chair-back, with greasy fingers, so that every day, after dinner, you have to send your coat to the cleaner's, to get the marks of the beast rubbed out of it. He now knows fat from lean, tough from tender, and where the meat is sweetest; but unless you fee him every second or third morning, you will be none the better for his increase of knowledge. He is disposed to be short and crisp, as if belonging himself to the upper crust of society. He laughs behind your back, with Jimmy, at every small practical joke that may be enacted at the tables. If a farmer asks for a bowl of bread and milk for his supper, and then peppers it, first black, then red, he laughs at that. Or if a gentleman, not being able to swallow water without brandy to it, puts a glass of it into his soup, he laughs at that. Every leisure moment he gathers Jimmy and Dick together to chatter with them. Then, if you call him, he is suddenly deaf as an adder. He can neither hear nor see. And when the guests gradually leave the table, and work slackens, I have seen him lounge out on to the balcony, settle himself in an arm-chair, cock his feet up over the railing, and quietly smoke his cigar. Patrick is

now ready for a strike for higher wages. At the first word of reprimand he will throw up his place. He is too independent to be drilled into line, and always takes the covers off out of time. Look out for him when he comes in with his platters, his very importance will run you down. He is still ignorant, still awkward; but with ten dollars in his pocket, he is abashed by nothing in heaven, earth, or Chicago; and unless he can have four beefsteaks a day, he threatens to go back to Ireland. The truth is, that the sense of freedom is so strong at the West, it spoils all men for service. Our naturalization laws are annually the ruin of a great many excellent scullions and shoe-blacks. struggles hard on their side, but our republican institutions prevail.

Nature

The society one meets in a Chicago hotel consists principally of the gentlemem of the road. I mean the railroadmen, so called-road-builders and road owners. There are also the men of real estate, who deal in prairie and river bottoms. There are grain and lumber merchants. There are speculators of every kind. But all have only one thought in their minds. To buy, sell,

and get gain--this is the spirit that pervades this house and the country. The chances of making fortunes in business or speculation are so great, that everybody throws the dice. Five years hence, every man expects to be a nabob. Í saw in the West, no signs of quiet enjoyment of life as it passes, but only of a haste to get rich. Here, are no idlers. The poor, if any such there be, and the wealthy are all equally hard at work. Beyond the Alleghanies, the day has no siesta in it. Life is a race, with no chance of repose except beyond the goal. The higher arts which adorn human existence-elegant letters, divine philosophy-these have not yet reached the Mississippi. They are far off. There are neither gods nor graces on the prairies yet. One sees only the sower sowing his seed. No poets inhabit the savannas of Iowa, or the banks of the Yellow Stone. These are the emigrants' homes. Life in the valley of the Mississippi is, in fact, but pioneering, and has a heavy pack to its back. At present, the inhabitants are hewing wood and drawing water-laying the foundations of a civilization which is yet to be, and such as never hath been before. This, they are doing with an energy superior to that which built Carthage or Ilium. Though men do not write books there, or paint pictures, there is no lack, in our western world, of mind. The genius of this new country is necessarily mechanical. Our greatest thinkers are not in the library, nor the capitol, but in the machine shop. The American people is intent on studying not the beautiful records of a past civilization, not the hieroglyphic monuments of ancient genius, but how best to subdue and till the soil of its boundless territories; how to build roads and ships; how to apply the powers of nature to the work of manufacturing its rich materials into forms of utility and enjoyment. The youth of this country are learning the sciences, not as theories, but with reference to their applications to the arts. Our education is no genial culture of letters, but simply learning the use of tools. Even literature is cultivated for its jobs; and the fine arts are followed as a trade. The prayer of this young country is, Give us this day, our daily bread; and for the other petitions of the Pater Noster it has no time. So must it be for the present. We must be content with little literature, less art, and only

and makes money out of them, let whichever party conquer. He also goes in the steamboats whenever there is to be a race; plays "poker" on board; and lives on the profits. He has a small capital in wild lands, likewise; and owns a few corner lots in Cairo, and other cities laid down in his maps. These he will sell cheap for cash. He affects the man of business, and ignores ladies' society. His evenings are spent at a club house, having the name of "Young America" blazoned on its front in large gilt letters. He dines at the crack hotel of the town; and, having free passes over all railroads, he keeps up his importance in the world, by going to and fro, and putting on the airs of a man owning half the Western country.

As to the ladies-God bless them all the world over-I did not see them at the West, and have not a word to say respecting the beauty of their persons or the tenderness of their hearts. The only remark which could be hazarded, touching the few who passed under my observation would be, that they were either fat or lean. I did not have the opportunity of noting any other difference. A flounce or two more; a deeper shade of red or yellow in the silk; longer ringlets; short-sleeve dresses, cut higher in the neck; a little fresher look of the country and the band-box; an air more independent and self-relying, or more awkward and abashed at the sight of men-these minor differences might be detected, but the only distinct impression remaining on my mind is, that the few ladies whom I chanced to see, were either fat or lean. I will not venture any remark beyond that.

But the most interesting sight I saw in my hotel, was from its windows. Even had I "gone West "- for the question was frequently asked me at Chicago, "Going West, sir?" I could have seen nothing more striking and significant. Niagara, the Mississippi, the Lakes, are not after all the great spectacle to be witnessed in this country. Nor is the sight the most characteristic and American, that of the Yankee whittling on a rail, or the Virginian talking politics over his saddle-bags; not the Arkansas citizen playing at bowie-knives, or the Kentuckian offering to bet upon his rifle; not the New Yorker living in carved brown stone in the Fifth Avenue, or the negro swiltering in the rice-fields of South Carolina. It is

a sight simple, still. It is the passing by of the emigrant, bound for the prairies. A family of Germans going by the hotel one morning, as I sat by the window, struck me as the most remarkable show I had seen in the West. It was, indeed, nothing new or uncommon; it was no pageant. No trumpets were blown to announce the coming of this small detachment of the army general. Probably not a soul in the city noticed the passage of this poor family, save myself. Yet in it was wrapped up the great American fact of the present day-the coming in of European immigrants to take possession of our western plains. If these States did not have lands for sale at low prices to attract the desires of the poor and the oppressed in all the earth, they would be of little importance among the nations. For centuries, the Swiss have had liberty, but no land; and have been a nullity. But we hold a homestead for every poor man in Europe; and, therefore gathering his pennies together, he is setting out for America as the world's land of promise, and the only Eden now extant.

The father strode down the middle of the street. Unaccustomed to the convenience of sidewalks in his own country, he shared the way with the beasts of burden, no less heavily laden than they. His back bent beneath its pack. In it was, probably, the better part of his goods and chattels, at least the materials for a night bivouac by the road-side. By one hand he held his pack, and in the other he carried a large tea-kettle. His gude-wife followed in his tracks, at barely speaking distance behind. A babe at the breast was her only burden. Both looked straight forward, intent only upon putting one foot before the other. În a direct line, but still further behind, trudged on, with unequal footsteps, and eyes staring on either side, their firstborn son, or one who seemed such. There were well towards a dozen summers glowing in his face. A big tin pail, containing, probably, the day's provisions, and slung to his young shoulders, did not seem to weigh too heavily upon his spirit. He travelled on bravely, and was evidently trained to bear his load. A younger brother brought up, at a few paces distance, the rear, carrying, astride his neck, one more of the parental hopes. It was the most precious pack in the party, and, judging from the size of the little one's legs, not so very much the lightest. It was a sister, I fancy, that

the little fellow was bearing off so gallantly; and very comfortably did she appear to be making the journey.

I watched this single file of marchers westward, until they disappeared at the end of the avenue. They would not stop or turn aside, save for needful food and shelter, until they crossed the Mississippi. On the rolling prairies beyond, the foot-worn travellers would reach their journey's end, and, throwing their weary limbs upon the flowery grass, would rest in their new home, roofed by the sky of Iowa. Before the frosts of autumn should set in, the log-hut would be reared, and their small household gods set up in it. In due season the sod will be turned, the seed cast in, and later, the harvest would make glad all hearts. Years rolling by, the boys will grow up freemen, and will make the surrounding acres tributary in wheat and corn as far as the eye can reach. Forgetting their uncouth patois, the children will learn the softer Anglo-Saxon accents of liberty, and take their place among their equal fellows, in a society where none are bondsman. The daughters, relieved of

the hard necessity of toiling in the fields, will gradually grow up in the delicacy of native American beauty, retaining only the blue eyes and golden hair of their German nativity. In the evening of their days, the brave grandparents will sit in the shadow of vines, sprung from the seeds piously brought by them from the Neckar or the Rhine; and their sons, and their son's sons, in the enjoyment of plenty, happiness, and human rights, will remember, with blessings, the original immigrants, and founders of their

name.

Omnibus

"All aboard! All aboard! ready for the Michigan Central cars." I crawled out of the hotel, and took my seat in the carriage, resolved not to stop until I had regained New York. I felt almost as well acquainted with the country, as if I had spent my forty days in going to and fro in it. The men of the West had come to me in my hotel, though I had not gone out to them. In one prairie I had seen all. "All Western men and prairies are alike," said I to myself, in stepping into the train; "how I wish I were walking down Broadway."

THE present aspect of American poli

tics invites reflection and calm discussion. The issues which have formerly divided our people into two great parties have passed, or are rapidly passing away. Upon no single question of present practical moment can either the whig party or the democratic party be rallied in unbroken phalanx. The life of their organizations is gone. The age presents new issues, in comparison with which the old shibboleths fade into insignificance; and, under new banners, with new devices, the yeomanry of the country are rallying. We have arrived at a stand-point in history when it behooves every patriot man to pause and reflect. The living present imposes the weightiest responsibilities; the past is teeming with instruction; and the future is radiant with hope. Three-quarters of a century bound the horizon of the former, but the piercing eye of faith seeks, in vain, a limit in the long vista of the latter. Yet, to the more despondent, there are shades and shadows ahead. Meridian light does not illumine every footprint of the future. America, however, expects every man to do his duty; and if we are but true to the sacred trust He has devolved upon us, our confidence is strong that in His own good time the Spirit of our fathers' God will move above the troubled waters with creative power, evolving light from darkness.

The old political parties of our country are just now thoroughly disorganized. The necessity for new issues, and a rearrangement of the elements of warfare, is manifest to the most casual observer. Hence, the rapid progress of a secret society which has recently made its appearance among us, and for which its more sanguine friends anticipate, at no distant day, a controlling influence in the counsels of the Confederacy. So far as we can gather its objects, the organization rests upon a single idea of federal policy. The amendment of the naturalization laws, so as to require a longer residence in the applicant for the rights of American citizenship, seems to be their only distinctive political suggestion. They may accomplish this, though we doubt it. Whether they do or not, the VOL. IV.-41

organization, we are satisfied, will be ephemeral in existence, and abortive in result. We readily admit the excessive provocation which animates their efforts. The indecent and habitual intrusion of popery, as a political element, into all our elections of late years, naturally suggests the proscription of its adherents and sympathizers; and the disgusting truckling of our political aspirants to the prejudices of our alien population, indicates the propriety of a counterpoise element at the polls. The Know-Nothings have already exercised a salutary influence, to some extent, in developing the genuine American sentiment of our people -a sentiment which both parties, from prudential considerations, have concurred in suppressing. Were they content to maintain a secondary position, this influence might be extended and perpetuated; but, in aspiring to the control of the State and Federal Governments, they seal their early ruin. We do not make issue with them upon the propriety of their proposed change in the naturalization laws. But that will not suffice to accomplish the end they have in view. Many of the States confer the elective franchise upon resident aliens prior to their naturalization. That may or may not be a violation of the Constitution, but it clearly indicates that the concurrence of all the State Governments in the legislation suggested, is essential to its success. presume, the most sanguine KnowNothings dare not hope for contemporaneous success in each of the thirty-one States of the Confederacy. Their actual strength is already, we believe, vastly over-estimated, and will diminish, we are satisfied, as rapidly as it has arisen. The spell of mystery with which their proceedings are invested is potent for temporary effect. Curiosity will introduce among them many whose reason they might in vain address. So soon, however, as the charm of novelty is dissipated, there will be numerous desertions from their ranks; and so there should be, as long as their secresy is. maintained. The obvious impropriety of secret political societies is a burden under which no principle of publio policy, however wise, can stagger into

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