The Osceola times., 1884-11-15


would not be penitentiaries enough
in the South to hold the guilty of
single State. The colored people
do not appear to see the viciousness
of this condition of affairs; and the
white people, grand juries included,
do not care to take the matter up,
and SO it contiRaes.
A great fault of the negro is
lack of veracity. 1t may be safely
ventured that there is not a magis-
trate, judge or lawyer in the South
who will assert that the statements
of negroes, especially of those out
of cities, are to be relied upon. To
be sure, there are many honorable
exceptions, but it IS a race character
istic. Many hesitate to tell direct
falsehood, but there are but few
who will not lie constructively in
conccaling the truth. 1t is hard to
condemn them. In times of slavery
their only safety from deserved pun
ishment was concealment and by
lying out of the difficulty, assisted
by the concurrent testimony of
friends. The habit descends from
father to child. The first lesson
taught a colored child as soon as it
is able to comprehend the lesson is,
''If the white folks ask you anything,
always answer, Il don't know"
Absolute ignorance, even if assum-
ed, is safer than manufactured lie.
Often ! have known a colored par
snt to chastise her child unmerci-
fully for answering truthfully some
simple question of no importance
whatever, only it was white person
who was the questioner. These
parents will not learn that child
taught Systematically to lie to others
will lie to them, and any detected
prevarication with them is in the
same way cruelty punished; and,
as the ignorant never punish except
when in rage, it is safe to say that
the life of the young darkey is not a
pleasant one.
The peculiarities and monstrosi-
ties of African religion $50 called)
have been too often described to
require many words here. La the
cant of the present time, number
of Protestant denominations, each
at war with the other, assume and
allow to the others the title, "ortho-
dox." 1t is difficult for a layman
to understand how twenty different
bodies all teaching different faiths
can all be called orthodox, but so it
is, and under this ruling the various
African churches are all orthodox.
How far are the vices, described as
appcrtaining to the race, modified
by religion? Not much. With
the ordinary African religion is not
matter of doing, but entirely
matter of feeling. If one of them,
after spending an entire week in
vicious living, can only get up GER
tain amount of enthusiastic feeling
during the shouting, bowling and
dancing of Sunday-night meeting,
he feels that his soul is washed and
that it is spotless as snow. 1t is
the same ratiocination that con-
vinces every convicted negro muir
derer that he will ascend directly
from the gallows into heaven.
| Other more phlegmatic sinners may
be compelled to wait for the judg-
ment-day, but for him the gates of
heaven stands wide open. When
pardon follows sin so rapidly, it is
not to be wondered at that he is
ready to fall again tomorrow.
What has been written of the
African people in this paper has in
view those who live in the country
and have but limited intercourse
with minds superior to their own;
class of people who, if left to
themselves, would degenerate rap
idly into barbarlsm. But for the
small leaven of more intelligent
whites, the black people would soon
be Victims OF voudoo. Indeed, it
is hard to find rural community in
the South where that dreadful bug.
bear is not more or less believed in
and feared. Often a stupid, unedu-
Gated negro secretly dominates an
entire neighborhood by virtue of
seif-assertion that he possesses mys-
tic powers, and an obscure hint of a
dirty little bag of miscellaneous
denominations carries far more terror
than ever did overseer's whip. |
may defy the magician's power and
openly submit myself to his super
natural malevolence, but it will do
but little toward assuaglng the
fears of the negroes, who agree that
the spells have no power over an,
other race.
| have never had the craze of en-
forced education or enforced tenn
perance; all the same, shall be
glad to see colored people as well
as the whites educated: not in high
schools, with view of deluging the
country with school teachers, but to
the extent of giving every child
good common school education. In
my official character as school direc-
tor Ito which Office ! was elected
simply because there were but two