s
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.

Q. What do you think an average colored Southern laborer
expends per annum for his clothing, say the head of the
family, the man--what does it cost him for clothing a year?
--A. I cannot give you a definite answer. I will only say
that we who are the producers of cotton are very glad to see
them get in a prosperous condition in order that there may
be more consumption, and when a man is prosperous he will
buy two suits of clothes, where if he is not prosperous he
will make one do.

Q. We have had a good deal of testimony as to what it
actually costs a Northern laborer a year for clothing. I
have no desire to show that any laborers dress cheaply or
poorly; I merely want to get an idea of the relative cost of
the laboring man living North or South, in the item of
clothing?
--A. I can sell and do sell a man a pair of jeans pants and
a coat from $7 to $12 per suit.

Q. How many suits will he want in a year?
--A. That will depend on his condition and his ability to
pay me. If he is a prosperous man and beginning to
accumulate he will make one do. Whenever a negro begins to
accumulate he goes to extremes; he does not want to buy
anything; he wants to accumulate rapidly. Where a man is not
doing so well, and there is little doubt of his ability to
pay, he would probably want several suits; but I would
confine him to one or two.

Q. The same is true, I suppose, of his wife and children?
--A. Yes, sir.

Q. But you look on the matter of clothing as a much less
expensive item in the laborer's account in your country than
here in the North where the climate is colder, I suppose?
--A. Yes, sir. What absorbs the profit of the laborers with
us is their want of providence; that is, if they get surplus
money they throw it away for useless articles.

Q. It has been suggested that a postal savings bank might
be a good thing as a place of deposit of the savings of the
colored population of the South; they might feel some
confidence in an institution of that kind, and that it would
be a beneficial thing to them. What is your own judgment?