The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1905-06-16
geleet Misrellany>
Negro Of Other
Days Passing Away

Inc anteOellum negro, Will LIS
masters elegant bow and knack OF
looking decent in picturesque rags, is
fast dropping out of Southern life.
His cold woman" waddling comforta-
bly, under the big clothes basket or
following proudly sleeked-up grand.
baby of "we-all's folks,' is rare fig
ure now in Southern towns. Even the
Southern winter is fatal season to
the old Africans constitution. Every
spring the ranks, pitiably thinner,
shamble out into sunshiny streets and
alleys, with tolerable surety of falling
with next winters SHOWS.
Like his master, the ex-slave has
grown hoary in the struggle to meet
conditions, but, unlike his master, he
has not been able to conquer. Worn
with the struggle he drops out of life,
with no success + in his race, no be-
queathment of himself to history ex-
cept through the dialect story of the
Scr.h. With him passes illustration
of that unique relation between mas
ter and slave which preserved the old
wine of bondage in the new bottles OF
the nineteenth century and left a Pc
culiar cordiality between The two az
ter emancipation.
The idiom Of the old negro's dia-
lect, his flashlight phrases of feeling
and warm, shrewd imagery pass with
him. Tue inimitable slurs of his soft
enunciation and comical, picturesque,
miscalled long words give populari-
ty to his dialect which none other,
not even the Scotch, possesses for the
public mind. The manner which he
"put on in his youth with his masters
old coat sets him apart in age as a
gentleman of cultured address. When
he stands at the back door, bowling
over his ragged hat, he discovers the
truth that elegance is acquired by as
ISOLATION, for the fineness of antebel-
lum parlors hangs on his old lisp and
obsequious gallantry. Every town in
the South has among its public char
acters one Of these old negroes. To
have reached this present age be has
been necessarily ofthe uncommon, in
dustrious, 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
society to creak about in his rickety
old cart, OR shiny young buck may
have displaced him as janitor of
some public building He only does
odd jobs "about de place" OF old &C.
quaintances. He is shy of modern
hustle, and, avoiding public thorough
fares, hobbies up back streets to a
corner where he is likely to meet some
of cole Ma SEES kinship of clan"
"Howdy, boss? You's lookin' we'll
to-day, you sho' is! You favor old
marse jest de same ez when you USE
ter ride hinte (behind) me on ole mule,
jimmy Hits a powerful cole dayI
Vas, sub, too cole fer me to wuk to-
day. Vas, sub, de roometiz done
cotoh me in de back. | han't ez beart
ez common today, boss"
1t is not beginning. NJ one could
look at Uncle Ishe, quantity respecta-
bic in his rags and bows and call it
begging. But the boss sticks his
fingers into his vest pocket for loose
change. If be has not seen the old
man lately he asks about bis old wife
or shif.less son or daughter. If he has
seen him with too much frequency be
doesn't hesitate to tell him 3 roundly,
knowing, however, it will not have the