The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-03-16


his superiors, the South Carolina rice
field negro jogs along contentedly
with the mule through the peaceful
bogs cf malaria and ignorance.
Since the year 1884 On the tide
water plantations Of our State, the
negro and the mule have been inti-
mate associates. For almost two GEN.
turiss they have grubbed side by side
in the same soil; munohed sweet pota-
toes from tbe same patch; dozed on
the same straw, and kicked and devil
ed each other at every favorable op-
portunity. It is not surprising then
that they resemble each other in many
particulars.
AS rule the lower orders Of crea-
tion acquire the characteristics Of hu-
man beings with whom they come in
contact. The negro and the mule,
failing to discover superiority oD
either side, finally adopted those moral
delinquencies most useful in helping
them to ciroumvent the world, the
hesh-and each other.
The negro from this association has
lost much Of his sunniness Of tenn
permanent and displays the grumness
and obstinaoy Of his four-footed COM
panion. Although tricky by nature,
he has cultivated the cunning and
ely artfulness OF the mule, and like
him has become an adept in conceal
ing emotions under an expressionless
demeanor.
The mule has become ever more de-
moralized than his comrade. His in
telligenoe is clouded. His methodi-
cal and industrial habits wrecked.
His reverence and affections annihi.
lated. His abstemiousness is meta
morphosed in voracity. Negro and
mule vie with each other in laziness
and the desire to see which can shirk
the most work. In an eminent de-
gree they possess the faculty of see
ing ssperrets:" and will fee from any
graveyard they may butt into after
nightfall.
They hate water. They love camp
meetings. Both are cen.emp!at;vo ;;
nature. The negro before starting
work invariably leans against his hoe
or plough and remains transfixed for
at least ten minutes. IF questioned
as to his purpose in doing 80, he will
reply, "I's studdin" which interpre-
ted means, that he 10 studying the
difficulties that confront him. If the
movement Of his brain was analyzed
there would be found sluggish dread
Of the task before him and hopeless
yearning to escape activity and set
tie down into the peaceful Land OF
Nod. If the mules oountenance is
an idex to his soul, his longings are
similar to those Of his companion.
Although there is 80 much in com.
mon between these tillers Of the soil,
and although perfectly oontented in
each others society, they never miss
an accession to antagonize each other.
About two centuries ago, when the
negro and the mule left their native
jungles and prairies to try their for.
tunes in South Carolina, the rice
fields, SO beautiful now, were black
and almost impenetrable swamps. The
physical labor Of clearing and draining
the land was performed by their effort.
They tussled with the tough, defiant
cypress trees. They grappled and
dragged at the rugged, knotted knees
of those old swamp monarchs; they
tore and pulled at the supple jack
vines, that like leviathans ooiled and
twisted about the tree branches, bind.
ing them in vice like grip-strong
as cables Of steel. They wfested with
the sword plant; they uprooted the
dbrous palmetto, whose root burrows
deep into the subsoil. The reeking,
poisonous stencil Of decaying vegetable
matter filled their nestrils., Noisome
reptiles and vioiou6 insects spent
their Tsnom upon them. They dug
and hauled the putreiging mud, and
huilt dikes that resisted the rivers
enoroaohment. They extayated ditctef
and canals to drain the foetid. green
SCUM water away from the fields.
RraHn end sins#, and life's blood they
gave to their work. Brain, they had
none. & s;.I.. y5.s. ..si
Without the hope Of gain, withou,
the spur Of ambition they toiled or
and on, until they converted the vii
derness into cultivated fields Of won.
sderful produotiveness-. Fields that need
! no foreign fertilizers, for they are
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