The Abounding AmericanCrosland, T. W. H. (Thomas William Hodgson)
General
The Abounding American
Crosland, T. W. H. (Thomas William Hodgson)
National characteristics, American
“I demand this ordinance to your attention fer the sake of
humanity and fer the cause of freedom. Has introduced two
ordinances on this subject before, and now I am submittin’ this
Bill instead of them two. Maybe I don’t know nuthin’ about how
things is over here on this side of the bridge, but I know just
how it is in Brooklyn. An’ I wanter tell you that them motormen
over in Brooklyn is grinded under the heels of their masters
just as the slaves was drove in the olden times by his masters,
an’ it’s time fer us to interfere in this here matter now.
“Now you may want to know why them motormen don’t come over
here and speak up to you for their rights. If the is suffering
such outrages as this, you asks, why don’t they come here and
tell us that they is sufferin’ and ast us to life the yoke from
offen them?
“I’ll tell yer why they don’t come. They dasn’t. That’s why.
“They’re afraid, because they’re slaves and dasn’t speak up
fer themselves. If they was to come over here and say to this
committee, ‘We want you to protect us in our rights for the
reason that we’re sufferin’ and frozing in the winter,’ what
would happen?
“Why, before them men got through speakin’ their names would be
taken and telegraphed to their masters, and when they got back
to their cars them masters would tell them they hadn’t no more
use for ’em no more furever.”
Herein surely one may trace the effects of pea-nuts as easily as white
paint can be seen on a negro.
Now let us turn to a sample of English “as she is wrote” and apparently
spoken by the American who can read:—
The story about that fisherman wasn’t so bad. He was an old
guy, and so poor he had a hard time getting three squares a
day, and he had a wife and three kids to support. For some
reason too deep for your uncle, he had a rule to pitch his
nets in the sea only four times a day. One morning he went out
fishing before daylight, and the first drag he made, he copped
out a dead donkey. That made him pretty sore. Dead donks were a
frost, and he was out one throw. He win out a lot of mud, the
next throw, and he was sick, and he makes a howl about fortune.
“Here I am,” says he, “hustling all day long and every day in
the week; I got no other graft but this; and yet as hard as I
wrestle I can’t pay rent. A poor man has no chance. The smooth
guys get all the tapioca, and the honest citizen nit.”
Then he throws again, and finds another gold brick—stones,
shells, and stuff. I guess he was pretty wild when he sees
that. Three throws to the bad and nairy fish.
When the sun came over the hill, he flopped down on his knees
and prayed like all good Mussulmens, and after that gave the
Lord another song.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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