The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-01-11
AGRICULTURAL.
Life In the South.


even 800 below zero. l am writing
this after Christmas, and 1t is sunny
and warm. The coolest "snap" here
the thermometer only went down to ITO
above zero, and last week it stood much
of The time between go and 600, and
was delie htful weather. One day three
weeks ago there was little snow, and
the school children were crazy to get a
handful of it, snow 30 rarely falls. And
yet we live in the cold part of Georgia
at the foot of the Blue Ridge, but not
in the coolest part; that is in the noun
tains where the winters are quite Sc.
we're. There are very few days here
that the pillow cannot be run, and there
is seldom any snow or frozen ground to
trouble the farmers. 1t seems strange
that there should be the differences
there are between the people of YER
mont and those of Georgia seeing they
speak the same language and are the
same people in more ways than one.
But you have only to ride through the
South on the cars to see some of the
vast differences between the two States.
L have rode through Vermont in many
directions, have, in such towns as
East Montpelier and Randolph for in
stance, rode mile after mile and passed
fine looking farm houses with great
barns all painted and looking neat,
comfortable, and cosy. There is not a
building Oh these farms as poor as the
dwelling houses of many of the south
ern farmers. Why is il? / believe
slavery is at the bottom of it all. The
white man who did not own slaves was
generally just "poor white trash" they
were poor in everything, illiterate, with
out opportunity or ambition to rise out
of the condition they were in. A large
part of the poor whites of to-day are
the posterity of those white trash of
ante bellum days, and their faces, their
dress, their homes show the impress of
years ofpoverty and ignorance. Then
nearly half of the rest of the people of
thio paw VI tAC COulu dIt dDu
we know what is behind them. With
so large part of the population COM
posed of these two elements, the poor
whites and the colored people, it is no
wonder that the South is in such diff
ferent condition from the North. If it
were not for the negro, the problem
would not be so difficult to solve, and if
the whites were all as thrifty as in the
North, it would be far better, but as it
is, things are really growing worse in
the South, rather than better.
1t is simply fact that the negro as a
race does not like to work, the majority
will not work anything like what they
must to earn fair living. 1t is a fact,
too, that many seek an education to
get rid of manual labor. They want to
be teachers, preachers, clerks, etc. l
hear this from men who hate slavery
as bad or worse than Northerners.
The negro is hard problem for the
South and they are solving it in a way
that does not commend itself to MANY
thinking people. Southerners say that
the negroes are not fit to have the right
OF suffrage. They do not use the bal
lot for good, but only for evil. So the
right of suffrage is being taken away
from them. Then it is said that edu-
cation spoils them for farm hands and
servants. They make good servants,
and that seems to be all they are good
for. This is what is said by the whites.
30 now forces are at work to stop the
education of the negro. No one can
foresee where all this ia to end. One
thing l can testify to, and that is the
colored people in these parts have
very bad reputation. If you hire col
ored man to work for you, you must be
with him and push him, or you can get
little out of him. Their great aim
seems to be to do as little as possible
and get their pay, and they will invent
any and every excuse to shirk hard
work. The place where they do the
best is working under the eye of man
VINO understands how to direct them,
as shoveling dirt, handling cotton bales,
loading and unloading ships and cars
and the like. But hire negro, set 1
him at work, go away and leave him,
and he will accomplish very little. I
There are some exceptions, but this is
the rule. The women are worse than q
the men. They ought to make the
best of nurses, but on the contrary it is q
hard to find woman who is q decent 8
nurse. am speaking of actual facts 8
which have come under my own OBJ 8
servation, and of what is matter of '
common report. If the negro was only '
industrious, honest and trustworthy, he G
would be ten thousand times better off i
than he is. 1t is not at all to be won l.