The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-01-23


fitting his birth and station, then the
entire world in all lands and at all
times, has been and is still iii the
straight jacket of social lunacy, since
it has been the custom and practice of
all civilized people from time imme-
mortal And if it is madness, there is
method in it. In the business world
we see the world, and meet the world
on worldly footing but in our social
intercourse we want congeniality, in
timacy and friendship. While the man
who leaves beaten path of recognized
respectability for the highways and
byways of doubtful associations, may
be in himself every way acceptable, his
former friends who do not share his
cratic predictions, and to whom
such society would be neither prohta
bic nor agreeable, naturally avoid his
presence for fear of deing drawn into
uncongenial company. This the right
of every individual as we'll as of every
community.
$50 we of the North,' continues
our generous and self-constituted
guardian, "should not blame the pres
ent generation so much as we should
help to enlighten it.. This is cheerful
indeed. In the North the colored
portion of the population is only a
drop in the ocean as compared with
the South. In town of 5000 or A.
900 inhabitants here there are rarely
over fifty persons who have in their
veins the faint of negro blood and the
majority of these having more of the
Caucasion than the African, and hav-
ing enjoyed superior advantages of
education and association with the
whites, cannot be taken as fair speci-
men of the negro proper, as he revels
to-day in his original stupidity and
uncleanness. In any Southern hamlet
of the same size they would constitute
at least fifteen hundred or two thous-
and of the population. Yet The Bee
man would call npon the North, with
out even a possible acquaintance with
the negro, to enlighten the South in
regard to its treatment of people
born and reared in its bosom and
which constitutes more than half of its
population. As wellimport Hindoo
to America to interpret the Christian
religion.
While the North may not be aware
of it, it nevertheless remains a fact,
that its Jealous championship of this
mongrel and much magni6ed race is
due, mot so much to an advanced civil
cation and disinterested humanity, as
to their erstwhile bondage, which has
thrown around them the charm Of
romantic heroism and placed them be-
fore the world in the light of martyrs.
Supposing, for example, that a politi
cal war had lifted from a condition of
slavery and servitude the Chinese, Hin
docs or North American Indians, all
of whom are superior intellectually
to the African. Would the fact of their
having been ouce used and oppresse d
by a set of people with no longer
any right or power over them be any
reason why they should be raised to
the plane of social equality with those
who had been cast in finer mould,
with lottier sentiments and higher fac
ulties, and capable of following broad
er paths.
Of the negro as slave I know moth
ing, and being child of the restored
union rather than of the lost confeder-
acy,am not prejudiced in favor of ante
belluns systems. On the contrary, 1
think the principle of slavery was
wrong and that the South is now suffer-
ing from the consequences of her
great and grievous error. do know,
however, that the negro, until by ANAL
gamation the African blood in him be-
comes entirely extinct, can never rise to
the social level of the Caucasion. AS he
exists in the South to-day, he is un-
clearly, shiftless and improvident.
Virtue is to him myth and honor an
unknown quantity. His social stand
ing is measured alone by the cut and
quality of his clothes, land no crime or
disgrace, however fragrant, lowers his
standing with his dusky brethren, so
long as the sounding eloquence OF
clothes attests his prosperity and re-
spectability. That the race is fast being
merged into the white is sad admis-
sion, yet true. And with such an evil
threatening their gates the people of !
the. South cannot afford to admit |
wooden horse into their social Troy in
the form of such a precedent, as Mr..
Cable would establish.
Civily, the negro has been granted
and enjoys unmolested all the rights
of free born American citizens. He
shares the undisputed liberty of the
sleeping car and the passenger coach.
He may attend the public theatre and
stop at public hotels. But 1t is noticea-
bic that in select circles, alike in the
north, south, east and west, the African
is vigorously excluded. AS case in
point, l see that banquet was given
last week in Chicago in honor of Mr.. |
Rosewater, and that the occasion was
graced by the presence of no less a !
parsonage than his friend Nine. Patti |
Nicolini. Among other conspicuous
features Of the entertainment was the
absence of any colored guests among
that distinguished company.
Is this prejudice? No An African is
as much out of place in the select cir
Giles of the Caucasion as a jack -daw in
a flock of peacocks. No one questions
the right of the negro to mingle in So
ciety provided he is wanted there, but
what stir there would be in northern
social circles were there issued
a royal edict proclaiming that negroes