第88章 Refreshments and Ethics(2)

There is also a profit now from the cotton-seed,which formerly had little value--none where much transportation was necessary.

In sixteen hundred pounds crude cotton four hundred are lint,worth,say,ten cents a pound;and twelve hundred pounds of seed,worth $12or $13per ton.Maybe in future even the stems will not be thrown away.Mr.Edward Atkinson says that for each bale of cotton there are fifteen hundred pounds of stems,and that these are very rich in phosphate of lime and potash;that when ground and mixed with ensilage or cotton-seed meal (which is too rich for use as fodder in large quantities),the stem mixture makes a superior food,rich in all the elements needed for the production of milk,meat,and bone.

Heretofore the stems have been considered a nuisance.

Complaint is made that the planter remains grouty toward the former slave,since the war;will have nothing but a chill business relation with him,no sentiment permitted to intrude,will not keep a 'store'himself,and supply the negro's wants and thus protect the negro's pocket and make him able and willing to stay on the place and an advantage to him to do it,but lets that privilege to some thrifty Israelite,who encourages the thoughtless negro and wife to buy all sorts of things which they could do without--buy on credit,at big prices,month after month,credit based on the negro's share of the growing crop;and at the end of the season,the negro's share belongs to the Israelite,'the negro is in debt besides,is discouraged,dissatisfied,restless,and both he and the planter are injured;for he will take steamboat and migrate,and the planter must get a stranger in his place who does not know him,does not care for him,will fatten the Israelite a season,and follow his predecessor per steamboat.

It is hoped that the Calhoun Company will show,by its humane and protective treatment of its laborers,that its method is the most profitable for both planter and negro;and it is believed that a general adoption of that method will then follow.

And where so many are saying their say,shall not the barkeeper testify?He is thoughtful,observant,never drinks;endeavors to earn his salary,and WOULD earn it if there were custom enough.He says the people along here in Mississippi and Louisiana will send up the river to buy vegetables rather than raise them,and they will come aboard at the landings and buy fruits of the barkeeper.

Thinks they 'don't know anything but cotton;'believes they don't know how to raise vegetables and fruit--'at least the most of them.'Says 'a nigger will go to H for a watermelon'('H'is all I find in the stenographer's report--means Halifax probably,though that seems a good way to go for a watermelon).Barkeeper buys watermelons for five cents up the river,brings them down and sells them for fifty.

'Why does he mix such elaborate and picturesque drinks for the nigger hands on the boat?'Because they won't have any other.

'They want a big drink;don't make any difference what you make it of,they want the worth of their money.

You give a nigger a plain gill of half-a-dollar brandy for five cents--will he touch it?No.Ain't size enough to it.

But you put up a pint of all kinds of worthless rubbish,and heave in some red stuff to make it beautiful--red's the main thing--and he wouldn't put down that glass to go to a circus.

All the bars on this Anchor Line are rented and owned by one firm.They furnish the liquors from their own establishment,and hire the barkeepers 'on salary.'

Good liquors?Yes,on some of the boats,where there are the kind of passengers that want it and can pay for it.

On the other boats?No.Nobody but the deck hands and firemen to drink it.'Brandy?Yes,I've got brandy,plenty of it;but you don't want any of it unless you've made your will.'

It isn't as it used to be in the old times.Then everybody traveled by steamboat,everybody drank,and everybody treated everybody else.

'Now most everybody goes by railroad,and the rest don't drink.'

In the old times the barkeeper owned the bar himself,'and was gay and smarty and talky and all jeweled up,and was the toniest aristocrat on the boat;used to make $2,000on a trip.

A father who left his son a steamboat bar,left him a fortune.

Now he leaves him board and lodging;yes,and washing,if a shirt a trip will do.Yes,indeedy,times are changed.

Why,do you know,on the principal line of boats on the Upper Mississippi,they don't have any bar at all!

Sounds like poetry,but it's the petrified truth.'