The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-08-26
A TARDY CONFESSION.
THE NEGRO TREATED BETTER IN
THE SOUTH THAN IN THE NORTH.

This Is the Conclusion Reached by ZIon's
Herald, a Leading Methodist Paper Pub
lIshed In Boston-The Negro Loved at a
Distance.
Zion's Hearld of Boston reviews the
negro question in the North, but more
forcibly than it has hitherto been
done, and reaches the conclusion that
the South treats the negro great deal
better than New England does. 1t
may not be excited for his political
condition, but it takes a great deal bet
ter care of Lis physical condition.
Take Boston, for instance, which is
popularity supposed to be the most stall
wart friend Of the colore mau in the
Union. The Herald finds that the COL
ored population in that city is segre-
gated as a rule, not because of any de-
sire on the part of the negro to sepa-
rete on himself from his white breth-
rem, but because the latter do not like
have him reside in their vicinity.
Real estate agents will not sell proper
| ty in the better sections OF the town to
a coIored applicant, and he can secure
a house or lot in such quarters only by
quiet and careful scheming. To illus
trate: A Boston negro recently pur-
chased a home in Brookline, through
medium of third party. As soon as
it was known in the locality that the
newcomer was black the white neigh
bors endeavored strenuously to buy
back the property. Finally tho ne
gro sold it for twice the amount it cost
him, and then with a portion of the
proceeds purchased another house only
a few doors distant.
But 1t is jn regard to labor that the
Herald is most distressed. Massachu-
sets is willing to educate the negro,
but as soon es it educates him it wants
him to move South. The writer says:
"With years of residence in Boston we
never saw negro with the hatchet or
the trowel, nor even with the
blacksmith's apron. Doubtless there
are some, but they are few.
Here the negro carries the hod.
in the South he lays the brick and NOR
tar; here he shovels out the cellar,
there he frames the dwelling; here-he'
whitewashes the -fsGces, there he
paints the houses; here he cleans the
stable, there he shoes the horses; here
he is a common laborer, there he is an
artisan" The stores of Boston con-
tain almost no colored clerks. The
negro barber is no longer found in
first class shops. Only the work which
the white is unwilling to do falls to
the lot of the black, and not much of
that. Indeed. it is DO easy matter for
a negro to make even a meagre living
in Boston, which explains why 50 few
of them 60 North, in spite OF all the
honeyed words they hear from that
sc ctiOn.
The sc ,ial line is distinctly drawn,
at the public resorts, the hotels and
elsewhere. The negro canuot join a
club, belong to the League of Ameri-
can WIZ men, or any other similar
social o :njzation; indeed, he is be.
ing so 9. s,rs lily crowded out by the
whites, ~ given the cold shoulder,
that he is living more and more to
himself; sud thus there is growing up
not only in Boston but in every other
Northern city, and distinctive and
.erarate negro quarter, where the ne
groes live to themselves, and where
they nee ID not be thrown in any inter.
course with the Writes.
What Zion's Herald says of Boston,
and which it seems to present as a
charge against that city, which has
made so many pletenses of being de-
void of all race prejudices, is not con-
fued to Boston. The Providence
Journal. published in the second city
of New England, says that it's equally
true of Providence and remarks.
"And as it IS in Bcsfan, so it is in
other Northern cities. There is no par
ticula lar moral to be drawn from the
fact, no especial complaint to be made
on either side. If one of two dissimi.
lar races is unwilling to admit the
other to its so ,ial lite there must be
though to exist an impossible barrier
too formidable for law 10 level or for
even the moralist to iuveigh against.
Surely there is no ill.feeling entertain
ed by the whites of the North toward
the negro. Nobody wishes to deprive
him OF a single legal right. But when
it comes to the intimate and private
phases of society the white man will
erect such barries as he pleases, wheth-
er against the lacky. the Mongolian
or the uncongenial white person. This
is something outside the pale Us law,
and no amount of legislation could ef-
feet permenent or widcSpread
change. Perhaps in the future the
white citizen will have a greater re
gard, socially for his black brother
than he has at present, but not till
then will the1e +, any important al.
teration in existing condilive in amity
and neither must deny to the other its
natural rights"
This is the plain, unvsrnished truth,
and we are glad to see New England
confess it. 1t is the race question in
the South which, as the Journal de-
clares, cannot be settled by any legis'
lation, as Congress seemed TO believe
at one time. Our New England friends
see the gu stion, however, in a modi-
fed form. In a community where
there is but one negro to every hun
drsd whites, and where the African
isms have been rubbed off by inter
course with the Caucasian race the
colored msu il. naturally less objec'
tionable then he is in the s )uth, where
he forms in many localities three.
fourths, (and in some instances nine,
een-twentieths) of the population,
pnd where the white influence is so