Henderson gold leaf., 1911-07-13
A LITTLE RIDE INTO THE COUN-
TRY
And Some Reflections Awakened
Thereby

and the three adjoining counties,
twenty public libraries, five hundred
miles OF trolley lines, twenty parks
and pleasure resorts, five hundred
miles of macadamized roads, oiled so
as to avoid dust and attract tour
ing cars; water and light aul t'''e
! phone systems in every house, t.u
or three large colleges and a thous-
and factories. There are many who
say eight thousand white people and
nine or ten thousand black ones are
all We want here. Yet it ID very GER
| tain that the adjuncts of civilization
named above are greatly to be de-
sired. 1t is equally certain that our
eight thousand white people and ten
thousand negroes can never get
! them.
Sometimes when the preacher
thanks the Lord for having "cast
our lot in pleasant places" | feel like
| saying Amen! 1t is SO fine, so quiet,
50 easy, so grandly home-lke here.
Yet when business or pleasure calls
me to roam to a county containing
every one of the above institutions,
and | remain there and enjoy them a
| few days, it seems so far from my
office to my house, the main street Of
| Henderson seems so bare and dull,
my horse and carriage look so poor
and ugly, that seem to feel a kind
of discomfort. Ii we had in Vance
county 10000 people We could
! have every one of those Injuries of
| life and yet our taxes and expenses
of living would be no greater than
they are now. That number of peo-
pie and their horses and cattle would
make every foot of our lands las rich
as river loW-grOunds.
In that number, there would be so
many ideas to stir up our lives and
conduct and show truth in so many,
to us, new forms, that life would not
be a mere pursuit of happiness, but
it would sometimes be Overtaken.
Our taxes on that number of people
and the increased value of the prop
erty would enable us to maintain a
system of compulsory education,
and all our thoughts would widen
and enlarge. Our factories would
supply our needs and bring in all the
money required.
The conditions OF thrift and luxu-
ry, learning and creature comforts"
that | have described above do actu-
| ally exist in hundreds OF communi-
ties in these United States. Why do
we not have them? How can we get
| them? Do We want them2 We set
up in business here about the same
time as the other Eastern States,
and long, long before many Of the
Western States. | am forced 10 re-
feet upon the difference in conditions
with them and US. ] suppose every
one has done SO, and has felt as a
last resort, $50 let il be, since it can
not be So" But it ought not to be
so. We ought to desire and have,
for ourselves and for our children,
every blessing that kind Providence
has placed within the reach of any.
l do want them, and | want them
bad
Are we willing to pay the price? A
friend Of mine removed to the North,
and after many years returned to
visit his brother, whose sons were
then grown men, complaining OF
hard times. They worked pretty
we'll, like everybody else in their
neighborhood, from April to July,
with a hundred years behind time
system of farming; and hunted and
fshed and rested the remainder of
the year. He told them of the farmer
boys of his neighborhood in the
| North who rose at three a. III. the
year round milked a herd of COWS and
carried the milk to the milk train
that passed to the city at 6 q. m.,
and who were growing rich year by
year.
And it seems to me that the curse
OF two totally different races living
in the same territory, and the very
pleasant and gracious climate, enab-
ling us to earn some sort of living
by working one-third of our time,
are the very things that have kept
us from the accumulations that would
add so much to our wealth and hap
! piness.
The man in Massachusetts has to
warm his family, his vegetables and
fruits and cattle from October to
May, and work like the mischief
indoors in winter and outdoors in
summer to make both ends meet
This creates the getting and saving
habit. Result: The money in the
savings banks in the IA little coun-
ties of Massachusetts is sufficient to
buy and pay for all the land in North
Carolina and everything on it at the
prices we think it is worth, and be-
sides, they have for their credit, use
and enjoyment the roads, parks,
trolley lines, schools, colleges, libra
ries, compulsory education, muse
ums, etc, and their taxes in Boston,
with all the graft are not near so
heavy as ours. My old friend Ben
Smith says: "A nigger can make
enough money Monday to feed him
all the week. Nobody don't care
nothing about him and he don't care
nothing about nobody. What he
want to work for?" And if one
wants to farm, with little steer as
aibasis of credit he can get three to
FIVE hundred dollars credit in a time
store. White people, as well, make
living so easy that we don trouble
ourselves to make much more than
a living. We often remind me of the
Arkansas Traveller, who, when asked
why he didn't patch a leaky roof,
said: Its too bad to patch it while
it's raining. and when it amt rain
ing 1 don't need it." So he picked
his banjo as the rain poured in.
These thoughts have been on my
mind all my life, and have caused me
to be in a rush and work overtime
whenever had anything to do.
1t seems impossible to get people
from other States aud counties to
come here, because OF the presence
horo of trn roaos nj poor1la IDdood