I Do Not Say
Whether Or No The Literature Is Well Chosen, But There It Is.
It
is printed, sold, and read.
The disposal of ten thousand copies of
a work is no large sale in America of a book published at a dollar;
but in England it is a very large sale of a book brought out at
five shillings.
I do not remember that I ever examined the rooms of an American
without finding books or magazines in them. I do not speak here of
the houses of my friends, as of course the same remark would apply
as strongly in England; but of the houses of persons presumed to
earn their bread by the labor of their hands. The opportunity for
such examination does not come daily; but when it has been in my
power I have made it, and have always found signs of education.
Men and women of the classes to which I allude talk of reading and
writing as of arts belonging to them as a matter of course, quite
as much as are the arts of eating and drinking. A porter or a
farmer's servant in the States is not proud of reading and writing.
It is to him quite a matter of course. The coachmen on their boxes
and the boots as they set in the halls of the hotels have
newspapers constantly in their hands. The young women have them
also, and the children. The fact comes home to one at every turn,
and at every hour, that the people are an educated people. The
whole of this question between North and South is as well
understood by the servants as by their masters, is discussed as
vehemently by the private soldiers as by the officers. The
politics of the country and the nature of its Constitution are
familiar to every laborer. The very wording of the Declaration of
Independence is in the memory of every lad of sixteen. Boys and
girls of a younger age than that know why Slidell and Mason were
arrested, and will tell you why they should have been given up, or
why they should have been held in durance. The question of the war
with England is debated by every native pavior and hodman of New
York.
I know what Englishmen will say in answer to this. They will
declare that they do not want their paviors and hodmen to talk
politics; that they are as well pleased that their coachmen and
cooks should not always have a newspaper in their hands; that
private soldiers will fight as well, and obey better, if they are
not trained to discuss the causes which have brought them into the
field. An English gentleman will think that his gardener will be a
better gardener without than with any excessive political ardor,
and the English lady will prefer that her housemaid shall not have
a very pronounced opinion of her own as to the capabilities of the
cabinet ministers.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 251 of 277
Words from 129439 to 129938
of 143277
