Must give way for 'possum.

We were driving out one Sunday from Decatur when we came upon a negro with a club in his hand and a freshly killed opossum on his shoulder. We stopped to examine his prize, and the Colonel said: My friend, do you know it is Sunday? Sartin, boss. Are you not a religious man? Yar’, I’ze jest on my way home from church. And what sort of religion have you got that permits you to go hunting on Sunday? Religium! Religium! queried the man as he held the ‘possum with one hand and scratched his head with the other. Does you specks any black man in Alabama is gwine to tie hisself up to any religium that ‘lows a ‘possum to walk right across the road ahead of him an’ git away free! No, sah. A religium which won’t bend a little when a fat ‘possum heads you off couldn’t be ‘stablished round here by all de preachers in de unyvarse!

source: The Huntigdon Globe
location: Huntingdon, Pennsylvania