Thanks to Mrs. Porter, the wife of the President's private secretary.

Mrs. Porter is one of heaven's blessings, sent as a messenger of "The

Ship" earth, to testify in America what she saw of the Negro troops in

Cuba.

* * * * *

THE INVESTMENT OF SANTIAGO AND SURRENDER.

(As Presented in the N.Y. World.)

General Shafter put a human rope of 22,400 men around Santiago, with

its 26,000 Spanish soldiers, and then Spain succumbed in despair. In

a semi-circle extending around Santiago, from Daliquiri on the east

clear around to Cobre on the west, our troops were stretched a cordon

of almost impenetrable thickness and strength. First came General

Bates, with the Ninth, Tenth, Third, Thirteenth, Twenty-first and

Twenty-fourth U.S. Infantry. On his right crouched General Sumner,

commanding the Third, Sixth and Ninth U.S. Cavalry. Next along the arc

were the Seventh, Twelfth and Seventeenth U.S. Infantry under General

Chaffee. Then, advantageously posted, there were six batteries of

artillery prepared to sweep the horizon under direction of General

Randolph. General Jacob Kent, with the Seventy-first New York

Volunteers and the Sixth and Sixteenth U.S. Infantry, held the centre.

They were flanked by General Wheeler and the Rough Riders, dismounted;

eight troops of the First U.S. Volunteers, four troops of the Second

U.S. Cavalry, four light batteries, two heavy batteries and then four

more troops of the Second U.S. Cavalry.

Santiago's Killed and Wounded Compared With Historic Battles.

Battle; Men Engaged.; Killed and Wounded.; Per Ct. Lost.

Agincourt; 62,000; 11,400; .18

Alma; 103,000; 8,400; .08

Bannockburn; 135,000; 38,000; .28

Borodino; 250,000; 78,000; .31

Cannae; 146,000; 52,000; .34

Cressy; 117,000; 31,000; .27

Gravelotte; 396,000; 52,000; .16

Sadowa; 291,000; 33,000; .11

Waterloo; 221,000; 51,000; .23

Antietam; 87,000; 31,000; .29

Austerlitz; 154,000; 38,000; .48

Gettysburg; 185,000; 34,000; .44

Sedan; 314,000; 47,000; .36

Santiago; 22,400; 1,457; .07

El Caney; 3,300; 650; .19

San Juan; 6,000; 745; .12

Aguadores; 2,400; 62; .02

[Illustration: INVESTMENT OF SANTIAGO BY U.S. ARMY.]

General Lawton, with the Second Massachusetts and the Eighth and

Twenty-second U.S. Infantry, came next. Then General Duffield's

command, comprising the volunteers from Michigan (Thirty-third and

Third Regiments), and the Ninth Massachusetts, stretched along until

Gen. Ludlow's men were reached. These comprised the First Illinois,

First District of Columbia, Eighth Ohio, running up to the Eighth and

Twenty-second Regulars and the Bay State men. Down by the shore across

from Morro and a little way inland Generals Henry and Garretson had

posted the Sixth Illinois and the crack Sixth Massachusetts, flanking

the railroad line to Cobre.

SCENES OF THE FINAL SURRENDER.

When reveille sounded Sunday morning half the great semi-lunar

camp was awake and eager for the triumphal entrance into the city.

Speculation ran rife as to which detachment would accompany the

General and his staff into Santiago. The choice fell upon the

Ninth Infantry. Shortly before 9 o'clock General Shafter left his

headquarters, accompanied by Generals Lawton and Wheeler, Colonels

Ludlow, Ames and Kent, and eighty other officers. The party walked

slowly down the hill to the road leading to Santiago, along which they

advanced until they reached the now famous tree outside the walls,

under which all negotiations for the surrender of the city had taken

place. As they reached this spot the cannon on every hillside and in

the city itself boomed forth a salute of twenty-one guns, which was

echoed at Siboney and Aserradero.

The soldiers knew what the salute meant, and cheer upon cheer arose

and ran from end to end of the eight miles of the American lines. A

troop of colored cavalry and the Twenty-fifth colored infantry then

started to join General Shafter and his party.

The Americans waited under the tree as usual, when General Shafter

sent word to General Toral that he was ready to take possession of the

town. General Toral, in full uniform, accompanied by his whole staff,

fully caparisoned, shortly afterward left the city and walked to where

the American officers were waiting their coming. When they reached the

tree General Shafter and General Toral saluted each other gravely and

courteously. Salutes were also exchanged by other American and Spanish

officers. The officers were then introduced to each other. After this

little ceremony the two commanding generals faced each other and

General Toral, speaking in Spanish, said:

"Through fate I am forced to surrender to General Shafter, of the

American Army, the city and the strongholds of Santiago."

General Toral's voice grew husky as he spoke, giving up the town

and the surrounding country to his victorious enemy. As he finished

speaking the Spanish officers presented arms.

General Shafter, in reply, said:

"I receive the city in the name of the government of the United

States."

General Toral addressed an order to his officers in Spanish and they

wheeled about, still presenting arms, and General Shafter and the

other American officers with the cavalry and infantry followed them,

walked by the Spaniards and proceeded into the city proper.

The soldiers on the American line could see quite plainly all the

proceedings. As their commander entered the city they gave voice to

cheer after cheer.

Although no attempt was made to humiliate them the Spanish soldiers

seemed at first to feel downcast and scarcely glanced at their

conquerors as they passed by, but this apparent depth of feeling was

not displayed very long. Without being sullen they appeared to be

utterly indifferent to the reverses of the Spanish arms, but it was

not long ere the prospect of regulation rations and a chance to go to

their homes made them almost cheerful. All about the filthy streets

of the city the starving refugees: could be seen, gaunt, hollow-eyed,

weak and trembling.

The squalor in the streets was dreadful. The bones of dead horses and

other animals were bleaching in the streets and buzzards almost as

tame as sparrows hopped aside as passers-by disturbed them. There

was a fetid smell everywhere and evidences of a pitiless siege and

starvation on every hand.

The palace was reached soon after 10 o'clock. Then, General Toral

introduced General Shafter and the other officials to various local

dignitaries and a scanty luncheon, was brought. Coffee, rice, wine and

toasted cake were the main condiments.

Then came the stirring scene in the balcony which every one felt was

destined to become notably historic in our annals of warfare, and the

ceremony over, General Shafter withdrew to our own lines and left the

city to General McKibbin and his police force of guards and sentries.

The end had come. Spain's haughty ensign trailed in the dust; Old

Glory, typifying liberty and the pursuit of happiness untrammelled

floated over the official buildings from Fort Morro to the Plaza de

Armas--the investment of Santiago de Cuba was accomplished.

CHAPTER VI.

NO COLOR LINE DRAWN IN CUBA.

A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION-CONDITION IN THE PEARL OF THE ANTILLES-AMERICAN

PREJUDICE CANNOT EXIST THERE-A CATHOLIC PRIEST VOUCHES FOR THE

ACCURACY OF STATEMENT.

The article we reprint from the New York Sun touching the status of

the Colored man in Cuba was shown to Rev. Father Walter R. Yates,

Assistant pastor of St. Joseph's Colored Church.

A Planet reporter was informed that Father Yates had resided in that

climate for several years and wished his views.

"The Sun correspondent is substantially correct," said the Reverend

gentleman. "Of course, the article is very incomplete, there are many

omissions, but that is to be expected in a newspaper article."

It would take volumes to describe the achievements of men of the

Negro, or as I prefer to call it, the Aethiopic Race, not only in

Cuba, but in all the West Indies, Central and South America, and in

Europe especially in Sicily, Spain and France.

"By achievements I mean success in military, political, social,

religious and literary walks of life. The only thing I see to

correct in the Sun's article, continued the Father, is in regard to

population. 'A Spanish official told me that the census figures were

notoriously misleading. The census shows less than one-third colored.

That is said not to be true. As soon as a man with African blood,

whether light or dark, acquires property and education, he returns

himself in the census as white. The officials humor them in this

petty vanity. In fact it's the most difficult thing in the world to

distinguish between races in Cuba. Many Spaniards from Murcia,

for instance, of undoubted noble lineage are darker than Richmond

mulattoes.'"

[Illustration: GENERAL RUSSELL A. ALGER, SECRETARY OF WAR.]

May I ask you, Father Yates, to what do you ascribe the absence of

Race prejudice in Cuba?

"Certainly. In my humble opinion it is due to Church influence. We all

know the effect on our social life of our churches. Among Catholics

all men have always been on equal footing at the Communion rail.

Catholics would be unworthy of their name, i.e. Catholic or universal

were it not so."

"Even in the days when slavery was practised this religious equality

and fellowship was fully recognized among Catholics."

Did you know there is an American Negro Saint? He was born in Colon,

Central America, and is called Blessed Martin De Porres. His name is

much honored in Cuba, Peru, Mexico and elsewhere. He wore the white

habit of a Dominican Brother. The Dominicans are called the Order of

Preachers.

Christ Died for All. Father Donovan has those words painted in large

letters over the Sanctuary in St. Joseph's Church. It is simply

horrible to think that some self-styled Christian sectarians act as if

Christ died for white men only.

Matanzas, Cuba, Jan. 20.--Not least among the problems of

reconstruction in Cuba is the social and political status of the

colored "man and brother." In Cuba the shade of a man's complexion has

never been greatly considered, and one finds dusky Othellos in every

walk of life. The present dispute arose when a restaurant keeper from

Alabama refused a seat at his public table to the mulatto Colonel of

a Cuban regiment. The Southerner was perfectly sincere in the

declaration that he would see himself in a warmer climate than Cuba

before he would insult his American guests "by seating a 'nigger'

among them!" To the Colonel it was a novel and astonishing experience,

and is of course deeply resented by all his kind in Cuba, where

African blood may be found, in greater or less degree, in some of the

richest and most influential families of the island.

COLORED BELLES THERE.

In Havana you need not be surprised to see Creole belles on

the fashionable Prado--perhaps Cuban-Spanish. Cuban-English or

Cuban-German blondes--promenading with Negro officers in gorgeous

uniforms; or octoroon beauties with hair in natural crimp, riding in

carriages beside white husbands or lighting up an opera box with the

splendor of their diamonds. There was a wedding in the old cathedral

the other day, attended by the elite of the city, the bride being the

lovely young daughter of a Cuban planter, the groom a burly Negro.

Nobody to the manor born has ever dreamed of objecting to this

mingling of colors; therefore when some newly arrived foreigner

declares that nobody but those of his own complexion shall eat in a

public dining room, there is likely to be trouble.

THE WAR BEGAN.

When the war began the population of Cuba was a little more than

one-third black; now the proportion is officially reckoned as 525,684

colored, against 1,631,600 white. In 1898 two Negroes were serving as

secretaries in the Autonomist Cabinet. The last regiment that Blanco

formed was of Negro volunteers, to whom he paid--or, rather, promised

to pay, which is quite another matter, considering Blanco's habit--the

unusual hire of $20 a month, showing his appreciation of the colored

man as a soldier. If General Weyler evinced any partiality in Cuba,

it was for the black Creole. During the ten years' war, his cavalry

escort was composed entirely of colored men. Throughout his latest

reign in the island he kept black soldiers constantly on guard at the

gates of the government palace. While the illustrated papers of Spain

were caricaturing: the insurgents as coal-black demons with horns

and forked toe nails, burning canefields and butchering innocent

Spaniards, the Spanish General chose them for his bodyguards.

[Illustration: CUBAN WOMAN CAVALRY.]

ONE OF THE GREATEST GENERALS.

One of the greatest Generals of the day, considering the environment,

was Antonio Maceo, the Cuban mulatto hero, who, for two years, kept

the Spanish army at bay or led them a lively quickstep through the

western provinces to the very gates of Havana. As swift on the march

as Sheridan or Stonewall Jackson, as wary and prudent as Grant

himself, he had inspirations of military genius whenever a crisis

arose. It is not generally known that Martinez Campos, who owed his

final defeat at Colisea to Maceo, was a second cousin of this black

man. Maceo's mother, whose family name was Grinan, came from the town

of Mayari where all the people have Indian blood in their veins. Col.

Martinez del Campos, father of General Martinez Campos, was once

Military Governor of Mayari. While there he loved a beautiful girl of

Indian and Negro blood, who belonged to the Grinan family, and was

first cousin to Maceo's mother. Martinez Campos, Jr., the future

General and child of the Indian girl was born in Mayari. The Governor

could not marry his sweetheart, having a wife and children in Spain,

but when he returned to the mother country he took the boy along.

According to Spanish law, the town in which one is baptized is

recognized as his legal birthplace, so it was easy enough to

legitimatize the infant Campos. He grew up in Spain, and when sent to

Cuba as Captain-General, to his everlasting credit be it said, that

one of his first acts was to hunt up his mother. Having found her, old

and poor, he bought a fine house in Campo Florida, the aristocratic

suburb of Havana, established her there and cared for her tenderly

till she died. The cousins, though on opposite sides of the war,

befriended each other in many instances, and it is said that more

than once Captain-General Campos owed his life to his unacknowledged

relative.

HIS BROTHER CAPTURED.

The latter's half brother, Jose Maceo, was captured early in the war

and sent to the African prison, Centa; whence he escaped later on with

Quintín Bandera and others of his staff. The last named Negro Colonel

is to-day a prominent figure. "Quintin Bandera" means "fifteen flags,"

and the appellation was bestowed upon him by his grateful countrymen

after he had captured fifteen Spanish ensigns. Everybody seems to

have forgotten his real name, and Quintin Bandera he will remain in

history. While in the African penal settlement the daughter of a

Spanish officer fell in love with him. She assisted in his escape and

fled with him to Gibraltar. There he married his rescuer. She is of

Spanish and Moorish descent, and is said to be a lady of education

and refinement. She taught her husband to read and write and feels

unbounded pride in his achievements.

The noted General Jesus Rabi, of the Cuban Army, is of the same mixed

blood as the Maceos. Another well-known Negro commander is General

Flor Crombet, whose patriotic deeds have been dimmed by his atrocious

cruelties. Among all the officers now swarming Havana none attracts

more admiring attention than General Ducasse, a tall, fine-looking

mulatto, who was educated at the fine military school of St. Cyr. He

is of extremely polished manners and undeniable force of character,

can make a brilliant address and has great influence among the masses.

To eject such a man as he from a third rate foreign restaurant in his

own land would be ridiculous. His equally celebrated brother, Col.

Juan Ducasse, was killed last year in the Pinar del Rio insurrection.

COLORED MEN'S ACHIEVEMENTS.

Besides these sons of Mars, Cuba has considered her history enriched

by the achievements of colored men in peaceful walks of life. The

memory of Gabriel Concepcion de la Valdez the mulatto poet, is

cherished as that of a saint. He was accused by the Spanish government

of complicity in the slave insurrection of 1844 and condemned to be

shot in his native town, Matanzas. One bright morning in May he stood

by the old statue of Ferdinand VII. in the Plaza d'Armas, calmly

facing a row of muskets, along whose shining barrels the sun glinted.

The first volley failed to touch a vital spot. Bleeding from several

wounds, he still stood erect, and, pointing to his heart, said in a

clear voice, "Aim here!" Another mulatto author, educator and profound

thinker was Antonio Medina, a priest and professor of San Basilio

the Greater. He acquired wide reputation as a poet, novelist and

ecclesiastic, both in Spain and Cuba, and was selected by the Spanish

Academy to deliver the oration on the anniversary of Cerantes' death

in Madrid. His favorite Cuban pupil was Juan Gaulberto Gomez, the

mulatto journalist, who has been imprisoned time and again for

offences against the Spanish press laws. Señor Gomez, whose home is in

Matanzas, is now on the shady side of 40, a spectacled and scholarly

looking man. After the peace of Zanjon he collaborated in the

periodicals published by the Marquis of Sterling. In '79 he founded in

Havana, the newspaper La Fraternidad, devoted to the interest of the

colored race. For a certain fiery editorial he was deported to Centa

and kept there two years. Then he went to Madrid and assumed the

management of La Tribuna and in 1890 returned to Havana and resumed

the publication of La Fraternidad.

ANOTHER EXILE.

Another beloved exile from the land of his birth is Señor Jose White.

His mother was a colored woman of Matanzas. At the age of 16 Jose

wrote a mass for the Matanzas orchestra and gave his first concert.

With the proceeds he entered the Conservatory of Paris, and in the

following year won the first prize as violinist among thirty-nine

contestants. He soon gained an enviable reputation among the most

celebrated European violinists, and, covered with honors, returned to

Havana in January of '75. But his songs were sometimes of liberty, and

in June of the same year the Spanish government drove him out of

the country. Then he went to Brazil, and is now President of the

Conservatory of Music of Rio Janeiro.

One might go on multiplying similar incidents. Some of the most

eminent doctors, lawyers and college professors in Cuba are more or

less darkly "colored." In the humble walks of life one finds them

everywhere, as carpenters, masons, shoemakers and plumbers. In the few

manufacturies of Cuba a large proportion of the workmen are Negroes

especially in the cigar factories. In the tanneries of Pinar del Rio

most of the workmen are colored, also in the saddle factories of

Havana, Guanabacoa, Cardenas and other places. Although the insurgent

army is not yet disbanded, the sugar-planters get plenty of help from

their ranks by offering fair wages.--New York Sun.

FACTS ABOUT PORTO RICO TOLD IN SHORT PARAGRAPHS.

Porto Rico, the beautiful island which General Miles is taking under

the American flag, has an area of 3,530 square miles. It is 107 miles

in length and 37 miles across. It has a good telegraph line and a

railroad only partially completed.

The population, which is not made up of so many Negroes and mulattoes

as that of the neighboring islands, is about 900,000. Almost all of

the inhabitants are Roman Catholics.

It is a mountainous island, and contains forty seven navigable streams.

The roads are merely paths beaten down by cattle.

Exports in 1887 were valued at $10,181,291; imports, $10,198,006.

Gold, copper, salt, coal and iron abound.

The poorer classes live almost entirely on a variety of highland rice,

which is easily cultivated, as it requires no flooding.

One of the principal industries is grazing. St. Thomas is the market

for fresh meat.

Corn, tobacco, sugar, coffee, cotton and potatoes constitute the

principal crops.

There are no snakes, no beasts of prey, no noxious birds nor insects

in the island.

The trees and grass are always green.

Rats are the great foe of the crops.

The natives often live to be one hundred years old.

The most beautiful flower on the island is the ortegon, which has

purple blossoms a yard long.

Hurricanes are frequent on the north coast and very destructive.

Mosquitoes art the pest of the island.

Spanish is the language spoken, and education is but little esteemed.

Every man, no matter how poor, owns a horse and three or four

gamecocks.

The small planter is called "Xivaro." He is the proud possessor of

a sweet-heart, a gamecock, a horse, a hammock, a guitar and a large

supply of tobacco. He is quick tempered but not revengeful, and he is

proverbially lazy.

Hospitality is the rule of the island. The peasants are astonished and

hurt when offered money by travellers. San Juan Harbor is one of the

best in the West Indies, and is said to be the third most strongly

fortified town in the world, Halifax being the strongest and

Cartagena, Spain, the second.

Ponce de Leon, between 1509 and 1518 killed off the natives.

The De Leon palace, built in 1511, is of great interest to tourists.

The climate is warm but pleasant. At night thick clothing is found

comfortable.

All visiting and shopping are done after sundown.

Slavery was abolished in 1873.

The women are rather small and delicately formed. Many of them are

pretty and they are all given to flirtation.

Men and women ride horseback alike. Wicker baskets to carry clothes or

provisions, are hung on either side of the horse's shoulders. Back of

these baskets the rider sits.

It is the custom of travellers on horseback to carry a basket handled

sword a yard and a quarter long, more as an ornament than as a means

of defense.

The observance of birthdays is an island fashion that is followed by

every one.

A Governor, appointed by the Crown, manages affairs. His palace is at

San Juan, the capital, a town that has 24,000 inhabitants.

Upon the Rio Grande are prehistoric monuments that have attracted the

attention of archaeologists.

Following the Spanish custom, men are imprisoned for debt.

In the towns houses are built with flat roofs, both to catch water and

to afford the family a small roof garden.

All planters have town houses where they bring their families during

the carnival season.

San Juan is filled with adventurers, gamblers, speculators and

fugitives from justice.--New York World.

CHAPTER VII.

LIST OF COLORED REGIMENTS THAT DID ACTIVE SERVICE IN THE

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR,--AND VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS.

Regulars.--Section 1104 of the Revised Statutes of the United States

Congress provides that "the enlisted men of two regiments of Cavalry

shall be colored men," and in compliance with this section the War

Department maintains the organization of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry,

both composed of colored men with white officers.

Section 1108 of the Revised Statutes of Congress provides that "the

enlisted men of two regiments of Infantry shall be colored men;" and

in compliance with this section the War Department maintains the

organization of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry, both

composed of colored men with white officers.

The above regiments were the only colored troops that were engaged

in active service in Cuba. There is no statute requiring colored

artillery regiments to be organized, and there are therefore none in

the regular army.

* * * * *

A LIST OF THE VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS.

Third North Carolina--All colored officers.

Sixth Virginia--White officers, finally, the colored officers resigned

"under pressure," after which there was much trouble with the men, as

they claimed to have enlisted with the understanding that they were to

have colored officers.

[Illustration: OFFICERS OF THE NINTH OHIO--LIEUTENANT YOUNG IN THE

CENTER.]

Blank Page

Ninth Ohio--All colored officers; Col. Chas. Young, graduate of West

Point.

Twenty-third Kansas--Colored officers.

Eighth Illinois--Under colored officers, and did police duty at San

Luis, Cuba.

Seventh U.S. Volunteers.

Tenth U.S. Volunteers.

Eighth U.S. Volunteers.

Ninth U.S. Volunteers.

The conduct of the colored volunteers has been harshly criticised, and

it is thought by some that the conduct of the volunteers has had some

influence in derrogation of the good record made by the regulars

around Santiago. This view, however, we think unjust, and ill-founded.

There was considerable shooting of pistols and drunkenness among some

regiments of volunteers, and it was not confined by any means to those

of the colored race. The white volunteers were as drunk and noisy as

the colored, and shot as many pistols.

The Charlotte Observer has the following editorial concerning some

white troops that passed through Charlotte, N.C.:

"Mustered-out West Virginia and New York volunteer soldiers who passed

through this city Saturday night, behaved on the train and here like

barbarians, disgracing their uniforms, their States and themselves.

They were drunk and disorderly, and their firing of pistols,

destruction of property and theft of edibles was not as bad as their

outrageous profanity and obscenity on the cars in the hearing of

ladies. Clearly they are brutes when sober and whiskey only developed

the vileness already in them."

By a careful comparison of the reports in the newspapers, we see a

slight excess of rowdyism on the part of the whites, but much less

fuss made about it. In traveling from place to place if a white

volunteer company fired a few shots in the air, robbed a fruit stand,

or fussed with the by standers at railroad stations or drank whiskey

at the car windows, the fact was simply mentioned in the morning

papers, but if a Negro company fired a pistol a telegram was sent

ahead to have mobs in readiness to "do up the niggers" at the next

station, and at one place in Georgia the militia was called out by a

telegram sent ahead, and discharged a volley into the car containing

white officers and their families, so eager were they to "do up the

nigger." At Nashville the city police are reported to have charged

through the train clubbing the colored volunteers who were returning

home, and taking anything in the shape of a weapon away from them by

force. In Texarcana or thereabouts it was reported that a train of

colored troopers was blown up by dynamite. The Southern mobs seemed to

pride themselves in assaulting the colored soldiers.

While the colored volunteers were not engaged in active warfare, yet

they attained a high degree of discipline and the CLEANEST AND MOST

ORDERLY CAMP among any of the volunteers was reported by the chief

sanitary officer of the government to be that of one of the colored

volunteer regiments stationed in Virginia. It is to be regretted that

the colored volunteers, especially those under Negro officers, did not

have an opportunity to show their powers on the battlefield, and thus

demonstrate their ability as soldiers, and so refreshing the memory

of the nation as to what Negro soldiers once did at Ft. Wagner and

Milikin's Bend. The volunteer boys were ready and willing and only

needed a chance to show what they could do.

POLICED BY NEGROES.

WHITE IMMUNES ORDERED OUT OF SANTIAGO, AND A COLORED REGIMENT PLACED

IN CHARGE.

Washington, D.C., August 17, 1898.

Editor Colored American: The Star of this city published the following

dispatch in its issue of the 16th inst. The Washington Post next

morning published the same dispatch, omitting the last paragraph;

and yet the Post claims to publish the news, whether pleasing or

otherwise. The selection of the 8th Illinois colored regiment for

this important duty, to replace a disorderly white regiment, is a

sufficient refutation of a recent editorial in the Post, discrediting

colored troops with colored officers. The Eighth Illinois is a colored

regiment from Colonel down. The Generals at the front know the value

of Negro troops, whether the quill-drivers in the rear do or not.

CHARLES R. DOUGLASS.

The following is the dispatch referred to by Major Douglass. The

headlines of the Star are retained.

IMMUNES MADE TROUBLE--GENERAL SHAFTER ORDERS THE SECOND REGIMENT

OUTSIDE THE CITY OF SANTIAGO--COLORED TROOPS FROM ILLINOIS ASSIGNED TO

THE DUTY OF PRESERVING ORDER AND PROPERTY.

Santiago de Cuba, Aug. 16.--General Shafter to-day ordered the Second

Volunteer Regiment of Immunes to leave the city and go into camp

outside.

The regiment had been placed here as a garrison, to preserve order and

protect property. There has been firing of arms inside of the town by

members of this regiment, without orders, so far as known. Some of

the men have indulged in liquor until they have verged upon acts of

license and disorder. The inhabitants in some quarters have alleged

loss of property by force and intimidation, and there has grown up a

feeling of uneasiness, if not alarm, concerning them. General Shafter

has, therefore, ordered this regiment into the hills, where discipline

can be more severely maintained.

In place of the Second Volunteer Immune Regiment, General Shafter

has ordered into the city the Eighth Illinois Volunteer Regiment of

colored troops, in whose sobriety and discipline he has confidence,

and of whose sturdy enforcement of order no doubt is felt by those in

command.

* * * * *

SKETCH OF SIXTH VIRGINIA VOLUNTEERS.

The Sixth Virginia Volunteer Infantry, U.S.V., consisted of two

battalions, first and second Battalion Infantry Virginia Volunteers

(State militia), commanded respectively by Maj. J.B. Johnson and Maj.

W.H. Johnson. In April, 1898, the war cloud was hanging over the land.

Governor J. Hoge Tyler, of Virginia, under instructions from the War

Department, sent to all Virginia volunteers inquiring how many men in

the respective commands were willing to enlist in the United States

volunteer service in the war against Spain.

How many would go in or out of the United States.

* * * * *

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA,

Adjutant-General's Office, Richmond, Va., April 19th, 1898.

General Order No. 8.

I. Commanding officers of companies of Virginia Volunteers will,

immediately, upon the receipt by them of this order, assemble their

respective companies and proceed to ascertain and report direct to

this office, upon the form herewith sent and by letter, what officers

and enlisted men of their companies will volunteer for service in and

with the volunteer forces of the United States (not in the regular

army) with the distinct understanding that such volunteer forces, or

any portion thereof, may be ordered and required to perform service

either in or out of the United States, and that such officer or

enlisted man, so volunteering, agrees and binds himself to, without

question, promptly obey all orders emanating from the proper officers,

and to render such service as he may be required to perform, either

within or beyond the limits of the United States.

[Illustration: MAJOR JOHN R. LYNCH, PAYMASTER IN U.S. ARMY]

II. The Brigade Commander and the Regimental and Battalion Commanders

will, without delay, obtain like information and make, direct to this

office, similar reports, to those above required, with regard to

their respective field, staff and non-commissioned staff officers and

regimental or battalion bands, adopting the form herewith sent to the

regiments.

III. By reason of the necessity in this matter, this order is sent

direct, with copies to intermediate commanders.

By order of the Governor and Commander-in-Chief. WM. NALLE,

Adjutant-General.

* * * * *

The companies of the First Battalion of Richmond and Second Battalion

of Petersburg and Norfolk were the first to respond to the call and

express a readiness to go anywhere in or out of the States with their

own officers, upon these conditions they were immediately accepted,

and the following order was issued:

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, Adjutant-General's Office, Richmond, Va.,

April 23, 1898. General Orders No. 9.

The commanding officers of such companies as will volunteer for

service in the volunteer army of the United States will at once

proceed to recruit their respective companies to at least eighty-four

enlisted men. Any company volunteering as a body, for such service,

will be mustered in with its own officers.

By order of the Governor and Commander-in-Chief. (Signed) W. NALLE,

Adjutant-General.

* * * * *

Under date of June 1, 1898, S.O. 59, A.G.O., Richmond, Va., was

issued directly to the commanding officers of the First and Second

Battalion (colored), who had been specially designated by the

President in his call, ordering them to take the necessary steps to

recruit the companies of the respective battalions to eighty-three men

per company, directing that care be taken, to accept only men of good

repute and able-bodied, and that as soon as recruited the fact should

be reported by telegraph to the Adjutant-General of the State.

July 15th, 1898, Company "A," Attucks Guard, was the first company to

arrive at Camp Corbin, Va., ten miles below Richmond. The company

had three officers; Capt. W.A. Hawkins, First Lieutenant J.C. Smith,

Lieutenant John Parham.

The other companies followed in rapid succession. Company "B" (Carney

Guard), Capt. C.B. Nicholas; First Lieutenant L.J. Wyche, Second

Lieutenant J.W. Gilpin. Company "C" (State Guard), Capt. B.A.

Graves; First Lieutenant S.B. Randolph, Second Lieutenant W.H.

Anderson. Company "D" (Langston Guard), Capt. E.W. Gould; First

Lieutenant Chas. H. Robinson, Second Lieutenant Geo. W. Foreman.

Company "E" (Petersburg Guard), Capt. J.E. Hill; First Lieutenant

J.H. Hill, Second Lieutenant Fred. E. Manggrum. Company "F"

(Petersburg), Capt. Pleasant Webb; First Lieutenant Jno. K. Rice,

Second Lieutenant Richard Hill. Company "G," Capt. J.A. Stevens;

First Lieutenant E. Thomas Walker, Second Lieutenant David Worrell.

Company "H," Capt. Peter Shepperd, Jr.; First Lieutenant Jas. M.

Collins, Second Lieutenant Geo. T. Wright. The regiment consisted of

only eight companies, two battalions, commanded respectively by Major

J.B. Johnson and Maj. W.H. Johnson, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel

Rich'd C. Croxton, of the First United States Infantry. First

Lieutenant Chas. R. Alexander was Surgeon. Second Lieutenant Allen J.

Black, Assist Subsistence.

Lieutenant W.H. Anderson, Company "C," was detailed as Adjutant,

Ordinance Officer and Mustering Officer.

Lieutenant J.H. Gilpin, Company "B," was detailed as Quartermaster

and Commissary of Subsistance.

On Monday, September 12, 1898, the command left Camp Corbin, Va., and

embarked for Knoxville, Tenn., about 10 o'clock, the men traveling in

day coaches and the officers in Pullman sleepers. The train was in

two sections. Upon arrival at Knoxville the command was sent to Camp

Poland, near the Fourteenth Michigan Regiment, who were soon mustered

out. A few days after the arrival of the Sixth Virginia the Third

North Carolina arrived, a full regiment with every officer a Negro.

While here in order to get to the city our officers, wagons and men

had to pass the camp of the First Georgia Regiment, and it was quite

annoying to have to suffer from unnecessary delays in stores and other

things to which the men were subject.

After the review by General Alger, Secretary of War, the Colonel of

the Sixth Virginia received permission from headquarters of Third

Brigade, Second Division, First Army Corps, General Rosser commanding,

to move the camp to a point nearer the city, which was granted. Soon

after the arrival of the Third North Carolina Regiment the First

Georgia seemed disposed to attack the colored soldiers, so on a

beautiful September evening some shots were fired into their camp by

the First Georgia men and received quick response. After the little

affair four Georgians were missing. The matter was investigated, the

First Georgia was placed under arrest.

After the removal to a new portion of Camp Poland orders were received

from the headquarters First Army Corps, Lexington, Ky., ordering a

board of examiners for the following officers of the Sixth Virginia:

Maj. W.H. Johnson; Second Battalion, Capt. C.B. Nicholas, Capt.

J.E. Hill, Capt. J.A.C. Stevens, Capt. E.W. Gould, Capt. Peter

Shepperd, Jr., Lieutenants S.B. Randolph, Geo. T. Wright and David

Worrell for examination September 20, 1898, each officer immediately

tendered his resignation, which was at once accepted by the Secretary

of War.

[Illustration: MAJOR R.R. WRIGHT, PAYMASTER IN U.S. ARMY.]

Under the rules governing the volunteer army, when vacancies occurred

by death, removal, resignation or otherwise, the Colonel of a regiment

had the power to recommend suitable officers or men to fill the

vacancies by promotions, and the Governor would make the appointment

with the approval of the Secretary of War. Many of the men had high

hopes of gaining a commission; many of the most worthy young men of

the State, who left their peaceful vocations for the rough service of

war, for they were, students, bookkeepers, real estate men, merchants,

clerks and artists who responded to their country's call--all looking

to a much desired promotion. But after many conflicting stories as to

what would be done and much parleying on the part of the recommending

power, who said that there was none in the regiment qualified for the

promotion. And thereupon the Governor appointed white officers to

fill the vacancies created. A copy of the following was sent to the

Governor of Virginia through "military channels" but never reached

him; also to the Adjutant General of the army through military

channels:

Sixth Virginia Volunteer Infantry, Second Battalion, Colored, Camp

Poland, Tenn., October 27th, 1898.

To the Adjutant General, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C.

Sir--We, the undersigned officers of the Sixth Virginia Volunteer

Infantry, stationed at Camp Poland, Knoxville, Tenn., have the honor

to respectfully submit to you the following:

Nine officers of this command who had served the state militia for a

period ranging from five to twenty years were ordered examined. They

resigned for reasons best known to themselves. We the remaining

officers were sanguine that Negro officers would be appointed to fill

these vacancies, and believe they can be had from the rank and file,

as the men in the various companies enlisted with the distinct

understanding that they would be commanded by Negro officers. We now

understand through various sources that white officers have been, or

are to be, appointed to fill these vacancies, to which we seriously

and respectfully protest, because our men are dissatisfied. The men

feel that the policy inaugurated as to this command should remain, and

we fear if there is a change it will result disastrously to one of the

best disciplined commands in the volunteer service. They are unwilling

to be commanded by white officers and object to do what they did not

agree to at first. That is to be commanded by any other than officers

of the same color. We furthermore believe that should the appointments

be confirmed there will be a continual friction between the officers

and men of the two races as has been foretold by our present

commanding officer. We express the unanimous and sincere desire of

seven hundred and ninety-one men in the command to be mustered out

rather than submit to the change.

We therefore pray that the existing vacancies be filled from the rank

and file of the command or by men of color. To all of which we most

humbly pray.

(Signed)

J.B. JOHNSON, Major 6th Va. Vol. Inf. PLEASANT WEBB, Capt. 6th Va. Vol

Inf. BENJ. A. GRAVES, Capt. 6th Va. Vol. Inf. JAS. C. SMITH, 6th Va.

Vol. Inf., 1st Lt. L.J. WYCHE, 1st Lt. 6th Va. Vol. Inf. CHAS. H.

ROBINSON, 1st Lt. 6th Va. Vol. JOHN H. HILL, 1st Lt. 6th Va. Vol. Inf.

JNO. K. RICE, 1st Lt. 6th Va. Vol. Inf. EDWIN T. WALKER, 1st Lt. 6th

Va. Vol.. C.R. ALEXANDER, 1st. Lt. and Sarg. 6th Va. Vol. Inf. JOHN

PARHAM, 2nd Lt. 6th. Va. Vol. Inf. JAS. ST. GILPIN, 2nd Lt. 6th Va.

Vol. Inf. W.H. ANDERSON, 2nd Lt. 6th Va. Vol. Inf. GEORGE W. FOREMAN.

2nd Lt. 6th Va. Vol. Inf. FREDERICK E. MANGGRUM, 2nd Lt. 6th Va. Vol.

Inf. RICHARD HILL, 2nd Lt. 6th Va. Vol. Inf. JAMES M. COLLIN, 2nd Lt.

6th Va. Vol. Inf. FIRST ENDORSEMENT. Headquarters 6th Va. Vol.

Inf. Second Battalion, Colored, Camp Poland, Tenn., Oct. 28, if

Respectfully forwarded.

I have explained to the officers who signed this paper that their

application is absurd, but they seem unable to see the points

involved.

The statement within that 791 men prefer to be mustered out rather

than serve under white officers is based upon the alleged reports that

each First Sergeant stated to his Captain that all the men of the

company were of that opinion. The statement that the men "enlisted

with the understanding that they would be commanded entirely by Negro

officers," seems to be based upon the fact that when these companies

were called upon by the State authorities they volunteered for

service, etc., "with our present officers." These officers (9 of

them) have since resigned and their places filled by the Governor of

Virginia with white officers.

These latter have not yet reported for duty.

Further comment seems as unnecessary as the application itself is

useless.

(Signed) R.C. CROXTON,

Lt. Col. 6th Va. Vol. Inf. Com'd'g.

* * * * *

SECOND ENDORSEMENT.

Headquarters Third Brigade, Second Division, First Army Corps, Camp

Poland, Tenn., Oct. 29, 1898.

Respectfully forwarded. Disapproved as under the law creating the

present volunteer forces the Governor of Virginia is the only

authority who can appoint the officers of the 6th Va. Vol. Inf.

(Signed) JAMES H. YOUNG.

Col. Third N.C. Vol. Inf. Com'd'g. Brigade.

THIRD ENDORSEMENT.

Headquarters Second Division, First Army Corps,

Camp Poland, Knoxville, Tenn., Oct. 31, 1898.

Respectfully returned to the Commanding General, Third Brigade.

The enclosed communication is in form and substance so contrary to

all military practice and traditions that it is returned for file at

Regimental Headquarters, 6th Va. Vol. Infantry.

By command of Colonel KUERT.

(Signed) LOUIS V. CAZIARC,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

* * * * *

FOURTH ENDORSEMENT. Headquarters Third Brigade,

Second Division, First Army Corps.

Respectfully transmitted to C.O., 6th Virginia, inviting attention to

preceding Inst.

By order of Colonel YOUNG.

(Signed) A.B. COLLIER,

Captain Assistant Adjutant-General.

* * * * *

A NEW LIEUTENANT FOR THE 6TH VIRGINIA.

October 31st, 1898, the monthly muster was in progress. There appeared

in the camp a new Lieutenant--Lieut. Jno. W. Healey--formerly

Sergeant-Major in the regular army. This was the first positive

evidence that white officers would be assigned to this regiment. This

was about 9 o'clock in the morning, and at Knoxville later in the day,

there were more arrivals. Then it was published that the following

changes and appointments were made:

Company "D," First Battalion, was transferred to the Second Battalion;

Company "F," of the Second Battalion, transferred to the First

Battalion. Major E.E. Cobell, commanding Second Battalion. Captain

R.L.E. Masurier, commanding Company "D." Captain W. S. Faulkner,

commanding Company "E." Captain J. W. Bentley, commanding Company "G."

Captain S.T. Moore, commanding Company "H." First Lieutenant Jno. W.

Healey to Company "H." First Lieutenant A.L. Moncure to Company "G."

Second Lieutenant Geo. W. Richardson, Company "G." First Lieutenant

Edwin T. Walker transferred to Company "C." November 1st officers

attempted to take charge of the men who offered no violence at all,

but by their manner and conduct it appeared too unpleasant and unsafe

for these officers to remain, so tendered their resignations, but they

were withheld for a day.

The next day, November 2, 1898, it was thought best that the colored

Captains and Lieutenants would drill the companies at the 9 o'clock

drill. While on the field "recall" was sounded and the companies were

brought to the headquarters and formed a street column. General Bates,

commanding the Corps and his staff; Col. Kuert, commanding the Brigade

and Brigade staff; Maj. Louis V. Caziarc, Assistant Adjutant-General:

Lieut. Col. Croxton and Maj. Johnson were all there and spoke to the

men. Colonel Kuert said: "Gentlemen, as commanding officer of the

Brigade, I appear before you to-day asking you to do your duty; to be

good soldiers, to remember your oath of enlistment, and to be careful

as to the step you take, for it might cost you your life; that there

are enough soldiers at my command to force you into submission should

you resist. No, if you intend to accept the situation and submit to

these officers placed over you, at my command, you come to a right

shoulder, and if you have any grievance imaginary or otherwise

present through proper military channels, and if they are proper, your

wrongs will be adjusted."

"Right shoulder, Arms." Did not a man move. He then ordered them to be

taken back to their company street and to "stack arms."

Before going to the company streets Major Caziarc spoke to the men as

follows: "Forty years ago no Negro could bear arms or wear the blue.

You cannot disgrace the blue, but can make yourselves unworthy to wear

it."

Then Maj. J.B. Johnson spoke to the men and urged upon them to keep

in mind the oath of enlistment (which he read to them), in which they

swore that they would "obey all officers placed over them;" that since

the appointments had been made there was nothing for them to do but to

accept the situation. At the conclusion of Maj. Johnson's talk to the

men, Private Badger, Regimental Tailor, stepped to the front and gave

the "rifle salute" and asked permission to say a word. It was granted.

He said: "When we enlisted we understood that we would go with

our colored officers anywhere in or out of this country, and when

vacancies occurred we expected and looked for promotion as was the

policy of the Governor of Virginia toward other Virginia Regiments."

He was told that if the men had any grievance they could present it

through military channels and it would be looked into. They never

accepted Maj. Johnson's advice--returned to their company streets and

were allowed to keep their guns. The Ordnance Officer was ordered to

take all ammunition to the camp of the Thirty-first Michigan and place

it in the guard-house.

The men had the freedom and pass privilege to and from the city.

[Illustration: MAJOR J.B. JOHNSON, OF THE SIXTH VIRGINIA COLORED

VOLUNTEERS.]

November 19th the command was ordered to Macon, Ga., arriving at Camp

Haskell next day, with 820 men and 27 officers.

Near the camp of the Sixth Virginia was that of the Tenth Immune

Regiment, in which were many Virginia boys, some of whom had been

members of some of the companies of the Sixth.

Some irresponsible persons cut down a tree upon which several men had

been lynched. The blame naturally fell upon the Sixth Virginia. The

regiment was placed under arrest and remained so for nineteen days.

The first day the Third Engineers guarded the camp, but General

Wilson, the Corps commander, removed them and put colored soldiers to

guard them. On the night of November 20th, at a late hour, the camp

was surrounded by all the troops available while the men were asleep

and the regiment was disarmed.

While all this was going on the Thirty-first Michigan Regiment had

been deployed into line behind a hill on the north and the Fourth

Tennessee had been drawn up in line on the east side of the camp ready

to fire should any resistance be offered.

The men quietly submitted to this strange procedure, and did not know

that Gatling guns had been conveniently placed at hand to mow them

down had they shown any resistance. The Southern papers called them

the mutinous Sixth, and said and did every thing to place discredit

upon them.

They were reviewed by General Breckinridge, General Alger, Secretary

of War, and President McKinley, who applauded them for their fine and

soldierly appearance.

COMMENTS ON THE THIRD NORTH CAROLINA REGIMENT.

Of all the volunteer regiments the Third North Carolina seemed to be

picked out as the target for attack by the Georgia newspapers. The

Atlanta Journal, under large headlines, "A Happy Riddance," has the

following to say when the Third North Carolina left Macon. But

the Journal's article was evidently written in a somewhat of a

wish-it-was-so-manner, and while reading this article we ask our

readers to withhold judgment until they read Prof. C.F. Meserve on the

Third North Carolina, who wrote after investigation.

The Journal made no investigation to see what the facts were, but

dwells largely on rumors and imagination. It will be noted that

President Meserve took the pains to investigate the subject before

writing about it.

The Atlanta Journal says:

A HAPPY RIDDANCE.

The army and the country are to be congratulated on the mustering out

of the Third North Carolina Regiment.

A tougher and more turbulent set of Negroes were probably never gotten

together before. Wherever this regiment went it caused trouble.

While stationed in Macon several of its members were killed, either by

their own comrades in drunken brawls or by citizens in self-defense.

Last night the mustered-out regiment passed through Atlanta on its way

home and during its brief stay here exhibited the same ruffianism and

brutality that characterized it while in the service. But for the

promptness and pluck of several Atlanta policemen these Negro

ex-soldiers would have done serious mischief at the depot. Those who

undertook to make trouble were very promptly clubbed into submission,

and one fellow more obstreperous than the rest, was lodged in the

station house.

With the exception of two or three regiments the Negro volunteers in

the recent war were worse than useless. The Negro regulars, on the

contrary, made a fine record, both for fighting and conduct in camp.

[Illustration: THIRD NORTH CAROLINA VOLUNTEERS AND OFFICERS.]

The mustering out of the Negro volunteers should have begun sooner and

have been completed long ago.

* * * * *

WHAT PRESIDENT CHARLES FRANCIS MESERVE SAYS.

President Charles Francis Meserve, of Shaw University, says:

"I spent a part of two days the latter part of December at Camp

Haskell, near Macon, Ga., inspecting the Third North Carolina colored

regiment and its camp and surroundings. The fact that this regiment

has colored officers and the knowledge that the Colonel and quite

a number of officers, as well as many of the rank and file, were

graduates or former students of Shaw University, led me to make

a visit to this regiment, unheralded and unannounced. I was just

crossing the line into the camp when I was stopped by a guard, who

wanted to know who I was and what I wanted. I told him I was a very

small piece of Shaw University, and that I wanted to see Col. Young.

After that sentence was uttered, and he had directed me to the

headquarters of the colonel, the regiment and the camp might have been

called mine, for the freedom of everything was granted me."

The camp is admirably located on a sandy hillside, near pine woods,

and is dry and well-drained. It is well laid out, with a broad avenue

in the centre intersected by a number of side streets. On one side of

the avenue are the tents and quarters of the men and the canteen,

and on the opposite side the officers' quarters, the hospital, the

quartermasters stores, the Y.M.C.A. tent, etc.

Although the weather was unfavorable, the camp was in the best

condition, and from the standpoint of sanitation was well-nigh

perfect. I went everywhere and saw everything, even to the sinks and

corral. Part of the time I was alone and part of the time an officer

attended me. There was an abundant supply of water from the Macon

water works distributed in pipes throughout the camp. The clothing was

of good quality and well cared for. The food was excellent, abundant

in quantity and well prepared. The beef was fresh and sweet, for it

had not been "embalmed." The men were not obliged to get their fresh

meat by picking maggots out of dried apples and dried peaches as has

been the case sometimes in the past on our "Wild West Frontier." There

were potatoes, Irish and sweet, navy beans, onions, meat, stacks of

light bread, canned salmon, canned tomatoes, etc. These were not all

served at one meal, but all these articles and others go to make up

the army ration list.

The spirit and discipline of officers and men was admirable, and

reflected great credit upon the Old North State. There was an

enthusiastic spirit and buoyancy that made their discipline and

evolutions well nigh perfect. The secret of it all was confidence in

their leader. They believe in their colonel, and the colonel in turn

believes in his men. Col. James H. Young possesses in a marked degree

a quality of leadership as important as it is rare. He probably knows

by name at least three-quarters of his regiment, and is on pleasant

terms with his staff and the men in the ranks, and yet maintains a

proper dignity, such as befits his official rank.

[Illustration: PROF. CHARLES F. MESERVE, OF SHAW UNIVERSITY, RALEIGH,

N.C. (Who investigated and made report on the Third N.C. Volunteers.)]

On the last afternoon of my visit of inspection Col. Young ordered

the regiment drawn up in front of his headquarters, and invited me to

address them. The Colonel and his staff were mounted, and I was given

a position of honor on a dry goods box near the head of the beautiful

horse upon which the Colonel was mounted. Besides Colonel James

H. Young, of Raleigh, were near me Lieutenant Colonel Taylor, of

Charlotte; Major Walker, of Wilmington; Major Hayward, of Raleigh;

Chief Surgeon Dellinger, of Greensboro; Assistant Surgeons Pope, of

Charlotte, and Alston, of Asheville; Capt. Durham, of Winston; Capt.

Hamlin, of Raleigh; Capt. Hargraves, of Maxton; Capt. Mebane, of

Elizabeth City; Capt. Carpenter, of Rutherfordton; Capt. Alexander,

of Statesville; Capt. Smith, of Durham; Capt. Mason, of Kinston;

who served under Colonel Shaw at Fort Wagner; Capt. Leatherwood,

Asheville; Capt. Stitt, of Charlotte; Capt. York, of Newbern; and

Quartermaster Lane, of Raleigh. That highly respected citizen of

Fayetteville, Adjutant Smith, was in the hospital suffering from a

broken leg. I told them they were on trial, and the success or failure

of the experiment must be determined by themselves alone; that

godliness, moral character, prompt and implicit obedience, as well as

bravery and unflinching courage, were necessary attributes of the true

soldier.

The Y.M.C.A. tent is a great blessing to the regiment, and is very

popular, and aids in every possible way the work of Chaplain Durham.

The way Col. Young manages the canteen cannot be too highly

recommended. Ordinarily the term canteen is another name for a

drinking saloon, though a great variety of articles, such as soldiers

need, are on sale and the profits go to the soldiers. But the canteen

of the Third North Carolina is a dry one. By that I mean that

spiritous or malt liquors are not sold. Col. Young puts into practice

the principles that have always characterized his personal habits, and

with the best results to his regiment.

I had the pleasure of meeting Capt. S. Babcock, Assistant Adjutant

General of the Brigade, who has known this regiment since it was

mustered into the service. He speaks of it in the highest terms. I

also met Major John A. Logan, the Provost Marshal, and had a

long interview with him. He said the Third North Carolina was a

well-behaved regiment and that he had not arrested a larger per cent

of men from this regiment than from any other regiment, and that I was

at liberty to publicly use this statement.

While in the sleeper on my way home I fell in with Capt. J.C. Gresham,

of the Seventh Cavalry. Capt. Gresham is a native of Virginia, a

graduate of Richmond College and West Point, and has served many years

in the regular army. He was with Colonel Forsyth in the battle with

the Sioux at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. I had met him previously,

when I was in the United States Indian service in Kansas. He informed

me that he mustered in the first four companies of the Third North

Carolina, and the Colonel and his staff, and that he had never met a

more capable man than Colonel Young.

The Third North Carolina has never seen active service at the front,

and, as the Hispano-American war is practically a closed chapter, it

will probably be mustered out of the service without any knowledge of

actual warfare. I thought, however, as I stood on the dry goods box

and gave them kindly advice, and looked down along the line, that if

I was a soldier in a white regiment and was pitted against them, my

regiment would have to do some mighty lively work to "clean them out."

CHARLES FRANCIS MESERVE.

Shaw University,

Raleigh, N.C., Jan. 25, 1899.

[Illustration: MR. JUDSON W. LYONS, REGISTER OF THE TREASURY, AND

SIGNS U.S. "GREENBACKS" TO MAKE THEM GOOD.]

CHAPTER VIII.

GENERAL ITEMS OF INTEREST TO THE RACE,

John C. Dancy, re-appointed Collector of Port Wilmington, N.C. Salary

$3,000.

The appointment of Prof. Richard T. Greener, of New York, as Consul to

Vladivistock.

Hon. H.P. Cheatham, appointed as Register of Deeds of the District of

Columbia. Salary $4,000.

Hon. George H. White elected to Congress from the Second Congressional

District of North Carolina, the only colored Representative in that

body.

The Cotton Factory at Concord, N.C., built and operated by colored

people, capitalized at $50,000, and established a new line of industry

for colored labor, is one of the interesting items showing the

progress of the colored race in America.

B.K. Bruce re-appointed Register of the Treasury, and on his death Mr.

Judson W. Lyons, of Augusta, Georgia, became his successor, and now

has the honor of making genuine Uncle Sam's greenback by affixing

thereto his signature. Salary $4,500.

Bishop H.M. Turner visits Africa and ordains an African Bishop,

J.H. Dwane, Vicar of South Africa, with a conference composed of a

membership of 10,000 persons. This act of the Bishop is criticised by

some of the Bishops and members of the A.M.E. Church in America on the

grounds that Bishop Turner was acting without authority in making this

appointment.

Mr. James Deveaux, Collector of Port, Brunswick, Ga.; H.A. Rucker,

Collector of Internal Revenue for Georgia, $4,500 (the best office in

the State); Morton, Postmaster at Athens, Ga., $2,400; Demas,

naval officer at New Orleans, $5,000; Lee, Collector of port at

Jacksonville, $4,000 (the best office in that State); Hill, Register

of the Land Office in Mississippi, $3,000; Leftwich, Register of the

Land Office in Alabama, $3,000; Casline, Receiver of Public Moneys in

Alabama, $2,000; Jackson, Consul at Calais, $2,500; Van Horn, Consul

in the West Indies, $2,500; Green, Chief Stamp Division, Postoffice

Department, $2,000.

MISS ALBERTA SCOTT AND OTHERS,

Miss Alberta Scott is the first Negro girl to be graduated from the

Harvard annex. Her classmates and the professors of the institution

have congratulated her in the warmest terms and in the literary and

the language club of Boston her achievement of the M.A. degree has

been spoken of with high praise. Miss Scott is but the fifth student

of the Negro race to obtain this honor at the colleges for women in

Massachusetts. Two received diplomas from Wellsley, one from Smith

College and one from Vassar. Miss Scott is 20 years old. She was born

in Richmond, Va., having graduated from the common schools in Boston.

Miss Scott's teachers spoke so encouragingly of her work that the

girl was determined to have a college education. She paid particular

attention to the study of language and literature, and she is now a

fluent linguist and a member of the Idier and German clubs. She has

contributed considerably to college and New England journals.

[Illustration: THE GARNES FAMILY.]

THE DISCOVERY OF THE GARNES FAMILY.

A picture of which is herein placed, will do much to confound those

bumptious sociologists who make haste to rush into print with

statistics purporting to show that the Negro Race in America is "fast

dying out." The aim of this class of people seems to be to show that

the Negro Race withers under the influence of freedom, which is by no

means true. It is possibly true that filth and disease does its fatal

work in the Negro Race, the same as in other races among the filthy

and corrupt, but the filthy and corrupt in the Negro Race, as a class,

are growing fewer every year--for which we can thank the philanthropy

of the American people who are doing something to better the condition

of the Negro rather than hurling at him enernating criticisms and

complaints.

"Their home is at Brodie, in the country, about twenty miles from

Henderson, N.C. The father's name is Gillis Garnes. He is about fifty

years of age, and the mother says she is about forty-eight. The oldest

child is a daughter, aged twenty-eight, and the youngest is also a

daughter, three years of age; that you see seated in her mother's

arms. They are all Baptists and thirteen of the family are members of

the church. I had this photograph taken at Henderson, on April 8th.

There are seventeen children, all living, of the same father and

mother. A.J. Garnes spends quite a part of the time in teaching in

his native county. When he is not teaching he is at home, and every

evening has a school made up of children of the family. A.J. Garnes

is the tall young man in the background at the right, who is a former

student of Shaw University, as well as one of the sisters represented

in the picture."--_Prof. Charles F. Meserve, in the Baptist Home

Mission Monthly._

"A COLORED WONDER" ON THE BICYCLE.

New York, August 27.--Major Taylor, the colored cyclist, met and

defeated "Jimmy" Michael, the little Welshman, in a special match

race, best two out of three, one mile pace heats, from a standing

start at Manhattan Beach Cycle track this afternoon.

Michael won the first heat easily, as Taylor's pacing quint broke

down in the final lap, but on the next two heats Michael was so badly

beaten and distanced that he quit each time in the last lap.

MARVELOUS WORK.

Taylor's work was wonderful, both from a racing and time standpoint,

and he established a new world's record which was absolutely

phenomenal, covering the third heat in 1:41 2-5.

Michael was hissed by the spectators as he passed the stand,

dispirited and dejected by Taylor's overwhelming victory.

Immediately after the third heat was finished, and before the time was

announced, William A. Bradley, who championed the colored boy during

the entire season, issued a challenge to race Taylor against Michael

for $5,000 or $10,000 a side at any distance up to one hundred miles.

THE COLORED YOUTH LIONIZED.

This declaration was received with tumultuous shouts by the

assemblage, and the colored victor was lionized when the time was made

known.

Edouard Taylore, the French rider, held the world's record of 1:45 3-5

for the distance in a contest paced from a standing start.

[Illustration: COLEMAN COTTON MILL.]

THE WORLD'S RECORD LOWERED.

The world's record against time from a standing start, made by Platt

Betts, of England, was 1:43 2-5. Michael beat Taylore's record by 1

2-5 seconds in the first heat, but Major Taylor wiped this out and

tied Betts' record against time in the second heat. As Taylor was on

the outside for nearly two and a half laps, it was easily seen that he

rode more than a mile in the time, and shrewd judges who watched the

race said that he would surely do better on the third attempt.

PALE AS A CORPSE.

That he fully justified this belief goes without saying.

The Welsh rider was pale as a corpse when he jumped off his wheel and

had no excuse to make for his defeat. Taylor's performance undoubtedly

stamps him as the premier 'cycle sprinter of the world, and, judging

from the staying qualities he exhibited in his six days' ride in the

Madison Square Garden, the middle distance championship may be his

before the end of the present season.

A NEGRO MILLIONAIRE FOUND AT LAST.

After a search of many years, at last a Negro millionaire, yes, a

multi-millionaire has been found. He resides in the city of Guatemala,

and is known as Don Juan Knight. It is said he is to that country what

Huntington and other monied men are to this country. He was born a

slave in the State of Alabama. He owns gold mines, large coffee and

banana farms, is the second largest dealer in mahogany in the world,

owns a bank and pays his employees $200,000 a year. His wealth is

estimated at $70,000,000. He was the property of the Uptons, of

Dadeville, Ala. He contributes largely to educational institutions,

has erected hospitals, etc. He is sought for his advice by the

government whenever a bond issue, etc., is to be made. He lives in a

palace and has hosts of servants to wait on his family. He married a

native and has seven children. They have all been educated in this

country. Two of his sons are in a military academy in Mississippi and

one of his daughters is an accomplished portrait painter in Boston. He

visited the old plantation where he was born recently and employed the

son of his former master as foreman of his mines. Finding that the

wife of his former master was sick and without money, he gave her

enough money to live on the balance of her life. He employs more

men than any other man in Guatemala and is the wealthiest one

there.--Maxton Blade.

UNCLE SAM'S MONEY SEALER WHO COULD STEAL MILLIONS IF HE WOULD.

There is only one man in the United States who could steal $10,000,000

and not have the theft discovered for six months.

This man has a salary of $1,200 a year. He is a Negro and his name is

John R. Brown.

Mr. Brown's interesting duty is to be the packer of currency under

James F. Meline, the Assistant Treasurer of the United States, who,

says that his is a place where automatic safeguards and checks fail,

and where the government must trust to the honesty of the official.

All the currency printed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is

completed in the Treasury Building by having the red seal printed on

it there. It comes to the Treasury Building in sheets of four notes

each, and when the seal has been imprinted on the notes they are cut

apart and put into packages to dry. John Brown's duty is to put up the

packages of notes and seal them.

[Illustration: MR. BROWN, THE COLORED MAN WHO PACKS AND SEALS THE

MONEY OF THE UNITED STATES.]

Brown does his work in a cage at the end of the room in which the

completion of the notes is accomplished--the room of the Division of

Issues.

The notes are arranged in packages of one hundred before they are

brought into the cage. Each package has its paper strap, on which the

number and denomination is given in printed characters. Forty are put

together in two piles of twenty each and placed an a power press. This

press is worked by a lever, something like an old-style cotton press.

There are openings above and below through which strings can be

slipped after Brown has pulled the lever and compressed the package.

These strings hold the package together while stout manila paper is

drawn around it. This paper is folded as though about a pound of tea

and sealed with wax. Then a label is pasted on it, showing in plain

characters what is within.

The packages are of uniform size and any variation from the standard

would be noticed. But a dishonest man in Brown's position could slip a

wad of prepared paper into one of the packages and put the notes into

his pocket.

If he did this the crime might not be known for six months or a

year, or even longer. Some day there would come from the Treasurer

a requisition for a package of notes of a certain denomination. The

doctored package would be opened and the shortage would be found.

However, the Government has never had to meet this situation.

There have been only two men engaged in packing and sealing currency

since the Treasury Department was organized.

John T. Barnes began the work. He was a delegate to the Chicago

Convention which nominated Lincoln and he received his appointment

on the recommendation of Montgomery Blair in 1861. In 1862 he was

assigned to making up the currency packages and fulfilled that duty

until his death, in 1894. No mistake was ever discovered in his work,

though he handled every cent of currency issued by the government for

thirty-two years--so many millions of dollars that it would take a

week to figure them up.

Mr. Barnes' duties were filled temporarily until November 1, when John

R. Brown was appointed to the place.

Barnes at the time of his death was receiving only $1,400 a year and

Brown draws only $1,200.

Ordinarily the Bureau of Engraving and Printing delivers to the Issue

Division about fifty-six packages of paper money of 1,000 sheets each,

four notes on a sheet, making, when separated, 224,000 notes. These

notes range in value from $1 to $20, and their aggregate is usually

about $1,000,000. The government, however, issues currency in

denominations of $50, $100, $500, $1,000. The largest are not printed

often, because the amount issued is small.

If it could happen that 224,000 notes of $1,000 each were received

from the bureau in one day, the aggregate of value in the fifty-six

packages would be $224,000,000. As it is, a little more than 10 per

cent, of this sum represents the largest amount handled in one day.

That is, the packer has handled $25,000,000 in a single day, and not

one dollar has gone astray.

John R. Brown is a hereditary office-holder. His father was a trusted

employee of the Treasurer's office for ten year prior to his death, in

1874. The son was appointed assistant messenger in 1872. He became a

clerk through competitive examination and was gradually promoted.

[Illustration: GEN. PIO PILAR, In charge of the Insurgent forces

which attacked the American troops.]

The man who has the largest interest in John Brown's integrity and

care probably does not know Brown's name. Yet, if a thousand dollars

was missing from one of the packages in the storage vault, Ellis H.

Roberts, Treasurer of the United States, would have to make it good.

Mr. Roberts has given a bond to the government in the sum of $500,000.

Twenty years hence the sureties on that bond could be held for a

shortage in the Treasurer's office, if it could be traced back to Mr.

Roberts' term.

Not one of the employees under Mr. Roberts gives a bond, though they

handle millions every day. But the Treasurer's office is one which

every responsible employee has been weighed carefully. Its clerks have

been in service many years and have proved worthy of confidence.

HOWELLS DISCOVERS A NEGRO POET.

Mr. Paul Lawrence Dunbar has been until recently an elevator-boy in

Dayton, Ohio. While engaged in the ups and downs of life in that

capacity he has cultivated his poetical talents so successfully that

his verse has found frequent admission into leading magazines. At last

a little collection of these verses reached William Dean Howells,

and Mr. Dunbar's star at once became ascendant. He is said to be a

full-blooded Negro, the son of slave-parents, and his best work is in

the dialect of his race. A volume of his poems is soon to be published

by Dodd, Mead & Co. and in an introduction to it Mr. Howells writes as

follows:

"What struck me in reading Mr. Dunbar's poetry was what had already

struck his friends in Ohio and Indiana, in Kentucky and Illinois. They

had felt as I felt, that however gifted his race had proven itself in

music, in oratory, in several other arts, here was the first instance

of an American Negro who had evinced innate literature. In my

criticism of his book I had alleged Dumas in France, and had forgotten

to allege the far greater Pushkin in Russia; but these were both

mulattoes who might have been supposed to derive their qualities from

white blood vastly more artistic than ours, and who were the creatures

of an environment more favorable to their literary development. So

far as I could remember, Paul Dunbar was the only man of pure African

blood and American civilization to feel the Negro life esthetically

and express it lyrically. It seemed to me that this had come to its

most modern consciousness in him, and that his brilliant and unique

achievement was to have studied the American Negro objectively, and to

have represented him as he found him to be, with humor, with sympathy,

and yet with what the reader must instinctively feel to be entire

truthfulness. I said that a race which had come to this effect in any

member of it had attained civilization in him, and I permitted myself

the imaginative prophecy that the hostilities and the prejudices which

had so long constrained his race were destined to vanish in the arts;

that these were to be the final proof that God had made of one blood

all nations of men. I thought his merits positive and not comparative;

and I held that if his black poems had been written by a white man

I should not have found them less admirable. I accepted them as an

evidence of the essential unity of the human race, which does not

think or feel black in one and white in another, but humanly in all."

The Bookman says of Mr. Dunbar:

"It is safe to assert that accepted as an Anglo-Saxon poet, he would

have received little or no consideration in a hurried weighing of the

mass of contemporary verse."

"But Mr. Dunbar, as his pleasing, manly, and not unrefined face shows,

is a poet of the African race; and this novel and suggestive fact at

once placed his work upon a peculiar footing of interest, of study,

and of appreciative welcome. So regarded, it is a most remarkable and

hopeful production."

[Illustration: PAUL LAWRENCE DUNBAR, THE NEGRO POET.]

We reproduce here one of Dunbar's dialect poems entitled

WHEN DE CO'N PONE'S HOT.

Dey is times in life when Nature

Seems to slip a cog an' go

Jes' a-rattlin' down creation,

Lak an ocean's overflow;

When de worl' jes' stahts a-spinnin'

Lak a picaninny's top,

An' you' cup o' joy is brimmin'

'Twel it seems about to slop.

An' you feel jes' lak a racah

Dat is trainin' fu' to trot--

When you' mammy ses de blessin'

An' de co'n pone's hot.

When you set down at de table,

Kin' o' weary lak an' sad,

'An' you'se jest a little tiahed,

An' purhaps a little mad--

How you' gloom tu'ns into gladness,

How you' joy drives out de doubt

When de oven do' is opened

An' de smell comes po'in' out;

Why, de 'lectric light o' Heaven

Seems to settle on de spot,

When yo' mammy ses de blessin'

An' de co'n pone's hot.

When de cabbage pot is steamin'

An' de bacon good an' fat,

When de chittlin's is a-sputter'n'

So's to show yo' whah dey's at;

Take away you sody biscuit,

Take away yo' cake an' pie.

Fu' de glory time is comin',

An' it's proachin' very nigh,

An' you' want to jump an' hollah,

Do you know you'd bettah not,

When you mammy ses de blessin'

An' de co'n pone's hot?

I have heerd o' lots o' sermons,

An' I've heerd o' lots o' prayers;

An' I've listened to some singin'

Dat has tuck me up de stairs

Of de Glory Lan' an' set me

Jes' below de Mahster's th'one,

An' have lef my haht a singin'

In a happy aftah-tone.

But dem wu's so sweetly murmured

Seem to tech de softes' spot,

When my mammy ses de blessin'.

An de co'n pone's hot.

--Taken from the Literary Digest.

DISFRANCHISEMENT OF COLORED VOTERS.

While the Northern and Western portions of the United States were

paying tributes to the valor of the Negro soldiers who fought for the

flag in Cuba, the most intense feeling ever witnessed, was brewing in

some sections of the South-notably in the North Carolina Legislature

against the rights and privileges of Negro citizenship, which

culminated in the passage of a "Jim Crow" car law, and an act to amend

the Constitution so as to disfranchise the colored voters. It was

noticeable, however, that although the "Jim Crow Car" law got through

that body in triumph, yet the "Jim Crow Bed" law, which made it a

felony for whites and colored to cohabit together DID NOT PASS.

[Illustration: FILIPINO LADY OF MANILA.]

The Washington Post, which cannot be rated as generally partial to the

colored citizens of the Union, and which is especially vicious in its

attacks on the colored soldiers, has the following to say as to the

proposed North Carolina amendment, which is so well said that we

insert the same in full as an indication to our people that justice is

not yet dead--though seemingly tardy:

SUFFRAGE IN NORTH CAROLINA.

(Washington Post, Feb. 20, 1899.)

The amendment to the Constitution of North Carolina, which has for its

object the limitation of the suffrage in the State, appears to have

been modeled on the new Louisiana laws and operate a gross oppression

and injustice. It is easy to see that the amendment is not intended to

disfranchise the ignorant, but to stop short with the Negro; to deny

to the illiterate black man the right of access to the ballot box and

yet to leave the way wide open to the equally illiterate whites. In

our opinion the policy thus indicated is both dangerous and unjust. We

expressed the same opinion in connection with the Louisiana laws, and

we see no reason to amend our views in the case of North Carolina.

The proposed arrangement is wicked. It will not bear the test of

intelligent and impartial examination. We believe in this case, as in

that of Louisiana, that the Federal Constitution has been violated,

and we hope that the people of North Carolina will repudiate the

blunder at the polls.

We realize with sorrow and apprehension that there are elements at the

South enlisted in the work of disfranchising the Negro for purposes

of mere party profit. It has been so in Louisiana, where laws were

enacted under which penniless and illiterate Negroes cannot vote,

while the ignorant and vicious classes of whites are enabled to retain

and exercise the franchise. So far as we are concerned--and we believe

that the best element of the South in every State will sustain our

proposition-we hold that, as between the ignorant of the two races,

the Negroes are preferable. They are conservative; they are good

citizens; they take no stock in social schisms and vagaries; they do

not consort with anarchists; they cannot be made the tools and agents

of incendiaries; they constitute the solid, worthy, estimable yeomanry

of the South. Their influence in government would be infinitely more

wholesome than the influence of the white sansculotte, the riff-raff,

the idlers, the rowdies, and the outlaws. As between the Negro,

no matter how illiterate he may be, and the "poor white," the

property-holders of the South prefer the former. Excepting a few

impudent, half-educated, and pestiferous pretenders, the Negro masses

of the South are honest, well-meaning, industrious, and safe citizens.

They are in sympathy with the superior race; they find protection and

encouragement with the old slave-holding class; if left alone,

they would furnish the bone and sinew of a secure and progressive

civilization. To disfranchise this class and leave the degraded whites

in possession of the ballot would, as we see the matter, be a blunder,

if not a crime.

The question has yet to be submitted to a popular vote. We hope it

will be decided in the negative. Both the Louisiana Senators are on

record as proclaiming the unconstitutionality of the law. Both are

eminent lawyers, and both devoted absolutely to the welfare of the

South. We can only hope, for the sake of a people whom we admire and

love, that this iniquitous legislation may be overruled in North

Carolina as in Louisiana.

CHAPTER IX.

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE PHILIPPINOS.

WHO AGUINALDO IS.

Emilio Aguinaldo was born March 22, 1869, at Cavite, Viejo.

When twenty-five years old he was elected Mayor of Cavite.

On August 21, 1896, Aguinaldo became leader of the insurgents. The

revolution started on that day.

He fought four battles with the Spaniards and was victorious in all.

He lost but ten men, to the Spaniards 125.

On December 24, 1897, a peace was established between Aguinaldo and

the Spanish.

Aguinaldo received $400,000, but the rest of the conditions of peace

were never carried out.

In June last Aguinaldo issued a proclamation, expressing a desire for

the establishment of a native administration in the Philippines under

an American protectorate.

In an interview with a World correspondent at that time he expressed

himself as grateful to Americans.

In July he issued a proclamation fixing the 12th day of that month for

the declaration of the independence of the Philippines.

In November Aguinaldo defied General Otis, refusing to release his

Spanish prisoners.

The Cabinet on December 2 cabled General Otis to demand the release of

the prisoners.

[Illustration: EMILIO AGUINALDO, MILITARY DICTATOR OF THE FILIPINOS.]

AGUINALDO THE MAN.

In his features, face and skull Aguinaldo looks more like a European

than a Malay.

He is what would be called a handsome man, and might be compared with

many young men in the province of Andalusia, Spain. If there be truth

in phrenology he is a man above the common. Friends and enemies

agree that he is intelligent, ambitious, far-sighted, brave,

self-controlled, honest, moral, vindictive, and at times cruel. He

possesses the quality which friends call wisdom and enemies call

craft. According to those who like him he is courteous, polished,

thoughtful and dignified; according to those who dislike him he is

insincere, pretentious, vain and arrogant. Both admit him to be

genial, generous, self-sacrificing, popular and capable in the

administration of affairs. If the opinion of his foes be accepted he

is one of the greatest Malays on the page of history. If the opinion

of his friends be taken as the criterion he is one of the great men of

history irrespective of race.--The Review of Reviews.

FACTS FROM FELIPE AGONCILLO'S LETTER IN LESLIE'S MAGAZINE.

Sixty per cent, of the inhabitants can read and write.

The women in education are on a plane with the men.

Each town of 5,000 inhabitants has two schools for children of both

sexes. The towns of 10,000 inhabitants have three schools. There are

technical training schools in Manila, Iloilo, and Bacoler. "In these

schools are taught cabinet work, silversmithing, lock-smithing,

lithography, carpentering, machinery, decorating, sculpture, political

economy, commercial law, book-keeping, and commercial correspondence,

French and English; and there is one superior college for painting,

sculpture and engraving. There is also a college of commercial exports

in Manila, and a nautical school, as well as a superior school of

agriculture. Ten model farms and a meteorological observatory are

conducted in other provinces, together with a service of geological

studies, a botanical garden and a museum, a laboratory and military

academy and a school of telegraphy."

Manila has a girl's school (La Ascuncion) of elementary and superior

branches, directed by French, English and Spanish mothers, which

teaches French, English literature, arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry,

topography, physics, geology, universal history, geography, designing,

music, dress-making and needle-work. The capital has besides a

municipal school of primary instruction and the following colleges:

Santa Ysabel, Santa Catolina, La Concordia, Santa Rosa de la Looban,

a hospital of San Jose, and an Asylum of St. Vincent de Paul, all

of which are places of instruction for children. There are other

elementary schools in the State of Camannis, in Pasig, in Vigan and

Jaro.

The entire conduct of the civilization of the Philippines as well as

local authorities are in the hands of the Philipinos themselves. They

also had charge of the public offices of the government during the

last century.

There is a medical school and a school for mid-wives.

"All the young people and especially the boys, belonging to well-to-do

families residing in the other islands go to Manila to study the

arts and learn a profession. Among the natives to be ignorant and

uneducated, is a shameful condition of degradation."

"The sons of the rich families began to go to Spain in 1854" to be

educated.

[Illustration: FELIPE AGONCILLO Emissary of the Filipinos to the

United States.]

When the Spaniards first went to the islands "they found the

Philipinos enlightened and advanced in civilization." "They had

foundries for casting iron and brass, for making guns and powder.

They had their special writing with two alphabets, and used paper

imported from China and Japan." This was in the early part of the

sixteenth century. The Spanish government took the part of the natives

against the imposition of exhorbitant taxes, and the tortures of the

inquisition by the early settlers.

The highest civilization exists in the island of Luzon but in some

of the remote islands the people are not more than "enlightened." The

population embraced in Anguinaldo's dominion is 10,000,000, scattered

over a territory in area approaching 200,000 square miles. The

Americans up to this time have conquered only about 143 square miles

of this territory.

What takes place in the South concerning the treatment of Negroes is

known in the Philippines. The Philipino government on the 27th of

February, 1899, issued from Hong Kong the following decree warning the

Philipino people as follows:

"Manila has witnessed the most horrible outrages, the confiscation of

the properties and savings of the people at the point of the bayonet,

the shooting of the defenseless, accompanied by odious acts of

abomination repugnant barbarism and social hatred, worse than the

doings in the Carolinas."

They are told of America's treatment of the black population, and are

made to feel that it is better to die fighting than become subject

to a nation where, as they are made to believe, the colored man is

lynched and burned alive indiscriminately. The outrages in this

country is giving America a bad name among the savage people of the

world, and they seem to prefer savagery to American civilization, such

as is meted out to her dark-skinned people.

CHAPTER X.

RESUME.

Should the question be asked "how did the American Negroes act in the

Spanish-American war?" the foregoing brief account of their conduct

would furnish a satisfactory answer to any fair mind. In testimony of

their valiant conduct we have the evidence first, of competent eye

witnesses; second, of men of the white race; and third, not only white

race, but men of the Southern white race, in America, whose antipathy

to the Negro "with a gun" is well known, it being related of the great

George Washington, who, withal, was a slave owner, but mild in his

views as to the harshness of that system--that on his dying bed he

called out to his good wife: "Martha, Martha, let me charge you, dear,

never to trust a 'nigger' with a gun." Again we have the testimony of

men high in authority, competent to judge, and whose evidence ought to

be received. Such men as General Joseph Wheeler, Colonel Roosevelt,

General Miles, President McKinley. If on the testimony of such

witnesses as these we have not "established our case," there must

be something wrong with the jury. A good case has been established,

however, for the colored soldier, out of the mouth of many witnesses.

The colored troopers just did so well that praise could not be

withheld from them even by those whose education and training had bred

in them prejudice against Negroes. It can no longer be doubted that

the Negro soldier will fight. In fact such has been their record in

past wars that no scruples should have been entertained on this point,

but the (late) war was a fresh test, the result of which should be

enough to convince the most incredulous "Doubting Thomases."

[Illustration: CONVENT AT CAVITË, WHERE AGUINALDO WAS PROCLAIMED

PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINE REPUBLIC (JUNE, 1898).]

The greater portion of the American people have confidence in the

Negro soldier. This confidence is not misplaced--the American

government can, in the South, organize an army of Negro soldiers that

will defy the combined forces of any nation of Europe. The Negro can

fight in any climate, and does not succumb to the hardships of camp

life. He makes a model soldier and is well nigh invincible.

The Negro race has a right to be proud of the achievements of the

colored troopers in the late Spanish-American war. They were the

representatives of the whole race in that conflict; had they failed it

would have been a calamity charged up to the whole race. The race's

enemies would have used it with great effect. They did not fail, but

did their duty nobly--a thousand hurrahs for the colored troopers of

the Spanish-American war!!

In considering their successful achievements, however, it is well to

remember that there were some things the Negro had to forget while

facing Spanish bullets. The Negro soldier in bracing himself for that

conflict must needs forget the cruelties that daily go on against his

brethren under that same flag he faces death to defend; he must forget

that when he returns to his own land he will be met not as a citizen,

but as a serf in that part of it, at least, where the majority of

his people live; he must forget that if he wishes to visit his aged

parents who may perhaps live in some of the Southern States, he must

go in a "Jim Crow" car; and if he wants a meal on the way, he could

only get it in the kitchen, as to insist on having it in the dining

room with other travelers, would subject him to mob violence; he must

forget that the flag he fought to defend in Cuba does not protect him

nor his family at home; he must forget the murder of Frazier B. Baker,

who was shot down in cold blood, together with his infant babe in its

mother's arms, and the mother and another child wounded, at Lake City,

S.C., for no other offense than attempting to perform the duties of

Postmaster at that place--a position given him by President McKinley;

he must forget also the shooting of Loftin, the colored Postmaster at

Hagansville, Ga., who was guilty of no crime, but being a Negro and

holding, at that place, the Postoffice, a position given him by the

government; he must forget the Wilmington MASSACRE in which some forty

or fifty colored people were shot down by men who had organized

to take the government of the city in charge by force of the

Winchester--where two lawyers and a half dozen or more colored men of

business, together with such of their white friends as were thought

necessary to get rid of, were banished from the city by a mob, and

their lives threatened in the event of their return--all because they

were in the way as Republican voters-"talked too much" or did not halt

when so ordered by some members of the mob; they must forget the three

hundred Negroes who were the victims of mob violence in the United

States during the year 1898; they must forget that the government they

fought for in Cuba is powerless to correct these evils, and does not

correct them.

WHY THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT DOES NOT PROTECT ITS COLORED CITIZENS.

Is due to the peculiar and complicated construction of the laws

relating to STATES RIGHTS. The power to punish for crimes against

citizens of the different States is given by construction of the

Constitution of the United States to the courts of the several States.

The Federal authorities have no jurisdiction unless the State has

passed some law abridging the rights of citizens, or the State

government through its authorized agents is unable to protect its

citizens, and has called on the national government for aid to that

end, or some United States official is molested in the discharge of

his duty. Under this subtle construction of the Constitution a citizen

who lives in a State whose public opinion is hostile becomes a victim

of whatever prejudice prevails, and, although the laws may in the

letter, afford ample protection, yet those who are to execute them

rarely do so in the face of a hostile public sentiment; and thus the

Negroes who live in hostile communities become the victims of public

sentiment. Juries may be drawn, and trials may be had, but the juries

are usually white, and are also influenced in their verdicts by that

sentiment which declares that "this is a white man's government," and

a mistrial follows. In many instances the juries are willing to do

justice, but they can feel the pressure from the outside, and in some

instance the jurors chosen to try the cases were members of the mob,

as in the case of the coroner's jury at Lake City.

It is the duty of a State Governor, when he finds public sentiment

dominating the courts and obstructing justice, to interfere, and in

case he cannot succeed with the sheriff and posse comitatus, then to

invoke National aid. But this step has never yet been taken by any

Governor of the States in the interest of Negro citizenship. Some of

the State Governors have made some demonstration by way of threats of

enforcing the law against those who organize mobs and take the law

into their own hands; and some of the mob murderers have been brought

to trial, which in most cases, has resulted in an acquittal for

the reason that juries have as aforestated, chosen to obey public

sentiment, which is not in favor of punishing white men for lynching

Negroes, rather than obey the law; and cases against the election laws

and for molesting United States officials have to be tried in the

district where these offences occur, and the juries being in sympathy

with the criminals, usually acquit, or there is a mistrial because

they cannot all agree.

THAT MOBOCRACY IS SUPREME in many parts of the Union is no longer

a mooted question. It is a fact; and one that forebodes serious

consequences, not only to the Negro but to any class of citizens who

may happen to come into disfavor with some other class.

[Illustration: CHURCH OF SAN SEBASTIANO, MANILLA.]

WHAT THE NEGRO SHOULD do under such circumstances must be left to the

discretion of the individuals concerned. Some advise emigration, but

that is impracticable, en masse, unless some suitable place could be

found where any considerable number might go, and not fare worse.

The colored people will eventually leave those places where they are

maltreated, but "whether it is better to suffer the ills we now bear

than flee to those we know not of," is the question. The prevailing

sentiment among the masses seems to be to remain for the present,

where they are, and through wise action, and appeals to the Court of

Enlightened Christian Sentiment, try to disarm the mob. There is no

doubt a class of white citizens who regret such occurrences, and from

their natural horror of bloodshed, and looking to the welfare and

reputation of the communities in which such outrages occur, and

feeling that withal the Negro makes a good domestic and farm hand,

will, and do counsel against mob violence. In many places where mobs

have occurred such white citizens have been invaluable aids in saving

the lives of Negroes from mob violence; and trusting that these

friends will increase and keep up their good work the Negro has seldom

ever left the scene of mob violence in any considerable numbers, the

home ties being strong, and he instinctively loves the scene of his

birth. He loves the white men who were boys with him, whose faces

he has smiled in from infancy, and he would rather not sever those

friendly ties. A touching incident is related in reference to a

colored man in a certain town where a mob was murdering Negroes right

and left, who came to the door of his place of business, and seeing

the face of a young white man whom he had known from his youth, asked

protection home to his wife and five children; the reply came with an

oath, "Get back into that house or I will put a bullet into you." The

day before this these two men had been "good friends," had "exchanged

cigars"-but the orders of the mob were stronger in this instance than

the ties of long years of close friendship. Another instance, though,

will show how the mob could not control the ties of friendship of

the white for the black. It was the case of a colored man who was

blacklisted by a mob in a certain city, and fled to the home of a

neighboring white friend who kept him in his own house for several

days until escape was possible, and in the meantime, summoned his

white neighbors to guard the black man's family-threatening to shoot

down the first member of the mob who should enter the gate, because,

as he said, "you have no right to frighten that woman and her children

to death." Such acts as this assures to the Negroes in places where

feeling runs against them that perhaps they may be fortunate enough to

escape the violence of this terrible race hatred that is now running

riot in this country. In this connection it is well to remark that

kindness will win in the long run with the Negro Race, and make them

the white man's friend. Georgia and those States where Negroes are

being burned are sowing to the wind and will ere long reap the

whirlwind in the matter of race hatred. Criminal assaults were not

characteristic of the Negro in the days of slavery, because as a rule

there was friendship between master and slave-the slave was too fond

of his master's family but to do otherwise than protect it; but the

situation is changed-instead of kindness the Negro sees nothing but

rebuff on every hand; he feels himself a hated and despised race

without country or protection anywhere, and the brute-spirit rises in

those, who, by their make-up and training, cannot keep it down-then

follows murder, outrage, rape. It is true that only a few do these

things, but those few are the natural products of the Southern

system of oppression and the wonder is, when the question is viewed

philosophically, that there are so few. The conclusion here reached is

that Georgia will not get rid of her brutes by burning them and taking

the charred embers home as relics, but rather by treating her Negro

population with more kindness and showing them that there is some hope

for Negro citizenship in that State. The Negroes know that white men

have been known to rape colored girls, but that never has there been a

suggestion of lynching or burning for that, and they feel despondent,

for they know the courts are useless in such cases, and this

jug-handle enforcement of lynch law is breeding its own bad fruits on

the Negro race as well as making more brutal the whites. My advice,

then, to our white friends is to try kindness as a remedy for rape in

the South, and I am convinced of the force of this remedy from what I

know of the occurrence of assaults and murders in those States where

the Negroes are made to feel that they are citizens and are at home.

WHAT COURAGE! WHAT AN EXAMPLE OF FAITHFULNESS TO DUTY

Did the colored troopers exhibit in forgetting all these shortcomings

to themselves and race of their own government when they made those

daring charges on San Juan and El Caney!! They were possessed

with large hearts and sublime courage. How they fought under such

circumstances, none but a divine tongue can answer. It was a miracle,

and was performed, no doubt, that good might come to the race in the

shape of the testimonials given them as appears heretofore in this

book. Their deeds must live in history as an honor to the Negro Race.

Let them be taught to the children. Let it be said that the Negro

soldier did his duty under the flag, whether that flag protects him or

not. The white soldier fought under no such sad reflections--he did

not, after a hard-fought battle, lie in the trenches at night and

dream of his aged mother and father being run out of their little home

into the wintry blasts by a mob who sought to "string them up" for

circulating literature relating to the party of Wm. McKinley--the

President of the United States--this was the colored soldiers' dream,

but he swore to protect the flag and he did it. The colored soldier

has been faithful to his trust; let others be the same. If Negroes who

have other trusts to perform, do their duty as well as the colored

soldiers, there will be many revisions in the scale of public

sentiment regarding the Negro Race in America--many arguments will

be overthrown and the heyday towards Negro citizenship will begin to

dawn--there are other battles than those of the militia.

THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM IS MAINLY IN THE RACE'S OWN HANDS

They must climb up themselves with such assistance as they can get.

The race has done well in thirty years of freedom, but it could have

done better; banking on the progress already made the next thirty

years will no doubt show greater improvement than the past--TIME,

TIME, TIME, which some people seem to take so little into account,

will be the great adjuster of all such problems in the future as

it has been in the past. Many children of the white fathers of the

present day will read the writing of their parents and wonder at their

short-sightedness in attempting to fix the metes and bounds of the

American Negro's status. We feel reluctant to prophesy, but this much

we do say, that fifty years from now will show a great change in the

Negro's condition in America, and many of those who now predict his

calamity will be classed with the fools who said before the Negro was

emancipated that they would all perish within ten years for lack of

ability to feed and clothe themselves. The complaint now with many of

those who oppose the Negro is not because he lacks ability, but rather

because he uses too much and sometimes gets the situation that they

want. This is pre-eminently so from a political standpoint and the

reported arguments used to stir the poorer class of whites to rally

against the Negroes in Wilmington during the campaign just before the

late MASSACRE there in the fall of 1898, was a recital by impassioned

orators of the fact that Negroes had pianos and servants in their

houses, and lace curtains to their windows-this outburst being

followed by the question, "HOW MANY OF YOU WHITE MEN CAN AFFORD TO

HAVE THEM?" So as to the problem of the Negro's imbibing the traits of

civilization, that point is settled by what he has already done, and

the untold obstacles which are being constantly put in his way by

those who fear his competition. The question then turns not so much on

what shall be done with the Negro as upon WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH THE

WHITE

Men who are so filled with prejudice that neither law nor religion

restrains their bloody hands when the Negro refuses to get into what

he calls "his place," which place is that of a menial; and often there

seems no effort even to put the Negro in any particular place save the

grave, as many of the lynchings and murders appear to be done either

for the fun of shooting someone, or else with extermination in view.

There is no attempt at a show of reason or right. The mob spirit is

growing--prejudice is more intense. Formerly it was confined to the

rabble, now it has taken hold of those of education, and standing. Red

shirts have entered the pulpits, and it is a matter boasted of rather

than condemned--the South is not the only scene of such outrages.

Prejudice is not confined to one section, but is no doubt more intense

in the Southern State, and more far-reaching in its effects, because

it is there that the Negroes, by reason of the large numbers in

proportion to the other inhabitants, come into political competition

with the whites who revolt at the idea of Negro officers, whether they

are elected by a majority of citizens or not. The whites seem bent

on revolution to prevent the force and effect of Negro majorities.

Whether public sentiment will continue to endorse these local

revolutions is the question that can be answered only by time. Just so

long as the Negro's citizenship is written in the Constitution and he

believes himself entitled to it, just so long will he seek to exercise

it. The white man's revolution will be needed every now and then to

beat back the Negro's aspirations with the Winchester. The Negro race

loves progress, it is fond of seeing itself elevated, it loves office

for the honor it brings and the emoluments thereof, just as other

progressive races do. It is not effete, looking back to Confucius; it

is looking forward; it does not think its best days have been in the

past, but that they are yet to come in the future; it is a hopeful

race, teachable race; a race that absorbs readily the arts and

accomplishments of civilization; a race that has made progress in

spite of mountains of obstacles; a race whose temperament defied the

worst evils of slavery, both African and American; a race of great

vitality, a race of the future, a race of destiny.

In closing this resume of this little work it is proper that I should

warn the younger members of the race against despondency, and against

the looseness of character and habits that is singularly consequential

of a despondent spirit. Do not be discouraged, give up, and throw away

brilliant intellects, because of seeming obstacles, but rather resolve

to BE SOMETHING AND DO SOMETHING IN SPITE OF OBSTACLES.

"It was not by tossing feather balls into the air that the great

Hercules gained his strength, but by hurling huge bowlders from

mountain tops 'that his name became the synonymn of manly strength.'

So the harder the struggle the greater the discipline and fitness.

If we cannot reach success in one way, let us try another. 'If the

mountain will not come to Mahomet let Mahomet go to the mountain.'"

[Illustration: UNCLE SAM AND HIS NEW ACQUISITIONS.--(N.Y. WORLD.)]

THE SOUTH IS A GOOD PLACE FOR THE NEGRO TO LIVE, provided, however,

the better class of citizens will rise up and demand that lynchings

and mobs shall cease, and that the officers of the law shall do their

duty without prejudice. The only way to suppress mob violence is to

make punishment for the leaders in it, sure and certain. The reason

we have mobs is because the leaders of them know they will not be

punished. The enforcement of the law against lynchers will break it

up.

The white ministers should take up the cause of justice rather than

endorse the red shirts, or carry a Winchester themselves. They should

be the counselors of peace and not the advocates of bloodshed. Most

of them, no doubt, do regret the terrible deeds committed by mobs on

helpless and innocent people, but it is a question as to whether or

not they would be suffered by public sentiment to "cry aloud" against

them. It takes moral courage to face any evil, but it must be faced or

dire consequences will follow of its own breeding. Our last word then,

is an appeal to our BROTHERS IN WHITE, in the pulpit, that they should

rally the people together for justice and; condemn mob violence. The

Negroes do not ask social equality, but civil equality; let the false

notions that confound civil rights with social rights be dispelled,

and advocate the civil equality of all men, and the problem will be

solved.

Edmund Burke says that "war never leaves where it found a nation."

applying this to the American nation with respect to the Negro it is

to be hoped that the late war will leave a better feeling toward him,

especially in view of the glorious record of the Negro soldiers who

participated in that conflict.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

William McKinley.......................................Frontispiece

General Fitzhugh Lee............................................. 6

General Antonio Maceo............................................ 8

Miss Evangelina Cosio y Cisneros ............................... 10

U.S.S. Maine.................................................... 12

Eddie Savoy..................................................... 14

Jose Maceo...................................................... 16

Sergeant Frank W. Pullen........................................ 20

Charge on El Caney.............................................. 26

Corporal Brown ................................................. 28

George E. Powell................................................ 35

Col. Theodore B. Roosevelt...................................... 39

Gen. Nelson A. Miles.......... ................................. 47

Sergeant Berry.................................................. 48

General Thomas J. Morgan........................................ 50

General Maximo Gomez............................................ 54

First Pay-day in Cuba for the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry........... 58

First President of the Cuban Republic........................... 64

Cubans Fighting from Tree Tops.................................. 70

Investment of Santiago by U.S. Army............................. 78

General Russell A. Alger, Secretary of War...................... 82

Cuban Women Cavalry............................................. 84

Officers of the Ninth Ohio...................................... 92

Major John R. Lynch............................................. 96

Major R.R. Wright.............................................. 100

Major J.B. Johnson............................................. 106

Third North Carolina Volunteers and Officers................... 108

President Charles F. Meserve................................... 110

Mr. Judson W. Lyons............................................ 113

The Games Family............................................... 115

Coleman Cotton Factory......................................... 116

John R. Brown, Uncle Sam's Money Sealer........................ 118

Gen. Pio Pilar................................................. 120

Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Negro Poet............................... 122

A Philipino Lady............................................... 124

Emilio Aguinaldo, Military Dictator of the Filipinos........... 128

Felipe Agoncillo............................................... 130

Convent at Cavite, Aguinaldo's Headquarters.................... 132

Church at San Sebastiano, Manila............................... 136

Uncle Sam and His New Acquisitions............................. 142

APPENDIX.

THE TWENTY-FOURTH UNITED STATES INFANTRY.

BY SERGEANT E.D. GIBSON.

The Twenty-fourth United States Infantry was organized by act of

Congress July 28, 1866. Reorganized by consolidation of the 38th and

41st regiments of infantry, by act of Congress, approved March 3,

1869. Organization of regiment completed in September, 1869, with

headquarters at Fort McKavett, Texas.

Since taking station at Fort McKavett, headquarters of the regiment

have been at the following places:

1870-71, Fort McKavett, Tex.; 1872, Forts McKavett and Brown, Texas;

1873-74, Forts Brown and Duncan, Tex.; 1875-76, Fort Brown, Tex.;

1877-78, Fort Clark, Tex.; 1879, Fort Duncan, Tex.; 1880, Forts Duncan

and Davis, Tex.; 1881-87, Fort Supply, Ind. Terr.; 1888, Forts Supply

and Sill, Ind. Terr., and Bayard, N.M.; 1889 to 1896, Forts Bayard,

N.M., and Douglas, Utah; 1897, Fort Douglas, Utah; 1898, Fort Douglas,

Utah, till April 20, when ordered into the field, incident to the

breaking out of the Spanish-American war. At Chickamauga Park, Ga.,

April 24 to 30; Tampa, Fla., May 2 to June 7; on board transport _S.S.

City of Washington_, en route with expedition (Fifth Army Corps) to

Cuba, from June 9 to 25; at Siboney and Las Guasimas, Cuba, from June

25 to 30; occupied the immediate block-house hill at Fort San Juan,

Cuba, July 1 to 10, from which position the regiment changed to a

place on the San Juan ridge about one-fourth of a mile to the left of

the block-house, where it remained until July 15, when it took station

at yellow fever camp, Siboney, Cuba, remaining until August 26, 1898;

returned to the United States August 26, arriving at Montauk Pt.,

L.I., September 2, 1898, where it remained until September 26, when

ordered to its original station, Fort Douglas, Utah, rejoining October

1, 1898.

FIELD AND STAFF OFFICERS.

Colonel.--Henry B. Freeman, under orders to join.

Lieutenant-Colonel.--Emerson H. Liscum, Brig.-Gen. Vols. On sick leave

from wounds received in action at Fort San Juan, Cuba, July 1, 1898.

Majors.--J. Milton Thompson, commanding regiment and post of Fort

Douglas, Utah. Alfred C. Markley, with regiment, commanding post of

Fort D.A. Russell, Wyoming.

Chaplain.--Allen Allenworth, Post Treasurer and in charge of schools.

Adjutant.--Joseph D. Leitch, recruiting officer at post.

Quartermaster.--Albert Laws.

On July 1, 1898, our regiment was not a part of the firing line, and

was not ordered on that line until the fire got so hot that the

white troops positively refused to go forward. When our commander,

Lieutenant-Colonel E.H. Liscum, was ordered to go in he gave the

command "forward, march," and we moved forward singing "Hold the Fort,

for we are coming," and on the eastern bank of the San Juan river

we walked over the Seventy-first New York Volunteer Infantry. After

wading the river we marched through the ranks of the Thirteenth

(regular) Infantry and formed about fifty yards in their front. We

were then about six hundred yards from and in plain view of the

block-house and Spanish trenches. As soon as the Spaniards saw this

they concentrated all of their fire on us, and, while changing from

column to line of battle (which took about eight minutes).

Illustration: A large size photo of above picture can be had on

application to P.H. Bauer, Photographer, Leavenworth, Kansas. we lost

one hundred and two men, and that place on the river to-day is called

"bloody bend." We had only one advantage of the enemy-that was our

superior marksmanship. I was right of the battalion that led the

charge and I directed my line against the center of the trench, which

was on a precipice about two hundred feet high.

Illustration: A large size photo of above picture can be had on

application to P.H. Bauer, Photographer, Leavenworth, Kansas.

I was born December 4, 1852, in Wythe county, Virginia, and joined the

army in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 22,1869, and have been in the army

continuously since. I served my first ten years in the Tenth Cavalry,

where I experienced many hard fights with the Indians. I was assigned

to the Twenty-fourth Infantry by request in 1880.

E.D. GIBSON,

_Sergeant Co. G, 24th U.S. Infantry_,

PRESIDIO, CALIFORNIA.