The New York herald., 1922-12-31
"a ElZ HENRY die las night" re-
wi ported Liverpool Minus:
ssI cts see - nnnderad Dnc

statistics. Mrs. Henry, 50 years old by
best guess; general debility; paid up men,
Der in Grants Town Number One; has
nineteen dollars and twenty-seven cents to
her credit; funeral of first order, with
mourners walking and six men carrying
coffin, twenty-five dollars"
Doc Lysander put the red book of vital
statistics aside.
Tell 'em, Liverpool, that the funeral will
be held tomorrow morning at nine sharp,
with the Rev. Scattergood presiding.
House to the church and church to the
cemetery. Everybody out with uniforms"
And Liverpool Minus loped down the
sandy streets of Nassau to arouse Grants
Town (Nassau's Little Dahomey) to a full
appreciation of the great ceremonies about
to attend the burial of the defunct Miz
Henry. In her better days Miz Henry
cooked at Government House. while her
equally black husband (the third in a
series of six) gloried in his post as body
servant TO the Governors aid.
Almost all the black natives belong to
the burial society,"" explained Doc Lysan-
der. About the same sort of thing the
home. 1 organized it. Had to to offset
certain falling off in my early reputation.
You see, I started out down here in the
Bahamas like miracle man.
II started out healing the sick and rails
ing the darn near dead until the natives
thought that l was either god or devil but
sure not human. Then two patients died.
Both sudden, too. l had to talk turkey to
Grants Town and make EN- see that
was only human being who knew how
to cure sick folks providing the Lord
hadn't decided they had lived long enough.
so l organized the burial society A
little. very little. a week and a whale of a
uniformed funeral when they croak. Sort
of eases the terror of death. Some of 'em
go off smiling, thinking of the splurge
there1l be at the funeral. The American
niger is a highly sophisticated animal
compared with these simple blacks in this
archipelago"
Did you practice medicine in the States
before coming TO the Bahamas Doc?" 1
asked him.
"Y-e-e-s, drawled the Doc. shucking his
grass sandals. thereby exposing two enor-
nous bare feet. "Y-e-e-e-s I suppose you'd
call ii practicing. Fact of the matter is
my college was the back of wagon and
l was the professor. Chief Two Beavers's
own secret oil for bronchial. arterial, pull
monary and dermatological diseases is
what | sold to thousands; yea, tens of
thousands. Carried Chief Two Beavers
with me through the Southwest for a spell,
too. Harvey Morton was Chief Two
Beavers. Black boy with Indian blood"
Doc Lysander talked so freely that I
put lot of personal questions.
Look here. Yankee man." said Doc, sic-
ing lines for the next pitcher of rum
punch. Il don't aim to get too talkative
Not Inat it matters. but it hurts. LOOK
here, you come down from the States
New York. you say it is-and find great
big hulk called Doc Lysander sitting
pretty in a cottage on the outskirts of
Nassau. if you'd say that Nassau had an
you'd cali a sweet graft.
We'll. I'm here in my own cottage liv-
ing on the fat of the land. with four big
niggers to wait on me. including Liverpool
Minus. who could wiring the neck of any
pugilst you got in the States-not that he
knows a uppercut from swing or jab
from a right lead-and you think it's pretty
soft Well. it amt. I'd chuck it all right
now for to be able to get back to Oklahoma
City or Pueblo or one of those towns /