Year: 1859

"After all due search had been made,
she was called up and questioned, but de-
MED any knowledge of the affair. Col.
Stress, who was called hard master, told
her, in the most peremptory manner, that
if she did not find it, she should be pun
,shed for her carelessness in allowing her
mistress things to be stolen, as she had
This SO frightened the poor girl, and her
language was so incoherent, that the con-
viction at once settled on their minds that
she was the culprit, and she was immedi-
ately ordered to the yard, to be whipped
till she acknowledged her guilt The
overseer of the plantation, which lies some
three miles from the house, was brutal
man, (my husband says they all are-that
no man but brute will take such an of
fee, so the poor girl was tied to the post
and whipped till she tainted"


"Oh, my God, what wretchedness p l
exclaimed.


"They brought her to and asked her to
tell what she had done with the diamond,
but she still denied any knowledge of the
matter; and she was locked up and starved
till the next day; and when brought out
again and questioned, she denied having
touched Miss Julia's diamond. Another
whipping more severe than the first fol-
lowed, and when they took her from the
post, she was one gore of blood, from her
neck to her heels Hannah's husband was
one Of Colonel Stross' men. Then my
husband bought him te please Hannah, and
he told us all about it. She was carried to
her mother when in this state, and the old
woman, in her Indignation, gave the over
seer piece of her mind, for which she got
slashing,' as they call it, scarcely less
severe"


But, to make long story Short" said
the speaker, with husky voice, and her
hands twitching nervously, "Myra, after a
week of delirium and fever, died, and the
old woman hung herself with the end of
the clothes-line, in her own cabin, by the
side of her dead child"


The fair-browed lady had heart, for she
laid her head in her hands, and wept con-
vulsively. / did not weep. had heard
too many such tales of sorrow; but sat
silent, with an aching at my heart-strings,
that tears would have relieved.


When the burst of feeling had subsided,
she raised her head.


"Was nothing ever heard of the dia-
mond," asked 1.


Yes, nearly a year went by, and Miss
Julia had occasion to wear the same rich,
blue velvet dress, that lad been the admi-
ration of all the company at the aforemen-
toned ball, when, putting her hand in her
pocket, 10 the diamond ring


Now she remembered distinctly, that
her ring was too large for her finger, and
not wishing to pull her glove over it, she
had slipped it into her pocket. Weary
with the fatigue of the evening, and crazed
with the batteries of the hour, she had for
gotten the circumstance, and only remem-
bered having put it into her casket on the
evening before"


"What was done about it2


Nothing, of course; very few heard of
the matter, for no one had seen Myra
whipped who had white face Col.
Stress swore the diamond had cost him
three times its value, and threatened to
turn off the overseer, but did not. Miss
Julia felt pretty bad, for she thought a
good deal of her maid; but she soon -four
ished her diamonds as gaily as ever"


"And yet you say they are kindly treat
ed, and better off than if free"


What else can I say2 God help me
i have not strength enough to say aught
else. ."-E1tract from Notes Of Ir0vel.