had never disgraced the history of infant humanity or constituted the
day-dreams of our ancestors. They carefully select that which flatters and
pleases the vanity of their fellows, and pass by unnoticed, everything
else. This course may tickle vain people, but it cannot meet with favor
among those who love the truth, and the whole truth. There are sins of
_omission_ as well as of _commission,_ and writers betray and deceive the
world as much by the former class as by the latter. Some fastidious
writers are afraid to call things by their proper names, considering it
more appropriate to paint an African with a brownish color than to shock
the beholder with a picture of a man with a _black_ face! I can not take
the reader through Europe in that way. To paint a negro we need _black_
paint, and to describe scenes which are unfamiliar we need words and
language that is not used in the drawing room or parlor every time we
meet. So much for the introduction to an episode that is characteristic of
the profanity of some of the descendents of the old Teutonic stock, when
they become exasperated. The second day that I spent in Cologne, I went to
a German barber to be put into trim for making my descend into the lower
latitudes and consequently warmer countries. Another customer was ahead of
me. While the barber was at work upon him, all the time in a rage and
swearing _barber_ously at some proceedings, a thunder storm came up very
suddenly, and so obscured the light of the sun (though it was midday) that
he could not see to go on with his work. Hereupon he began first to swear
at the clouds, then at the Lord himself, using all the epithets of abuse
that he could find in his entire vocabulary of profanity, there were heavy
peals of thunder and vivid flashes of lightning, but, the darker it became
and the more tremendous the crashes of the thunderbolts, the more the
senseless and exasperated barber cursed and swore. After the shower and
hail, I walked out into the pure fresh air and under the blue vault of
heaven smiling down upon the refreshed vegetation, and tried to draw a
picture of that profane man's mental panorama, but I never succeeded even