But In This Young World The Cities Have Come
First.
The new Jasons, blessed with the experience of the Old-
World adventurers, have gone forth in search of their
Golden
fleeces, armed with all that the science and skill of the East had
as yet produced, and, in settling up their new Colchis, have begun
by the erection of first class hotels and the fabrication of
railroads. Let the Old World bid them God speed in their work.
Only it would be well if they could be brought to acknowledge from
whence they have learned all that they know.
Our route lay right across the State to a place called Grand Haven,
on Lake Michigan, from whence we were to take boat for Milwaukee, a
town in Wisconsin, on the opposite or western shore of the lake.
Michigan is sometimes called the Peninsular State, from the fact
that the main part of its territory is surrounded by Lakes Michigan
and Huron, by the little Lake St. Clair and by Lake Erie. It juts
out to the northward from the main land of Indiana and Ohio, and is
circumnavigable on the east, north, and west. These particulars,
however, refer to a part of the State only; for a portion of it
lies on the other side of Lake Michigan, between that and Lake
Superior. I doubt whether any large inland territory in the world
is blessed with such facilities of water carriage.
On arriving at Grand Haven we found that there had been a storm on
the lake, and that the passengers from the trains of the preceding
day were still remaining there, waiting to be carried over to
Milwaukee. The water however - or the sea, as they all call it - was
still very high, and the captain declared his intention of
remaining there that night; whereupon all our fellow-travelers
huddled themselves into the great lake steamboat, and proceeded to
carry on life there as though they were quite at home. The men
took themselves to the bar-room, and smoked cigars and talked about
the war with their feet upon the counter; and the women got
themselves into rocking-chairs in the saloon, and sat there
listless and silent, but not more listless and silent than they
usually are in the big drawing-rooms of the big hotels. There was
supper there precisely at six o'clock - beef-steaks, and tea, and
apple jam, and hot cakes, and light fixings, to all which luxuries
an American deems himself entitled, let him have to seek his meal
where he may. And I was soon informed, with considerable energy,
that let the boat be kept there as long as it might by stress of
weather, the beef-steaks and apple jam, light fixings and heavy
fixings, must be supplied at the cost of the owners of the ship.
"Your first supper you pay for," my informant told me, "because you
eat that on your own account. What you consume after that comes of
their doing, because they don't start; and if it's three meals a
day for a week, it's their look out." It occurred to me that,
under such circumstances, a captain would be very apt to sail
either in foul weather or in fair.
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