Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-26

Vertising of the Illinois Central railroad
and the efforts Of Capt J. F. Merry of
Manchester, Iowa, who has been booming
this country for a quarter of a century.
Thousands of people here bless him for
their prosperity. Many of the newcomers
have removed here to escape the rigorous
winters of the north. Some buy farms for
their sons and sons-in-law, while others
have discovered that they can buy land for
half as much as they can get for the farm
at home and get bigger income from 1t
with less labor. Others are buying for In
vestment and on speculation.
Stump lands can be bought for $40 to SO
per acre; cleared and improved lands from
$40 to $50 per acre, and they can be rented
for So and 81 acre per year, while In
Iowa and other northern states lands that
are worth $50 and $50 an acre will not rent
for more than 81 or 81 a year. There are
many other advantages, including the cost
Of maintenance. A northern farm of 800
acres requires from $1,000 to $1,000 in i'm
provements-the barns and outhouses must
be well built and kept in repair; they must
be painted every three or four years; the
fences have to be rebuilt every two or three
years, and a large sum must be invested
in barbed wire. Down in this country
twenty negro cabins made of rough
boards, a stable for. stock and sheds for
machinery would not cost more than s., 500
and the repairs are very few and small.
But the incoming northern people are
teaching the southernerS to provide better
buildings and to use moro paint and to
take better care OF their machinery. Peo-
pie say there has been wonderful i'm
provement in the appearances of things
down here since the northern land buyers
commenced to come in.
Value of Colored Help.
1t is often asserted that northern farmers
cannot get along as we'll with cOIored help
as southerners. who have been raised with
them; that northerner cannot handle a
negro because he does not understand him.
That Is open question.
The personal equation enters into it very
largely. The ordinary southern planter is
almost shiftless as the negro and they
get along without friction because both are
Indifferent. But northern men of experience
tell me that, by the exercise of judgment,
tact and strict discipline, they can get as
much work out OF the southern negro as
white hand. and much more than the south
ern planter, who allows his help to do about
as they please
A certain northern farmer, who has been
down here twelve years. tells me that he
had good deal of trouble at first and was
often in despair. Several times he was on
the point of going north to hire white la
Dor to work on his plantation. But he
gradually learned the negro character, got
his confidence, treated him kindly, but Arm
ly, and now he says he does not want any
better help
The negro is often a child and must be
trea ted as Such, he Is full of fancieS and
whfms and notions. and 1t Is impossible to
deal with him as If he were a rational be-
ing. 1t Is also true that he is tenacious of
the customs Of the country, and any one
who interferes with what he considers his
rights and prerogatives will find him not
only irritating but exasperating.
The negro Is naturally lazy; he loves to lie
basking In the sun. and 1t Is necessary to
have an overseer to keep him at his work.
Williams of Mississippi tells
a story of colored man ON his plantation
who, having been sent out to hoe corn, was
found about 4 o'clock in the afternoon
under a tree fast asleep. Mr. Williams
woke him up and inquired:
Are you sick. Uncle 'Lisha?''
Mono. All amt SICK" was the reply.
"Then what are you doing here on the
ground asleep"
"W-a-a-l. it's a powerful hot day. Marse
John, so jest reckoned I'd sleep tel it was
time to quit work.
Capt. Merry's Experience.
Capt. Merry of the Illinois Central rail-
road who has been observing men and
things down here for many years. says:
"Colored men, like other tenants, are not
all alike-some good, some are very
good-and some are bad, and some are very
bad. The laws of Mississippi. however, so
favor the landlord that it Is rare thing