482 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



Mr. Gibson keeps his sweet potatoes different from 

 most others. He has a cave cellar, the door being made 

 open work to serve as a ventilator, in which they keep 

 well. The common way is to put them up in "pumps" — 

 a term that I am sure will be as difficult for my northern 

 readers to understand as is the word "chores" here. But 

 the one means a pile of potatoes covered over with dirt, 

 having a hollow log or box bored full of holes, set upon 

 the ground and running out at the top through the centre 

 of the pile, to give ventilation; for without it, sweet po- 

 tatoes will not keep. At the north, I believe a good way 

 to keep them would be to put them in small parcels with 

 Irish potatoes in a cellar not too warm, but very dry. Or 

 if you can contrive to keep sweet potatoes always dry 

 and warm, they will always keep. The same thing of 

 dahlia roots. 



For the accommodation of my southern readers, let me 

 explain that the word chores means all the little jobs 

 of work about the house, necessary to be done of a night 

 and morning. Dr. Phillips is so well pleased with its 

 expressiveness, that he has adopted it in his family. 



Being naturally an admirer of beauty under whatever 

 form it shows itself, I was attracted to notice a very 

 beautiful lace cap of Mrs. Gibson's, upon which she 

 showed me several others "as fine as silk," and all the 

 work of her own hands — beautiful domestic manufac- 

 tures. 



March 3d — being a little showery, afforded our host an 

 excellent excuse for detaining us another day, and he 

 would have done the same the next — for this is southern 

 fashion, among those who take the newspapers — this 

 being a better criterion to mark civilization "than the 

 use of soap." 



Negroes upon large plantations are always under the 

 charge of an overseer. Their wages vary from $250 to 

 $800 a year. A common negro man when hired out, gets 

 from $10 to $15 a month. A woman cook or good house 

 servant the same. A negro carpenter or blacksmith, 



