Unfettered

settlement, was adhered to, and on Christmas Eve several wagon loads of young Negro men and women started on their journey to the city. The crops had been m

each wagon and from it bottles were filled and passed around, men, women and children alike taking each a "dram." Loud laughing, playful bantering, sallies of coarse wit, ribald singing, characterized this journey to the city. The more sober and relig

ps for the last time. The minister was expected to preach a sermon appropriate to the occasion

heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be calle

ords in the bosoms of his hearers and a bond of fellowship for the occasion was at once established between him and them. His every utterance was saluted with an answering groan or sympathetic manifestation of some kind, evoked as much

ch was made the more touching by instituting comparisons, the purport of which was to show that the Negroes were having similar experiences. In drawing to a close, he emphasized the thought that the God that prepared a goodly land for the Jews would

life; the long white robes; the silver slippers; the starry crown; the palms of victory; the harps of gold. The Christian was to go into the city, he set forth, and

representation of the final rest of the Christi

d clambered from seat to seat wild with emotion. Such was the character of the religious preparation that the Negroes had for the grave responsibilities of life in the city.

prejudice nor tainted with injustice. They were thoroughly imbued with the doctrine that they were inherently superior to the Negro and instituted repressive measures to keep alive recognition of this claim. This was the Alpha and Omega of their purposes, and they were angered, that their course, to them righteous, should be accepted

upon the Negro as being of too conservative a mold, averse, like all primitive people, to innovations. He had given earnest study to improved methods of farming and had determined upon many changes that would dispense with much labor. He had in mind to substitute barbed wire for rail fences and thus be rid of Negro rail-splitters. Improved plows, planti

ds" they had been notified that they would have to abandon their lives of ease and help to man the farms. The thought of performing

roubles. As they became intoxicated, their fury rose until it was evident that trouble of some sort was certain to ensue. One

r!" rang out from the throat

oung white men, as she persistently refused to speak to any of them that did not call her "Miss Beulah." This long

city, to take place on the morrow. She heard the wild shouts drawing nearer and nearer, and looked out of her window to disco

d with thick oak doors that closed from the inside and effected a protection for

ated, they had come from their homes without implements with which to batter down the doors. Finding their

r up!" s

ain't no rat. Give her a ch

d the first speaker. "I will

s and some the other. While they were engaged in this drunken squabble, one of their number had gott

trun the crowd in their drunken condition. Quietly unpinning the barred door, she leaped out and began to run. She chose the side of the house opposi

rt of will steadied himself sufficiently to hurl at the fleeing girl a stick of stove wood which he had gotten in the kitchen. The stick struck her on the back of her head. Beulah fell forward and in a few min