New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-01-21

I'll. because men who steal men do not Ike SO to
plorify robbery. IL would look bad for fifteen
State Constitutions to indorss piracy and marder.
But laws are not so gingerly treated. Bob, &C
cordisgly, is the chsttel Aforesaid. Bob, though
chatttl, ia hero. A hero in comparison
with whom your ordinary thros. cutter is a
Short Boy or Dead Rabbit. A hero before whom
the whole Homeric rabSle Of shoulder-htters Is
dwarSed. The greatest hero ia said TO expose nis
Life thousand tmes. That NUMBER poetica
figure Of speech. But in the case OF BOP bas'
il ia an arithmetical figure of speech. Bob
Butt acted as a grave-dieger, duriog pe'Ei-
1epoe. A eraye.dipger for " Eleven Hundred
and FIT, mine of the Inhabitants OF Portsmouth,
4syireinis during The year 1855, when the yellow
"fever desolated t,at afflicted town" Bob Butt
the chsttsI, according to an advertisement in The
Phlod.I paia Eoen,ng Journal, is 40 years DID, and
ia owned 10 Portsmouth. TIE chsttel is now in
Philadelphia, by permission Of its master The
ehattel els earnestly anxious TO free" itself and Its
"sife and two children from sersisude, and begs
"leave TO appeal to the well-kuowD generosity OF
"ths people Of that great city for assistance"
The chattel is sextop undertaken and grave-dgger,
and in the short space Of seven weeks buried the
Eleven Hundred and Fifty nine persons afore-
eaid Buried them by the hot light of the
aun. Buried them by the cold light OF the
moon. Buried them all day Buried them all
night. Slept over the bodies Made the worms his
brothers and ,isters. Defed ghosts. Laughed at
death. Stood spade 10 hand; eloquent as the
Wandering Jew; sublime as Ioexorsbls Time
No coffin too heavy; no corpse too corrupt; no
labor too cru.blDg for Bob Butt the chatte. The
Portsmouth Relief Association thus sgnalizes the
chattel in its report:
" And then we had to make provision for the dead.
In this last rad duty the Association was materially
assisted by the iodefag gable and truly praseworthy
eIertiots Of ooe Of coored population, familisry
known as Bob But. The humble negro 10 bis lue
performed da'y beyond all prce. From morn till
night be labored at tue spade and fequsnty made the
grave his II stng.pIece. Under his direction and
IeIinteudepce al who died Of the fever were decenty
committed TO their mother earth"
The chattel publishes this, and adds that it is
happy TO state that the estimate in which 1t is held
at home has prompted its master q" to abate az
{" least ons.holf Of the moneyed value" they could
command, and that it has earned and saved about
oue-hfth Of the sum which will be required. And
furthermore, that the ladies and gentlemen of
Portsmouth will 10 some public manner or other
wise assist it literally in IFS efforts to purchase the
freedom of itself ard family should it, on its return
home, be able to show that by the kindness of the
people of the great City of Philadelphia, the sum
remaining to be raised is within the means of its
own small town. And it is the earnest wish Of the
chstte that 1t may be able to return to Portsmouth
with assurances that it and its family will soon be
free. And the chatte signs the document In
question with crOss-f'ting emblem Of the poor,
iliternte slave who carries the farde of the cross
through life.
We like this hugely Committees abound, COM
posei of lovely women, raising means to buy the
bones of Washington from the distinguished chat
.el-hirer who presides in such hereditary mejesty
over them. Bone Committees ere in fact
the rage. Wherever we turn, it is question of
that $500 900 TO buy those bones. Now, the mat
Ter of Bob Butt lie also an affair Of bOaes There
ars the bones of those Eleven Hundred and Fifty.
nine persons buried by it-decen'y buried
and duty thus performed 10, we are told, beyond
price But there are, also, the bones of the chat
tells, buried in Slavery, which desire to be ex-
humed Gould not some public National Commit
honor of humanity.
We urge this, for we do not think il right so TO
come down on Philadelphia for money to buy up
these bones. Philadel9 hia did her part during
that pestilence. Portsmoth sent up to her des-
pairing cry, and in answer many physicians aud
nurses went thence to ad our Southern brethren in
their SORROWS. OF the physicians who went thither
from Philadelphia and other places, there were
Just about lO0 OF these just about 80 died Equal
mortality, ii may be assumed, attended the nurses
OF course history viii not celebrate their men,
Ories History never does anything so decent.
But local goes p does it, These dead heroes aud
heroines have just been rendered up to PhiladeL
ptia and hOnorsbly inferred in that city. As guar
dian Of their Names undertaken to the last, Bob
Butt the chatte went with their collins TO Philadel
Yhia and supernten ended their funerals. The chattel
ayails itself of its visit there and adyertises
have shown. The chattel, itmsy be mildly urged,
ought to succeed. Ought to succeed for the chat
tells own sake. Ought to succeed for the sake OF
the chattels family chattels Ought to succeed for
the memory Of those it buried, incud ne the doc
tors and nurses. Ought to succeed for the love OF
God in particular and human nature IN general.
Ought not TO succeed for the honor Of Virginia,
State which sells Twelve Million dollars worth
annually Of her own sons aud daushters-many of
them with 1.-The best white blood in their veins
with the genius and the FIRE of the Caucasian man.
That the chat,el BIB Butt, after out-rvahng
'the siI hundred" who rode
"Into tie jaws OF 5esth,