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THE NEGRO IN HIS LAIR WAYS PAST FINDING OUT Indianola Man Telia Unique Story Of the Colored Brother in the Mississippi Delta Country. LIKE IN THE WORLD UNKNOWN An Account of the Various Phases of I^elta Life Amongst the Negro Race?Their Character. From early childhood, I have been ? A. i. _1 1 1 A. a constant uuserver anu an aruent admirer of the wondrous works of God. In my early days, birds, bees, bugs and flowers were a never-ending source of pleasure to me; and when a lad of more mature years I have laid for hours in the shade of some friendly tree and played with a toad frog or June Bug until dinner horn blew, when I was erroneously supposed to have been diligently hoeinc ont.tnr Tn nftr>r vpnra T hnvo sat silently on the seashore and watched the tide ebb and flow; I have climbed the lofty mountains and stood on the banks of the world's greatest river and watched its turbulent waters roll by; I have looked above into the starry decked dome of heaven and gazed upon the far-away planets and oomcits performing their stupenduous and harmonious revolutions and have seen written upon the face of all nature the glory and wonder of the great Creator. But I have always, and do now regard the negro as his masterpiece. He stands alone in a class by himself; and while the Yazoo and the Mississippi Delta is peculiarly suited to his needs, yet he can adjust himself to any kind of climate ?/and live and die happy under the most trying circumstances. Sleep in the Snn. He can lie down beneath the scorehing rays of a noonday sun and sleep the sleep of the seven sleepers of old without suffering any evil effects from it whatever; or he can weather the fiercest winter gales, clad only in a pair of cotton overalls and a blue jumper. He can also wear an overcoat to a Fourth of July celebration, or a pair of linen pants and an alpaca coat to a Christmas tree and be per-' fecfry comfortable. And strange as it may seem, anybody's clothes will fit him and look nice on him. King Solomon in his declining years, when he had become thoroughly disgusted with high society and fast living said theft there was nothing new under /he sun; that < he had gone all the gaits and had seen the whole show, from the free, exhibition to the grand concert, and that there was nothing to it, or words to that effect. But it will be remembered that he never had any negroes to deal with or he would have had a new problem to solve every day of his eventful life. There is nothing else lilro f nonrrn linMnr fVta curt Ho cnoc # all things, hears all things, believes all things, and has implicit faith in everything he sees or hears and stands ready at all times to step aboard of anything that come along from a young mule to a flying machine. Has Used Wireless. Wireless telegraphy is nothing new for him; he has used it for ages; every negro's mobth is a transmitter and every ear is a receiver. If anything of importance happens on a plantation at night, every negro for forty miles around will know it by morning. If you ever arrive in a Delta town on the train on Sunday and the whole colored population is not at the depot to meet you, do not get off the train, for you may know that of a surety some catastrophe has just struck that town. Saturday.is his special day by cus ftvui auu vviiiiiivii wiio^w vy aim 11 jv/u have any business to attend to in a Delta town on Saturday, attend to it early and get off the streets before yo/u get hurt. A negro cannot see you Saturday, unless you owe him something, and if you get in his way he is liable to step on you, sit down on you, or back you up against a brick wall and smother you to death. He does not usually do these things or any of them through any evil design as many sometime suppose, but he simply cannot help it ? you get in his way, for he is busy and cannot look out for you. Saturday is his "Rashion" and newspaper exchange day, ana in aaaition to naving an tnese things in his mind, he has to shake hands with every negro in town and hug every negro woman he meets. You had better take out an accident policy or get off the street Saturday. Stomach Like an Accordian. The standard "Rashions" for a negro is a peck of corn meal, two pounds of sugar, one pound of coffee, three pounds of salt meat and one gallon of black molasses a week, but he can consume all of this at one sit ting if necessary, if he is working for you and boarding himself he can live a week on three soda crackers, a box of sardines and five cents worth of cheese. In other wotds, his stomach U built on the same general plan of JVW-. > ?? / No Sub Return >o tv stitute.? jent } ing Powder, stitute for ROYAL. . cream of tartar bal healthful. Powder; stitutes are made f an old fashioned accordian and either g contracts or expands according to the q pressure brought to bear on it. He is also immune to nearly all ,kinds of poisons and can swallow the I most deadly drugs with impunity. I \ remember of having a negro working a for me one time who was having fr chills and was suffering from severe backache. I got him a bottle of chill ] tonic to take and a bottle of liniment i to rub his Back with. The liniment r was labeled in box car letters "POI- 1 SON" 'For external use only," and I c cautioned him about it when I gave i it to him, but for three days and c nights, before I found it out he had c been rubbing his back with the chill t tonic and taking a table spoonful of 1 'the lurfment three times a day before t each meal with excellent results. On t anothef occasion, I was sick and had i a negro to wait upon me, and the i doctor'opened a can of antiphlogistine \ I to make a Dlaster for mv side and loft ? ^ ?. the can on the kitchen table, and i when my negro went In to get his 5 supper, he mistook it for a can of ] peanut butter and ate the whole.of it without ever discovering his mistake. Lays Up No Treasure. The negro does not lay up treas- < ures on earth where moth and rust 1 would corrode or where theives might < break through and steal, but when he * has any money or other valuable 1 things, he immediately puts it into * circulation, and the things in which t he usually invests are never of a per- < manent or lasting nature. He spends 1 much money each year for legal and * medical advice, presumably for the 1 purpose of finding out what he ought * to do so that he may do the opposite, 1 for it is a well know fact that a negro was never known to shut a gate or follow anybody's advice about anything. He is also an ardent admirer of the work turned out by the dental surgeon and down deep in every negro's heart there is a great longing , to some day have a gold tooth in front, one on a plate so that he can take it out and look at it and put it back at will. Strong For Art. He is likewise a great admirer of art and in nearly every negro's home, be it ever so humble, there hangs a life sized crayon portrait of himself on the wall, right opposite the door, where you will be sure to see it wfien you come in the door. The rest of his surplus money he usually spends for entertainment, generally an excur- j sion, but anything else in motion will ^ do. I have frequently stood on the street corner on a cold cloudy winter | day and watched as many as fifty negros, who would not average fifty cents each, and none of whom had on clothes enough to flag a hand cat clinging to a merry-go-round as it went round and round grinding out that well known and much beloved melody, "Oh! Bill Baily, Why Don't You Come Home," and their front teeth shining like the keys on a "baby grand" piano while hundreds of others, who did not have the price of a ride, were standing in half frozen mud, cheering them as they came M 1 arouna. * 1 All things are pleasing to him. A ' circus or a funeral is equally enjoy- 1 able, but a protracted meeting fol- * lowed by a big baptizing, or a term of 1 the circuit court followed by a public 1 hanging, is his chiefest delight J The negro was once the white ' man's slave, but that was only for a ' short time, and was part of the great 1 scheme which God had in mind to 1 uvbv?r prepare mm ror tne enjoymeni of the great things which he meant j to bestow upon him in the future. ' By long and close association with J the white man the negro learned all < of his ways and his most innermost thoughts, and can now size him up I and classify him just as accurately as j a cotton buyer does the different I I ?. I stitutes | ie grocer all sub- K rou for Royal Bak- | m. ncic Id H J 8UU* Royal is a pure, 8 dng powder, and 3 offered as subrom alum. i i i l c I ( grades of cotton?and can do it much r luicker. He Gets What the White Man Has. , He is no longer a slave to man of ^ dammon, and verily that scripture vhich says, "The last shall be first ind the first shall be last," already las come to pass, and the negro now ^ las a reserved seat in the front row. f any good things are to be had, he ( s sure to get his share. One day a legro asked me if I thought a negro lad a soul. I told him I most assur- ' idly did, and if he did not have one. t was the only thing I had ever heard >f a white man having that a negro lid not get if he stayed with him long snough. The negro has no great probems to solve. There is no race ques- ^ ion so far as he is concerned. He mjoys the society of all races, ages ? ind nationalities and will mingle ^ 'reely with any of them, he enjoys vith equal pleasure the comanionship < f a five year old white boy or an iged Chinaman who is unable to 1 ipeak or understand a single word of , English, for in either case he gets to lo most of the talking. 1 For a Silver Standard. ^ The tariff question or the currency juestion does not interest him in the < east. Silver is his standard and he loes not want any other kind of * noney, neither does the Mexican sitlation worry him. All those things ire the white man's troubles. But if 1 he white folks want to whip Mexico ] >r anybody else for any cause or without any cause for that matter, 1 ind will furnish him with the arms ind ammunition, and will back him ip in it, he will be glad to do it for ] lim. His One Great Trouble. The road question is the only question that ever gave the negro any real trouble, but that was vnien he \ was subject to road duty, and happiy for him, that burden has also been 1 shifted to the white man, and the \ 'oads of the Delta are now being worked by taxation, and all he has 1 o do is to pack them down after they j ire constructed. Neither does the levee or the want ! >f a levee bother him, that is some, nore or the white folk's trouble. If we have an overflow or do not have \ >ne, it is all right with him. If we do lave one, he is the first to have a ! ioat and get out into it and paddle iround from morning until night with the blessed assurance that there i will be no more work done while it asts and that he will draw his rations from his landlord or from the government and sometimes from both mtil it subsides. 1 When He Comes to Town. , When a negro tires of country life, le moves to town, acquires a charcoal mcket and a tailor's goose, forms an illiance with some white man's cook ind with his living thus assured >pens a cleaning and pressing estabishment. He gets out Monday mornng and gathers in the Sunday clothes >f the white clerks of town, and after wearing them himself every night luring the week he gets up Saturday norning and treats them to a gasolene bath, flattens them out with a rp(i hnt irnn nH i-uokoo flmm heir owners so that they may wear them Sunday, collects $1.50 for his services in their behalf and goes on lis way rejoicing. But should there t>e any special occasion in town on Saturday night which he wishes to attend, he holds back the best suit that he happens to have on hand and wears it to that, and carries it home Sunday morning, if he wakes up in | time; otherwise its owner can lay m 3?d tover Sunday, and he will bring it back some time the following Moniay. If perchance his fancy does not run to cleaning clothes, he gets himself m gasolene stove and other paraphernalia wherewith to defeat the vagrant j^atute, and sets up a lunch counter where he serves all such as care to come his way, irrespective of race, color or previous condition of servitude, with hambergers, hot catfish and beef sausage, and sometimes sweet spirits of fermentti on the side, but should neither of the vocations appeal to him, he usually opens a colored barber shop with a pool room and craps table in the rear. As soon as the city authorities become obnoxious to him however, he again goes back to the quiet country life, usually, right after Christmas holidays, and joins himself to a cotton planter, and by his certain written contract, duly executed in duplicate, obligates and binds himself to cultivate and gather a crop of cotton on the land therein described and on the strength thereof, proceeds to eat up anywhere from five to three hundred dollar's worth of grub, while he s waiting for the ground to get In shano ?.?1 '* w |/iuvv, ?uu it very frequently happens that when the trees begin to j bud and when the birds begin to whistle and the grass hopper begins to sing, Mr. Negro is seized with wanderlust, and suddenly disappears, uid the people who once knew him, enow him no more forever. Every lelta town also has it full quota of legro women who like the lfly, toil lot neither do they spin, yet the Jueen of Sheba in all her glory was lever clad like unto one of them. Surely the negro is fearfully and vonderfully made and his ways are >ast finding out.?State Gazette. IUST FIVE MONTHS OF PUBLIC CONFIDENCE The Union Clothing Company Meets With Splendid Success. f Just five months ago we launched this business enterprise on the high ?eas of commerce and vuv wv c?piure our share of trade. The splenlid success we have met with in this ihort time has proven that our judgment was correct. In our advertising we havte stuck closely to the facts as they exist, and have purposely avoi^ id loud and noisy claims, where we ikl iJ have the merchandise to justly tham. Believing that the buying sublic is more interested in real store ipws than in empty brag, bluster and jlack type. In choosing our merchandise we Kave fiploAfn/l ??Al' ?icpuuioie goods that we could afford to guarantee and stand back of and we have offered these goods at the lowest possible prices, consistent with true value giving. This then, is the history of our first five months in business, and hope the beginning of many years of iUCCesS in the nnhlif wiuiUt/IlCC. To all who have believed in us, trusted us and lent their patronage ind support, we are most deeply obligated, and we take this method of thanking you for the splendid success that has attended our first season. Wishing you one and all a Happy and Prosperous New Year, we are gratefully yours, The Union Clothina CnJ Union, S. C. ? FORTUNE8 FOR TOYS. 5 ? The children of the United |> A States each year consume toys % that cost at retail $45,000,000. A Of tills sum the imported goods <| represent $15,000,000 and the do& mestlc product $30,000,000. |> 4 The little ones of New York ? X city get more than their propor- a tionate share of this enormous ^ < > eaiwiiuiiuiu, tor mere is spoilt <?> X tor them annually $3,000,000. < One-third of this is for import- %> * J ed playthings and two-tblrds for T < * the home product. J* There is a marked tendency to- ^ < > ward mechanical toys, and more <|> * \ that is new and interesting is x < > found in thin direction than in <?> !any other. Within the ranks of these me- |> chanlcal playthings Is observa- x ble a great increase in iron toys. & all of which are made in this X country and fitted for hard use j> In the bands of destructive cUl- x dren. 3> >. # ' 14,+4"4,4?4i4?+44,4?+4,4 WHEN TH ' 4* 4> Received its charter as 4* watchful care of the Govei 4* the conduct of its affairs. 14+ THE CITI7.EMS math XIX* A 1' <? ing under its well establi + the friendly'supervision ol * GOVERNMENT, will alw *j| ty for its depositors. ] We respectfully invite t J* large and small. J A good rate of interest * COUNTS. | Citizens Nat * UNION, SOUTH + STATE, COUNTY AND I Jfc ?ifi? ?|? ?if* ttf* kfi? *) | Columbus a | Wag None Bett I Farm Im I of all + ^ fcXVVVW^X3fcV*VK*3^V*VXVV* ! Peoples Si <4 tk -* *- -*- . . .*..+- -*- - ** ? * ? ^ TTTTTT1 \ compact and effici vice for all kinds o not blow out or jar with thumb screv easily attached or d< a clear light 200 fei large red danger It is equipped with han< detached makes a good Strong. Durable. Will A.t Dealers Ever STANDARD OIL C Waihington, D. C. (New Jersey) Richmond, Vs. BALTIMORE Norfolk. Ve. All In On? Pag?. rw? "I am going to put into my new book all the knowledge I have ever acquired." "put won't it look more like a leaflet than a real book thenPittaburgh Press. . , i . . j? f ' 1 ?4*4*4*444*44*4*4 IS BANK i 4 a National Bank, the rnment was extended to ^ * ONAL BANK, continu- & shed ideals, and under ^ ? the UNITED STATES J ays be a source of safe- T * he accounts of all, both ^ paid on SAVING AC- J ional Bank ? I CAROLINA. * CITY DEPOSITORY J ind Webber % ons I * ter Made + 4 plements % Kinds ! * apply Co. | ff ^ _ For the r Road AKO DRIVING ? o Lf is tne most : ent lighting de- v f vehicles. Will ; out. Equipped ys, so that it is :tached. Throws et ahead. Extra signal in back. lie, and when hand lantern, last for years f \ ywhere YrClfcY OMPANY HI Charlotte, N. C. JCK Charleston. W. Vau Charleston. S. C. Ths Allspice Tree. The pimento, or allspice, tree is cultivated in the West Indies and Jamaica. This beautiful tree usually grows to a height of about thirty feet. It u?r? ? niKiiKiii. iruiiK. mufu orancnea above and covered with a very smooth browu bark. The leaves vary in size and shape, but are always of a dark, shining green color. I hiring the months of July and August the tree is in full bloom, the blossoms consisting of very fragrant small white (lowers. In fa vornble seasons the pimento crop is enormous, a single tree often yielding a hundred or more pounds of the dried spice. The berries are picket! while green, because if left on the tree until ripe they lose their pungent taste find are valueless. The green berries "are exposed to the sun for a week or ten days, when they lose their green color and turn a reddish brown. When perfectly dry they are put in bags and casks Tor exportation. The odor and the taste of the pimento berries -are thought to resemble a combination of those of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; hence the familiar name "allspice.";