The morning journal-courier., 1908-04-02
The Encouraging Progress That Some of Them Have
 Made.
GOOD CITIZENS, GOOD FARMS
Success Which Wise Critics Said Would Be ImpOS-
 sblc.

 that remote and Girly county town had tetonhone connection with the outer world; and the next two daES ride was through country distinctly prosperous and advancing Beyond Rockford the hills di.n.usha1 aGd the long ridges are cuitiviatei Tn cotton. Near Nixburg, the prosperity O. the countryside attracts noi3e, the houses In repair, new and good buildings, and an air of thrift and plenty; and we were surprised to learn that "thc niggers own almost all that ridge. Under tho influence of the Rev John Leonard, soon after the Civil War, Negroes came In, who took up the land, paid for 1t, and still own 1t for Q stretch of perhaps seven miles long and three or four wide They have a good school of their own and, as white neghhor said, You can't get ngger to work for you here any more he wants to work for himself. Earth CT on was a region of many miles in which the whole countryside is liter ally covered with pebbles of white quartz in the midst of which cotton seems to flourish on the third night we were fortunate in finding a farmer who had just come as a renter, into an old plantation house long owned by local family. This was the most stately ediice seen in eighty miles; a single high story, containing great enclosed hall, four large roms, and in the rear q separate dining room and separate kltchen-a seven-room | house.
 Next morning we turned to Cow | Elijah" as it Is sounded, though the postofce sign is Kowaliga, Here Is the Benson estate, which ls probably the largest property that has been
 brought together In the open country by any colored man Benson Is a shrewd. hard-headed and far-seelng man, born slave whose story Is that he began life with a hundred dollars
 saved out of a years service at ten dollars a month and board; and who has ended hy acquiring the plantation of his former owner CMy master and my grandfather'D and enough land in addition 10 give him three thousand acres. Beson is not, by. any means, the only man of his class in the South.
 Thero are "First Bale Johnson" In Georgia and Isaiah Montgomery of Mound Bayou, but probably no other negro planter has so much land and so much additional property. Benson | Fnr usb usifh few exceptions, ho provides houses, no better than on white plantations, but he has never set out to stIhdlvide and
 sell his estate to members of his race In fact he ls one of the few large pro-
 prletors who has undertaken to put cattle on his plantation, with view to enrich the soil and likewise him self Benson, fig building pebble house" of tho small quartz houders already mentioned He gave land for good boarding school, which, with some northern financial aid Is carried
 on entirely by negroes, for the only
 white person ln tho community is n young Russian who has come over to
 learn cotton planting, Of course, like
 every large planter, Benson has a cot
 ton gin, combined with a sawmill and
 grlstmill, and thereby hangs an in-
 stance of tho grit of the man. About
 year ago, his dam was carried away
 by a freshet He put up new dam,
 which was taken out by rise within
 twelve hours after completion; a sec
 ond new dam lasted only thlrty-slS
 hours: whcreupon Benson set to and
 built stone dam which defles the
 tooth of time.
 A few miles away is another enter
 prise. the Dixie company, in which
 Northern capital, perhaps supplement
 cd by some Benson money has beer
 applied to tract of neglected lands
 which changed hands few years agc at si5,0O0 for five thousand acres This enterprise ls managed ny youni
 Benson. who ls ns eager and encrgeti ! as his father Is cautious and hcsltant The plan Is to turpentine the forests . then 10 cut them, then to clear them and to put tenant farmers on them there is no purpose of selling GU tracts to negroes. The place Is scene of great activity, a fltst-clas gin, first class seed mill flrst-clas sawmill. an excellent store, a consid erable number of white employe alongside tho negroes; the whole man
 aged by negro.
 From KowalIga to Tallassec | about fifteen miles through q countr' of great prosperity; though not ia
 away Is Dnde City, the scene of tn worst case of negro pconage on rec ' ord-the virtual slavery Of negr' woman who waa. about two years ag
 whipped to death by her mastcr--ant !, nobody punished for it The few dc caylng houses arc old plantation land !, marks, everywhere one sees nov buildings, and the native was per rcptfbly pleased to observe ''painte houses, for in hundred miles thcr
 had been few of that type. In Tal
 lassce arc two enormous cotton mllI
 run by splendid water power, an'
 there one might if he chose, see th q poor white as factory lahorcr. Bu 1 the lesson which Alabama teaches l. not lllHL lDe ldtl'lN Halih N"H i'''N s a living, it la that the poorest anl 2 least progressive part of the popula ton ls rising.
 x No one who visits Alabama planta , tlons can help feeling that tho negr' | is doing his agricultural work falrl T well and under fayorInE clrcum g stances, as shown in tho three com Q munItIea of Calhoun, Nlxhurg am Q Wowallga has made a kind of sue 2 cess which many of his critics say ( impossible for him Az for the poo Q white, he is disappearing In Alabam 7 as in Louisiana Even in tho mos q remote places. hc ia making progress r. and wherever hc has timber. Inc !" looking forward to what seems to hlr