long.
The old gentleman is a diminutive-looking person, with a coat so shabby
that one would be tempted to offer him a sixpence if we met him in the
streets; indeed a story is told of a stranger, who, going into his
garden, and being shown round it by Mr. Longworth, gave him a dollar,
which the latter good-humouredly put into his pocket, and it was not
till he was asked to go into the house that the stranger discovered him
to be the owner.[10] He is, however, delightfully vivacious, and full of
agricultural hobbies. His wife is a very pleasing, primitive-looking
person. We tasted at their house some of the ham for which this city,
called by the wits Porkopolis, is so remarkable. The maple sugar is used
in curing it, and improves the flavour very much.
_October 28th._--I must bring this letter to a rapid close, for it must
be posted a day earlier than we expected. We intend to start in two days
for St. Louis, and there I will finish my account of Cincinnati. To-day
we have seen a great many schools, which have given us considerable
insight into the state of education in America. My next letter will
probably bring us to our most western point, though we have not yet
quite settled whether we shall go to the Falls of St. Anthony, or to
Chicago. Papa says I must close, and I must obey.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Though this description of the Senate was meant as a good-humoured
satire on the absence of etiquette in their assemblies, it is probably
no very exaggerated account of what is sometimes seen there; but it
would be most unfair to draw any conclusion from this as to the
behaviour in general society of well-educated gentlemen in America,
there being as much real courtesy among these as is found in any other
country, though certainly not always accompanied by the refinements of
polished society in Europe.
[9] It is not meant here to obtrude special views of politics, or to
maintain that democratic principles have naturally this tendency; but it
may help to explain why so little is heard or known in England of the
better class of Americans. Their unobtrusive mode of life entirely
accounts for this, and it is to be regretted that it is the noisy
demagogue who forms the type of the American as known to the generality
of the European public.
[10] I should not have taken the liberty of printing this account of Mr.
Longworth were he not, in a manner, a public character, well known
throughout the length and breadth of the la
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