The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-10-02

hSio SCARCE. iney Oldn & collect
taxes like they do now, but you had to give the
! government one-tenth of all you made, and
then they'd come eglong and buy another
tenth and pay in what they called 'seript,' and
then IN few days another crowd would come
eElong and press another tenth and then the
hfst tnlng You knowed one of these darned
cavalry companies would come erong and
camp out III front of your house and take an
other tenth to feed on that night, and when
they lett, were more than apt to take off
mule or horse that it would take four OF five
more tenths to replace. So that it was nip and
tuck to get erlong. and that's what makes me
laugh at all this trust talk and all this tariff
| talk. Er fellow that lived them days needn't
get scared these times.
The yankees thought they'd starve us out
on salt during of the war. They had their
blockade, as they called it, and wouldn't let
none come in. We had times going in COM
panles erway down to the coast and making it
Tor ourselves. crowd of settlement fellows
would go down on the coast and camp out and
pile the salt water outen the ocean, and come
back with loads of salt. The yankees soon
found 1t out and it got SO it was dangerous for
fellow to strike match along the Atlantic
coast Tor the Yankee boats were nosing all
Ground. and the very minute that they saw q
1t, and afellow didn't have no craving for salt
when them shells were falling erround-least-
wise didn't.
but they couldn't keep us from making
salt. When it got so we couldn't make it on
the coast, we just found out that we could
make 1t right at home. Every smoke house in
Georgia was dug out during OF the war, and as
good salt as you ever seed was made outen the
Dirt
II could er got erlong well enough if the
conscript officers would have let me alone, but
the darkness had to be mighty thick when I
practiced any supleness," spoke Brown, "but
thar hain't no oonsoript officers these days and
hain't scared erbout getting erlong."
"our young wimin made as good shoes as
anybody needed to WANT continued Plunkett,
without paying attention to Browns remark.
Every woman in my settlement learned to
cut and make their own shoes. They used
gray or brown or black jeans foruppers instead
OF leather, and they could sew, the sole on, and
then all they had TODD was to get,'some old
fellow like me to peg the heels on, and they
had shoes that answered just as well as these
shoes that they ship here from the north"
"And mems caps and hats were made outen
jeans and they answered every purpose sug-
gested Brown
mighty bad times and they were mighty scarce
times, and hope that the like of them will
never have to be gone through with ergin, but
thar's one thing that was taught by them
days, and that is that when it comes to pinch
old Georgia can have all she wants right at
home, and if the folks down south here got up
substitutes for coffee and substitutes for salt
and substitutes for corn liquor and substitutes
for New Orleans syrup and sugar, and a darned
sight of EN- got up substitutes for themselves,
it's no usein trying to scare us erbout little
old bagging to wrap up cotton in.
mo, sir" continued the old man, 'I'm not
scared so long as they'll keep old Sherman in
retirement of anything that can be done to us
down here, but there is thing that makes me
feel bad, and that is so much talk erbout these
fever refugees. L wish they would call it some
other word besides refugees for that's a word
that was common during of the war and it
brought untold suffering upon the Yimin and
children.
'1ve seed the wimin and children that night
would overtake in yonder grove kindle little
fire and paTeh a little corn for their supper and
rake up pile Of leaves for bed, without
knowing which way to turn their faces in the
morning. Folks didn't have time then to be
sorry and there wasn't many that had any
sympathy to spare from their own household,
but it's over with now, the muskadines are
getting ripe and the leaves are turning yellow
and it won't be long till the frost will come
and the yellow fever folks can go back to their
homes and find EN- in heap better fix than
did the poor refugees erlong in the sixties.
SARGE