t the invitation. We found a very spacious church,
gas-light, and the balustrades of the galleries copiously hung
with wreaths and festoons of flowers, and a large audience of
both sexes, which, both in appearance and behaviour, was
respectable and decorously observant of the proprieties of the
place. The services were opened, as usual, with prayer and a
hymn, the latter inspired by powerful lungs, and in which the
musical ear at once caught the negro talent for melody. The
lecturer was then introduced as Mrs. F.E.W. Harper, from
Maryland. Without a moment's hesitation she started off in the
flow of her discourse, which rolled smoothly and uninterruptedly
on for nearly two hours. It was very apparent that it was not a
cut and dried speech, for she was as fluent and as felicitous in
her allusions to circumstances immediately around her as she was
when she rose to a more exalted pitch of laudation of the
"Union," or of execration of the old slavery system. Her voice
was remarkable--as sweet as any woman's voice we ever heard, and
so clear and distinct as to pass every syllable to the most
distant ear in the house.

Without any effort at attentive listening we followed the
speaker to the end, not discerning a single grammatical
inaccuracy of speech, or the slightest violation of good taste
in manner or matter. At times the current of thoughts flowed in
eloquent and poetic expression, and often her quaint humor would
expose the ivory in half a thousand mouths. We confess that we
began to wonder, and we asked a fine-looking man before us,
"What is her color? Is she dark or light?" He answered, "She is
mulatto; what they call a red mulatto." The 'red' was new to us.
Our neighbor asked, "How do you like her?" We replied, "She is
giving your people the best kind and the very wisest of advice."
He rejoined, "I wish I had her education." To which we added,
"That's just what she tells you is your great duty and your
need, and if you are too old to get it yourselves, you must give
it to your children."

The speaker left the impression on our mind that she was not
only intelligent and educated, but--the great end of
education--she was enlightened. She comprehends perfectly the
situation of her people, to whose interests she seems ardently
devoted. The main theme of her discourse,