Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-06-26
Communications.

DEAR MARIus: The ordinary incidents OF travel
are so common in these railroad days, as to have
become rather unintercsting, therefore | need not
occupy your space and your readers, patience with
details of my ride from Ohio to Massachusetts,.
OF the moonlight passage of tho beautiful sus,
pension bridge at Wheeling that admitted me !or
the first time to the soil of a slave keeping and
slave'breeding state; Of waking the next morning
in time to see the sun rise amorg the niggard seen,
cry of the tops Of the Alleghenies near three thou
feet above the ocean level of the gradual descent
therofrom by the valley Of the Potomac among the
rocks, and hills, partially covered with the ever.
! green trees, which rocks, hills, and evergrcens
looked SO gladstone, pleasant and homelike, after
nv five months Imprisonment from their sight upon
the fiat surface Of the Western Reserve ; of the
wondrous iron and coal mines that constantly
opened beside the track of the stupendous preci.
, picos Of rocks with which the Blue Ridge opens
its gate of Gods own masonry at ~lIarper's Ferry,
for the passage Of the Potomac, with hardly room
. beside for the railroad to square through, of all
this, | say l don't propose to tell you anything,
4 but only give you "a few incidents of my observa.
y ton of slavery and its surroundings in q four
! days s,journ in the Slave States.
n My first observation was of the dreadful cfiu-
/. via that einanates from FREQ "niggers". While
e slaves were entirely free from all that borrid smell,
J if they were ever SO black. a colored man got into
the care near Cumberland, Maryland, and like a
man took q seat where he chose. but the upturned
# noses and insulting calls to the boy The niger,
Il TO get out of the place he had no business in, at
tracted the attention of tho conductor. who uncero'
II pnpinnely b,st1od hin, ;pto tI,o linn Croxr car
If his proper place, because forsooth he was a FREE
e Niger. AT the next station, a white woman got
y in with a very black slave woman, who occupied
the same seat with her mistress near some very
g aristocrat;c appearing, showily dressed ladies oil
the IF. +. v" and among the very same passen
q gers who were sickened by the stencil of the free
) ~'nigger," but all now enjoyed with apparent relish
and gusto the sweet and delicious flavor of this
t, ~'nigger" because forsootb, she was il Stare.
In going through the cars on the train from Bal
timore to Washington, l noticed quite a number oil
10 colored people (slaves of course) upon the same
seats with whites and mixed up as admirably
through the cars, as in the cars of ultra "aboli!ion'
II dom" and no one was at all disturbed. One col
ored woman in the car in which l sat, had SO in
Or tellectual q face and queenlya figure that / could
e. not help observe her ladylike manners as she con
We stantly looked after and cared for a bright little
|, miss OF three summers who was constantly NOV
w ing away and getting into mischief while the Ian
n. guild mother sat l%istlessly by, indifferent to TIL
&c child, its father, or the servant. l spoke to tn,
gentleman, THAT is a fine girl, of yours" Eye
" we set a store by her," said he. "What is sh,
ct. worth ?" 81 never set a price on her." said he
Of ''she has been in my family n long while, and W
nE T. - 60 u. II
child" said |, has she a family Of her own ?"-
,st Yes" said he, "a husband and two children, bu
n she is very much attached to us, her health is nc
ne good, and We care for her as we would for our owl
%e family in her sickness. We have been spending
er few weeks at lphia, and the Abolitionist
IN tried to induce her to leave us, but she knee
better. | told her she was rs free to go as | wa
ne but she knew that if she was free she would hay
bo to work hard for u living and endure many hare
"a ships that she is now exempt from, and in sickness
raj would be compelled to become a public charg
ass while now we care for her as our own child" b,
II her own family tics attract her hcmcw ard SOM
by what | interposed. Very probably" said he, SD,
ess thar is not the thing she knows she is better O
IN, as a slave, than she could be if she was Free"
IN Indeed thought l., if slavery is so much bette
III Inin lTecuOm WHY nut u " you'eoi bit'choi
cr' es know better than this, even if some of the
I'D victims may not. as they would have US beliey
m. But did not this woman know bettor, try her NJ
TX, Stakeholder, put her with her husband and CHI
~ dren in Philadelphia, and tell them they are FRI
u to elect a home there or in Virginia as thu
:. may choose, and sec the decision. Dare not II
M it? of course not. Shareholders with all the
boasts dare not pu. their pretences to the test.
lis. Arriving at Washington, d. c.. not exactly Il
oh "city Of the great King" but the capitol of tn
great christian slave.holding republic, where &C
life ters all its wickedness and corruption, l found
nd old acquaintance who has for the last twenty yea
eir made his business and residence in this Americi
i And | found in him a demonstration
IN. the proposition that a man cannot touch pit
To without being defled, for ! discovered that he h
Ielt become a more ardent defender of the HE'LL
Sc institution than woen before he left his New En-
,;s ,and home, he used in contest with me to playful
to take the proslavery side of the argument inLyceu
ian debate as we'll as private. | also found that
I'M was a little ~profane, and a little addicted to gn
bling, to say nothing of the other popular vic
on Of this Capital of sin and vice.
AS Whom we came TO speak of the darling instit
ton, ho suggested that it would not be proper
vhO sa'e ior mt oui'0ue' "n P"o"0 VI :" Wv
en- of others, 1t was not considered proper ana l shou
hat not find il safe, 'Indeed and is not this a CO
rh- fession on your part Of it's meanncss and wicke
ness, that you dare not hear the matter investigat
and discussed" "But" said he lit Is our ov
private institution, and, and we do NOT wish to ha
outsiders in,ermeddling with our private afail
more than you at the North would like to ha
the your private family affairs investigated and pri
the into by busy Intermediates" "If" said | "it is
bus private matter why call on the public governme
VI to help you sustain it. if we are not to invcstiga
-, it. why compel us to protect and keep it alive, b
in then, all ''private affairs that involve crime AZ
en- wickedn ess, oven il they nre family affair'