Advertisement for Wood's Minstrels Contest for Best Negro Farce and Song

"Wood's Minstrels. A Card to the Public . . . [Henry Wood] will give a prize of five hundred dollars to that person producing the best negro farce and song, the latter to be of a pathetic character--two hundred and fifty dollars for each, or five hundred dollars for both. . . . The writers are left to their own choice, as far as plot and incident is concerned, with the exception that neither the song or the farce must have the slightest political bearing; but one condition must be imposed, which is that the farce must not be of a length which will consume more than thirty minutes in the playing, and the song must be confined to three verses and a chorus."