Beadle's Dime Novels No. 33: Maum Guinea and Her Plantation Children — page 81: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ORIGINAL “OLE ZIP COON.” 15 performer having it all his own way, now Uncle Zip had been laid up by that unfortunate mistake which had caused him to be treated no better than a coon. “He Zip Coon now, sure ’nuff,” said one darkey, shaking . With laughter when he heard of the mistake; “ guess he won't want to sing ‘ Cooney in de holl@,’ any more—he holler loud "nuff hisself,”—at which piece of humor all his hearers ya-yahed in their soft, hearty way. A negro can laugh as easily as he can breathe; and as for his wit, he has. not arrived at that stage of development, including the morose, envious, analytic, comparative, sarcastic and irreverent, in which wit comes into play. A negro is seldom witty—it is only the gold-colored descendants, infused with the tingling sharpness of the alien blood, who are ever known to be more than good-naturedly humorous. “He’s had honey on his hoe-cake ever since frost come,” added another. “Saryed him right, setting up in his bee- tree like a bar’, so cross and selfish.” “ Woll, he won’t eat no more dat honey, boys; ’kase I staid behind las’ night, and took.a bucket and brought it all ’way ; we'll have a time wid dat honey dis berry arternoon. Git my ole woman to bake us lots o’ cake, and we'll jis’ haye a feas’—no mistake.” The sound of the banjo drew out the indolent creatures from their late breakfasts; woolly heads were thrust out of doors to see what kind of a day it was going to be, and little groups gathered about on the fences and the steps of the houses. Colonel Fairfax’s plantation was considered a model by his neighbors; ‘among other things, the negro-quarters were arranged with more comfort and system than was com- mon. The cgbins, all of a size, and uniform in appearance, were ranged down either side of a broad alley, with little garden-patches in the rear, and the alley itself serving as Comiclooks.conn