Bunker-hill Monument, where the battle was fought in 1775, when General
James Warren fell: it is a very substantial mark of Jonathan conquering
John. Bull. I then visited the Massachusetts State-house: the
Congress-house and Representatives are very commodious. I ascended the
top, which gives a most commanding view of the whole city: it was very
clear, and the view was most extensive. Like New York, it is upon an
island, surrounded (except a few yards) with the River Charles and the
Ocean. Home to dinner, and gave my friends T. Cochrane and Mr. Schofield
two bottles of champagne, it being my last day in the States. We then
proceeded to Perkins's Institution for the Blind, managed by my
fellow-passenger, Dr. Howe. We saw the gifted Laura Bridgman, whose
biography I give elsewhere.[A] She is an interesting-looking girl,
fifteen years old, deaf, dumb, blind, and no smell: still Providence
makes her contented and happy: she can read and write, and understand
geography with her fingers, and is blessed with the knowledge of Divine
grace. It was truly interesting and gratifying to see the blind girls
read and write and work, all so clean and neat in their persons, and
apparently happy. Also the boys are instructed in a similar way, and,
when ready, put out to some trade; and, if no master can be found, they
instruct them in the institution to make mattresses, chair-bottoms, &c.,
several of whom I saw working. We then visited South Boston State
Hospital for the Insane, at the head of which is Dr. Stedman, who
conducts it admirably on the enlightened principles of conciliation and
kindness, and evinces a confidence and apparent trust even in mad
people. Each ward in this institution is shaped like a long gallery or
hall; and, as we walked along, the patients flocked round us
unrestrained, with all sorts of stories. I had ten minutes' talk with an
elderly lady, who had a great many scraps of finery, of gauze, &c.,
which gave her a strange appearance: she fancied she was the hostess of
the mansion. Another I talked to said she was Queen of the States.