fence and ran--I didn't stop 'til I wuz deep in the
Sulphur River bottoms. Every minute my heart seemed like it wuz goin'
to jump right out uv my mouth. I wuz the worst scared nigger that ever
lived."

"I have lived many years since dat time. De times and ways of livin'
have changed. I 'member killing deer where the Texarkana National Bank
stands, way befo' Texarkana wuz even thought of. This place wuz one of
my favorite deer stands. Nix Creek used to be just full ob fish. What
used to be the best fishing hole aroun' here is now covered by the
Methodist Church (Negro), in East Texarkana. Dr. Weetten had a big
fine home out where Springlake Park is. He wuz killed when thrown by a
buckin' horse. All of de young people I knew den have been dead many
years."

Foods

The question of eating special food on a particular day immediately
brings in mind Thanksgiving Day, when turkey becomes the universal dish.
Perhaps no other day in the year can be so designated, except among a
few religious orders when the eating of meat is strictly prohibited on
certain days.

The belief that negroes are particularly addicted to eating pork is well
founded, as witness the sales of pork to colored people in most any meat
market. But who could imagine that cotton-seed was once the universal
food eaten in this vicinity by the colored people? That, according to
Doc Quinn, a former slave, and self-styled exmember of Cullen Baker's
Gang, was the custom before and shortly after the Civil War.

The cotton-seed would be dumped into a hugh pot, and boiled for several
hours, the seed gradually rising to the top. The seed would then be
dipped off with a ladle. The next and final step would be to pour
corn-meal into the thick liquid, after which it was ready to be eaten.
Cotton-seed, it must be remembered, had little value at that time,
except as livestock feed.

"Yes suh, Cap'n," the old negro went on to explain. "I has never eaten
anything whut tasted any better, or whut would stick to your ribs like
cotton-seed, and corn-meal cake. Rich? Why dey's nuthin dat is more
nutritious. You never saw a healthier or finer lookin' bunch of negroes
dan wuz on Colonel Harvey's place.

"I 'member one time tho' when he changed us off cotton-seed, but we
didn't stay changed fo' long. No suh. Of all de grumblin' dem niggers
did, becase dey insides had got so used to dat cotton-seed and corn-meal
dey wouldn't be satisfied wid nothing else."

"One mornin' wh