The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-08-03


/ stop to I.yrclling in the south. but
Nothing Said About Stopping the
| crimes Which Provoke Lynclling-
Getting Cheap NOtoriety ut the EX-
prnSe of Womanly ModpSty and
| Public Respect.
! baltimore SUM
! Miss Lillian CLAYTON Jewett, =
Boston, who on Sunday, July 1G. sap-
! peared before 4 negro audience in
that city and made a speech on South
rrn lynchings. takes exception to the
editorial comments of the Sun on the
sub ject and sends us a letter of pro-
test, published in another colnmn of
this issue, in which she claims that
the SIN has misrepresented her, and
in which she endcavors to explain and
defend her recent address.
The SIN has not misrepresented
Miss Jewett, unless she has been mis-
represented by the reports of her
speech in the papers of her own city.
Her letter to the San is in a far more
moderate and conservative vein than
the language used in her Boston ad-
dress, and it may be that she is be-
ginning to realize the false position
in which she placed herself by her
extreme utterances before her colored
friends. This is the charitable view
to take Of her case. and we do not
wish to do her in uStice. But even
the most charitable cannot avoid the
suspicion that she has permitted her
self to be carried away by the sensa-
tional spirit which characterizes
women Of excitable temperament in
New England and elsewhere Such a
suspicion does not seem unfounded in
view of the fact that there appears to
have been no special occasion for her
appearance before the footllghts on
the evening of July IS. The ease
which had stirred up Boston on the
question of lynchings and called
forth the eloquent address of ex-Gov-
ernor Northern. of Georgia. was that
of the black iiend, Sam Hose. who
was put to death for his horrible
crime on April 23 This particular
case and the whole subject of mob law
in the South was thoroughly and ven
emously discussed by Boston news
papers and orators, male and female
during several weeks Immediately fol-
| lowing the crime and its punishment,
and for two months Boston fanatics
had been devoting their energies to
other and less exciting themes. Miss
Jewett does not appear to have par
ticipated prominently or as a speaker
in the agitation during the period
when the Hose case was holding the
| tapis in Boston, but seems to have
waited until she could have the stage
all to herself and to have selected a
theatre and an audience which would
| add melodramatic interest to her SEN
| satiOnal debut as "a new Harriet
Beecher Stowe,' the title which is
said to have been given her by her
colOred friends in Boston.
We are glad to note that Miss jew
EFT does not desire ''to stir up strife
between the North and South" but if
this be so, her desire and intention
run entirely counter to her recent
public utterances and to the attitude
which she has assumed. The propo-
sitiOn with which she went before hel
negro audience was to fire the North
ern heart by taking to Boston the
family of ex-Postmaster Baker, OF
South Carolina, and exhibiting thei1
scars as evidence of the barbarity O.
the Southern people. This was the
peaceful plan by which she proposed
to work up sentiment against mob vi
olence in the South. If she is a young
woman of any intelligence-and being
Bostonian she must be credited
with an intellect far beyond the aver,
aoe-she must have known that thi:
was precisely the way ''to stir W
South, and precisely the way not t'
, put stop to lynch law. Attempted
coercion from a hostile and preludic
ed element outside the South can ac
complish nothing but to increase sec
tional and race bitterness. Miss Jew
EFT, therefore, must be judged by th'
logical and necessary consequences o
!, her proposed crusade, and not merel.
bv her ..intentien.n No one who rea'
her speech as reported in the Boston
papers can acquit her of great bitter
ness of language whatever may hav
been in her .'thoughts.' Take sucl
sentences as these, for instance, a
, reported in the Boston Herald: ''Th
black man in this country is free
thank God, and all the laziness, lynch
inc of these Southern harbariars cal
never make him slave again. ii
may he shot down like dog for cast
! ing his vote, yet he will cast it jus
the same" Again: The people 0
, the North must act, the colored peo
ple of Boston must act. There ha
been talk enough. Something mus
: be done to bring to our people tru
realization of the conditions whicI
exist in the States south of us. 1ol
: must bring the facts before them il
J all their horrible reality. Let then
2 see the people who are being perse
cuted and shot down" The followin;
was her contemptuous reference to eN
t Governor Northern, of Georgia. ma
of recognized character and intellect
and introduced not many weeks az
to Boston audience as "a friend c
the colored man, president of tn
Southern Baptist Convention. and a
q administrator of the Slater fund TO
: negro education with Booker l
h Washington"
t Il have travelled extensively in tn
=. South. and | know that there i. L
n culture like that o. the true SoutheE
! ner, but there are exceptions. an
:, such man as Ex-Governor Norther
h is one of them. This burning at tn
r stake is the result of prejudice. fo
g there still remains some of what ha
}. been called white trash, and | don
care whether he fills the office OF COY
ernor or the office of lyncher." Coy
}, ernor Northen's offense, be it notec
:. consisted in making an eloquent &C
, dress before a Boston audience on tn
subject OF lynching and one that ere