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CHAPTER III.

MODES AND CONVENIENCES OF TRAVElling.

On the principal rivers there are very fine steampackets, agreeing with ours in every respect, except in there being no difference in the charge between the fore and aft cabin, and of course no separation between the genteel part of society, and the less polished. Republican notions of equality may contribute to this want of separation, but a more probable reason for it is, that it has been adopted in consequence of the stagecoaches having no seats for outside passengers, thus accustoming all classes to travel together without regard to station in life. Whatever may be the cause, considerable benefits result from it. The wealthy merchant, the learned lawyer, and the independent gentlemen, are likely to feel sympathy and respect for their less fortunate neighbours when they meet on the same footing; and to repress haughty deportment or manifestations of superiority. The poor learn to avoid that crouching so common to the poor in most parts of Europe, while, at the same time, the asperities of their manners and tempers are cor

rected by the example of those who have been taught to conciliate by gentleness and courtesy.

The coaches I have said carry no outside passengers, the alleged reason for which is, that the roads are not smooth enough to render outside travelling safe. This is true of most of the roads but not of all. In the neighbourhood of Boston, in Long Island, and between Philadelphia and Trenton, are roads sufficiently compact and level. How it is, that the coach proprietors on these and other good roads do not start coaches on the English model I cannot explain. None of the stage-coaches have any approach to stylishness; many of them are little adapted to secure the passengers from the inclemencies of the weather, having only leather curtains to exclude the wind and rain. In the winter, the better sort are padded with woollen cushions. The coach-box being nearly on a level with the seats, the driver can hear what passes in conversation between the passengers, when these cushions are removed, and the leather curtains only are left. In the newly settled parts, and in the bye-roads of the older, the traveller must content himself as well as he can in a light, tilted waggon, in which, if the road be rough, he will

painful to flesh and bones.

experience a jolting Great command of

temper is necessary for one, who after being accustomed to smooth roads and easy carriages, is for the first time seated in one of these waggons when travelling on what is technically called a gridiron road, that is, a road formed as that between St. Petersburg and Moscow originally was, of trunks of trees, placed across from side to side, covered with a layer of soil. On such a road, I have found the jolting so great as to knock my head violently against the sides and top of the vehicle, besides its making my hip-bones quite sore. What was the torture of Sisyphus compared to this! The man who can endure it without peevishness is a practical philosopher worthy of being ranked with the Stoics. I cannot give a person who has travelled in France, a better idea of American conveyances, than by saying they are much on a par with the French. On the other hand, the New York hackney-coaches are as superior to those of Paris or London, as English stage-coaches are to French. Postchaises have not yet been introduced.

The inns, or taverns as in many districts they are called, are correspondent to the roads by which they stand. Where but few travellers pass, they are as destitute of comfort as can be

well supposed. Large rooms without carpets or

other covering for the floor, the windows with broken panes of glass, the chairs and tables dirty, the chambers crowded with ten or a dozen beds having no curtains; these are the common characteristics. In the more frequented roads, the accommodations are of course better; and in many places so good, that the complainer of them is unreasonable, proving himself to be of a discontented, grumbling disposition. In the principal cities, the accommodations are equal to those to be found in our commercial towns: though there are no taverns in America furnished in the splendid style of the hotels of Bath, Edinburgh and Brighton. Such establishments could not at present succeed.

The usual reception the traveller finds at the inns, is that of cold civility; but the landlord and the waiter, though not obsequious, are generally sufficiently attentive. Some things in country places a little discomposed me at first, but resolving to act on the adage of doing at Rome as Rome does, and not suffer trifles to fret me, I found that I soon lost the sense of uneasiness. At Schenectady I requested to have a jug of water in my bed-room, but after waiting for some time and not receiving it, I resolved to get it for myself. The bar-keeper stared at me

with some surprize, for which I knew not how to account; but I afterwards observed that stage-coach passengers were expected to wash below. In small villages, this is the common practice; and I had sometimes to wipe on a towel which perhaps a dozen persons had used before me. Complaint would probably have been taken in ill part. I should have been considered troublesome, and perhaps told that if dissatisfied, I might look for other quarters. As to the beds, a point of great consequence to a traveller, I found it best not to be too particular. In several places, I had only one sheet, in others the sheets appeared to have been slept in several times since washing. But the worst is, that in many places several beds are placed in one room, and without regard to the feelings of the guests, or in any way consulting their desires, they are shown to them indiscriminately. At a tavern in North Carolina, I was shown to a bed into which a young man was about to enter, though no enquiry had been made of me if I had any objection to a bedfellow. I recognized him as a journeyman carpenter who was at work on the premises, a decently dressed, clean young fellow; but as I knew nothing of him, I was determined to sit up all night rather than share the bed with him. It had not entered their heads that I

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