Woodville Republican., 1903-03-21
MRS. ARP OBJECTS.
Thinks Bill Ought to Quit Writing
About the Negro.
Says tne Matter Has Been All Set
tied st AtIanta-ralIsmaRI Num-
Ners In the Arp Wedding An
niversary--rhe Children.

My wife reads the papers more or
less every day and keeps up with the
sensations. Most OF the time she sits
in her accustomed corner and plies her
needle and thread, making little gar
ments for her grandchildren or new
covers for the cushions or mending
underclothes or darnipg stockings or
something. When she gets tired she
walks in the garden OF y Is down 10
see Jessie and the childien. She went
to town yesterday and bought some
thread and some toilet soap and got
weighed and asked the family all
around to guess hoN much, and one
guessed il, exactly one hundred and
fifty pounds. She asked me to guess,
but | said no-she had had her way SO
often and so long that | couldn't come
near it, and she shook her fist at me.
Good gracious! when | married her
she didn't weigh a hundred and wore
number two shoes and stepped like a
deer. "Tempus fugit." Next week will
be the fifty-fourth anniversary of our
wedding day, ffty-fo,tr talismanic
number made up of nine or its multi
pie, as 3, s, 0, is, 81, s4-3 and are
8, and are 8, 2 and are 0, sand are
9. And soon our birthdays will come
along again, the first and fifteenth of
June, and time keeps rolling on.
My wife was reading the paper and
suddenly stopped and spoke to me. say
ing: well, isn't it about time to quit
writing about the negro" "Why SOP"
said l. why, don't you see that the
whole business of the race problem
was settled in Atlanta last Sunday ?
The mayor and the preachers, black
and white, all made speeches, and
seemed to agree aud everything is
harmonious. So If was you ! would
write about something else. Take up
George Washington, for change, and
let Booker go dead"
Well, they did play on the harmoni.
can right smart, and hope the prob
lem will take rest, for everybody is
tired of it. Even Crumpacker is tired
and says the negro must work out his
own salvation. That's all right. When
they call off the dogs, III quit. They
are waking up the true characterof
the negro, \ Chicago mdn who has
been visiting the prisons says there are
about forty-six thousand negroes in
that city, which is about two per cent
of the population and that the prison
records as shown him by wardens
show the negroes to be thirty per cent
of all the criminals confined, and that
the negro quarter of the city is the rem
dezyous and the refuge of nearly all the
white burglars and thieves that infest
the city.
But that's none of my business, as
my wife says. Chicago needs them for
municipal politics. But / have quit
Let the negro go along and evolute, al
Crumpacker says. ! had rather lool
out of my window and see two little
girls coming up the walk hand in hanc
| to see me than to write about any
thing. And the little boy is coming
too. His nurse is rolling him in hi'
carriage and he will run to me as soor
as he gets in the room, and will nestle
on my knees, and say his little words
and my greatest comfort is that all O
them love me and won't go home with
out kissing me sweet good-by. That
nurse is copper-colored girl about
twelve years old, and she loves tha'
baby and watches him as carefully al
a mother. She is the daughter of oul
sexton, who is the janitor of the public
school, He and his good wife are ex
ceptions to all the frailties of the race
and so are their children. If there wer,
many like them there would be no race
problem. Those three little children
come to see me every day and make mi
to forget myself and my long illness
and find myself whispering: "Sufferlit
tie children TO come unto me-" "And ;
little child shall lead them" What {
pity they have TO grow up and lost