St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-10-25
know that our Judge does. About

know that our judge does. About .
year ago he tried three negroes for
crime in a neighboring county.
They were easily convicted, for they
were guilty. He fined each of them
$25 and the cost and sentenced them
to one years service in the chain
gang, but told them he would hold
up the sentence for a year, aud 1t
they could get any responsible white
man to take them in charge and let
them work out their fines and bring
them back to the court at the next
term and give good account OF
them, he would not send them to
the changing at all. The negroes
found good men without leaving the
courthouse, and they did work out
their fines and behaved well, and
their employers made good report
of them, and they were honorably
discharged. How much better that
was than the changing with all OF
it's bad associations and brutality.
The southern people are uniformly
kind to good negroes. Last year my
faithful servant, Tip, came to see me,
for he was in trouble. He had laid
up few hundred dollars and had
bought snug little farm near Rome
for $500, which took all his money.
The man he bought from then sud
denly disappeared, and Tip found
out there was mortgage on the
come from?" asked. "He came from
Ohio,' said Tip. "And you did not
ask any lawyer to look into the
title?" mo, sir" said Tip. He
talked so fair, and had knowed him
some time, that thought shorely he
wouldn't cheat me-" And now Tip is
still working out that mortgage and
the man cannot be found. Reckon
he is drawing pension and holding
an office in Ohio. What we wish to
see is some good practical results OF
those negro colleges. Before the
war every man of wealth who owned
slaves had among them masons, car
penters, blacksmiths, wagonmakers,
shoemakers, ETC.; my man Tip was
paperhanger, and a good one, for
my wife taught him, and he has
made good money by it since the
war. The negroes are naturally me-
chanics and improve rapidly in theio
trades, but 1 have not seen or heard
of one from Tuskegee yet. Wash
ington says he is trying to teach
them that it is honorable to walk
between the pillow handles. Why, we
can't get white college boy to do
that, much less college negro
whose college education has all come
from charity, and these colleges keep
begging for more and get it.
But what frets us old masters is
all this tommyrot about the negroes
having just emerged from slavery
and barbarism. I wish to declare to
this generation that our old slaves
had more common sense and far bet
ter morals than those we have now,
and they had wives and children and
they were not ashamed of them. It
sweetens my memory to go back to
the good old faithful stock like TIP
and Sinda and Aunt Peggy and
Virgil and big Jack and little Jack
and Uncle Sam and Aunt Ann and
hundreds of others who were happy
and contented and whose children
have got into the changing through
the malignant legislation of our enc
mics. Harper's Weekly seems to
have repented of late, but the cruel
work is done and cannot be undone.
The most hopeful sign I saw in the
proceedings and reports of that con-
vention was that given by mulatto
or copper-colored negro from ne
gro town near the Mississippi, be-
tween Vicksburg and Memphis,
where they owned a good body of
farming land and worked it and
made good crops and had goot
town of 1000 people and 16 stores
and good common schools and sew
eral churches and plenty of good
mechanics and mayor and council,
and there were no idlers, and if
tramp came there they waited on
him and shipped him off on the first
train-and there wasn't white man
in the town nor did one live in five
miles of it. I am going to watch
that town. Maybe that will help to
solve the race problem. BILL ARP.