(seq. 19)

Rochester June 4 1848
5 1/2 PM

Dear S.

It now rains finely with
thunder & lightning. Your Mother
Myself Merritt & Lorinda went this
morning to Friends Meeting which is
now held in No. 3 School house on
Corn Hill. The Society are building
a new house on the site where the
old hovel stood. The young are now
all at Singing School which is this
summer held at the individuals houses
in this district--has been once at
our little paradise -- After we returned
from Meeting the chief musician of the
neighbohood on his way to S School with his
stringed thing in oldtimes caled a fiddle.

Stoped and gave us a number of tunes
quite unlike those we had just heard
or not heard at all at our meeting--
For there as frequently in olden times all
was Silence -- Had I but had the mind &
tongue of a Douglass or many others of
the Nigger race I would have preached
to them myself -- For in these days of
I was about to say Light & knowledge--it seems
to bad to go to meeting where people prefer
to gather for the purpose of good and not
hear a single wrod? word spoken--when
there is such a grand opportunity for telling
a word of truth--I had not those matters of
qualification & therfore kept my peace--By this
remark I do not mean to cary the idea that
any more good is done in the churches