Last winter in the United States

by F. Barham Zincke

As soon as they can read, they are promoted into the second grade, which has its place in the gallery. After a time they are passed on to the third or highest grade, which has its place in the body of the church.

It is believed that this Sunday-school organisation has already effected a great deal of good, by bringing all classes together, and by influencing, in a way nothing else could, the destitute, the ignorant, and the reckless. And still more abundant fruit is expected from it in the future.

Who is there but will entertain bright hopes for America, where among the rural population the moral tone is sound and healthy, and in the cities there is so much zeal for doing good?

From the time I left New York till I reached Chicago, I had nowhere seen in the towns clear drinking water. At New Orleans it was of the colour of a mulatto, at Cincinnati of a mestizo, and at the intermediate places of the intermediate shades. At Richmond it had a kind of ochreous tint. The reason is the same everywhere. The rivers, with the water of which the towns are supplied, all run through a yellowish or reddish loamy soil—sometimes sandy, sometimes clayey; this is easily worn away, and carried off in suspension by the stream, and is largely added to, after rains, by the surface-washing of the country. At Chicago, by a boldly-conceived and most successfully carried-out plan, the whole city is supplied with the purest water. A tunnel, large enough for two mules to work abreast in it, was carried out for a distance of two miles beneath the lake. At this point they had reached water which is perfectly free from all the impurities of the shore; and here it is admitted into the tunnel in sufficient volume to supply all the wants of a population of about 280,000 souls. It is calculated that this tunnel will be ample for all that 100,000 more inhabitants will require. When the population has grown to this extent, a second tunnel will have to be constructed. The water is pumped up from the level of the tunnel to reservoirs that are above the level of the city: which latter is not the original level of the prairie, but considerably above it; for it having been found, after a great part of the city was built, that it was subject to being occasionally flooded, they raised the ground several feet. In doing this they did not pull down or bury any part of the streets and blocks of houses that were already completed, but lifted them up to the desired height by hydraulic machinery. In this way the Sherman House, one of the large American hotels (I stayed in it while at Chicago) was elevated to the level of the raised street, without a guest leaving it, or any interruption of its business.

Post-office Arrangements.

A foreigner is much struck with the amount of business going on at an American post-office. Society not being in so settled and stationary a condition as with us, a far greater proportion of letters are directed to the post-office, and must be called for. A list of the names of the persons whose letters have not been called for is printed twice a week, and hung up in the post-office hall, for the inspection of the public. This list is divided into three separate parts—English, French, and German; each part is hung up by itself in its own frame, and there is a window of enquiry for each of the three nationalities. In the hall of the post-office, or rather in the screen that separates the office from the hall, are innumerable pigeon-holes, each with a door to the hall-side as well as the office-side. The key of the office side door is kept by the officials, of the hall side door by the person to whom the box has been assigned. Into this box that person’s letters are put as soon as a mail is sorted; and he can go, or send at any hour of the day (or night), unlock his door, and take them out. He is not therefore obliged to wait for the general delivery, but can get his letters as soon as the mail arrives. There is, too, less chance of his letters being lost, for they never get into the hands of the letter-carrier. And, as everyone whose correspondence is of any consequence adopts this plan, the number and labour of the letter-carriers are much diminished. On account of the large amount of business always going on at the post-office, they separate the ladies from the gentlemen, assigning them a place for making enquiries, getting their letters, and buying stamps, quite distinct from that assigned to the men.

These are good arrangements. My personal experience, however, of the working of the office is not quite favourable. Two-thirds of the letters posted for me miscarried, and the remaining third I only got after a great deal of trouble. It is the rule in America that all officials must be changed as often as the President is changed; and this for the double reason of enabling the President to reward those who worked for his election, and because it is a principle in democracy that all good things of this kind shall be made to go as far as possible, which can only be done by making the tenure of each occupant short. I found that this had the disadvantage that the clerks were not retained so long as to enable them to become familiar with the letter Z. In consequence of this, in the direction of all the letters written to me from Europe, it was mistaken for an L; and in the directions of the letters written to me from New York, where it appears the Z is decorated with a crossbar, it was mistaken for an F.

Americans on Aristocracy.

The feeling of the Americans on the subject of aristocracy is very far from being the same in all classes or sections of the community. I have already made some slight reference to the way in which the German part of the population regard this institution. We must consider not only what they think, but also how much they count for in America. They count for a great deal; because, though they do not take a very prominent part in politics, still from their numbers, their intelligence, and their wealth, they form everywhere in the North, and in a still greater degree in the great West, a very influential portion of society. And as to this matter, there is no mistaking their thoughts and feelings. They hate aristocracy, as if it were the foul fiend in human society; and of all aristocracies they hate that of England the most, because they regard it as the purest type the world exhibits of this mighty evil. We may be sure, then, that there is nothing they would not do to humble the aristocracy of England. Theirs is a philosophical, instinctive, active, implacable hatred. And the vogue and influence of it is just in proportion to the strength of the German element in American society.

But far beyond the Germans in solid telling influence are the great masses of the native population. They may be described as a stirring, striving, half-educated people, as very much led by newspapers, and generally ready believers in local politicians. All these, too, have an active dislike to the idea of aristocracy, or (as it presents itself to their matter-of-fact minds) of privileged classes. They condemn it on two grounds. It is, they say, a ridiculous institution, for it assumes a superiority which it is impossible can exist; and it is an unjust institution, because it degrades the great bulk of society, by putting them in an inferior position. Their ideas on the subject appear to be more closely connected with contempt than with bitterness. Still they are distinctly felt, and clearly defined. And they too would be ready, were there ever an opening for anything of the kind, to join in a crusade against privileged classes. They would be glad to lend a hand in the overthrow of any institution which embodies the denial of what they regard as the natural equality of man.