Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1920-11-18

BY ]. .. Knott.

50 miles Of the Crescent CITY. so that
TOT some days We had been hover.
ing about the Paris of America. Ru,
the TACT is, New Orleans has Paris
peat, and Atlantic City, in full glow.
can not be mentioned in the same class
Let not the hearts of friends he
troubled, for the writer was but an on.
iooker at the ongoings of the CITY: but
II was going some. let me tell YOU.
coulo tale or two unfold, as m
what was observed, which would make
the hairs on the heads of some Der.
sons l know stand up as the auills of
the porcupine-but | shall not harrow
anyoody's feeling or attempt TO star,
any tide OF emigration in the direction
of New Orleans.
In the rich delta lands that surround
the city, the sugar cane is now being
harvested. The growth of sugar cane
is rank, and suggests flags that grow
in wet bottom lands in our section OF
the country. Tuboy-shaped negro
women, with their broods of husky
dlnkies, were cutting cane as we toured
along through the country. The cot
ton had all been picked, and the black
soil, heaped up like sweet potato rows,
was planted in cabbage and other har-
dy vegetables, just Beginning to look
green. There is no winter here worth
mentionng, nor need planters have any
anxiety about exhausting the delta soil.
AS a consequence, crop after crop is
planted, and neither season nor fer
tillzer is considered.
1t Is q physical-normal fact that del
ia cities are notorious for their world
lineSs. Rich and wicked Sodom, in
the constantly overlooking Jordan Val
ley; Cairo, Egypt. the most luxurious
and worldly city | ever saw, and in the
DELTA country of the Nile; Memphis,
Tenn, the capital city of the upper
mississippi delta country. and the most
wide-open city, except New Orleans,
that we have seen; and finally New
Orleans, the Frenchy, cosmopolitan
capital Of the far South, with its SUBJ
tropical Climate and its well-fed in
habitants, emphasizing the law that
delta lands are dangerous, unless YOU
have strong moral fibre.
| find that further observation OF the
negro of the South confirms me in the
impression had at first, viz, that a
great change has lately come over the
colored people down here, and that
revolution or revolt may be expected
unless some radical measures are pro-
vided. Those measures must not be
of the nature of force, but of recogni-
ton of the rights of the colored peo-
pie. No unprejudiced person can fail
to see that the colored people in Wash
ington City are both happier and moro
efficient than down here in the far
South. Ignorance is never bliss, nor is
is it ever an asset. 1t is distinct clog
to civilization. The sooner the white
people of the South find this out and
get away from that time honored doc
trine that "when you educate a niger
you ruin him." the better for the
South and this entire country. Singu-
lar, indeed, that the same people will
do all in their power to educate and
highly civilize the peoples of cannibal
habits and make the Philippine Islands
blossom like the rose in educational
directions, yet hold tenaciously to the
doctrine that our own colored people
of the South are better off il kept in ig-
norance!
The observing man, travelling from
town to town in the South and meeting
in close association the people of the
different communities as those people
organize for welfare work, will see both
the good and the evil side of life in
this part of our great country. A man
who loves the South and the Southern
peoples is panied at their pessimism. I
never imagined how fully the people
as whole were given up to emphasiz-
ing their ills and aches. The conven-
tional, "How do you do ?" which is
never seriously considered as an inquiry
into the details of mans anatomy or
his digestion, is the opportunity eager
ly seized by many Southerners to pour
out to you, on the streets, how badly
they slept the night before, how that
that something they ate disagreed with
them, or that they must go at once and
take dose of calomel, for they are
perfectly sure they need "course OF
medicine, as they have not had such a
thing in six months"
Then pessimism takes the form of
gloomy forebodings about the price of
cotton, sugar, lumber-anything in
which there can be possible huctuation
in price. II you are putting up a
Chautauqua tent you are sure to have
around YOU lot of rain-crows, in the
form of elderly men and even boys
we will surely have rain" | told an
Ill OlC VI tIlC USlld CltlGS
where nothing could be heard but that
disaster of some sort would certainly
befall us, that if | lived in the far
South should either from sheer reac-
ton become a Christian Scientist, or
use much of its doctrine in my lectures.
The fact is. the constitutional or tenn
peramental gloominess of many of the
southern people is inviting Christian
Science to come here, and it is coming.
Preachers preach repression and sup
preston Of life instead Of expression
and hell-fire instead of salvation, I'M
til the people ar hungry for a bright
hopeful, practical word on Joyous living
and its privileges. have never in
all my life had such response to my
work in the pulpit as have found in