Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1875-03-11
TIE CIVIL a:azgs Law.

TIE CIVIL RIGHTS Law.
How It Works in galtimore-v Views Of Prom
inent colored citizens-The Hotel Question
in Other Cities, &c.
1t has already been stated that the
colored people of Baltimore take the
civil rights bill very quietly. and there
have been no evidences so far of any
intended demonstrations Oh their part.
Some of the hotel proprietors have
been much exercised over the situation
in which the law places them. The
proprietor of the Mansion House, taking
the iniative, publishes a card stating
that the house is not kept as an inn or
hotel, but as a private boarding house,
taking transient boarders at terms to
be agreed upon. This is the course
pursued by some hotels in Virginia,
especially where colored people travel.
ing are numerous. The proprietor of
the Mansion House does not run the
bar, and has no omnibuses at depots,
&c The civil rights law expressly
applies to inns, which are licensed
houses, required to give public enter
tainment. By changing their statue to
private boarding houses it is expected
to avoid the consequences Of violating
the federal law, which are severe. This
leaves the question of license with the
State and municipality.
MEETING OF HOTEL KEEPERS.
The proprietors of the principal
hotels of Baltimore met for consulta
ton Tuesday night at the Carrolton,
adjourning over until last night, when
they again met at Barnum's City Hotel.
At the second meeting Barnum's the
Carrollton, Eutaw, St. Clair, Maltby,
Guys Rennert's and the Howard
House were represented. 1t was de-
termined to follow the course to be
pursued by the principal hotels IN New
York city-that is, to do all that can
be done to AVOID any violation of law.
Should there be any necessity the ac-
commodations will be designated by
the proprietors, and all who are in a
hotel will receive the same fare, the
proprietors to regulate the location of
rooms, &c, in the same manner as
they have been accustomed to do. In
New York it is expected test of the
matter will be made to-day at the Fifth
Avenue Hotel. Those who were in
attendance at the meeting last night
prefer to leave the matter until the ex.
igencies of occurring cases compel them
to act, but it is understood the above
is the determination they came to.
WHAT coLoRED BISHOP SAYS.
In conversation yesterday Bishop
A. w. Wayman, of the African NJ. E.
Church, and Mr.. Webb, cashier of the
Baltimore branch of the late Freed-
mems Savings Bank, both intelligent
men, experienced in the needs Of their
race, and both exciting considerable
influence with them, gave their views
freely in reference to the bill, conciding
with the expressions of The Sun on
the subject yesterday, which recognized
that in Baltimore the colored people
generally take care of themselves and
mind their own business. People who
do this will always achieve for them
selves independence and their proper
social recognition, which no laws can
legislate them into. whether framed by
Mr.. Sumner or tlnkered by Mr.. Butler
Bishop Wayman said the colored
people have numerous churches and
schools of their own in Baltimore, and,
said he, "they have their own grave,
yards too" As to theatres and restau
rants, the good bishop did not care
about them at all, but he knows the
colored people are too we'll Accommodated
with drinking places Of their own, and
they have very numerous public enter
tainments at scores Of halls all over the
city. Houses of public entertainment
kept by respectable colored people are
as plenty as the needs of the popula
ton demand, and no disposition is
manifested to interfere with the white
people by respectable colored people.
Neither the bishop nor Mr. Webb ex-
pressed any qualification at the passage
Of the bill, nor did they state any OBJ
lection to it. Both were of opinion
that the colored people could not be
elevated in the social scale by legal
statute, but must depend upon their
personal worth and endeavor They
said that in week, if the question was
not agitated by the white people it
would be forgotten in Baltimore that
there was a civil rights bill. If any
overt acts are undertaken by colored
people here they would be by strangers
or designing politicians among the col
ored residents of the city.
THE LAW IN OTHER CITIES.
The New York Tribune says the
civil rights bill having been signed by
the President, the question of the right
of colored people to the privileges of
the hotels and theatres is exciting con-
siderable attention in that city. A
Tribune representative conversed on
Tuesday with the managers of several
leading theatres as to the probable eff
feet of the law on their business.
WHAT THE MANAGERS THINK.
Theodore Moss of Wallack' Theatre,
said that the management had not de-
termined how to act. Theatres are a
luxury, and the managers ought to
have the right to run them in their own
way, and admit whom they please to
admit, and to refuse admission to those
who would injure their business or
who were otherwise Objectionable.
Sheridan Shook, Of the Union Square
Theatre, stated that the theatre would
no doubt obey the law, but it did not
follow that colored people would be