The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-07-16
Baltimore Sun.

Baltimore Sun.
1t seems that the negro beast who
outraged and murdered Miss Bishop
near Wilmington, Delaware, had
been arrested for a somewhat SINH
lar offense some time ago in Pennsyl-
vania. Commenting on this fact
Rev. DR.. Bishop, the father of the
murdered girl, said:
Il noticed that one of the Philadelphia
papers criticises the action of the mob
and declares that such thing could not
happen in Philadelphia. If such thing
had happened in Pennsylvania when the
same negro was arrested for n criminal
assault he would never have had
chance to repeat the offense in Delaware"
In other words, Pennsylvania law
turned loose upon society n human
wild beast to prey upon the innocent
and defenseless. If anything can JUS
tify lynch law, that would do it,
What would be said of n man who
deliberately and knowingly turned a
mad dog among throngs of children?
And yet, these Pennsylvania officials,
if Dr. Bishop, who is a Pennsylva-
MAN, is correct, turned loose a beast
compared with whom a mad dog is a
harmless and benevolent creature
And there was the Delaware court,
instead of making instant prepaYa-
ton to swing the wretch from the gal
lows without the unnecessary delay
of one hour, deliberately deferring
his trial. That delay meant, of
course, chances of escape or of some
miscarriage of justice. And even ii
he were to be finally hanged. the
delay would have robbed the punish
ment of its impressiveness and warn
ing
These considerations moved Gen.
Isaac Jones Wistar, a sober, discreet,
conservative citizen of Philadelphia,
of mature age, a lawyer with every
bias in favor of the orderly admins
tration of Justice, to make the state
ment which was published in the Sun
yesterday morning. "Where the
laws are not enforced" said General
Wistar, sit remains for the public to
protect themselves by their own
methods" The General added that
in the place where he has his summer
home in Delaware, in the most dense
ly populated part of the State and
on the edge of it's largest city, chill
dren can not venture with safety u
half mile on the public highways.
There is constant danger of just such
fate as overlook the innocent
young girl who fell victim to the
bestial ferocity of the negro White.
In the course of his remarks Gener-
al Wistar said:
''Here in Delaware children cannot
go from my place to school, the dis
tance of one-half mile, without being
accompanied at least part of the
way. This has been the case for
some years past. There can be no
social safety or orderly industry
without the assured safety of the
home and the family, and we have
no longer got it in Delaware. The
State is overrun with predatory ne
groes from the South, who do little
or no work, but live chiefly Oh what
they can earn out of politics"
General Wistar here hints at a mat
ter that is deserving of more than a
passing notice 1t is politics. That
has been the bane and the curse of
the negro for thirty years 1t was
the political leaders from the North
who sowed the seed of enmity toward
his white friends and neighbors in
the heart of the negro. 1t was poll
tics and the price of his vote which
attracted the class of negroes to
which White belonged to Delaware,
and it is politics which largely Gre
ates that class OF negro criminals
| which is found in every part of the
| South. While he does not say so
plainly, General Wistar evidently
finds much to justify the lawless
J outbreak at Wilmington, upon which
the press of the country is now com
menting, and largely without suffic-
lent knowledge of the local condi-
| tiOns.
| But If white women and children
are not safe in their homes and npon
the highways of Delaware, in II part
of the State denselv settled and
guarded by police, and where the
white population greatly predomI-
mates, what is to be said of those
communities in the South where Il
white family is isolated amid negroes,
miles from the nearest white neigh
Dor and far out Of reach of the pro
tecting arm of the law?
If political conditions should at
tract a large negro population to the
| Northern States, as has been done
in Delaware, then the people Of these
States may learn a lesson about tho
race problem which will caIse them
to repent of the harsh and unjust
criticisms of the South and its people
who have been facing that problem
for a generation and i'm that time
have drunk the very dregs of the cur
of bitterness.