Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-03-19

How Job Eancey Reached Freedom.
"Do remember any incidents of the un-
derground railroad that haven't got into
print = said an old abolitionist and slave
rescuer the other night in response to a ques-
tion. "Well, there is one story l don't re-
member to have been in the books or the
papers. In 1859, just in the height of the
agitation, s., our agent at Columbia, s.
c., had occasion to ticket middle aged ne.
gro, dob Iancey by name, through to Provi-
dence, X. l.. by the underground. Job had
sheltered runaway in his cabin and had
been betrayed by another negro. He learned
the situation and came into Columbia in the
middle of the night. There was no hope of
concealing him. Our agent had thought of
new means of shipment, that he had never
tried. This was his opportunity to try it, for
Job was clear grit, strong with the well knit
strength of middle age, and patient as his
namesake.
s got out large coffin that be had kept
Tor the emergency, and into the coffin he put
poor Job, and with him quantity of crack
ers, cheese, dried meat and a rubber bag full
Of water. A few gimet holes admitted air.
On the first train in the morning Job Yancey
went off, shipped as a corpse to chosen ad.
dress in Providence Trainmen we're gener-
ally respectful of the dead in those days, and
Job travelled comfortably for a time, barring
the hours that he occasionally lay on some
depot platform in the broiling Southern sun.
Travel was slow, and sometimes the treat
ment was little rough. Job after day or so
began to get exceedingly lame with the con.
fnement and pressure, his grim berth grew
irksome but it was when the loud shouts and
laughter of his own kind died away around
him, and when the sickening chill came
over him as they dumped him one night
on the stone floor of cold baggage room
somewhere, told him that he was in the North.
that he began to suffer The mere consci.
business that he was in the North might have
buoyed him up, however, if it had not been
for one dreadful circumstance.
There was sort of faint CLEAN around
him that told him it was day, and he must have
been in New York, for be says that he knew
that he had been carried across some water
by the sensation of rising and falling that he
felt. He had felt himself ratified along in a
wagon, too, and the wagon had brought up
in place where he had heared the clatter
and the roar OF trains again. His coffin was
dragged violently out of the wagon, and when
his bearers put him down they stood the cof-
fin against WALTON its head. Job began
to feel the blood rushing to his head. He
felt that he was lost, and would die, but he
dared not shout for help. That would mean
discovery, delivery to his owners, and
worse than DEATH Better die there evsn a
horrible death from torture, than be carried
back to his masters plantation. He clung
to his determination, but at last felt his weak
/ ened senses give way. His consciousness af-
ter few minutes of agony, which seemed
hours, was lost.
when he recovered Job had actually ar
rived at Providence and his new found friends
better friends than he had ever known
we're using their best endeavors to restore
him. In a few days he was able to step out
into the world, in home in a chosen village,
free man. ."-BOst0R cOrresbOndeRt of ". y.
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