We took her down here to Jonesville and--domn me--she's a foine big cow now." EXPEDIENTS OF ADVANCE AGENTS In the days of the wagon shows--particularly before and just after the war--the advance agent of the show usually had many experiences to relate. Sometimes, when the show was traveling in the South, this genius would come upon some old negro who, with ax over his shoulder, was on his way to the woods to cut timber. When the agent came up he would call out to the negro: "Uncle, where you going?" "Ise gwine to chop fiah wood, boss," would be the reply. Then the agent would say: "Did you hear about the fire last night? We had a big fire last night, and all our animals got away from us and took to the woods. They're running wild down there now, elephants, tigers, lions--they all got away." Having finished relating this alarming bit of news the agent would reach under the seat of his buggy, take up the halter and say: "Here, Uncle, take this halter and if you see any of those animals catch them and take them to the tent--we will pay you a good reward for each and every animal." By this time the whites of the negro's eyes were the most prominent parts of his countenance. "No, sah," he always managed to say as he backed off; "Ise not gwine t' dem woods dis day." "All right," the agent would respond, and, taking the reins, would start on his way. One of our agents had reached this point in the program when he heard the negro calling to him. He immediately reined in his horse and looked back. "Say, boss," called the old uncle, "what animal have de mos' preference fo' a colored man--a lion or a tiger?" Whenever our advance wagons came upon a field in which the negroes were picking cotton the negroes would immediately be observed to edge toward the fence so that they could see the show go by. Then our men would advance on horseback and cry out lustily: "Look out boys, de elephants am comin'; climb yore trees--dem elephants get you shore!" The cotton-pickers seldom needed a second warning, but, as one man, they would turn and make for the other end of the field as if they were possessed of demons. They were a very superstitious and impressionable race. The managers of our show had great difficulty in preventing the candy boys from filling the negroes up with ghost stories, hoodoo stories and the like, a course that tended to scare them away and reduce our receipts. One day a young fellow, an attache of our show, went up to a group of plantation negroes and commenced to go through a series of outlandish contortions and crazy antics. Finally one of the negroes asked: "What you all doin'?" "Now keep still," he replied, "I'm hoodooin' that girl there." Finally the girl herself thought she was hoodooed and fell to the ground kicking and screaming. The rest of the negroes did not care to linger in so dangerous a quarter. PLANTATION SHOWS