AMERICAN CLEVERNESS. 243 



take up my quarters at his house, a couple of miles out of 

 Buffalo. I excused myself from giving him trouble, on 

 the plea that I intended to start again early in the 

 morning for Niagara, and that it would be more con- 

 venient for me to go to the American Hotel. He then 

 offered, while I waited for my luggage, to walk into the 

 town to secure me a good room at the hotel. Accord- 

 ingly, half-an-hour after, when I drove up to the hotel, 

 I found him waiting, and comfortable quarters secured 

 for me. In the morning, when I asked for my bill, I 

 was told that everything was paid. I hesitated at first 

 to receive this pecuniary obligation ; but on reflecting 

 that it was meant in kindness, I felt it would be unkind 

 in me, in the absence of my unknown friend, to refuse it. 

 I contented myself, therefore, with inquiring his name, 

 and have pleasure in mentioning the circumstance here, 

 as an instance of the proneness of our Transatlantic 

 cousins to the virtue of hospitality. Notwithstanding the 

 sour and exciting things said occasionallyby bitter journal- 

 ists, on both sides of the water, they will not, in our time at 

 least, altogether forget that "blood is thicker than water." 

 The long and wide main street of Buffalo reminded 

 me of the Trongate of Glasgow more than of any other 

 street in Europe I recollect to have seen, though, of 

 course, it is newer, and less finished in appearance. On 

 the evening of my arrival I took a walk along it, to look 

 at the many large and well-stored shops. Among others, 

 I went into a butcher's store, in which the beef and lamb, 

 to my eyes, seemed excellent. The prices of lamb and 

 mutton were 3 to 6 cents, of beef 4 to 8, of pork 6^, and 

 of fowls, when full grown, 5 cents a pound. The import 

 duty on Canadian beef is 20 per cent ; so that fat cattle 

 not reared at home are brought chiefly from Ohio, where, 

 as I have said, the excess of Indian corn is used up in 

 feeding stock. Besides the " hog crop " of south-western 

 Ohio, the cattle crop of the eastern portions — which lie 



