The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-09-13

wrote the books were the meanest liars
on earth but, of course, know now it
was nothing but ignOrance-pure ignO-
rance They ought to know better by
this time, though, and I am Of the old
orthodox notion that a man IS response
BILE for ignorance Of the truth if he is
so fixed that he could get at it by due
diligence. I have practiced law long
enough to know that the Tneanest kind
Of liars are the liars that tell the truth
nine times cat Of ten and slip IN a lie
about something that's material to the
issue, and the very worst witnesses q
lawyer can run against are those who
swear to what ism t SO and believe what
they are swearing to when they ought
to know better and might have known
better If they had tried to. Now, those
Yankee writer's were right enough in
saying that slavery was no good, but
they missed it 1000 degrees III telling
the reason.
Progress Among the Negroes.
The gentleman who began with this
long text is so modest about appearing
in print that I can only call him by his
we'll earned title, the major. He was
taking me out in Dinwiddie county to
last one in this part of Virginia, is
something of a curiosity. I could not
forbear speaking as we rode along about
the generally forlcrn appearance of the
negro cabins. Not one in 20 has a car.
pet, mirror or any other article indicat-
ing refinement; most of them are so
open to the weather that it seems i'm
possible human beings could winter in
them, ar.l as has often been said, the
pigs run in at one door and the chickens
out at the other, and the little darkies
roll i'll the dirt Unfortunately with
hogs and dogs The stable and the pig
sty, when there is one. are so near the
cabin, and there is so little care about
cleaning up either, that the OdOrs min
gle with those which are supposed to
distinguish the race and those which
will arise anywhere from dirt and neg
1eCt, and on the whole one is almost
compelled to say that the stable odors
are an actual relief when mixed with
the others. Even in passing along the
road one can neatly always distinguish
the cabin Of the negro from that of the
poorest white person, and the evidences
are painfully plenty that the general
domestic life corresponds with the ma
terial surroundings. gave my opinion
that there couldn't have been any prog
ress since the war because it was i'm
possible that these people should ever
have been in a worse fix than now, but
the major vehemently declared, as
nearly all southerners do, that there
has been very great progress among the
negroes in all sections where whites are
In a large majority, and that it is only
in those parts of south side Virginia, as
they call that part south of the James,
where the NJ. - are in large major
ity, that they have remained stationary
or retrOgraded. Continuing on the gen
eral subject, he said:
Your northern agitators started on
false basis. They talked as if it were
a question whether we should have the
negroes as slaves or not. 1t was foolish.
If that had been the question, Virginia
herself would have said no, and as a
matter of fact she only lacked vote or
two once of doing away with it in the
legislature But that was settled q cen
tury before was born. The question
we had was, Here they are, and can we
get along with them free? We were
afraid we couldn t, and plenty of felix's
thlnK 1t ISM / settled yet. We are not
going to fight, OF course-that danger is
done away Without it is just as likely
as not that the negroes will finally have
to leave Virginia when the whites get
numerous enough to do all the work.
In fact, they are leaving many sections
now.
A View Of Slavery.
''The census indicates sort of fall
ing off everywhere. -
Census be - The last census
isn't worth the paper it is printed On,
SO far as the colored population is con
cerned. 1t is all cussed nonsense to say
the eolored people increased over 30 ner