The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-08-23
PREY FOR PEDDLERs.


 A clock seems to the average Ameri- can citizen a 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 plantation backwoods darky, who has been wont for long years to tell the time pretty accurately by the sun, as his father did before him, clock is regarded as sort of idol, a price lice 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 a lot of money out of it.
 It is now a regular business. One man is placed in charge of large territory, say three or four counties. He hires a number of subordinates, fur nishes each with buggy or road cart and sends him out in the country to tioNSisS ASAiloLS plllG WpOo anu "neighborhood" roads in the most se- questered regions in search of custom CTS. The soliciting agents go around in the spring when the seed Is being put into the ground, when the world looks its best and when the financial outlook seems most promising to the improvident negro, who has wiped out all his lest years debts Grom sheer in ability to pay them) and has begun over afresh. These clocks are large, tall, imposing. There is a. great deal of newness and shininess about them and some gilt. Those who know call culate that they are worth from $3 to $4. They are sold to the negros for SIP 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 cab In the buyer must sign his name Cor his cross if he cannot not write) to 8 certain paper which the agent draws up for the negro's 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, l flour, sugar and molasses), the clock man will take a mortgage on the mule, or if the buyer possesses COW or hog; 1 but falling these large and easily trac- ed possessions, the agent is quite will l ling to accept bedsteads and mattress es, feather beds, hide bottomed chairs, | pitchers, even tea cups and saucers of the eommonest variety, as security. He drives away pleased at having made a I sale, leaving his customer overcome with delight at his new possession, which is the observed of all observers when neighbors come in, and it's con stant ticking and ability to strike with l loudness and abandon is a source of oft recurring pleasure.
 On one of these papers which the clock dealer held and which was bought by 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 articles enumerated lone rocking chair, with the arm off, given to me by Miss Anna Davis; one glass pitcher, bought from Mrs. War ren Heed; a feather bed and two quilts, one a log cabin pattern and the other odd pieces; one photograph album, one Plymouth Rock rooster" and had the landlord not paid the BIO yet due on her l nIa tA 1aly ,l have seen her domestic yaluables sold l to some fortunate farmers wife for a 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 cabin, but to keep the tawdry, glass faced clock up against the clay chimney. In one instance a. COW which had plowed the crop and at the same time furnished milk for the family was sacrificed for clock. The owners of these showy 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 a plank of the floor, they know that it Is 12 o'clock, and so on. The do not know the sig nificance of the letters on the white face of their much prized ornament or the meaning of the little 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 extraordinary harshness and loudness, and when this startling sound is heard resoundine through the two bare rooms of his house the listener feels that he has a new claim to responsibility. It was this charming attribute to the tall clock which induced the worthy "aun' tie" to mortgage all her comforts and necessities for it's possession.
 The average plantation darky makes between 30 and 40 cents a day during the months that he works. His wife if she is smart and industrious, car earn this amount also part of the time During the cottton picking season they can make 50 cents a day and ofttimes H more. As a rule, they have a, great many children, who work in the "sidt crop" planted near the house, but who are unable to add much to the income of the family. It is plain, then, that they have little if any money to spend for anything that is not strictly ne
 cessity, yet the agents and peddler: who persecute them to buy their wares
 do a fairly good business among them New York Tribune.