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maheville cotton kill
Asheville, N. C.
August 17, 1936
I. L.
It wes lets 5aturday afternoon. A heavy fog hung
over Factory Hill. Isle Buckner was deeply worried and
the dreary day added to her depression. Her husband,
Ned, fifty.five, withered end toothless, sat on the
porch with his heads folded together and his heed bowed.
I -tight up hill from Imes house her mother end
unmarried sister live. A few feet below her in a little
house on r wrshed.out lot her brother, Ifen, his wife
and four children live. I hed just aocepted Ned's
Invitation to seat myself in one of the two (theirs on
the porch when Imr, accompanied by her sister, returned
from her zotheres house. Jer brother came over from
his house Lnd stood in the narrow rut of r ytrd, shift.
ing from one foot to the other.
"I jest have to go off low End Fgin fur a cryin,
spell, Imr said to me as she flopped down on the steps
rnd covered her thin, yellow foe with her hende.
Are you in trouble?" I asked.
y daughter MPG operated on Tnuredry and she's
bcd off. 'oday'u the first dEy she's begged me not to
leave ner and I pfraio she's unersy about herself."
Is she tarried?" I inruired.
"Nome and I hope she won't never be now. Zihe's
thirty-four end she aint been right well since she was
fourteen. That gym they sde her trke it school v;re
away* against her."
"You oughtner let her took it," L,en said gruffly.
"I couldn't help it," lair defended herself.
?hey ooUldner -made her. It tint the law," Len
continued.
"I don't understand nothin' 'bout the law," Is
veld rivl burst into tetra pain. "I don't even under
stand ebout them work benefits. As have to sign up
every Thursday, you know, and I had to go to the aty
hell not moreln t hour after .4emie oome off the operetta'
ttble. They close at half pest four end if you ant
therm ozi the dey set for you you don't get nothin'.
hand wr,e so treMbly hit wouldn't hold r pen end my boy
had to sign fur me. The girl up there talked s- 1ird
to me." Imes sniffling obrnged to heavy sobbing.
"hat made her ttlk lik thf7t7" :.ien raked belligerent-
ly tric then proceeded to answer his own nuestion. "'Cruse
She was settint behind r desk gettin, good woney to hand
us out little checks."
o you reekin she an keep me fro v getting my
money lust because I vnewered her bfok?" Imp reked as
ehe turned toward me. itefore I could speek, Zien wee
rnswering her nuestion for her.
"Couree they crinto° he sad. "Tint the law.
Hit rint theirs to give or to tee two,. Bit belongs
to us end we've got t right to it. Uncle ilem siert**,
this, now let him finish it. They got to pry. I
signed up sixteen times before I got e cent of mine durinl
them weeks lest winter when I wrs jest egettins two days
r week in the mill. Hit's elmost worth it to get it
but I'll hrve mine vven If I °pint get there by heir
pest four of a Tharsdey to sign fer it. They say since
I get off work et 4 o'olook I *Lighter be there on time.
They think I'll come on jest like I work in the mill
but I Fint rdainl it. I'm gonnt brthe, end shave, en4
brash r little cotton off me before I go up there to
see them people thet stry dreeeed in good clothes ell
the time. liowis r fellow like me ran' to pry his
bus fere, toot ',an I weak from here to the City rll
hit's pest 4:30. Why oeint they let me sign up on
drys when I pint eworkin17 They's plenty of them drys
now, plenty of 'em.'
Imr's Ihind rre no longer an her unemployment
compensetion. She wrs thinking of her sick deughter
in mission Hoepitel. Then F tiny chicken perched Itself
up on the edge of r peetebor box neer the end of the
porch, she meld, °Theme her ohlokens. She's the creziest
thing I ever seen ebout little biddies. z.4xe wrs in bed
five weeks before the went to the hospittl end I'd spread
t cover over the bed end put them chicken, on it fur her
to pee. lhe's got r hen here thrt her feller give ber
when it wrs nothin0 but r biddy. If anything hrppens to
Mamie I'll keep thet hen es long es it lives."
eri me held pined control of herself gmin the
continued, "I've rot amie's picture in there on the
Pieno if you'd acre to pee it. 'She's the prettiest
thing rnd t's goodit girl re (over lived."
I followed Imp through her comfortrbly erguipped
kitchen which would helve been clern except for the sooty
Al*, through e feirly comforteble bedroom snd into the
nerlor. "This is 4sniels pitno," She arid with pride.
"She bought it herself out the money she _cle in the
mill. Thrt rtdio belongs to my on, Arrry. y three
children hrve 'barely worked herd to htve things like
other folks. ou ought to see the bedroom suite them
two girls hee eot upettirs. Lfld iismiele got e whole
ceder chest full of fency work. re's her pioture.
Aint she rweet.lookin't"
oth of your deughtere rre nice looking," I acid,
ng from gemiele picture to the one still on the
pieno. "Henriettels r fine girl too," Imp said proudly.
"They both stayed in school till they finished the ninth
grede. Both got oertifioetes from Bible school, too,
end thpt gives 'am the right to do sny kind of church
work. They pre Amide), School tetchers down in the fortton
Pee. lirptist Church."
°You've never hsd but three children?" 1 raked
presently.
"Jest three. After the boy yes born I wee in such
ehtpe thpt t yerr leter I bed to go to the hospitel end
hrve everything took out. The doctors told me not to
go bra to the mill for six months efter thet operetion.
In two months time I wrs tt work egin. I wrs inspector
in the cloth room then end none knowed pbout oertein
kind of cloth but ms. The mill got orders for it end
the superintendent rsked me if I couldn't come beck.
he sent hip opr right up to my door for me end I went.
I've spent mealy p dey down there in thet mill so sick
I oould herdly go.0
on, of your femily pre orking nowl I reked.
end Henriette, end Jim get three drys ppieoe
F wee.. I was workino up to lest :december but 1 fell
and broke my erm. e wts mensging feirly well till
them hepvy doctor's bills come on us. %.-If broke trm cost
r. sight but it wryn't p beginninl to whet rmiese sicy-.
nese will oast.
"I doubt if they'll ewer iYe me work egin. They's
so meny people trying to get e pleoe in the mills now.
anoe we've got the stretob..out tad short ti.ek too, the
mir don't need ell of us nowey. You seen Ved setting
out there on the porch end lookine plumb wore out?" she
d. Then re if she were efrrid someone else sight
herr her Pre ore nerrer tnd begen spetking egrin but
in lowered tones. "Fels dant two menle jobs now end
atoll kill him before long. !ie crint hold up under it
et his *fre rd him rbout used up from workint since he
WES F ohild. At, tnd hiT's spent wost of our lives down
there in thrt mill."
It 'rev not herd to believe fe she stood there thrt
lost of her life bed been spent tolling. itsr dreb p:rey
htir formed fitting freme for her withered foe.
her eyes, still struggling, looked werrily out of their
sunken sockets. The loose pink dres3 she wore ,1 ped
in folds .lootit her fleshless body.
i. body don't Inow whother Atiaielli ever oe pble
to te arre of hereelf lme sA.d ahr led the
wry 1.)ck to the porch. Pad SO PIWOW for my
children to 'lyre things like other folks."
l!tl, 'deter 11,A left but 1.1 rrs etmding
out in the y -r. Dnn a two oldest chil,ren est )1-1 the
doorsteps Pnd held boxes of W! blocks of otody in their
lops. The pele twelve...year old girl looked up end said,
"'Ae make thirty.five at eplece o week selline orndy,
end I get donor ond five cent s week for stain'
with re. Johnson while her hasbend work on night shift."
"Hit's almost se much as I seke," Den *rid, ltughing
bitterly.
"Do you reokin they'll keep me outs my work benefits?"
Imr eked, turning toward me.
"I'm sure you'll get it if your work record meets
th rw,uirements of the lrw I replied.
"Course they (mint keep you from gettin$ it, pen
stid stoutly. °Teint the lew to keep it from you."
foggy silence fell over the crowd. Imp looked
une ally tt her brother tnd he dropped his heed, ebashod.
;.ense wife clew out of her door sad joined her husbend
where he stood in the ytrd. imorything obout her suggest-
ed tuberculosis in its letter etrges. She looked rt her
drughter trid seid, "fleckin you'll git your thirty-five
cent this week?"
"I think 011 finish sellin$ my box this evoninl,"
the child rnewered.
Had who hod not spoken since he invited mot in,
looked at me with e toothless smile fs I got up to
leave. "Come bro.< rgin, mem," he arid and ltpsed again
into weery silence.
turned to 1 rad expressed my hopes for her
daughter's muiok recovery. Tem spreng to her eyes
rnd her voioe VP. unstesdy es she asked no to come
again. Al1 of them 'etched me in silence es 1 west
down the path and awry from Factory Hill.