The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1903-07-03

divorces tucm Aur BoO1 anu sunSaOH
causes, settles their disputes, imposes
penalties and executes Judgment. Their
are good and bad Cspeus no doubt. L
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stove could looi
down upon tbs mundane sphere, hel
weeping vision would pass swiftly by
all the mean bosses IN factory building
and rest itself upon the most vicious
Captain in the South. And she wouIc
cali upon the martyred Lincoln TO lei
loose the blood hounds OF the North onct
more to ayenge the cruelties of that one
vicious Capsn. But the negroes OF the
South have more practical sense thar
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe had. They
WON'T live with the bad Capens They
find the good ones and stay with them
The man who cheats and beats his la
Dor, finds himself without them in the
midst OF the season when ne needs them
most, while the man who treats them
right is never lacking for all the labor he
wants; aud they submit to his decisions
even as we all have to do to the deci-
sions of the courts. Why? Because
they find they get more even handed JUS
tice, and it is cheaper.
A case in point. Two men on this
plantation had trivial dispute. One,
the larger and stronger of the two, made
brutal assault and battery upon the
other, worsting him badly. The case
was reported to Capen. He heard the
the witnesses and decided that the ne
gro who made the assault should be tied
to the post of his own front porch and
whipped upon his bare back. And he
himself (the Capen) tied the man and
stood by while the strongest, biggest
man on the place did the whipping.
But, mind you, when the whipping
was over, it was all over. There were
no Breathitt county feuds left. There
was no hate or malice between the
whipper and the whipped. There was
no brooding revenge in the black quar-
tiers against the white folks at the big
house. 1t was accepted as righteous
verdict and just punishment, and vim
dication of the law of the plantation.
And the negro himself accepted it. he
was told by the Capen, ''you must take
a whipping, or / will report you and
prosecute you, and you will lay in jail
several months and practically lose your
crop by being ont of it. Which will
YOU take now, the prosecution or the
whipping?" And he said, II will take
the whipping, and go Cd with my work"
This Is a beautiful country | am in;
slightly rolling. high and healthy; and
| viii; write again when the spirit moves
me, of something of its possibilities from
a business standpoint. Iii the meantime
[ will give this bit of advice to my
friends in Maury who may be contem-
plating move; "don't go West, come
South Here you can find land both
cheap and rich and labor, docile and
ompetent, to help you. Here you will
be closer to those you have left behind
YOU ana among people more of your kind
and liking. Don't go West, young man;
come South.
But | will wait for another letter to
enlarge upon that.
F. D. LANDER.
p. ST. see from the Herald the re-
port that all who attended the cat-and-
dog fight, have been indicted. | hope
the report is true And trust that the
base ban gamblers will be included as
we'll.
Wilcox County, Ala, June "a. 1903.
I am IN the heart of Alabama, |
where the negroes are the thickest and |
the white people the scarcest, but
the white people absolutely control.
Why? Because they have the intelll-
gence and the moral stamina, and he.
cause they own the land. The ne
groes are docile, industrious and hap
Dy. II now and then refractory one
appears, he finds this an uncongenlal
cline and soon bestakes himself to the
coal mines or phosphate fields or the
slums of the city, thenceforth to the
the gallows, or an un-
known grave. There is no race ques-
zion here. That is an absolute fact;
! veritable truth; and the papers OF
the South ought to take that position
ana maintain it, 1t Is worse than
folly, it is criminal, to inject into
peaceful communities disturbing
issue, for the purpose OF settling some
thing that does not exist.
And the peonage cases the nor
thern press is now hashing mp to the
delectable taste of the southern haters
they are but exaggerated types OF
the laws miscarriage They are tine
exception and not the rule, and the
real manhood of the South will correct
it without Qy scourging from the
boiler. than thou magpies OF the north.
The more / SEE of the South, and the
more read OF the North's everlasting
with the laws and customs
and conditions of the South, the more
am to believe that politi-
,al hate and sectional prejudice is at
The cotton of it all. cannot believe
that the lies they tell are all told In
ignorance. l cannot believe that their
could find 80 much to
and SO little to approve. II
they were painstaking and honest
for the truth. l am growing
more and more confident In the belief
mat their persistent discussion and
distortion of the race question, and
heir grossly exaggerated expose OF the
Deonage system, is but the ranKerous
of a deep laid political
blot, and that barring those who are
iensely ignorant, the balance OF them
ire, mendacious liars. That may
,ound intollerant and harsh; but that
& what honestly think OF the Chicago
Chronicle and the like.
| mentioned in former letter that
his plantation contained about l44
,ouls. Of these about lao are negroes,
,ver one hundred of whom lifelong to
he family" One old woman who
was raised on this place, has forty-odd
living mere, and there are
,ther families to the manor born or
aosar nronortiops They are nearly