The managers appointed pa to stand off the committee. Pa said he had
noticed, in walking about the city, a beautiful park in the center of
the town, and he told the committee that his idea was to have the
deserving people gather at the park the next morning, which was Sunday,
and wait there until the managers of the show could count the money, and
prepare to distribute it, honestly and impartially, with the advice of
the local committee. That seemed all right, and the committee notified
the citizens to meet in the park at nine o'clock the next morning, and
receive the money the citizens had so kindly contributed to such a noble
cause, and they went away.
Our show has got out of a good many tight places, but we never got out
of a town so quietly and unostentatiously as we got out of Memphis
during that early Sunday morning. There was not noise enough made
getting our stuff to the train to wake up a policeman, and before
daylight the different sections of the train had crossed the big bridge
into Arkansas, and were on the way to the Indian Territory. Pa and the
other managers were on the platform of the last car of the last section,
as it pulled out across the river, at daylight, and even that early it
seemed as though the whole colored population of Memphis was on the way
to the park, to secure good positions, so they could receive their share
of the money.
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