Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-11-23
The Fish story, by Innes Randolph
49, DrgYaas


come.
And the great fresh waters meet the brine.
There swims q fish that Is called the
drum
A fish of won lerful beauty and force.
That bites like a steel-trap and pulls like
horse,
He is heavy Of girth at the dorsnl fin.
But tepering downward keen and thin;
Long as a salmon if not so stout.
And epIingy and swift as the mountain
trout;
For oft at night in sportive mood
He comes 10 the brim of the moonlit flood,
And losses q glittering curve alOtt
Like the silver bow of the God. Then soft
He splashes deliciously back in the spray,
And tremulous circles 90 spreading away:
Down by the marge Of the Yorks broad
stream
An old darby lived-of the ancient regime;
His laugh was loud though his lot was low.
He loved his old master and he hated his
hoe.
Small and meagre was this old Ned
For many long winters had frosted MS head
And bated his force and ylgor.
But though his wool all white had become,
And his face wrinkled up like = washwo-
mans thumb.
And has back was bent, he was thought by
some
A remarkably hale old niger
But he suffered. he said, with constant
attack
OF misery in de head and pain in de back
Tir his ole massa.gib him his time to his
self"
And the toil-worn old bondsman was laid
on the shelf.
Though all philanthropists clearly can see
The degrading effects Of slavery,
| can't help thinking that this old creature
Was a great advance on his African nature,
And straighter of shin and thinner OF lip
Than his grandslre that came lnthe YANKEE
ship.
Albeit bent with weary toll
| OF sixty years on slaye-trodden SOIL.
| Untaught and thrlftless, and feeble or
| mind,
His life was gentle, his heart was kind;
| He lived in q house, he loved his wife,
| He was nobler far in his hope and his life,
| udanobler man, with his hoe in his hand,
| Than an African prince IN his native land,
| For perhaps the most odlouS thing upon
earth
Is An African prince in the land of his birth,
| With his negative calf and his convex shin,
| Triangular teeth and his pungent skin;
| So blOated of body and meagre OF limb;
| OF passions so fierce and Of reason so dim :
SO cruel in war and so torpid in peace;
|
| So partial 90 eating by morning light
| The wife who had shared MS repose over
night: ...
In the blackest of black superstitions
dOwn-trod:
In his horrible rltes Of his beastly god;
| With their bloody and loathsome and hide
| Gus mystery 3,
But that has nothing to do with the fish
story.
Happy old Edward-hisl labor was done
| With nothing to do but TO SIT IN the sun,
| And free 10 follow his darling wish
| OF PLAYING his fiddle and catching his fish
lie had earned his play-time with labor
long,
And so, like the other Old Ned of the
song.
He laid down the shovel and the hoe"
| And caught up the fiddle and the bow.
Now, L cannot say
That his style of play
Would suit the salons OF the present day.
For the tours de force of the great Paginini
| Have never found favor III Old Nlrglnny.
He never played tune that went slow,
| For he perfectly scorned an adaglo;
! Rut with eyes half-closed and time-beat-
ing toe.
His elbow squared and a reeinous bow
Not going UP high nor going down low
But saving steadily just down the middle
He played by the rule
OF the strictest school
| OF the old-fashioned plantatlon-nigger nd
die.
And now. if that fiddle is heard no more,
| Nor the constructing laugh, nor the dance
When the rythmical beat
OF hilarious feet
Struck the happy hoe-down" on the
But deserving those cabins in discomfort
And thinking il free to be indolent, -,
| They leave the fields OF the rice ana the
maize
And huddle in cities to die of disease,
| IL the Christian hymn forgotten should be,
! And idols be raised by the great Pedee;
Or if, misled by yillainous men
| TO enact the mad scenes Of Jamaica again,
| They fail, as they must, in the deadly as
sault.
We only can say that il wasn't our fault;
For the South did certainly try her best
| 10 rescue them from the philanthropist
In strife that shall redden the page OF
history
But that has nothing to do with the fish
story.
To retuin-old Ned went fishing one day,
And out on the blue,
In his dugout canoe,
He carried his fiddle along to play.
| Long he fished with his incest art,
| There came not nibble to gladden. his
heart.
| So he tied his line to his ankle tight,
TO be ready to haul if fish should bite.
| And seized his fiddle. So sweet did he play
That tho caves leaped up IN laugh Of
spray.
| 10 invisible water-nymphs dancing above,
II h.aH oil
| OF that charming little Venetian ar
- PeSedior DEL fonda Fldultn."
But slower and slower he drew his bow,
| And soft grew the music, sweet and low;
The lids fell YEARLY over the eyes,
The bow cen stopped, and the melodies;
The last strain melted along the deep,
| And Ned, the old fisherman. sank to sleep
Just then huge drum sent thlther by fate
Caught passing glance at the tempting
bait.
And darted upon it with greedy nav,
| And ran the nook in his upper Jaw.
One terrible jerk Of wrath and dread
From the wounded fish as away he sped
With a strength by rage made double;
And into the water went old Ned,
| No time for any last words" To be said,
For the waves settled placidly over hi
head,
And his last remark was q bubble.
Let US veil the struggle beneath the prime
OF the darling fish and the tangling line.
The battle, OF course, was short one
since,
Old Ned, not gifted with gills or fins,
And down in the waves was as much out o
place
AS mermaid would be IN trotting race
And motionless soon at the bottom he lay
AS mute as the fiddle that hoated away,
They were washed ashore by the heavinG
tide,
And the fisherman found them side b,
side,
In common death, and together bound
In the line that circled them round ant
round,
SO looped and tangled together
That their fate was involved in adark mys
terry,
As to which was the catcher and which tn
catchee;
For the fish 81, was hooked hard and fast b.
And the darky was lassooed around tn
heel,
And each had died by the other.
And the fisherman thought it could neve
DC known,
After eli their thinking and figuring,
W1seLhw ne Niger a fskias had gons.
| Or ne fsA had gone q mlggsrtnsi