by no means obsolete.

They regarded my exodus with melancholy forebodings, and with the tearful eyes of sad imagination they saw, thousands of miles away, a long, large, lonely grave ! 5 Publicly, as wTell as privately, my project was criticized, and wiiile it was commended by several journalists as courageous and deserving success, it was denounced in all kindness by a foremost London morning paper as objectionable, because such restora tions should be made at home as a national duty, and that there was a jarring sense of incongruity in asking c subscriptions, in sending round the hat, abroad. I can see no impropriety in Christians exhorting one another, wherever they may be, provoking to love and good works, in inviting the children on one side of the Atlantic to help in repairing the churches which their forefathers built on the other, and which many of them love as dearly as we do.

We had done what we could, and I saw no signs of "national duty" coming forward to complete our unfinished work. Moreover, as a matter of fact, I did not "ask subscriptions." Two offertories, one at New York and one at Albany, were given to me after I had preached : all other money was paid by those who came to hear my lectures, in which there was no reference to the restoration, and was therefore at my own disposal. In preferring to spend the surplus of £500, which I brought home, upon the cathedral rather than in appropriating it to myself, I fail to apprehend that I have acted " hardly in consonance with the dignity of the nation and of the National Church." A wise man, before he visits America, will read a reliable history of the country, such as Bryce's " History of the American Commonwealth," or Goldwin Smith's. He will carefully study a good modern map ; he will try to obtain introductory letters to citizens of credit and renown ; he will provide himself with such a strong portmanteau as will resist the notorious " baggage-smashers," with a smaller one for use on the rail ; with a good supply of clothes, which are so much dearer in the States that I heard an PREPARATORY.