The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1886-12-08
wAsHINGTONs COLORED PEOPLE.
Notable Negroes Who Live In Fine
style at the Capital-The Poorer
CIasscs-Their society.

n washington correspondent OF inc
CcUeidnd Leader writes: More than
one fourth of the population of Wash
ington city is colorcd. and it is esti-
mated that there are 60. 900 negroes IN
the District of Columbia. These are
of all classes. rich and poor, educated
and uneducatcd, patrican and plebeian.
They number some of the best element
of the negro population of the United
States. and among them are the most
noted colored men of the country.
Senator Bruce, though he still holds
On to his estate in Mississippi, lives at
Washington during the winters. and
John Lynch, who was one of the pres
idents of the last national republican
convention. leaves his cotton planta-
lions near NaicheZ in the fall and does
not return TO them again until the
spring Mr. Lynch was prosecuting
the study OF the law here during the
past winter, and the booksellers tell me
he bought many books. He is well edu
Gated and cultured, and is worth, | am
told, about 100000 Bruce is also
rich, and his little boy. Roscoe Conk-
ling Bruce will have fortune should
his father die. Fred Douglass does not
live in Washington, but his home is so
near it that he can reach il by the
street-cars. He owns very pleasant
residence on the hills above Uniontown,
one of the suburbs of Washington. 1t
is worth, perhaps, Sl2.0 From his
windows he can see the capitol and the
whole city spread out before him, and
his home is part of the Van Hook
estate, which was divided into lots and
sold on the condition that no colored
man shU.ld be ever allowed TO purchase
them.
Representative Harris, the colored
congressman from North Carolina,
.lives in three-stoy brick house in the
fashionable northwest portion of the
city. His house is in the same block
as that of Senator Cockrell, of Missouri,
and il is not stones throw from the
Pendleton mansion, in which Secretary
Endicott lives. Representative Smalls,
of South Carolina, boards here in Wash
ington, but | understand he is wealthy
and that his daughters have been edu-
Gated in the Summaries of Massacllus-
etts. John +. Cooke, the tax collector
of the District of Columbia, is said to
be worth $500, 900. and he has held his
present Office for fifteen years. John
M. Langston, the ex-minister to Hayti,
is rich, and there are large number of
the Washington colored men who own
fine houses and valuable lands. went
to buy lot on the hills above Washing
ton the other day, and found that
some of the best property of Washing
ton city was in the hands of a colored
real-estate agent. Among his property
found house which considered
bargain, and upon asking for the own
er l was told that he was a colored bar
Der.
George w. Williams, the first colored
member who ever sat in the Ohio Leg
islature, and the man whom Arthur
appointed minister to Hayti. and Bay
ard refused to confirm, tells me that
there are hundred negroes in Wash
ington worth $4,000, at least fifty
worth $4,000. and nearly q thousand
worth $4,000 apiece.
Much of the best property of Wash
ington city is owned by colored men.
They bought the lands when they were
cheap, and after the city changed its
direction they held on to them. Now
on almost any of the fashionable streets
of Washington you may see the cabin
of negro laborer humping up against
the mansion of a'millionaire statesman,
and curious thing about it is that the
taborer is not any more anxious 10 sell
his land than the statesman is his.
Colored men who make less than dol
lar day own lands here worth 81. 80. !
S3, and 81 per square foot and the col
ored people of Washington have
churches costing from 5000 to $780,
900 apiece scattered throughout the
most fashionable parts of the city.
OF course the majority of the colored
population are poor, but many of the |
poorest of them lay up money. and /
lived for year on meals supplied by o
colored caterer, a man who had made a
fortune at catering, and who supplied |
one hundred persons and more with |
two meals day at 1926 q month apiece. |
Wormley, the famous cook who went |
over to England with Reverdy John
son to cook terrapin to please the pal
ates of the English Lords, and thereby
get them to grant us a bettnI treaty, |
was colored man. He died not long
ago, leaving 100000 invested in one
of the best hotels in Washington, and
his sons now carry on this business.
They have diplomates and statesmen
as boarders, and charge in some cases
as high as 50 a day.
There are many negroes in Wash