Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1884-10-31
IN THE ARKANSAS WOODS.
4 land Of thi!6rrn. hogs. tobacco.
Corn Bread a.id ssacoA.

KANSAS ti.. Times
1t is the native $ Themselves that more
especially attract tie strangers a,tr.l
ton. ihcIe', The i."al OF the family.
prodigiou>ly tail AM ungainlv cue
interesting objects they are. too. with
their Thousand ami one mental ;;ud
physical pcculiaritits The children
also. always dozen or fifteen of them,
ragged. sorrowful-looking urchin>. of
all sizes and shapes And the dogs -
bless me. | came hear forgetting to
mention the dogs-great they are in
numbers, and So thin and bony that it
is little wonder the greater portion of
their existence is spent living before
the old fireplace, never changing their
position except when compelled to do
so. \ striking sense of willingness
seems to ovcrshadow the whole group,
as they squat about the dingy room in
all imaginable attitudes, each wrapped
up i'll the narrow confines of his own
little self and the quid of dogleaf
tobacco.
Tobacco is their only solace a home
made article it is, too: the meancst and
vilest stuff to be found anywhere in the
land. The men chew it, the women
chew it, the children chew it. and even
the dogs chew it. It's chew, chew, spit,
spit, spit, squirt, squirt, from morning
till night and from night till morning,
and if You are not cautious enough to
get OF at a safe distance Won will he
compelled to dodge numberlcss missiles
e ,l,,r- IL, -
about in every conceivable direction IT.
respective of persons or things Some
times their jaws become weary after q
long term of service i'll the art of masti-
cation; chewing requires too much ex-
ercise for their indolent natures to with
stand. Something must be done to re-
heve these overworked members of the
human organism and the characteristic
pipe is at once brought forth from its
hiding place in the chimney. And such
pipes black, filthy things. strong
enough to wreck the constitution of n
Fifth ward politician. A man who can
stand before one Of those pipes when it
Is in full blast is proof against anything,
He would certainly need no life insur-
ance
The diet Of these people is remark
able thing in its way, not only in
quality but also i'll quantity. Corn
bread and bacon constitute the bill of
fare, and in the meagre compass of its
DEMONSTRATING qualities it combines all
and the only-delicacies of the season,
never out of season. It's corn bread
and bacon for breakfast, corn bread
and bacon for dinner, corn bread and
bacon for supper; that is all the year
round. To moralize upon the ingredi-
ents of that corn bread would he as
hazardous rs to attempt to solve the
mysteries that cluster around that
world famous dish, boarding house
hash. know it is a horrible mixture
of corn meal and water, but l am
innocent of anything else it may con-
tain-ut.erly devoid of salt, saleratus
or soda. This is poured into q small,
rusty iron pot, half buried in the ashes,
where it bakes and dries until it
becomes hard enough to knock hole
through q brick wall, provided the
aforesaid wall isn't more than ten feet
thick. While the baking process is
Sohifo Ii tiiC lbiiiiN Stli'it tDDut INC
fireplace in languid listlessness and fire
random shots of tobacco juice ut the
fire.
The bacon, too, is an article worthy
of comment, inasmuch as it imparts a
sort of flavor to the corn bread, and
thereby renders it the more palatable.
You first discover it in huge slabs of
fat, with little or no lean in the compo-
sitlon, and almost completely incrusted
In the accumulated filth of weeks and
months. One glance at it would make
health officer sick: but to eat it Oh,
horrors! The corn bread, being baked
TO the proper extent, is placed upon u
stump outside the door to cool, while
the dogs form circle about, lick their
chops in silent hunger, and bestow
wistful glances upon the, to them, de-
licious morscl. Slices of bacon are
then placed in the great iron pot, where
they sizzle and splitter until finally
resolved into number of little dried
up chips floating about upon miniature
sea of Shiny grease This horrible
mess-grease and all-in conjunction
with the corn bread, is eagerly de-
voured by these rapacious natives, and
on this meagre diet, strange to say, but
nevertheless true, they manage some
how to keep the sands of life in motion.
Truly, One-half of the world knows not
how the other half lives.