those southern ministers and professors of religion who were eminent for piety, opposed secession till the states passed the secession ordinance. They then advocated reconstruction as long as it comported with their safety. They then, in the face of danger and death, became quiescent-not acquiescent, by any means—and they now "bide their time," in prayerful trust that God will, in His own good time, subvert rebellion, and overthrow anarchy, by a restoration of the supremacy of constitutional law. By these, and their name is legion, my book will be warmly approved. My fellow-prisoners in the dungeon at Tupelo, who may have survived its horrors, and my fellow-sufferers in the Union cause throughout the South, will read in my narrative a transcript of their own sufferings. The loyal citizens of the whole. country will be interested in learning the views of one who has been conversant with the rise and progress of secession, from its incipiency to its culmination in rebellion and treason. It will also doubtless be of general interest to learn something of the workings of the "peculiar institution," and the various phases which it assumes in different sections of the slave states.

Compelled to leave Dixie in haste, I had no time to collect materials for my work. I was therefore under the necessity of writing without those aids which would have secured greater accuracy. I have done the best that I could under the circumstances; and any errors that may have crept into my state

ments of facts, or reports of addresses, will be cheerfully rectified as soon as ascertained.

That I might not compromise the safety of my Union friends who rendered me assistance, and who are still within the rebel lines, I was compelled to omit their names, and for the same reason to describe rather indefinitely some localities, especially the portions of Ittawamba, Chickasaw, Pontotoc, Tippah, and Tishomingo counties, through which I traveled while escaping to the federal lines. This I hope to be able to correct in future editions.

Narratives require a liberal use of the first personal pronoun, which I would have gladly avoided, had it been possible without tedious circumlocution, as its frequent repetition has the appearance of egotism.

I return sincere thanks to my fellow-prisoners who imperiled their own lives to save mine, and also to those Mississippi Unionists who so generously aided a panting fugitive on his way from chains and death to life and liberty.

May the Triune God bless our country, and preserve its integrity!

JOHN HILL AUGHEY. Female Seminary, Steubenville, Ohio.

Above is the preface to The Iron Furnace. Since writing The Iron Furnace I have learned many things not known by me at the time that volume was written. I was not in a fit condition physically

or mentally at that time to write anything as it should be written. It was uncertain whether I should survive the maladies induced by the rigors of my imprisonment. Dr. France, of Harlem Springs, O., whose patient I was, could not give me assurance of ultimate recovery. This volume is a fuller and more complete narrative of my own personal sufferings as a southern Unionist, both prior to and during my imprisonment and marvelous escapes from arrest, till I reached the Federal lines, as well as an account of the terrible cruelties to which my compatriots in the dungeon at Tupelo were subjected as a punishment of their patriotism. Although imperfect, The Iron Furnace, of which "Tupelo" is an enlarged and completed sequel, has received many encomiums from distinguished men whose approval is the source of laudable pride. Some of them will be hereinafter recorded by the author.

Mountain Top, Luzerne Co., Pa., May 8, 1888.

[By REV. W. P. BREED, D.D., Philadelphia, Pa.] We commend The Iron Furnace to all. The author's personal narrative is one of the most thrilling and touching ever written. The arrest, the imprisonment, the escape, the re-arrest, the ironing under the uplifted sword, the re-incarceration, the filthy dungeon, the loathsome food, the second escape, the pursuit by cavalry and blood-hounds, the famishing from thirst and hunger, and the final exodus from

the iron furnace and reception under the good old flag form such a story that we envy not the heart of him who can read it without deep emotion. Mr. Aughey resided eleven years in the South, and his views in regard to the rise and progress of the secession movement till it culminated in treason and rebellion can not fail to interest all.

[By HORACE GREELEY, Editor of the New York Tribune.]

Mr. Aughey was arrested as a traitor to the treason whereto he had never actively nor passively adhered and which he therefore could not betray. He was heavily manacled and thrust into a crowded, filthy prison, whence his companions were taken out day by day to be shot and their bodies thrown naked into a ditch, as a punishment of their patriotism. Mr. Aughey as a more influential Unionist was reserved for conspicuous hanging, but escaped before the fulfillment of that amiable intention. Traveling in the opposite direction from that in which he would natur ally be sought, wearing on his ankles the heavy iron fetters which he had not been enabled to remove, he was obliged to evade the blood-hounds which are usually kept for the hunting of slaves, but are now employed for the tracking of white Unionists, taking care to leave none of his garments in prison, as from them the scent might be taken, traveling by night, and then very painfully because of the galling circlet of his ankles, living mainly on green corn eaten raw,

since to raise a smoke would have been to advertise his presence to bitter and unrelenting foes, he finally evaded the rebel pickets and found refuge under the protecting folds of the flag of freedom.

[By REV. W. J. MCCORD, Wassaic, New York.] Much good will come from the circulation of Mr. Aughey's book, and I could wish that it might be read by everyone in our whole land.

[By HON. J. T. HEADLEY.]

I have read Mr. Aughey's book, The Iron Furnace, with intense interest, and find in it only another proof of how little the loud mouthed patriots of the North know what true fidelity to the Government means. It seems to me that somehow in the providence of God this war in its progress or termination must give the suffering Unionists of the South that lofty position relatively which they so richly deserve.

[By HON. B. F. WADE, Washington, D. C.]

I have read Mr. Aughey's book, entitled, "The Iron Furnace." It shows what it costs to be a Unionist in the South, and strongly illustrates the condition of southern society. I hope it will receive, as it deserves, a wide circulation.

[By COL. BRYNER, of the 47th Illinois Infantry, Peoria, Ill.]

Mr. Aughey's book, "The Iron Furnace," proves the truth of the adage, that truth is stranger than fic