Then
when we met the Bryan procession we were to shout and wave our lanterns,
and if necessary to whack the white men over the head with the lantern
with the hornets' nest, and the hornets would wake up and do the rest.
The negro wanted to know how I could prevent the hornets from stinging
our own men, and I told him that we had been in the hornet business all
the season and never had one of our own men stung. I said we took some
assafoetida and rubbed it on our clothes and faces, and the hornets
wouldn't touch us, but just went for the other fellows to beat the band.
Say, negroes are easy marks. You can make them believe anything. But if
I ever get to be president I am going to appoint my negro assistant to a
position in my cabinet, 'cause he is the greatest political organizer I
ever saw. He rounded up over 200 cotton pickers and negro men who work
in the freight depots once in a while and started them out after
hornets' nests. He gave them some change to get a drink, and promised
them free passes into the show next night, and the next morning they
showed up with hornets' nests enough to scare you. They put them in a
dark place in the barn, so the hornets wouldn't get curious and want to
come out of the nests before they got their cue.
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