Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1898-08-06
N1coDEMUs CELEBRATION.
What the WORLDS Correspondent
Saw at the Great Celebration.

was the place, the Emancipation An
niversary of the negro race was the
occasion, and hot time in the old
town was the result.
As early as Friday, July %, people
began to camp beside the pleasant
grove south of Nicodemus. and per-
haps they have not all got away yet
On Saturday every available bit of
ground under the trees was rented for
peanut stands, cane racks, lemonade
counters, wheels of fortune, merry-go-
rounds, baby racks, crap games. dane
ing platforms, lecture tents, racket
bazaars, in fact everything that an
enterprislng fellow could think of to
conjure the filthy lucre from the pock
ct books of the gullible.
The grove is U-shaped, with small
corn field in the center. The other
part of the grove may be called the
tenderloin district district. There
were many enterprising institutions
doing business there, beer garden. etc,
ETC., etc.
We consulted Major Pritchard and
other men Of experience and their
and black were on the grounds on
Monday. The estimate is a modest
one. Colored people were there from
Denver and Kansas City and all inter
yening points, yet the whites far out
numbered the blacks. One young
lady wittily observed that there were
just enough darkies to make the crowd
look spotted.
Noted politicians of every political
stripe were there shaking hands with
the dear people. Napoleon Bonaparte
Mccormick was there in all his glory.
When he left here two years ago he
looked pretty seedy, but now he
comes back to US in all the splendor of
Absalom, looking like lord of the
isles. Mccormick made good speech,
full of patriotic sentiments, applaud
ed the president, and congress, Dewey,
Sampson, Shafte1, ct al. and spread
the stars and stripes from Orient to
Occident and from pole to pole. Say.
but it was a grand speech.
Hon. w. A. Reeder spoke of the
history of slavery from its origin to
its extinction. He was well received.
OF course no politics was allowed on
this occasion and all the speakers care
fully conformed TO the restrictions
Hon. w. J. Bailey, candidate for
congressman-at- spoke of the
posi- bilities of the negro race, and
Hon. John S. Dawson reviewed
what they have already accom-
plished. Last but by no means
least came the Incompatible George
Washington Jones. the great colored
orator, lawyer, politician,and man of
affairs, and carried away that vast
multitude with his eloquence, recount
ing the deeds Of the heroes, great and
small, who through great tribulation,
established the grand principle that
man could not hold property in man.
The evening brought the usual horse
races, with the usual palaver to get
the horses started, the usual discon-
tent over the result, the usual bluffing
and flashing Of dollar bills, the usual
pulling of coats aud shaking of fists
and hurting of cuSS words, and then
the crowd and the interest drifted in
to other channels.
1t would not do to omit the annual
mix-up between the French and the
niggerS which in point OF profanity,
at least, was fully up to the standard.
When the melee was at its highest.
the redoubtable 0. L. Cook of the Sa-
line grabbed up the crutch of a cripple
fellow and. brandishing it aloft like
a battle-aXe, he started for the midst
of the fray. The Stentorian voice of
| the cripple rang out, s'Come back,
you ---! Bring back my wooden
leg" This helped the crowd to regain
It's good humor, and thus the day wore
by. The shades of evening were fall
ing and the greater part of the crowd
struck out for home, although fully
1000 people stayed in the grove that
night, and undoubtedly there was as
hot time that night as there had
been that day.
Truly August 1 at Nicodemus is a
great day. The throttle valve is
thrown open. the steam guage shows
away up beyond the 100 point, the
| marshal is full long before 10 O'Clock
in the morning. and the people have
Il taste of liberty in all its glorious
reality.
n. b. We are going back next year.
i