Part 3
But punishment by imprisonment, according to the laws of Pennsylvania, is imposed, not only as an expiation of past offences, and an example to the guilty part of society, but for another purpose, regarded by few penal codes in the world, the reform of the criminal. The regulations of the gaol, are calculated to promote this effect as soon as possible, so that the building, indeed, deserves the name of a penitentiary house more than that of a gaol. As soon as a criminal is committed to the prison he is made to wash; his hair is shorn, and if not decently clothed, he is furnished with clean apparel; then he is thrown into a solitary cell, about nine feet long and four wide, where he remains debarred from the sight of every living being excepting his gaoler, whose duty it is to attend to the bare necessities of his nature, but who is forbidden, on any account, to speak to him without there is absolute occasion. If a prisoner is at all refractory, or if the offence for which he is imprisoned is of a very atrocious nature, he is then confined in a cell secluded even from the light of heaven. This is the worst that can be inflicted upon him.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
The gaol is inspected twice every week by twelve persons appointed for that purpose, who are chosen annually from amongst the citizens of Philadelphia. Nor is it a difficult matter to procure these men, who readily and voluntarily take it upon them to go through the troublesome functions of the office without any fee or emolument whatever. They divide themselves into committees; each of these takes it in turn, for a stated period, to visit every part of the prison; and a report is made to the inspectors at large, who meet together at times regularly appointed. From the report of the committee an opinion is formed by the inspectors, who, with the consent of the judges, regulate the treatment of each individual prisoner during his confinement. This is varied according to his crime, and according to his subsequent repentance. Solitary confinement in a dark cell is looked upon as the severest usage; next, solitary confinement in a cell with the admission of light; next, confinement in a cell where the prisoner is allowed to do some sort of work; lastly, labour in company with others. The prisoners are obliged to bathe twice every week, proper conveniencies for that purpose being provided within the walls of the prison, and also to change their linen, with which they are regularly provided. Those in solitary confinement are kept upon bread and water; but those who labour are allowed broth, porridge, puddings, and the like: meat is dispensed only in small quantities, twice in the week. Their drink is water; on no pretence is any other beverage suffered to be brought into the prison. This diet is found, by experience, to afford the prisoners strength sufficient to perform the labour that is imposed upon them; whereas a more generous one would only serve to render their minds less humble and submissive. Those who labour, are employed in the particular trade to which they have been accustomed, provided it can be carried on in the prison; if not acquainted with any, something is soon found that they can do. One room is set apart for shoemakers, another for taylors, a third for carpenters, and so on; and in the yards are stone-cutters, smiths, nailers, &c. &c.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
Excepting the cells, which are at a remote part of the building, the prison has the appearance of a large manufactory. Good order and decency prevail throughout, and the eye of a spectator is never assailed by the sight of such ghastly and squalid figures as are continually to be met with in our prisons; so far, also, is a visitor from being insulted, that he is scarcely noticed as he passes through the different wards. The prisoners are forbidden to speak to each other without there is necessity; they are also forbidden to laugh, or to sing, or to make the smallest disturbance. An overseer attends continually to see that every one performs his work diligently; and in case of the smallest resistance to any of the regulations, the offender is immediately cast into a solitary cell, to subsist on bread and water till he returns to a proper sense of his behaviour; but the dread all those have of this treatment, who have once experienced it, is such, that it is seldom found necessary to repeat it. The women are kept totally apart from the men, and are employed in a manner suitable to their sex. The labourers all eat together in one large apartment; and regularly, every Sunday, there is divine service, at which all attend. It is the duty of the chaplain to converse at times with the prisoners, and endeavour to reform their minds and principles. The inspectors, when they visit the prison, also do the same; so that when a prisoner is liberated, he goes out, as it were, a new man; he has been habituated to employment, and has received good instructions. The greatest care is also taken to find him employment the moment he quits the place of his confinement. According to the regulations, no person is allowed to visit the prison without permission of the inspectors. The greatest care is also taken to preserve the health of the prisoners, and for those who are sick there are proper apartments and good advice provided. The longest period of confinement is for a rape, which is not to be less than ten years, but not to exceed twenty-one. For high treason, the length of confinement is not to be less than six nor more than twelve years. There are prisons in every county throughout Pennsylvania, but none as yet are established on the same plan as that which has been described. Criminals are frequently sent from other parts of the state to receive punishment in the prison of Philadelphia.
So well is this gaol conducted, that instead of being an expense, it now annually produces a considerable revenue to the state.
+LETTER + II.
_Population of Philadelphia.—Some Account of the Inhabitants, their Character and Manners.—Private Amusements.—Americans lose their Teeth prematurely.—Theatrical Amusements only permitted of late.—Quakers.—President’s Levee and Drawing Room.—Places of public Worship.— Carriages, what sort of, used in Philadelphia.—Taverns, how conducted in America.—Difficulty of procuring Servants.—Character of the lower Classes of People in America._
MY DEAR SIR, Philadelphia, November.
PHILADELPHIA, according to the census taken in the Year 1790, contained 42,000 people. From the natural increase, however, of population, and the influx of strangers, the number is supposed now to be near 50,000, notwithstanding the ravages of the yellow fever in 1793, which swept off 4,000 people. The inhabitants consist of English, Irish, Scotch, Germans, French, and of American born citizens, descended from people of these different nations, who are of course by far the most numerous class. The inhabitants are for the most part engaged in some sort of business; a few, and a few only, live without any ostensible professions, on the fortunes which they themselves have raised; but these men are not idle or inattentive to the increase of their property, being ever on the watch to profit by the sale of lands, which they have purchased, and to buy more on advantageous terms. It would be a difficult matter to find a man of any property in the country, who is not concerned in the buying or selling of land, which may be considered in America as an article of trade.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
In a large city, like Philadelphia, where people are assembled together from so many different quarters, there cannot fail to be a great diversity in the manners of the inhabitants. It is a remark, however, very generally made, not only by foreigners, but also by persons from other parts of the United States, that the Philadelphians are extremely deficient in hospitality and politeness towards strangers. Amongst the uppermost circles in Philadelphia, pride, haughtiness, and ostentation are conspicuous; and it seems as if nothing could make them happier than that an order of nobility should be established, by which they might be exalted above their fellow citizens, as much as they are in their own conceit. In the manners of the people in general there is a coldness and reserve, as if they were suspicious of some designs against them, which chills to the very heart those who come to visit them. In their private societies a _tristesse_ is apparent, near which mirth and gaiety can never approach. It is no unusual thing, in the genteelest houses, to see a large party of from twenty to thirty persons assembled, and seated round a room, without partaking of any other amusement than what arises from the conversation, most frequently in whispers, that passes between the two persons who are seated next to each other. The party meets between six and seven in the evening; tea is served with much form; and at ten, by which time most of the company are wearied with having remained so long stationary, they return to their own homes. Still, however, they are not strangers to music, cards, or dancing; their knowledge of music, indeed, is at a very low ebb; but in dancing, which appears to be their most favourite amusement, they certainly excel.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
The women, in general, whilst young, are very pretty, but by the time they become mothers of a little family they lose all their beauty, their complexions fade away, their teeth begin to decay, and they hardly appear like the same creatures. In a few instances only it would be possible to find a fine woman of the age of forty, who has had a large family. The sudden decay of the teeth is a circumstance which has engaged the attention of the faculty; both men and women, American born, losing them very generally at an early age. Some ascribe it to the great and sudden changes in the weather, from heat to cold; but negroes, who are exposed to the same transition of climate, are distinguished for the whiteness and beauty of their teeth; and the Indians also, who are more exposed than either, preserve their teeth in good order. Others attribute it to the immoderate use of confectionary. Of confectionary, the Americans in the towns certainly make an inordinate use; but in the country, where the people have not an opportunity of getting such things, the men, but more generally the women, also lose their teeth very prematurely. Most probably it is owing to the very general use they make of salted provisions. In the country parts of America in particular, the people live upon salted pork and salted fish nearly the whole year round.
It is only within a few years past, since 1779, that any public amusements have been suffered in this city; the old corporation, which consisted mostly of the Quakers, and not of the most liberal minded people in the city, having always opposed the establishment of any place for the purpose. Now, however, there are two theatres and an amphitheatre. Little or no use is made of the old theatre, which is of wood, and a very indifferent building. The new one is built of brick, and neatly fitted up within; but it is hardly large enough for the town. A shocking custom obtains here, of smoking tobacco in the house, which at times is carried to such an excess, that those to whom it is disagreeable are under the necessity of going away. To the people in the pit, wine and porter is brought between the acts, precisely as if they were in a tavern. The actors are procured, with a very few exceptions, from Great Britain and Ireland; none of them are very eminent performers, but they are equal to what are usually met with in the country towns of England. The amphitheatre is built of wood; equestrian and other exercises are performed there, similar to those at Astley’s. Dancing assemblies are held regularly every fortnight through the winter, and occasionally there are public concerts.
During summer, the people that can make it convenient retire to country houses in the neighbourhood of the town, and all public and private amusements cease; winter is the season for them, the Congress being then assembled, and trade not being so closely attended to, as the navigation of the river is then commonly impeded by ice.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
The president finds it necessary, in general, to come to Philadelphia preparatory to the meeting of congress, and resides there during the whole of the session. Once in the week, during his stay in the city, he has levees, between the hours of three and four in the afternoon. At these he always appears himself in a court dress, and it is expected that the foreign ministers should always attend in the same style; this they constantly do, excepting the French minister, who makes a point of going in dishabille, not to say worse of it. Other persons are at liberty to go as they think proper. Mrs. Washington, also, has a drawing room once every week. On this occasion the ladies are seated in great form round the apartment, and tea, coffee, &c. served[4].
Footnote 4:
Whether the levee is kept up by the present president, or not, I have not heard. Many objections were made to it by the democratic party during the administration of General Washington, as being inconsistent with the spirit of a republican government, and destructive of that equality which ought to reign amongst the citizens of every class.
Philadelphia is the grand residence of the Quakers in America, but their number does not bear the same proportion now to that of the other citizens which it did formerly. At present they form about one fourth only of the inhabitants. This does not arise from any diminution of the number of Quakers, on the contrary they have considerably increased, but from the great influx into the city of persons of a different persuasion. Belonging to the Quakers there are five places for public worship; to the Presbyterians and Seceders six; to the English Episcopalians three; to German Lutherans two; to the Roman Catholics four; and one respectively to the Swedish Lutherans, Moravians, Baptists, Universal Baptists, Methodists, and Jews. On a Sunday every citizen appears well dressed; the lower classes of the people in particular are remarkably well clothed. This is a great day also for little excursions into the country.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
The carriages made use of in Philadelphia consist of coaches, chariots, chaises, coachees, and light waggons, the greater part of which are built in Philadelphia. The equipages of a few individuals are extremely ostentatious; nor does there appear in any that neatness and elegance which might be expected amongst a set of people that are desirous of imitating the fashions of England, and that are continually getting models over from that country. The coachee is a carriage peculiar, I believe, to America; the body of it is rather longer than that of a coach, but of the same shape. In the front it is left quite open down to the bottom, and the driver sits on a bench under the roof of the carriage. There are two seats in it for the passengers, who sit with their faces towards the horses. The roof is supported by small props, which are placed at the corners. On each side of the doors, above the pannels, it is quite open, and to guard against bad weather there are curtains, which are made to let down from the roof, and fasten to buttons placed for the purpose on the outside. There is also a leathern curtain to hang occasionally between the driver and passengers.
The light waggons are on the same construction, and are calculated to accommodate from four to twelve people. The only difference between a small waggon and a coachee is, that the latter is better finished, has varnished pannels, and doors at the side. The former has no doors, but the passengers scramble in the best way they can, over the seat of the driver. The waggons are used universally for stage carriages.
The accommodations at the taverns, by which name they call all inns, &c. are very indifferent in Philadelphia, as indeed they are, with a very few exceptions, throughout the country. The mode of conducting them is nearly the same every where. The traveller is shewn, on arrival, into a room which is common to every person in the house, and which is generally the one set apart for breakfast, dinner, and supper. All the strangers that happen to be in the house sit down to these meals promiscuously, and, excepting in the large towns, the family of the house also forms a part of the company. It is seldom that a private parlour or drawing room can be procured at any of the taverns, even in the towns; and it is always with reluctance that breakfast or dinner is served up separately to any individual. If a single bed room can be procured, more ought not to be looked for; but it is not always that even this is to be had, and those who travel through the country must often submit to be crammed into rooms where there is scarcely sufficient space to walk between the beds.[5] Strangers who remain for any length of time in the large towns most usually go to private boarding houses, of which great numbers are to be met with. It is always a difficult matter to procure furnished lodgings without paying for board.
Footnote 5:
Having stopped one night at Elkton, on my journey to Baltimore in the public carriage, my first enquiries from the landlord, on alighting, as there were many passengers in the stage, were to know what accommodation his house afforded. He seemed much surprized that any enquiries should be made on such a subject, and with much consequence told me, I need not give myself any trouble about the extent of his accommodations, as he had no less than _eleven_ beds in _one_ of his rooms.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
At all the taverns, both in town and country, but particularly in the latter, the attendance is very bad; indeed, excepting in the southern states, where there are such great numbers of negroes, it is a matter of the utmost difficulty to procure domestic servants of any description. The generality of servants that are met with in Philadelphia are emigrant Europeans; they, however, for the most part, only remain in service until they can save a little money, when they constantly quit their masters, being led to do so by that desire for independence which is so natural to the mind of man, and which every person in America may enjoy that will be industrious. The few that remain steady to those who have hired them are retained at most exorbitant wages. As for the Americans, none but those of the most indifferent characters ever enter into service, which they consider as suitable only to negroes; the negroes again, in Pennsylvania and in the other states where steps have been taken for the gradual abolition of slavery, are taught by the Quakers to look upon themselves in every respect as equal to their white brethren, and they endeavour to imitate them by being saucy. It is the same both with males and females. I must here observe, that amongst the generality of the lower sort of people in the United States, and particularly amongst those of Philadelphia, there is a want of good manners which excites the surprize of almost every foreigner; I wish also that it may not be thought that this remark has been made, merely because the same deference and the same respectful attention, which we see so commonly paid by the lower orders of people in Great Britain and Ireland to those who are in a situation somewhat superior to themselves, is not also paid in America to persons in the same station; it is the want of common civility I complain of, which it is always desirable to behold between man and man, let their situations in life be what they may, and which is not contrary to the dictates of nature, or to the spirit of genuine liberty, as it is observable in the behaviour of the wild Indians that wander through the forests of this vast continent, the most free and independent of all human beings. In the United States, however, the lower classes of people will return rude and impertinent answers to questions couched in the most civil terms, and will insult a person that bears the appearance of a gentleman, on purpose to shew how much they consider themselves upon an equality with him. Civility cannot be purchased from them on any terms; they seem to think that it is incompatible with freedom, and that there is no other way of convincing a stranger that he is really in a land of liberty, but by being surly and ill mannered in his presence.
+LETTER + III.
_Journey to Baltimore.—Description of the Country about Philadelphia.—Floating Bridges over the Schuylkill, how constructed.—Mills in Brandy-wine Creek.—Improvement in the Machinery of Flour Mills in America.—Town of Wilmington.—Log Houses.—Bad Roads.—Fine Prospects.—How relished by Americans.—Taverns.—Susquehannah River.—Town of Baltimore.—Plan of the Town.—Harbour.—Public and private Buildings.—Inhabitants.—Country between Baltimore and Washington.—Execrable Roads._
MY DEAR SIR, Washington, November.
[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO BALTIMORE.]
ON the 16th of November I left Philadelphia for Baltimore. The only mode of conveyance which offers for a traveller, who is not provided with his own horses or carriage, is the public stage waggon; it is possible, indeed, to procure a private carriage at Philadelphia to go on to Baltimore, for which a great price is always demanded; but there is no such thing as hiring a carriage or horses from stage to stage. The country about Philadelphia is well cultivated, and it abounds with neat country houses; but it has a bare appearance, being almost totally stripped of the trees, which have been cut down without mercy for firing, and to make way for the plough; neither are there any hedges, an idea prevailing that they impoverish the land wherever they are planted. The fences are all of the common post and rail, or of the angular kind. These last are made of rails about eight or nine feet long, roughly split out of trees, and placed horizontally above one another, as the bars of a gate; but each tier of rails, or gate as it were, instead of being on a straight line with the one next to it, is put in a different direction, so as to form an angle sufficient to permit the ends of the rails of one tier to rest steadily on those of the next. As these fences, from their serpentine course, occupy at least six times as much ground as a common post and rail fence, and require also a great deal more wood, they are mostly laid aside whenever land and timber become objects of importance, as they soon do in the neighbourhood of large towns.
[Sidenote: FLOATING BRIDGES.]
The road to Baltimore is over the lowest of three floating bridges, which have been thrown across the river Schuylkill, in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. The view on passing this river, which is about two hundred and fifty yards wide, is beautiful. The banks on each side are high, and for many miles above afford the most delightful situations for villas. A very elegant one, laid out in the English taste, is seen on passing the river just above the bridge. Adjoining to it are public gardens, and a house of entertainment, with several good rooms, to which the citizens of Philadelphia resort in great numbers during the summer season.