DEAN HOLE IN THE STATES.* DEAN HOLE spent four months

in the States with much enjoyment to himself ; and, taking the reader frankly into his confidence, he records in these pages the impressions made upon him during this rapid visit. A traveller sees what he is most interested in seeing, and his story is oftentimes a revela- tion of character. It is assuredly so in the Dean's case ; his cheerfulness is infectious, and we feel on good terms with him from the outset.

It was a bold act on the part of a clergyman of seventy- five to encounter the fatigues and annoyances of American travel even as a private individual. It was a still more courageous act to travel through the States as a public lecturer in order to gain funds for the restoration of Rochester Cathedral. He had, however, many inducements to make the journey, for his name was already familiar in the land, not only to his brother clergymen, but to all lovers and cultivators of flowers. His path, indeed, may be said to have been strewn with flowers as he passed from city to city, and be observed that the happiest hours spent in America were those in which he was entertained by florists, not from New York only, but from distant parts of the States. "I am only a Dean," he writes, and "therefore cannot speak with the infallibility of a Pope, but I believe that there is more reserve and jealousy with authors, artists, and sports- men, than there is among gardeners, amateur and profes- sional;" and he adds that, as nearly as he can calculate, "the time occupied in forming a friendship with men who really love trees and flowers—they are not numerous—is about five seconds. The heart goes with the hand."

The Dean visited the States in a happy mood,—and the two hundred reporters who dodged his footsteps did not prove too much for his temper. He found them,— "Almost without exception, clever and well-informed, pleasant

in manner and accurate in their records At the same time their thirst for information seems to be quickly satisfied. The spirit of inquiry is not disheartened by reticence, nor offended by brief, evasive, or incongruous replies if they are made in good humour. For example, when on my first introduction to these ready writers and speakers, I was asked,' Are you a Home-ruler ? ' and I made answer, ' So far as my wife permits,' I evoked no pro- test of displeasure."

Even the reporters who describe his appearance are not re- garded as impertinent, and it amuses him to tell how a paper in Cincinnati wrote of him as " certainly the finest specimen of Elizabethan ecclesiastical architecture that England has ever sent to this country," how another declared that, after the fatigue of a ride from Chicago, he "walked up two flights of stairs to his room in the hotel with the hardy appearance and exact posture of a young Indian," and how it was observed at Milwaukee that he " wore the knickerbockers of his forefathers and the other garments of the traditional dress of a Church of England clergyman." At the same time the Dean protests vigorously against the newspapers which pander to a false taste and minister, as so many do, to a morbid curiosity. Strange to say, the only journal which treated him with vulgar insult was published at Boston. Generally the re- ception he received was of the friendliest kind, although he spoke, as one journalist complained, "with a broad English accent.'

• A Little Tour in America. By the Very Rev. 8. Reynolds Hole, Dean of Boolseater. London: Edward Arnold. Dean Hole's impressions of New York are highly favourable. He rejoices in the thunder of the streets, compared with which "the roar of Landon seems as a faint murmur," since it proves that it is "a city for working men." We may be

allowed, however, to suggest that this incessant roar is not always an indication of wisely directed labour, since there is in all cities what Carlyle called " a brutal bedlamitish creation of needless noises." The Dean was made an honorary member of several clubs, but had only time to visit two. At the Lotos he received an ovation, and said, in acknowledging the toast of his health, that in his feelings, though not in his features, he resembled the lovely bride of Burleigh when,-

" A trouble weighed upon her,

And perplexed her night and morn, With the burden of an honour

Unto which she was not born."

Dean Hole has " a merry wit," and enjoys, as all his readers know, a humorous story ; one told that evening at the Lotos has the merit of brevity and deserves to be quoted :—" A

tedious monotonous preacher who had exhausted the patience of his hearers by an elaborate dissertation on the four greater prophets, to their sad disgust, passed on to the minor, and

asked, And now, my brethren, where shall we place Hosea P A man rose from the congregation and made answer, ' You can place him here, Sir, I'm off.' "

It is unnecessary to follow the traveller in his walks through the streets of New York, nor to describe his admiration for the Central Park, which he saw in all the glory of its autumn foliage. While driving there he was astonished at the sight of American trotting-horses, which were to him a novelty :—

" There is a striking congruity," he writes, between the horse and his owner—the same energy and ambition to do their utmost, to go ahead, get over the ground, and let no grass grow under their feet. In England we speak of the various walks of life that such an one is conducting, carrying on a concern, and making steady progress ; but in America he rues a business. I have even heard said of a minister that he was running a church. He may gallop his business to death, but to the final gasp on its last legs it must run."

At a dinner-table talk about American humour, it was generally agreed that among the most laughable stories were those of impossible exaggeration told as established facts ; and the Dean cites as illustrations of this the story of the dog who, when his blind owner fell in crossing the railway, tore the red neckerchief from his master's throat, twisted it round a fore-paw, stood on his hind-legs, and by the help of this signal stopped the train ; and the report of the intense heat in Arizona " which necessitated a constant supply of broken ice in the poultry-yards to prevent the hens from

laying their eggs hard-boiled." A sense of the humorous,

common to all the world, is also excited by strong contrasts. The Dean remembers that "at a great ecclesiastical function, the largest person of the company, was told by an insane ceremonarius that I was to walk in procession with the smallest of my brethren because he was a dignitary, and that

I rushed at the most substantial curate I could see and besought him not to leave me." The author thinks the first prize for smart ready wit in conversation must be awarded to. Jonathan, and gives the following as a sample :—

" A. proud Britisher who had forgotten history was conversing with an American upon a subject then under discussion by the two nations, and losing his temper, foolishly said, ' If you fellows don't know how to behave yourselves, we shall have to come over and teach you.' The threat only evoked two words of meek expostulation, What R—again ! ' " Dean Hole records also a brilliant repartee called forth by an epitaph upon a tomb in Virginia:-

" A famous author residing in that State was bereaved of his wife, and inscribed upon her gravestone, "The light is gone from my life.' Time not only modified his distress, but kindly and wisely suggested a renewal of conjugal bliss. An acri- monious neighbour bad the bad taste to banter him on his engagement, and to express a surprise that he had so soon for- gotten his words of lamentation. ' So far from forgetting them,' he replied, I remember and repeat them now, as originating and confirming the intention that you are pleased to criticise. I declared that the light was gone from my life, and it is for this reason that I propose to strike another match.' "

New York and Chicago have an evil reputation for a humour which is not "severely honest." Each tells tales of

the other. In Chicago Dean Hole was told of a miser at New York who was such a tyrant in his family that one of his sons ran away from home, and was not heard of for many years. At length, when dying, he sent for his father, and asked him to grant his last request, saying that no expense would be incurred by doing so. The father promised, and the son then told him he had accumulated a large amount of wealth, and seeing the evils of covetousness, wished it to be buried with him.

"No long time after the funeral the father was accosted by one of his neighbours in New York with, ' Well, Nebel, I just guess you're about the tallest fool in the States.' And when an ex- planation was asked, it was given to the effect that no man in his right mind would bury money in the ground. ' Perhaps,' said the sire, ' I'm not quite such a fool as you think. / paid it by cheque to his order ! '"

The New York tale which is supposed to be characteristic of Chicago, is of a business man who, on seeing a poor woman cry bitterly because she could not pay the priest a dollar for baptising her baby, gave her a ten-dollar note to take to the priest, saying he would wait outside for the change. Pre- sently he entered the office with a radiant smile on his face. His partner asked the cause.

"Hear now," he answered, "what I have done, and refrain from envy if you can. I have dried a poor woman's tears; I have placed her little one upon the heavenly road ; I have passed a false ten-dollar note, and have got the change in my pocket ! "

Dean Hole delights in any story which i.as in it a vein of humour, and readers who sympathise wit- him will find ample satisfaction in these pleasantly written pages. The book is not without weightier matter ; but for the most part the writer is satisfied with recording the impressions of a passing traveller. He touches, indeed, on the negro difficulty, which is increasing year by year, and after observing that there is no probability of amalgamation between blacks and whites, asks what is to be done, but does not venture upon an answer, and shares with many Englishmen the inability to understand the exact position of political parties in the States. He became, therefore, what is called in America a " Mugwump,"-an ugly title which he does not propose to place on his visiting-card. With much interest Dean Hole visited the churches and colleges of America, and almost the only note of dissatisfaction sounded is with regard to the want of religious education. He quotes an American authority for saying that the ignorance of the Bible among students in their public schools and colleges furnishes a curious illus- tration of the inadequacy of secular education to meet

the requirements of life. "A vast machine," the Century Magazine observes, "supported at a public charge, is engaged

in educating the children of the nation to ignore religion," and Dean Hole, after observing that morality without

religion may be a policy without a principle, adds:- " I do not think that our kinsmen over the seas are less religious than we are, or less reverent at heart, though they may be so superficially with regard to sacred things, but I am quite sure that on either shore there is an immediate and momentous need of the only education-Christian education-which can realise the design and dignity of our manhood, and can establish upon secure foundations the true grandeur and happiness of a nation."

The Dean, we may add, who was favoured with an inter- view by the President., " one of the most able, reliable, and hard-working rulers of the world," had little thought of the contention between the States and England which Mr. Cleve- land was so soon to awaken. "A visit to the States," he says, "will assure the traveller that the affection between the two

oonntries is reciprocal;" and he quotes at the same time the words of Tennyson to Longfellow, " We are brothers as no other nations can be." Between the nearest relations, how- ever, a misunderstanding, if there be one, often proves the greatest. "I once observed," said the poet Rogers, "to a friend of mine, ' Why, you and Mr. live like two brothers.' He replied, God forbid !' "