Evening star., 1897-01-02

hograsticatn We nonsense. 'Hayve w.
SELF TO buss yo' wide opent'
While the southern darkeys frequently
made good guides in personally conducting
party over their own neiehhorhood--in-
deed. they seemed Ike horses. 10 have the
faculty of remembering roads even in the
darkest nights-if asked for verbal direc-
tions their instructions would lose a man
going from his own gate 20 the smoke
house.
"Yo' take de fuss road on de right an
when yo git clar OBJ ue ole me,ider whar
Jedge Taylo' use ter keep dat brinnle bulI
what got so savigeous. yo pass cross de
ole deadenin' an right factn' yo' on de hill
is whar Aunt Jane Beecham lived so long
Yo' CANT see de house sense IL tuhred
down. Den yo' bar away pass dc Simpson
place, an bout a mile furder yo come to a
cross road like dey hauls lawgs on an jess
beyon on de leff dey's a ole rail pen whar
We use ter scald der hawgs when / was a
little feller no more'n so high" etc.
OF course. any one could follow that.
1t won't do 10 say that the soldiers were
always considerate of these colored waits,
but any wartime negro will testify that
the rough soldiers were kinder friends than
the political jayhawkers who followed thu
soldiers south when the war closed.
These vermin robbed the negroes right
and left. melted them against those willing
to deal fairly with them and wheadled them
out of the votes which ii was, at that time
a political crime to give them. Occasional
ly soldier left in the south after the sur
render would be tempted to emulate the
methods of the swindling carpetbagsers.
who. like buzzards. came to feast on what
war had left.
A ScOundreIs Device.
One such case was where a darkey plow-
ing a field for his former owner, and be-
lieving, as most of the negroes did, that a
blue coat and brass buttons meant the
United States government pure and simple,
to whom came a soldier asking why he
plowed. Being answered that the blowing
was for wages, and that the land belonged
to his employer, which employer was a
secessonist from way back" the friendly
soldier asked the darkey why he didn't buy
ground and work for himself. The colored
agriculturist explained that he had only S1O
for capital and knew of no field TO ne
bought for that sum. Thereupon the SOL
dier offered to sell him the very field on
which they stood for that exact amount
And so a trade was made. the poor plow-
man paying for the land his only $40 bill,
receiving therefor, as he had stipulated,
written deed which. to be sure. he could
not read, but " hich he knew to be all right
inasmTch as he had seen the soldier write
1t on the spot with pencil.
The ignorant southern darkeys had
strange ideas of Yankee sodgers'' before
seeing them. i have heard them speak of
their surprise that the first specimens seen
were like other white folks and not so
much as wearing horns the head. One
old 'uncie" observed:
Il was most jubous tell see one take his
hat off, an, bless yo' souli he hadn't no
mo- horns on his hade den me. Deed dc
onliest diffunce see is 'um was dey didn't
chew terbacker an talk polerticks &c whole
blessed time lax our folkses did"
There was something touching in their
subserviency to the whites. Struggling
soldiers would make them carry like mules
One poor contraband, staggering along
der four muskets and innpmerable accou-
terments, was angrily asked by an officer
who happened on the scene why he carried
la soldiers He
simply:
DE gentlemen tole me I hat ter take 'em.
Dey'd been totin' dem all de mawnin' de-
se'ves. dey said. an was tireder den me.
Sides. dey tole me 1 was 'bleedzed ter tote
m anyways"
Gentlemen and Chickens.
An angered officer. trying to console a
regro woman lamenting her lost poultry.
finally said that If she could point out the
soldiers who had stolen her hens he would
compel them to compensate her and would
punish the men.
pint 'em out?" said the woman, "how's Sc
/ gwine ter pint EN- out? All de gennelmen
locks jess alike. wearin' de close de does.
an you know yo'self every gennelman OBJ
de whole lot jess nachelly takes chickens
anyways he fines dem. Deeshur sodger gen.
nelmans done tuck de las chicken / had
in de roun' world-settin' hers an all. 1
'spect all you gennelmens suck aigs ef dey
amt watchedr'
SNe was ABOUT rlB0t IN lre main, Dut the
association of ideas-gentlemen sucking
other folks raw eggs-could hardly origin
ate outside of The darkey mind.
Contrabands hanging about the camps
believed at first everything told them by
the soldiers. Army horses and mules We're
branded ~. s." on the left shoulder in let
tiers about two inches high. On one occa-
SIGN the soldiers circulated a report that
all the contrabands were to be similarly
marked fer Identification as Union darkeys.
The result was q remarkable reduction in
our sable camp followers within a few
hours, but some were quite willing to sub
NIT to the branding for the sake of re-
manning with the ',sodgers."
One of these actually stood without finch
ing while the practical jokers brought a
heated branding iron close to his forehead,
fully prepared to stand the burning. An
other one swore he had already been brand
ed but the marks had got wore off," The
oply one who really felt the iron was an
agile youth who was calm until the mere
edge OF the heated iron touched him about
half way between his neck and his heels,
when he gave a warwhoop and shot out Of
camp like a black meteor. One of the jok-
ers in his enjoyment of the delicate humo-
of this laughed until he fell backward into
the fire and sat down ii. The darkey's
wild warwhoop was a consumptive whisper
in comparison with the ear-splitting yells
of that humorist.