mistresses are getting more enlightened, and so are servants. I know gentlemen and ladies who would not put on a suit of clothes without the servants say it is suitable, but if the same servants chance to offend them, they will sell them to go as far as cars and boats will carry them.
I know a widow lady who lives in Mississippi, she comes down to New Orleans every season to provide for her plantation. She is very much thought of and sought after, more particularly by merchants, on account of her immense wealth, her name is Mrs. G.; she came to the St. Charles and staid some days there. I had the pleasure of waiting on this honorable lady; she left to go home, and I went in the same boat to make a visit to a plantation further on. It seems the steward had offended her in some way, coming down, and on our going back again, when the boat stopped at her plantation, the steward came forward, expecting a dollar or so as steward's fee, she handed him a little package and told him to carry it for her; there were about fifty or so of her servants came down to see her on her arrival, and when the steward came among them, she told them that fellow had insulted her, when they all put after him like a parcel of blood-hounds, and he had to actually jump into the water to reach the plank to get on board the boat, or they would have torn him in pieces. Such devotion is from kindness. She is a kind mistress.
In the same neighborhood, a short time before, a lady was attempted to be poisoned three times by her slaves for her cruelty to them. Was this lady a Louisiana lady? No, she was not, she was from the North, and was one who had to work for her living before
