132 ALARMS OF FIRE. [CHAP. IX 



those who are accustomed to consider themselves as patrons 

 whenever they engage others to do work for them, to learn 

 how in reality, if things are in a healthy state, the obligation is 

 mutual ; but to discover that the usual relations of the employer 

 and employed are entirely reversed, and that the favor is by no 

 means conferred by the purchaser, would try the patience of most 

 travelers. Friends interceded, but in vain ; till, at last, a repre 

 sentation was made to one of these important personages, that my 

 wife was about to leave the city on a fixed day, and that being 

 a foreigner she ought, out of courtesy, to be assisted ; an appeal 

 which was successful, and the work was then undertaken and 

 sent home with strict punctuality, neatly made, and every spare 

 scrap of the material honestly returned, the charge being about 

 equal to that of the first London dressmakers. 



We remarked in some of the country towns of Massachusetts, 

 where the income of the family was very moderate, that the 

 young ladies indulged in extravagant dressing 40/., for example, 

 being paid for a shawl in one instance. Some of the richer class, 

 who had returned from passing a year or two in Germany and 

 England, had been much struck with the economical habits, in 

 dress and in the luxuries of the table, of persons in easy circum 

 stances there, and the example had not been lost on them. 



Oct. 2 8 . Night after night the church bells have been tolling 

 the alarm of fire, followed by the rattling of the heavy engines 

 under the windows of our hotel. When I last resided here 

 (1842), I was told that half of these conflagrations were caused 

 by incendiaries, partly by boys for the mere love of mischief; but 

 no suspicions of this kind are now entertained. Most of the 

 buildings are of wood, and it is hoped that the increasing use of 

 brick in the private, and of granite in the public, buildings will 

 lessen the evil. The combustibility of the wood of the white or 

 Weymouth pine {Pinus strobusj, largely employed in houses 

 here, is said to exceed that of other kinds of timber. 



