The sun sank behind the bluffs at Weymouth Hall as we turned down the path into Natchez City Cemetery Friday night.

Following the direction of hundreds of luminaries toward the main office I was overcome by the unmistakable feeling of being in a familiar place that somehow did not feel familiar at all.

Just a short distance from my house, in a place I have driven through more times than I can count, I began to see the cemetery in a whole new way.

Two dozen people in my tour group and hundreds of others stepped back to the 18th and 19th centuries and spent two hours walking and listening to the stories of the old cemetery as it came to life for “Angels on the Bluff.”

It was jacket weather, as it has been all weekend. It was not too cold, no humidity&160;- the perfect night for a stroll.

We turned right at the office, passing the headstone of Louise the Unfortunate whose story is simply too long to recite in this space.

We passed a broken column. Not broken in the sense that it has been damaged, but sculpted in that manner on purpose, signaling its owner was the victim of suicide – a common symbol in an earlier time, we were told by our guide.

We passed the grave of Col. Andrew Marschalk, the “Father of Mississippi Journalism” and editor of Natchez’s first newspaper.

We turned left, down the hill, headed north as the evening grew darker, the night sky as vivid as I have seen it in a long time. Up ahead, I saw the silhouette of trees on both sides of the path. They seemed to intertwine at the top creating a natural arch and something akin to a tunnel. From the tunnel stepped George F. West, his booming voice urging all in our group to step closer.

“I want to tell you about the Rhythm Night Club fire” West said. “Go back with me, if you will to April 23, 1940.”

“Walter Barnes and his orchestra from Chicago were coming to town. Walter Barnes coming to Natchez!” West said with emphasis. “Now in 1940 you had your Duke Ellington’s and your Woody Herman’s, but Barnes well, Barnes was cream of the crop.”

West described how hundreds packed into the large wooden rectangular building that was the Rhythm Club, all doors boarded but one. “One way in, one way out.” And he went on to tell us how the interior was decorated with Spanish moss which was hung from the ceiling and the walls.

“They covered this stuff in a petroleum-based insecticide to kill all the little critters. Then, as the club filled and the orchestra played someone dropped a cigar or a cigarette and poof! The whole place went up.”

More than 200 people were killed in the worst fire disaster in Natchez history. Many are buried at the cemetery. From behind West members of the Alcorn State University Choir harmonized a tune in memory of those lost to the fire, their voices carrying across the cemetery.

When people ask me about Natchez I tell one of a couple of stories. One is the long version, made for casual conversation. The other, the short version, is edited to fit with running into someone I haven’t seen in a long time. Both include reference to hospitality, antebellum homes, the river and Under-the-Hill. Both versions end with me saying something along the lines of Natchez playing host to “more cool annual events than you can shake a stick at.”

Don Estes and the Friends of the Natchez City Cemetery have added yet another “cool annual event” to the list with “Angels on the Bluff.” Can’t wait until next year.

Todd Carpenter

is publisher of The Democrat. He can be reached by calling 445-3618 or by e-mail at

todd.carpenter@natchezdemocrat.com

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