The record-union., 1898-02-03

III ever, when You were boy, you
lived on a plantation, you will remem-
Der it so, remember the lively interest
with which the first opening bolls were
watched, wnen the fields were all in
blossom and how you divided your time
in those days looking on at Uncle jerry
| plating the new oak baskets that
would be needed and riding down to
| the bad place in the swamp road that
must be fixed before the hauling. Then
| just about that time the gin cobbler
came along with his bag of tools, pre-
, pared to stay two or three days and
tinker things up generally-a big, luin-
bering looking man, whom your moth
| er, or grandmother, or whoever Kept
house, was much exercised about won
dering whether he. being white man,
should be- asked into the table with the
family or have his meals sent out to
him. Even if you have not thought
of him in years, you recall now the
very freckles on his big hands as he
sat threading new bristles into the old
gin brush and occasionally, very occa-
sionally, answering your questions. The
housekeeper might regard him as an
embarrassment, but you thought him
great man then. and you know now that
| he knew a great deal, even if he did
not know books.
There's enough cotton open in the
big field now to warrant picking. Tell
the hands to start in tomorrow would
be the order heard some night, and
after three or four days there would
come a new sound in the air, a sound
distinct from the rushing of the mill
stream or the wind in the pines.
steady whir. whir! so unwonted in the
quiet air that even Max, the setter.
| would lift his head to listen.
You hear that? They're ginning"
some one of your boon companions
would call, and then there would be
bolt for the short cut to the mill. where
this new-old wonder was going forward.
The lint room at a country gin
house, Was there ever a place equal
to it. for pure. fun? OF course, now,
since you are grownupand know things.
you would regard it a great hardship
| to have to stay in there five minutes,
but then you stayed there for hours, il
the packers would let you, and all the
| boys. black and white, who could get
there did the same thing. Such fun
to dive off the doorstep down, down
| into the. swirling mass and come up
yards and yards from where you went
| down. Such bursting fun to duck other
| fellows and have them shout and sput-
| ter for mercy, and TO have regular
game of hide and seek in that queer.
white, nowhere place that seemingly
had no bottom, and was all wreath
mists up top. and that try as they
would to empty it, the black packer
and his helpers, only biflowed up high
er and higher. 1t was so dark inside
that you couldn't see when you first
went in the delightful mystery: and
then there was nothing to hurt or to be
warned about, and, browning charm OF
ALL you felt that the correct thing
would be not to go in at all. because It
was always such work afterWard 10
get the lint off your clothes. Such fig
ureS of fun as the party looked when
they came out. White all over, from
top to bottom, and black Sancho and
'Merica, even, with thick coatings Of
white fur sticking 10 their Woolly
heads. There were mountains OF cot
ton seed to slide on and mounds of cot
ton with the seeds in it to play in, bat
good round in the lint room was best
of all. and after sunset, when all the
boys who had to pick got off, the neigh
borhood OF the gin and press was live
Iy Just about then big Tom, the pack
err would have so many volunteer as
sistants that he could lie off altogether
and might have taken good pull at
his pipe had it been allowed.
They are picking cotton down South
now as fast as ever they can. Some
fields open all at once. produce fully
two-thirds of their entire yield in
Ia GOT
in out of the weather and ginned as
soon as possible, before the grade is In
jured Sand, dead leaves, trash, all
break the fiber.
1--WE hear of strikes all over the
country among all conditions of labor,
hut our cotton pickers never strike or
give any trouble said a young planter
the other day, as he surveyed his whit
ened fields IF the cotton in either Of
these fields out in front here-there
is about sixty bales of it open-should
have to stand, say, a week. it would
be ruined. The negroes know this as
well az / do, and they know also that
they are the only ones to pick it; but
never in a single instance is anything
said about raising the price for picking
or refusing TO pick. The negroes are
the most tractible, easily managed la
borers in existence, if you understand
them When they get unruly and ugly
it is because they have been persistent
Is rubbed up the wrong way and treat
ed unfairly II is that Kind of dealing,
in my opinion, that is at the bottom of
most of the troubles that result in
lynchng. ! am the only white man on
this big tract of land, 5000 acres, AMI
more | have thirty-9ve negro tenants
and theiv families on the place. besides
the hands who work the land, that I
plant myself I have never had any
trouble With them yet, beyond little
stealing now and then, and my father
never had any before me-
The virgin bale of cotton, turned out
fresh from the country press. in new
| bagging and tires. looks very different
| thing from the dingy, discolored. sam
pie gashed bale that it appears few
weeks later. dumped down by railroad
| or steamboat landing, or being trundlcd
through city streets. A great deal of
significance attaches to that bale in
| the planters sight He has a lump
of the first ginning brought to him up
at the house. and he pulls it apart
| feels of the fiber and looks at it with
critical attention. He knows the ex-
act conditions that went to make that
| particular grade of staple; the kind Of
| ground and how IL was treated the
amount and kind of fertilizer used, the
number Of times IL was plowed, wheth-
! er Just after rains or before, and so
on.
! II he has planted cotton for many