The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-07-24

1vAYn u seen we was IN wrong IN tnaC
town. The doctor says 1t will
VI be no use trying to interduce
our stuff there, and we might
as well leave there in the morning and
go over to Bairdstown, which was
little place about ten miles off the rail
road, and make our start there.
So we got rig the next morning
and drove acrost the country. No one
bid us goodby neither, and DR.. Kirby
says it's a wonder they rented us the
rig.
But before we started that morning
we noticed a funny thing. We hadn't
so much as spoke to any niger, except
our own niger Sam, and he couldn't
of told all the niggers in that town
about the stuff to turn nlggers white.
even if he had set up all night to do it.
But every last niger we saw looked
like he knowed something about us
Even after we left town our niger
driver hailed two or three niggers in
the road that acted hathaway 1t
seemed like they was all awful polite
to u.s. And yet they was different in
their politeness than they was to them
Georgia folks. which Is their natcheral
born bosses-acted more familiar some
how, as If they knOwed we must be
thinking about the same thing they
was thinking about.
About halfway to Bairdstown we
stopped at place to get a drink Of
water Seemingly the white folks was
away fur the day, and an old niger
come up and talked to our driver while
Sam and us was at the we'll.
seen them cutting their eyes at us,
whilst they was unchecking the bosses
to let them drink. too, and then I
hearn the one that belonged there say:
SIS yo' suah dat hit air dem"
"Suah" says the driver.
"How come yo' so all powerful suah
about it,"
The driver Pretended the harness
needed some fixing. and they went
around to the other side Of the team
and tinkered with one Of the traces,
a-talking to each other I hearn the
old niger say, kind Of wonderized:
as dey a-gwine dar now"
Sam he was pulling bucket of water
up out Of the we'll fur us with wind
lass. The doctor says to him:
"Sam. what does all this mean?"
Sam he pertends he don't know what
the doctor is talking about. But DR..
Kirby he finally pins him down. Sam
hemmed and hawed considerable, max
ing up his mind whether he better lie
to us or not Then, all of a sudden. he
busted out into an awful fit Of laugh
ing and like to of fell in the we'll Seem
ingly he decided fur to tell us the truth.
From what Sam says then their bish-
op has been holding revival meetings
in Big Bethel. which is niger church
right on the edge Of Bairdstown. and
niggers fur miles around has been CON-
ing night after night. and some Of them
whooping her up qaytimes too.
What he has been prophesying, Sam
says, is the coming Of Messiah fur
the niger race-a new Elishyah, he
says, as will lead them from out'n their.
inequality and bring em up to white
standards right on the spot.
It seems the whites don't know yet
Jest what the bishops been approach
ing. But every niger fur miles on
every side of Big Bethel is a-listening
and a-looking fur signs and omens, and
has been fur two, three days now.
This here half crazy bishop has got
em worked up to where they Is ready
to believe anything or do anything.
So the night before when the word
got out in Cottonville that we had
some scheme to make the niggers
white the niggers there took up with
the idea that the doctor was mebby
the Teller the bishop had been proph-
esying about. and TO" Sign and Il
omen and miracle Of his grace and
powers was going out to Big Bethel
to turn 'em white.
News spreads among niggers quicker
than among whites. Since 8 o'clock
the night before the news had spread
fur miles around that Bishop War
ren's Messiah was on his way and
was going fur to turn the bishop white
to show his power and grace. and he
had with him one he had turned part
white, and that was Sam. and one he
had turned clear white. and that was
me.
That's what Sam says they are look
ing fur, dozens and scores and hun
dreds Of them niggers round about
Sam be had lived In town five or six
years, and he looked down on all these
here ignoramus country niggers. So
he busts out laughing at first, and he
pertends like he don't take no stock IN
any Of it. Besides, he knowed well
enough he wasn't spotted up by no
Messiah, but it was the dope in the
bottles done it. But as he told about
them goings on Sam got more and
more interested and warmed up to 1t,
and his voice went into kind of
singsong, like he was prophesying
himself.
Fur my part. never hearn such
lot Of dern foolishness in all my life.
But the doctor, he says nothing at all.