Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1889-10-16
"Swopping" Wives.

A traveller through the wilds OF
North Carolina thus describes his ex-
periences at a "swopping match" in
one of the remote counties of the
State:
A ride of about two hours over the
mountains brought us to the scene Of
the "swopping match" In the yard
and under the trees there were about
a dozen mules and horses, two coons,
and about ten or twenty sheep and a
number of hounds. There were eight
men and seven women, all clad in
coarse homespun linen. Such women
as wore any head-dress wore long poke
or sun bonnets. One or two of the
women were fairly good looking, but
the rest of them, like the men, were
coarse, rawboned, and anything but
handsome.
We had not arrived a moment too
soon to hear the preliminaries of the
business for which the appointment
had been made. Bill Suggs, the pro-
prietor of the house, was the first to
approach the subject, which he did in
the following language:
"Weuns hev met here to swop and
trade. ! hev been trying to swap
wimmin with Jake Long here fur
some time. l hev got my woman
here, an so hez Jake, an I'm ready
to trade. What dye say Jake p
Jake, a big, gawky young fellow
said !: "There's my gal, Bill" point
ing to a rawboned, dark-eyed woman
of 40 "She ken dig more 'seng, chop
more wood, and kin beat anything
shooting on the creek. I'll take yel
woman and yer ole mare to boot"
Suggs had led his wife-or woman
up to that of Long. The women
seemed to be almost utterly Indifferent
or if they did object they spoke nc
word or made no sign.
That's morn I'll give, Long; thai
woman" pointing to his wife, sis q
good cook and kin hoe as much corn
as any woman in the naborhood, and
she's valuable. I'll trade even up an
no boot"
There was considerable talk and a
dozen propositions, which finally end.
ed in Suggs "swopping" for Long;
woman and giving red cow with one
horn and two sheep as premium OF
"boot."
This settled, two other-a middle
aged, red-whiskered fellow with q
rather good-looking young woman fol
wife, traded with younger man for
a woman who was old enough to be
his mother, but who looked as though
she could perform most any kind Of
manual labor. The young man turn
ed over his property and took charge
of the one he had bartered for. He
seemed somewhat pleased by his bar
gain, and his new purchase certainly
did not seem to have been sorry fol
the exchange. The name of the
young fellow was Blodgett.
There were six bargains or trades
successfully closed during the day
one of which was between an old fel-
low of 90 or more and a much young
er man, in which they had merely ex
changed for the woman the other mar
had in possession at former time
They both seemed pleased to get theil
women back. There was no boot OF
premium in the trade.
Having no other place to stop fol
the night | went home with Blodgett
who seemed mild sort of fellow
easy, good-natured, but ignorant
His new spouse was woman of % o.
%, somewhat good-looking, as good
looks went in that section. Her face
was more intelligent than any hac
seen, and she seemed pleased over th'
result of the trade. With all my pow
ers of penetration ] failed to find an,
repugnance or horror over the affair
either with her or any one connected
with it. They seemed to take it as
legitimate transaction and / coult
only account for it on the ground o
utter ignorance of the law, either stat
utory or moral. The custom of trad
ing wives among these people seemed
as old and well founded as is tn,
everywhere habit of trading in ordin
ary articles of barter.