Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1888-11-16
DECLINE or MiNsTRELsY.

The Negro of Ante-BeliuEl Days Gone
from the Amusement Stage.
low many readers remember the old
Christie ministries, which created such a
furore during thu year succeeding the
war! If there are many. and Of course
there Is no doubt that there are. they viii
remember the old plantation scenes the
genuine negro Of the south. wise in
crude way full of hanor and nlirth and
the quintessence of unalloyed happiness
in spite of his rags and plain food They
gave Us the dialect Of the southern plan
tation. with all the local eoloring and Gus
toms They sang us the negro songs.
which iinger in the brain as delightful
Renaissance Of true melody Il is pity
that they are no more.
The negro of the south IN the ante war
days has disappeared from the amuse-
ment stage We have now ia negro min
strelsy an entirely different kind of burnt
cork artist He is dressed up in gar5 so
fantastic as to put TO shame the tailor's
fights Of imagination, if be ever has any
he talks jargon which is no more the
language OF the cotton picking slave than
it is of Greece He acts boisterously and
his fun is of the noisy kind, the more
noise he cen create the better It seems to
be. We have Our MINISTRIES dressed Ike
courtiers in the time when court cos
tune was carried to the extreme. We
have them dressed in apparel that seems
to be cross between today and yester-
day. the present and the past Soma
times the cork is uneeremoniously left of
and VIC have our negro nilstrels in
whiIel
There Is hardly trace in the present
minstrelsy of the good old fashioned
d.
process of evolution he has come out a
being which Christie and Bacl.us and the
rest Of the pioneers on the minstrel stage
would never recognize. He is iusus ma
turse of minstrelsy Negro Ministries in
those days was s study. The negro of
the south during the time preceding the
war was a peculiar institution lie was
Indigenous to the soil He was a study
! and there YVES some delight in studying
him The present relic of the minstrel Is
purely modern invention. brought into
being to satisfy the everlasting desire on
the par. Of the pubic for change and
novelty We DO not criticise the man
ayers of the minstrelsy of today for this
radical innovation. They want to make
| loney and they cater TO the prevailing
tastesto get it.
Another regret that one feels who looks
! BACK upon Inc n4&.lSlretSy OF TIE DAYS Oh
CHRISTIE is caused by the music The
present minstrel is a ballad singer. Sc
was the minstrel of the past. But now
| he sings ballads OF a lot of mushroom
composers who exist solely for the pur-
| pose OF writing ballads to be stang by the
minstrel performers. There Is no indi
| viduality about the music, Il is senti-
| mental. sometimes sickly sentimental
| and no mora. An Infinite variety of ten
| der subjects is covered and drawn upon
Ii America ever had class OF music
which can be strictly called American, il
| is the music that Stephen G. Foster com
| passed lie was the author of My Oit
kentucky Home. " Ellen Bayne, Way
Down Upon the Suwanpe River, Willie
| We Have Missed You" Hard Times,
-'Oh. Susanna, Nancy TIL" and host:
| Of others Fosters melodies were an il
lustratiou OF slave life. They were moi
| only cast in the best mold OF pure melody
| bat they were. with their words. full O.
| pathcs and the healtAiest kind Of senti
aent. Fosters music ought to be pre-
| served because it is so distinctly Amer
can music. The tunes covered yariet,
| Of $ yles, Some were rollicking in thel
| rhythmic effects Some were perfec
! idyls- Some were love songs which neyei
aave and never can be ezcelled TIL
| charm of simplicity and innocence hun.
over them ali. 1t is pity that we hayl
| lost this music as feature OF our min
strelsy of today.-Detroit Free Press.