The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-06-02
make advances In goods try 10 keep their men 20
abouT the same limit.


they rent land in the rich bottoms they pay from
SO 10 $40 per acre, or which is more usual eighty
pounds OF clean cotton. In some cases the plauter
furnishes land. house. fuel, q corn patch, teams,
tools and feed for the animals and takes nalf
the crop. II the colored tenant wants 70
undertake corn as well cotton, that, too, is
planted at halves They usually work IN squads
and undertake about fifteen acres OF cotton and
ten or corn TO the hand. Cotton will average
tnree-quarters OF q bale 70 the acre. and judge
that the laborer with fair crop may live through
the year and have $3.50 In cash at the close or the
season, neither he nor his family having suffered
for anything in the meantime The returns are
very satisfactory 10 the iaborer, and Northern
farmers who save as well as work could easily
grow rich on the Mississippi and Red River bottom
lands. Everybody tells me that the coored men
save but little. In one cotton parish republican
who has taken great interest in the welfare
OF the negroes said, in answer to my question,
''They not worth dollar q head OF the popu-
lation to-day" "That man had $3.50 due him last
Christmas FOR his cotton" said another planter TO
me; ''he spent it all IN ten days and bought the
greatest lot OF trash you ever saw but he and his
wife and children were satisfied and happy, and
when l reproached him he said, WHATS the use OF
living il a man can't have he good OF his laDorr
CoLoRED MECHANICS
New Orleans has a considerable number OF COL
ored mechanics who are spoken OF as skilful and
competent men. Elsewhere in rhe State | have
seen colored men working as masons and carpen-
tiers aud occasionally shoemakers aud they are
skilful blacksmiths, / am told. In the
towns o considerable proportion OF the
colored people own the houses In which
they live, and they all have strong
desire, as have said, to own small lots or land.
But in parish which has o negro population OF
over II 900 planter who has taken much interest
in the colored people told me he knew not more
than twenty men who owned farms, and some OF
these he thought would not make their payments
on The price, by reason OF improyidence. This
was in the cotton country, where the coored
people can readily buy land, and at reasonable
rate.
The women do not regularly work In the fields.
They receive from So to $40 month as field
hands, and In the cotton picking time women and
children turn in to this work. In the sugar coun-
try, too, toe planters employ women in the fields
at certain If the colored laborer ID FORE
handed he prefers that his wife shall not work In
the field.
c0LoRRD SCHOOLS.
or schools most of the parishes have sufficient
number, and the colored people are generally bet
ter supplied than the WHITES with free schools
This ar SEES in part from the fact that school teach
ers are made use OF as politicians. The notion
that the negro race Is dying out is ABSURD and one
never hears 1t mentioned here The whole country
is full OF hearty, shiny little pccaninnies, fat, quiet
generally nicely dressed, and in the towns and
villages the larger children look very neat and
happy as they go to ana from school Sunday
school. The colored people are almost
universally, l am told, anxious TO send
their children TO school, and in my con-
versation with them, the most frequent
complaint heard was OF the mismanageu ent
or inef1cency or schools. never heard any COM
plant Of lack OF schools, though some outlying
parishes are not well supplied. In country
parish on o Sunday foil into conversation with
three colored men whom met In my walk. One
had his little children with him. He complained
that the school was not kept opcn-"not more
than one oay in the week. IL was a shame when
they had good school house; but the teacher was
no account" said they ought TO cure that by
croosIng good officers at elections, and one re-
Piled that they always got cheated. Their own
party oflce-hoders were as bad as conservatives,
and he would just as soon trust one as the other
sand II We put our own color In, somebody comes
along and shoves money in their pockets and
makes them forget their own people,"
CHURCHES
AS TO churches 10 the cotton country the colorsd
people are mostly either Metnodists or Baptists.
and they have their own churches and preachers
OF their own color The meeting Is a curiosity.
The preacher Is almost always so for iterate
that ne often uses large words in q wrong sense;
but ne freely denounces the sins OF the congrega-
tion. Then come screams, violent contortions
jumping. dan cling and shouting-not more violent
or CHASTITY than I have seen in Western
camp meetings ameng white people In my
younger days, | must own. You hear 10 COM
moniy said that the preachers are NOT good
men and do not live up to their calling,
but / doubt II they are politicians, as
preachers lawyers and doctors are usually among
white men. But even though the form which
Christianity takes among these people Is repug-
nant TO my colder nature 1 found no upright
thoughtful planter who did not acknowledge that
the Church Is a restraining influence upon them
and IN one case where l put the question the
planter told me that he had noticed that almost
all the crime, lawsuits and troubles generally In
bis parish which came before the courts originated
on those plantations where there was no meeting
house. ',As for me,r ne said, III think 10 an econ
omy 70 support both church and Sunday school
among the colored people on my plantations"
In Southern Louisiana large part OF the colored
population are Catholics and have not separate
churches. A Protestant, as am, Is put 20 shame
when he compares the course OF the Catholic
Church toward its MEMBERS the equality it insists
on within the Church between dIfrerent races and
conditions with the careless and, as 1t seems to
me, un-Cnristian distinctions made In Protestant
churches. Why should not the white planter and
his FANNY worship GOD on Sunday in q church TO
which his laOorers and tenants should also be In
viteds The Christian Church ought 20 be the most
powerful instrument for removing preJu-
dices. for raising the Lowry and train
ing the weak and ignorant The Roman
Catholic Church has, In my view, many serious
faults; but it has one great glory IL brings TO-
gether within its communion here in the South,
and / suppose everywhere, all its members, re-
cardless OF condition, color or race, as . uni
versal brotherhood before God. Those Protest
ants VINO sincerely desire the elevation OF the
coIored people ought to see to 1t that distinctions
within the Church are removed, and that white
ana black shall be called on sunday to tae same
sunday school and the same Church service.
the NEGROES THE CHEF WORKING FORCE.
Tha colorad people are the main working force