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NEW ORLEANS TO NEW YORK. xvii

deviating ceremony of introduction to the principal guests,
who were assembled in the drawing-room. In no part of the
old Continent that I have visited, are strangers treated with
more attention, politeness, and respect, than in Cincinnati ;
and where, indeed, can an Englishman forget that he is not at
home, except in the United States? In most other regions,
he must forego many early habits, prejudices, and propen-
sities, and accommodate himself to others, perhaps, diame-
trically opposite ; he must disguise or conceal his religious
or political opinions ; must forget his native language, and
acquire fluency in another, before he can make even his wants
known, or his wishes understood ; but here the same language
and fashion, as in his own, prevail in every state ; indeed it is
necessary for him to declare himself a foreigner, to be known
as such ; and I have always found this declaration a passport to
increased attention and kindness, for every man in this land
of freedom enjoys his opinions unmolested. Not having the
slightest intention of stopping at any town on my way to
New York, I was without any introductions ; but this de-
ficiency, by no means prevented my receiving the usual benefit
of the hospitality of the inhabitants, which was such, as to in-
duce us, at first, to remain a few days, and ultimately, pro-
bably, to end our lives with them.

My first ramble on the morning after my arrival was to
the market, at an early hour, where a novel and interesting
sight presented itself. Several hundred waggons, tilted with
white canvass, and each drawn by three or four horses, with a
pole, in a similar manner to our coaches, were backed against
the pavement, or footway, of the market-place, the tailboard,
or flap of the waggon, turned down, so as to form a kind of
counter, and convert the body of the carringe into a portable
shop, in which were seated the owners, amidst the displayed
produce of their farms ; the whole having something of the
appearance of an extensive encampment, arranged in perfect
order. It was the first time I had seen an American market,
and if I was surprised at the arrangement, I was much more
so, at the prices of the articles, as well as at their superior
quality. For a hind quarter of mutton, thirteen-pence was
demanded ; a turkey, that would have borne a comparison
with the best Christmas bird from Norfolk, the same price ;
fowls, three-pence to four-pence each ; a fine roasting pig,
ready for the spit, one shilling and three-pence ; beef, three-
halfpence per pound ; pork, one penny per pound ; butter,

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