Document text
July 10, 1A80
Mims Altos tiaanburn (h)
9 4 P4ndloton
4Akan,
Attired a.orotary
hip tle Lo writer.
Brevard, N. C.
SPINZiTIR
:irladill)4•1 loamy
Miss Altos 3ashburn
Ithitaaido ..ovs, N. C.
Alkon,
grAdvagtiLliana
_iamb Norman
4mokor140 Coy.
SARAH AOIMANz sPIASUR
Sarah horman is past seventy; tall and thin and
nervously somewuat Jittery. Sue talks more easily than
she do's anything else.
"I was born and spent my early life in hew Lnaland,
but I have lived in tns ...qauth for tue last fifty odd
years. My tiouthern friet:ds toll me I am now a zioutherner.
but I insist I am still a Yankee. My family landsd on
hew Ingland soil in 1630; that makes as a pretty good
Yankee. It will surprise moms to know I am a Democrats
and a great admirer of irisidsnt hoosivelt, and ay father
was a Democrat is tore me. Today o:.e of my brotaers is
a strong supporter of the Prosidant and ti3O otuer brotuar
*it's himself whenever kr. itoossivelt's name is mentionsd.
?ortunately we all live apart; a long range quarrel over
politics doesn't break much glase. Uot letters written
in Philadelphia cool off oonsidershly by this time they
reach Charleston*
"You know we Horthern )(irate were oallad Copper*.
heads during tha *at of 1861, but my father was a colonel
in the Union army. One of his Damocratic friends was
greatly displeased with him because he volunteered. But
there were plenty or Democrats who wore tusk blues McClellan.
Hancoek, Aoseorans, and many otnsr.. 4rant himself was a
Democrat before the war, but iirant was pure soldier. You
will wonder how I happen to know about these things. *ell,
I lived with ay fathsr until his death and I often heard
him talk with old soldiers. That is the way I've got
evarything I know, and that is not mob.'
never liked to study whin I was in school and I've
never read anything but newspapers and popular novels.
The only reason I read thous novels is beoause I hear
poop'e talking about them; I want to be able to enter
into Ws conversation. As devoted as I am to ay church
I rarely read ay church paper. I have blushed at ay
ignorance when somebody asked as what a suffragan bishop
is and what is meant by the rubrics of the church. But
next to ay immadiato family, I am more interested in ay
church than I am in anything else in tne w4r1d. I guess
inherited al ohuroh *lona with my hair and eyes. Once
revivalist asked as if I were a Christian. I replied,
'lie, I'm a hard-boiled Lpiscopalisn, and not open to
conversion.
Next to my family and church, 1 am interested in
gossip i not malicious but humorous gossip. so you see
what a wonderful lift I live. the shadows that fall
across the world touch me lightly and the gusty passions
of men and women interest as but do not stir as greatly.
I only watch the gams from the bleaehers. I've always
bean glad I never serried and had children. I'd hate to
be the mother of some of these girls that go along the
streets half naked. There is one propheay in the Old
Testament that has certainly come true. I don't remember
where this prophesy is recorded, but it was recently
cited by one of our bishops. 'They shall go along the
streete naked and shall not be ashamed.' I'll take the
bishop's word for it. I don't remember very ameh of my
Bible, and my eyesight is now so poor I can't read much.
Anyhow, after reading in the newspapers of the divorce
entanglements of the present day, I do not care to review
the troubles of ;:polomon with his wives. And, after all,
I can get as much spiritual nourishment from my church
as I Gan absorb, without bothering my need with anoient
Hebrew things that I can't understand. I don't think
there are maoy people intelligent enough to understand
the Bible, and this includes eons of the preaehers.
"why dii I some South? Primarily for my father's
health. Be had weak lungs. I don't believe he ever
got over the hardships of campaigning wails he was in
the aray. He inherited little money, made a little
more before WI retired from business, and received
government pension. Altogether he had enough to live
on in a simple way. Both of his wives died, and
his only daughter, travelled with him and lived with him
wherever he made a stop. The first home we established
in the South was in the small town of Ellery in the pine
barrens of South Carolina. This region is put down on
the oldest maps as the tkaluda Desert." This desert has
not yet been made to blow' as tie rose, but it does grow
cotton and truck and peaches and berries on %no uplands
and Qom in the creek bottoms.
"The drowsy old county town of Ellsry took on new
life when rich men from hew fork found the air soft in
winter and the early sprind gordeous with dogwood and
wistaria. They came down with their polo ponies and
race horses, and some of them raised the devil generally
when they were not riding horses.
"We liked the place and the people so much, and the
air seemed to do father so much gaud, that we bought a
house and settled down. My brotuer came also and bought
a weekly hewspaper, whioh he conducted for several years.
I spent a part of my time in his office and gathered
social items for his paper. 4ibiliu I started, I must
have been the dumbest thing that ever worked in an office.
My brother MAO asked me to report a church meeting.
when I got back he asked me what happened. I told him
I saw the handsomest man there I had ever seen in ny
life.
"'Huh', he granted. 'The only thing you saw there was
a handsome guy. As a reporter you era a wonder.'
"But I did learn to do bettor than this. Among other
things I learnod typ1n6, whioh ca&s in handy when I got
a job in tho orrice of a power eoepany. which I held for
several years until the company passed into other hands.
This office work was a wensfit to mm in several ways.
I have always been timid and nervous, and it did me good
to rub elbows with people in trio office and learn to give
and take. It helped to break the crust of my hew tngland
reserve.
"The samara in !Mary wars long and hot, so wO
spent the heated days in hots= Borth Carolina at
Smckeridge Cove. To get there in those days we had to
Lo by rail as far as the train would carry us and then
by hack over one of the roughest roads ever travelled
by human beings. Once the hack broke down and we had
to spend Us night in a wayside cabin. This road had
always bean rough, hack* had always broken downs and
such Doomed to WI the foreordained way of life. Any-
how nobody aver did anything about it. If ease of the
old-timers were alive now, and could travel over the
modern higaway, they'd think they were in a new and
miraculous world.
01n4mokeridge Cove we boarded with an Xnglisb
040
molly of means who had driftiod in here mayoral years before
and bought hundreds *titer's of land. they were probabty
looking. for a milder climate and for that actuate so
dear to tlie Lnglishaan'o boort. all, they got the
seclusion all rigat. I taink they took i in for company
or. than for anything alst. and they wenldnit have taken
us in at all if we hadn't brought letters of introduotion.
They raised many sheep and hogs sad fowls. and it was
seater aail acre profitable to uss taose to food boarders
than to drive tism as was than the custom. to a distawt
market town. las:coke were kept a landscape deoorations
and to lead dLaity to VA) manor. 1)4 peafowl flock was
itept thinnod out by fox**. *e spent many happy summer*
bore and cam to be looked upon alaoet as cambers of the
family. 'go shared their jOfts and tneir sorrows. wa
even spent one whole winter there because the air seemed
to be good for tether. to ocouptod a comfortable log
cabin in ta. corner of the yard and fixod it up to suit
ouralvos. A plastered tat lasids walls vita anata of
an illustratod Zinglish massino called the iJ4ZC, and
we named our cabin the Amphic. If Our walls had been
covered with pictures such as appsar in our kodern
magazines, ttla cabin would probably have Wton regarded
as a museum Alvotad to the nudes iLad it migat aavo been
nomad Um Inferno. tie usually splitut tip* evenings in the
main house with the featly. my father and our host *one-
time* sipped hot toddy. On going to our cabin one evening
with our lantern, we discovered a big rattlesnake in our
pathway. 4ght It makes as shiver now to think about it.
"Our host sent his sena off to sehool and one of them
became a suseessful country doctor in a neighboring county.
Another son settled near his father and gave his time to
farming. He married and became the father of a largo
family, mostly girls. 4ihen an epidemic of diphtheria
broke out in this settlement, five of his little daughters
died of the disease. They went down like ninepins, one
after the other. They were buried in the little Episcopalian
°amatory nearby. This *mall church had been built under
the sponsorship of two rich maiden ladies who spent their
summers here. I went with them to the cemetery to pick
out e spot for tia• little tray**. It was pitiful. I
took the youngest girl to our cabin in the hope she might
escape the disease, but I heard her sleeks in the night
and rein for the doctor. he followed her sisters to the
cemetery. A little negro girl who helped with the nursing
contracted te disease but recovered. I myself had what
was called sympathetic sore throat, but I was tough enough
to shake it off.
"Such scourges were then regarded as the dispensation
of an inscrutable Providence, and they were borne with
what resignation people could on. Preachers sometimes
exhorted their congregations to give up tneir sins in order
to escape the wrath of an angry God. Fifty years ago
not much was known about orms and sanitation and nothing
at all about **rums. $o the five little girls choked
to death end were laid side bj side in a row.
'Religion took some queer turns in that earlier day.
One time a little girl of an olocopallan family attended
revival services in a neighboring church. Our little
rector was sent there to 4rescue' her and bring her
home. He walked up the aisle and found her kneeling at
the mourners' bench. When he gently persuaded her to
GOMM away with him, the congregation instantly became
an angry mob and threatened the safety of the rectors
crying out, 'yonder 41;oes tlie devil in man's clothes'.
The rector was saved from harm by a friend who locked the
church door and checked the moo for a momistat, thus biving
the rector a caarAte to escape to a friendly Douse. Later
he was spirited away from the neighborhood until the
excitemeiat died down.
"On tne whole, life at timokeridge was pleasant. The
food and air viers excellent and the people interesting.
Our elderly host was an ir.dividualist, as may be
cmpeAld. For one UAL' he insistad on having what he
sailed apple tarts on the table every day ,f the year.
In the American lingo they were plain apple piss. The
trout fishing almost at our door was fine, and I enjoyed
the horseback riding more than anything else. A stalwart
mountain man with a fierce red mustache, and mounted on
a splendid horse, used to go riding with me sometimes, but
not often, for I did not wish to encourage his attentions.
when he came to call, he rapped on the side of the house
with his riding whip instead of knocking at the front door.
''After my father died, I wont -aok to Ellery to live
alone in my house, whioh father had left to gp brother
drifted back up north and married there and settled down.
He drives down to see no once in a reat while. After
I had lost my job with the power company, I did not find
it very easy to act alonie financially. Sometimes I leased
my furnished house in winter to people from the 14orth and
than rented one room for myself somewhere in town and did
my own cooking. 4hen I couldn't lease my house to
advantage I lived in it myself. I am doing that now,
but find it a little lonesome. I have mad* many friends
during my long residence in the town, ar.d tile' are more
than good to me. They ask as out to dinner, they send
in delicacies, and they take me out in tiAtir automobiles.
I get much pleasure out of sof onurch and its activities.
I do not read much because of my weakened eyesight, but,
ten, I never did read much except newspapers. After 1
In the American lingo they were plain apple pies. The
trout fishing almost at our door was fine, and I enjoyed
the horseback riding more than anything else. A stalwart
mountain man with a fierce red mustache, and mounted on
a splendid horse, used to go riding with me sometimes, but
not often, for I did not wish to encourage his ettentions.
when he came to call, he rapped on the side of the house
with his riding whip instead of knocking at the front door.
"After my father died, I went aok to Ellery to live
alone in my house, whioh father had left to me. gy brother
drifted back up North and married there and settled dawn.
He drives down to see me once in a great while. After
had lost my job with the power company, I did not find
it very easy to get along financially. Sometimes I leased
my furnished house in winter to people from the k.orth and
then rented one room for myself somewhere in town and did
my own cooking. %hen I couldn't lease my house to
advantage 1 lived in it myself. I am doing that now,
but find it a little lonesome. I have mad* many friends
during my long residence in tne town, arAl they are more
than good to me. They ask me out to dinner, they *end
in delicacies, and they take me out in uisir automobiles.
get much pleasure out of rtof cnurch and its activities.
I do not read much because of my weakened eyesight, but,
titan, I never did read much except newspapers. After I
-LOA*
have read the *crooning headlines, I know more than I want
to know. I Just love President Roosevelt and I gat a ittine
mad at the nasty things they say about him.
°I still manage to spend my summers in Aestern Aorth
Carolina. iiriends take ms up and bring me back in their
automobiles. I do not ao to bookOr140 .3ove any more;
I am no longer able to rids horseback and climb mountains.
I go to a small town whore evorythind is in OW reach
by walking. I rent a room and 4;fat my own suppers and
breakfasta over an electric grill; I go to a boarding
house for my dinners. Altogether, I regard my its as
fortunate. I suffer somowhat from naives, but norvos
are a part of original sin. They are a part of the
common lot. I have one incurable disuse, old age. That
again is a part or the common lot and a thing riA“. to be
complained about. In trio fall I as t,oine. lAtok to my
house in hAlery, and when it comcis m time to cross
ova!, the line, I expect to be buried ter., *here I
have spent so many happy years.