wherein the higher orders dress themselves, and which again
reflected from them to the classes below, goes far towards
polishing, in some degree, a great majority of the population,
it is not to be expected that manner should be made so much a
study, or should attain an equal degree of elegance; but the
deficiency, and the total difference, is greater than this
cause alone could account for. The hours of enjoyment are
important to human beings every where, and we every where find
them preparing to make the most of them. Those who enjoy
themselves only in society, whether intellectual or convivial,
prepare themselves for it, and such make but a poor figure when
forced to be content with the sweets of solitude: while, on
the other hand, those to whom retirement affords the greatest
pleasure, seldom give or receive much in society. Wherever
the highest enjoyment is found by both sexes in scenes where
they meet each other, both will prepare themselves to appear
with advantage there. The men will not indulge in the luxury
of chewing tobacco, or even of spitting, and the women will
contrive to be capable of holding a higher post than that of
unwearied tea-makers.

In America, with the exception of dancing, which is almost wholly
confined to the unmarried of both sexes, all the enjoyments of
the men are found in the absence of the women. They dine, they
play cards, they have musical meetings, they have suppers, all in
large parties but all without women. Were it not that such is
the custom, it is impossible but that they would have ingenuity
enough to find some expedient for sparing the wives and daughters
of the opulent the sordid offices of household drudgery which
they almost all perform in their families. Even in the slave
states, though they may not clear-starch and iron, mix puddings
and cakes one half of the day, and watch them baking the other
half, still the very highest occupy themselves in their household
concerns, in a manner that precludes the possibility of their
becoming elegant and enlightened companions. In Baltimore,
Philadelphia, and New York, I met with some exceptions to this;
but speaking of the country generally, it is unquestionably true.

Had I not become heartily tired of my prolonged residence in a
place I cordially disliked, and which moreover I began to fear
would not be attended with the favourable results we had
anticipated, I should have found an almost inexhaustible source
of amuse