i860.] WASHINGTON, 233 



feel rather queer. I thought I had a right to some recreation, 

 but of course none was so pleasant as to teach such a sweet 

 little fellow. I think I never had such a young pupil before — 

 so sweet-tempered a one, with such bright eyes. The poor 

 boy's only amusement is piety. He is not allowed to play in 

 the park, or skate, for fear of other boys corrupting him and 

 following him back to the Institution. ... I believe with 

 Swedenborg that such children are under the special care of 

 the heavenly angels. 



" I went the first Sunday to the oldest Catholic church ; a 

 very plain place, but a pleasant congregation : blacks and 

 whites sitting together, and I among them. . . . The only 

 way in which one can bear one's testimony is, to sit among the 

 slaves and be kind to them. I looked on at a christening of 

 black children before mass. There was no godfather; only the 

 woman who brought the baby answered for the children, in 

 one case a mere girl. This is an accommodation of the Church 

 to the prevalent idea that slaves have no father. It would 

 certainly be very inconvenient for the father to show himself, 

 very often. How this horrid corruption goes through every- 

 thing ! I am reading [Mrs. Gaskell's] ' North and South,' which 

 brings up old times. I shall never forget the horror of those 

 strikes and starvations — evils from which here they are at least 

 free ; but then at home we can speak our minds on evils, and 

 fight openly against them. ... I went on New Year's Day to 

 the same church. I bid all the coloured people I met a Happy 

 New Year, but without knowing whether it were not almost an 

 insult. (Of course, the free blacks are now treated worse than 

 ever. Solomon, a very clever factotum here, cannot get the 

 paper he has paid for. The [coloured] Methodists, who are 

 always obliged to ask leave to hold watch-nights, and always 

 have a policeman to watch them, this year thought it prudent 

 not to ask. If one made improper prayers, one might be taken 

 up ! Another congregation, with a white minister, was allowed 

 to meet. I did not feel in a humour to watch where one's 

 prayers are watched, nor to worship with the white slave- 

 holders; so kept watch-night by going to bed.) I felt some,- 



