People Vie With Each Other In The
Costliness Of Their Furs And Sleigh Equipments; A Complete Set Sometimes
Costing As Much As A Hundred Guineas.
I went into the Romish cathedral, which is the largest Gothic building in
the New World.
It was intended to be very imposing - it has succeeded in
being very extravagant; and if the architects intended that their work
should live in the admiration of succeeding generations, like York
Minster, Cologne, or Rouen, they have signally failed. Internally, the
effect of its vast size is totally destroyed by pews and galleries which
accommodate ten thousand people. There are some very large and very
hideous paintings in it, in a very inferior style of sign-painting. The
ceiling is painted bright blue, and the high altar was one mass of gaudy
tinsel decoration. In one corner there was a picture of babies being
devoured by pigs, and trampled upon by horses, and underneath it was a box
for offerings, with "This is the fate of the children of China" upon it.
By it was a wooden box, hung with faded pink calico, containing small
wooden representations, in the Noah's-ark style, of dogs, horses, and
pigs, and a tall man holding up a little dog by its hind legs. This peep-
show (for I can call it nothing else) was at the same time so inexplicable
and so ludicrous, that, to avoid shocking the feelings of a devout-looking
woman who was praying near it by an "éclat de rire," we hurried from the
church.
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