Hutchinson arises from the fact that the names of offenders were always published during that gentleman’s administration, while under that of General Schnierle they are screened from public view.  On any Sunday evening, light may be seen in the shops of these dealers.  If the passer-by will for a few moments stay his course, he will witness the ingress and egress of negroes; if he approach the door, he will hear noise as of card-playing and revelry within.  And this is carried on unblushingly; is not confined to a shop here and a shop there, but may be observed throughout the city.  The writer of this article, some Sundays since, witnessed from his upper window a scene of revelry and gambling in one of these drinking-shops, which will scarcely be credited.  A party of negroes were seen around a card-table, with money beside them, engaged in betting; glasses of liquor were on the table, from which they ever and anon regaled themselves with all the nonchalance and affected mannerism of the most fashionable blades of the beau monde.

“This may not be a ‘desecration of the Sabbath’ by the municipal authorities themselves, but they are assuredly responsible for its profanation.  Appointed to guard the public morals, they are assuredly censurable if licentiousness is suffered to run its wild career unnoticed and unchecked.  We do not ask to be believed.  We would prefer to have skeptical rather than credulous readers.  We should prefer that all would arise from the perusal of this article in doubt, and determine to examine for themselves.  We believe in the strength and sufficiency of ocular proof, and court investigation.

* * *

“We are abundantly repaid if we succeed in arousing public attention to the alarming and dangerous condition of our city. * * * Let inquiry be entered into.  We boldly challenge it.  It will lead to other and more astonishing developments than those we have revealed.  (Signed)

“A responsible citizen.”

CHAPTER XXIX.

Manuel’s arrival in new York.

When we left Manuel, he was being hurried on board the steamship, as if he was a bale of infected goods.  Through the kindness of the clerk in the consul’s office, he was provided with a little box of stores to supply his wants on the passage, as it was known that he would have to “go forward.”  He soon found himself gliding over Charleston bar, and took a last look of what to him had been the city of injustice.  On the afternoon of the second day, he was sitting upon the forward deck eating an orange that had been given to him by the steward of the ship, probably as a token of sympathy for his sickly appearance, when a number of passengers, acting upon the information of the clerk of the ship, gathered around him.  One gentleman from Philadelphia, who seemed to take more interest in the man than any other of the passengers, expressed his indignation in no measured terms, that such a man should be imprisoned as a slave.  “Take care,” said a bystander, “there’s a good many Southerners on board.”