BLACK COOKS.
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for their common cry to them is—' Eat, me pic'nee, eat ; fill youself, an den go sleep ;' so that the custom grows upon them to that degree, that when they become men, they cannot break themselves of it." So much for the remark; those who are acquainted with the subject will, I think, readily assent to the truth of it. In times of slavery, it was customary, among some owners or managers of slaves, to allow such negroes as were not employed in the cane-field the privilege of hiring themselves out to strangers, providing they regularly paidto their masters a certain sum weekly from the wages they received. Many of them acquired a good sum by this permission ; while others, again, although they earned high wages, had to pay so large a proportion to their proprietors, that they were not so well off in pecuniary matters as those negroes who remained upon the property. Still, they were comparatively more their own masters ; and so dear to every breast is freedom, that they preferred doing so, and gaining less. Another large body of negroes are to be met with as domestic servants. That there are some good servants among them none can deny ; but I am sorry to say, they are seldom met with. In general, the men make better domestics than the females. Some of those who hire themselves as cooks are very clever in their profession, and will dress turtle in various delectable forms, equal, if not superior, to the vaunted cooks at “ Cornhill," or the celebrated “ M. de Barre" (late cook to Louis XVIII.) himself. This is to be the more wondered at, as they have not half the conveniences in the culinary departments as their brother cooks on the other side of the water ; on the contrary, many an invention has to issue from their teeming brain, before they can arrange these matters to their satisfaction. But one precaution must be carefully observed, in order to insure success: in cookery, they must be left entirely to their own discretion—no improvement proposed; for either they are obstinately bent on following their own plan, and will not adopt any other, or else they do not fully understand their