The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-10-18
Soliloquizes on the Death Of
Faithful Negro Servant.
ACCORDS JUNGLE" SAM HIGH PRAISE
william Meditates on Many other Sub.
jects and Transcribes His Thoughts
Thereon.


was a good man." he said. "Dar was
good people den and bad people ies'
like dar is now-black and white, but
de black has got wusser and wusser
since dey got free. Effen black man
had a good master he was mighty well
off, fer he didn't have no sponsibilty.
Effen bin sho of good master and
my wife and children been sho of one
and we all live togedder ontil! we die
l wouldent care anything bout free
dom. Niggers got too much freedom
anyhow. My old master used to make
de Niger gals get married and take
man and stick to him, but nowadays
dey don't marry at all hardly. [ got
lot of grandchildren what haint got
no daddy to speak Of and [ don't
know my sons-in-law. Dey don't
come about in daytime. Oats what
killed my old woman. She jes' SO
mortified and so shamed she never got
over it. So many spurious children
all round calm her granny. Etfen a
white woman do dat way she is dis
graced, but black oman don't keer;
she shine as big as ever and dey don't
turn her outen de church. In de old
times she got whippin' and dey ort
to have i yet. White folks done quit
whippin bad niggers; dey send EN- to
changing, and dey don't keer for dat.
| hear dat Car is four or five thousand
in dar from Georgy. How's dat
dident lave nary one before de war;
Gwine to school too much l spek and
work too little. Don't know what is
gwine to come of all desc GROWN up
niggers. Oar is a dozen or more
roun de depot or trampin' around
town dom nothin' all de time-liviug
often dey mammies and smokin' desc
little paper seegars.
Old Uncle Sam didn' talk much,
but sometimes he would lean on his
hoe CT his ak and spress his feelings
1t did him good. He has been chop
ping my wood and helping me in the
garden for thirteen years, and We will
miss him. He fell down parelyzed
with his hoe in his hand. He was
'the man with the hoe" 20 the very
last, but he never was poor, for he
made good living, and had many
friends and owned a comfortable house
and lot. They sent to my wife for
some grave clothes, and he will be
buried in right decent suit of mine,
and we will go to his funeral.
I was Illuminating about this good
old negro who had seen thirty-three
years of slavery and thirty of
freedom, and knew the good and the
bad of both conditions, and then my
thought wandered to the malignity
of those who have slandered us so
long without cause. Here is book
of poems by John G. Whittier and
thirty-seven of them are pitiful APP
peals for the poor slave aud invoking
heavens curses upon his master. He
knew no more about slavery as it
really was than he did about Barbara
Freitchie, and he fed the young peo-
pie of New England upon poetic lies
for thirty years and ipstiled into their
hearts that hatred from which they
have never recovered. Strange it is
that smart people will write about
things they have never seen. Now,
the idea of an uneducatad negro slave
getting down on his knees and max
ing an apostrophe to the north star
and yet that is the title of one Of the
poems-"The Slaves Apostrophe to
the North Star That niger was
'possum hunting right then, but the
poet makes him to say:
"Star of the North, look to thee,
"Thy ight and truth shall set nae free"
But enough of this. The question
still survives what will become Of the
negro. And that other question looms
up before us, what will we do with
1000, 900 more of them over in the
Philippines? A more senseless war
was never waged. 1t was conceived in
sin and is being carried on in iniquity.
Prosperity! Yes, it is war that CLOSES
over suffering and death and grief with
coat OF prosperity. But it is nothing
but a coat. War always produces q
semblance of prosperity, for armies
have to be fed and clothed and equipp-
ed. Ships have to be built and cannon
made and a thousand things collateral
to these show activity and give en-
ployment to labor and to capital. This
activity began with the Cuban en-
broglio and still goes on, but IN the
long run somebody will have to foot
the money bill. The bill for blood and
suffering will never be paid.
Who wants the war but contractors
who are growing rich from their
profits? When I was last in Texas L
heard cattle man say he hoped that
Russia and England would get up a
fight, for he had 100, 900 head OF cat
tie that would go up 80 per cent in a
day. Daily wages don't go up, but
everything the laborer is obliged to
consume has advanced. How about
clerk hire, male and female, il, the
towns and cities. How about child
labor in the factories--not in all the
factories, but in most of them, for
there are not many Guuby Jordans at
the head OF southern cotton mills.
What beautiful tribute his people