The Theater, Too, Was Large, Handsome, And
Convenient; But On The Night Of My Attendance It Seemed To Lack An
Audience.
A good comic actor it did not lack, and I never laughed
more heartily in my life.
There was something wrong, too, just at
that time - I could not make out what - in the Constitution of
Illinois, and the present moment had been selected for voting a new
Constitution. To us in England such a necessity would be
considered a matter of importance, but it did not seem to be much
thought of here, "Some slight alteration probably," I suggested.
"No," said my informant, one of the judges of their courts, "it is
to be a thorough, radical change of the whole Constitution. They
are voting the delegates to-day." I went to see them vote the
delegates, but, unfortunately, got into a wrong place - by
invitation - and was turned out, not without some slight tumult. I
trust that the new Constitution was carried through successfully.
From these little details it may, perhaps, be understood how a town
like Chicago goes on and prospers in spite of all the drawbacks
which are incident to newness. Men in those regions do not mind
failures, and, when they have failed, instantly begin again. They
make their plans on a large scale, and they who come after them
fill up what has been wanting at first. Those taps of hot and cold
water will be made to run by the next owner of the hotel, if not by
the present owner. In another ten years the letters, I do not
doubt, will all be delivered. Long before that time the theater
will probably be full. The new Constitution is no doubt already at
work, and, if found deficient, another will succeed to it without
any trouble to the State or any talk on the subject through the
Union. Chicago was intended as a town of export for corn, and
therefore the corn stores have received the first attention. When
I was there they were in perfect working order.
From Chicago we went on to Cleveland, a town in the State of Ohio,
on Lake Erie, again traveling by the sleeping-cars. I found that
these cars were universally mentioned with great horror and disgust
by Americans of the upper class. They always declared that they
would not travel in them on any account. Noise and dirt were the
two objections. They are very noisy, but to us belonged the happy
power of sleeping down noise. I invariably slept all through the
night, and knew nothing about the noise. They are also very dirty -
extremely dirty - dirty so as to cause much annoyance. But then
they are not quite so dirty as the day cars. If dirt is to be a
bar against traveling in America, men and women must stay at home.
For myself, I don't much care for dirt, having a strong reliance on
soap and water and scrubbing-brushes. No one regards poisons who
carries antidotes in which he has perfect faith.
Cleveland is another pleasant town - pleasant as Milwaukee and
Portland. The streets are handsome and are shaded by grand avenues
of trees. One of these streets is over a mile in length, and
throughout the whole of it there are trees on each side - not
little, paltry trees as are to be seen on the boulevards of Paris,
but spreading elms: the beautiful American elm, which not only
spreads, but droops also, and makes more of its foliage than any
other tree extant. And there is a square in Cleveland, well sized,
as large as Russell Square I should say, with open paths across it,
and containing one or two handsome buildings. I cannot but think
that all men and women in London would be great gainers if the iron
rails of the squares were thrown down and the grassy inclosures
thrown open to the public. Of course the edges of the turf would
be worn, and the paths would not keep their exact shapes. But the
prison look would be banished, and the somber sadness of the
squares would be relieved.
I was particularly struck by the size and comfort of the houses at
Cleveland. All down that street of which I have spoken they do not
stand continuously together, but are detached and separate - houses
which in England would require some fifteen or eighteen hundred a
year for their maintenance. In the States, however, men commonly
expend upon house rent a much greater proportion of their income
than they do in England. With us it is, I believe, thought that a
man should certainly not apportion more than a seventh of his
spending income to his house rent - some say not more than a tenth.
But in many cities of the States a man is thought to live well
within bounds if he so expends a fourth. There can be no doubt as
to Americans living in better houses than Englishmen, making the
comparison of course between men of equal incomes. But the
Englishman has many more incidental expenses than the American. He
spends more on wine, on entertainments, on horses, and on
amusements. He has a more numerous establishment, and keeps up the
adjuncts and outskirts of his residence with a more finished
neatness.
These houses in Cleveland were very good, as, indeed, they are in
most Northern towns; but some of them have been erected with an
amount of bad taste that is almost incredible. It is not uncommon
to see in front of a square brick house a wooden quasi-Greek
portico, with a pediment and Ionic columns, equally high with the
house itself. Wooden columns with Greek capitals attached to the
doorways, and wooden pediments over the windows, are very frequent.
As a rule, these are attached to houses which, without such
ornamentation, would be simple, unpretentious, square, roomy
residences. An Ionic or Corinthian capital stuck on to a log of
wood called a column, and then fixed promiscuously to the outside
of an ordinary house, is to my eye the vilest of architectural
pretenses.
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