The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1907-03-29
The Poor Man : Friend.
Malvina, Bolivar County, Miss.
March Il. 1907.

Malvina, Bolivar County, Miss.
March H. 1907
To Memphis Commercial Appeal
Won't you please print this letter.
/ like a square fight, and think most
folks do, and | hear a lot Of things i'm
this race for governor that are not
square fighting, but Just plain mud
singing. A friend showed me
letter from out in the State reading
that the Hon Chales ScOtt's political
enemies were saying that he was a
rich man 5 man and against the poor
people, and that when a poor white
man and a negro called at his office he
saw the darky first and made the white
man watt Now. that's what [
call mud singing of the very meanest
] kind, and besides it is not true. /
| know | am a small farmer. For years
l made and gathered my own crop.
/ This year | was lucky, and a Western
man who bought a place here got me
/ to manage for him; but before that
( all the time | cropped for myself.
/ Now, | have known Mr.. Scott for a
/ long time. When l first knew him he
I was as poor as [ am, and he Is Just
1 the same now as he was then, and Is
always kind and polite and nice to
/ every body, and is every bOdy's friend.
/ He is my best friend. | NAV say he
/ has been a brother to me all these
/ years, and in spite of the fact that he
made money he is just the same as he
was when he was a poor man. Money
I makes no difference to Charlie Scott,
+ as everybody calls him, because every
/ body loves him. When | used to go
! to Rosedale | sometimes went up to
dinner with him and his family, and
/ il is the same thing now, and he never
/ fails to invite me when | am in his
T or \ IL -
/ Mr.. Scott being against the poor man
+ is nonsense. He is kind to all men,
white and black. | know, and | want
/ to tell my brother farmers in Missis-
/ sippi how [ know and some of the
! things Charlie Scott did for me, and
/ he has done lots of things just ike it
/ for others, too. When the Bank of
/ Rosedale failed they had mortgage
on my place for what it was worth,
but | thought maybe | could work it
out with d few years good crops.
| asked Mr.. Scott to get the Memphis
/ or New York bank that held this note
/ to give me time, and though, as every
/ body knows, he and his wife mort
/ gagged their property to get the money
! to pay the banks depositOrs. though
/ they were not responsible for the
same, he did so, and the bank gave
/ time, and after two or three years Mr..
j ScObl pau LU6 0IEIGl9Il1S OF new 4 OK
bank my note, and he then held it up
for me. After a while l found that
could not pay, and went and told him
to sell the place. I owed more than
it was worth, and if sold out under
the mortgage it would not have
brought half the debt. Now, what
did Charlie Scott do? He gave me
more than the place was worth and
gave me to boot little cash, saying
he hated to see me dead broke. Then
he offered to sell me the place back
for a whole lot less than he gave me
for it, and even now, when land here
in the delta is high, and after all these
years, he is trying to sell it for less
than he gave me. Now, does that
look like a man who is against the
poor white man? But that is not all.
| rented land from another man for
a few years, and then went TO Mr.
Scott and asked him to rent me a rich
little place of his near his Malvina
place He did so, and at some trouble
TO fix it, too; and for four years,
have been his tenant. The first year
with him | made good money; the
} last three years our crops have been
bad There was too much rain anC
l have been sick, and had hard time
to support my family; and during al
this Mr.. Scott has been my best friend
He furnished me from his store anC
sent US his own doctor whenever we
needed one, and let me pay when