), the
Niagara Falls, lay only twenty miles off, and I could not go and see
it! I had only just allowed myself time to catch the steamer from New
York, in which I had taken and paid for my passage, and I could not
afford to lose the money. I almost cried with vexation at my
stupidity, but the fact was I had not realized the line ran so near
the Falls. "Don't you tell any one," said an American to me in the
train, when we started again, "that you were so near, and yet missed
seeing _the_ great sight of our glorious country, because, you see,
it's neither creditable or credible, though to miss your passage to
Europe, I allow, would be a serious loss. Why didn't you fix it
otherwise?" I told him. "Well, keep it quiet," he added, "for your
own sake, as it's not a thing to boast of." I have not followed his
advice. Would you have done so, reader?

We were close to New York, or rather Jersey City, when I awoke next
morning. The terminus of the rail is in the latter. I steamed across
the Hudson river in one of the grand ferries, and at ten o'clock
breakfasted once more in the American capital.

The _cuisine_ is different in the States to ours. Many small dishes
are served in succession, something on the French plan, but the order
of succession is not so good, nor are the edibles themselves.

In all but the first and expensive hotels, bathing-towels there are
none, and those they give are wofully small and thin. They look and
feel more like pocket-handkerchiefs.

The blinds to the windows go up with a spring, but the said spring,
owing to the stuff of which the blinds are made being thick, harsh,
and stiff, seldom seems able to do more than pull the blind up
three-quarters of the way.

There is one great advantage in American hotels. The daily charge is
strictly an inclusive one, comprising meals, attendance, and
everything but alcoholic drinks. There are positively no extras, and
you depart in peace, not having to "remember" waiter, chambermaid, or
others.

Turning over my memoranda, I find one very peculiar habit which I
ought to have mentioned when out west, for I have not seen it
elsewhere. Suppose a man has a box of matches in his hand, and you
ask him for a light for your pipe. He takes out a match, lifts up the
right leg, bent at the knee to draw the trousers tight, and ignites
it on the lower part of the thigh. The effect is peculiar; he seems
to be drawing fire from that part of his body! No one there ever
lig