It Is By No Means Uncommon For Them To Inflict Chastisement On Negresses With Whom They Are In Habitual Illicit Intercourse, And I Was Credibly Informed That This Cruelty Was Often Resorted To, To Disabuse The Mind Of A Deceived And Injured Wife Who Suspects Unfair Treatment.

This attested fact, disgraceful as it is, can scarcely be wondered at in men who mercilessly subject defenceless women to the lash without a spark of human feeling, or compunction of conscience.

It is little to the credit of United States senators that they have not at least made laws to protect women from the barbarous usage of flogging. One would imagine that men, who, perhaps, above all others in the world, pay homage to the sex, would have established a distinction in this respect; but I apprehend the truth to be, that they are so far influenced by their wives, who are notoriously jealous of their sable rivals, that they have succumbed to their sentiments and dictation.

There are many Dutch in St. Louis, and along the levee you perceive boarding-houses and groceries kept for their accommodation. These men are generally great drinkers, and think as little of quaffing at a few draughts half-a-pint of whiskey, as an Englishman would the same quantity of malt liquor. They consume, also, vast quantities of claret. I have frequently seen a couple of these men at a cafe, drink five or bottles without betraying any ill effects. It must, however, be remembered that claret is not so potent as the heavier wines.

A few days after my arrival, while standing in the vestibule of my hotel, my attention was drawn to a loud altercation going on at the bar, and as it was evident, from the manner of the parties, that some public question was being discussed, I listened, and ascertained that an obnoxious citizen had been seized for perpetrating a petty act of revenge on a neighbour by damaging his horse, and was that day to be publicly tarred, feathered, and escorted out of the city, as they said, bag and baggage. Having ascertained the spot selected for the scene, I determined to witness it. Accordingly, at noon, the appointed hour, I repaired to an open spot of building-land on the Carondelet side of the city. Here I found assembled a motley assemblage of citizens, negroes, steamboat-hands, and the general riff-raff of the place. Although the crowd was not so great, the meeting strongly reminded me of those scenes of infamy and disgrace in England - public executions; the conduct of the assembled throng on this occasion being the more decorous of the two. Precisely at twelve, the mob made a rush towards one corner of the open space, from which direction I saw the culprit advancing, in charge of thirty or forty well-dressed people (the committee appointed for the occasion being among the number). He was a stout man, and described to me as a great bully; but now he looked completely crest-fallen.

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