The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1877-04-13

justice of the peace? Why should a man
work when he can make a living by stealing
chickens, and sit en- the fence Tor amusement?
Let us tuce the truth. Our Southern policy
is not only curse to the whites, but it has
been curse to the freed people for whose
benefit it was adopted. 1t has not made
them good citizens. 1t has not taught them
how to use the ballot. 1t has introduced
among them decentralization more danger
GUS to the country than the violence of the
White League, for no republican government
can stand which is not founded upon the
suftrages OF the virtuous and intelligent
Everybody knows that the negro, left to
himself, would not get the mastery until he
had acquired some of the qualifications for it..
Even where he had numerical majority of
the population and was perfectly free TO vote
as he pleased, he would naturally take a sub
ordinate position so long as he had neither
money, nor education, nor habits of thrift
and foresight, nor comprehension of the art
of government. And it is proper that he
should. Universal suffrage would be an alb
surdity except upon the theory that it gen.
orally results in the advancement Of the in
telllgent and respectable. A majority of the
voters, whether virtuous or not, are suppos-
ell to understand that self-intcrest requires
them to intrust the Government only to those
who are able to control it. But The Grant
policy was based upon different principle
1t assumed that the great secret of recon-
struclion was to take the negro out of the
cotton field and put him in the State
House, send him company of soldiers to
hold him fast in his seat and trust to luck
for the rest. The natural results have fol-
lowed The negro has learned nothing
good in his elevation, and is no better able
fff rrtrn n Stofa l,,,. al.
he was six years ago.
"The only way to reform Southern society
is to stand aside and leave the voters free
and unembarrassed. Then if these commun
tiles are not utterly corrupt, all things will
soon find their natural level, and the rule of
the majority will act as ii acts elsewhere"
- -
ANOTHER DISASTROUS FIRE.-.-The
Southern Hotel at st. Louis, six stories high,
caught fire in the basement at halfpast one
o'clock Wednesday morning, and in less than
an hour the entire roof was abazc and the
flames descending throughout the lower
stories. The fire spread rapidly, filling every
room and hall with flames and smoke, and
the scene was of the most terrible descrip.
ton. Frantic men, women and children ran
through the halls shrieking in the most
hea rt-rending manner in their wild and des-
perate efforts TO escape.
Ladders were brought, by means of which
many persons were rescued, but many 9TH
ers could not be reached, and in all forty
or fifty persons persisted. The female ser
wants, nearly two hundred in number, occu,
pied the upper story, and the mortality
among them was dreadful Several of them
became frantic and swinging from the Win
dows to the ground were crushed to death.
One man tore his bed clothing into strips,
tied them together and with this improvised
rope attempted to reach the ground, His
rope was too short and after getting TO the
end of it, lie let himself drop, and striking the
stone tagging with sickening thud, died in
few minutes.
Miss Kate ClaXton, the actress, who mar
rowly escaped with her life from the burning
of the Brooklyn Theatre, short time ago,
made another narrow escape from tie burn,
ing hotel by wrapping wet towels around
her head and walking and rolling down the
burning stairs