The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1877-07-26
How Lady Supports Her Family
from a One Acre Lot.

There were those who know nothing
of labor in former years, and since the
war have yielded to the pressure of the
times and been reduced to absolute
want. This has been the fate of many
Southern families Of as good blood as
ever coursed through human veins, and
these natural born gentlemen and ladies
are to be pitied in their poverty. Their
former lives were not calculated to pre-
pare them to battle against the trials
that cruel war has brought upon them.
But they are really admirable in their
present destitute condition, for not a
murmur ever escapes one of them. DC
casionally there crops out from among
this class an individual whose plnck
can but excite the admiration OF oil
who know him or her. And Just such
a person is lady acquaintance of Col.
d. W. Aiken, on the lower coast of
South Carolina, with whom he has had
some correspondence latterly, and who
wrote as follows.
II am living on a single acre of land,
which expect to buy if [ can ever
raise the money-price fifty dollars.
This acre l have had plowed, for which
[ paid, and with q wheel>barrow, chip
manure and rotted pine straw, l my
self have made so many Irish potatoes
that, after grabbing for six weeks to
supply my table, where | and nine
children sit regularly, have in the past
few days dug over three barrels. l
have corn taller than my head. early
COW peas, tomatoes turning, okra in
bloom, and over one hundred head OF
beautiful young cabbage, some squash>
es and cucumbers destroyed by my
neighbor's pigs. am not in despair,
however, for as soon as my friends fin
ish setting out their slips, l will buy
enough for quite patch, aud pay for
them in labor returned, by working on
the sewing machine. Some persons
say [ am fanatical. Be it so; better
that than gadding about and consum-
ing precious time in idleness. / am
quite Indifferent to the taunts [ hear
of such work being unladylike. l am
only doing work that has to be done,
and would like to have it nicer. but
there is no alternative. With all my
striving, | find but little margin for
clothing, and none for the education of
my dear children"
The writer of the above is widow
with ten living children, nine at home,
! and the majority Of them girls. She is
accomplished and refined, and has seen
far better days. Without her know
ledge or consent we publish the above
extract from her private letter, that 1t
might encourage many a one now SIT
ting npon the caves of despair, or
shame into more active life-some OF the
many drones we have i'll almost every
community in the South. -ChorleStoi
(S. Co. News.
A case of the kind has come to our
knowledge, and the lady is native and
resident of this State. Her husband
formerly well-to-do merchant, is nov
clerk on small salary in New Or
leans. Finding last year that their re-
duced means would not admit of hel
residing in the city, she with her chill
dren retired TO small place, which she
still owned, near one of the jackson
railroad towns, and with her own hands
plowed and cultivated enough land tt
produce one bale of excellent cotton
and corn, potatoes and vegetables enough
to supply her family for this year. She
is pow making another crop, and ex
poets to double the results. So we have
plucky women too.--N. 0. Times.