The Historian Winter 2010

The first issue of 2010 is now out in print.  Please email us at historian@historicrichmondtown.org to order a copy. 

The following is companion information based on the feature article:

"Langston Hughes: A Season On Staten Island."

Langston Hughes had the following poems published around the time he was working on the Criaris farm at 2289 Richmond Avenue in New Springville in the summer of 1922:

•    The South, in The CRISIS of June1922

•    My People, (later re-titled Laughers), in The CRISIS of June 1922

•    After Many Springs, in The CRISIS of August 1922

•    Danse Africaine, in The CRISIS of August 1922

•    Beggar Boy, in The CRISIS of September 1922

•    Song for a Banjo Dance, in The CRISIS of October 1922

Because they were published in June, The South and My People were probably written before Langston Hughes arrived on Staten Island Island.

My People

Dream-singers,

Story-tellers,

Dancers,

Loud laughers in the hands of Fate-

My people.

Dish-washers,

Elevator-boys,

Ladies' maids,

Crap-shooters,

Cooks,

Waiters,

Jazzers,

Nurses of babies,

Loaders of ships,

Rounders,

Number writers,

Comedians in vaudeville,

And band-men in circuses-

Dream-singers all, -

My people.

Story-tellers all, -

My people.

Dancers –

God! What dancers!

Singers –

God! What singers!

Singers and dancers

Dancers and laughers.

Laughers?

Yes, laughers…laughers…laughers –

Loud-mouthed laughers in the hands

Of Fate.

Judging by its subject matter After Many Springs, published in August, seems to portray a night on the Criaris farm:

After Many Springs

Now,

In June,

When the night is a vast softness

Filled with blue stars,

And broken shafts of moon-glimmer

Fall upon the earth,

Am I too old to see the fairies dance?

I cannot find them any more.

The first lines "Now, In June," show that the poem was probably written in June of 1922.  One can imagine Hughes with his pen and paper in the flickering light from an oil lamp, sitting on a hay bale in the barn, or perhaps outside somewhere on the farm, on a moonlit night, writing these

lines.

Biographer Arnold Rampersad feels After Many Springs sums up  Hughes'

feelings after his departure from Columbia and the indignities he suffered on his job hunt because of his race:

“He began to feel, as never before, the daily humiliations of black men and women; protected until now by his youth, or his white high school or university, or Mexico, Hughes was at that point in black lives where bitterness or cynicism begins to seem inevitable, even natural.  In [After Many Springs] he mourned his loss of imaginative childlike innocence.”

Hughes felt favorably enough about this poem to include it in both his first collection of works, The Weary Blues (Knopf 1926), and his first collection for children, The Dream Keeper, (Knopf 1932).

In August 1922 The CRISIS published Danse Africaine:

Danse Africaine

The low beating of the tom-toms,

The slow beating of the tom-toms,

Low…slow

Slow…low –

Stirs your blood.

Dance!

A night-veiled girl

Whirls softly into a

Circle of light

Whirls softly…slowly,

Like a wisp of smoke around the fire –

And the tom-toms beat,

And the tom-toms beat,

And the low beating of the tom-toms

Stirs your blood.

A classical music version of the poem, in a German translation, titled Afrikanischer Tanz (opus 27 IX, 1937-8), was composed by Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942).

In September The CRISIS published Beggar Boy:

Beggar Boy

What is there within this beggar lad

That I can neither hear nor feel nor see, That I can neither know nor understand And still it calls to me?

Is not he but a shadow in the sun –

A bit of clay, brown, ugly, given life?

And yet he plays upon his flute a wild free tune As if Fate had not bled him with her knife!25

"Classical art song" versions of Beggar Boy and After Many Springs are included in Sam Raphling's (1910-1988) work Shadows in the Sun: Eleven Poems for Voice and Piano (1971).

In October 1922 The CRISIS published Song for a Banjo Dance:

Song for a Banjo Dance

Shake your brown feet, honey,

Shake your brown feet, chile,

Shake your brown feet, honey,

Shake'em swift and wil' –

Get way back, honey

Do that rockin' step

Slide on over, darling,

Now! Come out

With your left

Shake your brown feet, honey,

Shake'em honey chile.

Sun's going down this evening –

Might never rise no mo'

The sun's going down this very night –

Might never rise no mo'

So dance with swift feet, honey,

(The banjo's sobbing low)

Dance with swift feet, honey –

Might never dance no mo'.

Shake your brown feet, Liza

Shake'em Liza, chile,

Shake your brown feet, Liza,

(The music's soft and wil')

Shake your brown feet, Liza,

(The banjo's sobbing low)

The sun's going down this very night –

Might never rise no mo'.

The blues singer and musicologist Taj Mahal composed a musical version of Song for a Banjo Dance for the Lincoln Center Theater's production of Mule Bone. He deliberately recreated the sound of a 1920s blues song for the work.  The play was written by Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston in 1930 but not produced until 1991 because of a dispute between the authors.  Critics have

praised Song for a Banjo Dance as the best number in the show.

Letters from Staten Island

The following letters were written by Langston Hughes while on Staten Island

to his father in Toluca Mexico.   The background information about Langston

Hughes mentioned in  these letters is based primarily on Arnold Rampersad's definitive biography: The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume I: 1902-1941: I, Too, Sing America.  These Letters are © 2003 by The Estate of Langston Hughes.  Published by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.

Courtesy Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The first letter:

Dear Father:

I was very glad to get your letter and to hear that you are able to be about again.  I still have the one hundred dollars you sent me last which I will return to you if you need it.  If not I will keep it for my classes next fall which I want to take in extension.  I did rather well in college but I don't want to go back.  My finale grades were three "B's" and a "C".

In trigonometry I failed.  Columbia was interesting.  Thanks for the year there.  I am working on Staten Island for the summer but will be back in New York in the fall as I want to continue some of my classes in Columbia's extension.  Next spring I hope to go to France.  I wish I could come to Mexico, if I could be of any help to you, but I don't like Toluca.  Take good care of yourself until you are well again and don't overwork even there.  Don't send me any more money.  I have had enough; and do not worry about things-rest, get well.

Write to me soon. I hope you are regaining your health rapidly and that you will have completely recovered in a little while.  Give my regards to the Fräu.  Tell her I would write her but I am afraid she wouldn't answer.

Affectionately, your son,

Langston

Background of the first letter :

•    Where Hughes writes, "I did rather well in college but I don't want to

go back", the phrase "but I don't want to go back" is circled in pencil, probably by his father, emphasizing the importance of this statement.  This must have been a great disappointment to him.  Hughes planned to continue his studies as a Columbia University extension student rather than attending regular classes, but he never attended Columbia again.  He would eventually graduate from Lincoln University, an all black school, north of Philadelphia, in 1929.

•    He expresses his hope to "go to France" in the spring, but would not

make it there for a couple more years.  After earning his Atlantic passage working on a freighter, he left the ship and worked as a busboy, waiter, and doorman in the  Montmartre jazz clubs.

•    He wishes his father would "rest, get well" because he had collapsed,

due to stroke, while on a business trip to Mexico City.  He was critically ill and his arm was permanently paralyzed.  He returned to Toluca where he was in the care of his German housekeeper, "the Frau", Bertha Schultz.

Hughes was fond of Frau Schultz, feeling she softened his father's rough edges.

•    It is notable that Hughes does not reveal what his job on Staten Island

is. Undoubtedly, James Hughes would not be pleased to find out that his son had left Columbia University to become a farm hand.  This would only reinforce his views about futility of blacks finding professional jobs in America.

•    There is a pencil notation on the letter "Ans. July 1" indicating that

his father replied to the letter on July 1, 1922

The second letter:

2289 Richmond Ave.,

Staten Island, N.Y.

July 22, 1922.

Dear Father:

You will find enclosed certificate No. 10216 on the Corn Exchange Bank of New York for one hundred dollars ($100) which I promised to send you.  I am writing this hurriedly in New York, but will write more later.  You will excuse my lateness in answering your letter but I had to wait until I could get a day off to come over here.  I hope your arm is improving.  Love,

Langston

Background of the second letter:

•    This letter is a continuation of the divisive struggle between Hughes

and his father over money.  James Hughes had sent a loan of $100 to support his son while he continued his education.  Because James Hughes did not approve of the withdraw from Columbia, he probably asked for the $100 back in the response he wrote on July 1.

•    The Corn Exchange Bank had its headquarters at William and Beaver

Streets in Manhattan.  There were three Corn Exchange Banks on Staten Island (It had acquired the First National Bank of Staten Island in 1905) but Hughes usually referred to Manhattan as "New York", so he may have gone there instead.

The third letter:

Dear Father:

The day before yesterday, Saturday, I mailed you a draft, number 10216, on the Corn Exchange Bank, for one hundred dollars which I trust you have received by this time.  I also sent you a copy of the German paper containing an article on the American Negro which they close by quoting one of my poems.  The International News company promised to get me three copies, but I found Saturday that they had received only one of the correct date, so would you mind sending back to me the section containing the poem sometime.  There's no hurry.

The Frau has certainly been very good.  I liked her a great deal and I am glad she was in the house during your illness.  The present which you are thinking of giving her will be well deserved.

How are you feeling now?  How is the ranch getting along?

It was quite shameful of me not to answer Mr. Henkel's letter.  I am sorry.  He was very kind about writing me, as was Mr. Danley also.

If there is anything I can get for you here or send you, let me know.

Sincerely yours,

Langston

Background of the third letter:

•    His father must have written that he was giving a present to Frau

Schultz, indicating their changing relationship with his housekeeper.  James Hughes would marry her in January 1924.

•    Hughes was a friend of Luis Henckel in Toluca and Luis' father was a

business associate of James Hughes.

•     Mr. Danley wrote to Hughes to inform him of his father's stroke.

The fourth Letter:

2289 Richmond Avenue,

Staten Island, New York,

August 20, 1922.

Dear Father:

I have your letter of July 30th and was indeed glad to hear from you, but I am sorry to know that your arm does not seem to be improving with more rapidity.  One must have patience though, I suppose.

Perhaps, by this time you have received the German paper which I sent you, but if not, its' name, as nearly as I can spell it from memory is "Voschisse Zeitung."  The Frau can probably tell you.  It is a Berlin daily and my poem appeared as the conclusion to an article called "The American Negro" in the issue for Saturday, April 1st.

An interesting bit of news here at present is that Negro theatrical attractions are very much the vogue in New York now.  After "Shuffle Along"

closed a run of a year and two months (the record for a colored show,) there have been four Negro companies playing in white theatre's down town this summer, and one of them, after meeting with great success in a small house, has moved to the newest and, according to reports, the finest theatre in the city.  "Shuffle Along" has gone to Boston for the summer.  Then it will do Chicago, after which they have contracts for Europe.  Its authors have signed to produce a play a year for the 63rd Street Theatre here for five years, besides doing numerous supper shows for the New York and Atlantic City cabarets.  So the Negro theatrical world is booming.  Bert Williams, did you read in the papers, left some $200,000 according to his will.

Reports in Harlem say there is more, but it is being left secret in order to avoid income tax.

Did I tell you that Miss Fauset has been reading my poems in the New York City high schools in her lectures on modern Negro poetry?  They seem to take them seriously. Ha! Ha!

Please do not write me here after the third of next month as my month ends the tenth and I am returning to New York.  What's my job here? – You'd never guess – farming!!!  Yes, a real 43-acre farm for me to exercise my talents on.

Love,

Langston

Background of the fourth letter:

•    The "German paper" that quoted Hughes' poem was Vossische Zeitung

•    In The Big Sea he wrote, "To see Shuffle Along [written by Noble Sissle

and Eubie Blake] was the main reason I wanted to go to Columbia.  When I saw it, I was thrilled and delighted.  From then on I was in the gallery of the Cort Theatre every time I got a chance."

•    Hughes saw many shows while in New York.  The arts, of all types, not

Mining Engineering, were his true interest. This expense was part of the cause of the financial friction between him and his father (along with the fact that he was helping to support his mother with his allowance.)  His father felt there was little chance of making a living as a writer and even less chance writing for a black audience. The success of Shuffle Along showed Hughes it was possible to follow his dream of being a writer.

Eventually Hughes' theater going paid off, having many of his own works produced for the stage.

•    "Miss Fauset" was Jessie Fauset, of The CRISIS.  She worked with many

of the prominent black writers.

•    Bert Williams was a black comedian of the day.  Hughes had skipped a

final exam at Columbia to attend his funeral in May, 1922.

•    After pointing out the successes that American blacks were having in

the theater, the money Bert Williams had made, the acceptance his own writing was getting, and assuring his father that he was moving on to new opportunities, Hughes finally reveals that he was working as a farm hand.

The Historian Winter 2009

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The Historian Winter 2009

We are pleased to announce that the Winter 2009 issue of the THE STATEN ISLAND HISTORIAN has been published.

This issue features an article about the Quarantine titled, "The night Tompkinsville rebelled against the quarantine."

Listen to Stout performing The Quarantine written by Norm Pederson.

The Quarantine
By Norm Pederson
When ships came into the harbor, the city folk would say
there is yellow jack and fever, take it far away.
That island in the distance looks happy and sublime,
so we’ll put it there, the fever there, until the end of time
(Chorus)
The bitter tears of fifty years the like you never seen,
don’t wish you been there when they burnt the quarantine.
The bitter tears of fifty years the like you never seen,
don’t wish you been there when they burnt the quarantine.
Daughter dear you look so pale, let me touch your brow,
I think you got the fever, we’ll fetch the doctor now.
The doctor shakes his head and says fever is here to stay.
We begged the state, but they won’t take the quarantine away
(Chorus)
Late on one September night in 1858,
the men came down from Castletown and forced the Iron Gate.
When all were out they struck a match and then they look around
Good riddance to the quarantine, and burned it to the ground.

The Staten Island Historian
Winter 2009 Volume XX, No. 2, p. 15
YOUNG EXPLORERS Answers

Wordsearch Answers

Crossword Puzzle Answers

Across

3. Hygeia - A Staten Island Ice Company.

5. Robitzek - Last name of a doctor from Staten Island who helped cure one of the world's most deadly diseases - tuberculosis.

7. Oceanic - A Hook & Ladder Company from Travis, Staten Island.

8. Old Rusty - A squirrel tail fire pumper owned by the Staten Island Historical Society.

9. Waller - Last name of the doctor whose house was burned down at the Marine Hospital. He was the Deputy Commissioner of Health.

10. Sea View - The name of the Staten Island hospital where tuberculosis was cured.

12. Burns - Name of the hotel where the arsonists gathered!

14. Marine - Name of the quarantine hospital that was burned.

15. Tompkinsville - Residents of this Staten Island Town burned down the Marine Hospital.

Down

1. Ray Tompkins - First and last name of a man accused of being a leader in the assault on the marine hospital.

2. Camphene - A fluid burned in lamps.

4. Commodore - Nickname for Cornelius Vanderbilt.

6. Yellow Fever disease that causes black vomit.

9. Weissglass - Last name of the family that owned the _____ Goldseal Dairy Corporation.

11. Bissell - Last name of the Physician-in-Chief of the Marine Hospital.

13. Yellow Fever - 93 people in Staten Island died from this disease in 1856.

Word Scramble

SHIPICANY = PHYSICIAN

EVERTOLUN = VOLUNTEER

RAINEM = MARINE

PETUNIRK = TURNPIKE

USUROOTECH = COURTHOUSE

NYCOOL = COLONY

OPHILATS = HOSPITAL

CUBLOUSISTER = TUBERCULOSIS

LEEDBLER = REBELLED

IRAGRACE = CARRIAGE

BEANSKOR= ROSEBANK

MINDROCH = RICHMOND

Underlined Words "STATEN ISLAND"