The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-02-23
Plantation Improyidence.

The curse of the plantation negro is
his improvidence; or, to speak more
strictly. it is the curse of the credit
system of which he is part. The
storekeeper, the planter and the negro
all have to run here on long credits con-
tingent on the cotton crop. In the case
of the negro, this is doubly bad for him,
because the credit system not only means
excessive charges for his supplies, but
quick exhaustion of them. as he i'm
AGNES that credit" signifies something
indefinite, vague and large, which will
Justify extravaganza. As rule, work
ing his wife and child or two in the
cotton-picking season, he can earn not
more than $3.50 or $500 a year; and
while his actual wants are few, his de-
sires are boundless. Beginning his
working year with credit at the store
of, say, 800, he exhausts this and per-
haps further credit in a thousand i'm
provident ways. He makes reckless
domestic purchases, drinks whisky,
while costly trash like sardines. canned
oysters, rasins and candy are crammed
without limit into his craving maw /
have heard of a negro who, during one
visit of an hour or two at a store, ate truck
of this sort amounting to twelve dollars
and half, charged against his credit.
In consequence of all this his credit soor
reaches its end, and the close of the sea
son finds him in debt; then the planter
and storekeeper have to carry him
through the winter on short supplies,
and almost on = poor-house basis. He
ravolc for tiva y,,optbS II, tba x-aar and h.
and his family starve the other seven.
Even when industrious and saving he
finds it hard to do anything with his
money. OF land titles he is suspicious
and therefore rarely becomes a land
owner; there are no savings banks fol
him within four hundred miles, and il
there were, the ill-starred Freedmen's
Bank example would probably deter him
from deposits: of railroad or even Gov
eminent bonds he is as ignorant as 8
Feejee. So he usually ends either BY
burying his money in the ground or try
ing with it to lease or work larger ares
of cotton, an enterprise in which, owing
TO his defective organizing faculty, he
commonly fails. II the idea of the &C
emulation OF money by interest in some
safe investment like Government bond
could once be engrafted on the negro's
mind, the results in this dark region for
the benefit of the freedmen would be in.
estimable. But how to inculcate that
idea on his defective intelligence is q
problem that still awaits solution.
Even the improyidence of the negro,
like other plantation faults, has now and
then its amusing side. A few years ago
there came in this neighborhood an un-
precedented cold snap, the snow falling
to the depth of foot and half. The
negroes are peculiarly susceptible to
cold, but never keep large stock OF
fuel, although the woods are close at
their doors. The snow caught them with
low wood-piles, which were quickly ex-
hausted, and they had no sleds to drag
more fuel with. Consequently, as
planter friend here tells me, nearly all
the negro families of the region had to
go to bed for two whole days to keep
warm. Now and then member of the
family would ..make a break for
moment to grab something to eat, and
then retire quickly to cover.-Arkansas
Cor. N. T. Ecesaing Post.