“My manager in that time was Superintendent A.E.  Buchanan.

“From this work, I was advanced to the office and stayed there twenty years.  I served under Commissioner Thomas Essex and later under Commissioner J.A.  Dean.  This service included twenty years in various departments.

“After that I billed freight for the Missouri Pacific at the Baring Cross Storerooms under Mr. H.S.  Turner for eight months or more.  Then I was transferred, because the location was not good for my health, to De Soto, Missouri, forty-five miles this side of St. Louis.  Sedentary work had proved bad for me and I needed more active work.  I waited on the master mechanic there.  After that I came back to Little Rock and worked for the Pacific Express Company under Mr. G.F.  Johnson, superintendent.  After that, I worked for the Quapaw Club[HW?] during its heyday when Johnie Boyle, Hollenberg, Acie Bragg, Will Mitchell, Mr. Cottman, Captain Shaw, and oodles of others were members.  Mr. Moorehead White was secretary.  After that I went to doing my own work.

“Now I am past my prime and I do the best I can with what little help I get from the government.  I get eight dollars a month and commodities.  Mr. Roosevelt has got guts.  Mighty few men would attempt to do what he has done.  He is the greatest humanitarian president the country has ever had.

“But I’ve got a pile of recommendations.  I’ve got recommendations from

  Thomas Essex, Land Commissioner, St. Louis, Iron Mountain,
  and Southern Railway

  W.S.  Thomas, Geologist, St. Louis, Iron Mountain, Southern

  J.H.  Harvey, General Foreman of Bridges and Building

  G.A.A.  Deane, Land Commissioner succeeding Essex, St. Louis,
  Iron Mountain, and Southern

  S.W.  Moore, General Secretary, Railway Y.M.C.A.

  Arthur B. Washburn, Superintendent, Arkansas Deaf Mute Institute

  A.C.  St. Clair, Manager of the College of Physicians and Surgeons

  (Note comment) [TR:  No additional comment found.]

You can read these for yourself, and you see what they say.  They can’t get me work now, but it’s great to know you did good work and be able to prove it.

“The same commodities they give now were given in 1870.  They had what they called the Freedman’s Bureau.  They used to have what they called the LICK SKILLET on Spring Street from Fifth to Seventh.  Leastwise, the colored people called it that.  Bush and a lots of other big niggers used to go there and get free lodgings until they were able to get along alone without help.  The niggers they call BIG NIGGERS now stayed in wagon yards when they first come here.

Former Morals

“There was a time when a low-down person, colored or white, couldn’t stay in the community.  They would give him a ticket and send him to Memphis or somewhere else.