The midland journal., 1886-09-10
The Earthquake and Terror of the
Negroes.


earthquake scenes at Charleston and fire.
quently frightened the calm whites with
their wild prayers and lamentations, shrieks
and groans. 1t is past the power of the pen
to convey any idea of the scenes enacted in
the camps of the colored people when the
ground rolled beneath their feet and the
tremendous roar of the earthquake smote
their ears. Squares away you could hear
their yells and screams. AS soon as the
authorities could collect their scattered
senses they made efforts to quell the excite
ment among the ignorant blacks, for it was
contagious and helped to dismay and demor-
alize the white people. The negroes sang,
shouted and prayed necessarily and every
shock was followed by howl of terror and
groveling Oh the ground in conyulsions Of
fright. There were dozen or more meet
ings in progress all the time. In Citadel
Square the first object that arrested every
body's attention was an assemblage of color
ed boys, about a half dozen in number, who
had fallen to the ground in a paroXysn of
religious frenzy. They were grovelng with
their faces down in the grass and were sing
ing hymn in a loud voice. The hymn was
"The Angels A-rappin' at the Door," and
the refrain, sang rapidly, was con, do tell
ole Noe to biz on de ark, to bip on the srk,
to biz on the ark" This song was repeat
ed over and over again until the frenzied
singers ceased from utter exhaustion. In a
few minutes they were fast asleep.
THE WORK OF CONVERSION"
Near the boys was large tent which had
been gaily decorated as for some festive oc-
casion. In the door stood very old color
ed women, swaying backwards and forwards
her lips moving but uttering no sound. The
crowd in front of her watched her with in
tense anxiety. Suddenly she burst out with
the hymn. sob, Raslin' Jacob, Let Me Co.,
and the crowd joined in the mighty refrain.
The women swayed their bodies forward to
the right and 10 the left alternately, Just
like sacred dance, clapping their hands in
the ecstacy of emotion. Finally one man
dropped to the ground Converted" The
lamp was hastily brought from the tent and
he was surrounded by crowd of men and
women who held his hands. He cried aloud
for mercy and eventually swooned away and
was almost as rigid as corpse. The work
of conversion then went on, and in less than
half an hour about ten men and women had
succumbed to the emotional sensations of the
occasion. Similar scenes were being enact
ed all over the square. The people appear
ed to have selected their hymns with
view to the appropri ateness of the occasion.
One crowd would sing at the top of their
voices such hymn as this:
Sometimes Pm up, sometimes I'm down;
No man like Jesus.
Sometimes Pm almost on de groun,'
No man like Jesus"
Again such hymns as these were chanted
in refrain: 81 once was lost, but now am
found" etc.: "The Son of Man is bound to
die" 81 heard the angel. moan a little
while ago.. 81 done hear Mary weep;" 81
want to go down right under the ground"
and "Oh, could we touch the hem of His
garment"
QUAINT BUT HEARTFELT PRAYERS.
The prayers offered up were simple in
every sense of the word. but they evidently
came from hearts that were palsied with fear.
One of these prayers was as follows:
sob, my brothers and sisters, what is the
matter now; oh, Lori, look on last Tuesday
night. Some is alive and some is dead and
gone! Oh, my handsome God, dear Sir,
look down on us. We know What the little
finger of the Lord can do. Sometimes the
world can kick up in thunder, but do take
care of our brothers. Amt the black lamb
and the white lion done lie down together
in peaceP Move along my brothers move
along! God gimme grace to move along,
amt dun promise to be baptize?"
Just here the crowd took up the words
"Promise to Be Baptized" and sang it to
the end with peculiar force and athos.
Then the exhorter continued: "Fight the
battle, fight the battle. Fight it out girl;
fight it out boy. Oh, yes, mann the time is
come. Wake up. wake up! The last chance