There it was--the appeal to the slush fund. I have contributed to lunch,
tobacco, and cold drinks, but not before to moving expenses. I had only
six cents which I had reserved for car fare. But after you have talked
with people who are too old to work, too feeble to help themselves in
any effective fashion, hemmed up in a single room and unable to pay rent
on that, odds and ends of broken and dilapidated furniture, ragged
clothes, and not even plenty of water on hand for bathing, barely
hanging on to the thread of life without a thrill or a passion, then it
is a great thing to have six cents to give away and to be able to walk
any distance you want to.
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Sallie Crane
See first paragraph in interviewer's comment
for residences
Age: 90, or more
[HW: Whipped from Sunup to Sundown]
"I was born in Hempstead County, between Nashville and Greenville, in
Arkansas, on the Military Road. Never been outside the state in my life.
I was born ninety years ago. I been here in Pulaski County nearly
fifty-seven years.
"I was born in a old double log house chinked and dobbed. Nary a window
and one door. I had a bedstead made with saw and ax. Chairs were made
with saw, ax, and draw knife. My brother Orange made the furniture. We
kept the food in boxes.
"My mother's name was Mandy Bishop, and my father's name was Jerry
Bishop. I don't know who my grand folks were. They was all Virginia
folks--that is all I know. They come from Virginia, so they told me. My
old master was Harmon Bishop and when they divided the property I fell
to Miss Evelyn Bishop.