whose linen
was doubtful, and spotted with tobacco juice. The major talked about
the weather, which was cool for the season; about the Civil War, about
politics, and about the Negroes, who were very trifling, the major
said. While they were talking upon this latter theme, there was some
commotion in the street, in front of the hotel, and looking up they
saw that a horse, attached to a loaded wagon, had fallen in the
roadway, and having become entangled in the harness, was kicking
furiously. Five or six Negroes were trying to quiet the animal, and
release him from the shafts, while a dozen white men looked on and
made suggestions.

"An illustration," said the major, pointing through the window toward
the scene without, "of what we've got to contend with. Six niggers
can't get one horse up without twice as many white men to tell them
how. That's why the South is behind the No'th. The niggers, in one way
or another, take up most of our time and energy. You folks up there
have half your work done before we get our'n started."

The horse, pulled this way and that, in obedience to the conflicting
advice of the bystanders, only became more and more intricately
entangled. He had caught one foot in a manner that threatened, with
each frantic jerk, to result in a broken leg, when the colonel,
leaving his visitor without ceremony, ran out into the street, leaned
down, and with a few well-directed movements, released the threatened
limb.

"Now, boys," he said, laying hold of the prostrate animal, "give a
hand here."

The Negroes, and, after some slight hesitation, one or two white men,
came to the colonel's aid, and in a moment, the horse, trembling and
blowing, was raised to its feet. The driver thanked the colonel and
the others who had befriended him, and proceeded with his load.

When the flurry of excitement was over, the colonel went back to the
hotel and resumed the conversation with his friend. If the new
franchise amendment went through, said the major, the Negro would be
eliminated from politics, and the people of the South, relieved of the
fear of "nigger domination," could give their attention to better
things, and their section would move forward along the path of
progress by leaps and bounds. Of himself the major said little except
that he had been an alternate delegate to the last Democratic National
Nominating Convention, and that he expected to run for coroner at the
next county election.

"If I can secure