The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-05-01

Jug OF the soldiers. MAN does not live
| Dy bread alone" we discovered, for we
hungered and thirsted for information in
regard to the tide of war more than for
any material sustenance. do nc.
DeileVe there was a woman in the Con.
iederate States, after the hard fighting
had begun, who, having to make choice
would not any day have preferred a
newspaper TO her dinner.
HOW THE HOURS PASSED AWAY.
AS time went on we became verv
expert in devisiug substitutes for the
comforts we had hitherto been acc,,stomeS 4
to have, but which now could not he
procured, and we vainly tried to replace
them by other things. If the human
substitutes that were sent to the army
were as inferior in quality as the ladies
homemade ones were to the articles they
were supposed to represent, l can ONLY
hope that there were not many in the
service. Some of my friends, for in.
stance, substituted parched corn for cof.
lee, and others tried parcbed groundnuts.
Niany drank sassafras tea, sweetened with
sorghum syrup. l decided to imbibe
nothing but pure water; cold for break.
last and dinner i'll winter, and tepid in
suuihei, having no Ice.
we mad 1lnegar Of persimmons, which
was very weak and nawkish stuff, shoe
blacking composed of Pride of Iudia
berries boiled with water, SCOT and little
mutton suet, ink of sumac berries. Ey.
cry OLD lady had some pet receipt of her
own invention for some particular need
which she would confde in the most
earnest manner, as if she thought your
eternal welfare depended upon your
gong home instaatly and concocting it
| at once
learned to knit stockings and gloves
Some OF the youra ladies' n...dc hats of
palmetto and of corn shucks in this way ::
| Ihe palmetto was shredded into yery
narrow strips, plated, sewed together in
rows, and pressed into shape on c block
with hot iron. These hats were strong
and nice enough, but very heavy, whilst
those made of corn shucks were really
pretty, but very fragile. l remember
one, which had been carefully made and
tastefully trimmed, which was worn for
the frat time by its owner with great
satisfaction but, alas "Pride" has
proverbially "gone before fall" She
had not been out half an hour when
shower of rain came up suddenly, and
her new hat fell to pieces in few min
utes.
PICTURE OF PLANTATION LIFE.
Having spent the entire winter of 1862
(up to April 1861 in the country, can
give some account of plantation life at
that period. The negroes were perfectly
subordinate, and Worked as stead.
lily as though no gunboats were at
nf thn rst
from one Of the neighboring estates went
off to the enemy one night, but as
general rule they made TO effort to leave,
two years after the war ended, and were
always perfectly cheerful and respectful.
The Yankees tried in every way 10 in
flame the negroes, and to stir up race
animosity against us; and judging from
their newspapers they seemed to think
that repetition of the insurrection Of
San Domingo was to be expected, aud
that we lived in state of constant ap.
prehension. But such was not the case,
by any means. We had confidence in
the good will which we knew prevailed
between the whites aud the blacks, and
only few persons in the Confederacy
ever dreaded or anticipated any such
catastrophe. During the course of that
winter another lady, myself and several
little children were often for weeks at
time the only white persons on the plan.
tation, or within three or four miles Of
our home; yet we felt so little uneasiness
that never locked my bedroom door at
night, and the back door Of the house
was always left unlatched, go that the
servants might come in early in the
morning to make up the fires without
disturbing aEy one. There were hun
dreds of negroes on our estate, and on
those adjoining, but none Of us ever
thought of being afraid of them.
SPINNING AND WEAVING UNDER DIFF
FACULTIES.
We now had to consider how we we're
to provide clothing for our laborers, as it
begun to be difficult to obtain English
plains" heavy cloth which they had
always worn in cold weather; 80 we
determined 10 have cloth made on the
plantation. Have you any idea, my
friend, of the magnitude of this under
taxing will describe the process. a
special house was dedicated to the pur-
pose, and q spinning wheel procured.
Old Mark and Cinda were detailed to
card the wool, which had been shorn
from our sheep. Sappho and Phoebe,
spun, and our cook Rosetta, who was a
thrifty soul, was appointed dyer of the
yarn. A large iron pot was set Up In
the yard, and such mixing and stirring
with long handled paddle, of all sorts
of bnrks and copperas and other ingre-
dients, went on that one might have
thought it was witch's caldron. But
tIa Iynrst mart of the operatiOn was vet
to come-a hand. loom had to be obtained, I,
and where was it to come from? We
were not to be daunted, however, and
after making diiigent inquiries - all di-
rec;iaIs ne, at last heard OF Gu .iich
belonged to an Indian woman. so we
forthwith despatched Lymus, our head
carpenter, TO inspect it, and in few
weeks time he constructed similar one
for us; then Keziah, the Indian, was
sent for to. teach Rhyna how to work it.,
and oh triumph, our jeans was woven,
and the negroes had strong warm cloth.
But it was slow work. A tolerably ex-
pert weaver could not make more than
three yards day, and there were ninety
five persons to be provided for. have
often snt with the workers and tried to
card and to spin, but it is difficult art
to acquire. The droning sound of the
spinning wheel is rather pleasant, and it
is not arduous labor, but the weaving is a
most tedious occupation.
The comfort which missed most vas
n supply of matches. A match factory
was indeed established at Richmond, and
these furnished us thence were better
than none, only they had way of going
out before the candles could be induced