The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-22

and one of the party, who was pos
sessed of considerable old-time senti-
ment. said:
II hope 1 never will, because this
old South of ours is a sweet smelling
SAVIOR. 1t has produced thousands of
men, 1 mean white people. worthy the
name of Southerners-or had not bet
ter say Americans? But the negro, al
though even now an embryo American
citizen. in it's fullest sense, has been
an essential part in the bringing of our
Southern folk to the present full meas
ure of their material prosperity. Our
people, of course, gave the negroes all
the morals they have
81 made a mistake, | see now" said
the first speaker. lin my questions I
Will ask another question. Did you ever
want your shoes blacked--did you ever
want negro boy or man to run an
errand-id you ever want one of them
to bride and saddle your horse and
when you rode home save you the
trouble of riding to the barn, unbrid-
ling and unsaddling the animal, water
ing him, haltering him in the stable
and then feeding him-with either rain
or snow falling, or even in good wealth
er-after a long rider"
There was a bow of assents and no
philosophizing.
Now" said the first speaker, II liv-
ed in a county in Texas a little over
ten years ago where negroes were not
allowed to live, except one family"
What county?"
"Comanche, about 100 miles south
west of Fort Worth"
How did it come about?"
Away back in the latter part of the
'S0-about '8S-one of those too horri-
bly, frequent crimes was committed by
a negro. He was quickly caught and
was punished in accordance with the
rules of the unwritten law.
THE county was sparsely populated.
1t was largely used for pasturage of
cattle, but was rapidly developing into
a grain region. The whites were in
considerable preponderance, but they
: lived at some distance from each 9TH
err They met at Comanche, the name
| of the county seat, which had a pop
ulationj Of possibly 400. and was distant
from one railroad sixteen miles and
from another fourteen miles.
'The meeting was different from
most American meetings in that they
had no written resolution. There was
also very little speaking. Every one
knew the work at hand and on the
verbal motion of some reputable citi-
zen, 1t was resolved to give every me-
gro in the county one weeks notice to
leave the county, and committees of
men from different sections of the
county were appointed to carry out the
will of the white people.
THE motion was carried by a rising
vote and every one arose. but before
they sat down, an old gentleman, who
was known of all men to have feared
in. youth. manhood. middle and old
age, only God spoke:
Mr.. Chairman
"All eyes turned to him, and seeing
who ii was. he was left standing
:" I am for this motion said the fine
old Texian-that's the way they call it
in Texas-'but I want to move an
amendment. There has been living in
different parts of Texas with me and
my people, who came here from Ken
lucky, a negro family. They or some
of them have been with us through
good and bad times. The head of this
family now is Aleck Hughes. You all
know him. You know his old wife.
Hannah. why
Here the old gentleman broke down.
Some one tried to second his amend
ment but he guiped little and quick
ly said
"'Sit down there, sir, until / finish
speaking for my people, for they are
mine. No. l won't say any more-but,'
and we all knew him, God help the
mans soul who tries to come. on my
place to order them away. They are
my people. There's only old Aleck.
Hannah and their likely boy, Cyrus.
and as God is my judge-my children
have beaten my wife and me to the
end-my blessed wife and I, so long as
God gives us breath will protect them.
Gentlemen, excuse me. but did / hear
a second to my amendments
"A second. Why. the crowd rose up
and yelled a second which preclude
the necessity of a vote.
THE committees went right to work
and in the specified time cleared the
county of negroes-excepting, mark
you. the grand old man and woman's
folk. They stayed-you can depend
on that
"All of us Dragged nightly on our
bringing about this exodus, but IL was
awfully troublesome--the lack of the
negro / lived at the county seat. No
Southerner knows until he experiences
IL, the many things you want a negro
to do for you which you don't wish to
ask a white woman, man or boy TO do
for you, unless you are living in some
Eastern city, where all the help is
white. 1 never had that experience and
don't banker for 1t.
with us IN COHanc0e tne CnleI
trouble in this particular was that
every man. woman and child in that
village was practically on the same
social plane-excepting, of course, the
debased. i never saw grander set
of people. Very few of them were Of
any literary culture. but they were
honest and brave, splendid American
men and women.
II couldn't ask such folks to do my
little bachelor chores-I mean the rum
ming of errands and a hundred little
things that we don't hesitate to ask
a negro to do. Oh, missed the negro
and never want TO be without them as
a servant"
What did you miss them most INT"
II have thought about that. and 1
believe that l chiefly missed them In
the cleaning of my shoes"
Did the negroes ever attempt to
come back?"
II left the county several years ago.
so can't tell. know one thing, that
in my days over the public well in the
little railroad station. sixteen miles
from Comanche. there was a villain
ously painted sign, which read as fol-
lows:
'Niggersi Let not the sun set on
you in comanehe county. 4