, as you choose to discuss it--but, that
instinctive antipathies exist, is most certain. I was the victim of one
of such that night. Waiting for change in the ticket-office, my eye
lighted on a dark man, of African appearance, standing unpleasantly
near, and for a second or two I could not get rid of a horrible
fascination, compelling me to stare. I say "dark man" advisedly, for it
would have been hard to guess at his original color, unless his cast of
feature had not given a line. Now, I have seen Irish squatters in their
cabins, London outcasts in their penny lodgings, and beggars of Southern
Europe in their nameless dens; but the conviction flashed upon me (and
it has never since passed away), that I was then gazing on a dirtier
specimen of healthy humanity than I had ever yet foregathered with. I
believe that all the rains of heaven beating on his brow would not have
altered its dinginess by a shade, nor penetrated one of the earthy
layers that had thickened there; a thunder-shower must have glanced off,
as water will do from tough, hardened clay. Rough patches of hair,
scanty and straggling, like the vegetation of waste, barren lands, grew
all over his cheeks and chin (a negro with an ample, honest beard is an
anomaly), and a huge bush of wool--unkempt, I dare swear, from earliest
infancy--seemed to repel the ruins of a nondescript hat. Whether he was
really uglier than his fellows I cannot remember--I was so absorbed in
contemplating and realizing his surpassing squalor--but the expression
of the uncouth face (if it had any whatsoever) was, I think, neither
ferocious nor sullen. There is generally a "colored car" attached to
every train; for you will find the tender-hearted Abolitionist, in
despite of his African sympathies, when it is a question of personal
contact or association, quite as earnest in keeping those "innocent
blacknesses" aloof, as the haughtiest Southerner. On the present
occasion there was no such distinction of races. I do not think the
contraband was conscious of the effect produced by his lordly presence;
it was probably simple accident which brought him so often in my
neighborhood; but, wherever I moved through the crowded cars, seeking
for a seat, the loose shambling limbs and dull vacant eyes seemed
impelled to follow. At last I lost my _bete noire_, and found a place
close to the door with nothing but a low pile of logs in my front. I was
tired, and soon began to doze; but I woke up with a s