Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-04-29
Tuesday Evening. April 20, 1870:
BLEEDING KANSAS.
A Terrible Prediction by a Medical Man
= from Mississippi.

DR.. s. Mcdowell, of Mississippi
and a nephew of old DR.. Mcdowell
recently went to st. Louis, and while
there concluded to visit Kansas and
see how the colored emigrants were
faring, On his return he made a state
ment which appears in the Times
journal, as follows:
He visited Kansas City, Wyandotte
and Topeka, from which points he re-
turned last evening, and reports that
he found their condition deplorable.
Large numbers of negroes were at
Wyandotte, lying around loose, some
without shelter and others sheltered
by railroad bridges and platforms, but
nearly all in a state of restitution.
The worst phase of the whole mat
ter, however, according to Mr.. Nc
DOwells statement, is the fact
that nearly all of the bed clothing
and furniture they have taken
with them is that which was
used by yellow fever patients last
summer, at hotels and boarding
houses that have since been reitted at
Vicksburg and other river ports.
This stuff these negroes purchased of
fishermen and along-shore river men
and others, and the articles are thor
oughly impregnated with yellow fever
malaria, and which he feels certain
will, when the hot season comes on,
breed the pestilential disease through
out all portions of the country where
these negroes shall stop. "No matter
if it is far North" said DR.. Mellow
ell, with a germ Of such huge pro-
portions it is sure to break out, al
though it may not be of so virulent a
type as We had it in the South last
summer; yet, mark my words, there
will be a pestilence in Kansas pro-
dueed from this very cause"
If the above statements are facts.
there are grave grounds for apprehen-
sions that st. Louis will be visited
this summer By the terrible scourge
which devastated the South last sum
msr. This Is a matter which deserves
careful Investigation By the health
officers Of this city.
DR.. Mcdowell states thatthe greater
portion Of those who have left Missis-
sippi are Of the lazy, idle. worthless
class who would not work at all. or at
least vev little. They belong to the
class who would rather lOil about in
the sunshine aud go fishing or do any
thing than work. He SAYS that his
people and the in~dustrously disposed
cOlored people are greatly rejoiced at
their leaving, as they we're a perpetual
drain and incubus on both whites and
blacks in the South.
Why. said DR.. Mcdowell. Il saw
more suffering and restitution
IN WYASDOTTR
in one day than | ever before saw In
my whole life in the South. The
people in WyandOtte are tired Of
them and endeavsrcd TO get rid of
them by hiring cars to send them fur
ther West, but they wouldn't bulge
an inch, saying they were far enough
north now, they in their ignorance not
knowing that after going some dis
lance north the cars turn and 20
southwest. They seem to have be-
come imbued with the idea that all
they would have to do was to get To
Kansas and there they would find Gull
tivated farms already stocked and with
houses into which they could imme-
diately go to housekeeping. How thew
have obtained these ideas the Lord
only knows, but that they have them
is a fixed fact.
Several of the more industrious
told me they would like TO 90 back to
where they came from, and | furnished
transportation to a fewof them so that
they might return. What will be-
come of the rest is hard to tell. The
people up there can't afford to keep
them as paupers, but they will have to
provide for them, for they are paupers
and always will be. Quite a large
number of them were offered work in
the coal businessmen as miners, for
they would be of no service in the
mines-but to load and unload cars
and wagons, but
THEY WOULD NOT WORK.
So serious has the negro nuisance
become that the citizens of Wyan-
dotte have formed a rifle club to pre-.
vent the landing Of any more of the
black plague, and threats are made
thatthey will sink any boat with acargo
Of negro %emigrants which attempts to
land.
There is no denying the fact if A
general exodus of the negroes should
take places it would greatly cripple
the South, particularly the cotton
interests. Already yhesprice Of cot
ton has advanced, but whether it is
owing to the fact hat a scarcity has
arisen on account of the exodus which
has already taken place | am not pre-
pared to state, but in my own opinion
the cotton crop of this season will not
be ten pounds less on account of the
absence Of those who have already
left.
II can hardly think that this exe-
dus is
A POLITICAL SCHEME,
for Kansas is so strongly Republican