Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-27

| race. says:
| The entire negro population are deteri-
| Grating as laborers, both as plantation
hands and domestic servants They are
| leaving the plantations for the towns,
where they get more excitemsn. and larger
| wages; and those who have been brought
up In The towns are becoming more and
| more unreliable. There Was time even
within my recollection, winch the negro
| servant of the south was the best trained,
| the most reliable and the most satisfactory
| In the world, but that generation has
| passed away and we cannot boast any
| longer OF the superiority of our household
| servants. There are excepuon of course.
| 10 the general rule. which are due I'D midi
| viuual character and environment: but the
| drift OF the race as a whole is downward,
| The majority are degenerasinr Perhaps
| 30 per cent. OF the entire neSro population
| IN town and in the country are doing well
| put to per cent are going backward There
| IS very little room for an educated negro
| There Is very little for him to d. The op-
| portuntfes for him to earn a living in a
| PROGRESSION are limited. and as his means
| OF support grow less he is telapted to DO
| dlsreputable acts to make a living He
| thinks he is gentleman and wants TO live
IKE one: he is not willing to WORK and IN
aes si,.i he. OBTAINS position which gives him
| living he is apt to become disreputable
| washington is good man. said Major
screws in reply to an inquiry. He is DO
ing ms best, but he cannot do much. Most
go INTO dressmakiBg, because that employ
Ment pays better than other kids Of work
1 never heard of one of them cooking or
working out.
w. II. Councill's School.
Wherever Washington fails it is not his
fauit so much as the fault of the mat rial
ne Is working upon. He never gives bad
ADVICE He is a man of fine character and
abilities, and the best thing the colored peo-
pie can do is to follow him. We have a
Digger man than Washington in Alabama,
however-the ablest negro in the country
ana perhaps in the world. / refer to w. H.
Sounclli, WHO has never been advertised
ana mas never been on the lecture platform
although he is one of the greatest natural
orators ever born. He was slave but has
been teaching ever since the war He has
normal school near Huntsville similar to
That OF Washington, only il is supported
py the state. while Washington's school is
supported by northern money. The results
are about the same. He has 600 to 800 stu
dents and is teaching them agriculture
carpentering, blacksmithing and the other
Irades; but his graduates, like those from
IGskegee, are not willing to go back to the
farms. They want TO be teachers or preach
ers or lawyers. and many of them become
parasites and yield to their lower instincts
ana Keep going down.
me negro preacher is the worst curse
IN the south as rule; he is not only
blatant demagogue. but a mischief-maker
and the great majority of the preachers
are lmmoral-the most immoral men among
.he colored race. The worst man in this
town is a negro preacher with the largest
congregation in Montgomery and his In
huence over them is that of an autocrat
He has been twice tried for murder for
shooting men who have interfered win, his
love affairs.
Leaving Farm for the City.
AS Major Screws says, there is no ques-
ton as to the fact that the field hands are
deserving the plantations and coming to the
towns. You hear that complaint from every
quarter, and Notwithstanding the large
negro population of the state there is a
great scarcity of labor. 1t has been impos-
sible for some of the farmers to get their
cotton picked. The streets of the cities are
crowded with idle, worthless negroes and
you can count them by groups of tens and
tWenties hanging around every railway sta
ton at which your train stops They will
not work for any wages If they can get a
place TO sleep and food to eat without IT,
and after a taste of town life nothing will
induce either negro man or woman TO go
back to the farm.
Nor is this condition of affairs peculiar to
Alabama. II exists everywhere throughout
the south. 1t is not so bad here as il is in
other sections, but the same complaint is
heard everywhere They told me that CON
ditions were the same in the mines at Rir-
mfngham. Operators say that they never
expect their negro laborers to go to week
after a pay day until their money is gone
Down here in the business part of the CITY
in the freight yards. on the river and wher-
ever labor is employed the same story is
told. The moment colored man gets a
dollar in his pocket he knocks off work I'M
til he spends il. And he will not work more
than five days week under any considera-
ton. No matter where he is-on a plan
tation or on railroad work, or in a factory,
he must have a holiday Saturday to go
to town and spend his money, because the
stores are closed on Sunday.
Travelling through South Carolina two or
three years ago 1 noticed crowds of COL
ored men at every railroad station, and
upon inquiry was told that they We're loaf
ers who came down daily to enjoy the ex-
element of seeing the trains come in. That
is one of their greatest amusements AT
one place l spoke to a brawny black fell
low with good-natured face, who stood
leaning against the side of the station, and
asked him why he did not go to work He
smiled an indolent sort Of smile and re-
marked:
mo niger has to work unless he has to,
has her,
And that seems to be the way the most
of them look at life
Some Encouraging Testimony.
But occasionally one hears a bit of en-
reouraging testimony on the other side Now
and then you come across a few negroes
who are on the upgrade and are making
themselves respected and influential. For
example, NJ T. Burroughs, formerly of
Cherokee, Iowa, in 1881 purchased 10000
iacres of land in the Yazoo delta for 81 per
acre. He has since sold it off in small tracts
on installments. mostly to negro farmers,
and has had as many as 440 negro accounts
on his books at one time. These accounts rep
resented purchases of from forty to eighty
acres each on deferred payments from
five to ten years, and Mr.. Burroughs says
that he has never lost cent in his trans
actions with colored land buyers. Every
one of them has paid in full the purchase
price and interest, and fully 80 per cent of
them paid for their land out of the profits
of their farming. In some cases they asked
him to extend their time of naunnent hui