pipe and shmoke id." George
Howe arose, yawned, then slowly walked to the door, turned, dropped his
under jaw and stared again at Schults, who had resumed his work about
the store. "Didn't mean ter hurt yer feelings, Schults, but ter put yer
on yer giard, that unless you jine em dey air goin' ter do yo." George
stepped out upon the walk, drew forth his jewsharp and sauntered up the
street, twanking upon it as he went.

The German to the Southern Negro has been and is what the Jew is to the
Russian peasant--the storekeeper, the barterer. The German citizen has
never been a manufacturer or a farmer; he is in no business that gives
extensive employment to wage earners. But, as a corner grocer, he lays
for the Negro as he goes to and from his toil, and, with cheap wares and
bad whisky, he grows fat upon his unwary customer. The German usually
comes to this country poor, enters small towns, and, by the aid of other
older residents of his nation who have already grown prosperous, he goes
into business on a small scale--grocery business as a rule. He begins in
a one-story structure, one-half devoted to business, while in the other
he lives. These little stores were never without their indispensable
liquor departments, where the trader was invited to refresh himself
after paying his weekly grocery bill.

Before the war the South's best people had no use for the German
emigrant, and did everything in their power to discourage his living
among them. If the slave returned home to his master under the influence
of liquor, the master in many instances went and cowhided the seller.
The flogging of the Negro did not keep him from returning to the German
to trade, and the German prospered, and to-day is among the foremost
property owners in the South. I do not exaggerate when I say that the
German's wealth has come to him solely through Negro patronage; not even
to-day does the people known as the best people trade with Germans.

The Bohns--Joseph, Charles, George and William--coming into Wilmington
in the seventies, had lived principally and conducted business in that
section of the old city known as Dry Pond, and, like the most of their
kind, have accumulated their wealth from the patronage of the colored
people, among whom they had ever lived. This makes the crime of George
Bohn appear the more atrocious and cowardly. George joined the White
Supremacy League during the uprising in Wilmington, and was one of its
most active members