Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1919-08-14

IuTIlIIuTt was d llJtlC SudDUy, UuL Tie
hostile chairs and sofa Of the ''parlor"
always looked new. For all the wear
and tear they got they should have
lasted a thousand years.
Upstairs were the bedrooms; "moth-
er and fathers room" the largest; a
smaller room for one or two sons,
another for one or two daughters ;
each Of these rooms containing a
double bed, a "washstand," a bureau"
a wardrobe, a little table,, a rocking
chair, and often a chair or two that
had been Slightly damaged down
stairs, but not enough to justify either
the expense Of repair or decisive
abandonment in the attic. And there
was always a "spare room," for visi-
tors (where the sewing machine usu-
ally was kept, and during the seven
ties there developed an appreciation
of the necessity for a bathroom.
At the real Of the house, upstairs,
was a bleak little chamber, called "the
girls room," and in the stable there
was another bedroom, adjoining the
hayloft, and called "the hired mans
ROOM" House and stable cost seven
or eight thousand dollars to build, and
people with that much money to invest
in such comforts were classified as the
Rich. They paid the inhabitant of
"the girls room" two dollars a week,
and, in the latter part of this period,
three dollars a week. She was Irish
ordinarily, or German, or it might be
Scandinavian, but never native to the
land unless she happened to be a per-
son of color. The man or youth who
lived in the stable had like wages, and
sometimes, too, was lately a steerage
| voyager, but much oftener he was coll
ored.
After sunrise on pleasant mornings
| the alleys behind the stables were gay
laughter and shouting went up and
down their dusty lengths, with a lively
accompaniment of currycombs knock
ing against back fences and stable
! walls, for the darkies loved to curry
their horses in the alleys. Darkies
always prefer to gossip in shouts in
stead of whispers, and they feel that
profanity, unless 1t be vociferous, is
almost worthless. Horrible phrases
were caught by early rising children
and carried to older people for defni-
ton, sometimes at %inopportune mo-
ments; while less in~vestigative chill
dren would often merely repeat the
phrases in some subsequent furry of
agitation, and yet bring about conse
quences so emphatic as to be recalled
with ease in middle life.
They have passed, those darby hired
men Of the Midland town. The
stables have been transformed into
other likenesses, or swept away, like
the woodsheds where were kept the
stovewood and kindling that the girl
and the 'hired man" always ~quarrelet
over: who should fetch it.
6O Will OlIiC tuitloilllSSs Liz
were the little bunty street cars on tn,
long, single track that went it
troubled way among the cobblestones
At the rear door Of the car there wa
no platform, but a step where passen
gers chung in wet clumps when tn
weather was bad and the car crowded
The patrons-if not too absent-minde'
put their fares into a slot; and n
conductor paced the heaving floor, bu
the driver would rap remindingly wit
his elbow upon the glass Of the doc
to HIS little open platform If the mich
els and the passengers did not appea
to coincide in number. A lone mul
drew the car, and sometimes drew
off the track, when the passenger
would get cut and push it on ag9iI
They really owed 1t courtesies Xix
; this, for the car was genially accom-
modating: a lady could whistle to
from an upstairs window, and the ca
would halt at once and wait for he
/ while she shut the window, put on he
E hat and cloak, went downstairs. foun
t. an umbrella, told the "girl' what I
E have for dinner, and came forth frol
, the house.
: They ever had time to dane
a square dances, quadriIles and '1ai
: cers;n they also danced the IRA
' Qnette" and schottisches and polka