Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1874-08-01
Hard Times In the Smith Family:

1t has been hard year in the mountains
of East Tennessee, not that work has been
particularly scarce, for work is worse than
starvation with many Of them in that be-
nighted region but whisky regulates the
market and that has been high and brought
many proud family low.
Now the Smiths were one Of the proud
families Of that region, They lived on q
ten-acre patch at the foot of the mountain;
They had an old poor horse that wouldn't
make shadow IN the sunshine, and II
knock -kneed cow, with horn broken off,
while the rest of the family consisted Of
Caleb Smith, his wife, and nine rcd-headed,
freckle-faced girls aud boys, after the pat.
tern of tue mother, beside seven dogs and
five cats.
The Smiths would scratch in little corn
each season to carry to the still and the mill,
and make up the rest Of the living by fish
ing, hunting, and lounyng round the
tavern, while the smaller children would
play ''mumbley peg" and it kept Mrs.
Smith busy cooking, smoking her pipe,
spanking the children, and laying it down
to Smith. Washing was such a laborious
task that it was only done once month,
at the creek, and then it was only done in
sections, 50 that one wa>lday the boys
would 80 without their pants, and on the
next without their shirts, and the girls like
wise. The Smith mansion was not pre-
tcntious affair, nor were they particularly
stuck up over it, although it was not to be
sneezed at. 1t consisted of an elaborate log
structure of one room, and IL loft flOored
with roofing boards, with a ladder, up
which the young smiths would 90 to roost
at night, when they didu t sleep in the corn
crib to keep old Bill Robinson from making
off with their corn. The monotony of this
upstairs life was occasionally relieved, when
they had company down stairs, by one of the
boards fitting up and dropping one of the
girls partially through the floor
This was the status of the Smiths when
the hard times began. Their corn had not
turned out well, and the distil!cry increased
mill, and the stone that they balanced the
corn with in the other end Of the sack was
too heavy, and pulled the Smith boy, corn
and all, off into the creek and you see,
such things as this played smash with the
Smith family. They had to cat just like
folks who worked for their living, and, to
make matters worse, Smith didn't kill any
wildcat that season to get the bounty on its
scalp, and it didn't take long to bring them
down to their last hoe-cake, and Smith
couldn't sing that soul-inspiring song any
more: son Sally, get your hoe-cake done. :"
Smith had an offer to chop cord-wood, but
never liked chopping no how.
Now Smith started out one evening about
sundown with his rife, and there was deter
mination in his eyes-any one could tell he
meant business. Was he going to pop the
old distiller over, and run the whisky mill
himself? or was he going to lay for some
traveller with a SaddLc-bag full Of lunch?
Smith, however, relieved all anxiety on this
point by returning after dark with an old,
poor hog across his shoulder that bore deacon
Snoggle's ear-mark and, as Smith was out
of salt, the next morning found the hams,
shoulders and sides hanging up in his smoke
house with cob-frc round them. There
was joy in the Smith family, hut, of course,
with so many mouths to feed one hog
wouldn't last long and when Smith returned
next time with his rife, and couldn't find a
single porkcrat large, matters began to look
desperate; there was only one little slice of
fat bacon left, and that had to 20 as far as
possible, 50 Smith studied all night, and had
the problem solved by breakfast time next
morning. lie just got Mrs Smith and the
nine children all in a row, and he took that
slice Of bacon and tied it on to string, and
he went through from the old womsn down
to the youngest child. and let them swallow
that piece of fat bacon and then he'd pull
it back with the string for the next one s
breakfast; and, poor, self-sacrifcing man,
when they had all breakfasted off it, he then
took the string off, and it went down his
own throat never to return. That day he
killed u wildcat and got the bounty, and
the fish began to bite, and the Smiths again
eyelled in plenty.