ROMANTIC NEGROES. 87 



rats on the platform examining luggage to find out any 

 thing to eat. 



The train for which we had to wait arrived at last, and 

 we proceeded on our road, and during the following day 

 journeyed through fine settlements for grazing cattle, of 

 which I saw plenty, also some sheep, as well as very 

 large numbers of pigs ; and, for a wonder, the farmers had 

 fenced their fields on either side, and thus afforded better 

 protection to the lives of those who passed their lands by 

 steam. During the middle portion of this journey, and 

 at a time when we were in sight of the Ohio river, on 

 one side of which was a Slave State, while in agreeable 

 conversation with some ladies and gentlemen, I jocularly 

 remarked on the great disappointment I naturally felt, in 

 passing the larger rivers, not to see romantic and heart 

 broken " blacks" gracefully seated on " snags " or pic 

 turesque promontories on the banks of the streams, melo 

 diously and pathetically singing of innumerable " Mary 

 Blanes " and " Lucy Neals," of whose fond attachments 

 they had been reft by their cruel masters. I told my 

 friends that it was the general belief in England that the 

 scenes on the banks of rivers in America were always 

 deeply interesting, from the perpetual dancing and sing 

 ing of black men, but that up to the time at which I was 

 then speaking I had met with nothing of the sort. 



" Guess you have heard fine stories," replied one of 

 the gentlemen ; " I'd like to know hum um. Tell us 



some more." 



" Well," I continued, " I assure you that in my coun 

 try it is the general belief that the negroes, though paint 

 ed by the anti-slavery humbugs (reader, I detest slavery, 

 but I hate humbugs who deal in falsehood under a pre 

 tence to serve Heaven, just as much), as the most cruelly 



