Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-01-01
From the N. Y. Tribune.
HOSPITALITY SOUTH AND NORTH.

Southern Journals copy with apparent satisfac.
ton communication in a Memphis paper from
Mr.. II. B. S. Williams. of Hickory Springs
Fayette County, Tennessee. In this communica
tion, Mr.. Williams relates the arrival at his house.
on a cold, rany night "of couple of sprigbtly
hardy looking little Yankee boys, bare footed
badly clad and without budget" They had come
as they said, in search of a home and work all the
way from the town of Paterson. N. j.. where
they had been factory boys, left orphans two
years before by the death of their fathers. Being
badly treated, they had struck out for the South,
without "a cent of money" and had worked their
way along, by the kindness of railroad conductors
and steamboat captains, till they reached Mem.
phs. Thence they had followed up on foot the
track of the Memphis and Ohio Railroad till they
arrived at the hospitable residence of Mr. Viii.
liams, with whom they readily found both home
and work, and with whom they now nre the chap
piest little fellows you ever saw"
Parallels to this affecting incident occasionally
happen also at tho North. 1t occurs now and then
that boys" varying in age from six to sixty, and
upwards, "sprghtly." "hardy looking" "bare
footed" and "badly clad, ;" and often without bud
gets or q cent of money, starting from Fayette
County, Tennessee, or some other Southern dis
trict and helped along by Underground railroad
conductors and otherwise, arrive in the vicinity of
Paterson, New jersey and other Northern towns
and cities, in search of work and home"
These Southern boys are worse off than merely or.
phans. They never had any fathers, the laws of
the South not permitting them to have any; while,
under the same laws they are sometimes separat.
9TH i1a ,bl
alone. As to being badly treated, on that point
they can generally we doubt not, make out quite
as good case as the Yankee boys from Pater.
son.
These Yankee boys, it seems however, were
not exclusively indebted to the kind.hearted Mr.
Williams for the good home they have found
Following up the Ohio and Memphis Railroad on
foot as far as the Fayette depot it was their good
luck to meet "small negro boy" belonging to
Mr.. Williams, which boy, he tells US, Clearing
tn story politely and in the spirit of true South
ern hospitality invited them along with him to his
masters house." Similar good Offices are often
rendered by our Northern colored people to wan
dering homeless "boys" from the South but
such acts of kindness, when they happen to get
into the newspapers, instead Of being applauded
by our Southern brethren, are apt to be received
by them with spiteful growl and hiss, very much
like that of 4 hungry cat at having the bird she
has just caught snatched from her mouth Surely
our Southern brethren ought not to claim such a
strict monopoly Of politeness and true hospitality!
Surely, On these points the North and the South
ought to be allowed to maintain generous rival
ry.
Let US suppose now further to illustrate matters,
that these runaway Yankee boys were able to
show all over their bodies the marks Of the cruel
chastisements they had received, and let US sup
pose that some day or other there at the Wythe
Depot, in the near vicinity of the generous Mr..
Williams plantation, an ill'conditoned and ILL.,
looking fellow, his breath smelling strongly of
brandy, and his face bearing every mark Of stolid
brutality, claiming these two boys as his runaway
apprentices, and in fact recognized by them as
their Paterson master, land lei suppose, further,
that the Paterson scamp comes attended by the
United States Marshal for the District of Western
Tennessee, the said Marshal having in his pocket
the warrant of commissioner of the Circuit
Court of the United States for that district, or per-
haos of Mr.. Justice Catron himself, for the arrest
of these two boys, on the oath of the vagabond
above described. claiming them, under the act OF
1850 and the Constitution of the United States, as
fugitives from service to which they were bound
by the laws Of New Jersey, now what would the
hospitable Mr. Williams do under these circum
stances Would he volunteer as posse comitatus
to the Marshal, and hasten to deliver up the ter
rifed and weeping apprentices into the hands Of
their brutal master Or would he, sin the spirit
of true Southern hospi:ality"-and hospitality, we
believe, does not vary with the latitude. but is
much the same in New Jersey and in Tennessee
tip wink to his "small negro bog" to pilot them
into the woods or to come other safe place Of con.
cealment, out Of the reach Of both Marshal and
claimant