The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-10-26

was a great mistake Oh the part of the
north to think Otherwise great blum
der.
| A Glance Backward.
At this point the conversation took
| biographical and personal turn, with
some amusing "reminiscences of war and
| reconstruction. Mr.. Scruggs WIS born
near Knoxville, Tenn, in 1884, entered
| college at 10, was admitted to the bar
at 81, was the principal of an academy
/ at % and III 1861 took editorial charge
| Of the Columbus (Ga.) Sun just before
the war began. His wife was a Miss
| Potts of Virginia, and both lay some
stress upon the fact that in the bitterest
period of the war they We're never mo-
Tested Or insulted and not even subject
ed to social ostracism during the recon-
struction era. The Scruggs family were
"original abolitionists" nearly 100 years
ago. cit is strange, but a fact, - said
| Mr.. S., "that all over the south were
natives who were never ostracized for
their Union sentiments. Inever denied
( my views when asked, and although I
disapproved of the reconstruction laws
| in many details advocated acceptance
| as the best we could do. Bob Toombs
said to me. You being a good old
J southerner saved you. If you had been
a Yankee, we'd have hanged you, sure.
But the southerners respect a man who
| is consistent and firm. I've seen the
| time when Governor Joe Brown couldn't
! go along the sidewalks for fear of in
| suit and stuck to his carriage, but when
/ it was over the men who had been ready
/ to shoot him joined in sending him to
! the United States senate. But there
was never a day that was mOlested or
! lnsulted Oh, Atlanta is the most liber-
! al place in the south, or in the nation,
for that matter, and the most progress
i've. So this exposition is bound to be
a great success, but I'm sorry they did
not get it ready sooner. :"
And so am Very sorry. e is far
from pleasant to go from a building
where all is complete and attractive
and find the next one in disorder, and
it is quite unpleasant to get absorbed in
some work and be jabbed in the back
! by a scantling in the hands Of a negro
who is exercising the habit of his race
in walking one way and looking another.
The Attendance.
The irregular attendance is surprising.
One day there is a grand turnout,
Illumination at night, rendition of clas-
steal chimes on the bells, and all that
sort of thing, because of the arrival of
some states editorial association or
some other gang The next the paid adj
missions are less than 500 On the first
cool evening l made the rounds, and
though the park was handsomely light
ed I'll take my oath there were not 800
persons in it, and in one hour on the
Midway I saw but five visitors. 1t was
cold enough for an overcoat, and the
| view of the orientals was both painful
and amusing, especially at the Chinese
theater, where the melancholy ''Johns''
sat in their tragedy costumes in chilly
fxedness while the shouter proclaimed
| from time to time that the performance
would begin in few minutes One
could have bought concessions dog cheap.
One interesting fact 1 have noted on
tho Midway is that travel and educa-
ton are fast destroying the local pecul-
| iarities of Americans. There is, of
course, a difference in accent between
north and south, bat our great middle
class dress and act very much alike in
all the states, and the ''Hoosier' and
''Suclzer,'' the pike y the ''Yahoo''
| and the ''Cracker'' seem Fastening to
extinction. Even the negro dialect is
fast dying out. 1t seems to me that the
colored folks Of 25 years or thereabout
talk just like their white fellow citi-
zens. Old residents insist that [ am
mistaken in this, but just the same I
believe that # they could hear a white
man and black man of the recent
school era talk without seeing them it
would puzzle them to distinguish. III
| many other respects, however, the in
| nate characteristics of the two races
seem just as distinct as they did CEN
tury ago. Mrs. Scruggs, wife of the emil
nent diplomat above reported, gavo me
! 4 very curious and instructive account
Of two colored girls and two white girls
of good family brought up together and
taught the same Bible lessons from in
fancy. The latter are now among the
most estimable ladies in the state, while
the former at maturity had somehow
| developed every one of the old African
superstitions and followed the way of
their ancestors without having been
taught it. All of which goes to prove
Herbert spencer theory that the growth
of q race is 20 or 30 times as slcH as
that of an individual
President CIeveIand's Day.
Speaking Of big days, enc of the big
gest was that ON which the Minnesota
editors were received. There were some
200 of them, with goodly array of la
dies. They were out for fun and rather
took the exposition by storm. On the
same day the Georgia Bar association
convened, and Jim Corbett and his gang
arrived for a nights exhibition, so ev-
cry class of Atlantans was made happy
Another gra9d occasion was the dedica-
ton of the Woman's building, and now
all are looking forward to the 21st as
President Cleveland's day and probably
tho ora1idost of the soason The mann