X (a 3 B^ovs/ri^ Vln~. s SJ XU „ > t-S. V^ X'" 'V'X / * ■* -< » > S’ Af*^- u ^. ^ ^ »£*<: XX>.» «'., *x— «£•- — ^ 'X *'X X* • -■* X* ' '"' r , ^ ^i~ & “Z&V ~ „ ^ -1*" i I(| i 1 k- V * * *',X */&:' - ‘-^ '^ 2 / -*^ y^O. ^, ‘T •"»'•'*-•' -X - /^>w X /'SU.. — ^ / $y y* /i*-y€-*- * ^ * x— x ^/l- ~y ^ ^ ' ^->-> V- i * -«- <• ct I give them as a candid man can only give them — and that is, as he really found and believed them. Gentle reader, I remain, as in duty bound. Yours truly, W. B. Leeds, January, 1849. CHAPTER I. THE VOYAGE. Commencement of Voyage — First Impressions delusive — Death of an Infant Fear of the Ship being set on Fire by the carelessness of the Irish Emigrants — Republican Exclusiveness— First sight of Land— New Jersey-Sandy Hook— 1 he Narrows— Bay of New York— Long Island— Staten Island— Fortifications— American mode of steering steamers— Noble aspect of the city of New York— Landing— Revulsion of feelings— New York “Runners,” or shore touters; their unprepossessing charac- teristics — Cautions to Passengers — A New York Lodging House — Crowded quarters, and more guests than bargained for. In the month of August, 1 84—, myself and family took our passage in the 2nd cabin of the ship Oxford, Capt. Rathbone, from Liverpool to New York. We were much pleased with the Captain on shore, and especially so with Mr. Gates, the mate ; but we soon found, after our baggage was on board, and before we had left the harbour, that first impressions are not always the most correct ; for in the sequel, the Captain never spoke a single word to any of us during the voyage, except to my wife, who had taken charge of a sick child which its mother had cruelly neglected for so long a time that it was too late to save its life ; for in spite of all the efforts my wife and a gentleman passenger (Mr. Peabody), and the Captain (to give him his due) made, the child died a day or two before we entered the Bay of New York, and was carried on shore on Staten Island to be buried there. This was the only death which occurred during our passage, which I consider remarkable, as we had about 300 Irish on board huddled together in the steerage. We had a very fair passage of 28 days, and should have felt pretty comfortable, if it had not been for the fear of the ship being set on fire by the thoughtless Irish, some of whom would, through the whole night, stick a candle against the side of the ship, or against the berths, as they played at cards and smoked tobacco ; and if there should be any appearance of the ship’s officers, the lighted candle or the pipe was thrust under the bedstraw, or into any place at hand, and everything was kept quiet till the officer’s back was turned. I do really believe that, if there had not been one or two steady Englishmen among the wild Irish, the ship would have been set on fire, and perhaps hundreds of lives sacrificed. I do not wish to insinuate that it would have been maliciously fired, but thoughtlessly done by some of them, in the same way as cotton warehouses are set on fire in Liverpool. 2 tiie voyage. The first inquiry every morning, after leaving Cape Clear was When shall we reach the Banks of Newfoundland ? and after that was accomplished, When shall we get a pilot from Sandy Hook Hon the d r rSrv nC r tS paSSage ’ “ -perfluousto men- the Atltnt- 11 , tme ° f lf ® by a Iands man in a voyage across the Atlantic the monotony of which can only be compared to a two wL COnfm< r ent , 0n Sh ,° re ’ es P eciall y after the first day or two, when you have learned the history of all your fellow-pas- sengers, and have sounded the depths of their conversational powers. A person who has read a great deal of American Repub- f“ ) ““ n0rs f 5,°™ tho publications issued within thoselast dozen years, will be much struck by the aristocratic bearing of the captain and the cabin passengers, especially if they are of American birth; in fact, these parties think it most derogatory a ,T° rd t0 a “ 7 ° ne beIow a ^bin-passenger, of even respond to a well-meant “ Good morning” from him." However to a man well-trained in this world, it will be no sort of annoy- ance after the first rebuff, but will be more of an amusement setting him to study the character and pretensions of these sorry specimens of American aristocracy and exclusiveness. 7 ihe first land we saw, on a bright Sunday morning, was the South ?tte S Ho r ot ° f W 6 ° f N r j6ISey> a few miles t0 the t,. , f f , tke We had be en beating on and off the whole night, and had thrown up rockets and blue-lights for a pilot • but ffcloTT^tb 06 ° f th ° thlC n f ° S We did DOt get 0110 bef « re eight Hoot k J the morning. On reaching the Hook, called Sandy Hook, j ou could not expect to see anything cheering as its name fnto,*a.^: u r th » “ — * *«■ » On reaching The Narrows, by which the Bay of New York is divided into two, the country begins to improve, and every tack be n h |P makes dlscloses new beauties; the low wooded shores of St l T ^ 6 ° n y ° Ur ^ hand ’ and thc Picturesque lulls of Staten Idand on your left. The comfortable looking houses verandahs I t! 7 witb green ye ™tian blinds, and The fields also* r iaVe a , m ° St p casing effect upon the eye. ’ als °; standing with crops of the stately Indian corn givefpifect fi k li?rti eS l ‘V h r Pifca,) and pubbo offices also ’ SeEn^Oifv t £ few V the city, or the broad expanse of f° udly cal1 ft - 7 0u have islands, some fortified from wbicT ' ^ studded w ith many see protruding the grisly “annoS’^ 7™ ™7 believe and boast most vociferously tS * W ^ cb tbe Yankees THE VOYAGE. 3 by the fighting Napier himself. The innumerable craft in the bay, with their bleached white sails— the ponderous looking steamers, with the walking engines and large pulpits high on the decks, where the steersman stands to guide the ship — a better arrangement than being at the after end of the vessel, where you cannot see whither you are driving, for by ropes and pulleys the man can manage the vessel himself without the bawling and shout- ing you hear on the arrival or departure of an English steamer ; — the varieties of strange objects you see in sailing up to New York almost bewilder the mind of a stranger : to look around him and see on his right the castellated islands of the bay , on his left, the noble river Hudson; and fair in front the splendid looking city of New York, the steeples of numerous churches, which are glittering in the sun like gold and silver; while not a cloud of smoke issues from or around any of the high towers. Indeed, from the appearance, you would think that not a single pipe of tobacco was being smoked in the whole city. The wharves extending on both sides as far as the eye can reach, and the forests of masts lying along them, are a sight which can only be exceeded in London and Liverpool. The weary traveller, coming for the first time to this sumptuous looking city, thinks that really, if a paradise exists in this sublunary world, it is here to be found; he is in a perfect ecstasy of delight at his prospects. The vessel he is in approaches the wharves, and a helping-hand catches the rope, and the vessel is safe moored. Then all these illusions vanish at once, and the sad reality strikes you with the more force from the contrast. A gang of 300 or 400 ruffians, calling themselves runners, jump on board, begin, very much in the style of plunderers or pirates, seizing hold of the passengers baggage, and endeavouring to persuade them to go to some inn or lodging-house which they represent, and where each avers accommodation can be had at such and such prices ; another comes and states that the person who has just left you is the greatest scoundrel living, and that you will certainly be robbed and perhaps have your throat cut, if you entrust yourself and baggage into his hands. Then the swearing and fighting of these runners, the shouts of the passengers, the crying of the women and children, make as great a confusion as ever was heard at Babel. I certainly heard more swearing and more horrid oaths before I had been four hours in that city than I had before heard in the whole course of my life. The appearance of these men is the most disgusting possible; they are without coats, without cravats, with shirt necks flying open, a large roll of tobacco in each cheek, the juice from which exuding down the corners of their mouths adds, to the unsightli- of their cadaverous aspect. They principally seem of a b 2 ness 4 TIIE VOYAGE. mongrel breed, half Indian and half Irish. Their physio P um pkins, or potatoes were growing upon In the grain also, as brought to the market, you will find an abundance of weeds; to remedy which the merchant has to put it CLEARING LAND AND FARMING. 33 through the operation of a smut mill before it could be called in a merchantable condition. There is no exaggeration in this statement: I have put down the fact as I have seen it. The quantity of pigs, or rather, as they are called, hogs, kept even in the cities, is immense; and they, by strolling up and down from house to house, have become very cunning at thieving. They will watch the operations going on in a cooking shed with the most intense interest, and if the cook only turns her back for one minute, it is an even chance but a great part of the dinner has disappeared, and the delinquent hog is waddling away with what was neither too hot nor too heavy for him. It, therefore, behoves all to look well to have their yard gates fastened while the operation of cooking is going on. In the back woods the settlers breed large quantities of hogs, which they turn out into the woods as soon as the snow is gone, and there they wander many miles from home in the forest during the whole summer; but as soon as the snow again covers the land they find their way back to the place where they were bred, or at least as many of them as are left, for many casualties arise by disease and the wolves; but generally a fair proportion comes back, and a good many more than the farmer calculated upon, as many of the sows will have had young ones; so that a settler never knows to a certainty the number of hogs he is pos- sessed of. The hogs of one year old will, when they return home, have become quite fat with eating the nuts, acorns, and beech- mast, as well as the roots found in the ground ; and the farmer will immediately commence killing some for present use, and also for barrelling ; but the greater part he will put up and commence feeding them with milk and Indian corn, or any other grain he may have produced, till near Christmas, and then commence slaughtering. Some he barrels, and the remainder he takes in carcases to market. There are thousands of waggon loads of such hogs carried to all the shipping ports, and the price they are generally sold at on the average is two to three cents per pound (or Id. to l^d. English). The pork which has been fed in the woods is called shack-fed, and is not so good as the corn-fed ; but the fat makes as fine oil as ever was used for any purpose that fine oil can be used for — for lights, or for greasing wool, or machinery, and even for sallad. But if the hog be salted and kept for any length of time, the fat becomes rancid and the lean hard, and I never knew an Englishman who could relish it at all. On the contrary, the corn-fed pork is as good as any in the world, and if cured in the same way as Yorkshire bacon and hams, the greatest epicure could not tell the difference. I have cured large quantities and never had one failure, and I never tasted better bacon or ham in the whole course of my life. If, however, the J> 34 TAXES, BANKRUPTCY, AND BANKING. pork is barrelled by the farmer, he puts such an enormous quan- tity of salt among it, and no salt petre, afterwards filling up the barrel with water, that any one unaccustomed to eat it would think he was eating the very salt itself. They do, however, before boiling or frying, mollify it a little by steeping it for a time in warm water ; but they can never free it of the large quantity of salt it has imbibed in the barrel. Curers from England and Ireland have now gone out to the pork-producing countries, and what passes through their hands will, I have no doubt, be found equal to any in the world. The number of hogs roaming through the woods of Ohio have done one good ; and that is, they have nearly eradicated the whole breed of rattle snakes. If one is anywhere near, the hog is sure to kill and eat him, and his bite, as I am told, has no more effect upon the animal than a common scratch. About thirty years ago the country abounded with these snakes and with mes- sasogee ; but now they are rarely met with. One farmer who had lived on a clearing in the midst of the bush told me that he had only seen two of the rattle snakes for the last seven years. CHAPTER VII. TAXES, BANKRUPTCY AND BANKING. American Taxation — Partiality of popularly elected Justices — Facilities for fraudulent Bankruptcy — Repudiation — Banking Laws ; evasion of their requirements— Unlimited credit obtained by Directors from their own Banks — System of exchanging paper between different Banks — Turning a penny on misfortune — Conveniences of suspending payment — Shameful exposure of banking transactions — Worn out bank notes and the “ Burning Committee” — Extensive forgeries — Scarcity of specie. Many persons have the idea that there are no taxes to pay in the United States of America; but alas ! when they get there, they will find themselves wofully mistaken. In fact, taking every- thing into consideration, they will find that the citizens of this Republic are as heavily taxed as any other nation under the sun. The estimates for the year 1848 required for the Federal Government alone were 74,000,000 dollars; but this is not all; for there are twenty-eight other Governments to support; and if there are not King, Lords, and Commons in each, there are a Governor, Deputy Governor, Legislative Council, and House of Representatives, all paid officers, with such a host of officials as no other government can show. Indeed there are more office holders in that country than in all Great Britain, even reckoning the Army, Navy, and Church in England into the bargain. Every State lays on taxes ad libitum upon its own citizens ; there are direct taxes levied with the most scrupulous exactness ; there TAXES, BANKRUPTCY, AND BANKING. 35 is no shunning the taxgatherer. A tax is laid upon all land, uncleared and cleared; upon all houses, so much for a one-story house and so much for a two-story house (the Yankees, to evade the double tax, have invented a house of one and a half stories, which comes under the first category); they pay taxes for all horned cattle, sheep, horses, and dogs ; for the furniture in the house, and for all bills, bonds, and mortgages which they possess; for all steam-boat, canal and bank shares: in fact they pay for every sort of property they possess, except hogs. The State government of New York costs the citizens nearly 10,000,000 dollars per annum ; and the State of New Jersey, one of the worst in the union, costs about 3,000,000; but if we average each State at three millions, this will make 84,000,000 dollars, which added to the seventy-four millions for the Federal Government will shew to the most incredulous the real ex- penses of republican government. There are also municipal taxes, of no light amount, the mayors, aldermen, and councillors being all paid out of these taxes, as well as marshals, town-clerks, jailers, constables, and deputies without number. The justices of the peace, or squires as they are called, charge for themselves; they are elected by their fellow townsmen, and, many of them, in cases which are brought before them, do not forget the power which helped them into their present exalted station, especially if plain- tiff or defendant be a stranger in the place. In the higher courts there are always three judges upon the bench at once ; and though the salaries of these officials are extremely moderate, from 700 to 1500 dollars, yet they make up in numbers, as there are more judges of assize in the State of Ohio, than in the whole British Empire in Europe. In the year 1841 a general bankruptcy law was passed by the Federal Congress, of which about 84,000 persons took the benefit in five months; but there was such an outcry made by other countries, that it was repealed; however, as long as it lasted, they made the utmost use of it. A man to get clear of his debts, had only to declare himself a bankrupt, and he was ordered to attend the commissioners. Those from Cleveland had to attend at Chilecothe, nearly 200 miles distant : the commissioners had from 1000 to 2000 to examine each day, and the reader may judge of the scrutiny the bankrupts had to undergo and the sifting of their accounts, by the numbers to be examined. Yet they all got their papers signed and came home, very few people knowing that some of them had ever been bankrupt at all. There were no messengers put into possession of their property, no removal, no sales by the sheriff. The property was, no doubt, transferred for a time to a brother, father, or a friend, and after a short time was delivered back to the whitewashed bankrupt, now clear of hi d 2 3G taxes, BANKRUPTCY", anb banking. debts, and both ready and willing to lend a helping band to bis mends in the like emergency. The great regret of this class of traders was, that the act did not go far enough, and take corpora- tions as well as individuals ; in which case they could so easily have sponged off their foreign debts, and left John Bull and Johnny Crapeaux to seek their own remedy. Some States, how- ever, were determined to have a share of the plunder and stop the interest of their debts, and for years, as the Kev. Sydney Smith knew, they never paid one cent for either interest or principal. A calculation was made by a friend of mine, who was very well informed on this subject, by which he estimated that tlie losses sustained by the English merchants through the operation of the bankrupt law, and by the English capitalists, would amount in round numbers to above 100,000,000 dollars or twenty-five millions sterling. All the private debts foil upon the English merchants and not one cent in the dollar was paid in dividends Ihe capitalist was, however, in a better situation than the mer- cHant ; there has now been some sort of a compromise effected between the Dr. and Cr., and it is to be hoped that before lend- mg any more money to repudiating states, the capitalist will rather invest his surplus on schemes nearer home. There never was any sort of stigma cast upon the bankrupts : but, on the contrary, they were more esteemed for their clever- ness, and in common parlance called “ Smart men.” One gentle- man, Mr. Griffiths, of Cleveland, could not wait till he got his papers, and boldly put himself forward as a candidate for the oust o representatives at the very time his commission was being worked He, however, did not succeed in the election. ihe reign of Andrew Jackson, commonly called Old Hickory, was particularly famed for the great increase of Pet Banks, which A ! h ®r n g ° f l l ? C0Untl 7 were called Wild Cat Banks. By the ^ngress during his administration, all banks, before they ' £ c an 4 C * incorporation, were obliged to have in their eis a cei am quantity of gold and silver, and a certain amount ^ vernment bills ; and if the Bank Commissioners were satis- h ?’° n lns pection they gave the necessary certificate, and the ? tL - e , n a ! iowed t0 comm ence operations. I will, for . ample, describe the establishment of the two banks in Cleve- Bini V , 1Z i.’- 6 C ° mrae 4 lal Bank of Lake Erie and the Cleveland A ’ \ c 1 were established at the same time as almost twenty cW* I 1 * the S T e neighbourhood. A company of mer- cLhitr tl W GeP 7i a u ° therS was formed; a president; manager, Tht kinf J’lf ° lerkS ' wore appointed, as well as a full directory. say about T T? ° U si mnltaneously in all the banks, say about twenty, situated ,n or near that part of Ohio called taxes, bankruptcy, and banking. 37 the Western Reserve, or New Connecticut. As soon as every thing was ready for the inspection of the Commissioners, they were invited to co ne on a certain day to visit them, examine their stock of specie, bills, Ac. Accordingly they arrived in Cleveland from Columbus, the capital of the State, on the appointed day, and were ushered into the Bank of Lake Erie. The money bags were exhibited before them, as well as the bills, which being duly counted were then passed, the certificate signed, and the Commissioners invited to take a recess in the manager’s house. As soon as their backs were turned, the same money, which they had seen, was immediately removed over the way to the Bank "of Cleveland, and there passed another inspection by the same Commissioners, and being found 0. K., or, all correct, the papers were duly filled up as before ; another recess was taken, and the money was immediately transferred to the Bank of Nor- walk ; from thence, always preceding the Commissioners, it was sent to Massillon, Paineville Akron, Medina, and to every place to which the Commissioners w r ere authorized to go. The banks were all declared competent to begin issuing their own bills, and every thing went on in a flourishing manner. The Directors being all in business in some way or other, some as shopkeepers and some as land speculators, Ac., were the prin- cipal customers of their own banks : they drew out as much money (as they called their bills) as they pleased ; and, if one vras gently reproved, he had only to draw a good large bill, get another person to endorse it, and then his account had a respectable appearance. One of these bank directors, called Canfield, one of the officers of the bank himself, went to the bank one day, and asked the cashier to give him bills to the amount of 50,000 dollars, as he was going to Sandusky to buy a large quantity of land. As, however, the quantity he wanted was not ready filled up, he said, “Give me as many as I want unfilled up, and I can fill them up as I want them, and, if I do not want them, I will bring them back.” Accordingly he got all he asked for, attended the sale, and purchased largely, paid away the bills and filled them up as he wanted them, to the full amount of the forms he had with him. When he returned to Cleveland, he informed the cashier that he had not made use of them, and so the matter rested for a time. It was the custom of all the banks in the west to exchange their own bills with other banks which were at the distance of 400 or 500 miles. In consequence of this, you seldom saw a note of any of the banks in your own neighbourhood for a very long period after the bills were issued, and they would never issue their own paper when discounting bills, unless they were satisfied that the party getting them would not negociate them within a 38 taxes, bankruptcy, and banking. dlstance - By this means they had soon an immense .1 1 ■L 0 P a P°f a ^°at in various parts of the Union, and in their coffers they had the bills of their customers. By and by owever, the bills in rather inconvenient quantity, began to make ien- appearance at the counter, and some of the holders would e 110 lln g Unt specie, which was a commodity very scarce with these Wer %er S . and if they had it, they would not, if possible part with it; they would have given the bills of other banks at a distance of 1000 miles with pleasure. At last a person took in biHs for specie to the amount of perhaps 200 dollars and he would take nothing but hard cash for them; this brought them up a once, and they suspended cash payments immediately The announcement spread like wild-fire through the city, am/caused a run upon the other banks, which also suspended. 7 The alarm from df parts t0 tin e r Un f rJ viIla p 8 ’ and the holders flockcd irom all parts, till the city was almost full of people. But the thTcrowd h< from kS T® a “ closedand guarded by soldiers, to keep , crowd from rushing in and sacking the place. Bills were stuck on the door stating the stoppage was only temporary and that in a few days business would be resumed and go on as usual SL h Tb7d dld r t Sa % P™ wbo bad com! forty or fifty miles. The directors and debtors of the bank then issued bills jPP tuc f k P ape f s l f thelr windows stating, that the bills of the Bank of Cleveland or the bills of the Commercial Bank of Lake goods Pei “V P' at tWCnt ^ five cents on dollar, for g . People who had come so far considering that they had better have something for their bills than nothing, were soon induced to flock to the shops which took their paper and ex- of a th g e e bi!ls f0r R Ca Y° 0ds > even . at one quarter of the nominal value rid of an 1 tb { ft“ Iar S e ^“'titles of goods were got the bank 1^7 ^ WWe e J nabIed to P a y off their balanceat occurreie ^ and make an immense Profit by the wi- aW a , bank can afc an y time close for ninety days without forfeiting its charter; and at the expiration of this time the ?W then bankS , h p a n g °V n tbe S reatest P* of notes the iSsYXl b!) ^ advertisements in the papers stating i . i - had in announcing the reopening of the bank sentefaUhe r S V° "ft?* a11 tbe outstanding bills when pS Zsllly L ZT-, J hlS f be , me was ac ted upon twice suc- commissioners * t “? e Y le g islat ure interfered, and sent tHxam ne nert ,f e lnto the affa irs of the bank, with power In ^ - . and P f perSj and t0 re P ort accordingly. P TAXES, BANKRUPTCY, AND BANKING, OJ he had bought near Sandusky safe by false sales to his friends, and immediately took the benefit of the general bankrupt act. Norman Baldwin also transferred his property in the same way, and got whitewashed. In fact, the greatest part of the directors and large debtors did the same thing, and their assets being declared nil, nothing at all was recovered from any of them. As the bank notes in the course of a few years, by constant using, become soiled and nearly wore out, there is generally a committee of one director appointed as a burning committee. Mr. Lyman Kendall, an extensive merchant, had always been the committee for the Commercial Bank. Lyman thought, wh however, subsequently WteS klT, T h 7f U P° n ! t tW0 W hut, witli all his ° f / armin - he could n °t make it pay, was but a d s thif wes • Up ’ and "' ont a S ain to New York to keep a tavern, S “ooj&s z zf„: f 1 " herc ““ ”» ”• '»»»-. *>« Vmf fliio , U P* -“ e then commenced a newspaper, but this only continued for about five weeks, and finally I saw him, four years after my first interview, standing near he kerb in°aSTedbarro\ n 'l S ^f ee ^v,^ e '' r i.^ r0r ^’ >vkh a quantity of Trinkets voice ^ Anv arTiciS r TS m ’’ baWling ° ut at tho fuU P itch of his CAMP MEETINGS. LAW PRACTICE. 43 skin seemed sadly too big for him, and nothing but his voice re- minded me of the great Bradford Chartist orator. Sic transit Gloria mundi. The whole of his stock-in-trade at that time would not amount to three dollars or 12s. sterling, including his barrow. CHAPTER IX. CAMP MEETINGS. LAW PRACTICE. Gathering to the place of meeting— Devotees and pleasure- seekers— Reflections on the motives and effects of Camp Meetings— Litigation— Superabundance of Lawyers— Precedents from the English Courts- Unceremonious treatment of the Court, not Contempt— Trial of a Horse case— Hard swearing— The witnesses trade— A witness in two places at once — Court and bar at high words — No notes to be taken of such inde- corum — Suppression of police reports in the Western Courts — A Burking host The excitement attending a camp meeting has often been adverted to; and being determined to see one, I went to Berea, a distance of about fifteen miles from Cleveland, where a place was cleared in the woods of about half an acre for the meet- ing. Parties from all the adjacent parts were flocking to the meeting in covered waggons containing beds, bedding, cooking stoves, and provisions. As soon as they arrived, they selected a suitable site for encampment among the trees, just out of the bounds of the clearing. In the enclosure there were about six stands for preachers, and services were performed on each, two or three at a time in constant succession. The preachers were vehement and energetic, and appealed more to the passions than to the reason of the audience. The greatest decorum was observed during the services, and, though not one quarter of the assembly were religionists at all, yet they never interfered; they only attended for amusement, ot which there was no lack. While the devotees were rolling on the ground in agonizing fervour fearful to behold, the others were enjoying them- selves comfortably with smoking, drinking, or chewing tobacco, chatting with the women, or talking politics with the men. The revivalists were, however, otherwise engaged : as soon as one ot them felt an overpowering of the spirit, the preacher descended from his stand and went and kneeled down beside the woman (for all I saw were of that sex); he then prayed with her and exhorted her to hold by Jesus, and ended by singing a hymn, in which all the congregation joined, and the preacher either visited another or resumed his place at the stand. One of the reasons for such an assemblage is that, in many out-of-the-way places, the people have no church or chapel near to go to, and this is the only chance they have of hearing, perhaps, once a year the gospc 44 CAMP MEETINGS. LAW PRACTICE. Mpt*hn m . eill ^® rs °* meeting were principally of the 18 P ers ^ asi °n but the Baptists, Independents, and Con- gregation alists have also their camp meetings. flimll? Ight ’ i W ^ 6n the plaCe is li 2 hted U P with Ares and pine flambeaus and the men are preaching with all the fire and energy it h m„ a J e v> maSt T S $ an - a flow of lan g“age perfectly astounding of SfrwKS Scott T* ° f "' h ° haS read the works ’ Covenanters S ’ * n0cturnal “stings of the old Scotch mJ W k f ting 6 ^ Ct thG COnversion of Persons at such places as being ijnSfaJ fteSt S&S? ElTno arftSenera ^ heId at protected as^h°ey V are e by°co a ”red^wa^onr Cam ^ men ^ “ **" ^ S-.V toTep «; rf hi “a 3, , be ii» ifcWp Soc!o" r S /?' 8 f 0 "“ I, * bi “”“- *■ * re ” tion ot quoting the decisions of the English judges Tn,Wd there is no extraordinary decision come to i |?5 i Xndeed - S3 Yankees take b ' U the toes find many fresh dodges in thTingS "us “gul^fTht Enghsli lawyers ready manufactured to their hand it bn, b trfsTl^dS n ;; Pr0fit ^ suc fi precedents' of the^ before the justices^coiiHs T£"“ “T® ™ nstantl J brought with all witnesses come o tbe i -' een plaint ‘ ff and defend ™‘ cause has been tried (Sot w *«8 0n » and aft er the for his unjust decision in on PaFty '! S6 f n to . abuse t,le squire enlightened country no P \ C ° Urt; but ln this free «*>d court or any one elfe: in fee? soT^ ^ ° f ** hj the like a bear garden than a solemn , ln }. e ? these courts are more courts, acting as counsel t W ? ° f JUSt ,' Ce ' Tn these ^er h counsel, tiiere are a set of men called petty- CAMP MEETINGS. LAW PRACTICE. 45 foggers, who are not regular lawyers; but any one has the privi- lege to plead for hire. These men make up in noise and audacity for their want of legal knowledge, and are a complete pest to the society in which they are located, and a disgrace to any court that tolerates their impudence. As a specimen "of a Yankee trial, I will just give a faithful report of one; and, as I was well acquainted with the whole par- ties, I will vouch for the truth. Mr. Ilarland, a butcher, had a horse to sell, and was wishful to buy it ; they, therefore, adjourned to old Denham’s tavern to make the bargain, and, after chaffing and cheapening, the price was fixed at twenty dollars ; but, as the buyer had only ten dollars, it was verbally agreed that the remaining ten dollars should be paid in two months. As soon as the time expired, Ilarland waited upon the defendant, and requested payment of the balance, but was told that nothing was owing to him ; the defendant had bought the horse for ten dollars and paid for him, and he would not give him another cent. As there were no persons present when the bargain took place, of course neither could bring witnesses. Ilarland, however, com- menced a law suit against the buyer, and on the day fixed for the trial the defendant was seen go into the justice’s office, and select out three men who he knew would suit his purpose, and calling them into the middle of the street, addressed them thus : — “ Do you three, all of you, recollect being at old Denham’s last May day, when I bought a horse for ten dollars of Mr. Ilarland V Oh ! yes, they all said at once. One said it was a bay horse, with two white fore legs; another said it was a grey horse. “ No, no,” says the defendant, “he was a black horse, with a white star on his forehead.” “ Oh, yes,” they all remembered : “ and if you recollect, after I had paid the price agreed for, say ten dollars, I stood half a dollar and Harland stood another half dollar for the company.” “ Oh yes, we will swear that before justice, judge, or jury in any court of the world.” “ Then,” says the defendant, “ there is a sub- penafor each of you, and half a dollar into the bargain; now come into court and let us have the trial over.” The cause was called upon ; these three men swore as above, and poor Ilarland was nonsuited. Now, the justice knew as well as the defendant, that these men were perjuring themselves; but he would have said afterwards, if questioned on the subject, “ If the men are swearing falsely, I cannot help it; the plaintiff has his action against them ; it is sufficient for me to take such evidence as is brought before me.” Now this is no unusual occurrence ; the justice’s offices are always crowded from morning till night with men, who are ready to swear to any circumstance you wish to dictate to them ; the fee is half a dollar, and there are tens of thousands of persons in this. 4(j CAMP MEETINGS. LAW PRACTICE. ireeand enlightened country who have no other visible means of gaining a living. I once had a trial myself, and was very near losing it by a subpenaed witness, and should have done so but for a lucky thought that just struck me at the time. The circumstance was thus:— George Throup owed me ten dollars, and I was rather pushing him for the balance, and told him that, if he did not pay m a week, I would summon him before the squire. He, however, did not give me time for this, but immediately commenced an action against me for ten dollars, alleged to be due to him for filling my ice house, and that I had charged him four dollars too much for a barrel of beef, which he swore I had sold him for four dollars, and not for eight dollars, which was the actual price. \ V hen the trial came on, he stated to the squire that he had filled the ice house forme, for which he charged sixteen dollars; but as a friend of mine had made a written agreement with him to do the whole job for six dollars, this was conclusive against Ihroup, so far as the ice house was concerned; but then there was the barrel of beef ; and he brought a witness to swear that he was present when the bargain was made, and that four dollars was the price agreed to be paid for it. The squire looked at me and said “ What can you say to that, Mr. Brown V 9 I said that the evidence was false; but the justice said, “ I shall be forced to give this against you, as you have no evidence.” The t oug it then struck me, and I called Colonel Abbey, the chief constable, as a witness for me in the following manner : , “ Do you recollect being up in Michigan last winter, about the 10th or 1 2th of January 1” “ Yes.” , y° u recollect seeing the witness there at that time?” ‘ Yes. I hen, Mr. Benedick, I said, “ Please to refer to your books and see if there was not a warrant issued against this man, along vi h six others at that time, for the murder of the landlady at + e -\jr\ • an( ^ man h a d made his escape and got away o ichigan, where Mr. Abbey saw him on the very day he swears e was present in my house. When Mr. Abbey came back he regretted that he had not the warrant then on him, that he might ia\ e a 'en t le rascal into custody.” This concluded my defence, i ■ JT en , t e s ^ 1 ^ e tur ned to where the witness stood, to ask flown L\ e ^° Uld j be i at theSe two P laces at once > the bird was wipin' f , madc hls cxit . and the justice awarded to me the htle waHwv’ h T ° f Whi0h 1 MTCr collected one cent. Tins the way that Yankee justice is dispensed, and the way that causes are got up and supported in thousands of instances T„L Wa w° nCe th n 4 ° U ^ fc durin 2 a trial about ^e bank, when Judge Hayward called Counsellor Paine a liar. Mr. Paine re SOME AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. 47 tor feed and called the Judge a liar, a thief, and a swindler. The language used was so extraordinary, that I took out my tablets for the purpose of taking short-hand notes, which being perceived by Burgess, an officer of the court, he whispered me to desist, as, he said, if it were known that I should make the same public, I should certainly be tarred and feathered, the Yankees being very tenacious about the honour of their country, and not liking, above all things, that the real truth should be published to the world. There are no police reports published in the West; they will not allow it, as it would detract from their honour; and hundreds of crimes, such as murders, robberies, and swindling are kept closely in the dark, as much as possible, for this purpose. There was living in Cleveland about five years before the time I was there, a Yankee Dutchman, called Yon Yolkenberg, who kept a tavern immediately upon the banks of the Cleveland and Ports- mouth canal. Many emigrant travellers stopped at this house, and many were found after a few days drowned in the canal. It was always suspected that they had been drugged by the landlord and thrown out of the windows into the canal; and, a fire happen- ing in the house, about twenty trunks were found empty in the cellars, which no doubt had belonged to some of these unfortunate emigrants. At last, however, he was caught in the act, was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to the State’s prison for five years ; but he made his escape, and was seen about Cleveland at times, and was not taken up, till some robberies had been committed in which he was implicated, and he was then taken again into custody, but made his escape the second night, and fled to the West, and was never again heard of while I stopped in Cleveland. CHAPTER X. SOME AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. Common use of celebrated names— Illyria ; aged looks of its people— Premature decay of native Americans— Respectful and tender treatment of the fair sex— Divorces— Barter- Wheat alone saleable for Cash — Encroachment of Lake Erie on the city of Cleveland Corporation Contracts — Railway formations — The Yankee Pile-driver — Suspension of railway works for want of funds— Depreciation of railway paper — Militia training — «« Whipping” the British army in effigy — Triumphs of the fourth of July — The The Canadian rebellion — American sympathisers and British renegades— Runaway Slaves— Pursuit and escape— A Negro Pastor— Flattering prospects for Emigrants— Disappointed hopes— A Leeds Emigrant’s experience. The names of places in America is at first startling to an old countryman. Ask a man in New York state where he has been, and perhaps he will say he had been living at Troy, but had left there and gone to Syracuse and thence to Rome. There are also 48 SOME AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. the names of all the great men that history speaks about, from Lycurgus to Cincinnatus; and France, Spain, and Portugal are also ‘‘located” by name in many towns and villages; there are Paris, Madrid, Toledo, and Lisbon ; and whatever any of those cities were famed for, you are sure to be reminded of it by either some street in the place, or perhaps by a newspaper. There is one city, about twenty miles from Cleveland, called Illyria, a town beautifully built, with a handsome church, square, and court house. It is situate upon the Black River, about four miles from its embouchure on Lake Erie, and contains about three thousand souls. The land in the locality is a rich black mould, which tinges the water, and gives the name to the creek. The harbour in its outlet is called Charleston, and is famed for the quantities of wheat exported from thence. The country, however, is verv unhealthy: fever agues are almost universal to all who are not acclimated, and indeed many of the old settlers are taken off by this malady. In traversing these regions you will find many inhabitants whom you would take to be at least seventy years old, but upon inquiry you will perhaps find none above forty-five, nor women above thirty-five, unless they are old-country bred folks. I he native women, all over the Union, at twenty-seven look as old as an Englishwoman of forty-five; but whether this is owing to their early marriages or to their manner of living I am°not physiologist enough to determine. I only state the fact as I found it. It certainly i3 not brought about by any ill usage the fair sex meet with in America, for there is no country under the sun where women are paid so much deference to, or where they are more carefully nurtured. If any man should dare to abuse his wife, the whole neighbourhood would meet the affront, and a con- tinuation of such treatment would form a good ground for a bill of divorce. In fact, there are more divorces in one year in the state of Ohio than there are in ten in the United Kingdom. In the year 1843 there were 447 bills of divorcement sued out in that state, and they were principally at the suit of the women, whose husbands had behaved ill, neglected them or absquatulated (run away). * conse< I uence the great scarcity of a circulating medium in the Western States already noticed, a great portion of the business is done on the principles of barter. A farmer bringing is hogs his wool, or any other of his produce to market, barters it at a store for what necessaries he may want, except wheat, which is always a cash article, and is the only thing that can be relied upon by the farmer to procure the necessary cash to pay his taxes with. He may sometimes sell his butter, eggs, and fire-wood to new comers for cash: but in general, barter! barter! is the only means of quitting his stock. St) ME AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS* 49 A farmer who grows no wheat is very badly off to raise his taxes. I have known such instances as the following : — a farmer will come to the city and bring from his farm a load of fire-wood for sale : perhaps he would come into my house and ask if I would buy a load of wood. I should say, no, I was well supplied. He would then say he would take a small price for it if he could be paid in cash. I should then ask him what sort of wood he had; he would answer beech, maple, and hickory. I then should step out to see it, and finding it fresh chopped, I should say I cannot buy green wood, I want some dry, ready for the cooking stove. He would reply that fine weather would soon dry it sufficiently for any purpose. I should then take out half a dollar in silver, and say, I will give you this for the load; but he would not take it. I should then say, “ Well peddle it round the city, and if you can get more for it, take it; and if you cannot, come to me at last and I will stand to my offer.” He would say “ That is fair, however;” and perhaps half an hour before sun -down he would return, and say, “ I guess you shall have the load of wood as I cannot do better.” When he had got the money he would then state, that he had only so much money (naming the sum) to raise, and then he would do for another year without a cent more money ; and he would then start with his two horses and waggon on his way home rejoicing. The washing away of the banks of Lake Erie and its encroach- ment, by the heavy rains, upon the city, suggested to the minds of the corporation the necessity of piling and banking the margin, and grading the banks into a regular slope. They, therefore, contracted with a person named Whittlesey, brother to the judge of that name, to do the job, for which he was to receive eighteen dollars per foot running measure, and be paid in city debentures at seven years with interest at the rate of seven per cent. He accomplished the portion he had contracted for ; and the improvement being very manifest, they advertised for contracts to have the remainder done. As I thought a good job might be made out of it, I sent in my tender, with the names of my sureties and the terms I proposed, viz., fifteen dollars per foot, one-third to be paid in cash as the work proceeded, and the two-thirds to remain till the contract was completed. When this tender came before the council, not being according to the terms of the adver- tisement, it was negatived, and Mr. Whittlesey was again chosen to do the whole. However, another member going into the chamber and hearing the resolutions just passed, got up, saying, “Gentlemen, what are you about? Shall it go abroad that this city is so poor that it cannot pay five dollars per foot for a con- tract which will save the city three dollars in seven years. Better let the banks remain as they are, than proclaim to the E 50 SOME AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. world this evidence of our poverty and bankruptcy.” This was a poser, especially as I was an Englishman ; and the resolution giving Mr. Whittlesey the job was rescinded ; and the meeting adjourned sine die; and no more was done in the matter during the time I stopped in Cleveland. In the making of railroads the Americans have some plans which would bear transplanting to England, especially the Yankee pile-driver. There was one employed upon the Ohio railroad which I saw in operation, and I never saw a more com- plete machine, nor one which did its work more effectually. The land in the whole region, called the Western Reserve or New Connecticut, is composed of a deep bed of sand, and in making railroads, piles are used for the whole distance. When, therefore, the roadway is levelled, they bring up the pile-driver, having ready a quantity of piles sufficient for the purpose lying on each side. The pile-driver is a locomotive engine, and when in work draws up by a rope and pulley the pile, lets it down through a hole in the frame, and the rammers are immediately working upon them. As soon as the pile is driven home, a circular saw under- neath cuts off the head of the pile, and the machine moves itself about four feet forward ready for another pair of piles, one for each side ; and so it continues, and will drive about half a mile of piles a day. The wood employed being generally hard wood, the tops are sold for fire wood. I purchased one miles produce of this, for which I agreed to pay ten dollars ; but as the works were stopped for want of funds, I could never have my bargain completed ; and the railway was suspended, when I came away. The dollar bills they issued to carry on the undertaking were selling at twenty-five cents to the dollar, or for one quarter of their nominal value. For about two days in the year it is expected that the whole of the male adult population should turn out in order to be trained in the military exercise. Although this regulation is not peremptorily enforced, yet there are a great many who do attend. Instead of muskets, they have sticks, and they march and counter- march till they are well tired, and then they retire to the taverns to “liquor.” But in some cities, such as Cleveland, they have a regularly organised company or two, who have a training day every month, and are clothed in uniform and have proper arms, music and a stand of colours. I have seen them go through their evolutions and fire rounds of ball cartridge at a target, which is always the full length picture of an English soldier. In one of these experiments which I witnessed, the company of greys fired five rounds at the distance of eighty-two yards, but not one hit the mark. This put Mr. Augustus Mirvin, the captain, in a SOME AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. r> l furious passion, and he seized the musket of one of the men, and running within six or seven yards of the target, managed to put the ball into the breast of the picture. Then all the men were marched to about the same distance, and fired a volley into it which tore the figure to ribbons ; they then marched in triumph through the town, and carried the torn picture in front as a trophy of their prowess. They did not fail to stop opposite my house, knowing me to be an Englishman ; but I stepped out and told Mr. Mirvin that I had seen it all, and that he had shewed his men how to shoot an English soldier in effigy at the distance of half a dozen yards. But of all the absurdities practised in that country, those of the fourth of July are supreme. The day is kept as a national holiday. Guns are fired, bonfires are kindled ; parties of pleasure are got up, and a public dinner is always subscribed for — the after-dinner speeches of which consist of such bombast and rhodomontade as would outface an Irish mob orator. The Yankees must, on that day, have something savoury, and the most grandiloquent speaker is always chosen to give the expected and necessary oration. When the Rebellion was raging in Canada, caused mainly by the emissaries from the States, the sympathisers in the various cities bordering upon that country formed themselves into lodges, called Hunters’ Lodges, of which there was one in Cleveland. The members of these lodges were expected to meet every fort- night, and a rebel from Canada, who had formerly been in the English army and had received a grant of land from the Govern- ment for his services, was the Inspecting General. His name was M‘Leod, a Scotchman. He had been a prominent leader in the rebellion, and like the rest of the ringleaders made his escape to the States, where he continued to agitate among the sympathisers against the country which had given him birth, had promoted him in her service, and granted 500 acres of good land as a testimony that his services had been duly appreciated. All these benefits, however, were not sufficient to satisfy his turbulent mind, and he joined the rebels and helped with all his might to bring destruction upon his neighbours. But the plans of the freebooters were promptly met, and some of them received the punishment due to their crimes. Yet it is to be regretted that the greatest delinquents made their escape. General M‘Lcod is now employed in training the lodges from Buffalo to Detroit, and he is constantly on the move, while his family is starving in Cleveland. One son of this man I had in my employ for nearly a year as a coachman, a very decent young man he was, and I have heard him regret a thousand times the infatuation of his unfortunate father, in giving up his prospects e 2 62 SOME AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. in Canada for the precarious and inglorious subsistence he received from these infamous lodges. Another General of this corps, called Adjutant-General Smith, came and boarded at my house for a fortnight ; but no money being at forthcome, I would keep him no longer ; and as he could not pay for his board, he left me his trunk, which I kept till I left Cleveland ; and then I took out the contents, — a measuring tape, an old ring, and some papers of which there was plenty. These papers were to be given to recruits on their enrolment into the grand army for the liberation of Canada, and entitled the holder to have a cultivated farm in that country at the conclusion of the war, the property of some poor loyalist whom they expected to dispossess, and so gain a fine farm with all appendages ready to their hands. This however is a consummation not likely to come soon to pass, especially by the agency of these lodges, which are composed of the greatest rascals upon the face of the earth. The winter of 1844 was to have been the time they intended to make another brush in Canada; but information was given at Washington, and two guns to be used in the expedition were seized in Cleveland. Cleveland being a great shipping port of the Ohio, where vessels are in the constant practice of sailing for Canada, the place is made the main resort for all, or a great part of, the run- away slaves from Kentucky and Tenessee. There were also some good fi iends of emancipation in the town, who always endeavoured to facilitate the escape of any one that came, or to defend him if the bloodhounds had laid hold of him. One day, towards evening, one of these good Samaritans came to ask me if I could take in a man and his horse for the night; and, on my reply in the affirmative, he said the man was a nigger. I told him that * e c °l°ur of the man s face made no difference in my estimation; if the man came he should be well treated. The man and horse then came; the horse was cared for in the stable, and the man came into the house. Supper being ready, he was invited to partake: but all I could say would not induce him to sit down with the rest of the company ; for he said he knew it would do me much harm, and that, if there were any native born Americans at table, whether they were whigs, democrats, locofocos, or barn- burners, they would immediately leave the table as soon as darky presumed to sit down with them. He, therefore, had his supper alone, and after having a chat with me for an hour in the bar room, he was shown to bed. In about an hour after he had gone to bed, a person came and wished to see him. I told him he was m bed and I would not disturb him for anyone; he might call in the morning. However, he came again, and insisted on seeing my guest, as he said the fellow had committed a robbery SOME AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. 53 at Mesopotamia, and lie wanted to arrest him. I asked to see his warrant; but he had none. I then asked what he had stolen, and was answered ten dollars. I asked him if it was in bills or specie, but he did not know. The company then took up the matter, and told the man that he was a blood hunter, that would take a false oath to get the nigger into custody, and then get false warrants and carry him to sell in Kentucky or Virginia; but in this instance he would be off his scent, and would get nothing but his labour for his pains. The man went away again and called up the justice, and insisted on having a warrant and a constable of the town to serve it; both of which he very speedily obtained. However, as soon as he had left my house the second time, I went up and waked the nigger, and told him of the charge there was against him. With tears in his eyes he pro- tested that never in his life had he stolen anything from any one, except that he had stolen himself bodily from his hard- hearted master, and having been furnished with a horse and money in Cincinnati, he was making his way to the land of the free, Canada. I told him to get up and follow me: he was quickly dressed, and I took him down the back stairs and hid him in the summer house in the garden till I could get him to a place of safety. I sent my son to the coachman of the temperance house, himself a nigger, to come and to bring his coach to the top of the next street. Harry accordingly came in a few minutes, we got the run-away slave off, and then almost immediately the blood-hunter and constable Smith came to seek for him. I told Mr. Smith that the bird was flown, lie, however, would search the bed where the negro had slept, which satisfied him; but the blood hunter claimed the horse and got it, which he afterwards sold for fifty dollars. The man watched all the steam and sailing boats for three nights and two days; but we got the fugitive, on the third morning, aboard a steam boat to Detroit, where he stepped on the deck of an English steamer, which landed him at Malden in a few minutes, and the man was safe. This circumstance got me a great deal of ill-will from the democrats in Cleveland, and many a paragraph was pointed at the Englishman who had assisted a darky to escape from slavery. In about a year after this event, having myself removed to Canada, I was walking a few miles out of the city of Toronto, where I was then residing. My second son was with me, when we met a coloured man dressed very tidily, having a new suit of black clothes on, and clerical bands to his cravat. On meet- ing, a flash of recognition was passed between us, but at the moment I could not bethink me who he was. I, however, looked back, when I perceived he had also stopped, and coming towards me, he said, “ Pray, sir, did you live in Cleveland about a year 54 SOME AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS, ago, and keep a tavern?” I told him that I did, ani that he was the runaway whom I had assisted to make his escape. He fell down upon his knees to return me thanks, while the tears rolled down his sable cheeks. I told him to reserve his thanks for God Almighty; I was as thankful as he was, but I had done no more than my duty, which any other Englishman would have done under the same circumstances. He then told me the remainder of his history; as how he had been invited to come to Canada and take charge of a negro congregation, and that as soon as he was safe landed at Malden, he had made his way, and joyfully joined his brethren, and was now comfortably settled and perfectly happy. He gave me many pressing invitations to call and see him, and I promised to do so if ever I came near to his residence; but I never had that pleasure. My sons, however, went one Sunday to hear him preach, and the report they gave was, that he made a most eloquent sermon, and at the conclusion finished with this remark — “ I have a favor to beg ! that my brothers will not call upon me on Saturdays, if possible, for any spiritual advice, as on that day I have to study the subject of my Sunday’s discourse; but at the same time, if any of you comes to market, and is wishful to leave your pastor a goose, a duck, or a fowl for his Sunday s dinner, I do not wish by any means to debar you from it. I only wish you to leave it with my housekeeper, and call upon me on the Monday following.” Many persons have left England, and, having got fixed in America, and during the time of their novitiate, thought that everything in that country was as brilliant as the weather, have written home to the friends they had left behind such flaming accounts, as have made many a heart pant to be with them and share in the glorious doings in America. After a while, when the ready mcney they had taken with them was gone, they have begun to slacken in their correspondence, as it was too expensive : the postage of twenty-five cents both ways was more than they could afford very often ; their letters were now few and far between : but whether it is from the wish not to contradict their first impressions, or to make good the old proverb that misery likes company, their letters run in the same boasting strain as at the rst, and, in accordance with the jargon of the country, praising up t e land of their adoption and the institutions they had then lc appmess to live under. Their friends have been tempted to eave t eir comfortable homes in England to go and join their re ^ ions, wo were in fact only obtaining a miserable existence m it ac v set ements of America. I have seen many disap- pointments of this sort to emigrants, some of whom, having been com 01 a e e oie, w ien they saw miserable shanties where they expected mansions, immediately returned while they had SOME AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. 55 the means ; but by far the greatest number would amalgamate their finances with their relations and so spend the remainder of their miserable lives, buried in the forest. I will relate a case in illustration. A Mr. L. S. N. left Wortley, near Leeds, a good many years ago, and often wrote to his relations pressing them to join him in his good fortune. After a long continuance ot such letters, all in the same strain, telling his sister’s husband, Mr. B., that he had a farm of ICO acres, a good house to live in, and a large woollen factory carried by a powerful stream of water; that he kept seven cows, four horses, poultry and hogs innumerable, and had every necessary of life and most of the luxuries at their command, the desired effect was produced, and Mr. and Mrs. B. and their two daughters started from Leeds for this, land of pro- mise. On their voyage across the Atlantic they experienced such a succession of bad weather that their ship was dismasted, and they lay like a log of wood upon the water for many days in momentary expectation of going to the bottom. However, they were fallen in with by a vessel from China which carried them to Martha s Vineyard, in Rhode Island. Rescued from their perils though with reduced finances, they thought all would be well when they got to Scrubgrass (ominous name), in the North Western part of Pennsylvania, and they made their way by New York to Phila- delphia, and from thence by the canal through the Alleghany moun- tains. After about a week’s travelling upon this canal they came to Franklin, at which place they had to leave the water and hire a waggon to take them to the brother’s settlement. Just before dusk they arrived at an old log hut, dark as a dungeon, with only two windows in it of about a foot square each, and of the most miserable and forlorn appearance. On knocking at the door, Mr. L. S. N. came out, and seeing who they were, to do him justice, welcomed them right heartily. Mr. B., as soon as he saw him cried out, “ Oh what hast thou been doing to bring me and my family to this miserable place ]” but the other in -a good humoured way stated “We are not so house proud as you are in Wortley ; but we get along as well I can tell you \ and, addressing his wife, desired that supper should be prepared for them immediately. Accordingly the J ohnny cakes were kneaded, the pork was cut for frying, and the coffee was prepared as quickly as possible. When these things were placed on the table, the old settler said, “You must excuse sugar, we have none ; we are thirty miles from a store ; and though, we made as much maple sugar as we thought would suffice yet, having been too liberal with it, it is now quite exhausted.” “ Well, well, replied Mr. B , bring us some milk.” “ Nay, we cannot do that,” was the answer, we have none.” “Why,” says Mr. B , you wrote me, and I have t)6 SOME AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS, your letters in my pocket at this moment, that you had seven cows and how can say you have no milk!” “ It is quite true,” said . o. JN., that we had seven cows in summer; but having: no ay and no fodder for them, four of them have been starved to death, and we have only kept the other three alive by felling laro- e trees and allowing them to brouse upon the buds, which always appear before the setting in of winter.” Of course this was' a closer in respect to milk ; and next the coffee was found fault with ; but when they were informed that it was made from bran which was saved when they had any wheat to grind, the new comers were satisfied that the beverage was certainly better than could have been expected. Their pork having been fed on nuts and acorns in the wood, and called shack-fed, next came under the discussion and with a similar result. The beds which the party had brought with them having been spread upon the floor of the house, they soon retired to rest. Mr. B was still in hopes, from the cheerfulness of his brother-in-law, that when he saw his woollen factory in the morning, he would be better satisfied, and from previous description he supposed that the factory would be at leact as large as any in Leeds or the neighbourhood ; but what V a ! ^ ls s “ r prise in the morning to see the boasted factory dwindled down to a shabby frame building about 24 feet square and two stories high ; the machinery consisted of one carder 24 inches wide, one swift and a breast with a single worker upon it; in tact the whole engine would stand upon a common card table, such as is found in the houses of the lower classes in Yorkshire. He had one billy of 21 spindles, and a jenny of 30 spindles ; , , c with two narrow looms were all that constituted this wonder- ul woollen factory. Mr. B was so indignant, that he was for starting off back immediately ; but his wife and daughters pre- vailed upon him to stop for a short time. reo^l77 te “7 a le i7 r - ° f wbicb tbe above is tIle substance, and requested me to send him word how Cleveland was situated, and if people could get anything fit to eat there, as in the place were he c ? uW Deither live nor half bve. I wrote him that bad as everything was in Cleveland, yet we could alwaysget :,- S - 0f 7 eat ’ b I ead ’ fruit and vegetables, and that I should better thfn X * ^ ° n T f ° 0t t0 See me > and if ba ^ed my place to fetch liU r f ub ^ rass ’ 1 would lend him my horses and omnibus Teing onlv in a 4 and i dau « hters - 1 *old him that the distance nothfna at all of* *1 ^ ab ° Ut 150 nules > a Yankee would think lurnev of So 1’ J< T ne ^ However ' be did “ ot relish the i • i ^ 11 e ® . on but as soon as he got my letter he an evLT'T 11 ’ P* ba SS a ge packed, and started off, bidding factory ® ' ‘° Scru Wand its famous woollen MORE CHARACTERISTICS. 0 7 In about three days he arrived at my house almost over- joyed to find himself, as he said, at something like a home ; and while his wife and daughters were with my wile and daughter sat round the kitchen fire, all five crying at the miseries related, Mr. B and myself were discussing a mint julep and the fragrant weed in the bar, and he has many times confessed to me, that that night was the happiest he ever passed in his life. CHAPTER XI. MORE CHARACTERISTICS. Recession of the Margin of T ake Erie— Natural Terraces— Beautiful villa sites— Extensive coal beds near Cleveland— Township boundaries and Roads— Glorious sunsets— Condition of popular schools and need of reform — Electioneering habits Payment of election bills— Locofocos— Ballot voting— Presidential election— General Harrison- Corrupt practices of the Whigs— President Tyler— Government patronage— Sudden conversion of expectants — Impertinent questions — National conceit— Rubbing posts for loafers— Sheep wanting shepherds— A sympathiser’s exploit in Canada— Naming of children— An Irish family in search of a land without taxes— Their disappointment and return to Canada— Millers’ wages— Anti-Renters. The banks of Lake Erie at some remote period have run above twenty miles in-land, and there are regular rises or terraces still existing, which plainly show that they have formerly been the shores of the lake. There are three rising embankments, as if done by the hand of man at certain distances from its present margin, which have been used time out mind by the Indians as roads. Two of these embankments approach each other near Cleveland within a quarter of a mile, and run parallel for several miles; the main road to Buffalo, called Euclid Street, is made to run exactly between them, and this has been taken advantage of, beautiful houses and villas having been built upon each embank- ment, at an elevation of about fifteen feet above the road with a gradual descent down to it. There is not a more charming place in the world for country houses, — room enough for gardens and pleasure grounds in front, while behind the cultivated farms extend to the bush, which is generally within a quarter of a mile. On the third bank are the coal mines ; they are worked without shafts, being entered on the level, and the beds are in thickness about five feet; the coals are about the same in quality as those found in the neighbourhood of Leeds, and answer well for the purpose of fuel or for the making of gas, and they are sent to the different cities of Canada for that purpose. In private houses, however, they make very little use of them, as all their habits have been long familiar with wood, and not many houses have fire places or stoves suitable for burning anything else, although coal would be found much cheaper. The price it is sold at in Cleveland is from eight to ten cents per bushel, or 4d. to 5d. 58 moke characteristics. n ghsh, and a bushel is supposed to weigh about eighty-four bs. f here is a growing trade in this commodity, which at some future day will become of the utmost importance; at the rate at which land is now clearing, the present supply of fire-wood will soon be exhausted, and well will it be for the state of Ohio that tingenoy 6 ^ lnexhaustible bed of coal in store for that con- irS ebe / eXt ?^ breadfch about 400 miles, and in length o 0, and no doubt but coal will be found from the state of Maine to the Rocky Mountains. The townships in the new states are generally laid out in squares of five miles each way, and the boundary of each is carried m a perfect line, irrespective of any road, mountain or water- course. Indeed some of the boundaries will cross a stream twenty times in the distance of three or four miles. The roads are made in general m the form of a cross, right through the middle of the * ™ and t v 6 V J age ’ so called > is in the exact centre, where a post office, a church, and a public house are sure to be found, as well as a blacksmith’s shop and a town school. The bye roads diverge from these main streets at right angles, which are again crossed, and the farms are all numbered, which makes it per- fectly easy for any person to find the farm he is in want of. J lie main roads, though sometimes dignified with the name of streets, and with turnpikes upon them, are kept in a shocking manner; in winter time they are almost impassable; there are mles in some of them which would almost bury a horse, and if their four-wheeled waggons were not made of such excellent materials and such good workmanship they would not be able to afca ! L ^ut, when snow is on the ground, wheels are uuo P n T d l" Uh mt nd a Ube farm P roduce ^ carried to market 1500 I 8 3 ' T i hcre arC ’ however > government roads, which for W • ™ ndue west, are macadamized the whole way, and 5‘! n ,?"i :i ’ , S00 , d T T ir - This line > when completed, will the Pacific Ocean! ^ R ° Ck7 Mountains > and oal Y terminate at irmslt ln ° St I 1 ™ sight that ever mortal man beheld is the JZ'TJ ? WeS [ ern Lake s > the purple, gold, and crimson with 2, f h f , gol 'S eous description. I have often gazed Zen Z - Ch }' sht UP °" the Future; and, though f had some of t , 1( n r ni8 , fr0m tbe summit of Snowdon, and had seen the meet 1 -ir a * S vle , S ln man y European countries, yet this was 21?.“' i he ““ of oil 1 to! ± e ,oTe Wml ' “ »“'* tr O T olliog 1 MORE CHARACTERISTICS. 59 every township (or town as a plot of land five miles square is called), but the masters are so badly remunerated and so lightly esteemed, that they are for the most part as ignorant of the duties of their office as the oxen of the field. They are expected to board out among the farmers, whose sons are under their tuition, and so they travel about for a home from one house to another, never, perhaps, stopping more than a month in one lodging, The annuity which they are entitled to, over and above their board, can never be collected, for the farmers consider that it is so much money thrown away; and so these poor pedagogues drag on a miserable existence, changing their situations from bad to worse, and can never raise themselves to anything like a comfortable “ getting along ” No competent man will spend his time in a school room under such circumstances, as situations for qualified men, as clerks to merchants or lawyers, are easily obtained; and there a man has a chance of advancing himself, and of becoming by diligence either a partner or sole principal. This state of things must continue till the State Governments make a radical reform in all such institutions, compelling all candidates to undergo a strict examination as to their competency for their duties, enforcing better regulations in the conducting of such establishments, guaranteeing the masters a certain and fixed salary, and by these means raising the character of the school- masters and placing them on that respectable footing which the importance of their functions requires. The books also which are used in such schools are in as much need of being reformed as the schools themselves. Many of those in present use contain lying accounts of the great feats performed by some imagined hero of the revolution, in discomfitting three or four times their number of Britishers. It is high time that all this, tending to foster a bad feeling between the two countries, were done away with, and not instilled into the minds of the youth of the rising generation, for, “ What education did at first receive, Our ripened age confirms us to believe.” The various elections for members of Congress, for members of the state legislature, and for corporate offices, take up much time of the lazy part of the population in going from one bar room to another and talking politics. Indeed, from one year s end to another it is the everlasting talk, and whether the party be whig, democrat, locofoco, or barnburner, the same cuckoo note is sounded, and the ears of the customers are dinned with their cursed jargon. But upon the eve of an election all the passions of the parties are excited to the utmost pitch; and if you take any notice whatever of any party, you may believe that the entire salvation 60 MORE CHARACTERISTICS. of the country depends upon the party who should be chosen at the elect.™ as the crisis is just then at hand ; and if the opposing party should unfortunately be elected, then all the boasted privh leges of the most free and enlightened nation upon the face of the earth are gone for ever. Agitation is never at a stand-still there is always some man or measure to advocate or depreciate' tbualfy Wh ° le S ° Clety ^ kept ^ a ferment of hot water con- As a specimen of the way in which city elections are carried on, A * Y- 1 re ^ ate what they were and are in Cleveland. f tIie elec ^on of mayor, aldermen, and marshal for the city eveland, the committee of Dr. Milnes (for mayor) two others fdav r d W”? Abbe ^ ( f0r 4 m arsiLl), sent forme a day or two before the election, and asked me if I would lend them my omnibus, man, and horses, for the purposes of bringing up their voters on the election day, which I agreed to do for six ars. The Doctor then said, “you must also provide refresh- E one r of' tl ^ 0fcer8J ' % W h ich m alS -° 1 agreed > 011 the condition that one of the committee should sit at my house in order to see that no improper person should be admitted, as I was not acquainted sufficiently to discriminate. This was called an excel- votin^fhh ° n ’i an p °? n® daj Was P un otually acted upon. The mitv g at m^7 gh ^ b . alIot ’ ' vent men % on, and ended by the party at my house coming off conquerors. Then a supper was °V,, le and drinki “g and speech ifymg was mv WU °“ , ab ° Ut e l oven , °’ clock » at which time I carried in y bill amounting m the whole to eighteen dollars. The com- mittee stated that a meeting would be held in the mornino- and tekT::L7 U aw be P 1 d tbe *7- However, weeTs and the mavnr 1 aWa ^. and D0 could be had. I waited upon the major many times and he declared he had no funds but would pay Ins share if I would take it out in physic I which as th7saM b° r my ,/ am ‘ Iy were sick > 1 respectfully 7 declined. He a store in 7 "''ft 8 '?’ 0 f a " order u P on David Hirsh, who had mio-ht „« U |i i d ° Ck ’ f ° r , b ! S sbare ’ sa ^ six dollars. I thought I went to M ‘ a w- S T Ct l‘, D8 u aS nothin g> 80 1 took the order and iTouse for l ' ■ J l6 > h °"’ ever > llad not opened his ware- that I found ) Ve a , rn “ n . tb -' an( l it was with the utmost difficulty folffiwit m db ; but , ht ; promised to meet me in his store the order ii^anv sol^nf^ a 6 ".’°. ll , ld allow me the amount of my When I o-ot there T • vb , lck 1 could se l ect out of his stock, sugar tea or enff ? Ll f brand ^ a11 foist D and he had no „ ° ’j de0 ’ a nd indeed nothing worth anything except a good stock of locofoco matches t 7 ^ except account, took out the whole six dollars to 1 f ’ to olose the this c . aollars in locofoco matches: and this is the general way of paying debts incurred in election ^ and MORE CHARACTERISTICS. 61 well may the party using such dodges be styled Locofocoes. The parties are so distinct and well known that, although the voting is by ballot or rather by ticket, every voter is as well known and how he votes, as in this country with open voting; but there is no list afterwards published, nor would such a work be tolerated. The election of President of the United States is carried on with all the rancour and all the corruption that can possibly be used. When General Harrison was elected President, and Captain Tyler for Vice-President, the whigs having been out of office for twelve years were determined to carry their man at whatever cost. In the city of New York they hired a thousand men, the very scum of the earth, to vote. Their wages were a dollar a day, with roast beef and hard cider as much as they chose. At that time the waterworks from Croton to New York were building, so these men took the name of pipe-layers ; they were brought up and polled in all the forty-eight wards of New York, then sent off immediately to Philadelphia, Albany, and to all other places that they could get to in time to vote. These men took the necessary oaths at all and every place, and were the means of carrying the election with a great majority, and poor Harrison, a very quiet and inoffensive man, was elected President. But the cares, the anxiety, and the labour he was subjected to, brought him in one month’s time to an untimely grave. Pie received 5000 letters a day from different persons soliciting offices, every office under the federal government, from the highest to the lowest, becoming vacant at every new election, and the patronage being always exercised by the new chief officer, and the old incumbents tumbled out neck and crop. This was too much for a man who was much debilitated by living in a warm climate, and brought from his retirement where he might have lived many years longer ; and the United States lost a valuable, because an honest, citizen: and, according to the laws of the United States, Captain Tyler, the Vice-President, reigned in his stead. The great watch-word or party cry at that election was “Log cabins and hard cider/’ During the progress large log cabins were built and mounted upon wheels, and dragged round the towns, and all might have as much liquor as they desired. The log cabins, after the election was over, were kept as trophies of the great victory which took away all the spoils of office from the democrats, and conferred them upon the whigs. The agitation still continues; the party out are always canvass- ing for the reinstatement of their friends in office, and those who are in office are always agitating to keep their friends in, well knowing that it is certain ruin if their opponents succeed. The administration of Mr. Tyler was satisfactory to none except to the office-holders or expectants, among whom many who V* MORE CHARACTERISTICS. had been his bitter opponents became all of a sudden his best supporters. In the second year of the administration of President Tyler, there was a great commotion in the United States, got up to assist the Irish in their anticipated struggle for independence, and 0 Connell was praised up to the echo as the Washington of Ireland. Meetings were called and subscriptions raised in°almost every town in the states. One of these meetings was held in Cleveland, and about twelve dollars in promises were put down. Among the fiery speakers at this meeting was a Mr. William Milford, an Irishman himself and a partner in the firm of Standard, Griffiths & Co., merchants. This man had been a Democrat in the preceding election, but came out at this time as the warm supporter of Tyler, and praised to the skies a foolish son of the President, w r ho had been making some flaming speeches against the British Government and in commiseration of the Irish. Mr. Milford laid it on pretty thick to the astonishment of many of his old friends; a carefully revised copy of his speech was published in the Cleveland Herald and sent to feed the vanity of both son and father in Washington. There was also another docu- ment sent about the same time, signed by all his friends both poli- tical and domestic, stating that Mr. Milford was particularly well fitted to fill the duties of Head Custom-house officer in Cleveland, at that time filled by Mr. Geo. Mirvin who was an inveterate \Vhig. In about a fortnight after this Mr. Mirvin received notice of being superseded in his office, and of Mr. Milford's getting the appointment. The soft sawder of Milford and his friends had weighed down the known abilities and tried experience of Mr. Mirvin, and he had to retire to make room for the new comer who only delayed taking possession of his office till he had got his papers from the Bankrupt office, having taken the benefit of that swindling act in order to enter his new occupation free from debt. There is nothing more annoying to an Englishman than to be pestered with all sorts of impertinent questions, which will be put to him by almost every stranger he meets, — such as the ° owing : “ Well, is this your own house or you rent it !” How much rent may you pay?” “How much money did you make last year?’ “You are an old -country man, I guess?” Vhat money did you bring out with you into this free country ?” You are abvays expected to return civil answers to all these questions, then the party will remark that if Queen Victoria were to come over to this free country, the way she would stare at the improvements we have made would be a “ caution.” The bulk f . k^ e . ve that the Queen lives in the tow r er of London, that William Shakspeare was born at Harford, in Connecticut, and MORE CHARACTERISTICS. 63 that Robert Fulton, invented the first steam engine. It is of no use to tell them otherwise ; if you should differ with their know- ledge in these particulars, you are set down in their minds as a person who wishes to detract from the honour of the country, and, in fact, a downright enemy to the commonwealth. They also believe themselves to be the very salt of the earth ; and in their common discourse boast what extraordinary feats they would perform if the Queen of England and the Duke of Wellington were to invade the particular locality in which they reside. Their knowledge of geography is confined to the twenty-eight states of the union, with what they have lately learned about Texas, Mexico, and Canada, (California may now be added to their map) ; and are much amazed that the people of that infatuated country, Canada, should still prefer to reside under a monarchy, especially when they see the blessings enjoyed by themselves, who are the most free and enlightened nation on the face of the earth. A couple of Yorkshiremen being engaged in working in a field belonging to a doctor in Cleveland, they were much annoyed by a Yankee loafer, with the questions he put to them, the answers to which he retailed out with interest to his boon com- panions. At last they were resolved to have a joke at his expense. They, therefore, told it at the tavern, which this man accustomed, how they intended to fill his mouth for the next day. When, there fore, the men were at their work among the blackened stumps standing in the field, the loafer came at the usual time, and one said to the other, “ I should like to know the reason that people in this country fix so many rubbing posts in the fields, for the cattle ; now where I come from, we never set more than one in one field.” The other replied, “ I suppose that they put down one rubbing post in this country for every head of cattle they keep, so that all of them can rub themselves at one and the same time.” This was enough for the loafer; he immediately went to tell the last specimen of Yorkshire ignorance at the tavern, but instead of the laugh being at the expense of the countrymen, he found that he had been played with, and the hoax was so keen that he never gave them any more trouble. An old Yankee, called Schoville, once addressed me with the following questions ; but as an Englishman does not wish to answer correctly all such inquiries, it was my custom to answer them in a way of my own : — Ques. “Well, stranger, I guess I have seen you somewhere]” Ans. “ Very likely, sir, for I have been here many times.” Ques. “ How long are you in this country]” Ans. “ I have never been measured since I came, but I suppose I shall be about five feet eleven inches, the same as I was in the old country.” 61 MORE CHARACTERISTICS. Ques. “ Pray what may your name be?” A ns. “I cannot tell — on my first arrival I was called Captain ±>rown ; after about a month I was promoted to Major; I was afterwards dignified on a morning with ‘ Well, Colonel, bow do you do this morning V and now I am generally known by my neighbours as old General Brown, and by my women customers as old uncle Brown; so it is impossible for me to know to what eminence I may be raised, or by what name I may at some future time be called?” This satisfied the old gentleman, and I was no more pestered with impertinent questions. r A gentleman from Leeds, Mr. David Laird, of the late firm of Kitson and Laird, came to our house in Cleveland in the year • i 3 ’ vr nd T t0 . PP , ed , With US a few da 7 s - As I had been acquainted with Mr. Laird for many years, and always had the utmost esteem for him, I was very glad to see him, and he seemed to be equally delighted. He told me of his dissolution of partnership with Mr. Kitson, and of his resolve to leave Great Britain, and seek a home m America, where he already had a brother and sister. He told me that his intentions were to go over to Wisconsin, and purchase about a thousand acres of land in that country and begin sheep farming. I asked him where he intended to provide himself with shepherds; he said that at first he would not keep more than about 300 or 400 sheep, and it would not require more than tvyo persons. I told him he was mistaken, for that it would take just as many shepherds as sheep, and to keep them safe, the sheep must always be taken to the man’s house, and never left alone in tbe nigbfc; tbe wolves were so numerous tliat they would destroy the whole flock in a single night, and they regularly hunted in packs, and all the vigilance lie could use would avail nothing against so daring and cunning an enemy, lie laughed at the idea, but went out to see for himself. Ho found that my words were true, and after taking a long round through that country, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana he returned to Cincinnati, and from thence he returned to England, satisfied nt was no country for him. He is now located upon a firm in America 11116 ’ m Stland ’ and has gi ven up all thoughts of During the rebellion in Canada, a large company of sympa- Detroit and \ C1 ? vela H who marched by land up P to Detroit and crossing the river there, landed without opposition on the Brit,sh side, and took the garrison and authorities by surprise. J was headed by a person called Melton, who going up to the barracks met with a British officer, Surgeon Hume, wis «,rn qulte a ! 0ne “f unarmed, but was in regimentals. He irrrr d surrender, but instead of that, he demanded by what authority they acted, when they declared it MORE CHARACTERISTICS. 05 was in the name of the liberating army of Canada, and that, if he did not immediately surrender, they would shoot him down : and accordingly Melton gave the word and he was fired at and wounded, but made towards a cottage near, whither he was quickly followed and actually hewn to pieces by these ruffians. Melton got possession of his gold lever watch, with the appendages, and his followers had the division of sixty sovereigns amongst them which the Doctor had in his pocket at the time. A terrible vengeance, however, awaited them ; when confronted with British troops, they showed the greatest cowardice, made scarcely any resistance, a good number were taken prisoners, tried by a drumhead Court martial, and instantly ordered for execution. The leaders, however, as in nearly all such cases, made their escape, and I have seen this ruffian with the watch upon him many times. He is now a regular black leg ; he resides in Cleveland about two months in the year, and in the other months he joins a gang of gamblers, thieves and murderers, and plies his vocation on the river Mississippi, from New Orleans to St. Louis, taking Chicago, Detroit, Sandusky or St. Louis, Cincinnati, Wheeling, and Pittsburg in his route from or to his regular domicile. The Americans are very fond of giving pompous and high sounding names to their children, and are not content with one, but some will have, like a German Prince, half a dozen, such as Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren Smith, Thomas Jefferson Franklin Coleman, Edmund Burke Clinton Johnson, or Jonathan Washington Adams Brown. In general you may know whether the father is a whig, a democrat, or a barnburner, by the names he gives his progeny, and in case he changes his politics, as is often the case, he will immediately apply to the magistrates in session assembled, and have the whole of his family named afresh, and they afterwards bear the names of some leader or supposed leader of the party to which the father has last attached himself. The Quakers, however, of Pennsylvania have set their faces against such a multiplicity of names, and the following anecdote is told of an old gentleman of that persuasion. When sending out his son on his first mercantile journey, he gave him this advice : — “ If thou finds a man with two given names, be very careful of doing any business with him except on ready money terms, but if he has three, have nothing whatever to do with him, for he will have been a spoiled child, and is sure to cheat thee, if thou hast ought to do with him.” An Irish family, consisting of an old man, wife, son, and daugh- ter, came to my house ; and, as they liked the appearance of the town and neighbourhood, they said they thought they would buy a farm as near the city as possible. They informed me that they F 6 MORE CHARACTERISTICS. had been living in Canada for the last thirty years on a grant of land of 300 acres from the government to the old gentleman who had been in the army ; — that as the government had now begun to lay taxes upon them, and they had never paid any before, he would not submit to it, and had sold out his farm and stock, and getting one third of the price in gold, had given credit of one and two years for the remainder, being determined to come to a coun- try where no taxes were required. I asked him where that country was, for I knew none so lightly taxed as Canada. He was surprised to hear that taxes existed in that free country to which he had come, and could not believe it, when I told him of the taxation levied in Ohio, which amounted to ten times more than was demanded in Canada. However, he wished to see a Mr. James, who was formerly a neighbour of his; and when he asked him about the taxes, and was convinced that he had come to a country where the land was not half so good, and where the taxes were ten times as heavy, I never saw a family in such distress at their folly in parting with their handsome well cleared farm of 300 acres, with a rush of fine pure water right through their dwelling and milk house, which fell into a beautiful natural pond of about four acres in front of their house, and which was well stored with fish ; besides the many conveniences which they would never enjoy again ; and where they had saved a pail-full of sovereigns. I thought the hearts of the women would break. To go back again was what I advised them, and repurchase their old farm ; but the man said he could not stand the ridicule of his old neighbours, and he would see through the five north western states, before he decided where he would again settle down. Accordingly, he hired a waggon, horse, and men by the week, and started on a voyage of discovery to find a country where there were no taxes to pay, to be free from a country where a hundred- acres farm pays no more than about three and sixpence per an- num, and where all sorts of clothing is at one half the price that it is at in the United States. The man and waggon returned in about six weeks, having been discharged and paid off in Detroit, where the family had made up their minds to again settle in Canada. There have been thousands of statements respecting the wages of labour, one of which, lately published in a good many papers, was by a person from Wakefield, a corn miller by trade, stating that there was always work for millers in America, that the wages were ten shillings a day, and there were in almost every place mills always ready to employ hands from the old country. Now I am not going to dispute about the quantity of mills, or about the amount of a good corn miller’s wages; but the ten shillings which he gets per day is not ten shillings sterling ; MORE CHARACTERISTICS. 67 a New York shilling is only of the value of an English sixpence. This lessens the sum one-half; and then the workman has to take the greatest part of his wages in orders upon a store where he is charged twice as much for every article he gets as he could have bought it for at another place for cash ; more- over the mills can only work from three to four months in a year, that is, from the harvest till the frost sets in, which freezes up not only the water but the waterwheel itself; and the miller will then, if he labours at all, be forced to the general winter occupation of chopping wood till the next harvest, for all the grain which could not be ground before will have been for- warded to a shipping port to make money of, as no Yankee will allow his wheat to lie a dead stock on his hand, but must be turning into cash this his only product that will at all times command the value in actual money. The Dutch were the first settlers in New York state, but when the English took possession of it, they changed the name of the chief town from New Amsterdam to New York. The original colonists were, however, allowed to keep their possessions, and some of the Dutch fathers, having had large tracts of country granted to them by the Dutch government, they were soon satisfied with the change. Their descendants now enjoy those properties, and the Patroon of Albany and the Van Rensellaeis are among the most wealthy of the citizens of that state. The latter family have a whole county of their own, called after their own patronimic, which is let off to tenants at a certain rental. The farmers have far some years been much dissatisfied, thinking that they had as much right to the land as the family of the Van Rensellaers, and were determined to cease paying rent. The same scenes were now enacted as we see in Ireland ; a process server was waylaid by the No-rent party, and if he did not give up the process warrants he w r as made in some instances to swallow them, and in others (not a few) he was cruelly murdered. This w r as carried on a great while, but at last government interfered, and many were brought to justice, and some few were hanged. In all their attacks upon the officers of the law they were dis- guised as Indian savages, but no savages ever seen upon the con- tinent were actuated by the same abominable spirit which actuated these anti- renters. 68 MECHANICAL INVENTIONS. CHAPTER XII. MECHANICAL INVENTIONS. The Yankee Pile Driver — Machinery for making Window Sashes; Flour Barrels; Shoe- maker’s Lasts, or Statuary — Smut Mill, &c. — Machine-made Ship Blocks, Nails, Cards, Slays — Stump Extractor — Horse Ferry Boats — Percussion Water- wheels— Stoves for economising fuel — The Roller Gin — The Moating Machine — The American Whiffler. The inventive talents of the Americans for saving labour are of the first order, they are equal if not superior in this respect to any other nation. Among the many useful inventions, the follow- ing struck me as original, and one which would bear transplant- ing into our own country, viz., the Yankee Pile Driver. This machine, which I have already noticed, is a locomotive engine fixed upon wheels ; and when it is in operation, it is upon the exact level of the intended railway, coffer dam, jor whatever work where piles are required. The piles being all 'cut and laid ready on each side of the machine, one is yoked to the tackling and drawn up till the point slips through a hole in the platform, which hole is exactly over the place where the pile is to be driven down. As soon as it is fixed, the tup immediately commences hammering away upon the head of the pile, and soon drives it as deep into the ground as is required. The pile for the opposite side is then similarly hoisted up ; the hammer is started on that side, and in a few minutes this is also driven home. A circular saw working underneath cuts off the tops of the piles at the exact height, and the machine moves itself forward the distance required, and then rests upon the newly driven piles, where it is ready for the next pair of piles, and so on till the whole distance is accom- plished. A great part of the American railroads are laid upon piles for the whole length of the line, and this machine will drive half a mile of double piles in one day, and level as it goes along. The machinery for manufacturing window sashes, pannelied doors, &c., is another labour-saving contrivance. A person want- ing half-a-dozen pairs of sashes, has only to give his dimensions, and in about one hour he may call and have the whole ready for him, and glazed as well. The machines used for this manufac- ture are formed something like a broad- cloth power-loom, and the plane is fixed and works something like the shuttle. This plane cuts the guts for the sash exactly of the size and form wanted, while another machine is cutting the outer frame. A sufficient quantity of these being cut, they are brought upon a strong table, and being tenoned and jointed in the machine, they are then placed in their proper position, screwed up tight and pegged, and are ready for glazing, which is instantly done, and the sash is finished, having taken less time in the whole operation than MECHANICAL INVENTIONS. G9 it has taken the writer to pen this description. An eminent builder from Huddersfield, Mr. Wm. Barras, being in Cleveland, I told him of this machine ; but as he thought he knew more of making windows than any man in that city, he could scarcely be prevailed upon to look at it. However, I took him down to the factory, and I never saw a man more astonished in my life than he was, to see the order, regularity, and excellence of the work ; and he declared that machinery of that sort would make any man’s fortune in England. The making of flour barrels is another manufacture of a similar sort. The wood having been split by the axe, and cut off the required length for the staves, these undergo the same operation as the window guts, and are quickly made of the proper form to a hair’s breadth, and are then taken and put together in a frame, and will hold water as soon as turned out. A man and two boys will turn out a perfect flour barrel in seven minutes and a half, or about 100 a day, and better made than can be done by the best cooper in the world, by the ordinary methods. The making of lasts for shoemakers is by another useful con- trivance. The machine will turn out a pair of lasts, right and left, in about a minute : it can be so regulated that four or five sizes may be cut from one pattern ; and I understand that statues in marble or stone can be cut out by such machinery, as exact as possible, and of any size that is required. The Smut Mill I have already noticed. The cooling machinery for flour, and the elevators have raised the character of American corn millers above all others, for cleanliness, dispatch, and excel- lency of workmanship. The Americans were, I believe, the first to make ships’ blocks and nails by machinery, and saw mills of the present perfection. They have also invented machinery for making woollen and cotton cards ; and though they have been much improved by our artizans here, yet to the Americans belongs the honour of having invented them. They have also invented a machine for making weaver’s reeds or as we call them slays, which has also been introduced into this country with the greatest success, especially in the cotton trade ; and the articles made are far superior and cheaper than ever were made by hand. They have also invented a stump extractor; but as most of them prefer to allow the stump to rot in the ground, and fill up its own hole, it is not necessary for me to give a description of it. Their Horse Ferry Boats and horse saws are excellent inven- tions, and perform the purposes for which they are intended perfectly well. TO CANADA. The percussion water-wheels are a splendid invention : they are on the screw principle, made for very little money, and by running at a great velocity, supersede the necessity of having gearing to multiply the motion in saw mills and other machines requiring great speed. The quantity and diversity of stoves for economising fuel are great ; in some show rooms you may find above one hundred, all of different constructions, and all having some excellency above the old plans. Fuel being dear in all cities, the utmost economy is required to be used, and even where the timber fit for fuel is at your door, it costs much labour in cutting, splitting, and sawing before it can be used, especially for cooking purposes. And lastly, an American invented the roller gin, for clearing cotton from the seeds. This machine is perfect in its operation and cheap in its construction; and from it is derived the moating machine now so extensively used, not only in this town, but also in all the districts where the woollen trade is fixed, and by which a sort of wool is brought into consumption, which would have cost twice its own price to have cleared it from moats by the old plan of picking out each separate burr by hand. There are also a great many other machines which were invented first in America, and afterwards improved in this country; as for in- stance, Lewis’ cutting frame, which is an improvement upon the American whiffier; the condenser or endless carding machine. These are so well known that it would be superfluous to give any description of them ; but the honour of the invention certainly belongs to the Americans. CHAPTER XIII. CANADA. Departure from Cleveland — Run aground — Arrival at Buffalo — Friendly reminiscence — Chippewa — Niagara — Toronto — Favourable contrast in the appearance of the country — Park-like scenery, and comfortable dwellings — Interesting objects in the neighbour- hood of The Falls — The Whirlpool; its gloomy character — Falls of Niagara — Museum —Large bed of water-cresses— The Clifton House — Water works at the Falls— Mag- nificent plan for the city of Niagara. At length the appointed day for our leaving Cleveland arrived, and it was with no feelings of regret that I took my leave of that city although I had made many friends and formed many delightful acquaintances with some of the residents there. Ac- cordingly, with two waggon loads of furniture, a span of grey horses, and an elegant omnibus, which I could not dispose of for cash, I bade adieu to my numerous friends who were assembled on the dock there, and in the good ship Sampson, a steam pro- CANADA. 71 peller, we took our passage to Buffalo. On stopping at Erie we run aground, and when the vessel by the force of the waves bumped on the bottom, we were all in great fear of being wrecked: the horses, which were on deck, began to scamper about, and I was fearful of their breaking loose and jumping overboard. But when I spoke kindly to them, they became as docile as two dogs; they knew me instantly, and came as far as their tethers would permit to rub their noses against my person, and were perfectly quiet as long as I stood by them ; but as soon as my back was turned, their fears immediately returned; so I was forced to stop and keep them company till the vessel floated, and we were again merrily steaming down the lake. On our arrival at Buffalo, we put our baggage, horses, and carriage on board the steamer for Chippewa, and adjourned to our friends to breakfast. We were guests to the landlord of the Canada blouse, who had always behaved to me with the greatest kindness : he had taken great pains in forwarding passengers to us when we resided in Cleveland, and it was in a great measure to his generous behaviour that we succeeded so well in keeping the tavern there. If ever a copy of this work meets his eye, he will see that his services were appreciated by me, and that the obliga- tion we were under to him will never be forgotten. On our arrival at Chippewa, we sent our baggage by the rail- road to Queenshead, and travelled in the omnibus. After stop- ping to allow the younger part of my family to view the falls of Niagara, and the beautiful scenery in the neighbourhood, and spending the night at Stamford, within about three miles of the cataract, and within the sound of its rushing waters, we again took the steam boat at Queenston, to cross Lake Ontario ; and in the evening were safely landed in the fair city of Toronto. From leaving the bleak, sandy, and barren land near Buffalo, and landing at Chippewa in Canada, where every thing wears the appearance of comfort, the contrast cannot fail to strike the attention of the most superficial observer. He will, at that par- ticular spot and for a considerable distance round, find the coun- try to have more the appearance of England than any other part which he has seen in America. Indeed from Chippewa to the Falls, and to Drummondsville, Stamford, and other places, you travel through a country more like an English park than any thing else you can liken it to ; and the houses have the signs of comfort and convenience w r liich you may in vain look for in Yankee dwellings. In fact, an Englishman finds himself more at home here, with all its pleasant associations, and his delighted eye wanders along the ever varying landscape of the city of the Falls, and his ears are regaled with the music of the mighty waters. He may inspect the barracks of the queens troops, or he 7 2 CANADA. may view the field of battle at Lundy’s Lane, or he may go a little further and see the place where fell the gallant General Brook, near to which is erected a handsome monumental shaft, but which during the late rebellion in Canada was partially destroyed by an incendiary called Lett ; yet now in its partially ruined state it is a noble object in the landscape, being upon a lofty hill distinctly visible from Lewiston and other parts of the state of New York upon that border. It serves also as a landmark for vessels sailing upon Lake Ontario from which it is distant about five miles. There are many interesting walks in the neighbourhood of the Falls, and one in particular I should recommend to the traveller who visits the wonderful Cataract ; and that is the Whirlpool. Ihis place, which at some distant time has been the Fall itself, or a great branch of it, lies about two miles down the river Niagara, below the Falls. The waters are nearly all the way broken by rapids, and come thundering down an inclined plane of about a fall of one in ten, among the fragments of large rocks lying in the body of the stream, till it comes to the bend where the Whirl- pool is situated. The waters rush in at one corner, making a complete circuit round the oval-shaped basin worn in the ground by its own action, the depth of which is not known, and it would be a dangerous attempt for any boat to venture into its angry vortex for the purpose of making soundings. There is however no particular whirl in the middle of the tur- bulent waters, but whirls are continually formed at a hundred different places at the same moment, which swallow up any stray log of wood that is floating upon its surface ) and if you watch the operation a sufficient time, you will see the same log spring up again out of the water at another place, like a fish taking a fly, and it is ejected with such force that, in some instances, the log will actually, as it were, leap out of the water above a yard high ; it then is carried away by the rapid current till another whirl is formed, and then down it goes again. Sometimes, as you stand upon the brink, almost bewildered with the awe-striking scene, you will see a whirl within a few yards of where you stand, and you may then see three or four yards down the centre hollow 'which the eddy is making. The drift wood is always floating in such a continuous round that if it could be noticed, I have no c oubt the pieces are carried round and round, and ground upon the bottom or sides of the cavernous depths, till at last they are quite destroyed, and are replaced by other drift wood which the rapids are contm ual ly bringing into this gulph. It is the most awful sight that nature ever presented to my eyes. The trees which overhang the waters are lying some with their roots uppermost, some mouldering away near its edges and upon its banks, some growing out of their perpendicular, and being of the shaggy hem- CANADA. 73 lock tribe, add to the savage and solitary grandeur of the place. Not a soul was near when I visited this place alone ; not a living creature was to be seen, as if it was alike shunned by man, beast, and bird ; and I had contemplated the scene nearly half an hour, before I saw hovering over my head an enormous eagle, the only living creature I saw near this spot. For many nights after I had visited this place my dreams were all filled with its horrible picture; and, unlike the Falls, whose beauties grow upon you, and you admire them more and more the oftener you visit them, and as distance of time mellows the recollection, it is just the contrary with the Whirlpool; there is not one pleasurable association connected with it; it still looks to me like a place of torment. The Whirlpool contained to my thinking about forty acres. There is a handsome refreshment saloon near the staircase, but it was quite deserted. Tho door was, however, left open, and I went in, and sitting on the bench, carved my initials after the manner of the Yankees upon one of the pillars of the building. I have purposely omitted a description of the falls of Niagara; they have been so well described by many writers, that I found it would be a work of superoragation to enter upon it. But en passant I will just mention that on a dark night, when there is only a faint glimmer from the new moon, large quantities of wild ducks, which are bred in the numerous swamps in the neighbour- ing counties, are attracted to the spot for the purpose of fishing in the rapids, and just before the waters take their final leap over the cascade. They oftentimes get so near the edge of the falls that the force of the waters takes them down, and they are found about 300 yards below, floating upon the still water quite dead. The ferrymen take advantage of this, and on such nights they are upon the look out and reap a good harvest, sending their booty to the markets of BufFolo, Toronto, and Hamilton. They also in certain seasons pick up large quantities of different sorts of fish killed in a similar way. There is a splendid museum near the staircase leading down to the curtain of the falls, which contains many rare specimens of the curiosities of the locality in geology and zoology; there is a registry also kept of visitors. Also, immediately contiguous, there is a bed of water cresses of about two acres, which are the most prolific and the finest plants I ever saw in my life. The seed of this vegetable was brought from England by a gentleman of the neighbourhood, who had noticed the peculiar fitness of the ground for the crop, and now they might supply a large city with that wholesome and delicious esculent. The Clifton House, which commands from its whole front a fine view of the falls, is a splendid hotel, where three or four 74 CITY OF TORONTO. hundred persons may be accommodated. There are also many other good houses on both sides of the river, so that there is no fear of parties being in want of creature comforts, and almost any necessary or luxury can be immediately obtained. On the Cana- dian side of the falls there is erected a water-wheel, and an hydraulic apparatus is put into motion for supplying the city of the Falls with the pure element. This city, of which you may purchase a map, looks upon paper a most magnificent affair, and is calculated when finished to con- tain about 4,000,000 of inhabitants. The streets are all marked out on the ground, but unfortunately not a house is yet built, and it will perhaps be some thousand years hence before the dreams of the first projector are half realized. There may, however, be attempts made to turn some of the waters to account for manufacturing purposes; but the magnitude of the supply will stagger any mechanic from commencing the work, as any puny efforts of his would only show the insignificance of his handy work. CHATTER XIV. CITY OF TORONTO. A Canadian Steam-boat — harbour and City of Toronto — The environs resembling those of ancient York- The farmers mostly Yorkshiremen— Description of the City— Trades and manufactures Plank roads — Size and plans of Canadian Townships — Simple conveyance deeds— Excellence of Canadian forming — Neatness of the farms— York- shire names of Townships— Toronto market and its regulations— Police and provision for the poor — Light taxation — Public Institutions. The steam-boat, Chief Justice Robinson , is a superb affair, and built as a steamer ought to be built, for strength and power. The engines are of the low pressure principle, and “ she walks the waters like a thing of life.” At a time when no Yankee boat would face the storm, she starts, wind foul or fair, and always within a few minutes of her usual time is seen rounding the harbour point of Toronto. I he harbour of Toronto is formed by a peninsula which juts out from the main land and runs parallel with the shore about six miles ; it opens on the lake near the battery of Toronto, and is about a mile and a half or two miles broad ; it is fed by the waters of the Don river. There is also a chain of islands below this peninsula, which extend for ten or twelve miles lower c own, and which also in process of time will become harbours for shipping and be as well protected by nature as the present bay of oronto. I he buildings in the city have a pleasing effect when 1 lewed from the water. The two houses of Parliament, the garri- CIT? OF TORONTO. 75 son, the warehouses, the wharves, the cathedral, and the spires of other churches, all seen at once, as well as rows of handsome brick houses, present such a sight as I am proud to say, cannot be witnessed in any other place of America. The city itself, on a nearer inspection, fully carries out the promise a first view gives you ; and King-street may challenge all America for good build- ings, handsome shops, and merchandize from all parts of the world. The private houses are also of a superior construction, and the environs of the city of York are the most like Toronto of any place I can bring to mind. There is also another circumstance to remind you of the ancient city. Toronto bore for a long time the name of York, and it is but recently that its original Indian name has been resumed. If you hear two farmers talking together it is an even chance that they are both Yorkshiremen, — the majority are from that country: the labourers are from Ireland, and a great proportion of the merchants are from Scotland. The wharves in Toronto are most commodiously erected on slips jutting out into the bay ; they extend for about two miles along the southern side, and reach from the garrison to the gaol. These wharves are all, as I believe, corporation property, the water pri- vilege being let on leases of 21 years, the lessee building what sort of warehousing or offices he pleases. There is a wind-mill upon the banks of the bay of Toronto, and the only one which I saw in all America ; another memento of Old Ebor. The streets in Toronto are all laid out at right angles. King Street extends from the river Don to the river Humber, about eight miles ; it is, however, not built upon except here and there for more than about a mile and a half. The houses in the busi- ness part of the town are chiefly built of brick, the basement story being of stone, and three or four stories high, with plate glass windows, and the shops fitted up with black walnut wood and bird’s eye maple. Queen-street extends from the centre of the town to the river Humber, and is about six miles long, built upon for nearly a mile. Young-street commences at the bay of Toronto, and cross- ing King-street near the middle of the city takes a direct northerly course, extending to Lake Simcoe, a distance of about thirty- eight miles. This street is built upon for above a mile, pretty well on both sides, and afterwards it is well lined with farms, farm houses, taverns, and villages for the whole distance ; and here the best farms in the province are situated. As the street con- tinually rises in elevation as you recede from the city, and as it crosses numerous streams of watercourses, the scenery is often beautifully diversified with hill and dale, with wood and water, with mills, churches, schools, and workshops. In fact, for a dozen miles out of Toronto, the street is like one continued country 7G CITY OF TORONTO. town, and I know no road in any of our agricultural districts that appears to more advantage, and the nearest resemblance to it is Leeming Lane. The woods are, however, always to be seen on both sides at the distance of about half a mile, and being prin- cipally of pine they give the country a more sombre appearance than is seen in Yorkshire. There are also, in Toronto, brick and tile makers, as well as manufacturers of coarse pottery ware. The burial grounds of which there are two called Potter’s Fields, are situate about a mile out of the c ity. From the great quantity of building always going on, and as in the country they are all built of wood, an enormous quantity of nails is continually wanted, and I have known in one or two instances of hardware merchants being disappointed in getting their supplies, that nails have advanced in price in one week above forty per cent. ; and I was always much surprised that some enterprising man had not started a nail factory in or near the city ; power is easily obtained, or if not in the situation desired, yet a small steam engine can at any time be had; and as fuel is cheap there is no business which would pay so well if it was properly managed. A woollen manufactory to make the coarse wool of the country into blankets, or for the common clothing of the country people and farmers, would also be an excellent speculation ; but as no supply of workmen could be depended upon there, a supply of such would have to be brought to the place from either England or from the States. The streets leading from the city east or west are all either macadamized or planked. These plank roads are the best roads in the world for the purpose of general traffic : they are formed of planks twenty-one feet long by four inches thick, pegged down upon five sleepers, which extend the whole distance : they are as level as possible, and covered with a slight sprinkling of sand. In travelling upon these roads, in either a waggon, cart, or gig, there is scarcely any unpleasant shaking, and the horses can be driven at a capital speed. Although at first sight to an old countryman the expense would seem startling, yet in this country, where capi- tal timber can be delivered at half a farthing per foot, inch mea- sure, their roads are the cheapest that can be invented. They are calculated to last without much repairing eleven or twelve years, and I have no doubt but a good four-inch plank will, with ordi- nary care, last twenty years. There is now a plank road com- pleted from Hamilton to Windsor, a distance of about 250 miles, and they are coming into general practice all over the colony. A township in Canada west is mostly ten miles square : a u s t ree ^ runs up the middle, and concession roads are at every one mile and a quarter. These concessions are also crossed by other roads called side lines. All the farms are numbered, and if you only know the number of the farm and the number of the CITY OF TORONTO. 77 concession, you may go to it without making any inquiry. In the conveyance of such farms, the examination of the deeds can be effected in a few minutes at the registrar’s office ; in consequence of which a man, when he sells a farm, generally writes out his own deed, or may get any other person to do it. Forms are always to be purchased for threepence, which only require filling up and registering, and then they are valid instruments. After you leave the city, and come into the country, you will find another great resemblance to Yorkshire. The farm houses are built in the same style : there are stack covers which stand upon four posts just as you see in some places in the old country ; but you never see a stack either covered or thatched in the United States ; they are left there at the mercy of the winds, the rain, and the cattle ; for in many places you will see twenty or thirty head of cattle pulling away at the hay stack. But here all is neatness \ you may see fields of twenty acres or more each, with not a single stump left in it. You will see as good ploughing and general farm management as you do in the best parts of England. Indeed every thing you see and hear reminds you strongly of your English home. The names of the townships are also very welcome to a Yorkshireman’s ears, such as York, Scar- borough, Pickering, Whitchurch, Markham, and Darlington. There are three capital market houses in town, two of which are situated in a large square in King Street \ and the 1 own Hall and police offices are held in the front and chambers of the New Building. The large quadrangular yards are occupied all round by butchers’ shops, and farmers bring their produce into the body of the square. A market is held every morning from nine to twelve o’clock, and all transactions are done for cash, no such thing as barter for farm produce. If a farmer will sell according to the times, he can always get money for what he has to sell. There is also a regular market for fire-wood contiguous, and an inspector who will not allow the good citizens to be imposed upon by false measure. There are also public weighing houses, where every thing that requires to be accurately weighed is taken, and the note of the inspector settles all disputes. The regulations for the good government of the town are equal to those of any town in the British Empire, and the poor are also amply provided for in a building appropriated for that purpose. The revenue of the city amounts to about £50,000 currency per annum, and is raised from ground rents, from corporation and public property, and from a tax of on o halfpenny per pound upon all real property in the city or liberties. There are no other taxes whatever, neither for watching, lighting, nor for road making ; the corporation takes charge of the whole of these, and I never heard a grumbling or a complaint about the way they spend 78 CITY OF TORONTO. the money. The city is lighted with gas, and the waterworks are equal to any in England. The water is pumped up out of the lake, and forced up in pipes to a large filtering machine, the reservoir occupying a surface of about two acres ; and the water, as supplied to the consumers, is as good as the most fastidious could desire. There is a handsome hospital also kept up by the corporation, in the west end of the town, and a new lunatic asylum has just been completed at the expense of the government. St. James’ Cathedral is a handsome Grecian building, and is the largest protestant church in Canada. There are three other episcopal churches in the city. There is also a Roman Catholic cathedral and a Catholic church; there are three Methodist churches, a Scotch church, and a Baptist church for men of colour. 4 There are many gardens round about the city; the land is well adapted for horticultural pursuits, of which many en- lightened gardeners have taken the advantage, and the greens market is as well supplied as most markets in England, but per- haps dearer by about one-half.* There is a large gaol where prisoners are confined, and when the other wing is completed it will be as fine a building for the purpose it is destined for as can well be imagined. There are many tanneries in the neighbourhood of the town, and about half a dozen iron foundries, where machinery of all sorts is fitted up, and steam engines made and repaired. There are also bur stone manufactories. There are two or three marble masons and statuaries in the city; and gun and rifle making is a staple trade. Axes, suitable for the woodman, are made by a Mr. Shaw, and his brand stands high not only in Western Canada but also on the opposite shore. Chair factories are common as well as sash factories : there is also a pail factory just established by a go-a-head Yankee, which is doing a first-rate business. All other trades usual in large cities in England equally thrive here, and gentlemen of the liberal professions are “ as plentiful as blackberries.” * A man of the name of Pape, a gardener, landed at Toronto in 1842, direct from Leeds. He immediately procured work, which maintained him, and then he took a well-fenced field of five acres just in the suburbs, for which he agreed to pay £20 per annum rent. At nights and at other spare times he was always working in his garden or leading manure : he begun early in the Spring, and had the first vegetables in the market. A constant succession of rare and early radishes, onions, cabbages, aud other plants, procured for him the favourable notice of the captains of steam boats and of the inhabitants of the city ; and by working almost day and night, at the end of the season he had cleared as much money as had paid tor ^a horse and cart, had built him a cottage and green houses ; and he had remitted home twenty -seven pounds to bring out his wife and family, who nil eafely arrived, and he is now doing a first-rate business in his line, and appear* always cheerful and happy. CANADIAN FORESTS. 79 The colleges are well supported, having had large grants of land from government. The students are numerous; the build- ings are well adapted for the purpose; the old parliament houses are given up for their use, and the splendid hall at the top of College Avenue would be an ornament to any city in the world. Osgood Hall is also a large, commodious, and elegant building; it is exclusively used by the lawyers, and has an imposing appearance from Queen Street, in which it is situated. CHAPTER XV. CANADIAN FORESTS. Surveying the Country for road-making — “ Blazing” a road — Travelling an uncleared country — Indian trails — An Indian burial ground — Forest sounds at night — Fireflies versus Diamonds — Terms of sale of land — Description of the Forests — Fire among the trees. When a government agent or surveyor starts on a journey for setting out a road in a new country, he generally travels on horse- back, and taking his directions by the compass, with axe in hand, he chips a large place out of a tree, and repeats the operation at intervals of every furlong. This is called “ Blazing ;” and the road is then called a Blazed Road, and a traveller going upon it has to find his way from one blaze toa nother. From Burrie to St. Vincent he will have to pass along this kind of road for thirty- five miles, without seeing either a clearing or a human shanty. Mr. Stevenson, originally from Leeds, who is postmaster of St. Vincent’s and Owen’s Sound, informed me that in traversing these roads, which in fulfilling the duties of his office he has to do once a week, he has been two or three times lost and bewildered. Snow being upon the ground which had never been disturbed by the foot of man, bird, or beast, he was solely indebted to the sagacity of his horse for his preservation. His continual journeys have, however, now so well inured him to the road, that he almost knows every tree in the bush, and he has no difficulty whatever in find- ing his way in either broad daylight, moonlight, or in pitch dark- ness. There are also Indian trails, which are like the sheep tracks upon our moors, the Indians always travelling in single file, and I suppose from instinct, always taking the nearest route to the places of their destination. Having, during my residence in Toronto, rented a saw mill upon the Rouge or Red River, I had to spend a great part of my time at that place for about six months. During that time I made many curious discoveries, which were entirely new to me, but I suppose were quite familiar to older settlers. My men, who had one day strayed to the top of a neigh- bouring hill, found by the rooting up of the ground that some 80 CANADIAN FORESTS. hogs had lately visited that place ; and they wondered what these animals could be rooting after there, as no beech, oak, or hickory trees were growing upon it. However, they discovered that this place had a long time ago been a favorite burying ground of the Indians, and looking into the holes which the hogs had made, they found in almost every one some relic of a race of men now quite extinct. There were pieces of broken pottery, broken guns, and the flint heads of some very handsome tobacco pipes, which the men brought away. They intended to go again, and take a spade and mattock with them in order to discover some more Indian relics. But I persuaded them to allow the dead to rest in peace, going, however, to view the place myself; and I found that about forty acres had been appropriated as a place of sepulture, and that no grave had been dug deeper than about two feet from the sur- face. The whole of the steep bank of the river had been used, and the graves being one above another in the hill side they looked like steps from the top to the bottom. The oldest inhabitants could not tell anything of any Indian being buried there ; but, as among the relics dug up there were some gun barrels, it must have been used since the settlement of the French in Canada ; and I was informed that the gun barrels found were the manufac- ture of that nation. At night, in travelling through the bush, you are much amused by the various sounds you hear; the forest and the swamp seem to be all alive ; and the singing of the tree toads, whistling of the frogs, with the chirping of the locusts, and the thorough bass of the bull frog, is a concert which once heard a man does not soon forget. Then there is the whip-poor-will, a night bird flying about you and pronouncing its name as plainly as you can do it your- self. I never saw one near enough to be able to give a descrip- tion of it, but I suppose they somewhat resemble the grass drakes of England. The attention of the traveller is then directed to a low swampy tract, which seems to him at first sight to be filled with small shooting stars : these are the fire flies which are so numerous that you may see thousands at any moment, and if you take a few and keep them under a tumbler glass, they will give as much light as a small candle. They certainly look beautiful, and when the niggers hold their accustomed balls, of which they are passionately fond, some of their dandies will take the trouble to catch large quantities of these fire flies with hand nets to deck the hair of their favorite sultanas, who are to be their partners for the evening in the merry dance. This has a grand effect; not all the diamonds of Lady Londonderry, nor even the diadem of England s Queen can show half so brilliant as these humble orna- ments upon the sable daughters of Africa “ Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear ” CANADIAN FORESTS. 81 A farm is always reckoned 100 acres, and is half a lot; and the price varies according to its quality, its privileges, and its dis- tance from market; as, for instance, a farm upon Young Street, distant two miles from the city, is worth £500 to £600 currency ; while equally good land may be had a few miles further for half the money. In buying wild land no value whatever is set upon a water privilege, nor for any valuable mineral which it may con- tain. If, however, the timber growing upon it is fit for masts for the royal navy, the Queen of England claims all such in her own right, and after the broad arrow is marked upon them they are tabooed from the rest of the community. The grandeur of the pine grove is a sight worth seeing; 250 trees upon an acre of land, the lowest stem of which, before you come to a single branch, will be 200 feet high. There is not a blade of grass growing at its foot, nor any brush or underwood whatever. You may walk among them without any obstruction for miles, and in the heat of the day find a cooling shade and shelter from the piercing rays of the sun. It appears as if you were in a half twilight, and not a rustle beyond what your own foot makes among the decayed leaves strikes your ears; no birds of any kind can be seen, nor any squirrels, chitmunks, or rabbits; all is still as death and solitary as a desert island. But only let a fire be kindled and carried by the wfinds into the upper branches of these pines, and then a sight will appear which would appal the stoutest heart ; the fire leaps from tree to tree with the rapidity of lightning, and progresses as fast as the wind, nearly as fast as a horse can gallop. You will then see a canopy of fire on the tops of the forest, and not a blaze below; indeed, a man might run underneath when the fire is raging over his head, and if he took care to dash away the red ashes as they fall from the tops he would take no harm. As long as the forest is unbroken, the flames advance ; if it approaches a clearing the utmost exertion of the people is taxed to keep it from their fences and buildings; for let it catch hold at one end, and it will run along like a train of gunpowder, and everything upon the farm being of a com- bustible nature will share the same fate; and well is it for the farmer, if his wife and children are safe from its devouring influence. I have witnessed two such fires as I have described, and heard afterwards the regrets of many a poor farmer who lived just in the range of the bush, and had just got his fields fenced and his house built when this ruthless enemy rushed upon him and destroyed in a few minutes two or three months’ toil; and he thought himself happy if his dwelling was spared. Sometimes the the lightning will set on fire a grove of pines or a stack of fire wood ; but they are mostly kindled by the fires made in the fields in burn- ing up the land after felling the trees. The day after a fire you may see the blackened boles of trees still standing, but all without a top. G 82 GAME, FISH, AND AGRICULTURE. CHAPTER XVI. GAME, FISII, AND AGRICULTURE. Wild deer — Foxes; varieties and value of their fur — Abundance of fish — Construction of a “Brash Dam”— Qualities of land — Salt for cattle ; its absence in the atmosphere — Agricultural improvement— Breeding of cattle— of horses — Canadian ponies — Chop- ping firewood ; the fanner’s winter occupation — Bust in wheat — Artificial grasses — Mr. Gates’ farm — A Morley emigrant’s farm— Success of an emigrant from Leeds. The saw mill which I occupied was situated in the township of Scarborough, upon the creek called the Rouge River, and being the last waterfall nearest the lake, the situation was very subject to summer and autumn complaints; that is, to diarrhoea and fever ague. The first we kept down by a medicine composed of tincture of rhubarb and tincture of cinnamon, each half an ounce, and about sixteen drops of laudanum to each adult person, given all in one dose. This was my specific, and it was, if taken in time, a never-failing remedy. For the fever ague I prescribed a strong dose of horse radish, fermented for one night in cider, a tumbler full at one dose. This always, in whatever cases our men were troubled with, had the desired effect ; we never had a case so bad that we had occasion to call in any medical man. The men, however, had confidence in both of these remedies, and many of our neighbours, labouring under the same complaints, came and took the medicine, and none had any occasion to repeat the dose. There were two branches of this river, which formed a junction about half a mile below my mill, and a ridge of hills, called the Hog’s Back, ran between them. This remarkable ridge penetrated a great way into the wild country, and from its coverts we had many of the wild deer visiting us ; as many as five or six were sometimes seen at one time drinking in the dam or feeding upon its margin in the morning ; but as they were very wild, there was no coming near enough to have a shot at them ; and although some of the sportsmen of the place followed them a considerable distance, they never succeeded in capturing any. We had plenty of musk rats, martins, and squirrels, but after getting a fine spe- cimen or two, one of which is now in the museum of the Leeds Philosophical Hall, we never molested them. There are also foxes in great plenty, of all the different sorts, the brown, the grey, and the black. The first, being the most common, were the least in value, the skins being only worth a dollar each. The grey fox skins were valued at seven or eight dollars each; but the blacks are the most esteemed, and will readily sell at thirty dollars, or £6 sterling each.. They are the finest fur to be found in those regions, and are in consequence the most highly prized. Most of the skins, when cured, find a ready sale in the United States, and many persons obtain a living by killing and collecting them in the winter season. 83 GAME, FISH, AND AGRICULTURE. Being within about two miles from the mouth of the river, we were visited every month with a fresh shoal of fish, which came up periodically. In the month of May we had the black bass ; in June we had the red and yellow bass ;* in July we had other sorts, and in August we had the salmon. Country farmers come in large parties at these particular seasons with nets to catch, for curing, some of whom would procure five or six barrels. We never interfered with them, except in the salmon season, and then we made the most we could of the fish. These fish (Salmon) are generally caught with the spear, and the young men are very ex- pert in its use. In the bay, as well as the open lake, there is an abundance of white fish. These to my thinking, are the most delicate eating of any fish in America : indeed, I think they are the best of any fish I ever tasted. They are caught by seins or nets. On a fine night you may see in the bay of Toronto two or three score of boats, having each a large fire blazing at the end of a temporary bowsprit, and a man standing armed with a three- pronged barbed spear upon the prow, ready to strike any fish which the light attracts to within his reach. There is great dex- terity displayed, as well as good judgment, in this operation. The waters are as clear as crystal, but being a denser medium than the air, a man must make his exact calculations for the re- fraction, before he strikes, or he will overshoot his mark and miss his prey. The white fish weigh each about two pounds, and three of them sell for a quarter of a dollar, or one shilling sterling. Salmon is also sold at about twopence halfpenny to threepence per pound, and other fish at less than half the price. In winter time large quantities of muscalonge fish come in a frozen state from Lake Skugog ; they generally weigh about thirty pounds each, and are very like an English pike in appearance, but considerably larger ; they are very fine fish, and coming in when there is no other fresh fish to be had, they sell at a good price. It was formerly the opinion of settlers that the only good land in America was that in which hard wood grew, such as beech groves, sugar bushes, and oak openings ; but that upon pine bar- rens there could be no crops expected. This opinion has been removed in Canada west, where the finest farms in all America * Our dam being a brush dam, and the only sort that will stand the freshets, was formed by first making a layer of the branches of trees, with the small twigs upwards and the stumps down the stream : as soon as one layer was completed, earth and sand was carted upon it, and this being well pressed down, another layer was added, and more sand, stone, and earth was pressed upon it, and so con- tinued till a dam of ten feet high and perhaps twenty feet wide at the bottom was formed, which would hold water “ like a bottle,” as the workmen said. Now, as the fish always come up from the lake, on meeting this obstruction, they would endeavour to leap over ; but as some of them could not reach the top they were fixed in the branches of the brink, and every morning during the time of their running up to spawn we could have a basket full caught this way. 84 GAME, FISH, AND AGRICULTURE. are now in cultivation, growing twice the quantity of wheat per acre that any acre of land will or ever did grow, from Maine to Missouri, or from New Orleans to Sandusky. To keep cattle in good order it is absolutely necessary that they should be served three or four times a week with a quantity of salt ; they are exceedingly fond of it, and when a farmer enters his pasture with a half bushel measure in his arm, every head of cattle which the field contains, cows, sheep, horses, or hogs, all flock round him for their portion of this dainty : he places a handful upon the ground every few yards as he goes along, to give to every one a chance of partaking, and the salt is soon licked up, and a small hole is left where it was laid, caused by their taking up all the soil on which a particle of salt has touched. The reason of this is, as I suppose, that there is no salt in the atmosphere ; and for the same reason a roof having been covered with tin plates forty years ago, is as bright as it was on the day when it was put on ; and an axe left stuck in a tree and forgot, will retain its polish for years, although it has been out in rains, dews, and sunshine the whole time. A man also if he intends to keep his health must take three times the quantity of salt that he did in Europe. In the cultivation of land, especially in grass or clover, great quantities of gypsum are employed, which has here as well as in the states a most surprising effect, and will more than double the produce. All other sorts of manure are, however, used in Canada, which the land repays amply \ so that the city is well sought over by the farmers and gardeners, and a trifle is paid for it. The breed of oxen in Canada is equal to any we generally see in the home markets ; great attention has been paid to short horns, and Devonshire and Hereford breeds are much esteemed. The agricultural shows established all over the country keep them all alive to the importance of these improvements. The greater part of the calves are reared, as the chief part of agricultural work is performed with oxen, which are in general worked till they are seven years old, and then fatted for the market ; and as fine beef may be seen in the markets of Toronto at Christmas time, as in any part of the world. The price of a small bred cow is about ten dollars, and for others according to size and breed. A pair of good working oxen four years old may be bought for sixty to one hundred dollars ; and the price of best beef is by the quarter, one penny sterling per pound for fore quarters, and three halfpence for m quarters. Veal is only to be had in the spring, and then it sells for about half a cent or a farthing a pound lower than beef, pork, or mutton. r The breed of horses for the road, for agriculture, or for the turf, are all the descendants of the best that could be procured 85 GAME, FISH, AND AGRICULTURE. from the mother country, and the races testify that the breed is not degenerated. There is also a breed of ponies peculiar to Canada, which for speed in trotting, and bottom, cannot be equalled on that continent. They are stiff looking animals, have very strong bony legs, and are from thirteen to fourteen hands high. If a person has a span of such ponies and a sleigh, in win- ter time he may travel at the rate of sixteen or seventeen miles an hour, although in appearance the animals seem not to possess such blood and bottom ; but the price they will sell for sets the question at rest as to their real value. The chopping of wood occupies a considerable time, and takes a stranger sometime to acquire the best method; the operation is effected this way : — after the limbs have been cut from the bole of a tree, it is measured by a rod into four feet lengths, and then with the axe a nick is cut about five inches deep half round the bole ; the sticks are then split off in that partition, and the opera- tor begins with another length and so continues till the whole side is finished ; then the round side, which is yet uncut, is turned up, and the same operation is performed as at first, till the whole tree is cut up and piled in a row four feet deep and four feet high, which then can be measured off into cords in a few minutes by a rod eight feet long. A good tree two feet in diameter and sixty feet long, will deliver about two cords of merchantable firewood. An expert workman will cut in this way three or four cords per day, and if the same is paid for, the labourer’s wages are three York shillings, or eighteenpence sterling per cord. If hauled to the city and exposed for sale, the cartage is to add, and this item comes in the most expensive of the whole. All the farmers who reside within seven or eight miles, make it their winter business to chop and haul firewood, and it is the only out-door work in which he and his men can be beneficially employed. The greatest evil to be apprehended by the farmer in these regions is a droughty summer, lest his wheat take the rust. A crop may appear most promising, and in a week’s time, if the rust takes place, above one-half of it is destroyed. This blight is caused by such a copious supply of sap which the roots are furnishing to the plant, that the straw cannot contain it, and it bursts in a long crack, allow- ing the sap to exude upon the outside, and instead of being carried up to feed the corn it runs down in a red liquid state, like the oxydation from old iron ; hence its name of rust. It is remarked that newly cleared land is more subject to this disease than old land. The meadow land produces capital crops of Timothy grass and clover, which are nearly all the artificial grasses cultivated; the land is much fertilized and the crop3 doubled by the use of about a peck per acre of gypsum or the sulphate of lime, ground as small as flour and sown in for a top dressing in the spring : 86 GAME, FISH, AND AGRICULTURE. the expense is trifling, and the enlightened fanner never for a single season omits this operation, if he wishes to have large crops. One of the best farms to be seen in this neighbourhood is in the township of Scarborough, belonging to Mr. Gates. He keeps a splendid tavern just ten miles from the City Hall, upon the plank road in Kingston-street, and his house is surrounded on both sides of the street with his farm, which contains about 300 acres, some of which extends to the borders of the lake. He takes care that every portion of it is well manured, having a large supply made in his stables, and he grows every thing upon his own farm that is consumed in his house, except groceries. He catches as much fish as serves his table all the year round, and makes as much sugar from his own maple grove as he wants, and kills his own mutton, beef, and pork. I visited the farm of Mr. John Tingle, in Scarborough. This man left Morley, in the neighbourhood of Leeds, about thirty years ago, where he was a farm labourer, and went to America. He did not like the States, so took a boat at Rochester, and was landed upon the peninsula which forms the harbour of Toronto. He there procured a boat, and the ferryman charged him sixpence for taking him over, which he paid, being the last farthing he had in the world. However, next day he engaged himself to Chief Justice Robinson as coachman, and was in his employ for seven or eight years, respected by his master and all the family. He then married a fellow- servant, and the judge procured him the grant of 300 acres of land in the above township, and not a better farm, or one better managed, can be found there. He has brought up a family of fourteen sons and daughters, and when any of them marries, he buys a farm of wild land in some favorite locality, stocks it for the new couple, and gives them a fair start. He still keeps improving his own farm, which he will continue to do so as long as he lives, when he will leave it for sale, the proceeds to be divided among his numerous descendants. The old man came to my house very often, and was never so delighted as in talking of Morley, and of his old friends there, to whom, when I returned home I was charged with all sorts of compliments and good wishes. A person named Garnett came to my house in Cleveland, from Leeds : he was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and talked of starting business there ; but first got work as a journeyman. The payment of wages there being in store pay, he would not remain. I gave him letters to some friends in Toronto, and he sailed for that place. He fell in with a gentleman from Cobourg, and in three days after landing in Canada was located in that place. He had plenty of work to begin with, which he faithfully v77 CANADIAN WEATHER. SPORTS. 87 completed, and the next year took many contracts, for houses, shops, and churches, and when I left in the steamer which stops at Cobourg, he and his wife were waiting to bid us adieu and wish us a good voyage to the old country. He was then employing about forty men. He pointed out his house to us from the deck of the steamer which he had built for himself the year before ; and his garden and grounds, being upon a hill commanding a view of the harbour, looked at a distance the most delightful place we had ever seen in America. CHAPTER XVII. CANADIAN WEATHER. SPORTS. Fox-hunting on the ice with an East Riding pack — Cricket matches— National rivalry in the game — The frosts — Frost-bitten ; “ making a case” of it — Brilliant Sleighing — Fires during the frost — Expense and economy of fuel — House rents — Fences to resist action of the frost — Durability of cedar — Thunder storm — Forest of trees stripped by the lightning. We we were always enlivened two or three times every winter by a fox-hunt upon the ice by a pack of imported fox-hounds, brought by a person from the East Riding of Yorkshire. The foxes were brought to the peninsula in bags, and turned loose ; they soon, however, take to the ice as the land is too narrow for sly reynard to hide himself, and then a fair chase is given him, dogs, men, horses, and sleighs all scampering away as fast as possible. There are thousands of spectators, and as they are stationed in various parts of the bay, the fox gets turned, and, though he will sometimes twist and twine among the crowd, yet in general he is at last caught by the dogs ; and then another is turned out. This continues till darkness makes it necessary to be moving off. There is also the amusement of racket playing, and the club of St. George stands the highest for cricket playing in Canada. There is considerable rivalry between this club and that in New York ; and though at nearly seven hundred miles distance, every year they contrive to have a friendly game at both their places. The excitement during the continuation of this game is most extraordinary \ it is the topic of the whole city, and man, woman, and child seem as much interested as if the whole honour of the country depended upon the issue. It is certainly a pleasant sight to see the picked youth and elite of both nations join in such friendly rivalry, with such hearty good will on both sides ; and let us hope that this rivalry may never be superseded by any- thing more serious. 88 CANADIAN WEATHER. SPORTS. Tlie frost begins to set in about the middle of November, and will last for about a fortnight, causing the navigation instantly to cease, and no vessel can be insured that ventures out even into the lake which is never frozen up ; and the steamers which every day leave Toronto for Niagara or Hamilton, have to take their own risks. As the boats cannot approach the latter place, they land at Wellington Square, a place about four miles off ; but the Niagara river is always open, for there are so many rapids that any ice which may be driven over the Falls would be ground to powder instantly, and if formed below that, there are other numerous rapids, and the awful Whirlpool, which would soon destroy the largest field of ice that could be formed. On Christmas day, 1 844, the bay of Toronto was quite open ; the sun shone beautifully, and all sorts of pleasure boats were seen disporting upon the waters. There was no appearance of any extra hard frost ; the evening set in calm and bright, the ground began to crisp under your feet, and at eight o’clock next morning there were hundreds of people upon the ice, some skating, some sliding, and some at the game of curling. Horses and sleighs were going like wild things to haul sand from the island to the city ; and all this had been effected by one night’s frost. I took an axe, and went down to the bay, and in cutting through the ice I found it in thickness about five inches. A man travelling in this intense frost runs the risk of being frost bitten. When such a misfortune happens he at first feels no pain, but a genial warmth seems to pervade the frosted part, say his nose; and if a remedy is not promptly applied he runs the risk of losing that appendage to his face. As soon, however, as he makes his appearance before any other person, that person soon discovers the frosted part, and instantly applies the remedy, which is by lifting a handful of snow, applying it to the injured part, and rubbing it vigorously till the circulation is again restored, and no bad effects afterwards are felt. I have had many a hearty laugh at a set of mischievous boys coming from school in such strong frosts, w T ho, meeting with a green-un, would immediately raise an alarm, and begin rubbing the boy’s nose as hard as they could with snow till they pronounced it well, all the while enjoying the hoax, and sniggering away at the unfortunate lad, who really thought that something was the matter with him. The boys then go along and are again ready for the next simpleton they meet. When sleighing time was fairly set in, then came the grand procession of all the fashion and beauty of Toronto. The sleighs are decked out in the most superb style; the occupants are wrapped up m the most costly and beautiful furs, figuring on which ma,y be seen the skins of lions, leopards, panthers, tigers, and buffaloes; the horses are richly caparisoned in the same way, CANADIAN WEATHER. SPORTS. 89 and have round their necks a string of sleigh bells, the jingling of which gives notice for pedestrians to get out of the way. In driving they always take the right hand side of the street, and in this form make a procession for two or three hours round the town, one following another as fast as their horses can draw them, every one trying to outvie his neighbour either in the splendour of his vehicle, the rarity of his furs, or the beauty of his horses and their housings. To the beholder it is ten thousand times more exhilarating than the cavalcades on a Sunday after- noon by our nobility in Hyde Park, as among the latter is to be seen nothing but the solemn, silent, and haughty grandeur of the aristocrat, but in the former are to be seen the choice spirits of a rising people, who are determined to enjoy themselves for the time being, and allow every other man the same privilege, if he chooses, and can afford it. At this time, all through the country, wheels to all sorts of car- riages are dispensed with, all travelling either in private carriages or in stages is similar, and I have seen a funeral hearse drawn in the same way, and accompanied by at least oOO carriages of various sorts, sizes, and calibre, all drawn upon runners; but at such times bells are not used, as it is allowed by all that these bells have a merry sound, which ill accords with such solemn and melancholy occasions. In such intense frosts, it is very melancholy to hear the sound of the fire bell : the water pipes being very likely all frozen up, there is no other resource but the leading of water in barrels from the bay ; all the draymen in the town are furnished with barrels for the occasion, and it is a “ caution,” as a Yankee would say, to see how they whip their horses on the first alarm being sounded, in order to have the first barrel of water at the fire. The various fire companies are speedily assembled, the greatest order and regularity prevails, no hand-over-head work is allowed ; they go to & business like real workmen, and having powerful engines and all other sorts of fire apparatus, they perform wonders, in saving lives and property from the devouring element. Although in Canada west the thermometer will sometimes fall to eighteen degrees below zero, yet to a person who has not far to travel he will feel no particular difficulty in resisting any bad effect arising therefrom. In fact, he will have no idea that its severity is half so intense as it really is ; the atmosphere at such times, is quite serene, there is no wind, and he will have found m the old country many days the weather of which was more piercing than any he ever experienced in Canada, although the thermometer never descends so low by thirty degrees A great drawback to the comforts of the poor m the city is the dearness of fuel ; a cord of firewood, consisting of 128 feet as it is 90 CANADIAN WEATHER. SPORTS. piled up in logs, costs two and a half dollars, or ten shillings English. In the hotel which I kept, (having always in that season to keep lour fires) it took us two cords per week. The utmost economy is used in this article. We had a large handsome box stove for the bar room, four feet long, two feet deep, and eighteen inches wide. . After the fuel was well lighted we could stop the draught by a circular valve, and it would in a short time make the large room in which it was placed uncomfortably hot ; but as we could immediately check the heat by the regulator, we always kept it at an even and pleasant temperature. In the kitchen we had a cook- ing stove which would suffice to boil water, bake bread, and cook meat for one hundred persons ; it contained two large ovens, and was capable of boiling four pans at one time. Those ovens would be found very useful and very economical in this country, if they were a little modified for the consumption of coal. The other two fires were on the common open plan. Logs of wood four feet long being placed upon the standards, called fire dogs, on the hearth, make a cheerful fire, particularly well adapted for keeping the feet warm. & Another drawback, in the cities, is the price of house rent, which may be safely estimated at twice the price it is in Leeds! his is one reason that so many people, both single and married, always reside in lodging or boarding houses, and such houses being often inconveniently crowded is one reason of the prevalence of fevers at some seasons of the year. By living in the country, however, all these evils are avoided ; wood being of no value, a inan may have as much as he will chop for a very small sum, and he may have a house for a trifle. If a person wishes to have a durable fence to his garden or held, it is absolutely necessary that the posts he puts down should be anchored to the bottom. This is effected by morticing into the lower part a cross piece of wood which will extend two feet on each side ; this will keep down the posts in the hardest frosts, and the fence will remain good for many years. I have seen a boarded fence six feet high drawn so far out of the ground by the frosts in three years, that in the whole length there was room for a hog to walk through. Of course the posts were then to take up, but were made safe enough the second time. If such posts are made of cedar wood, which is as plentiful as oak, being found in all the swamps of Canada, they will not rot in a century. This valuable property is, I believe, confined o tins tree; and piles driven into the water, part in and part out, have never been known to decay. In general, there- ore all cellar floors and out steps are made of it. It has also, the property of repelling all sorts of vermin ; no moth, worm, or bug, will breed near it or within the smell of it. There are CHARACTER OF CANADA WEST. 01 two sorts of it, the white and the red, but both have the same valuable properties. I was once travelling on horseback upon the Kingston road, when the lightning began to flash and the thunder to growl at a distance ; but it soon began to rain, and I put up my horse at the five mile tree kept by Mr. Johnson. While standing under the piazza in front of his house, watching the awful raging of the storm, a tremendous flash of red lightning ignited a large pile of brushwood about 200 yards from the house, and struck the pine forest about twice the distance off. The effects of this shock were to peel off the bark of about a thousand trees as clean as if done by the hand of man, and the next minute the wood looked exactly like one of our oak plantations after the peelers have stripped off the bark in the spring of the year. The same phenomenon has been seen on a small scale many times before, but never to the extent of this. CHAPTER XVIII. CHARACTER OF CANADA WEST. Settlement of the Chippeway Indians — Q,uam qua Quonabee and his English wife — Altered habits of the tribe — National education in Canada; superior position of the schoolmasters, and regular inspection of the schools on the part of government — Favourable condition of Canada ; its climate, extent, fertility of soil and salubrity — Encougragement of emigration by the Canadian government — Grants of land — Owen's Pound — Falls of water — Abundance of fish — Communication with Toronto and Hamil- ton — Canada Company’s land — Settlements of Owen’s Sound, Guelph, and Goderich— Water power in Canada West — Manufactures — Substitution of tiles for shingles. At the Credit River, about fifteen miles from Toronto, is a set- tlement of Chippeway Indians, over whom Quam qua Quonabee, or Peter Jones, is the chief and spiritual pastor. This man, about twenty-five years ago, preached in most of the large towns in England, and in London fell in love with a beautiful girl, the daughter of a gentleman there. Being a fine looking and well favoured man, his offers were accepted, and the lady followed him to his wild home. They were married at New York. This circumstance has been the means of civilizing the whole tribe. He has a splendid frame house, furnished in the best English style, a grand piano graces his parlour, and his grounds are well cultivated ; his horses and carriages are oftentimes to be seen in Toronto, where they attract a good deal of curiosity. He has also built a handsome church, which is well attended. The habits of this remnant of a once powerful nation are so altered that, if Chingucchoke, their famous sagamore, could visit their wigwams, he would not be able to recognize in the inhabitants any trace, except in physiognomy, of their descent from his celebrated 92 CHARACTER OF CANADA WEST. nation They are, however, still addicted to hunting, shooting and hshing ; they also trap a great many foxes and wolves, the skins of which they bring to market. They are very tenacious with whom they deal, never changing their customer if they are honestly dealt with, and will not dispose of their game or any of their merchandize in the open market. They have yearly grants from the English government of oxen, ploughs, and harrows, besides blankets and clothing of all sorts • so being amply provided for they live a lazy life, the carking cares ol this world never finding a place either in their heads or their dwellings. A plan of national education has been tried in Canada with the happiest results; every township has a certain grant from Government for building schools and for maintaining a school- master This grant, coupled with a small sum paid by the pupils, places that functionary in a respectable situation, in comparison with the same class in the United States. They also, before being inducted into an appointment, have to pass a rigid examination as to their fitness for the office, and a careful inspection is periodi- cally made by the Inspector of Schools, and a full report is annually made to the Governor-General and the Councils. This has a very beautiful effect upon the management of the schools, as well as upon the conduct of the scholars. There is also a regular committee formed in every township, where the complaints of any party are examined into and decided upon, instanter. In these schools are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in some the classical languages are taught ; but as it is not “a sine qua non in any master to be versed in the dead languages, it is not insisted upon ; but a knowledge of them is a great recom- mendation. If the parents of a youth be desirous of giving him a classical education, all sorts of schools for this purpose are to be found in the city of Toronto, on easy terms, and to complete a first-rate education there is the College open to all, at which the who!e cost for board and education will not amount to more than about £25 sterling per annum. Such is the happy situation of the rising generation in this favoured country; they enjoy a climate equal for salubrity to any in the world, and where a man, it he keeps away from residing near swamps and avoids being out at nights in the bush, may be assured that there is nothing in the climate calculated to shorten life more than in any other country under the sun ; where the taxes are the lightest of any ivi lzec coun r y , where the laws are faithfully and vigorously enforced so that a man can sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, none daring to make him afraid. , , a ' 1 -^ c *, a ' e ^ le *^ ea ^at Canada is a small country, and that it will soon be overstocked with emigrants; but if such take CHARACTER OF CANADA WEST. 93 the trouble of looking over a map, they will find that in extent it is twice the size of the United States, with all Europe to boot ; and the land is far superior in quality, for the production of grain of all sorts and potatoes, to any land in the union ; and it is not troubled either with the curse of slavery or with the diseases incident to many of the States. The measures now being adopted by the government of the United Colony of the two Canadas for the encouragement of emi- gration to that country are on the most liberal scale. They are now making free grants of land to all suitable applicants about the region of Owen’s Sound, where a fine healthy country invites the emigrant to become a settler in some of the townships already laid out and surveyed. The land is of a good quality, heavily timbered with beech, oak, maple, and pine ; where falls of water are in great abundance ; where the contiguity of lake Huron, Owen’s Sound, and Georgian Bay, will always furnish an immense supply of the finest fish in the world, — The trout weighing from thirty-two pounds upwards ; the muscalonge, a very fine fish, about the same weight ; and the delicious white fish, are as plen- ful as herrings on the Scotch coast. There are abo innumerable shoals of fresh water herrings there, which to all appearance are of the same species as those from the sea, but are in general about twice the size. This country lies to the north west of Toronto, and is easily accessible from that city or from Hamilton. There is also a steam boat communication during summer, as well as sloops, schooners, and other craft ; so that there need be no fear of getting up all sorts of heavy baggage, and the emigrant himself may travel by stage and on horseback to get his domicile prepared before the baggage and his family can possibly arrive either by steamer or sailing boat. The distance by water from Toronto to this region will be nearly 1000 miles, the distance by land is about 150. The road lies through some of the best cultivated land in Canada, up Yong Street, through Thornhill, Bichmondhill, New- market, and Whitchurch, to Holland’s Landing on Lake Simcoe ; thence to the town ot Barrie, through Sunny dale to St. Vincents, where no doubt the first grants will be made. The Canada Company has also about 1,500,000 acres of land to dispose of in the district of Goderich and Guelph. The liberal terms offered by this company claim the attention of the emigrant, as, in case he settles upon their land, he need not pay any money down, and what capital he has may be all laid out in stocking his farm ; and he will have been a very indifferent manager indeed, if before the ten years are expired, which is the credit they give, he has not made himself independent as a Canadian farmer, and laid the foundation of a comfortable maintenance for his family. The lands belonging to this Company are the best and richest in the 94 CHARACTER OF CANADA WEST. whole continent of America for the growth of wheat and other grain, and for all kinds of fruit except the peach ; and it is almost impossi- ble for a man to place himself down in any locality but he will have a fall of water within a few miles of him, which, as the country gets settled, will be turned first into saw mills, then into corn and other mills ; and in the choice of land, there will be no extra charge for such a valuable privilege. The time taken up by an emigrant leaving Liverpool for this country is only about one quarter of the time that it takes one to go out to South Australia. In about five or six weeks he may be in the heart of his intended settlement ; and if he is in the proper time of year he may have a crop growing upon his own land before an emigrant for South Australia will have reached his destina- tion. Under these and other innumerable advantages, it is no wonder that the colony of Canada West should prosper in a more rapid ratio than any country in the world ever did before. The two places named above, Owen’s Sound, and the Guelph and Goderich districts, contain about as much land as England proper, without Wales and Scotland ; and in a few years will be capable of supporting four or five millions of souls. When settled they will form one of the finest agricultural districts in Her Ma- jesty’s. dominions. There is no country in the world which is as well supplied with water power as Canada West: it is almost an impossibility to name a place that is five miles distant from a fall of water. The inhabi- tants are taking advantage of these, and wherever a fall can con- veniently be worked, a mill of some useful sort is sure to be put up. I hey generally begin with a saw mill, and end with a corn mill, as they always expect a saw mill, being well worked for three years, will earn the proprietors a corn mill. There are also woollen mills, chair factories, and other trades which require power ; and persons who wish to commence in some of these lines are always ready to rent a water fall, if the owner does not choose to work it himself. Among other improvements lately introduced into Toronto, there are two brothers from Selby, in Yorkshire, called Ereek, who have started the manufacturing of tiles for covering buildings, and every one who is raising a new building is now covering it with something which is fire proof; and very speedily we may expect that shingles or pine slates will be discon- tinued altogether. 95 NATIONALITIES OF THE COLONISTS. CHAPTER XIX. NATIONALITIES OF THE COLONISTS. Elections in Canada— Irish feuds and mendicancy— Scotch Settlers— A Scotchman’s reminiscence of his native land — English emigrant farmers— Cultivation of pease Feeding and curing of bacon— The Yorkshire and Yankee horse-dealers; diamond cut diamond — Suggestions for emigration. The elections for members of the provincial parliament are carried on much in the same way as they are in England ; the polling is taken in two days, whether in county, riding, or city. There is the same excitement as there is in one of our own elec- tions, and in such cities as Montreal and Toronto, where great numbers of the Irish are congregated, scarcely one takes place but there is loss of life. Wherever two Irishmen meet together, although of the same religion and of the same country, yet, from some local prejudice or some old feud of three or four hundred years standing, they must keep up the ancient hatred and have a shindy. A man from Cork will not associate with another from Connaught, nor work with him, although both of them are Catholics; what can be expected when a Catholic and an Orangeman come into collision] All the bad feelings which a bad Irishman can pos- sibly show are then shown ; they will attack one another with any weapon whatever which is within their reach, and if they get their man down they will never desist till the life is knocked out of him ; but let two or three constables make their appearance showing a determined front, and away the most riotous will scamper as fast as their legs can carry them : but if the police show any fear, then the only way to quell the riot is to send for the priest, who will come with his stick and begin to lay about him with vigour ; and it is seldom but he can make peace and quietness, when the constables have failed. It is astonishing that men with rational faculties can be so besotted in ignorance and prejudice as to carry out to the wilds of Canada the same fiendish feelings which actuated them at home, and make them always ready to join in any row, particularly against another of their countrymen, whom they had never seen in all their lives, and merely because he came 100 or 150 miles from the place they came from, or because his religion differed in some dogma, which none of them understood, from what they themselves professed. The lower orders of Irish are as prone to begging in America as they are in their own country or in England. I never saw a beggar in either Canada or in the States but he or she was from Ireland ; and in Canada there is no murder or robbery committed but an Irishman has had some hand in it, either as principal or accessary. In the states, however, the children of the Irish speedily amalgamate themselves with the natives, and the rising generation 96 NATIONALITIES OF THE COLONISTS. of Irish descent are not in any way distinguished from the chil- dren of any other kindred. It will be a happy thing for Canada when it is the case there. The Scotch on the contrary make the best of citizens ; they are always industrious, make good farmers, always endeavour to get into the country, not lingering like the Irish about the towns. If a Scotchman comes to this country ever so young, he takes a pride in still speaking with his native accent in all its peculiarities; and although his children fall into the dialect of the country, the old folks still adhere to broad Scotch, and quote their favourite poet Burns with the greatest delight. I was once walking with a gentleman near his house in Drummondsville, and as he had forgot a parcel he had brought from a distance for a friend whom we were going to call upon, he stepped back for it, and I was looking over a fence into a Scotch- man’s garden till he rejoined me. The farmer just then came out of his house with a scythe in his hands, and, it being in the fall of the year, I accosted him with “ Good morning frien’, hae ye been mawing when ither focks are busy sawing ?” he immediately laid down his scjthe, and taking me by the hand, said, “ That sentiment is from Burns ; come into my house and take a cup of my cider.” I tasted his hospitality, and when my friend (Mr. Geo. Sutton) returned, I was busy with the gude man and his wife in talking about the canny town o' Glasco. There are also some few Welsh in Canada, but as they are unassuming and retired in their habits, I know of no peculiarity which they adhere to, as a custom brought from their rugged mountain homes. A great portion of the merchants and shopkeepers in all the cities of Canada are Scotchmen. Although there are emigrants from every county in England, yet the bulk of the farmers are from Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Cumberland. They carry out with them the knowledge they have acquired in their native counties, and with them are to be found the choicest breed of oxen, sheep, and horses. They will wrangle in the same way as they would at Howden show or at Boroughbridge fair, about the merits of their nags, and descant for hours on the excellency of their short horns. In pigs too they are always anxious to get the best breed, and it is astonish- ing to witness the enormous size to which they feed them. As Indian corn does not always ripen well in such a northern latitude as Canada, the farmers feed their hogs upon pease, of which they grow enormous crops, which seems an extraordinary circumstance, as that valuable plant cannot be perfected in Ohio or in New York, being always affected by an insect the larvae of which are blown into the . blossom of the plant when in bloom, which destroys its vitality for seed ; but if eaten in its green state, it makes no difference. The States are therefore to be supplied with 97 NATIONALITIES OF THE COLONISTS. fresh seed every year from either Canada or England, or they would have no green pease for table. The bacon fed upon pease and cured the same way as in Yorkshire is equal in flavor to what is produced in England, and large quantities of bacon and hams are annually forwarded for sale to Montreal and Quebec, as well as thousands of barrels of common salted pork for exportation to the West Indies, or for the navy of England. A man having a good farm of his own in Upper Canada, and having knowledge sufficient to manage it, and industry to keep all in motion and order, may live here as happy as a king, grow- ing almost every thing he wants on his own farm, and by the surplus of his produce always getting money ; and although he has had much toil and hard labour to bring his farm into a pro- fitable state, he has an ineffable pleasure in contemplating his own handy- work, and can say with truth, “ All this I have accom- plished with my own hands; I found this place a howling wilderness, and I have made it a fruitful vineyard; I found it a swampy and a barren desert waste, and I have made it a pleasant garden.” A man’s characteristics stick to him through life : he can no more alter them than he can add a cubit to his stature. There are two persons now living in Toronto, and each respected in his way of life : — Charles Thompson is a thorough-bred Yorkshire- man ; Barnard is a cold-blooded Yankee. They are both con- siderable dealers in horseflesh, and are the smartest men in the whole city. In making a swap they are both perfectly at home, and there are few men who could get to windward of either of them. But what more than all delights either of these two men is to get the advantage of the other ; it is like the sweetness of revenge to a Spaniard ; and, of course, in their dealings with one another, each puts forth the best specimen of his generalship. Now, the Chief Justice had the misfortune to lose one of his coach horses : he therefore wanted another to match the one left. As the horse was a favorite and withal a handsome one, he sent to each of these horse coupers to see him. Mr. Barnard called first, looked at the horse and told his lordship that he could presently find him a match ; on which the judge said if lie could, he would allow him to go as far as 160 dollars. A few days passed over, and as Mr. Robinson had heard nothing from Barnard, he sent for Thompson. Thompson stated that it would be a difficult matter to find a match for the horse, but he had at that time a span of horses, a good match, which he would sell very cheap ; and he would take his old horse at fifty dollars in part payment. After examining the new span, they were approved of, and transferred to the judge’s stables. The same day as Mr. Thompson was driving the judge’s horse out of town, he met Mr. Barnard, who H 98 NATIONALITIES OF THE COLONISTS. called him back and asked him the price of the horse he was driving, and ultimately bought him at 100 dollars. He had him trimmed up the next morning and carried him down to the judge for inspection, but you may imagine his chagrin and mortification in being told the whole particulars of the bargain, not so much for losing the money as for being cheated by his particular friend, Charley Thompson. As I have shown that there is no fear of the country being overstocked, that there is ample room for all that wish to go, I call upon the Government of the country to give a helping hand. We have plenty of ships of war which are rotting inactive in our ports; we have plenty of officers and men to keep at the public cost; there would then be no extra expense in the operation, but rations for the voyage: one pound per head would defray the whole : and then a million of human beings might be safely sent out of the country to Canada alone in one year, who might all be located and put in a way of making their own living, and of giving employment to those left behind; and it would save hundreds of thousands of pounds yearly in poor rates. The guardians of poor-law unions ought also to pay troublesome paupers to go; get them a grant of waste land; let the expense they cost at home be continued to them for a year in their new homes, and the benefits would soon counterbalance the outlay. At the same time I should do all in my power to encourage emigration to our other possessions abroad; — to Australia, New Zealand, and even to Vancouver’s Island. This might be carried on at the same time, and very soon those colonies would rival any other country under the sun; and in a few years tjie population of English descent would amount to hundreds of millions, all tied to us by lineage, by language, and by faith. Such bonds the greatest revolutions would never sever; for if they became inde- pendent states, they would still look to England as the Fatherland, and would still remain customers for the luxuries of life, if not for the necessaries. We should also draw from them the raw materials for manu- factures yet unthought of, in wool, wood, metals, or stone. All the civilized countries of Europe would flock to purchase either our manufactures or our raw materials (as they do now tor indigo), and England would indeed become the general mart, workshop, and warehouse of the world. If the millions of money which for the last hundred years have been expended in the unhealthy regions of Africa or the West Indies had been employed in facilitating settlements in the temperate zones, the evils of slavery we should never have felt; nor would it have cost this generation twenty millions to redeem THE RETURN HOME. 09 the evils entailed upon us by it. It is not too late yet, it only wants a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, to effect this consummation so devoutly to be wished. CHAPTER XX. THE RETURN HOME. Departure from Toronto— The Dutchman’s excellent hotel— Canal- boat Captain full of business; deputy Captain— Friendly testimonial— Utica— Albany— Woollen factories — New York — Agreeable voyage — Arrival at Liverpool. On my return home from Canada, we left the city ot Toronto in the steam-boat America , Captain Twoeye, and after calling at Port Plope and Cobourg, crossed the lake, and in the morning were landed in the state of New York, at the mouth of the Genessee river, within about two miles of the city of Rochester. We had our baggage overhauled by the custom-house officers, who behaved in a very gentlemanly manner; we then were carried up in a coach to the city, and breakfasted at the railway hotel, kept by a Dutchman, — and a prettier or better conducted house I never entered. We went through the whole house to see his accommodations, and I had never seen in America any house, either public or private, that could compare in comfort with it : the charges were also on the most moderate scale. I then visited two or three woollen factories and corn mills, had another peep at the Genessee Falls, and coming to the canal wharf, bargained for our passage to Albany in one of the line boats, Captain Smith, for one cent., or a halfpenny, per mile for each person, for bed, board, and passage, It took us five days to travel the distance. When we came to the weighing machine, our Captain requested me to take charge of the boat for him, to take pay of all passen- gers we should get, and pay all the expenses, and buy provisions as we went along for crew and passengers. He had a lawsuit to attend to, and would overtake us by the railroad cars at Syracuse. After he had given his orders to the crew to address me as Captain, and to obey me as such, I was regularly installed into the command. We had for fellow-passengers about fifteen persons from different parts of Western Canada, and a very agree- able party we were. Our Captain joined us at the appointed place, and very nobly he behaved during the journey; the pro- visions were excellent and abundant; and we were so pleased with him that we made a subscription of about one shilling each ; and when we arrived at Utica, went and purchased for him a handsome metal coffee pot, a dozen of German silver tea spoons, and half a dozen table spoons. After dinner we called him into 100 THE RETURN HOME. the ladies’ cabin, and, with a suitable compliment, delivered them to him as a small token of our appreciation of his kindness and gentlemanly behaviour. I never saw a man so elated with so trilling a present; it was such a circumstance as neither he nor any one else, as far as he knew, had ever before experienced; he would keep them as long as he lived as the greatest honour ever conferred upon him; and almost shed tears to think of the plea- sure it would afford to his wife. We landed at Albany at six o’clock in the morning, and, although it was the custom for passengers immediately to leave the boat and breakfast at the tavern, yet he insisted on our breakfasting with him for the last time. When we took our leave of him he promised that in future he would always regard the English for our sakes. On our route we called at Chitenango, at a woollen factory; at Oris- cany, and saw another; and at the Little Falls of the Mohawk river, and saw two factories there. The goods which are prin- cipally made in those places are only suitable for the common wear of the country; they would not sell in England at any price; the generality of colours are the self grey and hareback mixture, which are made narrow, stout and coarse, and sell in retail for about a dollar per yard. Such goods could be made in York- shire, if wanted, to leave a good profit at 2s. per yard. We took the steamer from Albany, and in about ten hours reached New York, the fare costing a quarter dollar per head. We again admired the magnificent scenery in passing through the Highlands, West Point, and the Tappan Sea. On landing there, we took up our residence at the house of Mr. Robinson, in Front-street, and stopped one week to get everything ready for the voyage across the Atlantic. We engaged for our passage in the ship Torolinto , Captain Smith, and being about twenty, all Britishers, we had very comfortable quarters, and made the passage to Liverpool in twenty-one days. On coming down the Erie Canal, and calling at a store, we had purchased a lot of yeast cakes, which cost us at the rate of four for a penny; we had with us on board a barrel of the best flour; and as we had engaged with the black cook to cook for us during the time wc were aboard, we had fresh bread to breakfast every morning. We had also provided many other little dainties for our young ones, and we passed the time very pleasantly. Our Captain, however, vouchsafed very few words to any of us, but the old mate, an experienced weather-beaten tar, was a kind- hearted man, and a thorough good seaman. He never threw a word away; ali bis orders were decisive, and were responded to by the men with good will and alacrity; he was never in a passion, and never used any angry expressions to them; and whether the wind was fair or foul, he was always ready not only SUPPLEMENTARY PACTS. 101 to give the necessary orders, but to lend a helping hand, to furl, to reef, or tack the ship. There was more confidence to be placed in this man than in any man I ever sailed with; he had crossed the Atlantic above one hundred times, and had visited China and most of the other countries in the world. In conver- sation his chief delight was to talk of his wife and his little daughter; and in fine weather he would bring out of his breast pocket a miniature picture of them both, for our inspection and admiration. May God grant that his latter days may be spent in ease and comfort, cheered by those he loves so dearly, and whom it is his chief solace to contemplate. CHAPTER XXI. SUPPLEMENTARY FACTS. My first law-suit— The plaintiff's revenge— Reprisals— Turning the tables— A Jeremy Diddler— Keg of butter and forged dollar note— A “ cash -for- wheat” merchant with • out a dollar— A loafer “ wot wanted a new hat”— Rreed of horses, their speed and paces — Mercantile discredit — National vanity and sensitiveness — American hostility to Britain and repudiation. The first law suit in which I was involved in Cleveland, was with a person called Hogan, whose brother-in-law I had bought out of the St. Clair House. I had paid for every thing as it stood. This Hogan had formerly lived with the old landlord, Mr. Lake. When I had been a few days in the house and got the license transferred into my own name, and one of my sons was relettering one of the sign boards, this Hogan came to me and demanded the sign board over the bar-room door. I told him to go to his bro- ther on the other side of the way, if it was his. He said he would make me pay him for it, as he had borrowed it for his brother. I told him to go about his business ; he however went to the Jus- tice, Squire Iloadley, and ordered a summons against me for forty- eight dollars, the alleged value of the sign. This caused me to make inquiry, and I found that the board had formerly belonged to Mr. Isaac Taylor, a coach proprietor, and he had lent Ilogan the sign as it was of no use, but says Mr. Taylor, " I will give it to you and there need be no more to do about it.” But this did not suit Hogan, and the trial came on before the Squire. I hired counsel to plead my cause, but a sorry pleading he made of it, for the Squire ordered a person to go out of court and value the sign, which he did at two dollars, and then ordered me to pay that sum and all expenses, which I was compelled to do, although Mr. Tay- lor was there and stated that the sign was his, and that he would charge me nothing for it; and Hogan got the money, spite of all 102 SUPPLEMENTARY FACTS. either Taylor or myself could do. As every body in the town was aware of the infamous behaviour of Hogan in this affair, he was pretty often taunted with it by his familiars, and it embittered him against me to such a degree, that he agreed with the landlord of the Mansion House, which was a rival house to mine, that he should go down to the steamers as they arrived in the harbours, where both our omnibuses regularly attended to bring up passen- gers. When my ’bus had perhaps got nearly filled,^ this fellow would go and state to them that if they were going to the St. Clair House, they had better beware, for that many robberies had been committed there. This became so annoying that I went to the justice, stated my case and asked his advice, how I must pro- ceed to put down this nuisance. He replied that the only legal way of punishing the man was by indictment at the sessions. I then said — What will be the consequence ? He said that a fine would be laid upon him if found guilty, but as in all such cases no effects are ever found to levy upon, he would get off with a reprimand. I said it was a fine free country where such scoun- drels could set law and justice at defiance in this manner. As I was coming out of his office, he called me back and said, “ Mr. B , if you want to get quit of this fellow’s impertinence at the cheapest rate, I would advise you to give some person a dollar to give him a good whipping ; only do not say that I advised you to take this course.” I said that, being an Englishman, I would not take such a cowardly advantage, but if nothing but a whipping would do, I would give him that myself to his heart’s content. He said, “ Well, the utmost punishment he can get against you for assault and battery will be a fine of ten dollars and the expenses, perhaps four dollars more, but I promise you if the case comes before me I will be as lenient as I can ; and if it comes before any of the other justices, I will attend on your behalf and state what your grievances have been.” The next day was a holiday, and I took a large hickory knob stick, and went down in the omnibus myself, determined, if there was a repetition of his behaviour, I would take immediate ven- geance and risk all consequences. I had therefore got tw r o or three persons into the mind to go up with me, when the fellow came almost close to me, and within earshot of the travellers, he begun in his old strain, when I immediately raised my ponderous club and struck him as hard as I could. Seeing me in such ear- nest he turned tail and ran amongst the carriages and drays. I followed up and got another blow at him at every turn he made, whilst hundreds of people were looking on and shouting to me, " Bay on, Mr. Brown, he richly deserves all you can give him.” When he got into the open street he could run faster than I could, so he escaped from me and took refuge in the Illinois Coffee House, SUPPLEMENTARY FACTS. 103 and I stood in the middle of the street taking breath. I saw him peeping out of the door to see where I was, and I never saw a man so white in all my life, not even a dead man. My friends all came round me and expressed the pleasure they felt that I had given him his deserts ; but they regretted that I should have to pay for it, yet that any of them would attend at the justice’s office to witness to the provocation I had received. The next morning, at seven o’clock, (when the justice’s office is always open,) found me at Mr. Benedict’s. I told him all the particulars, and he said, “ Well I will do what I can for you.” I then said I must have a summons against him immediately for using language having a tendency to create a breach of the peace. He laughed and said, “ Indeed, are you up to that! you will be a match for the Yankees here very soon. However, you shall have a summons ;” which was instantly made out and put into the hands of the constable, who went towards Hogan’s house, and met him on the way, having got his witnesses with him to go for a summons against me. He was thunderstruck at being served with a summons himself, and he consulted his friends, who advised him to get the affair made up; for, although there was no doubt he could fine me ten dollars, yet the money would go into the national treasury, so he would get none of it; and, as ho admitted to having used bad language, he would be also fined ; so it would be better on all sides to make the matter up; to which I agreed, if he would be bound by the justices not to inter- fere or insult either myself or boys in future; all which was accomplished, and I had never any annoyance afterwards from either him or any other person in the same way. About a month after this a lady came to our house to see my wife, and among other things stated that Mrs. Hogan had tried to dissuade her from coming, as Mr. B. (myself) was such a cruel man, and that her husband had all sorts of marks upon his body at that time where he had been struck by me with a cudgel about a month previous. A man of respectable appearance came up in my omnibus one night, from a steamer just come in from Buffalo. He stopped all night, and got his breakfast next morning, and then, without saying a word to any one, took off, and we considered that he had left the town ; but his over coat was left in our bar room. In a day or two after, a farmer called and asked me to buy a keg of butter. I tasted it, and asked the price ; he stated it to be ten dollars, which was at the rate of ten cents, or 5d. English per pound. I offered to take one at nine cents ; but he said he had just sold one to a gentleman who had given him ten dollars ; and he left the house : in a few minutes he returned, and asked me if I could tell him if the bill he had got was a good one. I referred 104 SUPPLEMENTARY FACTS. to the Bank Note Detector, and told him it was a fraudulent bill and worthless. The poor fellow was thunderstruck, and began to drive away his waggon ; but I told him to follow the man from the place where he had delivered the butter to him, and I would send round some of my sons to see if they could discover the thief. My younger son had just got to the lighthouse leading down to the dock, when he perceived the man with the keg of butter upon his shoulder, going down the hill. He stopped him, and seized the goods, when the man turned upon him, and would have got away, but assistance coming, the butter was secured, and when the farmer came up, the man acknowledged that he had paid him the ten dollar bill, but that he did not know it was a fraudulent one. The farmer took back his butter, and gave the man his bill ; and, although I had been the means of saving the man from loss he would not let me have it for one cent less, neither would, Jie reward the captors with one cent. I, however, took his address. The day after the thief came to our house for his over coat, and my son John immediately informed me that that was the man who got the butter. To pay me for his bed and breakfast he pulled out another bill of the same stamp, and requested change. I detained him till the constable sent for came, and then gave him into custody. He was searched and forged bills to the amount of 1 500 dollars were found upon him. He was, therefore, sent to prison, and was tried ; but as the farmer would not attend as a witness, the rascal was discharged, and I saw him in Cleveland almost every day for two or three months after. A merchant of Cleveland named Davis owed me two dollars, which he promised to pay next day. As he did not come, in about a month I sent a note by one of my boys to his warehouse ; he said he was sorry that he was quite out of cash. I then told the boys that if they would get the money out of him, they might keep it for pocket money ; they therefore let him have very little ease, but at last they gave up the cause as hopeless. I thought, then, I would see him myself ; so I went down to his large ware- house and met him, asked him for the money, to which he gave the usual answer. Then, says I, “ pull down your sign of ( Cash for wheat' from over your door in letters two yards long ; for how can a merchant fulfil any such terms that has not had a dollar in his possession for half a year ? For shame ! pull it down instanter” He very assiduously begged me to be seated, and he would step out and borrow the money for me. In half an hour he returned with one dollar, which he gave me and promised upon his honour to call in the evening with the other. About twelve o’clock he rattled at my door and was let in by my son, bringing w r ith him a Pittsburg dollar bill to settle his account with ; but as there was a discount of twenty-five per cent upon that paper, my son VJ SUPPLEMENTARY FACTS. 105 would not take it till he had consulted me ; hut I told him to settle the account, and give him a glass or two of anything he would have into the bargain, of which he was ready enough to take advantage. So this ended my transaction with a cash-for- wheat gentleman. On Sunday morning, just before seven o’clock, a goodly com- pany of gentlemen were waiting ready for breakfast, a person came into the bar of my house and requested a brandy smasher, which was handed to him, and for which he tendered a bad shilling, but as it was immediately seen, he produced another ; and when the bell rang for breakfast he requested he might be permitted to wash himself at the sink, which is a convenience always to be found in the bars of taverns in America, as well as a towel, soap, comb, and brush. All the guests had rushed into the breakfast room, and had left their hats upon the pegs or upon the tables in the bar, and no person except a boy was left in the room with the man. As soon as he had done washing himself, he left the house, and the company come out from breakfast to take a walk before church time, one of them missed his new hat, for which he had given six dollars the night previous ; and we soon discovered that the loafer had made a smart swap and bolted with Mr. Higgin’s hat, and left his own, a “ shocking bad one,” instead. However, as the man had not been gone many minutes, about twenty of us started off in search of him. My son going down to the docks just caught sight of him going into a barber’s shop, and followed him in. He was sat down, and the nigger barber was lathering away at him. My son took up the new hat and said to him you have made a mistake at our house this morning, and taken a wrong hat : he “ guessed” not, and tried the hat on again which just fitted, but at last he bethought himself that his hat had a weed on it, so my son brought away the hat belonging to Mr. Higgins. After the fellow had got shaved he pulled out sixpence and gave the barber it for his extra trouble in shaving, for which the Nigger showed his two rows of ivories from ear to ear. lie then requested that the barber should lend him a hat to go to fetch his own, which he had left at the St. Clair House. The barber being in good humour with the man in consequence of his liberality, immediately lent him his own best hat, and away the fellow cut. After about an hour, the man not returning to the barber’s shop, the Nigger began to be uneasy and coming up to our house asked if a hat was left for him : he was showed the loafer’s hat, and was thunderstruck to see how he had been swindled out of his best hat. The poor fellow never afterwards recovered it ; the man had absquatulated to the West, or gone to the refuge of the destitute, Texas. The horses in the West are of an excellent breed, and in i 106 SUPPLEMENTARY FACTS. trotting they excel (as they term it) u all creation." If a man has twenty or thirty young horses, all of one age and nearly of one breed, he will know which is the swiftest trotter ; and, if he can accomplish the mile in two minutes forty-five seconds, the price of that horse he will state at 300 dollars ; but the others, which cannot do it, he will readily dispose of for thirty or forty dollars. Their races are principally trotting matches for one or two miles : the jockeys are principally young niggers, who, when mounted take the reins in both hands, and, leaning back, pull at them as hard as they can, shouting and whipping all the while like madmen, and the harder they shout and pull the reins the faster the horse goes. Some persons teach their horses to rack in their paces, by which both right legs or both left legs strike together, and they can get over the ground as fast as if they galloped. This, however, is not called fair trotting, although it is not galloping, and they are debarred from entering the trotting races, but make matches with other rackers. The hatred of the native Americans to the British is manifested in all their conversation, especially in the party called Locofocos, who never have it out of their mouths ; they suck it in with their mother’s milk. A farmer from Illinois was descanting upon this patriotism (as he called it) in my bar room one evening, when I expostulated with him upon the absurdity of the great dislike which he seemed to entertain against the English, and asked him the reasons. He said it was because the English formerly wanted to tax them without their consent, but they resisted by force of arms, conquered their liberties, and freed themselves for ever from the tyranny of English domination. I asked him then if one of the counties of Illinois, or even one of the States of the Union, was to declare that they would pay no more taxes to the federal government, what would he advise that the government should do in that matter h He replied, that they would compel them to do their duty, if they could. Then I showed him that, at the time when the revolution broke out, the country was under the govern- ment of Great Britain, and it was their duty to enforce obedience to the laws of that government as it would be the duty of this, if one of their states should stand out for an exemption from paying a share of their national burdens ; but that it was now sixty or seventy years since that revolution took place, and it was high time that all angry feeling were done away with in America, as it was and had been long done away with among the British, who were then the best customers they had for all their surplus produce, and to whom they were indebted for nearly all the money they had in the country, and for a great many of the neces- saries, comforts, and luxuries of life ; and I could not account for the continuance of a desire amongst a large class of Americans to SUPPLEMENTARY FACTS. 107 create a war-cry against Great Britain, except on the prospect held out to them by their demagogues, who were the worst men upon the face of the earth, that by so doing they would expunge the debt for ever, which the credulous capitalists of England had suffered them to contract on the faith and security of their separate governments ; and that thirteen of their states had already commenced repudiating these debts and would pay neither prin- cipal nor interest upon the money actually advanced to them ; that this was the real cause, I had no doubt, as the English always showed them the greatest kindness, and they were showing them in return the greatest hatred possible and thwarting payment of their just debts by all manner of subterfuges. He said that there were only two or three states that repudiated in toto; yet as money was unobtainable others had certainly refused to pay interest ; but as soon as they could afford it, they would make good their defalcations. I then asked him how the state of Illinois intended to settle the twenty millions of dollars which they owed to their foreign creditors ] He replied that they did not intend to repudiate at all in Illinois, they only ceased pay- ing interest to bring down the price of debentures, and as soon as the price was at five cents per dollar, they would borrow of their own citizens one million of dollars and buy up the whole debt; and then if they repudiated, they would only do it for one million, and would only cheat their own citizens, an affair with which no foreigners had anything to do. This is the real cause of American hatred and hostility to the British, and the whole of the democrats, and a great many of the whigs and barnburners are influenced by the same doctrines. On this person leaving the house he re- marked to his companion, and was overheard by one of our family, “ That old coon is wide awake.” While in New York, I visited most of the places where “mer- chants most do congregate,” and being introduced by Mr. Geo. Strother, passed many hours in respectable mercantile company. Once at Clarke and Brown’s coffee house, Maiden Lane, I was questioned by a keen Yankee, who asked me, among other things, in his nasal twang, the reason of so small a quantity of Yorkshire cloths being then sent for sale to that market in comparison to what were sent formerly. I answered him by asking him how long he had lived in New York ; and on his answering twelve or thirteen years, I told him I was astonished that he did not him- self know the reason ; he said, however, that he did not. I then told him that the Yankees had cheated the merchants and manu- facturers of Yorkshire so much, and for so many years, that they were determined to be cheated and robbed no longer ; but that if the New Yorkers wanted goods, and had the ready money to pay for them, they might still have any quantity they desired, but never again in the same way as they formerly had them. 108 SUPPLEMENTARY FACTS. Another man one day accosted me thus — “Well, stranger, have you seen our batteries in the Bay of New York V ' and on my answering in the affirmative, he said, “And do you suppose that if Johnny Bull was to go to war with us, he would ever be able to make any impression here?” I told him Johnny Bull did not wish to go to war with them at all; but if Brother Jonathan was^ so foolish as to declare war against him, before the expiration of twelve months from the declaration grass would be growing in Broadway, and no mistake. He said he thought it very un- becoming in any stranger to talk in that strain ; but I told him that that was my candid opinion, which I should have expressed to the President if he had asked me the same question; and furthermore I believed and was well assured that under these circumstances the result would be as I had expressed. The man then turned upon his heels, appearing much mortified that any stranger, especially a Britisher, should have the audacity to express such a derogatory opinion of the empire city of the greatest nation under the sun. These people, by assuming con- tinually that they are the most powerful nation upon the face of the earth, and by so few contradicting them, are led actually to believe what they assert; and a man, to get into their good graces, has only to give a grandiloquent panegyric upon the glory of their institutions, the magnitude of their mountains, lakes, and rivers, and the inexhaustible riches of their prolific soil; he may also pepper his praises by saying that their citizens are the bravest the world ever saw, and their glorious flag should in a very short period be planted upon the whole continent of America, from Baffin’s Bay to Cape Horn, if not upon one at least of the British Isles. For they say, let us have thirty thousand stout Irish patriots officered by our enlightened citizens, and we could soon sing “ Hail Columbia” in Hyde Park, and the “ Star Span- gled Banner” in the scarlet halls of Westminster. K EMPLAY AND HOLLAND, PRINTERS, INTELLIGENCER OFFICE, LEEDS. 9631118