New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-06-26

| "Where 90 you see tuai!
sThat's what make out, sir, from the
Picavlne and the Bulletin, sir, and from
the papers in the French country, Sir.
He thereupon produced paper after
paper which showed evidence Of having
been subjected to intense perusal. We
glanced at the articles; they were those
which insist on the ''White League OF
Chambord," and especially that wherein
the demand is made that proposes to drive
colored laborers from the field, the float
| and the washtub.
Mr.. Bates then proceeded: ''Us colored
people can't judge from this, sir, whether
we are all to go out and 60 away. We
don't know how we are to get our bread,
nor where we are to go if we can't live
here. viii they move US like they do the
Indians, sir?'
We explained that the United States
would not permit it.
II know that" he replied, Gas long as
the Republican party keeps place; but, if
| all these White Cameliars and Innocentses
and Broom Derangers gets the place, how
about we colored people, then?"
We endeavored to assure him that there
was little danger from that source, if the
Republicans were united. He was still
apprehensive.
But, sir, these white companies amt
| only after your Offices. They want to
make us colored people quit working alto
| gether."
"How would they supply your places?"
1T may be that they will get all these
| white men that stand at the corners, on
St Charles and Canal streets. Then
there is great many able-bodied gentle
men, taking soup and roast beef at the
saloons, and waiting for somebody to
come in and ask them to drink. Them
are the men to run the floats and roll the
bales and hogsheads on the levee. They
| tell me all that's fixed"
'.But who is to make all these bales of
cotton and hogsheads Of sugar.
"Why, them young gentlemen with
their pants tucked in their boots, and
cigar in their mouths, and their double
barrel shotguns across the pommel of
their saddles. The are to make the best
part of the crops. But don't you see
thousands of young gentlemen on the
streets in the procession? Some has red
shirts, and some has white shirts; all has
black pantaloons. These is all strong,
active young gentlemen. They will run
up the side of a house, or tear down a
partition, and work all night in the fire
and water and cold for nothing
"The firemen?"
Eyes, sir. Now, sir, l understand
every one of them young gentlemen has
to be sent into the parishes for to make
sugar and cotton for them that don't get
office" He paused and said refectingly:
Chem young gentlemen can make no end
of cotton and sugar. If they fight grass
like they fight fire; if they follow the
plows and cane carts like they tote
them ropes after the fire engines, there
will be no use for no colored mani. That's
So" We endea vored to make it manifest
that there was not sufficient number of
fremen for that purpose. He had seen
the thousands in procession and was in
credulous. He said 'the colored people
judged that there was enough Of those
young gentlemen, not only to make large
crops but to take the whole roustabout
business, specially to fire up on the
boats.
We suggested perhaps it was intended
to supply the place Of the colored people
by bringing in people from other coun-
tries Mr.. Bates did not seem much i'm
pressed with this. 1t seemed the colored
people had contemplated this as at one
time among the possibilities Ithad been
seen that the white laborers were unwill-
ing to come to Louisiana. The news
papers kept them out They told such
terrible stories of murders, and sickness,
and about people being SO poor, and trod
down, that there was no inducement for
them to come here. Besides, Mr.. Bates
had himself interviewed an Irish gentse<
man then on the eve of closing his winters
labors by voyage to Philadelphia, who,
in answer to proposition to hire On a
plantation, swore he "be ID if he was
going to be made nagur, or a mule,
nayther" There was, then, no fear of
immigrant competition; the Fusion de-
famers of Louisiana had kept them of.
We endeavored to allay his apprehen-
sions by asking what these gentlemen
would do for food while they made their
crops. Mr.. Bates had evidently thought
the whole thing through. He said with a
sigh: "Ah! they waited till our represen-
tatives in Congress got rations, for the
whole year. Congress give them rations
to we colored people as well as to the dis
tressed whites, but if the rations is to be
given out to them that works in prefer
ence to them that don't work, and if we
amt to be allowed to work, then it comes
that We has helped to get the rations and
the white people is to get the most of
them. There ought to have been some