ENGLISH CHARACTERISTICS. 193 



appreciate. In London, the boot-black salutes you 

 with a respectful bow, and touches his cap, and would 

 no more think of pursuing you or answering your 

 refusal than he would of jumping into the Thames. 

 The same is true of the newsboys. If they were to 

 scream and bellow in London, as they do in New 

 York or Washington, they would be suppressed by 

 the police, as they ought to be. The vender of 

 papers stands at the corner of the street, with his 

 goods in his arms, and a large placard spread out at 

 his feet, giving in big letters the principal news-head- 

 ings. 



Street-cries of all kinds are less noticeable, less 

 aggressive, than in this country, and the manners of 

 the shopmen make you feel you are conferring a ben- 

 efit instead of receiving one. Even their locomotives 

 are less noisy than ours, having a shrill, infantile 

 whistle that contrasts strongly with the loud demoniac 

 yell that makes a residence near a railway or depot, 

 in this country, so unbearable. The trains themselves 

 move with wonderful smoothness and celerity, mak- 

 ing a mere fraction of the racket made by our flying 

 palaces as they go swaying and jolting over our hasty, 

 ill-ballasted roads. 



It is characteristic of the English prudence and 

 plain dealing, that they put so little on the cars and 

 so much on the road, while the reverse process is 

 equally characteristic of American enterprise. Our 

 railway system, no doubt, has certain advantages or 

 rather conveniences over the English, but, for my part 

 13 



