The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-09-10
BILL ARP ON NEGRO ORATORS.
MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS
OF THE BLACK RACE.
In All the South There Was
Nota Negro ison Nor Con-
vict or a Chain Gang.

In All the South There Wa
Nota Negro ison Nor Con
vict or Chain Gang.
Atlanta Constitution.
Of course was very much interest
, ed in the great negro convention. S.
: was evory thoughtful man North ant
South, but there were some feature
J about it that did not harmonlzo will
The views and memories of the ole
masters. The oft-repeated assertion
that forty years ago the negro emerged
from bondage and barbarism is a mis-
take. 1t is worse, for it is SANDER
One orator said that they had been in
a savage state one hundred years-
another said two hundred and fifty
years-and their progress since free
dom came was wonderful. Some OF
our young people of this age and gen.
GRAFTON may carelessly believe that, for
they have been taught it from the
North where it ls universally believed.
Booker Washington may believe it,
for he is In his middle age. But Evan
Howell and L and all other veterans,
whether white or black, know that it
| 10 uOL bO. WduI Gu6
negroes slandered.
The orator might as we'll have said
$3.50 years ago, for their ancestors
were all in Africa then. n.-none of the
grown up negroes who wore set free
had been in bondage more than fifty
or sixty years and none were savages
or barbarians. They compared we'll
with the illiterate white people, and in
fact felt above them and spoke of them
as poor white trash. The close asso.
citation for two or three generations of
these slaves with their white masters
and their families educated most of
them IN good morals and manners and
industry, which is better education
than books, and the truth is they were
when freedom came infinitely superior
to the race as it now is. The progress
that Booker Washington and his as
sociatss boast of is an alarming retro
grade and degeneracy. When free
dom came there was not an outrage in
all the Southern land nor was there
convict or chaingang nor a negro
prison, but now there are 4,400 cOn-
victs and the number increases fas ter
than the population.
No-there is no upward gradation
in their morals. The higher education
that these negro colleges are giving to
the few have no good effect upon the
many, and, according to Mr.. Wash
ipgton's own statement, he is alarmed
because most of his graduates aspire TO
be leaders and teachers and preachers
and bosses. They are pampered
negto aristocracy and widely scattered
as they are, they have not reformed
The race in morals or in honesty OR an
observance of the marriage relations.
1 can assert with truth that at least
one-third of the negro children in and
around Cartersville are bastards.
There are nine within stones throw
of our house-and yet their mothers
are veiy good servants and make goo,l
cooks, chambermaids and washer
women. They lose no caste or social
position or church membership by
reason of their unchaste and unlawful
cohabitation, and the children of these
women are growing up without moral
training and are as notorious young
thieves as the Arabs of the desert.
The white people have got so accus-
tomed to their petty thieving that they
| do not prosecute them.
Mr.. Washington made another mis-
! take when he said that the number of
convicts increased because they were
too poor to employ counsel. 1t is we'll
known to the bar and to those who at
tend the courts that the judge always
appoints competent counsel, and he
leans to the negro and protects him as
far as he can consistently with his
duty. L know that our judge does.
About year ago he tried three ne
groes for a CRIME in a nejghboring
county. They were easily convicted,
for they were guilty. He fined each
of them 1876 and the cost and sen.
fenced them to one years service in
the chaingang, but told them he would
hold up the sentence for year, and ii
they could get any responsible white
man to take them in charge and lei
them work out their fines and bring
them back to the court at the mex,
term and give good account of them
he would not send them to the chain
gang at all. The negroes found good
men without leaving the court house
and they did work out their fines and
behaved we'll, and their employer
made good report of them and they
were honorably discharged. How
much better that was than the chain
gang with all of its bad association
and brutality.
The Southern people are uniforml,
kind to good negroes. Last year m,
faithful servant, Tip, came to see me
for he was in trouble. He had laid III
few hundred dollars and had bough
a snug little farm near Rome for $500
which took all his money. The MAJ
, he bought from then suddenly disap
peared and Tip found out there was
mortgage on the farm of $500. "Wher
! did the man come from2" asked
"IIe came from Ohio" said TiI
q /" And you did not ask any lawyer
look into the title 2" "NO, sir,n sal
Tip. He talked so fair and 1 ha
r knowed him some time that 1 though
4 shorely he wouldn't cheat me-" An
now Tip is still working out that NOR
e gage and the man cannot be fount
j. Reckon he is drawing pension an
4 holding an office in Ohio. What "
wish TO see is some good practical r,
% suits of those negro colleges.
@ Before the war every man Of weal
70 who owned slaves had among the
masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, W
Ia pOnmakers shOernakera etc n