eaders of _Lippincott_, who will recognize my description, will
remember. She was caressed and feted by literary and social celebrities
in Washington and New York; Boston made much of her; Longfellow and
Holmes made verses in her honor; prying reporters gave accounts of her
singular charm and beauty to the public in the daily papers.

She was accompanied by two of the men of her family. They did not speak
English, but they were men of strong practical sense and business
capacity, with the odd combination in their character of that
exaggerated perception of honorable dealing which we are accustomed to
call chivalric. They had, too, a grave dignity and composure of bearing
which would have befitted Spanish hidalgos, and beside which our pert,
sociable American manner and slangy talk were sadly belittled. These men
(for I had a reason in making particular inquiries concerning them) were
in private life loyal friends, good citizens, affectionate husbands and
fathers--in a word, Christian men, honest from the marrow to the
outside.

Now to the strange part of my story, revolting enough to our republican
ears. This lady and her people, in the country to which they belong, are
held in a subjection to which that of the Russian serf was comparative
freedom. They are held legally as the slaves not of individuals, but of
the government, which has absolute power over their persons, lives and
property. Its manner of exercising that power is, however, peculiar.
They are compelled to live within certain enclosures. Each enclosure is
ruled by a man of the dominant race, usually of the lower class, who, as
a rule, gains the place by bribing the officer of government who has
charge of these people. The authority of this man within the limits of
the enclosure is literally as autocratic as that of the Russian czar. He
distributes the rations intended by the government for the support of
these people, or such part of them as he thinks fit, retaining whatever
amount he chooses for himself. There is nothing to restrain him in these
robberies. In consequence, the funds set aside by the government for the
support of its wretched dependants are stolen so constantly by the
officers at the capital and the petty tyrants of the separate enclosures
that the miserable creatures almost yearly starve and freeze to death
from want. Their resource would be, of course, as they are in a
civilized country, to work at trades, to farm, etc. But this is not
pe