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A CHEQUERED LIFE.’4+AGtfevtet ii tli JefifMTilk Frink Kdttoi laddeiti of His Life WltleTnTeltMf Sim’s Broad Road.a YftvftA ot Wh»t WhiikyDo tor It* Victim*.▲ convict in the Indiana Priaon South diod March 6, 1882, and was buried the following day in the prisoner*! burying ground. The following is a brief history of his lite:James Trimble, ol Tennessee, was born at Nashville, Tann., on the 8th day of March, 1838. His lather was a man of means and invested the same in negroes and a plant*/ tion on which to work them. James said, “I vegetated on a cotton plantation and grew till 1 was fifteen yeats of age; therefore 1 think 1 know something of the divine institution/* His early education* he de* scribes as follows: “By the time I was tenyean old 1 had learned the fine arts of walloping negroes, rolling nine-pins, playing at cards, fighting chickens and lastly, but not least, of putting an enemy into my stomach to steal away my brains in the shape of split-head, rot-gut, tangle-footwhisky.4lt;I kept myself in whisky money by winning from my father’s negros by a game of cards known as ‘seven up/ which was then popular among all classes/’ After the death ot his mother, who. he says, dearly loved him, his lather sold his negroes and plantation, and removed to Nashville again, where he was sent to a school of a grade entitling it to the name of an Academy, but with the habits he had formed before, he had a constant longing for “Old Peter’s Corner Grocery/’ ana often played truant and spent school hours in card playing and drinking. He afterwards spent three years at College, but all the time indulged in drinking, and often shirked lessonst and, as a consequence, did not graduate, although he says, *1 did stumble into the junior elas in mathematics.” He taught for awhile in the free schools at N ashville, and studied law with an uncle, making his home at his house lor several years. He became strongly attachea to his uncle’s daughter, this attachment ripened imolove, and he asked her (notwithstanding their relationship) to give him her hand andPresident of tbs m Union LecgucUltfb a better speaker thanble, of Tennessee. Thecised;” so wbca hehe was discharged.-lt; ‘to the •txt timeTrim-“itali-Shttedelphia. On the night of the presidential electionlterllt;fiic bhe found himself shelterless, but in the morning a member of the Union Club gave him $16, with which he went to 'Washington, D. (X and he remained there until the latter part of the wiater of *64 and *66. InWashington he secured an interview withPresident Lincoln, and was honored with an autograph letter of commendation from thePresident.He delivered a lecture in the Church of Rev. H. H. Garnett, a colored minister. His subject was, a The Colored Man asSlave, Soldier and Citizen/* He was well prepared to lecture on this subject, a* he naa, as he says, * vegetated on a Mississippi plantation, raised a colored regiment, and mingled in the North with the colored people, and watched them in their efforts to attain citizenship/*Late in the winter he was ordered to leave Washington by a Representative in Congress from Tennessee, charged with relieving him of some books. He visited tLe room of the Representative in hie absence at the hali of the House of Representatives, pocketed everything pock ©table, and pawned them in the several brokers*shops. And in his own records of his thefts he acknowledges taking several fine cravata from Hon. Charles Sumner.On leaving Washington he went to Baltimore and continued his political begging. In the Bpring of 1865 he was in Philadelphia again, and made several hundred dollars procuring subscriptions for a library. In April he went to New York City and stopped at the Astor House with ©Dough money to procure several drinks of whisky and used it for that purpose. At night he lay down in a cellar under the Great American Tea Store, but becoming chilled he asked a policeman if there was a Union League in that city. He replied that there was and directed him to it. He then showed his letters from Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln. The Treasurer of the Club gave him $50 and promised to add to it the next day, but he got drunk and was ashamed to go back, and left New York the next day for Boston, where he commenced his political begging and prosecuted it for several months, tie procured $600, which went in the usual wav, and again ho was penniless.lpawned his watch and chain, for less than one-fourth their value, and twice redeemed them. He then went to Buffalo, N. Y.# and robbed a lawyer of his watch, for which he received a sentence of one year at Auburn State Prison, or as it was called by some of the prisoners—Copper John Hotel—called so because on the top was a full-size man of copper color, dressed In Revolutionary clothes.When his time was served he was sent out with several dollars m his pocket, and, making Syracuse his headquarters, commenced lecturing on temperance. On the invitation of the Chaplain of the Prison, he was to have delivered, as an ex-convict, an address on temperance to the prisoners, but before Saturday night got drunk and was locked up in the Station House. He then went to New York City. At Brooklyn he made a talk to a Sabbath school, and the Superintendent of the school, who had charge of the Home for Inebriates, invited him to a home there, and he remained all winter. He left there in March, 1874, and went to Washington, 1. C., and tried, unsuccessfully, to get place in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. This failure was on account of whisky. He then went to Baltimore, and what little mosey he had went for whisky, and again he had delirium tremens. There he was admitted into the hospital managed by the Sisters of Charity, after going before a magistrate and declaring a willingness for h»s body to be given, in case he died, to medical students who had a dissecting room in the same building. While in the hospital he was allowed to go out to lecture on temperance, and made $12, with which be went tc Philadelphia. He spent three days and nights in walking the streets, without sleep, and all the time drinking whisky. Here he was sent to the Franklin Reformatory Heme for the Cure ot Drunkards. He stayed there a month, and was taken into a store at $2 a day, but on getting his first week’s pay got drunk and was arrested. He then went to Boston, and by lecturing on temperance gained enough to get a good tui. of c.othe^ and some money besides. Again he returned to hia cups, and landed soon in a hospital in Brooklyn under the influence of ncania-a-potu. He was here several weeks, and on being discharged was sent to the Work House, and as soon as bis time was out he took the stump for Mr. Hayes, Republican candidate for President, but on the day of his election was sent to the Albany Penitentiary for six months for stealing an overcoat.At the exuiration of the sentence the Chief
Newspaper Details
Lebanon Patriot
Lebanon, Indiana, US
Thu, Mar 23, 1882
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Jeffersonville T.
Indiana, USA 11 Mar 2023
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