Whatever The Boasted
Beauties Of Lake Champlain Were, They Veiled Themselves From English Eyes
In A Thick Fog, Through Which We Steamed At Half-Speed, With A Dismal Fog-
Bell Incessantly Tolling.
I landed at Burlington, a thriving modern town, prettily situated below
some wooded hills, on a bay, the margin of which is pure white sand, Here,
as at nearly every town, great and small, in the United States, there was
an excellent hotel.
No people have such confidence in the future as the
Americans. You frequently find a splendid hotel surrounded by a few
clapboard houses, and may feel inclined to smile at the incongruity. The
builder looks into futurity, and sees that in two years a thriving city
will need hotel accommodation; and seldom is he wrong. The American is a
gregarious animal, and it is not impossible that an hotel, with a table-
d'hôte, may act as a magnet. Here I joined Mr. and Mrs. Alderson, and
travelled with them to Albany, through Vermont and New York. The country
was hilly, and more suited for sheep-farming than for corn. Water-
privileges were abundant in the shape of picturesque torrents, and
numerous mills turned their capabilities to profitable account. Our
companions were rather of a low description, many of them Germans, and
desperate tobacco-chewers. The whole floor of the car was covered with
streams of tobacco-juice, apple-cores, grape-skins, and chestnut-husks.
We crossed the Hudson River, and spent the night at Delaval's, at Albany.
The great peculiarity of this most comfortable hotel is, that the fifty
waiters are Irish girls, neatly and simply dressed.
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