e flesh, the lust of the eye, and worldly pride! As I wandered
to the spot in Wall Street (where, by the bye, the stockbrokers and their
clerks are not in appearance to be compared to our own) I felt, sad as I
was, a thrill of pleasure run through me, as there Washington took the
oath as the first President of the young and then pure Republic; and
then, as the evening came on, I strolled up and down in the park-like
squares by means of which New York looks like a fairy world by night,
with the people sitting under the shade of the trees, resting after the
labours of the day; while afar the gay crowds are dining or supping at
Delmonico's, or wandering in and out of the great hotels which rear their
heads like palaces--as I looked at all that show and splendour (and in
London we have nothing to compare with it), one seemed to forget how
evanescent was that splendour, how unreal that show! I was reminded of
it, however, as I retired to rest, by the announcement that in one part
of my hotel was the way to the fire-escape, and by the notice in my
bedroom that the proprietor would not be responsible for my boots if I
put them outside the door to be blackened. In New York there seems to be
no confidence in anybody or anything.

As I told my story to a sweet young American lady she said, "Ah, you must
have felt very mean." "Not a bit of it," said I; "the meanness seemed to
be all on the other side." Americans talk English, so they tell me,
better than we do ourselves! Since then I have seen the same game played
elsewhere. In Australia I have heard of many a poor emigrant robbed in
this way. A plausible looking gentleman tried it on with me at Melbourne
when I was tramping up and down Burke Street one frying afternoon. He
had come with me, he said, by the steamer from Sydney to Melbourne. I
really thought I had met him at Brisbane. At any rate, his wife was ill,
and he was going back with her to London by the very steamer that I was
travelling by to Adelaide. Would I come with him as far as the Club? Of
course I said yes. The Melbourne Club is rather a first-class affair.
But somehow or other we did not get as far as the Club. My friend wanted
to call on a friend in a public-house on the way. Would I have a drink?
No, I was much obliged, but I did not want a drink. I sat down smoking,
and he came and sat beside me. Presently a decent-looking man came up to
my new friend with a bill. "Can't you wait till to-morro