Document text
February 1, 1939.
lir. and Li's. L. C. Pearson (white).
Route 5,
Hendersonville, N. C.
Preacher
Frank i;4assimino, writer.
Edwin Bjorkman, reviser.
LAUGHING AT POVERTY
Oriwinal Names C. ed Names
Reverend L. C. Pearson Reverend Levi Rhutt
LAUGHING AT POVERTY
"Them as has the call to preach Joe' has to preach,
tha's all thar air to hit!" Reverend Levi Rhutt said
somewhat ostentatiously through a grin, and ran his tongue
expertly over the flap end of his hand -rolled cigarette.
he ran the match across his thui.:b hail, lit the cigarette
and, drawihg deep of the noxious stuff, blew a thin jet of
bluish smoke half way across the tiny roo. Sitting there
with his hack to the open front door of his clapboard shack,
his shoulders hunched, his feet drawn up on the rungs of
the chair, he appeared not unlike a falcon come wearily home
to roost. About hilh, in spite of the lint that filtered
through the doorway, the furnishings in the room took on
queer shapes in the muggy light, like obects observed in
a thick fog. A rusted iron laundry stove spilled its heat
from the center of the room. In the furthest corner stood
a wicker cough, with broken reeds protruding through the
worn cretonne covering. A rocker and straight chair to
match were drawn up behihd the stove. Two persons, a youth
in overalls and the Reverend's wife, sat in the chairs.
iiith bodies bent forward, they put in a word occasionally
and laughed in a shrill off-key. In its niche on the
mantle above the stove sat an old-fashioned kerosene lamp,
its chimney encrusted with soot and its wick black and un-
trimmed. Opposite the mantle, against the wall, its iron
rods painted a deep green, stood the baby's crib, over
which h-ng, presumably for airing anu drying, a stained
mattress and a soiled blue anc white checked ofanket. A
table, the onld other piece of furniture in the room, was
stained and chipped and sprinkled with crumbs from the
noon day meal.
The Reverend Levi Rhutt is a middle-aged man; his age,
he would say, is somewhere around forty and forty-one. His
edes an ai-e black an s-Lall and bold; his hair, which crops
out ,rom under his hat, is shaved round at the neck line
and clings tightly to the contour of his head. His face
appears more American inaian than Anglo-American in color
and structure. The coppery in checked with lines, the
high ridges under the ;.yes, tne sensitive nostrils and the
cheekiness of a full jaw, the thin lips anu corded neck,
all are chiseled as definiteld as a head study in the frontis-
,isce of one of Ja.es Fenim re Cooper's novels.
The clothes worn bd the everena are hand-me-downs:
a fact he likesto acknow_edge with a oeklowing laugh, that
accounts for trousers barely reaching to his ankles and
coats that have habit of splitting across his shoulders.
He h&s a ounday outfit, however, that fits him as well
as it aia the deceased husbana or the woman who gave it
to him. This he wears only “i,en he preaches. Luring the
remainder or ounday and all through the rest of week he
slips into the ill fitting garments he wears as a day
laborer with a WPA crew.
His house, a rented shack or two in V00,1,6 upon which
is Kastened a lean-to with two more looms, stanus on a
sterile ise near a settlement of farm uwellings two miles
from ;:restville, a county seat built on plateau deep
in the blue Ridge mountains. A few rods from the house
is a well. beyond the well squats a woodshed, and oehind
the shed is another out-builuing with a well beaten path
to its door. In front Qi the house a sickly growth of
box ooraers the driveway ahu runs along the garseh.
Underneath a solitary tree in the front yam, where no
grass has proven hardy enoogh to thrust its shoots through
the tightly packed clay, is spreaa a littsr or oroAen glass
and sweepings from the house. The noose itself ias been
weather -worn a uirty grey. A strip or tin has seen olown
from its fastenings on the roof anu hangs precariously
near the rear entrance, where it beats hollowly against
tile wall with each surge of the wins..
In these drab surroundings the iieverond lives ,dth
his wife, Georgia, and seven of their eight children.
Georgia is a big-oosomea woman with muscular arms and hips
that bulge through the open vent in her skirt. oho speaks
seldom but laughs often, and her face, in spite of eight
child -births, is singularly free of any trace of care or
worry. One gets the impression that she possesses a great
joy of living undisturbed by the task of chano or entertain-
ment or plans in her life. the s oaks dispassionately
about her poverty.
"Most everything we got's busted or wore out," she said
apologetically but uncomplainingly. "Jos' look at this
house. Hit's about to rot often the foundation. And the
garden wunt grow for the weeds in it, and the stove wunt draw
fer the holes in the pipe. I'll be dogged effen we don't
pear to be the orest folk in the whole dangedtountry."
"That's fetchin' a point, kat" her husband put in with
a short laugh. Then with a sly grin; "what we haint got we
kin alias borry."
"You mean what we got now is mostly borried or begged,"
giggled Georgia, never able to suppress a laugh. In the same
frame of mind she likes to talk of how her youngest was
raised on milk 'lent' for the purpose by a kind-hearted
neighbor.
The baby was more dead than alive from the very first,
according to Georgia. he tried every known panacea to
bring back its health, except taking it off her own milk
which, as she put it, wouldn't keep a flea alive. ohe didn't
discover this, however, until she called in a doctor after
the child nad caught a cold tnat threatened to snuff out
whatever life remained in its undernourished body. The
doctor from Crestville told her the baby was just starved.
That was all. He suggested cow's milk and fruit juice or
prepared foods. The Reverend wasn't working then, so she
figured she couldn't afford prepared foods. But as one of
her neighbors had a cow that gave huge L.uantities of milk,
she just ran over there each day and iborriedl enough for the
baby. ohs didn't try the orange juice because the child cams
along so well on tne cow's milk that she believed the supple-
mentary diet suggested by the doctor just a newfangled idea
with no particular value in terms of health for her youngest.
Nhen *he baby got well, Levi used to joke with Georgia about
her lack of maternal properties. He made up jokes about
the day the baby got far on the borrowed milk that made her
laugh long and loudly.
Levi Rhutt and Georgia batty were ilexried twenty years
ago. Both their families were engaged in farming, but Levi
cared 1.ttle for the hard work of the lields and Georgia,
being a girl, engadeid in only those menial tasks reserved for
women on farms too poor to hire extra hands. oho carried
slop to the pigs, disposed of ashes from the kitchen stove,
swept rooms made beds, and washed clothes in a gully with
a stream running through it. When Levi was in his teens, he
used to spout off extemporaneous sermons, quite like those
that held him pop -eyed with interest as he sat on the edge
of his pew at the Baptist church on .)undays. He wassaccording
to Georgia, remarkably capable even as a boy. And he gleaned
not a little of his knowledge for his sermons at home, for
in those days preaching was an itinerant profession, and as
Levi's home was locally f,mous for the quality of Mrs. Rhutt's
corn bread, men of the cloth made it a regular ,ort of call.
On occasions when a pregcher was present, Levi came promptly
to the table, where he shoveled in his food subconciously
while keeping his eyes and ears free to c_tch every word
and gesture of the guest. And having a pretty good memory,
he began even while quite young to store up a fund of self-
int,rpreted biblical stories. He told them with embellish..
ments to Georgia when he went to her farm for the ostensible
purpose of visiting her brothers. He had a hearty laugh,
too, and his tales tended to go far afield when encouraged
by Georgia's spasms of giggling over anything the least
bit mirth -provoking.
Finally he got around to the business at hand and pro-
posed to Georgia. After the wedding he moved her back into
the mountains where ne had rented a strip of grouna that he
intended to farm. But he became so interested in church
activities that he never got aroun- to breaking ground other
than for a small garden of early peas and green beans. Later
he drifted into accepting odd jobs around the neighboring
But then Levi never liked to farm, and Georgia was un.,
complaining. Both did what suited than, to a certain extent,
and both believed in taking things as they came. Georgia
was too good-natured and too busy bearing children to
ponder greatly on her poor station in life. As soon as she
had been married a reasonable length of time, and every two
years afterward she produced a youngster for Levi to marvel
over or joke about, depending on his mood at the moment.
And apart from the physical inconvenience to Georgia
especially when Daonie, the sixth child, brought Georgia
closer to the Beyond than she had ever been before having
children didn't very much affect the fortunes of the family.
A doctor from Bretonville would deliver Georgia of a baby
and make one call afterward. tevi concerned himself not at
all about the cost. The first time he paid fifteen dollars
on a twasty-five dollar account. Afterward, wheL he didn't
pay the remainder, Levi didn't get any bill from the doctor
and he ceased to pay even for later calls. Thus, at least
for a time, there wasn't much to worry Levi. Only when
Betty Lee came, after Levi and Georgia had moved to a new
locale wherein they were served by a different doctor, did
Levi again receive a bill. As before Levi paid fifteen
dollars on it and promised to pay the rest in a few weeks
but the arrival that occasioned the doctor's services took
place ten months ago and the bill is still unpaid.
Throughout the past twenty years, Levi said, regular
employment has been hard to get. During that time Levi was
not fitted for other than farm labor, and that type of
occupation provided seasonal work at best. It wasn't until
Daonie was born that he took to the pulpit. Before that he
just had to 'run and borryl when he was out of work and in
need, and that entailed a good deal of borrowing and running,
for, indeed, the children kept coming at a rats calculated
to drive him to desperation, or, perhaps even to real hard
work. Fortunately for Levi and Georgia, and especially, for
the babies, the neighbors proved to be generous soul*.
Georgia laughs away the memories of those days of hardships.
"When the worst came to the worst we knowed the Lordld,
pervide," she observed. "And even when we was purty well
out of everything we didn't worry none and he alias took
cars of us. 'Course we had to fallback on the neighbors
onct in awhile fer one ti,ing or another. But I reckon in a
way that was just the way the Lord had to go about takin'
care of us."
Meanwhile Levi was taking his church affairs seriously.
One day he approached his pastor with the request that he
be ordained in the church. otrangely enough his request
was granted, and more strangely still, he was ordained first
and sent afterward to a Baptist academy in the deep Douth
to learn, as he put it, "a leetle bit more 'bout preachint
and gineral edycation." Because he was a married man with
a family, officials at the school allowed him to work out
his tuition and saw to it that he got enough work on the
side for his own keep and for the upkeep of Georgia and the
kids. He remained at the school a year. Then he struck out
on his own.
A few months later, back home again, Levi started officially
his new °arse -Iron the pulpit. He began in a small way. In
fact he didn't start to preach right away but began with a
Bible school for children. From twelve the attendance leaped
to thirty in a few weeks. Then an old preacher about to
retire turned over his pulpit to Levi. Here the congregation
for the most ,art was adult and Levi had a chance to orate in
a manner that he liked. And he considered himself moderately
successful now that he had two charges.
For the success of his attainment Levi was grateful, but
contributions being what they were, coming from persons in
stations as lowly as his awn, and Georgia quietly going ahead
with the begetting of cialldren until they had eight in all,
Levi found it necessary to go to the county relief agency for
food and clotiles. As a reason for his inability to provide,
he gave the dearth of work for those unable to do other than
day labor during the week. He was granted outright relief for
awhile, but later, when government work 1.rojects were in-
stituted for the indigent, he was put to work with a shovel
at $22.50 a month.
During this time, Homer. Levi's oldest ean, had grown
into a tall broad -shouldered youth who, like his father, had
found it impossible to get employment until he applied for
work on a government project. At first he thought about
going North, attracted by rumors of jobs up there at what
seemed to him to be fantastic wages. But when a friend,
just returned from an unsuccessful job hunt in kichigan,
told Homer that even skilled labor was over -supplied, be
gave up the idea. Instead he went to see the man at the
relief offices. This man told him he was eligible for aid
and would be sent to a nearb;0 CCC camp if he would agree
that his folks were to receive five -sixths of his wages.
It meant only five dollars a month for Homer, but he figured
that was enough to keep him in cigarettes, and as clothes
were issued at the camp and his own were shabby or patched
were happy
beyond recognition, he decided to go. Levi and Georgia/to
learn of his decision. They wr.,te him a letter after he had
been gone a month and told him they were well ana had received
the first check for his wages. After that, as he didn't
reply, they didn't write any more. They figured he was
getting along all right, however, for they received a check
for twenty-five dollars every month. Later they learned
from one of Homer's friends that their son had met a girl
and planned soon to marry her. Levi and Georgia ponuered ti
this, but decided there wasn't anything they could do about
it. They didn't think Homer was being ungrateful, only,
they would observe, it would be difficult to get along
without the money he earned for them.
Meanwhile Georgia is content with the companionship of
her now grown daughters. The eldest, Lenora, is getting two
dollars ,a week keeping hoUse for a family across the creek.
ohs is seventeen and given to primping. ohs spends all her
wages on beauty aids. But she had an infectious laugh like
her father and jollies her mother a good deal, so Georgia
permits her to keep her earnings. Lenora takes Georgia into
town once in awhile, and together they sit under the ..hair
curling machines in Crestville's cheapest beauty salon,
talking and laughing and revelling in the extravagant
odors a-oout them. Lenora laughs wildly at seeing her mother
comb her hair afterward. The curls disappear at once and
her hair hangs as lifeless and straight as it did the day
before.
Edith, who is fifteen, has a regular boy friend. he
will not bring him to the house, however, and this causes
her usually amiable father to protest against what he terms
an insult to his hospitality. Mostly his anger is directed
against the young men.
"Whar's that scoundrel been a-takin' ye?" he inquires
sharply. Edith always maintains an air of good humor and
answers with the utmost frankness. Usually Levi learns that
her outings are nothing mure harmful than a trip to town to
attend a church singing, for Edith likes to sing and has
found time to study from the hymn books with the easily
self-taught shape -notes.
"Funny where she got the voice," Georgia wonders. "None
of we-uns c'u'd ever sing."
Gladys, Christine, and Daonie are in school most of the
day. In the morning Georgia sends them into the bedroom to
slick back their hair in front of the cracked mirror set in
the door of the ancient wardrobe stand. raw has them change
dresses twice a week because they soil them by wearing them
to bed at night. Yet they appear fresh looking enough as
they make for the school bus that appears at their lane at
eight sharp every week -day morning, and they are neither
better nor worse clad than the children who hail them with
shouts of laughter as they heave into sight.
LaVerne, too young for school, is his mother's pet child
and chief worry. His .face is pinched and drawn, partly
from sheer impishness and partly from lack of nourishment.
He squirms in his play, and never sits still long enough to
finish whatever task he undertakes to accomplish. He seldom
playa out -of -door's, and Georgia has continually to keep an
eye on him for fear he may ignite his clothes or scald him-
self in his progings around the kitchen stove.
Levi asserts he could preach a sermon about LaVerne.
"He's as devilish and man a -boy as a man c'u'd have," he
said lath a short laugh. "When I was a young-un things was
different. All these kids think about is devilment. Thee
right, tha's right just devilment. These days a young-un
-13-
haint to be trusted outen sight. Like Edith thar and
that feller of horn. Effen that boy means right, why thar
haint no call for him to go a-courtini in an old jalopy, the
way he does. And effen she's ashamed to be a bringin' him
in the house she haint got no call to go out at all."
Levi thought something was wrong with this condition,
but he didn't know what it was. Georgia would only laugh
and tell him he was getting old. This made him testy, and
he'd take it out on Edith. When she'd come home he'd
challenge her with, "out in thet scoundrel's car aging eh?
Holdin' hands and kissin' and the like. I wunt stand for
hit."
Once Georgia laughed and said he ought to save such
sermons for oundays. Georgia can always restore him to good
humor, a condition, it must be said, that is never very far
beneath the surface. He promptly bet her a nickle that's just
what he'd do. Then at the church, on the very next ounday,
and at Edith's expense, he suddenly launched into a tirade
against the sins of the younger generation. bometimes he
raised his voice so lou-ly that little LaVerne had to cover
up his ears to save his eardrums. But Georgia smiled content.
wily and applauded him inwardly. He has the gift; there is
no doubt about it. His congregation says so. And when his
sermon is particularly good the collection is good a
knowledge that makes Levi increase his efforts.
But in spite of their father and what he has to say in
the pulpit, irrepressible Edith and the older Lenora never
ask their young men friends into the house. Inexcusable as
this seems to Levi, it is nevertheless not hard to under.
stand. They are at a romantic age, and they know that the
drab furnishings of their home cause them to lose a good deal
of whatever glamor they possess. And they know .about glamor.
For in the course of their commonplace lives, both these girls
have found time to read certain magazines that deal with ex-
travagantfiles of glamorous lives and lovers* For these
reasons the girls are a bit 'fussy' about the livingroom.
Levi sleeps there on the couch, and he retires at an early
hour* Georgia sometimes leaves her cooking overnight atop
the laundry stove. To the girls, there is nothing glamorous
in an atmosphere filled with odors of kerosene and stale
cabbage, or by the noise of baby squalls and adult snores.
bo Edith and Lenora, in spite of parental objections,
continue to meet their friends in the comparatively quiet
and glamorous atmosphere of a parked car, or go with them to
a roadhouse or movie. And when Levi questions, Edith and
Lenora laugh and give him a plausible excuse .i)r the lateness
of the hour or the length of their stay. They take care,
however, not to rouse their father's ire by too pronounced
opposition, lest they bring aown upon their heads another one
of his sermons.