BURNING A NEGRO.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 174, 21 June 1859, Page 4

BURNING A NEGRO.

The New York Tribune of January the 15th has an article entitled "Burning slaves," in the course of which the following horrible story is quoted from the Union Springs Gazette,- a journal of Alabama :—*■ " The deceased has the reputation of having, even to a : fault, ever, been a kind and humane master. On the day before the murder Mr. J. had whipped his boy Milford, or had; him whipped, for some misdemeanour, and, had him.chained or locked till Monday morning, when he went to him, took off his chain, and told him to go to work. The boy made some impudent reply, when Mr. J. told ■: him if he did not stop his insolence he would knock him down with a lock, and turned to walk away. The boy then took an axe that was lying near and struck Mr. J. on the head and knocked him down, dropped the axe and walked away a few steps, then turned and went back, took the axe and struck him three times more on the head, and retired a short distance and sat down, making no attempt to escape. A public meeting of the citizens, indiscriminately, was ca:led on Wednesday, to determine what should be done with the negro, when the proposition was made to burn him alive, every one, to the number of 200 or 300, voting for it. That evening, in the presence of 500 persons, he was chained to a tree and burnt. Just before the fire was set he confirmed the above statement in every particular. Ho stated also that he had determined to kill his master some time before; that his having him whipped the day before had not instigated him to the brutal deed,; that he had his knife open in his pocket to ,do it when his master should come to unfasten him, but his heart failed him; but that when he told him if he did not stop his insolence he would knock him down he proceeded to execute his fell purpose. The culprit ceased to show any: signs of life two and a-half minutes from the time the torch was applied. - On the 24th ult., Mr. Simon B, Thornhill, who resided near Troy, Mo.', punished one of his negroes for misconduct. The negro then rushed on his master with a large knife and stabbed him, which caused his death in two days. The negro was taken to Troy and confined in gaol. The affair caused much1 excitement in the county, and oh Saturday a very large number of persons collected .at, Troy, repaired to the gaol, took the murderer out, atid'lynched him by burning:"'

' The Two Roses. —Being with my friend in a garden, we gathered: each one of us a rose. He handled his tenderly ; smelt it but seldom, and sparingly. .1 always kept mine to my nose, or squeezed it in my.hand, 'whereby in a'very short time it lost both its colour and sweetness; but his still remained as sweet and fragrant as if it had been growing upon its own root. These roses, said I, 'are the' true emblems of tne best^and sweetest creature enjoyments,in the world,1 which, being moderately and cautiously used and, enjoyed, may fora long- time .yield sweetness to the possessor of them ; but if once

the affections seize too greedily upon them, andi seize them too hard, they- quickly wither in our hands and we lose the comfort of them;' and that either through the soul surfeiting upon them, or their just removal, because <of the excess of our affections to. them. It is a point of excellent wisdom to keep the golden bridle of moderation' upon all the affections we exercise on earthly things.— Flavelle. ■■ . Charging a Jury. —" If the jury believe, from the evidence, that the plaintiff and de-, fendant were partners in the .grocery, and the plaintiff bought out. the defendant and gave his note of interest, and the defendant paid for the note by "delivering .to plainiff a cow which he warranted * not breachy,' and the warrant was broken by reason of. the breachiness of the cow, and he drove the cow back and tendered her to the defendant, but the defendant refused to receive her, "and the plaintiff took her home again, and.put a heavy yoke, or poke, upon her,' to prevent her from jumping the fence, and by reason of the yoke, or poke, she broke her neck, and died; and if the jury-further believe that the defendant's interest in the grocery was worth, any thing, the plaintiff's note was worth less, arid- the cow, good for nothing, either for milk or beef, then the jury must find out themselves how they will decide the case; for the Court, if it understands itself, and it thinks it does, don't know how, such a case should be decided."— American'

Paper. An Erudite Mayor.—The Worcester Chronicle gives the following as a verbatim copy of a letter from a chief magistrate of a certain corporation :—" Dear Sur—On Monday next I am to be made a Mare, and shall be much obliged to you if so be as you will send me down by the coach some provisions fetting for the occasion, and I am to ax my brother the Old Mare, and the rest of the Bentch. I am, sur, &c."—The above was answered by a wag, into whose hands it fell, as follows-:—" Sir—ln obedience to your orders, I have sent per coach.two bushels of the best oats; and as you are to treat the Old 31are, have added some bran to make a mash. "

A Story of Police Life.—An officer was ; relieved from duty the other night three hours earlier than usual. He proceeded , home, undressed, and shared the bed to which his wife had already retired. He had not Jain man}'- minutes before his wife complained of. being unwell. Pier indisposition increased rapidly, and she'stated that nothing but a glass of brand}'- would afford her relief. Giving her husband a shilling she requested him to go to a public house and obtain for ■ her the required stimulant. The man dressed himself hurriedly, and having aroused the landlord obtained the brandy, and tendered what he took to be a shilling in payment. Mine host, to the surprise of the officer, counted out 19s. 6d. The policeman called attention to the excess in the change. The landlord pointed to the coin which he had received, and the officer was bound to admit that he had given a sovereign in payment, and not a shilling. Putting his hand into his trousers pocket the officer was still more surprised to find nine other sovereigns, and on a still closer inspection he discovered that he was not standing in his own smallclothes but in those of some other man, who there could, be little doubt, occupied his bed in his absence. The officer took care to stow away the £9 19s. 6d-, returned home with the brandy, again undressed, and went to bed without saying a word as to the awkward ;discovery he had made. In the morning, however, he failed not to inform his wife that he had discovered her base conduct. She soon after left the house, and nothing has been heard of her.— Liverpool Mercury. A Bnddical Prophecy Fulfiled. —Even amid the clouds of Druidical ignorance, there appears to have shone a star of truth. It was a part of their belief that the world was to undergo an endless succession of great revolutions, some of which were to be effected by the power of fire, others by that of water. What fire and water have done, under the direction of the human mind, for the civilization of the world, it will be one of ' the purposes of this history to show. There is this difference, however, that may be at once pointed out between the Britons of old and Englishmen of to-day—they were superstitious enough to worship that which we are bold enough to command. In looking back to the opinions of the past, we shall find that there has scarcely ever been received a form of error, in whicil there did not lie some ingredient of truth. But the mass could not be refined, and truth separated from the dross of error, because there has always been some dominant power to , patent the dogma of the age, and to forbid the'free-working of the human mind. But for -this cohsevativc policy—a policy which preserves, the withered trunk and forbids -the young branches to grow—the last of the Druids might have witnessed first the fulfilment-of the truth they taught, by an allegory they, could, not comprehend.— Philps History of Progress in Great Britain.

The TUree Graces. —Miss Caroline Lampard, Miss Elizabeth Goodeham, and Miss Mary Clark—three very pretty and very silly gir]s~were governesses in the school of a Mrs 'Storey, at Gosport. In the same town,(which as far as this, sextad of its population is concerned, might, methinks, be denominated (roose-pork) resided three spqoneys of the names of Dyer, Rix, a,nd , Richardson —two o£ them loblolly-boys, the third the ardently attached loblolly-boys' friend—a sort of JDionysius to the Daman and' Pythias of the pestle., The triads, male and female, came together at," teameet- rings";<and "chapel." Similia similibus ciirantus,' say the ■homoeopathists, but; the young ladies and gentlemen by,their interviews only increased their mutual folly. The six became " attached "—in. a " per.miskivris way," as Mrs. Gamp would phrase it. •; Each, beau made love to all three belles: the belles returned the..compliment.. .At i the commencement of this socialistic sort of

sociality. Dyer, ,Rix, and Richardson each received a bdok-mark with ' the motto • " Lovest thou me ?"—: the joint work joint • work of Misses Lampard, Goodeham, and " Clark. ' Loblolly Brothers and Co. eagerlyanswered in the affirmative, and. a correspondence ensued; in the course of which the young ladies made copious, quotations from the Song of Solomon. One of them, a. French scholar, affectionately apostrophised the boy Rix as ''-la lune," —it is not added whether she subscribed herself "la . lunatique."' When Mrs. Storey was out, the young people met upon the sly. Mrs. Storey got to hear of it, and became vexatiously vigilant. One of the male mice whom she prevented from play ing,'proposed. to send her a stinking cat, in sarcastic allu- " sion to her watchfulness; but was dissuaded from this brilliant display of wit by the more timorous females! . Twice Mrs. Storey .nearly came upon the lads when.crouching - in the shrubbery, in waiting for their dar- • lings ; but being guided by those treacherous darlings who had, come out to light her to another part of the grounds,1 she missed, , for the time, her prey. On each occasion the goose Rix .sent a canard"to the local'; ; ' paper, reporting that a robbery had been - attempted "on ' Mrs. " Storey's ■ premises. ' (Grapes had been -stolen';from the garden, '■ but, as one of the girls' said at the'trial' ' which sprang out of these proceedings, ,".the7 young gentlemen were after .something sweeter than grapes.") Annoyed by these reports, which she traced to their concoctor, Mrs. Storey hit upon a deep plan for catching, the three saucy trespassers in flagrante delicio. She took: care to let ; them know that she was going out upon a. certain night, and would not be. home until ten. One of the loblollies that evening was sent out by his master with a package of arrowroot. Eagerly he doffed his apron and donned his hat;, leaving his fellow-apprentice—too fortunate, had he but known his bliss—sulking behind the counter. The seemingly • lucky Damon,. not being able to have Pythias' company, hunted up Dionysius-Dyer, and together they proceeded to Mrs. Storey's, to ask their way to the house to which Richardson had to carry his parcel. The servant didn't know, but would ask the young ladies. The young ladies didn't knowwould the young gentlemen walk in? 1 Scarcely had they time to change salutes— the pun about the root which Cupid's arrow had taken in his heart was just budding in the lip of the arrowroot- bearing Richardson —when in stalked acapedand belted ogre, a policeman set to watch by the horrid Mrs. Storey. "You're the young gents I want," he exclaimed—handcuffed them, and marched them off to the police station; in the cell in which they passed the night. No one appearing against them in the , morning, the magistrates dismissed them. Richardson's father was fool enough, to bring an action against the schoolmistress for false imprisonment, and got cast for his pains. So ends the story of the Three Geese and Ganders of Gosport. In California poundlceepers are allowed 50 cents cash for impounding dogs, pigs, or goats. The San Francisco Herald thus describes the modus operandi: —Yesterday morning a stranger in San Francisco would have been somewhat puzzled at a queer procession which paraded our streets. It was composed of a man on horseback, on whose breast was paraded a label, bearing the the words • Pound-keeper. Immediately in his rear was a waggon from which arose the most doleful cries and yells, and flanking the waggon on either side, were two footmen cunning with the lasso, each armed with a smooth clothes line on the end of which was a running noose. Every unfortunate,dog they encountered, every goat, hog, and "for aught we know, cat, was immediately subjected to the choking process, caught and placed in the travelling menagerie at the rear of the commander-in-chief. It made no difference whether the unfortunate Tray was basking in the sun on his master's door step, or whether he was occupying a fair portion of the sidewalk-; it was enough that he had no collar and muzzle, and that the experts saw 'fifty cents'stamped upon his countenance. A throw of the rope, a squeal, a struggle, and into the waggon he went off to augment the income of the pbundkeeper. A notice of a new novel says, that " the style is so brilliant, that the printer, with the copy before ■ him, can set up the type without any other light in the darkest night." Josh was brought before a country squire for stealing a hog, and three witnesses being, examined swore that they saw him steal it. A wag having volunteerd'.as counsel for Josh knowing the" scope of the squire's brain, arose and addressed him as follows:—"May it please your honor, I can establish tin's man's honesty beyond the shadow of a doubt, for I have twelve witnesses ready to swear that they did.not see him steal it.". The squire " rested-his head for a few" moments upon his hand, as if in deep thought, and then with great dignity arose, and brushing back his hair, said, "If there are twelve who did not see him steal it, and only three that did, I discharge the prisoner. Clear the room !" A small lad asked permission of his mother to go to a ball. She told him it was a bad place for little boys. ." Why, mother, didn't you and father use to go to balls when you was young ?" "Yes, but we've seen the folly of it," answered-the mother, " Well mother," exclaimed the son, " I want to see the folly of it tod." '.';.. - Pat's Description of a Fiddle. —lt was the shape of a turke}*, the' size of a goose. . He turned it over on its back arid rubbed its =belly with a.stick ; and;och ! St. Patrick,! how it did squale. ■ "'• > / "What a strange thing, it' is .that with such:a name you should, be such ■fellow !"■ said t Mr. -Steel' ,to - Mr. ->Good. " Not at all,", was the.reply, "seeing that you, notwithstanding your name, are sp very soft." 7"J 7. -' ---."-• ..