Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-02-04

conceal those traits under an off-hand. reckless
manner, which passed for high spirits and
youthful thoughtlessness with those who did
not know him we'll He was a bare-hced.
systematic liar from his cradle, as well as cow
ard, and, of course all his msdeeds and crimes
of omission and commission were laid upon
my shoulders, and ] duly paid the score.
don't know what should have been under
different treatment but as it was, when
found that no words of mine could convince
them OF my innocence | grew stubborn and
hardened heard myself commiserated and
condemned IN the same breath, as the incarna-
tion OF all wickedness, bore whatever punish
menu they saw mt to inf1ict, and heard myself
consigned to remediless woe in a future state.
with q dogged indifference that was held as
proof positive OF my lost condition eat
" For some years, | was puny child. and
Tom, being three years my senior, il was easy
TOR hlm to tyrannize over me, which he did to
his hearts content. But there came an end To
this One day might have been ten or
twelve years old ut the time--when he had
been more than usually provoking and tyran,
meal my patience, or rather my endurance
gave out, and pitched into him 80 suddenly
that between his surprise and fright--for, as ]
said before, he was coward---I got the upper
hands of him, and in my delight at finding
myself master, and my memory of the long
score that ! owed him, don't know but /
should have half killed him, if his mother,
warned by his screams had not come to the
rescue and parted us. ! say nothing of the
vengeance they took on me afterwards, as
lay, bound hand and foot, before them. ]
thought but little about it. had conquered
Tom, and that was enough
THAT night they held family council
Many long night in the tropics, when have
lain awake in my tent, weary sick, and faint
at the mercy Of my negro servants, the mem
ory of that scene has called forth a hearty
laugh.
"The little, round, oily sleek haired, smooth
faced, softlyspoken Mr. Alling, striving in
vain to assume a look of dignifed composure---
the tall, bony, rigid figure of his wife, drawn
up in the centre of the room, reciting, in a
high, nasal tone, the particulars of the battle,
as she had received them from the veracious
Tom-while the latter, from behind the bar
rier which the bodies of his respectable parents
afforded, made horrible grimaces at me, indi-
eating by certain movements with his hands
and handkerchief, my future end on the gallows.
II did not care for this had had several
hours Of reflection, and really felt rather sor-
ry-not that had beaten Tom, but that I had
given way to such fit of passion Had any
one spoken kind word to me then, it might
have changed my whole life; if they had even
allowed me to tell my side of the story. ! don't
know, | think should have been better man
even now. But they would not let me open my
lips, and the consequence was, that with every
word that woman uttered-with every epithet
she bestowed upon me, land her vocabulary
was by no means imited) II felt my heart
hardening within me. Had | possessed less
Selfesteem, and more Veneration, should
doubtless have sunk beneath the load of evil
with which she charged me; for there was not
a sin, not tendency to vice in my whole race,
from Adam downwards, of which she did not
know me guilty, or, at least, had seen traces Of
in my little body.