The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-03-06
North and SOUTH.
TRUE TYPE ONLY OBSERVED IN
S0TTTA

III r. 4 - tl-NAl1 AIEfFgE lLLN Ed IN
SOUTH
'The negro north and the negro south
arc as different as day from night said
we'll known southern congressman
The north sees one kind of negro and
the south another. and both sides have
drawn conclusions and based their con-
vlcuons on the class with whom they
are most familiar The negroes whom
one meets In the north, that is TO say In
New York. Philadelphia Boston. CleVe-
land Chicago. Detroit. Davenport and
ST. Paul represent "A fairly high order Of
Africans.
Somehow. with All that has been said
on the subject. no one seems to have dis
covered the fact that the negro is one
Of the most stay-at-home beings tn-
aeinable Some races are famous for
progress and others remarkable for war
like proWess. but the black race carries
Off the palm for staying at home The
old fifth dynasty Egyptian kings had "A
very fair knowledge OF geography. They
knew that far up the Nile valley there
lay vast fertile region OF forest and
grass land fairly sWarming with ne
groes. Yet consult their pictorial his
tory, engraved on lasting granite and
you discover that while the armies of
the Great King we're modified and
massed along the Mediterranean and the
Lsthmus of Sue2s the southern frontier
lay unguarded-
They were forever building forts and
aefcnseS along this northern border.
They We're in perpetual dread uneasi-
ness. and apprehension of an influx of
the sQuint-eyed Asiatics. Then all the
kings horses and all the kings men,
20 say nothing of the laws of the realm
(for ancient Egypt, like China of the
eighteenth century, was a hermeticaIv
sealed kingdom whose people had no use
Tor foreign devils) could not bar out
Ane shreWd, dickering. trading Greeks
the Yankees Of the ancient world and
the pug-nosed. tOw-headed barbarians
from beyond the pillars Of Hercules.
Yet Egyptians who lived on the south
ern border slept in peace and security.
Why was this? Simply because the
Egyptians knew that the negro never
left the land of his BIRTH unless some
one brought him away in chains and at
ehe point OF a spear.
Negro nature is the same today as
II was then, so that consequently.
those whom YOU meet in the north are
exceptional characters in whom the
white blood has gained the ascendency.
even though it may not always show in
color, and, as such, axe uninterestirg
by reason of the fact that being fairly
well educated and in line with modern
city life, they present little if any, of
the picturesque local coloring of the
real southern negro. who is d different
sort of being altogether.
There are two things about the
southern negro which the average
northern man and woman might study
to advantage, and these are his WOn-
derful musical faculty and his aston
lSning recuperatiVe powers. Blind Tom
and Black Patti cease TO be wonders.
once that a person realizes that every
negro is "a born musician.
The city of Nashville, Tenn. is situ-
ated in the center OF a great limestone
section, and is surrounded by Gordon
OF quarries and lime kiIns many Of
which employ as high as from 100 to
$50 negroes in the work of quarrying
stone alone, and ] dare say that in all
the world there is not a more enter
tanning OF thrilling sight than to watch
the negroes drilling blast-holes in The
rock with their long steel Instruments.
Trey begin work early in the morning.
silently at first, but it is not many
minutes before one of their number
starts song, and little by little the
others join in until the entire 1875 are
time that the singing commences the
quarrynzen catch the cadence, and
make their drills beat time to the words
and music of the song, SO that on his
arrival the visitor witnesses one of the
most extraordinary sights on earth
zone hundred and twenty-five half
naked, persDirins negroes an singing
one song. not man out of tune. not
discordant note, not one of them sing
ing too fast OF too slow. but all keeping
perfect time as though led by trained
orchestra leader. Their arms heads,
bodies al have caught time and ar
keeping time. At certain note and
word of the song every one of the l25
drills is raised simultaneously by Draw
ny arms. the strained muscles Of which
SHINY skin surface, as the song rises and