Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-04-20
FLORIDA CHARACTERS,
People One VIII Meet i'm the Land q
RInXara.

was IN seeking to md some one to do lob
Of that kind for me, ] was nrse thrown in
with the Florida cracker. This is the la
borer; something very different from the
Florida planter; lazy, thriftless fellow,
who studies b. W to work easy more than
TO get work done. Save me from SUCH l
took him to the spot dense palmetto
thicket of two acres, lying on the skirt of
Oikoutoulypes, my own homestead.
had not told him what soft OF work it was,
and as I caught tight of the lugubrious face
at bis view of the task hurst into laugh.
The man had told me be was destitute-in
want of bread-food for his wife and chill
dren; but now r
"Hog-eye! l low you don't 'spect q
fella cretur to grub that, do YEP" be ex-
claimed.
"Why not ?'' at must be done; if not
by fellow creature, who then ?"
"Nobody does that thar but Il and
Il snd s., and they charges ten
dollars a acre.. Wouldn't do it for twenty, p
said be in doleful disappointment.
"Ten dollars p said J.; '1if it is worth
that, can afford to do it myself, and you
may CO." He did go, and and MY nephew,
aged fourteen, did actually clear the patch
in the leisure from his lessons, work about
two hours per day, in two weeks. Since
then am reckless and defiant of palmetto
roots. At parting be had only said of my
undertaking the job, "thst thar's sassy
talk, stranger, but hit amt In ye."
A SKETCH BY A NATIVE ARTIST.
WANTED piece of WORK done on my
place. Labor is scarce and hard to find,
but heard OF man who would serve
Il ha at 1rla ID
day. l set out on my mare, commonly
known as Shanks's, for the county seat.
As drew near the outskirts il occurred to
me had no marks by which to know the
person sought. Just then met an as-
qusint2nce, who was mounted on a wi zen
little Florida pony foaled BY an acorn, and
put my question.
"Wel, said he, with drawl, she's one
o. these yer one-gslius cusses. Most any
body'd know him"
81 do not" said I. 81 wish you would
describe him so as t. save me the trouble
of incoming about town on a blind search /"
dwell, he's a shamble jinted, skew-ball,
sort o. yaller jAnders cracker, | reckon. I'D
that do3"
"Hardly," said with laugh.
"Umph! he rides a sassy wire-grass
pony, built hup from the ground sorter like
this 'un."
''They all ride wire-grass ponies" said 1;
Sand all wire-grass ponies are alike"
"~ome on 'em drive yoke o'steers, and
nary mother CRASHED colt ant like this YER"
patting the tough little qusdrupad that
looked like a sexiped, four-hoofed andtwo-
b-oganed.
Chow does he dress ?" l asked next.
"Dress! never herd Of his wearin' no
dress. He wears breeches-cottonade
patched with anything he kin GIT"
'fThat is the cou mon dress" said |.
"Well, there amt no crown to his hat"
said be.
| simply looked at my own hat and bis.
He blushed little, and said:
'Sorta petickler, see. He wears his
hair short; saddle-colored brindle, like q
wire-grsss trail. That III do, won't hit ?''
"That's BETTER" said l. "Could you
mend it any more?"
de me see," said he, studying pro-
foundry. "See here; his wife cuts his ha'r,
she does; and she's done left hank long
er'n t'others Just to get the heft o. him
when the house needs reg'latin'; that1l do,
l guess"
guessed it would, and we parted. Need
less to add that the man was found.
might multiply and illustrate without end.
The native is uniuqe, peculiar, but gene
rally liberal, kind-hearted and shiftless.
There are logues and shirks among them of
course, as one whom l employed to grub
palmettoes for me. he was to heap the
logs and brush for burning. When l look
ed at the field before paying, it
Ill
him. But when / set my pile
afire 1 found he had carried logs, limbs, and
brush from all over the field to one place
to cover a bunch of palmetto he had not
grubbed, hiding it, of course, under the
wood pile. 1t was an ingenious way to
make work. One third of the labor would
have grubbed out every root-a thing L did
in less than five minutes.
A GRAss+wIDow.
There are women Of that sort as well as
men. s-wire-grass-widows
would be the significant term. They drift
about from place to place with family CT
about as scrupulous as a SOW with
pigs and not quite as particular. They
land in some hut near R'yti-feld and live
off of it. Their depredstions are not re-
garded, or a-e looked on as a matter of
course. was amused at one such who
had shoaled near q neighbor's cane
patch. SIZE had bought half doz-
en- children, or piglings, and was
explaining to the Deighbor who owned the
cane the right she had to take it, granted
by a third person who had no interest
in it. .-.. --il'. .I
ayes, sir, the cap'n ses, ses be: sWidder,
them chin o. yourn looks grsssy-.oo
green about the gills;' for the cap'n are
pleasant man to a poor, lone wilder wo-
man, be are. He ses, ses he, That thar
cane amt to be fetched says be. NO. ses
|, 'ther amt nary child o. mine as ever eats
cane, least-a-wsys what's standin'. l won't
say as they mout MT tar o stalk her'n tina
at the sugar-mill and bit grindin'; but the
standing cane nary time, eff you'll believe
poor woman, lef' by her poor shost of q
husban' with peck O. chin to raise, aud
some of them gals An the cap'n ses, ses
he, That's bad; q little gsrding sass,
a little sugar fur to open the pores
Them's his words, spok'n right thar agin
the fence, Hghtinin' of his pipe-I bringin'
of him lightud chunk outer the chimbly.
That's bad says he. "A sugar-stick here,
a sugsr-stick thar, don't make nobody no
richer nor no poorer Likewise l ses, ses
True for you, cap'n, as a man as knows
chin and chil'n's mater; an it am good for
EN- in season, stick herein stick thar
: es'n,' ses he, Sin season an in reason,
Nobody ant carin' in reason. Say you
took for your chin two sugar-stalks day
-Jes' two day. Who's missin o. thai?
An it feeds the chin, an pumps out ther
little boiler bellies True for you, cap'n,'
ses /; 'sn' but two sticks it shall be apiece,
no more'n no less-jes' two sticks even;
an men my chin IL watch the patch,