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.

"Did they run away? From Kentucky they run North, and lo! the Locofoco
Marshals caught them for me, and brought them back, and delivered them
into my hand, without cost, sayin, lo! here is thy nigger--do with him
ez thou wilt (wich I alluz did), wich is cheeper than keepin dogs, and
jest as good.