To say that I am on the go describes very accurately my own situation.I went yesterday to the Pognanuc High School, to hear fifty-seven boys and girls recite in unison a most remarkable ode to the American flag, and shortly afterward attended a ladies' lunch, at which some eighty or ninety of the sex were present.There was only one individual in trousers--his trousers, by the way, though he brought a dozen pair, are getting rather seedy.The men in America do not partake of this meal, at which ladies assemble in large numbers to discuss religions, political, and social topics.These immense female symposia (at which every delicacy is provided) are one of the most striking features of American life, and would seem to prove that men are not so indispensable in the scheme of creation as they sometimes suppose.I have been admitted on the footing of an Englishman--"just to show you some of our bright women," the hostess yesterday remarked.("Bright" here has the meaning of INTELLECTUAL.) I perceived, indeed, a great many intellectual foreheads.These curious collations are organised according to age.
I have also been present as an inquiring stranger at several "girls'
lunches," from which married ladies are rigidly excluded, but where the fair revellers are equally numerous and equally bright.There is a good deal I should like to tell you about my study of the educational question, but my position is somewhat cramped, and Imust dismiss it briefly.My leading impression is that the children in this country are better educated than the adults.The position of a child is, on the whole, one of great distinction.There is a popular ballad of which the refrain, if I am not mistaken, is "Make me a child again, just for to-night!" and which seems to express the sentiment of regret for lost privileges.At all events they are a powerful and independent class, and have organs, of immense circulation, in the press.They are often extremely "bright." Ihave talked with a great many teachers, most of them lady-teachers, as they are called in this country.The phrase does not mean teachers of ladies, as you might suppose, but applies to the sex of the instructress, who often has large classes of young men under her control.I was lately introduced to a young woman of twenty-three, who occupies the chair of Moral Philosophy and Belles-Lettres in a Western college, and who told me with the utmost frankness that she was adored by the undergraduates.This young woman was the daughter of a petty trader in one of the South western States, and had studied at Amanda College, in Missourah, an institution at which young people of the two sexes pursue their education together.She was very pretty and modest, and expressed a great desire to see something of English country life, in consequence of which I made her promise to come down to Thistleton in the event of her crossing the Atlantic.She is not the least like Gwendolen or Charlotte, and I am not prepared to say how they would get on with her; the boys would probably do better.Still, I think her acquaintance would be of value to Miss Bumpus, and the two might pass their time very pleasantly in the school-room.I grant you freely that those I have seen here are much less comfortable than the school-room at Thistleton.Has Charlotte, by the way, designed any more texts for the walls? I have been extremely interested in my visit to Philadelphia, where I saw several thousand little red houses with white steps, occupied by intelligent artizans, and arranged (in streets) on the rectangular system.Improved cooking-stoves, rosewood pianos, gas, and hot water, aesthetic furniture, and complete sets of the British Essayists.A tramway through every street; every block of equal length; blocks and houses scientifically lettered and numbered.There is absolutely no loss of time, and no need of looking for anything, or, indeed, at anything.The mind always on one's object; it is very delightful.
