n

"I get along tolerably now for an old man. The welfare gives me a little
help. But I have to pay five dollars for these two rooms every month.
What's more, I got to eat, and I got to have somethin' to wear.
Washington won't allow me nothin' for my army service. They say I wasn't
regular. I gets eight dollars from the Welfare.

Opinions

"The young people's terrible. They rather go to the penitentiary or the
county farm or get killed than to do what is right.

Voting and Vocational Experiences

"I used to vote. I never had no trouble about it.

"They tried to whip me once since freedom, but not about votin'. A man
tried to whip me down in Stoneville because another man give me a drink.
He tried to cut me with his knife. I knocked him down. I told him I
could kill him, but I just didn't want to. While I was swearing out a
warrant to get him arrested, he went and got a gun somewheres. He came
right on in with his pistol and struck me with it. I knocked him down
again, and he was dead for twenty-five minutes. They didn't have to go
nowheres to serve the warrant on him. Nobody did anything to me about
it.

"I come to Little Rock fifty years ago or more. I farmed as long as I
was able. Doctor stopped me when I began to fall out.

"I cooked for Dr. Stone and his wife for ten years in Greenville,
Mississippi. Then I come to Pine Bluff on a vacation. The next time they
give me a vacation, I stayed away for eleven years. I went to get some
money Dr. Stone owed me for some work I had done for him once and he
wanted me to come back and cook again. I didn't do that and he died
without paying me for the work. He said it was his brother that owed me.
But it was him that hired me. I 'tended to some mules for nine months
at four dollars a week. I never got but one four dollars. The miles
belonged to him and his brother both, but it was him that hired me. It
wasn't Captain Stone, his brother. It was him, and I looked to the man
that hired me for my money. I didn't have nothing to do with nobody but
him. It was him promised to pay me."

Interviewer's Comment

Throughout his story Tims carefully avoided using his first name. Never
at any time did he let it slip.

The capture of New Orleans was effected in 1862. If the troop with which
he worked took part in the capture, he must have been twelve years old
by 1862, and his age must be at least eighty-eight. But this would be
inconsistent with his statement that he serv