The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1903-04-27

ing a griHdStone. He stole 1t 10 sell %
else he thought it was a cheese Ill bet
there are twenty negroes in sight OF my
house who know all about that grind
stone. but they won't tel. That is a
! race trait-not to tell on one another.
Who steals my young pigeons before we
get MP in the morning? We haven nae
q squad to eat in three months
Mr.. Cleveland made a good speech II
New York on the race problem, and SO
did Mr.. Parkhurst, but you can't make
a good citizen out of a negro without he
has a master or a boss on whom he has
to depend, Ny opinion from observation
is that Tuskeegee cant do it nor any
other school, The more ton. the
less inclination to work for living
Where are the TuSkeegee graduates!
Just laying around or teaching school.
| read in yesterdays paper where a negro
school teacher was caught in having made
n fake list Of his scholars and drew more
money than he was entitled TO. BUT
reither Cleveland nor Parkhurst nor any
other northern man knows enough about
the negro to talk intclligently 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 ne
groes in the Old slavery times. | do not
assert this through concert, but 1t pans
and astonishes me to hear northern speak
ors and some editors from the south say
ing that since the negro was set free he
had made wonderful progress, consider
ing that for a thousand years he had
attl ,.a,- -nIr tro n a
Cleveland said there is still a grievous
amount of ignorance, a sad amount OF
viciouSness and tremendous amount OF
laziness and thriftlessness interminSled
with their citizenship.
If 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 intelli-
gent as thousands OF the uneducdted
white people of the south. Not an out
rage was committed by them during the
war from the Potomac to the Rio GrandS.
There was not convict camp nor
changing in all the south. The ma
rface rela tion was faithfully observed,
and IL gro families were contented and
happy. for most of them had kind mas
tiers and msresses, who would get up II!
the night and minister to their SICK.
Bad negroes had to be punished. of
course, and SO do 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 a master until they are
p. 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 do not admit that / have, but
/ have a mistress and that is the same
thing. There is not a clerk in a store.
whether male or female. but is under the
control of somebody; not conductor on
a railroad nor sailor on a ship nor
pupil in the schools nor a policeman II
the towns Nine-tentls OF the people in
civilized countries are subordinate TO the
other tenth. and it looks like everybody N
these United States belongs to Teddy
Roosevelt. save a few besides myself and
some Mississippi bears
The old-time slaves got a good, fair
education from contact with their mas
tprs and their masters children and that
;s where they had the advantage of the
poor whites. Most all Of the family ser
wants could read. notwithstanding there
was a law forbdding their being taught.
shackles and chains, Where is my grind
stone and my rake and my AK? The ne
gro especially those Of the copper colored
type q don't mean mulattoS} are natural
Born mechanics. We had in Georgia more
negro carpenters backsmiths and shoe
makers than there were whites Of the
same trade. These kind Of mechanics are
ali over the state now, but they didn't
come from Tuskegee. For several years
/ have been looking for a laboring grad
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 fsr their education came from
up there and We can spare the whole
turnout Just emerged from bondage
and ignorance and We're a thousand years
behind the white race when their shack.
les We're knocked off" Oh. my country,
whore is my grind stone? Before those
imaginary shackes were knocked off our
slaves were 50 obedient and law-abdin.
we did not need Il prison. and now there
are 400 in the chain gangs OF
Georgia Wonderful progress, With all
their education they are meaner lazier
drtier and ten times more immoral in
their domestic relations than ever before
And yet some southern editors boast of
'icii acquisition VI property ana run II
up in The millions. OF course there are
sonG good and some thrifty negroes who
have made money. but they are not )
per cent of the masses. One negro in this
Town is worth more money than all the
rest. The cities are full of vagabonds who
play craps and steal and snatch purses
from women and burglarze houses and
keen women and children in state of
constant alarm. Stealing Is as much a
race trait with them as it is among tine
Bedown Arabs. Where are my young !
pigeons and what becomes Of my stove
wood and coal?
No our editors are too young to realize
the difference between now and then.
Why, my faithful man servant Tip could
tell them more about slavery than they
all know. Did | ever whip Tip? NO, never. |
1 never thought OF such thing, I never
whipped but one of my negroes My
wife's father, Judge Hutchine, owned |
over a hundred and | never heard Of /
him whipping one Of them. He had one !
very bad negro who got mad and run
away and stayed in the woods a month |
out Of spite and when he got tired and |
came home the old judge drove him off |
again and told him to stay in the woods. |
that he didn't want him any more, but !
he finally begged his way back and gave !
no more trouble. Chains and shackles, |
wonder where General Grant was when |
Mr. Lincoln knocked them off of his. |
There are many kinds of chains, but the I
chains of slavery were not TO be COM |
pared with the chains of the chain gang I
or the chains of matrimonY that many |