Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-02-09
The Negro At the Capital.


The Washington correspondent of
the Boston Transcript is giving the
seaders Of that paper some very unwel-
come facts concerning the $4,000
negroes who reside in the District of
Columbia.
For years the negroes of Virginia
and Maryland have been iocking to the
federal capital. They own but little
property. and most of them work only
enough to keep body and soul together.
Especially is this true OF the women,
who are far more thriftless and shiftless
than the men, and altogether more
vicious. The younger generation of
negro women are averse to domestic
service, and it is rare thing to find a
good cook among them.
The proportion of crime among these
people is enormous. Atone time there
were eleven negro murderers in the
Washington Jail, all of whom had been
brought up in freedom. Before the
war there were not eleven murders
committed by slaves in the whole Unit
ed States in year. Emancipation,
says this Boston papers correspondent,
has turned the most peaceable and law.
abiding people in the world into the
most criminal race in this or any other
civilized country, and it has, moreover,
made them a race Of idlers. The only
idea of civilization that a negro has is
to learn how to read and write. In
Washington the Jail is filled mainly
from the ranks of these educated
negroes. Their leaders preach the
doctrine of resistance toslaw, and some
of them last year declared that for ev-
cry negro shot by policeman a white
man should be killed. Three police
men were killed by negroes last year.
and highway robbery is on the increase.
Surely, no such terrible indictment
of the negro race is to be found these
days in the southern papers. 1t is in a
reputable Boston journal that we find
these statements, with the additional
comment that all the money spent for
the education of these people simply
makes them more criminal and more
dangerous.
The average southerner will not hes
itate to say that the correspondent of
the Transcript has drawn too black a
picture. 1t may be that the conges-
ton of the negro population in Wash
.ripgton and disposition to look to the
government for relief has had bad
effect, but in the south at large the
Negroes are far from being hopelessly
, lazy and thoroughly criminal. Per-
haps their education has been forced
too rapidly, but in Georgia and other
Z southern states they are moderately
eindustrious and are becoming a race of
home-owners. Their progress is slow,
but still there is distinct advance ev-
efy Hecade, and the situation is calcu-
lztef to inspire hope.
If q proper effort should be made to
/ induce the negro population of Wash
IT tngt6a TO distribute itself in other towns
and in the rural districts. the result
would be beneficial to all round. We
commend this view to the northerners
who are allowing their disappointed
eYDecfatiOns cOncerninp the negroes to
hissithsit judgment to an unjust ex-
tfsmeoi 1.-THE negroes are judiciously
Jet alone, and left to work out their
fseNn zdestiBS. all will be well. The
wholes tsoubie is caused by the med
ding of outsiders who know nothing
abe0t thie@ peculiar race. Too much
| ,pefAipgs 100 much forced education are
4asaE5 Atfanta (Ga.) Constitution.