Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South CarolinaAdams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
General
Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South Carolina
Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
African Americans -- Fiction; Biographical fiction; Pereira, Manuel -- Fiction; South Carolina -- Fiction
The moment he saw Dunn, he exclaimed, “Ah! you vagabond!” and springing
with the nimbleness of a cat, struck the Dutchman a blow that sent him
measuring his length, into a corner among a lot of empty boxes; then
seizing Dunn by the collar, he shook him like a puppy, and brought him
a slap with his open hand that double-dyed his red face, and brought a
stream of claret from his nose; while the miserable nigger, who had been
struggling to hold Manuel down, let go his hold, and ran as if his life
was in danger. The scene was disgusting in the extreme. Manuel arose,
with his face cut in several places, his clothes bedaubed with filth
from the floor, and his neck and shirt-bosom covered with blood; while
the aghast features of Dunn, with his red, matted hair, and his glaring,
vicious eyes, bespattered with the combined blood of his victim and his
own nasal organ, gave him the most fiendish look imaginable.
The gentleman, after reprimanding the Dutchman for keeping up these
miserable practices, which were disgracing the community, and bringing
suffering, starvation, and death upon the slaves, turned to Dunn, and
addressed him. “You are a pretty officer of the law! A villain upon the
highway-a disgrace to your color, and a stain upon those who retain
you in office. A man who has violated the peace and every principle of
honest duty, a man who every day merits the worst criminal punishment,
kept in the favor of the municipal department, to pollute its very name.
If there is a spark of honesty left in the police department, I will use
my influence to stop your conduct. The gallows will be your doom yet.
You must not think because you are leagued in the same traffic.”
Dunn kept one of the worst and most notorious drinking-shops in
Charleston, but, to reconcile his office with that strict requirement
which never allowed any thing “contrary to law” in Charleston, he made
his wife a “free trader.” This special set of South Carolina may in
effect be classed among its many singular laws. It has an exceedingly
accommodating effect among bankrupt husbands, and acts as a masked
battery for innumerable sins in a business or official line. It so
happens, once in a while, that one of the “fair free dealers” gets
into limbo through the force of some ruthless creditor; and the “Prison
Bounds Act,” being very delicate in its bearings, frequently taxes the
gallantry of the chivalrous gentlemen of the Charleston bar that you are
to go unpunished. And you, Drydez,” said he, turning to the Dutchman, “I
shall enter you upon the information docket, as soon as I go down into
the city.”
“Zeu may tu vat zeu plas mit me-te mayor bees my friend, an' he knowz
vot me ams. Yuz sees zel no bronty, no zin! Vot yu to mit de fine, ah?”
* * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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