The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-08

Occasional Correspondence OF the Journal
DAGUE, Ark, Nov. S.-Among the rest OF
my property botherments is big steam
| sawmill and 1900 acres of white oak land
| here In northeastern Arkansas. And first
of all is a statutory and pathological diff
Guilty. If Kansas spells Kansas" why
should an affix of ar spell. by an act OF
the Legislature, ""Arkan-saw?" A man
would have no standing here in high social
| or financial circles who should pronounce it
Arkansas"
Like Indiana, this great State, one-third
larger than ours, has suffered in the past
| by its bad reputation, and especially by
very witty book, 1.-The Arkansas Traveller"
| Just as Arizona suffers to-day by its bright
est newspaper 1.-The Kicker" Wit is often
as bad public as private investment Yet
here is a State, with all of its temporary
drawbacks, full of splendid natural re-
sources. the retailing Of which to strangers
| is the standing occupation, between drinks,
| of any number of seedy-looking, long whisk
| cred citizens, who always anxious to
help you get rich by the purchase of mar
veously and mythically productive corn,
| cotton and fruit lands. There is no fer
| tilizer on earth which can begin to COM
pare with the glib tongue of a real estate
| agent.
| A stranger cannot stay in Arkansas three
| days without hearing endless "nigger" talk.
1t is about as bad down here now as it was
| up North before the war. The further South
| you go, the more violent the prejudice
| against the negro. Before me is large
volume printed with cheap illustrations and
bound in fiery red, entitled 1.-THE Negro
a Beast" written by Charles Carroll, who
Il
| alton" 1t bears the imprint of the Ameri-
| can Book ard Bible House, St. Louis, and
| is issued for Southern circulation. Evident
| ly it's author is clergyman, for 1t is filled
with Bible quotations. 1t takes the position
/ that the negro is the product of a marriage
| between Cain and beast after the family
| had left the garden Of Eden. 1t solves the
original marriage question by assuming that
/ Abel married his sister, but assumes that
Cain went for his matrimonial alliance out
i side the family, and the result the
negro whom, Fred Douglass and Booker T.
| Washington to the contrary. the writer
| holds to be a creature incapable of the
higher civilization. Beast it labels with
the capital B written large. 1t is
| universal remark down here that after
| years residence the Northern mans verdict
| changes and this verdict is against the idea
| that the coIored man is man and broth
err We up North know nothing of the status
| of the ex-slave He lives in house not
| much better than a cow stable and his
habits, if correctly reported, are so bad that
ii Is doubtful if his present condition, with
| freedom to drink all the liquor his skin can
hold and to gamble as long as he has any
| money, is as good as in the old slavery
| DAYS when his master would not allow him
liquor and whose interest was to see that
| his life and health were prolonged by at
least health-giving comforts.
I write these words from veranda over
| looking cotton field where a gang of coll
ored women and children are picking the
| second or third crop of the beautiful bolls.
This picking is not ended until the heavy
| frosts of jate November have forced open
| the reluctant clusters. Within a mile from
here is cotton gin and one of the most
| delightful sights is the snowy clouds which
finally emerge from the complicated ma
| chinery. free from the valuable but cum
brous seed. Then the shapely bales of the
pure white product as they are loaded from
the ginhouse platform into the cars for the
long Journey from the sunny South to be
| absorbed into dingy mills a thousand miles
away, or perhaps to cross the great oceans,
are to me a most interesting sight. Every
man here who does not talk lumber or corn
talks cotton. They all tell the same story,
| viz, that an acre of land will produce a
| bale of 500 pounds of cotton and that one
negro and a mule will care for fifteen acres
| But a little cross-examination easily takes
| the bottom out Of the alluring' tale For
| example, this year it takes two acres to
| the bale on account of the spring floods
| Then the present price is abnormal, and
both negro and mule have powerful appe-
titles and are not given to early or long
| hours. Besides, the cost of food is so high
that even church members often forget to
return thanks at the beginning of the meals
The growing of cotton is as simple as rails
ing corn: up North. 1t Is a question Of
climate, very much like the growth of to-
baccop grapes or orchards.
Arkansas has great future fairly near
Railroads are as plentiful in the southeast
ern section as in Indiana. steady stream
of immigration is setting in, SO much so that
land i'm this section has doubled in price
| within the last three years. All along the
railroad at regular intervals are thrifty
and prosperous villages, rather crude as
yet, to be sure, but still no worse than those
of Indiana thirty years ago. The greatest
drawback is the negro question If legis-
| lation could do Ii, Arkansas would soon
| became home of all the virtues. Some
of the most blood-curdling statutes have
been passed against gambling and liquor
selling, ito which not the slightest atten-
ton is paid by the public.
Prophssy is cheap, and 1t is easy enough
to build great State on paper. While Ar
kansas is at present in every way behind
Indiana, yet il Is well enough to remember
that the great Hoosier State had it's be-
ginnings not more than fifty years ago, and
that there are to-day millions of benighted
souls iri the Atlantic and other coasts who
have never even heard Of Terre Haute or
| Fort Wayne, read when Knighthood
Was in Flower d. p. BALDWIN.