h Morning
News," so struggled to herald to the world as something magnificent on
the part of the Southern slave-masters. At best, it was but a speck. If
the many extra hours of toil that poor Bob had spent, and the hours
of night that he had watched and nursed his plants, were taken into
account, there would be a dark picture connected with "Bob's bale of
cotton," which the editor forgot to disclose.

Every form of labor becomes so associated with servitude, that we may
excuse the Southerner for those feelings which condemn those devoted
to mechanical pursuits as beneath his caste and dignity. Arrogance and
idleness foster extravagance, while his pride induces him to keep up a
style of life which his means are inadequate to support. This induces
him to subsist his slaves on the coarsest fare, and becoming hampered,
embarrassed, and fretted in his fast-decaying circumstances, his slaves,
one by one, suffer the penalty of his extravagance, and finally he
himself is reduced to such a condition that he is unable to do justice
to himself or his children any longer; his slaves are dragged from him,
sold to the terrors of a distant sugar-plantation, and he turned out of
doors a miserable man.

We see this result every day in South Carolina; we hear the comments
in the broadways and public places, while the attorney and bailiff's
offices and notices tell the sad tale of poverty's wasting struggle.

George, in passing from the wharf into the bay, met the Captain, who was
shaping his course for the brig. He immediately ran up to him, and shook
his hands with an appearance of friendship. "Captain, I'm right sorry
to hear about your nigger. I was not prepared for such a decision on the
part of Mr. Grimshaw, but I'm determined to have him out," said he.

"Well!" said the Captain, "I'm sorry to say, I find things very
different from what I anticipated. My steward is imprisoned, for
nothing, except that he is a Portuguese, and everybody insists that he's
a nigger. Everybody talks very fine, yet nobody can do any thing; and
every thing is left to the will of one man."

"Why, Captain, we've the best system in the world for doing business;
you'd appreciate it after you understood it! Just come with me, and let
me introduce you to my father. If he don't put you right, I'll stand
convicted," said little George.

Accepting the invitation, they walked back to the "old man's"
counting-room. George had given the Captain such an extended