The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-29
THEY ARE STILL SCARED
THAT BROOKLYN "EMISSARY"
SELF APPOINTED.
SPRUNT DENIES THAT He SENT HIM
A Wilmington kegrois Quoted by the Brooklyn
Eagle as Saying that the Refugees Will
Not Return to Wilmington Again
Under Any Conditions.

Saturday night the News ana I'D
server received a telegram from news
bureau in New York saying that AN
eanissary from Wilmington, one Elijah
Green, had been sent North by his c;il-
ployer, James Sprunt, to induce ne
gro refugees to return.
Believing the story to be n fake the
News and Observer did not print II,
but instead. it yesterday wired to Mr..
SDrunt as follows:
elijah Green in Brooklyn, \. T.,
saws YOU sent hsnn North to persuade
NEGROES to return Is it true!
Half am hour later the following an
swer was received:
wilmington, q. c., Aug. IS.
Neither Elijah Green nor any one
else has been authorized by me or by my
firm to induce refugees to return. 1
was not aware that Green had gone
North until today.
JAMES SPRUNT."
Elijah Green's story, as told IN the
Brooklyn Eagle, is this:
''Elijah Green, an intelligent colored
man belonging in Wilmington. \. c.,
HAS cUalie 10 Oal IL tuAioho
son. He has been sent North by his
employer. James Sprunt, one of tn,
largest cotton packers in Wilmington,
to try to persuade several hundred re-
fugees of last winters race war to re-
turn to Wilmington Since the race
war a steady stream of colored men
from Wilmington has been pouring into
Brooklyn. Each Wednesday and Sat
urday fresh cOresi grmnentS arrive anu
join the Brooklyn or Manhattan colo
MES of refugees until they can find enl-
ploymert either in the city or near ny.
They began to arrive here almost be-
fore the riots were finished. Some af
the men have already been able to bring
their families here. while later arrivals
are fast finding employment and are pre-
pairing to send for their wives and chtl-
siren as soon as the money is secured t.
pay their fares.
MANY of the younger men have found
employment at the summer hotels about
New York Among the refugees III this
vicinity are about oIle hundred Of
Sprunts former employees, and scatter
ed over the coast line between here and
Washington are another hundred rep
resenting nearly one7half of Spriint's
hands. many of whom had been IN his
employment all their lives. Green does
not want to talk about his MISSION, but
one Of the refugees who had been APP
preached with proposition to return,
said to the Eagle reporter today:
sssSprunt is one of the four largest
cotton pressers in Wilmington aud pas,
always been a friend of the colored peo-
pie. He is an Englishman, although his
family were identified with cotton in
terests there before his birth. SDrunt
won the gratitude of his colored en-
ployees last winter by declaring that ne
would not john the organization which
had for it's aim the determination of the
Wilmington negroes.
Ion the contrary, when our lives
were threatened Sprunt concealed sew
eral of them i'm his own fine residence
and later conveyed them in his own
closed carriage out of danger. All IFS
family i'm Wilmington have been Kind
to colored folks and il anything would
induce the refugees to go back it woui1
be gratitude to Sprunt and his promise
of work again.
81 don't believe Green win get many
of the men back again, however. They
can't get over the idea that their lives
will be threatened again if they do
Some of them who haven't work may
90 back just for the packing season. ana
get their families. The fact of it is, so
many colored men have gone away from
Wilmington that the big presses can
get enough help and the white men do
not fill the negro's place in pressing
time We used to get 81 and 10 day
during the season, which begins IN
another month. Sprunt has sent Green
rp here TO try to get his hands back by
- 4 yvhqpt no
his press day and might with two forces.
About ninety of Sprunts hands are IN
or about Brooklyn and more are coming
every day.
with the leaving of the women aud
girls Wilmington has struck such a lack
Of domestic servants that the women say
they can't get help now and there are SO
many unoceupied houses and taxes are
80 nigh that every one is kicking about
hard times Some of the refugees OWL
I'd houses in Wilmington which they
can't rent and can't sell. Many Of them
had just lost all their savings N the
Wilmington bank troubles and are begin
ming life over again here. There art1i
Asany Of them that want 20 20 back
after all their troubles, not il they nave
10 live on scraps"
Green went to Asbury Park yestcf
day 10 try 10 round up some uf Spri1nt s
hands who drifted into the hotels there.
On Monday he expects TO start for
home. stopping IN Philadelphia and in
Washington 10 apply his persuasion
nDOn Others Whether Green himself
] sin sympathy with his missiUnI he re-
fuses 10 say, but he has been ID
bprlnt's employ all his life, and other
refugees deslare that SpTluit saved his
life during the race riots last winter.
liz represents the thrifty colored ella y
that af0Ised WitnGngt0n's ire by its
progress
Touching the above Mr. Sprunt, presi-
dent ~ fiie Champion Compress Com
Dang, said
"DlR attention has been directed to
fs}e item taken from tho BROOKLYN
Eagle, With reference to an alleged ef-