Arizona republican., 1899-12-15

old Chew house. 1 am So years old, sir.
1 am credited. sir, with being the faith
er of 376 children
What is your name?"
Jacob Broom"
You say you are credited with hav-
But is it true?'
81 think it is not far out of the way,
sir. That is my own tally and ac-
count"
Where are all those children"
"They We're all slaves born, sir. Some
were sold to Georgia, some to Louisi-
ana, some to Kentucky and other
states. Few of them 1 ever heard of,
sir, after they were sold out of Mary
land"
He was a solid, square, almost SOL
der or Indian statured man. with
black skin, a square jaw, thinly eaved
with beard and alternate white and
black hairs. The strength of his face
was noticeable as we'll as the dignity.
Nothing dissipated or frivolous or evil
was upon that purely African skin. but
it's expression was Caucasian, as if he
had been a carefully bred house SER
want perhaps, the coachman, of the
Chews. He walked with a stick and
his face was a little constrained by
age. To me he was as respectful as if
slavery still existed.
No sensuality, brutality or heaviness
was in the face. 1t would have be-
come the venerable, vehement, dignified
chieftain of a native African tribe in
his village. Yet its expression was
equine and physical, not mental.
Jacob Broom" I queried him. 81
once knew a member of congress from
Philadelphia of that name. during the
war He was particularly noted for
his fine daughters. and I think he had
been raised in Maryland
He was. sir" said the black Jacob
Broom There are still several of the
name here There is a beautiful wild
ow of that family in the next house
beyond the Chews and there are four
right pretty ladies now at the old
Chew house"
What kind of people were your
masters here, these Chews?"
"Fstimable people. sir. IF the hest We
Rcd. Thew are no longer rich. All
these old estates have been divided or
sold. The new railroad is the first
hing to have happened here since !
was born in the wear 1912, the year of
the British war;
That YOU do not remember"
40. sir. Only by hearsav NY
mother and youthful friends remem
hered it, when Barney's fleet was burnt
just above here and the British march
ed to the capitol. They talked to me
about it,
Parting with Jacob Broom 1 search
ed my pockets and found only four
cents change, which 1 gave to him,
saying, 81 am sorry 1 cannot find any
more"
Sir" said the black man, bowling
with a peculiar grace and gratitude,
these four cents I thank you for as
much as if they were many more
Have 1 got it right. Jacob Broom?'
asked. Three hundred and seventy
six children accounted to you in the
human herd book?"
THAT is the number. 376, sir"
I took a steamer at the pier and that
day and the next 1 travelled upon the
boat. Sitting at the captains table 1
/ told him what Jacob Broom told me.
The captain had been forty-six years
in the employ of the Weems Steamboat
company.
That is generally believed to be
true" said the captain. He was a IA
NOUS sire and his strain sold high,
they say. Jacob himself is the mail
carrier and has a good reputation, but
there are still large parcel here of
Jacobs getting and they have a wild
name. He is almost the solitary orna-
ment of the name of Jacob Broom
For the first time I realized how
these old counties had lost their wealth
in the human herd they formerly rals-
ed for the slave market.
Jacobs colts at the price of $500
would aggregate s1SS,OOO, upon land
which now sells for s. an acre, and
which would require nearly 10000 acres
at that price to fetch the sum of money
his sons and daughters brought.
A peck of corn or corn meal was a
slaves weekly allotment, or twelve
bushels a year. To raise Jacobs pos
terity was a cheap matter The slave
animal was as much a matter of good
strain as the blooded horse.
The case of Jacob Broom. preserved
to four-score- and-nine with $40 chill
dren. attested by himself and credited
in the neighborhood, is the last long
peep we are to get OF the decorous
commercialism of American slavery, in
the county which produced chief jus
tice of Maryland, a chief justice OF
Pennsylvania and a chief justice of the
United States.
When such was the law, he was law
fulness, and might naturally approprl
ate to himself the promise to Abraham
Look now toward heaven and tell th'
stars if thou be able to number them
so shalt thy seed he! AID Abraham
counted it to himself for righteous
ness"