McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1917-01-19

feed you day.
My thoughts turn back to a dinner
given me and my wife some weeks
ago by friend in New York City at
one Of the fashionable cabarets on
l45th street. Our friend had made
about $4,000 in few weeks on the
cotton market, and he wanted to
set us up" to a good dinner. We
sat down at 6 o'clock, and it was after
IL when we arose. and till far after
midnight the feasting kept up in that
place. A beautiful young woman
went singing around among the
guests, some Of the tiresome songs
that are popular on Broadway. such
as:
There's little bit of bad in every
good little girl;
They're not to blame;
They're all the same," etc.
A falsehood. of course, for girls are
not all the same; plenty of them are
sweet and pure, and have no taste
for the high life" of the great city,
and are as high above the average
Broadway fiirt as.the sky is above the
mud puddle. My wife and | were dis
gusted with the singing; the girl
would come and bawl her song right
in our faces, expecting money, | sup
pose. One course of food after an.
other was brought on; our host,
Belgian, had his bottle of claret, but
we took milk; he also slipped little
humb-glasses of liquors, creme de
menthe and brandy. After We had
eaten all We had any business to he
ordered an immense omelet, poured
rum over it, set it afre. watched the
blue flames flicker over the dish, and
then we ate it. Of course the rum
was all burned off, but we had the
taste left, which some like, but my
wife and | did not. The Belgian'S
wife was with US, and the gentleman
was so nice that it was a delight to
be with them both-just for one
evening. No more caberet dinners
for US!
How different and much more nat
ural is the scene pictured in a recent
letter from Clem Lea, at Selmer, in
which he says: I'VE had big Xmas,
with spare ribs and backbones and
the best sausage you ever tasted
Cant you almost smell that sausage
flavor? Or maybe it was thyme. for
Mrs. Lea is a GERMANY Eve killed
a turkey that weighed SO pounds.
We are going to have cracklin bread,
cold sweet milk and a little hominy
for supper; we have fine cow that
gives 4 gallons of milk a day, and
plenty of fine butter. | have just
come in from the country with a load
of black walnuts, and they taste
mighty fine." (You just bet they
do, Glen, and Pm sorry couldn't
join you in cracking them) Zone Of
my renters the other day went out
and killed II squirrels" (What .
pct pie they would have made, ClemD
I'VE are fixing now to make barrel
Of persimmon beer. That is what !
call living in McNairy."
Glen, there's where you put mighty
near the last straw on me. I'm
mighty we'll fixed here, but that last
combination you showed up to me
pretty nearly made me pack up and
get back to old McNairY where peo-
pie live at home and find their hotel
at the same place. Never mind, Glen;
some day | may call your bluff, anc
get down there shore enough, an
call for spare-ribs and backbones and
cold sweet milk and cracklin pones,
persimmon beer and squirrel pie-Pll
get there once before | die!
Speaking about beer reminds me
that away back there when | was a
small boy in McNairy, somebody made
some beer out of honey locust beans,
and it seemed to me it was the best
beer | ever tasted. The miserable
stuff they call lager beer tastes like
s ump water by the side of it.
L. SANDERS PERKINS.
"