The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-10-19

Senator ana MRS. Evarts expect to bring
together in the holidays. There are
nine children in all The eldest daugh-
ter, Hetty, is the wife of Charles G. Bea-
man. who was well known in Washing
ton during his younger days as the pri-
vate secretary of Senator Charles Sum-
ner. He is now a member Of his father
in-law's law firm in New York. Miss
Mary Evarts lives with her father and
mother, and is quite popular in senate
rial circles. Helen is the wife of Charles
II. Tweed, one Of the prominent lawyers
of the metropolis. Elizabeth is the wife
of Charles II. Perkins, one of Boston's
most distinguished art writers, and
Laura married the accomplished son of
Representative Scudder. 1t will be
seen that the Evarts girls have taken a
strong liking TO their fathers profession.
Three of the five sons are also lawyers.
Charles manages the patrimOnial estate.
Prescott is an Episcopal clergyman,
while the other three, Allen, Sherman
and Maxwell, are in their fathers law
firm.
had started out to write Of Washing
ton street scenes, and here l am gossip
ing about Washington's big families.
As matter of fact the largest families
in Washington are and probably always
will be unknown to fame. They are AZ
rican. At the census Office it is said the
colored population of the District Of
| Columbia is constantly gaining on the
| white population, and no wonder. Take
a peep in some Of the alleys of the Capt.
/ tai City, and see the myriads of pickanin-
MES running about therein. Where they
all come from, where they all sleep, who
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 single block, there were $50
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 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 the men who have invested money
in these houses, and who are getting
dividends Of 10 to 90 per cent. year
thereon, are a 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 a 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 a guess | should say it is because the !
colored people have constitutional au-
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 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 reSDect !
and courtesy as white women.
But what is one to do? AS to women
of his own color he makes no discrlmi-
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
10 the cOlored women who are evidently
well bred and of good station, but dis
are always dangerous and
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 a gentleman who will discriminate.
against lady simply because she is
dark or black is not a gentleman at all.
In retaliation. therefore. these colored
men doggedly sit while white ladies are
and scenes Of this description