The Savannah morning news., 1902-03-16

position to the renewal of the con-
tracts. Arguments, threats. promises,
all proved unavailing. Every hour
fresh bands of Negroes, armed with
keen machetes. marched into town.
chanting fragments of wild African
melodies. Toward dusk the merchants
fearing trouble. put UP their heavy
shutters and the townsfolk retired to
their homes. A swift sloop-there was
no cable then-set sail for st. Thorn
as, bearing urgent appeals for help
from the tiny. Danish garrison there.
At first, the mob was contented with
marching up and down the deserted
streets, bowling the rallying cry: mo
more ten cents a day" Shouting was
thirst producing exercise; a rum
shop door might, perhaps, be broken
in. Yes, it was quite easy, there was
refreshment for all at no expens. The
tiambeans of rssinous wood began TO
wave unsteadily in the hands of their
bearers. How easy it would be merely
TO lay one of the torches against the
huge wooden doors of the sugar ware
house! Yes, dry with age, it caught
fire quickly. Like children terrified at
their own wickedness, they paused a
moment; the red fire leapt through
the building; in a twinkling the soft
blue black of the midnight tropic sky
was hidden by a lurid veil of Grim
son smoke, shot through and through
With dazzling streaks with the strong
rum seething in their veins, they
danced the wild jungle dances of their
forefatherS to its light With brains
awhirl they staggered from one build
ing to another. The red glare crept in
through the closed blinds behind which
the frightened townsfolk crouched,
shuddering with terror. Woe to those
traders whose dealings had been harsh
or unfair! Only at the imminent peril
of their lives, might they steal from
their burning homes to safety. Bright
er grew the glare, back on the hill
sides an answering glare appeared.
Long tongues of lame crept up the
hills from the burning fields of cane
The sites of the planters homes were
marked by brighter, higher flames.
Wilder and madden grew the chanting
merely hoarse howls of savage 10y,
now, all semblance of articulate words
lost.
The black forms dancing around the
burning buildings stood silhouetted
like fields around the mouth of hell. The
whole island was wrapped in flames
Still, strange as it seems, no lives were
lost. The morning came unseen save
for the lighting up of the dense blue
ter rode bravely into town, forgetting
that these former slaves had tasted
freedom and power Maddened at the
ruin of his estate, he rode straight in
to the mob, flashing right and left with
his heavy riding whin. For an instant
the crowd fell back, the old instinct
still strong. For an instant it seemed
that daring would succeed. Then a
huge negro. his face bleeding from "a
cut of the lash. and working with
brute passion, leaped forward and
seized q stirrup. In an instant it was
all over, A swirl of half-naked black
forms, the piercing neigh of a dying
horse, the awful cry, half scream, half
curse of human being in the throes
of a fearful death. and it was done.
Seized by strange panic, the mob
turned and fed. A bundle of red
stained, muddied clothes lay in a sick
ening heap, very quiet on the cobble
stones.
OF the deeds done that dreadful day
there remains no record. Gaunt Chin
neys, towering like scared, ungainly
monuments above the smouldering
ashes of the factories around them,
mile after mile of black unsightly
fields yelled in a sickening, deep blue
smoke-these alone could tell the tale.
Strangely enough, that red stain, slow
ly thickening on the cobble-stones,
marked the only human victim of the
mob. Satiated with their wild orgy,
there was a lull and then-the prayed
for troops arrived. Only 200 of them,
what could they do against 5000 saw
ages? Yesterday they had been torn
to pieces in an instant, but now, re-
action had set in. Frightened at their
own daring, the negroes fled before
the soldiers. Swiftly, relentlessly, the
rioters were hunted down. There is
no record of the number that satisfied
the thirst for vengeance with their
lives, but tales are told Of black forms
lying huddled on burned cane heaps