The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-11-08
ninsssehsy h Rngiand-


 one caa understand vhy segro nis- sfyeisy should exiz in Amexicz. where the black man and his humor are under ssood, buf vhy of ai; woadess the Ene. hShrnan. Shose ideas of fun rarely en- brace anything ne~, should care fos the grosesqueries of Mir. Bones is to me a puzzie. One sees and kears more of the burnt cork and banjo here thss h ouz OWE country Al horse races, fairs and regzftAs one band of vre9ched cockneys with blackened faces succeeds anosher, announcing in song that
 Hi ham from hold virgiany,n
 or qsise as eften singing ditsies which have nothing to do vifh dukneH vesy lately a czinc in . London paper asked ! is vas necssafy fur men to be corked iu order to sing Scoech soogs9 Bus the ne- gro miostre is eoe only to be found n fairs-he perambulaies London, be ssnRs in the streeTs, as he has done for thirsy os sorsy yezrx It s, however, an odd thought, yea true one, that the vezy frss nigger minstrel was an Engiishmao and that England had the article loas beSre America vas discovexed- And thas ls the stosy as given in the '' History of the Fiji, W2nnes:' Long ago, in the eleventh century, there vas vexy coniczl and ugly knight named John de Ia Raun. pagne. Nov ii comes 70 pass that Fulke Frfr Wassne, having recovered his castle of WnIttington which castle | by chance visited in Iuly) vas laraenting over the loss of Andrlf de Bracy, vho had fallen into the hands of Kmg John and vas a prisoner "a Shrewsbury castle (rezdess of ivanhoe viu remember De Brzcy the Nor msnl asked Iohn de h Raunpagne to rescue the captive Nov John ee Ia K kaanpagne knew enough of tabor, harp, sddie. cisole and logiery, and he caused his hair and all his body to be entirely dyed as black as Iet. 90 that nothing vas white exceps his teeth. And he hung round eis neck very handsome tahor. and rode through the town of Shrews- bury 70 the gate of the caxtie: and by n4zy a one vas he looked a.. Iohn came before the king and saiuted hirn The king ssked him whence he came :? Sire said he. 1 am an Ethiopian mig ssrei born n Ethiopia Said the kies Are all the people in your land of your colog Yes, my lord, man and woman. : And John made great minstrelsy all the day" The negro vas not. however, un- known to the Anglo Normans. in the church ofSe Mary at Beverly there is the famous "pillar" on which i've minstreIs are represented, and almost facing it is a coroei bearing a negro, who is well DOT uayed.
 This may be useful to the man who will write a complese history of negro minssrelsy. It is the 6rss fact ever re. corded on the subject The last IS by that incnrable Frencnman, Max o Reu,n ~ho. as it appears by a passage in John Ball et son He. vas also struck by the great popularity of these sable singers. = The heads of every popular fese in England he writes, are the Chrissy ninstrels, street singers, who smear ,heii faces with soos, disgnise themselves in clothes of immense highly-colored check patterns. and ssng indecent songs, while accompanying themselves on impsovised guitars, hying-pans. or ssove-pipes- These artists of American importation sing in full chorus. dance, make grimaces. and see pennys shower into their grotesque high hats.7