kets, flannels, quilts,
women's hoods, hats, ribbons, pins, needles, scissors, dumb bells, skates,
crape skirt braids, tooth brushes, face powder, hooks and eyes, skirts,
bustles, chignons, garters, artificial busts, chemises, parasols, watches,
jewellery, diamond earrings, ivory-handled knives and forks, pistols and
guns, and a Webster's Dictionary.

"Got lots mo' in dem boxes nailed up dar--yessah, hit's no use er lettin'
good tings go by yer when you kin des put out yer han' en stop 'em! Some
er de members ordered horses en carriages, but I tuk er par er fine mules
wid harness en two buggies an er wagin. Dey 'roun at de libry stable,
sah."

The doctor thanked Aleck for his friendly feeling, but told him it was, of
course, impossible for him at this time, being only a taxpayer and neither
a voter nor a member of the Legislature, to share in his supply of
"sundries."

He went to the warehouse that night with his friend to hear Lynch,
wondering if his mind were capable of receiving another shock.

This meeting had been called to indorse the candidacy, for Justice of the
Supreme Court, of Napoleon Whipper, the Leader of the House, the notorious
negro thief and gambler, and of William Pitt Moses, an ex-convict, his
confederate in crime. They had been unanimously chosen for the positions
by a secret caucus of the ninety-four negro members of the House. This
addition to the Court, with the negro already a member, would give a
majority to the black man on the last Tribunal of Appeal.

The few white men of the party who had any sense of decency were in open
revolt at this atrocity. But their influence was on the wane. The
carpet-bagger shaped the first Convention and got the first plums of
office. Now the negro was in the saddle, and he meant to stay. There were
not enough white men in the Legislature to force a roll-call on a division
of the House. This meeting was an open defiance of all pale-faces inside
or outside party lines.

Every inch of space in the big cotton warehouse was jammed--a black living
cloud, pungent and piercing.

The distinguished Lieutenant-Governor, Silas Lynch, had not yet arrived,
but the negro Justice of the Supreme Court, Pinchback, was in his seat as
the presiding officer.

Dr. Cameron watched the movements of the black judge, already notorious
for the sale of his opinions, with a sense of sickening horror. This man
was but yesterday a slave, his father a medicine man in an African jungle