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.

And I no sooner heard it than I said to myself: "There is _one_ blossom that never bloomed in Georgia!" Another instance is the following: I was once approached by a beggar in Atlanta, who saluted me thus: "Say, mister, can't you-all give me a nickel ?" Had I been accompanied it would have been all right, but I was alone, and there was no other person near me except the hobo.

Did I give him the nickel?
I should say not! I said to myself: "He is a damned Yankee trying to pass himself off for a Southerner." Horrid glimmerings began to filter dimly through.

And yet-- Next day came a letter calling my attention to an article, written years ago by Joel Chandler Harris and Thomas Nelson Page, jointly, in which they plead with northern writers not to misuse the disputed expression by applying it in the singular.
That was another shock.