The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1888-12-28
A~"cRAcKER" SKETCH.
Pom Picture of Life Among the
lowlv In the State Of Georgia.

n LWO-rOOm log mousse, with q low
dilapidated worn" fence around il
a ragged honeysuckle vine at the sid
of the door, which is never closed
winter OF summer, q few stunted ros
bushes bordering the path of whit
sand that glistened blindingly in tn
the sun OF q midsummer day, iron
the broken gate to the rickety doc.
step.
A traveller drew his horse up at tn
gate, and after the fashion of tn
country, shouted, "Hello!" He heart
a sonoreus growl from within tn,
house as if an immense. ill.naturet
African hon had been disturbed from
an afternoon siesta; then q shrill
shattered voice commanded, "You
Watch. git right back thar" and tn,
great dog Immediately retired to hi.
favorite couch beneath the high, un
curtained bedstead.
A few moments later there protrud
ed from the open door an enormous
corncob pipe, from which the smokewas
curling in a hazy blue column. AS the
pipe with, it seemed. several sections
of stem, gradually made itself visible,
it became evident that the other end
disappeared in an old woman's
mouth-a dry, expressionless mouth,
surrounded with ever widening
circles OF wrinkles, as is the
centre of q tree. which circles took in
a long sharp nose, q hooked chin, two
bright, inquisitive eyes, and finally
disappeared under the folds of q cot
ton handkerchief bound over snowy
hair.
Then the handle of the pipe was
with an effort extracted from its &C
customed place between the old
cracker mothers lips as she called,
"Ole man, here's sun 'un as wanster
see you"
The pipe is replaced and the thin
column OF blue smoke curls lazily up
as the stranger sits in silence under
the close scrutiny from the eyes above
the primitive pipe, as we'll as from a
pair of bright, starry orbs, dimly Wis
IDLE through a crack between two logs
OF the cabin.
Presently a thick stream OF dark
yellow fluid IS projected from around
a corner OF the building with the force
and volume of a lawn sprinkler, q
heavy cud OF tobacco is flung out
among the stunted rose bushes, and
an old man-dwarfed in appearance,
with a lean and slender frame, yellow
skin, thick gray locks, from which
projects IN aquiline nose and peer
two ferret.like and furtive eyes
zones slowly s%louchmg into view.
He wears patched and darned brown
does not wear any shoes at all. He
speaks first, saying in a breath:
"Good even'-tollable-light mist
err"
The stranger ''lights'' and enters the
house, which, after the glarlng SEMI
path outside, looks as cool and
gloomy as a. grotto. Then he came
face TO face with the girl of the starry
eyes, who indeed appear, perhaps from
the contrast with her homely sur
roundings, a rare vision of girlish
loneliness.
As the stranger bowed she smiled
bashfully and said "Good mawnin',"
though it is late in the afternoon. but
no one "makes HIM acquainted"
The young lady whom the mother
calls "Soonie" brings him directly a
drink of cool spring water in a small,
long handled gourd, which is white
and as light as cork, and which seems
to impart an agreeable flavor and
sweetness to the water; bat as the
weary traveller meets Soonie's and in
taking the gourd and her eyes while
drinking, 1t may be that the virtue
did not all lie in the gourd.
The mother sits beside thedoorway.
knitting, smoking and gazing down
the lonely sandy road as she had
done every day these last fifty years.
Along that road. she tells the strang.
er, her old man brought her to this
home the day they were married
only he wasn't an old man then, but
one of the finest boys in the
country; along that road her only son
Benny marched away to cline
Guv'nor Brown" but he never came
back; along that road later on came
one division OF Sherman's %conquering
hosts as they swept over the already
desolated country on to the sea, and
along that road some day IN the near
future she will be carried in q rough
pine box, on a joltlng OK cart up to
the burying ground at New Prospect
Church and laid to rest. Old man
Stubbs, with similar thoughts. per-
rrS~ 5000 boz ~,,-l,,
chewing a new tobacco cud and bask-:
ing in the sun on the doorstep, and
asking at intervals, like minute guns:
"And what did you say your name
mout be, mister?" though the guest
had not as yet mentioned it.
"And you are from-where, mister?"
failing to use the name after obtain
ing it.
And what mout be your business
mister?" clinging still to his favorlte
title
"And be you q Yankee, mister?"
While gratifying his hosts curiosity
the visitor glances curiously about
the room on his own account. About
the open fireplace at which the family
cooking is done are ranged the only
cooking vessels known in cracker
DOMAIN oven to bake bread,
frying pan in which they
spoil about all meats, a deep pot to
boil greens" and coffee pot in which
they compound a black decoction,
and bitter, and which they
drink enormously, unassisted with
sugar or milk; strings of red
pepper hang in long festoons from the
overhead, along with home
raised hams, ears OF popcorn and
bags of unknown contents; on pegs
about the wall hang the entire ward
&c &Lo fo,,1,, rN,-o I'LL Iol, ell |