Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-03-02

/ hind the spirit Of the nge-tTYing to hold
/ competition with the arts, the industry
/ and inventions of white men.
And this reminds me Of conversation
that took place tie other evening between
substantial aud we'll known farmer of
! Hancock county, and planter over here.
They were discussing the relative profits
and convenience of white aud black labor,
aud the former took the ground that no
could take n farm of given number Of
Hcres, manned by three, four or half dozen
white men, with precisely the same adTan-
tages and capital that the other might have
and then let the latter take i've times the
number Of hands, In the shape Of slaves,
4 and Ia ten years the man from Hancock
would be worth much more money than
! tie man With the negroes. For, said he,
III VIII have no doctor bills to pay, no IN
necessary months 10 feed through the
winter, unless hare work for them L
will have any of my capital invested
| in Prre4rious property, but will hare
energy, thrift, intellect, and machinery,
while you will have dull, spiritless, stupid,
untrustworthy, expensive negroes, who
must work with heavy, clumsy machinery
To work at all, and who drAwl everything
I along ms sluggishly as possible, in order to
rest tleir bones as much as they can.
Another thing about negroes and negro
lRLOrers over here, aud. indeed, everywhere
throughout the South, where have been,
is that you will scarcely ever see one en-
trusted with the working or driving of
horses, unless very dilipidated ones. y
digger and n mule, are the two kinds of
creatures that are adapted to work tOgeth-
err. The Niger cant kill the mule nor the
mule the Niger, and so the one can beat
the other, and tho other kick the former
With impunity. To see a mule and - negro
together is to be convinced of this fact.
observe that when the cart is ready to
start, the sable driver don't go off like an
Intelligent aud human white man would
do. He has long stick in his hand or a
heavy whip, and the first thing he does is
to strike and then speak. And such blows
as some of them do strikeI Utterly devoid
of sense or humanity. Tho poor brutcs in
harness vince rs if they were shot, and
start of in lOpe, dragging Mr. Niger by
the rope lines, and he holding back on his
heels, as if he hadn't wanted the mule to
move, and yelling, too all tue while as
ferociously as savage. The tender mer-
cies of the wicked are said, by Solomon,
to be cruel, aud his remark is none the less
true Of the negro mule drivers that have
seen.
The vast number of negroes in Rich
mOnd, is one of tue most prominent iea-
lures of the city. In the evening, about
dusk, you will see them croWding the
streets and side walks as If they were
vastly the nredomiuating population
/ They go along, many of the men, with tin
buckets in their hands. returning from
their days work, presume, in factories
or shops, where they are hired. The pre-
ponderauce of mulattoes and half breeds
Is what particularly arrests your attention.
In the same crowd you can see all stripes
and shades-cream eoInred, saddle color
ed, and jet black You will meet with
gangs OF negro handles, all dressed to
DEATH disporting canes aud fash neck ties,
and bowling and tipping to the negro girls
1 they meet, as If they were fresh from court
circles. They Rrs mostly free negroes,
bRrbers, hotel pOrters, &c. And the mig
ger girls they are curiositics, many of
them, too. When the weather is fine in
the evenings, immense numbers of them
are out in foil dress, leading little white
\ children by the hand, hauling them in
carriages, or carrying them in their arms.
And they seem to be very fond of their
charges, too, for frequently hear express
sions Of great deal OF maternal solicitude
as pass them, especially If the little ones
getawa from their keeping while they ara
stopping to talk with some beau. : You
/ as GO ~ kAS+AG VI Tue OlQeF. negro
women going along like so many Purtu-
gese with wine buckets on their heads,
carrying baskets of clothes, or buckets of
charcoal, OF budgets of any sort on the
top of their crowns. And they 20 along,
too, with as much indifference and care.
lessness as IL nothing was on them or
about them that needed watching. II Is
lazy way Of doing, but just suits a
daEkey exactly, 1 am perfectly salts
ned. The negro men, have observed,
carry 10 coal this way, and 1t is easy for
tue commonest observer, who has ever
seen white men work, to see that one of
the latter would do mDre in half an hour
than nigger would in half day.
Int so mich for the negroes of Rich
mond. diu't expect to take up so much
Of y"qr valuable space about them, al
though, just at these times, they and 9TH
ers like them. ure subjects of considerable
talk among the American people. c.