Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/356

Rh thinking men, have afforded me many a pleasant moment, and warmed my heart by their kindness and hospitality.

Among my gentleman acquaintance who have contributed to my pleasure, I may mention an elderly clergyman, belonging, I believe, to the Episcopal Church, who has given me some interesting information respecting the religious life and songs of the negroes; and a quaker, Mr. B., with a handsome, regular countenance, and a quiet thoughtful turn of mind; he has told me much that is interesting regarding his own sect, and its form of internal government; and also that lately some quaker-women have been cited before a court of justice at New York, to give evidence in a complicated trial, and the clearness with which they did it was universally admired and commented upon by the newspapers. Mr. B. attributed this to the calmness and self-possession which distinguishes the quaker-women, and to their being early accustomed to self-government and public discussions in the part which they have to take in the business of their society.

Yesterday, the 4th of July, the great day of America, was celebrated as usual, by speech-making and processions, and drinking of toasts, and publicly reading of the Declaration of Independence. It was read in the African church of the city; but why they selected the negro church of all others for the reading of the declaration of freedom, which is so diametrically opposed to the institution of slavery, I cannot comprehend, when the burlesque of the whole thing must be so evident to every one.

I have been, with a kind and agreeable lady, Mrs. G., to visit the house of correction here. The system which is pursued here has nothing new in it, and the polite old colonel who showed us the establishment looked like some formal relic of Washington's staff. It astonished me not to find here one single white prisoner. Of men there were about two hundred. There were some black women