Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-10-11
THE MONTH OF REST.
@LAY BY" T!mE AID ITS PLEASURES
IN THE SUNNY SOUTH.

IN THE SUNNY SOUTH.
While the Fields Are RipeninE In August
the Work People DO Little Work, bui
Spend the Time In Visiting and Other.
wise Enjoying Themselves.
In the cotton planting districts and on
the rice plantations the interval between
the last working of the crops and the Dc.
ginning of the harvest is called clay by
time. 1t occurs in the month of August
and is looked forward to with pleasure by
white and black alike.
clay by" time means rest for the hoe
hands, women and children, who have
chopped away endless hours beneath the !
burning sun of May, June and July; rest
for the men who have followed the fur
rows up and down the measurcless rows
since the last of February; rest for the
mules and oxen which have tugged at the
plow each day through all those months
and now are free to Craze and d0ze in turn
in the green spaces Of the pasture. The
last work has been done to the cotton; it
IS now too strong nj vigorous for the
grass to interfere with it's growth, and the
wide acreage is studded with hollis and
gemmed with gay colored blossoms. The
rice is heading In it's frotted sheath, the
corn swelling in the green swathed ear,
and the peanut, the sorghum and the sugar
cane are all maturing III ran and luXuri-
ance. peas ripc?:" the quail calls across
lhe fields, surveying the promising out
look, n his mate pipes her three sweet
notes in precise approval, thinking Of pro-
vender for the brown covey later on.
Uncle Ned lies in the shade of his cabin,
idly smoking his corncob pipe, and the
breeze that skins the %cornfield fans his
temples as it hurries by and rufflcs the
quilt patch which his wife is placing in
squares and diamonds in order to get the
best effect.
The circuit preacher looks upon clay
by" time as his peculiar harvest, and the
politician likewise avails himself of this
season of leisure and sunny weather to get
certain arguments and schemes of his own
before the public.
The south is noted for it's large families
and equally noted for the strong attach
ment which binds those families together.
In the rural districts and smaller towns
whole communities are related, and many
boast that for many generations no single
member has married outside Ale pale of
OOlotbuS5 O1uAUJ a ~ II III 10y ny AlllC
that this pond of brotherhood or sister
hood or cousinhood finds opportunity for
expression. Black Billy, Boston or the
this halcyon season and can be hitchcd up
to take the master and his family to visit
Cousin Jake or Aunt Merlina, way up in
Lexington or down on Sandy Run, as the
case may be, the time being more auspi-
cious for this pilgrimage than even the
Christmas season, owing to the midsum-
mer condition of the roads.
1t is not merely human freight that
Black Billy and Boston transport to Cous-
in Jake's. Pink home cured hams that
were sewed into their coarse coverings by
painstaking feminine fingers are slowed
away in the bottom Of the carryall, along
with loaves of famous light bread made
with grandmother's yeast and catsup and
sweet pickles prepared especially for this
occasion. It will take the visitors a day
and a half to go and the same to return,
but they will spend at least two days at
Cousin Jake's and hear the news of him
self and his vicinity that has occurred since
their last visit.
II likes for lay by time to come, cause
people keep a-stirrin bout So, comments
Maum Dilcie, whose cabin commands a
view of the neighborhood road. II done
see five buggies pass here today. Dem
chillun makes right smart, too, a opening
de gate" she continues as a feet footed
grandson, who contrives to run even
though hampered with trousers three sizes
too big for him, filings wide the broad
barred gate to admit q waiting team.
"Dem's Betsy Spriggins' chillun gwine
to spend a time wild hcr," adds the old
woman, shading her eyes with her hand in
order to scrutinize tho strangers, and as
the heavy rockaway, with it's budgets and
parcels and trunk tied on behind, numbers
slowly out of sight, she indulges in rem
i%niscences concerning the Spriggins family
and characteristics.
Although fond Of motion and excite.
ment, the negroes, as a race, take their
pleasure sadly, and having funeral ser
mons preached is a conspicuous diversion
among them in clay by time. "De bury
in was corn plantin season in March, but
de funeral gwine be preach next Sunday,
they explain to one who does not under
stand this custom, and the relatives Of the
dead brother or sister hunt up appropriate
badges of mourning and prepare to take a
conspicuous part in the %purposely delayed
ceremonies.
A burying and a funeral are two dis
tinct occurrences in plantation etiquette,
and not at all synonymous, although the
functions of the burying are not in the
least abbreviated because the funeral at q
later date is to supplement it. The dead
are inferred precisely at the same hour OF
day or night at which they expired, but
the funeral takes place on q Sunday morn
ing, months later, when the virtues of the
dead man are extolled or his sins expatiat'
sd upon, with more or less %eloquence, the
preacher never hesitating to indicate plain
ly his convictions as to the destination Of
the departed soul.
"Did they use to have a LAY by time
in the old slave daysP" was asked Of 6
white haired negress.
"Dey was always bound to have it while
waitin for de cotton to open and jist fore
strippin fodder time" was the answer
"All tits, de white people never let us fling
work away and study bout nothin al
all but play, like de colored people doe!
now. We had to rake straw and patch VI
fence and do light work one way and an
nudder, and de womens was give our win
ter frock and body clothes to sew. D.
white people always did have a might.
utilization and visitin bout mongst on.