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A CHEQUERED LIFE.A C«Tid la the JrfmMTllIe Prteen ReUtee Incidents of HU Life VlOe Traveling Sin's Broad Road.a VItU Prcmtatloa of What WklrtjA convict in the Indiana Priaon South diod March 0,1882, and «u buried the following day in the prisoner’* buryinggrouad. The following is a brief history of hi* lite: Jam to Trimble, ol Tennessee, was born at Nashville, Tenn., on the 8th day of March, 1838. His lather was a man of means and invested the same in negroes and a planta-' tion on which to work them. James said, I vegetated on a cotton plantation and grew till 1 was fifteen yeais of age; therefore 1 think 1 know something of the divine institution.” His early education* he describes as follows; “By the time I waa ten years old I had learned the fine arts of wal-; negroes, rolling nine-pint, playingUnion League Club tenant). „ ______a bettor speaker than Ooiored J»mre Trimble, of Tannasaee. The ChdNfisI waa *• itali-ciaadj” so whea he riteiiiifkw Philadelphia he was discharged.he found himaelf morning a member of the Union Clnb gave him $16, with which he went to Washington, D. 0. and he remained there until the latter past of the winter of ’04 and ’66. In Washington he secured an interview with President Lincoln, and was honored with an autograph letter of commendation from the President.He delivered a lecture in the Church of Rev. H. H. Garnett, a colored minister. Hi* subject was, •'The Colored Man as Slave, Soldier end Citizen.” He was well prepared to lecture on this subject, as he had, 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 Rsprossntative in Congress from Tennessee, charged with re-B t lievinv him of some books. He visited thecards, fightiDg chickens and lastly, but j room of the Representative in his absencenot least, of putting an enemy into my j t the uu of HoU6e of Representatives, stomach to steal away my brains m the I Docketed evervthin* nocketable. and ------ ------j —j ------- — ■— : pocketed everything pocketable, andahape of split-head, rot-gut, tangle-foot pHw.ntlt;i them in the several brokers’shops.whisky.“I kept myself in whisky money bj winning from my father's negros by -i from Hon. Charles Sumner.game of cards known as ‘seven up,' which 0n living -Washington he w,~. ^ ......'WM *hen popular among all classes.” After j timore and continued bis political begging.th rtf Kii mnt Visir who V* I t_ ;__ a i as*- i_____•death of hu mother, who. he says, dear- j In the epriDg o{ i8U5 he was in Philadeiphialy loved him, his lather sold his negroes and ; again, and made several hundred dollarsplantation, and removed to Nashville again, where he was sent to a school of a grade entitling it to the came of an Academy, but with the habits he had formed before, he had a eonstant longing for ‘‘Old Peter’s Corner Groeery,” 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 lessons, and, as a consequence, did not graduate, although he says, “I did si uinbie into the junior elas in mathematics.” He taught for awhile in the free schools at N sshvilie, and studied law with an uncle, making his home at his house lor several years. He became strongly attaohea to his uncle's daughter, this attachment ripened into love, and he asked her (notwithstanding their relationship! Vo give him her hand and heart. She refused him. and he plunged into dissipation, and became a wanderer onthe earth. ___________He moved in what was called the first the Washinjprocuring subscriptions for a library, in April he went to New York City and stopped at the Astor House with enough money to procure several drinks of whisky and used it for that purpose. At night he lay down in a cellar un.der 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 thea 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, ! wbere he commen *d his political begging i and prosecuted it for several months. He procured $500, which went in the usual way, ; and again he was penniless, i One night sitting on Boston Commons i Dr. Thayer came along and recognized ' him, though drunk, and conveyed fiim to * Home for Inebriatespawned his watch and chain, lor less than one-fourth their value, and twice redeemed them. He thee went to Buffalo, if. Y., andWithof tireles of society, but was often under the , where ho promised him a home as long as influence of liquor at the parties he attended ' be would stay, on conditions that he would given by the ; give up his hat and boots so that hePINKS OF SOCIETY ANU CHIVALRY; not get out to get whisky. He stayed, , . -__, 1 there five weeks and gained the confidecci.. . ? lnoBe.01 nu! own sex out mtie was tem nce ulkg week From thig placeMid about h.s improprieties and dies pa- , he £ Nafhville to hig uncle for m^evMts.’Sa b. w“ *h*: , T v . r : ilvTj whisky, and the money was soon gone.- t* sfv t f .iIh , 1 whisky, and the money was soon gone,stricken off the tot of invited gu^U at He • Washington City viaparties, «o that at the age of twenty he ! , « . .WashingtonnS3?!5wm» !»*. «. «“*£ K/vmre minoral I,am th. ..loco, ,1 Sab- ; , p,n ot ,buville, drinking became more common and ! * intemperance lost seemingly some of pbody vrobbed a lawyer of his watch, tor 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 And so because on the top was a full-size man of t Cupper color, dressed in Revolutionary clothes.When his time was served he was sent out with several dollars in his pocket, and, Thai making Syracuse his headquarters, com- Fori menced lecturing on temperance. On the 1 invitation of the Chaplain of the Prison, he wh was to have delivered, as an ex-convict, an Bui address on temperance to the prisoners, but before Saturday night got drunk and was i xhat locked up in the Station House. He then | t went to New York City. At Brooklyn he To 11 made a talk to a Sabbath school, and the \vii Superintendent of the school, who had t charge of the Home for Inebriates, invited ^ him to a home there, and he remained all tv in winter. He left there in March, 1874, and H i* went to Washington, D. C„ and tried, un- OI J successfully, to get a place in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. This failure was on account ot whisky. He then went to Baltimore, aud what little money he had went for whisky, and again be had delirium tremens. There he was admitted into the 1 hospital managed by the Sisters of Charity, after going before a magistrate and declaring a willingness for h*s body to be given, in ease 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 to Philadelphia. He spent three days and nights in walking the streets, without sloop, and all the time drinking whisky. Here he was sent to the Franklin Reformatory Heme for the Cure ot Drunkards. He sta’yed 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 sui. of c.oltes and some money betides. Again he returned to his cups, and landed soon in a hospital in Brooklyn under the influence of icania-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, It--publican candidate for President, but on the day of his election wa sent to the Albany Penitentiary for six ' onths for stealing an overcoat.At tne expiration of the sentence the Chief of Police from Hudson City arrested him for stealing another overcoat, but the Magistrate thought it would ha no use to send him to the Peniientary aaain, and paid his fare to New York and threatened to make it hot for him if ho ever returned to Hudson City.From this place ho went to Jamestown, intending to go to the Poor House, but alter sleeping three nights in succession, he was : given a paper wnioh procured him a place j in the Albany Almshouse. In three or four ; weeks he took what he called the French I leave and went to East Troy. Here he procured a little money from a Methodist preacher, bought whisky, and was arrosted | ^im for stealing a gas lighter, and was sentenced j V j,( to the Penitentary at Albany for nine | rea(j .e- After serving his time out here jplacsrybody went there to tDIK. ,J „WL ,h« Few*’, i drank until itat night he. «*a» «plbj I ™ Sf» *«- »/s •*3sss i rain: .tsaia sznative city on a charge of drunkenness. 1 ^til he could procure no more Here andThis so mortrfled him when sober that he •* j ji* A __;i s ; money from Jr«ter Cooper ana took thee north about the middle of Apr,1 18o4 . J Hawlev, the Republicans fortune and secure the fame he .to seek his fortune a:d not secure there.On reaching what he called Yankee land,j candidate for Governor. After the canvassclosed he returned to New York City,isuz' sax's aiarsiffisnK“‘•ISSS.’V ‘S’L°A“a«Mn S jA-4-j-ia.iiw.saw-;. The two linked their fortunes together and | went to Washington, D. C.IMPRISONMENTS.In the city of Cincinnati he tried to taper off on lager beer but tapered in on brandy,They remained together drinking and carousing untill summer, when they started on foot for l’uiaski, a village on Lake Erie,whiskv,_gin, mountain juice and other ; where McCarthy's father lived. They wereon drinks’. He remained in Cincinnati until the way nearly three weeks, begging for food the latter part of 1804, and delivered two *‘d sleeping under^ trees, and at Oswego jectures, ore to white and the otbeithey parted, and Trimble procured trom to a colored audience, but in the ’ Little John, a Congressman, enough money great Queen City with its many ( ‘o P»y fare acroes the lake to Kingston, attractions and beauties, but with its thou- C'anada. Here, being out of money, he hired Mods of trap doors of damnation, he spent himself as a harvest hand, but not being ac-neariy all the time drinking. The last j customed to such work he soon btoke down, night he spent in the city before leaving it *^lt;1 was paid off, receiving $3 in silver. — * dismal, dreary night to: beaidresmonths. uthe Deputy Warden handed him a quarter i a Hj of a dollar, enough to take him to the plBce | ,from whence he came. He received it, but j a ,,, putting on a Lord Chesterfield air, he euid, j W(ia ‘‘Deputy YVarden,if aman has but a quarter | tajj he is king to that amount.” He said, “Yes, j tow but you will not bo king longer than you | eye| pass the first rum mill.” j fhim and about 12 o’clock he sat down in a chair that had been left on at the Gibson House. About 1 a m. he was ordered by a policeman to move on—he d and walked on until tired out, then i: That money went for whisky.the American Minister and returned to th-United States. He then went to l’uiaski to see McCarthy, and after staying seveia' leeks at his father’s took the stump forHe remained for a week at the rooms of I una the W. 0. T. U„ then getting a little money j beai started for Cleveland, Ohio, but was again j eye! drunk before be reached Rome, New York. I ousi Here he stole a lawyer's overcoat, for which ! the he received one month’s sentence in the hub County Jail. Here he was confined in the j fcj same room with a confirmed lunatic. He j lite: then went to Rochester, and procured from j I as the poor master a ticket to Cleveland. Here, ! wai for ” stealing an overcoat, he was ■ fori sentenced to the Work House for ! iy g eleven months. The charge was j ‘ -theft together with vagrancy. He went to j 80in Springfield and was put in the chain gang i you for stealing some books from a dentist. At ) t Xenia he was put in jail one month for ! adn stealing an overcoat from a doctor. Upon ■ you being set free he gradually made his way j nov to Cincinnati. From this place he went to q Lawrenccburg, Indiana, where he gut a jail ' jn I ssntcnce of three months for stealing a coat, j to t Next he went to Louisville and was sen- i WOI tecced to fifteen days in thriWork House and J Bjfo -j month in jail for stealing a lawyer’s ' mal i-rccat. From Louisville he talked his j lt;• ■, s to Evansville, Indiana, it which place i be« ■ommitted a grand larceny, and was6ent donlay down behind one of the pillars of the j Governor Fenton, the Republican candidaiPostoffice and slept till daylightIn the morning he entered a second-hand j clothing store kept by a Jew, and sold a $2for Governor.He remained in New York till the spring of 1887, engaged in lecturing, prohibitedOUUUUK iWIS KII. VJ , —7 aa . r~ -------pair of suspenders for ten cents, with which j begging and drinking; he received moneyhe bought a drink of whisky.when needing it several times from PeterThat'day he started for'Hillsboro, a dis- Cooper. He then went to Philadelphia and uw. of sixty miles from C—. He walked ! Ixirrowed irora Lippincott A Co. JE30, withas far as Camp Dennison, where he made a j which he went to Knoxville, Has. Tennessee,talk to the soldiers, and’ chanced there to i u,ok tbe stump for Parson Browlow, a friend trom whom he borrowed : who was candidate for Governor of Ten-i nessee. On his route ne stepped over Dight at Richmond, and spent the night in and after staying all night with him bor- lhe Confederate graveyard with a bottle of rowed $10, which was never paid. In the ! whisky for his pillow. He made severalCoart House at Hillsboro he made his first speeches at Knoxville, Cbatanooga andspeech in 1 Memphis. At the latter place he joined the! Colored Union League Club, and after the next election closed he went to St. Louis; on thei way he was compelled for want of money toHe was on the stump during this cam- ; take deck passage, but his old companiont the Southern Prison at Jeffersonville for • • o years. He entered the Prison May 14, i - -11, and has been unable much of the time for service. He came here a total wreck as to his physical condition, and has been under the treatment of the physicians. He received all attention that could be paid him, and died March 6, at ‘J p. m , and was buried in the priaon graveyard March 7th.oldpaign, making speeches in favor of free- was with him—the bottle of whisky, dom, but he says, ‘‘ All the time I was the j At St. Louis during a short stay he joined veriest slave to the rum habit.” At Colum- | a Temperance Society hut soon fell and wasboa, Ubio, after making a speech at apolitical meeting in favor of Lincoln, he went to Gamp Chase to see Colonel Hawkins, an old college-mate of his, but at that time a prisoner. He made speeches at various small towns, but at Cleveland, where he hadip ------- ----- ----started for Cincinnati, walking through Southern Illinois, having as a companion a Prussian tramp. The two separated at Vin cennes and Trimble went to Evansville and took deck passage for Louisville, there heappointment, he made an utter failure on j borrowed enough money to take him to account of whisky. At the New England i Cincinnati, from the Louisville City Ma-Houae he left his valise and contents as col- i sonry.lateral for bed and board, and it was never j At Cincinnati he tried hard to leave off reoovared. The Chairman of the Repub- j drinking but failed as usual. From Cincin-lican County Convention paid his fare to j nati he want to Columbus, where he was Toledo. | employed by the Y. M. C. A., to act as jan-In Toledo he made a speech to a large --- * **■— ’crowd that had been gathered by a bon-fire, drum and fife. The effort so pleased a Colonel who was present that he asked him to take a “ thin ” drink, and they spent together the entire aight in drinking.After taking breakfast with the Colonel toe gave him $5.00 and paid his fare to Chicago. In the city of Chicago he was penny-toes, and just as the representatives of the Democracy of the Nation were about to Bominato McClellan and Pendleton forhe was drinking, and drunk the entire rente, having taken the precaution* to place the inwrHeble black bottle in his carpetitof of the rooms. While there be made several talks on temperance at the rooms and in adjoining villages. From this place be went to Cleveland, where he made another effort to reform and failed. To show his sincerity in hie attempt to reform he hired to work on a farm, but getting drunk he stole a hone and buggy, an j after a trial was sentenced to the Penitentiary at Columbus for threa yean. This was his Prison service,and while he was passing through it be saw a development of two theories as to the government of a States Prison. He says: Colonel R. Base was Warden and be was an enlightened Christian man,as hit bearing constantly showed. On the 4th of July the Colonel made a speech to the prisoners in which be said: Men, I do not think you are morel monsters or have all lost your characteribecaose you are prisoners Some•treMf-of',--- _ ----by Mr. Unoeln to saake certain Than was aucbane# for Mr. to do public telktag tbera. One of------- ~ * '----- Club_ __________ . ik outA* « little town in Egypt • speech he was knocked •a* -who m dispieaeed at _ ...tetaaOM red hi* arm dialo Ha hswtmed on to Tam Haute, •- idocmtkm «t «S0 from the Prom Tem Hasrehe want re Paanaylvama; three ha made (NetregttHMdroak ftuthre ear-~ read wfifc, red hie way wre ■hire In that city ba re-An Uaire Lmgre Cloli ooaamredstirejSere ’_____________, _ _ prii _______years ago I joined the true Church and have been trying to ‘v- TNow le.the Heathen.The correspondent of the Philadelphia | nol Times writes trom Washington as follows: I uit “At the Chinese Legation, one of the band- I An sorriest residences in the city, lives a lady of rank in that country, the wife of the present Minister—Cheng Tsao Ja. She lives in as strict seclurinn here in the National Capital ot our free country as if still in thenapi-tal ot her native land. Even here she must obey the national law which eompels women of rank to keep within their homes. Sbe has never been out since she removed from the Arlington Hotel, where her husband and his suite were until the Legation was made ready for their occupancy, which was before the middle of January,While the names of the wives of other : gentlemen of the Diplomatic Corps who are j married, and the names of the wife and daughter of Mr. Bartlett, the American Secretary of the Chinese Legation, appear always on the official diplomatic lift published by the State Department, the naire of the Chinese Minister’s wife is not thereon. She receives no company at all, and must not be allowed to sea any man except her husband. Consequently, she being alone with her Chinese women attendants, has no opportunity to learn English. She it the fourth wife (the other three, I hear, are living in China), and she, it is said, was permitted to accompany her husband on his travels because she is the youngest and comeliest of the number. -I hear they have not been married long. She is under twenty-five years of age.The Chinese Minister visits and attends parties daily, and although he as yet knows no English no one seems to enjoy societymore than he. Throiifeh his interpreter, who always accompanies him. he talas merrily with ladies. He thinks Mi=s West, the Brit-Do not think____________._ „ ,for I intend, to have law and oi der. nacres* ry I can bring the whole power of the great State of Ohio to bear on you.” The Colonel began sinking reforms. He had every prisoner to wash his hand* and faoe in a stieeas of water coming bom a pipe every moraiag. He put on the priaon-oners a suit of grey instead of stripes. He gave the priaonen knives and forks to eat with, and where breed three times e weeke im men on prison reterm. He lectured at Columbus end at several villages within twenty milee of the city. He then went to Cleveland and remained until January 1, 1872, when he went to Cincinnati and wee married on the 8th of March to a Miss Lair. He continued in the lecture field and for • while made Springfield his headquarters, but he traveled extremely for a firm in Ohio. The FenttanttetT had seemingly reformed hire ead ha —rimaai relished fond, andphrases taught her by the interpreter and repeated them to him. Two Philadelphia ladies at a recent reception kept an animated conversation with him through the interpreter, and he laughed heartily over some of their sallies.As no one below the grade of a Minister or Charge d'Affairee is ever invited to dine with one of our Presidents, the Chinese interpreter oould not accompany the Minister to the dinner at the White House, and thus,ent who did not understand any of them. The Japanese Charge d’Affaires who at tended (there being uo Miniiter here now to represent that Nation) communicated with the Chinese gentleman in writing on this occasion, though he could not speak bisUnaiikwa Thn (ThinMn MinittAT did not.thlanguage. The Obinete Minister did not appear to feel lonely at the dinner, but ate and drank benrtfi; and as ho closely watched the others about him committed ~joyed it.'bought the wine very fine end en-In e certain town is Kansas lived a good Deacon of the M. S. Church, who had two tons, thirteen end fifteen years respectively. )B thre abomination of a game of
Newspaper Details
Lebanon Patriot
Lebanon, Indiana, US
Thu, Mar 23, 1882
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Jeffersonville T.
Indiana, USA 27 Jul 2023
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