352 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
insecurely veneered, for the sake of a better appearance, are a reproach to 
the parsimonious “economy” of our public men—almost invariably com¬ 
mand the most durable and most massive material, than by their bridges, 
wagon-roads and railways. Of course, in a new country, where the roads re¬ 
quire to be made and kept in repair by a few settlers, it were unreasonable 
to expect the same excellence as in a densely populated country. But 
scarcely anywhere, even in the oldest and wealthiest portions of this coun¬ 
try, do we find highways that compare with those of the old world, which, 
beautifully built in the first place, with one, and often two rows of shade trees 
on either side, are ever afterwards kept as smooth as a garden walk or 
palace floor. I have frequently walked over them a distance 
of ten or fifteen miles of a summer evening without once 
thinking of fatigue. And as for the railways of Europe, I never 
think of them but with enthusiasm. Solidly built, of the very best ma¬ 
terial, usually with a double track, always in the best repair and carefully 
guarded and watched at all points, one enjoys a sense of security in passing 
over them to which he is an utter stranger in this country. During last win¬ 
ter, previous to my departure for Europe, I experienced one collision of 
trains, two break-downs of engines and three runnings off the track, at great 
peril of life, and all simply in journeying from Madison to Jefferson City, Mo., 
and back, and from Madison to New York city, on my way to Paris, Where¬ 
as, during all my journeyings of thousands of miles in western Europe in 
1862, and during my still more extensive travels above recounted, I never 
once met with an accident or lost a moment of time because of any imper 
fection of railways, or railway carriages, or locomotives, or from any failure of 
trains to make perfect connections. And, as if to make the difference still more 
marked, on my return to New York, the very first train I went aboard ran off 
:^he track on the w^ay to Buffalo and was the occasion of my being delayed 
over Sunday on my way home to Wisconsin. Our railroading in America is 
a disgrace to even a new country. 
In their social life most European people are also able to teach us, first, the 
lesson of general politeness in ordinary and every kind of intercourse, and 
secondly, the greater wisdom of simple living and more frequent recreation 
and social intercourse. We are emphatically a nation of workers, and, 
practically, recreation has no place in our vocabulary. That we are 
serious losers, physiologically, intellectually and socially, by this system of 
never-ceasing toil, no one who reflects will dare question. 
On the credit side I shall make no account. For the present it is sufficient 
tha:* we realize our faults and learn to correct them. When that is done, we 
may indulge in a few gratuitous lessons to our neighbors of the Old World. 
Respectfully your obedient servant, 
J. W. HOYT. 
State Agricutural Rooms, Dec., 1867. 
