or
dyspepsia, till the "tea" is announced, when they all console
themselves together for whatever they may have suffered in
keeping awake, by taking more tea, coffee, hot cake and custard,
hoe cake, johny cake, waffle cake, and dodger cake, pickled
peaches, and preserved cucumbers, ham, turkey, hung beef, apple
sauce, and pickled oysters than ever were prepared in any other
country of the known world. After this massive meal is over,
they return to the drawing-room, and it always appeared to me
that they remained together as long as they could bear it, and
then they rise EN MASSE, cloak, bonnet, shawl, and exit.

CHAPTER 7

Market--Museum--Picture Gallery--Academy of Fine Arts Drawing
School--Phrenological Society--Miss Wright's Lecture.

Perhaps the most advantageous feature in Cincinnati is its
market, which, for excellence, abundance, and cheapness, can
hardly, I should think, be surpassed in any part of the world, if
I except the luxury of fruits, which are very inferior to any I
have seen in Europe. There are no butchers, fishmongers, or
indeed any shops for eatables, except bakeries, as they are
called, in the town; every thing must be purchased at market; and
to accomplish this, the busy housewife must be stirring betimes,
or, 'spite of the abundant supply, she will find her hopes of
breakfast, dinner, and supper for the day defeated, the market
being pretty well over by eight o'clock.

The beef is excellent, and the highest price when we were there,
four cents (about two-pence) the pound. The mutton was inferior,
and so was veal to the eye, but it ate well, though not very fat;
the price was about the same. The poultry was excellent; fowls
or full-sized chickens, ready for table, twelve cents, but much
less if bought alive, and not quite fat; turkeys about fifty
cents, and geese the same. The Ohio furnishes several sorts of
fish, some of them very good, and always to be found cheap and
abundant in the market. Eggs, butter, nearly all kinds of
vegetables, excellent, and at moderate prices. From June till
December tomatoes (the great luxury of the American table in the
opinion of most Europeans) may be found in the highest perfection
in the market for about sixpence the peck. They have a great
variety of beans unknown in England, particularly the lima-bean,
the seed of which is dressed like the French harico; it furnishes
a very abundant crop, and is a most delicious vegetable: could it
b