ut dere barefoot as de goose. It jes' de
habit of de times, 'cause dey all have shoes. Sometimes dey call de jig
dance and some of dem sho' dance it, too. De prompter call, 'All git
ready.' Den he holler, 'All balance,' and den he sing out, 'Swing you
pardner,' and dey does it. Den he say, 'First man head off to de right,'
and dere dey goes. Or he say, 'All promenade,' and dey goes in de
circle. One thing dey calls, 'Bird in de Cage.' Three joins hands round
de gal in de middle, and dance round her, and den she git out and her
pardner git in de center and dey dance dat way awhile.

"After freedom dey have de log cabin schoolhouse. De first teacher was
de cullud women name Mary Chapman. I near wore out dat old blueblack
speller tryin' to larn A B C's.

"I leaves Caddo Parish in 1877 for Galveston, and leaves dere on de four
mast schooner for Leesburg and up de Calcasieu River. Den I goes to de
Cameron Parish and in 1879 I comes to Beaumont. I marries Mandy Watson
in 1882 and she died in 1932. Us never have no chillen but 'dopts two.
Us marry in de hotel dinin'-room, 'cause I's workin' for de hotel man,
J.B. Goodhue. De Rev. Elder Venable, what am da old cullud preacher,
marries us. I didn't git marry like in slavery time, I's got a great big
marriage certif'cate hangin' on de wall of my house.

"I 'longs to several lodges, de Knights of Labor and de Knights of Honor
and de Pilgrims. I never hold no office. I's jes' de bench member. I's a
member of de Live Lake Missionary Baptist Church.

"I's got de big house of my own, on de corner of Roberts Avenue and San
Antonio street. After my wife die, I gits de man to come and live dere
with me. Dat's all I knows.

420002

[Illustration: Orelia Alexie Franks]

ORELIA ALEXIE FRANKS was born on the plantation of Valerian Martin,
near Opelousas, Louisiana. She does not know her age, but thinks
she is near ninety. Her voice has the musical accent of the French
Negro. She has lived in Beaumont, Texas, many years.

"I's born on Mr. George Washington's birthday', the twenty-second of
February but I don't know what year. My old massa was Valerian Martin
and he come from foreign country. He come from Canada and he Canada
French. He wife name Malite Guidry. Old massa a good Catholic and he
taken all the li'l slave chillen to be christen. Oh, he's a Christian
massa and I used to be a Catholic but now I's a Apostolic, but I's
christen in St. Johns Cat