THE ECLIPSE
29
ECLIPSE
E VERYBODY IS FULL OF THE ECLIPSE.
The sun will be covered about 3
o'clock. Scientists will make new studies of the corona, sunspots, check
up on the big Jew and his theory.
During eclipse day here in the Carolina part of the Black Belt along
the streets of all the towns, Negro boys and men in white jackets trying
to flag us for chicken dinner at hotels, restaurants, roadhouses. Hundreds
of ads with pictures of old Negro waiters with cottonheads, young Negroes
with lips like raw steaks. "See the eclipse on a full belly."
At 3 o'clock bells begin chiming in the little churches along the way.
It darkens. Chickens go to roost. Sure enough, up in heaven God 's iervant
aproning himself. Looks like a dinner plate broken, then a lid under
which a great fire is straininj! out upon the world.
From roofs, trees, galleries, street corners and gutters, the whole
blooming South seems to have turned scientist. Old films, :.pectacles,
smoked glasses, colored bottles, everything is used to help the nose turn up
to study the sun. Some act as if they'd never seen that hot coal before.
Half in shade, three-quarters, and now it's all slipping, slipping with
debutantes in smart clothes like show poultry under it being photographed
watching. Earth's shadow gets in sun's way. No, it's the moon's. Hold
up an apple and orange. This is the sun. This- but. Shrieks and squeals.
And now the whole world is sunk under a huge Negro thumb.
Slowly the shadow is skinned off the sun. Again the old iight in the
world. Everybody returns to his old self. Chicken and waffle dinner, the
banker bellies his polished desk, the boss naps in the office, the planter
trims his nails, the debutantes go back to pecking their little days away.
Along the blistered roads the
~hacks
of the Negro still rot in the sun.
