In the days of the wagon shows--particularly before and just after the
war--the advance agent of the show usually had many experiences to
relate. Sometimes, when the show was traveling in the South, this
genius would come upon some old negro who, with ax over his shoulder,
was on his way to the woods to cut timber. When the agent came up he
would call out to the negro:
"Uncle, where you going?"
"Ise gwine to chop fiah wood, boss," would be the reply.
Then the agent would say: "Did you hear about the fire last night? We
had a big fire last night, and all our animals got away from us and
took to the woods. They're running wild down there now, elephants,
tigers, lions--they all got away."
Having finished relating this alarming bit of news the agent would
reach under the seat of his buggy, take up the halter and say: "Here,
Uncle, take this halter and if you see any of those animals catch them
and take them to the tent--we will pay you a good reward for each and
every animal." By this time the whites of the negro's eyes were the
most prominent parts of his countenance.
"No, sah," he always managed to say as he backed off; "Ise not gwine t'
dem woods dis day."
"All right," the agent would respond, and, taking the reins, would
start on his way. One of our agents had reached this point in the
program when he heard the negro calling to him. He immediately reined
in his horse and looked back.
"Say, boss," called the old uncle, "what animal have de mos' preference
fo' a colored man--a lion or a tiger?"
Whenever our advance wagons came upon a field in which the negroes were
picking cotton the negroes would immediately be observed to edge toward
the fence so that they could see the show go by. Then our men would
advance on horseback and cry out lustily:
"Look out boys, de elephants am comin'; climb yore trees--dem elephants
get you shore!" The cotton-pickers seldom needed a second warning, but,
as one man, they would turn and make for the other end of the field as
if they were possessed of demons. They were a very superstitious and
impressionable race. The managers of our show had great difficulty in
preventing the candy boys from filling the negroes up with ghost
stories, hoodoo stories and the like, a course that tended to scare
them away and reduce our receipts. One day a young fellow, an attache
of our show, went up to a group of plantation negroes and commenced to
go through a series of outlandish contortions and crazy antics. Finally
one of the negroes asked:
"What you all doin'?"
"Now keep still," he replied, "I'm hoodooin' that girl there." Finally
the girl herself thought she was hoodooed and fell to the ground
kicking and screaming. The rest of the negroes did not care to linger
in so dangerous a quarter.