The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-03-05
Iss LAT2Itif Is
AFRoLIc DOWN IN GEORGIA
How the Girls and Boys Used to Amuss
Themselves in the OIden Time.


After the writer had grown some older and
had been regularly adopted in the family Of
I'VE us, and ran with the boys he was al
lowed all the privileges Of the young men Of
the community and was told to consider him
self at home, which he did with good win.
On a certain occasion it was decided by the
young ladies and gentlemen to have a froic
at j. W.'s, and was warned to be on hand
with few pounds of sugar for sweetening
and couple of skeins Of silk for fiddle strings.
Strings were scarce about here then, and they
asked you quarter apiece for them. was
on hand at the time appointed with the sweet
ening and the silk and ready to go after nay
agal.n 1t was different then from now II
you carried no partner with you, you had to
take the chances, as every man had the exclu-
siye right to his own partner. When I got
there she was ready with new homespun
dress which had never been worn. I, of
course, praised the check, and the stripe, and
the fit. 1t only took six yards of cloth to
make girl dress in those days. But she
announced that she was ready TO start and
out we went jumped upon Bark Mill. She
Lit up behind me and caught a good hold.
And that pony might rear, but she was there
if / did not come off. Away we went, and
came in sight of j. WIS about sundown. The
crowd was gathering in rapidly. but no fun
had commenced. As we rode up some of the
girls sung out:
"Now we will have some fun. Here comes
]. and his gal"
My partner rolled off like bag of rolls. /
tied my pony to fresh sapling end we went
in. The girls all yelled out:
"Why, here comes j." like they did not
know was coming, and that I YVES always
on hand at every frolic
"Now we will have reel, they said "Did
you bring the silka"
Certainly. Did you ever know me to fail.'
The old lady wanted to know where the
sweetening was as she wanted it for tbs
"gals" W. B. spoke up and said by all
means give it to the gals" we would get it
back in kissing them We took cur partners,
away went the fiddle and on went the dance
"a long one. We danced for while and
then we would play awhile. 'Old Sister
Pheby,' Johnny Brown 1t rains and it
halls The Londen bridge is breaking down.
and The big cat kicked out the little cats
eye were among the favorite plays. The
beauty of it was every play wound up with
a rain of kisses. It was glorious frolic
The kissing made all hands feel like they were
at home. The writer made a small mis-
take and liked to have caused trouble by
merely an oversight We were playing a
play where kissing was mixed up smartly.
One young lady was using tobacco and snuff
freely. Her toothbrush was in her mouth
and little stream of amber ran down at
each corner. I kissed her ON tho cheek She
stopped the song and yelled out: t#
~. is not playing fair. He kissed me on
the cheek
begged her pardon and meekly asked her
to hold her face around. Doing so I bussed
her squarely in the mouth. But this restored
peace and the frolic went on. w. B. was in
his right element He called all the sets and
arranged all the couples No frolic could get
ON without him. Uncle Jack was there, too,
and along toward the morning hours he
wanted to dance. We began to s., signs of
red-eye. Men began getting noisy, dancing
stronger, and betting on their manhood, and
finally wound up in a little row; but with g.
few skinned heads and some bruises, about
day all made for their partners and carried
them horue to think and fix for another frolic
Frs-allyn f(7a) Narxs