The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-06-19
LIFE IN HUNTSVILLE.
Child Labor in Southern Factories--The
Status of the Negro-Other INTEREST," ne


5. Status of the Negro-Other Interesting
Sketches. gfFg
HUNTSVILLE, ALA, June 10, 1902.
TO the UN1oN.-Would you like a
birds's-eye view of Huntsville this after
noon? AS we are in East Huntsville,
let US take the electric car and go out
to D., the largest mill village
here. This mill has about eight hun
dred operatives and is to have four
hundred more this fall. Our car waits
here at the end of the line five minutes,
and the workers will have to pass by US
on their way home, for it is three P.
NJ, and all mills shut down at this
time on Saturday. On other days they
begin work at six in the morning, have
half an hour for dinner and work un-
til $50 P. M. What a motley crowd!
How tired and languid they look, and
what peculiar greyish tinge their
compilations have. Look at that group
of listless children from eight to six
teen years of age! Why are those lit
tie boys and girls housed in that noisy
mill day after day until all the life is
crushed out of them? Well, it is &C.
complished by Southern legislation and
Northern capitalists, for Northern
money runs this mill, and one of
Huntsville's own senators says-''Chil-
dren ought to have something to keep
them out of mischief, and the cotton
mill is the best place for them" And
what do they earn? From eight to
twenty-five cents day, rarely as high
as twenty-five cents. But our car is
moving on past this white faced assem-
blage of men, women and children
covered with cotton lint. How glad
they must be to breathe the pure air
again. And what are their homes?
Cottages placed close together, all
alike, and you can imagine what must
be their condition if the mother also
works in the mill, which is often the
case, or perhaps the father gets fifty
cents day, sometimes seventy-five,
and a few on up as high as two dollars
Their fare must be corn bread mostly,
but here we go back to town, down
Holmes street, with its lovely homes,
shady walks, and wealth of tea and
climbing roses, making feast for the
eyes very welcome after our view of
the mill village. AS we reach the
business portion of town sleepy negro
draymen hurry their mules off the
track, for our streets are rather mar
row, and traffic hates to give even the
street car its needed portion.
The market is busy place we see,
the fire department boys are polishing
their engine, the blind man is making
his usual Saturday collections. Prog
ress is slow for Saturday is NEGRO
day." and they are standing on the
sidewalks and blocking the crossings
'meetin' up' with each other and
having the gayest of times. The few
white people who find it necessary to
60 about to-day are walking in the
middle of the street as it is 80 hard
to work ones way through a crowd of
lazy, insolent and-well-yes- dirty
darkies. These are typical scenes we
see to-day. There is an old gray
haired negro who feels called upon to
preach to the assembled multitudes
and convince them of their sins, for to-
morrow is the day of the big "baptiz-
ing" spelled with a capital B, 'An'
you cayn't sin no no." after being
converted and baptized. Over to the
right is an auction sale of mules, but
around the corner we go just getting a
glimpse of the cotton.yards. They are
busy to-day and the street is half filed
with bales for nearly block. AS we
pass the Old National Bank we see its
long flight of well-shaded stone steps
quite covered with ''colored ladies"
who are listening to the musical efforts
of blind singer who is accompanying
herself on the ACCORDION. I wish I
could hear the words, but we are going
too fast. She often sings there on Sat-
urday so perhaps we may hear her
again.
And now we leave the business por-
tion of the town and start out West
Clinton St., which is another beautiful
residence street, and while we stop to
let those people on the car we look
over to the Huntsville spring, block
away. There at the base of a lime
stone cliff, which forms the foundation
of the old bank we just passed, bubbles
spring of pure water, which supplies
all of Huntsville, and almost all of the
surrounding mills and factories, also
the great negro Normal school four
miles away. The large brick pumping
station is filed with fine machinery
and surrounded by a tiny park which
attempts to make up in quality what it