The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-27


man servant nor maid servant-only a
boy. | rise before the sun, make the
fire. take up the ashes. sweep the room,
then fire up the stove in the Kitchen, MI
up the kettle. put on the hominy, grind
the coffee and then ring the bell for my
female aids dc camp who appears III due
time and make biscuit and broil the steak
and finish up the breakfast. bring III
wood and coal. split the pine, go to the
butchers and bakers and the postoffice.
I'm the male boy and the mail boy. Last
week was hard on me. for / had to repot
the greenhouse plants and change the SOIL
and move them into the pit and water
them and yesterday my female folks
took Il notion they wanted some of the
prettiest chrysanthCmums taken up and
potted and brought into the hall, so /
made little tubs out Of nail kegs by saw
ing them down and putting rope handles
TO them and then | carefully upheaved
the plants with Il spade and got them in
all right And then the boy had to carry
them in the house and ARRANGE them,
and now they are beautiful to behold -
all gorgeous in their lovely coors q
WHITE and yellow and brown AMI PINK
and gold. / am proud of them, for | am
the boy that did it. 1t was heavy work
and hard work and / am sorter rheumat-
ic and broke down i'll the lines, but my
folks wanted it done and I'm the BOY. i
isn't every family that's got Il 10y.
What a luxury it is to rest when you
have finished your job and are sired
What luxury is sleep when bedtime
comes What wholesome, toOthSome ap
petite does labor give and makes 10y
like me relish the buttered steak or
smothered chicken and coffee and biscuits
and gravy and big hominy and eggs tneC
on both sides and loose in the middle.
That's the fare to say grace over ana d.
thankful Labor is good medicine
tonic that regulates digestion. Labor i
an antidote for the little fret and troubles
of our daily life. When | get clean GU
of money and the little duns come Fhlck
and fast in love letters | fly to the wood
pile and chop stovewood, or L go 20 the
garden and fork up more ground ard
transplant more Strawberries from inc
scattering runners. l have now NVU
plants and they are fine and ali came
from home and all have been mulched
with stable manure and cotton seed ant
covered with pine straw, and l am the
boy that did it. am the horney-handed
son of toll that you read about. My wife
has got sixty-five rose bushes that
planted for her and watered and nour-
ished and pruned and scratched my hands
with the thorns. and she luxuriates
among their beautiful flowers and cuts
bouquets for the nabors and visitors
Sometimes when | peruse the papers and
their sentiments make me mad or fatigue
my Indignation | go forth among the
flowers and study them and ponder upon
their innocence and beauty and get calm
and serene. Only yesterday ! read an
article in The New York Press, the
leading Republican paper, and it said the
white Southerner was rapidly degenerate
ing and the negro was coming to the
front: that the white man could not grow
cotton at AZ cents Il pound, but the ne
gro could and that their race would in
time own all the lands and the whites
be their tenants; that we have degenera
ted in craftsmanship and intellect and
have not got a white man in all the
South who will compare with Booker
Washington: that the ante-bellum types
are gone: the times that produced Cal
houn and Toombs and Stephens and
Davis and Benjamin and Lamar are
forever past, and that our so-called
statesmen, such as Bailey and Butler
and Tillman. are but fair sample of
our degencracy and that this degeneracy
all comes from our inhuman treatment
of the negro and is a negation of God.
Then he threatens us and says the
North is very busy now with important
concerns growing out of the Spanish war,
but will attend to us in due time and see
to it that we shall have no representa-
ton in Congress from districts where the
negro ballot was inundated or suppress
ed.
Well, of course, / had to drop the pa.
per and fly to the woodpile, and every
stroke | made with the AK | tried to
imagine that that malicious and malig-
nant editor was under it. What is to
be done with such people? Here we were
Boosting that at last, yes ut last, the sec
tional lines were obliterated and we were
now reunited people, when that paper
that organ of the G.. O. L. that boasts
of its daily circulation being 10000
greater than all the other Republican
papers in New York and Brooklyn com
DlUtu3 WIPES OuI olA idA hipAJ 60"
its war against the South. Isn't 1t
strange that he does not see the fallacy
of his own argument, for if such grand
men as Calhoun and Toombs and Ste.
phens and Lamar were produced under
the regime of slavery ana we have all
degenerated under the influence OF
freedom, why not go back To
slavery again and stop that degeneracy!
But there is no use in replying to such
men, IT is n waste of time. They have
fattened on the last war, and would pre-
ciptate another if they could. That New
York Press fought Roosevelt bitterly I'M
til he was nominated. and | reckon it was
because he was an illustrations scion OF
Southern stock, Il great-grandson Of
Georgia's first rebel governor and son
of noble lady who was born and reared
in Georgia. Georgia had to furnish the
rebel stock for their governor and South
Carolina had to furnish New York city
a mayor, and it is the prevalence OF
Southern men and Southern blood i'll the
city of Gotham that makes it so OVER
whelmingly Democratic, Tammany or~ie
Tammany.
But no more Of this. | cannot ruml-
nate upon it with serenity. Reckon l
had better go out to my garden ana
10 ..s,,A. md