The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-09-26
WHITE DAYS IN THE SOUTH.
H.oRk, PLdr, md PICTURES OF
THE GOIToN-PICKING TINE.

brains, nmDlJlOn, anu UOuHLlul lI0hkbh VIM
coold generally get the upper hand q any
thing he tackled, but he could not pick cotton
He worked hard at 1t an entire morning, Just
to SEQ how much no could pick, and at IL
o'clock had only twenty-five pounds to show
for his pains. He thought no had moro, but
tho scales undeceived him.
what Is the regular price paid for picking
cctton!' he asked, as no tumbled tho con.
tents Of his bag into the main heap.
Forty cents a hundred pounds" said his
host. the owner Of the cotton.
Then I've made exactly 10 cents to-day"
Exactly. Now. that negro girl over thero,
the one holding tho baby, picks 800 pounds
n day regularly"
II take OF my hat to her" said the man with
brains.
And she has to stop q while every now and
then to nurse the baby. She takes 1t along in
tho field with her."
IT take off my hat to her twice." said tho
man with brains. with my present insight
into cotton picking l regard any individual
who can pick even fifty pounds a day as
worthy of marked consideration"
"How is 1t that you can beat all the other
hands picking, Minervai' he asked the 800
pound goddess.
Minerals white teeth flashed in a pleased
81 dun know. sir" uttered with her head
turned b~ashfully away from the questioner,
and then, being pressed for an answer, she said
she "reckoned she was moro suppler."
That's it, said the mar with brains. TITS
supplencss that counts"
"But how about Aunt Betty, herei' said the
host, turning to a strapping-looking woman,
large and stout, with gray hair showing be-
meath her turban. Aunt Betty turns in her
ESQ pounds every evening"
"I amt no picker to brag bout now, since de
.at--A L.I N4Ir, r~A --tN A,,~A
Betty, but 1 has tote in tree HUNDRED and
four hunderd poun' regular a while back"
"what Is II, do you think, that makes some
people SO much better pickers than others,
Aunt Bettyi'
well, I can't rightly say, sir, less'n It jist a
natural knaok. Some people Is born pickers.
and then, agen. you'u soc dem what can't mex
dere salt"
(which pick the best. men or womeni'
"'oman. sir. Dey's out and out de best
pickers. I can't put my min on nary q extra
good picker what I ever knowed as was q man.
Mems amt got de right calculation and dey so
abort patience. Desc half-Growed boys picks
pretty fair. I got three what I turnrn dc patch
in do morning and dey picks four hunderd be-
tween EN- fore de day out. but II dey was full
growed, dey wouldn't begin to do it."
wow I've got It." continued tho seeker after
knowledge. THE successful cotton picker
must be natural born, moreover must DO born
feminine, and must be, II possible. moro sup
pier than the rest of her kind"
Cotton-picking time down South stands out
IS clear and distinct from the rest Of the year
as does n raised silhouette on q fiat surface,
only the silhouette is done in white and black.
The country is like a great etching figured
out in white, and there is more going on,
more quarters and half dollars changing hands,
more stir and hustle in even out OF the way,
retired places, than during all the rest Of
the year put together. II over, when you
were a boy, you lived on a plantation, you will
with which the first opening bolls were watched,
when the, fields were all in blossom, and how
looking Lsat Gly' oe at sG Gncl e,T gerr IN p phGss ea tIs 1 SsSw esR
baskets that would be needed and riding down
TO the bad place in the swamp road that must
that time the gin cobbler came along with his
bag Of tools, .prepared to stay two or threo;days
grandmother, or whoever kept house, was much
a white man, should be asked into the table
with the family or have his meals sent out to
S St%; E yos recall IL lou po nave tbe not Ss thought 4sGt, Of him nn lin IN
big hands as he sat threading new bristles into
the old gin brush. and occasionally. very occa-
BionAlly. answering your questions. The house
keeper might regard him as an embarrassment,
but you thought him a great man then. and YOU
did not know books.
There's enough cotton open in the big field
N h9F so! to %aGSsHF R R1saiidHfS; be- T Iss o 59S na Rssr % s ssa5s
night. and after three or four days there would
come a new sound II the air. a sound distinct
n the pines. A steady whirr! whirr! so un.
w9nied i'm, in ,h 1,, quiet air thai even Max. the
"You hear thati They're ginning" some
one Of your boon companions would call. and
to the. mill, whore this new-old wonder was
going forward.
there ever a place equal 10 It for pure funi
Know S9t thsass s? YOU s Nosld e? 9egs sr$ f fr a great Up hard sRf
err would lei yog,, and ali The sDbbs Boys !. BLACK sHs p@ snd
down. down, into the swirling mass and come
Such bursting fun to duck other fellows and
have them shout and sputter for mercy, and
to ,Sol have aSco a regular Tbjle G game of hide hide and seek in
ingly had no bottom. and was all wreath
% san,v UP r. tG 3Bo and TIao that nsa Try as sn the, K, would SsiLdI to
e enig'S bii il ED up nI"i higR Reff ana an" hish els hY9 It %as
so dark inside that you couldn't see when YOU
there was nothing to hurt or to he warned about,
and. crowning charm Of all, YOU felt that the
cause it was always such work a]fterward to
get the lint Off your clothes. Such figures OF
fnn as the party looked when they came out.
White all over. from top to bottom. and black
sancho and ,Nlcrica, even. with thick coatings
OF White fur sticking to their woOlly heads.
There were mountains Of cO'lou seed TO slide
on, and mounds Of cotton with the seeds in il
70 play In. but "A good round in the lint room
was best Of all, and after sunset, when all the
boys who had to pick got off. the neighborho0d
Of the, gin and press was lively. Just about
then big Tom, the packer, would have so
many volunteer assistants that he could lie off
altogether, and might have taken a good null
at his pipe had It been allowed.
They are picking cotton down South now ms
inst as ever they can. Some fields open all ut
once, produce fully two.thirds of their entire
Yield in a few weeks, and this cotton must be
got IN out Of the weather and ginned as soon as
possible, before the grade Is injured. Sand,
dead leaves, trash, all break the fibre.
w hear Of strikes ali over the country
among all conditions of labor, but our cotton
tickers never strike or give any trouble" said
young planter the other day as he surveyed
his whitened fields. IF the cotton in either OF
these fields out in front b~ere-there Is about
sixty bnlcs oft open-should have to stand, say,
z week. 1t would be ruined, The negroes
that they arc the only ones to pick Il: but never
In u single instance fs anything said about rails.
ing the prico for picking or refusing To pick.
The negroes are the most traetablo, easily
managed laborers In existence. II you under.
stand them. When they get unruly and ugly
1t 10 because they have been persistently rubbed
up the wrong way and treated unfairly. II i.