The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1909-06-24
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POVERTY SHORE
COURTSHIPS,
curse of True Love Smooth and
Expenses Down to
TIiuimum.


when ] was n boy" said Wildcat
Perkins, nobody along Poverty Shore
ever heard Of this new disease they
call race suicide. Instead of having to
wait to let a girl chase him down and
get him in corner and compel him 10
marry, every young man used to go
hunting for the girls as much as the
girls hunted the men, and the result
vas that almost everybody got mar
ried right away and went coasting or
raised farm crops to help in making a
living.
THE reason why so many young
men got married when l was young
was that it did not cost more than
chap was worth to go counting. If
he had a good pair of boots, a white
shirt and a clean woTsted comforter a
young man could court a nice girl all
winter at n cost of not more than %
cents week.
III tell you how twas done-that
is how l used TO do, and I've been mar
ried three times, and ought to know.
THE old man, for that is what We
I called the girls father, used to pro-
vide most everything needed in the
counting line in those old days. He
furnished the front parlOr and the ker-
f osene lamp and the open fireplace and
he sawed and split the wood that was
burned in the fireplace all through the
cOurtship. And he furnished the girl.
The fellow used TO drop around af-
ter milking on Sunday evenings, and
after he had taken supper with the
family and talked for time with the
old man about the price of cordwood
and the prospects for heavy run of
salmon the next spring the girl would
light the parlor fire and call him in 10
help her eat apples and look over the
family photograph album, inside of
which were the pictures of all the fell
lows she had entertained since she was
II.
Naturally Sunday evening was the
regular time set aside for counting pur-
poses, but after the young man had
become acquainted and got the run of
the house there used to be meetings
called for special purposes Two or three
times a week. AS rule the young
couples did not sit up so long at the
informal meetings as they did at the
Sunday sessions, though some of them
nelu unDl aItef mlUnlSDC.
"All the young man had to do was to
sit back on the sofa and eat the old
mans apples and warm himself by the
old mans wood and let his money ac-
cumulate until he had enough to start
housekeeping. There were no theatre
parties or Welch rabbits cooked in
chatting dishes, or boxes of chocolates
in those days to keep his mind away
from the business IN hand and stea
away all the change he could earn
The old man gave a continuous free
blow out from the time the girl asked
her first beau into the house unit
they went to call on the minister, aftel
which no favors were shown on &C
count of kinship.
LAS | recall the events now l thinl
the chief expense | went to in a win
ter's counting at any time was buJin;
popcorn to carry to the girl. When
had creased my boots and combed m.
hair in a Boston twist with a lon!
parting down the back of my head,
dropped into the grocery story AM
bought three ears of lady finger pop
corn for five cents and put them il
my coat pocket and went to cali.
"And she was just as glad to see m
and smiled so sweetly when ! came il
at the front door stamping the snow
from my boots and carrying thos
three ears of corn in my pocket as sh
would have been if had arrived wit
two colored walters bringing hot bird
and cold bottles. 1t was my opinion
that the work of popping the corn di
> more in bringing two fond hearts to
! gether than anything else which too
place during the counting.
The fireplace had TO be filled u
with the best hardwood, and this ha
: TO burn down to great glowing heap
l. Of Goals before the shelled corn coul
be put in the pepper. And then Will
the girl was agitating the wire pope
,, over the Goals, and the freight wa
shining on one side of her face int,
her eyes, and the young man was shell
ing more corn for the next filing, tn
corn would begin to pop-frst LITTLE
snap here and another there, and thei
the discharge of whsle battery o
white cornfal1es all at once. FOLLOWED
by the mufied sound OF general erup
ton inside tbs pepper, by Naich time