Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1903-05-06
BILL ARP.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES


| grindstone. He stole it to sell or else
he thought it was Il cheese. I'll bet
there are twenty negroes i'll sight OF
| my house who know all about that
! grindstone. but they won't tell. That
| is 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 4 squad to eat in three
months.
Mr.. Cleveland made a good speech
in New York on the race problem
and so did Mr.. Parkhurst. but YOU
cant make n good citizen out of n ne
Sro without he has a master or boss
on whom he has to depend. My opin.
ion from observation is that Tuskec
| gee can't do it nor any other school
| Ihe more education. the less in
clination to work for living Where
arc the Tuskecgee graduates? Just
! Laying around or teaching school.
read in yesterdays paper where a ne
gro school teacher was caught in hav-
! ing made 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 intelligcntly 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
! aid not own negroes in the old slaV.
cry times ! do not assert this through
conceit but it pains and astonisle5
me To hear northern sreakers and
some editors from tine south saying
tnat since the negro was set free he
had made wonderful progress. con
sidering that for Il thousand years h
had been either n savage or slave.
Mi. Cleveland said there is still
srieVous amount of ignorance. sad
amount OF viciousness and tremen-
| dors amount of laZincss and thrift
lessness intermingled with their
| citizenship"
II MIR. Cleveland mad 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 UNI
educated white people OF the south
| Not an outrage was committed by
them during the war from The Po.
! tomac to the Rio Grande. There was
not convict camp nor a 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
! ana mlStresScs. who would get up in
! me night and minister to their sick
BAD negroes had TO be punished. Cf
course. and SO do bad white children.
but 1t seldom had 20 be done Talk
about the shacklcs and the chains of
/ I IL ~ ~.
Our children have master until they
are Il The negro had one all his life.
| and. as Dr. Parkhurst said most of
| thSm needed one. and need Cne now
| anu 50 DO thousands of white peoDie
| me fact Is there are but few people
| VINO nave not got one. do not admit
that | have, but | have mistress.
and that is the same thing. There is
| not clerk in store. whether male
or female, but is under the control of
somebody; not conductor on a rail-
road nor sailor on ship nor a
! pupil in the schools nor a policeman
In the towns. Nine-tenths 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 few besides myself and some
| Mississippi bears.
The old-time slaves got n good, fair
education from contact with their
masters and their masters children
and that Is where they had the adj
vantage OF the poor whites. Most all
| or the family servants could read
Notwithstanding there was law for
| Dlddlng their being taught, shackIes
anu chains Where is my grindstone
and my rake and my AK The negro.
! especially those of the copper col
| ored type Il don't mean mulattos)
are naturalborn mechanics. We had
| In Georgia more negro carpenters
| blachsmiths and shoemakers than
there were whites of the same trade
| These kind OF mechanics are I'll over
| the State now. but they diunI come
| from Tuskeegee. For several years (
nave Decn looking for d iaborinS
| graduate Cf that school or any other
| negro school. but have not found one.
| New York friend told me not long
| ago that / could find fifty OF them as
4 walters in one hotel in New York
\ city. That is all right. The money for
7 their education came from up there
and we can spare the whole turnout
Just emerged from bondage and ig
noTance and were a thousand years
behind the white race when their
shackles were Knocked off, On, my
country. where is my grijstone? Be
| fore those imaginary shackles were
knocked off our slaves were so obed!
ent and lew-abiding we did not need
a prison. and now there are i.400 in
the chain gangs Of Georgia. Wonderful
| progress With all their edl cation
they are meaner laZier. dirtier and
| ten times more immoral in their do
J mestic relations than ever before
! And yet some southern editors boast
| OF their acquisition OF property ana