A number of stage negroes will be remembered by habitual theatre-goers, and students of the drama--two very different things, by-the-way, for the man who sees plays rarely reads them, and _vice versa_: Zeke, in Mrs. Mowatt's _Fashion_; Pete, in _The Octoroon_; Uncle Tom; Topsy, whom Charles Reade called "idiopathic"; a cleverly conceived character in Bronson Howard's _Moorcraft_; and the delightful band of "Full Moons," led for many seasons by "Johnny" Wild at Harrigan and Hart's Theatre, who were so absolutely true to the life of Thompson Street and South Fifth Avenue. [Illustration] In the absence of anything like a complete and satisfactory history of negro minstrelsy, it is not possible to discover its genesis, although it is the only branch of the dramatic art, if properly it can claim to be an art at all, which has had its origin in this country, while the melody it has inspired is certainly our only approach to a national music. Scattered throughout the theatrical literature of the early part of the century are to be found many different accounts of the rise and progress of the African on the stage, each author having his own particular "father of negro song." Charles White, an old Ethiopian comedian and manager, gives the credit to Gottlieb Graupner, who appeared in Boston in 1799, basing his statement upon a copy of Russell's _Boston Gazette_ of the 30th of December of that year, which contains an advertisement of a performance to be given on the date of publication at the Federal Street Theatre. At the end of the second act of _Oroonoko_, according to Mr. White, Mr. Graupner, in character, sang "The Gay Negro Boy," accompanying the air with the banjo; and although the house was draped in mourning for General Washington, such was the enthusiasm of the audience that the performer had to bring his little bench from the wings again and again to sing his song. W. W. Clapp, Jr., in his _History of the Boston Stage_, says that the news of the death of Washington was received in that city on the 24th of December, and that the theatre remained "closed for a week;" and was reopened with "A Monody," in which "Mrs. Barrett, in the character of the Genius of America, appeared weeping over the Tomb of her Beloved Hero"; but there is no mention, then or later, of Mr. Graupner or of "The Gay Negro Boy."