Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1883 — SAMBO’S PECULIARITIES. [ARTICLE]

SAMBO’S PECULIARITIES.

His Love for Chickens. ’Possum. Halls of • Justice and the Watermelon. The love of the plantation hand for fried chicken has passed into history. It is no longer a dim tradition, but a well-proven fact. It seems a little bit singular that any one race should have an abnormsl appetite for any one thing, but the negro’s devotion to chicken proves the sublime nature of hfe devotion. If there are no chickens which he can take handily, he will spend his last cent in the purchase of one, but he will only do this as a last contingency, and always under protest. To raise chickens anywhere near a colony of negroes is an impossibility; not even the feathers will remain to decrease the margin between profit and - loss. As an old sinner tola me: “Dav’s no use denyin’ hit, es Ize goin’ home from de ’vival an’ I hears a chicken whickeS like an’ dar’s nobody ’roun’ Ize gwine climb dat fence suah. ” How the negro does love a ’possum! That sly beast who loves the night rather than day, because its deeds are evil, is very dear to the African heart. An old colored friend of mine—an exmember of the Legislature says: “Take er nice fat ’possum, parbile him, roas’ him, sarb him up with sweet taters an graby, and, gentlemen, hit am good!” All scenes of law have a great fascination for the negro. The court-room even of a Justice of the Peace has a sort of sticking-plaster power over him, and the most trivial cases find hfin an eager spectator. When the United States court is in session he is in his glory. He fills the seats with his dirty, greasy anatomy, listens open-mouthed to the lawyers, takes an occasional nap, and chews peanuts nearly all the time. He is the first one in the court-room and the last one to leave it, and he regards the prisoner on trial with a huge grin of admiration as the center-piece of the legal entertainment. He constitutes himself a part of the paraphernalia of justice, and when the prisoner is sentenced, he follows him to the door of the jail as a guard of honor. The spectacle of law thus vindicated does not deter him in the slightest from the commission of a crime. He rather has a vague longing to see himself occupying the principal role, and awaking like .interest among his brethren. Watermelon season opens up a long vista of delight unto the negro. Give him a forty-pofind melon and a sunny nook and he will thank God for nothing else. He will devour it to the outer rind, seeds and all, and then lie down on the roadside, with a sun of vnlimited power beating full upon him. He will eat melons ripe, half ripe or green, and they seem to have no ill effect upon him. Watermelon growers have to guard their melons at night with shot-guns to keep the exile from Afric’s sunny fountains from eating up all the profit. Sugar cane is another favorite in the domestic economy of the negro. When he has a nickel he will buy a stalk, but if he lives near a flourishing patch, he won’t spendhis money foolishly, but he will have the sugar cane* all the same. It is a funny sight to see a huge fellow of 40 years or so, sitting on the public corner with eight feet of sugar cane in one hand and a large knife in another, cutting and chewing as if his own salvation and the country depended on it. He is the happiest fellow in the world, a true child of nature, and nature takes the best care of him. When the watermelon season ends, comes the blackberry, then the sugar cane and the persimmon and the “gcober” is always on hand. Holidays he will have, and no one knows better how to employ them. Having but little regard for the interests of his employer, he has not the slightest care as to whether the holiday he enjoys affects that person injuriously or no, and money is no temptation to him to continue at work while the others are enjoying excursions, camp-meeting or a general loafing. Should a circus come to town, he will at once drop all work, no matter how pressing it may be, and walk twenty miles to where the vast canvas is spread, perfectly happy if he gain admittance to its awesome wonders by carrying water to the gyasticutus. If he can’t do this he will hang around all day, listening to the music, the oratory of the side show, the subdued roar of the wangdoodle, and the braying of the educated jackass. It is singular, but true, that the negro always has money for an excursion. No matter how dry and rusty the fryingpan may be, he always has money for “a ride on de keers.” With a sublime faith in Providence, he will go 100 miles from home on an excursion, trusting to some unknown combination of circumstaitces to.furnish him With eatables and drinkables while he is away. He will take no “sass” from his employer, nor is he as a general thing willing to do anything not mentioned in the original agreement. Should yon speak sharply to him for any cause, the chances are that he will leave you at once, regardless of the fact that he may not have a penny in his pocket, or a meal of victuals in his house. He must be treated as if he were a spoiled child, coddled and flattered; a course which is mighty unpleasant to contemplate, but with the majority of them absolutely necessary. 9 The great dread of the negfib is to be “conjured.” He believes that the various aches and pains with which he may at times be afflicted are the results of conjuring him by some enemy.— Hamilton Jay, in Detroit Free Press. Do not think that your learning and genius, your wit or sprightliness, are welcome everywhere. I was once told that my company was disagreeable because I appeared so uncommonly happy.— Zim m ermann. As in our lives, so in our studies, it is most becoming and most wise to temper gravity with cheerfulness, that the former may not imbue our minds with melancholy, nor the latter degenerate into licentiousness.— Pliny.