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Show UNCLE BILLY'S OBJECTIONS TO CIViL RIGHTS. I "intervitved" Undo Billy, a good old colored friend of mine, the other day, on Iho question of civil ri hu. ''Don't want utilliu mo'," said ,Unc:e Biily. ".i-: too much already tur dis uiii'.-ah." "How is that Uncle Billy? Is it not a good liiing to bo Cijiiitl belore the law ?" " Xow, Marao Bs," prnuted Billy, plaintively, "d:ir's iist war the. misery comes in. We're ekal befo' do law, and dar yon hit our weak ipiat. Be!u' do waw, cf i.i.'liah stolo ;uiicken an' pi;-', yfr jenad himip, ' j,mv liim liiirty-iuLio la. ic, an' let mm go. But j'ist let a cuHud pusson try it now ! Yer hauls iihu 'lore court, and sen's mm to do neniLcn-tiarv, neniLcn-tiarv, list like ho was one otycrpoor white trash. Dat's what Lis to be !ckal '1'cre de hw !" I suc.sested to Uncle Bdly that 'this might be obviated by being a little more honest. "Marse Buss," interrupted Billy, l"we can't run agiu nutur'. lis nat'ral iur nsjah to sttal pig and I chicken, t'ryin' sua. Yer kuotw- it is, 'an' 'taint no use try in' to stop us. Sow wo uns are willin' to let you mns alone, and you all ji.;t let us .alone un dis pint. We're powerful weak on dis pint, Marsj Bss." ! Just hero a perverse and disloyal : spirit tempted me to hint to Uncle 'billy thai tho colored people were ' iindebled to their rcpuolican friends ! lur this ciiansc in tneir status, j "Well, den, Marse Bos," Baid ho, ("all Jao ;ottOK.y is, do law's got tc be changed. Mils' bub a law lor dt -'white man and a law 1'or de black 1 j man." . ritrane as it may seem, some o 1 our beoi citizens echo Uncle Billy'i the negro's minor transgressions in a lenient light, and I know that some of our Democratic judges impose lighter penalties upon colored men for small otlbncea than they would do in cases where the guilty parti& were white. I Beforo Uncle Billy left I asked him how he would h!:u to pit down at the i table with white folks in tiie hotels. I "Great Goddlemighty!" exclaimed! I the gOud old mau"I adow youse tryin' llomako fun o' dis chile. ' Why, you jimows yourself dat no cullud pussen 'ebber lets a white man see 'cm eat ef :dey can holp it." This is htrictly true. The ordinary 'soiubern iK'gro will not eat in the 1 presence of a white spectator. "Well, Undo Billy, I said, "it is very evident that you don't want any civil rights." "Not anything mo', I tank you," replied Billy. "Ji early done ruined naw. Hev to pay my own doctor's bills; lost all my money in de Freed-men's Freed-men's bank; nebber got no forty acres an' de mule dey promised me; an' can't help myselt to a little chicken, fry in' sizo, widout gwine to de penitentiary. I'se got 'nufi cibbal rights 1 The above. is' no production of the fancy. It is a true incident, honestly told, and it is impossible to talk to the country negujes without hearing just such things ns I have related. N. Y, indtptndent. |