Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1874-02-27

OF lie. llllO our SlTecJ cars, eSpcCldl-
/ ly those Oh the avenue, come men and
boys whom it is not disagreeable but
positively perilous to sit by-animated
masses of rags, giving out fowl and
sickening odors. The street car, it's
true, sis the poor mans carriage" but
it is extravaganza in the poor man to
use it when he can as we'll walk. How
men ragged as Neapolitan lazzaroni
can afford frequent indulgence of the
kind is to me a profound and battling
mystery. have known great hulking,
lazy boys, with rags fluttering in every
wind, like signals of distress, take a
street car for lift of three or four
blocks. Colored youths of this sort
show manly jealousy of their rights
under the fifteenth amendment, and
seldom are known to offer Il seat to a
woman, whether she be delicate white
girl or a feeble old colored "aunty."
They are almost as unciyil as New
York merchants, lawyers and editors.
| hope | need not say | am glad that
colored people can ride in the cars,
but 1t does seem to me they are over
doing the thing in this city. We hard
ly have a fair chance; they have so
taken possession of that popular vehi
Gle that We think of petitioning the
Imuniticent and magnificent corpora
ton 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 oar col
ored citizens, leaving to us the present
old dIlapidated concerns, unchanged,
except that they shall be plainly let
tered. 'Wh people allowed to ride
in these cars
To be serious and not invidious, it
seems To me that for the honor and
safety of the community, regulations
should be established excluding all
persons indeccntly ragged or offensive
ly dirty not only from the galleries of
the Capitol bat from the public con-
vcyances cf the city. aud that these
regulations should be rigidly enforced
without regard To age. sex, color or
previous condition of scrvitude.
Since winter weather and lack of
funds have suspended operations of
the Board of Public Works. many poor
.colored men are quite out of employ
ment. How do they live. Do the
ravens feed them; and vino are the ra-
vens: They are not riotous or disqui-
eted. They seem rather to enjoy their
leisure in hanging about the City Hall,
s-ai .-a--s:4--1 L. Ez. -.ars nr the
District Government. Any pointWhcre
voting i going on, and their race Is
represented, has still novel attraction
for them. The moro ignorant have
wild ideas OF their political privileges.
They seem to think that Offices are "
,nc about loose, ana that they can help
themselves to the franchise at any time.
What man 50 ignorant and So poor Il
mong them nll rs To bc willing to
change his political status for that of
an intelligent, wcll-to-do white woman:
They are adopting, | fear, some of the
questionable social PHILOSOPHERS of the
highest civilization. y friend lately
overheard little strcet-corner talk
between two Young colorcd laborers.
Saws one, ON the broad grin of friend
II delight at the encounter: why, |
leclar'. l'sc mighty glad to see You;
how Is you, and how's Yer family: -
SAYS the other, on broader grin, 80,
I'sc fusy rate-but | haint got no fam
ily." What, is yer wife dead -
Bless We, no. she's only runned away
with another man; how'S Your woman"
But slavery was not the best of schools
III which TO learn respect for the mar
riage bond rs "A sacred. irrevocable
compact: and perhaps it is well that
they take It's occasional rupture i'll this
easy philosophical spirit-not consid
aring that the emancipation proclama
ton and constitutional amendments
give them the right to stab and smoth-
,er inconsistent consorts, like so many
Othellos, or to ayenge their domestic
intcicities by shooting right and left,
like ordinary Anglo-Saxon heroes or
great ambassadors and envoys extraor-
dlnary.
Mamma" cried little girl, rush
ing into the room, ''why am like IA
tree Mamma could not guess, when
the little one exclaimed: Because |
have limbs"