Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-07-23
A COLOReD WOOi,s MEEriN6


more Less of q raiiuro-HOw the Huck-
sters Ran the Affair Themselves.
The annual woods meeting which is held
at Quarryviile came off yesterday. The
attendance from this city WAS probably
larger than ever before. Two trains were
run each way. and between 400 AID 500
tickets were sold at the King street station.
Over q car load of cO!Ore,l people went
from this city, and there were perhaps
two dozen on the grounds from
the surrounding country. The attendance
of white people from the country was
not as large Is in former years. The
reason given for that was that the country
people are very much afraid of smallpox.
They have heard many exaggerated
reports of the disease in this city, and are
shy about assOciaiing with people from
here in crowds. The camp was advertised
by huge posters as ''Grand COlOred
Woods Meeting" How an affair of this
kind can be made grand and re-
ligious also is question which
is left to be solved by the enterprising
hucksters who arrange the woods meeting
each succeeding year. When an affair Is
advertised like this our people look upon
it more as place Of amusement than for
worship, SO they expect the managers to
exhibit what they advertise. In this big
failure was made yesterday. A choir of
" one hundred voices" was advertised but
instead there was 4 quartetts composed
Of bOotblacks from this city. They fur
nishej the singing fo: tho servicns, ut the
conclusion of which they put u man out
with q hat for their own benefit. In case
the collections dill not "pan ont" al they
should, the choir would suddenly stop.
Il MI k1,o 1,n u;kh
the hat came in and count WAS made.
The leader Of tho chuir announced that for
forty cents more the singing would be con-
tinued. This amount was forthcoming,
and the vOcalists continued until they
sang all they knew. and 1 great deal that
they did not know. They wers not at all
careful about their music. and sang as
many ballads as hymns.
In the morning the preaching was by
Rev. John Frances, the old campmeeting
war horse. What his subject WAS no ono
present was able to tell and it is likely
that John himself did not know, but he
touched upon great MANY themes. At
tho conclusion Of his remarks the choir
closed the services by singing. la the
afternoon Rev. Kee,s preached aud Rev.
NJ. NJ. Diggs exhOrtsd. The choir closed
the services with singing AS soon az the
latter had finished the crowd began to
leave the grounds. By 6 o'clock all the
Lancaster people, including the colored
folks, we're at the depot ready to come
home, and no evening service Was held
The weatbnr was very warm yesterday,
aud it was uBp pleasant iu the woods There
is nO water within half milo of the
grounds, and persons were compelled to
20 thirsty or drink circus lemonade by the
gallon. The huckslers, who were really
the managers OF the affair, had several
big stands on the grounds, and did u
thriving business. An admission for horses
was charged aud the colored folks received
that, together with the collections which
were taken up at the stand. The man
who lifted this labOred hard during the
day and he was scarcely of his
feet at any time for more than fifteen
minutes. The hat was kept on the movo
and the receipts were encouraging. When
the train was ready to leave for Lancaster
everybody was glad, aud it will be some
time before the crowd who went down to
Quarryville yesterday will b. induced to
attend another "colOred" canpmeeting.