“Far up the river, like low hung stars, twinkled the watch fires of a great timber raft outward bound for the estuary of the North Edisto. From a distant plantation came the sweet lu-la-lu of a happy Negro freed from work. The raft borne upon the bosom of the strong ebb tide, neared rapidly, and around its fires, built on earth covered platforms, the negro raftsmen talked and laughed as they cooked their supper and the flames lighted the face and magnified the figure of the black steersman who stood by the great sweep oar, with which at the stern of the raft, he guided its course down stream.
For an hour Jim had silently bucked the tide, impelling the boat under the powerful strokes of his paddle, alternately left and right.
‘What are you thinking of Jim?’
‘Study ’bout ’ooman, suh.’ (A short silence).
‘Ooman shishuh cuntrady t’ing, dem nebbuh know w’en dem well off. You kin feed dem, you kin pit clo’es puntop dem back, you kin pit shoo ’puntop dem feet, you kin pit hat ’puntop dem head, you kin pit money een dem han’, en’ still yet oonah nebbuh know de ’ooman, nebbuh know w’en dem min’ gwine sattify. Dem fuhrebbuh duh lookout fuh trubble. Ef dem ent meet trubble duh paat’, dem gwine hunt fuhr’um duh ’ood. I dunkyuh how soeb’uh fudduh de trubble dey, dem gwine fin ’um. Ef dem cyan’ see ’e track fuh trail ’um, dem gwine pit dem nose een de du’t en’ try fuh smell ’um, but dem gwine fin’um. I duh study ’pun dat wife I nyuse fuh hab, name Mary. Look how him done, w’en him hab no cajun! You yeddy ’bout me trubble, enty suh? Lemme tell you. One Sat’d’y night I gone home frum de ribbuh. I tek two duck’, bakin, flour en’ sugar en’ tea, den I pit fibe dolluh’ een Mary’ lap. Enty you know, suh, dat is big money fuh t’row een nigguh’ lap? W’en I binnuh boy en’ you t’row uh ’ooman fifty cent, ’e t’ink ’e rich, but I bin all dat week wid one cump’ny uh dese yuh rich Nyankee buckruh’ dat Mr. FitzSimmon hab yuh fuh shoot, en’ dem buckruh’ t’row me fibe dolluh bill same lukkuh dem bin dime’! W’en I t’row de money in de ’ooman’ lap, en pit de todduh t’ing wuh I fetch ’pun de flo’, Mary nebbuh crack ’e teet’. I ax ’um ’smattuh mek ’um stan ’so? ’E mek ansuh, ’nutt’n’. Nex’ day de ’ooman keep on same fashi’n. ’E nebbuh crack ’e bre’t. I quizzit ’um ’gen. I ax ’um ’smattuh ’long ’um. Him say, ‘nutt’n’. Den I say ‘berry well den.’ Monday mawnin’ I tek me gun, I call me dog en’ den I talk to de ’ooman. I say, ‘Mary, I gwine duh ribbuh, en’ I gwine come back Sat’d’y two week’. I dunnoh ’smattuh mek you stan’so, but I know suh de debble dey een you. No ’ooman ’puntop dis ribbuh hab mo’ den you, no ’ooman get so much, but I yent able fuh lib dis way ’long no ’ooman wuh ti ’up ’e mout’, en w’en I cum back las’ Sat’d’y two week’ I gwine’ tarry gate you one mo’ time, en’ I gwine ax you ’smattuh mek you stan’ so, en if oonah still een de same min ’ez now, den me nuh you paa’t.”[412]
The obstinate silence of the woman is related and the parting in silence. Then follows the attempt of the woman to appease him, her jealousy gone. His refusal. His resentment that she should have believed an idle lie. His determination that it was too late. And then the last two lines, which hold so much.
“Have you another wife Jim?”
“I had dat gal you see wid me dis mawnin’ een Mr. Fitz-Simmun’ yaa’d. Him ent wut’!”[413]
Jim Moultrie’s conceptions as to conjugality might be improved upon; but they are certainly cycles ahead of Batouala’s. It is in the sketches this book contains and in the altogether admirable “Duel in Cummings” that we find the Southern coast country Negro as he is, most observant, not lacking in a homely philosophy, and, as Thomas, the Ohio Negro, noted (altho’ utterly lacking it himself) a creature of infinite humor. Whence does he derive it? He seems to lose it to some extent as he moves out of the coast region. But he becomes more efficient. He has benefited immensely by his sojourn in America. He ought to take more interest in his race elsewhere than the cultivated members seem to. It is good for the Negroes of the United States that numbers should continue to move into the Northern and Western States. It is providing a most interesting experiment. The urban Negro dwellers of the great cities of the North and West are furnishing a most interesting illustration of that mysterious power which leads humanity to its betterment. By the Census of 1920, in the great city of New York there were 152,467 Negroes. By the estimates of the Department of Commerce for July, 1923, this had been increased to 183,248.[414] Unless the migratory movement has slowed down as that estimate is for July 1, 1923, the Negro population of New York, today must be 194,445, with that of Philadelphia at 163,248 and Chicago at 148,326. There is no urban Negro population of these figures anywhere in the Southern States. The nearest would be New Orleans where the Negro population may be 107,530. But in addition in the great cities which stretch along and thro’ the rich and populous territory between New York and Chicago up to the borders of Canada the Negro population is steadily increasing. Detroit at the very door of Canada holds a Negro population greater than that of any Southern city except New Orleans; for Baltimore is practically a Northern city now.
While the urban Negro population of the Southern States appears to be increasing it is scarcely increasing at the rate at which it is increasing in the great section of the North above described and as has been shown in not a few States of the South the Negro population as a whole is decreasing slightly; while the white population is increasing actively. But the civilization of the Southern whites has been handicapped by the weight of the Negro population which it has carried for a century and more. It should not bear any more than its fair proportion of that load and in the natural movement of the Negroes from the South up to the north central portion of the Union and to some extent into Canada, by the amalgamation of Negroes and mulattoes, a brown people affected by the civilization of these sections, differing in some degrees from the darker Negroes who will more slowly develop in the Southern States, will show in their progress what the North and West can do to improve them. With ever lessening numbers in the South, they will the better respond to their environment, which will be the better for such lessening. The result will be the advance of all to a better condition and a higher plane of thought.