Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-04-05

zee them, and has none to administer comfort
10 his declining years. Here is n young man who
has lived an honest life Of industry and weary,ng
toll; bent down with age and sorrow; his wife and
children, seld away from him and he is left alone in
rags The man who owns him does not think HIM
worth much, and consequently cannot afford TO
.elothe him dccently or comfortably, and when he
lies he viii die without amy OF his kindred to say
"ndearing words. to his departing spiri..
AT this moment the owner approached and we
Withdrew. Rambling up the hill away from that
scene of solemn and melancholy grandeur, We es'
pied a dusky object sitting on the corner oil a bank
with her elbows resting on her knees and her face
in her hands. AS we approached she raised her
head, aud we saw that the traces OF age were
deeply marked On her face, Her teeth were all
gone. her cheeks sunken in, and her forehead
deeply wrinkled. She could not have been less
than ninety years of age. She was a slave.
We stopped and she politely replied to our inter
rogatories.
lis that the only garment you have to wear p
Yes" she replied, obey give inc plenty OF
corn to cat, but no clothes, ana this IS all l nave
1t has been patched a good many times and / can
not now see to patch it, 20 l keep IL together as
well as | can" The garment which appeared t.
form her only article Of apparel was what had
once been a cotton dresd-probably the WORKOUT
dress Of q young mistress, but there were ut lew
traces Of the original to he seen and tho entire
skirt was composed OF innumeracle patches OF
various hues, cUaraely sewn together, evidently
by some one whose sight was dim. In all our
rambles in Europe, in the puricu5 Of London or
Liverpool, we never saw anything worn as a gar
ment which could be compared to this as a specl-
men Of wretchedncss.
Where do you live ncighbor p l enquired.
"Jist up the hill, Sir; | lives in IL shantce by
myself, and they jSt let me have corn enough to
cat, and that's all"
''IIow many children have you had -
"Oh, | have had twelve childor, bat they are
al away. Massio sold them when they got big
enough to work, and have worked all my life III
the cotton field. | think they ought 10 find me
clothes to wear, but they do not, and suffer a
good deal from cold in the Winter. am been
down to de spring for some water, and sat down
here to rest myself. ! have no one to fetch me
water. and | don't know how to carry it. l have
broken one Of my bottle gourds, and can't get
another myself. am nearly worn out, and cant
live long, thank God. | belong to Mr.. Jones. lie
has been married three times, and the last is Il
young mistress, and she does not do anything for
me. Some Of my children have children and
grandchildren now, but | have none near me to
lend me Il hand, SO l has to fetch water aud do
every thing for myself. | never sees any Of them
now they are too far off. l don't know where
they are. They were sold to go into North
Carolina, and | never hears from them now"
''Haye you any husband?'
81 had an old man, but he was taken away into
Georgia, and | have not heard of him since. !
suppose you pretend to be man and wife p
''Do you not believe that we are :"
mo; tnere are Olteh puOp!e ncle % PIe'ehuS ~
he married, and they are not. l guess you are not
married. You can't make me believe you are
married.
We were amused at this singular incrcdulity of
The great grandmother. 1t did not indicate q very
elevated state OF waite society. The condition Of
this poor old creature, the mother Of twelve chill
dren, and probably grand mother and great'grand-
mother to some thirty or forty slaves, Is here lett
subject to the humanity" Of a young mistress,
who does not give her any clothes. suppose each
. L.. - lilo, ILL gr GEOl - ycrv mod
crate estimate-and the owner would realize from
the stock" thus raised no less than S6,OOO. The
old woman had worked in the cotton-heid some
seventy years, and if her labor was worth only
800 a year besides her keep-a very moderate
caleulation-here was 81 900 more, making q
profs of $I3, 600 as the proceeds Of her miserable
life and now the men who have had the magma
nimity to take this immense sum from the sweat
and toll and offspring of this poor decrepid old
creature, have turned her away to shift Tor her
self on simply an allowance of corn, without clothes
and without u single child to comfort her in her
lonliness and fee bleness. 1t matters not how
soon she may be found dead in her c0mfOriless
shantee the sooner the better, as it will save the
pittance Of corn which she now consumes. The
weather was mild then. 1t has since become cold,
and if it continues severe it is not likely she can
survive the Winter. No matter "She is only 4
Niger" and her work is done. As we turned
away we noticed her two water-yessels. They
were the outer skin Of dried gourds, cut so as &c
form water-pitchers or bottles, and one was broken
so as to hold but little water.
The distant murmuring of that troubled stream
is still on my ear ; the trees dressed in the drapery
of mourning still solemnly impressive OF the sad
pictures Of human misery which they cover with
their shade; the waterfall still speaks of the desc
lation and decay Of a country blessed with natural
advantages, but cursed with Slavery the sad tales
of aged victims which we have faithfully recorded
from the lips of those who cannot write nor print
their own thoughts, serve very much to qualify in
our minds the humanity of Slavery" May these
scenes and sounds be likewise impressed on the
hearts eff Freemen throughout our land may the
fire of righteous Indignation burn there SO that the
thought of extending this ~blighting curse to the
fair valleys Of our western territory-to the Kan
sas, the Neosha, the Arkansas-shall be a Thought
that hreathcs" 0! action, of sacrifice, of valor, and
OF that stern determination to resist the wrong
which shall! only cease wien Border Rufianism il
defeated and Kansas is free.
Mp EVEPETT T=yF