Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-12-27
THE NAILED BOARD.
What 1t Means to the Colored People
of the South.

VI the SOutn.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
Just at this time Of year down south men
acunS apparently In a strange and cratic
manner are seen about the country lanes
and in out-of-the-way plantation premises.
sometimes 1t Is only one man thus encoun-
tered-an alert-lookng person, securing
the prospect with eyes that let nothing
escape. Sometimes there are two or more
men together lowering on the outskirts of
cornfield or cotton patch. scanning things
with Wide-awake, comprehensive gaze
Things that the gunsman and naturalist
and nature-lover would dote on-for people
can love nature without regard to science
| or dissection-are discounted in their care
for what, after all, seems very humdrum
quarry when found a mere inanimate piece
OF board or staging, which some carpenter
overlooked when he worked in that spot,
and which the strangers pounce on and APP
Iropriate as though it were the one thing
above all others worth having.
"Whst are they going to do with that
piece of board?' asks some one not versed
in harvest time annals.
Shut up some negro's courthouse with
1t, comes the answer. See, there's the
place, through those trees to the right"
What are they going to do that for?''
'Oh, because the negro hasn't paid out,
and this is the only time of year when he
out with. Those men are the sheriff's dep
uties. He has them out all over the coun-
try now. They will take that board and
| nail it across the door of the courthouse,
fodder house or cotton bin, or whatever is
levied on, and, slight as it seems, that board
represents the seal of the law. Just now
lying on the ground, it was merely a dis
carded, weather-beaten piece of scanting,
but once put up across the door and ham,
mered in place, it has a vital meaning.
How long will it stay there? Until the
owner of the corn or cotton shows a dis
position to pay the debt, or makes some
arrangement in regard to it. Maybe it will
be taken down in two or three days, maybe
not for as many months or weeks. 1t de-
ponds on circumstances. But however
much need or desire the owner may have
to get into his barn. or how far out of the
way he may live from the sheriff, he won't
dare to lay a finger on the board. It's a
penitentiary offense to tamper with 1t, and
even the most ignorant negro tenant I'M
derstands that. There is tragedy and COM
edy too abroad in the country at this time
| Of year. Maybe it's only a beggarly s. or
| so that somebody wants to collect, and
| takes this summary means of collecting
| the balance OF payment on sewing ma
chine or for some piece of. furniture or
| frippery, bought perhaps a year ago. and
which these simple folks in their inability
| to keep reckoning may have thought was
| paid for. Perhaps in reality it was paid
| for. and they are being cheated and made
| to pay over again.
Sometimes 1t Is a grave matter that
] shuts up the courthouse, relating to the paw.
Ment OF mule or a mans farm lands II
| may be that the negro has been caught
| carrying his crop Off by stealth somewhere
| else to sell, in place of paying his landlord
| or the man who has furnished supplies and
crop-making gear during the year. For
| whatever omission or desert, trivial or Sc
rious 1t is done the negroes regard the
sheriff's visit with awe, and feel them
! selves disgraced and outlawed when the
talismanic board is tackled to their door,
Sam Harley was shut up two years
hand-runnin gedderin' timer they say
with an ominous headshake and suggestive
| tone. And Sam Harley loses cast in SO.
ciety until he does something to make up
| for the experience.
| Zok Happy's a good, square farmer
| There amt never been no sheriff board
| tech his Courthouse is an opposite argl.
/ ment. And those who, either through mis-.
| fortune or dupncity. ever have to wear the
brand feel it keeniy.''