The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-09-11
Comments on Living Topic,
By Archibald Johnson
The Negro As He Is.


the negro and who hold beautiful the
cries of his future. They take the
Ogden view mat the race has mad
wonderful progress within the pas
forty years and they paint radlah
pictures of what he is to be. Anothe
class, who feel more kindly toWarl
the negro and are really better friend
to him than those who patron1z'
him, see very little real progress sine
the days of slavery. They Know thai
1t is too much to expect any marke'
moral development in even centur
Of freedom by a race so long en-
shaved. They are merely machine
capable of seconiing will highe
than their own. They have neve
achieved anything Independent of :
higher order of mind. They follow
but never lead in any movement
This dependence upon others accounts
for their loyalty" in war times
They were afraid to rise in rebellion
against the master whom they re
spected and feared. 1t is to thei)
credit, to be sure. that they behaved
so well, but to base that behavior OF
anything higher than fear is to con
TESS ignorance of the negro nature
This very day the chief protection thu
South has against the insolence of TIL,
negro race is to be found in this fear
born in slavery. ana handed down t.
succeeding generations. The feeling
against the whites is just as stron.
and just as bitter as ever. Race an
tipathy is not decreasing, but grow!
with the passing years. There arc
notable exceptions, of course, but W.,
are speaking of the race as a whole
and all this soft stuff that is beins
handed out by rainbow theoriSt!
about the rapid development of the
negro is tiresome to Southern peo-
pie whose fathers owned slaves, an0
who have had ever opportunity Of
close and intelligent study of the
characteristics of the negro. our
Home Mission Board has fallen into
the Ogden error. They have listened
to the beautiful theories of the
Northern brethren who have studied
the negro at long range. The Chowap
people have more practical and &c
curate knowledge of the negro in q
minute than those philanthropistS
have in a month. The negro can be
reached and saved by the Gospel, but
the process of his moral elevation
must be necessarily slow, and the in
reference and patronage of the white
people will retard rather than hasten
his progress. The two races are and
must be forever separate.
The Desire to De Diiiefent.
Many of the fool notions that get
abroad may be accounted for from
the desire to arrest public attention
and thus bring their authors into no
toriety. North Carolina has, we are
sure, been often misrepresen. by
her own sons who have a burning de-
sire to become the observed of all
observers. These young men for
they are commonly young) pretend
to have discovered some startling
fact either unknown to or concealed
by the fathers. and they proceed to
vigorously promulgate it, WITHOUT Civ
ing a thought to the evil they do Mr..
G1re did not IN his heart think SO
hardly of the ministry of North Caro-
lima or of the good women they hero
by the stagnant waters of theology
as his cruel words would indicate, but
he knew. the utterance of such a sem
timent would raise stir. and stir
was what he was after. Prof. Bas-
sett is not specially in love with
Booker Washington, and he knows
as we'll as any of us that he does not
stand next to George Washington
among the sons of the South but he
foresaw the clamor that his views
would produce, with himself as the
central figure, and he reaped an
making n sensation sometimes over
whelms justice and truth. We have
heard of the crankS who are willing
to surrender life itself in order to be-
come the talk of the newspapers even
for one day. and so they jump off the
Brooklyn bridge. The passion is the
same, though in a lesser degree, that
has moved many a man to say rash
things about the Old State and thus
mt hnr in no J;.rl,t 1,Af fhA
world. We would not do these men
the injustice to say they are utterly
INSCRIPTIONS in what they write.
They work themselves UP to the point
of believing, for the time being, that
they are MARTYRS for the truths sake.
The surprising thing. however, is, that
upon reflection, when the passion of
the hour has passed. so few of them
make a manly confession and seek
forgiveness for what they have done.
1t is pretty hard for vaulting am
bition to hold itself down to the plain
dead level of justice and truth. The
upper air is better place in which
to revel but the skyrocket, after dis
porting itself in the heavens for
little while, falls to the earth at lasA
a spent and ragged wreck. 1t is bet
ter to pied along with the multitude
in the right direction than to float
above them In the wrong. And the
multitude is generally right, but not
always. When it is wrong q MAI
may and should pursue a different
course-but not until then.
New Words for "DiXie."
The News and Observer prints
some words that have been written
to fit the fine Southland song that
has stirred our hearts for forty years.
They are fairly good stanzas and
come nearer doing justice to the splen-
did melody than any we have ever
read, The News and Observer re-
marks, however, that 'the words OF
Dixie" will never be changed as long
as the men live who We're inspired in
battle by the tune Dixie This is
perhaps correct, but it is q pity. The
old words are about as senseless and
commonplace drivel as were ever
penned. They have married the
beauty of the old melody. and we have
never seen a chorus company singing
the silly words of the song that did
not have a sheepish look. We ought
to have words worthy of our national
hymn Both Dixie and yankee
Doodle" are rendered ridiculous by
the lack of sense in the words of these
songs. There is really no excuse for
poor poetry when we have SO much
of the genuine North Carolina article
as the Biblical Recorded claims; and