prayers and sermon the audience took an active part, responding in
groans, 'Oh, yes,' or 'Amen,' sometimes performing a kind of chant to
accompany the words.... A negro minister said in his prayer, 'O God, we
are not for much talking.' I was delighted at the prospect of a short
discourse, but I found his 'not much talking' exactly corresponded to 'a
good deal' in my use of words. He talked for a full hour.

"There was something pleasing in the earnestness of the preacher and the
sympathetic feeling of the audience, but their peculiar condition was
not alluded to, and probably was not felt.

"The discourse was almost ludicrous at times, and at times was pathetic.
I saved up a few specimens:

"'O God, you have said that where one or two are gathered together in
your name, there will you be; if anything stands between us that you
can't come, put it aside.'

"'God wants a kingdom upon earth with which he can coin-cide, and that
kingdom are your heart.'

"'God is near you when you are at the wash-tub or the ironing-table.'

"'Brethren, I thought last Sabbath I wouldn't live to this; a man gets
such a notion sometimes.'

"April 9, Alabama River. Some lessons we of the North might learn from
the South, and one is a greater regard for human life. I asked the
captain of our boat if they had any accidents in these waters. He said,
'We don't kill people at the South, we gave that up some years ago; we