The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-03-27
BILL HRP'S LETTER

The peafowl is a gallinace0us bird, but
not graminiferOus. How's that 1t be-
longs to the pOlyplectrOn genera of the
subfamily of pavOnine. just think of it.
The bill is moderate with the base Of the
culmen elevated, the APPEAL half arched
and vaulted; tarsi long and strong, spurs
conical, anterior toes united at the base
and the tarsi in the females tuberculate.
Mirabre dictu! Some people don't know
all that. Maybe my anonymous friend
didn't know it or he would have had
more consideration for the bird. Their
food is grain, seed and insects, but they
are non-scratchibus. They can't scratch
for their legs are not built that way.
They sing but one song and that song
has but one short strain of two notes
that sound like ''paon," and that word
is it's French name. There is not much
melody in this song. especially when oft
in the Silly night it tries to play upon
it's grapmaphOne and begins and lin
fishes with wild COmanche screech.
Like some children, they are to be seen
and not heard
But ] have long wondered why the
male was made so much more beautiful
than the female. This peculiar distinc-
ton seems to mark the males of all GALL
naceOus birds and make them arrogant
and vain. "As vain as a peacock" is one
of the oldest proverbs. When one lis in
full array he will sit upon the balustrade
for an hour and survey himself in the
half rejecting window glass. What he
would do before a large plate mirrOw l
do not know, but / found out long ago
that the best way to steal your neigh
boris pigeons was to set up small pieces
of looking glass on the shelf of the dove
cote.
But in mankind and most all quadru-
peds the male is coarse, domineering and
unadorned. In fact, most all men are
positively ugly and llnattractive, and wO-
man weds him only because she can't
do any better. Tt is woman who wears
the ornaments of nature, and when I'M
adorned is adorned the most" Strange
to say, she wants more than the Creator
gave her. and delights TO array herself
i'm beautiful fabrics and to wear pearls
and diamonds and other jewelry. This
is her nature and she cannot help it. She
loves the beautiful and would be miser
able in a room without a mirror though
] have seen some who never had but one
admirer ] wonder who were those sons
of God who saw that the daughters Of
men were fair and took wives from
among them and raised up giants and
mighty men of renown. l wonder If the
women of that day were so beautiful
that the angels came down to mate with
them. There is no telling what men or
angels will do for a beautiful woman. |
have never ceased to be sorry for Jacob
who worked seven long years for Rachel
and then had to take her hOmely sister,
and had to work seven years more to
get the girl of his choice. But the sacred
historian says these seven years seemed
to him but few days for the love he
had to her" Was ever love like that?
Not in these days Men must have been
scarce in that country or Rachel would
not have waited that long for Jacob. Old
I.aban was a sheep raiser, and / reckon
his nearest nabor was another about tif-
~ miles away. and those poor girls new
er saw a young man once a year. Rachel
let Jacob kiss her ON sight before she
knew his name or where he came from,
and that historic kiss has come down to
us through all the corridors of time for
1000 years. / remember that away
back in the 40s when / was young and
fairly handsome my father sent me on
business to Mississippi and as there were
no railroads I bought horse in Mobile
and rode across the country to Vicks-
burg. One night / found comfortable
lodgings with a big cotton grower on the
ChicaSaha river. He had emigrated
from South Carolina many years before
with his wife and little children and
about 200 negroes. His name was Cal
hOun. and he was a cousin Of John G.
Calhoun. There he lived outside of civil
iZation; not a school nor church, within
miles of him and he kept putting off NOV
ing his family to where there were some.
His oldest daughter, a lass of eighteen,
was as shy of me as n fawn, but she
brushed her hair and washed her face
and changed her dress and shoes and
gazed and fingered on the sly long and
sweetly. l made advances to her that
night in the parlOr and pleased her faith
err and mother and bewildered her, for
soon found out, that she was a flower
born TO blush unseen. When l left the
next morning the old gentleman followed
me to the gate and begged me to come
Dack TIldC way. Maybe you ana sally
might fix up things to your notion" said
he, land if you do l can spare you 200
or 300 acres of the finest land in Missis-
sippi and as many niggers as you want
to tend it." and he laughed in a half
serious and half joking way. There
were no fourteen years about that, but
l never saw Sally any more. Poor girl.
have often wondered what became of
her. She was of good old Carolina stock,
but was smOthered i'm the woods No
companions, no books or newspapers, no
nothing but niggers and cOtton-much
Ike Rachel, / reckon, who saw nothing
but sheep and lOnged for Il nice young
man. / remember that two negro boys
held torches for us to eat our supper by
and everything else was of the same
primitive style.
But what has this little epistle of mine
to do with peafOwls and anonymous let
tiers? l don't know how my thoughts
drifted that way, but they will drift TO
go back to them, l Will say that n wO-
man did not write the letter, for she is
too fond of the beautiful to want to kill
a peafowl, And if the man who wrote
il had have known their ancient, historic
renOWn he would hava ta lyan off his hat