FROM WINTER TO SUMMER IN A DAY.
March 11. 1904.--We left Chicago at 6 p. m. The ground was covered with
snow, the winds cutting through our clothes, and winter still held his
own relentlessly. By the time we reached Cairo the change was evident;
and next evening at the same hour we were well down in Mississippi, and
our clothes oppressively warm. Trees were in full leaf, and numerous
cold frames showed that trucking was in full operation. Rain set in and
followed us to Memphis, but then the sky cleared. We found full summer
at New Orleans, the grass in the parks green, the foliage that of
midsummer. At Baton Rouge the violets were about over, but the roses
were enough to discourage one from ever again trying to raise them in
Chicago.
Why do people suffer from the winter north when they need not do so?
Many shiver and pine for the warm days, during this month of blustering
cold, when everyone has had enough winter and longs for spring, while
all they have to do is to jump on a train and in 24 hours they are in
this delightful clime. When need compels, we must take our medicine
without a grumble; but to many all that keeps them north in March is
inertia and thoughtlessness.
There are many little businesses carried on in these river boats. We saw
many trading boats which supplied ordinary necessaries and carried small
freights, or gathered up skins and other little products not worth the
while of steamers to stop for. Photographers ply up and down the
streams; a fortune teller makes good profits; a quack sells liniments
and other drugs, and does a bit of unlicensed practice; and very likely
some boats sell whisky. We did not hear of an evangelist, yet there
seems to be a need for some work of this sort. One man sold roofing
paint along the river for good profits.
The South would do well to study the practical applications of the
maxim: "Put yourself in his place." The Italians keep goats as the Irish
do pigs. Both forage for a living, and supply an important place in the
social economies. The goat is to the Italian a matter of course. But a
doctor was annoyed by the animals, and told his Italian neighbor he must
keep his goats shut up. He did not do so, and so the doctor shot the
goats. Next morning, as the doctor passed the Italian's stand, the
latter drew a pistol, remarking: "You shoot my goat; I shoot you," and
shot the doctor dead. This nearly precipitated a race riot.
If there was no law against allowing goats to run at large, the Italian
was strictly within his rights. It was up to the doctor to fence his
premises. If there was such a law, the doctor should have called on the
proper officers to enforce it. In either case he was in the wrong; and
the habit of taking the law in one's own hands was responsible for the
tragedy.
The discontent of the negro with plantation life and work is not, we are
everywhere told, a matter of wages. Then why is there no intelligent
attempt made to study the question with a view to devising means of
attaching him to the place? He is a child in many respects, and
amusement goes far in rendering him contented and happy. Were he these,
he would not be restless to leave the plantations. A barbecue next
week, a dance Saturday night, a little fun in expectation, would go far
to keep him quiet, and need not cost more than a trifle of what it would
be worth. The problem seems easy enough, but we have heard of no attempt
to solve it on such lines.