Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-07-02
BY WARD GREENE

JACKSON. Ga, June 3O.-Speal1-
ing of peonage, let US hear from
Aunt Angelina, who lives in the
county of Butts next door to the
county Of Jasper, which has had
good deal of notoriety lately con-
corning murder farms" and such
like.
Said Aunt Angelina Tuesday night,
as she picked the last crumbs of
low river of which so much has
been written.
Does I like Georgia? Honey, ask
me does I like catfish. De way [
looks at it-you treat folks right and
dey treats you right. De onlyest
other thing is to keep yo' place and
mex yo' paradise where you finds
it. OATS me-" y
The point is that, when you come
to think about it, Aunt Angelina
is the voice of a great part of the
population of Georgia heretofore I'M
heard from. She is the. other side
of the picture, and it is a side that
will bear investigation, too-a quiet,
unassuming, contented side, the kind
of side that is lost sight of when
controversies rage their fiercest.
Your correspondent didn't come
down here to get that side. He
wasn't Investigating, he wasn't re-
porting, he wasn't looking for work.
He came, weary of bunco probes and
pecnage and bold bandits. to fish
fry. And then he stumbled on Aunt
ANGELINA. and it Just struck him thar
something ought to be written about
her and that side of the picture.
1t would have struck you the same
way, too.
"Uncle" sam Mayes
The fish fry was to have been
held outdoors at the river. But it
rained. So we set out in an auto
mobile over slick, treacherous roads
for the home of Sam Mayes, who
lives . mile or so out from Jackson
in the direction of Jasper county.
Everybody in Georgia, so to speak.
knows Sam Mayes. And they know
him only as Uncle" Sam. He is
seventy-four years old, fought in the
Civil war, served his district several
terms in the state senate, and did
other things you would naturally ex-
pect from a Georgia planter who was
born in Butts county, lived there all
his life and loves her as he loves his
family.
Uncle" Sam is one of the richest
men in Georgia, [ suspect, for he
counts his land holdings by the hun
dreds of acres. But he is this kind
of a guy-big, rudy, coatless,~ col
larless, wearing suspenders and blue
jeans, standing with a lantern in the
twilight outside the house where he
| lives with one other man who has
cooked for him for forty-eight years
He is this kind of a guy, too, an6
you will find the like Of him ir
every county in Georgia. Peering al
you with keen blue eyes beneath
! bushy Hvhite brows, Uncle" San
says earnestly:
The way Georgians Feel
| 81 don't believe this, 1 know it,
know this country Ind this govern
ment are the best in the world.
know Georgia is the best state in this
country. And L know Butts county
is the best county in Georgia"
The point is that he really does
his faith in. God than You couit
Uncle Sans faith in his own PEG
pie. And everywhere you go il
Georgia, you will find more Xix,
him. 1t explains the way Georgian!
feel about a lot of things.
Jasper county Georgians, for in
stance.
They're our neighbors," said UncI,
Sam. They're the same sort of folk.
we are. Let me tell you, sir, Jas
per county is well, one of the bes
counties in Georgia. Not as goo
as Butts, but one of the best
All this, Of course, came later. #,
get on with the fish fry, Uncle San
explained that the boys were waitin,
over on the river for us, that tn
storm had rained them out from tn
usual grounds, but they had every
thing ready at "a niger cabin
A bit of a shock, that. The ladie
tried not to look TN uncomfortable. Blu
they were game. We were of
again. Uncle Sam with us.
It's pity some Of those chaps
who write blistering editorials 10.
northern newspapers couldn't hAv,
some with us to that Niger cabin
that they couldn't have met Aur
Angelina and Alfred. her husband
and their daughter, whose nam,
must be absent from this chronicl,
because she was oniv addressed a.
Century Old Cabin
In the first place, the cabin" i
nearly a hundred wears old. Al,
when you say "a hundred years old
in this case, you mean it. Som
houses are called "a hundred year
DID," but that generally means Their
is one brick somewhere n the foun
dations of such an age. All of thi
cabin is hundred years old, lackin:
six years.
1t was built in 1927. by Genera
Macintosh, that famous general o
the old Georgia militia. who was
full-blooded Creek Indian. Genera
Macintosh had some ideas abou
house-building which some of GU
modern contractors might take t
heart. The walls of the cabin. SAID