The Portland daily press., 1890-10-31

cares for them, whence comes their food
and raiment, meager as these articles
are, combine to form one of the myster-
les of life. A Washington policeman
told me he knew of one of these alleys in
which, in a single block, there were 800
children by actual count.
This seems incredible, but it must be
remembered that the building of alley
houses is one of the most profitable in
vestments capital can find in Washing
ton. The houses are little coops of brick,
about fifteen feet wide and generally
three stories high. Each story may
have as tenants an entire family, with
all the way from two to dozen children
In each family Imagine the appear
ance of an alley fanked by two rows of
tenant houses thus peopled, the thorough
fare itself being no more than twenty
feet wide. So great a nuisance has this
business of peopling alleys with colored
families become in Washington that
western senator has introduced bill
forbidding the erection of houses in al
leys less than forty feet in width. 1t
will not be likely to pass, however, for
among themen who have invested money
in these houses, and who are getting
dividends of Is to 90 per cent. year
thereon, are number of United States
senators.
Speaking of the colored people of
Washington reminds me of a novel sort
of contest that is constantly going on in
this city. On the street cars about one
half the passengers are colored and about
one-half white. The population of the
District of Columbia is only one-third
colored, but the street railway people say
a colored man or woman will ride twice
as often as white man or woman
Four out of five persons you see ON
the sidewalks are white; on the street
cars fully one-half, and think more,
are colored. Just why the colored peo-
pie give up SO much more of their money
to the street railways than their white
neighbors no one appears to know, but
at guess should say it is because the
colored people have constitutional an
tipathy to walking. AT any rate, there
are so many passengers of both colors
that the cars are nearly always crowded.
and the men have to get up and give
their seats to ladies. Here is where the
war of races comes in.
In Washington a white man will not
rise and give his seat to p colored wom-
an. In retaliation colored men refuse to
rise and give their seats to white wom-
en-. Thus it often happens that one will
see all the seats in car occupied by
white women and black men. In all my
experience in Washington l have never
seen but three white men rise and give
seats to colored women, and in one of
these cases the woman was very old and
infrm, and in the other two cases they
were young and pretty and stylishly
dressed. If all the colored women in
Washington were of the working class it
would not be such delicate matter, but
many of them are well bred, handsome
ly dressed, live in fine houses, and are
in every way as much worthy of respect
and courtesy as white women.
But what is one to do? AS to women
of his own color he makes no discrimi-
nation. He rises to give seat to any
white woman, young or old, rich or
poor. But it is obvious that he does not
want to do this as to colored women.
There are few white men who will carry
gallantry so far as to give their places to
black washerwomen and kitchen maids.
One feels tempted to show more courtesy
to the colored women who are evidently
well bred and of good station, but dis
ordinations are always dangerous and
bothersome, and the white men conclude,
therefore, that they will not discrimi-
nate, but will sit while colored women
stand.
The husbands and brothers of the COL
ored women resent this hotly, and claim
that gentleman who will discriminate
against lady simply because she is
dark or black is not gentleman at all.
In retaliation, therefore, these colored
men doggedly sit while white ladies are
standing, and scenes of this description
occasionally lead to trouble, especially
when a southern senator or congressman
is unable to find seatsfor the ladies whom
he is escorting.