Topsy-Turvy

     Patrick O’Carroll was as good as his word. I followed him to a tavern, where I was let in with no trouble. He whistled to the tavern owner, who brought over victuals aplenty—a bowl of hearty beef stew and thick slices of warm brown bread. Mr. O’Carroll watched with twinkling eyes as I devoured the feast. In low tones, he told me about his “marvelous” minstrel troupe, which performed and delineated all manner of theatrics, from singing and dancing to circus displays. 

     Pulling a thick book from his topcoat, he explained that he had prepared a production of a play called Uncle Tom’s Cabin, based upon the book he held. He would have me play a little Negro girl known as “Topsy,” who would sing and somersault. His daughter, Maggie, would play Eva, the angel. 

     I must confess that, after the meal, even as he spoke, I soon fell into a well-sated slumber; thus, I did not know what he had in store.

“The black, glassy eyes glittered with a kind of wicked drollery, and the thing struck up, in a clear shrill voice, an odd negro melody, to which she kept time with her hands and feet, spinning round, clapping her hands, knocking her knees together, in a wild, fantastic sort of time, and producing in her throat all those odd guttural sounds which distinguish the native music of her race; and finally, turning a summerset or two, and giving a prolonged closing note, as odd and unearthly as that of a steam-whistle, she came suddenly down on the carpet, and stood with her hands folded.” (description of Topsy, from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852)

[TO BE CONTINUED.]