The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1917-10-05
WHAT SOUTHERN
WHITE WOMEN DO.
Bloomington Colored Woman
Writes of the Great Work
for Uplift of the Race


the Bloomington (Ill) Bulletin:
To the Editor of the Bulletin:
With an inexpressible sense of
gratitude and appreciation of her
noble example Of Christian duty and
womanly sympathy | write of the
; part which the southern white woman
has taken in the education and prog
ress of the southern negroes.
Among the thousands of educated
and thrifty negroes of the south there
is scarcely a home which has not been
blessed by her wise counsel and gen
crosby
The question is often asked by
northern travellers through the soubh,
s Why is it that negroes of the south
are so far ahead of the northern ne
ggoes in education, industrial train
ing, reliability and wealth, when the
wages in the south are so much less
than in the NORTH The answer is
this-the southern white woman has
such a tenderness for humanity,
such sensibiity to human suffering
: and sorrow, such a desire to see all
human beings honest, honorable and
self-reliant, that the negro mother
is given the ham bones, biscuits,veg-
etables and other left overs from
each meal to take home to her hungry
family. She also gives the worn
clothing and shoes of her family to
her help. Old furniture, carpets and
stoves and many other useful ar
ticles go to make the humble negro
home comfortable and cheerful.
The negro mother is advised to
help her husband to save his earn
ings and buy a home, always with
this encouraging remark, "lf you get
in tight place leteme know and /
will do what | can for you" And
thousands of negro homes owned by
the occupants stand today monu-
ment to her thoughtfulness and aid.
Whatever she promises she gives,an
her absolute reliability has been
the warp and woof in the making of
thousands of honest, reliable negro
characters.
Thousands of successful business
and professional negro men and wo-
men of the south worked in white
families for their "vituals and cloth
es," and went to school, Normal and
college education and many of the
professions paid by white employers
of their mothers and fathers.
The nobility of this great kindness
and inestimable good done the ne
groes of the south lies in the fact
that it is wholly an act Of true char
ity and pure unselfshness without a
thought of praise.
The southern white woman under
stands the longings and desires of the
negroes to better their condition as
mother understands the unspoken
wish of her child. With infinite pa
tience she trains the negro girls to
be matchless mousemaids, cooks and
nurses.
Her manner always gentle and re-
fined with little persuasive touch,
inspires her servants to do and be
their best at all times.
Things done well are always prais-
ed and spoken of to friends and
neighbors. This serves to stimulate
and quicken desire in the negroes
to cultivate and strengthen all that
is noble, good and true in them
selves.
There is scarcely a negro mother
forty years old and younger in the
south who when asked who stood by
them in their darkest hour of trouble
misfortune or sorrow will unhesitat-
ingly say, "The good Lord and Miss
Ann"
In sickness, sorrow and death the
southern white woman with that in
definable something which for want
of better name Isshall call moth
erly sympathy, aids, comforts and
consoles her servants and teaches her
children to do likewise.
She is quick to observe and en-
courage the cultivation of talents
for the finer arts in her servants and
their children.
She has great confidence in the in
tegrity and faithfulness of negro
servants and in most cases she will
, not have any other.
She exerts wonderful influence ov-l