The Washington times., 1905-01-01
AFTER SV|NDLERS
Who ROB NEGROES
Norfolk and Portsmouth
Police Are Active.
THE OLD FLAG DECEPTION
Insurance Schemes Worked to Plunder
Policyholders of Their
Premiums.

The police of Norfolk and Portsmouth,
Va, have started crusade against the
perpetrators of schemes to rob ignorant
negroes and are doing all IN tnelr
power TO break up, IN their jurisdiction,
a practice which has been prevalent
throughout the South ever since the
freedom of the slaves, and which mas,
in various forms. been the means OF
fleeing the negroes out of hundreds of
thousands of dollars. and of filling the
Golfers of fake concerns with ill-gotten
wealth
The so-called insurance companies are
the particular concerns that the Virginia
police arc after. and they are making
1t hot for them. but these concerns
represent only small proportion of the
vast number of crooked schemes that
clean I'D a harvest among the negroes
every year The victims are invaria bly,
iHiterate negroes who are una Bile to read
the insurance or other contracts or.
really to understand them when they
are read TO them, which happens when
the takers want to put up d good bluff
and land a victim who is disposed to be
skeptical.
Started in War Time.
The first of these schemes was put
into operation before the close of the
civil war. and continued to pay for
year or more after the surrender of the
Confederate forces AT that time there
appeared in the South a number OF
men who were well supplied with little
silk American flags. The flag yenders
represented themselves as being con-
neceed with the United States Govern
nlent, and said they were sent TO the
] 6iraSalf
They told the negroes that il they
bought a flag for 81. ran a plow furrow
around ten acres of land and planted
the flag in the center of the piece they
had marked off, that land would pc
long 10 the purchaser of the flag
President Lincoln himself was coming
so,,tI, as soon as he could settle up
the peace question, and when he ar
rived ne would give the owner of every
flag a title to the land he had marked
Off
South for the Negroes.
The South was to be for the negroes,
rsta-tlae.-stery Of the takers. and their
old masters and mistresses were TO be
driven out at once
AS strange as it may seem, thou
sands of these flags were sold. The
venders explained that the dollar was
the regular government lev e1iit t.Aet~
nothing would have to be paid for the
papers waen Mr.. Lincoln came The
idea caught like wild fire. and every
negro who could raise a dollar bought
n flag. He then stole or borrowed a
mule and ID plow and marked off his
land.
The result is easy to imagine. Some
of the negroes understood the situa-
ton when their old masters explained
1T to them. Others did not, and insist
ed on camping on the land they marked
eff There was generally no objection
to this on the part of the rfghtfu1 own
ers until the time came TO cultivate
that particular piece Then there was
trouble, and the ignorant negro who
could not be made to understand that
he had been cheated, suffered again by
being elected from the land he had
been led to believe would belong to
him.
Fakes Have Flourished.
From that time forward fakes of all
sorts have flourished among the South
.ern negroes The greatest Of recent
years, next to the wool straightener
and face bleach that have poisoned
thousands of negroes, was the slave
pension scheme which grew out of the
introduction in the Senate of bill by
the late Senator Hanna providing for
the pensioning Of ex-slaves-
AS soon as the news of this was sent
out through the country the takers got
TO work They invaded the South, and
with the help of corrupt politicians
gathered a fund TO push the bill
through Congress. They addressed
secret meetings of the negroes and tolc
them there was, of course, opposition
to the bill, and Senator Hanna could
not get it through without the help Of
the negroes He could not put up al
the money himself. they said, because
people in his party would critfcise him
IT was absolutely necessary for the ne.
groes to get together and demand that
the bill be passed If the negroes
showed a solid front there would be nC
trouble.
Must Subscribe Fund
Headquarters must be established IL
Washington, and big fund subscribed
Speakers IN one part of the South woult
tell the negroes Of that section wha
those OF another were doing, and urg,
them not to be outdone. Senator Hanna
said the takers, would naturally hell
out those who were the quickest anc
biggest subscribers to the lobby fund.
The result of this scheme was tha
SSyeTal thousand dollars were collected
before the authorities caught on AM
broke up the game
IN Nashville, Tenn. a regular pension
bureau had been established, the agent
of which assured the negroes that tn
Hanna bill had already passed. an,
that all they had 20 do was 10 pay
fee, send on their names, addresses, AM
records. and they would soon receiv
their pension money. Some OF the agent
Were caught. but others skipped out
The scheme, however. was effectivel.
crushed
The insurance companies are now do
ing the biggest business. Their collec
tions are small, but they are very regu
lar. Several cases have been reporte
here in Washington recently OF failur
on the part Of such concerns to pay III
the benefits their contracts call for, bu
there Is always a loophole of escap
when the cases get into court, as tn
negroes are never very clear as to wha
they thought they were signing whel
they made the contracts.