to service. Provisions are not quite so dear at Philadelphia as New York; on which account the boarding houses do not charge more than from six to ten piastres per week. You never meet any poor at Philadelphia, not a creature wearing the aspect of misery in his face; that distressing spectacle, so common in European cities, is unknown in America; love, industry, the want of sufficient hands, the scarcity of workmanship, an active commerce, property, are the direct causes that contend against the introduction of beggary, whether in town or country.
During my stay at Philadelphia, I had an opportunity of seeing the Rev. Dr. Collin, minister of the Swedish church, and president of the Philosophical {22} Society; Mr. John Vaughan, the secretary; Messrs. Piles, John and William Bartram.[1] These different gentlemen had formerly been particularly acquainted with my father, and I received from them every mark of attention and respect. Mr. Piles has a beautiful cabinet of natural history. The legislature of Pensylvania have presented him with a place to arrange it in; that is the only encouragement he has received. He is continually employed in enriching it by increasing the number of his correspondents in Europe, as well as in the remote parts of the United States; still, except a bison, I saw nothing in his collection but what may be found in the Museum at Paris.
- ↑ Dr. Nicholas Collin was one of the most prominent members of the Philosophical Society, elected in 1789, dying in 1831. It is a curious mistake of Michaux's to call him president, at a time when Jefferson held this position. Dr. Collin was often acting chairman, and had been chairman of the committee for raising funds for the elder Michaux's proposed Western exploration (1792). Dr. John Vaughan was treasurer and librarian of the Society for many years. The Bartrams were famous botanists of Philadelphia, whom the elder Michaux frequently visited. See ante, p. 97, note 177.—Ed.
