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north america-2-第20部分

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rthyr…Tydvil and Birmingham are great。  But the foundery work at Pittsburg is more nearly allied to the heavy; rough works of the Welsh coal metropolis than to the finish and polish of Birmingham。 〃Why cannot you consume your own smoke?〃 I asked a gentleman there。 〃Fuel is so cheap that it would not pay;〃 he answered。  His idea of the advantage of consuming smoke was confined to the question of its paying as a simple operation in itself。  The consequent cleanliness and improvement in the atmosphere had not entered into his calculations。  Any such result might be a fortuitous benefit; but was not of sufficient importance to make any effort in that direction expedient on its own account。  〃Coal was burned;〃 he said; 〃in the founderies at something less than two dollars a ton; while that was the case; it could not answer the purpose of any iron… founder to put up an apparatus for the consumption of smoke?〃  I did not pursue the argument any further; as I perceived that we were looking at the matter from two different points of view。 Everything in the hotel was black; not black to the eye; for the eye teaches itself to discriminate colors even when loaded with dirt; but black to the touch。  On coming out of a tub of water my foot took an impress from the carpet exactly as it would have done had I trod barefooted on a path laid with soot。  I thought that I was turning negro upward; till I put my wet hand upon the carpet; and found that the result was the same。  And yet the carpet was green to the eyea dull; dingy green; but still green。  〃You shouldn't damp your feet;〃 a man said to me; to whom I mentioned the catastrophe。 Certainly; Pittsburg is the dirtiest place I ever saw; but it is; as I said before; very picturesque in its dirt when looked at from above the blanket。 From Pittsburg I went on by train to Cincinnati; and was soon in the State of Ohio。  I confess that I have never felt any great regard for Pennsylvania。  It has always had; in my estimation; a low character for commercial honesty; and a certain flavor of pretentious hypocrisy。  This probably has been much owing to the acerbity and pungency of Sydney Smith's witty denunciations against the drab…colored State。  It is noted for repudiation of its own debts; and for sharpness in exaction of its own bargains。  It has been always smart in banking。  It has given Buchanan as a President to the country; and Cameron as a Secretary of War to the government! When the battle of Bull's Run was to be fought; Pennsylvanian soldiers were the men who; on that day; threw down their arms because the three months' term for which they had been enlisted was then expired!  Pennsylvania does not; in my mind; stand on a par with Massachusetts; Connecticut; New York; Illinois; or Virginia。 We are apt to connect the name of Benjamin Franklin with Pennsylvania; but Franklin was a Boston man。  Nevertheless; Pennsylvania is rich and prosperous。  Indeed it bears all those marks which Quakers generally leave behind them。 I had some little personal feeling in visiting Cincinnati; because my mother had lived there for some time; and had there been concerned in a commercial enterprise; by which no one; I believe; made any great sum of money。  Between thirty and forty years ago she built a bazaar in Cincinnati; which; I was assured by the present owner of the house; was at the time of its erection considered to be the great building of the town。  It has been sadly eclipsed now; and by no means rears its head proudly among the great blocks around it。 It had become a 〃Physio…medical Institute〃 when I was there; and was under the dominion of a quack doctor on one side; and of a college of rights of women female medical professors on the other。  〃I believe; sir; no man or woman ever yet made a dollar in that building; and as for rent; I don't even expect it。〃  Such was the account given of the unfortunate bazaar by the present proprietor。 Cincinnati has long been known as a great townconspicuous among all towns for the number of hogs which are there killed; salted; and packed。  It is the great hog metropolis of the Western States; but Cincinnati has not grown with the rapidity of other towns。  It has now 170;000 inhabitants; but then it got an early start。  St。 Louis; which is west of it again near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi; has gone ahead of it。  Cincinnati stands on the Ohio River; separated by a ferry from Kentucky; which is a slave State; Ohio itself is a free…soil State。  When the time comes for arranging the line of division; if such time shall ever come; it will be very hard to say where Northern feeling ends and where Southern wishes commence。  Newport and Covington; which are in Kentucky; are suburbs of Cincinnati; and yet in these places slavery is rife。  The domestic servants are mostly slaves; though it is essential that those so kept should be known as slaves who will not run away。  It is understood that a slave who escapes into Ohio will not be caught and given up by the intervention of the Ohio police; and from Covington or Newport any slave with ease can escape into Ohio。  But when that division takes place; no river like the Ohio can form the boundary between the divided nations。  Such rivers are the highways; round which in this country people have clustered themselves。  A river here is not a natural barrier; but a connecting street。  It would be as well to make a railway a division; or the center line of a city a national boundary。  Kentucky and Ohio States are joined together by the Ohio River; with Cincinnati on one side and Louisville on the other; and I do not think that man's act can upset these ties of nature。  But between Kentucky and Tennessee there is no such bond of union。  There a mathematical line has been simply drawn; a continuation of that line which divides Virginia from North Carolina; to which two latter States Kentucky and Tennessee belonged when the thirteen original States first formed themselves into a Union。  But that mathematical line has offered no peculiar advantages to population。  No great towns cluster there; and no strong social interests would be dissevered should Kentucky throw in her lot with the North; and Tennessee with the South; but Kentucky owns a quarter of a million of slaves; and those slaves must either be emancipated or removed before such a junction can be firmly settled。 The great business of Cincinnati is hog killing now; as it used to be in the old days of which I have so often heard。  It seems to be an established fact; that in this portion of the world the porcine genus are all hogs。  One never hears of a pig。  With us a trade in hogs and pigs is subject to some little contumely。  There is a feeling; which has perhaps never been expressed in words; but which certainly exists; that these animals are not so honorable in their bearings as sheep and oxen。  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 childr
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