1889 diary p19 Uncle Remus

[Deskman]

This should be my last posting of 1889 diary bewilderments - pieces which I have been so stuck on. I am very grateful for all the help I have received - it has made the diary a work that can be read and understood rather than stumbled over.

I don't 'get' Uncle Remus at all. I do stumble over it. However this conundrum appears to be a quotation from Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings: The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation, by Joel Chandler Harris The 1886 edition of which can be found here http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2306/pg2306-images.html. If it is from there then it seems to have been transmuted from a line I can't find.

Can you help?

"amused by Uncle Remus expressions “expectin every minute would be his next” & “When you been castin"

Thanks for any help. It has been fun all the way.

I'm sure I'll be back soon with more diary words that I need second and third opinions on.

Deskman
The bold text is thanks to help here.

[Gadget]

......every minute would be his last  modify = next

Gadget

[Deskman]

Thanks Gadget but I still can't read it that way.

I think there are too many characters in minute and the next at
 http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=786988.0 is so similar to your last (my next)

Also the phrase expecting every minute would be his last is much older than Uncle Remus.

  Deskman

[Gadget]

that's what I see it says. It's one of your easier snips.

[Gadget]

Would might be could but I read it as would.

Made a mistake with last - it is next  (slip of the tongue/finger)

[Gadget]

You also have to be when it is clearly would/could be

[Deskman]

Thanks Gadget.

Beautifully explained

I am comfortable with every minute would be his

I still can't read last

There is a last here http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=788015.0 and another 33 in the text (and three more nexts). I will go and take a look at them.

Writing to be in place of would be is just sloppy. Sorry.

[Gadget]

Sorry - I amended - it is next

I think my fingers typed last automatically as it was a familiar phrase!

I've been going through some of your previous snips. I think this is one of his expansive writing events. Much larger, rounded and more open than others 

[Deskman]

Thanks Gadget.

If that is it sorted than I am puzzled; the phrase Expectin every minute would be his next is dull. Expectin every murder would be his next would be comic.

As I said, I just don't get Uncle Remus. Give me The Spectator anyday.