The times., 1901-04-07
THE DECAY OF MINSTRELSY
"0ld 1Iilt" Barlow Talks of the
Business in Days Gone BY.

Few Real "BIack Fnccv Artists Left.
The Veteran Actors Early Ex-
periences-Entertain His Com
rades i'm the Confederate Army.
one OF the greatest minstrels who ever
blacked his face is now in Baltimore
with the Uncle Toms Cabin company
at the Holiday Street Theatre. The old
timer is "Milt" Barlow, who PLAYS the
part of Uncle Tom In manner which has
gained him praise wherever he has ap-
peared Mr.. Barlow is between hfty-ive
and sixty years old. smocth-shaven. an
agreeable talker and gentleman OF the
Ola school He was seen yesterday at
the Hotel National and talked interest
ingly OF his experiences on the stage.
lie said
My home State is Kentucky. and when
the civil war broke out became full of
enthusiasm, with the result that I en-
listed in the Confederate army. 1 believe
that / was born with the instincts Of a
Snowman, and in the army this instinct
was not smothered for while a member OF
the Sixty-third Tennessee Regiment about
a dozen of US organized a minstrel com
pany for the benefit OF the soldier boys.
We had instrumentalists. singers, and
monologists. When the opportunity offer
ed we erected a platform, and with no
roof but the canopy Of heaven or scenery
but the background OF woods or hills we
gave entertainments. Everybody came
out and a collection was taken up Tne
price of admission was 10 cents, but II
the spectator did not have the price il
made no difference. These exercises were
useful to us in the way OF providing but
ter and chicken money. while they also
served TO enliven the other boys.
After the war / engaged in the news
paper business, but found it too combining,
and went to Cincinnati in the commission
business with a relative, but luck was
against us. and l clerked in a clothing
store. When the summer season came on
the boss wanted to cut my salary, but I
would not stand for it and threw up the
job.
'In the mean time there was a man in
the city organizing a minstrel company,
and he was sent to me by bank prcsi-
dent who had seen my work in some anna
teur performances at which / had assist
ed The manager liked my work IN re-
hearsai and engaged me to play end man
and TO do turn in the OliO. / stayed
with him for several months and then
managed houses in different cities
My last engagement as house mana
ger was in Texas. / went there under q
contract to stay six months, but remain
ed eighteen. and nearly had a light when
/ left. as they wanted me to stay went
away with a minstrel organization 10 st.
Louis, and there joined Haveriy's troupe.
Later the firm of Barlow. Wilson, PriIn-
rose & West was organized. We STAYED
together for several years. and then VIII
son and I went out as a firm. That was
finally dissolved. and l went into more
legitimate lines, playing parts.
Modern blackface minstreisy retains
nothing OF the old except the name In
my day we had some sixteen men in the
company, each one Of whom was a Spe-
cialist whose style was familiar to the
public. They were fond of their work and
proud of the stuff that they originated.
The result was that while there was not
so much quantity in our shows they were
all quality gentleman called upon me
when l was in Baltimore some years ago
and in talking over old times said he re-
membered that as soon as the posters
of a Well-knova minstrel company were
put up the people began to smile and en-
gage their seats in advance. When they
saw the show the witticTsmS were i'm
pressed upon them and a smile would
break out now and again for weeks after
as the memory of some especially good
line fitted through the mind Nowadays
the minstrel posters lack the genuine
comic character and are more Ike oil
paintings, nor do the people have the
same pleasant "reminiscences of the visit
The downfall Of minstrelsy began
when Thatcher raised the number of his
company from sixteen To forty After he
set the pace the rest of us had to follow
suit or fall behind The effect of the in
crease Of numbers was to obtain quantity
at the expense of quality In my day the
salaries OF our small shows came to =
total nearly as large as that of the pres
ent large ones, and the consequence is
that you find few artists surrounded ~
mediocre men whose shortcomings de-
tract from the work of those who are bet
ter.
You see an octette get up and instead
of the splendid volume of sound which
you would expect from eight good singers
YOU find that several of them are soldier
ing and that hardly more than half of
them are really singing. Or you see six
teen buck dancers come out on the stage
and in the entire collection there viii not
be more than two or three who can do
more than the ordinary steps, and the
really accomplished dancers have To tone
down their work to suit that of their
fellows.
MANY of the present minstrels also
have no conception of the real darky.
and while they blacken their faces they
40 nothing more to enact the character.
Taken altogether. the modern minstrel
show is little more than a vaudeville per-
formauce and bears practically no resem-
blauce to that which used to be seen.
"A man who has not studied the negro
cannot give a truthful picture of him n
the stage. Naturally the negro is the
funniest man in America today. but he
does not realize il. I do not speak of the
city daTl-ies who have learned to read
and write and cipher, but of the kind
that were known to Southerners before
the war and are now rapidly dying out.
The negro is in many respects but an
ape minus the tail, and in no way does
he 50 resemble the ape as in his love OF
mimicry. 1t YOU watch a darky and he
becomes aware of that fact he immedi-
atFly tries to act and become forced.
without being in the least funny. but
observe him when unreStrained and yOu
see a character worthy of the close at
.ention of the best actors Baltimore
sun.