Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1884 — The Negro as a Gossip. [ARTICLE]

The Negro as a Gossip.

The principal reason why papers edited and conducted exclusively by colored men and exclusively for the socalled benefit of the colored race have generally met with bad luck, and been so short-lived, is that the negro has no need of a newspaper. He is a born gossip, a natural newsgatherer, and whatever he may chance to see or hear is at once scattered to the four winds of heaven, through the medium of such of his own race us he may happen to meet. A hasty telling, a picturesque embellishment, and aw*av go the self-ap-pointed couriers, happy in the possession of a bit of news that insures them a hearty welcome everywhere, and invests them with a dignity they could not otherwise hope to obtain. Nothing pleases the negro better than a chance to talk, whether it be in the pulpit, cornfield, street corner, or any other place where two or three of his race are gathered together. Tell him something important, and in less than twenty-four hours his, neighbors for forty miles arounddiave heard all about it, decorated with briliancy of meaning in the various passages it has traversed. No matter where the negro may be or in what occupation engaged, if ho can have some one to talk to he is perfectly happy, and envolves a quantity of wisdom, ludicrous and otherwise, that would make old Col. Plato, of the Athenian calvalry, turn pale with envy. The negro is a gregarious animal also, and for him solitude has absolutely not a single charm. He will at any time walk ten miles for company’s sake, and a chance to air his social, political, or religious opinions is considered by him a greater favor than a glass of whisky with white sugar thrown in. He don’t like to be forced to commune with himself, at least nbt until he gets to be a hundred years old; prefers stewed rabbit to a reverie, kind religiously believes that in the multitude of counselors there is safety. Of the ten measures of talk that are supposed to hate been thrown down from heaven the negro got pine, and he makes constant use of them on each and every possible occasion,— John Jay Hamilton.