The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-05-14
NEGRO LIFE ON JAMES ISLAND.
How Colored Folks Exist on the Sea-Girt
Isles Near Charleston. =, G.,

now SOiOTeu FOlRS LN1sU on tne Sea-Ilr6
Isles Near Charleston, 5. G.
1t was communion Sunday, and the mu-
latto preacher delivered sermon well
worth hearing, judging from the last part
of it. As soon as they were outside, how
ever, the laughing and chattering was inn
mense Everybody laughed, everybody
shook hands and smiled and chartered,
with "How-a, how-a, Miss Lucy; gwyne
long ouah way?" Not 'smornin', Mr..
Jetfahs-gwyne 'Sessionville way wild
Aunt Polly" How you uns long O. dis
week, Uncle Reuben3" "So't o. poahly
tank you Ben, but strivin-step in and
see Aunt Polly tonight" "Try to- uncle
God willin'," and so on, by the hundred
And as | walked on | could hear them for
mile or more as they laughed in childish
glee, But | could understand their words,
which is more than | can say for those on
the south side of the island, whose talk is
little more than a barbarous cultural
The common life of the negroes is indie
scribably rude and cheap. Not one cabin
in ten has IS worth of furniture in it,
Every article in many of them could not
be forced to sale in Indiana. In some
there are no bedding except a quilt for
each one, and with it a pile of cotton, rags,
or dried moss Frequently there are no
dishes in the house except gourds and the
cooking utensils 1t is very rare to see
book or paper. For chairs they generally
use box picked up at the nearest store.
But they have SUNDAY clothes"-the ex-
ceptions are very few-and make their
best appearance on that day. The abund-
ance of fish, oysters, and clans helps them
greatly, especially in these hard times, No
whisky is sold on James island. There is
no school for whites but the colored
schools are fairly well conducted and run
three months; teachers salaries S25 per
month. The advances made by factors
on last years crop are not yet repaid, as
the cyclone destroyed the cotton; so ad-
vances are slow this spring, Even the
carts and mules are mortgaged, and the
poverty of ordinary times is now intensi-
fled. Pearl grits cost the laborer
sl.40 per bushel, one bushel lasting a
man month when he uses no bread as
many do not. A rather poor article of
bacon is retailed at cents. Groceries
retail as with us; but the negro buys very
little now.
Only the better families ever use coffee
Butter ranks as luxury The lank cows
which Craze on the salt marshes yield a
thin article of milk-siX or seven quarts a
day in the season; in the coldest weather
they go dry. A stout woman can earn 40
There is very little home life among the
colored. Their cabins are generally so
small and uncomfortable that the family
is never in them except when it rains or is
extremely cold, The past winter was the
coldest ever known on the islands, and
following the losses by cyclone caused
much suffering. In more than one
family the bread and bacon are now re-
served for those only who work in the
field; the children and older people, the de-
crepit and the idle, live on grits and the
products of the creeks, such as oysters,
fish, clans, and even muscles. One hears
very little merriment on working-day
The people cheer up when they meet on
Sunday and chatter like flock of parrots;
but the prevalent feeling seems to be sad
one. On the whole the experience of
day and a half here is rather depressing,
and do not admire the prospect of jour
ney from here to Beaufort. .--"Parke's"
Letter in Chicago Times.