The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-10-26

harps and tobacco and old-fash-
toned pipes were laid up for the
family servants, and they always
managed to slip up on US about the
break of day with q whisper of
"Christmas gift" before we were
| fairly awake. But it's all over now,
and they are gone-set up for Them
selves, going to school and to col
lege. The likeliest young darkey
had got little free education about
ten years ago, and got into the chain
gang for forgery, and is working
there yet. What q mistake it is to
set them up above their nature and
capacityl The race-horse has been
refined and improved from a 2:40
speed down to 2:10, but you
can't breed a racer from a draft
horse or bring the niger
NJ to the white man in science or art
or moral perceptions or an intelli-
gent religion or fitness to govern
himself or his race.
The old-fashioned niger is no
more like the new generation than a
we'll trained horse is like a wild
mustang. Before the war there was
hardly ever darkey arraigned for
| crime, and now there are sixteen
hundred in the chain gang, and
numbers are hung every year tor
| rape and arson and murder, and
| they are not the old-time iarkeys,
but the new ones who knew little or
nothing of slavery, and most OF
whom have learned to read and
write. You can't make silk purse
out of a sow's ear. Races of peO-
pie have traits and instincts and
habits of nature just like ami
mails have them. The negro is an
affectionate, docile creature, and
when in close contact with the white
man and under his control is USE
| full institution, but when free from
that control he relapses into all the
original traits of his race and be-
comes a vagabond and follows his
| lusts. He has no concern for yes
| terday or tomorrow, but lives for
to-day. He has no goadings of con-
science when he commits crime, no
moral repentance, and lives under
but one fear, and that is fear of the
law, and no great amount of fear OF
that. He has but confused idea of
gratitude. He can love you and re
spect you, but is never grateful to
you, consequently he has no revenge
in his nature, for revenge and
gratitude are twin brothers in
la mans bosom. The Indian
has both in a remarkable degree.
He will go through swamps and a
wilderness to befriend man who
L kna hafrsnnAnA him and hn null do
the same thing to revenge himself
upon an enemy. The average negro
will not rob you, but he will steal
from you and go to meeting and
shout and sing and 90 off that night
and steal again, but he will not steal
on a large scale. If he found thou
sand dollars in the road he would
take it to his employer, but he would
take a dollar from the drawer or II
| breast pin from the bureau with per
feet satisfaction. The negro's utter
| indifference to the future makes him
shiftless, careless laborer, and he
has to be watched all the time, or he
will leave the tools in the field anu
the gear in the mud, and would
never curry a horse if he WIS not
made to. No good farmer will trust
negro with the care of his stock,
but will look after it himself. Iu
olden time the economy of the old
plantation was the economy OF
waste. Two darkeys to wait upon
one white person was considered
moderate and reasonable. In a fam
| lily of eight or ten, with numerous
visitors and some poor kin, there
was generally head cook aud her
assistant, two chamber-maids,
seamstress, a maid or nurse for every
daughter, and little mig for every
son, whose business was to trot
around after him and hunt up mis-
chief. Then there was the stable
man and the carriage driver and
the gardener and the dairy woman
and two little darkies to drive up
the cows and keep the calves off
while the milking was going
on. Besides there were generally
half q dozen little chaps crawling
around the backyard or picking up
chips, and you could hear 'em bawl-
ing or squalling at all times of day
as their mothers mauled 'em and
spanked 'em tor something or for
nothing with equal ferocity. The
masters frequently had to punish
| the negro mothers for inhumanity
to their children, for they seemed to
| love 'em and hate 'em by turns &C
cording to the weather or the moon.
Raising the little ones was a con-
slant care and altogether unprOtita-
BILE for a number of years, but they
were to be the white children's
dowry when they got married, and
| perhaps were already claimed and
assigned and knew their future
lord and master or mistress.
In those old times the pat
riarchs felt like they were run
ming an unlimited monarchy on
limited scale. When a white child
was born in the family it was five
dollars out of pocket, but little me-
gro was 800 in, and got fifty dol
lars year for twenty years to come.
Such was the paradise of Dixie some
thirty years ago. The masters were
happy and so were most of the slaves.
All this is going back in memories
that are pleasant, and they bring up
thoughts that teach US a philosophy
| about the negro that will be profit
able to observe. Our people cannot
live with them as equals. The prob
lem has to be solved, the Gordian
knot has to be cut. We must recog
nize their traits and instincts just
as we do those of the Indian
and the heather Chinee. The most
successful farmers and managers of
colored laborers now are those who
do not stoop to them nor show any
recognition of their civil equality,
but who treat 'em as interiors and
command 'em as servants. The ne
groes respect such men, and had
rather lean upon 'em and obey 'em
than to work by, the side OF poor
man on terms of equality. If we can
only induce the politicians and office
hunters of the south to let the negro
alone, we can get along very well.
They not only spoil the negro as a
laborer, but they make q vagabond
of him, and provoke him into crime
aud the chain-gang. BILL ARP.
GERMAN LOVERS.