Page:The Under-Ground Railroad.djvu/89

69 Judges are guilty of turning Fugitives into the dark dungeon of Slavery, for they could free every Slave that comes before them, if so disposed, by deciding the Fugitive Bill unconstitutional, and refusing to comply with its requirements. The following will shew that our railroad is doing good business, therefore ought to be patronised, as we believe it will be. "Five Slaves left Mr. C. D. Armstrong, of St. Louis. A girl 18 years of age, a woman 25, and children, supposed to have been abducted by two white men." They consider a girl at 18 years of age, not a woman, as you may infer from the above distinction, which is quite consonant with Southern custom. Generally, they call the males boys until they are about sixty, after that period, old uncle, until the day of their death: the females, gal or girl, or sometimes, ironically, My Lady, until they are sixty, then old aunty, to the end of life. The Northern men have borrowed this custom from the Southern, and presume to call free coloured men boys, in the North as the following will obviously show. A Fugitive Slave, on his way to Canada, being in a Free State, and so far from his home, thought himself out of danger; he ventured to take the train, as he had a little money, to travel publicly to Canada. After getting into the carriage, (in the United States called car), the Conductor said, "it is against our rules for coloured men to go