Q. You speak both of your own plantation and of other plantations as well as your own in that regard?  —­A.  I am speaking of the alluvial lands along the Mississippi River.

Q. In Arkansas?  —­A.  Not only in Arkansas, but in Louisiana and Mississippi; I will say the alluvial lands on the Mississippi River between Memphis and Vicksburg.

     Q. Are the negroes on those lands generally having the same
     opportunities for education that they do on your plantation? 
     —­A.  Oh, yes, sir; there is a common school system.

     Q. And it is as prevalent in Louisiana and Mississippi as
     in Arkansas? 
     —­A.  I think it is.

Q. What is the nativity of those teachers, as a rule?  —­A.  They are generally colored people from either the East or the Northwest.  There are some white teachers, but very few.

Q. Are any of the white teachers Southern in birth?  —­A.  There is not a white teacher on my own property; they are all colored teachers on my own property.  The proportion of white teachers is very small.

     Q. How much do these colored teachers themselves know? 
     —­A.  Some of them are remarkably well educated.

     Q. And generally earnestly devoted to their work? 
     —­A.  Perfectly so.

     Q. Or is it simply to get their money? 
     —­A.  No; I think some of them really have a desire to see
     their scholars advance.

Q. Some pride in their race, to have them get on, I suppose?  —­A.  I think there is a certain pride in that respect; and, again, they want to gain a reputation as teachers.

     Q. What compensation does a teacher get? 
     —­A.  I think about from $50 to $100 a month.

     Q. Do they pay their own expenses, board and shelter? 
     —­A.  Yes, sir; but board is cheap, merely nominal.

     Q. About what amount? 
     —­A.  I should say these teachers can get board for $10 a
     month.

     Q. Is the cost of clothing in your part of the country
     about the same as here? 
     —­A.  This is our market.

     Q. You buy the ready-made clothing largely for the
     population in general, I suppose? 
     —­A.  We buy both ready-made clothing and cloth to make up.

Q. I suppose the colored population hardly buy custom goods?  —­A.  A great many of them buy the cloth, and some of their women are as good tailoresses as you would find anywhere.  They buy the cloth and make it up themselves.

Q. That must bring a suit of clothes pretty cheap in a colored family; they really expend nothing but buy the cloth themselves?  —­A.  They sell very good jeans cloth there at 35 or 40 cents a yard; they generally wear jeans.

     Q. All seasons of the year? 
     —­A.  Generally in all seasons of the year.  In the summer
     time a laboring man hardly ever wears a coat at all.