THE ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 141 



THE MODEST CAPITALISTS. 



They were the white farmers, the possessors and the workers 

 of the small farms, these modest capitalists with the checks. 

 They came in the main from the clustered farms of prosperity 

 and fertility to the south of Clayton, the southern section and 

 the white section of the county, the section from which the 

 towns and the county'draw most of their life blood and vitality. 

 They were from the hills and valleys of Central and South 

 Barbour, for in those sections of the county the white farmer 

 has taken his' stand and made his abiding place. And in doing- 

 it he has done what the white farmer has always done — he has 

 made his community and his section happy and prosperous. 

 He has made them valuable assets of the State, assurances of 

 community prosperity and contributory sources of urban com- 

 merce. 



An occasional negro had a place in the procession. He was 

 a rare party in the cotton parade, however, just frequent enough 

 to display the example of negro thrift which is the exception 

 rather than the rule, no matter where the negro is' located. All 

 the more credit, of course, is due the negro who lifts himself 

 above the level of his fellows, but he does not mitigate the 

 fearful indictment of industrial inefficiency brought against the 

 race as a whole. There be but few negroes who make regular 

 trips to the bank, and there be fewer who carry away money 

 when they leave. 



White man and negro in the stream, the former frequent, the 

 latter seldom, were arguments, as' they did business with bank, 

 in the eternal race question — arguments of the superiority of 

 the man with the straight hair under whatever conditions might 

 prevail, if any such arguments were needed, and such are not 

 needed or wanted in this. And they were furthermore exhibits 

 and illustrations of conditions which exist in the southern por- 

 tion of the county. It is a wonderful contrast that they repre- 

 sent, the negro-inhabited northern portion and the white- 

 inhabited southern portion. It is the sort of stinging contrast 

 that Hamlet pointed out when he showed his mother the dif- 

 ference between the brow of his murdered father and 

 the lowering features of the man who succeeded to his throne 

 and bed. 



