The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1935-06-27


of corn; that is, it was. either corn OF
sugar cane, but if looked to us very
much like the corn that grew in low;
when ! was boy. But it wasn't tht
crop that held our attention. 1t was The
condition in which the negroes were
living
\ Every few miles we would pass {
magnificent house, the. home of some
wealthy white person. These homes
would range all the way from S15,00(
i to $4,000 in cost we should Judge. Ane
then within a couple hundred yards o.
these magnificent homes would be
found the tumble-down shacks o.
negro farmers. They extended in al
directions, as far as the eye could see
the worst kind of shacks; possibly ar
eighth of mile apart-in many in
stances only a hundred yards or two
separated them.
These shacks were implanted. They
were without windows, there being
merely holes in the walls and a solid
board shutter hanging on rickety hinges
with which to cover the holes and shut
out the elements. Now and then one Of
these shacks gave evidence of having
been whitewashed; most of them had
never seen paint. They were unkempt
with the boards of the porches rotting
the steps falling away.
All of them had at least one fire.
place of brick built Onto one end OF
the shack. Some of them had fire.
places on both ends of the building.
All of the shacks were set up on pilings
some Is inches off the ground, prob
ABLY for better ventilation and because
of the dampness
These shacks were terribleNin the
extreme-and they extended for mile
after mile and for almost one entire
day of our travels, with a handsome,
great modern home of some white man
dropped in every few miles.
One thought kept recurring to me
as we sped through this section, and
that was that progressive farmer of
the North would not put his cattle in
such deplorable buildings as the ones
in which those negroes lived
Another Great Surprise.
We might as we'll confess now to
another surprise. We travelled through
this district on Saturday 1t was ap-
parently day off for the negroes.
Scores Of them were to be seen coming
out of those dilapidated cabins and
walking or riding toward the nearest
small town All of them were bright
eyed and happy apparently care-free
and full of fun And this was the sur
prise They were all wonderfully we'll
dressed. Most of the men wore VIVA.
could be called very good suits, the
women neat and attractive house or
street dresses. The children were also
well clothed. And the negroes were
apparently clean both in person and in
clothing. We will confess that we didn't
have any desire to give too close in
spection as to cleanliness, but if the
faces of those people were white they
would have passed muster in any sim
liar crowd anywhere. That was sur
prise No. |, for it was natural to ex-
pect that out of such ruinous shacks
would come filth, dirt and ragamuffin
clothes.
Another surprise of the same nature.
Numerous washings were seen hanging
on lines about the negro shacks Bed
ding was frequently observed carried
out and thrown over tumble down
porch rail- The washings and the bed
dings also were apparently clean,
judged from the distance of the high
way
One could expect dirt and ignorance
to come from such environment. Per-
haps there was much dirt and ignor-
ance, but here is a passing commentary.
Later was walking one day down
the streets Of Southern city. A griz-
zled old negro was approaching me.
His hair was turning gray. he was bent
and old As neared him noticed that
he was softly humming a tune. Not
some rollicking negro spiritual or jazz
was coming from his lips. What heard
was the music set to that exquisite
poem, Trees" in which the poet says,
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree"
He was one Of despised race and yet
he had music and poetry in his soul.
Some of the negroes drove fairly
good cars and some not SO good, but
that which gave lis many a laugh were
the scores of little, light wagons, to
each Of which there was hitched
sleepy old mule, and in the wagon
there would be one or two and some.
times three or four "niggers,' all wend-
ing their way to town for the Satur-
day holiday Those wagons were what
caused the laughs, discreetly hidden on
our part The wheels, oh, the wheels
of those wagons No two of them
tracked; each of the four seemed de-
termined to travel a direction all its
own; they wobbled and shook We ex-
.pected every moment to see them part
company with the wagon, but some
how they never did
axav al yArrL