The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1883-09-13
NEWBERRY, S. c.. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 49, 1883.
and sometimes we can hire darkey

big pay and lotsof scraps TO take
home to their young ones.
But after all, the cooking don't
bother us much, and we can always
get along if we have something to
cook. There are more folks that
want yittels than cooks, and I am
thankful we have always had more
than our share. There is another
little problem right along here, and
that is the cleaning up and scour-
ing the floors and the piazzers, and
the brass kettle, and the water
buckets, and the cook vessels, and
making lye soap, and doing heap
of little things that the darkeys al
ways did and the white folks never
would do if they could help it. But
the biggest trouble at my house is
this everlasting washing business.
I don't reckon there is woman in
the world that loves clean things
and clean clothes any better than
my wife. She is bound to have
clean sheets and clean curtains, and
clean pillow cases, and clean gar
ments of all sorts, and it just takes
more towels to do her than Corsi-
can. And so the wash woman is
everlastingly grumbling about the
big pile of clothes, and not long ago
when she took the basket out of the
buggy she asked me if was shore
that one of-the children hadn't got
tied up in the bundle, for it was
powerful heavy. Well, we begun
at one dollar a week, and then she
raised on us to one dollar and a
quarter, and now she says she must
have one dollar and q half, and l
reckon its right, for the darkeys
that help her have struck for higher
wages, and the good old soul is
doing the best she can. She is one
of the old-time darkeys, and when
they are gone I don't know what
will become Of the problem. The
old stock still wash, and scour and
cook, and make baskets, and shuck
collars, and foot mats and brooms,
but when they are all dead and
gone that is the end Of all that sort
of business, for this new generation
wont do it. I'll bet there amt a
new niger in the State who will
ever make a split basket. They
don't know how, and they don't in
tend to learn.
But after all, there is some kind
of comfort for most everybody. If
the washing is a bother we mustn't
forget that it always was bother
even in slavery times. The wash
ing and the ironing was bother
then, for the rain would come and
the winds would blow, and there
was too much starch or too little,
and if there is anything in this life
that gets along smoothly all the
time l don't know it. We old folks
can weather the storm l reckon, for
we have got use to trouble, but the
young set haven't. Nabor Free
man and his good wife amuse me /;
they haven't got used to it yet, and
when the cook leaves or the wash
woman gets on a strike they just
pack up and 60 to "ma." What a
blessed thing it is to have a ma to
90 to--a good old fashioned ma,
who will tighten the burdens of life
and give aid and comfort to their
children. '1'm going to ma" Hap
py is the child who can say that.
It is mighty nice to get married and
set up housekeeping, and give a
big dining occasionally, but when
the young mother gets fretted and
tired and the baby is sick, it is a
world of comfort to say, "I'm going
to pack up and go to ma ?" Folks
never get too old to be careless of
q good fathers and a good mothers
caresses. Fond parents are about
the greatest treasure in this life,
and it humbles us to lose them. l
never like to see children leave
them and 60 away off to Texas, or
Arkansas or California. I would
rather stay by the old folks and
comfort them and let them comfort
me. I would rather live hard and
be near them than to go afar off and
get rich. BILL ARP.