WORKS.
In Ole Virginia, [stories in negro dialect].
Two Little Confederates.
Elsket, and other Stories.
Essays on the South, its literature, the Negro question, &c., in magazines.
Befo’ de Wa’, (with A. C. Gordon).
On New Found River.
Pastime Stories, [written for “The Drawer”].
Among the Camps, [stories].
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi.
Mr. Page delineates finely the old Virginia darkey and his dialect, as Mr. Harris does the darkey of the Carolinas and Georgia. There is a marked difference between them.
“The naturalness of his style, the skill with which he uses seemingly indifferent incidents and sayings to trick out and light up his pictures, the apparently unintentional and therefore most effective touches of pathos, are uncommon.”
MARSE CHAN’S LAST BATTLE.
(From Marse Chan: In Ole Virginia.[46])
“Well, jes’ den dey blowed boots an’ saddles, an’ we mounted: an’ de orders come to ride ’roun’ de slope, an’ Marse Chan’s comp’ny wuz de secon’, an’ when we got ’roun’ dyah, we wuz right in it. Hit wuz de wust place ever dis nigger got in. An’ dey said, ‘Charge ’em!’ an’ my king! ef ever you see bullets fly, dey did dat day. Hit wuz jes’ like hail; an’ we wen’ down de slope (I ’long wid de res’) an’ up de hill right to’ds de cannons, an’ de fire wuz so strong dyar (dey had a whole rigiment of infintrys layin’ down dyar onder de cannons) our lines sort o’ broke an’ stop; de cun’l was kilt, an’ I b’lieve dey wuz jes’ ’bout to bre’k all to pieces, when Marse Chan rid up an’ cotch hol’ de fleg, an’ hollers, ‘Foller me!’ and rid strainin’ up de hill ’mong de cannons.