Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1911-02-24
Lying CHEAP in
sunny SOUTH

MIR. Editor: Many mangicfieut
mansions and large number of
splendid hotels dot the Florida PENN
sular from Jacksonville to Key West
and from the Atlantic to the Gulf.
These are for the painfully rich, who
are just aching to give away their
cash and shine in society.
Then we have thousands of nice
homes and good hotels to be enjoyed
by the well-to-do resident and his
tourist visitor that he lived neighbor
to Cup North. - And then we have
the little homes and the humble
abodes of those who toll and earn
their bread in the sweat of their face.
A few tourists enjoy tent life.
OF all the different ways of living
your correspondent has witnessed or
experienced, the most enjoyable is
light housekeeping as members of in
dividual families or in clubs compos-
ed of genial persons from the same
community Cup North"
Just at this time seven of our
Tazewell contingents are living in
the same bungalow and enjoying free
and easy housekeeping and club life.
At the end of the month we will be
able to tell just what it costs for
each person.
Furnished room occupied by two
persons per week, $1.OO; kitchen and
dining room, so cents; wood per
week, about % cents; cost of pro-
visions, not exceeding So. 25; total
cost per week, $500.
Or, you can get furnished room
per week for 500 and meals per
week for $500, making total cost
per week of 600.
We prefer the club and light house
keeping for several reasons: We hold
all things in common, while each one
claims everything as his own. We
are all proprietors. None are guests.
So we have no complaints as to what
we shall eat or what we shall drink.
Each one orders anything and every
thing he wants and eats what he
wants. At the end of the month we
foot up the expense and prorata il
among them members of the club.
Each member donates the game he
kills and the fish he catches to the
common good. He gets no credit for
this, although it greatly reduces the
cost of living. There now, that brings
up that fish question which | dare not
enlarge upon.
There are some seeming inconven-
fences attending the beginning of club
life. You do not know just what
things to provide in advance in the
way of dishes, etc. For instance our
club had forgotten to provide spoons.
We happened to have just one, so we
all stir our coffee with the same
spoon. and pour it out in our saucers
to cool, and then sip it from our sau-
Ger. We lift our victuals to our
mouths with our knives just like all
the Tazewel people did before the
Norfolk and Western railroad was
built down the Clinch Valley. We
lacked one cup of having enough, and
one lady takes her coffee in a pint tin
cup.
Most of our furniture is home
made. Wardrobes, washstands, chif-
foneers, kitchen and dining room ia
bles are the work of our own hands,
made from goods boxes which the
merchants donated. / can take the lid
of goods box and make shelf and
legs for the box out of it, stand it up
in the oorner of the room, and wife
can wrap n cheese cloth curtain about
it and set a 40 cent mirror on top of
it, and we have n chiffoneer that is
the pride of the household and the en-
Wy of our neighbors. Washtsands and
wardrobes are of simple construction.
You ask, who does the cooking =?
Well,w men folks really did not
want to tell that, but as we are noted
for frankness and celebrated for our
primitive simplicity, like George
Washington, we cant tell lie, about
the cooking. OF course. the women
superintend all the cooking, but we
men folks prepare the wood, kindle
the fire, put on the coffee water,
grind the coffee, fry the fish and
wash dishes. The men also do most
of the sweeping. Occasionally the
women make the bread and fix up
the deserts. We cook only breakfast
and dinner and have cold supper.
There are four women and three men
in our club, and two men and three
women in the next square, all from
Tazewell. Our club is run according
to democratic principles, each men,
Der having vote. This explains why
thelmenifolks have 1 to do all the
work. Hereafter l expect to oppose
woman suffrage in any shape. 1t
wont do for them to be in the major
ity, clothed with power and authori-
ty. j. N. II.