Tennessee's Pond Of Liquor And Pool Of Blood - A Complete And Detailed Account Of Our Shameless Condition In Tennessee (1912) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: TENNESSEE'S POND OF LIQUOR AND POOL OF BLOOD MY LIFE AS A BOY AND SOME LATER EVENTS. I was born in Montgomery County, Tenn., near Clarks- ville. I only remember having seen my father but once, and that was after he was dead and prepared for burial. I was so small at the time I could not now recall that sight of him had I not been frightened and excited at the people who filed silently in and out. I was awed by the quietness of things, and when I was held up for a look in the coffin at the white face I can now so vividly see, I seemed to understand why it was necessary for everything to be so still and solemn. I shall never forget that moment?the sobs of my mother as she held her four small children in one loving embrace, praying God for strength to provide for them. Somehow I had not gotten father into my childish mind, but mother I seemed to know from the very day of my coming into the world. I was touched by her sorrow, and the sympathy in my heart for her she never knew. She probably thought I was too young to feel the pangs of sorrow, but when mother suffered I suffered with her. There were four of we children?three boys and a girl. My father was poor, the result of drinking whisky. Our home was a log cabin, with more than the usual number of cracks. We loved mother for her goodness. We forgot our poverty and our wants in our adoration of her. With her purity and sweetness she seemed to draw and hold us to her. She taught school, did quilting, washing and ironing to support us. In those days it was customary (and a barbarous custom it was) to bind children out to whomsoever needed help so tender in field or factory. Children with cruel parents were given into the hands of heartless taskmasters and their bodies and minds stunted by the labors they wer...