The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-08-28

CHASTITY, revolving criminal: in all his
tory. This excerpts, of course. a large
proportion of the negroeS who are good
citizens; but even they ADMIT mat
many of their brethren are running
amuck and aiming continual blows at
civilization. not to say decency. by the
foulneSS Of their crimes.
The seriousness OF the
never came to me so fully as 1t did the
other day when I was talking to sew
eral Mecklenburg farmers. They said
all of them-that farmers even IN this
enlightened region who HVed In sparse
" settled sections were beginning TO
suffer from the namelesS dread. Ihey
are buying revolvers for their women
folks, and they no longer stay away
from home at night. They face a So
cial evil hat exists as a horribls
threat; that is all.
1T has come to this: Recently a cit
iZen of Charlotte purchased a place a
few miles from town and intends to
build a home and move his family
there. With just the nameless idea in
mind his friends have advised him
against making the move. You might
as we'll face the truth. The crime is
increasing. and so long as the negro is
with us every man who has a family
must take great ~precaution for protec-
ton.
Whats going to be the end of this
thing anyway? The white man-tas
SaXon-is q good man, and he likes the
right sort OF a negro: but if this horror
keeps up his patience is going to snap
like a worn chain some day and-buc
/ don't like TO think of that. The fu-
rious white man is the most dangerous
animal that has ever been created.
Try to disguise it as you may, and
yet you will see that the rubbing to-
- A. +-.o rnanc fS nrn1 I IN O.
greater friction every day. Even the
northern extremists now admit that
the best element of SOuthernerS are do
ing all they can in fairness and pa
thence to settle the perplexing prob
lem, and yet the negro is proving a
greater and greater source of irrita-
ton.
When I came down from Washing
ton The othss day there were nine big,
ruriy, greasy aeg-oes on the Pullman
They mad a right to be there. Oh, Of
course AL zen are born wee IA
equal AMI I'll the rest of 1t: hut l kn'S
;na, AL tna white men who gathered
in the smoker Of that Pullman falled
to entertain these broad views ana
cursed the Pullmans and the negroes
world without end. The cOlored man is
now an hapitue CT the sleeping car.
Their numbers there are increasing
daily. You see them SPRAYING luXur-
iouSly OVer all the seats on PultrnanS
on nearly every train-and do you
think people down here are going to
smile and stand for that sort Of thing?
To have to climb to an uppe berth
above a Negroes bed; to have to rub
elbows with him in the wash room: to
have to bump against him Intimately
oh. no, these people down here won't
tolerate that.
'.This is not any blood and thunder
y 49,. I &c 70 Cn1 tho n 70 rA
question is almost at n crisis in the
south now. I heard a weak, tired wo-
man get on the witness stand and tell
a tale once-but l can't speak about
that. Ten years ago lynching was gen
orally condemned even down here.
Now, in a great majority of cases,
lynching is not more than an express
sion of public sentiment. Yet the evil
increases. What will the next ten
years seq"