habit in the House of God strikes a stranger as rude and irreverent.
You meet with no indications of private devotion, either preceding or
following public worship. A man marches into his pew, or his pulpit,
sits down, wipes his nose, and stares at all about him; and at the
close, the moment the "Amen" is uttered, he is off with as much speed
as if the house were on fire. In this instance, the service had not
exceeded an hour and a half; and yet they hurried out as if they
thought the beef was all burnt, and the pudding all spoiled. Of course,
there were no thanks to the stranger for his services,--to say nothing
of the _quiddam honorarium_, which to a man travelling for health, at
his own expense, with an invalid wife, might have been supposed not
unacceptable.

When, however, I got to the portico outside, a gentleman, with his
wife, was waiting to see me before they stepped into their carriage.
Here was some token of politeness and hospitality,--an invitation to
dinner, no doubt.--"Thank you, sir, I am very much obliged to you; but
I left my wife very ill at our lodgings this morning, and therefore I
cannot have the pleasure to dine with you to-day," was the civil excuse
I was preparing. Never was expectation more beside the mark. My "guess"
was altogether wrong. "What are you going to do with yourself this
afternoon?" was the gentleman's blunt salutation. "What have _you_ to
propose, sir?" was my reply. "I am the superintendent," he said, "of a
German Sunday-school in the upper part of the city, and I should like
you to come and address the children this afternoon." I promised to go,
and he to send to my "lodgings" for me. We both kept our appointment.
The number of scholars was about 100. This effort to bring the Germans
under a right religious influence is very laudable; for there are about
10,000 of that people in Cincinnati. One quarter of the city is
entirely German. You see nothing else on the sign-boards; you hear
nothing else in the streets. Of these Germans the greater part are
Roman Catholics.

After visiting the school, I found myself in time to attend one of the
chapels of the coloured people at 3 P.M. A medical student, whom I had
met in the morning, and again at the German school, accompanied me. He
was a New Englander, and a thorough anti-slavery man. When we got to
the chapel--a Baptist one--they were at prayer. Walking in softly, we
entered a pew right in the midst of them. The minister--a mulatto