Laura E. Richards, Maud Howe, Florence Howe Hall, Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, in two volumes, with portraits and other illustrations: volume 1

[329] elevation of the Host a perfect Babel. Music, “Ernani,” “Fra Diavolo,” with some similar things. A single trumpet shrieked at some high moments. The bells rang like a thousand tin pans. Orchestra and chorus not together and both out of tune. The ceremony otherwise perhaps as well as usual. A priest made a brief address in Spanish, praising the day and complimenting the President....

“Studied Baur, Aristophanes, and Études sur la Bible. Music lesson to Maud. O'Sullivan to dine.... Baez sent word that he would visit us between 5 and 6 P. M. We accordingly put things in the best order possible under the circumstances. Ung puo de tualetta for the ladies seemed proper. At dinner received Baez' card with a great dish of fine sapotes. Baez arrived. He speaks French quite tolerably, is affable, and has an intelligent face; in fact looks like a person of marked talent. We talked of things in the United States. He has made fourteen voyages to Europe. ... I sang Una Barchetta for him. He came with one servant, who stayed outside — no ceremony and no escort ....”

After the beauty of the place — indeed possibly before it — she valued the opportunity that came to her of preaching. On the voyage to Santo Domingo she had learned of a shepherdless flock of colored Protestants, their minister dead, their “elder” disabled by lameness. Here was an opportunity not to be lost. She engaged to hold Sunday evening services in their church, a small wooden building with a mud floor and a mahogany pulpit. The “Reminiscences” describe these services; the tattered hymn-books whose leaves