The Progress., 1898-12-03
BILL ARP'S WEEKLY LETTER
BARLOW MAN TALKS OF HIS
DOMESTIC DUTIES.
He PERFORMS ALL THE CHORES
In the Absence of Cook He Is General
Utility BOy''-Newspaper Arti-
Gle Anglers His.

says the poet. That's what L am.
There is no other boy about these
premises. We have had no cook for
two months-no man servant nor maid
ssryant-only boy. Irise before the
san, make the fire, take up the ashes,
sweep the room, then fire up the stove
IN the kitchen, fill up the kettle, put
On the hominy, grind the coffee and
then ring the bell for my female aids
de camp, who appear in due time and
make biscuit and broil the steak and
finish up the breakfast. I bring in
the wood and coal, split the pine, go
to the butchers and bakers and the
postoffice. IT the male boy and the
mail boy.
Last week was hard on me, for I had
10 repot the greenhouse plants and
change the soil and move them into
the pit and water them and yesterday
my female folks took a notion they
wanted some of the prettiest chrysan-
themums taken up and potted and
brought into the hall, so 1 made little
tubs out of nail kegs by saving them
down and putting rope handles to
them and then I carefully upheaved
the plants with a 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
colors of white and yellow and brown
and pink and gold. l am proud Of
them, for I am the boy that did it, It
vas heavy work and hard work and I
I'm sorter rheumatic and broke down
IN the lines, but my folks wanted it
done and I'm the boy. 1t isn't every
family that's got boy.
What a luxury it is to rest when you
have finished your job and are tired!
What luxury is sleep when bedtime
comes! What a wholesome, tooth
some appetite does labor give and
makes boy like me relish the but
tered steak or smothered chicken and
coffee and biscuits and gravy and big
homirly and eggs fried on both sides
and loose in the middle. That's the
fare to say grace over and be thankful.
Labor is good medine-a tonic that
regulates digestion. Labor is an anti
dote for the little frets and trou bles of
our daily life. When | get clean out
of money and the little duns come
thick and fast in love letters I fly to
the woodpile and chop stovewood. or
I 60 to the garden and fork up more
ground and transplant more strawber-
Ties from the scattering runners. 7
have now 800 plants and they are fine
md all came from home and all have
been mulched with stable manure and
cotton seed and covered with pine
straw, and I am the boy that did it. I
Am the horny-handed son of toll that
You read about.
My wife has got sixty-fve rose
bushes that planted for her and wa
tered and nourished and pruned and
scratched my hands with the thorns,
and she luxuriates among their beau
tful flowers and cuts bouquets for the
neighbors and visitors. Sometimes
when peruse the papers and their
sentiments make me mad or fatigue
my indignation I go forth among the
flowers and study them and ponder
upon their innocence and beauty and
get calm and serene. Only yesterday
Tread an article in The New York
Press, the leading Republican paper,
and it said the white southerner was
rapidly degenerating and the negro
vas coming to the front; that the
white man could not grow cotton at
n cents pound, but the negro could
and that their race would in time own
oil the lands and the whites be their
tenants; that we have degenerated in
craftsmanship and intellect and have
not got white man in all the south who
will compare with Booker Washington;
that the ante-bellum types are gone;
the times that produced Calhoun and
Tombs and Stephens and Davis and
Benjamin and Lamar are forever past,
and that our so-called statesmen, such
IS Bailey and Butler and Tillman, are
but fair sample Of our degeneracy,
and that this degeneracy all comes
from our inhuman treatment of the
negro and is negation Of God. Then
he threatens us and says the north is
very busy now with important con-
Germs growing out of the Spanish war,
but will attend to us in due time and
zee to it that we shall have no repre-
Sentation in congress from districts
where the negro ballot was intimidated
or suppressed.
Well, Of course, I had to drop the
paper and fly to the woodpile, and ev-
cry stroke made with the az I tried
10 imagine that that malicious and ma
fgnant editor was under it. What is
IN no dona With snob ,,oonJa9 H.