The Portland daily press., 1891-05-25
CokCEALiNC THEIR pEFICI-
ENClES
Why one Old Negro could not Write
and another could not Count.


Two stories characteristic of the negro
were told in the smoke room of trans
atlantic steamer.
Said a gentleman from New Orleans:
ST stood on the levee in our city one
morning while the paymaster of river
steamer was engaged in paying off the
roustabouts.
Gas each man presented himself at the
cashiers window the paymaster asked
the question whether he would sign his
name or make his mark. If he was nm
able to write the paymaster, of course.
subscribed the name and left a place for
the man to place a cross.
"You must recollect that since the
close OF the war and the establishment
OF schools for freedmen the negroes of
the south are very unwilling to admit
ignorance upon their part.
The payment of the men proceeded
without incident until one young up
country darby presented himself at the
window in response to the calling of the
name Eugene jackson.
"'Will you write your name or make
cross, Jackson? said the paymaster.
"'Fn write my name replied the
negro.
'The pen was handed to him and the
place for his signature was carefully
pointed out on the pay roll.
''The man took the pen clumsily,
dipped it in the ink, looked at it and
then at the pay roll and finally laid it
down on the desk.
"'What time is itY he asked, looking
up at the paymaster.
"'It is just 10 O'clock was the reply.
"'Well, then,' said the darby, Il guess
amt got time to write my name. I've
got to meet a man at the custom house
at ~ o'clock, and guess I'll just make
cross
"The custom house." said the New
Orleans man, in conclusion, sis about ten
minutes walk from where the man was
standing"
"That reminds me of a little expe-
rience / once had with negro" said a
brick manufacturer of little town up
the Hudson, who CHANGED to be of the
party.
1--WE called the man old Uncle Ned"
continued the speaker. "He was dear
old white headed fellow, with.a bent back
and about seventy years old at the time
the incident I am about to relate oc-
CURED.
HE had lived in little shanty in the
town for years and did odd jobs at
whitewashing, masonry work and va
rious other things.
'One day wanted man to stack
some brick for me in piles of thousand
each, and to turn little something in
the way of Uncle Ned I hired him for
the job.
"'Can you count, Ned? / asked him
after I had told him what I wanted.
eyes, indeed, kin, massa," the old
fellow replied with a chuckle, Il kin
count right smart, and he ran off the
numerals up to ten glbly enough.
sNed began his task and worked
steadily for some hours. l looked out
of my Office window after awhile and
saw that he had far exceeded his number
of a thousand bricks to stack.
81 walked out to see aboutit. He was
hard of hearing and did not detect my
approach as came up behind him. I
drew nearer and overheard him say, as
he lay each brick on the stack: "A nudder
an nudder, and der goes nudder. A
nudder, an nudder, and der goes a
nudder.'
"'What in the world are you doing,
Nedp asked.
"'Countin' de bricks, massa, he re-
piled, as he continued, "A nudder an a
nudder, and der goes nudder.'
'But, Ned, you can't count bricks that
way; that is not counting. I thought
you could count one, two, three, four,
etc.
Yes, I dun tole you l could count,
an SO did up to ten, but Ned's pretty
ole now, massa, an after ten he dun for
get his schoolln', an so he counts a
nudder, an a nudder, an der goes a
nudder.'
"There was something pathetic about
the poor old follows speech" continued
the speaker. "Of course paid him for
his days work." he added; "but 1 had
to have his stack of bricks recounted, and
had to give the balance of the job to a
couple of twelve-year-old boys, who were
more expert at figures than he"