Chapter 9

CAST:

Jeff Burnside—narrator, owner of "Burnside's Sausage & Bacon Co."

Jane Burnside—wife of Jeff

Mary Elizabeth Burnside—Jeff's daughter

Jeff (JJ) Burnside, Jr.—Jeff's son

Inez Arthur—substitute grandmother

Rastus—Negro employee

Martha—Negro employee, Rastus' wife

"Little" Jane—Rastus' daughter

Jonah—Negro employee

Ellie—Negro employee, Jonah's wife

Josiah—Negro employee

Mandy—Negro employee, Josiah's wife

Pierre Monde—creole employee, BBQ chef

Agnes Monde—creole, Pierre's wife

Henrietta Monde—creole, Pierre's daughter

Pierre was delighted with the new metal cookin' racks that the blacksmith in Bentlyville made fer him. These replaced the wooden racks an' wuz a hell of a lot easier ta use. Pierre couldn't cook more meat on the new racks than he could on the old ones, but the new racks wuz so much sturdier that he wuz able ta move them around faster an' easier.

We had built a total of eight smokehouses jus' fer bar-b-que, an' Pierre wuz jus' 'bout at his limit. Any more smokehouses an' Pierre wuz gonna need he'p. I couldn't hardly wait!

We wuz runnin' out of hickory fer the smokin', too. We tried other hardwoods ta see ifen it made any difference in the bar-b-que an' the sausage links. It didn't, so we saved the hickory fer the bacon an' ham. Thank God, there wuz big stands of hardwood on our property an' in other places 'round the county.

Unfortunately, this was when we started ta run inta trouble of an entirely different kind. The discharged sojurs from the dissolved Confederate Army wuz startin' ta come home, an' there wuzn't no jobs fer some of 'em. Most of 'em wuz jus' returnin' ta work the farms they had left when they joined the Army, but those what had been workin' at day labor of one sort an' another didn't have no job ta come back ta.

This last bunch resented the fact that the jobs they used ta have wuz now taken by niggers who had once been slaves. On top of everythin' else, the niggers wuz willin' ta work fer less money than the returnin' White ex-sojurs. Talk about hard feelin's! We suddenly had gangs of unemployed White men ridin' 'round the countryside raisin' hell an' generally bein' a problem.

Some of the gangs wuz able ta intimidate niggers an' drive them inta quittin' their jobs soz a White man could git it. We wuz visited a couple of times, an' I wuz told in no uncertain terms that I had ta fire all my niggers an' hire Whites ta take their places, or I would see more trouble than I could handle. Naturally, I threw the bastards offen my property when they said that, but I knew they would be back.

Lucky fer us, Jane an' I had been able ta make a quick trip ta Chicago ta sell the jewelery an some of the plate what we had picked up in the Jayhawkers' loot a couple of years afore this. Even after we gave Jeb half the money, we still had over $6,000 that we could use ta protect the business. I used some of the money ta hire four guards, all niggers, what I taught ta shoot Henry rifles. We put them up in Jonah's old apartment in the barn. I wuzn't real comfortable, but it would do 'til we could get sumpthin' better built. They all had families, but they had other places ta keep their families 'til we could put up the housin'

Speakin' of housin' we wuz now overloadin' the kitchen in the main house. We jus' couldn't handle 19 people eatin' at the same time, an' we would have 11 more when the guards' families joined us. Like it or not, we wuz gonna have ta make some changes. We talked it over an' decided ta add kitchens ta the houses we had already built an' include kitchens in any new houses we built.

I needed some he'p managin' the day-ta-day operations, so I asked Rastus ta take on the job of foreman. I raised his pay an' asked him ta move into the main house with us. We really needed the space his apartment in the barn was takin' up ta increase our manufacturin' space.

Well, Rastus, Martha, and Little Jane did move into the main house, so that part wuz fixed. But it took us a month ta build the new houses, even with me hirin' some extra hands ta he'p with the construction. They wuz jus' temporary he'p, but they wuz eager ta git the jobs.

By keepin' the smokehouses separate from the rest of the manufacturin' operation, we wuz able ta be somewhat more efficient with the rest of the production. Hogs came in one end of the barn, what was a pretty big buildin', an' raw sausage links, raw ham, raw pork roast, and raw marinated bar-b-que came out the other end ready fer the smokehouse. The stuff went directly inta barrels from the smokehouse, soz we wuz able ta keep everythin' right clean. We never had no complaints.

What we really needed, but wuz never able ta git, wuz a better way of haulin' our product ta our customers. We refused ta sell ta any store what wuz more than a one-day trip from our production facilities. Hell, we could of supplied several states ifen we had more than just wagons ta do the haulin'.

Me an' Jane talked 'bout puttin' up more manufacturin' plants spaced 'round the country, but we decided that we jus' wuzn't ready fer that, yet. Maybe later, but right now, we had all we could do ta keep track of our one plant.

The craziest thin' 'bout our operation wuz that we sold every piece of meat what we could process, but we wuz still bein' hounded by White folks complainin' 'bout us hirin' niggers, 'stead of White men. They claimed it wuz cuz the niggers would work fer less money than the Whites, but I claimed that the niggers wuz already trained an' generally wuz harder workers than the Whites what thought the world owed 'em a livin'. I had tried hirin' some Whites, but they showed up fer work too drunk too many times, soz I fired 'em. The niggers never did git drunk enough fer me ta notice, an' that wuz plenty good enough fer me.

Our biggest problem wuz havin' our delivery men harassed by gangs of men on the road they wuz takin' ta make a delivery. I hated ta do it, but I had ta hire armed guards ta ride with the delivery wagons. The guards happened ta be niggers, too, but that wuz caused by White men refusin' ta take orders from a nigger. The drivers were all niggers an' I put them in charge, cuz I didn't want the guards ta git excited an' chase off after people an' leave the delivery wagon unguarded. That happened once, an' the gang destroyed the wagon an' stole most of the product what wuz in the wagon. They didn't kill him, but they did beat the driver so bad that he couldn't work fer a month. A course, we took care of him an' paid him while he wuz laid up, but it made me mad on principle!

At first, I rode with the guards protectin' the wagon, an' that wuz the time we had one of our worst attacks. This wuz a big shipment with a convoy of three wagons. I had eight guards with me, soz I figured that we wuz safe from attack. We might of been, but I wuz talkin' ta the leader of the gang when a voice cried out from the back of the gang, "THAT'S THE BASTARD WHAT'S CAUSIN' ALL THE TROUBLE! LET'S GIT HIM!"

Pistols started ta shoot from the back of the gang, but there wuz too many of their friends up close ta us fer them ta git a clean shot. When the shootin' started, everybody on both sides went fer their guns. Most of my guards wuz armed with double-barrel, 10-gauge shotguns loaded with #00 buckshot. I ain't right shore why I had my people use shotguns, but I wuz very happy that I had on that occasion.

By the time my people stopped shootin', there wuzn't a single member of that gang what wuz sittin' on his hoss. Them shotguns wuz all muzzle loaders, soz there wuzn't no way fer the guards ta reload, but they didn't need ta. With 16 barrels of 10-gauge shotgun goin' off practically in their faces, that gang didn't stand no chance. My men also had pistols, but they never had ta use 'em. We did have a few minor wounds, but nothin' ta worry 'bout. On the other hand, all of the gang wuz either dead or badly wounded.

We did what carin' people always did under the circumstances—we checked ta see ifen the wounded had a chance of survivin'. None of 'em did, so we slit their throats ta keep them from sufferin'. We stripped the corpses of anythin' valuable. I had one of the guards take the hosses back ta our place while the rest of us continued with the delivery chores.