Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-02-22
Plantation ImprOVidence.

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 a 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 a 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 a further credit in q 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 NAV. 1
have heard of a negro who, during one
visit of an hour or two at store, ate truck
of this sort amounting to twelve dollars
and half, charged against his credit.
In consequence of all this his credit soon
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 a poor-hOuse basis. He
revels for five months in the year, and he
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 for
him within four hundred miles, and if
| 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 a
| Feeiee. So he usually ends either by
| burying his money in the ground or try
ing with it to lease or work a larger area
of cotton, an enterprise in which, owing
| to his defective organizing faculty, he
commonly fails. If the idea of the &C
emulation of money by interest in some
safe investment like a Government bond
| could once be engrafted on the negro S
mind, the results in this dark region fol-
| the benefit of the freedmen would be in
estimable. But how to inculcate that
idea on his defective intelligence il a
problem that still awaits solution.
Even the improvidence of the negro,
like other plantation faults, has now and
then its amusing side. A few years BgO
there came in this neighborhood an IN
precedented cold snap, the snow falling
to the depth of foot and a half. The
negroes are peculiarly susceptible tc
cold, but never keep a large stock 81
fuel, although the woods are close al
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 Z
planter friend here tells me, nearly al
the negro families of the region had &c
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.-ArtGnsG,
Cor. N. z. EUe7atng Post.