Old Josh, in: Horses, Turkeys and Mr. Ritt (1899) 2nd Series

Old Josh, in:
Horses, Turkeys and Mr. Ritt (1899)
(Episode #16)



(In the downtown area of Ozark, Alabama, there was an old framed wooden building built in the 1840s, that had been at the time a barrel making factory, but had stood for years vacant, a windowless building. Mr. Ritt, the banker bought it up in the 1860s, and made it a stable, with many stalls to it, he purchased young colts, and sold them there. Old Josh was rented out to Mr. Ritt that summer of ‘64 to tend to the stable work, Ritt was short on hands; it was in the summer of 1864 to be exact, and a hot summers day at that, when Old Josh was cleaning out the stable, one day, and a stallion got loose and ran out of the barn, ran crazy like through Main Street. Tyrone, the big Blackman, who assisted Josh, had been working prior to Josh coming on that day. And now Josh is recollecting this old happening, and telling it to his son Silas, as they sit on the porch of Josh’s shanty hut in back of the Hightower mansion.)

Josh: Dey have de agvantaage er me dey been too much against me, a dey all ‘em lie liken dey wuz trained to do so. I tells dem someone left de stall open…he say, Mr. Ritt, I do not, dat ole scoundrel holds mi respect, tell Marster Hightower. Mr. Ritt say “Dat dere nigger of you’ is trouble maker, and I’m goina wup him good, he done left my stallion loose.”

Silas: Dere’s more den God saw maybe.

Josh: Well, I goes hide, an’ Hightower finds me behind de cow in de corral; he shoot a turkey an’ when I gits back out er de corral, I sees a gobbler on mi porch, I tored dat gobbler insideout, he say dat a big nigger let de stall door open, dat I ain’ nothing do do with it.

2-10-2007