The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-06-15
SERIOUS REFLECTIONS.

(Spec1aI to the Chicago Times Herald.)
COLUMBUS. Ohio June DIR. Daniel r.
Brewer of Chicago. professor of mental dis
eases in Rush Medical College, told the
American Medical Association today that
crime in the United States is increasing in
a vastly more rapid ratio than is the popu
lation. This. he assertedd is due to GRIM
inal parentage and environment. To check
the alarming growth, he added, radical
changes in present methods are necessary.
The statements were the feature Of the
second days session of the association. DR..
Brewers theme was The Medical Aspect
of Crime" He commended that the present
laws and their method of execution are a
potent foctor in the causation of crime.
The code of today, he asserted. is the
Roman code. In ancient Rome it did we'll
because the death penalty was common,
but today, with no cutting off Of the sup
ply of criminal material. he argued that
the law contributes to it's increase rather
than to it's diminuition.
There is no doubt that the severe
laws in England during the past CEN
tury by which criminals of even a mod
crate type were sent to the gallows for
petty Offenses, like sheep-stealing, peck
et-picking and even begging; (Henry
VIII. hung 250 beggars in London in one
year,. had salutary effect in improv-
ing the race. They stopped the vicious
from propagating their kind, and left
the virtuous to possess the country.
One trouble with the negroes of the
United States is that they were not put
through the same weeding-out process;
the rogue was just as valuable to his
master as the honest slave But now
the differentiation is going on, and the
honorable, church-going, respectable.
intelligent negroes are being separated
by great gulf from the degraded, vi
cious, wretched, dangerous portion of
the race
We find the following extracts from
an interesting article in recent news
paper:
The negro race is differentiating Per-
haps it should be considered by classes.
not as whole. When freedom came the
negroes were homogeneous mass The
evolution of So years has produced strata,
social moral and economic.
The negro problem quarter of century
ago was the question of a great body Now
it is question of the relative proportions
and tendencies and limitations of several
bodies Then the negro meant one thing.
Now 1t may mean one or several things.
Yet many persons continue to think and
speak and write of the negro" as If the
problem had not undergone this evolution
Ihere are some who recognize intelligent
and well-to-do negroes, honest and hard
working negroes, lazy and vicious negroes.
But 1T is doubtful il any considerable num-
Der of those who realize the existence of
some differentiation, realize to what dis
tinct and widely separated classes it has
developed. The better elements have risen
higher, the dregs af the race have settled
lower than people generally appreciate. This
evolution progresses faster and faster as the
years go by. 1t was slow at first 1t is
rapid now The cleavage is encouraged by
the new conditions
In the heart Of wealthy and official Wash
1ngton Is an imposing church structure.
About the massive walls and well proper
toned Architecture is the suggestion of
abundant roanG and cultured taste. If you
enter of a Sabbath. one of the several
Ored men dressed III back, without so much
of bright color as the streak of a necktie
will escort you in an unobtrusive dignified
manner to a pew. All about you will be
seated negroes, not one of whom will betray
lack of good breeding by a curious stare.
AS the worshipers come in you will hear
no whispering or giggling; you will have
no indulgence in cake-walk manners to
entertain. Yet the faces will be dark. The
services will proceed with decorum and for
NAL impressiveness not surpassed in any
other church of the city. From the organ
in the gallery will come such rendering
of classical melody as has made this church
famous to all Washington and yet the faces
are those of negroes. When the services
are over this congregation will move slowly
to the doors, with only greetings in an
undertone, and exchanges of bows, ana will
scatter quietly to hundreds of houses in re-
spectacle residence sections of the city. The
stranger who sees for the first time this
congregation and attends a service will go
away deeply impressed with the develop
ment of the negro race.
Perhaps on the following day procession
will pass up Pennsylvania avenue. In
front, on both sides, closing in until it
almost hides the musicians, will be mass
of black humanity. Keeping step, dancing
along to the music, dirty, ragged or clad
III cast off garments too large or too small
ill-smelling these grown and half-grown
blacks accompany the music as the en-
tranced children did the pied piper of
Hamelin. 1t is sight that can be seen in
Washington almost any week in the year.
1t is mirth provoking at first sight.
But the mass moves on and the atmos-
phere slowly purfies. The afterthought is
pessimistic. Here is a horde of barbarians
living under the shadow of the great dome
and of the statue of Liberty. The national
capital, with it's free schools, it's free Ii
braries, it's opportunities for easy living
its unparalleled incentives to culture and
refinement has Swampoode Bloodfield
an assortment of slums lower than can be
found in almost any other city, North or
South. In the marble palace on the hill
the colored poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, an
hOnored member Of the official staff of the
Librarian Of congress, reads his own COM
positions before the most intellectual white
people at Washington. In the novels under
the hill, from time to time, occur murders
so horribly brutal that animal ferocity
rather than human passion seems the in
spiratiOn. Paradise and inferno are hardly
further removed than the top and bottom
strata of dark skinned people in Washing
ton. Color is all that the classes possess
in common.
Between the claried surface and the
dregs is the black labor of the city, fairly
honest and fairly Industrious, content with
moderate wages fond of harmless pleasure,
serving in numberless minor and mental
ways. This black labor may be lacking in
ambition to rise above the level. Yet it
does not develop the vicious instinct which
would send it downward to the criminal
class. 1t tolls patiently. 1t learns some
thing as days go by. 1t worships noisily.
1t believes and practices blessed be little
The census of Washington taken last