American Notes for General Circulation

by Dickens, Chales

  season of the year, there was no sleighing: but there were plenty

  of those vehicles in yards and by-places, and some of them, from

  the gorgeous quality of their decorations, might have 'gone on'

  without alteration as triumphal cars in a melodrama at Astley's.

  The day was uncommonly fine; the air bracing and healthful; the

  whole aspect of the town cheerful, thriving, and industrious.

  We lay there seven hours, to deliver and exchange the mails. At

  length, having collected all our bags and all our passengers

  (including two or three choice spirits, who, having indulged too

  freely in oysters and champagne, were found lying insensible on

  their backs in unfrequented streets), the engines were again put in

  motion, and we stood off for Boston.

  Encountering squally weather again in the Bay of Fundy, we tumbled

  and rolled about as usual all that night and all next day. On the

  next afternoon, that is to say, on Saturday, the twenty-second of

  January, an American pilot-boat came alongside, and soon afterwards

  the Britannia steam-packet, from Liverpool, eighteen days out, was

  telegraphed at Boston.

  The indescribable interest with which I strained my eyes, as the

  first patches of American soil peeped like molehills from the green

  sea, and followed them, as they swelled, by slow and almost

  imperceptible degrees, into a continuous line of coast, can hardly

  be exaggerated. A sharp keen wind blew dead against us; a hard

  frost prevailed on shore; and the cold was most severe. Yet the

  air was so intensely clear, and dry, and bright, that the

  temperature was not only endurable, but delicious.

  How I remained on deck, staring about me, until we came alongside

  the dock, and how, though I had had as many eyes as Argus, I should

  have had them all wide open, and all employed on new objects - are

  topics which I will not prolong this chapter to discuss. Neither

  will I more than hint at my foreigner-like mistake in supposing

  that a party of most active persons, who scrambled on board at the

  peril of their lives as we approached the wharf, were newsmen,

  answering to that industrious class at home; whereas, despite the

  leathern wallets of news slung about the necks of some, and the

  broad sheets in the hands of all, they were Editors, who boarded

  ships in person (as one gentleman in a worsted comforter informed

  me), 'because they liked the excitement of it.' Suffice it in this

  place to say, that one of these invaders, with a ready courtesy for

  which I thank him here most gratefully, went on before to order

  rooms at the hotel; and that when I followed, as I soon did, I

  found myself rolling through the long passages with an involuntary

  imitation of the gait of Mr. T. P. Cooke, in a new nautical

  melodrama.

  'Dinner, if you please,' said I to the waiter.

  'When?' said the waiter.

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  'As quick as possible,' said I.

  'Right away?' said the waiter.

  After a moment's hesitation, I answered 'No,' at hazard.

  'NOT right away?' cried the waiter, with an amount of surprise that

  made me start.

  I looked at him doubtfully, and returned, 'No; I would rather have

  it in this private room. I like it very much.'

  At this, I really thought the waiter must have gone out of his

  mind: as I believe he would have done, but for the interposition

  of another man, who whispered in his ear, 'Directly.'

  'Well! and that's a fact!' said the waiter, looking helplessly at

  me: 'Right away.'

  I saw now that 'Right away' and 'Directly' were one and the same

  thing. So I reversed my previous answer, and sat down to dinner in

  ten minutes afterwards; and a capital dinner it was.

  The hotel (a very excellent one) is called the Tremont House. It

  has more galleries, colonnades, piazzas, and passages than I can

  remember, or the reader would believe.

  CHAPTER III - BOSTON

  IN all the public establishments of America, the utmost courtesy

  prevails. Most of our Departments are susceptible of considerable

  improvement in this respect, but the Custom-house above all others

  would do well to take example from the United States and render

  itself somewhat less odious and offensive to foreigners. The

  servile rapacity of the French officials is sufficiently

  contemptible; but there is a surly boorish incivility about our

  men, alike disgusting to all persons who fall into their hands, and

  discreditable to the nation that keeps such ill-conditioned curs

  snarling about its gates.

  When I landed in America, I could not help being strongly impressed

  with the contrast their Custom-house presented, and the attention,

  politeness and good humour with which its officers discharged their

  duty.

  As we did not land at Boston, in consequence of some detention at

  the wharf, until after dark, I received my first impressions of the

  city in walking down to the Custom-house on the morning after our

  arrival, which was Sunday. I am afraid to say, by the way, how

  many offers of pews and seats in church for that morning were made

  to us, by formal note of invitation, before we had half finished

  our first dinner in America, but if I may be allowed to make a

  moderate guess, without going into nicer calculation, I should say

  that at least as many sittings were proffered us, as would have

  accommodated a score or two of grown-up families. The number of

  creeds and forms of religion to which the pleasure of our company

  was requested, was in very fair proportion.

  Not being able, in the absence of any change of clothes, to go to

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  church that day, we were compelled to decline these kindnesses, one

  and all; and I was reluctantly obliged to forego the delight of

  hearing Dr. Channing, who happened to preach that morning for the

  first time in a very long interval. I mention the name of this

  distinguished and accomplished man (with whom I soon afterwards had

  the pleasure of becoming personally acquainted), that I may have

  the gratification of recording my humble tribute of admiration and

  respect for his high abilities and character; and for the bold

  philanthropy with which he has ever opposed himself to that most

  hideous blot and foul disgrace - Slavery.

  To return to Boston. When I got into the streets upon this Sunday

  morning, the air was so clear, the houses were so bright and gay:

  the signboards were painted in such gaudy colours; the gilded

  letters were so very golden; the bricks were so very red, the stone

  was so very white, the blinds and area railings were so very green,

  the knobs and plates upon the street doors so marvellously bright

  and twinkling; and all so slight and unsubstantial in appearance -

  that every thoroughfare in the city looked exactly like a scene in

  a pantomime. It rarely happens in the business streets that a

  tradesman, if I may venture to call anybody a trad
esman, where

  everybody is a merchant, resides above his store; so that many

  occupations are often carried on in one house, and the whole front

  is covered with boards and inscriptions. As I walked along, I kept

  glancing up at these boards, confidently expecting to see a few of

  them change into something; and I never turned a corner suddenly

  without looking out for the clown and pantaloon, who, I had no

  doubt, were hiding in a doorway or behind some pillar close at

  hand. As to Harlequin and Columbine, I discovered immediately that

  they lodged (they are always looking after lodgings in a pantomime)

  at a very small clockmaker's one story high, near the hotel; which,

  in addition to various symbols and devices, almost covering the

  whole front, had a great dial hanging out - to be jumped through,

  of course.

  The suburbs are, if possible, even more unsubstantial-looking than

  the city. The white wooden houses (so white that it makes one wink

  to look at them), with their green jalousie blinds, are so

  sprinkled and dropped about in all directions, without seeming to

  have any root at all in the ground; and the small churches and

  chapels are so prim, and bright, and highly varnished; that I

  almost believed the whole affair could be taken up piecemeal like a

  child's toy, and crammed into a little box.

  The city is a beautiful one, and cannot fail, I should imagine, to

  impress all strangers very favourably. The private dwelling-houses

  are, for the most part, large and elegant; the shops extremely

  good; and the public buildings handsome. The State House is built

  upon the summit of a hill, which rises gradually at first, and

  afterwards by a steep ascent, almost from the water's edge. In

  front is a green enclosure, called the Common. The site is

  beautiful: and from the top there is a charming panoramic view of

  the whole town and neighbourhood. In addition to a variety of

  commodious offices, it contains two handsome chambers; in one the

  House of Representatives of the State hold their meetings: in the

  other, the Senate. Such proceedings as I saw here, were conducted

  with perfect gravity and decorum; and were certainly calculated to

  inspire attention and respect.

  There is no doubt that much of the intellectual refinement and

  superiority of Boston, is referable to the quiet influence of the

  University of Cambridge, which is within three or four miles of the

  city. The resident professors at that university are gentlemen of

  learning and varied attainments; and are, without one exception

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  that I can call to mind, men who would shed a grace upon, and do

  honour to, any society in the civilised world. Many of the

  resident gentry in Boston and its neighbourhood, and I think I am

  not mistaken in adding, a large majority of those who are attached

  to the liberal professions there, have been educated at this same

  school. Whatever the defects of American universities may be, they

  disseminate no prejudices; rear no bigots; dig up the buried ashes

  of no old superstitions; never interpose between the people and

  their improvement; exclude no man because of his religious

  opinions; above all, in their whole course of study and

  instruction, recognise a world, and a broad one too, lying beyond

  the college walls.

  It was a source of inexpressible pleasure to me to observe the

  almost imperceptible, but not less certain effect, wrought by this

  institution among the small community of Boston; and to note at

  every turn the humanising tastes and desires it has engendered; the

  affectionate friendships to which it has given rise; the amount of

  vanity and prejudice it has dispelled. The golden calf they

  worship at Boston is a pigmy compared with the giant effigies set

  up in other parts of that vast counting-house which lies beyond the

  Atlantic; and the almighty dollar sinks into something

  comparatively insignificant, amidst a whole Pantheon of better

  gods.

  Above all, I sincerely believe that the public institutions and

  charities of this capital of Massachusetts are as nearly perfect,

  as the most considerate wisdom, benevolence, and humanity, can make

  them. I never in my life was more affected by the contemplation of

  happiness, under circumstances of privation and bereavement, than

  in my visits to these establishments.

  It is a great and pleasant feature of all such institutions in

  America, that they are either supported by the State or assisted by

  the State; or (in the event of their not needing its helping hand)

  that they act in concert with it, and are emphatically the

  people's. I cannot but think, with a view to the principle and its

  tendency to elevate or depress the character of the industrious

  classes, that a Public Charity is immeasurably better than a

  Private Foundation, no matter how munificently the latter may be

  endowed. In our own country, where it has not, until within these

  later days, been a very popular fashion with governments to display

  any extraordinary regard for the great mass of the people or to

  recognise their existence as improvable creatures, private

  charities, unexampled in the history of the earth, have arisen, to

  do an incalculable amount of good among the destitute and

  afflicted. But the government of the country, having neither act

  nor part in them, is not in the receipt of any portion of the

  gratitude they inspire; and, offering very little shelter or relief

  beyond that which is to be found in the workhouse and the jail, has

  come, not unnaturally, to be looked upon by the poor rather as a

  stern master, quick to correct and punish, than a kind protector,

  merciful and vigilant in their hour of need.

  The maxim that out of evil cometh good, is strongly illustrated by

  these establishments at home; as the records of the Prerogative

  Office in Doctors' Commons can abundantly prove. Some immensely

  rich old gentleman or lady, surrounded by needy relatives, makes,

  upon a low average, a will a-week. The old gentleman or lady,

  never very remarkable in the best of times for good temper, is full

  of aches and pains from head to foot; full of fancies and caprices;

  full of spleen, distrust, suspicion, and dislike. To cancel old

  wills, and invent new ones, is at last the sole business of such a

  testator's existence; and relations and friends (some of whom have

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  been bred up distinctly to inherit a large share of the property,

  and have been, from their cradles, specially disqualified from

  devoting themselves to any useful pursuit, on that account) are so

  often and so unexpectedly and summarily cut off, and reinstated,

  and cut off again, that the whole family, down to the remotest

  cousin, is kept in a perpetual fever. At length it becomes plain

  that the old lady or gentleman has not long to live; and the

  plainer this becomes, the more clearly the old lady or
gentleman

  perceives that everybody is in a conspiracy against their poor old

  dying relative; wherefore the old lady or gentleman makes another

  last will - positively the last this time - conceals the same in a

  china teapot, and expires next day. Then it turns out, that the

  whole of the real and personal estate is divided between half-adozen

  charities; and that the dead and gone testator has in pure

  spite helped to do a great deal of good, at the cost of an immense

  amount of evil passion and misery.

  The Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, at

  Boston, is superintended by a body of trustees who make an annual

  report to the corporation. The indigent blind of that state are

  admitted gratuitously. Those from the adjoining state of

  Connecticut, or from the states of Maine, Vermont, or New

  Hampshire, are admitted by a warrant from the state to which they

  respectively belong; or, failing that, must find security among

  their friends, for the payment of about twenty pounds English for

  their first year's board and instruction, and ten for the second.

  'After the first year,' say the trustees, 'an account current will

  be opened with each pupil; he will be charged with the actual cost

  of his board, which will not exceed two dollars per week;' a trifle

  more than eight shillings English; 'and he will be credited with

  the amount paid for him by the state, or by his friends; also with

  his earnings over and above the cost of the stock which he uses; so

  that all his earnings over one dollar per week will be his own. By

  the third year it will be known whether his earnings will more than

  pay the actual cost of his board; if they should, he will have it

  at his option to remain and receive his earnings, or not. Those

  who prove unable to earn their own livelihood will not be retained;

  as it is not desirable to convert the establishment into an almshouse,

  or to retain any but working bees in the hive. Those who by

  physical or mental imbecility are disqualified from work, are

  thereby disqualified from being members of an industrious

  community; and they can be better provided for in establishments

  fitted for the infirm.'

  I went to see this place one very fine winter morning: an Italian

  sky above, and the air so clear and bright on every side, that even

  my eyes, which are none of the best, could follow the minute lines