Craze Among Negroes.

Hastings Standard, Issue 468, 4 November 1897, Page 4

Craze Among Negroes.

+ EXTRAORDINARY SCENES

The negroes in the State of South Carolina, seized by a strange religious frenzy, are deserting the farms and flocking in great numbers to Mountville, terrorising the citizens. Many are going mad, tearing the clothes from their bodies and yelling frantically till exhausted. A fanatical uprising against the whites is seriously feared. The excitement among the negroes in South Carolina arose through the ringing of a bell at a new chapel at Mountville, which was continued with short intervals for several days, and is still going on. The persistent ringing seized on the negroes with irresistible strength. They became vastly impressed, and when the word was sent' out that the tolling was on account of the death of the devil the excitement among them rose to fever heat. The exhorters again and again declared to their hearers that the devil had been tried by the Almighty and a jury of twelve angels for his misdeeds, and that the defendant, as a punishment, had been consigned to the negroes of Mountville, to bo interred for all eternity. This declaration was reiterated at every meetingmorning, noon, and night—to the accompaniment of the joyous shouting of the hearers of " Glory, Glory, Hallelujah,/ " Bress de Lord, the Devil's Dead," and other delirious exclamations. The throng in front of the church is so great that it extends over five acres of ground, and'is still increasing. Men and women shout, yell, and shriek in an ecstasy of religious excitement, or hug one another, and spin round till they fall exhausted to the ground, when they are removed to a platform Bft high and 20ft square, where they lie in rows until they have recovered consciousness or are sufficiently rested to resume their religious exercises. The platform is always full.