OCR Text |
Show GOOD OLD DAYS "BEF6' GE WAH" Eloquent Description of a Southern Countryside Thanksgiving. AS good a description of a Thanksgiving in ante-bellum days as has come to our knowledge is the following: See what happens to the turkey when it flies south of Mason and Dixon's Dix-on's line ! ' iuis. jLuvun 01 Liie iowei nuuse iu Maryland vouches for this transformation transforma-tion : "The men go off hunting and the mistress may finish some book she has been trying to read for the last year; and when the hunters come In, glowing with the exercise of climbing over the fields, with twenty' or thirty birds, a dozen or so rabbits and three or four woodcocks, we all gather in the big, warm kitchen and pick birds yes, and clean them, too while the men build a big fire on the huge brick fireplace jn the dining room and one of the maids sets the table. "And how beautiful it is, with the dancing light of the pine knots reflecting reflect-ing the silver and china in the waxed mahogany! Then we broil the birds; yes, we all cook them, basting and turning them and dripping them with melted butter; and finally dusting with salt and pepper fresh ground, it Is. "The candles are lighted, and noisily, nois-ily, maybe; impatiently, perhaps knowing the wonderful taste of the broiled birds, we gather around the long oval table. Plates of hot biscuits are brought in, hot coffee with hot milk is our drink, and great cakes of wild honey taken from a tree in the woods where the hunters had found it. "That is a Thanksgiving dinner here. "And in the kitchen the rabbits are 'skun,' and Aunt Mary, true to her privileged position as 'Mammy,' puts good lard (negroes are not allowed to use lard ; they must fry out fat from 'fat back') in three or four iron skillets, skil-lets, cuts the rabbits up and dips them in flour, salt and pepper, and fries them all brown and crisp and never forgets to fry an onion in the same pan ! "And when the long table in the kitchen is set, and the delicious browned rabbit and pans and pans of cornbread and the bits of wild honey that were too broken to be 'sent in the house' are ready, Aunt Mary asks the blessing for she is very devout then silence reigns for a while, maybe for half an hour. "But finally a mouth organ is drawn from Joe's pocket, and soon the rhythmic rhyth-mic shuffle tells us who have finished our birds that Rena is dancing; and we all troop out to see the girls dance, especially to see Rena 'pick de lizard off de fence.' " |