Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1911-04-14

Deal Jackson, 1.-THE First Bale Niger"
bale of 400 pounds, which is about the
average, this means about $100-$50
more than Re would get at the normal
price.
Rents Half of Farm to Negroes.
On one occasion, Deal marketed the
first bale; it was bought, shipped to
Savannah, and there declared "Old
cotton" Deal struck up at fast clip
again, and marketed two more bales
before any other farmer in Georgia or
east of the Mississippi had marketed
one. n
Later, the original first bale" was
pronounced new cotton" and the vim
dication of the first bale Niger was
complete.
Deals farm Is worth more, perhaps,
than any other farm of equal size in
his section of the country. 1t Is i'm
possible for Deal personally to cult
vate all of the 1000 acres, SO he rents
half Of it to other negroes who pay
him two bales to the pillow, netting him
about $1,000 annually.
The 1000 acres-which he super
vises personally-bring on an average
of % bales to the plow-more, it Is
said, than is averaged by any other
farmer in the section. -
Here of late, Booker T. Washington
has taken a great interest in the first
bale Niger and the latter has Wis
tied Tuskegee institute several times,
on the last occasion being invited to
deliver an address to the business
leg" as he calls the business league"
Hes de bigges' niger in the worl,
spect," is the tribute Deal pays to
Booker Washington.
Deal Jackson has sense of humor
every negro has that. He admired
greatly the automobile, and watched it
leave with as much interest as the
pickaninny had watched it arrive.
why don't you get one?' he was
asked.
EFF err lady comes along de street
in err buggy an your ortermobilc
skeered de horse, hit'd be bad,
wouldn't hit? But eff Deal Jackson
was in dat ortermobile, hit'd be err
heap more bad, wouldn't hit?"
And his eyes twinkled with the hui
NOR and the wisdom of the remark.
Deal Jackson has heart also.
Shortly before the writer was to
leave Albany-his native home-he
asked a prominent business man his
opinion of Deal as man.
Hes all right" same the ready re-
spouse. Deal has good credit. He
knows his place and keeps it, and he
has the respect of everybody that
knows him. I have always thought a
lot Of him since the time he came to
mo and asked as to the credit OF a
young r,a1, under whose father he
had once served as a slave. I told
him his cred:. Vas G.. Il. And Deal
replied, with ,.rs.tA of sadness in his
voice:
"'It don't make 2,uch difference,
anyway. I already lv.ned him the
money. When ! wusn't anything but
a boy. used to sit, on one side of the
fireplace and him on the other. When
the missus gin Him hunk of bread,
she gin me hunk When the missus
licked him she licked me, and when
she licked me she licked him, too
When she darned a pair of stockings
fer him she darned a pair fer me, and
when she darned a pair fer me she
darned pair fer him. We split things
den. l spect we kin, sorter divide up
now" .
Some day. writer will come down
south to study the negro race and the
negro problem, will make some men
ton Of Deal Jackson, "the first bale
nigger"-a negro farmer in the south,
Of the south, loving. the south---w1tb
100000 to his credit, aid a record CT
10 first bales as CLAIM for the dig
tinction of being the south's greatest
farmer.
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