Climate Incites Jonathan to Activity.—Healthy Cold.—Why Drunkenness is Rare in America.—Do not Lose Sight of your Nose.—Advice to the Foreigner intending to Visit Jonathan in the Winter.—Visit to the Falls of Niagara.—Turkish Baths offered Gratis by Nature.
t is to the bright, bracing climate of North America that the activity, and consequent prosperity, of Jonathan is mainly to be attributed.
The dry, invigorating air induces activity, and you can do things in America which it would never enter your mind to attempt in Europe.
The cold in winter is excessive, but you do not suffer from it; for my part, I scarcely noticed it. It is a kind of cold which does not penetrate, and against which it is easy to protect oneself. It is dry, healthful, bracing, excites the circulation of the blood, and makes one feel full of life.
The air is charged with ozone and electricity. Several times, in touching the heating-pipes and gaseliers, I had tiny electric sparks flash from my finger-ends. In brushing your hair, you will often hear the crackling of the electric sparks produced by the friction of the brush.
The American sky is bright. It is never clouded for more than two or three days together. You live in a clear, smiling atmosphere, which sheds joy in the heart. It is not wonderful that the Americans are so bright and lively. Man, everywhere, is influenced by the climate in which he lives.
Stimulants are not needed, water suffices; and few Americans drink anything but water at meal-time on ordinary occasions. Alcoholic drinks are almost forbidden by the climate. A bottle of wine goes to the head sooner in America than half a dozen would in England or France.
When I was in America, though it was winter-time (this includes the spring, which only exists in American almanacks), I was always thirsty; the dryness of the atmosphere made my tongue constantly feel like a grater. I quenched my thirst with water or an ice.