The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-09
PREY OF PBDDLERS.

One Armed Rocking Chairs Taken as se-
 curity Charged Extravagant Prices.
 TFrom the New York Tribune.l
 A clock seems to the average Amerl- can citizen a commonplace, everyday affair. am institution that he would miss certainly if deprived of its warning sig
 na1s but which it would never occur to him to make sacrifices to obtain. Tod the plantation backwoods darkey' who 1 has been won't for years to tell the lime pretty accurately by the sun, as his father did before him, a clock Is re- earded as a sort of idol, priceless pos session to obtain whtch'he would moro
 eaae the very bed on which he sleeps
 Or the cow upon which he deperds 1or1 sustenance, Certain astute and enEer- prising clock dealers have discovered | fhis fad, this foible of the baokWoods darlsey. have taken advantage of their 1 discovery and have made lot of n1on- l ey oub of 1t. It is now a regular business. one man is placed in charge of a large terrl- tory, say three or four counties. He'l hires a number of subordinates, fur-i nishes each with g. buggy or road cartsl and sends them out in the country tosl I4raverse remote pine woods lanes and I ''neiahborhood" roads in the most se- l.ollestered regions in search of custom | CTS. The soliciting agents go round Ifn the spring when the seed Is beingfI put into the ground, when the world Hooks its best and when the financial outIook seems most promising to the limprovident negro, who has wiped out la1l his last years debts Cfrom sheer in- Iabilfry to pay them) and has begun over
 afresh. These clocks are large, tall, inl-' posing. There Is a great deal of new Iness and shininess about them anu some gilt. Those who know calculate lthat they are worth from SS to S4' Iney
 are sold to the negroes for Slz or S44' to
 be paid for in the fall when the crop lls gathered, but before they are set up I on the clumsy shelf over the DE ilre- iplace in the dingS cabin che buyer lmust sign his name Cor his cross marx Eff he cannot write) to a certain paper ,lwhicn the agent draws up for the ne- I'gro's approval and his own advantage ,4 4ISThe agent takes an inventory or the la1uyer's possessions. If he owns mule Iyet unmortgaged to the owner of the ' land he 1s planting or to the storekeep-
 CT who has agreed to supply him with
 groceries during the summer (groceTies in this instance being largely interpret led as bacon, flour sugar and molassesl the clock n1An will take a mortgage on ! the mule, or if the buyer possesses a tcow or fog he will take mortgage on Icow or hog, but, failing these large and s easily traced possessions, the agent is
 uuite willing to accept bedsteads and , llnattresses. feather beds, hide bottomed
 chairs, pitchers, even teacups and saul cers of the conmonest variety, as se- ! I.curity. He drives away pleased at lhaving made a sale, leaving his custom CT overcome with delight at his new
 possession, which Is the observed of all observers when neighbors come in, and Tits constant ticking and ability to t Letrike with loudness and abandon is - source of oft recurring pleasure.
 s On one of these papers which the e kclock dealer held and which was bought - by a land owner in order to prevent 8 - worthy oolored woman on his place }, from having to give up all her scantS t store of worldly possessions the wr1tel
 saw among the articles enumerated
 tone rocking chair with the arm off
 given to me by Miss Anna. Davis; ont
 glass pitcher bought from Mrs. War
 ren Heed; a feather bed and two quits
 one log cabin pattern, the other odf
 pieces; one photograph album, one Ply
 mouth Rock rooster" and had the land
 lord not paid the $10 yet due on he
 elaborate clock the good woman would
 have seen her domestic valuabies eoi
 to some fortunate farmers s wife for
 little cotton or corn and been left wit
 nothing to comfort her during tn dreary winter nights, when chill air Id blew through the chinks and knothole
 of her cabin, but to keep the tawdry
 glass faced clock up against the cla
 chimney. Tn one instance the co' lg which had plowed the crop and at tn 1e same time furnished milk for the fan E. ily was sacrificed for a clock. The owr j. CTS of these showy time pieces ca
 judge the hour accurately by the su
 mark they are accustomed to notice 0 1g the floor of the house. When the pate egT of sunlight reaches a certain uneve ry place or perhaps a notch in plank {
 the floor, they know that it is 12 o'clocl
 and so on They do not know the sil
 l ttSS face of their much prized ornament ry the meaning of the little slender hanC
 going round and round, but these clocl
 have one superlative charm in the
 eyes, or rather the ears, of their ow ed ers They can strike with extraordi ,tI- ary harshness and loudness, and wh' ed, this startling sound is heard resoundil od." through the two bare rooms of l. ne. house the listener feels that he has
 new claim to responsibility. It w
 this charming attribute to the tf
 clock which induced the worthy ''au the tie" to mortgage all her comforts al re necessities for it's possession.
 Ask The average plantation darkey mak Dy between 30 and 40 cents day duril l@ the months that he works. His wife,
 she is smart and industrious, can ca this amount also part of the time. Du v ing the cotton picking season they e o. make 50 cents day and oftentim
 more. As a rule, they have gre
 many children, who work in the "si
 crop" planted near thehouse, but W ., are unable to add much to the incor the of the family. It is plain, then, tn niig they have little if any money to spe lid poY th hnt ia Tot atYtipt1U a 11anf