The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-11-27
Negro HYMNS i'm tine south.

FROM al a WV aNS A~'' ~ 1SSONA'
Business called me to Fayetteville re-
GENTLY, and it became necessary for
me to make a stay of a week with a
Gentleman living a dozen miles or
more out of town. My friend is a
'arge cotton cultivator and employs
many negroes. Besides these the
community was full of negro laborers,
and had a most excellent opportu-
oitv for study. The negro and the
mule are not inseparable in that par
ticular locality; the OK seems to have
superseded the mule to a great extent
and many were the amusing pictures /
saw of negroes trudging along behind
q muly. headed OK, drawing a two
wheeled plantation cart "chuck-full of
women and children. But / do not
propose to make astudy of the negro
character to discuss the negro'sneeds,
orto touch upon their amusing lido
synCrasies, for all of this ground seems
to have been pretty well covered in
your columns recently. merely wish
to give some of their church songs,
which / gathered from an old white
headed patriarch during my stay out
n the country.
While sitting on the piazza one
morning | heard a young colored girl
who lived upon thepremises singing at
quite q brisk rate as she hung up the
days washing on the clothes line, and
what she seemed to say was: "For /
don't want you to hold me. l want
brudder somebody else) to hold me.
After listening to the constant repiti-
ton of the same stanza for some time
without being able to gather its ex-
act purport, / finally called her to Inc
and asked what it was. After much
snickering and a great deal of affected
bashfulness, with apparent reluctance
she gave it to me as follows:
Git away brudder William, I'm going,
For | don't want you to hold ME;
wants brudder Haynes to hold me,
Fur he ken control me.
"Well, Sally, that isn't a church
song, is it?"
Dunno, sir, 'xactly. Dey say de
gals overt Piney Ridge sing dat piece
when da gifts to shoutin', but Use neber
heard it in church myself"
but you do know some church
songs, don't your"
ooh, yes, | knows a lot of EN-. /
longs to the quire, and | sings at the
meetin' house cherry Sunday"
"Well, can't you sing some of them
for me? / want to write them down.
"Well, mister, / reckon / could, but
Use scarcely got time. If dat's what
you're wantin', why pap is just
the man fur we. He leads the quire,
bless we, and he is just chock full of
1igious songs. He's q class leader and
a mighty big man in our church, and
IT you will just go across dat field to
dat little house you'll find him, and
hlm's what you want"
So | went over to Uncle Lewis cabin
and found him sitting at his back
door under the shade of O. luxuriant
morning glory which had clambered
over arude kind oflatticeswork. After
skirmishing with him, | unfolded the
object OF my visit. His vanity was
considerably tickled.
"Yas, sir, boss, Sal was jist right
about dat. knows more songs dan
any four niggers in dis country. Use
been a church member ever since pre-
Vlously to de war, and if / handn't a
picked up a lot of 'em it 'ould of a
bin case / had no since. Use bin a
singer fur a mighty long time. Da
brought a young Niger, Gus, to lead,
but | Jlst showed 'em | wasn't to be
ousted by no y~oungster."
At this rate he rattled along. Finally
l.got him started, and subioined are
the principal songs he gave me, which
ne vouched for as being bona-fide and
OF extensive use in his church.
God made de m~ountins, made 'em plain,
Made old Adam outen de very same,
linen taken a rib outen Adams side,
Made \ woman aud den she died.
CHORUS:
Tell me who built de ark,
Oh, Meyer, Meyer, Meyer.
Tell me who built de ark,
Oil Meyers de man,
Went to preachin' de odder day,
heard what the preacher had to say,
REACHED one word, 'demned my soul,
Preached anudder, 'demned me more,
Kun back home straight as could go;
Fell on my knees right down on the floor;
oried, 20 Lord what shall Ido?"
CHORUS.
Can't cross Jordon.
Cant 60 round,
III you amt got 'ligion
You'll surely drown.
oHoRUs:-You dun tuken my Lord away,