Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1879-04-12
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A GIBBET WAKE.

/, Friday is regarded as sacred to- the
hangman in New Kent county, Virginia,
for they selected that day OF evil omen,
last week, for the hanging OF two negro
murderers, Pat Smith and Julius Chris
tian.f
! The negroes made gala day OF the
occasion. and fiocked from all quarters
to enjoy the sensational dissipation of a
g,bbet repentance. The field around
the scaffold presented the aspect OF u
country fair. A Yankee had side show,
one darkey a ginger cake stand. another
AN irnpromptu 7rum-mln, and peripa-
tetic minstrel troupe. evolved dulcet
strains of music for the delectation of
nearly five hundred people. Alter the,
wretched victims had made their gall
lows repentance Speeches., and jumped
this wicked world amidst the wild
chanting aof hymns, the white people
went away, but the negroes renamed in
crowds around the gibbet, under which
the two criminals had been buried, and
the sun sank on the scene with .peculi-
arly somber effect in that fiat, country
where the cultivated fields are bordered
by extensive deeply wooded sw:tmps. In
which giant owls hoot all night long.
The sable mourners' were intent on. a
regular wake. and they waited, as their
superstition demands, until midnight,
"A large barn in thesfield served as a
temple and ball room, and precisely at
twelve m. such a festival opened as
shames the Shaughraun wake. The orr
chestra. composed of four banjos and Il
fiddle. were posted on platform in one
corner; the man who called the Fl lures
on table in the center. and the whole
wild scene lighted by light-wood torches.
Peter johnson the master of ceremonies,
ca led. in q trumpet-like voice: Choose
your partners and the orchestra struck
up The Mississippi Sawyer AS the
excitement worked up the revelers. they
got wilder, and wilder, and musicians
and dancers began to shout. howl and
chant in cadence.
oh. Lord, how happy is.' GLORY
halleluiah,' Jesus is comin', Lord
come down; don't let de debil cotch dis
nigger,' aud a hundred other exultatlons
resounded high and shrill from the fe-
male voices. At two o'clock Lucinda
Macon, an old voudou woman, came in.
to the center OF the room, and began an
incantation. She opened bag OF herbs
and shouted a wild monotone OF gibber-
ish. supposed to be African, and then
produced the ropes with which the GRIM
inals had been hung, and explained that
piece Of the cord would be talisman
against evil spirits and witches. Imme.
diately the poor darkles crowded for the
pieces which she began to cut, bidding
from ten cents up to q dollar. At last
the pieces Of rope gave out, and the men
began to fight tor them, and the old
witch told them that pieces of the cloth
OF the hanged mems clothes would an
swer as equally potent charms. A large
party at once rushed with demoniacal
howl for the graves under the gallows;
but they came bowling back. scared out
OF their wits, and declaring they had
seen. the hanged men walking around the
gallows. The, one thousand darkies,
male and female, stampeded. but rallied
and approached the scene iot ghostly Wis
itation, with skirmishers out, and chant
ing wild. unearthly melody. Sure
enough there were two black ghosts
hovering around the graves between the
cross OF the gibbet and the ground; and
then, with a wild. terrified shrek, the
crowd fled, over brush and bramble,
over ten and woodland; and the next
day 1t was supposed that the devil had
caught all those who had not reached
home. The black ghosts were two res
who had come down from
Richmond in the employ of tho medical
college.