REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH NATIONAL ANTI-SLAVERY BAZAAR. BOSTON: J. B. YERRINTON & SON, PRINTERS 1854. REPORT. The brightness of the New Year of 1854 did not fall without its shadows on the community of which we make a part. The storm of the 28th and 29th of December, unprecedented in severity, for many years, had brought to some homes actual bereavement or severe pecuniary loss, to many, serious annoyance, inconvenience and anxiety, and to all, that subduing, saddening influence which is experienced, however temporarily, when any “great outrages of weather” unsettle the thoughtless security as to life and safety, that usually pervades the public mind. For several days, the mails were stopped, and almost all communication with the environs of Boston cut off. When tidings _could_ arrive, and nearly every hour brought fresh intelligence of peril, disaster or shipwreck, and the very aspect of nature herself seemed redolent of melancholy suggestion, it certainly would not be unnatural if, in some minds, the whole coloring of thought assumed a graver and more sober hue. This has been the case with ourselves. The Bazaar of 1853 has closed with what we are entitled, in our circumstances, to estimate as _brilliant success_, the receipts being four thousand two hundred and fifty-six dollars; and yet we feel impelled to a more thoughtful and serious train of remark than may, at first view, appear natural or appropriate. To the minds of most persons, the mention of a Ladies’ Bazaar suggests ideas of a purely gay and festal character; of an occasion, where it is well if the gaiety and festivity do not degenerate into mere thoughtlessness and frivolity. How it may be in Bazaars designed for the support of popular charities, we are unable to say; but, when we are speaking of one whose funds are devoted to the sustentation of the American Anti-Slavery Society, we assure all who are willing to listen, that ours is grave work, performed in any but a thoughtless and irresponsible spirit.