Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1879-05-27
CHAPTER II.

Before civilization stepped in and
spoiled things, there were few scenes in
the world richer in picturesque and humor-
Gus elements than that presented by an
out-of-doors Saturday night in the Black
Country. There were always shows and
stalls on the waste ground at the upper
end of the High-strect on Saturday nights
in nv time. The market, an unroofed
square space surrounded by a wall, and
entered by great gates which were only
opened on Saturdays, might have found
a student of Midland life a thousand
themes for observation and discourse. -
Cheap Jack was outside the lower gate,
hoarse. volublc, assured There was the
crock merchant. with his stock in trade
spread out on straw, shaking and jingling
his little goods noisily together, and skill
fully dropping plate or basin now and
again TO show how strong and unbreaka-
be they were. There were the fried fish
stalls, and the oyster stalls, with genuine
natives at five penny, with as much
vinegar and pepper as YOU choose to take
thrown in for the money. Here were
mountains of rock and other sweet stuff,
side by side with alps of new baked rolls
and seas of trcacle. Here YOU might buy
apples whereon had rained the CHASTITY
dew of the naphtha lamps until they
tasted and smelled like veritab,e fruit Of
Tophet. tasted those apples once.
How well | remember their Dead Sea
flavor. Here was q gentleman in a cart,
with awful diagrams of the human body
suspended from a great framework in the
rear-a gentleman who would sell you
pills for penny, and tell YOU for nothing,
in five minutes, variety of things about
anatomy and medicine, which the whole
staff of Bartholomew or st. Thomas
would never dream of telling you at all,
if you spent lifetime with them. And
among all these things the big Black
Country men, and the strapping Black
Country women, went slow, solid, stolid,
heavy-the men in creased and wrinkled
suits of new and shining black which
fitted nowhere, and huge, many-cOlOred
comforters dangling yard and half in
front of them, and very glistening hats;
and the women in green and red and blue
and yellow garments, with artificial roses
in their bonnets in size and hue resem-
bling picking -cabbages-cheapeningh here
and there with the long deliberate drawl
and stolid faces of the land. These
things have faded and vanished. Civiliz-
alton is killing picturesqueness in cut and
color, and the accent of Cockney Brum-
magem is spelling the only Saxon left us
in the whole country.
Through and among all these delights
and wonders roamed Selma and her cav
alier How she despised that sheepish
and shame-faced youth as she walked
about with him. How she almost grew
to hate him for the minute, and quite
grew to hate herself when she contrasted
him with the absent William. Not that
Abraham was guilty of any remissness in
the performance of his duty. When he
went into the Red Cow to get his pint,
he brought Selma her half-pint into the
street, and saw her drink it, and carried
the jug back for her in the most gentle
manly manner. For in the Black Coun-
try it is not-or it was not-etiquette for
single young lady to enter a public
house. Married ladies could exercise
their own discretion, but decent young
fellow abroad with his sweetheart would
always bring a share of his beer to the
door of the public house, and there the
good clumsy Phyllis and Damon drank
together. Nor was Abraham in other
matters unequal to his duties. He and
Selma went into all the shows together,
and if she had demanded all the rock and
all the "humbugs" in the market, she
might have had them. But she was sick