Margaret Fuller Ossoli - At Home And Abroad

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While coming down the rapids, the Indians caught a white-fish for my
breakfast; and certainly it was the best of breakfasts. The
white-fish I found quite another thing caught on the spot, and cooked
immediately, from what I had found it at Chicago or Mackinaw. Before,
I had had the bad taste to prefer the trout, despite the solemn and
eloquent remonstrances of the _habitues_, to whom the superiority of
white-fish seemed a cardinal point of faith.

I am here reminded that I have omitted that indispensable part of a
travelling journal, the account of what we found to eat. I cannot hope
to make up, by one bold stroke, all my omissions of daily record;
but that I may show myself not destitute of the common feelings of
humanity, I will observe that he whose affections turn in summer
towards vegetables should not come to this region, till the subject
of diet be better understood; that of fruit, too, there is little yet,
even at the best hotel tables; that the prairie chickens require
no praise from me, and that the trout and white-fish are worthy the
transparency of the lake waters.

In this brief mention I by no means intend to give myself an air of
superiority to the subject. If a dinner in the Illinois woods, on dry
bread and drier meat, with water from the stream that flowed hard by,
pleased me best of all, yet, at one time, when living at a house where
nothing was prepared for the table fit to touch, and even the bread
could not be partaken of without a headache in consequence, I learnt
to understand and sympathize with the anxious tone in which fathers
of families, about to take their innocent children into some scene of
wild beauty, ask first of all, "Is there a good, table?" I shall ask
just so in future. Only those whom the Powers have furnished with
small travelling cases of ambrosia can take exercise all day, and be
happy without even bread morning or night.

Our voyage back was all pleasure. It was the fairest day. I saw the
river, the islands, the clouds, to the greatest advantage.

On board was an old man, an Illinois farmer, whom I found a most
agreeable companion. He had just been with his son, and eleven other
young men, on an exploring expedition to the shores of Lake Superior.
He was the only old man of the party, but he had enjoyed most of any
the journey. He had been the counsellor and playmate, too, of the
young ones. He was one of those parents--why so rare?--who understand
and live a new life in that of their children, instead of wasting time
and young happiness in trying to make them conform to an object and
standard of their own. The character and history of each child may
be a new and poetic experience to the parent, if he will let it.
Our farmer was domestic, judicious, solid; the son, inventive,
enterprising, superficial, full of follies, full of resources, always
liable to failure, sure to rise above it. The father conformed to, and
learnt from, a character he could not change, and won the sweet from
the bitter.

His account of his life at home, and of his late adventures among the
Indians, was very amusing, but I want talent to write it down, and I
have not heard the slang of these people intimately enough. There is a
good book about Indiana, called the New Purchase, written by a person
who knows the people of the country well enough to describe them in
their own way. It is not witty, but penetrating, valuable for its
practical wisdom and good-humored fun.

There were many sportsman-stories told, too, by those from Illinois
and Wisconsin. I do not retain any of these well enough, nor any that
I heard earlier, to write them down, though they always interested me
from bringing wild natural scenes before the mind. It is pleasant
for the sportsman to be in countries so alive with game; yet it is so
plenty that one would think shooting pigeons or grouse would seem
more like slaughter, than the excitement of skill to a good sportsman.
Hunting the deer is full of adventure, and needs only a Scrope to
describe it to invest the Western woods with _historic_ associations.

How pleasant it was to sit and hear rough men tell pieces out of their
own common lives, in place of the frippery talk of some fine circle
with its conventional sentiment, and timid, second-hand criticism.
Free blew the wind, and boldly flowed the stream, named for Mary
mother mild.

A fine thunder-shower came on in the afternoon. It cleared at sunset,
just as we came in sight of beautiful Mackinaw, over which, a rainbow
bent in promise of peace.

I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy
travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of
loneliness when they did not, in places where there was everything new
to occupy the attention. So childish, I thought, always to be longing
for the new in the old, and the old in the new. Yet just such sadness
I felt, when I looked on the island glittering in the sunset, canopied
by the rainbow, and thought no friend would welcome me there; just
such childish joy I felt to see unexpectedly on the landing the face
of one whom I called friend.

The remaining two or three days were delightfully spent, in walking or
boating, or sitting at the window to see the Indians go. This was not
quite so pleasant as their coming in, though accomplished with
the same rapidity; a family not taking half an hour to prepare for
departure, and the departing canoe a beautiful object. But they left
behind, on all the shore, the blemishes of their stay,--old rags,
dried boughs, fragments of food, the marks of their fires. Nature
likes to cover up and gloss over spots and scars, but it would take
her some time to restore that beach to the state it was in before they
came.

S. and I had a mind for a canoe excursion, and we asked one of the
traders to engage us two good Indians, that would not only take us
out, but be sure and bring us back, as we could not hold converse
with them. Two others offered their aid, beside the chief's son,
a fine-looking youth of about sixteen, richly dressed in blue
broadcloth, scarlet sash and leggins, with a scarf of brighter red
than the rest, tied around his head, its ends falling gracefully
on one shoulder. They thought it, apparently, fine amusement to
be attending two white women; they carried us into the path of
the steamboat, which was going out, and paddled with all their
force,--rather too fast, indeed, for there was something of a swell on
the lake, and they sometimes threw water into the canoe. However, it
flew over the waves, light as a seagull. They would say, "Pull away,"
and "Ver' warm," and, after these words, would laugh gayly. They
enjoyed the hour, I believe, as much as we.

The house where we lived belonged to the widow of a French trader, an
Indian by birth, and wearing the dress of her country She spoke
French fluently, and was very ladylike in her manners. She is a great
character among them. They were all the time coming to pay her homage,
or to get her aid and advice; for she is, I am told, a shrewd woman of
business. My companion carried about her sketch-book with her, and
the Indians were interested when they saw her using her pencil, though
less so than about the sun-shade. This lady of the tribe wanted to
borrow the sketches of the beach, with its lodges and wild groups, "to
show to the _savages_" she said.

Of the practical ability of the Indian women, a good specimen is given
by McKenney, in an amusing story of one who went to Washington, and
acted her part there in the "first circles," with a tact and sustained
dissimulation worthy of Cagliostro. She seemed to have a thorough
love of intrigue for its own sake, and much dramatic talent. Like the
chiefs of her nation, when on an expedition among the foe, whether for
revenge or profit, no impulses of vanity or way-side seductions
had power to turn her aside from carrying out her plan as she had
originally projected it.

Although I have little to tell, I feel that I have learnt a great deal
of the Indians, from observing them even in this broken and degraded
condition. There is a language of eye and motion which cannot be put
into words, and which teaches what words never can. I feel acquainted
with the soul of this race; I read its nobler thought in their defaced
figures. There _was_ a greatness, unique and precious, which he who
does not feel will never duly appreciate the majesty of nature in this
American continent.

I have mentioned that the Indian orator, who addressed the agents on
this occasion, said, the difference between the white man and the red
man is this: "The white man no sooner came here, than he thought of
preparing the way for his posterity; the red man never thought of
this." I was assured this was exactly his phrase; and it defines the
true difference. We get the better because we do

"Look before and after."

But, from, the same cause, we

"Pine for what is not."

The red man, when happy, was thoroughly happy; when good, was simply
good. He needed the medal, to let him know that he _was_ good.

These evenings we were happy, looking over the old-fashioned garden,
over the beach, over the waters and pretty island opposite, beneath
the growing moon. We did not stay to see it full at Mackinaw; at two
o'clock one night, or rather morning, the Great Western came snorting
in, and we must go; and Mackinaw, and all the Northwest summer, is now
to me no more than picture and dream:--

"A dream within a dream."

These last days at Mackinaw have been pleasanter than the "lonesome"
nine, for I have recovered the companion with whom I set out from the
East,--one who sees all, prizes all, enjoys much, interrupts never.

At Detroit we stopped for half a day. This place is famous in our
history, and the unjust anger at its surrender is still expressed
by almost every one who passes there. I had always shared the common
feeling on this subject; for the indignation at a disgrace to our arms
that seemed so unnecessary has been handed down from father to child,
and few of us have taken the pains to ascertain where the blame
lay. But now, upon the spot, having read all the testimony, I felt
convinced that it should rest solely with the government, which, by
neglecting to sustain General Hull, as he had a right to expect they
would, compelled him to take this step, or sacrifice many lives, and
of the defenceless inhabitants, not of soldiers, to the cruelty of a
savage foe, for the sake of his reputation.

I am a woman, and unlearned in such affairs; but, to a person
with common sense and good eyesight, it is clear, when viewing
the location, that, under the circumstances, he had no prospect of
successful defence, and that to attempt it would have been an act of
vanity, not valor.

I feel that I am not biassed in this judgment by my personal
relations, for I have always heard both sides, and though my feelings
had been moved by the picture of the old man sitting in the midst
of his children, to a retired and despoiled old age, after a life
of honor and happy intercourse with the public, yet tranquil, always
secure that justice must be done at last, I supposed, like others,
that he deceived himself, and deserved to pay the penalty for failure
to the responsibility he had undertaken. Now, on the spot, I change,
and believe the country at large must, erelong, change from this
opinion. And I wish to add my testimony, however trifling its weight,
before it be drowned in the voice of general assent, that I may do
some justice to the feelings which possess me here and now.

A noble boat, the Wisconsin, was to be launched this afternoon; the
whole town was out in many-colored array, the band playing. Our boat
swept round to a good position, and all was ready but--the Wisconsin,
which could not be made to stir. This was quite a disappointment. It
would have been an imposing sight.

In the boat many signs admonished that we were floating eastward. A
shabbily-dressed phrenologist laid his hand on every head which would
bend, with half-conceited, half-sheepish expression, to the trial of
his skill. Knots of people gathered here and there to discuss points
of theology. A bereaved lover was seeking religious consolation
in--Butler's Analogy, which he had purchased for that purpose.
However, he did not turn over many pages before his attention was
drawn aside by the gay glances of certain damsels that came on board
at Detroit, and, though Butler might afterwards be seen sticking
from his pocket, it had not weight to impede him from many a feat of
lightness and liveliness. I doubt if it went with him from the boat.
Some there were, even, discussing the doctrines of Fourier. It seemed
pity they were not going to, rather than from, the rich and free
country where it would be so much easier than with us to try the great
experiment of voluntary association, and show beyond a doubt that "an
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," a maxim of the "wisdom
of nations" which has proved of little practical efficacy as yet.

Better to stop before landing at Buffalo, while I have yet the
advantage over some of my readers.

THE BOOK TO THE READER,

WHO OPENS, AS AMERICAN READERS OFTEN DO,--AT THE END.

To see your cousin in her country home,
If at the time of blackberries you come,
"Welcome, my friends," she cries with ready glee,
"The fruit is ripened, and the paths are free.
But, madam, you will tear that handsome gown;
The little boy be sure to tumble down;
And, in the thickets where they ripen best,
The matted ivy, too, its bower has drest.
And then the thorns your hands are sure to rend,
Unless with heavy gloves you will defend;
Amid most thorns the sweetest roses blow,
Amid most thorns the sweetest berries grow."

If, undeterred, you to the fields must go,
You tear your dresses and you scratch your hands;
But, in the places where the berries grow,
A sweeter fruit the ready sense commands,
Of wild, gay feelings, fancies springing sweet,--
Of bird-like pleasures, fluttering and fleet.

Another year, you cannot go yourself,
To win the berries from the thickets wild,
And housewife skill, instead, has filled the shelf
With blackberry jam, "by best receipts compiled,--
Not made with country sugar, for too strong
The flavors that to maple-juice belong;
But foreign sugar, nicely mixed 'to suit
The taste,' spoils not the fragrance of the fruit."

"'Tis pretty good," half-tasting, you reply,
"I scarce should know it from fresh blackberry.
But the best pleasure such a fruit can yield
Is to be gathered in the open field;
If only as an article of food,
Cherry or crab-apple is quite as good;
And, for occasions of festivity,
West India sweetmeats you had better buy."

Thus, such a dish of homely sweets as these
In neither way may chance the taste to please.

Yet try a little with the evening-bread;
Bring a good needle for the spool of thread;
Take fact with fiction, silver with the lead,
And, at the mint, you can get gold instead;
In fine, read me, even as you would be read.

PART II.

THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN EUROPE.

LETTER I.

PASSAGE IN THE CAMBRIA.--LORD AND LADY FALKLAND.--CAPTAIN
JUDKINS.--LIVERPOOL.--MANCHESTER.--MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.--"THE
DIAL."--PEACE AND WAR.--THE WORKING-MEN OF ENGLAND.--THEIR TRIBUTE TO
SIR ROBERT PEEL.--THE ROYAL INSTITUTE.--STATUES.--CHESTER.--BATHING.

Ambleside, Westmoreland, 23d August, 1846.

I take the first interval of rest and stillness to be filled up by
some lines for the Tribune. Only three weeks have passed since leaving
New York, but I have already had nine days of wonder in England, and,
having learned a good deal, suppose I may have something to tell.

Long before receiving this, you know that we were fortunate in the
shortest voyage ever made across the Atlantic,[A]--only ten days
and sixteen hours from Boston to Liverpool. The weather and all
circumstances were propitious; and, if some of us were weak of head
enough to suffer from the smell and jar of the machinery, or other
ills by which the sea is wont to avenge itself on the arrogance of
its vanquishers, we found no pity. The stewardess observed that she
thought "any one tempted God Almighty who complained on a voyage where
they did not even have to put guards to the dishes"!

[Footnote A: True at the time these Letters were written.--ED.]

As many contradictory counsels were given us with regard to going in
one of the steamers in preference to a sailing vessel, I will mention
here, for the benefit of those who have not yet tried one, that he
must be fastidious indeed who could complain of the Cambria. The
advantage of a quick passage and certainty as to the time of arrival,
would, with us, have outweighed many ills; but, apart from this, we
found more space than we expected and as much as we needed for a
very tolerable degree of convenience in our sleeping-rooms, better
ventilation than Americans in general can be persuaded to accept,
general cleanliness, and good attendance. In the evening, when the
wind was favorable, and the sails set, so that the vessel looked like
a great winged creature darting across the apparently measureless
expanse, the effect was very grand, but ah! for such a spectacle one
pays too dear; I far prefer looking out upon "the blue and foaming
sea" from a firm green shore.

Our ship's company numbered several pleasant members, and that desire
prevailed in each to contribute to the satisfaction of all, which, if
carried out through the voyage of life, would make this earth as happy
as it is a lovely abode. At Halifax we took in the Governor of Nova
Scotia, returning from his very unpopular administration. His lady was
with, him, a daughter of William the Fourth and the celebrated Mrs.
Jordan. The English on board, and the Americans, following their lead,
as usual, seemed to attach much importance to her left-handed alliance
with one of the dullest families that ever sat upon a throne, (and
that is a bold word, too,) none to her descent from one whom Nature
had endowed with her most splendid regalia,--genius that fascinated
the attention of all kinds and classes of men, grace and winning
qualities that no heart could resist. Was the cestus buried with her,
that no sense of its pre-eminent value lingered, as far as I could
perceive, in the thoughts of any except myself?

We had a foretaste of the delights of living under an aristocratical
government at the Custom-House, where our baggage was detained, and
we waiting for it weary hours, because of the preference given to
the mass of household stuff carried back by this same Lord and Lady
Falkland.

Captain Judkins of the Cambria, an able and prompt commander, is the
man who insisted upon Douglass being admitted to equal rights upon his
deck with the insolent slave-holders, and assumed a tone toward their
assumptions, which, if the Northern States had had the firmness, good
sense, and honor to use, would have had the same effect, and put
our country in a very different position from that she occupies at
present. He mentioned with pride that he understood the New York
Herald called him "the Nigger Captain," and seemed as willing to
accept the distinction as Colonel McKenney is to wear as his last
title that of "the Indian's friend."

At the first sight of the famous Liverpool Docks, extending miles on
each side of our landing, we felt ourselves in a slower, solider, and
not on that account less truly active, state of things than at home.
That impression is confirmed. There is not as we travel that rushing,
tearing, and swearing, that snatching of baggage, that prodigality of
shoe-leather and lungs, which attend the course of the traveller in
the United States; but we do not lose our "goods," we do not miss our
car. The dinner, if ordered in time, is cooked properly, and served
punctually, and at the end of the day more that is permanent seems to
have come of it than on the full-drive system. But more of this, and
with a better grace, at a later day.

The day after our arrival we went to Manchester. There we went over
the magnificent warehouse of ---- Phillips, in itself a Bazaar ample
to furnish provision for all the wants and fancies of thousands. In
the evening we went to the Mechanics' Institute, and saw the boys
and young men in their classes. I have since visited the Mechanics'
Institute at Liverpool, where more than seventeen hundred pupils are
received, and with more thorough educational arrangements; but the
excellent spirit, the desire for growth in wisdom and enlightened
benevolence, is the same in both. For a very small fee, the mechanic,
clerk, or apprentice, and the women of their families, can receive
various good and well-arranged instruction, not only in common
branches of an English education, but in mathematics, composition,
the French and German, languages, the practice and theory of the Fine
Arts, and they are ardent in availing themselves of instruction in
the higher branches. I found large classes, not only in architectural
drawing, which may be supposed to be followed with a view to
professional objects, but landscape also, and as large in German as
in French. They can attend many good lectures and concerts without
additional charge, for a due place is here assigned to music as to its
influence on the whole mind. The large and well-furnished libraries
are in constant requisition, and the books in most constant demand
are not those of amusement, but of a solid and permanent interest and
value. Only for the last year in Manchester, and for two in Liverpool,
have these advantages been extended to girls; but now that part of
the subject is looked upon as it ought to be, and begins to be treated
more and more as it must and will be wherever true civilization is
making its way. One of the handsomest houses in Liverpool has been
purchased for the girls' school, and room and good arrangement been
afforded for their work and their play. Among other things they are
taught, as they ought to be in all American schools, to cut out and
make dresses.

I had the pleasure of seeing quotations made from our Boston "Dial,"
in the address in which the Director of the Liverpool Institute, a
very benevolent and intelligent man, explained to his disciples and
others its objects, and which concludes thus:--

"But this subject of self-improvement is inexhaustible. If traced to
its results in action, it is, in fact, 'The Whole Duty of Man.' What
of detail it involves and implies, I know that you will, each and all,
think out for yourselves. Beautifully has it been said: 'Is not the
difference between spiritual and material things just this,--that in
the one case we must watch details, in the other, keep alive the high
resolve, and the details will take care of themselves? Keep the sacred
central fire burning, and throughout the system, in each of its acts,
will be warmth and glow enough.'[A]

[Footnote A: The Dial, Vol. I. p. 188, October, 1840, "Musings of a
Recluse."]

"For myself, if I be asked what my purpose is in relation to you, I
would briefly reply, It is that I may help, be it ever so feebly, to
train up a race of young men, who shall escape vice by rising above
it; who shall love truth because it is truth, not because it brings
them wealth or honor; who shall regard life as a solemn thing,
involving too weighty responsibilities to be wasted in idle or
frivolous pursuits; who shall recognize in their daily labors, not
merely a tribute to the "hard necessity of daily bread," but a field
for the development of their better nature by the discharge of duty;
who shall judge in all things for themselves, bowing the knee to no
sectarian or party watchwords of any kind; and who, while they think
for themselves, shall feel for others, and regard their talents, their
attainments, their opportunities, their possessions, as blessings held
in trust for the good of their fellow-men."

I found that The Dial had been read with earnest interest by some of
the best minds in these especially practical regions, that it had been
welcomed as a representative of some sincere and honorable life in
America, and thought the fittest to be quoted under this motto:--

"What are noble deeds but noble thoughts realized?"

Among other signs of the times we bought Bradshaw's Railway Guide,
and, opening it, found extracts from the writings of our countrymen,
Elihu Burritt and Charles Sumner, on the subject of Peace, occupying
a leading place in the "Collect," for the month, of this little
hand-book, more likely, in an era like ours, to influence the conduct
of the day than would an illuminated breviary. Now that peace is
secured for the present between our two countries, the spirit is
not forgotten that quelled the storm. Greeted on every side with
expressions of feeling about the blessings of peace, the madness and
wickedness of war, that would be deemed romantic in our darker land,
I have answered to the speakers, "But you are mightily pleased, and
illuminate for your victories in China and Ireland, do you not?" and
they, unprovoked by the taunt, would mildly reply, "_We_ do not, but
it is too true that a large part of the nation fail to bring home
the true nature and bearing of those events, and apply principle to
conduct with as much justice as they do in the case of a nation nearer
to them by kindred and position. But we are sure that feeling is
growing purer on the subject day by day, and that there will soon be a
large majority against war on any occasion or for any object."

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