MIDDLE STATES. 



2IS 



are as various in character and appearance as ihe Canterbury pilgrims. Sixty or more of the 

 large wagons may be often seen in a line. The roads are now good, though a few years since 

 they were hardly passable. The taverns are of all kinds, from mere hoveJs to large hotels. 

 On many parts of the route, nearly every house is a tavern, though there is seldom a sign other 

 than an upright pole. It is, however, not easy to mistake one, from the various notilications 

 pasted on the doors and posts. On the mountains, which are near two hundred nnles over, 

 there are hospices or log-cabins erected for the poor or benighted traveler. The forest supplies 

 wood, and a night may be passed in them with comfort. Several shelves are built up on the 

 sides, and covered with leaves or hay for beds. Many emigrants, however, suffer from want ; 

 for a route so frequented, and in which nearly every house is a tavern, is an inauspicious one 

 for the solicitation of charity. The old and the feeble, therefore, sometimes perish among the 

 mountains, and there are many scenes of distress.* 



16. Manners^ Customs, and Character. It is not easy to describe the character of the 

 people even of an old country, and it is a much harder task in a new country composed of 

 inhabitants of diflerent nations, and with different languages. There is, indeed, in the Middle 

 States, hardly any general or peculiar character. In Pennsylvania, the Friends give a tone to 

 society, especially in Philadelphia and some other towns, and the Germans have a similar influ- 

 ence in the country. New York, the great commercial emporium, has the character of all 

 commercial cities. Trade assimilates one person to another. Philadelphia and Baltimore 

 have escaped much more than New York the moral evils that seem to be inseparable from great 

 cities, and which appear to be the price that men pay for what advantages there are in living 

 in large communities. In the larger cities of the Middle States, a great many people live at 

 public hotels and boarding-houses. These are well regulated, and the price of board varies 

 from three to fifteen dollars a week. In a country where almost every one is engaged in active 

 pursuits, little time is spent at table. The inmates of a hotel assemble at the sound of a bell, 

 and in a few minutes each one has retired and resumed his occupation. The domestic servants 

 are belter in States where there is slavery. The servants, except those called " Boots," 

 never expect, and seldom receive, any gratuity, as they are well paid by their employers. In 

 New York there is a singular and a shocking custom, by which swine are permitted to range 

 freely about the city. Men tolerate great evils to which they are accustomed, rather than small 

 ones that are new. If the swine are intended to act as the city scavengers, it is but a " com- 

 mutation of nuisance." What is borne in New York, would be intolerable in Philadelphia. 

 In Baltimore and Philadelphia, the manner of life is far more quiet and domestic than in New- 

 York ; and in Philadelphia, the arts and sciences are more successfully cultivated. In the lat- 

 ter city, the Wistar parties, or assemblies at gentlemen's houses, where the conversation is 

 .jhlefly on scientific and literary subjects, are much praised by intelligent strangers. f 



* A pedestrian traveler over the mountains gives tliese 

 anecdotes — " Some of the emigrants had neither money 

 nor friends ; and some I saw that I should like to forget. 

 In the mountains I met a poor young woman with three 

 small children sitting by the wayside. Her dress and man- 

 ner betokened better days, and her story has many paral- 

 lels in the West. Her husband, after a long illness, that 

 exhausted their slender funds, had died at Pittsburg, and 

 ehe and her children were crawling, at the rate of five 

 miles a day, back to Philadelphia. My own funds were 

 much less than ample, but I gave her three dollars, and 

 advised the poor woman to take passage in a return wagon 

 to Harrisburg, where she could perhaps find some benevo- 

 lent people to aid her to Philadelphia. If you charge me 

 with recounting my alms in a spirit of vanity, the next ad- 

 venture may acquit me ; and I will tell it with the fidelity 

 of Rousseau, hoping that the confession will a little expi- 

 ate the guilt. 



" One cold evening, as I was riding with a wagoner for 

 a few miles, down the slope of the Laurel Hill, I beheld 

 an old man lying by the road side, apparently dead ; it 

 would be a pleasure to me to think that he was dead in re- 

 ality, for I passed him as though he had been a dog ; 1 am 

 troul)led at the recollection. I arrived at the foot of the 

 hill before I thought of my duty, and then I neglected it. 

 Perhaps I thought that some other traveler would have 

 more feeling than I had ; yet I would give the best cargo 

 the wagoner ever carried over the mountains, to know that 

 Borae kind soul took the old gaffer to the village, gave him 



supper and lodging, and dismissed him with a little coin. 

 The image that, he was created in, should have been his 

 defence from death by hunger, or any gradual cause, in the 

 highway ; and, if my aid could have saved liis life, I bhnuld 

 have no better hope than to die as he died, deserted by 

 men." 



t The following description of the reception of Lafayette 

 at New York, will show how the people, when most ex- 

 cited and interested, retain their sedatencss. It is thus 

 related by a person just coming up the Narrows, from Eu- 

 rope : " is there any news ? roaied the captain through hig 

 speaking-trumpet ; the answer came against the breeze, 

 and was nearly indistinct. The words ' Cadmus in,' were 

 however affirmed, by more than one eager listener, to form 

 a part rjf the repl^^ Another opporlunit}' was not long 

 wanting. A large coasting schooner passed within tv.'o 

 hundred feet of us. A tar was standing on her quarter- 

 deck, both hand.s thrust into the bosom of his sea jacket, 

 eyeing our ship with a certain undeistanding air, that 

 need not be exjilained to one who claims himself to be so 

 promising a child of Neptune. The individual proved to 

 be the master of the corister, and to liini our ca|)tain again 

 roared, 'Any news.' ' 'Ay, ay ; all alive up in the bay.' 



"The vessels were sweeping by each other with great 

 rapidity, and, without paying the customarv defeience to 

 nautical etiquette, some six or seven of the passengers 

 united in bawling out, as with one voice, ' What news.' 

 what news ? ' The envious winds again bore away the 

 answer, of which no more reached our ears than the same 



