ses of personal kindness
and forbearance; but in the vast majority of cases the rule was to
extract the uttermost farthing from the mass of the black farm laborers.

The average metayer pays from twenty to thirty per cent of his crop in
rent. The result of such rack-rent can only be evil,--abuse and
neglect of the soil, deterioration in the character of the laborers,
and a widespread sense of injustice. "Wherever the country is poor,"
cried Arthur Young, "it is in the hands of metayers," and "their
condition is more wretched than that of day-laborers." He was talking
of Italy a century ago; but he might have been talking of Dougherty
County to-day. And especially is that true to-day which he declares
was true in France before the Revolution: "The metayers are considered
as little better than menial servants, removable at pleasure, and
obliged to conform in all things to the will of the landlords." On
this low plane half the black population of Dougherty County--perhaps
more than half the black millions of this land--are to-day struggling.

A degree above these we may place those laborers who receive money
wages for their work. Some receive a house with perhaps a garden-spot;
then supplies of food and clothing are advanced, and certain fixed
wages are given at the end of the year, varying from thirty to sixty
dollars, out of which the supplies must be paid for, with interest.
About eighteen per cent of the population belong to this class of
semi-metayers, while twenty-two per cent are laborers paid by the month
or year, and are either "furnished" by their own savings or perhaps
more usually by some merchant who takes his chances of payment. Such
laborers receive from thirty-five to fifty cents a day during the
working season. They are usually young unmarried persons, some being
women; and when they marry they sink to the class of metayers, or, more
seldom, become renters.

The renters for fixed money rentals are the first of the emerging
classes, and form five per cent of the families. The sole advantage of
this small class is their freedom to choose their crops, and the
increased responsibility which comes through having money transactions.
While some of the renters differ little in condition from the metayers,
yet on the whole they are more intelligent and responsible persons, and
are the ones who eventually become land-owners. Their better character
and greater shrewdness enable them to gain, perhaps to de