The Tupelo journal., 1903-05-15

anu ina Is where iney Hau the dufdn-
tage of the poor whites. Most all of
the family servants could read, not
withstanding there was a law forbid
ding their being taught. Shackles and
chains! Where is my grindstone and
my rake and my ak? The negro, espe-
cially those Of the copper colored type
N dom mean mulattos) are natural
born mechanics. We had in Georgia
more negro carpenters, blacksmiths
and shoemakers than there were
whites of the same trade. This kind
of mechanics are all over the state
now, but they didn't come from Tus-
kegee. For several years i have been
looking for a laboring graduate of
that school or any other negro school,
but have not found one. A New York
friend told me not long ago that /
could find so of them as walters in one
hotel in New York city. That is all
right. The money for their education
came from up there and we can spare
the whole turnout. "Just emerged
from bondage and ignorance and were
a thousand years behind the white
race when their shackles were knocked
Off" Oh, my country! where is my
grindstone? Before those imaginary
shackles were knocked off our slaves
were so obedient and law-abiding we
did not need a prison, and now there
are 400 in the chain gangso o Georgia.
Wonderful progress! With all their
education they are meaner lazier.
dirtier and ten times more immoral in
their domestic relations than ever be-
fore. And yet some southern editors
boast of their acquisition of property
and run it up in the millions. Of course
there are some good and some thrifty
negroes who have made money, but
they are not five per cent. of the masses.
One negro in this town is worth more
money than all the rest. The cities
are full of vagabonds who play craps
and steal and snatch purses from wOm-
en- and burglarize houses and keep
women and children in a state of CON
slant alarm. Stealing is as much a
race trait with them as it is among
the Bedowin Arabs. Where are my
young pigeons and what becomes of
my stove wood and coal?
No. our editors are too young to real
ize the difference between now and
then. Why. my faithful man servant
Tip could tell them more about slavery
than they all know. Did I ever whip
Tip? No. never. / never thought of
such a thing. never whipped but one
of my negroes. My wife's father,
Judge Hutchine. owned over a hundred
and l never heard of him whipping one
of them. He had one very bad negro
who got mad and run away and stayed
in the woods a month out of spite, and
when he got tired and came home the
old judge drove him off again and told
him to stay in the woods, that he
didn't want him any more, but he final
ly begged his way back and gave no
more trouble. Chains and shacklesi
/ wonder where Gen. Grant was when
Mr.. Lincoln knocked them off of his.
There are many kinds of chains. hut
the chains of slavery were not to be
compared with the chains of the chain
gang or the chains of matrimony that
many a poor wife is suffering from.
Now let us hear no o about
shackles nor about the negro being a
thousand years behind the white man.
The truth is the old-time negro was
morally a thousand years ahead of the
~rascals up north who brought him
here in slave ships and sold him to us
because they could not use him at
home. But the Lord is merciful and
we had rather endure the negro than
listen to northern ISLANDERS. They
have just found a mares nest. If it
has taken them 40 years to realize their
folly. how long will it take them to pay
us for what they swindled us out of?
Where is my grindstone? 1t was an
unshackled niger that stole it and the
folks hat unshackled him ought to
pay for it.-Bill Arp, in Atlanta Con-
stitution.