.

Anxious Days And Sleepless Nights.
The coming of Christmas, that first year of our residence in Alabama, gave us an opportunity to get a farther insight into the real life of the people.

The first thing that reminded us that Christmas had arrived was the "foreday" visits of scores of children rapping at our doors, asking for "Chris'mus gifts! Chris'mus gifts!" Between the hours of two o'clock and five o'clock in the morning I presume that we must have had a half-hundred such calls.

This custom prevails throughout this portion of the South to-day.
During the days of slavery it was a custom quite generally observed throughout all the Southern states to give the coloured people a week of holiday at Christmas, or to allow the holiday to continue as long as the "yule log" lasted.

The male members of the race, and often the female members, were expected to get drunk.