202 AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



" cters seem to keep a sweet side from corruption to 

 the last, and you will see good manners everywhere. 



We boast of our deference to women, but, if the 

 Old World made her a tool, we are fast making her 

 a toy ; and the latter is the more hopeless condition. 

 But among the better classes in England I am con- 

 vinced that woman is regarded more as a sister and 

 an equal than in this country, and is less subject to 

 insult and to leering, brutal comment there than here. 

 We are her slave or her tyrant ; so seldom her 

 brother and friend. I thought it a significant fact 

 that I found no place of amusement set apart for the 

 men ; where one sex went the other went ; what was 

 sauce for the gander was sauce for the goose ; and the 

 spirit that prevailed was soft and human accordingly. 

 The hotels had no " ladies' entrance," but all passed 

 in and out the same door, and met and mingled com 

 monly in the same room, and the place was as much 

 for one as for the other. It was no more a mascu- 

 line monopoly than it was a feminine. Indeed, in 

 the country towns and villages the character of the 

 inns is unmistakably given by woman ; hence the 

 sweet, domestic atmosphere that pervades and fills 

 hem is balm to the spirit. Even the larger hotels of 

 Liverpool and London have a private, cosy home 

 character that is most delightful. On entering them, 

 instead of finding yourself in a sort of public thorough- 

 fare or political caucus, amid crowds of men talking, 

 and smoking, and spitting, with stalls on either side, 

 <rhere cigars and tobacco, and books and papers are 



