The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1879-05-08
lChicago Tribune.l
Among the Refugees at St. Louis.

ST LOUIS, April 81 Desiring to make
some contributions to the negroes no"
fleeing from Louisiana and Mississippi, !
m. personal visit to the camp o.
refug, in St Louis yesterday. These
negroes, Numbering several hundred
were mainly located at Jll South Levee
street, IN a row of abandoned buildings
The colony came generally from Tensas
Parish, Louisiana. on the Golden City.
1t was a wonderful gathering, They ap-
peared like fugitives fleeing from their
prosecutors. The Israelites fleeing from
the Egyptians could not have been more
determined, plucky, prayeriul, or hope
tul. than were these negroes.
What are the character Of these people?
They were the flower Of the thoughtful.
hard working people of the South, the
very "bone and sinew" of the best indus
trial classes. l raised three crops of cot
ton myself once in Arkansas and Louis
lana, and | know the working negro
when | see him My planting operations
were extensive enough to be reported in
ul in the United States Agricultural
Report printed in Washington in 1864
| say this that the reader may know tha,
| ought to know how to estimate the
negro character in the South.
The first in group of several hundred
that encountered was Orange Pucket.
with his wife, child. and two sisters,
from Tensas Parish, Louisiana H. was
IN earnest, thoughtful. solemn mulatto
He had been farm laborer all his life
forty years.
why did you leave Louisiana ?" 1
asked.
because | lost all hope down thar,
sab | couldn't make a liviD'. For four
I = L ell, L,,r
wear brought me out in debt. So said.
III try some other place. I'm willin'
to work, God knows but | want to work
,n peace, and want to earn something for
my family
Did the planters modest you? Was
it dangerous to live there p | asked.
mo, the planters didn't threaten me
nut they let the poor whites come in
from over de bayou and Ku Klux us
rhe planters said: You vote right along,
',oys, and vote de Democrat ticket, and
veil stand by you; but, it you don t vote
IT, Democrat ticket the hulldnZers will
come in and kill you Well, | allowed
not to vote a all-me and my two broth
RS. | kept right to work in de field
very day; but one day a crowd of white
men rode up to my cabin from NV Hill.
md said they were going to kill US any
way because we hadn't voted. They
aid 'Yon's damned Yankee niggers any
how and then they shot and killed my
two brothers. and | took to Gle woods:
"W hat did YOU do thenY
"Why, l laid out for two weeks l had
twenty five acres OF cotton and corn, and
had TO lay in the wood. nights, and
work in de field daytimes, keepin my
We dc road
bx,I I,l,,'t old of " hnn1
you hired the land, protect your?
Because he wuz away They wuz
WELLER fever times, and old Z NJ rs'r John
was up de river All the planters was
away, and the bulldozers seemed like
they wanted 10 kill every body
so you made up your mind that you
couldn't live thereY
Yes, sab De Lord knows l hated to
leave de old place. but | couldn't stay
thar l couldn't work day times and lay
out in de woods nights. | couldn't stay
wild my wife cryin' every day, afeard I'd
be killed Old Mas'r John. he begged
me to stay, but told him ! couldn't do
IT. | said, 'Mas'r John, ze tried you
now for fourteen year, and what have
got to show for for it? Every year lze
IN debt. No, Mas'r John | said, 'lze
gwina away and here | is. Ize poor,
but i KIN WORK. L re Wlllln 10 take d
soldiers fare, but | want p-ace, l want
to work where l can come home and
sleep with my wife nights"
How did you rent your twenty five
acres p | asked.
Here is de contrac' | had last year
and which l throwed up when | came
away" said Orange. handing me an or
diuary pass-book, with contract in the
front, and grocer's bill charged in the
back. The contract specified that Orange
Pucket should cultivate twenty FIVE
acres in corn and cotton-twenty two
acres of cotton and three of corn that
his wife and children should work in the
field, and that he should pay the follow
| ing rent:
) bales OF cotton....for rent of p acres of land
: bales of cOlton....-.......iofl Iced OF IN ules
bale of cotton use OF tools
Ten bales OF cotton, worth about $40U
YOU will see, was the rent for twenty five
acres Of land, which wouldn't sell ioI
$500 in the market Besides, the poor
negro was to pay S. per bale for ginning
the cotton at the plantation gin A cot
ton gin gins from eight TO ten bales {
day, aud costs about $500 I've bough
cotton gins and run them. Forty dollars
per day for the use OF a $500 gin is simpl,
thntt Fifty cents per tale S goot
price for the use OF a gin.
Now, what could thss ne. raise oH o