The news & observer., 1905-11-19

pa and l would go to Atlanta couple
OF DAYS ahead of the show and we
could organize q Roosevelt club among
The negroes, and a Bryan club among
the white fellows. and at the evening
performance we could have the two
clubs march into the main tent. one
from the main entrance, and one from
the dressing room, with Chinese lam
terms. and one could yell for Roose-
eII anu the other for Bryan. and ad-
EertSe that great sensation would be
sprung at the evening performance.
s..Iu the tent wouldn't begin to hold
the people.
Every one of the managers and
heads of departments said it would
.e great stun. Pa was the only one
that kicked. He said the two process
sions might get INTO fight, but SAID
What if they did. we wouldn't be TO
blame Let 'em fight if they want to.
and we can see fair play.
So they all agreed that pa and L
should go to Atlanta ahead. and or
ganZe the political professions. anl
say we had such a time that the cir
Gus came near never getting out OF
me town alive. We overdid the thing
so tney wanted to lynch me. and pd
wanted to heln.
The way it was was this way: Pa
was TO organize the white men for
Bryan and L was to organize the ne
groeS for Roosevelt. and we went to
work and bought 500 Chinese lanterns.
and pa stored his half of the lanterns
in a barn on the circus lot and | stored
mine in another barn owned by ne
gro that | gave five dollars to be my
assistant. with a promise that he
should have a job travelling with the
show. to milk the sacred COW. | told
this negro what the program was. and
that | wanted 200 negroes who had an
ambition to be politicians. and hold
office, and [ would not only pass them
into the show free. but see that they
got a permanent office. What we have
got to do, | said was to stampede the
white procession. that would be led
by pa, and the way to do 1T was for
every negro in the party to skirmisn
around in the woods and find hor-
nets nest, and bring it to our barn,
and fit it into the Chinese lanterns.
and fix a candle on top of the nest,
while the hornets were asleep. Then
when we met the Bryan procession we
were to shout and wave our lanterns,
and if necessary to Whack the white
men over the head with the lanterns
with the hornets nest, and the horn
cts would wake uD and do the rest.
The negro wanted to know how /
could prevent the hornets from sting
ing our own men, and told him that
we had been in the hornet business all
the season and never had one of our
OWL IlSll SlullS. 1 Stu we lbJh SpiEiO
assafoedita and rubbed il on cur
clothes and faces. and the. hornets
wouldn't touch us. but just went for
the other fellows to beat the band.
Say, negroes are easy marks. You can
make them believe anything. But II
ever get to be president 1 am going
to appoint my negro assistant to po-
sition in my cabinet. cause he is the
greatest political organizer l ever saw.
He rounded up over zoo cotton pick
ers and negro men who work in the
freight depot once in White and
started them out after hornets nests.
He gave them some change to get Il
drink and promised them free passes
into the show the next night and the
next morning thev showed up with
hornets nests enough to scare YOU
They put them in 4 dark place in the
barn, so the hornets wouldn't get Curl
GUS and want to come out of the nests
before they got their cue.
That afternoon we fitted them into
the Chinese lanterns. and tied sticks
on the lanterns and fixed the candles,
and when night came there were more
negroes than | could use. But | told
them to follow along. and the door
tender would let them in. and alf they
need to do was to veil for Teddy when
/ did, and so we marched to the main
tent about the time the performance
got to going. / saw pa with his gang
of white men go into the dressing
room at about the same time. The
manager had timed it for us to come
in about $50. into the main tent. when
the elephants were in their pyramid
act so my crowd of negroes stopped
in the menagerie tent half an hour
waiting to be called.
/ wish ] wasn't SO eonfounded Curl
Gus. but | suppose / was born that
way. / took one of the Chinese lam
terms that was not lighted and Just
thought | would like to see what the
hyenas and the big lion who We're in
the same cage, with an iron partition
between them. would do if a Chinese
lantern was put in the cage, so l got
the fellow that watches the cage to
open up the top trap door. and drop
ped a Chinese lantern with hornets
nest right between the two hyenas.
Gee. but YOU ought to have seen them
pounce upon it. and bite it and tear