USA > Arkansas > Pulaski County > Little Rock > Blue book of Little Rock and Argenta, Arkansas > Part 8
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SOLUTION OF THIE RACE PROBLEM.
(By J. M. Cox, A. M., D. D., President Philander Smith College.)
First, deal with the Negro as a man and not as a race. This will make him a unit in our eivil and social fabrie, bearing a unique relation to the whole, and yet having his own peeuliar duties to perform and responsibilities to shoul- der. To put all Negroes into one elass, hem them in by the same conditions and seek a remedy suited alike to each and every one of more than ten million is as unwise as it would be to place the many varieties of plants in a common soil, use the same method of culture, then expeet each to come to its best in development.
Second, let the Negro and white man adjust their lives in harmony with Bible principles, and make the Golden Rule the basis of their treatment the one of the other, then all frietion will cease and man everywhere will be a sovereign in his own sphere, working out his own destiny, with his fellowman as helper and brother.
151
BLUE BOOK.
IIYGIENE.
(By J. G. Thornton, M. D.)
-
Ilygiene is that branch of medical science which treats of the preservation of health and prevention of disease. It is divided into public and private. Publie as to districts, and private as to individuals.
'The public relates to State, county, township, city, town and village, also community. The State refers to quarantine system and State quarantine is to keep out con- tagious diseases, such as yellow fever, which can only be done by a well regulated system, to prevent the spread of the dis- ease. The county quarantine is to prevent the spread of smallpox or other contagious diseases. So are the other quar- antines of a small magnitude. They have for their object to prevent the spread of contagious and infectious diseases.
The object is to not endanger the public health of the citizens by allowing a promiscuous intermingling while these contagious and infectious diseases are in progress. The nation has many things to confront it which would be con- sidered quite a problem if these remedies were not put into execution. We are kept from so many contagious and infec- tious diseases by this well planned and regulated system of quarantine. The system has given great satisfaction by keeping out the disease and allowing commerce and persons to pass who have not been in the infected districts. The safety of a great nation depends upon their protection from contagious and infectious diseases as well as protection from misrules of government.
Individuals are affected by their immediate contact with unsanitary conditions :
First. The site of a home should be porous and free from decomposing animals or vegetable remains or excreta of animals.
It should be freely permeable to air, and water should never approach nearer than three meters to the surface. High ground is preferable to low, marshy places. The high clay site is quite favorable for health.
152
IIYGIENE.
Slate is by no means a place to be overlooked, as good sanitary conditions ean be had without much effort. Lime- stone and chalk sites are usually healthful. Gravel is always healthy, except when it is below the general surface and water rises through it. Any site should have sufficient slope to drain off the water. If water stands on a site, it is unsanitary and dwellings should not be constrneted upon it.
Building .- The home should be constructed so that air can freely pass under it. The rooms must not be less than ten feet by twelve feet, with high ceiling. Every person is supposed to build the house in which he lives as roomy as possible. The larger the rooms are, the better conditions will be from a sanitary point; also, health can be preserved. The larger the rooms, the better the sanitary conditions are about the home. On the internal walls green paper or paints should never be used. Bright green pigments and dyes are largely composed of some compound of arsenic which becomes detached from the walls or paper when dried. Pro- vision should be made in all dwellings for an abundance of sunlight. Also for a rapid carrying of all excrementatious substances from the house by sewers.
Water .- All water, from whatever source obtained, comes originally by precipitation from the atmosphere. Rain or snow water is usually collected when it falls upon roofs of dwellings, and conveyed by gutters or pipes into cisterns for use. We have objections to underground cisterns. Tliey often become contaminated through their walls. The theory that running water is capable of self-purification cannot be relied upon. The water from fresh water lakes and ponds is preferred to river water for domestic purposes. Spring . water is usually wholesome, but to well water there is serious objections, on account of animal and vegetable decomposi- tion.
Drinking Water .- The water should be colorless, trans- parent, sufficiently aerated, of uniform temperature through- out the year, no odor or taste.
Food Classification .- There are two general elassifiea. tions of food-organic and inorganic. Organic has two sub- divisions, namely, nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous. Nitro- genous has two classes, namely, albumin and albuminoids.
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BLUE BOOK.
Non-nitrogenous has two classes, namely, carbohydrates, fats and oils.
The amount of different kinds of food required daily are albuminoids or proteids, 3.5 ounces; fats, 3.1 ounces; starch 10.7 ounces; salts, 1 ounce; water, 3 pints.
Errors in diet are: First, cating too much; second, cating too fast; third, too frequently ; fourth, when fatigued.
The milk of tuberenlar cows or women should not be used.
Meats may be unfit for use from various causes. First, animals dying from splenie fever, pleural pneumonia and tuberculosis should not be used. Meats should be boiled, broiled or roasted, and never fried in grease. The most im- portant conditions to be borne in mind are certain parasites, trichina and spirilla, which frequently infest the flesh of ani- mals, especially hogs, and frequently give rise to fatal and serious diseases.
Ventilation .- The rooms of homes should be well pre- pared for ventilation by having two or more windows, so that the air of the room can be easily changed. We lower the window from the top and raise the window from the bottom, so the foul air may pass out of the top part of the window and fresh air may pass into the room. The venti- ·lation should be so well done as to not have any unpleasant odor in the room from stagnated air. The same rule applies to all inhabited places or places of gathering.
134
BLUE BOOK.
SOCIAL FORMS
Alors. Charles P. Singleton At Home on Thursday, September sixteenth 105 West Thirty-third street . from tico until four o'clock
J56
1
CARDS.
CARDS
Mrs. Perry Richardson Cooper
Sos Olive Street
Miss Portia Washington
157
BLUE BOOK.
NUMBER OF MARRIAGES OF BOTH RACES COMPARED.
Four hundred and seventy-three modtage certificates were issued to whites and 270 to blacks in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, from January 1 till JJune 30, 1907. Little Rock, Arkansas, has a population of 75,000, about 25 per cent of whom are colored; but, for convenience, I shall take 50,000 as representing the Anglo-Saxon, and 18,000 the Afro-American. Consequently, estimating thereupon, the brother in white married at the rate of nine-tenths per cent, or one marriage to every 106 souls, semiannually, while the brother in black made a matrimonial speed of one and one- half per cent, or one marriage to every sixty-seven individ- uals, semiannually. Therefore, giving the Negro, as to number of weddings, six-tenths per cent, or 108 in the advance for the above mentioned time and place.
GREAT ACTIVITY IN BUYING HOMES.
I am informed by large and responsible real estate dealers of both races that the great activity, so generally manifested by Afro-Americans in buying homes, is not spasmodic, but steady and firm; further, that the pride of owning their homes is rapidly growing, and daily the man of color is becoming less improvident. The self-respecting Negro claiming citizenship in Little Rock or Argenta, and who does not own a home in either city is considered slothful or improvident, or both ; furthermore, occasionally the Negro who owns a home gives him the white of his eye askance. "These homes," says the real estate man, "are not simply being bargained for, but are paid, or being paid, for." Not only are they purchasing city property, but suburban as well, and in many cases the latter by the block; and entire town sites right under the shadow of the city. Not stopping here, but many of the more thrifty and aesthetic have beau- tified their dwellings with paint, thus making them more lasting and their premises more attractive and inviting by decorating them with shrubbery and rosaries.
Rumor says "a Negro can buy anything in Little Rock that anybody else can bny, except an automobile." How- 158
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ACTIVITY IN BUYING HOMES.
ever, I am told by the manager of the automobile establish- ment that a Negro may purchase and even drive his auto through the public thoroughfares of the city without moles- tation, if he ha i price of the machine.
BIRTHIS AND MORTALITY VIEWED RELATIVELY.
Two hundred and eighty-two deaths occurred among the white peop in Little Rock and vicinity from January 1, 1907, to June 30, 1907, averaging forty-seven per month, or approximately six-tenths per cent of the white popnla- tion (say 50,000 for convenience). Among the black people at the same place and a like period, 199 deaths were recorded, with a monthly average of thirty-three, or about one per cent of the black population (say 18,000 for convenience), thus showing a doleful death rate of four-tenths per cent greater among the blacks than the whites.
Beginning as before with the first month of the year and ending with the sixth month, the whites are accredited with 309 births, averaging fifty-two per month, or six-tenths per cent of their population, while 122, or an average of twenty per month, or seven-tenths per cent of the Negro population, for the given locality and time; therefore making the birth rate of the blacks one-tenth per cent greater than that of the whites.
During the six months previously aMinded to, there were reported of the Caneasian 309 births and 282 deaths, a difference of twenty-seven more births than deaths. The same six months 122 Negro births gladdened many homes, while 199 deaths saddened many more. Now, subtracting, you see, 122 births from the 199 deaths, leaves seventy-seven more deaths than births. Adding the whites' inercase of twenty-seven by births to the blacks' decrease of seventy- seven by deaths, puts the white population 104 further in advance of the colored people, numerically, than they were January last.
However, coneinding from the statistics addneed as to the percentage of marriages and births, relative to those of the controlling race; the Negro has good reasons for con- gratulating himself; but, on the other hand, his very, very
159
BLUE Book.
high death rate carries with it a degree of apprehension, if not alarm.
Dr. Anderson Watkins, white, city physician, says in the Mayor's Message and Reports of City Officers of Little Rock for 1906: "It is to be noted that the most prolific single cause of death in the city was tuberculosis. Thix is an infectious disease which would be entirely preventable if patients and relatives were educated to the means. The principal source of this disease is dried sputum from tuber- culous patients. A not inconsiderable source is in old infected houses and rooms where sneh patients have died and in which no disinfection of bedding or rooms has over been attempted. New tenants moving into such places are exposed to the disease, and many contraet it."
See article on "Hygiene" in Appendix, by J. C. Thorn- ton, M. D.
The Negroes in Little Rock are worth in the aggregate about $2,500.000.00, which makes an average worth to every man, woman and child, of $139.00.
The Afro-Americans of the State are estimated at, in personal property and real estate, $30,000,000.00, thus aver- aging $82.00 per capita to caeh colored citizen of Arkansas.
Twenty-seven Negro letter carriers are in the Little Rock post office.
The Twin Cities have six lawyers and cleven doctors, colored, more than a half score of societies of different names and orders, saying nothing about the eighteen Mission- ary Baptist Churches, six Episcopal, one Presbyterian, and over a dozen variations of the Wesleyan Methodist Episco- pal Church.
Six newspapers, one bank, eight authors, four colleges, five public schools with over thirty-odd teachers.
Over four hundred Negroes own horses and buggies or vehicles and teams of some sort or other.
I am credibly informed that there are Negroes in Little Rock who collect off their own property several hundred dollars a month for rent only, and a goodly number collect monthly rents in sums just a little below that amount.
160
Index
CHAPTER I- Page
Ellen Williams. 17
Elizabeth Bryant 17
J. HI. Tuper. IS
CHAPTER H-
Arkansas Baptist College. 21
John Arthur Hibbler. 2,5
Joseph A. Booker
Philander Smith College 20
L. W. Putrell 23
Robert B. Hayes. 35
T. R. Ish 26
J. S. Stone.
23
Katheryn Johnson 19
A. D. Delany. 2S
CHAPTER JII-
Fannie Rowell 37
CHAPTER IV-
Jolını Tillar 39
J. T. Smith. 41
M. E. Jeffries 39
George W. Turner 41
Charles Oliver 40
J. A. Gill. 43
CHAPTER V-
1. A. Paterson 4.1
CHAPTER VI-
James M. Cox.
Andrew Henry Hill. 49
M. H. Blackwell 46
J. M. Conner 51
Willie E. Stewart. 52
J. Otis Hickman
J. L. Wilson. 56
B. W. Alexander (deceased) 65
Nelson H. Nichols 54
R. L. S. Tweed. 49
Seipio Jones
50
J. G. Thornton 01
R. J. Meaddough 60
George Washington Hayman 74
J. J. Hammond. 76
C. A. Smith G9
JJ. P. Robinson 03
J. W. Walker. 73
George Alexander McGuire. 70
A. J. Steele.
70
D. B. Gaines 75
P. A. Knowles 77
CHAPTER VH-
C. B. King. 70
M. W. Gibbs. 84
J. II. MeConico 91
CHAPTER VIII-
S. 11. Paukoy. 87
D. E. Forteubury. 88
M. IT. Henderson 88
A. Kauffman. 90
George W. Cummings. 90
M. G. Washington.
01
L. N. Porter. 99
11. H. Garner 87
CHAPTER IX-
J. A. Brooks
William Luckett
W. A. Singfield 101
L. Henderson 00
Toney Jordan 97
f. Lathan .. 100
Aaron Harvey 95
T. L. MeCloud. 00
J. J .. Matlock 00
Lula Cureton.
00
William Betton.
103
W. H. Duncan 101
CHAPTER X-
W. O. Foster 104
CHAPTER XI-
B. L. Liggins. .......... 105
CHAPTER XII-
J. W. Burton. 107
Pettus & Pettus 108
CHAPTER XIII-
Samuel Summers 113
Scipio A. Jordan 111
114
J. J. Bush
ADAPTER XIV --
D. M. Wells 117
R. C. Patton 119
c. P. Safpho. 117
CHAPTER XV-
C. E. Bush. 121
CHAPTER XVI --
J. ES. Henderson 123
Walter Oates. 12.1
CHAPTER XVII --
Spencer B. Gibson 126
CHAPTER XVIII-
Martin I .. Barnett 131
J. J. Hoard. 130
R. J. Jones 136
Mary E. Andrews 131
M. P. Mason 136
Mary Ida Kile 132
William Rodgers.
132
Robert T. Willig
127
Bryant Luster.
133
C. E. Dubison.
129
D. J. Dubison ..
130
B. W. Jackson
134
Lucinda Turner.
138
Lucretia
Warr
133
W. T. Franklin
140
William Alexander. 135
J. II. Douglass
140
C. G. Harris. 139
Alice E. Sampson. 138
. APPENDIX-
Births and Mortality of Both Races Viewed Relatively. 160 Number of Marriages of the Blacks and Whites Compared. 159
Great Activity in Buying Homes. 159
Cards
157
Social Forms. 155
Status of tho Ministry, by Dr. D. B. Gaines. 142
Tho Negro's Relation to Finance, by Mr. J. H. McConico 150
The Necessity of the Negro Lawyer to His Race, by Nelson II. Nichols, Esq .. 147
Industrial Education, by M. W. Gibbs, ex-Consul to Mada- gascar 141
The Race Problem, by Dr. J. L. Wilson. 143 Solution of the Race Problem, by Dr. J. M. Cox 151 Ilygiene, by Dr. J. G. Thornton. 152
The Relationship of the Two Races, by J. E. Bush, Receiver
of United States Land Office, at Little Rock, Ark 144
Solution of the Race Question, by Prof. Joseph A. Booker 145
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