i^——————W—W——Ml— !■■!< <■> ■ W I I II I1IIBI ~n—HIWTiTWIIlM ■' I
Reminiscences of a. Wayfarer
Some of the Important Events of the Pioneer Days
of Richardson County and Southeast Nebraska, as
remembered by the writer, who has spent fifty
sne years here.
Tin: N'K\V AND Till'. OKI*
‘•Man that is born of woman
is of few days a ml full o 1
trouble.”
The pntriaeh who is said t«*
be responsible for the above
profound declaration, seems to
indicate that man born in some
other way might not be so lull
of trouble, but failed to give
the mod us of the operation. Ac
cepting the truth of the state
meut, which all human exper
ience has amply verified, we as |
sume what is equally true, that ;
nations born of man using the j
word in its generic sense are
of brief existence, and just as |
full of t h e same brand o I !
trouble, but on a larger and
vastly more extended scale. As
aggregates always partake of
the nature of their unities, it
follows that they are also sub
ject to similar vicissitudes,
troublous lives, and ultimate
death. None in the past have
been exempt from the common
fate, and it is very certain that
none will be, in the long life ol
our race that is yet to transpire.
To go no farther in the past
than is covert1.1 by the history
of our own nation, and take its
natural life as a fair sample of
all that proceeded it, we ob
serve that to bring it into being,
and keep it so, has been one
continuous struggle against un
toward and unfriendly condi
lions. Like a child, it has had
to tight for its life at every
step, and the worst of all the
enemies it ever had were what
is known as domestic, such as
long time war with the native
Indian tribes, disputes over tin
nature of our governments,
state and national for the idea
seems to have been that ours is
a conglomerate mixture of all
kinds of sovereignties, with not
much of a head anywhere and
the perennial crop of uneasy
politicians a n d demagogues
that has been and yet is, the
peculiar curse of the republic,
for to them more than to any
other, we owe the wasting,
bloody civil war of the decade of
JNKt. Thomas II. Benton, in my
humble judgment, the clearest
thinker of American statesmen,
•said: “the- danger to this count r\
would come from uneasy poll
ticians; its safety from the trail
quit masses.'’ Lvery year has j
proved the truth of that predic
tion, and it was never more true
than it is at this moment.
The span of ray own life covers
the stormiest years of our na
tional life, and it has been a
fact known to the veriest mod
iocre of the period, that the
Negro question in one form or
another, has been, of all others,
the most vexatious. The pres
ence of the black race in Amor j
ica was involuntary lie was a 1
slave to begin with, and contin j
ued to be so until the institu
tion was abolished as one of the
results of our civil conflict; and
then occurred the greatest mis
take that was ever committed
in connection with that unfortu
nate people they were entrust
ed with the elective franchise.
J remember with much personal
satisfaction that when the lath
amendment to the constitution
was submitted to our legisla
ture for ratification, at its ses
sion in lNHi, I, as a member of
the upper house of that body,
cast my vote for it under pro
test. It was a foregone conclu
sion that it would be adopted by
an overwhelming majority, and
I was unwilling to stand alone
as the only member voting
against it. but l was more un
willing to allow the occasion to
pass without giving expression
to my serious objection to a
measure that would enfranchise
an ignorant, half civilized race,
who were no more competent to
measure a id rightfully under
stand the responsibilities im
posed by .1 freeman's ballot,
than any other animal of a low
er order than man. We already
had enough and to spare, of ig
norance and brutality in the
electorate of the country, with
out swelling the number with
millions more of the most objec
tionable material that the folly,
or blind ((artisan zeal of men,
anywhere in tile world, ever
tried to make voters out of.
The impolicy of the measure lias
long ago been demonstrated, so
much so, that the amendment
has, to all intents and purposes,
become a dead letter ou the
statute hook of the nation, and
it ought to be so.
Nevertheless, the dusky race
is with us yet, and still as pow
er I ul for evil as it ever has been,
and quite as demoralizing to the
dominant race as in the day of
its greatest subservance, as I
shall presently endeavor to
show. It was only the other
day a man of some national dis
tinctiou made an address before
tile RraduatniR class ot our state
university, by invitation of the
authorities of that institution.
His subject was “Dixie," which
sobriquet was Riven the south
land in the time of its rebellion
aRainst the authority of the
Reneral Royermnent, and one it
is likely to retain as Ioiir as
the recollection of that awful
strife shall dwell in the inemor
ies of the American people.
AnioiiR other matter to which he
Rave attention, and the chief
one I take it, was the XeRro, or
as lie politely put it, the racial
question. I read that part of
his address with some interest,
not particularly in what he said,
as in what he iniRht, but did not
say. This orator has Ioiir been
in public life, and is, in an in
tellectual way, fairly represen
tutive ot tin- people who have
honored him in the past, and
who have recently further dis
tinRuished him with a seat in
the I'nited States senate the
AreopaRiis of America and the
Rreatest deliberative body on
earth.
We had a riylit to expect a
man, so honored and so distin
Ruished, in an address of the
character mentioned, that if he
touched the racial question at
all, lie would deal with it frank
ly, comprehensively and in de
tail; that our people, less ad
vised on the subject, iniRht Rain
a knowledge ot the real disturb
ihr element in the society of the
south, and which has made the
continued presence of the XeRro
amoiiR t h e white people, a
source of anxiety, not to sav
alarm, for the peace and Rood
order of the southern section of
the country. But he did noth
ing of the kind. The real ques
tion was not touched at all. He
talked much about the Negro
as though tin* people in the
north do not know what a Ne
gro is, nor what he is like. So
tar as the anthropological rela
tion of the African with the bal
ance of the human family i" con
cerned, it is altogether proba
ble that tlie people north of that
imaginary line known as Mason
A Dixon s, are as well informed
as the senator elect from Mis
sissippi is, and on that point in
i struct ion was not needed. That
I there is. and always has been,
j since the black race has been
denizens ot this continent, a
cause for racial alarm on the
part of the whites, there can be
no doubt. Had some intelligent
representative white lady from
the south delivered the address,
instead of Senator-elect Wil
liams, she would, if allowed a
free hand, have told her audi
tors that that disturbing ques
tion in the southland is not so
much the negro himself, as it is
the disposition t<> race amalga
matiun by the male portion of
the white race. Tin* pretended
fear that tin* white man’s daugli
ter will marry a ••nigger'' is the
i merest bosh, and nobody knows
that fact better than Senator
Tillman, who frequently talks
that nonsense. Hut what of his
sou ." What is lie dcfing’r Marry
ing a negro woman ' Nothing of
the kind, but he is doing what
lie can to increase the race of
mixed bloods and their name in
the south is-becoming legion.
It is the common experience
of the ages, that where two dis
tinct species of the human race
come in contact, and they are
disposed to amalgamate at all,
and do so to any extent, all that
is necessary to a complete ab
sorption of one by the other, is
indefinite continuance of such
contact.
I have stood on a corner con
venient for the purpose in a
southern city, and taken note
of the variegated hues of color
in the faces of the people pass
ing by, and 1 affirm what I
know to he true, that of the
mixed bloods and the pure Afri
can, there passed me more than
three of the former, to one of
the latter. Among other sig
nificant facts in the same con
nectionn was o n e concering
school children. At my point
ot observation the children go
ing to the colored school went
one way, while the children go
ing to the school provided for
the whites, went another. I
observed among the colored
children, so-called, there were
more than five mixed bloods to
one full blood, ranging from
perfect white, all the way in
deeper shading, to the perfect
black. 'Phis told a n awful
story, but somehow and for
some reason not explained, the
southern people do not like to
talk about it, and yet it is the
bcte /loir of the whole South.
It is claimed on the authority
of the census, that the blacks in
the south are steadily on the
increase. This, in point of fact,
is not true,and for this reason
every .mixed blood i> classed as
a negro. In that sense they are
on the increase; not otherwise.
The eminent gentleman could
have enlightened the university
students on this subject and
made his address one of loftv
distinction and lasting profit,
tie could have told them further
that the dominant race in the
south is in no danger of ulti
mate corruption by taking into
its veins the blood of the
black race, for it is not doing
that. That can only be done
when the white women in
the south shall become as Inst
to the higher ideals of civilized
life as a certain class, low down
in the scale ol manhood of the
white male population appear
to be, which all the world knows
is a thing impossible. It is the
black race that is being decim
ated. corrupted and destroyed;
not the white one. Assimila
turn sufficient to change fixed
types intoa mongrel people,such
as exists in Mexico, Central
America, and some of the South
American states, requires the
concurrent action of the sexes
o i both t h e amalgamating
species. No instance in the
history of the Cermanic races
can be found where they have
mingled their blood with that
of the African, the Indian or
the Mongol, sufficient to pro
duce a distinct type of the mon
grel, while just the re
verse is true of the Latin races.
W bile the blood of the Anglo
Saxon is not being corrupt
: ed at the fountain, a surplus
and worthless population is be
ing engendered that will require
an indefinite time to eradicate;
anil southern society, or any
other burdened with this unde
sirable race, must suffer in the
consequence. But what is that
to a professional reformer?
Nothing.
Among other reminiscent
things pleasant in memory, are
A hammock for two, Just you—and
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the many solitary hours of study
I have devoted to the works of
the mighty thinkers in past
iages and in later times, on this
same subject of race integra
tion and disintegration great
historical men such as Plato
and Aristotle and their contem
porary (Grecian and Roman phil
osophers, a n d Maltlms, La
Marck, Darwin and Spencer of
thb nineteenth century names
written high on the scroll of
the immortal few in the temple
of Mnemosyne, there to remain
as imperishable as time itself.
Prom these we learn that the
natural process of race continu
ance by survival ot the fittest
may be arrested, if not prevent
ed entirely, as can be seen, as
an object lesson, by a glance at
the people of Mexico. It is not
pertinent to my purpose to en
ter upon a discussion of these
questions in a paper like this,
but 1 do insist that it would
have been consistent with a
statesman's duty to his constit
uents, the American people,
when addressing them, as Sena
tor-elect Williams did at Lin
coln, to have treated the race
question in his own vicinity a
dangerous menace to the peace
and happiness of the people—as
a political philosopher, when
the subject of his address made
it entirely in order to do so.
Hut as though partisan politi
cal clap-trap is the proper
thing in an address to a gradu
ating class at a country school
or a state university, whether
the subject in hand is “The
Price of a Soul,” or historic
“Dixie,'’ the distinguished law
giver from the south, in con
formity to precedent perhaps in
that particular, interlarded his
address with something very
like it, and disposed of his sub
ject much in the way the novice
played Hamlet, by leaving Ham
let out. Politics in these latter
days, seem to be in order at
any and all social functions
among the people, except fun
erals, and it is not impossible
that a new departure will be in
augurated as to them in the
near future, when some peer
less orator that is,one who can
| talk by the mile will on such oc
casions discuss the “trusts,” or
the “principles of my party,’’
(personal pronoun, possessive
case),while the mourning friends
are paving the last sad rites in
the memory of the loved and
lost.
In the old days, on the close
of a school year, some one emi
nent as a teacher in some branch
of human education (not neces
sarily in a regular school or col
lege), was invited to address
the graduating class on the
completion of their labors, and
just before they bid farewell to
their alma mater to be^in the
real battle of life. Such ad
dresses were always suited to
the occasion, and nothing was
allowed to enter into them that
would offend the sensibilities of
anyone, either in his religious
or political beliefs. The world
has progressed since then like
the crawfish—backwards.
His Opportunity.
“A man in Winsted, Conn., ate 13
eggs at a sitting,” says the Buffalo Ex
press. Perhaps he was determined to
take full advantage of the recent
slight slump in price. ,■
THE UNFORGIVABLE SIN.
‘‘Grandad, what was Adam’s great
sin?”
“Adam's great sin, Tommy? Why,
parting with his rib, to be sure."
THAT EXPLAINED ALL.
Hearty Party (meeting old ac
quaintance)—How are you? Haven’t
seen you for years. How’s the wife.
Old Acquaintance (very much
married, gruffly)—She’s all right.
Hearty Party (pleasantly)—Ha!
I brought you two together, you re
member.
Old Acquaintance (resentfully) —
Oh, it’s you, is it, I owe a grudge to ?
—Ally Sloper.
BARRED.
“If time hangs heavily on your
hands, why don't you go into poli
tics ?”
“A man as rich as I am,” an
swered Mr. Dustin Stax, “doesn’t
dare go into politics. He is consid
ered lucky if they let him shove a
card under the door with a check at
tached to it.”—Washington Star.
CURED IN ONE ACT.
“Fred, dear, I feel it in my bones
that you are going to take me to the
theater to-night.”
“Which bone, darling?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it’s my
wishbone 1”—Sydney Bulletin.
AFRICAN'S FAVORITE DISH.
Dinuzulu, the Zulu chief, has
burst a blood vessel, says a telegram
from Martzburg, and it is said to be
only a wonder that his father did not
do the same when he was enjoying
British hospitality in London after
his capture, lie and his sable suite
were housed in one of the artistic
mansions of Melbury avenue, near
Holland house, and his favorite
breakfast was a basin of oatmeal
porridge and a pint of whisky, which
he preferred to milk. Otherwise he
was fairly quick in his assimilation
of the manners and customs of civil
ization.
RATHER FIER'Y.
Old Uncle lliram from down
Bacon Eidge way halted in front, of
the “quick lunch room.”
“Waal, begosh,” he drawled in
deep meditation, “I always heard
that thar was a blamed lot of tire
eaters up in town, but I didn’t kuow
they would go that far.”
“What, now, Uncle Hiram9”
asked the city nephew.
“Why, just look at that sign,
‘Lightning Lunches.’ Just think of
lunching on lightning!”
MARRIED CHUMS.
“Has he any friends?” asked the
judge of a prisoner in the clock.
"No, only a wife,” was the mat
ter-of-fact reply of the witness.
Eathor hard on the wife not to he
counted as her husband’s friend,
wasn't it?
It is the perfection of marriage
when a couple are real chums as well
as lovers, just as it is the perfection
of parenthood when children count
mother and father their real, best
! friends.
FULLY EXPLAINED.
“Yes, her husband is always con
fidential with her. He isn’t like so
[ many men who never tell their w ives
anything.”
“Do you mean Porgie?”
“Yes.”
! “His wife doesn't get much out of
Porgie. lie can tell her all lie knows
in five minutes."
A SORE SUBJECT.
“How much did that eapito!
| cost?” inquired the sightseer in.
Harrisburg.
“Sir,” replied the guide, severely,
“we are here to improve our minds,
not to talk scandal.”
Chatauqua, July “5 to Aug. 1.
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