The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-01-24
SARGE PLUNKETT.
SEASONS ARE GETTING BACK TO
WHAT THEY USED TO BE.
After Christmas Times in the Country and
the Beginning Of a Return to
Work.
Written for The Constitution.

Fun and frolic, loving and counting,
and good time generally, is all that
should be expected of young country
folks for while after Christmas and
so it has been in our settlement this
Christmas.
| like it; 1t smackS of old times and
better times The young folks are good
Indicators Of the pulse of the country.
They are getting over the scare of hard
times. beginning to hold their heads up
aDd are hunting up sweethearts and
courting and marrying in proportion as
prosperity has blessed the land. This is
as it should be, they ought to mate off
as sweetnearts, and they ought to love
and marry. l deSpiSe a healthy young
man who can be satisfied with living
without a wife, and there is no good
sense in girl making up her mind to
SILVER through all the cold winters of
her life in loneliness. Hard times have
much TO do with the temper of the young
i'll this matter. Many young men are
made towards by the eternal cry of hard
times, and they are afraid they can't
make living for the girl they love. For
these | have some little respect, but
another class there be who have no fears
nor no cares-they just don't care to
marry, they haven't got time to love and
COUrt They have devoted themselves to
business" and business" is all they
think about. They have joined the rush
of progress, and have studied habits and
affected mannCrS-they are apes trying
70 do as their ideal business man does.
l have no respect for these, and don't
think the girls should have. The boy
for me is the boy who just fairly boils
over III love for some good girl, and is
brave enough to face hard times and
Industrious enough to pull off his coat
and go to work with & vim that as good
as says: Il could make Il living for a
dozen such as she!'
For while the young folks of our
settlement have been dev0tiug their time
10 parties and visiting, and they set up
10 each other and look into each others
eyes in the good oId-fash0ned, loving
way. that they ulster when every
youngster was inspired by the prosperity
Of the land and when Il poor fellow was
not hampered by keeping up a style out
of proportion to his income. Many of the
iliustriOus grandfathers and Fl. ndmothers
went TO housekeeping with only ii skillet
and Il frying pan i'll a house of mud
duubed chinks and growed on to pros
pprity and the blessing OF many children,
and there is nc reason now why the
poores, young man and young woman
should not so and do likewise on these
same old hills of Georgia, il they will
do away with false pride, live within
tEeir means and keep III love and in
touch with one another. Brown says
that | am getting cranky on this notion
Of being in touch" and l want 10 be,
for through a long life / have noticed
that the men and women who have tried
10 raise up families while pulling III
opposite directions are failures tinan-
cjallv. and of but little good i'll social
standing Understand each others ca
pacity ignore the demands Of fashion,
- live IL sympathy and in love, and there
is no such thing as fail-lessen you
drink" and If you do that quit it, as
Brown has done
Our settlement Is well sprinllled with
old-time people. old-time ways and the
good old-time religiOn-fIardShelS. Brown
feels at home among them, and L feel
happy Brown, during Of the war, had
his faith n little shook up, for he says
that he noticed that when the balls be
gun to whistle one of his brethren would
bounce into u hole as quick as any
Methodist in the cOnfederacy-in fact
Il took a mighty supple Methodist to get
into a boom proof quicker than Brown
hlmself-but there is no war now and
there is no argument of peaceful times
that could make him believe anything
lUt that what is to be viii be if it
never is.
But | did not start out to discuss the
religious beliefs of these good people.
] wanted to tell you of what q com
Portable, happy and an od-tme appear
anee one of their fircSides presented the
other night / will pass over the supper
that was spread out in the old kitchen
o. lhc Young generation would say 1T
was QUITO -sight'-but the old kitchen
Itself Snacled so much of fore de war
That J felt like looking about to find the
long ry,y of white cabins In the back
ground and the shuck pens and rows
oi fodder stacks. | could hear the squeak
of the Old wooden screw from the giIl
house but it was only the guineaS that
Cac,ied from the trees III the yard lii;'t
answered my feelings by hle sur, so
! turned and caZed upon the Old nrcplace
v!dch runs across one whole end OF the
house ana raised my hat TO the OLD pot
rack that still hangs there. l turned my
eyes from The fireplace 20 the ktchep
walls Strings OF red pepper. catnlp ana
sage mingled their presence WIN Tue
beauties Of the peafoWl flybrushes, anu
brought no memories as sweet as child
hood and rs lasting as life QuiitlhS
frames rested on the sleepers overhead,
and tunbled and bundled together In
one corner Of the same Old loft, Sliehuy
rested an old spinning wheel and loom:
Il was there, IA [ gazed upon this OLD
loom and wheel. that | craved to be
Stanton or a Maude Andrews TO write
sweet verse to their memory, but | am
neither Of these, and can only scrlbble IN
MY own old-faShiOned way an ode to the
whec' and loom. Here it is:
Neglected old wheel-a victim progress
FILED away in the loft you are left to decay;
How strange does it seem TO find you SO
humble
4 pair of companions who had such a sway.
Old wheel. how I've watched dear one who
twir!ed YOU!
Seeming ! see her, and as it slips,
III" soft roll of cotton or wool she is holding
uut into thread from her def fugertips
Nor :lust forget your sad old companion!
Neglected old loOIn-sO great ia your day
Could you not tell us many a story
II you could relate what you've heard lovers
say?
For under the sound Of your lumber and
rattle,
Lovers were made TO repeat DER and Ger,
Their stories Of IOve-and lost the sweet
answer
tho tl,flu11S ofv our troadIes down IN he