The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1911-04-13

l.
have had in the past three years. In
the beginning let me say that I am
almost shut-in, but l work
from morning till night and manage
two horse farm from which I main
tain my family of two. Since I came
here three years ago l have been
besieged with tramps as this lot Of
land is cut in halves by the South
western branch of the Central r. r.
of Ca
They come to the door request
something to eat, and sometimes Of
fer to pay 10 cents for so cent din
ner [ ply them with questions as I
see they are strong able bodied men.
When I find that they are of the Soc
lalist variety. On several occasions
when [ have given them a meal they
turn to me with such rot as this: The
wealthy people should divide with the
poorer classes and not live in such
luxury, and relate some instances
where some lady has refused to feed
them and accuse her of lying when
she said she had nothing left from
meal, to give them. Now [ know it is
not my place to feed strong able
bodied men who can tramp from
Penn. to Fla. while l work for my
own property and sustenance. Meth
er is it consistent with the teaching
OF the Bible. For the scripture strict
ly tells us that We shall make our
bread by the sweat from our own
brow, and in another place it says
We shall not eat meat unless we work.
A great many ladies are afraid to
turn tramp away from the door,
lest they should do them harm and
then too, it is hard to make ones
mind up to refuse a human being
food. Will you tell us what to do
about this matter? These men are
able to work, and we know it, One
came to the door one day and begged
for something to eat. After he had
eaten what [ gave him, he made the
remark that | had land enough to
give quite a number Of people houses
and it was my duty to present them
with houses. Then he took a GUAM
tity of old dirty food from his pocket
and laughed and told me he wanted
to see if all the Well-to-do people
would tell lie to keep from feeding
a poor man. When he did this I
walked in the house, loaded a good
pistol and made him leave my prem
ises. He said he was a thorough
bred Yankee Socialist and his bust
ness down here was to scatter liter
ature among the negroes. And said
the Yankees generally, wanted to get
the negro incensed against the
wealthy SOutherner, so if we had a
war, the negroes would fight the
South My mother remarked that
he had come to the wrong place to
SANDER the Southern people and he
Lo< i Jo+ L.
While I was preparing his food he
asked me number of questions of
my mother, and abused a near neigh
Dor because he sent him away from
his house empty handed In his con-
VerSatiOn he owned he had spent the
night in a negroes house and had
given them lot of literature to read
and said the negroes were nice peo-
pie and should be educated as they
were much more sociable than white
people.
One Sunday afternoon in Aug. last,
man came and tapped on the fence.
My son went to the door and enquired
what he wanted. He wanted dinner.
A few hundred yards from us is a
store and it is kept open on Sundey
in summer, for hungry and thirsty
people. He wanted to pay for the
dinner, and I asked him why he did
not stop at the store to get something.
This question made him furious and
L ,r<NI A1e4 L L. Ia.