Note 228-12 — Chapter II
John J. (John Joseph) Lalor translation
Birkbeck, Notes on America, 39. Even in New York, it is not very long since there were no common sewers. Just as characteristic is the uncleanliness of the South African boers (Mauch, in Petermann's Mittheilungen, Ergänz-Heft, XXVII, 23), when compared with the celebrated cleanliness of the old Dutch.
Americans will certainly not agree with the "friendly and unprejudiced" observers mentioned in the text; for no one acquainted with genuine American home-life can deny that cleanliness is an American characteristic. It is only justice to the author to say that the above note (12), so far as it relates to America, appeared in the second edition of his work, and probably in the first; and that he is not so much to be blamed for it as the unfriendly and prejudiced, if not ignorant observers. It may be said, however, that, from the use of the word "log-house," in the context, the author does not intend to apply this remark to the older settlements.—Translator.