Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-06-27

VI was ~ AiA' ihNl NiAp nhlA ~ tAaeNN ~
were anxious to marry him, but that you
were in such agones of toothache that they
could not even see you. 1t seemed very
strange TO me at the time. As to foe-the
young scamp he never gave me one cent
When | demonstrated with the county clerk
lac said
IF had not given him the document he
would have driven into the next county and
get one thorc!"
'lIut learn that Colonel Bcrrien intends
to sue YOU" l said for the colonel,
after thanking mo for my course, had told
me his intentions in burst Of wrath ut the
clerk
"Sue, does hep that popular official said
with a laugh, as he offered me a cigar and
lighted one for himself Sue? I'm very
willing The fine for issuing license to
minor is five hundred dollars. Very good.
The day Colonel Borricn sues me | will begin
suit against his son for perjury. That, you
know, is the state-prison. Tell the colonel to
sue ahead"
During lifetime one regrets, | suppose,
at the rate of one No to n thousand Nesos.
Certainly l never was sorry for having said
no on this occasion. The match was n most
miserable one. So miserable that | will
merely add that, when, few months after,
the poor young fellow lay dead in his coffin,
there was general feeling in the community
tllNl II was, hN INC county NltIh lllulHtll
told me, 'about the most sensible thing that
ever happened to him, poor boy! ~
But / have told all this chiefly by way Of
preface 1t is not so much of Harry Berrien
as of very different bridegroom concerning
whom l wish to speak for Harry was as
! white but unsubstantial atom of Il past era in
comparison. What has been told is part Of
what remains to be narrated; and yet sea
rolls between the era of Harry Berricn and
the next and it is n sea of blood
II. TIE YELLOW COUPLE.
They have a phrase at the South which
needs no interpretation-that such and such
thing is done 'for grandeur Now, if
there was a person who cxemplihed as well
us delighted in grandeur it was Milton the
mulattO carriagedriver of whom mention has
| been made. lie was a splendid specimen Of
a bright mulatto and in every sense, for his
brightness was not limited TO his color. When
| the war began he was about twenty, for it
was not often that anybody could speak GER
| tainly as to the age of a negro the owning
of a gold watch would have been as great a
wonder, almost, to slave as the possession
of n birthday, a day, that is, to be certainly
| known and observed as such. lie would have
| brought on the auction block at that time
considerably over IL thousand dollars. One
| would not have thought Of him then as other
than "a likely boy certainly | did not. He
always opened the front door and bowed to
me when l called at lis masters house, but,
beyond saying, Morning, boy" | really
gave little more attention to him than had
done to the tiger-lilies in their station and
shades of yellow along the walk as came up
from the front gate. There came day when
| we saw the familiar black faces around us in
n different light and scrutinizod them more
closely.
As is well known, the silence of the slaves
in the South during the war, their absolute
passiveness and attitude of waiting the event
without moving hand or foot or tongue, was
one of the most curious features of that his
toric time. So well was this known that no
watch whatever was exercised over them on
the part of their owners. Certainly none was
in those parts of the South where the FEEDER
nj army never penetrated. One could not but
be greatly amazed during those long years Mt
the profound quietude of the blacks Through
all the excitement, the marshaling of troops
the days of public fast or thanksgiving, the
ringing of bells for victory, and the ever
deepening dependency of the whites toward
the close over their defeat, their apparently
unconscious silence was remarkable The
end came at last. A strip of printed paper
pasted on the door of our pOst-otice an
nounced the will of the Federal Government
that all slaves should be free, the armies, rep
resentatives of that WILL not having as yet got
within many hundred miles of us,-the first
Yankee of them all not arriving for many
weeks afterward. by unanimous, although
wholly unconcerted, movement, the same re-
suit followed Mt almost the same hour on ev-
cry plantation and farm, as well as in every
household the State over Each owner as
semblod his slaves and told them they were
free, but gave them as an instant alternative,
to go at once or, if they remained, to stay on
the same terms of steady work for their food
and clothing and owners care as from the
creation of the world, for 80 it seemed tc
them and to all.
few staid. Generally it was the old and
those who were numbered with young chill
dren. In some instances the lifelong bonds
of mutual respect, as well as love, were strong
enough TO hold master aud slave together a.
of old The vast majority scattered at til,
first opportunity like birds out of a cage
They could not believe, otherwise. that sC
wild a dream as freedom had become actua
fact, and perhaps it was nature.
Milton was one of these. At twelve oclOcl
his owner had told him and the rest of "th'
people" that they were free; at two oclocl
the same day Milton was in town, five mile
away, done with his master and his master
, plantation forever, fifty cents in his pocket
and not having waited to eat any dinner
The man had come into sudden possession o
the fortune of himself, was henceforth "lorC
of himself" leaving the future to decid'
whether or not it was to be heritage o
: woe." The only clear idea Milton had OF
this day of days WAS Seely' Now Seely wa
by no means as good looking as Milton, bu
she more then made up for it by being NOR
; | sensible She was cook for a Mr.. Madison
! who lived in the edge of the town, and sh
= stayed with her master and mistress, at leas
- for the present. One day, very soon afte
: the close of the war, Milton called upon me
. matters were SO far changed that | now look
. cd at him for what might be stated as bein
y the first time. With regular features, mag
nifcent black eyes, n complexion OF preclsel
that combination of crimson and gold whic
l you find in ripe pomegrnnate, with mus
, tache and hair as black MS black can be, m
. visitor was u sort of tropical product bette
o worth studying than l had ever bcfor
6 thought There was a subtle moduation,
G not more in the motions of his body than
y the tones of his voice, which is usually II
parded as the last and highest perfection c
S culture. When he had called upon me be
/ fore, on behalf of his young master, he wa
g merely the most intelligent and expensiy
3 part of his owners equlpage. Now, all tn
u rest of the carriage and horses so to speak
u was gone He had again come upon busines
!, (, of ceremony, but it was on his own behalf
IL the flourish was there, but there was depth
L it now, for he came to be married himself
2, and understood it all when he came in
. It was "for grandeur;" although l ha
d lived in the South all my life l had, som'
% how, never been called upon to marry co
ored couple. But it was not merely becaus
4 was a white minister that Milton now calle
J, upon me; had profoundly impressed hi
I that Sunday by refusing to marry his youn
u master. That young master was dead and goI
10 with the very name itself gone with Go
!; knows how much that was good and noble
r. the epoch departed. 1t was very little Mi
4. ton knew about the period upon which
t. had now entered. At that moment all
if wanted to do was to begin his new career /
~ marrying Seely, and by getting married
grandly as possible. | had not seen hi
Ot since he had become free and it is not ofte
that one has so historical an opportunit.
IS Nobody has as yet found, even among fossil