St. Tammany farmer., 1903-04-11
ARP PUTS A QUERY.
Where Is the Negro to Go When
Driven from His Homer
Bill DeplOres Race War-Thlnks
Counties Should Regulate Their
Negro Population Instead
of Setting 1t Adrift.

A late paper sent me from Fayette
county, Mo-, says they are running
all the negroes out of Fayette~ and
Howard counties, and the whipping
post awaits those who tarry, and that
the race war is on in earnest. That
is bad-very bad. Where are the
poor creatures to go, for it is awful
weather in Missouri, with the ther-
mometer below zero and billiards
raging around. wonder what they
have been doing to provoke such
treatment. If they move to another
county, how long before they will
have to move again? And it looks
like they will perish or freeze before
the winter is over. Some towns in
Illinois have given them marching or
ders, and it looks like they have no
friends but the southern people. We
used to wonder why they all did not
leave here and go up to their deliver
| ers and bask on their bounty, but
| only few were fools enough, and
| now they would come back if they
could. We are getting sorry for the
negro. He has no abiding place.
They are tenants at will of the land
lords. When Russia gave freedom
to her serfs few acres and
a cottage were allotted to every fam
| lily, and this could not be taken away,
not even for debt. The poor, shift
less laborer has hard time every
where. A friend writes me from
Quemadas, Cuba, that the wealthy
Spaniards who live in Spain own all
the land in Cuba, and it is exempt
from all tax, but the laborers who
rent it have to pay tax on every
thing, their shanties, their horses and
carts and stock of all kinds, and
plantation tools, and on what produce
is left after paying rent, and when
they buy anything with Spanish
money they are charged 73 cents on
the dollar, and when they sell they
have to take 6s cents. They are gen
orally no account, but can live fair
~ well on the bountiful products of a
fertile soil and the fruits that
abound everywhere. My friend says
it is most delightful climate. He
has wife and five children, and never
days sickness. In a drive around
his place you will see $850,O0O worth
of pineapples growing, and he is now
planting 10000 more plants, and they
make good crops from five to ten
years without replanting, and are
worth from two and one-haf to three
cents apiece. It costs $50 per acre
to prepare the land, and $35 more to
buy the plants. The sweetest and
best oranges you ever saw grow all
over the hills and sell for two dol
lars a thousand. Then there is grape
fruit and lines and lemons and man
gos, guavas, plantains, figs and
grapes.
Now, I was ruminating why our
negroes didn't go to Cuba, where
they would not have to work half
the time, and where they could mix
and miscegenate with the natives,
and have social equality to their
hearts content. The Cubans are all
colors now, from nearly white to
nearly black, and they will mix with
any race. One day I saw curious
looking specimen in the negro car,
and the conductor didn't know
whether to move him or not, and
so he asked him: ''Are you white
man or a negro?" and he replied:
sMy fader vas Portugee and my
muder vas a nager." The conductor
smiled and let him stay. Go into.
cigar factory in Tampa, and you will
see a fair assortment of Cubans-
400 in one long room, and OF all
shades, sizes and complexions. They
have no national or race color. l
should think Cuba would suit most OF
our negroes very well, for they could