-and armed with a sponge
of most uninviting appearance, applies these liquids with most
scientific touch, thereby managing to change the colour, and marble it,
darken it, or lighten it, so as to suit the various tastes. This
operation completed, and perspiring negroes screwing down frantically,
it is forced into the box prepared for its reception, which is imbedded
in a strong iron-bound outer case during the process, to prevent the
more fragile one from bursting under the pressure. All this over, and
the top fixed, a master-painter covers it with red and black paint,
recording its virtues and its charms. What a pity it could not lie in
its snug bed for ever! But, alas! fate and the transatlantic Anglo-Saxon
have decreed otherwise. Too short are its slumbers, too soon it bursts
again, to suffer fresh pressure under the molars of the free and
enlightened, and to fall in filthy showers over the length and breadth
of the land, deluging every house and every vehicle to a degree that
must be seen to be believed, and filling the stranger with much wonder,
but far more disgust. I really think it must be chewing tobacco which
makes the Americans so much more restless, so much more like armadillos
than any other nation. It often has excited my wonder, how the more
intelligent and civilized portion of the community, who do not generally
indulge in the loathsome practice, can reconcile themselves to the
annoyance of it as kindly as they do. Habit and necessity are powerful
masters.

Having finished this exhibition--which, by the way, kept me sneezing all
the time--I went next to see a steam sawing, planing, and fitting mill.
Labour being very expensive, these establishments are invaluable here;
such an establishment as I saw could supply, from the raw wood in logs,
all the doors and window-frames of "Stafford House" in three days,
barring the polish and paint. If Mr. Cubitt is not up to this machinery,
this hint may be the means of making his fortune double itself in
"quarter-less no time."[M] As we knew that our journey to-morrow must be
inexpressibly tedious, we beat an early retreat, requesting a cup of hot
tea or coffee might be ready for us half an hour before our departure.
Poor simple creatures that we were, to expect such a thing! The free and
enlightened get their breakfast after being two hours _en route_, and
can do without anything before starting--_ergo_, we must do the same:
thus, though there were literally servants