The state was ablaze2 with wrath3 from the mountains to the sea. The orators4 of the white race spoke5 with tongues of flame.
The record of negro misrule under an African Legislature was told with brutal6 detail and maddening effects. The state treasury8 was empty, the school funds had been squandered9, millions in bonds had been voted and stolen and the thieves had fled the state in terror.
All this the Governor knew from the first, but he also knew that an ignorant negro majority would ask no questions and believe no evil of their allies.
The adventurers from the North had done their work of alienating10 the races with a thoroughness that was nothing short of a miracle. The one man on earth who had always been his best friend, every negro now held his bitterest foe11. He would consult his old master about[Pg 86] any subject under the sun and take his advice against the world except in politics. He would come to the back door, beg him for a suit of clothes, take it with joyous13 thanks, put it on and march straight to the polls and vote against the hand that gave it.
He asked no questions as to his own ticket. It was all right if it was against the white man of the South. The few Scalawags who trained with negroes to get office didn't count.
The negro had always despised such trash. The Governor knew his solid black constituency would vote like sheep, exactly as they were told by their new teachers.
But the nightmare that disturbed him now, waking or dreaming, was the fear that this full negro vote could not be polled. The daring speeches by the enraged15 leaders of the white race were inflaming16 the minds of the people beyond the bounds of all reason. These leaders had sworn to carry the election and dared the Governor to show one of his scurvy17 guards near a polling place on the day they should cast their ballots19.
The Ku Klux Klan openly defied all authority. Their men paraded the county roads nightly and ended their parades by lining20 their horsemen in cavalry21 formation, galloping22 through the towns and striking terror to every denizen23 of the crowded negro quarters.
In vain the Governor issued frantic24 appeals for the preservation25 of the sanctity of the ballot18. His speeches in which he made this appeal were openly hissed26.
The ballot was no longer a sacred thing. The time was in American history when it was the badge of citizen kingship. At this moment the best men in the state were disfranchised and hundreds of thousands of negroes, with the instincts of the savage27 and the intelligence[Pg 87] of the child, had been given the ballot. Never in the history of civilization had the ballot fallen so low in any republic. The very atmosphere of a polling place was a stench in the nostrils28 of decent men.
The determination of the leaders of the Klan to clear the polls by force if need be was openly proclaimed before the day of election. The philosophy by which they justified29 this stand was simple, and unanswerable, for it was founded in the eternal verities30. Men are not made free by writing a constitution on a piece of paper. Freedom is inside. A ballot is only a symbol. That symbol stands for physical force directed by the highest intelligence. The ballot, therefore, is force—physical force. Back of every ballot is a bayonet and the red blood of the man who holds it. Therefore, a minority submits to the verdict of a majority at the polls. If there is not an intelligent, powerful fighting unit back of the scrap31 of paper that falls into a box, there's nothing there and that man's ballot has no more meaning than if it had been deposited by a trained pig or a dog.
On the day of this fated election the little Scalawag Governor sat in the Capitol, the picture of nervous despair. Since sunrise his office had been flooded with messages from every quarter of the state begging too late for troops. Everywhere his henchmen were in a panic. From every quarter the stories were the same.
Hundreds of determined32, silent white men had crowded the polls, taken their own time to vote and refused to give an inch of room to the long line of panic-stricken negroes who looked on helplessly. At five o'clock in the afternoon less than a hundred blacks[Pg 88] had voted in the entire township in which the Capital was located.
Norton was a candidate for the Legislature on the white ticket, and the Governor had bent33 every effort to bring about his defeat. The candidate against him was a young negro who had been a slave of his father, and now called himself Andy Norton. Andy had been a house-servant, was exactly the major's age and they had been playmates before the war. He was endowed with a stentorian34 voice and a passion for oratory35. He had acquired a reputation for smartness, was good-natured, loud-mouthed, could tell a story, play the banjo and amuse a crowd. He had been Norton's body-servant the first year of the war.
The Governor relied on Andy to swing a resistless tide of negro votes for the ticket and sweep the county. Under ordinary conditions, he would have done it. But before the hurricane of fury that swept the white race on the day of the election, the voice of Andy was as one crying in the wilderness36.
He had made three speeches to his crowd of helpless black voters who hadn't been able to vote. The Governor sent him an urgent message to mass his men and force their way to the ballot box.
The polling place was under a great oak that grew in the Square beside the Court House. A space had been roped off to guard the approach to the boxes. Since sunrise this space had been packed solid with a living wall of white men. Occasionally a well-known old negro of good character was allowed to pass through and vote and then the lines closed up in solid ranks.
One by one a new white man was allowed to take his place in this wall and gradually he was moved up to[Pg 89] the tables on which the boxes rested, voted, and slowly, like the movement of a glacier37, the line crowded on in its endless circle.
The outer part of this wall of defense38 which the white race had erected39 around the polling place was held throughout the day by the same men—twenty or thirty big, stolid40, dogged countrymen, who said nothing, but every now and then winked41 at each other.
When Andy received the Governor's message he decided42 to distinguish himself. It was late in the day, but not too late perhaps to win by a successful assault. He picked out twenty of his strongest buck43 negroes, moved them quietly to a good position near the polls, formed them into a flying wedge, and, leading the assault in person with a loud good-natured laugh, he hurled44 them against the outer line of whites.
To Andy's surprise the double line opened and yielded to his onset45. He had forced a dozen negroes into the ranks when to his surprise the white walls suddenly closed on the blacks and held them as in a steel trap.
And then, quick as a flash, something happened. It was a month before the negroes found out exactly what it was. They didn't see it, they couldn't hear it, but they knew it happened. They felt it.
And the silent swiftness with which it happened was appalling46. Every negro who had penetrated47 the white wall suddenly leaped into the air with a yell of terror. The white line opened quickly and to a man the negro wedge broke and ran for life, each black hand clasped in agony on the same spot.
Andy's voice rang full and clear above his men's:
"Goddermighty, what's dat!"[Pg 90]
"Dey shot us, man!" screamed a negro.
The thing was simple, almost childlike in its silliness, but it was tremendously effective. The white guard in the outer line had each been armed with a little piece of shining steel three inches long, fixed48 in a handle—a plain shoemaker's pegging49 awl50. At a given signal they had wheeled and thrust these awls into the thick flesh of every negro's thigh51.
The attack was so sudden, so unexpected, and the pain so sharp, so terrible, for the moment every negro's soul was possessed52 with a single idea, how to save his particular skin and do it quickest. All esprit de corps53 was gone. It was each for himself and the devil take the hindmost! Some of them never stopped running until they cleared Buffalo54 creek55, three miles out of town.
Andy's ambitions were given a violent turn in a new direction. Before the polls closed at sundown he appeared at the office of the Eagle and Phoenix56 with a broad grin on his face and asked to see the major.
He entered the editor's room bowing and scraping, his white teeth gleaming.
Norton laughed and quietly said:
"Well, Andy?"
"Yassah, major, I des drap roun' ter kinder facilitate ye, sah, on de 'lection, sah."
"It does look like the tide is turning, Andy."
"Yassah, hit sho' is turnin', but hit's gotter be a purty quick tide dat kin14 turn afore I does, sah."
"Yes?"
"Yassah! And I drap in, major, ter 'splain ter you dat I'se gwine ter gently draw outen politics, yassah. I makes up my min' ter hitch57 up wid de white folks agin. Brought up by de Nortons, sah, I'se always bin[Pg 91] a gemman, an' I can't afford to smut my hands wid de crowd dat I been 'sociating wid. I'se glad you winnin' dis 'lection, sah, an' I'se glad you gwine ter de Legislature—anyhow de office gwine ter stay in de Norton fambly—an' I'se satisfied, sah. I know you gwine ter treat us far an' squar——"
"If I'm elected I'll try to represent all the people, Andy," the major said gravely.
"If you'se 'lected?" Andy laughed. "Lawd, man, you'se dar right now! I kin des see you settin' in one dem big chairs! I knowed it quick as I feel dat thing pop fro my backbone58 des now! Yassah, I done resigned, an' I thought, major, maybe you get a job 'bout12 de office or 'bout de house fer er young likely nigger 'bout my size?"
The editor smiled:
"Nothing just now, Andy, but possibly I can find a place for you in a few days."
"Thankee, sah. I'll hold off den7 till you wants me. I'll des pick up er few odd jobs till you say de word—you won't fergit me?"
"No. I'll remember."
"An', major, ef you kin des advance me 'bout er dollar on my wages now, I kin cheer myself up ter-night wid er good dinner. Dese here loafers done bust60 me. I hain't got er nickel lef!"
The major laughed heartily61 and "advanced" his rival for Legislative62 honors a dollar.
Andy bowed to the floor:
"Any time you'se ready, major, des lemme know, sah. You'll fin59' me a handy man 'bout de house, sah."
"All right, Andy, I may need you soon."
"Yassah, de sooner de better, sah," he paused in the[Pg 92] door. "Dey gotter get up soon in de mornin', sah, ter get erhead er us Nortons—yassah, dat dey is——"
A message, the first news of the election, cut Andy's gabble short. It spelled Victory! One after another they came from every direction—north, south, east and west—each bringing the same magic word—victory! victory! A state redeemed63 from negroid corruption64! A great state once more in the hands of the children of the men who created it!
It had only been necessary to use force to hold the polls from hordes65 of ignorant negroes in the densest66 of the black counties. The white majorities would be unprecedented67. The enthusiasm had reached the pitch of mania68 in these counties. They would all break records.
A few daring men in the black centres of population, where negro rule was at its worst, had guarded the polls under his direction armed with the simple device of a shoemaker's awl, and in every case where it had been used the resulting terror had cleared the place of every negro. In not a single case where this novel weapon had been suddenly and mysteriously thrust into a black skin was there an attempt to return to the polls. A long-suffering people, driven at last to desperation, had met force with force and wrested69 a commonwealth70 from the clutches of the vandals who were looting and disgracing it.
Now he would call the little Scalawag to the bar of justice.
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1
bail
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| v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人 | |
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2
ablaze
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| adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的 | |
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3
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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4
orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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5
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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6
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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7
den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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8
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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squandered
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| v.（指钱，财产等）浪费，乱花( squander的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
alienating
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| v.使疏远( alienate的现在分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等） | |
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11
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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bout
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| n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛 | |
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13
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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14
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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15
enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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16
inflaming
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| v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的现在分词 ) | |
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17
scurvy
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| adj.下流的，卑鄙的，无礼的；n.坏血病 | |
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18
ballot
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| n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票 | |
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19
ballots
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| n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 ) | |
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20
lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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21
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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22
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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23
denizen
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| n.居民，外籍居民 | |
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24
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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25
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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26
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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27
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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28
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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29
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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30
verities
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| n.真实( verity的名词复数 )；事实；真理；真实的陈述 | |
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31
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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32
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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33
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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34
stentorian
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| adj.大声的，响亮的 | |
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35
oratory
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| n.演讲术；词藻华丽的言辞 | |
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36
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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37
glacier
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| n.冰川，冰河 | |
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38
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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39
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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40
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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41
winked
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| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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42
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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43
buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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44
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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45
onset
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| n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始 | |
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46
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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47
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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48
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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49
pegging
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| n.外汇钉住，固定证券价格v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的现在分词 )；使固定在某水平 | |
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50
awl
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| n.尖钻 | |
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51
thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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52
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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53
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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54
buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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55
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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56
phoenix
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| n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生 | |
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57
hitch
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| v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉 | |
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58
backbone
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| n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气 | |
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59
fin
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| n.鳍；(飞机的)安定翼 | |
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60
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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61
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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62
legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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63
redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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64
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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65
hordes
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| n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落 | |
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66
densest
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| 密集的( dense的最高级 )； 密度大的； 愚笨的； （信息量大得）难理解的 | |
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67
unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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68
mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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69
wrested
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| （用力）拧( wrest的过去式和过去分词 )； 费力取得； （从…）攫取； （ 从… ） 强行取去… | |
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70
commonwealth
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| n.共和国，联邦，共同体 | |
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