Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-02-11

| around MISS ldNS.' Iney even udleu w
venture their counsel and were loud in their
praise of their favorite. This was right, and
it was natural, for while she was choosing
her lord they were choosing master, and
harmonious choice was a good thing all
eround. Old Aunt Peggy was an oracle in
her way. She called them all children il
they were under fifty. She was old, and
little, and wrinkled, and smoked her pipe
in the chimney corner and never talked
much. But she sat and sWayed backward
and listened to the chidren-the black and
the white. But ever anon she would give
grunt or shake of her head and say, "Dat
won't do my chile. Better mine how you
talk now; better mine; | hear de screecll
owl last night and he talk to me, he did, ~
and she made up some mysterious words
that the screech owl said. Aunt Peggy be-
lieved in frogs and lizards, and owls, and
bats, and cats, and snakes and jack o. Ian
terms and charms, and conjuring. There
were secret mysteries about them all,
and they had to be propitiated and kept
amiable or some great harm would come
upon the household. Where the negroes
got all this supersttious lore nobody knows
exactly. There have been just such super
stitions in all ages and countries. Macbeth
consulted the witches and they made their
charms by seething that horrible cruel
made of frogs and Lizards, and owls and
bats, and adders' tongues, and goats gall
and Turks nose, and Tartar's lips and
other unpalatable things, and then cooled
and settled it down with babboons blood.
Those old time negroes would have made
splendid witches if there had been any
witch schools to 60 to. 1t suited their ma
ture and it suits yet. AS a race they de-
light in the marvellous when it is mixed up
with the horrible. Old Uncle Sam was a
good old darky and the children loved
him. He was familiar with spirits and
graveyards and had shook hands with raw
head and bloody bones and when freedom
came gave full play to his fancies and got
him little long cared donkey and pair
of spectacles, and rode from cabin to
cabin by day and by night, calling him
self "Dr. SAM" and protesting to cure all
the diseases of his race by the mysterious
art of conuring Herarried his profession
al outfit in an old greasy sack before him,
and he was the most ludicrous burlesque
upon the medical profession ever seen, |
reckon. l would give S. for photograph
of the whole concern as it used to peram-
bulate the Chattahoochie regions of old
Gwinnctte some twenty years ago. l pre-
vailed on the old gentleman once to let me
see the inside of that bag and take an in
ventory Besides nearly everything that
Shakespeare named, he had every curious
bug he could find. Betty bugs and June
bugs and tumble bugs and DEVILS riding
horse and the DEVILS darning needle and a
green snake and thousand leg and lot
of herbs, such as hemlOck and jimpsOn weed
and snake root Heassured me that he had
to use all these things in the very bad cases
he came across in his extensive practice.
But the children wanted story about rum
away niggers. That is, while he was rum
away. l have seen them after they were
caught or come in of their own accord. We
boys and girls use to be lawfully afraid of
| them. They were very scarce in that re-
gion. do not remember but one, and he
was suddenly cured of his propensity, for
when he came back home his master ran
him off again and babe him stay in the
woods until he was properly humbled and
! begged to stay at home. l never thought
that should have Il runaway nigger. But
1 did. Our colored household were, as |
thought, devoted to us, and l knew that
we were devoted to them. Our maid serv-
ant, Mary, had nursed all our first children,
and they loved her. A neigboring gentle
man owned her husband and he Wasa high
strung darkey and they did not get along
very harmoniously. One night he took to
the woods or somewhere else unknown, and
he stayed there. In course of time his
owner got tired of this and offered reward, ,
but the reward did not seem to catch him.
The police frequented my premises by
night, for they suspected that Mary harbor-
ed him, and so did I, but still Anderson
could not be found. l didn't like the dar-
ky, but Mary was faithful and kind,
and she begged me with tears in her
eyes to buy Anderson. So l interviewed
his master and bought him-bought him in
the woods; and that night when l went
home and told Mary that Anderson was
mine she claped her hands for joy, and went
out hurriedly, an in ten minutes came back
| with Anderson, who was smiling and fat
with his long rest under the fodder in my
stable loft.
1t was about two months after this that
the foul invaders ran US out Of Rome. 1t
was about midnight when l aroused the
servants and told them that l was going,
and the children were going, and they
could do as they pleased. With one accord
they declared they would follow us to the
end of the earth, and so we fled together
and camped out together, and Mary had
our baby in her arms, and when we reached
Atlanta our teams and servants camped in
the suburbs while we went into the city to
more friendly quarters. Next morning
Mary and Anderson were gone. They had
run away in the night and returned to
Rome. Well, 1 couldn't blame them, for
Anderson was not attached to me, and he
longed for freedom, and he persuaded Mary
to 60. That was all of it-no, not all, for
when we got back to Rome, in 1865, they
were there, and Mary was repentant, her
husband had joined the army, and when
the army left he ran away from them, and
lost his pension and his bounty, and later
on he ran away from Mary, and don't
know where he isnow. But Tip, the faith
full Tippecanoe, would not leave me. 1 did
not own his family, but he left them on
that dark, unhappy night and followed us
to Atlanta, and in few days l made him 60
back to take care of things and see after
the welfare of his wife and children. TO
keep from being suspected as a spy he too
Joined the colored regiment as a cook, and
stayed few days, and one dark night he
swan the Oustanala River and went down
the wesern bank of the Coosa about ten
miles and swan that river, and by clrcul.
tous route reached Atlanta in safety and
followed our fortunes until the war was
over Well, those were the only runaways
| ever had. Two ran away from the YAM
KEGS to get to me. Mr.. LincOlns proclama-
tion was nothing to Tip, Tip was with me
in Virginia. Tip was always faithful and
atfectiOnate. Tip deserves q pension from
somebody, and 1 wish | was able to give
him one. But Tip knows there is home
for him him at my house whenever he Is