252 COLOURED WAITERS. 



what the dishes contain altogether, and leave them to 

 less scrupulous neighbours. 



What amused me most at this hotel was the excellent 

 discipline maintained by their chef among the eighteen 

 black waiters who attended the table. In carrying out 

 the first course, they all started at a signal, and marched 

 en militaire in double file, each bearing his dish, and 

 presently returned in the same order with the second 

 course, opening into Indian file as they reached the head 

 of the table ; and when each had reached his station, 

 depositing the whole at the same instant on a signal 

 from the head-waiter, who was also dark-coloured. The 

 peculiar proud swagger with which all this was done, 

 the air of the men as they strutted along, and the evi- 

 dent " Isn't that well done ? " which each of them looked 

 as he lifted his cover, were most amusing to me, Avho 

 had not yet had much opportunity of studying the pecu- 

 liarities of the free coloured people in the northern 

 States. My own sympathies have always followed this 

 unhappy race of people, whether in slavery or in free- 

 dom, and I have usually found them civil and obliging. 

 They are often, however, very conceited ; and can be 

 very saucy, as white servants in English hotels not 

 imfrequently are. But they are in general very quiet and 

 civil, and have a peculiar knack at waiting. Of abso- 

 lute rudeness among this class of people, the only 

 instance I met with was in the Irving Hotel in New 

 York, where black servants are employed, and where, on 

 the occasion of my visit, one peculiarly black and 

 impertinent sheep had certainly found a place among 

 the flock. 



In the afternoon, I went down to the Falls. I crossed 

 over to the Canadian side, and spent several hours on 

 the banks which overlook them. I afterwards walked 

 to the suspension bridge a couple of miles below, which 

 is itself a nervous thing to walk along, and from which 



