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THE SLEEPER WAKES -- HARLEM RENAISSANCE STORIES BY WOMEN |
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The Bone of Contention I Eatonville, Florida is a colored town and has its colored interests. It has not now, nor ever has had anything to rank with Brazzle's yellow mule. His Yaller Highness was always mentioned before the weather, the misery of the back or leg, or the hard times. The mule was old, rawbony and mean. He was so rawbony that he creaked as he ambled about the village street with his meanness shining out through every chink and cranny in his rattling anatomy. He worked little, ate heartily, fought every inch of the way before the plow and even disputed with Brazzle when he approached to feed him. Sale, exchange or barter was out of the question, for everybody in the county knew him. But one day he died. Everybody was glad, including Brazzle. His death was one of those pleasant surprises that people hope for, but never expect to happen. The city had no refuse plant so H.Y.H went the way of all other domestic beasts who died among us. Brazzle borrowed Watson's two grey plugs and dragged the remains out to the edge of the cypress swamp, three miles beyond the city limits and abandoned them to the natural scavengers. The town attended the dragging out to a man. The fallen gladiator was borne from the arena on his sharp back, his feet stiffly raised as if in a parting gesture of defiance. We left him on the edge of the cypress swamp and returned to the village satisfied that the only piece of unadulterated meanness that the Lord had ever made was gone from among us forever. Three years passed and his bones were clean and white. They were scattered along the swamp edge. The children still found them sufficiently interesting to tramp out to gaze upon them on Sunday afternoons. The elders neglected his bones, but the mule remained with them in song and story as a simile, as a metaphor, to point a moral or adorn a tale. But as the mean old trouble-making cuss, they considered him gone for good. II It was early night in the village. Joe Clarke's store porch was full of chewing men. Some chewed tobacco, some chewed cane, some chewed straws, for the villager is a ruminant in his leisure. They sat thus every evening ostensibly waiting for the mail from Number 38, the southbound express. It was seldom that any of them got any but it gave them a good excuse to gather. They all talked a great deal, and every man jack of them talked about himself. Heroes all, they were, of one thing or another. Ike Pearson had killed a six-foot rattler in a mighty battle that grew mightier every time Ike told about it; Walter Thomas had chinned the bar twenty times without stopping; Elijah Moseley had licked a "cracker"; Brazzle had captured a live catamount; Hiram Lester had killed a bear; Sykes Jones had won the soda-cracker eating contest; AND JOE CLARKE HAD STARTED THE TOWN! Reverend Simms, the Methodist preacher, a resident of less than a year, had done nothing to boast of, but it was generally known that he aspired to the seat of Joe Clarke. He wanted to be mayor. He had observed to some of his members that it wasn't no sense in one man staying in office all the time. "Looka heah," Clarke cut across whoever it was that was talking at the time, "When Ah started dis town, Ah walked right up to de white folks an' laid down TWO HUND'ED DOLLAHS WID DIS RIGHT HAND YOU SEE BEFO' YOU AN' GOT MAH PAPERS AN' PUT DIS TOWN ON DE MAP! It takes uh powerful lot uh sense an' grit tuh start uh town, yessirree!" "Whut map did you put it on, Joe?" Lindsay disrespectfully asked. "Ah ain't seed it on no map." Seeing Clarke gored to his liver, Rev. Simms let out a gloating snicker and tossed a cane knot to Tippy, the Lewis' dejected dog frame hovering about the group hoping for something more tempting to a dog's palate than cane chews and peanut shells might drop. He tossed the knot and waited for Clarke to answer. His Honor ignored the thrust as being too low for him to stoop to and talked on. Was he not mayor, postmaster, storekeeper and Pooh Bah general? Insults must come to him from at least the county seat. "Nother thing," Clarke continued, giving Simms a meaning look, "There's a heap goin' on 'round heah under the cover dat Ahm gointer put a stop to. Jim Weston done proaged through mah hen house enough. Last Sat'day Ah missed three uh mah bes' layin' hens, an' Ah been tol' he buried feathers in his backyard the very next day. Cose Ah caint prove nothin', but de minute he crooks his little finger, he goes 'way from mah town. He ain't de onliest one Ah got mah eye on neither." Simms accepted the challenge thrown at him. "Fact is, the town ain't run lak it might be. We oughta stop dat foolishness of runnin' folks outa town. We oughta jail 'em. They's got jails in all de other towns, an' we oughta bring ours up to date." "Ah'll be henfired' Simms, you tries to know mo' 'bout runnin' de town than me! Don't you reckon a man thats got sense enough to start uh town, knows how tuh run it. Don't you reckon if de place had uh needed uh jailhouse Ah would have got one built 'long befo' you come heah?" "We do so need a jail," Lindsay contended. "Jus' 'cause you stahted the town, dat don't make yo' mouf no prayer book nor neither yo' lips no Bible. They don't flap lak none tuh me." Lindsay was a little shriveled up man with grey hair and bow-legs. He was the smallest man in the village, who nevertheless did the most talk of fighting. That was because the others felt he was too small for them to hit. He was harmless, but known to be the nastiest threatener in the county. Clarke merely snorted contemptuously at his sally and remarked dryly that the road was right there for all those who were not satisfied with the way he was running the town. "Meaning to insult me?" Lindsay asked belligerently. "Ah don't keer HOW yuh take it. Jus' take yo' rawbony cow an' gwan tuh de woods, fuh all I keer," Clarke answered. Lindsay leaped from the porch and struck his fighting pose. "Jus' hit de ground an' Ah'll strow yuh all over Orange County! Aw, come on! Come on! Youse a big seegar, but Ah kin smoke yuh!" Clarke looked at the little man, old, and less than half his size and laughed. Walter Thomas and 'Lige Moseley rushed to Lindsay and pretended to restrain him. "That's right," Lindsay panted, "you better hold me offen him. 'Cause if I lay de weight uh dis right hand on him, he won't forget it long as he live." "Aw, shet up, Lin'say, an' set down. If you could fight as good as you kin threaten, you'd be world's champeen 'stead uh Jack Dempsey. Some uh dese days when youse hollerin' tuh be let loose, somebody's gointer take you at yo' word, then it will be jus' too bad about yuh," Lester admonished. "Who? --" The war was about to begin all over on another front when Dave Carter, the local Nimrod, walked, almost ran up the steps of the porch. He was bareheaded, excited and even in the poor light that seeped to the porch from the oil lamps within, it was seen that he was bruised and otherwise unusually mussed up. "Mist' Clarke, Ah wants tuh see yuh," he said. "Come on inside." "Sholy, Dave, sholy." The mayor responded and followed the young man into the store and the corner reserved for City Administration. The crowd from the porch followed to a man. Dave wiped a bruise spot on his head. "Mist' Clarke, Ah wants uh warrant took out fuh Jim Weston. Ahm gointer law him outa dis town. He caint lam me over mah head wid no mule bone and steal mah turkey and go braggin' about it!" Under the encouraging quiz of the mayor, Dave told his story. He was a hunter and fisherman, as everybody knew. He had discovered a drove of wild turkeys roosting in the trees along the edge of the cypress swamp near the spot where Brazzle's old mule had been left. He had watched them for weeks, had seen the huge gobbler that headed the flock and resolved to get him. "Yes," agreed Clarke, "you said something to me about it yesterday when you bought some shells." "Yes, and thats how Jim knowed Ah was goin' turkey huntin'. He was settin' on de store porch and heard me talkin' to you. Today when Ah started out, jes 'bout sundown -- dats de bes' time tuh get turkeys, when they goes tuh roost -- he ups and says he's goin' long. Ah didn't keer 'bout dat, but when them birds goes tuh roost, he ain't even loaded, so Ah had shot dat gobbler befo' he took aim. When he see dat great big gobbler fallin' he fires off his gun and tries tuh grab him. But Ah helt on. We got tuh pushin' and shovin' and tusslin' 'till we got to fightin'. Jim's a bully, but Ah wuz beatin' his socks offa him till he reached down and picked up de hock-bone of Brazzle's ol' mule and lammed me ovah mah head wid it and knocked me out. When Ah come to, he had done took mah turkey and gone. Ah wants uh warrant, Mist' Clarke. Ahm gointer law him outa dis town." "An' you sho gointer get it, Dave. He oughter be run out. Comes from bad stock. Every last one of his brothers been run out as fast as they grow up. Daddy hung for murder." Clarke busied himself with the papers. The crowd looking on and commenting. "See whut you Meth'dis' niggahs will do?" asked Brazzle, a true Baptist. "Goin' round lammin' folks ovah the head an' stealin' they turkeys." "Cose everybody knows dem Westons is a set uh bullies, but you Baptists ain't such a much," Elijah Moseley retorted. "Yas, but Ah know yuh know," put in Lindsay. "No Baptis' ain't never done nothin' bad as dat. Joe Clarke is right. Jail is too good fuh 'em. The last one uh these heah half-washed christians oughta be run 'way from heah." "When it comes tuh dat, there's jus' as many no count Baptists as anybody else. Jus' ain't caught 'em," Thomas said, joining the fray. "Yas," Lindsay retorted, "but we done kotched yo' Meth'dis' niggah. Kotched him knockin' people ovah de head wid mule bones an' stealin' they turkeys, an' wese gointer run him slap outa town sure as gun's iron. The dirty onion!" "We don't know whether you will or not, Joe Lindsay. You Baptists ain't runnin' this town exactly." "Trial set for three o'clock tomorrow at de Baptis' church, that being the largest meetin' place in town," Clarke announced with a satisfied smile and persuaded the men to go back to the porch to argue. Clarke, himself, was a Methodist, but in this case, his interests lay with the other side. If he could get Jim to taste the air of another town, chicken mortality of the sudden and unexplained variety, would drop considerably, he was certain. He was equally certain that the ambitious Simms would champion Jim's cause and losing the fight, lose prestige. Besides, Jim was a troublesome character. A constant disturber of the village peace. III It was evident to the simplest person in the village long before three o'clock that this was to be a religious and political fight. The assault and the gobbler were unimportant. Dave was a Baptist, Jim a Methodist, only two churches in the town and the respective congregations had lined up solidly. At three the house was full. The defendant had been led in and seated in the amen corner to the left of the pulpit. Rev. Simms had taken his place beside the prisoner in the role of defense counsel. The plaintiff, with Elder Long, shepherd of the Baptist flock in the capacity of prosecution, was seated at the right. The respective congregations were lined up behind their leaders. Mutual glances of despisement and gloating were exchanged across the aisle. Not a few verbal sorties were made during this waiting period as if they were getting up steam for the real struggle. Wize Anderson (Meth.) "Look at ole Dave tryin' to make out Jim hurt his head! Yuh couldn't hurt a Baptist head wid a hammer -- they're that hard." Brother Poke (Bapt.) "Well, anyhow we don't lie an' steal an' git run outa town lak de softhead Meth'dis niggahs." Some Baptist wag looked over at Jim and crowed like a rooster, the others took it up immediately and the place was full of hen-crackling and barnyard sounds. The implication was obvious. Jim stood up and said, "If I had dat mule bone heah, Ahd teach a few mo' uh you mud-turtles something." Enter His Honor at this moment. Lum Boger pompously conducted him to his place, the pulpit, which was doing duty as the bench for the occasion. The assembly unconsciously moderated its tone. But from the outside could still be heard the voices of the children engaged in fisticuffy trials of the case. The mayor began rapping for order at once. "Cote is set. Cote is set! Looka heah, DIS COTE IS DONE SET! Ah wants you folks tuh dry up." The courtroom grew perfectly still. The mayor prepared to read the charge to the prisoner, when Brother Stringer (Meth.) entered, hot and perspiring with coat over his arm. He found a seat near the middle of the house against the wall. To reach it, he must climb over the knees of a bench length of people. Before seating himself, he hung his coat upon an empty lamp bracket above his head. Sister Lewis of the Baptist persuasion, arose at once, her hands akimbo, her eyes flashing. "Brothah Stringah, you take yo' lousy coat down off dese sacred walls! Ain't you Methdis got no gumption in the house uh washup?" Stringer did not answer her, but he cast over a glance that said as plain as day, "Just try and make me do it!" Della Lewis snorted, but Stringer took his seat complacently. He took his seat, but rose up again as if he had sat on a hot needle point. The reason for this was that Brother Hambo on the Baptist side, a nasty scrapper, rose and rolled his eyes to the fighting angle, looking at Stringer. Stringer caught the look, and hurriedly pawed that coat down off that wall. Sister Taylor (M) took up the gauntlet dropped like a hot potato by Stringer. "Some folks" she said with a meaning look, "is a whole lot mo' puhtic'lar 'bout a louse in they church than they is in they house." A very personal look at Sister Lewis. "Well" said that lady, "mah house mought not be exactly clean. But nobody caint say dat" -- indicating an infinitesimal amount on the end of her finger -- "about my chaRACter! They didn't hafta git de sheriff to make Ike marry ME!" Mrs. Taylor leaped to her feet and struggled to cross the aisle to her traducer but was restrained by three or four men. "Yas, they did git de sheriff tuh make Sam marry me!" She shouted as she panted and struggled, "And Gawd knows you sho oughter git him again and make some of these men marry yo' Ada." Mrs. Lewis now had to be restrained. She gave voice and hard, bone-breaking words flew back and forth across the aisle. Each was aided and abetted by her side of the house. His Honor was all the time beating the pulpit with his gavel and shouting for order. At last he threatened to descend in person upon the belligerents. "Heah! You moufy wimmen' Shet up. Ain't Ah done said cote was set? Lum Boger, do yo' duty. Make them wimmen dry up or put 'em outa heah." Marshall Boger who wore his star for the occasion was full of the importance of his office for nineteen is a prideful age; he hurried over to Mrs. Taylor. She rose to meet him. "You better gwan 'way from me, Lum Boger. Ah jes' wish you would lay de weight of yo' han' on me! Ahd kick yo' cloes up round yo' neck lak a horse collar. You impident limb you." Lum retreated before the awful prospect of wearing his suit about his neck like a horse-collar. He crossed the aisle to the fiery Della and frowned upon her. She was already standing and ready to commence hostilities. One look was enough. He said nothing, but her threats followed him down the aisle as he retreated to the vestibule to shoo the noisy children away. The women subsided and the Mayor began. "We come heah on very important business," he said. "Stan' up dere, Jim Weston. You is charged wid 'ssaultin' Dave Carter here wid a mule bone, and robbin' him uh his wild turkey. Is you guilty or not guilty?" Jim arose, looked insolently around the room and answered the charge: "Yas, Ah hit him and took de turkey cause it wuz mine. Ah hit him and Ahll hit him agin, but it wasn't no crime this time." His Honor's jaw dropped. There was surprise on the faces of all the Baptist section, surprise and perplexity. Gloating and laughter from the Methodists. Simms pulled Jim's coattail. "Set down Jim," he cooed, "youse one of mah lambs. Set down. Yo' shepherd will show them that walks in de darkness wid sinners and republicans de light." Jim sat down and the pastor got to his feet. "Looka heah, Jim, this ain't for no foolishness. Do you realize dat if youse found guilty, youse gonna be run outa town?" "Yeah" Jim answered without rising. "But Ah ain't gonna be found no guilty. You caint find me." There was a pleasurable stir on his side of the house. The Baptists were still in the coma which Jim's first statement had brought on. "Ah say too, he ain't guilty," began Rev. Simms with great unction in his tones. "Ah done been to de cot-house at Orlando an' set under de voice of dem lawyers an' heard 'em law from mornin' tell night. They says you got tuh have a weepon befo' you kin commit uh 'ssault. Ah done read dis heah Bible frum lid tuh lid (he made a gesture to indicate the thoroughness of his search) and it ain't in no Bible dat no mule bone is a weepon, an' it ain't in no white folks law neither. Therefo' Brother Mayor, Ah ast you tuh let Jim go. You gotta turn 'im loose, cause nobody kin run 'im outa town when he ain't done no crime." A deep purple gloom settled down upon the Mayor and his followers. Over against this the wild joy of the Methodists. Simms already felt the reins of power in his hands. Over the protest of the Mayor he raised a song and he and his followers sang it with great gusto.
"Oh Mary don't you weep, don't you mourn The troubled expression on the face of the Baptist leader, Elder Long, suddenly lifted. He arose while yet the triumphant defense was singing its hallelujah. Mayor Clarke quieted the tumult with difficulty. Simms saw him rise but far from being worried, he sank back upon the seat, his eyes half closed, his hands folded fatly across his fat stomach. He smirked. Let them rave! He had built his arguments on solid rock, and the gates of Baptist logic could not prevail against it! When at last Long got the attention of the assembly, he commanded Dave to stand. "Ah jus want you all tuh take a look at his head. Anybody kin see dat big knot dat Jim put on dere." Jim, the Rev. Simms and all his communicants laughed loudly at this, but Long went on calmly. "Ah been tuh de cote-house tuh Orlando an' heard de white folks law as much as any body heah. And dey don't ast whether de thing dat a person gits hurt wid is uh weepon or not. All dey wants tuh fin' out is, 'did it hurt?' Now you all kin see dat mule bone did hurt Dave's head. So it must be a weepon 'cause it hurt 'im." Rev. Simms had his eyes wide open now. He jumped to his feet. "Never mind 'bout dem white folks laws at O'landa, Brother Long. Dis is a colored town. Nohow we oughter run by de laws uh de Bible. Dem white folks laws don't go befo' whuts in dis sacred book." "Jes' hold yo' hot potater, Brother Simms, Ahm comin' tuh dat part right now. Jes lemme take yo' Bible a minute." "Naw indeed. You oughter brought one of yo' own if you got one. Futhermo' Brother Mayor, we got work tuh do. Wese workin' people. Don't keep us in heah too long. Dis case is through wid." "Oh, naw it ain't" the Mayor disagreed, "you done talked yo' side, now you got tuh let Brother Long talk his. So fur as de work is concerned, it kin wait. One thing at a time. Come on up heah in yo' pulpit an' read yo' own Bible, Brother Long. Don't mind me being up heah." Long ascended the pulpit and began to turn the leaves of the large Bible. The entire assembly slid forward to the edges of the seat. "Ah done proved by de white folks law dat Jim oughter be run outa town an' now Ahm gointer show by de Bible-" Simms was on his feet again. "But Brother Mayor --" "Set down Simms" was all the answer he got. "Youse entirely outa order." "It says heah in Judges 15:16 dat Samson slewed a thousand Philistines wid de jaw-bone of a ass," Long drawled. "Yas, but this wasn't no ass, this was a mule," Simms objected. "And now dat bring us to de main claw uh dis subjick. It sho want no ass, but everybody knows dat a donkey is de father of every mule what ever wuz born. Even little chillen knows dat. Everybody knows dat little as a donkey is, dat if he is dangerous, his great big mule son is mo' so. Everybody knows dat de further back on a mule you goes, de mo' dangerous he gits. Now if de jawbone is as dangerous as it says heah, in de Bible, by de time you gits clear back tuh his hocks he's rank pizen." "AMEN!! Specially Brazzle's ol' mule," put in Hambo. "An' dat makes it double 'ssault an' batt'ry," Long continued. "Therefo' Brother Mayor, Ah ast dat Jim be run outa town fuh 'ssaultin Dave wid a deadly weepon an' stealin' his turkey while de boy wuz unconscious." It was now the turn of the Baptists to go wild. The faint protests of Simms were drowned in the general uproar. "I'll be henfired if he ain't right!" The Mayor exclaimed when he could make himself heard. "This case is just as plain as day." Simms tried once more. "But Brother Mayor --" "Aw be quiet, Simms. You done talked yo'self all outa joint already." His Honor cut him short. "Jim Weston, you git right outa mah town befo sundown an' don't lemme ketch you back heah under two yeahs, neither. You folks dats so rearin' tuh fight, gwan outside an' fight all you wants tuh. But don't use no guns, no razors nor no mule-bones. Cote's dismissed." A general murmur of approval swept over the house. Clarke went on, unofficially, as it were. "By ziggity, dat ol' mule been dead three yeas an' still kickin'! An' he done kicked more'n one person outa whack today." And he gave Simms one of his most personal looks. CA. 1930-1935, UNPUBLISHED
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