themselves with much zest to aid the runaway slave. If a slave
could escape to the swamps or the forest and elude the
bloodhounds on his track, he knew that at certain points he would
find those who were prepared to house him, and, passing him on
secretly from station to station, ensure his arrival at a
terminus where he would be safe for life. That was Canada, the
country where the Union Jack waves--the flag of 'Britons' who
'never shall be slaves' and are prepared to grant to all the
priceless boon they claim themselves. This escape was called
'shaking the paw of the lion.' May that British lion never be
transformed into a sleek tiger; may his paw ever be outreached to
a runaway slave, and his roar be a terror to all who would market
in human flesh and blood!

This chain of well-known houses and locations was called the
underground railway; and, spite of penalties of imprisonment oft
inflicted, it never lacked porters or guards; and if the trains
did not always run to time it was because they were very cautious
against accident. Some 30,000 passengers were probably conveyed
on this line. You will not be surprised to find John Brown an
active 'guard,' and under the name of 'Shubel Morgan' or
'Hawkins' he did good service there. See him making his way with
twelve fugitive slaves from Missouri, through Kansas, Nebraska,
Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan to Canada. It is the dead of
winter, and the rough wagons travel heavily and slowly along the
drifted roads. There is a price on his head in these Southern
States--3,250 dollars offered conjointly by the Governor of
Missouri and President Pierce--and the stations are sometimes
thirty miles apart. They come to a creek, and there is the State
Marshal awaiting them with eighty armed men--for he thought he