The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1892-08-06
"JEUNCE."
A Charcoal Sketch Drawn from
Real Life.

MISS May says please look al Qc
waiter-it's a specimen Of early r
pousse."
These words were addressed to me by
the messenger who had just brought
me n present of fruit from a friend.
Before looking more particularly at the
waiter, / looked at the deliverer Of the
message. He was a small negro whose
height indicated that he was about
eight years of age, but whose shrewd
and serious face might have justified a
claim to eighty years of human expert
nee He vas literally as black as
SCOT, and the color of his skin was
startlingly brought out by the long
white apron, whose snowy amplitude
almost covered his entire person.
When he spoke he showed two enor-
nous front teeth, as white as his apron.
His face and hands and close-cropped
wool were scrupulously neat, and he
had altogether an air of decorum and
self-possession that formed q strong
contrast to the rest of his class
What did Miss Mary tell 4 TO tell
me?" / asked, for the sake of hearing
the message repeated. and he said it
over with the same exactness. Then
he said good evening, and went softly
away
1t was what KNEW of the first estate
of this little negro that made his pres
ent condition of mind and body SO in
teresting to me. l had first heard of
him as the victim of the most atrocious
cruelties on the part Of some negroes,
not his parents, with whom the little
black waif lived.
He had been whipped and cuffed and
beaten, and absolutely burned with hot
irons and struck with sharp instruments
until some neighbor, hearing of these
cruelties, brought the child into town
and, telling his story, gave him up to
the officers of the court to be disposed
of.
The miserable little specimen, q mass
of rags and SC ars and wounds, was then
put up at the courthouse and offered to
anyone who chose to take him home,
to be bound to them until his coming of
age.
Naturally, claimants were not very
plentiful; but the pitiful tale was told
to a lady whose kind heart it touched,
and she took him. Her friends protest
ed, and reminded her that the child,
little as he was, had been declared an
~inveterate liar and thief.
But as these witnesses against him
were the negroes who had treated him
with such cruelty, she refused TO take
their evidence, OF rather to share in
their blame.
81 suppose" she said, that he had
to steal to escape starving; and then to
lie to escape beating. And if you ex-
pect the mature spirituality which
would have prevented these things from
a child with his beginnings 1 think you
whether good treatment won't produce
good conduct, just as bad treatment did
bad conduct"
So she got from somewhere a suit of
little clothes for HIM, a hap-hazard fit,
and sent a colored woman to scrub the
child thoroughly and put these clothes
on him and bring him to her.
That evening he was ushered into her
presence as she sat alone in her pretty
drawing-room. and she told the maid
who brought him to close the door and
leave him with her.
The clothes were big enough for two
boys of his size, and they made him
look all the more pathetic as he stood
rolling his big eyes and gazing ut her
with a mixture of defiance and terror.
"Whatis your name?" said Miss Mary.
"Jeunce," was the answer, elected
with a sort of spasmodic hiss from be-
tween his big front teeth.
"Jeunce? VIVA. is that manner Say
it again"
"Jeunce," repeated the child
81 suppose it must be Junius shall
call you Junius. Well. Junius, conn
md shake hands with me-"
The boy looked utterly astonished,
but he put out his black atom of . paw
into the white hand outstretched to him.
NOW, J%unius," said Miss Mary, 81
going to take you to live with me,
and ! am going to be very good to
you. and give you all you want TO eat
and nice clothes to wear. and a good,
bed to sleep in. and take
good care Of you. But you've got to be
a good boy, or / shall not keep you.
You don't want to go back to Andy,
that man that treated you SO badly, do
your
A look of terror came into the little
black face that made her hasten to say:
You need never go back to him, If
you'll be a good child. I'll keep you
always with me. You know what 1t is
to be bad. Andy was bad, wasn't heY'
"Orrful bad" said the child.
"What did he do? What made him
babe"
"Ile took somethin'," was the mys-
ferrous response.
..Took something? What did he
take?'
al fergets the name of it." said the
child. scratching his head in pcrplexity.
"Was il money!"
.'Twarn't that" /