The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-28
From the Louisville courier-Journal.

From the Louisville Courier-Journal.
TINE craze for negro minstrelsy that
is reported as having become pro-
inent in London will result in gro
iesque misrepresentation of tie Ameri AN
negro upon the London stage
The American negro, who, by the way,
rejcices in keen enough sense of humor
to appre ecate joke al his own expense,
provides material for "a great deal of hui
morous literature and first rate acted
comedy. 1t is, however, rather the ex-
ception than the rule that the negro upon
the stage, even in America, is sincere
imitation of the negro in real life.
Nothing more surely awakens a cordial
feeling toward the American negro thaa
a truthful representation of his humorous
aspects. In any fairly accurate pieturing
Of him there are abundant opport nities
to laugh with, as well as at. him. But
even by laughing at him the audience
gets an insight into his character and
characteristics that brings tnefewo races
into closer sympathy
Lincoln Steffens once sententiously OBJ
seryed-and at the same time seriously
humor made grating in politics easier
in this country, and grafters more nearly
immune from punishment. than else
where in the world. The Amesians, he
said. were so much inclined to appreciate
the comic side of grating, as joke at the
expense of the people, that they forgo-
to be sufficiently provoked by Its injus-
tice to make active efforts to punish the
guilty. The same explanation may be
of the south toward the often inefficient,
indolent and untrustworthy negro OF the
south whose faults. foibles and falling
are accepted with smile of humorous
app eciation as being innate and inevita-
BILE. Because they understand the negro,
and can laugh away the vexation that
results from his notoriously well rewarded
efforts to go through life with a mini
mum expenditure of energy while enjoy
ing a maximum of comfort and freedom
from personal Inconvenience, southerners
get along with him much better than can
northerners who come to the south under
the impression that the negro is very
harshly treated and greatly slandered
iron the sunny side of the Ma son and
Dixon line A concrete illustration lies
in the popularity--in the section in which
it describes a condition existng-of ne
gro song the refrain of which is:
me-
The song-need it be said?--is he joy
Gus caroling of vagobnd buck" negro
who is provided with three hearty meals
a day as a result of his mistress having
position as cook in a kitchen which is
supplied through the efforts of white
man. The situation described is one that
has endured the half century of freedom
hat separates the present time from
slave days. 1t has cost the white people
of the south in the aggregate hundreds of
millions of dollars Nevertheless it's
humorous phase never fails to strike the
funnybone of the southern born white
man or woman. The northerner who sets
up housekeeping in the south and finds
expensive provisions disappearing with
mysterious regularity through unknown
channels, is not so likely to find any
counter balancing consolation in the hii-
morous features Of the case when his in
vcstigation reveals the system of exploi-
tatlon that is one of the moist popular in
stitutions of the least worthy class of me-
grOes in the south.
The relations betweei the white and
black Americans south of the Ohio must
be understood before real depletion of
the negro can be appreciated. London
knowing little about these relations. and
little about the American negro, will b.
easily satisfied with any sort of presenta-
Iy sooty complexion, conventionAl negro
aaiDstrcl lips. eyes and expansc OF teeth,