Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1869-11-24

cradle number Of hands keeps O littlc
store OF cheap groccriesand provisions,
aud pays them out of IL. Aud usually
the weeks work is all taken mp, so
that scarcely one in hundred can
improve bis condition under this order
of things.
! saw gang after gang paid of At
night, sometimes flty or sixty at
time, aud not five dollars in money
was paid to the whole of them For
corn they allowed fifty cents peck
for bacon which you and would not
eat at any price they gave twenty-five
cents a pound, aud the prices of labor
varied from half n dollar to dollar a
day. have seen sturdy, healthy
young fellows, of twenty and upward,
working for two dollars week and
boarding themselves. saw women
doing days works that not white
man in New England or New York
could do at any price, for seventy-iive
cents day, all paid in goods Cor
bddS), groceries ard provisions. Some
of these stores keep very decent arti-
cles, but not all. Most Of them that
| have seen, kept whiskcy in a barrel
on tap-called whislley by courtesy,
but generally, | am assured, com
pound of denominations ft only TO
transform the dupes who swallow il
into demons. Aud, strange as it may
seem, not one colorod person in n
thousand will refuse it, old or young
male or female; though in slavery,
am told-indced, was always told
that drunkenness was not a prevalling
yico. Probably the restraints Of mas
terhood had much TO do with IL. The
whislley is usually drank raw and
reeking from the barrel, without sugar
and with very little if any water
which some Of the drinkers said, only
drowned IT, have seen mothers
pour it thus down the ihroats Of six
mosths babes, men, women, children,
the storekeeper looking on without
remark. The principal diet of the
plantation people is coarse hominy
and bacon, the latter, fortunately,
though deemed luxury, in but small
quantities. And out Of the cities, |
have often been told, tho same diet
serves nearly all the white people also.
| have heard of "hog and hominy" as
southern bin of fare complete long
time ago, but had no idea how literal
or how general was its application.
The old slave. quarters, unrcpaired,
arc still the colorcd peoples homes.
Among all their houses in the rural
districts, | have not seen one pane of
glass; not one set of crockery, earthen
or ironwarc, beyond rude and often
broken pot, with iron or tin spoons
that certainly were never made lighter
by securing; scarcely any chairs or
tables but of home manufacture and
not one decent bed 10 any cabin-not
oncl Some Of the women were rather
tidily dressed, as | have seen them ;
aud on Sundays, / am told, they ap-
pear quite we'll But many Of the
men might defy all the scarecrows of
thousand corn fields. Some of the
infants | have seen were entirely
naked, and boys Of at least dozen
years wore but single garment; and
that only a scanty apology in length,
breadth or thickness. And Mt least
four kinds Of vormin, smaller than
rats. and mice, infost many human
bed, its coarse covering or its orcu.
pants, orall together. Ask the Union
soldiers who survived the campaigns
of the southern States whether this be
! cXaggeratl0n.
The most prosperous aud promising
freedman have seen lives on one OF
the sea islands. lie had ten acres OF
cotton, nine Of corn, three Of beans,
with plenty Of potatoes, had harvested
| fifty bushels of excellent rice, kept a
borse, mule, two COWS, with pigs and
poultry on all sides of his house lin.
side not excepted so far as poultry
was concerned); and yet with tlo
exception Of one plain but cabinet
made rocking chair, and one glass
goblet, carefully kept wrapped in a
clean sheet OF straw paper, and
brought out to give me and my friends
q drink of water, the furnishing OF
tho house did not differ materially
from those have described. We
were treated to roasted sweet pota.
toes, which an old grandmother paved
out of the hot ashes with her hands
aud replaced with others, which she
covered in the same independent way,
no shovel nor tongs ever being used
seen or known.
Drunkenness is not confined to class
or color, in any Of tho States | have
seen. Many say that "lho niggcr and
the Indian have natural tastes and
tendencies for stimulants. But with
the former il would be safe TO attri.
butte il to his imilive nature or dispo
silion, coming, as he necessarily docs
into too close contact with the whites
| certainly never saw such need oi
temperance reform before, anywhere
under heaven. | we'll remember the
drinking habits Of New England long
before the laundering cloqucnco d
the old Dr. Beecher (sire of many
sons) was denouncing every grog shor
and bar-room as ga breathing hole oj
| he'll" But never have | seen such
wasting ravagcs, by drunkenness, Of
n moral and spiritual wealth, as here
now at full four o'clock in the eefc
noon of the nineteenth cent? : 9iter
calm appeal Of FuLlXcP -.ury III
the plowinr G. aor Mathew, anC
AIDES q cngi icry zeal of a John A
: Gaugh, are needed in every clectv,
district throughout tho souiheri
States. Downright darkness oanno
be said to be an omniproscncc bu
habitual and destructive drinking is
Those who do not drink thomsolve
(of whom, alas there arc but few
. furnish il for their friends, patrons
, customers, and especially on the elcc
tion occasions to their supporters-to
! often in delugos and torrents. N
class of politicians, from north o
r south, can plead exemption from thi
fearful charge. Young men and oil