Act V
Scene 1 Bar-Room in the American Hotel — Travellers Lounging in Chairs, and at the Bar
Enter Bill Jennings, R.
Barkeeper. Why, Jennings, how do you do?
Jennings. Say Mr. Jennings, if you please.
Barkeeper. Well, Mr. Jennings, if that suits you better. How are times? We’ve been expecting you, for some days.
Jennings. Well, before I talk about the times, I want my horses put up, and want you to tell me where my niggers are to stay to-night. Sheds, stables, barns, and every thing else here, seems pretty full, if I am a judge.
Barkeeper. Oh! I’ll see to your plunder.
1st Lounger. I say, Barkeeper, make me a brandy cocktail, strong. Why, how do you do, Mr. Jennings?
Jennings. Pretty well, Mr. Peters. Cold evening, this.
1st Loun. Yes, this is cold. I heard you speak of your niggers. Have you got a pretty large gang?
Jennings. No, only thirty-three. But they are the best that the country can afford. I shall clear a few dimes, this trip. I hear that the price is up.
Enter Mr. White, R.
White. Can I be accommodated here to-night, landlord?
Barkeeper. Yes, sir; we’ve bed for man and beast. Go, Dick, and take the gentleman’s coat and hat. [To the waiter.] You’re a stranger in these parts, I rec’on.
White. Yes, I am a stranger here.
2d Loun. Where mout you come from, ef it’s a far question?
White. I am from Massachusetts.
3d Loun. I say, cuss Massachusetts!
1st Loun. I say so too. There is where the fanatics live; cussed traitors. The President ought to hang ’em all.
White. I say, landlord, if this is the language that I am to hear, I would like to go into a private room.
Barkeeper. We ain’t got no private room empty.
1st Loun. Maybe you’re mad ’bout what I said ’bout your State. Ef you is, I’ve only to say that this is a free country, and people talks what they please; an’ ef you don’t like it, you can better yourself.
White. Sir, if this is a free country, why do you have slaves here? I saw a gang at the door, as I came in.
2d Loun. He didn’t mean that this was a free country for niggers. He meant that it’s free for white people. And another thing, ef you get to talking ’bout freedom for niggers, you’ll catch what you won’t like, mister. It’s right for niggers to be slaves.
White. But I saw some white slaves.
1st Loun. Well, they’re white niggers.
White. Well, sir, I am from a free State, and I thank God for it; for the worst act that a man can commit upon his fellow-man, is to make him a slave. Conceive of a mind, a living soul, with the germs of faculties which infinity cannot exhaust, as it first beams upon you in its glad morning of existence, quivering with life and joy, exulting in the glorious sense of its developing energies, beautiful, and brave, and generous, and joyous, and free,—the clear pure spirit bathed in the auroral light of its unconscious immortality,—and then follow it in its dark and dreary passage through slavery, until oppression stifles and kills, one by one, every inspiration and aspiration of its being, until it becomes a dead soul entombed in a living frame!
3d Loun. Stop that; stop that, I say. That’s treason to the country; that’s downright rebellion.
Barkeeper. Yes, it is. And another thing,—this is not a meeting-house.
1st Loun. Yes, if you talk such stuff as that, you’ll get a chunk of cold lead in you, that you will.
Enter Dr. Gaines and Scragg, followed by Cato, R.
Dr. G. Gentlemen, I am in pursuit of two valuable slaves, and I will pay five hundred dollars for their arrest.
[Exit Mr. White, L.
1st Loun. I’ll bet a picayune that your niggers have been stolen by that cussed feller from Massachusetts. Don’t you see he’s gone?
Dr. G. Where is the man? If I can lay my hands on him, he’ll never steal another nigger. Where is the scoundrel?
1st Loun. Let’s go after the feller. I’ll go with you. Come, foller me.
[Exit all, L., except Cato and the waiter.
Cato. Why don’t you bring in massa’s saddle-bags? What de debil you standin’ dar for? You common country niggers don’t know nuffin’, no how. Go an’ get massa’s saddle-bags, and bring ’em in.
[Exit Servant, R.
By golly! ebry body’s gone, an’ de bar-keeper too. I’ll tend de bar myself now; an’ de fuss gemman I waits on will be dis gemman of color. [Goes behind the counter, and drinks.] Ah, dis is de stuff fer me; it makes my head swim; it makes me happy right off. I’ll take a little more.
Enter Barkeeper, L.
Barkeeper. What are you doing behind that bar, you black cuss?
Cato. I is lookin’ for massa’s saddle-bags, sir. Is dey here?
Barkeeper. But what were you drinking there?
Cato. Me drinkin’! Why, massa, you muss be mistaken. I ain’t drink nuffin’.
Barkeeper. You infernal whelp, to stand there and lie in that way!
Cato. Oh, yes, seer, I did tase dat coffee in dat bottle; dat’s all I did.
Enter Mr. White, L., excited.
Mr. White. I say, sir, is there no place of concealment in your house? They are after me, and my life is in danger. Say, sir, can’t you hide me away?
Barkeeper. Well, you ought to hold your tongue when you come into our State.
Mr. White. But, sir, the Constitution gives me the right to speak my sentiments, at all times and in all places.
Barkeeper. We don’t care for Constitutions nor nothin’ else. We made the Constitution, and we’ll break it. But you had better hide away; they are coming, and they’ll lynch you, that they will. Come with me; I’ll hide you in the cellar. Foller me.
[Exit Barkeeper and White, L.
Enter the Mob, R.
Dr. Gaines. If I can once lay my hands on that scoundrel, I’ll blow a hole through his head.
Jennings. Yes, I say so too; for no one knows whose niggers are safe, now-a-days. I must look after my niggers. Who is that I see in the distance? I believe it’s that cussed Massachusetts feller. Come, let’s go after him.
[Exit the Mob, R.