“Farewell, Looizer, my daughter, farewell! I loved yoor mother ez never man loved nigger. She wuz the solace uv my leisure hours—the companion uv my yooth. She I sold to pay orf a mortgage on the place—she and yoor older sisters. Farewell! I hed hoped to hev sold yoo this winter (for yoo are still young), and bought out Jinkins; but wo is me! Curses on the tirent who thus severs all the tender ties uv nachur. Oh! it is hard for father to part with child, even when the market’s high; but, Oh God! to part thus—”
And the old gentleman, in a excess uv greef, swoonded away genteely.
His son Tom hed bin caressin her two little children, who wuz a half whiter than she wuz. Unable to restrain hisself, he fell on her neck, and bemoaned his fate with tetchin pathos.
“Farewell, farewell, mother uv my children! Farewell faro, and hosses, and shampane—a long farewell! Your increase wuz my perquisites, and I sold em to supply my needs. Hed you died, I cood hev bin resigned; for when dead you ain’t wuth a copper; but to see yoo torn away livin, & wuth $2,000 in enny market—it’s too much, it’s too much!”
And he fainted, fallin across the old man.
“Who’ll do the work about the house?” shreekt the old lady, faintin and fallin across Tom.
“Who’ll dress us, and wash us, and wait on us?” shreekt the three daughters, swoonding away, and fallin across the old woman.
My first impulse wuz to faint away myself, and fall across the three daughters; but I restraned myself, and wuz contented with strikin a attitood and organizin a tablo. Hustlin the niggers away with a burnin cuss for their ingratitood, I spent the balance uv the forenoon in bringin on em too. Wun by wun they became conshus; but they wuz not theirselves. Their minds wuz evidently shattered; they wuz carryin a heavy heart in their buzzums.
Wood, Oh! wood that Seward cood hev seen that groop! Sich misery does Ablishinism bring in its trane—sich horrers follers a departure from Dimikratic teechins. When will reason return to the people? Eko answers, When?
Petroleum V. Nasby,
Lait Paster uv the Church uv the Noo Dispensashun.