The Project Gutenberg EBook of P'laski's Tunament, by Thomas Nelson Page

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Title: P'laski's Tunament
1891

Author: Thomas Nelson Page

Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23016]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK P'LASKI'S TUNAMENT ***

Produced by David Widger

P'LASKI'S TUNAMENT.

By Thomas Nelson Page

1891

I had the good fortune to come from "the old county of Hanover," as that
particular division of the State of Virginia is affectionately called
by nearly all who are so lucky as to have first seen the light amid its
broom-straw fields and heavy forests; and to this happy circumstance I
owed the honor of a special visit from one of its most loyal citizens.
Indeed, the glories of his native county were so embalmed in his
memory and were so generously and continuously imparted to all his
acquaintances, that he was in the county of his adoption universally
known after an absence of forty years as "Old Hanover." I had not been
long in F---- when I was informed that I might, in right of the good
fortune respecting my birthplace, to which I have referred, expect
a visit from my distinguished fellow-countyman, and thus I was not
surprised, when one afternoon a message was brought in that "Ole Hanover
was in the yard, and had called to pay his bes' bespecks to de gent'raan
what hed de honor to come f'om de ole county."

I immediately went out, followed by my host, to find that the visit was
attended with a formality which raised it almost to the dignity of a
ceremonial. "Old Hanover" was accompanied by his wife, and was attended
by quite a number of other negroes, who had followed him either out of
curiosity excited by the importance he had attached to the visit, or
else in the desire to shine in reflected glory as his friends. "Old
Hanover" himself stood well out in front of the rest, like an old
African chief in state with his followers behind him about to receive an
embassy. He was arrayed with great care, in a style which I thought at
first glance was indicative of the clerical calling, but which I soon
discovered was intended to be merely symbolical of approximation to