Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1898 — THE COLORED BROTHER. [ARTICLE]

THE COLORED BROTHER.

Not a Good Tenant tor the Southern (.and lord. The typical negro tenant arrives at a new home in a mule wagon or ox cart with a bundle of rags, a fry’ing pan and a covey of children, and he stays with a landlord who may have saved him from destitution by advancing provisions and dry goods only so long as the caprice of the hour dictates, says Lippincott’s. Land owners who have sunk into financial ruin by mortgaging their property have nearly always been dragged into the slough by the effort to help their negrpes out of it. The crop made by the average negro farmer is subject to many cpntingencies besides those of the weather. He does not hesitate to leave his field at the most critical season if pleasure calls him; “big meetings” he never can resist and these take place during the important agricultural months of July and August, first atone church and then at another. After the mules have been working hard all the week in this busy season they are often driven ten to fifteen miles on Sundays, carrying wagonloads of men, women and children; long bright ribbons flying out from the heads of the female members of the family, whose hair has been tightly plaited and bound with cords the week in order to produce a holiday sensation in an ample psyche-knot at the back and a bushellike roundness in front; they appear in fancy waists and big sleeves and regale themselves and their friends with a dinner of fried chicken, cake and watermelons after the meeting, rags being good enough to wear, hoe cake and bacon good enough to eat during the week. Like his African ancestors, the American negro is miserable without jollifications and feastings; if he can have them he will do a hard job of work between times.