In a wonderful old house which seems at a distance to be a part of the hill ____ which it stands, almost seven miles from New Albany, Miss. was Mrs. Mary A. Black, winner of the first prize in the News Scimitar Direct Descendants Contest.  
 
She is ninety-three years old and has 154 living children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren ____almost all of whom live within a few miles of the old homestead, which is ____ of what is known as Cedar Ridge between New Albany and Cotton Plant.
 
On the 8th of next May, Mrs. Black will be 94 years old and on that day the handsome silver loving cup which will be presented to her by The News Scimitar will be among the numerous birthday gifts she will receive. Each  ____ upon Mrs. Black's birthday all the members of her family who can ____ conveniently together with many friends of the family, gather under her chair and make merry with the aged woman who has
sat upon that same throne by the fireplace for more than half a century.  
 
There are no startling incidents in the life story of this woman: there were no brilliant scenes and few tradedies compared to those of other lives. It is the life history of a Christian woman whose instincts were for maternalism and for right living first-and after that for whatever the Creator might allow to be.
 
So when she holds court in May ____, with Love and Duty enthroned ____ her at either hand, her humble ____ ____ _____ the most ____ palace ____ she reigns over a ____ devoted and ____ happy ____ than most persons can boast.
 
A Picturesque Spot
 
In this season of the year Mississippi is in full bloom, and there are few places more picturesque in the spring than that which was selected  fifty-six years ago by Mr. and Mrs. Black for their future residence. The house is of a most unique character, very rough in and out, but homelike in the last ____ shingle. It has been beaten by weather until it has taken on the ____ ____. Around it cluster lilacs and plum trees, the fragrance of whose blossoms seems to be absorbed and released again by the rough hewn
timber.
_____ impress one as imperishable ____ in the valley winds the Tallahatchie river where the scream of the ____ is heard. Up hill and down winds the road which leads to the little church Ebenezer, three miles away, with the ___ ____ of the "red bush" waving ____ and there by the wayside.
 
____ and uncivilized as seems the ___ to a stranger, every rock and rill and shrub is well known to Mrs. Black and her brood, for they have ___  no other section for half a century ____ them this dear old house on the top is the temple of life's oracle. All roads lead to it and all Cedar Ridge ___ butary to it.
 
It was a raw, rainy day when the News Scimitar, ___-___ed by Sam Craig, a grocer of New Albany, and the latter a son, York, grandson and great-grandson, respectively, called upon Mrs. Black in her home and found her seated by the fireside, knitting. She knits hundreds of articles, such as mittons, stockings, caps and scarves in the course of a year. When she spotted her grandson it was with a ___ which ___ly quivered (?). Her deepest brown eyes sparkled with the joy she felt at seeing the child of her child and little York of the fourth generation once more before her.
 
A Strong Face
 
Her features were large and strong in youth and now furrowed by time and blanched by the glow ___ which even the simplest life brings to all in the end, were gentle and refined, in contrast to the course, home-made garments and the thick-soled, hob-nailed brogans which she wore. She embraced her children without rising and looked with great interest upon little York, who was in kilt skirts when she saw him last, and who now looked quite manly in knickerbockers and bare feet.
 
Mrs. Black reminds one in feminine way of the picture of Count Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist and humanitarian. She is rugged in her old age with the ___ of great physical strength in ____days and with a deep intelligence shinning upon her grizzled countenance. Aside from a slight deafness, a touch of rheumatism and a certain inevitable dimness of sight arising  ___ from her constant knitting and reading of the Bible, she is as ablebodied as many a women of fifty. Now and then when she speaks her voice breaks a bit but she is quick to understand and express herself well in simple language which she learned in her Alabama country home nearly a century ago.
 
The room in which she sat on this day was uncarpeted, as is usual with Mississippi chambers in the country and contained one bed, a table and several chairs besides the rocker in which she sat. It is well- lighted by windows which present pretty views of the blossoming trees and shrubs in the front yard. On account of the chill which came with the March storm which had just visited the section, a cheerful fire had been lit in the open fireplace which formed the chief charm of the place. It was not ___ ____ ___ grate such ___ houses are furnished with it occupied nearly half of one side of the room and filled the whole place with joy.
 
Grandmother's Smile
 
"Grandmother, you have won the first prize in the contest," announced the grandson after the first greeting, "and the News Scimitar has come to talk with you and has brought a photographer to take your picture."
 
Grandmother Black smiled a wonderful smile when she heard the news, and it was easy to see then that most of the furrows about her eyes and lips came from so much smiling and so many (pleasant) thoughts during her long life. She was pleased and willing to have her picture taken and to tell all that was required of her. She was startled by the (flash) of the light in taking her portrait but the excitement did not seem ___ of her heart at the least, for she resumed her knitting as calmly as as if nothing had happened. Then she told her story.
 
"I was born in 1812," she began, "in Abbeville District, South Carolina. I was one of ten children but one sister, Mrs. Kate Bonham, who now lives in Birmingham, Alabama and is thirteen years younger than I, and I are the only members of the family living. In 1823 my parents moved to Wilcox County Alabama taking all of the children with them, and there I spent my girlhood.  There I met and married, David A. Black. He was a school teacher who in boyhood had been bound out to a hard taskmaster and who had been taught in a hard school. He told me many of his experiences while bound to service and to this day I have great compassion for orphans who are compelled to accept charity at the hands of people who are charitable only because it is profitable.
 
"One story he told was rather funny to tell but not pleasant as an experience. He was compelled to take a drove of cattle across a swollen stream which was not spanned by a bridge. He was a small lad and had not yet learned to swim, but he feared the consequences should he fail to get the cattle safely to their journey's end, so he did some hard thinking. Finally he hit upon a plan. Driving all of the animals into the water he waited until the last one had started across when he sprang into the water and seized the tail of the hind most cow. In this manner he was asfely ferried across."
 
Her Courting Days
 
My husband had other strong characteristics beside ingenuity and fortitude of which I was proud. When he was courting me, it was customary in those days for each swain to take the lassie he loved best to the corn husking (party)?  David always chose me and it made some other lads jealous, I reckon. They said bad things about him and some things which they thought would prejudice me against him, but which really made me love him the more. One of the things they brought up 'against' him was the fact that when the bottle of liquor was passed around at the corn husking as was customary, David refused to pass it when it came to him, but always let it stand without touching a drop. They thought this was a very great breach of propriety. Maybe it was, according to their standard, but I admired him for it and we were married in 1833.
 
The ____ ships remakerable about my ___ only brothers, who were triplets. These were, John clark Young, William Lewis young, and James Mathews Young. My mother was unable to properly nurse all of the boys, so she gave one of them, James, into the hands of a negro woman to care for. the neighbors threw up their hands in horror when they heard what my mother had done.
"That child will never amount to anything if he's nursed by a negro," they said. But James was just as smart as the rest of them and he became a preacher, loved and revered by his flock until he died. All of the boys are dead now, but all of them left families.
 
"One of these families still lives in alabama, one Galveston, and the third in Corsicana, Texas."
 
The Night the Stars Fell
 
After our marriage we lived in Wilcox County, Alabama for about sixteen years, during which time all but two of our children were born. The stars fell the night my eldest daughter came into the world. I'll never forget the sight of the heavens through my window with millions of fiery balls shooting through space and seeming to sprinkle the Earth everywhwere. I was not frightened, but I did not know whether to take it as a good or bad omen. I believe now it was a good omen, when I look about me and see so many of my children, even to the fifth generation.
 
In the Spring of 1845, when most other folks who moved at all moved to California, my husband sold all his horses, a wagon and few articles for domestic use, and putting a huge covering over the wagon, stored me and our children within it and started North.  Our aim was to reach a good cotton country in North Mississippi, where we would establish ourselves and built up a home for our children, but we resolved never to stop until we found such a location within easy riding distance of a church of our denomination-  The Associate Reformed Presbyterian. We were on the road two weeks and it was a wild country in those days, as can be
imagined by those who explored its wilderness even at this in today.
 
They Find a Church
 
"With us were two other families, those of 'Judge' Norris, as he was called, and Andy Stewart. Finally we reached this ridge, upon which our house now stands, and upon being told that a neat little church with quite a congregation had been established at Ebenezer, three miles away, we unharnessed our horses and set to work on temporary cabins that would last until we has some land cleared, put in our first crop and selected a permanent residence site."
 
At this point, Mrs. Black paused in her story, and with a sigh for the old days, looked out the window and down into the smiling valley which had appeared so charming to her after that long journey.
 
"My mother has told me about those times," said Sam Craig, "and even I can remember how strong and hearty grandmother was.  Why I use to hold sheep for her while she sheared them, and mother says grandmother used to shear twenty-five sheep a day."
 
Mrs. Black smiled at the compliment. "Yes, I used to be able to do those things," she said, "and before the war I wove all the cloth from which our clothing was made. Everybody in this part of the country wore homespun." Here Mrs. black examined the texture of the neat gray coat which her grandson wore, with a critical eye, but she said nothing of her observation. It is doubtful if the modern machinery from which that coat was spun could equal the work of those withered brown fingers in the long ago.
 
"Speaking of the war," said Mrs. Black, that decade in which it closed was the saddest of my life. My husband was past the age for entering the army, but our two sons, the only sons we had, volunteered and were both killed in battle. Jimmy fell at Sharpsburg and Sammy at the Battle of Franklin. I never have been able to recover from the shock of their deaths and that of my husband, who was thrown from his buggy in 1869 and instantly killed.
 
"The war brought other troubles too. Some of our slaves would not leave us, but all our plans were upset and the women of our neighborhood suffered many hardships. I remember how Mrs. Leslies' little boy, Jap and I went to Aberdeen once for salt. It was a journey of many days and I saw many desolate houses on the way. But in those times we were more used to hardships and privations than we are now. Owing to the lack of railroads we had to send our cotton by wagon to Memphis or Salisbury for marketing."
 
Mrs. Black was asked what in her judgment, accounted for the excellent health she enjoys and the low death rate among her children.
 
"I don't exactly know," she replied, "but we have always tried to follow the teachings of the Good Book. there is one thing of which I am very proud, and I believe it has much to do with the strength of my children. All of us have been able to get all the stimulation we needed from God's pure air and from good, honest labor. We never felt the need of liquor and tobacco."
 
Youngest of her Children
 
The youngest child of the fifth generation of Mrs. Black's family is Elizabeth Snell, aged 3 months, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sam C. Snell, Bethany, Miss.
 
The children shown in the group by the fireplace are those of Sam Craig, of New albany, and Robert Wiseman, who manages the old plantation. Little Craig Wiseman holds in his hand the remains of a apple brought to him by his cousin, York Craig, who is shown at the left of his grandmother's chair, dressed in his best, as befits a visitor.
 
Also there is a group picture, it shows:
Mrs. Black and five of her daughters.
Mrs. Mary Cole, New Albany, Miss.
Mrs. Sarah Wiseman, Cotton Plant, Miss.
Mrs. Florence Craig, Cotton Plant, Miss.
Mrs. Martha Jones, Birdston, Texas
Mrs. Addie Ellis, Cotton Plant, Miss.
 
Two son-in-laws: Mr. (James Manley) Cole and Ellis. All are living except Mrs. Ellis who died in 1896.