The Tupelo journal., 1903-06-05
WHAT BILL ARP SAYS
Something About Bantams and More
About the Race Problem.
The Grandchildren Greatly Pleased
When "a Brood of Tiny Chicks IL
Hatched-StOry of u Visit to
Grants Tomb.

- 49,
u domestic life and there are big
things, but l believe the little things
are the biggest.
For a month or more these children
have been watching and waiting for
the bantam hen to lay her litter and
hatch her little brood, and this morn
ing the telephone bell rang %furiously
and it said: Our bantam hen has
hatched," and soon they came running
to tell us about them, but they didn't
stay five minutes. They had to go
back and look after the bantams.
Well, there is nothing prettier in all
nature than Il little brood of bantam
chickens and my faith is they were
created specially to make little chill
dren happy. 1t seems that they orig
mated in a little town of hat name on
the island of Java and have been trans
planted to other countries. They are a
game bird and a bantam rooster will
attack and whip an ordinary game
cock of five times its weight. These
little children come to see me every
day and to comfort me while | am sick
and their presence is the best medicine
L have found. The happiness of our
children is the biggest thing in life and
my desire to live is mainly for their
sake. The papers are full of big
things, but they won't compare with
the little ones.
Clark Howell went a thousand miles
to make a big speech about Grant.
That was all right. l nave more re-
spect for Gen. Grants memory than
for any big man who was on hat side,
but | still fail to understand how Lin
coin came to appoint a slave holder as
general of the army. But time keeps
rolling on and Grants attitude on the
race problem seems to be the popular
one o among our northern brethren.
The census and the result of negro edu-
cation has at last convinced the negro
lovers of their mistake.
l couldn't imagine what Booker
Washington was to do with that $780,
900 of Carnegie's last gift, but l see
by Booker's late card he is going to ex-
pend it in manufacturing tooth
brushes and he says he can reform The
whole race by supplying them with
tooth brushes. That is all right-any-
thing to get rid of the money that
keeps on piling up. He might add a
side factory for toothpicks.
But, speaking about Gen. Grant re-
minds me of his magnificent tomb at
Grant park, and hat reminds me of a
good thing on n of my boys who,
when in New York, not long ago, was
invited by ONE congenial friends to
take a ride with them and see the
tomb. They stopped in front and my
boy heaved a sigh and said: Eyes,
that's old Bob Lee-the greatest sol
der who ever lived, and there's what
he said at Appomatox when he gave
Grant back his sword: Let us haye
peace" When informed of his mis-
take he said: well, l wasn't there, of
course, but my father was, and that's
what happened-so he told me. Gen.
Grant surrendered his sword to Gen.
Lee and old Bob gave it back to him
and said: Let us nave peace"
But we want no mistake made about
the negroes down here in Dixie. We
want no more slaves. We wouldn't
have one as a free gift. We are ready
to give them away to anybody who
wants them. The last census report
says the negro is much the most Grim
inal of our population and is increas-
ing in crime with fearful rapidity. The
negroes who can read and write are far
more criminal than those who cannot.
The negro is four and one-half times
as criminal in New England, where he
is educated, as he is in the south, where
he has not been educated. What is to
be done about this? Tooth brushes"
says Booker Washington. Surely the
man was joking, but that's the way it
read over his own signature. Reform
the race with tooth brushes. If there
is anything in the world that a negro
does not want it is a tooth brush.
There is Sam Henderson working in
my garden now and L envy him his
mouth full of big, sound teeth. Never
had one pulled or plugged or to ache.
l love to see him mounting a water
melon. :
No, it seems to be now admitted by
northern philanthropists that the
southern negro has been pretty well
ruined by their blunder of 40 years
ago, when there was not a criminal
negro in Georgia, and now there are
near 5000 in chaingangs. Bring|on
the tooth brushes! DR.. Scale Harris,
of Alabama, published not long ago in
the Constitution the unanimous opin-
ion of the medical profession that the
negro was rapidly degenerating as a
race, both morally and physically, and
was destined to extinction as sure as
the North American Indians. Old DR..
Calhoun, of our town, a man of large
and long experience, told me that be-
fore the war he had an extensive prac-
tice on the negro plantations and never
had a case of tuberculosis or consump-
ton, but now they were common, and
as for other diseases, not to be men
toned, they were found in most fam
lilies and in both sexes.
l am constrained to mention this as
a warning to those who have to hire
nurses and chambermads. The timeis
near at hand when every one will have
to go before an examining board and
get a certificate.
But l see my little children coming
up the winding way and the race
problem must take a back seat.-Bil
Arp, in Atlanta Constitution.
A Victim of Good Looks.
| Judra-You danr parcictaDfly that