Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1893-07-25
Negro and White.

DR.. Laferty's most incisiye style.
Among other things he says:
A Southern Methodist Adrocate has
this incident: In village of the cotton
belt big burly black rode up to store,
and said to the owner, ''Let this man
(pointing to poor white laborer) have
two dollars worth of goods and charge
| it to me-" This transaction may fret
the reader but it has a wide signif-
canoe.
The northern people, during the war,
were drawn towards the plantation
peasautry of the South. The lot of the
fat and fun-loving negro-the happlest
working class on earth-was for years
pictured as bitter bondage; the slave
was presented as longing for freedom,
and during the war praying through
the nights for the coming OF the nation
al troops. These moving, though mis-
taken fancies, and much more OF the
same sort, stirred the philanthropic
heart of the cotton-thread millionares,
and the rich army contractors turned
yirtuous. a great sum was sent South
for the education of the negro. Its ex-
penditure, in the main, helped the ne
gro. 1t was wisely directed that these
donations should have practical turn.
What was the outcome? We lind IN
nearly every southern State the negro
boys of the brighter sort in training
schools. A Dir. Slater gave mil
lion for negro instruction. Not
dime of it goes to school
which has not department for teach
ing the mechanical trades to the
negroes. This education in handicratt
has been going on for third of a cen
turv. In the meantime, the negro, re-
ported in the census, is growing rapidly
as citizen with home and decent IN
come-a thrifty member of society.
Moreover the southern Commonwealths
began after the war to tax the white
property holders heavily to educate the
sons of the non-taxpaying negro. The
negro had been accustomed to live in u
hut and on "peas and middlin'." The
demand at the close of the war was for
muscle.
The negro laborcr received as much
money for his coarse work as the ex-
soldier of Lee. The white man con-
sumed more of his earnings in house
rent, clothing and food, hence he could
not spare his son to the school. lie
needed the boy at the pillow 10 aid in
bringing up the family. The negro boy
first learned in the free schools" It
read and write, then he learned IL
these technical schools how to MAKE
fine shoes. buggies, saddles, etc. We
saw an elegant gater on the foot OF
Bishop Haygood (when agent of the
Slater FUND.- made by q student of q
school helped by that endowment.
The newspapers recently reported
that the private secretary OF Hon. MIR.
Blount, of Georgia, representing the
President of the United States in the
Hawaiian Islands, would shortly mar
~ the daughter of a rich Chinaman OF
Honolulu. This educated young gen.
tleman and of social standing seeks an
alliance with an ex-cooly-a pig-eyed
pagan. Who will dare say that the
olive.colored octoroons and quadroons,
the bright mulattoes, the heiresses OF
wealthy men of mixed blood, will not
be sought in the next century by impe-
cunious, thriftless and idle young men
of the white race The negro maidens
are seen at certain colleges for women
of high grade in the North. Wherein
to will this grow?
Consider the future of the triendless
and fatherless boy Of the white race in
the South. Can he pay $500 to attend
the Stevens Institute in New York :?
Can he command money for board and
raimant while student at any State
school with q small annex of tools and
shop? He hasn't money enough to
buv even a railroad ticket to such
college.
The grandchildren of warlike men
with historic names, who made the
southern army synonym of dauntless
courage, are drifting towards the helot
class and in the century dawning there
will come to pass social conditions that
would stir the corpses in the jackets OF
grey.
No man has seen the harvest from
the sowing after Appomattox. The
statesmen" among us robbed the ex-
soldier of Lee to educate black competi-
tors of his children. Then northern
millionaires, in hatred Of the parolled
citizens, have endowed colleges of tools
and machines to equip the ex-slaye to
surpass and subjugate the sons of the
Confederate in the struggle for the best
paw and position in the skilled trades.
1t is condition and not theory that
confronts US.
Thoughtful men do not contest the
fact of repulsive and abhorrent prob
ability threatening the civilization of
the South. We have seen as near as q
few years ago, in the capital of Fir-
ginia, a negro consulted as to the sta
tutcs on public education, and, likely
enough, his opinions had weight in pre-
pairing the order sent to the teachers in
the State schools. We have seen
white coachman opening the carriage
door for negro and his family, and
with humble motion in every limb,
while the ex-slave gave orders to the
cringing lackey. This groom stood
with hat off until the last little negro
was seated in the coach.
Social movements are not diverted
or retarded by hysteric protest. They
advance along the schedule of natural
laws. The clumsy, unframed, unskil-
ed 90 to the bottom in the contest for
bread and the good things of life. The
weak, in equipement for the work the
world wishes done, are thrust against
the wall. The laws of demand and
supply are heartless and sure as the
laws of gravity.