Peter's.
Baltimore has a handsome museum, superintended by one of the
Peale family, well known for their devotion to natural science,
and to works of art. It is not their fault if the specimens
which they are enabled to display in the latter department are
very inferior to their splendid exhibitions in the former.
The theatre was closed when we were in Baltimore, but we were
told that it was very far from being a popular or fashionable
amusement. We were, indeed, told this every where throughout the
country, and the information was generally accompanied by the
observation, that the opposition of the clergy was the cause of
it. But I suspect that this is not the principal cause,
especially among the men, who, if they were so implicit in their
obedience to the clergy, would certainly be more constant in
their attendance at the churches; nor would they, moreover, deem
the theatre more righteous because an English actor, or a French
dancer, performed there; yet on such occasions the theatres
overflow. The cause, I think, is in the character of the people.
I never saw a population so totally divested of gaiety; there is
no trace of this feeling from one end of the Union to the other.
They have no fetes, no fairs, no merry makings, no music in the
streets, no Punch, no puppet-shows. If they see a comedy or a
farce, they may laugh at it; but they can do very well without
it; and the consciousness of the number of cents that must be
paid to enter a theatre, I am very sure turns more steps from its
door than any religious feeling.
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