The Savannah morning news., 1904-05-17
PASSING OF OLD NEGRO.
He Is Unable to Meet New COndi-
tiOns In the south.
From the Nashville Banner.

From the Nashville Banner.
The ante-bellum negro, with his mas
ter's elegant bow and knack of look
ing decent in picturesque rags, is fast
dropping out of Southern life. His
''old woman" waddling comfortably
under the big clothes basket or fol-
lowing proudly a sleeked-up grandpa
by of a 'we-alrs folks" is a rare flg-
ure now, in Southern towns.
Even the Southern winter is a fatal
season to the old Africans constitu-
ton. Every spring the ranks, pitiably
thinner, shamble out into sunshny
streets and alleys, with tolerable sure
~ of falling with next winters SHOWS.
Like his master, the eX-slave has
grown hoary in the struggle to meet
new conditions, but, unlike his master.
he has not been able to conquer. Worn
with the struggle, he drops out of life,
with no successor in his race, no be-
queathment of himself to history ex-
cept through the dialect story of the
South
With him passes illustration of that
unique relation between master and
slaves which preserved the old wind
OF bondage in the new bottles of the
nineteenth century and left a pecu-
Aie'i pAhiallby DtlWttIl lne Two dILeT
emancipation.
The idiom of the old negro dialect.
his hashlight phrases of feeling and
! warm, shrewd imagery pass with him.
| The inimitable slurs OF his soft cnun-
citation and comical, picturesque, mis-
called long words give a popularity to
mis- dialect which none other, not even
the scotch, possesses for the pub
lie mind.
The manner which he put on in his
| youth with his masters old coats sets
MN apart in age as a gentleman OF
cultured address. When he stands at
the back door, bowling over his rag
ged hat, he discovers the truth shat ele-
ganoe is acquired by association for
the fineness of ante-bellum parlors
hangs on his old lisp and obsequious
gailantry.
Every town in the South has among
its public characters one of these old
negroes. TO have reached this present
age he has been necessarily of the I'M
common, industrious. sober type
He has. If he is very old, given UP
his patch" or his old horse has been
forbidden by the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals Society to creak about in
his rickety old cart, or shiny young
buck may have displaced him as a
Janitor of some public building. He
only does odd jobs about de place"
OF old acauaintances. He is shy OF
modern hustle. and. avoiding public
thoroughfares, hobbies up back streets
to corner where he is likely to meet
some of "Ole Marse's kinship of clam
"Howdy, boss? You's loolcn well to-
day, you sho is, You favor ole marse
jest de same ez when you uester ride
hinte (behind) me on ole mule Jimmy.
Hits a powerful cole day! Vas, sub,
too cole fer me to wuk to-day Vas.
sub. de rumatiz done cotdh me in the
hack hain't ez peart ez common
to-day, boss"
1t is not begging. No one could look
at Uncle Ishe. quantity respectable in
his rags and bows, and call t begging.
But the boss sticks his fingers in his
-5est pocket for Il ose change. If he has
not seen the old man lately he asks
about his old wife. or shiftlass son or
daughter. II h. has seen him with
too much frequency he doesn't hest
tate to tell him SO roundly. knowing,
however, it will not have the least Eff
feet on Uncle Ishe's temperance. Ac-
cording to the old mans account. his
poverty is always a temporary acct
dent.