In
Massachusetts The Maine Liquor Law Is Still The Law Of The Land,
But, Like That Other Law To Which I Have Alluded, It Has Fallen
Very Much Out Of Use.
At any rate, it had not reached the houses
of the gentlemen with whom I had the pleasure of making
acquaintance.
But here I must guard myself from being
misunderstood. I saw but one drunken man through all New England,
and he was very respectable. He was, however, so uncommonly drunk
that he might be allowed to count for two or three. The Puritans
of Boston are, of course, simple in their habits and simple in
their expenses. Champagne and canvas-back ducks I found to be the
provisions most in vogue among those who desired to adhere closely
to the manner of their forefathers. Upon the whole, I found the
ways of life which had been brought over in the "Mayflower" from
the stern sects of England, and preserved through the revolutionary
war for liberty, to be very pleasant ways; and I made up my mind
that a Yankee Puritan can be an uncommonly pleasant fellow. I wish
that some of them did not dine so early; for when a man sits down
at half-past two, that keeping up of the after-dinner recreations
till bedtime becomes hard work.
In Boston the houses are very spacious and excellent, and they are
always furnished with those luxuries which it is so difficult to
introduce into an old house. They have hot and cold water pipes
into every room, and baths attached to the bedchambers. It is not
only that comfort is increased by such arrangements, but that much
labor is saved. In an old English house it will occupy a servant
the best part of the day to carry water up and down for a large
family. Everything also is spacious, commodious, and well lighted.
I certainly think that in house-building the Americans have gone
beyond us, for even our new houses are not commodious as are
theirs. One practice which they have in their cities would hardly
suit our limited London spaces. When the body of the house is
built, they throw out the dining-room behind. It stands alone, as
it were, with no other chamber above it, and removed from the rest
of the house. It is consequently behind the double drawing-rooms
which form the ground floor, and is approached from them and also
from the back of the hall. The second entrance to the dining-room
is thus near the top of the kitchen stairs, which no doubt is its
proper position. The whole of the upper part of the house is thus
kept for the private uses of the family. To me this plan of
building recommended itself as being very commodious.
I found the spirit for the war quite as hot at Boston now (in
November) if not hotter than it was when I was there ten weeks
earlier; and I found also, to my grief, that the feeling against
England was as strong.
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