The Songs & Pictures
The book is illustrated with photographs and with sheet music of Creole kitchen songs — «Ne soyez pas étonnés de ces quelques notes de musique, c'est le piment de la sauce.» Click any image for the full-size scan.
A note on the pictures: several of the plates in this 1904 book depict Black Louisianans in caricatures that are racist by today's standards. Rather than erase them from the historical record, they have been blurred out. Click a blurred image if you wish to view it for historical purposes; click the revealed image for the full-size scan.
Sheet music: «La vie y'ien carosse passé, les crapaux bien attelés, quatre wa-warons frissés poudrés était dans ce carosse, ç'était la vérité, il s'en allait au nord.»
A young daring frog driver on the Du Broca plantation, West Baton Rouge, La. (Frontispiece)
Cooking in Old Créole Days — decorative title page, R. H. Russell, New York, 1904.
Sheet music: «Quand pat-tat la cuit n'a man-ge li, n'a man-ge li.» Facing page 10.
Image blurredThis plate depicts its subject in a way that is racist by today's standards. Click if you wish to view it for historical purposes.
Gottschalk's famous "Bamboule" was written on this theme. Plate facing page 10.
Sheet music: «Chacun son gout moi j'ai fais choix d'une belle dindi, de jambe de bois, de jambe de bois, de jambe de bois.» Facing page 22.
Image blurredThis plate depicts its subject in a way that is racist by today's standards. Click if you wish to view it for historical purposes.
Illustration plate facing page 22.
Sheet music: «Que fais-tu dans ce monde que tu n'étais pas au près des prêtres… vas t'en dans les enfers.» Facing page 32.
Image blurredThis plate depicts its subject in a way that is racist by today's standards. Click if you wish to view it for historical purposes.
Nurse Mérance of the Destrehan Plantation, just above New Orleans. Plate facing page 32.
Sheet music: «Des oinons sont à bons marché c'est li çi c'est li ça. La commère tournera le dos c'est li çi c'est li ça.» Facing page 48.
Image blurredThis plate depicts its subject in a way that is racist by today's standards. Click if you wish to view it for historical purposes.
Illustration plate facing page 48.
Sheet music: «Pauvre pettit mamzelle zizi, li-j'ain douler dans kerali.» Facing page 64.
Image blurredThis plate depicts its subject in a way that is racist by today's standards. Click if you wish to view it for historical purposes.
Gottschalk's famous "Savanne" was written on this theme. Plate facing page 64.
Sheet music: «Bel cal-las tout-chauds!» — the street cry of the callas vendor. Facing page 94.
The Callas Girl, carrying her basket of hot rice cakes. Plate facing page 94.
Sheet music: «Tout le monde me regarde mais personne n'achète rien — achetez de la moutarde çela vous fera du bien.» Facing page 108.
Illustration plate facing page 108.