The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-27

to Involve the future of the negro. The wild animals of Africa are to go; will the agro go with them? The alterna- tive is demonstration. That he will not go with the animals our experience shows. That he is initiative has been proven. That he can ever become, or
 be made, seIf-elevating in the mass re- | mains to be shown.
 The African in America.
 Finally, as to the African in America. What gleam of supposable light does a | brief visit to the White Nile throw on our home problem? A good deal-per- l haps! Tn the first place looking about | me among Africans in Africa--far re- moved from that American environment to which have been accustomed, the scales fell from my eyes. I found my 1 self most impressed by realizing sense l of the appalling amount of error and cant in which we of the United States have indulged on this topic. We have actually widowed in the bog of self l sufficient ignorance-especially we phil anthropists of New England. We do so | still.
 . Having eyes, we will not see. Even | now we not infrequently hear the suc- cessor to the abol!tionist and humani- tarian of the ante-clvil war period 1 the Uncle Tom" period-announce that | the difference between the white man | ard the black man is much less consid-
 erable than is ordinarily supposed, and
 that the only real obstacle in the ne- gro's way is that He has never been | given a chancei" For myself, after vis- | iting the black man in his own house. | I cone hack with a decided impression | that he is the sheerest of delusions. due | to pure ignorance of rudimentary facts; | yet we built upon it in reconstruction | days as upon a foundation of store-a | ea1f dnnE fpxat af fhnCn h.
 dulge in such theories go to the Sou | dan and pass a week in Omdurman. That, place marks in commerce. In let- | ters. and in art, in science and archi- lecture, the highest point of African
 race. As already suggested. the differ
 ence between Omdurman and London about measures the difference between
 the black and white. Indisputably
 great, that 1t admits of measurement is l questionable.
 | So far as I am advised. the Soudan-
 csc are the finest race ol the whole Af-
 rcan species. Physically they are tall,
 as a whole well-formed, and. in their
 savage way. they are indisputably cour-
 ageous Yet in them not the slightest inherent power of development has as yet come to the surface. Baker, after
 living amongst them for years. calls at-
 tention to the striking elementary fact
 that, since the beginning of time to the day that now is, they have neither do-
 mesticated the elephant or invented
 poetry. As respects poetry the Chi
 nese, for instance, were "as civilized as they are at the present day when the English were barbarians' the Hindoos | domesticated the elephant at a period
 now beyond the memory of man. To-
 day the African uses the gourd, and
 kills the elephant for his ivory!
 Baker was a rough, typical John Bull, | and as an authority on the subject of
 the negro what he wrote is very open | to question. sportsman more even l than an explorer he looked with con-
 tempt and dislike on the natives: yet
 he got along with them, and dominated | them. He was truthful and just in his
 dealings with them, even if he did, when | the emergency came, lash out with a | strong left arm. It would be we'll to
 offset his evidence and differences with | those Of Livingstone. But, when ali
 allowances are made, there Is for Ameri- | cans much food for thought in Bakers
 conclusions. His verdict on the Sou | danese was at any rate explicit: 'I be- | lieve that ten years residence in the | Soudan and this country would spoil
 an angel and turn the best heart to | stone." And again: "The apathy, in-
 dolence, dishonesty combined with dirt | ilcss' are peyohu uSSCIlpllon, ana tuelr
 abhorrence of anything like order in-
 creases their natural dislike for Eu- | ropeans." The following we also ob-
 served in America: "In childhood be-
 lieve tke negro to he in advance, in in-
 tellectual quickness, of the white child
 of similar age, but the mind does not
 ripen; and the negro has grown in body but not advanced in intellect" Tn this
 respect, as the individual so is the race
 Tn no instance has he evinced other
 than retrogre3sion, when once freed l from restraint . and his nat
 ural instincts being a love of idleness
 and savagedom, he will assuredly re- lapse into an idle or savage state. un-
 less specially governed and forced by
 industry" The restraint" in this case