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

 
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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



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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



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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