Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-05-15
FRED DOUGLASS AND THE CITY OF
WASHINGTON.

brunettes to which Mr.. Fred Douglass be
longs. And in those earlier days OF the Re
public if he had ventured into that city he
would have incurred the risk of detection, ar
rest, handouts and return to his master be-
yond the line of the District of Columbia.
Now he is not only free man but a voter ;
not only exempt from arrest as a fugitive slave,
but is, himself, the officer i'll whose hands are
placed such warrants as find issuance III the
name of the Federal authority at Washington
Also he is so much of a freeman that he Is
permitted to go to Baltimore, i'll his native
State, and there deliver lecture in which he
takes the liberty, aforetime only enjoyed by
white men, of making fun of the City of Mag
nificent Distances. We harbor a suspicion
that the Baltimoreans, white and black, enjoy
this ridicule of their rival city But the
Washingtonans, who are the most uncomfor-
table people that ever cursed the hand which
averted their own ruin, have risen up in their
mouldy majesty and denounced this "imper-
ence on the part of man of previous con
dtion. 1t was all insult not to be borne in
patience when Douglass was appointed the
Marshal of the District. When he presumes
TO stand up in Baltimore and poke fun at
them. they cannot restrain their wrath. Their
small stock of patience, at this too terrible in
fiction becomes sour and effervescent, and
they boil over toward the White House i'll
petition to Rutherford the Good, to break the
offending octoroon of his Office. The question
becomes interesting, Will the President lend
ear to this Washingtonian wall! The fact is
that Fred is enough to appreciate Wash
ingtons best friend Governor Sheppard.
Probably in the offending criticisms at Balti-
more he berated the recalcitrants and Bour-
bons of the Capital for their aversion to the
cleansing hand which Sheppard stretched out
toward them. Before the restoration with
which that much abused man lifted Washing
ton up out of its slovenliness and made it a
decent abiding place for the National Govern
ment, the average native of the place was
widowed, unclean Of person and not agreea-
BILE to the more sensitive nose. 1t was com
pulsory cleaning they had Sheppard turned
the hose on them, as it were; also, as it were,
he banished many millions of old familiar YER
min which had become endeared to an over |
lazy habit and in fact he sprinkled much |
chloride of lime upon great multitudes of old |
accustomed smells, which, from habit, had |
become a cherished association. He who |
makes war on nastiness lncurs the wrath and |
enmity of the nasty. He disturbs an odorOus
mis-comfort. As Sheppard went about with
Ill, 10
old rotten sewers by the mile, upturned
leagues of fever breeding old alleys. cleansed
and Strengthened and made passable great
avenues and streets which had been hog wal
lows and puddle places time out of mind. He
held the squaid and squaIling bag by the rags
while he washed her face, and then, in spite
of herself, tore away her lousy garments. gave
her bath and dressed her in a fnll suit of
clean clothes He reached up his giant hand
to the battened boards of ricketty old market
houses, reeking with the unthrift and shame
full uncleanness which had been handed down
from the days of slavery and shiftlessness and
amidst the groans of dirty blacks and whites,
tore them to the ground. The magnificent
market halls which now ornament the city
grew up under his master hand. All these
vast repairs Sheppard inaugurated and carried
Oh at cost more than 80 per cent. less than
such work was ever done for in any city be
fore or since And it was the most legitimate
hing ever done in Washington. But Shep-
pard, born there, had offended the threadbare
who snarled in the face of the
Government which kept them from want and 7
he horrors of the actual conflict, by raising |
Jnion regiment and opposing himself to Sc c
ession and rebellion Fred. Douglass knows ;
lin from top to toe, He knows him for the !
ruest hero and most lion hearted man ever Y
Orn in the District of Columbia and SO he t
las been rubbing the raw places of the fy-bit Il
on old families, and laughing at their feeble
utcries against compulsory face washing. t
Ilso some vagabond of lazy white wants
reds place so the hullaballoo is loud and
ociferous. Doug lass represents loyalty and u
he Fifteenth Amendment. He is test of p
ne genuineness of the Era of Good Feeling. u
he is to be cuffed out of the Marshalship al
II saying what he chooses to say about the IL
ty wherein he keeps his office We shall look u
pom Rutherford as one who is consistent in
lie smooth hypocricies of his methods of con- d
hation, but we shall advise the colored S.
ayes IL Wheeler Club of Carson to raZee | TT