American essays -- 19th century; Short stories, American
Speaking of the cholera in Boston, and the practice of using hot
vinegar there, as a disinfective, she says:
“I was told a carriage of this _fumigated_ liquid had been driven
through the streets; there are deaths here every day and some at
Newport, but _it_ is not believed to be contagious at present, only
carrying off the profligate and the debilitated.”
Again.
“Till my introduction to the Governor of New York I did not know that
each State has a Governor. Governor Seymour lives at Albany. Some of
those Governors are only elected for two years, _and_ this gentleman
does credit to popular choice.”
So much for the _Queen’s_ English! Now for one or two specimens of her
penetration. The first quotation we make will undoubtedly cause as much
surprise to the very many benevolent associations in Boston (which are
constantly deploring their inability to meet the voices of distress
which cry, help us!), as it did to ourself:
“I never met a beggar in Boston, not even among the Irish, and ladies
have told me that _they could not find a family on which to exercise
their benevolent feelings_!”
Governor Seymour, Miss Murray’s friend, will doubtless feel flattered
by the following patronizing mention of him. And here we will say, that
it would have been more politic in the Hon. Miss Amelia, when we
consider England’s late relations to Sebastopol, had she omitted to
touch upon so ticklish a subject as British military discipline.
Speaking of Governor Seymour’s review of the New York troops, on
Evacuation Day, she says:
“Governor Seymour reviewed these troops in front of the City Hall with
as much tranquillity of manner and simple dignity _as might have been
evinced by one of the most experienced of OUR public men_!”
One more instance of Miss Murray’s superior powers of observation:
“I have found out the reason why ladies, traveling alone in the United
States, must be extravagantly dressed; without that precaution they meet
with no attention, and little civility, decidedly much less than in any
other country, so here it is not as _women_, but as ladies, they are
cared for, and this in Democratic America!”
In the first place, every body but Miss Murray knows that an American
LADY never “travels expensively dressed.” That there are females who do
this, just as they walk our streets in a similar attire, and for a
similar purpose, is undeniable; and that they receive from the opposite
sex the “attentions” which they seek, is also true; but this, it seems
to us, should hardly _disturb the serenity of a “Maid of Honor_!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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