The next day—the 29th of April, according to his story—Davy went to New York, by steamboat up the Delaware, thence by rail to Perth Amboy, and then again by boat. He says New York was[242] certainly “a bulger,” and especially was he astonished by the forest of masts at the wharves8. At the dock he was met by a committee and a crowd anxious to see him. After three cheers had been given and repeated, a committee representing the Young Whigs escorted him to the American Hotel, where many New Yorkers had gathered to meet him.
That afternoon Davy was taken to see the new fire-engine, and then saw Fanny Kemble play at the Park Theatre. He pays an honest tribute to that charming actress, when he says, “She is like a handsome piece of changeable silk: first one color and then another, but always the clean thing.”
While here, a sudden alarm of fire was heard. Davy jumped for his hat, and almost had to be held by his friends to keep him from rushing into the street. He told them that many a time he had ridden bareback to fires in his own neighborhood, and the city’s indifference9 to such exciting happenings was hard for him to understand.
During the 31st Davy visited some of the newspaper offices, among them those of the Courier, the[243] Enquirer10, and the Star. Then he saw Pearl Street, making his way with much dodging11 about through the boxes that covered the sidewalks. His party next took in the Stock Exchange, and before he left he made a speech from the steps leading down to the main floor. Returning to the hotel for dinner, he visited with friends until they all decided12 to go to Peale’s Museum. This, says Davy, was “over my head.” He makes no attempt to describe what he saw, but was filled with wonder at seeing “whole rows of little bugs and such like varments” set up in boxes, and could not see why they should be thought worthy13 of exhibition.
From the Museum Davy went to the City Hall, where he met the Mayor, who had once been a tanner, and Davy remarked to him that they “had both clumb a long way up from where they started.” Before leaving the City Hall he was invited to dine at Colonel Draper’s, where he met Major Jack14 Downing, then a great celebrity15.
Next came an invitation to sup with the Young Whigs. “Well, now,” says Davy, “they had better keep some of these things for somebody else[244] to eat, thinks I, for I’m sure I’m as full as a young cub16.” But the invitation was accepted. After Judge Clayton, of Georgia, had made a speech that “made the tumblers hop,” Colonel Crockett was formally toasted as “the undeviating supporter of the Constitution and the Laws.” He responded to the toast in a short speech, in which he referred to the impossibility of plowing17 a straight furrow18 towards the cow that kept moving about. If he had followed Jackson, he said, his furrow would have been as crooked19 as the one made by the boy who had plowed20 all the forenoon after that kind of a cow.
The next day was the 1st of May, and while driving about in a barouche with Colonel S. D. Jackson, he was astonished at the number of loads of furniture he saw in the streets. When told that it was moving-day, he remarked that it would take a good deal to get him out of his own log-house; such restlessness was beyond his understanding. They then drove to the Five Points, which Dickens said could be backed, in respect to wretchedness, against Seven Dials or any other part of St. Giles’s.[245] The sight of so much squalor and misery21 made Davy wonder what could induce human beings to stay in such places, instead of “clearing out for a new country, where every hide hangs by its own tail.”
As Davy walked back to the American Hotel, after leaving the Colonel, he was introduced to Albert Gallatin, the celebrated22 scholar, volunteer soldier, suppressor of the Whiskey Insurrection, and Jefferson’s Secretary of the Treasury23. The old veteran of seventy-three, straw hat in hand, was also “moving,” Davy says. He pointed24 out to him the house he was leaving, which was about to be torn down, with others, to be replaced by a big tavern to be built by John Jacob Astor, and to cover a whole square. Before Davy left, a day or so later, he saw the roofs of the houses torn off by the workmen. The big tavern was the famous Astor House.
Some time during the same day, a new flag was hoisted25 at the Battery, then the favorite promenade26 of the fashionables of the city. Davy was invited, and witnessed a parade of the artillery,[246] under command of General Morton, formerly27 of the Revolutionary army. An entertainment followed, in which eating and drinking played the usual prominent part. Davy seems to have been greatly pleased with the Battery and its views of the bay and islands about. “It is a beautiful meadow of a place,” he says, “all measured off, with nice walks of gravel28 between the grass plats, full of big shade trees, and filled with people and a great many children, that come there to get the fresh air that comes off the water of the bay.”
Early the next morning Davy visited Thorburn’s renowned29 seed-store, and from there went to a rifle match in Jersey City. There he hit a quarter at forty yards, off-hand, with a strange gun, and made other shots that sustained his reputation as a marksman. He was used up with sight-seeing, and was glad to go to Boston at the invitation of another new-made friend, Captain Comstock, in command of one of the Long Island steamboats. On the way to the dock they drove around through South and Front Streets. Here the queen clippers of the world lay moored30, with their bowsprits high above the[247] pavements, and their rigged-in jib-booms almost touching31 the buildings along the water-front.
At three o’clock the steamer Providence sailed with Davy on board, but not until a crowd of people had come to see him off. He responded with many bows, and the ship slipped out of the dock amid the cheers of the multitude. The passengers then gathered about him, and before their curiosity was satisfied the city was out of sight. As they passed through Hell Gate, a large, full-rigged British ship was seen coming in from the other side. This sight was an object lesson as to the need of coast defenses.
Davy was a good sailor, and walked the decks off Point Judith the next morning, without being seasick32 in the least. The sun came up like a ball of fire, and Davy says that it looked as it was brand-new. The sight of many stone fences amused him greatly, and he remarked that one of his cows would pitch over a dozen of that kind, “without flirting33 her tail.”
At Providence, where they landed about noon, another crowd greeted him. Refusing an invitation[248] to stop at that city, Davy took his seat in the fast stage for Boston. “The driver was ordered to go ahead,” says Davy, “and sure enough he did. It was forty miles to Boston, and we run it down in four hours.” The stony34 nature of the land was a source of surprise to Davy, accustomed to the rich alluvium of Tennessee. He says the stones covered the earth as thick as Kentucky land-titles, and he wondered why the Lord hadn’t sent the Pilgrims better pilots.
Arrived in Boston, Davy landed at the Tremont House, which he calls a tavern, kept by Mr. Boyden.
“Mr. Boyden did not know me,” says Davy, “nor me him; but when I told him my name, where they put it on the bar-book, he treated me like an old friend, and continued to do so all the time I was there. He gave me a good room and a nice bed, and attended to me the kindest in the world. I had seen a great many fine taverns35; but take this in and out, and Tremont House is a smart chance ahead.”
The first day in Boston was the occasion of a visit to Faneuil Hall, where General Davis showed[249] Davy the arms and cannon36 of the State militia37. The complete order, and the realization38 of the possibility of sending out the troops at a few minutes’ notice, deeply impressed the former scout39.
“General Davis informed me,” he says, “that this was the house that was called the Cradle of Liberty. I reckon that old King George thought they were thundering fine children that was rocked in it, and a good many of them; and that no wonder his red-coats were licked, when the children came out with soldier clothes on and muskets40 in their hands. God grant that the liberty bough41 on which this cradle rocks may never break!”
At Roxbury, Davy was given a rubber hunting-coat, something entirely42 novel to him. This coat he afterwards took with him when he went to Texas. He next visited the good ship Constitution, and the battleground of Bunker Hill, where the great monument was already begun.
“I felt like calling them up,” he said, “and asking them to tell me how to help best to protect the liberty they bought for us with their blood; but as I could not do so, I resolved on that holy[250] ground to go for my country, always and everywhere.” These were no idle words that Davy spoke43.
Out of many invitations to dinner offered by the hospitable44 citizens, Davy chose that of the Young Whigs, at which a hundred were present. This was perhaps the crowning festivity of his journey.
Another day was taken up in viewing The Commons, in climbing to the dome45 of the State House, and in entertaining with one of the Western speeches a great crowd in front of that building. He declined an invitation to visit Harvard. In telling of this, he says that he would run no risk of having LL.D. tacked46 on to his name. “There had been one doctor made from Tennessee already, and I had no wish to put on the cap and bells.” This is a reference to Jackson.
Everywhere he went Davy found new evidences of friendship and hospitality. In Lowell, Mr. Lawrence presented to him a fine piece of broadcloth made from Mississippi wool. There was also another dinner here, as well attended as that given by the Young Whigs at Boston.
[251]
When Davy called for his score at the Tremont House, before leaving for New York, he was told that he was an honored guest, and that there was nothing to pay. He was warmed through and through with New England hospitality, and left Boston with a heart full of gratitude47. His return to Washington, by way of Providence, New York, and Philadelphia, was uneventful, except that his pocket-book was stolen at Camden, with one hundred and sixty dollars in money, a sum of much importance in a time when money was hard to get. Tired out with his continuous round of pleasure, Davy was glad to get back to his seat in Congress, where he was welcomed by his fellow-members as a man who had reaped special honor and distinction from the exclusives of the older States. He was in Washington but a few days before Congress adjourned48.
The year 1834 is memorable49 for the election of Abraham Lincoln as a member of the Illinois Legislature, and for the emancipation50 of all slaves in the British colonies. The presence of General Sam Houston in Texas had begun to lead[252] to results. Already the Americans in that part of Mexico had taken the bit in their teeth, and were running things as if they recognized no other authority than their own. They could not go back, nor did they wish to cross the great strip of sand and trickling51 water called the Grand River of the North. They purposed to rule to the Rio Grande’s banks, and every man who went to Texas from the States carried a gun, lots of ammunition52, and words of cheer.
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1
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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3
demolished
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| v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光 | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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8
wharves
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| n.码头，停泊处( wharf的名词复数 ) | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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enquirer
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| 寻问者，追究者 | |
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dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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12
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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15
celebrity
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| n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望 | |
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cub
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| n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人 | |
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17
plowing
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| v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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furrow
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| n.沟；垄沟；轨迹；车辙；皱纹 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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plowed
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| v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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21
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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23
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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promenade
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| n./v.散步 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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moored
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| adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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31
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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32
seasick
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| adj.晕船的 | |
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flirting
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 ) | |
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stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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35
taverns
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| n.小旅馆，客栈，酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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36
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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38
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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40
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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41
bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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42
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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43
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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44
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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45
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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46
tacked
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| 用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝 | |
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47
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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48
adjourned
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| （使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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50
emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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51
trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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52
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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