The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-01-04
CHAPTER VII.
The Political Machine Begins 1t:
Work.

The Political Machine Begins Its
Work.
All that has been set down thus far,
you will say, is trifiing, unimportant and
wearisome. Your decision is not to be
disputed; but If you could throw your
self back to those dread days, you would
understand what a diversion these trif-
ing events and episodes created for the
heart-strieken and soul-weary people or
that region. The death of Margaret Bird
albin moved them to pity, and awoke IN
their minds pleasing memories OF hap
pier days. The arrival of the Claibornes
had much the same effect 1t gave the
community something TO talk about.
Moreover, the Claibornes mother and
daughter, proved to be very attractive
additions to the towns society. They
were both bright and good-humored, and
the daughter was very beautiful.
The collapse of the confederacy. COM
ing when it did was an event that Shady
Dale least expected. The last trump Will
cause no greater surprise and constern-
alton, than the news of Lees surrender
caused in that region. The public nina
had not been prepared for such an event.
especially in those remote districts. AL
most every piece of news printed IN the
Journals of the day was colored with the
prospects of ultimate victory; and Wnen
the curtain suddenly came down and the
lights went out, no language can describe
the grief, the despair and the FEELING OF
abjeet humiliation that fell upon the
white population in the small towns and
village communities. How 1t was In the
cities has not been recorded, but II is
to be presumed that then, as now, the
demands and necessities of trade ana
business were powerful enough to over
come and destroy the worst effects Oh
a calamity that attacked the sentiments
and emotions.
As for the men, they soon recovered
from the shock. They were startled ana
stunned but when they opened the'r
eyes to the situation they found them-
selves confronted by conditions that had
no precedent or parallel in the history OF
the world 1t is small fault If their minds
failed at first to grasp the significance
and the import of these conditions.
A few years later Gabriel Tolliver, who
when the surrender came, was iau
Just beyond seventeen, took himself
severely to task before public assem-
blage for his blindness in 1865, and the
years Immediately following; the older
men who sat in the audience rose to their
feet and shook the house with their APP
plause. They, too, had been as blind as
the boy.
1t was well for Shady Dale that Mr..
Sanders came home when he did. lie
had been in the field, If not on the
forum He brought home hundreds of
rich and racy anecdotes that he had
picked up in the camp. In those awful
DAYS when there was little ready money
to be had and business was at stand
still and the courts demoralized. and
the whole social fabric threatening to
fall to pieces, it was Mr.. Billy Sanders
who, went around scattering cheerful
ness and good-humor as carelessly as the
children scatter the flowers they have
gathered In the fields.
Mr.. Sanders and Francis Bethune had
formed a part of the escort that went
with Mr.. Davis as far as Washington in
Wilkes county. On account Mr.. San
ders boosted that at the FAST meeting
of the confederate cabinet held in that
town, he had elected himself a member,
and was duly installed. ut was the
same" he used to say, "as jinin' the
Free-masons The doorkeeper gi'me the
grip an password the head man of the
war department knocked me on the for
rerd, an the thing was done. When Mr..
Davis was ready to go, he took me by
keep house for the boys till I git back,
an be shore that you cheer 'em up
This sort of nonsense served its pur-
pose as Mr.. Sanders intended that 1t
should, and wherever he appeared on
the streets, a crowd gathered around
him-as large a crowd as the town could
furnish. None the less Mr.. Sanders had
cut out a very large piece of work for
himself. He kept 1t up for some time,
OILY al himself longer
and longer intervals of seriousness, for
the multitude of problems growing out
of the new and strange conditions grew
larger and more ominous as the days went
by. Gabriel Tolliver might take to the
woods. as the saying is, and so escape
from the prevailing depression. But Mr.
Sanders and the rest of the men had no
such resource; responsibility sat on their
shoulders, and they were compelled to
face the conditions and study them
Gabriel could sit on the fence by the road
side, and see neither portenr nor peril
in the groups of negroes passing and
repassng and moving restlessly to and
fro. He watched them, as he afterward
complained, with a curiosity as idle as
that which moves little child to watch
swarm of ants. He noticed, however,
that the negroes were no longer cheerful.
Their child-like gaiety had vanished. In
place of their loud laughter, their bolster
Gus play, and their songs yelling forth
and filling the twilight places with sweet
melodies, there was silence. Gabriel had
no reason to regard this silence as omin-
Gus, but 1t was so regarded by his
elders.
He thought that the restless and I'M
easy movements Of the negroes were per-
fectly natural. They had suddenly come
to the knowledge that they were free,
and they were testing the nature and the
limits of their freedom. So much was
clear to Gabriel, but was not clear to