The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-07
An Englishman Writes of
 Trip Through 7he Black Belt
WITHOUT FREJUDICEs "JIM CROW"
 CARS NECESSARY.

WITHOUT PREJUDICES "JIM CROW" .rE CARS NECESSARY.
 white Race Cannot Re Expected To Endure Swamping By The Black Race-And Yet 4. Position Is Illogical.
 William Archer, the well known English author has written Of his ex- periences and impressions on a trip | through the Black Belt His letters | containing some novel impressions. and pubushei in The Washington Post Is
 as follows:
 l For a whole long hot summers day I journeyed down the Mississippi Val 1 ley from Memphis to Vicksburg, stop ping at every wayside station. Here
 I first .felt-what was afterward to
 grow upon me every day--an impress
 sion of the extraordinary potential
 wealth of the South.
 l These fat champaigns, many of them
 scarcely reclaimed from the wilderness. | and few of them subjected to more
 than a rough surface culture. seemed
 to me to, reek of fertility and to cry
 aloud for development. As scenery
 tbey were monotonous enough. but as
 the seed plot of an illimitable future
 they<were vastly impressive.
 There was no dining car on the train.
 and at Clarksville. at 12:30, we were
 allowed twenty minutes for dinner.
 We, rushed for the dingy refreshment
 room, and found at each place a plate
 of soup. surrounded by little saucers
 containing a cube of butter, a sort of l doughnut in sirup, and some lettuce
 with a slice of hard boiled egg. There
 was also at each place a coffee cup. a
 small milk pot. and some sugar.
 The soup plates were removed by be-
 ing piled In the middle of the table; a
 negro waiter came around with fresh
 menu. all dumped successively upon Q
 single plate; CD Chunks of boiled
 bacon with sauerkraut; (2) stewed
 veal; (3) mashed potatoes: (D baked
 beans; (5) roast chicken: (6) boiled
 beef. The meal eneded with pumpkin
 pie and ice cream, and for beverage
 you had your choice of either coffee
 or iced tea For this reflection the
 charge was seventy-five cents. or 3s 1.-the regular tariff. 1t would seem a,
 roadside stations.
 Moral: Never, If you can help it
 take a train without a dining car.
 Approaching vicksburg. we ran fol
 miles and leagues through a lovely
 region of luxuriantly green. vine-tan
 gled forest, mirrored in perfectly clear
 water. Here. indeed, might the poe,
 have sung of
 | Annihilating all that's made To a green thought in a green shade
 How the water got there I canno,
 say. If 1t was simply the result of z flood. how came 1t SO exquisitely clear? It seemed as though the fores grew naturally out of this pellucit mirror; the rather as we passed man, open glades of blue water where a rae,
 of lake dwellers had, built their cabin I on piles. These glades I conceived t, be "bayous," but no native could in | form me In any case. I shall neve , forget that run up to Vicksburg | Until then I scarcely knew the mean :. ing of the word green" The Soul . was afterward to teach me many othe I shades Of its significance.
 This, whole days journey lay througl . the "black belt" of the State O . Mississippi. It was manifest to tn : naked eye that the black population
 enormously outnumbered the white o Few and far between were the cot il tages occupied by white folks. number less the cabins of the blacks. At tn ? stations the blacks-who love hangin . around railway stations-were to tn il whites as ten to one.
 IF They were a lively, good -humoreC
 talkative crowd. and, on the whole. on f would have s4id, a fine race physical, n Neither the men nor the woman show n ed any obvious sign Of that dwindlin n vitality wherein my friend the Mem s phis bookseller rejoiced-which is nc if to say that he was entirely mistake ,s as regards the urban negro Thes :. were rural negroes-a wholly differ ia ent matter.
 ', The newsman on the train was sell 70 ing The Memphis Commercial-A Appea n and I noticed that he found quite q
 many customers among the blacks g |. among the whites-two or three T, each station. This would have grat fled Booker Washington. for 1t Wa l. not only a proof of education. but "a easy circumstances-the paper costin " just about as much as The Post d Mir. Washington. too. would have r, ,- joiced to see the rather exquisitel .- dressed negro cavalier. mounted on T, pretty little well-bred mare. with spic V, and span new saddle and appurt, "a nances, who. at Mound Bayou, roc V up to the "jim-crow" car and chattt IT with a friend. Here was the "Gosp v, of the Toothbrush" supplemented | o that of the currycomb.
 ia At this point I must face an avow Ia which I have long seen looming ahea n Without sincerity these impression l. would be worse than useless. What n IHlHk aDOul the COIOr question must - superficial and may be foolish, bl .e there Is a certain eviiential value "a what I feel.
 N Well. that day in the "black belt" !, . Mississippi brought home to me u
 necessity of the "jim-crow" car. I'll . name-the contemptuous insultin ! name-is an outrage. The thing, c | the other hand. I regard as inevitabl l There are some negroes. so called wit l whom should esteem 1t a privilege | travel. and many others whose con | panionship would be in no way unwe come to me. but frankly do not war | to spend whole summer day in tn Mississippi valley cheek by jowl with miscellaneous multitude of the negr | race.
 The "jim-crow" car is defended b | many Southerners as a means of keer ing the peace, and on the ground ( | the special aversion which. owing l deplorable and Gin time) corrizible cfl l cumstances, the negro male excites | the white woman. But think tn matter goes deeper than this Tn