The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1902-09-11

fenced them to one years service il
the chaingang, but told them he woult
hold up the sentence for year, anG il
they could get any responsible white
man to tako them in charge and lc
them work out their fines and bring
them back to the court at the neX
term and give good account of them
he would not send them to tho chain
gang at all. Tho negroes found gooG
men without leaving tho court house
and they did work out their fines and
behaved well, and their employers
made q good report Of them and they
were honorably discharged. How
much better that was than tho chain
gang 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 sec me,
for he was in trouble. lie had laid up
few hundred dollars and had bought
snug little farm noar Rome for $500,
whlcn took all his money. The man
he bought from then suddenly disap-
pcared and Tip found out there was
mortgage on tho farm Of $500. "Whcrc
did the man come from?" | asked.
"IIo camo from Ohio," said Tip.
And you did not ask any lawyer to
look into the title % Ono, sir" said
Tip. " He talked so fair and | had
knowcd him some time that thought
shorely he wouldn't cheat me-" And
now Tip is still working out that mort
gage and tho man cannot bo found.
Reckon he is drawing pension and
holding an oflico in Ohio. What we
wish TO see is some good !. actical ro
suits of those negro colleges.
Before tho war every man of woalth
who owned slaves had among them
masons, carpenters, blacksmiLhs, wa
gonmakers, shoemakers, ETC.; my
man Tip was a papcrhanger and a good
one, for my wife taught him, and he
has made good money by it since the
war. The negroes arc naturally me-
chanics and improve rapidly in their
trades, put l have not seen or heard of
one from Tuskcgcc yet. Washington
says he is trying to teach them that it
is honorable to walk between tho plow
handles. Why, we can't get q white
college boy to do that, much less col
lcge negro whose education has all
come from charity, and these colleges
keep begging for more and get 1t.
But what frcis us old masters is all
this tommyrot about the negroes hay
ing just emerged from slavery and
barbarian. l wish to declare to this
generation that our Old slaves had
more common sense and far better
morals than those we have now, and
thoy had wives and children and they
were not ashamed of them. 1t swectcna
my memory to 60 back to the good old
faithful stock like Tip and Sinda and
Aunt Peggy and Virgil and big Jack
and littlo Jack and Uncle Sam ant
Aunt Ann and hundreds of others who
wele happy and contentod, and whose
children have got into the chaingangs
through the malignant legislation OF
ou1 enemies. Harper's Weekly seems
to have repented of late, but the crucl
work is done AMI cannot bo undone
The most hopeful sign l saw in tho
proceedings and reports of that con-
vention was that given by mulattt
or copper-colored negro from negro
town near the Mississippi, between
Vicksburg and Memphis, where the,
owned good body of farming lane
and worked it and made good crop,
and had a good town of 1900 people
and sixteen stores and good common
schools and several churches ant
plenty of good mechanics and a mayo
and council, and thero were no idlcrs
and If tramp came there they waited
on him and shipped HIM off on tho frs
train-and thore wasn't white man
in the town nor did one live in S miles
of it. I am gong TO watch that town
Maybe that will help to solve the race
problem. BILL ARP.