The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-26

ripper. In fact, there were some who even
went so far as to include Mrs. Baldwin
and her daughters, Sue and Betty, in
the category. Some said the old lady
was deserving OF the appellation more
fully than any member of the family,
and some, impelled to their belief, no
doubt, by her reckless riding of the big
bay horse. averred that Miss Betty was
the only "out and out ripper" in the
family. The term was not a particularly
elegant one. and was, in truth, some
what vague for all it's seeming ex-
pressiveness. but it was one popularity
used in the neighborhood. into which,
early in the forties, Colonel Billy had
migrated with his young bride and set
up a home in imitation of that which
he had left behind him in old Kentucky.
What change OF circumstances or
thirst for adventure had brought him
thither he never explained, but he
seemed to enjoy the crude society about
him and to take a remarkable interest
in the growth of the town. Colonel Billy
was public spirited; he had plenty of
money; his wife wore silk dresses and
owned a piano. The new house he built
was broad and substantial, and boosted
a stone foundation. a cellar with wine
in iD, front veranda and green win
dow shutters. In the face of all these
luxuries and the fact of his wonderful
Iiberality no man dared to raise a voice
against Colonel Billy. so the sober in
habitants of the young town, drawn
mainly from the quieter ranks of society
in Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina.
were fain to close their eyes to his fond
ness for running hounds and going fish
ing on Sunday, merely stating as an ex-
cuse for such Irregularities that he was
a Kentuckian. 1t was the female por-
ton of society that gave to Colonel Billy
the appellation of ripper" and, if the
truth must be told, they meant some
thing bad by 1T. To them the presence
of the grand new house, with store car
pets upon the floors, lace curtains at the
windows and brass rods upon the stairs.
was simply the impudent Haunting of a
perverse and froward generation of
vipers; and when it was learned that
Mrs. Baldwin had silver candlesticks and
used them, no. to mention a solid soup
Iadle which she recklessly placed upon
the table when there was no company,
1t was deemed plain effrontery, and old
Mrs. Gilbert said she'd bet two bits Col
Billy had run off from somewhere. This
was vague, but it had Its bearing, and
to this day when some descendant of the
Baldwins is heard from there will be
those in the old town to which the
colonel devoted so much money and
talent, who will say: Law! old Billy
Baldwin,! I reckon do remember him.
He was a regular old ripper, and they
did say he got his start dishonest some
way, but I never did know just how"
Somebody said that the old lady churned
on Sunday, and likely enough it was
true, for when she arrived in the free
States, never having known days la
Dor in her life, she found that her lines
had not fallen in pleasant places, and
that she could not command the free
born "help" that lorded it over the few
who could afford to hire in the neighbor-
hood. Unlike those ladies of birth who
fit through the pages of all romance,
Sally Baldwin had no faithful old slave
who followed her to the new country,
dear sake of bathing her mistress's pref
ty feet and doing the drudgery of every
day life for her.
Colonel Billy was full Of ideas of the
liberty of the West and took no servants
with him, assuring his spouse that they
would live SO simply in their new home
that they would scarcely find anything
for a servant to do. Time. however. de-
veloped the fact that neither he nor
Miss Sally" Mrs. Baldwin was al
ways known to her colored servants,
knew how to live simply, the things they
considered the simplest essentials to ex-
istence being those that required the
most arduous labor in order to enjoy
them. Mrs. Baldwin was blessed with a
sound constitution and an amount of
energy seldom equaled in either sex: she
also had a temper, which, like that of
many Southern women, had been left to
develop according TO its own sweet will.
Thus il was that she vented her scorn
for the commences of her new sur
roundings upon senseless boards in
merciless scrubbing and securing, and
upon innocent stair rods and irons and
lated to wear away even the solid metal
of their composition. No slatternly girl
might sit at her table, even though
working merely 'for 'commodation;" no
hired man, however he might slick his
hair or clean his boots, could enter the
glittering precincts of her dining room.
The colonel found an old colored man,
upon whom freedom seemed to hang
somewhat heavily. to take charge of the
stable and garden, but Miss Sally had
serious times fighting it out alone in the
solitude of her splendid rooms, where in
succeeding years the light and laughter
of two little merry-eyed girls made sweet
compensation.
The village mothers called them "stuclx
up little ninnies with muslin edgin' on
their pantalettes and clean white
apron apiece every day" but the village
children adored them. for they were, in
truth. the joiliest little souls in the world