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Benson making a Sherry Cobler.
THE UPPER TEN THOUSAND. SKETCHES OF AMERICAN SOCIETY.
BYC. ASTOR BRISTED.
NEW-YORK: STRINGER & TOWNSEND, 222 BROADWAY.
M.DCCC.LII.JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 49 Ann-st., New-York.
CONTENTS.
- INTRODUCTION. 5
- CHAPTER I. THE THIRD AVENUE IN SLEIGHING TIME. 13
- CHAPTER II. A WEDDING 'ABOVE BLEECKER.' 37
- CHAPTER III. CATCHING A LION. 52
- CHAPTER IV. LIFE AT A WATERING-PLACE.-ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN. 80
- CHAPTER V. LIFE AT A WATERING-PLACE-OLDPORT SPRINGS. 97
- CHAPTER VI. LIFE AT A WATERING-PLACE-THE LIONNE. 127
- CHAPTER VII. LIFE AT A WATERING-PLACE-THE DOG OF ALOIBIADES. 153
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- CHAPTER VIII. LIFE AT A WATERING-PLACE.-THE LION IN THE TOILS. 184
- CHAPTER IX. A TROT ON THE ISLAND. 204
- CHAPTER X. A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN AT HOME. 245
INTRODUCTION.
THE publishers of this edition of "The Upper Ten Thousand," violate no privacy or courtesy in placing upon the title-page the name of Mr. CHARLES ASTOR BRISTED, as these brilliant sketches of American Society were not only generally attributed to him from the commencement of their publication in Fraser's Magazine, but were publicly acknowledged to be his in a letter to N. P. Willis, on the appearance of the sixth of the series. The London impression from which we print has the following preface:
Reader, the mere mention of Americans is probably associated in your mind with much that is wild, savage, and frightful,—sanguinary duels, Lynch law, nigger babies boiled for breakfast, swamps and yellow fever; in short, a pleasing and promiscuous mess of "a' things page: 6[View Page 6] horrible and awful." Or if, through some Whiggish leaning, or large feeling of fraternity for all the Anglo-Saxon race, you are disposed to stand up for your Transatlantic brethren, you will panegyrize them much in the same way that Rousseau and others have maintained the superiority of savage over civilized life. You will say, "These people are inferior to us in the graces and courtesies of civilization, but they are more frank, more natural; fashion exercises no capricious tyranny over them; there is no room there for servility or luxury." Doubtless, then, you will be surprised when, in presenting you to American society, I introduce you among a set of exquisites,—daintily-arrayed men, who spend half their income on their persons, and shrink from the touch of a woollen glove,—who are curious in wines and liquors, and would order a dinner against the oldest frequenter of the Trois Frères; delicate and lovely women, who wear the finest furs and roll in the most stylish equipages,—who are well up in all the latest French dances and the newest French millinery,—who talk very much such English as you do yourself, and three or four Continental languages into the bargain. And, moreover, in comparing English and American merits (for, knowing something about both Mr. Bull and Master Jonathan, belonging partly to both and loving both, I would rather compare their merits than their faults), I should say that the American was more successful in page: 7[View Page 7] the minor elegancies and amusements, and the Englishman in the more solid and domestic virtues of life. Now if you grow incredulous, and conclude that I am trying to quiz you, or going to write about America without ever having been there, even that is no more than Englishmen have done before, ay, and turned out a big volume, and made "tin" by it, and been praised by "the Thunderer" for accuracy and fidelity of description. But, in sober earnest, I am writing about what I see and know. If, then, I tell you nothing about alligators, or regulators, or any such wild animals, it is simply because I have never met with any; nor that I think it much loss to either of us, for, sooth to say, we have lately had enough of this bowie-knife school of writing, which after all is much as if one were to go to the wilds of Connaught, or the dens of St. Giles's, to collect materials for "A Country Residence in England" or "London and the Londoners." Suspend your opinion, then, or at least your incredulity; open your eyes and shut your mouth, and see what the Yankee will send you.
This is characteristic of the author, and was a sufficient introduction to the English reader; but it seems to us not improper, in an edition to be offered to the society whose peculiarities it illustrates, to add the letter to which we have referred, page: 8[View Page 8] induced by an intimation in the "Home Journal," that under the name of "Carl Benson," the writer designed a portraiture of himself.
To N. P. WILLIS, ESQ.My Dear Sir:—Several intimations to the above effect have already reached me, but now for the firs time from a source deserving notice. Allow me to deny in toto, any intention of describing myself under the name of Henry Benson. Were I disposed to attempt self-glorification, it would be under a very different sort of character. Here I should, in strictness, stop: but as you have done me the honor to speak favorably of certain papers in Fraser, perhaps you will permit me to intrude on your time (and your readers', if you think it worth while), so far as to explain what (not whom) Mr. Benson is meant for.
The said papers (ten in all, of which four still remain in the editor's hands), were originally headed, 'The Upper Ten Thousand,' as representing life and manners in a particular set, which title the editor saw fit to alter into 'Sketches of American Society'—not with my approbation, as it was claiming for them more than they contained, or professed to contain. Harry Benson, the thread employed to hang them together, is a sort of fashionable hero—a quadratus homo, according to the page: 9[View Page 9] 'Upper Ten' conception of one: a young man who, starting with a handsome person and fair natural abilities, adds to these the advantages of inherited wealth, a liberal education, and foreign travel. He possesses much general information, and practical dexterity in applying it, great world-knowledge and aplomb, financial shrewdness, readiness in composition—speaks half a dozen languages, dabbles in literature, in business, in every thing but politics—talks metaphysics one minute, and dances the polka the next—in short, knows a little of every thing, with a knack of reproducing it effectively; moreover, is a man of moral purity, deference to women and hospitality to strangers, which I take to be the three characteristic virtues of a New-York gentleman. On the other hand, he has the faults of his class strongly marked—intense foppery in dress, general Sybaritism of living, a great deal of Jack-Brag-ism and show-off, mythological and indiscreet habits of conversation, a pernicious custom of sneering at every body and every thing, inconsistent blending of early Puritan and acquired Continental habits, occasional fits of recklessness breaking through the routine of a worldly-prudent life. The character is so evidently a type—even if it were not designated as such in so many words, more than once—that it is surprising it should ever have been attributed to an individual—above all, to one who is never at home but in two places—outside of a horse and inside of a library page: 10-11[View Page 10-11] brary. Most of the other characters are similarly types—that is to say, they represent certain styles and varieties of men. The fast boy of Young America (from whose diary Pensez-y gave you a leaf last summer), whose great idea of life is dancing, eating supper after dancing, and gambling after eating supper; the older exquisite, without fortune enough to hurry brilliantly on, who makes general gallantry his amusement and occupation; the silent man, blazé before thirty, and not to be moved by any thing; (a variety of American much overlooked by strangers, but existing in great perfection, both here and at the south;) the beau of the 'second set,' dressy, vulgar and good-natured; these and others I dave have endeavored to depict. Now, as every class is made up of individuals, every character representing a class must resemble some of the individuals in it, in some particulars; but if you undertook to attach to each single character one and the same living representative, you would soon find each of them, like Mrs. Malaprop's Cerberus, 'three gentlemen at once,' if not many more; and should one of your 'country readers,' anxious to 'put the right names to them,' address—not one, but, five or six—of his 'town correspondents,' he would get answers about as harmonious as if he had consulted the same number of German commentators on the meaning of a disputed passage in a Greek tragedian. Some of the personages are purely fanciful—for instance, Mr. Harrison—such a man as never did exist, but I imagine might very well exist, among us. But, as the development of these characters is still in manuscript, it would be premature to say more of them.
Yet one word. The sketches were written entirely for the English market, so to speak, without any expectation of their being generally read or republished here. This will account for their containing many things which must seem very flat and common-place to an American reader—such as descriptions of sulkies and trotting-wagons, how people dress, and what they eat for dinner, etc.; which are nevertheless not necessarily uninteresting to an Englishman who has not seen this country. Excuse me for trespassing thus far on your patience, and believe me, dear sir, yours very truly,
C. A. BRISTED
