The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-07-25

of life. The Mussulman5 are the pr1ncl'
pal agriculturists. and, outside of the
thirty miles of British possessions, worh
their farms with slaves, either bought o.
inherited. The slavery is of a very light
nature, the nearness to John Bulls line
making it easy for the slave to run off il
ill.treated. He is, therefore, generally
exceedingly well cared for.
THE ORDINARY NEGRO.
There is one point where the Sierra
Leone-negro far surpasses the American
citizen Of African descent. He washes
himself always once and generally twice
day: He generally lives on rice, pre-.
ferring the native grain, which is par.
boiled before being beaten out, which
process ruins its clear white, but renders
it more nourishing and pleasant to eat
they say so, and / think 30. If the ordi-
nary negro is in your employ for five
minutes or five years he always addresses
and speaks of you as "masser," touche.
his cap when approaching you, and takes
it off in your presence. he makes re-
spectful, ready, cleanly and faithful SER
.yant, works cheaply, and is delighted by
a ""tip," bowling almost to the ground,
scraping, and grinning from ear to ear
when presented with six pence or shil-
ling. He never calls you "boss" or
speaks of you as cole -" Yet he
knows his rights too. People can, and
do, call him an internal fool, a bloody
idiot, a blasted son of q gun, and an
."nopery. cuss,"o and he. takes it patiently
and good-naturedly. But they are de-
prived of the sweet consolation of calling
him "a durn nigger." The latter is an
opprobrious term, and he will immedi-
ately have you summoned before mag
istrate and fined from five to fifteen
shilliugs. We were not very favorably
impressed with the morals of this. class,
however, as the "drummers" at the
wharves offered chickens, ducks, cab
bages and young women all in the same
breath and with the same business-like
air.
STRUCK ALL OF A HEAP"
So much for the lower classes, now for
the other. An English gentleman, with
whom'I became acquainted, invited me
to his house to dinner. He was q prom
inent man, and there is no doubt as to
his business and social standing being of
the.best,s 7On going to his house, I.was
"struck,,alli of a heap" by being intro
duced to his son and daughter, both -un-
mistakably colored. In the expressive
language of Mrs. Camp, "You might a
Knocked me down with q feather Blue
Moses L Here was who had never,
never, never, sat at meat with anything
but pure Caucasian ); who had never
called colored man or woman "Mr.," !"
"Miss" or "Mrs.," (resorting oftentimes
to ingenious devices to avoid doing 30
without giving offence, such as asking q
boy coming to the door "who lives here Z"
in order that he should say "Mr. John
son." and shouldn't have TO-. I, who
had been. explaining to my host, while
on the way home, why, in my judgment,
q social distinction between the races
was natural and proper; here I was sud-
denly confronted with this appalling pro-
blem. OF course there was only one
thing to be done, and went blind1y and
recklessly5 5insand did it--that was pre-
tend, that there was, nothing unusual, and
that I didn't know white from otherwise.
She did the honors of the table very
gracefully, and afterwards performed
several airs on the piano with correct
ness and taste. /. ] was 80 afraid she had
noticed my involuntary start at first, that
I assured her with tears in my two cen
that her music was the sweetest I had
ever heard.
A CONCERT BADLY MIXED.
After dinner that night, THAT was Fri
day, June L. I went to concert, magic
lantern and amateur theatrical perform
auce in the court house hall. The room
was about thirty feet square and divided
by an ordinary railing. Outside of this
were rough benches. Here were the
shilling, half price seats. Inside the
railing the walls were decorated with
cocoa tree branches, and there were
chairs, which formed the two shilling
seats, occupied by the elite. Against the
wall, opposite the entrance door, was q
stage, on which the sheet on rollers, used
for the magic lantern, was placed. This
part of the performance was over. In
the centre Of the stage sat Governor
Rowe, on his right a British officer in
uniform, an old, and middle aged col
ored woman, and on his left an octoroon
girl and another young British officer.
Against the wall on the left was another
and smaller stage for the theatricals.
The audience was of all colors, mostly
black, there being slight sprinkling of
English officers, one or two white civil
;ians, the curate and, in fact, everybody.
The play was farce entitled "John
Dobbs," and the actors were all black,
the female parts being assumed by men,
(shades of Manager OttolenguiD When
the farce, which was very perfect farce
in every way, was over, all went home,
several of the icolored ..damsels being
escorted by white men, while others Of
the latter race and gender stood about
the doors latter the manner of empty
headed young men in general, uncov.
ering and bowling.
A LITTLE SUPPER.
I met there an Americana New
Yorker and "Copperhead," who had
been living five years in Sierra Leone,
and he carried me off to "little supper" "
in a delightfully."- cool upstairs room
somewhere, where miniature fountain
played from among green shrubs in the
centre of the table, and we ate roast fowl
and salmon, and drank claret from porous
clay utensils in company with two men
black as crows, one of whom addressed
my friend by his last name. There's
social equality, and nobody seems to feel
or see any difference. My American
friend says "You soon get used to it. J"
The fact is the colored people in Sierra
Leone are so thoroughly Anglicized in
every respect that the English find no
difficulty in forgetting their skins. /
amt English. l learn that the colored
daughter of my English friend is a
leader of the Freetown ton. Indeed,
while I was in the house, the wife of a
major in the army came in and paid a
sociable visit.