us' knowed I would
git rich right away, 'cause $2.50 was a mighty lot of money." Ike
laughed as he said: "How many boys would wuk for dat pay for a week now,
let alone a whole month? Ma did let me wuk for Miss Belle and I was
happy, but I know my Mist'ess had a time wid me 'cause, when I got on
dat white coat dey let me wear to wait on de table, I knowed more dan
evvybody else put together and dere couldn't nobody tell me how to keep
de flies off de table. Miss Belle is one fine 'oman, dey jua' don't come
no finer and no better.

"When I was fourteen my Pa hired me out to be a shoemaker. De shop whar
I was 'prenticed was down on Broad Street, jus' about whar de Bernstein
Furniture Store is now. Dat old buildin' was tore down long years ago
and evvything 'long dar is changed now. De Athens Hardware Store is de
only Broad Street business of dem days dat has stood in de same place
and endured through all dese years.

"When I went to wuk for Mr. Joe Barry in his shoe shop on Jackson
Street, right in back of whar Mr. Lee Morris' store is now, I felt lak I
had got to be a real sho' 'nough important shoemaker. I wuked for him
'bout 12 or 14 years. He was a good man to wuk for and he was de only
shoemaker I ever knowed to git rich at his trade; he really did make
money in dat shop. I've been a shoemaker ever since 1874, but I never
have been able to git far ahead. In spite of all our trouble for 85
years atter de war, it seems to me dat times was much better den dan dey
is now. Course, folks didn't make as much den as dey does now.
Carpenters, bricklayers, shoemakers, in fact 'most any kind of laborers
who got from $1.00 to $1.50 a day thought dey had fine wages den. Boys
was paid from $2.50 to $5.00 a month. Cooks got $5.00 to $6.00 a month,
and of course, dey got deir meals whar dey wuked. Sometimes odds and
ends of old clothes was give to 'em, and dey got along very well, even
if most of 'em did have families and big families at dat. Folks could
live on less den 'cause things was cheaper. You could git meal for 50c a
bushel; side meat was 5c to 6c a pound; and you could git a 25-pound
sack of flour for 50c. Wood was 50c a load. House rent was so cheap dat
you didn't have to pay over $3.00 a month for a 2 or 3 room house, and
lots of times you got it cheaper. Most evvybody wore clothes made out of
homespun cloth and jeans, and dey didn't know nothin' 'bout ready-made,
store-bought clothes. Dem clothes what dey made at home d