428 AMERICAN CITIES. 



in wages, they need buy no mules, but they will have 

 to run their chance of picking up a horse or two, for 

 the purpose of hunting, at St Joseph or Fort Riley ; and 

 these they sell again when the chase is over. 



Adieu, then, to the United States, to her large and 

 scrambling cities, which are really but beginning to lick 

 themselves into shape. To begin with the beginning; 

 the greater portion of the streets of New York are miser 

 ably paved, and grass grows on many of its flagged 

 footways, while in the back slums or smaller streets 

 drainage is not thought of, and decayed fruit and veget 

 ables, rinds of melons and potatoes, cabbage leaves, and 

 other rotting horrors, lie steaming on the gutterless side 

 of the pavement, and sending the fumes of cholera into 

 the dark and crowded recesses of the confined cottage. 

 A few pretty churches, one noble street, and a decent 

 square or two, comprise the perfections of the architec 

 ture of New York. There are no cathedrals, no fine 

 mansions, and little to recommend the rest of the town, 

 save its facilities for the passing of people and property 

 across the different ferries on the river. The railways of 

 America are .horrible, as at present managed ; and there 

 is nothing to recommend them for but the length to 

 which they are now running. The steam navigation on 

 the river is good, and far superior to the conduct of the 

 rail, and common and ignorant report has been more unjust 

 to the captains in command of the river steamers ; they 

 are an able, a steady, and an excellent class of men. 

 The best class of American society is as good as any 

 society ; the ladies are charming, and the gentlemen are in 

 mind high-toned and urbane. The tradesmen are for the 

 most part assuming, uncivil, and under a lamentable 

 mistake in the supposition that rudeness to their betters 



