Part 8 (2/2)
The dinner was of that kind which still graces the hospitable boards of old Connecticut At one end of the table a roasted turkey, which had been stuffed a couple of days before, in order that the spices, coht penetrate and flavor the flesh of the noble bird, turned up his round full breast to the carving-knife; at the other end, another turkey, somewhat smaller, boiled and served with oyster sauce, kept company with her mate, while near the centre, which was occupied by bleached celery in a crystal vase, a hty ham balanced a chicken pie of equal size Besides these principal dishes there were roasted and boiled fowls, and ducks, and tongues, flanked by cranberry and apple sauces, and mashed turnips and potatoes On the sideboard (for be it remembered, it hen this old cap was new,” and a practice which now is considered, at least, questionable, was then held in all honor, and its neglect was never dreaardliness and want of breeding) stood bottles of wine, and flagons containing still stronger liquors, together with a large pitcher of delicious cider Upon the res, and pies, and custards, and tarts, and sillabubs, and they, in their turn, were succeeded by apples and different sorts of nuts, with raisins and figs, hich the repast was concluded Such was an old Thanksgiving dinner The present preliminary soup was unusual or unknown It was an array capable of supplying the wants of a er company, and but a small part could be consumed, but it was the fashi+on, and it still continues They were celebrating the bounty of Providence, and it was meet that the liberality of rave and decorous, as became the importance of the occasion, and his assistant, multiplied themselves into a thousand waiters, sedulous to anticipate the wants of the host and his guests
The conversation, which at first ran in several distinct rills being confined to each one's ihborhood mostly, and interrupted by the serious business of dinner, seeradually, after a time, to unite its various streams into one common current The attention of the doctor was first attracted from an unsuccessful attempt to quote to Mrs Bernard Shakspeare's fa a beef-steak by an observation of Mr Robinson to Mr Arht being occupied by Mrs Bernard, next to whom sat the doctor
”The results,” said the erace shall nal manner than has heretofore been vouchsafed, they seemed destined to die in their sins”
”Is there, then, no escape fro ”After being hunted froraves of their fathers, ly?”
”Can the clay say to the potter, 'What doest thou?'” said Mr
Robinson ”He maketh one vessel to honor and another to dishonor
Repeated attempts have been made to civilize and Christianize them, but in vain Whohed, and another sigh, so loas unheard, stole fro of the Indians?” inquired the doctor
”Yes,” said Mr Robinson, ”and of the failure of all attempts by Christians to ameliorate their condition”
”And are you surprised it should be so?” inquired the doctor
”The ways of Providence are inscrutable,” replied Mr Robinson ”I pretend not to explain the reasons why they are deaf to the pleadings of the Gospel”
”What,” cried the doctor, slightly altering his favorite author, ”'hath not an Indian eyes? Hath not an Indian hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the sa a Christian, what is his hu an Indian, what should his sufferance be, by Christian exae' There, you have the whole in a nut-shell”
”In addition to the difficulty growing out of their treate, ”there is another, which I consider insuperable, arising out of a difference of race”
”I do not quite understand you,” observed Mr Robinson
”It is said by naturalists,” answered the Judge, ”that man comprehends, within himself, the peculiarities of all inferior animals Now, there are some capable of domestication, while others are irreclaier The wild element controls the one, and is controllable in the other In my opinion, this wild element so predominates in the Indian as to er”
”But so
”A _quasi_ civilization, I grant,” said the Judge; ”and were I to concede more, the exceptions are so few as only to confirm the rule”
”Your theory opens a wide field for speculation,” said Mr Robinson, ”and I could bring many objections to it In the first place”----
”No doubt, no doubt,” cried the Judge, hastily, and desirous to avoid the arising collision, ”and I shall be happy to examine the subject, at some future time, with you I throw out these ideas only as hints
But there is another rule operative, if, indeed, it is not the saive place to the superior race”
”That is not clear, either,” said the divine ”What race ever existed superior to the Jews? Yet, observe their condition”