Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-04-20

y
concerning the negrO-the Ot-housC
argument to be thrown at every maT
who might speak, no matter how de
Gently or moderately, of the rights o.
the black man. 1t is time that thi,
humbug was exploded, and that there
was one less, at least, of those coarse
and unmeaning platitudes by which
the public is asked by demagOgues tC
make up its mind on the negro ques
tion-really one of the most intricate
and thoughtful questions of Om
times.
The negro in the South does not
want social equality; he has really nc
! aspirations of that kind: and indeed
the more intelligent of the blacks
deprecate the agitation of such de
mand, as calculated to excite and in
flame prejudices against their race,
without the possibility of any COM
mensurate good. Some time ago a
proposition was made in the Alabama
| Legislature to enforce the admission
of negroes into theaters, opera houses
and hotels, and a negro member OF
that Legislature was the first to get
up to oppose it, as prejudicial to the
true interests of his race, and rs only
productive of hurtful discussions in
which there could he no profit. a
careful observation will show that any
movement for social equality of the
negro in the South has been prompted
by Northern emissaries, who have
put the black man up to it, or has
been inspired by pOliticians-that no
such movement has been made natur-
ally and generally by the colOred peo-
pie of the South. The writer has
Travelled in the South every year since
the war, and he has to say emphati-
cally that he has never yet seen a
negro attempting an intrusion into
any place-theater hotel or railway
car-where the distinction of society
have excluded him unless in some few
instances where insOlence of this sort
has been essayed by some black mis-
sionary from the North, or has been
distinctly procured by the advice and
instigation of white people. The
negro naturally retires from any such
experiment. So far from preferring a
claim to social equality, be, in his
habitual intercourse with the while
people of the South, Is deferential,
sometimes even to the degree of a
painful submission and compliance;
for that deferance-a point of good
manners with the black man-instead
of always obtaining credit for him, is
sometimes practiced upon by brutal
white persons, his interiors in man.
ners, to affect q command and mas
terry over him not unlike that in form
er days of slavery. The negro is nat
urally polite; every white gentleman
in the South is prompt to respond to
him and to repay heartily his respects;
and if there is any fault it is that his
yielding manners and obsequiousness
are carried too far, and sometimes
make him the subject of imposition
by a low and unmannerly class of
whites.
The writer was, some time ago,
travelling on the Virginia aud Ten
nessee Railway, and, smoking being
excluded from all the cars but thai
known as "the negro car" he passed
into the latter to enjoy a cigar. There
were some black people already seated
in it, and also some two or three white
men who were smoking. The car
was not full, and he reversed one of
the seats that he might stretch his
legs, thus occupying two of the sofas,
after the common fashion of travellers
when there Isl surplus Of seats at their
disposal. After passing several sta
tiOns the car became crowded with
negro passengers, who, in turn, took
the single seats, until at last a black
man and woman were left standing in
the aisle, there being no seats to offer
them, while the white persons in the
car yet occupied from two to four seats
each. The poor creatures never |
thought of asking for seats which |
really belonged to them; they stood !
up very humbly and said nothing
The train had gone but little way |
when il occurred to the writer that he |
was not acting the gentleman or doing
as his self respect required. He had /
no right to single seat in the car; il /
was allotted to colored people; he was
IN intruder. and doing q selfish and
mean thing in retaining seats beyond
MS needs, even if they had not been
lsked for. So he walked along the
isle to the two negroes, touched the
lrm of the man and offered him one
If his sofas. The white men, who
we're smoking in the car sneered at
lin, and it could readily be seen that
heir lips formed the whisper of I'D
fankeep They had mistaken him
but their whispered COM
nentaries of contempt did not as
much affiict him as the smell of bad
Whisky which they emitted in the
warmth of their feelings. After fin
shing his cigar, the writer retired in
D the next car. He had been seated
ere but a few moments when the
egrO to whom he had shown but a
nipple act of pOliteness came, holding
4 his hands two large, glistening pip {
ins, which the poor fellow had pur-
hased by the wayside, and said in a !
nipple, deprecating way that was
ute touching, "Mister Gentleman,
ont you please 'cept these ," All the ;
,ols in the world may think as they I
lease, but the writer was never more l
ltisfied with an act of civility than '
lat he had done to negro; and his E
neck flushed as he answered the
Dor black with as cordial and re,
,ectful ''Thank yOuln as he ever :
ave to the prOudest white man in
lie land. Z
The negro is sambitiOus-much more :
than a distant or superficial regard =
him would lead one to suppose; but :,
s ambition does not run III the line .
social equality, nor yet even i'm :,
at of political preferment. From a =,
Dse study of the temper of the color ),
people of the South, am fully per- II
AIDED of one curious thing-that IL
cir uneasiness is not so much from h
desire Of social place or political in :.
lence in the community las witness :,
evidence of the latter their compar- n
We small ambition for Office as it is q,
be respected in their new estate. n
low that there are newspapers which 81
? constantly deriding their race IL
10 have no other name for it but III
or eolOred cuss :" report o.
, who are always glad to barb 81
lice item with such epIthets, who or
Ike caricatures of their speeches, ~
d who throw ridicule upon every he
ort they make in public. But a ~
v months ago l noticed with pain III
d shame that when one of this un- =,
tunate race was hung in Rich n,
md, Va, the few untutored words n,
put up on the scaff0ld to the Sa- ~
II of all maukind-wOrds to which K,
who sat on the circle of that day n
/ held the winds in His hands de- :,
led to incline the ear-weTe cariea- an
ed and sat down in the usual glib rio
ish of the funny photographers of nle
} newspapers. Such an example mr
humor is hideous enough. But IN,
N in their lighter aspects these de ex,
ons of the negro race do harm ON,
Sc rannCfAr, raunFatpNnNfs nnh