Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1859-08-03
NO. 40.

O.
lay extended upon bench. He was car.
ried home, a. the mother followed-the
hickering lamp at the door casting ihghast- !
ly glare npoe one of the most dsupsirink a
faces we ever beheld- Is
q a -
Ten years from the date of the above
occurrences, returned to my native coun.
ty, pilgrim, eager to tread upon holy
ground and to hunt ont familiar faces.~ /
had beeen in the West for many a year,
and bad entirely lost sight of the school
boy companions of my early days.
As heared the valley of the II
learned that citizen of the county had
: been convicted of murder, and waa to be g
execsSed on the morrow. had notlsarn-
ed the name-did not think to enquire
With the immense crowd, of carriages
which moved towards the county-seat /
drifted along, and at midday stood With
ten thousand people before the scaffold.
The distant music-the solemn dead
march-rose and fell upon the itful gusts
as it neared, the heavy and measured tread
of the military, palsing with the mufled
beat of the drums. As the procession
reached the foot of the scaffold, figure in
white leaped lightly from the coffin in the
wagon, and, unai1ed, sprang up the steps.
There was lightness in the movement
bold and defiant air--which Jared un-
pleasantly with the awful soIemnities Of the
occasion.
In the murderers appearance and bear
ing, there was something which arrested
my attention. The general outlines of the
person, as well as the movement, seemed
familiar, and taxed my thoughts until nv
brain ached in trying to fathom the mys-
terry. All seemed dream, with . back
ground OF familiar scenes-a reality of far
different scenery. / could not keep nv
eye from that shrouded form, or the pale
features. The latter were somewhat dinly
defined in the distance, only serving TO in
crease my perplexity.
Lie stood up to address the people Ter
ribly clear and sharp in outline, the gal
lows, and the form under its beam, cut the
distant sky beyond. Full and mellow az
the music of bell, his tones sweIled out
upon the air, and thrilled to every heart.
felt that there was soul and brain power in
the man, and watched with keener inter
est what he had to say. As if each word
had been drop of molten lava, they burn
ed their way to my own soul, and then
hardened IN tears, to last through hfe's en-
during memories of that hour and the man.
Friends and neighbors: Before nv
God and you, and in this hour Of death,
most solemnly aver that at heart amsin-
nocent of the murder of -. / do 30.
plead the truth of the matter in extenua-
nf L.A Ia
the anguish of kindred. was mad wher
| murdered him-fercely, fendishly mao
on rum. Had needed the iujunctions o
mother, there his lip quivered) and KEEP
the pledge not to drink Intoxicating liquors
aohich, sohen boy, she taught me to sign,
this rope a0ould not haze ended my career
AND JAMES Mason WOULD NOT HAVE pIEr
IN THE HIGH NOON OF HIS MANHOOD, A
DRUNKARD ANB A MURDERER !"
reeled as If q ball had pierced my heart
James Mason 1t was he-my gifteS
school comrade-a murderer The wal
of those closing words-like the despair
ing agony of doomed spirit letting slewl,
loose of life for terrible eternity-surgeC
through nv heated brain. The scaffol:
and the tall form thereon swan before m,
fioiou duu ds WIFI an answering CIV
: stretched INV arms towards him, there wa
dead sound, followed by swaying Of th,
; crowd around me. All was over; and
looked mp to the form of the noble frien,
of my youth writhing and wheeling in tn
clutch of the hangman's moose.
q a God almighty hare mercy upon me !
D A true, noble old heart hurst, as ths
= wild, prolonged shrek went out over tn
swaying multitude. Deep-decper tha
the hand Of time can ever reach-the jay
ged iron had entered the soal of Jan,s
y Mason's mother. As lifeless as the dea
: before her, she lay upon the trampled swar,
$ her thin, white hairs, sweeping like cul
y tain of shattered silver the swollen feature
u of her frst-born and the broken heal
! still over his. The idol Of her old ag
Is u clustering with a thousand prayers an
III hopes, was shivered-dead.
e But God smiled upon the stricken on
y and woke her not again. Sine died in thi
u shock of agony. In wide grave, Il
mother and her frst-born were Sarisd-
= Two fresh sacrifices, smoking hotly upe
'h the affairs of acURsE--that CURSE EEGhl
le; lied BY A CHRISTIAN PEOPLEi 5
eu With new hatred of the Rum Trafi
nc and sterner resolves of future action again
it, turned away.
III That vow has not been forgotten.
of