RETURN FROM PITTSBURG 363 



excuse) to make them quiet and put them to sleep. 

 Spirituous drinks being so universally in use, nobody 

 thinks it harm to give them to children as well, and 

 no attention is paid the bitter injury done their health, 

 and how frequently there is occasion given in this way 

 for internal disorders and consuming diseases. I had 

 many opportunities to convince myself of this, and saw 

 many of our German women killing their children by 

 this practice, who following the advice and the custom 

 of the American women would on all occasions be giv- 

 ing .their children quantities of rum, spirits, anise or 

 kummelwasser, and only to stop their crying. Besides 

 the injury immediately done, the worst feature of the 

 practice is the taste acquired in this way for brandy 

 and grog. Our host's five-year-old child seeks to get 

 hold of rum or grog wherever he can, and steals fur- 

 tively to the flask ; we saw him almost every day stag- 

 gering and drunken ; he was besides weak and thin as 

 a skeleton, just as another very young child of a 

 neighbor, addicted to the same vice. The parents 

 observed this but were at no pains to prevent it ; and 

 the servants and other people appeared even to be 

 amused at the drunken children and to egg them on. 

 In general, children are badly brought up among the 

 Americans, living sporadically as they do, and the 

 servants here being only negroes, ignorant, careless, 

 and immoral, many evils are the consequence. 



We returned by Annapolis, whither it is 30 miles 

 from Bladensburgh. The road lay at first over thin, 

 sandy hills, and then we came into a flatter country 

 where the sand is mixed with a large proportion of 

 good, black earth, producing excellent corn, wheat, 

 and tobacco. This is a most vexatious road for travel- 



