Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-10-26
CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER
CASES.n

A recent incident OF San Antonio recalls
the episode at Richmond, when some Of
the knights Of Labor (from a Northern
state, OF course,) took umbrage because
one Of their number, negro man, WAS
refused admission to the first class hotels
in the city. The shoe Is on The other
foot, however, in the Texas case. At
San Antonio the National Brotherhood Of
RSilw'y Brakemen is just concluding a
weeks session. Elaborate arrangements
were made for the reception and enter
tainment OF the visitors, and street pa
rade was down on the programme, the
military and fire companies Of the city
proposing TO turn out IN the procession.
One OF these companies was composed OF
negro men, and, by the way, II is said tQ
be a crack company, dating It's orgaDiza-
tIou back ten years, when the present
United States Senator Coke was governor
OF Texas. When the grand secretary OF
the Brotherhood ot<ISrakemen learned
that company Of colored men was to
form part ot(the procession IL is said ne
wrote the captain tart note, informing
! him that the brakemen did not care TO
parade with the negroes, and the latter's
presence was not desirable, etc. The
negro military were, OF course, quite in-
dlgnant at this unexpected rebuff, and
the more so that Grand Secretary O'Shea
happens TO be New Yorker, from the
same state where the complaint at Rich
mond--concerning discrimination against
negroes-comes fiom. The negroes didn't
parade II Secretary O'Shea really OBJ
iected to the colored company taking
part In the parade, es 1t Is reported he
did, his course was foolish, to say the
least OF It, No social question whatever
was involved in the presence OF the col
ored men. II was a purely public dem
onstratlon, in which the whole communl
ty, negroes and whites, were to be repre-
scented, and had no significance save a.
an act Of courtesy on the part Of the ne
groes. THE GAZETTE recalls one day II
1878, when this same company OF negro
soldiers marched In the funeral procession
that followed the Democratic Congress
men Gustav Schleicher, to his grave
They tramped along directly behind tn
carriage In which sat Senator Coke, oil
Hannibal HamlIn and other congressmei
I who had come to attend the obsequles
5 The Texas senator pointed tber
out rather proudly to the senator iror
D Maine as the "Coke Rifles" (they Dor
+ that name them, and remarked, "Thi
d ought to convince you that we don't bull
. doze the negro down here as badly as som
4 OF you Northern people seem to think W
!. do" The San Antonio committee OF al
Y engagements knew what they were dom
!. when they put the negro company on tn
I. list OF organizations to parade, and 1t Wa
" very silly In any one, especially vislto
Q from the North, to interpose objections
y The color line Is drawn straight and dis
y tinct in the South, and separates tn
q races very eftectuAlly as to social mat
n ters, but the Southern people have con
8 mon sense and recognize the fact thu
o there are occasions in which an organIz'
q tlon OF colored men may with prophet
participate with white men in demonstr'
tions and celebrations We do not kno
10 whether there Is = colored military con
At pany in Austin, but If there is, and Gran
il Secretary O'Shea win come down
II Texas next January, It Is almost certal
n he will see the negro soldiers marchir
q. up Congress avenue as part of the p
e. geant that will do honor to the Dem,
h cratic governor, Lawrence S. Ross, WI
~ Ia 20 be inaugurated In January.