The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-06-19

"&2 - - ~
It was pine rosum-soft. sticky pine
rcsum-and q whole passle of pine
rosum.
Back to @Old Knintucky.'
Ridin along on horseback pleas
ant summer day way up there Ia the bin
country of West Tennessee Il fell III with
a traveller along the big road. He was
rollin acrost the country IN q covered
wagon, drivin a pair OF broke down
mules, and he had his family-one wife
and nine children-along with him.
1t was nothin to me and none of my
business, but after passin the reglar
compliments in regards to the weather
and the crops I didn't have a continental
thing to do but try and find out where
he come from and where he supposed
he was goin.
by the seven stars, stranger. we
come from over the river, and we ara
now OF our way back to Gods own coun-
try-back to old K~aintucky," says he.
Every day and every night we hold
family prayers in the hopes that the
brittle thread Of this vain and feetin
life will be stretched till we can return
back home. Then may the good Lord
forgive us for the long, fool journey wa
have made"
where have you been, if it is a fair
question: says L.
"Over the river and way out there
into the most lonesomest and God-for-
saken country on the broad bosom OF
the earth, perhaps" the sad-eyed trav-
eler went on. Three years ago we
pulled up stakes and left our old Kahn
lucky home and lit out for the great
northwest. The first year we lived in a
section of country where the land was
rich, and it did look to me like the
whole entire face of the earth w0utdf
turn to corn. Never since the day and
hour when first l was horned into this
world have 1 ever saw SIGH stacks and
scads and dead coolies Of corn-corn =
plenty and to spare-corn on top of
corn.
"But then along in the fall and win
ter the weather was most hellatious
cold-wood was high and s~canty-corn
was cheap and plentiful. And what dc
you reckon the people done, stranger2
Not a durn thing but pitch in and use
corn for frewood-burnt it up, sir, as
natural and free as you would burn a
load of pine knots. But that aintall. 1t
makes my old heart ache and bleed to
tell it, stranger, but in that orful case of
pushency 1 burnt corn like it was Moth
in more than common wood. Only
think of that-a man born and bred
and brung up in the great and glorious
state of MISUNDERSTANDING fires
outen corn to keep from freezin slap to
death. In my day and generation I
have been through various and sundry
trials and troubles and temptations and
tribulations, 1 have buried two wives
and followed my own dear father and
mother in sorrow to the grave. I fit
plum through the war-all the way
from Fort Sumpter to the famous apple
tree. In that little shootin match we
had one day up there at Good Hope
church I got. one bullet through my
knee and another one in my knee. But
l never raley knowed what it was to
suffer in the flesh and weep great gobs
of grief till / had to go out to the crib
after a turn of frewood, whilst my
thought turned back to old Kaintucky,
where they have learnt to use their
corn for higher and better purposes.
Naturally, of course, in the next fol-
lowin spring we thawed out and packed
up and moved our washin outen that
waste howlin country. Last year we
rented land and pitched a crop down
here in the Mississippi bottoms. From
the first day and hour when we left the
: cid Kaintucky house it would seem like
The cards were runnin agin me like a
shot. But I had heard a heap Of talk
, about the Mississippi bottoms, and il
I rGley was a fair and prosperous country
TO look upon. But dadblame it, the next
news / got they had worked up a ire
, mendius hot fight on the wet or dry
question, and durn my cats, if the dry
side didn't win in a walk. About thai
time the spring freshets come. The
rain hit rained in perfect wads and
; streams and sluices till the face OF the
l earth was under water. There was
water, water everywheres, and not a
durn drop of anything stronger and
: better to mix with it. After so long a
| time the floods run down, and we made
a right tolerable good crop. But in the
main time we had lived one year in Q
country where they burnt corn for fire
wood, and one year in the low lands
of the Mississippi, where they had a
most hellatious plenty of cold water
| and nothin else to speak of. But people
must live and learn. And if the good
Lord, in His wisdom and mercy, will
J only forgive me for this long fool trip
and spare US ill we can return back
/ oncst more unto the land of our fathers
I where they burn irewood instid OF
! corn and don't need no whole tremen.
! dius big lot of water, durn my button:
: if any mortal man will ever live long
! enough to see me q hen scratch from
; the old Kaintucky home"
- RUFUS SANDERS.