THE GENESSEE RIVER.

107

The descent of this river within the city, and the immediate neighbourhood of Rochester, is more than three hundred feet, and it is quite unnecessary to add that the natives have made the most of it. There are already nearly one hundred mills and factories, in which water power is used, established on this part of the Genessee; about twenty-five of these were, as we were told, flour mills, grinding about thirty thousand bushels of wheat daily. The demand for labour is great, and wages, consequently, high; altogether, the history of this one city would alone give the observant traveller an insight into the futurity of wealth and importance which await these long-headed and persevering people. I have often, in my own mind, compared the Americans, (the northern ones most particularly, who strive so unceasingly for gain,) to a nest of ants in full activity. Who has not watched these little animals when busily employed in their work of accumulation? Who has not respected the industry of each member of the little republic in his persevering efforts to increase his hoard? Each insect seems intent upon his own purpose, never turning to the right hand nor to the left, but working on untiringly to gain his ends, and increase his own store. Do not you see something in the busy selfishness of these little creatures which assimilates greatly with the Yankee character? There is the same toiling for accumulation, the same concentra

108

LOVE OF FINERY.

tion of their faculties in the great aim of dollarmaking, and the same want of variety in their main views and objects.

We were told that provisions at Rochester are as good and plentiful as in any city in the Union— New York not excepted—and certainly there seemed every appearance of it. The ordinary was excellently well supplied, and as for the stores they were really beautiful, and rich with the treasures of London and Paris. How indigenous is the love of finery in all our hearts! Here, in the very heart of the wilderness, were found shops full of the expensive toys which, wherever women are,

are

Bought because they may be wanted,
Wanted because they may be bought;

And ladies walked about, as they invariably do in America, with twenty dollars' worth of Parisian coiffure on their heads, and the prettiest little French brodequins in the world. As I shall have another opportunity of writing again from hence, I shall now close my letter.

LETTER XI.

UNHEALTHINESS OF ROCHESTER-NUMEROUS MILLS -FALLS OF THE GENESSEE-COURT OF ASSIZEMOUNT HOPE CEMETERY-SHORTNESS OF HUMAN LIFE IN AMERICA-ITS POSSIBLE CAUSES-INCREASE OF TEMPERANCE.

THE

Rochester-November.

A

HE city is only six miles from Lake Ontario, and is on the line of the Erie Canal. great number of families from the old country, English, Scotch, and Irish, have come out to settle at Rochester, and have, for the most part, succeeded in earning a comfortable living. Those among them, however, with whom I talked on the subject, complained very much of the unhealthiness of the climate, (ague seemed to be the prevailing complaint,) and the numerous doctors established in the city made, by all accounts, a rich harvest out of the shaking frames of the poor emigrant Britishers. The servants in the hotel were most of them Irish, one of them, the help who attended to the ladies' room, was a pretty country-girl from Derry. She had a rich, soft brogue, which, after listening to the high-pitched Yankee voices, was as music in my ears; and, more

110

NUMEROUS MILLS AT ROCHESTER.

over, she had not been in the country long enough to become anti-Irish in her heart, for her bright black eyes seemed almost to dance with delight when I talked to her of her native country. After the ordinary dinner, which was at about four o'clock, we walked out to look at the Falls. In order to do this, we passed over a bridge to the eastward, and turning down a street which runs parallel with the river, we soon reached the outskirts of the city. The spot on which we stood was a wide open space, covered with short turf, well trodden by the feet of the pleasure seeking Rochester citizens, who, on Sundays, come with their wives and families to wander along the ledge of the precipice which overlooks the falls, and not a few of them to liquor in one or two quinquette looking stores on the ground. The view is, indeed, a grand one, and would be much more so in any other country; but here the mills and breweries and distilleries, which rise up in every direction, unpoetize the whole scenery, and I found myself wondering that, in the zeal to make the most of everything, the spirited Yankees had never yet thought of establishing some cotton factories at Trenton, or of grinding corn, with unheard-of rapidity, through the means of the great water privileges of Niagara.

The river rolled along a hundred and fifty feet beneath us. Looking up the stream, the water poured down this tremendous fall in one unbroken

THE GENESSEE FALLS.

111

sheet, and its width is (I should say) more than a hundred yards. It was a relief to look down the Genessee, and thus escape the sight of the odious factories; for there flowed along the shining river, with its beautifully wooded banks just tinged by the setting sun, and though on its placid bosom a steamer or two were to be seen, they were too far off to be unsightly features in the landscape. We tried to catch a glimpse of Lake Ontario, so celebrated in Indian story; but in vain-not even the least portion of it was to be seen.

The American tourists, though very proud of these falls as a fine location,' feel less interested in them as a beautiful specimen of nature's work than as connected with the tragical end of poor Sam Patch the Jumper. This celebrated character, whose name will be remembered as long as the Genessee Falls shall last, was a Yankee sailor who had a wonderful, and certainly very unaccountable, passion for throwing himself off great heights. He had escaped unscathed through 'imminent, deadly' perils, having jumped off half the bridges, and exhibited his prowess in all the harbours in the old world. Nothing remained to him so worthy of his adventurous spirit as the great waterfalls of his native land. To these, then, he turned, and being without either a human rival or companion in his perilous feats, he was fain to associate himself with a bear, thinking, doubtless,