The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-01-01
Ghe Messenger.
EXAMPLES AND CROCODILE
TEARS.

the legislature to pass a law. to pre-
vent Iynchings within that state. Bad
conditions exist in the southern part of
the state. Race troubles exist in sew
eraI Ohio river counties. 1t is believed
that the people of the counties in which
such drastic remedies were vok are
in sympathy with the lynchers by their
refusal TO assist the sheriff In protect
ing his prisoners, but this is a condi-
ton that has long existed and which
has been demonstrated. not only in
cases of mob violence before, but in
studied efforts to prevent negroes from
settling in the southern counties. A
dispatch sent to the New York Tribune,
on ed inst gives this cou of the
disturbances:
"Robberies soon became a nightly oc-
currence and every man who suffered
loss by such depredations charged ii to
the negroes. In Perry. Pike, Spencer,
Warrick. Dubois and other counties the
people rose against the negroes and
drove them from the counties. Hany
of them were whipped. some of them
simply ordered away. but all terroriZed,
and whenever a negro appeared he was
waited upon by a committee Of citizens
and ordered to leave. SO great was the
fear these methods engendered that ne
grOes gave the counties a wide berth"
And here comes the milk in the CO.
coanut or the cream IN the c~orrespon-
dence. It is stated hat while the ne
gro is thus deprived Of the opportunity
of making a living in the North ne is
plentifully supplied with empty sug-
factions n = 70 biS sriOhfS' ~ he will only
return south to enforce them. In the
entire history of the country there has
never been recorded a case in which a
negro has been punished in the south
for either right living or seeking work"
That is absolutely true. and yet the ne
grOes do not believe It. but long for the
garlick and onions of New England
York. The correspondent writes this
very Tribune that was never friendly to
the south, but hot for negroes:
The highest tribute possible to the
south today is the present position of
the colOred race as compared with the
time when they were transplanted from
the jungles of Africa Who deserves
the credit for the high civilization the
american negro has attained-the first
civilization ever known to his race
the southern people. who have trained
him to habits of industry. domestic life
ard religion. or the northern man, who
got rid of him as soon as he found him
to be un~profitable9"
While the whites in many northern
states dislike Sambo and Jemima and
let them feel it in u~nmistakable ways,
the southern whites are steadily pay
ing millions of dollars every year to
educate the children of the blacks.
Only the other day a resolution was
defeated in the Georgia legislature to
limit appropriations for negro educa-
ton TO negro taxation for such a pur-
pose. North Carolina will continue to
give school advantages to the negroes
hoping TO benefit them thereby and the
state as well. The southern whites are
not hostile to the negroes. but give them
in many ways a far better showing
than their race can secure in the north.
No bill can pass the legislature that
looks to outing down the schooling of
the negroes. The very fact of demo-
cratic pledges and the interest of the
state. will forbid it.
\ Bangor. Maine. editor writes like a
fellow JUS from the north pole, and had
learned nothing in fifty years of what
had happened. He is greatly disturbed
over the status of the negro in the
south as are many other blinded ia
natics and unadulterated ignoramuses.
They learn nothing, they know moth
ing. While lamenting over the sor-
rows, real or imagined. of the negroes
III the south, they are not willing to
take them to the north and give them
equal rights, equal privileges. equal OPP
portunities-they will not take them in
socially or as members of the fine
churches, or as workers in all the va
ried callingS of life. In Boston or Ban
gor. in New Haven or Providence, in
New York or Philadelphia how many
negroes teach in the public schools or
academies; now many work in the fac
tories and the various workshops; how
many marry rich young women or get
into the social swim any where in the
east? It is long range p~hilanthrophy,
sentiment, sympathy and soldering
over the Woes of the negro who is for
the most part contented and happy in
the south. The Atlanta Constitution
touches up the Bangor fellow at length.
This is good reading 10Y the ex-
ample given Of northern sympathy n
friendship and high appreciation is only
one Of many that could be found:
THE adice to the negroes to 'emigrate
to the north where a black man has
equal rights before the law with a
white man appears very well upon pa
per but when put into practice it be-
comes rather disappointing. When the
negro wants work. in the north he finds
the doors closed against him-all ex-
cept the court door which stands con-
veniently open to give him undue pun
ishment his weakness considered. 1t
has been demonstrated by statistics
that the percentage of negroes in pen
itentiary in every northern state in