Ragged but Right, pt. 6 ("bufay", i. e., "ofay")

[Douglas G. Wilson]

On 2/7/2012 1:34 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
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> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson"<douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Ragged but Right, pt. 6 ("bufay", i. e., "ofay")
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>
> On 2/6/2012 11:50 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
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>> Poster:       Ben Zimmer<bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Ragged but Right, pt. 6 ("bufay", i. e., "ofay")
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 9:44 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>>> The OED has "ofay" from 1899, and from the Indianapolis Freeman, at that.
>>>    Here is a variant form, "bufay", from the Freeman of 1903.
>>>
>>>       In 1903 P. B. R. Hendrix reported from Chicago that, "Irving Jones,
>>> for the past two weeks playing our leading vaudeville houses, cleaned up
>>> everything.  The Bufays [i. e., white performers (note by Abbott&   Seroff)]
>>> hate for him to be on the bill with them for they have to work so hard to
>>> make a hit with the audience."
>>>
>>>       "P. B. R. Hendrix's Chicago Notes", *Indianapolis Freeman*, September
>>> 26, 1903
>>>
>>>       Lynn Abbott&   Doug Seroff. * Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows,
>>> "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz*.  University Press of
>>> Mississippi, 2007*, *p. 35; fn. 70, p. 386
>> The Scott Joplin scholar Edward A. Berlin notes another use of "bufay"
>> in that very same issue of the Freeman (9/26/03, p. 5):
>>
>> ---
>> "We are sorry to note the misfortune Mr. Scott Joplin met with his
>> Ragtime Opera company while filling an engagement in Springfield, Ill.
>> He has been doing big business, but his Bufay representative embarks
>> with the receipts, leaving them in a hole. They are in Chicago for the
>> present."
>> quoted in: _King of Ragtime_ (OUP 1994), p. 126
>> http://books.google.com/books?id=akWdAVXFmAsC&pg=PA126
>> ---
>>
>> In a footnote, Berlin speculates about "ofay" and "bufay":
>>
>> ---
>> The term "Bufay" is problematic. "Ofay," pig latin for "foe" and a
>> term referring to whites, was in common use by blacks of this time. I
>> suggest that "Bufay" means "black foe," as a black thief would have
>> been in this case. See discussion in my article "On Ragtime:
>> Understanding the Language," _CBMR Digest_ 3/3 (Fall 1990), 6-7.
>> ---
>>
>> Leaving aside the highly suspect Pig Latin explanation of "ofay", I'm
>> not sure Berlin is correctly interpreting "bufay" here -- Abbott&
>> Seroff may be right in thinking that "ofay" and "bufay" were
>> interchangeable. But it would be nice to see examples beyond a single
>> issue of a newspaper.
> --
>
> If no other example can be found, one can consider the possibility of
> typographical error. If I had the requisite databases, I would look (in
> the _Freeman_ and elsewhere) for "Aufay" (meaning "Ofay"), and I would
> examine the newspaper issue in question for possible examples of capital
> "B" where capital "A" should be.
--

Looks like I do have the "Freeman" available after all.

The above two instances of "Bufay" are not only in the same issue, they
are in the same column, "P. B. R. Hendrix's Chicago Notes", a regular
item. In fact, there is a third instance in the same column: immediately
following the above item ending "... hit with the audience."

<<He sends regards to all -- Mr. Charles Small and wife are meeting with
great success in the cast of the "Moonshiner's Daughter." They are as
prominent in the cast as any of the Bufay's [sic] characters.>>

What this means, I don't know. Surely "Bufay" could = "Ofay" here. Or
maybe not. On what do the above authors base their interpretations?

I reviewed about 50 of Hendrix's Chicago columns in other issues and at
a glance I don't see "Bufay" (or "Ofay") in any of them. I don't find
"Bufay" (or "Aufay") anywhere else in the "Freeman" (but the search
engine is of course imperfect). Lots of "Ofay" instances.

I see "Ofay" apparently in its usual sense from April 1899, "old Fay"
from 1914, incidentally.

I see a couple of examples of "au fait", in its 'erroneous'
English-language sense (= "comme il faut").

-- Doug Wilson

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