Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1884-12-26

thing with these tops 1t looks as Il
you had cut down whole corn.ileld
Just as it was in tassel."
ssNo, sab, some mems mules eat em |
ef you put 'lasses on em, but We 'uns'
mules won't"
"And don't you ever get sick z"
"Humph black folks doan' git sick
ef he doan' eat dead fish an truck like
dat; but white trash do; he done git
sick on muffin"
"How much do you get day ~
"Dollar, sab, dis year,
"And won't you get dollar next
yearl"
Not next year, if massa doan make it
pay; get no lection To- suga'."
@Oho And so you, too, talk about
protection for sugar, Ell Now what
do you know or care about protection
on sugar, Ell!
"Doan' know muffin much; don't
care muffin much don't care muffin
much, no how; 'cept eff white man
doan' get no lection black man doan'
get no work."
rHere you are, Senator Harrison 7"
shouted the planter lnerrily as he tap
ped the old black man with the white
beaver, on the back with the far side
of the cane knife. "Your row is amost
up and the gang is nearly through
The black man hastily uncovered
his head, took his knife silently and
hurried away to his work, while we
mounted and turned to the LETT over
the ridges thrown up around the cane
by the rotary hoe, and reached another
little green lane.
1 Riding on few steps was surpris-
ed 10 find force of the other sex,
slashing away at the other side of the
green block of waving and almost i'm
peneuable cane.
Steadily the black women wrought.
The broad knives fash in the blazing
sun. Down the right hand side of
the cane stalk the swift knife flashes.
down the left hand side of the stalk
then the great tall tops, rich and rank
and bLshy. prematurely sacrificed, falls
to the ground; another stroke of the
blade IN the deft, black hand, and the
cane stalks. severed at the ground, is
r tossed aside ready for a long line OF
mule carts that come and 60 and go
: and come all day up, and down the
: green, narrow lanes toward the sugar
; house.
S These women are small, bony,
} withered. They are hideous to de.
: gree to behold. And yet, / state i,
S with boundless satisfaction and abso.
lutte certainly, that they are naturally
j about The happiest people IN the world
S Content, continual health, home-ths
e home of their fathers-plenty to live or
and the certainty Of eternal life and
# rest, long uninterrupted rest beyond
e the pearly gates, as assured them BY
j their black preachers-all these are
!, perpetual streams that con tributed to
S their delight. And so you can see
that after rude fashion they are verl
happy. Tired they are, it is true, a:
they wrestle here with the cane, anc
will be more tired still before the burn
n ing day is done. Yet these
S same bony and big heeled LITTLE
S women will dance and laugh and sing
e and do all sorts ofmischief till midnight
1t and then raise up with the sun mex
d morning to their toll. But where il
IS their progress?
e We ride on, out and over the bacl
IS levee this back levee is feature o
n every plantation and is as necessary
IS almost as The levee along the bank o
Il the river-and here we come upon the
n rankest kind of grasses, vines and al
e sorts of Southern exotics. There ART
n BIRDS in the great messy trees; the It'll,
e streams flowing outward and down into
the Gulf of Mexico, only a few mile
e away, are packed with little fishes: th'
l. mosquito is laying in wait for US il
g marids. How populous and ranl
e with life is earth and air and all thin 3
1t here under the perpendicular sun!
l We wheel and gallop back vanquish
If ed in a pitched battle with the mosqui
J. los, and come upon the solid squar,
v of waving cane which we looked upol
TT in the morning. But it is not. TIL,
two forces have met in the middle O
p the square. The cane is over thrown
g and lies prone on the field. The grea
t. creak'ng mule carts are coming anc
st going. The cane which we saw wav
ID ing in the morning wind will be in tn,
k sugar-house, through the mill and int,
IS a barrel and on its way to New Orleans
perhaps, by candle lighting.
Of Themen and the women who me
le in the middle of the field have squatte,
k right down where they met and arr
e chatting merrlly, sucking cane, ever,
l. one of them, and bantering each othe
]. sharply.
g The water boy is busy among them
a. some are bringing the little luncheon
n which We saw hanging on the cam
d stalks at the edge of the other square
n And here they will sit or loaf or lii
down and sleep right under the glow
n ing sun for whole hour and then a
h it again till far toward twilight.
lie And this is the routine of cane cut
l. ting on the great plantations in Loulsi
g ana. 1t is hard, it is desperately hard
If these black people are happy unde
lie these miserable circumstances, it i
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