The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-06-12


But tho his wool all white had become.
Ana his fsse wrinhled up like washwomans
Ana his back was bent. he wss thought by some
remarkably hale old niger. a't
But he suffered. he said with steady attack 81
OF misery in de he ad snd pain In de back.
sTNlh' old massa give him his time to his-self,"
And the to,l-worn old bondsman was laid on the
ehelf.
Though all philanthropists clearly can see
The degrading effects OF slavery.
can't help thinking that this old creature
Was great advance upon African nature,
knd s.rstShsor CT elm and thinner OF
Than his grandsre who came in the Yankee ship.
Albeit bent with the weary toll
Untaught and thriftless and feeble Of mind,
Hts life was gentle-his he art was kind.
He lived in q house, he loved his wife,
NE was higher far In his hopes and his life,
And apobler man. with his hoe In bis hand
Than an African prince in his native land.
70 an African prince IN the land q his birth
80 bloated OF body, go rneagIe OF limb.
SO cruel in war and go torpid In peace,
60 strongly addicted to entralls and grease;
So partial 20 eating by morning light.
The wife who has shared his repose over night;
In the blackest Of black euperstitions down-trod
In HIS horrible rites and his beastly god.
With ther bloody and loathsome and hdeous
But tnss has nothing to do With the Fish-story.
Happy old Kdward, his labor was done
Win nothing to do but to cit In the sun,
And tree to follow his darling work
Ho had earne his play-time vi h labor long,
So. like the other OLD Ned of the song.
he laid doe n the shovel and the hoe,
And caught up the fiddle and the bow.
Row cannot say
That HE style OF play
Would sut the salons OF the present day,
For the tovrs dc force Of the great Psganani
Has never found favor in Old virgnny.
He never PLAYED tune that went GLOW,
For he perfectly soorned an adagio;
Bns With ewes half closed @ a., and tme;bestns toe
Not gong up high. or going down low.
But saving steadily Jus, in the middle,
He pluyed py the rule
OF ,he strictest school
OF the old.fashioned plantation ntgger fiddle
And now II that nddle is heard no more.
Nor the corn. .huching laugh nor the dance of yore
Nhen the 1ythn1ical beat
OF hilarious feet t.t ''tts 't+.
struck the happy 'hoe down" on the cabin door;
But DESERVING those cabins in disoontent,
And thinking it tree to oe indolent
They leave+ he fields of the rice and the maize,
And huddle m oiues to die of disease.
Il the christian hymn forgotten should be-
And tdols be raised by the Great Peedee,
Or II, misled BY villanous mon,
To enact the mad scenes OF Jamnica again.
1hoy fall as they must. in the deadly assault,
We can only say that it wasn't our fault;
For the South did certainly. try her best
To rescue them from the philanthropist,
In strife tnat shall redden the pages OF history
But that has nothing to do with the F1sh-story.
To return-old Ned went fishing one day,
And out on the blue
In his dug out canoe,
He carried his fiddle along to play.
Long he ashed with his incest art
There came not nibble to gladden. his heart;
30 he tied his line to HE ankle tight.
To be ready to haul II Q Ash shoud bite,
And seized his fiddle. 10 sweet dio he play
That tho waves leaped up in . laugh ofspray,
Ar And d,napled and sparlled. g II to move
But slower and % slower ] ns drew S the bow. ovI'''
Soft came the music sweet and low,
The lids fell weartly over the eyes,
The boW.arm stopped aud the melodies:
The last stz.in aoated along the deep,
And Ned. the old fisherman. sank to sleep
Just then huge drum, senk thith by Fate,
Caught passing glance Of the tempting bait;
He ruahed upon It with greedy maw,
And ran the hook In his upper Jaw. .-,
One terrible jerk OF wrath and dread w..
From the wounded nah, 90 away he sped. '.
with strength by rage made double.
Ana into the water went old Med. u
Mo time for any last words to be said
For the waves settled placidly over his head.
And his last xemhrk was Q bubble
1,as ua vel, the ,t,uasde beneath the brine
of th6 d6sting nah and the tanslin8 line;
The battle. Of COURSE was short one, since
0ia Ned. not gifted with gi)s or nns.
And under the waves, was as much out OF place
IA me ri, ia would be IN q trotting race.
And moaonless soon at the bottom he lay,
AS mute as tho Addlo that doated away.
Thsy were washed ashore by the heavins tide,
And the nshermen found them side by eide.
N & q. IT, ana sog rner ana round
80 ooped and TANGLED together,
That their fate was involved In dark mystery
Az to which the catcher and which the catchee;
For tho Ash was hooked hard and fast by the gill,
And the darkey was lassoed around the heel,
And each had died by the other,
And the 6sherraen thought 1t could never be
After an their thinking and Agaring,
Whether the nj yger h.hing had gone.
Or the hsh had gone out . lingering.