Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-10-16

The Negro in Europe COlOred
,s People at Breakfast In Paris
ian IIOtels-NegrOrs In the Draw
ing Rooms of England-" Mig
ger" Taken for the Correct
Spelling.
A foreign correspondent of the Anti-
Slavery Standard says:
1t is travellers fashion to record his first
impressions of country. Americans drift
into this office, from time to time, with a
curious assortment of opinions. One gen.
,tleman had been struck with the scarcity
of ice. Another found his attention occu-
pied with the difference in the manage
ment of railways. Mr.. Wells writes to the
Times that the civility with which Ameri-
cans are treated personally seems to him q
remarkable thing. Perhaps an Aboift1on-
ist would generalize Mr.. Wells statement,
and be most struck to find that on this side
of the Atlantic the word American is not
limited to white citizens of the United
States. Last year, when l first crossed
over to Paris, / went, American fash.
ion, to the Grand Hotel, the largest and
most splendid hotel in Europe. G ing
down to breakfast the Very first person on
whom my eyes fell were two unmistakable
mulattoes, seated comfortably in the res
taurant of the hotel. The room was filled
with whites, but neither blacks nor
was merely no objection t the presence of
the blacks, but there was nobody that SEEM
ed to be aware of two colors in the room
The remarkable thing about it was that it
did not strike anybody as remarkable. A
party of ele2 antly dressed whites sat at the
two adjoining tables. They were not watt
ed upon with any more civility or atten-
tion than their mllattO neighb0rs, and l
don't think it would have occurred to any
OF them to feel annoyed or insulted by the
presence of the blacks. l do not know
whether these same respectable mulatto es
would have been, or could now be, received
in the Fifth Avenue Hotel of New York.
/ am sure that if they were they would
have attracted notice, and perhaps insult.
Paris is so far ahead of New York in re-
cOgnizing the rights of humanity, her
great hotel does not know the color of
mans face. He may be yellow or black,
provided he is decently dressed and
has money enough to pay his bill
which, 1 may remark in passing, is sure
to be large enough to be a test of one sort
of respectability. 1t is very we'll to go to
the Grand hotel for day, as one would go
t. any other costly spectacle of Paris. Af-
ter that the wise traveller, though he be as
thirty or fifty other hotels in Paris, at
which he may have more comfort for very
much less money.
London is not behind Paris in its indi fer
ence to color. The Duchess OF Sutherlaud's
saloons are famous in London as admitting
both races of our couhtrymeD. Others less
famous are just as liberal. have met ne
groes four or five times at dinners and
parties in private houses. / should be just
as likely to meet them if went not to Rad
ical but to Tory dinners, or at least the ne
gro, if shut out, would not be shut out for
his color; his politics might exclude him,
for society has opinions and sticks to them
Tories and Liberals meet at the same houses,
but the tone of society at almost any place
is strongly on one side or the other. ]
must not write about private matters, yet
/ think may mention the one fact which
shows moro strongly than any other
/ know. that an American may outgrow
here his American prejudice about color
Imet Sella Martin and his wife at Mr.. Ad-
ans on the evening of last Fourth of July
Let us hope Mr.. johnson will not recall
his Minister on this account. Mr.. Adams
rooms were filled that night with Ameri-
cans almost exclusively. IT anybody fell
himself outraged by the presence of Mr.
and Mrs. Martin, the feeling was kept un-
der control. But it is necessary to make
one qualification in speaking of the civili-
ty of London to people or color, and that il
the use of that offensive corruption of the
word negro, which in America was charac-
teristic of shareholders, and of the north
ern tools of Shareholders. In Americs
you might almost tell n mans politics by
observing whether he said "negro" OF
"nigger." There is also conviction In
the North that the latter Is a vulgarism o
the coarsest kind, and Mr.. Seward express
ell something of this kind when ne said
.terriug to Douglas, of Illinois, that M
m IN could be President of the United States
WHO spelled negro with two g's. But herr
tn two g's are almost matter of course il
the newspapers. You might expect tn,
word in such journals as the Saturday Re
uie,o which takes pretty much the Carlyl,
view of the negro, but you will find it al
most as frequently in the Spectator. III,
odd thing in both cases is that it seems t.
be considered a perfectly correct word
quite as good English and quite as inoffen
sive as negro" In conversation it is les!
common. -s..,.-