Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-08-18
From the Providence journal.
He HOOKED THREE DOLLARS.
And Eugene Aram walked between,
With gives upon his wrist"

And Eugene Aram walked between,
With gives upon his wrist"
Going home the other evening, we met q negro
boy some seventeen or eighteen years old, walking
between two polio men. His swarthy countenance
was downcast and r%ueful, there was an expression
OF SORROW in his slouohed hat, and be trod demure-
ly, like one whose mind is i'll at ease. lie was
evidently like Dromino's master, rested on q case
and the men wb, grasped him by the collar wero
bearing him to the limbs of College Street Poor
~fellow-we thought-what has no Gone
crime has he committed that he is thus iostrained
of his liberty and buried away to sleep under
the dark walls Of our ancient TulSooth
Behind the victim Of the law there followed a
crowd Of u%rchins, whose faces, once white, were
%streaked with the soil Of vagrancy, and whose
noisy CALCULATIONS and excited gestures bore ties.
timony 10 their interest 10 the passing
scene. I~mpelled by O sudden emotion of
pity, we called to our side one of these ragged
specimens of humanity, and addressing him in a
kindly tone inquired what was the matter. Beads
Of sweat fell from this blossom of childhood as
the dew drips from a aower-his eyes were all
afame, and in the hurry of the moment his
tongue had almost lost the power Of speech.
lie hooked three dollars 'He hooked three
dollars was all we could make out of The boys
s%pasmOdic replY-and be broke away to join the
escort at the heels Of justice. But the reply was
enough-it cleared the doubt-it explained the
mystery. That sooty rascal, as the world would
say, took money from some forbidden till. In
spite of the decalogue-in spite of the courts
with the full light of our republican institutions,
and our free schools and our civilization Of the
nineteenth century, shining in his face, in very
sight of the First Baptist meeting house-a mon
ument Of religion and good morals that sooty
rascal, disregarding both the divine and the hui
man commandment, thrust his aud into the treas.
ury Of his neigibor AMI 'h)ok3i' three dollars.
And what shall be done with him ? There was
no insanity in his grandfather, and the larceny is
too small to BIO called a breach of trust. Fifty
dollars would be a more respectable theft-fve
hundred would have given him the benefit of q
compromise and five thousand would have sent
him scot free. But to hook three dollars was not
only wicked but unwise. There are no %extenua-
ting circumstances in the act-there are no out
side sympathies, there are no chances for bargains
or soft appliances; there is not q loop hole for es'
cape. The rascal hooked three dollars. Give
him a speedy sentence and six months in the pen
~itentiary.
And are there no extenuating circumstances ?
Who can tell the temptation that brought the pris-
oner to the dock7 Oh friend of humanity, shiver-
ing at the bare thought of crime, throe dollars
which are SO NAL a sum to you, may have been
to this boy an amount seen only in his dreams.
The moral light which CLEANS about your steps
may not have reached his dark and crooked path,
and his naked heart exposed to the hard trials OF
life, may lack those shields Of education, and com
fort, and responsibility which keeps you from Gin
Will you give him six months in the penitentia-
~ Then let those who never hooked three
dollars escor. him to the iron door and bolt him
in. Reader, do you think there would be a long
processiOns Would there be grocers following.
and men who sell cotton, and dealers in calicoe s
and silks, and jewelers., and lawyers, and politi.
clans, and clergymen, and mechanics and traders
and professional men of every name and kind
We will not pretend to say. but it seems to us that
three dollars may be stolen and yet not be taken
in invisible money nor out of a private drawer
We have heard of pound weights that did not
weigh a pound-of gallon measures that did moi
hold n gnllon-and Of yard sticks not quite thirty
six inches long. We have heard too, that gunpow.
der tea was often miXed With less costly Souchong
and that sugar sometimes owned its frmness tc
delicate crystals of sand. We have heard besides
that characters and regulations have been robbed
piece meal by a process called scandal, and BY
covert words which spoke the truth and yet con
veyed a lie. Alas! we fear tina, if young Sambc
goes to jail attended only by those who have nc
three dollars on their conscience, be will take his
march like a celebrated horseman-solitary anC
alone. Spare him then, and let his penalty bt
light for the sake of his paler and more righteou,
brethren. His body is muscular, but a cell i,
damp and rheumatic, and may vast his strength
and those proud shoulders so ready for work MAY
be hardly Witty and elastic enough to bear W
the sins of a multitude,