Document text
Accession no.
WPA L.C.PROJECT Writers' uraT
Form —3
W3683
Date received
10/10/40
Consignment no.
1
Shipped from
Wash. off.
Label
Amount
3 D.
Folklore
Collection (or Type)
Title Philosophy of Negro laborers and
other examples of unpublished folklore
Place of origin
Date 12/20/38
Project worker One Spencer?
Project editor
Remarks A letter from Ona Spencer to Dr.
-WI Frederick.
4006 So. Parkway,
December 201 1938
,C
Dear Dr. Frederick: )(i-//
Concerning the folk lore survey: if this sort of material is
acceptable, you can depend on me for regular contributions. Ara con-
sidered an authority on negro folk lore know considerable about
the lore of United States hill country too. Afew examples of un-
published materials
Philosophy of begro.Laborers
I went to the school of mother -wit, the school that
all d fools fail to attend.
When you fool met you will fool a fool who ha
fooled many.
Still sow sucks the slop.
A Yelping dog gathers no bones.
High Pockets: "What makes a broke man sleep so sound?.
Shawty: "Cause he didn't have nothint when he first'
laid dawn.'
On Relief
The following is an endless song to which verses are made up on
the spur of the moment and immediately forgotten; examples:
I kin tell by the shape of your head
That you been eatin charity bread.
Response:
And I kin tell by the bend in your knees
That you been eatin charity cheese, etc.
It might be interesting to have several hundred of these stanzas
tracked down. They would, perhaps, paint a rather vivid picture af
the feelings of a laborer on relief.
This is an item I submitted to Mr. Botkir& mirolksayll several years
ago, pointing out that it seems highly flavored with the idiom of Chaucer:
W 3683
A RIDDLE FROM THs HILL COUNTRY
IT I got up one morning and I peeped thrpugh the crack;
I sa Bumback in the wheely-whacky- whack,
I stepped back to call Tom -tacky to ram Bumback,
Out of the Wheely-whaly-whack."
Solution:
Bumback: Cow
Wheely-whacAy-whack: Wheatfield
Tomtack: Dog
Heard on the day his Majesty, King Gorge of ngland passed away:
A gnnup of Negro workman are warming their hands over a N.P.A. fire.
Oholly: "Nen, I see where hing George "clikaall."
Hinry: "That 'dude' shore had the world in a jug and the stopper
in hid."
These and hundreds of other items were picked up in thirty
years contact with Negro folk types. Plucthis, I spent twelve
years researching up and down plantations, back streets and wharves,
and as many years culling every available scrap of supplementary
literature in preparation for my forthcoming volume
"The Romantic &volution of Jazz."
From this book was adapted the great Century of Progress Pageant
"0 Sing a New Song,' rated by reliable critics the greatest
Negro production x in history,'
2
3
because of its 4,000 actors, greatest Negro misicians in the world
(ir. C. Handy, Major Clark Smith, J. Rosemond Johnson, Will Marion enok,
etc.) carried in more daily papers than any other Negro undertaking
(not excluding Green Pastures)Ipecause it drew the largest colored atten-
dance, 40,000. Richard B. Harri,9on was narrator and President Roosevelt
pressed a button to start the shim.
You can depend on me for other phases of folk life, as well as authen-
tic historical backgrounds and interpretations of same.
have contributed like material, assisting University of North (Aro-
linats *Institute in Research of Social Sciences*, quoted in this field
by Dr. Guy B. Johnson, alakk B, Firestone (Sycamore Shores), P. D. Per-
kins, (author of the book OBSCURE WORKS OF LAFCADIO HEARNE and in Prank
Y. Grayson's volume *Thrills of the Historic Ohio River* and quoted in
various newsprints and periodicals.
Several of my short folk stories and feature articles have appeared
in magazines
Hope I can be of service without being transferred from Mr. Yarnoits
Radio Group.
Please return clippings.
Yours sincerely,
Onah Spencer
ca,a