The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-10-09
BILL ARP.
ONTHE coon QUALITIES oFTHE OLD
FASHIONED NEGRO.
For The Constitution.

For The Constitution.
If there is any better invention than good
old fashioned homemade darl5yI don't know
it. TITS a great treat at our house when Tip
comes over to see us. He is looked upon as
one of the family who has strayed off like
some of our other grown up children. He was
born my wife's property and grew up in her
family and played and frolicked with her
brothers and was always faithful and kind ard
good.
Tip brought his bride with him this time
his second wife--a good looking old fashioned
middle aged woman. for Tip has got sense and
judgment and wouldent tie himself onto q
spring chicken in his old age He was dressed
i'll a black frock coat and white vest, and strut
ted around like he was going TO Saratoga on ~
bridal tour. One of my wife's brothers was
here, and Tip was unexpectedly happy, for he
hadent seen him for years.
'I4owdy Mars Charley; howdy Miss Tavy;
howdy Mars Randolph is SO glad to see you.
How does you all do?' and he then took all
the children by turns and they wcro as glad to
see him as II he was a brother.
That night the children wanted to know how
Tip got his little short name, and their mother
told them rs how old General Harrison fought
q great battle with the Indians away back in
1871 and how it was fought near q little town
the Indian chief was a brother of Tecumseh
and was called the prophet and General Har-
rison whipped them and scattered them so bad
they never rallied, and so this victory gave
him great reputation and made him president
in 1910 when he ran against Van Buren,. The
political war cry was "Tippecanoe and TYLER,
too, and as our Tip was born about that time
and wanted q name his mother named him
Henry. but the boys named him Tippecanoe
just for fun and so Tip is his every day name
and he keeps Henry for Sunday,
A nick name is very hard to get rid Of I
know some boys who are very close kin to us
who are still called Fits and Tuney and Isham
and Pat and Shocks and Dock and Jake, but
those are not their real names. Some of tho
old time negroes had very classic stylish names
suchas Gear and Pompey and Virgil and
Jupiter and Juno or such Scripture names as
Moses and Aaron and Noah and Solomon and
Dinah. The masters generally NAMED tho
young negroes.
Papa did you ever whip Tip when he was
boy ~ asked Jessie.
"No, my child, no. Tip never needed any
whipping. Tip was just as good as he could
be considering that he was always trottug
around after our oldest boys and had to do
what they told him. / had to whip them
sometimes but Tip was the best in tho lot and
never did anything worse than get up dog
fight. No. lnever Whipped Tin, but hadsto
whip some Of the ether servants occasionally
for the old boy gets into negroes sometimes
just like lie does into white folks. lie is no
leave burn Hack man white one. But
] will say this for our ncgroes--they were all
mighty good to our children. They nursed
seven out of the ten and watched them by day
and by night. Frances and Mary loved them
and would have fought for them like tigress
for her whelps and the children loved their
black nanny better than they did their
mother. Many time have | seen your moth
er try to coax her child TO come to her from the
nurses arms.
"Whcn the yankee raiders rode into Coving-
ton and took everybody by surprise your moth
or and six children were there and Frances was
ont in the street with the youngest in her arms
and they stopped as she ran and said to her
You black fool you, what are you carrying
that white child for-don't you know you are
free?' Don't keer If is said Frances, 4 is
gwine to carry de chile--chile can't walk
Whose chile is til? said tho yankee My
chile, whose chile do you rec on it is and she
drew tho little thing still closer to her bosom.
And during the war while l was III Virginia
Tip was with rue and waited on mo like Il
brother and took care of me when | was sick
and the negroes at homo helped your mother
to manage and to get something to cat and to
wear and wood to burn, for confederate money
wouldent buy much Of anything and it took
close management to get along. The old
clothes had to be patched before and behind
or ripped up and made over, and by and by
when the coffee was all gone Mary parched
some rye or dried sweet potatoes and parched
them and made out like it was coffee and when
the 8ugnf gave out SnD Hunteu up some BOr-
ghum for sweetening, and when the salt gave
out and there was no more 10 be had she boiled
down the dirt in the smokchouse that the meat
had been dripping on for years and made salt
out Of it and clarified it and dried in the sun
and it was as fine and as white as any table
salt you ever saw. 1t was nip and tuck then
with everybody but they mover complained.
just before the war closed we run out OF most
everything. Your mother gave ten dollar
confederate bill for tablespoonful Of castor
oil and twenty dollars for a pound Of sugar
and q hundred dollars for half an ounce OF
quinne. / paid hundred dollars for five
bushels OF corn and had to send twenty miles
to get it and kept it hid out five miles from
town for fear some OF the tramps and desert
ers would rob NC and get it. had it ground
into meal half bushel at n time and IL was
more precious than gold. IN December 1864 /
gave three thousand dollars for a. little chunk
of COW just 10 provide milk for sick child
There were not moro than half dozen In the
county then.
''Some Of you children never saw any candy
or nuts or raisins until you were several years
old. i remember that after the war was over
Mr.. Shocks came TO Rome with nice little
stock OF fancy goods, and he gave your mother
some raisins for the children, and she took
them home and thoy were afraid Of them, and
asked her If they were bugs. Mr.. Shocks was
mighty clever and kind TO our little rebs. lie
is the same man who has grown 80 rich in At
lanta selling furniture, but hc hasent cut his
old acquaintance yet, and don't reckon ever
VIII
"wer, what made Tip leave us ALL" said
Carl.
Why because he had large family Of his
own 70 look after. They dident belong TO me-
old man White, n good old ScOtchman, owned
them and supported them, and now that they
were free and he was dead, Tip had TO knuckie
down 10 IL 70 maintain them, and no did f.
Tip had good trade and was handy, and
everybody liked him, and so he has prospcred.
When General sherman run US all out Of
Rome, Tip took charge OF the runagee busi-
ness. He left his wife and children for n time
and went with US 10 Atlanta, and ! then sent
him back 10 see after his folks, and the yankees
took him up nndor suspicion and made him
join a company, and he got detailed as q cook,
but lao didcnt like their sort OF folks, and so
one dark rainy night he passed tie guards and
swan the Oostanaula river and went down the
Alabama road about ten miles aud swan the
Coosa. and no hid ont by day and Travelled by
night until ho got back 10 us again. Then he
run with your mother and tho children away