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Chapter X

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Chapter XII

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CHAPTER XI

TARBORO AND TARBORO WAYS

The people of Tarboro looked askance at me, as if I had no business there. I had "sassed" their doctor and they didn't like it. Things went from bad to worse. The tide was against me and I was virtually tabooed.

To the average Tarborean, an outsider is synonymous with an interloper, that is, if he comes as a worker.

It is well known to the citizens of Tarboro now, how I was treated in those days--to their shame be it said.

I could not even work at my place of business in safety, and was finally forced to appeal to the Court for protection.

The ladies, even of my own Church had nothing to do with me, the minister of my own Church did not come near me, and for nearly a year I was excluded from all Church privileges, and did not feel free, and welcome to cross its portals.

I can never forget one day, when Mr. Dodd--who was my friend as well as co-worker--and I were going from the Laboratory to the Hotel. Three scions of the "upper ten" passed by us, two scions of the "lower five" - and the supercilious smile they gave us, and the Tarborean aspect of their upturned noses, as they gave us an all-searching gaze, and the contemptuous swish of their skirts as they passed, lest they should come into contact with a working woman! And how Mr. Dodd returned their gaze with a polite bow and said ''All it costs is five cents a look, ladies!"

Had I gone to Tarboro with the emoluments of wealth, my recollections of the place might have been different, would perhaps have been as pleasant as those of a lady boarding at the same Hotel that I was at the same time, who was visited, drived, flowered, and ice creamed.

She was a Yankee, I a Southerner, but she wore diamonds and I--a working apron.

Encased in their little shell of exclusiveness, to them the World is bounded on the North by the Railroad Depot, on the South by the Tar River, on the East by Hendrick's Creek and on the West by Lloyd's field. See?

There were some few families there who were as kind and courteous to me as anyone could be, but they were few. There are as

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good people in Tarboro as one can find anywhere, but they are far between.

Dr. J. W. Jones and family, the Shacklefords, the Bryans, the Penders, never meted me anything but kindness and courtesy, which I have never forgotten.

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