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760 AL-69
Henry Baysmore (Colored) 39 Suda Street. Montgomery, Ala.
By Adelaide Rogers 511 South Hull St. Montgomery, Alabama.
[handwritten start] Copy of assa mailed to DL. Ba Backing folklore advise Mr. U[illegible] [handwritten end]
"GAB'UL, CHIME DAT HARP!"
Uncle Henry Baysmore, who lives at 39 Suda Street, Montgomery Alabama, says he has been fo'casting so long he can't exactly remember when he began telling fortunes as a business.
A tall dark Negro, with gray woolly hair and bushy white eyebrows that drape themselves above his large, direct, and singularly honest eyes, Uncle Henry admits rather sheepishly that he is going on seventy five years old. He says he almost worked himself to death in his early life, trying to farm on shares, and trying to please white folks.
Now, instead of white folks working him, he works white folks.
"Yassum," Uncle Henry insisted respectfully but with twinkling eyes. "I got more white customers what wants to see into de future, den cullud ones.
"Most of my cullud customers wants to cunjure somebody. Dey comes to me on account I'se de man fur dat. But de white folks patronisin' Uncle Henry is anxious to know about money ...how kin dey keep what dey got ... or git a holt to somebody else's. Or if t'ain't money dey's inquirin' about its property...
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Is dey gwiner inherit dat house dey oruves, or is ole Aunt Lucy gwiner up an' leave it to somebody else - after all?
"'Look Uncle Henry,' dey 'low, 'peer in yo' glass an' see kin you spy out what she's intendin' fur to do wid all dat money. It's a shame fur hit to go to somebody else after my visits an' 'tentions to de ole lady. T'ain't right, Uncle. Dere ought to be some way I kin fence off de others. An' if dey is sich a way - an' you p'ints it out to me, - I might give you five dollars."
Uncle Henry paused to emit a chuckle. "Five dollars?" I says. "Why Chile, it ain't a goin' to cost a cent under ten dollars fur us to see who yo' Aunt Lucy is gwiner leave her money, an' diamonds an' houses to. No'm, not a cent under ten dollars. My eyes is gittin' old lak de res' of me. It ain't he'p 'em none, neiver, strainin' to see dem dim shapes in my crystal goblet, or my sperit glass. So if you can't 'fode ten dollars, fur a lil supernat'chal info'mation, de property jus' hafta go to somebody else. Dat usually gets 'em, " he added craftily, "an' day'll more 'en likely come back to hand over de cash.
"One lady useter come to see me all de time, tryin' to find out when her husband aim fur to die. 'Don't you worry yo' se'f, Chile'. I says finally. 'Dat man ain't studin' 'bout dyin'. He'll live a long time yit. A long time. I kin see him hyah twenty yere fum now.'
"Well sir, she bust out cryin' 'Oh Uncle Henry ' she sob. 'I needs
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de insu'ance. I needs it bad. Can't you do no better'n dat? I thought sho since I been givin him dem heart draps you could see him failin'. Look ergin Uncle. Hebbe you kin notice his weakenin'.' I look ergin, a long steady gaze. Den I says.' No'm, I still sees him goin strong twenty yers fun now. Only you ain't wid him. He's ma'ied to somebody else. Young an'frisky as a colt. But you mus'n feel bad over dat. He thinks a lot of you. I sees him goin' to de cemetery mos' ev'y weak. 'Deed I do.'
"Wid dat she screams an' says I's er imp'tant ole debbil, an' dat she 'blige to repo'te me fur sassin' her. 'No'm, you ain't', I 'low. 'You'se goin' home dis ebenin', an' you ain't goin' to feel good. You is goin' to stay in bed a few days. You ain't well now. An' by tomorrow you can't keep nuffin on yo' stummick. You'll stay in bed a spell an' you won't never be up no more'. An' she wahnt. No'm, she went to bed a nervous sickness, I heard, an' was down three munts. Den she tuc' de flu an' pass right out. I read dat in de papers. I wusn't sorry neiver. Repo'te me indeed! Huh! Heart draps fur to git dat insu'ance! He's a good man too. I meets him on de street sometime. He's a heap better off wid de second wife. Only he don't go to de cemetry regular at all. I jus' tele dat to make her feel good. But Law! 'Stead of cheerin' her up hit went an' kilt her. Wimmin is cu'is dat way. Mighty cu'is. Dey ain't got no common sense in dey feelin's. Not a speck.
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"Ole maids what never had a beau - an' never will - comes an' ax me can't I see a man in dey life. Dey say, 'Uncle Henry, I's mighty lonesome. I want you to see fur me. I wants you to do de bes' you kin fur me'. Yessum dey does. Dey she does. So I looks in mah glass, but nuffin shows up 'cept a misty cloud effect perduced by dey troubled thoughts. Insomuch as dat ain't what dey wants, dey's pow'ful disappointed. But I's hepless Miss. I's hepless. 'Cause you know if dey cant see no man settin' in dey parlor or on dey front po'ch. how is I gwinner find one in a glass er water? But wimmens don't think about lil things lak dat. Dey wants Uncle Henry to see all de things fur dem - in a crystal goblet what dey carries in dey minds. An' cose dat ain't possible. No'm, it sho ain't. I kin see heaps er things in mah glasses, but I can't glimpse no beaux fur dem sisters whats pushin' on to fifty. Dey ain't much lef' fur dem 'cept to learn how to read. Dat's a good peaceful diversion. I tele some of 'em dat. But dey say dey kin already read anyhow. An' ax me how come I talks sich imp'tent ole nigger foolishness to white ladies.
"I 'low I don't know no better way to talk. So dey hafta s'cuse it. Den dey laff an' goes home an' sends some friends fur to git dey fortunes tole. Dey comes in droves at times, an' den again I hardly has a one. As a rule, dou', I averages about a hund'ed dollars a munt fum soofsayin' alone. Dat's not countin' what I makes on mah powders. Yessum, I sells cunjures, an' good luck powders too.
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Mos' of my powder business is wid cullud people. Dey is great on powders. Especially dat Get-Away Powder what comes fum Kemphis. Dey 'low dey can't do widout dat. Some lek de Charm-You Powder too. An' de Young Blush Powder what I gits in New Orleans is mighty pop'lar. De widows buys me out or dat fas' as I stock up on hit. Widows is wile about Young Blush. But dey loves sumpin else better. Dey's only one thing a widow iwll go widout her sumpin-teet to buy, an' dat's Adam an' Eve Root. Yessum, or widow is gwiner have dat Adam an' Eve root if she hafta go to jail fur hit. Water runs down hill... grass grows up 'ards... an' widows is gwiner be widows.
"I ain't never got along no good wid widows. Dat's how come I ain't a preacher. I started out fur to be a preacher ones. An' while I was not to preach I read de Bible. I see in de Bible whar hit say fur Ministers to keep deyse'f unspotted fum de wold'. Den hit say to visit de widows. Yessum, hit say boye er dam things. But if you is ever been aoquainted wid any widows you know a preacher can't visit 'em an' keep his-se'f unspotted. Hit can't be did. So I give up de preachin', an' went back to farmin' on shares an' to singin' all day while I hoed out de cotton rows in de fields.
"Histis, is you ever heard darkies singin' while day picks cotton, or chops out de Johnson grass, or drives pillin' along a wharf, or a railroad track? Ain't it de mournfulness sound you ever is heard? Yessum, hit's de echo of all 638