The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-09-02
THE RECENT RACE RIOTS
And the Lessons Henry Watterson
Draws Therefcom.
NEGROES OF THE TWO SECTIONS DIFFER
The Race Question Involves a Grave Problem,
the Solution Of Which thu Ws:st in the
Land Has Not Yet Been Able
10 Compass.

to Compass.
The Louisville Courier-Journal
prints the following from the pen of
It's editor, Henry Watterson:
Hard upon the negro riot in the
borough of Manhattan comes the ne
gro riot in the village of Akron.
ohio beats responsive to New York.
The heart of the Western Reserve
warns to the culture of the Tender
loin. Spirit of Joshua Giddings, rise,
behold! Is this the fruitage of thy
abolitionism? Was it for this that
thou didst labor and give thy life?
by all the saints from Harriet
Stowe to James A. Garfield, but the
Niger has fallen on evil times in
Gods country! He could scarcely
have Jared any worse had he stayed
at home and nursed little Eva!
"Bht, softly! The moral grows
something musty withal. Twas ever
thus as the loyelorn swain in the
ballard observes. And, thereby hangs
a tale
About two or three and twenty
years ago-maybe five or six and
twenty-when the newspapers of the
too-too patriotic and pious city of
Cincinnati were vying one with an
other which should paint the South
in most lurid colors and raise most
Southern H. to the square inch upon
the immaculate white paper of Chat
field, Woods d. Co. the old Gazette,
edited by the Truly Good Deacon
Richard Smith and his wicked part
ner, Samuel Homeo Read, easily led
the procession.
Each issue of the Gazette bIazed
with rebel bonfires. Whilst the Truly
Good collected the faggots of news
for the contiagration of murders done
by the Rebel Whites upon the inoffen-
sive and loyal blacks. Samuel Romeo
whooped things up in red-hot English
of how the States lately in rebellion
we're more devilish than ever; of
how, if not suppressed by martial law
and Federal soldiers, they would rise
and drive out the Union men and
massacre the nations wards; of how
they spat upon the Constitution and
tore down the flag and trampled
under foot, and a great deal more OF
the same sort for quantity.
well, after a while the Courier
Journal got tired of this, and, since
protests against it's injustice and eX-
posure of its fallacies did no good, it
thought it would try what simple
object lesson might do. Orders were
given to those in the exchange de-
partment to cut out of the Cincin-
natl Gazette all the special kilograms
relating to crime in Ohio. Within
single week enough of these clip
pings were collected to fill an entire
issue of the CourierJournal.
"They were carefully arranged
date lines and head lines, Special
Correspondence of the Cincinnati Ca
zette' and all, SO as to make sEven
full pages, the eighth, or first page,
being reserved for frontispiece.
"Then there appeared this legend:
'Courier-Journars Ohio Crimes Sup
plement.' the farrago of murders, ar
sons, wife beatings and scandals of
all sorts, pictured upon the initial
sheet, with the Truly Good Richard
Smith standing on a stack of Bibles
outlawry in Kentucky and the Solid
South. The Deacon never got wholly
over it. He went and consolidated
the Gazette with the Commercial, and
while the luriditv continued apace,
the horrid examples of Southern viii
lainy decreased both in virulence and
in volume.
Naturally, to come back to the
present, the newspapers of New Or
leans are having lots of fun with the
newspapers of New York. 1t will oe
observed that although the cases were
alike to II the New Orleans mig
ger distanced the New York niger
in the list OF his killed and wounded.
In the South, when niger goes a.
niggering, he generally does the thing
at first hand, in an original, niggerly
way. while the Northern nigger tries
to emulate the Northern tough and
is merely an imitator.
"'Yet we are told it was rare sight
to see the Astorbilts and the Van
Waldorfs and others of the old aris-
tocracv of New York chasing the bad
nigeers of the Tenderloin down Fifth
avenue and driving them into the
dark waters by the bay, to the ringing
of the fire bells, and the booming of
cannon from Governors Island.
'''Fo u gentleman up tree-that
is, high enough up a tree to survey
mankind from Kennebunkport to the
Brazos from Montauk Point to Coro-
nado Beach-these outbreaks seem
curiously alike. There is deal of
human nature abroad in the land.
The race question is in good truth. n
serious question. 1t involves a prob
lem the solution of which the wisest
have not peen able to compass. the
Continued on Second Page.)