The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-10-31

IL the views or educated negro leaders
of the South be taken as token of the
tendency of negro hopes or expectations,
certainly, in the recent paper by the ne
gro bishop Gaines, the South has out
lined for it a programme that is no less
than startling.
This negro looks to race blending in
the South as the means through which
the color line will finally disappear. Mis-
cegenation is then the audacious remedy
laid down by this impudent spokesman.
1t is well to have such utterances as
these, and specially is it well that
they should be given such publicity as
was involved in their publication last
Sunday in the Washington Post. 1T
does away with the idle dreams INDUCED
in by mistaken young men who seek the
applause of New England diners. AT
these dinners the negro problem disap-
pears with the wine, but then in the
morning they may read the hopes and
desires of some Bishop Gaines with
ustrous report of the orator of the eve
ming. America has little room for and
little tolerance with "'Calamity James,
but the vision must be confused of those
who live in the South and who intelii-
gently study conditions who do not see,
also, that the negro problem seems to in
crease in an almost geometrical ratio.
Instead of solving it, it is becoming more
complex; instead of looking back upon
ills that are past, we seem but upon the
threshold of worse ills to come. This
ridiculously false statement touching
miscegenation by this negro matters lit
tie except as a confession Of the secret
ambitions and desires of the negro. This
negro says that "the process OF race
blending is going ON so fast that ere
many decades there will be scarcely any
pure blacks left in the country" Time
was when seemingly the aristocratie
family of the South did not consider it
self complete without the quadroon or
octaroon annex. 1t was a blot on the
civilization of the South, but it was
fact. The descendants OF such men of
the old South now boast of it and are by
virtue of inherited qualities of force
leaders of their race. This bemish to-
gether with the wine-cup and the race
track were in those merry days of master
and slave the point of many a CHEEKY
Jest. These things seemed to belong to
the time. But what was passed by then
with shrug and a smile would now cost
conditioned in the South. No figures are
needed to strengthen this statement; it
is known of all. Therefore, of all the
remedies and possibilities Of the negro,
this is the one of which there can be no
possible danger. At any rate there is
no fear of this. But there may very we'll
be apprehension when a negro holding
the high position among his race of this
Inrnlrne in al frgntaTv a IN
house such a hope. If such affrontery
were cnfned to this statement, it might
be well: it is cropping out everywhere.
1t were needless here to do
more than mention the matter
of rapes. Some idea may be
gotten of the negro's attitude when it is
stated that up to October 18th there had
been for the year 107 lynchings, which.
in recent years. have been fractional in
proportion to the legal hangings for the
aggravating offense.
Mr.. Oscar W. Blacknall, of Kittrelrs,
some weeks ago expressed his views on
this subject of lynching in a way to at
tract thoughtful attention, and dear old
Bill Arp just about registered the con-
sengus of opinion on the subject. / do
not attempt to add anything to what
either of these gentlemen has said, but
by way of a diversion or parenthesis, let
me say this: l very much doubt wheth-
er the negro has evolved into that sensi-
tiveness to moral obligation which en-
abIes him to see that rape is crime
very much to be reprehended. | make
this statement after an observation that
has been somewhat varied and extensive,
which observation was quite confirmed
during my attendance as q reporter upon
the Brodie trial The negroes Of the
town Of Henderson, the bulk Of them,
I believe. from their behavior, suppressed
though it was, both during the trial and
the execution, looked upon this villain
Brodie as one who received punishment
greater than was called for by his crime.
Their sympathies in mass, were with
him, as they are generally of negroes
with every rapist. 1t is only necessary TO
observe the negro closely for anyone to
come to this conclusion. Emotional as
they are, they stood stolid, rather venge-
full to my eye, during the whole of the
heart-rending recital of Brodie's victim.
The conclusion, cumulative though 1t
must have been, then forced itself upon
me in q flash: these negroes cannot see
the Nervousness of the crime this man
haslcommitted, and punishment by hang
ing instead of leaving wholesome i'm
preston leaves them with the sting Of
imagined injustice. And herein lies the
difficulty. 1t but discovers the low level
Of the race which we are supposed 10
accept on an equality civilly. If this
premise be true, it would seem that there
could be no demonstration by the whites
too startling, if only the result could by
some shock, if possible, bring home to
the negro the appalling nature of the
deed of which he has been guilty. 1t
may be that the desperate resentment
of the whites may often get better en-
trance into a negro's mind through the
outrage expressed in a lynching than in
an orderly hanging, where, from black
ened hillsides around, the man is
lead to the scaffold in the
midst Of lamentations Of hysterical
negresses and the viciously sympathetic