Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1903-07-01

family, tries to understand those with
whom he Genes in contact, cannot fail
to be- impressed with the strong con-
trasts between different sections Of the
same country, where the inference
would be that but little difference in
character and disposition could exist.
The recent object lessons Of the at
titude of the white people in different
sections Of the United States toward
the negro most forcibly illustrates
that sections may be vastly different
when they are divided only by lmagi-
nary state lines.
The negro is a quantity with which
the American people have had to deal
for a great many years, yet as a mass
he has been consigned until within the
last few years to the South. In that
section lying north of the Mason and
Dixon line but few negroes we're known
until within the last thirty years. The
people in those sections Of this country
were really very friendly to him
until he commenced to mingle with
them, and even yet there are those who
profess great social friendship for him
in the interest of political advantages
they would score.
For years when a viciods negro has
met his doom at the hands Of an out
ragged community in some Southern
state those people were loud in their
denunciatiOns. Lately the scales seem
to have born down on the other side,
and outrages by the black fiend have
been brought home to many sections Of
the North. And what is the cOmpari-
sOnH When a bad Niger commits a
hideous crime in the South, he has been
made pay the penalty Of his folly or
knavery. But the great mass of his
colored brothers have moved along
placidly, nndisturbed and un%censured,
The recent eutrages in the North have
been treated far different. In almost
every locality where the black fiend
has committed an outrage, the whites
seem not to be content with furnishing,
in the most up to date Southern style, the
culprit, but all the colored people in
the section affected have been endan-
gered, and in most cases forced to
leave their homes and fly for their lives.
In other words, when the South is
compelled to mob a negro that is the
end Of it, while if a mob once starts in
the North, there seems to be no way of
appeasing It's wrath until every negro
in the neighborhood is banished or
killed.
When submitted to a close analysis
this difference in the treatment Of the
negro would look very unnatural. The
North has commended for many a day
that the negro was abused by the
Southern people, while the Nothern
people were their friends. It has sim
ply been a case Of distance lending
enchantment. The Southern people
who passed through the days of slavery
understand the negro. They were also
taught to understand him still further
during those black days Of reconstruc-
ton when horrors followed horrors and
insult was added to injury to s devas-
tated section, whose remnant of {
former grand civilization had beer
reduced to destitute women, helpless
children and manned and crippled mel
who escaped from the canon's mouth
The most vicious element the country
could possibly muster comprised tina
rsgtag gang Of cut threats and muir
derers who anne as carpetbaggers ant
influenced the freed negro to touch tin
match to the home Of his former mas
ter. It was by the most strenuous ant
brave stand that any people ever as
sumed that civilization the SoutI
was preserved and grapplsd from tn
hands OF this ruthless crowd of blood
thirty thieves and vampires. But tn
white man Of the South was equal t
the occasion, and the New South to
day stands q monument to his diplo
macy and his bravery.
The carpetbaggar was driven frOr
the South, but the negro, his subtIl
tool. remained, his perfdy was for
given by the proud southerner, he VS.
furnished employment. and wbe
worthy assisted in every way to pus
forward and occupy a better positio
in his own proper sphere.
The South stands today as the res
friend of the negro, the only real trien
he has on earth, and the negro know
this and prefers 10 remain in th
South. His former master lie tOda
his employerer. and he would not hay
him returned to him az a slave. II an
difference. the negro Is the worst 0
Of the two, because Of his incompe
tency to take care of himself, an
because his employer has no turtle
nka.-ak - htvr nowv then that oF aaaiu