Page:Sketchesinhistory00pett.pdf/47

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UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
41

CHAPTER V.

JO NORTON, CONTINUED—MAKING THEIR WAY FROM WASHINGTON TO ALBANY—JO GOES TO SCHOOL—LECTURES TO BUY HIS WIFE AND CHILD—SUCCEEDS—THE HAPPY MEETING.

The plan adopted by the enterprising managers of the U. G. R. R. to mislead the owners of the fugitives, and induce them to give up the chase, was kept secret a long time, and great numbers escaped thereby without capture or accident between the Capitol city of the Nation to that of our own State. A letter containing an account of the flight of a party, with sufficient details to enable the manager at Albany to get up a “local article” for the Liberty Press, was sent by mail as soon as they left Washington.

The boys did not leave the station kept by Ben, nor the girls their hiding-place in Baltimore, until the owner had abandoned the pursuit, having learned by the aforesaid paper, what he took as positive proof, that they were beyond his reach.

There were many exciting incidents related by Jo, in connection with their passage north, but the space allotted to these sketches will not admit of their relation. I will briefly say that the boys passed through the city of Baltimore between eight and nine o’clock in the evening, passing through the most public streets, stopping two or three times to buy apples and peanuts at the fruit stands, for which purpose their guide and conductor