330 TOBACCO LEAF. 



with his companions. He is not given to seclusion, or 

 to though tfulness. He is moved by impulse rather than 

 by reason. This social instinct makes him a discon- 

 tented laborer when working alone, and he will take 

 less wages where he can mingle with a large number of 

 his own race. The negro is liberal to a fault. He will 

 often work a whole week and give his earnings to a 

 church festival on Saturday night, or hire a costly 

 equipage for a drive with his wife and children, or with 

 his sweetheart, on Sunday. He will wear ragged, dirty 

 clothes six days in the week and a costly tailor-made 

 suit when he goes to church, or to a dance, or to spend 

 a holiday. Yet, notwithstanding this want of frugality, 

 it must be said to the credit of the negro that he very 

 seldom leads an idle or vagrant life, and is rarely dissi- 

 pated. His race indulges in no anarchistic or social- 

 istic ideas. The negro never questions the right of 

 another to take his place when he has been discharged, 

 or when he voluntarily surrenders it. The idea of a 

 boycott is repugnant to his nature. In many respects 

 he is eminently conservative and his greatest weakness is 

 a lack of firmness. Oftentimes he is tempted to do 

 what a firmer judgment would condemn. 



The negro farm laborers of the South are probably 

 the most independent laborers in the United States. 

 When one is discharged, unless for some heinous crime, 

 he finds no difficulty in securing employment at once on 

 some neighboring farm. And yet it cannot be said that 

 the negro laborer is wanting in constancy. When he is 

 treated fairly and honestly by his employer and paid 

 promptly, he is averse to a change. Possibly in this 

 particular the negro excels every other nationality, or 

 race, as a laborer. Earely does he cherish ill' will, 

 much less revenge, towards his former employer. He 

 entertains a warm feeling for a generous man, but 

 cordially despises a parsimonious one. Generosity in 



