Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 93: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~ “Maw WHS @ mean ole woman, Skeeter,” Dixo sighed. “ But I don’t hold no grouch ag’in’ her now. She done gone whar de wicked cease from troublin’ me, an’ I’m gwine let her rest in peace. She never did *preciate me at my real wuth, an’ used to beat de stuffin’ outen me wid a big stick.” “Dis is puffeckly awful sad news,” Skeeter sighed, and his dancing eyes and joyous features made him an awful har. “When did dis dreadful succumstance come to pass?” “De fust news I} knowed of wus de‘ fun’rak at de ole TFabernacte,”’ Dixo said. “] didn’t know nothin’ about maw bein’ sick or nothin’. A nigger feller tole me ‘bout de last orgies.” “ Bid dey bury yo’ maw in N’Awleens?” Skeeter asked. “} reekin so. I hopped de train an’ come or: here when I heard tell. But I’m Shore de ole Tabernacle buried her; dey make a heap outen deir fun’rals, an’ don’t fet no yuther chu’ch butt in on de corp’.” Dixo wandered disconsolately out ef the Henscratch, hunting for some other listener to his tale of grief. Ten minutes later Sheriff John’ Flournoy arrested him on ad- ‘vices from the police department of New Orleans, and that night the two rode back to the city, where Dixo was assigned a room in the booby-hatch, and where he was promised three meals and a bed and careful watching for atong time. Well, that was what he wanted. . It’s a great life where you can make arrangements and-invariably get what you want. By the.next morning the information was general in Tickfall that Ginny Babe Chew was dead. Besides the testimony of Dixo, somebody saw somebody who had been told by somebody else that he heard some- body say her funeral had been preached m the old Tabernacle. So that settled all doubt. But before anything could. be done about it a colored woman on the train told Hitch Diamond that she had attended the funeral, and described with garrulous largiloquence the crowded congregation, the beautiful music, the edifying discourse, and all the rest. Then the Negro Uplift League, of Tick- esolutions ‘~™~ fall, held a memorial service. R Digitized by Go ogle THE GIFT HOUSE. 375 were drawn up, speeches were made, appro- priate music was sung, and Skeeter, as president of the league, announced that Ginny Babe had willed her house to the Uplifters! ‘* Dear ole Sister Ginny Babe Chew had her bad habits,” Skeeter ranted in his me- morial address. “ Sometimes I figgered dat she wus a good nigger gone bad, an’, fre- quently I didn’t know whether she was de right nigger in de wrong place, or de wreng nigger in de right place, or a nigger wid her head screwed on incorreck. But bless Gawd, she got it all straight at last; she wus de right nigger in de right place, an’ she done de right thing fer a righteous cause.” Pap Curtain, president of the Nights of Darkness Lodge, heard this announcement with equanimity, and listened cynically to the rejoicing of the members of the league, knowing that he had a legk} document in his possession which would turn the gladness of the Uplifters into mourning and lamen- He azmounced that the pilgrims of the Nights of Darkness would pitch their tents of sorrow on the following night, and at the time set, their ostentatious mourning was conducted with all the rites and cere monies of that secret order. They paid all honors to Ginny Babe that would have been paid to a member of the lodge, Pap Curtain announced the reason for this unusual thing: Ginny Babe had left all her property to the Sons of the Nights of Darkness, requesting that her boarding- house should be converted into a home for. the old and worn-out members of the lodge, m honor of her five dead husbands who had once belonged to the lodge. - This caused a big powwow, and Skeeter and Pap Curtain nearly came to mortal combat. The next day being Sunday, Vinegar con- verted the morning service of his church into a memorial for Sister Gimny Babe Chew, and for the second time her funesal was preached while she was still alive. On this occasion, however, she was not present to hear it. Had she been, she would’ have been dis- appointed. Vinegar did the best he. could, ~ Original fromte OMANC OO \(O) ——_) S C@