The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-11-19
SWAPPING WIVES.
QUEER CUSTOMS orr NORTH CAR0-
LIMA COMM UNITY.

Educational Bureau to supply Chap
erones-Items of Interest.
The writer. while riding across the
States some months since, stopped at the
cabin of one of these settlers on q small
creek at the foot of Big Smoky Mountain.
The head OF the family was a~light-haired,
he~avily-bearded man of fifty or sixty,
dressed in a pair of linen trousers and a
shirt of the same material, both OF horne
manufacture. The woman of the house
was a tall, raw-boned, dark-yisaged, fe-
male of forty or more. There were eleven
children of all ages, all OF whom were
clad in a coarse shirt and pantaloons
cept the smaller ones, who wore nature
garb from crown to toe. None OF the
family wore either boots or shoes.
S~impson-that was the name of the host
in reply TO the professional query, is
there anything new going?" replied
"Nuthin' ever happens hyer, stranger.
'ceptin' it's the Mormons or a swappln'
match"
What do you mean by a swapping
match ,"
"Wal, eff that don't beat ALI Say,
Nance" turning to his wife, The un don't
know wot d swappin' match is"
"Humph!" calculated the woman; he
/ uu uOuT KNOW HluCH. Why, oblhASCAf q
swappin' match is where folks swap bosses
wives, mules and sich.n
Wives! You don't mean to say that
you people swap wives, do your"
"Thet's jes' wot | mean" replied the
man; IAN there's goin' to be a big swap
over ter Bill Suggs' termorrer."
A ride of about two miles over the
mountains brought us to the residence of
the Suggs. 1t was like that of Simpsons
and every other habitation | saw in that
locality, a log structure, but unlike Simp-
sons. it had two rooms instead OF one. In
the yard and under the trees were about q
dozen horses aud mules, 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 headdress at all wore
long poke or s~unbonnets. One or two of
the women were fairly gOod-looking, but
the rest of them, like the men, were
coarse, raw : boned and anything but
handsome.
We had not arrived o moment too soon
to hear the preliminaries Of the business
for which the appointment had been
made. Bill Snggs, the proprietor OF the
house, was the first to breach the subject.
| which he did in the following language
1--WE uns hev met here to swap an
trade. / hev been tryin' to swap wimmin
with Jake Long here fur some time. |
hev got my woman here, and so hez Jake,
an Pm ready to trade. What dye say.
Jake?"
Jake, a big, gawky young fellow, said;-
There's my gal, Bill, pointing to a raw
boned, dark-eyed woman of forty-five.
''She can dig more seng, chop more wood
an ken beat anythin' shootin' on the
creek. Tll take yer woman an yer old
mare to boot"
Suggs had led his wife-or woman-up
to thai of Long. The women seemed to
be almost utterly Indifferent, or If they
did object they spoke no word or made no
sign,
woman" pointing to his wife, sis a good
| cook, and kin hoe as much corn as n
woman in the naborhood, an she's vaTble.
I'll trade even up and no boot"
There was considerable talk and q
dozen propositions, which finally ended
in Suggs swapping for Longs woman
and giving a red COW with one horn and
| two sheep as a premium or boot
This settled, TWO others, q middle-aged,
red-whlskered fellow. with a rather good
locking young woman for a wife, traded
with @ younger man for a woman VINO
was old enough to be his mother, but
looked as though she could perform al
most any manual labor. The young man
| turned 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
no seem to have been sorry for the ex-
| change. The name of the young fellow
was Blodgett.
There were six bargains or trades sue
| cessfully closed during the day, n of
which was between an old fellow of sixty
or more and a much younger man, in
| which they had merely exchanged for the
woman the other man had in his posses
-, ~ 4 - fn1.rra ~. TINA THhaU h0fh Cnnrnn6
glad to get their women back. There was
no boot or premium in the trade.-Cht-
cdg0 Times.
The Higher Education of Women
Mrs. Christian Ladd Franklin, who was
made a fellow of Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity for her mathematical achievements,
takes a deep interest in the plan of the
collegiate alumn@ to maintain, each year
at least, one young woman. already a
graduate of an American college belong
ing to the association. and who gives
promise of following in the footsteps of
Darwin and Huxley. at q foreign uni
| versity. The scheme is in part Mrs.
Franklin's own, and its object is to lend
| some assistance in the settlement of the
vexed question, will women ever add an
| important discovery to the worlds stock
of knowledge BY establishing a fellow
ship for the support of young women
likely to become capable Of original re-
| search while they obtain the best prepara-
zion possible for working alongside the
worlds scholars. Mrs. Franklin's idea
is to get hold of just the right young
women with scientific proclivities and
back them during from n to three
years study in Europe. Women, she
| saws, have demonstrated that they are
better physically and mentally for going
to school. They have proved wonder
| fully receptive. Viii even a handful
| aver show themselves investigators? If
they do not, she thinks it ought not to be
for lack of money to obtain the necessary
preliminary training. With Mrs. Frank
lin at the head of q committee, the col
legiate alumn2 are now engaged in rails
ing funds before declaring the fellow
ship open for competition.-NeW York
Stdr.
A Chapsron Bureau.
A groupo of actors stood in front of the
Madison Spare Theatre the other morn
ing telling stories. One of the number, a
man whose name is familiar to all play
goers, led the conversation.
"Do yon know said he, ''that not
many blocks from here there is a matronly
old woman who earns a nice livelihood
by chaperoning yong school girls ond
.-1 49,