The Portland daily press., 1867-01-16

PORTLAND.
Wednesday Morning, January l6, 1867.
An "As.rnvaiing Niguer.n

An "As.rnvaiing Niguero
Therelsnow livingin the suburbs of London
in splendid mansion not far from the CRYSTAL
Palace, man whose career is in direct CON-
| fict with the results of chronological science "a
eXpounded in the Southern States of this
Union. Ethnology has been favorite study
in that part of the world and has abundantly
proved the natural and hopeless inferiority of
the negro race. Scripture and science have
agreed in condemning the modern representa-
tive OF Ham to lie ofcheerful bondage. His
facial angle him offfrom all hope ofintellect-
ual Improvement so completely that the law re-
straining him from the use of the spelling
book seemed ludicrously needless. His thick
lips indicated a moral nature so incapable of
refinement, that the law which put his wife
and family in the keeping of another man
stood blameless upon the statue book. His
curly hair indicated constitution precisely
adapted to labor in the cotton field or the rice
swamp, and his curvilinear shins and his pro-
trusive heels served still further to distinguish
him from the human race Yet in defiance
of the laws Of science and the teachings of
the Southern pulpit, this "aggravating Niger"
pure black, with thick lips, fiat nose, curly
hair and all the condemnatory characteristics
OF his race, not only owns the house in which
he lives but five other villas OF equal preten-
si0ns; has actually been VI lighted and bears
the title of ohevalier, for which some of our
Southern friends would sacrifice everything
but their "honor'-and that too on pinch
has married a Swedish baroness too; and
withai is said to be as refined and elegant gen.
tleman as walks in Piccadilly or drives in
Hyde Park.
The perpetrator of these hideous improprie-
ties was 'raised' in Maryland, il we remember
rightly, and went to England about thirty
years ago in the capacity of body servant to
play-actor, the elder Wallack Aldridge-
that is his name-lra AlIridgc, was at that
simea "likely boy" of twenty, and worth prob
ably ten or twelve hundred dollars OF any mans |
money 1t is impossible to say what he might |
bring now in currency, if he were still a resi- |
dent of his native country, and if the meddle-
some, fighting Abolitionists hadn't upset the
patriarchal institution altogether. The nat
ural promptings ofhis nature, closely allied be |
it remembered to the monkeys, made him an
imitator OF his distinguished master. Without
instruction in the dramatic art he became by
the mere force OF observation and association
an actor himself, and came out in Othello, in
the Slave, and in several other parts for which |
white players find burnt cork an indispensable
preparatio n. Some glimmering of reason or
instinct induced him to cut his native country |
altogether and trust to luck under the "decay-
ing monarchies" and 'eiiete despotisms" of |
Europe.
Fifteen or sixteen years he spent in Eng |
land in what would be called the study of his |
art, if it were allowable to suppose in such a
creature any capacity for intellectual effort
Then, in 1852, he went upon the continent
In Austria, Germany, France, and above all
in Russia, he achieved the most wonderful
triumphs. What makes his Russian success
doubly disgusting is the circumstance that the
Caucasus, the abode of the very type of the
superior race is embraced by the wide-reach-
ing arms OF that gigantic Power. In Moscow
and st. Petersburg the students have often un-
the horses from Aldridges carriage
and drawn him themselves from the theatre
to his lodgings. One fears that ethnology is
at a low ebb in the Russian universities. Bay
ard Taylor heard him in Russia, delivering
his part in English, quite unintelligible to his
audience, but nevertheless by look, tone, ges-
ture, attitude and movement, completely en-
trancing and commanding their sympathies.
1t reminds one of the deaf mans ecstacy at
Prentices oratory:"I can't hear
blasted word he says, but good gracious, don't
he do the motions splendidp
This phenomenon rose from poverty to op-
ulence. The Chevalier Aldridge wears rings
given him by kings and queens. He could
load his breast with the decorations and med
ais of the different orders he has received
The elite of the most cultivated nations of Eu- |
rope have been charmed with what they call |
his powers-meaning intellectual powers -and
have showered their tavors upon him. This
is too absurd. Nature designed this creature
for a bootblack, ii there is any truth in ethnol-
he has made himself gentleman.-
This lamentable perversion OF his natural pow
ers oug,t to serve as a warning to all white
Americans. 1t will not do to give this race
what the stupid Radicals persist in calling "a
fir chance Unlimited reading and writing,
choice OF employment and the ballot will, we !
gravely fear, upset ethnOlogy altogether and |
give to negl oes- the status of human beings.