The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-11-24

| In those old days at the Office Of The
| North Star / used to see many of the men
whose names are now inscribed on the
I pages of history by reason of their early
/ Identification with the abolition move
ment. There were Gerrit Smith and VIII
liam Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phil
lips and other lesser lights. Garrison and
Phillips disagreed in later years with
4 Douglass but then they were among his
! stanchest supporters. Another man whom
! 1 remember very we'll. and who wore a
/ long beard and had piercing eyes, came to
the office one day. His name was Brown
John Brown of Osawatomie. His per-
sonality was very strongly impressed upon
me. He and Douglass had many long and
secret talks, and finally Brown went away
suddenly one morning. Two or three of
us who were in the Office (James Wick was
/ one-it was while / was still an appren-
tice and he was foreman) agreed among
ourselves that quite likely Brown would
be heard from somewhere later. Well, sure
enough, he was, as all the world knows,
for in a fortnight or two the news of the
Harper's Ferry raid was sent over the
country. A few days after that it became
unsafe for Douglass to remain in the Unit
ed States, and he was got across the Nj
agara river TO Clifton, Canada. There he
staid for some weeks till enough money
could be raised to get him to England.
There he remained until the excitement
over his supposed implication in John
Browns conspiracy blew over. l have
never known just how much Douglass
knew about the Harper's Ferry raid, but l
suppose he knew all about it. 1t was my
duty to act as messenger between Rock
ester and Clifton while Douglass was at
the latter place l carried letters to him
and brought letters from him, and it was
! who carried the money to him when it
was finally raised that enabled him to
cross the sea. During his absence Julia
Griffith and myself ran the paper, the
name of which had been changed TO Fred
Douglass PAPER When / saw Douglass
last year at the Worlds fair, we talked all
this over and Douglass seemed to be in
tensely impressed by the enormous changes
that had taken place since the days of the
old North Star, changes in the bringing
about of which he certainly had a great
deal TO do"
Douglass and His Family.
1t appears from what is said by those
who remember Douglass and bis family in
they were not received socially, excepting
by the Quakers and others who were ardent
abolitionists, they were by them accorded
every courtesy that was extended to any
white family The first Mrs. Douglass
was a full blooded negress. She was not
her husbands equal intellectually by any
means, and she did not care TO go with
him to all the places from which he re-
al INV 10
popular, even among proslavery men. This
was largely due to his unvarying suavity
and mis- absolute mastery of himself 1t
is remembered with great unanimity by
all his old time acquaintance with whom
have talked that he never lost his tenn
per in any discussion Of the abolition ques-
ton; that he was always courteous and
gentlemanly even under the MOST trying
circumstances, and that he counted among
his warmest personal friends some of the
men who were strongest in their opposi
tion to the movement for the freeing of the
slaves. For some years Rochester was an
nually agitated from center to circumfer-
ence by the question as to where and how
the children of Frederick Douglass should
be educated. His daughter, Rose was one
of the brightest young girls in the city,
szllu ltOuSidsS CDJtCttu 10 DelDR S6Lb To
the school which was provided especially
FOR the children of colored parents. One
year the majority of the school board were
proslavery men, and they decided that
Rose must go TO the negro school. Doug
lass had no idea Of submitting to the de-
cision, and so he went before the board.
The eloquence of that man., said
venerable member of that old time school
board yesterday, lin pleading that his
child should have all the privileges as to
education that would have been accorded !
her if her skin had been white was simply !
wonderful. l have never listened to any
thing approaching it either before or since |,
Yet at no time did he make use of any |
harsh terms; at no time was there the !
faintest trace of bitterness in his words. |
He simply set before US his desires as a |
resident and a father with all the skill /
that master of language could command |
admit that we had definitely determined |
not to give him what he asked, though I !
am ashamed Of it now, but we could not !
resist his persuasive words. When we |
came TO take a vote, permission for his .
daughter, Rose, to attend the public |
schools of Rochester was unanimously /
granted"
Douglass present wife, white woman,
was born in Honeoye, a few miles south
Of here, but few ROchesterianS know her
l. d. MARSHALL