like kid; if they are too old, it's like sole leather,
it's so tough; and if they have been whipt, as all on
'em have a'most, why the back is all cut to pieces, and
the hide ruined. It takes several sound nigger skins to
make a stole; but when made, it's a beautiful article,
that's a fact.

"It is used on a plantation for punishment. When the whip
don't do its work, strip a slave, and jist clap on to
him the Black Stole. Dress him up in a dead man's skin,
and it frightens him near about to death. You'll hear
him screetch for a mile a'most, so 'tarnally skeered.
And the best of the fun is, that all the rest of the
herd, bulls, cows, and calves, run away from him, jist
as if he was a panther."

"Fun, Sir! Do you call this fun?"

"Why sartainly I do. Ain't it better nor whippin' to
death? "What's a Stole arter all? It's nothin' but a
coat. Philosophizin' on it, Stranger, there is nothin'
to shock a man. The dead don't feel. Skinnin', then,
ain't cruel, nor is it immoral. To bury a good hide, is,
waste--waste is wicked. There are more good hides buried
in the States, black and white, every year, than would
pay the poor-rates and state-taxes. They make excellent
huntin'-coats, and would make beautiful razor-straps,
bindin' for books, and such like things; it would make
a noble export. Tannin' in hemlock bark cures the horrid
nigger flavour. But then, we hante arrived at that state