The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-24
WHITE MAN AND NEGRO IN
 THE COUNTY OF BARBOUR
Farms Show Difference in Results Attained by Opposite Races--An Interesting Study {
 in Agricultural Fields.

fther north, for the best is not so in- Itense and sudden. although the summer may be longer and the breezes from the Cuff only a few miles away tempers the most trying summer the state ever has,
 Rich as are the States mineral de- possits, as fertile as are its farming l acres It's splendid climate IS proDaoiy | its best exhibit.
 i aIt was a busy day in the building of
 the Clayton Banking Company. wide and roomy building and a building that
 one would think was 100 spacious for | A bank in a town the size of Clayton. But it was place of no little busi- ness. steady stream of cotton buy CTS and cotton sellers poured through the doors and eddied up against the cashiers window. The cotton buyer pays for the Southern staple in checks and the cotton seller has a trip to the bank after he has thrown his bales oil at the warehouses and had them weigh ed.
 | Each of the units that formed the 1 stream at the cashiers window had one l of these cotton buyers checks. I had | been at the window for a talk with Cashier Browder Pruett. I was talk
 which the towns and the county draw
 most of their life blood and vitality I
 of central and south Barbour, for in
 those sections of the county the white farmer has taken his stand and made | his abiding place. And Tn doing 1t he has done what the white farmer has always done, he has made his communi- ty and his section happy and prosper
 ous. He has made them valuable as- sets of the State, assurances of com munity prosperity and contributory sources of urban commerce.
 An occasional negro nad a place in 1 the procession He was a rare party in the cotton parade, however, just ire quent enough to display the example | of negro thrift which is the exception rather than the rule, no matter where the negro is located All the more credit, of course, is due the negro who | lifts himself above the level of his | fellows, but he does not mitigate the fearful indictment of industrial inefi- ciency brought against the race as a
 whole. There be but few negroes who
 make regular trips to the bank and there be- fewer still who carry away
 money when they leave.
 White man and negro In the stream | the former frequent, the latter seldom | were arguments, as they did business
 with bank, in the eternal race question arguments of the superiority of the mar with the straight hair under whatever | conditions might prevail, if any suct | arguments were needed, and such arc not needed or wanted in this. And they
 were furthermore exhibits and illustra- tions of conditions which exist In tht
 northern portion of the county and conditions which exist in the southern portion of the county. It is wonder
 ful contrast that they represent, tho negro-inhabited northern portion and the white-lnhabited southern portion
 It is the sort of stinging contrast tha Hamlet pointed out when he showed hit
 mother the difference betwen the brow | of love of his murdered father and
 the lowering features of the man who l succeeded to his throne and bed.
 The Two Sections.
 The northern end is black belt ter
 ritory, the southern end Is the white
 mans country. And the white mans l country is the abode of peace anC plenty, the negro section-well, tho
 negro section Is not doing so well.
 And why not? It was originally th'
 goal, the admired land of the owner
 of slaves and of wealth. Beyond doubi | the most productive acres of Barbour County were along the valleys of thu
 three Cowikees. And hardly less fer tile were the hills and plains, not fai off. It was here that the rich planter | brought his slaves, bought his acrei