with bands of music and banners flying. The processionists were attired in impromptu theatrical costume, resembling very much the freebooters and brigands in "Fra Diavolo," or general soldier-gatherings in operas. The men, for the most part, wore Wellington boots and white or red shirts. One club sported blue. capes, another white, and a third Zouave jackets. All had some sort of fanciful kepi or shako. Most of Grant's men wore leather aprons, in compliment to their chief's former occupation. They all had torches, or rather small oil lamps, slung from a rod carried over the shoulder, and which gave to the procession a very picturesque appearance. The Democrats' procession was the most effective. It occupied two hours in winding past the hotel. But the greater number of them were disfranchised; the city of St. Louis, like the state, being very much divided in its politics. The old settlers were mostly Democrats; while the Germans and Northerners, recently established there, were nearly all Republicans. Owing, however, to disfranchisement, the Republicans were decidedly in the majority.

Fierce were the threats that were uttered, especially by the Southerners, whom the election certainly affected most. For whilst with the Republican the election is a mere question of

emolument, which, should he lose, he will immediately embark in some other speculation; with the Southerner it is a matter of existence-at any rate, of free existence. To have no vote in an election is bad enough for an American, but to be ruled over by his former slave is to be ignominiously branded and goaded to frenzy.

Prominent men are set up and knocked down in America like nine-pins in a game of skittles; but there is one thing of which they can never accuse Grant, and that is of making rash promises, for he never made any. The rigorous manner in which he kept his lips closed must strike any one as an indication of the greatest wisdom ever practised in the United States, for he thus established for himself a standpoint, from which he might carry out whatever line of action seemed good to him, having committed himself to none, probably not even with his most zealous friends, or it would most assuredly have leaked out, in a country where men are as unable to keep secrets as are women in most others.

The officers were generally well disposed towards the South, and Grant, their commanderin-chief, was likely, it was thought, if elected, to treat the Southerners with more leniency than they had anticipated. It had already become apparent that he would not belong to the

VOL. II.

8

extreme party, which went by the name of the "Saint Wendell" sect.

The Americans are a talking people; they have an easy flow of language, and it is more rare to meet with a man who is not a good talker than with one that is. Even though he should not possess education, voice, or ideas, he can still talk on, without hesitation or embarrassment, from a natural gift of eloquence, whilst an Englishman, in the same position, would finger his notes, twist his hat round, tie his watch-chain, and shuffle his feet. But the American throws himself into a loose, vulgar attitude, and talks away at his ease, without a moment's pause or confusion. He enters into conversation easily and fluently, whilst an Englishman stammers out with difficulty a few conventional sentences, unless he has known all your life, and your grandmother too.

you

An American launches into the subject which interests him, without any preamble of hot or cold weather, wet or fine day, and is fully conscious of his superiority in this respect over the Englishman, entertaining also the firm and pleasant conviction that English people cannot speak their own language.

This impression is universal in America. The greatest compliment an American can pay you is to tell you that you do not speak like an

Englishman, and he will at once assume as the reason that you have spent many years in the United States. On being informed that you have only resided in the country a few months, he remarks, "You must be right smart.'

I have alluded frequently in these pages to the quantity of water consumed by Americans. The water drunk at St. Louis contained a solution of mud, being the mud from the river, which is the colour of café au lait. My first impression at the table d'hôte was that every one was drinking coffee in tumblers, and from its rich colour I concluded that it must be very good. The art of making good coffee, I reasoned mentally, might be the one lingering trace of St. Louis having once been a French colony. How great was my dismay, therefore, when I touched the glass, and found it icy cold. "Iced coffee," I thought; then I sipped a little, and in great disgust set it down. It was simply muddy water! Nevertheless, the Saint Louisians assured me it was the most healthful water in America. However this may be, it is quite certain that the Mississippi, from the strength and rapidity of its current, carries past St. Louis daily millions of tons of mud, over and above what the inhabitants swallow, and bears it down to the Gulf of Mexico, where it forms a sort of peninsula for miles into the ocean.

CHAPTER VIII.

DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI FROM ST. LOUIS TO

LOUISVILLE.

NCE more on the Mississippi, leaving
St. Louis for Louisville. In the

middle of October its banks looked more grand and gorgeous than ever. There had been a little frost on the previous evening, which had had the effect of turning the green of the foliage into brilliant yellow, and the brown into bright scarlet and purple. These gorgeous colours, reflected in the river under a brilliant sun, made the muddy waters look as though they flowed over sands of gold and amber. It is really worth a trip from England to see the beauty of the foliage on the Mississippi in autumn. In fact, I believe the whole of the forest trees of America at this season are equally grand and startling to the European eye. great difference exists between different portions of the Mississippi. Sometimes as it wandered

A