Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1884-06-13

EIGHTEEN PAUPERS AUCTIONED
OFF IN WEST VIRGINIA.

The New York Evening Iele-
gram publishes the following de-
scription of the alleged selling at
public auction of eighteen paupers
at st. George county seat of Tucker
county, w. Va, on May "a:
Eighteen wretched beings stood
before a crowd of some six hundred
people. The crowd was gathered
before the little courthouse, and
included farmers, clergymen and
towns-people. These eighteen hui
man beings, some crying, others
laughing, and among them an
idiotic girl suffering from a scroiu-
lous disease, who jabbered and
grinned, were paupers, and they
were, under the law of the State,
to be sold for the term of one year
to the highest bidder. Promptly
at 10 o'clock the crowd gathered in
front of the courthouse and in
spected the paupers. Presently
the sheriff of the county mounted
the horse-blOck and read the order
of the court Then the auctioneer,
a stout, jolly-faced individual,
mounted the block, and making a
testing remark, which caused the
crowd to roar with laughter, an
nounced that the goods are divi-
| ded into two classes, able'bOdied
and invalids,' and asked for bids.
The first to step upon the block
WAS an old man 70 years of age.
Turning him around for the better
iIfnspection of the bidders, the auc-
tioneer began. Now, gentlemen
said he, there you have fine man.
He is sound, solid and gentle as a
kitten. He is good for big days
work. How much am [ offered ?
The old fellow looked anXi0usly at
the crowd of bidders as the amount
Offered we're outbid. Finally he
was sold to a man named John
Henderson for S26, who, after pay
ing his money, took the old fellow,
who looked sad and weary and
Isighed heavily as he went away
with him.
s''Among the group of paupers
was a beautiful little girl Of 10
years, who cried bitterly because
to leave the family to whom
she had been sold the previous
year. She had neither father nor
mother, or, if she had, they had
thrown her adrift when an infant.
She had not even a name, and the
Fauctioneer facetiously dubbed her
Sally whereat his listeners
laughed INN oderately. She sold
for IS so, and her purchaser was a
minister of the gospel.
10 zone of the most pitiful sights
ever seen was that of the next
pauper to be sold. She was an old
woman, and it was her first year as
a pauper. Perhaps she had once
been rich in this worlds goods and
had a happy home. At all events
she had supported herself till the
present time, and the question OF
her past was known only to herself.
No one else knew. No one cared.
She was led to the block crying as
though her heart would break
When she ste pped upon it she
walled in her anguish: MY God, L
wish that l could die. My husband
and son were killed in the army.
Oh, if could only die3 She was
sold to the keeper of a boarding
house al lodging camp for 81.
The idiotic girl was sold to hard
looking mountaineer for the sum of
sixty cents per week.
AS the next part of the human
goods and chattels stepped upon
the block it showed the white,
curly locks of an aged cOlored man,
who laughed as he~looked over the
throng with his good humored and
Ijohy eyes. u golly,' said he, as he
glanced around, 'dis yer is like oldP
times, bress my SOUL He was
sold to farmer for Sn. .'..'
THE sale aggregated s11S for the
lsable-bodied' paupers and an aver
age price of thirty-two cents per
week for theiinvalids. At the coil
lcl6sion Of the sale the jolly auc-
tioneer, with a parting jest to the
crowd, stepped from his stand, and
entering the hotel, refreshed him
self after his fatiguiug duties. The
purchasers, with their bargains,
las some of them termed the I'M
4 3 -. n. Il H.