The Cairo bulletin., 1905-01-18

n "a ple-drummers and such like
wandering folk-and news
from the outside world, pass ii twice
each day, and once in great while
some citizen gets a telegram, so Keo-
wee is Of its own right postotilce and
n 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
phe 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 a neghborhood of negroes
and might have been named just as
sptly GomOrrah or Caesarea philippl.
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 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 Amazlah VIII
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
dose 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 a harvest hand and the mer-
chants of Keowee know him us one
who is good for his debts and as
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. 1alithy 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, n story which began many years
ago on the river farms that are north
of Keowee. 1t was winter then a hard
winter on the black folk and there
were some who were hungry In one
little cabin there were a 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 he 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 were bent with toll and their
hands calloused with labor, and 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 cat. Therefore when night had |
come-the cold. dark night when peo-
pie harbored indoors and none was
abroad 20 see-the boy went TO white |
mans barn and, making hole in the |
planking. took cotton therefrom and !
sold 1t, and he and his mother were fed.
But afterward when the white mon |
suspected him he was afraid and hid |
himself I'm the canebrakes and In the /
tanglcs Of river swamp that border |
these, and his mother brought him
food. NI
But he was only boy. after all. The |
swamps were cold, and he was very |
lonely There Ana when the midday |
sun shone warm on the pine clad hill
sides he crept out there close to a
cabin and talked with a 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 dc /
white folks is a-gwineter come-come |
wild guns an wild great big dogs, an
dcy'll cotch me an kyar me of, an yer
viii see me any mo-"
Then the child's eyes opened wide
with wender. but she promised, and /
day after day she came TO the pine /
woods 10 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 1
for long time they amused each 9th
or, 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 lloy. this man sold bis knOwl-
edge. and the white men came and I
through the whole Of long spring day 1
fhese-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,
!. -