The Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 191?-19??, 1919-07-30

; tne girls room two dollars wee
Q and, In the. latter part of this perio,
9 two dollars and a half, and finall
three dollars a week. She was Iris
ordinarily, or German, or 1t might b
Scandinavian, but never native to tn
land unless she happened to be pei
son OF color. The man or youth VIII,
: lived in the stable had like wages, ant
sometimes. too. was lately steerag,
voyager. but much oftener he was col
Ored.
After sunrise on pleasant mornings
the alleys behind the stables were gay
laughter and shouting went up and
down their dusty lengths, with 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 it be vociferous, is
almost worthless. Horrible phrases
were caught by early rising children
and carried to older people for defini-
ton, sometimes at inoppOrtune mo-
ments; while less investigatlve 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 darky hired
men Of the Midland town. The
stables have been transformed into
other likencsses, or swept away like
the wOodsheds where were kept the
stovewood and kindling that the "girl"
and the "hired man" always quarreled
over: who should fetch it,
SO with other vanishings. There
were the little bunty street cars on the
long, single track that went its
troubled way among the cobblestones.
At the rear door of the car there was
no platform, but step where passen-
gers chung in wet clumps when the
weather was bad and the car crowded.
The patrons-lf not too absent-minded
put their fares into a slot; and no
paced the heaving floor, but
the driver would rap remindingly with
his elbow upon the glass of the door
to his little open platform if the nick
els and the passengers did not appear
to coincide in number. A lone mule
drew the car, and sometimes drew il
or the track when the passengers
would get out and push it on again.
They really owed It courtesies like
this, for the car was genially accom-
modating: lady could whistle to it
from an upstairs window, and the car
would halt at once and wait for her
while she shut the window, put on her
nat and cloak, went downstairs, found
an umbrella, told the girl" what to
have for dinner, and came forth from
the house.
They even had time to dance
square Dances" quadrilles and liam
GERS" they also danced the "rac-
quette' and schottisches and polkas,
and such whims as the portland
Fancy" They pushed back the sliding
doors between the "parlor" and the
sitting room" tackled down crash
over the carpets, hired few palms
IN green tubs, stationed three or four
Italian musicians under the stairway
IN the front hall"-and had great 4
nights!
Keeping open house." was a merry
custom; 1t has gone, like the all-day
picnic in the woods, and like that pref
lest OF all vanished customs, the sere-
made. When lively girl visited the
-oWn she did not long go unserenaded,
though visitor vas not indeed needed
70 excuse a serenade. OF a summer
night young men would bring an or.
chestra under pretty girls window
Dr. 1t might be, her fathers, or that
ot an ailing maiden aunt-and flute.
harp, cello, cornet and bass viol would
pleasantly release to the dulcet stars
such melodies as sing through you'll
Remember Me-" 81 Dreamt That I
Owelt in Marble Halls" "Silver
Threads Among the Gold" kathleen
havourneen," or "The Soldiers Fare
we'll"
Croquet and the mlldest archery
EVER known were the sports of people
still young and active enough for so
much exertion; middle age played
euchre. There was a theater, next
ioor to the Anderson hotel, and when
Edwin Booth came for a night every
'ody who could afford to buy a ticket
vas there, and all the "hacks" in town
we're hired "The Black Crook also
llled the theater, but the audience
men was almost entirely sof men, who
ooked uneasy as they left for home
Vhen the final curtain fell upon the
shocking girls dressed as fairies. But
he theater did not often do so well;
he people Of the town were still too
thrifty.
Ihey were thrifty because they were
he sons or grandsons of the "early
who had opened the wilder
hess and had reached it from the East
md the South with wagons and axes
md guns, but with no money at all.
The pioneers were thrifty or thev