Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-09-23

in starting, we should hail with
deligh, he time when the negro
with us will pull himself together
and see that as farm helper is to
be found peaceful solution of the
labor question, which is as much a
question of Importance to him as to
the white man. He may think that
the South is not the place for his
success, but let him go North and
rough it awhile. HIS experiences
will be much after the order of the old
fellow in the following story we have
seen, and herewith reproduce:
One OF the old-time Southern negroes
went to Boston TO make his fortune.
| After a week of walking up and down
he found himself penniless and no work
in sight. Then he went from house to
house.
"Ef yo' please, sah," he began when
| hts ring at the front door was answered,
"can yo' glib a p'or culled man wuk ter
do or sonpin ter ealg"
And the polite answer invariably was,
| mo, mister; very sorry, but have nothing
| for you"
All who answered his ring addressed
| him as "Mr.," but shut their doors and
hearts against him. Finally he rang the
4 bell At a brownstone front. A gentleman
appeared, and the old man began, BOSS,
is starvin'. Can't yo' gimme some
victualsi"
You black, kinky headed rasca,r' ex-
claimed the gentleman. "How dare you
ring the bell at my front door? Go round
the backyard way to the Kitchen and the
cook will give you something, you
black"
But just there the old man fell on his
knees, exclaiming:
THANK de Lawd, 1 foun' nah own
white folks at last Thank de Lawd, j
foun' 'em, foun' emp
1t is really amusing to watch the
evolution of a Northerner's mind
after coming South to settle. lie
comes usually imbued with the idea
that the negro is long suffering and
much-abused worthy, and that if
treated in different way will per-
form wonders upon wonders. We
have complacently watched sanguine
countenances give way to doubt,
despair and disgust, all in rapid sue
cession, when be has run up against
a colony of the lazy ones that are
out to beat all such gullible gsloots
as may come from the North, East,
South or West. Our northern friend
will be just as free to offer his advice
after learning something of our great
problem as he was before, but his
remarks are pretty sure to be sand
wiched with phrases not often heard
In Sunday school.
But our first thought was to urge
one more trial, of a decade, say, for
the negro in the South. If he
doesn't measure up to what he is put
here for-to be of use to himself,
his neighbor and his country-then
we will be ready to say crowd him out
with the foreign scurf. Just now we
are not prepared to advise the intro
duction of foreign white labor. A
few months ago we thought much OF
the movement, and so far interested
ourselves as to visit communities OF
foreign settlements at our north and
to take up the subject of foreign
immigration with the proper agencies
There are so many attendant evils we
fear to introduce in the South-they
will come, sooner or later-that our
mind has halted aad looks back over
the shoulder in the hope that lies
for us in transformed black. We
confess that the hope is not deeply
rooted, but we are determined to live
upon it for a while longer. 1t
becomes our duty to awaken the son
of Ham from his lethargy and point
him to examples in his own race that
industry honesty and good neighborly
living with the white race have set
upon fairly high pinnacle.