The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-07-13
A DAY IN IuID REAL SOUTH.


 Day Out" Where Friends Always ar
 Ready and Glad to See You and Lif
 is Simple and Open, With No Grea
 Problems to Vexo or Cares to Annoy.
 Did you ever go ito spend the day ou
 down south? Not Gu town or city O.
 Village, but way of in the country
 among the plantations. where a mar : drives over five miles before he hits tht
 particular bark-blazea trees that mari
 the beginning of his neighbor's land
 where no plantation Is close enough t1
 the other so that the cattle get mixed
 up When the pasture fence is down any.
 where, or one housewife's hens lay ir
 another houseWife's henhouse2 People
 go out toespend the day In that region
 they don't go to luncheon, or to dinner
 or to call-they go literally to spend the
 day; not to employ 1t or to occupy 1t, or
 to turn 1t toNany use whatsoever but
 merely to squander 1t in reckless, pur-
 poselesS sort of dalpiance that is irrlta-
 ting to persons of advanced views and
 that could not possibly fill the social void that 1t does tbut for the fact that those old-time plantation folks have not yet awakened to the knowledge that nothing amounts totanything after all, that large matters ave foregone copclu- sions, that small matters are not worth
 bothering with, and that all that really does signify is mental Improvement and social betterment and financial further ment. The rest of the world worried out this secret a good while ago, but they have.not found it out yet, although 1t may dawn upon them in the latter part of the next century.
 Did you ever spend the day in fact, in erk ,afk |, IL.
 has never been wooed seriously, not to say won, unless the bags of silver half dollars and quarters that the cotton factor sends up In the fall might be so construed; and the phrases T haven't time," and 1T really must" are as Sans crit, seldom heard or formulated where social betterment Is impossible, because of lines fixed long ago, and where men, tai processes--but dear me, these peo- pie never dream of mental processes. They are not given to examining them selves nltc1oscopically and to searching for motives and for mainsprings of &C., tlon. If words sound good to them, and proposals seem fair, and propounded theories chime in with their pet preju- dices, they accept the pleasant augury without getting up on mental stilts to Inquire why: and if they enjoy the sea- sons crop of raspberries better thisl year than they did last they do not probe for the reason.
 They are sure to have raspberries and every other kind of berries and good things the day you go to spend the day They may not4know you are coming, you and your friends whom you take with you to be their friends, but that l makes no difference. The housewife brag.s on her garden, her husband on his haef club, and the cook and her ag- He as.sistants are practised on running !, down Aplump-loolang chickens on short notice,~a nd pumping them in the pot or insthe pie. or, more likely, In the frying. pan. No,Amatter how many people you \ take with you on a surprise, it will be no trouble; \company of the right sort is benefactit,n in that cotton country, not an aff1ict.ton to be assuaged by 1 mental toningNup afterward, or an in- | terruption to bS stood as best 1t can. 4 You may rest assured that the day "those Miss Us spent with us, the young ladies, you remember. who were visiting at Colonel Farrow's" Cor it may nave been at Judge Bennett's or Cap- |, tain Atwood'sl, will go down in house. hold history asa delightful day. and the | way l4. suaded to sing (Miss L. was up" in music and knew all the time that her 1, auditors knew nc thing about it) will be It With genuine pleasure. These plantationfsts do not require ii memory books" and" "guest registers" |, to remind them of thei people they like, l' "They"-meaning whoever is invited, or whosoever listetn-set off ear1yN about this spending -the-day- business. 1, In the summer season they must get to [. their destination before the sun gets too K hot, and must stay there until 1t stops [ being hot. This is well for man and < beast--both for the horse flesh that Y draws and the man flesh that drives s and is driven. Sometimes it is mule s flesh that Is delegated to the task, for f mules can be groomed into fitness for | pleasure party, and they are immune to ] the sun. A pair of roamor black mules, X well-shaven and clipped, appear to good N set off in shining harness, K much a.s does 8 black-skinned field hand when tr1gged out in best Sunday A go-to-meetin' clothes.
 "We must get off before eight or we I will broiI." 1t is announced the night be- ! fore. Bearing this mind, everybody Is K on hand in due season. The way lies across country, through winding woods roads where jealous twigs and low-hanglng limbs reach over the way and touch, and where skilful engineering Is required to get around stumps and fallen logs. Look outr warns the driver as he sees that spite ful twig must be met and averted 'TIave a care!' he calls out as the wheels cant ominously into some rain washed gully that the mules refuse to straddle. Now the party jolts over g. quarter-mile corduroy swamp road , with the moist air breathing of shrubs ( and with bay blossoms, and gaudy flow f CTS that the negroes call painted faces" peering through the gloom on either side. Stratghtway they come out into great gun-baked clearings, where the { mules are put to their trumps to tug { through the yielding sand, and there is z '