San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1888-01-26
ON A KENTUCKY FARM.
As relations Of Ante-Bellum Boyhood.
"NInmmy," the Cook, "Uncle Tom.'

As relations Of Ante-Bellum Boyhood'
",Inmmy," tho Cook, "Uncie Tom"
The typical boy on Kentucky farm
was tcnderly associated from infancy WIN
the negroes OF the household ana inc
fields. His old black NANNY" became
Almost his first mother and was but
Eiowly crowded out of his conscience ana
his heart by the growing image ~ the
true one She had perhaps nursed nm
ut her L,,-om when he was not long
enough to stretch across IL, sung over his
cradle at noon and mt midnight, taken
him OFT upon the vclycty grass beneath
the shade Of the elm trees to watch his
first marty resolution of standing alone
in the world and walking the vast dis
lance Of some inches. Often In boyish
years when flying from the house with
n loud appeal from the inconprehensible
code Of Anglo-SaXon punishment for
small msdemennors he Ind run to those
black arms and cried himself TO sleep in
the lap Of African sympathy, AS he
grew older alnsl his first love grew faith-
less, and while "mammy" was good
enough in her way and sphere his wander
Ing affections settled humbly ut the feet
of another great functionary OF the house
hold--the cook in the kitchen. To him
her KEYS were Us the keys to the Kingdom
of heaven, for his immortal soul was his
immortal appetite. When lie stood by
the biscuit bench while she, pausinS amid
the varied industries that went into the
preparation of IN old time Kentucky
supper, made him marvellous geese of
dough, with farinaceous feathers and
genuine coffee grains for eyes, there was
TO him no other artist in the world who
possessed the secret of so comningling
the useful with the beautiful
The little half naked imps, too, playing
jim the dirt like glossy blackblrds taking
bath OF dust, were his swcetcst-because,
perhaps, neutrality-suspicious.. With
them he went clandestnely to the fatal
duck pond in the stable lot to learn the
art of swimming on walnut rail With
them he raced up and down the lane on
blooded alder stalk horses, afterward
leading the exhausted cSursers into stables
of the same green bushes and haltering
them high with cotton string. 1t was
one of these hatlcss children OF original
Guinea that had crcpt up to him as he lay
asleep in the summer grass and told him
where the best hidden of all nests was to
be found in a far fence corner-that of
the high tempered, scolding guinea hen.
To them he showed his first Barlow knife;
Tor t.em he blew his first home made
whistle. He Is their petty tyrant today;
tomorrow he will be their repcntant
friend, dividing with them his marble'
and proposing game OF hop scotch
Upon his dialect, his disposition, his
whole character, Is laid the inetTaceatie
impress Of theirs so that they pass ! ito
the final reckoning up Of his life here fnI
in the world to come.
But Uncle Tom--the negro oversccr Of
the place-the greatest Of all the negroes
greater even than the cook, when one
is not hungry. How often has he Stratl-
died Uncle Toms neck, or ridden behind
him afleld on barebacked horse to the
jingling music OF the trace chains! 1t is
Uncle Tom who brings him his first young
squirrel to tame, the teeth of which are
soon to be planted in his right foretinGer.
Many time he slips out of the house 10
take his dinner or supper in the cabin
with Uncle Tom; and during long winter
evenings he loves to sit before those great
roaring cabin fireplaces that throw their
REQ and yellow lights over the half circle
OF black faces and on the mysteries Of
fEoom making, chair bottoming and the
cobbling of shoes. Like the child who
listens to "Unclc Rcmus." he too hears
songs and stories, and creeps back to the
house with wondering look in his eyes
and vague hush of spirit.-James Lane
Allen in The Century.