Again, none of our people realized, until the Civil War actually broke
out, the enormous magnitude of the interests involved; we had read
'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and our hearts glowed with virtuous indignation;
we could not understand the enormous difficulties of the question.
Finally, we succeeded in enraging the South against us before the war
began, because of our continual outcry against slavery; and in
enraging the North after the war began, by reason of our totally
unexpected Southern sympathies. It is a curious history of
wrongheadedness and ignorance.
This was a big thing. The things which the English traveller in the
States now notices are little things; as life is made up of little
things, he is noting differences all day long, because everything that
he sees is different. Speech is different: the manner of enunciating
the words is different; it is clearer, slower, more grammatical; among
the better sort it is more careful; it is even academical. We English
speak thickly, far back in the throat, the voice choked by beard and
moustache, and we speak much more carelessly. Then the way of living
at the hotels is different; the rooms are much--very much--better
furnished than would be found in towns of corresponding size in
England--_e.
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