The age-herald., 1902-03-02


 say thimsilves, was fir to attack us dye know what I'd do? I'll tell ye. I'd blockade Armour an Comp'ny an tn wheat ilivators iv Minnysoty F'r. Hen messy, I tell ye, tn hand that rocks tn scales in tn grocery store is tn hand that rules tn world
 
 other opportunity to learn than this which you have described"
 Tt came about in this way" said MT Montgomery During the war the Davis place was confiscated by the union government, and with two other large plantations in the same bend of the river, was used as a place of refuge for freed slaves The river swung in on each side so that at the narrowest place the neck or the peninsula was only half a mile wide. Fortifcations were thrown across at this place to protect the peo- pie inside After the war-it was in 1867 -the property was returned to the own CTS, and a sum of money was paid as rent. One of the first things MT. Joe did was to get into communication with my father and engage him to act as a sort or agent for him, to get the colored people to come back to work the land In the meantime. my brother and myself had gone into the United States navy. We We're on board the Admiral Porter Alter while father had me cme back 10 the place to act as bookkeeper for him. l thought I was pretty we'll edu- cated, but I found that I couldn't keen books Although I had read widely in the Hurricane Library-chiehy history-I had never been beyond long division in arith- metic. At that time there was a school not far from our place, taught by wo- man from the North. l made arrange ments with her to teach me arithmetic and went to her on horseback twice n week until l had mastered the study My work for father threw me in contact with the clerks on the river steamboats Those men were almost always good bookkeep- CTS, and from one of them I learned the principles of double entry bookkeeping. Some years after that 1 took a notion I wanted to write fiction. I had read some novels, and had always seen the white folks around me reading a great many. l thought I would like to write a novel. So l got some books on composition and rhetoric and studied them by myself"
 Have you ever written that novel;" l asked. Tor any fiction?"
 No" said MT. Montgomery. "I never have had time"
 MT. Joe Dies.
 T stayed at the Davis place until f-33. MT. Joe died soon after the war He was
 
 had got the colored people there pretty well provided with schools and churches but one or two floods and the decline in the price Of cotton made some of them discontented The trouble was there was no permanent interest to hold them to- gether, because they did not own the land they lived on. Every little accident would make them get up and leave. be. gan 10 see that If permaner. colony was 1a6 fho
 the land themselves. Finally, after con sultation with the railroads land com missioner. l picked out tract in the Yazoo River Valley, near what was known as the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railroad. This is now known as the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Rail- road, and is represented in general by the illinois Central. l began to advertise this land among colored people I told them much of 1t was wild land and that they would find woods to be cleared up. but that they might as well buy land and own It, and do for themselves what they had been doing for other folks for 250 years l learned how to survey land and to Iav ot lots. We sold no one less than forty acres.
 Most of the settlers buy forty or elsnty acres, but few have acquired as many as 200 acres. Colored people now own 12,0O0 acres there. There are about 200 Inhabitants in Mound Bayou the viii lase Of which I am Mayor, and about zOo0 Tn the town. We have perhaDs len stores and shops. I should say that the business done by the colored establish ment would amount to at least S3O 900 q year. and this is not more than half of our trade, as there are two large towns near. Mound Bayou is 1O4 miles below Memphis and 116 above Vicksburg If is an agricultural community. Our peo- pie raise cotton to sell and some food crops, but not as many of the latter as they ought. We have a large timber trade in oak, ash, gum and hickory We have good churches and schools, with a high school taught by graduate of Booker Washington's school at Tuske- gee.
 We have passed the first stage in the development of such an enterprise as ours. That stage is to get the colored peo- pie to buy land and to settle down. Now we are approaching the second stage. | where the people must be induced to | take up intensified and diversified farm | ing. An industrious coored man does not seem to hire out to any one for more than two years. If he is good for any thing h. can get started for himself by that time.
 T am going pack by way of New | York said MT. Montgomery, 'so as to | try and see Mrs. Davis. I have not seen | her since 1883. although letters have ire quently passed between us since then. | She is thoroughly consecrated Christian | woman. After the war she used to come | frequently to the place and spend hours | In earnest conversation with me about our | people and how they could best be helped. | Whenever any of our family have died | who were old enough so that she would | know them, I have always written her and she replied. When MT. Davis died I wrote to her. Afterward I received a letter from her in which she said that although she had received so many | thousand letters of sympathy that it was quite impossible for her to try to an- swer them, she felt bound to write to us. She wrote me again after Miss Winnie |