The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-13
SIGN OF THE NAILED DOOR
DAYS OF TRIBULATION THESE FOR
NEGROES IN THE SOUTH.
This Is the Season When SheriH's ON
GERS Go About Shutting Up Corn
houses Till Debts Are Paid.
New York Sun.

Just at this time of year down South men
acting apparently in a strange and erratic
manner are seen about the country lanes
and in out-of-the-way plantation premises.
Sometimes it is only one man thus en-
countered-an alert-looking person, securing
the prospect with eyes that let nothing es-
cape. Sometimes there are two or more
men together lowering on the outskirts of
cornfield or cotton patch, scanning things
with wide-awake, comprehensive gaze
They plainly not farmers nor back
woodsmen, nor yet mere travellers stopping
over to get acquainted with the country
for the buggy road cart which brought
them to the spot and is hitched near by in
the woods or to a fence somewhere. bears
no marks of having come an over-long
way, or Of the occupants having camped
out over night. They can't be peddIers or
hunters, for they have nothing to sell and
nothing to shoot with. Indeed. so intent are
these folks in their work that the most in
teresting and intimate of country happen-
ings could go on right under their noses and
they never see or know. 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 a very humdrum quarry when found
mere inanimate piece of board or staging,
which some carpenter overlooked when he
worked in that spot, and whichfths strang-
ers pounce on and appropriate as though
1t were the one thing above others worth
having
What are they going to do with that
piece of board?' asks some one not versed
In harvest-time annals. IN
Shut up some negroes courthouse with
it" comes the answer. "See, there's the
place, through those trees to the right"
What are they going to do that for?'
On, because the negro hasn't paid out
ana this is the only time of year when he
would be likely to have anything to nav
OUT with; Those men are the sheriff's dep
utles He has them out all over the coun-
ty now. They will take that board and
nail 1t across the door of the cornhouse
the fodder house or coffin bin, or what
that board represents the seal of the law
Just now, lying on the ground, 1t was
Scantling, but once put across the door and
hammered in place it has a vital meaning.
How long will 1t stay there? Until the
position to pay the debt or makes some ar
rangement in~regard to it. Maybe it will
be taken down in two or three days, maybe
not Tor as many months or weeks. It 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 it and
even the most ignorant negro tenant under
stands that. There is tragedy and comedy,
too, abroad in the country at this time OF
year. Maybe it's only a beggarly S. or so
this summary means of collecting-the bal
ance of payment a sewing machine or
for some piece of furniture or frippery
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 IT IS SERIOUS.
Sometimes it is a grave matter that
shuts up the courthouse, relating to the pay
ment on mule or mans farm lands. 1t
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, it is done, the negroes regard the
sheriffs 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 caste in society until
perienee
There amt never been no sheriff board tech
his Courthouse is an opposite judgment.
And those who, either through misfortune
or duplicity; ever have to wear the brand
feel it keenly.
i amt been nowheres no more than to
the branch with my bucket. or carryin' out
de cow to feed, since US been shut up
Molsey field worker, told me the other
day She is a civil, well-disposed woman,
who together with her thick-headed hus-
band, makes a pretty fair crop but she
can't manage even the gathering of it with
out an overseer. j amt had de heart to
look people in de face since dat happen.
nor my ole man, nuther.' she went on. And
such onbeknownst thing as trap us. That
headrus' [headrest] chair wild de high rock
ers to it what we buy from de sellin man in
dey was burnin' up ole f1el pine out cen
front de house. gittin' ready for corn plant
in. and Mr.. Buckra was drivin' in rusty
nails cen de peach tree trunk to keep off
de worm ALI our bestest peaches las year
was eat out wild worm, so we work on EN-
dis year and save EN-. 1t was that very
time de man come along wild de headrus
rock1n' chair git up cen de wagon ana
set in de chair and like de feel of it. Him
say $14 was de cost, and | had six and more
savin since Christmas, and Mr.. Buckra he
git a dollar and a half on days work fer
de white people and de man take dat and
left de chair next mOrnin' after he had stay
all night wild us. The bargain stand that
every time he send collector round we was
to pay So till we was pay out. De collector
come TCUDu regular dlleT lDdts anu we littu
give him every bit oh change what we could
raise and a paper on Mr.. Coloneps store
where we gifts credit. The collector would
write de paper out same like de trial justice
would fix it, and de Mr.. Buckra and me
would put our cross mark underneath.
Every month de collector come regular.
Sometimes he would be de same man as had
come de last time and sometimes he
wouldn't De last two rounds he come we
never had nothin' to give him, cause Mr..
Colonel had give out de. word as there
wasn't no more credit to his store for no.
body
TRIED TO COMPROMISE.
Please, marster, here the other day jist
as 1 was fxin' de rumplus pullet nest get
tin ready to set her-I amt blieve much in
settin' young pullet; dey's apt to be I'M
easy and change dere mind bout settin'
and addle de eggs; but she had run about
cluckin' so long and seemed so bound in the
notion that 1 thought to make a 'geeption
of her-I hadn't more than put in some clean
straw and gone cen the house for de eggs,
when here comes a couple of white men
ridin' up in a buggy fine doin's FASHION, and
askn' if l was name Miss Backra and if
l had buy a headrus' rockin chair last Feb
ruary. Yes had sure buy de chair, and
here de chair is, seq l, pleasant spoken.
Wont you gentlemens light and walk in
and set DOWN." And l dust off dat chair
and de hide bottom chair what we always
hau since we marry. Dey never answer nor
tell me nothin'. but just jump out and hitch