"I don't remember the Ku Klux. They was in my little boy days but they never bothered me.
"All my life I been working hard—steamboat, railroad, farming. Wore clean out now.
"Times is awful hard. I am worn clean out. I am not sick. I'm ashamed to say I can't do a good day's work but I couldn't. I am proud to own I get commodities and $8 from the Relief."
Interviewer: Thomas Elmore Lacy
Person interviewed: Sam Miller, Morrilton, Arkansas
Age: 98
"I is ninety-eight years old, suh. My name's Sam Miller, and I was born in Texas in 1840—don't know de month nor de day. My parents died when I was jes' a little chap, and we come to Conway County, Arkansas fifty years ago; been livin' here ever since. My wife's name was Annie Williamson. We ain't got no chillun and never had none. I don't belong to no chu'ch, but my wife is a Baptis'.
"Can't see to git around much now. No, suh, I can't read or write, neither. My memory ain't so good about things when I was little, away back yonder, but I sure members dem Ku Klux Klans and de militia. They used to ketch people and take em out and whup em.
"Don't rickolleck any of de old songs but one or two—oh, yes, dey used to sing 'Old time religion's good enough for me' and songs like dat.
"De young people! Lawzy, I jest dunno how to take em. Can't understand em at all. Dey too much for me!"