After their rooms and clothes had been searched, blood was found under some of their finger nails, which increased Le Brun’s suspicion that they were of the party who stole his cow; but Mr. Young answered, “that blood is from rabbits my boys caught today.”  Mr. Le Brun tried to scare one of the boys, to make him say it was the blood of his cow.  Mr. Young said, “Mr. Le Brun, you have searched and did not find your beef, as I told you that you would not; also I told you that the blood under their finger nails is from rabbits caught today.  You will have to take my word, sir, without going to further trouble; furthermore, these boys belong to Mr. Singleton, and if you want to take further steps you will have to see him.”  Finding that he was not allowed to do as he wanted to, Mr. Le Brun made great oaths and threats as he mounted his horse to leave, that he would shoot the very first one of those boys he should catch near his cattle.  He and Mr. Young never did agree after that.

But poor Mr. Young, as good as he was to the negroes, was an enemy to himself, for he was a very hard drinker.  People who knew him before I did said they never had seen him drink tea, coffee, or water, but rather rum and whiskey; he drank so hard that he used to go into a crazy fit; he finally put an end to his life by cutting his throat with a razor, at a place called O’Handly’s race course, about three miles from Columbia, S.C.  This was done just a few days before one of the great races.

Boney Young drank, too, but not so hard as Charles.  He lived until just after the late war, and, while walking one day through one of the streets of the above named city, dropped dead, with what was supposed to have been heart disease.

Boney had a mulatto woman, named Moriah, who had been originally brought from Virginia by negro traders, but had been sold to several different masters later.  The trouble was that she was very beautiful, and wherever she was sold her mistresses became jealous of her, so that she changed owners very often.  She was finally sold to Boney Young, who had no wife; and she lived with him until freed by the emancipation proclamation.  She had two daughters; the elder’s name was Annie, but we used to call her sissie; the younger’s name was Josephine.  Annie looked just like her father, Boney Young, while Josephine looked enough like Charles to have been his daughter.  It was easy enough to tell that the mother had sprung from the negro race, but the girls could pass for white.  Their mother, Moriah, died in Columbia some time after the war.  Annie went off and was married to a white man, but I don’t know what became of Josephine.

A short time before master’s death he stood security for a northern man, who was cashier of one of the largest banks in the city of Charleston.  This man ran away with a large sum of money, leaving the colonel embarassed, which fact made him very fretful and peevish.  He had been none too good before to his slaves, and that made him worse, as you knew that the slave holders would revenge themselves on the slaves whenever they became angry.  I had seen master whip his slaves a great many times, but never so severely as he did that spring before he died.