In a two-room log cabin near Senath, Mo., a white sharecropper named Jim Bridges sat waiting for his 35-year-old wife to bear their sixth child one gloomy afternoon last week. He hoped this one would not die as four of the others had. Old Dr. Fred Speidel and three neighbor women had come over to help Pearl Bridges through her time.
The sun set bleakly. Jim Bridges got out of his chair, lit the oil lamp and sat down again. At 6:30 Pearl Bridges gave birth to a boy, at 6:32 to a...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
