Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-04-16

splendid specimens Of the negro race in
Washington, and a number Of them
are of superior intelligence. There is
large Roman Catholic church on FIJI
teenth street maintained by colored
people, and their choir is an aggrega-
ton of excellent musical talent. On
the same. street, near the white house,
there is a Presbyterian church main.
tanned by the same race of people, and
some, of its comn,unicants are quite
wealthy, many of them being promt
rent in the political world. ma
Then, at the foot of Capitol hill, not
far from the Botanical gardens, there
Is Methodist church where reyivals
are held four or Ave times each year.
Hut this church is contiguous to the
lower regions of South Washington,
and numerous scenes of disorder have
occurred there during recent years.
But the majority of the negroes are ig.
norant, poor and vicious. There are
distinct classes of them, and they are
as readily divided and discerned as are
come from the old families of Washing
ton, others from the old homes and plan
tations of Virginia and Maryland, and
few from the better classes in states
more remote. These are quiet, docile,
gentlemanly and well-bred people.
They have as much pride in their fam
lilies and family histories as the blue
bloods of the cavaliers of the southern
states. M
vVhn, ha nnn
here at the close of the civil war they
brought with them the riffraff of the
colored population of the south. The
negro camp followers did not represent
the better element of their enslaved
race. The good negroes were loyal to
their masters and mistresses. Tens of
thousands of them declined to accept
freedom, preferring to live upon the
old plantations with their white folks.
Only the worthless and vagabond classes
ran away and followed the armies. Con-
sequently, when they were sloughed
off here by the disbanding of the
armies, they became our permanent
laazaroni. They have propagated their
kind, and fully 10000 negroes of the
lower order are numbered with the
total population of the District of CO.
lumbia. They drink, carouse, steal,
violate all of the ten commandments,
and ignore all human law. Their chief
cause Of continued crime and degrade
ton is the bottle. Like the redmen who
originally inhabited this entire con-
tinent, they have fallen victims to the
demon of the still. II is the prime
cause of their woes and crimes.
you have no idea how the faithful
negroes loved their masters and homes
before the war;" says, Senator-elect
fernando d. Money! of Mississippi.
mo book ever had such sale, at that
period of our. history, as Uncle Toms
Cabin and yet it wasa dreadful ex-
aggeration of facts and conditions. It
was reallya political pamphlet; and it
produced it's effect. The worst scenes
Depicted by Mrs. Stowe were not ex-
aggerated;. but the book conveyed the
impression that those worst scenes
were of daily occurrence in the land
where slavery existed; but in reality
| they were the exception
you must remember that the black
pSoplC NS<AO AOSoiuSu W CA'SiA o"hSiS
as chattels, and they were valuable. No
man in the north who possessed horse
worth 81, 1900 would beat him to death.
No man owning a calf worth $50 would
| fay it alive. You can understand that
such q man as old Uncle Tom, faithful,
valuable and honest, would have been
easily worth $4,000; and his owner
would not carelessly drive that piece.of
property to death, after, horrible tor
ture.. On the contrary, he would keep
| Kim well fed and well clad, and look
after his health.
"Well, no matter about that now; for
slavery has gone. What was going to
tell you was about the faithfulness Of
the negroes to their masters and mis-
tresses. An old negro who had belonged
to my father, remained on the planta-
ton until after the war, and then said