The morning news., 1894-05-27
THEY MUST HAVE CLOCKS.
The Southern Negroes All Want
TimepieCeS.
Helpless Before Travelling Agents.
Will Mortgage Anything for Gaudy
and Useless Toys-Tombstones An
other Extravagance.
From the Pittsbure Post.


over there, - said the cashier of one of the
banks in an interior southern town.
I was about to ask who he was, =,
responded his companion, regarding with
interested eyes the prosperous looking
person across the street. What is his
businessl 1 always see him strelling
about in the most leisurely fashion"
The man referred TO was well known as
the clock man, and his mode of CON
ducting his profitable business is unique
and interesting, says Philadelphia
Times writer. He employs a large num-
ber of men, furnishes each with a horse
and road cart, and sends them out into
the highways and byways, through re
mote country lanes and pine woods roads,
where the trace of wheels is so dim as al
most to be undiscernible to sell clocks TO
the negroes, and such of the white back
woodsmen as can be induced to buy them.
These clocks are estimated as being
worth only about II, but are sold at from
Sl2 to Sl4 apiece. The agents go round in
April and May and sell them, taking a
mortgage on COW OF an OK, "a wagon,
hog, poultry OF various kinds, anything
which can be sold and converted into
money-even bedsteads, bed clothes, cups s
and saucers and mattresses are accepted
as seeurity-and in the fall the collectors
follow and receive the payments. One
thing is noticea ble-the man who pre-
sents the claim for payment is never the
same who sold the clock the previous
spring Thus any little Irregularities
in the papers drawn up at the time OF the
sale are unknown TO him: he only de-
mands what was agreed upon. .
MUST HAVE ONE.
Every negro house, no matter if the
only other. articles in it are a wooden.
bench or two, hide-Oottom chair, cook
ing utensils and the water pail, with the
most meager pro isions for sleeping,
boasts one of those Showy-looking time
pieces on the rude shelf over the clumsy
chimney place
OF commonest wood, shiny as long as
new, and ornamented with little cheap
gilt. these closks possess one delightful
charm in the eyes, or rather ears, of their
owners-they can strike Tney a-ord
but little knowledge as TO the fight of
time because their owners do not know
the meaning of the letters on the white
face of their much-prized ornament or the
significance of the little slender hands"
going ever round and round
The possessOrs ef-these clocks can tell
the time much more accurately by the
SIN mark they have been accustomed to
notice on LtC llOOF Ul liltlE CdOll, DuJ bIlG
tall timepiece over the fireplace can strike
every hour with a loudness and an aban-
don unriyaled by any clock in more pre-
tentious case, and in doing this its mission
is fulfilled.
Il kin yere him strike cen de night, :"
said an old aunty in defense of her ex-
travagance when asking her landlords 5
assistance in paying the clockma to
whom she had given mortgage the
previous spring on the only feather bed
and all the quilts she possessed. Had not
her beuefacJor advanced her the money
the old woman would have seen her
precious and most necessary belongings
traded" for little cotton or corn to her
neighbors, and would have had nothing to
comfort her during the long cold nights
of approaching, winter but the knowledge
that she possessed just as fine and
tall clock as anybody of heR acquaint-
ance.
FAKIR's ARGUMENTS.
If the clock seller finds a rare instance
where the besieged hesitates about in
vesting. and claims that he won't make
corn enough TO do him, or cotton
enough to get him out of debt, and doubts
if he can afford to give Sl4 for useless
ornament, the shrewd persuader has but
to suggest that, were any of the family
taken sick and a doctor summoned, there
wOuld be no timepiece in the house by
which to administer the various powders
and doses to be given according to direc-
uons every houl or two, and his task is
an easy one. The head of family can
not longer hold out against such an urgent
reason and paper is quickly made out
and signed with his 'EX' mark or per-
haps, with his'name if he has learned to
write it, in which document he agrees to
part with some household article or do
nestle animal now much prized, should
he be unable when a certain day comes to
pay for the beautiful clock which now APP
pears to him an indispensable article
cow which had plowed the entire
crop of one small farmer, and had at. the
same time Afforded milk as nourishment
for the family, was once sacrificed In orr
der to possess this fashionable article of
ibric-a-brac, which would, apparently, re-
mind its possessors how long it was since
q. they had had milk to drink. Meanwhile
2 the head of these various agents lives
life of indolept ease, drives fine team,
wears flashing diamonds on breast and
finger, and regards the world about him
with satisfaction and himself as person
OF consequence and distinction.
LANDOWNERS DON'T LIKE THEM
Down on Jehosse and other islands on
the Carolina coast, densely populated
with negroes who but seldom have COM
mGnication with the mainland, thousands
VI uOIldrS nave Deen MADE from the sale
OF these cheap but dear clocks. The
landowners who rent their acres to the
victims of these clock men feel a resent
ment toward them or their em loyer, for
many pound of cotton or bushel of corn
goes to them which should be devoted TO
tne payment of the landlord who has pro-
Nded them ali summer with provisions
ana farming tools and seen to it that their
lamllles did not want for bread.
Many family gathered around the
supper table hears the sounds of wheels
outside and the familiar "halloa" which
dpprlses them of an arrival and upon in
curry learns the somewhat uuwel.om
Idet That one of these clock men must be
Afforded entertainment for himself and
Lorse for the night It being too far to
any town, hospitality must be extended
lhls business is somewhat new, but ap-
Parently most successful.
Iomb bstones, too, are another necessity
rendered indispensable 10 the negroes by
.ne march of civil alton" Formerly
yueir dead were buried beneath the trees
III lhe little country. graveyard laid to
tsSJ IN homemade cor ms. made by the
Llendly hands of neigh bors and relatives,
lue crave marked by head and loot boards,
s.IRlN carved from wood; buJ now cof
Jus ana lomOstones, cheap and snowy
;TusC be provided out of scant incomes