Middletown transcript., 1870-07-09
Correspondence Of tie lMddietoVn Transcript.
NEAR CApEvILLE, Northampton Co. Va.
June 21st, 1870.

NEAR CArEvILLE, Northampton Co. Va
: June 21st, 1870.
Dcar Transcript Your correspond.
ent was much amused, few Sundays
ago, at the turnout" of one of the F +.
VS.. 1t was warm day in June, with
the sun shining, remember. 1t was a new
Germantown carriage, with all the cur.
, tains buttoned down, and horse and @
mule attached; the horse had new carriage
harness, and the mule plow gear, with
rope rains. His wife and children, with
, q negro girl for driver, were in the car
riage, while he walked along the road and
smoked, with evident satisfaction at his
team. The owner of this team was edu-
Gated at Delaware College, Newark. but
has not been out of this county for over
sixteen years. Education is blessing to
him. (?) All kinds of vehicles are repro
sented here at the churches, from two
horse wagon, down; but the horse cart is
the principal conveyance. A piece of old
carpet is spread on the bottom ON which
the ladies sit, but the men go in "North-
ampton sulkcy," that is, the body is un-
shipped, and the men sit on the axletree
with their feet in rope stirrups; they go
jogging along in this way, as happy as a
clam at high water.
If any of your young ladies wish to
know how to make butter, I'll give them
the recipe, as practiced here: When the
cream is ready for churniug it is put in a
large mouthed bottle, corked, and given
to a negro boy about ten or twelve years
old, dressed ga la Virginia." that is,
simply long tow-linen shirt. He rolls
the bottle along the ground, tosses it up
in the air for a ball, dances, runs, and
plays with it generally, until it is churn-
ed. During this churning process, when
he can catch the missus' not looking
at him, he uncorks the bottle and tastes it
to sec if the butter has come, suppose.
Your correspondent took supper with
neighbor, but did not eat butter, as he
happened to be an eyewitness to the chur-
ming of it. Butter is churned for each
meal. Our churn was great curiosity,
when we first brought it here, Negroes
would come long distance to see 'de
chu'n an de Yankee fxens !" They were
not the only ones that came to see it.
This is truly land of fried chicken and
biscuit. They are cooked in the oldtime
way, in u spider and dutch-oven, (thc
only way to bake really good biscuit
Stoves are not used, except by the rich
ones, who are very few.
Swearing seems a universal habit of the
men and indulgel in to great extent by
the women; but don't think we have no
ladies', if they do rub snuff and smoke
Asking one of them, the other day, if she
saw the last comet, her reply was: "Laud
no, we don't have any thing like that,
here" Where ignorance is bliss" &c.
They go visiting in horse cart, with
negro girl for driver; it is then carte
dc risite, you know. The men never
work on Saturday afternoons, but adjourn
to Capevillo to drink and play cards, but
they are very quiet considering the guam
tity and the quality of the liquor drank.
The stores are kept open on Sundays, un-
til between 8 and 1O o'clock, A. Nj. or
preaching commences, as the church is
only short distance off.
The natural products of this country
seem to be oysters, clans, fish, pine lum
Der, ague and fever, tleas, and last but not
least, law suits, although we are without
Judge or sheriff, but we are provided with
black justice of the peace and consta-
bic. There is strong hope of railroad
being built through this county to connect
with the north, and if it is, it will be the
means of bringing this county to the no.
tice of northern people, and then good bye
to the f. +. VS.. and all their cherished
habits. The country is too good for the
people occupying it. They till it, year
after year, without improving it in the
least, until it is perfectly worn out, it is
then ''turned out, fences torn down, and
allowed to grow up in pines. After lying
idle for several years, the pines are cut
down, grubbed up and burned, which is
all the improvement it gets. Lime is used
but seldom.
Mill bags are not used here, but flour
barrels, kegs, boxes, fish kits, baskets,
tubs, buckets, &c. are substituted. When
we first run our steam grist mill, we had
a sitter attached, like other mills, but the
''natives" quit coming to the mill, so we
had to disconnect it and grind the meal a
little finer than horse feed to please them.
The negroes cat the meal without sitting |
at ALL One bushel of corn meal and II |
lbs. of bacon is a months allowance for a |
hand, and that is all they expect or get
from native; but, from a Yankee, they
can't get enough, as they say if a Yankee
did not give them more, the Yankees
would not be any better than their own
people. They get more, sometimes, with
chunk They wont work for northern
people, if they can help themselves; in
fact, they think themselves above them.
SO much for the negroes.
August is the farmers vacation, and all
they do is to fish with hook and line the
best part of every day, or clam; and we
have as good clans here as any that are
caught. They are not the thick, mud
clam you get, but the thin sand-clam; they
will not bear transporting. Very little fruit
is GROWN here Sweet notatoes raw. are