Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-09-07
The Mecca of the Children OF
the Jungles Toeming with
Oh Pilgrims.
What 4" Freedom Did for the
"Colorod Mar" in the
Southwest.
How the Negroes In Memphis
Live-Degradation. Misery
and starvation.
A Few Horrors for the Contempla-
ton of Northern Abolition
Humanitarians.
who Commit Crime 9-why and
How 7-who Is Responsible 2
WHAT FREEDOM DID.

WHAT FRkEDUh DlDs
For four years Memphis has been to
the Unbleached of West Tennessee, Mis-
sissippi and Arkansas what Mecca was
to the Mohammedans. Their day star
pointed to the city on the bluffs, and
guided them, like an ignus .fatuus, to
her sunshine and mud and dust Free
dom opened new era to tho untueored
blackamoor of the rural districts. In the
city was the potential Freedmen's Blu
reau in the city were hundreds of white
men with black hearts who welcomed
them to idleness and sloth. Into their
ears was opened a tale sweet as the
melody Of tuneful bells. No more work
freedom means full rations, with nothing
to do but to toast ones heels in the sun
beams; freedom means insolence to
"old master" and old mistress, and
unbridled gayety-a life of pleasure un-
alleged by visions of the hoe and cotton
field. When bad men filled the minds
of ignorant wretches with such ideas,
can it be marveled that the action was
suited to the word, and the large South
ern cities were filled with the most vicious,
dangerous population which ever afflicted
communities
AFRICA IN MEMPHIS.
One.third of the population Of Mem.
phis is woolly.headed. Straight hair is
at discount, and thin lips are losing
their charm. Small boots and shoes are
lost in miniature hatboats carved in
cowhide and calfskin. Delicate traces
of petite CATERS in sand are crushed
beneath shapeless hoofs called feet
by an alarming stretch of courtesy.
All the shades are represented. Congo
black, brass kettle tint and whittier hues
mingle like the waters, and rush down the
hill Of life with more impetuosity. Chalk
eyes and tar heels glistsn like crystals
by moonlight, but bandanas have gone
into the rsgbag, and are seldom seen.
Fashionable Dinah's perspiring brow is
no longer mopped with the domestic !"
of many hues. The finest of fabrics,
fringed with the most delicate lace, and
redolent of sweetest perfumes, shade her
languishing eyes, and confne her cork
screw tresses The world moves and
Africa joys apace.
HOW AFRICA LIVES.
The blacks we see every day on the
streets present little evidence of abb
poverty. They are the few who toll and
live upon the result of honest labor But
only the few. The public do not come
in contact with the greater number, who
exist in sloth and idleness and squalid
misery. 1t requires visit to the shabby
sheds, raggedly fringing our bnyous, and
obscure streets, and the living charnel
houses in the suburbs, where Famine,
Desoation and Death hold high carnival
to reveal this horrid picture, The old
rookeries and CHASTITY looking cabins on
the bayous literally TEEN with ragged,
vicious blacks. The children, half naked,
wallow like pigs in the mud water, and
the men and women provide food by
depredations on their neighbors. Few
desire to work, and fewer are fitted for
any other labor than that on planta-
ton. To them freedom does not
mean toll. Their eyes are turned
anxiously to the Freedmen's Bureau,
which so long supported them in idle
ness, but which, having enticed them
from their own homes, now leaves its
tools to their fate.
THE CHEF NEGRO DEPOT.
Immediately south of the city limits
is the chief negro community. Here
are almost countless shanties, huddled
together in little space, but containing a
population Of several thousand souls.
Few of these tenements are twenty feet
square, ye. many contain from fifteerfto
twenty inmates each, who herd together
in the one low room like cattle. OF this
population probably fifteen hundred are
men. There are few children. This
women are the most depraved of their
race, and many of them are nearly
destitute of clothing. They NOPE about
these miserable huts during the day,
smoking, snuf-chewing, quarrelling and
fighting. At dark scores of the younger
women cross the boundary, and at all
hours of the night fit like black spectres
in the shadows Of houses in the streets and
alleys. They have almost wholly monop-
olized the degrading svoeation Of street
walking" forcing their white sisters in
the lower walks of depravity to abandon
the thoroughfsres. Years ago these
poor creatures had comfortable homes,
with master" to provide food and
clothing. Freedom changed all this.
It brought dislike Of labor, and Satan
readily found mischief for idle hands.
THE MONOPOLY OF CRIME.
Every day we record crime copmitted
by blacks Nearly ell the house-rob-
hc~fca 90 l.. - - Az, man and