Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1889-09-20


The appointment of Douglass reminds me
of the only time ever saw him, and the cir
cumstances attending my seeing him were
so startling and amusing that have never
| forgotten them, although it was several
| years before the war. 1t occurred at
| Poughkeepsie, N Y, and the auspicious 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 n 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 abe-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. II was entirely beyond his
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 a large mum.
Der of the participants in the celebration,
and among them was Burress The crowd
would have been large one without Bur.
ress, but Burress was in it, and Of 1t, ana
all around it, and he helped amazingly to
swell the vast proportions. .t...
The pavilion was completely filled 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 n 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 Il tall, wcll-made man, having more
the appearance of an Indian than OF
negro. He stretched forth his arm and was
about to recapitulate the story Of his thrall.
dom, when suddenly there was sudden
crash. The pavilion had collapsed. The
weight of impending argument had proven
too heavy strain and it came down about
ia l.tl,
cyclone. There was wild vision OF planks,
boards, joints, two by four scantling, tim.
bers, terrified darkies, white orators and
colored, and large and carefully selected
assortment of black, brown, yellow bronze,
saddle-colored, liver-colored, mezzo tinted,
terra Gotta, seal brown, black and tan,
chrome and ginger bread darkies. Profan-
ity rent tho air, and those who came to
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, was
not injured physically, but the mental
straIn--tho stream of pleasurable electricity
coursing through his system-was too
much, and he was borne from the scene in
an hysterical paroxysm of mirth which laid
him up in his room for two weeks.
One Of the most remarkable of the phe.
nomena of the cataclysm was the fact that
while quite II number of the whites were
feeling their heads, not solitary colored
man seemed TO have taken the disease in
that form, but dozen or more platoons OF
them were hopping around on one leg ten,
derly nursing injured shins, and among
them was Fred Douglass himself.
Burress returned to his home shortly
afterwards, and when the war broke out he
went to the front and was killed in ono Of
the first battles. ALEX e. SWEET.