§ 148 Why They Called Him Speedy
Bert Swor, the minstrel man, is something more than a mere black-faced comedian. He was born and reared in a Texas town and he probably knows as much about the true delineation of certain negro types as any living man.
One of his most popular wheezes is a rendition of something which a colored man at Fort Worth said years ago. Two negroes were talking together. As Swor passed by he gathered that the subject under discussion was the relative fleetness of foot of the pair. One of them said:
“You claims you is fast! You says you’s so fast folks calls you Speedy! Jest how fast is you, nigger?”
“I’ll tell you how fast I is,” said the other. “De room whar I sleeps nights is got jest one ’lectric light in it w’ich dat ’lectric light is forty feet frum de baid. W’en I gits undressed I kin walk over to dat ’lectric light and turn it out and git back into baid and be all covered up befo’ de room gits dark.”