The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-12-15
studies in the south.

AGsn1c Monthly.
In Louisiana everybody told me that the ne
groes were improving as laborers; atany rate
all old southerners said So This reminds me
that throughout the south the harshest critics
Of the negro whom met were northern men
men who had gone down there to work
sugar plantations srow cotton, etc. These
men, being pushing, sharp and energetic after
the northern fashion, are always disposed to
keep the negro laborers sup to their work.
The negroes do not like to work for them
They require steadiness of application and
exertion of which the negro in general does not
appear to be capable. He can work hard for q
while @by spurts, or on a race, especially in
I crowd, and if he is allowed to sing while OF
work But for quiet, solitary, constant toll
first-rate white laborer is, think, superior to
almost any negro The northern men of the
south are, as compared with southern men,
very exacting as employers. They are stern
and impatient with their shands," and usually
irritate and confuse the negroes. Southern
men are, usually, not at all exactlng as en-
ployers of agricultural labor; they are not
accustomed to being prompt or steadily indus
bT1Ous IueIIS01N6s, huU blley VALUE tilolI OWN
ease too much to engage in any contest with
the peculiar ways" or traits of the negro.
Thus, the sshiftlessness," the slowness, the
ineficiency, the habit of taking things
80 leisurely, as if one had infinite time
at his command the features of the
average negro life and character which are so
eXasperahng to the energetic northerner-are
accepted or recognized by most southern peo-
pie as, something inevitable, like the course of
the seasons, not to be accelerated or interfered
with to any profitable end. / think saw no.
body in the south, white or black, except q
few leading business men in the cities, who
could do anything in fifteen minutes 1t is
not natural to hurry in that part of the world.
i talked with a queer old man, in the pine
woods in North Carolina, who had observed
, the restlessness of most northern people when
they first came to the south He said they
always acted "as eff they was hung on wires,
an somebody was jerkin' on EN-" but south
ern people "know how to take their time, an
plenty on it." In reply / made the usual sage
remarks about differences of character as af-
fected by. climate and environment in general,
and concluded with the opinion that life in the
south during the time of few generations
would change the Yankee blood and tempera-
ment, and produce race of men who could
Ego slow" on occasion "Yes, yes" said he;
that's so, young man, that's SO. I've seen
em 1t takes em Jest about three weeks" II
you-give the negroes time-to sag nothing far
ther regarding these taaits in the character of
white people--they, going on in their large,
slow, inorganic way, will accomplish impor-
tant results in the course of year ExertiOn
seems less necessary or desirable to jewellers
in southern lands than to northern people. A
distinguished American author has said that q
man could be happy sitting in chair, i'll the
open air, all day, in Venice, and that if one
wishes to work he should not stay there too
long have never been in Venice, but 1 have
seen many places in the south that appeared to
resemble it closely in this respect