The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-08-20
WHAT ONE POOR
HONEST NEGRO DID
For the UneduCated Black
Boy of the South.
TWENTY YEARS AGO
When He Started in to Better
and Build Up the Welfare
of the Way Down
South" Negro.
TWENTY YEARS AGO
From "The Continent

If our sole value is what we are
worth to Others" then an obscure,
illiterate negro farmer down on a
worn out plantation has been one
of Alabama's chief assets.
Yet when the people of the state
read two-line paragraph that Sam
DAILY of Tuscaloosa was dead they
hurriedly turn the paper, hunting
real news" Who was Sam DAILY.
anyway"
Twenty years ago he wac jani-
tor, flunky, general factotum to the
boys at the state university. But
with eyes and ears open. he was
drinking in the inspiration that be-
came the governing power of his
life. Seeing bow education and re-
llgion uplift race and an individ-
ual, the janitor began to covet it,
first for himself, then for his people.
He was already a devout. whole
souled Presbyterian, and because of
his anxiety to read de good book"
for himself some of the students
taught him in desultory fashion.
While he was laboring at his jan.
itorship, and laboring even more
strenuously over his reading and
writing and figuring, Sam was also
saving money. enough to pur-
chase the hack plying between town
and the university. This proved so
lucrative that some town lots were
soon his; then, when great long
ing for the country came over him,
he sold these to advantage and
bought 500 acres of second-rate
farming land fourteen miles from
town.
Right here, according to Dun or
Bradstreet, Sam Daly's public his
tory ought to nave ended. He was
40 years old and well fixed" for
the rest of his days. But Sans
vision included others besides him.
self-his people, particularly little
negroes. who. like himself, had been
denied much.
In December, 1908, he came
across an advertisement in Bir-
mingham paper in which Judge
Feagin of the juvenile court asked
for country homes for colored boys
convicted before his court. There
was no law for probation then, no
big brother" officers, not even
reform school for negro youths; but
the heart and will of this wise Judge
were strong enough to be law
unto himself" and he boldly adver-
tised, who will take my little
criminals out of Jail and out of the
swirl of evil in Buzzard's Roost and
Scratch ankle Row to the purity of
Gods outdoors?
Il, boss!'' cried Sam DAILY. hold
ing out his big, black hands.
So behold farm wagon rattling
through the woods bearing smil-
ing black man and five wide-eyed
little negroes, seeing the real
woods" for the first time in their
lives. They were frightened and
homesick for the noise and clamor
of town, but this was better than
being in Jail.
Chapters and chapters of this
story must forever remain unwrit-
ten. None of the boys could write.
Sam never could spell nothin',"
and besides, there was too much to
do, raising cotton and food enough
for this suddenly increased family.
Trip after trip the shackly wagon
made through the woods to meet
the train bringing more derelicts of
the crime waves of the city. In
less than ten years over 300 colored
boys, of varying ages and varying
crimes, have been sent to this farm
to be tried out" And out of this
800 only 10 per cent have gone
bad" In other words, this patient.
God-loving, boy-loving negro and
his wife saved 27O vice. stepped boys
and turned them into useful, self
dependent citizens, men in the max
ing.
Where has his ten years. work a
duplicate? What would you say
Sam DAILY was worth to the State
of .Alabama-to the nation?
How was it done? By love and
patience, by natures own teaching
and the word of God. Kindliness
from Sam and his wife first startled