The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-25

ms hours in being reminded of the
fact that the great mass of his fellow
citizens despise him on account of his
color. He wants to forget that as much
as he can.
when he seeks society he cannot
do IL as n white man with the same
income. There are no restaurants like
Delmonico's and Sherrys for him.
That's all right. There are not enough
wealthy colored families to keep such
a place going on the scale they would
demand. So they do their entertaining
at home. They spend more money on
their home life. their dinners and their
parties than white men of the same
income would because they have no
place to spend it outside.
You must remember that in this
generation all the sons of wealthy col
ored men go to college. and there are
hundreds of college graduates among
them. Some send their sons to the
English universities. where. of course.
there is no prejudice against the negro
at all. That isn't always a healthy ex-
pertinent. because it units a young
man for his life here and makes home
miserable for him.
"A great many go to Howard Uni
versity at Washington. Quite a num-
her SO to Oberlin, and there is a scat
tering representation at Harvard and
Yale
THE girls go to any of the Northern
women's colleges. They come back here
with the same social desires and
tastes that you ind in young white
folks of similar training. But they are
barred. They are classed with the most
degraded and brutal element of their
race. The result is the only one that
could be expected Colored families Of
high class keep their family and So
cial affairs out of sight of the rest of
the world, white and black, as much
rs they can. They visit one another
and keep a very strict and careful line
drawn about themselves and try to
make their standards as high as they
can.
white servants? Why, of course.
They are obliged to have white ser
wants. Negro servants in a high-c1ass
colored family are practically an i'm
possibility. If there is one thing the
negro of the servant class doesn't know
1t is that the color of his skin doesn't
make him the equal of his master. You
know what a colored servant is in n
white family? Just imagine the h
that would be raised by a fresh colored
servant in colored family. Nothing
but trouble. and the most degrading
trouble. The thing Is impossible. SO
they get foreigners who have not the
prejudices against our race existing
here. Most of the white servants work.
ing for negroes are Swedes and Nor
wegians.
I've done all sorts of work In my
time. / have even waited on a China
man. That, l guess, is the limit for
he wasn't what you would call a high
class Chinaman. Except for Chinese
and, as l say, my experience with them
has been too limited to give me the
right to speak-whatever race I come
In contact with find divided into three
classes.
There's the real heightened intel
lectual class: there's the middle class
that has fairly straight ideas of life,
but isn't so particular about its refine
ment or education, and there's the rag
tag and bob-tail. / very seldom find
a white man who can be made to real
ize that the high-class colored man Is
just as far above the second-class COL
ored man as the heightened white man
is above the second-class colored man.
And as for the third-class colored man,
he isn't fit to go into the cellars of the
first-class to take out ashes for them. y
Even though the aristocratic colored
man turns up his nose at the Fifty
third street district, there is much
there of interest to the lighter phases
Of the race problem. All New Workers.
are familiar with the street as Il ap-
pears from the clerical railroad car
windows.
Gilt signs proclaim Colored Demo-
cratic Clubs, Colored Republican Clubs
There are brightly lighted restaurants
into which a constant stream of COL
ored men. dressed with distinction is
passing. But few white men know of
the busy all-night life of the coIored
sport os it is led in that district.
The Marshallette is the center of II
all. 1t is restaurant kept by a color
ed man named Marshall who has
wide popularity among the colored
sports. What one or two of the Broad
way restaurants are to the sporting
element of the town at large, the Mar
shallette is to the colored man. Here
he may go and order his steak with
mushrooms and his quarts and mag
NUNS and flash his roll with as little
fear of drawing down the wrath of
other diners as though he were the
most noteworthy impressario of prize
tighter who ever made a splurge in the
White Light district.
1t is here that the theatrical colored
teams resort. Williams and Walker.
when they are in the city, may always
be found somewhere near the Marshall
lette. Paul Dunbar, the poet, who
within five years was the Ioudest of
his race in denouncing the very ele-
ment of the colored population among
whom he now spends all his time is
the king Of this black Bohemia. His
wide experience of men and lands make
him feel sometimes that it is not we'll
for less Travelled men to venture anv
statement without his permission.
The Black Patti occasionally graces
the Marshallette with her presence
There always gathers about her a
humble circle Of admirers of her mu-
steal achievements. 1t perchance she
be persuaded to stay until the rush
of patrons in the place is over and
those who linger are acquaintances
she sometimes consents to sing. Must
Gales, impromptu though they be. at
the Marshallette are wonderful occa-
sions.
There are not a few composers in
the Fifty-third street colony. Cole and |
Johnson, who are responsible for the
contagious strains of Under the Bam-
boo Tree" have a habit of trying their |
unfinished and tentative compositions |
on their companions.
There are as many singers and per- |
formers among the negro contributors |
of the tunefulness and gayety of the |
vaudeville stage as there are white |
almost. They all hang out in Fifty, |
third street, just as the white yaude- |
vile teams hang out in Fourteenth
street, near Third and Fourth ave- |
nues.
The neighborhood is full of theatre |
cal boarding houses for colored per-
forRers. These boarding houses I'm |
themselves would form a sufficient mn