River, and almost every acre of land
and object of interest you behold bears the impress of Negro labor,
industry, and skill. Looking from your car window on either side most
of the beautiful farms that you see were cleared and are tilled by the
Negro; and most of the beautiful residences you have passed were
built, painted, and kept in order by Negroes. All of those beautiful,
flowered lawns show Negro industry. The glittering iron rails which
led you on lightning express to this city were laid by Negro hands
after he had tunneled the mountains, leveled the hills, and filled the
hollows. And if those iron rails were made South and the Negro did not
forge them, it was because the boss had an acute attack of colorphobia
and gave the job to some nondecitizenized, ready-to-work emigrant.
Some people used to say that the Negro was lazy, and that if freed he
would perish. I have traveled all over this country and through many
others, and I have seen thousands of tramps, but I have as yet met but
one first-class Negro tramp, and he was in London; therefore I
concluded that he had strayed from his race, and had learned the trade
from the white people. I have also learned that at the great national
tramp convention recently held in New York not a single Negro was
present. True it is that we find too many idle Negroes in the towns
and cities "holding up the corners." Well, Dr. Price once said that
the Negro had to work so hard in the hot sun during slavery that a
great many of them promised themselves that if ever they got free they
would take a good rest. The Doctor concluded that this idle class were
making good their promise. But the true cause of this apparent
idleness lies far back of this. It arises partially out of the very
distressing condition of the cotton planters of the South. The Negroes
have been so industrious for the last decade that they have
overflooded the cotton markets of the world, and consequently so
reduced the price of this staple that the landlords are not disposed
to feed hirelings through the winter, and the colored people, who have
been fed from the stores under the mortgage system, getting all their
food on time at two prices, and paying for the same in cotton in the
fall at half price, find themselves in the end in debt and greatly
discouraged. Hence thousands of would-be industrious young men float
into the cities and towns looking for jobs, in order to clothe
themselves for the winter. They find