t your throat for
sore throat. It is a good salve. I had a sore throat and a black woman
told me how to make it. It cures the sore throat right now.

"I live on what I am able to work and make. I never have got no help
from the government."

Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden
Person interviewed: Sam Word, 1122 Missouri Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Age: 79

"I'm a sure enough Arkansas man, born in Arkansas County near De Witt.
Born February 14, 1859, and belonged to Bill Word. I know Marmaduke come
down through Arkansas County and pressed Bill Word's son Tom into the
service.

"I 'member one song they used to sing called the 'Bonnie Blue Flag.'

'Jeff Davis is our President
And Lincoln is a fool;
Jeff Davis rides a fine white horse
While Lincoln rides a mule.'

'Hurrah! Hurrah! for Southern rights,
Hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a Single Star!'"

(The above verse was sung to the tune of "The Bonnie Blue Flag." From
the Library of Southern Literature I find the following notation about
the original song and its author, Harry McCarthy: "Like Dixie, this
famous song originated in the theater and first became popular in New
Orleans. The tune was borrowed from 'The Irish Jaunting Car', a popular
Hibernian air. Harry McCarthy was an Irishman who enlisted in the
Confederate army from Arkansas. The song was written in 1861. It was
published by A.E. Blackmar who declared General Ben Butler 'made it very
profitable by fining every man, woman, or child who sang, whistled or
played it on any instrument twenty-five dollars.' Blackmar was arrested,
his music destroyed, and a fine of five hundred dollars imposed upon
him.")

"I stayed in Arkansas County till 1866. I was about seven years old and
we moved here to Jefferson County. Then my mother married again and we
went to Conway County and lived a few years, and then I come back to
Jefferson County, so I've lived in Jefferson County sixty-eight years.

"In Conway County when I was a small boy livin' on the Milton Powell
place, I 'member they sent me out in the field to get some peaches about
a half mile from the slave quarters. It was about three o'clock, late
summer, and I saw something in the tree--a black lookin' concern. Seem
like it got bigger the closer I got, and then just disappeared all of a
sudden and I didn't see it go. I know I went back without any peaches.

"And another thing I can tell you. In the spring of