The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1924-08-22

! torn UP and hastily repldCed 10 U
, again torn up. Nothing about
was safe, and accidents might oc
cur at any moment. This elemen
: of uncertainty gave the spice CT ad
venture to our journey it had pre-
viously lacked.
At last we were in slave state
and coming as I did from a strong
abolition center, | was greatly eX
cited at seeing a man board thu
train at a country sation, who haC
| a negro woman with him, whom h
ordered about in masterful way
i | had not read Uncle TOMS Cabin
and The Liberator for nothing, anC
| felt quite ready to go to the rescue
of the oppressed negress had she
lintimated that she desired my help
This she failed to do, and missed
her opportunity right there, as
did mine.
1t was evening when we arrived
at St. Joseph, formerly the proper
ty of fur trader Robidoux and in
1868 an embryo city. From the
train we were taken at once to the
| boat on which we would ascend
the Missouri to Omaha. After be-
| ing shown our state rooms, we all
went onto the front deck, where
the passengers had assembled, and
were watching the antics of the ne
gro roustabouts on the lower deck.
The day of electricity was then far
in the future and couple of large
torches lighted the scene below,
while lamps illuminated the cabin
and the state rooms.
The darkies danced and sang,
pausing frequently to slap the mos
quitoes that swarmed around-ana-
thamatizing at the same time "them
bug" as they called them. The
mosquitoes were also bad on our
deck, but being higher above the
water there was breeze at inter
walls to drive them away. 1t was
strange sight to me, and I enjoyed
it thoroughly on account of its
strangeness.
Finally, tired of watching the ne
gro performance on the lower deck,
somone suggested that we have mu-
sic on ours, and Miss Lingo, sister
of the pilots wife, was asked to
furnish it. A guitar was brought
to her, the first I had ever seen,
and she kindly, without any ex-
cuses consented to sing.
She was an unusually pretty girl,
and had an agreeable voice-not in
any way remarkable, but sweet,
and sufficiently strong for her
small audience. At the beginning
of the entertainment she gave some
of the popular songs of the day.
These were of sentimental nature,
but not idiotic, like many now in
vogue. These finished, she swept |
a few chords on the guitar, and
THEN sang Maryland, My Mary
and" and Bonnie Blue Flag"
| had never heard either of them,
and | marvelled at her temerity in
giving them. These were songs of
he Confederacy, and should have
been abomination in the ears of the
laughter of an Abolishionist. LII
vas shocked, I admit; but could not
lelp but admire the spirit with
which they we're sung, and the
Bonnie Blue Flag had fetching
Melody. If the decks had parted
md dropped the singer into the
muddy waters below, / should not Il
lave been greatly surprised. Moth
ng of the kind occurred. On the 4
ontrary, Miss Lingo received Il
more than one encore. Enough, in II
act, to enable me to catch the me
odies. III
On looking about me, I noticed H
satisfied expression on the faces
f the officers of the boat, that Il
lade me think they were in sym III
athy with the cause of the Con- II
sderacy, although they dared not II
onfess it. No boat could then be III
in on the Missouri by officers who H
id not claim to be loyal to the II
United States Government. II
That night, as climbed into the II
pper berth of the state room, oc- II
1pied by my cousin, Lucia, my sis II
r and myself, | was humming the III
1orus of the song I first heard H
lat night: III
"Hurrah Hurrah Hi
For Southern rights, hurrah. Hi
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag Hi
That bears single star. IN
And, dirnly realized the kinship Hi
etween the singer of the evening III
Id myself. She was born in the Hi