The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-09-05
A TERRIBLE HULLABALLOO IN AT
LANTA.

~
LANTA.
The people of this part of the country
will not readily comprehend the strange
excitement in Atlanta over a newly ap
pointed colored postoffice clerk, who ha6
passed the Civil Service Board with the
high record of So per cent, and was as
signed to the same room with a young
white woman clerk. That is plair
statement of the fact, as presented by
the Atlanta Democratic newspapers
One of them, the Constitution, alleges
that the real difficulty and source Of
trouble and popular indignation was the
alleged fact that the assignment was the
only one that ''would have brought the
appointee into intimate and direct asso
citation with a young white lady"-yet il
"the days befoh the wah" no lady il
Georgia was ever known to make an out
cry of horror because she was drought
into intimate and direct association" witt
"nigger" maids and "mammies." Wa
it because the Georgia ladies in thost
days owned, or their husbands owned
the black maids and "mammies" thai
they found the latter quite tolerable, ant
even desirable creatures ito have around
the house p t.... ... 1904.
numbers of the white citizens of Atlantis
have been boiling With rage over the as
signment of colored clerk in the post
office to a room where he is brought into
association with young white lady, anC
while Postmaster Lewis-a gallant ex
officer of the United States Regular
Army and man of high social standing
in Atlanta-and another prominent Re
publican, Gen. Buck, have been burned
in efigy by the angry Atlantians, and
have been threatened and pestered with
abusive and scurrillous letters, the facts
of the case fail to show why and how
such an outburst of rare enmity should
have been occasioned.
What are the facts .' .. -.
There is and can be no better or more
trustworthy authority than Assistant
Postmaster. General Clarkson, whose eff
ficiency has made him the target fol
Democratic and Mugwump abuse, but
who is known by the entire journalistic
profession of the country as man whose
word is not to be doubted and whose
honor is above reproach. He states the
case in the fewest possible words and
with absolute, official knowledge, as fol-
lows:
"The story, as it was printed in the
Atlanta papers and sent North, was to
the effect that Postmaster Lewis had ap.
pointed Negro clerk and assigned him
to duty at the came desk with young
white woman. The real facts, however,
are these After Gen. Lewis appoint
ment as postmaster one of the registry
clerks resigned. The postmaster then,
as he was compelled by law to do, APP
pointed Charles G, Penny, colored, who
stood at the head of the Civil-Service
list of eligibles. Penny was assigned to
work In the registry division, not in the
same room with the young woman. This
young woman and her father, who was
superintendent of the registry division
and had the assignment of the clerks,
both resigned, simply because Negro
had been appointed to place in the
Office, and not because an attempt had
been made to place Negro at the same
desk with the young woman. From this
grew all the trouble in Atlanta, and the
effort to utilize the incident for party
prejudice. The insincerity of this cry
10 now shown by the fact that there
were five Negro clerks in the Atlanta
postoffice under the Democratic post
master, and for six years young white
woman has been at the stamp window
selling stamps to all people, black and
white. .s .. ..r
"There is nothing in the matter for
the Department to act upon, and there is
nothing in the action of Postmaster
Lewis to be criticised by fair-minded
people. In the postal service we find
many of our efficient men are among the
colored men. We haYe probably hum
dreds of them in the service altogether,
Nla,, n1ro 4 sNH1'
All that is needed to make the case
complete in favor of Postmaster Lewis
is to add the especial reasons given by
the latter for the assignment he made of
the colored clerk. There were two
be filled. "That in the money order de-
necessarily throw the clerk in contact
in the registry department is entirely
different, the clerk occupying desk out
in the large mailing room away from
the public. Realizing the tendency of
public opinion, thought it would be
best to give Penny the place in the reg
istry department, where, as l say, he
would not come in contact with the pa
irons Of the office. The other position
that in the money order Department.
have given to Sturgess. Under the Civil
Service law these two men are the only
men whom l could possibly appoint to
those two positions. think did the
best thing possible under the circum.
stances.
"Another point is this The desk
which Penny occupies is not in the same
room with that which Miss Lyons used,
Pennys desk is outside, brick wall be-
ing between the two rooms. There
could be no necessity for Penny ever be-
ing IN that other room, except, possibly,
when the lady clerk, whoever she might
be, was out of the office. l could pro-
mote no one in the office to the place, for
all but the stampers and janitor received
as much or more salary"
The sole reason why we have given 80
much space and attention to this remark
able illustration of needless local excite
ment and curious displays of Negro.
phobia is because no much of a ruction
has been made over it in Georgia, and
because it is we'll that people in this sec
ton should know just what degrees and
phases Of lunacy may be produced by a,
to us, inezplIcable and radical difference
between the times when the most init.
mate associations between the two races
were permitted and now.
What tremendous difference there is
to be seen between "niggers" that white
people could own and "colored people"
who are free moral agents, responsible
only to their Maker and the laws of the
land 2-M1I and E1,ilrpSS