The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-02-28

for these We're prepared at home by the
weary little house MISTRESS, to whom her
guests praises OF her soups, meats and
cakes were u rich reward.
The great bear hunts, too, were the
signals for general gatherings The men
did not wear pink nor had they any
master of the hounds" but they brought
stanch and fleet horses to the race OF
their own rearing, and sturdy dogs that
only gave up the attack with their lives;
and many an anxious wifes heart bound
ed with pride as she looked at men of
her house sitting on their horses
like a part of the animal, and curbng
the most fiery of their half-broken colts
with Il quiet turn of the wrist and word
OF admonitiOn.
How rare such an occasion as ball
was, is shown by the fact that the guests
thought little of driving twenty miles
over the earth roads, dressing at the house
to which they had been invited, dancing
all night and returning home in the gray
dawn Of the next morning. The hostess
slaves, under her direction. prepared the
supper and decorated eXGuiSitcly the
meats and cakes; weeks before the day of
the entertainment, all were busy with the
preparation OF the good cheer, and it IS
rather remarkable that the receipts for
were exactly the same us those used in
Chester, England, from which all the
choice wedding cake is ordered at this
day.
To us of n later and easier-living gener-
alton, it suggests q remarkably healthy
delight in life that people should under
take so heavy a labor for Il few hours
pleasure: yet the women OF that day still
smile over the remembered joy Of those
dances, which is as sweet in their recol-
lectionS as the perfume of dried rose
leaves,
She Kent ''Open House"
The spice of variety was furnished to
the plantation families by the constantly
varying company OF visitors that drifted
from place to place-the well-developed
germ of the modern ''houSe party" they
brought a fresh current of ideas and per-
sonalitieS into the quiet, back waters.
There was continually some one "stay
ING" at a place-an elastic term which
might cover any sort of Il visit lasting
from four days to four years. These
visitors were of every rank and order
literary people, political magnates, dis
tnguishcd foreign travellers of AL grades.
artists and literary men, poor relations,
cmigrating families belated on the road,
i0umeymen in search of work, city pco-
pie up for q day, trainers and horse doc
tors employed to attend the stock, and all
the sorts and conditions of men that are
perforce given shelter in a great house
in REGIONS where inns do not exist.
Al these visitors after their kind, were
ryf comfortable, bidden to Il seat Mt
,ba1 liable with gentle warmth by the
HOSTESS. and It was Il bold servant who
yeu'l!red to show the contempt which
the negroes entertained for "hait
stranger which was equivalent with
them to the New York epithet OF
"cIimDer'
Women of the Old School Were Religious
Amid the conflicting currents that sur
rounded her from within and without
her home, this woman Of the plantation
Guided the course Of her life, Gghtcd by
true ana uncritical faith which was won
derfully strong to bear her soul up under
the pressure of overW0rk, disease ana re-
Sp0nsibility. Without such firm religious
belief. it would have been as difficult 10
describe a southern woman OF the old
school as to imagine the jasmine without
perfume.
Partly, this was the growth or her CON
ditions partly the outcome Of the opinions
of her masculine environments; for no
matter how lax We're the views OF her
family, their respect for her was ground
cd on their answering belief i'll her
moral purity and religious othodoXy to
which they paid the tribute OF profound
silence regardless of their own philosophic
doubts Such u struggle with dognAs
might be q portion Of their more h5'1nan
development, but she must be forever re-
moved beyond all question OF strife even
in n moral field; for with combat came
suggestion of 'maSculinity,' when was
~ her. rs to them, the ne plus ultra of
all unworthincss in woman.
Full Of all gentle virtues. ana pusy
with womanly duties as varied as they
were absorbing and arduous' she grew
in the silent places by the great river
1naking sweet the air around her and
diving aS-the flowers died in her garden
with no sDecial record of her existence
save that she had made summer Ill the
lives of those blessed ones VINO knew her.