Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1874-03-20

On the eastern shore OF Putin Bay l.
land, in Lake Erie, quite GU, # the v ~ Of
the summer pleasurer at the great hotels Of
the northern shore, stands the two->tory
frame farm house Of John Brown. Jr II
rises ont of fair landscape of sunny vine
yards, the path to it from the main road
leading through tangle of grapes. \
natural lawn slopes prettily from the house
down to the water, across which. seven or
eight miles away, Kelley's island and the
Ohio mainland look dreamily. in tie half
tropical manner of most Lake Erie scenery.
All these wine Islands, indeed. sec one an
other dim!y and drowsilY, As if drunk with
the mellowness of their own vintases. Ia
this quie, place. after fighting his enemies
in Kansas, and boing driven hy them in
chains till the iron had worn is way into
the flesh, after being hunted from place to
place for the attempt az Harper, Ferry,
although he was not there; and after hay
ing to leave the company he led 70 the late
war on account of q disease contracted in
the first battles against >layery-in this
quiet place, | say, lives John Brown, Jr.
lie moved here. nine or ten years ago, when
these pleasant vineyards were wild land :
and now 50 modest and peaceable Is he that
you would never imag inc ht had fired gun
in his life.
When called at this house and inquired
for Mr.. Brown, the plain. Notwithstanding
woman who came to the door asked which
Mr.. Brown wanted, John or Owen. This
mild-vOiced matron, as | aftcrward found.
T.br Il 3, hs, h~l ~ ra.l
the dangers and hardships Of Kansas bor
der-lIse with her husband and it was from
her, then and there. that learned Owen
Brown was on the island. She told me the
two brothers were moving in 4 neighbor
ing field. And there found them John. |
a large, well-made man; Owen. slenderer.
though somewhat above the middle height. |
and Of the two looking more like the o.d |
hero of Ossa wattOmie. They each have !
bushy eyebrows and wear fall beard, |
sandy, a their fathers was once, and be- /
ginning to whiten, As his did at their ages.
Owen shows, perhaps, all his f1rIy-ninc |
years, while John looks younger at fifty |
two. They were both in their hickory-shirt |
sleeves, and wore trousers of blue drilling /
but have seen no hands0mer men, among /
the throngs who have come and suae al tile |
fashionable hotels, in the course of my sum
mer's sojonrn on the Island. Certainly /
have iuet no one, at PGt-in-Bay, or any /
where else. who had to higher degree that /
subtle equality which can make the texture /
of any given attire gentlemanlv
There, coming up to the fence To- sa.utc |
me, was the eldest of John Browns sons.
the quiet, genial, warm-heartcd farmer,
amateur geolOgist and land surveyor, John /
Brown, Jr. And there, leaning on hi> /
scythe, was Owen Brown, the Silc SurvivCr /
of the little party he led t!,r1agh the |
mountains, in that marvellous escape OF his. !
and-if. as is supposed. Osborn Anderson. !
the mulatto, is dead-the only one living /
of all the company that went with Captain |
John Brown to llarpcr's Ferry. There |
was a gentle courtesy in the talk and |
manner of both these men that | cannot |
write down for you; and surely never |
met more thorough, genuine mDdesty. At /
that first interview, could get them u say |
little of themselves. They had heard s0nc- |
wha. Of my own wayward story and with |
the curiosity. not of ignorant, but of we'll !
read, well-bred men, they questioned me /
back, 50 to speak, into sDme of the hy-ways |
of my early experience. They were particu
larly curious about certain rarely visited /
places beyond the sea. | tell this, because /
1t may help you to see the picture of these |
two men as | saw it, looking back after /
parting with him. that summer afternoon. |
They stood leaning against the rail fence, |
their scythcs on their shoulders, gazing 81 |
lently after me; and as the sllnting sun
light fell upon their honest faces, | could |
SOC a. plainly. il seems to me. rs ever saw |
anything. not the stern lincamentS of /
historic warriors. who have gone back to /
their farms, but an artless aspiration. Ike |
that of the village boy for the sailors ad- |
venturous life. These men, unmindful of |
the part they had had in deeds, which, well |
or ill advised, have sent the world along, |
were modestly putting my pigmy story |
ahead of their heroic one, in the eager wish |
that fate had sent them wandering among |
strange people and in iar-of lands.
1t was not till we had met very often
that Owen Brown consented to tell me |
the story of his escape. or that John told |
me enough of his fathers, plans to
give dignity to the attempt at Iiarper's
Ferry which | confess it had never be- |
fore seemed to me, in my Ignorance, to
have. John Brown. Jr., was at home in
Ashtabula county, Ohio, at the time Of the
attack lie had jut returned from Canada,
where he had been organizing the pluckiest
and most trustworthy of the escaped slaves.
at some of the border towns. lie would
have been a. Harpcr's Ferry, if his father
had not been driven to begin operations be
fore the appointed time. The reason for
striking the blow so soon was that he had
been betrayed to the government. More
over, the people in the neighborhood began
to suspect him. John Browns entire plan
has never, | think. been published. Ills
object, as his friends know, was to make
slave-holding 80 unsafe and unstable as to
render it Improbable, and 80 to lead to its
abolition. lie and his company had already
in effect driven slavery out of Kansas, and
/ sssened the value of slaves in Missouri and
Il border States tO the amount of at least n
mi l'lion dollars. This had been done by
han. tful Of men, with the combined power
and influence Of the government against
them. John Brown remembered that the
Semin"i'ss were never fairly conquered, and
had, twenty years before. while surveying
in the neigbborhood Of liarper's Ferry, re-
solved to make the Alisg hany and Cumber-
land Mountains and the Dismal Swamp his