CHAPTER XXI.
AN UNSEEN HAND UPON THE LEVER.
The old master at Ingleside had been so greatly exasperated by intrusivevisitors that Clarissa, who was now acting in the dual character of manand maid, had received express orders to admit no one into the mansionwho could not give a good account of himself or herself; so when JudgeLivingstone rang the door-bell, Clarissa who was sweeping the dust fromthe hall dropped the broom with the tart observation,
"I specks dat is ernudder dratted scalyhorg cum to tantylize ole marsJon," and she crept dubiously to the door to peep, and perceiving thatthere was a white man in the verandah without a gun or other weapon ofoffensive war, she halloed loudly through the keyhole.
"Whos yu?" To which no answer was returned.
"Don't yu heer me axes yu whos yu? If yu don't answer white man I'magwine to sick ole Jube on yu, und run yu outen dis plantashun. Whos yuI sez?" repeated the old negro.
"My name is Mr. Livingtone, a friend of your young mistress, to whom Iwould be pleased to speak," came the reply.
"I kaint heer nary wurd yu sez, fur ole Jube." "Git outen de way dorgwid your whinin. You jes wait outen dar twell I axes Miss Alice mout yucum in. What you sez your name is?" again cried the old negro.
"I am Judge Liv----"
"Oh, my Lord," interrupted Clarissa with a scream, and she ran backlike a maniac wringing her hands and shouting,
"Oh, my po yung missis, de man has dun und cum to preach de funral; degallus is dun und uprared in dis grate house, und de jedge hez dun undcum to pull de trigger, und de werry fust one he axes fur is yu.Good-bye, Miss Alice," she exclaimed, as she frantically clutched herdress and dropped upon her knees. "Und ef I nebber sees yu no mo in diswurell tak care of yerself und meet me in de starry hellyments whar daraint gwine ter be no mo tribbylashun of sperets."
It was a full minute before Alice could calm her agitation, as tearsfrom an excess of conflicting sensations ran down her cheeks. Regainingself-possession she said with a show of authority, "You must not act inthis way Clarissa; what will the gentleman think of us if we do notrender a proper excuse for your misconduct?"
"Miss Alice," said Clarissa, as she placed her arms akimbo, "Ef yu hadseed dat dar man's eyes when he sed he was de jedge yu'd er run too, undyu wudn't er stopt running twell yit. My King! dem eyes was wusser danshuting stors," she exclaimed, as she wiped the great beads of sweatfrom her face with her apron.
"You go to the door now, and very politely invite the gentleman into theparlor, be very careful Clarissa that you do not offend him."
As Clarissa, now reassured, was moving stealthily toward the door, hermistress overheard her say to herself,
"I aint agwine to fend him epcepts he fends me fust, den I'm agwine terrun agin, und I aint ergwine ter stop no mo twell I gits to de mashes."
Clarissa opened the door with a very polite bow, as she addressed thestranger patronizingly.
"Misses sed how dat you mout come in, being how dat it was yu. So cumerlong rite back of me. Git outen de way Jube, er scrapin quaintance widdat stinguished white man, same as he was a low down nigger; fust tingyou knose yu be shut up in de jail house widout ary moufful of wittles,er howlin same as er wildcat."
It is proper just here to remark that Clarissa had never been acorrespondent or pupil of Lord Chesterfield. She had been emancipatedfrom the slavvish drudgery of the corn-field, promoted as it were fromthe cabin to the mansion. Her manners were direct, pungent,self-assertive, and her gibberish and volubility were immensely amusingto the high official who was now adapting himself to conditions andexperiences as they prevailed in the southland; and from time to timeinterrogating the negro as he or she appeared without thesuperficialities of reconstruction.
As Clarissa saw Judge Livingstone safely in the parlor she went back toher mistress, and with emphasis of speech and gesture told her what hadbeen said and done, and returned with the commands of her mistress tothe distinguished guest.
"You jes set rite whar yu is und mak yerself homelike, dar aint nofoolishness erbout our white folks. Me und Miss Alice has been aworryingourselves jamby to def ober de smutty cook pots, und she says how dat yumust scuse her," and she wiped her black face again with her old apron.The judge failing to comprehend the meaning of the negro in the crudevernacular of the plantation, a speech that under all circumstances withmalice prepense slew the idioms of the English language, arose toretire, regretting as he said, "That he could not see her youngmistress;" when Clarissa with great warmth expostulated.
"Hole on dar, Mars Jedge; Miss Alice is ergwine ter cum jes ez soon ezshe washes de smut offen her face und slicks back her eyebrows. Myking! duz yu speks er high quality lady lak my yung missis kin doeberyting in wun minit? She haint ergwine ter brake her neck kase ajedge cums heer a courtin her. My missis seed jedges fore ter-day; yuaint de onliest jedge she ever seed." And with this confusingdeclamation Clarissa shuffled out of the parlor with the parting remark,"Yu's stay rite whar yu is twell she cums."
When the negro had gone the judge laughed immoderately. Indeed, he waslaughing with wide-open mouth as Alice entered the parlor, and advancedto grasp her hand, confused and stammering.
"Ah, permit me," he said, "er, er, er, to felicitate myself that youhave given me the pleasure of this interview."
Alice felt a suspicion that the old negress had been amusing the learnedjudge in her droll way, but she did not know to what extent she had beencompromised by her oddities and ignorance, and to quiet herapprehensions as far as she could, she asked with seriousness:
"How long have you been in our county?"
"It is my first visit, and I have greatly enjoyed it," replied thejudge, with an effort to conceal his mirth. "The South has been anobject lesson of great educational value to me."
"Ah! and who are your teachers?" asked Alice.
"Why, who can they be but the negroes?" replied the judgeinterrogatively.
"I am quite surprised!" exclaimed the young lady.
"Not so much so as I have been, I am sure," the judge replied. "I am aNorthern man with a heart firmly set against what I believed to be thevagaries of Southern people: absorbing the sentiments and convictions ofmy home folks; but since I have been in your country I have discoveredthat the South has been outraged and scandalized beyond the point ofendurance. Do you know," he continued argumentatively, "that I havenever seen among my most intimate friends truer or nobler men, and Ihave never seen in the jails and penitentiaries of the north a criminalclass more hardened and vicious than these wretches whom you callcarpet-baggers."
"Yes, indeed," replied Alice reflectively, "they have given us a greatdeal of trouble, and we are so glad that you have punished the infamouswretch Laflin, who has incited the negroes to acts of violence andbloodshed."
"Yes," replied the judge, "I only regret that the law interposed a limitto the measure of punishment. I would have been glad to have sentencedthe villain for life to the penitentiary at hard labor.
"By the way, Miss Seymour, the governor bade me say to your father thathe would join us here to-day. Will you convey the message to him at yourleisure?"
"Thank you, sir," said the girl. "Pray excuse me for a moment. My fatherwill be delighted to receive the information; the governor is an old anddear friend."
The picture now presented to her distinguished guest, a man of cleardiscernment, as Colonel Seymour, leaning upon the arm of his lovelydaughter--whose beautiful face was aglow with health--painfully walkedinto the parlor, was picturesque and pathetic; indeed, it was thedeepening twilight and the blush of Aurora. Here were hard, rigid lines,corded and seamed by age, and here were the pencilings of the artist,whose handiwork is seen as well in the exquisite tintings of the morningiris. Here were palsied limbs, snow-white hair, accentuated by intimatecontact with marvellous beauty and litheness of figure, that impressedthe intellectual, discriminating judge.
Advancing with extended hand, he met the old man upon the threshold ofthe room with an affectionate refinement of manner
that bespoke thethoroughness of the gentleman; the Colonel observing to his guest, asthe latter conducted him to a chair, that the gout had made a cripple ofhim, but that in all other respects he was quite himself. It was all tooevident to the far-sighted judge that an unseen hand had its grasp uponthe lever and was running the home-stretch with accelerated momentum.
"Your coming," said the Colonel, "has been like the bearing of a flag oftruce; it has given us hope--life; it has ungeared the harrow thatcrushed us so remorselessly."
"I thank you, my dear sir," most gratefully answered the judge withfeeling. "I have endeavored to discharge my duty, and how could I dothis, sir, in this country without using the scourge? You have a finecountry and a magnanimous people--a people who love liberty and law--andit is a personal affliction to witness in how many ways you are insultedand oppressed."
At this juncture Clarissa knocked softly at the door to announce to hermistress "dat de guberment hez dun und riv," and Alice, excusingherself, retired, concealing her laughter as much as possible, which wasprovoked by the ludicrous deficiencies of the corn-field negro. It was ametaphor which the negro had ignorantly employed. The Governor was notthe government, or any part thereof. Had he been, Ingleside would havebeen safeguarded by a sentinel utterly impervious to any sensation offear, not so ignorant or cowardly as Clarissa.
The arrival of the Governor was formally announced by Alice and he wasushered into the parlor, and Alice withdrew to give some directions toClarissa, whom she found sitting in her rickety chair in the kitchenhumming
"My ole Kentucky home, fur away."
"Clarissa," the young lady asked as she approached her, "what do yousuppose the judge thought of us this morning and of our maid of allwork?"
Clarissa looked up into the face of her young mistress with a starealmost of vacuity, and after a moment's reflection said, with heraccustomed pertness,
"I kaint hep dat, Miss Alice, ole marser dun und gin me my orders, und Iwant agwine ter let nobody pass nur repass ef I knoed it. Ole marser henoes his bizness, und ef he tells me ter keep de kyarpet-sackers outendis grate house I'm ergwine ter do it ef de good Lawd spares me. Don'tfault me, Miss Alice, wid ole marser's doins, fur de lan's sake. How cumdat dar jedge outen here any how? Dar aint no kote ergwine on in disheer grate house dat I noes of. Specks dar is ergwine ter be wun do, unddon't specks nuffin else but sumbodv is ergwine ter git conwicted undsont clean erway frum heer," and the old negro laughed boisterously."Dat dar jedge is er portly man, but my king! dem dar eyes, ugh-h-h!cuts froo yu same ez er razor."
Alice laughed again and again at the old negro, and after awhilecoyishly remarked, "Never mind, Clarissa, never mind."
Clarissa turned her old head to one side as she replied with greatearnestness.
"Taint wurf while to say neber mind Clarsy, neber mind, I seed fo nowwhat was agwine to be de upshot of dis bisniss. I knowed pine plankwhich er way de cat wuz er gwine to jump. Ole missus allus sed dat yuwas ergwine to marry er jedge er a lyar er a mefodis slidin elder er asircus rider und I hopes und prays dat yu may, kase ef yu don't youseergwine ter be er lone lorn orfin creetur arter ole marser's hed dun undlayed low."
The conversation of the distinguished gentleman naturally drifted intochannels that had been cut very deep by the sharp edged tools ofreconstruction; the judge deferentially yielding to his seniors who hadwitnessed the workmanship of unskilled hands, and what he ventured tosay from time to time was in the way of suggestions or mildexpostulations.
The Governor when discussing reconstruction was opinionated andemphatic. Every paragraph was punctuated with a sneer, gesture or frown.
"Had the suggestions of president Lincoln prevailed," he began, "theSouth would have been God's country; but wicked counsels predominated.There was not a statute enacted by a legislature, nor an order made by ageneral, nor a proclamation issued by a governor, nor a requisition madeby the head of a department that did not whet the sword with which theywere prodding into the bowels of the South, after the finalcapitulation. These atrocious policies were conceptions of men who sworein their wrath that not a blade of grass should spring where theirhellish coursers planted hoof; that in the realigning of the federalunion, strong black lines should be drawn with a savage vengeance overthe face of the South. Reconstruction was the act of self-destruction,and the suicides deserve to be buried without the shedding of a tear,without christian sepulture in outlawed graves. They made the thorn tospring up where the fir-tree had flourished, and the bramble instead ofthe myrtle tree. In these abominable acts there is death; death enoughto satisfy the grave. Before the ink was dry upon the parchment, beforethe funereal bake-meats were cold, they contract an unnatural covenantof marriage with four million slaves, disbanded outlaws from the army,and put upon them the mask of freedom to conceal the horrid front oftyranny. Sirs, we rebel against the outrage. When the Philistines areupon us shall we not rise and shake ourselves, or shall we lay our headsin the lap of Delilah, to be shorn of our power; to be bound in chains,until we shall pray God to avenge our wrongs in the common destructionof ourselves and our enemies. No sirs, they shall find that when we areprostrated, that like Antaeus we shall rise with renewed vigor from ourshame. Why this glozing title "Reconstruction?" Who shall declare itsgeneration? What holy font was polluted by its baptism? Whence itsbastard origin? Plots, the vile brood of malice have been hatched underfanatical incubation and piloted southward, like flocks of harpies, thatby their uncleanness they might defile our civilization. Every blight ofcalumny from ultra partisan--press and pulpit, has been blown uponsouthern character. Their speeches are filled with fields scourged downto barrenness, and negroes multiplied and worked up to the very tragedyof indiscriminate assassinations. We will not propitiate the blackdevils by heaping their altars with sacrifices; black fiends who, likethe great dragon in the Apocalypse, are sweeping after them into theabysm, filled with slaughter, one third of the stars in our politicalheaven. Which of these stars are to be fixed, or which are to beplanetary in this black firmament of eternal night; which primary, andwhich central, which wandering stars and which satellites, are mattersfor their savage taste. For my state may God in his infinite mercydecree that the laws of position and movement may be ascertained andestablished, before it, once so beautiful and bright, shall go down anddown forever below a horizon of blood. They may like wrestlers in thearena bring us to our knees, but never sir, shall they lay us on ourbacks. Let us alone, and the dews and the rains and the sunshine ofheaven, (the only creatures of God left by them in friendship with us)shall give to our blood-stained fields moisture and fertility, and timeand labor and God's blessing shall cover the land with verdure, withcottonfields and gardens, pastures and meadows. They promised us peace,and it came with the mutterings of a tornado. In our vain efforts tocompromise the situation we turned our backs upon the past, hallowed aswere its memories. We had ceased to remember the execrations offanatics, even the 'league with the devil, and the covenant with hell.'
"We did all this and more, after we had passed fire-scathed through anordeal whose voice was storm and whose movement was earthquake, whichswept from us every visible substance; so that in our last and extremestagony we were forced to cry aloud, like Francis at Pavia, "All is lostsave honor." We gave the government our parole; we hammered our swordsinto plow-shares and pruning-hooks; we pitched our tents upon thefire-blasted lands where once had been our homes, and with axe andmattock and blade and plow began to cut away brambles and bushes andcultivate our fields; and when we believed that we were secure in theenjoyment of our rights of persons and property, the authors ofreconstruction swept down upon the beleaguered South like Hyder Ali uponthe Carnatic, and left scarcely a vestige upon which to hope, or fromwhich to rebuild, except our worn-out lands and our own splendidmanhood and womanhood. States were despoiled of their resources, townsand cities were battered and burned; the angel of death had crossedevery threshhold, and three hundred thousand of the flower and chivalryof the land were lying in soldiers' graves. Our pub
lic institutions werelanguishing unto death; from centre to circumference there wereoutlawries, assassinations, conflagrations; and our people looked intothe faces of each other and in their helplessness asked what othercalamities are reserved for us and our children. They seized upon fourmillion slaves and hurled them like immense projectiles against ourcivilization. And to conclude, sir, for I find I am getting excited, inthis catastrophe our hopes were stayed upon the honest men of the North,like you, sir, and our noble, patriotic women, like you, my dear miss,"bowing with boyish gallantry to Alice. "The women of the sixties aremore than heroines in the storm-swept crisis--they are a revelation inthe flesh. What Arria was to Paetus, what Natalia was to Adrian, whatGertrude was to Rudolph, what Helen, the Jennie Dean of the 'Heart ofMidlothian,' was to Tibbie, what Prascovia was to the Russian exile, ourself-sacrificing women are to us. There has never been an occasion whenthe habit of instantaneous obedience to the voice of love and countryhas produced more affecting and constant instances of devotion andloyalty upon the part of the women, than in the gleaning of theaftermath by hands saturated with all the crimes of the calendar.
"And now, gentlemen," (the Governor bowed), "if I have given offence byany intemperate expression, will you please forgive me, for my wrathwaxes warm when concentrated upon the subject of reconstruction.Perhaps, sir," he continued, addressing His Honor, "you are not insympathy with the views I may have inconsiderately expressed?"
"Why, my dear sir," the judge replied, "I have never been in sympathywith a policy which you have so eloquently denounced, and which thepatriotic people of the North sincerely deprecate, and I quite agreewith you that reconstruction has unlocked a Pandora box of evils whosefledgelings are hovering over this land."
The sun was now setting with an iridescent aureole of gold and carmineand purple as the judge remarked apologetically, "I have been strugglingwith myself between inclination and duty; indeed I find itembarrassingly difficult to tear myself from so charming a circle. Ihave only a few minutes to catch the train, and you don't know how muchI grieve to say good-bye. I shall be in your town again within the nextmonth, and may I indulge the hope that I shall be once more welcomed atIngleside?"
"We shall only be too glad to be similarly honored," replied ColonelSeymour with deference.
Clarissa, who was standing near the door with her arms folded andgrinning like a blackamoor, gave the judge the parting bow, as he placedinto her hand a dollar note, and putting her apron to her face, so shemight whisper the better, with a negroish curtsy, said,
"Yu mus sho cum ergin mars jedge, our fokses laks yu mazing, und I'mergwine ter tell yu de nex time what Miss Alice dun und sed erbout yu; Iknose dats ergwine ter fotch yu back."
The Governor remained at Ingleside throughout the night and like agladiator in the arena was fighting, with the broad sword of invective,a duel in dialectics with the parliamentarians of reconstruction; theColonel the meanwhile reinforcing the athlete as a reserve. Alice at alate hour retired with her head filled with fantastic notions, andClarissa too stretched her aching bones upon her bed wondering in herpragmatic way, "Ef dat shiny eyed judge was agwine ter hold his sho nuffkote in de grate house, und ef she was agwine ter be de juror und MissAlice de konwick."
Old Joshua like an over-ripe sheaf of barley was now to lay his head inthe dust. The swift horses were harnessed and cantering toward his door.
"Son of man behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with astroke, yet neither shalt thou mourn, neither shalt thy tears run down."Four score and two years were the days of the years of his pilgrimage;many and evil had the days of his years been. Would there be mourners atthe burial? Will 'old glory' hang its head again as it did at theassizes, when an outraged commonwealth was proceeding to judgmentagainst Laflin for enumerated transgressions? Three score and ten yearsare the complement of life, within which the balance sheet is prepared;repenting against sinning; undoing against doing; dying against living;accounts and contra-accounts, all fairly computed, and the quotientannounced by Him who breathes into man's nostrils the breath of life.Four score and two years! What changes in the theories and forms ofgovernments; what contrarieties in the pursuits and ambitions of man.The messenger came without the rattling of wheels, without knocking atthe door, came on unsandaled feet.
"Hannah, I'm agwine home, good-bye," was the hurried parting, as themessenger thrust him into his chariot. Side by side he sat with thevoiceless ambassador, while the stars were twinkling in the midnightsky; a fast disappearing type of the picturesque civilization of thesixties. His tracks around the old commissariat are now faded intonothingness, and old glory will wave on and on "froo de trees," just asproudly as that day when he stood at its staff and patriotically salutedthe stars and stripes with uncovered head, proclaiming his loyalty inthe grateful expression, "I node when I seed yu a sea-sawing in de airdat dar was a stummick full of good wittles some whays."
In the true representative outlines of the old South there is a numberdropped from the rolls, that is all. In its new birth of constitutionalliberty, postponed until patriots shall have tired of a governmentinefficient and venal, the memory of Joshua, laden with fragrance, willcling to hearts that now deplore his death. Good bye, Uncle Joshua untilwe meet upon the golden strand! Until we see you again without yourstaff, with your face radiant with a celestial gleam, in a fleecy robe,with golden sandals; until we hear you say so contentedly, "Brederin,dere is kommissaries all erroun in dis butiful country, und yu kin buywidout munny und widout price."
The Broken Sword; Or, A Pictorial Page in Reconstruction Page 23
