The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-08-21
GOLD IN GRAPES.
P1unkett Visits a Family Of
FrenChmen.
JUST AS GOOD AS FRANCE.
A Fortune in the Old Red Hills
of Georgia.


of an oak.
I'm two miles of the union passenger depot
of Atlanta there is n vineyard that is thing
of beauty and of profit aS WE'LL" continued the
old man, 'and that is what want to tell you
erbout.
''I went up to see Wesley Elliot, who lives
at the terminus of West Hunter street and l
seed things and heard things that makes me
know it's no use i'll going to Texas or any other
state to find better country than old Georgia.
six years ago err fellow lived iining Wesley
that took it into his head that er man COUNT
make er living any more on the old red-rutted
hills SIGH as he had, and he offered his seven
acres for sale, and it was mighty hard to sell,
for it was rugged and red, and the washes
were so close together that it kept er fellow
all the time lifting his pillow to get over them,
and the most of folks thought it was too poor
to sprout peas, till at last one day there came
erlong some outlandish folks and offered him
er hundred dollars an acre for it, and
he took it and was off for Texas in
less than er week and haint never heard
from him since, but I'd bet that if he could see
his old red seven acre field now, he'd look in
wonder, for of all the sights L ever seed in the
way OF grapes it is there and the old outlandish
fellow wouldn't let him cut the vines often the
ground for ten thousand dollars, for he has er
bout ten thousand vines and he thinks er dol
lar CT piece Is ef low estimate oil their worth,
for he will clear twenty-five hundred dollars
ofen this years crop and will increase that
profit from year to year as his vineyard facili-
ties becomes more perfected.
"This outlandish old fellow is named Ber-
nard, and he halls from er little village called
Natzviller Alsace-Loraine. He can't speak
a word of our United States talk, but he has
children who have learned to talk and one of
them named Shon (John) is clever and will
tell you what the old man means by his jaber-
iSh. and from him I learned thinuS that ouuht
to make this young generation err shamed of
themselves Tor leaving old Georgia because
they can't do we'll
when the war was raging between France
and Germany, the people refugeed from AL
sace-Loraine, jist like they did here in front of
OLD Sherman, and went toward Paris. These
Bernards were among the refugees and when
the war was ended and their country fell
under the government of the Germans, they
refused to return, but instead they came over
to the United States and landed in New York
City on the 10th day of May, 1881, with only
eighty-iive cents to back EN- up and er house
full of children with appetites like young ali
gators.
"An agent Of the Atlanta cotton factory seed
EN- at New Y ork and made er trade with 'em
to come to Atlanta and work in the factory.
They sold everything they had that would
bring cent and were still sixty-five dollars in
debt when they landed here. There was not
one of them that could speak a word of En-
glish, but they could work. and the whole fam
lily went at it, and when their first weeks
wages was paid over to the old man he run
plum wild and was frantically jesticulating
erbout much fine country this was as some
foreigners who could understand him OK
planned.
This old man Bernard was not like some Of
our folks who wanted to get rid of their little
farms and move to town, but he at once went
to work saving and planning to get him er few
acres and longing to see the day when he could
take his children out of the factory to breath
rNIlrQ arp hot fan Il 1,cAr 80,
around Atlanta,
"By the aid of Governor Bullock and the
firm of Elsas & May, old man Bernard was en-
aoled to buy this seven-acre place, and he Mt
once moved upon it with his numerous family,
and has long since paid for it.
The old folks went to work upon the farm,
While the children remained in the factories,
and thus they struggled, always buoyed up
with the hope that the day would soon come
that they might withdraw from the factory,
work and live under their own vine and fig
tree
''For three years spades and grubbing hoes
were all they had to do the work that our
folks perform with the horse and pillow. The
children walked to Elsas & Mays factory, at
the end of Decatur street-four miles from
whore they liyed-to work. Through heat
and cold and mud and rain, day after day,
these girls and boys were ND before DAYLIGHT
and on their way TO the factory while the old
folks stayed at home using the grubbing hoe
and the spade to break their ground, and the
little farm begin to blossom and bloom and
the ruts begin to pass erway, and pretty soon
they had COW and pigs, and these were dom
icilled in the front yard, and the people in
passing erlong the road wondered at such
way of doing, but the Bernards soon had
barn upon the place that was better than the
rlckety dwelling and people wondered again
why they did not build a dwelling first, but
the Bernards went on and never q sprg of
grass nor q weed grew upon that seven acres
but what 1t was cured and stored away in the
loft of tie barn, and in the course of time
they had more cows and more pigs and Wesley
Elliott says that they made more manure there
in them little stalls in front of their house than
the most of folks make who run ten-horse
farm.
1T was three years from the time thew
moved on their little farm till they had er
horse, and to this day not one OF the family
can plow, but they have quit digging and
spading, and hire a hand when they want
piowing done
John Bernard is er clever young fellow.
and, though he can't talk United States no
great sight, it is or pleasure for an old man
like mo, who has seed crab-grass grow waist
high and lay and rot, and cleared ground and
burnt logs and wasted timber and seed briar5
and bushes grow erlong the fence low and
cause q waste Of space ten or twelve feet at
each end Of the rows and never thought moth
ing Of It'll say it is pleasure for me to set
down and hear EN- talk erbout the way they
do in them old countries.
There or fellow that has, er big farm will
build village, and the peoI ~ who work upon
these farms live in villages. 1t is something
on the order Of building our niger houses be.
fore the war, guess, only they have brick
houses and the people are peasants instead of
slaves.
'They don't have nothing to waste in that
country, for they tell me that the people
who rent ground only have SO many
trees allotted 10 each family, and they are
not allowed TO cut them down either. The
trees are what they call italian poplars, aud
they are long and slender and do not shut off
the sun from the crop At certain time each
fall these trees are trimmed closely; that Is,
the limbs are cut off and tied up into bundles
and stored away and goes to make the fuel for
these peasants until the next trimming time
That wouldn't suit or niger and it wouldn't
suit me, for / like a big log-heap fire and 30
does every one who was raised on er farm in
Georgia.
But as / was going TO tell you" continued
the old man after pause, they have got to
whore the children can stay away from the
factory. All erlOng for six years they have
been enrichng that seven acres and growing
cabbage aud onions aud turnips and garden
truck OF every kind and planting grape vines,
until now four acres q the seven Is a bearing
vineyard, from which this year. already, they
have stored away nineteen hundred gallons Of
the grape juice and will get several hundred
a. 4 l..