Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/339

Rh “Our correspondent has been fortunate enough to hear Jenny Lindsneeze. The first sneezing was a mezzotinto soprano, &c., &c.;” here follow many absurd musical and art-terms; “the second was, &c., &c.,” here follow the same; “the third he did not hear, as he fainted.”

I can promise the good Western people that they will become as insane with rapture as their brethren of the East, if Jenny Lind should come hither. They now talk like the Fox about the Grapes, but with better temper.

One of the inhabitants of St. Paul who had been at New York returned there before I left. He had some business with Governor Ramsay, but his first words to this gentleman were, “Governor! I have heard Jenny Lind!”

Jenny Lind, the new Slave Bill, and the protests against it in the North, Eastern and Western States, are, as well as the Spiritual rappings or knockings, the standing topics of the newspapers.

Whilst people in the Northern States hold meetings and agitate against this bill, which allows the recapture of fugitive slaves in the free States, various of the Southern States, especially the Palmetto State and Mississippi, raise an indignant cry against the infringement of the rights of the South, and threaten to dissolve the Union. And the States compliment each other in their newspapers in anything but a polite manner. A Kentucky journal writes thus of South Carolina:—

“Why has she not marched out of the Union before now? The Union would be glad to be rid of such a baggage!”

&emsp; We are lying before Rock Island. Some kind and agreeable gentlemen have just been on board, with a proposal to convey me to the Swedish settlement. I cannot