the Battery. The sound of India-crackers and the pleasant
smell of lobsters is already perceptible to the senses of the awakening
Manhattanese.'

'Boston, too, my native city,' I observed, 'is also alive to the holiday
influences. Boston Common I dare say is already white with tents, and the
fragrant commerce of the booths is just commencing on the Mall.'

SEATSFIELD: 'Yes, Sir; but Boston and Philadelphia both fail in developing
the true character-stamp-work (_character-stampfen-werk_) of the day. To
see the Fourth of July in its glory, one should visit New-York. To my
senses, which are uncommonly acute, there is a peculiar smell about the
Fourth of July in New-York, which differs in toto from that of any other
holiday.'

'In Boston we also have the perfume of lobsters and egg-pop blended with
that of orange-peel and pine-apple----'

SEATSFIELD: 'That, Sir, is but a feeble rationale of the New-York savor. I
have often, in a jocose mood, amused myself with analyzing this odor. I
have resolved it into the following elements: lobsters, gunpowder,
trampled-grass, wheel-grease, and cigars. It is mainly to these
ingredients, grafted upon the other ordinary city smells, that I attribute
the Fourth of July smell.'

'There is one that you have failed to detect; namely, a faint whiff of
barn-yards, owing I presume to the strong prevalence of farmers and other
rustics from the surrounding country.' SEATSFIELD smiled at this, and
acknowledged, in a laughing way, an occasional intimation of manure.
'Graffenburg,' I observed, 'is remarkably free from all strong odors; it
is a very clean village.'

SEATSFIELD: 'That, Sir, is owing to the water: depend upon it, wherever
water prevails neatness will ensue. Temperance and cleanliness go hand in
hand. The ancients were a filthy race, and they were great wine-bibbers.
What a condition of personal and mental nastiness is divulged by HORACE in
his 'Iter ad Brundusium;' yet HORACE was a choice specimen of a Roman
gentleman.'

'Have you had any poets among you here? or is the hydropathic system too
repugnant to their art?'

SEATSFIELD: 'Our countryman, LONGFELLOW, was here not long since. I sat at
table with him frequently; but never introduced myself to him.'

'Do you think highly of his powers?'

SEATSFIELD: 'As a prolific generator of novel life-images, no; but as a
vivid delineator of the inner-thought principle, as an artistical
displayer of the higher subjective mood, he is