The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-10-23
IN NORTH CAROLINA.
SKETCH OF THE WIFE AND OAUGH-
TIERS OF A MOUNTAINEER.

ft-No Hope.
The streets of Asheville arc wonderfully
| quaint and picturesque. They are So partly
! by virtue Of their unlilscucss to anything else
! with which the northern visitor, accustomed
70 industry, thrift and the life and stir of
business, is familiar Poverty and content
| mcnt gd hand in hand Yonder barefoot
| darl;ey, with crownlosS hat and dilapidated
| trousers, chaifCrinG with a countryman over
n watermelon, "composes' well, but the
| AnSlo-Saxon seems an alien clement. Pic
| tureslueneSs is not his forte. He is lean and
| scrawny, while Cuircy is fat and shining.
! Cuffey's tones and laugh are mellow and
| unctuous; the soul of good nature and
| love of case flow through them. The coun-
| tryInan speaks with sad and gentle drawl.
! He may not know il, but he was made for
| better things than to pick the banjo and lie
| with his feet to the fire.
His wife and dauShters-there are three
! of the lat.cr-are all tall, thin, angular, with
no hint Of womanly grace in their forms and
little in their faces. They are SO lean that
their dresses fit, the old saying has it. "lille
a sack on = bean pole" Each has bit Of
wood three or four inches long sticking out
of her mouth. There is, or has been, snuff on
the unseen end of Il. Sometimes you may
see brown rivulet OF the snuff juice me-
andcring down their chin. Some of these
triouS. and IS clean rs n filthy habit which
Is almost universal, viii allow them to be
IL it is a bright day-and by far the greater
number of the days arc bright i'll this genial
clinate-thcrc are from fifty TO n hundred of
them in n town Some have walked in
three, five, eight milcs-with a few quarts of
berries, few apples, potatoes, chickens, the
aggregate Of their goods probably worth less
than 81.
CALICO DRESS
Others have come in the country teams,
long, low, crllvas-cOvered Pennsylvania wag-
ons," sitting in splint chairs, drawn by mules,
or, possibly, 10y steers. They wear calico
dresses and calico cape-bonnets They never
had anything better than a calico dreSs-not
one in hundred of them-in all their lives.
Not one in hundred of them can read or
write. Not in n hundred ever attended
school three months. They stand about at the
street corners, gazing az the passersby with
wide, staring, incuriOus eyes They trade"
at the general store their rag carpetng, their
talowy butter, their honespun yarns for to-
bacco, Rio coffee, calico of gay colors. They
sit about on upturEad boxes i'm the stores,
their trading finished, till it pleases pater-
familias to start for home. Not infrequently
you may see one on either side of the husband
or brother, who has got at the bar-room close
by more than lie can carry, supporting his
staggering steps, and hosting him into the
wagon, where he lies in the straw upon the
floor while the women drive home
Home! The house is of logs, with probably
two doors, possibly a board window Should
it be built of boards with glazed windows, it
is spoken of rs "a nice house with glass
lights" 1t is apt to he about sixteen or eigh-
teen feet square, and may have n lean-to,
which may bc used either for bedroom or
cooking room. Uusually, however, the sim
pie family cooking is done in the great stone
fireplace at the end of the family room.
There are often three beds in a row on one
side of the room. Perhaps there is a loft
above which is reached by a ladder, or, as in
one case we knew, by one of the boys climb
ing on table, clutchinS rafter and swing
ing himself up. In this one room all ages and
both sexes sleep, from childhood to old age.
The furniture is of the simplest. y long
table at one side, with low benches beside it
for use ut meals, is often seen. There is,
rarely, a plain bureau, but this is in the
homes of the weIl-to-do There may be a
spinning wheel in the corner. There is no
china closet, for the whole table service
would not furnish forth u modern camper out
for WEEKS outing.
THE KITCHEN OUTFIT.
The cooking utensils are an iron teallcttle,
a frying pan and bakeoven, the latter a
deep, iron vessel, with hollow cover which
holds Goals for browning the top of the bread,
anu u CblIet lhDN LiCIe may DC u pot 10 Doll
the dinner; if so, it may also serve to boil
the family washing Bacon, fried in the
frying pan; corn bread, baked in the bake
oven; beans, string beans and roasting
ears" boiled in the pot, with plenty of bacon
for seasoning these are the staple articles
of the family fare, accompanied three times |
daily by black Rio coffee. usually taken with |
out milk or cream and almost always without |
sugar. This menu is varied occasionally by |
fried chicken, more rarely by game. which |
might easily be had with little trouble What |
is known as raised bread or Yeast bread |
among Us is spoken of south light bread" |
in contra-distinction, probably, to the ordi- |
nary buttermilk biscuit, which is either sour |
and heavy, or sodden and yellow with soda |
The art of making light bread" is not a |
familiar one to the woman we have been |
speaking Of She knows nothing of the |
niceties Of cooking, nothing of dainty house
keeping.
She was raised to field work. She milks |
the cows, feeds the hogs, plows hoes corn, |
builds fence, hauls logs, pulls fodder, digs |
potatoes; ii short, does any and ell the work /
a man may do, its amount only limited by |
her strength. If her hard, rough life has left !
small room for the graces of life, what Won
der? Into her darkness and ignorance no
household journal comes, with its sympathy |
and stimulus Should her husband sell |
piece of land, she makes her mark" in the
proper place. Her little girls are growing up
just as their mother did There is a poor
apology for a school, taught during two.
three or four months in the year, somewhere
two, three or four miles away. That even
this, rightly used, would lift them out of the
slough where the Difference of mankind has
placed them" how should they knowl How
can YOU reach them and lift them TO a higher !
level:-Asheville N. c. Cor. Woman's Jour
nal
Fishing for a Dog.