The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1872-09-25


In the partition below stands the
cooking stove, one room being
sleeping apartment, the other fo1
: sitting, dining, cooking, washing
: &c. The village hotels are cut ur
: into small close rooms, and not {
? fireplace in the house, every room
? being heated in winter by pipes
disconnected in Summer,) running
from the stove into and around
evey room in the house. The
kitchen opens into the dining-room,
the dining room into the bar room,
the bar room into the parlor, and
the parlor, in all probability, into
the landlords bed chamber. The
stables are ten feet beyond the
kitchen, and the cow-shed next
door beyond. The landlady does
the cooking, the daughters, if any,
the "waiting," the sons curry the
horses, and the old gent rips around
I generally, taking a drink whenever
asked as it is too cheap to be re-
fused-only five cents a drink for
good Scotch whiskey done up with
maple sugar and hot matchmaking
a what-do-you-call-it?- "a temper
auce night cap.
Corn grows here about three feet
high, and bears nubbin scarcely
big enough to choke an ordinary
cow. When. gathered the corn is
housed, but shucks and stalks are
often thrown into mud holes to
mend the public highway. I asked
an old farmer why he did this; he
replied, because I have too much.
I thought of the Dutchman who
said, II stacked mine hay in de
field as much as I can, I put de rest
in e.barn."
These people live on fresh meat,
bread, onions, potatoes, and tea, and
this seems to be their bill of fare
three times day. 1t isgeaerally
well prepared, appetizins and
cheap. Board is one dollar per
day and twenty-five cents a meal,
Canada money being now twelve
cents in the dollar more valuable
than greenbacks. Occasionally
honey is seen on the table, and
their bee-hives are oddities. They
are made of straw twisted into a
cable, and each looks like a coil of
rope at a. distance with bees con-
gregated around its base, where
through apertures they enter the
hives. The butter is delicious, but
their cattle are as inferior as their
horses, occasionally small herd of
what appears to be half Ayshires,
are seen grazing on the beautiful
meadows that seem to cover every
inch of land with a carpet Of the
richest green. The very roads are ,
green, except in the ruts, and paths
of their single horse teams, with a
rich verdure of fern with leaf
like the mimosa, the stinted rag
weed, white clover and yellow
dock; occasionally Innings of blue
grass, red top, and timothy resecn
growing spontaneously.
One has to work for a living here
for six months in the year every
thing has to be sheltered day and
night from the weather. The .ther-
mometer often falls to 800 below
zero, and already premonitions Of
winter are upon US, for yesterday,
(15th Sept.) we had a white frost,
and already our lips are chapped
Inv the cold winds. We would not
exchange comfortable Southern
home for any such inhospitable
climate; yet these people are more
contented than ours, and seem to
enjoy life in their scantiness, more
than we do where nature has dealt
SO kindly and done so much for us.
The prevailing religion is Ro-
manism, and every little village has
its massive stone church with its
lofty spires, generally two, point
ing heavenward. Right or wrong
they are examplarily devout, if
faith is to be measured by acts
They are, however, grossly igno-
rant, many Of them being unable to
read or write Politically they arc
a blank. Everybody from "the
States" is a Yankee, and when we
tell them we are from South Caro-
lima, they often ask, 'Ish dat ash
fur ash New York?''
When we were in the Green
Mountains, Of Vermont, our mntu-
al friend, the Major, often said he
was too far from home; but away
up here where he has to talk to