| They mean loyalty. Loyalty for a good cause. Loyalty to death. The original has a name, Jocque Graves. Reputedly a real person, a patriot in George Washington's army, too young to go rowing about on the Delaware at night so instead was instructed by G. Washington himself *genuflects* to mind the horses, stand sentry, and signal with a lamp, a task the youth took to heart. He froze to death with the lantern still in his hand. So impressed by this act of loyalty was the father of our country that he was moved to instruct an annoying cherry tree be felled and consigned a .5 scale statue cast in the boy's honor. Or something. ↑ Quite nearly factual. The black version, considered racially insensitive, is seldom seen today because it still stirs smoldering feelings about an oppressed minority, but that's an unfortunate bum rap on a little guy that played such an important role in the underground railroad, one who pointed the way to safe houses. Prompted by the patriots name, they were dressed in gaudy jockey clothes and painted with exaggerated expressions so they would stick out well enough to be spotted by nervous fugitives who couldn't read, and be sufficiently unsightly so one's gaze is naturally and gently averted. Clever, eh? They're mostly a southern thing, racing and all that. Whenever I see one I go, "now that's class!" And I love them because they're purely an American thing, unlike garden gnomes who are Irish or something and perfectly useless for lighting and pointing, in fact, who knows what those garden gnomes get up to? |