The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 29, 1901, Page 4

e AKE Mammy talk!” said the editor. Can vou make water burn? I ha® one interview with Mammy Pleasant and my hat is one who can make off to any her talk when she doesn’t want to. Mammy lives out on Webster street, in & dingy, old house, with a dingy, old stove and a faithful, 6ld colored servant who forgets to light the hall lamp Megmmy describes her as “‘good but re- quiring a powerful lot of talking to.” One of Mammy's eves sags just enough uncanny feeling—as to give one o W though you were being hypnotized At my first interview 1 had bumped up against a red-hot silence and her sphinx- ational powers had not taken At this afore- ltke conve: & beck seat in my memory. seid interview Mammy had remarked that she made her hit in life by keeping her mouth shut. So 1 was prepared for the wortt as 1 rang the bell. The door opened —one of those spooklike upper-fiat doors that open from above and leave the cheer- less guest gazing up in the darkness. ‘Hello, there,” said Mammy in a cheery tone wh Behold, my lady of moods is.a bundle of st Dumb yesterday—she is talk- ative keeping interest alive with the unexpected. “I was afraid you might be angry at me.” T £aid as T drew a sigh of relief. Me> Mad? used to waste a powerful lot of When -eeven years over your that 3~ had n my name was announted. prises. to-Gay—alwars I used to get mad—but no mere. [ energy in that way: it's foolish have eight and you hesd the experience you recognize the fact that other folks to their point of view. k the same as I do, on and no fight brave as a rooster—a then T like game rooster—ready for a fight if he sees one ¢ g. I'd rather be a corpse than If I'm dead I'm all right, but ive T want te fight to win as And T don't want fo be carried to victor: on fowery b er. 1 like to of ease. eit Bo bloody scenes. The papers car & what they want as far as ] am corcern TWhen I am in a fight any b: play doesn't feaze me. Some folks take themselves too sericusly. I take life as a Joke ¢ fun out of it ¥ bread s butteéred =2t buttered an, all I eat 1t smart, b 1 Some 1o words. s gas that words were made to reveal though: t ain’t so Words were made to con- book education require so much book edu I stud cation, for T don’t neéd it. I don't dea with Looks. I've seen people that has ed books till they knew nearly a the ne llbrary, Sut when th meet people their knowledge is lockéd in the ary and they're lost out in the world I am a great bellever in. work. - Do 4 gat twe gh with it. T've nine in family in eariy the after- ing how well the work nd sat on the lawn in I'm not sa rhaps ght at’s the main thing. the selvages weren't the work was It woull bt t2).c »n ordinary woman days to do that work ““There some mighty grand living hose days,” £ald Mammy, “spread su;- boxes of balm tea There wae Do you know an old pers 254 whrat balm tea is? o - — HOW CLOTHES GO'i THZIR NAMES. = pecple feel bewildered by es the articles of feminine ap bear. and wiill be interested ning their origin and de ord “costume” comes fro word sign! ing céstom, and t verb dresser, s is derived from petticoat comes from the t, and t direct door garment cotte,” and was sub o coat. Petticoat coat, is due to petty, signifying irt is from the Anglo-Saxon tan, to shorten. We have come er that which covers the lower e body as a skirt and the up- 05 dice, the word bodice bel plural of body, for more than ene ce is generally worn. word ‘“gown" comes from the Welsh “gwn." “Corset” is a French word frcm “corps,” the body, and the dimin tive “ette”—namely, a little body. “‘Sta; express support, from the French word os: “Trousscau™ . comes from tt French “‘treu: a bundle. “Hos: en Anglo-Saxon German word, derived from the ITtelandic “hsa.” “Stoce” is the Arglo-Saxon for stocking, which means a trunk. “‘Garter” comes from ‘“jartiere, the French word, and “garetto,” the Ita jan, which denotes the bend of the knee. “Pocket” means “‘poke,” a bag or paunch, with the diminutive, the pocket being only & little bag inserted In & garment or any other article. We derive “polonaise” from e is the Pol who ¢all their surtout the polo- nie, but “pelisse” comes from the Latin “peilces.” which was generally made of fur. Macintosh is the name of its invent- or, and “umbrella” is frem ‘‘umbra,” a little shade. & _Zz 5\ THE SUNDAY CALL. AN, - ‘Pleasant ~ COdERhievwoman (o> B> ISABEL. FPRASER. . . colored man who used to get kind .af tot- tely. When accused of being drunk, he used to say, ‘All T had was a little balm tea with a drop of gin in it “I don’t like to be called mammy everybody. “Put that down. “I am not mammy to everybody in Call- fornia. “I got a letter to-day from a minister in Sacramento. It was addressed to Mammy by Pleasant. I wrote back to him on his own paper that my name wes Mrs. Mary E. Pleasant. “I wouldn’t ‘waste any of my paper on him. . The letter wasn’t in the house fif- teen minutes. T sent it right back to him unread. “‘Between you and me, I don't care any- thing-about it, but-théy shan’t do it—they shan’t nickname me at- my age. If he didn't have better /sense he should have had better manners. “It just rouses my Kanaka blocd,” and the .0ld lady stamped her foot in mock rage, and we both laughed at her Kanaka blood. Any person who can laugh at himself is usually & good fellow and has character to burn. “To-day,” continued mammy, ‘“thers was a little dapper fellow came up to me on the car and told me he had known me for forty years. He told me how he had always admired me, knew people who knew me well—folks that used to board at my house. He mentioned several— Colonel John Taylor (that's Zack's nephew) and Governor Booth, who was elected from my house. ‘“We got on famously. “He was as polite as a French dancing master—but he spojled it all when he got up to go; sez he, ‘Good-by, Mammy Pleasant,” and bowed himself off the car bare-headed. It is too -bad he got off, for I could have entertained him royally down to the ferry for that last remark—but he =ald his little pleee and went before I could answer back. “Im invited to & great many swell af- fairs. The daughters and nieces of old triends of mine invite me to thelr wed- dings and receptions. I kuow just when to go and when not to go—how long to stay and when to go home. ““One time I was invited to a breakfast by an old and dear ftiend, Mrs. Charley Doone. I drove in eight miles from the ranch; when I got thére I saw thé digni- tarles of the clty. I saw the lady was embarrassed, and T was embarrassed for her. She had invited me, thinking that I might not come. . “I saw how I could fix it all smeoth for her. f “She sald: ‘T am so glad you've come. This is going to be a very elegant af- fair. I wouldn’t have had you miss it for anything.’ “‘I'm very glad to be here,’ answered, ‘but I have an errand to go on first and then I'll be back’ What a relief that must have been to her. I jumped back into my rig, drove around to see my friends and came back when all the guests had gone and had lunch with her. That lady doesn’t know to this day that I got ot ‘of thére to relieve her. “Another time I was invited to Captain Willlam B. Hugh's wedding at the Lick House. He married Miss Jones, who used to board with me. T went there-by invi- tation, but I wore my white apron and collar. I was shown to a seat right in the folding doors during the reception. Everybody staréd at me. “The waiter was so rattled that he passed me the refreshments first. “I tock the tray and waited on the bridal party. “Then I went out and went home. “I had been ta the church and recep- tion and waitéd on the bridal.party—my work was done, “Once I had to'go away from a place before I transacted my business. It hap- Dened In this way: P “I got an anenymous letter once from 2 business place in this city teiling me where I eould find a person who would 8ive me questions to ask a,withess who had béen on the stand the day before and Wwas olng on again the néxt-morning at 10 o'clock. As the latter ‘was’not quite clear to me_and the time was short, I Tose eatly the next mo this firm, carrying partially open. kn ng and drove to ér ip.my hand it When the g man came who ha show the white flag. and the ks came hat it was atisfled went in; I of them. At length the right man camg ! The instant he saw me his hands and said: ‘F don’t bring that bugsy her my business! under- “I waved to t driver and he stood to take the buggy ou of sight. The lawyer sald: ‘I can't talk—I x here; 'twill ruin my business. Go to a Ness avenue little alleyway between Van and Polk street. I will (And that was fully a mile from of business.) I went, and he explained the letter to me. I other letters and messages also same firm right along while pending. . Strange as it may appear, he has never spoken to m He was a man a there.’ you his place cam e s nor recognized me since. ter my own style of doing business. T never would have gone to Mrs Bell's except for the fact that I had a strl.” “What—have any you by her fat her up properly. be better off with white people than with You can’t mix oil and water. The I knew the colored. time has no ple and white are yet come when colored peo- ¢ and I am not a'try the proposition. I | accept the situa be happy under my own banner N 1d didn’t belong there. It wouldn't be a 1 to be livir I'd put her in I'd 80 m and I'm a-t t to Ber this day was employed at employed by ed te do at tr Be an cause there wasn't it. “The Bel and me name and schoal paia at the c vent to came she had al from that s “So I another f: the remained at gratificatio father’s name father was—we! to none. A short silence aid. Then Mammy “Well, why don’t ask me?"” “Ask you what?" “I know what you're king of—you're wondering: who the father was—ask me “Well, who was her father?” “That's my business @ got business as well as you “And now,” said Mammy, ‘“as Mr. Barnes used to say in his argument when he couldn’t say a “I will tell more abou g more about Mammy Plea: hereafter—but he always forgot t6 do Now ask me any questions you wa to ask me and to answer I'll see what ones I want But I knew Mammy ad said her L] [ | plece and I fancied I knew how long to stay and just when to go, too, so I wished her good day e might years yet to brighten the world rare epigrams to oceasionally to stagger t old family the bones of the m skele- tons of which she is the warden. L . - —p EDEN WAS AT THE NORTH POLE. TORWALD KOEHL a Seandl- na selentist, now comes ward and says the Ga of Eden was located . at north pole Koehl is an a nomer nomical reasons whie v him that he has at at truth on this point. that when Adam a s stars did not a light mor desc, of dawn, but In a circle above the numerous tradit that the face ¢ time as he desc after m he hi is opposed In the er only two points where such nen occurs, bes it ¥ months of elose n unable to find a to this - ew of ire world, howes namely and at the sou at the and the h pole tion to be swered was, at which «f these two Poles was the Garden of E located? The learned s in solves this problem easily. Aneient traditions, he says, tell us ¢ r parents, Wwhen they departed from emigrat- ed toward the south it would have been impossible for to go very far in that n Garden of Eden had been located at the south pola glcal gorclusion 1 at the north This novel theory is tentio: dents, reserve is that it was sit Attracting mueh at- among scientists and Biblical stu- Some are inclined to aceept it but others hesitate that they would like more about and hint to know somet the “anctent traditions” which Koehl refers so frequently to