The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-09-26
UNREASONABLE pANIcs.


Inc ua<tIoru, Lohuss AhnVe S1sS.
1t Is not, we trust, manifestation OF
race prejudice, to say that the TRAGEDY
which occurred in the Baptist Church at
Birmingham, Ala. last night. could not
have occurred in any church IN TINS
country when filiei with white people.
And after giving description OF the
terrible affair The Times concludes:
II has happened that a large loss of
life has sometimes occurred when white
audiences In theatres or halls have been
confronted by actual danger from fire.
but such a spectacle as hundreds OF
people tramplihg each other to death Mt
one end of q big chuch. while the or.
gan and choir were rendering hymns at
the other 10 unexampled and was pos
sible, we think. only In an auditorium
filed with members of the more excffa-
BILE. emotional African race
The Times Is Doubtless correct in the
assumption that such a catastrophe could
hardly occur in crowd composed OF any
other race than the African. Above all
members of the human family they are
the most emotional and are most con-
troiied by their feelings. We have sesn
them at camp meetings and church re-
yiyals 50 thoroughly wrapped up In the
services that for the time being thsy
were as irresponsible as so many children.
Whether their reasoning faculties have
been dwarfed and their capacity for SELL
protection veal ened by centuries OF de-
pandence on stronger and better govern
ed wills, or whether it is altogether d
racial distiction is immaterial. but the
result 10 the same. Any unusual occur
renee or excitement throws them on their
balance ana they become, individually
and collectively, little better than luna
tics.
But It isn't fair or just to the negroes
to charge or to intimate that white peo-
ple are never panic-stricken. We are
continually reading and hearing &C
counts of occurrences of similar char
acter to that at Birmingham, though
rarely so inexcusable. The cry of fire in
a crowded theatre or other building is
almost invariably the signal for a rush.
with resultant loss of life and limb On
such occasions the latent animal comes
to the aurface and reason for the time
being disappears. On the large cattle
ranches Of the great West 1t frequently
happens that an immense herd Of cattle
will stampede Ior the most trivial caus,.
or for no apparent cause, and rush to
destruction. The same thing occurs with
human beings. and 1t must be that the
streak of brute nature lying dormant in
the best of us takes control of the rea-
soning faculties. or takes the place Of
them, and away we 60. like flock Of
frightened sheep.
The lamentable and unpreeedented-so
far as Alabama is concerned-affair at
was absolutely without ex-
cuse, looking back at the facts, but we
cannot be too severe in our censure of
the negroes with the knowledge before
us that the most intelligent assemblagas
of white people sometimes lose. their
heads. 1t has been but few years since
there was a panic in a Richmond the
atre where a number of people were
trampied to death. and one Of the Brook
lyn theatres was the scene Of a similar
and equally fatal tragedy. And The
Chattanooga TimeS reminds us Of case
in a crowded school house in Cincinnati
nearly thirty years ago where the cry of
''fires from a small boy-caused-a stam-
pede in which thirteen people were killed
outright and many injured. some OF whom
died. All these and other cases show
the danger of a ,anlc wherever there is
a crowd, whether of white of colored
people.