Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-31
NEGROES WILD WITH FEAR.
Believing Their Children in DANCE
from Medical Students.

Believing Their Children in Danger
from Medical Students.
The Philadelphia Times of Saturday
gave an account of the excitement now
existing among the negroes of Burlington,
n. j., town on the Delaware, which for
a week has been in a state of ferment.
Fearful tales of masked men wandering
around In the darkness, frightening Wo-
men and chasing children, have wrought
the negroes of the north end of the place
into condition of terror, and their belief
has settled into conviction that the town
is infested with band of child-abducting
medical students, who have sworn to cap
ture all the picaninnies in the place and
send them to Philadelphia in pickle. Chill
dren playing IN the streets after night
have been frightened into cOnvulsions,
and young cOlOred girls have been forced
to seek safety in flight.
An alleged attack upon Lewis Still,
cOlOred boy i years old, has brought the
excitement to the verge of panic. Mas
ter Still is a adiminutive, bow-legged young
darkeY, with an air oflngenuOus Veracity.
His story, told in choice negro dialect, is
to the effect that he was sent to a neigh
boris few nights ago, and that when he
was at the end of a lane near Samuel
TaylOr's big field, three men jumped out
at him. One said, "Here boy, we want
you"
ovid dat" said young Still, ''dey comes
after me, two wild knives and one wild
bag, an l, all skeered like, ups an runs
down de lane an clar int Ms. Kant's
house, wha nom and Ms. Kant and
white man, name Jim Brady, was sittin
round de tiah. l runs in.'
'Wid his face clean gone white'sd white
folks" interrupted his maternal relative,
who stood in the crowd, listening with
eager attention.
81 was in" resumed the infantile hero,
'1an' den she jumps up and she SAYS:
'Wha', wha', wha' de mattah you Lewis ?
'Oh, nom. nom, de kidnappers, de med cal
stujents,' l yells, and den pretty neah
faintin'. Brady he rushes out, am 'crOss
TaylOr's field he seed stujents a-dyin' like
mad"
A girl called "Melia" also had a story
to tell to-day of how she was chased by a
man with a bag and knife. These stO-
rles were told to the Times reporter in
the presence of great numbers of colored
people, who stood around, open-mOuthed
and wild-eyed, drinking in every word
with eager belief. The conviction among
the negroes that there is an organized
movement to abduct their children to SUD-
ply the dIssectIng tables of the Philadel
phia colleges is genuine, and their fear
OF the kidnappers amounts almost to
frenzy. Children are kept in at night,
and colOred fathers swear that they will
lynch the first medical student they dis
cover attempting the lives of their little
ones. A public meeting of cOlOred citi-
Zens to devise measures for protection
and safety is talked of. That many chill
dren nave been attacked and frightened
there appears to be no doubt. Among the
white people the excitement is ascribed
to the deYilishness of half a dozen mis-
chief-lOying young men.
Among the many other children who
have been frightened nearly out of their
wits by the masked men are two little
ones of Mrs. Ross, who lives on Federal
street, belew Clarkson, and Johnny King,
whose parents live on Belmont street.
Little Ida Ross was reported paralyZed
from fright. Walter Fennimore, of York
and Lawrence streets, was turned almost
white by fright he had, and Tony Rogers
was chased for half mile.