The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-17
Marriage Licenses
PAY DAY IN GEORGIA.
1t Is Then that the Harvest Time for
the Storekeepers Begins

Macon, Ca, Letter to Chicago Record
At the end of the season all the cotton
one upon almost every Observation-Disclosures.
after the cotton is glnned the landlord
account and his own bale or bales eH s'f for
rental Then the tenant has what Is left
to dispose of as he pleases. 1t may be five
bales or two or half bale, or there may
be nothing whatever coming to him for
the whole seasons labor. With a good
crop he ought to harvest from six to ten
bales on a one-mule farm, with an ordi-
nary crop from four to six, but sometimes
there is a failure and he finds himself in
debt both to his landlord and at the store
But if there is any cotton the landlord gets
it. A bale. OF cotton averages $40 pounds,
and the price at the gin house varies from
five to seven cents a pound
Usually the colored tenant let's his cotton
the landlord sells his own. 1t may be in the
winter or perhaps in the spring, but it is
to his landlord at current rates soon as
the cotton is weighed, and sometimes he
hauls his bales to town one after another
and gets what he can for them. In either
of the latter cases his money gets away
from him in a most extraordinary manner,
and ne may not be able to take any Of it
The merchants even have runners out on the
for as they pass by. Saturday is the regu-
lar day for financial transactions, and
ent medicine men, snide jeweiry peddIers
and all sorts of friends and foes are lying
cash in his pocket. Even the minister is
on hand to collect his subscription for
salary and other religious dues and it re-
ouireS much self-control and moral cour-
age for the poor fellow to keep a dollar III
his pocket
Ali the family usually go to town to-
gether when the cotton money is due and
unite in the pleasure of its disbursement.
They do not expect or intend to save any
thing They will not go home as long as
a penny remains. The old woman and the
girls want new dresses, shoes, hats and
bright ribbons The old man wants cloth
for some new shirts or pair of shoes. He
seldom buys a hat a coat. He gets those
garments from his old master or his land
lord, and as they are worn on Sundays
and holidays only they last for years.
they are very few, the aesthetic fancies of
the family run riot. Confectionery and
cologne are bought first. They may proper
~ be included with the necessaries of life.
Then they invest in 'tinsel jewelry and
bright-colored fans, photograph albums, for
which they have no photographs; books,
with snowy bindings which they cannot
read: clocks, from which they cannot tell
the time. and plaster images pillow shams,
embroidered counterpanes and fancy table
cloths; brght-colored pictures in gilt or
silver frames and every variety of article
that pleases the eye and the palate Then,
when the cotton money is expended, the
entire resources of the family exhaust
ed, and the remainder or the year they
live upon credit or upon little things they
can sell. Perhaps the old man will cut
a load of wood and trade it for dry goods
or groceries, or the old woman will save
up her eggs and chickens and take them
to town. but such sources of supply are
meager and unreliable.