1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
601 
"THE NEW BLACK MAN." 
WHAT HE IS TRYING TO DO. 
A "Negro Conference” in Alabama. 
Part III. 
It may be true, as I am frequently told, that the 
majority of the southern negroes are lower in the 
scale of morality and self-help than they were 10 
years ago. The majority of southern white men 
make such a claim, and I certainly have no means of 
disproving the statement. The hundreds of lynchings 
that occur in punishment for a nameless crime are 
said to be evidences of the low standard of negro 
morality. It is getting to be pretty well understood 
through the North that there is danger in leaving 
women alone in the country at the South. This 
thought is doing more than anything else to keep 
northern people from buying southern farm lands. 
The lynchings advertise the belief that woman is 
safe only in towns or thickly-settled localities where 
some sort of police protection is possible. 
This matter was discussed at the conference, and in 
a way that would have startled many of our readers. 
There was little to indicate that the case is as hope¬ 
less as many would have us believe. A fair estimate 
of the reports certainly shows that, wherever the in¬ 
fluence of Tuskegee is felt, there has been a slow but 
sure improvement in the morals of the colored people. 
I am certain that there are, in the South to-day, 
more men and women with negro blood in their veins 
who are honorable and pure than ever before. I can¬ 
not help thinking that the southern white people 
have lost an opportunity in not helping to direct this 
effort of “The New Black Man ” to make himself a 
skilled workman. The work has been left chiefly to 
persons who live at the North, and I feel sure that 
this will directly influence the future of the southern 
States. 
To illustrate the simple yet forcible methods em¬ 
ployed in reaching these negroes, I will quote two 
resolutions that were passed at this conference : 
We urge that each community keep its school open six months 
or more in the year, and that our young people be kept busy, in 
school or at work, that they may not become loafers and criminals. 
We should make the immoral, among the leaders or in the 
ranks, feel the force of our condemnation. Ministers should 
teach the people that religion should enter into the smallest 
details of dally life. 
And here I want to give a copy of certain rules of 
advice which were printed in large type on thick 
paper and distributed among the people. They were 
headed, “Some things to think about during the 
year!” 
1 . Do not mortgage your crop this year. Raise plenty of vege¬ 
tables, fruits and fowls. 
2. Do not go in debt this year. 
3. Do not buy anything that you can do without. 
4. If you do not own a home, try to begin buying one. 
5. If you own a home, try to improve it. 
6 . Try to lay by something each month or year for a “rainy 
day.” 
7. Do not be satisfied till there is a good school-house In your 
community. 
8 . Arrange in some way to have your school in session nine 
months in the year. 
9. Do not keep an immoral minister or teacher. 
Possibly men with straighter hair and a little less 
pigment in their skins may think some of these rules 
are too simple. They were designed for a class of 
men who need the simplest and truest advice that one 
can possibly give them. There are millions of white 
men in America who would do well to paint those 
rules in letters three feet long on the side of the barns ! 
The question of education came in for a good share 
of discussion. How eager these poor people are to 
learn how to read and write ! Northern people, with 
their splendid system of free education, cannot under¬ 
stand the self-denials and sacrifices these negroes are 
ready to make in order to educate their children. 
The State of Alabama provides only three months of 
school out of the public funds, and this is all that 
many neighborhoods have. In others, these poor 
people, out of their scanty and hard-earned means, 
have raised enough extra money to continue the school 
for six or even nine months. 
One man who wanted to pay his local teacher a 
high compliment, said : “ We has de bes’ teacher in 
all de world ! Long may she live until all my chil¬ 
dren an’ my great grandchildren is edycated ! ” That 
man certainly believed in holding fast to a good 
thing when he got it. 
One man reported that the teacher advised them to 
eat fewer biscuits. Where a man was in the habit of 
eating seven biscuits, he was advised to eat six and 
save the seventh. “ I thinks, myself,” said this man, 
“ that our people eats too much.” 
Another man was thankful that he lived in a coun¬ 
try where there were no railroads, so that his people 
couldn’t go away “on no ’scursions.” These “’scur- 
sions ” for pleasure, and extravagance in dress, and 
useless trinkets, were loudly condemned. Most of 
the negroes were neatly dressed in clean, well-made 
clothes, and the majority wore collars if not neckties. 
Tastes may differ, but one man made this state¬ 
ment of what he considered a good time. “ De most 
fun I’s ever had wuz plowin’ behind an ole ox an’ 
singin’ Amazin’ Grace ! ” 
The conference lasted all day, and at noon, dinner 
was served to all the guests. It was a great under¬ 
taking to feed 1,000 hungry farmers, but the whole 
matter was managed perfectly. One farmer brought 
a large hog to help feed the multitude, and he was 
quite proud of the fact that no one else had con¬ 
tributed in this way. 
One of the most striking things about the confer¬ 
ence was the contrast presented by the old-time 
negroes and their sons and daughters, who were stu¬ 
dents at the college. It did not seem possible that 
only one generation had wrought the change between 
these old slaves and the trim, neat, clear-eyed 
students who attended their guests with a dignity 
and kindness that was, to me, almost pathetic as I 
thought what 30 short years had done for these young 
men. 
Many of the students come from homes that are but 
poor, one-roomed cabins, devoid of all refinement or 
comfort. Such boys eat salt pork, corn bread and 
sweet potatoes from one end of the year to another. 
That is about the limit of their diet. At the college, 
they are obliged to be neat in their dress. They sit 
in a pleasant dining-room with a table cloth on the 
table, and use knife and fork and napkin. Instead of 
salt pork, they eat lean beef, bread and different 
vegetables. Beef is used because it is cheaper, and 
“the students study better on it”. The beef is fat¬ 
tened on the farm. I was told that Holstein cattle 
were preferred because the steers, and the cows after 
milking, made a good carcass of beef. After a year 
or two of such life, these students are not satisfied to 
go back to the one-roomed cabin and its surroundings. 
I he educated Indian is said to go back to wigwam 
life easier than the negro goes back to his old time 
surroundings. 
While these questions of morals and education were 
interesting, to my mind the most important part of 
the conference was that relating to the negro’s 
progress as a farmer. h. w. c. 
AMONG THE MARKETMEN. 
WHAT I SEE AND HEAR. 
My attention has been attracted several times by 
some choice boxes of California pears with the brand 
upon them, PACKED BY CHAS. DOWNING. Thus 
is a great name perpetuated in a business that the 
owner of that name did so much to honor and render 
one of the leading industries of this great country. A 
man bearing that name ought to grow good fruit and 
bring no reproach upon one of the most illustrious 
names connected with American pomology. 
X X t 
I noticed a lot of fine looking apples in the common 
round, half-bushel peach baskets. They were brought 
in by a man who lives near enough to drive in with 
his own wagon. He gets new baskets of this style 
for $4 per 100, and can buy those which have been 
used for about half that. He isn’t where he can get 
apple barrels handy, but the baskets cost him no 
more, and it isn’t so much work to put the apples into 
them as it would be to pack them into barrels. In 
his case, the baskets seem to be preferable, but they 
would not be for those so situated that they must ship 
their apples. 
t X X 
Several weeks ago, I spoke in this column of a 
western New York fruit grower asking about the 
best markets for fruit. Then later I wrote about a 
grocer writing for his address, and suggested the ad¬ 
visability of fruit growers advertising their business. 
I see that at least one has followed my suggestion, 
and A. J. Balcom, Youngstown, N. Y., now announces 
that he is a FRUIT GROWER, and that he grows 
peaches, plums, pears, grapes, quinces, apples, etc. 
This fact ought to put him into direct communication 
with those who wish to buy these fruits, and we hope 
to know the results. 
X X t 
The great effort of city tradesmen of all sorts is to 
attract attention, with the object, of course, of bring- 
i v g in trade. Many of the dry goods stores dress up 
their windows in a most attractive style, and an ex¬ 
pert window dresser is an artist and commands a 
good salary. Many of the leading grocers also fill 
their windows with their most attractive goods, and 
it is surprising to see the effects that are produced. 
Sometimes attractive pictures are displayed among 
the goods to attract those who otherwise might pass 
by. Then, sometimes, a great mass of a single line 
of goods is heaped into the windows to convey the 
impression of an immense trade. In one store win¬ 
dow on Broadway, I saw a common wheelbarrow 
filled to overflowing with fountain pens. The very 
oddity of the thing attracted much attention. In a 
store window on the Bowery, a whole window was 
heaped up with cheap watches like so many potatoes, 
and the legend was displayed, ONLY A FEW BUSH¬ 
ELS LEFT ! One secret of selling goods is first to 
attract the customers, then when their attention is 
secured, to press the claims of the goods upon them. 
One way for the farmer to do this is by having choice 
products, putting them up in attractive shape, and 
keeping the quality so good that the customers will 
say, “ That tastes like more ! ” 
X t X 
The latest reports about the proposed milk trust 
referred to in the last R. N.-Y., are to the effect that 
it has fallen through, the dealers declining to go into 
the scheme. It is reported, however, that the dealers 
have been holding a meeting to consider plans for 
improving the milk trade, and for handling it more 
economically, and that, if these plans are matured, 
milk will be cheapened to consumers. This would be 
a most desirable result, for any material lowering of 
the price would result in increased consumption, and 
thus reduce or prevent that surplus which is often 
such a bugbear. There is too much margin between 
the price paid by the consumer and that received by 
the producer. 
X t X 
Great piles of watermelons are yet seen in the 
produce district, but this is not watermelon weather ; 
in fact, the whole of August has been too wet and 
cold to encourage the sale or eating of this hot- 
weather fruit. The result has been that prices have 
ranged very low and sales have been slow. The qual¬ 
ity hasn’t been up to the mark, either, especially for 
the Jersey melons. In crossing the North River on 
the ferryboats, one often sees small row boats loaded 
down with melons, dodging around among the larger 
craft. Many of these melons are picked up around 
the piers, where they are lost overboard when the cars 
are being unloaded. It is said that their bath of salt 
water doesn’t injure them. 
X t X 
It is doubtful whether we have ever had a finer 
looking lot of muskmelons in market, especially of 
the Haekensacks, than during recent weeks ; it is, 
also, doubtful whether the quality has ever been 
poorer. It takes sunshine to bring out the sweetness 
and quality, and we have had precious little of that 
during the past six or seven weeks. Fine, large 
Hackensack melons can be bought at retail for five 
cents each, the largest and best for 10 cents, or three 
for 25 cents. Even at these prices, sales are slow, for 
the people have learned that the melons are lacking 
in quality. The best muskmelons are the little Jenny 
Linds, many of which are no larger than a big apple. 
X X t 
A friend of The R. N.-Y. wishes to stock a small 
pond on his place with Black bass, and is having diffi¬ 
culty in finding the fish. The New York game laws 
prohibit the transportation of these fish under eight 
inches in length, and New Jersey has a similar law. 
The Government furnishes, as stated in The R. N.-Y. 
of August 21, fish for stocking waters, but there is 
considerable red tape connected with it. It would 
seem that there ought to be some one in a position to 
supply such a demand as this, for there is more or less 
of a call for this and other kinds of fish, and we 
would like to know who this somebody is. Usually 
people who can afford to stock private waters are 
willing to pay well for the fish. Here’s a chance for 
somebody to branch out in a new line. f. h. v 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Ip you hare beans to harvest, send to the Farmers’ Handy 
Wagon Company, Saginaw, Mich., for a description of their har¬ 
vester. While we have never seen it in use, it appears to be just 
the thing, especially for small growers. 
Wk see a letter from the chief of the Centennial Fair at Nash¬ 
ville, Tenn., advising Mr. E. L. Clarkson, of Tivoli, N. Y., that his 
Mammoth White winter rye has just been awarded first prize 
with premium of *10 at that exhibition. There were several com¬ 
petitors, and this, the chief says, was as pretty a sample as he 
ever saw. 
The season for baling hay is at hand, and a good press is a 
necessity if one expect to get good prices for hay. The Collins 
Plow Co., Quincy, ill., make the Eli press in a great variety of 
styles, sizes and prices. They also manufacture horse-powers 
and everything needed in bailng hay. They will send large 
illustrated catalogue on application. 
The old style rail fence is fast giving way to more substantial 
and sightly fences of woven wire, and makers of this new fencing 
have vied with each other to improve them, until they are to-day 
about as perfect as human ingenuity can make them. The Pitts¬ 
burg Woven Wire Fence Co., Pittsburg, ;Pa., make special claims 
for their fencing and your patronage on the ground that it is 
made of the very best doubly annealed galvanized steel wire. 
Other important parts of this fence are explained in circulars 
which are sent free. They make special price to farmers order¬ 
ing direct where they have no agent. 
