River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-05-22

timental reasons | retain. Last year
rented a 'twO-mule farm to an old
negro named Andy, who had always
lived on the place. \ 'two-mule farm
is so acres, one and three-mule allot-
ments being respectively 25 and Is
acres. The basis of measurement is
cotton land only, a liberal but unmeas-
ured strip of corn bottom being
thrown in with each rental as neces-
sary condition. l may add that an
other necessary condition was the loan
by myself of $50 to Andy to make the
crop; the rental price was to be $50,
which with the loan was lien on the
cotton he should wiring by his labor
from the earth.
absorbed in my affairs, heard lit
tie from the busy hum of toll upon the
plantation until summoned thither by
an extraordinary legal tangle. Andy
had promptly sublet his lease to an
other negro named Jim, and both Andy
and Jim had contracted the unmade
crop to agents. Jim did the work, and
naturally claimed the disposition of
the result. Andy's agent sued him
for breach of contract; / had to hire
him lawyer and pay his verdict with
the costs, amounting to $40. Whether
Jim had also borrowed money for his
seasons expenses, and how he and
Andy finally settled their affairs |
forbore to ask AS for myself, the
rent money was two dollars short, so
that my remuneration for rs acres of
the finest cotton land in the south,
sir. was ten dollars, which did not
cover my railroad fare to settle mat
ters for Andy, to say nothing of the
loss of time"
"Why did you have to pay Andy's
Judgment and costs?"
The colonel looked puzzled for a mo-
ment; then look of pain crossed his
expressive features. He seemed hurt,
but controlled his feelings manfully.
POSSIBLY l forgot to MENTION he
said, softly, after brief pause, ''that
Andy was one of our negroes. He has
always lived on the plantation, sir.
And his action, though unbusinesslike
and not conducive to the orderly con-
duct of affairs, was not malicious"
The southerner is always ready to
tell such story, and he tells it with
the skill that makes his section the
breeding ground of novelists. And
vet the negro is there, on the planta-
tion. where he was "befo' de wah."
And the cotton staple has far more
than doubled since 1860. while truck
farming, not even thought of then, has
grown to vast proportions. The plan
tation negro and his mule are the maxi
ers of the south. They are the founda-
ton. And into his cotton and his corn
cloth to cover and food to feed the
world-the negro is plunging with
vigor. He's working for himself.
It's the black mans turn now to tell
a story. Here it is, just as Stepney
Iipscomb told it at the Tuskegee
farmers conference:
AZ began workin' for board an
clothes, but pity soon my white folks
say: 'Stepney. you's wo'th wages
now An I alters answers: Thank
you, sir / never give no mortgage.
When I went to farmin' had two
mules an two little boys. had to buy
the mules on part credit. The white
man say 10 me: Stepney, take your
wo'd fob one-third the price o. them
mules Now l own 1,1SO acres o. lam
an [ amt debt in the worr"
An acre of land doesn't mean in Ala
bama what it would in the Genesee
valley or near Chicago. But it has a
value for the man-who can dig that
value out.
The southern negro is not always
careless and happy-go-lucky. A stout
fellow named Burroughs said at the
conference that he lived on bread and
water until he saved money 'nough to
buy land. Plenty of negroes who are