THE WORKING-CLASSES IN THE UNITED STATES. BY BOBFZEtT CONINGSBY.

No. IL

THE study of the three R's over, the young workman in America enters the great school of life, where his education is continued by the three P's,—the press, the platform, and the pulpit. I think the labourer in the United States reads more, and listens to more lectures, speeches, and sermons, than his English friend. Newspapers are more plentiful, and, as newspapers, I think more complete, in the States than they are here, and the general level of American oratory appears to me to be higher than English, whether we judge it by the "stump," the dais, or the preacher's desk.

The poorest man not only regularly reads, but regularly buys a newspaper in America. It is considered mean to systematically borrow an article which can be bought for a trifling sum. If a man in an American workshopwere to say thathe had not had time to look at a newspaper for some days, he would probably be regarded with curiosity, if not contempt ; the affairs of the nation in the United States being held to be everybody's business,—busineas which John has no more right than his " boss " to neglect. The chief matter in which American journals surpass ours is in the quantity and quality of their telegraphic intelligence. Whole columns of news are sup- plied daily, after the manner of our Parliamentary reports, con- cerning events which have happened the day before in the remotest parts of the Union and abroad. Our cousins seem to have long since used electricity as commonly as we have gas; it is laid on everywhere for the mental enlightenment of the citizens. Between four and five thousand stations are scattered up and down the States, and serve as so many newso- meters from which the editors of each district draw the informa- tion to supply to every household. In the early summer mornings in New York city, a large block of ice and a newspaper may be seen lying at almost every door ; a sight which gave rise to the cynical remark of an English friend of mine, that the one is supplied to counteract the effects of the other. Every occurrence of interest is thought worthy of transmission along the wires, of which there are, without reckoning the 280 cables, upwards of a hundred thousand miles in use. While I was in Boston an omnibus accident of a novel character happened in the Totten- ham Court Road, London, and I read the account of it over my coffee the next morning, as did others all over the great continent. New York saw it by the side of prices in Wall Street ; Chicago turned momentarily from the contemplation of her marble stores and grain elevators ; and San Francisco from the blue Pacific, to sympathiza with a 'bussful of people who had been injured the night before near Oxford Street ! With true Republican impar- tiality, telegraphic intelligence is supplied to small and large cities alike. A few dozen log shanties no sooner lift their heads in the wilderness, than straightway the inhabitants of Jon esopolis demand to be informed of the doings of their servants in Washington, and friends in the rest of the world. A spirited Jone.sopolean responds with the establishment of a daily Eagle, which said bird is henceforth duly fed with lightning from head - quarters, by an arrangement entered into with one of three great Press Asso- ciations—the "Associated Press," the "Southern Press Asso- ciation," and the "Western Association "—each of which ex- changes news with the other two. Besides the universal use of the telegraph for the newspapers, I believe it is more resorted to in the transaction of private business than among us. I cannot recall to mind any workman in England who has risen to the dignity of sending or receiving telegrams, but I found several in America who spoke of the wire with as much familiarity as we do of the penny post.

But there is a dark side to American journalism, as well as a bright one. News is collected and arranged with almost faultless execution, and if men would only give themselves time to think, there is splendid raw material provided for them. When, how- ever, we come to the aids to digestion in the shape of comment upon the facts presented, we find the gulf between the English and American presses a very wide one. I think it must be admitted that, as compared with ours, the best American journalists are wanting in literary ability, the second-best in candour and modera- tion, and the worst —it is hardly too much to say—would be in their element here only in our gaols. Nothing can excel the devilish in- genuity displayed by some of the writers and engravers of certain weekly prints in poisoning the morals of the people. I am, however, of opinion that the working-class is not so much the prey of these blow-flies as, from various causes it would be here, nor as the class immediately above it is in the States. Clerks, shopmen, and the large body of men who everywhere affect to be the aristocracy of labour, are, I am afraid, the chief supporters of these abominable publications, if we except the ignorant and vicious portion of the foreign labouring class. I may say, in passing, that immorality in its grossest forms appears to prevail among the members of the body just alluded to. Too many of them in their talk and actions affect the morals of the most abandoned Frenchmen, without possessing a spark of the vivacity which seems to redeem filth, if it does not.

The number of American journals is beyond all calculation. As one instance of the way they spring up, I will give the case of Cheyenne, a settlement of some 4,000 people, on the Union Pacific Railroad, near the summit of the Rocky Mountains. Ten months before I visited it, seven log huts formed the town. When I was there it was "quite a place," with chapels, concert-halls, stores, a bank, three daily and four weekly newspapers !

Next in importance to the newspaper as a public instructor stands the lecturer and political speaker, both of them personages more fre- quently met with in America than here. I had a notion before leav- ing England that Americans were great talkers, I now believe them to be the most taciturn of peoples. Their great forte is listening !

they are the best listeners in the world, and those among them who can speak perhaps the best speakers, which accords with the known laws of supply and demand. Nothing can exceed the desire of the average American to be talked to. Ile would appear to find speaking such trouble, that he is full of gratitude to those who do

it for him well. lie will walk any distance to listen to a good speech, or to assist at a grand "pow-wow !" In common with most Englishmen who get their ideas of Americana from caricatures drawn of them by themselves and others, I promised myself a rich treat in the " high-falutation " line when I first attended a political meeting in America. As speaker after speaker, however, addressed the audience in tolerably direct and forcible language, with just the same faults as would have characterized English speeches only fewer of them, I began to think that I had accidentally alighted on an excep- tionally favourable set of orators. I found afterwards that it was the

same everywhere. I attended meetings in all sorts of places, from the Cooper Institute in New York, to the theatre in Omaha, from Boston Common, Massachusetts, to Last Chance Gulf, in the Black Hills of Wyoming, and I am of opinion that the average American public speaker is a more eloquent man, and not one whit more given to buncombe, than the average public speaker in England. There is a slightly different sort of claptrap used, that is all. I have heard plenty of stuff talked to " working-men " by people who ought to have known better, and much Columbian philistinism. I was frequently told that America was a heaven upon earth, and her institutions the direct result of inspiration from above ; that Europe was benighted, and England Very black indeed ; and that the eyes of all the world were never taken off the people of the United States. But I have heard these things in other forms at meetings of my own countrymen.

There is one novelty in English eyes—or rather ears— connected with American political oratory which deserves notice, namely, the fact that it is often heralded and fol- lowed by music. It sounds curious enough to Englishmen at an indignation or electioneering meeting, to hear glees and comic catches sung between the solemn appeals of the speakers ;

but I am not sure that it does not tend to soften the asperities of party warfare. The effect, too, of a well-trained band taking up, as it were, the closing words of an eloquent peroration, and con- tinuing them through the strains of a national hymn, is often exceedingly good. One is reminded of the tragic and comic flute accompaniments of the ancients, as the "Star-Spangled Banner" and "Match him, if you can," alternately salute ears still tingling from the effects of passionate declamation. Sometimes the whole audience will take up the chorus of a well-known "campaign song," such as, "Rally round Ulysses," which was a great favourite all through the West while I was there.

"Let us rally again round these chivalrous men, Ulysses the tanner and Schuyler the printer, And fight it out here on the old Union line, If it takes us all summer and winter."

Most working-men in the United States are strong politicians, and members of political clubs which, during times of excitement, furnish their quota to swell the ranks of enormous processions, by day or torch-light ; for the rival parties, Republicans and Democrats, continually try to out-procession, flag-raise, and brass-band each other. The most remarkable thing about these rival demonstra-

tions is the good order which, in spite of the excitement of both parties, almost always prevails. Toleration for all diversity of opinion is a marked characteristic of American working-men. Recruited as their body is, from the ranks of those who have suffered so bitterly from intolerance abroad, they seem to possess the very instinct of toleration. Omaha was a border city, and full of roughs

when I was there ; I was therefore recommended by certain Republican friends to take a " Colt " with me when I attended the Democrats' "pow-wow." I did so, but there was not the slightest occasion for its use, either there or at the rival meeting, although in beer-saloon brawls the reports of firearms could be heard every night. All sorts of attractions are openly advertised by the pro- moters of these party meetings, with the object of getting working-

men to "attend in their thousands," nothing being dreaded so much as the taunt in rival newspapers that their "pow-wow" was a "fizzle,"—i.e., that very few people could be got to attend.

Fireworks and flags, comic minstrelsy and the electric light, are all pressed into the service and made the most of in the bills. At a large meeting at the Cooper Institute I remember hearing the chairman gravely announce that the committee had provided some beautiful fireworks for their friends' amusement, but he regretted

to say that some miscreant from the other side had stolen them. The pulpit, as well as the press and platform, has, I think, more influence over working-men in America than here. During my journey I made the acquaintance of a much larger number of "pious" workmen, especially among native-born Americans, than I think it would be possible to do in the same time in England. There was apparent everywhere an assumption that Christian doctrines were true. Among the boarders at one house might be Tooker Baptists, Episcopalians, Boman Catholics, and Universalists ; but a respectable minority, if not the majority, would be tolerably sure to belong to some religious body. In England, in any chance assembly of labourers, the majority would certainly not be acknow- ledged members of any Christian congregation whatever. Lord Pal- merston, in the House of Commons, defending the question in the census-papers as to people's religion, declared, amidst loud laughter, that no man would be asked what his religious belief was, but merely what he professed. The bulk of English mechanics are scarcely even Palmerstonian professors. I much doubt whether any railway company here would find it to their interest to bait a cheap excursion to a meeting with the grim announcement I once saw placarded about New York, that "Passengers can hear two sermons, and return the same day." As this must necessarily be a thief summary, I will only give one out of several instances of this apparent piety of American labourers which came under my notice. I was in a car on the Union Pacific Railway with a large number of soldiers and work- ing-men of different callings, from all parts of the Union. They were bound, the former for the different forts along the line, and the labourers for the Company's new workshops at Cheyenne and Laramie. They were a rough-looking lot, as borderers mostly are, every man of them being armed to the teeth, as it is necessary to be when Indians, both red and white, are on the war-path, and lives and pockets may at any moment depend upon a quick load and clean shoot. It was early morning, and several of my fellow-passengers were amusing themselves as the train rattled along, shooting prairie 'dogs with rifle and revolver from the carriage windows. Besides the workmen, there were several excur- sionists, and I was exchanging morning salutations with some of these who had left the sleeping car later than I had, when one of the party (a quiet-looking gentleman who kept a store in Chicago) rose, and addressing all present, said, "Silence, if you please, ladies and gentlemen, for the Word of God." Instantly, every rough head was uncovered, every rifle dropped into its place, and revolver belted, as the quiet-looking man proceeded to read a few verses from the Bible, appropriately selected for our position as travellers. The conductor, who just then entered the car to look at our tickets, removed his cap and took the nearest seat, and everybody was as orderly and reverent as if the car had been a church. The read- ing over, another of the excursionists prayed for about ten minutes, in plain simple language, in which any man could have mentally joined, whether Christian or Hindoo, so long as he believed in the existence of a God. After the prayer, a hymn, —which I noticed most of those present were able to join in,—was sung, and the service came to an end. Such a scene would have been impossible in England, but nobody appeared to think it an out-of-the-way proceeding in America. I scanned the faces of my fellow-wor- shippers to see if I could detect an irreverent smile or sheepish look, such as would certainly have been observable under similar cir- cumstances at home, but every man, soldier and civilian alike, looked dignified and grave.

The number of churches and chapels is, I think, greater in America than in England. One seems to encounter them at every turn. I find that in 1860 there were 54,009, altogether capable of seating 18,974,576 persons. The Methodists are the most numerous, next to them the Baptista, these two bodies between them having seat accommodation for upwards of ten millions of worshippers. The Presbyterians come next, and the Episcopalians fourth on the list.

As for the numerous sects and fantastic faiths so commonly sup- posed to be peculiar to America, I believe there is very little differ- ence between England and the United States in this respect. Mormonisna, for instance, finds very few recruits in America. Shakers are no more remarkable, but infinitely more respectable, than our Agapemonites ; and so on, to the end of the chapter. Re- ligious bodies occupy more room in America than here, because there is more room to be occupied, and so frequently appear to merit more notice than from their numbers they deserve.

There is much street preaching, both in the open air and in tents. Young men's Christian associations, home and foreign missions, prayer and tea meetings, and Sunday-schools flourish just as they do here. Of the latter, there is one in Cincinnati, with an average attendance of 1,500 children, under the charge of sixty teachers. As I said before, I think the result of all. this religious teaching is that the working-class in America is more "religious" than our own. I do not mean to say that in America the majority of the poor are "religious ;" scepticism is, doubtless, spreading there as in Europe, but I do think that Americans have a greater right than we to the title of "Christian people." If one goes a step higher than the working-class, and takes what, for convenience' sake, may be called the middle-class, the balance between the two nations in this, as in other matters to be referred to hereafter, would possibly come near to being redressed. In all

the great cities of the Eastern, Western, .and Middle States, Sunday is kept more as it is in Scotland than in England ; and the sale of beer and spirits is in most places prohibited during the whole day.

The clergy seem to be in every way in closer communion with the laity than among us, being less regarded as a class set apart than as everybody's friends and relations. The following para- graph refers to a very general custom of giving ministers presents, sometimes called holding a "Ball" from the manner in which the congregation swarm the parsonage on these occasions:—

"The pastor of the Camden, N.Y., Church, organized less than a year ago, writes with lively emotions of gratitude of his congregation's delicate and liberal attention to his wants. When he passed from the intermediate state of boarding to the full realization of housekeeping, cellar and larder were found stocked as if by magic.' Shortly after he had a surprise tin wedding."

I think the part of the sentence I have italicized about the prettiest way of saying "he got married" I have ever seen.