The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-11-01
THREE OPINIONS OF NEGROES.

There is a negro woman up north who
writes herself Ida B. Wells. She is
smart" fanatical, aspiring and dan
gerous. She "orates'' much, in this
country and in England. She is one Of
the misleaders of her people. She
predicts now the certainty Of race
amalgamation, and in the south. She
says the white man has sown the
wind" and of course the south must
rear 1.-The whirl wind of amalgamation."
She says:
That is the meaning of all his lynch
ings and burningS of innocent negroes
in the south, but he will fight in vain.
He cannot stay the hand of destiny"
The wish here is no doubt faith
er to that thought" But she is a false
prophet here as she has v~ainglorious
in some of her many harangues. She
is a mulatto, bright, self-confident, and
intelligent. But she is a negro and as
the Baltimore Sun mentions, "she has
the black, kinky hair, the rather broad,
flat nose, thick lips and other charac-
teristics of her race" Ida's prophecy
might ''materialize" if she referred to
Boston and New York, but she will fail
in her rapid Vaccinations when ap-
piled to the south.
In contrast with such empty boast
ings let US reproduce two other opin
ions. Down in Georgia Rev. Silas X.
Floyd lives, a Baptist negro preacher.
He made a talk before the Negro Bap-
fist Educational Society, OF that state,
and he talked sense right u He has
more brains than such northern papers
as The New York Times and The Phil
adelphia North American: What has
the negro race to gain by opposing
white people in anything?" he asks.
We ought to seek cooperation with
them along all lines; for We have
everything to lose and nothing to gain
by standing apart from them" The
Atlanta Constitution says the preacher
said that any man who tells the ne
Groes that they can get along without
help from white people is an enemy to
his race and then adds: Work is not
open to the negro in the north, where
he is looked upon with Indifference
LII lIIS SOulh oIO1i 1S III q S1laIH(
for sustenance."
1t is the dangerous negro dema-
gogues, bushwhackers, a%gitators and
incendiaries in the south who are the
rascals VINO are really sowing the
wind if violence and rascal cinflicIs.
The negroes should keep far away
from this gang and be completely deaf
to their harangues and stupid prophe-
| cies of coming e
| In the Charlotte Observer, a "colored
man and brother" writes sensibly OF
Booker Washington's slip-up. The
allurement was too great to this worthy
/ and able negro, whose vanity has beer
greatly stirred and inflamed, j. Ed
ward Phifer writes of the weakness OF
Booker Washington. He says:
With respect to Mr.. Washington, II
! was a great honor for him to receive
an invitation to dine with the preSi.
cent, but a dishonOr for him TO accept
Il. Some people may ask why? In the
first place, he is a negro; second, he will.
now lose all his southern friends, who
! have given freely to his institution
| just as a few of his northern friends
have done. l believe in a negro like
! Mr.. washington being equal t6 the
white man in education, but rot in a
! social sense A colored man like Book
! er T. Washington, a great leader of thu
race, has set a bad example before his
followers of today. Some of us are
| sorry to hear of him rot being in his
right mind the day he dined with the
| president"
| The white enemies of the south in the
| north are more : fanatical than they
, have been since the war. They hate
J ne south they betrayed and warred
upon, and they are abusing and pound