ing in the "Far West" to hear sounds so sweet and so familiar
to my childhood! None but those who have experienced can tell the charm
of such an incident. The minister was in the pulpit. His dress and hair
were very plain, and his complexion was extremely dark. He was
evidently a Welshman: there was no mistake about it: his gravity,
plainness, attitude--all told the fact. I ventured forward, and walked
along to the stove, which to me was an object of agreeable attraction.
Around the stove were two or three chairs. A big aristocratic-looking
Welshman, a sort of a "Blaenor," who occupied one of these chairs,
invited me to take another that was vacant. The eyes of all in the
synagogue were upon me. My "guessing" informant had followed me even
there, though he evidently understood not a word of Welsh. The building
was about 40 feet by 35, without galleries, and was about two-thirds
full. The pulpit was fitted up in the platform style--the "genuine"
American mode. The text was, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so
great a salvation?" The sermon was good and faithful. The audience--the
men on one side of the chapel, and the women on the other--did not
excite much interest. The men, especially, were among the worst hearers
I had ever seen. I felt ashamed of my countrymen. The spitting was
incessant, and attended with certain unmentionable circumstances which
render it most disgusting and offensive. What a contrast to my own
clean and comely congregation of black and coloured people in New
Amsterdam! In about twenty minutes after the preacher had begun his
sermon, one-half of the men had their heads down, resting on both arms
folded on the tops of the pews before them. Whether they were asleep or
not, the attitude was that of deep sleep. This behaviour was grossly
rude,--to say nothing of the apathetic state of mind which it
indicated. I wondered how the preacher could get on at all, with such
hearers before him. I am sorry to say that the Welsh too frequently
manifest a great want of decorum and devotion in their religious
assemblies. This is telling, and will tell, against dissent in the
Principality.

[Footnote 1: Literally, "Of a Saviour for the lost."]

LETTER XVI.

Stay at Cincinnati (continued)--Close of the Welsh Service--The
Governor of Ohio and his Relatives--The "Black Laws"--Governor Bebb's
Hostility to them--Dr. Weed and American Versatility--Private
Lodgings--Introduction to Dr. Beecher and others--A Pe