Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/32

 24 Southern Historical Society Papers,

corresponding blessings for the descendants of the Revolutionary- heroes or to the Caucasian race which inhabits the late slave States. In three, at least, of these States, the negroes outnumber the whites, and consequently they out-vote the whites in these States. If the ballot is free and the count is fair, and if blood is thicker than water, then the negroes will out-vote the whites and fill all places of honor and profit in the State, and will put the whites in subjection. The whites own nearly all the property and possess nearly all the intelligence. Race prejudice, however, is superior to the influences of both property and intelligence. Under this unrestrained domina- tion of the colored race the property of the white man would pass away from him to the dominant class.

THREE OF A PESKY KIND.

During the brief period in which the negro race was dominant in politics, the issue of bonds in certain States became so oppressive that the land owners were fast becoming mere tenants of the State, and the tax-gatherer was his landlord. A little attention to statistics will show the wonderful fecundity of the negro race, and it will give us a timely warning of the dangers of the Ethiopian fetich.

Some twenty-five years ago an enterprising citizen of Memphis brought from Central Park, New York, a pair of English sparrows. The city is now filled with millions of the pesky little creatures, and they have driven out all the other birds. The birds of gay plumage and fine song are seen no more. Even the cuckoo returns not, and the mocking-bird is no longer heard in the trees that surround our dwellings and line our avenues.

Some twenty- five years ago an enterprising Englishman trans- ported a pair of rabbits to Australia. Rabbits have become so numerous there that they devour the crops that are planted as soon as they begin to grow. They devour the grass even so that the sheep have nothing to subsist on. All the wisdom of the English people have been set at naught in the efforts to rid AustraHa of its rabbits. They imported the stoat and the weasel — carnivorous ani- mals — which were known to feed on rabbits in other countries. But in Australia these little carpet-baggers have affiliated with the rabbits and live on terms of friendship with them, and for purposes of sub- sistence they have turned their attention industriously to Australian hen-roosts.

The negro in America is acquiring a distinction similar to the rab- bit in Australia. No snakes have lived in Ireland since St. Patrick's