The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-06-19

Bill Arp Among the Miners at
Button.
ENJOYING A SWEET REST.
A Miners Home and What it
Consists Of.

rail and tho boys are so glad TO see me, Tor So
ciety is scarce in that region, and | pat them
on the back and tell them to keep dig ing.
Iron ore is cheap now and they have to work
all the harder TO make the business pay. The
furnaces have cut down the price and so the
boys have to cut down wages-wages for min
ing and wages for hauling, aud that demon
Allies their labor and some Of them quit If
they can't get fifty cents ton for hauling they
won't haul for forty, and so they turn their
oxen loose in the woods and turn themselves
loose to do nothing. 1t is bad all round. hut it
will get right again after while. 1t is
a wild romantic place at Button where
the boys are mining. The mountain seem
cry is grand and it does me good
to get there and wander over the hills and
down in the gorgos and see the minors sink
the powder and the dynamite in the holes and
burst up the dornicks. | saw dronick that
had eighty tons Of ore torn all to pieces with a
littlo dynamite that man cut up with his
knife and rammed into a two-foot hole with n
stick. / have had horror Of dynamite ever
since Tobe Jackson blew up MIR. Collins's
house, bnt 1t is not so dangerous to handle as
powder. Some Of it got wet the other day
aud the miner built up a little fire and dried
il.
Hucklebcrries and blackberries abound in
On ywhere. 1t is n rest 10 luXuriate in this
wild spot, and commune with nature and forget
care and anxiety, and never see "a daily paper
nor receive letter. A man enjoys
rest because he gets tired. He enjoys the hum
bic fare because he gets hungry. | always
come back refreshed and il is better than
fashionable visit TO some watering place. No
wonder that Judge Beckiey is happy on
Screamer mountain.
Shacks / never heard that word until |
Yfti,+ ad ~ mi ic in he al 10
tionary, bat docs not mean what it does here.
Webster says a shack is an itinerant vagabond,
but a miners shack is his home-hs hoiel, his
abiding place. They cook and eat aud sleep
there. 1t is their castle, their fortress as long
as they stay. They pay no rent-they choose
no rooms, for there is but one room in shack.
1t is built of pine poles, is fifteen feet square,
six feet high, has mud and stick chimney
that barely reaches the ridge poe. There
Is no table, no chairs, no bedsteads
nor bedding, no lightning rods, no
windows, and bat single door They
do not need windows for there are cracks be-
tween the poles shat are big enough to throw
cat through. Some of these cracks are patched
with boards so as TO limit the ventilation. The
first shack ever built was in Arhansaw near
Conway and was discovered 10y Colonel Faulk-
ner, tho Arkausaw traveller a regulation
shack for the minoS is equipped with a skillet,
an oven, n water bucket, an old box or two to
sit on, and plank platform iii one corner that
Is called n Georgia bed. This hotel cost all
told eight dollars to build IT, and the furniture
cost one dollar and half. Six darkies occupy
u shack. Sometimes eight ten, for the
negro Is n sociabe institution and loves com
pany. He Is gregarious. Like the gypses
they wander around and go from mine to mine
or railroad to railroad They are hoSptable
and will divide tho last ration with a
visitor or yagabond. These darlIies cook in
the oldlashoned way. They fry their fat
bacon in the skillet and bake their bread in the
oven with Goals underneath and Goals on top
The bread is meal and water or flour and
water made into mush and baked in hurry
and is right good 70 fill up with. They sop il
in the skillet aud that L. whore thO grease
comes in. a darby is perfectly at home in
his shack. Ilo locks the door when he leaves
IL for the mines Just rs II he had something
there that was worth stealing. When tho
DAYS work is done he washes at the branch and
then cook their rations and fiji up Ihun they
talk and laugh and play cards with an old
greasy deck or throw dice and bet anything
they have cot to bet. THE travelling darlly is
rs proud Of gambling Us tho hC1thcn Chnce,
and about rs tricky. Ii he loses he don caro-
and says ii Is most rs much fun rs to win. His
dollar is gone, hut he viii soon earn another
tomorrow. Sometimes there is n fiddler in the
crowd, and they will all pat TO, the music. |
heard one footing sweet music> on long tin
bugle and it s0otbed me TO sleep just rs ii used
TO do in tho long, long ago, when l was II hoy
ana thought IL the sweetest music in the world.
By aud ly they spread their blankets Oh the
plank bed and tumble down to sleep. There
is.no mattress nor bolster nor pillows nor mos
quito net--whito folks want something to raise
the lead but n negro does not. He would
rather have it lowered = little dian raised. lie
would scoop out a littie hole in the ground Tor
his oerebellum lnovcr knew but one white
man who did not use heading when he slept
II is name was Bob HIDE. lie was a short
dumpy fat man and had noneck and was Norter
hump -shouldCred besides. We used to survey
him in camp as he slept and listen to the
melody of his suore. Between the back OF
his head and tho ground there was space
empty space that would receive ginger cake.
A calm serenity covered his massive couuto-
nance and his teeth were closed en- a huge quid
Of well worn tobacco, Ho could no more 30
TO sleep without that, than "A child without its
sucking bottle or school girl without her
gum. His head was stuck down square against
his collar bono and seemed 10 be fastened
there without n joint. 1t did not need pill
low any moro than did his nose or his toes.
If the darby has anything to his credit ON
the books, he is not happy until he trades il
out "Boss how much has got comm to me
since last Satu day. l put in f,ur DAYS dis
week, Boss loo,N at do book and see how we
STAN"
So Ralph looks at the book and says "Jack
there is dollar and sixty cents going to YOU"
Jack smiles and says Oats ies what l counts it
up in my head, a dollar and sixty cents. Toss
l wants a can OF oysters aud some sardinCs
and pickles, aud some Of dem era ckers. They
Will Wthu up WIN cigars or C0nUN TO balance
the account, The travelling shack darby is
bound 60 have pistol They mean no harm
by il, but they all have pistols, 1t makes them
feel consequential and is as good 70 trade on
and swap and get boot or give boot Us u Geor-
gla crackers swapping nag. Iaere was a cat
alogUo on the counter that WAS iull of pictures
OF gums and pistols, ana they studied it all
over carefully and left their orders for some
that cost $3.50 apiece, one might. whom there
were eleven darkios in the store, | asked how
many could read. Five could read and write
very well two more n little. They write a
great DEAL write letters 60 their Kin folks. In
fact, they have moro education than the aver
age white boys IN tiiVneig hborhool Out of nine
white teamsters who were hauling ore only
two could tell the number on a car The
schoolmaSter has not been about. nor the mis-
siunary. some of theSo white boys have quit
work and are now running around with a
menagcyie, but they have only one animal in
their show. That animal Is a blind tiger, ard
IL costs only ten ccutS 10 see him. That is
cheap enough, hat tho trouble is when a man
secs him once lie wants TO see him again, aud
he keeps on seeing him TIL his dollars are all
Como and his sense, too. Ihe>e menaEcrie
boys hang around the shacks and gamble with
the darkies OF show them the tger. One Of
4 a. la =.