The herald., 1898-01-16
COLORED NANNY
IS HER MODEL.
Mrs. Jeanette Robinson Muir.
! ply Has Found New Way
to Earn Living.
A NEW YORK PET.
Former Belle of Louisville and
q Cousin of Lew
Wallace.

1t might seem that woman's ingenu-
ity in devising ways and means for
earning her living had been exhausted
when she turned her attention to the
duties of game keeper and street-car
conductor, but she Is constantly max
ing new discoveries. This time 1t Is an
occupation which does not trench upon
mans domain in the slightest degree.
On the contrary, it is one which the
veriest prude could not regard as be-
yond the borders of woman's TRADITION
al sphere" 1t is something that no
man has ever thought of and which no
woman has ever attempted before as
a distinct profession. Ut Is the society
woman in a new role-namely that OF
rendering the negro folklore and songs
exactly as they are sung and told by
the old Southern Gnannmies. a class OF
Americans who are rapidly becoming
fewer and fewer as the years progress
from that dark and mysterious period,
from which everything in the negro his
tory dates, "de time befo' de wah."
/ 1t is an entirely new field in which
there are as yet no rivals. New York
fashionables, ever on the watch for a
new diversion have taken up the idea
as a fad, and the ingenious little wo-
man who gave it to them is being
passed around by them from musicale
to musicale and is being petted and
praised as much as If she We're not
earning daily bread thereby TOR her
self and two little ones.
This new discovery of a means OF
livelihood is only another case in which
L. fttv-v hnr a "
perience and talents to practical ac-
count upon finding herself reduced In
circumstances with no one to provide
for her or hers.
Such was the experience OF Mrs.
.Jeannette Robinson Murphy, who Is
cousin of Lew Wallace and be-
fore her marriage was one of the bellies
of Louisville society down in old Kahn
lucky" After her marriage she was
pursued by the ravages OF sickness and
death until the idea of turning her tai
ents into money forced itself upon her.
AS Jeannette Robinson, the daughter OF
a Southern college president, she had
been nursed and fondled by one OF the
old mammies who clung to the fam
flies that provided for them years af-
ter the war, and as she grew up she
had been carefully educated-g1vine
particular attention to her naturally
fine soprano voice.
The combination of good voice and
a lifelong association with the rea
Southern negro. who has not forgotten
"dem slave days" added to a natura
faculty of imitation, has enabled Mrs
Murphy to give a representation wh1cf
is as entertaining as 1T Is unique ant
instructive.
To the Northerner, accustomed to re-
gard such songs as "My Old Kentucky
Home" Little Alabama Coon" and u
Want Yer, Ma Honey" as first class
darkey songs, the rendition of the rea
negro music which is actually composed
by themselves, comes like revelation
and excites interest in the negro say.
ings and doings which has never beer
inspired by any but Joel Chandler Har-
ris himself in his famous Tales OF
Uncle Remus."
AS Mr.. Harris is said to have re-
counted the stories to which he actual
ly listened when little boy in the con-
stant companionship of old Uncle Re-
mus, so Mrs. Murphy faithfully depicts