The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-02-11

|
really his own-'1 raised and manufactured on
my own farm, and 1t is all my own This is
my store house. j keep my -four here until such
time ! can make market for IT," Upon
| this the officer in command said: 'Well i be-
leye you are a pretty honest old chap; you
don't look IL you would hurt anybody. and
| we won't NEEDLE with YOU He then ordered
his TO march.
And here is an epitaph from Concord
| buryingground, which explains itself;
God wills us free; man wills US slaves.
! win as God wills: Gods will be done.
| Here lies the body Of
( JOHN JACK,
A native Of Africa, who died
March, 1173 aged about sixty years.
| Though born in land Of slavery.
lie was born free.
| Though he lived in a land of liberty,
He lived slave;
! Till by his honest though stolen labours,
| He acquired the source of slavery,
| Which gave him his freedom;
Though not long before
Death, the grand tyrant,
Gave him his final emancipation.
And put him ON footing with kings.
Though slave to vice,
lie pTactised those virtues,
Without which kings are but slaves.
This curious inscription is attributed to
the pen OF Daniel Bliss. The Oldest stone
in this graveyard is dated 1871, and II is
probably as old as the town. SLEEPY Hol-
low" where Emerson and Hawthorne are
buried. Is some distance from the centre OF
the village, but this old graveyard is in
the very midst of the settlement. Boston:
Little, Brown Coz
"Reminiscences" by John Hooker. will
be interesting to most people who were
at all concerned with the anti-slavery
agitation and the early days of the wo-
mans suffrage movement. The author,
now nearly eighty years old, was actively
concerned in both movements. and his rem
iniscences include anecdotes of many of
the most noted men and women of that
remarkable era. The book is dedicated TO
the authors wife. Isabella Beecher Hook
er. sister of Henry Ward Beecher.
1t is hard for even some of those now
living to realize how great are the changes
which have been taken place in our civilf-
cation since the first half of the century
drew to a close. Dr. Hooker gives some
fragmentary pictures of Connecticut as 1t
was in his boyhood. which are interesting
and vivid. AS he says, there were but
three lives" between him and the first
settlers OF Connecticut. His grandfather.
who died in 1890 at the age of ninety,
might nave seen III MS uOyuuu Somt very
old persons who in his boyhood had seen
one of those who helped to make the State.
When the Pennington Canal was con-
structed from New Haven to Northampton,
the first Irishmen ever seen in that region |
were brought to do the work. DR.. Hooker |
says:
l remember we'll the first one saw. was on
nv way to school when / met him. He stopped |
and said to me. in a hrogue | could hardly I'M
derstand: 10 you know who ann told him |
| did not. well" said he, II am wild Irishman,
lust over" | told Of this, when got home, |
as | would il | had seen wild zebra in the |
street.
In 1916 while living in Pennington, DR..
Hooker became interested in what was
known as the Flora Slave Case. a large
number of slaves in and about Fincastle
Virginia, had brought suit, claiming their
freedom. They were the descendants of a
negro woman named Flora. who. with her
two daughters. was said to have been kid
mapped from Connecticut soon after the
war. The name of Sutiield
had come down by tradition as the place
where Flora had lived, and as, under the
law, the child followed the condition of
the mother. II had occurred to these ne |
groes that IL they could prove that their
grandmother had been kidnapped and was
legally a free woman. they could secure
their freedom.
Dr. Hooker went to Sufield, Conn, and
found some old people there who Temem
bered the case. They said that a man
named Hanchett. VIII" had been captain
in the Revolutionary Army, and was a
desperate character. had stolen Flora and
ner two little daughters from her husband
a respectable negro, named Exeter, who
made two long and unsuccessful Journeys
on foot to try to discover just where Han
chet had taken them. The kidnaper kept
himself just over the line in Massachu-
sets, there was no direct evidence that he
had been concerned in the affair. and moth
ing was ever done to him. The evidence |
seemed clear, however, that the Virginia |
negroes really we're the descendants OF this
and they won their case. which
was. however, appealed and carried TO
he Supreme Court of Virginia, which de-
cided against them.
DR.. Hooker said that he had never
thought of getting any money out of the
proceedings. but that after the first YER
dict was given the negroes had gone to
heir lawyer and proposed that all OF them
be hired out for a year. their earnings 10
go to pay the expenses OF the suit AFTER
the final trial. however they remained In
slavery until Lincoln's proclamation.
This is only one of the curious expert
ances and "reminiscences with which the
book Is filled. 1t also contains many
verses and letters written by the author
At one time and another as well as letters
received by him from noted men OF his
lime. Hartford, Conn: Belknap & war
ield)