The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1907-06-15


the two rushed into each others arm.
clasping and kissing-the white gin
and the old black woman
/ ! thought to myself: There's n
Negro problem there: that's jus
plain human lovei"
Master" Superseded by Boss"
Often 1 have heard Negroes refe
TO my white folks" and similarly
the white man still speaks Of my Ne
groes." The old term Of slavery, thu
use Of the word MASTER" has who'll
disappeared, and in its place ha.
arisen, not without significance, the
round term Boss" or sometimes
Cap" or "Cap'n." To this the white
man responds with the first name Of
the Negro Jim" or "Susie"-or "
the Negro is old or especially re
spected: Uncle jim or Aunt Su'
san
To an unfamiliar Northerner one
of the very interesting and somewhat
amusing phases of conditions down
here is the panic fear displayed over
the use OF the word Mr." or Mrs"
No Negro is ever called Mr.. or Mrs.
by a white man: that would indicate
social equality. A Southern white
man told me with humor Of his din
culties:
Now / admire Booker Washington.
regard him as a great man, and yet
I couldn't call him Mr. Washington.
We were all in a quandary until
doctors degree was given him. Tina,
saved our lives, We call him DR.
Washington now"
Sure enough, I don't think ! have
heard him called Mr.. Washington
since | came down here. 1t is always
DIR" or Just Booker" They are
ready to call a Negro Professor" or
Bishop" or The Reverend"-but not
Mr."
In the same way a Negro may call
Miss Mary Smith BY the familiar
Miss Mary" but If he called her
Miss Smith she would be deeply in
censed. The formal Miss Smith"
would imply social equality.
I digress! But | have wanted to
impress these relationships. There
are all gradations of Negroes between
the wholly dependent old family ser
want and the new, educated Negro
professional or business man, and,
every degree of
treatment from indulgence to intense
hostility.
l must tell. in spite of .ack of room,
one beautiful story | heard at Atlanta.
which so well illustrates the old rela-
tionship. There is in the family Cf
DR.. ]. s. Todd, a we'll known citizen
IF Atlanta, an old, old servant called,
lffectionately, Uncle Billy. He has
been so long in the family that in |
'eality he is served as much as he
serves. During the riot last Septem- |
Der he was terrified: he did not dare |
o go home at night. So Miss Louise, |
he doctors daughter. took Unc,e |
Billy home through the dark streets. |
When she was returning one of her
riends met her and was much I
Harmed that she should venture out
n a time of so much danger.
What are you doing out here this I
his time of night, he asked?
why" she replied, as IL it were
he most natural answer in the world, !
1 had to take Uncle Billy safely |
Iome."
Over against this story / have an
ccount Of a Tennessee farmer who,
an Illinois Central Pullman
ar in Kentucky, and discovering
herein a Negro Bishop and his wife,
enforcement OF the "Jini
row law. The train was held nine
minutes at Hopkinsville while a po-
ceman made them dress and move
nto the compartment for Colored pas
engers. !
I have now described two of the +
hree great classes OF Negroes: First J
be worthless and idle Negro, often
criminal, comparatively small il
umbers, but perniciously evident.
econd, the great middle class of Ne
roes who do the manual work of the
outh. Above these, a third class,
rev in numbers, but most influential
l their race, are the progressive,
Negroes, who have
holly severed their old intimate ties
18th the white people-and who have
cen getting farther and farther away
ON them. OF some Of these leading
'egroes in Atlanta / told last month,
nd / shall have much more to say