Cecil Sharp Diary 1918

Media

 

Document date

Friday 6th of September 1918

Transcription Notes

Had a very bad night and wake up feeling dreadfully seedy. Evidently a return of whatever it was I had on Tuesday night. I stay in bed all day & eat very little. Mid-day move down to rooms on the second floor which will be cooler & less noisy. Can’t imagine what has made me ill except that I have swallowed enough filth & grease in the last 6 weeks to have upset 500 stomachs! They are really little better than Barbarians in this part of the world! The fact is they are hopeless slackers — possibly a legacy from the old slave days. My room in this hotel is a good example — (1) no key to my door (2) no plug to wash-basin (3) plug in bath too small, so that you have to keep taps running all the time you bathe (4) 6 out of the 8 locks in the cupboard missing (5) the handle off cupboard door (6) electric bulb in bath room broken! This is by no means unusual. The hotel is fairly clean not because it is ever cleansed but because it is a new building and has not yet had time to become really dirty. The fact is that the Eastern States have achieved a certain civilization; the Western States are striving after one, and still have a long way to go; while the South is decadent and has only a few shreds left of the civilization it once brought from England.

Location

USA : North Carolina : Marion [0,0]

Read about these diaries, including a note about historical racism