A Woman's Life-Work-Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland Part 46

It is needless to speak further of the causes for emigration, so clearly set forth in the foregoing facts; but we give a late one, which in its section of country caused considerable anxiety and stir among this oppressed people. About the close of July an article appeared in the _Mercury_, edited by Colonel A. G. Horn, at Meridian, Mississippi, in which occurs the following: "We would like to engrave a prophecy on stone, to be read by generations in the future. The negroes in these States will be slaves again or cease to be. Their sole refuge from extinction will be in slavery to the white man." Do not forget, dear reader, that though ignorant, as a large majority of ex-slaves are, yet their children read these sentiments, which are more outspoken than that which characterizes Southern Democracy; yet re-enlivened treason is nevertheless the true sentiment and ruling power of many places in ex-slave States. It is so accepted by the negroes, who, to avoid extinction or slavery, seek refuge amid physical and pecuniary hardships. Indeed, this exodus from the South, is not ended--a move for freedom is not easily extinguished.

To aid the reader fully to understand the needs of these poor people in the southern portion of Kansas, I insert an appeal of a constant and self-sacrificing worker for them, Daniel Votaw, of Independence, Kansas: "It appears that the southern portion of this State is having a larger share of emigrants than any other part of it. For this reason I ask the philanthropist to send aid quickly. I believe clothing will come; but who will send money to buy bread? Most of them say, 'Just give corn-bread, and we are satisfied.' I have never seen nor heard so much grat.i.tude come from any people as flows from the hearts of these poor colored refugees. Our granaries are full, our groceries groan with the weight of provisions; but these sufferers have nothing to buy with.

My blood almost runs chill when I remember that there are two excessive luxuries used by persons who call themselves men, that would, if rightly applied, fill this crying bill of want; namely, tobacco and whisky. Come, erring brothers, to the rescue. Can you not donate these expenses to this good cause? Do it, and Heaven will bless you. Those who may send provisions, clothing, or money, will get a correct account, if a note of donor or shipper is found inside the package, to enable us to respond with a correct receipt."

I have a letter from a colored man in Mississippi, addressed to Governor John P. St. John, which he turned over to me to answer. I give an extract: "Please advise me what to do. The white men here say we have got to stay here, because we have no money to go with. We can organise with a little. Since the white people mistrust our intentions, they hardly let us have bread to eat. As soon as we can go on a cheap scale, we are getting ready to leave. Some of us are almost naked and starved. We are banding together without any instruction from you or any aid society. We are all Republicans, and hard-working men, and men of trust We have to keep our intention secret or be shot; and we are not allowed to meet. We want to leave before the matter is found out by the bulldozers. There are forty widows in our band. They are work-women and farmers also. The white men here take our wives and daughters and serve them as they please, and we are shot if we say any thing about it and if we vote any other way than their way we can not live in our State or county. We are sure to leave, or be killed. They have driven away all Northern whites and colored leaders. A little instruction from you will aid the committee greatly in our efforts in getting away.

Hoping to hear from you soon in regard to the request, we remain, Very truly yours," etc.

The foregoing from which I purposely omit the name and address of the writer is a sample of many hundreds of letters received by Governor St John. Many of them he placed in our hands to reply. But neither the governor nor our a.s.sociation could do any thing to bring these poor people to Kansas. Our sole object is to relieve them after their arrival. Consequently, it is but little encouragement we could give these sorrowing hearts as to any preparations for leaving that poisoned land. One family told us "We were compelled to lay our plans in secret, and we left our bureau and two large pitchers standing in our cabin and took a night boat." What a misnomer to call our former slave States "free!"

The cry has been, "The sooner Northern carpet-baggers leave the South, the better for them, and the sooner the n.i.g.g.e.r finds his proper place, and keeps it the better for him." The following incidents will serve as data from which we have a right to judge of the manner used to bring the colored people into what they deem their proper place. But they are becoming too intelligent to endure subjugation when they can evade it by flight.

Robert Robinson on the road between Huntsville, Alabama, and Cold Springs hired a colored man for three months, and he called at his store for his pay "All right," said Robison, "step back and we'll look over the books and pay you." After entering the room the door was locked, and Robinson placed a pistol at his head, while his brother beat him with a pine club, which disabled him from labor for three weeks. This was his pay.

Giles Lester was taken to jail, and was in the hands of Bailiff Dantey.

A mob of fifteen or twenty men took him out on Friday night, to a piece of woods, and hanged him--not so as to break his neck at once; but they were three hours in beating him to death. A white man living near by said he never heard such cries and groans of agony in all his life as during those three hours. These atrocities were committed within two years past.

During the Mississippi riot that fiercely raged during 1875-6, the object of which was to secure a solid Democratic vote at the presidential election, innocent men, without the shadow of provocation, were hauled out of their houses and shot, or hanged; and no legal notice was taken of the murderers, for they were men of property and standing. General J.R. Chalmers was a leader in one band of these rioters, and is now honored with a seat in Congress. The mob took Henry Alcorn out of his house to the woods and shot him, leaving the murdered man to be buried by his friends, who mourned over his sad fate. But there is no redress where this corrupt public sentiment takes the place of law. This band of rioters called up Charlie Green to cook for them all night at one of their places of rendezvous. At early morn, Charlie being tired, fell asleep sitting on a dry-goods box. One of the party said he wanted to try his gun before starting, and discharged its contents into Green's body, taking his life instantly!

One or two instances of Southern malignity and outrage were reported to me by one of these refugees. A woman residing near some of those whom I interviewed during my stay in Kansas, in 1879-80, was called out by the "Bourbons" or "Regulators" who were in pursuit of her husband, and questioned as to his whereabouts. Suspecting that their object was to take his life she refused to tell. Upon this a rope was placed around her neck and tied to a horse's tail, and she was thus dragged to the nearest wood and hanged to the limb of a tree until she was dead. Her husband made his escape as, best he could with his mother-less babe.

There was a plantation in Mississippi rented to six colored men, three of them with families. At Christmas they called for a settlement.

Morgan, the proprietor, brought them into his debt, and swore "every n.i.g.g.e.r had eaten his head off." He took seven hundred bushels of wheat that they had raised, and fourteen fat hogs, the corn, and even the team and wagon they brought on the place. They concluded to resort to the civil authorities, hoping to recover a portion of the avails of the season's hard work. But Morgan gained the suit. At this the colored men told him just what they thought of this wholesale robbery. Within a week after the six men were taken out of their beds in the dead of night, by a company of masked "Regulators," who stripped the bedsteads of their cords, with which they were hanged and then lashed to boards and sent floating down the Mississippi River. A white cloth was fastened over their bosoms, upon which was written: "Any one taking up these bodies to bury may expect the same fate." They were taken out of the river one hundred miles below. Two of the widows sent for the bodies of their husbands, and a number whom I conversed with attended the funeral and read the notice on the linen, which had not been removed from their persons. Surely we have a right, and it is our duty to ventilate these facts, though we may be deemed sensational. We can not be charged with political wire-pulling, as they are beyond our reach. But I ask, in the words of Elizabeth H. Chandler, who has long since gone to her rest and reward--

"Shall we behold unheeding Life's holiest feelings crushed?

When woman's heart is bleeding, Shall woman's voice be hushed?"

Is it a wonder the freedmen flee by hundreds and thousands? They are still coming into Kansas. There are many sick and dying among them. Let every man, woman, and child arise and work for the refugees, who are suffering for food, fuel, and clothing. There is great necessity for immediate and vigorous effort, in taking the place of the Good Samaritan in caring for the robbed and bruised stranger, who find many priests and Levites pa.s.sing by. During the Winter all money and supplies for Kansas refugees should be directed to Elizabeth L.

Comstock, North Topeka, Kansas.

Our work is by every possible means aiding these poor people to help themselves, which they are doing wherever work can be found. But Winter season overtaking them on the way to Kansas, and no work to be obtained, the philanthropy of our North will not withhold her liberal hand. It is a debt which we owe to this people. Comparatively few call for a.s.sistance who have been in the State a year, and most of these are aged grandparents, the sick, and widows with large families of small children.

Of those who came early in the Spring of 1879, many have raised from one hundred to four hundred bushels of corn each year, but they divide with their friends and relatives who follow them. Some raised a few acres of cotton in their first year, and they are jubilant over their future outlook. They say, "Kansas prairies will blossom as the rose, and whiten her thousands of acres with their favorite staple." One old man whose head was almost as white as the few acres of cotton he produced, said, "We'll 'stonish the nation wid thousands of snow-white acres of cotton in dis yere free Kansas, raised wid black hands." I find they are writing back to their relatives and friends in the far off South, that they can raise cotton as successfully in Kansas as in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. In this prospect the door of hope is opening before them, as if by the Almighty hand, which they accept as having led them to the "land of freedom," as they often express themselves.

They are coming in larger numbers again, notwithstanding every possible effort of planters to keep them back, and false reports from their enemies in this State that the exodus had ended, but we who are in communication with other portions of the State know to the contrary, and all who come report more to follow. These poor people who, between March, 1879, and March, 1881, have made their escape from an oppression that seems almost incredible, and have come to Kansas to live, now number more than fifty thousand, and still they come. Like a great panorama, the scenes I witnessed in this State sixteen years ago, amid clashing arms, come back to me. Suffering and dying then seemed the order of each day. True, there is a great deal of suffering and ignorance among these field hands still, but there is a marked improvement, both as to the intelligence of these ma.s.ses and their personal comfort. Are they not as intelligent as were the children of Israel when they left Egypt? They made a golden calf to worship after Moses had left them a few days. All ignorant people are p.r.o.ne to depend upon leaders instead of relying on themselves.

Joseph Fletcher, who came into Kansas July 8, 1879, I found by his papers to be an honorably discharged soldier from Mississippi. He testifies to the following facts: "I saw one hundred men killed by shooting and hanging during the two years, 1878 and 1879; and my brother was one of them; I can point to their graves to-day in the two parishes I worked in. This was in the Red River section, Mississippi.

Their crime was their persistence in voting the Republican ticket." A number of the representative men from those parishes were interviewed, and they testified to the same things A number of them had been soldiers.

Andrew J. Jackson, directly from Waterproof, Mississippi, says: "Fairfax was a smart, educated man. He owned his house and land, and gave a lot to the colored Baptist Church and mostly built it. But the bulldozers burned both house and church. He rebuilt his house. The Republicans nominated him for Senator, and the Bourbon Democrats found he would be elected. They threatened his life, and as he found snares were laid to entrap him, he made his escape to New Orleans for safety.

When, they learned as to his whereabouts, a number of men wrote for him to come back, and they would drop the matter and let the election go as it would; but he heeded neither their letters nor telegrams. One of his friends was fearful that he would heed their persuasions and went to see him, and told him not to listen to their sweet talk, for the bulldozers only wanted him back so that they might take his life. The white Democrats continued to write to him to come back and advise the colored people not to go North, and they would promise to protect him, for every body wanted him to return and none would molest him. As he did not return for all their pledges, one man, who had always appeared very friendly with him, went to see him, and told him that all who had opposed him pledged their word and honor that he should not be disturbed in the least if he would only return and persuade the colored people not to go to Kansas, as he had more influence over them than any other man. He a.s.sured him so confidently that he concluded to trust them, and returned to the bosom of his family on Sat.u.r.day; but before Monday morning he was shot dead. The heart-rending scene can better be imagined than described."

Said one intelligent man, "We can do nothing to protect the virtue of our wives and daughters." Near Greenville, Mississippi, a colored woman was pa.s.sing through a little skirt of woods, when she was attacked by two white men, who violated her person; then, to prevent exposure, they murdered her in the most savage manner. They tied her clothes over her head and hanged her by her waist to a hickory sapling, and ripped open her bowels until a babe, that would within a few weeks have occupied its place in its mother's arms, fell to the ground. Just at that juncture two colored men came in sight, and the white men dodged into the woods. This drew attention to the awful scene of the dying woman weltering in her gore. They hastened to cut her down, and just as she was breathing her last she whispered, "Tell my husband." One watched the corpse while the other went to inform the husband. This barbarous murder, which took place in April, 1879, was twice related to me in the same way by different women from the same neighborhood, who attended the funeral. As I related this to our friend, W. Armour and wife, of Kansas City, he remarked that the same incident had been told to him by some of the new arrivals. We repeat, Who can wonder at their flight?

On July 12th and 13th two boat-loads more of refugees, numbering four hundred persons, landed in lower Kansas City. I heard it again repeated, "What shall we do? Here in Topeka are two hundred poor people waiting to go somewhere to get work, and only two hundred dollars in our treasury!" What shall we send them? More than fifty men and women were then out hunting work; many found it and rented cabins. We waited for a reply from the railroad authorities, to see if they would take two hundred pa.s.sengers for that money to Colorado.

This a.s.sociation met and reached the conclusion to telegraph Mr. W.

Armour and his co-laborers, at Kansas City, to send the four hundred at that place to other points, as it was impossible to receive them in Topeka until those already there were furnished with homes, or more money should come to our aid. I returned to Kansas City, and found their hands and hearts full also, and heard the query repeated, "What are we to do for these poor people? We can not send them back, and they _must_ be fed until we hear from places to which we have telegraphed."

Favorable replies came for seventy-five families to Colorado. The colored minister, Elder Watson, was to take them away, and visited St.

Louis to request the friends in that city to send no more in this direction for the present.

A white woman called to see some of these poor people, and brought chicken broth for a very sick man. She said she was born in Virginia, raised in Georgia, where she had taught school, and also taught in Mississippi and Alabama. Because she contended for the rights of the colored people, as they were free, she was ostracised and compelled to leave the South. Said she, "I have seen them hung and shot like dogs.

They can not tell you the half of what they suffer. I know it, for I have seen it."

While I was still visiting among these people, the steamer _Fannie Lewis_ landed with one hundred and four more refugees from Mississippi.

Here they had nothing for their covering except the open sky. We feared that, unless other States should rally to the rescue, nothing but suffering and death would be before them. Kansas had domiciled about what she could for the present, unless further aid should be given from without. This State had hardly recovered from the sweeping devastation of war when drought swept over her rich prairies, and scarcely had she recovered from that drawback when the gra.s.shoppers came and desolated her again. Then the Macedonian cry, "Come over and help us," was heard and answered. Again we raise this cry in behalf of this oppressed people, and it will meet a generous response.

When forty thousand dependents were thrown into young Kansas by Price's raid through Missouri, followed by Colonels James Lane and Jennison, I received from General Curtis the report that twenty thousand poor whites and as many freedmen were here to be cared for by government and the benevolence of the North. At that time of sore need Michigan placed in my hands two thousand six hundred dollars in money, and from seven thousand to eight thousand dollars in supplies to relieve the perishing and dying of that day. The lesson is not forgotten, that it is more blessed to give than to receive. He alone who knows the end from the beginning can tell the future of our country, and of the five million of its inhabitants of African descent. Yet eternal right must and will triumph. The debt our nation owes to the ex-slave should be paid. The hundred thousand colored soldiers who fought as bravely to save our nation's life as did their paler-faced brethren, and faced the cannon's mouth as fearlessly for the prize above all price--_liberty_--are worthy of consideration. They were ever true to our soldiers. Many of our prisoners escaping from rebel dungeons were piloted by them into our lines. Many black "aunties" took their last chicken and made broth for our sick Union soldiers, as did the one I met in Natchez, Mississippi. She had been free a number of years, and had her yard full of geese, ducks, and chickens; but all went for Union soldiers. She was a n.o.ble Christian woman. She said, "I feels so sorry for a sick soldier, so far from their home. I feels happy for all I kin do for 'em. I knows Jesus pay me." Another colored woman whom I met at Gloucester Courthouse, in Virginia, did the same.

An ex-soldier wrote in a note, found in a box of valuable clothing sent to the refugees in Kansas: "I send this as a small token of the grat.i.tude I owe to the colored people for saving my life when I was sick and escaping from a loathsome rebel prison. They took care of me and conducted me safely to our Union camp. This goes with a prayer that G.o.d will bless that suffering people."

We have the testimony of many witnesses. Among them is J. C. Hartzell, D. D., of New Orleans, editor of the _Southwestern Christian Advocate_.

He says, "The cruelties endured by the colored people of the South can not be _overdrawn_." He knew of a number of families that took homesteads on government lands and were doing well for themselves, but masked "Bourbons" went in a company and drove them off, telling them they "had no business with homes of their own. The plantation was their place, and there they should go." One man undertook to defend himself and family with his gun, but receiving a serious wound from one of the Bourbons, he hid from his pursuers. One of his white friends heard of what had befallen him, and took him to New Orleans for safety, as he knew him to be an industrious and peaceable man. Here he employed a skillful surgeon to treat him. Our informant saw the bullet taken from his body, and thought his life could be saved. But he is sure to lose it if he returns to his own home. Rev. J. C. Hartzell said he had received letters from various places all over the South, written by intelligent colored ministers, that their Churches were closed against them until after election. The same thing was told me by many of those I interviewed.

The Bourbons said their meetings were the hot-beds of emigration and Republicanism. In some places they were forbidden to meet in their private houses for prayer-meetings, as their enemies said they met to make plans to go to Kansas. Is there no guarantee for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? What a state of society is this for a free country? Our first duty as a government is protection. But if it is too weak for that, the second duty is to welcome the fleeing refugee and point him to work, or to the thousands of acres of good government land, and help him where he needs help to keep body and soul together during the few months it may require to make himself self-sustaining.

From Daniel Votaw's report from Independence, Kansas, I extract the following: "Thomas Bell, of Dallas County, Texas, was hanged about October 5th for attempting to go with his family and a few neighbors to Kansas. Blood and rapine mark the fugitive. After supper, from meal furnished them for this purpose, they gave us a history of their trials in Texas, which was truly sorrowful; and with the notes, mortgages, and credits given--to the whole amount, two thousand five hundred dollars--for their farms, they were compelled to leave and flee for their lives, as David did before Saul."

Shot-gun rule still continued. Philip Fauber, recently from near Baton Kouge, Louisiana, testifies as follows: "I rented land of Bragg and James McNealy, and was to have one-third of the crop and furnish team and seed. I took three bales of cotton to the weigher, who read my contract, and set aside one bale for me. But the McNealys claimed the three bales, and I referred the matter to the Justice of the Peace, who, after reading the contract, sanctioned the decision of the weigher. But the McNealys brought another officer, who asked to see the contract I handed him the paper, which he read and tore up and threw away, and McNealy took possession of the last bale of cotton, which I told them was my only dependence for my family's support for the Winter. On my way home through a little woods I received the contents of a shot-gun in my face, both eyes being put out. In great distress I felt my way home. The doctor took a number of shot out of my face, but he couldn't put my eyes back. I can now do nothing but depend upon others to feed and clothe me till G.o.d takes me from this dark world to that glorious world of light and peace. The old man, McNealy denied shooting me, but he never said he did not know who did. But he and his two sons died within a few months after I was shot In the last sickness of Bragg McNealy he sent for me to tell me for the last time that he did not shoot me. Still he would not tell who did." The industrious wife of this poor man whose face is speckled with shot scars, is anxious to get four or five acres of land to work herself, and support herself and blind husband.

A. A. Lacy, an intelligent colored man from New Orleans, who came to us indorsed by a number of others from the same city, testifies to the facts related by him as follows: "May 5, 1880, I called at the custom-house to report for duty to General A. S. Badger, collector of customs, by whom I had been employed. He directed me to Captain L. E.

Salles, the chief weigher, to whom I had reported a number of days, but failed to get work, and as I failed this time I asked if I had better continue calling for work. He replied, 'You had better call again.' As I was pa.s.sing out of the door his partner, Michael Walsh, came to me (in a gruff, commanding tone), 'What is that you say, Lacy?' 'Nothing to you,' I replied; 'I was speaking to Captain Salles.' At this he gave a stab, and as I turned to see what he was. .h.i.tting me for, he added two stabs more with cursing. As I was going down the steps I felt the warm blood running down my side, not yet realizing that I had been cut. I opened my vest and saw the flowing blood. I stepped into Mr.

Blanchard's office, the a.s.sistant weigher, who was a Republican, and showed him my side, with clothes saturated with blood. He was so shocked and excited that he was taken ill and died in just two weeks.

He advised me to enter a complaint against Michael Walsh, which I did, and he was placed in jail in default of thousand dollar bond. I was sent to the hospital. As there were many friends and reporters calling on me, the surgeon forbade callers except immediate attendants and my wife. He said the deepest wound reached the left lung, and an eighth of an inch deeper would have produced instant death. On the tenth day I was allowed to be removed to my home, and p.r.o.nounced to be convalescent. Michael Walsh was released from prison with no other mark of displeasure resting upon him for this attempt at murder than a few days' imprisonment. As soon as I was able to walk about I took a boat with friends whose lives had been threatened for Kansas, where we arrived July 15, 1880. I am only able to light work, for which I am thankful. Yet it seems hard to lose all this time from the a.s.sa.s.sin's stab in a custom-house that belongs to the government I fought two years to sustain."

Uncle Peter c.o.x, an aged man of eighty-eight years, has a wen on the back of his neck, running between his shoulders, larger than a two-quart bowl, that has been over thirty years coming. It was caused by heavy lifting and continued hard work during his slave-life. He came to Topeka, Kansas, in July, 1880, with his aged wife and deaf and dumb grandson of eighteen years. His advanced age and deformity induced me to inquire more closely into the cause of leaving his State (Louisiana). After giving the sad history of his slave-life--the common lot of that cla.s.s of goods and chattels--he said: "Missus I stay'd thar as long as I could, when I seed my brodder in de Lo'd hangin' on a tree not more'n a hundred rods from my house, near Baton Rouge. A sistah was hanged five miles off, on de plank road, in West Baton Rouge, in a little woods. Her sistah followed her beggin' for her life, and tole de bulldosers she couldn't tell whar her husban' was that da's gwine to hang. But da swore she should hang if she didn't tell." Giving his head a shake, while tears dropped thick and fast down the deeply furrowed cheeks, he continued: "O, Missus, I couldn't live thar no longer. I's so distressed day an' night. De chief captain of dis ban' of murder's was Henry Castle, who wid his ban' of men was supported by Mr. Garrett, Mr. Fisher, an' Mr. Washington, who were merchants in Baton Rouge."

But that poor grandfather's heart was filled with grief to overflowing when the faithful grandson was walking alone in the railroad track, and was run over by the cars and instantly killed. Although the warning whistle was given the poor deaf boy heard it not. As he was all the aged pair had to depend upon for their living, it was to them a heavy stroke. No one can look over these testimonies without exclaiming, with David, "Is there not a cause" for the flight of this persecuted people?

We find many among them, like Lazarus, begging for the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table; but let us not allow them to die in this land of plenty.

Yet, through all these dark clouds, we perceive the silver linings. The heaven-born cause of temperance is gaining a foothold in our Southern States. A crusade against the liquor-traffic commenced in Ohio, and has swept over Michigan and other neighboring States, and is still going on conquering and to conquer.

CHAPTER XIX.

PROSPECTS OF THE FREEDMEN.

Our last chapter contains the dark side of our picture. In this we present the brighter prospects for a long and sorely oppressed race. We first note what has been and is being done for the fifty thousand who have emigrated to Kansas As I have been a co-laborer with Elizabeth L.

Comstock more than two years in rescuing the perishing in their new homes, I speak from personal knowledge.

During the first Winter--1879-80--as mild as it was, more than one hundred refugees were found with frozen feet fingers. Five were frozen to death coming through the Indian Territory with their teams. Through faithful agents, with supplies forwarded from other States, and even from friends in England in response to appeals sent out by Elizabeth L.

Comstock, very many sufferers were relieved. The goods from England were forwarded mostly by James Clark, of Street. Over seventy thousand dollars' worth of supplies have pa.s.sed through my hands for the relief of the refugees between September, 1879, when I commenced working for them, and March, 1881 Thirteen thousand dollars of this amount came from England, having been sent by Friends or Quakers Besides money, we received new goods, as follows,

Warm, new blankets, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000 New garments for women and girls, . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,000 New garments for men and boys, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000 New garments for babies and small children, . . . . . . . 5,000 New knitted socks and hose, five hundred dozen pairs, . . 6,000 Large quant.i.ty of sheets, pillow-cases, bed-quilts, towels etc, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000 Queensware--Six large crates, one hundred and nineteen dozen plates in each, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,568 Cups and saucers, nearly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,000 Bowls and mugs, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,000 Platters, pitchers, and chamber wares, . . . . . . . . . . 3,500 Scissors, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,000 Sets of knives and forks, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,000 Spoons, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,000 Needles, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,000 Knitting needles, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,500 Rags, with sewing materials, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,500 Papers of pins, six hundred and fifty dozen, and tape, 350, 1,000 Tin-cups and basins, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,000 Bed-ticks, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500 Wash-dishes and pans, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000 Woolen dresses for women and girls, valued at . . . . . . $1,680 New overcoats for men and boys, valued at . . . . . . . . $650 Three whole bolts of Welch flannel (seventy-two yards each) $150 Two bolts heavy broadcloth, for overcoats, valued at . . . $144 Women's cloaks and shawls, valued at . . . . . . . . . . . $2,250 New red flannel, valued at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $150 Muslins, valued at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $150 Gray flannel and three hundred pairs mittens, valued at . $500 b.u.t.tons, hooks and eyes, cotton thread, silk, etc., . . . $500 New pieces goods, chiefly cotton, valued at . . . . . . . $5,000

Over ninety thousand dollars in money and supplies were distributed by the Kansas Relief a.s.sociation, until it was disbanded in May, 1881, and its head-quarters removed to Southern Kansas, where thousands of these Southern emigrants are congregated. That locality is more favorable to cotton raising. Many of the refugees know but little of other business; hence the necessity for an agricultural, industrial, and educational inst.i.tute, of which Elizabeth L. Comstock is the founder. At the present date (August, 1881) eight thousand dollars are invested. This includes the Homestead Fund. To meet the crying need of this people she, in connection with her daughter, Caroline DeGreen, are untiring in their efforts to establish a permanent or systematized work. They have established this much needed inst.i.tution on four hundred acres of good land, which is tilled by colored people, who receive pay for their work in provision, clothing, or money until they can purchase cheap land for their own homes.