40 NEWS-BOYS. [CHAP. XXII. 



injuriousness to the fortunes and characters of that 

 class of the white aristocracy with which he had most 

 to do. In short, he had seen what was bad in the 

 system through the magnifying and distorting me 

 dium of his own pecuniary losses, and had imbibed 

 a strong anti-negro feeling, which he endeavoured to 

 conceal from himself, under the cloak of a love of 

 freedom and progress. While he was inveighing 

 against the cruelty of slavery, he had evidently dis 

 covered no remedy for the mischief but one, the hope 

 of which he confessedly cherished, for he was ready 

 to precipitate measures which would cause the Afri 

 cans to suffer that fate which the aboriginal Indians 

 have experienced throughout the Union. 



When I inquired if, in reality, there were hun 

 dreds of runaway slaves in the woods, every one 

 laughed at the idea. As a general rule, they said, 

 the negroes are well fed, and, when they are so, will 

 very rarely attempt to escape unless they have com 

 mitted some crime : even when some punishment is 

 hanging over them, they are more afraid of hunger 

 than of a whipping. 



Although we had now penetrated into regions 

 where the schoolmaster has not been much abroad, 

 we observe that the railway cars are everywhere 

 attended by news-boys, who, in some places, are 

 carried on a whole stage, walking up and down &quot; the 

 middle aisle &quot; of the long car. Usually, however, at 

 each station, they, and others who sell apples and 

 biscuits, may be seen calculating the exact speed at 

 which it is safe to jump off, and taking, with the 

 utmost coolness, a few cents in change a moment 



