Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-12-21
The Country Home
BY MRS. W.. III. FELTON,
After the Civil war-and NOW

I met an acquaintance yesterday
who said to me, How was it after
the Civil War? How did the people
plunge down into poverty? We are
about broke in this country now you
know-you have good memory"
Yes, have keen remembrance. |
know we had to work for the bread
we ate and whatever else we had,
after the surrender in 1865.
But there was this difference: We
had towns and cities, of course, but
the people of large wealth and prop
critics generally lived in the coun-
try. The bulk of the south's estf-
mated wealth was invested in land
and negroes. When the surrender
came, the negroes went, of course.
This left the land idle, and where
it had been overrun by Federal
forces, thoroughly dismantled But
the bulk of the common people were
not heavily in debt. Unless there
were security debts" the farming
classes generally made a settlement
when cotton was sold in the fall
And there were no profiteers to run
up provisions to famine rates, as we
have seen lately.
1t was hard shedding" until the
first crop was made and put on the
market. But everybody was poor,
and they did not waste money on
anything. I had a fairly nice pair of
winter. shoes, homemade. that L
wore for dress-up in winter time,
and we had some low shoes we could
buy at reasonable figures for sum-
mer wear. We were glad to have
plain frocks, plain shoes, plain every
thing else, when money was as scarce
as "hen's teeth" in Cherokee, Ga.
We were mostly troubled about
something SONS to eat, and to get chill
Some people took the drop down
very hard. A few killed themselves,
and few tried to, but were walked
and walked, every minute to keep
the morphine from getting the bet
it better Satisfied to live and live
poor, than before they made the ex-
pertinent.
The trouble at this time has been
heaVy extravaganza when cotton fig
ures were high, and big, overgrown
salaries, made people lose their
heads.
About two years ago I went to a
shoe store in town that shall be
nameless. Two colored young women
We're getting or rather pricing and
trying on fine ladies' shoes. I got a
and good quality for four dollars
The colored young ladies turned
down twelve dollar boots and went
elsewhere to pay fifteen. Perhaps
that illustration will suffice-but I'll
give another; A very tony young
take some sort of lessons, and in
company with perhaps a dozen 9TH
ers that were about as tony or
thought they were. The railroad
ticket man told me that the young
lady's bonnet trunk was valued at
one hundred dollars, and she said
they were all bought that season
That was going some-but I was not
proper judge of millinery-perhaps
because I took off the trimming OF
my last summer black milan straw
dressed it up with shoe polish I'M
til it looked about new-bought a
clean set of ribbons, and made it do:
l am thankful I haven't dozen old
bonnets bunked on me to look at
now, when a bale of cotton has to
look uncommon nice to bring fifteen
dollars a bale before it stops.
Think of two bales of cotton VS..
a hundred dollars worth of turbans--
narrow rim, wide-brim, sailors and
all the other sorts and shapes-and
| titudes took a vacation from hard
work-or if they worked at all, they
must have 60 cents an hour, or no
| trade. You had to beg them to listen
to you, on the subject of work, and
| then they could turn down your
money by saying, 80 and SO will
| give US 70 cents an hour-or Sc for
| an eight-hour day" But all that
| wouldn't make them save a dollar
| if there was an automobile beckon-
ing them to come across, and there
| never was such trade heard of in
farm implements, tractors, and six
| and standardization pairs of
| mules.
Street dresses were thought to be
| cheap at 500 to SIPS. A hat wasn't
| fit to wear under SIS, and the whole
| country went wild on spending.
| Little children would scream for a
| dime to buy an ice cream cone, or
| they'd pout and sulk and beg all the
| time their tired mothers were walk
| ing down the street with them, all
| dressed up in fine and very costly
| clothes. There were some ''get-rich-
| quick Wallingfords" in the land,
also They just could sell anything
| at almost any price. 1t was a wild
craze to buy, to spend and to go!
We are just paying the price. 1t is
going to make lots of us miserable
| for a while-perhaps we will keep
| it in mind some years
But like bad-taSting medicine, 1t
sometimes works a cure. / am not
much acquainted with the high and
| mighty class, that charged the gov