Old Josh, in: The Tale of Asha & Dat Slick Nigger (Parts I & II)

Old Josh, in:
The Tale of Asha (1901)
(Episode #18, Part I)


(A poem Josh had Silas write down for him,
in 1856 ((the year now being 1901)) he found;
He had been looking for it, and found it in his old sack of papers under his cot, and had it in his pocket, as he and Silas rode down to Ozark, in Hank W. (Wally) Hightower’s wagon to pick up some supplies.)

(He brings up Asha, first before he attempts to read the poem, fussing about looking for it as the wagon bounces up and down, the unpaved road.)


Josh: Is you hear de tale ‘bout Asha?
Silas: Wuh Asha?
Josh: You’ Asha!
Silas: Wuh Tale?
Josh: She act like she ant got no sense fur ‘em—men!
Silas: I ain’ pay no head to nothin’ like dat, mens is mens, ain’t dey pa?
Josh: Sho’ is.
Silas: Wuh de tale?
Josh: Asha been de pear in de white folks eye, an’ de nigger too, an’ whn she guan fr church on Monday, cuss she dont go on Sunday, she done disappear fur an hour an’ de preacher disappear too, nobody know wey, all de niggers look fur dem and wer de finds her, wit no cloth on, dey ask wat she doin’ (Josh hesitates)…
Silas: So wuh she doin’ pa?
Josh: De man run like de wild cat, no one nower, no one axe de preacher cuss he never sho up at de Church de next Sunday; Ole Tom and Amos ask her again who de man wuz, she guin up to dem and do somthin’ an’ dey comes back and say, ‘Leaves her be, Asha ok, dont no one bother her no more, dats wha’ de say all right. Wut yu thinks ‘bout dat?
Silas: Effin dey say she ok, she ok pa, dot go a fret-ten none!

Josh: Des here horse liken dat man in Orleans, de big educated nigger, lazy as de day is long… git on up dere Dan!

2-12-2007




Old Josh, in:
Dat Slick Nigger (a Poem)) Part II))
(Episode #18)

(A poem Josh had Silas write down for him,
in 1856 ((the year now being 1901)) he found;
He had been looking for it, and found it in his old sack of papers under his cot, and had it in his pocket, as he and Silas rode down to Ozark, in Hank W. (Wally) Hightower’s wagon to pick up some supplies.)


Down in Orleans, back in ‘56
Dis slick nigger, I knows him
An’ all he trys to do is git an’ git.

Hes a sittin’ out of work…
A sittin’ by de church
An’ he trys to git an’ gits
De ole slick nigger, who hates de work
He beggin’ an’ beggin’ all de dey long
An’ hes free, free, as de bee
An’ hesa lughin’ at me,
At mi face, askin’ for money.

He an educated nigger, he is
Liken to de rattlesnake;
I suppse de schoolin’ help
Him make a heap of lie an’ lazy
An’ he puttin’ all kin of notion in
De chilllun head…!

I says to him ‘wuy yu is so lazy?’
An’ he says to me:
“I makes more moey den you
Brother, doing nothing”
An’ den he calls me de black er
den da ace of spades.

Yessum, dat dere wat
De ed-ucation give to de nigger.



#1690 2-12-2007

Note: There was an old boy, a rich beggar I met, and so I added that into my story, (the experience), along with New Orleans where I had visited once, along with of course living in Ozark, Alabama, over 30-years ago (for two years), and came up with Josh’s poem. So if you are wondering where it came from, there are elements to each story and poem, a story within a story you could say. Another point of interest might be (that influenced this poem-story), while living in San Francisco, in 1968-69, I used to say hello to an old bum that lived in the cellar of an old building. The manager of the building let him live there if he kept the basement clean, and swept the outside. When he died, I read in the paper back then, he left near $300,000 to the hotel. So looks and acts can be deceiving, and such are all around us.