And, worst of all, 1 life-size wood-cut representation of Mr. Booker
himself, with an old valise in one hand and a superannuated umbrella in
the other, as he was wont to appear in his wonderful plantation act of
“The Smoke-house Reel.”
During the slow exposure of each of these articles, one after the other,
there was some attempt to keep order in court, but by the time the last
one was reached even the attempt was abandoned. The scene became
uproarious, and the court was adjourned.
The moral editor never heard the last of it. He was forced to sell out
his reformatory newspaper and leave the town.
* * * * *
We were on our way east from Chicago, exhibiting at the towns along the
line of the Michigan Central Railroad, when Ephraim came to us. Ephraim
was one of the most comical specimens of the negro species. We were
playing at Marshall, Michigan, when he introduced himself to our notice
by bringing water into the dressing-room, blacking our boots, and in
other ways making himself useful.
He had the blackest face, largest mouth, and whitest teeth imaginable.
He said there was nothing in the world which he would like so well as to
travel with a show. What could he do? Why, he could fetch water, black
our boots, and take care of our baggage. We assured him that we could
not afford to have a servant travel with us. Ephraim rejoined that he
did not want any pay; he just wanted to go with the show. We told him it
was simply impossible; and Ephraim went away, as we thought,
discouraged.
The next morning, as we were getting into the railway-car, whom should
we discover there before us but Ephraim, with his baggage under his
arm,--a glazed travelling-bag of so attenuated an appearance that it
could not possibly have had anything in it but its lining. To the
question as to whither he was bound he replied, “Why, bless you, I’s
goin’ wid de show.” Again he was told that it could not be, and made to
get out of the car.
This occurrence gave Mr. Lynch the theme for a long series of stories
about people he had met, who were what he called “show-struck”; and with
these narratives our time was beguiled till we reached the town at which
we were to perform that night. As we walked out towards the baggage-car,
what was our surprise to see Ephraim there, picking out and piling up
our trunks, and bestowing sundry loud and expressive epithets upon the
baggage-master, who had let a property-box fall upon the platform.
I think we laughed louder now than we had at any of Mr. Lynch’s stories.
Ephraim deigned not to notice us or our mirth, but, having picked out
the baggage that went to the hall where we were to exhibit, he called a
dray and rode away with it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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