News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-08-03
A NARROW ESCAPE.
The Man Who Saved Fred Douglass
Life When it wa in Danger.

".Yes sir; I am the man who saved
Fred Douglass from being hanged when
odd John Brown was captured al
Harper's Ferry. I suppressed a dis.
patch addressed to the Sheriff of Phila.
delphia ~instructing him to arrest
Douglass, who was then in that city,
as proofs of his completely in the mem.
orable raid were discovered when John
Brown was taken into custody"
Seated on the doorstep of his cosy
cottage, a few miles outside of Vineland
n. J., was John W. Hurn, a pleasant,
gray-bearded man of sixty, who, when
Questioned, answered as above respect
ing the aid rendered by him to the noted
abolitionist.
cat that time [ was a telegraph oper.
ator located in Philadelphia" continued
Mr.. Hurn, "and when I received the
dispatch 1 was frightened nearly out OF
my wits. As I was an ardent admirer
OF the great ex-slave, who vas doing all
that mortal could do to agitate the anti
slavery question, I resolved to warn
Douglassof his impending fate, no mat
ter what the result might be to me"
The newsstand just been spread through
out the country of the bold action of
John Brown and his intrepid followers
IN taking the little town of Harper's
Ferry. Everybody was excited, and
public feeling ran high. Before the in
telligence came that Brown had been
captured the dispatch I have mentioned
was sent by the Sheriff of Franklin
County, Pa, to the Sheriff of Philadel-
phia, informing him that Douglass had
been n c! the leading conspirators,
and requesting that he should be i'm
mediately apprehended. Though I
knew it wasillegal to do SO. I quietly
put the dispatch in my pocket and ask
ing another operator to take my place,
started on ny search for Fred. Doug
lass.
CT went directly to Miller McKim,
the Secretary of the contraband, under
ground fugitive railway office in Phila-
delphia, and inquired for my man. Mr..
McKim hesitated to tell me, whereupon
l showed hin the dispatch and promised
him not to allow it to be delivered
within three hours. I told him that /
would not do this unless he agreed to
get Mr.. Douglass out of the State.
This he readily assented to, for it was
his business to spirit escaped slaves
beyond the reach of the authorities. !
returned to the telegraph office and
kept a sharp lookout for similar dis
patches. None arrived, however, and
when the allotted time expired I sent
the belated message to its destination.
SIN the meanwhile those entrusted
with my secret saw Mr.. Douglass and
urged him to leave the town as quickly
as possible. He was 10th to do so at
first, but the expostulations of his
friends overcame his objections, and in
an hour he left on a railroad train which
placed a gap of forty miles between
him and Philadelphia every hour. He
reached his home in Rochester, New
York, in safety, destroyed the compro-
missing documents, and then packed his
grip-sack and started for Canada. 1t
was fortunate that he left as soon as he
did, for Immediately after his departure
from Rochester his home was sur
rounded by officers.
"Those were queer times, and per-
sons had to be careful what they did
and said. I did not tell of my share in
the rescue, for L feared the power of the
slave party, as they could have had me
imprisoned. When I look back and
think what I did to save that man from
the gallows-for he would undoubtedly
have gone there had he been arrested
L feel thr+ sm rewarded by contem-
plating that the life saved was well
worth saving. "-PhiIadeLphia Record.