Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-06-02

his doom with a mothers devotion, he looks
neither around nor behind him. The grave
= before him. and he is bravely marching
upon IT, To show that this is no fancy PIC
ture Of the imagination, we give for Memphis
the figures of the annual death rate per enc
thousand inhabi'irts:
APRIL 1873.
S White 40 e per per cent cent
LAY. 1878.
S Th5Is 6 81 90 81 Per per- cent ceat
Thus calculation Is oased upon the pre-
sumption that there are fifteen thousand
blacks IN Memphis and thirty-hve thousand
whites. These figures are frightful. The
annual report of the board of health ofWash-
ington City has Just been made public. The
population of that place Is given at one hum
bred and sixty-fve thousand-one-third be-
ing of African descent. The board say that
the ratio OF mortality among the colored peo-
pie is absolutely alarming. Coming, as they
did, through the vicisstudes of the late war,
from ihe fields and the neglect OF farm life,
they settled there as people flee from dam
gers. with nothing but the squalor OF their
poverty. They filled the cheap huts OF the
alleys, and thus greatly added to the incon-
yenieuca and danger of filthiness and neg
lect. The above mentioned conditions are
Undoubtedly the causes that lead to disease
and death, yet they are scarcely sufh-
cient 10 account for the difference exist
ing between the rate of mortality of the
colored and that Of the white race. the lat
Ter being 1927 per 1000, the former A so
per 1000. OF lI9 still-births investigated by
the medical sanitary inspector, l07 were col
ored, A of which were illegitimate issues.
The board think this fact is rather suggest
tive, and it may well be apprehended that
the extraordinary destruction of life is In
duced not only by ignorance and poverty, but
by crime. Washington and Memphis are
not the only cities. however. where this diff
ference in the death rate of the two races has
been noticed. Statistics in the new dlrecto-
nv of Chattanooga show the population to be:
White, 754l: colored, 3947; total, II, 4S8.
The deaths last year were: White, 74o; col
ored, S50-showing the mortality to be about
four to one. We presume that the mortality
statistics of most southern cities would tell
" j
the Radicals, that the southern whites are
hostile to the blacks, and desire their speedy
destruction, these facts and figures
show that the whites have abundant
cause for qualification. If the whites desired
the determination of the negro, they have no
use for the kuklux, as the blacks are de-
stroying themselves. But the white people
4 A.. K1a Of fha Us
while the Radicals look upon the negro as an
instrument fit for nothing but to vote the
Radical ticket. The white people Of the
south regard him as human being, capable
of higher civilization, and would prevent
his sharing the fate which is so soon to over
take the Indian. The problem of the hour
is to solve the causes of mortality among the
blacks, and to discover the remedy. One of
the prime causes can be attributed to the
natural superstition OF the negro. Half OF
them practice all sorts of quackery and con-
duration. Often the sick, that could be speed
lily cured by heroic treatment, are permitted
to languish and dis under the treatment Of
an imposter. Vcudooism extensively pre-
walls among the credulous blacks. At re-
cent trial at Greenville, South Carolina, it
was developed than one, DR.. Pinckney Wal
lis, colored. attended one Steve Brown, also
colored, in the neighborhood of Chick
Springs, and declared that his patient was
infested with frogs that had deposited their
eggs in his heels, being induced to do so
through a charm wrought by four other
darkeys He charged Steve seven dollars
and half to relieve him. Steve was relieved
and went back to his work, the witnesses tes-
tifying that as each egg was taken from his
mouth the frogs could be heard to croak in
his stomach Wallis, of course, was made
man, and his fame spread far and wide. I'm
fortunately, however, he undertook the case
of Marion Owens, white, who had ''Auctua-
ton of the stomach, and persuaded him
that he contained pilot snake and frog,
the pursuit of the latter by the former through
the labyrinth of his internal structure caus-
ing the ''fiuctuation. Owens could not pro-
duce the magical seven dollars and fifty
cents, but gave a pistol and due-bill for
two dollars and fifty cents. He was not re-
lieved and demanded his pistol back, and
got it. Alas for Wallis! people began to
doubt; the four alleged cnarmers grew wroth,
besieged and captured the residence OF
Steve Brown, and beat the occupant, and
the case was brought into court. Wallis,
fearing the consequences of exposure, fed the
country, and the magical sound of ''seven
dollars and fifty cents" is heard in Chick
Springs no more. Cases of this sort are of
daily occurrence here in Memphis, and the
oolorad orator cor, he moro prn6tahIv em-
ployed in exposing and Graduating such tom
foolery and evils to the colored race than in
bowling for the Radical ticket.