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XXVIII.—DRINKING PRACTICES IN

AMERICA.

Drink, drink, the demon cried!
Away with care and sorrow;

Be happy while you can to day,
And never mind the morrow.

THE bar-rooms, or public-houses, in the United States differ materially from those in England; for few of them have a vestige of a seat, however tired a person may be, and though they have loads of bottles, liquors, and cigars, there is no attempt at that show and splendour which characterize our gaudy gin-palaces on this side of the Atlantic. When two friends meet, and shake hands, the first words after the welcome universally are, "I guess, we'll liquor," or have a drink, and they then adjourn to a bar. If brandy be the stimulant called for, a bottle-containing perhaps a quart, and nearly full-is handed to the customers with a couple of half-pint tumblers, into which they pour what they please, and as there is no fixed limit, a greedy dramdrinker may regale himself to his heart's content at low cost. The more general custom in these rooms, however, is just to cover the bottom of the glass with the liquor, gulp it down, and then cross over the road to some other dram-shop, to get another dose, and so on; the price of each, only about eight cents (or fourpence), enabling those that wish, to get drunk at small expense;

for the American brandy, be it remembered, is considerably above proof, and very fiery and impure. As for good liquors, they can of course be purchased at a certain price, but only in certain places, which to a stranger are difficult to find. It were undoubtedly, however, much to be desired that this bad habit should gradually diminish in operation; for it prevails at present, even among the highest classes, to an extent that is anything but creditable to the members of a great and wealthy republic.

There is a peculiarity, however, in American publichouses which I could wish to see in England.

Never

scarcely does one see a woman enter them, either as an applicant for drink, or to serve behind the bar. I do not, of course, mean that women there do not partake of the inebriating cup (whether beer or spirits) at all; but this I do mean, that very seldom are those disgusting scenes of female intoxication and debauchery seen in the United States, that are daily occurrences in London, and all the great cities and towns throughout the British Empire.

If such habits ever are indulged in by American women, when abroad, it is not at public bars, but when they are sitting quietly in oyster saloons, protected by curtained partitions from the public view; and granted, even, that this still shows a bad state of morals, females do not incur that loss of self-respect, which would result from their exposure in the garish brilliance of an open English bar.

Let me add, that there are none of those pretty, well-dressed, showy, and coquettish barmaids, that are too often employed as a lure to attract liquorish-toothed elderly men, who often spend hours, chatting to, and flattering the girls behind the counter, the chief object of whose graciousness and amiability is-to bring grist to their employer's mill. Young men may do this with perhaps some palliation, on account of their juvenility, for thus dangling and playing the gallant with a fair bar-keeper; but for aged and married men, with wives and families, thus to crush all their domestic happiness is a sin and a shame. They manage these things better in America.

XXIX.-BLUE HILLS, AND THEIR
SNAKES.

ONE day, in the winter of 1855-6, I paid a visit, in the company of an American friend, to the Blue Hills, or mountains of Milton, a few miles from Dorchester. They are of great height, and approached by a sort of forest or jungle, which, if report be true, is infested with rattle and black snakes-the former fatally poisonous, the latter perfectly harmless. For myself, I saw neither alive, but numbers of them were lying about dead, or at all events apparently so, from the

intensity of the cold. I was told subsequently, however, that two or three days after my visit to these hills, a very large rattle-snake had with much difficulty been destroyed, a fact which showed that these localities cannot be approached without danger. In fact, there can be no question that rattle-snakes exist in considerable numbers amid the less-frequented tracts of the Blue Hills. In the autumn of 1855, a woman living near Worcester, in Massachusetts, went out with her baby a boy about a year old, to pick blackberries in a field near her house, and set her charge on the grass, while she gathered the fruit. As long as the little fellow laughed and crowed, she knew he was safe, and in her ardour after the blackberries, she turned round a rock out of sight. His voice, however, suddenly ceased, and on turning back to discover the reason, she saw him sitting perfectly still, with his lips parted and his eyes intently gazing on some object; and great indeed was her horror, as she approached nearer him, at seeing a large rattle-snake about four feet off, approaching her baby and fixing on him its fascinating gaze. Almost fascinated herself, she scarce knew what to do to rescue her darling; but in her hand she had a broad tin pan, and with this she, quick as thought, covered the snake, and stood upon it, until assistance came in answer to her screams, and the venomous reptile was dispatched.

The view, from the top of these hills, well repays the trouble of the tourist, for the panorama of the magnificent surrounding scenery is wholly unequalled

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in Massachusetts. The ascent is easily accomplishedbut not so the descent, as the paths are rocky and very slippery, causing the foothold to be somewhat uncertain and insecure. These mountains, as seen from the distance, form an excellent barometer for ascertaining the state of the weather. In fine, cold weather they have a pure blue aspect; in a bright summer's day they wear the semblance of a deep sea-green; and when the change is for rain, they assume a frowning look of gloomy darkness.

XXX.-AN INDIAN SUMMER.

Crown'd with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf
While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain
Comes jovial on, the Doric reed once more
Well pleased I tune.

THOMSON.

THE serene weather that very generally occurs in September and October is thus denominated; and the term (Indian Summer) is said to have originated from the circumstance that the Indians used to worship the sun more in these months than at any other time of the year. The dark-skinned rovers of the forest, we are told, imagined that the Great Spirit was more easily propitiated at this season, and that the beautifully tinted skies of clear azure, so peculiar to these months, with the kindly attempered rays of the sun, no longer of scorching heat,

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