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324 ©De &**&**? [Saturday,
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Ifartfulnr.
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We should do our utmost to encourage the...
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CLOUDS. Clouds in April, large and -whit...
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when the gentleman entered ; and he did ...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
324 ©De &**&**? [Saturday,
324 © De &**&**? [ Saturday ,
Ifartfulnr.
Ifartfulnr .
We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...
We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . — Gtokthe .
Clouds. Clouds In April, Large And -Whit...
CLOUDS . Clouds in April , large and -white , Freighted full of silver light , Sail above the tallest trees , Kun before the chasing breeze , Roll around the hills that lift Heaven aloft , or , fierce and swift , In tumultuous splendour fall Over the round world ' s blue wall . Clouds in August , when the glow Of the level sun is low , Crowd the sky with pomp , and seem Fragments of some land of dream : Scarlet , purple , dun , and gold , Wreath on wreath , and fold on jfold ; Hall and castle , dome and bower , Faery-built at twilight hour . Clouds in Winter , when the West In soft amber flame is drest , Float before the frosty breeze-Silver snow on silent seas ; Or they peep thro' tracery fine , Windowed boughs of larch or pine , Like the faces saintly men Once have seen to see agen . Clouds to me , in early Spring Or in later Winter , bring Messages of calm delight , Thoughts of still and central might , Feeling 3 sweeter than the tears Lovers weep o ' er love's dead years , Holier than the tidings told By pale seers to ages old . Then I see lost Eden ' s streams ; Dream as poet rarely dreams ; Hear enormous trumpets blown , As when gods are overthrown ; See the far-off sunlit shore , Where I wandered when of yore Angels showed me all the shells Wherein Beauty hides her spells , While they taught my vernal youth . Many an old celestial truth . Cloudlike , thus on clouds I live , Gladly take what clouds can give : Fairy feelings , thoughts like flowers , In my manhood ' s mellower hours , As in those first violet days , Do they bring for love and praise . M .
When The Gentleman Entered ; And He Did ...
when the gentleman entered ; and he did not stop on their account . While the planter shouted at him stamped , paced vehemently tip and down the apartment , threatened and swore ; and while Mr . Barker remonstrated , and admonished him to show better manners , James went on as if he had been entirel y alone and perfectly deaf . His pen moved up the columns and set down the figures at the bottom , as quickly and as steadily as if nobody was present . At last the contrast between the storming planter and the imperturbable clerk became too much for Mr . Barker ' s gravity . He could not help laughing , and then observed that this deafness and dumbness
plainly meant , " Ask me no questions , and I will tell you no lies : " and he continued : — " Well , Duncan , I shall advise our going away and leaving you to your figures , which are , in truth , the only business I have with you , now I come to think of it . You do our business well ; and I don ' t see that my partners and I have any right to call you to account for what you do in your leisure hours . Come , Sir , " he said to the planter , " shall we walk ?" Mr . Barker departed . The planter walked up and
down the room , and scolded for some time longer , and then disappeared . In the evening James had certain information that the schooner , with the planter and his family on board , had sailed , and was almost out of sight when the twilight fell . In the darkest part of the night he hurried his charge to the water-side , at a point less likely to be watched ; and there lay a boat with six rowers in waiting . By daylight James was at home again , having left the girl with a respectable family within the Canada frontier , with a strict charge on no account to set foot
over the borders . The girl was , however , not strong-minded . She prospered well ; working-diligently , obtaining good wa ^ es , and valuing instruction , as escaped slaves are usually found to do . But she was fond of amusement , and after many months , she fell into a trap laid for her by parties in Buffalo , who were promised a reward in case of her recapture . A public-house ,
just on the American side of the frontier , was iept by some bad people , who made money by kidnapping incautious runaways . Often had they invited this girl to parties , and for many months she had refused . At last she yielded . She went to a dance , and accepted a bed at the house . In the middle of the ni ^ ht she was seized , conveyed to Buffalo , and put into jail by order of the sheriff .
In the course of the next day , James Duncan heard of the incident . At night , he was at the door of the jail . " I find you have Milly , the mulatto girl , here , " he said to the warden . The warden assented , and tttld the particulars oi her recapture . " Show me the commitment , " said James . " Commitment ! I have no commitment , " declared the warden . " The sheriff sent her to me . "
When he had been so long free as to suppose all danger of recapture to be over , he crossed the frontier and settled at Buffalo , on Lake Erie , within an easy row of the Canadian shore . His chief reason for settling there was , that he might aid in the escape of other runaway slaves , who might choose that road to Canada . He was diligent in his business—so diligent that he rose to be head-clerk to Messrs . Johnson , Barker , and Co . ( as the firm shall be called here ) .
But his eye was ever watchful , his ear ever open , that no fugitive slave should arrive in Buffalo without finding a greeting from him , and such help as he could give . It was pretty well known that six of the stoutest men of colour in the place were his rowers , — ready to obey his call at any hour when a rescue from slavery was in hand . Some remarkable deeds were done by these men of inferior intellects—some which would have been called very clever in whites .
One autumn day James Duncan was told that there was a slave girl on board a schooner in the lake —off the port of Buffalo . He went on board , and found it was so . The mulatto girl on deck , with a yellow handkerchief twisted about her head , and an infant in her arms , was the slave nurserymaid of a Carolina planter , who , with his lady and their child , was about to return home , after spending the hot months in New England .
James Duncan asked the girl whether she wished to be free , to which she at first replied " Yes . " When James went further into the matter , however , she cried a little , and said she should be sorry to leave her mistress , who had always been kind to her . " Oh , well , " said he , " please yourself about going or staying . I don ' t want to persuade you to anything . Only , if you had wished for freedom , I could have helped you to it ; and I just come to say so . "
The girl , as yet ignorant and feeble , would have detained him while she considered the matter ; but he said he had a little farther to go , and would have another word with her as he returned . The " little further " was on board another vessel , with whose captain he had some acquaintance . In the course of conversation he asked the captain whether the chain of his boat was always locked—invariably every night ? The captain replied with a gaze as meaning as his own t hat it was usually well taken care of , but
that carelessness would happen sometimes ; and perhaps he might forget to lock the chain that very night . When James drew near the schooner , on his return , the girl was leaning over . She had decided to be free , but she had no bonnet to go in ! He begged her to make herself easy about tl at ; desired her to bo dressed and ready in the middle of the night to come away without a word , and enjoined her to lookmeunwhile as if nothing was going to happen . At an hour after midnight the boat was found merely hooked on to his friend's vessel . His six rowers rowed softly ; the girl was ready on the deck of the schooner : but again she shed a few tears about her mistress and the Imbv . James said not a word
SKETCHES FROM LIFE . By Haiuurt Maktineau . IX . —A SPECIMEN OK AN INKK 1 UOK RACE . There was a youth living in the Southern St : ites of America , some five-and-twenty years ago , who had been told , from his infancy upwards , that he belonged to an inferior race from the white people whom lie saw about him . He even heard the white people speak to strangers of 'him and other Mack people as a sort of baboons , —hardly to be considered human at nil . He wondered that , in that ease , any
representation in Congress was allowed on account of the ; black population ; and i hut texts in the liible , inculcating ohedieiu e and submission to the nuthoiiticH , were urged upon negroes , — just as if they had been as human as everybody else ; . Moreover , he was impressed with the notion that his thoughts and feeling * were very like thorn ; of real men ; and he had a mind to try wlmt his chance wan in a society where lie could be bin own master . So lie escaped from the slavery into which he had been born , and amidst which ho had been roared .
After many hardships and dangers , James Duncan stood on the noil of Canada a hee man . After obtaining work , the first thing he did was to put himself to school . He lived in the most meagre way , to have money enough to pay for bin schooling . Tie felt no shame , tall man km lie wiih , at going to school to leurn his letters . lie felt the injury of having been debarred from learning them before , and justly attributed the shame l . o bis oppressors , without keeping any for hiniHclf . He ; learned fast , soon became fond of reading for pleasure , and was ko apt . at figures as to be soon qualified for ; i clerkship in acotnmerciul house .
" An < l you hold her imprisoned without warrant ? I have a right to demand her liberty ; I do demand it ; and you know you dare not refuse . " It waH even so . The warder yielded her up : James offered his arm ; and the six rowers appeared from under the shady side of a wall . The party went out of their way to pass the sheriffs house . There James knocked with a loud rap . The sheriff was in bed ; but he piehontly put his head out of the window to learn who was there .
in persuasion , and was going away , when slie finally resolved to accompany him . In the boat she put on a bonnet and shawl that he hud brought . They were seen to land , for her master said afterwards that the description was of a woman in a shawl and bonnet landing , and taking the arm of a black man who seemed to command the rest . JumtiH took her to his apartment in the warehouse . At the door ne said : — " You will find within biscuits and fresh water .
You will see that there is a bar thai fastens across the door . Bar yourself in immediately , and mind this — whoever comes , and whatever they may say or do , be you silent . Make not the slightest noise all day . Let-, no creature know that thts room is not empty . At night I will come for you , if the coast is clear . 11 not , it must be to-morrow night ; but anyway , don ' t answer , more or less , to anybody but me . " She promised , and she kept her promise .
- " I am James Duncan , " was the reply , * ' and thifl woman ia Milly , from Canada , whom you put into jail without a commitment . 1 have , according to law , demanded her of the warden . I am now going lo place her in safety in Canada , and when I return I shall bring an action against you for false impriHonment . " The party were in the boat and off in a trice . The girl wept bitterly ull tbo way . Before they had landed , James uaid gravely , but
kindly—In the forenoon , the planter came into the counting-house , accompanied by one of the partners , Mr . Barker . Mr . Barker looked severe : the planter was furious . He charged James Duncan with having aided the escape of a slave of his : he would know where she was ; and he would have her back . lie bad induced the master of the schooner to wait until the afternoon—whereas ho ought tobavesailed in the morning . He would have the girl back in three hours , or leave the case in the hands of hoiijo one who would Lo harder upon her than ho would have been . James was adding up a very long row of figure *
" Now , you must expect nothing more from me . What help 1 can give must be given to thobt ; who can tak « eaie of themaelvon when they are once rescued . If you can ' t keep on the safe aide of the border , you must take your chance , as far as I am concerned . The j ^ irl uttered thanks and promises an fast ub her tears would allow . She had experienced the bleBtungH of" freedom , and she never wished to lose them agiiin-She married respectably , and in probably still pursuing the occupation in which nho wan prosperoua lift ecu years ago . James Duncan brought his action against the
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 5, 1851, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05041851/page/16/
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