The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-12-23
A CnInred COr,iaY.

While women have figured among the
thousands of martyrs who have sacri-
feed home, and even life, to noble
cause, there are few, If any, cases IN
which colored women have figured in
that light. But one has now risen from
among that race, and is now in Boston.
She is Miss Ida =. Wells, whose home is
Memphis, Tenn. She is the Charlotte
Corday of her people, who for the pub
lie good $50 she cOnScientiOusly
thOughtl asSassinated the MaratS
of Memphis in fiery, denun-
ciatOry editorial, cOndemning the bar
barrie lawIessness Of lynching in The
Free Speech, of which she was the CdI-
tor. Like all martyrs to a cause, the
torrent of her convictions SwLpt away
all cautiOusness, and to-day she is an
exile from her home, and threatened
with hanging or burning at the stake,
should she return in twenty years, by
the lawlesS mob whom she denounced
in The Free Speech. The salvation of
the colOred people of the South may yet
come through wOman."-BostOn
HERALD.
Nowhere except in "c:Ilchawed
Bosting" could the halo Of Llartyr-
dom encircie the kinky head OF 1ua
Wells But martyrs are cheap in
Boston. The tffete civilization of
that city of thiu-iegged scholars and
glass-eytd females finds pleasant
mental diversion in wOrshipping at
The large fiat feet of la b. Wells,
and in cTOwDing her kinks with
flowers from the cOn-erVatories Of
the elite. 1t will also be II blessing
to the Rev. 10 Cook and other SEN
saUioUal pulplters who get their
texts from the newspapers and make
partisan stuUp speeches to their con-
gregations in the name of religion.
So tar as this Wells wench is cOn-
Il -, L ia, OF
"A ong with Charlotte Corday rests
upon very fragile foundation. She
was never the editor of Free Speech,
though she was the mistress of the
scoundrel who was-which in Boston
may probably be regarded as the
same thing The editor of this
obscene publication printed in his
paper IA puerile article containing Il
gross and scandalOus libel upon the
virtue of Southern womanhOod. The
people of Memphis had borne with
this wretch's iuflammatory appeals 10
the vicious of his race, but this last
was beyond human endurance. He
saved himself by throwing the re-
spOnsibility upon the black harlot
who is now starring the North in the
character Of Charlotte COrday, and
who seems to be the reignjng belle OF
the season in Boston society. Ida
Will probably gather In goodly store
of Ehekels out OF the Charlotte Cor
day business. People who would not
give five cents TO a starving beggar
will open their purses to this ne-
gress, and if she doesn't come off
with white husband we shall be
surprised. The same spirit that
caused the same class of people TO
worship old John Brown Will make
them worship Ida b. Wells. John
Brown was applauded not for the
mere fact that he WAS a thief and
murderer, but because his victims
were Southern people; because lie
came to give the South over to muir.
der, rapiue and massacre, to butcher
women and children in their beds
and feed the hate of the Puritan bt-
got with the blood of his enemies.
Ida Wells is woTshipped as the liCen
tious defamer of Southern women
The obscene fifth that flows from her
pen is chaste aud classic literature
to these people. 1t is ont of such raw
material that Boston Puritans make
their heroes and herOines; and
whether it be Ida Wells or John
Brown, the harlot or the thief, they
have always a leader worthy of their
principles and of their cause.-Mem-
phis Commercial.