346 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



'' Hello, Chloe! where are you going so fast?" 



'' Goiu'? I'se goin' to see the lady what washes for the 

 woman what lives in dis yere house." 



The said " woman " being one of the elite of Jacksonville. 



AVe have had "gentlemen" call at our house, making 

 inquiry ' ' if the young lady was at home ? " and the first 

 time, in our innocence and ignorance, sent our sister to 

 meet the caller, supposing he had been engaged without 

 our knowledge, to cut wood "or such." 



And we smiled audibly when investigation revealed the 

 truth, that the "young lady" was the colored girl em- 

 ployed in our kitchen. More than once, too, has our 

 " young gentleman" been asked for by other gentlemen of 

 his own sable hue. 



The above was not the only ludicrous mistake made be- 

 fore we settled down resignedly to the knowledge that the 

 employers were only w^hite men and women, while the col- 

 ored people were the ladies and gentlemen of the commu- 

 nity ; but we know all about it now, though an occasional 

 smile is still inevitable. 



How the terms ever came to be thus confused and re- 

 versed, no one can say ; but it is certainly a very uncom- 

 mon thing for the Florida negroes to use them in the con- 

 ventional way, whether speaking to the white people, or 

 in ordinary conversation among themselves. Occasionally 

 they use the prefix "culled" to gentleman or lady; but 

 as a rule this is omitted, to the frequent confusion of the 

 ignorant " white folks," who know no better. 



The older ones, those who spent at least the earlier years 

 of their lives as slaves and received some training, are very 

 scarce in Florida ; they have, for the most part, remained 

 near their old homes in the older States, and the few who 

 have found their way hither have settled on homesteads 

 of their own, and are as a class well-to-do, industrious cit- 



