made on the 18th December, 1862, when upwards of 4,000,000 slaves were
legally declared free men. Another coloured man engaged at this hotel,
who was born a slave, remembered walking with his father, who was also a
slave, and his father's anxiety to get home before nine o'clock at
night, as no coloured man was allowed to be in the streets after that
hour unless he possessed a sufficient authority from his owner. This man
told me that at an auction of slaves at this hotel (auctions of slaves
were held in New Orleans at different places three times a week) a very
fine intelligent young man was sold by auction for 2,100 dollars to a
lawyer who was known to be a cruel man. My informant told me that his
name was--well, it sounded like Rumo, possibly Roumeaux, as most of the
wealthy settlers were of French origin, that he lived in St. James'
Ward, and that when he bought slaves and sent them down to his
plantations, they each received twenty-five lashes as they entered his
gates, as an example, of what they would receive if they did not please
him. Well, when the hammer fell and this slave knew that he belonged to
an owner whose cruelty was common talk, he exclaimed, "You have lost
your money." This slave was sent down with others to the steamer on the
Mississippi (which is only some ten minutes' walk from the hotel), for
shipment to this owner's plantations. The poor fellow was not even
allowed to say good-bye to his people, but was sent on board. When he
arrived there, he repeated to the man in charge of the slaves, "Mr. Rumo
will lose his money," and shortly after he took advantage of a
favourable moment, and, folding his arms, he threw himself backward into
the river, and was drowned.

A few minutes' walk from my hotel is the Henry Clay monument, where the
mob was addressed last month by Mr. Parkerson, who incited them to
proceed to the prison and force an entrance, and then to take the lives
of a number of Italian murderers by lynch law. On this monument some