Hattiesburg daily progress. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 18??-1909, 1903-05-06
JOHN THE BAPTIST.
How People of a Missouri County
Learned War Was OVERHEARD
for Free Negro.

Tor FREE Negro.
A story was printed not long ago to
the effect that Texas negro, who was
sent to Mexico by his master before
the civil war, returned to Texas
recently to discover that he was free.
He had been employed on a remote
plantation in Mexico until his return
to the states. The story may be like
others that have lived for the moment,
but it recalled to one who read it a
fact which seems almost incredible.
In settlement in Clay county,
Mo-, within less than one hundred
miles of Kansas City, the results, as
we'll as a good deal of the history of
the civil war, were not known until
nearly two years after its close. And
this was in part of the county
which had sent soldiers to both arm
les, and in county that was devas-
tated alternately by the border SOL
diery known as bushwhackers and
jayhawkers.
About two years after the war a
new man, as he was called, settled in
the strip of country referred to and
opened country store. He was an ex-
confederate soldier, and compared
with his customers he was, in the
vocabulary of the Missourian, a
mighty smart man.
Soon after he opened his shop an
old darkey made purchase which he
asked the merchant to charge to his
"marster. :" The merchant did not
know the "marster, but the old
negro told him enough to warrant the
merchant in letting the goods go.
In questioning the negro, he learn
ed that the negro was not aware that
he was free. The merchant did not
tell the negro of his discovery, but
he mentioned it to an old doctor in
the settlement, who told the mer-
chant that only few persons in the
settlement knew anything of the re-
suit of the war.
The merhcant thereupon began to
enlighten the heather, as he called
his customers, and for some time there
after they used to flock to the new
mans store to hear him tell about the
war.
"He used to tell me,'' said the
man who AYERS that the story is true,
chow they would come in and listen
to him and sometimes shake their
heads. One elderly dame who lived
in a thicket said to him when he had
explained to her the capture Of Jeffer-
son Davis:
''Mayb it's so, but I'm thinkin'
you're the same sort of man tina
come to my cabin oncet and told m'
and my children that John the Bap
fist sprinkled instead of sOusin' 'en
under and L never believed what III
said. -
"Then the merchant told me how
the 'marster' of the old negro whC
had made the purchase came to hin
one day and asked him if it wer'
true that the negro was free, ant
when the merchant told him it wa
so, the old man said:
"'Well, l wished if 1 may be darn
ed if l amt been feedin' and clothin
free niger all this time, and | reck
on I'll sue the government for hi
board.
1.-The old white man soon after
ward killed himself, and the mer
chant used to tell me that he believed
the man committed suicide over tn
loss of his one negro.
81 asked the merchant how long b
stayd in the community which he Ell
lightened, and he said about 81
months and added that he might have
stayed longer, but some of the heath
ems wanted him to start new churc
and when he saked why they said the
had been fooled about the war and
might be that they were fooled abor
their religion, and as he was so migl
ty smart maybe he could show thel
some short cut to salvation and the
he quit. They got to calling hi
John the Baptist No. 2.
II happened to know the belt
Clay county in which he lived, and
believed his story"
POINTED PARAGRAPHS.