Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-09-07
keep him quiet with a !
which he much affected

AS we rode along in silence. II any
man spoke Captain Jaynes quieted
him with a great oath smothered in his
chest as if by bed of feathers. and
presently | became aware there were
more of us than when we started. We
swarmed through the woods, our COM
pany being swelled invisibly from
every side, and not only men, but wom-
en-. were there. Both Mistress Allgood
and Mistress Longman were pressing
on with their petticoats tucked up, and
to my great surprise both of the black
women who lived at Barry Upper
Branch. They SUNK along far to the
rear, with knives cleaning like whire
fire at their girdles. keeping well out
of sight of the Barry brothers, who
were both of our party, and looking for
all the world like two female tigers of
some savage jungle in search of prey,
since each moved with curious power
full crouch of secrecy as to her back
and hips and wary roll of fierce eyes.
When we were fairly in the open of
Major Beverly's plantation some few
torches were lit. and then ] saw that
we were indeed good hundred strong.
and Of the party We're that old gray
beard who had played Maid Marion on
May day and many of the morris dan
GERS and those lusty lads and lasses,
and they had been at the cider this
time as at the other but all had their
wits at their service.
- I9or- r,.Ix- -
great house, not a stir in the slave
quarters. One would have sworn they
were all asleep or dead But Captain
Jaynes called halt and divided us
into rank and file like a company Of
reapers. and to work we went on the
great tobacco fields
/ trow it seemed a shame, as it 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 inforescence of life. But
sometimes death and destruction are
the means to life and immortality.
Those great fields of Major Robert
Beyerly'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.
LII d trice we We're 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 We're
all on fire with rage and wasted them
selves as well as the tobacco. They
filed the air with shouts and wild
screams and peals of laughter. That
iercest 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 a 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
slow mutter of curses, for they had
drunk much cider, and, being aged and
none too well fed, it had more hold on
them than on some of the others, and
TO see the women lost to all sense of
deeency, 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 as the tobacco.
and shrieking now and then. regard
less of who might hear. tDown with
the kng,
Often one cut 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 it all, worked
with fury of savagery which needed
nv AAtOt4ft OAAiJ lis III 81 IMPETUS vi LIZ
ton.
Captain Jaynes rode hither and
thither striving to keep the mob in
order and enjoining silence upon them,
and now and then flashing out with his
long riding whip, but he had set forces
in motion which he could not stop. Fire
and food 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, sIashing away at 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 I, bringing down a great ring
of the green leaves, replied, and felt