and was incapable of seeing the limits of the acts of men and the mercy of God. His religion was that men could only be governed by fear and cruelty; it is a wicked and terrible opinion and is sure to recoil with a tremendous force on those by whom they are diffused or executed.
The cabins were built on three sides of the plantation, thus forming a complete hollow square around it. There were about three hundred cabins all told and each of them contained two or three rooms, with an average of ten inhabitants per cabin; and for years it had been a practice to congregate at different places on the plantation in the evening and enjoy themselves, as is customary with the black race under all circumstances. There were frequently as many as eight or ten different dances in progress the same night. These dances were called "dusty shuffles," for they were usually performed on the ground in the open air. Where they were held the ground had become beaten as hard as a rock and smooth as glass. They were usually held on moonlight nights, although frequently held on dark nights by the aid of the lights from pine tree knots fixed to an iron rod driven in the ground.
There were many fiddles, banjos and tamborines on the place, all of which were made by the Negroes themselves; bone players were numerous and in great demand, and scarcely was life extinct in an ox or horse before their ribs would be hanging up to dry for the bone players.
The favorite dances were the "Old Virginia Reel" and "Old Jim Crow," and frequently the music would be furnished by many horny hands patting and singing something like this:
"When I lay down to take a little snoot,
A flea and bull frog slid in my boot;
Quick time — — Bull frog holler, flea he sting; Den I rise and cut the pijin wing.
Chorus — — Den hustle and shuffle and sift, sift, sift! Den hustle and shuffle and sift, sift, sift!
Den I lay down in de middle of de night,
'Long come a skeeter and take one bite,
He wipe him lips and begin to sing,
Den I rise and cut the pijin wing."
Dick Fallon delighted in having such sports among his slaves, for it gave the impression to the score of his contemporaries, whom he brought to see them, that he was just and kind to them.
Some of his serfs would congregate in sacred worship, and they were imperatively commanded not to forget to pray "O Lord, make us obedient servants," a command which they strictly obeyed, not only to satisfy the demand of their rulers, but to satisfy the demand of their consciences. Filial duty was born in them, and human affection had been taught them from the lips of babbling brooks and from the fragrant smell of lilies and roses. To them all nature was a prayer-book and every day an eternal sermon.
Wherever they were, whether in the fields or in their cabins or hanging to the whipping posts, they raised toward heaven innocent hands and pure hearts, filled with the love that makes the whole world kin.
They followed the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." All their study was how to please and assist all of those around them, whether master or slave, and they did solemnly kneel in prayer for those who were spitefully using them. Mutual affection was the anchor of their hopes and the pillar of their soul. These sentiments were the guiding star of their fathers and had been transmitted to them from time immemorial.
They knew no other philosophy but universal beneficence and resignation to their fate, which seems to be the will of God. But during the last year all of their evening sports and hilarity had disappeared and their religious meetings seemed to be on the wane. There was less fervency in their prayers and vacancy in their numbers. Their nights of worship became scarce and unwelcome. Like the children of Israel they began to wander away and worship strange gods.
The natural and inevitable result followed. They became morose and even suspicious of each other, and many of them were contemplating whether a providence ever existed at all. Their actions were neither strange nor inconsiderate, for there are times in this life that our adversities seem so dreadful and unmerited, that the confidence, even of the wisest, is frequently staggered. They no longer looked to nature and surrounding scenes for their guide and sympathy. Sleep was no longer their balm. Food neither revived their decaying hopes nor stimulated their vanishing pleasure.
It is not surprising that those illiterate people, who were born and raised on the plantation, and many of them never were beyond its limits, should become spiritually depressed until they were atheistical in their opinions and beliefs; and being naturally superstitious, all manner of horrible imaginations took possession of their brain. Superstition is diffused all over the world; but it is more prevalent among the atheistical and illiterate masses than in the intellectual lands of Bibles and spelling books.
Religious opinions and beliefs are an absolute necessity in order to make men strong, vigorous and intelligent, as well as courageous. If it was possible to make all men in civilized America forsake their beliefs in a deity, then every mother's babe that now sleeps in its crib would be weighted with charms to scare away witches and magpies, and every school urchin would see ghosts and hobgoblins lurking in every corner.
Before the days of Wesley, Guttenberg and Luther all Europe was overrun with witches and fairies.
These facts were verified among Fallon's slaves. Their superstitious thoughts augmented in their minds until they became veritable facts; and at last horrible sights were so numerous that none would venture out after nightfall, but would huddle together in their cabins and converse in whispers, and the whole plantation became as silent as the grave.
Many of the slaves began to believe that Dick Fallon was not an ordinary being, and verified their beliefs with many fabulous sights and tales concerning him. There was a magnificent fountain on the place and at its base there was a small-sized lake or pool, and if the plantation tradition concerning its waters were true, then it must have possessed the most miraculous qualities known since the days of the famous pool of Siloam and other Oriental places of bathing; or else Dick Fallon possessed the power of bodily transformation.
By the aid of science and experience we are forced to believe there are times when the air possesses mirrorizing qualities or power of reflecting different objects. Navigators on a large body of water have frequently seen cities that were hundreds of miles away distinctly photographed in the clouds over their heads. Perhaps it is an inexplicable phenomena, and is simply called a mirage.
Many of us have frequently noticed, when standing on a river's bank alone, that a perfect double mirage, or two shadows of ouselves were distinctly visible in the water's depths. These facts just related, may somewhat clear up the mystery concerning the pool, for it was customary with Fallon to bathe in this pool, and it was a prevalent belief on the plantation that when the fog was rising from the fountain at a certain hour in the morning that he was frequently seen floating in mid-air in the center of the fog, and his face was often seen reflecting on the surface of the water, when he was known to be miles away. The plantation was ten miles long, and Fallon was frequently seen at either end of it at the same time. Many other such stories were whispered in the cabins in the evening, and they were told with true sincerity and candor. Although the tales were all ignisfatuus and unfounded.
The dimensions of this gigantic plantation called the Purgoo Kingdom have frequently been stated in this book; and all over its vast domain Fallon's iron hand was felt. In order to make the governing process systematic and complete, Purgoo, the owner of the plantation, had four large bells manufactured. These bells were made in Paris, the planter's home, and were of the finest quality and had been used on the plantation for nearly a quarter of a century. They were so located as to be in hearing distance of each other; and at the necessary time, such as working and meal hours, etc., the overseer that lived near the first bell would signal for the ringing of it by blowing a silver whistle, and immediately the man selected for that purpose would ring bell No. 1, and it was a signal for the next one to it to ring, and in this manner only a few seconds elapsed between the first stroke of the bells on either end of the Purgoo Kingdom that they all seemed to ring together, and three thousand human beings moved around the farm as though they were only one. They all dropped their hoe or bundle of cotton at the same time and filed into line and went