Travels in the United States, etc.,: during 1849 and 1850./ By the Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley.

YOUNG AMERICA.
countries you are a little assisted to the conclusion, unwittingly, by
the dress; but here not in the least, and you must judge wholly
by l'air noble et distingue, or the reverse, of the individual.
It is very seldom you see any equestrians in these northern
cities. Every body chooses either to walk or go in carriages. The
Common is a very agreeable place for promenading; and there
you will see a great deal of little America in the shape of pretty
fairy-like children, enjoying the fresh air with their Irish nurses,
or their graceful mammas.
Little America is unhappily, generally, only grown-up America, seen through a telescope turned the wrong way. The one
point, perhaps, in which I most concur with other writers on the
United States, is there being no real child-like children here. The
little creatures, looking all the time every thing that is infantine
and unsophisticated, will read novels and newspapers by the hour
together, and the little boys will give you their opinions dictatorially enough occasionally; and the little girls -talk toilet," and
gossip, and descant on the merits of the last French novel, or the
elegibility of such a parti for a husband for such a lady; or on
the way Mrs. So-and-So misconducts her household affairs, and
spends money at Newport or Saratoga Springs; and so far this
is not pleasing to our English tastes.
But, nevertheless, there are many very good, and perhaps sufficient reasons assigned for the necessity that exists in this country
at present for bringing up their children with a thorough knowledge of the world. The boys have all an active part to play in
the mighty drama of busy life on which they are entering-nationally, politically, socially, or commercially. No drones are admnitted into the great Transatlantic hive. There is no time to spare;
they must be ready, as soon as possible, to take their places and
run in the great race, or they will be distanced by their more agile
and precocious contemporaneous competitors, and see prize after
prize borne away by those who had learned their A B C with
them, or after them.
The girls are generally married early to husbands in business,
and have to take care of themselves. They ordinarily live (till a
competency is acquired and a house bought) at the enormous
hotels that abound in the State, while their husbands are at their
desks or counters all day.
What quantities of omnibuses and hack carriages are plying
backward and forward from the railroad depots! The traiins
seem going and coming incessantly, for Boston is a sort of inetrop
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