The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-02-08
THE FATHER or COLONEL CARTER.
A Good Story That is Told OF f. Hopkinson
Smith.

Everybody knows about Colonel Car
ter, OF Cartersville," and Of +. Hopkinson
Smith, the man who presented the Col
onel TO an admiring public.
Mr. Smith is a lecturer. author, reader,
painter. engineer and a capital teller Of
short stories, serious as well as humor-
Gus.
Here is a brand new story Of his, which,
alas. can only be half enjoyed in print,
where IL lacks his inimitable manner OF
telling 1t and that dialect that the type
cannot exactly catch:
/ was in a hotel corridor in Washington
some years ago and l met one of those
peculiar looking individuals from Vir-
ginia. with typical slouched hat, hair
rather long, with a low cut vest and
with a pair of bombazine shoes. He
wasn't a type Of a man like my colonel.
dear old Colonel Carter. but he happened
TO fill that exact type that the Northern
people generally consider a SOutheEner
10 be. He was giving an account Of his
sufferings Immediately after the war.
and he said TO me: you know. sub, that
Immediately afteh the wah our people
had gone through a great deal Of misfor-
tune. our property had been wrested
from us. and our slaves had been freed.
and it was necessary, sub, for some OF
our people TO go To work. | want to tell
you, sub, that Of course the Yanceys
never done any work since they landed
in America. and our family, sub, is some
mo than 400 years old.
80 when IL became necs'ry for me.
sub. to go to work, suh-and when / tell
you that my wife had no shoes 10 her
feet and my chil'ren were also barefoot
and had very little to eat, owing TO some
very ungentlemanly foreclosure proceed
ings which occurred just then, in which
was interested, you see l had just TO
make up my mind to do somethin'-I
thought I'd open livery stable. Don't
start, sub / know you consider II dis
grace, but my chil'ren were barefOoted
At that time there'd been circus pass
through our part OF the country. The
circus man had left two spawned horses
up in Judge Barbour's lot, and the bill
for their pasture sub, was S475
Il borrowed Judge Veerfoot's notes for
$780, which, with my Endorsement, sub. I
sold for enough TO pay the pasture bill
for the two circus horses. Then / mort
gagged the horses. and after feedin them
up l got enough to get a harness and a
wagon. So by the end OF the week had
very good wagon 10 seat eight people,
and the two horses and harness, and l
started in the livery business, sub. had
not been In the business mo- than two
weeks befo' Colonel Talcott's Black Sam
came down to see me and said. Major
Yancey, there's going to be ball down
at Barbourville.'
That SOP
Yes. We want you to take eight Of
us over 10 the ball
What! take you eight niggers over
to the ball, you Internal scoundrel?
Major. don't get het up about It.
Eight niggers at fifty cents apiece is TO
dollars
Then l say TO myself: 'Yancey, brace
up. This is one OF the great crises OF
your life. II you are ever going TO sup
port your family now is your chance
l turned TO Sam and said: Bring on your
mokes.' Well, that night sub. he came
down, and he brought four bucks and
four Wenches IL was a very cold night
sub, n very cold night / have not Jeen
any such weather in that part Of the
State for years. l hooked up the team
and drove over TO Barboursville The
ball was over a grocery store. There was
a grocery store below and a hall above.
with kind Of balcony out Of this upper
place, and there was ladder on the out
side leading TO the balcony above. After
l tied up l got in the room. Perhaps
you don't know the effect of a room in
which there are seventy-five or eighty
niggers, and two playing their fddlas at
the end OF the room. and a red-hot stove
in the middle. sub. OF course you don't
know the effect Of a thing of that kind
but l want to assure you, sub, that the
atmosphere was-well, oppressive.
II stood ii as long as l could, an then
l sashayed between the balcony and the
inside OF the ROOM and finally went out
on the balcony, catching my breath be-
tween times. When I'd been there a
while / says: Brace up. Yancey, you're
trying TO support your family. There's
no reason why you should die of pneu-
monia. Go In and sit down on a bench
II hadn't been there mon five minutes
when Black Sam came up an said:
Major Yancey would you've any objec-
ton TO step out on the balcony. sub?
WhyY Because, sub. some of the ladies'
object to the smell of horse in your
Clothes New York World