The result of the Fifteenth Amendment, and the rise and progress of the African race in America and its final accomplishment, and celebration on May 1

(LoC) One of several large commemorative prints marking the enactment on March 30, 1870, of the Fifteenth Amendment, and showing the parade celebrating it which was held in Baltimore on May 19 the same year. The amendment declared that the right to vote "shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Here the parade winds down Monument Street from Baltimore's Washington Monument. In the left distance is the spire of the First Presbyterian Church. Heading the parade are a small troop of black Zouaves, holding rifles across their shoulders. They are followed by several men on horseback wearing top hats and sashes, several floats, and more soldiers. The sidewalks are lined with onlookers, many of them black. Framing the central image are a series of vignettes. At left are portrait busts of the late Pennsylvania representative and champion of black suffrage Thaddeus Stevens, Maryland representative Henry Winter Davis, author of the Wade-Davis Bill, and Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner. At right are busts of distinguished blacks Martin Robinson Delany, Frederick Douglass, and Hiram R. Revels. In the upper left corner of the print is an antebellum plantation scene, where a mustachioed overseer supervises slaves picking cotton. Nearby is an elegant house surrounded by palm trees. Beneath the scene are the words, "We are in bondage. O deliver us!" In contrast, the right hand corner holds a Civil War scene of black troops rushing into battle, with the words "We fought for Liberty, we now enjoy" below. In the center, above the parade scene, appear busts of (left to right) Lincoln, Baltimore jurist Hugh Lennox Bond, abolitionist martyr John Brown, Vice president Schuyler Colfax, and President Ulysses S. Grant. The three busts in the center rest on crossed laurel branches and flags. In the lower corners stand two parade groups of black men wearing Masonic sashes and aprons. They carry banners decorated with allegorical figures as well as the portraits of Lincoln, Grant, and Swiss patriot William Tell and his son. Between these groups are two small scenes: a black schoolroom with the words "Education will be our pride," and a black preacher before his congregation, with the words, "The day of Jubilee has come." Published by Metcalf & Clark, 687 W. Baltimore St., c1870.

Zouave and Sophisticated: Why do monkeys dress that way?

This morning I was rolling cigarettes and because I was rolling Zig-Zag tobacco, I put on a fez. Kim came in and said, "you're wearing a fez because of the man on the can." (Long ago, she stopped wondering why I own such odd things to begin with, and in fact, bought me the aforementioned hat.) "That's right," I said, because of the Zouave." This is the second time the subject of Zouaves has come up in the past week.
The first time was when I read that it was Zuoaves who first popularized absinthe in France. And it got me to wondering if Zouaves had any other impact on us besides for licorice liquor, and inventing the cigarette.

The only other thing I could come up with is monkeys. Monkeys, especially of the organ grinder variety, are often dressed as Zouaves. Why is this? (When I was a kid I thought they were dressed like bellhops.) Did a regiment have a monkey as a mascot? Were Zouaves slurred as monkeys? I don't know and I couldn't find anything on the subject at all. If you know, please drop me a line in the comments section. And if you can think of any other Zouave references in popular culture, please comment on that too.

During that seeking for lions which he never found, the dreadful Tartarin roamed from douar to douar on the immense plain of the Shelliff, through the odd but formidable French Algeria, where the old Oriental perfumes are complicated by a strong blend of absinthe and the barracks, Abraham and "the Zouzou" mingled, something fairy-tale-like and simply burlesque, like a page of the Old Testament related by Tommy Atkins. - Alphonse Daudet (1872)

Monkey picture filched from Geek Chic

Reply to the Volunteer Zouave by A Baltimore Lady (1862)

We've seen the complaint of the red legged Zou-Zou,
Understand his sad case and pity him, too!
He's shunned in the hall--he's cut in the street
And scorned by each lady he happens to meet.
What meaneth this change--it was not so of yore,
When he visited friends in sweet Baltimore.
The change is in us and the change is in you,
And the change is in all things since that time, Zou-Zou;
You came then as friends, 'twas a pleasure to greet,
You come now as foes, it is maddening to meet;
And our brain it will burn, and our blood it will boil,
'Till you take your rude foot from our Maryland soil.
We don't think it useless, nor foolish, nor wrong,
To do all (?) the things that you tell in your song:
For women are quick and not given to musing,
They've no thanks for "Protection," (?)that's not of their choosing:
When they need armed attentions they'll ask you to come,
But now none are wanted, so you'd better run "hum."

Just think of the ladies in the city of "Tea,"
Though not quite so warm and impulsive as we--
Would they walk with, or talk with, or smilingly glance
On a Southerner armed with his musket and lance.
Who took up quarters, as though 'twas his right,
And staid there as long as seemed good in his sight;
Dispensing to fathers and brothers and friends.
Such justice as suited to further his ends;
Do you think they would greet, with a cordial face,
The men you are striving your best to displace:
Would you challenge their favor, would you wish them to smile
On the men who were planting their cannon meanwhile,
To destroy that fair city, to ruin each home,
While the loved ones in danger and loneliness roam?
We need not your answer, deny it who may,
How her feelings would prompt her each woman can say.

Go back where you came from, stay there for a time,
Learn to look on secession as less of a crime;
Let the South make the trial to live by herself--
The North has enough both of prudence and pelf;
It needs not the aid of us miserable sinners--
So let us alone to earn our own dinners;
And Helen and Phoebe, and all the bright train
Of ladies whose names you have brought in your strain,
Would be cheerful and joyous and happy again,
Not seeming as now to be haters of men.
So go back to your city, put on your own clothes,
When you come here again we won't meet as foes:
If you take us as friends, we'll be faithful and true,
But don't come again as a Yankee Zou-Zou!

(Poem courtesy of the Library of Congress)

A.D. 1862, OR HOW THEY ACT IN BALTIMORE, BY A VOLUNTEER ZOUAVE.

Can sage resolve, if sages now are found,
And if none live, consult those under ground--
Whose large experience of the female mind,
The springs that move it, and the keys that wind,
May make them grave authority to say--
Wise Solomon, or Monsieur Michelet--
What "Coigne of vantage" lies in woman's breast,
What zig-zag nook is there, for Treason's nest?
A pleasant castle doth it choose indeed,
And "air most delicate," wherein to breed!
Or speak thou, Brigham, from thy saline lake,
What madness reigns, what demon is awake?
If things continue at the rate they go,
The cocks must lay, for all the hens do crow.
No wonder 'tis the dragon lifts his head?
On dainties sweet, and blandishments he's fed!
What does it mean, where womanhood is taste,
The good and beautiful is left to waste?
With minds unsex'd they wildly rage of late,
And make it fashionable now, to hate.
By all the flocks of little flutt'ring Loves
Round Venus' car, and by her perfumed doves,
We do protest against it, and declare
The fashion ill becomes the young and fair.
Doubtless some French philosopher has said--
If so, the scamp deserves a broken head--
"If firm, their reason stands, or if it swerves,
The affair, at last, is only one of nerves."

Such Frenchman was not only rude, but, wrong;
He here would find opinions rather strong
Among the fair, and once, the gentler sex,
Whom the wild winds of controversy vex;
Often too strong to heed what others say;
Not unlike clergymen with people lay.

Ye females plain--and ye in fat who waddle
Decamp, secede, at once, with all your twaddle!
Lay on the shelf the needle, wax and button,
The "pegs" of politicians straightway put on!
As far as inexperienced guess may tell,
Ye would become the bifold garment well!
We fain would greet you as our fellow men,
Could your good nature once come back again;
You oft improve, by earnestness and fire,
A hackneyed subject ready to expire.

Hear those two matrons now for life and death,
Not in opinion diff'ring, but in breath:
How fly their tongues! how fast the spanking pace!
This talks the loudest, that will win the race;
One breathless stops, while one the prize doth carry--
Which of the twain would you prefer to marry?
Be careful dames, lest angry passions wake
Like cats in bag that wicked urchins shake.

Admitted 'tis by all, the female mind
Of right can shift and vary like the wind.
Tasteless and tame were life without variety;
But what's become of Angelina's piety?
No rain could stop her once, or storm dissuade,
She'd hear the Doctor if he preached or prayed;
If custom lead her to the house of God,
The prayer book now seems obsolete and odd:
The established ritual she doth reverse,
And prayers for blessings turn into a curse.

And so, the young and charming Ellinore--
Of late become a most terrific bore,--
Cites law and Vattel to admiring Helen,
And has a plan for wiping out McClellan.
A sacred relic on her breast she wears
To cheer her hopes, and to allay her fears;
A button that--O superstition's reach!
Had mounted bastion, and been worn in breach
By a Confed'rate officer, who cut
It from his tail of coat, and after, put
With his own hand where now you see it shine Oh, would that officer's gay lot were mine!

Bright Phoebe talks much as the swallow flies,
Skims o'er the surface--darts her quick replies;
And though unlearned, she pertly stops your mouth
With apt quotations from the Evening South.,

Sweet maid, of thee, what language shall I speak?
These lines too rugged, and these words too weak!
Most have some share of charms--thou, every one
That walked in Eden when the world begun!
Soft eye, small foot, and figure slim and tall,
Cheek--like the peach that grows on garden wall.
That head, if I were Raphael, I would paint
Surrounded with a glory, like a Saint;
And pray her sit again, that I might get
Two ostrich wings in rear of her corsette.

That heart, which overflows with all it feels,
Would skin the President, as cooks skin eels!
Ye Gods! In maiden breast what can inspire
So strange a wish and panther-like desire?
I can hut think so fierce a thought in Mary,
Was sentimental, more than culinary;
Though Russell, with an asterisk, and dash--
Does state, a Norfolk dame desired a hash
Of part of Lincoln's person made--the part
He leaves in doubt--could it have been the heart?

Lavinia twists her coral lips awry,
At every red breech'd soldier passing by.
Kate's glance at officers is so severe,
Her meaning they mistake, at times, I fear.
Fanny tucks up her dress--so feeling rankles,
And shows contempt, and, very pretty ankles.
Bull Run was far too mild for Mary Ann,
Who ne'er before had hatred shewn to man.
Æmelia dear, can hardly sleep o'nights,
Because, poor child, she wants her Southern rights.
Clorinda, who last winter scraped the lint,
Still pines to see her lover's leg in splint;
While Lucy longs to view her worser half,
With "Hony Soit" writ just above his calf.
Reverberina says--we'll let that pass--
An echo she--her husband is an ass.
Miss Betty Jones, still of romantic age,
If strongly pressed, would slip off as a page,
Bet hates this Union vile--yes, hates it well,
The reason ask--and Betty cannot tell--
This little petrel hears the wind with glee,
And hopes that thousands may be lost at sea.
We know that Susan always loved to dream
Of piping shepherds by a pearling stream,
Of knights and ladies, dancing in the shade--
She's lost her senses now, and clean gone mad--

In silent patience mopes, and hopes to see
The world reform'd by gallant chivalry.

'Twere hard to guess what things about them lodge!
But this I have in confidence from D--ge,
Who says, a fashionable dame may pack
With ease, a pedlar's cargo on her back,
And all the vigilance he can intrude,
By some ingenious method they elude.
"Unless the cabinet shall find some law
"To stop them as they sail--give him the droit."
Before "de visite" left his lips, I said,
Stop neutrals? "Neutrals, they!"--he shook his head.
"Could I the power obtain t' expunge their sex,
"The way were plain which now doth much perplex:
"More plots, sir, plans, and strange devices lurk
"Within a piece of mantua-maker's work,
"Than all the jungles, or the rooks can hide
"Of venom'd rattlers on a mountain side.
"Such are the advantages of crinoline,
"That little Mag's a perfect Magazine;
"For some Confed, sets her percussion cap,
"And carries fulminates about her lap."
A modiste says, (this, too, in confidence,)
For the exposure might give some offence,
That many a graceful form and rounded part,
(She's the Praxitiles of plastic art,)
Is order'd still, of fine gun cotton wad,
Though so consumed last spring, it can't be had;
The article when trimm'd, and worn in pleat,
Fills out the figure and the dress looks "sweet."

How slowly Time on Sunday flaps the wing!
Then come--an evening visit's just the thing--
With coat well brushed, and person rather spruced,
The offer we accept--are introduced

To where Arachne, and her sisters dwell,
And sire so liberal, that none can tell
Which side the contest his opinions dwell.--
So monumental Washington in stone
Might see below two curs dispute a bone--
Wer't not a spot that he calls "Idlewaste,"
Might too sequestered be, to suit his taste;
Far off in Tennesseean vale it lies
Where dues fall heavy 'neath secession skies--
A slight confusion flutters as we bow,
The Sunday work cannot be cover'd now.
As Arabella's fighting fingers weave,
A sigh, more soft than wool of lamb, doth heave;
Her cheeks alternate with the colors spread,
Now white and pale, and now, Confed'rate red:
In rapid progress, lo! the texture grows!
Rounds first the major, then the minor toes;
Pleasant the evening passed--no party shocks--
With charming girls, and party color'd socks:
'Twas touching too, to see their tender pains,
Like Love and Pshyche twine around chilblains!

Dear me! To see them busy bending o'er
The photographic table, in a store,
What care they heroes, from the pile select,
How laugh at zeroes, whom they don't expect!
Though that Junonian beauty Jeff may wear,
On Delias' breast--he has no business there.

Oh! that infernal French name, Beauregard,
Has done more mischief--for 'tis very hard--
So hard--almost impossible, you know,
To struggle 'gainst the influence of a beau!
A beau ideal, whose name implies a gaze;
Unfailing mode to charm, and please, and praise.
See what "plots, treasons, stratagems and spoil,"
Lurk in that name, that liquid flows as oil.

If e're we catch him, be it soon or late,
May Congress, seize him, bind him, and translate;
And then release him with his name "Goodlooks,"
The charm dissolv'd, like Smith, or Jones, or Brooks.

What means that savage and that wild harangue,
That nasal snarl, and that Penobscot twang?
What brings that Burst of wolfish fury forth?
A northern woman, railing at the North!
So the chained hound beholds the broad moon's light,
And howls the louder as it grows more bright.

Go where you will to visit, pray, or shop,
Secesh is handled but not known to drop.
Stout Mrs. K. takes stockings, double six,
Her politics and shopping, sure to mix.
Ere the brisk lad can shew the unusual "twelves,"
Hold! they are stopt in transit from the shelves--
She never can be suited in her hose
Until young Bobbin's real views she knows.

Restrain the fancy, that, in youth too free,
Will skip and play as kittens climb a tree;
If overdone, 'tis worse, like o'erdone rouge
Than common sense, or natural gambouge;
Beware lest the imagination rise
Too far from earth, and mount too near the skies!
To see triumphant Davis as he comes
Mid grateful people, with a beat of drums,
In barouche seated, with his head all bare,
Bowing to handkerchiefs that fan the air;
While proudly prance six horses in a team,
Their tails in ribbons, and their color cream,
(And hired of Stewart, who drives them in a hearse,)
Expenses settled by the city purse,
While virgins virtuous, in satin white,
With rosy wreathes, sing pæans of delight;

And dance through mud upon fantastic toe,
From Eutaw House unto the bridge below;
And Christ Church bells a merry peal shall ring,
--Gone is the Union, like the snow in spring!

That's not Jeff. Davis--you mistake the man,
We doubt if ere he broke a ladies fan.
He has no taste for pomp and vain display,
And show, and pageantry, is not his way,
Should he victorious come he'd like to know
The banks' condition, get the mayor to go,
Secessionist from principle, along
To settle matters and avoid the throng;
Provide the prominent perhaps with rope,
Engage some barbers, razors, lather, soap,
To operate at once on Union pates,
An argument well known in Southern States,
Where the division of a hair is made
The politicians, as the barber's trade,
And heads that reason can't convince--they shave,
And precious time from long palaver save.
(A different custom in the West prevails,
Here they split hairs, and there they split up rails.)

(Library of Congress)