Morning journal and courier., 1885-01-21

44ONON.y l to black boots and drive drays."
 ''No," chimed in still another, and he add ed with calm audacity which astounded l me: ''We've got the inside track on the nig gah an we propose to keep it."
 q never seed a niggah yet but eddication made a devil of him."
 'EAnd one of the best behaved fellahs evah had was a dahkey as couldn't say his A. B's.''
 70 they'se no use tall1in', the niggah be- longs to an inferior race and he ought to be
 made to feel it instead of pettin' of him all
 the time"
 ''Ya-as, I reckon charity begins at home,
 and we're doin' well if we provide for the
 whites fust."
 I sincerely believe that have not exagger-
 ated the character of this dialogue. Indeed,
 I have made no attempt to copy the "de's"
 and ''dats" and the African brogue Yet I
 would not seem to intimate that the General
 Assembly of North Carolina is made up al
 together of such material as these sticks
 whom I have permitted to describe them
 selves for your benefit. Far from it. There
 are pure men, able men, real statesmen in
 the Assembly. I had a long talk with the
 retiring Governor, Thomas J. Jarvis, this
 morning, and I should infer that he is as lib
 eral and progressive as he is plain and unas-
 stunning in his manner. He is hospitable,
 chatty, well-informed on wide range of top
 ics, and quite vigorous in every way for one
 so well on in years. His wife is young
 enough to be his daughter and even more
 chatty.
 I am of the opinion that this educational
 wave will be opposed by some from fear lest
 it may convert North Carolina from Democ-
 racy to Republicatlism. Nor do I think this
 fear is groundless. The tenure by which the
 Democratic party holds power in this State
 is not as secure most people are wont to
 believe at the North. To be sure the late
 gubernatorial election seemed very much like
 a Waterloo for the local ''G. O. P, but sev-
 eral facts must be taken into consideration ill
 contemplating that quasi-defeat In the first
 place York, the Republican nominee, had the reputation of being something of a dem agOgue and machine politician. In the sec ond place, the Republican vote was, notwith standing all, the largest that was ever polied here in the State The defeat, even to take the Democratic view of it, accomplished by overcoming the party apathy and calling out an unprecedented vote. The slogan which brought this to pass was 'Eretrench- ment and reform" It was this rallying cry, claim the Democrats, that brought from the recesses of the mountains and the remOteSt hooks of the seashore the white men of the State in such astonishing numbers. Even accepting this explanation of the strange del uSe of Democratic votes, 1t is apparent that a return of apathy may unseat the present dominant party or that slight Democratic dISatect1On III eacn county may change the political complexion of the State.
 Here again, exceptions appear to be the Democratic economic policy. The Governor of the State, who is not eligible to a second term, declares that expansion is needed in stead of retrenchment; and that during his administration he was obliged two or three times to sadly deplete his private purse so as to represent the State decently while in some adjoining State in official capacity.
 Tuesday noon I dropped into the Capitol and witnessed the ceremony of formally counting the votes of the November guber- material contest. There was something amusing in the stately etiquette of opening the convention. The one-leSged doorkeeper (who gets more pay than even the Senator'S called to the Speaker of the House, ''NIr. l Speaker, the Senate approaches" Then the members of the House arose while the Sena- tors filed in with locked arms, the tall, the 5hort the handsome, the homely, the halt and the maimed, with three intelligent we'll dressed negroes at the end. But I soon tired of the tedious oll-calling and reading of the | returns.
 I should fali short of bestowing credit l where it is due if I did not recognize what | has been done by this State legislature in the | interest of education. The chief school for | the blacks here is the Shaw university (Bap l 5ist), which owes it's origin and present pros l perity to the indefatigable missionary efforts | of Rev. H. M. Tupper. This devoted educa- | tor began by organizing theological class in | room of an old Raleigh hotel. The people | were exceedingly suspicious of him on ac | count of his war record. But he lived the | prejudices down and persevered in spite of | Ill opposition, until now he has the esteem | of the entire community and presides over | six of the finest ediices in the capital. l Three years ago he added the Leonard nedi- | ,al department to his school. and entirely | lad he won the public confidence that the | feneral Assembly donated the ground for 1 he building to be erected upon.
 The State institutions located at Raleigh | Ire all admirable in equipment and manage nent. The penitentlary is a mammoth brick | building, only half finished, where between | en and eleven hundred guests are usually | registered. The guests are never all in at | once, however for the State leases it's con l rict labor and four-ffths of the total crimi- l lal population are always away building rail i oads, or serving some corporation in some | apacity. At present only two hundred are | luartered in the great penltentlary, and they | Ill work, making shoes, or garments, or | bricks, from seven o'clock in the morning | ill five at night. When they are out of the | buildings they are watched over by guards | with shotguns While the Stale penitentiary | s a model institution, the prisoners often | are very i'll before they get there or while l hey away constructing railroads.
 The county jails of North Carolina a | t1SSrace to a clV1llZed country Many or l hem are the vilest and most unhealthy dens. 1
 have before me an extract from one of the l eading newspapers of the State, recording | he death of the fifth person under sentence l # death that has died in the jail of that ] county since it completed ten years ago; | md the writer adds: Physicians who have | our county jail say that it is i'm possible for any man to survive an imprison- nent of twelve months in either of the cells provided for prisoners convicted of capital ,rimes." There are plenty of other misera- ole dungeons located almost in the back i woods, to which this language would apply. | But the fatality is scarcely less in the num- per of those who are worked out under con ract of lease to the mountain railroads. | The rigors of mountain winters meet but | title resistance in the constitutions of the l eastern negroes, and the death-rate from | rheumatic, pulmonary and bronchial frou- l oles has been simply appalling. It is hard l 0 fixthe responsibility, except ill general, for | his shocking state of things
 I am glad to believe, however that the l State is slowly working up to a realization of l hese evils and to desire to reform. just as | he State is manifestly waking up.industrial y. The late cry of retrenchment was mere |