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

ing of the soldiers. "NIan does not live
by bread alone" we discovered, for We
hungered and thirsted for information II
regard to the tide of war more than fol
any material sustenance. / do moi
believe there was woman in the Con
federate States, after the hard fighting
had begun, who, having to make choice
would not any day have preferred 9
newspaper to her dinner.
HOW THE HOURS PASSED AWAY.
AS time went on we became very
expert in devisipg substitutes for the
comforts we had hitherto been accustomed
to have, but which now could not be
procured, and we yainly 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
home. made ones were to the articles they
were supposed to represent, can only
hope that there we're not many in the
service. Some of my friends, for in
stance, substituted parched corn for cof
fee, and others tried parched groundnuts
Many drank sassafras tea, sweetened with
sorghum syrup. I decided to imbibe
nothing but pure water; cold for break
fast and dinner in winter, and tepid in
summer, having no ice.
We had vinegar of persimmons, which
was very weak and mawkish stuff, shoe
blackipg composed of Pride of India
berries boiled with water, SCOT and little
mutton suet, ink of sumac berries. Ey'
cry old lady had some pet receipt of hel
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
going home instantly and concocting it
at once.
I learned to knit stockings and gloves
Some of the young ladies made hats Of
palmetto and of corn shucks in this way
The palmetto was shredded into very
narrow strips, plated, sewed together in
rows, and pressed into shape on block
with hot iron. These hats we're strong
and nice enough, but very heavy, whilst
those made of corn shucks were really
pretty, but very fragile. I remember
one, which had been carefully made and
tastefully trimmed, which was worn for
the first time by its owner with great
satisfaction; but, alas ! "Pride" has
proverbially 'gone before fall" She
had not been out half an hour when a
shower of rain came up suddenly, aud
her new hat fell to pieces in few min.
utes.
A PICTURE OF PLANTATION LIFE.
Having spent the entire winter of 1862
(up to April 1859 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
the mouth Of the river. Forty hands
from one of the neighboring estates went
off to the enemy one night, but as a
general rule they made no effort to leave,
and my fathers remained with US until
two years after the war ended, and were
always perfectly cheerful and respectful.
The Yankees tried in every way 10 in
fame the negroes, aud to stir up race
against us; and judging from
their newspapers they seemed to think
that repetition of the insurrection Of
San Domingo was to be expected, and
that we lived in a 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 q few persons in the Confederacy
ever dreaded or anticipated any such
During the course of that
winter another lady, myself and several
little children were often for weeks at a
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 I never locked my bedroom door at
night, aud the back door of the house
was always left uplatched, so that the
might come in early in the
morning to make up the fires without
ary 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.
FICULTIES.
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," a 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
taking {? I will describe the process. A
special house was dedicated to the pur.
pose, and a spinnipg.wheel procured.
Old Mark aud 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 barks and copperas and other ingre-
dients, went on that one might have
thought it was a witch's caldron. But
the worst part of the operation was yet
to come-a hand. .looci had to be obtained,
and where was it to come from? We
were not to be daunted, however. and
after making diligent inquiries in all di-
rections we at last heard Of one which
belonged to an Indian woman. So we
forthwith despatched Lymus, our head
carpenter, to inspect it, and in few
weeks time he constructed a 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. I have
often sat 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 I missed most was
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