Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1891-09-26
DECLINE or MINsrRELsv.
The Negro Of Ante-Beiiam Days Gone
frona the Amusement stage.

ffon the Amusement stage.
How many readers remember the old
Christie minstr..ls, which created such a
furOre during the year succeeding the
wary II there axe many. and of course
there i no doubt that there are. they will
remember the old plantation scenes. the
genuine negro of the south. wise In a
crude way. full ~ humor and mirth. and
the quintessenre of unalloyed happiHess
Ia spite OF iis rags and plain food They
gave US the dialect Of the southern plan
taiion. with all the local coloring and Gus.
toms. They sang us the negro songs,
which iingcr In the brain as a delightful
nminiseence of true melody II Is a 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 in negro min.
strelsy an entirely different kind of burnt
cork artist he l. dressed up In gnrb 80
fantastic as TO put to shame the tailor's
flights OF Imagination. II he ever has any.
lie talks "a jargon which Is no more the
language OF the cotton picking slave than
IL is Of Greece He acts boisterously and
his fun Is Of the noisy kind, the more
noise he can create the better Ii seems "a
be We have our minsirels dressed like
cOurtiers in the time when court COS
tune was carried to the extreme. We
have them dressed in apparel that seems
to be a cross between today and yester.
day. the present and the past Some.
times the cork is uncerelnoniously left of
and we have our negro minstrcls In
white
There is hardly trace In the present
mins,relsy Of the good. old fashioned
negro minstrel Of twenty years ago. B,
-. a. ~. 4
being which Christie and Backus and tho
rest Of the pioneers on the minstrel stag,
would never recognize. lie Is lusus ma
ture Of minstrelsy Negro minstrels Il
those days was study. The negro %
the south during the time preceding TIA,
war was "A peculiar institution lie wa,
indigenous TO the soil He was a stud,
and there was some delight In studyinI
him. The present relic of the minstrel 1
purely mudern invention. brought int,
being to satisfy the everlasting desire oil
the part OF the public for change ant
novelty. We do not eri,icise the man
ayers of the minstrelsy uf .4lay foS thi,
radical innovation. They want TO max,
money and they eater 10 the prevailin,
taste To get H.
Another regret that one feels who look
back upon the ninstrelsy Of the DAYS o
/ Christie is caused by the music Tn,
present minstrel In ballad singer =,
was the MINSTREL Of the past But nov
lac sings ballads Of a lot of mushroom
composers who exist solely for the pur
pose of writing ballads to be sung by tn,
minstrel performers There IL no indi
vidnality about the music Ii is senti
mental. sometimes siekly sentimental
and no more. An infinite variety of ten
der subjects II covered and drawn upon
IL America ever had class of must,
which can be strictly called American. i
Is the music that Stephen q. Foster com
posed lie was the author of MY OIL,
Kentucky Home. Ellen Bayne," IVA,
Down Upon the Suwanee River. Willie
We Have Missed YOU" Hard Times.
"Oh, Susanna. Nancy Till" and host
of others. Fosters melodies were an II
lustration of slave life. They were no
only east in the best mold of pure melody
but they were. with their words. fun o
pathos and the healthiest kind Of senti
ment. Fosters music ought to be pre-
served because ii is so distinctly Ameri
can music. The tunes covered a variet,
of styles. Some were rollicking ia thei
rhythmic elects Some were perfec
idyls Some were love songs which neve
have and never can be excelled III
charm Of simplicity and innocence hum
over them all It Is pity that we hav
lost this music as feature of our min
strelsy of today Detroit Free Press.