The Americans, However, Have Too Much Respect For Themselves And
Their Companions To Travel Except In Good Clothes, And This Mingling Of
All Ranks Is Far From Being Disagreeable, Particularly To A Stranger Like
Myself, One Of Whose Objects Was To See Things In Their Everyday Dress.
We
must be well aware that in many parts of England it would be difficult for
a lady to
Travel unattended in a second-class, impossible in a third-class
carriage; yet I travelled several thousand miles in America, frequently
alone, from the house of one friend to another's, and never met with
anything approaching to incivility; and I have often heard it stated that
a lady, no matter what her youth or attractions might be, could travel
alone through every State in the Union, and never meet with anything but
attention and respect.
I have had considerable experience of the cars, having travelled from the
Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from the Mississippi to the St. Lawrence,
and found the company so agreeable in its way, and the cars themselves so
easy, well ventilated, and comfortable, that, were it not for the
disgusting practice of spitting upon the floors in which the lower classes
of Americans indulge, I should greatly prefer them to our own exclusive
carriages, denominated in the States "'coon sentry-boxes." Well, we are
seated in the cars; a man shouts "Go a-head!" and we are off, the engine
ringing its heavy bell, and thus begin my experiences of American travel.
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