then?’ says he: ‘we don’t foller that, here.’ I repeated my last
observation. He looked at himself in the glass again; went closer
to it to dash a grain or two of dust out of the corner of his eye;
and settled his cravat. All this time, my leg and foot were in the
air. ‘Nearly ready, sir?’ I inquired. ‘Well, pretty nigh,’ he
said; ‘keep steady.’ I kept as steady as I could, both in foot and
face; and having by this time got the dust out, and found his
pencil-case, he measured me, and made the necessary notes. When he
had finished, he fell into his old attitude, and taking up the boot
again, mused for some time. ‘And this,’ he said, at last, ‘is an
English boot, is it? This is a London boot, eh?’ ‘That, sir,’ I
replied, ‘is a London boot.’ He mused over it again, after the
manner of Hamlet with Yorick’s skull; nodded his head, as who
should say, ‘I pity the Institutions that led to the production of
this boot!’; rose; put up his pencil, notes, and paper – glancing
at himself in the glass, all the time – put on his hat – drew on
his gloves very slowly; and finally walked out. When he had been
gone about a minute, the door reopened, and his hat and his head
reappeared. He looked round the room, and at the boot again, which
was still lying on the floor; appeared thoughtful for a minute; and
then said ‘Well, good arternoon.’ ‘Good afternoon, sir,’ said I:
and that was the end of the interview.
There is but one other head on which I wish to offer a remark; and
Page 168
Dickens, Charles – American Notes for General Circulation
that has reference to the public health. In so vast a country,
where there are thousands of millions of acres of land yet
unsettled and uncleared, and on every rood of which, vegetable
decomposition is annually taking place; where there are so many
great rivers, and such opposite varieties of climate; there cannot
fail to be a great amount of sickness at certain seasons. But I
may venture to say, after conversing with many members of the
medical profession in America, that I am not singular in the
opinion that much of the disease which does prevail, might be
avoided, if a few common precautions were observed. Greater means
of personal cleanliness, are indispensable to this end; the custom
of hastily swallowing large quantities of animal food, three times
a-day, and rushing back to sedentary pursuits after each meal, must
be changed; the gentler sex must go more wisely clad, and take more
healthful exercise; and in the latter clause, the males must be
included also. Above all, in public institutions, and throughout
the whole of every town and city, the system of ventilation, and
drainage, and removal of impurities requires to be thoroughly
revised. There is no local Legislature in America which may not
study Mr. Chadwick’s excellent Report upon the Sanitary Condition
of our Labouring Classes, with immense advantage.
* * * * * *
I HAVE now arrived at the close of this book. I have little reason
to believe, from certain warnings I have had since I returned to
England, that it will be tenderly or favourably received by the
American people; and as I have written the Truth in relation to the
mass of those who form their judgments and express their opinions,
it will be seen that I have no desire to court, by any adventitious
means, the popular applause.
It is enough for me, to know, that what I have set down in these
pages, cannot cost me a single friend on the other side of the
Atlantic, who is, in anything, deserving of the name. For the
rest, I put my trust, implicitly, in the spirit in which they have
been conceived and penned; and I can bide my time.
I have made no reference to my reception, nor have I suffered it to
influence me in what I have written; for, in either case, I should
have offered but a sorry acknowledgment, compared with that I bear