"I do solemnly swear that I am twenty one years old and that I will have resided in the state two years and (this) election district for one year preceding the ensuing election, and am now in good faith a resident of the same, and that I am not disqualified from voting by reason of having been convicted of any of the crimes mentioned in the constitution of this state as a disqualification to be an elector, that I will truly answer _all questions propounded to me concerning my antecedents so far as they relate to my right to vote_ and also as to _my residence before my citizenship in this district_, that I will support the constitution of the United States and of the state of Mississippi and will bear true faith and allegiance to the same--so help me God. Any willful and corrupt false statement in said affidavit or in answer to any material question propounded as herein authorized shall be perjury." In the foregoing provisions attention is called to the following: (1) The crimes mentioned as disqualifying from voting are such as it is always easy, when desirable, to convict the Negro of committing. Under the present method of administering justice in the states where these disfranchising constitutions operate, the Negro has neither any guarantee of a fair and impartial trial nor any protection against malicious prosecution or false accusations when it is convenient to convict him. (2) The penalty for not paying taxes almost a year before election day is a disqualification from voting. But this of course is not the sole penalty. Whether he is a qualified elector or not, every man must in the case of real property pay his taxes, or suffer the loss of his property, and certainly no man, not even the poorest of the Negroes and poor whites, can escape the obligation of the poll tax by a mere forfeiture of his right to vote.[11] Thus the penalty for not paying taxes is twofold in so far as the Negro is concerned. The poor white man may or may not experience any difficulty about producing "to the officer holding the election satisfactory evidence that he has paid his taxes." (3) The Negro who may desire to vote must answer under oath not certain specific interrogatories concerning his antecedents and former places of residence, but to "truly answer all questions propounded" to him, with the understanding that the slightest mistake will be construed as a corrupt and willful false statement exposing him to prosecution for perjury, thus rendering him everlastingly disqualified to vote. When, under the foregoing provision the white male inhabitants of the state became qualified electors, the following provision, being section 244 of article 12 of the constitution of Mississippi, went into operation: