The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-08-26
A TARDY CONFESSION.
THE NEGRO TREATED BETTER IN
THE SOUTH THAN IN THE NORTH.

| Herald, y Leading Methodist Paper Pub.
llshed in Eoston-The Negro Loved at q
Distance.
lions 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 4 great deal
better than New England does. Il
may not be excited for his poiitica
condition, but it takes great deal bet
ter care of Lis physical condition.
Take Boston, for instance, which is
popularity supposed to be the most stal.
wart friend of the colored man 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'
rate on himself from his white breth.
ren, 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
coIored applicant, and he can secure
house or lot in such quarters only by
quiet and careful schening. To illus.
trate: a Boston negro recently pur'
chased 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 endeayored strenuousl y 10 buy
back the property. Finally the 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 It is in regard to labor that the
Herald is most distressed. Massachu-
sets is willing to educate the negro,
but as soon as 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 somes but they are few.
Here the negro carries the hod.
in the South he lays the brick and NOR,
tar; here he shovels cut the cellar,
there he frames the dwelling; here he
whitewashes the fences, there he
paints the houses; here he cleans the
stable, there he shoes the horses; here
he is 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 so few
of them 60 North, in spite of all the
honeyed words they hear from that
section.
The social line is distinctly drawn,
fat t faat=th the public resorts, the hotels and
elsewhere. The negro cannot join q
club, belong to the League of Ameri
can Wheelmen, or any other similar
social organization; indeed, he is be.
ing so generally crowded out by the
whites, so given the cold shoulder,
that he is living more and more to
himself; and thus there is growing up
not only in Boston but in every other
Northern city, and distinctive and
separate negro quarter, where the ne
groes live to themselves, and where
they need not be thrown in any inter.
course with the whites.
What lions Herald says Of Boston,
and which it seems to present as a
charge against that city, which has
made so many pretenses OF being de,
void of all race prejudices, is not con-
fined to Boston. The Providence
Journal, published in the second city
of New England, says that tits equally
true of Providence and remarks.
And as it is in Boston, so it is in
other Northern cities. There is no par
ticular 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 social life there must be
thought to exist an impossible barrier
too formidable for law to level or for
even the moralist to inveigh 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 barrles as he pleases, Wheth-
er against the lacky. the Mongolian
or the uncongenial white person. This
is something outside the pale Of law,
and no amount of legislation could ef-
feet permanent or widespread
change. Perhaps in the future the
white citizen will have j greater re-
gard, socially, for his black brother
than he has at present, but not till
then will there be any important al
teration in existing condiliye in amity
and neither must deny to the other its
natural rights. %
This is the plain, unyarnished 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 question, however, in q modi-
fled form. In community where
there is but one negro to every hun
dred whites, and where the African
isms have been rubbed OFT by inter
course with the Caucasian race the
colored man is naturally less objec-
tionable than he is in the South, where
he forms in many localities three
fourths, (and IN some instances nine,
teen-twentieths} of the population,
and where the white influence is so
small that it has not been possible to
civilize him, but where he still fire.
quently remains, in his habits, ideas
and general characteristics, an Afri-
can savage.
If Boston and New England draw
the color line they cannot be surprised
at the view the South takes OF the ne
gro evil, which is sixty fold greater
| paro 4bo+ bnior tho ralotiva Tr0nOr.