New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1905-07-15

well cooked dinner awaiting him After
dinner he went to his comfortable cabin
aud sat before a blazing log fire, or, IN
warm weather, he sat out under the stars
famed by the night wins. His wife aud
children were nearly always around him,
as were his companions, the other slaves
belonging to his master and the PiaUta-
ton.
This man did not have a single care 0r
responsibility on earth, He did not have
to meet a grinding landlord next day de
manding rent He did not have to cudgel
his brains to find way to meet a note
due next week He did not have TO pay
for food, clothes, light and heat for him
self and his family. That paug of an
guish so familiar TO us all when we think
of the possibility of our loved ones suffer
ing from want and the fear of want when
we are gone never wrung the heart of
that black man. Child labor as It exists
under the present system was unknown
to the children of the black slave cover
the hills to the poor house when age
and decrepitude had made him no longer
useful, had no terrors for the black slave.
The "syStem" of slavery made II perfect
ly certain that his owner would provide
food. clothes and shelter for him IN his
old days, and to1 his children, $50 matter
what happened. This black mau. slave
as he was. had better guarantee against
poverty and the fear of poverty for him
self and family than any life Insurance
company can give. Even Mr.. Tom Law
son could not find fault with the security
Of this policy.
Another thing the slave father did not
bayn tn yynI,.v uLnut yyag eipLyItass o. Hta
family. When one of his children became
ill an ambulance from a charity hospital
did not back up in front of the negro
quarters, cart the child off to become one
patient more in Ward No, and serve
as material for clinical lecture while
it lived. anu as "material' for the dssect-
ing-iable after it was dead. No, nothing
of the kind happened When the slave
became i'll the best medical skill and
nursing were provided, and. if need be,
the patient was taken to the "big house.
where the master lived so the mistress
could superntend the treatment, and in
case of death the body was put in neat
coffin, and procession composed Of all
the blacks and whites on the plantation
followed the remains to the colored grave
yard on the hill, burial services we've read,
hymn sung and the body lowered to its
final resting place. This is n glimpse at
the condition of the slave in life an death
in slavery days. am not putting III n brief
in favor of chattel slavery. | was born
an abolitionist. My father was slave
owner and my early life was spent in the
midst of it, yet abhorred the system rs
child, and that abhorrenee has grown
with years. But | am now writing abOnt
poverty, and my point is. that chattel
slavery as it existed in the South is the
only state of society know of in which
poverty and the fear of poverty among the
workers or producing class were absolute
ly abolished by law.
Under the old system the negro was a
slave, you say. So he was. But if |
read Mr.. Hunter book Alright. the labor
er under the present industrial system is
also slave. The laborer has vote now
and the slave did not. Yes, but the slave
had full dinner-paii all the time and the
white voting laborer has not. The com
parative value between his vote and full
dinner-pal in the mind of the white la
borer under the present system was de-
monstrated in the election of 1896 and
1900, when he gladly gave his vote to the
Republican Party for the mere promise Of
full dinner pail.-By John II. Gtrdner,
M d.. an Tom Uatson's Magazine.