NO EMIGRATION&quot;. 15 



raged it, by preaching, or rather exclaiming louder as the 

 women cried the more, till at last it amounted to almost 

 raving ; and, because he could not make any apparent im 

 pression on the rest of the congregation, he accused them 

 of hardness of heart, &c. I fear there is more weakness 

 and enthusiasm than true devotion in such scenes as these ; 

 still custom makes it sufferable, and the Methodists have 

 been rapidly increasing the last few years, and have evi 

 dently done much good ; in most of the meetings here, of 

 every denomination, they have another disgusting practice 

 in the middle of the service, by holding a green bag at 

 the end of a pole, in your face, along every seat, for money 

 to purchase wood for the stoves, candles, &c. Here I 

 will say a word or two on the excessive fondness of Ame 

 ricans for stoves: every church and meeting has from two 

 to four in each : hardly a poor family in Baltimore but has 

 one or more, at which the cooking is all done in. winter, 

 which makes their rooms like ovens, and many people look 

 as if half starved. Lotteries are continually drawing here, 

 and I believe have a bad tendency on the morals of the 

 middle and lower classes. Almost every tavern keeps a 

 bowling-alley, where the idle resort to play at ten pins (nine 

 pins having been prohibited by law ! ) and various other 

 games. Luxury and licentiousness appear to be usual in 

 the lower part of the community, through the latitude and 

 ability given by the republican institutions as monarchial 

 governments tend to the same effect in the upper classes of 

 their subjects. 



Jan. 27. There has been little frost through the win 

 ter, and finer weather I never saw; the people say they 

 never knew so mild a season, the winters being sometimes 

 rather severe. Walked into the country, by a small stream 

 full of falls, on which twelve or fourteen mills are erected 

 within three or four miles, a most beautiful romantic place ; 

 the water coming from high ground, has washed a channel 

 of one hundred feet deep, and laid bare, in places, Tbcks 

 and loose stones ^&amp;gt;f an enormous size, some of thirty or 

 forty tons ; trees grow out of the steep banks, fifty feet 

 over head, and many from the top of the banks, entwined 

 with the slender vine; saw&quot; a fine field of cock s-foot (here 

 termed &quot;Wtehard- grass) pasture, which they were manur 

 ing, rather an uncommon practice it would seem ; the 

 farmers are either too idle to draw out manure, or do not 



