Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-06-05
A sou1hern Load of Wood.

walked out TO the east of the city (Colum-
bia, S. c. having no objective point in view,
except TO get into the country. In the suburbs
of the city met concern that always attracts
| the attention of stranger. 1t was a South
Carolina load of wood. The load of wood was
| on rickety wagon, the wheels of which wab-
| bled and bobbed about over the road in as I'M
| steady manner as so many drunken men.
The tracks that it made were fearful to see. On
this wagon was q rack and in this rack were
four pins, each about two feet high. They were
distant apart from each other some fourteen
inches one way, and four feet the other. With
in these standards, gentle reader, was the load
of wood. Honestly there was not enough of it
to make one good fire in fireplace of even
moderate dimensions. One of the old-fashioned
sort would swallow wagon, wood and all, and
then call for more. Hitched to this wagon was
an animal which, in the better days of the re-
public, might have been a horse Now it was a
portion of a horses skin filled with his bones.
The horse himself did not seem to be there
This bundle of some skin and considerable
bones was hitched to the wagon" by means of
two pieces Of clothes-line rope, and an armful
| of straw tied into something that might pass
| for villainous burlesque on a horse-collar, by
means of a strap cut from an old boot leg. The
| bride was made out of strap from the same
boot leg that had entered 80 largely into the con-
struction of the "cOllar." There were only two
pieces of it and the bit. This last was an army
affair, and not having shrunk away from the
horse, it looked by the side of his famish he'd
| jaws like lightning rod twisted into fantastic
shapes. The reins were on a scale of grandeur
| commensurate with the rest of the turnout,
one of them being made by what appeared to
| be the old shoe strings, and the other of several
/ articles starting out with a small chain next
the bit, or twisted lightning rod, then a short
| piece or fishing line, then few feet of some
| thing apparently cut from piece of cotton
bagging, and ended with bit of clothes line
that was left over from the traces. The driv-
er and apparent owner of this turnout was
a tall, lean, thin, sallow, spinded-shanked,
| lantern.jawed, cadayerous looking cuss who
| looked as if he had not had a square meal
since 1860, and could eat up the weight
| of his wood and horse, if presented in the
shape of meat and bread, at single sitting. l
looked at this moving panorama of poverty so
intently that the proprietor thought wanted TO
buy, and brought his animal to halt. twas no
trouble to do that; as the bones in the dried skin
suddenly stopped waddling, even before the word
Of command was fairly out of the drivers mouth
or there had been the slightest jerk on the twisted
lightning rod. do yer want to buy this
ere wood?" he asked. "What's it worth ?"
''Wall, seeing that Pm in hurry, and hits a
good bit back home, and Pm needin' some money
powerfully bad, I'll just take eighty cents for
the load" ''Is that the usual price for loads of
that sizeW "WaI, can't say for certain It's or
faint. Hits cheaper an most loads for the
money, for it's bigger. The price of wood in
Columbia depends upon things, you know; that
is, sometimes hits scarce, and then agin good
bit will come in, and then you see we can't al
ways understand how things will work and
come about concerning of the supply of such
needs as city people has to contend with, which
is different from the way we do in the country
about things of the sort, you know. Have you
got any tobaccoT | did not use the weed.
"Wall, talk up pert bout this ere wood My
Old nags bout to lay down, and if don't move
on he'll lay down in spite Of the devil, and when
he once gots down it takes work for him to get
up, and Eve found that the surest way to under.
stand these little ways this horse does is to keep
him on the move, for when he's on the move the
fact of this business is you see he can't lay
down, for he's all the time going ahead" | told
him did not care to buy his wood, at which he
raised whoop behind his horse that would have
caused any animal halfway fed to have run
away, then pushed his wagon against him as
further incentive to get along, and the panorama
of poverty slowly moved on toward the city.
Letter to Cincinnati Commercial.