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THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE WILMER COLLECTION 
 
 OF CIVIL WAR NOVELS 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 RICHARD H. WILMER, JR. 
 
Ham Sterns, I reckon you know ME."— Page 190. 
 
OTHER FOOLS 
 
 AND THEIR DOINGS, 
 
 OR, 
 
 LIFE AMONG THE FREEDMEN 
 
 BY ONE WHO HAS SEEN IT. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 J. S. OGfLYIE & COMPANY, 
 
 2 9 EosE Street. 
 
 j2S^ 
 
Copyright 
 
 1880." 
 
 Bt J. S. OGILVIE & CO. 
 
COISTTEI^TS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE. 
 
 I. The Bean Island People 7 
 
 11. Distrust 28 
 
 III. The Glorious Fourth 45 
 
 IV. Legal Redress 60 
 
 V. Preparations 74 
 
 VI. The Cloud Thickens 87 
 
 VII. Portentous Darkness 108 
 
 VIII. Memory and Experience 129 
 
 IX. The Situation 148 
 
 X. The Attack 157 
 
 XI. A Massacre 179 
 
 XII. Incidents and Particulars 197 
 
 XIII. The Scallawag 219 
 
 ;J 2/S 
 
 3 C'7^^ 
 
 c 
 
OTHEK FOOLS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BEAN ISLAN'D PEOPLE. 
 
 " O Tarn! hadst thou but been sae wise 
 As ta'en thy aiu wife Kate's advice! " 
 
 — Tam O' Shatter. 
 
 It was April, 1876, and Deacon Atwood and Captain 
 Black were riding along the sandy highway in the sparsely 
 settled vicinity of Bean Island, in the State of South Caro- 
 lina. 
 
 Though the sun shone uncomfortably hot, neither the 
 men nor the horses they bestrode seemed anxious to escape 
 its rays, for they traveled quite leisurely several miles, 
 till they reached a point where the road forked. 
 
 There they paused a few moments, and continued tbeir 
 conversation in the same low, earnest tones they had pre- 
 viously employed. 
 
 The Deacon was fifty years of age, large, broad-cliested, 
 red-faced, wdth full fiery red beard and thin brown hair, 
 
8 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 which gathered in sodden, tai:)ering hanks about his short 
 neck and large ears ; and his pale-blue eyes looked out of 
 little triangular orifices on either side of a pyramidal nose, 
 upon the apex of which was balanced a narrow forehead 
 of a " quirked ogee " j^attern. His hands were large and 
 freckled, and he kept them in constant motion, like his 
 huge feet, which seemed even too heavy for his clumsy 
 legs. His snuff-colored suit, and the slouched hat he wore 
 on the back part of his head, were dusty with travel. 
 
 His companion was younger, taller, and less stoutl}^ built 
 than he. His eyes were large and dark, and his head, 
 crowned with bushy black hair, was poised upon a long, 
 slim neck. His manners indicated more culture than the 
 Deacon had received. 
 
 " Well, Deacon," said he, rising in his stirrups, " we have 
 submitted long enough, and too long, and there must be a 
 change: and I am bound to do my share to secure it." 
 
 " And I -vvon't be behind yo', Cap'n," replied Deacon At- 
 wood. " These niggers must be put down where they 
 belong, and the carpet-baggers driven back where they 
 came from." 
 
 "It's doubtful whether many of them would be received 
 there. I apprehend that the most of them " left their 
 country for their country's good " when they came here. 
 A man don't emigrate for nothing, and I expect they have 
 been run out of the Xorth for some mean acts, and have 
 come to the South to prey upon a conquered people." 
 
 " I reckon that's so, and I uonder how yo' men that 
 
 m 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 9 
 
 'a'n't no cliurcli obligations on yo' ken keep from swearing 
 when yo' think of it. I declar, when I get to turning it 
 over in my mind I get so mad that I can't hardly keep 
 from it myself. As yo' war saying, it reaches everywhere. 
 Less than half the people is white to be sure, but then we 
 own nine-tenths o' the land, and yet we must be taxed to 
 support nigger schools, and niggers an*! carpet-baggers in 
 nil the offices, and new offices trumped up where there a'n't 
 enough to serve them as wants 'era — health officers in every 
 little town, and scavengers even, under pretense of fear of 
 yellow fever, to give salaries to dumb niggers as don't 
 know nothing only how^ to rob Southern gentlemen, and all 
 sorts of yankee "public improvements " as they call 'era! 
 Why, I'm taxed this year to mend a road that runs down 
 past me there, and nobody but niggers never travels on it. 
 It is positively in^ilting and oppressive! " 
 
 *' Well, Deacon, I suppose your statement that niggers 
 and carpet-baggers are in all the offices might be called a 
 slight exaggeration, but then we could sit here till dark 
 and not finish enumerating the grievances this State gov- 
 ernment, backed by that Ciesar Grant, at Washington, 
 imposes upon the people of South Carolina — those that 
 ought to be the ruling class — the South Carolinians. 
 
 " But the best thing we can do is to take hold of these 
 military clubs and work them; and in that way bring about 
 a better state of things. I, for one, am determined this 
 State shall go Democratic this coming fall; and if we unite 
 in this method I've been explaining to you, we can effect it. 
 
10 OTHEli FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Just bring this MississipiDi method up in your club to-night 
 — or support Lamb, if he does — and we'll whip the rascals. 
 Xigger voters are too thick — must be weeded out!" 
 
 "That's just what I'm going to do," replied Deacon At- 
 wood ; " and in order to do it, I reckon we'll have to go 
 on." 
 
 "Yes; my sabre club meets this evening, too, for drill_ 
 So good evening!" 
 
 " Good evening. Captain." And the two men separated. 
 The Captain kept the main road, and the Deacon took a 
 sort of back, plantation route, seldom traveled except by 
 the farmers residing upon it, where he soon fell into deep 
 meditation, his chin dropping upon his breast, and his res- 
 pii'ation becoming slow and heavy. Ilis old white horse, 
 even, seeming to pass into a similar state of somnam- 
 bulency, walked dreamily along, till his nose, far down 
 towards the ground, came in contact with a fresh and ten- 
 der shrub, around w^hich his long tongue instinctively 
 wrapped itself, and he came to a full stop. 
 
 "Hud up!" said the startled Deacon, gathering up his 
 bridle with a nervous jerk; and his small eyes <]nickly 
 swept a circle around him. 
 
 With something like a shudder and an audible sigh of 
 relief, he composed himself again, for only a quiet land- 
 scape had met his vision. 
 
 A swampy forest w^as on his left hand, and long stretches 
 of scrub palmettos, interspersed with cotton-patches, on his 
 right. 
 
OTIIEIi FOOLS AND THEIPw DOIXGS. 11 
 
 Seeing two colored men at work in one of the latter, and 
 probably feeling a need of human companionship, he rode 
 up to the crooked rail fence, and shouted " Howdy?"' 
 
 "Why, howdy? Deacon, howdy?*' was the friendly re- 
 sponse, as one of the men laid down his heavy cotton hoe, 
 and approached the fence. 
 
 " How is Avork, January?" asked Deacon Atwood, pleas- 
 antly?" 
 
 " I gets along mighty well, I thank yo'. I hope yo' do," 
 said the freedman, who, though aboui the age of his neigh- 
 bor, was too much accustomed to being addressed as a boy, 
 and by his Christian name, to take offense at the faniil- 
 iai'ity. 
 
 "Well, I'll be blamed if yu' niggers don't get along bet- 
 tern tbe white folks I These confounded carpet-baggers 
 are larnin' yo' how to fleece us that owns the land, and 
 bio wed if yo' ain't doing it!" 
 
 •'Why, Deacon, I don't know what yo' mean. I ha'n't 
 been fleecing nobody, I'm shor'. If God Almighty gives 
 me my freedom, and gives me strength to work what land 
 I'm able, and makes the crops grow, why ha'n't I a rio-ht 
 to get 'long? I can't- see who's hurt, not to my serious 
 knowledge?" 
 
 " It a'n't yo'r working, it's yo'r voting. Yo' vote them 
 villains into office, and they're bleeding the country to 
 deatli with taxes. Now, we a'n't gwine to stand it. All the 
 gentleman has agreed together that yo've got to come 
 over to our side. It's for yo'r interest to be thar," 
 
12 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 '• Can't do it, nohow, Deacon," rejjlied the negro, t^miliug 
 good-humoredl}-. 
 
 *'If yo' don't there'll lots of yo' he killed," said Deacon 
 A., kindling. 
 
 "Xow, Deacon Atwood," said January Kelly, deiiher- 
 ately, '*I think a parcel of gentleman that was raised and 
 been collegc-hred, men that Mould undertake to ride over 
 things by killing out a few niggers — well, I think its a very 
 small idea for an educated man. I think they must have 
 lost all conscience of heart; I think all conscience of heart 
 are gone when they come to do that, I doj but you a'n't in 
 earnest, Deacon ? You're a Christian man. I ha'nt got 
 no neighbors as would hurt me. I'm a honest man as 
 works hard, and minds my own business, and takes care o' 
 my family; and nobody ain't gwoine to kill me, nohow." 
 
 "Oh, no, January; nobody won't hurt honest, hard- 
 working darkies like you, if they let politics alone; but 
 then there'll be lots of the leaders be killed, 'fo' election, if 
 just such men as yo' don't come over and help us save 
 the State," said the Deacon. 
 
 "Why the State is all here. I don't see as it's lost, nor 
 gwoine to smash, either; and if we have a Government 
 we've got to have leaders. If all the men stayed to home 
 and worked land like I do, there wouldn't be no Govern- 
 ment." 
 
 " So much the better," snapped the Deacon. " The strong 
 could take care of themselves and look out for the weak 
 ones too." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 13 
 
 "Well, I don't know about that. The rogues would 
 steal and kill all the same, and who'd take care of our lives 
 and our property, and collect the taxes, and build the 
 bridges the war burned down, and the school-houses, and 
 pay the teachers, and all them things ?" 
 
 "There is too many of them now; and South Carolinians 
 shall rule South Carolina!" broke forth Deacon Atwood, with 
 great vehemence; "and I want you to come over to the 
 democratic party where you won't get hurt. We'll all help 
 you if you will." 
 
 " Why Deacon, I thought yo' was just saying we is 
 getting along the best. I was born in South Car'lina, an' 
 so was mos' all the collud people in the State to-day, and 
 ain't we South Carolinians then ? Xow all I has got to say 
 is, that Ws a mighty mean m^an as won't stand to his oion. 
 It war the 'publican party as made me a free man, an' I 
 reckon I shall vote 'publican long as I hreaves! That is 
 all I can say. Deacon. I don't know no mo'." 
 
 " Hud up !" said the Deacon, and he rode abruptly away. 
 
 " What on earth has come over Deacon Atwood, I won- 
 der," said Mr. Kelley, to a tall, muscular black man, who, 
 swinging his hoe lazily, had at length planted his row 
 abreast with the spot where his employer had dropped his 
 when the Deacon saluted him. 
 
 " Talking 'bout politics, I reckon :" was the drawling 
 reply. 
 
 "Yes, and he did make some awful threats I Why, 
 Pompey, he said they'd lots of the niggers 'round here get 
 
14 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 killed 'fo' election if we didn't come ovah to the democratic 
 party ! Xow I've beam that kind o' talk ever since recon- 
 struction, but I never did, myself, hear the Deacon, nor no 
 such 'sj)ectable and 'ligious men talk it 'fu'; though they 
 say they did talk it, an' gone done it, too, in some places. 
 He says it's a general thing now, from shor' to shor' this 
 time 'mong thegem'men. He says the taxes is ruining the 
 country, an' niggers an' carpet-baggers is in all the offices, 
 an' the money is wasted, an' there's got to be a change." 
 
 " Oh, him I It's just the odder way about 
 
 — shutting up offices — doing away wid 'em, an' turning de 
 niggahs out to make room for old confederate soldiers I I 
 hearn Kanrasp, an' Striker, an' Rathburn, an' some o' them 
 big fellahs talkin' 'bout it dar in Aiken." 
 
 (Pompey had boarded in a certain public institution at 
 the county seat for the greater safety of the contents of 
 market-wagons in the town where he resided). 
 
 "The land mos' all b'longs to the white folks, sho nuff, 
 an' the rent is so awful high that a nigger has got to work 
 hisself an' his family mos' to death to keep from gittin' 
 inter debt to de boss, let alone a decent livin", an' now the 
 gem'men is bound to resist the taxes fo' the scliools, so our 
 chillun can't have no schools. I thinks it's toughest on 
 our side !" said Kelley. 
 
 " Kanrasp said de Governor is doin' splendid," continued 
 Pompey, " cuttin' down expenses so dey is a gwoine to 
 save a million an' seventeen hundred an' nineteen thousand 
 dollars an' mo' in one year; or he did save it last year," 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 15 
 
 (Pompey had a memory for numbers, though neither gift 
 nor training for mathematical calculations.) 
 
 " Striker, he was mad cause de Governor made 'era put 
 down an' print just ebberyting wouldn't let 'em buy no 
 "sundies" or somethings — I do'nt know. De white folks 
 wouldn't let de niggers have no money in old slave times, 
 an' now dis Governor Chamberlain dat 'tends to be a 'pub- 
 lican, he makes de nigger an' de Legislature men as come 
 from de North be mighty careful dey don't get no cent o' 
 de white folk's taxes 'thout printing jes'what it's all 
 boughtened." 
 
 "Well, now, that's right and honest like," replied Kelly, 
 " 'cause they've been thieves don't make it right for us to 
 steal; and then the niggers pays taxes, too, and don't ort to 
 be cheated neither; and I'd like to know if them ways don't 
 make the taxes easier? They do say they was a mighty 
 sight o' stealin' from the treasury going on thar in Colum- 
 bya a while ago. I reckon Governer Chamberlain is a honest 
 man, and don't steal hisself neither." 
 
 " Certainly, de taxes is easier. Lawyer Crafty, dar in 
 Aiken — he's a democrat too, you know — he joined in de 
 talk some, and he said it is easier'n it was; fo' de taxes 
 used to be thirteen or sixteen mills on a dollar (if yo' know 
 what dat means), but now it is only eleven." 
 
 " I don't prezackly understood it," said Kelly, " but I 
 know eleven ain't so much as thirteen nor sixteen; and I do 
 reckon it makes it easier. I reckon it's mo' cause the white 
 folks wants all the money and the offices tbeirselves, as 
 makes the fuss." 
 
16 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 " Yes," drawled Pompey, " and dey makes any man a 
 carpet-bagger dat wa'n't baun in de South, an' some 'publi- 
 cans as was. De Governor has been in de State, an' all he's 
 got, now 'leven year; Kanrasp said so; an' Cummings — de 
 head teacher o' de big school in Columby — de Yersity dey 
 calls it — he's been in de South thirty year an' mo'; an' dey calls 
 him a carpet-bagger, too, an' all his boys; but de boys was 
 baun here. But den dey is 'publicans an' teaches niggers, 
 too, I wonder is dey any carpet-baggers up Xorth or any- 
 where ?" 
 
 "I don't know, I never did hear tell of 'em; but the Xo'th 
 beat in the wa', you know. But 'bout this killin' niggers; 
 I'm a thinken, the Lo'd knows we has had enough o'that: 
 but I can't help thinking," said Kelly, and the two men en- 
 tered into a long conversation upon the subject which we 
 Avill not follow^ as our present interest is with Deacon At- 
 wood, who had resumed his way with Kelly's quaint and 
 expressive phrase " must have lost all conscience of heart," 
 as his constant and sole companion, for he had not yet 
 " lost all conscience of heart." 
 
 Arrived at home, he ate his evening meal in haste and 
 silence, and immediately set out for the hall where his Rifle 
 Club met, accompanied by his eldest son, who was a minor 
 by a few months. 
 
 Mrs. A. shouted after him, admonishing to an early re- 
 turn, as she did " detest these night meetings, anyhow." 
 
 The father and son rode in silence, while the short South- 
 ern twilight faded, and night settled upon the picturesque 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 17 
 
 landscape, soft as the brooding wing of peace; and balmy- 
 breezes rustled through the gigantic long-leaved j)ines and 
 mammoth live-oaks, and over fields of sprouting corn and 
 cotton; and the dark soil seemed to sleep calmly and sweet- 
 ly under the white moonlight and a sprinkling of white 
 sand, which sparkled like snow. 
 
 "Watson, my son," said the Deacon at length. 
 
 "Yes, father." 
 
 An ominous silence w^arned the boy of a weighty com- 
 munication forthcoming. 
 
 "I'd rather yo'd 'a 'staid to liom.e to-night, but as I'd 
 promised yo' going, it couldn't be helped. I reckon we'll 
 have an exciting time, but now as yo' are a going, try to 
 keep cool. Like enough thar'll be some things said that 
 better not; but as yo'll be present, now mind what I say, 
 and keep cool. Try to be careful. Don't get excited nor be 
 imprudent. It'll do for us to foller the rest. Just let tliem 
 take the lead and the responsibility." 
 
 "Well, father," replied the youth demurely, well knowing 
 that his cautious parent would be the first tinder to take 
 fire and lead any conflagration that might be imminent. 
 
 It is not to our purpose to report the doings of that po- 
 litical Rifle Club's meeting — the stirring speeches of citizens 
 of the State, who forgot that they were also citizens of the 
 Nation against which their treasonable resolutions were 
 moved, discussed, and voted; nor the inflammatory harangues 
 of Deacon Atwood; nor the courageous utterances of one 
 little man of broader intelligence and views than his 
 
18 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 neighbors, who urged that the coming political campaign 
 be prosecuted in a fair, straightforward, lawful and honest 
 manner, which should command respect everywhere, and 
 convince the hitherto intractable colored voters that their 
 former masters were disposed to accept the situation result- 
 ant upon the war, and with their support, reconstruct the 
 politics of the State upon a basis of mutual interests, in 
 place of the antagonism of races which had prevailed ever 
 since the emancii^ation and enfranchisement of the slaves. 
 
 While these discussions relieved over-accumulations of 
 eloquence and over-wrought imaginations, they also dis- 
 closed the true state of feeling, and the deep smouldering 
 embers of bitterness that once " fired the Southern heart" to 
 fratricidal war. 
 
 Unfortunately, good and calming counsels often gain 
 least by interchange of expression with those of passion, 
 and so it came that young men, and men whose years should 
 have brought them ripe judgment, but did not, shuddered 
 the next morning at the recollection of words they had 
 uttered, and decisions made in that club-room, from which 
 it would be difficult to recede. 
 
 Betrayed by his sanguine temperament and his implaca- 
 Ijle foe — the love of strong drink — Deacon Atwood was 
 one of these. 
 
 "It's a pretty pass when a man at yo'r time of life stays 
 out till two o'clock in the mornin' drinkin', and mercy 
 knows what, I do declar!" said Mrs. A. as she met her 
 liege lord at the door of their domicile, ^' And takin' his 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 19 
 
 only son out to initiate him, too, and yo' a cliiirch officer.'' 
 
 " Wh — \vh — wliy didn't yo' go to bed, Ja — J a — Janette, 
 I didn't ex — ex — expect to find yo' up." 
 
 " No, I shouldn't reckon yo' did, judging by yo' exes. 
 Making a fool and a beast o' yo'self, and tempting yo' son, 
 when we've been praying for his conversion so long." 
 
 " AVal Ja — Janette, yo' 'ort to lia' prayed for rae, too, fo' 
 I've made a 'nough sight mo' fool o' myself than Wat has o' 
 hissen. But I've been true to the State," drawled and 
 stammered the Deacon, with thick and maudlin utterance, 
 "and if I could stand as much w'iskey as some on em, I'd 
 a' been true to myself also. But who's been here, Ja — 
 Janette?" Vainly trying to stand erect, and pointing 
 with nerveless finger to an armful of crooked sticks that 
 lay upon the blazing hearth. "Who brung 'em in?" 
 
 "It wa'n't yo', Deaco!i At wood; I might ha' froze to 
 death walking this house, and nigh faintiiig with fear, 
 thinking some nigger had outened yo' smoke fo' yo' fo' 
 alius' on this earth." (He was fumbling in his pocket for an 
 old clay pipe he carried there.) "I do believe uncle Jesse 
 and aunt Phebe are the best Christians on this plantation. 
 Yo'r old mother took her toddy, and went to snoring 
 hours ago, thinking nothing o' what might happen yo' — 
 her only son, who she's dependent on to manage all her 
 thousand acres o' land; though gracious knows I wish she'd 
 give yo' a foot or two of it, without waiting to all eternity 
 fo' her to die 'fo' we can call an earthly thing our 
 own. I couldn't get that story I hearn yo' telling Den 
 
20 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 liardoTi 'to'lher day, out o' my head, and I war that scarred 
 1 could'nt go to bed." 
 
 " What :^tory was that?" asked Watson, as he hnng his 
 whip and saddle upon a wooden peg in a corner of the 
 kitchen where the trio were. 
 
 " Wliy, about that Texas Jack that is around here, killing 
 niggers and everybody; and he don't have more 'n a word 
 with a man till he shoots him down. If I had a knowed. 
 yo' was coming home tight, father, I'd a been scarred 'clar 
 to death shor'. A pretty mess yo'll hev' in the church 
 now, Deacon Atwood! Elder Titmouse '11 be after yo' 
 shor." 
 
 " Hi, hi, hi," laughed the Deacon. " Hie, a-hic, a-hic, 
 hi, hi. No danger o' that, old gal. He'd have to be after 
 the whole church, and take the lead of the leaviners his- 
 self. He's the Chaplain o' the Club, and the d-r-u-n-kest 
 man in town to-night. The old bell-sheep jumped the 
 fence first, and helter skelter ! all the flock jumped after 
 him. Hick, a-hic. But who, hie, taken that wood, hie, 
 from the yard, hie, and brung it thar ?" demanded the 
 head o' the house, with changed mood, ominous of a com- 
 ing domestic storm. " Dina's gone, and Tom's gone, and 
 yo' wouldn't do it if yo' froze." 
 
 " Wal, now, I was feeling powerful bad, a-walking the 
 house, and crying and praying mighty hard, and fust I 
 knowed I heard a humming and a singing, and who should 
 come up to the do' but Aunt Phebe, and Uncle Jesse close 
 behind ? They reckoned thar was sickness, and they come 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 21 
 
 to help. Now, I call that Cbristian, if they he niggers. 
 " Why yo're freezing," says Uncle Jess, " and yo'll git the 
 fever." So he brung the wood and made the fire, and we 
 all i)rayed for yo\ aheap mo'n yo're worth ; fo', as I say, I 
 Avar a thinking o' Texas Jack. "When we hcahed ole Duke 
 whinny they went home, and this minute they've blowed 
 their light out." 
 
 " Hi ! hi ! Old gal, we've been making Texas Jacks — 
 setting 'cm up all night ; and they'll be thicker 'n bumble 
 bees and yaller jackets 'fo' 'lection. But they don't know 
 how to kill nobody but radicals — niggers and carpet-bag- 
 gers and scalawags." 
 
 " Now, Deacon, if yo've been setting up anything agin 
 such men as Jesse and Den, aud Penny Loo, I just hope 
 yo'll git chawed up by yo're own Jacks ?" said this South- 
 ern aristocratic female Christian, in great ire. 
 
 " Xo danger o' Texas Jack's hurting me. He won't chaw 
 his own arms," shouted the Deacon, triumphantly. "I'm 
 fo' defending the State and the white man's rights; South 
 Car'linans shall rule South Car'lina," and he reeled about the 
 room, swmging his limp arms, and shouting, " Hurrah for 
 South Carlina ! Hurrah for the old Pal-met-to State !" 
 
 "Come, come father," said his son, "let me help you to 
 bed. You talk like a crazy man." With the assistance of 
 Mrs. A., the Deacon was soon where his lips were safely 
 guarded by slumber. 
 
 " It is a pity you hadn't let father join the Good Temp- 
 lerg with me, but may be he wouldn't ha' stuck to the 
 
22 OTIIER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 pledge," said the boy, sadly, as he bade his mother good 
 night. 
 
 Xoar eleven o'clock the next morning, with nerves un- 
 strung, head sore, and stomach disordered, and altogether 
 in an irritable condition of mind and body, Deacon At- 
 wood sauntered oat into one of his mother's fields, where a 
 laro-e mulatto man was mending a somewhat dilapidated 
 rail-fence. The hands of the farmer, were keeping time to 
 a succession of old plantation "spirituals " which rolled 
 from his capacious chest like the sound of a trumpet. 
 
 " O, believer, go ring that be — 1 — 1." 
 ***** 
 
 " Don't you think I'm gwoine to ring that beautiful 
 
 bel— 1— 1 ?" 
 
 « * « * 
 
 "This winter'U soon be ovah." 
 
 * * * ♦ ♦ 
 
 " When the bride-grooms comes." 
 
 * * * « * 
 
 " We'll march through the valley in that field." 
 "Yo' seem to l^e mighty happy this morning, Jesse," 
 growled the Deacon. 
 
 " Well, Deacon, why shouldn't I be happy ? I'm well, 
 and my wife is well, and m}" children is well, and we're all 
 about our business, and the children in school a learning, 
 and God Almighty is saving my soul, and raining his spirit 
 into my soul, and raining this beautiful sunshine down unto 
 the cawn (corn) and the cotton, to make 'em grow, and 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 23 
 
 why shouldn't I sing? Why, brother Atwood, I feel like 
 I'd like to ring that beautiful bell so loud that all the folks 
 in the worl' 'd hear it; a proclaiming that the Lord Jesus 
 '11 save every poor sinnah that'll let liim," and the dark 
 face shone with the spirit-beams that glowed within. 
 
 The Deacon winced under the churchly title of brother- 
 hood, and what he thought a covert reproof, but yielding 
 to the power of a stronger and more rational nature than 
 his own, he did not remark upon it, though fondly imagin- 
 ing that he felt himself vastly the superior. 
 
 " It is well enough to be happy if yo' can, I reckon," said 
 he, snappishly, " but I don't feel so. I confess I'm thinking 
 more about politics now-a-days than about religion." 
 
 " That's no wonder then that yo' a'n't happy. It don't 
 pay to get away from the Laud into politics — brings 
 trouble." 
 
 " Oh, a plague on yo'r preaching! We must attend to 
 politics sometime : we can't leave it to yo' niggers all the 
 time. The Democratic Party has got to beat next fall, or 
 we'll all be ruined together." 
 
 "Of course it is right for you to think about politics," 
 replied Jesse, "and to talk about politics, and to vote about 
 politics, but you know " what-sa-eve?' ye do— whether ye 
 eat, or drink, or what-sa-ever ye do, you must be a thinking 
 of the glory of the Laud." 
 
 "We wouldn't have no trouble in carrying this next 
 election if it wasn't for those lea-^ling radicals," sr.id the 
 Deacon, in an angi-y mood, which had not been improved 
 
24 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 by Uncle Jesse's reproof. "There is not more than one 
 in a thousand of the niggers that knows how to read and 
 write, but is an office-seeker • but I tell yo', Jesse, every 
 one of 'era will be killed !" 
 
 A silence ensued, during which Deacon Atwood repeat- 
 edly thrust his heel into tlie soft soil, and turning the toe 
 of his boot about, as though crushing some reptile, ho 
 made a row of circular depressions along the side of a 
 cotton hill. 
 
 Pausing in his work, and pointing at the busy, great 
 foot, Mr. Koome (for that was Uncle Jesse's name) re- 
 marked, with a broad smile, "Deacon Atwood, them is 
 nice looking little places you're making there, but allow 
 mc to tell you that I reckon your wife won't like the looks 
 o' that black streak you'r making on the bottom of that 
 leg o' them light-colored trousers o' yourn." 
 
 Vexed beyond control that he could not disturb the 
 equanimity of the colored man, the irate Deacon now 
 Rqur.red himself about, and, thrusting both his itching fists 
 deej) into the pockets of the abused articles of his apparel, 
 he looked fiercely into the face of the negro, saying: 
 
 "Maybe you don't believe me, but it is true, and all 
 settled; and I'll bet you that Elly and Watta and Kanrasp 
 will be killed before another 'lection, and I can give you 
 the names of twenty more that will be killed, and among 
 them is "Old Bald-head " (the Governor). 
 
 A shadow passed quickly across the dusky face, and a 
 set of fine teeth were firmly set together for a moment. 
 
OTilEU FOOLS A>'D THEIR DOINGS. 2d 
 
 But that soon passed, and the face wore its usual ex- 
 pression: "What are you going to do with President 
 Grant and liis soldiers ?" 
 
 " Oh, all the Xo'th is on our side," was the prompt 
 response. "And if it a'n't, we don't care for Grant nor 
 his soldiers. I carried a gun once, and I can again." 
 
 The farmer had completed his work, and, folding his 
 arras, he now confronted his " Boss," and spoke slowly and 
 impressively. 
 
 "Mind, now, what you're doing, Deacon, for the United 
 States is rniglity stroyig. You recollect once you had two 
 Presidents here, and it cost a long and bloody war, and the 
 country ha'n't got over it yet." 
 
 "Yes, sir, but the No'th is on our side now, I tell yo', 
 and we shall be able to carry our point." 
 
 " May be so, I can't tell," said Jesse, dropping his hands 
 by his sides, "but I shall be very sorry to see another war 
 started here, and I didn't live in the Xo'th from '61 to '67 
 to come back here and believe that the people there is 
 going to stand by you in killing us off to carry the elec- 
 tion. Maybe they're tired of protecting us, and disgusted 
 with our blunders and our ignorance, but they won't join 
 you nor nobody, nor uphold nobody in killing us off that 
 
 wav 
 
 7 " 
 
 "Well, you'll see we shall carry this next 'lection if we 
 have to carry it with the musket — if we have to wade 
 through blood to our saddle-girthj:," said the Deacon, 
 ^* And more — this black Militia Company at Baconsville has 
 
2G OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 got to stop drilling ; it has got to be broken up. It is too 
 much for southern gentlemen to stand — flaunting their 
 flag and beating their drum right under our noses I It is a 
 general thing with us now from shor' to slior', and the law 
 can't do nothing with' so many of us if we do break it up, 
 and we're going to." 
 
 "Now, just be careful, Mr. Atwood, what you sny, and 
 what you do. I a'n't going to uphold our colored folks in 
 violating no law, and you know I ha'n't, nor nobody else 
 neither. I believe in law, and I say let's stick by the law; 
 and," gathering up his implements of labor, "I suppose 
 you'll excuse me, for I've got to go around to the other 
 side of this oat field, by the woods there, and mend that 
 other gap ; that is, if you don't care to walk around that 
 way." 
 
 The Deacon did not care to walk that way, and so the 
 conversation ended for the time ; though the subject was 
 frequently renewed during the subsequent summer months, 
 in the hope of inducing Roome, who was influential among 
 his people, to declare for the white man's party, but in 
 vain. 
 
 A scion of a family that, in the early settlement of the 
 State, had procured a large tract of land at five cents per 
 acre, and had retained much of it through unprolific gener- 
 ations by penuriousness that had been niggardly and cruel 
 in its exactions upon slave labor, Deacon Atwood Avas 
 coarse and gross in temperament, and had received little 
 culture of any kind, AH his patrimony had vanished 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 2( 
 
 through the Avar and its results; for tlie parsimony of his 
 ancestors liad formed no part of liis inheritance, and he had 
 pledged all for the Confederate loan. 
 
 Ilis a<^ed mother — a violent rebel, and a widow hefore 
 the war — yet refused to pledge her land to raise funds for 
 what became the " Lost Cause," and found means to retain 
 possession of one thousand acres of cotton land, for the man- 
 agement of which her son was now acting as her agent. Mrs. 
 Deacon Atwood was what the reader has seen her, and not 
 an ill-selected specimen of the average planters' wives, 
 who but seldom left the schoolless vicinities of their 
 homes; and as her family had fared no better than her hus- 
 band's in the general financial overthrow, they were quite 
 naturally and rapidly drifting towards their affinity— the 
 sorial stratum called in anti-bellum times, "poor w^hite 
 trash." 
 
28 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DISTRUST. 
 
 " The murky shades o' care 
 With starless gloom o'ercast my sullen sky." 
 
 — BUKN'S. 
 
 " Walk in, Mr. Roome; walk in. Glad to see you. Have 
 a chair? Well, what is the news from Bean Island and 
 Baconsville ?" 
 
 "Bad, I\Ir. Elly, bad!" replied Uncle Jesse, as he seated 
 himself, and took from his hat a huge red cotton pocket- 
 handkerchief, with which he proceeded with great delib- 
 eration to wipe his dusky face and bald head. 
 
 " I did not knovv' it was so warm out," said the courteous 
 host. *' This office is such a cool i^lace that I come up here 
 Sunday afternoons to be cool and quiet. It is a good place 
 to read." 
 
 " I reckon it is not so warm to most folks. I'm hotter'n I 
 ought to be, I know; but I'm worreted," said Uncle Jesse, 
 still wiping industriously with both hands at once, and 
 then thrusting the handkerchief into his hat which he had 
 been holding tightly between his knees, he placed it care- 
 fully upon the floor beside him, and putting a hand upon 
 either knee, he leaned forward, looked earnestly into Mr. 
 Elly's face, and with a significant expression, and in a low 
 tone asked, "Is you alone, Mr. Elly?" 
 
OTHER FOOLf. AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 29 
 
 "Yes; or, but— well, ]Mr. Watta is in the back office, but 
 1 ean close the door "—rising. 
 
 "Xo, no," said Uncle Jesse, raising both hands depreca- 
 tingly. " Ask him in; ask him in. Or, why can't I go in 
 there?" glancing around at doors and windows. 
 
 "Certainly you can," replied Elly. "Did you want to 
 pee Mr. Watta?" 
 
 " I reckon so; yes. Well, now, this is what I call provi- 
 dential; and I reckon I wasn't fur wrong in corain-, if it is 
 Sunday. The folks in No'thern Ohio don't do no business 
 on Sundays, and money paid Sunday a'n't paid at all— can 
 be collected over again; but work is driving awfully now. 
 riie freshet put the cawn back so for awhile; but it is 
 /^etching up nov/. But I knowed I ought to come." 
 
 Handshakings and preliminaries over, the trio were soon 
 seated around a large M'riting table— colored men all of 
 them. Both Elly and AYatta were tall and slender— the 
 former quite black, and the lattervery light— and both had 
 enjoyed the blessing of education at a Northern school 
 established for the benefit of freedmen, and almost sancti- 
 fied to the race by bearing the name of " Lincoln." 
 
 Jesse Roome's northern experiences had not been with 
 books, save at evening schools, of which he had eagerly 
 availed himself; but his naturally well-balanced mind and 
 keen powers of observation had not been idle; and sensible 
 ideas of common duties and relations of life in a highly- 
 civilized and enlightened community were his reward. 
 Ellv was a thriving lawyer and ex-member of the Stat© 
 
30 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Legislature, where he had been " Speaker of the House," 
 and, ever with an eye to business, he had already scented a 
 fee in his visitor's troubled manner and reply. 
 
 "You must excuse my abruptness, but I leave on the 
 train for Columbia in half an hour," said he, "and you and 
 Watta can talk after I am gone. Now, what can I do for 
 
 vou 
 
 V" 
 
 "First of all, I want some money for my services as 
 constable; and second I want to talk al)Out the political 
 situation, and to tell you some things I have heard men say 
 that is interested. Well, how I got to know this thing — " 
 
 •'What thing?'' asked the lawyer. "Why, th: t Elly 
 and Watta and Kanrasp and some score of other radicals, 
 has got to be killed," said Uncle Jesse, lowering his voice 
 to a husky whisper. 
 
 "Ha! ha! ha?" roared Elly, throwing himself back in his 
 chair, till his head seemed in danger of getting wedged be- 
 tween the chair-back and a bookcase behind him. "Why, 
 Roome, I thought you was a sensible man," said he, when 
 he had recovered his breath. '^ The days of the Ku-Klux 
 Klan's are over, and all done in this State. When vre pun- 
 ished two hundred and fifty of the fifteen hundred 'very 
 respectable gentlemen,' as they called each other, who were^ 
 arrested in 1871-'2, the thing was killed out here, you see." 
 
 "No, I don't see," said Roome. 
 
 "But do you suppose a man really means what he says 
 when he talks like that now-a-days?" and tjic two threatened 
 men laughed, and Avriggled in great apparent merriment, 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 31 
 
 and in true negro fashion, tliough really quaking with fear. 
 
 *' I certainly do believe it, Mr. Elly, and Mr. Watta, and 
 I only hope the good Laud will show that I've been afeared 
 for you for nothing. The parties was in earnest, and in- 
 tended it, I'm shor'; and you know I'm not a old woman, 
 nor a baby to be scart for nothing. 
 
 "I've took the trouble to resk my life to tell yo' to take 
 care of you'n, and now I've done my part. I didn't tell 
 Watta right there to home, because I reckon as yo' is a 
 lawyer, Mr. Elly, I'd best tell you first, and see what is 
 best to do for your protection. I taken trouble to do this. 
 But "Watta is here now, and I'm done." said the old man in 
 a grieved tone. 
 
 "We are much obliged for your kind intentions, though 
 you needn't have been so much scared about us." 
 
 "Well, now, let me tell you," and the farmer proceeded 
 to narrate minutely the incidents and facts with which the 
 reader is already acquainted, and others of similar import. 
 
 "Give me names and I'll put them through in the law, 
 for threats," said Elly. 
 
 "I can't do that," said Jesse, folding his arras tightly. 
 
 " Why not ?" 
 
 " Because I live in the woods, and my life wouldn't be 
 worth anything; and I a'n't going to tell yo', though you'll 
 believe me yet." 
 
 "I believe you now, but I don't believe you're a white 
 man." 
 
 " You will yet tliough, I ha'n't nothing more to say now, 
 
32 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 but just mind what I tell you. You is both men that is 
 marked to be killed, because you is leading radicals; so 
 the white folks says they is gwine to kill you and a score 
 more right round here close; I can't help it, but I've done 
 my duty, and you must take car' of yourselves. It wouldn't 
 be no use to prosecute this man. It would only make the 
 whole of 'em mad, and vrorse than ever 'em open a hornet's 
 nest; bat I want to ax you this favor, just remember my 
 life novv-, as I've remembered your'n, and not tell that I 
 told you this." 
 
 "Oh, we won't tell, and weVe much obliged to you for 
 your good intentions but we don't scare worth a cent, 
 after all." 
 
 Uncle Jesse left the office, and the other men walked 
 down to the railroad station to meet the through train going 
 north. 
 
 "What do you think of the old man's story ?" asked 
 Watta. 
 
 "I don't think much of it. He has maintained such an 
 equivocal attitude that it is hard to tell Avh"ise hands he is 
 playing into. He has been on one side and then on the 
 other — with the colored people and then with the whites, 
 till there is no telling where he is now." 
 
 "Elly, you are unfair. That man is just as true as steel; 
 he is solid jxold all throuGch. He is with the side that is 
 right, that is all, only he has more courage to speak out 
 than some of us have. I reckon the fact is that the right 
 hasn't always been the colored side. I'm afraid it hasn't. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 33 
 
 though we've had so much the worst chance since we've 
 had a chaiice at all, and sucli an outrageous list of grievan- 
 ces to rcnieniber, and to bear, that it isn't an ordinary man 
 that can look at things fairly here." 
 
 "Now, I have a mind to think there is something serious 
 in this matter, and that there will be more and more as 
 election aj^proaches. The white men at Baconsville are 
 mcful mad, because our Militia Company has been re- 
 organized lately, and has been prepaing for the centennial 
 Fourth of July. One would think they expected to be 
 massacred in their beds ; and so they go to work and do 
 things that might make every nigger mad at them. Sensi- 
 ble, isn't it? 
 
 " They are just raving, the white men are, some of them, 
 and they do talk dreadfully. Old man Bob Baker there, 
 gets into a passion whenever he sees us drilling on Market 
 street. He hates to see a nigger he has hunted in the 
 swamps before the war, and his dogs couldn't catch, or 
 couhl, practicing the use of arms with a State gun in his 
 hands, and the Union flag over his head. He is like a mad 
 bull, and "the stars and stripes" is. the red rag that sets 
 him a roaring and tearing up the ground." 
 
 Here Watta, the speaker, slapped bis companion's shoul- 
 der, and both broke into a loud laugh. 
 
 "He has got an idea," he resumed, "that all the roads 
 vvithin five miles of his plantation belong to him, I 
 reckon, by the way he swears whenever he meets or passes 
 the Company. I tell the boys to give the flag an extra 
 
'64: OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 spread w ijeuever he is in sight, and we have it out." 
 
 *'It is the flag of the Union that you carry, and you are 
 the Xational Guards of South Carolina, too," replied Elly. 
 
 " Well, it is cutting to the old rebel and slave-hunter I" he 
 continued. His occupation is gone, gone forever; and I 
 don't suppose he or his trained blood-hounds take kindly 
 to such cheap game as possoms. There is a mighty sight 
 of brag and bluster about these southern whites, though 
 they'll dodge quick enough at sight of a United States 
 musket with a Yankee behind it. They hav'n't forgotten 
 their whipping }et." 
 
 " Yes, but they'll dodge back again just as quick, when 
 the musket and Yankee soldier are withdrawn, and they 
 are fast forgetting the past; and this centennial year and 
 celebration are unwelcome reminders of it which they 
 would like to resent." 
 
 "Well, yes, I reckon so. You see the mention of the 
 rebellion as one of the hard strains which the Union has 
 Burvi\ ed cannot well be avoided, and so the '' red rag," as 
 you call it, is in their faces pretty often if they take a 
 newspaper, or steal the reading of one. There are only five 
 white men, ' gentlemen,' who call upon me regularly to 
 get the reading of my pajjers, free of course, and call me a 
 'niggei-.' They don't take a single paper themselves, nor 
 buy one, nor say 'thank ye' for mine; nor always think to 
 ask if I have read it myself. 
 
 "Ah, there she comes I right on time ;" and Elly clo-^d 
 and pocketed his gold watch, while the train approached 
 the platform. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINaS. 35 
 
 "You'll see, Jesse? Please get that name out of him, 
 and I'll put the rascal through for threats ; though I'm not 
 afraid of him. Good day," and with the grace of a courtier 
 he waved adieu to his friend, as the train moved away. 
 
 He was soon comfortably seated, and gazing out at the win- 
 dow. He was very well dressed, in strong contrast with a 
 large majority of his race in the southern States. His tall 
 shining hat lay beside him upon the crimson plush cushion of 
 the seat, leaving his crisp and glossy frizzed hair the only 
 covering of his shapely head. 
 
 Among the occupants of the car were many « northern- 
 ers " returning from winter residences in Florida. 
 
 " We talk of the receding foreheads and projecting jaws 
 of the African,-' said a lady sitting opposite, in a subdued 
 tone to her masculine companion, "but just imagine those 
 two men with hair and complexions exchanged," indicating 
 Elly and a man in the seat immediately in front of him, 
 who was in a double sense, a fair specimen of southern 
 "poor white trash." 
 
 " 'Now, deil-ma-care about their jaws. 
 The senseless, gawky million,' 
 " As Bums says, 
 
 ' I'll cock my nose aboon them a',' 
 "For I'm bound for dear :N'ew England, away from 
 this land of rags and dirt, slatterly ways, lazy hab- 
 its, flowing whiskey and tobacco, narrow brows and 
 wide mouths, and people of all 'imaginable shades, 
 from ebony to cream-color or white," replied the 
 
36 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 gentleman. "If you like to continue studying and com- 
 paring these faces, do so; but don't suggest it to me, for 
 I long to be 'v\-here the very air is not darkened with — 
 "nigger, nirjger^'' and my ears shall rest from the sound of 
 their uncouth voices." 
 
 Their voices are expressive. You should call out the 
 smooth tones.-' 
 
 "But I can't always. I'm sure I can't forget the night 
 of our arrival at Jacksonville," he continued, "Thirty, 
 were n't there ^/F/l'y black men standing near that train, all 
 harMng their loudest for passengers? Yes, you may re- 
 prove me, I know these don't sound like the w^ords of an 
 abolitionist. But I am one, I insist; but if upon oath 
 describing that sound that greeted our arrival in that city, 
 I must say the voices of thirty yelping curs;' and to 
 pass through among them, with their grabbing for one's 
 baggage, and those frightful sounds in one's ears, and the 
 knowledge of the unsettled state of the country — the an- 
 tagonism between the races — I'd as lief — well, I don't 
 know what I wouldn't choose!" 
 
 ^'Yes, butif, when that big-mouthed, two-fisted fellow 
 grabbed your satchel, you, instead of striking him with 
 your cane and umbrella, had looked kindly into his great- 
 rolling eyes, and mildly said you preferred to walk and 
 carry it yourself, ' I think he would have dropped it as 
 qnickly, and more quietly, and been more likely to remem" 
 ber you kindly. I remember quite similar scenes in the 
 North, with Irish hackraen. But we have out-grown them; 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 37 
 
 and so will the South, and the negroes out-grow these 
 scenes; and for me, the more I see these colored faces, the 
 more that is intelligent and agreeable I sec in tliem." 
 
 Eily's face had been singularly bright and cheerful before 
 over-hearing this colloquy; but then a change came, and 
 presently he leaned out of the window, gazing at a large 
 dilapidated mansion (it could not worthily be called a ruin,) 
 which stood some rods from the railroad." 
 
 Many a day he had played about the door of a poor little 
 cabin in its rear, or ran at the bidding of his young mistress 
 as she walked in a small grove the train was just then enter- 
 ing; or had held the bridles for the gentlemen mounting at 
 the door of "the great house," watching well their move- 
 ments, least, as is the habit of some men to cut their dogs 
 with their whips and laugh at their yelps and leaps, they 
 should thus enjoy an exhibition of his agility. 
 
 Under that great tree, in the edge of yonder corn-field, 
 his mother writhed under the lash, for complaining that 
 her task was too heavy; and obliged to witness the rising 
 of the great welts upon her naked back, his father had 
 snatched the instrument of torture from the hand that 
 wielded it, and on an attempt being made to dispossess him 
 of it, had dealt the overseer a smart blow across the back 
 of his hand. 
 
 Then had followed a gathering of '"the hands" from 
 that and neighboring plantations, to witness the " main- 
 tenance of discipline," and Eily's father — a valuable speci- 
 men of plantation stock — was made, under the cat o' nine 
 tails, a physical wreck. 
 
38 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Beside that old decaying cotton-house, now scarcely visi- 
 ble, his oldest sister was once hung up by her hands and 
 severely whipped, because she preferred field labor by the 
 side of the father of her child, who was called her husband, 
 to what was called an easier life — in " the bisr house" after 
 Missus got sick, and vras agwoine' to die." 
 
 Next, the train rattled over a long stretch of spiling 
 though a cane-brake, where were familiar trees, under 
 which Elly had paused for breath, and standing upon their 
 knotted roots, listened to the baying of pursuing blood- 
 hounds; and so vivid Avas his recollection of this, his first 
 attempt to escape from slavery, that the sick, cringing, 
 tremblinoj feelino^ returned as he observed the bent canes 
 
 O CD 
 
 leaning away from the half-submerged ties of the railroad 
 track; an involuntarily moving of his feet upon the car floor, 
 as if again seeking a footing upon their bent stalks, a semi- 
 consciousness of present circumstances was restored,through 
 which his mind leaped over the terrible capture and chastise- 
 ment, and he seemed again to hear the sounds of the 
 "Yankee Camj^," and felt the joy of his happy entrance 
 there, a " Contmband of war," but a chattel slave no longer. 
 
 Then came a realization of the inestimable service the 
 "Yankee Governess " had rendered him when she stealthily 
 taught him to read, and spurred his young master's lazy 
 efforts, by contrasting his acquirements with those of the 
 listening slave boy. 
 
 Through that poor beginning, made in weakness and 
 danger on the part of both pupil and teacher, when it was 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 39 
 
 a crime, punishable by imprisonment in the State's Prison, 
 he had made his way to positions of honor and emolu- 
 ment. 
 
 What meekness, humility and honesty must not a man 
 of such experiences possess, if, conning them over, pride 
 did not lift up his heart, resentment make his arm restless, 
 and a sense of robbery long-endured, make his present 
 powerful position seem a providential opportunity for 
 retaliation and self -reimbursement! From an abyss of en- 
 forced degradation and ignorance and despair he had 
 emerged into the light and life of personal and political 
 liberty, equality, respectability and honor ; and the young 
 master whose opportunities he once so earnestly coveted, 
 and before whose absolute will he was forced to bow, now 
 sued for favors at his hands, and found " none so poor to 
 do him reverence." Was ever the nobility of human 
 nature put to stronger tests than in these two peoples ? 
 
 "Good evening, Mr. EUy," said a broad browed, florid- 
 faced, red-haired man in the aisle beside him. 
 
 "Good evening, Marmor, good evening;" v;as the hearty 
 response. "Take a seat?" removing his hat to make 
 room. 
 
 "I will gladly take the seat, if you will just step out 
 and let me turn over the back of this one in front, so that 
 we can have the use of the two sofas, for my feet are at 
 their old tricks and troubling me a good deal. They are 
 easier when I lay them up. One might as well personate 
 'Young America ' in this Centennial year when it makes 
 him more comfortable." 
 
40 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 *•' 3Iincl you don't get them too higli now," said Ellv, as 
 they seated themselves after tlic change, and he spread a 
 newspaper upon tlic cushion Leforc them, to protect it 
 from JMarmor's boot-blacking. "You might share the mis- 
 fortune of Ike Partington; and if all your brains gIiouUI 
 run down into your head, what would become of "The 
 Times?*' and Ellv launched and wrisri^led, in stranro and 
 silly contrast with his usually dignified manner. 
 
 " I don't furnish brains for The Times," said 3Iarmor, 
 " I only publish it. But what is the campaign going to 
 be, do you think ?" 
 
 " Oil, of course we shall win." 
 
 Marmor kept his eyes fixed upon his middle finger nail, 
 which ho was carefully cutting, and did not reply. 
 
 Elly scrutinized his face awhile, and then asked, "' Don't 
 you think so ?" 
 
 " I am not so positive as I wish I was." 
 
 " You don't think the colored voters of the State are 
 going back on the party that gave them freedom, and the 
 only one that will preserve it for them? They'll all vote 
 the Republican ticket, of course." 
 
 "Yes, unless they are intimidated." 
 
 " Now, Marmor, I've seen a hint — or what I take for 
 one — in your paper; but I hope you don't really think 
 there will be trouble." 
 
 " I am afraid there will be trouble. Hanson Baker told 
 me the other day that there are fifteen hundred men ready 
 and waiting to come there and break up the Militia Com- 
 
OTHER FOOLS ASD THEIR DOINGS. 41 
 
 pany in Baconsville, and that they are going to do it; and 
 it is a frequent boast among the men — the white South- 
 erners, I mean — that they Avill carry the election if they 
 have to do it at the point of the bayonet. They can't do 
 it honestly, that's shor'; but I'm afraid there will be 
 trouble." 
 
 A pause ensued, after which Marmor resumed. "I'm 
 almost tired of this State, and if my business could be 
 squared up I'd get away; but I shan't be driven out. I 
 wish the colored j^eople had the spunk to emigrate to some 
 of the idle western land. It is a heap better and richer 
 than this here, by all accounts; and though it might be 
 some colder, it would make them stronger and smarter, and 
 they'd be heaps better off than they are here." 
 
 "There are a great many talking cihout it, don't you 
 know — going by colonies ? It would be a deal better than 
 going to Africa. I shall go myself if the old Confederates 
 ever get into power here again." 
 
 "See you stick to that, Elly; and, as for me, I reckon I 
 shall have to go by that time, or before. I was born in 
 South Carolina, and shed my blood in defense of her (as I 
 thought then), at Fort Sumter, got wounded there, and I 
 was as good as any of them till I consented to accept a 
 clerical office under a Republican administration; and then 
 the old Confederates persecuted me and my wife, till I 
 found out how it felt to others, and I have seen under what 
 tyranny a man lives here. lie dares not think for 
 himself at all. I served under Hampton in the war, before 
 
42 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 I got my eyes open. Like most of the private soldiers, 
 and plenty of commissioned officers, I was made to believe 
 a lie, or I never "svould have raised a hand against the Na- 
 tional Government in the world. I used to say just this 
 .way: If the No'th would only let us manage our State mat- 
 ters ourselves, and would let our slaves alone (you know I 
 owned a few slaves), I didn't care if the Territories and 
 new States were free. But Lincoln, and Garrison, and 
 Greeley shouldn't come down here, and take our nigger 
 property away from us; they shouldn't be emancipated 
 by the United States Government — the slaves shouldn't. 
 Enough others said the same, and dozens of our speakers 
 said it on the stump and platform, and plenty of the great 
 leaders were right there — consenting by their silence, if not 
 saying the same things, when they knew well enough that 
 these were just the principles of the Republican party — 
 the * Unionists' who elected Lincoln. "What did tre care 
 for their * sympathy for the slaves,' or their wishes for the 
 'constitutional right' to liberate them, so long as they 
 admitted they hadn't got it, and we knew they couldn't 
 get it short of a two-thirds indorsement by the States 
 through a direct vote of the people? There was slave 
 property enough in sixteen of the thirty-four States to 
 make us pretty sure on that score, in addition to the inter- 
 ests of cotton manufacturers and sugar dealers in the Xo'th 
 who wanted our products and no interruption of business. 
 Then we had the Fugitive Slave Law for the return of our 
 runaways." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 43 
 
 " But you know the Republican idea was that the new 
 States coming in, being all free, they could at last secure 
 the constitutional two-thirds." 
 
 "Yes, at last,'' said Marraor, derisively, ''at the last 
 great day, while slave-owners had each a vote for three out 
 of every five of his slaves without asking their assent. But 
 our hot-headed course hastened emancipation about a hun- 
 dred years; and now that it is over I'm glad of it, though 
 it did cost an ocean of blood and treasure. Slavery cursed 
 the whites as well as the blacks, and ought to. When I 
 think of all I saw in that war — I got this difiiculty in my 
 feet there (moving them with a grimace), and of the hor- 
 rible sufferings it brought on our people, and how those 
 leading villains knew all the time that they were deceiving 
 us, I can't think what would'nt be too good for them \ 
 And when that war was over, and the Ko'th had us in her 
 hand as helpless as a trapped mouse, she not only spared 
 their lives, but gave everything back to them which they 
 had forfeited; and now you hear them go on about the 
 National Government and the northern people, especially 
 any that come and settle among us and try to develop the 
 resources of the State, in a way that is simply outrageous ! 
 You would think the South was the magnanimous^a^ro^ of 
 the stiff-necked and rebellious No'th. I verily believe the 
 South would have liked the No'th better if it had put its 
 foot upon her after she fell. Conquer your rebellious child 
 or yield to his dictation without demur. 
 
 " There are some who know no such thing as equality. 
 
44 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Somebody must be the ' Boss,' in their practice." 
 
 *' But republican principles would not allow the govern- 
 ment to hold these States as provinces," remarked lawyer 
 Elly. 
 
 " They should have been held as territories," said Mar- 
 mor, " consistently or not. My blood is German (my father 
 emigrated from Germany to Charleston when a small boy), 
 but it has got the South Car'lina heat in it. I'm for effi- 
 ciency.'^ 
 
 "Kineteen-twentieths of what they call carpet-baggers, 
 and make folks believe are just adventurers, are northern 
 men, capitalists generally, who in emigrating did not leave 
 their manhood behind. It matters not how heavy taxes 
 they may j^ay, nor how long they remain in the State; if 
 they vote the Republican ticket and maintain the princi- 
 ples and practice of equal justice for all men in the State, 
 they are 'carpet-baggers;' and if they vote Democratic, 
 according to the will of the confederate whites, though 
 they vote * early and often,' and at points far removed 
 from each other, they escape the opprobious epithet." 
 
OTHER FOOLS A^'D THEIR DOIXGS 45 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE GLORIOUS FOUETH. 
 
 "Plumes himself in Freedom's pride 
 Tyrant stern to all beside." 
 
 — BUKNS. 
 
 On fill insignificant little village built on a narrow flat 
 beside tlio Savannah river, tbe sun had been pouring his 
 red hot rays all day, with even greater intensity than was 
 usual at tiiat season of the year. 
 
 The inhabitants, however, paid little heed to the extreme 
 heat, and only when the sun sank to the western horizon 
 did they leave their fields and workshops and wend their 
 ways homewards. 
 
 Two railroad bridges, and another for the public high- 
 way, connected this little village with the city of A , 
 
 on the opposite side of the river, and in the neighboring 
 State of Georgia. 
 
 A long lov^' trestle carried one of those railroad tracks 
 two or three squares or streets back from the stream to- 
 wards the hills a half-mile away. 
 
 Not far from this trestle, on a broad street which ran 
 parallel with and along the brink of the stream, stood a 
 strong, tv/o-story brick building. Its uses had been 
 various; but at the time of which we write it did 
 service as an armory or drill room for Co. A of 
 the Eighteenth Regiment of National Guards of vSouth. 
 
46 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 Carolina; and also as a dwelling for the Captain of 
 the Company, who, having just returned from his day's 
 work in the city, now sat with his chair tilted back against 
 the post of the open door, tossing his infant and conversing 
 with his wife, who was preparing their evening meal. 
 
 It might be mentioned that the parties in this littlf 
 domestic scene were of African descent. 
 
 "Howdy ? Cap'n Doc, Howdy?" shouted a negro team- 
 ster, driving up to the door with a great dash and rattling 
 of wheels. 
 
 " Hello ! That yo', Dan ?' replied the Captain, letting 
 the front legs of his chair down upon the floor with a bump 
 that came near unseating him. *' Come in, won't ye ?" 
 
 I'm obliged to yo', but I couldn't nohow. I just wants, 
 to know what sort of a combustification is we gwoine to 
 hev to-morrow; and Avhen does de militia come out?'' 
 
 The speaker was evidently "the worse for the drink," 
 which must account for his forgetf ulmess of what he had 
 been well informed of, and he wriggled and giggled as if 
 greatly tickled. 
 
 "The militia," said Captain Doc, "has got to faun> 
 (form) and march down to the grounds, when the doings 
 begin, and stand guard; and after the speeches and all is 
 ovah, vre shall go through the usual everlutions, accompa- 
 nied with music and the flag. I'm sorry we didn't get that 
 shooting-match I tried to have, so we could ha' got some uni- 
 faum; but I shall inspeck yo's guns and accouterments 
 mighty close, and put yo' through mighty sharp on the 
 drill." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 47 
 
 "But a nigger that don't car' 'nough 'bout the Centennial 
 fo'th o' July to get to know all 'bout the doings fo' the 
 third o' July, don't 'zerve to be baun free and ekil." 
 
 "Wal, I wa'n't baun free an' ekil, an' I don't 'speck to 
 be baun free an' ekil, nuther, but 'fo' I done gone ovah to 
 'Gusta wid dis ere load o' truck, I knowed all 'bout it. But 
 I met dat are magnijishent young gem'raan, Tom Bakah, 
 and, oh, laws!" (spreading his horny palms, with fingers 
 extended and rolling his head and eyes from side to side), 
 "'moseput my eyes out o' ray head! All upsot my idees! 
 His nose turned up, 'pears like six feet high; no, six inches 
 high; and he drove he horse so scrumbunctious like, 'mose 
 upset my little arabulancer," and Dan t^^rned to his two 
 little rats of donkeys in harness of knotted raw-hides, 
 which resembled old and assorted clothes lines. 
 
 The little creatures stood meekly before an indescribable 
 vehicle, a ridiculous cross between a rude hay-rick and a 
 huge crockery-crate on wheels. It was all out of propor- 
 tion to the little team, whose backs were scarcely as high 
 as the waist-bands of stumpy Dan. 
 
 " Tough little fellahs, dese is," said the teamster, patting 
 them affectionately, " but mighty feared o' Mars' Tom, a'n't 
 yo',— Eigh, Jack?" 
 
 " See dat nigh critter cock his eye now, aud wag dat off 
 ear," continued Dan, winking at Captain Doc, and gigling 
 and wriiro^linor as before. 
 
 "Don't like Mars' Tom, do yo'. Jack?" again addressing 
 the intelligent donkey, which not only wagged his off ear, 
 
48 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 but shook liis head in a most decided manner, to the great 
 amusement of his owner. 
 
 " Oh, Dan, 3-011 musn't mind the antics of that boy Tom," 
 said a voice behind liim; "whereupon Dan vrrigglcd and 
 jumped, and v.'hirled about, and bowed himself double, and 
 made cri'iniaces, and G:i2:2:led and wrii^c^led, and danced a 
 jig; and finally, with another low bow and long scrape of 
 his right foot, he shook hands with the speaker, M'ho was 
 no other than our friend Marmor. '' Tom is only just home 
 from school, you know, and of course the man who knew 
 more before he was born than could ever be cudgeled into 
 that knowledge-box of hissen, is nothhig to him! Let him 
 alone, and let him swell though, just as big as he can, he'll 
 bust the quicker, and we'll find out the quicker how big he 
 really is when the vaccuum is gone, and what is left is 
 packed down solid." 
 
 "'Pears like dis yere young Tom cat tinks he smell a 
 mice, or a niggah he's huntin," said Dan, "an' he's gwoine 
 fo' to chaw \m iq? mighty quick I" (suiting his gesture to 
 his words by a long sniff, ai^d a quick motion of his jaws.) 
 
 Dan's buffonery was irresistible, and the half dozen per- 
 sons who had gathered at the captain's door manifested their 
 appreciation by hilarious applause. 
 
 "'Pears like I couldn't leave such 'stinguished comp'ny, 
 nohow," he continued, " but dey is a j^anoramia f o' my vish- 
 nm which am decomratedby hoe cakes an* hominy, an' lasses 
 an' bacon, an' sich tings;" and with his hands upon his 
 empty stomach, Dan bowed very low and obsequiously, 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 49 
 
 and mounting his *'ambulancer," gathered up the ragged 
 ends of his raw-hide ribbons, touched Jack with his long 
 green stick, and rattled away, while Captain Doc shouted 
 after him, "Two o'clock, and no tipsy men on parade." 
 
 The queer little turnout, which would have been a spec- 
 tacle in any part of the northern states, though common 
 enough in the southern, crept slowly up the steep hill in 
 the rear of the village, where buildings of curious and 
 indescribable styles were scattered without order or taste, 
 and few indications of thrift. Stopping on the outskirts 
 of the town, and before a small cabin built of one thick- 
 ness of rough boards, the vertical cracks between v/hich 
 would nearly receive the fingers of an adult, and the win- 
 dows of which, without sash or glazing, were closed only 
 by clumsy wooden shutters — the usual style of cabin in- 
 habited by the southern negro — Dan leaped from his 
 vehicle, and entering, sniffed and looked about searchingly, 
 till a tall, angular mulatto woman entered from the back 
 door with an armful of wood. 
 
 " Any suppah yet, Mira ?" 
 
 " Xo, sah. Yo' suppah ha'n't ready yit, but I's cookin' it. 
 I's mighty tired. I's done done all dat whole big cotton 
 field." 
 
 '•' Good, chile ! good, chile ! " said the husband, approach- 
 ing and attempting to kiss her as she stooped to replenish 
 the open fire. 
 
 No sooner had his breath touched her face than she 
 turned, with a stick of wood in one hand, and confronted 
 
50 OTHER FOOLS A^^) THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 him, while the smoke and flame leaped out in alarming 
 proximity to her dress. 
 
 " See here now, yo' Dan ; yo' been drinkin' gin," fixing 
 her dark eyes reprovingly upon his silly face. " Dat's de 
 way yo' been spendin' yo' money." 
 
 " Mira Pipsie, yo's de smartest woman in de whole worP. 
 Yo's got 'em zackly, I reckon " (wriggling and curveting 
 about the room and back to her side again). " I nebber 
 boughtened me no finery o' no kind ; no new bonnet, nor 
 nuffin. Yo' buys what yo' wants, an' so does I." 
 
 "Yes; but yo' comes home an' wants suppah, an' it's.de 
 cotton o' my raisin' as buys yo' suppah." 
 
 "Yah! yah! yah! I's a lucky dog, shor! " and he exe- 
 cuted a jig followed by a double shufiie, knocking his heels 
 upon the bare floor with what vigor he could command, 
 and at the same time improvising as follows : 
 
 " I 's de smartest little wife 
 Ebber seen in all yo' life; 
 She marks her cotton-bag 
 Wid a little calico rag, 
 An' gits de biggis' price, 
 An' as slick as any mice 
 She smiles, an' bows, an' flies aroun'. 
 An' totes her cotton off to town. 
 Home she comes, an' O my! 
 See de new bonnet! Oh, my eye! 
 Away to church she sing an* pray. 
 Hallelujah! look dis way! 
 Dina Duncan's in de shade, 
 
OTHER FOOLS AMD THEIR DOINGS. 51 
 
 Mira beats all on dress parade. 
 
 But jes' see Dina's bran new shawl! 
 
 Can't heah no mo' preacliin' af 'cr all. 
 
 Elder, I'm gone nex' Sunday sho'. 
 
 Can't wear dis liere ole shawl o' mine no mo' ! " 
 
 Here the song abruptly terminated, for the " smartest lit- 
 tle wife," who was some inches taller than her husband, and 
 by no means slender, took her liege lord by the damp, un- 
 starched collar of his soiled blue shirt, and marching him 
 to the door, seated him uj^on the step, saying in a low, de- 
 cided, and well recognized tone, "Xow yo' jes' set dar, yo' 
 drunk niggah, yo', an' don't yo' open dat big red mouf o' 
 yo'n no mo' till I git some hominy to fill it up. I don't 
 want no niggah's heels scratchin' roun' on my flo'. Ef 
 yo'd buy b'ettah finery 'n dem ole trowsahs, an' go to 
 church, an' let whiskey 'lone, yo' cotton'd be some good. 
 Ef I didn't mark my cotton o' my raisin', an' toat de 
 money m3^self, I'd jes like t' know whar yo'd git yo' tea, 
 an' coffee, an' flou'h, an' all dem tings ?" 
 
 'With an admonitory shake of her finger, she entered the 
 house, and resumed her culinary operations ; but soon 
 reappeared, bearing a gun and accoutrements, and sundry 
 materials for polishing them ; having first dexterously 
 examined it, and found it without charge. 
 
 "Heah now, yo' Pipsie; yo' got sense 'nough t' clean dis 
 'ere gun ? " she asked. *' Reckon you'll be mighty proud 
 o' dis 'ere * finery,' marchin' up an' down long o' de res', 
 an' de folks all lookin' on." 
 
o2 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 " He, he I Didn't I say ' smartest little wife " ? Reckon 
 I kin do dat are. Reckon I'll parade on de fo'tb, an' yo'U 
 wait till Sunday." 
 
 Two of his neighbors presently joined Mr. Pipsie, with 
 whom he was soon discussing the anticipated celebration, 
 which was quite a novelty in the locality. Suddenly a loud 
 sound of wheels was heard. 
 
 "Hello!" cried Dan, springing from his seat. "Heah 
 comes my friend Bakah! Hello, Babe! Bett' take car, dat 
 team, else yo' git toated clean off, an gone to smash 'fo' 
 yo muddah knows nuffin 'bout it. Reckon yo' didn't ax 
 her mout yo' gwout alone?" 
 
 The sound of the jolting wagon rendered this speech in- 
 audible to the youthful driver, who was passing without a 
 " Howdy!" (an offense in that locality) but the loud, deri- 
 sive "guffaw" of the three colored men, which followed 
 Dan's sally, did not fail to reacli him, and he paused sud- 
 denly, just i^ast the door. 
 
 He was tall and Inrge, but unusually boyish for a youth 
 of twenty years. In an angry tone he shouted: 
 
 " Dan Pipsie, come out here! I want to see yer,'* 
 
 That individual made his way, quite deliberately, to the 
 side of the vehicle, and with a strange mixture of timidity 
 and bravado in his manner. 
 
 "AVhat do you mean by cursing me in that way? I 
 ha'n't done nothing to you," said the boy. 
 
 "Oh, laws! I 's JGst in fun, an' I 's shor' yo' didn't heah 
 yo'r name mixin' up in it. A man's a right to talk or cuss 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 53 
 
 on his own do V' (uoor) " an' nothin' to no man no' his boy 
 gwoine 'long de road." 
 
 The 3'oungstci's eyes flashed, and his face \ras pale with 
 rage. What! he to be called a ^>o?/ by a "nigger?" He 
 looked down upon the diminutive black figure beside him, 
 in whose hands was one of Remington's best rifles, and that 
 alone restrained him from laying the long lash of his 
 driving-whip close about the " black biped," as he mentally 
 called him. He did venture to retort with some asperity. 
 
 The altercation was brief, but heated, and soon the whip 
 was cracked decidedly closer to Pipsie's left ear than was 
 comfortable to its owner. 
 
 " Yo' jes be little mo' ca'ful, yo' young man!" said Pip- 
 sie, rubbing the ear briskly. " Yo' not got no runaway 
 niggah slave heah now. I'se a free man, an' got as much 
 rights as yo', an' mo'n dat, too, Pse got a United States 
 gun heah, an' I knows how to shoot, too. Yo' needn't 
 'suit no National Guards fo' nuffin'. Ef yo' ha'n't get no 
 mo' yo' want say t' me, yo'.bes' jes' git 'long 'bout yo' 
 business, or yo' may git hurt!" and he made a feint to raise 
 the empty gun to his eye, when young Tom Baker rode 
 away in great haste. 
 
 Baconsville Iiad never witnessed such a " celebration " as 
 it enjoyed the nest day, which came bright and beautiful. 
 
 Though usually tardy in morning rising — possibly from 
 dread of the malaria, which tlic sun dissipates by nine 
 o'clock, on this memorable day, the inhabitants of the vil- 
 lage were astir at an early hour, for, through the heavy fog 
 
54: OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 '.^ 
 whicli crept up from the river, and shrouded tlie whole val- 
 le}^, the red-haired and fair-skinned Marmor, and the largest, 
 strongest, and blackest citizen, with a few followers, were 
 dimly visible, dragging a blacksmith's anvil along the 
 principal streets. 
 
 They paused frequently in front of the residences and 
 shops of the chief citizens to salute them by an explosion 
 of gunpowder upon the anvil — the nearest approach to a can- 
 nonnade possible in the impecuneous little city. But not 
 earlier than four o'clock in the afternoon was the excite- 
 ment at its height. At that time the brass band was play- 
 ing national airs under a great oak tree on a vacant plot 
 of ground on which a platform, had been erected; and a 
 few seats placed in front of it for the accomm.odation of 
 the gentler sex were rapidly filling; for, at a safe distance, 
 thirteen explosions upon the anvil, in commemoration of 
 the thirteen original colonies, were being followed by 
 thirty-seven, in honor of the then existing States of the 
 Union. 
 
 These were the recognized signals for the commencement 
 of the most important exercises of the day; and the militia 
 having formed at the armory, marched to the rostrum, 
 bearing the " Stars and Stripes," and were disposed on 
 either side of the speaker's stand, while other free and 
 patriotic citizens stood in compact groups near and about 
 the well-filled seats. 
 
 All being ready, a chairman elected, the glass of water 
 and bouquet of flowers placed before the speaker, and the 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 55 
 
 band having duly discoursed, a short, smootli-voiced negro 
 — an accredited preacher of the Methodist persuasion, and 
 member of the State Legislature from that district — was 
 introduced. He made a long, peculiarly energetic, inter- 
 esting and instructive address, rich in metaphor and quaint 
 expressions, glowing with native eloquence, and abounding 
 in graphic description, wholesome counsel, and eulogy of the 
 "United States." 
 
 Kot an allusion was made to the past relations of the 
 races in the South, unless an exhortation to gratitude to- 
 wards the United States be so construed, in view of the 
 fact that the very few whites present acknowledged no 
 such debt. 
 
 After the address, music followed, and then Marmor was 
 formally introduced to his neighbors, and read in clear, loud 
 tones the inevitable " Preamble and Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence," to the manifest disgust of a small group of 
 men who stood in the rear of the crowd. 
 
 A tall, muscular man, with iron-gray hair and bushy 
 beard, turned upon his heel with an oath, saying: "Mar- 
 mor, the contemptible radical, takes too much pleasure in 
 reading that preamble to me, and I'm a fool to hear it any 
 way. All men created equal! It is a self-evident lie I" and 
 he strode away, followed by the boyish young man, Tom, 
 to whom the reader has already been introduced. 
 
 "Father," said he, "that red-headed fool acts like a 
 Yankee. You wouldn't suppose he fought for the Lost 
 Cause." 
 
56 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 " It is the cursed German blood in him!" replied" the old 
 man Baker," as his neighbors called him. '* He hasn't been 
 in the State long enough to get the Republican taint out of 
 it. His father wasn't born here." 
 
 "It is a pity that a Yankee bullet hadn't hit him, instead 
 of brother Will." He's a scalawag and a carpet-bagger, 
 both in one." 
 
 " Yes, I'd like to rid the State of his presence, and the 
 niggers of one leader. If it wasn't for the leaders, we 
 could manasre the icrnorant ones." 
 
 The exercises at "' the stand" closed at five o'clock, and 
 the Militia soon formed, thirty or forty.strong, and marched 
 off up Market street; wliicli being over one hundred and 
 fifty feet in vv'iuth, afforded ample space for the evolutions 
 which the men performed w'ith commendable precision for 
 nearly an hour. 
 
 At length they stood resting at the upper end of the 
 street. 
 
 "Have you noticed the clouds, Captain?" asked the tall 
 second-lieutenant, approaching his superior wdth raised cap, 
 " That's so, Watta," replied Captain Doc, glancing at the 
 clouds, " We'll march down to the armor\^ and dismiss. At- 
 tention, Company." 
 
 The necessary orders being given, they j^roceeded by 
 fours, interval march, open order, with guns across their 
 shoulders, and arms over their guns; thus occupying little 
 over one third of the width of the street. 
 
 Soon after they had thus started, a single buggy occupied 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 57 
 
 by two youiif^ men, turned from Main street into Market 
 street, entering it two or three streets in front of them 
 and approached the advancing Militiamen at a slow trot. 
 The horse was old and steady, and neither the irlitterins: 
 guns, nor flag, nor fife and drum disturbed his equanimity; 
 and, urged by his driver, he did not pause nor turn aside 
 till in the very face of the soldiers, who had already 
 halted. 
 
 The road was broad and level, but the travel had been 
 confined mostly to one track, and the remainder of the sur- 
 face was overgrown with grass and May weeds. 
 
 Just at the place of their meeting, a well occui^ied a few 
 feet in the centre of the street; and a shallow ditch crossed 
 the half of the street at the right of the vehicle. Yet 
 fully fifteen feet of the level highway was unoccupied at 
 the right of the Militia, and the driver could easily have 
 passed around the Company, had he chosen to do so, in- 
 stead of urging his horse directly upon the advancing col- 
 umn. 
 
 The discourtesy of this act was aggravated by the fact 
 that the young men had, during a half-hour previously, 
 been driving leisurely from one bar-room to another,or sitting 
 in their carriage and watching the movements of the Com- 
 pany in common with a large number of other citizens, 
 both white and colored, during which time frequent oppor- 
 tunities had occurred in which they might have driven up 
 the then totally unoccupied street. 
 
 These young men were Tom Baker and his sister's hus- 
 
58 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 band, Harry Gaston, who, like Lis father-in-law, had often 
 expressed his aversion to " the Xigger Militia Company." 
 
 Captain Doc left his position, and approaching them said: 
 
 *OIr. Gaston, I do not know for what reason you treat 
 me in this manner." 
 
 " AVhat manner?" 
 
 " Aiming to drive through my company when you have 
 room enough on the outside to drive in the road/" 
 
 *' Well," this is the rut I always travel in," was the con- 
 temptuous reply, made with an oath. 
 
 " That may be true," replied the Captain, but if ever you 
 had a company out here, I should not have treated 3-ou in 
 this kind of a manner. I should have gone around, and 
 showed some respect to you." 
 
 '* "Well, retorted Gaston, "this is the rut I always travel 
 in, and I don't intend to get out of it for no niggers!" 
 
 " You don't intend to break up our drill do 3'ou ?" asked 
 Lientenant Watta; his 3-ellow face growing visibly pale. 
 
 " All I want is to pass through and go home." 
 
 ** But you want to drive through our ranks." 
 
 "Xo ! . He can't go through here," said another 
 
 voice. 
 
 " We will stay here all night before we will give way to 
 them," said Watta, the conversation with lawyer Eily and 
 Uncle Jesse recurring to his memory. 
 
 "Never mind," said Gaston with an oath, "you won't 
 alwavs be insulting me. You had better stop now, for 
 you'll find you've got to." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 69 
 
 "Egh, Watta, don't yos' mind what Mann Harris said — 
 tole that Hanson Baker, Tom's brother, said a month ago 
 
 that there's gwoine to be the to pay in Baconsville 
 
 pretty soon? Reckon the white folks is begun that p'o- 
 grarame he tole 'bout," said another militia man. '' He said 
 fifteen hundred of 'em was ready to break us up, an' of co'se 
 Gasten's one of 'em." 
 
 A volley of oaths and abusive epithets was rolling from 
 Tommy Baker's lips; which was indeed their most familiar 
 utterance when addressing persons of color; and some mem- 
 bers of the company began to return the charge in kind. 
 
 " Attention, company !" shouted Capt. Doc. " It is 
 going to rain, and we had best house our guns. "We won't 
 hold any contention with these men. Now, yo' hush up ! 
 I'll settle this matter. Open order, and let them go 
 through." 
 
 The command was obeyed, but not without murmurs 
 of discontent, wliich, however, were soon qi^ieted, as a 
 slight shower descended, and they hastened off to the 
 armory. 
 
 Marmor, with his two little children, had been standing 
 a few rods away, watching and praising the exercise. 
 
 When the altercation occurred, being a Warden of the 
 town, he sent John Carr, the Town Marshal, or Chief of 
 Police, to ascertain its cause; but it was passed before his 
 arrival at the scene. 
 
60 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LEGAL KEDRESS. 
 
 ' O thou di'ead Power ! whose empire-giving hand 
 Has oft been stretched to shield the honored land !" 
 
 So trivial a quarrel as that narrated in the closing part of 
 OTir last chapter, had it occurred elsewhere than in a com- 
 munity in which the inhabitants had so recently sustained 
 the relations of masters and slaves, would scarcely have 
 elicited remark upon a subsequent day; but over the three 
 or four hundred colored, and forty or fifty Avhite residents 
 of Baconsviile there settled a dark cloud of anxiety and 
 ajDprehension of coming evil. 
 
 Angry looks and threats of violence on the part of the 
 whites were recalled and anxiouslv discussed bv the colored 
 people, as Avere also the recent and frequently expressed 
 determination to " carry the next election for the Demo- 
 cratic Party, " if even through blood waist deep," though 
 the colored voters were largely in the majority, and almost 
 without exception, if unintimidated, voted the Republican 
 ticket. 
 
 These, with the oft-repeated boast that the illegal Rifle 
 Clubs, trained cavalry companies, were ready to co-operate 
 for the suppression and utter dispersion of this colored 
 company of State militia, with the fact that similar acts 
 of violence were by no means new experiences to the ex- 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOIXGS. 61 
 
 slaves in the South, but were even tlien being perpetrated in 
 the surrouiidino- counti'V, made the outlook for the colored 
 population gloomy, indeed. 
 
 On the other hand, the officers of the town, with the 
 single exception of our friend Marmor, were all of the col- 
 ored race, and as he was a Republican native, he was 
 even more repugnant to his Mhite neighbors than a 
 " nigger." 
 
 On the other hand, during the two months preceding 
 this encounter, these militia-men vrere knov/n to have been 
 drilling as often as once or twice a week, though the law re- 
 quired such practice but once a month. This alarmed the 
 whites, with whom anticipations of "insurrections" are still 
 either congenital or feigned. « 
 
 In the days of slavery, and also by the South Carolina 
 "Black Code" (the only exclusively white legislation in the 
 State since reconstruction), arms were strictly forbid- 
 den to the negroes, and under heavy penalties; yet, through 
 the subsequent Republican legislation, they rejoiced in be- 
 ing the " National Guards,'' bearing the same flag which 
 Sherman "carried doAvn to the sea," and under which Cap- 
 tain Doc learned tactics and heroism in the "Black Regi- 
 ment," which once swept over Fort Fisher, and closed the 
 last port of the rebellious States. 
 
 What signified it to those conscience-accused whites that 
 these were poor men maneuvering by the light of the moon 
 to save the expense of lighting their drill room; and, unable 
 to spare time from their toil, thev took it from the hours of 
 
62 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 their rest, to prepare for a creditable performance on the 
 Nation's Centennial birthday? So much the worse. The 
 Fourth of July Avas the birthday of the " national non- 
 sense " that " all men are created equal;" and it was not 
 the fault or credit of these white men that there was left a 
 nation to celebrate its Centennial. 
 
 Now that the sole militia of the State was enrolled from 
 this emancipated race (white men would not enlist under 
 charters, because unassured that they should not be sub- 
 ordinated to colored officers, and they might be required to 
 sustain a State government of the colored majority), how 
 should one expect the former masters to be content and 
 at ease, even though no concerted outbreak had ever 
 occtirred among the freedmen, whose temper is naturally- 
 peaceable and timid even to servility? 
 
 Undoubtedly, the fears of those once reputed hard mas- 
 ters, or who still find it difficult to conform to the new con- 
 ditions, are often distressing. They are also nature's in- 
 controvertible testimony to the wisdom and divine origin 
 of equal rights. 
 
 Great was the excitement of the Baker families when 
 the young men arrived with the tale of their "narrow es- 
 cape from the militia men." 
 
 Early the next morning, the old slave-hunter and his 
 three sons set out for the office of Trial Justice Rives, who, 
 though a colored man, it was thought could be more easily 
 induced to meet out punishment to those miserable offenders, 
 than I(Ouis Marmor, who Avas the only other competent 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 63 
 
 magistrate in the town. 
 
 Of course, as has been the custom of the whites there, 
 from tlie earliest settlement of that country, these gentle- 
 men all wore their side-arms, and for greater safety these 
 were put into the very best condition, and fully loaded, as 
 they suspected the Town Marshal, who ran after them on 
 the previous evening, might attempt a counter-arrest for 
 the same offense. 
 
 Young Tommy did not feel quite safe from Dan Pipsie 
 without his eighteen-shooting rifle in addition; and so, 
 with it in hand, he mounted his young bay horse, while be- 
 side him rode his brother-in-law, Harry Gaston, — the best 
 shot in town, bearing also his carbine; while the father and 
 bis eldest son, Hanson, were seated in a light wagon in 
 which were placed additional fire-arms, lightly covered with 
 a lap-robe. 
 
 Thus equipped, they proceeded in safety, through the 
 quiet little village to the Justice's office; and finding it 
 closed, went two miles further on, to his plantation, and 
 returned with him to his office; quite a formidable party to 
 be sure. Arrived there, they entered complaints against 
 Dan Pipsie for threats to kill, and against the officers of the 
 Militia Company for " obstructing the highway.'' 
 
 The Justice, being himself Major-general of that division 
 of the State Militia, after thoughtfully scratching his crispy 
 locks awhile, said: 
 
 " I reckon it is best to hear a statement of the testimony, 
 
64 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 and then decide whether it is a case for court-martialing, 
 or for trial under the civil law?'' 
 
 Ten o'clock of the next morning was fixed as the time 
 for liearing the case. 
 
 At that hour Justice Rives was found seated behind his 
 desk, and busily examining papers and documents. 
 
 The Bakers made their appearance, accompanied by a 
 few friends, among whom were two professional men — a 
 Reverend, and an M. D; though not with compresses and 
 consolations for the possible wounded and dying, (for South 
 Carolina chivalry does not fight its duels with "niggers,") 
 but with bail money (modified from bullets), should that 
 counter-arrest, which they feared, be attempted. 
 
 Automatically, or through force of liabit, each race in 
 the southern States still assumes, in assemblies, the posi- 
 tions and attitudes imj^osed in the days of slavery. In the 
 churches of the colored people one or more of the most 
 desirable seats are reserved for whites, and these often re- 
 main vacant, or nearly so, during a lengthy service, while 
 church members stand to exhaustion for want of seats. 
 
 Hence, the front seats of Gen. Justice Rives' court -room 
 were occupied by the plaintifi^s and their friends, and the 
 defendants and tlieir friends sat at a respectful distance in 
 the rear, while a number of boys and women of color 
 gathered outside of the door. 
 
 The magistrate, who had not altogether escaped the envy 
 of his less fortunate neiglibors, had often been accused by 
 them of a sycophantic weakness for the approval of the 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 65 
 
 whites; while the latter declared that justice could not be 
 obtained by them before a colored officer, and that, as a 
 political canvass was approaching, they would not again 
 submit to negro magistrates. 
 
 He therefore felt his position peculiarly trying, especially 
 when he saw that they were all thoroughly armed. 
 
 He held both his official positions by appointments of the 
 Governor, to be sure; yet he knew that the preponderance 
 of wealth, intelligence and bravery was with the white 
 race; while at the same time he did not forget that if "a 
 traitor to his race," he would probably, through ostracism 
 and insult, reap a bitter retribution from his own people. 
 
 A peace warrant was, however, soon issued against Dan 
 Pipsie, his "Daddy" being present to give bail for his 
 future good behavior. Then, with some apparent reluc- 
 tance and nervousness, the Justice called the principal case. 
 
 Mr. Watta arose and announced that lawyer Kanrasp, 
 from the county seat would appear for the defense. 
 
 To this Robert Baker strenuously objected, as, not hav- 
 ing been advised that attorneys would be employed, he had 
 none. He therefore asked a postponement of the case. 
 
 Kanrasp then suggested to his client that inasmuch as 
 the proceedings had thus far been very informal — the pa- 
 per served being neither a writ nor summons, and not at 
 all a legal paper — he would withdraw from the case, and 
 let Rives take judgment if he chose, when the case could be 
 appealed to the Superior Court, where justice might be 
 had. 
 
66 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 This he did on account of the extreme indignation mani- 
 fested by the Bakers and their friends. 
 
 Gaston, who was a shriveled, weason-faced specimen of the 
 genus homo, with sandy hair, flaming whiskers, and a face 
 in which whiskey held a profusion of freckles in pur 
 pie solution, was the first to testify, which he did in accord- 
 ance with his views of the affair. 
 
 " Xow, Captain," said the Judge, when Gaston had fin- 
 ished, "as you have no counsel, you may question the 
 witness if you want to.*' 
 
 Captain Doc was a well-made, medium sized and shrewd 
 man, little less than forty years of age, with very dark 
 complexion, having three-fourths African blood. 
 
 He arose from his seat quite slowly, and squarely front- 
 ing Gaston, asked: 
 
 " Mr. Gaston, did I treat yo' with any disrespect when I 
 spoke to yo'? Didn't I treat yo' politely?" 
 
 "Ica'n't say that you treated me with any disrespect; 
 but I can say this much, that there was two or three mem- 
 bers of your company that showed some impudence to me, 
 and I also saw them load their guns." 
 
 "Mr. Gaston," replied the Captain, looking searchingly 
 in the eyes of the little man, " didn't yo' see me examining 
 the cartridge-boxes and the pockets of the comj^any, to see 
 if they had any ammunition before we went on drill ?" 
 
 "Yes, I did." 
 
 " Did yo' see any?" 
 
 "No." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 67 
 
 "/did. I found one man with a cartridge in his pocket, 
 and I took it away, and scolded him about it." 
 
 Gaston replied, "Yes, I saw that." 
 
 "Well then, are yo' certain that these men loaded their 
 guns ?" 
 
 "I saw them moving them, and I thought they were 
 loading them." 
 
 "And so yo' came here to sz^'ecrr that Ave Avanted to kill 
 yo' ? That's about as much as a colored man can get for 
 his care not to give offense. A man is a fool to go out of 
 his way for any of yo' white folks anyway. Yo' had no 
 right to aim to drive through our Company as yo' did; but 
 when I gave in and got out of yo'r "way, and let you go 
 'long — gave yo' the road that b'longed to us — yo' just come 
 heah with such a lie as that against us." 
 
 " Captain, I don't want you to treat my court with con- 
 tempt," said Rives, severely. " If you can't address the 
 gentleman more politely you must sit down." 
 
 " Judge, I don't mean no contempt," said Doc, in a con- 
 ciliatory tone, " not if I know myself. I never expect to 
 treat no lawful court with any contempt. I was only ask- 
 ing questions, but if the questions is not legal, then I don't 
 want to ask him. I M'on't ask no mo', but leave it to yo'r 
 discretion," and he sat down. 
 
 " Well, sir, to sit down without permission is contempt 
 of court." 
 
 With such an air of drollery as only a negro can assume. 
 Doc sprung to his feet again, saying — 
 
68 OTHER FOOLS A^^) THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 " Yo' mus' pardon me sab. I's not accustomed to law 
 offices. If sitting down or anything else is contempt, I'm 
 asking yo'r j^ardon this minute; for I didn't mean to con- 
 tempt this court." 
 
 " It is contempt, sirl" thundered the judge, and I put 
 you under arrest, and dismiss this court till July the 8th 
 at four o'clock in the evening." 
 
 Some protestations were made on account of the lateness 
 of the hour, but Rives insisted be could not leave his plan- 
 tation labor earlier, and immediately declared the court 
 adjourned. 
 
 Neither the day nor hour was satisfactory to the com- 
 plainants, as it was on Saturday afternoon, when many 
 country negroes were certain to visit the village shops, 
 stores, and market; but as the whites were more generally 
 masters of their own time, it is possible Rives feared he 
 might need the presence and support of his own race 
 should he not condemn the accused. 
 
 Harry Gaston was enraged and strutted about like a 
 bantam cock; his face became almost livid, and his hands 
 nervously bobbed in and out of the breast pockets of his 
 short coat, where rested a well-prepared pistol on one side, 
 and a flask of whiskey on the other. Alas, the flask knew 
 little rest. 
 
 " I pray you be calm, my dear nephew," said the Reverend 
 Mr. Mealy, who, though inwardly seething, was so en- 
 swathed in his own innate mealiness, that he was measur- 
 ably cool. "Do not allow this degraded black to disturb you. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 69 
 
 Remember your position in society. You have been raised 
 by me as my own son. Do not disgrace yourself and me 
 by condescending to dispute with one in his station, and of 
 his color," and grasping the young man's arm, he moved 
 towards the door. 
 
 Lieutenant AVatta, Avho had been sitting beside his Cap- 
 tain, now sprung to his feet, and grasping Doc's arm, 
 rushod towards the door, attempting to lead him out. 
 
 Doc, however, hung back, and having extricated himself, 
 said in a low tone, " Watta, keep cool!" and he sat down 
 again. 
 
 "I won't keep cool!" retorted the lieutenant. This white- 
 livered judge has shown partiality. Look at the arms in 
 this courtroom! and Rives is afraid!" (with a sneer.) "They 
 may shed my blood if they can, but I won't keep still and 
 see my captain arrested for contempt just because in quest- 
 tioning, he got ahead of these unrebuked and cowardly bul- 
 lies when you humbled us all, on the Fourth of July, to avoid 
 a fuss and concilliate their lordships;" and the enraged man 
 strode out of the building, threw the gate back upon its 
 hinges, and standing in the opening thus made, drew him- 
 self to his full hight, and threw out his empty palms ex- 
 claiming 
 
 "I carry no arms; but we've got arms." 
 
 "Yes, you've got arms, but you'll see how it'll be 
 yourselves ! " said Hanson Baker, who had been ha- 
 ranguing the people outside the court house. " There's 
 a fellow from Texas here, two or more of 'em, and they're 
 
^0 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 going to kill that Town Marshall, and nobody isn't going 
 to know who done it, and then they'll leave." 
 
 ""What does he or they know about John Carr, the Mar- 
 shall?" asked a very large, but irresolute-looking black man. 
 
 " He's been informed of his character, and I tell you 
 John Carr won't be living in this town three months, neither 
 will some o' the rest.*' 
 
 " How about that Harmony Case ?" asked the same voice 
 (a case of massacre of blacks). 
 
 "Well, I wasn't there, but they done it, and there's a 
 programme laid down for the white folks this year." 
 
 " That is wu'ong," said a voice. 
 
 "Well, if it is wrong, it is no matter; it'll be done all the 
 same. There is no law- s now. 
 
 " Ha ! ha !" laughed the crowd, the whites applauding, 
 and the blacks deriding the threats. 
 
 " Does yo' pretend to say there a'n't no law in the State 
 now?" 
 
 "Xo, there a'n't no law" in this State, nor an}^ other State. 
 It's been a hundred years since the Constitution of the 
 United States, and it's played out now, and every man can 
 do as he likes. We're going to get Chamberlain and his 
 crowd out o' the State House." 
 
 "How about Grant ? You know he's President." 
 
 "By ! we'll have him too." 
 
 " Take care, that is treason," said another. 
 
 Harrison Baker and Watta proceeded, each with his har- 
 angue, and paid no heed to each other, till the plaintiffs 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 71 
 
 and their friends crowded out of the building, pistols in 
 hand, ready for instantaneous use. 
 
 A frightened old mammy bawled out, with great eyes 
 rolling, and groat hands waving, "See the pistols and guns! 
 See the pistols and guns! Oh, Lor'! they ort to be shot 
 down theirselves!" but the next instant she cowered under 
 the same fierce gaze of the '' old man Baker," which had 
 made many a stalwart runaway stand tamely after the dogs 
 were taken off and while the shackles were put on. 
 
 *' Uncle, Uncle, let me go," said Gaston impatiently, striv- 
 ing to free himself from that worthy's grasp, " I want to 
 shut that yellow chap's month with this little bit of lead. 
 The judge ought to arrest lam, but I'll take his case if 
 you'll let me go, I'll give him a mouthful to chaw!" 
 
 "Shut my mouth, would you?" retorted Watta, who had 
 caught the words as the two men approached the door. 
 "You'll find that hard business before you are through with 
 it, if you try. The whites have ruhd us lomx enouo-h. 
 Two hundred and fifty years they bought and sold us like 
 cattle, till the United States set us free; and since then, 
 colored citizens have been tied and wliipped, and shot, and 
 murdered in cold blood, and driven from their homes, and 
 their property destroyed, to this day. But it is all no mat- 
 ter here before this white-livered judge. It'll take a regi- 
 ment to tie and whip me, or spill what black blood 2 
 have." 
 
 " Do not speak to him, my nephew," said the Rev. Mr. 
 Mealy. 
 
72 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 "A regimenti" cried Gaston, with a sneer. "Let me go 
 and whip liini myself;" but the readiness with which lie 
 yielded to the pressure of his uncle's hands, was amusingly 
 in contrast with his wdrds. 
 
 " We will have this matter settled by law now, and know 
 whether we are to be run over in this way. AVe Mill 
 know which are to rule this place — the blacks or the wliites," 
 said Rev. Mr.Mealy. " We'll know what rights this militia 
 company have. They liave got an idea that they can do 
 whatever they please. We'll have it settled now." 
 
 "This court is a mockery of justice," continued Watta. 
 " Look at those arms on the side of wealth, and an unarmed 
 poor man arrested for contempt, because he has a dark skin 
 and cornered his opponent by lawful questions. The next 
 time a white swell rides into our ranks while we are on 
 parade we will see that he doesn't take us to court for ob- 
 structing his way," 
 
 Rev. Mr. Mealy, Dr. Shall, and General Rives were 
 active and nearest in efforts to control the now highly in- 
 censed Baker family and Gaston; and an influential colored 
 man succeeded in getting Watta out of the street. With 
 deep muttered threats and oaths, the Bakers' and their 
 friends at length betook themselves to their conveyances 
 and their homes. 
 
 Captain Doc conversed with the constable, in the justice's 
 office, while the latter official went to his dinner and re- 
 turned. Re-entering, Rives approached, and extending his 
 hand said good-humored Iv, " Shake hands Doc." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. Y3 
 
 "I dou't know," replied be, with averted eyes. 
 
 " Yes, you will. I couldn't help it. You was bearing 
 on so bard that they would have shot you in two minutes 
 more. I did it to save you." 
 
 *^Is that so, judge?" Then here's my band. I didn't 
 mean no contempt; but if I've contempted you, or your 
 court I'm sorry." 
 
 "That's all right now, and I'll remit the line. Now let 
 me tell you, 3''ou'd best settle this matter somehow, if it is 
 possible. I'm afraid trouble will come of this. I wish 
 Watta had 'a' kept still." 
 
 " So do I. He's a marked man now, shor', and his life 
 an't worth much," said Nat Wellman, the constable. 
 
 " Settle it?" said Capt. Doc. "Major Gener.il Rives, noth- 
 ing will settle it but to let the company be broken up. I 
 won't do that, and my oath to the State, that I have taken as 
 Captain, wouldn't let me if I wanted to." 
 
 " I can't see the end of this yet, I can't" said the Judge, 
 with a sigh, as the trio separated. 
 
74 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PREPAEATIOXS. 
 
 " Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world. 
 Like a Colossus; and wc petty men 
 Walk under his huge legs, and peep about 
 To find ourselves dishonorable graves. " 
 
 Casca, in Julius Caesar. 
 
 The 8th of July, 1876, was an exceedingly hot day, 
 and few white residents of the State of South Carolina 
 ventured out of doors in the hotter hours, though, as is 
 usual, the colored race needed less caution to avoid sun- 
 stroke. 
 
 About nine o'clock, A. M., two gentlemen issued from an 
 attractive residence, which was situated on a slight emin- 
 ence on the outskirts of a little village called Enfield Court- 
 House. Leaving the broad piazza, they walked leisurely 
 down the gently sloj^ing lawn to the street. As they 
 closed the gate behind them a covered buggy passed, in 
 which was seated a middle-aged man who bore a decidedly 
 commanding air. ^ 
 
 His hat lay upon the seat beside him, and the light hot 
 breeze lifted the long iron-gray hair which lay upon 
 his shoulders, and fluttered his linen duster and the loose 
 flapping curtains of the carriage with a cool and comfort- 
 able appearance. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. Y5 
 
 His horse was fresh, and so spirited that the neatly- 
 o-lovcd hauds of the gentleman were well-exercised in con- 
 trolling him. 
 
 He found time to gaze at the two gentlemen iii»on the 
 ground, however, but gave no sign of recognition, save 
 possibly a little more lofty elevation of the head. 
 
 "The General is off on professional business, judging 
 from his manner and duster," remarked the elder of the 
 two pedestrians. 
 
 "I often find it hard to repress a smile, even in his pres- 
 ence, at his icojidroics pomj^osity. What kind of a busi- 
 ness would he do in the Korth — Ohio, say — with all his airs? 
 He would'nt have a client." 
 
 " Oh, yes, he would. There are plenty of people every- 
 where, who never know what estimate to put upon others 
 till they, or some one else tell them. But the General's 
 "airs," as you call them, are his stock in trade here." 
 
 Both men laughed heartily. 
 
 "But to think of a man passing his neighbor and State 
 Senator as he did you, Mr. Cone! He should respect your 
 office, at least." 
 
 "Ahl that's what he does not do when a radical Is the 
 incumbent. He was once quite condescending and affable 
 to me, when I let politics and education alone, and didn't 
 meddle with them at all." 
 
 "Meddle: Senator! Who has abetter right than you 
 to take an interest in politics?" 
 
 "Young man you forget yourself, you must learn meek- 
 
76 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 ness and discretion — not to put too line a point on it — or 
 you will get into trouble." 
 
 " But we are immensely in the majority, — the State is 
 really in our hands. Why should we cringle and bow to 
 this haughty minority just because the blood of their 
 families, is in our veins, mixed with various proportions of 
 African?' 
 
 "But you're a "nigger!" 
 
 " True, and they used to say that black men had no 
 rights that white men were bound to respect. That was 
 their day. This is ours." 
 
 " Ah, but I want a better pattern for my life than they 
 have been. I say, because we are in the majority, let us 
 take all the honors and offices we can, but wear them 
 meekly for our safety's sake, and fill them honorably for 
 conscience's sake. Good morning!" and the twain sepa- 
 rated to go, the one to his law studies, and the other to his 
 duties as planter and legislator. 
 
 We will accompany the General. Right tbrough the 
 torrid heat he kept on, over hill and valley, only stopping 
 occasionally to cool his reeking horse in the shade of some 
 friendly tree, or to converse with some white man whose 
 house he entered briefly, or whom he beckoned to his car- 
 riage if within call. 
 
 At length he descended a long hill, and, reining his 
 horse below the bridge, he drove into a small stream, 
 wliere, in tlie shade of some overhanging trees, he paused 
 a few moments, allowing his horse to drink while be hastily 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 77 
 
 pencilled a few ligures in his notebook. Adding them up 
 lie shook his head thoughtfully, and said, in a low tone: 
 "That will not do. AVhieh uny next ?" 
 
 On looking up, he descried a horseman descending the 
 hill before him. Driving out of the water, and regaining 
 the road, he awaited his approach. 
 
 "Howdy do, General?" said the equestrian, pausing 
 beside the carriage. " Hot day this." 
 
 " Infernally hot, Dr. Wise I" and he grasped the extended 
 hand, as he wiped the perspiration from his face and neck 
 with his left, and, though apparently irritated by the heat, 
 he shook hands cordially. 
 
 " It is hot here, hot as that hottest of all places, and I 
 hear they are going to have that over here in Baconsville 
 pretty soon ; I hear so," and the Doctor shook his fat sides 
 with a chuckling laugh, adding: "You naust have import- 
 ant business to call you out to-day." 
 
 "It is quite important, quite,'^ replied General Baker. 
 "I have got a suit on hand in Baconsville that is quite 
 important, and if that other place you are talking about 
 comes there, I hope I shall not find it hotter than this hol- 
 low is. Xiggers may stand it, but I cannot." 
 
 Both gentlemen were delighted and laughed loudly. 
 
 "Tve just come from there," said Dr. Wise. 
 
 " From where — Baconsville? or the other hot place?" 
 
 " Oh, from Baconsville," replied the medical man, laugh- 
 ing. " I couldn't have got away from the other place with 
 all this fat," 
 
78 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 The laugh again subsiding, he continued: "You see I 
 have a patient I am watching over there; and being in the 
 neighborhood, was called in to see two or three of the bet- 
 ter class of colored people. I'm afraid you'll have trouble, 
 there, at that suit. The niggers are sauc}", and very angry 
 about that collision between the Bakers and the militia." 
 
 " Well, Doctor, the colored people in South Carolina have 
 become so insolent and insurrectionary, and intractable, and 
 have taken on so many intolerable airs, that they must be 
 made to know their places. You will see their wenches on 
 the streets of Augusta and Charleston, and all our cities, 
 with their "pin-backs" and "button shoes," and "bus- 
 tles," and indeed imitating our ladies in everything; and 
 they even act as though they expected a white man to step 
 aside and let them pass, as if they were the ladies them- 
 selves. I saw an affair in Charleston the other day that 
 made my blood hoil^ and I involuntarily laid my hand 
 upon my pistol, but fortunately I was preserved from using 
 it. 
 
 "Three great black — creatures, I suppose I must call 
 them men — were walking up the street, and met three 
 young ladies whom I know to be members of one of our 
 best families. What do you think but that these impudent 
 brutes actually crowded our ladies into the gutter — made 
 them actually step off the pavement for want of room to 
 pass ! Quite fortunately the ditch was dry, and not deep 
 — four or five inches, at most. But such indignities are too 
 great a tax on the forbearance of a gentleman of gallantry! 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 79 
 
 Only one of the ladies actually stepped off, but then, time 
 was when I could have blown out the brains of all three of 
 the rascals, and the community and the State would have 
 sustained me. But those were days of " home rule." Alas! 
 when shall we ever see them again! 
 
 " I do not know what they are meditating at Baconsville, 
 but I hear they have been performing military evolutions, 
 with arms in their hands, two or three times a week, 
 recently, and at night too; and I am called over to put a 
 stop to it. AVhy, we are not safe in our beds! It is one 
 of the atrocities of our carpet-bag government that they 
 are allowed arms at all, and now they have attacked our 
 people." 
 
 " Xow, you don't say so. General!" exclaimed the Doctor, 
 
 "To be sure! This case of mine would bear that con- 
 struction; though Mr. Robert Baker has, in the absence of 
 counsel, very mildly, and I fear unwisely, put it on the 
 ground of 'obstructing the highway.' He might have 
 made a case much stronger, for they obstructed the way 
 with tlieir guns and bayonets, and Gaston says some of 
 them, at least, were seen to load their guns on the spot." 
 
 "It is a case of positive violence, then, and insurrec- 
 tion?" 
 
 "Oh, positive insubordination," said the General, with 
 great emphasis and indignation. " And they have been 
 making such threats that I'm called over to see if there is 
 any redress possible — any law or means by which they, can 
 be restrained." 
 
80 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 "If anybody can straighten them out, yo?^ can, General ; 
 whether it is to he done by Law or hy force of arms. We 
 haven't forgotten your record in the Confederate service. 
 But have you no help? You will need backing, I fear." 
 
 "I have called upon several gentlemen along the way, 
 and interested them and their clubs, I think; and the club at 
 Enfield promise to come over to my assistance one hundred 
 strong at least. But I have just been computing and could 
 desire even a larger force, especially should the Judge de- 
 cide adversely to us; for something must be done to insure 
 our protection. I confess I feel some concern." 
 
 " On reflection, I think you need not, General, for the 
 community is fully aroused by a report that the negroes 
 intend to mob those young men." 
 
 "MobthemI" ejaculated General Baker, with an oath. 
 " They will scarcely dare to do that. They know my mili- 
 tary reputation too well to try that, and I shall be prepared 
 for them, now that you have kindly forewarned me. But to 
 be so Doctor, 1 must bid you good-day, and hasten forward, 
 for a good seven miles lies before me yet." 
 
 "I have great confidence in your ability to command suc- 
 cess, and am sure the darkies have a wholesome respect for 
 the same. So, wishing you all success, I also bid you 
 good-day." 
 
 The General now called more frequently upon the white 
 people along the way, but soon found them anticipating his 
 coming and ready to join him soon; forming quite an escort 
 of cavalry as they proceeded. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 81 
 
 It was two o'clock and intenselj hot when they arrived 
 at Sommer Ilil], and found about one hundred and fifty 
 men grouped in the shade of two wide-spreading oak trees 
 near a church there, and around a grog shop opposite. 
 
 Tlie General's arrival was greeted with three cheers, three 
 times repeated, and three ^'tigers;" and the men, anxious to 
 do him honor, pressed around his carriage to shake his 
 hand and assure him that they still cherished the recollec- 
 tions of his gallantry on behalf of the "lost cause." 
 
 Though quite animated, this scene was brief, for courte- 
 ously declining the scores of invitations to " drink," Gen- 
 eral Baker informed his followers that the call to duty was 
 still more imperative to his mind than those to eat or 
 drink, and he must hasten forward to consult with his cli- 
 ents before the hour for court arrived. 
 
 Directing them to remain there till signaled, and to keep 
 an outlook from the brow of the hill overlooking Bacons- 
 ville, two miles away, he bravely rode thitherward entire- 
 ly unattended, notwithstanding the earnest protestations 
 of his numerous friends. 
 
 " So brave a man who can decline such entreaties to drink, 
 and as gracefully as the General did, ought to be at the 
 head of a temperance society," said a young man, lounging 
 near the church. 
 
 "That's so, Jimminy!" replied a comrade. "Wonder if 
 he isn't. 
 
 " I'm afraid not. I suppose he takes his wine, and jjrob- 
 ably something stronger sometimes; though he wants a cool 
 
82 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 head now. I wish those fellows over there wouldn't drink 
 so. I'm for breaking up the nigger militia; but we want 
 eool heads for it. We can scare the niggers out of it if we 
 work it right, and all keep sober." 
 
 " That's what I think, but you see already how it will be. 
 I would go home and give it up, but they'll say I was 
 afraid. I don't want to get into no collisions with the 
 United States, for my part; and if a lot of them get drunk, 
 I'm afraid something will be done that will lead to that." 
 
 Less than half a mile from where this conversation was 
 passing, Harry Gaston sat in his shady porch. 
 
 " Don't set there doing nothing but watching," said a 
 tall lean young woman who sat just inside of the door, 
 busying herself by rocking in an easy chair. " The Gen- 
 eral will think yo' reckon on 'im awfully, an' he's conceited 
 enough now, mercy knows ! There, take them old papers 
 of yo're uncle's, and make as if yo' was studying politics on 
 yo' own hook;" and she tossed a handful of newspapers 
 upon the floor beside him. 
 
 He took up a copy of that celebrated democratic organ 
 of the South, the Charleston JVeicsand Courier, dated May, 
 1875, and read — 
 
 "Governor Chamberlain richly deserves the confidence 
 of the people of this State. The people of South Carolina, 
 who have all at stake, who see and hear what persons out- 
 side the State cannot know, are satisfied with his honesty. 
 They believe in him as well they may." 
 
 "Bah! the contemptible carpet-bagger!" said Gaston, 
 
Other fools and their doings. 83 
 
 dashing the paper on the floor; and picking up another, 
 dated February, 1876, he read again — 
 
 " We believe that, without regard to consequences or to 
 his party, ho (the Governor) will go on in the narrow path 
 of right." 
 
 xVnother — '^January, ISTG. In South Carolina the con- 
 spicuous leader in the fight for reform, the one man wlio 
 has made reform possible at an early day, is Governor 
 Cliamberlain, whose election was the greatest blessino- in 
 disguise that this people has ever known." 
 
 "The greatest curse!" exclaimed Gaston kicking the 
 paper off the porch. 
 
 " That the Courier ?'' drawled Mrs. Gaston. ** I thought 
 that used to be the best paper in the South — true to the 
 Confederacy all through the war. Has it gone over to the 
 Radicals ?" 
 
 " It don't pretend so, but it has been bribed, I reckon." 
 
 A voice from the highway, now called the husband 
 away to hold a brief colloquy with General Baker. 
 
 " My horse is very tired and warm, and I myself am in 
 need of refreshment; so, Mr. Gaston, I shall be obliged if 
 you will strike across the fields and notify your father-in- 
 law of my arrival, and bring him and your brother-in-law, 
 Tom, to the store of Mr. Dunn to meet me for conference 
 about the suit we have in hand," and the great man drove on. 
 
 " Mary, General Baker wants me to go across the fields 
 to your father's for him," said the young man, with a de- 
 mure countenance, on re-entering the house. 
 
84r OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 " VTeW, I reckon yo' won't do no sucli a thing !" she re- 
 plied, forcibly. " A mighty easy thing it would be for 
 some nigger to pop you over, and nobody to see. Yo' 
 won't go that way." 
 
 " I'll just gallop down the other road and get to the vil- 
 lage ahead o' the General; Tom's thar', we can go together 
 after the old man; though T a'n't afraid of the niggers." 
 
 "See! see! Meester Dunn," said that worthy's helpful 
 " frau," as they sat at their dinner in a room immediately 
 in the rear of their grocery. " Dar is Shinneral Paker from 
 Eneiield, an' er pe shtopping right here! Pe quick, now. 
 My laws! but dis vill pe ine goot ebening by de bar! De 
 Shenneral shtop 'ere, an' all de gem'mans and companies 
 come, too! Hurry, now Shorge!" 
 
 " Dat alle right now. I fix 'm mit ole Bob gester-tag," 
 said the shrewd though moderate husband, George, arising 
 from the table, and shuffling through the glass door by 
 which the dining-room and grocery (or more accurately 
 groggery)^ communicated, he greeted the great militar}^ 
 dignity with a volume of broken English that was almost 
 incomprehensible. 
 
 Shaking the dust from his apparel, the distinguished 
 guest ordered food and drink for his beast, after time given 
 him to cool; adding that he would refresh himself while 
 M'aiting for the appearance of his clients. 
 
 "Alle riirht! allc ris^ht! De ole voman vill serve vou," 
 replied Dunn, as he followed his colored servant and the 
 wearv horse to the stables. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 86 
 
 Gaston and Tommy were by tliis time crossing the great 
 truck-farm of Robert Baker, every rood of which was pur- 
 chased with the earnings of trained blood-hounds, chasing 
 fugitives from justice or labor, and mainly the lattei. 
 
 In a sag of land, between the hills on the right and the 
 river on the left, was a brickyard, in the office of Avhich 
 Mr. Robert Baker and his son Hanson were found. 
 
 The four men were soon e/i route for Baconsville. A 
 colored boy, bound apjDrentice to the older Baker, skulked 
 along the crooked fence by the wayside. 
 
 " Joe," said the old man, stopping the horse, "Joe, come 
 here." The personal appearance and reputation of the old 
 man, and recollections of a recent chastisement for drum- 
 ming for the militia company, made little Joe's dark skin 
 quiver as he timidly approached the vehicle. 
 
 " Get in," said the same gruff voice, as room was made 
 for the child at Baker's feet, where he gathered himself 
 into the smallest possible ball, from which two great, soft, 
 timid eyes looked from one face to another, and from the two 
 glittering guns of the young men who rode on either side, 
 and the pistol-shaped lumps on the left breasts of their thin 
 coats, to the breasts of the two men fronting him in the 
 carriage, where he could see two more bright and shining 
 "nine-shooters" peeping out. 
 
 The wind presently raised a paper from a basket stand- 
 ing beside him, and disclosed two great horse-pistols lying 
 on a clean white napkin. 
 
 " I wonder is dev o-woine to shoot Doc and Watta wid 
 
86 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 dem 'ar', as Ned Dunn said dey is ?" thought the child. 
 "Dat looks like dar's a mighty nice lunch undah 'era, any- 
 how?" 
 
 Hanson Baker jerked the lap-robe from his knees, and 
 covered the basket from view. 
 
 They soon reached Dunn's store, and alighted, and re- 
 moving the basket, bade. Joe return with the horse and 
 carriage, and remember to stay there closely. 
 
 As tliey sat in close conversation in the back part of that 
 groggery, while the General partook of the " nice lunch" 
 the basket did contain, it was plain that " Old Bob Baker, 
 the slave catcher," and the aristocratic General had little 
 in common except their patronymic and their political 
 opinions and ideas. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOIXGS. 87 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CLOUD THICKENS. 
 
 " Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look; 
 
 He thinks too much : such men are dangerous. 
 
 Fear him not, Caesar, he's not dangerous ; 
 
 He is a noble Roman and well given." 
 
 — Julius C^sar. 
 The State of South Carolina was settled by political 
 refugees and desperadoes of every description and from 
 every nation, with no unity of ideas or interests; and 
 African slavery was introduced but two years after the 
 first settlement had secured a permanent footing. Hence, 
 arrogance and oppression, rapacity and murder, early 
 became the rule and occupation of the people. 
 
 The existence and perpetuation of slavery during more 
 than eight generations caused and necessitated an arrest of 
 progress in civilization, and the war which resulted in the 
 emancipation of the slaves and the re-establishment of the 
 Union, found the whites in several of the Southern States, 
 in many respects not far in advance of the people of Eng- 
 land in the sixteenth century ; and as those feudalistic and 
 inharmonious families — the descendants of the earliest set- 
 tlers — are still recognized as "the first families," the "aris- 
 tocracy of the State " — in the year of our Lord 1876, and 
 of the Republic one hundred — boasting and bravado were 
 accomplishments ostentatiously displayed there, and often 
 
88 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 sustained by such brutal assault and lawless violence and 
 outrage, as those of the worst days of feudalism. 
 
 This state of society alone explains the temerity of the 
 threats and preparations for violence, and their fearful 
 consummation, which blacken the history of the Republic's 
 centennial year. 
 
 While Robert Baker and his sons were in Dunn's grog- 
 gery, informing their counsel respecting the particulars of 
 the suit he was about to conduct for them, many exciting 
 scenes were transpiring in the vicinity, and the streets of 
 the doomed village were becoming lively with the presence 
 of armed men, who were freely imbibing whisky, and 
 
 threatening to " kill every nigger in Baconsville that 
 
 day." Especially loud and frequent were the threats 
 against the Captain and Second Lieutenant of the militia 
 company. 
 
 As soon as half-jjast three o'clock, quite a crowd had 
 gathered around George Dunn's store, and the bar was evi- 
 dently reaping the rich harvest Mrs. D. had anticipated ; 
 while with loud and excessively revolting profanity, the 
 case shortly to be tried was canvassed, and rumors of a 
 *' negro insurrection " rehearsed. 
 
 " Who is that coming ?" asked one, as a quiet man of 
 medium size approached. 
 
 " Oh, that is Judge Kanrasp of the county seat, he is 
 a cursed Xorthern Republican," was the reply, accompa- 
 nied by a shocking oath. 
 
 The wrathful eyes of the entire crowd were fi^d upon 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 89 
 
 him as he came up, and, entering the store, approaclied the 
 place where the two Bakers sat, and addressing the Gen- 
 eral said, " Mr. Gaston informed me that you wished to see 
 me." 
 
 This was not his first interview with Mr. Robert Baker 
 in connection with this difficulty. The latter had stopped 
 him that morning upon the streets of the city opposite, to 
 speak of the pending trial. 
 
 The Judge had then stated his opinion that Gaston's 
 testimony had thus far developed no legal case against the 
 colored men, and urged the abandonment of the case, as to 
 push it further, would merely excite ill-feeling between the 
 two races at a time when it was most undesirable — at the 
 commencement of a political campaign — and even should 
 the plaintiffs secure a judgment, it was a matter which 
 could be appealed, and in a higher court their case could 
 not stand a moment. 
 
 " I shall do no such thing," replied Mr. Baker. " The 
 negroes of Baconsville have been very offensive ; they 
 have interfered with my sons, and I am determined that 
 they shall he punished. The case shcdl he prosecxded^ and 
 so far as any feeling is concerned, I don't care for that. 
 Some of my friends and neighbors from the country have 
 been informed that the trial will take place this evening, 
 and they will be present, not less than twenty-five or thi'rty 
 of them." 
 
 " Mr. Baker, perhaps there will be two or three hun- 
 iired," said Kanrasp. 
 
90 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 *' Well, yes (with an oath), two or three thousand I " and 
 the two men separated, and the Judge at once crossed the 
 river to Baconsville, and confidentially communicated all 
 to a discreet colored man there, in whose cool, quiet deter- 
 mination he had great confidence ; commissioning him to 
 see the oflScers of the militia company, and instruct them 
 to jiresent themselves at the Court, submit to judgmonl 
 whatever it might be, and then, by an appeal to a higher 
 court, find an easy way out of the difficulty ; as the " pre- 
 cept" or informal paper which had been served ujion them, 
 must cause the judgment to fail there ; and stating that in 
 case of an attempted defense before Justice Rives, he 
 api^reh ended serious trouble from the throng that would 
 undoubtedly be present. 
 
 Other important business detained both Kanrasp and 
 his influential friend Springer till the middle of the after- 
 noon, when, on re-entering the street, they saw the village 
 thickly besprinkled with squads of men from the rifle clubs 
 of the vicinity. These clubs or military companies existed 
 in open defiance of law and the Governor's prohibitive 
 proclamation. 
 
 " This looks like trouble," "said Judge Kanrasp to his 
 friend. " Strange way to attend a simple trial I Xow go 
 right up and see those officers immediately^ and urge 
 them to be on hand at court, and stand judgment." So 
 saying he went to Marmor's office upon other business, 
 where Gaston soon rode up, bringing Gen. Baker's request 
 for the interview, to which we find him responding. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 91 
 
 *• I am here to represent ray cousin, Mr. Robert Baker, 
 in this matter," said the General, "and wish you, Mr. Kan- 
 rasp, to sit down and tell mo what it is." 
 
 Judge K. complied, adding the advice he had given his 
 clients. 
 
 " AVe have been annoyed a great deal by the negroes 
 about here, and I am determined to get satisfaction, and 
 Gen. Baker has been brought here as my attorney, to see 
 that satisfaction is given us," said Robert Baker, in a loud 
 and vehement tone. 
 
 '' Now, Judge Kanrasp," said the General, " will you not 
 go and see those officers of this company and request them 
 to call upon me ? I desire to tell them what I think is 
 necessary for them to do to prevent the possibility of dif- 
 ficulty in the future. A great deal of feeling has been 
 growing between Mr. Robert Baker's family and immedi- 
 ate neighbors, and these colored people in Baconsville." 
 
 " What proposition do you make them ?" 
 
 " Well, I think it will be necessary for them to apologize 
 to my cousin and surrender their arms." 
 
 As he did not say to whom their arms should be sur- 
 rendered, the Judge replied 
 
 " Well, General, you know I am, like yourself, merely an 
 incident in Baconsville; and whilst I have, of course, a cer- 
 tain amount of influence with the colored people, on 
 account of my political aflQliations with them, I cannot 
 undertake to say that they will respond to your request. I 
 will do what I can to induce them to do so. But suppose 
 
92 OTHER rO()]/, . THEIlt DOINGS. 
 
 these negotiations and propositions fail, is it likely that 
 that there will be a collision?" 
 
 ''I think there will." 
 
 "Well, as I am one of a very few white 'radicals' 
 here, if a collision takes place I suppose I shall stand a 
 pretty poor chance." 
 
 "I have no doubt that you will." 
 
 Shortly after Judge K. left Mr. Marnior's office (which 
 adjoined his dwelling), Capt. Doc, Lieut. AVatta, Mr. 
 Springer and Rev. Mr. Jackson (the Legislative member 
 who had delivered the oration on the 4th), entered. Mr. 
 Jackson was much excited, and walked up and down the 
 room, interlarding questions and ejaculations and prayers 
 quite promiscuously; unheeding the kindly solicitude of a 
 bright little boy of live years, with shining auburn ringlets, 
 and great, soft, spiritual eyes, which looked eagerly towards 
 "the Elder's" face as he went tugging a large Bible back 
 and forth behind him. 
 
 " Ha ! Jackson, hear that boy now," said Doc. " The 
 child is the best Christian of the two, come to the pinch." 
 
 "What? What was you saying Doc?" asked the Rev- 
 erend Honorable. 
 
 " Why, just see what that boy has got, and hear what 
 he's savinix. IIo don't scare worth a cent. Do you Bub ? 
 You'll make a soldier some day, won't you ?" 
 
 " Ko sir, I reckon I won't, cause soldiers kill. ' Thou 
 shalt not kill.' Tliat's the sixth commandment." 
 
 " What about the book, sonnv, asked Elder Jackson. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 93 
 
 "My Sunday school teaclier says wlien I'm afraid, I 
 must ask God what to do; and tliis is His letter, He wrote 
 it. It's big," tugging to raise it to the level of the man's 
 hand. 
 
 The Elder took the Bible, sat down, drew the child to 
 his side, oi-)ened it at random, and read, Isaiah xviii : 7 : 
 '•In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of 
 hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people 
 terrible from their beginning liitherto; a nation meted 'out 
 and trodden under foot, whose laud the rivers have spoiled, 
 to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the Mount 
 Zion." 
 
 He closed the book muttering, " Yes, the freshet came 
 clear up to the church, clear up to the church." 
 
 "The whole matter is that the Bakers are determined to 
 break up this drilling," said Marmor. " You're too good a 
 drill master. Doc. The old man himself told me that it was 
 wrong, and that the niggers shouldn't have no militia com- 
 pau}', and that it was wrong for you to drill by moonlight. 
 I told him that the white militia over here in Georo-ia 
 drilled on the streets every night. 'Well, it's wrong for the 
 niggers to drill at all^ says he." 
 
 "Well, now, it does 'pear to me like the white folks is de- 
 termined to put the devil into the colored people's heads 
 anyhow. Xow. we're honest in this m.atter, and only want 
 to have a nice militia company like the white folks does, 
 and like free citizens has got a right to, and to protect the 
 State when it needs it and the Governor calls for us; but 
 
94 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 they just goes to work, and by talking about what they 
 pretend the colored jDeople is a going, or intending to do, 
 they just makes the colored people mad, and puts these bad 
 ideas into their heads, and by-and-by the colored people, 
 maybe will get courage enough to undertake to do. as they 
 is really instructing us to do. And then there's more'n 
 that in it too. Mor'ntwo months ago Hanson Baker tole me 
 and John Peters, Press Wells, and John Bade, and if I mis- 
 take not, Lem Panesly, that the Democrats had made it up 
 in their own minds, and they had gone over the State, and 
 also had about thirty men from Texas and Mississippi to 
 come into this State, and they were feeding them, and or- 
 ganizing all the white men into certain different clubs; and 
 before election that there had to be a certain number of 
 negroes killed — leading men; and if after that they found 
 out they couldn't carry the State that way, they was 
 gwoinc to kill enough so that they could carry the major- 
 ity. He said it is a fact that that has to be done, and he 
 said in the presence of these men, that it had to start right 
 here in Baconsville. He said Baconsville is the leading 
 place in the county (for the niggers, you know), and if 
 they could be successful in killing them that they wanted 
 to in Baconsville, they could carry the county; but the 
 same has to be done in all the counties, that there was no 
 way to prevent it. I told him we had some laws, and a 
 Governor and a President He says he didn't belong to 
 none o' the clubs, and hadn't nothing to do with it, but it 
 would be done, shor. I says, ' Suppose the colored men 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 95 
 
 liave ;i poll to tlieraselves, and the white men to them- 
 selves,' and he said, 'It don't make a bito' difference what 
 sort o' polls tlioy have; it is the voting Ave want to stop; 
 and these voting niggers has got to be killed. The white 
 men lias declared that the State has got to be ruled by 
 white men again, and we have got to have just such a gov- 
 ernment as we had before the war; and when we git it, all 
 the poor men and the niggers has got to be disfranchised, 
 and the rich men will rule! And he tole me then that our 
 town marshal, John Carr and Dan will certainly be killed. 
 I asked why? and he said there was plenty of men that 
 had plenty against them, and they would kill them shor. 
 Says I, '31r. Baker will I be in that number?' he says, 
 ' No, I don't know whether yo'r name is down or no, but it 
 depends on how yo' behave yo'self.' He'd been drinkino- 
 some, or he wouldn't ha' been so free to tell. Well, then I 
 received a note the other day— a letter with my name, and 
 specifying a dozen or more in this neighborhood that have 
 to be killed; and Iioas shor to be killed. Now, this is the 
 beginning of it shor. They want to disband this company 
 so that the Governor won't have nothing to call on to put 
 them down, and we can't get no protection till the United 
 States can send soldiers from somewhere, after we can get 
 word to the Governor, and he can git it to Grant. They 
 must think we're just cowards and fools if we'll let 'em 
 break us up, though I'll agree that the men ha'n't got much 
 fight in 'em, but I have, and I wish Mey had," and Captain 
 Doc tossed a newspaper to the extreme end of the room. 
 
96 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 "Scattered aiul peeledl" "Scattered and peeled!" said 
 the Elder, as he resumed his striding about the apartment. 
 
 Wliile these excited men thus conversed, there Avere 
 borne from the street to their ears the sound of blood-curd- 
 lincr oaths, and sliouts of "AVe'll carry the State about the 
 time M'e've killed four or five hundred of these niggers 
 and their carpet-bag cronies." 'We've got to have South 
 Carolina." "The white men have got to rule." "This shall 
 be a white man's c^ovcrnment ai^ain." 
 
 "Just hear that chap singing," said Marraor with a ghastly 
 smile: 
 
 "We're SToinar to redeem South Carolina to-day. This 
 is the beginning of the redemption of my Caroline." The 
 poor, maudlin fellow sat upon his horse near Ihe corner of 
 the street hard by, and improvised a lengthy political 
 madrigal evidently to his own exquisite delight. 
 
 "I reckon 3'ou'ye got the right of it Doc," said Marmor; 
 "the political side of this fuss swallows up all the rest. 
 The fuss on the Fourth, was only got up for making a spot 
 to strike at." 
 
 " AYell," said Doe, both goes together; for all the politics 
 they know is to put the niggers down, and themselves np 
 atop: and they are trying to fool the ignorant ones into 
 believing that the constitutions has all run out, so they 
 won't try to take the law on 'em." 
 
 "They'd better look out, or they may feel the law 
 themselves. If Chamberlain can't enforce it, there is a 
 United States, they'll find!" 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 9T 
 
 "I reckon so! I reckon so!" chimed in all present. 
 "Capt. Doc," said Elder Jackson, "you must remember 
 that it is not your own life and your company's lives that 
 is in danger, but that of every colored individual in town; and 
 the happiness and prosperity of all will be at their mercy 
 if a fight takes place; and so I beg you to come to terms 
 with Baker. Bend and apologize a little for the sake of 
 them that had nothing to do with the Fourth of July diffi- 
 culty." 
 
 "What can /do? Just tell me. I haven't failed to think 
 of that, I tell you. That part of it is the biggest trouble 
 to me now." 
 
 "It is Watt a that has offended them the most," said 
 Springer; "for he got so mad last Thursday. He's got too 
 much whife blood in him to stand their abuse, and he was 
 nigh about as abusive as Hanson Baker himself, that day. 
 It was all true enough what he said, but that didn't 
 make it no better for them to take." 
 
 "Now, BrptherWatta, just you go, as you know you 
 ought to, and acknowledge you ought to have kept your 
 temper, and that'll make the whole thing right, and Doc'll 
 apologize too," said the apparently confiding Elder. 
 
 " Do you think so? Well, suppose you come along with 
 us," said Watta, a slight veil of credulity scarcely con. 
 cealing a sarcasm that bordered upon contempt for the 
 Relf-loving simplicity of the Elder. " I'.l rather get on my 
 knees to them," he added more seriously, "bad as I hate 
 them, than have my wife and children as scared as they 
 
98 OTHER FOOLS ATsT) THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 are to-day. But I doubt the success of even that, unless I 
 would give them my gun, and promise to lie there, and let 
 them kick me when they chose, or shoot me if they like, 
 and I'm afraid my temper Avould rise then, if I didn't." 
 
 In defiance of fears, the men all laughed at the ludicrous 
 picture of this tall, genteel-appearing, light yellow r/entle- 
 7na7i, brimful of the same *' spirit " that fired some of the 
 noblest heroes the South ever boasted of, and in whose 
 veins coursed much of the same ancestral blood, crincring 
 in such a pusillanimous fashion. 
 
 " It is no time for fun," said Springer. " Will you go 
 with me J Adam Watta, and see General Baker?" 
 
 " If you say you think it'll do any good, I will go." 
 
 " You can but perish if you go," said Elder Jackson, 
 who was, like many another, very courageous for his neigh- 
 bors, and quite willing to bid them Godspeed in any efforts 
 for the safety of the town, including Elder J. and his pos- 
 sessions. 
 
 But the men paused in the doorway. " Ask a man to 
 run the gauntlet of all those armed and half-drunken ene- 
 mies? I tell you I can't do it; I'm not prepared to die, and 
 I sha'n't go. I conldi fight , but to go right into a crowd to 
 be murdered, I'm not ready," and Watta turned back. 
 Looking out upon the constantly increasing mob, Springer 
 did not urge him. 
 
 " I'm going to Prince Rives's house," said Doc, and strode 
 out of the office and down the street. 
 
 The cry of an infant was heard in an adjoining room. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THETR DOINGS. 99 
 
 followed by the sound of a rocking cradle, and the voice 
 of the little boy singing in chanting style, '* You must not 
 cry, little sister; for the wicked men is all agoing around 
 to kill all the little children, ' from two years old and un- 
 der,' and they will shoot your papa, and make your mam- 
 ma cry. So take this rattle and be still." 
 
 "Louie," called Marmor, from the office. "Don't say 
 such things. Xobody'll hurt yon, nor the baby. Where 
 is your mamma?" 
 
 ** She is here crying — sitting right here crying." 
 " The man arose quickly, and entered the room. " Why, 
 Jane," said he, " what are you crying about ? It will be 
 all settled, and there'll be no fuss. " 
 
 " Don't you wish you could make me believe that, when 
 you know you don't believe it yourself? I do wish you 
 would go away over to the city, and take the train some- 
 where. I know they will be after you. You know they 
 want you killed, because you are a radical leader; and now 
 will be their time." 
 
 "Do you suppose I- would go and leave you and the 
 children?" 
 
 " You know you couldn't defend us, and we don't need 
 it. We're a great deal safer w^ithout you than with you. 
 I should fret all the time for fear that you had fallen into 
 their hands, to be sure; but I know there is no chance for 
 you to escape death if you stay here." 
 
 Marmor returned to his office, and found that his friends 
 had all left. He saw them approaching Rives's house. 
 
100 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 TLere tliey found Captain Doc and the Trial Justice in 
 earhest conversation. 
 
 " I can't appear before your court, Judge Rives — not to- 
 day," said the captain; " for I feel that your court is un- 
 able to protect iny life, and I believe my life is unsafe. 1 
 am willing that yo' should go to work and draw up a bond, 
 that yo' think proper, and I am willing to give bonds to a 
 higher court, where I think my life will be safe. The rea- 
 son I come to yo' to tell yo', is because I don't want yo' to 
 suppose that I treat yo'r court with no disrespect by not 
 coming; but it is because I don't think my life is safe." 
 
 The Justice reflected. 
 
 "Well, you must use your own judgment," said he. "Of 
 course, if your life is unsafe, and if these men intend to 
 take your life, of course, I can't protect you. I haven't 
 protection enough to protect you ; my constables can't do 
 much I" 
 
 "That is my belief," replied Doc, "and for that reason 
 I don't want to go befo' yo'r court without yo' force me 
 to ; and then if I am killed, yo' will be responsible." 
 
 " You can use your own judgment. Captain. I shall go 
 to court at the proper time. Your name, of course, will 
 be called, and if you don't answer to your name — well, you 
 woii't he there to answer. It's a pity but this thing couldn't 
 be settled without going to court. I'm afraid once at the 
 court room it will be impossible to get along without 
 trouble." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 101 
 
 "Well, I want it settled," said Doc. "And I," "And I," 
 said the two Lieutenants. 
 
 " Well, then, suppose I go for you, and ask what will 
 give satisfaction,'' said Springer. 
 
 " All right," was the ready response from all. 
 
 Mr. Springer met Judge Kanrasp coming down the 
 street, from his interview with the General, and each com- 
 municated the message ho bore, and thought the best thing 
 for the safety of the town, was to get the parties together 
 with the crowd excluded. 
 
 " Who is to take the guns ?" asked Mr. Springer. 
 
 "I don't know. The Governor, I suppose. If not, that 
 may alter the case." 
 
 "If Gen. Baker will guarantee the safety of the men, I 
 believe they will be safe, but he should guarantee the 
 safety of the town also." 
 
 " So say I," replied Judge Kanrasp, and each passed on 
 his errand. 
 
 Judge K. reported to the officers only Gen. Baker's 
 request for an interview, and withheld his proposition for 
 a settlement. 
 
 Soon Mf. Springer returned with the same request from 
 the General. They all approached the door, and Doc went 
 out upon the street, but re-entered immediately, 
 
 " There is no one more readier than I am to settle, but I 
 see a great crowd down there at Dunn's store, all armed, 
 and drunk, or playing off drunk. Springer, yo' tell Gen- 
 Baker that I would meet him, but that I would like for 
 
102 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 him to come away from where them men are, and that I am 
 willing to meet him at yo'r house, if that is agreeable." 
 
 The asjDect of things became more gloomy very soon. 
 A company of twenty-five or thirty thoroughly-armed 
 and mounted men had entered the village some time be- 
 fore, since which squads had been seen coming in from all 
 directions. 
 
 Several leading citizens had joined the group at Rives's 
 house, and all united in urging the ofiicers to comply with 
 Gen. Baker's request; but they were more and more reluc- 
 tant to go, fearing it was only a ruse to decoy them there, 
 secure, disarm, and then murder them. 
 
 The suspicion was but natural, as similar transactions 
 had been far from rare since reconstruction. At length, 
 after it had been reported that Gen. Baker had sworn to 
 lay the town in ashes if they did not comply with his de- 
 mands, all the members of the company again consented 
 to go. but on approaching the door, fell back again. 
 
 "You must go to save the town," said Springer; "but 
 don't take your guns." 
 
 "We won't go without them," said all the men. 
 
 "But he'll make a demand for their surrender. Better 
 leave them behind." 
 
 "Yes, that is just it," said Watta. "You men have been 
 keeping that back. Why should we go to General Baker? 
 Why doesn't he come to us if he wants to see us? There 
 are no drunken rowdies here for him to fear. Two men 
 drove into our ranks, an organized a legally chartered com- 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 103 
 
 pany of the State militia, with loyal guns in our loyal 
 hands, and a flag which brought us freedom from these old 
 masters — the right to stand up like men, and not fear their 
 nigger-catching bloodhounds ; and we have sworn to be 
 true to that flag — to the United States, and to the State, 
 and ourselves, and to take care of these guns that belong 
 to the State, and to yield them up only to lawful authority. 
 These two nigger-catchers whose occupation is gone, drove 
 into our ranks; and we, like a set of cowards, opened ranks 
 and let them go through; and now they bring this ex-con- 
 federate General, who got the only title he has and of 
 which he and they are so proud, in fighting the United 
 States; they bring this General Baker here, and he asks us 
 to go down to old Baker's feet and apologize — for what ? 
 / don't know; and to give uj) our guns that we have 
 sworn to protect from all enemies of the Union, and all 
 unauthorized persons — to give them to this ex-confederate 
 General, who boasts to-day, and is applauded by these, his 
 old confederate soldiers around him to-day, for what he 
 did against the Government. He, surrounded by those who 
 love and revere him for what he did to destroy the Union 
 and keep us and our jDarents and children in slavery — he de- 
 mands our guns and ourselves! Pretty Kational Guards! ! 
 Which are we, men, cowards or traitors?" 
 
 "Don't take your guns, and may be possible you can get 
 along without giving the guns up. I surely don't want 
 you to be traitors," said the Elder; "but I trust an apology 
 will do." 
 
104: OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 "And I trust no such thing," said Doc. ''And where 
 shall we be after this, living or dead? It won't make much 
 difference. They want to "break us up I that's it — and en- 
 slave us!" 
 
 "Where shall we be ? On our knees forever at their 
 feet," re23lied Watta; "that is, if a single man of us ever 
 got away alive, which I'll warrant we never should if we 
 refused to give up our guns." 
 
 "But remember, there'll be bloodshed if you don't go," 
 said Elder Jackson. " Better humble yourselves than be 
 killed." 
 
 " And remember, too, the women and children, and the 
 property," added Springer. 
 
 "You men is mighty thoughtful; suppose yo' 'go yo'- 
 selves. 'Tv\-ouldn't be no blood shed if they got killed, I 
 reckon yo' think," said a man from the ranks. 
 
 They had retired to an upper room, and Kanrasp ap- 
 proached a window looking towards Dunn's store. Doc 
 followed, and then Watta, and then others. 
 
 Still more armed men were seen coming into the to^m, 
 and the mob around the General's headquarters was more 
 dense and disorderly. 
 
 " You all know that it would be only my dead body that 
 would ever leave that place, if I went there," said Watta. 
 " I should be riddled with bullets in no time. Those men 
 standing outside of that groggery are thirsting for my 
 blood this minute." 
 
 " I have known Gen. Baker for several years, and I be- 
 
But I * AM o^'LY A Nigger,' (baking his yellow arm 
 TO HIS ELBOW.)"— Page 105. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 105 
 
 lieve he is au honorable man, and he will protect you," 
 
 said Judge K . 
 
 "An honorable man?'' repeated Watta. " ' An lionorable 
 man' he may be when dealing with those he acknowledges 
 his equals, if there are any such; but I am 'only a nigger' 
 (baring his yellow arm to his elbow). "Honor? He'll 
 ventilate uo honor when a nigger or politics is concerned. 
 T don't mean any disrespect to you, Judge; but Gen. Baker 
 doesn't hold the same views about colored people that, you 
 do, as you know." 
 
 " Well, I'm going," said the First Lieutenant, " and I 
 talked as bad as any of you on the Fourth. I'll apologize." 
 " But they hate me more than all the rest of you,'' re- 
 sumed Watta, still inspecting his bare arm. "I'm nearer 
 their color, and the best thing they can say of a man uf my 
 complexion is that he's a smart fellow, but needs watching.' 
 And they do watch us, and they magnify everything we 
 do or say, and misconstrue it, and lie about us. And then 
 you know I'm that heinous oITender — a 'nigger school 
 teacher, and a Republican newspaper correspondent.' Why, 
 Gen. Baker cant protect me. I should be shot a dozen 
 times before he knew I was coming. And then he'd regret 
 it. That wouldn't do me mucli good, nor my family. I 
 tell you it is only a trap, a decoy, to get us up there and 
 massacre us. If they kill me, they must come after mc, 
 I a'n't fool enough to go to them to get shot." 
 
 "If the General could get shet of them armed men, would 
 you go?" asked Springer. 
 
106 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 *' Yes, certainly." 
 
 "Then, I'll try if he will go to my house," and he slipped 
 cautiously out of the dwelling, for the whites thought the 
 officers were in the Armory, and he did not wish to unde- 
 ceive them. 
 
 He was successful on his mission, and soon returned; but 
 the officers had seen the shouting throng surround and fol- 
 low their General, and as the streets were rife with warlike 
 menaces, all now utterly refused to go to a house so near 
 Dunn's store and the main crowd. 
 
 *'See! see!" they exclaimed. " They are coming down 
 the street to meet us! Gen. Baker can't protect us!" All 
 of which Springer could not dispute, so he sadly returned 
 to Gen. Baker, who, on his approaching, called out: 
 
 " I suppose you couldn't get those fellows to meet 
 me?" 
 
 " No, General, they are too afraid of these armed bodies 
 of men you have around you. That is the only reason." 
 
 " Armed men? armed men? I don't see any armed men!" 
 and that military dignitary rolled his eyes about as if in 
 pantomime. '^Well Sam, there's no use parleying any longer. 
 
 Now, by 1 want those guns, and I'll be if I don't 
 
 have them!" 
 
 A movement of expectancy swayed the throng as these 
 words were heard and passed from lip to lip, and then a 
 shout rent the air. 
 
 Mr. Springer wended his way back through the crowd of 
 men on horseback, and men on foot, whose fingers fidgeted 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 107 
 
 upon the triggers of their firearms, and he sought the 
 house of Justice Rives with a heavier heart than he had 
 ever borne before; while General Baker entered his car- 
 riage again, as the hour for court drew near. 
 
108 OTHER FOOLS A^'D THEIH DOCsGS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 POKTEXTIOUS DAEKXESS. 
 
 " Ye gods, it dotli amaze me! 
 A man of such feeble temper should 
 So get the start of the majestic world." 
 
 — Casca. 
 
 A small, dark man, with a lithe form and sparkling eyes, 
 had been busy preparing Justice Rives's oflSce for the ex- 
 pected court, as he had been previously directed, and was 
 unaware of the excitement prevailing in other parts of the 
 village. His task completed, he seated himself in an arm- 
 chair, adjusted his feet high upon the post of the open 
 door, and with his coat off and fan in hand, sat leisurely 
 reading. 
 
 About half past three o'clock he was startled by an im- 
 perative voice, asking, " Where is Rives?" 
 
 On looking up from his newspaper, he saw Robert Baker 
 and his legal counsel seated in the latter's carriage, which 
 stood before the door. 
 
 "^[i-. Rives is at his house, I reckon; but he'll be here 
 directly," was the reply. 
 
 '' Go and tell him to come here to me," commanded the 
 Gcnernl. 
 
 '* I'm not Mr. Rives's office-boy. I am a constable, and am 
 here attending to my business. He told m.e he would be 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIK DOIXGS. 109 
 
 here by four o'clock, aud he won't come any quicker by 
 my going after him." 
 
 General B. — " Do you know who you are talking to?" 
 
 Constable Xewton.— " Fm talking to General Baker, I 
 believe." 
 
 Gen. B. — "Well, you scamp! bring rao some paper 
 here." 
 
 Xewton.— " Here is the office, and here is the chairs, and 
 here is the paper, and pen and ink, sir; and here is the 
 chairs for all the attorneys that wants to do business here 
 to come in and sit down." 
 
 Gen. B (with an oath). — " Bring it to me, sir!" 
 
 Newton.— "I won't do it. Come in, sir, and sit at the 
 table." 
 
 The irate General sprang from his carriage, and, followed 
 by the ever-ready Gaston, rushed into the court room in a 
 menacing manner. But the imperturbable constable did not 
 move, nor show signs of disturbance. 
 
 Gen. B. (with a vile epithet and oaths, which the reader 
 should imagine, thickly strewn throughout this colloquy).— 
 "Give me that chair!" 
 
 Xewton. — " There is a chair." 
 
 General B thundered.—'' Give me that chair you are 
 sitting on! Get out of tliat chair, and give it to me! I 
 want this chair and intend to have it!" 
 
 "All right," replied Xewton, after a pause; "if this 
 chair suits you better than the others, take it," 
 
110 OTHER FOOLS A^'D THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Gen. B. — "You leatberhead radical! You sitting 
 
 down there fanning yourself I" 
 
 Kewton. — "I am fanning myself, sitting in my own 
 office, and attending to my own business." 
 
 Gen. B. — "You vile brute, youl You want to have a 
 bullet-hole put through you before yon can move!" 
 
 At this juncture old man Baker and one of his followers, 
 pistols in hand, reinforced the General, and Tommy rode 
 as close to the door as possible, with his trusty carbine, 
 w^hile others appeared outside. 
 
 Newton arose, and taking his chair by the back, turned 
 the seat of it toward General Baker, and, still holding the 
 back with both hands, said: 
 
 "There it is, Gen. Baker, if you want it; and you can 
 shoot me, if you want to. Mr. Robert Baker, you know 
 what sort of a man I am. I have always tried to behave 
 myself when you came in the office." 
 
 Robert B. — "Yes, but " (with an oath) " this drilling haa 
 got to stop. I want you to go for Rives." 
 
 Newton. — " I've got no right to go for Rives, and I'm 
 not going." 
 
 Robert B. — " Well you'll be a dead man, and you'll 
 wish you had gone." 
 
 Newton. — "I am but one man." 
 
 Gen. B. (with oaths and sneers of contempt). — " Sitting 
 down there with your feet cocked up!" 
 
 Newton. — "Well, General, I'm not dead; but if you're 
 going to kill me, why kill me; and that is all you can do." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. Ill 
 
 Gen. B. — " We'll take our time about that. We'll show 
 you, you insolent darkie! — you contemptible nigger!" 
 
 The Bakers returned to their carriages in high dudgeon. 
 
 " There is Justice Rives' private secretary," said the old 
 man, as they were about leaving the premises. " If you 
 will speak to him, I think he will go for Rives." 
 
 " Xo," replied the incensed General, " I am not going to 
 be insulted again. You can do so if you choose." 
 
 Robert Baker did choose, for he preferred to reserve re- 
 sentment, rather than allow it to thwart or hinder his 
 purposes. Gaston, however, * halted ' the secretary, and 
 undertook the mission himself. 
 
 Can the reader imagine the scene in that upper room in 
 Rives' house, when a female servant announced that Gas- 
 ton was at the door below, urging the presence of Judge 
 Rives at the court-room, as Gen. Baker and his clients 
 were waiting there ; though the hour had not yet arrived? 
 
 Noiselessly the entire group descended to the ground 
 floor, and, screened from view, listened breathlessly to the 
 collocution which, however, was brief and courteous, as 
 the young man naturally wished to conciliate the favor of 
 the Judge. He was dismissed with the assurance that the 
 court should be opened promptly. 
 
 Prince Rives (the Judge's baptismal name was Prince — 
 it might seem sacrilege to designate a name given in 
 slavery as " Christian ") stepped quietly into his sitting- 
 room — a perfect bower of flowers, ferns growing under 
 glass, and singing-birds, where his wife and eldest 
 
112 OTHER FOOLS A^^D THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 daughter were anxiously watching the crowd gathering in 
 the streets. 
 
 "I'm iroincf down to the ofiBce now," said he, "and if 
 any trouble should occur, stay right here in the house, and 
 keep the children in, and you will all be safe.'' 
 
 Alas ! these were assurances false even to the heart of 
 him who made them. 
 
 Has tlie reader ever laid a kiss upon a loved one's brow, 
 and then watched the dear form passing beyond recall, 
 perhaps, (oh, that terrible perhaps!) if returning at all, to 
 come a lifeless thing — an uninhabited tenement — or in 
 agony and blood ; while the ever active imagination 
 chafed and chid the hands and feet that fain would do its 
 bidding and follow that loved form, though duty fettered 
 them to inactivity ? 
 
 Or has he gone out under the benediction of love, to 
 meet a hate that might hold him in its deadly grasp, for- 
 bidding his return ? 
 
 To such we need not describe the adieus exchanged in 
 that little sitting-room ; for the sweet influences of love 
 take no cognizance of complexion. 
 
 Trial Justice Prince Rives soon issued from the front 
 door of his house, book in hand, erect and commanding, 
 looking the true ideal African General as he was, and 
 walked leisurely up the street, unattended, and apparently 
 unarmed ; as if to show the mob that at least one negro 
 was not afraid. 
 
 Tall, straight, powerful, his black and shining visage 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOIXGS. 113 
 
 perfectly calm, lie strode through the throng of armed and 
 angry men that surrounded the door of his office, and 
 crowded the court-room. 
 
 Kanrasp and Springer followed at some distance to Avit- 
 ness should any disturbance arise ; and while attention was 
 thus attracted towards the court-room, the officers all made 
 their way to the armory, whither many other members of 
 the Company and other citizens had already hastened for 
 safety behind its strong walls, doors and window-shutters. 
 Women and children fled across the lontr bridge to the 
 city, or to the surrounding country; though many remained 
 to guard their small possessions, and share the fate of hus- 
 bands and fathers, should, the worst come. 
 
 Armed men were still coming in, and yet more rapidly, 
 and the sinking sun heralded a brief, southern twilight and 
 a moonless night ; while a great terror took possession of 
 the inhabitants of the doomed villao-e. 
 
 A few straggling members of the Company appearing 
 with their guns, which they had formerly taken to their 
 homes for cleaning, became the unfortunate subjects of a 
 hue and cry as they hurried along towards the rendezvous, 
 and were marked for the niglit's barbarities. 
 
 No small exhibition of nerve was now required of that 
 African Major-General of the obnoxious "National 
 Guards," — one of the vcr\»men whose high military posi- 
 tion was so offensive to the white men now surroundino- 
 him, and thronging his court-room, that, though notably 
 fond of the practice of arms, they utterly disregarded the 
 
114 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 law requiring their enrollment as State Militia-men, lest 
 they might be subordinated to him. 
 
 Yet with measured step and dignified mien he passed the 
 carriage where the Bakers still sat, greeting them with easy 
 politeness. 
 
 " I should like to know whether you are sitting in the 
 capacity of Major-General of State Militia, or as a Trial 
 Justice ?" said Gen. Baker, when all was in readiness. 
 
 "That will depend upon the nature of the testimony. I 
 am sitting as a peace officer; and if the facts are such as 
 to justify my sitting as a Trial Justice, I will do so ; if 
 not, it will be otherwise." 
 
 "It is immaterial to me ; I merely wanted to know. I 
 want to investigate the facts of this matter, and either 
 capacity will be agreeable to me," replied the General. 
 
 At this juncture the Intendant (Mayor), approached, and 
 whispered to the General, " I think if j'ou would suspend 
 this trial for awhile, we could settle it." 
 
 " Just ask the Judge. If he suspends I am willing." 
 
 A brief conference ensued, after which the Judge an- 
 nounced a suspension for ten minutes. 
 
 This caused dissatisfaction among the spectators, as a 
 peaceful adjustment would be but a tame issue of all their 
 military preparations. 
 
 Intendant Gai*ndon then co'nducted the plaintiffs and 
 their attorney to the council chamber, which was separated 
 from Dunn's shop on the corner or Main Street by only 
 one half the width of a narrow street. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 115 
 
 At this time t)ie largest and most unruly part of the cav- 
 alry was gathered about this corner groggery, and a less 
 suitable place for tiie conference could not have been 
 selected; but each would-be peacemaker seemed to think 
 peace most attainable on his own premises. 
 
 Though the distance was less than four squares, as they 
 could proceed but slowly through the throng, it sufficed 
 Gen. Baker to administer a lecture to the dusky official 
 upon his personal culpability in having allowed " this so- 
 called militia company," to train " upon Mr. Robert Ba- 
 ker's road," and with arms in their hands— though, doubt- 
 less the poor, berated mayor found difficulty in understand- 
 ing how a public highway could be "Mr. Robert Baker's 
 road," or how he could have disarmed the State's militia. 
 
 As has already been stated, quite a number of colored 
 citizens, and of the rank and file of the militia men, had 
 gathered in and about the armory, hoping to find protec- 
 tion there. 
 
 Among them was Dan Pipsie, who was quite sober, and 
 his own plucky self. 
 
 " Well, if I war Captain Doc, I'd do anyt'ing on earth to 
 settle dis myself," said Dan. "I wouldn't have de blood 
 of all dese collo'd families on ??iy head. When I die, I 
 don't want no man's wife cussin' me, noh blamin' me fo' 
 his death." 
 
 " Capt. Doc a'n't a bit to blame now," replied Mann 
 Harris. '^ was 'bout two hundred yards from 'em at the 
 time of the fuss. I saw Gaston and Tom Baker drive 
 
116 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 down, and get out and go into Nunbergers store. I saw 
 tlie company coming Lack, an' they was a gwoine up then, 
 and they met and talked awhile, an' the company divided 
 an' let them go througli. Let's go down, an' see Rives 
 about this, ^cd O'Bran, an' git him to send a dispatch to 
 tlie Governor to hel2)us." 
 
 " Well, come on," replied Ned. 
 
 They entered the quiet office of the Justice, and found 
 him sitting there alone, and looking over books and 
 papers. 
 
 " General, what is you doing?" asked Harris, with em- 
 phasis. 
 
 *'I am waiting for people to come into court again." 
 
 •' If you wait here awhile longer, they'll make you jump 
 out o' liere entirely!" 
 
 "What is the matter?" 
 
 "Well, there's about four hundred men out there with 
 guns and pistols.' 
 
 "Ahl I'll go out and see — Well, really, this is surprising! 
 What is all this about?" 
 
 "I don't know," said the excited Harris. "They're gwoine 
 to take the guns away from the armory." 
 
 The three men walked up the street conversing. Mean- 
 while Captatu Doc entered his own apartments, which it 
 will be remembered, were in the same building as the ar- 
 mory or drill room. 
 
 "I've been in my shirt sleeves," said he to his wife, "ever 
 since I left my bench at^ noon; but, (with a grim smile,) if 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIH DOINGS. 117 
 
 I'm gwoine to see such big men as General Baker or the 
 Laud, I reckon I'd best put my coat on." 
 
 "Oh, Doc, don't talk so 'bout de Laud ! I'm awful scarred 
 to have yo' go." 
 
 " I've got a right to go. They say General Baker's gone 
 up to the Council Chamber, and he and Garndon '11 be ex- 
 pecting us." 
 
 "I'm awful scarred fo' yo', an' I'm a mind to go 'way 
 myself. 'Spex the^^'ll be shootin' 'round yere so the baby 
 couldn't sleep no how. Mann Harris, he's taken his w'ife off, 
 'bout an hour by sun, or so, poor soul ! sick as she's been, 
 now mighty nigh on to a year. Mann tole me he'd positive 
 his word thar' would be no fuss nor killin'; but IVl positive 
 my word he war' 'feared, else he wouldn't come totin' Di- 
 nah down all dem stairs, an hauled 'er off up to Miss Pip- 
 ton's; fo' it's mighty nigh on to fo' mile ovah da; and Di- 
 nah has determined to me that it hurt her tolerable bad to 
 stir at all." 
 
 The Captain had been looking out of the window while 
 she spoke, towards Dunn's store and the Council Chambers, 
 Turning abruptly, he asked — 
 
 "Where is the baby ?" 
 
 "I done toted 'er ovah to Elder Jackson's but I can't let 
 'er stay dar. I'll jes lock up de house, an' git de baby, an' 
 clar out ovah de rivah, fo' de scar o' stayin' in dis yere 
 house '11 perish me out, if I'm de onus one fo' a quarter 
 hour mo'" 
 
 "Now, Debby, yo' get the baby, and take 'er over to 
 
118 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Rives's, and stay thai*, lie's been so conciliating to 'em, 
 and they think a lieaj:) o' him. Blamed but I wish the 
 baby was here a minute till I kiss 'cr 'fo' I go up to see 
 General Baker. Don't get scared now. They won't hnrt 
 the women, I reckon. It's only them as votes an' can man- 
 age a gun they're after. Take care yo'rself ," and he kissed 
 her. 
 
 "Oh, ain't yo' scarred to go. Doc? sobbed she, clinging to 
 him. " Ispex yo're forced to by persuasion; but I'm feared 
 they'll put a bullet into yo', and maybe fifty." Here she 
 broke down entirely, and wept aloud, sobbing, "Oh, don't 
 go, Doc! don't go!" 
 
 "But I've got a right to, to save the town. He'll lay it 
 in ashes. I wouldn't like to tell jo, all the way they're 
 talking, and making big threats, and abusing us to every- 
 thing yo' can think." 
 
 " To my knowance they're mighty bad; and I'm mighty 
 glad Mann Harris sent his wife off." 
 
 "Well. Debby, yo' go and get the baby, and take good 
 care of her. I reckon you'd best tote her ovah to your moth- 
 er's 'cross the river. Some on 'em might hurt her if they 
 knowed she^was mine." 
 
 They left the house together, and Doc locked the door, 
 and put the key in his pocket. 
 
 "Oh, my lawses!" exclaimed Mrs. Doc. "Don't yo' go 
 up thar, Doc! Jes see such heaps o' men! Jes lots and piles 
 of 'em! Noic yo' sho^nH go " 
 
 "No mo' I won't! They picks out all the hardest places 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 119 
 
 for a man to go to; but his soldiers 'd follow the General 
 anywhere. There he is now. He ain't gwoine to meet me. 
 See! lie knows I'm here well enough, but he won't look at 
 me. Ah! He's gwoiiio over to tlie city. P'raps he'll just 
 clar out, now he's got the rest agoing. There's Kanrasp, 
 and Rives too." 
 
 General Rives and his two neighbors met General Baker 
 at the next corner. Tlie latter was on horseback and rode 
 up to General Rives and demanded the name of the Colo- 
 nel of the Elsfhteenth Resriraent. 
 
 " Colonel Williams,"was the reply. 
 
 "Where is he?" 
 
 " At his house, I reckon." 
 
 "I want him. I want those guns, and by I've got to 
 
 have them." 
 
 " General Baker, I don't know what to do about them. 
 I'll go up and see the Captain, and consult with him, and 
 see if he says to give them up. 
 
 A moment later and he met Judge Kanrasp, who was 
 earnestly urging the colored men, women, and children 
 who were huddled in knots upon the street, to go home and 
 remain quietly in their houses. 
 
 " Kanrasp," said Judge Rives, *' It is no use for you to 
 stay here and get killed; and you will be killed if you 
 stay, — a "carpet-bagger and a "radical, like you." 
 
 "That's so," added Marmor, and Doc, and Watta, who now 
 joined tlie group; and tliey hastily accompanied him down 
 to the Rail Road platform nearly opposite the armory, and 
 
120 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 urged him to flee, as one who would be first attacked. Ra- 
 pidly crossing the river, upon tlio Rail Road bridge, the 
 train, which arrived, in ton minutes took him home-wards; 
 too soon for the accomplishment of his purpose to learn Gen. 
 Bakers mission to the city. 
 
 Never were the combatitive characteristics of the whites 
 and colored races in the Southern >States more clearly ex- 
 hibited than in the scenes at Baconsville tliat day, though 
 leading colored men, whose exceptional energy, and per- 
 haps assertion, had made them such, were necessarily 
 prominent. Not bravery, so much as skill in its exercise, 
 constitutes the white man a leader among his fellows. 
 
 In general terms it may be said that timidity, with ex- 
 tremely rare acts of rashness, characterizes the colored race, 
 bravado and arbritrary assumption, of the white and both are 
 the victims of mutual suspicion and distrust, which often 
 cause the dreaded ill. 
 
 Gen. Baker was absent half an hour, and on his return a 
 general remounting took place, while over the hill at the 
 back of the village, came a large company of horsemen, all 
 well armed. 
 
 Down Main street they rode, two abreast, and were at 
 once distributed throughout the town; a squad upon each 
 street corner, attended by an equal number of infantry; all 
 with weapons in hand ready for immediate action. 
 
 Look which way they would, the distracted freedmen 
 saw armed men, and re-enforcements constantly arriving 
 from all directions. 
 
OTPTEK FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 121 
 
 Di:ikii.:5> was approacliing, and lliough the hills around 
 were still touched by the glow of the setting sun, its re- 
 fracted rays seemed to exaggerate the squalor, and magnify 
 the deformities of the little town in the valley; and, exalt- 
 ing the war-like preparations, to clothe them with every 
 imaginable horror; while the humidity of the evening air 
 intensified the sounds of bLood-thirsty riot. 
 
 Justice Marmor now closed and locked his office door, 
 and began at this tardy moment, to think of adopting Mrs. 
 M's advice. 
 
 Stepping out of his own back door, he leaped the fence 
 into his neighbor's yard, and, mounting his door-steps, 
 stood in a closely latticed corner of a porch^ and took ob- 
 servations. 
 
 The square was surrounded by the Rifle-clubs, — the 
 remnants and second-growth of the cropped, but not up- 
 rooted Confederate cavalry, — standing thick, two abreast, 
 with guns resting upon each left arm. 
 
 In the vernacular of the South, Marmor was '' sl scalla- 
 t^a^," for, though once a brave Confederate soldier, he had 
 become a consistent advocate of the idea that the " all 
 men" who are "created free and equal" includes the colored 
 race; and probably no man in the devoted town stood in 
 greater danger than he. 
 
 "Coim 's house, Meester Marmor: i'm 's house 
 
 "quick!" said Dan Lemfield, opening the back-door of his 
 dwelling. You pcMnine neighbor, and shall not be shot on 
 mine dreshold. Co hide self! Co!" 
 
122 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Marmor did not decline the invitation, but stepped 
 quickly in, and passing to the parlor in front, peeped from 
 behind the window shades, which Mrs. Lerafield had drawn 
 closely down. 
 
 At the opposite corner of the street, his most implacable 
 enemy, the eldest son of Col. Baker, sat upon his horse, 
 with self-complacent manner waiting the appearance of his 
 prey, or the word of command from the great General. 
 He was supported by eight or ten other men, not less vigi- 
 lant. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Marmorl" besought Mrs. Lemfield, "do go up 
 stairs, and keep out of sight. They have threatened about 
 you so much that some of them will surely come in here, 
 and kill you! Do go up, quick! quick!" 
 
 Marmor obeyed, and immediately the host, who had been 
 out, re-entered with wild eyes and white lips, 
 
 " Vo ish dat mon, Sarah ?" 
 
 She signed with her hand, in reply ; at the same time 
 saying, in an indifferent tone, " Oh, he's gone up, he is not 
 here," for their little child had entered, and she feared it 
 might betray their guest. 
 
 The excited Jew (for Lemfield was a Jew) leaped up the 
 stairs, calling out as he ran, "Don't shoot! It's me — jist 
 me. Oh, moine goot freund! Vat vill dese men to? 
 Shenneral Paker say he vill hab de guns, oder he vill pekin 
 to fire in von half hour. Colonel A. P., dat ole man you 
 seen sthrapping on dem pig bistols by'me Post Office, he 
 tole me close up mine par in' leetle sthore. Veil, dey ish 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 123 
 
 hab too much visky now ; so I mind quick, I tell you ! 
 He tole same tiiig yo' mudda, an' she pe shut up." 
 
 " Where is she ?" asked Marmor. 
 
 "My golly! Se ist plucky ole voman. Se ira leetle 
 sthore — all 'lone by self. She not come avay." 
 
 "Where are my wife and children?" 
 
 "Im house — your house. Dat ish pest blace. Nicht 
 wahr ? Pest not pc mit you." 
 
 " I don't know," replied Marmor, absently. 
 
 " Oh, ya I Mon come here, mon sag, ' Meester dare 
 sure.' Xo\r codis vay," and he led the way to a loft; "Here 
 CO om roof van dey get you. Hark! Vat dat noise down 
 stair ish?" 
 
 The next instant Mrs. Marmor rushed into the chamber 
 and threw her arms about her husband's neck in a j^aroxysm 
 of w^eeping. 
 
 He folded her to his breast, and commanding a calm and 
 cheerful tone, said, " Jane, Jane, don't give way so. Why, 
 I'm not afraid ; I shall come off all right, and nobody will 
 hurt you or the children. Our people are chivalrous, and 
 won't hurt a woman." 
 
 " Oh, you don't know ! you don't know !" she sobbed. 
 " Capt. Baker just now told me, as I was coming to bid 
 you good-bye," (here her sobs interrupted her speech) " he 
 told me," she resumed, " if I wanted to save my children 
 from getting killed, to go into the house and lock the doors. 
 And so I must go and save my poor babies. Duck got 
 scared and ran off and left me all alone," and she placed 
 
124 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 her cold trembling hands on either side of her husband's 
 face, and kissed him. Then pressing them upon her heart, 
 she descended the stairs, moaning aloud. 
 
 " Great heavens ! Am I a hian .?" exclaimed IMarmor, 
 Jf' to let my wife go like that, and I hiding to save my own 
 j'life ! " and he sprang to the stairs to follow her. 
 
 Quick as thought, the Jew placed himself before him, 
 ^nd held him back. 
 
 " She be not cry for self ; just for yo?*. You co da, she 
 cry more. Man not touch her, noh leetle kinder. Yo' co 
 hide now, quick ! " 
 
 Five minutes later, the same Col. Baker, her husband's 
 enemy, rapped loudly upon Mrs. Marmor's door, with the 
 loaded handle of his riding-whip. 
 
 Almost too much frightened to stand, she opened the 
 door, and peeped out. 
 
 " You must take your children, and leave this house if 
 you do not want to be killed," said the gallant Coloneh 
 
 *'0h, where shall I go ? What shall I do?" cried the 
 distracted mother. 
 
 " You must get out of here, and that is all I can tell 
 you," said he, with an oath. " Xo use to lock your door — 
 leave it open, I tell you, and go !" 
 
 Nearly all the colored people had, by this time, taken 
 the advice of Ju,dge Kanrasp, or of their fears, and fled 
 the streets. Like timid conies, some sought the vain 
 shelter of their homes, others that of the neighboring 
 corn-fields or river-ba:;ks and bridges, and still others fled 
 to the surrounding country. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOEs'GS. 125 
 
 Doc, Watta and Smis went across the street after Kan- 
 rasp left, taking about thirty or forty men with them to 
 the drill-room on the second floor. 
 
 About this time four colored men were seen to issue from 
 an humble dwelling, and, with heroic purpose as their only 
 visible weapon, they quietly made their way along tlie 
 fortified streets. They were frequently halted and their 
 business demanded, when their uniform reply was "To see 
 Gen. Baker ;" and the moral sublimity of their position 
 seemed to impress even the conscienceless rioters, for only 
 verbal abuse was hurled at them. 
 
 Arm-in-arm walked Gen. Justice Hives and the Metho- 
 dist preacher — Elder Jackson — (visibly quaking within his 
 spotless linen, and coat of snowy Avhiteness). Behind this 
 worthy pair came Springer, the chief man of money and 
 of business in the town, with Lem Picksley, a well-known, 
 peaceable, and long-time resident; the best educated and 
 best-liked citizen. 
 
 At length they found the man they sought — armed, 
 mounted and surrounded by cavalry arranged in warlike 
 attitude, who appeared to reverence him as their chief, 
 
 "Gen. Baker," said Rives, "we have come to ask if 
 there is anything we can do to make peace." 
 
 ""Nothing will satisfy me but the surrender of the men 
 and their guns." 
 
 " T\"e have no authority to surrender them, as you very 
 well know. The men are not criminals convicted, and you 
 have no warrant or authority of law ; and the men say 
 
126 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 their oaths to the State forbid their surrendering: the arms 
 to you. If you can show any authority for receiving 
 them, that you have more than any other private citizen, 
 they will give them up at once ; but they say they cannot 
 otherwise, because, if they should voluntarily yield tliem 
 up to you or any other private citizen, especially sur- 
 rounded by such an armed body as this, without authority 
 of law — well, General, you're a lawyer, and you know 
 what the law calls it. The law and their oath of office will 
 not allow them." 
 
 " Rives," replied this great chieftain, " you are the 
 Major General of the State Militia in this district, and 
 can demand them." 
 
 "Not without cause, or order from my superior! " 
 
 " By !" said the negro-catcher. Baker, who stood 
 
 near, " you had better do something, for there's going to 
 be to pay here, if those officers and guns are not deliv- 
 ered up." 
 
 "I want to see the Colonel of this regiment. I want 
 these officers and these guns," said Gen. Baker with great 
 vehemence. 
 
 Ned O'Bran, who had joined the four peace-makers, now 
 slipped through the crowd and back to the armory. 
 
 " How does it look, Ned ?" asked Lieut. Watta from a 
 window above his head. 
 
 " It looks squally. Now, Watta, you men just bar the 
 windows and doors, and let nothing nor nobody in the 
 Vrorld in there ; and by this means they will have nothing 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 127 
 
 nor nobody in the world to fight, if they want to fight, but 
 themselves. There's bound to be a fuss ; for I heard Gen. 
 Baker say myself, that what he intended to do this evening 
 won't stop till after the seventh of next November, and 
 that is election day, you know. So shut yourselves up, 
 and keep still." 
 
 Watta closed the window, and Ned returned to the place 
 of conference. 
 
 A horse pushed against Springer's companion, and he 
 mildly laid his hand upon the animal's shoulder and said, 
 addressing it, "Take care, sir!" 
 
 Quick as thought the rider's whip cut a smart gash upon 
 the dusky cheek. 
 
 The chivalrous Gen. Baker, looking on, took out his own 
 pocket handkerchief, and wiped the perspiration from his 
 own face, while the unoffending mulatto wipud the blood 
 from his; and Springer's unflinching eye arrested the hand 
 of another of the General's aids, as he was about to send 
 a bullet through his (Springer's) brain. 
 
 Neither the attack nor menace elicited rebuke nor notice 
 from the "high-toned " General, who disdainfully turned 
 and rode away. 
 
 "If we will box the guns up," said Rives, following 
 him, " and return them to the Governor, will that be satis- 
 factory ?" 
 
 '* the Governor ! I am not here as the Governor 
 
 of South Carolina, nor his agent, but as General Baker!" 
 
 "Well, we are sorrv if there is nothinor we can do to 
 
128 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 make peace, General, but (turning to his companions) we 
 must return without it, and each do the best he can for 
 himself." 
 
 " Here's Ked O'Bran," said Springer in an undertone, 
 "Brother Jackson, you had better go with him, for his 
 house is outside of the picket lines; and as you're a mem- 
 ber of the Legislature, you must look out — they'll be after 
 you shor." 
 
 "I was just going down to the drill room to be safe 
 myself," said O'Bran. " My family went on so that I am on 
 my way back to the armory." 
 
 "You can't get through this wfiy. The pickets are 
 everywhere. You had best go home. It's every man for 
 himself, and the Lord for us all," said Springer, and the 
 men separated. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 129 
 
 CHAPTER YJJl. 
 
 ilZMORY AND EXPEEIEXCE. 
 
 "Oh ! the blessed hope of freedom how with joy and glad sur- 
 prise, 
 
 For an instant throbs lier bosom, for an instant beam her eyes! 
 * a * ". ***** ^ ^f. 
 
 Oh, my people! O my brothers! let us choose the righteous 
 side." 
 
 — "Whittieb's Voices of Fbeedom. 
 
 The snn was sinking in the west, when the sound of Aunt 
 Phoebe's dinner-horn was heard, followed by Uncle 
 Jesse's cherry response. 
 
 Auntie was the model-housekeeper of the neighborhood, 
 (not a high compliment, some readers might think, could 
 they see many of the homes there, where the women spend 
 most of their strength and time at lield labor), she having 
 been raised a house-servant, and, by rare chance, blessed 
 with a mistress who gave her personal attention to the 
 comfort of her household. 
 
 Auntie's house boasted glazed windows, two rooms and 
 aloft; and the broad boards of her floors were so clean 
 and white that her kitchen was quite inviting as dining- 
 room and sitting-room also. 
 
 Her iron tea-kettle shone and steamed beside a small 
 cherry back-log upon the great hearth, which spread below 
 the wide " Dutch-back" chimney, while the hoe-cakes were 
 
130 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 " keeping" between a blue-edged eartben plate, and a bright 
 tin pan, upon a hot stone near by, and a kettle of boiling 
 coi-n, filled the room witii its sweet aroma. 
 
 The snowy cloth spread ujDon the table in the middle of 
 the floor, was set about with crockery almost antique, — the 
 gift of " old Missus' "" when she " broke up," because the 
 great plantation was sold for taxes. 
 
 Durinor the war the Confederate and Union armies had 
 
 o 
 
 swept over the region in alternation, like swarms of locusts, 
 taking every marketable thing; Abraham Lincoln's Proc- 
 lamation of Emancipation had freed every "hand," and, as 
 the old lady had lost all her sons in the war, and all her 
 means to hire laborers, and would not lease to niggers, she 
 fcrtded her hands and let her remaining possessions drift 
 from her, and finally died a pensioner upon her friends. 
 
 Many a time had Aunt Phoebe's childish hands washed 
 these same cups and plates, while her mother cooked for 
 "the great house;" and as she now brought an extra large 
 plate, she paused, and with eyes fixed upon it, a long 
 stretch of years seemed to pass before her. 
 
 "Make hay while the sun shines," she spelled around the 
 
 sunny picture of hay-maker's in the centre of the plate; 
 
 and before her seemed to arise the placid face of her poor 
 
 mother; and again she heard her say, — "Dat's 'de way 'dey 
 
 « 
 do at 'de Xorth, chile'. 'Taint 'de colored folks as does all 
 
 'de work dar'. Oh Lord! oh Lord!" I was 'mos' free 
 
 thought I ^cas free shor' 'dat time Missus tuck me 'not'h 
 
 wid' her. Mighty nice gem'men tole' me I war free; — I 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 131 
 
 needn't go back South no 'mo'. So I jos walks off: but, 
 oh Laws! He didn't know 'nuffiu 'bout 'dem United States 
 Marshal 'dey call 'cm, I 'reckon; but may be 'dey didn't 
 'blong to no United States, nohow Spex' 'dey come from 
 South Caroline. 'Dey tole' I 'jes got go 'long back wid 
 Missus, or 'de whole 'dera United States 'sogers'd he afe'r 
 me, shor; Wal, Wal, 'pears like 'day didn't none of 'era 
 know nohow; fo' nother gem'men said 'dem United States 
 Marshals hadn't got 'nufRn to do wid me, nohow, 'cause 
 Missus' brung me 'long herself. I didn't run away 'nohow, 
 'cause I neber was so low as a runaway nigger. 'Pears like 
 I didn't know who 't believe, an so I came back 'long wid' 
 Missus to make shor'. 
 
 " Po're ole' Lize, she lived nex' do' to Missus' hotel. She 
 used to set by 'de pump in 'de back yard, evenings, and 
 smoke and smoke. " Dar was a young miss 'dar, used to come 
 too, 'an talk 'wid us, 'an she tole' Lize war free, and I war' 
 free, 'cause we didn't runned away from 'de South. 'Reckon 
 she war right, now; but I didn't know, an' she war' young.'* 
 Lize was ole an' been sick aheap, an' wan't 'woth much. She 
 was 'gwoine to be sold in St. Loo, an' all her chillun, — five 
 chillun. 'jDey sold right smart, but no body didn't want 
 Lize; but a bad man said he'd give twenty dollah." 
 
 "Lize seen a mighty nicegem'man from de No'thda, an' 
 she got hold his feet, an' roared an' cried till he bought her, 
 
 "Wal, 'pears like he didn't know what t'do wid her af'r 
 all; hadn't got no wife, no nothin' but lots o' money. Well, 
 shoo' 'nuff' dat bery night he tuck mighty sick. Ole Lize 
 
132 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 nussed 'im nigLt and day, six, eight weeks or mo', till he 
 got well, Doetah said *I)ar's de ole creatur dat save yo' 
 life. It wa'nt me, nohow.' AVal, Mars' Sam war mighty 
 good den to ole Lize. He tuck Yt off No'th, and spex 
 cause he hadn't got nothin' nor no place, he coaxed 'er 
 to stay wid 'is sistah. But, laws ! she wa'n't like he. She's 
 cross, an' scold ole Lize a heap, when she's crying 'bout her 
 boys jes' been sole 'way down t' Xew Orleans, 'cause dey 
 war so high spirited like, an' Lize wa'n't dar to keep 'im 
 quiet like. Lize wanted t' g^o back to St. Loo, an' see 'er 
 girls. Cross woman! She tole ole Lize all dat to make 'er 
 fret; an' Mars Sam 'ad writ dat, dat war why he didn't 
 wan'r Lize to come back, cause he didn't want 'er to fret. 
 Poor soul! couldn't write to Mars' Sam. 
 
 *' Laws, I's young an' spry den, an' wanted to be free 
 powerful had] but de Laud he say, I mus' stay right yere, 
 an' cook for Missus, a slave all my life, maybe." Fresh 
 and clear as when first spoken, Aunt Phebe -seemed to hear 
 these tales which once impressed her youthful mind. 
 
 And then right between the hay-makers and Auntie's 
 eyes there came another picture. She could see the great 
 smoke rolling up over the woods beyond the cotton field, 
 and hear the cannon's roar, and the shells screeching and 
 crashing through the trees, and see "old Missus" wring- 
 ing her hands and weeping, and praying the good Lord to 
 spare her four sons who were fighting in the confederate 
 ranks; and all the slaves were praying for the '"Yankees," 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 133 
 
 while they exhausted every means to soothe and comfort 
 "old missus." 
 
 That same night, when the house servants were all in her 
 cabin except Lucy, Avho was " staying wid Missus," Uncle 
 Tim, the plantation preacher, was repeating what scripture 
 passages he could remembej*, thme came a loud rap ou the 
 closed door behind. 
 
 "If yo' de Laud o' de Debbil," said Uncle Tim, "in de 
 name ob de Laud, I tell yo' come in," and a Yankee sol- 
 dier entered. 
 
 There she could see him stand in the light of the " fat 
 pine" which Tim put on the fire — the " Lincom Soger" — re- 
 peating the Proclamation of Emancipation. How plainly 
 he stood out now! and the great light that shone around 
 him seemed almost to smite her blind as it did then. 
 
 There was dear old granddaddy, with wrinkled hands that 
 had toiled without recompense for nearly a century, clasp- 
 ed tightly together. How slowly and easily he slipped 
 from his chair onto the floor! She thought he was kneeling; 
 but when she bent to help him, she heard his whisper, "Free 
 into glory! Free into glory! 'Tain't no uiggsh. slave jo^ 
 comin' fo'. Angel!" and his withered lips closed forever on 
 earth, while his " new song," broke forth from lips of fade- 
 less bloom, in a land where love makes slavery impossible. 
 
 And there she saw "Mammy" — the dear form swaying 
 backwards and forwards as she wept and moaned, " Oh, 
 wicked, cruel man to cheat poor slaves! It is too good for 
 true! too good for trueP''- 
 
134 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 And then, before Aunt Pliebe, opened the two deep 
 graves where they buried them side by side, father and 
 daughter, grandfather and mother. The tardy eman- 
 cipation that had opened slavery's dungeon had opened 
 also the pearly gates for the aged and the invalid. 
 
 The big hot tears weue rolling slowly down Auntie's 
 
 cheeks and threatening a briny siio wer upon the hay-makers, 
 
 when Uncle Jesse's stej) upon the threshold startled her, 
 
 and the plate fell to the floor and broke into a score of 
 
 pieces. 
 
 She dropped into a chair, threw her apron over her head, 
 
 and wept aloud. 
 
 ""Wal! wal! wal!" said her husband, as he scraped the 
 soil from his shoes at the door, " crying that way about a 
 broked up plate? Oh! it's one old Missus gave yo'," he 
 added, as he approached the fragments. 
 
 As suddenly as her grief had seemed to come, she flung 
 her apron from her face, tossed up both her arms, and 
 broke into a loud, clear strain; laughing, clapping her 
 hands, shrieking and stamping her feet: 
 
 " Glory and honor, praise King Jesus ! 
 
 " Glory and honor, praise deLamb I 
 
 " Oh Jesus comin' dis way 
 
 " Don't let 3^our chariot wheels delay ! 
 
 "Jesus Christ comin' in his own lime ; 
 
 " Take away dc mudder leahe the baby behind." 
 
 " Oh you got that wrong," said Uncle Jesse, who, with 
 his tv/o workmen had joined lustily in the chorus. It's 
 " Take away the baby, leave the mother behind." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 135 
 
 " I sings it jes as I wants it,*' replied his wife. De Laud 
 he tuck my raudder, an' he lef me behind." 
 
 " Give mc grace fo' to run dat race, 
 
 " Hcabcn shall be my liidin'-place ; 
 
 " Wet or dry, I means to try 
 
 " To get up into hcabeu when I die. 
 
 " If yo' get dar befo' I do, 
 
 ' ' Tell dcm I am comin' too. 
 
 " Glory and honor, praise &c. 
 "God be cailii),' trumpet bcsoundin' ; 
 "Don't dat look like judgment day ? 
 " De tombs be bustin', dc d. ad be risin', 
 " De wheels ob time shall not be no mo. 
 " Gloiy and honor, praise, 6:c. 
 
 "Chariot dartin' to de new grabc-yard ; 
 '* Go down angels and veil wid dc sun ; 
 " Go down angels and veil wid the moon, 
 " Fo' the wheels ob time shall not be no mo." 
 " Glory and honor, praise, &c. 
 
 "It's de Debbil's bad luck ! fo' I see)i dat plate gwoine 
 down on do flo'; but I sung to d(f Laud, an' He'll break dc 
 cha'm/- said Auntie, with the evident satisfaction of one 
 who has liL'cn at once shrewd and dutiful. (It is thought 
 an ill omen to sec crockery fall, if it breaks.) 
 
 "Auntie, I shall like mighty well to see dat chariot 
 comin', when I sho' de Laud is in it, ' said Brother John- 
 son,' the class leader, who was one of the workmen, " but 
 jes at dis pertickelertime I wants to begnawin' one o' dem 
 cawn-cobs in dat skillet." 
 
136 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 " A wicked an' a glutton man de Land He despise," she 
 retorted, as she arose, and casting a reproving glance upon 
 the offender proceeded to " dish up" the repast. Mean- 
 while Brother Gibson struck up the following : 
 
 " I lub my sistah, dat I do ! 
 
 " Hope my sistali mny lubmc too: 
 
 " If 3'o' get dar yo' g\\-oine to sing an' tell 
 
 "De fo' arcb-aDgelsto tune do bell." 
 
 Supper was announced just as the sun reached the 
 "hour mark" upon the cabin floor, which had done duty as 
 indicator of the time for the evening meal for many 
 months ; and further musical exercises were indefinitely 
 postponed. 
 
 The repast had not yet been disposed of when the voice 
 of a man was heard calling, " Whoop ! whoop !" 
 
 "That is Den Bardun,"' said Uncle Jesse, as he sprung 
 from the table to the door. 
 
 " Hello ! What's wanted ?" he shouted in reply. 
 
 "Man herefrom Baccn^ville wants help. Says they're 
 killing all the colored people over there. Will you go ?" 
 
 "Come over; come over, and bring him along;" and 
 Uncle Jesse hastened back to the table to finish his meal 
 while the twain should be pacing the tlie two hundred 
 yards intervening between the two drrellins^s. 
 
 They entered presently, both much excited, and the 
 Baconsville man bearini^ a double barreled shot-crun. 
 
 " What is the matter?" asked the host, gulping down a 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIIl DOINGS. 137 
 
 half cup of coffee and leaving the table to greet his guests. 
 " I couldn't hear half you said." 
 
 "Ugh! Matter enough!" replied Den. "Tell him, 
 Sterns." 
 
 " Why, the town of Baconsville is just running over of 
 armed while men — rifle-clubs, regular cavalry companies, 
 and they're going to kill all the niggers, ravish the 
 women, and burn the houses, and put all the children to 
 death !" 
 
 "No ! no ! no !" cried Uncle Jesse. "Tell a man some- 
 thing he can believe now ! They won't do no such thing 
 as that. The white folks has got more sense 'n that. They 
 won't do no such things, and I don't believe it ! You are 
 scart and excited." 
 
 "Just go and see then, Mr. Roorae. If you don't believe 
 me, may be you won't believe your own eyes," replied the 
 man." 
 
 "TVell, Roome,come on ! Let's go and see for ourselves; 
 for if it is true, we ought to help," said Brother Gibson, 
 
 "Xo sir ! You just wait, and keep inside the law !" said 
 Jesse Roome, after scratching his head thoughtfiilly a 
 moment. "I believe in law^ and them that has kept inside 
 the law is the ones that is comins: out ahead." 
 
 Sterns then gave a graphic description of the incidents, 
 threats, and indications in Baconsville, up to the close of 
 the court-scene at about half past four o'clock. 
 
 Of course the whole group were intensely excited, 
 and Aunt Phebe iistened, shrieked, and prayed by turns; 
 
138 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 but Uncle Jesse was still firm in his first decision to keep 
 inside the law." 
 
 *' There's been heaps of threats, I know, enough to make 
 a man intimidate of his shadow; but there's a j)ile o' blus- 
 ter and brag in these old aristocrats; just like a barking 
 dog though, he'll never bite." 
 
 " Heigh I but they be a biting now, sho," said Sterns 
 with a shrug. 
 
 "And then our folks ha'n't always done right," Mr. 
 Roome continued. " It's a new thing for us to make laws^ 
 and be officers, and all that; and some thinks 'cause they 
 make the laws, that they needn't keep 'em; and some is 
 mighty ambitious, and likes to pay off old scores through 
 the laws. [N'ow that a'n't right, and it can't do no good, 
 nohow. Some laws has been made wrong, and some has 
 been executed wrong, and it a'u't reasonable to suppose 
 that a man that has been a slave all his life, and ha'n't had 
 nothing to do 'bout no laws only to be lashed when his 
 master has a mind to, is going to rise right up and know 
 everything at once. And the masters that has been mas- 
 ters over us so long, I suppose it 's mighty hard for them 
 to stand the nigger majorities in this State, and have the 
 niggers that they used to have under them, just like that 
 dog now, making laws for them, and in the offices. Well, 
 now, we ought to think o' these things, on both sides, 
 and have patience and do the best we can, and keep mside 
 the law. If the militia company and the white folks has 
 got up a quarrel over there in Baconsville, and either of 
 
OTHER FOUi.S A-N'D THEIR DOIXGS. 139 
 
 them is going to breaking tlic laws— well, I a'n't going over 
 there to join 'em in doing it ! That is all." 
 
 " But it 's the white folks that is breaking the laws; and 
 rra surprised that yo,' Mr. Roomc, a'n't ready to help us 
 against 'em. They 're all there, mounted and armed, and 
 officered; and they says they shall have these men and their 
 guns. The militia ha'n't got guns enough there, and not 
 scarcely no ammunition; and they're just going to be mas- 
 sacred !" 
 
 "No! no!" replied Uncle Jesse, "that won't be done. 
 Them white folks know we've got a Governor and courts." 
 
 "But there's too many of 'em for the courts to stop 'em. 
 There's two or three thousand, all armed, and some of 'em 
 is the biggest men in the State, the old aristocrats ; and 
 the Governor's militia can't do nothing against these Rifle 
 Clubs yo' know, these old confederate soldiers that served 
 in the war. They're all tliera, or the one's they've trained 
 up, are officering now." 
 
 " I know, I know," said Jesse, " but you know there's the 
 United .tates. The United Statas won't see us killed off 
 that way." 
 
 "'Cause the United States is too fur off to see it; and 
 when we're all killed, the United States can't bring us alive 
 again." 
 
 "Why didn't they just let them two young fellows go 
 through that company in the first place on the 4th of July ? 
 It's mighty provoking to see the niggers celebrating the 
 4th w^ith the same flag they used to brag so much about 
 
140 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOtN'GS. 
 
 'fore the "wa', (thougli they have hated it ever since), and 
 the State guns, and all ! AVe've growed so big now, we 
 can afiPord to stoop down to sucli little fellows as they've 
 got to being. What's the use o' keeping up a quarrel when 
 we've got to live together ?" 
 
 "Now, Jesse," said Den Bard iin, "we've been stooped 
 mighty nigh double all our lives, and our fathers and 
 grandfathers before us, and some of their backs is getting 
 stiff. It's well enongh to make a bow, but some folks don't 
 enjoy being rid over, and I reckon yoW one!''' 
 
 " I can't stay to hear yo' talk, and if yo' a'n't men enough 
 to go and help yo' neighbors when they is getting jist 
 slayedj I'm gwine to find some men somewhar; and if ever 
 yo' wants help like us, to save yo' life and property, maybe 
 yo'll get it. I hope so," and Sterns hastened away. 
 
 Uncle Jesse j^aced up and down the room for some mo- 
 ments, with his arms folded and his chin upon his breast; 
 while Den Bardun leaned against the door-post, and 
 watched alternately this neighbor and the chickens a hen 
 was endeavoring to call into a coop in which she was con- 
 fined near the door. 
 
 '• It acans hard ! It does seem hard!" said Roome, with- 
 out raising his eyes from the floor, " and it seems cruel 
 like, I know it does. But it is right! I Jcnoio it is right! 
 and I feel it right in my breast," looking up with an 
 assured manner, and striking his broad chest with his 
 palms. Sit down, Den, sit down. What do you think 
 about this doings ?" 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIN'GS. 141 
 
 "I believe it's a luiglity hard affair, and Ini afraid it's a 
 big one ; ancl I don't believe it 's all about the 4th of July 
 scrape, either. li's more like the democratic party, and 
 they're ph:ving off that it's the militia." 
 
 "What makes you think so, Dan?" 
 
 "Well, Deacon Atwood, he says to me the other day, 
 says he, ''All the officers of the Republican party has got to 
 be killed out, shor;" and I asked him what for?" 
 
 "Was he talking of the colored officers or of all of 'em?" 
 
 White and black, making no exceptions. He says, 
 " we're going to have this election, and the only way we 
 can get it, will be to kill out the leading men, and then the 
 ignorant men will do right." 
 
 " Mr. Atwood came here the other day," said Jesse, " I'd 
 hired :Mott Erkrap, you know, to work for me, and he left 
 me because I wouldn't give him 4th of July; and he want- 
 ed to come back, and I wouldn't take him back. The 
 Deacon came concerning him, and he said then that the Re- 
 publican party, before long, was going to ketch the Devil, 
 (Uncle Jesse lowered his voice as if in awe of his Satanic 
 Majesty.) Says he " There'll be worse than seventy seven 
 claps of thunder striking right against them. Of course 
 we was astonished at his speaking so rash and 'reverent 
 right here in the yard. We was all very much astonished, 
 me and my wife, and Mott Erkrap, and a stranger from the 
 city that came with Mott, at his speaking so rash and 
 'revrent at what would happen to the Republican party in 
 short time." 
 
1-1£; OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 " Hark!" exclaimed Aunt Phebe, raising her hands. "Oh, 
 Lord! tliey bo a killing 'em!" 
 
 The sound of small arms came unmistakably upon the 
 evening air. 
 
 " Oh, no! It takes more'n one bird to make a sj^ring. It 
 a'nt so strange to hear a gun fire!" said Uncle Jesse; at 
 the same time a2')proaching the door to listen. 
 
 "But there's another! and another! and heaps of 'em!" 
 said she, becoming almost frantic with excitement. 
 
 " Good Lord! they be a fighting!" exclaimed both Dan 
 and Jesse. 
 
 Several of the nearer neighbors soon came running up, 
 breathless and alarmed, to ask Avhat should be done. 
 
 '■What is all we gwoine to do, Uncle Jesse?" asked a 
 small coal-black man, rushing up to the yard, gun in hand. 
 Don't ye think we ought to go down and help 'em! — ! — ! 
 but it's awful to hear them guns and stand here with my 
 good rifle in my hands doing nothin';" and ho strode back 
 and forth in front of the door where the group was stand- 
 ing, clasping his trusty weapon to his breast. 
 
 "You'd best remember the Lord in such a time as this, 
 anyhow, and not be swearing," replied Roome." " The 
 more goes there, the worse and the bigger that fuss has got 
 to be, and the more colored people will get killed any how 
 for the whites has got to beat. I^o, no, Penn\' you'd best 
 keep away if you don't want to be killed." 
 
 "I wonder where Deacon Atwood is?" asked Den 
 Bardum, 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 143 
 
 "He a'n't there, you may be slior. He'll talk big, and put 
 the rest up, but keep safe hisself," said Jesse. 
 
 " How about that Sheriff's office ?" and Penny looked 
 significantly at both Jesse and Den. 
 
 " That's so," said Den, " we three did promise to get 
 him nominated on the Republican ticket, didn't we? 
 He Avas mighty in love with our Governor then." 
 
 "But the Governor won't support this kind of doings," 
 said Roome. 
 
 "Goodness gracious! Just hear the guns!" said Penny, 
 "We'll see fire pretty soon. They'll be burning houses, 
 certain." 
 
 " I do hope this is n't our folks begun this," said Jesse. 
 " I hope they '11 keop inside the law, and then the United 
 States can protect us, and not let the white folks here kill 
 us all off. But if our folks begun this, the good Laud 
 knows what will become of us all. If Deacon, Atwood goes 
 in for this kind of thing, I'll go back on him; for I won't 
 stick to any body that violates the law. My motto is to 
 punish every man, white and black, that violates the law. 
 It does seem mighty hard to stand here, and hear them 
 guns, and believe that somebody 's getting killed; but I 
 feel in my breast that it is the right thing to do. Does 
 any of you know who 's gone over from Bean Island? — 
 any of the neighbors?" 
 
 " Of the white folks? or the colored?" 
 
 "Either one." 
 
 " Dr. Ave, Joe Ennery, Coot Hogg, and Ramal Bardun, 
 
14:4: OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 John Rammel, and Robert Blending has gone; and Captain 
 Black, and Williams, and I expect the Payne hoys." 
 
 "Do you l:?20w that, Penny?" and Uncle Jesse bit his 
 lips. 
 
 *' Yes, I met them near sundown, gallopping hard that 
 way; or rather, I didn't meet the Payne boys." 
 
 "Hist! There comes the old man." 
 
 " Good evening Mr. Payne," said the host, extending his 
 right hand in a cordial welcome, while with his left he 
 made a sign behind his back, commanding caution. 
 
 This was clearly visible, though the sun's light had en- 
 tirely faded; for the cabin door, near the outside of which 
 they stood, was wide open, and afire of fat pine was filling 
 the broad chimney's throat with a sheet of flame. 
 
 "Old man Payne" Avas a small man, with a large head, 
 quick, deep-set gray eyes, under a broad brow which was 
 crowned with snowy hair. 
 
 He it was who had counselled discretion, moderation and 
 honorable dealing at the Club meeting at which "Watson 
 Atwood was initiated into the mysteries of modern south- 
 ern politics. 
 
 A descendant of an honored southern family, he yet 
 seemed from infancy to have inherited many notions which 
 were antagonistic to the environments of his childhood, 
 and which several seasons spent in Kew England, in the 
 early home of his mother, served to strengthen and inten- 
 sify. 
 
 His wife, always fully Southern in ideas and sympathies, 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 145 
 
 bad reared tbeir children so, aided by tbe# surronndino-s 
 \^ile be bad very quietly cberisbed bis own sentiments. 
 
 A cbair was brought, and be seated biraself without 
 speaking, sighed heavily, foklcd bis small nervous bands, 
 and gazed away into the darkness; and as volley followed 
 volley, be shuddered, and wept. 
 
 '' Good God," said hi- at length, " I bad hoped this kind 
 of thing was over! Jesse, what do you know about 
 this?" 
 
 "Nothing," was the prompt reply. "I know nothing: 
 at least, I'v'e just heard that there's a fuss between the 
 Militia company and the white folks. Do you know who's 
 in it, Mr. Payne. Who begun it, I mean?" 
 
 "I only know they say the officers would not go to 
 court, but just fortified themselves in the armory, and de- 
 fied the law, and said they were going to fight. Joe Morey 
 says they've been making awful threats lately, and so the 
 Rifle clubs were called out to sustain General Baker, who 
 undertook to conduct the suit for Robert Baker and 
 Gaston." 
 
 "Defied the law? How's that, Mr. Payne?" 
 
 "J don't know Jesse, but that is what Joe Morey 
 said." 
 
 "Is that all you know about it?" 
 
 " Yes. 
 
 " Has any body gone over from here, from the Island, I 
 mean?" 
 
 "Yes, some on botb sides, I guess." 
 
146 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 • 
 
 "And whatis the intentions of the white folks?" 
 
 "I do not know, except that they intend to get some 
 security that the negroes shall give up their guns, and stop 
 drilling. They say they do not feel secure in their lives 
 and property while the Militia is drilling wdth arms in 
 their hands." 
 
 "What has the colored people ever done? And why don't 
 they treat them so well that they won't be afraid of them? 
 They're State Militia." 
 
 "I know, I know that Jesse; but our boys will listen to 
 nothing. I'm afraid of the consequences, and do not want 
 another war." 
 
 " A good many of 'em is pretty old " boys," — old Con- 
 federate soldiers," said Roome, " and there can't be much 
 that is worse than this, judging by the guns we hear. 
 How do you know there's any gone?" 
 
 " They went by my store, and I tried to persuade them 
 not to go." 
 
 " Who was they?" 
 
 " I can not give names, Jesse." 
 
 " Did Hankins go, Mr. Payne?" 
 
 "I cannot tell, Jesse; but I'm glad you are all here. 
 If you stay here, you will not be hurt. But I didn't think 
 
 till now, some of them may be straggling off here, 
 
 and I had better go back to my store," and the old man 
 walked sadly away." 
 
 The night had set in, dark and moonless; and an hour's 
 brisk discharge of small arms was followed, (after an in- 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. U7 
 
 ten^l of respite), by the booming of cannon, which height- 
 ened the terror and direful foreboding, of the listeners" 
 
 Lncle Jesse'« dwelling became a tabernacle to the Lord 
 that night; for from it arose the ceaseless voice of true 
 prayer-" the soul's sincere desire," through all those hours 
 of darkness and terror, till just ere the dawn of the Sabbath 
 
 morning, his neighbors departed to their several places of 
 abode. 
 
14:8 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX • 
 
 THE SITUATION. 
 
 Peace fool ! 
 I would have peace and quietness, but the fool will not." 
 
 Shakespere. 
 
 Uncle Jesse, as the reader is by this time aware, was a 
 mau of influence among his neighbors, few of whom, of 
 either race, were capable of such just and comprehensive 
 views of their political and social relations. 
 
 Little influenced by color prejudice (which is common to 
 both races, though from widely different causes and in 
 various degrees, throughout the United States), he possessed 
 great reverence for law, as such; a fact mainly due to a 
 residence of several years among the law-abiding people of 
 that portion of the State of Ohio known as The Western 
 Reserve, at a period when his mind was peculiarily receptive. 
 
 Born a slave in 1834, he siezed tlie first opportunity 
 offered by the late war, to flee from bondage and learn to 
 live like a man. 
 
 Aunt Phebe preferred to wait with their two little chil- 
 dren, her invalid mother, and aged grandfather, for the 
 coming of the "Yankees," which was confidently and hope- 
 fully expected. 
 
 And so in 1867 Uncle Jesse returned and found her and 
 their children free, and thriving, in the same cabin in which 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 149 
 
 he left them, though the " big house " Tvas vacant, and the 
 plantation in new hands. 
 
 At that time the Southern States were rife vv'ith utter 
 lawlessness and Litter animosities; and acts of malicious 
 and cruel outrage were frequent occurrences. 
 
 From the first settlement of the State, society had been 
 divided into many and antagonistic classes, throughout 
 which, however, prevailed an universal and sycophantic 
 aping, each class of that above it; while the upper stratum 
 sat in serene security of social distinction — fortune or mis- 
 fortune, jDcrsonal respectability or degradation, culture or 
 ignorance, plethora or poverty, all were forgotten or ob- 
 scured in the ppnumbra of that formidable and enigmatical 
 word hirthj untitled though it must be. 
 
 Now that the old landmarks had to some extent been 
 swept away, there followed a general and tumultuous 
 scramble in the debris, each being anxious to secure all that 
 was possible, or failing, to resent the affront of another's 
 succes'. 
 
 Tims the worst elements and characteristics of every class 
 were made prominent. 
 
 Families bred in opulence, and accustomed to claim the 
 unpaid toil of others as their rightful due, and to believe 
 political leadership and oligarcal control their birth-right, 
 and who, liketlieir ancestors for generations, cherished con- 
 tempt for all who worked for their own subsistence, found 
 extreme humiliation in laboring for their own bi'ead, and 
 submitting to the legal restrictions imposed by the general 
 
150 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS, 
 
 government, controlled as it was by those they had former- 
 ly derided as the "mud-sills" of the Xorth, even though 
 those restrictions were equitable and generous. In resent- 
 ment of the equal citizenship conferred upon their former 
 chattled slaves, they committed, and defended in each other* 
 such outrages upon the persons and jDroperty of the negroes 
 and resident northern whites, as are not even admissable 
 between civilized enemies at open war. 
 
 Xot n. few planters who formerly owned thousands of 
 acres of land, and from three to five thousand slaves, 
 were, by the failure of the Rebellion, for the success of which 
 they had staked all their possessions, as jioor as the "cracker" 
 families, which had formerly '• squatted" like cateri^illars 
 and locusts upon the skirts of their plantations. They were 
 eA'en sometimes subjected to these as magistrates and offi- 
 cials, as they often were to their former slaves. 
 
 This haughty planter-race, having utterly failed in its 
 last great pretension in bitterness of spirit still cherished 
 its disdain for those it could not conquer, into which dis- 
 dain the education of two hundred and fifty years of 
 irresjyojisihle oicnership of laborers has concentrated the 
 egotism, the selfishness and the cruelty thus engendered. 
 
 The intelligence of this class was never commen- 
 surate with its wealth. Schools v^'ere necessarily few in 
 the South during the existence of slavery, and family 
 feuds and favoritisms notoriously controlled the distribu- 
 tion of the honors of those that did exist, and social and 
 political distinction dej^ended upon culture in no degree. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 151 
 
 Hence there was little to spur the laggard, or to encourage 
 and inspire genius, and the actual ignorance, or at best, 
 the superficial scholarship of " the first families" was as- 
 tounding. Since the war, poverty and aversion to the North 
 have materially lessened southern patronage of northern 
 schools, and under the ''carpet-bag"adrainstrat!on the high- 
 er schools of the State, and the common schools in country 
 districts in which the aggregate number of pupils did not 
 warrant the opening of more than one school, were 
 accessible to colored students; a recognition of equality 
 which the whites would not tolerate; and so they consigned 
 themselves to ignorance. 
 
 The class formerly known as "sand-hillers," "crackers," 
 or "poorvvhite trash," were lazy, filthy and ignorant, 
 and frequently degraded below the level of the slaves. 
 These, with the class next above them in the social scale — 
 the "working people," who owned few or no slaves, 
 and labored with their own hands on small farms, or as 
 mechanics, experienced a social promotion nearly equal to 
 that of the slaves ; as emancipation, the ravages of war, 
 and a more general distribution of land, through confisca- 
 tion and sales for delinquent taxes, broke up the land mon- 
 opoly and political retainershi]) which had so long existed 
 to the oppulence of the planters, and the semi-mendicity of 
 the lower classes. 
 
 The confederate service had also given acceptable occu- 
 pation and v.-ages, and even some inferior military titles to 
 men who had formerly begged, or stolen, or staiwed, rather 
 
152 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 than earn their bread b}- lionest labor; and such military 
 glory, won in defence of " The Lost Cause," could not be 
 utterly ignored in the contest for recognition of some sort. 
 
 The class called *' respectable jjeoiDle," consisting of 
 artists, merchants and professional men, teachers, &c., 
 whose title to recognition rested upon wealth and culture, 
 probably received the change with the most equilibrity, 
 while the freedmen had everything to gain, and nothing to 
 lose. 
 
 The most ignorant of them well knew that it was to 
 "de Yankees,'' "de Lincum sogers," de United States," or 
 "Mar's Lincom," that they were indebted for emancipa- 
 tion. The raving of their masters against northern aboli- 
 tionists was, to them, quite sufficient evidence that some- 
 how the war had its origin, near or remote, in northern 
 antagonism to slavery. 
 
 History will never fail to record the good behavior of 
 the freedmen of the southern states of America, the 
 causes of which were manifold. 
 
 The experiences and legends of the slaveship, and cen- 
 turies of repetition of similar evidence, had taught the 
 African that there were other powers, stronger than brute 
 force, which he could not command. 
 
 Again, he was not self-liberated. The brother of his 
 master had been his deliverer (whatever may have been 
 his motive), and gratitude, the moral attraction of gravi- 
 tation, is the strongest moral power in the universe; which 
 the All-Father well knew when He sent His Son to suffer. 
 
OTHEll FOOLS AND THEIK DOINGS. 153 
 
 This delivcMX-r, this brother, believed in hno, the invisi- 
 bility a,Kl incomprehensibility of which appealed to the 
 supe'rstition of the emancipated slaves. This northern 
 brother had strngslod desperately with the tyrant, poured 
 out his treasure and shed his blood without st.nt >n the 
 conflict; and having conquered, stood with weapons .n 
 either band, to command the peace in the name ofth.s 
 invisible and incomprehensible la.; while the vel.g.ous 
 industrial, and educational influences which ne summoned 
 from his northern home, coming up while yet the atmo - 
 pbere was tremulous with the sounds of expir.ng confl.. 
 brought food for hungry bodies, intellects and sou s; hc^ 1- 
 i„„ for lacerated spirits; and the vesture of a bet er cn.l^ 
 iza'tion for the nakedness of the black, and the mad-chafed 
 form of the white. 
 
 Women who pressed to the b-^-^"^ ^f ; /J,,: 
 water for the ligs of the dying, and a pillow for the 
 :lded head that lay ttpon the bloody s.ar , from bear 
 baptized to self-sacrifice, and pens lit wtth the zea of . 
 Nazarene, sent white-winged, burning messages all o. 
 the new -reading North; and while from thousands of 
 homes there, brave men came with flauntmg flags, and 
 beating drums, and booming cannons, sn,gmg as they 
 
 marched : 
 
 •' We are coming, Father Abr'am. 
 Three liundred thousand more," 
 
 ^ " We'll hang JeS Davis on a sour apple tree." 
 
15-i: OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 (and voiuntarily broke that pledge,) from out those same 
 homes stole a procession of women, not clandestinely, not tim- 
 idly, but brave of soul and strong of heart and inflexible of 
 purpose, though without ostentation. The bible and spell- 
 ing-book were their onl}- weapons, and their song was of 
 " the mercies of the Lord forever," and their " trust under 
 the feathers of His wingsl" " Neither the terror by 
 night," " the arrow by day," " the pestilence in darkness," 
 nor " destruction at noon," nor the " thousand falling on 
 their right hand," and on their left, could make them 
 afraid; "because they had made the Lord their strength, 
 even tlie Most High their refuge." They went forth to 
 "tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the 
 dragon." Scorn, insult, slander, poverty, loneliness, sick- 
 ness and death, they trampled under their feet ; for 
 " through the v^-ork of the Lord were they made glad," and 
 they "triumi^hed in the work of His hands." 
 
 Away on in the Elysian fields of heaven, when the cycles 
 of eternity shall have encircled tlie universe, and rolled 
 Lack upon their track in such repeated and intricate mazes 
 as only the Lifinite mind can trace, they shall, receive from 
 the lips of the ransomed of all nations, " the blessing of 
 those once ready to peTish"; and the blessed assurance 
 that the torch they lit in the freedman's hut, lit a beacon 
 that illumined the world. 
 
 If the South is saved to civilization, its chief human 
 savior was "the uii2:£rer school-teacher." 
 
 To these evidences of kindly iiiterest on tlie part of the 
 
OTHEFw FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 155 
 
 Northern people, and the influence of, and confidence im- 
 plied in the immediate presence of feminine representatives 
 of the best and most peaceable element of the North, cer- 
 tainly not less is due than to the natural timidity of the race, 
 or their great faith in ultimate Divine deliverance, which 
 needed intelligent direction. 
 
 Evidently the most difficult lesson, and yet tiiat most 
 needed by ail the former inhabitants of the southern states 
 is reverence for, trust vi, and submission to law. Tiie 
 old habit of irresponsible authority, of domination in- 
 stead of true democracy — the idea that the sovereign citizen 
 may be superior to the la^v enacted by the popular will, is 
 hard to eradicate. 
 
 Like the writhing beheaded serpent, which responds with 
 slow-dying malice to the glow of the sun that does not 
 make night because its green eyes arc sightless, beheaded 
 slaveocratic feudalism blindly ejects its spite at inevit- 
 able oncoming civilization. 
 
 Through the philanthropic movements which have been 
 indicated, an entirely new ingredient was injected amonf>- 
 the heterogeneous elements of southern society vrhich 
 were seeking a new basis, and a few northern soldiers, 
 enamored of the delicious climate and naturally pro- 
 ductive soil to which war and" conquest had introduced 
 them, and from which slavery h;id rornierly excluded 
 them, brought their families from Xijk'.k ::i homes, or mar- 
 ried daughters of this sunny land, and became permanent 
 residents. Then followed capitalists, allured by the numer- 
 
156 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 ous apparently good investments the almost universal 
 bankruptcy afforded. 
 
 "With these came money, and such industry, enterprise, 
 skill and public spirit as ^vas before unknov/n in that 
 slavery-cursed laud; and the pecuniary results of M'hich the 
 Southerner can only account for by supposed political cor- 
 ruption or downright stealing from the public funds — the 
 most familiar means. 
 
 Still the formerly favored class, true to its arrogance, 
 and not ignored by those accustomed to vrorship at its 
 shrine, ranks the possessor of one of its patronymics, 
 especially if garnished by military title Avon or sustained 
 in confederate service, among the most enviable of men ; 
 for " The Lost Cause " is as dear to South Carolinians as 
 ever — an ideal worshiped all the more devoutly because of 
 its unreality, and with demonstration necessarily somewhat 
 restrained. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 157 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE ATTACK. 
 
 "Shepherd— Name of mcic}', -when was this, boy ? 
 
 Clo.— 2sow, uow;I have not winked since I saw these sights; 
 the men are not yet cold under water, nor the bear lialf dined o ; the 
 gentleman ; he's at it now. 
 
 Shep.— I Woukl I had been by to have helped the old man ! 
 
 CIo.— I would you had been by the ship's side, to have helped 
 her ; there your charity would have lacked footing. 
 
 * -X * -jf * ^ * * j^ ^ 
 
 Shep.— This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so ; up with it, 
 keep it close ; home, home, the next way. ""^ ^- * * 
 
 Clo.— Go you the next M-ay with your findings ; I'll go see if the bear 
 be gone from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten ; they are 
 never curst, but when they are hungry; if there be any of him left, 
 I'll bury it."— Winter's Tale— Shakespeare. 
 
 Immediately after the interview of the four colored men 
 with General Baker, Rives hastened to the drill-room, where 
 he soon found the Captain of the militia comi^any. 
 
 "Doc," said he, "Gen. Baker says if ^-ou do not give up 
 the guns, he will melt the ball down before ten o'clock to- 
 night." 
 
 "Judge, just step this way," and the Captain took hira 
 through a communicating door into his own bed-room ad- 
 joining 
 
 " General," said he, in a confidential tone," yo' are the 
 Major General of the militia of this Division, isn't yo' ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Xow, here. I am willing to do this. I've sent for the 
 
158 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Colonel, over and over, three times, but be don't come- 
 Now, wbile I believe that, under the law, I liave no right 
 to give U2> the guns to yo' but yo' being the General of 
 Militia, I will give yo' these guns to keep, if yo' will take 
 'em and take my chances." 
 
 " *'I have no right to take those guns out of yourhands," 
 replied Hives, (too glad that it was so.) " The law 
 does not give me any such right, and I'm not going to de- 
 mand them. You can do just as you please. I want the 
 thing to be settled, if possible, but I don't demand the 
 guns." 
 
 " Well," said Captain Doc, " if yo' don't take 'em, I 
 don't intend to give 'em up to General Baker." 
 
 " You do not say that you intend to fight ?' 
 
 ''Xo, sir, I don't say anything of the kind; but I don't 
 intend to give up the guns to General Baker; but if yo' will 
 take 'em to relieve tlie responsibility of blood being shed 
 in town from me, I will give 'em to yo'." 
 
 "No. I have no right to demand them. Yo' must use 
 your own discretion about it," replied Rives. 
 
 "Well, if that is the way yo' are going to leave me, I'm 
 not going to give 'em to General Baker." 
 
 Doc then hastily penned the following note and dis- 
 patched it : 
 
 " Gen. Baker : — These guns are j^laced in ray hands, and 
 I am responsible for them, and have no right to give them 
 up to a private citizen; I cannot surrender them to you." 
 Signed. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 169 
 
 A reply came. 
 
 "I must have the guns in fifteen minutes." 
 
 "Well," Doc coolly remarked, "then he'll have to take 
 'em by force, and I shall not be responsible." 
 
 He Mas in the armory Avith less than forty men, only 
 twenty-five of whom were members of the militia com- 
 pany; the oihers having fled there unarmed, for protection. 
 
 "Now boys," said he, " we may as well settle down to 
 work, for we are in for it, shor. Yo' keep away from them 
 windows, for any of 'em will be firing in here. I'll go on 
 top of the roof, and see what they're doing." 
 
 So saying he ascended through a scuttle, and took ob- 
 servations. 
 
 General Baker was riding hither and thither, assisted by 
 his aid, the Colonel of the same name. As he waved his 
 gloved hand, and indicated their positions, the men imme- 
 diately assumed them. 
 
 First, twenty-five or thirty men were stationed in front 
 of the armory. The building, as has already been stated, 
 stood facing the river, and the broad street before it was 
 not less than one hundred and fifty feet in width. 
 
 Next, behind an abutment of one of the railroad bridges 
 fifteen or twenty more were placed, and still further down 
 the stream thirty or forty more. A continuous double line 
 of cavalry encircled the entire square, while up the river's 
 bank, near and above the scene of the encounter of the 
 young men and the militia company on the 4th, stood some 
 hundreds more in reserve. 
 
160 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 With all the consequential airs of an officer who knows 
 himself for a great General about to win for his already 
 honor-bunlened brow fresh wreaths that shall be nmarau- 
 thine, General Baker proceeded (o place squads of men 
 here and there, on the corners of the streets and in other 
 commanding positions, clear across the sub-level half-mile 
 from the river to the hills, and even upon its slope, till all 
 the streets were thoroughly picketed and guarded, and 
 escape made presumably impossible. Seeing all this Captain 
 Doc descended to his men, and distributed tlieni between 
 the windows, and in the front corners of the room, under 
 protection of the walls. 
 
 "Jes, sec 'dem five men's settin' on deir bosses, 
 ovah Mar on de rivah-bank!" said corporal Free, rising 
 upon his knees from his crouching position 1)g]ov\^ one of 
 the high windows, and peeping out. " Cap'n, I don't like de 
 looks of tings out dar!" 
 
 "TVell, then, don't lookout, but make yor'self easy, and 
 stay right where I put yo'." 
 
 "That's jest what vre're bound to do, Cap'n; we'll make 
 ourselves easy and peaceable." 
 
 Dare comes Gen'l Baker from down street, on hossback, 
 an' he an't more'n fifteen yards from 'di.5 building! Now 
 he's motioned his hand to dem (ive mens, an' dcy done rode 
 rio-ht off down towards de road brid2:el Oh, laws! I seed a 
 mighty big crowd o' Georgia white men coming up de street, 
 Y/id guns in deir hands;" and he hurriedly crouched down 
 to his former position, little knowing that the city police. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 161 
 
 stationed at the bridge in extra numbers, allowed no colored 
 people to pass. 
 
 "Harry Gaston and a posse is running all the women and 
 children out of the streets, that was looking over this way!" 
 said another militia man, who stood peeping out at the side 
 of another window. " Boys, it do look like thar' was g^voine 
 to be a light here, shor!" 
 
 " The Intendant asked for time to get the women and 
 children out o' town, an' General Baker said he'd give " half 
 an hour," said another. 
 
 ^' 0?itis Jiff ee}i mumtes, it was,'^ roared Mansan Handle," 
 " Onus fifteen minutes to get 'em all out, an' he swore 
 about that. I'm glad }ni/ woman's gone." 
 
 The souml of rapping at the door below was heard, and 
 a voice called: 
 
 "Doc, Captain Doc!" 
 
 " Don't none o' yo' go near the windows, but just yo' 
 keep still where yo' be," said the Captain, who then threw 
 up a sash, and looking down, asked what was wanted. 
 
 "You see, Captain, that General Baker has all his men 
 ready to attack you, but he gives you one more chance. 
 The fifteen minutes are up, and he sent rae to ask if you 
 are going to surrender, and give the guns up?" 
 
 "I can't give them up to him. I don't desire no fuss, 
 and we've got out of the street into our hall for the safety 
 of our lives, and there we're going to remain; but we are 
 not going to give up the guns to anybody without authority 
 to take 'em." 
 
162 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 The messenger galloped back to his chief. 
 
 It was a time of too intense feeling for speech, in that 
 hall. A brief moment of suspense, and the sound of hoofs 
 was heard, and tlie horsemen who had been stationed in 
 front of the building removed to a street in the rear. 
 
 Then down by the river-bank came a flash, a quick, sharp 
 report, and a small column of smoke rose straight up into 
 the air. It was a signal gun, and quickly followed by a 
 volley from the men stationed behind the abutment of the 
 railroad bridge. 
 
 " Crash ! crash ! crash I " came the bullets like hail 
 through the glass windows, for the strong shutters had 
 not been closed; the little band preferring exposure to 
 sufiocation and io^norance of the enemies maneuvers. 
 
 As the colored men had less than five rounds of cartridges, 
 they reserved their fire twenty or thirty minutes. Then 
 Captain Doc gave the order. The discipline of the men 
 was excellent, and their small supply was eked out by 
 irregular and infrequent discharges. 
 
 "Good Laud!" exclaimed several at once, after firing 
 a light volley. 
 
 A young man down by the abutment was seen to 
 throw up his arms and fall. 
 
 " That was Merry Walter," said one of the men. 
 
 " AVas it?" asked Doc. " He's gone at his work hind side 
 before. Kot more'n two hours or so ago, he said, "We're 
 gwoine to kill all the colored men in Baconsville to-day, 
 and then we'll take the w^omen and children, and then I'm 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 163 
 
 going to kill all that are against me." That's just the 
 words he said." 
 
 "Oh!" was the general exclamation." 
 
 " Tliafs just mcfidP' said Friend Robins. " But he's 
 gone to meet it. I a'n't prepared to die myself, but I 
 shouldn't like to meet the Laud right after saying such a 
 thinsj as that." 
 
 " We may all have to meet Him 'fo' dis job is done," 
 said another. 
 
 The attack commenced about six o'clock, and soon 
 every pane of glass in the numerous windows was, strewed 
 in fragments upon the floor, yet not one of the men was 
 injured, and Merry Walter was the only white man harmed 
 during the whole affray except one slightly wounded by 
 a comrade. 
 
 Night was coming on apace, calm, but moonless; and 
 Captain Doc went upon the roof again to take observations. 
 Several of his men were already there, though each un- 
 aware of the presence of the others, on account of the pecu- 
 liar construction of the roof." 
 
 Doc there discovered that the attacking party was 
 gradually closing up towards the armory, and he immedi- 
 ately descended again. He found the men still talking, 
 and seeming to have become accustomed to the straggling 
 shots that occasionally visited them. 
 
 " I think if I is to go, I'd send some of 'em ahead o' me 
 if I had a gun," said Pompey Conner, " but I don't mean 
 to go if I can help it." 
 
164: OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 "Yo're mighty quiet, Watta," said Doc." 
 
 Wliat's the use of talking? Better be shooting. It's a 
 pity ^ye cannot clear out all that vermin." (With a gesture 
 of disgust.) 
 
 Half an hour more of irregular firing against the brisk 
 one from outside, (where the enemy continued to approach,) 
 and a voice was heard there: "William McFadden, go 
 across the river and bring two kegs of powder, and we'll 
 blow this building up." 
 
 "Bring me some long arms, too — two cannon — I can't 
 drive these nio-^rers out with small arms." 
 
 Only Captain Doc caught the order fully, but he recognized 
 the voices respectively of Colonel Pickens,* Baker and the 
 gallant General, and sprung upon the roof again, but soon 
 hastened down, and quietly slipped from tiie hall down the 
 stairs of his private apartments, and so out upon the street. 
 Aided by the darkness and his own dark skin, and some con- 
 fusion just commencing in the hitherto orderly ranks of the 
 enemy, he soon found the weakest point in the surrounding 
 
 * Probably a descendant of a valiant Colonel Pickens, who, 
 in the early days of the State's history, drove a hirsre party of 
 Indians from their homes. They took refuge in a deserted house 
 near Little River in the present County of Abbeville, near Aiken, 
 Pickens burned them there. They died without a muni.ur; the few 
 who attempted to escape were driven back or shot by the surround- 
 ing riflemen. The next day Captain William Black, in going from 
 Miller's Block-house, on the Savannah River, heard a chain rattling 
 near the ruins. He paused, and found a white neighbor baiting his 
 wolf trap with apiece of one of the dead Indians." History of the 
 Upper Counties cf South Carolina by J. H. Logan, A. M. pp 67-68. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 165 
 
 force. Re-entering the ball with hammer, saw and nails 
 from his own ample supply, he tore down boards from a 
 rough partition there, and constructed a rude Jadder. This 
 he fastened securely to the sill of one of the rear windows 
 of the hall. By this time the men had become thoroughly 
 alarmed; and, but for the strong controlling influence of 
 their CajDtain, a panic must have occurred. In his imme- 
 diate presence, however, they were yet controllable. 
 
 "Here, Lieutenant Watta, yo' go down first, and re- 
 ceive the men; and all yo' men follow him. Not too fast, 
 now! Some of us will keep) firing once and awhile, and so 
 make them think we are here yet. I'll go last, but yo' re- 
 ceive the men, and keep them till I com-C. I know just 
 where v\'e've got to make a break, and I'll get yo' all off if 
 yo' keep cool, and not get excited; though yo'll have to 
 fight right smart to get out even the best way, for we are 
 surrounded." 
 
 This was attempted, but when the brave Captain left the 
 dark, deserted hall, and reached the ground, he found but 
 fourteen of the men there. 
 
 "AYhcre is Lieutenant Watta?" he inquired. " He's got 
 excited and gone off, and controlled off the best part of the 
 Company. He wanted to take us along too." 
 
 "Vrdl, men, we are surrounded, and I think there is 
 over three thousand men here in Bacons ville, and there is 
 more coming over from the city all the time. The lower 
 part of Market street is completely blocked up with 'em for 
 two hundred yards; looks like as thick as they can stand; 
 
IGG OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 and in Mercer street it's the same, and in Main street the 
 same. But riorht in front of the buildinor there isn't so 
 many; and if yo're ready to fight pretty sharp and mind 
 orders, I'll get yo' out safe, maybe. 
 
 "We'd best go up to Marmor's office, and out that way. 
 They won't expect lis to go up street towards old man 
 Baker's; they'll expect us to go towards the city bridge, 
 or to Sharp's hill." 
 
 While the crowd was intent upon the arrival, placing, 
 and firing off the cannon, the fifteen men reached the 
 street. 
 
 "Here they come I Here they come!" shouted the mob, 
 as the men sought to cross Main streat. 
 
 The numbers against them were, of course, overwhelm- 
 ing; but the colored men were fighting for life, and the 
 darkness and their dark skins were to their advantage. 
 
 They dodged, or hid, or ran, or stood and fought bravely, 
 as either best served them; till, after two or three hours of 
 such effort, they were all safe together out of the town, 
 in a strip of thick bushes which bordered "a branch" (a 
 small tributary of the river), in one of Robert Baker's 
 fields. Only one was wounded, and he not disabled. Here 
 all sat down to rest and give thanks for deliverance. But 
 the brave Captain was troubled about the Lieutenant and 
 the men he had "controlled off." Pie was sure they would 
 "get squandered;" and that if they did, they would be 
 killed. 
 
 So, leaving his comrades with many injunctions to re- 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 167 
 
 main there quietly, where no one would expect them to 
 take refuge, he returned, and through numerous hair-breadth 
 escapes, at length reached the besieged square. 
 
 The most of the liouses there, as is quite common in the 
 Soutli, stood upon wooden spiles, or short brick pillars, for 
 coolness and less miasma. 
 
 Imagination is active and potent in the Southerner, and 
 his contempt and resentment towards a "nigger" that dares 
 thwart the will of a white, feed his courage best when the 
 dark skin is visible. 
 
 So there stood the brave Southerners encircling that de- 
 voted block, and firing into it at random, no one having 
 yet attempted search under the houses where the negroes 
 would be the most likely to secrete themselves. 
 
 But Captain Doc, escaping the bullets, called in subdued 
 tones under several of the dwellings, and received two or 
 three responses. 
 
 " Yo'll get ketched here, bye-and-bye," said he, " shor as 
 the worl. To' come along, an' I'll got yo* in a better place." 
 
 With the end of his gun he knocked a few bricks 
 from the walled underpinning of a building that was 
 nearer the ground than the others. 
 
 " Crawl in, an' I'll brick yo' up." 
 
 They obeyed with alacrity, and he replaced the bricks 
 and went in search of other parties. 
 
 Looking out from a little cornfield, he saw one of the men 
 whom he sought, run across an adjacent garden, and called 
 to him. 
 
168 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 Tlie fugitive was the Town Marshal, or chief of police. 
 Bewildered by fight, or iioL recognizing the voice, the man 
 ran on and leaped the fence into Mercer street. The moon 
 had now arisen, and shone very brightly. 
 
 "We've got younowl" shouted Harry Gaston, with a ter- 
 rible oath; and with several of his comrades immediately 
 surrounded Carr. 
 
 "We've got you now ! You've been Town Marshal 
 lon<^ enouiTjh. Goina: around here and arrestinor white men: 
 but 3^ou won't arrest any more after to-night. 
 
 "Mr. Gaston,'' said the Marshal with the assured voice 
 and manner of an innocent man Mr. " Gaston, I know yo', 
 and will ask yo' to save my life. I havn't done anything 
 to yo'. I have only done my duty as Town Marshal." 
 
 " Y-e-s," replied Gaston with a sneer. "Your knowing 
 me a'n't nothing. I don't care nothing about your marshal- 
 ship. I ha'n't forgot that five dollars you made me pay 
 for dipping my head in Ben's Spring, and I'll have satisfac- 
 tion to-night, for we're going to kill you;" and the six men 
 all fired upon the unarmed Marshal at once. 
 
 " Oh Lord ! Oh Lord !" cried the unfortunate man. 
 
 " You call on the Lord, you ?'' t./id they. 
 
 " Oh Lord ! Oh Lord !" rang out loud and clear upon 
 the midnight air, and as he uttered the words a second 
 time they fired again, and he fell. 
 
 While his flesh still quivered, southern chivalry pro- 
 ceeded to draw a pair of genteel boots from his feet, and a 
 valuable watch from his pocket; and then left him with the 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS 169 
 
 stars gazing into his dead face,, and the \vitnessing angels 
 noting testimony for the inquest of a just lieaven. 
 
 Captain Doe had climbed upon a timber of the railroad 
 trestle, and was iooking through the tassels of corn which 
 grew around him and made a friendly shade. 
 
 " By !" said one of the ruffiams, '•! reckon some of 
 
 us had better go over in that corn-field. There's good 
 hunting thar, I reckon." 
 
 Stealthily Capt. Doc now crept between the corn-stalks 
 diagonally to the left, till he reached and entered Marmor's 
 printing office, which was, like the Justice's office, connected 
 with his dwelling. Here he remained an hour or more, 
 supposing himself to be alone, and listened to the sounds 
 of violence without, and of manv men comiuGj over the 
 long bridge from the city, whooping and yelling like 
 demons. 
 
 Then came blows upon the front door of the office, 
 threatening its destruction, and our Captain made his exit 
 through the one at the rear. 
 
 When Lieut. Watta had "controlled off" more than half 
 the men who escaped from the armory, he took them right 
 into the teeth of the eneni}-. At once the little squad was 
 scattered in every direction, in their own expressive dialect, 
 "squandered;" but most of them soon rendezvoused in 
 Marmor's printing office, entering at the back door, as Doc 
 and his men had done. 
 
 " Boys, let's run out. They'll ketch us here, shor," sug- 
 gested one of the party, and opened the front door, but 
 
170 OTHER FOOLS .VXD THEIR DOINGS 
 
 quickly and noiselessly closed it again, as the foe were 
 numerous there. 
 
 " If you go that way, you'll get killed," said tbe Lieu- 
 tenant; and all immediately ran out at the back door, and 
 secreted themselves in the yards and under the houses; all 
 but Corporal Free, who crept under a counter in the office. 
 
 When the door was eventually broken in, and the mob 
 proceeded to demolish the machinery and whatever else 
 they could find, a fragment struck the wall, and, rebound- 
 ing, threatened the concealed head of the Corporal, Avho 
 dodged, and thus revealed his presence. 
 
 *' Hello ! There's a great nigger poking his head out,' 
 exclaimed the rioters. 
 
 ** I surrender ! I surrender," cried the poor fellow, as 
 they dragged him out. "Where is Gen. Baker? Where 
 is Gen. Baker?" 
 
 " Who is this ?" asked one of the white men, pausing in 
 his work of demolition, and approaching where the light 
 of their lantern fell upon the face of their captive. 
 
 "Why it's John Free. Don't yo' know me? — de man 
 dat libed neighbor to yo', Tom Sutter, for a year or mo'?" 
 replied the prisoner. "I'm John Free, John Free. I'b' 
 know I'm a honest man as don't do nobody no harm. I 
 wants to see Gen. Baker." 
 
 " you !" said the white man Tom Sutter, look- 
 ing down into the dark face, "you're one of Capt. Doc's 
 militia-men, first corporal. We'll fix yow to-night." 
 
 " Oh, please send Gen. Baker to me if yo' please. He is 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THf:iR DOINGS. 171 
 
 a luLTh-toned gein'nian, I've heard 'era say, anrl lie won't let 
 any of bis men hiii't a prisoner dat surrenders, I tell yo' 
 I surrender ! I surrender !" 
 
 " You go to ! ^Ve're going to fix you pretty soon ;" 
 
 and beating bim with tbeir guns, they dragged bim out 
 at the front door, and down Main and 3Iarket streets, 
 to a place where fifty or sixty ruffians (" the good people of 
 South Carolina'') stood shoulder to shoulder in a circle 
 and backed by a crowd of hundreds, were guarding thirty 
 or forty other unarmed captives. 
 
 A demoniac howl of delight arose from the drunken, 
 blood-thirsty throng on his approach; and as each victim 
 arrived, the ''high-toned gentleman" and "chivalrous 
 General and his aids applauded their subordinates v^•ith — 
 " Good I boys, good ! (with oaths). Turn your hounds loose, 
 and bring the last nigger in ! Can't you find that— Capt. 
 Doc ?" 
 
 There Corporal Free found his first and second lieuten- 
 ants, and with them and the others he was compelled to sit 
 down in the dust of the street. 
 
 While Capt. Doc stood at the back of Marmor's office, 
 undecided which way to flee, and hearing the work of des- 
 t'-nction and the pleadings of the captured man within, he 
 looked across the gardens to his own house, and saw it 
 all alight, and men there breaking furniture, pictures and 
 mirrors dashing upon the floor, and destroying beds and 
 clothing. They had also commenced to scour the entire 
 square for their prey. 
 
172 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 He leaped a fence which separated Marmor s back yard 
 from his garden, and as he did so a gruff voice called 
 "Hall!" 
 
 At the same instant the old time slave-hunter Baker, 
 rushed from Dan Lemfield's back door, pistol in hand, and 
 fired. 
 
 <' liim! I've got him I" said the gray-haired 
 
 sinner, as he stooped to examine what had a moment before 
 been the habitation of an immortal soul, now fled for pro- 
 tection to the High Court of the Universe. 
 
 Urged by his host, the old man re-entered the house, 
 repeating as a sweet morsel to his tongue, " I've got him ! 
 I've got him I" though ignorant what " nigger " he had got. 
 
 J^ut had he ? 
 
 " Fear not them which can kill the body, and after that 
 have no more that they can do." 
 
 Our Captain now crept softly through the little corn- 
 field which occupied the centre of the square, diagonally, 
 to the extreme corner ; to the dwelling and office of the 
 Postmaster, and made his way to a second-stoiy verandah 
 wliich extended the entire length and breadth of the two 
 rear sides of the edifice. This verandah was thickly lat- 
 ticed, but a few strips were broken oft, higli up on the end 
 next Market street. 
 
 There he stood, looking down upon " the dead-ring " we 
 iiLivo ali-eady described, till day lit the east. 
 
 3Iann Harris was a large, black man — a porter in a 
 .-tore in the city opposite, and he sat among the other pris- 
 
OTHER FOOLS A:n'D THEIR DOIXGS. 173 
 
 oners in the dust of the street almost beneath Doc's feet. 
 Having conveyed his invalid wife to a place of safety, 
 he had returned to jiroiect his property. He sauntered 
 about the streets, watching the current of events while 
 that remained safe, and then retired to his otvti dwell- 
 ing, probably supi)osing that "every man's hout.e is his 
 f'astle," and he would there be at once beyond the 
 reach of attack, and the temptation to resentment. Peep- 
 ing down from a second-story window (for he closed the 
 house to give it the appearance of being deserted), he saw 
 'old mm r>aker ' and his son Hanson standincr at the 
 
 o 
 
 corner oc his house, pistols in hands. 
 
 His inoffensive neighbor Pincksney approached, and was 
 about to pass. 
 
 "AVhere are you going ?" demanded Baker. 
 
 "I'm froin^: to the drill-room." 
 
 "You can't go." 
 
 A biief parley resulted in a repetition of the prohibi- 
 tion, " I tell you, you can't go, and you may as well go 
 back!" emphasized with an oath. 
 
 "All light," and the colored man walked back. Soon 
 another attemjjted to pass on the opposite side of the way. 
 
 " AVhere are you going ?" shouted Baker. 
 
 " Going about ray business ! " 
 
 {A fearful oath). " You'd better go back, or I'll shoot 
 you!" 
 
 The young man retreated precipitately, and hid in a 
 hack yard. 
 
174 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Soon after this the attack opened, and !Mann Harris sat 
 in a back room of his home, listening to the terrible sounds 
 for hours ; or with unshod feet crept across the floor lest a 
 footfall might be heard by some lurking foe, and watched 
 the flashing of guns from the Avindows of the armory. 
 
 Then followed the booming of cannon. *' Good GodI" 
 he exclaimed, " we is all done killed! They will shoot 
 down ever}^ house in the town! But I'll have to take it a8 
 it comes." 
 
 He heard the shout, "Here they come! Here they 
 come!" and heard Baker and his friends Are upon the 
 negroes as they crossed the street, and Doc's men fire in 
 return. 
 
 Four times after this the cannon shook the windows, as 
 it belched forth its canister, and sent terror through the 
 town and surrounding country. 
 
 The sound of small arms continued in various jmrts of 
 the village, while the debauched desperadoes souglit their 
 victims in their hiding-places. 
 
 Then the familiar stentorian voice of John Carr, crying, 
 " Oh Lord ! Oh Lord!" and the succeeding volley which 
 silenced it, struck terror into tlie poor man's soul, and he 
 fell upon his knees alone in the darkened room, and with 
 forehead upon the floor, and trembling in every limb, he 
 whispered, "God Almighty, I'm an awful bad man! I a'n't 
 prepared to die. Oh^ save me, Jesus Christ! " 
 
 The discharge of firearms nearly ceased, at length, 
 but was succeeded bv loud shouts and sounds of violence 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 175 
 
 and cursing, the shrieks of women, and the cries of little 
 children, and the alarm of fire — for the ruffians dra^i^ged 
 the helpless innocents from their houses, some of which 
 the}^ sot on fire, in their zeal to arrest every ' nigger ' and 
 * radical.' 
 
 " Harris' house, and that of General Rives, joined and 
 communicated by folding doors : indeed, were only differ- 
 ent apartments of the same dwelling. 
 
 The sound of numerous heavy feet was soon heard upon 
 the porch. A blow, and Rives' door flew open. 
 
 The occupants had fled, but the shouts and oaths, the 
 heavy blows, and cracking furniture, and crashing crockery 
 and glass, to^d that " the white-livered Judge " was no 
 exception when Republicans must suffer. 
 
 "Oh laws!" said Harris, mentally, "from the sound of 
 that smashing up of things and going on, I feel pretty bad 
 myself! Though they has done all the shooting niggers 
 in the street, the next turn will be mine, shor! " 
 
 He stood in the hall, ready for exit through the front 
 door, and when he heard the butts of their guns strike 
 upon the folding doors which he had secured the best he 
 could, he walked out upon tlie porch. 
 
 Ten or twelve blood-thirsty men stood at the foot of the 
 steps, and vociferated, 
 
 *•' Come down, you big nigger! come down! " 
 
 " I ha'n't done nothing," said Harris. 
 
 " Xo, none of you ha'n't done nothing," was the re- 
 sponse, while as many as could, laid hold upon him, and 
 
176 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DODs'GS. 
 
 speedily, though not tenderly, conducted him to the "dead- 
 ring." 
 
 "Let me stand up," said he, attempting to rise from the 
 dust where they had seated him. "A man can't see outside 
 at all, — cant see among the Avhite folks at all." 
 
 "You sit down there, you great big niggerl" said little 
 Gaston, sticking him with a gun ; and Mann Harris sat down. 
 
 The next moment, with a great shout and halloa. Lieut- 
 enant Watta was brought, and compelled to sit down close 
 beside Harris. 
 
 "Good! goodi boys," shouted the great General. "But 
 can't you get that Captain? I want that Captain, now." 
 
 "What sort of a lookins^ man is he?" 
 
 " Oh, he's a saucy-looking fellow, and has side whiskers 
 and a moustache." 
 
 " I'll write it down, said one producing a pencil. Failing 
 to find paper in any of his pockets, he turned towards the 
 moonlight, and wrote it upon his shirt cuffs. 
 
 " Halloa Tom, let me have your pencil while I write it 
 upon my shirt-front," said another. The starch makes it as 
 good as paper. We'll catch him before long now." 
 
 Little did they think he was just above their heads, 
 w^atching their writing. 
 
 Watta's white blood, which had boiled and seethed all 
 day and in the early evening, had spent its fury, and the 
 gentler nature of the man had assumed control. 
 
 " Oh, they've fotched yoii, Watta," said Harris, really 
 more alarmed for him than for himself. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 177 
 
 "Mann," said Watta in a low tone, "what do you think 
 of this?" 
 
 "I don't know what to think of it." 
 
 " Do you think they Avill kill any of us?" 
 
 " Y«cs I do, just so." 
 
 " Do you think they will kill me?" 
 
 " I do Watta; that I do: and all you have got to do is to 
 pray God to save your soul." 
 
 " Oh, my poor wife and children!'' cried the jDoor man, 
 softly, folding his long thin hands across his kne. s and 
 dropped his head in the anguish of despair. 
 
 "Just give up your wife and children, and every 
 thing else, and be prepared to die," said Harris, for 
 they are going to kill you. There's been so many envious 
 niggers telling lies on you, and the white folks is 'alius' 
 ready to believe 'em; and they have been making such 
 threats about you, and I'm satisfied they'll kill you." 
 
 " Watta bent his head lower, and the tears fell fast." 
 " That you?" asked Harris of another. 
 "Yes, I was hid under my own house, an' 'dey was 
 gwo'ine to shoot me dar, an' I tole 'em I surrendered, 'an 
 'dey brung me heah." 
 
 "And Dan Pipsie! you here too?" exclaim.ed the in- 
 quisitive Harris. 
 
 "Yes, me and Eck Morgan was on top o' de drill-room, 
 along wid Sam Henry and tree or fo' more of 'em. We 
 went out de back way when de cannon come, an' we jumped 
 
178 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Marmor's fence, an' went up onto his shed, an' got into a 
 back window." 
 
 " Was Marmor there?" 
 
 " Xo, nobody wasn't 'dar; only jes de white men come 
 'dar an' broke open de house, an' de out-houses, an' dry goods 
 boxes; an' w^e could see 'em looking to see if dar war any 
 niggahs' dar. Den' dey come into de house, an' broke 
 eb'ry ting up, an' carried off eb'ry ting; and den dey just 
 broke open de do' whar' we war; an' Ben Grassy, an'George 
 TVellman, 'dey jumped out o' de window we got in at, an' 
 I don't know war' dey got to; but de men dey just kotched 
 us, and fetched us heab." 
 
OTHER I'OOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 179 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A MASSACRE. 
 
 •' Slaying is the word, 
 It is a deed iu fusliion." 
 
 Julius C^sar. 
 
 The "dead-ring," as Las been said, was on Market street, 
 and quite near the Post Master's residence, which occupied 
 the corner and stood flush with both Market and Cook 
 streets. Captain Doc stood in the upper verandali, ahnost 
 over the heads of the crowd surrounding "the ring," and 
 looked down upon them. 
 
 " It is about time we began the killing." said one of the 
 crowd, " We've been hunting and capturing long enough. 
 Xow who shall be killed?"' 
 
 " Kill 'em all, of cose," leplied one of his fellows. 
 
 " We'd better find out what Gen. Baker says," said a 
 third. We'll go round to Dunn's store, and see what he 
 says. Whatever he says, I say it'll be right." 
 
 " If yo' say dat^ yo' won't kill any of us," said Corporal 
 Free; "fo' Gen. Baker is too high toned a gem'man to 
 allow" a man dat has surrendered, to be killed. He's a 
 gem'man from one of 'de first families of de State." 
 
 "You shut up your mouth," said one of the chivalry, as 
 he threw a handful of dirt into Free's face. 
 
 "Xow, I tell you w^hat," said another speaker, fingering 
 
 a huge pistol; "all get on this side of these niggers, 
 
 and we'll just fire into 'em." 
 
ISO OTHEP. TOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 At that moment a cheer arose, and hats of all descrip- 
 tions ^vere swung wildly in the air. 
 
 *' Hurrah! Hero comes uur chief !" shouted the mob, 
 and made rcxmi for horse and rider to approach the ring, 
 though the single solid circle of armed men remained un- 
 broken. The poor fellows upon the ground raised their 
 lieads, ai;d cried out eacli for his life, " Oh, Gen. Baker!" 
 "Oh, Gen. Baker!" "''You will save me!" ''You will 
 save my life," " Gen. Baker, I snrrendered right off, I did," 
 "I han't done nothing," '"'I'm just a honest, hard-working 
 man." " Don't le. 'em kill me, Gen. Baker !" Yo' will set 
 me free. General Bakah, I'm sho fo' yo's a gemman !" and 
 beseeching hands were uplifted, and dark faces upturned 
 in earnest pleading for the protection they felt sure "a 
 high-toned gentleman," and " chivalrous chieftain " would 
 give. 
 
 "Is William Daws here in this ring?" asked the 
 General. 
 
 " Yes sah," was the prompt and confident reply. 
 
 " You're the black rascal that burned my house down," 
 and with a vile epithet this personification of southern 
 magnamity rode away. 
 
 " Ah ! Ah I'' groaned the crowd, in derision of the mis- 
 placed confidence of the negroes. 
 
 " There's Alden Watta," said a mocking voice. You're 
 a magistrate, I suppose ! You're a nice looking magis- 
 trate !" and he scooped up a handful of soil and threw^ it int( 
 the back of Watta's neck, as his head hung down. '* There • 
 a baptism for you." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 181 
 
 Watta did not heed it. 
 
 "Boys, WL'M better go to work, and kill what niggers 
 we've got; what's the use o' waiting? We shan't be able 
 to lind Capt. Doc," said a new speaker. 
 
 " We've had our orders from Gen. Baker, so far, and 
 we'd better get orders from him now," said another, who 
 was possibly more merciful. 
 
 " If we don't kill all, they'll give testimony against us, 
 some day to come," said the first speaker. 
 
 " That's so," said a third. " Gen. Baker has got us here, 
 and we ketched the men as he told us, and I think we've 
 got something to say now." 
 
 "No, gentlemen," said a fourth, " just pick out the Re- 
 publican leaders and kill them, and let the rest go. They're 
 all Republicans, I know, but they a'n't all leaders; and some 
 of these boys didn't never hurt nobody. Some of 'em is 
 good fellows !"' 
 
 " A — h ! that a'n't worth a cent ! We've come out here 
 to have some fun, and now let's have it." 
 
 So they contended till the excitement became quite 
 alarming, and pistols were drawn upon each other by the 
 mob. 
 
 " Well now," said a new voice, " I'll tell you how you 
 must do it." 
 
 *' Listen ! Listen ! Hear the Judge's son ! Hear the 
 the young Georgia Judge !" shouted several men; and so 
 there came a calm. 
 
 "This has been a militarv affair so far," said the youn^ 
 
182 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 man, " and let us carry it through so. We must just have 
 a court-martial. These niggers are prisoners of war. This 
 is a conflict between the South Carolina Rifle Clubs, the 
 natural offspring of our honored Confederate Cavalry, 
 (cheers), and the National Guards, the pets of the Yankees, 
 (groans). The South Carolinians have been victorious, 
 [tremendous cheers], &s they always will be, [vehement ap- 
 plause]. And now, as becomes the sons of noble sires, 
 [cheers], sons who are honored [when in uniform], by wear- 
 ing the gray of our "Lost Cause," [cheers],- and who to- 
 night have done honor to the gray, (cheers), let us not 
 forget to be generous to our prisoners; but choose from our 
 number twenty men, who shall retire and consider the case 
 of each of these we have captured; and as they decide, so 
 the man shall fare." 
 
 Applause and assent followed, when another voice added, 
 " And if any of you have old scores you want settled, just 
 bring them before the court-martial." 
 
 The men were selected, though not without difficulty 
 and some final dissatisfaction and threats, but as the Cap- 
 tain was acceptable to the most violent, the matter was 
 finally adjusted upon a compromise. 
 
 Capt. Sweargen, [the same who menaced Mr. Springer 
 during the last conference held with Gen. Baker previous 
 to the commencement of active hostilities], withdrew and 
 organized his court, and soon returned to the "dead ring," 
 and gave the following elegant military order. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 183 
 
 "All you black scamps, get up here; we're going to 
 carry you to the county seat, and put you in jail." 
 
 "No; we'll start for there, but we'll lose them on the 
 road," said a bystander. 
 
 " That's it," said another, " we'll leave them in the 
 swamp." 
 
 "Come on, boys, come on this way, we'll attend to 
 the — s," said Capt. S — , and the ring and crowd moved 
 down the street about twenty yards. 
 
 " Halt ! Xow all you blasted niggers, sit down !" 
 
 "Capt. Sweargen ! Caj)t. Sweargen !" said Mann Har- 
 ris, "As yo' are the Captain of this killin', I will ask yo' 
 to save my life." 
 
 "You hush; yo' talk too much, you great big nigger 
 you," said one of the crowd. 
 
 "I'm gwoine to talk. It's life or death for me, an' I'm 
 gwoine to talk for my life," 
 
 " Captain ! Captain ! Oh, don't let them kill me !" said 
 Sam. Henry. "I've alius been a industrious and honest fellow, 
 and ha'n't never hurt nobody, nor stole, nor nothin'." 
 
 "Yes, but you're a blamed Republican, and so is all the 
 rest of yo', and that's enough. We'll carry South Carolina 
 Democratic now, about the time we kill four or five hun- 
 dred of yo' voting niggers. This is only the beginning of 
 it. We've got to have South Carolina, and these clubs has 
 got to go through the State." 
 
 "Yes," added another, "the v>'hite man has got to rule 
 here. This is a white man's irovernment." 
 
184 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 The excitement was again increasing, and all talked at 
 once on this topic, on which alone all seemed to agree. 
 
 "Xow, men, we've got this court-martial, and must pro- 
 ceed according to military law,*' shouted Captain S. 
 
 "There a'n't no law," cried a voice. *'The law has run 
 out at the end of a hundred years, and there a'n't no consti- 
 tution neither." 
 
 "There a'n't no court in South Carolina that can try us 
 anyhow," said another. 
 
 " That's so ! That's so I" resounded through the crowd. 
 
 " Hello ! Hurrah I here corncs anov-ier nigger ! Got 
 Capt. Doc this time ? Capt. Doc I Capt. Doc ! (with oaths), 
 rang through the swaying mob which surrounded the dead 
 ring, as a jDOSse from the General's head-quarters advanced 
 with the new victim. 
 
 Xot without difficulty a way was opened for the convey- 
 ance of — not Captain Doc (who was watching and listening 
 attentively at the Cook street end of the verandah, and 
 not twenty paces from the spot), but a good faced boy, yet 
 in his teens. 
 
 His eyes rolled wildly about, he trembled violently, and 
 his breath came quick and short, though without a sound. 
 
 "Oh, Friend Robbins," said Watta, "I'm sorry they 
 have got you ? Your widowed mother and the children 
 need your support. "Where is Joey ? (the company's drum- 
 mer-boy). 
 
 " I don't know," whispered Friend. 
 
 " Ha ! This is the boy that would'nt sell us ammunition 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 1S5 
 
 ill Mrs. Bront's store," shouted one of tlie assassins. " I 
 cursed you \\cll then, old chap; but we'll give ijou all the 
 ammunition you want, and rnore'n you'll ask for.'' 
 
 Poor Friend had passed a dreadful night, (for this was 
 now in the small hours of the morning), since he slipped 
 down the ladder from the drill-room. 
 
 He had taken refuge in Marmor's office, from thence fled 
 to the street; been driven back through the rear yard, 
 leaped Dan Lemfield's fence, escaping a shot aimed at him, 
 hid under a pile of railroad cross-ties in Lemfield's yard 
 during a dreadful hour, only then to be dragged out by 
 thice men with pistols and lanterns in their hands, searcl:. 
 ing ever': hiding ^)lace. They took him out upon the 
 street, and to their commander. 
 
 " AVho is that ?" asked the lofty General. 
 
 " It is Friend Robbins," answered the boy, looking 
 frankly into the ofticer's face. 
 
 " What are you doing here ?" 
 
 " I have not been doing anything; the men came in there, 
 and brought me out." 
 
 " Do you belong to the militia company?" 
 
 " I do, sir. '' 
 
 "Well, we killed one nigger down there to-night, 
 
 and I want you to go down there and see Myhi. and see if 
 you know him. Two of you men take him down there." 
 
 This was done; and there upon the ground laj the dead 
 man, his eyes wide open and staring away through tho 
 pleai, white moonlight, away from liie blood-stained earth 
 
1:6 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 towards that infinite One, before whose face the escaped 
 soul stood, corroborating the testimony of liis blood which 
 " cried from the ground." 
 
 " Who is that?" asked one of the guards. 
 
 "That's John Carr," replied the boy. 
 
 " Ile^s the Town Marshal, a'n't he ?" 
 
 "Yes sir." 
 
 "Well, he'll be Town Marshal no more!" 
 
 "I don't know sir." 
 
 Friend was then conducted back to the General. 
 
 "Are you ready, sir?" asked the men, each presenting 
 his pistol. 
 
 "Xo; don't kill him," said the General, "but take him 
 yonder, and keep him till I call for him." 
 
 They took him down under a rail road trestle, antl kept 
 him half an hour surrounded by men, who amused them- 
 selves by torturing him with all sorts of alarms, questions 
 and indignities. 
 
 At the expiration of that time, General Baker rode by, 
 and directed that he be taken to the "dead ring." 
 
 " Oh, here you are Tom," said Gaston, approaching the 
 corner of the Post-Master's house. " I've been looking for 
 you. You know we've got Watta down there." 
 
 "Yes, that's a streak of good luck; but I wish v.-e 
 could only get hold of their ringleader, that Doc. I'm 
 mighty glad we've got Dan Pips'.a. though." 
 
 "Yes," and the young ir.cn laughed. '1 want Doc 
 mighty bad too, but I'm thinking more about what we're 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 187 
 
 going to do witli what we have got. I reckon the Court 
 Martial is tlie best way. Captain Sweargon has got great 
 respect fo' General Baker. Tliey shan 't let Watta and 
 Pipsie off nohow." 
 
 " Xo," said the General, who rode up at that moment 
 and caught the last remark. "Watta and Dan Tipsie are 
 two dangerous men, and ought to be taken care of." 
 
 "Xow, General," said a stumpy little man, strutting up 
 to that dignitary, "yo've brought us all here, all this 
 crowd, and we 've got the niggers; and now if you won't kill 
 them, they'll just go and give testimony agin us, and get 
 us into ti-ouble." 
 
 The General stared at the little man with the most 
 serene contempt, and turning his horse's head, rode away 
 without speaking. 
 
 But the little man was neither abashed nor silenced. 
 He continued, — "Here General Baker has brought us 
 here, and kept us up all night helping him to capture a 
 lot of niggers, and he ought to kill the last one of 'em; for 
 if he don 't they '11 be up here to vote against us, and they '11 
 be giving testimony against us." 
 
 "That's true enough, Yolier, true enough," said several 
 of his associates. 
 
 "I'm sleepy and tired," continued Yolier. "Here, 
 Bub," addressing a small boy of twelve years, "You ought 
 to be abed and asleep long ago." 
 
 " Xo, sir-ee," said the boy, ejecting a volume of tobacco- 
 juice from his mouth. "Ja'n't sleepy." 
 
138 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 "Let's go up into this piazza, and go to sleep," urged 
 the little man, " Come, come on I" 
 
 "Xo, I sAa'^iV," replied the boy. *'Iwant to go and 
 spit on them niggers some more." 
 
 So the little man yielded, and accompanied the lad in 
 quest of his rare sport; much to the relief of Captain 
 Doc's mind. 
 
 At the same time Gaston and Tom Baker approached 
 the "dead ring" also, and the name of Alden Watta was 
 immediately called, as that of the first victim to be sacri- 
 ficed. 
 
 "We'll fix you! vre 'r'e going to kill you now, without a 
 doubt," cried the mob. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said TTatta, standing up in a calm 
 manner, "I am not ready to die, and haven't done anything 
 to be killed for. Will you allow me to prepare to meet 
 my God? Please let me pray." 
 
 "You ought to have been praying before now; you have 
 talked enough without praying, and we 're going to kill 
 you now. I don't care," said young Tom Baker, with 
 numerous oaths. " But we 're going to kill you.'* 
 
 "Oh, gentlemen, do spare my life! I will not interfere 
 with you. I will only take care of my family as an honest 
 man should. I will go clear away out of the S:ate, if you 
 will only spare me to take care of my wife and my little 
 children!" 
 
 "Watta, old chap, is that you?" cried Gaston, crowding 
 nearer, (with an oath). " We'll fix you dii'ectly." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. ISO 
 
 "Oi), GastonI Gaston! Wliat do you want with me? 
 Please do, do all you can for me, and I will be your friend as 
 long as I live, and leave the legac\' of gratiiude to my 
 children!" 
 
 "Yes, I v'ill do all I can for you; I'll do it in a short 
 while. He's had time encniGrh, bo vs." 
 
 As many as could lay hands upon him did so, and they 
 carried this Second-lieutenant of the National Guards, 
 this County Commissioner, this graduate of a Freedman's 
 High School, this teacher of a colored school, this corres- 
 pondent of the Times, this inifluential Republican, this 
 
 Ijusband and father, this young man who bore the general 
 reputation of being a straight-forward and truthful man, 
 a man that could be depended on, and had a great deal of 
 resolution; not a violent man, not given to insolence nor 
 trouble of any kind, a pleasant and aH'alde man though 
 one of spirit, this American citizen, and they bore him away 
 to be sacrificed. 
 
 By main force they took him several rods down the 
 street and into the edge of a field. 
 
 Each individual of the crowd panted for a share in so 
 great a service to southern Democracy. 
 
 When he was allowed to stand upon his feet dgain, he 
 looked around upon a wall of circular steel mouths, each 
 ready to belch forth hot, blazing, sulpherous, leaden death; 
 for pvery man presented the muzzle of his gun or pistol 
 at the hapless victim. 
 
 Falling upon his knees he cried out, with clasped hands 
 
190 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 and upturned face, "Ob, God! there is neither justice nor 
 mercy upon the earth! I cast my naked soul and all I have 
 upon Thy mercy!" 
 
 He paused and pressed his hands over his face. A tre- 
 mendous volley, followed, and Alden Watta's soul leaped 
 into the presence of that Judge whom no Ku Klux Klans 
 can corrupt or intimidate; and the murderous throng 
 hastened back to procure another victim. 
 
 *' Oh, Free, and all of yo', what is yo' gwoine on so a 
 beggin' fo'?'' said Dan Pipsie. '"If dey is gwoine to kill us 
 all anyhow, what is de use. o' beggin' so? I only wish I had 
 some o' my wife's 'ligion now; and I'd like fo'herto pray 
 fo' me." 
 
 The committee soon returned from the court, and an- 
 nounced the Armorer of the militia company, Dan Pipsie, 
 as the next condemned. 
 
 "' "With an air of perfect indifference he arose and accom- 
 panied the murderers to the field of blood. 
 
 A volley was heard, and the committee returned, but 
 Dan did not. 
 
 Ham Sterns was the next called. He was a large mulat- 
 to, and was sick. 
 
 "O. Gentlemen!" he j^leaded, "I haven't done anything. 
 What do you want to kill me fo'? I a'n't a member of the 
 militia company, and I was just peaceable at home when 
 some of you just come and dragged me out here; and now 
 you're going to kill me. I a'n't even a 'publican leader. 
 Please let me go!" 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIK DOIXGS 191 
 
 "Ham Sterns, I reckon yo' know /?2e," hissed an evil- 
 eyecl, sallow-faced man, stepping before him, and shaking 
 his fist in his face. " Xow I'll he quits with you on that 
 sale affair; you and Alf Minton. I'll learn yo' to outbid 
 mel" 
 
 " Come out here! come out here?" shouted the mob, and 
 Ilam Sterns was led away, The guns fired, and the com- 
 mittee returned, but Ham Sterns never did. 
 
 " Oh them tremendously firings!" said Sam Henry, with 
 a shudder of horror, as he buried his face in his palms 
 and began earnestly to pray for divine deliverance. 
 
 *• Is this you, Sam," asked a kindly voice at his ear. "Get 
 up, Sam," and a white man who stood behind him took 
 hold of his arm and said, " Gentlemen, this is a boy that I 
 know, (they were all "boys," even if grey-headed) and he 
 is a harmless boy. He don't belong to the militia nohow^ 
 ril be responsible for him," and he led him away. 
 
 Alfred Minton was now called for, but no response 
 came. 
 
 "Alf Minton! Alf Minton!" was repeated with oaths 
 and imprecations, and still no response. 
 
 The committee entered the ring, and touched each man 
 upon his head, asking, "Who's this?" 
 
 At last a small, sick, weakly-looking young man acknowl- 
 edcjed tha name. 
 
 For the credit of human nature be it recorded that one 
 of the mob begged that the poor, sick boy be let alone; 
 and others wei-e eviclentlv tirinir of bloodshed. 
 
192 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 But the majority were not yet satiated, and with piofan- 
 ity, they shouted, " O, we'll fix him ! We'll cxire himr and 
 they led him also away. The guns fired; the crowd re- 
 turned; but Alfred did not. 
 
 During this execution another white man conveyed 
 Friend Robbins away; learning which, when too late to in- 
 terfere, some of the more sanguinolcnt ran up to head- 
 quarters with complaints; but the moving spirits there hav- 
 ing had their own desires for revenge measurably satisfied, 
 and despairing of the arrest of Captain Doc; and perhaps, 
 the inflaming eflects of their potations beginLing to wane, 
 they began to think of possible court scenes in the future. 
 So they were but indifferent listeners, and even suggested 
 the possibility of some other method of disposing of the 
 remaining captives. 
 
 Porapey Conner, a noted/hief and gambler, whose skill 
 m cards had often taxed the purses of some of this fastidi- 
 ous throng of captors was the next called at the " dead 
 ring." 
 
 '• Pompey you run,'''' whisj^ered Mann Harris, who sat be- 
 side him. 
 
 Pompey was a powerful man. when he chose to exert his 
 
 strength, and ho darted through the crowd like an arrow; 
 
 stooping a- little, and with his brawny shoulder cleaving 
 
 his way. 
 
 When he reached a clear track, numerous shots followed, 
 
 and the mob thinking him severely wounded jjered and 
 
 shouted triumphant! v; while he crouched behind a tree, 
 
' OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 193 
 
 rolled his great eyes, noded liis wooly bead, and mutter- 
 ed audibly as be turned up tbe leg of bis trousers, "It only 
 just scalped my leg, af'cr all." 
 
 "Wbat better fun do you want than tbat, boys? Tbis is 
 fun! ba! ba! ba! Let's let 'em all go, and sboot after 'era 
 like rabbits," cried a mere boy. 
 
 " Ob, no ! you've done enougb for to-nigbt. Now let 
 tbese prisoners go." 
 
 "Yes, let tbese prisoners go," cbimed in anotber. 
 
 *•' Let's pile 'em up like frogs and sboot into 'em," said 
 anotber, with an oatb tbat should make tbe blood curdle; 
 while still anotber said, " Xo don't do that, but let 'em go 
 and don't sboot after 'em." 
 
 ^' Oh, no, we ought not to leave none to tell tbe tale. Let's 
 kiU'emalU" 
 
 "We came out for/im;now let's have it, and not give up 
 BO," said a very young man, a minor. 
 
 "If we kill them all, there'll be nobody left to tell tbe 
 tale; and if we leave anybody, they'll go and testify 
 against us; and I tell you we might as well make a sure 
 thing of this," was repeatedly reiterated. 
 
 " Ob, let them go," said a new speaker. Let us swear 
 them before they go, not to tell anybody, nor anything 
 about it." 
 
 After much discussion, this counsel prevailed. 
 
 " Xow all you black rascals you, get up here," said 
 
 Captain Sweargen. 
 
 Tbe prisoners quickly obeyed. 
 
194 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 " Now, you all get down again, on your knees, and hold 
 up your right hands." 
 
 All obeyed. "I solemnly swear," said the Captain,"! 
 solemnly swear," repeated the prisoners, " tliat I will never 
 go into any court to testify, [repeated] nor to know any- 
 thino: about this affair, nor what has been done in Bacons- 
 ville this evening, nor to-night, nor that I know any of 
 the men who was in the party." 
 
 The prisoners all took the oath. 
 
 "Now^ you rascals, getaway from here !" 
 
 Each sprung to his feet, and all but two ran for life. 
 Corporal Free dodged behind a tree, and Maim Harris, 
 who was on the edge of the dusky group, stood still. 
 
 Fifteen or twenty of the irrepressible " chivalry" leveled 
 their guns upon the liberated prisoners whom the South 
 Carolina rifle clubs had captured from the National Guards, 
 and fired; "just like they was shooting at birds." 
 
 As evidence of the skill of these riflemen it may be men- 
 tioned that but one of those colored men was w^ounded, 
 and he but slightly, though the firing was at fifteen paces. 
 
 "Mann Harris, where do you live?" asked a maimed 
 relic of the confederate service. 
 
 " I live right on the corner opposite Dan Lemfield's." 
 
 " Well, you go on home." 
 
 " I can't do it." 
 
 " Why can't you ?" 
 
 " I'm af eard to go through them men by myself." 
 
 "Come on, I'll go with you." So that one-armed white 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 195 
 
 man sat upon his horse, and the great muscular negro 
 walked beside it, holding upon the saddle for protection. 
 They passed from Market into Cook street, and wended 
 their way among the slowly dissolving crowd. 
 
 Kearing Mercer street, the escort began to converse. 
 Well, Mann, now you see what the result is when niggers 
 vote against the white people." 
 
 **I don't know what you're talking about," replied the 
 colored man. 
 
 " Have you always voted ?" 
 
 " Yes, I has; I voted the 'publican ticket all the time." 
 " Well, you don't intend to say you want to vote it ?" 
 "If this fuss is about, I sha'n't vote no kind of a ticket.'* 
 Another horseman on the opposite side of the narrow 
 street overheard the last remark, and approached. 
 
 "Harris, I know you," said he. "We was boys at the 
 same time, and have known each other all the while alongj 
 and I know that you are a nigger that has got good sense, 
 good common sense. You see where this nigger is lying, 
 here ?" [They had just come upon the body of John Carr,] 
 " Yes, sir; I see him." 
 
 " Well, just so icill 2ve lay you, if you ever vote theTtepuh- 
 lican ticket again. '^'' 
 
 "Well, sir, I will not vote no kind of a ticket." 
 
 " No, that's the plan," said the proud Southern, 
 
 " and we intend to carry it out; and the only way for you to 
 save yourself is to come over and vote with us; because 
 
196 OTHEIl FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 
 
 vrc know that you know mighty well, when you vote 
 against us you arc voting against your interest." 
 
 "I didn't know it M'as so much against your interest as 
 to kill a man," i-cplied Harris. *' I had no idea that it was 
 any such thing as that." 
 
 " Well, you see what the consequence is, and we're going 
 to carry this State, and avc intend to do it if we have to 
 kill every nigger, and this rascally Governoj* too; he is the 
 head of all ihc thieves in the State, and the white j^eople 
 don't intend to stand it no longer; they intend to break it 
 up." 
 
 Harris and his protector then moved on, and soon reached 
 their place of destination. 
 
 " 3Iann," said 3Ir. W , I've got a little talk for you. 
 
 I, to-night, by your being recommended to me, saved your 
 life; and now you can do me a favor, and I will tell you 
 what it is." 
 
 "All right, Captain. There a'n't nothing that I could 
 do that I wouldn't do for yo', for yo' saved my life." 
 
 "Yes; what I want to say to you is, that you don't know 
 anything about the affair at all; that they had you around 
 there, but you knowed nobody; that these are unknown 
 parties; and if any one comes to get you to go into court to 
 testify, or say anything about calling anybody's name, yoic 
 don't /iV20?r. This time we will let you off; but next time 
 we get at this thing, we'll ^it you. Now I will tell you 
 as you do mc a favor, and don't you call anybody's name; 
 don't you own to them that you do know; and tell them, 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 197 
 
 the rest of them, not to say anything about it; that you 
 seen the boys, but you didn't know who it was. If any 
 one asks you, tell 'em you don't know; it was unknown 
 parties. Good-i;i2,ht;" and liis magnanimous benefactor 
 rode away, and left Mann Harris upon liis door-step. 
 
198 OTHER FOOLS AND TEEIR DOEsGS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 INCIDENTS AND PAETICULAES. 
 
 Sabbath holy 
 
 For the lo^v]y 
 Paiut v/itli flowers thy glittering sod ; 
 For affliction's sons and daughters, 
 Bid thy mountains, woods and waters 
 ^ Pray to God— our Father God. 
 
 Still God liveth, 
 
 Still he givcth 
 What no man can take away ; 
 And, oh Sabbath ! bringini? gladness 
 Unto hearts of weary sadness, 
 Still thou art an holy day." 
 
 Whitiier. 
 
 Under cover of the morning fog Captain Doc descended 
 from the verandah of the Postmaster's residence. As he 
 slid down a pillar of the open piazza of tlie lower story, a 
 black face stared from one of the lower windows, with an 
 expression of mingled terror and surprise. Reassured by 
 a smile upon Doc's face, he raised the sash cautiously, and 
 -whispered, " Docs you want to come in ?" 
 
 "No, no, Dick !*' was the reply, "this town isn't a safe 
 enough i)hacc to liold me when the day comes. The hounds 
 will be back again, when they have fed and slept a little. 
 Have you been there all night ?" 
 
 "Yes; and all alone too. The family knowed it wa'n't 
 cafe for 'em here, j^ertic'lar Mr. Rouse. And so dey left 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 193 
 
 me to sec after tings. Gen. Baker, nor none of 'em' dar'n't 
 touch dis house, cause tlic Post Office is yerc, and dat's dee 
 United States— they arc 'afeared o' de Yankees you see. 
 But, oh my ! Ha'n't it been a long niglit, and a mcful one ! 
 'Pears like I'm a hundred yeah old. How many's been 
 killed ?" 
 
 " I don't know. Enough, anyhow." 
 "Dey didn't git yo' ? I'm surprised, Doc." 
 "Xo, nor they won't;" and waving an adieu '^o Dick, 
 the Captain walked noiselessly to the back part of the gar- 
 den, and leaped the fence into Mercer street. 
 
 There, stiff and stark lay the body of John Carr, the 
 Town Marshal; and further up, close beside the fence, a 
 shapeless heap, as it appeared, which Doc knew must be 
 the body of Moses Parker, whom the slave-catcher had 
 "got" on the previous evening. 
 
 Keeping on towards the hills and near the railroad, he 
 escaped unobserved; till, when ascending the hill, ho heard 
 his name spoken, quite near him. Though startled for 
 an instant, he was immediately joined by I\ed O'Bran, who 
 camo out from a clump of bushes where he had spent the 
 night in terror; and, in company, the two men walked to the 
 county seat, distant nearly twenty miles. There they 
 found an excited people, and several refugees from the 
 scene of massacre, among whom was Elder Jackson. 
 
 "Phebe,"said Uncle Jesse, early that morning, ''I don't 
 believe you'd best go up to church to-day. I don't believe 
 
200 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 there'll be many women there, for I reckon they all would 
 leave the town last night." 
 
 "And I don't believe dar'll be no men, nor no church 
 nuther; fo' Eldah Jackson bein a Legislatur man, an' a 
 Radical, '11 have to streak it, yo' may be sho; fo' of co'se de 
 white folks has beat de niggahs, as dey alius does." 
 
 "Well, now, it's queer; but I never did thought about 
 the Elder last night ? For certain they'll be after him; for 
 there's a, j^olitical side to this 'ere fuss. Is'ow you git break- 
 fast just? as quick as you can, and I'll go over and see." 
 
 " I'm afeared to have yo' go." 
 
 " But somebody ought to see after Elder Jackson." 
 
 "Dat's so; I wish I could go wid yo'," 
 
 "Xo, no. Maybe I shall have to cscaj^e myself, and 
 it's a heap easier to escape on horseback, than it would be 
 in a wagon, and two of us." 
 
 " Hadn't yo' best git Den Barden to go 'long, Jesse ?" 
 asked his wife as he arose from his hasty breakfast. 
 
 "ISTo, Phebe, I'm just agoing to leave the Laud Jesus 
 Christ here, to take care of you and the children, and get 
 God Almighty to go 'long with mc, and see after me; and 
 I'm going to go v>-ithout anybody else at all." 
 
 So after reading vrith much needful moderation, and not 
 without verbal errors, the G9th Psalm, lie knelt with his 
 little family uj^on the cottage floor, and repeated the 
 same sentiments from a full heart. 
 
 Though not more than three miles from the village in a 
 direct line, a good five miles or more of circuitous and 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 231 
 
 somewliat louelj road lay between Jesse's home and the 
 scene of the massacre; and lie had ample time for reflection. 
 
 He had long maintained, among his neighbors, the only 
 attitude an unprejudiced lover of justice could; but it had 
 brought to him alike, confidence and distrust, reverence 
 and envy, respect and aversion; and while liis assistance 
 and advice were sought by the moderate and by the ex- 
 tremists on both hands, he scarcely knew whether he had a 
 friend on whom he could certainly rely, or an enemy A\ho 
 would betray him. Fortunately his road did not cross the 
 river, for the city police yet stationed at the bridge still de- 
 nied passage to persons of color, though allowing whites 
 to pass freely. 
 
 As he entered the little town, he saw a number of men 
 moving along the princi^^al street, and evidently carrying 
 some heavy burden. He did not approach them, but went 
 directly to Elder Jacks^;./..> house. 
 
 He found it deserted, and large charred spots upon the 
 surface gave evidence that attempts had been made to fire 
 it; and the garden was trodden down and utterly destroyed. 
 He then turned toward Springer's house. This stood back 
 from the sidewalk, and not without misgivings he entered 
 the trampled yard, and rapped at the closed door. 
 
 Springer ansv/ered the summons in person, and greeted 
 his friend with genuine cordiality'. 
 
 ""U'hy, brother Jesse, Pm surprised and glad both, to see 
 you this morning." 
 
 " And I'm thanking the Laud, this minute to fmd you 
 
202 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOCsGS. 
 
 alive, and to get inside the shelter of your house. It 'pears 
 like the streets is full of ghosts, or something a man's glad 
 to get away from. What is going on down street? I seen 
 'em carrying something into society hall." 
 
 " Come in and set down Brother, Jesse. I suppose they're 
 collecting the dead. The Intendant was in here, and wanted 
 me to go down and see them before tliey moved 'em — to go 
 on the coroner's jury, in fact; but I told him I couldn't. I'm 
 sick. This last night's job is worse than a fever. You 
 didn't come up, Jesse?" 
 
 ''Xo, I didn't. I couldn't think it would be right, nor 
 any good, somehow, and so I staid away. But maybe now 
 I ought to ha' come?" 
 
 "'No, you hadn't; you'd only been another one. My moth 
 er-in-law is very bad this morning. Tlic scare last night 
 was enough to kill a well woman, and you know she was 
 pretty sick and weak before. I guess we\l best go away to 
 talk. Come right up stairs, and we'll set and talk all we 
 Avant to, and she won't hear us;" and Mr. Springer took his 
 guest to a tasteful chamber. 
 
 The house was not large, but was well furnished and 
 neatly kept. 
 
 "Where is the Elder?" asked Mr. Roome, when they 
 were again seated. 
 
 " That I don't know. He may be in the Kingdom of 
 Glory, but I suppose he left town, and went to the city mav- 
 be. He and Xed O'Bran went off together, and the last I 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS 203 
 
 saAv of biin they were going up Main street, making for 
 Ned's Louse." 
 
 " How many is killed, and who be they?'' 
 
 ''Seven killed and two wounded that we know; and 
 there's a good many more missing that we don't know 
 whether they're dead or not. Marmor is one o' them." 
 
 "Marmor? Well, if there was one man in town to be 
 killed, 3Iarmor would be that man. There ain't no man in 
 Baconsville them white democrats Avant to kill so bad as 
 they do Marmor, without it is Watta!' 
 
 "Watta they've got! He's gone! and I'm afeared they've 
 got Marmor also." 
 
 '' Watt'as gone? I Jctioiced he'd be killed!" 
 
 "Yes, and Den Pipsie, and Ham Sterns, and John 
 Carr " 
 
 "Why, Springer! You don't say John Carr is killed?'* 
 
 ''He was thefirst man they took; then Moses Parker 
 
 I heard them both shot, and knew the voices. Alfred Min- 
 ion, he got shot too, but they say he an't dead yet. Ob, 
 that makes mc remember (rising). His father came here 
 just before yon did, and wanted mc to go down there. 
 They wanted somebody to pray; for he can't live. I sup- 
 pose I must go, but I tell you I can't bear to. All these 
 things seem so awful that they make mc sick, and I can't 
 help it. "Won't you go Jesse? Go down and pray with the 
 poor fellow." 
 
 "Where is he?'' 
 
 "Lying right there on the ground where they shot him, 
 
204: OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOrN'GS. 
 
 last niglit; and tlieysay somebody has mommuckcd him up 
 awfully." 
 
 "AVell, Brother Sj^ringer, I'll go, but I Avant you to go 
 'long." 
 
 **Do they know who shot him?"' asked Uncle Jesse, when 
 they were on their way." 
 
 *'It is said to be unknown parties that done all the shooting 
 from this " dead ring " they had, but there's one comfort — 
 the Lord knows who done it; and He knows Avho started 
 the thing, and put these unarmed victims into the hands of 
 an armed posse big enough to arrest the whole of Aiken 
 County. There,*' (as they reached r. point between Dan 
 Lemiields' corner, and the railroad tressle-work), this is 
 where Moses Parker fell, and laid till an hour ago. You 
 can see the blood." 
 
 Mr. Roome looked, but did not speak. Passing under 
 the trestle-work, and advancing a few steps, they came 
 upon a pool of blood." 
 
 " This is where our Town Marshal vras shot between 
 nine and ten o'clock last night. I heard him holler, " Oh, 
 Lord! Oh, Lord I" twice, before they fired. It was a great 
 volley, several guns, and I vv'onder they didn't some of 
 'em kill him instantly. Ho begged mighty hard before 
 they shot. I heard him." 
 
 The men resumed their walk, turning down Cook street, 
 and so coming out upon Market street, and then turning 
 down that. 
 
 "There, right there was the "dead ring," they say, 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 205 
 
 where thoy liad tux'iity-iivc or tiiirty prisoners, the Lord 
 knows liow long; and finally sliot some of 'em, and llien 
 swore llic rest not to testify against tliem, and let 'em 
 go, and shot after 'em as they went." 
 
 " Brother Springer," said Uncle Jesse, grasping his 
 companion's arm, '*don'r tell me no snch talk! You 
 don't expect I'Ju going to helicvc it's more than an aw- 
 ful bad dream you've had." 
 
 "Did you dream you saw the blood back there?" and 
 there's four or five dead men in this hall at your left." 
 
 "'Tiiat'sa fact! Xor I did 'nt dream the threats I've 
 heard made; but I really thought it was mostly blow 
 and bluster; half of it any how!" 
 
 "So did I, so did I," replied Springer, "and I would n't 
 believe, though T seen all these streets thick v\-ith armed 
 men in the evening, that they meant to kill anybody, — 
 only to scare the colored people, — till I heard 'em shoot 
 John Carr, and then I was scared." 
 
 I3y this time the two men had passed another street and 
 an embankment of the lower rail road, and approached a 
 small group of citizens, both colored and white. Upon 
 the bare ground, in a great pool of blood, lay the poor boy 
 Minton, apparently in the last agonies of death. He was 
 in great distress, and unable to converse at all. 
 
 Fire-arms alone had not sufficed for the fiendishness of 
 his murderers; for blows as with au axe or hatchet, had 
 gashed his side, broken his ribs, and cut a large piece of 
 flesh from his thigh. It was a horrible, sickening sight. 
 
236 OTHER FOOLS A^TD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 "Alfred I Alfrcdl*' cried Uncle Jesse, falling upon his 
 knees at tlie boys head. 
 
 "Alfred, -who cut you so? Tell us who did it, Alfred; 
 it makes fury boil all over me!" 
 
 A groan was the only response; and then from the depths 
 of his great heart, so uniformly held in subjection to his 
 clear reason, and well balanced judgment. Uncle Jesse 
 poured forth such a prayer as had never been heard by 
 those spectators before, — a prayer for the departing soul; 
 that it, going from this body v\-eltering in blood shed by 
 murderous hands, might go up to the righteous Judge in- 
 nocent of any vengeful or unforgiving spirit; — a prayer full 
 of rio^hteous indicc^ation at these atrociou3 crimes a^jainst 
 his 2^Gc>P^^/^i^<^^ of the spirit which said * Father forgive 
 them, for they know not Avhat they do." 
 
 As he arose from his knees, Sam Pincksncy touched his 
 elbow, and they shook hands in silence. Clinton groaned 
 and seemed to desire a change of i)ositioii. The father 
 and brothers turned him upon liis back. Another groan, a 
 quick gasp, a sigh, and death released him from suffer- 
 ing. 
 
 Many hands waited to give all needed, assistance and so 
 Springer invited a few of his neighbors to accompany him 
 to his house, that Mr. Roome might learn more particulars 
 of the affair of the previous night. 
 
 "Now I want to get a clear idea of this matter as I can 
 get," said Uncle Jesse when they were all seated in 
 Springer's chamber, 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 207 
 
 '•lean tell you how it begun," said the liost, ''but it 
 Tvill take us all, and more too, to tell how it went on." 
 
 He then narrated the history of the trouble from the 
 collision on the 4th of the month, up to the time when 
 General Baker rode to the city across the river, substan- 
 tially as the reader already has it. 
 
 "All this time while he was gone," said Springer,—" about 
 half an Iiour,— armed bodies of men continued to come 
 into town; and in fact, a portion of them stopped and 
 threw themselves into line right in front of the house 
 here. As soon as Genernl Baker got back, they mounted 
 again, and went up on Mercer and Cook streets, and so on 
 over to the river there, and there they fell into line. Then 
 myself and Judge Rives, and Pincksney, and Elder Jack- 
 son, had an interview there with General Baker; and we 
 asked him if there was anything we could do,— what was 
 necessary to bring about peace. 
 
 "He said nothing would satisfy him but the surrender 
 of the men and their arms. The white men Avcre so bois- 
 terous they treated us very badly. One man, Captain 
 Sweargen, drew his pistol while we were having this in- 
 terview with General Baker;— and really, I thought he 
 seemed to be looking at me, and that he was going to 
 shoot; but Avhen he saw me looking at him, he put his 
 pistol in his pocket again. 
 
 Pincksney was whipped in his face, cut right in, as you 
 see, and so then we got away as quick as possible 
 " Did'nt the General stop these things: 
 
 oO" 
 
203 OTHER FOOLS AND THEm DOINGS. 
 
 *' No, not at all. Didn't appear to notice 'era at all. 
 Then the firing begun pretty soon down on the river- 
 bank." 
 
 "The Avliite men down there are saying this morning 
 that it vras the 31ilitia that begun the firing." said Sam 
 Pincksney. 
 
 '-No? Why, they can't say that I It sounded like right 
 from the river-bank," said Tim Grassy, an intelligent- 
 iooking raullato, about thirty years of age, who was a 
 brother-in-law of Springer. 
 
 "Well, I know the white men fired first, for just let 
 me tell you," said Ben, a younger brother of Tim Grassy. 
 
 " George Hansen was at our ware-house, (Ben vras book- 
 keeper in Springer's cotton ware-house,) and ho told me 
 there was going to be trouble, and he vranted me to go up 
 to his plantation with him, and sec his game chickens. But 
 I told him I couldn't get off. He told me he saw a great 
 crowd of white men gathered up back there in the country. 
 An hour after he left, squads of men commenced coming 
 in, and half an hour after that T went into the armory for 
 jDrotection. The white men opened fire and kept it up as 
 much as fifteen minutes, and maybe half an hour, before 
 they gave the colored men a chance to fire at all. I know, 
 for I saw it." 
 
 " Did any white men get killed?" 
 
 " One, Merry Walter." 
 
 " Then I suppose some of our people must have killed 
 him!" said Uncle Jesse, sadly. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS. 209 
 
 " Well, I don't know," said Mann Harris, who had sat 
 quietly listening, though reputed the greatest talker in 
 Baconsville, "they quarrelled among theirselvcs, some." 
 
 " Yes," replied Ben, " but Merry was a Democrat, and I 
 suppose they wouldn't want to kill him themselves." 
 
 "I heard some of 'em talking this morning, some respect- 
 able-looking gentlemen from Georgia, and saying that they 
 had been told that this had been all to break up a nest of 
 thieves and robbers— that the people in Baconsville was 
 that, and that Capt. Doc is a rowdy, and the Militia Com- 
 pany is a band o' thieves ; and Hanson Baker said that is a 
 fact and just so." 
 
 " I never heard anything like that in all the years I've 
 lived here," said Springer, the oldest resident except Uncle 
 Jesse, Avho assented to his testimony. 
 
 " They talked about Pompey Conner's robbing market 
 wagons, and even hauled up that old graveyard affair, more 
 than three years old; and they know the Republican nig- 
 gers are after every thief they know of, and punishes 'em 
 too. Pompey took his turn in jail, and so did that old 
 republican nigger that dug them three graves open; the 
 democratic one got away, but I've seen him back just the 
 other day. I don't believe they cared anything for the 
 graves ; they only thought there was some money buried 
 somewhere iu the graveyard during the war." 
 
 " That mean democratic nigger that lives over back of 
 the hill there, was in town yesterday, and some of 'em said 
 that he told the white folks where to find men— where 
 
210 OTHER FOOLS ^VND THEIR DODs'GS. 
 
 their houses were, nud if that is true it is just contempt- 
 ible!" said Springer. 
 
 **The fact is," said Ben, the niggers are getting a bad 
 name everywhere, witli these old white aristocrats, and 
 especially since this fuss." 
 
 Ben was young, and his honest, expressive face glowed 
 as he spoke, with animation which subsided immediately 
 into grave thoughtfulness. 
 
 "What has become of Capt. Doc?" 
 
 " Don't know ; nobody knows. He's sharp though, and 
 I hope he has got away. If they were to get him they 
 would think he must be drawn and quartered, I expect," 
 said Ben. 
 
 " Springer, you said Marmor is among the missing ?" 
 said Uncle Jesse. 
 
 "We don't know what has become of him. Old man 
 Baker was in Dan's house a good part of the nigl.t, Pincks- 
 ney says; and the houses join, you know; and the last seen 
 of Marmor, he was jumping the fence into Dan's back 
 yard. Dan's folks are there this morning, but don't seem 
 to want to see nor speak to anybody. There's a mystery 
 about it somehow." 
 
 " Dan is a kind of a queer dark man, you know. Jews 
 mostly is," said Tim Grassy. 
 
 "Dan is a likely sort of fellow," said Mr. Roome, "I 
 ■wish he didn't sell so much whiskey." 
 
 " Between twelve and one o'clock," resumed the host, 
 "I heard Col. Baker (at least I took it to be his voice). 
 
OTHER FOOLS AN*D THEIR DOINGS. 211 
 
 Some of ihein just opposite here liad said the bouse was 
 atire, and I heard him sing out to the crowd, "Put that 
 fire out ! notliiiig like tliat shall go on ; I don't want any 
 burning.' Soon after that I heard firing again, and I heard 
 somebody else holler. I don't know who it was, but I sup- 
 pose it was Moses Parker." 
 "Who shot him?" 
 "That I don't know." 
 
 "TThere was Watta killed? Poor fellow! I knowed 
 he'd be killed, if anybody was." 
 
 "Down at the 'dead-ring,'" said Harris, who then gave 
 the account the reader has had, and continued, " When I 
 stepped into my house I stej^ped right onto some of my 
 wife's clothes. They had taken 'em all out of the bureau, 
 and flung 'cm all over the floor, brok(5 open three large 
 trunks I liad, and taken away every rag of clothing I had, 
 and my wife's bran new dress that she had made very 
 fancy to be baptized in next month— had never had it on— 
 they taken that away, and her watch and chain, and all her 
 jewelry, and all niy clothes ; and taken a pin of mine 
 that didn't cost me but sixty-five dollars ; and I don't sup- 
 pose some of them fellers ever had sixty-five dollars in 
 their lives ; and I told Pick. Baker so this morning. Just 
 so ; and he said it was some of the factory crowd from the 
 city, none o' his men hadn't done it. I said I don't know; 
 I seen some of his men looked pretty bad too, and I 
 thought they'd take things just as quick as anybody. 
 
 " Tic sayp, * Well, there's bad men in all crowds.' Every- 
 
212 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 thing in my house is broken up. They carried ofT all my 
 lamps and such things, tore do^vn my curtains, Lroke my 
 disiies, and carried oif what they couldn't break — all the 
 victuals and everything. When I told Gaston so this 
 morning, he offered me twenty-iive cents to get me some- 
 thing to cat, and I told liim I thanked him. They just 
 walked right over ni}' Vv'ife's clothes, and sph on 'em." 
 
 ^'Harris, what do you suppose they did all this for ?" 
 
 "Well, they said before it hap})encd that I would see the 
 white i^eople intended to carry the state democratic, and I 
 expect this is to intimidate ns. Hanson Baker told me 
 last night, (or this morning it was) when I was going home 
 after they done killed the men that was lying there ; and I 
 asked them liow they intended to carry the State Demo- 
 cratic, and they said, * You see there? "Well, lliat's the 
 way we'll lay you just so, if ever jou vote the Republican 
 ticket again;' and I said, * If that's the way you're going 
 on, I an't r- going to vote nohow. I'm done voting,' and 
 they said, ' You'd better be done voting, unless you vote 
 tlie Democratic ticket." 
 
 The whole company accepted this view of the motives 
 of the rioters. 
 
 "They didn't disturb you, Springer?" asked Uncle Jesse. 
 " Yon didn't finish." 
 
 ""Well," he resumed, "this shooting and hollering and 
 setting fires and so on, continued till the hours I named ; 
 and when they got through killing those they wanted to, 
 or could get, the crowd commenced going away. You 
 
OTHER FOOLS A^T) THEm DOIXGS. 213 
 
 coukl I]ear tlicni passing out in different directions, lioller- 
 in:^ and cursing and cavorting around, and saying what 
 they bad done. Tliey would swear and say that they hid 
 got Baconsviilc all ri^ht now ; tlionght they had killed a 
 sufficient num])cr to prevent nigger-rule any longer iii the 
 county— thought they had put a quietus on nigger-rulc in 
 the county for all time to corae. Thev went on hollering: 
 and calling the names of the men they had killed; and one 
 would say, 'lie don't answer,' and another would say, 
 'He's looking at the moon and don't vrink his eyes,' and 
 they went on making sport of the men they had killed, 
 and cursing all the time." 
 
 Then they commenced robbing, and you could hear it 
 all over town. It looked like they had parted themselves 
 np into squads for that business. You could hear them go 
 to a man's store, and burst it open and go in, all along the 
 streets. They broke open ray warehouse, and destroyed all 
 my books and papers, and tore up the lloors and partitions 
 — well, just ransacked the place entirely. Then they came 
 here. I had become alarmed at that time, and said to these 
 young men who were here with me, 'I think it is best for 
 us not to remain in this building, I think they will come 
 here." Up to that time I was basing an opinion tliat they 
 would not come here, upon the part that I had taken in the 
 whole affair during the day. I felt that it would keep me 
 out of danger; but then I saw very readily that even Gen- 
 eral Baker had lost all control over the men, and I became 
 alarmed, and thouc^ht best to leave the house. 
 
214 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 I thought probably they would not interfere with my 
 wife; but if ice wcvq found here, they would kill us. Sure 
 enougli, 1 sup2)osc we hadn't any more than got out of the 
 house and passed round from the front to the back side, 
 before wo heard the footsteps of them passing up the front 
 steps. I was then behind the house, and there was a light 
 in my wife's bedroom, and I saw one of the men in that 
 room. I didn't recognize him, though I heard him very 
 distinctly ask her where I was, and wliere Benny was. She 
 told him that she didn't knov\- where I was; that I had gone 
 away somewhere. They then commenced ransacking the 
 house; and they took a couple of shot guns I had here, 
 and carried them off; and they did use some very abusive 
 words to my wife. That's the extent of what occurred 
 here." 
 
 " No, that's not quite all, Sam," said Tim Grassy. " They 
 asked ni}- sister, Avho is staying with my mother who is 
 sick, you know, they asked her where was Springer's 
 money? She told them they didn't have any. They told 
 her she was a cursed liar. I heard that distinctly, for I felt 
 uneasy about my sick mother, and crept back close up to 
 the wiudovr. They staid there some time, and we heard 
 them coming dov;n, and I jumped over in Mrs. Dunn's yard 
 opposite her covv^ house, and stayed there till I knowed all 
 of them was gone." 
 
 *'Well, suppose vre all go down to the hall and see the 
 bodies of the dead, and then I must go home," said Uncle 
 Jesse. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 215 
 
 The six men walked slowly down to the old warehouse, 
 which had been reconstructed into a hall for the use of the 
 various secret societies of the village, of which the people 
 of the South are go fond. 
 
 There arranged in a row, were the bodies of five men; 
 all murdered for possessing greater or less proportions of 
 African blood, and being true to the National Govern- 
 ment which G^avc them freedom — nothiuGT more nothiuG: less. 
 
 But for these it had been no crime to pass ordinances 
 protective of the public peace and convenience, or to en- 
 force them — no crime to be an intelliirent leader amongr 
 one's fellows — no crime to practice in the use of arms under 
 sanction of lav\' andtlie nation's flag. 
 
 The homes of these men had been completelv sacked, 
 and not a whole chair or table was left in some, on which 
 to lay a coffin, though tho wife in one had given her only 
 bed, a poor stack of straw, to ease the removal of wounded 
 Merry Walter to his home across the river. 
 
 The body of the highly respected and beloved Watta was 
 in his home, where a distracted widow knelt beside it com- 
 fortless; and two fatherless little ones clung to her skirts, 
 and wept in sympathy, though ignorant of the magnitude 
 of their loss. 
 
 A large number of spectators thronged the hall and vi- 
 cinity, among whom were many wliitc people from the ad- 
 joining State of Georgia. Blacks were still denied passage 
 by the A— police. 
 
 "How many were wounded?" asked one. 
 
21G OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOIKGS. 
 
 "Three colored and one wliitel" 
 
 "Talk about Georgia! Talk about Georgia?" said he. 
 
 "It's ail this Cai)tain Doc and his lawless band," said 
 another Georgian. This Baconsvillc is an awful place/' he 
 continued, regardless of the presence, shrieks and wailings 
 of the families of the slain, except as he must needs pause 
 occasionally for tlic sounds to subside, that he might be 
 heard. "They are all a set of thieves. It's a very Sodom!" 
 
 "There's no more of that kind of doings here than in 
 any other place in the South," said a third, " the fact is 
 there a'n't more than forty-five or fifty white persons live in 
 this village, and the Bakers and Gaston and them, think 
 they shouldn't be responsible to any laws passed by colored 
 men, and think it is an outrage if they or other white folks 
 are arrested for violating them ; and the niggers have 
 mostly let them do as they pleased, which has made the ex- 
 ceptions seem personal and harder to stand. 
 
 " On the other hand, it's likely tlic niggers don't vraste 
 any love on old Bob, as they naturally can't forget hov/ he 
 got his property; and it is likely there's all the envious feel- 
 ings the poor are apt to have against the rich, besides, 
 which makes their overbearing ways and impositicns, and 
 violations of town ordinances seem more offensive; and it's 
 possible they take offence sometimes when none is intended; 
 maybe it is so on both sides, though the niggers arc not 
 naturally susj^icious, we know. It's just an envious, sus- 
 picious village, with overbearing and suspicious white 
 neighbors." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 21 T 
 
 "There's a little more than that too," said another man. 
 " Here's a State with a big nigger majority on election 
 days, and a county with a bigger one ; and a State and 
 national campaign a coming, and it's the centennial, and 
 the nisreer 'crnsh' is tantalizinGf to them that don't want a 
 union with the North, unless they can control it ; and the 
 whites naturally want to begin the next hundred years with 
 the State in their hands." 
 
 " Oh, fol-de-rol-dol! The superior race oicght to rule. 
 That's the whole of it," said another. 
 
 "All that doesn't make this right," said the first speaker. 
 "The whites have had the best chance to be civilized, and 
 the negroes have never done anything like this. Talk 
 about Georgia! Georgia has never been guilty of such a 
 barbarous thing as this, and had it not been for those 
 Bean Island men, it never would have happened." 
 
 " Tliat stirs fury all over one. sir; to have that said after 
 I have stvove so hard to keep things quiet in Bean Island I" 
 said Uncle Jesse, "I shall inquire about that;" and scarcely 
 bidding a hasty adieu to his friends, he abruptly left the 
 place, and mounting his horse, rode home, and hastened to 
 the residence of Deacon At wood. 
 
 " Deacon," said he, " a very nice gentleman from Georgia 
 says that had it not been for Bean Island people, that them 
 men would never have been killed," 
 
 " It's a lie! " It's a lie! " cried the Deacon, " and if they 
 go on talking that way, the whole cat will be let out at 
 once. There an't a word of truth in it! There wa'n't a 
 
318 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Bean Island man shot a gun. Dr. Ava and Joe Ennery 
 guarded the prisoners, and when they were to bo killed, 
 tbey were to be delivered into the hands of unknown par- 
 ties that the law couldn't detect them. That was a plan 
 laid before. They didn't fire a gun there, nor kill a man ; 
 7iot one ! There was nobody stayed over there from Bean 
 Island, but some drunken fellows that couldn't get away ; 
 and if they keep on talking in that way, the whole cat will 
 get out of the water." 
 
 *' Deacon Atwood, that was wrong then. You ought 
 never to have killed them men after taking them pris- 
 oners." 
 
 Dea. A. — " I agree with you there." 
 
 Uncle Jesse. — " They ought not to have killed them 
 after they stopped fighting." 
 
 Dea. A. — " They ought never to have stopped fighting 
 till they killed them in theJigJit P'' 
 
 Uncle Jesse. — "They didn't kill any of them in the 
 fight ; they must have been very poor marksmen, as many 
 as they was there, and couldn't kill anybody, and had to 
 wait till they got out of ammunition, and then took 'era 
 out and killed 'em. V^hy didn't they let 'em be taken by 
 the law, and be tried and had justice done 'em?" 
 
 Dea. A. — "I suppose the men vrere so ambitious that 
 they didn't intend they should live. Xow I tell you, Jesse, 
 what this Georgia gentleman said, isn't so. Bardon Ramol 
 and Bob Blending met a young nigger this morning just 
 l)rfore they got to Horse Creek, a coming" home, and Bar- 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 219 
 
 don he says to him, ' Xow, don't you go down there. 
 Didn't you bear the guns down there last night ? The last 
 one is killed, and it's all over, and it an't worth while to 
 go.'" 
 
 Uncle Jesse. — "And so they got him to turn back? 
 That's well enough, but not much." 
 
 Dea. A. — " Yes. Now they're accusing Sam Payne, and 
 Tad Volier— that little fellow not more'n four feet high — 
 to day, and Til swear it's a lie ; for them men were not 
 killed by anybody that is on this side the river." 
 
 Jesse Roome did not tell his neighbor ho^v well all this 
 conversation assured him that he was privy to all the 
 plans, at least ; but simply asked, " Sam Payne was not 
 there?" 
 
 Dea. A. — " No, Jesse, he wasn't there." 
 
 Uncle Jesse. — " Well, Deacon Atwood, Pve always been 
 a good friend to you, and Pve told you some things that 
 the colored people were going to do that was wrong, and 
 we have been pretty confidential a great many times ; but 
 I just tell you, sir, if you go to violating the law, then PU 
 back down. I will not stick for anybody that will violate 
 the law. My motto is to punish every man, white or 
 black, that will violate the law." 
 
220 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE SCALLAWAG. 
 
 " Get tbcc gone! 
 
 Death and destruction dog tliec at the heels. 
 
 ♦ * * -:f * w * 
 
 If thou wilt outstrip death, go cross the seas, 
 And live with Richurd from the reach of hell. 
 Go, hie thee from this slaughter-house 
 Lest thou increase the number of the dead." 
 
 —King Richard III. 
 
 "When Col. Baker ordered Mrs. Marraor to leave ber 
 home, she Avould not ask shelter in the house of her nearest 
 neighbor — that most Christian Jew, Dan Lemfield — lest 
 ber presence might jeopardise the safety of her husband; 
 and slie stood upon the doorsteps with ber infant in ber 
 arms, and little Louie beside ber, gazing np and down the 
 street in utter dismay, and not knowing whitber to flee. 
 Only a few steps at ber left was the drill-room, the centre 
 about which all the warlike preparations were arranged, 
 and every dwelling in the belcagured square, except her 
 own and Lemfleld's, was the abode of at least one colored 
 family, and therefore clearly unsafe. 
 
 " Where is my papa ? Why don't be come and go with 
 us, mamma?'' asked the little boy in the piping voice of 
 childish grief. 
 
 '•'Hush, child I Mamma 's glad be is not here. Keep 
 still and mavbe the soldiers v>-on't hurt us." 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 221 
 
 "TTill tliey hurt us maybe, mamma?" The boy now 
 began to wail piteously, and the babe cried in sympathy. 
 
 " Hush, Louie ! Mamxiia will tell you," said Mrs. Mar- 
 mor. She sat down upon the steps, in presence of the 
 armed foe by which the street was occupied, and, placing 
 her own person in range of any possible shot that might be 
 aimed at Marmor's boy, she spoke in low and rapid tones : — 
 
 "If you cry, these men will see you; and if you keep 
 still, maybe they won't notice, and sister will keep still too. 
 You don't want little sister to get hurt. You will be a 
 brave man, like papa, won't you ? Papa isn't afraid, and 
 he keeps still." 
 
 Pressing both his little hands over his mouth for an 
 instant, and choking back one or two great sobs, the child 
 looked up into his mother's eyes, smilhig through liis tears, 
 and repeated — "I cried unto God withn;y voice, even unto 
 God with my voice, and he gave ear unto me." Mamma, 
 there's Mr. Dan. See ! Mamma, see !" 
 
 Turning, she saw the Jew at his door^ beckoning her 
 with earnest gesticulation, although beside him stood the 
 burly Rufus Baker. As she approached, she heard Mr. 
 Lemfield say something about hostages, and Baker replied 
 with a significant wink and nod. 
 
 "We w411 all die together, if we must," said the dis- 
 tressed wife and mother, mentally. 
 
 *' Co im, Mrs. Marmor. Co im," said LemfieM. "Don't 
 sthop out h.ere mit do leetlc kinder. You huspand go vay ? 
 Dat isli pad. May pe he'll come." A quick glance at his 
 
2 2 3 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOIXGS, 
 
 shrewd face, and slie accci)ted ]iis invitation, and entered 
 the hospitable door with her little ones. 
 
 Dan soon followed, and taking her aside, said hastily. 
 " You must not tell. You pe like you know not varc de 
 man ist. I tink I co get old Bob and feed 'ini viskev. Ven 
 he trunk he shieeps much, and vants more viskey. He pe 
 here he not tink you huspand he here; and ve knows he pe 
 killing no mon. Now you take care." 
 
 Poor Mrs. Marmor took the cue quickly. 
 
 Almost immediately after this the first gun fired. The 
 Jew flew to the front door, and soon returned accompanied 
 by the great bushy-whiskered negro-hunter, who was much 
 excited. 
 
 Mrs. Marmor feigned great uneasiness and anxiety for 
 the safety of her husband, and could but shudder under the 
 piercing eye of the old man, Avhilc Louie hid behind her 
 chair and peeped out at him with the fascination of fear. 
 
 Their host seemed to forget the presence of his other 
 guests in his solicitude for Mr. Buker's comfort. 
 
 "You not pe veil I see. Dat ish pad. Vat ish te mat- 
 ter?" 
 
 "I'm excited, and I reckon I've taken cold. Give me 
 somiC whiskey," re2)liedthe hypocondriac. "I've sweat too 
 much. The day has been terribly hot !" 
 
 "Ya. Dat ish goot. Col. Paker tole me shut up mine 
 par; but I not open it to serve jou. I shust pring it here, 
 and you trink mit my family, Yill I make shling ? oder 
 toddy?" 
 
* OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 223 
 
 "O slino-, sling." 
 
 "Alio right. Dat ish goot;" and Dan bustled away to 
 the bar-room and brought a bottle of strong liquor, from 
 which he soon mixed what he called " de ferry pest sliling 
 eber made in de country," and with great show of solici- 
 tude presented it to the old man, who gulped it down and 
 smacked his lips with evident satisfaction. 
 
 In common with all mankind Robert Baker had an im- 
 pressible point; and, as with every other tyrant, that point 
 was vulnerable to flattery. By a discreet use of this deple- 
 tive, and a vigorous administration of sling, and industri- 
 ous cultivation of his hypocondriacal tendency, the Jew 
 soon had him npon his back, and courting a perspiration 
 which should relieve him of numerous imaginary ills. The 
 rapid discharge of fire-arms upon tlie street, however, kept 
 the patient nervous and excited; and Dan's family screamed 
 and exclaimed, and Mrs. Marmor and her boy wept silently 
 as volley followed volley. 
 
 "Where is my papa ?" Louie sobbed into his mother's 
 ear; for to him "old man Baker" was an ogre, who would 
 devour any little boy he chanced to observe. 
 
 " Let us pray God to take care of him. He is taking care 
 of us. See, little sister is asleep." 
 
 " TThat makes you cry, mamma ?" 
 
 " Oh, just hear the guns ? Somebody will get hurt," 
 and they wept and trembled together, while Lemfield con- 
 tinued to ply his patient with whiskey, till even his eager- 
 nef=s for the fray could not master the oncoming stupor of 
 drunkenness. 
 
221 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 Two linirs or more passed thus, and it was dark, when 
 fearful yells burst out, curdling the blood of every listener. 
 They were like the jubilations of demons, and were soon 
 followed by the boominj:^ of cannon. 
 
 Couriers brouglit frequent advices of the progress of af- 
 fairs, which Lemfield carefully received for the old man, 
 and as carefully withheld from every occupant of the house 
 except the refugee in tlie chamber. 
 
 At the sound of the artillery, Baker rolled from the 
 
 sofa, and gleefully exclaiming, '"'Vre'llget "em novv- 
 
 them I" he reeled from the front to the rear door, pistol 
 in hand, chafing under th.e restraint of his celf-appointed 
 nurse, like a hound in the leash when the horu of the 
 huntsmen is heard. 
 
 A tramping sound in the back yard drew both men to 
 the door. 
 
 "Who ish dat?" demanded Dan, peering into the dark- 
 ness of a shady part of the enclosure. 
 
 "There goes a nigger! Here ho goesi Here he 
 
 goes I" shouted the old slave-catcher. 
 
 "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" cried the Jew; but while 
 he yet spoke it was too late. 
 
 ''I've got 'im! I've got 'im" cried the old man, running 
 to his fallen game. 
 
 "Co im quick! Co im quick, ^^.leester Paker I Somebody 
 vill shoot you.'^ and tlio excited little man caught the 
 m-urderer's arm and dragged him into X\\o. liouse, while 
 the dusky form of Xat Wellman crept on all fours into 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 225 
 
 a yard still farther to the rear, and found safety in a 
 deeper shade. 
 
 Filled with such terrors the night wore on, and Marmor's 
 were not the only infants that sobbed themselves to sleep 
 in the midst of those dreadful alarms, tlioiigh many were 
 laid in the shadows of the cornfields or the dampness of the 
 swamps that surrounded the besieged town. 
 
 " Ich vill make ine skiing, vat vill make Old Bob shleep, 
 so Ich vili/''' muttered Dan, 'as he mixed a few drops of 
 laudanum with a fresh mug of the steaming beverage. " Ich 
 hab no more mens killed by mine house." 
 
 The patient was at length awakening great echoes in his 
 bed room, with his stentorian breathings, notwithstanding 
 renewed disturbances upon the premises, and that most 
 Christian Jew stole up to Taarmor's retreat. 
 
 ''For your life, Meester I^Iarmor, do co hide somevare! 
 Dey po hunt you, aud say dcy vill purn your house. Dey 
 
 sliwarc dey vill hab you. Dey say you be ine scalla- 
 
 vag, ino republican, and dat you pringht ammunition to 
 de nigger militia." 
 
 " It is false!" said Marmor, "The gnly ammunition I ever 
 brought to this town is rej^uhlican newspapers." 
 
 " Dat make no odds. Dat pad 'nough, dey link, and dey 
 pe hunt you; deycotru mine house shust now. Dey find 
 Shimmy' (Jimmy, Marmor's servant) in yo' yard, and dey 
 vip 'im to tell vo you ist; but he know notting." 
 
 The hunted man fled to the house top, where he lay long, 
 listening to the crashing of his printing presses and furni- 
 
226 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 tui'G, and tlie shrieks and cries of colored women and chil- 
 dren whom he saw violently dragged from their houses by 
 fiendish men athirst for the blood of their husbands and 
 fathers for whom they sought; and wondering if liis own 
 mother was suffering similar indignities, he blamed him- 
 self for hiding. 
 
 He saw houses fired, in various directions, but the flames 
 were soon extinguished by the less reckless of the assail- 
 ants, or by the occupants, some of whom were thus captured. 
 
 About two o'clock in the morning the tumult in his own 
 house was renewed and increased; and, driven from their 
 hiding place there, two colored men leaped from a window 
 of the second story, upon a roof beneath it, and with al- 
 most superhuman effort, climbed upon that of a higher 
 part of the building, an,d scarcely less miraculously escaped 
 death by the pistol of their friend Marmor, who mistook 
 them for foes. 
 
 "For mercy's sake don't shoot!" cried one, just in time to 
 arrest a second discharge. 
 
 The three men lay flat upon the roof to avoid discovery, 
 but the sound of the pistol and the voice had betrayed 
 them, and several of the rioters attempted to follow the 
 young men. 
 
 Meanwhile the three men slipped down through the 
 scuttle into Lemfield's house. 
 
 Obliged to abandon pursuit in that direction, the ruffians 
 re-entered the window, descended to the street, and pouring 
 into the next house, rushed to the stairs. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 22* 
 
 Vas fur you co up mine shtair? Co town! Ich say, co 
 town!" cried Dan. "Ich been goot freund to chcry man, 
 so you siuiU not break mine tings. You must go vay, 
 mine vamily pe sick up dar, and you will scharc mine cronk 
 poy so he co todt!" and pushing past them, he mounted 
 the upper steps, still persisting in his opposition, and ob- 
 structing the way, 
 
 ^^ Ichnonigr/ahy no' publican, no notting dat votes' cainst 
 you. So you co vayP 
 
 "We won't hurt you, nor your famil}*, Dan, if Me find 
 you all right, but, (the reader must imagine the vilest and 
 most profuse epithets and profanity), Louis Marraor is up 
 there, and we will have him. He's a scallawag, and a re- 
 publican, and is helping the niggers, and we must get him. 
 He has got to die as well as the rest," 
 
 " Er nicht dar." 
 
 " You're a lying Jew dog!" 
 
 " Ich schvare youns, Louis 3Iarmor ist not pout mine 
 blace, 2oy de heard of Abraham /" 
 
 " You swear to that, do you ?" asked the leader. 
 
 "Ich schware! Ich schware! " 
 
 " B-o-y-s, b-o-y-s," said old man Baker, staggering from 
 the couch where Mrs. Marmor had shaken him into con- 
 sciousness, "Boys, oh, come back! come, come, come back! 
 Dan's a good fellow. I'm quite unwell, quite unwell," 
 drawled he, " and he has taken care of me and pro — pro — 
 
 protected me from them niggers, and I'll protect his 
 
 Jiouse and family. Nov\' just come back, Don't go up 
 
228 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 there. I've been here all night, so far, and hide nor hair o' 
 Louis Marmor ha'n't been seen about here. I'll vouch for 
 this house, and guard it too. So don't go up." 
 
 " If you say so, Mr. Baker, we'll come back, but we 
 thought he was thar sho'." 
 
 "Ha'n't been about hereto-night. I've been here and 
 could see, and Dan's all right." 
 
 The ruffians yielded, and the three men, who had been 
 unable to reach the scuttle and escape, were saved; though, 
 confident of a speedy return of their foes, the colored men 
 imraedia'ely sought another place of concealment. 
 
 The cries and pleadings of another captive were soon 
 afterwards heard in the back-yard, and he was conveyed in 
 triumph to the **' dead-ring " which was still insatialle 
 while ungraced by the persons of Marraor and Doc. 
 
 Though the house was not again entered by the mob, so 
 strong and general was the suspicion that Mr. Marmor was 
 upon the Jew's premises, that after his return to his home 
 even Robert Baker was persuaded to believe it, and a vigi- 
 lant watch was maintained several days thereafter. 
 
 While Aunt Phoebe was hastening the preparation of 
 Uncle Jesse's breakfast the next morning, Jane Marmor 
 sat beside her husband in the Jew's chamber, and described 
 the condition of things, as she had found them in their 
 home ; for she had already ventured there, and had looked 
 in upon her mother-in-law, who had locked herself into her 
 own little sho]), and remained there, alone, and (strangely), 
 unharmed, through the night. 
 
OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 229 
 
 Harry Gaston, and Hanson, Tommy, and old man Baker 
 relieved each other on watch all the next day, each being 
 assisted by r. band of trusted followers ; and Marmor', 
 close behind Dan's window-shades, listened to their threats 
 against himself, and their attempts to convince such 
 negroes as ventured near them, that he, Kani-asp, and 
 the "carpet-bag Governor," were solely responsible for the 
 massacre ; and while his colored friends were anxiously 
 conjecturing his fate, his experiences in the affair had 
 scarcely begun. 
 
 As the day declined, 3Irs. Marmor joined her entreaties 
 to those of their host, urging upon her husband the neces- 
 sity of attempting escape, as there were indications of 
 more decided search of the premises. 
 
 Night came at length, and spread her dark mantle over 
 the village; but the hunted man had scarcely escaped the 
 house when the rising of the full moon made concealment 
 almost impossible. 
 
 As the weather was very warm, and he must make speed, 
 he went without a coat. Choosing a time when the sentry 
 had passed to the extreme of his beat, he walked up the 
 street with apparently careless moderation, hoping to be 
 mistaken for a laborer, and to reach a small station on the 
 railroad three miles distant, before the arrival of the next 
 train. 
 
 This he accomplished in safety, but arrived too early. 
 A congregation was gathering at a church near by, 
 for the Sunday evening service; and as his lips were 
 
2S0 OTHER FOOLS ANT) THEIR DOCsGS. 
 
 parcheJ with thirst, he approached and procured a drink 
 of water. 
 
 Several persons there knew Marmor, but as he had shaved 
 his beard, and otherwise sliglitly disguised himself, they 
 were not confident of his identity. 
 
 However, on his return to the carriage-road, he was at 
 once confronted by six armed men. 
 
 The click of their gun-locks was his first intimation of 
 their presence, and with the bound of a wild deer, he dashed 
 into a black swamp hard by. 
 
 His pursuers were mounted, and therefore could not enter 
 it; but the swamp, though over a mile Ion a. "svas narrow; 
 and they hunted him on either side. 
 
 It Avas a cane-break, and but for the extreme drought of 
 the season, would have furnished but poor footing indeed. 
 
 The tall, stiff reeds reached for above his head, and some 
 skill was needful to break them over with the font and thus 
 secure a standing-place. His hat was soon knocked off by 
 a shot, and his low-quartered shoes lost in the mire. At 
 length a place was reached where a point of firm land ex- 
 tended into the swamp, and on this several of his pursuers 
 took position, (for their number had been increased), to 
 cut him off, should he attempt to pass. 
 
 They had lost sight of him, but as he approached he dis- 
 tinctly saw Robert Baker directly opposite and facing 
 him, and not far distant. He noted the resolute bearing 
 and determined visage of the old hunter; but felt himself 
 still incompetent to fully sympathize with the hunted slave 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DODsGS. 23l 
 
 of the forraor times; 'whom no arm in the State or nation 
 was strong enough to deliver from his master, or this hired 
 hunter and his blood-hounds. 
 
 But, having little time for sentiment or reflection, he 
 took a hasty survey of the positions of such of his pursuers 
 as were in sight, deliberately approached the edge of the 
 swamp, took aim at the old hunter, who he felt sure would 
 not scruple to take A zs life, and firing, ran rapidly in a direc- 
 tion he thought they would not suspect; and thus escaped 
 for the time. 
 
 But, instead of approaching the town as he intended to 
 do, he wandered in a circuitous direction, and returned to 
 the church. 
 
 The services were over, and as he saw that many of the 
 men were mounting horses, he retreated to the woods again, 
 where he lay till morning. 
 
 His pursuers inquired of the worshippers, and finally got 
 upon his track the next morning, bringing their trained 
 dogs. From that time till Wednesday morning they 
 chased him up and down the woods and swamps. His feet 
 were wounded and swollen, his bare head exposed to the 
 burning July sun, and he had eaten nothing since Sunday 
 morning. 
 
 On Tuesday morning he became desperate, and resolved 
 to leave the swamp. He did so, and ran along the road. 
 On several occasions the dogs were upon him when he 
 again intrenched himself among bushes surrounded by 
 water, and lay watching, pistol in hand. But as he had no 
 
2o2 OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 ammunition besides that in bis revolver, he determined to 
 make that as useful as possible, and reserved for a probable 
 extremity. 
 
 Once they caught sight of him at two hundred yards dis- 
 tance and cried. " There he is! There's the scallawaff!" 
 
 and hissed their dogs upon him. 
 
 On Wednesday morning he eluded them and reached the 
 residence of the Intendant of Baconsville, on the outskirts 
 of the town. He was a pitiable object indeed; with cloth- 
 ing torn and covered with mud, feet bare, swollen and 
 bleeding; fair broad brow burned to a blister, auburn hair, 
 unkempt; famished, fainting, and only his determined en- 
 ergy left of his former self. 
 
 Refreshed by a cup of coffee and a judicious breakfast, 
 and a bath for his feet, he hobbled to his home, which he 
 reached about ten o'clock. 
 
 It had become his sole wish to see his family once more, 
 and if he must die, to die with them; and his apprehensive- 
 ness had become so great that he Avas with great difficulty 
 persuaded to tarry at his neighbors for food. To be driven 
 from home, and hunted through swamps and forests, like 
 a ferocious beast, had become an insupportable thought. 
 
 And wherefore 7cas he? 
 
 Because he sought through that great instrument of en- 
 lightenment, the press, to disseminate his iDolitical opinions, 
 and the principles of a Republican government, and to 
 strengthen and perpetuate the Union. 
 
 An hour after reach in g: home he became aware that the 
 
OTHER FOOLS AND THEIR DOINGS. 233 
 
 foe was on bis track and approaching, but the house was 
 kept closed, and guarded by leading citizens, and he 
 remained till the afternoon of the following day; when, so 
 disguised as to be unrecognized by familiar friends, he 
 took the railroad train for the Capitol, and escaped. 
 
 A band of those white ruffians boarded the train, and 
 passed through it several times, enquiring for him, and 
 even propounded their questions to him, without recog- 
 nizing him. 
 
 The horrors of this massacre were but the commence- 
 ment of a succession which blackened the history of the 
 political campaign of the year 1876 in the State of South 
 Carolina, and in other Southern states, and disgraced the 
 Republic in the sight of the nations she had invited to 
 witness the successes she had achieved under a free and 
 popular government. 
 
 Is it asked what punishment was meted out to those 
 miserable offenders ? 
 
 They were arrested, liberated for several months under 
 bail of 8500 each, and clearly convicted upon trial ; but 
 because the jury of twelve was empanelled upon a strictly 
 party basis, and the six white men were avowedly opposed 
 to conviction on any evidence, a mistrial ensued. 
 
 As under " the conciliation policy " of the national ad- 
 ministration which followed the next subsequent election, 
 the United States' troops which liad been sent into the 
 State at the request of the Governor were withdrawn, 
 the defeated Democratic candidates for Governor apd Leg- 
 
234 OTHER FOOLS AXD THEIR DOINGS. 
 
 islatnre, supported by the unchartered and hence illegal 
 rifle clubs usurped the State government, and all further 
 proceedings against the rioters were dropped, and the 
 notorious General Baker was elected to a seat in the Sen- 
 ate of the nation, by that spurious legislature of his State. 
 
 Such is the justice, and such the tender mercies, to which 
 have been consigned the emancipated slaves of the South- 
 ern States, and these and similar experiences have caused 
 the " Exodus" of the freedmen to the great north-west. 
 
 With such fearful odds, can the reader wonder at their 
 seeming timidity? 
 
 THE END. 
 
RARE BOOK 
 COLLECTION 
 
 THE LIBRARY OE THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 AT 
 
 CHAPEL HILL 
 
 Wilmer 
 
 499 
 
 C.2