The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-05-12
FILLING IN A CORNER
 LOT.

"He has been at that for thirteen years" And the speaker laughed, says the Atlanta Consultation, as he watched an old man gathering up a bucket of stones and broken bricks. The old man continued his work un- til his bucket was filled, and then started back towards Spring street, stopping on the way to resurrect rusted old hoop that was nearly buried in the gutter. After walking about three blocks he stopped at the corner of Spring and James streets, and, lay ing the rusty hoop carefully upon great heap of hoops of all kinds and sizes, he carried the bucket to the back of his lot, part of which was con- siderably lower than the front, and emptied the bucketful of bricks and stones. He was about seventy years old, apparently-in his shirt sleeves and wearing dingy straw hat. He was feeble, too, and his steps were slow, but he stopped only to get drink of water at the back door, and then ambled off with the empty bucket.
 The little frame structure is half store and half residence. Just inside the door to the store sat a portly old lady of sixty or thereabouts.
 "Who is that old man yonder with that empty bucket?"
 "Him2 Why. that's old Lewis Powell, and he's my husband. I thought everybody knew him."
 "Is that all he does?"
 "Fill up the lot, you mean? No, no; he puts hoops on barrels and kegs, and raises calves and such like; but that's his main business. He's been at it night on to fourteen years"
 "And how much has he filled in?"
 "Oh, from the sidewalk on back. The lot is 50 by 80, and it used to be just one big hole. Now, here on Spring street, where the front is, the bank went nearly straight down, 'cause the eye of the sewer was right there. Then the sewer was open and run in gully the whole length of the lot and just about in the middle of the lot. Here on James street, at the side there, it wasn't so steep. The front of the old house was about half way down the bank, and the pillars at the back were over ten feet high. The house wasn't more'n twelve feet that way, either. And right at the back door the sewer passed"
 "How deep was it2"
 "Well, right here at the front the city men measured to the sewer once, and it was little over twenty feet below the sidewalk. The back of the lot was little lower. It was one big hole, 50 by 80, and almost in the bot tom of it was the old house."
 "Fourteen years ago?"
 "Fourteen years ago we bought it from Jack Smith on time. It wasn't much, but me and Jenny and Joe and Stella just buckled down and worked like tigers. The neighbors made fun of us at first, and even the niggers thought it was funny. Now, I ain't telling you this because Pm stuck up about it, but it just shows what the Powell family has done, and it shows what poor folks can do if they stick at it."
 "Didn't the old man help?"
 "Yes, little. But we had to live, and then he spent lots of his time a-fillin' up, so the brunt of the money part fell on me and the children. We bought the mudhole, and he made the mudhole what it is now. Right here where the mudhole was there is cor ner lot, and them what used to laugh at us would like mighty well to own it now"
 And the old lady smiled as though the thought was very pleasant one.
 "Yes, sir," she continued, "it's worth good deal now, and first thing you know, when the streets get paved along here, it will be worth lot more than it is now"
 "And the old mani"
 "The old man has worked mighty faithful. Little at a time he has fetched dirt and rocks and bricks and trash. Then the city put pipe there for a sewer, and he began at the side walk on Spring street and filled back. The bank kept gettin' further an further, and after, I don't know how long, we built this little house on the filled-in part. The old man kept fillin' back till we've got pretty big back yard l; and there's only a little part left to fill back there. You see, he