New-York tribune., 1906-07-29

This is the language of that repressed and simple
Puritanism in which these Mayfiower descendants
Lusk, who for years before her death had been
insane, and from whom this son, John Brown, jr.,
may have inherited his occasional insanity. John
Brown himself insane, but had the most
perfect control OF his mind from first to last.
Unlike his father Owen worldly prosperity was
not to be the lot of the Kansas hero. He engaged
from time to time in several occupations and was
sometimes almost wealthy; but at the final settle
ment of each business he was left poor, and some
times in debt. His wool merchandising which about
1916 brought him from Ohio to Massachusetts,
where he lived in Springfield for a few years began
to suffer reverses in 1910. To counteract them,
Brown determined to visit Europe and make
market there for the large stock of good wool which
his firm Perkins & Brown, had accumulated while
the American market was falling He sailed from
Boston in the Cunarder Cambria, August IS.
Brown went through Belgium, a part of Germany
and Switzerland, and then down into Northern
Italy. On the Continent he began inspect battle
fields beginning with Waterloo. His comments on
the Austrian and French troops, whom he saw at
reviews, were much to the point The German FARMS
he thought suffered from the custom of the laborers
to live in villages and not the farm itself. BY
this time he had made himself good farmer and
stock breeder, and was an admirable Judge and
sorter of wool. But he had no luck with his ship
ment of American wool to Europe, and soon after
his return IN October his firm became involved in
long lawsuits, and failed. His partner, Colonel
Simon Perkins of Akron, when l saw him in 1875,
spoke slightingly of Brown business capabilities
Organized Negroes to Resist Recapture
IN Springfield Brown had associated much with
the cOlored families there, many of them being
fugitive slaves. These he organized into band to
resist recapture. Before going abroad he had bought
land of Gerrit Smith in North Elba among the
Adirondack woods and took charge there soon after
his return, of a small colony of Negroes who had
settled on land given them by Smith. There, as
well in Springfield, he sought coored recruits
for his proposed invasion of the slave territory,
plan formed by Brown as early as 1888
Brown established himself IN plain house in the
town of North Elba, and gave employment to some
of the few cOored persons who accepted the gift of
Smith but found COlOred recruits there He did
find a family of New Hampshire yeOrnen in those
woods, clearing land, which they had bought of
Smith on long credit and from these ThOmpsons he
had chosen Henry for the husband of his eldest
daughter Ruth and his soldier in Kansas; while two
Younger brothers, William and Dauphin Thompson
followed him TO Harpers Ferry, and slain there
OF another brother, Samuel, l purchased from him
self and his brother in August, 1887 one hundred
and sixty acres OF partially cleared land to increase
the farms of Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Ruth Thompson;
to put them in possession of the menas OF support
ing themselves as the subscription paper drawn
UP by Amos Lawrence, father Of Bishop Lawrence,