The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-09-01

panied with tbs one shooting affair, had
the desired effect and since then the
negroi have heen leaving ORANGE by the
Lundrscs. selling their property for what
evsr they could get for 1t. Mcs5 of them
were we'll -tO-do and owned their homes.
The mill men made many appeals to the
Governor for TROOPS and the Horss)n
Ca airy were ordered there to presrye
the peace. Ghers has been no disturbances
since, but the presence Of the trooI has
not raassured the neg who are NOV
ing out, recognizing that the whites do
not want them, and that their lives would
be very unples ant If they remained.
THIS Is the story that has come from
S ore of countiGs in Texas and par.she
In Louisiana in the last few years. and
which Is rapidly thinning out the negro
population southw s. oil the Mi IS ssippi.
The black belt, which extends from Vir-
ginia southward and wi ssward, and rur s
over into Text S las been steadily driven
back for the Lass ton years Every now
and then O disturbance is reported In
some part of this dis ,rlct. A negro is
shot, usually not more than one, and n
warning given to the "bad negroes to
leave. TEey do s., and probably good
many Others and from that time forward
there IS a more OF less steady negro emf
graft IN from that d s7rict. che con So
Quence has heen that all the coast coun-
tifs of Texfs and Louisiana have been
growing jeadily whittier ny the departure
OF tbs negro and tae coming in of
whites Wherer $ nearly all the par shes
CT Louisiana WIS ct New Orleans had a
majority of negro ten years ago, they
are white tosay; and Jshe son, plaques
MINIS, IS 1mpfiOn, Lafourche, Iberia,
st. Martin and St Landry have changed
their malaTitit from black to white. The
negro population which has been at a
san SIN, 8 DOW decree sing The
nero ara s1ut out OF many industries
al
AID ars now being crowded out of plan
tat'on work,
The oonss quence of these disturbances
and the emigration OF the negro from the
rural districts il TO drive thsm into the
towns. and particularly into New Orleans
where there has boon an extraordinarily
large increase II blacks. The census
viii show al increase CT from 45 TO SO per
cent in the cecgae, in spite of the ex-
eesstve mortality running up to 80 In
thousand year. The negro population
OF New Orleans Is not -perpstuating.
With high mortality and a low birth
rate, the negroes would soon die out, but
for the newcomers from the rural dis
tries. These are pouring in by the thous-
ands fro:l Mississippi, Louisiana aud
Texas until the problem promises to be
trouble some, and to aTouEe strong an
tagontsm to them. So far, the prejudice
has been latent, but In the last few
months there have Eeen mutterings which
promise i'll for the negroes. The con-
dition in New Orleans in this respect is
rapidly approaching that of fifty years
ago, when the city became negro by
large majority. calling forth extremely
radical legislation to make 1t white again.
At that time5 the large element of free
negroes found life in the country parishes
very unpit nsant because of the strong race
prejudice existing, whereas In New
Orleans theirs was comparative freedom
and u | r20 free eol1rsd s0ciatv kvgFy
free neg:o who couli came TO "the city,"
With the consequence that when the
census was taken 1t seemed that q major
ity OF the population was colored. This
produced such a disagrssable impress sion
that the Legislature set to work 10 reduce
the negro population of New Orleans,
which was done by such onerous laws
directed against the free negroes, as to
drive many of them to France, the
conditions of granting a slave freedoms
were such that the owner was required 20
give bond that the slave would never