Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/423

Rh was one of the most beautiful I have been present at in this country.

I saw many lovely young daughters of the south, but no great beauty; on the contrary, many were very pale. The ladies here universally use pearl-powder, which they afterwards wipe off, and hence the skin has a sort of velvety, soft colour, for the moment, but the complexion only becomes more sallow in consequence. I am told that the great heat renders the use of this powder necessary. I have nothing exactly against it, if the powder be only rubbed quite off again, but that is often only very imperfectly done. I fear that this white powdering is probably an heirloom of the old French ancestry.

Yet once more have I wandered with Mrs. Holbrook in the myrtle groves of Belmont, and enjoyed with her an intellectual feast. I have also seen the young intelligent missionary, Mr. Miles; he has a pale expressive countenance, a deeply penetrative eye—but ah! it has penetrated no more deeply to the heart of the great question than most other eyes here. On other subjects I have been delighted with the free, strong flight of his spirit.

I was invited one evening with Mrs. H. to meet various elderly members of her family. I met on this occasion a couple of old unmarried ladies, the owners of two beautiful islands on the coast of Carolina, where they live alone, among three hundred negroes, as their owners, their advisers, and physicians; and in all cases on the best understanding with them. One white man only is on the plantation as overseer.

I regret much not having been able to accept an invitation, at least at this time, and that was to a Mr. Spalding's, a rich old gentleman, who, upon the beautiful island where he lives, has allowed the palmettos to grow in freedom, and the negroes to live and work in freedom also, governed alone by the law of duty and love —