The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1904-10-06
Copyright, 1903, by E. Crayton McCants


each day. and once in Il great while
some citizen gets Il telegram, so KeO-
wee is of its own right poStoffice and
a voting precinct and accounts itself
enlightened. North of the village the
Saluda river flows. and To the west is
Belleville, but ten miles to the south
east, straight as the crow flies, over
the blue outlines of the opalescent hills,
are the marshy low grounds of Half
way swamp, and beyond the swamp
lies SOdom.
No land of wickedneSS. however. is
this SodOm of the ragged clay Shale
ridges. nor are there any slime pits
there. Instead its quilted and stony
fields are belted by green hill pines
and its people spend much of their
time in strenuous high keyed praise
for SOdOm is Il neighborhood of negroes
and might have been named just as
aptly GOmorrah or CaeSarea PhiIippi
The church at Sodom is Old-the
weathered stones of the burying
ground mutely bear witness to that
and long ago its rough walls were
stained a neutral gray and green
mosses came to harbor on the shingles
of the roof. Very proud are the people
of Sodom of this their church. and very
proud they are of Amaziah Wilkins,
who breaches here
A lean, spare man Is Amaziah Will
kins, but sinewy withal and black
Little enough does he seem like
preacher. least of all like the negro
preachers who, growing fat and gran
diose in manner, cling to the well pay
Ing towns and come not to SOdom to
tarry there. But, although his church
Is poor and cannot pay him much.
AmaZiah is prosperous man. Indeed,
such is his industry that the white folk
over the swamp" have learned his
value as harvest hand and the mer-
chants of Keowee know him as one
who is good for his debts and as a
shipper of clean, unmortgaged cotton.
And at the times when he speaks in
the church there sits on the choir seats
a handsome woman 1.-the of body. erect
and black. Talithy her name is, and
she is the preachers wife. To him she
has brought her strength, and, like him.
she has honor in Sodom as she bends
to the Masters work.
But woven into all this there is a
story, a story which began many years
ago on the river farms that are north
of KeOwee 1t was winter then-a hard
winter OH the black folk-and there
were some who were hungry In one
little cabin there were Il woman and a
half grown boy. Day by day their
small store grew smaller, and the time
came when there was nothing. Then
the woman wept, but the boy, seeing
that food must be had, went out to
consider. He could not reason very
well, but he knew that through the
long hot days of summer they had
wrought, he and his mother, until their
backs We're bent with toll and their
hands calloused with labor, and he
knew that he was hungry; also he
knew that, though the white men had
plenty and to spare, their hands were
soft. 1t all seemed wrong to the boy.
Nice points of law did not appeal to
him. He thought that the producer
should eat. Therefore when night had
come-the cold, dark night when peo-
pie harbOred indoors and none was
abroad to see-the boy went to white
mans barn and, making hole in the
planking, took cotton therefrom and
sold it, and he and his mother were fed.
But afterward when the white men
suspected him he was afraid and hid
himself in the canebrakes and in the
tangles Of river swamp that border
these, and his mother brought him
food
But he was only boy, after all. The
swamps were cold, and he was very
lonely there. And when the midday
sun shone warm on the pine clad hill
sides he crept out there close to a
cabin and talked with child at her
play, a girl child black like himself
Don't you tell on me, little gal" he
said. Don't you tell folks dat I'm
down here. Kase eff you do den de
white folks Is a-gwineter come-come
wild guns an wild great big dogs, an
dey'll cotch me an kyar me off, an yer
nuvver will see me any mo-"
Then the child's eyes opened wide
with wonder, but she promised, and
day after day she came to the pine
woods to see this strange big boy who
trapped snow buntings for her while
he was in the swamp and who brought
her pearly white mussel shells from the
sand bars that skirt the river. Thus
for long time they amused each 9th
er, and as the spring came on the boy
grew careless, so that the father Of the
child saw him and learned Of his hid
ing place.
And because Of the price on the head
Of the boy this man sold his knowl-
edge, and the white men came, and
through the whole of long spring day
these-the negro and the white men
tracked the boy through brake and
brier and tangled swamp, and as sun
set came the boy, being hard pressed,
found "dugOut' hidden by the river
bank and sought to float away where
the remorseless dogs could by no
means follow. But as he launched the
IN hn hoI al I'm,