The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-05-07
BILL ARP. |
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

| Where is my grindstone?. Where Il
ny rake and my axe? Did anybody
ever hear Of negro stealing a
| grindstone. He stole it to sell or else
he thought it was a cheese. I'll bet
there are twenty negroes in sight OF
my house who know all about that
grindstone. but they won't tell. That
Is a race trait-not to tell on one an
| other. Who steals my young pigeons
before we get up in the morning? We
| haven't had SQUAD to eat in three
months.
Mr.. Cleveland made good speech
! in New York on the race problem,
! and so did Mr.. Parkhurst, but you
can't make good citizen out Of ne
gro without he has master or boss
on whom he has to depend. My opin-
| ion from observation is that Tuskee-
gee can't do it nor any other school.
| The more education, the less in
clination to work for living. Where
are the Tuskeegee graduates? Just
Laying around or teaching school. l
| read in yesterdays paper where ne
gro school teacher was caught in hav-
ing made a fake list of his scholars
| and drew more money than he was en-
titled to. But neither Cleveland nor
Parkhurst nor any other northern
man knows enough about the negro to
talk intelligently about him. Nor does
this generation Of southern men know
much more. Nobody knows now but
the few old men who are left. Our
editors and newspaper men do not
know. They are all too young and
most of them came from stock that
did not own negroes in the old slav-
cry times. do not assert this through
conceit. but it pains and astonishes
me to hear northern speakers and
some editors from the south saying
that since the negro was set free he
had made wonderful progress. con-
sidering that for thousand years he
had been either a savage or slave.
Mr.. Cleveland said there Is still a
grievous amount of ignorance, sad
amount Of viciousness and trsmen-
dous amount of laziness and thrift
lessness intermingled with their
citizenship"
II Mr.. Cleveland had been an old
citizen Of the south he would have
said:
Before freedom came the negro
was docile, moral. industrious, and as
intelligent as thousands Of the un-
educated white people Of the south.
Not an outrage was committed by
them during the war from the Po-
toinac to the Rio Grande. There was
not a convict camp nor changing in
all the south. The marriage relation
was faithfully observed and negro
families were contented and happy,
for most of them had kind masters
and mistresses, who would get up in
the night and minister to their sick.
Bad negroes had to be punished, of
course, and so 90 bad white children,
but it seldom had to be done. Talk
about the shackles and the chains OF
slavery. 1t is all rot and Imagination.
Our children have q master until they
are 21. The negro had one all his life.
and. as DR.. Parkhurst said, most Of
them needed one, and need one now.
and so do thousands Of white people.
The fact is there are but few people
who have not got one. I do not admit
that | have, but I have a mistress,
and that Is the same thing. There is
not a clerk in store whether male
or female, but is under the control OF
somebody; not q conductor on rail-
road nor a sailor On a ship nor a
pupil in the schools HOT a policeman
in the towns. Nine-teEths Of the peo-
pie in civilized countries are subor-
dinate to the other tenth, and it
looks like everybody in these United
States belongs to Teddy Roosevelt,
save a few besides myself and some
Mississippi hears.
The old-time slaves got a good, fair
education from contact with their
masters Gcd their masters children
and that is where they had the ad-
vantage Of the poor whites. Most all
Of che family servants could read,
notwithstanding there was law for
bidding their being taught, shackles
and chains! Where IS my grindstCRe
and my rake and my ak? The negro,
especially those Of the copper col.
ered type q don't mean mulattcs)
are naturalborn mechanics. We had
in Georgia more negro carpenters,
blacksmiahs and shoemakers than
there were whites of the same trade.
These Kind Of mechanics are all over
the State now, but they didn't come
from Tuskeegee. For several years |
have been looking for Eaboring
graduate Of that school or any other
negro school, but have not found one.
A New York friend told me not long
ago that | could find fifty Of them as
walters in one hotel in New York
city. That is all right. The money for
their education came from up there
and we can spare the whole turnout.
"Just emerged from bondage and ig-
norance and were thousand years
behind the white race when their
shackles were knocked off, On, my
country. where is my grfdstono? Be
fore those imaginary shackles were