Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-03-09
"POOr White Trash"

mountains-the blue-eyed young lady,
the blonde young man, the preacher
and the preachers wife. The mules
were of the slowest, the hack of the
toughest, and the roads of the worst
that North Georgia could furnish.
That decision was unanimous, except
for the preacher, who declared that
long ago he had travelled all through
these mountains, and that this road
was a boulevard compared with what
he had seen. His wife looked at him
little apprehensively at this, doubt
ing if his wits had been jolted out of |
him, and the other young people be-
gan to sing, to cover the painful
pause.
They were bent upon visit to
stAunt' Fanny Smith, who kept a
hotel hard by Sinking Mountajn-or
Sinkin Mounting, as the natives call
ed it-which was one of the curiosi-
ties of the region where this party
was sojourning. After many thump
and batter and bang the mules took
wild leap around steep and sudden
turn: the hack and its occupants
pitched after them, and were brought
up suddenly before small, weather
stained, high-roofed house made of
undreessed lumber. Half of the
front of the house was wide old pi-
azza with a sagging floor; the other
half was a room. The piazza itself
was nearly filled with boxes of plants,
chiefly geraniums, in vivid bloom,
| standing out against the soft grays
and browns of the old walls that
made the background. Two or three
old at-bottomed rockers, softened
also by time. stood in the front door
way, at which appeared, as the mules
gave their last vicious jerk and al
most succeeded in dislocatlng every
vertebra of their helpless load, two
women, who proved to be Aunt Fan
ny and her eldest daughter.
"Wall, eff you uns don't look plum
tired out. Them mules must be pow
erful hard travellers. Come in an
hev some buttermilk, do
Aunt Fanny came forward to pos
sess herself of their shawls as she
spoke-a tall, brown, pleasant faced,
shrewd looking woman of one would
say fifty, if there were not Martha
Jane beside her, who was forty-fve
if she was day. The latter led the
two ladies into the room, which
should have been the rest of the
porch, but which was instead the most
curious sleeping apartment that these
two had ever seen. There were four
or five beds in 1t, a few feet apart
from each other, with heads against
the wall. Between each pair of beds,
out as far as the foot, ran a thin
wooden partition about as high as a
mans head. The rest of the room
evidently was held in common and
If one could not see ones neighbor' S
bed, one was supposed to be in the
strlctest privacy. The first alcove
was the maiden shrine of Martha
Jane. The walls and partitions were
hung with clothes and adorned with
old fashioned plates, wood-cuts from
old papers and one or two antique
e tin types framed in straws.
"These yere amt my best cloes,
said Martha Jane apologetlcally, as
f the blue-eyed young lady stood be.
fore the tiny cracked glass giving al
: extra fluff to her tawny bangs: 81
9 in gen'ally keeps my Sunday cloes NJ
attic. I've got a powerful fine dress
up thar-as nice as yourn," with al
approving glance at the blue-eye(
young lady's null and lace, which
q was, in fact, too fine for such an ex
cursion-"hit amt quite so thin a.
yourn, but hits got whole dollar:
d worth of embroidery On it, an wher
: l jerk out them plaits, hits power
full pretty frock.'
e "My backs weak's water some
!, times,'' she confided presently, set
= tling herself on the bed by the side
of the preachers wife, san lately
:. I've just plum quit expectin' of it t.
: get any better, an I've took to wear
in galluses. Hit seems quare to yol
d uns, I s'pose, repenting he
o confession-'sbut l know some rea
/ nice ladies that do it. [ know
y one lady-she's an exception, shes
such lady-her husband runs OF
the train-an' she wears galluses
= She's been a-wearin' EN- nigh on tt
N two year. But la you uns dom
know nothin' bout galluses. I s'pos,
$ eff we uns was to go to you uns'e.
!" home we'd see lots o quare things
: jes' as Gurus as you uns think ou
things is-leastways | s'pose you do
But eff your hair is fixed, let's go VI
: attic an see my white frock, an
# some shawls ! made-jes' as lief sci
is em as not. Do you uns think bang
o is becomin' to me?" she demadet
:. . suddenly, turning square upon then
as they followed her to the porch.
e The blue-eyed young lady gaspet
: little, but the preachers wife, wh'
- had seen an oddity or two in he
o day, looked calmly at the tough
leathery face, reddening darkly in it
m anxiety, the small, black, close-shu
X eyes, peeping out defantly on eithe
y side of the high, thin ridge of nose