American Notes for General Circulation, Volume 2Chapman and Hall, 1842 - 306 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
abolitionist ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS America an't appearance beautiful Belleville BLACK DRIVER boat breakfast bright BROWN BROWN HAT cabin called canal captain chair CHARLES DICKENS cheerful Cincinnati cloth coach coachman comfort dark deck dinner distance Doctor Crocus dollars reward door England English eyes gentleman GEORGE CRUIKSHANK Grant county hand Harrisburgh head horses hour Indians Jiddy Johnny Cake journey kind Kingston ladies Lebanon light little woman live look looking-glass luggage meal ment miles Mississippi Montreal morning nearly negro never Niagara night o'clock passed passengers Phrenology pistol PITTSBURG pretty Public opinion rienced river road rolling roof round Sandusky scar seemed Shaker ship shot side sits slavery slaves soon stage-coach steamboat stopped STRAW street THREE MAPS tion took town travelling trees vessel village Vinyard walk wharf wind window young
Popular passages
Page 178 - Then, when I felt how near to my Creator I was standing, the first effect, and the enduring one - instant and lasting - of the tremendous spectacle, was Peace. Peace of Mind, tranquillity, calm recollections of the Dead, great thoughts of Eternal Rest and Happiness: nothing of gloom or terror. Niagara was at once stamped upon my heart, an Image of Beauty; to remain there, changeless and indelible, until its pulses cease to beat, for ever.
Page 180 - I think in every quiet season now, still do those waters roll and leap, and roar and tumble, all day long ; still are the rainbows spanning them a hundred feet below. Still, when the sun is on them, do they shine and glow like molten gold. Still, when the day is gloomy, do they fall like snow...
Page 113 - The little woman had been passing a long time with her sick mother in New York, and had left her home in St. Louis, in that condition in which ladies who truly love their lords desire to be. The baby...
Page 204 - In many a noble mansion lives a man, the best of husbands and of fathers, whose private worth inboth capacities is justly lauded to the skies. But bring him here, upon this crowded deck. Strip from his fair young wife her silken dress and jewels, unbind her braided hair, stamp early wrinkles on her brow, pinch her pale cheek with care and much privation...
Page 117 - Some of these ancient habitations, with high garret gable- windows perking into the roofs, have a kind of French shrug about them ; and being lop-sided with age, appear to hold their heads askew, besides, as if they were grimacing in astonishment at the American Improvements.
Page 12 - ... itself, which is a series of alternate swamps and gravel-pits. A tremendous place is close before us, the black driver rolls his eyes, screws his mouth up very round, and looks straight between the two leaders, as if he were saying to himself, ' We have done this before, but now I think we shall have a crash.
Page 289 - Yet the American citizen plumes himself upon this spirit, even when he is sufficiently dispassionate to perceive the ruin it works, and will often adduce it, in spite of his own reason, as an instance of the great sagacity and acuteness of the people, and their superior shrewdness and independence. You carry, says the stranger, this jealousy and distrust into every transaction of public life.
Page 172 - I to find fault with a funny old lady who was an upper domestic in this establishment, and who, when she came to wait upon us at any meal, sat herself down comfortably in the most convenient chair, and producing a large pin to pick her teeth with, remained performing that ceremony, and steadfastly regarding us meanwhile with much gravity and composure (now and then pressing us to eat a little more), until it was time to clear away. It was enough for us, that whatever we wished done was done with...
Page 180 - Still, when the sun is on them, do they shine and glow like molten gold. Still, when the day is gloomy, do they fall like snow, or seem to crumble away like the front of a great chalk cliff, or roll down the rock like dense white smoke. But always does the mighty stream appear to die as it comes down, and always from its unfathomable grave arises that tremendous ghost of spray and mist which is never laid : which has haunted this place with the same dread solemnity since Darkness brooded on the deep,...
Page 295 - America, without first grovelling down upon the earth, and bending the knee before this monster of depravity; when any private excellence is safe from its attacks; when any social confidence is left unbroken by it, or any tie of social decency and honour is held in the least regard; when any man in that free country has freedom of opinion, and presumes to think for himself, and speak for himself, without humble reference to a censorship which, for its rampant ignorance and base dishonesty, he utterly...