Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

LETTERS. 235
heads behind my own; one of them a vulgar-looking
man, the other a fat-faced girl with fluffy hair;
neither of them faces I had ever seen before, or ever
desired to see again. The whole proceeding indicated
trickery. Still, notwithstanding the great amount of
trickery practised, and the unsatisfactory nature of
all the communications, there are real phenomnona
connected with the subject which are to me inexplicable, and which indicate some laws of the universe
at present unknown to us.
TO JOHN G. WHITTIER.
WAYLAND, January 20, 1876.
You remember Charles Sprague's description of
scenes he witnessed from a window near State
Street? First, Garrison dragged through the streets
by a mob; second, Burns carried back to slavery by
United States troops, through the same street; third,
a black regiment marching down the same street to
the tune of " John Brown," to join the United States
army for the emancipation of their race. What a
thrilling historical poem might be made of that! I
have always thought that no incident in the antislavery conflict, including the war, was at once so sublime and romantic as Robert G. Shaw riding through
Washington Street at the head of that black regiment.
He, so young, so fair, so graceful in his motions, so
delicately nurtured, so high-bred in his manners,
waving his sword to friends at the windows, like a
brave young knight going forth to "deeds of high
emprise;" followed by that dark-faced train, so long
trampled in the dust, and now awakened by the
trumpet-tones of freedom! How I wish a grand historical painting could be made of it! M/r. Sears, in a