The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1894-05-30

llODS "SAC AOSOs S0S 10 40 0o4N AAS1S OtAS@S
these negro heroes make 8 pull on Red
Cross grlts whenever opportunity af-
fords. Riley, as a pension agent would
not act so horribly as to refuse poor
pensioner some grits. 1t would not be
policy for Pompey to do so. Pompey is
negro too. he t. Id me of his patri-
otic work for nothing in distributing
food from the Red Cross commissary
and said he had never made five cents
out of it. Of course he didn't make
anything, but he has recently improved
his house here and has put new fence
around 1t
The venerable Christian Mcdonald
has no doubt been working for ph1lan
thropical reasons, and because OF MS
noble nature. Ofcourse be hasn't made
anything cut of the Red Cross but be
is building a splendid house on Hilton
Head island and has bought land to
start a truck farm. The doctor" is the
same man who wrote an article In
the New York World saying that the
physicians in tbe.Vlclnity OF HiItopI Head
would not go to storm sufferers until
be had been paid IN advance. The man
he is sup pposed to have alluded to is DR..
MeIlichamp of this place, who never
asked person for fee in his life and
who has lived here forty years.
have an affidavit in my possession
stating that the Red Cross agents here
had charged those who got goods from
the commissary 10 cents for the writ
ing of their names. Paupey Riley ex-
planned this by saying that this was
levy to pay the expenses OF trip to
bring over some goods. I asked an
old colored mauma how much she had
gotten from the Red Cross. "Nutin,
child, case hadn't got 10 cents to pay
dem niggers. I'm too poor, sir" ! saw
a number of negroes who had paid 10
cents, and know Of white man who
refused to pay anything.
Negro laborers are demoralized by
the assistance they are getting from
the Red Cross. One gentleman told
me that he has ridden for miles trying
to get hands for his farm, but did not
succeed. l have been told that it is the
worthless class of negroes, who never
had anything in their lives, who had
nothing to lose by the storm and who
were as well off after the storm as be-
fore who are getting the chief benefit
from the Red Cross, The poor negroes
who are trying to raise crop and are
WorkiGg hard get little encouragement.
simply because they are at work. Jus
tice and right would demand that this
class of negroes should get the assis.
tance and that the indolen5 and lazy
should be allowed to look out for them
selves as they have always had to do. l
do know of industrious negroes who
have never been able to get anything
from the Red Cross.
To show how the Red Cross has also
been imposed on I am told on trust
worthy authority thatSayannah negroes
quit their homes and went to Beaufort
and the islands to get some of the stuff
being dished out. In other instances
negro would draw from the Red Cross
for his family and then send his wife
under different name. She would
also draw a share Of the pie. Ali this
is due to the failure to make a canvass
on the islands.
It would be interesting to know how
many thousands of dollars have been
received by the Red Cross and how it
has been spent. Negroes have cotton
more than nine-tenths OF it. They will
in a few weeks have to depend on them
selves again. They must then 60 to
work or perish. A gentleman told me
that Beaufort contractor wanted one
hundred negro laborers on certain day.
He spoke to Miss Barton about them,
she having said that she could supply
hundreds of labors. Miss Barton was
TO have the hundred negroes on hand
one Monday morning. The contractor
has never seen them.
l have heard numerous things about
the Red Cross which l will not give
| have been told that white
people who have applied to Yankee
NAL ayers of the Red Cross have had it
f4uDted in their faces that they boasted
of bring Csrolipians and then begged
for aid. know that letters have been
written to the Rid Cross Society by
white people asking for help and that
the l-tJerS were never answered and
that the applicants never received help.
| know thai there is nothing but the
most bitter feeling against the society
and the way it has oeen managed and
that I never heard good word for 1T
from a white man. It IS to be regretted
that The feeling exists. The society
has PROBABLY done many noble and
generous Things and should be given
credit instead Of blame a big aft air
like tDat which ghe sclety tracked could
not be managed without complaint, but
that there should De such wholesale
com plainE is at least strange.-Cclumbia
RegIster.