Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/390

Rh Christmas, that I may, if possible, have an opportunity of seeing those dances and festivities which I have heard are common among the negroes of the plantations at Christmas. I have heard much said about the happiness of the negroes in America, of their songs and dances, and I wish therefore for once to see this happiness and these festivals. In South Carolina and Georgia the preachers have done away with dancing and the singing of songs. In Louisiana there is no preaching to the slaves; perhaps they may there sing and dance.

17th.—A large and excellent steamer leaves this evening for New Orleans, and with it I shall proceed thither with my cavalier, Mr. Lerner H.

I must still say a few words to you about two very pleasant parties which have been given by my friends. My objection to small familiar evening parties in America is that they occupy themselves so little by reading aloud, or by any other means of drawing the small circle towards one common point of interest.

In large parties, however, many of the elements are met with which make social intercourse perfect, among which may be reckoned as foremost, that the two sexes are properly intermingled. One never sees the gentlemen here all crowding into one room, and the ladies into another, or the former in one corner of the drawing-room and the latter in another, just as if they were afraid of each other. The gentlemen who come into society—and they seem very fond of drawing-room society in an evening—consider it as a duty, and as it seems to me often also a pleasure, to entertain the ladies, and this evident good will on their part awakes in them, not a greater desire perhaps, but certainly a greater power of being agreeable and entertaining, gives them more ability to impart to men of good taste and noble mind, something much better than cigar smoke and punch. A gentleman will commonly occupy himself for a long time, frequently the whole