A NEW START 19 



After haggling over my salary for several 

 days, we agreed on a kind of partnership. All 

 business done up to two hundred dollars each 

 month was to be divided between us equally. All 

 over that sum went to him in a lump. This 

 arrangement made it possible for me to make a 

 hundred dollars a month and I did so as long as 

 I worked on this basis. 



I found many things here during my first few 

 months' stay which took a good bit of the middle- 

 westerner out of me and which broadened mv 

 mind considerably. Also, I found that I would 

 have to brush up on several points in my pro- 

 fession. I encountered many conditions and dis- 

 eases here which were rare or unknown in the 

 north. 



When I had entered into the partnership above 

 referred to I took a room with an elderly couple 

 in the residence section and soon I was very much 

 at home in my new surroundings. Only at cer- 

 tain times did I have a longing for my northern 

 home and I will never forget how I was affected 

 by the advertising signs of a certain brand of 

 tobacco which was on the market at the time. It 

 was called "Old North State"; everywhere on 

 telephone poles, on fences and barns these signs 

 were tacked up. "Use Good Old North State"; 

 many weeks passed before I could read one of 

 the signs without flinching. 



Another difficulty I experienced in Houston 

 during the early part of my stay there was in con- 

 nection with the attitude of the whites towards 

 the negroes. It was quite a long time before I 



