Show L 1 SJ i jjinilliiiii Eifaispi t i COLORED CAMPflEETING I i I IN THE CAPITAL I Imi wu BY CY TVAEMAN L Copyright 1896 by S S McClure 1A Lhnited r We live in the southeast here in Washington down by the tired Potomac Po-tomac where the banks and the rents are low It is called the tired Potomac because it ruus all the time and never gets anywhere For six hours it flows out toward the open sea and then the tide comes up and pushes it back into the boggs again It is usually the color of c brickyard after a rain and the doctors say it is conducive to good health But the doctors live here and as there is one doctor for every twenty people it is perhaps just as well for the doctors that the Potomac water is as it is Mind I dont say it is unhealthy It is all right for drinking purposes r that we know for the doctors who are experts have said so but it is not fit to bathe in Sir Julian has been obliged to sinn an artesian well at the British embassy in order to have clearwater clear-water for his bath Ive seen a band of hazelsplitters come rollicking down the Virginia hills but when they reached the waters edge they took a sip or two gave a few disparaging grunts and trotted back to the bush again It was all right for drinking t purposes but what they really wanted was a bath Aside from the Potomac and themE the-mE = dioal expertlocally known as the microbe chaserthe > most amusing thing in Washington is the Negro Not ID the swaggering political negro the sedate se-date spectacled Sunday school negro nor the scrappy noisy negro who is always loaded down with razors and apple jack but th ° soaring ecstatic campriLoeting negrohe beats them all The winter is the season here because be-cause congress is here and in winter the colored people work some of them but with the first twitter of the wren they want to quit and get off and frolic Along with the wren comes the revivalist vho never fails to cause a great awakening among the dark people L peo-ple of the capital Over against the jail which is near us they have erected a great tent and here they hold forth every night in the week except Saturday night They begin in the early twilight time and about the hour when the haidworklng poor take to their tents a mighty wave of melody comes up from the malarial banks where the wild thyme grows The chorus is always strong the music ever the same and the words never 1 chance By cool Siloams shady rills t How fair the lillies grow It Is a pretty picture that these happy people paint of cool Siloam J and I hope and pray that they may be able to keep it cool and shady I have J tried at times to enter into the spirit L of the song but I could not I have seen the pool A slimy stagnant hole it was whose green waters were oozing out over the r road Down this road an Arab rode a thin legged donkey whose sharp feet sank in the loam until the riders biuad feet rested on the stiff mud Then the Arab stood up and laughed while the little burro struggled out from between his legs By cool Siloams shady rills The only shade near the pool is made by the naked arms of a dead cottonwood 4 cotton-wood The rills if they were ever there have long since ceased to sing and there is not a lily in sight Sometimes in the twilight the lepers who live below the pool come up and carry away jars of the warm water and these things are constantly coming com-ing between me and the beautiful picture pic-ture made by th ° negro melodists in the tent below The pool Oi Siloah is in the shadow t of the cross at the foot of calvary and the curse of God seems to have fallen tc upon it and upon all the country round about It is not a pretty place now and it is just as well for these good souls to stay here and sing the song as it used to bebetter perhaps than for them to visit the place and be undeceived J s But cool Siloam is only the opening chorus in the evening exercises As the hours waste and the candles burn deep into the night a wilder song fs sung In ont of the box that the preacher leans upon there is a space strewn with sawdust and from time to time as the excitement increases a dusky rejoicer will leave his seat and take a few turns about this little circus cir-cus just as Senator Harris does when Senator Lodge flourishes a red flag L across the little arena in front of the presidents desk As the shouting sinner r sin-ner circles he steps quickly and executes I exe-cutes a sort of chickenflutter that is enthusiastic to the onlookers Over in a dark corner a black man will stand up close his eyes open his chimney and begin to pour forth a song of his own making words music and all It may have a chorus and It may not I have seen one of these ex temporaneous campposers start a simple song of three words give us glory give us glory and in five minutes min-utes every mouth in the tent was wide t open and the song was kept up without o with-out the slightest variation for a half f hour During the rendering of this beautiful chorus a woman began to do the walk around others joined her until un-til the little space was filled and she found herself the fixed centre of a 40 circling host of howling enthusiasts Now they began to kick down the benches and fling them out against the tent walls and the circle grew larger I have heard old cattlemen tell how a bull would balk on the plains sometimes some-times and the other cattle begin to circle cir-cle about him and in a little while the Whole herd thousands of steers would be walking round and round and it was next to impossiale to break the circuit The cattle men call that milling and that is just what these darkies do That was my first and last visit but c I know they do the same every night First I hear cool Siloam and then there is quiet for a spellfor the preaching is not so loudand by and by the big black man starts his little song Give us glory give us glory and in a little while they seem to get it Yes there go the bencheslike the sound of a circus breaking up after the last performance They were sing ing the opening song when I began to write and now they are beginning to mill Round and round like the bewildered be-wildered herd on the plain Up and 1 down like the tired Potomac they are always going but never get anywhere S They are happy now but they will soon forget and next spring they will meet again and sing and shout it allover all-over ajraln LV By cool Siloams shady rills |