"It comes 'bout by his wife, who was one a-the finest girls in this burg when he married her. So yu'n see, when he pr'ceeds t' git drunk, 'n' drunk right, understand, 'n' then gets t' squabblin' wi' some other no count nigga, 'n' gets run in, who's affected?" The other winced. "It's the same wi' dozens of the others. I'd let them stay in there 'n' rot, so fo' 's they is concerned; but t' me comes a cry'n wife, 'n' a-string-a hongry kids, so I goes 'n' bails the devil out." He paused a moment now to breathe a spell. "'Cassionally," he resumed, "I c'n, with some 'nfluence I have with the judge, get some out without payin' a fine; but th' lawyer must have his, anyhow, 'n' a nigga, 's I done already said, would'n' pay the Lo'd Jesus when he's out; but promises to bring eve' dime he makes t' you when he's in. "So, the're my bu'den, come day, go day. Over theah, fo' 'nuther instance, stands a nigga--see him? The one that's so drunk 'n' noisy? I got him out las' week, when he had received two hund'd days on th' gang, 'n' t'day I got his brother out who was locked up Friday." "Why can they not keep out of so much trouble?" said Wyeth seriously. "Whiskey. The minute they get the' pay, the first thing they wants is whiskey, 'n' then a crap game." "And women," said Wyeth. "Yes," said the other; "but they won't spend any money on them; no, that would in one sense, be too much like right." "What per cent of them, do you think, who, after giving their word as a bond, would stand to it, a promise, you understand?" "I'm 'shame t' admit it, I'm 'shame t' admit it; but, honestly, I wouldn't estimate that more than two out of ten could be trusted to keep their word, other than t' buy a pint a whiskey, or shoot dice until they did'n' have a dime." "What effect is the white man's prejudice having upon him directly?" Wyeth inquired. "None! None! In the days of old, and even yet, the white man's prejudice was very hindersome; but, as time has wore on, and the races have come to expect each other as they know they will be, the prejudice of the white man is not near so hindersome as some a ouh people would have you b'lieve it. Of co'se," he added thoughtfully, "politic's is in a way denied him; but a great many more can vote than they do if they would pay the' poll taxes. All in all, you'll find so much ignorance, and ignorance by preference among them, and their minds are so polluted with the devil, until politic's as they are now, would not make much difference. I sometimes shudder when I look around me and listen, to conclude what the race is sometime coming to." "You have a large number of churches, a hundred odd, I think. That should act as a great feature toward the moral evolution."