The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-05-19

there. 1t was thick, about one inch wide and
two feet long.
"D'yer see that 2"
Herman saw.
"Look a little nearer, if yer DON'T" said the
Captain, pushing his face against it two or three
times. "D'yer know what it's for? ?"
Herman knew.
"Then don't ye have the impotence to send
me no more of yer messages How? Here !
seems to me, have got as much time to break
you in this mornn as any day; and have saw
come. You 60 right down on your knees an
ask my pardon; or Ill let you feel of this here
now, on your bare back"
Herman did not kneel--nor strike him. He
only looked at him, thinking the while instinct
lively of a certain grip and trip that he knew,
which, if he thought fit to put them in practice,
would probably throw the Captains own back
over that of the heavy chair behind him, and
into no condition for bruising the backs of his
fellow men for an indefinite period. But from
that look the Captain jumped yard, as if it
had been blow "Hol here mutiny-mur-
der, help, guard !"
Herman folded his arms, as he usually did,
when he found it hardest to keep his hands off
his superior, and stood very still, with his dan
gerous eyes on the ground. The guard came,
other warden, who had his own reasons for be
friending Herman.
"Why, / thought yer was murdered. What's
the matter here, sonny?"
Messages Mutny Chain him up, guard !!
To the dark cell with him calculated the
valiant Captain, prancing in war dance.
Pooh, pooh Don't you always be so ner-
vous He didn't mean nothing, I'm keen to
sw'ar Arden, don't you be aggravatin. What
have you been up tor"
II made suggestion to one of the sub-offi-
GERS, sir, which the Captain understood as a
message to himself, it appears. l am sorry for
the mistake"
"Well, mind you don't never make no more
such mistakes, then; an seein you're free to say
you're sorry for the past, l reckon we'll be easy
with you. Captain, guess your lady wants to
speak to you about the new uniforms. Never
mind about another chain, guard that thar is
big enough. Arden, you'll have to go along to
the dark cell awhile, Just to pacfy him. Lay
down, and take nap an I'll come myself, an
see you're let out, an hour by sum-"
On the following Sunday morning, Herman,
coming from the cook-shop with his kettle,
heard, as he passed the open door of the guard
room, the strokes of the strap. Looking in
he saw Captain Rodrick standing, and swing
ing it over the body of silent, writhing man,
who lay, without his shirt, bent together on his
side, his hands being tied together, slipped over
his knees, and made fast over them by the
Captains hickory-cane, passed between them
and his wrists. 1t was Wellbeloved.
Herman had a curiosity to examine the pad
die, with which, a similar one, his first patient
in that place had been mangled. One Sunday
afternoon, when the wardens had cast up their
accounts, and gone out, the overseer took him
into fha ord ohoxu rod 70 II
was board, about twepty-four inches long, and
six inches wide, one end being narrowed and
rounded to handle, and the other bored full
of holes, each of which, when it was applied
with skill, was said to raise crimson blister
at every stroke, Among the curiosities of the
place, Mr.. Bush grati6ed Herman with sight
also of the "ducking apparatus" This consist
Oh of a large arm chair, into which ofPeeae~
might be securely tied, hand and foot, and OF
wooden box, fitting pretty snuggly round his
neck at the bottom, but at the top open to re-
ceive water, poured from jug or pail into his
face at discretion. Until such water had had time
to trickle, ooze, and run up his nose and down
his throat back, breast, and shoulders, without
and within, it seemed likely to embarrass and
impede his respiration materially. Herman
heard poor fellow gasping gurgling, and
struggling in this one day. His offence was
said to have been, that he was troublesome
upon the point of his letters from his wife.
These were sometimes longer than Captain
Rodrick liked to take the trouble to read, or
than the poor husband liked to wait till he
found time to read
But what use is there in my detailing any
more of the trying scenes which took place, day
after day, within the sight, hearing, or knowl-
edge of our young hero. We can bear, some
of US, to read those in Never Too Late to
n Il A. Al
book, poetical justice is to be done by the au-
thor Poetical Justice is not to be done by me,
either in my book or in my country.
Day by day l read in the newspapers-and
you may, if you choose-acconnts of one after
another of our young men, our middleaged,
or our old men, land to which of these such
a doom comes the hardest, it might be hard
to say,) sentenced to Imprisonment for years,
upon an accusation similar to that of the youth;
Herman Arden. Read for yourselves, if you
wish, such accounts of such imprisonments as
are to be had. Make all moderate allowances,
it is just and right that you should, for the
exaggerations of suffering prisoners, for the
inaccuracies of uneducated prisoners, and for
the falsehoods, even, of unprincipled prisoners;
and yet when all is done, see for yourselves
whether penitentiary in a slave State, or in
deed in any State, can be pleasant place for
to him of life in.
choose to find out about it, and that know al
ready, that, within few days journey from
these pines, which weep and shiver around me
in the sulen storm as / write, there is a jail,
or jails-" let e equal their unkRo,on quantity
at which men, and women and children, too,
guilty, or even not guilty, of skins not colored
like our own, may be dashed and lacerated,
time after time, at the request of their possess
ors, upon no other accusation than that of their
being slaves. Suppose they are. Whose fault
is that? Of the slaves, or Of those who made
or who keep them SOP What Southern How
ard have we among us, to put q stop to that p
1t is enough. Why should we know more
"Where ignorance is bliss" &c. We cannot
help this state of things, nor can we help its
spreading year by year over shrinking Kansas
and all of our free soil or, at any rate, we say
we cannot help it; and, at any rate, we are
use of our talking about it Let us shrug shout
ders too well bred to Jingle with any fanatical
sympathy for those of Christ's unnurtured,
uncouth, black lambs. Let us dress and dance,
and think of something more polite and pleas
ing. Let us eat and drink, for Tomorrow we
de- and after death comes the Judgment, when
we shall see black sheep among the white ones,
on the right hand of the throne, and hear it
said, "Forasmuch as ye have done it unto the
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto
me;" and after that, perhaps, We shall have
little appetite.
Unmingled misery was probably never yet
the lot of any being upon Gods earth. Before
many weeks had dragged themselves along over
him, Herman seeing a shadow fall across his
loom, and supposing it to be that Of the over
seer, looked up into the working features of his