The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-02
IN THE TEXAS COTTON FIELDS.
Gay Times Among the PieI1ers When
the Fall Comes.


1t Is extremely probable that if any
BOY IN any Texas community were asked
the old question, what is the chief
end of man?" he would quickly answer
Raising cotton So completely is
every habit Of almost every town adj
Justed to the cotton business.
When the cotton begins to omen. the
prov1dent planter has tents and little
shanties prepared out in the field. During
the fall in this delightful climate. pro-
lection from rain, which might acct
dentally come, is about all the hands
need pallet under big cotton wagon
IN the cool, dry air win give anyone
healthy sound nights sleep without the
least danger of taking cold, and hun
dreds of colored families flock from the
towns and cities glad to camp out and
pick cotton. 1t is a healthy. opeu-atr
business that the negro is master of and
Its social features have much of attrac-
ton for the colored people,
1t is one long autumn picnic The ne
groes hire often at so much per pound
of cotton picked. and their food This
relieves them of every care. All day
they pick and sing, laugh and jest with
the workers in adjacent cotton rows, then
at night up and down the turn rows
where the camps are grouped, the fiddle
begins its melody, and Shoot the Buff
falo,' Fishing for Love" "Steal Part
ners" and In NY Ladys Garden with
rollicking song and laughter, make the
old cotton field hum till midnight Only
on Saturday the cotton pickers win not
work. Saturdays niggers' day. they
say.
Early every Saturday morning every
wagon and team is filed and loaded with
jolly pickers. From all the big farms
they flock to Hutto till the town looks
like circus day, with the white elephant
left out. From 1000 to 15OO negroes
come in to trade and have a good time
Extra policemen are called to duty and
then the town IS turned over to the
dusky cotton pickers. AS a rule the
crowd is we'll behaved. and only bent on
good-natured fun and laughter. Every.
thing is arranged for the entertainment
of the black visitors. Hot coffee stands,
popcorn, peanuts, ice cream and cake.
and lemonade spring up at every con-
venient corner, and the jolly black
crowds swing into line for Herriment
good times and treats, surging as impulse
leads after candy, chewing gum, and the
things that are to them good in life.
The old darkey and his fat wife re-
member we'll the slave days, and talk
lovingly of old Mase and Mistus; the
lusty freedmen and his family; the lit
younger
ones committed to their care; the jaunty
black boy, stuffing his gayly dressed
sweetheart with everything in sight. all
make up an interesting crowd Available
boxes, barrels chairs and benches, make
lounging places, and the pickers laugh
and talk. like a band of schoolboys out
for holiday. The crisp fall breezes fan
their dusky brows, and the southern sun
shines lovingly on their glistening faces.
About II o'clock the crowd makes a
rush to the barbecue stand behind the
little square. Here every Saturday In an
immense iron caldron Is prepared what
the negroes call "hot gut, which means
sausages stuffed with stewed and high
ly seasoned meat, and boiled in rich
gravy in this monstrcus pot. Cut In
pieces about a foot long they are hand
ed out with long iron forks. hot and
juicy, to the hungry negroes. A couple
OF crackers and foot of hot gut or,
as we would say, sausage. cosls nickel,
and it takes five or six quick-handed men
to fish out and pass the steamlng strings
of meat fast enough. It might not be
wise to Investigate what kinds of ma
terial are used for the stuf1ing. but the
negroes say, Dey amt muffin cooked
better'n hot gut
When evening" comes the square is
lighted the fiddle begins, the dance opens
on the green, the everlasting cake walk
proceeds, and only the coming of day
and the approach OF Sunday morning
stops the festivities Then shouting in
the starlight the piclkers briskly trot back
to their tents On Sunday they attend
the nearest camp meeting, and Monday
morning finds them out with the dawn
working cheerily in the white rows OF
cotton.-N. Y. Sun.