“The negroes need training, but rarely remain in one place long enough to
repay one for the trouble of teaching them.”—_Brenham, Texas._
“The negroes will do well enough if one is willing to overlook
carelessness.”—_Johnston, South Carolina._
“The colored servants do not like to be kept at steady
employment.”—_Trenton, South Carolina._
“The majority work only as a make-shift, with no idea of
remaining.”—_Biloxi, Mississippi._
“The whole colored race is in a transitional period which is full of
evils.”—_Marion, Alabama._
“Negroes are very stubborn under harsh treatment, but respond quickly to
kind treatment.”—_Crescent City, Florida._
“Most of the negroes are indifferent to improving in any way as
long as they have enough to eat, a place to sleep, and clothes to
wear.”—_Tallahassee, Florida._
[286] A southern gentleman well known as a student of social science
writes in regard to the importation of negroes to the North: “There is
nothing to hope from it. I have been reared in the South, and I know the
negro well. Speaking as one with no sectional prejudice and with the
broadest sympathy for blacks as well as whites, I must tell you that in
general negroes will not serve you as well as the Irish, Germans, or
Swedes. Personal attachment alone will secure good service from colored
people.”
[287] “I must say from my own experience and observation that
well-trained Chinese are the very best servants to be had here.”—_San
Francisco, California._
“I have grown up with Chinamen in the house, and it seems to me quite
revolting and unnatural to have in the heart of the house an alien woman
who speaks your language, knows your affairs, is even in a way dependent
on your companionship, yet is nothing to you as a friend, and would never
be asked even as a guest into the house if it rested on her personal
qualities.”—_San Francisco, California._
“Our Chinese cook is an admirable servant, invariably respectful,
and does his work beautifully; he has the self-respect to fill every
requirement of respectful and obedient behavior that the occasion calls
for.”—_San Francisco, California._
“Three Chinese were the most satisfactory servants we ever employed. In
a housekeeping experience of nearly fifty years we have employed negro,
Norwegian, and Irish servants.”—_San Francisco, California._
[288] “The difficulty can only be removed by repealing the restriction
act.”—_Centerville, California_.
“The Chinese have become very independent since the new restriction
act.”—_San Francisco, California._
“The restriction act made the Chinese very independent. They thought the
stopping of the supply would make those already here able to command
higher wages.”—_San Francisco, California._
“One difficulty is the exclusion act.”—_San Francisco, California._
[289] _Co-operative Housekeeping_. The book is now out of print, but the
original articles on which it is based can be found in the _Atlantic
Monthly_, November, 1868, to March, 1869.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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