Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/154

134 making a dash for a nearby lumber yard, escaped amidst the high piles of timber before any one had realized what had happened. With the father I hunted for that negro until long after dark, both of us being armed with revolvers. The father undoubtedly would have shot him on sight, as he frequently so expressed himself, while, for my part, I should simply have halted him and allowed the people to take him. The would-be raper was never discovered in this case. Fortunately, he did not have the necessary time to mutilate the child — a most lovely little girl and a great favorite — by which I mean he did not have the time to increase the size of her genital fissure by an ugly upward rip of his knife, a common practice among ne- groes when they assault little white girls. Such is the class of cases which for years past have terrified Southern mothers, which have filled fathers, husbands and brothers with apprehension throughout the great black belt in the South, and, owing to the peculiar nature of the knowledge, they cannot well communicate to their little growing daughters or even those of maturer years, without putting ideas in their minds, which in many instances would be harmful. In other words, there is an ever-present danger for them, against which a warning becomes extremely necessary but highly undesirable upon many accounts. It is this state of afifairs, which is so little appreciated by the people in the northern part of the United States, but which has induced so many of the finest women in the South, and those occupying the best positions in society, both as regards social requirements as well as by gentle birth, to represent this sad condition of affairs in the pages of our most widely-known serial magazines.