The Afro-American., 1896-04-18
Dr.. Hall on the Rack
UNCLE PECKWECK SCORES A
POINT.
The appointment Of General FIt1-
hugh Lee pleases Him.
The Editor OF the baltimore News
Makes q Mis- take.

I. On Friday evening of last wee
quite a large audience assembled
the Monumental Assembly Room, &c
ner st. Paul and Center SITS. to pt
tronize the concert given for the ben,
fit of the Provident Hospital. TIL
concert was very good and the partiC
ipants acquitted themselves mos
ereditably. The Dean of the Facult
of the Hospital, Dr. r. NJ. Hall, tool
occasion to return thanks for the lib
eral patronage bestowed, and ais
thanked those who had most kindl
given their service without charge to
ward making the entertainment th
success that it was Unfortunatel,
DIR. Hall talked little too much ant
that not very wisely. 1t was mos
unkind in him, to put it mildly, tC
take advantage of the Occe sion, to in
cidentally reflect on the AFRO AMER
ICAN, by the erroneous insinuation
that the cOlOred people of Baltimore
were without mouth-piece in the
sdape of newspapers to chronicle the
progress and advance of the race from
time to time. We hate to say that
the attack was Willful and most un-
grateful upon his part, and yet it il
hardly conceivable that it is possible
| to charge up such language to simple
| ignorance. For is it possible that Or.
! Hall is ignorant of the presence in the
| journalistic field of the AFRO-AMERI-
CAN? Doubtless the AFRO-AMERICAN
is not what it ought to be in many re-
| spects, but the same is equally true,
in far greater degree, of the institu-
tion which DIR. hall represents, yet
nevertheless it is the best the race has
and is in every way worthy of the pa
tronage and commendation of the
race.
~
The AFRO AMERICAN has been true
to the varied interests of the race.
and has ever used it's columns to stim-
ulate racial possibilities and encour-
age every effort put on foot to inn
prove and enhance our commercial
and business standing as a people. If
the Doctor will have the 'cOndesen-
tiOn' to drive up to the office of the
AFRO-AMFRICAN and inspect the var
iOus departments of activity, and see
with his own eyes the number of col
ored men and women employed by
this Company, and with What credit
and abominate his 'recen1" 4 they per
made under excitement and the bane-
full influences of too much "egotism.
~
The appointment by the President
of the United States, of General Fitz-
hugh Lee of Virginia, a Southern
Democrat, as Consul general to Hav-
anna, will be hailed with special de-
light and admiration by Afro-Ameri-
leans who know General Lee. Gen'l
Lee is type of class of hioh-toned
Southern men, who without compar1-
son are by far the very best friends the
Southern negro has, This is strong
language and we mean every word we
say. When General Lee was governor
of Virginia the colored people of that
state felt that he who was governor
was their governor, and no cOIored
man who has ever had occasion to
visit Fitzhugh Lee at the Capitol at
Richmond, has anything but words
of the highest praise for man, who
was in very fact a gentleman. Ills
gracious manners, suave and most
comfortable and easy bearings when
delivering diplomas to our cOlOred
Young ladies at commencement exer-
cises. and his practical recognition of
the fact that virtue, moral excellence,
intellectual worth and real character
are not wholly confined to white
skins, forever lifts that courteous and
refined gentleman from the narrow
grove of a Southern hunkeY. We all
ways feel supremely happy in the ele-
walton of such men to office.
The Baltimore News of last Satur-
day afternoon had a very pleasing
short editorial squib with respect to
our public schools and cOlOred teach
ers 1t is certainly evident from the
beautiful and gracious tone of the edi
torial in question that the editor of
that paper is mistaken in his inter
pretatiOn of the Brennan Cargill
school ordinances as recently passed
the CITY Council aud signed by the
Honorable Mayor. We fully agree
with the News, but our only and sin
cere regret is that the News interpre-
tation of that act is not the law While
we thank the News most heartily for
it's timely warning to the School
Board, respecting carrying out the
matter in perfect good faith. " We
must at the same time venture the
| most earnest hope that our able, fair
and just contemporary will seize the
opportunity for doing the colored peo
pie of Baltimore a good service, by
demanding that the ordinance already
passed be SO amended as to bear the
practical Interpretation so generously
in mated by the News.
The editorial to winch we have just
referred, taken from the News of last
| Saturday is as follows:
when the o dina1ce for the re-
placement of white by colored teach
ers in the coIored schools was under
consideration, in the shape in which
| it involved the discharge Of white
/ teachers now filing the posit cns, the
News urgently objected to a course
| which was fraughC with needless in
| justice, The ordinance has since
been modified, and b As now been
signed BIZ the Mayor It'll a form ln
which tho colored teae sers will De
/ in6roduesd gradually, as vacancies
arise in white schools to which the
white teachers can be transI errsfha