The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-09-11
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CHAPTER ErangeliRs.


lovely being scarcely formed or moulded,
rose with all It's sweetest leaves yet folded"
The Mississippi How as by an enchant
wand have its scenes been changed since CT
teaubriand wrote his prose poetic description
it, asa river Of mighty, unbroken solitudes, 70
log amid undreamed wonders of vegetable and a
imal existence.
But, as ia an hour, this river Of dreams a,
wild romance has emerged to reality scarce
less visionary and splendid. What other riv
the world bears on its bosom to the ocean Il
wealth and enterprise of such another country
country whose products embrace all betwee
the tropics and the poles Those turbid water
hnrrying, foaming, tearing along, an apt reseu
blsnce Of that headlong tide OF business which
poured along its wave by race more vehemen
and energetic than any the old world ever saw
ah would that they did not also bear along
more fearful freight-the tears Of the oppressed
the signs Of the helpless the bitter prayers O.
poor, ignorant hearts to an unknown God-un.
known, unseen, and silent t. but who will We,
come out Of his place to save all the poor of the
earthp
The slauting light Of the setting sun quiyers
on The Sea.like expanse of the river the shivery
canes and the tall, dark cypress, hung with
wreaths of dark, funeral moss, glow in the golden
ray as the heavily laden steamboat marches on
ward. Piled with cotton bales, from MANY a
plantation, up over deck and sides, till she seems
Ia the distance square, massive block of gray.
she moves heavily onward to the nearing mart
We must look sometimes among its crowded
decks before we shall find again our humble
friend Tom High on the upper deck, In a little
nook among the everywhere predominant cotton
bales at last we may find him Partly from con-
hdence inspired by Mr.. Shelby's representations.
and partly from the remarkably inoffensiye and
quiet character of the man, Tom had iusens;b,v
won his way far into the confidence even of such
a man as Haley.
AT first he had watched him narrowly throuvb
the day and never allowed him TO sleep at niebt
nn'ettered but the accomplishing patience and
PParent cOntentment Of Tom's manner led him
'aduAlly to discontinue these restraints, and for
'me time Tom had enjoyed sort Of parole of
onor, being permitted to come anA go,
,,iviuc. and more than ready to lend hand IN
,srv emergency which occurred among the work
,.n hs,ov he had won the good opinion OF all
10 hands and spent many hours in helping them
nth as hearty a good will as ever he worked ON
Kentucky farm
When there seemed to be nothing for him 70
II he Would climb to nook among the cotton
ales Of the upper deck, and busy himseli IN
tnav;n over his New Testament, and it is there
We see him now.
For a hundred or more miles above New or-
cans me river is higher than the surrounding
country. and rolls its tremendous volume between
massive levees twenty feet in height The traV-
pIler from the deck Of the steamer, as from soue
A oatips castle top, overlooks the whole country
sor miles and miles around Tom therefore hsd
spread out full before him, in plantation ai'er
plantation. map of the life to which he was ap-
proachine He saw the distant slaves AZ tneH
toll he saw afar their villages Of huts cleaning
ont in long rows on many a plantation, distant
from the stately mansions and pieasuse grounus
Of the master and as the moving picture passeu
m his NOR foolish heart would be turning back
ward TO the old Kentucky farm, with Its ola
sb,dowy beeches-to the masters house, with It's
wide, cool halls, and, near by, the little cso,n'
overgrown with the multihora and oienonia
There he seemed TO see old familiar faces OF oom
rades, who bad grown up with him from infan
cy-he saw his busy wife busting in her prePa
raions for his evening meals-he heard the mer
~ laugh of his boys at their places and the chez
run of the baby at his knee and then, with
start. all faded, and be saw again the cane-brakt
and expresses and gliding plantations, and hear
again the creaking and grooming Of the machin
~, all telling him too plainly that all that pha
If life had gone by forever.
In such case, you write to your wife, al
send messages to your children; but Tom con
not write, the mail for him had no existence 81
the gulf Of separation was unbridgcd by even
friendly word or signal.
ls 1t strange, then, that some tears fall on
pages of his Testament, as he lays 1t On the @
ton bale, and with patient finger, threading
slow way from word to word, traces out its pro
isesl Having learned late in life, Tom was
slow reader, and passed on laboriously fr
verse 10 verse. Fortunate for him was 1t G
the book he was intent on was one which 81
reading cannot injure-nay, one whose wor
like iugOts u gold, seem often to need to
weighed separately, that the mind may take
their priceless value. Let us follow him
nent as, pointing to each word, and pronounc
each half-aloud, he reads
q" Let - not--your-heart-be
my FAther's-house are--many-mansions
tO-prepare-a place-for you"
Cicero, when he buried his darling and Q
daughter, had heart as full Of honest grie
poor Toms perhaps no fuller, for both
only men-but Cicero could pause over no
sublime words OF hope, and look TO no such
ture reunion and IL he had seen them, ten to
he would not have belieysd-he must ill his
hrst with thousand questions Of autheutic'
manuscript and correctness Of TRANSLATION
10 poor Tom there ii lay, just what he needle
evidently true and divine that the possibii
question never entered his simple head
must be true for II not true, how could ne
AS for Toms New Testament, though
no annOtstiOns and helps in margin from LEI
Commentators, still it had been smbellished
certain vay-mArks and guide-bosrds Of
own invention, and which helped him more
the most learned expeditions could have
IL had been bis custom 10 get the Testamen
to him ny HIS masters children, IN particul
young master George and as they read, he
designate by bold, strong marks and dsshss