Evening Star Newspaper, May 22, 1897, Page 17

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1897-24 PAGES. OOM PAUL KRUGER ———ae Striking Personality of the Famous Boer President. A GREAT ATHLETE IN HIS YOUTH es Interview With the General of the Transvaal. Postmaster DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS coos ee Written for The Evening Star. LIFELONG FRIEND of President Paul Kruger is Dr. Isaac Van Alphen, post- master general of the Transvaal, now so- journing in the United States. Dr. Van Alphen has known “Oom Paul” ever since their fathers were next- door neighbors in Rastenburg, over half a century since; and the extraordinary personality of the Boer president finds a loving delineator in the visiting postmaster general. Dr. Van Alphen was interviewed on the Subject of President Kruger, while on his way to attend the international postal con- gress in this city. A genial, well-informed man, he talked interestingly and at some length. “When I was born,” said Dr. Van Al- phea, “Paul Kruger was a great, stalwart lad of sixteen or seventeen—the acknowl- edged leader among the boys In all feats of A RACE AGA to manage horses and cattle. In the the Matahele chief, secti althoug! ways led our nr st long-di a he was never ives of the veldt, naing stance nst ding the fact that, while the ran naked, K ays carried and wore clothing in these races. His nickname among the Kaffrs was ‘Windfoot’ In those days. “About his wonderful shooting I could tell you tales for hours. Almost every Boer “1 shot, so that to win pre-e nin- le among us one must be a strength and skill. He took me under nis | ction at an early age, and it was he | quietude. { taught me to handle the rifle, to ride | “I was with Kruger in a battle fought agairst the Matabele in 1865, on the banks cf the Limpopo. This was one of the last fights of that lorg and bloody struggle which ended in cur driving the Matabele tribes beyond the Limpopo for On this occasion the blacks had made an in- cursion under a son of Umailigease, and several of our farm houses had heen burn- ed. But it was the murder of two female children which aroused us far more than the destruction of our property. I acted as a sort of courier on that oceasion, riding from farm to farm, summoning thé men and boys. We mustered about 700 rifles, and with Paul Kruger at our head (he hed not as yet entered the executive council) rode against the enemy. Some of our men wanted to ride straight toward where the Matabele lay, but Kruger tried strategy. He marched ‘a few leagues up the river, and then sent out a decoy narty to lead the savages on. Seeing what they heliev- ed to be our full force retreating, the Mat- abele pursued. Meanwhile Kruger had dis- posed the main body upon a rising ground, in ambush behind some rocks. ‘The enemy were permitted to come well within range, and then Kruger gave the word to fire. We simply mowed them down, and con- tinued to fire, until they fled in confusion, leaving their leader dead behind them. Then it was our turn to pursue—and there were very few of that tribe left when Paul Kruger had finished with them. An Incident of the Fight. “I recall a grim, albeit a humorous, in- cident in that battle. Qne of the Mata- bele had thrown an assegai, and Kruger, rising at the moment, received the weapon in his hat. He coolly removed the assegai and stuck it, head upward, In his belt. But his quick eye had noted the man who threw it, and he kept watch upon that man through the remainder of the fight. When the Matabele broke ground Kruger was first after them. We pursued to the banks of the Limpopo, the enemy jump- ing in and swimming acri All this time Kruger had never lost sight of the asscgal thrower, and as that unlucky warrior's head bobbed up above the water ‘Oom Paul’ seized his weapon, launched it clev- erly and sent the poor fellow to the Lpt- tom with his skull pierced. ‘Ah,’ he ‘re- marked, coolly, ‘it seems that I have the better aim.” “Kruger tas remarkable power over ani- mals of all kinds, wild and tame. There is a well-authenticated story of his putting a lion to rout by sheer cooiness, while un- armed, save for an unloaded rifle. I my- INST A HORSE. self have secn him soothe mad horses into His magnetic influence over mankind fs fully as strong. Black men are like children before him. One incident comes te me (for which, by the way, the English have every reason to remel the president's name with ys was after the death of Gen. Colby and the utter rout of the English by our forces. A Good Turn. cur young leaders, burning the sense of recent insults, wished to push into Bri territory, and there plunder and slay. As was only natural, after such a victory, the hot-headed ma- jority was with them and things looked very bad for British South Africa. But Kruger suddenly arose in the assembly and, despite the angry shouts of the physi- cal force party, succeeded in obtaining a hearing. I do not believe that he spoke longe> than five minutes, but in that brief space he managed to say so much and to say it so forcibly and keenly that the opin- ion of the council changed instanter, As for me, I felt that the then councilor’s keen eyes had singled me out individually “Some of from YOUNG KRUGER DROWNING A BUFFALO. this fs the correct version: Kruger hap- pened to be buffalo hunting, when the beast which he was chasing stumbled into @ water hole, and the hunter, unable to pull up his horse, was thrown on top of the struggling animal. ‘The odds seemed to be altogether in the buffalo’s favor, when, suddenly springing up, Kruger seized his tie prey by the horns, and £Sa" the animal's head under water until §t was drowned. The furious struggle be- tween beast and man lasted, as Kruger himself told me, for fully twenty minutes. in the throng. On inquiry I found that every single member of that :council had experienced the same feeling of being scru- oF AS the man ae hie ca: ypnotl {4 man, coun- sels conqi British South ‘Africa es- caped pillage on that occasion, thanks to Paul re “Ot Emperor William of dent Kruger has a be partially accounted for gootwill toward the Transvaal and fact that Kruger’: not of Dutch ancestry. The English he flercely hates, as the hereditary enemies of his race, and the cause of their succes- sive ‘trekkings’ northward. He has little or no admiration for Cecil Rhodes, freely futimating that that leader has accom- plished his ends, not by brain power, but solely by bribery and brutality. Diplomatic Relations. Dr. Van Alphen is now in Washington, where his sole osfénsible business 1s at- tendance at the international postal con- gress, but it is generally understood in diplomatic circles that he is authorized by Professor Kruger’s government to pave the way toward better consular and even ministerial amenities between the United States and the Transvaal. When ques- tioned on this subject while in New York and just before his departure for Washing- ton Dr. Van Alphen sald: “I shall not either deny or affirm the statement that I am investigating the possibility of estab- Ushing diplomatic relations between Amer- ica and the Transvaal. You can, how- ever, quote me as saying that the present state of affairs is regrettable. During the recent troubles America had-to appeal to England in the case of Mr. J. Hays Ham- mond and the other Americans involved. The Boers would far rather have conferred directly with an Amcriean representative, and ‘I am sure that Americans have no desire to be under obligations to England. Moreover, both our countries are republi- can, a fact which alone calls for an in- terchange of diplomatic representation. As yet, of course, the South African repub- lic would not care to undertake the re- sponsibilities of a ministry at Washington, but the world has as yet only seen the be- ginnings of Boer power in the dark con- tinent.” ee HE DROPPED HIS PIPE. And the Loss Naturally Caused Him Some Annoyance. From the Chicago ‘Times-Herald. One afternoon last summer I was stand- ing on the great Suspension bridge just below Niagara Falls looking at the great cataract and admiring the wowmderful col- ors of the green ani blue river 200 feet below. Several workmen were engaged in painting the bridge, and I became interest- ed in their operations. It required no little engineering skill to rig up an apparatus by which to enable a painter to traverse the giant guy rope cables which radiate from the centcr of the ovridge, fanshape, toward either end of the structure. A painter's platform four feet square was suspended from one of these cables by a trolley arrangement, a grooved wheel run- ning en the cable. By means of a rope attached to this wheel a man on the bridge could draw the platform from tie river bank—the terminus of the cable—to the bridge above,,and as the platform passed along the cable a workman sitting on a common chair on the platform would paint the great iron rope above his head and be- hind the trolley whe I was especially interested in the work of a Swede, who, perched on a small platform, was painting one of the Canadian braces. He had begun at the end of the cable on the Canadian shore, far below, and had been pulled up the cable's steep incline toward the bridge until perhaps two-thirds of his journey had veen completed. There was absolutely notaing Dut air between him and the seething ri 200 feet below; but there he sat, on a swingins platform, methodically plying his brush and com- Pplacently smoking a short clay pipe. How it happened I don’t xnow. But the man cn the bridge suddenly let the rope slip out of his hands. [h2-e was a sharp ery of alarm from the stariled painter as the platform began to spin down the in- cline, with constantly increasing momen- tum. It seemed as if the poor fellow: must inevitably be dashed against the rocky precipice and tumble into the river a man- gled corpse. The slack of the rope on the bridge, however, became ertangled around a brace and the p2rilous descent came to a sudden end. The flying platform stopped with a jerk. The chair, a pail of paint, a brush and a clay pipe went sailing into space. The painter caught a corner of the pletform just in time to save himself from following them. Two minutes later the platform had been pulled up to the bridge, and the Swede was given a chance to stretch his legs again in safety. The man on the bridge had not a word to say. He was as pale as a corpse and trembled like a leaf. Hut the Swede did have something to say, and he said tt without the sligatest tremor of emo- tion in his voice. You,” he remarked. “Ay tank you skal ‘aind me your pipe. Laik big fool Ay drop mine.” ee i MINING WITH STEAMBOATS, An Ingenious Method of Extracting Gold From a River's Bed. From the Boise (idaho) Statesman. A most valvable and interesting enter- prise in the shape cf a gold boat is now in progress on the Snake river, about four miles below Montgomery's Ferry, on the road from Minidoka to Albion, which ‘s likely to open up a new field of operation. This boat belongs to Louis Sweetser and George Burroughs of the cattle firm of Sweetser & Burroughs. It has been con- structed by and is under the personal su- pervision of George Burroughs. This boat and its machinery are the product of the genius and experience of Mr. Burroughs. The boat is 105 feet long and 20 feet wide, the extreme length from the nose of the suction to the end of the tailings elevator being 150 feet. The gravel is lifted by a rotary pump, driven by a seventy-tive horse-power engine, the suction pipe be- ing 30 feet long and i2 inches in diameter. There are two other engines, one of which is used to move the boat and the other to drive a scraper and elevator, by which the coarse material is delivered at a point some distance back of the boat. Power is furnished by two fifty horse-power botlers. ‘The boat is worked backward and for- ward across the river, the nose of the suc- tion being kept against the bank of gravel, and the boat working up stream. Every- thing is taken up.’ The material is mostly ordinary gravel, but occasionally bowlders come through, some of which weigh fifty pounds. The material thus mined from the bot- tom of the river is delivered into a sluice on board the boat. The upper end of the sluice is about six feet above the floor of the boat, and the pitch is very steep, The sluice is cighty feet in length and four feet wide. The gravel is sent over griz- zlies, all the coarse material being carried to the end of the sluice, where it is ram- med out by a series of steel scrapers run- ning on an endless chain and delivered upon a belt that carries it in back of the boat and drops it again into the river. The sand carrying the gold drops upon burlap tables. Of thése there are eight on each side. They are fifteen feet long and three feet wide, standing at right angles to the sluice and reaching some distance over the sides of the boat. The black sand and gold gathers on and under the burlap. When the tables are cleaned up the con- centrates are rocked over copper plates, the gold being amalgamated. The pump delivers 200 yards of gravel an hour. The boat has been built over three times. It has been a success from the start, and during the past year it has teen greatly enlarged. It would cost from $15,000 to $20,000 to duplicate the plant. The operating expenses are in the neigh- borhood of $20 a day. At present the boat runs only during tre day, but with a force of seven men it could be kept in operation throughout the twenty-four hours. Thir- teen men are now engaged in gathering fuel. Some are hauling cedar, while others are cutting and baling sagebrush. The lat- ter makes the better fire, but it costs a little more then the cedar. Mr. Brrrcughs says there is no other method than the burlap by which the gold can be saved successfully. He has been operating on the river since the spring of 1894, and has the credit of being the only person to make a success of any extensive plant for saving the flour gold that is found in such abundance along the great river for hundreds of miles. His views, ‘therefore, are entitled to the greatest weigh:. The gravel he is working is worth: at best only 10 ceuts a yard, and he is greatly interested In the other sections of the river, where the value is said to run to $1 a yard and above. > PORE Dea Crushing. From Puck. Peggy—‘I tell you, Cholly has an awfully bitter, sarcastic tongue.”. Z ‘Willy—“Why?" Reggy—‘You know that cad, Jack Bright- gold? Well, he quarreled with Cholly erd gave him a horrible tongue-lashing, called him everything; and Cholly never seemed to hear it at all, just ignored him name? Awfully cutting, wasn’t it?” = OLD DAYS RECALLED SS ee Mr. Goodloe’s Experiences a Half Cen- CONNECTION WITH THE NATIONAL ERA How Uncle Tom's Cabin Came to Be Publisned. = = POLITICS AND LiERATURE Mr. Daniel R. Gocdloe is one of the few now living who participated in the stirring historical events performed. in Washington half a century ago. : He is now a very old man, but is alert, active and apparently in full possession of. his mental faculties. > ‘To a Star man who questioned him upon the matter of his career and how he man- aged to preserve his vigorous health to this advanced age, he gavé some exc>ed- ingly interesting particulars. He said: “As regards my health and habits I should say, in the first place, that I was blessed by nature with a good constitution. I have never had any heart or lung trouble. My digestive faculties were never vigorgus, but better now than formerly. My bad habit now is reading too many hours in the twenty-four—too much at night for one of my age. If I live until July or August of Daniel R. Goodloe. the present year it will have been sixty- two years since I was confined to a bed of sickness. I am now in as good health as I ever was. I have for fifty years been in the habit of taking long walks, and keep it up to this day. I oftenet walk five miles a day than fall below three. = “I shall in a few weeks if-I live, be cighty-three years old; born at Lewisburg, N. C., I came to Washington January 22, 1844, and after some weeks of idleness and of time spent in searching f6r employment I was engaged to assist. Nathan Sergeant— knewn by his nom dé me as “Oliver Old School’’—in editing a daily whig paper called the Whig Standard. Phe publisher was John Towers, afterwand mayor of Washington. Mr. Sergeant sapn withdrew end left the duty of editing Fre Standard to me. I should have Said‘'that it was throngh the influence of the late Judge Mangum of North Carolina,,who was at the time president of the Senate, that I obtained this employment, ~ “The Standard gave earpést' 4nd vigorous support to the electicn 6f Mr. Clay, but the permanency of the enterprise depended upon the success of th¢,.cause, and the paper ceased to be published, after the re- sult of the presidential election was male known. us 1 A Whig of the: Whigs. “Mr. Sergeant—I shoufd“Havé-styled him Judge Sergeant, for he ‘herd a’Judgeship in Alabama in early Ife—jfosseaséd'a valuable store of political inféfmatfon. He was a whig of the -whigs, And‘ cliimed' to have given the name to the party, while con- nected with the Pres tn Philadelphia in 1833. James: Watson Webb of New York, editor of the Courler and Enquirer, also ciaimed that -honér, and I will not under- take to decide the case between them. Vien General Taylor became President Judge Sergeant was appointed commission- er of customs, the duties of which he per- formed with credit to himself. The office was afterward abolished and the business transferred to another bureau. Near the close of his life he wrote and published an interesting and valuable. book, entitled ‘Men and Events,’ which contains a his- tery of the whig party down to that date, which was near the end of its existence as a national organization.” “When did you first take up the cudgels in the battle against slavery?” asked The Star man. An Anti-Slavery Pamphlet. “After the defeat of Mr, Clay, and the suspension—that is always the word—of the Whig Standard, I for some months edited the Georgetown Advocate, a semi- weekly journal, but gave it up for a school in Maryland. I afterward went back to North Carolina, and remained until the inauguration of General Taylor, and then obtained a clerkship here. I had written a pamphlet, at my native town, as early as 1841, on the economic evils of slavery. I avoided touching on the moral question, although my heart was full of it. My ob- ject was ta reach the minds of southern men, The leading thought, I am sure, was original. It was this, that capital invested in slaves is unproductive—thai its effect is only to appropriate the wages of the laborer. I brought this essay with me to Washington, In 1844, and showed it to ex- President Adams, who was then a mem- ber of the House of Representatives. It was written on a quire of foolscap, on both sides of the sheets. I called the at- tention of Mr. Adams to the point which I thought would interest him. He read the essay carefully, and then reread it, in my presence, and pronounced a high eu- logy cn it. I thought my fortune and fame were made. I little understood that nine- teen readers in twenty would prefer the idlest work of fiction to a dissertation on political economy. Mr. Adams said the essay ought to be published, and asked me if that was my purpose. I told him I was unable to incur the expense. He then said that a young man named Greeley was publishing an anti-slavery whig paper in New York; but that he was’ not ac- quainted with Mr. Greeley, and upon re- flection, thought, with my’ consent, that he would send it to his friend, Charles King, who was then publishing the New York American. I consented, and he did so. Mr. King published thé &ssay in two numbers of his paper, rear the close of March, 1844, and with the highest com- mendations. I then felt Shad that the high hopes Mr. Adams “that awakened would be realized. But soon‘after this date the American was sold to'the editor of the Courier and Enquirer, and: mefged in that journal. If it had been sent td’ Mr. Greeley ie vould have harped Hee *it, in his Tribune, to the day of Hf death. John Stuart Mill’g, Approval. “In August, 1864, while readfhg Mill’s Po- litical Economy, I came jpon.@ remark of his which induced me to thinkyithat he had seen the truth in regard to slavery, which was the leading thought {i my essay. He states—it is in his introducti or preface —that in estimating the ‘wealth of a na- tion, the public debt in the. bands of the people, and mortgages, should not be in- cluded—that public debts are mortgages upon the property of the people; and there. fore, to include them as a part of the na- tional wealth is to count them twice. This obvious truth impressed mie vas paraliel with the idea I had advanced, that there was ho more reason for counting slaves as @ part of the wealth of a nation, or a state, than there was for counting the hole. people as such. Turning then to Mr. Mill's brief chapter on slavery, I found that ilke all other: writers on political ecore tha e other ers on econ- ory, most of whose works I had examined, he simply condemned the system as im- politic, and that free labor in the end was ted in pamphlet [sent Mr. Mili copy tn Reeeee tegh with sere on eae Se 2 eee es £ hear from him for some months. But at ! “Our own correspondent’ of the New York length the following letter came, dated “SAINT VERAN, AVIGNON, “ "VAUCLUSE, Fr: a “Dear Sir: “ ‘Having been absent from England some months, I have but lately received the pamphiet you did me the honor to send me. You are so clearly right as to the political economy of the question that one is only surprised at its being necessary to take so much pains to make the matter obvious to others. But the absurdcst opin- jons are often the most tenacious of life. What can be more ridiculous than to sup- pcse that a laboring man is an item in the wealth of the country that possesses him when he is owned by a fellow man, but not an item in it when he owns himself! But great merit may be shown in explain- ing truths which ought not to need expla- nation, and that merit your pamphlet pos- sesses in a high degree. ‘I am indebted to you for an excellent illustration of the point you notice in my Principles of Political Economy, which I .| shall not fail to make use of in a new edi- tion which I am now preparing. “‘As a native of a slave state, who twenty-five years ago saw and proclaimed the doctrine of common sense as well rs justice respecting slavery, you must be highly gratified by the prospezt now open- ed of the early realization of your utmost wishes on that subject, however painful to yeu, in many respects, may be the process by which it is coming to pass. “With sincere respect, I am “Dear Sir, “Very truly yours, “J. 8. MILL. “Daniel R. Goodloe, Esq.” “Mr. Mill lost his wife about this time, to whom he was greatly devoted, und if the edition of his work, which he was revis- ing, was published before his death, it is Frobable that the revision was not com- pleted, and in that way I lost the honor- able mention he would have given me. At any rate, an American edition, published after his death, did not contain it.” Back to Journalism, “How did you come to sever your connec- tion with the government -service?” Mr. Goodloe was asked. “I held the clerkship under the adminis- trations of Taylor and Fillmore, and might possibly have continued to hold it under Mr, Pierce but for my habit of saying what I think about public affairs, and-es- pecially, at that time, about slavery. In December, 1852, A. M. Gangewer, still a resident of Washington, called on’ me and asked me to give him my opinion in writ- ing upon the merits of ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin” as a fair representation of the don- dition of things at the south. I replied that there was no reason why I should withhold my opinion, unless it were the fear of public opinion (his object being, as I understood, the publication of my reply); and 1 therefore gave it in some detail. it was pubfished in the “Key to Uncte Tom's Cabin” soon after, and was harshly com- mented on in one or more leading North Carolina democratic newspapers. Mr. Dob- bin of that state was placed in the office of Secretary of the Navy, the department in which I held a place, and he removed me as soon as convenient, while retaining sev- eral other whigs from the state. “From this time forward 1 continued to write for ihe anti-slavery press, sometimes the New York Tribune, and sometimes the National Era in this city. The*editor, Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, of the Era was in the habit of spending his summers in northern watering places, and while absent he would employ me to take his piace here. Our views were not quite in accord, and I gen- erally signed the initial letter G. to my articles, though editorial in place and character. This practice went on for some years, until at length the doctor's health fave way, and he then sent for me to take his place in the editorial chair. This was in the fall of 1858. He remained here until May of the following year, when he sailed for Europe. He was accompanied by his son Marcellus, then a youth of about six- teen years. But the dgctor died when five days out from Havre. Mr. Raymond of the New York Times was on board, and rendered all the assistance in his power to the intelligent youth, the doctor’s son, who returned with the body to Washington. As Editor of the Era. “I then continued to edit the Era as long as the patronage would justify its publi- cation. The paper had no local support whatever—no subscribers here and no ad- vertisements from any quarter, ahd when the election of Mr. Lincoln took place— even when it became probable—thousands of anti-slavery papers sprang up all over the northern country, which took away the support of the Era. It thus happened that the success of the cause was fatal to anti-slavery newspapers which had borne the heat and burden of the day. It brought Mr. Garrison’s paper, the Lib- erator, to a close also, and the Anti-Slav- ery Standard of New York as well. These papers, published weekly, were devoted to the one idea of overthrowing the slave power. The Era had high claims to sup- port ‘as a literary newspaper, and the others doubtless had, About twenty vol- umes of valuable literature were made up from the coluraniy of the Era during the thirteen years of {ts existence, from Janu- ary, 1847, to the spring or summer of 1860. Mr. Whittier had been, from its founda- tien, and for a number of years, the cor- responding editor. Many of his poems first appeared in the Era, while Alice and Phoebe Cary, Lucy Larcom and Dr. Pier- pent were regular poetical contributors. ‘Theodore Parker, Dr. Elder and Horace Mann were among the occasional con- tributors. A gentleman whose name I fail to recall, under the nom de plume of “John Smith the Younger,” wrote a series of bril- liant sketches of the men in Congress and in public life. He was at the time the re- porter of debates in one of the houses, which gave him the opportunity of seeing the men he described so graphically. Mr. Adams, then dead, was styled “The Old Man Eloquent,” perhaps for the first time. There were other pen pictures of persons who were described by their characteris- tics, without naming them. Among them I remember a thousand-dollar clerk, with a family of daughters, and a ‘position to maintain,’ in social life. “Two brilliant lady writers for the Era were Grace Greenwood (Miss Clark) and Gail Hamilton (Miss Dodge). “Mrs. Southworth commenced writing tor the Era in 1849. She has told me the cir- cumstances under which it came about. She was teaching a public school, and was paid a very small salary. She had com- menced writing a short story for a paper in Baltimore entitled The Visitor. The edi- tor and proprietor, Dr. Snodgrass, found it convenient about that time to sel] out to Dr. Bailey of the National Era, and took occasion to call the doctor's attention to the story which was begun in his columns by a Washington lady. The doctor sent for Mrs. Southworth and asked her to finish the story in the Era. She did so, and she says that when Dr. Bailey paid her $15 for it, it caused her to feel more happy than she had since done when receiving thou- sands a year. That first little earning of her pen made her feel that she had an: other resource for the support of hers. and children better than that of teaching @ public school. After writing for the Era a while she was employed by the Saturday Evening Post of Philadelphia, and then by Mr. Bonner of the New York Ledger, who paid her weekly wages greater than she received for haif a year as teacher of the Public schools in Washington.” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” “Was not Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s great story first published in the Era, Mr. Goodloe?” “The greatest achievement of the Era was the publication of ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin.’ It was begun some time in the early part of the year 1851, and ran into the next year before it was completed. Dr. Bailey sent to Mrs, Stowe $100, and request- ed her to write a story for the Era. He expected it to be a short story, and that the $100 would pay for it. But his readers all over the north poured in letters upon him in praise of the story, and express- ing the hope that it would be continued. He therefore inclosed another $100 check to the author, and asked her to continue writing. But still the letters from the readers poured in, and another and another check was forwarded to the author, until the story was completed. The great suc- cess of the novel was an assured fact be- fore it appeared as a book. Two edit @ fine and a plain one, were brought out fore the end of the year by Jewett of Bos- ton. They. were distributed over the: civi- lized world, translated into every written and sold by the million. An in- copyright would have made the mt which rep or Mr sprang up Sra to a point hich rendered its publica: Z a wi = Paying for Slaves. ‘ cessation of the Era I became “On the 4 ‘ : Times, which relation continued for eight- en months. In April, 1862, I was appointed by Mr. Lincoln a commissioner to pay the people of the District of Columbia for their slaves. Mr. Vinton of Ohio, a lawyer of eminence and distinguished ex-representa- tive in Congress, was one of the commis- sioners, with Mr. Horatio King; but my mame was first on the list, and I might have assumed the chairmanship at t But in deference to the venerable gentleman from Ohio, I yielded the chair- menship to him. However, he was with us only three or four days when he was taken with erysipelas and died. I then took the place of chairman. Dr. John M. Brodhead, a former second controller of the treasury. Was appointed to flil the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Vinton. “The commission sat in the city hall, sometimes in the Civil Court room and sometimes in the Criminal, as one or the other happened to be unoccupied by the court. The public was notified of our sit- tings, and the owners of slaves were in- vited to bring forward their slaves with the evidence of title. Mr. Vinton had ren- dered great service in the few days he was with vs in drawing up the forms of pro- ceeding. We selected Wm. R. Woodward, en experienced lawyer, as our clerk. “There were just about 3,000 slaves in the District, and Congress had appropri- ated | $1,000,000 to pay for them, and also $100,000 to pay for the transportation of such as wished to emigrate to Liberia or Hayti. The commissioners withheld pay for about one hundred slaves, whose mas- ters had taken sides with the south. The law allowed an average of $300 per head for the slaves; but this average required a wide range of apportionment between the young, strong and healthy on the one hand, and the old and very young on the other. We felt the want of experience as to the value of slaves. My collcagues were both trom the far north, and I had been away trom my southern home so long and given £0 little attention to the subject as to feel the want of advice as to values. We there- fore decided to employ an expert in such business, and selected a Mr. Campbell of Baltimore, a dealer in slaves, to assist in valuations. He was to receive $10 per day for standing by us and passing judgment upon the value of every slave. He acquit- ted himself well and faithfully until the second Bull Run battle, when he disap- peared, and we never saw him more. He evidentjy thought the business in which he Was engaged here in Washington at that time might involve serious consequences if the southerners should succeed in crossing the Potomac. Sealing Down Prices. “Campbell's valuations were all made on the basis of the prices that ruted before the war began, and they amounted to more than $2,000,000. ‘These prices we brought down to the average allowed by Congress by the rule of proportion, thus: As the ag- gregate of-Campbell’s valuations is to the aggregate of the congressional aliowance, so is the value of the individual slave as valued by Campbell to the congressional allowance. “When the first case was brought before Uus-we asked Campbell, “What is this man worth? ‘Do you mean now” he inquired. ‘Yes.’ ‘Then he has no price today, and would not sell for any price.’ “What, then, would he have been worth before the war began? Campbell had no hesitation in saying that the man would have sold for a sum more than twice as | great as the law would allow, and stated it accordingly. “Here was another source of difficulty. | The law did not require that we should bay the average of $300, but that we should not exceed that average. It was therefore discretionary with us to say how much below the average allowed by the law we would place it. According to the state- ments of Campbell and others familiar with the subject, we might have with- held all, or nearly all, compensation. Kut that course, we considered, would look Like mockery. The slaves were, with rare ¢ ceptions, living with the families to which they belonged, and rendering service as usual. We concluded, therefore, to pay out the full compensation allowed by the law. I am happy to say that there was scarcely a murmur of complaint against our awards as to fairness between indi- viduals. Evading the Law. “There were some interesting cases in- volving the right to freedom, caused by the attempts of masters to run their slaves out of the District of Columbia before the pending bill in Congress setting them free became a law. In all such ‘cases we leaned to the side of freedom, and always gave the. benefit of a doubt to the slave. I have not a copy of our report before me, but I re- member the case of a gentleman who culti- vated a farm within the District by the labor of his slaves, but required them to sleep beyond the District line. This was the main state of the facts; but there were other circumstances favorable to the sla which I cannot distinctly remember. W liberated the slaves and paid the gentle- man for them, unless he refused to take pay, as was done in one or two cases. An- other case was that of the wiiow of a judge of the Supreme Court, who under- took to remove her slaves from the limits .of the District before the emancipation ‘ill ame a law. But she failed to keep them out, and we set them free. She was paid for them, unless she refused to receive pay. Our rule. was, as to the loyalty of parties to the Union, to act on the well- settled principles of law in trials for tre: son. If the claimant for compensation was not proven to have been guilty of overt acts amounting to treason, in support of the armed rebellion, we held him to be en- titled to compensation, whatever hie sym- pathies may have been. Many Slaves Freed. “We withheld pay in cases in which the owner of the slaves had gone south or otherwise given aid and comfort to :he enemy. And altogether about 100 slaves were set free without making compensation to the owners. In one case a slave or siaves bad been pledged before the for the payment of a debt, and we allo the wife of the rebel absentee the amoun: of the Gebt out of the assessed value we had placed upon the slaves. “We paid out—that is to say, we awarded Pay—about $900,000 for 3,000) slaves. Our clerk, Mr. Woodward, paid the money to the claimants at the Treasury Department. “We took pleasure in paying one man of cclor for his wife and children. Our report will show his name, which I have forgot- ten. The largest slave owner was Notley Young, who brought up, I think it was, sixty-seven. One of these was a hale old man, far beyond eighty, on whom we set a price such as we ordinarily put on men ten or fifteen years younger. He was not a full-blooded negro. President Lincoln's Plan. “The act emancipating the slaves in the District of Columbia was introduced in December, 1861, and became a law April 16, 1862. In February, 1862, President Lin- coln sent a brief message to Congress, ac- companied by a resolution which he pro- pesed for their adoption, in which compea- sation was offered to any state that would adopt a plan of gradual emancipation. His proposition was that the graduation should run for about thirty-seven years, or to near the close of the nineteeath century. If adopted and carried out there would still be a remnant of slavery existing in the country. Both houses of Congress adopted the resolution, all the republicans voting for it, and all the democrats against it. Such were the views and purposes of that great and good man, Abraham Lincoln; such his conservative policy. But Messrs. Davis and Toombs, and Slidell and Mason Human Blood Turned to Water. Remarkable AMiction of Miss Rosclle Darr of Cumberia: Ma. From the Courter, Camberland, Md. The reporter of The Courier bearing of a ter rible malady with which a young and handsome lady of Cumberiand, Md., was afflicted, called at the residence of Michael Darr, 58 Frederick Street, to learn something of it Mrs. Darr said that ber daughter Roselle, aged 20 years, bud been afflicted with a disense that apparently had turned her blood companied by nervous prostration, appetite, ete., making Mfe a burden The family physician was comulted, but bis treatment brought no relief, and ber daughter's existence was a dragging misery. The mother also said that her daughter acct- dentally cut her finger rather severely, : Were astounded to notice that no bloxd came from the wound. ‘“Then,"’ said the mother, convinced that my’ daughter's bleod lind turned to water.” Mrs. Darr, con! to water, ac- pairs, Kes of Inning, sald she had read of merits of Dr. Williams’ Pink Pills f ple, and had little faith in such finally purchased a box at Mr. Hery drug ‘store, on North Centre street. After her daughter, Roselle, had taken one box 4 slight improvement’ was noticed in her condition; the remedy was continued, and after three and ® half boxes were taken ber daughter's health was restored. The reporter naturally bad a desire to see young lady after hearing these resnarkable ments, but was informed that she was out 0! city on a visit. Mr. Michael Darr, the father of the young lads, is & passenger engineer on the B. and 0. ratirond, and is an experienced and popular railroad man. Laney this. Darr, who will! said, and to the following aMi- of the my dungh- M. Pink same, lis for Pale Peop Pi is substantially eet Witness my hand and seal. MRS, REBECCA DARR. vitness: CHARLES R. MOR! STATE OF made oath state fa is true ré Rebeee | form “of law thet UL as therein set forth, No great rived Wise to place U : The ¢ manufa: Witiams Medicine Company, Se » X. ¥. and sold in boxes (never in loose forin by. th a hundred, and the public d wus imitations sold 4 stx boxes for and Benjamin, and their confederates, would not have it so. They preferred pursuing a | policy which necessarily led to immediate emancipation and all their woess “At the close of our labor I resumed my occupation of newspaper writing, and in January, 1864, 1 became connected with the Daily Chronicle of this city as editorial writer, at which TI continued until 1 was appointed United States marshal of North Carolina, in Sepzember, IN65. “The National Era was founded and cen- | ducted in the Interest of the liberty party, | an organization which recognized | ligations of the Constitution, and th | of the states to control their dom \ fairs. It held that slavery was and freedom national. It therefore insisted | that slavery should be excluded from territories, and abolished in the Distric | Columbia. It maintained that the 5 of the fourth article of the Con: which require] that fugitives from ution, labor | should be returned, was a compact among the states, to be enforce ity, and that it did not empower to legislate upon the subject, and thes the authority of Mr. Webster for this struction to the extent, at least, that he had said that it would be his construction, if the Supreme Court had not decided other- wise. Garrison and Phillips. “Messrs. Garrison and Phillips. other hand, admitted that the Co was thoroughly pro-slavery; the’ with Mr. Calhoun on this question; Phillips wrote and published a pamp in support of the extreme states riz theories, which was quoted approvingly by South Carolinians. Ic was on this ground that Mr. Garrison and his followers de- nourced the Constitution of the United States as ‘a covenant with death, and a league with nell,’ and would never vote, net even in state elections, because N chusetts, like the other states, ack edged the Constitution to be ‘the su law cf the land.’ 3 “Mr. Gerrit Smith of New York, equaily radical in his opposition to that the Constitution was and warranted Congress in likerty throughout the land.” “The political views of the liberty party and ef Dr. Bailey, editor of th from slavery, were those of the democracy, rather than those of ¢ They were ‘strict constructionists’ Constitution, and they were f that is to say, anti-protectionists, The erty party was the germ of the republican party, but when Mr. Seward, with ihe northern whigs, joined it, and the war, with its exigencies came on, these origi: nal principles were laid aside and forgot- ten. “I imbibed, early in life, the free tr principle, from reading the works of M. Say and Adam Smith I was a whig by inheritance, and remained one, in co: querce of the relatively liberal and to ant spirit of the party toward anti-slavery men, while the democracy of the da called, was as intolerant as an inquis It was the xreat debate in the Virginia legislature, in January, 1832, which im- planted, or rather developed in my mind, and the sentiment of opposition to slavery I could never eradicate it, if I had tr do so. That debate has never been < passed in eloquence, in this country. It was caused by the Nat. Turner insurrection, which took place in the preceding August.” pees REMARKABLE DISCOVERY IN OHIO, Skeleton of a Prehistoric Wom: Taken From Moi From the Chicago Times-Herald. Dr. Clarence Loveberry, the curator of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical So- ciety, who has been in Chillicothe for a week exploring the mounds in that locality, has made what he considers a very im- portant discovery. In a movnd 200 feet long by forty high the werkmen came upon the skeleton of a prehistoric woman. The body was five feet long and the bones well preserved, considering the fact that they had been bur! hurdreds of years. The body had been buried in some coarse fabric, shreds of which still clung to the bones. It had ‘also been wrapped in bark. It had evidently been a person of rank, for around the neck was a string of beads, and'the left arm was covered from shoul- der to wrist with strings of beads made from gulf shells. Through one of these ihe string still remained intact. There w: also a quantity of mica flakes about the skeleton. a PEARLS OF From Life. 2a > ETIQUETTE. - Be free and easy, and try to make all the rest fool so