_Eneas Africanus_
_ENEAS_ AFRICANUS
_By Harry Stillwell Edwards_
[Illustration]
PUBLISHED AT MACON, GEORGIA BY THE J. W. BURKE COMPANY NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY
Copyright, 1920 The J. W. Burke Company
_Author's Preface_
Dear to the hearts of the Southerners, young and old, is the vanishing type conspicuous in Eneas of this record; and as in a sidelight herein are seen the Southerners themselves, kind of heart, tolerant and appreciative of the humor and pathos of the negro's life. Eneas would have been arrested in any country other than the South. In the South he could have traveled his life out as the guest of his "white folks." Is the story true? Everybody says it is.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
_Eneas Africanus_
Extract from the _Atlanta Constitution_ of October 12, 1872
WHO HAS THIS CUP?
MAJOR GEORGE E. TOMMEY ADVERTISES FOR HIS SILVER CUP.
Editor _Constitution_, Atlanta, Ga.
Dear Sir: I am writing to invoke your kind assistance in tracing an old family negro of mine who disappeared in 1864, between my stock farm in Floyd County and my home place, locally known as Tommeysville, in Jefferson County. The negro's name was Eneas, a small, grey-haired old fellow and very talkative. The unexpected movement of our army after the battle of Resaca, placed my stock farm in line of the Federal advance and exposed my family to capture. My command, Tommey's Legion, passing within five miles of the place, I was enabled to give them warning, and they hurriedly boarded the last south-bound train. They reached Jefferson County safely but without any baggage, as they did not have time to move a trunk. An effort was made to save the family silver, much of it very old and highly prized, especially a silver cup known in the family as the "Bride's Cup" for some six or eight generations and bearing the inscription:
"Ye bryde whose lippes kysse myne And taste ye water an no wyne Shall happy live an hersel see A happy grandchile on each knee."
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: Eneas Africanus by Harry Stillwell Edwards
- 2: I have no hope of ever seeing Eneas again
- 3: He was on his way to Thomasville
- 4: It is possible that Eneas had a trunk
- 5: From a little village named Thomasville to the northeast
- 6: I been ter firs one an' den ernuther Thomasville
- 7: Sir Don't you worry about old Eneas
- 8: When Eneas was not plowing or racing
- 9: And fun and merriment broke loose
- 10: Eneas brought forth a time and weather defying hair trunk