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the Divine injunction that he who will not labour shall not eat. The Negro is a little world of whims and fancies, ecstacies and superstitions.
He imagines life a comedy and a masquerade, in which the parts and costumes are dispensed by chance.
If he could only change the parts and dresses!
For the moment he is full of this idea.
Fame and fortune, power and splendour, seem to him the fruit of a gigantic lottery called Public Life, and he is haunted by the notion that if he could only invest his fortunes in that lottery he might live in a fine house and have squash and sweet potato, whisky and tobacco, all his days.
Hence, he is hot with politics, to the neglect of everything he has to do. Shall he come to the front?
Yes, stand in front.
To have a thousand faces turned towards him, to hear a thousand voices ring out: “Bravo!-dat is good,hock, hi, hi, hee!”
is what he wants.
1875.
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