The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1903-04-11
ARP PUTS A QUERY.
Where i the Negro to Go When
Driven from His Homer
nim DepIores Race war -Thinks
Counties shOuId Resulate Their
Negro Population Instead
Of Setting Il Adrtft.

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 Their
mometer below zero and billiards
raging around. I.wonder what they
have been doing to provoke such
treatment. If they move to another
county, how long before they viii
have to move again2 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
eEs and basl-on their bounty, but
Lonty a 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 a 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 a 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 70 cents on
the dollar, and when they sell they
have to take 68 cents. They T gen.
orally no account, but can live fair
ly well on the bountiful products of a
fertile soil and the fruits that
abound everywhere. My friend says
it is a most delightful climate. lie
has a wife and five children, and never
a days sickness. In a drive around
his place you will see $85O,OOO 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-half to three
cents apiece. 1t costs $50 per acrt
to prepare the land, and $35 more to
buy the plants. The sweetest anC
best oranges you ever saw grow al
over the hills and sell for two dol
lars a thousand. Then there is crap
Gruit and dimes and lemons and man
so gdavas, Plantains, figs am
grapes.
Now, / was Illuminating why Oui
negroes didn't go to Cuba, when,
: they would not have to work hal
: the time, and where they could mi
/. and miscegenate with the natives
and have social equality to thei
hearts content. The Cubans are al
? colors now, from nearly white Il
nearly black, and they will mix will
any race. One day 1 saw a curiOu.
looking specimen in the negro car
and the conductor didn't know
whether to move him or not, anC
so he asked him: "Are you a white
man or a negro?" and he replied.
'My fader vas a Portugee and my
muder vas a mayer" The conductol
smiled and let him stay. Go into
cigar factory in Tampa, and you viii
see q fair assortment of Cubans-
400 in one long room, and of al
shades, sizes and compilations. They
have no national or race color.
should think Cuba would suit most o.
our negroes very well, for they coulC