Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1902-04-09
healthy and wit his eyesight, is Far
more fortunate than the blind million

With the death of Neil" Bryant
there has passed away the last of the
old-time negro mistrels. BY n curious
coincidence Jack Haverly, BILLY"
West, BILLY" Emerson, and BILLY"
Rice, and now ''Neil' Bryant, the only
prominent representatives left of the
genuine burnt cork ARTISTS" died
within few weeks of each other.
With the exception OF Haverly and
Emerson, they We're old men, but they
preserved their sense of humor to the
last. 1t was genuine bit of humor,
Of the same kind that so moved Thack-
cray when he first heard the negro
MINISTRIES in America, when the dying
impersonator said: Tell all my friends
l have gone way back and sat down
and they will find me on the end seat"
With these men negro minstrelsy also
passes. Perhaps it would be more cor
rect to say that 1t passed away before
they did. The minstrel troupes now
on the stage have nothing in common
with the old-time performers save their
blackened faces. They represent no
class and their programs are d llotch-
potch of absurdly sentimental drivel
and eccentric vaudeville specialties.
The purpose of the old minstrels, be-
ginning with the Christy troupe, fifty
or more years ago, was to represent
the plantation negro in his native hui
NOR and with all his racial peculiari-
ties. The dances were the double shut
fle, the breakdown, the pigeon wing,
and the "Jim Crow" The instruments
We're the banjo, the fiddle, the bones,
and the tambourine. The songs We're
the racy plantation melodies. the jubi-
lee, hymns, and the melodies of still
higher and yet characteristic kind,
which flowed so rapidly and so easily
from the pen of Stephen G. Foster and
We're subsequently transplanted by
Dvorak in his new world symphony as
specimens of American folk music. In
these minstrel performances the COM
edy of negro life in the plantation cab
ms, in the cotton fields. on the Missis-
sippi River steamboats,, and in the
songs and dances Of their recreation
time was given with admirable truth
and humor. In the place of all this
we now have vaudeville acts, Coon
songs, ragtime, sentimental ballads,
and, In fact, everything except negro
minstrelsy. A row of performers with
blackened faces sing and act sue
cession Of numbers which have no
more relation to the negro than they
have to the Chinaman. Even the So
called coon" song has nothing of the
Ethiopian flavor. The sentimental bal
lad, when it was connected with the
negro. as in way Down on the Suwa-
nee River" 30! Susanna" "Old Dan
Tucker" 1.-The Old kentucky Home"
Jump Jim Crow" and others had an
element Of real humor, at times min
gled with pathos, because of per-
sonal motive in it. The sentimental
ballad of the modern troupes, on the
other hand, is simply mixture of SEN
sational slang and maudlin sentiment.
When BILLY" Emerson danced and
sang 1.-THE Big Sunfiower" he expressed
the happiness of the darby enjoying
his holiday. When modern minstrel
sings 1.-The Goo Goo-Eyes" he expresses
mere drivel. Negro minstrely was COM
paratively short lived, but it enjoyed
great popularity. Few artists, indeed,
have been more successful than the
four in black who have recently gone.
They We're comedians of high order
of talent.