The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1901-01-25
PAPEROF ALLEN COUNTY
CONDITIONS IN ARKANSAW
The Pecullarities and Pre!udices of
Southern People as Seen by
a Northerner

"A formerly OF Kansas man VINO has
been living in Little Rock for the past
six months, in recent letter to an
lola friend gives very interesting
sketch of conditions existing there as
they appear to him. The REGISTER
is allowed to make some extracts from
the letter which viii he found well
worth reading;
''This is The south typically. The
people are practically y all southerners.
with all their peculiarities and preiu-
dices. The thing that is most remark
able, ] think, is the utter misconcep-
tion northern people have of them.
They are intensely sectional and hope
lessly Democratic. Northern people
are only tolerated and "Republican-
ISM is to them a synonym of all that
is villainous. 1t is, however, more
general than personal, and northern
man will not meet any personal
Sights. They will simply have as
little to do with him as possible |
am fully convinced that the old idea
we all had of the generosity and
chivalry and hospitality of the South
ern Gentleman is a myth. They are
less hospitable than the people of the
North. one reason for it is probably
the fact that they are poor-much
poorer than the people of the North.
The city of Little Rock is an illustra-
Af
of fine old places neglected and run
down, which are still owned by the
families that had them before the war,
and the places are all they have left.
One can 60 to almost any of the fine
places and rent rooms. The people
were ruined by the war and have
never tried very seriously to recover.
81 think it is the memory of the
reconstruction period that embitters
them against the North more than the
war. They hate the darkies, and,
with Il queer contradiction of incon-
sistency, there seems to be rivalry
amongst them to see who can keep the
most around them. Thatis one thing
that keeps them poor There are
about 10000 negroes in the town. and
the white population supports them,
directly or indirectly. There is
race war perpetually smouldering,
and. while here it rarely breaks ont
in open rupture, its influence is con-
stantly felt, and it finds expression
in petty persecution on the one side
and in thievery and malicious mis-
chief on the other. have taken some
trouble to learn the state of feeling
between them, and the blacks tell me
conidentially that hatred of the whites
is universal among them. The house
servants consider it perfectly legiti-
mate to carry of everything they can
in the way of provisions. They never
sleep in the house of their employer,
and every one of them has secret
pockets in which to stow away sugar,
coffee, etc. They don't call it steal
ing. and the queer part of it is that
the whites know they do it, but as it
is universal they only hope to reduce
it to a minimum.
"Another cause of the animosity be-
tween the races is the differences in
politics. The negroes are universally
Republican. a negro couldn't be
anything else, for while the whites
curse him for voting that ticket they
wouldn't have him vote with them.
They prefer to have him vote the other
ticket and then throw his vote out.
This is done systematically and openly.
The whites say frankly that they won't
count the 'nigger" vote, and knowing
this Il very large proportion Of them
fail to go to the polls
Another thing the negro, althousA
staunch Republican himself, is the
death of the party in the South. This
for the simple reason that a white man
who votes or works with the Republic
cans must line mp with the "nigger.
The Republican conventions and pub
lie meetings are only crowds ofnegroes
with few whites trying TO lead them
putting up with the sneers and ieers Of
the Democratic spectators. And so
Il very large proportion, believe a
majority, Of the white Republicans
take no part at all in politics.
"This seems 10 he doyoting good
deal OF attention to the Blacks. But
YOU can't speak of the south without
II He is the bone of contention be-
tween the sections, now, as he was
forty years ago, lie is the stumbling
block, in the way Of good feeling and
the objectionable oiIense of the Re
publican party.
"There are many things that | would
like to tell you of this country if | had