apparently about this time, of sending persons convicted of petty offenses "to the wheelbarrow," that is to work upon the streets and roads.

By a supplementary act passed in 1797, Owen Kennard and David Kerr, Esqs., were placed on the commission for superintending the building, in the room of Saml. Sharp and Saml. Logan, deceased.

The cost of the building was settled by the law at one thousand pounds, Maryland currency, or $2,666.66 in Federal money, a sum that might represent about 7000 dollars of the money of the present time; but an examination of the levy books shows that a much larger sum was paid by the county. The following levies for the new jail are on record:

besides many small amounts levied for special purposes connected with the building.

By the supplementary "act for building a new gaol," (1797 chap. XXV) already referred to, the commissioners were authorized to sell the old jail and apply the money arising from such sale to the building of the new prison,

or otherwise to abate the old gaol, and apply the materials thereof towards the foundation or other parts of the new building; and after the sale or abatement of the old, and until the completion of the new,

it was declared to be lawful for the sheriff

to rent or hire one or more suitable apartments in the town of Easton for the legal confinement of persons.

There is no evidence that the old jail was sold; it is therefore probable it was "abated," and its materials incorporated in the new structure. This indicates, too, that the old jail was of brick. There is no certain evidence what house in the town was used for a jail, while the new one was building, but there is a tradition worthy of confidence that a house belonging to Solomon Corners, in whose tavern it will be recollected

the court was held while the Court House was in process of erection, was used at this time for prison purposes. It is said to have stood on the lot between the residences of Judge Goldsborough and Mr. Tharp, on Washington street. There is also an allowance in the levy list of 1801 to John Mullikin for the rent of a house used as a prison.

The commissioners were directed to build the new jail within the public square in the town of Easton. They selected, as we see by the building yet in use, the northwest corner of the square. The old jail stood upon the N. East corner, just opposite the brick hotel, as the writer was informed by the late Thomas C. Nicols, Esq., a gentleman very aged at time of his death, who recollected, as he said, to have played ball when a boy against the end of the old building.

It will be seen from an examination of the seventh section that the commissioners were requested to provide suitable apartments in the new structure for the comfortable accommodation of a jailer, who should be required to live within the prison. This provision too is based upon "justice and humanity." There is no doubt that in the old jail and by its keepers violence was made a substitute for strength of walls and vigilance of guards, in the securing the prisoners from escape; and doubtless too, there were outrages committed by the confined, one upon the other, in the absence of the jailer which would be prevented by his constant presence. This rule for the residence of the jailer, who is now either the sheriff himself or his deputy, within the prison walls is yet maintained, no doubt to the increased comfort of the confined and the improved police of the establishment. Samuel Swan was the first jailer under the law of 1794.

Finally, this law gives us another interesting feature of our civic countenance at the date of its passage, in the prohibition to the jailer of keeping an ordinary within the building or of selling liquor to the inmates. It used to be one of the most profitable of the perquisites of the keepers of the prisons, the furnishing to those confined, particularly those imprisoned for debt, better accommodations than those provided at the public expense, and the granting them indulgence in the use of intoxicating liquors. It would seem that the old keepers kept a bar either within the prison, or at some convenient spot near by, from which they derived an easily obtained income. This privilege was "abated" with the abatement of the old jail, doubtless to the great improvement of decency and order within the prison.

As far as the writer has been able to discover, there is no record of the date when the new jail was completed. Evidently no beginning

had been made upon the building when the supplementary law was passed in the fall of 1797, for by that law the commissioners were allowed to make use of the materials of the old jail in constructing the foundations of the new. In the levy list, made in January, 1801, there is an allowance to James Nabb for "criminal irons" and for "money advanced for the Gaol Door." In the same list is an allowance to John Mullikin, of thirty pounds for "rent of Gaol to January, 1802." As late as 1804, there was an allowance in the levy to Owen Kennard, Esq., one of the commissioners for building the jail, of One Hundred and sixty-six pounds ten shillings. From the various minutes it is safe to say the prison was not finally completed until the year last mentioned.

One of the humane provisions of the law for the erection of the jail was that for the building a wall around the yard, so that a certain class of prisoners might have privilege of fresh air and sunshine. This seems never to have been carried into execution, but it is to be hoped that it is not yet too late for us to perform that which was so beneficently conceived by our forefathers.

There was a pillory and stocks belonging to the jail, as we might suppose, even if the records of the county and the recollection of persons yet living did not confirm our suppositions. In 1797 an allowance was made in the levy to David Kerr and Tristram Bowdle, Esquires, Justices of the Peace, of twelve pounds and ten shillings for building a pillory. The writer has been informed by those who recollect this instrument, that it stood about where the smoke house of the jail now stands, that is in front and to the left or southeast of the building. It consisted of stocks for holding the head and hands, with a whipping post beneath. The punishment of colored people for petty offenses by whipping continued up to the time of emancipation. Among the minutes of Saint Michaels parish of 1824 there is entered the very proper protest of the vestry against the use of the trees standing in the church yard as whipping posts, for those condemned to that punishment.

THE STORY OF PERDITA

A Romance of Colonial Times in Talbot County.

In or about the year 1825 the Hon. Theodore Sedgwick, of Berkshire, Massachusetts, an enthusiastic agriculturist—and one of those singular political nondescripts, a democratic abolitionist—was visiting this county for the purpose of extending his acquaintance with the farmers of this region, then regarded as among the most intelligent and successful of the whole country, and also for the purpose of attending one of those annual cattle shows, which, at that period, it was the custom to hold in the town of Easton. He became the honored and honoring guest, at Plimhimmon, near Oxford, of Tench Tilghman, Esq., the father of the gentleman of that name yet living among us, to whom, it is proper to say, the writer is indebted for most of the facts related in this preface, and the appendix hereafter to appear. This Mr. Sedgwick, himself a distinguished author, was the brother of the yet more distinguished authoress, Miss Catherine Sedgwick, of Stockbridge, Mass., a lady to whom we all owe so much pleasure derived from her many delightful stories. While at Plimhimmon Mr. Tilghman related to Mr. Sedgwick the story of a young woman, a tradition of whose romantic adventures attached to that estate. In this story Mr. Sedgwick, true to the Yankee character of thriftiness, which is sure to discover advantages where others see only impediments, perceived the materials that could be used profitably by his sister, who, young as she was, had already given proof of her abilities in more than one literary adventure, and notably of late, in 1824, in a successful novel called "Redwood," which obtained the rare distinction for an American book at that time of being reproduced in England and of being translated into the French, Italian and Swedish languages. Upon his return home Mr. Sedgwick, who had treasured up the incidents, rehearsed the story, as he had received it from Mr. Tilghman to his sister, who at once, with the ore of the true literary artist, saw in the narrative materials almost ready formed for a romance, and immediately began to weave them, as no one knew better how, upon the loom of her fancy into the charming story of Perdita.

At that date there was a literary fashion hardly yet gone out of publishing annuals—books with fanciful titles, printed in the highest

style of typography, bound with the greatest luxury, illustrated by engravings from the burins of the best masters of the graphic art, and not infrequently written by authors of the first distinction in prose and poetry. The story written by Miss Sedgwick, based upon the materials obtained by her brother in Talbot, was contributed to the Atlantic Souvenir—one of these annuals for the year 1827. Like every production that had come from the pen of this young authoress, it immediately attracted attention and won high commendation. If its literary excellence had not been sufficient to give it acceptance among the refined and cultured of our own county, its local references and personal allusions would of themselves have secured the interested perusal by our people of the story of Perdita. It has been repeatedly republished in the papers of this county, but it first appeared here in the columns of the Gazette of Dec. 16th and 23d, 1826. It has also been republished in various repertories of choice literature, the New York Mirror, for instance, which in its day, its early day at least, was regarded as an arbiter of literary merit. It is now again reproduced, that the present generation of our people may read and enjoy what was so relished by their fathers and mothers a charming romance charmingly told, and one founded upon veritable incidents, part of which occurred within this county, and with people whose descendants remain to the present prosaic time.

It would probably impair the enjoyment of the story if there should be a statement made by the prying and tattling annalist of how much of it is entitled to credence, and how much must be put down to the invention of the romancist. For the present suffice it to say that as printed it contains enough of truth to satisfy all but those most exigent of facts, and enough of fancy to appease those who crave only "such stuff as dreams are made on." The "round unvarnished tale" will be delivered at the end of this "strange eventful history."

MODERN CHIVALRY

by the author of redwood.

But when the hour of trouble comes to the mind or the body—and when the hour of death comes, that comes to high and low—Oh, my leddy, then it is'na what we hae dune for oursells, but what we hae dune for others, that we think on maist pleasantly.—Heart of Midlothian.

The assertion that a tale is founded on fact, is a pious fraud of story tellers, too stale to impose on any but the very young or very credulous.