CHAP. IV.] INTELLIGENCE OF NEW ENGLANDERS. 57 



when I told them that some of the patriots of their State had 

 betrayed to me no slight sensitiveness and indignation about an 

 expression imputed to Lord Palmerston in a recent debate on the 

 Canadian border-feud, when he spoke of &quot; the wild people of 

 Maine.&quot; 



They were most curious to learn the names of the rocks and 

 plants we had collected, and told us that at the free-school they 

 had been taught the elements of geology and botany. They iff- 

 forrned us that in these rural districts, many who teach in the 

 winter months spend the money they receive for their salary in 

 educating themselves in some college during the remainder of 

 the year ; so that a clever youth may in this way rise from the 

 humblest station to the bar or pulpit, or become a teacher in a 

 large town. Farm laborers in the State, besides being boarded 

 and found in clothes, receive ten dollars, or two guineas, a month 

 wages, out of which they may save and &quot; go west,&quot; an expression 

 every where equivalent to bettering one s condition. &quot; The pros 

 pect of heaven itself,&quot; says Cooper, in one of his novels, &quot; would 

 have no charms for an American of the back-woods, if he 

 thought there was any place farther west.&quot; 



I remarked that most of the farmers and laborers had pale 

 complexions and a care-worn look. &quot; This was owing partly,&quot; 

 said the landlord, &quot; to th*6 climate, for many were consumptive, 

 and the changes from intense heat to great cold are excessive 

 here; and party** to the ambitious, striving character of the 

 natives, who &amp;lt;a^e not content to avoid poverty, but expect, and 

 not without reason, to end their days in a station far above that 

 from which they start.&quot; We were struck with the almost en 

 tire absence of the negro race in Maine, the winter of this State 

 being ill suited to them. The free blacks are in great part 

 paupers, and supported by the poor laws. We fell in with a 

 few parties of itinerant Indians, roaming about the country like 

 our gipsies. 



Resuming our journey, we stopped at an inn where a great 

 many mechanics boarded, taking three meals a day at the ordi 

 nary. They were well dressed, but their coarse (though clean) 

 hands announced their ordinary occupation. After dinner several 



c* 



