Have you read the Extra?" passing it over to me
--"Another this morning at Cramptown. It's an infernal outrage, sir!"
I had read the "Extra," with all its sickening details, and so handed it
back to him.
"I quite agree with you," I said; "but this man was a brute."
"No doubt of it, sir. We've got brutal negroes among us, just as we've
got brutal white men. But that's no reason why we should hang them
without a trial; we still owe them that justice. When we dealt fairly
with them there was never any such trouble. There were hundreds of
plantations in the South during the war where the only men left were
negroes. We trusted our wives and children to them; and yet such
outrages as these were unheard of and absolutely impossible. I don't
expect you to agree with me, of course; but I tell you, sir, the
greatest injustice the North over did the slave was in robbing him of
his home. I am going to have a smoke before going to bed. Won't you
join me?"
Acquaintances are quickly made and as quickly ended in a Pullman.
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