The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-06-16
STRANGE NEGRO WORTHLESS.
Two Human Oddities That Interest
North Carolina Undergraduates.
From the New York Tim


From the New York Times.
Chapel Hill, N. c., June 2.-Since the
State University reoppened here after the
Civil War there have been two old dark
les in the village whose names and repu-
tations are heralded all over the state by
the students who pass in and out year
after year One of them is an aged negro,
known as Benny Booth, who formerly
made the greater part of his living by
letting the boys break boards over his
head; the o Their is the barber who caters
to the colleges trade. He calls himself
Prof. Thomas Dunstan, the Tonsorial
artist"
Although Benny acquired his greatest
fame less than thirty years ago, he was
by no means an inconspicuous figure in
the ante-bellum days, and 1t is with great
pride that he tells how President James
K. Polk used to employ him as a valet
during that statesman's college career.
"Sho,' l knowed Mars Polk" he will
toll you. "Befo de wah-in fac, long befo'
dat time-Old Benny shined his boots.
Onct, TO be sho, Mars Polk gived S ole
niger a quarter tuh see eff he cud hurt
de top oh his head wild a plank. But he
cudnt do it,
And then the old negro chuckles to him
he has come to believe it from telling it
so often Until three OF four years ago
ne would allow any one to test the tough
ness of his skull with rock or stick for
few small coins and on one occasion
he ran head first into a brick wall for a
purse of half dollar that had been col
lected by a group of students. Finally,
however, he was obliged to acknowledge
that such diversions brought on headache,
and at the age Of eighty and more years
he formally forswore any further display
of his prowess in the line of skull tests.
Outived the Purchaser.
About twenty-five years ago physi-
clan in the village, thinking Benny was
nearly old enough to pass away pro-
posed to the o d man that he sell him his
head for dissection after death. Benny
agreed joyfuily and received S25 in adj
vance payment. The doctor waited in vain
for his newly acquired prop~rty to come
into his possession, but the recipient of
he money, after spending all Of it. re-
fused to rass away. At last the pit rohasar
himself died, and ever since then Benny
has been vainly trying TO sell his head
for a second time.
Some people say the old fellow is now
more than a century old. He declares that
he is at least that but says he doesn't
know exactly when he arrived on earth
AS far as oks go, he might be a relic of
y,
ancient days. Clothes he is averse TO. and
the village authorities are obliged. once
in a while to take some radical action to
prevent his appearing in public in a single
garment.
The old man lives by begging, or occa-
sionally by chopping kindling wood for
% cents a day, and at rare intervals he
wanders up into the campus and there en-
tertains with his weird anecdotes an au-
dience of students, who reward him lib
orally. Taken all in all, his yearly earn
ings may reach the sum of So and even
that is superfuous, for people of the viii
lage let him sleep in outhouses in their
back yards and give him food whenever
he asks for it.
The other village celebrity, Tom Duns-
tan, is a strong contrast to Benny. Hav-
ing been the only barber here for many
years, he has accumulated such worldly
posse Ssons that the people of his race re-
gard him as a second Croesus, and his
peron is always clad in clothing of the
most approved pattern. Offset by rings
and pins and other nondescrpt jewelry
| With other negroes he has little inter
| course disdaining to associate with any
one who is not what he calls "a gentle
man of literary proficiency, and a white
one at that
| Big words are Toms weakness. II any
one asks him how 1t happens that he
| has risen to such nights Of wealth and
culture, he replies:
"Well. sir, It came TO pass that a great
man was needed in the land, so the Lord
made Prof. Dunstan, who is sir, an am
phibious phenomenon and a hypographi-
cal statesman"
The Professors Vocabulary
The professor never hears a bombasd,
phrase or high-soundng term that n
does not RENE mber It; and at the earliest
opportunity he makes use Of ii, always in
the wrong place. OF his powers of con-
versation he is inordinatey boastful, and
he often, while administering to a Gus
omer che 4 his torture-like shaves
whispers conhd ntally In the victims
cars:
The niggers around here are scared
Of Prof Duns an for he floors EN- all
with the penetration of his phraseology,
and when he opens his lips he desgnates
like the vast writers Of antiquity"
He always speaks Of himself in the
third person. emphasizing the title Pro
fessor'' with marked effect In front Of
his shop which is a little wooden house
Of one floor, hangs a gorgeously tinted
sign, on which IT is set forth that any
one entering the place will become the
recipient of the most approved appliances
4 OF the tonsorial art, including a dose Of
/ hair tonic invented by the professor him
self. In the college weekly he has kept
an advertisement running for many years
! The wording Is always the same bur
| vino wrote II for him or rather .tyba a..