is true enough; but it is not true that they make a niggardly use of their wealth when they have acquired it. They spend it as freely as they make it rapidly. If alieni appetens, the American is sui profusus. It may help you to correct the popular notion, if you consider that Americans are notorious speculators, and that, so far from a speculator being necessarily a mean man, the chances are that he turns out just the opposite. Also it is worth observing, that the most striking examples on record in America of men approaching to the conventional type of the miser, have been foreigners, or sons of foreigners. Throughout the list of avaricious millionaires, you will find with difficulty an American name; if you do find any, they are New England ones. In public charity and private hospitality, the Americans are far ahead of any European nation; indeed, all European nations seem mean to them in these respects, particularly in the latter. The early New Englanders, however, formed a marked exception to this national trait; they certainly were close-fisted-which was owing, in a great measure, to sheer necessity, and the poverty of their country. City New Englanders have got pretty well over this; but the thing still exists in some of the country towns, and the name of the thing has stuck to all New Englanders, and diminished the popularity to which their enterprise and other virtues would else have entitled them. This I believe to be the true reason why so many middle-state men prefer the Southerners as associates, though it may not be the one usually assigned.

Bedlow, being a swell, was better lodged than most of us. When a student "roomed" out of college, his apartments generally consisted of one large room, which served both for bedroom and study. The arrangement for those who occupied the college buildings was that each two had three rooms between them-a bedroom a-piece, and one sitting-room in common. The freshmen were "chummed" together at

man selected his mate; but Bedlow appropriated all three rooms to himself, by the simple process of buying-out his room mate, who had previously agreed with him to have his lodgings paid elsewhere-no very immense outlay, something like £6 for the whole year. These Yale College apartments were not quite up to Trinity or Christ Church standard, as you may suppose. They rather resembled continental barracks. Carpets, though not so rare as at a German hotel, were by no means de rigeur. Bill, however, had furnished his sitting-room comfortably, and even elegantly; in the one article of lookingglass, I fancy it was stronger than most English rooms. Likewise, our bully did not clean his own boots-a rare and aristocratic luxury, which shows you how primitive our habits were, notwithstanding our propensity to flash toilettes.

There were no female servants employed about the college, unless there may have been two or three in the kitchen. The beneficiaries waited in hall as I have already told you; the rooms were supposed to be taken care of by three or four men called "sweepers," whose duty extended only to making the beds daily, and sweeping the

rooms occasionally. But there were some half-dozen servants, who, though unattached to, and unrecognised by, the college, were virtually the scouts or gyps thereof; each of them served eight or ten masters, brushing their clothes and boots, lighting their fires, &c. These servants were mostly "persons of colour," and found their patrons chiefly among the Southerners and the law-students.

Many of us "boarded," i.e. took our meals out of college. The price was little more at a boarding-house, the provender decidedly better; we could form our own set, and there was a sprinkling of ladies' society. Bill was in his glory at our boarding-house.

Thus far I have said nothing about Bedlow's sports and exercises. The chapter of them would be as short as

Iceland. According to your idea of exercise and recreation, he, we, all of us, could scarcely be said to take any at all. Most of us could ride tolerably; yet we scarcely ever mounted a horse; indeed, there were very few in New Haven to mount. As to walking, I doubt if you would consider Bill's swaggering saunter, with his hands in his pockets and his cap on his left ear, from the college to the boarding-house, and from the boarding-house to the post-office, worthy of that name.

It was more to show off

himself and his clothes than for any other purpose. Boating was unknown; such games of ball as once existed had fallen into disuse. The national ten-pin alley was doubly illegal, municipally as well as academically; billiards, of which Americans are nearly as fond as Frenchmen, lay under the same law. Even those great institutions of the country, the "fast crab" and the trotting waggon, had not penetrated into our academic seclusion.

One cause of this state of things was undoubtedly the sour, anti-jovial, puritanic spirit, which regards all liveliness, and noise, and romping, as positively wicked. If I were to tell you that, the evening after Bedlow's elevation to what he had chosen to term the office of dictator, some of his friends assembled under his window, and gave "three cheers for our new bully!" in good old Anglo-Saxon style, and that, at a prayermeeting then going on in a neighbouring recitation-room, a special prayer was immediately put up for the cheerers, the proof of their lost and desperate condition being that they had cheered as aforesaid, you might be inclined to suspect me of exaggeration; yet such is the simple and unvarnished fact. To be sure, a large number of the students, perhaps a majority, would certainly not refrain from any practice, but rather the reverse, because it was forbidden by the "blues," as the religious portion were sometimes called. But then came in that absurd idea of sham dignity. These youths of eighteen were men, and men must now play like boys! Catch Mr.

a game of ball, or endangering his fine new pantaloons by jumping a fence! Still, if he did not take exercise, he required some amusement. A good deal of that he took at the secret societies, where eating and drinking occasionally relieved the feast of reason. A little of it he took in ladies' society at his boarding-house, or in families that he knew; it was a great provocation to dress, and Bill had an easy flowing style of conversation, nor was he averse to an occasional dance after the mild manner permitted in New Haven-for the polka was not yet invented, and even the old triple-time waltz would have been too much for New England propriety. The American students are almost as fond of singing as the German students; on moonlight nights, small parties of us would ramble out to serenade with our most sweet voices the young ladies' schools, of which there were several in different parts of the town. If we could catch the outline of some white draperies flitting about in the unlit bedrooms, our innocent vanity was highly gratified. When we felt hungry after these excursions (which might very well happen with our one o'clock dinners and six o'clock teas), we supped at one of the half-grocer, halfconfectioner establishments with which the place abounded, on oyster stews, poached eggs, and similar unexpensive viands. We could not have had supper in our rooms, unless we had cooked it ourselves a feat for which our stoves were not precisely adapted. We did have certain convivialities in our rooms however; the greatest possible "spree" was to brew punch (hot or cold, according to the season), and play long whist without stakes. Perhaps the knowledge that we were doing something utterly forbidden supplied the requisite zest. There was not much ready money among us, to be sure-very little in proportion to our swell attire: but I suppose there never was a collegiate town in the world where the great institution of TICK did not exist to some extent. And here, while I am touching on the

is true enough; but it is not true that they make a niggardly use of their wealth when they have acquired it. They spend it as freely as they make it rapidly. If alieni appetens, the American is sui profusus. It may help you to correct the popular notion, if you consider that Americans are notorious speculators, and that, so far from a speculator being necessarily a mean man, the chances are that he turns out just the opposite. Also it is worth observing, that the most striking examples on record in America of men approaching to the conventional type of the miser, have been foreigners, or sons of foreigners. Throughout the list of avaricious millionaires, you will find with difficulty an American name; if you do find any, they are New England ones. In public charity and private hospitality, the Americans are far ahead of any European nation; indeed, all European nations seem mean to them in these respects, particularly in the latter. The early New Englanders, however, formed a marked exception to this national trait; they certainly were close-fisted-which was owing, in a great measure, to sheer necessity, and the poverty of their country. City New Englanders have got pretty well over this; but the thing still exists in some of the country towns, and the name of the thing has stuck to all New Englanders, and diminished the popularity to which their enterprise and other virtues would else have entitled them. This I believe to be the true reason why so many middle-state men prefer the Southerners as associates, though it may not be the one usually assigned.

1

a

Bedlow, being a swell, was better lodged than most of us. When student "roomed" out of college, his apartments generally consisted of one large room, which served both for bedroom and study. The arrangement for those who occupied the college buildings was that each two had three rooms between them-a bedroom a-piece, and one sitting-room in common. The freshmen were "chummed" together at

man selected his mate; but Bedlow appropriated all three rooms to himself, by the simple process of buying-out his room mate, who had previously agreed with him to have his lodgings paid elsewhere-no very immense outlay, something like £6 for the whole year. These Yale College apartments were not quite up to Trinity or Christ Church standard, as you may suppose. They rather resembled continental barracks. Carpets, though not so rare as at a German hotel, were by no means de rigeur. Bill, however, had furnished his sitting-room comfortably, and even elegantly; in the one article of lookingglass, I fancy it was stronger than most English rooms. Likewise, our bully did not clean his own boots-a rare and aristocratic luxury, which shows you how primitive our habits were, notwithstanding our propensity to flash toilettes.

There were no female servants em

ployed about the college, unless there may have been two or three in the kitchen. The beneficiaries waited in hall as I have already told you; the rooms were supposed to be taken care of by three or four men called "sweepers," whose duty extended only to making the beds daily, and sweeping the

rooms occasionally. But there were some half-dozen servants, who, though unattached to, and unrecognised by, the college, were virtually the scouts or gyps thereof; each of them served eight or ten masters, brushing their clothes and boots, lighting their fires, &c. These servants were mostly "persons of colour," and found their patrons chiefly among the Southerners and the law-students.

Many of us "boarded," i.e. took our meals out of college. The price was little more at a boarding-house, the provender decidedly better; we could form our own set, and there was a sprinkling of ladies' society. Bill was in his glory at our boarding-house.

Thus far I have said nothing about Bedlow's sports and exercises. The chapter of them would be as short as

Iceland. According to your idea of exercise and recreation, he, we, all of us, could scarcely be said to take any at all. Most of us could ride tolerably; yet we scarcely ever mounted a horse; indeed, there were very few in New Haven to mount. As to walking, I doubt if you would consider Bill's swaggering saunter, with his hands in his pockets and his cap on his left ear, from the college to the boarding-house, and from the boarding-house to the post-office, worthy of that name. It was more to show off himself and his clothes than for any other purpose.

Boating was unknown; such games of ball as once existed had fallen into disuse. The national ten-pin alley was doubly illegal, municipally as well as academically; billiards, of which Americans are nearly as fond as Frenchmen, lay under the same law. Even those great institutions of the country, the "fast crab" and the trotting waggon, had not penetrated into our academic seclusion.

One cause of this state of things was undoubtedly the sour, anti-jovial, puritanic spirit, which regards all liveliness, and noise, and romping, as positively wicked. If I were to tell you that, the evening after Bedlow's elevation to what he had chosen to term the office of dictator, some of his friends assembled under his window, and gave "three cheers for our new bully!" in good old Anglo-Saxon style, and that, at a prayermeeting then going on in a neighbouring recitation-room, a special prayer was immediately put up for the cheerers, the proof of their lost and desperate condition being that they had cheered as aforesaid, you might be inclined to suspect me of exaggeration; yet such is the simple and unvarnished fact. To be sure, a large number of the students, perhaps a majority, would certainly not refrain from any practice, but rather the reverse, because it was forbidden by the "blues," as the religious portion were sometimes called. But then came in that absurd idea of sham dignity. These youths of eighteen were men, and men must now play like boys! Catch Mr.

a game of ball, or endangering his fine new pantaloons by jumping a fence! Still, if he did not take exercise, he required some amusement. A good deal of that he took at the secret societies, where eating and drinking occasionally relieved the feast of reason. A little of it he took in ladies' society at his boarding-house, or in families that he knew; it was a great provocation to dress, and Bill had an easy flowing style of conversation, nor was he averse to an occasional dance after the mild manner permitted in New Haven-for the polka was not yet invented, and even the old triple-time waltz would have been too much for New England propriety. The American students are almost as fond of singing as the German students; on moonlight nights, small parties of us would ramble out to serenade with our most sweet voices the young ladies' schools, of which there were several in different parts of the town. If we could catch the outline of some white draperies flitting about in the unlit bedrooms, our innocent vanity was highly gratified. When we felt hungry after these excursions (which might very well happen with our one o'clock dinners and six o'clock teas), we supped at one of the half-grocer, halfconfectioner establishments with which the place abounded, on oyster stews, poached eggs, and similar unexpensive viands. We could not have had supper in our rooms, unless we had cooked it ourselves a feat for which our stoves were not precisely adapted. We did have certain convivialities in our rooms however; the greatest possible "spree was to brew punch (hot or cold, according to the season), and play long whist without stakes. Perhaps the knowledge that we were doing something utterly forbidden supplied the requisite zest. There was not much ready money among us, to be sure-very little in proportion to our swell attire: but I suppose there never was a collegiate town in the world where the great institution of TICK did not exist to some extent. And here, while I am touching on the

that, as the actual necessaries of life, board, lodging, and fuel, were cheap at New Haven, the tuition far from dear, and the temptations few, it was hardly possible to spend a great deal of money if one tried. Bill managed to see the end of 700 dollars (£140) every year; his father grumbled at the allowance, and I have no doubt many of his fellow-students thought it monstrous. To return to the cards; though not over-burdened with change, we certainly might have played sixpenny and shilling points without serious damage to our finances, but we never felt any inclination to play for

money.

Since that day, young America has grown wiser in some things, and wilder in others. I am afraid young America gambles occasionally, possibly to a very mischievous extent. On the other hand, he has learned that it is not unmanly, but the reverse, to play ball and patronise the gymnasium.

If Bedlow had any other amusements in the vacations of a more exceptionable character than the above-mentioned, I never knew anything about it; and he took care never to tell me. Young Americans, perhaps all Americans, have a reputation for bragging, and they do brag about many things; but, unless they have lived long in France, they do not habitually boast of their profligacy.

And this brings us to the most important matter of all. You may be curious by this time to know what were Bedlow's ideas and opinions on the subject of religion. Here I cannot give you a favourable report; indeed, to tell the truth, Bill was an avowed infidel.

I do not mean that he professed himself such on the green in front of the college, or in any other place whence it might come to the ears of the "faculty." Had he done so, he would have been expelled as certainly as if it had been known that he kept playing-cards in his room. There was an express clause in the college code to that effect. But among his friends he made no secret of his unbelief, and he was far from being the only sceptic. The thrice-unfortunate

religion," and the "unconverted" in two hostile camps, tended to drive every student into one of the extremes, fanaticism or infidelity. The non-professors charged the "blues" (very unjustly, I believe) with being spies for the faculty; the "professors" charged the "impenitent" (of whose actual mode of life they had an extremely vague and limited knowledge) with all things horrible and awful. Religious considerations embittered the college politics. When we elected Bedlow first president of our literary society (by a majority of only six votes out of a hundred and twenty) all the members of the college church belonging to the society voted against him in a body. There were some half dozen of us, episcopalians, who mixed with both parties, and, though we were the lowest kind of Church, our congregational fellow-Christians regarded us with much suspicion and many misgivings, because we were known to eat suppers occasionally and did not join the tee-totallers.

Of course Bedlow and I had numerous theological discussions. We were always discussing something, and I fancy religion, after politics, was what we argued most about. We used to go at it hammer and tongs for hours together -the old school of course; neither of us knew anything about the Germans ; it was Paley and Watson on one side, Paine and Volney on the other. We left off generally about where we began, and began next time where we had left off. Bill looked upon me as a very good fellow, only a little weak in that particular point. If he had possessed all the learning and ability of Mr. Mill, Mr. Buckle, and two or three continental philosophers combined, he could not have talked in a more patronising, pitying way of Christianity and Christians.

And now that we have pretty well sketched Mr. Bedlow's antecedents, it may be time to inform you that he is no longer an undergraduate. He and his friend your humble servant are bachelors of some nine months' standing, and members of the law school. An