The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1869-12-16
NEGRO DRUNKENNESS.

j saw gang after gang paid off at.
night, sometimes fifty or sixty at
time and not five dollars in money was
paid to the whole of them. For corn
they allowed fifty cents peck; for
bacon which you and / would not eat
at any price, they give twenty-five
cents pound 4; and the price of labor
varied from half dollar to dollar
day. I have seen sturdy, healthy
Young fellows. .of twenty and upward
working for two dollars week and
boarding themselves. l saw women
doing days works that not a white
man in New England or New York
could do at any price, for seventy-five
cents day, all paid in goods Cor bads)
groceries and provisions. Some of
these stores keep very decent articles,
but not all. Most of them that I have
seen keep whisky in barrel on tap
called whisky by courtesy, but gen
orally, am assured, compound of
denominations fit only to transform the
dupes who swallow it into demons.
And strange as it may seem, not one
colored person in thousand will re-
fuse it, old or young, male or female !;
though in slavery, am told-indee1
was always told-that drunkenness
was not prevailing vice. Probably
the restraints of masterhood had much
to do with it. The whisky is usually
drank raw and reeking from the bar
rel, without sugar and with very little
if any water, which some ofthe drink
ers said only drowned it. / have seen
mothers pour it thus down the throats
of six months babes, men, women and
children, the store keeper looking on
without remark.
IGNORANCE AND DEGRADATION OF NE
GRO LEGISLATORS.
A majority of the Legislature of
South Carolina are colored men, and
many of them can neither read nor
write. But several of their very best
friends assure me they should never
support such again for the sake of the
colored race itself-not even to save
the State from the Democratic party.
Such burlesque on the very name of
government, they declared, was never
before seen. l have witnessed enough
myself to easily understand that it
must be so. At the opening of the
session, colored votes were easily
bought at five dollars, though later
they rose on their price. One shrewd
Yankee from Massachusetts,, not q
member, but who had some scheme
to lobby through the legislature, car
ried to the capital some cases of new
hats; and with them as legal tender,
drove quite spirited and successful
business. Sad examples for white
Northern Republicans to set before
people just emerging from the dark
est degradation and cruelest, bloodiest
bondage and oppression that ever
scourged the human race!
DIRT AND FILTH.
Among all their houses in the rural
districts, have not seen one pane of
glass; not one set of crockery, earth
en- or iron-ware, beyond rude and
often broken pot, with iron or tin
spoons that certainly were never made
lighter by securing; scarcely any ta-
bles or chairs but of home manufac-
ture and not one decent bed in any
cabin-not one! Some of the women
were rather tidily dressed, as 1 have
seen them; and on Sundays, l am
told, they appear quite well. But
many of the men might defy all the
scarecrows of a thousand cornfields.
Some of the infants have seen were
entirelyssnaked, and boys of at least a
dozen years old wore but single gar
mont; and that only scanty apology
in length, breadth or thickness. And
at least four kinds of vermi9, smaller
than rats or mice, infest many hu-
man bed, its coarse covering or its oc-
eupants, or all together.
CARPET BAGGERs.
Carpet baggers is not wholly an in
yidions designation here, Most