At this obscure inn exists yet hearty at the age of eighty-eight years, one of fortune's fools, Captain Fowler, an Englishman late of the 38th regiment of foot; a man who in early life was [50] advanced, solely by merit and strict attention to the duties of a soldier, through every gradation, until he not only bore a captain's commission, but at the same time received the pay of adjutant and paymaster to three regiments.—Having attained to this rank, the favourite of Lord Percy, General Crosby and other officers of his day, and being in the high road to further honour and promotion, he was induced on the insidious misrepresentations of a sordid brother, to quit all these favours of fortune and come to America: here, at the instance of this relative embarking in one plausible speculation or another, he wasted his fortune; and now wears out the remainder of his days unknown at this tavern, kept by a good-hearted rough Irishman who has become his son-in-law. It is pleasing to see the attention that he receives from the family, which uniting with age and religion seem effectually to reconcile the old man to his fate.
SERVANTS
At this small house are maintained four female and two male servants, yet the house is not half cleaned, and the garden is little else but weeds; litter and dirt pervade the premises, while these Independents will play for hours at ball, or loll [51] over a rail to rest themselves. Behold a true picture-general! How pleasing to the lover of freedom to contemplate its blessed effects! Leisure, instead of inducing habits of mental improvement, and cleanliness, leaves them, in utter negligence of both, only to pass half their time in mere idleness and dirt: but why do I speak of the lower order while those, who should set these a better example, pass their days at taverns and other boarding-houses in idle games of shuffleboard and ninepins; or, seated for hours motionless under the shed which is universally attached to the houses, seem to exist solely to inhale the fumes of tobacco. Truly these people understand not liberty,—civilly, it is idleness and licentiousness; religiously, a leaving them to their wildest fancies.
BLACK POPULATION IN FREE PENSILVANIA
A black girl with youthful spirits was playing with a lad in the town street, when the wheelwright, with whom I was talking while he mended the carriage, said, "if it were not for fear of the [52] law one would be inclined to put an end to that black——; they ought to be taught the difference between a black and a white, and to pay more respect than to think of associating with them!"—The man spoke really in earnest, and would have thought little of putting the girl to death.
Immediately afterwards I met a white little boy who followed a tall mulatto woman, and with all his little strength was beating her with a stick; at length the woman could bear it no longer, and told him, if she should be whipped the next moment for it, she would pull his ears if he continued to do so. The same day, in my hearing a mulatto woman was threatened by her master with the application of the "cowhide" for not bringing the Independent his umbrella quick enough!
NIGHT
From the slight chirping of a few grasshoppers or crickets in England, no one can have a conception of the noise of a summer night here; all the insect tribe seem to open at once and to join in one perpetual chorus, very unpleasant to ears unaccustomed to it.
[53] AMERICANS AND SCOTS
The Pensilvanians resemble in many points the Scots: they go barefoot, they have both some dirty habits, neither have yet very generally erected temples to Cloacina beyond the immediate neighbourhood of great towns. A medical man lately told me that the itch, a disorder which proves uncleanliness where it prevails, was as rife as in Scotland; of drams of whisky and bitters they are equally fond. In cookery the comparison turns in favour of our northern neighbours, who understand it far better than they do here, where it is the most abominable messing and spoiling of provision imaginable: nothing but frying in butter till the stomach turns even at the smell; of vegetables they have but small variety, and of these the sickly tasting beet is a favourite, which they dress in the same disgusting way as the flesh-meat, neither good for palate or stomach.