A PHILOSOPHER IN BLACK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 201, 9 February 1877, Page 7

A PHILOSOPHER IN BLACK.

An elderly colored man with a very philosophical and retrospective cast of countenance was squatting upon his bundle on the hurricane deck of one of the Western river steamers, toasting his shim against the chimney, and apparently in a state of profound meditation. His dress and appearance indicated familiarity with camp life, and, it being soon after the seige and capture of Fort Donelson, I was inclined to disturb his reveries, and on interrogation found that he had been with the Union forces at that place, when I questioned further. His philosophy was so peculiar that I give his views in his own words as near as my memory will serve me :—: — " Were you in the fight ?" " I had a little taste of it, sah." " Stood your ground, did you ?" " No, sah ; I runs." " Bun at first fire, did you ?" " Yes, sah, an' would have run soona had I know'd it was comin." " Why, that wasn't very creditable to your courage." " Dat isn't in my line, sah ; cookin's my professhun." " Well, but have you no regard for your reputation ?" " Bepetation's nuffin' to me by de side ob life." " Do you consider your life worth more than other peoples ?" " It's worth more to me, sah." " Then you must value it very highly ?" " Yes, sah, I does ; more dan all dis world, more dan a million dollars, sah ; for what would that be wuth to a man wid the bref out of him ? Self-preserbashun is the first law wid me." " But why should you act on a different rule from other men V " 'Cause, sah, diffierent men set diffierent value upon deraelvea ; my life is not in the market." " But if you lost it you would have the satisfaction of knowing that you died for jour country." " What satisfaction would dat be to me when de power of feeling was gone ?" " Then patriotism and honor are nothing to you ? " Nuffin' whatever, sah." " If our soldiers were like you, traitors might have broken up the Union without resistance." " Yes, sah ; dere would have been no help for it. I wouldn t put my life in the scales 'gainst any guberment dat eber existed, for no guberment could replace de loss to me. 'Spect dough de Gubernment safe if da all like me." " Do you think any of your company would have missed you if you had been killed?" " Maybe not, sah. A dead white man ain't much wid the sojers, let alone a dead nigga ; but I'd a missed myself, and dat was the pint wid me."