Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1871-04-07

a man of letters, and a man of God
being a minister of the gospel, ant
one of the principals of the leadine
female institutionsOf the county. Hi:
family consisted of himself. his wife
and two children, both daughters, one
being near twelve and the other neal
ten years Of age. The family was 6
happy one. The parents were esteem
ed as good and useful members of So
ciety, and their children rose up and
called them blessed. Thus they were
situated when the civil war, with its
fierce alarms, its clang and clash OF
arms, burning trophies and rivers OF
blood burst upon us in 1861. Then
came the time
'' When desolstion snatching from the hand
or time the scythe Of rum sat afoft
Or stalked ia dreadful majesty abroad"
Tennessee was the banner State in
sending her braves to battle for the
star-gemmed honey blue flag she had
flung to the breeze. Among those who
gathered under its folds was the minis
ter and gentleman referred to. He
clung to it with the devotion of love
and the fervOr Of patriotism, through
all the four years of blood, and storm
and thick darkness that lowered about
! it. When at last. in 1865, the star of
4 the young Confederacy went out in
gloom and in glory behind the hills of
! Appoma:toX, and the SCARED Veterans
who had borne their banner bravely,
returned to their wasted fields and
/ desolated homes, to lay down its shat
tered staff forever, the heart of our
friend sickened at the prospect of his
country's ruin, and sank within him.
| Though his energies were subdued in
the struggle, his proud spirit was I'M
tconauered.- While some irOn-hearted
Southerners, like Sterling Price, the
| iron Butcher of the war in the West,
| i'm the land of the Tascalans, and the
valleys of Cordova sought them homes,
some mingled as eXiles among EurOpe's
gay capitals, and others. at the tropics,
where the breath of midnight burns
I the sand. went for refuge TO brazil
Among these latter were our Mont
gomery friend and his family. Con-
verting his available assets into what
ready cash they would bring, he gath
cred his family around him and babe
his "nativee country adieu." ''SOme
natural tears" no doubt, that mother
and those blooming children shed "as
they saw for the last time" the CLASSY
Cumberland, that had so peacefully
flowed near their home. Perhaps the
father into whose soul the iron had en-
tered so deeply, like Childe Harold,
cared not what land his wanderings
bore him to, so they brought him not
back to this; or, perhaps, as he cast a
lingering look upon Clarksville, guard
ed by those he deemed Oppressors, he
felt as old Jugurtha did, when passing
out the Appian way he looked back
upon the seven hilled city of the Tiber
and said, "Therc is city to be sold"
Whasever NAV have been their feel
ings. they could not have looked for
ward to the sad future in store for
them. Reaching a Southern port, our
friend and family, with many others,
took passage on an emigrant vessel for
Brazil Prspitious gales and smooth
seas soon bore them to the SOUTH
American country, the delusive Eden
of so manY. With a hopeful heart
and stout arm. he engaged with those
who went rs a colony to the improve
ment of the locality where they had
settled and the establishment of a
home for his wife and nestlings. EX-
pected rewards did not bless the labors
of his hands, the climate ard lis I'M
genial influences preyed upon the
health of the family. Social surrcInd-
ings were unpleasant. Accustomed
To scenery that "ShenstOne might ell
Wy, and 10 music that would charm
Calypso and her nymphs," the moth
er and children had been transferred
to virtually barharic land, unculti-
waited by art, unadOrned by civiliZa-
ton. The surroundings were chilling
and Oppressive. Misfortune fell thick
and fast upon them. Disguised with
the country, most of the Southerners
who went there returned home, or
went to other parts. The condition of
our friend and his family grew from
bad 10 worse. Business failed utterly.
All his enterprises turned to dry ashes
i'm his hand. When he would have
returned TO this country he could not.
He became hopelessly involved and
was a bankrupt.
His daughters had grown into ex-
handing Young womanhood and had
developed into fair, elastic proportions.
And now comes the saddest part of
the history of this unfortunate family.
! The BRAZILIAN laws are such that when
a citizen becomes in debt, If he has no
property, hischildren are sold as slaves
! the prices they bring going to the
paymcnt of the obligation. Our friend,
~ hen he reached Brazil, unwisely be-
came LaturaIized and "a South Ameri-
can citizen and subject to the laws,
/ thus nv his own action expatriating
I himself from his native country and
/ its protection. He became involved
| i'm debt to some Bruzilians. His chill
] 4 col nc 81 l.
tiers, grown to young ladies, and whose
happy girlhood and childhood were
p'easantly past with evey comfort and
home blessing in the sequestered shades
and literary institutions of Montgom-
cry county, were led by the mercliess
grip of Brazilian law to the slave mar
! kets and sold to the highest bedder :
The price of bondage paid the fathers
debt. What a cancelling was that :
That bond of blood has its parallel in
Shylock and the Venetian merchant.
Thus. these two children, now grown,
are slaves, doing mental work for I'M
lettered masters and mistresSes in Bra
iii, their price paving devoted but
unfortunate fathers dept The amount
| of the debt, we understand, is Sl2uo III
gold, and ii will take this amount foI
the father to secure the ransom OF ms
children The gentleman is known "a
many of our readers. He is well
known throughout portions of Middle
Tennessee, and connected in Alabama,
Steps have been taken to have the
$1,000 placed i'm the hands of the father,
and we are glad to say that the pros
poets are that the children will be re-
leased from the terrible fate that accu-
mulated misfortunes have brought
down upon them. We will close by
adding that this case is not in the least
exaggerated, and that the facts as given
are vouched for by as veracious and
intelligent gentlemen as there are in
the State.