Aunt Sophia reunites with George Duncan

AUNT SOPHIA'S ROMANCE.

A Colored Enoch Arden Meets His
Wife After More than Twenty
Years Separation.

Reunion of Two Old Slaves in the
Baggage Room of the
Union Depot.

There was a real interesting drama
enacted yesterday about half past 12
o'clock, in the baggage room in the
Union Depot. It was what might be
justly termed a drama in real life. The
scene was one which an artist would
have taken supreme delight in commit-
ting to canvas, and the facts were such
as would furnish the foundation and
plot for romance. Old Aunt Sophia,
the stout, good-natured old colored
woman who sweeps out the Union Depot
and waits upon the female passengers in
the waiting room, was standing up with
her hands behind her against a post in
the baggage room. The old woman's
ebony-hued face was hidden far back in
her old faded calico sunbonnet, and she
seemed to be in a brown study about
something. Just then two colored men
entered the baggage room. One was a
well known express wagon driver; the
other was a well dressed colored man
about forty or forty five years of age.
Police Officer Hanlon followed the two
colored men into the room and pointed
out "Aunt Sophy" to the two colored
men.

A STRANGE MEETING.
"Aunt Sophy, does ye know dis yere
man?" inquired the express wagon
driver.
The well dressed stranger peered cu-
riously beneath the old sun bonnet and
waited anxiously for the expected rec-
ognition. But the old colored woman
after a hasty glance at the face of the
colored stranger, responded shortly and
gruffly:
"No sar; I don't know de gemman."
"What! Sophy, don't ye know George
Duncan what was married to ye down
dar in Cole county long afore the war?"
said the well dressed stranger, advan-
cing towards the old woman, who stood
defiantly backed up against a post.
"Yes," responded the old aunty gruff-
fly. "I members dat ar George Duncan."
"An' don't ye member how I was sold
souf when I cotched dat time?"
"Yes, I members all bout dat ar; mem-
bers how dat same George Duncan run
off wid a wuthless white woman an leff
me and my baby, and dat he got cotched
afore he got to de free State out yeah in
Kansas, and his master sold him souf.
Oh yes, I members all bout it."
"I's dat ar man; I's George Duncan,
come all de way from Orleans to find
you, Sophy, and my boy. Whar am dat
ar boy?"
"Dat boy am a man bigger dan you;
he am a good boy, too, an' 'aspects his
mammy, he do. He' at wok in de elum-
vator, an' de gals am to hum."
"Has ye got gals now, Sophy?"
"Yes, I's got two gals; one so high
(holding out one of her hands), and good
gals, to dey is."
"Is ye married again, Sophy?" queried the stranger, anxiously.
"No, I isn't," said the old woman, im-
patiently, almost angrily, "an' I doesn't
tend to be again."
After a brief pause, the man asked in
a sort of broken voice:
"Whar am dat boy ob mine?"
"He's down in de elumvator at de
State line."
"Don't ye know me, Sophy, no mor?
Don't ye 'member when I come coortin'
ye down at massa Shelby Martin's place
down dar in Cole county? Don't ye
'members how we got married, an', an',
Oh! Sophy, don't ye know yer husband,
George Duncan?"
Tears began to gather in the old De-
pot woman's eyes, but she held them
back a moment, when nature gave way
and gave her old slave husband her
hand and bade him 'go see dat ar
boy."
After the old slave had left the bag-
gage room a TIMES reporter took old
Aunt Sophia in hand and from her
learned the following interesting facts
in the case:

THE OLD WOMAN'S STORY.
About twenty years ago, she says she
was a slave belonging to Col. Shelby
Martin, a wealthy farmer of Cole coun
ty, not far from Jefferson City. Not far
from her old home there resided a fam-
ily by the name of Duncan, who owned
a colored boy named George. After a
brief courtship George and Sophia were
married. But George, in his visits to
Jefferson City, got acquainted with a
worthless, degraded woman, and with
her started off on the "underground
railroad" for Kansas. Sophia lived
with her master until the war set her
free. Her husband recaptured, brought
back to Jefferson and sold by
his master and was sent to the cotton
fields of the South.

THE OLD SLAVE'S STORY.
George Duncan says he has always re-
gretted bitterly his runaway scrape with
the worthless white woman. But when
he was betrayed by her when near the
Kansas line, and was taken back and
"sold South," he gave up all hope of
ever seeing his wife and children again.
He was taken to the cotton fields of
Mississippi, and finally transferred to
Louisiana, where he has lived for the
past eleven years. He says he has been
saving money all the time, with a view
to coming North to seek his family, and
this year he says he raised several bales
of cotton, the proceeds of which he en-
bled him to prosecute his search for his
long lost wife and child. He went first
to Jefferson City, but found that his
wife disappeared from there during the
war.

PROBABLE REUNION.
He says he has searched every town
along the Missouri River from Kansas
City to Jefferson City, and felt confident
he would find his family somewhere.
He got track of his wife accidentally in
conversation with a colored express
wagon driver, who took him to the de-
pot and brought the long separated pair
together. It is not definitely settled in
the mind of the long deserted wife
whether she will take back her truant
husband again. She expressed her mind
to a reporter last night in these words:
"Don't know yet wedder he's my
husban or not. I's got a nice home, a
house an' lot an' furniture. which I
worked hard for. I's ben workin' in dis
yere depot nigh on five years, an' I kin git
along widout George Duncan. I's neb-
ber got ober that runnin' away wid dat
ar white woman. 'Sides deres dem gals,
hey isn't his'n."
"Whose are they, aunty?"
"Dat's nobody's biznes. Dere's sich a
ting as folks not gittin' married, ain't
dey? No, sah! I's not made up my
mind as dis man ain't a 'poster a tryin'
to loose on me."
Then old aunty waddled out of the
depot ticket office shaking her head and
grumbling terribly over the prospect of having to take up with her lazy lost
husband.