| Show LAST OF HIS KIND an ali old slave yeller seller who la lass 8 su on oil the stage I 1 I 1 ho lie tells tais how lidy ho lie sold suld negroes on oil tho tile kloek 9 ut for a beauty f press C acs Y vs sir so to far as I 1 know au and d I 1 think I 1 know all about it im the last hying representative of the profession tho last man nian alive in ill the united states who made a business of selling biggers from front the auction block im 72 years old now and I 1 guess that my iny time has nearly co come coe e thug thus spoke old jack campbell as he lip filled ilia his glass for the fourth time at a broad street bar and leaned back ai a against i dinst the counter to open U up p ins ills bad budget u ge t of ces but tut h his rud ruddy dy complexion clear grey eye ani sturdy figure attired in blue broadcloth polished metal buttons and immaculate linen seemed to contradict his confession sion of age and to say that he had been prosperous enough in the profession fes feE sion which haa has been abolished nearly 2 au years yell well ho lie added all 1 those that I 1 used to be associated with in business passed in their chips long ago rum killed a good many of them and old age a has done the job for those that pulled safe out of skirmishes over poker tables or the little rackets of bygone by gone days in southern towns somehow I 1 was more careful or more ore lucky than the rest and I 1 saved enough to live on and occasionally casio nally lay lity down a stake I 1 have bad my share of disputes between gentlemen but only one ono close cur cut and that was when I 1 got this curnin turning g down hig old fashioned standing a collar and eXpOSi exposing Dg a long scar that extended down from his right car that came cattle of an argument in paducah before the war when I 1 held a queen full and the other gentleman showed up three of the girls that was a most marvelous marv clous miracle and lie to have baye ripped me with his because I 1 cou lInt take it dinall in all at 1 once them aks was great times I 1 went ailt into the slave auction bu business in 1835 and never quit until the war brok dout iliavi I 1 have sold in baltimore richmond charleston savannah louisville mobile new now J orleans memphis and all along in the towns ortho of alio sooth I 1 dont blow my own trumpet you know that on oil their own merits modest men are dumb but I 1 cin can pay say that jack campbell had the reputation of showing 0 up the good points point sofa of a buck ora or a wench and drawing out bids that mado made him in demand wherever there was a big sale tile ilic traders have made me ine travel miles to iun run oil off a lot for them and they paid me my own price for my work how low many have I 1 sold I 1 was in tho business some twenty five years and I 1 guess I 1 always handled boo or COO a year you can count up tip for yourself how many that makes how much money I 1 got is my own business but you can write it down that my pile was always big enough to let lot TOO into any game that was going and before the war gentlemen as was echtle men talk of a limit when they got around the table that limit non nonsense is is a corruptive coi influence of yankee so much talk makes my throat dry as a prayer meeting IV ivd 3 had plenty bof queer enece as you aed after ho lie had wiped hia bis lips with a nobby white silk handkerchief long as you ask about it I 1 remember tile biggest money I 1 ever gut for fbi a was for a devilish pretty quadroon roon wench that I 1 sold in Loui louisville aville about 52 or 53 silo was only 18 and was about is white ahyou aa you or me and her two iwo children had light curly hair her master lived down near bowling green and though 11 he bo want to part art with her lie was so d down on hiis his luck lock that ho lie ila had to sell lier her I 1 heart too that hia his wife swore that must leave the plantation or she would go borne boine to her family my ansti notions were not jo to take tak 0 o ic less ss llian than for the 9 gin irl and I 1 was to get a big percentage on 0 u all over that so u wilen when t they ey put her on iho tile block I 1 talked her up for ull till she die was worth there flie re was more than twenty I 1 men bid bidding ding fur lier her and the dellwo that got lier her for was a rich and gay young bachelor fron ten un lichel who happened to be in the tile city on oil a depreo and was attracted by curiosity to the sale he was a it little drink dranky yand and caring all Y thing for ills dubats he was so u feet set on oil having the g tirl irl I 1 beli believe evelie he would have given for lier her if anybody had bid lier her up tip that high ho ile carried her home that day and aud I 1 aint going to to tell ell you anything more inore about him hill than that he lie made male a big name in the army and was kil killed ed at t the lie I 1 head his soldiers i woman s children children by her first master lives live i ga in massachusetts I 1 chu dowil ow andia and ia it ri i rt nt i man there a sign of df black blood iti ao 10 it have you sold anany of such people wicnty plenty of likely girls from chocolate c ate color up to nearly white and got from to apiece forem for em there always was a good market for that bind tind of stock no it it como conio from any particular place laco in the flip south you could find ald it everywhere from maraland maryland Mar fland to louisiana louwana southern gent gentlemen emen took an inte icat in it sir and no decent masler would let one of there girls marry black man they were ivero superior people sir superior which were tho best markets market 3 for dealing in I 1 I 1 new orleans louisville charleston and baltimore used to be about the acae till the cussed black abolitionists gotto running the diggers borth by ta the I 1 e ground rai railroad flroa after that it was always a little alig dAug crOus to do lius bos illein baltimore for fear tho yankees would beal them across the pennsylvania line or the ohio river 1 I brought t six bucks to baltimore once on oil iny own account and put ataw era em in a pen at the corner of df all eutaw an and camden streets to wait for a sale two got loose that very night and that was tile last I 1 ever saw of them of courser course they got over into pennsylvania Penn sylvani f fa a but they never could have havo done it without somebody helped tb them ein for they had como cono clear from north carolina they were worth aleace and I 1 waa was it clean out of pocket there was a petit nest of infernal nf ern quakers up at a paco place called christina in this I 1 state and they were always lookin out to rob a man inan of his honest property another time a niger I 1 ran away from ma at ne new port ky icy and got to cincinnati I 1 went aarom the river t and rind saw a fiend of haine who kept a place where I 1 had paid in hia a good many thousands of my hard j earned dol dollars larg I 1 told him I 1 wanted his help to get the man back and says he lie jack if you aint a fool let that moL folgo go it be healthy tor for you you to raie raise a row here now over the lover are boss here heie ho ile was a sensible iaan mail and I 1 took ills advice this was in S and after that I 1 do any more business on my own risk cioth the north tho last las sales were made in baltimore and louisville in 1861 but for five ar eix aix years before beford then new orleans was our best bea 4 maybe it aint any use telling people to 60 but the hardest martels on the slaves were tho Yuji yankees kees who had settled iu ill the south or had bad come como there as overseers I 1 never dawone saw one of them that woula qt break up a fitin family fly aben ho lie wanted to sell se I 1 I 1 had to deliver two field hands once at a plantation three thice from 1 I was in arching th them along the ro road and one turned as quick as a flash and knocked nic no down n before I 1 knew t what ho lie was v a s doil doing 9 wa they started I 1 to mn ton but I 1 drew on them and i brought cue one down with 1 I ballet in im back he ife lwft mu much I 1 I 1 alir t I 1 but afler I 1 ap got got them up to the I 1 I 1 j plantation uio ano one I 1 shot was laid I 1 up foi fox three weeks and 61 4 me ink if afi lie the man who had bought him offer to suo ino me for the loss of his i services afier I 1 had saved his nig fsr fr for him ii i that irian man was a yankee squatter and was enort just as mean as us him it 1 I suppose there itra many signs leit left nw of the day days dayse 1 1 lore than abud bud think Onless 11 you ou knew what e to look for them thein tein 1 l go io iulo any southern Soul hern hotel that was built barc tit ahr war and ask them that 11 YOU go 0 flown n into the cellars see u dont find these old cells where hie tile I 1 servants of travelers were up ill at daghi night q tho baltimore Bal timbre custom house was on oil ce ceil it hotel hogeland hot eland and more th than tin two dozen cells under it now ben boharas OH aras in that city is still stan standing diug on pit pratt street al thoi gli it has been turned into a beer garden gard mid all the larger larer bitic in alie old could the vata pens P 1 I you I 1 I 1 1 axie 0 oro i coill going down dolvil tile from st lanuis to new now orleans on the steamer star of iha 71 ain i i imay 1861 I 1 ivas was getting out ut if the south fur for things t were ing too hot for lor me then A fel fellow who lived at gape caie girardeau and was taking tig sonic some liggeri to a plau owned I 1 ill id arkansas got cleaned out in in a little ganio game of f dr draw aw and pur two ocein of cm lip on I 1 li I 1 small et straight raight 11 tile they 1 were w ere se 9 opel 11 in by a a who 1 lind two I 1 deuces leu cell and a pur pair of jacks and as b he c want yant thel lie theril for sale it f pretty much everybody oll on board knew kilow me mc and I 1 in to ask for bids tile tibey ocic vcr jf two yo Rs boyd young bu ns ial lerdal s 44 and I 1 gilly got ot 1000 for both when the w war had hau brought business bils down Ili atlow I 1 thought it wa 69 time for ine 0 dr drop oil mi out it or of it a andai lid 11 did 1 ila hiiro s heard al d that the I 1 0 21 aut 11 1 1 1 I 1 1 il storied about b ting 1 over gambling ug tala are all lies fies I 1 you juba take old jack cam caina i i i fi j i J w bells word for it that is true ive traveled the mississippi a hundred times before lefore the ille war and held a hand iii in many a game where biggers nig ers right on board were the states stakes yes res ive aou some hofem too and icat cm ein again why in m ilic those so good old times and I 1 aver the veterans face there came a teh tenderly derly retrospective look 1 l in 1 il ilia good old times a man could bet anything lie owned owne dand and you do not suppose that he would hesitate at hn 1113 slaves which were always just as good its cash wo we did not think lunch of them as human beings and where was the difre difference rence between staking them and staking the money you got gotor for them the rare and curious relic of the past a heaved a deep sigh 1 I came carne north lie said to see how vow things thing 3 look and im free to confess that I 1 dont like it I 1 spend my winter in yew new orleans and my summers in baltimore and I 1 dont blank pennsylvania will ever sec see me again I 1 might be slightly y over como colne by st stimulants lants hero here and be ar rested by a darkey in emens clot clothes lies no southern gentleman that has bought and sold them by the tho hund hundreds ails could possibly stand I 1 I 1 that ill soon stall start south again and get re ready a dy to lay my bones alongside of alio th people who were ray my friends when this was a country worth living dg in dont forget to say that jack campbell never went back on a friendie frien dif he lie was a auctioneer tio neer |
