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Wake Forest Cotton Mill
Wake Forest, N. O.
July 29, 1938
I. L. U.
STELLA WALL
She was in the kitchen mopping her floor. Her ten
year old son an scraped in the yard with his scrubby
brush broom and threw out a remark now and then to the
tiny calf in the shed near by. The two girls, seven
and three, lay on a pallet in the living room and looked
at the pictures in a second grade reader. The oldest one
hopped up to a sitting position and turned in the direction
of the kitchen. "Mama, here comes somebody," she said
in low but excited tones. Stella Wall put down her mop
and came forward to greet me. She apologized immediately
for the slight disorder of the room. Every day after
dinner the children took their rest on pallets spread
on the floor, she explained, and it was usually four
o'clock before she had them dressed and the house
straight again.
The living room in which we sat contained a dresser,
a center table, a sewing machine, a settee, and three
chairs. Four Indian -bead center pieces edged with pink
crochet dropped from the mantelpiece, and cloths of
similar design covered the table and machine. The three
windows were hung with clean, airy curtains which added
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a cheerful note to the room. A bright colored picture
of Christ &n the attitude of bestowing a blessing hung
over the mantel end an even brighter colored group of
Christ end three of the disciples occupied the center
space of the opposite wall.
She long ago accepted with equanimity the disrupted
plans of her youth and had fashioned a pattern of living
with what life had given her rather than what she had
hoped it would give her. When she was a little girl she
wanted to be a school teacher. As her school life
progressed she had kept that end in view, and was determin—
ed not to stop until she had enough training to get a
teacher's certificate. There were only three children
in her family, and her father, James Crowder, had worked
up to the position of overseer of the oerdroom which
paid him a good wage.
Stella had finished the eighth grade when her
father became ill with tuberculosis. For twelve months
he stayed in the sanitarium at Southern Pines and used
up completely the small sum he had saved. For several
years after he returned home he was unable to work, and
his children supported him with the money they earned in
the mill.
Stella made friends with fellow workers older than
herself who 7ere, as she expresses it, "doing a lot of
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courtiny and she too fell into the way of courting.
As a consequence she married Ben Wall when she was only
sixteen. There had never been an opportunity for her
to return to school and the inclination to do so did
not last after she met Ben. However, she'd like to go
back now and finish if it were possible for her to do
it. She thinks that schools are getting better and she'd
like particularly to have the courses in home economics.
Stella regrets to see mill girls leave school
because they feel that they are looked down upon by their
classmates. Why should anyone be ashamed of the fact
that his father or mother is an honest worker, she wants
to know. Wouldn't the world be in a fix if there were
no cotton mills? Why should the people who run the mills
and make the cloth for the world to use be made to feel
that they are not aS good as other people? She has never
bowed her heed in shame before anybody and she does not
think her God would have her do so. If she happens
to meet with a person inclined to look down upon her
because of her life at the mill she feels sorry for that
person and considers he just doesn't know any better.
Stella would feel ashamed if she had not put forth
effort to make for herself and family the best possible
living. She has worked in the mill when she could during
the twelve years of her married life, and managed to buy
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the furniture which is in her house. Besides the living
room she has two bedrooms and a kitchen. Each of the
bedrooms is furnished with two beds and a dresser. The
kitchen is equipped with an oilstove, a cabinet, a breakfast
room suite, and a row of shelves. The shelves are filled
with glass jars of fruit and vegetables which Stella has
prepared for the winter.
She faces the winter with some concern, although she
and Ben have done much to provide for it. During the
summer they raised a garden which has served -them well.
In a hog pen near by they have two hogs which they hope
will furnish them with enough meat. Out of Ben's weekly
wage of $10.80 Stella has bought fruit for canning to
supplement the vegetables she has canted from her garden.
But, helped as she will be by her store of food, she knows
that Ben's wage cannot meet the actual needs of her family.
There will be school supplies to buy for the three
school —age children, winter clothes, and coal. Out of
each weeks wage fifty cents must go to Dr. Timberlake
and one dollar must go for house rent. Stella says she
knows all of it can't be figured in and she wonders why
she keeps on figuring endlessly.