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Show DRAWING A BLACK BEAN.<br><br> George Jones, father of the late Count Joannes, was an English chemist, who, about the year 1818, emigrated with his wife and three children, of whom George was the oldest, to this country. His brother was but four years old, he only six, and his sister a baby in his mother's arms. The vessel was an old sailing ship, fitted out after the ordinary method of emigrant vessels in those times, was a bad sea boat, and meeting with terrible storms in the Atlantic, was driven far out of her course and with difficulty kept above water. When at last the weather moderated it was found that the provisions, of which there had been an insufficient quantity at the start, were running short. Everybody was put on short allowance, but when at last the ship was on her direct course for Boston, whither she was bound, a further reduction had to be made. This was again reduced, and at last there was no food on board, and starvation stared the crew and passengers in the face. Driven desperate by hunger, the crew mutinied, and the captain could only recall them to their duty by agreeing that beans should be drawn from a box, and the one upon whom the black bean fell should be killed for food for the others. Officers, crew and passengers - women, and children - everybody on board, was included in this horrible lottery, and with famished emigrants came on deck to participate. The beans were all wrapped in pieces of paper, and it was agreed that none of them should be opened until noon of the day of the drawing, so that if during the two hours that intervened a ship of land was sighted, the doom of the one drawing the fatal bean might be averted at the eleventh hour. The captain was the first man to put his hand into the death-box. He drew it out, and unable to master his anxiety to know his fate at once, he tore off the covering and discovered a white bean. He was saved, and as the officers, one by one drew beans from the box, they followed the captain's example, pulled off the paper and showed white beans. The first man among the crew who drew was the lookout, who came down from the masthead, drew a white bean, and resumed his lofty post. After the crew had all drawn, the black bean still remained in the box; and it seemed clear that the victim was to be found among the passengers. They drew by families, and comparatively few beans remained in the box when Mr. Jones with his wife and children advanced to take their chances. The father and mother drew white beans, and then the little boy, George, was led to the box. He scarcely comprehended the full nature of the terrible ordeal he was undergoing, but he plunged his little hand in and drew out a bean. His father instantly snatched it from him, and was about to tear off the paper, when the shout of "Land ahead!" came from the mast-head. Amid the tears, laughter and feeble cheers of those on board, Mr. Jones cast the bean into the sea, and the future Count never knew whether it was a white or black one. But the Jones family were not destined to escape unscathed from the hardships of that disastrous voyage. Before the land that the keen eyes of the sailor at the mast-head had discerned far away was much nearer, the little girl had died in her mother's arms of starvation. Soon afterward her younger son, Richard, showed signs of failing intellect, and before the passengers landed he was violently insane. He recovered in some measure after a few months, but the Count used to say that up to the time of his death he was subject more or less to attacks of mental depression and mild lunacy, the results of his suffering during those eighty-five days. As for the eldest son, George, who lived to be the Count Joannes, he was quite blind when he went ashore at Boston, and six weeks elapsed before he regained his sight. - N. Y. Mercury. |