attended the Y.M.C.A., where I
gave the address in the afternoon, which was followed by a very solemn
after meeting. I went to bed very early, and was up very early the next
morning (Monday, December 22nd). I had to draw the mosquito curtains in
the night, but not till after some of these insects had left their mark.
The principal ground floor of the hotel was on the first floor level,
and the actual ground floor was of secondary importance; the front part
was occupied by stone steps and a colonnade, and the rear was a liquor
bar and a large hall. This hall used to be one of the principal auction
rooms of the city, where slaves were sold by auction; and as I entered
the now rather desolate-looking place, which is partly circular in
shape and constructed with many pillar supports, I pictured to myself
the emotional agonies, the tempests of passion, the lust of greed, the
calm, subdued, resistless attitude of despair which at times found
expression, as domestic circles were for ever broken, tenderest
sympathies for ever sundered, closest friendships for ever
separated--yea, even the most sacred relationships of life ruthlessly
shattered, by the sale of mothers or fathers, brothers or sisters, wives
or husbands, sweethearts or friends. Of this I will give just two
illustrations: Our porter on the train crossing the Northern Prairies
was a coloured man named Farrell; he told me that his mother had seven
boys, and that they were all sold away from her, and that it had been
his life-work to try to find his brothers. He had shipped to Australia
as a seaman, had worked in hotels, and on wharves and rivers, and now
was working on the railway cars endeavouring to find his brothers; he
had advertised for them in the newspapers, but he had never heard of one
of them. When this family was broken up, Farrell and his brothers were
only boys; for it will be remembered that the date of the official
announcement of the total abolition of slavery in the United States was
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 (a