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and enjoy those old-time amusements one must be made to understand much of the surfounding circum-stanecs, therefore I must take you back nearly half a century, to theyearg before the Civil war, when negro slavery was the greatest institution in the south, and when the customs of the country were stampedwith a character all their own.Sine© those happy days, time’s reaper has been busy among the old gentry of the south and has gathered most of the old typical southerners fo their final home, where we hope they have found another sunny clime in which they can enjoy the eternal peace which is promised to the “pure in heart.”But all are not yet gone; here ahd there we still see one of the old stock who is a fit representative of those days which are enshrined in sond andtold in story; still as proud, dignifiedand true to old customs ^nd traditions as in days lang syne. These old landmarks of ante-bellum days still retain the characteristics of universal courtesy and open hospitality, notwithstanding most of them who were accounted among the wealthiest in the land are now reduced to straits which in former years they thought it impossible to endure. But poverty, while it has swept away their former wealth, has not brought them from •their high estate of honor and gentility. Unfortunately, however, it hasproduced a reserve which is not nat-wants to dwell in community.To understand the negro thoroughly to appreciate his good qualities, tolearn to overlook his faults and dohim justice for his merits, one must have been raised with him; must have played with him as a child, romped and fought with him as a boy,and hunted, fished and danced withhim in early youth. The southern negro was always a never-failing source from which to draw fun and amusement* ‘ 'Upon the old southern plantations the negro cabins are built si little remote from the Big House,” (as theplanter’s residenec is called) and always convenient to a spring of pure water. These cabins, each with its large garden patch, form a rambling settlement, which, in plantation parlance, is called the “Negro Quarter. Here were the homes of the plantation hands and their families. One it the greatest features of the old plantation wa sits negro quarter, for it was there that the young men went to witness and often participate m, the fun and frolic which was universal among the southern negroes. After the day’s work was done, fatigue was forgotton and the negroes gave themselves over to sports and amusements, always accompanied with music, for music is as natural to the negroes of the south as songs Lb* thesong bidrs of the southern swand glades.* 9 a»*bu* has erased none of them a ri?*«r\What bull fighting was to the£7 rf-N P IS #vk f tin ^ i
Newspaper Details
San Antonio Sunday Light
San Antonio, Texas, US
Sun, Jul 09, 1905
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Wayne D.
NA, 03 Aug 2021
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