The Days of a Man 1:1876 



were still very bitter. "We have been puked on 

 blue," coarsely explained our host, to justify a cer- 

 tain coolness of welcome. They hanged a negro 

 during our stay, and people from the whole county 

 turned out to see the execution, although steady- 

 headed citizens freely admitted that a white man 

 would not have received the extreme penalty for 

 White the offense in question. Several of the wagons were 

 f"^ crowded full, often with white men and women 

 sitting on the laps of the blacks — for to this there 

 was no objection "so long as the nigger knew his 

 place." Indeed, one might be as friendly with a 

 negro as with an intelligent dog, where no pre- 

 sumption of equality was involved. But to eat at 

 the same table — never! 



The day of the hanging we left town for a trip up 

 the river, and on the way noticed many men coming 

 in armed with rifles. It later appeared that some 

 one had started a senseless rumor that a negro up- 

 rising would take place. The nerves of the people 

 were consequently on edge, and the accidental dis- 

 charge of a musket by a guard produced a panic in 

 which several persons were trampled, two or three of 

 them to death. 



From Rome we traveled eastward to the Chat- 

 tahoochee, a fine large river; yet its muddy banks 

 thick with canes and sometimes with grapevines and 

 briers made the use of the net impossible except in 

 the upper reaches about Gainesville. Through 

 Ocmuigee Atlanta we crossed to the Ocmulgee Basin, where 

 ''•'*" at Flat Shoals we found the South River very 

 convenient for our purposes. But it took some 

 effort to make the proprietor of the large factory 

 there understand that we were really messengers of 



t 1563 



