The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-12-24
NEGRO HOUSEWIVES.
THEIR THRIFT AND INeENuIryuNoEe
DIFFICULTIES.

withstanding Their Poverty.
Ing most notable economists i'm this
country today are the negro women down
SOUTH the field workers who keen house
against odds, yet achieve creditable re-
suits. II couldn't git hold of no lar nor
nothin to put up peaches in dis wear. lint
- su' proI'y near bushel of cut apple
80 p't'oh uiy an stow way in bags"
aDln housewife will tell you.
Ihem hams an sides up therep" sho
soos oh' All both of em is from do
shoteS what raise on home victuals an
IeaNlli 8 Dey never turn out no lard worth
couhtln' but dc meat is sweet
Another time she will show you her
lulltS SIX or seven of them folded away
neatly one apiece for each of the children.
IS she says when do you do your sew
ingy" you ask her.
Mostly in dc night time when dc chill
len Is out de way an de mems is lay down
or gone huntin
But you have no lamp"
No, but keeps a good turn of fat
'plnters an pine knots handy, an dew
makes good blaze to see by. DAYS when
does half task in dc field | works bout
de house in de afternoon, but dere's do
washin to do an dc patchin an scrubbin
an one ting an anudder Den, il has
now cloth, | makes brooches or frock, one
Dere's always SEWN waitin f"
How do you manage about the cook
ing when you are SO busy in the field?"
she is asked
Il mostly makes dc chillen stirabout
or some bread fore l start out in do
mornin, an every night fore lay down l
slip some taters in de ashes to done slow
for dem. Den / gen ally don't cook no
more till come out de field at shutdown.
When git chance does make cake an
sweetened bread if eggs is plenty"
But you sell your eggsS"
"Yes. Dey mostly goes for SEWN
thread, sometimes for little sugar an
coffee or maybe kerosene. always keeps
bottle of kerosene handy, cause it so
good to drink for misery in de head or to
rub with when your j'ints is painful.
Il does make sharp money out of my
butter, too, when dc COW amt gone dry"
she adds
The average negro farmer who plants
his little one horse or two horse acreage
that he rents barely makes enough income
to keep body and soul together In the
flush harvest season he earns the equiva-
lent Of 40 cents u day. His wife, accord
ing to her Interpretation, has to turn
swift in order to make things hold out.
She buys as little as possible and makes
use of such resources as are at hand. Even
food for the COW has to be considered, as
is evidenced by the going dry. q"
If we could make out to gil Sock a
mash of cooked peas night an mornin,
she would keep up her milk all dc year, !"
says Sock S mistress, but we can't do
dat nor rent no good pastur' Ian neder,
an in dc winter do grass what's CROWN
in spare Ian amt much You see we got
dc mule to feed too" Thus she tells Of
her simple needs The negro housewife S
broom is made of broom straw gathered
from the fields and bound securely with
| strips of homespun. The scrubbing brush,
! that plays an important part in the week
ly cleaning up, is made of shucks from
the courthouse pegged into piece OF
board with long handle to it. BY cut
ting off the necks of the gourds that grow
each year under the caves large bowls are
made, to hold anything that needs be kept
over in the wooden cupboard. For cook
ing convenences there arc only the crane
in the open chimney place and the heavy
lidded oven, skillet and big mouthed pots,
which are lifted about, no matter how hot
or how full they may be, by bent poker
or stout, knotted stick.
The mistress of the cabin hoes her half
acre task each day. She helps with every
department of the field work, from get
ting the ground ready for the seed in early
~, fn harvesting
Many of these women plow as well and
have little side crops of rice or cotton.
Nearly all have young children.
A good many negroes are shiftless and
irresponsible; some are dirty, but ma
jority of the wives and mothers on the
plantations are ambitious and mako q
brave effort to put the best foot fore
most and keep things shipshape. They
rival each other at raising turkeys anc
chickens, and will walk miles hunting vi
some secretive guinea hen S nest or search
ing for n missing duckling that has stray
ed off from the brood. The sewing thai
| they do is crude. Some of the quilts that
they are so proud of look grotesqut
enough because of inac1uracy in the cut
ting and carrying out of the pattern, blu,
they are % monument to the patience ano
industry of the makers, when one thinks
how rough and coarse from hard labor
are the hands that WELD the clumsy scis
sors, big needle and coarse ball thread
with which they are made. The garments
they make are cut out on the Original
scale. with little regard to fit, but the
stitches hold firmly, and the forms, large
ana small, that wear the clothes arc sc
well knit and lusty that the garments
soon fall into shape The patching done
bv these women may be classed as an ART
Every possible economy is practiced II
these homes. One set of smoothing iron!
often does the ironing for whole neigh
borhood, and the starch that stiffens The
90 TO meeting petticoats and the husband
| Shirt is made out of rice water boiled dowI
70 the requisite thickness. Every skim
ming of grease or bit of bone Is saved FOL
soan. and even the lye needed for the soal
| "a extracted from wood ashes.
On a Saturday afternoon, when one O
these cabin homes is fresh scrubbed 10
the next day, the wooden shelves ana Ia
hIes white as elbow grease can MAKE
them. even the brass hoops ON the waite
bucket secured into newness, ana TN
pickaninnics spanking clean, it Is PIC
turo of homely simplicity glimpse o
which would go far toward dispelling th'
| idea that because negro Is poor he mus
| be dirty
The negroes on plantations remot'