The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1894-03-30
THOSE CLAY EATERS.
ASTRANeE COLONY IN GEORGIA AND
HOW THEY LIVE.


Iron Grip-A Race of People Surrounded
by Civilization and Enlightenment, but
Who Live Like FOrlorn Animals.
Scotsboro is a, town of other days, about
five miles south of the thriving city of Mil
ledgeville, and the crumbling remains of a
few brick buildings here and there are
monuments to the glory of departed days,
and an old fashioned rosebush is sometimes
found blooming in the pine thckets, re-
minding one strikingly Of what was in the
long ago.
This old town marks radical change in
the soil and vegetation, for there the Pied
mont escarpment ends and the late geolog-
ical formation begins. The clay gives up
its red hue and takes on loamy white
ness, interspersed with extensive sand beds.
The long leaf pine begins to pop up, and
the underground also changes.
What is more remarkable, the people
change. Instead of the red faced, sturdy
farmer, buoyant with strength and health,
full of vigor and rejoicing in the conscious
ness of his II robust nature, there comes
a class of people with faces 80 worn and
haggard that it sends a shudder through
your very soul to look at them. A little in
quiry about the neighborhood will put you
onto some appalling facts, and the shudder
of pity will increase to an ague of alarm
when you learn that these mortals are clay
eaters, real and genuine.
For the sake of information it might be
well to state that. a clay eater is one who
eats clay. This definition, however simple,
carries weight when it is taken into con-
sideration that these beings make a regular
practice, fixed habit of dining upon the
dainty morsels of kaolin. Chew it? Oh,
yes, they chew it with as much enjoyment
as a COW gets out of her cud, and swallow
1t with more eagerness and relish than q
small boy does green apple. Incredulous
as it may appear, whole families have the
habit. From the father and grandfather,
too, if he has CHANGED to survive, down to
the skinny faced little tot who cries for his
share, they all eat clay regularly and eager
ly.
This depraved taste fixes itselfupon them
in early childhood, and as they grow older
the habit becomes stronger and stronger
until it is an utter impossiblity to break
off. 1t is said to be more powerful than
the whisky, opium, morphine, cocaine or
any other habit yet known. OF course
heredity has much to do with it, and thus
the habit is transmitted from generation
unto generation with singular precision.
There is no installing "A clay eater Their
countenances have distinctly original and
unearthly cast reminding you more of "a
deaths head with a bone in its mouth"
then anything else The children have
large eyes, set deep in the head and accen-
tuated by high, skinny cheek bones. These
eyes lack luster, and they glare with leaden
stupidity from the cadaverous hOllows.
And, as for the men and women, compared
with theirs the face of an Egyptian num-
my would look fresh and beautiful.
The milky wilderness of the skin, which
they have in childhood has changed into
parched brown, which falls in folds about
their eyes and neck. Deep wrinkles radi-
ate from their mouths and spread in every
direction. You can easily trace
them, as they serve for convenient auue-
ducts to tobacco juice.
The clay which they devour is not, as
some have supposed. the red variety so COM
mon throughout middle Georgia, but a pc
culiar white kind, with a soft and greasy
feel, and found only in certain localities. 1t
is said to contain arsenic, thus accounting
for the force of the habit and its effect upon
the system.
The clay eaters are not wholly without so
cial instincts. They are said to hold festi-
walls, or rather dinings, the menu of which
is made up mainly of clay.
For instance one of the patriarchs will
decide to celebrate, and invitations are is
sued to all the families in the neighbor-
hood. After several wild "breakdowns"
5he tempting glebe is passed around for re-
freshments. Corn liquor, of course, is a
adjunct.
These beings make no attempt at regular
work. They exc out their existence in the
winter by selling kindling wood in town,
and during the summer the most energetic
pick and sell blackberries and huckleber-
les which grow in profusion there. Some
If them own donkeys, and these, attached |
20 the little two wheeled nondescript We
licles, are familiar sights along the public
leading to Milledgeville
Last winter, returning from a hunt in |
he lower part of the county, | was forced by !
he rain to take shelter in the dwelling |
,lace of full fedged clay eater. The house, |
such it might be called, was built in the |
equation log cabin style. The building |
vas set back some distance from the road, |
md a well beaten path led through the
weeds to the doorway, from which the
,lanched faces of some half dozen children
,eered forth curiously. 1t was a squalid
len. There were two windows, utterly des-
itute of glass stuffed with old rags and |
,aper to keep out the chill while the rain
,eat drearily and the wind whistled dis
nally between the old rotten logs. 1t is
to, daub up the cracks in log
ouse with clay, but the absence of it there
ould be explained.
The plank floor, laid directly upon the
round, was broken in many places, and
he damp, green mold oozed up through
he numerous cracks. OF furniture there
vas none except poor apology for bed
yer in one corner. A large pile of corn
obs in the other corner appeared to be the
lightly resting place of the children.
This gloomy interior was somewhat
heered by the fltful blaze of pineknot on
he hearth. A cur dog, composed mainly
+ ribs, had already asserted his right of
Yay.
One thing is certain-however squalid
nd wretched these unfortunate mortals
nay be, there is always on hand bounti-
III supply of children, and they follow fast
q the footsteps of their fathers.
Numerous efforts at different times have
cen made to better the condition of the
lay eaters. Preachers of every denomina-
ion have tried their skill at turning them