Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1903-10-17
MISUNDERSTANDING CUSTOM

''Niggers will steal anyway is the
excuse of many careless housekeeper
for leaving the pantry door unlocked
and not looking too closely to the I'M
pedimentia with which the cook IS
freighted when she departs for her own
quarters after the days work for the
''white folks" is done. Such careless
ness is the fruitful cause of far more
evils than the too free and easy lady
ofthe house wots of.
To begin with, 1t invites quasi dis
honesty on the part of the cook for
which the lady is as responsible as the
negro. 1t is not exactly stealing, for
larceny consists of "the felonious TAX
ing ana carrying away of the goods OF
another without his knowledge or con-
sent" whereas there is a tacit negll-
gence of the owner To give the cook
carte blanche with the larder; to let
her cook more than the white family
needs in order that she shall have
plenty of food left over to feed her own
family at home, or so long way in
that direction, and to wink at the only
half-conceaIed bundle of edibles Will
which she departs at night, is to es
top the housewife from just grounds
or complaint.
And yet this half surreptitious tax
ing of food is most demoralizing to thu
negro. 1t keeps alive the idea of til,
old slaves that whatever was thei
masters was their own. Before tn
war when they purloined their mas
ter's corn, they justified themselYe
with the saying, masters niger, an,
masters corn" In other words, a
the negro made the corn he held him
self entitled to a part of it, no matte
how he got possession of it.
The worst part of the open back doc
custom, however, lies not so much i
the loss to the head of the house VIII
foots the grocery bills, nor yet the de
moralization of the cook herself, as i
It's promotion of vagrancy among tA
negro men. The country is full of idl
negro men and boys who are feed fror
! the back doors of the ''white folks
kitchen. Why should these vagaboud
work while there is always assuranc
of full dinner pail without any exer
: ton on their part? A negro man whc
| has cook to support him may we
consider the lilies of the field, for b
r tolls not, neither does he spin. TIL,
fields may be white unto the harvest
the planters may be crying alsud flo
laborers to gather it and may be no
: only willing but anxious to pay larg
t wages for help, but the kitchen-fe
loafers will turn deaf ear to the cry
Americas has more, perhaps, tina
her share of the vagrant- breeding hal
it. Doubtless her generous house
wives do not realize the extent of tn
evils that they encourage by their Lax
ity. Indeed many of them, perhaps
impute it to themselves for v1rtu
that they are not so little and mean a
to begrudge the cook few left-ove
, biscuits and few slices of meat whie
the family did not consume, but whe
they come to look at the matter NOR
closely they must see to what deplora
BILE consequences their prodigalit
leads.
Not only as a matter of economy, bH
as means Of promoting honesty an
discoura ging vagrancy, the lady of tn
house ought to carry the pantry key
at her beH; she should see that n
more Is cooked than the househol
needs and that the cook shall not b
permitted to become the chief supper
of vagrancy by the back door method