An’ de man love de gal;
If dey bofe don’t git what dey wants,
It’s livin’ in hell.
The Negro man runs true to masculine style when he philosophizes upon the subject of woman. Needless to say, his philosophy is often the result of his failure to get along with the other sex. When he is “down” on womankind the burden of his song is that woman is the cause of most of the trouble in the world. He avows that
Woman is a good thing an’ a bad thing, too,
They quit in the wrong an’ start out bran’ new.
Or he declares that he will never again have anything to do with women:
All I hope in dis bright worl’:
If I love anybody, don’t let it be a girl.
One of his strong points is giving advice to others in order that they may avoid his mistakes. “Listen to me, buddy,” he says, “let me tell you what a woman’ll do.”