The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-08-07

He Is certainly an adrOit politician.
The appointment of Douglass reminds me
Of the only time ever saw him, and the cir
cumstances attending my seeing him We're
SO startling and amusing that have never
forgotten. them, although it was several
years before tho war 1t occurred at
Poughkeepsie, N. Y, and tho suspicious Oc-
casion was the celebration by the colored
population of the anniversary OF the free
dom Of the negroes of the island of Jamaica.
There was gorgeous procession, with
music, lemonade, speeches and peanuts;
but the principal attraction, aside from the
peanuts, was Fred Douglass, the rock
ribbed, copper-fastened, copper-colored ora
tor of the day, the one selected to seize the
American eagle by the fetlocks, swing HIM
three times around his head and scatter the
tail feathers all over Poughkeepsie.
At that time there were quite number
Of boys from the South attending the Pough-
keepsie Collegiate Institute, and happened
to be one of them. 1t is needless to state
that the celebration did not, to any enthusi-
astic degree, meet with the cordial support,
or even approval, of the aforesaid youths
from the South There was one young
Southerner in particular who seemed to re-
gard the proposed festivities as sufficient
provocation to inaugurate the fratricidal
struggle which broke loose only few
years later. His name was Burress, and
his home was in Mississippi, where his
father. owned several large plantations and
upwards Of five hundred negroes.
The sight of able-bodied, likely negroes
stalking the streets with high hats on the
port sides Of their heads, canes in their
hands and smoking cigars almost paralyzed
poor Burress. 1t was entirely beyond bis
comprehension.
The speaking was TO take place IN College
Grove in long wooden pavilion that had
been erected for that express purpose. At
this place congregated quite large num-
Der Of the participants in the celebration,
and among them was Burress. The crowd
would have been o large one without Bur.
ress, but Burress was in it, and of it, and
all around it, and he helped amazingly to
swell the vast proportions.
The pavilion was completely filed with
white and colored abolitionists, as they
were then called and Burress was, with no
small difficulty, prevented by his friends
from making audible market quotations Of
the cash value Of the representative col.
ored men in the pavilion, and thus establish.
ing himself as kind of open call board. His
forcible little hits and caustic innuendoes
concerning the social status of the white
man on this platform along side the negroes
were wild and frequent.
At last Fred Douglass came forward, and
was formally introduced to the audience
He was tall, well-made man, having more
the appearance of an Indian than of 9
negro. He stretched forth his arm and was
about to recapitulate the story of his thrall
dom, when suddenly there was a sudder
crash. The pavilion had collapsed. The
weight of impending argument had proven
too heavy strain and it came down ab0u
our heads like lathe hen house struck by
cyclone. There was a wild vision of planks
boards, joints, two by four scantling, tim
bers, terrified darkies, white orators an(
colored, and large and carefully selected
assortment of black, brown, yellow, bronze
saddle-colored, liver-colored, mezzo Tilted
terra Gotta, seal brown, black and tan
chrome and gingerbread darkies. Profan
ity rent the air, and those who came t,
weep over the wrongs of the colored race
remained to blaspheme the inexperienced
architect who constructed the pavilion.
Fortunately nobody was particularly in
jured except Burress. He, however, wa
, not injured physically, but the menta
strain-the stream of pleasurable electricit,
coursing through his system-was toe
much, and he was borne from the scene il
an hysterical paroxysm of mirth which lait
him up in his room for two weeks.
One of the most remarkable of the phe
nomena of the cataclysm was the fact tina
while quite number of the whites wer
feeling their heads, not solitary coloret
man seemed to have taken the disease il
that form, but dozen or more platoons o
them were hopping around on one leg ten
derby nursing injured Sims, and anon!
! them was Fred Douglass himself.
, Burress returned to his home shortl
afterwards, and when the war broke out h
went to the front and was killed in one 0
the first battles. ALEX E. SWEET.