The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-12-07
SMITH AND THoMpsoN; OR. VIRGINIA. saw.
? l'ess AGES, PAST AND PRESENT. <aY

asla.re
Our readers will readily recall the touching
story Of John Smith, q fugitive slave and
adyenturer, who afterwards became one Of the
6rst colonists of jamestown, in Virginia
His small party of men would soon have per-
ished for want of food, if he bad not stolen
the Indian idol, Okee, made of skins stuffed
with moss and compelled the natives to re-
deem it with large purchase of corn. While
exploring the Chickahoming. however. he was
seized by the enemy, having killed three of
them in the encounter. and taken before the
great chief Powhatan;-the predecessor of
Gov. Wise,-who, seated on his stump of
throne and clothed in raccoon skins lcondemed
the poor fellow to death. But, beside the
throne of the chief, stood two Of his dusky
daughters. who compassionated Smith, and one
of whom. the chiefs fayorite, Poeahontasr re-
solved to save his life. When the grim war
riofs, therefore, bronghtin the stwobig stones
on which Smith laid his head, and their war-
clubs were raised to drop upon his daylights
forever, she, rushed between the executioners
and their victim. and, BY her passionateSen.
treaties, induced the ssyages to suspend their
blows, and suffered Smith to depart.
Those old red indians seem to us to have
had more real humanity in them than many OF
the whites who now occupy their places. The
story of Thompson, which we print in full
elsewhere is similar in some respects to the
story of Smith, He had committed an out
rage upon the,idol of the Virgiuian--nsme in
this case Cuffee and not Okee-had been cap
|tured, and would have been cried and CEN
demned to death il the blood thirsty ferocity
of the modern Virginians, less capable of re.
straint than that of the old Virginians, could
have waited the slow decisions of authority
1t could not. According to the testimony OF
Mr.. Hunter, one of the actors in the affair,
and son of the prosecuting Attorney in the
Harpers Ferry trials, crowd Of armed, men
rushed into the room of the hotel v here
Thompson was con6ed, and would have pat
him to an instant and brutal death. In.
But the daughter of the landlord, . Miss
Fouke, with a heroism that surpssses even
that of Pocahontas, threw herself between the
guns of those maddened and reckless slave
drivers and their object, whom she caught in
her arms, and besought their mercy. "For
J Gods sake wait, she said, sand let the law
take its course" For moment they desisted
from their work ofrevenge but for moment
only. Neither the helpless condition Of the
prisoner, nor the noble, womanly appeal ,couid
soften the hearts of these savages, as the
| words of Pocahontas softened those Of the
| ancient braves. They dragged Thompson
from the sneItering arms of his protector.
tLhauled him, like a dog through the streets,
amid the hooting and bowling Of q frenzied.
crowd, and when they got him to the railroad
bridge, already nearly dead with bruises, they
lriddled his body with their rife balls ?. Gov.
Wise is reported to have said that he wspt
1 for the covardice Of the Virginians at Har-
pers Ferry, and well he may have wept for
a coRardice SO susceptible of panic that it
turns men, not into savages. but wild beasts.
is indeed to be deplored-.N. z. Epening
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