I got the news at the Post Offis (near wich I am at present stayin, at
the house uv a venerable old planter, who accepts my improvin
conversation and a occasional promise, wich is cheap, ez equivalent for
board). Sadly I wendid my way to his peaceful home, dreadin to fling
over that house the pall uv despair. After supper I broke to em ez
gently ez I cood the intelligence that three-fourths uv the States hed
ratified the constooshnel amendment--that Seward had ishood his
proclamation, and that all the Niggers wuz free!
Never did I see sich sorrer depicted on human countenance--never wuz
there despair uv sich depth. All nite long the bereaved inmates uv that
wunst happy but now distracted home wept and waled in agony wich wuz
perfectly heart rendin.
"Wo is me," sobbed the old man, wringin his hands.
"John Brown's karkis hangs a danglin in the air, but his sole is marchin
on.
"It took posseshun of Seward, and thro his ugly mouth it spoke the words
'the nigger is free,' and there is no more a slave in all the land.
"Wunst I hed a hundred niggers, and the men were fat and healthy, and
the wenches wuz strong, and sum uv em wuz fair to look upon.
"They worked in my house, and my fields, from the rising uv the sun to
the goin down uv the same.
"Wuz they lazy? I catted them till they wuz cured thereof; for lo! they
wuz ez a child under my care.
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