Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-11

! wrong, and while we must thank God
every day of our lives that it has been
blotted out forever, yet there were in
fuences exerted by it which have worked
great good, and which relieve the people
of America from the odium of having
committed crime.
We refer to tie influence wrought upon
the lives of those who were enslaved,
and upon their progeny.
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform.
And through the trials and vicis-
STUDIES which for the last thirty years
have taught the Southern peo-
pie the virtue of patience, as
well as through years of degrading
slavery by which the negro race were led
to participation in a civilization higher
than centuries would have carried to
their native shores, His hand may be
seen by those who, unblrnded by preju-
! dice, are willing to recognize good wher-
ever found.
A fine Illustration of the influence of
| slavery upon the negro may be drawn
from articles recently published in the
London papers. Old Jinphy, king of
Eboe, nation of interior Africa, died
recently, and the. 'eJu Ju'' rites were
celebrated for several months. About
two months after the old kings death
number of traders from New Calabar
went to visit the new king. When they
arrived at the town of Eboe they found
the orgies still in full blast. The account
in the London papers says:
On the arrival of the traders the old king was
still lying in an open grave that had been dug
for him. 1t large and deep-large enough
to accommodate nine of the departed rulers
youngest wives, who had been murdered in the
cruelest manner. Each of them had had her
ankles and wrists broken so that she could
neither walk crawl. In this manned con-
dtion, and suffering the most excruciating pain,
the poor creatures were placed at the bottom OF
the grave, seven of them lying side by side.
The kings body was then laid on them in a
transverse direction. Then the two remaining
women were laid by his side.
There they were left without food water, to
wait for their kind Observation-Disclosures
until after four or five days of intense suffering.
In the meantime four men were stationed
around the grave, armed with clubs, ready to
knock backward any of the women WHO, despite
their fortunes and pain, might manage to crawl
TO The side of the pit.
But t his was not all. In other parts of the
town other human sacrifices were taking place.
Suspended from various trees were the bodies of
several men. They, too, were undergoing ago
nizing deaths, holes having in most cases been
bored through their feet just by the ankle.
Through these holes ropes were drawn and the
men tied to high tree, head downward, and
left to die.
The traders were also unwilling Witnesses of
another frightful sacrificial execution. Noticing
a number of natives standing in group they
went to the spot to see what was going on, To
their horror the white men saw a native tied by
the feet and neck. The rope attached to the
neck was thrown over the limb of tree in one
direction, while that fastened to the feet was
tied to tree in an opposite direction The ropes
were then drawn tight, and when the body was
nearly torn asunder a native with Ratchet
struck at the neck, severing the head from the
body. The head was then thrown into the grave
where the king was lying, and the body was
eaten by the cannibal natives. -,
The traders, while inexpressibly shocked at
their fendish practices, were powerless to stop
them, as the natives would not brook the
slightest interference with their religious Gus
toms, - and such interference would have been
undertaken at the peril OF the lives of the white
men. All they could do was to make their way
back to New Calabar and await the termination
of these bloody rites. Before leaving. they
learned that seven men would be sacrificed each
month during the next ten months.
The negroes of the South, slaves
twenty five years ago, free to-day. are
the direct descendants OF those African
tribes among which the ''Ju JUL rites
still prevail. Whatever privileges of
civilization they enjoy to-day over the
inhabitants of Eboe they owe to the in
stitution of slavery. Self interest is the
motive power of the world. 1t settles
prairies, clears out forests, builds cities,
Pounds colleges, establishes churches.
1t is the handspring of human thought
and labor and energy. Prompted by the
lust for gold, slave traders tore the saw
age African from his home and
brought HIM to America. Impelled
Dy IIo uGSITG Oh gam Inc
citizens of America bought the negro and
put him TO work. Self interest, North
and South, in few years gathered all
the negroes in that section known as the
"slave states, ;" and the same interest
prompted the war which freed them.
Every scene in the great drama was
shifted by avarice and greed, yet every
move was for good. The negro, through
it all, played the smallest part, and yet
received the greatest benefit.
Year after year the Southern people,
at the sacrifice of the highest order OF
civilization and enlightenment and ma
terial prosperity, brought the negro from
his native shore and held him in bond
age Through it all, though the South
ern people suffered, the negro advanced. |
The North poured out an ocean of blood
and spent world of treasure, and the |
negro was made tree. Millions of dollars