eiled lids,--the people prayed.
Then was that moment, in its muteness, worth
The laboring day that bore it, for all sense
Seemed filtered of its grossness; what was earth
Sunk settling with the dust to earth again,
As through the calm, pure atmosphere, arose
One mingling meditation unto Heaven.
Oh, beautiful is silence, when it falls
On housed assemblies bowed in voiceless prayer:
But when it lays its finger on the heart
Of a great city, stilling all the wheels
Of life's employment, that to Heaven may turn
Its many thousand reverend breathing souls
With gesture simultaneous; when proud man
Like multitudinous marble, moveless stands
With God communing, then does silence seem,
In its unworded eloquence, sublime.
Therein, doth Romish worship point rebuke
To him who doth ignore it, for therein
It rises to a majesty of praise
O'erspanning huge cathedrals, for it makes
The censer, candle, rosary, and book
But senseless mockeries.

So sunk the sun
Till on its amber throne, like drapery doffed,
Lay piled th' imperial purple. Then the stir
Of an awakened world swept through the crowd,
As forest leaves are wind-swept after lulls,
And, with the sense of a renewing joy,
The murmurous people turned them to their homes.

MANILA, 1856.

MY MARYLAND!

THE SEPTEMBER RAID.

They took thy boots, they took thy coats,
My Maryland!
And paid for them in 'Confed' notes,
My Maryland!
They gobbled down thy corn like goats,
And rooted up thy truck like shoats,
But then--they didn't get thy votes
Or volunteers--my Maryland!

A MERCHANT'S STORY.

'All of which I saw, and part of which I was.'

CHAPTER V.

On the cleared plot in front of the store were assembled, as I have
said, about a hundred men, women, and children, witnessing a 'turkey
match.' It was a motley gathering. All classes and colors and ages were
there. The young gentleman who boasted his hundred darkies, and the
small planter who worked in the field with his five negroes; the 'poor
trash' who scratched a bare subsistence from a sorry patch of beans and
'collards,' and the swearing, staggering bully who did not condescend to
do anything; the young child that could scarcely walk alone, and the old
man who could hardly stand upright; the brawny field hand who had toiled
over night to finish his task in ti