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Transatlantic Rambles; Or, a Record of Twelve Months' Travel in the United States, Cuba,
Transatlantic Rambles Or a Record of Twelve Months' Travel in the United States Cuba Author:Dixon Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. " And Airey Force, that torrent hoarse. Speaks from its wooded glen."— Wordsworth. AN AMERICAN TEMPERANCE MEETING—THE INN AT SARATOGA— THB ST... more »ATE PRISON AT AUBURN—FOREST SCENERY—RAILWAY MANAGEMENT NIAGARA BATTLE OP LUNDYS LANE VIEW OP THE FALLS FROM TABLE ROCK—VISIT TO A WAX-WORK EXHIBITION A NATURAL SHOWER BATH LORD ELGIN INTERVIEW WITH A CANADIAN FARMER—QUEENSTOWN. On my return from the mountain, I found the inhabitants of the usually apathetic village of Kaatskill almost beside themselves. The great Mr. Gough, second only to Father Mathew as a popular temperance lecturer, had suddenly signified his intention of appearing amongst them, and numerous bill stickers and criers were in motion to inform them of the same. I followed in the general stream and soon found myself in the principal meeting-house of the village, in which were assembled a large miscellaneous audience, but all quiet and attentive. When a prayer had been offered up by a precentor, and a sort of Gregorian chaunt had been performed by a juvenile choir, the hero of the evening, a quiet unpretending-looking young man began his address. At first he went on calmly and quietly, in a way really calculated to make proselytes not followers only, but soon the lion began to roar, and then he poured forth such a stream of noisy anathemas at the head of all hotel-keepers who sold anything stronger than tea,—such improbable anecdotes, such imprecations and groanings, interspersed here and there with bits of colloquial illustration, aa quite astonished me. At one moment the audience would be aghast at some-appalling well-told tale of alcohol, and at the next, perfectly convulsed with laughter at some comic dialogue between Jehu and Sambo, two negroes, desirous of abjuring spirits, illustrated ...« less