Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-08-20
AUNT LIZZIE SYUTELY.
Venerable Colored Woman Who
Has Met Many Celebrities.
when Young. She Belonged to the Ram
dolphs Who Were at the Head of
the Four Hundred of Ante
-Beiium Days.
Especial Washington letter.

| Washington are at last obsolete. When
men and women, white or black,
live beyond the age of usefulness, when
their teeth disappear and their eyes
| grow dim; when their noses and chirs
hold rubicund meetings, they no longer
claim to have seen and known George
| Washington. That test of old age has
| passed away with it's mendacious adj
| juncts.
Elizabeth Stutely is very old, bit she
never claims to have seen Washington.
| She remembers the capture of Washing
ton city by the British during the
war of 1912, but she was only
q little girl, and remembers it
mainly because it was talked about
constantly for many years afterwards.
Aunt Lizzie, as she is known to all her
friends, does not know when she was
born. She knows nothing of her birth
day, but has selected the Fourth of
July as her birthday, and always cele-
brates it from that standpoint, rather
than as a national holiday. She says
that some one told her when she was
young that the Fourth of July was Il
better day than any other ia the year,
and so she selected it as her birthday.
81 belonged to the Randolphs," says
Aunt Lizzie. II was raised in the bcsr
family in Virginia, and my friends have
always been white folks. don't know
how to read, but l know how 20 talk,
for my old Mistress Brokenbrough used
to make me talk right. i was \ house
servant, and of course heard less of the
talk of the field hands than the average
slave. l was raised with the white
folks and l talk as they talked. |
know what grammar is, but never was
taught anything out of books, except
the big Book. l can tell you all about
that. l can remember the wonder
full story, and / believe in it, too. The
Bible is all the book / know anything
about, and whenever it is read ID me
listen and just remember the words, so
that my preacher sometimes tells me
can repeat more of it than he can. But
it don't make any difference whether
have much learning or not, for, after all,
when a slave gets free enough to know
that there is freedom for all up yonder,
that is education enough for the black
folks. The men of these days have
made laws which make my race rquri
with the white race, but l don't believe
in those laws. Gods law was that the
descendants of Ham should be servants.
and they are the best servants IN the
world"
That is the philosophy ofavery intel!i-
gent old woman of the African race.
She must be nearly 100 years old.
she is growing stout, heavy, and
finds it difficult to move about;
but she has wonderfully brilliant
brain. She has beautiful gray kinky
hair, and is as neat, tidy, cleanly and
dignifed as any of the white ladies
with whom she was raised. She says:
"One thing l learned was that it is
never proper to speak jill of the dead.
was in the Lee family during the war.
and l saw a great deal of the great
general Robert +. Lee. If I should
tell what l saw and heard and know
of him, his home, it would spoil pop
ular picture; but l have never told any
thing that 1 learned in slavery con-
corning my people, and l never viii.
But Gen. Lee was not a perfect man. !
suppose he was as good as other men
who have opportunities and power to
be bad; but few men are good, cs-
pecially to women.
al belonged to the Randolphs before
the war;" continued Aunt Lizzie, "and