Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/21

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1818-1820]
Preface
15

found in slave states, where the obsequiousness of the serving class frankly pleases his taste.

Aside from his insularity and class prejudice, which were eminently characteristic of the travelled Englishman of his time, Welby not only throws much light on the early West, and the prospects and surroundings which then and there met the emigrant, but makes many practical observations of worth to the modern student of social conditions. The listlessness of the people on the occasion of public holidays makes the Fourth of July celebration appear to him like a funeral. The name of Washington is revered, but the birthday of "the immortal" calls forth but feeble oratory. Our observant but prejudiced traveller frequently notes the lack of energy, and the lounging habits of the populace; yet he rather inconsistently deprecates the universal love of money, the feverish eagerness to be rich, which characterizes the average American, who in the race for wealth finds scarcely time to eat. The national character seems to him flat and insipid, which he attributes in part to the mixed nature of the population and the homesickness of the emigrant, prophetically remarking that "time alone can wear down their heterogeneous habits into a national character." Welby admired President Monroe, remarking upon the ease and simplicity of his manners, and the lack of state with which he was surrounded. The author's unstinted admiration, however, was reserved for the landscape, whose beauties everywhere delighted him.

Welby landed in New York June 21, 1819, after a voyage of six weeks, and soon passed on to Philadelphia. Thence he travelled westward over the Lancaster Turnpike and the Pennsylvania Road, through Bedford and Greensburg, to Pittsburg. Not pausing here, because of the "heat, dirt, filth, and charges," he pushed on to Wheeling, the