The sight of the broad brim and the plain, Quaker dress, which met me at every turn, greatly increased my sense of freedom and security.

"I am among the Quakers," thought I, "and am safe." Lying at the wharves and riding in the stream, were full-rigged ships of finest model, ready to start on whaling voyages.
Upon the right and the left, I was walled in by large granite-fronted warehouses, crowded with the good things of this world.

On the wharves, I saw industry without bustle, labor without noise, and heavy toil without the whip.

There was no loud singing, as in southern ports, where ships are loading or unloading--no loud cursing or{269} swearing--but everything went on as smoothly as the works of a well adjusted machine.
How different was all this from the nosily fierce and clumsily absurd manner of labor-life in Baltimore and St.Michael's! One of the first incidents which illustrated the superior mental character of northern labor over that of the south, was the manner of unloading a ship's cargo of oil.

In a southern port, twenty or thirty hands would have been employed to do what five or six did here, with the aid of a single ox attached to the end of a fall.