The times., 1899-04-09
Plantation Tales.


of plantation tales, all tinged more or less
with voudou magic, slave superstition. and
old-time folklore. They are told in the
dialect of the North Carolina negro. and
the story-t teller who is called julius, is in
his way as impressive a character as the
world-famed Uncle Remus. Shrewd, willy
picturesque, ingratiating deprecatory in
manner, rich in imaginative lore, and
withai kindly and simple of heart, he is q
| distinct addition to American literature
and there is not line out of place in the
portrait of him.
The thread which binds the stories to-
| gether is very slight The writer, with his
| wife, is supposed TO have settled in the
| South for the purpose of engaging in grape
culture, and finds on the ruined plantation
| which he selects for his home this inter-
esting human relic of ante-bellum times.
! While never obtrusive. Julius is often use
i full, proffering advice and suggestions as
| TO the most profitable way of conducting
the business, and sometimes cloaking a
suggestion under the safe disguise of a
| ghost or ''cunjur' story. The planter usu-
| ally discovers sooner or later why that
| story was told, and sometimes suspects the
| intention of the old darky in the begin
| ming; but it is noticeable that in five
I
telling method was brought into play JUL
! ius secured what he wanted, usually
through the interposition of Miss Annie
| who appears to have been more impressed
| by the tales than her husband.
The book has distinct atmosphere of
| its own. which is hard to describe and
would be difficult to reproduce effect
lively in short quotation. Through it all
runs weird, quaint cloud of superstit.ous
! feigned it is impossible to say; the effect Is
| that of children who play at robbers or
| ghosts; they are half-frightened at the
| reality of their own imaginings. and to
the younger ones 1t is all quite real. When
| julius tells his story of the woman who
''coniured' her husband into the shape of
big pine tree, that he might not have to
go away from her; when he tells how the
! tree was. during her absence, cut down
and sawed into boards. and describes the
grief of the bereaved wife. it seems hardly
possible that such vivid and glowing word
pictures could be coined by one who does
not believe the story he tells; the pathos
is real; the tenderness is genuine the
whole story is alive. But when, two or
three days afterward, the master discovers
that the schoolhouse which was built of
wood sawed from that tree, and which, ow-
ing TO his wifes protestations, he has not
Illus and his church society for a meeting
house, one doesn't know what to think It
seems probable, on the whole, that the
old fellow made cunning application of a
story, well known to his childhood, which
he may or may not have believed.
The titles of these tales are in them
selves an indication of the fascination of
the book THE Goophered Grapevine"
'Po' Sandy" Mars Jeems' Nightmare"
1.-The Conjurer's Revenge" Sis Becky's
Pickaninny," THE Gray VOLTS Ha'nt,"
and ''Hot-Foot Hannibal''-there is allure
ment in every one. A cunning mixture of
pathos and humor is found in most of
them, with pathos predominant, but THE
Conjurers Revenge" comes near being
pure humor. 1t is the story of Primus, a
negro, who was. changed into mule. No
matter about the moral which Julius
drew from the tale-it was useful to him.
The doings Of the mule on returning to
the plantation which he had inhabited as
man were entertaining and mystifying to
onlookers. He chewed up two rows of to-
bacco He went on a spree with half
barrel of wine But his most peculiar antics
took place when he espied his former wife
carrying on Irritation with one Dan.
This is what happened:
One day dis yer Dan tux de moo mule out in
de cotton hel' fer ter plow, wen dey wuz
=
dis yer Sally? Dan look 'roun' en- he didn' see
de oberseah nowhaT, SO he stop minute fer ter
run on wild sally
''IIowdy. honey" sezee. "How you feelin' dis
mswnin?''
'Fus' rate" 'spon' Sally.
Dey WIZ lookin' at one ernudder, dey didn'
naer one un EN- pay no 'tention ter de mule,
who had turnt is head 'roun, en- lookin at
Sally ez had ez he could. stretchin' is neck
en- raisin' is years en- wlinnyin' kinder sof' ter
hisse'f.
"Yas, honey" lows Dan, zen you gwine ter
feel fus' rate long you sticks ter me. Fer Is
a better man dan dat low-down, runaway Niger,
Primus dat you ben wastin yo' time wid.''
Dan had let go de plOw handle, en- had put his
arm roun' Sally, en- wuz des gwine ter kiss
her, wen sumpn ketch i'm by de scruf dc
neck. flung i'm way ober in de cotton patch.
Wen he pick hissef up Sally had gone kitin'
down de tu'n-row, de mule standin'
dere lookin' ez cam en- peaceful ez a Sunday
mawnin'.
That was not all that the mule did, and
the picture of his head poking itself in at
the cabin window one night and making
threatening grimaces at Dan, is something
to remember. Finally the conjurer got
religion and on his dying bed turned
Primus back into a man. but died before
the job was quite finished, so that Primus
always thereafter went about with one
club foot This is a fair example of the
serio-comic grotesquerie of the tales.
Mars Jeems' Nightmare is decidedly
amusing. though there is a little too much
obvious intention In ii to make ii a true
folklore story. One can see between the
lines picture of life as it was on some
plantations before the war. Sis Beckys
Pickaninny'' is a tender little story, with
two or three charming pictures in it. 1.-The
Gray VOLTS Ha'nt" is perhaps the most
like real primitive mythology. II has In
1t the DID, old myth of the werewolf one
of the most blood-curdling and mysterious
of traditions, and one which cannot faii,
under the most Indifferent treatment, TO
be impressive. Two stories by other au-
thors. dealing with this notion, are Kip
fng's THE Mark of the Beast" and Mary
Hartwell Catherwood's THE BEAUFORT
Loup- Garon." In the former we have the
realistic treatment with an Indian set
ting; the latter story has Canadian at
mosphere and style more like Hawthorne
than anything else in literature.
In Mr.. Chesnutt's werewolf story a con-
jurer changes woman into a black cat
and her husband into wolf telling the
latter that TO protect himself from a witch
who is doing him injury he must kill the
cat. The deluded husband kills the cat,
who turns into a woman in dying. He
then hastens to revenge himself on the
conjurer, and kills him, but is obliged to
remain a wolf and haunt his wife's grave.
This story bears marks of being an origi-
nal African folk-tale. Mr.. Chesnutt has
given 1t a touch of the pathos which is
to be found in the lore of civilized lands,
when he condemns the gray wolf to moan
forever by the grave of his murdered wife;
| that part of the story does not belong to
tribal life in a tropical forest. Perhaps he
evolved this story out OF his own brain,
and perhaps it is only a transcription of
something heard; he does not give a hint
on this point.