The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-06-10
SALEM
a FINE ADDRESS.
Colonel Mcclure Talks About
the Negro Problem.
ROANOKE TIMES BUREAU,
HOTEL LUCERNE, SALEM, VA.


of the Philadelphia Times.
Colonel Mcclure, who was introduced
by DR.. Dreker, is robust old gentle
man with fringe of silvery hair,
powerful frame, an intellectual cast of
countenance and large head with I'M
bounded holding capacity. He spoke
measuredly without notes, and his
utterances impressed one as the eX-
pressions of deep settled convictions.
His themes were achievements of the
closing century and the possibilities and
probabilities of the approaching TWEEN
tieth century.
''You are too often told" he said to
the young men, sin the newspapers,
upon the platform and even in the pull
pit, that this is a dangerous age. 1t is
not true. You are told that politics are
debauched. Grover Cleveland and James
G. Blaine or Grover Cleveland and Ben
jamiD Harrison are lambs of amiability
compared with Washington and the
elder Adams in their bitter strife. The
ablest speech | ever heard was that Of
Robert Ingersoll in nominating James
G. Blaine for the presidency. Yet when
the stamp of inf deity was fixed upon
Ingersoll .hc was hurled from the coun-
ellis of his party
Concerning the negro question, the
it will be for you to solve the race prob
lem. We. at hessNorth. could not solve
it if we would. and would not if we
could. The time has come when the
North shall not interfere with the South
in its settlement We shall even say no
interference shall come to you in your
settlement of it. Applause.
The silver-haired men on this plat
form will not live to see it. 1t will be
for you to solve it, to solve it in peace
and to solve it in Justice.
The generation lived in had slavery
for it's legacy. and this was the only
nation in the world where tho slaves
were better off than they are to-day. If
we had to deal with it at the North,
feel sure chat the black man would fare
much worse than he would in the South
When l read in Northern papers &C
counts of brutal negro murders in the
South | remember that in my native
home the first time 1 ever voted there
three negro voters were murdered and
not murderer ever punished.
The prejudice of cost is the same
North as it is South, but the prejudice
of race is tenfold strongeru in tho North
than it ever has been in the South
The negroes in Philadelphia, said the
speaker, held The balance of political
power there, and yet they have never
venturned 20 be candidate for a re-
spectacle office there. Such thing
would beat the party in the strongest
ward in the city.
Colonel Mcclure referred to the seek
ing after new standards Of faith in re-
ligious fields The question is TO be
''what is truth?" Assemblies may re-
move from theological schools, teachers
who are seeking the truth, but the
search will still 60 on, and againhe in
tulcated advancement in inventions
educated mechanics. Half of Sl2,O 900
lawyers in Philadelphia didn't make
living, yet there was not frst-c1ass
electrician in the city.
THE ALUMNI ADDRESS.
Commencement is at fever heat.
Youth, beauty, flowers, sunshine, moon
light, music, love, shady groves, prom
enades, young heroes soft applauding
little hands, renewed friendships. old
time memories, shadowy recollections
of those that sleep, orators, medals,
A. BIS, ID. DIS l.. l.. DIS, valedictorics,
good-bys-the eternal concomtants of
commandments, from the time that.
time was to the present.
Probably no commencement at Roa-
noke College was ever more Thoroughly
enjoyed that the 3Sth.
Yesterday morning Judge James w.
Marshall, of Craig, more familiarlv and
aztec tionately known as "Cyclone Jim"
was over to adore IS the Alumni Asso.
citation instead of Rev. James M. SNYDER,
New Market, who could not be present.
The old Roman soldier who closed up
the breach by riding into it to his death,
differed from Judge Marshall in that
the judge tore the breach into which he
rode in his storm of oratory all to
flinders, and when all was over nothing
was to be seen but Judge Marshall
lie is rightly nom dc plumed. His ora.
tory is cyclonic; no cyclone that over
whelmed Western town was ever
moro impromptu than Judge Marshalls
cyclone of oratOry, nor more pitiless.
The speakers characteristics were
wildly like those of Tom Marshall, OF
Kentucky. Indeed the Judge told THE
TINES correspondent that he and the
brilliant Kentuckian both belong to
the same family.
Judge Marshall's is tall and power
fully built. He has ruddy counter.
ance. a mischievous blue eye. a Roman
nose, and his moustache and short
croppy beard have caught the glow
from the flames of eloqucnce that evsr
flash near by and continually reflect
them. Clad in long Prince Albert,
without any cuffs, and wearing black
and turndown collar, the speaker
strobe about the platform, stormed.
cycloned and hurricaned. 1t must be-
remembered that he was at home in
the ola town OF his college days among
the now gray-haired boys, his associ-
ates then; among the staid townspcople
whom he and his colleagues had often
frightened and angered and shocked