trouble to the servants. The dinner is served
up in it, direct from the kitchen, with which it communicates. The
master of the house, unless he dines late, which is seldom the case in
American cities, does not often come home to dinner, and the
preparations for the family are of course not very troublesome. But
although they go on very well in their daily routine, to give a dinner
is to the majority of the Americans really an effort, not from the
disinclination to give one, but from the indifference and ignorance of
the servants; and they may be excused without being taxed with want of
hospitality. It is a very common custom, therefore, for the Americans
to invite you to come and "_take wine_" with them, that is to come after
dinner, when you will find cakes, ices, wine, and company, already
prepared. But there is something unpleasant in this arrangement; it is
too much like the bar of the tavern in the west, with--"Stranger, will
you drink?" It must, however, be recollected that there are many
exceptions to what I have above stated as the general practice. There
are houses in the principal cities of the States where you will sit down
to as well-arranged and elegant a dinner as you will find in the best
circles of London and Paris; but the proprietors are men of wealth, who
have in all probability been on the old continent, and have imbibed a
taste for luxury and refinement generally unknown and unfelt in the new
hemisphere.

I once had an instance of what has been repeatedly observed by other
travellers of the dislike to be considered as servants in this land of
equality.

I was on board of a steam-boat from Detroit to Buffalo, and entered into
conversation with a young woman who was leaning over the taffrail. She
had been in service, and was returning home.

"You say you lived with Mr W.?"

"No, I didn't," replied she, rather tartly; "I said I lived with _Mrs_.
W."

"Oh, I understand. In what situation did you live?"

"I lived in the house."

"Of course you did, but what as?"

"What as? As a _gal_ should live."

"I mean what did you do?"

"I helped Mrs W."

"And now you are tired of helping others?"

"Guess I am."

"Who is your father?"

"He's a doctor."

"A doctor! and he allows you to go out?"

"He said I might please myself."

"Will he be pleased at your coming home again?"

"I went out to please myself, and I come home to please myself. Cost
him nothing for four months; that's