The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1898-06-22

utcfiid1cu ltit it1tci temper, tAtHpuEu
he certainly had occasion to get angry
every day, for he was hated and dis
liked everywhere in that locality. He
never showed sorrow, except by an oc-
casional twitching Of the fase when he
had letter from his wife and chill
dren. As all his letters were, of course,
read by Sheriff Campbell, 1, as one of
the family, saw some of them. Some
were heart-breaking. All were so full
of expressions of love and tenderness
that 1 have the Sheriff wipe his eyes
many time while reading them; but
John Brown never betrayed distress
He read them over and over and then
would gaze into vacancy for hours after
he had finished.
Brown was allowed to have two
visitors day, and l was always near
when he chatted with his lawyer or
friend, but / never observed in his
words bit Of regret for his course ex-
cept that his son Oliver had been so
unnecessarily exposed in the battle at
the engine house as to have been shot
down. He seldom smiled, and was
generally buried in thought or serious
reading. He was exact to a penny
about his little money matters, and he
declined to take food outside of the
regular Jail fare without paying for it
fully. Sums Of money were sent him
by mail by sympathizers in Boston and
Philadelphia, but he never touched a
penny of it. He read for hours every
day, and remember he was hurt be-
cause the Sheriff, as a matter Of pre-
caution, cut away the heavy paste
board covers from Browns books, fear
ing that fine steel saws might be hid
den therein.
"'Ah, Mr.. Sheriff said Captain
Brown quietly, you little know me or
my men. We would never escape the
vindication of the law
"He was daily reader of the Bible,
and morning and night he knelt in
prayer in his cell. He never talked on
religious topics, but he = iked the guards
whom he liked to refrain from profani-
ty at least until he was gone. His fa-
vorite reading was Cariyle's French
Revolution Gibbons Rome and
biography of Toussaint L'Ouverture.
One day he told me the story Of the life
of that San DOMINICAN chief, and said
he put that poor black man alongside
Socrates, Luther and John Hampden
as the worlds heroes. He said he had
read and reread all the literature he
could find about LOuvertu-e for a
dozen years, and I know that ne pat
termed his life after the San DOMINICAN
and that he viewed his own death on
the scaifold in the same light as the
execution of L0uverture.
"The morning Of the execution dawn
ed clearly and sunshiny. 1t was De-
eember >, and mild, pleasant day.
Captain Brown asked me the evening
before to come on guard at 6 o'clock
instead of :, because he wanted TO be
liberated from his narrow cell as early
as convenient before his execution, to
attend 20 his last correspondence. The
cell door was always opened for the
day when the day watch came OF
duty. Brown was dressed and stand
ing at the grated door as came into
the corridor with several other day
guards that morning. remember
how particularly benignant he looked
as he stood there. His heavy gray
hair, his long full beard streaked with
gray, and his tall and commanding
stature gave him a patriarehal appear
ance.
"'I thank you for your early COM
ing, said he as he seated himself at a
writing table near the wall OF the cor
ridor, just below a grated window.
Several of us guards, who had become
attached to the old man, were too ex-
cited and moved by the preparations
about the Jail and outside for the hang
ing of our prisoner to do more than act
automatically, for we feared we might
burst into tears if we dared to do any
talking. / can see the man now as he
sat that last morning, the sun
beams pouring through the windows
and resting on his whitened and band
aged head while he wrote. l watched
him from behind with fascinated in
lerest as he read over the last letters
from his wife, daughters and SONS at
the old home in the Adirondacks OF
New York, so as to make sure that he
had noted all that had been written to
him, and then as he wrote a farewell
letter to each member of his family.
The only tears / ever saw come from
the eyes of that man of iron were when
he read the tender good-by letters from
his two little girls. Once he glanced
nervously about, and seeing that his
tear r-dimmed eyes were observed, he
pulled off his glasses, wiped his eyes in
4 trice, and resumed his correspond
snee rs coolly as one indites an every
day message.
"He ate a simple breakfast, and then,
noting that he still had much cores
pondenee to do, he asked one of the
guards to see if a lceal lawyer named
would not come and draw up a
will according TO the laws Of Virginia
he went on with his letter
stopping now and then as
thought occurred to him to make some
request of the guards concerning the
Of the remaining prisoners
after he was gone. AT 8 o'clock Law
yer Hunter came. Brown told him
how b. wished his property disposed
that is the weapons, money, camp
utensils, baggage and cavalry equip
menf, found ia his possession when he
and his men were captured at Harper's
Ferry. His extraordinary character
site Of justice and equality was shown
in the 4 bre with which he weighed the
the cla5ns Of each of his children and
friends 30 as to distribute his possess
,ions With exact fairness. He had evil
IDENTIFY thought upon this for weeks, for
he prtduced a memorandum from
the leaves of the Bible and
rava II TO the LAWYER. A half hour