280 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



Canova's Venus look in a mob cap? If there be 

 any ornament to the head in wearing a cap, it 

 must surely be a false ornament. The American 

 ladies are persuaded that the head can be orna- 

 mented without a cap. A rose-bud or two, a wood- 

 bine, or a sprig of eglantine, look well in the 

 braided hair ; and if there be raven locks, a lily or 

 a snowdrop may be interwoven with effect. 



Now that the packets are so safe, and make 

 such quick passages to the United States, it would 

 be as well if some of our head milliners would go 

 on board of them, in lieu of getting into the Dili- 

 gence for Paris. They would bring back more 

 taste, and less caricature. And if they could 

 persuade a dozen or two of the farmers' servant 

 girls to return with them, we should soon have 

 proof positive, that as good butter and cheese 

 may be made with the hair braided up, and a 

 daisy or primrose in it, as butter and cheese 

 made in a cap of barbarous shape; washed, 

 perhaps, in soap-suds last new moon. 



New York has very good hotels, and genteel 

 boarding houses. All charges included, you do 

 not pay above two dollars a day. Little enough, 

 when you consider the capital accommodations, 

 and the abundance of food. 



In this city, as well as in others which I visited, 

 every body seemed to walk at his ease. I could 

 see no inclination for jostling; no impertinent 

 staring at you; nor attempts to create a row in 

 order to pick your pocket. I would stand for an 

 hour together in Broadway, to observe the pass- 

 ing multitude. There is certainly a gentleness 

 in these people, both to be admired and imitated. 



