It Is A Prejudice Which By No Means
Exists In Cincinnati.
There hog killing and salting and packing is
very honorable, and the great men in the trade are the merchant
princes of the city.
I went to see the performance, feeling it to
be a duty to inspect everywhere that which I found to be of most
importance; but I will not describe it. There were a crowd of men
operating, and I was told that the point of honor was to "put
through" a hog a minute. It must be understood that the animal
enters upon the ceremony alive, and comes out in that cleanly,
disemboweled guise in which it may sometimes be seen hanging up
previous to the operation of the pork butcher's knife. To one
special man was appointed a performance which seemed to be specially
disagreeable, so that he appeared despicable in my eyes; but when on
inquiry I learned that he earned five dollars (or a pound sterling)
a day, my judgment as to his position was reversed. And, after all,
what matters the ugly nature of such an occupation when a man is
used to it?
Cincinnati is like all other American towns, with second, third, and
fourth streets, seventh, eighth, and ninth streets, and so on. Then
the cross streets are named chiefly from trees. Chestnut, walnut,
locust, etc. I do not know whence has come this fancy for naming
streets after trees in the States, but it is very general. The town
is well built, with good fronts to many of the houses, with large
shops and larger stores; of course also with an enormous hotel,
which has never paid anything like a proper dividend to the
speculator who built it. It is always the same story. But these
towns shame our provincial towns by their breadth and grandeur. I
am afraid that speculators with us are trammeled by an "ignorant
impatience of ruin." I should not myself like to live in Cincinnati
or in any of these towns. They are slow, dingy, and uninteresting;
but they all possess an air of substantial, civic dignity. It must,
however, be remembered that the Americans live much more in towns
than we do. All with us that are rich and aristocratic and
luxurious live in the country, frequenting the metropolis for only a
portion of the year. But all that are rich and aristocratic and
luxurious in the States live in the towns. Our provincial towns are
not generally chosen as the residences of our higher classes.
Cincinnati has 170,000 inhabitants, and there are 14,000 children at
the free schools - which is about one in twelve of the whole
population. This number gives the average of scholars throughout
the year ended 30th of June, 1861. But there are other schools in
Cincinnati - parish schools and private schools - and it is stated to
me that there were in all 32,000 children attending school in the
city throughout the year. The education at the State schools is
very good.
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