BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Z891 A-..A:^.i(>.^. 24/.i>4^s PR 5632.0951893"™"''-"'"^ With Thackeray in America. 3 1924 013 362 "'goT' The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013362904 A COLLECTION OF LETTERS OF THACKERAY, 1847 — 1855. With numerous Portraits and Repro- ductions of Letters and Drawings. Gilt top, 8vo, $2.50 The same, cheaper edition, i6mo, , , 1.25 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA BY EYRE CROWE, A.R.A. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1893 Copyright, 1893, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Press of J. J. Little & Co. Astor Place, New York THIS BOOK DUE TO SIX months' CONSTANT TRAVEL WITH HER FATHER IS WITH HER KIND PERMISSION DEDICATED TO MRS. RICHMOND RITCHIE AS A TRIBUTE OF ADMIRATION FOR HER INHERITED LITERARY GIFTS AND FOR THE SAKE OF A LIFE-LONG FRIENDSHIP EYRE CROWE London Both February i8g3 PREFACE All readers of Thackeray know Ms delightful imaginary conversation- verses between "The Pen and the Album," written before his travels in the United States, and the concluding lines : — " stranger ! I never writ a flattery, Nor sign'd the page that register'd a lie." "The faithful old Gold Pen," to which he assigns these two noble qualifications of unswerving truthful- ness, and which he then adds had served him already for three long years in making his sketches, was part of his equipment of materials taken to the States. When it was not in his own grasp he allowed me to take it up for my sketching lucubrations, which were for the most part executed with its wondrously flexible and seemingly indestructible nib. He was so far pleased with my efforts that, not content with show- ing them to our American friends, who also nodded approvingly over their sometimes grotesque yet faith- ful renderings of every-day scenes as they struck a VIU PREFACE newcomer's fancy, he urged me to make a selection from them, and to forward them to London for publica- tion in an illustrated periodical. Whether they ever reached their destination I forgot to ascertain on my return. This neglect on my part I now lament, as among the drawings was one of the Washington House of Representatives, with a portrayal of the different members sitting at their semi-circularly- placed desks, fronting the Speaker's Chair, over which soared majestically the American eagle. This loss must be my apology for omitting from this collection any representation of the holders of the great politi- cal helm of' the States. Perhaps the chance owner may hereafter let me know of its whereabouts, and in case of future editions, if any, kindly allow me to repair the gap. Whilst contrasting the scenes delineated forty years ago with subsequent accounts which have reached us in numberless books of travel, not to mention the useful successive "Appleton Guide" editions, I have been struck with the appositeness of Carlyle's epithet applied to progressive Columbia, as " the never-resting locomotive country." What was then fact may now seem to border on fiction. But, for my own part, I trust that this may be ac- cepted as a record of actual life imbued with the subtle spirit of truth flowing from "the faithful old PREFACE IX Gold Pen," and not belying tlie honest character ascribed to it by the owner. I may take this opportunity of here thanking my kind friend Mr. Wemyss Reid, who encouraged me to publish these sketches and their accompanying text. The llhbstrated London News printed a very few of the illustrations in the old familiar wood-cut manner, now superseded for the most part by other facsimile processes, justifying their re-insertion here. House- hold Words also published my account of -the Vir- ginian slave sale, which has now been amplified with incidents there omitted for the sake of brevity. CONTENTS CHAPTER I Esmond" — Lectures at Liverpool and Manchester — Savile Morton — Voyage across the Atlantic — Boston— Custom House — Shandrydan — Tremont — A Rapid Repast — Bunker's Hill — MM. Prescott and Ticknor — In the Cars — "Thackeray's Works" — Arrival in New York — Mr. Bancroft — Spirit-Rapping — The Rev. Theodore Parker and Horace Greeley CHAPTER II The Rev. Mr. Chapin's Chapel — Lectures — Brooklyn — American Art — Leah — Wall Street — Bamum — Genius — James Harper and Apple- ton — G. P. R. James — Boston Museum — William Allston — "Coast- ing '' — Stuart's Portrait of General Washington — New York Once More — A Claimant — ^Washington Irving — T. P. Meagher — Sleighing — Governor's Island — New Jersey — Non- Abstainers . . .45 CHAPTER III Philadelphia — A Quaker's Meeting — Negro Disability — An Historical Porch — W. B. Read— Washington — Lecture on "Humour and Charity " at New York — Washington and Baltimore — Presidential LevSe — The Ericsson— The Iron Jackson— Congress . . .101 xii CONTENTS CHAPTER IV PAGE Richmond, Va. — A Slave Sale — Houdon's Statue of Washington — Petersburg, Va.— Charleston — An Empty Valise — Savannah — New York Once More .... 125 CHAPTER V New York to Albany — The Senate — Lecturing — New York — "Lucy's Birthday" — Farewell to the States — The Euro;pa — Liverpool — Paris — Champs Blysees and the Latin Quarter 168 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Thackeray lecturing in New York .... Frontispiece The Emblem of Office 1 On Board the Canada 14 The Captain taking an Observation 15 Officer taking an Observation 16 A Passenger 16 The Deep Sea Lead 17 Our Conveyance 19 Young America .......... 23 " 'Erald and Tribune " 33 The "Poet Bunn" 33 Madame Sontag 35 On the Commercial Wharf, Boston 37 Atthe "Tremont" 38 Boston from Bunker's Hill 39 William Hickling Prescott 30 George Ticknor 31 Expectaroons 33 A Splashy Bed 33 "Tha:ckeray's Works, Sir !" 34 A Group of Children 36 In the Accommodation Train 37 Mr. Bancroft 38 Mr. Bancroft's Lecture 39 Table-Turning 40 The Eev. Theodore Parker at the Tabernacle, New York . . 41 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Horace Greeley . 42 Tailpiece 44 The Rev. H. Bellows 45 President Fillmore 49 New York, from Brooklyn . . . . . . . . 50" Black Coachmen .......... 53 Lafarge Hotel . ........ 53 The Brushing Process 54 The Broadway .......... 55 The Broadway Omnibus . . . . . . . . . 56' Seal-Tiger, So-called 57 Barnum's Museum 58 Barnum 59 Barnum's Agent 60 Drinks 61 John N. Genin's Hat Store 63 Taking your Measure . 64 The Result . 64 At Harpers' 66 G. W. Curtis 68 A Pair of Bluchers 69 At the Melodeon, Boston 71 Custom House, Boston 73 From " Belshazzar's Feast " 73 "Coasting" 75 At the Boston Sessions 76 A Glimpse of 'Cliange . . 77 Wall Street, New York 78 An Advertisement . 79 Closing Time 80 A Jeweller's Sign 81 A Dock Loafer 81 The Rev. Eleazar Williams 88 Washington Irving .... 84 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XT PAGE The Refreshment Room ^^ Thomas Francis Meagher 8° Sleigh Stages 88, 89 After the Fire, New York The Tombs Prison . . ^^ An Execution Morning outside the Tombs 91 Governor's Island ^^ Volunteers' March .... ^^ Clinton Hall ^^ Canvas-bacli Ducks .... • ... 98 News Room, Philadelphia 99 Meeting of Friends, Philadelphia 101 Quakers An Unpleasant Incident • 1"* Baltimore '^^^ A Notice of Death 1^''' The Declaration of Independence 109 A Black Servant ^^^ Bust of "Washington A Presidential Reception Presidents Pierce and Fillmore H''' 118 General Cass ....•••••■• The Supreme Court in Session 119 121 General Scott .... 123 A Stump . 124 Restoratives ..■•••■••■■ • • 127 Testing Tobacco, Virginia ^. . ;, . . 129 Richmond In the Richmond Slave Market .... . . 133 An Old Stove . . io. After Houdon's Washington 1^^ An American Barber's, Richmond, Va 139 Easter Monday, Petersburg, Va 1*^ On the Banks of the Appomattox, Petersburg, Va. . . . 143 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Ou Board the Governor Dudley 144 A Guard 145 A Negro Ball, Charleston, Ca 147 Dressed for the Ball 148 At the Charleston Hotel 149 Negro Faces 151 The Cliarleston Slave Market 153 St. Michael's Church, Charleston 154 Negro Types 155 Charleston ........... 156 " Cotton is King " . . 157 Shopping at Charleston . ....... 158 Market Women 159 At the "Clarendon," New York 160 The Chinese Divinity Student 163 Broadway Fashions . . ....... 163 Bomaventura, near Savannah ........ 164 A Peanut Seller 165 A New York Congregation ........ 166 The Senate, Albany 169 Pierre Soulfi ........ 171 "Four Bells" 173 Cape Clear . 176 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA THE BMBLEM OF OFFICE WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA CHAPTER I "Esmond" — Lectures at Liverpool and Manchester — Savile Morton — Voyage across the Atlantic — Boston — Custom House — Shandry- dan — Tremont — ^ Rapid Repast — Bunker's Hill — MM. Prescott and Ticknor — In the Cars — "Thackeray's Works" — Arrival in New York — Mr. Bancroft — Spirit-Rapping — The Rev. Theodore Parker and Horace Greeley. " Six montlis' tumblmg about tlie world will do you no harm," was tlie inducing phrase which Thackeray used when he kindly asked me to accompany him as his factotum and amanuensis on his forthcoming journeyings in the United States. When he noticed my hesitation as to acceptance of the post, arising in a great measure from my doubts as to my having 1 1 2 y^ITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA the proper capacity — or " spryness," as lie expressed it — for organising and arranging the business part of the lecturing, he pointed out that another half-year would elapse before his departure, and that I could try my 'prentice-hand, first, during these months, in the same capacity. 'Twas thus I found myself installed in doing secretarial work at his pleasant Kensingtonian home in Young Street. The emblem of office, a knowing-looking green dispatch-box, of which the outer leather case bore many traces of long and honour- able use in Continental travel, was presented to me by the owner, then possessor of a more splendid desk. I retain it now — not only as a valued memento and gift of the owner, but as reminding me of the many pleasant epistolary, documentary, and sketching fragments it contained during my subsequent stay in America. A selection of these sketches has been made, upon which the following text may be taken as merely a running commentary. Two scraps of paper lying for two-score years dor- mant in this receptacle, in pocket-books, will serve to show the sort of mingled preoccupations engaging the author at that time, and will illustrate the easy duties involved in secretaryship. The first is a memorandum directing me to make inquiries at the British Museum. When my new indoctrination as amanuensis A SCRAP OF PAPER 3 began, the first portion of " Esmond " was completed, written upon small slips of note-paper kept in the firm grip of an elastic band. They were not written, as was the case with the calligraphy of his great proto- type the novel-writer Balzac, in crabbed handwriting, bristling with after-thought emendations, but, on the contrary, in the beautiful penmanship so well known, and of which the annexed slip is another example, and with scarcely any interpolations or marginal repentirs. The person who stated that all the writing of " Esmond " MS. was dictated was, therefore, to that extent inexact. The passage to which the note refers 4 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA is in the second book of "Esmond," and contained, I think, in about the fifteenth chapter. I went to the great and unique source of all English trustworthy information, the British Museum, and I asked for the Gazettes as printed in 1708 by the great Jacob Tonson, in Gray's Inn Gate, and I ferreted out the items to be incorporated in the narrative. But this last became so complex, as the author went on with his story, that he had to trust not alone to vicarious excerpts, but used to charter a cab and to come along with me to the British Museum. An appeal to an obliging attendant brought us through the non-public portion of the Library, where, I remember, on his touching a hidden spring in what seemed to be beautifully bound folios, but which were in reality only the sham backs of these, a door flew open, and Ave were in the presence of Sir Antonio Panizzi, whose life Mr. Fagan has so pleasantly unfolded in after-years. He readily granted permission to write in one of the secluded galleries, at a table placed in the midst of the volumes to be consulted. I sat down and wrote to dictation the scathing sentences about the great Marlborough, the denouncing of Cadogan, etc., etc. As a curious instance of literary contagion, it may be here stated that I got quite bitten with the expressed anger at their misdeeds against General Webb, Thackeray's kinsman and ancestor; and that I "ESMOND" FINISHED 5 then looked upon Secretary Cardonnel's conduct with perfect loathing. I was quite delighted to find his meannesses Justly pilloried in " Esmond's " pages. It was not without peculiar piquancy that this was done upon the site of old Montague House and its gardens, famous in those Queen Anne days ; as " Prue," Steele's wife, exclaimed : " This is where you wretches go and fight duels." To save ears polite, the irascible expletive applied to Cardonnel, printed in full in the first edition, was mitigated to the more presentable " d d " form in after-issues. Equally complaisant were the secretary and com- mittee of the Athenaeum Club, where the same method of dictation was pursued in one of the side rooms off the large library there. I do not recollect that these utterances, not at all delivered sotto voce, disturbed the equanimity of either Church, law, or science dignitaries frequenting that luxuriously seated library. A red-letter day was Saturday, May 28th, when Thackeray was able to write the word " End," thus concluding the "History of Esmond." It was, I recollect, on a pleasant balmy day, and the work had proceeded in accordance with that atmosphere to its close. A friendly party h^d been invited to dinner, and he expressed a wish that I should join the 6 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA circle. The temptation was great — with the prospect of drinking a bumper to success. My habiliments, however, were not of the festive, but of the workaday sort, and I could not readily get another suit; so I lost the chance of celebrating the event in proper trim. The visit to America then came uppermost. A week before this date, as may be seen from the following letter addressed by Thackeray to Mr. Felt, the formal proposal had reached London. 13, Young Street, Kensington. May 2Ut, 1853. Sir,— His Excellency the American Minister [The Hon. Abbott Lawrence, Min. Plen.] has forwarded to me your kind letter and proposal, for which I return my best thanks to the directors of the Mercantile Library at New York. My wish is to deliver in that city and elsewhere in the United States the six lectures [on the English humorous writers of Queen Anne's reign] thnt have been received with great favour in this country. I have no agent in America, and purposed to enter into no arrangements until I arrived myself at New York or Boston, and could determine personally what would be the best course to pursue. If, as your kind letter suggests, arrangements could be made by which I could deliver my lectures in several cities of the Union, and proposals to tliat effect were made to me, I should very thankfully entertain them — premising always that no objection would be made to my giving lectures to other public societies, and at such charges as my friends at New York and elsewhere might think advisable. Millard L. Felt, Esq., Etc. Etc. Corresponding Secretary, Mercantile Library. THE "FIELDING" 7 This was the begimuDg of a somewhat lengthened correspondence. The Boston author and publisher Mr. Fields had already made suggestions as to lecturing there. Questions of priority soon cropped up, ultimately left for final solution till the arrival in the States. The summer months glided by, chiefly employed in revising the " Esmond " proof-sheets, a slower process than is usually the case, owing to a compara- tively small supply of the not-much-used type of the reign of Queen Anne, which was one of the features of the first edition. A new club had at this time sprung into life, called by Thackeray the " Fielding," which met in Henri- etta Street, Covent Garden. His contribution to its comfort was an illustrated screen, print-covered for the most part, but made more valuable by the addi- tion of two of his own gold-pen-and-ink studies. The subjects were two street Arabs caught in the law's meshes. The first was in the grip of a Bow Street runner of Fielding's time ; in the next a tattered son of St. Giles was being " run in " by the modern Bobby, who hauls him before the Beak, with a view to his improvement in a refoimatory. Mrs. Ritchie has, in her plteasant "Chapters from some Unwritten Memoirs," told her numerous readers of her father's genuine relish of Carlyle's "enchanting 8 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA screen," to wliich lie had also contributed. And, years ago, I recollect Ms amused scanning of the motley prints upon the paravent of the " Trafalgar " at Greenwich — before the advent of " souchet " and whitebait — to which he had invited us. But as the " Trafalgar " has closed its doors, so has the once hos- pitable Fielding Club — to which I recollect also being invited as a guest — made way for more modern brick- work. Many guests have vanished thence. I wonder where these pleasant screen-appurtenances have gone to? I often have wished for the stenographic power, which enables many chroniclers to give the charm of the random talk of gifted men. Far pleasanter are these rapid utterances than the more poised sentences of public speaking. In this latter vein is on record the speech made at the " Freemasons' Tavern " this year by Thackeray as he presided at the Literary Fund Dinner. At the end of September we went down to Liver- pool, celebrating the inauguration of the lecturing tour by testing the famous " clear turtle " of the " Adelphi " there, ere we went into more homely quarters during our fortnight's stay. A veil is drawn here over this "memorial of gormandising," which, in truth, was sober enough. The twin courses of lectures given in the two first A PRELIMINARY LEG TURING TOUR 9 October weeks were thus dove-tailed as to time and delivery — MANCHESTER Tuesdays. Thursdays. 28th Sept. 30tli Bept. 5th Oct. 7th Oct. 12th " 14th " LIVERPOOi Wednesdays. Fridays. 29th Sept. Ist Oct. 6th Oct. 8th " 13th " 15th" This arrangement necessitated see-sawing by train from one place to the other. There was a curious contrast in the initial recep- tion of the lectures in these Lancashire centres, the rooms of the Manchester Athenaeum being well filled, but at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, on the con- trary, the audience was so small as to call forth from one signing himself " Dickey Sam " (in the Liverpool Mercury of October let) the statement " that a more heart-depressing sight than that which presented itself to Mr. Thackeray, I think I have never witnessed, to hear the Fielding of the nineteenth century." The subsequent lectures, however, made amends; and the whole course, in both places, went off with great eclat. At Liverpool cheery lodgings in Renshaw Street, over Parry's Library, were found for us ; and free use was made of its stock of books — the Public Library, which only opened a few days after 10 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA we left, being then unavailable — Steele's Letters and Bozzy's Life of Johnson coming in for re- perusal as old friends and ever-fresh companions. I only recollect that here Thackeray, in the inter- val of awaiting the lecture hour in the little side room of the Philharmonic, either translated or amended his version of B^ranger's beautiful lines in " Ma Vocation " — "Jet6 sur cette boule, Laid, chgtif, et souSrant," etc. I forget whether, as first given in his Goldsmith lecture, the lines were read in French or not. During his stay at Liverpool occurred a tragical event, which happened on the 4th, but which was only reported the next day, the 5th of October. On opening a paper Thackeray read a brief telegram announcing that his friend Savile Morton, the Paris correspondent of the Daily News, had been stabbed — dying of his wounds — by a brother-journalist, seized Avith a fit of frenzied rage against him. It caused a great shock of surprise to us both, whose friend he had been. Thackeray mournfully recapitulated his many charming qualities; his artistic early educa- tion, merged, like his own, into more bread-winning literature ; and finally alluded to his many Bohemian adventures, summing up his life as having been A DAMPER 11 "one scrape." His loss was tnuch felt by tlie staff of the paper lie had served so faithfully. In lounging through the gay streets, thronged with an interesting population of seafarers and others, I I'ecollect Thackeray's gaze being riveted for some time looking into a printshop at a likeness of another lost friend, late the chief magistrate of Liverpool, Edward Rushton. The print recalled old days of boon-companionship and Reform Club foregather- ings ; and so, with a regretful " How like it is ! " we passed on. Unpleasant sensations, it is said, seldom come singly; so it turned out now. On seeking a resting-place for weary limbs, we turned into the literary institution called the Athenaeum, where English and American newspapers were to be seen. He chanced upon an article in a New York sheet containing a bitter philippic upon no less a person than himself. It belonged to that now exploded form of bitter personality. It denounced as uncalled for his intended visit to the United States, as encouraging that already too numerous class of lecturers who first mulct the citizens of their dollars, and then return to their own country to lampoon them. It was felt at first as a decided damper. But further reflection made him think the onslaught harmless, and the sting in it only of the pin-prod order. 12 WITS THACKERAY IN AMERICA The latter half of October was spent in farewell visits to friends, Thackeray spending most of his time in London. His correspondence of this time is saddened by a dash of foreboding bodily ills — which, luckily, were not fulfilled. On a fine autumnal day, the golden leafage in English pastures being at its best, we left London by train for Liverpool, the first stage of our Journey to the States ; this was on the 29th of October. About a hundred passengers, as an after-ref- erence to the name-list showed us, were doing the same. Thackeray had been invited, as well as myself, to take shelter on this last evening in the hospitable house of Mr. Ratcliffe, of the firm of Bailey Brothers, iron-masters; and we drove to Clarence Terrace, which commands a fine view of the Mersey and its shipping. A friendly party met at dinner ; amongst the rest the Mayor of Liverpool, Mr. Thomas Littledale. The piece de resistance at the banquet, in the shape of roast sucking-pig, was received with all the honours of loud laughter. The considerate hostess, knowing the Thackerayan fondness for that succulent joint, had prepared this surprise for him, and had donned it in its appetising crackle-coating. But, of course, the prospective sailors, as well as their brother- guests, felt that this was hardly the proper foundation EN VOYAGE 13 for meeting stoutly the heaving billows of the morrow. Undaunted, however, by the somewhat dubious results foreshadowed, full justice was done to this part of the rnemi,, breaking up the festivities, in first-rate humour, late in the evening. The next day, October 30th, we bade farewell to our kind hosts, and before ten o'clock, the appointed hour, we found ourselves, on a bright sunshiny morn- ing, waiting for the tender at the end of the landing stage. Whilst we were looking out for it, and mind- ing that no traps were missing, a messenger suddenly arrived with a large batch of correspondence and a yet larger square brown-paper parcel. On opening the latter Thackeray found therein several copies of " Esmond," in three volumes, of which this instalment, the first issued, reached him just in time before starting. He turned over the uncut leaves, expressed himself well pleased with this finale of lengthened labour on his part, and thought the Smith and Elder firm had well capped their acceleration of production of the proof-sheets with this wind-up of their neat binding ere 'he left the English shore. The tender came alongside ; we embarked upon it, and were soon clambering up the ladder swung on the sides of the royal mail ship Canada (Captain Lang), the gallant vessel moving along as we did so. We felt, as most do on such occasions, that the ship 14 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA looked mucli smaller than our anticipations had led us to expect, and was not such as to correspond in impor- tance with the renowned personages in the world of ON BOARD THE "CANADA' literature now grouped together on board. Besides Thackeray, there was Russell Lowell, fresh from Italy. Coming up the companion ladder, I noticed a EN VOYAGE 15 burly form, in mustard-coloured inexpressibles, and a wideawake hat crowning a swarthy face. This was Arthur Hugh Clough, the poet and Oxford Don, whose published Diary gives a pleasant account of this voyage and of the people on board. I have pre- served the sketch of a few of them as they clustered round the binnacle. Towering above all in size, you note, chatting, Titmarsh himself, with head and travelling-cap above the line of the horizon. I soon discovered that I did not belong to that class of people who follow the advice of enterprisiiig encyclopaedic dictionary publishers, to buy and read their volumes through on a sea voyage, emerging from their perusal at the end in the possession of a portentous fund of knowledge. I preferred sketching to I'eading. Here are selected a few of these Jotting*. First notice Captain Lang, sex- tant in hand, deter- mining our where- abouts at noon, if the sun appeared at that convenient juncture. Also . his lieutenant ^^' ^r"' ""'''3 *" o^"''-^'- | 16 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA assisting- him in this im- portant operation. Next is a passenger, for whom his co-mates clubbed together to present him with a valuable razor and piece of soap on arrival, as he seemed utterly destitute of these two commodities. The sailors' dress and their well- knit forms always aiford good lines, whether " heaving the log," as here seen, or giving a coat of paint to the masts or spar- gear. When nearing Cape Race the vessel was brought-to, and the engines suddenly ceased to throb, the steamer balancing on a gentle swell. Conversations ceased ; every- body watched to see what would be revealed by the deep-sea lead. (Brother land - lubbers, please pro- nounce " dipsey - lead " as you here gaze at its shape and its tell-tale indicator .PAssm«EB ABJRIVAL AT HALIFAX 17 of depth of tte sea under you full many a fathom.) 'Twas all right ; we were in our proper course ; the lights ceased to twinkle ; on the vessel ploughed once more for Halifax. When that port THE BEEF-BEA LEAD was reached, I remained below, and thus missed the chance of landing and seeing the place in darkness. I afterwards heard that when refreshing themselves at this nocturnal bar, by a sudden frolic some passengers put up to mock auction the negro attendant, who was run up to a tremendous price. The freeman probably took it as a great compli- ment, and as an acknowledgment of his efficiency in the serving line. 18 WITH TRACKER AY IN AMERICA It Avas a deliglitful sensation to be steaming between the rocky reefs on entering the Boston harbour, after being pent up for so many days. Our captain donned his best suit, and appeared on deck silver trumpet in hand ; and after bumping against a jjier, then backing once more, he sent out the ha^vser, Avhich now bound us to the Kew England shore. We had, overhead, a most glorious sunset effect of cloud- land, quite eclipsing the now already darkening outline of the distant town of Boston. Thackeray looked on, interested to watch the numerous forms of greeting of friends. As yet there were no visible signs of his visit being expected ; an absence of demonstrativeness quite at variance with former un- burthening of welcome, as described by Dickens and others. The facetiae perpetrated in the " American Notes " had damped the enthusiastic ardour of the Yankees, who now hung out no exuberant bunting. There seemed to be not even a solitary interviewing reporter to greet the lecturer as he stood, his small bag in hand, looking on at the bustling crowds. This was, however, only simulated reticence ; they soon showed abundant proofs of a hearty predisposition in his favour. Tempted by the comparatively moderate charges made in Europe for male and female apparel, most of the passengers had no easy task to get through. THE DRIVE TO BOSTON 19 in securing their accumulated trunks when passed by the investigating Custom House officials. The luggage brought by us looked quite Insignifi- cant by comparison. A portmaflteau, a black bag, a OUK CONVEYANCE dispatch-case, and an umbrella, summed up the Thackerayan irapedirnenta, which, along with my still more exiguous luggage, were soon hoisted up on the top of a vehicle of the most primitive type. My outline of it, hastily done in crayon, will give a notion of its quaint internal anatoir^. Its cramped 20 WITS THACKERAY IN AMERICA space ill-suited the long limbs wMcli tried vainly to accommodate themselves within it, and a grin per- vaded the English humorist's face as he scanned its marvellous fittings of leather straps which served as back-rests. Before closing the door four dollars each was demanded by the rapacious driver; and when he was thus satisfied, the gloi-ious sunset and its accompanying twin rainbow having made way by this time for dusk and for twinkling lights, we bumped into Boston by circuitous routes, till Ave reached the hospitable shelter of the "Tremont House," where quarters had been secured beforehand for us. A gratulatory supper was soon put before us, and the kindly greeting of Mr. Fields in this huge banqueting-room — ^which we had at this late hour to ourselves, till Joined suddenly by our friend Mr. Arthur Clough — made amends in its cheering prospect for our somewhat forlorn arrival. The great feature was a large dish of oysters, one of which Thackeray took up on his fork-end, and glancing at it said it must have resembled the right ear of Malchus when cut off, as recorded in Holy Writ. Feeling s(Jmewhat oppressed by the banquet, Mr. Fields suggested, as a finale and sedative, the straw-tickled sherry-cobbler. For this we adjourned to the smoking-room. Thus began the series of FIRST IMPRESSIONS 21 feastings in superabundance, whicli afterwards made tlie chief recipient' describe his American tour as resulting in one unbroken " indigestion!" "We retired to well-earned rest. Next morning, on comparing notes, we agreed that the beds seemed to us to have rocked, and that wave-breaks still acted as a lullaby in our sleep; Thackeray going so far as to aver that he had actually tumbled out of bed in the lurches of imagination. In tiying to recall first impressions as they struck us newcomers in this land of kith and kin, I seem to have been chiefly exercised by the precocity of youthful callings, mostly tending to the acquisition of knowledge, and, along with it, the craving for intelligent mental pleasures : in the first instance, as exemplified in the typical newsboy, who did not, as with us, din with ear-shrieking sounds the latest news from the pavement; he simply made his way straight into drawing-room or hotel parlour with his batch of " ^Eralda and Tribunes" which once handed to the purchasers, he went off, as a capitalist brat of eight years of age. When you turned to the reader of the said papers, you found he was a lad scarcely in his teens, already devouring the toughest leaders, and mastering the news of the world whilst whiffing his cigar, and not without making shies at a huge expectorator close at hand. WITH THACKERAY IN A2IERICA Thackeray showed these graphic efforts of mine to limn their features to guests of his, as- sembled at the "Tremont" at this time, as I S" tried my hand at carving an enor- 'yOUv4i A-U^AA^^A 3«STtftv. t^vt.. tion in dissection Notwithstanding sembled company, I recollect, gave it a Western origin, and stated — I make no doubt, truly — that this favorite Christmas fare originally came, as it still con- tinued to do, from Virginia, mous turkey, my first indoctrina- of such huge wings and drumsticks. the bird's Eastern name, the as- THE "POET BUNN' 33 They good-naturedly acknowledged the general trutli of the designs, in the lulls of mastication. As yet those masterly sketches which delight us THE "POET BUNN in American illustrated works, with such astonishing wealth of observation and with such skilful draughts- manship, had not appeared, or I might have found my critics more difficult to please. I 'forget whether amongst the scratches was the one now included, representing the well-known figure of 24 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA the impresario Bunn, the " poet Bunn " of Punch. This popular librettist was at the "Revere House," where Ave paid him a visit. Like mine host, he had come to lecture in the States — on his stage experiences. In the published character-drawings of him, including the well-known Titmarshian ones, he was attired in fault- less evening costume. Here he is seen en dishabille. It was on a Sunday, I recollect, after church hours, and his prayer-book was on the table, and beside it a refreshing B. and S. tumbler: Beckoning to the one, he said, " Here is business ; " and to the other, " Here is pleasure." This was not said with any irreverence, as this curt sentence might suggest. The man, in the midst of much frolicsome spirit, was really of a serious and religiovis frame of mind, exemplified in his later days by his turning a devout Roman Catholic and dying in the odour of sanctity at Boulogne-sur- Mer, Avhere he spent his last breath. In the same hotel we next visited the famous prima donna- Madame Sontag. Here is her graceful appearance, to which feeble justice is done, but which may pass as the pictorial parting record of a world- famed cantatrice. She was then engaged in farewell touring concerts. She spoke in mellifluous French : talked of the Jenny Lind successes before her own, scarcely expecting to rival the enormous profits made by that popular songstress, but still with the prospect MME. SON TAG 25 of realizing a competence ; then, waving her hand across her throat, announced to her visitor her in- Vl\^-'i1• SttJt^ij ferflsi- tention of closing her gosier after her present tour. With her, as in the case of too many faces met 26 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA in those now remote days, it has to be recorded that Fate, in the shape of some malarious attack, closed for ever her public career long before it could have been said to have run its natural course. A sketch of her as she appeared at this time, and her hand- gesture expressing her ■ above-mentioned determination to retire, may be accepted as pei'haps the last illus- tration taken of the features of Countess Rossi. The "Melodeon" (p. 41) was the handsome concert hall at that time ; we went to hear the famous songstress there. Thackeray, who was to lecture there a month later, took note of the acoustic capabilities of the hall, and ascertained the proper voice-pitch needed. Mr. Fields has amused his readers by giving his version of this occasion, when Thackeray, who sat beside him, volunteered to give imaginary readings of character of each person as they took their seats in the stalls near us. When Mr. Fields, who knew everybody, afterwai'ds told us the real life of those so playfully described, these readings were found to be in most cases much nearer the reality than the usual guesses of palmists or phrenologists. These wiseacres may be said not to see much farther into character than yonder wooden sailor seen perched on a supporting bracket on the Boston Quay, making believe to take an observa- tion with a sham sextant on a non-existent sun. In old and new guide-books, when compared THE " TREMONT' 37 together, the striking change is noticed in the fashion of hotel resorts. Thus we are informed that the claims, then paramount, of the " Tremont " an^ the " Revere " ON THE COMMERCIAL WHARF, BOSTON hotels, have succumbed to those of yet more splendid ones, called the " Vendome " and the " Brunswick." In the fifties the " Tremont " was new, clean, and full ■2S WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA (if comforts, with an abundant cuisine of the best — Avhether (as we sometimes did) availing yourself of the special room set apart foi" repasts of persons having lady friends with them, or in the more numerously attended general table WJibte. I recollect at this last AT THE " TREMONT ' resort, when coming in rather late, taking inadvert- ently a vacant seat at a side table. I had soon a gasping sense of gulping down my food too rapidly, as active waiters j^lied one, without intervals of rest, with successive dishes. On demanding the explana- tion of this unwonted expedition, and expressing a DANIEL WEBSTER. 29 wish for a temporary respite, I was informed this was " an express table " for people anxious to catch, a train and with few minutes to spare in degustation. I carefully avoided it in future ; I feel sure I should otherwise have succumbed to liver complaint. The latest victim to this dire and insidious mal- ady was the great orator Daniel Webster. All the streets were, at this period, festooned with mourning draperies, his funeral having taken place on the 29th of October. The papers were filled with panegyrics of his career. One of his greatest flights of oratory, it was then aven-ed, was on the occasion of the inauguration of the Quincy granite pillar, 221 feet high, better known as the Bunker Hill Monument, ten years before his death. I naturally went to in- spect it, crossing the Charlestown Ferry for that purpose. I here give the outline of the pleasant prospect of Boston from that place, though probably ulterior conflagrations and demolitions may have quite altered its aspect since then. 30 WITH THACKERAY IS AMERICA Of that stern fight two I'elics, as noted afterwards in the first chapter of "The Virginians," were sus- pended at that time in the library of William Hickling Prescott, the historian. They have, since his death, been transferred to the Massachusetts Library as a bequest. They were the swords of two relatiA'es of the historian, fighting on opposite sides at the neierhbourins: Port of Charlestown ; the naval hero's name, on the Royal side, Avas Cap- tain John Linzee, graudfathei' of Mrs. Prescott ; the other, his oppo- nent, was Col. William Prescott, grandfather of the author. W. H. Prescott only lived half a dozen years after the time of our meeting him, having a graceful eulogium paid him by his English friend. Most of the likenesses of him Avere full-faced, besides being youthful ones ; here is his profile, in Avhich his blindness is not notice- able. In his conversation he made you forget this misfortune by his cheery and bland Avay of looking at life. I am glad to have caught its semblance. It brings back to mind the cosy library. His wading through old records, aided by his secretary, was portentous; but this did not- dull his bright A-iew of men and things, which suited your humour as his \V. H. PKESCOTT "OLD HUNKER" 31 clothes did the weather. 'Tis said, I know not with what truth, his overcoats were all labelled as suited for certain degrees of temperature, and were donned accordingly when he sallied forth under the guidance of his secretary. He was what we call an Ultra- Conservative, there known under the pleasing appella- tion of "Old Hunker." In height and gait Professor Fawcett, who conquered fame also by indomitable pluck against the same calamity, reminded me of his tall erect figure strolling out hitched to the elbow of his amanuensis. Belonging also to the same euphoniously named party was George Ticknor, historian of Span- ish literature, whose companion physiognomy is here inserted. Here, again, in his home, were rows of well-ordered bookshelves. One evening — I recollect, it was after the " Congreve " lecture — we were hos- pitably invited to adjourn to Mr. Ticknor's house for a sociable chat over pipes and baccy. A prapos of " pipes " and their introduction into the lecture of the evening, someone asked what they really meant, and what was the Pipe Office. Mr. Ticknor took down from one of his well-supplied shelves a technological dictionary — Spelman's, I think — from which he read GEOBUE TICKNOI! 33 ^^ITIl THACKERAY IN AMERICA out the following explanation :—^^ So called because the papers were kept in a large pipe or cask." But since tliat time, in the edition de luxe of Thackeray's works published in 1879, a full number "Exptttan-tclii, (LaJuls:. ,Sn, of annotations appear to throw doubts upon this meaning, and the perplexed reader is allowed to choose whichever version he pleases. This fully Justifies the reticence of the author, who only nodded in partial acquiescence in the proposed reading of the word by his friend Mr. Ticknor. Difiiculties hereafter might occur if trusting to conflicting lexicographers. For example, they allude EXPECTORA TORS 33 to pipes, they dilate upon tobacco, but the useful receptacles for the moistening results, popularly known as " spittoons," or " expectorators," or " expect- aroons," are terms jealously excluded from their A SPLASHY BED vocabularies ; yet they are palpable enough to the senses. The courtyard of the Charleston Hotel was piled with these in the morning, when the wholesome water-hose was turned upon them vigorously, a sight quite unique in its way. This, however, is in antici- pation of events. Insufficient, strange to say, they were, for I recol- lect being put into a bedroom the walls of which were maculated with the bistre-coloured emissions of former slumberers on the same pillow. 3 34 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA On the 16th of November, and in pleasant balmy- weather, we left Boston for New York, after a week's stay. We took the cars at eight o'clock in the morn- ing, and I was duly laden with a lot of heavy brass checks corresponding to others fixed to our lug- gage, each label being suspended to a leather strap. Thackeray has described a scene which I here illustrate in outline, though unconscious, as I saw it, of the bygone memories it personally evoked in his person, of which he afterwards, in the preface to the New York edition of his works, made the New York public, and therefore the whole reading world, a confidant. It was when " a rosy-cheeked little peri- patetic book-merchant " accosted him with his own THACKERAY'S WORKS, SIR I ' ON THE WAY TO NEW YORK 35 volumes, and called out " Thackeray's Works ! " quite unaware that he was addressing the author himself. He therefore re-read his "Shabby Grenteel Story," of a dozen years before, as we were whisked along the undulating territory of Massachusetts. I expended twenty-five cents in the purchase of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," and was properly harrowed by the tale told by Mrs. Beecher-Stowe. But Thackeray declined to plunge into its tale of woe ; his opinion expressed upon it being that stories founded upon such painful themes were scarcely within the legitimate purview of story- telling. Besides, judicious friends had dinned well into his ears the propriety of his not committing himself to either side of the Slavery Question, then a burning one, if he wished his career as a lecturer not to become a burthen to him. He dwelt in preference upon the blithe aspects of American life, such as the group of children in the cars, eight in number, every one of whom he wished there and then to present with a dollar tip a-piece. Their conversation was of the outspoken sort, so we soon learnt their tribulations, the most serious of which was having forgotten to bring with them a cake prepared for the journey. Jimmy, the white- hatted youngster, evidently felt the loss acutely. But when we were crossing the ferry the cake was replaced by another, soon sliced up and devoured. d3 30 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA Meanwhile the train went on at a good speed, with intermittent stoppages. At one of the stations, where an appetising lunch was set out, to which I Avas doing full Justice, not hearing the departure signal, I only got on the platform in time to see the i GROUP OF CHILDKEX receding engine and cars speeding on and leaving me solitary on the platform. The metal labels seemed to weigh heavier somehow in my pocket as I sud- denly realised to myself the discomfort caused to the owner of the baggage in not having these vouchers forthcoming on arrival in Ne^v York. I came on by a slow train, known technically as an " accommodation " one, which stopped at every station, and brought me some time later to New York. GEORGE BANCROFT 37 I got out, and, having gone some distance,* in- quired for the " Clarendon Hotel." " Second block," was the reply, and it dawned upon me that the direction referred, not to the streets, but to the divi- sions between each of them, a sensible innovation. IN THE ACCOMMODATION TRAIN Thackeray had extricated the traps by merely pointing them out, but with imperturbable good- humor and kindness made the best of the mishap. Besides, he had been amused by the advent of a well-known character, making his appearance, upon his arrival, as an interviewer, as he did to most European celebrities, with a view to "copy." More welcome was a more genuine chronicler, who was only second in visiting rotation, the historian Mr. 38 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA Bancroft, wliom I found already in converse mth him. He had what the French call the nose-pincher kind of spectacles ; ovier his forehead was the Napoleonic wisp of hair, and the air of diplomacy suffused his sallow features. It was only in conversa- tion, and by his "references to literary Hinterland recol- lections, that you guessed him to be older than he looked. For example, at dinner he said he had met Lord Byron once at Genoa. A reference to the pages of Thomas Moore shows this must have been as far back as the November of 1822, when Byron was oc- cupying his Villa Saluzzo, at Albano. Thackeray said he was then at Charterhouse. Mr. Bancroft lectured one evening before the New York Historical Society, where we went to hear him. He sought relaxation from his historical labours by inviting friends in the evening, and a night or two after our arrival Thackeray came back to the hotel, where I had remained solitarily, and described astonishing feats he had been Avitness to for the first time. This was his initiation into the table-turnincj mysteiy, the hat-twirling, etc., accompanied by spirit- MR. BANCROFT 40 WITH TSACKERAY IN AMERICA rapping manifestations : a nine days' wonder, or rather more. WMlst tte mania lasted Mr. Home was the hero of the hour. If we believe his published Memoirs — which, by the bye, are singularly reticent as to his stay in New York — at this period he was only twenty years of age, though looking older. Here he may \S%mi TABLE-TTJKNING be seen jotting down the alphabetical raps, whilst the rest of the company, finger-tips touching each other, keep up the current of spiritual enunciation. Some words came out, wondrously distorted if names, and misspelt if mere words. It is to be feared that some maliciously disposed votaries on these occasions used THEODORE PARKER 41 to give him linguistic nuts to crack wliicli were beyond his limited comprehension. Belonging to the noble New England army of authors may here be mentioned the Rev. Theodore Parker, the Anti-Slavery champion and eloquent THE EEV. THEODORE PABKEB PBEACHING preacher. Though his home was at Boston, I first heard him lecture at the New York Tabernacle, full of fire and earnestness, quite refreshing to listen to. The audience was sufficiently crowded, though the syllabus was as alarming as the title of Bossuet's 42 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA "Histoire Universelle." The subject was "The Pro- gress of Mankind." The reading requisite for such a theme was prodigious. Primitive man and his latest developments came under review. Franklin was belauded for teaching lightning to go straight, and not to destroy everything, as it did in its "rowdy days " — an illu- sion which tick- led the ground- lings. On the whole it may be said that poor old Europe came in second-best. After the great names of Law- rence and Lowell had been justlj- singled out as grand New England worthies, a Cockney was a little ruffled at finding " Chicopee and London " bracketed together as towns emblematic of advanced civilisation. London came second after a miniature Manchester with barely twelve thousand inhabitants ; but then it was in Massachusetts. The mention of Franklin brings to mind Horace Greeley, happily dubbed " a later Franklin " by the H..a.dareele^.'«^-« THACKERAY'S WELCOME 43 poet Whittier. He was a welcome visitor at tlie " Clarendon," and in a few sentences helped one some- what out of the tangled maze of American politics, and was a good type of the Press militant. I was able in after-years to return the compliment by answer- ing interrogations as to affairs in Europe when I met him in Paris. I remember seeing him at an English charity ball given there. He was much exercised, on asking me to point out to him which of the ladies were the noble patronesses whose titles figured on the list of the evening's programme, at being informed that they so appeared pro forma only, not many being present on that occasion. He had^ at that time, quite recovered from his Presidential Election fatigues in 1852, when his party, whom we should denominate Conservatives, but who in the States were known as the " Whigs," were " dished," On the 12 th of November, by telegrams from Halifax announcing that Thackeray was a passenger on board the Canada, etc. etc., Thackeray's arrival in New York had been heralded with the usual flourish of trumpets, in which the JSfew York Daily Tribune chiefly distinguished itself. It said, under the date of November 13th, "He comes on the invi- tation of the Mercantile Library Association. The Merchants' Clerks of New York aspire to the cultur'e of scholars and gentlemen, and import from abroad — 44 yf^ITR THACKERAY IN AMERICA not the latest teacher of double entry, but the most thoughtful critic of manners and society, the subtlest humorist, and the most effective, beckuse the most genial, satirist the age has known. . . . Terminus, once rightly reckoned the sacredest of gods, must at this rate be soon left without a worshipper." This was written by Mr. Henry James, the father of the well-knoAvn author and dramatist now amongst us. He and Mr. Dana and Professor Felton were a few of the able staff supporting the paper. The editor, and part owner of its stock, was Mr. Horace Greeley, whose presses we went over to examine one after- noon. gO^ iViJ- i.e. CHAPTER II The Rev. Mr. Chapin's Chapel — Lectures — Brooklyn — American Art — Leah — Wall Street — Barnum — Genius — James Harper and Apple- ton — G. P. R. James — Boston Museum — William AUstou — "Coast- ing '' — Stuart's Portrait of General Washington — New York Once More — A Claimant — Washington Irving — T. F. Meagher — Sleigh- ing — Governor's Island — New Jersey — Non-Abstainers. Aftee an active morning spent in interviews and bjisiness, we took the Bowery tramcars, which dropped us not far from 548, Broadway, near Prince Street, where we met by appointment Mr. Millard Felt, who showed us over the Rev. Mr. Chapin's Unitarian Chapel, from which the Rev. Henry Bellows had lately retired as pastor. It was called the Church of the Unity. I shall not easily forget the author's expression of wonder when he looked athwart the long, dark, wainscoted benches, and saw the pil- lared nave and the oak pulpit. He seemed fascinated by the idea of his lay-sermonising in this place. Then looking at the communion table, and appealing to Secretary Felt, he asked — "Would not the sacred THE HEV. H. BELLOWS 46 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA emblems be removed from tbe altar ? " followed by the query : " Will the organ strike up when I enter ? " Then, peering into the side room, he further inquired — " I suppose I shall have to enter by the sacristy ? " To sum up the matter, it was determined that this was the eligible resort. The announcements were made as follows : — t LECTURES TO BE GIVEN ON THE FOLLOWING EVENKTGS Fridays — 19th November. Mondays — 33hd November. 36 th " 39th 3rd December. 6th December. At 8 o'clock. Price : — 3 Dollars for the Course. The subscription list was closed on Thursday even- ing, but the. rush for tickets soon made it clear that a second course would be necessary, and this was also announced thus : — Wednesday; December 1st. Monday, December 13th. Tuesday, " 7th. Wednesday, " 15th. Friday, " 10th. Friday, " 17th. filling up nearly a month's interval of time. The accompanying illustration (frontispiece). Jotted down at the time from a back bench in the row of open seats, gives an idea of the prospect. The lecturer ascended the somewhat high rostrum, which had been erected fronting the pulpit ; along with him came the secretary, Mr. Millard Felt, who, on the warm greetings TEE FIRST COURSE OF LECTURES 47 of welcome subsiding, introduced the lecturer in a few well-chosen sentences, and sat down on a chair at the side. All went cheerily to the end. As was the case in England, the reporters had been asked not to give in extenso or even too liberally the subject-matter of the lectures. This intent was honourably adhered to ; but to eke out their paragraphs — which Thackeray read with interest the next morning — the manipulation of his coat-tails, varied with his favourite posture of diving his hands in his side-pockets, was dwelt upon facetiously, as well as the unusual fact that he indulged in no particular form of gesticulation. The first and only intimation anyone had that these humoristic details tickled the author's fancy was on the arrival in New York in mid-January, a month after date, of the January number of M'aser's Magazine, containing his unsigned, yet palpably his own, description of this quaint form of personal characterisation.- Neither the prevailing gloom of the place (the lights, as usual wherever there is dark wainscot, proving powerless to diffuse brightness), nor inclement weather, such as that on the occasion of the second lecture, could daunt the intrepid ladies and gentle- men, the eUte of New York fashion, from coming and applauding throughout the double courses. Amidst the applause and the enthusiasm caused by Thackeray's special address on the closing of the first 48 WITR THACKERAY IN AMERICA course, viz., on the evening of the 6th of December, resolutions were proposed and seconded by Mr. Kelly, President of the Board of Education, and Mr. Osgood, presiding at this juncture. The latter, I recollect, said : " I don't like telling tales out of school, but a friend of mine told me Mr. Thackeray said he only found Englishmen here ; he begged to say that in Mr. Thackeray they discovered a genuine Yankee." (Tremendous shouts of applause.) Mr. Kelly in his sjieech seconded the resolution. As far as memory serves after this lapse of time, the citizenship of New York was then bestowed upon the author-^a high distinction. The other resolutions carried referred to the great satisfaction given by his visit, and gave expression to the thanks due to the Mercantile Association, of which Mr. Millard Felt on this occasion was the chairman, and his fellow- committee-men were Messrs. Francis Hawks and George Moore. The next day's papers, December 7th, contained a report of these proceedings, which divided the attention of their readers with the lengthy annual address to Congress by President Fillmore. A fillip was given to the sale of the original works descanted on in the lectures, and such paragraphs as these were numerous in the advertisements of the time: — "Bangs, Brothers and Co. issue, wholesale and retail, THE END OF THE FIRST COURSE OF LECTURES 49 8vo editions of Addison, Thackeray, Steele," etc. etc. The limp brown-covered " Esmond " reprints were sold for the trifling sum of 50 cents per copy; not, however — to the writer's chagrin — in Queen Anne type, but in the ordinary type, and, if I mistake not, with the new- fangled American spelling of words, quite transmogrifying its appeairance. These drawbacks were, however, counterbalanced ; for the reprints had the effect of popularising the author, who was assailed by demands for his discourses. Lf.T. Tlfc««ft».— PRESIDENT FILLMORE The now transpontine suburb of Brooklyn came in for the next engagement. I went, not as is now done, across the wide expanse of river by a level bridge — one of the wonders of modern engineering — but by taking the Fulton feriy-boat, price one cent. The view of Kew York and its numerous steeple-topped roofs was very grand from the water, Avith its array of merchant-ships, clippers, and liners. Here is an attempt to give an idea of it, but it needs the tances to' realise the scene. 4 junct of tender melting-blue dis- 50 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA "S^E^f YORK, FROM BKOOKLYN The steep ascent of the Main Street was at this time lined with non-splendid houses, the worse for wear. In one of these, and midway up, I climbed up some rickety stairs, and gave the lecture-announcement to a clerk at a desk, who copied it out, and, ' scarcely moving from his seat, handed the slip of paper to the type-setter. In a trice I had the proofs in hand, which were forwarded to other newspapers, and soon the lecturer found himself addressing an intelligent audience in one of the halls, of which I regret that I forget the name. It was the privilege of a certain number of the clergy of this district to grace the lecture by their presence, and their white chokers gave a solemnity of the Quaker order to the scene. At the jovial supper which followed the lecture this somewhat starched demeanour was replaced by boisterous hilarity. It is an odd circumstance that, whilst genuine humour often evanesces, the figments of the Joe-Millerian type keep fast hold on the memory. Such an one belongs to this evening's entertainment, and elicited laughter. A country AMERICAN PAINTERS 51 bumpkin, who had never seen either a negro or a cigar, was asked by a smoker of that swarthy breed whether he would whiff a Havannah. His reply was: "Na, na, Mr. Deil, I canna eat fire like you!" This evening's reception was, if need were, a satisfy- ing proof to Thackeray that he would meet with appreciative listeners wherever he appeared, irre- spective of the specially chosen agencies for pro- moting popularity. Amongst the friends of student-time in Paris I now met at the " Century " Club, was a clever land- scape painter, Kensett, who had grown as stout as he was formerly the reverse, and who didn't recognise me in the least, owing to some facial change of the same nature. We met at an artistic gathering called the " Sketch Club," the assembled company coming to- gether with no other designs than to chat, smoke, and, last, not least, eat oysters of the usual huge size. Church, then emerged already into fame, was painting scenes of the grandiose kind : such as the Palls of Magara, very skilfully done-r-his speciality. But the host of able painters from the United States who watched and who studied the very latest phases of French art were, as a body, only then in embryo. I understand, from the publications de- voted to art, that the great demand now is for works of the ultra-Impressionist school, not even 53 ^YITR THACKERAY IN AMERICA thought of at that time. On the contraiy, the polished prettinesses of the Diisseldorf artists filled galleries of their owa, and had a ready sale, whilst in the South many filled their walls with elaborate copies from the old masters. Native talent has made prodigious strides since then. On Thanksgiving Day — I believe, always fixed for the last Thursday of November, on this occasion the 25th— I tested my powers of perambulation, but I found, like the gentleman returning home after ex- cessive potations, it was not so much the length as the breadth of the way ^^5jBiyRJS flR/lJU/WEj that was fatiguing. The perpetual zig- zagging from one object or place of interest to another makes the Journey from end to end of Broadway no small effort. From some per- verse feeling I longed for a mo- ment to be whisked off in one of the numerous well- THANKSGIVING DAY 53 appointed private carriages which wait patiently at houses whilst the ownei-s are calling, and the smart black coachman and his companion sit on the box- seat in well-drilled immutability. Hotels in every stage of incompleteness — such as the " Lafarge," then with gaping brick walls and no frontage, only posters with prospective enjoyments held forth of every description, as per sketch (amongst them the Bateman children in The Yomig Couple, whom I saw, little dreaming that here were to be much-cherished relatives, and the " Leah " of fame to become my dear brother's wife thereafter) — and fully-equipped brand-new resorts, like the " Metro- politan," with covers and mitre-shaped napkins laid for 200 guests seated at one or two long tables. t«fnKO« Trltrtal .■Mn^-ynH- tunVliS'i. 54 yflTE TRACKER AY IN AMERICA A row of negro servants, brush in hand, used to be seen sitting on a bench in the entrance hall of the hotels. As the visitors came down, each of them, in rotation, seized the coat-collar and dusted it, flicking the brush over the whole attire of the owner, who was THE BRUSHING PROCESS thus made smart for the day. Specialists, such as the " hat-negro " and the " elevator-man," were at that time unknown, and are quite modern develop- ments of the "help." Another sumptuous store of white marble was Stewart's haberdashery shop. This we sketched too ; but the sketch, tme then, is no longer so ; the store and the goods have moved up town. The noble BROADWAY 55 THE BBOADWAY owner's body has been snatcbed, and, I regret to say, I am unaware whether he was ever recovered from the clutches of these ghouls. At right angles with the great thoroughfare is Wall Street. The sketch on page 78 shows its former semblance, with overhead telegraph wires. I recollect going up one of the stairs of a house in it, and, instead of finding the man I wanted, I saw a scrap of paper fastened to the door by two pins, stating laconically — "Gone to Europe; back in a few days." I believe this is not a bad indication of the rapid go-ahead mode of business here. Broadway is in its full length two and a half miles, 5e WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA exteucling from Union Square to the Battery, and giving tlie gentleman-lounger (the Titmarshian version of the French flaneur^ a very fair idea of the city's trades, hotels, amusements, bars, etc. New to us then, but familiarised to Cockney-land by its adoption in London, was the labour-saving system of com- bining in one person the conductor and driver of Qt«»d«»vi (!\uivJiH) THE BROADWAY OMNIBUS the omnibus, with its interior intimation — " Children taking seats full fare." In order to fulfil an appoint- ment made with Barnum's chief business agent, Mr. Le Grand Smith, to meet Barnum at his museum, Thackeray took seats in one of these popular vehicles, fondly fancying we should go in a straight line. But the pavement was torn up, cobble or flint stone making way for granite stones ; soon again, the wags BABNUM'S 57 asserted, to be once more uprooted to insert iron rails. This necessitated such constant divergence into off- streets, that walking was obviously a speedier method of transit. The sunny side of Broadway was bright and cheerful, the sky beautifully blue overhead, and a clear atmosphere so exhilarating to the spirits that when we at last reached and entered Barnum's museum the contrast of grime and gloom there per- vading — as is often the case in haunts made to be viewed by gas-light — only made the scene more than usually dismal. There were stuffed quadrupeds in plenty ; there were sallow wax figures, prominent amongst which memory recalls the groups of Lord Byron, surrounded by his Missolonghi bodyguard of ferocious Suliotes, arrayed in faded tinselled costumes; also, further on, some Chinese notabilities were lying prone, with theii* effigy heads off their shoul- ders, not, as is too often the case in Celestial annals, after decapitation, but here only temporarily deprived of their head- pieces for the purposes of cleaning. English relics, such as the signed copy of "Magna Charta," and ■ SEAL-TIBER 58 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA BABNUM 8 MUSEUM tte huge coacli whicli once bore Queen Adelaide on gala days, were conspicuous. Two semi-somnolent creatures attracted you — one being a " seal-tiger," roll- ing his eyes in wonderment at such matutinal visitors, and the other its black keeper, whose special function it BARNUM'S 59 was to rouse the dormant amphibian lying in its straw lair, and wliose eyes also revolved in the gloom. We had used up these sensations, and had sat down in a small office the walls of which were hung round with daguerrotypes of General Tom Thumb leaning ma- jestically upon the shoulders of Barnum, when the latter gentleman entered and introduced himself to us. This interview has escaped notice in that great showman's Memoirs. He wished for Thackerayan collabo- ration in the first number, then coming out, of an illustrated paper in imitation of the London News. And who knows what further developments flitted across that fertile brain in connection with the English author's visit to America ? Thackeray said he wished to maintain his own personal independ- ence of movement, scarcely compatible with the big- drum methods involved in monster speculative schemes. He courteously declined to write his im- pressions. My description of the museum refers altogether to that of forty years ago. The show disappeared in lambent flames one day, only to rise up elsewhere — a fate shared in by the great impresario's palace of " Iranistan." But these disasters never daunted this 3a x> a niiMii. . 60 WITH TRACKER AY IN AMERICA master-spirit. Subsequently, on Thanksgiving Day, I happened to pass by the museum, which was thronged with people entering it. A placard was put up — " Beware of Pickpockets " — a warning not needless, as a little incident which I witnessed there and then seemed to shoAv. Sitting on a stool in the gangway was a purblind sailor, with his c o p p e r - b o X on his knees, a further appeal to the charitable being a picture of a ship struck by lightning, the same flash depriving him of his sight. A kind passer-by flung down a contribution, which an unscrupulous thief tried to grab hold of, when suddenly a little terrier hidden behind the blind man's coat-tails dashed for- the rescue, and discomfited the would-be ^■h<\ ^af EARNUM S AGENT ward to purloiner. At another street-corner of Broadway was to be seen the liquor-seller, dealing out drinks, chiefly of soda-water and ginger-beer, at the moderate charge of three cents per tumbler ; or, taking it in the gross, at the reduced rate of "forty soda-water tickets for a DRINKS 61 dollar," as tlie wayfarer was informed by a placard. The briskness with which these refreshing beverages were distributed, gushing through brilliant metallic dolphin -shaped spouts, evinced their popularity, arnd must have been highly remunerative to this bearded liquor-trader. We give here his likeness , as he stood behind his open-air bar. 62 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA It will not escape tlie acute observer that this worthy wears a chimney-pot hat, the great emblem of JOHN N. GENUS'S HAT STOKE equality, and hence its popularity in the States. Two years before this time, the Jenny Lind furore in New TEE CEIMNEY.POT 63 York was manifested at the outset by a tremendous rusli for tickets at Mr. Barnum's gallery in Broadway, The boxes were put up to auction to the highest bidder, and, to the horror of the " Swedish Nightin- gale," she noticed suspended over her own private box a gigantic-sized broad-brim. This sacred retreat of the prima donna had been won, as highest bidder, by Mr. Genin (here is his likeness), the great hatter. The moderate outlay of 140 dollars had secured this splendid advertisement. Possibly with an eye to fur- thering the headgear trade, -and with his manifest love for large headpieces, he wrote a letter to Thackeray, expressing his wish to acknowledge his indebtedness to the author for the pleasure derived from perusing his works by presenting him with a hat, also stating that he had an uncomfortable feeling in the reflection that the author could receive no benefit from the purchase of his books, and asking to discharge his part of the national debt by furnishing his head with all external ornament it might reqiiire whilst in his country. I quite forget whether the wish was acceded to by Thackeray, but, as a salve, I fancy he asked me to have my measure taken in his stead. The wonderful instrument for measuring the cranium — which I first saw here — was applied to my occiput and frontal bone ; but, alas! when the hat was produced, my bumps or something else proved rebellious, and I was scared at 64 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA TAKING TOUR MEASURE seeing my personal appearance thus, when looking in the glass. This machine is of Italian invention, is manu- factured in Paris, and is known as the " conformateur." It has been improved upon of late years. It may be added that a reference to the later American preface written for the reprints of his works by Thackeray, showed conclusively that the worthy hatter was in error in attributing niggardliness to the American publishers, who, on the contrary, are there stated to have behaved most handsomely, especially the Messrs. Appleton firm. Whilst on the subject of reprints, and his lament at the mutilation of some stories, such as the omission of the first chapter in the " Little Dinner at Timmins's" (sup- posed by some to be due to its phrasing, as to " Lady Bungay weighing two of Blanche, even when she THE RESTTLT AMERICAN REPRINTS 65 is not in the f ," as some wag hinted), or, worse still, the unearthing some of his early bant- lings which he wished buried in oblivion, it may now be said that the author was too severe upon himself, and that we now like to have these recon- dite fugitive pieces brought to light once more, as has been the case lately with some such by a lit- erary society of our own, though only for private circulation. Though somewhat out of proper sequence of time, it may be here added that the whole series of red- covered little books was brought back to England, and, on explanation to the Liverpool Customs agent, suffered to be retained, being thereafter a useful record to consult en hloG when questions arose as to what to publish or what to omit in this country in future editions. The next emporium of the book-trade in New York is Messrs. Harpers', where we penetrated into the inner or business sanctum, and, when seated, after the usual amenities and introductory greeting were over, we had leisure to scan the shrewd features of Mr. James Harper, then chief director of this great pub- lishing house. The other brother-partners we did not see at this time — indeed, the apartment was purposely small and snug, not admitting of large receptions and of general converse. The sketch gives the aspect of 5 66 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA the place, on the shelves being conspicuous the Thackerayan reprints and other popular authors. Presently a lithe little girl came in, and was formally introduced by the father to Thackeray. He shook AT harpers' hands with her, and, smiling, said, " So this is a ' pirate's ' daughter, is it ? " an appellation which tickled the enterprising publisher's sense of humour into an approving grin. Thackeray ventured to ask him whose name stood foremost in popularity in book sales in the United States. He good-naturedly took down a ponderous ledger, turned up the leaves at " HARPERS ' " 67 letter J, and said, " George Payne Rainsford James heads tlie list, far ahead of any other author, as you can Judge for yourself by glancing at the number of his books sold. He turns out a novel every six months, and the success is always the same, and tremendous." This was an "eye-opener," to use a trans-Atlantic phrase. When asked to explain the reason of this immense hold upon the public, the reply was prompt : " The main reason is that i his ro- mances can always be safely placed upon the family table, with the certainty that no page will sully or call the blush to the cheek of any member of the household." Well was he named in former daya by Thackeray, " that teeming parent of romance." There was, however, a rift in his literary lute. Though Consul at that time at Norfolk, Virginia (a place omitted from our wanderings), the fact that in some early performance he had faintly hinted his dis- approval of slavery^ — this alone made the worthy Norfolkians hostile, and presently he exchanged the States for Venice, the only place where he could not de- scry two muffled cavaliers ascending a hill on horseback. The Harper firm had launched the monthly bearing their name, a year or two before this time, on its tide of success. This caused others to follow the same course, with less satisfactory results, ending by crippling for long days those connected with them. 68 WITH THACKERAY IN AMEBIC A B, Vf. CUKTIS This was the case with Putnam! 8 Monthly, which was delightful reading in its first years. Here is the profile of Gr. W. Curtis, its brilliant editor. When we knew him he had hyacinthine locks and a shaven face, ex- changed in later years for a white - bearded physiognomy. I regretted to see his name in a recent New York obituary notice. He had paid a graceful tribute to Thackeray, recalling these social pleasures in America, in the first volume of his periodical. Boston, the Athens of America, and nursery of many illustrious scribes, noAv claimed to have its lecturing innings also. So thither we went, making raids, besides, on neighbouring capitals. One of these was forty-four miles off by rail, i.e., Providence, Rhode Island. The journey was easy, the audience large and appreciative. This was on December 22nd, when nights were getting chilly. It was therefore a little rough upon those fond of their cheerful cigar, to be compelled, as most of them were, to content them- selves with a discussion on the benefits conferred upon that State by liquor laws prohibiting the sale of alcoholic drinks. Everybody, I noticed, went to bed AT BOSTON 69 early. I only sketclied a pair of bluchers, whose shadow was cast upon the sleeper's room-door outside, at the hotel. I can therefore only mention Provi- dence ajpropos de hottes. Boston did not resent coming in second on the list. On the contrary, with evident heartiness and an air Ptt.iir p>,ut«w«.'i'^ ■ of literary confraternity, Thackeray was welcomed and relished, as he had been by the select and cultured audiences of his own country. A few cantankerous members of the press were adverse, 'tis true ; but they may be pardoned, as they were the originating cause of the amusing lucubration sent by Thackeray to Fraser's Magazine (appearing in January, 1853), which was a renewal of his old bantering reviews in that publication. Without telling anyone in the States that he had written it, without having his name affixed 70 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA to it, when it came to the United States, ten days after, it was at once recognised as his, and was re- ceived with good-humoured laughter by some, but by others as an unpleasant scarification of the minor penny-a-lining fraternity. To while away the leisure moments, we paid several visits to the museum of pictures in Boston. Thackeray was much struck — as, indeed, must everyone be — by the superb portraits of General Washington and Mrs. Washington by Gilbert Stuart. They seem to have their charm increased by their unfinished state, the background being only partially rubbed in. I asked the committee, through their complaisant secretary, Mr. C. Folsom, to allow me to copy them, as I thought the future author of " The Virginians " would like to have these faces before him in Europe. See how intentions are bafiled ! I painted these, working often during closing-time, by special grace. I presented them to Thackeray in New York (he had left me behind at Boston to give finishing-touches), when, lo ! the great compliment was paid me of asking to have these copies copied. Thackeray's friend, Mr. Degan, whose friendship we had made on board the boat coming across the Atlantic, took charge of them for that purpose ; and it was only years afterwards, and long after the owner's sad departure, that an oppor- tunity occurred of sending them back through the X-y.^^lM/S. l^'MTHAQKEKl-\X:Bos\Bh. \i^£^ AT THE MELODBON, BOSTON 72 WITH TRACKER AY IN AMERICA instrumentality of Thackeray's daughter and her hus- band, Mr. Leslie Stephen, the distinguished author, when on a visit to the States. It is not without diffidence I mention the name of Washington AUston, whose reputation was CUSTOM HOUSE, BOSTON tremendous in his day. Here, in this museum, was his huge composition of " Belshazzar's Feast "—left incomplete, it is true, yet sufficiently forward to show the painter's ultimate aim and intention. There is a certain Venetian glow and mastery of colour in it WASHINGTON ALL8T0N 73 which attracts, but nothing can Justify the intro- duction of such a foreground group as seen there, of which the faces border on the grotesque. It is in the art essays he wrote, in his genial conversartion, and in his able correspondence, we must seek, in order to w -nil FROM " BELRHAZZAR'S FEAST ' realise his hold upon his time. We give here the rough indication of the group alluded to. There is more sweet pleasure derivable from small, unpretending canvases in the same collection than in ambitious compositions. Here, for example, in sober greys and in sad feature, is the little figure of the ill- fated authoress, Margaret Fuller-Ossoli, deftly done 74 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA by Thomas Hicks?. He was a pleasant boon-com- panion at the " Century " symposium and elsewliere. Besides painting people, chiefly celebrities, he used to mimic them amusingly. His representation of Daniel Webster the orator was very whimsical. Whilst delivering a mock speech of his he would take out a huge red Bandanna handkerchief, and unfolding it deliberately would, after many nose- puUings, at last recover the thread of his discourse, and start afresh on ponderous sentences. It was said to be a good skit on the departed statesman's method of speech. The proverbially sudden changes of temperature in the States now were realised ; one day it was balmy, the next was frosty and snowing — ^with pantomime rapidity of altering scenes, we had the whole popu- lation sleighing. The Juvenile portion at Boston preferred " coasting." The old edition of Webster contained this description of it : " The sport of sliding down a hill-side upon sleds or sledges in winter (used in the Eastern States, and also in New Brunswick, where the application of the word may possibly have originated amongst the Acadians — ^from cdte, old French coste, a hillside)." The. little lads are seen careering down the slopes, helter-skelter. In the distance is seen Faneuil Hall, not the original "Cradle of Liberty," as it was called. ifll J, 76 WITH TSACKERAY IN AMERICA built by that patriot of Huguenot descent, but the second structure, reared when the first was burned down. I had by this time finished the two portrait copies of General and Mrs. Washington. I packed them up, and brought them to l^ew York for Thackeray's kind acceptance. Before leaving Boston I peeped into some of its public buildings and institutions ; one of these was the Boston Sessions. I forget what exact business was transacted at this court of justice. The Sessions are generally held for granting licences to innkeepers, etc., and for laying out highways. They answer seemingly J«R W-:. AT T^E BOSTON SESSIONS IN TBE MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE, NEW YORK 77 to our petty sessions, though here one magistrate seems to suffice. A legal document is being read, which does not seem to interest the public at large. Ji OLiwfJt ^ XUuie. lu^.J.A.ti...fZ.- They in preference gathei'ed in the corridors and other precincts, not choosing to stay in court, which, to tell the truth, like others I know of, was close and stuffy. After Bostonian amenities came round once more the mingled bustle and high pressure of New York amusements and sights. 78 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA At right angles with Broadway was Wall Street, the often - de- scribed business centre of New York, of which the sketch gives some notion as it existed at that time. As you entered the Merchants' Ex- change in that thoroughfare you heard the voices of eager auctioneers, seen gesticulat- ing, each of them in their individualstalls fixed circularly round the inner Rotunda. Map in hand, he pointed out the exact locality of the estate being put up for sale. That preliminary over, he would take the bids thus : — " 120 A UGTIONEERING 79 dollars " offered ; an advance to " 150 dollars" is bid ; and after increasing volubility the hammer comes down, and successive properties are disposed of in the same manner. This went on till the clock of Trinity Church, hard by, struck three o'clock, when the whole throng dis- persed, and with a bare interval I found myself in comparative solitude. Only one tardy clerk was at his desk casting up his accounts, and a was raising dust-clouds with his open-air estate agents are seen, in to Wall Street appraisers, trying to sell estates by placarding the same in the streets. Here, for ex- ample, was a lad dressed as a clown, holding a board on a pole. The advertisement ran thus : " A house and lot for two hundred dollars; a chance for a home for life at the village of Maspeth.'' Neither the motley wear nor the prospect of having a rural retreat in Long Island seemed to fascinate the crowd, which passed on rapidly, and heedless of such tempt- ing opportunities of investment. Perhaps the vocifera- negro broom, modest sweeper Other rivalry 80 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA tions of tte Wall Street mart were fatal omissions here. Close by these open-air monetary transactions, a visit to a neighbouring jeweller's store in Broadway — im *•-'■)'«*■ - tke .tl— -/ /«;— S. (S^St- J>^^-iX £j.c. CLOSING TIME will reveal to you how soon gold becomes specie. The courteous trader informed me — ^what, indeed, the sign over the central housetop had certified in a certain emblematic way, by representing an eagle sustaining in its beak a tiny repeater — that either Australian or Californian lucky diggers will come into their store,. A CAPITALIST 81 to all appearance dire tatter- demalions. They at once proceed to haul out of the recesses of their garments a gold nugget or two, which is weighed, and soon bartered for a lump sum of money. I remember the firm's twin name, " Ball and Black." Per contra, no ore of any kind, I should say, could be found on the body of the negro ^"^^ »^^^ ^^"1\..^,^ whom I saw, as I came out of the goldsmiths' shop, listlessly sitting upon the chain encircling the City Hall Park, smok- ing his weed contentedly : a dock-loafer, probably. Amongst the promi- nent figures of New York at this season was a claimant to the Bourbon throne, who pretended to be the actual Louis XVII., who had escaped from the Temple during the French A DOCK-LOAFER 83 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA Revolutionary turmoil. His real name was the Rev. Eleazar Williams ; Ms usual occupation vras that of a missionary amongst the Canadian Indians. For their benefit he had translated the Bible into Mohavek ; ill- natured people hinted that he was himself descended from some Iroquois chief, a supposition justified by his reddish-brown complexion and features. The humour of the hour was, however, to greet him with mock obeisances ; and the intrepid went so far as to ask to see the documents authenticating his royal parentage, which he invariably brought with him under one arm, whilst in his other hand he grasped — not a sceptre, but the homely gingham. " Our Dauphin " was the title he went by familiarly in New York. It must be supposed that setting up as a Pretender pays ; there are so many of them. Ten years before, a couple appeared in the United States, according to Bacourt's amusing Memoirs, pretending to be descendants of the Chevalier Bayard, although that hero never was married ! These were, of course, exceptional instances of misdirected hospitality — the base coin which, in spite of careful scrutiny, will get foisted amidst the pure gold of society. Washington Irving, who, for abbreviation's sake, was known as " Old Knick," from his early work — " The History of New York, by Diedrich Knicker- bocker " — was the most lionised of the notabilities we THE REV. ELEAZAR WILLIAMS 83 A lion's ENTR^I! ju*. t«* Jinn-ii. — ~ AS A BOURBON PRETENDER 84 WITH THACKERA Y IN AMERICA met, whether at balls or elsewhere. There was little sense of lassitude visible in his cheerful face as he sat there chatting with the hostess, in preference choosing a quiet nook away from the dancers and fiddlers. He has in published letters confided, with mock modesty, to us "that the dances then in vogue put me out of countenance, and are not such as a gentleman of my years should witness." This assumed prudery is as amusing as were the numerous accessories /L_^th« inquiry of an intelligent storekeeper from whom I was making a purchase. In a nonekalant manner he said that the crush was so great on these occasions that no one thought of going there in any dress but the very oldest suit in their AT THE WHITE HOUSE 115 wardrobe ; " in fact, the worse the better." It is needless to add that, easily seeing through his desire to take " a rise out of the Britisher," I put on my best suit of black, and appeared at the appointed hour. Here is a sketch of the scene, done from A PKBSIDENTIAL KECEPTION recollection. By the Head of the State stood a gentle- man-usher, who came forward and inquired your name ; the President shook hands, with a pleasant " I'm glad to see you," and you passed on, as did hundreds of others — in couples for the most part. The queer note of the evening was to. see a stalwart son of toil, who seemed unconsciously to have followed out to the letter my friend the counter-jumper's injunction, and 116 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA had made his appearance in the frowsy garb of a prairie labourer. He held a dirty misshapen cap in his hand, his boots were dusty and worn, and near him was his son, probably weary, leaning his soiled garments against the white-and-gold papered walls, and possibly leaving there the marked outline of his presence. People laughed as if at a good joke, and passed on, whilst the staring " hawbuck " stood riveted by the scene of splendour. French marquis, foreign diplomats, citizens from all parts, elbowed each other in the throng. G. Stuart's portrait of General Washington was on the walls. The laurelled bust of the hero was on a recess over the doorway, both seemingly looking down blandly on the scene before them. By an invariable courteous pre-arrangement, every four years the outgoing President accompanies the in- coming one for a while, in order, as it were, that the latter may be amicably introduced, and witness the public functions of Washington. Thus both President Fillmore and President Pierce honoured Thackeray by going together to hear his lecture at Carusi's Rooms. He compared them, to their amusement, to " the two Kings of Brentford smelling at one rose." On another occasion they, as we also did, joined an invited party of guests to witness the mechanism of the new caloric ship recently completed by John PRESIDENTIAL INSPECTION 117 Ericsson. The cost of the vessel and her fittings had, it was said, amounted to 130,000 dollars. She was PRESIDENTS FIEBCE AND FILLMOBE moored in the stream, and as she was seen high above water-mark, looked at this early date capsizable. The two Presidents, discussing her probable future, 118 WITB THACKERAY IN AMERICA "which was trumpeted as " promoting a new era in naval propulsion," are here grouped together, as they stood apart waiting for the tender which was to fetch Civt^' CaJ-i W \t-. 5i-...te GENERAL CA89 the assembled company on board her. There was an amusing instance given, as we got on board, of the diffi- culties that superior frames, mental and bodily, have to encounter in adapting themselves to the situation. The breeze of the riverside had chilled most people, IN THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON 119 who at once took refuge below deck. I noticed the small form of Washington Irving, as seen through the intervening steps of the companion ladder, beneath which he was ensconced ; whilst Thackeray had, in order to chat with him, carefully to keep his head THE SUPKiSME COUUT IN SESSION between the roof-beams, as otherwise there was in- sufficient height to enable him to keep his head erect or to stand straight on his legs. The vessel might be, as she was stated to be, 260 feet in length, but alti- tudes barely corresponded with the human measure- ments. Though many eloquent masters of speech from 130 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA Congress were of tlie party, few or no discourses were delivered after- tlie sumptuous lunch set out — due, no doubt, to sympathetic respect for the feelings of the President, Greneral Pierce. He had lost his only son, aged thirteen, and his wife had been injured in a rail- way accident only two months before the event here recorded. The engines alone kept up voluble snorts now and then. It is grievous to relate that this result of twenty years of thought and labour and expense foundered a year or so afterwards in a tornado off Sandy Hook, the port-holes being open. Before our arrival at Washington the newspapers had announced in leaded type : — "THE IRON JACKSON. ' ' Congress adjourned on Saturday, 8th January, and went under the belly of the new iron horse and rider just erected in Wasliington to the memory of General Jackson. Hero-worsliip pays." Subsequently this bronze equestrian monument was unveiled with demonstrations of its national import- ance. It was during a saunter, whilst passing through Lafayette Square, that Thackeray saw it. He hap- pened to let out, at a private house, his opinion of the merits of the statue, which were thus summed up : — "The hero was sitting in an impossible attitude, on an impossible horse with an impossible tail." This criticism was good-naturedly repeated, and was then CONGRESS 131 made the subject of an attack iipon the objector in an obscure paper. He was bluntly informed that "the prejudices of English people were incorrigible," etc. etc. The sculptor had never seen aiiy ^qu^strian statue, and it was therefore excusable to fail in such a gigantic task. The fault was that of mistaken laudations on the part of others. The most sensible and competent judges — Charles Sumner amongst the rest — joined in the obloquy which seems to apper- tain to too many sculptural equestrian eiforts, at home and abroad. When invited afterwards to visit General Scott, at the War Department, he showed tis, hung up on the walls, a trophy of the siege of New Orleans, of which Gen- eral Jackson was the hero. It was the sword of Pulaski, who fell on that day. He liked to dwell upon warlike deeds, in which he had been conspicu- ously successful, in preference to Presidential campaigning, in which, though beaten, he bore his defeat manfully, as his leo- nine face would lead one to expect he 'would do. Here is its outline. Senator Sumner conducted us over the whole of GENERAL SCOTT 123 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA the different sections of Congress, beginning with a view of the central Rotunda, embellished with life- size illustrations of the War of Independence, executed by Trumbull. This painter, a pupil of Benjamin West in England, had closely followed General Washington as his aide-de-camp, and was therefore an intelligent witness of many scenes he depicted; hence their value in costume and in portraiture. Thackeray, with his trained critical eye, pronounced them admirably good; and so they are. I never cease to regret having lost an elaborate sketch I made of the House of Representatives in session ; it .was sent, by Thackeray's advice, to an illustrated paper, and was not published, and never recovered by me ; else these pages would have con- tained likenesses of the President's chair topped by the huge eagle, and the semicircular seats thronged by members at their desks, the Hon. Mr. Marshall ably arguing for an increase of their naval force, the proposition scouted by irascible opponents, spring- ing on their legs. I have, however, replaced this by a few stray bits — as taken from the Strangers' Gallery — of Senators, such as the portrait of the venerable Anglophobist, General Cass, whose locks were as hale as his oratory was vigorous, and the sketch of the " Su- preme Court " in session, held in what used to be in former days the Senate Chamber, much smaller than its THE HUSTINGS 123 successor, tlie Ionic columns of Potomac marble, as ponderous as tte Judgments seem to be to tbe un- initiated listeners, whose numbers are few. Neither is the Law Library, which lies imdemeath it, thronged A STUMP with readers ; quite unheeded are the folios, which, I suppose, are only for fitful legal researches after pre- cedents. It was quite a relief to emerge into the open air, and to watch, mayhap, one of the numerous processions 134 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA passing by, headed by their blatant brass-band instru- ments. A turn of the road brought me before a square wooden structure in the open air, which I sketched. It was meant for oratorical displays, and is known as a " stump " — quite a national institution. Somewhat footsore with so much lionising, we were glad to find good restoratives at the National Restau- rant. The waiter alone was refreshing to look at as he brought in some dainty, which, at this distance of time, as depicted here, looks insufficient to satisfy three hungry mortals, as we were. CHAPTER IV Bichmond, Va. — ^A Slave Sale — Houdon's Statue of Washington — Petersburg, Va. — Charleston — An Empty Valise — Savannah — New York Once More. After a three weeks' stay at Wasliington, we left it at niglit, always a dreary time of exit. It was necessary to do so to catch the steamer which was to waft us down the Potomac. There were plenty of fine Rembrandtesque night-effects to be noted. Amid the general bustle, and in the motley groups hurry- ing on board, you could dimly see the man at the tiller, in a small cabin amidships. The idea — at first entertained — of sleeping on board proved illusory. A lusty negro rang the bell announcing supper, con- sisting of oyster soup. Another deck-hand invited " gentlemen to take de tickets " — clapper going again ; then another summons to have luggage labelled. Some-: one stated we were near the " Dismal Swamp ; " this seemed to chime in with our lowered spirits, deafened as we were by tintinabulary sounds. With dawn these revived, and the .sun lifted the misty veil. The eyes, jaded by the somewhat bleak scenery of Washington and its neighbourhood at this 126 WITB THACKERAY IN AMERICA season of tlie year, were refreshed by vistas of green leafage. I sketched the distant outline of Washington's home, Mount Vernon. We tried to spot the "New Castlewood," which was raised on the beautiful banks of the Potomac. The delightful season alluded to in the same passage, called the Indian summer, though belonging to late autumn, seemed to have its counter- part in March, for the heat of the day was considerable as we neared Richmond, after changing from steamboat into cars once more. We came into Richmond, as it were, on the day after the fair ; some hitch in the communication had caused a day's delay. The hall at Richmond was crammed with an expectant audience, who had to be politely informed that the lecture was postponed till the next evening. They took it in good part when informed of the unlucky missing of the train, and dispersed after receiving a telegraphic apology. As if it were but yesterday, the trite incidents of travel crop up at times in the memory. Thus I remember, at a station between Fredericksburg and Richmond, which was on a steepish gradient, two stalwart negroes arresting the train's movement down- wards by periodical thrusts of wooden logs, giving the cars and .ourselves quite pleasing jerks in the process, treating these vehicles as a waggoner does his team on going downhill. (There were no brakes 1-28 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA here in these days.) We were glad to reach our final destination, Richmond, and to enter its comfortable hotel. The next day's paper was somewhat mixed in its announcements of fashionable arrivals, thus : " Mr. Thackeray, the celebrated author; Mr. Anderson, Wizard of the North ; " to which, as far as I recollect, were added some species of prodigy and a wild buf- falo. If one was inclined to wince, at first, at this not quite dignified medley of caterers for public amuse- ment, the feeling soon wore off into one of positive liking for the unpretending and cheerful conversation of the conjurer. He was surrounded by quite a troup of young wizards, who all helped him in his sleight of hand and evolutions. The black waiters wore stiff' white bows round their necks, and appeared in black coat-tails, and plied the company with all the delicacies, including the luscious banana, much relished in its fresh state. This feasting on the ordin- ary fare was many times relieved by the unceasing kindliness of some of the notables, who threw open their hearts and their homes to the welcome person- ator of English literature, not excluding self for the nonce. The English intonation was heard once more, owing to the traditional British schooling still kept up in those days in Virginia. This State, as all know, is especially endeared to the British tar by furnishing him with the toothsome IN VIRGINIA 129 "quid" — witli whicli lie has ever been plentifully regaled from the fields of the district, at the rate of about 130 dollars profit per acre. The tobacco-leaf fluctuates some- what in quality. In my peregrina- tions through the business part of the town I came across the scene depicted on p. 127. The experts of the trade were to be seen grasp- ing in their arms several of the choicest speci- mens of the brands, whilst muscular negroes, armed with crow- bars, lifted each of the compressed parcels, so as to test them at the central portions. The mass of these emitted a pleasant honey-dew smell, and evolved mental calculations as to the prodi- gious amount of mastication ensuing. This, however, BICEMONS 130 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA if I could trust a voluntary informant afterwai-ds, was not, after all, so vast as imagined. He said, " But for the income it brings in, we could easily chew the whole Virginia plant ourselves." No won- der, then, is it to see the capacious hotel expectorators generally festooned with the ejected, well-moistened leafage. Hitched on one of the rafters of the room was noticeable a trophy of the late Presidential cam- paign, in the shape of a small picture of the favourite candidate mounted upon a prancing charger; this was fastened to a pole, and bore the inscription — "In General Pierce we put a manly trust." It was paraded thus at the hustings as a party emblem, and their man had won the day. The departing trains for the South cross the brawling rocky bed of the James river by a wooden bridge. Here it is, overleaf, in the immediate fore- ground of the sketch; beyond, is given the general aspect of Richmond, with its houses capped by the classic-shaped Capitol as it looked forty years ago, a fair notion of its aspect, at that period. Somehow these rough-looking storehouses and unpretending ten- ements are always more pleasing to the artistic sense than are the stately fabrics of more modern-looking towns. The handsome verdure-surrounded villas are here out of sight. The 3rd of March, 1853, is a date well imprinted on A SLAVE SALE 131 my memory. I was sitting at an early table d'hdte breakfast by myself, reading the ably conducted local newspaper, of which our kind friend was the editor. It was not, however, the leaders or politics which attracted my eye, so much as the advertise- ment columns, containing the announcements of slave sales, some of which were to take place that morn- ing in Wall Street, close at hand, at eleven o'clock. Ideas of a possibly dramatic subject for pictorial illustration flitted across my mind ; so, with small notepaper and pencil, I went thither, inquiring my way to the auction rooms. They consisted, I soon discovered, of low rooms, roughly white-washed, with worn and dirty flooring, open, as to doors and windows, to the street, which they lined in suc- cession. The buyers clustered first in one dealer's premises, then moved on in a body to the next store, till the whole of the tenants of these separate apartments were disposed of. The sale was an- nounced by hanging out a small red flag on a pole from the doorway. On each of these was pinned a manuscript notice of the lot to be sold. Thus I read : — " Fifteen likely negroes to be dis- posed of between half-past nine and twelve — five men, six women, two boys, and two girls." Then followed the dealer's signature, which corresponded to that inscribed over the doorway. When I got 133 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA £j,.c. RCtV'VK.vjuVoniiw'-VuJ-^-J^ %i»M» ^ijMlJ^X>^^'^ IN THE BICHMOND SLAVE MARKET into the room I noticed, hanging on the wall, a quaintly framed and dirty lithograph, representing two horsemen galloping upon sorry nags, one of the latter casting its shoe, and his companion having a bandaged greasy fetlock ; the marginal inscription on the border was to this effect : — " Beware of what you are about." I have often thought since how foolish it was, on my part, not to have obeyed this premonitory injunction to act prudently in such a place as this was. The ordeal gone through by the several negroes began by making a stalwart hand pace up and down the compartment, as would IN THE RICHMOND SLAVE MARKET 133 be done witli a - horse, to ~ note his action. This proving satisfactory, some doubt was expressed as to his ocular soundness. This was met by one gentle- man unceremoniously fixing one of his thumbs into the socket of the supposed valid eye, holding tip a hair by his other hand, and asking the negro to state what was the object held up before him. He was evidently nonplussed, and in pain at the operation, and he went down in the bidding at once. More hands were put up ; but by this time feeling a wish for fresh air, I walked out, passing intervening stores and the grouped expectant negroes there. I got to the last and largest end store, and thinking the sales would occupy a certain time, I thought it might be possible to sketch some of the picturesque figures awaiting their turn. I did so. On rough benches were sitting, huddled close to- gether, neatly dressed in grey, young negro girls with white collars fastened by scarlet bows, and in white aprons. The form of a woman clasping her infant, ever touching, seemed the more so here. There was a muscular field-labourer sitting apart ; a rusty old stove filled up another space. Having rapidly sketched these features, I had not time to put my outline away before the whole group of buyers and dealers were in the compartment. I thought the 134 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA best plan was to go on unconcernedly ; but, perceiv- ing me so engaged, no one would bid. The auc- tioneer, who had mounted his table, came down and asked me whether, " if I had a business store, and someone came in and interrupted my trading, I should like it." This was unanswerable; I got up with the intention of leaving quietly, but, feeling this would savour of flight, I turned round to the now evidently angry crowd of dealers, and said, "You may turn me away, but I can recollect all I have seen." I lingered in a neighbouring vacated store, to give my- self the attitude of leisurely retreat, and I left this stifling atmosphere of human trafiic. "Crowe has been very imprudent," Thackeray wrote to a friend afterwards. And, in truth, I soon reflected it was so It might have led to unpleasant results to the lecturer himself, bound, as he went South, not to be em- broiled in any untoward .accident involving inter ference with the question of slavery, then at fever heat, owing to Mrs. Stowe's fiery denunciations in " Uncle Tom's Cabin." Though 1 have no real ground for the assumption, it has often occurred to me that the incident was allowed to drop quietly, owing to the timely intervention of friends, who threw oil upon these troubled waters, and buried their wrath in oblivion. The narrative here given is so simple as to bear the stamp of truth which needs no further corroboration. IN THE BICHMONB SLAVE MARKET I35 Still, by way of amplification of scenes subsequent to my withdrawal — or flight, if the reader prefers, though I was not sensible of it — I herewith give the account, which I found published exactly a week after in the New York Daily Tribune of March 10th, written by someone who, unknown to myself, was present on this occasion : — Extract of part of a letter in the New York Daily Tribune of March 10th, 1853, written by a New Yorker on Southern tour. The letter is dated " Rich- mond, Va., Thursday, March 3rd, 1853:" — A Slave Atjction in Virginia [After describing the previous sales, he comes to the last one.] ' ' A scene occurred in this room which ' may yet be heard from. ' Just before the sale commenced, a young well-dressed gentleman entered the room — ^placin^ himself in one corner of the room — began to take a sketch, and had proceeded quite far before he was noticed by anyone but myself. At last he attracted the attention of some of the bystanders, until full twenty or more were looking over his shoulder. Th«y all seemed pleased with what he was doing, so"* long as the sketch was a mere outline, but as he began to finish up the picture, and form his groups of figures, they began to see wliat he was about, and then someone went up privately to the auctioneer (who had by this time go-t one or two sold), and informed him what the man was doing. He came down from the stand, went and overlooked what he was doing for a moment, and saw himself written down for the first time in his life. He inquired of the man what he was doing. The answer -was, 'I do not know that I am bound to answer your inquiry.' Mr. 136 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA Auctioneer took his stand again, but was evidently so enraged that he could not go on, for by this time the whole company was aware of what was being done. And some proclaimed with a loud oath that the likeness was 'd d fine,' 'most splendid;' others were for ' footing ' him. The artist took the hint, however, without the kick, and left the room. But now we had a specimen of Southern bravery. They were all sure that he was an Abolitionist, and they all wanted to ' lend a foot ' to kick him, while one small gentleman said he would pay twenty-five dollars to hire a negro to do it. The excitement soon passed over ; not, however, without leaving on my mind the truth of the maxim that ' He who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day.'" After these sales we saw the usual exodus of negro slaves, marched under escort of their new owners across the town to the railway station, where they took places, and "went South." They held scanty bundles of clothing, their only possession. These were the scenes which in a very short number of years made one realise the sources of the fiercest of civil wars, and which had their climax when Greaeral Grant mustered his forces upon this spot as a centre against the equally gallant General Lee. Placid enough at the time I speak of were the avocations of this place, which is built on a slope, as is its English namesake. Towering above the rest of the houses was the Capitol, inside which was an antiquated stove, which had done service ever so long ago. All genuine works of art stamp a place as quite out of the common. THE STATE HOUSE 137 The State House at Richmond so excels, and Houdon's statue of General Washington stands there as a great masterpiece. The stoiy is pleasantly told on the occasion of the famous French sculptor's visit to J|;t!iJli»»Ji-1inp-i Mount Vernon. So scrupulous were these great craftsmen they disdained heroics, but they gave alike the exact measurement of the stature, the simple pose, the serene smile, and the imperishable marble form of those before them. One wonders why these 138 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA noble versions are not simply reproduced, instead of modern caracoling equestrian statues filling squares, wliicli give no mortal any pleasure to look at. The clean-shaven face of the " Father of his Country " has AFTER HOUDON^a WASHINGTON * doubtless had the effect of giving encouragement to all good Americans — his children — to do likewise. Exemplifying this, here is the quaint posture of nearly horizontal rest in which the barber plies the razor upon the cheeks and chins of most of his customers, that curious excrescence — the goatee — - * Inscribed tlius: "Fait par Houdon, citoyen Frangais, 1788." 140 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA betwixt lip and chin, forming the exception to the usually clean-shaven face. Petersburg (Virginia) sharing with Richmond in strategic importance during the Civil War, and since that adding its record of valorous defence, was at this time a somewhat somnolent-looking town. I went thither, and made all due arrangements for lecturing. I recollect carrying off in triumph from a drug store a high desk enamelled in white, the MS. leaves of the lecture needing this kind of support, generally dispensed with by extempore speakers. The walls were placarded with announcements of the discourse ; the papers Avere full of advertisements that the lecture would take place. Thackeray came down by an afternoon train. On inquiry at the ticket offices it was found that very few seats had been taken ; the advertisements in the papers had remained unheeded for the most part. As the evening was warm, the hall windows were left open ; and as I took a seat on a bench in a square below, I could hear the well-known sentences as they fell from the lecturer's lips, and issued, over well-nigh empty benches, into the calm air of the outside square, where, lounging sadly, I heard them. We philoso- phised over this queer breach in the hitherto con- tinuous spell of successes, as he afterwards whiffed his cigar, without anyone Joining us, in the hotel parlour. PETERSBURG, VA. 141 In the early morning I felt myself seeking relief from enforced mutism by button-holing a negro whom I watched digging in a small field. To my query he replied he was working upon an allotment-plot, many of his fellows having the same small ownership of the soil for small market produce given them by liberal landlords. We took the very earliest train to Rich- mond, glad to get once more amongst friends and to cheerful converse. The sketch of Petersburg presented overleaf (a view which is a little way from the street pavements) gives a notion of the place, at that time quite innocent of forts — unconscious of coming warfare, and that they would bear the brunt of a good deal of it hereafter. The Easter Monday holiday was here kept, as with us, by popular dolce far niente rambles and quiet enjoyment of all factory and other hands, clad in their best. I sketched one of the factories on the banks of the Appomattox, to which a bare tree was the pic- turesque foreground. I had time only to indicate the sand collectors and their carts in the front of it. The night-travelling in the cars in the South, as usual, only admits of snatches of broken rest. You doze perhaps, and you are aroused by the negro fireman, who comes and rakes out the cinders choking 143 WITR THACKERAY IN AMERICA up tlie stove-grate, and playfully sending a consider- able part of the ashes flying into the air you breathe. He, however, relieved your sensations of being parclied, by then bringing a large bucket full of water and a huge wooden long-handled ladle. All EASTBB MONDAY, PBTBKSBUEG, VA. who are clustered for warmth round the stove, and who had stretched out griuiy stockinged toes towards this centre, refresh themselves, turn round, and become somnolent once more. There is a fine democratic air of simplicity about the whole arrange- ment. As dawn comes, you are rewarded by seeing 144 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA through the many-paned windows of the car — which, in fact, are on all sides of it — by witnessing the roseate rays of the rising sun illuminating the pine forests, superbly decked out in rime. You are inclined on these occasions to side with the humoristic views of Mr. Eudyard Kipling's latest doctrine, and to pro- ON BOARD THE *' GOVERNOR DUDLEY ' nounce these magical fleeting effects as transcending more enduring canvas-smearings in interest. The calm Sunday's rest came as we settled at the Journey's end at Wilmington, !N^orth Carolina. The devout con- gregation of negroes in the gallery of the church there dwells in the mind long after the sermon and its text CHARLESTON 146 have been forgotten. Their cheerful faces were a homily. The next day we took tickets in the small steamer plying between Wilmington and Charleston. The dolphins were rolling over in the shallow waters in aquatic somer- saults. Our captain, trumpet in hand^ looked so rotund, you felt that, if thrown overboard by ill- fate, he also would have rotated. He, however, did his business of steering us at the rate of seventeen knots an hour steadily over the billows. Skilfully threading his way through shoals and shallows, passing sea-girt forts of the old war pattern — so soon to be replaced by newer ones, and to hoist the Con- federate standard in gallant defence — we got safely into Charleston harbour, and found rooms in the huge "Charleston Hotel." A time-worn copy of the Charleston Daily Courier, dated Tuesday morning, March 8th, 1853, is before me as I write these lines. It contains this announce- ment : — " Passengers yesterday (7th) arrived per steamer Governor Dudley from Wilmington, North Carolina." Here follow the names, "Thackery" (sic), 10 CfM&(a..>^ ».''j> 146 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA " Crowe," coming at tlie close. The faulty spelling is, however, amended in the small leader announcing the arrival at " Charleston Hotel," which adds : — " This evening, at the Hibernian Hall, at 7.30, he will begin a course of three lectures, viz., on Tues- day (8th), Thursday (10th), and Friday (11th) ; tickets for the course, 1 dollar ; sjngie lecture, 50 cents." These were, of course, highly relished by the elite of Charleston. They gave full vent to their Avell-known hospitalities, and much lionising was the result. Thackeray made here several drawings with his gold nib, some of which have been published and facsimiled by the wonderful new processes. Borrow- ing of him the same invaluably pointed pen, I made a few sketches in this city. First is the " Reveille ! " sounded by fife and drum, calling out the negroes, secluded within doors during the darkness of night, and issuing at this call to the factories in the early morning. The rousing summons reverberated round the Guard House, plentifully decorated with man- ual shackles at the time I speak of, some of which we were allowed to handle on the previous night over a pleasant palaver with the captain in com- mand. This rule of nocturnal retirement was obviously relaxed whenever a negro ball was given. We had the privilege of being invited to see one of these amusements. The saltatory features of 148 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA the scene here given were quaint yet picturesque. The minstrels were embowered in greenery as they played waltzes and quadrilles, which were danced with great zest, and the hall rang with good-humoured laughter. The refreshments were limited to spruce- beer, of Avhich we drank thankfully, as administering a novel sensation to the jaded palate. The striking features of negro evening dress consisted in astonish- ing turbans with marabou feathers, into which odd accessories of squib shape and other forms Avere inserted, which gave the ladies the appearance of going off, but not in the sense usually at- tached by chaperons to the term. We went home in high humour. Truth compels me to state that if a j^rize had to be awarded for expectorators, Charleston, at this time, would have carried off the palm. The spectacle has been, however, depicted on a previous page. More exhilarating groups call for notice. The entrance hall of the hotel presents rather an ani- mated scene, Charleston being the rendezvous of several lines of communication from New York, Havannah, or elsewhere. The piles of trunks form perfect barricades, which can be contemplated from 150 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA the convenient lounging-benclies on all sides by tLe numerous smokers there assembled. I asked a young negress tp come and have her likeness taken at the hotel, and she did so. She was a pea-nut seller, was quite modest and I'e- tiring, but she confided to us her great grievance against one of the known ordinances of slavery. She wished to go and see a play, but was not allowed the privilege at that time. A friend came in, to whom I showed the sketch, who cor- roborated her statement. I suppose this disability has since been rescinded, and has ceased to be an order enforced. Amongst the pleasant remembrances of this time was that of meeting Professor Agassiz, who was then lecturing upon such subjects as Cryptogamous Plants, and Scientific Surveys of Pine and Fir Species. It is terrible to think that the instructive discourse of such a master of science falls on the non-scientific mind with no responsive chord, from sheer incom- petence to assimilate the abstruse matters under discussion. Passing now from gay science to dull fact, the scene of the Charleston slave auction is here given, as a contrast to the Richmond version. Here it was in the open air, and by its picturesque elements lost many of its dismal featu,res. The hands to be disposed IN CHARLESTON MARKET 151 * CHMW of were fine strapping sons of toil. There were ninety of ttem, all coming from an estate wliicli was being sold off. They had been employed in the rice-fields of the Combahee river, flowing past the Beaufort and Colleton districts towards the Atlantic. I was much attracted by the group of women, especially by a stout matron clasping her infant in her arms, to whose points the dealer pointed with emphasising forefinger. On the right hand was to be seen the emblematic tree of the State, the grace- ful palmetto, protected by a square bar-grating. Fur- ther away was an earth-imbedded howitzer, acting as prop to the lounger. Throw in the old Exchange walls as a background, the tall masts of the cotton- laden liners in the far distance, and the not inhar- monious dresses of the slaves, and you have a picture, painful it is true, but also quite curious, as a record of bygone slavery times, actually reproduced as it was, and not the result of imaginary composition. 152 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA Leaving these throngs of labour for those of fashion, here is a sketch of one of the principal streets of Charleston, the chief feature of it being St. Michael's Church, built in the middle of the last century by a pupil . of Wren's. This gives it quite an old English air, also consonant with other linger- ing Old World traditions yet found here, such as often sending children to be eduearted in Europe, as was, done by their forefathers. But for the change in the lady's attire as to her bonnet, as you see her issuing from the stationer's shop, attended by a negro servant, and ready to step upon the semicircular stone into her carriage, the whole scene reminds one of the old prints of our squares (where some of these stepping-stones still survive) a hundred years ago. On the Charleston Quays the negro population affords opportunities for the pencil in their physi- ognomy, their dresses, and their callings. Look, for example, at the youth, with brush in hand, dipping it into a tar-pot, in order to mark the proper hiero- glyphics upon the side of the compressed cotton bale. There he sits enthroned — not a bad emblem of the saying "Cotton is king." Other boys, whose faces reveal varying coloured parentage, please by a sort of general good-humoured intelligence. You trace these, and also types of stalwart men mai'ked iby the same 154 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA characteristics. To tliese may be joined the tripartite sketch, of " Little Rebecca," though hailing from ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, CHARLESTOK another community, yet of kindred race, and beam- ing with a sort of self-contentment always pleasant to witness. NEGRO TYPES 155 Hfc B^ IC M>|««f AWw M— ^t— I *" vvVa4'H«v4, 156 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA Farther away, when leaving haunts of the hard toilers, you notice market women awaiting the chance customers for their sweet potatoes, luscious bananas, and other products of that generous soil, till tired, and passing labyrinths of tiled houses, you get back to rest at the caravansary. The balmy April atmosphere had brought with it the freshly imported spring toilettes from Paris, had enhanced the famed complexions of the feminine portion of the community, and had enticed them abroad to air both under the protecting parasols which they- carried about with them in Broad- way, or in the Carolinian lounge of King Street, X (yU^^fMXi A«-»*-|ft.tWM^ t^ftoJitU. CAPE CLEAR 173 were going full steam on to Sandy Hook. The name of tlie ship was the Mu/ropa j the winds were propi- tious, and at times all sail was set. One of the officers, I remember, told us he was on- board the vessel Dickens went out in. Thackeray asked him whether, in a sailor's estimation, the passage had been as terrific as was recorded in the famous " Notes," when he corroborated the Dickensian ver- sion in every particular. Our ship had fair weather.^ Regardless of another injustice to old Ireland, and although not many miles from inland Skibbereen, when we noticed the picturesquely perched light- house on the rock of Cape^-Glga^ we shouted out " Old England ! " in the bright, early morning air. We coasted the green-clad cliffs of Cork, and next morning, Sunday, we stepped once more upon the Liverpool landing stage, and got housed again in the " Adelphi " there. An interval of six months, almost to a day and to an hour, had elapsed since our departure on our first passage across the Atlantic. The six months' sojourn in the United States, the two passages across the Atlantic inclusive, were sandwiched, as it were, between the two great efforts of the Thackerayan pen, "Esmond," and "The New- comes." Family ties, balmy rest for the body from overstrained travel, and search after the inspiriting literary tonic ever given him by a Parisian visit, led 174 WITH THACKEHAV IN AMERICA Thackeray to his favourite Champs Elysees once more ; and my modest avocation as pen-holder being at an end, I also came to the same city in search of artistic relaxation. In the month of Octobei', 1853, came out the fii'st number of " The Newcomes," which was illustrated by the facile and graceful pencil of Richard Doyle. The second number, that of November, came t() hand iu Paris in its yellow cover complete. The autho]-, Avho had not before seen the illustrations to the text, was much put out on seeing one of these, in which the games of the Charterhouse boys were grouped. There were football, leap-frog, and wrest- ling going on iu mid-distance. The foreground is admirably composed with the scene of the youngster drawing upon his banker, Clive, for his needed coin. The peccant uccessory which roused the wrath of the writer Avas the group of two boys playing at marbles on the left of the spectator. " Why," said the irate author, " they Avould as soon have thought of cutting off their heads as pl;iy at marbles at the Charter- house." This Avoodcut was, I noticed, suppressed altogethei' iu subsequent editions. Nor was this a solitary instance of taitly regret on the author's part. As much of thp subordinate interest of the novel lay in its keen insight into art-life and manners, he asked me to introduce him to my friend Gerome, the world- renowned painter of so many chefs-d''(Bnn)re. I brought PARISIAN STUDIES 175 him one day to see the cluster of friendly studios, of wliich Gerome's was the central one, in the Rue Notre- Dame-des-Champs — a quarter haunted by the spirit of Ste.-Beuve and other Uterati in former days. We found the painter had Just completed his large composition entitled the " Apotheosis of Augustus," now honourably placed in the Amiens Museum. Opposite to it on the walls of his studio was a beautifully-finished but small composition, which Thackeray ^vhispered to me he should like to become possessor of ; but he weighed this in his mind, and said nothing to the author of it. The studios of Brion, the Alsatian painter, who gave you in art the same delicate pictures of life strewed in the pages of Erck- mann and Chatrian ; Schiitzenberger, a clever draughts- man of scenes from the same locality; Toulmouche, the skilful illustrator of manners and modes of the last century and of Our own time, one and all threw open their doors to welcome him. His exclamation, after our leave-taking was over, and when we strolled back through the picturesque avenues of the Luxembourg Gardens, was, " I Avish I had seen this before ! " It is mere conjecture on my part ; but the impres- sion left upon me at the time was that the " grand serenity " to which he alluded, pervading this mental atmosphere, if previously received as an impression, might have helped to modify his artistic lucubrations 176 WITH THACKERAY IN AMERICA in "The Newcomes." The eii'orts of Clive Newcome, and those of J. J., earnest as the latter are, seldom escape the bonds of amateurishness. The great ro- mance, on the other hand, might have suffered by deviating from its intended course. The incident is here noted as indicative of the waves of indecision, assailing at times fixed literary resolves. No one, now, is there, who would not regret that one sentence of that romance were either altered or scored off'. I now once more got into pictorial harness ; and, to my delight, I found Thackeray's kindly prediction "that I should be none the worse for the short break in my artistic career" fully verified. C^. • CtfMT. ^ INDEX " Adelphi," The, Liverpool, 8. Agassjz, Professor, 150. Albany, 169. Albany, the Senate, 169. Allston, Washington, 73. American Barbers, 138. American Newsboys, 21. Appomattox, On the Banks of the, 141. Athenseum Club, The, 5. Auctioneering, 79. Bailey Brothers, 13. Ball, Black & Co., 81. Baltimore, 106. Baltimore Hospitalities, 113. Bancroft, Mr., 39. Bangs Brothers & Co., 48. Barnum, 56. Barnum's Museum, 57. Agent, 60. Hotel, 105. Baxter, Mr. and Mrs., 170. " Belshazzar's Feast," 73. Beranger, 10. Bonaventura, 164, 165. Boston, 68. Harbour, 18. from Bunker's Hill, 39. , The Museum of Pictures, 70. , The Sessions, 76. Brion, 175. Broadway Omnibus, The, 56. Brooklyn, 49. Bunn, The Poet, 23. 13 GamOfda, On Board the, 43. Oamada, The (Capt. Lang), 13. Cape Clear, 173, 176. "Century"Club, The, 51. Chapin's Church, The Rev. Mr., 51. Charleston Daily Courier, The, 145. Charleston Hotel, The, 33, 145. Charleston, Slave Auctions at, 150. , St. Michael's Church, 153, 154 Clarendon Hotel, New York, 87. Clinton Hall, New York, 96. Clough, Arthur Hugh, 15. Coasting, 74. " Conformateur," The, 64. Crampton, Sir Philip, 113. Curtis, G. W., 68. Dangerous Sport, 89. Degan, Mr., 70. Dickens, Charles, 18, 173. Drinks, 61. " Esmond," 3. Reprints, 49. Europa, The, 173. Execution Morning, An, 91. Expectorators, 32. Fagan, Mr., 4. Felt, Mr. Millard, 45. " Fielding " Club, The, 7. Fields, Mr., 7. , Fillmore, President, 114. Fillmore and Pierce, Presidents, 116. 178 INDEX Fish, Senator Hamilton, 112. Fort Columbus, 93. Eraser's Jlagazme, 69. " Freemason's Tavern," The, 8. Genin's, John N., Hat Store, 63. Gerome, 175. Greeley, Horace, 43. Harper, Mr. James, 66. Harpers, Messrs., 65. Henningsen, C. F., 107. Hicks, Thomas, 74. Houdon's "General Washington," 137. Independence Hall, 109. James, George Payne Rainsford, 67. James (Senior), Mr. Henry, 44, 167. Kensett, 51. Lafarge House, The, 53. Lang, Capt., 15. Lawrence, The Hon. Abbott, 6. Littledale, Mr. Thomas, 13. Liverpool Mercury, The, 9. Low, Mr., 160. Lowell, Kussell, 14. Meagher, Thomas Francis, 86. Mercantile Library, New York, The, 6. Exchange, New York, The, 77. "Metropolitan," The, 53. Morton, Savile, of the Daily News, 10. National Restaurant, The, 134. Negro Ball, A, 147. Negro Types, 153, 154, 155. " Newcomes, The," 173, 174. New York, 34, 110. New Fork Daily Tribune, 135. Ossoli, Margaret Fuller, 73. Panizzi, Sir Antonio, 4. Parker, The Rev. Theodore, 41. Parry's Library, Liverpool, 9. Penn, William, 103. Petersburg, Va., 140. Philadelphia, 101. Pierce, President, 130, 170. Pierce and Fillmore, Presidents, 116. Pipe Office, The, Derivation of the Name, 33. Prescott, William Hickling, 30. , Col. William, 30. Providence, Rhode Island, 68. Punch, 160. Race, Cape, 16. Rankin, Mr., 157. RatclifEe, Mr., 13. Richmond, 136. Richmond, Va., 130. Richmond, Va., The State House at, 137. Ritchie, Mrs., 7, 170. Rossi, Countess (Mme. Sontag), 25. Rushton, Edward, 11. Savannah, Georgia, 159. Schiitzenberger, 175. "Sketch "Club, The, 51. Slave Sale, A, 131. Sleigh-Stages, 88. Sontag, Mme. (Countess Rossi), 34, 35. Soule, Pierre, 171. INDEX 179 Stewart's Haberdashery Shop, 64, 70. Stowe, Mrs. Beecher, 35. Sumner, Charles, 121. Thackeray, 1. at work on "Esmond," 3. at the AthensEum, 5. , Letter from the New York .Mer- cantile Library, 6. and Mr. Fields, 7. at the " Fielding,'' 7. at the " Trafalgar," 8. at the " Freemason's Tavern," 8. , "Dickey Sam" in the Liverpool Mercury, 9. , the Two Courses of Lectures at Manchester and Liverpool, 9. hears of the Death of his Friend Savile Morton, 10. , Edward Rushton, 11. , Hostile liefereuees in a New York Paper, 11. , his Appreciation of Roast Suck- ing-pig, 13. , Departure from Liverpool, 13. , Undemonstrative Reception in Amei'ica, 18. , his Opinion of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," 35. , the First Course of Lectures, 47. , Interview with Barnum, 59. , Interview with James Harpei-, 66. , the Pirate's Daughter, 66. at the " Melodeon," Boston, 70. , /Meeting with Washington Irving, 84. , Conversation with " Meagher of the Sword," 86. Thackeray, Mr. T. B. Reed and Hand Immemor, 109. , "Charity and Humour," 110. at Baltimore, 113. at Washington, 115. . " The Iron Jackson," 120. at the Congress, 122. Lectures at the Hiberniiiu Hall Church, 146. , his Kindness to his Cou.siii, Mr. Rankin, 157. , Mr. Low's Hospitality, 100, 161. and the Negro Boys, 164. — ^, " Lucy's Birthday," 170. , Sudden Departure for Home, 173. , " The Newcomes," 173, 174. , Visit to Studios of French Artists, 175. Thanksgiving Day, 52. Ticknor, George, 31. Tobacco Testing at Richmond, Va., 129. Tombs Prison, The, 90. Toulmouche, 175. "Trafalgar," The, 8. Tremont House, 31. " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 35. "Virginians, The," 30. Wall Street, 78. Washington Irving, 82. Webb, General, 4. Webster, Daniel, 39, 74. Williams, The Rev. Eleazar, 82. Wilmington, 144. DRIEF LIST of Books of Fiction Published ^ by Charles Scribner's Sons, 743-745 Broadway, New York. William Waldorf Astor. Valentino: An Historical Romance. i2mo, $1.00. Sforza : A Story of Milan. i2mo, $1.50. "The story is full of clear-cut little tableaux of mediaeval Italian manners, customs and observances. 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" The author's skill as a story writer has never been more felicitously illustrated than in this volume." — The New York Sun. Augustus Allen Hayes. The Jesuit's Ring. i2mo, paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00. " The conception of the story is excellent." — The Boston Traveller. George A. Hibbard. The Governor, and Other Stories. i2mo, cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cts. '' It is still often urged that, except in remote corners, there is nothing in our American life which appeals to the artistic sense, but certainly these stories are American to the core, and yet the artistic sense is strong in them throughout." — Critic. E. T. IV. Hoffmann. Weird Tales. With Portrait. i2mo, 2 vols., $3.00. "All those who are in search of a genuine literary sensation, or who care for the marvelous and supernatural, will find these two volumes fas- cinating reading." — The Christian Union. SCRIBNER'S BRIEF LIST OF FICTION. 5 Dr. J. G. Holland. Sevenoaks. The Bay Path. Arthur Bonnicastle. Miss Gilbert's Career. 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