The Cleveland gazette. [volume], November 24, 1883, Image 1

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I THE
Cleveland Gazette.
VOL. I—NO. H.
a Fm«siK.
His Earnest and Eloquent
> Address
. *— *
IMHrered Before the National Conven
tion of Colored Men.
CrMdMt Expoeftion That the
Country Has Had of the Exact
Condition and Position
of the Negro.
A Vevtralt of “TO# OH mm moeaeat.”
THE LABOR QUESTION.
Not the least important among the
subjects to which we invite your earnest
attention is the condition of the labor
ing class at the South. Their cause is
one with the laboring classes all over
•the world. The labor unions of the
country should not throw away this
■colored element of strength. Every
where there is dissatisfaction with the
present relation of labor and capital,
•and to-day no subject wears an aspect
enoce threatening to civilization than
She respective claims of capital and
labor, landlords and tenants. In what
we have to say for our laboring class
we expect to have and ought to have
the sympathy and support of laboring
men everywhere and of every color.
It is a great mistake for any class of
laborers to isolate itself and thus weaken
the bond of .brotherhood between those
on whom the burden and hardships of
labor fall. The fortunate ones of the
earth, who are abundant in land and
money' and know nothing of the anxious
bare and pinching poverty of the labor
!mg classes, may be indifferent to the
appeal for justice at this point, but the
laboring classes cannot afford to be
indifferent. What labor everywhere
wants, what it ought to have and
will some day demand and receive, is
an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s
Work. As the laborer becomes more
krtelligent he will develop what capital
he already possesses —that is the power
io organize and combine for its own
protection. Experience demonstrates
that there may be a wages of slavery
only a little less galling and crushing
in its effects than chattel slavery, and
that this slavery of wages must go down
with the other.
There is nothing more common now
than the remark that the physical con
dition of the freedmen of the South is
immeasurably worse than in the time
of siavery; that in respect to food,
•iothing and shelter they are wretched,
miserable and destitute; that they are
worse masters to themselves than their
old masters were to them. To add in
sult to injury, the reproach of their
condition is charged upon themselves.
A grandson of John C. Calhoun, an
Arkansas land owner, testifying the
other day before the Senate Committee
of Labor and Education, says the
“Negroes are so indolent that they fail
to take advantage of the opportunities
offered them; that they will only devote
so much of their time to work as will
enable them to procure the necessities
of life; that there is danger of a war of
races,” etc., etc.
Bis testimony proclaims him the
grandson of the man whose name he
Bears. The blame which belongs to
his own class he shifts from them
to the shoulders of labor. It becomes
os to test the truth of that assertion by
the light of reason, ahd by appeals to in
disputable facte. Of course the land own
ers of the South may be expected to
view things differently from the land
less. The slaveholders always did look
at things a little differently from the
elaves, and we therefore insist that, in
order that the whole truth shall be
brought oat, the laborer as well as the
capitalists shall be called as witnesses
before the Senate Committee of Labor
and Education. Experience proves that
tt takes more than one class of people
to tell the whole truth about matters in
which they are interested on opposite
sides, and" we protest against the allow
ance of only one side of the labor
Suestion to be heard by the country in
ais case. Meanwhile, a little reason
and reflection will in some measure
bring out truth. The colored people of
the South are the laboring people of
the South. The labor of a country is
the source of its wealth; without the
colored laborer to-day the South would
be a howling wilderness, given up to
bats, owls, wolves and bears. He was
the source of its wealth before th®
war, and has been the source of its
prosperity since the war. He almost
alone is visible In her fieldij, with im
plementa of toil in his hands and la
boriously using them to-day.
Let us look candidly at the matter.
While we see and hear that the South
ts more prosperous than it ever
was before and rapidly recovering
bom the waste of war, while we read
that It raises more wtton, sugar, rice,
tobacco, com and other valuable pro
ducts than it ever produced before, how
happens it, we sternly ask, that the
houses at its laborers are miserable
hate, that their clothes are rags, and
Beir food the coarsest and scantiest?
Bow happens it that the land-owner is
becoming richer and the laborer
poorer?
The implication is irresistible—that
where the landlord is prosperous the
laborer ought to share his prosperity,
ead whenever and wherever we find
this is not the case there is manifestly
wrong somewhere.
This sharp contrast of wealth and
poverty, as every thoughtful man
knows, can exist only in one way, and
from one cause, and that is by one get
ting more than its proper share of the
reward of industry, ana the other side
getting less—and that in some way la
bor has been defrauded or otherwise de
nied of its due proportion, and we think
the facts, as well as this philosophy,
anil support this view in the present
ease and do so conclusively. We ut
terly deny that the colored people of
the South are too lasy to work, or that
Bey are indifferent to their physical
wants; ae already aafai, they are the
The trouble is net that the entered
mople of the Srnik are indolent, bat
Bat no matter how hard or how-per
■
aistent may be their Industry, they
got barely enough fur their labor
to support life at the very low point at
which we find them. We therefore
throw off the burden of disgrace and
reproach from the laborer where Mr.
Calhoun andothers of his class would
place it, and put it on the land owner
where it belongs. It is the old case
over again. The Wack man does the
work and the white man gets the
money.
It may be said after all that the col
ored people have themselves to blame
for this state of things, because they
have not intelligently taken the matter
into their own hands and provided a
remedy for the evil they suffer.
Some blame may attach at this point.
But those who reproach us thus, should
remember that it is hard for labor, how
ever fortunately and favorabely sur
rounded, to cope with the tremendous
power of capital in any contest for
higher wages or improved condition.
A strike for higher wages is seldom
successful and is often injurious to the
strikers; the losses sustained are sel
dom compensated by the concessions
gained. A case in point is the recent
strike of the telegraph operators; a
more intelligent class can no where be
found. It was a contest of brains
against money, and the want of money
compelled intelligence to surrender to
wealth,
An empty sack is not easily made
to stand upright. The man who has
it in his power to say to a man you
must work the land for me, for
such wages as I choose to give, has a
power of slavery over him as real, if
not as complete, as he who compels toil
under the lash. All that a man hath
will he give for his life.
In contemplating the little progress
made by the colored people in the ac
quisition of property in the South, and
their present wretched condition, the
circumstances of their emancipation
should not be forgotten. Measurement
in their case should not begin from the
height yet to be attained by them, but
from the depths whence they have
come.
It should be remembered by our se
vere judges that freedom came to us
not from the sober dictates of wisdom,
or from any normal condition of things,
nor as a matter of choice on the part of
the land-owners of the South, nor from
moral considerations on the part of the
North. It was born of battle and of
blood. It came across, fields of smoke
and fire, strewn with wounded, bleeding
and dying men. Not from the Heaven
of Peace amid the morning stars, but
from the hell of war—out of the temp
est and whirlwind of warlike passions,
mingled with deadly hate and a spirit
of revenge, it came,'not so much as a
boon to us as a blast to the enemy.
Those against whom the measure was
directed were the land-owners, and
they were not angels, but men, and be
ing men, it was to be expected they
would resent the blow. And they did
resent it, and part of that resentment
unhappily fell upon us.
At first the land-owners drove us out
of our old quarters and told us they did
not want us in their fields, that they
meant to import German, Irish and
Chinese - laborers. But as; the passions
of the war gradually subsided we were
taken back to our old places; but plain
ly enough this change of front was not
from choice but necessity. Feeling
themselves somehow or other entitled
to our labor without the payment of
wages, it was not strange that they
should make the hardest bargains for
our labor and get it for as little as pos
sible. For them the contest was easy;
their tremendous power and our weak
ness easily gave them the victory.
Against the voice of Stevens, Sumner
and Wade, and other far-seeing states
men, the Government by whom we were
emancipated left us completely in the
power of our former owners. They
turned us loose to the open sky and left
us not a foot of ground from which to
get a crust of bread.
It did not do as well by us as Russia
did by her serfs, or Pharaoh did by tlie
Hebrews. With freedom Russia gave
land and Egypt loaned jewels.
It may have been best to leave us
thus to make terms with those whose
wrath it had kindled against us. It
does not seem right that we should
have been so left, but it fully explains
our present poverty and wretchedness.
The marvel is not that we are poor in
such .circumstances, but rather tnat we
were not exterminated. In view of the
circumstances, our extermination was
confidently predicted. The facts that
we still five and have increased in
■higher ratio than the native white peo
ple of the South are proofs of our vi
tality, and, in some degree, of our
industry.
Nor is it to be wondered at that the
standard of morals is not higher among
us. that respect for the rights of prop
erty is not stronger. The power of life
and death held over labor which says
you shall work for me on my own terms
or starve, is a source of crime, as well
as poverty.
Weeds do not more naturally spring
out of a manure pile than crime out of
enforced destitution. Out of the misery
of Ireland comes murder, assassination,
fire and sword. The Irish are by nature
no worse than other people, and no
better. If oppression makes a wise man
mad it may do the same, and worse, to
a people who are not reputed wise. The
woe pronounced upon those who keep
back wages of the laborer by fraud is
self-acting and self-executing and cer
tain as death. The world is full of
warnings.
THE ORDER SYSTEM.
No more crafty and effective device
for defrauding the Southern laborers
could be adopted than the one that sub
stitutes orders upon shop-keepers for
currency in payment of wages. It has
the merit of a show of honesty, while it
puts the laborer completely at the
mercy of the land-owner and the shop
keeper. fie is between the upper and
the nether millstones, and is hence
ground to dust. It gives the shop-keeper
a customer who can trade with no other
store-keeper, and thus leaves the latter
no motive for fair dealing except his
own moral sense, which is never too
strong. While the laborer holding the
orders is tempted by their worthlessness
( as weireuhtemg medium to get rid of
them sacrifice, and hence is led-
CLEVELAND, OHIO, SATURNAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1883.
■ K
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I AwSSm w I
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DO9KT. F’rt.XTDEIK.TCnaL rtr>TT^T TVFi
ICEGrISITMIR OF DEEDS
—AND—
PreMdeßt »T the National Conventfen of Colored Men held at
Louisville, Ky.
into extravagance and'eonsequent desti
tution.
The merchant puts him off with his
poorest commodities at highest prices,
and can say to him “take those or noth
ing.” Worse still. By this means the
laborer is brought into debt, and hence
is kept always in the power of the land
owner. When this system is not pur
sued and land is rented to the freed
man, he is charged more for the use of
an acre of land for a single year than
the land would bring in the market if
offered for sale. On such a system of
fraud and wrong one might well invoke
a bolt from heaven—red with uncom
mon wrath.
It is said if the colored people do not
like the conditions upon which their
labor is deteahded and secured, let
them leave and go elsewhere. A more
heartless suggestion never emanated
from an oppressor. Having for years
{ >aid them m shop orders, utterly worth
ess outside the shop to which they are
directed, without a dollar ip. Jbeirpopk
etS, brought by this crafty process into
bondage to the land-owners, who can
and would arrest them if they should
attempt to leave when they are told to
g°-
We commend the whole subject to
the Senate Committee of Labor and Ed
ucation, and urge upon that committee
the duty to call before it not only the
land-owners, but the landless laborers
of the South, and thus get at the whole
truth concerning the lanor question of
that section.
EDUCATION.
On the subject of equal educa
tion and educational facilities,
mentioned in the call for this
Convention, we expect little resistance
from any quarter. It is everywhere an
accepted truth, that in a country gov
erned by the people, like ours, education
of the youth of all classes is vital to its
welfare, prosperity and to its existence.
In the light of this unquestioned
proposition, the patriot cannot but
view with a shudder the widespread
and truly alarming illiteracy as re
vealed by the census of 1880.
The question as to how this evil is to
be remedied is an important one. Cer
tain it is that it will not do to trust to
the philanthropy of wealthy individuals
or benevolent societies to remove it.
The States^in which this illiteracy pre
vails either can not or will not provide
adequate systems of education for their
own youth. But however this may be,
the fact remains that the whole country
is directly interested in the education
of every child that lives within its
borders. The ignorance of any part of
the American people so deeply concerns
all the rest that there can be no doubt
of the right to pass a law compelling
the attendance of every child at schpol.
Believing that such is now required
and ought to be enacted, we hereby
put ourselves on record in favor of
stringent laws to this end.
In the presence of this appalling pic
ture presented by the last census we
hold it to be the imperative duty of
Congress to take hold of this important
subject, and, without waiting for the
States to adopt liberal school systems
Within their respective jurisdictions, to
enter vigorously upon the work of uni
versal education.
The National Government, with its
immense resources, can carry the bene
fits! of a common school education to
the door of every poor man from Maine
to Texas, and to withhold this boon is
to neglect the greatest assurance it has
of its own perpetuity. As a part of the
American people we unite most em
phatically with others who have already
spoken on this subject, in urging Con
gress to lay the foundation for a great
National system of aid to education at
its next session.
In this connection, and as germain to
the subject of education under National
auspices, we would most respectfully
and earnestly request Congress to
authorize the appointment of a com
mission of three or more persons of
suitable character and qualifications to
ascertain the legal claim^its, as far as
they can, to a large fund now in the
United States treasury, appropriated for
the payment of bounties of colored sol
diers and sailors; and to provide by law
that at the expiration of three or five
years the balance remaining in the
treasury be distributed among the col
ored colleges of the country, giving the
preference as to amounts to the schools
that are doing effective work in indus
trial branches.
freedman's bank.
The colored people havemtfiered much
on aeceeut of th® failure of the FfeeK-
man’s bank. Their lo^ by this institu
tion was a peculiar hardship, coming as
it did upon, them in tfye days of tneir
greatest weakness. It is certain that
the depositors in this Institution , were
led to believe that its Congress had char
tered it and establjshetpls headquarters
at the capital the JSovernment in
some way was responsible for the safe
keeping of their money.
Without the dissemiwfttion of this be
lief it would never havri had the confi
dence of the people as it did nor have
secured such an immense deposit. No
body authorized to speak for the. Gov
ernment.ever corrected; this deception,
but on the contrary. Congress continued
to legislate for the bank as if all that
had been claimed tor it was true.
Under these circumstances, together
with much more that might be said in
favor of such a measure, we ask Con
gress to reimburse the unfortunate vic
tims of that institution,^and thud carry
hope and give to many fresh enceurage
, nxeuLin the battle of I^4.
BOUNTY AND I’ENSION LAWS.
We desire, also, to call the attention
of Congress and the country to the
bounty and pension laws and to the fil
ing of original claims. We ask for the
passage of an act extending the time
for tilip.g original claims oeyonc’ the
present limit.
This we do for the reason that many
of the soldiers and the sailors that
served in the Rebellion and their heirs,
and especially colored claimants living
in parts of the country where they have
but meagre means of information, have
been and still are ignorant of their
rights and the methods of enforcing
them.
But while we urge these duties on
Congress and the country, we must
never forget that any race worth living
will live, and whether Congress heeds
our request in these and other particu
lars or not, we must demonstrate our
capacity to live by living. We must
acquire property ahd educate the hands
and hearts and heads of our children,
whether we are helped or not. Races
that fail to do these things die politi
cally and socially, and are only fit* to
die.
One great source of independence
that has been sought by multitudes of
our white fellow-citizens is still open to
us; we refer to the public lands in the
great West. The amazing rapidity with
which the public lands are being taken
up warns us that we must lay hold of
this opportunity soon, or it will be gone
forever. The" Government gives to
every actual settler, under certain con
ditions, 160 acres of land. By address
ing a letter to the United States Land
Office, Washington, D. C., any person
will receive full information in regard
to this subject. Thousands of white
men have settled on these lands with
scarcely any money beyond their im
mediate wants, and in a few years have
found themselves the lords of a 160-acre
farm. Let us do likewise.
CIVIL RIGHTS.
The right of every American citizen
to select his own society and invite
whom he will to his own parlor and
table, should be sacredly respected.
A man’s house is his castle, and he
has a right to admit or refuse admission
to it as he may please, and defend his
house from all intruders even with force
if need be. This right belongs to the
humblest not less than the highest, and
the exercise of it by any of our citizens
toward anybody or class who may pre
sume to intrude, should cause no com
plaint, for each and all may exercise
the same right toward whom he will.
When he quits his home and goes upon
the public street, enters a public car or a
public house, he has ne exclusive right
of occupancy. He is only a part of the
great public^ and while he has the right
to walk, ride and be accomodated with
the food and shelter in a public convey
ance or a hotel, he has no exclusive
right to say that another citizen, tall or
short, black or white, shall not have the
same civil treatment with himself.
The argument against equal rights at
hotels is very improperly put upon the
ground that tbe exercise of such rights,
it is insisted, is social equality. But
this ground is unreasonable. It is hard
to say what social equality is, but it is
certain that going into the same street
car, hotel or steam beat cabin, does not
make any man society for another more
than -flying in the same air makes all
birds of one feather.
Two men may be seated at the same
table at a hotel- one may be a Webster
m iateMeet and the other a Guiteau im
■deeMeaeM of aNtoha^d morals, and- of
course, soeiaHy rifi^ititellecta&liy they
are as wide apart as are the poles of
the moral uni verse;Tint their civil rights
are the same; . The distinction
between the two sorts of equal
ity is broad and plain to the
understanding of the most limited,
and yet, blinded by prejudice, men
never cease ’to confound one with the
other, and allow themselves to infringe
the. civil rights of Aeir fellow citizens,
as if those rights were in some way in
violation of their social rights.
That this denial ©f rights to us is be
cause of our color, only as color is a
badge of condition, is manifest in the
fact that no matter how decently
dressed or well-behaved a colored man
may be, he is denied civil treatment in
the ways thus pointed out, unless he
comes as a servant, His color, not his
character, determines tin s place he
shall hold and the kind of treatment
he shall receive. That this is due to a
a prejudice and has no rational princi
ple under it, is seen in the fact that the
presence of colored persons in hotels
and railway, cars is only offensive when
they are there as guests and passengers.
As servants they are welcome, but as
equal citizens they are not. It is also
seen in the further fact that nowhere
else on the globe, except in the United
States, are colored people subject to in
sult and outrage on account of color.
The colored traveler in Europe does not
meet it, and we denounce it here as a
disgrace to American civilization and
American religion, and as a violation
of the spirit and letter of the Constitu
tion of the United States. From those
courts which have solemnly sworn to
support the Constitution and that yet
treat this provision of it with contempt
we appeal to the people and call up.on
our frjends to remember our civil
rights at the ballot-box. On the point
of the two equalities we are determined
to be understood.
We leave social equality where it
should be left, with each individual
man and woman. No law can regulate
or control it. It is a matter with which
Governments have nothing whatever to
do. Each may choose his own friends
and associates without interference or
dictation of any.
POLITICAL EQUALITY.
Flagrant as have been the outrages
committed upon colored citizens in re
spect to their civil rights, more flag
rant, shocking and scandalous still
have been the outrages committed upon
our political rights fay means of bull
dozing and Kukluxmg, Mississippi
plans, fraudulent counts, tissue ballots
and the like devices. Three States in
which the colored people outnumber
the white population are without col
ored representation and their political
voice suppressed. The colored citizens
in those States are virtually disfran
chised, the Constitution held in utter
contempt and its provisions nullified.
This has been done in the face of the
Republican party and successive Re
publican Administrations.
It was once said by the great O’Con
nell that the history of Ireland might
be traced like a wounded man through
a crowd, by the blood, and the same
may be truly said of the history of the
colored voters of the South.
They have marched to the ballot-box
in face of gleaming weapons, wounds
and death. They have been abondoned
by the Government and left to the laws
of nature. So far as they are concerned,
there is no Government or Constitution
of the United States.
They are under control of a foul, hag
gard and damning conspiracy against
reason, law and constitution. How you
can be indifferent, how any leading col
ored men can allow themselves to be
silent in presence of this state of things,
we cannot see.
“Should tongues be mute while deeds
are wrought which well might shame
extremest hell?” And yet they are
mute, and condemn our assembling
here to speak out in manly tongues
against the continuance of this infernal
reign of terror.
This is no question of party. It is a
question of law and government. It is
a question whether men shall be pro
tected by law or be left to the mercy of
cyclones of anarchy and bloodshed. It
is whether the Government or the mob
shall rule this land; whether the prom
ises solemnly made to us in the Consti
tution be manfully kept or meanfully
and flagrantly broken. Upon this vital
Boint we ask the whole people of the
United States to take notice that what
ever of political power we have shall be
exerted for no man of any party who
will not in advance of election promise
to use every power given him by the
Government, State or National, to make
the black man’s path to the ballot-box
as straight, smooth and safe as that of
any other American citizen.
POLITICAL AMBITION.
We are as a people often reproached
with ambition for political offices and
honors. We are not ashamed of this
alleged ambition. Our destitution of
such ambition would be our real shame.
If the six millions and a half of people
whom we represent could develop no
aspirants to political office and honor
under this Government, their mental
indifference, barrenness and stolidity
might well enough be taken as proof of
their unfitness for American citizen
ship.
It is no crime to seek or hold office.
If it were it would take a larger space
than that of Noah's ark to hold the
white criminals.
One of the charges against this Con
vention is that it seeks for the colored
people a larger share than they now
possess in the offices and emoluments
of the Government.
We are now significantly reminded
by even one of our own members that
we are only twenty years out of slavery,
and we ought therefore to be modest in
our aspirations. Such leaders should
remember that men will not be religious
when the devil turns preacher.
The invetorate and persistent office
seeker and office-holder should be
modest when he preaches that virtue
toothers which he does not himself
practice. Woolsey could not tell
Cromwell to fling away ambition prop
erly only when he had" flung away his
own.
We are far from affirming that there
may not be too much zeal among col
ored men in pursuit of political prefer
ment; butthe fault is not wholly theirs.
tThey have young men among theA
noble and true, vvho ard educated and
intelligent—fit to engage in enterprises
of “pith and moment,.’ r who find them
selves shut out from nearly all the ave
nues of wealth and respectability, and
•hence they turn their attention to nol
ities. They do so because they can find
nothing else. The best cure fer the
evil is to throw open other avenues and
activities to them. .
We shall never cease to be a despised
and persecuted class while we axe
known to be excluded by our color
from all important positions under the
Government.
While we do not make office the one
thing important, nor the one condition
of our alliance With any party, and
hold that the welfare, prosperity and
happiness of our whole country is the
true criterion of political action for our
selves and for all men, we cannot dis
guise from ourselves the fact that our
persistent exclusion from office as a
class is a great wrong, fraught with
injury, and ought to be resente I and op
posed by all reasonable and effective
means in our power.
We bold it to be self-evident that no
class or color should be the exclusive
rulers of this country.. If there is such
a ruling class, there must of course be
a subject class, and when this condition
is once established this Government of
the people, by the people and for the
people will have perished from the
earth.
Written for the Gazette.
L’HISTOLRE DES HEROS D’AFRIQUE.
Dans L’lia de Ste. Domingo.
BV PAUL GASTON.
No. Vll.—L’Amour du Ronoe!
The mountainous regions of Ste. Do
mingo, were, at the period of our his
tory, inhabited by a horde of barbarous,
wild and unconquerable blacks, who,
at different periods had escaped from
their bonds soon after being brought
from Africa, and consequently before
they had lost their native ferocity of
character. Among these nomadic
wanderers was a singular being called
“L’Amour du Ronce,” (or in the origi
nal The lover of the briar».) L’Amour
was a stern, savage man, with epau
lettes lashed to his bare shoulders with
the thongs of the birch, as tokens of
authority.
L’ Amour was seven feet high, broad
shouldered. muscular and extremely
agile; his head was crowned by a per
fect mop of tangled hair which he
would never allow to be shorn, and
which had never been introduced
to that useful invention called a
comb. His heavy, matted beard
was in perfect keeping with his hair,
and taken altogether he was the per
sonification of wild, barbarous and un
tamesble savage. He had been stolen
from Africa when a young man and
sold a slave at Port au Prince. Being,
one day, ordered to saddle his masters
horse, he did so, then peering around
and seeing no one near, sprang upon
the fleet and fiery charger, gained the
mountains and ever after made those
fearful regions his abode.
In the chase or in war, L’Amour
sprang from peak to peak of those
lofty craigs with the ease and agility of
the eagle of his native land. To pursue
him was simply futile. Touissaint,
Dessalines, Christophe and others had
in turn tried to get near ^the wild man
of the craigs, “in vain.” As well
might they have pursued the fleet ante
lope on its lawn-spread Sierras!
L’Amour’s warfare was in perfect
keeping with his costume. His barbar
ous heroism acted like a spell on kin
dred spirits, who, on every possible pre
text escaped from their chains and ral
lied around his standard until his fol
lowers swelled to thousands of the most
fierce, daring and intrepid warriors of
his race! By their aid L’Amour had
become master of the mountains, even
as Toussiant was already ruler of the
plains. Issuing in armed bands from
their impregnable fastnesses, they be
came a scathing terror to the whites,
whom they unmercifully slaughtered
wherever found.
Rochambeau, Napoleon’s command
er-in-chief of the invading army, elated
by a temporary success on the bloody
field of Ste. Francois, undertook to pur
sue the blacks into the mountains, but
ere he had penetrated a few leagues he
found himself completely surrounded
by L’Amour’s desperate warriors, who
compelled him to mass forces for de
fense, instead of aggression. L’Amour
captured Rochambeau’s entire supplies
and so reduced the proud commander
by starvation that he was glad to sue
for peace at the feet of a half-naked,
wild and barbarous chief !
Finally, he promised to leave the
island, if released, and return with his
forces to France.
L’Amour spurned the preposition,'but
the brave, the noble, the humane Tous
saint, “to save (as he said), the further
shedding of human blood," accepted the
humiliating surrender, released the
starved, terror-stricken General, who
with his decimated army gladly re-em
barked in his ships of war and sailed
for France. And once more the “vic
torious National ensign” of Toussaint
L’Ouverture waved over Cape City,
the metropolis of Ste. Domingo!
But before the sailing of the fleet, the
peaks of all the neighboring mountains
were ablaze, and the highest and most
inaccessible of them all was crowned
by the towering form of L’Amour du
Ronce, with a lighted torch in each
hand, which he waved “to and fro,”
expressive of his triumph over his
crestfallen and fleeing foes!
From that proud moment he was
seen no more by human eyes, neither
could his remains ever be found, and to
this day that mountain, (like “Pisgah”)
is held by the natives in the most rev
erential awe, as the “tomb and the
shrine” of the bravest of the
brave!
The beacons were not now, as in
times past, lighted as a call to arms, in
defense of the “temple of liberty,”
but they were lighted as a token of the
general rejoicing over the successfully
contested conflict, over the dearly
fought victory. Every heart now
throbbed for liberty, every voice
shouted for joy. From ocean to ocean,
from mountain to plain, from city to
city, the universal cry was Freedom I
Freedom!
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
.CHICAGO.
Numerous Personals—“ Leo” With
His Batch of Newsy items.
The marked event of the week has
been the organization of the Magnolia
Club, composed of adults, the sons and
daughters of our first families. To-dajn
our society circle lets down its golden
bars to admit them; to-day they, make
their debut and will be received wita!
great eclat, coupled with the best
wishes of all. Their future qoursq apd
action will tell what place they deserve
and hold in the festive world. To-day,
we extend them a hearty welcome and
hope improvement in our gay world
by their annexation- May they, as in
dividuals arid members of the club, r&-:
member this, and may the f Magnolias
one day be the elite in our circle ; i
The ^emb Cub, of the West side,
has established a dancing school with a
membership of forty pupils, »t Odd?
Fellows Hall. The Acmes are one of
the oldest clubs In the city arid is wen
known for its excellence’in Hterary,
musical and other laudable pursuits.
They will open their senes with a grand
masquerade ere long, under the man
agement of Mr. A. Brown and Sanford
Harris. ’ *****
The “G. B.” society, under the man
agement of our well beloved elocution
ist, J. B. French,, will give, one of their
superb entertainments on Thanksgiving
eve., at Providence Baptist Church.
Monday evening, Nov. 26, the Grand
Consistory entertainment will take
place at Central Hall, under the man
agement es Sir Knight D. W. Demcey.
Mrs. C. C. Lewis will read en costume.'
Selections will be read by D. P. French,
J. W. Pope and Miss J. Hujlin. Solo
Sr Miss Julia Plummer and Mr. A. T.
all. ' I
The Marquette’s announce a german
very soonj and the Autumn Club antici
pate giving its usual Christmas tree.
Our dancing school is meeting with,
success. Says a prominent society,
member: “Yes, our people are fast
leaving the old dogma—condemning
dancing; they are beginning to see it is
a requirement of the age, and acknowl
edge it as essential for well-bred per
aons as is any particular branch of
study for the scholar. All ladies and
gentlemen dance. No child should be
reared in ignorance of the present re
quirements —it is as necessary as mus|c,
and our people are beginning to realize
it.”
Miss Brightie Drisden is taking les
sons in oil painting and elocution at
Weber’s Music HaU. She is the only
colored lady in the class.
Mr. F. L. McGee is reading Black
stone and Chitty in one of the best
schools in the city.
Mr. Gus Plummer, we learn, has se
cured a position on our Tribune as re-,
porter. Gus has worked on several of
our evening papers, with credit to both
himself and race.
The Bethesda church choir looked
lonely and sang poorly Sunday eve
ning. We do not see why we cannot
have one good choir. We have plenty
of ability, and the poorest singing of
any place on earth. The idea of a
splendid sermon being discorded by
poor chorister is equally as bad as the
begging system carried on so success
fully by so many of our churches. Let
us by all means have a choir, even
though they must be paid. Let us have
one, for no church can draw an audi
ence and hold it by having miserable
singing.
We take pleasure in mentioning our
fellow townsman, Mr. A Good, is meet
ing with much success by his bed inven
tion. Mr. Good is the only colored gen
tleman in the city who deals in and has
a first-class furniture chamber. He is
situated in a business portion of the
city and deserves the support of bis
people.
Mr. F. Dennie, one of our energetic
townsmen, has opened as fine tonsorial
parlors and bath-rooms as our city
affords. He is also a partner is as fine
Turkish bath parlors on Wabash Avenue
as there is in the United States. He has
for his customers the very best and
wealthiest class of our citizens. In the
two establishments he has something
like SIO,OOO invested, all of which he
earned in the past five years.
Mrs. Elder J. W. Laws is the happy
recipient of a handsome present made
to her by a number e* ladies and gen
tlemen through the endeavors of Mrs.
Letcher, of 221 Third Avenue. Mrs.
Laws was quite surprised and could
scarce find language to express her ap
preciation.
President Lightfoot spent Tuesday
and Wednesday with us.
Mr. Heyer, of “Heyer Sister” fame,
is with us with his troupe and a sick
wife, who lays at death’s door. He in
forms us that he was on the point of
much success when the calamity befell
him.
Jos. Shreves and Martin French are
to wear the regular uniforms of patrol
men. Mr. Wm. Smith and John Ender
will be transferred from Harison to the
Central Station.
Next week we will write up our well
to-do citizens, who they are, and what
they are worth in dollars and cents.
Leo.
Change In Time—lmportant Notice.
On and after Sunday, November 18,
trains on the Cleveland & Pittsburgh
Railroad will leave as follows: Mail,
with through car for Akron and Co
lumbus, BXX) a. m.; Fast Line, having
through car for Columbus and Pullman
Sleeper for New York, 2.00 p. m.; Al
liance Accommodation, 3:15 p. m.; Ra
venna Accommodation, with through
car'for Akron. 4:50 p. m.; Night Ex
press, with Pullman Sleeper for Pitts
burgh, 10:10 p. m.; this train has con
nection for Wheeling, W. Va.; Spe
cial Newburgh Accommodation trains,
10:30 a. m. and 12:00 noon.
Trains arrive as follows: Night Ex
press, 5:55 a. m.; Ravenna Accommo
dation, 8:12 a. m.; Alliance Accommo
dation, 9:50 a.m.; Western Express,
with Pullman Sleeper from New York,
2:12 n. m.; Express, 6:25 p. m.; New
burgh Accommodations, 11:40 a. m.
anti 1:20 p. m.
Trains arrive and depart on the new
standard time, which is thirty-three
minutes slower than Cleveland time.