New-York tribune., 1902-12-14
NEGROES IN WASHINGTON.
Better Opportunities for Improvement There
Than Anywhere Else.

THE colored population of Washington presents
a sociological problem, unique. peculiar to ITSELF
alive with interest and unlike that OF any other
city on which the round moon shimmers. III ex-
tremes meet anywhere they fairly bump against
each other here. and the two opposite ends are OF
the same race and hue" says l. h. Friedman in
Golfers Weekly"
Talk to a negro of intelligence and education.
and he will tell you that his race vii survive the
whites in Washington, since survival IS 10 tnose
httest 10 survive under given conditions and the
, colored man thrive in homes and live on
wage where his white brother would fade ike a
violet in the sun. The cast-off clothes OF master
which a white servant would reject in scorn' the
negro wears in pride. for he would seem TO revel
in the picturesqueness that rags lend to his ap-
pearanCe, and the wife or daughter who goes out
in service will noursh the family with food from
her basket. filled nightly by the leavings from mex
nistresss table The white man cannot compete
he must leave Washington starve; and hence
the wagons carts and carriages driven. veg
etables and fish peddled. the houses are cleaned
and painted the streets are paved and swept the
buildings are erected and dismantled-in short
every manner of service varying from the menial
the lower type of skilled labor Is performed oy
black hands.
quick 10 recognize and grasp his opportunities
for betterment, the negro pours into washington
from all quarters of the South. until the cOmpeti-
ton for place has become savage and wages are
cut down to the subsistence limit Even the tip
which the Congressman hands to the coored walt
er of Washington is lower than he would think of
pronerine TO him elsewhere Figures, so to speak,
tell the story in other words WashngtOn's popu-
lation of 27sOO0 is one-third coIored, while but IS
per cent of the 1000 people in New-Orleans are
black and As per cent OF Memphiss 10000 Is listed
as negro. Washington. then. has the largest col
ored population of any city in the United States
IF you would look on another and a brighter
nicture walk into a Pennsylvania-ave. book store
and observe the olive complexioned. blueeyed girls
dheir colored ancestry barely perceptible) who ask
the clerks for textbooks in geometry, grammars IN
Greek and Latin the classics in French; note their
dress their demeanor and their accent and II you
are impartial you must admit they are surpassed
In nothing by the daughters of Washington's elite.
In the that bears you homeward II you are
on the lookout for it. ysu will catch sight OF dark
hued faces bent in study over the newest "orhs
on chemistry biology
..Ip Washington the rigid laws and iron rules of
caste are applied among the various degrees of the
coIored people with a severity that marks the
white mans exclusion of the black Ihere are sd
looms and restaurants where none but the chosen
of the race may enter there homes without
number where the ordinary illterate. uncouth ne.
GRO is barred from entrance by his nnltatlofS Vt
eduGation @ ntr acts as stimulus for the prog
resS of the second generation OF the ignorant ana
'srRe treatment. the other hand which & the ne
white man extenus 10 ssInen te from the south
would sooner resign their positions than mister mister
While Senators from the North do not consider IT
beneath their dignity to shake hanuS anu Cheit
with the doorkeeper of the Presidents sanctum;;
But the negro of Washington can afford to regard
ti'a oioofnesS of the Southern officeholder as a
neeIieSIe quantity and rightly enough he will tell
,oI, that the capital the colored mans pardulSe
ut is more than possible it is even quite likely.
thai the negro's privileges in Washington might De
% fu,ar and These fewer strictly limited If univer-
sal suffrage made him the white mans equai, az
the noIIs In a negative sense he Is the equal OF
the White man there. too; for in the District OF 90
lumba no one. white or black controls a oa,l0t' It
and 1he citv IS governed by appointees OF the NIT
ed States 1t is this negative inequality whlcn mas
given the negro his positive equality; f9r the i nu-
T1sriesI majority and hence the political superior
ty of the African is not feared by the caucasian.
Hundreds of Washngton'S citizens rebel against
the anomaly which makes them citizens OF a re-
bublie and dopriVGG them OF vote put tne con-
Sarvatfve men of business. dreadlng nlSger rule;,
are quite content to leave this paradoxicai @ Meit
enough alone. And the negro. recognizing that
his naradise rests on a paradox. VIII De the last
one who will wish the present good order OF things
subVerted."