The South western news. (Dawson, GA.) 188?-1889, 1888-02-22
OLD TINS.
THE DAYS BEFORE ORGANS
OR CHO RS.
The Negroes Sing and Putthe Old
Men 10 Thinking The Preach
ers ofLong AGO and the
Preachers Now.


raised the widow by which he set,
and pointed with his hand in the
direction of the negro houses.
"The niggers are having meet
ing" continued the old man, and
as he ceased TO speak they began
to sing:
''On Jordon's stormy banks 1
stand,
And cast wistful eye,
To Canaan's fair and happy land,
Where NY possessions lie."
"That's the kind Of singing I
like" continued PlunEett, eff
they are nigqcrs"
After a pause, the old man con-
tinued:
'Pve not got er lit of use for
this ere highfaIuting way they've
got now of having choirs, and |
don't like this organ business erbit.
They didn't used to have no choirs,
nor 10 organs either, and folks
dldn t set up as stiff as pokcrs and
play with their fingers and never
open their mouths. Everybody
sung, little and big, and it's my
notion that folks had or happier
time then than they do now.
"Thar's too much dressing and
too much risky filings erbout
folks these days. I've seed the
day that one of these nce-the-war
wlmin would er looked like er pea
fowl when you've Just pulled his
tail out if they'd cr went through
one good DAVIS meeting. Folks
went to church them days to praise
God, and when some of them old
wimin got happy it was err caution,
anI they didn't care for finerv;
they'd err ruined these wimin that's
been brought up since the war.
In my counting days" contin-
-ued the old man, ";he young folks
walked five and six miles to church
and thought nothing of it. They
didn't wear out their Sunday shoes
either, for the girls and bows both
would toat their shoes and stocks
ings in their hands till they'd get
pretty close to the meeting house
and then they'd sit down on err log
by the little spring branch and
'rince their feet and put EN- ca and
walk into church as neat as er pin
AMI a. pure as cr babe.'
"That's SC" chimed Brown, "and !
they'd have little baskets of fried
chicken and ham and later custard
and SIGH like erlong to eat at dim
'ner and we'd go out under the
shades and spread it all out on tbe
grass and everybody had err pleu-.
ty, and there warn't no such thing
as 'tramps> them days, but if there
had err bin they'd er bin as well
come as anybody and would er bin
made to feel at home"
Nobody never heard ofer tramp
in Georgia tilIsinco the war; cen
tinued Plunkett, and l never
heard ofnone of this dynamite nor
anarchists business and | never
seed the time but what any stran~
ger could get er plenty Of places to
stay er week if he wanted to,
whether he had money or not,
folks didn't charge for little old !
nights lodging and supper and
breakfast in them days, and | new
err knowed one neighbor to sell ans
other SIGH things as seed potatoes
and cotton seed, and l don't be- /
lievo in it yet.
we used to hear the niggers |
going to rise, though, spoke up
Brown.
Yes agreed Plunkett, thar
used to be er heap said about the
niggers er rising, but the niggors
have made us old ones feel mighty
bad erbout that, for when the war
came on they showed us different.
tor when all the men were in the
army, the old niggers would er
fought for the wilnin and children
at the drop Of er hat, and / haint
never forgot it neither, and that's
what made me so mad when these
agents come down here after the
war and 'suaded er heap of EN- off
TO new countries, out west, and I
know in reason that they never
found another country as good as
old Georgia, nor another people
that had the same kindly feeling
for them that we did
That's so, nodded Brown.
d.. Al.