Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1862-02-13
Contrabandiana.

Every reader of the Inquirer feels an in
terest in the contrabands, of which we have
nearly five thousand here at present, and
1 may therefore be permitted to relate a
few anecdotes of them, illustrative of their
character.
There is devout old colored man at
Camp Hamilton who acts as preacher or
pastor to several hundred of bis fellow
contrabands. Some weeks since the Gov
eminent overseers furnished "Uncle Peter"
with house for the use of himself and
congregation. On a bright Sunday after
noon the sable minister called his flock to-
gether in the frame chapel of ease, and
told them that he desired particular atten-
ton that day to his remarks. Unfortu-
nately, during the sermon, several of the
more miscbevious obtained pack of play
ing cards, and creeping up the stairs had
an hours amusement at game that ne
groes are passionately fond of-blF!
The old man heard voices above saying
at the end of his simple paragraphs, some
thing like the following :-"I see dat an
do twice better!' "Come ye got three
aces and two kings; gimme de pile."-
Nothing daunted, however, at this, the
pastor quietly dismissed the congregation,
and obtained good white oak twig, he
went up stairs and administered a severe
reprimand to those who would desecrate
the Sabbath and degrade religion, by play
ing cards on the day that should be kept
holy.
''Uncle Solomon" is something of mu-
sician, and on Christmas he was presented
with new violir by his friends, of which
be is very proud. The question was put
and carried, that ball should be given in
the contraband quarters, and that in re-
turn for the fiddle, Uncle Ben should fur
nish the music.
All went merry until the damsels be-
came weary of the "ho-down," when two
white sailors entered the room, boiling
over with fun, and with "two sheetsin the
wind" The sailors desired to dance
The cunning contrabands agreed, and,
forming ring around the sailors, the mu-
sic commenced. The tars looked around
for partners, but as none appeared they
determined not 10 be "scotched," and
danced together until utterly exhausted,
much TO the amusement of the colored
folks. When the sailors ceased dancing,
one of the contrabands stepped forward
and gave each of the Jack Tars quarter
of a dollar for the amusement furnished by
them!
One more, and viii have done with
the subject.
The other day Miles J. Fletcher Esq,
Superintendent of Public Instruction fol
the State of Indiana, was wandering around
the beach trying to skill time" while wait
ing for the arrival of his brother from
Richmond Va. Suddenly be came upon
place on the beach where the contrabands
had been digging gravel out of pits, to be
subsequently used for repairing roads,
The wagons had all been loaded and haul,
ed off, and the contrabands had seated
themselves out of sight in the gravel pit
studiously pondering over primers and
spelling-books. One of the most learned
was acting as monitor.
81, o, G." says one.
"Well, what does that spell?" asked
the monitor.
"Dunno," answered Cuffee.
"Dat spells Log, log Of wood you know.
reioined the monitor triumphantly.
After getting along throug b the colum
of words with various success, one, littl
contraband sung out:
"B, E, A, R, what do dat spell honey !
This was stumper for all hands, ant
the class had unanimously determined t
"skip" it, when Mr.. Fletcher came forwar
much to their surprise, and said, "iha
spells bear."
"What's dat, Mas'r'" asked one of th
bravest of the flock,
"Why, it's great, ugly, black anima
that lives in the woods yonder!
ali! Hi! De gemmen means will
bease-a bari"
And they all laughed so heartily owe
Mr.. Fetcher's bad pronunciation, that b
had to beat hasty retreat in order to &c
out of hearing of jibes and jokes of tn
gravel-pit contrabands.-F'ortress Monro
Cor. Philadelphia Inquirer.