The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-05-01
THE NEGRO STAMPEDE.
The Refugees Dying from Disease.
ST.. LOUIS, April IS, 1879.

The Refugees Dying from Disease.
ST. LOUIS, April IS, 1879.
The negro exodus still continues.
Nearly every day new lot of colored
people from Louisiana or Mississippi is
landed here. Most of them are sent on
to Kansas, but some are obliged to sub
sist on charity for days before they can
resume their journey. Most every night
the darkies can be seen camping out on
the levee. Here and there fire is start
ed, which is Immediately surrounded
with men, women and children, all
stretching out their hands to the heat.
If any of them happen to have anything
to eat frying-pan is produced and the
grateful odor makes the emigrants smack
their lips in anticipation of a meal. The
arriving negroes do not seem to have
made any better preparations for their
journey than those who have gone be-
fore them. They are all ignorant Of
what is in store for them. They only
know that they want to go to Kansas.
1t has got abroad among some of the
refugees that the government wishes
them TO 60 there, and when they step off
the boat here they do so with the expec-
tation that government money is waiting
to send them on. They say that most of
the negroes in the cotton districts wish to
emigrate, and as soon as they can obtain
enough money will do so. A few days
ago the negroes of Greenville, Missis-
slppi, held a meeting to discuss emigra-
tion. Several hundred of them wished
to join the increasing army of refugees.
1t was proposed that two or three men be
sent on to investigate and to return with
a report. This was voted down, the ne
groes preferring to take the highly-col-
ored reports which come to them of the
Land of Promise. An intelligent colored
man, however, started off on his own ac-
count, and has spent several days among
the destitute blacks who are here await
ing transportation. He will 20 to Wy
andotte and Kansas City and then return.
He will undoubtedly advise his people to
stay where they are, but it is exceedingly
doubtful it they give any heed 10 the ad-
vice. The negroes seem to be perfectly
wild with enthusiasm, and listen to no
one not in sympathy with the movement.
ovERRUN WITH THE DESTITUTE.
Meanwhile the condition of the col
ored people in Kansas is by no means
assuring. Relief committees have been
organized at Wyandotte. The place is
ovcrrun with the destitute, and as quick
ly as possible they are sent on to some
other point. The place cannot possibly
take care of all who arrive. One in
every thirty have died, and most of the
refugees are sick. Climatic changes are
working on their health. Medicine is
scarce, and the outlook for the poor
blacks is anything but cheering. Com
mittees have been appointed to prevent,
if possible, the landing of any more col
ored people in Wyandotte until the
present ones are provided for. An agent
has also been sent to Fort Leavenworth
to see if the negroes cannot be given
work there. Some of the colored men
have been sent on to Kansas City, but
evidently Kansas City doesn't care for
them. The mayor, day or two ago,
telegraphed to the Secretary of War at
Washington, saying that two thousand
refugees were encamped about the city.
They were ignorant, helpless and dying.
The city, he said, could take care of its
own poor, but the country could not ex-
pect it to care for the poor of several
States. He asked that q part of the
reservations at Fort Leavenworth be set
aside, and that rations be issued, at least
for the present. To this Secretary Nc
Crary replied that he ''could not take
the responsibility of issuing government
rations to emigrants without authority,
and while Congress is in session that
body has full power, and may be applied
to-" Evidently there is disposition to
allow Kansas to "bleed" as much as she
wants to, and, from all appearances, she
has quite enough of the BLEEDING" pro-
cess already.
At Wyandotte the people are becom-
ing alarmed over the influx of the South
ern negroes. Witness the following
proclamation just issued by the mayor !:
To Any and AN Steamboat Lines and
transportation Companies:
"GENTLEMEN-Allow me to state to
you, most respectfully, but most emphat-
icaliy, that the City of Wyandotte will
hold all boats, officers, agents or any
other persons who may be concerned in
importing destitute persons to our shores
to the strictest legal consequences and
penalties of the law attaching to such
offences"
HOW THE NEGROES WERE DUPED.
Meanwhile the exodus continues. That
the negroes have been duped no one now
doubts. Circulars have been sent to
them broadcast, with instructions to keep
them strictly private. The Lycurgus P.
Jones circular, sent out from Topeka, is
but one of them. Who Lycurgus P.
Jones is no one knows, but the circular
signed by him has worked great mischief
1t tells the negroes that the Democrats
will seek to re-enslave them if they re-
main in the South, and continues: "The
Colonization Society has been organized
by the government to provide land for
each head of family, which will be
given in bodies of one hundred and sixty
acres gratuitously. This land is located
in the best portion of Kansas, in close
proximity to Topeka, and is very produc-
tive. Here there is no distinction of So
ciety; all are on an equality. Leave the
land of oppression and come to free
Kansas" "Show this circular to none
but colored men, and keep its contents a
secret" says the circular in conclusion.
Such are the means which are being
employed to drag the negroes from their
homes, and the more the subject is in
vestigated the more apparent it becomes
that the emigration was started for the
purpose of enriching unprincipled
schemers by working upon the ignorance
of the blacks. The steamboat agents
still declare that they are entirely blame.
less in the matter, and to show their good
faith have telegraphed to Wyandotte.
offering to take back free any negroes
who wish to return. But the colored
mon enom determinnd IN cticl, If ont