The Washington critic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1885-1888, 1885-10-05
GEN. BUTLER ON THE CENSUS.

Alexander Graham Bell Is very rich,
says "Mac" of the Philadelphia
Record,. Gardiner G.. Hubbard, his
father-in-law is only less rich So are
all their relatives. Bell lives in a hand
some modern brick house of his own
design on Scott Circle. Hubbard lives
in similar house few blocks west on
Dupont Circle. Bells house has every
modern improvement, including some
of his own invention, so modern that
the general public has not heard of
them yet, These are chiefly applica-
tions of electricity to purposes OF con
vcnicncc, He has II fine collection of
paintings, water colors and ctchings,
and very good library. His labOra-
tory, which he calls "thc Volta labora-
tory is farther west Just across
from his home is the little cottage and
gardens which he bought from An
drews, the artist, where he teaches
deaf and dumb children. Bell Is a
well.buil man, of good height. His
black hair and beard are beginning to
turn gray, but his face is as young as
his heart. He is broadminded, genor-
Gus and gracious. ] know no one who
carries great success more gracefully.
~
EX-Congressman Manning, who has
just returned from Mississippi, his old
home, has some very interesting things
TO say about the condition of affairs
there. He was drinking a mug of milk
in that curious little place just oppo-
site the Treasury where so many peo-
pie of Washington take their lunch on
milk and biscuits, when the correspon-
dent of the Memphis AcalaHche asked
him what the colored people of the
South were doing in the way of educa-
ton, and whether it made them any
more industrious or better citizens Il
cannot say that it does" replied Mr.
Manning; "the young ColOrcd people
who get II little education think they
are too good to work as their parents
who were slaves have worked and are
still working, They are not fond of
work, but on the other hand are in
clined to be impudent and disrespect-
full to white citizens and difficult to
control by laws which govern good
communities. e" "Is the fault in the
negroes themselves or in the manner
in which they are educatcdg' "Prob-
ably something of both, though think
the manner of their education is
largely responsible for ii. The
fact is our school system in
the State and the South gcner-
ally has become largely u political
machine. Take Mississippi, for in-
stance; we have ZOO colored teachers
teaching colorcd children. These col
ored teachers are supported by the
whites, for the whites pay nearly all
the taxes paid in the State. Yet they
go out among the blacks rs mere mis-
sionaries. They teach politics, and
politics of the worst sort, too. They
instill into the minds of the children
and the parents the idea that the
whites are their enemies; that they
want to enslave them again and induce
them to look not only with suspicion
but with hatred and defiance upon the
whites. Every school has become thus
not only disseminator Of this sort OF
idea, but rendezvous for all the col
ored politicians of the community.
That is, | think, the great fault with
| the educational system among the ne
groes. If politics could be eliminate
from the schools, as is the case in thc
white schools the land over, they woulj
probably be successful and improve tho
condition of the negro very greatly"