The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-06-05
BILL ARP.
What nre tho Poor Girls of tho Country
to do,
atlanta Constitution.

walks of life whose daughters have had
an education and the father has nothing
else to give them. What is poor girl
to do when she quits school or comes
home from college. 1t is right hard for
her to descend from the beautiful heights
of astronomy and the fields Of history
and botany and the chambers of music
down to the drudgery of housekeeping
and sewing and darning and patching
old clothes. But suppose she is good
dutiful girl and is willing to do that and
more, the question is what does it amount
to and can't she do better? Can't she
take hold of something that will excite
her ambition and interest her and make
her some money! Girls are just human
and they want to do something. Girls
who do not marry and whose fathers are
poor will need some money after awhile
when the roses begin to fade, the roses
on their checks. Some are independent
enough to 60 to millinery and dressmak.
ing but this gives employment to but a
few. Some paint flowers and do fancy
work and sell what they make, but not
many have the gift of genius in that line
and so the question still comes up what
can the clever country girls do to make q
living for themselves and feel indepen-
dent7
Not long ago I was over in Eastern
North Carolina and I found the question
answered in some places. I found some
nice we'll educated girls cultivating small
fruits and vegetables for market. They
didn't plow the ground but they planted
and hoed and weeded and gathered the
crop. saw an acre of strawberries that
two sisters had planted and they made
frolic of it, that is, they went at it with
will and took lively happy interest in
it, and they gathered 1000 quarts and
said they would get thousand more,
and they packed them in the little baskets
and the baskets into crates aud sent them
North and their sales had averaged 30
cents quart. Their total expenses for
hire of help and cost of baskets and
freight to market was 5000 and this left
thousand for their work and watching
and constant care. Well those girls are
proud and independent. Their father
had five acres and he was making money
"a good deal of money. I never saw
nicer business nor one so simple and sure.
The land was poor and sandy. The
rows three feet apart, when the plants
get we'll set plow opens furrrow close
BY on each side and this furrow is nearly
filled with cotton seed and then the earth
is thrown back on the cotton seed after
that the vines are mulched with pine
straw and that is all. | never saw vines
as small or berries as numerous. count
ed 24O on one plant. They laid on one
another. This vine had been picked
three times and there were 240 left. They
frequently picked quart from plants
and left many not ripe. They pick till
8 o'clock in the morning and the girls
averaged 10 quarts by that time. They
begin at in the afternoon and get Is
quarts more. When they hire pickers
they pay q cents quart to girls and 2
cents to boys for the girls are more care.
full and, do not mash the berries nor spill
them and do not eat every big nice one
they come across.
But this is notall. These girls have got
crop of raspberries just behind and they
will make two or three hundred dollars
off of them, and they are growing cur.
rants and gooseberries and talk about 60.
ing into potatoes and beans and grapes
and all that. Well, why not. Fruit
growing is nice business for girls and
so is raising vegetables. Those girls
have the advantage of ours for the mar
ket is nearer, but-I have never seen the
time that nice strawberries couldn't be
sold at home for 20 cents, and that will
make lots of money. And then again the
exercise is so good for their health, and
the occupation is SO cleanly and delicate
and quits their nimble and delicate fingers
so we'll. Woman was the first gardener
we read about, that is to say, she was the
first to pick the fruit and | have always
thought she ought to have been forgiven,
for her first thought when she found the
fruit good was to give her husband some.
But he like an old rascal went and laid
all the blame on her and tried to get out
of the scrape. Now there is chance for
our girls to make some money. Let
them try small patch, say one.fourth of
an acre. Plant out in August and have
good crop of fruit next spring. 1t can
be done. I heard a Nashville man say
that two years ago there was no such
business around Nashville as growing
berries for Northern markets but now
there was $50 bushels shipped q day from
one town, the town of Franklin, and they
netted 20 cents quart, or six dollars
bushel, and the girls did most of the work.
I wish the dear creatures were all rich
enough to live without work and only
had to work when they felt like it, and |
never see ladies of culture and refine
ment doing drudgery but what it shocks
my humanity and l want society estab'
lished for the prevention of cruelty to
angels. But work is the common lot for
man and for woman too, and reckon
they are happier for it.
was ruminating over these things to-
day when I met Sanford Bell on the train.
Sanford the old reliable conductor whom
everybody knows and everybody loves,
and we got to talking about the times
and the crops, and when 1 mentioned
John H. James and his bust up, Sanford
said yes, that is mighty bad on James and
bad on the poor fellows who had their
money in his bank. He had thousand
dollars there he said, thousand dollars
the savings of ten years, and now he had
to take new start, aud his plans and
his hopes were broken up, for he was
going to take 5000 of that money and
send Clifford to Moore's business college
and the $500 was for his daughter who
had been so good and so kind to him and
her mother and worked so willingly and
faithfully at home, and he had picked
out nice little place to buy for her and
let her enjoy the rents, but the money
was gone and the prospect was bad, very
bad.
After telling me of the dark side be
Frightened up and said, "Well, | won't
give up too soon for Mr.. james failed in
1873 and he owed me 500 dollars then
and he paid it in full with interest and
allowed me premium of II per cent for