irth they give us. Unlucky days and numbers,
together with signs and omens, and all such, are open questions with
me. I should be sorry to be incapable of a little superstition, so
called, now and then. Indeed, I rather believe it is all a phantasmal
flickering of the abyss of mysteries with which we are, at all times
and in all places, ever enveloped.

Off we are, then, from Thomasville, with waving handkerchiefs and
pleasant farewells from the dear friends we leave behind. Our journey
lay through a rich country, the whole effect like an English
landscape--luxuriant trees, and a verdant, undulating surface, glowing
with flowers, and here and there, opulent with cultivation. We had
hoped to have reached New Orleans in time for church service on Sunday
morning, but the broken bridge prevented all that; and when we reached
Montgomery, Alabama, we were too late, even there, for attendance at
morning service, and were inexorably scheduled to leave for New Orleans
early in the afternoon.

Our stay gave us an opportunity to get a sort of silent silhouette of
the old Capitol of the Confederacy. A Sunday sleep was over the
business portions of the town, broken only by the pathetic persistence
of those who will run to the store, and look at the mail, or do
something or other, from the mere fact that the average business man,
in the average town, does not know what on earth to do with himself
when not at work. He will hang around even on Sunday at his place of
business, for it is less wearisome there than anywhere else.

Some of us saw at Montgomery the spot in the Capitol, marked by a star
in the pavement, where Jefferson Davis stood when sworn in as President
of the Confederacy; others of us in our stroll saw the public fountain,
with its bronze tablets of: "This side for colored people," "This side
for white people," and also a tablet, of possibly universal application
to blacks and whites alike: "No loafing round here." We also noticed a
rather startling announcement at the Y.M.C.A. Hall: "The devil will be
fought in four rounds here to-night."

Our afternoon and evening ride from Montgomery to New Orleans gave one
the impression of all manner of possible wealth and progress. It seemed
a rich, fertile country, needing but the influx of capital and labor to
make it a paradise. There may be dragons lurking in swamps, or demons
in the upper air, ready to hurl fiery darts at daring man in his
Promethean efforts. But dragons c