The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-09-24

church and the mournfuIly beautiful
singing to be heard there. Services
free from all convention, conducted al
ter an emotional ritual improViS1d by
the participators and punctuated pS
the individual seances with the spirit
and by sermons the like of which nc
white mans fancy had conceived nor
ear heard These discourses were III
strict imitation of the preaching of the
white pastor who had charge of the
flock during the period before the war
The negro imitator could not read, put
he could remember parts of the accus-
toned discourses and pieced them OUT
with his own ingenious imaginings,
What the theme lacked in sense was
made up in fervor, and the white men
were treated to an entertainment never
to be forgotten for its droll Impressions
Some of these discourses were written
down by apt listeners and preserved as
memorials of Jehossee lingo.
1t is related Of this famd has old plan
taton that the owner always dis
claimed any ambition to make money
If he could keep his lands in a high
state of cultivation. his slaves all sleek
and hearty, his stock Of the best and re-
alize per cent. on the investment he
was content There was no strain in
his working gear; the hands worked
hard when they worked, doing their
regular task each day, then had the
rest of the time for themselves, Wheth-
er they completed that task at 10 Il. m.
or p. m. They We're then free to go
with their cast nets after shrlmpS or
crabs angle for the fish that were plen-
tiful, work in their little garden plots
or doze at will in the shade. To-day
they manage their own time aud have
fresh problems to conquer, problems
that will develop another side of their
nature. There is a school-house put
up, and each year there is a quandary
as to who is the best able to board the
teacher and who will furnish horse
and buggy for her to get back and forth
to her desk.
Down through the rice fields to the
ferry Verify, it is a drive worth the
driving, although the rank grass In
some places is up to the horses belly
and the wheels run dangerously near
the edges of the narrow causeway.
Rice Is too expensive a crop, the
ground too hard to prepare to allow
overmuch margin for a road. Jerry,
riding up from the back, indicates the
lay of the land and inspires confidence.
Occasionally some negroes are seen
far out on a gTass-covered bank, SEEM
ly doing nothing, but their idleness is
significant. They are the trunk mind
ers, celebrating as to the state of the
water that has been turned in over GER
tain portions of the rice. This being a
tide swamp plantation where the wa
ter performs a good share of the work
the trunk minders, versed in running it
on and of, are not the least important
factors in the crops success.
The bird minders are another sepa-
rate squad, their mission being to fire
blank charges of gunpowder over the
fields to scare away the birds that as
semble in considerable numbers certain
Of the year. The bird minders
are strong mature fellows, sober going
and watchful who will be apt to take
their occupation seriously and not trihe
Only the acclimated can risk being on
the rice reserves after nightfall In mid
The river mists and sub
merged acres give rise to conditions the
reverse of wholesome, so sunset brings
the drive back from the old ferry along
the bikes, past the negro quarter, where
the supper fires are being kindled; past
the old mansion site where the yelled
oaks keep trySt, through upland cotton
grounds to the rough roadway of Cook
kitchen, and so on to the particular
sandy knoll among the rushes, where
Jerry resumes charge of his team and
we come back in the little rowboat for
the hospitable shore opposite, where
another sea-island planter has his
home