The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-18
POLK MILLER.
A VISIT TO TEXAS.
Some Things he Wrote.

it to Texas. He wrote an interesting
letter to the Richmond DisDatch We
print few Of the things he wrote
II had often heard of Texas. and ex
pected to see something grand III tho
way Of fine farms, rich lands, &c, bat
| found on getting there that '"the hal.
had never been TOLD" Such crops ot
corn, oats, hay, and cotton | never saw
and the garden truck, such as We arc
in the habit OF seeing in the incest gar
dens with us, grows luxuriantly there
on almost any spot you may pick out
l was told by the old citizens that they
had never seen such things as fertiliz-
ers. and ! did not see a manure-pile in
all my trip of $500 miles Unlike
Alabama, Georgia, North and South
Carolina, the farmers do not seem to
employ negro labor except to a very
limited extent. There are many negro
| farmers, but they have little patches OF
their own. White men were using the
sulky-plows in the cotton fields while
| the negroes still hold on to the hoe.
The hew improvements IN the plow-
now called the cultlvators-seem to
| have revolutlonlzed the old way Of
| ''hoein' O. de corn" such as we were
used to in our childhood. l have heard
| tnat an old plantation negro, on seeing
a white man riding sulky-plow
said "Dar. now, I knowed dat when
de white man had ter come down ter
wuk at de plow he'd find out some way
ter ride"
"Durng my stay of about month
in Texas | did not see a man with a
pistol or gun, nor did | hear of a fight
or a quarrel, nor did / see any drunk
enness. | was in eighteen different
towns, and travelled over two thousand
miles. I never saw more gentleman
lv set of men, and there was total alb
.ence of everything like boisterousness
on the part of the travelling public.
They would come into the trains as
quietly as they would enter a church,
and ladies coming into crowded car
would have to decide which to occupy
of a dozen or more seats offered them
bv the men, No white man is allowed
to ride in a car marked "For Negroes" :"
and no negro is allowed to ride in the
car marked "For Whites"
"COmancne Is a place of three or
four thousand inhabitants. The peo-
pie are thrifty both in the surrounding
country and in the town, and the local
ity is we'll known as the only place in
| Texas in which the coIored brother Is
not allowed to live It was few years
| back the home of quite a large negro
| population, and on every court-day
there were trials OF negroes for theft OF
various kind. Then there occurred one
Of those shocking crimes which the
/ courts in the South will never be al
lowed by the people to handle. The
oro in the county was ordered to leave
at once. They did so, AND there has
not been a case of theft tried there IN
five wears It Is curious to see front
doors and windows to dwelling houses
standing wide open all night, and fam
iIy trunks sitting out in the front
porches. Those people have perfect
hatred for a sneak-thief, and the little
bows who snatch pocket-books out OF
the hands of ladies on our streets and
the hall-thieves who pull hats and
overcOats off our hat-racks in Rich
mond would never be caught the sec
ond time.
I told them that we felt that we
could not get along without the negro
in our country, but they said III
You'll lust try it once you'll never want
to see another
RED-HOT OVER PROHIBITION.
Il thought I had seen here a little eX
; element over prohlbitlon, but down
there the people are "red-hot' over 1t
In several towns, principally in Waco
: and Paris, the people were very much
; wrought up, and the preachers were
talking it from their pulpits. | saw