The Press., 1886-04-01
HOW JOB YANCEY REACHED FREEDOM.

'tDo remember any incidents of the underground railroad that havn't got into print yet P said an old abolitionist and slave rescuer of Boston, in response to a que stion. "Wcll, there is one story that I don't remember to have been in the books or the papers. In 1859, just Tn the height of the agitation, S, our agent at Columbia, S O.. lad occasion to ticket \ muiul -age negro, Job Ya.cey by tame, through to Pruvidti.ce, R. l., hy tue un dergrou.d JoD had sheltered runaway in his cabin and had been betrayed by aatther negro He learned the situation AAd came into 0 lumb,a in the mld,ile of
 he ght There WAS no hope of conceal ig m. Our agent lad thought of a
 ew LII, ans .t shipment. that he had never EtI,d. Tbs was iris opportunity to try II, i r Job was clrHr grit, strong with the well k it str ngrh of mid lie age, aud pa
 le t his Il uIesak,,. t44s5sss'5
 ='S-g got ou, a large coffin that hs. nnu kt pt for the ms rgeney, and into thls G, iii pu: pamr Job, aud with him a qu .ntlrH of CT ckcrs, cheese, dried mea
 A1h rubber bag full uf water. A flaw 3imiet holes admitted BIT. On the fir | train ill th- murning Job Yaucey went if, ships ed as corp-e to a oh sen address IL Providence Trainmen were generally re. spec ful of the dead ln those days, anu J,b tray. led comfortably for tune, bar ring he hours that he occasionally lay on som, depot platform III the broihng south cru sun. Travel WAS slow, aud sometimes the treatment was a little rough. Job af- ter day or so began to get exceedingly lame with th.. confinement and pressure, his grim berth grew irksome, but it was when the loud shout and laughter of his klnd died away around him, and when that and the sickening chlll came over him when they dumped him one night on the stone floor of a cold baggage room somewhere told him that he was in the north, that he began to suffer. The mere consciousness that he was in the north might have buoyed him up, however, if it had not been for one dreadful circum. stance.
 "There was a sort of faint gleam around him that told that it was day, and he must have been in New York, for he says that he knew that he had been car ried across water by the sensation of ris- ing and falling that he had felt. He had felt himself rattled along in 8 wagon, too, and the wagon had brought up in place where he had heard the chatter and the roar of trains again. His coffin was dragged violently out of the wagon, aud when his bearers put him down they stood the coffin. against watl-on it's head. He felt that he was lost, and would die, but he dared not shout for help. That would mean discovery, de livery. to-. his owners, and worse than death. Better die there even horrible death from torture, than be carried back to his masters plantation. He clung to his determination, but at last felt his weakened senses give way. His con. sciousness, after minutes of agony, which seemed hours, was lost
 ssWhen he recovered Job had actually arrived at Providence and his new-found friends-better friends than he had ever known-were using their best endeavors to restore him. In few days he was able to step out into the world, in home in chosen village, a free man."