The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-27
SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS: SUNDAY DECEMBER o. 1908

and practice. He was a lawyer of ripe
age and experience. standing in the
front rank of the profession in the
state, a man whose fees are large and
time taken up with important cases.
He would not have taken the case had
II been one of a moneyed criminal for
less than a thousand dollars; but ne
defended that destitute darkey with all
the powers of his great skill and elo-
ounce. The speech he made to the jury
was one of the finest ever heard in a
Florida court room. The negro was con-
victed; Demosthenes and Cicero COM
bined could not have saved him in the
face of the evidence-and neither of
those ancient advocates could have
done more to save him.
There is a negro in the county Jail
now under sentence of death for rape
committed on a little negro girl. He
was defended by two white lawyers.
He was tried and convicted. His law
yers appealed and obtained a new trial.
1t resulted like the first. They have
obtained a stay of proceedings and are
still working to save his neck. The
negro has no money. His friends have
very little. The lawyers, whether sue
cessful or not, will be poorly paid for
their services, but they believe their
Cu6nl innocent ana are QOluB all III
their power to save him.
Ocala is a typical Southern town.
About two-fifths of the population are
negroes. Most Of them are temperate
and Industrious. They have several
stores, one of which is well patron
lied by whites. They have one good
sized factory. All the draymen, hack
drivers, and walters are negroes, many
of the porters and not n few of the
mechanics. They have one lawyer and
two doctors. They have a weekly pa
per and a department in one of the
white dailies. There is no more trou-
BILE between them and the whites than
there would be, probably, among the
people of the community If all were
white. They are as much protected
by law as anyone. Ocala is a typical
Southern community. There are a
thousand like it in the South, where
whites and blacks live side by side,
have no trouble, and hardly ever think
there is any race question.
1t is true, there are communities
where trouble abides; there are COM
munities in the swamps of the big
rivers and on the islands Of the coast
where no white man will live, and in
them the negroes are but a shade bet
ter than in the African forests. There
are communities in the mountains
where no negro is allowed to live, and
the white people in them are ignorant
and brutal. L have seen both and l
wouldn't live in either. There are COM
munities where there is constant race
trouble, and sometimes it's more the
fault of the whites than the negroes
And these communities get about all
the advertising in the press, although
they are mighty few in comparison In
a territory as big as Germany Aus
tria, and France put together, and with
a population of 25,000,000.
The question of rape is the one that
seems to be making most of the trou-
blue. on that question, the Northern
negroes and their white sympathizers
seem 10 be taking the position that it
is wrong for the Southern white man
to resent assaults on his female rela-
tives and friends. This position, II
may surprise you to learn, Is not taken
by the Southern negro. l do not mean
the politician or agitator, the self
styled leaders, nor do / mean the GRIM
inals. / mean the rank and file, the
men and women who are working for
a living and trying to get along with
their neighbors. The Woodworking
drayman or plowman with one or more
daughters to bring up does not blame
the white man for lynching the rapist
He knows how 1t is himself. There
have been two lynchings in this county
in the last ten years. The victims IN
both cases were pretty and refined
white girls (this assertion will give
your always witty and sometimes wise
observer" room for a sneeD. Both
these poor girls were ruined for life
Either would have far preferred death;
their assailants were both densely
black, thick-lipped, fat-nosed negroes,
without a trace of white blood (This
OF anOfI1ar fhanrN H.
vanced by those who know little about
the matter-namely, that the rapist al
ways draws his brutal desires from
white blood. How hard some men strive
to dshonor their own race). Both these
negroes were promptly swung to trees
and riddled with bullets. Neither suf-
fered as much physically as his vic
tim; of mental suffering, neither gave
any sign. No CHASTITY relics were car
ried away from either lyching. They
were acts of stern retributiOn. No
resentment was shown by the negro
population, and no negro except the
criminals was troubled. Such it is in
nearly every Southern lynching. though
sometimes, as in the Sam Hose case
the deed perpetrated is so terrible that
it drives the community wild, and it
acts accordingly. Now, in the North
when a mob seeks the life of a negro
the other negroes side with him, wheth-
er he is guilty or not, and the mob
in turns extends it's vengeance to every
negro in the vicinity.
One person advances the idea that
the negro would not commit rape so
often if the white man did not COM
nit so many outrages on colored wom-
en-. Now, you know enough of hu-
man nature to know the rapist takes
nothing into consideration but his own
brutal desires. But the white man sets
a very good example. Rape is not O
white mans crime. When he does
commit rape, 1t is almost always on
a white woman. The proof is before
you; take the daily papers. AS l have
before insinuated. they are not strict
ly truthful, but they are the best med
ium of information obtainable. Hardly
a day passes, but there is reported a
case of a rape by a negro on a white
woman. How often a report of an
assault by g. white man on a negro
woman? Hardly ever. How often a
case of assault on a white woman by
"a white man? Not more than once
a week. There are seven white men
to one negro in the United States.
Divide one by seven, then divide the
fractions by seven again. What bet
ter example are you likely to get?
The negro commits a hundred crimes
against the women Of his own race to
where the white commits one.
Mr.. Pentecost, whose opinions high
~ respect, inquired at the before mem
toned meeting of the Manhattan Lib
eral Club. How could a negro's capa-
city for voting be decided until he had
a chance to vote?" Now, If Mr.. Pente-
cost had lived in New Orleans as long
as he has lived i'll New York. l don't
think ne would have asked that ques-