Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-11-29

beard who had played Maid Marion OF
May day and many Of the morris dan
GERS and those lusty lads and lasses
and they had been at the cider thi.
time rs at the other, but all had theil
wits ut their service.
Not light WAS in Major Beverly'i
1 .....,. mu, IL stir III the slave
Is. ~ would Lave sworn they
| < al ;.s.;ap or dead. But Captain
| sncs called Il halt and divided us
| 40 rank :nd file like company OF
| =. pc.9; and TO work we went on the
great tobacco fields.
| trow it seemed shame, as 1t ever
does. to invoke that terrible force OF
| the world which man controls, whether
to his liberty or his slavery it's the
question. and bring destruction upon
| all that fair intiore:cence of life. But
sometimes death and destruction are
| the means to life and Immortality.
Those great fields Of Major Robert
Beverly's lay before us in the full
moonlight, overlapping with the lusty
breadth of the new leaves cleaning
with silver dew, and upon them we
fell. We hacked and cut, we tore up
by the roots.
In trice we were bedlam lOOsened-
that is, the ruder part Of us. Some of us
worked with no less fury, but still with
some sense of our own dignity as de-
stroyers over destruction. But the rab-
BILE who had swelled our ranks were
all on fire with rage and wasted them
selves as well as the tobacco. They
filled the air with shouts and wild
screams and peals Of laughter. That
fiercest joy of the world the joy of
destruction, was upon them, and sure
it must have been one Of the chiefest
of the joys Of primitive man, for all
in second it was as If the centuries
Of civilization and Christianity had
gone for naught and the great gulf
which lies back Of us to the past had
been leaped.
One had doubted it not had he seen
those old men tearing up the tobacco
plants, their mouths dribbling with a
slow mutter of curses, for they had
drunk much cider, and, being aged and
none too well fed, 1t had more hold on
them than on some of the others, and
to see the women lost to all sense Of
decency, with their petticoats girded
high on account of the dew, striding
among the plants with high filings Of
stalwart legs, then slashing right and
left with an uncertainty of fury which
threatened not only themselves but
their neighbors as well rs the tobacco,
and shrieking now and then, regard
less Of who might hear, "Down with
the kingw
Often one cut a finger, but went on
with blood flowing, and their hair be-
gun to fly loose, and they smeared their
faces with their cut hands, and as for
the two black women, they pounced
upon those green plants with fierce
swashes of their cleaning knives and,
though they could have sensed little
about the true reason for 1t ali. worked
with fury Of savagery which needed
no motive only its first impetus Of mo-
ton.
Captain Jaynes rode hither and
thither striving to keep the mob In
order and enjoining silence upon them,
and now and then lashing out with his
long riding whip, but he had set forces
;,,, xx-1,t hn nptl1 cfnn Eirn
and flood and wind and the passions
of men, whether for love or rage. are
beyond the leading Of them who invoke
them. being the instruments Of the
gods.
Sir Humphrey Hyde, who was beside
me. slashing away ut the plants, whis-
pered, MY God, Harry, how far will
this fire which we have kindled
spread?" but not in fear so much as
amazement.
And l, bringing down great ring
of the green leaves, replied, and felt
as l spoke as If some other than had
my tongue and my voice:
Maybe In the end, before 1t hath
quite died out, to the destroying OF
tyranny and monarchy and the clear
ing of the fields for new government
of equality and freedom"
But Sir Humphrey stared at me.
Sure" he said. ut can do no more
than to force the king to see that his
colony hath grown from infancy to
manhood and hath an arm to l.. re-
spected. and compel him to repeal the
navigation act. What else, Harry?"
Then |, speaking again as If some
other moved my tongue, replied that
none could say what matter little
fire kindleth, but those that came after
us might know the result of that which
we that night begun.
But Sir Humphrey shook his head.
III but Nat Bacon were alive" he
sighed. mo leader have we, Harry.
Oh, Harry, If thou vert not convict!
Captain Jaynes is sure out Of his ele-
ment in defending the rights Of the op-
pressed and should be on his own
quarter deck with his cutlass In hand
and his rapscallions around him, slay-
ing and robbing, to be in full feather.
Naught can he do here. Lord, hear
those women shrek! Why did they let
women come hither, Harry? Sure Nick
Barry is in his cups. Not thus would
matters have been were Bacon alive.
The women would have been at home
In their beds. and no man in liquor at
work, for trust not the militia. Would
Captain Bacon were alive, as he would
have been had he not been foully done
to DEATH"
This he said believing, as did many,
that Bacon's death was due to treach-
cry and not fever, nor, as many Of his
enemies affirmed, from overindul.
gence in strong spirits, and I must say
that I, remembering Bacon's greatness
of enthusiasm and fixedness Of pur-
pose, was of the same belief.
AS he spoke I seemed to see that
dead hero as he would have looked In
our midst with the moonlight shining
on the stern whiteness Of his face and
that look of high command in his eyes
which none dared gainsay. And
answered again and again, as with an
Impulse not my own, "And maybe Ba-
con in truth leads us still, II not by his
own chosen ways, to his own ends"