xt7bvq2s516s https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7bvq2s516s/data/mets.xml Knight, Henry C. (Henry Cogswell), 1789-1835. 1824 books b92-159-29919332 English Richardson and Lord, : Boston : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Southern States Description and travel. Philadelphia (Pa.) Description and travel. Washington (D.C.) Description and travel. Letters from the South and West / by Arthur Singleton, esq. [pseud.] text Letters from the South and West / by Arthur Singleton, esq. [pseud.] 1824 2002 true xt7bvq2s516s section xt7bvq2s516s LETTERS FROM THE BY ARTHIUR SINGLETON, ESQ. BOSTON: PUBLISHEDBY RICIARDSONAND L.:PU .......I..... J. H. A. Frot, Prirt-.r. 1824. z" ; D T T LI -1-1 I QW1. I I UP ' " I Tly m 0 Ix I I Iio This page in the original text is blank. LETTERS FROM THE BY ARTHUR SINGLETON, ESQ. PUBLISHED BY RICHARDSON AND LORD. J. H. A. FROST, Printer. 1824. DISTRICT OF .MASSACHUSETTS, to wit: District Clerk's Oficc. BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the fourteenth day of July, A. D. 1824, in the forty-ninth year of the Independence of the United Slates of America, RICHARDSON LORD, of the said District, have deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof they claim as Pro- prietors, in the words following, to wito: " Letters from the South and West, by Arthur Singleton, Esq." In Conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "' An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned:" and also to an Act entitled, " An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, " An Act for the encourage- ment of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the Arts of Design- ing, Engraving and Etching Historical and other Prints." JOHN W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of MTfassachusetfs. CONTENTS. LETTER FROM LETTER LETTER LETTER LETTER FROM FROM FRO M FROM LETTER FROM PHILADELPHIA. ........... WASHINGTON CITY ......... VIRGINIA ............... KENTUCKY .............. NEW ORLEANS ............ THE GUTLF OF MEXICO ....... 5 33 57 83 109 135 This page in the original text is blank. LETTER FROM PHILADELPHIA. DEAR BROTHER9 THIS city, which is the great metropolis of Penn's Woodland, and which was eulogized by Him of Tarsus, ' ki a PmE; Philadelphia forever ! a Greek compound, you perceive, signifying broth- erly-love; is as level as a Quaker's broad brim. The day after my arrival, I ascended the almost only eminence in the city, one of the two shot-towers, to spy down upon it. It appears not unlike a horizon- tal Brodingnagian brick-kiln; long never-ending blocks of brick, with little holes at bottom to creep in at; and little holes at top to peep out at. At this altitude, the eager currents of human beings appear diminished into a small folk, like Lilliputians; all, like the armies of the grandson of Cyrus, in a hundred years, to be no more. The city, which is six score of miles from the sea by the channel, is spread upon the isthmus between the Delaware, and the Schuylkill, half a score of miles above their conflu- ence. These two rivers, east and west of the city, are, the one grand, the other picturesque; and the 2 LETTERS FROM THE elegant light broad-spanned arch thrown over the latter by our townsman Palmer, recalls agreeable associations. The Delaware waters were, last winter, so consolidated, opposite the city, that a festive ox was roasted whole upon the ice. Although this river is now floating ships to and fro from all nations, once was the time, when, if a ship arrived from Europe, the citizens used to chime Christ-church bells. As this city is, in many respects, the metrop- olis of the states, I confess I was disappointed in its externals. The streets running south and north were, in olden prime, called after the trees in the vicinity :-cedar, mulberry, sassafras, v;ne; chesnut, walnut, spruce, and pine. The streets crossing east and west are numbered; and the whole, being divided into wards and squares, spreads into an immense chequer-board. There is but one crooked street in the city; and that, which is crooked, can- not be made straight. After you have walked one square, you have seen the whole. Indeed, the houses are so thick, there is no room for land. No spires, no domes, few bells, few promenades; no any thing to relieve the eye, or arrest the fancy. There is nothing like the long marble-fronted, but too finical, City-Hall; or the irregular, but beauti- fully verdant Battery, of New-York. Every view is quakerfied. No marvel, that Paine said, though rather irreverently, if a Quaker had been consulted at the Creation, what a drab-coloured world we should have had. Still, it is a noble city; wealthy, 6 SOUTH AND WEST. substantial, convenient; with extending blocks of massy private tenements; and a very few publick edifices of simple Doric grandeur, as, in particular, the marble bank. Christ-church is rather of the Gothic structure, and elegant; the bricks of this, and also of many other ancient buildings in the city, are, one red, another black glazed, in alternation. The six stately Corinthian columns, which support the roof in front of the first Presbyterian Church, look majestically. The national mint, or money-mine, is in this city; and was formerly under the supervisor- ship of Rittenhouse. Central in the city, is a spacious mansion-house, which was erected for the President, when Congress, in by-gone years, sat in this metropo- lis. The water-works, whose hydrants supply the city with water inducted for three miles in subterra- nean conduits, with their ponderous steam-enginery, are proofs of the resistless submission of vast mechan- ical power to human ingenuity. In the circular mall, which enclosed the former nucleus of these works, is a small jet d'eau, where the fluid is spouted upwards through the long snipe-bill of a sculptured water- fowl, which stands upon the shoulder of a water- nymph; and, after rising about twenty feet into the air, spreads and falls in spray into a grassy-fringed fountain beneath. In the western part of the city, are Vauxhall-Gardens, included, with a Rotundo in the centre; and about four miles out of the city, oin the border of the Schuylkill, are the beautiful botani- cal gardens of the Bartrams; the first ever in the 7 LETTERS FROM THE country; and where once loved to stroll, and where first germinated the splendid idea of Wilson, the Ornithologist. From Market-street wharf, upon which Franklin first landed, one has a fine view of Jersey-shore opposite; and of the Mariner's Hotel, fitted from the hull of a large ship, with an ensign for a sign, and moored on the middle of the river. The Delaware is daily crossed by steam-boats, with their broad dusky pennons of steam trailing behind; and by team-boats, which wheel along the water, propelled by horses on board in circular motion. About four miles above the city, on the west banks of the river, are the almost forgotten ruins of the mansion of Wil- liam Penn, upon whose top was once, it is said, a leaden fish-pond. It is a curious fact in Natural History, that the environs of this city, and of Jersey, are visited, once in seventeen years, with locusts in Egyptian multitudes. Most places this way, even if small, are chartered with their mayor, recorder, aldermen, and common council; and I trust that Boston will soon persuade its honest township into a lordly city; inasmuch as green-turtles are plenty. Soon after my arrival, a report of peace convulsed the whole city into cestacies. Illumination! illumi- nation! Briareus, with his hundred hands, was wanted to light the flambeaux of rejoicing. Soon, however, a counter-report palsied the spirits, and extinguished the tapers. The Philadelphian Hospital, the Franklin Library, the Academy of Arts, and Peale's Museum, are SOUTH AND WEST. noble and munificent institutions. The Hospital is like a palace, and in its elegant garden-like front yard stands upon a cubic pedestal, with a golden-lettered scroll in his hand, a portly bronze statue of Penn. In the anatomical theatre, over the circular table, is pendent a human skeleton; that the dead may in- struct the living. Before I vitwed the interior of the Hospital, I made some inquiries of an alderman, who, although he had for many years lived near, had never found leisure to visit it. This reminded me of a dame, who had lived next door to St. Paul's Cathedral, in London, for above thirty years, and yet, although she had thus purposed almost every day, had never entered it; she knew that she might go in at any time, and therefore had as yet been in at no time. A stranger, who has but a few weeks in which to visit all London, will visit Paul's during the first days. I was told of an affecting reply made by a son of a late famed physician of this city, a navy lieutenant, who now suffers an alienation of mind, in consequence of having shot his friend in a duel. Since his residence in the Hospital, the tonsor once, noticing that his hair was becoming very gray for a young man, remarked:-4" Sir, your hairs are turn- ing quite gray; but gray hairs are honourable." "Yes," he replied with a sigh, "honour has made my hairs gray." In a niche over the entrance into the Library stands, in a contemplative attitude, a marble statue of Franklin, sculptured in Italy. Into this library, even more freely than into an Athemneum, 9 LETTERS FROM THE any stranger may daily enter, and call for any book, or folio of prints, for perusal; until the closing hour is announced by Oliver Cromwell's clock. This alone would make us proud to remember Franklin. Although the English affect to sneer at American genius, yet, who has heretofore conquered their conquerors Who has disarmed their forky light- ning of its fangs Who was the inventor of their quadrant eWho their philosopher for the poor Who their steam-instructer Who could make honest men of their counterfeiters Who is their royal president of painters Who their most author- itative grammarian Whence originated one of their most revered London bishops and one of their poets However, after this self-gnathonism, we confess that, in literature, we have not above half a score of authors worth recollecting; but it doth not yet appear, what we shall have. In Peale's " School of Wisdom" is an entire skeleton, chiefly of the real bones, of the huge mastodon ; and differ- ent species of the superbly beautiful birds of Para- dise; with about two hundred portraits, among which, I sought for the mind in the faces of Priestly, and of Paine. The painted man beckoning you to follow him up stairs, deceives almost every one; the stairs are so natural, that I could not be undeceived, until I had stooped down, and imprinted my nail upon the canvass. In the Academy of Arts, are two large early dramatic paintings by West; Lear and Cordelia, and Hamlet and Ophelia; purchased in 10 SOUTH AND WEST. London by his friend Fulton, for about four hundred guineas. West's great picture of " Christ healing the sick in the Temple," is to be placed in a brick edifice planned, as to the favourable disposition of light, for this purpose. The prize painting of Als- ton's, the Miracle of Elisha's bones, is expected to be purchased for the Academy. Alston's pictures have, I think, more of an antique cast in the colour- ing than West's. Among the paintings here, is a cartoon well done with the finger's end, and the snuff of a candle. The Witch of Endor, with her chocolate cheek, her outspread leathern ears, and her yellow jutting teeth; is finely contrasted with the portrait of the Albiness, with her beautiful luxuri- ance of white silky glossy hair spread over her shoulders and arms, and eye of a delicate pink iris. Here are also, among the busts, two of those proud, but perverted geniuses, Voltaire and Rousseau. The Roman Catholics have four or five churches in this city, as those of St. Augustine, St. Mary, and other saints; which form an extreme contrast to the quakers. I know not whether you ever entered the Church of the Holy Cross in Boston. A Catholic church is usually known by a metallic cross on the dome, or a marble one wrought into the front wall. The ceremonies, at first view, are quite imposing, and somewhat ludicrously solemn. On the back wall, behind the altar, is commonly a superb painting, on a broad scale, of Christ upon the cross, and in the dis- tance a view of Jerusalem as it was darkened at the 11 LETTERS FROM THE crucifixion. Around, and upon the altar, stand the pyx, and a hundred little gewgaws, or symbols, in pic- ture frames. In front of the painting, along the altar, and around the pulpit, are kept burning, during the services, rows of magnificently tall wax-tapers; some a yard and a half erect, and as stout as a batoon; and lighted by a man with a high lifted rod, whose unlighted point ignites them at a touch. Tapers are in commemoration of the primitive converts, who were obliged to meet in dark subterranean caverns; or a relic of those gothic abbeys, where religious awe was inspired by the dimly admitted light through their richly painted windows. The first duty of a catholic, on entering the church, is to bend a passing knee to the figure of Christ on the cross before men- tioned; and then to hasten and dip his finger-tips in the holy-water, in the marble fonts near the doors, and to cross himself; that is, to touch the forehead, the lower body, and each breast; which is done in a twinkling as by instinct; the above movement of the arm forming a cross upon the body. Not a catholic finger, white or black, pure or impure, passes this vase without a dip; and even the infants are assisted to cross their little breasts in the arms of their nurses. There is something rather pleasing in this memorial of the Saviour's sufferings. After this, the worshippers enter their pews, except the discoloured ones, who remain bowed down in the aisle, and, dropping on their knees, repeat their pater-nosters, credos, and ave-marias; and count along the beads 12 SOUTH AND WEST. of their rosaries which represent so many saints and saintesses; and when they come to one they need, they stop and keep rolling that bead over and over between finger and thumb, until they have addressed their petition unto him. This praying by proxy must presuppose in the saints one of the attributes of Deity, an auricular ubiquity, the being every where present. Among the catholic ecclesiasticks, the tonsure of the crown of the head, which is done with prayers and benedictions, is the mark, and basis, of all the orders; and the circle of tonsure is enlarged as they rise to higher degrees in the holy mother church. The bishop, when ducking to and fro in his conical cap, with his tall gilded crosier in his hand, is attended by four, or half a dozen, small handsome boys, in scarlet and white costume, to skip about behind him, gingle the bell, and uplift the skirt of his gorgeous cope, as he moves. But nothing can be more grateful, or purifying, than the odo- riferous incense steaming from the waving censer. When the priest, within the chancel, chants the masses in Latin, which not one in twenty understands, he makes sweet musick, without intending any irrev- erence in the comparison, not unlike the cut-cut-dar- cutting, that dame partlet makes after laying her eggs. When the priest turns his countenance towards the congregation, holding up before his breast the sacred host, or one of his glittering crucifixes, and muttering solemnly over it; it unavoidably reminds me of a toy-man in his shop, recommending one of 3 13 LETTERS FROM THE his toys. In some countries, the bell tolls in such a manner, as to inform those without, what part of the service is commencing. The ignorant believe, that after an image is consecrated, then the god re- sides in it. There is, however, great appearance of devotion in the worshippers; and, I doubt not, that there are many, who are what they appear. But the catholic worship seems calculated to affect rather the senses, than the heart. The idea of auri- cular confession, and absolution from sin, must have a very demoralizing tendency. I was informed of a fine lady of this city, who fell in love with one of the young catholic priests; and, although she knew that the priests are not allowed to marry, pro- fessed catholicism, so as to have opportunities to manifest her affection to him in private. The priests do not approve of the laity attempting to understand the bible for themselves, without the explanation of the clergy. A short time ago, the Catholics lost a Bishop in this city. He was laid in state in rich pomp for some days, decorated with his pontificalia, tiara, and white satin sandals. His face and hands were rouged like a waxen figure to represent life- shocking counterfeit! Around him, all day and all night, burned wax-tapers; and stood the priests fanning, and perfuming the air with incense, and chanting masses for his soul. I thought of the whited sepulchre. Although the universal Father, who holds the keys of St. Peter, resides at Rome; yet can the echoes of the thunders of the Vatican ver- 14 SOUTH AND WEST. berate across the Atlantic. However the ignorant may be deluded by ceremonies, the intelligent view them only as the earthly medium, through which the mind rises to the heavenly essences. Some think, that the mind, while allied to matter, cannot identify ideas without symbols to assist its operations; that spirit is too abstracted for common intellects. One cannot reach the top of a tower, without the interven- tion of steps. Nothing more liberalizes the heart, than visiting, on proper occasions, the associations of opposite sects. Most often, we discover that the differences lie more in manner, than in matter. We should remember that, for many hundred years, we were all Roman Catholics; nor can I ever forget, that the great autbor of the admired Telemachus was a Roman Catholic. The Quakers, the worthy descendants of the colo- nists of the admirable William Penn, of patriarchal simplicity, were long dominant in this city. The term quaker is now an inappropriate appellation. for most quaker men are stark as statues. There are at present various species of this sect; the starch primitives in faith and practice; and the hickory, or half-blooded by intermarriages with the world's people. Their largest meeting-house is a plain, but neat, and very capacious brick edifice, without any paint; which, with the adjoining yard, where lie the dead buried in white deal coffins, is encompassed by a high brick wall; back from the noise of the streets, as all churches should be in populous cities. 15 LETTERS FROM THE Indeed, the annoyance to worship is too often but partially prevented, by the iron chains hung across the pavements on the sabbath. In public worship, the men with their Broad hats on, sit on one side, and the women on the other side, of the house; not in pews, but upon long benches. The quakers here seem to sit ruminating; and the wonder is, that, in ' Friends'-Meeting,' wherein women may exhort, any female can allow any holiday to her tongue. The quakers are a sage sect, to imagine that Inspiration would prompt such incoherent sing-song ejaculations., as we sometimes hear in their assemblies; and how happens it, if individually inspirited, that, more than once, two approved preachers have unbonneted, and uprisen together, and attuned their shrill organ-pipes for exhortation This sect uses neither of the two visible Seals of other christians, except by spiritual acceptation. There is, however, an august feeling of the Divine Presence in this stillness of the spirit, often superior to any worship manifested by the bodily organs. As a signal when the meeting is done, two elders upon the upper high seat shake hands. Notwithstanding Pope's ' quaker sly,' they are a quite industrious, beneficent, amiable folk. They have, in common, plain useful educations; but, with some liberal exceptions, are more deficient than others in elegant literature, and embellishments. They have but little poetry, or romance, in their natures. They labour to make no proselytes. In their internal government, they have wise regularity, 16 SOUTH AND WEST. and simplicity. In lieu of the lawyer, and the judge, they settle all disputations by impartial referees. Appeals may be made from their monthly, to their quarterly, and finally to their yearly meetings; at which times, the quakeresses hold separate meetings, in which to chatter over their own feminine matters. They do not suffer a stranger of their persuasion to lodge at a hotel, but welcome him to their homes. They are enemies to every unnecessary form, in gos- pel, or in law; and, as they refuse to swear, they are ineligible to any office of trust under government. Indeed, their affirmation, or signature, is deemed sufficient for all secular obligations amongst them- selves. Instead of the " Know all men by these pre- sents," they once had their quaint and honest Warranted, "From me and mine, "To thee and thine, "Forever." As to their not warring, and not voluntarily paying for warring, as it is a matter of conscience, I have only to remark that, if all nations were to become quakers, there would be no more wars. The quakers, emphatically, and to their unfading honour, have ever been the foremost against slavery. Their phra- seology is peculiar. They, very properly, call the months, and days of the week, by first, second, third, and the other ordinals; as simpler, and discarding Pagan derivation. They address a man "Friend such a oues" if they beshrew him ever so deeply, or know 1T LETTERS FROM THE him to be an enemy; and they generally adopt Bible appellations, using the diminutives, even to adults, as more endearing. They refuse to use Mr., because they will call no man master, save the Saviour;. nor will they sign themselves any one's "t humble, or obe- dient servant ;" which they rightly say is an unmean- ing form, or hypocrisy. They do not say you, be- cause it is flattery to pluralize a person; but many say thee for thou and thy; as, " wilt thee go with me " "c a mote is on thee's face." Their just so garb, which, when adopted, was the court costume of the time, makes them appear like antediluvians. This drab dress changes not, whether for a wedding, or a funeral. They tell you a cape is unnecessary; but they wear three inches more of brim of beaver than is necessary. The quaker lads look like little old men; and the quaker maids like littlc old wo- men unless you glance under their small dove- coloured bonnets, and espy their bonny round faces. Some of the young lasses, however, tastefully refine upon too absolute simplicity. At the yearly-meeting, I saw one of their matrons in Israel. On her small brown shrivelled head was a man's broad out-flapping white hat, the brim at least ten inches, with a sugar-loaf crown. She wore a white stiff lawn apron, a nice three-cornered white 'kerchief down her breast and back in peaks, and had a plump pin-ball, and scissors, dangling down her right side. She walked in tall-heeled, blunt-toed brown prunello shoes, and leaned her veiny, skinny right palm firmly upon a is SOUTH AND WEST. smooth oaken staff; her face, and the back of her hands being puckered, like unto a nutmeg cantaleupe, with age. However, she looked as if she covered a kind old-fashioned heart; and would ere long bloom into heavenly beauty. There is a rather singular custom among some of the friends, in their manner of courting. As the young wooer is expected to stay all uight, the parents of the damsel place two sepa- rate beds in the room, upon which the lovers lie down, in their dress, and court across the interval. This does not quite rival a mode of the Welch peasantry, who innocently woo between two blankets. If a quaker love a lady out of the society, he must ask liberty, and pardon for the sin of loving one of the world's people. Being published is called passing- meeting; and the quakers marry themselves, in pre- sence of witnesses. In general, the quakers disap- prove both of singing, dancing, and painting. But why, in the name of nature, if these things be wrong, doth the Creator beautify the fields with variegated dyes; why make the innocent lambs to skip upon the hills; and the birds to swell their little throats in the ftilness of praises On a Saturday, the Jews' sabbath, you may, if intro- duced, go and mourn in the Synagogue. Here you may.hear the Rabbi, in his ephod, chant, or rather ululate a portion of the Levitical Law, from his un- rolled parchment scroll, and expound in Hebrew from the Targum. Here you see the deluded Jews, in their scarfs and fringes, turn their faces to the east, 19 LETTERS FROM THE and imitate their march to their expected Canaan. The Jews here sit in their seats below, the Jewesses in the galleries. From the Synagogue, you may walk to their burial-ground; where, as with us, the dead are laid with their heads to the west; so as to be upon their feet as the earth revolves on its axis; or, to face the Messiah as he appears in the east. In token of mourning, the Jews, who in this country do not wear long beards, walk unshaven for some weeks. The Jews lose two secular days in each week, by their sabbath, and our's. Among most nations, the Jews are oppressed, and peeled, and hunted like a partridge upon the mountains, by the government; and as they have not become so accustomed to per- secution, as to like it, many fly to this country of refuge. Yet the richest banker in England, if not in the world, Rothschild, whose wand can call within the circle of his control half a centenary of millions, is a Jew. The Jews in this city are not in general excluded from civil privileges. There is a kind of dusky, hawkeyed, aquiline something very peculiar in the physiognomy of most of these unbelieving Israel- ites; unto whom we are still indebted for the scru- pulous transmission of the ancient Oracles of Truth. At two extremes of the city, worship two churches extreme in one point of doctrine; the Humanitarians, and the Swedenborgians. The latter mystical, meta- physical sect believe the Saviour to have been, not only the Son, but the Father, the absolute God, who visited the earth in person for good. In their doc- 20 SOUTH AND WEST. trine of correspondences, they also believe in the communion of angels and men; and that heaven is like unto this earth, with animals and trees, only uninvested in matter, existing in pure spirit. In Sweden, the priests of the New Jerusalem Temples wear scarlet robes. In Philadelphia, the morning, and not the evening, as with country worshippers, is the half of the sabbath, when the churches are most filled, and when you hear the best sermon. After dinner, the gentility quaff wine, court slumber, or ride out to their villas. A practice here obtains among most churches, excepting the quakers, who disclaim any alliance of money and preaching, which I do not commend. I mean that of the sabbath money-dippers. As soon as, or even before, divine service is closed, out start these dippers, with their long lithe rods and green or black caps at the end, and go traversing the aisles, scooping into each pew, as a fisher scoops fishes, for charity's spare coins. The close-net, however, is more liberal than the open-charger; because conscience, rather than pride, may be consulted. But I may not approve this.com- mingling of the sacred and secular offices. It often occasions mortification to a stranger, if unprepared; and much reiterated trouble, and many money- gingling thoughts, to the waiting assembly. It de- grades religion to a level with the exhibitions of a mountebank; who, when he has done, waits impa- tiently until his change come. There are quarterly, or yearly opportunities for beneficence; and each 4 21 LETTERS FROM THE society ought to support its own contingencies, by a more independent method. But szi cuique mo, says Terence. Some days since, and I saw, in Chesnut street, what would surprise you; the funeral of a youth of about ten years, whose bier was borne in the hands of four young females, of fair seventeen, dressed all in virgin white, with their curls of long hair drop- ping aloose down the shoulders. There was an agreeable melancholy about it, which interested me. It is a relick of an ancient custom, now rare, that the deceased youths should be supported to their graves by the opposite sex. I wish that beautiful custom wvere more common, in the summer, of strewing fresh flowers upon the sods of those we love. In some parts of Wales, the graves are bordered and beauti- fied with boxthrift, and other evergreens. The snow-drop, violet, and primrose bloom over the infant dust; middle age is marked by the rocket, the rose, and the woodbine; while the tansy, rue, and starwort mourn over old age. These little evergreens are fond emblems of that state, where is no more change. It is usual here to have the fune- ral in the morning; and for the porters to wear long white scarfs of lawn twisted round the hat crown, and streaming to the ground behind; which lawn is their perquisite. I have never seen here a black coffin, nor a flat-topped one; all are mahogany, or cherry, or stained reddish, with a somewhat gable-roof, and pentagonal ends; they are frequently 22 SOUTH AND WEST. costly, and do not look so dismal as ours; although, perhaps, the habiliments of death ought to look gloomy. There is one green square in the city, which is about to be rolled into gravel walks, and set with trees, for a promenade, called now the Potter's Field. In this field, were the dead buried out of the sight of the living, when, near thirty years ago, the yellow plague swallowed above five thou- sand in three months. I may here relate two affect- ing events, which occurred at that time of sackcloth. One poor man, who was left almost dead a few hours before, when the car called to take away his corpse, the undertakers thinking of course that he was quite dead now, crawled with great effort to the window, and, in a low hollow voice, told them :-"4 He was not quite dead yet, but to call on the next day." They did call, and took his corpse for burial. The other account, was of an aged woman, who thirsted for drink; and an old servant, who was afraid to venture into the chamber, took a vessel of water, and pushed it in with a long stick. The poor woman crawled out of bed to get it, and was found -dead, with her pale thin arm stretched out towards the water, almost to touch it. A frequent sign here, over the work-shop of a cabinet-maker, is-a cradle and a coffin. This leads to meditation. There stands a man, equally ready to accommodate one into the world, or to accommodate one out of the world. There is always some new curiosity to be seen in a large city. A few years ago, perhaps you saw, in 23 LETTERS FROM THE Boston, a modern Greek, from the Morea. Whilst now sitting, there is moving by a crowd of small boys, buzzing after a Chinese mandarin. His tall figure, little eye elliptical at the end next the nose, high cheek bones, pointed chin, skin of the colour of a new cent, long lank dark hair braided down his back from the top of his shaven poll, leaving his head shaped like an inverted cone; together with his novel costume, his rich knobbed velvet cap, his shirt of thin silk, his tight-buttoned jerkin of purple plush, with its wide expanding sleeves, his yellow quilted philibeg or short petticoat, over his white cotton swollen bag-drawers closed about the ankle, his black satin boots, and his perfumed pipe; are quite a sight to the little mischievous urchins, that compose his train. Immediately after eating, he lies down to sleep. He eats with his pair of mottled porcupine quills; and, in China, his richest luxury is