Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

I sincerely regret that I cannot be with you. The state
of the weather puts it out of my power to make the
journey. The object of the meeting has my entire
sympathy. The works of Mr. Cooper have adorned and
elevated our literature. There is nothing more purely
American, in the highest sense of the word, than
several of them. In his department he is _facile
princeps_. He wrote too much to write every thing
equally well; but his abundance flowed out of a full,
original mind, and his rapidity and variety bespoke a
resolute and manly consciousness of power. If among his
works there were some which, had he been longer spared
to us, he would himself, on reconsideration, have
desired to recal, there are many more which the latest
posterity "will not willingly let die."

With much about him that was intensely national, we
have but one other writer (Mr. Irving), as widely known
abroad. Many of Cooper's novels were not only read at
every fireside in England, but were translated into
every language of the European continent.

He owed a part of his inspiration to the magnificent
nature which surrounded him; to the lakes, and forests,
and Indian traditions, and border-life of your great
state. It would have been as difficult to create
Leatherstocking anywhere out of New-York, or some state
closely resembling it, as to create Don Quixotte out of
Spain. To have trained and possessed Fenimore Cooper
will be--is already--with justice, one of your greatest
boasts. But we cannot let you monopolize the care of
his memory. We have all rejoiced in his genius; we have
all felt the fascination of his pen; we all deplore his
loss. You must allow us all to join you in doing honor
to the name of our great American novelist. I remain,
dear sir, with great respect, very truly yours,

EDWARD EVERETT.

Rev. RUFUS W. GRISWOLD.

Letters of similar import were received from Richard H. Dana, George Ticknor, William H. Prescott, John Neal, and many other eminent men, all approving the design to render the highest honors to the illustrious deceased.

At the meeting of the New-York Historical Society, on the evening of Tuesday, the 7th of October, after the transaction of the regular business, the following resolutions were moved by Rev. Rufus W. Griswold, and seconded by Mr. George Bancroft:--

_Whereas_, It has pleased Almighty God to remove from
this life our illustrious associate and countryman,
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, while his fame was in its
fulness, and his intelligence was still unclouded by
age or any infirmity, therefore:

Resolved, That this society has heard of the death of
James Fenimore Cooper with profound regret:

That it recognizes in him an eminent subject and a
masterly illustrator of our history:

That, in his contributions to our literature he
displayed eminent genius and a truly national spirit:

That, in his personal character, he was honorable,
brave, sincere, and generous, as respectable for
unaffected virtue as he was distinguished for great
capacities:

That this society, appreciating the loss which,
however heavily it has fallen upon this country and
the literary world, has fallen most heavily upon his
family, instructs its officers to convey to his family,
assurances of respectful sympathy and condolence.

Dr. JOHN W. FRANCIS addressed the society in a very interesting speech, in support of these resolutions. Among the great men of letters, he said, whom our country has produced, there were none greater than Mr. Cooper. I knew him for a period of thirty years, and during all that time I never knew any thing of his character that was not in the highest degree praiseworthy. He was a man of great decision of character, and a fair expositor of his own thoughts on every occasion--a thorough American, for I never knew a man who was more entirely so in heart and principle. He was able, with his vast knowledge, and a powerful physical structure, to complete whatever he attempted. He had studied the history of this country with a large philosophy, and understood our people and their character better than any other writer of the age. He was not only perfectly acquainted with our general history, but was thoroughly conversant with that of every state, county, village, lake, and river. And with his vast knowledge he was no less remarkable for ability as a historian than for his intrepidity of personal character. I could not, said Dr. Francis, allow this opportunity to pass without paying my tribute to the merits of this truly great man.

Mr. GEORGE BANCROFT next addressed the society. My friend, he said, has spoken of the illustrious deceased as an American--I say that he was an embodiment of the American feeling, and truly illustrated American greatness. We were endeavoring to hold up our heads before the world, and to claim a character and an intellect of our own, when Cooper appeared with his powerful genius to support our pretensions. He came forth imbued with American life, and feeling, and sentiment. Another like Cooper cannot appear, for he was peculiarly suited to his time, which was that of an invading civilization. The fame and honor which he gained, were not obtained by obsequious deference to public opinion, but simply by his great ability and manly character. Great as he was in the department of romantic fiction, he was not less deserving of praise in that of history. In Lionel Lincoln he has described the battle of Bunker Hill better than it is described in any other work.

In his naval history of the United States he has left us the most masterly composition of which any nation could boast on a similar subject. Mr. Bancroft proceeded in a masterly analysis of some of Mr. Cooper's characters, and ended with an impressive assertion of the purity of his contributions to our literature, the eminence of his genius, and the dignity of his personal character.

Dr. HAWKS spoke with his customary eloquence of the personal character of Mr. Cooper, his indefectible integrity, his devotion to the best interests of his country, and his religious spirit. He approved the resolutions which had been offered to the society.

The Rev. SAMUEL OSGOOD said:

It must seem presumptuous in me, Mr. President, to try
to add any thing to the tribute which has been paid to
the memory of Cooper, by gentlemen so peculiarly
qualified from their experience and position to speak
of the man and his services. But all professions have
their own point of view, and I may be allowed to say a
few words upon the relation of our great novelist to
the historical associations and moral standards of our
nation. I cannot claim more than a passing acquaintance
with the deceased, and it belongs to friends more
favored to interpret the asperities and illustrate the
amenities which are likely to mark the character of a
man so decided in his make and habit. With his position
as an interpreter of American history and a delineator
of American character, we are in this society most
closely concerned. None in this presence, I am sure,
will rebuke me for speaking of the novelist as among
the most important agents of popular education,
powerful either for good or ill.

Is it not true, Sir, that the romance is the prose epic
of modern society, and that we now look to its pages
for the most graphic portraitures of men, manners, and
events? Social and political life is too complex now
for the stately march of the heroic poem, and this age
of print needs not the carefully measured verse to make
sentences musical to the ear, or to save them from
being mutilated by circulation. The romance is now the
chosen form of imaginative literature, and its gifted
masters are educators of the popular ideal. What epic
poem of our times begins to compare in influence over
the common mind with the stories of Scott and Cooper?
Our novelist loved most to treat of scenes and
characters distinctively national, and his name stands
indelibly written on our fairest lakes and rivers, our
grandest seas and mountains, our annals of early
sacrifice and daring. With some of his criticisms on
society, and some of his views of political and
historical questions, I have personally little
sympathy. But, when it is asked, in the impartial
standard of critical justice, what influence has he
exerted over the moral tone of American literature, or
to what aim has he wielded the fascinating pen of
romance, there can be but one reply. With him, fancy
has always walked hand in hand with purity, and the
ideal of true manhood, which is everywhere most
prominent in his works, is one of which we may well be
proud as a nation and as men.

The element of will, perhaps more strongly than
intellectual analysis, or exquisite sensibility, or
high imagination, is the distinguished characteristic
of his heroes, and in this his portraitures are good
types of what is strongest in the practical American
mind. His model man, whether forester, sailor, servant,
or gentleman, is always bent on bringing some especial
thing to pass, and the progress from the plan to the
achievement is described with military or naval
exactness. Yet he never overlooks any of the essential
traits of a noble manhood, and loves to show how much
of enterprise, courage, compassion, and reverence, it
combines with practical judgment and religious
principle.

It has seemed to me that his stories of the seas and
the forests are fitted to act more than ever upon the
strong hearts in training for the new spheres of
triumph which are now so wonderfully opening upon our
people. Who does not wish that his noted hero of the
backwoods might be known in every loghouse along our
extending frontier, and teach the rough pioneer always
to temper daring by humanity? Who can ever forget that
favorite character, as dear to the reader as to the
author--that paladin of the forest, that lion-heart of
the wilderness, Leatherstocking, fearless towards
man--gentle towards woman--a rough-cast gentleman of
as true a heart as ever beat under the red cross of the
crusader. The very qualities needed in those old times
of frontier strife are now needed for new emergencies
in our more peaceful border life, and our future
depends vastly upon the characters that give edge to
the advancing mass of our population now crowding
towards the rocky mountains and the Pacific coast. It
is well that this story-teller of the forest has been
so true to the best traits of our nature, and in so
many points is a moralist too. As a romancer of the
sea, Cooper's genius may perhaps be but beginning to
show its influence, as a new age of commercial
greatness is opening upon our nation.

Mr. Cooper did not shrink from battle scenes and had no
particular dread of gunpowder, yet his best laurels
upon the ocean have been won in describing feats of
seamanship and traits of manhood that need no bloody
conflict for their display, and may be exemplified in
fleets as peaceful and beneficent as ever spread their
sails to the breezes to bear kindly products to
friendly nations. As we sit here this evening under the
influence of the hour, the images of many a famous
exploit on the water seems to come out from his
well-remembered pages and mingle themselves with recent
scenes of marine achievement. Has not the "Water Witch"
herself reappeared of late in our own bay, and laden
not with contraband goods, but a freight of
stout-hearted gentlemen, borne the palm as "Skimmer of
the Seas," from all competitors in presence of the
royalty and nobility of England? And the Old Ironsides,
has not she come back again, more iron-ribbed than
ever--not to fight over the old battles which our naval
chronicler was so fond of rehearsing, but under the
name of the Baltic or (better omen) the Pacific, to win
a victory more honorable and encouraging than ever was
carried by the thundering broadsides of the noble old
Constitution! The commanders and pilots so celebrated
by the novelist, have they not successors indomitable
as they? and just now our ship-news brings good tidings
of their achievements, as they tell us of the Flying
Cloud that has made light of the storms of the fearful
southern cape, and of the return of the adventurous
fleet that has stood so well the hug of the Polar
icebergs, and shown how nobly a crew may hunt for men
on the seas with a Red Rover's daring and a Christian's
mercy.

It is well that the most gifted romancer of the sea is
an American, and that he is helping us to enact the
romance of history so soon to be fact. The empire of
the waters, which in turn has belonged to Tyre, Venice,
and England, seems waiting to come to America, and no
part of the world now so justly claims its possession
as that state in which Cooper had his home. Who does
not welcome the promise of the new age of powerful
commerce and mental blessing? Who does not feel
grateful to any man who gives any good word or work to
the emancipation of the sailor from his worst enemies,
and to the freedom of the seas from all the violence
that stains its benignant waters? While proud of our
fleet ships, let us not forget elements in their
equipment more important than oak and iron. In this age
of merchandise, let us adorn peace with something of
the old manhood that took from warfare some of its
horrors. Did time allow, I might try to illustrate the
power of an attractive literature in keeping alive
national associations and moulding national character,
but I am content to leave these few fragmentary words
with the society as my poor tribute to a writer who
charmed many hours of my boyhood, and who has won
regard anew as the entertaining and instructive
beguiler of some recent days of rural recreation. May
we not sincerely say that he has so used the treasures
of our national scenery and history as to elevate the
true ideal of true manhood, and quicken the nation's
memory in many respects auspiciously for the nation's
hopes?

It is understood that a public discourse on the life and genius of Mr. Cooper will be delivered by one of the most eminent of his contemporaries, at Tripler Hall, early in December, and that measures will be adopted to secure the erection of a suitable monument to his memory in one of the public squares or parks of the city. On this subject Mr. Washington Irving has written the following letter:

SUNNYSIDE, October, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR:--My occupations in the country prevent my
attendance in town at the meeting of the committee, but
I am anxious to know what is doing. I signified at our
first meeting what I thought the best monument to the
memory of Mr. Cooper--a statue. It is the simplest,
purest, and most satisfactory--perpetuating the
likeness of the person. I understand there is an
excellent bust of Mr. Cooper extant, made when he was
in Italy. He was there in his prime; and it might
furnish the model for a noble statue. Judge Duer
suggested that his monument should be placed at
Washington, perhaps in the Smithsonian Institute. I was
rather for New-York, as he belonged to this State, and
the scenes of several of his best works were laid in
it. Besides, the seat of government may be changed, and
then Washington would lose its importance; whereas
New-York must always be a great and growing
metropolis--the place of arrival and departure for this
part of the world--the great resort of strangers from
abroad, and of our own people from all parts of the
Union. One of our beautiful squares would be a fine
situation for a statue. However, I am perhaps a little
too local in my notions on this matter. Cooper
emphatically belongs to the nation, and his monument
should be placed where it would be most in public view.
Judge Duer's idea therefore may be the best. There will
be a question of what material the statue (if a statue
is determined on) should be made. White marble is the
most beautiful, but how would it stand our climate in
the open air? Bronze stands all weathers and all
climates, but does not give so clearly the expression
of the countenance, when regarded from a little
distance.

These are all suggestions scrawled in haste, which I
should have made if able to attend the meeting of the
committee. I wish you would drop me a line to let me
know what is done or doing.

Yours very truly,

WASHINGTON IRVING.

The Rev. RUFUS GRISWOLD.

The plan thus recommended by Mr. Irving will undoubtedly be approved by the committee and the public, and there is little doubt that it will soon be carried into execution.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The accomplished authoress of "Rural Hours."--_Ed. International._

THE LONDON TIMES ON AMERICAN INTERCOMMUNICATION.

We are by no means confident that the Mexican War, with all its victories, was more serviceable to our reputation in Europe, than the single victory of Mr. Stevens, in his yacht America, off the Isle of Wight. This triumph has been celebrated in a dinner at the Astor House, but the city might have well afforded to welcome the returning owner of the America with an illumination, or the fathers, in council assembled, might have voted him a statue. Mr. Collins and Mr. Stevens have together managed to deprive England of the "trident of the seas," and as soon as it was transferred there began a shower of honors, which continues still, from the _Times_ down to the very meanest of its imitators. From that time the Americans have had all the "solid triumphs" in the Great Exhibition. We have been regarded as a wonderful people, and our institutions as the most interesting study that is offered for contemporary statesmen and philosophers. We copy below a specimen of the leaders with which the _Times_ has honored us, and commend it to our readers, not more for its tone than for the valuable information contained in it:--

LOCOMOTION BY RIVER AND RAILWAY IN THE UNITED STATES.

England has been so dazzled by the splendor of her own
achievements in the creation of a new art of transport
by land and water within the last thirty years, as to
become in a measure insensible to all that has been
accomplished in the same interval and in the same
department of the arts elsewhere, improvements less
brilliant, indeed, intrinsically, than the stupendous
system of inland transport, which we lately noticed in
these columns, and having a lustre mitigated to our
view by distance, yet presenting in many respects
circumstances and conditions which may well excite
profound and general interest, and even challenge a
respectful comparison with the greatest of those
advances in the art of locomotion of which we are most
justly proud.

It will not, therefore, be without utility and
interest, after the detailed notice which we have
lately given of our own advances in the adaptation of
steam to locomotion, to direct attention to the
progress in the same department which has been
simultaneously made in other and distant countries, and
first, and above all, by our friends and countrymen in
the other hemisphere.

The inland transport of the United States is
distributed mainly between the rivers, the canals, and
the railways, a comparatively small fraction of it
being executed on common roads. Provided with a system
of natural water communication on a scale of magnitude
without any parallel in the world, it might have been
expected that the "sparse" population of this recently
settled country might have continued for a long period
of time satisfied with such an apparatus of transport.
It is, however, the character of man, but above all of
the Anglo-Saxon man, never to rest satisfied with the
gifts of nature, however munificent they be, until he
has rendered them ten times more fruitful by the
application of his skill and industry, and we find
accordingly that the population of America has not only
made the prodigious natural streams which intersect its
vast territory over so many thousands of miles,
literally swarm with steamboats, but they have,
besides, constructed a system of canal navigation,
which may boldly challenge comparison with any thing of
the same kind existing in the oldest, wealthiest, and
most civilized States of Europe.

It appears from the official statistics that, on the
1st of January, 1843, the extent of canals in actual
operation amounted to 4,333 miles and that there were
then in progress 2,359 miles, a considerable portion of
which has since been completed, so that it is probable
that the actual extent of artificial water
communication now in use in the United States
considerably exceeds 5,000 miles. The average cost of
executing this prodigious system of artificial water
communication was at the rate of 6,432_l._ per mile, so
that 5,000 miles would have absorbed a capital of above
32,000,000_l._

This extent of canal transport, compared with the
population, exhibits in a striking point of view the
activity and enterprise which characterize the American
people. In the United States there is a mile of canal
navigation for every 5,000 inhabitants, while in
England the proportion is 1 to every 9,000 inhabitants,
and France 1 to every 13,000. The ratio, therefore, of
this instrument of intercommunication in the United
States is greater than in the United Kingdom, in
proportion to the population, as 9 to 5, and greater
than in France in the ratio of 13 to 5.

The extent to which the American people have
fertilized, so to speak, the natural powers of those
vast collections of water which surround and intersect
their territory, is not less remarkable than their
enterprise in constructing artificial lines of water
communication. Besides the internal communication
supplied by the rivers, properly so called, a vast
apparatus of liquid transport is derived from the
geographical character of their extensive coast,
stretching over a space of more than 4,000 miles, from
the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the delta of the
Mississippi, indented and serrated with natural harbors
and sheltered bays, fringed with islands forming
sounds, throwing out capes and promontories which
inclose arms of the sea in which the waters are free
from the roll of the ocean, and which, for all the
purposes of navigation, have the character of rivers
and lakes. The lines of communication formed by the
vast and numerous rivers are, moreover, completed in
the interior by chains of lakes presenting the most
extensive bodies of fresh water in the known world.

Whatever question may be raised on the conflicting
claims for the invention of steam navigation, it is an
incontestable fact that the first steamboat practically
applied for any useful purpose was placed on the
Hudson, to ply between New-York and Albany, in 1808;
and, from that time to the present that river has been
the theatre of the most remarkable series of
experiments of locomotion on water ever recorded in the
history of man. The Hudson is navigable by steamers of
the largest class as high as Albany, a distance of
nearly 150 miles from New-York. The steam navigation
upon this river is entitled to attention, not only
because of the immense traffic of which it is the
vehicle, but because it forms a sort of model for all
the rivers of the Atlantic States. Two classes of
steamers work upon it--one appropriated to the swift
transport of passengers, and the other to the towing of
the vast traffic which is maintained between the city
of New-York and the interior of the State of that name,
into the heart of which the Hudson penetrates.

The passenger steamers present a curious contrast to
the sea-going steamers with which we are familiar. Not
having to encounter the agitated surface of the ocean,
they are supplied with neither rigging nor sails, are
built exclusively with a view to speed, are slender and
weak in their structure, with great length in
proportion to their beam, and have but small draught of
water. The position and form of the machinery are
peculiar. The engines are placed on deck in a
comparatively elevated situation. It is but rarely that
two engines are used. A single engine placed in the
centre of the deck drives a crank constructed on the
axle of the enormous paddle-wheels, the magnitude of
which, and the velocity imparted to them, enable them
to perform the office of fly-wheels. These vessels,
which are of great magnitude, are splendidly fitted up
for the accommodation of passengers, and have been
within the last ten or twelve years undergoing a
gradual augmentation of magnitude, to which it would
seem to be difficult to set a limit.

In the following table, which we borrow from the work
on _Railway Economy_, from which we have already
derived so large a portion of our information, are
given the dimensions and the details of fourteen of the
principal steamers plying on the Hudson in the year 1838:--

|Length of deck. | |Breadth of beam. | | |Draught. | | | |Diameter of wheels. | | | | |Length of paddles. | | | | | |Depth of paddles. | | | | | | |Number of engines. | | | | | | | |Diameter of cylinder. | | | | | | | | |Length of stroke. | | | | | | | | | |Number of | | | | | | | | | |revolutions. | | | | | | | | | | |Part of stroke | | | | | | | | | | |at which steam Names. | | | | | | | | | | |is cut off. -------------+----+----+----+----+----+---+--+----+----+----+-----+ | ft.| ft.| ft.| ft.| ft.|ft.| | in.| ft.| | | Dewit Clinton| 230|28 |5.5 |21 |13.7|36 |1 |65 | 10 |29 |.75 | Champlain | 180|27 |5.5 |22 |15 |34 |2 |44 | 10 |27.5|.50 | Erie | 180|27 |5.5 |22 |15 |34 |2 |44 | 10 |27.5|.50 | North America| 200|30 |5 |21 |13 |30 |2 |44.5| 8 |24 |.50 | Independence | 148|26 | -- | -- | -- |-- |1 |44 | 10 | -- | -- | Albany | 212|26 | -- |24.5|14 |30 |1 |65 | -- |19 | -- | Swallow | 233|22.5|3.75|24 |11 |30 |1 |46 | -- |27 | -- | Rochester | 200|25 |3.75|23.5|10 |24 |1 |43 | 10 |28 | -- | Utica | 200|21 |3.5 |22 | 9.5|24 |1 |39 | 10 | -- | -- | Providence | 180|27 |9 | -- | -- |-- |1 |65 | 10 | -- | -- | Lexington | 207|21 | -- |23 | 9 |30 |1 |48 | 11 |24 | -- | Narraganset | 210|26 |5 |25 |11 |30 |1 |60 | 12 |20 |.50 | Massachusetts| 200|29.5|8.5 |22 |10 |28 |2 |44 | 8 |26 | -- | Rhode Island | 210|26 |6.5 |24 |11 |30 |1 |60 | 11 |21 | -- | +----+----+----+----+----+---+--+----+----+----+-----+ Averages | 200|26 |5.6 |24.8|11 |30 |--|50.8| 10 |24.8| -- | -------------+----+----+----+----+----+---+--+----+----+----+-----+

The changes more recently made all have a tendency to
increase the magnitude and power of those vessels--to
diminish their draught of water--and to increase the
play of the expansive principle. Vessels of the largest
class now draw only as much water as the smallest drew
a few years ago, four feet five inches being regarded
as the _maximum_.

It appears from the following table that the average
length of these prodigious floating hotels is above 300
feet; some of them approaching 400. In the passenger
accommodation afforded by them no water communication
in any country can compete. Nothing can exceed the
splendor and luxury with which they are fitted up,
furnished, and decorated. Silk, velvet, the most costly
carpetings and upholstery, vast mirrors, gilding, and
carving, are profusely displayed in their decoration.
Even the engine-room in some of them is lined with
mirrors. In the Alida, for example, the end of the
engine-room is one vast mirror, in which the movements
of the brilliant and highly-finished machinery are
reflected. All the largest class are capable of running
from twenty to twenty-two miles an hour, and average
nearly twenty miles without difficulty.

In the annexed table are exhibited the details of ten
of the most recently constructed passenger vessels:--

---------------+------------------------+----------------+------------------ | DIMENSIONS OF | ENGINE. | PADDLE- | VESSEL. | | WHEEL. +------------------------+----------------+------------------ | |Diameter of | | |cylinder. | |Length. | |Length of |Diameter. | |Breadth. | |stroke. | |Length of | | |Depth of | | |Number | |bucket. Names. | | |Hold. | | |of | | |Depth of | | | |Tonnage.| | |strokes.| | |bucket. ---------------+----+-----+----+--------+---+---+--------+----+----+-------- | ft.| ft. | ft.| |in.|ft.| | ft.|ft. | in. Isaac Newton |333 |40.4 |10.0| |81 |12 | 18-1/2 |39.0|12.4| 32 Bay State |300 |39.0 |13.2| |76 |12 | 21-1/2 |38.0|10.3| 32 Empire State |304 |39.0 |13.6| |76 |12 | 21-1/2 |38.0|10.3| 32 Oregon |308 |35.0 | -- | |72 |11 | 18 |34.0|11.0| 28 Hendrick Hudson|320 |35.0 | 9.6| 1,050 |72 |11 | 22 |33.0|11.0| 33 C. Vanderbilt |300 |35.0 |11.0| 1,075 |72 |12 | 21 |35.0| 9.0| 33 Connecticut |300 |37.0 |11.0| |72 |13 | 21 |35.0|11.6| 36 Commodore |280 |33.0 |10.6| |65 |11 | 22 |31.6| 9.0| 33 New-York |276 |35.0 |10.6| |76 |15 | 18 |44.6|12.0| 36 Alida |286 |28.0 | 9.6| |56 |12 | 24-1/2 |32.0|10.0| 32 ---------------+----+-----+----+-------+----+----+-------+----+----+-------- Averages |310 |35.8 |11.0| |71.8|12.1|20.8 |35.0|10.8| 37 ---------------+----+-----+----+-------+----+----+-------+----+----+--------

It may be observed, in relation to the navigation of
those eastern rivers (for we do not here speak of the
Mississippi and its tributaries), that the occurrence
of explosions is almost unheard of. During the last ten
years not a single catastrophe of this kind has been
recorded, although cylindrical boilers ten feet in
diameter, composed of plating 5-16ths of an inch thick,
are commonly used with steam of 50lb. pressure.

Previously to 1844 the lowest fare from New-York to
Albany, a distance of 145 miles, was 4s. 4d.; at
present the fare is 2s. 2d.--and for an additional sum
of the same amount the passenger can command the luxury
of a separate cabin. When the splendor and magnitude of
the accommodation is considered, the magnificence of
the furniture and accessories, and the luxuriousness of
the table, it will be admitted that no similar example
of cheap locomotion can be found in any part of the
globe. Passengers may there be transported in a
floating palace, surrounded with all the conveniences
and luxuries of the most splendid hotel, at the average
rate of twenty miles an hour, for less than _one-sixth
of a penny per mile_! It is not an uncommon occurrence
during the warm season to meet persons on board these
boats who have lodged themselves there permanently, in
preference to hotels on the banks of the river. Their
daily expenses in the boat are as follows:

Fare 2_s._ 2_d._
Separate bedroom 2 2
Breakfast, dinner, and supper 6 6
------
Total daily expense for board, lodging, 10 10
attendance, and travelling 150 miles,
at 20 miles an hour

Such accommodation is, on the whole, more economical
than a hotel. The bedroom is as luxuriously furnished
as the handsomest chamber in an hotel or private house,
and is much more spacious than the room similarly
designated in the largest packet ships.

The other class of steamers, used for towing the
commerce of the river, corresponds to the goods trains
on railways. No spectacle can be more remarkable than
this class of locomotive machines, dragging their
enormous load up the Hudson. They may be seen in the
midst of this vast stream, surrounded by a cluster of
twenty or thirty loaded craft of various magnitudes.
Three or four tiers are lashed to them at each side,
and as many more at their bow and at their stern. The
steamer is almost lost to the eye in the midst of this
crowd of vessels which cling around it, and the moving
mass is seen to proceed up the river, no apparent agent
of propulsion being visible, for the steamer and its
propellers are literally buried in the midst of the
cluster which clings to it and floats round and near
it.

As this _water-goods train_, for so it may be called,
ascends the river, it drops off its load, vessel by
vessel, at the towns which it passes. One or two are
left at Newburgh, another at Poughkeepsie, two or three
more at Hudson, one or two at Fishkill, and, finally,
the tug arrives with a residuum of some half-dozen
vessels at Albany.

The steam navigation of the Mississippi and the other
western rivers is conducted in a manner entirely
different from that of the Hudson. Every one must be
familiar with the lamentable accidents which happen
from time to time, and the loss of life from explosion
which continually takes place on those rivers. Such
catastrophes, instead of diminishing with the
improvement of art, seem rather to have increased.
Engineers have done literally nothing to check the
evil.

In a Mississippi steamboat the cabins and saloons are
erected on a flooring six or eight feet above the deck,
upon which and under them the engines are placed, which
are of the coarsest and most inartificial structure.
They are invariably worked with high-pressure steam,
and in order to obtain that effect which in the Hudson
steamers is due to a vacuum, the steam is worked at an
extraordinary pressure. We have ourselves actually
witnessed boilers of this kind, on the western rivers,
working under a full pressure of 120lb. per square inch
above the atmosphere, and we have been assured that
this pressure has been recently considerably increased,
so that it is not unfrequent now to find them working
with a bursting pressure of 200lb. per square inch!

As might naturally be expected, the chief theatre of
railway enterprise in America is the Atlantic States.
The Mississippi and its tributaries have served the
purposes of commerce and intercommunication to the
comparatively thinly scattered population of the
Western States so efficiently that many years will
probably elapse, notwithstanding the extraordinary
enterprise of the people, before any considerable
extent of railway communication will be established in
this part of the States. Nevertheless, the traveller in
these distant regions encounters occasionally detached
examples of railways even in the valley of the
Mississippi. In the State of Mississippi there are five
short lines, ten or twelve in Louisiana, and a limited
number scattered over Florida, Alabama, Illinois,
Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. These, however, are
generally detached and single lines, unconnected with
the vast network which we shall presently notice. To
the traveller in these wild regions the aspect of such
artificial agents of transport in the midst of a
country, a great portion of which is still in the state
of native forest, is most remarkable, and strongly
characteristic of the irrepressible spirit of
enterprise of its people. Travelling in the back woods
of Mississippi, through native forests, where till
within a few years human foot never trod, through
solitudes, the silence of which was never broken, even
by the red man, we have been sometimes filled with
wonder to find ourselves transported by an engine
constructed at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and driven by an
artisan from Liverpool, at the rate of twenty miles an
hour. It is not easy to describe the impression
produced by the juxtaposition of these refinements of
art and science with the wildness of the country, where
one sees the frightened deer start from its lair at the
snorting of the ponderous machine and the appearance of
the snakelike train which follows it.

The first American railway was opened for passengers on
the last day of 1829. According to the reports
collected and given in detail in the work already
quoted, it appears that in 1849, after an interval of
just twenty years, there were in actual operation 6,565
miles of railway in the States. The cost of
construction and plant of this system of railways
appears by the same authority to have been
53,386,885_l._, being at the average rate of 8,129_l._
per mile.

The reports collected in Dr. Lardner's work come up to
the middle of 1849. We have, however, before us
documents which supply data to a more recent period,
and have computed from them the following table,
exhibiting the number of miles of railway in actual
operation in the United States, the capital expended in
their construction and plant, and the length of the
lines which are in process of construction, but not yet completed:--

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Railways | Cost of | Projected |Cost per | in | Building and | and in | Mile. | operation. | Plant. | progress. | ------------------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+-------- | Miles. | L | Miles. | L Eastern States, | | | | including Maine, New | | | | Hampshire, Vermont, | | | | Massachusetts, Rhode | | | | Island, and Connecticut| 2,845 | 23,100,987 | 567 | 8,123 | | | | Atlantic States, | | | | including New-York, the | | | | Jerseys, Pennsylvania, | | | | Delaware, and Maryland | 3,503 | 27,952,500 | 2,020 | 7,979 | | | | Southern States, | | | | including Virginia, the | | | | Carolinas, Georgia, | | | | Florida, and Alabama | 2,103 | 8,253,130 | 1,283 | 3,919 | | | | Western States, | | | | including Mississippi, | | | | Louisiana, Texas, | | | | Tennessee, Kentucky, | | | | Ohio, Michigan, Indiana,| | | | Illinois, Missouri, | | | | Iowa, and Wisconsin | 1,835 | 7,338,290 | 5,762 | 3,999 |-------------+--------------+-------------+-------- Totals and averages | 10,289 | 66,653,907 | 9,632 | 6,478 ------------------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------

It must be admitted that the results here exhibited
present a somewhat astonishing spectacle. It appears
from this statement that there are in actual operation
in the United States 10,289 miles of railway, and that
there are 9,632 projected and in process of execution.
So that when a few years more shall have rolled away,
this extraordinary people will actually have 20,000
miles of iron road in operation.

It appears from the above report, compared with the
previous report quoted from Dr. Lardner, that the
average cost of construction has been diminished as the
operations progressed. According to Dr. Lardner, the
average cost of construction of the 6,500 miles of
railway in operation in 1849 was 8,129_l._ per mile
whereas, it appears from the preceding table that the
actual cost of 10,289 miles now in operation has been
at the average rate of 6,478_l._ per mile. On
examining the analysis of the distribution of these
railways among the States, it appears that this
discordance of the two statements is apparent rather
than real, and proceeds from the fact that the railways
opened since Dr. Lardner's report, being chiefly in the
southern and western States, are cheaply constructed
lines, in which the landed proprietors have given to a
great extent their gratuitous co-operation, and in
which the plant and working stock is of very small
amount, so that their average cost per mile is a little
under 4,000_l._--the average cost per mile in the
eastern and northern States corresponding almost to a
fraction with Dr. Lardner's estimate. It is also worthy
of observation that the distribution of this network of
railways is extremely unequal, not only in quantity,
but in its capability, as indicated by its expense of
construction. Thus, in the populous and wealthy States
of Massachusetts, New-Jersey, and New-York, the
proportion of railways to surface is considerable,
while in the southern and western States it is
trifling. In the following table is given the number of
miles of surface for each mile of railway in some of
the principal States:--

Square miles of surface for each mile of railway.

Massachusetts 7
New-Jersey 22
New-York 28
Maryland 31
Ohio 58
Georgia 76

When it is considered that the railways in this country
have cost upon an average about 40,000_l._ per mile,
the comparatively low cost of the American railways
will doubtless appear extraordinary.

This circumstance, however, is explained partly by the
general character of the country, partly by the mode of
constructing the railways, and partly by the manner of
working them. With certain exceptions, few in number,
the tracts of country over which these lines are
carried, is nearly a dead level. Of earthwork there is
but little; of works of art, such as viaducts and
tunnels, commonly none. Where the railways are carried
over streams or rivers, bridges are constructed in a
rude but substantial manner of timber supplied from the
roadside forest, at no greater cost than that of hewing
it. The station houses, booking offices, and other
buildings, are likewise slight and cheaply constructed
of timber. On some of the best lines in the more
populous States the timber bridges are constructed with
stone pillars and abutments, supporting arches of
trusswork, the cost of such bridges varying from 46s.
per foot, for 60 feet span, to 6_l._ 10s. per foot for
200 feet span, for a single line, the cost on a double
line being 50 per cent. more.

When the railways strike the course of rivers such as
the Hudson, Delaware, or Susquehanna--too wide to be
crossed by bridges--the traffic is carried by steam
ferries. The management of these ferries is deserving
of notice. It is generally so arranged that the time of
crossing them corresponds with a meal of the
passengers. A platform is constructed level with the
line of railway and carried to the water's edge. Upon
this platform rails are laid by which the wagons which
bear the passengers' luggage and other matters of light
and rapid transport are rolled directly upon the upper
deck of the ferry boat, the passengers meanwhile going
under a covered way to the lower deck. The whole
operation is accomplished in five minutes. While the
boat is crossing the spacious river the passengers are
supplied with their breakfasts, dinner, or supper, as
the case may be. On arriving at the opposite bank the
upper deck comes in contact with a like platform,
bearing a railway upon which the luggage wagons are
rolled; the passengers ascend, as they descended, under
a covered way, and, resuming their places in the
railway carriages, the train proceeds.

But the prudent Americans have availed themselves of
other sources of economy by adopting a mode of
construction adapted to the expected traffic. Formed to
carry a limited commerce the railways are generally
single lines, sidings being provided at convenient
situations. Collision is impossible, for the first
train that arrives at a siding must enter it and remain
there until the following train arrives. This
arrangement would be attended with inconvenience with a
crowded traffic like that of many lines on the English
railways, but even on the principal American lines the
trains seldom pass in each direction more than twice a
day, and their time and place of meeting is perfectly
regulated. In the structure of the roads, also,
principles have been adopted which have been attended
with great economy compared with the English lines. The
engineers, for example, do not impose on themselves the
difficult and expensive condition of excluding all
curves but those of large radius, and all gradients
exceeding a certain small limit of steepness. Curves of
500 feet radius, and even less, are frequent, and
acclivities rising at the rate of 1 foot in 100 are
considered a moderate ascent, while there are not less
than 50 lines laid down with gradients varying from 1
in 100 to 1 in 75, nevertheless these lines are worked
with facility by locomotives, without the expedient,
even, of assistant or stationary engines. The
consequences of this have been to reduce in an immense
proportion the cost of earthwork, bridges, and
viaducts, even in parts of the country where the
character of the surface is least favorable. But the
chief source of economy has arisen from the structure
of the line itself. In many cases where the traffic is
lightest the rails consist of flat bars of iron, 2-1/2
inches broad and 6-10ths of an inch thick, nailed and
spiked to planks of timber laid longitudinally on the
road in parallel lines, so as to form what are called
continuous bearings. Some of the most profitable
American railways, and those of which the maintenance
has proved least expensive, have been constructed in
this manner. The road structure, however, varies
according to the traffic. Rails are sometimes laid
weighing only from 25lb. to 30lb. per yard. In some
cases of great traffic they are supported on transverse
sleepers of wood like the European railways, but in
consequence of the comparative cheapness of wood and
the high price of iron, the strength necessary for the
road is mostly obtained by reducing the distance
between the sleepers so as to supersede the necessity
of giving greater weight to the rails.

The same observance of the principles of economy is
maintained with regard to their locomotive stock. The
engines are strongly built, safe and powerful, but are
destitute of much of that elegance of exterior and
beauty of workmanship which has excited so much
admiration, in the machines exhibited in the Crystal
Palace. The fuel is generally wood, but on certain
lines near the coal districts coal is used. The use of
coke is nowhere resorted to. Its expense would make it
inadmissible, and in a country so thinly inhabited the
smoke proceeding from coal is not objected to. The
ordinary speed, stoppages included, is from 14 to 16
miles an hour. Independently of other considerations,
the light structure of many of the roads would not
allow a greater velocity without danger; nevertheless
we have frequently travelled on some of the better
constructed lines at the ordinary speed of the English
railways, say 30 miles an hour and upwards.

Notwithstanding the apparently feeble and unsubstantial
structure of many of the lines, accidents to passenger
trains are scarcely ever heard of. It appears by
returns now before us that of 9,355,474 passengers
booked in 1850 on the crowded railways of
Massachusetts, each passenger making an average trip of
18 miles, there were only 15 who sustained accidents
fatal to life or limb. It follows from this, by the
common principles explained by us in a former article,
that when a passenger travels one mile on these
railways the chances against an accident producing
personal injury, even of the slightest kind, are
11,226,568 to 1, and of course in a journey of 100
miles the chances against such accident are 112,266 to
1. We have shown in a former article that the chances
against accident on an English railway, under like
circumstances, are 85,125 to 1. The American railways
are, therefore, safer than the English in the ratio of
112 to 85.

The great line of communication is established, 400
miles in length, between Philadelphia and Pittsburg, on
the left bank of the Ohio, composed partly of railway
and partly of canal. The section from Philadelphia to
Columbia (82 miles) is railway; the line is then
continued by canal for 172 miles to Holidaysburg; it is
then carried by railway 37 miles to Johnstown, whence
it is continued 104 miles further to Pittsburg by
canal. The traffic on this mixed line of transport is
conducted so as to avoid the expense and inconvenience
of transhipment of goods and passengers at the
successive points where the railway and canals unite.
The merchandise is loaded and the passengers
accommodated in the boats adapted to the canals at the
depot in Market-street, Philadelphia. These boats,
which are of considerable magnitude and length, are
divided into segments by partitions made transversely
and at right angles to their length, so that such boat
can be, as it were, broken into three or more pieces.
These several pieces are placed each on two railway
trucks, which support it at the ends, a proper body
being provided for the trucks adapted to the form of
the bottom and keel of the boat. In this manner the
boat is carried in pieces, with its load, along the
railway. On arriving at the canal the pieces are united
so as to form a continuous boat, which being launched,
the transport is continued on the water. On arriving
again at the railway the boat is once more resolved
into its segments, which, as before, are transferred to
the railway trucks and transported to the next canal
station by locomotive engines. Between the depot in
Market-street and the locomotive station which is
situated in the suburbs of Philadelphia the segments of
the boat are drawn by horses on railways conducted
through the streets. At the locomotive station the
trucks are formed into a continuous train and delivered
over to the locomotive engine. As the body of the truck
rests upon a pivot, under which it is supported by
wheels, it is capable of revolving, and no difficulty
is found in turning the shortest curves, and these
enormous vehicles, with their contents of merchandise
and passengers, are seen daily issuing from the gates
of the depot in Market-street, and turning with
facility the corners at the entrance of each successive
street.

By a comparison of the returns published by Dr.
Lardner, in his work already quoted, with the more
recent results which we have already given, it will
appear that within the last two years not less than
3,700 miles of railway have been opened for traffic in
the United States. Among these are included several of
the most important lines, among which are more
especially to be noticed the great artery of railway
communication extending across the State of New York to
the shores of Lake Erie, the longest line which any
single company has yet constructed in the United
States, its length being 467 miles. The total cost of
this line, including the working stock, has been
4,500,000_l._ sterling, being at the average rate of
9,642_l._ per mile--a rate of expense about 50 per
cent. above the average cost of American railways taken
collectively. This is explained by the fact that the
line itself is one constructed for a large traffic
between New York and the interior, and therefore built
to meet a heavy traffic. Although it is but just
opened, its average receipts have amounted to
11,000_l._ per week, which have given a net profit of
6-1/2 per cent. on the capital, the working expenses
being taken at 50 per cent. of the gross receipts. One
of the great lines in a forward state, and likely to be
opened by the close of the present year, connects New
York with Albany, following the valley of the Hudson.
It will no doubt create surprise, considering the
immense facility of water transport afforded by this
river, that a railway should be constructed on its
bank, but it must be remembered that for a considerable
interval during the winter the navigation of the Hudson
is suspended from the frost.

A great line of railway, which will intersect the
States from south to north, connecting the port of
Mobile on the Gulf of Mexico with Lake Michigan and the
lead mines of Galena on the Upper Mississippi, is also
in progress of construction, large grants of land being
conceded to the company by the Federal Government. This
line will probably be opened in 1854.

It is difficult to obtain authentic reports from which
the movement of the traffic on the American railways
can be ascertained with precision. Dr. Lardner,
however, obtained the necessary statistical data
relating to nearly 1,200 miles of railway in the States
of New England and New York, from which he was enabled
to collect all the circumstances attending the working
of these lines, the principal of which are collected in
the following table:--

Tabular analysis of the average daily movement of the traffic on 28 of the principal railways in the States of New England and New York.

PASSENGER TRAFFIC.--Number booked 23,981
Mileage 437,350
Receipts L2,723
Mileage of trains 8,091

GOODS TRAFFIC.--Tons booked 6,547
Mileage 248,351
Receipts L1,860
Mileage of trains 4,560

Total length of the above railways in the State of New York 490 miles
Ditto, in the States of New England 670 "
-----
Total 1,160 miles.

Average cost of construction and stock in the State of New York L7,010 Ditto, in the States of New England L10,800 General average L9,200

| Receipts | Expenses. | Profits.
--------------------------------------+----------+------------+----------
Total average receipts, expenses, | | |
and profits per day in the State of | L | L | L
New York | 1,654 | 684 | 970
| | |
Ditto, States of New England | 3,040 | 1,505 | 1,535
+----------+------------+----------
Totals | 4,694 | 2,189 | 2,505
| | | Per cent.
| Per mile | Per mile | per annum
|of railway| run by | on
| per day. | trains. | capital.
--------------------------------------+----------+------------+----------
| L | |
Receipts | 4,05 | 7s. 5d. | 16,1
Expenses | 1,89 |3s. 5-1/2d. | 7,5
+----------+------------+----------
Profits | 2,16 |2s.11-1/2d. | 8,6