CINCINNATI. 89 



I continued to amuse myself with putting questions to 

 gentlemen, the answers to which completely tended to 

 prove the truth of the female lip. Though these anti- 

 slavery men of course raised that very handy shield of 

 u heavenly intentions and the rights of man," there was 

 not one of them who would have admitted a man of 

 colour, when free, to the courtesies of a dog, or who at 

 tempted to gainsay the fact that those negroes who were 

 emancipated had degenerated in the social scale of exist 

 ence, and become generally the very refuse of the very 

 lowest grade of the American population. 



I forget the hour at which on Saturday, the llth of 

 September, we arrived at the large and influential town 

 of Cincinnati, to the principal hotel of which I had tele 

 graphed from Altoona to bespeak a bed for myself and a 

 lock-up room or stable in which my servant and dogs 

 could sleep. Arrived at the hotel, which is a very large 

 one, I entered the ample hall or lounging place in front 

 of the bar, considerably stared at by faces catching 

 glimpses of me in the midst of tobacco-smoke from 

 between the thighs, legs, and feet of the bodies to which 

 those faces belonged, as they balanced themselves in 

 upside down, fashion on chairs or benches, rather than 

 sat, which had been arranged for the convenience of 

 customers. There also were the spittoons hopelessly 

 placed against pillars or the sides of walls by despairing 

 Irish housemaids, whose laborious duty it was every 

 morning before daylight to scrub the filthy floors. 



On entering the hall, then, all the gentlemen that were 

 there stared at me, as I walked up to the bar, behind 

 which stood what I immediately saw was, no doubt, a 

 military officer of high rank, and I asked of that most 

 dignified-looking volunteer if a telegraphic message had 



