Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1882-05-08
A TRIP TO A LOUISIANA
SUGAR PLANTATION.

ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS OF rHnnoN1roRl
The Taco Methods of Making Sugar
Jolting Through the Field i,a q Cane
Caqt-Dining at q Planters Man
sion-Oldest Church in Louisiana.
1t occurs to me that the promised
account of visit to a sugar planta-
ton will be of more interest, read by
the light of the fire which keeps the
sap boiling, than later after atten-
ton is turned from the sugar camp
to the cultivation of the fields. SO
| will let the summers trip through
the Tennessee mountains wait bit
until other matters of interest have
been attended to.
1t seemed a trifle out of place to
be planning to go to a sugar boiling
in November; but so would the green
peas and cucumbers which ate for
my Thanksgiving dinner have seem
ed out of season in Vermont
1t was cold enough, even in New
Orleans, to suggest ''good sap
day the sharp, clear, frosty
cold of New England, but clinging,
creeping, damp cold, such as one
finds in Boston in the late days of
October. We were five. and we were
early astir, for to three, at least,
trip to sugar plantation was some
thing new under the sun, and the
memory of the old times when, crowd
ed into the big sleigh, behind jingling
bells, | went, one of merry crowd,
to eat the toothsome sugar, was fresh
enough in my mind to make me well
come the opportunity to compare the
two methods of condensing sweet
ness.
Until 1901 it never occurred to
me that any explanation of the term
"sugaring off, could be necessary.
/ supposed every one knew that when
sufficient sap from the trees had been
boiled down to syrup to make a
"good, large batch of sugar." the
syrup was then clarified and given
additional boiling until it would
"grain,' or turn to sugar, all the
folks coming for miles around to
help eat at the "sugaring off"
About that time, however, very
learned Professor in the University
of Virginia undertook to let day
light into the darkened minds of the
people of this country, by publishing
a book giving the meaning of many
of the phrases peculiar to various
portions of the United States. There
were some gigantic chunks of wis
dom between the board covers of
that book.
t1.sE..seis,..-~g s-s
ed in his Checks" was: "Many of
| the miners wear checked shirts when
they send them out to be washed they
say HE has passed in his checks. "
If the aforesaid learned professor
should air his wisdom in western
camp, | am very much afraid he
would be taught by practical demon
stration that when man ''passed in
his Checks" the receiver is the lone
ferryman who guides the departing
spirit across the river, whose oppo-
site shore fades away into the unex-
plored country which mortal eye has
never seen.
He said of the term ''sugaring off :"
"When the sugar-makers are through
they have general cleaning up of
what is left, which is called sugar
ing off. - What jolly ''sugaring
off, that would be to invite ones
neighbors to participate in! That
poor professor will never know how
I have yearned over him, and longed
to spirit him away to some well reg
ulated sugar camp, where he can
burn his tongue with boiling syrup,
and set his jaws in his efforts to mas
ter the mystery of the tangled sweet
ness produced by the contact of hot
syrup with snow.
There was one phrase he did not
undertake to explain. l wish he
had. l think it's birthplace is in
North Carolina, and it runs this
wise:
''Has you'uns got any pot liquor
, that we'u 'uns can have to cod wolloI
, our corn dodger IMP
We crossed the Mississippi river
| at the Jackson street ferry, on for
lorn looking boat which ought tt
have been put on the retired lis
. some time ago. We were very nea
| the point where, less than two years
/ before, the steamer on which L wa
a passenger to Cincinnati was rul
0 into by another large boat. Their
are about twenty minutes OF the tim
-
following the collision, that | shal
remember forever-and | do no
v banker after repetition of that ex
p perience.
While | have been telling you a
;, this, our party has safely crossed tn
q broad river, boarded the train a
t, Gretna, and is being rapidly carrie
over the smooth roads of Texas an
G Pacific, which has already become
y part or the through line to the Pacifi
" coast. This is the third route t
California and it does seem as if cal
If rying rates ought to get down littl
q nearer the earth, but | see no pro:
y pect of such thing. | congratulat
v nvSalf howaypr on tho fact tha