To illustrate: just a few days ago I "carried" two girls
into an "ice-cream parlor." After we were seated, I looked at the
one nearest me, and said: "Well, what will you-all have?"
Physically we are so constructed that unless a person is cross-eyed
it is impossible to look at two persons at once; the mere fact that
I looked at the one nearest me did not mean that I was not
addressing both. I expected an answer from both, and I got it, too
(as is generally the case where ice-cream is concerned).
The subject is one to which I have devoted the most careful
attention for many years. I have been so interested in it that
almost unconsciously, whenever I myself use the expression
"you-all," or hear any one else use it, I note whether it is
intended to refer to one or to more than one person. I have heard
thousands of persons, white, black and indifferent, use the
expression, and the only ones I have ever heard use it incorrectly
are what we might call "professional Southerners." For instance,
last week I went to a vaudeville show, and part of the performance
was given by two "black-face" comedians, calling themselves "The
Georgia Blossoms." Their dialect was excellent, with the single
exception that one of them _twice_ used the expression "you-all"
where it could not _possibly_ have meant more than one person.
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