Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-04-19
SOUTHERN DARKIES VlCTlMIzED BY
Willy "SALESMEN."

Fancy ClOck-Mules and One Armed
Rocking Chairs Taken as Security.
Charged Extravagant Prices.
A clock seems to the average American
citizen commonplace, everyday affair, an
institution that he would miss certainly
If deprived of its warning signals, but
which it would never occur to him to
make sacrifices to obtain. To the planta-
ton baokwoods darby, who has been
wont for long years to tell the time pretty
accurately by the sun, as his father did
before him, a clock is regarded as sort
of Idol, priceless possession to obtain
which he would mortgage the very bed on
which he sleeps or the COW upon which he
depends for sustenance. Certain astute
and enterprising clock dealers have dis
covered this fad, this foible of the back
woods darky, have taken advantage of
their discovery and have made lot of
money out of it.
1t is now regular business. One man
is placed in charge of a large territory, say
three or four Coun ties. He hires num-
Der of subordinates, furnishes each with
a buggy or road cart and sends them out
into the country to traverse remote pine
woods lanes and "neighborhood" roads in
the most sequestered regions in search of
customers The soliciting agents go round
in the spring when the seed is being put
into the ground, when the world looks
it's best and when the financial outlook
seems most promising to the improvident
negro, who has wiped out all his last
years debts Cfrom sheer inability TO pay
them) and has begun over afresh. These
clocks are large, tall, imposing There is
q great deal of nGwness and shininess
about them and some gilt Those who
know calculate that they are worth from
SO to $4 They are sold to the negroes for
$12 or $14, to be paid for in the fall when
the crop is gathered, but before they are
set up on the clumsy shelf over the big
fireplace in the dingy cabin the buyer
must sign his name Cor his cross mark If he
cannot write) to Il certain paper which the
agent draws up for tho negroes approval
and his own advantage The agent takes
an inventory of the buyers possessions.
If he owns mule yet unmOrtgaged to
the owner of the land he is planting or to
the storekeeper who has agreed to supply
him with groceries during the summer
groceries in this instance being largely
interpreted as bacon, flour, sugar and mo-
lasses), the clock man will take mort
gage on the mule, or if the buyer possesses
a COW or hog he will take mortgage on
the COW or hog; but, failing these large
and easily traced possessions, the agent
is quite willing to accept bedsteads and
mattresses feather beds, hide bottomed
chairs, pitchers, even teaCups and saucers
IF the Commonest variety, rs security. He
drives away pleased at having made sale,
leaving his customer overcome with de-
light at his new possession, which is the
observed of all observers when neighbors
come in, and its constant ticking and
ability to strike with loudness and aban-
don is a source of oft recurring pleasure,
On one of these papers which the clock
dealer held and which was bought by a
land owner in order to prevent a worthy
colored woman on his place from having
to give up all her sCanty store of worldly
possessions the writer saw among the ar
ticles enumerated lone rocking chair,
with the arm off, given to me by Miss
Anna Davis; one glass pitcher, bought
from Mrs. Warren Heed; a feather bed
and two quilts, one a log cabin pattern
and the other odd pieces; one photograph
album, ono Plymouth Rock rooster, 4"
and had the landlord not paid the $40 yet
due on her elaborate clock the good wOm-
an would have seen her domestic valua-
bles sold to some fortunate farmers wife
for little cotton or corn and been left
with nothing to comfort her during the
dreary winter nights, when chill airs blew
through the chinks and knotholes of her
hI1t To lapD tI,n tnNr ole fonpJ
clock up against the clay chimney. In
one instance COW which had plowed the
crop and at the same time furnished milk
for tho family was sacrificed for a clock.
The owners of these snowy timepieCes can
judge the hour accurately by the sun
mark they are accustomed to notice on
the floor of their house. When the patch
of sunlight reaches certain uneven place
or perhaps a notch in plank of the floor,
they know that it is IL o'clock, and so on.
They do not know the significance of tho
letters on the white face of their much
priced ornament or the meaning of the lit
tie slender hands going round and round,
but these clocks have one superlative
charm in the eyes, or rather the ears, of
their owners They can strike with ex-
traordinary harshness and loudness, and
when this startling sound is heard re-
sounding through the two bare rooms of
his house the listener feels that he has a
new claim to responsibility 1t was this
charming attribute of the tall clock which
induced tho worthy "auntie' to mortgage
all her comforts and necessities for it's pos
session.
The average plantation Garky makes be-
tween 80 and 40 cents day during the
months that he works. His wife, if she
is smart and industrious, can earn this
amount also part of the time. During the
cotton picking season they can make so
cents day and Outlines more. AS a rule,
they have great many children who
work in the side crop" planted near the
house, but who are unable to add much
to the income of the family. 1t is plain,
then, that they have little if any money to
spend for anything that is not strictly a
necessity, yet the agents and peddlers who
prosecute them to buy their wares do a
fairly good business among them. New
York Tribune.
City Men March Well.
The objection is raised to the suggested