The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-02-20

fun yeah ter yeah wifi nah cohn
knife"
| MINIS was a long armed negro
whose cradle, of all the reapers in Bed
| ford county, could cut the widest Swath
through the ripe wheat. After much
maneuering with the devil, who SEEM
ed 10th to get into close proximity to
the lusty laborer, MINIS one day in
weighed him into stable, cornered him
in an empty stall, and, swinging wide
with his favorite implement for the
| lower parts of his unsuspecting an
tagonist-"de debble didn' know Abs
sech er good man in amputating Sat-
ans legs or as MINIS himself related.
"Ah cut off bofe him laigs an er big
piece er de tail wild EN-"
| The presiding elder of the meeting
declared this encounter apochryhal and
sent MINIS forth again to seek new
adventures, not allowing him the glory
| of victory: which ruling was held to be
severe by the rest of the church men,
bers, who believe in the truth of the
statement as firmly as MINIS himself
And that he did believe it there can be
no doubt.
! They are an emotional race, these
\ primitive negroes and, like all such,
subject to Illusions flashed on their
consciousness by an unbridled imagin-
| alton, superheated by religious fervor.
Nobody of Martin Luther's day doubt
ed that the great reformer had assailed
| the devil with an ink bottle, much to
! the latter's establishment and dismay;
Luther believed it himself, and if Luth-
| er with his ink bottle why not MINIS
with his disconcerting cradle-each
expert with his own weapon?
Happy the darky who can arouse the
| midsummer camp meeting with some
| hair raising experience; then he has
the whole black countryside for audi
| ence. The preliminary preaching
| dwells at great length upon how de
debbles gwine up an down lax er rO'in'
| lion until the excitable throng is thrill
ling in state of delicious fear.
Future reward is but lightly touched
| upon; there's nothing to stir up the
hearers in mere shadowy promises of a
white robe and golden harp against
a dim background of cloud But the
devil chains their interest; he is to the
| camp meeting what the villain is to the
small boy in the gallery
Audience Walls Approval.
When at length the congregation is
reused to a proper state of eXaltation
there rises some gigantic black. chant
ing in the cadence of the African saw
age with weaving PAGES and with
writing hands," who tells the tale of
his grim struggle with the powers of
darkness, his body swaying with the
grace of a panther to the rhythm of the
chant. From the audience rises low,
wailing moan, like the night wind in
the in espresso, and CALCULATIONS I'M
Ineligible but alive with emotion.
The caucasian OnlOOker who has
come to laugh remains to shudder: the
faring torches. sOmbre background of
the dark forest the heaving mass of
negroes. their faces afiame with relig-
iOus fervOr born of devil fear, their
bodies swaying with the swaying spea-
ker, the weird monotone of the chant
ing. all seem rather some wild incan-
tatiOn in the depths of African jun
gle that peaceful gathering in a dull
Southern countryside
Speaker and audience act and react
upon each other until a frenzy seizes
the whole restless mass and there
breaks forth such a shouting and
shrieking and wild leaping and thresh-
ing of arms as has never been seen or
heard since the followers of that ter
rible Satan, in convention assembled.
clashed on their sounding shields the
din of war
Now is the moment for the presiding
elder. Bounding into the air from his
stool upon the platform, he bellows in
voice that would stampede all the
bulls of Bashan:
Cum an be sabed! Cum an be
sabed! De debble's gwine ter git Yer
eff you dom! He's gwine ter git yer,
He's gwine ter git yer!" he reiterates
in tones that roll like a booming can
non above the roar of the wild congre-
cation.
Then again and again he parades the
devil up an down upon tn earth lax
er rO'in' lion,'' flashing his hearers into
still greater frenzy with the forked
tail and the volcanic breath. Here and
there man or woman falls into a