The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-29
NEGRO PATOIs AND ITS HUMOR.

Worcester defines pdt0iS to be q rustic dia-
leet. IL has Outgrown that meaning. French,
as spoken by the educated class in Montreal;
Spanish in the best circles of Chill; italian in
GenOa German as you recede from Hanover;
and even English in the speech of the Chinese
millionaires Of Victoria and San Francisco
as compared with the dialects of Paris and
Madrid, Berlin Rome, and 0xford-are
patois. but surely they are at the farthest pos
sible remove from the rustic Patois will have
q more generic meaning when philologists tell
us what is in the organs of speech, or in
the brain behind and above those organs,
that makes English, or any other living
language, always the same in variation and
tone in the articulate sounds of any particular
race-brogue in the Irishman, accent in the
educated German, ''pigeon Yankee in the
Ohinaman, or gibberish-notsto put too fine q
point upon the word-in the native African;
why every Hebrew has voice inclining to
the nasal, and every Spaniard to the guttural2
why there is burr on the Scotchman's
tongue, and q frog in the throat of the Lon
don alderman? There is a world of know
ledge in that direction, which science has to
explore ard reveal in the future
In English, as used by the negro, there is
something decidedly indigenous. His patois
IS rustic. 1t is also something else. 1t pos
sesses delicacy. There is no language more
lucid. Emotions flow in n crystal stream
through its simple forms. Meaning is never
obscure. Force is never wanting Shades
Of thought are defined. Emphasis rests in its
place. 1t is, besides, abundantly humorous
Perhaps this is its characteristic All over
the world--in the slave-pens of Dahomey
and the wife-market of Algiers, among the
women -thinned plantations of Cuba and
Me smuggled wretches on the coast of
Brazil = the humorous, in every variety
crops out in the negro's speech. There is
either no patois so capable of expressing the
ludicrous, or no people using a patois so
alive to the ridiculous. Nothing was more
manifest during the rebellion. The keenest
wit, the sharpest retorts, severest satire, and
most amusing repartees came from the negro.
What, even of Sydney Smiths, is more playful
jnturn of language than this John, asked
an over-zealous chaplain of ''contraband,"
who had just begun to enjoy the freedom of
camp life-'John, have you found the Lord ?"
'What's dat you ask, massa ?"
'Have you found the Lord, John ?" re-
peated the chaplain.
"Bless you, massa, replied John, "is de
Lord lost ?"
Take also the reply of the grey-haired
negro at Centreville, who, after his cabin
and the cabins of his neighbors had all been
appropriated to army use by Worms the
quartermaster, was asked by a Methodist
classical if it was not time, at his age, to
De preparing 1Or announcer WOrlu
''Yes massa, was the response, 'tink it
is time, for Cap'n Worms gwying to hab all
dere is Sn DIS aoOrEd !'
General Michler tells of conversation he
overheard on going outside his tent during the
march to the Sea-" 1t was between the
body-servant and cook. Both had come in
late from sermon. The text was from the
loaves- -and-fshes miracle. Cant make out,
said the latter, 'how dat miracle was"
Ill H..
'Dont you see? Seven thousand loaves and
Eve thousand fishes divided 'mong twelve
'postles! Miracle was, deg didn't burst"
On the coast of Africa, there is noticeable
the same tendency towards the humorous in
the very interchange of words the negro in
variably makes. No American sea-captain
ever hired Sierra-Leone foreman" to 60 to
the forest and cut him other than merchant
able wood. The foreman, however, explains
to his laborers that it must be ''fat' wood,
not all STAT, as would be the case were huge
trunks of trees required, but ''half fat, "
meaning the larger limbs and younger
growth, well trimmed of branches. Selecting
the wood, he says, ''Dis one hab more fai
dan t'other."
If the wind blows fresh, it is called ''toc
much saucy;" if the milk has not arrived for
breakfast, it is ''asleep" and if a man go,
even for a day, to distance from home, ''he
lib dere."
As an illustration of this last, take my
friend Mr.. johnson, who brought John, hi
faithful Sierra-Leone body servant, hom,
with him to London. / called at the house
his card indicated, and was told by John tina,
Mr. johnson did not live there. Supposine
had mistaken the residence, inquired:
'Can you tell me where he is iving?"
''He lib at Manchester" was the reply.
''Oh, indeed at Manchester Can yo,
favor with his addracs thara on
''Me don't know"
''Very disconcerting, very. Pray have yol
any idea whether he is likely to be in Londol
again?"
'Oh, yes Dis evening"
''This EVENING" And where do you thinl
! am likely to find him ?"
''Oh, you will find him here!"
''Here? Why, I understood you that h
had left here, and was living at Manchester.
''Yes. Dat is true. But he does not 81
doom at Manchester. He sits down hert
When he is at home, he tees here, and, whe
he is not at home, he does not Hoe here"
But the Sierra Leone native carries his lite
rality still further. A friend once asked negr
from the Cape if his father were living, (
which he received an affirmative reply.
''Is he very old II
$50, so; him ole past me'" Which m
friend could easily believe, father bein
usually older than his son.
"And what does he do ?"
Him no do noting"
''Oh, he does nothing; does he live wit
youp"
mo; him lib in da churchyard."
Probably sexton, whose Office is no sin
cure in Sierra Leone, my friend though
Still he asked further