The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-18


 own $50 acres and have a good five room house on 1t, with glass windows. In 1891 I did not own anything. My wife takes in s150 q year on eggs. sell four times as much meat as l buy"
 Isaac Elder, of High Ridge, Ala. said: We are buying land around High Ridge. one man POO acres, one 80, one 50 and one 40 acres, since last year. Some of US give mortgages on our crops. but there are fewer this .year. Our schools are not very good, only about three months long. and our school houses are poor but we irl- tend to make improvements. We have a very good church and a very good min ister."
 Rev. Walter Stevens. of Conecuh CoIii- ty, said: T come to see. but am great ly lifted up. In my community some own land but many do not. More are buying land than ever. Good buildings are being put up. Joe Howard has bought 200o acres at s per acre. and has it about half paid for. They are mort- gazing less Wc have two-story schoc house with four months' session. We all combined together to build our sch loi building. We went to the mill and haul ed the lumber and put up the building ourselves"
 Frank Hinson of Matthews Station. said T work a place that cost $500 a year rent. I never have seen mort gage in my house and am 50 years old. No one ought to make @ mortgage. Tho people are nearly all out of the one room houses. I don't like education nohow. l want people educated to work"
 Rev. c. W. Jeter of Milstead, said: My community Is doing well in getting homes. We have eighteen or twenty that own homes. We have new school house and a good one. We give $25 per month for five months. The morals are not improving. I cannot go on plantation to interfere with any one, no matter what he Is doing. can only complain to the owner. This does not reach the evil"
 L. o. Patton of Hale County. said: T believe the people of Hale Sounty are doing as well as those of any part of the State. have about $2,0O0 worth of real estate. I have son in the senIor class at ,Tuskegee. I have 160 acres of land and a comfortable home in Greens boro. The people of Hale County aIe awake to the importance of getting homes. Our schools run from three to seven months. I fear the people are not improving in morals. The preachers sometimes preach morals but don't live what they preach"
 J0E6pn Waiker OI Euld6Al county, Ga., said: Some of our people are prosper ing and some are slothfuL We have men among us who own 1000 acres of land and have as much as S4,000 in the bank. About twenty-five men In my community own land. All who own land have very good land, the others take what they can get. Our school runs six months. We tax ourselves to improve our schools. Our ministers are very good. One has been with us twenty-eight years, and an- other ten years. The county gives us $50 toward a school house and we raise SlL0 more. I own Aa acres of land and pay $S9 tax"
 Charles Cook of Georgia, said: T own 220 acres of land. One of my neighbors owns 265 acres and has a nine room house. Some of us mortgage our crops. Our schools run about five months in the country and nIne in the city. The nor als of the people are very good. A good many of the colored people work in shops in Newman"
 Miss Camelia Bowen of Montgomery County, told of one man on a farm with ten children. In three years he paid for three mules and 12 1-2 acres of land. His wife raised chickens and vegetables and sold them in Montgomery. The morals of our community are beginning to show lHEy dIO a6dAlA0N WAabGNOA ID wrong. No community can rise in nor ality through money or the preacher. The standard is the negro woman and the character of her home. The colored men must stand by the side of the.r women and uphold them in their virtue. No woman can stand alone. She must have the moral support of every man.
 MT. Lark from Cairo. III, said: "One- fourth of the people of my neighborhood are colored. They pay tax on over $2Ot,- 900 worth of porperty. The principal of our school has been with us fourteen years. Our country schools run six months. We are doing well along moral IIne There is great tmpl ovement Tn the last ten years"
 Mrs. Lucy Nelson of Tallapoosa Coun- ty, said: "our people are not doing As well as they were. I own forty acres. have a four room house. The chickens off from my yard brought me here. sold fifteen head before I came here. am so proud of ha"- ing more than one room in my house that I wont even let my chickens live in one room. shipped my chickens to Atlanta. I never mortgage my crop or land. If we can't pay cash for what we want we go without 1t. My daughter and I have a one horse farm. We do our own work. killed three hogs and have plenty of corn. I have nothing to buy except a little sugar and coffee. raised a good crop of wheat. We have six months school. We have good min isters. I am mighty quick to think of things going backward when I can't see them going forward.
 We heard of Tallapoosa county land" we own land in our county all the way from % to 800 acres. Our people are liv- ing better. They are buying more land. I know of one man who has money in the bank"
 J. H. Harry, Hale county, said. 'the people around me own about 2,500 acres of land. One has bought 30 acres since the last conference. We have five people in my community who have bank &C., l own 325 acres of land I have a gin on my place where gin about 26O bales of cotton each year. Our school runs four months. Our school house Is not very good but we are going to change it. When asked about the ministers of his community he replied. 'I believe in letting the wheat and tares grow to- gether."
 Thos. Rufln, Hale county. said. T was 20 years old at emancipation. didn't have shifting clothes, besides was lame. am uneducated but know how to farm and make a living. In 1874 had nothing. bought a yoke of oxen and a mule but in March the mule died Then I got a yoke of calves and that year I made nine bales of cotton. For a year I ate water and bread My wife said she was gong to leave me if didn't get some meat She went to her fathers