The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-01

ne raised Two bales. Another gathered but
ono bale from close to 100 acres. A bale
sold for around $4o-two bales SSo-a slim
sum for you and me, were we dependent on
it for a years living, as is the cotton
grower, who 30 often raises nothing else.
The Mexican boil weevil destroyed the
crop, caused the shortage at these far
South points.
The scene changed In southeast Arkansas.
The crop Of last fall could not be picked
! before the unusual cold Of the past Janu-
airy and February.
II fields were feecy yet In March, the
negroes picking in the warm spring sun.
BY twos, threes and half dozens they
worked, stufing the white handfuls into
large mouthed bags that dragged like long
balloons.
Here the yield was a bale to the acre;
fifteen acres brought 5000 TO a negro family
that needed no coal, no finery, no summer
vacation with Its rail way expense and
board bills, no c~arfare, no starched shirts.
Surely, here was prosperity.
They are better off around here than
ever before the war" one Southerner said.
Some Of the negroes own the land, but
the mass live on the plantations, working
their section on shares; half the yield Ia
theirs; the and owner gets the rest. The
plantations vary from a hundred acres or
80 to ten thousand, as in one case near Ma
Rama, Ark.
Outside the towns the only whites are
the overseers on the plantations and a
scattering of poor white farmers, held in
contempt even by their negro neighbors.
Except for these, all the country is filled
with the blacks.
All through the land their cabins stand
on the edge of the fields. The leshy woman
who fills the doorway or waddlss out to the
well is the mother Of the half dozen half
naked youngsters watching the train.
This mother seems always in an ample.
red calico. Her hair is apt to be held in a
handkerchief tied into a saucy knot in front.
At noon time she, with the man of the house
sits crowded in the doorway, feet out
straight in front.
They still plant, cultivate and pick the
cotton as in the antebellum days; but the
old master who owned their bodies, their
nisher who lives in the nearby town; the
banker, the hacker, the friend who supplies
every necessity and ead the negro into a
competence.
After cotton picking and up to the first Of
January the Arkansas law allows the land
| Wv III W I NIO vi LAG DitNSSt boAt6
where he wills, to find whatever African he
would. Settled for the year, the black goes
to town, gives the furnisher Of his choice a
mortgage on his stock, on the crop yet to
be planted and on whatever else he owns
or expects to own during the year.
The furnisher furnishes from that day
new furniture, smoked and salt meat,
groceries, clothes, the 81 .25 for the marriage
license, the casket and the undertaken,
If one Of his family is to be buriedIwhat-
ever he m have the furnisher gets him.
The furnisher protects himself from pos
sible loss by joining with the other fur
nishers in the town in employing a sort OF
detective, who rides from one. plantation
to another, keeping watch on the negroes.
He represents the furnisher as the overseer
does the land owner.
In the fall the big wa gon boxes Of shaking
white go to the gin on the edge of the planta-
ton, there the seeds are taken from the
cotton, the bales made up.
When the market is right the negro hauls
| the bales into the town to his furnisher.
The market price is allowed. His account
is credited. What he stands to the good
he may take in cash, he often leaves with
the furnisher.
So the latter turns banker, 80 the negro
accumulates. Here and there they own
much land.
"'Scuse me, Capt'n, but IL you wants
a piece of and All have a thousand acres
TO sell, said the big black on the way car
Of the Cotton Belt train. His holdings
amounted to around $40, 900.
The bales go to the compress on the rail
way, held there until the furnisher sells,
then to be squeezed to a third, their former
size, to take minimum storage in the ships
that sail for New York, Manchester and
Genoa
Through rain and shine the bales in
their covering of burlap stand exposed.
Sometimes they lie in mud about the COM
press yard, again they are set on edge
the better to she'd water. At one point $70,-
600 worth out in the weather waited the
turn of the market that starts them from
the country where the cotton blossom
grows, where the negro is better off than
before the war.