Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1895-06-14

they first caught sight of it, away down
in the valley below them, generellv
made a motion to get their small bits
OF baggage gathered together prepare.
tory to leaving, but the conductor used
to say to them good-naturedly.
| Two are not quito there vet: T
wouldn't make move for c minute or
two if l were you. Just watch that
hotel"
Then. looking out of the car window
into this iucomparably grand valley.
tho passenger found himself taken
round and round the circumference OF
the great gulf. No tho hotel was di.
rectly below him, again he was look
ing ut it from across the valley; round
and round the train went, getting
gradually lower and lower, aud it was
noarly an hour after tho passengers
first sight OF tho hotel that tho train
drew up under Its verandas.
Tho convict settlement on tho spur
OF tho mountain WAS invisible from
the railway track, but tho convicts
wero there because tho railway was
there. They were hired out to tho
railway company by the State govern
mont, and as the train dashed by,
sometimes the passengers woro shocked
to see, standing close in by tho cliffs
beside tho track, twenty or thirty
black men in convict garments, some
with ball and chain attached to their
ahklcs. And then, rs the train dashed
by, white men with rifles on their
shoulders wero seen guarding the
workers on tao railway.
There was no will around tho
camp, its only protection being II
small picket fence, easily leaped over.
But nature guarded the prisoners On
almost every sido tho descent was
steep, and often precipitous, but
convict would run no danger to life or
limb in making tho descent. But al
though convict might easily have
leaped the slender barrier and might
hive lodged tho shots from the inon
on the wooden towers, his escape was
next thing to hopeless; no had to
climb over tho mountain to got away,
and n telegraph station in the convict
settlement quickly appraised all clvili-
cation outside this Wilderness that
such and such man had escaped from
the camp.
The usual result of all attempt to
escape was that week or ten duys af-
ter the leap over the barrier, gaunt,
starved man camc out of tho wilder.
ness aud gave himself up at the first
place whoro he could get something to
eat. Often ho failed in scaling tho
mountHii., and returned after q fow
days TO tho camp itself. Tho worry
frailty of the fencs around tho camp
showed the utter hopelessncss of ut
tempting to escape.
On the particular day in summer to
which this account relates thcro had
been furious storm of rain in tho
mountains. Tho clouds seemed to
have become ontangled among the
peaks, and they hung over tho valley,
unable, like the prisoners, to escnpe,
aud poured their floods into it until
tho little river had become wild and
raving torrent, cleaning here and
there in white among the dark trees.
Toward night the clouds succeeded
in breaking away and noated over to
tho west. but tho muttcr Of distant
thunder showed TINT the storm was
not yet over, while the heat seemed
moro oppressive than over after the
terrible days rain. When darkness
set in the watery silver sickle of tho
moon hung over the valley and filed
it with IL weird. dim, tremulous light.
The roar OF tho torrent, increased by
the stiffness all around, came up from
the bottom of the valley OH the night
air.
The master of tho pcnitcntiary sat
in a rocking chair on the veranda of
his wooden house smoking his corn
cob pipe. What littlo coolnoss there
was was outside and not inside the
house. Suddenly IL burst of childish
laughter broke on his cnr, and looking
TO the left he saw his little girl LASH
ing Sunshine johnson MS if he were q
horse, while that good-natured indi-
vidual trotted up and down with the
child on his shoulders.
Sunshine" cried the master, "what
are you doing with Dorothy out SO
late MS this?"
The convict came to an instant stop
Mt the sound oil the masters VOICE, and
the child even hushed its laughter.
Little Dorothy was much more afraid
of her stern father than OF tho good
natured murderer
"Well, you see, massn, it's like this, "
said the convict, deferentially. "IIit-
Dot had to be in dc house all de day
on account oh de rain, sab, and it's SC
warm inside dat her mother she
thought wo could play little before
she goes to bed, and den little Dot,
sab, she thought she'd like to ax you,
if sho Nigh stay up and 500 de mid
night express.
"rho midnight express, nonsense +
exclaimed Flint. dorothy, you dom
want to stay up so lato MS that!"
The little girl made no answer, but
chung the tighter with alarm around
the convict's neck, and whispered in.
to his car.
'',5hed like very much to stay up,
sab she hasn't seen it for long time
don't think it would do her any
| bor,n -