Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1920-01-06

own father could not tell him from
the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. suggest to a
mothers heart an interchange of the
children by which the slave should
become the master and the master
the slave, especially when that heart
was constantly oppressed by the fear
that when her babe grew to man
hood he might be sold down the
river" that ever-present tormentlng
dread of the slave of the upper
waters? What more natural, that
there being no chance of detection,
RoXana for love of her son should
yield to that temptation and forth
with turn Chalmers into Tom and
Tom into Chalmers by a single inter-
change of garments, these being the
only outward and visible signs by
which the boys were differentiated
lanyhow? It was in this manner that
it came to be the proud offspring
of the house of Driscoll grew into
the sIaveboy Chambers, abused and
neglected and that the seemingly
white child /of negro slave and
an unknown father became the scion
of a family of unblemished lineage.
But a mere change Of clothes and
condition does not penetrate far be-
|
not alter the currents of shoddy
soul, and while externally the spu-
riouS heir was all F. F. ", inter-
nally he was negro. After few
years, never having discovered the
deception practiced upon him by
Roxana, Percy Driscoll died, penni-
less, but his brother the judge, his
prayer for children of his own de-
MED, adopted the suppositious Tom,
and made the boy his heir. He sent
him to college. He gave him every
advantage that an affectionate IA
Their could have given a boy of his
| own, but the raw material which
was the real Tom was poor, and the
soil unfruitful. The BOY acquired a
taste for dissipation for which the
simple life Of Dawson's Landing Of
fered no Arrangements. He plung-
ed into the gay whirl of St. Louis,
garnering nothing but disgraceful
gambling debts. Worst Of all, he was
| at heart a snob, abused the real heir
now become a slave, and acquired
profound detestation for his an
cient nurse Roxana. of whose real
| relation to him he was unaware, I'M
! til goaded to intense resentment yby
| his contemptuous and brutal treat
ment, she acquainted him with the
| terrible facts of his birth and an
cestry, and demanded that he treat
her as a mother on penalty of OK
posture.
The revelation Frustrated the i'm
poster for a brief period, but failed
to 'spur him on to better behavior.
He went from bad to worse, STOPPING
| even to house-br&alzing in order to
obtain funds to pay his gambling
debts. In his mothers power, and
she not at all disinclined to black
mail, he was driven to all sorts of
expedients to satisfy his own and
her demands. But through it all he
managed to maintain an outward
| appearance of superiority that en-
abled him to dazzle his interiors and
deceive his equals. The judges love
| for the boy blinded him to the lads
evil character, but once he nearly
disinherited him on the score OF
| cowardfce A pair of mysterious
| italian twins settled at Dawson's
| Landing, and at public meeting,
Tom having provoked him to action
by his insolence, Luigi, the stronger
of the two, had kicked the scion of
| the house of Driscoll off the stage
into the audience, the stain of which
| insult a real F. F. V. would have
wiped out upon the field of honor,
but for which the cowardice Of Tom
found ample, satisfaction in the po-
| lice court, which proceeding so out
ragged the good judge that for the
honor of his family he personally
fought a duel with the Tending
italian, wounding him, and thus lay
ing the foundations. for much fu-
ture trouble.
Came now the supreme touches in
the career of the spurious Tom. For
the payment Of newly-acquired gam
bling debts, with Roxana's consent,
Tom sold his own mother back into
the slavery from which at DriscolPs
death she had been freed, but in
violation of his promises he sold
her down the river" a crime that
reacted upon his unfilial head when
the resourceful Roxana escaped, and
under threat of exposure of his real
status in life, required him to in
demnify her new master lest she
be apprehended and returned to him.
Having no other resources, Tom re-
solved upon the robbery of his bene-
factor, the Judge, in the fu1fillment
Of which venture he murdered him,
his weapon being an Oriental knife
of unusual design, which he had
stolen from Luigi, the italian, in
one of his theft-raids.
The murder Of Judge Driscoll
brought great excitement to Daw
sons Landing, and the italian twins
narrowly escaped lynching for the
crime. The evidence was clearly
against them. They were confessedly
the owners of the gem-studded,
ivory-handled knife with which the
crime had been committed. What
was worse, they had been found
standing beside the body when the
neighbors rushed in, having come
to the judges aid at his cry for
help Moreover, there was the clear
motive of revenge growing out of
the duel which Luigi had fought with
the judge. The whole community
adjudged them guilty-all but Pud-
d'nhead Wilson, who volunteered to
defend them in court, a poor reliance
since they were his first and only
clients. But Pudd'nhead was I'M
afraid. The evidence against them
was most convincing, but
There were fingerprints upon the
knife handle, and they were not the
fngerprints of the accused!
Whose fingerprints were they?
Tom, secure in his sense of safety
because Of the Overwhelming evil
dence against the twins, ventured to
taunt Pudd'nhead upon his conf
dence in winning his case. He en-
tered his study, and sitting himself
at Pudd'nheads side, while he stud
led the prints in his collection, he
picks up one of the records.