of the country, as exists right here in New York, or anywhere else, a set of people who will always prey upon ignorance.  The best protection that can be afforded to the laborer of that country is education; fit him for his condition of life, that he may protect himself.

     Q. Do you mean to be understood that these traders do
     business upon borrowed capital? 
     —­A.  Almost entirely.

     Q. Their capital is hired in New Orleans? 
     —­A.  Or any points they may go for it; I merely mention New
     Orleans as one point.  A number of our people borrow money in
     Memphis, and some borrow money in Vicksburg.

Q. Do you know whether those people to any extent borrow capital of Northern capitalists in New York and other portions of the North —­A.  That class of people do not.  In the last few years—­I might say almost within the last two years—­Northern capital has begun to seek investment in our section of the country, but only upon mortgages on real estate.  The class of storekeepers I allude to generally have no real estate at all; they only have their stores.

Q. Your system by which the planter makes a market for the surplus productions of the laborers upon his plantation dispenses with a middleman, and enables the laborer to make a saving, whereas, if he goes to the hills he makes a loss?  —­A.  Yes, sir.  I will put it more definitely:  As long as he is under the guidance and care of the proprietor of the plantation he prospers, the planter, as we express it in that country, “loaning him our aid”; we make it very expressive to the negro, we loan him our aid, that is, he must follow our advice, and he has learned to do that, and by doing that he accumulates; but when thrown upon his own resources—­there are individual exceptions, of course, where a good many negroes prosper themselves when thrown upon their own resources in Arkansas—­but as a general fact, where he leaves the guidance and care of the proprietor of a plantation and subjects himself just as any one else does to the common trading with storekeepers, in a very few years he loses what he has accumulated.

Q. Under these favorable circumstances which surround the laborer on the plantation one would think he ought to accumulate; but I understand you that as a rule he is rather improvident and fails to accumulate.  To what do you attribute that improvidence on the part of the negro laborer?  —­A.  It is simply from the want of a proper appreciation of the opportunities of advancement from his condition.  The negroes are just beginning, as I expressed it, to realize the responsibilities of life, and just as they begin to realize the responsibilities of life here, they begin to prosper.  The prosperity of the South has only begun in the last few years, and it has begun to increase just as the race issue has ceased.  I will demonstrate that to you by a little paragraph I cut out of the New