The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-02-21

Of milk were carried 20 town and sold
for money to buy fertilizer for the
cotton crop-also snuff for the WIFE,
tobacco for the husband-and a very
little coffee. They kept no help-the
wife wove and made the cloth they
wore, and their own industry had
gotten them a farm and stocked 1t
since the war. They deserve every
thing good To be said for them IN every
respect but two-they do not SEND
their children-the oldest now M
| teen.-tos school; and they think fried
bacon and corr bread good enough for
even a baby.
A neighbor of theirs rather higher
up in the scale of social life, stopped at
nv gate in the summer with a pail Of
nice butter, and eggs and chickens to
sell. Her Oldest boy about nine years
old was with her. a lifeless looking,
tallow-faced, white-haired little fell
low. The mother asked me what |
reckoned allied him: He had no APP
petite, and no spirit for anything, and
his father was uneasy about him.
Fortified by my previous conversation
with the Doctor / asked her what he
ate. "Well he don't eat much of
ANYTHING" "Do you give him any of
this nice butter-plenty of milk and
eggs-good bread?' We'll he has
-. Il l,t+1.,,,I1- e ln u-a.+- - I.
"You give him fried meat | suppose"
sob. yes, but of late he don't even
care for that; | am afraid he's got the
dropsy." Then of course l gave the
good woman a lecture. | took off the
poor little chaps hot wool hat, and
showed her his white hair matted with
with perspiration. and entreated her to
let him wear a straw hat next time she
took him a three mile walk on a blazing
July day. Told her to sell fewer
chickens and less butter, and give her
children better food. To use less snuff
cher brush was between her
lips as she talked and take more pains
with the food she gave ler family.
| live quite too near the energetic
flourishing and public-spirited
own of Durham, and l and the Uni
also, have both too many good
md noble-hearted friends there, for me
have the moral courage tO say a
word against the industry that has
made the town, and given it a world
vide reputation. Besides | enjoy the
dor of a good segar, or a good pipe SO
yell that / might well be counted
a1ticeps cTinlinis in the tobacco bust
ess. But the amount of snuff used
y u country wOmen-(black and
Ehite)-is assuming the proportions of
ne quantity sold each week by one of
re eight or nine stores of this small
lest l be charged with exag-
Grafton. 1t is really incredible. The
egro women are the largest buyers
nee their emancipation. They have
from one slavery into another.
[ow earnestly l wish l could free the
-hite women from their bondage to
he evil practice. Intemperance
mong men-use Of snuff among the
-omen-they stand side by side in my !.
,timation-and l fear the snuff-dip-
will be the hardest to root out.
injuries a woman's health, her looks,
er breath, her habits. 1t Injuries her
lind, impairs her memory, her nerves,
judgment; blunts the fine edge of
feelings, as well as of her mental
and disnoses her to inaction
neither tobacco nor strong drink
lmself could love a woman who was
inveterate snuff dipper is something
never could comprehend. Yet it has
ften been done. suppose in all such
ases the M was naturally the
lan's superior in certain qualities Of
cad and heart.
For people whose sense of taste is
by continued use of tobacco,
ne thing is as good as another for eat
Is, n one way Of cooking differs
cry little from another way. Coarse
.estern bacon, coarse corn bread,
lrnips and dried apples and cabbage,
coarsely and unappetizingly cooked.
his is an ample bill of fare for winter
What do they know, or know
lg, what would they care, for the
lousand and one delicate preparations
{ eggs, or milk, or canned fruits and
agetables? They have no idea of a
bod soup, or even of a stew, or a good
ash. What their father ate and
used them on, Is good enough for
lem and their children. have seer
lese good people who love running
the bottom of a deep rut, refuse
elicacies at other peoples tables. I
hey were not acquainted with them, j