RECOLLECTIONS OF A BOYHOOD IN

GEORGETOWN.

BY WILLIAM A. GORDON.

(Read before the Society, April 18, 1916.)

At the present time when Washington has grown to be a large city, when improved housing and better sanitation have made living more pleasant and life safer, and when lifelong residents know even by sight but few of those passed on the street, it is difficult to picture what were the surroundings, what the life, and what the manners and customs of the people who lived here sixty or seventy years ago. Thanks to the research of students and the many books which have been written, we are well informed as to the Colonial and Revolutionary history of our people. This Society has done much in collecting and preserving interesting and valuable historical data relating to the District, especially of the period since it was set apart for Federal purposes. Little, however, has been written about the daily life and customs of the people who lived here. If someone equipped for the work and enthusiastic on the subject would undertake to tell us of the life, manners and customs of the people of this District during the early part of the nineteenth century, as Macauley did for the English people, it would be a valuable contribution to local history and make interesting reading.

Though feeling hesitation in taking up the time of this Society with matters of lighter character than are contained in the papers usually read before it, I will with your permission and craving your forbearance, tell you of some things which made an indelible impres

sion on my mind during a childhood and early youth passed in my native town of Georgetown.

When I was a child Georgetown was a town of less than eight thousand inhabitants; an active commercial center with business reaching far into the neighboring States and commerce into distant seas. Its people were industrious, intelligent and enterprising; good citizens, self-reliant, and proud of their town. Life was quiet and homelike, and as travel to distant, points. was rarely undertaken and the summer hegira to watering places unknown, there was a wider acquaintance amongst the people, and a closer bond of neighborly friendship and intimacy than now exist. Like most towns in Maryland and Virginia the houses in the older, or western part, were of brick, built directly on the street, and except in few cases without grounds either in front or on the sides, the gardens for the sake of privacy being located in the rear. I mention these things to show the surroundings in which I passed my early years.

Negro slavery existed in the town until the time of the war between the States, and most of the domestic servants were slaves, hired by those not owning them generally by the year at moderate wages, with necessary clothing and medical attention added. When a little boy I was much with the servants who lived in the house and were recognized as members of the family. They were proud of the family to which they belonged, were acquainted with its traditions and loved to relate them. Many were aristocratic in their ideas, to whom changes in social position made no difference, as they classed everyone socially according to their recollection of what the person's ancestor had been. In every family there was a nurse, or "mammy," who cared for and exercised despotic authority over the

children, and would permit no interference with them except from the parent. They dearly loved "their children," as they affectionately called them, and were loved by them. Relations of mutual interest and affection existed between the members of the family and the servants in the house, very different from relations which now exist, where service only is regarded on the one side and pay on the other. This feeling of friendship existed not only between the family and those living in the house, but extended to those who had belonged to the family or had formerly lived with them. At Christmas all felt at liberty to come and partake of the holiday cheer, most of whom expected and received something in the way of a gift; whilst those of the immediate household hung up their stockings on Christmas Eve just as the children did.

There were many interesting customs amongst the negroes. Ordinarily they were not allowed on the streets after the town bell rang at nine o'clock at night, but at Christmas this restriction was removed, and as midnight approached bands of them would go through the streets singing hymns and carols before the houses of their white friends. I well remember how excited I was when waked up, taken from bed, wrapped up snugly, and carried to the window to listen to them. As many of the men had good voices the singing was unusually sweet. The following morning the leader of the band would call at the house and receive a token of appreciation in the way of small coin.

The annual May-day parade of the negro drivers should also be mentioned. In connection with the business of the town there were many carts, drays and wagons driven by negroes. On the first of May all of them had holiday and paraded the streets with vehicles and horses adorned with bright-colored papers, ribbons

and flowers; the drivers in their best with long white aprons decorated with huge brilliantly colored rosettes. Headed by a band they would march over the town, and then go to some neighboring wood to pass the day in feasting, dancing and singing.

As much time was passed within doors everything connected with the household was a matter of interest. There was no gas or running water in the house; no range or cook stove in the kitchen. Water was obtained either from wells or cisterns in the yard or from the public pumps on the street corners. Everyone had barrels or hogsheads in which rain water was collected for washing purposes, the breeding places of mosquitoes innumerable. The coop in which chickens and other fowls were kept and fattened was a necessary equipment. Light was furnished from candles, or from lamps fed with sperm or lard oil. Generally there was also a lantern for use out of doors when visiting at night, for the streets were but poorly lighted if at all. With the exception of a hard-coal open-grate fire in the parlor, sometimes supplemented by a bright cheerful wood fire in the then popular "Franklin" stove, the fires were of wood in the open fireplaces or in small airtight stoves. The halls were generally very cold and except in large mansions unheated. Wood was supplied by country wagons and sawed into proper sizes by old negro men who followed the trade of "woodsawyers." In the kitchen was a large open fireplace with wide hearth, in which was a swinging crane upon which the pots and kettles hung. In addition there were numerous ovens of various sizes, with griddles, frying pans and other cooking utensils; also a large tin "kitchen" placed on the hearth in front of the fire in which turkeys, fowls and roasts of beef were cooked. Generally on the side of the fireplace were hooks on

which Potomac herring, strung upon long sticks, were hung to dry. "Johnny-cake," made of cornmeal dough spread on barrel-head boards, was cooked by being propped up before the fire. The hot "Johnny-cake" and the roe herring of those days, which cannot be had by the present method of cooking, was food fit for the gods, and the delight of our childhood. We had abundance of molasses, not the tasteless syrups and things now called by that name, but thick golden New Orleans molasses, good to the taste and sight. In summer there was abundance of fruit, berries of all kinds, apricots, plums, peaches, pears and melons. Fish of every kind. were abundant, as the town was a great fish market; in fact food of every kind was plentiful and moderate in price.

Christmas was the great day of the year, and for weeks housekeepers were busy preparing for it. Every variety of cake and every kind of sweets were made (for there was no confectioner to call upon), which with ham, turkey and other substantials, were spread out in the dining room. Open house was kept and friends and neighbors were expected to call. There was much holiday visiting amongst the children, in fact it was considered a slight if one's playmates failed to come in and partake of the "goodies" and admire the simple but no less prized presents. At all times of the year there was much hospitality, and whenever visitors called cake and wine, and on winter afternoons tea and thin wafers, were handed around by the servants.

Children of the same age played together, and when quite young the little negroes were welcome companions. Generally the playgrounds were in the enclosures about the houses, though occasionally the neighborhood was visited in search of adventure, and to climb up into the loft of a stable and roll over in the sweet