OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9947, 16 January 1894, Page 3

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

(Fkom Oub Own Correspondent.)

San Francisco, December 14,

THE COLOUR LINE,

The race question is a long way from final and permanent settlement. Lincoln's pro. clamation and the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, though breaking down the barrier between black and white and placing the one upon an equality with the other, have not, in reality, realised the anticipations of their speaker and framers. The colour line is unsparingly drawn in society, in college, in business, arid courts of law in many districts. Violence and outrage against the negro are matters of every-day record in tho Southern States. So common are they that the press fails to recount them. The negro, however, does not so view these brutalities, but avails himself to the full extent of that liberty he is presumed to have secured to protest against their continuance and demand their cessation. A great gathering of AfroAmericans was held in Cincinnati during the first week in December, and was attended by nearly 1000 delegates from all parts of the country. Bishop Turner, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church South, of the West Indies, presided, and he created great enthusiasm when he denied his race was naturally vicious, and appealed to its record in the civil war in support of his plea. The bishop said that when he was in the army he wanted to have a leg or arm shot off. He was ashamed to return home unharmed for ftar he might not be thought a loyal soldier. Now, however, he thanked God that he had not shed blood for a country that refused to own him. This brought down the house and cheering and waving of hate, canes, and handkerchiefs continued for several minutes.

A permanent organisation was formed, aud committees appointed to take into consideration attack* upon white women, mobs and lynching, and to frame addresses to the American people, &c.; whilst it was seriously proposed to petition Congress for the means to deport all negroes from the States to Africa. Sufficent. at least has been said to provo tto serious nature of tho question. Nine millions of people will not forever remain quiescent under treatment such as is doled out to the "nigger." Even in cities, where the bitterness is not so openly shown as in the Southern States, there is no compunction felt in drawing the colour line. In some large centres special cars aud restaurants are provided for the negro. Tho. philanthropic Easterner, whose father fought for the freedom of tho slave, and whoso writers denounced the slave owner, will not eat, diink, or worship with his .black " brother," so that there would not appear to be much difference between a Southern planter who viewed his hands as cattle and the daiuty Northerner who railed at him for bo doing, yet shuns the released slaves' society as somethicg infinitely degrading.

• Only this week, in cosmopolitan San Francisco, the white performers in a popular house of entertainment drew the colour line and refused to play until every negro, male and female, was discharged. Nor have there been any protests from press or public at this action; it is accepted aa, perhaps, a desirable consummation. But tho boycott cuts deeper. A case came within my knowledge some few months since. A man, formerly holding a decent position in New Zealand and a deacon in his church, in a moment of insanity sought these shores under the impression—pardonable, I think—that he was coming to a free country. The poor fellow discovered as soon as he landed, and for the first time in his life, that his hair was moro curly, and his skin darker than that of his Christian brethren. Ha had hard work to earn a livelihood, and, worst of all, was forced by his landlord and his landlord's attorney to quit the house he had rented because the neighbours objected to living in and near the same place as a coloured man. Life became'so distasteful that he made an effort to leave, and, I am glad to say, he is now back in New Zealand, where I do not think his "colour" will be so strenuously objected to.

And yet another case comes to my remembrance, and which will further illustrate how this antipathy cf the white for the black is engrained in all grades and professions; I wiw present a little while ago at an entertainment, given under the auspices of one cf the Episcopalian Churches of this city, The entertainment was provided by children for the benefit of poorer children, and the parts were well done. Wanderiog among the audience wa3 one little girl of unmistakably "nigger" blood. She was dressed in white, and loving hands had evidently adorned her for the occa^ sion, but she seemed miserable. I found she was a member of the class that was giving tho performance, but had been excluded from taking any part therein by the matron Bolely on the ground that she was " black," and, there, fore, the parents of the white children—of whom, by tho way, I was one—would object. I must confess when I heard this I did not appreciate, as I ought, the last tableau on the programme, wherein four young ladies, with bare arms and long white robes, came forward, and, kneeling before a little girl dressed as Columbia and waving the Star Spangled Banner, beseeched her, and entreated her and worshipped her, and orated about " liberty " and "purity," and "righteousness" and "peace," and "law," and "order," &c , &c. I feel convinced that a man need neither be a prophet nor the son of a prophet to foretell danger of no mean order to that community which encourages the growth of such racial antipathies as the above facts disclose.

runiFYlNO THE MESS, Seventeen thousand women of this city signed the petition to the editors of the daily papers having for its object the cleansing of the press from the everlasting"doses of pruriency and sensationalism with which it abounds, The following extract from their plea will illustrate these ladies' position : — " We approve of our papers in their energy and enterprise, but we bftlieve the time has come for them to take a higher stand en the question of public morals. We deplore in them ' sensationalism,' not the exposure of ciime. We deplore ' personalities,' not the publio announcement of personal acts. Wo believe that, it is a minority of your readers who demand sensationftl, personal, or immoral details rather than the clean statement of facts and truth. There is too often a minuteness of detail in the reports givtn of crime, wickedness, and sensuality, which can gratify only prurient and vulgar curiosity, or awaken such curiosity in innocent and inexperienced minds. '' We feel tbat spreading broadcast vicious and debasing news in our homes and among our children, and the consequent knowledge and easy familiarity with crime in all its forms, has a tendency to lower the tone of thought among the best of oar people, and to strengthen the worst instincts among the morally lower classes," There is little in the above not already known to students of the American press. From time to time the writer has pointed out some of its more glaricg features. Not that the press of San Francisco is in any sense worse than t.hat of New York, Chicago, Boston, or other large cities, A'l are decorated with the same adornments, aad daubed with the fame soot, But editors would Bf em to have assumed they were meeting a publio want and satisfying the wishes of their subscribers, In real ty the larger portion of their, readers have had to .accept, under mental protest, ju6t what editors and managers gave them. ' The Examiner, against which I am incaaed to think most of the resentment was aimed, affected to pooh-pooh the movement, although, e(< the same time, affording, with its usual enterprise, every facility for publishing far and wide its purpose, It printed every one of the 17,000 names, and telegraphed an account of the petition, to New York end other cities, and solicited opinions thereon from those competent to give an experienced judgment, The replies showed the movement wri viowed m ft. juefc and. righteous one. As typioal of ifcesa I submit tfenti of tiie preßide.R.t pHfoe New York V-te&B, Club; '< 'J'ho women 0! Walw hmlfm Hiwty }MM is tin!? pIUiPSi

The American press to-day tends too much to pruriency in news-gathering. Crime and sex are exploited at unnecessary length, and the baser and coarser instincts of humanity are pandered to where the higher and finer should be appealed to. In New York city alone there is a tremendous feeling in entire sympathy with the appeal of the California women, and I have not the least doubt that if a

similar petition were circulated here it would get 170,000 signatures instead of 17,000." At the same time it ib but fair to state there have been objections to this protest, and these, too, from a quarter where one would hardly look for them. The chief deriders and oneerers at the whole business have been women. A certain editor—Mary Mapes Dodge—said, simply, she wa3 too busy with her own paper to bother with what other people are doing. Nelly B!y—who gained a certain amount of notoriety by travelling unaccompanied round the world in the interests of some New York paper—wrote: " I cannot understand what these women mean by sensationalism—women mean so many things, or think they do. I admire woman as an individual, but when taken collectively—that is, when a body of women meet together—they think they must do something or take some action, whether it be within the bounds of reason or not." And Miss Kate Field delivered herself, in part, as under: "I am very weary of being told that the press and the theatre are responsible for the immoralities of the day. The great successes in journalism have been made by not creating bad taste, but by feeding men and women who hunger for prurient pabulum. I should say that their parents are responsible for their taste, and that people had better look at home before they go abroad to seek the devil. It they have keen eyes they'll find him in their cupboards. If the women of California are so very anxious to uphold what is good in journalism I should be very glad to see them support Kate Field's Washington, created by one of their own sex, and that for the reasons I have stated above has received the highest medal and diploma from the World's Columbian Exposition. But I have no expectations of either moral or material support from my own sex." All of which does not afford much food for those who in various parts of the world hotly contend that the introduction of women as reformers, teachers, and politicians will indubitably purify our morals and purge our vices. When a woman says good-bye to that which constitutes her chiefest charm she ceases to be interesting, and becomes as repulsive as a Nelly Bly or Kate Field do in the above.

The attempt to disinfect the atmosphere of the editorial, reporting, and advertising rooms of American press offices was originated and conducted by women whose names are not known cither as female emancipators or silly notoriety hunters. It is a work that callß for little or no publicity save on the part of the few organisers, which does not drag women from that sphere to which Nature, no less than honour and custom, assigns her, and yet which calls into play a holy and indignant affirmation for purity and cleanliness as opposed to vulgarity and nastines;. It is, in fact, within a woman's sphere. Hence its rapid success. THE TRAMP ABBOAD.

Judging by the Experiences of the past few months, the United States would seem to be suffering from as formidable an infliction in the form of the "tramp"evil as are the older countries of Europe. Ten? of thousands of men are tramping the country over. They pass from city to city and village to village and State to State with persistent monotony the year round. Many of them are genuine workers in search of honest work, but according to reliable statements the largo majority are men who spend their life in running away from work. These last dread nothing so much as a job, for the reason that when by mistake they do fall across one a certain amount of ingenuity is necessary to invent reasons for not taking it. Such men are known from east to west. They form a vast army of professional mendicants. In the summer they flock east, in the winter they go west, and numbers of them are as wellknown to the authorities as are the habitual drunkard or sneak thief. Many have in the past occupied ' good positions, socially and financially, but from one cause or another have drifted down and down until the curse of idleness and hopelessness has settled upon them like a poll, and left them mere animals with no other knowledge than that they have a stomach and a mouth. It is hardly possible to estimate the number of these lurching Ishmaels, but it runs far up into the hundreds of thousands. It is easy to imagine the constant menace to law, decency, and order such a body ia ; but this year, in addition to the normal multitude, thousands of others from the closed factories and silver mines have helped to swell tho throng. So strong, in fact, have they become that they now throw off all attempt at tramping from one part of the country to another, and have taken possession of the freight cars, the roofs and brakebeams of passenger cars, and the conductors' vans on all the lines of railway. Their form of procedure is as follows :—The men appoint a leader who acts as spokesman ; then they mount tho next train, advising the conductors they mean to ride, objsction or no objsction, and at the first resting place form in order, march to the nearest hotel or grocery, and demand food. Resistance has not yet, I think, been offered »to these demands; it being accepted as better to give and say nothing than to embroil tho community in a fight, Having satisfied their hunger they board the next train and continue their journey. Snch has been the history of the tramp throughout the west during the past season, and, although no harm has so far arisen, it is obvious this condition cf affairs cannot bo continued for ever. What, then, is the alternative? There would seem to be an außwer to this query in the consular reports furnished by United States agents, upon the "tramp" evil from other countries. From a report recently issued by tho Government it appears Germany has passed through some such experience as we are now undergoing. Tho Franco-German war left 200,000 men and boys begging and threatening about tho roads of Germany. It cost 15,000,000d0l to support this vast army of vagrants and others, and the sum was growing every year. To-day the professional tramp is unknown. As such a result could only be accomplished by some effective system, h is not without interest to note the means taken. Briefly, there were established along tho road, at intervals of about half a daj's journey, naturalverpflegungstationen with arbeitsnachweisebureaus attached. Those terms are not a3 formidable as they look, being neither a new form of sausage meat nor lager beer, but simply aid stations and intelligence offices. Every wanderer without means must apply at one of these stations, where he is provided with a blauk book. He is then given food and shelter for the night. In the Morning ho has his breakfast and is set to work at some occupation requiring no tkill, such as working on roads, cutting wood or breaking stone. At noon ho is given his dinner, the name of the station with tho hour of leaving is stamped in bis book, and he is started for the next station. On the way he oan look for regular work. If he does not find it the samo routine is repeated at the next station, and this can be continued until he has traversed all of Germany. At each station the wanderer gets a day's accommodation for half a day's woik, and his whereabouts each day are carefully recorded in his book. If he loses the book he must get another for sis cents, or two hours' work. Professional tramps are under the ban of tho law and are severely punished. An applicant for aid who refuses to accept a good situation when offered is refused further assistance at the stations. The entries in his book then cease, and ho is liable to arrest at any time as a common tramp. Wanderers found off the regular roads on which the aid stations are situated are aleo subject to arrest.

Harsh and cold as these measures appear, they have, it is claimed, driven the tramp out of Germany—a result duo to the fact that no genuine worker will shirk work if he can get it, and no tramp will work if he can avoid it. So the tramp, in sheer disgust at man's selfishness and brutality, aud worn to a shadow in thinking out how he can dodge the jobs he sees looming up, has laid himself down by the wayBide, and, in utter chagrin, given up the ghost. THE MIDWINTER PAIB.

This, the newest and latest of international exhibitions, promises to rauk third in the list of these popular carnivals of industry and pleasure. The original space allotted has been found too small, and other land has had to bo taken in—making an area of 160 acres. New buildings are being designed and erected, one after tho other, in a marvellous manner. In addition to the five great main building? and the 30 odd State and county buildings, there are to be an electrical theatre, intended solely for the display of ecenie wonders manipulated and created by the use of the electric current; a festival hall, capable of seating 5000 people, to be set apart for gala days and holidays; a mining camp of the days of '49, built up from the original shanties of those rough old days, and which will reproduce in all their reality the saloon, gambling hell, dance hall, office of the "Arizona Kicker," tents, coaches, miners, Indians, &c, &c. The Irish will have a model Drogheda Castle, the English Anne Hathaway's cottage, tbo Germans their Heidelberg Castle, Hawaiians their volcano of Kilauea, and so on with Chinrso, Japanese, Turks, Austriane, Canadians, Servians, and dwellers in all parts of the earth. Like every other affair of its kind it seema hardly probable it will be in full working order by tho first day of January next, although-wonders ran be done with thousands of hands and good management in the last few days. Nearly everything is rtady and waitiDg to be put in its place the moment the contractors have completed their work, and I havo little doubt that tho Ist of February, at the latest, will see " Sunset City " in full swing and populated by as motley a owarm of bipeds as the world has witnessed.

This present mail, I believe, carries invitations to the crack amateurs of Australia and New Zealand to participate in (he great athletic carnival to be held during the Fair, and in which the pick of Great Britain and this country will oompete.

— A young woman of Paris was found locked up in ft police station on her wedding morning by the msm who came up from thtj lirovmces to rasrry her, She had stolon tho fcroussew of a we&Mt? young pub whioh fed bison s«n| to jisp |a £»Y§ tt|Q jpHtols

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