The Grange advance., 1876-12-27

| L could not OelleVe the dispatch chat
you were coming, and I bet four silk
hats that you would not ne here. Now,
I've lost Them
Meeting after Twenty Year Separation.
From the Kansas City TINES
An interesting drama was enacted
the other day in a baggage room
in the Union depot. Old Aunt Sophia,
the stout, good-natured colored woman
who sweeps out the Union depot and
waits upon the female passengers in
the waiting room, was standing up
with her hands behind her against a
post in the baggage room. Two cOlored
men entered. One was a well.knOWn
express wagon driver the other was
well-dressed colOred man about forty
or forty-five years of age. Police
Officer Hanlon followed them into the
room and pointed out Aunt Sophy.
"Aunt Sophy, does ye know dis
man = inquired the express-wagon
driver.
The well-dressed stranger peered
curiously beneath the old sun-bonnet
waited anxiously for the expected
recognition. But the old colored
woman after hastily glance at the
face of the stranger, responded short
ly and gruffly:
*:No sar I don't know the gem
man.
! What! Sophy, don't you know
George Duncan what was married to-
ye down dar in Cole county long afore
de war - said the well.dressed strang-
er, advancing toward the the old
woman, who stood defiantly backed up
against post.
"Yes," responded the old aunty
gruttly, II members dat ar George
Duncan
can don't ye member how [ was
Souf when got cotched dat time -
''Yes, remembers all about dat al
members how dat same George Dun
can run off with wuthless white
woman an leffme an my baby, and dat
he got cotched afore he got to the free
state out yeah in Kansas, and his mas
te sold him souf, Oh eyes, mem
bers all about it,
@Is dat ar man Is George Duncan,
come all de way from Orleans to find
you, Sophy, and my boy. Whar am dat
ar boy p
''Dat boy am a man bigger dan you
he am good boy, too, an 'spects his
nanny, he do. He's at wuk in de
| elumvator.''
lis ye married again, Sophy? :"
queried the stranger, anxiously.
"No, ism t." said the old woman,
impatiently, almost angrily, ''an' l
doesen't tend to be again.
After brief pause, the man asked in
a sort Of a broken voice:
''Whar am dat boy OBJ mine?''
''He's down in de elumvator at de
State line.''
"Don't you know me, ,Sophy, no NOR:
Don't ye member when come coortin'
ye down at Massa Shelby Martins
place down dar in Cole county! Don't
ye members how we got married, an.
an, Oh Sophy, don't ye know yer
husband, George Duncan!
Tears began to gather in the old de-
pot Woman's eyes, but she held them
back a moment, when nature gave
way and she gave her old slave hus-
band her hand and bade him ':so see
dot ar boy.''
After the old slave had left the bag
gage room, Times reporter took old
aunt Sophia in hand, and from her he
learned the following interesting facts
in the case: :
| About twenty years ago she was a
slave, belonging to Col. Shelby Martin,
a wealthy farmer of Cole county, not
far from Jefferson City. Not far from
| her old home there resided a family
/ by the name of Duncan, who owned a
colored boy named George. After a
brief courtship George and Sophia were
married. But George, in his visits to
Jefferson City, got acquainted with
worthless, degraded woman, and with
her started off on the underground
railway" for Kansas. Sophia lived
with her master until the war set her
! free. Her husband was recaptured,
his master and sent to the cotton fields
of the South.
George Duncan says he has always
regretted bitterly his runaway scrape
with that worthless white woman, but
when he was betrayed by her when
near the Kansas line, and was taken
back and ''sold South'' he gave up all
hope of ever seeing his wife and child
again. He was taken to the cotton
fields of Mississippi, and finally trans
ferred to Louisiana, where he has
lived for the past eleven years. He
says he has been saving money all the
time with view of coming north to
seek his family. and this year he says
he raised several bales of cotton, the
proceeds of which have enabled him
to prosecute his search for his long
lost wife and child. He went first to
Jefferson City, and found that his wife