The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-22
ECHOES OF LONG AGO.
The Darkey Quarters On an Old
South Carolina Plantation.
SONGS or THE Stone MlLL,
Light Hearts 1t Heavy work = The
Poetry and Psstimes Of the
Days Of Slavery.

CHARLESTON, s. c., Feb. l6.-rEpecial
Correspondence. MANY are the curious
relics of the stold regime to be found in
the sblack districts of South Carolina.
Wherever the whites are in the majority,
pfogress has modernized the customs new
IDEAS and new discoveries have been
adopted, and the good old fashions are
memories only. But on many Of the old
cotton and rice plantations in the black
districts"-long since deserted by their
6ormer owners, but still occupied by a
Uay-headed remnant of ex-slaves, their
6ildren and their children's children--the
edition Of affairs is very different Here
IRE has been no progress-quite the OPP
psite. indeed-and here many Of the
primitive usages of thirty years ago are
sill in vogue
But before speaking further Of the relics,
word for the old plantations on which
they may be found. The old plantations
are interesting enough, because Of their
former beauty, and the luxury of their
former OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES of their
present diiepidation and the wild pic
turesqueness that surrounds them. To be-
gin fittingiy. here is the big gate" al the
entrance of the long avenue. bordered by
moss-mantied century oaks-here was the
gate--today it is gone like the fencing, for
only zig-zag ridge of rotten plank and
post winds through the riotous thicket
and marks the line of the old fence. The
avenue Is knee-deep in dead leaves, the
oaks are fettered by grapevines. dropping
under tons of moss. and from long me-
elect look like a company of bushy-headed
giants drawn up in battle array against
the genii Of the weird solitudes about
them. The once handsome dwelling at
the end OF the avenue is tottering to the
fall; shorn of steps. shutters, window
panes piliaged of every portable ornament,
Yotfing and ruined. The smokehouse,
with its hundred acknowledged eyes,
through which clouds of snowy smoke was
wont to ooze, after enveloping the freshly
dressed hams hanging from the ceiling in
side, and thus helping to sscure" them:
the kitchen, wherein 365 feasts per annum
were prepared in "the good old days.;
the stables that once harborcd many a
blopded courser; the barns. the dwellings
Of the house servants--alL leaning, falling
Or fallen.
Say that stranger is approaching the
s'quarters' (which In slavery days meant
that long row Of negro cabins far a-field in
which the field hands dwelt). He would
PEE quaint little settlement of diminutiye,
dilspidated houses, patched and propped
in every conceivable fashion and sur
rounded by little patches Of turnips. cab
bage and potatoes. few fowls and pigs. a
host Of gaunt ours, piles of oyster shells,
stacks of fodder. potato banks fenced in
with rails. an occasional peach or pear
tree-aIl these. with the inhabitants,
be would see at glance and
while approaching But what is the
sound that he hearst The whirring.
whixzing, grating. rushing, vet not UNI
pleasant sound, accompanied by lusty
voices chanting the most monotonous of
tunes. He does not know. The initiated
would tell him lit is the old nill"-and so
HIS
Not long since the writer. accompanied
BY photographer and two burly blacks