40 NEWS-BOYS. [CHAP. XXII. 



him had been assigned the unenviable task, in those times of 

 bankruptcy and repudiation which followed the financial crisis of 

 183940, of seeking out and recovering bad debts, or of seeing 

 what could be saved out of the wreck of insolvent firms or the 

 estates of bankrupt planters. He had come, therefore, into con 

 tact with many adventurers who had been overtrading, and spec 

 ulators who had grown unscrupulous, when tried by pecuniary 

 difficulties. Every year, on revisiting the free states, he had 

 contrasted their progress with the condition of the south, which 

 by comparison seemed absolutely stationary. His thoughts had 

 been perpetually directed to the economical and moral evils of 

 slavery, especially its 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 medium of his own pecuniary losses, 

 and had imbibed a strong anti-negro feeling, which he endeavor 

 ed 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 discovered 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 Africans to 

 suffer that fate which the aboriginal Indians have experienced 

 throughout the Union. 



When I inquired if, in reality, there were hundreds of runa 

 way 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 rail 

 way cars are every where 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 calcu 

 lating the exact speed at which it is safe to jump off, and taking, 

 with the utmost coolness, a few cents in chansre a moment before 



