Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 85
inoney, however, was never sent back, for Scotchmen
do not part with money without knowing
wherefor—a lesson which colored people will do
well to learn, if they ever favorably change their
relations to the people and civilization of our age.
I have traveled since I left, not only in England,
Ireland, and Scotland, but in France, Switzerland,
Italy, Athens, and Egypt. The most
civilized, the best cultivated, and apparently the
most prosperous of these countries is England.
Nothing here goes to waste, every inch of fertile
soil is cultivated and made to yield abundant
harvests. The average crop of wheat is forty-six
bushels to the acre, exceeding that of our best
western lands. Its fields are pictures in frames
of rich hedges, adorned with leaves and flowers,
its people are well behaved, orderly, and strong,
its cattle, large, smooth, and round, its public
buildings, substantial and imposing, its houses,
neat, ample, and comfortable; everything here
exhibits the mark of thoughtful care. The management
of its railroads for the comfort of travelers
is somewhat clumsy; they lack over there
our excellent system of checks, but the protection
of life is more complete, and a higher rate of
speed is attained; the railroad crossing for teams
are spanned by bridges—no teams cross on the
rails, and hence nobody is run over as in free
America,