IVayside Musings 



BISHOP TURNER, in an address at the last 

 evening meeting of the conference, de- 

 nounced the Southern newspapers in un- 

 measured terms. It had frequently been mentioned 

 before that the Northern and general public ob- 

 tained their views from the Southern press. As 

 the political press of the section wishes to justify 

 the disfranchisement of the negro, which is now 

 complete in most of the Southern states, it can 

 only do so by attacking their characters, indi- 

 vidually and as a race. I was not aware that there 

 was complaint on this score, but when attention is 

 called to it, it is immediately seen that there is 

 sufiEicient motive. Bishop Turner said to me, in 

 reply to an expostulation, "If you want to know the 

 truth, black your face, and pass yourself off for a 

 negro. All doubts in your mind will be fully cleared 

 up." By chance I obtained a view of that which 

 so embittered the bishop. I met a Methodist 

 minister of the southern branch, and fell into con- 

 versation. He and a chance acquaintance, a North- 

 ern man, began to talk of the "negro problem." I 

 interposed to say that by the very fact that the 

 white men had disfranchised the negroes, they were 

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