Wilmington daily gazette., 1874-02-25
The Negroes crowd the Co gression
al CaIieries and the Washincton
CtYeat Cars.

Ihe New York Tunes publishes letter
for Miss Grace Greenwood, from which we
take the following extracts. 1t will he seen
that the white people OF Washington have
very little regard shown them, aud that the
negroes monopoliae, nearly the whole OF
the attention of the powers that be-
This Radical lady says: There Is a
question which somebody ought to consider
and act upon, and that somebody should be
the Senate or the House of Representatives.
Ii il. shall men and boys, however well
c>ored. but ragged to tho point OF indecon-
cy, and dirty TO absolute filtbiness, continue
to euoy the freedom of the galleries Tney
now make them lounglng and resting
places. Some OF these hibitnes are famous
seepers. Even when the rights and privi-
leges, and wrongs and disabilities, of their
own race are under discu asion. somnolen.
cy overcomes them, and they sleep not
wisely, but too we'll Senators have told
me that through all their night sessions
they are encom pa sei about by this dark
cloud of ohliviouS witnesses, who soma
times spend the entire night, especially If
the weather be cold or stormy, luxuriaiing
III the warmth and comfort OF the summer
like air and soft cushioned seats of the gal
lery. Now,ihe question Is, should the Cnited
States Senate Chamber be used as a station
house for vagrants, however meritorious,
and tatterdemalions, however patriotic :?
Colored women, having more lively sense
OF propriety, and not having The franchise
seldom visit the Capitol, except in their
Sunday best, and they generally manage to
have Sunday best yet l saw the other
day, in the ladies gallery OF the Senate,
couple OF elderly colored laundresses, who
evidently did not do their own washing,
neither did they put it OUT
Next comes an Outburst of sentimentali5m
as to the wrongs OF premeval slavery and an
ascripton of all these rags and filth to the
Southern aristocrats of the past and then we
read
Into our street cars, especially those on the
avenue, come men and boys whom it is not only
disagreeabe but positively perilous to sit by,
animated masses of rags, giving cut foul and
sickening odors. The street car, it's true, sis
the poor man carriage" but iti5extravagance it is
in the poor man to use it, when he can as well
walk. How men ragged as Neapolitan laZza-
roni can afford frequent indulgences of the kind
is to me profound and battling mystery. l
have known great hu!ting, lazy boys, with
rags fiutterining every wind like signals of dis
tress take street car for lift of three or four
blocks. Colored youths of this sort show
manly jealousy of their rights under the Fiji
teenth Amendment, and seldom are known to
offer a seat to a woman whether she be delii-
cate white girl, or feeble old colored 'aunty."
They are almost as uncivil as New \ ork mer-
chants, lawyers and editors l hope l need
not say / am glad that colored people can ride
in the cars. But it does seem to me they are
OVERRIDING the thing in this city. We hardly
have fair chance they have so taken posses
sion of that popular vehicle that we think of
petitioning the muniiccent and magnlfc cent
corporation of the Georgetown and Navy
yard Street Railway TO furnish a set of new
and elegant cars, and put new straw in them,
and colored conductors on them, and set them
apart for onr colored citizens, leaving to us
the present old dilapidated concers, unchanged
except that they shall be plainly lettered,
"Hh.ts people a.!9t9sd to Ttas IN these cIrs