Paul Laurence Dunbar
The heart of happy hollow
A collection of stories
Published by Good Press, 2020
EAN 4057664598066
Table of Contents
Foreword 3 One: THE SCAPEGOAT 5 Two: ONE CHRISTMAS AT SHILOH 21 Three: THE MISSION OF MR. SCATTERS 29 Four: A MATTER OF DOCTRINE 45 Five: OLD ABE'S CONVERSION 53 Six: THE RACE QUESTION 63 Seven: A DEFENDER OF THE FAITH 67 Eight: CAHOOTS 73 Nine: THE PROMOTER 81 Ten: THE WISDOM OF SILENCE 95 Eleven: THE TRIUMPH OF OL' MIS' PEASE 103 Twelve: THE LYNCHING OF JUBE BENSON 111 Thirteen: SCHWALLIGER'S PHILANTHROPY 121 Fourteen: THE INTERFERENCE OF PATSY ANN 129 Fifteen: THE HOME-COMING OF 'RASTUS SMITH 137 Sixteen: THE BOY AND THE BAYONET 145
THE HEART OF HAPPY HOLLOW
To My Friend
Ezra M. Kuhns
*
Foreword
Happy Hollow; are you wondering where it is? Wherever Negroes colonise in the cities or villages, north or south, wherever the hod carrier, the porter, and the waiter are the society men of the town; wherever the picnic and the excursion are the chief summer diversion, and the revival the winter time of repentance, wherever the cheese cloth veil obtains at a wedding, and the little white hearse goes by with black mourners in the one carriage behind, there—there—is Happy Hollow. Wherever laughter and tears rub elbows day by day, and the spirit of labour and laziness shake hands, there—there—is Happy Hollow, and of some of it may the following pages show the heart.
The Author.
One
THE SCAPEGOAT
I
The law is usually supposed to be a stern mistress, not to be lightly wooed, and yielding only to the most ardent pursuit. But even law, like love, sits more easily on some natures than on others.
This was the case with Mr. Robinson Asbury. Mr. Asbury had started life as a bootblack in the growing town of Cadgers. From this he had risen one step and become porter and messenger in a barber-shop. This rise fired his ambition, and he was not content until he had learned to use the shears and the razor and had a chair of his own. From this, in a man of Robinson's temperament, it was only a step to a shop of his own, and he placed it where it would do the most good.
Fully one-half of the population of Cadgers was composed of Negroes, and with their usual tendency to colonise, a tendency encouraged, and in fact compelled, by circumstances, they had gathered into one part of the town. Here in alleys, and streets as dirty and hardly wider, they thronged like ants.
It was in this place that Mr. Asbury set up his shop, and he won the hearts of his prospective customers by putting up the significant sign, "Equal Rights Barber-Shop." This legend was quite unnecessary, because there was only one race about, to patronise the place. But it was a delicate sop to the people's vanity, and it served its purpose.
Asbury came to be known as a clever fellow, and his business grew. The shop really became a sort of club, and, on Saturday nights especially, was the gathering-place of the men of the whole Negro quarter. He kept the illustrated and race journals there, and those who cared neither to talk nor listen to someone else might see pictured the doings of high society in very short skirts or read in the Negro papers how Miss Boston had entertained Miss Blueford to tea on such and such an afternoon. Also, he kept the policy returns, which was wise, if not moral.
It was his wisdom rather more than his morality that made the party managers after a while cast their glances toward him as a man who might be useful to their interests. It would be well to have a man—a shrewd, powerful man—down in that part of the town who could carry his people's vote in his vest pocket, and who at any time its delivery might be needed, could hand it over without hesitation. Asbury seemed that man, and they settled upon him. They gave him money, and they gave him power and patronage. He took it all silently and he carried out his bargain faithfully. His hands and his lips alike closed tightly when there was anything within them. It was not long before he found himself the big Negro of the district and, of necessity, of the town. The time came when, at a critical moment, the managers saw that they had not reckoned