The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

PRISON LIFE AND ESCAPE. 329
hardly knew. Some days the monotony was broken by an old
gray-headed slave named Nelson with three or four boys, who
came and ran the cotton gin. The mill was carried by four
mules hitched to the sweeps below. Over the horses and below
the floor, was a large wooden horizontal face wheel with cogs
which mashed into a vertical cog wheel on a shaft, extending
from the center of the room to the side of it, and near the wall
on this shaft was a wheel carrying a belt to the machine. This
machine, cotton-gin, consisted of twenty-four little steel saws.
A steel plate with slots large enough to let the saws ruu
through but not leaving room enough for cotton seed to go
through was placed over the saws. The fiber was drawn
through the slots by the saw teeth and taken off by a large
cyhndrical brush which ran very much faster than the saws.
The cotton seed fell to the floor and was shoveled out of a window
where it rotted and was used to manure the gardens. Com-
rade Saylor and I used to feed the machine sometimes for
amusement, while old Nelson looked on and showed us how.
One day while in this gin house we were startled by hearing
shots near by, but they proved to be only a rebel soldier on
furlough out bird shooting. We kept still and he soon went
away.
One night it was suggested that we go hog hunting with Brer
Prince and Abe, so about ten o'clock that night we started.
The darkies had pitch pine torches when we should need them,
butcher knives, a hatchet and a Scotch bull dog, named Juno.
We went into the woods and found some hogs, when Abe sang
out to his dog, " Whoop Juno, catch 'em ! " The dog neither
barked nor growled but sprang forward like a panther and we
knew she had her prey by the squeal. Abe rushed forward and
seized the dog while the rest of us tackled the swine and held
it. Abe choked the dog off and thumped the hog on the
head and all was still, then we built a fire, singed off the bristles
and dressed the hog. It was done very quickly and was
dressed as nicely as though scalded. Then we took another
porker the same way and went home. There was a supply of