410 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



and the influence they exert on a portion of 

 the community, are far from agreeable until 

 one is familiar with them. You would cry 

 out in dismay did you see your baggage flung 

 about pell - mell like logs of wood, trunks, 

 chests, traveling - bags, hat-boxes, all in the 

 same mill, and if here and there something 

 goes to pieces no one is astonished ; never 

 mind ! we go fast, we gain time, that is 

 the essential thing. 



The manners of the country differ so greatly 

 from ours that it seems to me impossible to 

 form a just estimate regarding them, or, in- 

 deed, to pronounce judgment at all upon a 

 population so active and mobile as that of the 

 Northern States of the Union, without hav- 

 ing lived among them for a long time. I do 

 not therefore attempt any such estimate. I 

 can only say that the educated Americans are 

 very accessible and very pleasant. They are 

 obliging to the utmost degree ; indeed, their 

 cordiality toward strangers exceeds any that I 

 have met elsewhere. I might even add that 

 if I could complain of anything it would be 

 of an excess, rather than a lack, of attention. 

 I have often found it difficult to make it un- 

 derstood that the hotel, where I can work at 

 my ease, suits me better than the proffered 

 hospitality. . . . 



