The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-13

to delay an answer and to make
good deal of merrimcnt when Mr..
Prices friends found that the Jose
phine" who sent the telegram wore
pantaloons.
There is no county in the State
where the practical workings of the
amendment could be studied with
more satisfaction than in this parish,
Lafourche. This is Il county in which
the Republicans have a strong party
and put up good fight. Even this
year, with the negro vote eliminated,
the vote stood: Democratic 1,l36
Rep-Fusion LOG, majority of only
about 400. which was secured only
after a hard fight This represents
all white voters. for though there are
about $500 negro adults living in the
parish none of them registered or Of
fered to register, while 3.053s white
voters registered In the old. times.
when the white and negro rotcrs reg
istered alike Il quote from the regis
tration of 1881, there were 1868
white registered voters and 2.237 ne
gro registered voters. Of the white
voters 1856 wrote their names to
their applications to vote and 1,607
422 signed their names and 1915 made
their mark OF course there have
been changes since then, but there
are still a large number of white Hit
crates in the parish. most OF them
being Creoles. descendants of the men
who came here from Already. Before
the war they had few advantages i'll
the way of education. When the war
Al =
soldiers in the Confederate army.
When they returned home, they found
that the Republican government gave
no schools except mixed schools, for
white children and cOlored children
in the same schools. and these proud
Creoles refused to send their children
to school with the negroes. and so
number of them grew to manhood
without educational advantages. In
1876, when the white people shoulder
ed their guns and put an end to mixed
schools and negro rule. these unedu-
Gated white men were foremost
among the brave men who restored
the State to the hands of white men,
but it was not until the eighties that
good schools were provided. In the
constitutional convention, the men
who insisted on section five to save
the vote of these uneducated men
came mainly from this and adjacent
parishes. From this parish the dele
gates were Hon. Andrew Price, who
was elected at large. Hon. l..
p. Caillonett. and Hon. Thos.
BadeauX, the last two being
CreoIes. the first is Judge of
this district. and the second one of
the leading lawyers OF southwest Lou
isiana. | spent three hours to-day
talking to these three gentlemen and
to Hon. James Beary. sheriff of the
county. He is an Irishman originally
from New York. and is one of the best
posted men ON the practical opera
tons of the amendment ! have met
in Louisiana.
Calling attention TO the statement
of Senator Pritchard that the falling
off i'm the vote in Louisiana in April
was due to the disfranchisement of
illiterate whites under the amend
ment. | asked Judge Caillonett
whether there was foundation for the
statement. He said: 1T has no foun-
dation to rest upon. The llllterate
white men of this and adjoining par
ishes nearly all registered under sec
ton five. and the vote cast by them
was as large in proportion as of edu-
Gated whites A full vote is never poll
ed anywhere but the vote here was
large. There were in the recent cleo
ton quite as many educated as uned-
ucated who did not vote. Of course
it was not SO large in parishes where
there were no contests. for there
was nothing to bring out the vote.
In this parish we took interest to see
that every illiterate white man was
registered under section ). | regis
tered under it myself, and there were
very few white illiterates who did
not avail themselves of this provis-
ion. The amendment works splendid
". elections are fair. the educated
and uneducated whites vote as here
tofore. and there is better feeling in
politics than for many years.
when the amendment was first
adopted. the Republican leaders
sought TO make it unpopular. and
kn. inf 20