The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-07-04

| has a much better chance of coming out
| safely than strange white man.
SIT must be what Is called the sense of
locality" Judge Tillman snys. Some
men can find their way about strange
city. where other men lose themselves at
once. Certainly, with these colored
people it is rot the sonso of order, for the
sense of order is not In them. When
they set table the cloth is crooked, and
nothing In in line. II you want a
straight row in the garden you must go
out and draw the line yourself. But put
a Georgia darby at the junction of a
dozen confusing paths in the forest, and
he will select the right one by instinct
You know how the old slave paths run
til rough the bush in the West Indies
paths over which the sla yes made mystic
rious journeys of nights, and by which
their free ancestors still take short cuts
from point to point? Those paths begin
nowhere and end nowhere. and no white
man can travel them for ten minutes
without losing himself We have the
same old paths through the woods in the
older parts of the South. Put u strange
darky in one Of them and he is perfectly
at home, whereas d white man wouli obe
entirely helpless. 1t ia the same thing
with the narrow canals through the
swamp. You can't lose darby in those
canals. No matter how many turns he
has made, nor how dark the night he
will find his way back. 1t is born In him
and he has it to greater perfection than
our best white hunters"
The road lay along the edge of the
swamp, with Okee6nokee to the south
of it and big cotton field to the north.
1t takes some argument to convince a
stranger that the swamp is not full of
green islands, for the clusters of cypress
trees rising above the bush give that
impression. A big, hearty black man lay
stretched out on his back by the road
side, fast asleep. He was coatless, his
feet were bare, the n eck band of his shirt
was open, ike his mouth and his hat lay
beside him. Anywhere else it would
have looked like case of bad rum; but
this is such strong prohibition neigh
/ borhooG that man has to cross twosor
three counties before he can get SO much
as glass OF beer.
"He's taking rest," said the judge.
He's taking q bad case OF chills,
said the judges companion, sleeping
under the hot sun 8op tho edge of this
| swamp"
The judge smiled and looked wise.
"We'll stop at the next house and make
some inquiries, ''said he. "They tell me
that even the people who live on tho
swamp islands never have fever and
ague.
The next house proved to he Jog
cabin, with good harms and fences, a
well with an old-fashioned sweep grass
growing in the yard, and some shining
tin pans, like milk pans, on bench
against the front wall. A giant live oak
shadad the house and yard and half an
acre more.
"Helloi" the judge called. whom the
buggy stopped in front of the gate.
| This was She mode of procedure at
Georgia, instead of going up to the door
and knocking. There are dogs in the
gard invariably, and they rush forward
at the first call and bark furiously, and
continue to bark till one of the family
appears and drives them away. Then
the first word from the doorway is not
one of welcome to the visitors but of
warning to the dogs: "Get out, you
bru tes Hark, Jack! Down, Revert"
| The occupant of the CABIN proved to be
fair-skinned giant, considerably over
six feet tall and proportionntely heavy.
He looked SO strong and hearty it would
have been mockcry to ask him whether
he suffered from chills. He insisted upon
hitching the horse and bringing out
chairs under the big tree. j
| what soldier this man would have
made!'' tn. judge exclaimed, looking at
the mans sledge hammer arms and
| hands. Il
/ "Well, I've done little in that line, r
the man answered modestly: -four
years." Y
| This naturally started little talk
abont the war, and both the judge and
his Northern companion were inclined to
sympathize with so powerful man for
being on tho losing side.
| eyes, but wasn't!" the farmer
laughed; mot to no great extent. You
see it was the Union army was in, for
I'm Yankee-a regular transplanted
Yankee from Fairfield county, Conn.
My son-in law fit on the Confederate side
so that evens things up"
This was not the first nor the second
nor the dozenth old Federal soldier who
had been encountered among the south
Georgia cotton fields. Many of them are
influential men in business and politics.
and most of them got their first expert
encs of the South when they came down
to fight. A Rirst New England Volun-
teers'' regiment might be raised among
the Georgia cotton PLANTERS without diff
Guilty. Some, hkesthis farmer under tie
live oak, we're farnashands at home, ard
worked here for wages till they aooumn>
lated enough money! to buy few acres
| Of land and now have profitable Dlanta