Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1884 — “Coon Los’, Shuah.” [ARTICLE]

“Coon Los’, Shuah.”

“Doggone es dis coon hain’t los’ hie6elf, shuah!” was the exclamation that saluted the ears of a Detroit business man as he was passing up Jefferson avenue on his way to the Brush street depot. Looking up, he discovered the “lost lamb” in the person of a very black man, over whose face doubt, perplexity, and interrogation were alternately struggling for expression. “Where do you wish to go?” asked the gentleman. “To de depot, boss. Ter see, I’se cook on a pahlah cah, an’ I come up hyah totin some does. De man said I should go down to some street—l done forgit es it was Badwatah or Backwatah, leastwise it was some kind o” watah—an’ I be doggone es I hain’t hunted in de dahk fo’ dat street mcre’n a bou’ah, tell I reckon I done loss de street, de depot, an’ myse’f, too.” The gentleman piloted the perplexed individual to the depot, and as they reached the corner of Atwater street, the face of the “lost one” lighted up as he exclaimed: “By golly, I done passed dis hyar cawnah ’bout free minutes ago. ’Spec’ de ’lectrum light mus’ ha’ bin blowed out. Beckon dey hain’t much ’count nohowfindin’ streets in de dahk,” and the sable stranger headed for his “pahlah cah,” which he discovered standing on the track, after offering profuse thanks to the man who piloted him “out of the wilderness,” and expressing his contempt for “’lectrum lights” as street illuminators in the most pronounced terms.— Detroit paper.