Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-20
"A FOOLS ERRAND. :,

In the Senate debate on the 1st instant Senator Dawes spoke incidentally of a Massa- chusetts man whose factory and other build ings in Mississippi were said to have been burned by his enemies, and who. after many years residence there, had been forced to abandon his plant and return to Massachu- setts. MT. Dawes was challenged to give the name of the victim. He declined to do so for what he thought good and sufficient req sons. Thereupon Senator George of Missis- sippi made a sweeping denial of the whole story, and since then Democratic newspapers have been busy in sneering at the painful tale.
 But it now appears that Senator Dawes told no more than was true concerning the outrages committed, though he located them in the wrong State. He should have said Louisiana instead of Mississippi. The north ern man who has for a number of years been running plantation in Louisiana, and whose property there was recently burned by an in- cendiary fire, is Mir Charles Heath, who is now in Maiden, Mass. Mir. Heath furnishes the Boston Aduertiser graphic statement in regard to his individual experiences, culmi- hating in the destruction of his property, and TO the general condition of society in the dis trict in which he was located. His plantation was in Caldwell parish, of which Columbia IS the parish seat. It is on the Ouachita river, forty miles below Monroe and ten miles below Columbia. The plantation con- tained between 900 and 1000 acres. MT. Heath and his brother, who is now New Orleans merchant, bought the place thirteen or fourteen years ago, and had established upon it a gin-house, grist- mill and repair shop, fitted up with improved ma chinery. For several years they ran the place under 6 white over- seer, and were not seriously interfered with by their neighbors. The first difficulty that occurred there, says Mir. Heath, was along in 1877 or 1878, and was on account of decision not to employ white men as over seers. Mir. Heath and his brother came to the conclusion that the only way to get the negroes to work satisfactorily was to hold up the picture of future homestead before them,-something that they might work for. When the negroes were told that the Heath brothers would sell them piece of land when they gave evidence of capac- ity to manage for themselves and were mak- ing reasonable effort to get living and pay for the land, the white people of the neigh borhood objected most strenuously and de- clarsd that the plan should not be carried out. The Heaths paid little attention to the threats made, and after awhile sent a negro named Harris up from New Orleans to work n of ba ,,1ooo and Took aftar hair in. terests there. This could not be endured and one night party of masked men went to Harris cabin and shot him, crippling him for life, set fire to corn crib and then rode through the colored settlement, yelling and firing their revolvers into the cabins. After ward notice was posted up on the planta- tion which read something like this:
 ''All the people of this plantation, both colored and white, are notified to get off be- fore Saturday night next. For all that re- main here will be dealt out something to which that which is dealt out to Harris is not a circumstance. So get out of here if you want to live, both black and white"
 On the reverse side was written:
 Particularly Old Gould"
 Gould was white man. The whole was embellished with the skull and cross bones, and was signed TX. K. K.''
 After this there was no peace though noth- ing was done by the Ku Klux until last Christmas Christmas night, about mid night, Mir. Charles Heath was awakened by the cackling of fowls in the chicken house, and on opening the shutter of his room he saw the whole place in blaze. The negroes saw the fire when it was no bigger than ''a bushel basket,' but did not dare to venture out for fear of being shot, and the whole es- tablishment was burned up. Mr. Heath says:
 Now, why they should want to iniure me was more than I could divine. for felt that I ought to be considered benefactor rather than enemy to the parish. I put in the very best machinery into my place that there was in that whole country for ginning cotton and doing the work there was to be done there. There was not another as good grist mill within forty miles of us. I carried from Boston nice set of French burr stones, and put in steam power and ground for every body. I used to grind seventy-five or hun and anybody else that came They would distance of forty miles, to mill Now they have burned the place up, there no mills that can make as good meal as we could. There are few little horse mills that will grind corn not as fine as you do your horse