Sweet Briar College - Briar Patch Yearbook (Sweet Briar, VA)

Page 22 text:

BRIAR PATCH from The C ' id which I am reading. This trunk is still at Sweet Briar, and stands surrounded by huge wardrobe and innovation trunks, which make it look like a pigmy. One can well understand how people in those days traveled with five trunks. On the inside of the lid is a colored picture of Castle Bruen, and pasted on the top of the tray are pictures of charming Japanese ladies and luscious bunches of grapes which must have delighted the fourteen-year-old child. Perhaps the things Daisy loved most after her music were Mowers. Uncle Logan said that often and often Miss Daisy. on Bounce, her pony, had ridden with him to Kentucky Pasture, where he went to salt the cattle. She would spend the day gathering wild flowers, which she would take home and plant in the garden. Daisy had her way in almost everything. Logan said: I alius use ' to try to pacify her and Mrs. Williams. Mr. Williams dun tole me when he ' gaged me: ' Now, Logan, you do jest what they want. I don ' t ker what. One day Daisy came to the field where Logan was superintending the wheat cutting and said she wanted him to go with her to get some flowers. No sooner said than done; all the workers were dismissed, and Logan went with Miss Daisy to get flowers. Another time Mr. Williams scolded Logan sharply for making the ice pond so shallow. He thought it should he at .least six feet deep, but when he found that Daisy had ordered it three feet deep no more words were said about it. Every other Friday Daisy, mounted on Bounce, went with Logan to collect the rents from the tenants. Her father had had a pocket made in her saddle to hold the money. She loved to be with Logan, and enjoyed playing with his children and helping his daughter to milk the cows. Her chickens were very near her heart, and when a mink killed some of them it was a real sorrow to her. Logan said, with great pride, that none of the cattle had ever been lost in the mountains except a half dozen slice]), and then Miss Daisy cried and cried. Mrs. Williams was evidently a calm and self-contained woman, or. as Uncle Logan expressed it. If things went ' gainst her or fer her hit were all right. She was small, weighing, according to Daisy ' s diary. 187 pounds. She was often dressed in a dirt-colored silk. Mrs. Williams and her sister. Mrs. Mosby, were devoted to their father. Mr. Fletcher, and after his death made it a custom to go to the monu- ments to carry cake and wine to his grave, much as we would carry flowers now. Mr. Sidney Fletcher, Mrs. Williams ' brother, was very much loved by Daisy and the rest of the connection, hut her other brother, Lucian, seems to have been feared. He had had tough luck. Logan said, all of his belongings being burned 16

Page 21 text:

BRIAR PATCH box of candy, and again, on March 13: Mamma and I walked out. We bought some taffy from Huyler ' s. I put my hair in papers to curl it last night. I think what Daisy enjoyed most in New York were the concerts she heard. On March 2 she writes: Mamma and 1 went to Chickering Hall to the first of Miss Maud Morgan ' s and Mr. Morgan ' s Harp and organ concerts. We enjoyed ourselves very much. She kept all the programs of these recitals, and sometimes marked a special number. Music evidently was a vital part of her life, and her harp seemed almost sacred to her. Whenever she mentions the word it is always spelled with a capita] letter, and in the back of her diary is copied this quotation: Observe a due proportion in all things; avoid excessive joy. as well as complaining grief, and seek to keep thy soul in tune and harmony like a well-toned ' Harp. ' Pythagoras. 530 15. C. One feels as if this were truly her philosophy. But all of Daisy ' s good times were not confined to concerts. On March J. ) she writes: Mamma and I went to Barnum ' s Circus in the afternoon. We had reserved seats. It was very interesting. We saw the Chinese dwarf, the Zulus, the wild men of Borneo, and other curiosities. There was a drove of l ' l elephants and a little baby elephant. In the back of her diary is jotted down a little note it propos of the deeds of a certain young lady of her own age. by name Estelle Smith, who paid the Williamses an unexpected visit: Broke slate. doll ' s head. heels of shoes. Easter egg. Lost key of paint box. Broke piano. Rubbed paint oft doll. Cut the- hair rii trois jours. This little memorandum shows thai however she sought for the unruffled, philo- sophic calm, like a normal child she resented the vandalism of her friend. On March 1 . she writes: A letter came from Uncle Sing | Mrs. Williams ' brother]. He says the daffodils .and apricots are in bloom. I wish I was there. She lined the country, and wanted to go home, so on April 21 Uncle Sing took her back to Sweet Briar. On the 20th she writes: Papa bought me a nice trunk, with Daisy W. on it. and a little Canary bird, which I have named Don Roderisjo 15

Page 23 text:

BBIAR ' CM up. He came one night to Sweet Briar. The Williamses were away, so lit- asked Logan to go with him to Mrs. Mosby ' s at Mount St. Angelo. There Mr. Lucian Fletcher told of his hard luck and asked his sister for some money. She gave him a shot bag with a handful of coppers in it. He looked at them for a moment, then threw them disdainfully on the floor, and. turning on his heel, left the house. Per- haps Mrs. Mosby felt that already he had had money enough, for. besides running through his own fortune, whenever lie needed anything he went to Tuseulum. Mr. Sidney Fletcher ' s place, and took it. If he wanted a horse he opened the stable and led it out; if a ham. he broke open the smokehouse and carried a nice shoulder away. He was a big man. and something of a fighter, so no one cared to stand in his way. Uncle Logan is fully convinced that there is hidden gold at Sweet Briar. One night, after both Daisy ' s and Mr. Williams ' death, Mrs. Williams asked Logan to go with her to the big pine tree which is situated on the hill across the lake. Sin carried two tin boxes with her. and she and Logan carefully buried them. No one has ever seen those boxes from that day to this. There is just one more quotation I want to add from Daisy ' s diary, so that when we enjoy the delightful spring days at Sweet Briar we can think of her and her love of this place and its surroundings: May 3. The most beautiful day 1 most ever saw. The mountains are clear and deep blue, and the air is sweet with mock orange. ' ' Uncle Logan said to me: Chile, you come to see me sum Sunday when 1 ain ' t got nothin ' to do and I ' ll set all day and tell you bout Miss Daisy and the Williamses so you kin write a great big book bout em. There ' s a heap to tell. Unfortunately it was not Sunday. and only a few extracts from that great big- book of the future can be given here. I hope that some one will soon devote a great many Sundays to the pleasant task of editing Uncle Logan ' s garrulous memoirs.