May we not
hope, dear Aunt, that a new era is dawning upon us with regard to the
universal triumph of love and kindness over oppression of every kind,
and that the brute creation will partake of its benign influences? The
tone and manner in which horses are spoken to often sends a chill to my
heart.
This reminds me, if you will excuse longer delay in my narrative, of
some unfavorable impressions which I received lately on my way to
Boston, with regard to the imperious manner in which a traveller is
assailed by advertisements on the fences, as you pass through the
environs of the city. Every few miles, as the cars passed along, I saw,
printed on the rough boards of a fence: "Visit" so and so; "Use" so and
so; "Try" so and so. I would not be willing to say how often my
attention was caught by those mandatory advertisements. At last I became
conscious of some feeling of resistance. Whether it was that I began to
breathe the air of Bunker Hill, and the atmosphere which nourishes our
most eminent friends of freedom, so many of whom, you know, live in
Boston and vicinity, I cannot tell; but I found myself saying, with
quite enough resentment and emphasis, "I will not 'use' so and so; I
will not 'try' so and so; especially, I will not 'visit' so and
so,--First, It will not be convenient.
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