The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-12-10

TO make the visit, and HAD emphatical
ly declared she wasn't coming to have
that Boston lady make a monkey
Of her. But having been assured
that nothing of the sort was intend
in she came, as neat as possible
in a tidy light print dress, with
fresh muslin handkerchief crossed on
her breast During our talk she told
me that she usually wore bandana
handkerchief on her head, but had left
it of that day on account of the eX-
treme heat. hoped to hear from her
much Of the customs and traditions of
her people, but before we were
launched into such lore she told me a
story out of her own simple life, the
life for many years of a slave mother,
Rfterward of hard laboring woman
whose character for honesty and indus
try was unimpeachable. A simple ex-
lstence it would be called, l suppose,
Snd yet this chapter which she mar
rated contains a tragedy that, had
s1ittle Georgietta" been a princess,
would h ave made a thrilling folk-tale.
Aunt Ellen is a tall, massive mulatto
woman. very advanced in years, though
neither she nor anyone knows her exact
age. She sat with folded hands, scarce
iy moving as she talked, save that now
and then she made slight gesture of
the head, but before this bit from her
down her brown cheeks, and no listener
could with dry eyes hear her quiet, un-
impassioned narration of the sorrow
full story of how she lost her little
Georgietta:
"Ye wants ter heah about the ole
times, Miss Sally tells me. S'pose We
means the times fob the war. ma'am.
Wa'al, l ken tell ye heap about the
ole times yere, fer 1 alluz lived right
yere. Lived yere ever sence l wuz born.
'Ye asks me eff 1 think de colored peo-
pie is better of no W n they wuz in the
slavery times. Wa'al, in my 'pinion
some of 'em is and some of 'em amt
j mean ter say some of 'em in the ole
times didn' have SO hard times they
N they do sence they's free-but
ma'am" Chere dramatic pause and a
dignified, sarcastic smile over the pos
sibility of such que stionI-''we is free
now an that's great thing. l b'lieve
every body wants his freedom. Yes, 1
iwuz a slave until we wuz all set free
But didn' have SO bad times great
many of de slaves did. Fact. most Nv
aus yere on de east'un sho' wuz well off
to the colored folks that wuz slaves in
Georgy an Louisiany n other places
way off in the south.
Ibid have a good mahster2 Wa'al,
d s'spose might say did. As 1 toll
We, ma am, didn' hev so bad time
that is to say never wuz whipped nor
ssP away frum my husband and chil'un
but one of my chil'un wuz carried off
frum me-"
lyon had children, then. Aunt Ellen?
How many children had your
20, yes, ma'am. But can't 'zacly
tell ye how many head o chil'un l he'd.
But eff We ken count, l ken tell We the
names of every one of 'em. never fer
gifts their names, not one of EN- You
count now n I'll say 'em over. First
wuz George Washington an then Sam
uel-Sam we always called him-but
be died-an' then by n by there WIZ
another boy n then we called him Sam
TOO. But there wuz two girls between,
July an Violet
And SO on, name after name. with
little incidents and bits OF Renaissance
of this and that child, until the aged
woman had mentioned seventeen chill
dren. Several had died when young.
Others had grown up and now lived
hear her. One. her eldest SON, had
creditably served on the union side
during three years of the war But of
oil her children the one of whom she
talked most was little Georgietta.
You axed about my mahster. Wa'al.
he wuzn' sech bad man. He wuz q
nan, but he wuz sort o jolly an free
spoken like They useter call him Ole
Hickory Diclory! he wuz alluz a-ridin'
abaout the kentry-fer he owned q
heap o. LAM along the eastun sho' an
rode all abaout the keutry ter look after
tniASS- = oih> SdA0 tnCl NC Wv SN ~
many slaves he didn't know his own
niggahs. They useter tell haow when
he wanted to light fun his boss ter
oversee some piece NV work. he'd call to
some boy or man: Come yere, boy. n
,hoP my hossr Then he'd say: Whose
boy are yep Then, like S not, the mig
ger'd say: Yours, Mahs Tisdale,' an
then ole rnassa would throw him n fsr
penny bit, and he would haw-haw and