The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1919-09-26

furniture was little shabby, but the
hostile chairs and sofa Of the 'parlor"
always looked new. For all the wear
and tear they got they should have
lasted thousand years.
Upstairs were the bedrooms; ''moth-
err 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," bureau"
wardrobe, little table, a rocking
chair, and often 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 "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 bathroom.
At the rear of the house, upstairs,
was bleak little chamber, called 'the
girls ROOM" and in the stable there
was 1AOtuCl OC0lOOlly uuJOAAin6 IAC
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 week,
and, in the latter part of this period,
two dollars and a half, and finally
three dollars week. She was Irish
ordinarily, or German, or it might be
Scandinavian, but never native to the
land unless she happened to be per-
son of color. The man or youth who
lived in the stable had like wages, and
sometimes, too, was lately steerage
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 defini7
ton, sometimes at inopportune mo-
ments; while less investigative 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 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-if not too absent-minded
put their fares into slot; and no
conductor 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 It
off the track, when the passengers
would get out and push 1t on again.
They really owed it courtesies like
this, for the car was genially accom-
modating: a 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
hat 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 SIAN
cers;" they also danced the "rac-
! Quette" and schottisches and polKas,