The gold leaf., 1909-06-17

Sydney q. Fisher, in New York Post.
We do not study the South enough
by leisurely visits off the beaten
track, away from the FLORIDA
Special and the tourist routes. from
which nothing of much value can ever
belearned. Our war preiudices, the old
distortion and blindness, are still
overwhelming US, although we boast
sometimes that we have shaken them
off. OF what avail isit to have beaten
the South if we enter not into possess
sion OF that charming people and
their beautiful country?
| say this to myself every winter
as, returning from the quail and
snipe regions, | add new experiences
of appreciation. stopped over this
time at Union Springs. Alabama,
merely a cotton town far removed
from tourist lines. 1t is situated,
with wide, well-shaded streets, on a
good-sized hill, or ridge, with extern
sive views over n very curious region,
n sort of mottled country of pine
forests and red-soiled cotton fields
paradise for sportsmen and follow
ers of the cunning quail, with high
bred dogs wandering about the
streets. | sat on the steps of the
court house with my own dog, and
talked with one of the Judges.
The field sports and their broaden
ing genial influences are perhaps the
best equipment for the serious task
OF these Southern Judges, the most
serious task that perhaps has ever
been given to their race. Union
Springs is in the midst OF the black
belt, and the negroes Outnumber the
whites ten to one. The white men
seemed to me like a band Of brothers,
united, disciplined. trained through
generations, like iovial soldiers, to
hold down the black race. Their
Southern qualities, that extreme and
ready sociability, that frank direct
ness, seemed the more intensified be-
cause they were so desperately united
to protect Anglo-Saxon decency and
order from being overwhelmed by
Africa.
The blacks, Judging from those
saw, may have been descended from
the last slaves imported just before
the trade was stopped. They seemed
very close to Africa. One OF the
young men / went to see is collegt
graduate, and a magistrate, who
seems to spend a large part OF his
time trying negroes fer all sorts o
misdemsanOrs. | watched another
young man in an Office adjoining the
court house, with negro after negro
male and female, coming before him
they were waiting in groups before
the door, and he seemed to be lectur
ing and explaining to them much o
the time. These negroes are not The
select ones that we know. but the
great mass of the 10000, 900; the
100000 of the 100000. 1t vii
take a long time to lecture and ex
plain Anglo-Saxon ideas into the
black mass. 1t will never be done in
any time that can be estimated; and
yet the Southerner goes on with il
day after day, with the creates,
patience and good temper; he has
been going on with it in that way for
generations, and he will go on with il
to the end OF time, while we theorize
and talk about it in the North
| wonder where it will all end. viii
the Southerner continue to hold down
with one delicately moulded, but iron
hand, while he explains and explains
and shows great kindness with the
other hand; and meantime the years
and decades pass. and in fifty years
the present ten millions of negroes
have grown to twenty millions, in an-
other fifty years to forty millions
and so on until ut last there is small
white population. IA desperately uni.
ted, high-strung band OF brothers
holding down an enormous black
mass Just as in India about one hun.
dred thousand Englishmen hold down
three hundred millions OF brown
Asiatics II that day ever comes ]
feel az il there should b. painted
somew here in the universe the scene
saw in the court house: the slim
young Southerner OF race-horse build,
all nerve and sensation,ti,e Anglo
Saxon type of the Southern sun. ex-
planning to black man after black
man, and he kept on explaining and
explaining throughout the ages until
the black man overwhelmed him with
numbers