The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-05-09
COME DAY, GO DAY.
The Motto Which Regulates
the Care-Free Life of the
Sons and Daughters
Of Ham.
A Walk Around in Picturesque
CoontoWn.

The social and domestic life of the ne
gro race, "a II clusters I'm and around cities
and towns, l. little known and less un-
derstood bv those who boast of belongin.
10 the pale-face tribe.
These people are entirely sui generis,
distinct and separate. Oi them ii NAV he
said they are peculiar people, though,
possibly, not a chosen generation" At
any rate they have not been chosen 10 any
very distinguished position i'm the world
of politics, science, law, poetry,
literature or art. Their so
cial distinctions have not proven
of any dazzling Importance, while they
have always been held in rather low esti-
mate by every other nation on this foot
stool.
Bat when il comes To perfec: freedom
from the carking cares of life; To an utter
disregard of those things which worry and
trouble and even kill the enterprising.
money loving white man To a supreme
contempt for the lessons taught by the
busv ant or huStling bee TO law up stores for
a rainy day /; for a sure thing on enjoying
the heeting hours, these representatives of
Gods image carved in ebony certainly
lead the procession.
A whole volume might be written
on the philosophy of these char
acteri>rics and the part they play
I i'm determining the present status of the
negro race hut this is not the design of the
scribe. He has already contributed several
valuable works on this subject, which are
now To be found in the congressional library
AT Washington.
! Yesterday the scribe of this article took
walk through and around the classical
/ and picturesque suburb of Sedalia. known
as Coontown, where life i'm It's simplest
! form and most innocent wav> is To be
| found
The striking popularity of the place is
the houses They remind one of thai humble
cottage at whose door Impartial fate
knocks as at the palace gate" The style
| of the architecture, ii the word can be made
to do duty in speaking of these houses,
| is As varied As Imagination can
picture forth. They are of all sizes
and shapes, except that i'm the matter of
size they agree i'm one thing. they are all
small. very small. Some OF them are not
much larger than good-sized hen coop,
and not much taller than a rich mans pet
dogs kennel.
The painter and grainer have not been
layishlv patronized, but as an Offset to this
| lack of adornment. there is everywhere
visible the handiwork of the ancient white
washer, principally, however, on the
houses.
| There is no attempt at adjoining the
wards by the presence of shrub or flower.
| The only thing to be seen I'm these little
enclosures being prolific display of the
zeal with which the divine law TO increase
and multiply" has been followed
Fashions law has not tattooed the old
style family Children are born with sur.
prising regularity and frequency, until, as
one looks at the crowd of youngsters. of all
ages. sizes and colors, to be seen at each
home. he is inclined TO ask, how are all
these mouths fed
Fathers, whose income Is a thousand
dollars year, with only wife and one or
two olive plants growing up around him,
might learn the solution of the ever-per-
plexing question as to how TO make the in
| come meet the outgo in the support of his
household, from these simple folk. But
then. the scribe Is not running after solu
tions of economic problems. The children
are fed their appearance indicates that
much.
The furnishings of these homes are sim
pie and few. There are no eastlake bed
steads. Primitive and rude are the arti-
cles therein. A three-legged chair or two,
a rickety table, sad-lOOking couch for re-
pose, a scratch my back mirror, and other
indescribable articles do duty i'm meeting
the demands of the INN ates. They care
nothing for the luxuries of living, they are
a happy, go-lucky people and laugh and
talk and sing and white the hours away,
As though there were no pc. to boil, no
clothes to buy, no tax to pay, no coffin to
round up all this life.
DO THEY WORK?
Yes. The old man starts out early IN
the morning with saw and buck or white
wash brush or whatever implement the
season MAJ call for and hunts
up a job Some of them
act as porters, drive seedy horse To a rick
ETY. wagon as expressmen, clean out saloons
or do whatever odd jobs kind providence
NAV throw i'm their way.
The old woman takes In washing, goes
out for days work at scrubbing or assist
ing in some white family's domestic work.
She is ALWAYS harmlessly scOlding "dem