News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-04-19
IMPROVING A CORNER LOT.
Carrying Refuse and Dumping 1t in
a Hole for Fourteen Years.
From the Atlanta Constitution

| from the Atlanta constitutional
"He has been at that for thirteen
years"
And the speaker laughed as he watched
an old man gathering up bucket OF
stones and broken bricks. The old man
continued his work until his bucket was
| filed, and then started back toward
Spring street, stopping on the way to
resurrect a rusted old hoop that was
nearly buried in the gutter.
After walking about three blocks he
stopped at the corner of Spring and
James streets, and laying the rusty hoop
carefully upon n great heap OF rusty
hoops of all kinds and sizes, he carried
the bucket to the back of his lot, part
of which was considerably lower than the
front, and emptied the bucket of bricks
and stones.
He was a very old man-about 70 years
| old, apparently-in his shirt sleeves,
and wearing a dingy straw hat. He was
| feeble. too, and his steps were slow, but
he stopped only to get drink OF water
at the back door, and then ambled off
with the empty bucket.
The little frame structure is half store
and half residence. Just inside the door
to the store sat portly old lady of 60 or
thereabOuts.
"Who is that old man yonder with that
empty bucket?"
'Him? Why, that's old man Lewis
Powell, and he's my husband. I thought
everybody knew him.
els that all he does2"
GILL up the lot, you mean? No, no:
he puts hoops on barrels and kegs, and
raises calves and such like, but that's his
main business. He's been at it nigh on
to fourteen years.
"And how much has he filled in?"
"Oh, from the sidewalk on back. The
lot is fifty by eighty, and it used to be
just one big hole. Now here on Spring
street, where the front is, the bank went
nearly straight down, cause the eye of
the sewer was right there. Then the
sewer was open and run in a gully the
whole length of the lot, and just about
in the middle of the lot. Here on James
street, at the side there, it wasn't SO
steep. The front of the old house was
about half way down the bank, and the
pillars at the back was over ten feet high.
The house wasn't more than twelve feet
that way, either. And right at the back
door the sewer passed.
elbow deep was it,"
"Well, right here at the front the city
men measured to the sewer once, and it
was little over twenty feet below the
sidewalk. The back of the lot was q
little lower. It was one big hole fifty by
eighty, and almost in the bottom of it
was the old house."
Fourteen years ago?'
Fourteen years ago we boughtit from
Jack Smith on time. 1t wasn't much,
but me and Jenny and Joe and Stella
Just buckled down and worked like
tigers. The neighbors made fun of us
at first, and even the niggers thought it
was funny. Now, amt telling you this
because I'm stuck up about it, but it
inst shows what the Powell family have
done, and it shows what poor folks can
do if they stick at it.
''Didn't the old man help?"
eyes, q little. But we had to live,
and then he spent lots of time a film
up, so the brunt of the money part fell
on me and the children. We bought the
mud hole, and he made the mud hole
what it is now. Right here where the
mud hole was there is corner lot, and
them what used to laugh at US would like
mighty we'll to own it now"
And the old lady smiled rs though
the thought was very pleasant one.
eyes, sir" she continued, ''it's worth
a good deal now, and first thing you
know, when the streets get paved along
here, it will be worth a lot more than it
is now"
"And the old man :"
"The old man has worked pretty faith
f,,1 OF ba hoc faEo
dirt, and rocks, and bricks, and trash.
Then the city put pipe there for the
sewer, and he began at the sidewalk on
Spring street and filled back. The bank
kept gettin' further and further, and
after, I don't know how long, we built
this little house on the filed in part.
The old man kept film back till we've
got pretty big back yard; and there's
only a little part left to fill back there.
You see he never tore up the old house
Just throwed in around it and in till
he has almost buried it..
"Why?"
"Oh, it's Just notion of his. He
didn't want to see the old house tore up,
and there it is now, with just the root
sticl1in' out. In little while it will be
one level yard, so by so, and corne,
lot, too. And by the time it all gets
filled up--well, me and the old man is
gettin' feeble now, and we won't last
much longer. But, now that we are all
out of debt and just enough left to keep
the old mans hand in, it does me good
to think of that old mud hole, and how
we had to save and slave and pinch to
pay for it. And think the oil man
likes to stand there at the corner and
look back how level and smooth it is,
and think how it was done, handful at
a time, through the rain and the snow
and the sunshine. Fourteen years! 1t
was big job, but we stuck to it, and
I'm restin' now, for my work is done.
The old man don't work like he used to,
but he says his job amt finished yet,
and he keeps film up"
"And when his work is done"
GC'rbo, ha'I1 ,act too