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Show Strange Death Customs of South Carolina Coast Negroes (From the New York Bun.) " 'Oman, cnty dat wot e kuinper fur! Wot kumyer fur, ef 'e no kumyer fuh dead?" This unanswerable reply waa made by Billy Button, principal planter on to hia wife. Dugadoo Island, & C Odor, when ahe announced to him the death of their only child. For two nights previous deathbed Jubilations had been celebrated over Billy Button's daughter. For two nights there had been bowling, shrieking and clicking of bones, intermingled with such comforting hymns as: "De Bret Am Gwlne So Fas'," Baton Een de Bussard Tunnum Loose, Orabe Yard and "Dry Bone Bhakln These canticles had Een de TtyUly. been accompanied by double shuffling of feet and wildest clapping of hands, the tumult becoming more mad and furious as the tide turned on the ebb, for then the river waa running fast to be swallowed by the great dark sea. The creeks were hastening Into the Ditches gulf of mysterious depths. and canals were trickling and gurgling at every tiny outlet In a frantic effort of escape to the unknown. Was It not time for the spirit to depart? Was It not time for the struggling, panting, gasping breath of the dying to float away with the ebbing tide Into the great sea of eternity? Still she lingered! The young flood was welling on the mud banks and swishing among the marshes. The sun arose and shone like a searchlight upon the cabin, making It look like a huge black cinder amid flames of light The death bed watchers crept away outdone dejected at their failure to speed the parting spirit As for the fond parents, they were mortified and humiliated to the heart's core at the obstinacy of their child at the pertinacity of a foteen yeah ole gal defying a whole gang ob sanctify chuch members and refusing to die at the proper time! ' Small wonder la It that Billy Button stood his ground when his wife told him their child was dead. Instead of moving toward his cabin, he continued to whack lastly at the weeds in his benny patch, mumbling to himself: 'Eh! eh! Wot mek dat gal so contrary. E nebber dead wen people wantum fuh dead! E, drap off now jes fuh spite ebryboddy! Glancing up he espied his wife still standing at the door. Odoe! he gruffly called out. "Demme fuh me lone! Needn't spec budge! Tie up e Jaw! Bind e fut Wrap um een de shroud! Dat gal nebba tarrogate e fadder fellin' I aint gwlne bodder aid um now! The scene Just described Is a spec! men of the ceremonies performed over the dying by the coast negroes of South Carolina. The result is usually more gratifying to the participants, for only an Iron constitution or numbness of sensibility can resist such effort to make the dying shuffle off this UTAH OAILY PAGE TWELVE. SATURDAY and almost dropped from fright, but was finally induced, after promise of a drink of whisky and the assurance that the visitors were not the marrow-les- s to apdwellers of the graves, proach the land of the supernatural The horrible experiences of the night were recounted, and he was asked If he could explain those sounds. The old man shook his head. Looking on the ground, he slowly muttered as If to himself: I spec you dem groanin an hollerin you yedde ees de sperret ob ole Baccus son Cuffee, rasslln wld Peter at de golden gate. Wen de time come fuh e fut fuh straighten out eye on all de een det, Cuffee tun chuch members an say: " Ts gwlne tub glory, sho! An ef ole man Peter tempt fuh turn me why from de golden gate, me and him haf-f- er rassle. "I spec yedde um fuh true! Cuffee always bln ready fuh light. Ole 'man Peter sho got de wust of dat rassle! By dis time Cuffee tuk a seat dose tudde trone ob glory. De bret lebe e body wen de sun sink Into rlbba and we bury um yeah last J their descending chromatic scales of woe. The wails of the preacher, the groans of the mourners, are attuned to the strange minor key of nature and mingle with the weird voices of the night. Beneath a dense canopy of forest trees, amid briers and bushes the gravel lie in wildest confusion. Some mounds are eavejJ In. The angle of an old coffin Juts out from a litter of broken glass and china that served to mark the resting place of some mute, inglorious Samba The graves lie facing every point of the compass and then traverse each other. Sword plants shoot straight upward from them. Blackberry bushes grow In a tangled mat, forming a hiding place for lnnuemrable snakes and lizards. Broken bowls and Jugs, whiskey and beer bottles are the only monuments to the dead relics, no doubt, of their Junkets their deeds of prowess when In the flesh. Echoes reverbrate from the surrounding gloom. Their lamentations return to the mourners ears like a wall of lost souls. The preacher gives yls-terd- out this text: "De chapter of de sebenty-sebe- n ob Jerry Myers, werse. Oh, my breddem, yedde hear de voice ob de Lod! De man him shall cry, an ebry habitant ob de lan' him shall howl! Wuffer de Lod write dese prophetic words ef 'e ain't bln studdy de day wen 'e gwlne tuk Sukky de datta ob Billy Button plum way from 'e fllcted fambly? Enty e say, de man fuh cry, and de habitants fuh howl? Now, wot e mean by habitants? 'E mean de 'oman, ob cose! Raise yo voice, dat tor ob Isrul! Open yo trotes, sons ob Judda! Mingle um wld de bleat of de Lam, wid de bray of Balaam Jackass, wld de tootin ob ole man Gabrul ho'n! At this frantic exhortation the woods resounded again and again with such wild pandemonium of noise that it seemed as If a hundred gongs and baa Boons were sounded among them. The preacher led the wild chorus into such an uncontrollable uproar of woe that many of the mourners wallowed telrty-tir- d JOURNAL STATE trib-bildtl- on night! The horrors of the hearers Increased as the old man went on with his narrative for It dawned upon them that they had spent the night In company with one who had been burled alive! They looked at the fresh earth scratched up over the coffin. One end of the rough box was exposed to view. Breathless, they listened for another sound, but the stillness of death had come at last Cuffees last rassle had ended! Such scenes and such burials have made these graveyards chambers of horror and tend to strengthen the superstition that has always held sway over the negro. Public schools, supported principally by the white taxpayers of the state flourish even In these remote wilds and are always well attended. Their curriculum, however, Includes no art potent enough to "break the spell of Satan. Cures Winter Cough. J. E. Cover, 101 N. Main St., Ottawa. Kan., writes: "Every fall It has been my wifes trouble to catch a severe cold, and therefore to cough all winter long. Last fall I got for her a bottle of Horehound Syrup. She used It and has been able to sleep soundly all night long. Whenever the cough troubles her two or three doses stops the cough, and she Is able to be up and well 25c., 50c., $1.00. For sale among the briers tearing their clothing to tatters, while the Immediate by George F. Cave. "fambly fought to tumble Into the grave. MUST HAVE BEEN A BAD ACTOR. The pine fires were burning low, the tide was almost down, the morning "Did you fall under the water wastar waa peeping through the trees. gon? asked Sergeant McCann, when It required all the preacher's force and a draggled young man presented himstreet magnetism to Induce his flock to per- self In the West form the burial to the soothing hymn station last night of "Possum don' you resecrate de "No, said the newcomer, "I want grabe! advice. Such funerals can only be celebrated He mopped his face and neck with a In darkness drenched pocket handkerchief. His Burying grounds are never visited neat-ccoat was dripping and so was except for an Interment The stoutest his hat negro could never be Induced to enter I am Claude Langworthy, an acthem alone after sundown. Even tor, began the young mans tale of when the sun at midday is sending woe. "I had a part In A Little of Evshafts of gold through the giant live with Peter Dailey. oaks and tinting the moss Into golden erything, earthly coll. After a matinee I was introduced In the clouds and sparkling Jewels on the at the theater to a beautiful young The most ignorant negroes girl United States huddle together upon broken glass on the graves the ne- She Is Miss Minnie Dee ring of West the swamp lands and Islands In this groes working in the adjacent fields Chester, who Is now visiting a friend part of the country. Separated from scarcely dare to turn their eyes to- at No. 851 West street. the white population, they have be- ward the abode of death. was much attracted by her and was come more and more uncivilised and The rice fields In such a neighboron her this evening. hood can be safely stacked with gold- calling barbaroua "We sat on the front steps and talkhoodoolsm en and sheaves at harvest Their superstition, time. The ed for quite a while. Then I well witchcraft, their lsrnorance of the pro- beautiful long staple cotton can gleam offended her. Why she should have No ma- been offended I dont know. I hap gress of the outside world are as like snow in the moonlight. ever touches them. marked as the darkness of the savage rauder The to hold opinions about an actor tribes that Inhabit the outlying Islands 'sperrels that haunt those ghostly pened in our company which differed from With little to precincts are more potent sentinels hera of the Philippines. amuse, occupy or Interest them, the than aught that flesh and blood can furnish. grim figure of death Is .omnipresent "First I knew that she didnt like It the central feature of existence. The During the war between the states was when she gave me a light box on effort made by civilised people to rele- i gunboat was exploded by a torpedo the side of the head and ran indoora gate such thoughts to oblivion Is ex- at the mouth of one of these rivers sat on the she would erted by them to keep the spectre The Incoming tide bore upon its bos- come back. steps, thinking om the mangled body of many a death ever before them. "Then suddenly she a pitchDeathbed scenes are the melodramas soldier. .The planter upon er of Ice water on meemptied y from a of their Uvea. Funerals, with their whose estate these Intruders appear window. weird spectacular effects, are their ed ordered their coffined remains InNow, what would you advise me to tragedies. Graveyards are the links terred upon the rice field banks where do In a case like that? I came here that bind them to the supernatural. they have since performed more sucI would have her arrested. In the early agricultural days of cessful watchman's duty than they thinking But remember that I think a great deal South Carolina, when the Jungles of over acompllshed in the flesh. of this young lady, and maybe I would Africa furnished the only labor caAmong these barbarous coast ne- do better to go back and try to make pable of enduring the malaria of rice groes' there Is, of course, great my peace. and cotton lands, the planters soon that many of them are en"I'm a married man myself, said discovered that a graveyard was a tombed alive. When one of their num McCann. It Is better to Sergeant or remedy is used hHve any woman's greater protection against the depre- her Is ill, no skill good will than 111 dations of negroes at harvest time for his recovery. ' Every effort Is made will and you'll have her ill will If you than a score of men armed to the to hasten his death. The illness Is to have her arrested. I won't artry In teeth. With this object, perhaps. thought to be a spell of Satan, and the rest her, anyway. Youll have to go view, they selected for burial grounds wildest incantations are necessary to to court and get a warrant. Better go knolls that formed the center of the break the charm. and apologise." area of and As custom Is land, to have burials at greatest the planted Mr. Langworthy seemed to be of these same knolls within their narrow night, the person may have breathed Intent when he went out peaceable remained confines have burying his last only an hour or two before he headed for the stoop where he got his grounds even until this day for the la shrouded end shoved into the grave. descendants of those slaves. One dark, stormy night a small par- ducking. New York World. No brick, nor stone, nor granite, is ty of hunters on their way to the HE HAD TIME TO 8PARE. within their limit. The soggy pine of mouth of the river sought refuge from which the coffins and headboards are the gale on Dugadoo Island. There had George Washington, made soon rota and crumbles back In- were no habitations on this desolate colored, to the leafy black mould roundabout land save the wind battered hovels of been so often punished for robbing The style of Interment adopted at a colony of negroes, all Jumbled to hen roosts without showing signs of the present day Is not so much for gether oif a point of land Jutting out reformation that the cltlsens decided to give him notice to leave. So sentiment as It Is for saving the ener- Into the marshes. The old cotton fields shivering In George was found and brought before gies of the grave diggers. An old person Is usually burled six feet in the bleakness held In their midst a clump a special committee of twelve, stand ground, and the younger members of of trees bound and clutched together Ing in front of the postofflce. His Imthe family are burled In the same hole by the powerful grapple of vines that agination conjured all sorts of dangers above. When the grave is Anally could bid defiance to any tempest that and he was trembling like a leaf. Ailed with bodies the last coffin is ly' might strive to tear them asunder. "George, said the mayor sternly, Ing on the surface of the earth with Driven before the blast, the little par "you have Just twelve hours to get out some loose clay scratched over It. ty reached this shelter after midnight of town. One glance revealed Funeral ceremonies are held at to them a George's teeth chattered Well, have you anything to say to night. The Immediate family and the topsy-turv-y negro burying ground. mourners drape themselves In white Nothing daunted, and with no other it? inquired the mayor sternly. "Nuthln. and follow the corpse In a howling choice for a night's lodging, they said boss, George, cep'ln' you gemmens kin Jes gib me procession. The coffin Is carried in n cleared a space amid the broken botdump cart drawn by a blind and tles and oyster shells, dragged up a credit for eleven hours an fifty-nimoif diftlig stumbling mule. The followers bear in few headboards and minutes!" And he was off like a streak. New their hands fat pine torches, the kindled a fire. flames of whk-- light up the black hoi The trees fought each other like de Orleans lows with a red glare. mons of the tempest, their limbs In this swamp bind the approach to creaked and grated Saved Hia Life. together. Among the burying ground Is often a cause- their branches great colls of vines J. W. Davenport Wlngo, Ky.. writes. way. the ditches on either side are the twisted and contorted with the sinuos- June 14, 1902: "I want to tell you abode of many alligators and myriads ity of serpents. I believe Ballard's Snow Liniment of frogs. As the sun sinks below the There was no sleep for the lodgera saved my life. I was under the treat' woodland the frogs burst forth Into A dull, thudding sound arose from ment of two doctors, and told me deep, booming, thunderous dirge a nearby grave. At Intervals a shriek, one of my lungs was they entirely gone, like that of a caged maniac, rent the and the other badly affected. symphony that arouses more shudderI ing terror than any composed by man. air, then died away, only to break had a lump In my side. 1 don't also think Phosphorescent balls of light .float, forth with renewed hideousness. that I could have lived over two with spectral gleam, hither and tlilth Groans nnd gnashing ofeeth seemed months longer. I was Induced by er over the marshes. Great swamp to emanate from the shadow of every friend to try Ballard's Snow Liniment owls hoot from the feathery branchlog nnd stump. The first gave me great es of cypress trees and flap their In the morning the wind ('eased Its relief; twoapplication fifty cent bottles cured wings across the path the mourners Uproar and the noises subsided. Feel- me sound and well It la a wondertread, sometimes breaking Into de- ing quite brisk In the sunlight, the ful medicine and I recommend It to moniac laughter. Little gray death hunters hailed an old negro who was 25c.. 50c, $1.00. suffering humanity. owls pipe out with unearthly screech hobbling through the fields. He shook For sale by George F. Cave. Forty-seven- th ut Forty-seven- X OCTOBER 15 1904. X Uncle Sam Wants He Buy or Melt? Silver-Wil- l (From the Rocky Mountain Newa) Congressman Hill of Connecticut, one of the financial leaders on the Republican side In the house of representatives, In a campaign talk to business men of the Wall street section of New York, delivered the other day, notified his hearers that the silver question would be once more acute In congress next, session, when provision must b made for subsidiary coinage. The stock of bullion accumulated under the Sherman law of 1890 Is now exhausted. Hence the secretary of the treasury must do one of two things: First Melt up silver dollars and recall part of the silver certificates now in circulation, which represent such dollars. Second Go into the open market and buy silver bullion for coinage pur. poses, precisely as happened this year to meet the Porto Rico and Philippine This means an enhancedemands. ment in the price of silver, because of the wider and more regular demand for that American commodity. Congressman Hill, who assumes to speak for the administration and for the further strengthening of the single gold standard, accuses John Sharp Williams of Mississippi the Democratic leader in the last house, of defeating plan No. 1, which was embraced In a measure introduced by Representative Hill with the approval of the majority in the house committee on finance, ways and meant. The official government report for October 1st shows the presumed existence in America of 558,851,020 allvet dollars. Of this element In our metallic currency clean and serviceable only 14,710,902 are now In the treasury, in a free condition. In actual circulation there are 76,000,250 silver dollars, while 468,189,876 are represented by silver certificates, and must be held in reserve until said certificates are called In, thus reducing the amount of federal money in the hands of the people. Sliver needed for subsidiary coinage foots up $1,500,000 per month In value, or some $20,000,000 per annum. In the whole of 1908 the American production of silver was valued In the market at $29,822,000, Colorado's share Utah's, $6,046,272; being $7,014,708; Idaho's, $3,518,996, and Montanas, Nevada figures in the list for $2,727,270. This accounts practle ally for the entire output It shows how Important to these states Is a favorable solution of Congressman Hill's acute topic whether plan No. 1 or plan No. 2 shall be adopted In the name of sound money, but, as an ac tual fact, No. 1 Is for the purpose of strengthening the hold of the national bank monopoly, with headquarters in New York, upon the currency of the nation. TheOoiyDoabteTrackilBwM tt The bureau of statistics another agency whose figures have official Indorsement In a circular covering the eight months ending August $1, 1004, places the net exports of silver from America at $18,070,950, compared with $7,626,197 In the like portion of 190$. The gain in favor of this year reads $10,450,560, or 1S7 per cent In the Item of value, while the quantity gain exceeds 115 per cent. This sustains a prediction made in the News when the Hill measure was discussed some months ago, to the effect that America would, by no reason of unfavorable legislation at home, steadily lose silver to Russia, Japan, Korea, Chtna,In-di- a, g Austria and other countries, where the coinage ratio ranges from 14.5 to 1 In gold down to 82 to 1. The fact that our net exports of silver have this year figured up 85 per cent of the present output of the mines, leaving but 15 per cent for the arts and coinage 'at home. Is an Item of the utmost significance to all Interested, directly or indirectly. In the production of this metaL If we add to exports of $27,000,000 estimate for the full year a home coinage demand of $20,000,000 commercial value In both cases we have a market for $47,000,-00- 0 to $50,000,000 over against production of the available supply at the rate of $20,000,000 per year, and a consequent steady advance In the price. This Is one reason why the states of Colorado, U.tah, Nevada, Idaho and Montana should be represented In the next house by solid delegations of Democratic congressmen, who may be relied upon to resist the efforts of the eastern bank ring, represented by Hill of Connecticut and his Republican colleagues, who are committed to the melting up of the silver certificates, Ignoring the Important fact that a higher price for silver In the Rocky mountain states means an increased supply of gold from the silver-gol- d and silver-lea- d mines, as well as from mines which also carry copper. 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