Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-08-03
Plenty of Honey.

A traveller writing about his fare while
In the South, says of one of his stopping
places: The dining room below was
dark and dismal, and was pervaded with
the odors of years OF cooking, which
were reinforced in the preparation OF
every meal. Seated at the table filthy
negro appeared and took my plate.
"What have You for breakfast ?" ]
asked.
''Meat'n greens, was the reply.
Nothing else?"
''Corn bread and coffee, boss"
1 had never had courage to attack a
dish of ''meat and green's" but as /
seemed to have no choice, let the
darkey bring me a plate of that delict-
able compound. "Meat in the South,
l ought to explain, means smoked bacon
the only kind of meat, except chick
ems, that is often used by the poorer
classes in the country. The ''greens'
are generally cabbage-sprouts, and the
bacon and the ''greens" are boiled to-
gether until they are not only thorough
ly cooked, but until the whole mass is
pervaded with the fat of the pork and
the flavor of the smoke by which it was
cured. 1t takes an appetite for north
ern man to relish such dish as that,
and stomach that never rebels to di-
gest it. There were other attractions
in that breakfast. The coffee" was
homemade" that is, it had been raised
on the place in the form of chicory or
barley, had been badly burned in roast
ing, was sweetened with molasses or
not at all, and cream or milk was a lux
ury unknown.
1 survived this fare three or four
meals, piecing it out between times with
canned meats and fruits which 1 bought,
and then / accepted an invitation from a
gentleman of the town, who lived in a
civilized way, to stay day or two with.
My radical friends then announced that
L had been captured by the Ku Klux. 1"
and lost all confidence in my reports.
l Jared better in little town in east
ern North Carolina, which once visited
on similar mission to that which took
me to western Alabama. There was no
hotel in the place, but widow, whose
husband had kept whisky saloon and
was killed in fight, maintained very
comfortable clearinghouse where stran-
gers were entertained. The first day at
dinner we had roasted chicken. At
supper fried chicken was served, and at
breakfast fried chicken appeared again.
At dinner the second day the servant
brought on roasted chicken fricasee.
While l was at the table at supper the
second evening the landlady came in,
and, with some signs of confusion.
said:
81 hope You like chicken, sir. / see
you don't eat the bacon"
1 said that did like it, and that she
cooked it very nicely.
Because, she added, ''there is not
pound of fresh meat in town, and don't
know when there viii be. 1 own two
steers that are old enough to kill, but
they are down in the Dismal somewhere
with Colonel Jones herd. 1 hadn't heard
from them in more than a year until
last summer, when they came out and
| tried to get some one to shoot one of
them for me, but didn't succeed. /
do it myself, you know, and
now they have gone back, and the Lord
only knows when they'll come out again.
1t is very hard for lone widow to get
along. There's no butter in town either.
The steamer will be up in a day or two,
and will probably bring some. 1 have
plenty of honey, if you like that"