The counters in Robbers’ Row are piled with heavy stocks of ready-made clothing, pieces of coarse goods, hats and the like; and the show-cases are filled with cheap jewelry, and the thousand knick-knacks which captivate the negro eye. It was a busy season for the negroes, but still a number were in the stores making purchases. “There, my fine fellow, that fits you exactly. Now, when you get one of those cheap cravats, and an elegant hat, together with a pair of new boots, which you _must_ have, and this elegant pair of check pants to match your coat, you’ll look like a gentleman, won’t he, Auntie?” The uncouth, coarse-limbed plantation black eyed the trader suspiciously, however, and felt the coarse check coat, with which he had been furnished, as if he were afraid so fine a fabric would fall to pieces at his touch. But “Auntie’s” pleasure in contemplating her husband thus gorgeously arrayed, in something becoming his style of beauty, was unbounded; and the reduction in the family purse, that day wrought, must be set to her account. Substitute straight hair for wool, and change the complexion somewhat, and the scenes here become reproductions of others, familiar long ago. They, however, were witnessed far above the head of navigation, on the Mississippi, at a lonely trading post, among the Chippewas, kept by a thrifty half-breed. Of the two races, the Sea-Island negroes evince decidedly the superior judgment in selecting articles, with some reference to their usefulness. Of course, at all these stores, just as at the Indian trading posts, the customers are swindled; but there is the consolation that the swindle is regulated and limited by law. A military order has been found necessary to curtail the extravagant profits of the traders, and protect the negroes; and, in most cases, they do not now probably pay over two prices for what they buy. Kid gloves, I found, were only five dollars a pair, and a very good lady’s riding guantlet could be had for six dollars. From these, the average scale of prices may be guessed.