§ 289 Stylish Language, Indeed!
For years, a certain worthy and highly intelligent old colored woman did our family washing. One Saturday night after she had fetched the week’s laundry she sat in the kitchen of our home before she started on her return trip to her own house a mile and a half away. My mother came to the kitchen door to chat with her a little while.
From remarks which the old woman let fall, my mother gathered that Aunt Milly, although very devout, did not seem to care deeply for the present pastor of her church.
“Mis’ Manie,” said Aunt Milly, “I’m goin’ tell you how I put that there biggety preachin’ man in his place. Yere yistiddy evenin’ jest ’fo’ suppertime, I wuz settin’ on my front po’ch w’en the Rev’n Rogers come along by. He sees me settin’ there an’ he stops an’ fumbles wid the gate latch an’ he sez to me he sez, ‘Sist’ Carter, I would have speech with thee?’—jest lak that.
“Now, Mis’ Manie, I ain’t aimin’ to let no nigger whatsoever, even ef he is a min’ster of the gospel, use mo’ stylish language ’en whut I kin. So I sez right back to him, I sez, ‘Rev’n, draw nigh an’ ye shall be heard!’
“So he undo the gate an’ come on up the walk to my do’step. But no sooner do he start in to speak ’en I know whut ’tis he’s fixin’ to say. He fixin’ to ax my sympathy on ’count of that tore-down limb of a onmarried daughter of his’n havin’ got herse’f mixed up in a scandalizin’ an’ bein’ tawked about all over the neighborhood. So, jest soon ez I sees whut he’s drivin’ at, I th’ows up my right hand like this, an’ I sez to him, I sez,
“‘Rev’n,’ I sez, ‘hold! Yere last fall,’ I sez, ‘w’en my husband, Isaiah Carter, at the age of seventy-fo’ w’en he should a’knowed better, wuz mekin’ hisse’f kind of promisc’us by hangin’ ’round two of the lady members of the congregation, an’ I went to you,’ I sez, ‘an’ axed you, az the pastor, to ’monstrate wid him, whut did you do? Jest because he’d done give you five dollars fur the new organ fund, you tole me to shet up my black mouth an’ go on home an’ ’tend to my own bizness.’
“‘Rev’n,’ I sez, ‘ez ye sows, so shall ye reap! Rev’n, pass on!’”