The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1882-06-07
MISCELLANY.



The Geld hand Of slavery timex is the
Negro farmer Of to-day in The South. Those
who were house-servnnts, and the bost-hel-
lum generation, have developed into city
BARRIERS, hotel walters, aud preachers, but
the negro whose early years were spent be-
tween the cotton rows. still inhabits the
rural districts and farms ''on shares In
theory, farming on shares Is good thing
for the coiored agriculturist. A white man
furnishes land, teams, and implements The
negro furnishes the labor--the crops, when
harvested, to be divided equally between
landlord and tenant. In practice, and in the
division of the shares. it does not work SO
satisfactorily for the tenant The landlord
gets the first share, the store-keeper, who
furnished coffee, bacon, and clothing for the
tenant while be was making the crop, gets
/ the other share, and the tenant, for his share,
gets cussed because he don't make more
cotton and corn The negro farmer has
been reared to hint that if he could afford to
keep bookkeeper his share might be more
satisfactory to himself.
The colored farmer is always fat and out
of chewing tobacco He wears mud color
ed clothes with black patches ON the knees.
He is usually possessed with wild and I'M
comfortable desire to move slowly; and with
cheerful resignation, he will endure ten
hours sleep out of the twenty -four, and has
no ambition to become rich or to own land.
He is satisfied if he can get enough corn
bread, bacon, and coffee to feed his family.
If he can make living by working two days
in week he will not work three. There is
calamity to the crop will rufiie his serenity
because he has nothing to lose and only a
living to make. He is calm and placid in
presence of wire grass in cotton, unrufiied
and tranquil when surrounded by cookie
burrs, patient and submissive when 1t rains,
SO that he cannot work, resigned and serene
when the COW gets into the corn, and he will
at any time curb turbulent desire to hoe
out ten acres of cotton, suppress delirious
craving to grub up roots, and choke back an
impatient desire to destroy patch of weeds
il the clouds show indications that catfish
will bite
The colored agriculturist never allows
pleasure to interfere with business. OF
course it would be more to his taste to hoe
out weeds, but stern duty demands his at
tention at the creek where the catfish is
waiting to bite. With praiseworthy alacrity
he will obey the call of duty and dig up
worms and erawfish for bait, and trudge
cheerfully to the creek where he will toll
diligently under the shade of tree through
the weary hours of a long summer day.
The colored farmer is never too poor to
own horse. He may be unprovided with
shoes, and may be destitute in the matter of
a shirt, yet he will nevertheless own q ten
dollar horse. The animal may be a super
animated plug-an unabridged edition of all
only for t the bone miIfyet Il IN the most lib
eral Interpretation of the word, he can be
called a horse, his owner feels that he has
advanced step in the Darwinian race to-
ward higher life; and when he borrows a
pistol and pair Of spurs, and rides to town
on Sundays, he feels that he is indeed one
of nation of sovereigns, previous condi-
ton to the contrary Notwithstanding. The
country darkey is not quito 80 uniformly
dissipated in the matter of religious observ-
ances as his city brother, but in the course
of year he makes up a fair average. The
camp-meeting is where he comes out strong.
These meetings last usually from ten days
TO three weeks, and occur annually. His
anxiety to take advantage of this means of
grace, and of the watermelon patches in the
neighborhood of the camp ground, is SO
great that in his religious zeal he sacrifices
his worldly interests and allows his crops TO
get in the grass, and his neighbors cows to
get in the crops.
The colored farmer does not grieveo over the
glories of the past as the white farmer of the
South does. His ambition aims no higher
than to get enough to eat in the present,
and he cares not for the future or the past.
One of his favorite sayings is: "De hoe
cake OBJ to-day am better dan de puddin OBJ
las Sunday ~ eras Settings.