The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-05-22
ARP ON BETSY.
Arp Is Delighted With the Per-
Torrance.
GOOD OLD TIMES RECALLED.
The Spinning Wheel Scene Causes
the Philosopher to Mediate.

Joe jefferson is in his. Jefferson is no truer
to nature in Rip Van Wrinkle than Betsy
Hamilton is in the spinning wheel scene, or
the old field school, or catching chickens for
company. / had never seen her until the
other night and expecting nothing more than
the usual reading and recitation from her own
writings and so we were all impressed and de-
lighted at the mixture of acting with reading,
and the clever manner by which size makes
the transition from one to the other The old
spinning wheel scene held the mirror of forty
years ago uD to many OF US, and we veterans
could look over the audience and say in our
thoughts, Oh, you don't know anything about
that, you were not there, you are nothing but
you know how it was. Aunt Betsy will.
How natural was her old time dress. The old
drawstring frock and checked apron and sun
bonnet. How natural was her country talk
as she soiloquiZed about those trifiin aggre-
gative Simmons boys that were trampin' around
her premises and doin' of their deyilment; but
she never stopped carding as she talked, and
she knows how to card and make the cotton
rolls, and how to spin them into thread and
there was good music in that old wheel-music
that we had not heard for years. Poor old
thingl believe she has got misery in her
side" sure enough, or she could not have acted
it so well. Dr. johnson said he was really
sorry for her every time the hitch caught her,
and he wanted to prescribe. Aunt Betsy can
weave, too, know, for she talked SO know
ingly about the warp and the film and the
cuts and spun truck and what she was gwine
to dye with. Well, there was many one IN that
audience whose grandmothers lived and
worked and talked that way-good old-fash-
Toned grandmotherS who INDUCED IN no folly
or hypocrisy, but served their day according to
nature rather than art How simple were their
habits: how limited their devices. 1 used to
sell them spun truck and indigo and madden
and coperas and turkey-red. | used to sell
them cinnamon drapS for the gals to perfume
with when they went to meetin. There was
no pO1Oopn for thar,1 Tho polnOup W for fnp
rich and it came in long bottles about the size
of q broom-handle, and the neck was as long as
the bottle. used to sell eight yards of calico
for dress pattern. 1t was always eight yards
for a frock, unless the woman was very large
and then it took nine. When hoop-skirts came
along it spread these limited garments power
fully and didn't leave much for graceful
folds to lap upon each other My friend
Newman, who delivered that remarkable adj
dress on the North Georgia Cracker, says the
girls still dress in eight yards of calico outside
| and eight yards of homespun underneath for q
| full riggin in summer time, and you can stand
| off thirty feet and tell exactly how. much is
| honest flesh and blood, and how much are dry
| goods, but he is slanderer Of his people and
| those Canton girls ought to mob him with
broom sticks and bustles. He says that when
you look at one of these city girl who is gorge
| ously arrayed for an evening walk with about
! 100 yards Of silks and satin, and muslin and
| founces, and frills and oseys, and all sorts of
tricks that are vain and deceiving and that
| stick out behind and swell out before no man
| can tell where the girl is She is in there
somewhere, but where is she? Well, theIe
| may be some gum in that, but f1ourishing
society girl told me that she didn't
think it was any of Mr..
| Newman's business, considering his antiquity.
| Mrs Arp can spin and weave, too, and she is
! proud of her accomplishments in that line.
| She used to practice on the piano awhile and
then go out to the negro cabin and play on the
| spinning wheel awhile, and says she liked the
| latter the best. The iunebug sound is still
music in her ears, and she could hardly sit still
while Aunt Betsy was singing and whirling the
| wheel to the melody OF her voice. Mrs Arp says
| she can weave, too, but not skilfully
for the old darby who ran the loom would
| make fuss and say: &c way fun here,
chile; g'way [ tell you; you dun Spite de web,
and old missus tink dun it; let you weave
| sum udder time"
| Aunt Betsy's show was mixed up with some
| delightful home made music. 1t was kindly
volunteered so as to give variety to the enter
tainment, and it helped out good deal. Mu-
| sic always helps out Take it all in
all, VIC have not had in our
town more agreeable entertainments, and all
who heard it want Aunt Betsy to come again.
She is a more youthful and better looking
CONAN" than we expected to see, and carries
just about enough of flesh and blood and dry
goods to be attractive. From her quaint and
| curious sketches of the olden times we
imagined she was quite fossilliferous and
antique, but she is not She has hardly passed
! the danger line.
That is a strange thing to mellow these
| middle aged people know so much about
ancient history. There is Joel Chandler Har-
ris. whose hair is still red, and yet he knows
more about the old negro lore than anybody
| and there is Miss Murfree, who is still in her
rosy youth, and don't suppose ever saw the
| rude settlers of Smoky mountain, and here is
| Mrs. Plowman, who has not been to country
quilting or candy pulling nor sung "we'r
marching away to Quebec townssince she was
n child. That's the secret OF all, l reckon. The
| impressions of childhood, which are always
the deepest and he most enduring. Harris
used to visit the negro cabins most every night
amid listen to their stories, and he loved them.
| Added TO this is the gift of narrative that but
| few writers have to the perfection OF nature.
| eXaggeration. Aunt Betsy has it, and so has
Miss Murfree and Nelson Page.
| | am home again for n season and | am tired
vircady-not tired of home, no, never, but Just
| tired. These red flower beds that have
to be dug up, Just loosened up little, my
dear says she. 'Nou can do it better than
Carl or anybody-you always could fix
things around home so nice
You musent work hard nor long
at time, for you are not used to it now you
travel about so much that little work makes
you blow like porpoise, but it will do you
| good-you will Soon get your breath back again
| / want an oval bed made at the end of the
piazza. There are so many zenias and balsoms
and pansies coming up where l sowed the seed
that must have another bed
to plant them in" Oh, my
country! 1t took me an hour to
make that oval bed. l made it while She was
away at the dresSmaker's dug up the ground
deep with a pick and raked it all off SO smooth
and nice and changed the curve a dozen times
to get n perfect oval. for knew that if it va
ried the width of a spiders web she would see
it. 1t is all right, she says. thought maybe
she would say it was perfectly lovely, but she
diden't She begun right straight to tell
about the bank of rich earth
that had washed down by the
lot fence. and that was good for flowers
And right now while l am penning these con-
iugal lamentations, she is sewing away fol
| dear life on Jessie's examination dress, and
wants to know where L can move that running
rose bush. "You can move il up to the
piazza" she says, land it will never know it
but nobody else cam l wish l wasent
SO eyerlast,n handy, And She wants an.
other chicken trough, for the old one
leaks 50 badly, and the bird cage must
be swung higher for fear the cat will get the
bird, and some butter beans must be planted
around tho wellhouSe, and she noticed that
one of old Mollys shoes was rafting and the
buggy harness needed mending, and if l could
| possibly spare the money the sittinsroon