William Delisle Hay

“ Such an interesting and amusing book is sure to find plenty of readers. Nor will any one who takes it up lay it, down without profit as well as pleasure. It tells us about hotels and boarding-houses—those banes of family life—about popular preachers, and mediums, and free love, and tippling; besides taking us to Boston, and Washington, and Utah, and Philadelphia. Mr. Day by no means flatters the Americans; doubtless he thinks, with Dickens, that, having started on such high principles, they are bound to keep well above the European level. The New York tramcars, if cheap, are nasty. ”

“ Samuel Phillips Day is by no means an unknown writer, several of his books on American society having been exceedingly successful. He has lived a long time in the United States, principally in New York, and as he is possessed of a great deal of natural quickness of observation he is generally very amusing and trustworthy. His description of New York is unfavourable. ‘The felicity of domestic life, as we in England understand it, is almost unknown in this “go-ahead” centre of commerce. The people live much out of doors, not relishing the tame monotony and dull stillness of home. ”

“ In this sphere of activity there is certainly a wide field open to the philanthropic labours of a ‘social purity alliance.’ New York, like all other great commercial centres, possesses a certain “shoddy aristocracy”—to use a popular term—the mushroom outcome of successful speculation, and this aristocracy, knowing nothing better than fine houses, well-appointed carriages, and blazing jewels—the goal of its efforts—naturally delights in magnificent display. ”

“ The gem, of course, is often lost and found again—strangely, still so naturally; it lives the life, as it were, of a silent witness telling its own history. Last of all, we find it held in memory of one whose young life spanned but a lasting sorrow. These are mere faint shadows of the many pictures depicted in the little book, each, indeed, being a story in itself, sweetly told,—carrying a charm we must commend, for the youthful mind is led to reason whilst reading. ”

“ We have been assured by a friend whose recollections of the city extend back to a period when the present generation were yet in the cradle, that in those days the ‘rowdies,’ as the promiscuous and rampant rascaldom of New York was termed, compelled respectable and peaceable citizens to take a revolver with them when they left home for business in the morning as regularly as they put on their great-coats when the thermometer failed to register a certain temperature. ”

“ Not the least shocking to our way of thinking among the social anomalies that owe their existence to this freedom of manners is the custom so prevalent in some of the large and more go-ahead cities of the Union of courtship by advertisement. A gentleman travelling by steamboat or tramcar in New York sees a lady to whom he is an entire stranger, but with whose appearance he is prepossessed. ”

“ Day finds that American girls are cold and calculating. ‘They will drink champagne with you, crack jokes with you, gossip with you, smoke cigarettes with you, nay, even flirt a bit with you; but they will not marry you, save upon the cold, careful consideration of how you stand with your banker.’ We have heard very often that there are no hotels like those of New York, and the English hotels are only tolerable as they resemble them. ”

“ Herod out-Heroded—alliteration carried to the verge of affectation—cannot destroy the subtle charm of New Poems, a volume full of musical verse, various in kind and in manner, but all, or nearly all, singularly melodious, quaint, refined, attractive. ”

“ It must be remembered that the ‘Manhattanese’ are a very composite and cosmopolitan population, entirely engaged in commercial pursuits, from whom it would not be fair to expect the culture and refinement observable in such centres of political and literary activity as either Washington or Boston. Liverpool is not a fair sample of English life and manners; no more is New York of American. ”

“ Our Transatlantic cousins are notoriously fond of being lectured to. Of course a reputation for brilliancy on the platform is not gained in a day any more than it is in any other walk of life, and it seems, according to the highest possible authority on Transatlantic lecturing—the Literary Bureau—that ‘next to merit nothing so assists a lecturer’s success as printer’s ink.’ Acting on this principle, the bureau devotes pages of its publication to advertisements, in the shape of articles from the pens of popular authors spreading abroad the special merits of its clients. ”

“ Here is a man who is cultured to a point of exquisiteness that is phenomenal; he has simply a perfect command of our language, and makes light of difficulties that would have frightened the great ones of the past time ”

“ Day much more favourably impressed with American religion. From time to time certain ‘evangelists’ have been kind enough to visit this country in hope of ‘converting’ the unenlightened Britisher, and relieving him of a little of his superfluous cash; but it would seem that there is quite sufficient work for them at home, and that the English clergy have very little to learn from their American brethren. If Americans fall short in religious matters, however, they make up in the amount of their superstition. ”

“ Day for a most readable and entertaining collection of sketches of Transatlantic life, drawn by one who is not only a keen observer of men and manners, but who is also evidently gifted with a shrewd and penetrating insight into human nature. Our author, starting from Queenstown in one of the magnificent ‘National’ steamers, is landed within ten days at New York. ”

“ Day’s strictures so far as they relate to the scandalous and open facilities for immorality afforded by the ‘demoralising haunts’ infesting the city in the shape of the ‘cellars,’ where dancing and drinking go on until early in the morning, the ministering Hebes being ‘gaudily attired females of notoriously loose character.’ Immorality in this city is certainly unblushingly open, and does not seem to trouble itself about that decent screen which legislative action as well as public opinion has compelled it to shelter itself with in this country. ”

“ He double-shuffles and stamps on the floor till the uprising dust obscures him; he beats his breast, clenches his fist, clutches his hair, plays ball with the furniture, outhowls the roaring elements, streams with perspiration, foams at the mouth, paces up and down till he looks like a lion in a cage lashing his tail. ”

“ The dumb treasure is made to tell its own adventures: we find it as a gift in humble life the sport of many a strange scene: then an ornament prized by one of gentle birth; it is caressed with affection, carried away from home, midst scenes seldom witnessed by even those that travel far. ”

“ Day speaks with weight. The over-restrictive legislation which some well-meaning people are anxious to see introduced into this country, in imitation of the States, he pronounces to be a conspicuous failure. ”

“ The ‘Sketches of Cambridge’ have exceptional merits. They are true to nature, when they approach her, and have a subtle tenderness for humanity, a longing for something nobler than the every-day life. ”

“ Mormon women, we had often heard, are ugly; but that a ‘porter-house steak’ costs 5s., and that New York meat is not only very inferior, but very badly cooked, was news to us. American editors have wonderful privileges; in many places they get their food and clothing gratis in return for ‘personal’ articles. The book ought to be studied by all who want to see the shadows as well as the lights of American society.”—Graphic.
“We would not recommend Mr. Day to visit the United States for some time to come. ”

“ Enough has probably been said to show that the work thoroughly deserves the character given to it at the outset, inasmuch as it deals with a great variety of topics, and treats of all with knowledge, common sense, and sound judgment. ”

“ It is natural that in a land where the art, or rather science, of advertising has been carried to so extraordinary a pitch of perfection, peculiar privileges should fall to the lot of those whose calling gives them in a pre-eminent degree the use of that highly-prized instrument—the trumpet of fame. ”

“ Hence America has not inappropriately been termed the ‘Paradise of Editors.’ For some highly piquant details on the subject we will refer our readers to Mr. Day’s chapter. It must not be supposed that our author has confined his observations on American life to these brilliant sketches of men and manners in the ‘Empire City’. In his agreeable company we have the privilege of visiting the ‘city of brotherly love,’ as he terms Philadelphia, the capital of Pennsylvania, and the second city of the United States as regards population ”

“ It is an exhaustive picture of life in the United States, which we can recommend to all persons who are interested in the social life of the Great Republic. The book contains twenty chapters, which treat of a great variety of subjects, such as ‘The Cost of Living,’ ‘The Paradise of Editors,’ ‘The Gay Capital,’ ' Marriage Made Easy,’ ‘The Empire City,’ &c., all practical, instructive, and interesting. ”

“ We have already on several occasions expressed our great admiration of the merits of Mr. John Payne, and our conviction that he is entitled to a high place among the poets of the day. His astonishing mastery over difficulties of metre, the grace and harmony of his language, and the subtle charm which runs through all his writings, merit a warm recognition at the hands of all students of modern poetry. is manner is simply perfect ”

“ The sweeping strictures that he passes on some of our cousins’ most cherished institutions would probably lead to his introduction to Judge Lynch. On this side of the Atlantic, however, we can afford to laugh at these revelations of the undercurrent of life in the States. The book will, however, serve to show those who believe in Mr. Bright’s doctrine of the immeasurable superiority of the United States over England that there is another and a very different side to the case. ”

“ As might be expected, the fairer portion of the inhabitants of the Fifth Avenue are not less addicted to gay dressing and sumptuous jewellery than their lords are to four-in-hands and yachts that might excite the envy of a king. ”

“ He has obviously lived in various parts of the States for considerable periods, and he clearly knows enough of society to generalize with tolerable accuracy. It need hardly be said that his opinions are not invariably flattering, and that some of his judgments are likely to give no little offence. ”

“ Miss Henry’s little volume is one of the best collections of ‘readings’ which we have found in a pyramid of such publications.”—Jewish Chronicle.
“In the entertainment given by Miss Cowen last Tuesday evening in the Steinway Hall she certainly had no cause to regret the presentation of some vocal music as interludes in her programme, and though one of these consisted of the charming phrases her popular brother (Mr. F. H. Cowen) has wedded to the little poem ‘Never Again,’ the interest of the occasion centred in Miss Cowen’s delivery of the poetical works written by Re Henry. ”

“ Day tells us that they are anything but desirable residences; huge and unsightly in appearance, destitute of many arrangements for comfort which Englishmen consider a matter of necessity; noisy, bustling, and generally unpleasant places to inhabit. ”

“ Ward Beecher’s sermon he finds shocking in delivery, and below mediocrity in subject-matter and arrangement, although enlivened with sentences like this: ‘Some say lawyers can’t go to heaven. It’s a lie. Some say merchants can’t go to heaven. ”

“ Day, ‘a middle-class family in this country could live well upon the sum necessary to rig an American belle efficiently.’ This, be it understood, does not include jewellery, of which our Manhattanese cousins seem to be inordinately fond. ”

“ Day, there is a vigour in these puffs peculiar to Yankee journalists, and never approached by their brethren of the pen on this side of the Atlantic. Take the following specimen culled by our author from an article in the Literary Magazine descriptive of the brilliant wit and striking delivery peculiar to a certain George Francis Train. Why, as an advertisement it would be well worth five dollars a line did ink flow less readily from Transatlantic quills. ”

“ Old and reliable physicians throughout the States now report a fourfold increase in cases of delirium tremens. To-day a man with four inches of Maine whisky in him is not less dangerous than a wild beast.’ These are striking words, and Mr. ”