170 Eugene Rollin Corson 



and the stronger and richer on the other. It is the difference 

 between poverty, hunger and dirt, and ease and comfort and 

 luxury, and a difference greater still, a difference in the sick 

 list and in the death rate ; for with poverty and close quarters, 

 with dirt and exposure and crime, come sickness and death. 

 The situation of the colored race is a peculiar one. After 

 being carried off from their home to a distant land and held 

 in bondage for years, they are suddenly set free and thrown 

 upon their own resources. That they have even in a measure 

 stemmed the tide is indeed to be wondered at. During 

 slavery it must be conceded, I think, that so far as the merely 

 physical man was concerned they were better off. Such bondage 

 would be well physically for a large portion of the white race. 

 They were out of the struggle for existence with their super- 

 iors ; they were cared for like so many valuable animals ; it was 

 to the interests of their owners that they should be ; though 

 worked hard, they led regular lives ; the dis.sipations and ex- 

 cesses which enter into the life of a free people they were with- 

 held from ; when sick the}^ had the best medical attention ob- 

 tainable ; and all the information which I have been enabled to 

 obtain has satisfied me that the race was a healthy one, even 

 healthier in the main than the white. 



But since the war and emancipation things have been re- 

 versed. Suddenly thrown upon their own resources their 

 struggle began in the midst of things; freedom gave loose reins 

 to the animal ; the doors were opened wide to the vices and ex- 

 cesses of a material civilization ; their life became an irregular 

 one ; these vices and excesses which like parasites have grown 

 with the growth of our civilization, became apart of their life, 

 and these parasites in their new soil liaveshot down their roots 

 deeper and have obtained a firmer foothold. This has been' 

 the hi.story of the introduction of civilized vices into all un- 

 civilized communities ; whi.skey, good or bad, certainly dis- 

 agreed with the poor American Indian, and to-day in India it 

 is playing sad havoc with the multitude. The explanation is 

 that, however small self-control over the appetites exists in the 

 Caucasian it is practicall}^ wanting in the savage who drains 

 his cup to the dregs. It is bad enough for the white man but 

 it is worse for his inferior. 



