The record-union., 1897-12-08
A sLAvERY-DAY CEREMONY.
A Black Baby Given to q White
Baby When a Dav Old.

a BLACK 6aDy G1ven to q WnAte
Baby When a Day Old.
Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart writes for
the December st. Nicholas a South
ern sketch entitled AN Old-Time
Christmas Gift" Mrs. Stuart begins
her sketch as follows:
Mimi was white and Yuyu was black.
and they belonged TO each other. OF
course these We're not their real names;
Mimi was ehristened Euphemia, and
Yuyu's name was Julia.
The little girls We're the same age,
exactly; and on the very day they were
born they were presented 10 each
other OF course the babies knew moth
ng about it at the time, as they We're
both asleep; and even if they had been
awake, they would not have understood,
as they had had no experience in the
ways of the great world into which
they had just come.
The presentation was a very pretty
ceremony, although it was very slight.
1t all happened in the old slavery
days, on a Louisiana plantation.
When the mistress of the place heard
that a little black daughter had come
to one of her favorite slaves at the
same hour that her own wee babe was
laid in her arms, she sent for her huS-
band and whispered something to him,
and he smiled delightedly and called
the black fellow Tom from the dining
room, and gave an order that sent him
grinnfng out TO the quarters. Then.
presently old Granny Milly came trudg-
ing into the great house, with big
gray bundle in her arms.
1t was Christmas morning, but there
were late honeysuckles in bloom and
humming- birds at large. Still. it was
thought prudent to wrap the new
Christmas baby snugly in soft wool
shawl for her first little journey in the
world.
Old Granny Milly was so fat that she
could hardly walk, but she bore her
self proudly as she carried the little
slave baby across the narrow field and
through the garden up to the great
house. The boy Tom had told every
body he had met on the way out, and
by the time Granny had started there
were many spectators at the cabin
doors, and flock of barefoot black
children followed her even to the very
limit of their range in the campus of
the quarters.
slave-born baby to be chosen as
maid to young white mistress and the
old women who stood with their tur-
baned heads together watching, all
agreed that "Sabina's chile" was 'sho'
born into luck"
When old Milly, short of breath from
fat and Importance, finally approached
the great bed upon which the white
mr. md tnin hu 1av ma c
of the house bade her place the children
side by side and then he gently opened
their tiny right hands, and laying them
one within the other, closed them for
moment Then he lifted the white
hand and placed it on the black baby's
head This last was a double signif-
canoe and meant obedience on one side
and protection on the other.
The joining hands meant simply that
the children were pledged to lifelong
friendship, and that they should stand
by each other as long as they both
should live.
The servants who had tiptoed into
the room TO see the presentation all
declared that while they held hands
both babes had smiled in their sleep,
and it was considered a good omen
thanksgiving and prayer, and the
servants standing about the bed and
out in the hall all bent their heads
while the master asked that heaven
would bless the children to each other
This was all. And then old Milly
proudly took her tiny charge, wrapped
again until it looked like a gray CO.
coon, back to its mother in the cabin.
The ba bies did not meet again until
the Sunday, a few weeks later, when
they were both baptized in the great
square parlor. They were to have six
years to sleep and play and grow in
before they should assume their rela-
tions On every birthday there was
formal visit. when the little Mimi put
into the growing Julia's hands a great
bundle, so big and heavy that a strong
hand had to support it during it's pas
sage.
This contained clothing enough for
the coming year-a few new things and
such of milady's dainty cast-offs as
the black baby could use.
The children often met in the inter-
walls, naturally, as when Yuyu's mother,
Sabina, would come to the house on
an errand, bearing Yuyu astride her hip.
or sending her toddling on before her,
as she grew older and when Sabina
would go in to confer with her mis-
tress, she would send Yuyu to the
nursery, saying, Run along an see yo'
little mistus."