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PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 29, 1847.
Destructive Fire- The Fugitive Slave-Effect of Anthracite Gas-Nude Model Artists.
Your readers were advised of the escape of Samuel Smith, the alleged fugitive slave, from the pursuit of his master, by the telegraphic despatch published this morning, and I need therefore only allude to the facts which induced Judge Kane to discharge him from custody. The counsel for the master, James W. Wroth, was prepared to show his ownership by parole evidence; but as his title was derived from a written document of the Orphan's court of Cecil county, Maryland, David Paul Brown, Esq., the talented counsel for the alleged fugitive, contended that this document should be properly exemplified by the authorities of the county, and this being sustained by the court, the discharge was ordered. Samuel Smith was then taken into custody by Mr. Passmore Williamson, a wealthy abolitionist, who had gone bail for his appearance as a witness against Alderman Braxeo, and his officer, for an alleged conspiracy to consign him to slavery, by arresting him on a false charge of larceny, made under a wrong name. - This was, of course, a ruse, to enable the fugitive to escape, as his security would willingly sacrifice the amount, if the recognizance should be sued out, for the pleasure of freeing the slave from a renewal of his bondage. Of course he is on his way to Canada, by the underground railroad, long before this. This conspiracy case was to have had another hearing this morning before alderman Elkenton, but no prosecutors appearing, the suit was dismissed. The colored population, as well as the abolitionists, are quite elated at the success of their plans, and view it as a triumph to compare with the last case, in which the black was freed by the use of the writ de humine replegiando.
