The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-07-13
ON THE WING.

DARLINGTON, S. c., July, 1S67.-The crops
all along the line of the Northeastern and
Cheraw and Darlington Railroads are much
better than had expected to find them The
spring was late one, cold nights continuing
to the very end of May, if not into June Then
came those very heavy and long-continued
rains, compelling total suspension Of agri-
cultural labor for weeks together. The rain
certainly did great deal of damage, but to
our surprise we find the crops generally look
ing healthy, though little backward; and what
was still more unexpected, both cotton ana
corn looked remarkably clean. Whether or
not the grass was "fought" more assiduously
along the highway, to keep up appearances, as
we have often heard planters banteringy
accuse each other, we are, of course, unable
to say. However, we presume not, and we
accepted the clean cotton beds and corn hills
as good omen. We made extensive In
quires among the planters, both as to the con-
dition of the crops and also of various other
! correlative economic topics; and my inter-
roeatories elected the information hereinafter
set forth. The planters all complain OF the
condition and prospect Of the crop, OF the
laborers, many of whom are unquestionaply
very "triaing," OF their penchant to private
Representation" ETC., etc. But farmers haV-
ing been given to complaining from time i'm
memorial, their friends hear their laments
with great equanimity.
The freedmen this year, as general thing,
are doing great deal better than they did
last year. Much mutual prejudice has been
overcome. The whites are gradually learning
to adapt themselves to the changed relation
they now sustain to their former slaves; they
are recovering from the shock and depression
of spirits naturally consequent upon sudden
! reverse of fortune, and in many instances Of
the entire loss of their property. They treat
their laborers with kindness and consideration,
and where Union Leagues and kindred disturb
ing elements are not permanently present to
prevent it, better spirit has become manifest
among the negroes, and a steady growth of
|;c6nfdence in their white friends and employ
ers. They are beginning to see the necessity
of systematic labor, and all things considered,
ore doing we'll. We were surprised to learn
that the wages system has not met with the
favor we anticipated. In the present uncer-
tain state Of almost everything, the price of
cotton included, both negroes and whites prefer
the other, i. e., the laborer receiving stipula-
ted fraction of the crop.
. The country is: more quiet than it was last
last year There are less difficulties between
planters and freedmen. They get along more
harmoniously. There is, too, less stealing than
there was during the previous year, so my in
forrnant remarked. But do not know how to
credit such statement, after hearing oil the
many stories Of grand and petty larceny per-
petrated almost every night and in almost
every part. of the District. There is still q
great deal of abstraction, not to put too fine a
point upon it-of stealing What renders it
so difficult to check it, is the fact that practi-
cally there is little or no redress There is,
indeed, pretence at investigation when COM.
plant is made, but very little ever comes of it,
The theft is seldom brought home to the per-
petrator, because the people are discouraged
from frequent experience, and have become
skeptical as to the chances Of redress; and be-
cause the 'checks and balances" of the new
regime prevent their making use Of the means
with which they have been familiar, and which
they most generally found successful.
Let us put case, and it is not one altogeth-
er drawn from the realm of Imagination. Say,
a planter, in the dead hour of midnight hears
the long drawn doleful wall of the dying pig.
He gets up, goes to the pen, pig is missing.
Now what next? He has his suspicious, to be
sure, but that ayails. him not He cannot en-
ter the cabin of one of his vassals, who live on
his land, and in his houses, to search fsr his
property. He must have o search warrant.
But where is he to get such an instrument at
that hour, the very hour too, when negroes
pigs do mostly steal? But suppose he goes to
a magistrate; what then? Why, just as likely
as not, by the time he gets warrant the pig
may be eaten, not an ear left to tell the tale;
gone, leaving no. wrack behind. But even
if it has not been dispatched by such summary
process. say, the owner. ri of. the stolen. pig
cannot find it in the house he searches by vir-
tue of his warrant; he suspects that it was
conveyed to the next house while he was alb
sent in search of the warrant. Nothing easier
There may be twenty or thirty such houses on
the tsquarter," and all very near each other
cabins &c houses" or "castles" in the old
English common law sense. The entire "quar-
ter is as one house with different rooms, and
should be 80 considered for legal pur-
poses We were surprised therefore
to learn that "high authority" has construed
otherwise; and if the said sshoat' has been
legerdemained from the first to the second house,
the searcher is put to halt. His warrant is
only good for the first. He must suspend his
operations, and repeat his journey to the mag
istrate, distant perhaps eight or ten miles, and
get search warrant for cabin No. 2; and so on
ad infnitum. Slender the chance of the sorrow
ing owner of ever again seeing his late much
loved pig. The natural consequence is that
| porciculture will soon be one of the lost arts;
'stock" is rapidly disappearing from off the
face Of that country. There is one fact which
| in common justice we feel bound to mention,
and that is the impartiality with which these
| thieves perform their operations. They are
free from bias-no respecters of persons. They
steal from black and white, from rich and poor,
from Yankee and Southerner, from civil and
military. They recognize no exemptions
Mercury is decidedly in the ascendant.
On the whole, however, Notwithstanding all