The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-30


when he grew up to be a young man, he would
not train or drill but paid fines, and SO got along
nee the Quakers. until his age cleared him OF
military duty
But the most notable event of his beyhood
Gays was an event that he says, in the end.
made him a most determined Abolition
ist, and led him, at twelve years
old, to swear eternal war with slavery.
IL chanced that in Pennsylvania, where he was
sent hundred miles by his father to collect cat
tie Tor the army, he stopped with a slave-owner
VINO mad negro boy of his own age, and whom
John looked upon as his superior. This boy was
| slave, and John saw him beaten with an iron
snovei and otherwise abused; he saw that this
boy had nothing better to look forward to in life
while he himself was petted and made much of
ate at the trst table, and every little smart thing
IhaS ne SAID or did was noticed. especially that
ne nad driven alone drove of cattle hundred
miles Inc coiored boy badly clothed and
fed, and septin the cold. This he says brought
MIN to reflect upon the wretched, hopeless
conoltlon of fatheress and motherless slave chill
dren, and SO this boy dressed in buckskin. fond
OF rough play and who could never, he said see
seedy wool hat without wishing to
pun 1t of, wanted playmates who were his
equais; not one his own master,
hale and hearty, like John, and the other
wretched and whipped. This doctrine of equality
ne stuck to all of his life. When he was fifty
seven years old he told MIR. Sanborn that Chrst's
golden rule and Jefferson's declaration meant
"io S"nA0 tulHS. L nave always D6GH uelSHtcu,
| SAID ne, with the doctrine that all men are ere
ated 1ree and equal, and to my mind, it is the
SavlorS command, ''Thou shalt love thy
neigheor as thyself,' 'for how can we do that
unless oar neighbor is equal to oursefl This
is the doctrine sir; and rather than to have that
fail In the world or in these States, it were bet
ter for whole generation of 40 900 900 people to
die a violent death" Such was his faith and
belief in boyhood, and the faith in which and for
| which he died
John Browns whole manhood was consistent
with his boyhood, and he carried out as
man his ideas of right when boy.
| And so we must look at his enterprise to go into
Virginia and run off at once five hundred or a
Thousand slaves, not as piece of spite or re-
venge for his work in Kansas, and the killing of
his sons and friends there, but as the keeping Of
an oath made to heaven and earth forty seven
years before.
And so Brown went on, earnest and serious,
reading the Bible, the fables of Esop, the life
| or FRANKLIN, the hymns of Dr. Watts the Pill
grims Progress, and the history of ancient ma
tons He liked to play, but never went to a
dance in his life, ard did not know
one card from another in pack.
He had little schooling, no grammar
and did not get through long division. At IF
teen he was man in size and did mans hard
work, and bad read the lives of wise men and
good men, their sayings and writings. He says
| he dlsiiked vain and frivolous persons ard con-
| versation. Older and more intelligent persons
| gladly received him in their houses and con
| versed with him. This, he said, was a great re-
lief, on account of his bashfulness. He advises
| harry StearnS to do his work WELL He says he
had this feeling as a boy, and he would recon-
| mend 1t to all young persons, both male and
female, as it will certainly secure admission to
| the company of the more intelligent and better
portion of every community. From fifteen to
| twenty he worked at the tanners trade keeping
bachelors hall and acting cook for the family
| and foreman Of the business under his father.
During this period be experienced religion. He
joined the Congregational Church at sixteen,
| and ike all serious minded Puritan youths
| he dreamed of getting college education and
/ studying for the ministry. And so at seventeen
| he went to Painfeld, Mass. to fit for Amherst
! college, and work and preach his way through, as
/ the custom then was. At this school he thrashed
his younger brother, Salmon more in sorrow
than in anger, for some school trick. The teach
or had forgiven him, but John said to the teach
or: ''If Salmon had done this thing at home
| know father would have punished him, and if
| you don't, shall" Young Brown evidently be-
| lieved all his life that ng-deing should be
punished, and that without the shedding of
| blood there can be no remission of SINS At this
| school he tapped his own boots with square of
| leather he had tanned for seven years in his
| fathers vats, and had piece of sheepskin from
which he cut small strips for strings so strong
that his teacher could not break them in two.
Ith.sagA he used al his strength But his eyes
and his money failed, and so he turned from the
idea of being preacher, and became
land surveyor, at which he was
very skilIful When in Kansas he surveyed
! line right through his enemies camp talked
With them and got all their pians-this was in
| May, 1886; learned that they intended to kill
| the entire Brown family. himself and six sons
| He was introduced to the ringleaders. Sherman,
| Doyle and Wilkinson, and marked them with
| the finger of death, for before the end of the
month ION May 25) John Brown and his men ex-
ecuted the four leaders. This looks like murder
Gus work for man who intended to be
| preacher, but this story of John Brown will mean
nothing to any boy or girl who does not believe
| that God governs the world, ard in making good
| triumph over evil selects chosen men to con-
| sciously or unconsciously do His work. and sup
| pose that if John Brown had not understood sur
yeying and under the guise of a government sur
veyor had not surveyed a line right through the
! heart of this murderous band of pro-savery men,
| they would have murdered his entire family.
| John was twenty years old when he bought his
| book on surveying, and studied it all out by
| himself. His son. John Brown, who was here
| three years ago, on his way to get the bones of
| his brother who was killed at Harpers Ferry,
| and his skeleton made into q preparation to
teach anatomy from in the Virginia Medical Col
| 1ege has the book yet.
| For the next twenty years Brown was tanner
at Hudson, o., or farmer in Pennsylvania but
| his little autobiography which he gave to Harry
! Stearns, only brings him up manhood The
last thing in it of note is that at little past
| twenty years, to quote his words, she was
led by his own inclination, and prompted, also, by
| his father, to marry remarkably plain butneat,
and Industrious and economical girl of good prac-
| teal common sense and about one year younger
| than himself. THIS woman, he says, by her
| mild, frank and consistent conduct maintained
as long as she lived, most powerful and good
| influence over him. Her plain but kind admoni-
| tons had the right effect and without arousing
his naughty, obstinate spirit.
| After telling us that he always had great lik-
| ing for fine CATTLE horses, sheep and swine and
| enthusiastic longing to be a shepherd, he says
that he believed that, as business, stock raising
would give him the means of carrying out his
greatest or principal object He does not say SO,
but of course he means that as cattle-d dealer
and wool-buyer he could travel all about and
live in any part of the Union, North or South,
without exciting any suspicion that his real pur-
| pose was to free the slaves
Il have now given you," he says, at the last,
"a kind of general idea of the life of this boy
John, and if I believed it would be worth the
trouble or afford any interest to anv pood feel