a gate
open for a man with a wheelbarrow.

One white boy cried to another across a street, "Come along, it's most
time to be in school." The other answered, in a petulant tone, "I a'n't
going to school." A tall, white-headed negro was passing; his black
surtout nearly touched the ground; he had on his arm a very nice
market-basket, covered with a snow-white napkin, and in his right hand a
long cane. Hearing what the last boy said, he came to a full stand, put
down his basket, clasped his long cane with both hands, and brought it
down on the brick sidewalk with three quick raps, and then a rap at each
of these points of admiration: "What! what! what!" said he, drawing
himself up to express surprise, and calling out with magisterial voice;
"Go to school! my son! go to school! and larn! a heap!" the cane making
emphasis at every expression. The white boy retreated under the
impression of a well-deserved, though kind, rebuke. He did not call the
old man "nigger," nor in any way insult him.

But here is an incident of a different kind.

Standing to talk with a man who had charge of my baggage, in the
passage-way between the baggage-room and the colored passengers'
apartment. I saw a white man with a pert, flurried manner and coarse
look ascend the steps of the cars, and behind him a tall graceful black
man, a little older than the other, with signs of gentleness and dignity
in his appearance. As he stooped and turned, his air and carriage would
have commanded attention anywhere. The white man, seeing him enter the
wrong door, cried out to him with an impudent voice, ordered him back,
pointed him to the proper room, and told him to go in there and make
himself "oneasy," with a laugh at his own attempt at inaccurate talk as
he cast a glance at some white men standing by. The black man was his
slave. The natural and proper order of things was reversed in their
relation to each other.

I looked at the black man as he took his seat, and, without being
observed, I kept my eye on his face. He cast his eye out of the window,
as though to relieve a struggle of emotions, but a calm expression
settled down upon his features.

A Southern gentleman, a slave-holder, witnessing the scene with me,
said,--

"Disgusting! There, madam, you have one of the great evils of
slavery,--irresponsible power in the hands of men who are not fit to be
intrusted with authority over others. No man, I sometimes think, ought
to be allowed to hold sla