{"id":"01KG8AKVQ0M4TAADEKF8E6CBRJ","cid":"bafkreightd2e4lvgwnoz4elelrcvgeyd4nuku4mh5a5yntah5pepfbewea","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8020,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":7961,"text":"thought I was walking down a block in Broadway. I began to think that\r\nall this talk about travel was a humbug; and that he who lives in a\r\nnut-shell, lives in an epitome of the universe, and has but little to\r\nsee beyond him.\r\n\r\nIt is true, that I often thought of London’s being only seven or eight\r\nhours’ travel by railroad from where I was; and that _there,_ surely,\r\nmust be a world of wonders waiting my eyes: but more of London anon.\r\n\r\nSundays were the days upon which I made my longest explorations. I rose\r\nbright and early, with my whole plan of operations in my head. First\r\nwalking into some dock hitherto unexamined, and then to breakfast. Then\r\na walk through the more fashionable streets, to see the people going to\r\nchurch; and then I myself went to church, selecting the goodliest\r\nedifice, and the tallest Kentuckian of a spire I could find.\r\n\r\nFor I am an admirer of church architecture; and though, perhaps, the\r\nsums spent in erecting magnificent cathedrals might better go to the\r\nfounding of charities, yet since these structures are built, those who\r\ndisapprove of them in one sense, may as well have the benefit of them\r\nin another.\r\n\r\nIt is a most Christian thing, and a matter most sweet to dwell upon and\r\nsimmer over in solitude, that any poor sinner may go to church wherever\r\nhe pleases; and that even St. Peter’s in Rome is open to him, as to a\r\ncardinal; that St. Paul’s in London is not shut against him; and that\r\nthe Broadway Tabernacle, in New York, opens all her broad aisles to\r\nhim, and will not even have doors and thresholds to her pews, the\r\nbetter to allure him by an unbounded invitation. I say, this\r\nconsideration of the hospitality and democracy in churches, is a most\r\nChristian and charming thought. It speaks whole volumes of folios, and\r\nVatican libraries, for Christianity; it is more eloquent, and goes\r\nfarther home than all the sermons of Massillon, Jeremy Taylor, Wesley,\r\nand Archbishop Tillotson.\r\n\r\nNothing daunted, therefore, by thinking of my being a stranger in the\r\nland; nothing daunted by the architectural superiority and costliness\r\nof any Liverpool church; or by the streams of silk dresses and fine\r\nbroadcloth coats flowing into the aisles, I used humbly to present\r\nmyself before the sexton, as a candidate for admission. He would stare\r\na little, perhaps (one of them once hesitated), but in the end, what\r\ncould he do but show me into a pew; not the most commodious of pews, to\r\nbe sure; nor commandingly located; nor within very plain sight or\r\nhearing of the pulpit. No; it was remarkable, that there was always\r\nsome confounded pillar or obstinate angle of the wall in the way; and I\r\nused to think, that the sextons of Liverpool must have held a secret\r\nmeeting on my account, and resolved to apportion me the most\r\ninconvenient pew in the churches under their charge. However, they\r\nalways gave me a seat of some sort or other; sometimes even on an oaken\r\nbench in the open air of the aisle, where I would sit, dividing the\r\nattention of the congregation between myself and the clergyman. The\r\nwhole congregation seemed to know that I was a foreigner of\r\ndistinction.\r\n\r\nIt was sweet to hear the service read, the organ roll, the sermon\r\npreached—just as the same things were going on three thousand five\r\nhundred miles off, at home! But then, the prayer in behalf of her\r\nmajesty the Queen, somewhat threw me back. Nevertheless, I joined in\r\nthat prayer, and invoked for the lady the best wishes of a poor Yankee.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS9XB90CSQV2ZADZDR2R","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKVQ88DEYFXGKWAZ7SB2X","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKVQ8B524328QC9VJG8J6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.144Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.926Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}