ATLANTA UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS, 
 No. 2. 
 
 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL CONDITION 
 OF NEGROES IN CITIES. 
 
 REPORT OF AN INVESTIGATION UNDER THE 
 DIRECTION OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY: 
 
 AND 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND CONFERENCE FOR THE 
 STUDY OF PROBLEMS CONCERNING NEGRO CITY LIFE, 
 
 HELD AT 
 
 ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, MAY 25-26, 1897. 
 
 ATLANTA, GA. 
 ATLANTA UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
 1897. 
 
> 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION ; 
 
 I. RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION. 
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY; - Butler R. Wilson. Esq. 
 
 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL PROGRESS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE RE- 
 PORTSOFTHE BOARDS OF HEALTH IN ATLANTA, BALTIMORE, CHARLESTON, 
 
 MEMPHIS AND RICHMOND; - - - Mr. L. M. Hershaw 10 
 
 THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF THE RACE: WHETHER DEPENDENT UPON 
 
 SOCIAL CONDITIONS OR ENVIRONMENT; - Prof. Eugene Harris 20 
 
 II. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE. 
 
 MINUTES; 29 
 
 RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE CONFERENCE; 32 
 
 III. ADDRESSES. PAPERS, AND LETTERS. 
 
 ADDRESS ; - President Horace Bumstead 35 
 
 PRENATAL AND HEREDITARY INFLUENCES; - Mrs. Adella Hunt Logan 37 
 
 CARE OF NEGLECTED CHILDREN; Rev. J. E. Smith 41 
 
 THE NEED OF FRIENDLY VISITATION; Rev. H. H. Proctor 44 
 CAUSES OF CONSUMPTION, AND PRACTICAL METHODS OF PREVENTING IT; 
 
 A. J. Love. M. D. 46 
 
 VENTILATION; H. R. Butler, M. D. 51 
 
 CARE OF THE TEETH IN ITS RELATION TO HEALTH: J. R. Porter. D.D.S. 53 
 
 ADDRESS BEFORE WOMEN S MEETING; Miss Lucy C. Laney 55 
 
 FRIENDLY VISITING; - Mrs. Minnie Wright Price 58 
 
 MOTHERS MEETINGS; Mrs. Georgia Swift King 61 
 
 NEED OF DAY NURSERIES; Mrs. Selena Sloan Butler 63 
 
 NEED OF KINDERGARTENS; Mrs. Rosa Morehead Bass 66 
 
 REPORTS FROM CITIES; - 69 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS; 7 1 
 
 IV. APPENDIX; SELECTED STATISTICS. 
 
 A. FROM HOUSE-TO- HOUSE INVESTIGATION; - (1) 
 
 B. FROM ANALYSIS OF REPORTS OF BOARDS OF HEALTH; - - (11) 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The papers presented in this report were written exclusively by col 
 ored men and women, and are based upon statistical investigations made 
 by them under the direction of Atlanta University. 
 
 The investigation was begun by an inquiry on the part of three grad 
 uates of Atlanta University into the causes of the excessive mortality 
 among Negroes. A conference \vas held on the subject at Atlanta Uni 
 versity in May, 1896, and the facts brought out at that conference 
 were so significant that the investigation was continued for another 
 year along similar lines, but on a more extensive scale, and a second 
 conference was held in May, this year. The co-operation of gradu 
 ates of other institutions was invited. The present investigation, 
 therefore, is the result of the joint efforts of graduates of Atlanta Uni 
 versity, Fisk, Berea, Lincoln, Spelman, Howard, Meharry and other 
 institutions for the higher education of the Negroes. 
 
 The conclusions \\hich these men and women have reached as a result of 
 their investigations are, in some respects, most surprising; especially their 
 conclusions as to the effect of environment and economic conditions 
 upon the vital energies of the race. Their conclusions were, in sub 
 stance, that the excessive mortality of their people cannot be attribu 
 ted in any large degree to unfavorable conditions of environment, but 
 must be chit fly attributed to the ignorance of the masses of the people and 
 their disregard of the laws of health and morality. The significance of this 
 conclusion is tersely expressed by one of the writers, who says : 
 
 "This last fact, that the excessive death-rate of the colored people 
 does notarise from diseases due to environment, is of vast importance. 
 If poor houses, unhealthy localities, bad sewerage, and defective 
 plumbing were responsible for their high death-rate, there would be 
 no hope of reducing the death-rate until either the colored people 
 
4 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 became wealthy, or philanthropic persons erected sanitary houses, or mu 
 nicipalities made appropriations to remove those conditions. But since 
 the excessive death-rate is not due to these causes, there is reason 
 for the belief that it may be reduced without regard to the present 
 economic condition of the colored people." 
 
 The attention of the members of the conference seemed to be mainly 
 directed to a consideration of the social questions affecting the prog 
 ress of the race. The sentiment of the conference was voiced by one 
 writer in these words : 
 
 "If we are to strike at the root of the matter, it will not be at sani 
 tary regulation, but at social reconstruction and moral regeneration." 
 
 The solution of the problem will be found in the wise direction of 
 the numerous charitable, religious and educational organizations of 
 colored people already established. As a means towards that end, the 
 University will continue the City Problem Investigation along the lines 
 upon which it was begun, and will hold a third conference at Atlanta 
 next May. The subject of the next conference cannot now be an 
 nounced, but in accordance with the expressed wish of members of 
 the last conference, it will be some subject dealing with the social 
 conditions of the people. 
 
 The result of the present investigation has been, on the whole, dis 
 tinctly encouraging. In the opinion of the committee having the in 
 vestigation in charge, the Negro has nothing to fear from a most rigid 
 and searching investigation into his physical and social condition, but 
 such an investigation can be made most helpful and valuable. 
 
MORTALITY AMONG NEGRO KK IN CITIES. 
 
 RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION. 
 
 [Note: The three following papers on the results of the investigation were written 
 by the three members of the conference who individual!}" collected the most data: 
 Mr. Butler R. Wilson, a member of the committee who gathered data relating 
 to one hundred families that had migrated from North Carolina to Cambridge, Mass.; 
 Prof. Eugene Harris of Fisk University, who made an extensive investigation in 
 Nashville; and Mr. L. M. Hershaw of Washington, D. C., who had in charge the very 
 laborious work of analyzing the reports of the boards of health for the past fifteen 
 years.-Ed.] 
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. 
 
 BY MR. BUTTER R. WILSON ( 81), BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 In making this investigation of the habits, morals and environment 
 of Negroes living in cities, three things have been kept constantly in 
 view, viz.: 
 
 First To obtain accurate information without regard to cher 
 ished theories or race pride; 
 
 Second- To make the inquiry practical and helpful, and not merely 
 for scientific results; and, 
 
 Third- To induce the people to apply the remedies which they 
 have in their own hands for the evils which are found to exist 
 and which retard their progress. 
 
 The results to be gained depended entirely upon the intelligence and 
 fitness of the investigators, who were selected with great care from the 
 ranks of well-known colored educators, ministers, physicians, lawyers 
 and business men, living among the people covered by the investigation. 
 All the data were gathered by this body of trained colored leaders, and 
 they are believed to be, perhaps, more than usually accurate because of 
 the investigators knowledge of the character, habits and prejudices of 
 the people, and because of the fact that they were not hindered by the 
 suspicions which confront the white investigator, and which seriously 
 affect the accuracy of the answers to his questions. 
 
 The work of the investigators was entirely voluntary and was done 
 with a willingness and industry highly gratifying. 
 
STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 The cities embraced in the investigation, with a single exception, are 
 located in regions of heaviest Negro population, and are fairly repre 
 sentative of other cities containing large numbers of Negroes. 
 
 The data obtained were published in the May Bulletin of the U.S. 
 Department of Labor, and cover so wide a range of useful information, 
 that only a few things can be pointed out here. 
 
 Referring to the tables of this Bulletin, we find one noticeable fact 
 hrtable 3*, namely, that the size of colored families is much smaller 
 than is commonly supposed, the average being 4. 17 persons. 
 
 Tables 5 and (), giving household conditions by families, the av 
 erage persons per sleeping room, and the number of rooms per fam 
 ily, show that the general belief that the tenements and houses occu 
 pied by colored people are greatly over-crowded is not founded on 
 facts. These tables do not show that any great over-crowding exists, 
 on the whole, although for certain individual families and groups the 
 averages are somewhat larger. It also appears that the average num 
 ber of living rooms is much larger than has been thought to be the 
 case. An average of 2. 22 persons to a sleeping room in Atlanta, 2.44 
 persons in Nashville, and 1. 9(> persons in Cambridge, and 2. Go per 
 sons in all the other cities covered by the investigation, is an unex 
 pected and important showing, and reverses the idea that the number 
 of families having but one room each for all purposes was very large 
 and was the rule instead of the exception. Out of a total of 1,137 
 families investigated, only 117, or 10. 29 per cent, had but one room 
 each for their use for all purposes.- 
 
 Table 7, giving number of families and means of support, shows a 
 large proportion of females who either support families unaided, or 
 who contribute to the support of families. 
 
 Of the male heads only 26.7 per cent were able to support their fam 
 ilies without assistance from other members. Of the 1,137 families 
 65G, or 57.17 percent, were supported wholly or in part by female 
 heads. 
 
 Tn comparison with white female heads of families and those con 
 tributing to family support, there is quite a large excess on the part of 
 colored women. 
 
 *Table 3 in appendix A. The appendixes contain selected tables from the May 
 Bulletin of the Department of Labor. -Ed, 
 
MORTALITY AMONG NEGROES IN C lTIKS. i 
 
 This table calls attention to the enforced absence of mothers from 
 their homes, and the daily abandonment, by these mothers who are 
 compelled to aid in earning the family support, of their young chil 
 dren to the evil associations, the temptations, and vicious liberty of 
 the alleys, courts and slums. 
 
 To attempt to prove from the showing of this table that ^segro 
 men are unwilling to support their families, and that they are lazy and 
 shiftless, would be unfair. Careful inquiry by a number of the investiga 
 tors indicates very strongly that the comparatively small support 
 given by these men to their families is not due to unwillingness, but to 
 their inability to get work as readily and constantly as the women. 
 At the South white men refuse to work at the bench, in the mill and 
 at other employments with colored men, who, for this reason, are de 
 nied work, and therefore unable to earn means with which to support 
 their families. 
 
 This fact was found to exist in the city of Cambridge, where a large 
 per cent of the men in the hundred families investigated, in reply to 
 an inquiry, said that they had been refused work because they were 
 colored, and a number of them said that they were unable to follow 
 their trades, but had to "job around" with unsteady employment for 
 the same reason. 
 
 The women in these families find steady employment as domestic 
 servants and laundresses, and at the South find but little competition 
 from white women. 
 
 The investigation gives a great many data on this industrial side of 
 the question, which want of space will not now allow us to consider. 
 
 Tables 8 and 9, giving the number and per cent of persons sick 
 during the year, and the number and per cent of deaths during the 
 past five years by causes, show that the diseases most fatal to the col 
 ored people are consumption and pneumonia. While the average 
 length of time of sickness from it is short, malarial fever is shown to 
 be one of the most prevalent diseases. Rheumatism is also shown to 
 be quite prevalent. Both of these diseases, as well as typhoid fever 
 and pneumonia, may, to a great extent, be kept in abeyance by the 
 observance of hygienic rules and a proper care of the health. 
 
 In the 100 Cambridge families it was found that many of the men 
 work in the water department, and after the day s work eat the 
 
8 STUDY OF XEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 evening meal without changing their damp clothing, often going to 
 sleep in their chairs tor an hour or more and then going to a lodge or 
 "society meeting," remaining not infrequently until 11 and 12 o clock. 
 
 These tables also show that the difference between the death-rate of 
 the white and colored people from diarrhea, diptheria, scarlet fever, 
 malarial fever and typhoid fever, all diseases chiefly affected by envi 
 ronment, is very slight.* 
 
 Table 10, giving sickness by sanitary condition of houses, shows 
 that while sanitary conditions have a very important bearing, they are 
 not important enough to account for the difference of per cent in the 
 death-rate between the white and colored people. 
 
 Great caution must be observed in making deductions from this 
 table. While it is intended to show the bearing of sanitary conditions 
 on the health of the community, the results obtained are not conclu 
 sive. It would be erroneous, for instance, to attribute to bad sanitary 
 conditions the increased amount of sickness in families, and leave out 
 of consideration such factors as irregular habits, indifference to healthy 
 living quarters and the intimate relation between poverty and ill 
 health. 
 
 By reference to the table it will be seen that the number of persons 
 sick in Atlanta was 163 out of a total of 577, or 28.25 per cent, 
 where the light and air were good ; and that out of 367 persons liv 
 ing where the light and air were bad. 120, or 32.70 per cent, were 
 sick, a difference of only 15 per cent between houses with good and 
 bad conditions as to light and air. 
 
 One hundred and twenty-eight persons living in houses with good 
 light and air lost 5,819 days by sickness, or an average of 45.46 days 
 each; while 102, or 26 persons less, lost, under bad conditions of light 
 and air, only 4,361 days, or an average of 42.75 days each, a difference 
 of 6 per cent, the average days of sickness being more in houses with 
 good light and air than in those where the light and air were bad. 
 
 This table further shows that out of 537 persons living in Atlanta 
 in houses with good ventilation, 153, or 28.49 per cent, were sick 
 during the year, losing, for the 124 reporting, 5,927 days, or an aver 
 age of 47.80 days each ; while out of 427 persons living in houses with 
 
 *The tables bearing upon diseases most prevalent will be particularly discussed 
 in the paper following. -ED. 
 
MORTALITY AMONG NEGRO KS IN CITIES. if 
 
 bad ventilation, 154, or 36 per cent, were sick during the year, 133 
 of whom lost 6,050 days, or an average of 45.49 days each, a difference 
 of only 26 per cent between the per cent of persons sick where ven 
 tilation was good and where it was bad, the average number of days 
 again being greater for those under good conditions than for those 
 under bad. 
 
 Table XV,* giving general description of houses, shows tluit a 
 large proportion of the houses occupied by the 1,137 families were 
 wooden structures, detached and located in neighborhoods of fair 
 character. Of the 1,031 houses but 43 had bath-rooms, and 183 had 
 water-closets, 95 of which were in the Cambridge houses. In Atlanta 
 and Cambridge the houses with bad outside sanitary conditions pre 
 dominated. In all the other cities the houses with good outside san 
 itary conditions predominated, the latter being greatly in excess for 
 the entire territory covered. 
 
 This paper may be summarized as follows: 
 
 First All the data in the investigation have been gathered by in 
 telligent colored men and women living in the communities covered. 
 These investigators were not hindered by obstacles which make it 
 difficult for a white man to get accurate information of the family life, 
 habits and character of the colored people. These colored investigat 
 ors cannot be charged with prejudice and designs against the interests 
 of the colored people. For these reasons, their work is thought to be 
 more than usually accurate and reliable. 
 
 Second Over-crowding in tenements and houses occupied by col 
 ored people does not exist to any great extent, and is less than was 
 supposed. 
 
 Third In comparison with white women, an excess of colored 
 women support their families entirely, or contribute to the family sup 
 port, by occupations which take them much of their time from home, 
 to the neglect of their children. 
 
 Fourth Environment and the sanitary condition of houses are not 
 chiefly responsible for the excessive mortality among colored people. 
 
 Fifth Ignorance and disregard of the laws of health are responsi 
 ble for a large proportion of this excessive mortality. 
 
 *Not in appendix, hut in May Bulletin of Department of Labor.- Ki>, 
 
10 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL PROGRESS: 
 
 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE REPORTS OF THE BOARDS OF 
 
 HEALTH OF ATLANTA, BALTIMORE, CHARLESTON, 
 
 MEMPHIS AND RICHMOND. 
 
 BY MK. L. M. HERSHAW ( 86), WASHINGTON, 1). C. 
 
 The study of vital statistics is one of the most important subjects that 
 can engage the attention. The death-rate, taken in connection with the 
 birth-rate, determines the natural increase or decrease of population, 
 the growth or decline of a people, and the strength of nations. Dr. 
 William Farr, late Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages 
 in England, states the whole matter in the following language : "There 
 is a relation betwixt death, health, and energy of body and mind. 
 There is a relation betwixt death, birth and marriage. There is a re 
 lation betwixt death and national primacy ; numbers turn the tide 
 in the struggle of population, and the most mortal die out. There is 
 a relation betwixt the forms of death and moral excellence or infamy." 
 It has been known for a number of years to health officers and 
 students of vital statistics that the death-rate of the colored people 
 was larger than that of the white people ; that the colored people were 
 dying in larger numbers in proportion to the colored population than 
 the white people were in proportion to the white population. Of late 
 years these facts have become known to most intelligent persons, and 
 great interest attaches to the degree of the excess of the colored death- 
 rate, and to the causes of it. 
 
 This paper will deal with the vital statistics of the cities of Atlanta, 
 Ga., Baltimore, Md., Charleston, S. C., Memphis, Tenn., and Richmond, 
 Va. Each of these cities contains a large colored population, sur 
 rounded by social, economic and moral conditions such as exist in 
 other cities where colored people are congregated in considerable num 
 bers, if Philadelphia is excepted. The cities selected are, therefore, 
 thoroughly representative for the purpose in hand, and the conditions 
 
MORTALITY AMO.NG NEGROES IN CITIES. 11 
 
 found to prevail in them may be fairly presumed to prevail in the 
 other cities having a large population of colored people. 
 
 The average annual death-rate per 1,000 of the living population 
 in these five cities for the fifteen years from 1881 to 1895 was 20.74 
 for the whites and 36.13 for the colored, showing a percentage of ex 
 cess for the colored of 73.8. 
 
 The average annual death-rate per 1,000 by race for each of the five 
 cities under consideration for the past fourteen or fifteen years is as 
 follows : 
 
 White. Colored. Per cent excess 
 
 of colored, 
 
 Atlanta (1882-95) 18.50 34.71 87.6 
 
 Baltimore (1880-94) 20.69 32.71 58.1 
 
 Charleston (1881-94)., 23.19 44.08 90 
 
 Memphis (1882-95) 20.58 31.15 51.3 
 
 Richmond (1881-95) 20.73 38.02 83.4 
 
 Aii inspection of the table just given shows that the highest death* 
 rate among the colored is in Charleston (which is also true as to the 
 whites), and that the lowest death-rate among the colored is in Mem 
 phis, the lowest among the whites being in Atlanta, Comparing the 
 white and colored death-rates, it is to be seen that the greatest excess 
 of colored over white is in Charleston, where it reaches 90 per cent; 
 the excess in Atlanta being 87.6 per cent, and that in Richmond 83.4 
 per cent. The least excess is found in Memphis, which is 51.3 per 
 cent, Baltimore having 58.1 per cent. These figures seem to justify 
 the conclusion that the worst physical conditions among the colored 
 people are to be found in Charleston, Atlanta and Richmond, and the 
 best in Memphis and Baltimore. 
 
 Having found the average death-rates of the two races in these five 
 cities for the past fourteen or fifteen years, and having compared them 
 with each other, and drawn a conclusion as to the relative physical con 
 ditions of the colored populations in the cities under consideration, it 
 will conduce to a better understanding and a fuller knowledge of these 
 conditions to divide the fourteen or fifteen years which this investiga 
 tion covers into three periods as nearly equal as possible. By pursu 
 ing this method we shall be able, in a measure, to decide whether the 
 physical condition of the colored is better or worse in 1894 or 1895 
 than in 1880 or 1881. 
 
STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE 
 
 FIRST PERIOD. 
 
 SECOND PERIOD. 
 
 THIRD PERIOD. 
 
 
 
 Col 
 
 Per cent 
 
 
 Col 
 
 Per cent 
 
 
 Col 
 
 Per ceflt 
 
 Cm KB. 
 
 White. 
 
 ored. 
 
 excess of 
 
 White. 
 
 ored. 
 
 excess of 
 
 White. 
 
 ored. 
 
 excess of 
 
 
 
 
 colored. 
 
 
 
 colored. 
 
 
 
 colored. 
 
 Atlanta 
 
 IS. 22 
 
 37.96 
 
 108.4 
 
 19.25 
 
 33.41 
 
 73.5 
 
 18.03 
 
 32.76 
 
 81,6 
 
 Haiti more 1 22.00 
 
 36.15 
 
 59.9 
 
 1 19.46 
 
 30.52 
 
 56.8 
 
 20.01 
 
 31.47 
 
 57.2 
 
 Charleston ... 
 
 25.40 44.08 
 
 73.5 
 
 22.30 
 
 46.74 
 
 109.6 
 
 21.88 
 
 41.43 
 
 89.3 
 
 .Memphis 
 
 26.08 i 43.01 
 
 64.9 
 
 21.49 29.35 
 
 36.5 
 
 14.17 21.11 
 
 48.9 
 
 Richmond.... 22.42 40.34 
 
 79.9 
 
 21.37 
 
 38,83 
 
 81.7 
 
 18.42 
 
 34.91 
 
 89.5 
 
 The tabular statement contains, in addition to the average annual 
 death-rate, the percentage of the excess of the colored death-rate. 
 Lest these percentages of excess mislead somebody, it is necessary to 
 explain that, in comparing the three periods, they merely show whether 
 or not the colored death-rate has decreased as rapidly as the white 
 death-rate, and not the actual increase or decrease of the colored death- 
 rate. To illustrate: Comparing the second and third periods in Rich 
 mond, it is to be seen that the percentage of excess for the second 
 period is 81.7 per cent, and for the third period 89.5 per cent. With 
 out looking at the matter carefully the conclusion is likely to be drawn 
 that the colored death-rate is greater for the third period than for the 
 second, when, as a matter of fact, it is less, the rates being 38.83* for 
 the second, and 34.91 for the third. 
 
 An inspection of the above table shows that there has been a con 
 stant decrease in the colored death-rate from period to period in At 
 lanta, Memphis and Richmond. 
 
 In Atlanta the colored death-rate for the first period is 37.96, for the 
 second 33.41, and for the third 32.7(5 ; in Memphis, 43.01 for the first 
 period, 29.35 for the second, and 21.11 for the third; and in Rich 
 mond, 40.34 for the first period, 38.83 for the second, and 34.91 for 
 the third. While Baltimore and Charleston do not show the constant 
 decrease from period to period noted in the other cities, they do show 
 a lower death-rate for the third period than for the first; the death-rates 
 
 *NOTE. The death-rate is generally expressed in terms of one thousand. The 
 phrase "rate of 38.83" means that there were thirty-eight and eighty -three one- hun- 
 dredths deaths per thousand of population. For brevity, the words "per thousand" 
 are omitted. Ki>, 
 
MORTALITY AMONG NEGKOK8 IN ClTlKfS. 1 .*> 
 
 in Baltimore being 36.15 for the first period, 30.52 for the second, and 
 31.47 for the third ; and those in Charleston, 44.08 for the first period, 
 46.74 for the second, and 41.43 for the third. Memphis shows the 
 greatest improvement, the average death-rate at the end of the third 
 period being 50. 9 per cent lower than at the end of the first, and 
 Charleston shows the least improvement, 6 per cent. In Atlanta the 
 improvement is 13.9 per cent, in Richmond, 13.4 per cent, and in 
 Baltimore, 12.9 per cent. 
 
 Of the five cities with which this paper deals, but two have a regis 
 tration of births Baltimore and Charleston.* Richmond had such a. 
 registration, but it was discontinued some years ago. The registra 
 tions of Baltimore and Charleston are admittedly incomplete. No 
 view of the vital statistics of a community is complete without n 
 knowledge of its birth-rate. The birth-rate is closely related to the 
 death-rate. The natural increase of population depends upon the ex 
 cess of the birth-rate over the death-rate. It would be highly inter 
 esting to know what the birth-rate of the colored population in the 
 five cities under consideration is. Is it as great as the death-rate ? Is 
 it greater than the death-rate? These questions cannot be answered 
 satisfactorily because the health reports do not supply the information. 
 The United States Census of 1890 gives the colored birth-rate of the 
 United States as 29.07 per thousand, but owing to the incompleteness 
 of the records of births by the municipal and state authorities, these 
 figures are not reliable, and are probably much too small. Four Eu 
 ropean countries have birth-rates which exceed the colored death-rate 
 in the cities that we have under consideration. In view of the well- 
 known fecundity of the Negro race, it is fair to infer that his birth 
 rate is certainly as high as that of the Italian, the German, the Aus 
 trian, or the Hungarian. If this is so, then the death-rate in these 
 cities has not reached the point where population begins to decrease. 
 It is well-nigh useless to pursue this branch of the subject further, 
 because of the lack of data. 
 
 Having established the fact that the average colored death-rate for 
 the past fourteen or fifteen years in the five cities is 73.8 per cent in 
 excess of the white death-rate in the same cities for the same period, 
 and having shown, by dividing these years into three equal periods and 
 
 See for Baltimore table f, appendix B. En. 
 
14 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFK. 
 
 comparing the rates of previous with succeeding periods, that tin 
 colored death-rate shows an improvement over fifteen years ago, it re 
 mains to set forth the causes of this excessive mortality. 
 
 The principal causes of the excessive mortality of the colored peo 
 ple are the same in all the cities ; therefore, it will serve our purpose 
 to know the average death-rate of the three cities, Charleston, Mem 
 phis and Richmond, combined, fora period of fifteen years, for certain 
 classes of diseases, and to give in full the same facts concerning At 
 lanta. The table which follows shows for Charleston, Memphis and 
 Richmond, combined, the average death-rate per 10,000, by specified 
 causes, for a period of fifteen years, from 1881 to 1895: 
 
 White. Colored. Per cent excess 
 
 of colored. 
 
 Consumption and Pneumonia 32.76* 75.48 130.4 
 
 Typhoid, Malarial and Scarlet Fe- 1 ~ .,, ., 
 
 vers. Diarrhea and Diphtheria / 2 16 26 22 3 
 
 Cholera Infantum, Convul-) ,, ~ .^. , 
 
 sions and Still-born } 14 8/ 
 
 Scrofula and Syphilis 81 4.72 482.7 
 
 It is to be seen from the table above that for all classes of disease** 
 the colored death-rate exceeds the white. The greatest excess is found 
 under scrofula and syphilis, where it is 482.7 per cent in excess of the 
 white death-rate. The next greatest excess is due to infantile dis 
 eases, -cholera infantum, convulsions and still-born, the excess being 
 165.1 per cent. The third greatest excess is due to pulmonary dis 
 eases, and is seen to be 130.4 per cent. We see also that the least 
 disparity between the white and the colored death-rate is found under 
 the group of diseases most affected by environment, including typhoid 
 and malarial fevers and dipththeria, where the excess is only 30 per 
 cent. As to syphilis and scrofula, it is to be observed that the num 
 ber of deaths is small. The white death-rate during fifteen years in 
 Charleston, Memphis and Richmond has been less than one per 
 10,000 of the population, while the colored was somewhat less than five. 
 The per cent of the excess of the colored over the white is, however, 
 startling, and furnishes much food for reflection as to the morals of the 
 colored people. 
 
 The two principal causes of the excessive mortality of the colored 
 people are pulmonary diseases, consumption and pneumonia, and 
 
 These death-rates for specified causes are per ten thousand. ED. 
 
MORTALITY AMONG NEGROES IN CITIES. 15 
 
 infant mortality. The excessive prevalence of consumption and pneu 
 monia among colored people is brought out very plainly in the 
 foregoing table, where the excess in these cities is shown to be 130.4 
 per cent. 
 
 The following table containing the total average annual number of 
 deaths, and the average annual number of deaths of children under 
 five years of age, with distinction of race, will serve to show the ex 
 tent of the infant mortality among colored people: 
 
 ATLANTA, GvV. 
 
 Total average annual number Average annual number of deaths under 
 
 of deaths. 5 years of age. 
 
 White. Colored. White. Colored. Per cent of Per cent of 
 
 white. colored. 
 
 1882-85 470 751 172 313 38.7 41.6 
 
 1880-90 644 845 224 348 34.7 41.1 
 
 185)1-1)5 804 ,.1086 257 386 31.9 35.5 
 
 CHARLESTON, S. C. 
 
 1885-89 525 1394 .148 558 28.0 40.0 
 
 1890-94 529 1316 141 518 26.4 39.3 
 
 MEMPHIS, TENN. 
 
 1886-90 678 742 180 263 26.5 35.4 
 
 1891-95 619 ..741 145 232 23.4 31.1 
 
 There is an enormous waste of child-life among both races, not 
 only in the cities under consideration, but in all cities. But from the 
 data at hand the conclusion is justified that the mortality among col 
 ored children is not alarmingly in excess of the mortality among white 
 children, unless it be for children under two years of age. The fig 
 ures which we have presented on this subject show that the mortality 
 among children of both races has decreased constantly since 1881 in 
 Atlanta, Charleston and Memphis. 
 
 Of the diseases which are excessively prevalent among colored peo 
 ple, the most important, and the one which should be the occasion of 
 the greatest alarm, is consumption. We have seen already that con 
 sumption and pneumonia are among the causes of excessive mortality 
 of the colored people, the excess per cent of Charleston, Memphis and 
 Richmond being 130.4. 
 
 The table following shows the rate per 10,000 of deaths from con 
 sumption in all the cities investigated : 
 
STUDY OF -XKGRO CITY LIFK. 
 
 
 
 ATLANTA. GA. 
 
 
 1882-85, 
 1886-90. 
 1891-95. 
 
 White. 
 18.40 
 18.83 
 16,82 
 
 Colored. 
 50,20 
 45.88 
 43.48 
 
 Her ct. excess of colored 
 172.83 
 143.65 
 158.50 
 
 L886 
 
 25 65 . .. 
 
 BALTIMORE, Ml), 
 
 .. 58 65 
 
 128 65 
 
 1887 .... 
 1891 
 
 ... 22.23 
 v() 00 
 
 55.42 
 46 32 
 
 149.30 
 131 60 
 
 1S92 .... 
 
 20.10 .... 
 
 49.41 
 
 145.82 
 
 
 ( 
 
 CHARLESTON, S. C. 
 
 
 J 88 1-84 
 1 885-89 . 
 1890-94. 
 
 27.52 .... 
 20.05 
 17.71 .... 
 
 72.20 
 68.08 
 57.66 
 
 162.35 
 239.55 
 225 58 
 
 
 
 MEMPHIS, TENN. 
 
 
 1882-85. 
 1886-90. 
 |K91_% 
 
 34.25 
 24.29 
 15 90 . 
 
 65,35 
 50.30 
 ;n 78 
 
 90.80 
 10708 
 137 61 
 
 1881-85 
 
 2557 ... 
 
 RICHMOND, VA. 
 r>4 9;-{ 
 
 . .11482 
 
 { H86-90 
 
 21 ?7 .. ., 
 
 41 63 . 
 
 95 72 
 
 ! *9 1 -95 . 
 
 ...18.54 .. 
 
 ...34.74... 
 
 .. 87.38 
 
 It is to be seen that in all of the cities the death-rate for consump 
 tion is high among the colored people, the lowest rate being 34. 74 per 
 iO.OOO in Richmond, and the highest, 72/20, in Charleston. The 
 greatest disparity between the white and the colored death-rate for 
 this cause is also in Charleston, where the excess per cent of the col 
 ored is as high as 239.5. The important fact must not be lost sight of 
 that the death-rate from this cause has constantly decreased in all the 
 cities except Charleston, and in Charleston the death-rate for the pe 
 riod 1890-94 is lower than for the period 188184. There is reason, 
 however, for great concern and anxiety as to the excessive prevalence 
 of this disease among the colored people. Unless checked and re 
 duced to a normal state, it may, in the rourse of years, be a deciding 
 factor in the ultimate fate of the race. The prevalence of tubercular 
 and scrofulous diseases, consumption, scrofula, syphilis and leprosy, 
 has caused the weaker races of the earth tosucccumb before the rising 
 tide of the Christian civilization. The Carib of the West Indies, the 
 noble red man of these shores, the natives of the Sandwich Islands, 
 and the aborigines of Australia and N r ew Zealand have all disappeared 
 
MORTALITY AMONG NEGKOKS IN CITIK.S. 17 
 
 or been greatly reduced in numbers as the result of the ravages of 
 these diseases. It should be an object of first importance, then, to get 
 control of these diseases before they reach the point where control is 
 impossible. 
 
 It will be of interest to know somewhat in detail the physical con 
 dition of the population in Atlanta for the fourteen years from 1882 
 to 1895, and the tables which follow set forth quite fully this fact. 
 
 DEATH-RATE PER 1,000, ATLANTA, GA. 
 Period. White. Colored. Per ct. excess of colored. 
 
 1882-85 18.21 37.96 108.4 
 
 1886-90 19.25 33.41 73.5 
 
 1891-95 18.03 32.76 81.6 
 
 It is seen that the death-rate of the colored population, though 
 greatly in excess of that of the white, has constantly decreased, the 
 average death-rate per 1,000 for the first period being 37.96, for the 
 .second 33.41, and for the third 32.76. Relatively, as compared with 
 the whites, the death rate of the colored shows much improvement. 
 Though the percentage of excess of colored for the third period is 
 greater than that for the second, the percentage for both of these pe 
 riods shows a marked decrease from that of the first period. 
 
 The following tables show for three periods, 1882 to 1885, 1886 to 
 1890, and 1891 to 1895, the average annual death-rate per 10,000, At 
 lanta, Ga., by specified causes. 
 
 CONSUMPTION AND PNEUMONIA. 
 Period. White. Colored. Per ct. excess of colored. 
 
 1882-85 27.43 76.89 180.3 
 
 1886-90 30.13 72.14 139.4 
 
 1891-95 28,48 75.75 165.9 
 
 CHOLERA INFANTUM AND STILL-BIRTHS. 
 
 1886-90 26.78 5(1.09 109.4 
 
 1891-95 24.99 53.86 115.5 
 
 TYPHOID, SCARLET AND MALARIAL EEVERS, AND DIPHTHERIA. 
 
 1882-85 11.58 19.31 66.7 
 
 1886-90 14.58 17.17 17.7 
 
 1891-95 10.72 12.48 . , 16.4 
 
 OTHER CAUSES. 
 
 1882-85 a!43.15 a283.44 a98.0 
 
 1886-90 121.05 188.67 55.8 
 
 1891-95 116.15 185.50 59,7 
 
 a Including deaths from cholera infantum and still-births. 
 
18 STUDY OF .NEGRO CITY LIKE. 
 
 It is observed that in all these groups of causes the colored death- 
 rate has decreased from period to period, except for consumption and 
 pneumonia, where the death-rate for the period 189195 is greater 
 than for the period 1886-90, though slightly less than for the period 
 1882-85. 
 
 The statistics presented in the various tables which this paper con 
 tains, viewed candidly and dispassionately, shows results favorable to 
 the physical improvement of the colored race. If the mortality rate 
 had remained stationary for a period of fifteen years, it would have 
 been a lasting evidence of the physical strength and endurance of the 
 race. But we have shown that the rate has decreased in that period, 
 and that, too, as is well known, in the face of hard, exacting and op 
 pressive social and economic conditions. When all of the facts 
 in the colored man s case are taken into consideration, the wonder is, 
 not that the death-rate is as high as it is, but that it is not even higher. 
 The history of weak and inferior races shows that they begin to de 
 crease in number after one generation s contact with Anglo-Saxon 
 civilization. The native population of the Sandwich Islands a hun 
 dred years ago was estimated to be 100,000. The latest census taken 
 on the Islands shows the native population to be 35,000. We do not 
 witness this decay and decrease in numbers in the colored race any 
 where in the Western Hemisphere. 
 
 In studying any phase of Negro life in the United States, the fact 
 must be kept constantly in view that the Negro has been subjected to 
 degrading and blasting slavery for more than two centuries. While 
 slavery did its victims a great wrong in depriving them of the fruits 
 of their toil, it did them a greater wrong in denying them opportuni 
 ties for moral and mental improvement. Those who sit in judgment 
 upon the Negro and study his frailties and shortcomings must not for 
 get these previous conditions. 
 
 To recapitulate, it has been shown: 
 
 First That the colored death-rate exceeds the white, the excess av 
 eraging for five cities, during a period of fifteen years, 73. S per cent. 
 Second That the death-rate of the colored population in five cities 
 is lower for the period 1890-95 than for the period 1881-85. 
 
 Third That the principal causes of the excessive mortality among 
 the colored people of five cities are pulmonary diseases and infant 
 mortality. 
 
MORTALITY AMONG NEGROES IN CITIES. 19 
 
 Fourth That the least disparity between the white and colored 
 death-rates is lor those diseases due to unwholesome sanitary conditions; 
 typhoid, malarial and scarlet fevers, diphtheria and diarrhea. 
 
 This last fact, that the excessive death-rate of the colored people does 
 not arise from diseases due to environment, is of vast importance. If 
 poor houses, unhealty localities, bad sewerage and defective plumbing 
 were responsible for their high death-rate, there would be no hope of 
 reducing the death-rate until either the colored people became wealthy, 
 or philanthropic persons erected sanitary houses, or municipalities 
 made appropriations to remove these conditions. But since the exces 
 sive death-rate is not due to these causes, there is reason for the belief 
 that it may be reduced without regard to the present economic condi 
 tions of the colored people. 
 
 NOTK. For further data compiled by Mr. Hersliaw, see appendix B.-Ed. 
 
20 STIUY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF THE RACE; WHETHER 
 
 DEPENDENT UPON SOCIAL CONDITIONS 
 
 OR ENVIRONMENT. 
 
 BY PROF. EUGENE HARRIS, FISK UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TENN. 
 
 The social conditions of the American Negro are two-fold ; those 
 which he makes for himself, and those which the white people make 
 for him. The latter class cannot affect the physical status of the 
 Xegro except in a very indirect and unimportant way. Separate 
 apartments in public conveniences, such as hotels, theatres, or railroad 
 trains, social ostracism, exclusion from political preferment and the 
 spoils of office, the suppression of his ballot, and the other discrimi 
 nations which are made against the black man, have at least no imme 
 diate bearing on his health, vitality, or longevity. The Negro may 
 eat and wear what he pleases, as much as he pleases, and as often as 
 he pleases. The provision shops and dry goods stores do not discrim 
 inate against him in the matter of food and wearing apparel. After 
 a hard day s work he may carouse at night just as late as he pleases. 
 There is not a black law upon our statute books regulating his private 
 habits, or imposing upon him unsanitary surroundings, or restricting 
 him to deleterious occupations, or forcing him to immoderate indul 
 gences. 
 
 It is true that in public conveniences the Negro must take separate 
 apartments ; but the air in them is just as invigorating, the water is 
 just as healthful and pure, and the food is just as nourishing as in the 
 apartments for the whites. Regular bathing will throw off dead mat 
 ter through the skin, and control of the appetites will contribute 
 largely to health in Negro quarters as well as anywhere else. The laws 
 of health have no regard for artificial social barriers. They know no 
 color line. Civilly, socially, and politically, the Negro of this coun 
 try is under many cruel and unjust restrictions; but he is at perfect 
 liberty to be abstemious or intemperate, chaste or licentious, cleanly 
 
MORTALITY AMONG N KG ROES IN CITIES. 21 
 
 or filthy. In the struggle tor recognition and preferment he is at a 
 great disadvantage ; but in the struggle for life, apart from those im 
 pediments for which he himself is responsible, he has almost, if not 
 altogether, an equal chance with the whites. 
 
 It is true that if the colored people in our larger towns are bent 
 upon living near the center of the city, they cannot rent or buy prop 
 erty, except in the less desirable or abandoned parts. But it is not 
 necessity, it is only convenience that leads them to live over stables, in 
 dark, damp cellars, and on back alleys, in the midst of stench and pu 
 trefaction. They can, if they would, go to the suburbs, where they 
 can get better accommodations for less money. I have been in fami 
 lies in Nashville ranging from seven to ten, living on a back alley, 
 with a rivulet of filth running before the door of the one room in 
 which they bathed and ate and slept and died. Two miles further out 
 all of these families might have secured for the same money shanties 
 of two and three rooms, with purer air and water, and had a garden 
 spot besides. Among the colored people, convenience to the heart of 
 the city often overrides considerations of health, and that the white 
 people otter them hot-beds of disease for homes is no excuse for their 
 taking them. It is better to live in the suburbs than to die in the city. 
 The Negro is induced, but not forced, to accept the bad accommoda 
 tions of down-town life. Apart from this apparent exception in the 
 matter of rented houses, no race discrimination affects in the least the 
 Negro s physical condition ; and it is for this very reason that I am 
 hopeful of a change for the better in the vital statistics of our people. 
 If the large death-rate, the small birth-rate, the susceptibility to dis 
 ease, and the low vitality of the race were due to causes outside of our 
 control, J could see nothing before us but the "blackness of darkness 
 forever." But because the colored people themselves are responsible 
 for this sad state of affairs, it is to be expected that time and education 
 will correct it. 
 
 The conclusions which I shall draw in this paper are based largely 
 upon my study of the problem in Nashville. 
 
 In the first place, then, the excess of colored deaths over white is due 
 almost entirely to constitutional diseases and infant mortality. Accord 
 ing to health statistics, the constitutional diseases which are mainly re 
 sponsible for our large death-rate are pulmonary consumption, scrofula, 
 
22 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 and syphilis, all of which are alike in being tuberculous. A large 
 number of the colored convicts in our state s prison at Nashville are 
 consumptives or syphilitics. Out of 92 deaths in a certain territory 
 in Nashville, 19 deaths, or over 20 per cent, were due to consumption. 
 The other 73 deaths were due to 35 different causes. In the recent 
 Atlanta investigation, according to the mortality report of Cambridge, 
 Mass., consumption was the cause of 15 per cent of the deaths. 
 
 DEATHS FROM CONSUMPTION IN NASHVILLE FOR THE PERIOD 1*93-95. 
 
 isi):? 1894 is;r> 
 
 White 124 . 91 82 A reduction of nearly 34 per cent. 
 
 Colored 177 159 218 An increase of over 23 per cent. 
 
 Alarming as are the facts set forth in the preceding table, they are 
 not the whole truth. They would be occasion for serious concern if 
 the races were numerically equal ; but when we remember that the 
 colored people of Nashville are only three-fifths as numerous as the 
 whites, it is all the more startling. For the year 1895, when 82 white 
 deaths from consumption occurred in the city of Nashville, there ought 
 to have been only 49 colored, whereas there really were 218, or nearly 
 four and one-half times as many as there ought to have been. It is 
 an occasion of serious alarm when 37 per cent of the whole people are 
 responsible for 72 per cent of the deaths from consumption. 
 
 Deaths among colored people from pulmonary diseases seem to be 
 on the increase throughout the South. During the period 1882-85, 
 the excess of colored deaths from consumption for the city of Mem 
 phis was 90.80 per cent. For the period 189195, the excess had 
 arisen to over 137 per cent. For the period of 1886-90, the excess of 
 colored deaths from consumption and pneumonia for the city of At 
 lanta was 139 per cent. For the period 1891-95, it had arisen to 
 nearly 166 per cent.* 
 
 From these facts it would appear that pulmonary consumption is 
 the "destroying angel" among us, and yet I am told that before the 
 war this dread disease was virtually unknown among the slaves. For 
 tunately Charleston, 8. C., kept even before the war the mortality sta 
 tistics of the colored people, and, consequently, we are able to ascer 
 tain with some accuracy how their death-rate from consumption before 
 
 * See table d, appendix B.-Ed. 
 
MORTALITY A MON<; NEGROES IN CITIES. 23 
 
 the war compares with their death-rate afterwards. What are the facts 
 in the case? From 1822 to 1848, the colored death-rate from con 
 sumption was a trifle less than the white. Since 1885 it has been 
 considerably greater, and is still increasing. According to F. L. 
 Hoffman, the white mortality from that cause has decreased since the 
 war 134 per hundred thousand. The colored mortality has increased 
 over 234 per hundred thousand.* 
 
 The question arises, How do we account for this change? Is it be 
 cause the Negro is inherently more susceptible to pulmonnry diseases, 
 or is it because of his changed environment, his different social con 
 ditions? Tf his tendency to consumption is due to his inherent sus 
 ceptibility, what was it that held it in check until after the war? It 
 seems that this fact alone is sufficient to fix the responsibility upon the 
 conditions which have arisen since emancipation. Mr. F. L. Hoffman 
 claims that the Negro s lungs weigh four ounces less than a white 
 man s, and that though his normal chest measure is greater, his lung 
 capacity is less ; and that here we have a cause for the Negro s ten 
 dency to consumption which no environment, however favorable, can 
 affect. Even if this be a fact, it is hard to see how it began to operate 
 as a cause of consumption only since the war. 
 
 Let us turn for the present to another cause of the excessive mor 
 tality among us ; namely, the increased prevalence of scrofula and 
 venereal diseases. For the period 188285, the colored death-rate in 
 Memphis from scrofula and syphilis was 205.8 per cent in excess of that 
 among the whites ; but from 1891 down to the present time, the excess 
 has been 298 per cent. For the period 1893-95, there were in the 
 city of Nashville 8 white deaths from scrofula and syphilis, nnd 35 
 colored. In proportion to the population, there ought to have been 
 only 5. Of course allowance must be made for the fact that, on ac 
 count of the scandal and disgrace, white physicians are reluctant to 
 report white deaths from these causes ; whereas such motives rarely, 
 if ever, influence them in reporting colored deaths. 
 
 According to the May Bulletin of the Department of Labor, out of 
 1,090 colored people canvassed this year in the city of Nashville, 18 
 
 *" Soe "Ka.ce Traits and Tendeneiesof tho American Negro, v F. L. Hoffman. 
 ED. 
 
24 STITDY OF NEGRO <TTY LIFK. 
 
 were suffering from scrofula and syphilis.* One whose attention has 
 not been called to the matter has no conception of the prevalence of 
 these diseases among the Negroes of Nashville. I have looked for it 
 in both races as I have walked the streets of niy city, and to come 
 across the loathsome disease in the colored passers-by is not an uncom 
 mon occurrence. This state of affairs can be accounted for when I 
 tell you that there is probably no city in this country where prostitu 
 tion among colored people is more rampant and brazen, and where 
 abandoned colored women are more numerous or more public in their 
 shameful traffic. 
 
 In the families canvassed by me this year, among 50 sufferers from 
 rheumatism, 8 were so badly crippled as to be bed-ridden invalids. 
 When we consider the fact that some forms of rheumatism are syphi 
 litic in their origin, and that in the.se same families there were IS 
 suffering from scrofula and syphilis, it would appear that venereal 
 poisoning was responsible for a considerable share of the rheumatism. 
 
 There is one obstacle to the race s reproducing itself that has some 
 connection with venereal diseases, and hence I speak of it now. I 
 refer to the enormous amount of still births and infant mortality, prev 
 alent everywhere among colored people. For the period of 189395, 
 the still and the premature births in the city of Nashville were 272 
 for the white, and 385 for the colored; or, in proportion to the popu 
 lation, 2J- times as many as there ought to have been. This relative 
 state of affairs obtains in Memphis and Atlanta, and in all the large 
 cities of the South. From the health reports of all our large Southern 
 cities we learn that a considerable amount of our infant mortality is 
 due to inanition, infantile debility, and infantile marasmus. Now what 
 is the case in regard to these diseases? The fact is that they are not 
 diseases at all, but merely the names of symptoms due to enfeebled 
 constitutions and congenital diseases, inherited from parents suffering 
 from the effects of sexual immorality and debauchery. Translated 
 into common speech, they are nothing more than infant starvation, 
 infant weakness, and infant wasting away, the cause of which is that 
 the infants 7 parents before them have not given them a fighting chance 
 for life. According to Hoffman, over 50 per cent of the Negro chil- 
 
 See table 8. appendix A. Ei> 
 
MORTALITY AMONG NEGROKS IN O IT IKS. 25 
 
 dren born in Richmond, Va., die before they are one year old. 
 
 The number of still and premature births among us is a matter ot 
 great alarm, not only because it seriously interferes with the numerical 
 increase of the race, but because it involves the fecundity, the health, 
 and even the moral character of large numbers of our women. The 
 support of the family often falls very heavily upon our poor washer 
 women ; and since they find it hard to get the husks to feed and the 
 rags to clothe their already large number of little folks, living in one 
 room like stock, rather than to add to their burden, they resort to 
 crime. An official on the Nashville Board of Health, who is also 
 proprietor of a drug store, tells me that he is astonished at the number 
 of colored women who apply at his store for drugs with a criminal 
 purpose in view. 
 
 The 16 Atlanta groups in the recent investigation showed that the - 
 female heads of families are considerably in excess of the male, and out of 
 324 families 31 were wholly supported by the mother, and 205 were 
 supported by the mother altogether or in part.* In such social con 
 ditions as these, where the burden of bread-winning is borne largely, 
 and often altogether, by the mother of the household, it is not surpris 
 ing that poor, laboring women who are ignorant of its ruinous effects 
 upon both health and character, should resort to prenatal infanticide. 
 
 The average family for the eighteen cities covered by our recent in 
 vestigation numbers only 4.1, which means that in these eighteen cities 
 the race is doing barely more than reproducing itself.f The large 
 colored families of a few decades ago are becoming more and more 
 scarce. I know a grandmother who was the proud mother of over a 
 dozen children ; the daughter could boast of nine ; and not one of sev 
 eral granddaughters, though married for a number of years, is the 
 mother of more than one child. This family is but an illustration of 
 many others just like it. Such facts go to show that the Negro is no 
 longer the " prolific animal" that he once was termed. The race, like 
 the women of whom Paul once wrote to Timothy, must be "saved 
 through child-bearing." 
 
 I take it that the excess of infant mortality from cholera infantum 
 and convulsions means nothing more than that the Negro mothers do 
 
 * See table 7, appendix A. Ed. 
 t See table 3. appendix A.- Kd. 
 
26 STUDY OF NKGRO CITY LIFK. 
 
 not know so well how to feed and care for their offspring. They need 
 instruction in infant dietetics and baby culture. 
 
 I have now covered the ground to which our excessive death rate is 
 mainly due: namely, pulmonary diseases, especially consumption and 
 pneumonia, scrofula, venereal diseases, and infant mortality. If we 
 eliminate these diseases, our excessive death rate will be a thing of the 
 past. 
 
 Let us now inquire, What is there in the Negro s social condition 
 that is responsible for the prevalence of these diseases, and the conse 
 quent mortality? In the first place then, be it known by all men that 
 we to-day in this conference assembled are not the enemies of our 
 people because we tell them the truth. We shall know the truth, and 
 the truth shall make us free not only from the bondage of sin, but from 
 vicious social conditions and consequent physical death. Sanitary 
 regulations and the social reconstruction of Israel formed a large part of 
 Moses religious duty, and why may it not of ours? 
 
 While I do not depreciate sanitary regulations, and a knowledge of 
 hygienic laws, I am convinced that the nine qua non of a change for the 
 better in the Negro s physical condition is a higher social morality. I 
 ^ do not believe that his poverty or his relation to the white people pre 
 sents any real impediment to his health and physical development. 
 Without going into the reasons for it, it is well known that the poor 
 laboring classes often enjoy better health, are freer from disease, have 
 larger families, and live longer lives than the rich. 
 
 I am convinced that for the causes of the black man s low vitality, his 
 susceptibility to disease, and his enormous death-rate we must look to 
 those social conditions which he creates for himself. What are they? 
 I have already referred to the social causes of our excessive infant 
 ^mortality, namely, the frequency with which the partial or the entire 
 maintenance of the household devolves upon the mother; and especially 
 the impaired chance for life which a debauched and immoral parent 
 age bequeaths to childhood. The infants in their graves will rise up 
 in judgment against this evil and adulterous generation and condemn 
 it. 
 
 The constitutional diseases which are responsible for our unusual 
 mortality are often traceable to enfeebled constitutions broken down 
 by sexual immoralities. This is frequently the source of even pulmo- 
 
MORTALITY AMONG NKGKOKS IN CITIES. 27 
 
 tiary consumption, which disease is to-day the black man s scourge. 
 
 According to Hoffman, over 25 per cent of the Negro children born 
 in Washington City are admittedly illegitimate. According to a 
 writer quoted in " Black America," " In one county of Mississippi there- 
 were during 12 months 300 marriage licenses taken out in the county 
 L lerk s office for white people. According to the proportion of popu 
 lation there should have been in the same time 1,200 or more for 
 Negroes. There were actually taken out by colored people just three." 
 James Anthony Froude asserts that 70 per cent of the Negroes in the 
 West Indies are born in illegitimacy. Mr. Srneeton claims that " in 
 -.pite of the increase of education, there has been no decrease of this 
 social cancer." My attention has been (railed to a resort in Nashville 
 within less than two blocks of the public square where a large number 
 of abandoned women and profligate men often congregate in the un 
 derground basement, which is lighted and ventilated only through the 
 pavement grating ; and there in debauchery and carousal they make 
 the night hideous until almost morning. What are they sowing but 
 disease, and what can they reap but death? 
 
 It is true that much of the moral laxity which exists among us to 
 day arose out of slavery. It is due to a system which whipped women, 
 which dispensed with the institution of marriage, which separated 
 wives from their husbands and assigned them to other men, which 
 ruthlessly destroyed female virtue, and which made helpless women 
 the abject tools of their masters. This is the correct explanation of 
 our social status to-day, but to explain it is not to excuse it. It is no 
 longer our misfortune as it was before the war : it is our sin, the wages 
 of which is our excessive number of deaths. Always and everywhere, 
 moral leprosy means physical death. Wherever the colored people 
 are guilty of the immoralities of which James Anthony Froude and 
 W. L. Clowes of the London Titties accuse them, if they continue in 
 them they will be destroyed by them root and branch. Rome was 
 destroyed because the empire had no mothers, and Babylon was blotted 
 out because she was the " mother of harlots." 
 
 A few years ago I said in a sermon at Fisk University that wherever 
 the Anglo-Saxon comes into contact with an inferior race, the inferior 
 race invariably goes to .the wall. I called attention to the fact that in 
 spite of humanitarian and philanthropic efforts, the printing press, the 
 
28 STUDY OF NEGItO CITY LIFE. 
 
 steam engine and the electric motor in the hands of the Anglo-Saxon 
 were exterminating the inferior races more rapidly and more surely 
 than shot, and shell, and bayonet. I mentioned a number of races 
 that have perished not because of destructive wars and pestilence, but 
 because they were unable to live in the environment of a nineteenth 
 century civilization ; races whose destruction was not due to a perse 
 cution that came to them from without, but to a lack of moral stamina 
 within ; races that perished in spite of the humanitarian and philan 
 thropic efforts that were put forth to save them. 
 
 To that utterance let me now add this thought : that where shot, and 
 shell, and bayonet, and the printing press and the steam engine, and 
 the electric motor have slain their thousands ; licentious men, unchaste 
 women, and impure homes have slain their tens of thousands: and I 
 speak the words of soberness and truth when I say that if the charges 
 of sexual immoralities brought against us are true, unless there be 
 wrought a social revolution among us, the handwriting of our destruc 
 tion even now may be seen on the wall. The history of nations 
 teaches us that neither war, nor famine, nor pestilence exterminate!- 
 them so completely and rapidly as do sexual vices. 
 
 If the cause of our excessive death-rate be, in its ultimate analysis, 
 moral rather than sanitary, then this fact ought to appear not only in 
 our vital, but in our criminal statistics as well. Prof. Starr, of Chicago 
 University, claims that in the State of Pennsylvania, where there i 
 little opportunity to assert that the courts are prejudiced against col 
 ored criminals, though the Negroes form only 2 per cent ot the popu 
 lation, yet they furnish 16 per cent of the male prisoners, and 34 per 
 cent of the female. The race has such great privileges in Chicago and 
 it is dealt with so fairly and justly that the colored people themselves 
 have denominated it the " Negroes Heaven ;" and yet, according to 
 Prof. Starr, while the Negroes form only 1 J per cent of the population of 
 Chicago, they furnish 10 percent of the arrests. I am convinced that 
 the immorality which accounts for these crimiiral conditions is also re 
 sponsible for the race s physical status ; and if we are to strike at tin- 
 root of the matter, it will not be at sanitary regulations, but at social 
 reconstruction and moral regeneration. 
 
 Note: We regret beinjr unable to print th- whole of Prof. Harris valuable paper-E<J. 
 
SFX ONI) ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 2,9 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE. 
 
 MINUTES. 
 
 The second Atlanta University Conference on Problems of Negro City Life con 
 vened in the Ware Memorial Chapel on Tuesday, May 25, 1897, at 8 P.M. 
 
 President Horace Bu instead, of Atlanta University, opened the conference as 
 presiding officer; after which it was voted that George A. Towns ( 94) and George F, 
 Smith ( 97) be made recording secretaries. 
 
 A letter was then read from His Excellency Gov. W. Y. Atkinson of Georgia, in 
 which he expressed regret for his inability to deliver the address of welcome. Presi 
 dent Bumstead then delivered the opening address. 
 
 The general purpose of the meeting Tuesday night was to set forth clearly the facts 
 as to the physical and sanitary condition of Negroes in cities, as brought out by the 
 investigation. In accordance with this purpose three carefully prepared papers were 
 presented: the first a " General Summary," by Butler R. Wilson, Esq., of Boston, 
 Mass. ; the second entitled " Social and Physical Progress : a Comparative Analysis 
 of the Reports of the Boards of Health of Atlanta, Baltimore, Charleston, Memphis, 
 and Richmond," by Mr. L. M. Hershaw of Washington, D. C. ; the third entitle-.) 
 The Physical Condition of the Race, whether Dependent upon Social Conditions or 
 Environment," by Prof. Eugene Harris of Fisk University. 
 
 Bishop L. H. Holsey, D.D., who was on the program and present, did not speak 
 because of the lateness of the hour and his physical indisposition. 
 
 Butler R. Wilson, Esq., then introduced certain resolutions, which were referred to 
 u committee on resolutions, consisting of Butler R. Wilson, Esq., of Boston, Mass., 
 Prof. Eugene Harris of Nashville, Tenn. ; Rev. Dr. W. G. Alexander of Atlanta ; 
 Rev. J. E. Smith of Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Miss Lucj r C. Lariey of Augusta. 
 
 The meet ing was then adjourned. 
 
 On Wednesday afternoon at I> o clock there were two simultaneous meetings of the 
 conference. That for men was held in the ^Prayer Meeting Room, and had as its 
 general subject: "Consumption; its Causes, and Means to Prevent it." 
 
 The presiding officer was Prof. Win. H. Crogman ( 76), of Clark University, who 
 made suitable introductory remarks. Papers were then read as follows : " Ventila 
 tion, Exercise and Physical Development," by H. R, Butler, M.D,, of Atlanta 
 Care of the Tenth in its Relation to Health," by J. R. Porter, D.D.S., of Atlanta; 
 "Causes of Consumption, and Practical Methods of Preventing it," by A. J. Love, M.D., 
 of Chattanooga, Tenn. ; A Social Study of 1,000 Atlanta Homes," by Prof. F. A 
 Updyke of the Atlanta Baptist College, read in his absence by Pres. George Sale of 
 that institution. A paper was also read by Dr. A. M. Brown of Birmingham, Ala 
 in place of the one that should have been read by Dr. R. F. Boyd of Nashville, 
 Tenn., who telegraphed regret at his inability to attend on account of sickness. 
 
30 STUDY OF NKGHO CITY l.IFK. 
 
 This was followed by an animated general discussion, participated in by Butler R 
 Wilson, Esq., Rev. J. E. Smith, Mr. L. M. Hershaw, Rev. H. H. Proctor of Atlanta, 
 Dr. H. R. Butler, Rev. Dr. W. G. Alexander, Prof. W. B. Matthews of Atlanta, Rev 
 Dr. W. J. White of Augusta, Prof. Eugene Harris. Rev. William Flagg of Atlanta 
 and Prof. W. H. Crogman, 
 
 A committee, of which Prof. W. H. Crogman was chairman, was chosen to prepare 
 resolutions to be offered at the evening meeting. 
 
 The meeting was then adjourned. 
 
 The meeting for women, held at the same hour, in Ware Memorial Chapel, had as 
 its general subject : " Infant Mortality ; its Causes, and Means to Check it. After 
 a preliminary explanation by Butler R. Wilson, Msq., a suitable intro 
 ductory address was delivered by Miss Lucy C. Laney, of Augusta, who presided 
 Over the meeting. Papers were then read as follows: "Friendly Visiting. 1 by Mrs. 
 Minnie Wright Price of South Atlanta; "Parents Associations. by Mrs. Dinah 
 Watts Pace of Covington ; " Mothers Meetings. by Mrs. Georgia Swift King of 
 Atlanta; "Need of Day Nurseries, 1 by Mrs. Selena Sloan Butler of Atlanta; 
 " Need of Kindergartens," by Mrs. Rosa Morehead Bass of Atlanta. 
 
 The reading of these papers was followed by an animated discussion, participated 
 in by Miss Lucy C. Laney, Mrs. Adella Hunt Logan. Mrs. Georgia Swift King, Mrs 
 David T. Howard of Atlanta, Mrs. Thos. N. Chase of Atlanta, Mrs. Or. Murray of 
 Gammon Theological Seminary, and others. 
 
 A committee, of which Mrs. Dinah Watts Pace was chairman, was appointed to 
 draft suitable resolutions for presentation at the evening meeting: after which the 
 meeting adjourned. 
 
 The meeting Wednesday night convened in Ware Memorial Chapel at H o clock 
 aud was presided over by President Bumst.ead. Prayer was offered by Rev. Calvin 
 Lane of Marietta. A paper was then read by Mrs. Adella Hunt Logan of luskegee 
 Ala,, on "Prenatal and Hereditary Influences, Rev. Joseph K. Smith followed 
 with a paper on the " Care of Neglected Children. The resolutions prepared bv 
 the committee appointed at the men s section meeting were then pre>ented b\ Prof. 
 Wm. H. Crogman and adopted by the conference,- 1 
 
 Rev. H. H. Proctor then spoke upoti the " Need of Friendly Visiting. and Miss 
 Lucy C. Laney upon the "Care of Children and Methods of Preventing Infant Mor j 
 tility." The resolutions prepared by the committee appointed at the women s section 
 meeting were then presented by Mrs. Dinah Watts Pace, and adopted by the eo?i- 
 ference.* 
 
 At this point Rev. J. K. Smith spoke concerning the nursery movement in Chatta 
 nooga, Tenn, Prof. Wm. E. Holmes, of the Atlanta Baptist College, spoke of the 
 \vorkoftheSociologicalClubof Atlanta. Mr. L. M. Hershaw reported eoneerninu, 
 the Graduate Club in Washington, I). C. 
 
 * For these resolutions see jwuje :W.. 
 
KECONJ) ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 3]l 
 
 Butler R. Wilson, Esq., then read the following letter from Mr. George G.Bradford, 
 of Boston, to President Bumstead : 
 
 i( Tt is with great regret that I hereby tender my resignation as corresponding sec 
 retary of the conference. I need not assure you that only urgent necessity compels 
 me to give up a work in which I have taken so deep an interest." 
 
 The following resolution was unanimously adopted, upon the receipt of this letter : 
 
 Whereas, Mr. George G. Bradford, of Boston, a trustee of the Atlanta University, 
 has been untiring in his efforts to make permanent the movement to obtain exact 
 information concerning the social, physical and moral condition of the colored peo 
 pie living in cities ; 
 
 " Resolved: That this conference hereby tender him the thanks of the colored peo 
 pie for his splendid work and instruct the secretaries of the conference to send him 
 ;i copy of these resolutions." 
 
 It was then voted that an executive committee of five be appointed at some future 
 time to make plans for a subsequent investigation, to decide the subjects to be inves 
 tigated. to appoint a recorder, and to name a corresponding secretary. 
 
 Butler R. Wilson, Esq., then read the resolutions presented by the committee on 
 Tuesday night. There was considerable discussion as to the phraseology of the first 
 resolution, participated in by Butler R. Wilson, Esq., Rev. J. E. Smith, Prof. Eugene 
 Harris, Dr. A. J. Love, Rev. Dr. W. J. White, Mr. L. M. Hershaw, and Prof. T. N. 
 Chase. The resolutions as a whole were unanimously adopted.* 
 
 After remarks by Mrs. Georgia Swift King concerning a partially successful at 
 t,einpt by the W. C. T. U. to establish a day nursery in Atlanta, and further remarks 
 by Mrs. Dinah Watts Pace, the conference adjourned. 
 
 GEORGK A. TOWNS, ) Recording 
 GKORGK F. SMITH, /Secretaries. 
 
 * For these resolution* see page 83. 
 
32 STUDY OF NKGKO CITY t.lVK, 
 
 RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE CONFERENCE 
 
 METHODS OF PREVENTING CONSUMPTION, 
 
 REPORTED FROM THE MEN S SECTION MEETING. 
 
 Whereas, the chief modes of infection are: 
 
 First By inhaling dry and pulverized expectoration; 
 
 Second By using spoons, cups, and other articles which have not 
 been properly cleaned after using by tuberculous patients; 
 
 Third By kissing; 
 
 Fourth From intermarriage of tuberculous individuals. 
 Therefore, Resolved: 
 
 First That sputum must be destroyed and must not be allowed 
 to become dry, and that handkerchiefs used by tuberculous persons 
 must be destroyed; 
 
 Second That the floors and walls of rooms occupied by tubercu 
 lous persons must be thoroughly disinfected before being used by other 
 persons; 
 
 Third That carpets, curtains and bedding must be exposed to su 
 perheated steam under high pressure; 
 
 Fourth That all living rooms must be thoroughly aired daily, 
 kept thoroughly clean, and ventilated night and day. 
 
 MOTHERS MEETINGS, DAY NURSERIES, FAMILY SUPPORT 
 
 AND KINDERGARTENS. 
 
 REPORTED FROM THE WOMEN S SECTION MEETING. 
 
 Whereas, a race cannot rise higher than its women, and the home is 
 the great school for the molding of character, and mothers are the 
 most important factors in these schools ; 
 
 Therefore, Resolved: That anew impetus be given to the establish 
 ing and holding of mothers meetings whenever and wherever prac 
 ticable, for the instruction, development and uplifting of the mother- 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 33 
 
 hood of our race along practical, moral and spiritual lines. 
 
 Whereas, a very large percentage of our women, being thrown upon 
 their own resources for a livelihood for themselves and families, are 
 compelled daily to leave, uncared for, their little ones ; 
 
 Therefore, Resolved: That individuals and organizations interest 
 themselves in the immediate establishment, on a small scale at first, 
 of day nurseries for the care and culture of these dear little ones. 
 
 Whereas, investigation shows that a very large majority of our men 
 are supported by their wives, and since such a condition of affairs 
 must of necessity hinder wives and mothers from performing their 
 higher duties, such as the careful training of families along moral and 
 spiritual lines, and since man in failing to care for his family proves 
 himself to be unfit to be called husband or father ; 
 
 Therefore, Resolved: That in order to arouse and educate such men 
 to a full appreciation of their duties men s meetings be held whenever 
 and wherever practicable, and that our ministers of the Gospel preach 
 special sermons along all practical lines ; that by these two agencies 
 the men of to-day may be aroused to a keener sense of their responsi 
 bility in this matter of family support. 
 
 Whereas, the need of kindergarten work is clearly seen for the 
 starting of the little ones into proper channels of training, and since 
 work in this department has been of the greatest help to teachers who 
 lead the young minds from this into higher branches, and since the 
 child-life in the school-room should be of vital interest to parents; 
 
 Therefore, Resolved: That efforts be put forth for the establishment 
 and maintenance of such departments of educational Avork. 
 
 GENERAL RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 Resolved, That it appears from the result of the investigation : 
 
 First That the excessive mortality among Negroes is not due 
 mainly to environment; 
 
 Second That the excessive mortality among Negroes is largely due 
 either to their ignorance or to their disregard of the laws of health 
 and morality ; 
 
 Third That the excessive mortality and the apparent increase of 
 
34 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 immorality among the Negroes is chiefly due to neglect of home and 
 family life, the chief cause of which is the extent to which the mothers 
 are obliged to go out to work ; 
 
 Fourth That the failure of the men to entirely support their fami 
 lies with their earnings has a most serious effect upon the social, phys 
 ical and economic progress of the race ; 
 
 Fifth That finally, it appears that the Negro must reform himself, 
 and that he is not dependent upon charity or municipal regulations, 
 but has the means in his own hands. 
 
 Resolved, That the following recommendations are made: 
 
 First That the attention of members of the conference during the 
 coming year be concentrated on reforms in the family life of the 
 Negro; 
 
 Second That greater care and attention should be given to the 
 home training of children, and also of young men and young women, and 
 that parents associations and mothers meetings should be formed for 
 that purpose; 
 
 Third That day nurseries should be provided for the care of infants 
 and young children in the enforced absence of the parents; 
 
 Fourth That friendly visiting among the poor should be more gen 
 eral and more systematic, and that friendly visitors should hold weekly 
 or monthly conferences under the direction of those who are making a 
 special study of social problems. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 35 
 
 ADDRESSES, PAPERS, AND LETTERS. 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT BUMSTEAD. 
 
 It has been our hope, and for a time our expectation, that the ad 
 dress of welcome would be given to-night by His Excellency, Gov 
 ernor Atkinson, but circumstances have prevented his attendance, and 
 we must content ourselves with the expression of his interest and good 
 wishes which he has so kindly conveyed in his letter of regret. 
 
 It seems, therefore, to fall to me to speak the word of welcome, and 
 I do it with great heartiness. I welcome you to the interesting dis 
 cussions which this conference has in store for us. I congratulate 
 you, too, on the painstaking and highly successful work which you 
 have carried on since our meeting a year ago, and which will form the 
 basis of discussion at the present meeting. The results of your inves 
 tigations conducted last fall and winter, as embodied in the statistical 
 tables of the May Bulletin of the Department of Labor at Washington, 
 have impressed me deeply. I am impressed with the enormous amount 
 of careful, patient, discriminating, and conscientious labor which those 
 tables represent, and I am impressed anew with the significance and 
 importance of statistical science. 
 
 What is the significance of the statistical work in which this con 
 ference is now engaged ? You and I have sometimes seen a man who 
 attracted our attention because of his striking physical health. His 
 figure was erect and finely proportioned, his muscles well developed, 
 his step elastic, his eye clear, his complexion of the kind that reveals 
 healthy blood coursing through every artery and vein. This man, 
 however, may once have been a weak and sickly student in college. 
 How did this transformation take place? It was the work of the 
 director of physical culture in that college. He took the student in 
 hand, made careful measurements of the different parts of his body, tested 
 the action of his muscles and of his lungs and heart and other vital 
 organs, found out where the weak points in his body were, and noted 
 accurately the degree of weakness or of insufficient development. 
 Then he presented certain exercises for the student to practice to se 
 cure a more vigorous or a more symmetrical development, a certain 
 diet to follow, possibly certain medicines or tonics to take. The 
 
36 STUDY OF NEGRO riTY LIFE. 
 
 transformation followed, and its success all depended on the accuracy 
 with which the real condition of that young student s physical organ 
 ism was ascertained by the director of physical culture. 
 
 We are dealing with a much larger and vastly more important 
 organism than that of any individual the great social organism of 
 which we all form a part, an organism of wonderful complexity, with 
 a life peculiar to itself, and just as much subject to the laws of health 
 and disease as the body of any individual can possibly be. It is the 
 prime object of all sociological investigation to find out the weak spots 
 in the social organism and to seek to remedy them. This is the work 
 in which we are engaged, in common with all other students of social 
 science. We are not, indeed, undertaking to do the whole of it, but 
 only a part. We have wisely chosen for the present to confine our 
 selves to that constituent part of the social organism which is made 
 up of a single race or class of people, and to those nerve-centers of 
 modern life which are found in the cities and larger towns. But it is 
 none the less for the benefit of the larger whole that we carry on this 
 more limited work. And for the furtherance of the great end before 
 us all the perfect health of the social organism, or the body politic, 
 as it is sometimes called, I am confident that your investigations of 
 the past winter will prove a substantial contribution. 
 
 Before we pass to the discussion of the statistics to which I have 
 referred, it is perhaps important that I should remind you of the two 
 things which constitute the chief value of all statistics. One is the 
 accuracy with which they are gathered, and the other is the honesty 
 with which they are interpreted. The gathering of statistics is not the 
 easy task which many people suppose, or which, possibly, you sup 
 posed before you tried it. It requires intelligence, discrimination, 
 tact, courtesy, patience and fidelity in no small degree, and your work 
 shows the possession of these qualities to a very gratifying extent, as 
 it seems to me. But the correct reading and interpretation of statistics 
 is oftentimes an almost equally delicate and difficult task. The temp 
 tation is frequently strong to close our eyes to unpleasant conclusions 
 or to attempt to explain them away. Candor and courage are needed 
 here in the proper interpretation of our statistical \vork as intelligence 
 and accuracy were needed in their collection. Let the proceedings of 
 this conference demonstrate that we are possessed of all these qualities. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 37 
 
 PRENATAL AND HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 
 
 BY MRS. ADELLA HUNT LOGAN ( 81), TUSKEGEE, ALA. 
 
 The boy takes his large nose from his grandmother, the small mouth 
 from his father, and a quick temper from his mother. This is natural, 
 for children always inherit the characteristics of their ancestors. But 
 where does he get red hair? No one in the family has hair of that 
 color. And how is it that the young man seems prone to the social 
 sin? His father has always seemed upright, and his mother is re 
 garded as a model of purity. To be sure, the grandfather sowed wild 
 oats, and it is charged that a great great grandmother was born out 
 of wedlock, but that was generations ago and this young man has never 
 heard those family scandals of a hundred years past. 
 
 It is well, if his ears have never listened to such unhappy stories. 
 His parents were wise in withholding them from his knowledge. Alas! 
 while they could easily keep the family skeleton in the closet and spare 
 their son the humiliation of such ugly tales they could not so easily 
 purify and change the blood that coursed in their veins; hence we see 
 the son, in spite of fine precept and example, on the downward grade 
 in his social tendencies. 
 
 Again, they say this young man is not very strong. His mother 
 fears he is going into consumption. The father says: " Have no fears 
 along that line, my dear, for there is no consumption in my family nor 
 in yours. No danger of that, although somehow our son is rather 
 frail!" 
 
 That red hair is hard to account for, but, no doubt, this head is an ex 
 act reproduction of one in the same family generations ago. It may be 
 so far back, indeed, that no living person remembers having heard of 
 the peculiarity. In the same silent way influences which affect the 
 morals and the health of the boy have been handed down. 
 
 How rarely in the every day ordering of our lives do we give any 
 attention to that silent, but powerful, thing known as heredity! 
 Although its power cannot be confined in time to the earthly life of 
 man, nor in social contact to any one race, as long as we are not re 
 minded in some very forcible or unpleasant way of its effects, we 
 
38 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY J,IFK. 
 
 scarcely think of its operations. At any rate, the thought expended 
 upon it rarely ripens into such action as will regulate its influence. 
 
 In respect to time the force of heredity cannot be checked by a 
 generation. We are to-day reaping what was sown, not by our fathers 
 alone, but by their fathers and grandfathers. " Unto the third and 
 fourth generation of them " was the decree thundered from Mt. Sinai 
 by the voice of Almighty God. 
 
 There can be no suspending of the influences of heredity until the 
 human soul has had sufficient development to appreciate responsibili 
 ties ; until it wills to be shaped by this or by that influence. No, 
 there is no choice! Before the body is ready to begin life as a separate 
 being, as a new personality, it is molded and cast by the combined 
 traits of the father and the mother from whom this new creature must 
 draw its individual existence. And the intellectual and ethical cast 
 will follow as closely the law, " Like begets like," as will the physical. 
 We do not expect to find the children of white parentage having black 
 faces or kinky hair, nor the children of black ancestry having fair 
 brows, blue eyes, and flaxen locks. It would be just as unreasonable 
 to expect the intellectual and the ethical characteristics of children to 
 be radically unlike those of their ancestors as it would be to expect 
 their physical features to be radically different. 
 
 7 Tis true that the progeny of some very good parents are very bad 
 specimens of humanity, but such cases must be like our boy s red hair 
 which fell to him despite the fact that no other such head had ever been 
 seen in that family. In both cases the results came through blood. 
 Both the red hair and the weak or vicious character were transmitted. 
 Probably through a long stream of blood, but we must know that 
 neither came as a matter of chance. The one was just as much a leg 
 acy as the other. 
 
 Placing an inheritance is often difficult for the reason that it may 
 be the result of complex causes and combined forces. 
 
 Possibly no one in the preceding generations had red hair, but there 
 must have been sufficient in the aggregate of that kind of pigment to 
 produce one such head in the family; This same principle of trans 
 mission applies to the health, the brain and the morals of the descend 
 ants. The exact ailment of body or malady of mind may not In- 
 traceable to any one source, but it has been handed down. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 39 
 
 Legacies of money seem to fall in most cases to those who are already 
 fortunate. This may be on the theory that " To him that hath shall 
 be given. " Not so with the more enduring legacies of body and soul. 
 Whether we will or no they come, and, like the dreaded bacteria, fix 
 themselves in the most fertile soil. Where there is one weakness of 
 body or mind another is the more apt to locate ; hence, instead of 
 having a general distribution of evil, it falls much more heavily in 
 some places than in others. 
 
 To no one source more than the conditions attendant upon pregnant 
 women can the cause of physical or moral evil be traced. The unborn 
 child draws its physical and in large measure its intellectual and 
 ethical make-up from its father and its mother. Not from the mother 
 alone, as many suppose, but from both. 
 
 Both parents contribute to the possibilities for health, good or bad, 
 and furnish the germs for character creation and development just as 
 certainly as they together originate the physical life. 
 
 These are solemn truths ! Yet how few people understand or re 
 gard them ! The awful sac red ness of procreation has never yet 
 dawned upon any considerable proportion of mankind. 
 
 Sadly enough, the gratification of passion is too often the only 
 thought, while the result is given little or no consideration. Too 
 many children come into life as mere accidents. The father is irri 
 tated at the thought of an additional one to work for. He feels his 
 present family to be quite as much as he can decently support. His 
 moroseness is communicated to the already regretful mother, who rea 
 sons that she is not strong enough, that children worry her so she can 
 not do justice to those she already has, that her time and strength are 
 too much divided, as she in many cases is also a bread-winner. Sad 
 plight, we see, for there is reason in the objections offered. But pru 
 dential considerations come too late to be availing. Just think how 
 the innocent offspring must reap the evil effects of these unholy feel 
 ings and expressions, and all the sympathy that you might have felt 
 for the parents turns into disgust, and you exclaim: "In Heaven s 
 name, call your will to the rescue and say, God helping me, I will not 
 thus prejudice the cause of my own child I 
 
 Few women seem to appreciate the fact that the sensitive embryo 
 receives the impressions made upon the mind of the mother. Very 
 strange thoughtlessness, as the most ignorant believe in birthmarks 
 
40 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 and everything that affects the body. How is it that they do not 
 realize that a mind also is being created ? 
 
 All parents love their children and most love them to the very best 
 of their understanding. Because of this love, which we believe to be 
 the strongest known to the human breast, most parents are willing to 
 be taught what is best for their offspring. 
 
 In making effort to give uplift to the vitality of the Xegro race the 
 best work needs to be put into the enlightenment of present and pro 
 spective parenthood. Not necessarily into general and extended 
 learning, that is more or less impracticable,-but the claims of prenatal 
 and hereditary influences need to be brought to the direct and intelli 
 gent consideration of all classes. 
 
 In the women s meetings and in the men s meetings equally there 
 should be set forth in a plain way the important teachings of science 
 on this important subject. This instruction may be set forth in such 
 language as the occasion demands and the instructor chooses to employ, 
 but, above all, let it be distinctly understood that the development of 
 germ life depends upon the original germ and equally upon the cul 
 ture and treatment of that germ: in short, teach that the prenatal de 
 velopment of a child depends largely upon whatever affects the mother. 
 If the pregnant woman is constantly wishing that her unborn child 
 were dead or that the man who has given her this burden, as she has 
 learned in her chagrin to regard the child, were dead ; who can won 
 der that out of such murderous thought there should come in very 
 truth a murderer ! 
 
 Should the material wants of the mother be denied her to such an 
 extent that she feels the necessity and yields to the temptation of sup 
 plying them by theft or by prostitution who shall think it strange that 
 her child should be a thief or prostitute ? If the father is a drunkard 
 the son is apt to be a drunkard. 
 
 Criminals are often made years and years before they are sentenced 
 to prison. Alas ! too often made criminal before they are born. 
 
 The body may come into life as sorely doomed as the mind, unable 
 to resist the ordinary diseases incident to childlife, because of the mauy 
 neglects and abuses of the bodies of parents. This is very wrong: very 
 unfair to the child and in many ways very hard on parents- 
 
 The creation of a strong public sentiment on these subjects seems to 
 be an imperative necessity. 
 
SKOONI) ANNUAL CONFKUKNI.IK, 41 
 
 THE CARE OF NEGLECTED CHILDREN. 
 
 BY liKV. .10SKPII K. SMITH (7H), <J1I ATTANOO<J A, TKNN. 
 
 [NOTK: fc or confirmation of the facts stated by Mr. Smith, see table 7 of appen 
 dix A. showing the proportion of families partially or wholly supported by women. 
 The enforced absence of the mothers from their homes will remain a vital factor in 
 the problem for many years to come, being due to industrial conditions which will 
 change slowly. Mr. Smith s recommendations are therefore timely. El>.] 
 
 " Seest tliou not what they do in the- cities . . . and in the streets? " 
 I desire to call attention to some of the daily scenes in our streets and 
 the lessons which they teach. The streets of a city are the exhibition halls 
 of its citizens. Walking through these public halls all phases and con 
 ditions of life may be seen, and the character and civilization of its peo 
 ple judged. Most pleasing and inspiring evidences of well ordered 
 and happy home life appear on the one hand; while on the other hand 
 many and sad are the evidences of no order, no home life and no hap 
 piness for a large number of people. 
 
 It is of this imperative need, orderly home life and training, as 
 evidenced by street and prison scenes, that I shall now more particu 
 larly speak. 
 
 One of the first scenes in our streets between the hours of five and 
 .six o clock in the morning is, large numbers of women rushing to their 
 places of work for the day. About eight o clock at night they return 
 to their homes. Many of these women are mothers with from one to 
 eight and often more children. Unwillingly these mothers leave their 
 children all day and part of the night in the place they call home, all 
 alone to care for themselves. If they are awake, just before the mother 
 leaves, as is usually the case, she gives them hastily what she may hap 
 pen to have for their breakfast, sometimes a piece of bread, sometimes 
 it is a little molasses in a tin plate or old bucket top, around which the 
 little ones all gather and each in his turn dips in his lingers and licks 
 them off until all the molasses is gone. To this sweetness the mother 
 :ulds many sweet promises of great things for them if they will be good 
 and 8tav at "home until mama comes back at night. Then with great 
 
42 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 anxiety and confusion she tears herself away from them and hastens 
 to her work while they cry for her to come back, and often they are 
 quarreling and fighting among themselves before she is out of sight. 
 No one but a mother knows how painful it is to leave her children all 
 alone under these unfortunate circumstances, but there is nothing else 
 for her to do but to go, and go she does with an aching heart. 
 
 It is not long after the mother is gone before the children, being 
 left to themselves, leave the house, go into the streets, wander about 
 at will from place to place, get into mischief and commit sin, often 
 taking little things from people s houses without realizing that they 
 have done wrong. They ramble about until tired, fall down at almost 
 any place, go to sleep, and wake up again only to continue the ramble, 
 sometimes until late in the night. 
 
 The anxious mother comes home at night to find that her chil 
 dren are not there. She does not know where they are and starts 
 out in the dark to look for them in the streets. Often she finds them 
 in the city jail or station house, having beeu arrested by some officer 
 during the day or early night for committing some little crime. Chief 
 Hill of the police force of Chattanooga says : " They are brought in 
 the patrol wagon to the station house by the dozen at the time. Ask 
 them where their parents are and they will say, Dead, or at work, or 
 away from home somewhere. ? 
 
 Such is a faint representation of a part of that which is going on in 
 our streets every day, and we need only to multiply the days and we 
 have the awful record of years. Growing up in the midst of such 
 daily surroundings and influences is it to be wondered at that large 
 numbers of our young people find their way to the chain-gang and 
 work house ? 
 
 There are hundreds and thousands of our children at this very hour 
 who are roaming about at large in the streets of our cities because they 
 have had no orderly home life or training; growing up in the streets 
 their idea of living is such as they get from the worse side of street 
 life, and the inevitable result must be crime, prison and the gallows. 
 And the saddest thing about all of this is, that unless under the providence 
 of God a preventive is found, this most appalling state of society 
 must continue growing worse each day to the end of time. 
 
 Is it possible to so reenforce the home as to save society and the 
 
SECOND AXMJAL L ONFEKENCE. 43 
 
 state this awful menace? I believe it is possible and practicable, 
 The " Day Nursery " and education as reenforcements to the home 
 furnish the preventive. 
 
 The greatest need of Negro children is the right kind of home life 
 and training. It is a most encouraging truth that many of our people 
 have neat, modest, virtuous homes, and their children, being reared 
 under intelligent and safe motherly influences,, are growing up virtuous 
 and modest, trustworthy and usefuL These children are not candi^ 
 dates for crime, disease and prison, but for a worthy and useful citizen 
 ship. While this number is small when compared to the masses, yet 
 it is large enough to show what can be done by that all-important 
 agency, the home. The day nursery, as a supplement to the home, 
 is the most urgent need of the great masses of Negro children. Says 
 Mrs. Dodge in the Outlook; "If the child is father to the man, then 
 the influences which surround him during childhood have the greatest 
 effect upon his after-life, and the day nursery is, therefore, the 
 foundation upon which to build the structure of character; for, taking 
 the child in his earliest years, often indeed in earliest infancy, nursery 
 training is the first in the chain of educational influences which aid 
 the state in making the useful citizen, this influence holding sway 
 over his mind and heart on through the kindergarten period, through 
 the public school, and over the threshold into the whirl of life s ex a 
 
 acting activities/ 
 
 If day nurseries can be established in the cities and the little 
 ones gathered from the streets into them ; soap and fresh water, comb 
 and brush freely and effectually used ; a clean little garment furnished 
 for a clean little body, and some wholesome food for a hungry little 
 stomach ; clean thoughts put into the little mind and heart ; lessons 
 of sympathy, kindness, honesty, industry, hope and self-respect taught; 
 if these things can be done for all Negro children deprived of home 
 training a long and very effectual step will be taken toward reducing 
 crime, disease and premature death. 
 
44 STIiDY OF NFXJRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 THE NEED OF FRIENDLY VISITATION. 
 
 BY RKV. H. H. PROCTOR, ATLANTA. (*A . 
 
 An undertaker who within the last ten years has buried many of the 
 ten thousand of our people who sleep in Southview cemetery recently 
 made a remark to me that set me to thinking. I give it to you to 
 night with the hope that it may have the same effect upon you. "You 
 have no idea/ 7 he said, "how many people are dying from the lack of 
 sympathy. " This is expert testimony, and we cannot reject it. 
 
 I suspect, however, that the idea he had in mind is capable of a more 
 precise expression. There is a wealth of sympathy in this world. It 
 is the exceptional heart that contains no well-spring of sympathy. 
 The difficulty is not as to the possession of sympathy; it is as to its 
 expression. Many people are dying because no one expresses any 
 sympathy for them. Sympathy is like the coupon on the railway 
 ticket, not good if detached ! Prayer may be effective, though un 
 expressed ; but not so with sympathy. 
 
 There are many ways of expressing this sympathy so as to make it 
 effective in elevating the home life of the poor. One way is by giving 
 good advice in an assembly like this. Another is by contributing 
 money to be used in judicious ways. Both of these are needed, but I 
 am thinking of another way, which, while not necessarily independent of 
 these, is, I think, more important than either. I refer to friendly per 
 sonal visitation. Advice is cheap. We may cast a coin at a beggar 
 to quiet a disturbing conscience. But to give ourselves, that is the 
 gift that costs. To go into the homes of the people and, as did Philip 
 with the eunuch, to sit with them, costs more than to make an address 
 or contribute a quarter. And yet that is to my mind the only solu 
 tion of this great sociological problem. We must come into personal 
 touch with the masses. 
 
 To this some will put in objections. Will not these people presume 
 upon our social reserve? Will not the upper class be dragged down 
 by contact with the lower? These questions are not unnatural. They 
 demand a reasonable answer. To the first objection I would say that 
 
E< ONI) ANNTA L CONFERENCE. 45 
 
 there is not the least danger of the plainest people mistaking our 
 kindly interest for an invitation to our private social functions. The 
 plain people have wonderfully keen instincts. To the other I would 
 say that it is not contact with the lower element that injures the higher ; 
 it is the kind of contact. The distinction is vital. "He is armed 
 without who is innocent within." Virtue is its possessor s shield. The 
 immaculate swan conies unspotted from the vilest sewer. 
 
 If you would elevate a building you would not apply pulleys at the 
 top. You would put jackscrews under the mudsills. You cannot 
 elevate society by lifting from the top; you must put the jackscrews 
 under the mudsills of society. Put the unfailing dynamics of friendly 
 visitation under the homes of the poor and the whole people will rise 
 a living, an exalted temple before God, 
 
46 STUDY OF NEGKO CITY LIFE. 
 
 CAUSES OF CONSUMPTION, AND PRACTICAL METHODS 
 OF PREVENTING IT. 
 
 P,Y A. J. LOVE, M.D., CHATTANOOGA, TENN, 
 
 Mr. President : Thinking as I do that the specific treatment of 
 tuberculosis does not come before us for consideration at this meeting,, 
 I shall not enter into a discussion of the late discoveries for the radi 
 cal cure of consumption. 
 
 In presenting to you this paper on a subject about which so much 
 has been written and concerning the solution of which so many the 
 ories have been advanced, I shall speak more from a practical than 
 from a theoretical standpoint. 
 
 That tuberculosis is a germ disease is no longer disputed. But a 
 practical means of destroying this bacillus is the vexatious question of 
 to-day. 
 
 To rightly understand some of the means of checking and prevent 
 ing the growth of consumption we must first know some of its predis 
 posing as well as some of its exciting causes. 
 
 A predisposition to tuberculosis is inherited. Not that the infant is 
 born with the germ fully developed in his system, but being born of 
 tuberculous parents he inherits a condition favorable to the develop 
 ment of the disease. He is of an inferior physique, usually slender, 
 emaciated, nervous, easily exhausted, has a low or deformed chest, his 
 blood is poor in quality, he is susceptible to colds, and subject to bron 
 chial catarrh and cough. The alimentary canal is one of the most 
 vulnerable points in his anatomy. The digestion is so feeble that the 
 mildest diet is sometimes harmful. And yet, with all this, he is bright- 
 eyed, intelligent and hopeful. 
 
 There is an intimate relation between consumption and scrofula, 
 which is likewise a disease of degenerative tissue metamorphosis., 
 Whether there is a direct relation between these two diseases or not, is 
 perhaps yet to be demonstrated, but the clinical fact that tuberculous 
 and strumous diatheses are almost alw r ays found in the same subjects 
 cannot be denied. That the tissues of scrofulous subjects are wanting 
 
SECOND ANNUAL (CONFERENCE. 47 
 
 in vital power is apparent from their great tendency to suppurate. 
 Bartholow says that the tubercle is a product of scrofula, which would 
 indicate that the same cause which produces scrofulosis would, through 
 the process of pathological evolution, produce tuberculosis. 
 
 Is tuberculosis possible in a subject who has not the unfortunate 
 legacy of a tubercular diathesis? To my mind there can be no doubt 
 that the affirmative of this is true. The child born of healthy 
 parents, but who is reared in the slums of a densely populated city, 
 housed in a miserable hut in the alley, forced to sleep in a crowded 
 apartment where the atmosphere is necessarily damp and virulent, 
 both from the effluvia rising from the decomposing excreta from the 
 bodies of its many inmates and from the vitiated gases exhaled from 
 their lungs, who sleeps in the garments which he wears through many 
 weary days, who goes for months without knowing the civilizing, 
 Christianizing and cleansing influence of the bath, whose food is im 
 properly cooked and wanting both in quality and quantity, and con 
 cerning the hour of whose meals there is no regularity, will almost 
 surely present early symptoms of decay. 
 
 That constitution which at the outset was physiologically perfect 
 has gradually degenerated into one with inferior vital tendencies. The 
 morbific influences of his surroundings have wrought upon him a 
 molecular modification of the tissues, which undergo a low grade of 
 inflammation and glandular suppuration. This, with its catalogue of 
 pathological possibilities, is scrofulosis. This fruitful soil is the rende- 
 vous for bacteria of every morbid turn of mind. The cells having lost 
 their vital resistance, the system becomes an easy prey to disease. 
 Here the tubercle bacillus finds a suitable pabulum on which to subsist, 
 and amid such unfavorable surroundings our subject of unfortunate cir 
 cumstances will almost inevitably succumb to this disease. But even if 
 at this period he should not himself be overtaken by tuberculosis, still 
 this marked tendency of constitution will gradually become permanent 
 and capable of hereditary transmission. Thus the succeeding genera 
 tions of all such individuals have a natural predisposition to tuberculosis, 
 as also to many other diseases which are superinduced by malnutri 
 tion. 
 
 Drunkenness in parents predisposes to consumption in their off 
 spring, because of the fact that they transmit to them the toxological 
 
48 STtTT>V OF NKOKO CITY MFfc. 
 
 effects of alcoholism, producing- a general deterioration of nutrition, 
 and because of semi-starvation due to neglect on the part of these 
 parents while under the influence of alcohol. For it is a painful fact 
 that mothers in the lower classes, as well as fathers, are becoming: more 
 and more addicted to strong drink, and that these unfortunate chil 
 dren are allowed to go for many hours without nourishment. 
 
 Puberty, with its attending susceptibility to consumption, is a crit 
 ical period, The system, while undergoing the important changes of 
 maturity, is ill-prepared to defend itself against extraneous patholog 
 ical factors. This period ends the career of many youth, who in their 
 infancy were fed on artificial food instead of mother s milk. That 
 this has a baneful influence on the constitution during a lifetime, the 
 emaciated frames of these unfortunate subjects will attest. Those ar 
 ticles of diet which purport to be elegant substitutes for mothers milk 
 are wanting in both nutrition and digestibility. Though they have 
 the elements necessary for development and growth the ratio of these 
 elements is not in keeping with the natural formula of mothers milk 
 and a dyspeptic condition is induced which leads to marasmus, scrof- 
 ulosis, tuberculosis, and death. 
 
 It is a prevalent idea that tuberculosis is transmissible by touch, and 
 that inhalations of effluvia emanating from the skin of tuberculous 
 subjects will reproduce the disease. This, however, is untrue. 
 
 The most frequent cause of the direct transmission of tuberculosis 
 is the inhalation of the bacillus arising from dried and pulverized 
 sputum. Hence the danger of living in houses recently occupied by 
 consumptives, They frequently spit upon the walls or the floor, and 
 the bed-clothing and wearing apparel become contaminated with 
 sputum, which, when dry and broken into small particles, is subject to 
 inhalation. While it is true that this virus is of a greater specific 
 gravity than air and therefore has a tendency to fall to the floor, yet 
 sweeping and dusting will raise it, at which time it may be inhaled 
 and become a nucleus around which is built that insidious and yet ag 
 gressive foe. 
 
 As long as the germ is kept suspended in fluid it is less liable to 
 cause infection, for as moisture increases its specific gravity it cannot 
 fioat in the atmosphere #nd therefore cannot be inhaled. 
 
 In order for this bacillus to find a lodging place in the human econ- 
 
SECOND ANNUAL (JOPftfERKNCiti, 49 
 
 otny, there must be a dissolution of continuity in the mucous membrane. 
 For in a healthy condition it is not liable to infection. It is here 
 that these bronchial catarrhs and colds cut such a distinguishing figure ; 
 for a catarrh indicates that violence has been done to the integrity of 
 a mucous membrane, destroying or impairing its protective power to 
 such an extent as to admit of inoculation and infection. This is the 
 second whirlpool for our predisposed subject, for if possibly in his 
 childhood he has steered clear of Scylla he has now drifted into Charyb- 
 dis. 
 
 It is not likely, however, that a subject with an otherwise healthy 
 constitution, even though he has a diseased mucous membrane, will 
 become infected under such circumstances. For the blood in such an 
 individual is rich in the life-giving properties of the body and the cells 
 are so vigorous as to stand as a bulwark against an invading enemy. 
 
 Tuberculosis may also be contracted through impure alimentation ; 
 for it has been clearly demonstrated that cows are often affected with 
 this disease and that tubercle bacilli are found in large numbers in 
 their milk. 
 
 When there is a lesion in the alimentary tract virus may, because 
 of this, enter the blood and induce both local and constitutional con 
 sumption. That this source of infection is true was proven a short 
 time ago in a swine test. Of 1,026 healthy swine fed on sour whiskey 
 and distillery slop, all were sickened and 250 died. Autopsies on 104 
 showed tubercle bacilli. In an adjoining pen were 600, fed on good 
 sweet maize. None contracted tuberculosis. 
 
 Persons whose foods are subject to acetic fermentation in the ali 
 mentary canal are liable to tuberculosis through its absorption. In 
 those habituated to strong drink the micodermaaceti, which is an acetic 
 ferment, is frequently absorbed through the intestinal mucous mem 
 brane, which is paralyzed by the presence of alcohol, but in the ab 
 sence of this stimulant this membrane is capable of protecting against 
 such absorption. 
 
 The death-rate from consumption in the United States is appalling. 
 But that the spread of this disease can be checked is clearly apparent. 
 
 It is the plain duty of every city to pass ordinances prohibiting its 
 inhabitants from living in squalor and dirt ; prohibiting the conver 
 sion of homes which should be clean, wholesome and pure, into pest 
 
50 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 houses and laboratories in which are incubated every conceivable form 
 of virulent bacteria : directing that the premises of all be keptatall times 
 clean, that bedding and carpets be aired and exposed to the sun, that 
 the houses be from time to time renovated, that thorough ventilation 
 be the rule in every household. 
 
 While it is a fact that every family is not able to wear costly gar 
 ments, yet every family can wear clean ones, and have clean sur 
 roundings. 
 
 Nor do I think a course of this kind impracticable or abridging 
 personal rights ; for to live in such unwholesome abodes with such un 
 healthy surroundings is not only damaging to those who indulge in 
 this loathsome practice, but is forever an abiding source of infection to 
 the community. This is a menace which no municipality can brook 
 without becoming weakened thereby. This is the prime source of all 
 infectious diseases, a nuisance to the public because it is in direct oppo 
 sition to the pursuit of health and happiness. A government has the 
 same right to protect its votaries from this deadly condition as it has 
 to quarantine against smallpox. For while smallpox is rapidly con 
 tagious and spreads dread disaster in its wake, what disease is more 
 terrible than consumption, which like the boa constrictor is stealthily 
 winding itself around humanity and squeezing the life out of the 
 nations? 
 
 If we would stamp out tuberculosis we must elevate the standard 
 of living among the lower classes. We must save them from them 
 selves. If we have not educational facilities sufficient to civilize them 
 fast enough, we must bring them up to the requirements by legisla 
 tion. In my opinion the present condition is too appalling to wait on 
 the slow process of evolution. More vigorous measures must be taken. 
 
 We need a more rigid system of food inspection. No animal should 
 be killed for food without first being scientifically inspected and pro 
 nounced sound. The inspection of milk for tubercle bacilli should 
 be made a specialty. Milch cows and animals to be killed for meat 
 should not be fed on impure foods. Stale and tainted meats of any 
 kind should not be eaten, for although bacteria for the most part are 
 destroyed in the process of cooking, still the decomposition of this ab 
 normal material in the intestines may produce infection, thus lessening 
 the vital resistance and paving the way for consumption. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 51 
 
 VENTILATION, 
 
 BY H. H. BUTLER, A.M., M.D., ATLANTA, <JA, 
 
 [NOTE: Dr. Butlers paper included also the subjects of Exercise and Physical De 
 velopment. But in this case, as also in others, we have felt obliged to abbreviate.- ED.] 
 
 In the homes of the most ignorant of our people, and some of the 
 intelligent for that matter, ventilation is an unknown quantity. The in 
 mates are opposed to having air enter the house when all are well, and 
 if any of the family are sick it is believed that it means death to the 
 patient should air, and in some cases light, enter the sick chamber. 
 
 I will not enter into a description of the various methods of venti 
 lation ; we have not the time for such here. I will simply give you a 
 few of the many cases that have come under ray observation in which 
 ventilation was much needed. 
 
 Case 1. This first case to which 1 wish to call your attention was 
 in a one-room house; room 14x14; inmates, four. It was a case of 
 confinement. The room was as dark and the air as foul at twelve 
 o clock in the day as it was at twelve at night. I had to use a small 
 tin lamp at either hour in order to see how to care for my patient. 
 
 Case 2. It was in a small basement room where a mother and two 
 amall children lay sick, nigh unto death. The door and window had 
 been closed for weeks. The air was foul, damp and heavy. There 
 they were with no friends, no water, no food, and no pure air. There 
 they lay until found by some good women who sent the mother to the 
 poor-house, one child to the hospital where it died, and the other to 
 the Carrie Steele Orphans Home, where it is recovering slowly. The 
 mother is well and has returned to the city and is at work. Both 
 mother and child, however, show signs of tuberculosis, which are no 
 doubt the result of inhaling the foul air of that basement room, 
 
 Case 3. I manage to visit the public schools of the city at least 
 once a year. I visited one of these schools this year in which every 
 thing else was taught and practiced but ventilation. The air in some 
 of the rooms of that building was not at all conducive to good health. 
 
52 STUDY OF NKUKO CITY LIFE. 
 
 Case 4. It was a two-room house; inmates, two, a man and his 
 wife. The husband lay dying with consumption and would, in his 
 delirium, spit any and every where. The wife, who was a kind and 
 tidy woman, did all in her power, under the circumstances, to keep her 
 little home clean. To do this she was continually sweeping, in which 
 process she kept bacilli on the move, endangering not only her hen 1th 
 but my health and the health of all her friends who might call. 
 
 Being a woman of some intelligence a brief explanation that she 
 must keep the air of the room fresh and free from dust was all that 
 was necessary to have her see the danger. I then began to care for 
 my patient hygiemcally and antiseptically. 
 
 Thus I could go on and multiply case after case to show the great 
 necessity of a better understanding among our people concerning ven 
 tilation ; but it is not necessary. We all are satisfied that much im 
 provement is needed in our homes along those lines and that is why 
 we are here. 
 
 Preaching the laws of health and hygiene in this age has about the 
 same effect that preaching the gospel has. They hear willingly, but 
 heed slowly. Many hear, but only a few will believe ; a few will be 
 saved and many will be lost. 
 
 In conclusion, I would ask that this organization petition Congress 
 to make an appropriation to help push forward this well-begun work. 
 
 With that aid we would be able to place one or two physicians in 
 every large city, at least, whose duty it would be to push these inves 
 tigations, and as they would go from home to home they could in 
 struct the people as to ventilation and in the laws of health and hy 
 giene. This is, indeed, necessary if we wish to have the masses in 
 structed in those things that are indispensable in order to have strong 
 and healthy bodies as well as strong and vigorous minds. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 
 
 THE CARE OF THE TEETH IN ITS RELATION TO 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 BY ,1. R. PORTER ( 80), D,D.S., ATLANTA. GA. 
 
 In working out our health problems \ve often fail to recognize 
 certain factors which are highly important. We hardly ever fig 
 ure on the effect of diseased teeth on the general health, and their 
 permanent handicap on our energies. Many a trouble that has been 
 assigned to some remote cause, and that has called forth learned dis 
 quisitions, should have been placed at the door of some abscessed 
 tooth of long standing, and the diagnosis punctuated with the 
 forceps. 
 
 Many a case of facial neuralgia is the progeny of uncared-for teeth. 
 Many an injured eye owes all its troubles to the root of some offending 
 tooth that reaches the floor of its orbit by using the Antrum of 
 Hymore as a go-between ; while fever, hysteria, muscular neuralgia 
 and apparent heart trouble, that are plainly due to these unclean 
 members, are not infrequently met with. 
 
 There are two classes of evils that may arise as a result of diseased 
 tooth tissue : those that come from actual contact with the poisonous 
 matter generated in the affected member, and those that result from 
 the constant irritation of the nerve tissues. 
 
 Each one of these may be serious in its consequences, and may 
 force upon us evils that will run their allotted third and fourth gen 
 eration, or may leave permanent marks on our physical appearance 
 and health. 
 
 Lessons should be taught in the schools on the care of the teeth, as 
 well as of other portions of the body. People do not neglect treat 
 ing a fever, removing a splinter or caring for a sprain, and yet they 
 pass unnoticed these long-suffering members, until one of them, after 
 long endurance, suddenly wakes them to a sense of their duty. 
 
 There is a truth that rings through the pages of the Bible, in so 
 many forms and varieties that it has become impressive. " Cleanli 
 ness is next to Godliness," is that truth. In it we have our first 
 
64 STtJJDV OF JSEGKO CITY LIFfc, 
 
 lesaon in hygiene, and around it clusters all our physical and spiritual! 
 comfort. 
 
 There is nothing useless in that sacred volume, nothing written for 
 mere ornament, nothing engrafted in the wonderful schemes of crea 
 tion and redemption that has not a " because " attached to it, and that 
 is not a link in God s economy, whether of man towards his Creator, 
 or of man towards himself. 
 
 This beautiful truth is therefore pregnant with a deeper meaning 
 than is at first apparent. Not only does it teach that we should keep 
 the body pure and clean as the fit temple of the living God ; but 
 more, it teaches that if we would more nearly live the allotted span 
 of human life, we should recognize that cleanliness is the panacea for 
 all our ills, and that sanitation, external and internal, is our best safe 
 guard against disease* 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 55 
 
 ADDRESS BEFORE THE WOMEN S MEETING. 
 
 BY MISS LUCY C. I.ANEY (73), AUGUSTA, GA. 
 
 Ladies : A little more than a quarter of a century ago this Ameri 
 can Republic, after much painful travail, brought forth the youngest 
 child of" civilization the Negro citizen. To-day we, the offspring of 
 that birth, stand upon the entrance of a glorious future if we will ac 
 cept and faithfully comply with the conditions upon which we may 
 claim the boon. 
 
 To find out and to discuss some of these conditions is the object of 
 this conference and the women s section of it. For a long time many 
 were disposed to think that the condition of most importance was pol 
 itics, and for years politicians, honest and dishonest, ignorant and wise, 
 struggled in vain to bring about that consummation devoutly to be 
 wished, true manhood in our race. Some vainly hoped that that mis 
 erable deformity wrongly called education, viz., the conning of a few 
 facts from text-books, was the condition to be complied with. Still 
 another class said honestly and devoutly that the condition and the 
 only condition to be met was the development of our religious nature, 
 A fourth class united the second and third conditions, and after some 
 what modifying the third, gave to the world as the watchword of 
 Negro development " the Bible and the spelling-book." Any one of 
 these made the rule of life, made the only condition to be met, has been 
 to those who followed it an ignis fatum, for it has misguided them and 
 led them into dangerous places. Each by itself is but a part of a 
 grand total. 
 
 No person is responsible for his ancestors ; nor should he be held 
 responsible for their sins and short-comings, though he bear about in 
 his body the marks and scars of those sins; but every woman can see 
 to it that she gives to her progeny a good mother and an honorable 
 ancestry. I care not how humble may be the house in which two loving 
 hearts may set up their household gods, if blessed with a manly and 
 God-fearing husband, a womanly and God-fearing wife, intelligence 
 and health, that place is a home, the nearest approach on earth to 
 
56 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LlFtt. 
 
 heaven. The chief joy of home is mother. You may place upon the 
 brow of a true mother the greenest laurel or you may give into her 
 keeping the highest civic honors, but these to her will be found want 
 ing if weighed in a balance over against her home. To her the bless 
 edness of motherhood is the greatest joy, a crown more costly than 
 pearls of royalty. 
 
 Marriage, the beginning of home, is a matter of great importance 
 and should not be carelessly entered into. It is the place to take the 
 proverbial stitch in time. From this point a shadow may be cast 
 which will darken the pathway of coming generations. This is not a 
 question that can be settled on a basis of gain or convenience, but as 
 has been said: " A tie that only love and truth should weave and noth 
 ing but death should part." 
 
 Motherhood, honored by our blessed Master, is the crown of woman 
 hood. This gives her not only interest in the home and society, but 
 also authority. She should be interested in the welfare of her own and her 
 neighbors children. To woman has been committed the responsibility 
 of making the laws of society, making environments for children. 
 She has the privilege and authority, God-given, to help develop into 
 a noble man or woman the young life committed to her care. There 
 is no nobler work entrusted to the hands of mortals, 
 
 Faithful mothers, mothers who know their duty and perform it, 
 such must have been the mother of the Gracchi, -such a mother we 
 read of in holy writ: " All nations shall rise up and call her blessed." 
 
 Will not the intelligent mother gather to her heart her sons and 
 daughters and teach them to be pure in life and chaste in conversation, 
 and see to it that there be no double standard set up in her home, and 
 none in her community if she be able to tear it down? 
 
 Too often that mother who is careful of her daughter s environ 
 ment, the formation of her girl s character, is negligent as to her son s. 
 He may choose his own company, be the molder of his own character. 
 If the daughter should drag the robes of her womanhood in the dust 
 that mother would be covered with shame and grief, but the son of 
 that mother may trample down his manhood and there will scarcely 
 be a blush ; only the old but false cry, and pernicious as it is false, 
 " Boys must sow their wild oats." 
 
 Our bovs need the careful, loving hand of mother ; perhaps not more 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 57 
 
 8> than the girls but certainly not less. 
 
 Shall the boys be left to the tender training of the saloons and the 
 fascinations of women degraded by sin ? God forbid it ! Women of 
 to-day, awake to your responsibilities and privileges. 
 
 The Mothers Congress recently held at Washington was not only a 
 most unique gathering, but as the years roll on and men and women 
 study more carefully that most important of all questions, the chil 
 dren of the nation, it will be found to be the working out of the 
 noblest ideas of the noblest minds and most loving hearts of the age. 
 That vast assemblage of men and women discussing questions most 
 vital to the welfare of their children shows how great is the lamenta 
 tion in Rama, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be com 
 forted because they are not. 
 
 Shall we not catch inspiration from that Congress and in our literary 
 societies, ladies clubs, and even in our churches study our children by 
 the search-light of the new psychology and with the spirit of the true 
 and loving mother? 
 
58 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 FRIENDLY VISITING. 
 
 BY MRS. MINNIE WRIGHT PRICE ( 88), SOUTH ATLANTA, GA. 
 
 Life would not be worth living did we not have friends to rejoice 
 with us when we are glad, and to weep with us when we mourn. 
 
 As the babe looks to his mother to laugh when something has par 
 ticularly pleased him and expects that same mother to kiss away his 
 tears when trouble has befallen him, so we, who are grown to woman 
 hood, like to feel that we have earthly friends to sympathize with us 
 in joy or grief. But what do we think of a near friend who never 
 visits us? 
 
 All of us have our friends, especially while we live in the place of 
 our birth ; for there are men and women there who knew us when we 
 were babies, who are our friends for our mother s or father s sake, if 
 not for our own. 
 
 There are boys and girls who grew up with us on the play-ground 
 and in the school-room, who, in remembrance of the associations 
 of our youth, will always be our friends. But not all spend their 
 lives on their native heath, some are continually moving, they spend a 
 lew months here and then, when they have just begun to make friends, 
 move on to another place. They are often strangers in a strange land 
 and then it is that they feel the loneliness and emptiness of life with 
 out friends. 
 
 Our neighborhoods are tilled with families which need the sympa 
 thy and cheer that a friendly visit from you would give, but you 
 withhold yourself because they are a little lower in the social scale 
 than you are, or if they are higher, you fear that they will think you are 
 seeking their recognition. How much better off we would be if we 
 would cease to draw these lines of caste and each of us as we climb 
 the ladder reach down and assist a struggling sister! 
 
 What a spiritual help we would be to each other, if we would make 
 more friendly visits ! Just a word of cheer and hope to the low-spir 
 ited, a word of sympathy to the sick, would show forth the Holy 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 59 
 
 Spirit who dwells in all Christian hearts. 
 
 Women are naturally kind and friendly. About woman has ever 
 clustered the affection, the romance and even the comfort of human 
 existence. Wherever women are found there is almost always cheer 
 fulness and kindness; they are generally obliging, and even among 
 savage tribes they are not as distant and suspicious as men. How 
 ever poor their hospitality may be, they can safely be relied upon by 
 the stranger. 
 
 Mungo Park in the midst of Africa, when robbed of his baggage 
 and suffering from fever, was sheltered by a Negro woman, who 
 watched and cared for him with a mother s tenderness. If cold, wet, 
 hungry or sick, woman never stops to consider aught but the 
 stranger s needs and will sacrifice her last stick or crumb to relieve 
 him. 
 
 It was a poor widow who fed Elijah in the time of famine. 
 It was the kindness of woman that led her to commiserate the suf 
 ferings of the numerous criminals, herded in the dark, unwholsome 
 cells of the English prisons, and the work of Elizabeth Frye among 
 the vile in Newgate will be remembered with reverence while the 
 world lasts. 
 
 Not many of us are permitted to feed an Elijah, but how many are 
 daily letting the opportunity slip by when we might visit some of our poor 
 neighbors, carrying a bit of the family breakfast ordinner, and while 
 the food satisfies their hunger, our cheering words \vill give them 
 hope, courage and strength to toil on. 
 
 Very few of us are called to bring about great reforms, but each 
 and all of us by making friendly visits among our neighbors, can 
 teach them the lessons of purity, cleanliness, and economy in their 
 persons and in their homes. We can also carry to them the message 
 of Christ, while we will get in return some very valuable lesson. 
 
 In visiting those of our own station in life we gain by the exchange 
 of ideas and our children and homes profit thereby ; while friendly 
 visits with those better situated than we will inspire us to climb higher. 
 
 We need to cultivate a habit of making friendly visits because of 
 the help, the cheer, the inspiration we may give to others, and because 
 of the help we may be to ourselves, for in this way we may learn to 
 be content when comparing our lot with that of the more unfortunate; 
 
t)0 STUDY OF N EG 110 <TPY LIFE. 
 
 or if discontented, it will be, not to grumble or com plain of Provi 
 dence, but to put forth efforts to better our condition, and also be 
 cause of the help we may be to the Church and to civilization. 
 
 When we visit our neighbors, giving them spiritual cheer or phys 
 ical assistance, we are teaching the lesson of Christianity by example, 
 we are walking in the footsteps of our Master and building up His 
 Church on earth. And as we inspire others to make home pure, com 
 fortable and happy, we are making the men and women of the future, 
 who will lead honest, industrious Christian lives. Thus we will rid 
 the country of its chain gangs and prison houses, and build up a civili 
 zation such as the world has never yet seen. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 61 
 
 MOTHERS MEETINGS. 
 
 BY MRS. GEORGIA SWIFT KING ( 74), ATLANTA, GA. 
 
 If it is true, that of the three main factors in the make-up of the 
 individual, the home, the school and the church, the greatest is the 
 home, and since it is true that the. home is what the parents make it, 
 the mother by nature having the larger share in the making, then it 
 follows that the destiny of the Xegro race is largely in the hands of 
 its mothers. 
 
 Statistics resulting from recent investigations indicate with respect 
 to the Negro population of the United States; first, a general decrease 
 in the birth-rate; second, an alarmingly excessive infant death-rate ; 
 third, because of inherited tendencies and defective education, phys 
 ical, intellectual and moral, a greatly excessive death-rate among 
 adults ; fourth, that so little does the birth-rate exceed the death-rate 
 that the race is doing little more than reproducing itself. These in 
 dications furnish food for thought, and reason for investigation and 
 action. 
 
 The alarming increase of infanticide (without reference to the im 
 moral, brutal class) seems to result from the overworked, discouraged, 
 desperate state of many laboring mothers, upon whom the burden of 
 family support so largely rests. 
 
 The large death-rate of both infants and adults, I believe, may be 
 traced to poverty and ignorance of the laws of health ; an ignorance 
 not confined to the illiterate, for how many highly intelligent people 
 there are who have almost no knowledge of the symptoms of ordinary 
 diseases ; who do not know when to send for the doctor, nor how to care 
 for the sick. I recall several instances during the present year where 
 promising lives in intelligent homes have been sacrificed on the altar 
 of ignorance and the most extravagant economy ; what wonder that 
 the illiterate and poor die in so great numbers ! 
 
 Does this excessive death-rate indicate a corresponding mental and 
 moral decay ? What is the remedy for such conditions ? 
 
 The blood of the fallen is required at the hands of the intelligent 
 
62 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY T.IFE. 
 
 class. The demand is apparent for preachers who study the signs of 
 the times and deal practically with the needs of the hour; for teachers, 
 capable, conscientious, consecrated; for physicians, skilled, honorable, 
 philanthropic. But these agencies alone can not meet the demands 
 and should be supplemented by other methods. 
 
 Observation and experience lead me to conclude that a most excel 
 lent medium for effectual instruction of the masses, is "Mother s 
 Meetings/ 7 where all questions of human interest are pertinent and 
 may be freely discussed ; where all classes of women may become bet 
 ter informed ;where even the illiterate, by regular attendance, may gain 
 much essential knowledge of such vital subjects as: The laws of sani 
 tation ; Selection of foods; Economic cooking; Proper and wholesome 
 dress; Care of infants: Needs (physical, mental and moral) of child 
 hood; Care of boys and girls through the critical period between 
 childhood and maturity; How to fortify young men against the follies 
 of immorality and young women against the dangers of imprudence. 
 
 The science of health and heredity and prenatal influences, and 
 all that pertains to household morality and economy, may be handled 
 with such simplicity in these meetings, that not only the mothers but 
 the whole people may receive real benefit. 
 
 When difficulty is experienced in getting the mothers to these 
 meetings I have met with some success by taking the meetings to the 
 mothers, that is, to their immediate neighborhood. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 63 
 
 NEED OF DAY NURSERIES. 
 
 BY MRS. SELENA SLOAN BUTLER, ATLANTA, GA. 
 
 Among the important questions of to-day is the need of day nurser 
 ies in cities and towns where children of parents who, by force of 
 circumstances, are obliged to earn a living by working in service, may 
 receive good and wholesome influences during that period of life when 
 impressions are easily made and character readily molded, either for 
 good or bad. 
 
 Many parents in cities must do work which calls them away from 
 home, and often they toil from early dawn till a late hour to keep the 
 wolf from the door, and, because of their small wages, their children 
 often are forced to do work too hard for them that their meager earn 
 ings may add to the support of the still smaller children left at home 
 during the day without the care of a poor but loving mother; left 
 alone during that most important period of their lives when good or 
 evil principles will, by cultivation, become the ruling passion through 
 life; left alone to grow up amid a multitude of unfavorable surround 
 ings. With these existing circumstances, it does not need a prophet 
 to tell what the result will be. 
 
 It is a daily experience to find a child of tender years left to tend 
 the baby with but a scant meal of meat and bread, while the widowed 
 mother is out at work. At a late hour the mother returns, tired and 
 almost exhausted ; she proceeds at once to satisfy the hunger of her 
 unfortunate children, and then, in her humble way, as best she can, 
 with their bowed heads at her side she teaches them to lisp the " Lord s 
 Prayer," then all are lost in sleep. The majority of the children who 
 would be glad to find protection in a day nursery are not blessed with 
 even this limited knowledge of a good moral training. 
 
 Such circumstances are not only unfavorable to the physical condi 
 tion of the children, but detrimental to the parent, because such a 
 state of constant activity and anxiety exhausts the vital force. Do 
 you ask the result ? Why, the mother dies at an early age, leaving 
 little children in the hands of chance, to be brought up, quite likely. 
 
64 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 among the weeds of vice and sin, going from bad to worse, until they 
 become a menace to society. If there had been a day nursery with 
 good conscientious persons at its head, in which these children could 
 have had their physical, mental and moral natures properly cared for 
 at a small cost to the mother, they would have developed into charac 
 ters with sufficient magnitude to lift humanity to a higher plane, in 
 stead of degrading it ; and the mother would have no doubt lived out 
 her three score years and ten. 
 
 If you will examine the records of the mortality of the Negroes of 
 this city, you will find that about one-third of the deaths occurred among 
 the children, and a closer investigation will disclose the fact that the 
 majority of these deaths occurred in families where parents were 
 obliged to work out and therefore could not detect disease in their 
 little ones until too late to be relieved by medical aid. 
 
 I will relate only two of the many casescoming under my observation 
 which make a strong appeal for the establishment of day nurseries. 
 A widowed mother, who worked for a family in this city, had a boy 
 about six years of age. This mother left her little boy alone, asking 
 each morning the family in the adjoining room to have an oversight 
 over him during the day. For several nights when the mother re 
 turned from her work between the hours of eight and nine, she found 
 her boy with flushed cheeks, sleeping restlessly. Being tired she did 
 not investigate the cause of this abnormal condition, but attributed it 
 to exhaustion from play. Finally the child s condition became alarm 
 ing, and one night about nine o clock the mother took it to the office 
 of a physician. After a careful examination, the mother was told that 
 her child was in the third stage of typhoid fever, and recovery de 
 pended upon immediate attention and good nursing. Then the mother, 
 with tears in her eyes, related her sad story. 
 
 The other case is that of a boy who went into a physician s office 
 crying, and with his clothes covered with blood. What was the mat 
 ter? Why, the same old story. The boy had had an artery cut with 
 a stone that was thrown by another boy whose mother was obliged to 
 work away from home, that she might be able to pay her house rent 
 and feed and clothe her children: and but for the interest the physician 
 took in the case, there might have been a dead boy, a lawsuit, and a 
 juvenile criminal ; all because of the need of day nurseries. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 65 
 
 Another evidence of the need of day nurseries is the large number 
 of boys, almost babies you might say, to be found not only loitering 
 and making mischief in the alleys, but even in the chain-gangs. Many 
 are there because in early childhood they had no one at home to hold 
 them in check, and, yielding to the influences about them, their minds 
 became steeped in sin and vice ; and they grew wise only in the knowl 
 edge of petty crimes. 
 
 If the absence of day nurseries affected the physical nature only it 
 might not be so alarming, but seeing the effect daily upon the mental 
 and moral natures, and not knowing to what extent these natures may 
 be transmitted to coming generations, we ought to see plainly the 
 necessity of administering the ounce of prevention by establishing day 
 nurseries. 
 
 We need an institution where mothers who are obliged to be away 
 from home in order that they may earn an honest living may leave 
 their children and have the satisfaction of knowing that their little 
 minds are lifted above the miry slough and prepared to shun the pit 
 falls that have been the destruction of many a young life born to be 
 useful. 
 
66 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 NEED OF KINDERGARTENS. 
 
 BY MRS. ROSA MOREHEAD BASS ( 80), ATLANTA, <iA. 
 
 [NOTE: A movement has already been started among the influential colored peo 
 ple of Atlanta to establish a kindergarten. The plan of the conference has been to 
 discuss only such reforms as were immediate^ practical and would be dependent 
 only on local co-operation and support. ED.] 
 
 I could perform no pleasanter duty than to plead for kindergarten 
 schools for the Negro children. 
 
 Some twelve years ago we had in Atlanta a model Jones kindergar 
 ten, under the care of the A. M. A., so it will not be an experiment 
 with us. Unfortunately it had to be discontinued for want of means. 
 It would have been self-supporting by this time, and would have ac 
 complished untold good. 
 
 What a blessing a kindergarten would be to the tired mother who 
 could feel that her little darling was safely housed from harm while 
 she performs her daily duties! For the poor woman who is busy the 
 entire week washing and ironing, it is an impossibility to care properly 
 for her children. A kindergarten would be a rock of refuge to her; 
 and to that mother who goes from home early in the morning and does 
 not return till dark, for her children such a school would be a castle 
 of escape. 
 
 I wish to give the " testimony" of three mothers, who are graduates 
 of Atlanta University, and whose husbands are prominent in educa 
 tional work. These have representative homes homes of intelligence. 
 Mrs. Win. E. Holmes, whose husband is a professor in the Atlanta 
 Baptist College, says : 
 
 " As I see it, we need kindergarten schools: 
 
 " First Because, as a race, we are incompetent to give our children 
 the training such schools furnish; 
 
 "Second Because such tuition gives the teacher a foundation on 
 which to build. We speak much concerning our progress and it must 
 be admitted that it is great, but if we had had at the beginning of our 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 67 
 
 career such preliminary education we should be considerably in advance 
 of our present condition; 
 
 " Third Because the impressionable years of early childhood should 
 be turned to matters of importance and permanent value. This is a 
 training which if neglected then can never be supplied. And if we 
 are ever to be an educated race that training we must have, for educa 
 tion is our greatest need." 
 
 Mrs. Crogman, the wife of Prof. Crogman of Clark University, and 
 the mother of eight children, says: 
 
 " In my opinion one of the greatest needs of our people is the estab 
 lishment of kindergarten schools for the training of our young. In 
 them they can be trained younger than in the primary schools ; and in 
 them they are prepared to take hold better of the primary work." 
 
 Mrs. Edgar J. Penney, whose husband is pastor at the Tuskegee 
 Normal and Industrial Institute, says : 
 
 " I am a kindergarten enthusiast, because I believe it is the mother s 
 greatest help. It opens its doors at the very time when children are 
 most restless and active, and turns that activity, which is miscalled 
 mischief at home, into innocent and pleasant instruction, and thus the 
 process of development of the mind and physical nature begins early. 
 The State is generous, I know, in educating the young, but she makes the 
 mistake that many parents make in letting the child become bad and then 
 frying to reform it. The natural order ought to be for the youth to 
 graduate from the kindergarten, then from the primary schools, and so 
 n until the college is reached. 
 
 What a God-send would these children-gardens be to the poor who 
 have little or no time to give to the training of their little ones! I 
 am praying and longing to see the day when free kindergartens will 
 be on the corner of every alley. What a strange idea to wait until a 
 child is six or seven to begin its education, which means books as so 
 many think! 
 
 " There are hundreds of things and ideas that a child gets in a kin 
 dergarten which are really the beginning of its education, and yet it 
 does not know the book language. It gets acquainted with nature. I 
 cannot tell you how it rejoices me that this most important subject is 
 to be discussed. I wish I could arouse every mother and teacher in 
 this Southland to see the need of saving our children before they 
 
 o 
 
 u 
 
68 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LJFE. 
 
 become steeped and dyed in vice, and then attempt to reform them/ 
 
 The Catholics ask but the first seven years of a child, the formative 
 period, asserting that ideas inculcated during that season cannot be 
 supplanted. Let us apply the wisdom of their experience to our case. 
 The years that need most careful instruction are those entrusted to the 
 tender mercies of the rabble. Innocent eyes read and observe the 
 animate illustrations of vice, innocent ears listen to the rendition of 
 collections of depravity. With these lessons learned the school teacher 
 has to begin to uneducate, but trace what she may upon the palimpsest 
 the first record remains uneifaced. 
 
 The Atlanta Journal recently said: "This work seems to be the 
 sweetest, the best, the most far-reaching good work that we can do for 
 humanity. Teach a little child goodness and truth, useful facts and 
 bright bits of knowledge, and the father and mother in the lowly homes 
 will soon learn the same lessons from the baby lips." 
 
 With all the ardor of an anxious mother I repeat that day homes or 
 kindergartens are a glaring need, an absolute necessity if the masses 
 are to be raised. 
 
 Friends, I plead most earnestly for such a school at once, there are 
 so many little children ready and eager to go to the school. Who, oh ? 
 who is ready and willing to help us to administer to their wants? 
 
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 
 
 REPORTS FROM CITIES. 
 
 [NoTE: It is hoped to make the reports from cities one of the main features of 
 the next conference. A movement has already begun in several cities to form local 
 organizations to make investigations and work along lines suggested by the Atlanta 
 conference. Another year one of the section meetings could be profitably devoted 
 to reports and discussions by the delegates from such organizations. This year we 
 print brief reports from three of these organizations located respectively in Atlanta, 
 New Orleans and Washington. ED.] 
 
 ATLANTA. 
 
 This report was presented to the conference by Prof, Win. E. Holmes, of the At 
 lanta Baptist College. 
 
 Deeply concerned about the condition of the poor people in Atlanta, 
 for some time Mrs. Georgia Swift King, in a quiet way, had been labor 
 ing to better it. Into homes neglected by the fortunate few she had 
 again and again made her way to help the needy. Finding the work 
 growing in dimensions, it occurred, to her to enlist the sympathy and 
 assistance of others. 
 
 Accordingly, early in the spring, at her suggestion a meeting was 
 called at the residence of Rev. Dr. W. G. Alexander. A number re 
 sponded, the object of the meeting was stated, discussion was engaged 
 in and an organization was effected, of which Prof. William B. 
 Matthews is the president. 
 
 Like similar societies, the object is to study the condition of the 
 lowly and in all possible ways to improve it. The society intends to 
 awaken interest in good reading, to look after female criminals, to 
 seek to raise the standard of home life, and thus tone up the morals 
 and decrease the mortality of the race. 
 
 Already mothers meetings have been held, children have been 
 looked after, and helpful suggestions have been made to the people. 
 
 NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 Reported by letter by Rev. George W. Henderson to the corresponding secretary of 
 the conference, Mr. George G. Bradford. 
 
 I sent you newspaper clippings containing reports of our first two 
 meetings. The third was equally successful. We were fortunate in 
 securing the co-operation and assistance of the mayor of the city and 
 
STUDY OF NEGRO CITY LIFE. 
 
 other equally distinguished citizens of the white race. 
 
 These meetings were somewhat experimental. Their success was 
 such as to encourage the continuance of the movement. A committee 
 was appointed to form a permanent organization for the continued in 
 vestigation and discussion of the various questions concerning our 
 moral and material progress. The central principle of the undertak 
 ing diifers somewhat from the Atlanta enterprise. 
 
 With us the fundamental thing is education. The causes and reme 
 dies of mortality are a part of this larger subject. In our city we 
 have little doubt but that the bad sanitary condition of those sections 
 where our people live has much to do with the high death-rate. 
 For this the city is largely responsible. So far as the people them 
 selves are responsible, it is due to poverty and ignorance. Hence our 
 object is to impart knowledge and create the desire for improvement 
 and arouse the spirit of self-help, and our method is to hold popular 
 meetings from time to time in diiferent parts of the city on the one 
 hand, and also affect public sentiment on the other through the 
 press and by committees who shall represent us before the Board of 
 Education, the City Council and the Legislature, and ultimately we 
 hope to extend the movement to all parts of the state. 
 
 As to the question of mortality, I hope something may be done 
 along the lines pursued in Atlanta and other cities. My first aim has 
 been to create an interest. I think now I see the way clear to do this 
 particular kind of investigation, and I hope some report may be sent 
 to your third conference next year. 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 This report was presented to the conference by Mr. L. M. Hershaw. 
 
 The Graduate Club of Washington, D. C., is an organization com 
 posed of colored graduates of several Northern and Southern colleges. 
 The object of the club is to stimulate study and research among its 
 members. The work outlined so far lies within the province of soci 
 ology. During the year just closed the club has been studying the 
 works of Giddiugs and Fairbanks on sociology. The program for 
 next year contains studies on various phases of the Negro problem, 
 and also several topics of a broadly sociological interest. Prof. Kelly 
 Miller, professor of mathematics in Howard University, is president 
 of the club, which has a membership at present of thirty-three. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL < ONFEKENCE. 71 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 
 
 [The following are extracts from a few of the many encouraging letters received 
 from those who sympathize deeply with the purpose of the conference. ED.] 
 
 From His Excellency, W. Y. ATKINSON, Governor of the State of Georgia : 
 
 I have delayed replying to your kind invitation to be with yon, 
 hoping that I would be able to comply with your request, but I regret 
 to say that I am now forced to write you that it will be impossible for 
 rue to accept. 
 
 I sincerely trust that the " Conference on City Problems" will be 
 both profitable and enjoyable. 
 
 From MELVILLE W. FULLER, Chief Justice of the U. S, Supreme Court; 
 
 I sincerely regret that I find it impossible to attend the conference 
 with reference to the condition of the colored population in our cities, 
 to be held Mav 25th and 26th. 
 
 From FREDERICK HOWARD WINES, LL.D,, Editor of the Charities Review. 
 
 I am very much obliged for your invitation to attend the second 
 conference with reference to the condition of the colored population 
 in the cities of the United States. I regret that my official duties will 
 not permit my absence from home at the date of this meeting. 
 
 My word to the conference is simply this: that if the Negro race is 
 ever to be elevated in the social scale, as I believe that it will be, it 
 can only be by self-culture and self-control. Help from the outside 
 will go but a little way. The Negro must realize his manhbod and 
 his responsibilities as a man and citizen, and meet them, if he wishes to 
 survive in the struggle for existence. It is absolutely essential that he 
 should receive not only a literary education, but manual training; and 
 that he should cultivate in himself the virtues of industry, thrift, 
 chastity, honesty and temperance. When he learns to respect himself, 
 
72 STUDY OF NEGRO CITY 1,1 FK. 
 
 his women, the rights of others, and especially the rights of property ; 
 to meet the reasonable expectations of his employers, and to fulfill his 
 contracts both in letter and in spirit, he will command the respect of 
 the world, and his advancement will be both sure and rapid. If race 
 prejudice on the part of the white people towards the colored is to be 
 deplored, so also is race prejudice on the part of the colored people 
 towards the white. The two races must live in peace and harmony, or 
 the weaker race will inevitably go to the wall. 
 
 From Hon. C. A. COLLIER, Mayor of the City of Atlanta. 
 
 I shall be gone until June 1st, or about that time; consequently I 
 shall be compelled to forego the pleasure of making the address which you 
 desire at vour conference on the 2oth and 26th of Mav. 
 
 From JOHN F. CROWELL, Professor of Economics and Sociology in Smith 
 College: 
 
 I am very deeply interested in the conference proposed to consider 
 the condition of the colored population in our cities, at Atlanta, May 
 25 and 26. It is a step in the right direction a step looking toward the 
 selection of the socially safe and the scientifically sound means by which 
 the colored people may avoid the dangers and yet secure the benefits 
 of what is an essentially sympathetic civilization. Though my duties 
 here will prevent my being present I hope that its proceedings will be 
 given widest publicity. 
 
 I hope that those who meet to discuss these problems may, if deemed 
 advisable, provide for permanent organization of this movement, so 
 that from year to year the methods and results may be considered in 
 conference. If so, please enroll my name among its members. 
 
 From SAMUEL M. LINDSAY, Professor of Finance and Economy, University o 
 Pennsylvania : 
 
 I am very glad to know of your Conference on City Problems. The 
 results of your investigation as published in the Bulletin of the De 
 partment of Labor are extremely interesting and this conference should 
 be very helpful. I would like to be present, but my duties here at 
 the close of the term are such that I cannot get away now. 
 
Appendix: A. 
 
 The data from which the following tables were compiled were gathered exclusively by rep 
 resentative colored men and women under the direction of Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga. 
 At the suggestion of Col. Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of the U. S. Department of Labor, 
 the data gathered were turned over to the Department of Labor for tabulation and at his request 
 the university permitted the tables to be published in full in the May Bulletin of the Depart 
 ment of Labor. We reprint here summaries and extracts from these tables. 
 
 There were invited to take part in the investigation about 50 graduates of Atlanta Univer 
 sity, 30 of Fisk University, and 15 of the colored graduates of Berea, besides the prominent 
 colored doctors, ministers, lawyers, and teachers of the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Ala 
 bama and Tennessee, including representatives from all the more prominent institutions for the 
 higher education of the Negro. In all, something over 300 were invited, of whom about 100 
 volunteered, and of the latter 50 were able to complete their part of the investigation within 
 the time allowed them, which, unfortunately, was very short. 
 
 Great credit is due to the investigators for their work in the investigation, for through 
 them its success has been possible. As previously stated, they are all representative colored 
 persons. The following statement shows in detail the name of each person engaged in the work 
 of securing the data, the number of groups investigated by each, and the total number of 
 groups, families and individuals canvassed. 
 
 Investigators. 
 
 Athens, Oa. 
 
 Dr. C. S. Haynes 
 
 Atlanta, Ga. 
 
 Selena S. Butler 
 
 Emma L. Holmes 
 
 Laura C. Davis 
 
 Lilla E. Badger and Mary E. Brittain 
 
 Mary F. Pumn 
 
 Prof. William B . Matthews 
 
 Dr. H. R. Butler 
 
 George A. Towns and Adrienne E. 
 
 Hern don 
 
 Jul ia M. Brown 
 
 Mattie A. Ford 
 
 Alice D. Carey 
 
 Georgia S. King 
 
 Rev. Henry H. Proctor 
 
 Nellie E. Crawford 
 
 Mary E. Keller 
 
 Birmingham, Ala. 
 
 Dr. A. M. Brown 
 
 Cambridge, Mas*. 
 Butler R. Wilson 
 
 Cartersville, Ga. 
 
 Albert B. Cooper 
 
 Chattanooga, Tenn. 
 Rev. Joseph E. Smith 
 
 Columbia, 8. C. 
 Dr. C. C. Johnson 
 
 Jackson, Tenn. 
 Prof. A. R. Merry 
 
 Group 
 No. 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 2 
 3 
 4 
 
 5 
 6,7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 10 
 11 
 12 
 13 
 14 
 15 
 16 
 
 1,16 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 17 
 
 .8, 19, 20 
 
 Investigators. 
 
 Group 
 
 No 
 
 Jacksonville. Fla. 
 
 Dr. W. C. Smalls 
 
 Rev. W. E. Partee and L. B. Robinson 
 
 Prof. William F. Jackson 
 
 Louisville, Ky. 
 
 Prof. Frank L. Williams . . . 
 
 Macon, Ga. 
 Dr. C. McCarthy j 
 
 Macon, Mtss. 
 
 Dr. Daniel W. Sherrod 
 
 Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 Prof. Eugene Harris 
 
 Hon. J. C. Napier 
 
 Orangeburg, 8. C. 
 N. J. Frederick and Chas. H. Johnson 
 
 Frank B. Johnson 
 
 Sanford, Fla. 
 
 William C. McLester 
 
 Savannah, Ga. 9 
 
 Dr. C. McKane 
 
 Sarah J. Butler 
 
 Rev. R. R. Downs 
 
 Tuskegee, Ala. 
 Rev. E. J. Penney 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 Dr. Furman J. Shadd 
 
 Maggie R. Bowen 
 
 Dr. W. Bruce Evans 
 
 C. L. Franklin 
 
 31,32 
 
 1,2,3, 
 
 4,5,6, 
 
 7,8,9 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 21 
 25,26,27 
 
 NUMBER OF GROUPS, FAMILIES, AND INDIVIDUALS CANVASSED. 
 
 City. 
 
 Gro ps. 
 
 Fami 
 lies. 
 
 Indi- 
 vidu ls. 
 
 City. 
 
 Gro ps. 
 
 Fami 
 lies. 
 
 Indi- 
 vidu ls. 
 
 Atlanta, Ga 
 
 16 
 
 324 
 
 1,292 
 
 Orangeburg, S. C.. 
 
 2 
 
 22 
 
 109 
 
 Nashville, Tenn 
 Cambridge, Mass 
 Savannah, Ga 
 Washington, D. C 
 
 10 
 1 
 5 
 4 
 
 246 
 98 
 96 
 66 
 
 1,090 
 366 
 380 
 293 
 
 Sanford, Fla 
 Athens, Ga 
 Cartersville, Ga 
 Louisville, Ky. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 24 
 16 
 10 
 15 
 
 116 
 
 73 
 53 
 70 
 
 Macon, Ga 
 Jacksonville, Fla 
 Columbia, S. C.. 
 
 4 
 3 
 3 
 
 30 
 
 77 
 15 
 
 90 
 327 
 81 
 
 Macon, Miss 
 Chattanooga, Tenn 
 Jackson, Tenn. .... 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 17 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 64 
 89 
 
 67 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tuskegee, Ala 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 119 
 
 Total 
 
 59 
 
 1,137 
 
 4,742 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The investigation was carried to completion in 18 cities, all except one of 
 ^which are located in the Southern States. The effort to secure schedules for 
 several groups of colored people in each of the smaller cities and for a larger 
 number of groups in cities of greater size and importance was quite success 
 ful, as the preceding statement shows. Great care was taken in the selec 
 tion of groups and in securing data in Atlanta, Ga., Nashville, Tenn., and 
 Cambridge, Mass., and it is to the tabulation for these cities that we must 
 look for the most representative and accurate showing of the condition of the 
 Negro so far as this investigation is concerned. The tabulation of the data 
 for 32 groups in the other cities canvassed is presented mainly for the value 
 it may have in corroborating the facts presented for the 16 groups in Atlanta, 
 the 10 groups in Nashville, and the single group in Cambridge. The data for 
 the 32 groups in other cities have doubtless been gathered with quite as much 
 care in most cases, but the same care could not be exercised in the selection 
 of the 32 groups to be investigated as in the cities for which a separate state 
 ment is made. 
 
 Allusion has been made to "groups" in some of the previous statements, 
 and an explanation is probably necessary in order that the reader may have 
 an accurate knowledge of just what is meant by the term in this connection. 
 It was not possible to secure data from any large portion of the population 
 or for any large section of the cities involved in the investigation, owing to 
 the fact that in no instance was there any remuneration given to investiga 
 tors for the work performed, it being purely voluntary and usually performed 
 by persons with so many other interests that but a part of their time could 
 be devoted to this work. For this reason it was decided to select one or more 
 groups of from 10 to 20 houses standing together in the portions of the city 
 which were thought to be representative of the various conditions of the 
 Negro in that locality. Each of these collections of houses has been termed a 
 group. 
 
 In the tabular presentations which follow, the cities embraced in the 
 investigation have been arranged in four divisions in each summary table, 
 and the same order is followed in the tables which give more detailed infor 
 mation, as follows: Sixteen groups in Atlanta, Ga. ; 10 groups in Nashville, 
 Tenn.; 1 group in Cambridge, Mass.; and 32 groups in other cities. Under 
 each of these divisions the groups have been arranged according to their con 
 dition and the character of their surroundings, whether good, fair, or bad. 
 In the first division, comprising the 16 groups for Atlanta, Ga., groups 1, 2, 3, 
 4, and 5 may be classed as good ; groups 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 as fair ; and groups 
 12, 13, 14,15, and 16 as bad. In the second division, comprising 10 groups in 
 Nashville, Tenn., group 1 may be classed as good ; groups 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 
 9 as fair; and group 10 as bad. In the third division, the single group in 
 Cambridge, Mass., may be classed as fair. In the fourth division, groups 1 to 
 14 are classed as good ; groups 15 to 23 as fair ; and groups 24 to 29 as bad ; the 
 condition of groups 30, 31, and 32 not being reported. The groups in this 
 fourth division are located as follows : Group 1 in Birmingham, Ala. ; group 
 2 in Cartersville, Ga.; group 3 in Jackson, Tenn.; groups 4 and 5 in Jackson 
 ville, Fla.; group 6 in Louisville, Ky.; group 7 in Macon, Ga. ; group 8 in 
 Macon, Miss.; groups 9 and 10 in Orangeburg, S. C. ; group 11 in Sanford, Fla.; 
 group 12 in Savannah, Ga.; group 13 in Tuskegee, Ala.; group 14 in Washing 
 ton, D. C. ; group 15 in Athens, Ga. ; group 16 in Birmingham, Ala.; group 17 
 in Chattanooga, Tenn.; groups 18, 19, and 20 in Columbia, S. C.; group 21 in 
 Savannah, Ga. ; groups 22 and 23 in Washington, D. C.; group 24 in Jackson 
 ville, Fla.; groups 25, 26, and 27 in Savannah, Ga. ; group 28 in Tuskegee, 
 Ala.; group 29 in Washington, D. C.; and groups 30, 31, and 32 in Macon, Ga. 
 
TABLE 1. NUMBER AND PER CENT OF PERSONS OF EACH RELATIONSHIP. 
 
 Relationship to head of 
 family. 
 
 ! Nashville, 
 Atlanta, Ga., Tenn., 
 16 groups. , 10 groups. 
 
 Cambridge, 
 Mass., 
 1 group. 
 
 Other cities, 
 32 groups. 
 
 All groups. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per Nurn- 
 cent. ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Heads of families 
 Children.. 
 
 537 
 
 609 
 22 
 33 
 33 
 13 
 2t5 
 12 
 7 
 
 41.57 442 
 47.14 486 
 
 i.7o ; 30 
 
 2.55 46 
 2.55 25 
 1 . 01 20 
 2.01 9 
 .93 24 
 .54 ! 8 
 
 40.55 
 44.59 
 2.75 
 4.22 
 2.29 
 1.84 
 83 
 2 20 
 .73 
 
 178 
 152 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 48 63 
 41.53 
 1 09 
 4.65 
 .27 
 
 ".27 
 3.01 
 .55 
 
 817 
 920 
 44 
 42 
 54 
 37 
 16 
 44 
 20 
 
 40.97 
 46.14 
 2.21 
 2.11 
 2.71 
 1.85 
 .80 
 2.21 
 1.00 
 
 1,974 
 2,167 
 100 
 138 
 113 
 70 
 52 
 91 
 37 
 
 41.63 
 45.70 
 2.11 
 2 91 
 2 38 
 1.47 
 1.10 
 1.92 
 .78 
 
 Parents 
 
 Brothers and sisters 
 
 Grandchildren 
 
 Boarders 
 
 Other relationships.. 
 Total 
 
 1,292 
 
 100.01) 1.090 
 
 100.00 
 
 366 
 
 100.00 1,994 
 
 100.00 
 
 4,742 
 
 100.00 
 
 
 TABLE 2. NUMBER AND PER CENT OF FAMILIES OF EACH SPECIFIED SIZE. 
 
 Size of families. 
 
 Atlanta, Ga., 
 16 groups. 
 
 Nashville, 
 Tenn., 
 10 groups. 
 
 Cambridge, 
 Mass., 
 1 group. 
 
 Other cities, 
 32 groups. 
 
 All groups. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Pei- 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 1 person 
 
 22 
 65 
 76 
 
 48 
 42 
 27 
 22 
 9 
 8 
 5 
 
 6 79 
 20.06 
 23.46 
 14.82 
 12.96 
 8.33 
 6.79 
 2.78 
 2.47 
 1.54 
 
 I 
 
 38 
 46 
 53 
 21 
 18 
 12 
 5 
 3 
 1 
 
 2.04 
 17.89 
 15.45 
 18.67 
 21.55 
 8.54 
 7.32 
 4.88 
 2.03 
 1.22 
 .41 
 
 5 
 25 
 23 
 18 
 14 
 2 
 4 
 5 
 
 " 2 
 
 5.10 
 25.51 
 23.47 
 18.37 
 14.29 
 2.04 
 4.08 
 5.10 
 
 2.04 
 
 22 
 84 
 103 
 86 
 57 
 36 
 38 
 17 
 13 
 12 
 1 
 
 4.69 
 17.91 
 21.96 
 18.34 
 12.15 
 7.68 
 8.10 
 3.63 
 2.77 
 2.56 
 .21 
 
 54 
 218 
 240 
 198 
 166 
 86 
 82 
 43 
 26 
 22 
 2 
 
 4.75 
 19.17 
 21.11 
 17.41 
 14.60 
 7.56 
 7.21 
 3.78 
 2.29 
 1 94 
 .18 
 
 2 persons 
 3 persons. .... 
 
 4 persons . . . 
 
 5 persons 
 
 6 persons 
 7 persons .... 
 
 8 persons 
 9 persons 
 10 persons 
 
 Total 
 
 324 
 
 100.00 
 
 246 
 
 100.00 
 
 98 
 
 100.00 I 469 
 
 100.00 
 
 1,137 
 
 100.00 
 
 TABLE 3. AVERAGE SIZE OF FAMILY, BY CITIES. 
 
 Cities. 
 
 Total 
 families. 
 
 Total 
 persons. 
 
 Average 
 size of 
 family. 
 
 Atlanta Ga 
 
 324 
 
 1 292 
 
 3 99 
 
 Nashville, Tenn v . .. .. .. 
 
 246 
 
 1 090 
 
 4 43 
 
 Cambridge, Mass 
 
 98 
 
 366 
 
 3 73 
 
 Other cities 
 
 469 
 
 1 994 
 
 4 25 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 1,137 
 
 4 742 
 
 4 17 
 
 
 
 
 
 It will be seen from the above table that for all the families investigated 
 the average number of persons per family in Atlanta, Ga., was found to be 
 3.99; in Nashville, Tenn., 4.43; in Cambridge, Mass., 8.73; in the other cities, 
 4.25 ; and in all the cities covered by the investigation, 4.17. Comparison 
 with the returns of the census of 1890 in the cases of the first three cities, 
 returns for all the others not being given, shows that for the entire popula 
 tion of these cities, including both white and colored, the average size of 
 family was considerably larger, viz., for Atlanta 4.91, Nashville 4.92, and Cam 
 bridge 4.95. 
 
TABLE 4. NUMBER AND PER CEST OF PERSONS UNDER EACH AGE PERIOD. 
 
 
 
 Nashville, 
 
 Cambridge, 
 
 
 
 
 Atlanta, Ga., 
 
 Tenn., 
 
 Mass., 
 
 Other cities, 
 
 All groups. 
 
 
 16 groups. 
 
 10 groups. 
 
 1 group. 
 
 32 groups. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Num 
 
 Per 
 
 Num 
 
 Per 
 
 Num 
 
 Per 
 
 Num 
 
 Per 
 
 Num 
 
 Per 
 
 
 ber. 
 
 cent. 
 
 ber. 
 
 cent. 
 
 ber. 
 
 cent. 
 
 ber. 
 
 cent. 
 
 ber. 
 
 cent. 
 
 Under 10 years .... 
 
 290 
 
 22 44 
 
 212 
 
 19 45 
 
 90 
 
 24 59 
 
 419 
 
 21 01 
 
 1,011 
 
 21 32 
 
 10 to 19 years 
 
 315 
 
 24.38 
 
 274 
 
 25.14 
 
 67 
 
 18.31 
 
 452 
 
 22.67 
 
 1,108 
 
 23.37 
 
 20 to 29 years 
 
 235 
 
 18 19 
 
 190 17 43 
 
 91 
 
 24 86 
 
 404 
 
 20.26 
 
 920 
 
 19 40 
 
 30 to 39 years 
 
 209 
 
 16 18 
 
 141 12 <U 
 
 64 
 
 17 49 
 
 280 
 
 14 04 
 
 694 
 
 14 64 
 
 40 to 49 years 
 
 112 
 
 8 67 
 
 115 
 
 10.55 
 
 32 
 
 8.74 
 
 222 
 
 11.13 
 
 481 
 
 10 14 
 
 50 to 59 years 
 
 70 
 
 5.42 
 
 91 
 
 8.35 
 
 18 
 
 4.92 
 
 119 
 
 5.97 
 
 298 
 
 6.28 
 
 60 years or over 
 
 56 
 
 4 33 
 
 66 
 
 6.05 
 
 3 
 
 .82 
 
 72 
 
 3.61 
 
 197 
 
 4 15 
 
 Age unknown . ... 
 
 5 
 
 39 
 
 1 
 
 09 
 
 1 
 
 .27 
 
 26 
 
 1 31 
 
 33 
 
 70 
 
 Total 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,292 
 
 100.00 
 
 1,090 
 
 100.00 
 
 366 
 
 100.00 
 
 1,994 
 
 100 00 
 
 4,742 
 
 100.00 
 
 
 TABLE 5. AVERAGE PERSONS PER SLEEPING ROOM. 
 
 
 Families having to each sleeping room an 
 
 
 Aver 
 
 
 average of 
 
 
 age 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 pers ns 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 fami 
 
 to a 
 
 Cities. 
 
 Under 
 1 per 
 son. 
 
 lor 
 
 under 
 2 per 
 
 2 or 
 under 
 3 per 
 
 3 or 
 under 
 4 per 
 
 4 or 
 under 
 5 per 
 
 5 per 
 sons or 
 over. 
 
 lies. 
 
 sleep 
 ing- 
 room. 
 
 
 
 sons. 
 
 sons. 
 
 sons. 
 
 sons. 
 
 
 
 
 Atlanta, Ga 
 Nashville, Tenn 
 
 6 
 1 
 
 94 
 54 
 
 119 
 114 
 
 65 
 35 
 
 26 
 21 
 
 14 
 21 
 
 324 
 
 246 
 
 2.22 
 
 2.44 
 
 Cambridge, Mass, (a) 
 Other cities (a) 
 
 14 
 
 34 
 147 
 
 49 
 177 
 
 11 
 81 
 
 1 
 31 
 
 1 
 17 
 
 96 
 
 467 
 
 1.96 
 2.05 
 
 Total (6) 
 
 21 
 
 329 
 
 459 
 
 192 
 
 79 
 
 53 
 
 1,133 
 
 2.17 
 
 a Not including 2 families not reporting sleeping-rooms. 
 b Not including 4 families not reporting sleeping-rooms. 
 
 TABLE 6. ROOMS PER FAMILY. 
 
 Families living in 
 
 Cities. 
 
 1 
 
 ro m. 
 
 2 
 ro ms. 
 
 3 
 ro ins . 
 
 4 
 ro ms. 
 
 5 
 ro ms. 
 
 6 
 ro ms. 
 
 ? 
 
 ro ms . 
 
 8 
 ro ms 
 
 9 
 ro ms. 
 
 10 
 ro ms 
 or 
 over. 
 
 Not 
 re 
 port 
 ed. 
 
 Total 
 fami 
 lies. 
 
 Atlanta, Ga 
 Nashville, Tenn . 
 Cambridge, M s. 
 Other cities 
 
 o58 
 9 
 5 
 45 
 
 a!16 
 55 
 
 7 
 98 
 
 84 
 124 
 
 28 
 72 
 
 25 
 34 
 21 
 117 
 
 17 
 14 
 
 18 
 63 
 
 16 
 5 
 7 
 33 
 
 4 
 1 
 6 
 18 
 
 2 
 2 
 4 
 9 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 e 
 
 2" 
 
 3 
 
 324 
 246 
 98 
 469 
 
 Total 
 
 117 
 
 276 
 
 308 
 
 197 
 
 112 
 
 61 
 
 29 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 1,137 
 
 a Including one family having an additional half-room . 
 
The following extract is from Table IV of the May Bulletin of the U. S. Department of Labor, 
 showing method of compilation of data on household conditions of Negroes ; giving the con 
 dition of each family in detail. The complete table includes 1,137 families. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM TABLE IV. HOUSEHOLD CONDITIONS, BY FAMILIES. 
 
 ATLANTA, GA.-16 GROUPS. 
 
 GROUP 1. 
 
 [O. H. indicates that the family own the house in which they live.] 
 
 Family 
 No. 
 
 Persons. 
 
 Rooms. 
 
 Monthly 
 rent. 
 
 
 Family 
 No. 
 
 Persons. 
 
 Rooms. 
 
 Monthly 
 rent. 
 
 Male. Female. 
 
 Sleep 
 ing. 
 
 Other. 
 
 Male. 
 
 Female. 
 
 Sleep 
 ing. 
 
 Other. 
 
 1 
 
 2 2 
 3 1 
 1 1 
 1 1 
 2 3 
 1 2 
 1 2 
 2 1 
 5 5 
 1 1 
 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 4 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 5 
 3 
 3 
 
 $3 00 
 3.00 
 4.00 
 4.00 
 10 00 
 8.30 
 0. H. 
 0. H. 
 H. 
 0. H. 
 
 11 
 12 
 13 
 14 
 
 4 
 1 
 1 
 2 
 1 
 3 
 2 
 3 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 3 
 3 
 1 
 2 
 2 
 4 
 5 
 
 3 
 3 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 3 
 2 
 3 
 3 
 
 3 
 3 
 2 
 1 
 3 
 3 
 1 
 2 
 3 
 
 $13.50 
 13.80 
 6.40 
 6.40 
 0. H. 
 0. H. 
 10.00 
 O. H. 
 0. H. 
 
 2.... 
 3 
 4........ 
 r y 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 8.... 
 9 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 
 The following extract is from Table V of same report showing same data by groups, 
 complete tables see above-mentioned report. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM TABLE V. HOUSEHOLD CONDITIONS, BY GROUPS. 
 ATLANTA, GA. 16 GROUPS. 
 
 For 
 
 Group 
 num 
 ber. 
 
 Fami 
 lies. 
 
 Persons. 
 
 Rooms . 
 
 Families. 
 
 Average 
 monthly 
 rent per 
 family. 
 
 Male. 
 
 Fe 
 male. 
 
 Sleeping. 
 
 Other. 
 
 Own 
 ing 
 house. 
 
 Paying 
 rent. 
 
 Not re 
 porting 
 as to 
 rent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Average 
 persons 
 to each. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Average 
 persons 
 to each. 
 
 1 . 
 2 
 3. ... 
 4. 
 5. .. 
 6. 
 7. .. 
 8. .. 
 9. 
 10. .. 
 11. . 
 12 
 13 
 14 
 15 
 16 .... 
 
 19 
 27 
 19 
 15 
 25 
 17 
 18 
 24 
 26 
 21 
 21 
 24 
 20 
 16 
 16 
 16 
 
 38 
 52 
 31 
 25 
 37 
 36 
 36 
 35 
 50 
 44 
 48 
 39 
 42 
 14 
 32 
 25 
 
 42 
 58 
 43 
 35 
 49 
 39 
 36 
 58 
 54 
 44 
 51 
 50 
 41 
 35 
 35 
 38 
 
 45 
 49 
 30 
 23 
 46 
 35 
 40 
 41 
 59 
 38 
 42 
 30 
 37 
 19 
 25 
 22 
 
 1.78 
 2.24 
 2.47 
 2.61 
 1.87 
 2.14 
 1 80 
 2.27 
 1.76 
 2.32 
 2.36 
 2.97 
 2.24 
 2.58 
 2.68 
 2.86 
 
 41 
 41 
 21 
 4 
 38 
 9 
 25 
 18 
 42 
 10 
 23 
 3 
 10 
 2 
 13 
 6 
 
 1.85 
 2.07 
 2.57 
 3.25 
 1.89 
 3 67 
 2 40 
 3.50 
 2.21 
 3.20 
 3.65 
 3.00 
 3.30 
 2.00 
 3.62 
 3.33 
 
 8 
 16 
 4 
 
 " 10 
 
 11 
 
 " 9 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 11 
 10 
 15 
 15 
 15 
 17 
 7 
 24 
 16 
 15 
 14 
 24 
 19 
 16 
 16 
 15 
 
 i 
 
 $7.49 
 5.10 
 4.60 
 3.27 
 4.50 
 3.29 
 5.04 
 5.83 
 5.85 
 4.00 
 3.32 
 2.59 
 4.79 
 2.55 
 3.63 
 3.70 
 
 ""dl 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Total. 
 
 324 
 
 584 
 
 708 
 
 581 
 
 2.22 
 
 306 
 
 2.54 
 
 73 
 
 249 
 
 62 
 
 14.25 
 
 a Rent free. 
 
 b I ncluding one family living rent free. 
 
The following extract is from Table VI of same report showing in detail occupation ami 
 earnings by families for the 1,137 families covered by the investigation. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM TABLE VI. OCCUPATIONS AND EARNINGS, BY FAMILIES. 
 
 ATLANTA, GA. 16 GROUPS. 
 
 GROUP 1. 
 
 Fam 
 ily 
 
 No. 
 
 Head of family. 
 
 House 
 wife. 
 
 Children. 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Aver- How sub- 
 Weeks age sis ted 
 em- weekly when 
 pl yed. earn- mie til 
 ings, ployed. 
 
 At 
 work. 
 
 work ingg At At 
 
 aud forthesch ol.h me. 
 rear, 
 school. 
 
 1 . 
 2 ... 
 3... 
 
 4 
 
 Seamstress (a) 
 Bricklayer 
 
 a 16 
 
 50 
 26 
 
 50 
 24 
 rt44 
 52 
 52 
 52 
 52 
 52 
 52 
 52 
 52 
 52 
 52 
 
 49 
 52 
 
 a .$4. 00 
 12.00 
 6.0J 
 
 5.00 
 b 7.00 
 d 3.50 
 5.00 
 10.00 
 10 00 
 23.00 
 12.50 
 20 00 
 5.00 
 5.00 
 11.00 
 30J.OO 
 
 8.00 
 41 66 
 
 Savings.. . 
 Savings... 
 Savings... . 
 
 Savings... 
 
 l" 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 $258 
 
 . !!!. . ! 2 
 
 Employee, printing 
 office. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 5 ... 
 6.... 
 7 ... 
 8.... 
 9.... 
 10.... 
 11.... 
 12 .... 
 13 ... 
 14 ... 
 
 Merchant, wood ().. 
 Tailor (d) 
 
 ei 
 
 i 
 
 /2 
 
 6-40 
 
 ( ) 
 
 ., 
 
 " i . . . . . . 
 
 .......:::::: 
 
 "3 \...^.. 
 
 J cl 
 2 
 
 Coachman 
 
 f 594 
 
 Waiter 
 Teacher, private sch l 
 Physician 
 Clergyman 
 Dentist 
 Waiter. 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 j 1 10 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 Waiter . . 
 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 3 
 2 z 2 
 
 15.... 
 
 16.... 
 
 17... 
 18.... 
 19 .... 
 
 Wheelwright 
 Hack owner and cap 
 italist. 
 Porter 
 Bishop A M E Ch 
 
 (1 1 
 
 c 1 
 c 1 
 
 rj 132 
 
 c 130 
 1 . 261 
 i <:364 
 
 Savings... 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 Proprietor, restau 
 rant (h\ 
 
 h 12 
 
 // 17.00 
 
 
 a Also employed 36 weeks as sick nurse, no pay. e Not reported. 
 
 b Also employed 28 weeks as waiter at .$10 per / Wife and child, 
 week. g Wife. 
 
 c Mother. h Also employed 40 weeks as bank porter at 
 
 d Also employed 8 weeks as hotel waiter at $10 per week. 
 $3.50 per week. / Child and mother. 
 
 The following is a valuable summary as showing the industrial position of women. 
 TABLE 7. NUMBER OF FAMILIES AND MEANS OF SUPPORT. 
 
 By whom supported. 
 
 Atlanta, 
 Ga., 16 
 groups. 
 
 Nash 
 ville, 
 Tenn., 10 
 groups 
 
 Cam 
 bridge, 
 Mass., 1 
 group. 
 
 Other 
 cities, 32 
 groups. 
 
 Total 
 families. 
 
 Head male 
 
 73 
 
 60 
 
 40 
 
 131 
 
 304 
 
 Head, male, and male children 
 
 10 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 43 
 
 Head, male, and female children 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 Head, male, and male and female children 
 Head, female. 
 
 7 
 31 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 41 
 
 19 
 89 
 
 Head, female, and male children 
 Head, female, and female children . 
 Head, female, and male and female children 
 Heads, male and female 
 Heads, male and female, and male children 
 Heads, male and female, and female children... . 
 Heads, male and female, and male and female 
 children 
 
 11 
 10 
 
 12 
 84 
 12 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 4 
 g 
 51 
 19 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 1 
 22 
 1 
 
 \ 
 
 11 
 16 
 5 
 98 
 19 
 19 
 
 18 
 
 32 
 
 31 
 23 
 255 
 51 
 31 
 
 25 
 
 Head, male, and others 
 
 18 
 
 21 
 
 g 
 
 24 
 
 72 
 
 Head, female, and others 
 
 22 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 55 
 
 Heads, male and female, and others 
 Others, male 
 
 14 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 1 
 
 21 
 4 
 
 58 
 13 
 
 Others, female ... 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 8 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 324 
 
 246 
 
 98 
 
 469 
 
 1,137 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
TABLE 8. NUMBER AND PERCENT OF PERSONS SICK DURING THE YEAR. 
 
 Name of ailment. 
 
 Atlanta, Ga., 
 16 groups. 
 
 Nashville, Cambridge, 
 Tenn., Mass., 
 10 groups. 1 group. 
 
 Other cities, 
 32 groups. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 O.S4 
 
 2.88 
 
 3.72 
 
 Consumption 
 Pneumonia 
 
 Total 
 
 2 
 20 
 
 22 
 
 45 
 4.53 
 
 5 
 14 
 
 1.07 
 2.99 
 
 " 4 
 
 3 74 
 3.74 
 
 7 
 10 
 
 17 
 
 1.08 
 1.54 
 
 14 
 
 48 
 
 62 
 
 i 4.98 
 
 19 
 
 4.06 
 
 4 
 
 2 62 
 
 
 
 
 
 .93 
 
 3 
 
 ^46 
 
 
 Convulsions 
 Total 
 
 Typhoid fever 
 j-carlet fever 
 Malarial fever 
 
 2 
 
 .45 
 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 .36 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 2 
 
 50 
 
 .45 
 
 5 
 1 
 43 
 6 
 5 
 
 60 
 
 1.07 
 .21 
 9.19 
 1.28 
 1.07 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 .93 
 
 3 
 
 .46 
 ^31 
 
 30.09 
 .31 
 
 6 
 
 22 
 3 
 289 
 11 
 6 
 
 .36 
 
 T32 
 
 .18 
 17.36 
 .66 
 .36 
 
 2.27 
 .45 
 11.31 
 
 4.68 
 
 "93" 
 2.81 
 .93 
 
 2 
 
 " 195 
 2 
 
 Diarrhea .... 
 
 Diphtheria 
 Total 
 
 
 
 62 14 03 
 
 12 82 
 
 9.35 
 .... 
 
 199 
 
 30.71 
 .31 
 
 331 
 
 19.88 
 
 Svphilis 
 
 
 " .& 
 
 2 
 16 
 
 .43 
 
 3.42 
 
 " Y 
 
 2 
 21 
 
 .12 
 
 1 26 
 
 Scrofula 
 
 Total 
 
 3 .68 
 
 18 
 
 3.85 
 
 
 s:,. .is 
 
 2 
 
 .31 
 65.90 
 
 23 
 
 1.38 
 74 66 
 
 Other ailments 
 Grand total 
 
 353 79 86 
 
 371 
 
 79 27 92 
 
 427 
 648 
 
 1,243 
 
 442 100.00 
 
 468 
 
 100.00 107 
 
 I 
 
 100.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 1,665 
 
 100 00 
 
 TABLE 9. NUMBER AND PER CENT -OF DEATHS DURING PAST FIVE YEARS, 
 
 BY CAUSES. 
 
 Causes. 
 
 Atlanta, Ga., 
 16 groups. 
 
 Nashville, Cambridge, 
 Tenn., Mass., 
 10 groups. 1 group. 
 
 Other cities, 
 32 groups. 
 
 Total deaths. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 8 
 8 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Consumption 
 Pneumonia 
 
 17 
 23 
 
 9.34 
 12.64 
 
 32 
 
 7 
 
 24.06 
 5.26 
 
 29.32 
 
 15.38 
 15.38 
 
 35 
 19 
 
 12.77 
 6.94 
 
 92 
 
 57 
 
 14.35 
 
 8.89 
 
 23.24 
 
 3.43 
 2.65 
 4.53 
 
 Total 
 
 Cholera infantum 
 Convulsions 
 Still-births 
 
 40 
 
 21.98 
 
 39 
 
 16 
 
 | 
 
 3 
 10 
 
 30.76 
 
 54 
 
 10 
 9 
 10 
 
 19.71 
 
 3.65 
 
 3.28 
 3.65 
 
 149 
 
 22~ 
 17 
 
 29 
 
 7 
 3 
 4 
 
 3.84 
 1.65 
 2.20 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 5 
 
 3.01 
 1.50 
 3.76 
 
 1.92 
 
 5.77 
 19.23 
 
 Total 
 
 Typhoid fever 
 Scarlet fever 
 Malarial fever...... 
 Diarrhea .... 
 
 14 
 5 
 
 3 
 2 
 4 
 
 7.69 
 
 11 
 3 
 ? 
 
 8.27 
 2.26 
 5".26 
 
 14 
 2~ 
 
 26.92 
 
 29 
 
 4 
 2 
 15 
 
 10.58 
 
 68 
 
 14 
 2 
 25 
 2 
 4 
 
 10.61 
 
 2.19 
 .31 
 3.90 
 .31 
 .62 
 
 2.74 
 
 165 
 1.10 
 2.20 
 
 3.85 
 
 1.46 
 .73 
 
 5.47 
 
 Diphtheria . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 Syphilis.. 
 
 14 
 
 7.69 
 1.65 
 
 10 
 
 "2 
 
 7.52 
 1.51 
 
 2 
 "2 
 
 3.85 
 
 21 
 1 
 
 7.66 
 .37 
 
 47 
 
 "s 
 
 7.33 
 1.25 
 
 3 
 
 3M 
 
 Scrofula 
 
 Total .. . 
 
 3 
 
 1.65 
 
 2 
 
 1.51 
 53.38 
 100.00 
 
 2 
 
 3.85 
 
 1 
 
 .37 
 
 8 
 
 1.25 
 
 Other causes 
 
 111 
 
 182 
 
 60.99 
 
 71 
 
 18 
 52 
 
 34.62 
 100.00 
 
 169 
 274 
 
 bl.68 
 
 369 
 
 57.57 
 100.00 
 
 Grand total 
 
 100.00 
 
 133 
 
 100.00 
 
 641 
 
 
NOTE : The following table is very instructive, but deductions from it should be made with 
 great care. It is intended to show the effects of sanitary conditions upon the health of the com 
 munity, but the results obtained are not conclusive, for the increased amount of sickness in 
 families living under unfavorable sanitary conditions can not be attributed entirely to such con 
 ditions, as a certain proportion of it must be attributed to the more irregular habits of life of 
 those families which are content to live under such unfavorable conditions. The same incom- 
 petency which prevents a family from making material progress and securing for itself good 
 accommodations also prevents its resisting disease. "We generally find ill health and poverty 
 together, one the cause of the other, but quite as often both the result of a common cause, such 
 as intemperance, immorality, ignorance, or some moral or intellectual weakness. 
 
 TABLE 10. SICKNESS, BY SANITARY CONDITION OF HOUSES. 
 ATLANTA, GA. 16 GROUPS. 
 
 Sanitary condition of houses. 
 
 Number 
 of 
 persons. 
 
 Persons sick dur 
 ing year. 
 
 Days of sickness. 
 
 Number. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Persons 
 report 
 ing. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Average . 
 
 Light and air: 
 Good 
 
 577 
 348 
 367 
 
 537 
 328 
 427 
 
 426 
 527 
 339 
 
 439 
 
 264 
 589 
 
 163 
 126 
 120 
 
 153 
 102 
 154 
 
 122 
 177 
 110 
 
 122 
 80 
 207 
 
 28 25 
 36.21 
 32.70 
 
 28 49 
 31.10 
 36.07 
 
 28.64 
 33.59 
 32.45 
 
 27.79 
 30.30 
 35.14 
 
 128 
 104 
 102 
 
 124 
 
 77 
 133 
 
 97 
 141 
 
 96 
 
 103 
 61 
 
 170 
 
 5,819 
 6,268 
 4,361 
 
 5.927 
 4,471 
 6,050 
 
 5,259 
 5,588 
 5,601 
 
 4,941 
 2,676 
 8,831 
 
 45.46 
 60.27 
 42.75 
 
 47.80 
 5SO6 
 45.49 
 
 54.22 
 39.63 
 58.34 
 
 47.97 
 43.87 
 51 95 
 
 Fair 
 
 Bad 
 
 Ventilation : 
 Good . . 
 
 Fair 
 
 Bad 
 
 Cleanliness : 
 Good 
 
 Fair . . . 
 
 Bad 
 
 Outside sanitary condition : 
 Good 
 
 Fair 
 
 Bad 
 
 
 NASHVILLE, TENN.-10 GROUPS. 
 
 Light and air : 
 Good . . 
 
 489 
 
 194 
 
 39 67 
 
 99 
 
 3 284 
 
 33 17 
 
 Fair 
 
 404 
 
 172 
 
 42 57 
 
 114 
 
 3,734 
 
 32 75 
 
 Bad 
 
 197 
 
 76 
 
 38 58 
 
 46 
 
 1 414 
 
 30 74 
 
 Ventilation : 
 Good ... 
 
 471 
 
 181 
 
 38 43 
 
 92 
 
 3 346 
 
 36 37 
 
 Fair 
 
 290 
 
 106 
 
 36 55 
 
 61 
 
 2,103 
 
 34 48 
 
 Bad 
 
 329 
 
 155 
 
 47 11 
 
 106 
 
 2,983 
 
 28 14 
 
 Cleanliness : 
 Good 
 Fair 
 
 381 
 345 
 
 144 
 131 
 
 37.80 
 37 97 
 
 73 
 
 79 
 
 2,078 
 3026 
 
 28.47 
 38 30 
 
 Bad 
 
 364 
 
 167 
 
 45 88 
 
 107 
 
 3328 
 
 31 10 
 
 Outside sanitary condition : 
 Good . . 
 
 413 
 
 158 
 
 38 26 
 
 86 
 
 2,879 
 
 33 48 
 
 Fair 
 
 452 
 
 191 
 
 42 26 
 
 116 
 
 3,929 
 
 33 87 
 
 Bad 
 
 225 
 
 93 
 
 41 33 
 
 57 
 
 1,624 
 
 28.49 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS.-l GROUP. 
 
 Light and air : 
 Good 
 
 159 
 
 29 
 
 18 24 
 
 25 
 
 1,214 
 
 48 56 
 
 Fair 
 
 173 
 
 47 
 
 27 17 
 
 39 
 
 1,623 
 
 41.62 
 
 Bad ... 
 
 34 
 
 6 
 
 17 65 
 
 6 
 
 492 
 
 82 00 
 
 Ventilation : 
 Good 
 
 133 
 
 28 
 
 21 05 
 
 26 
 
 1,073 
 
 41 27 
 
 Fair 
 
 102 
 
 19 
 
 18.63 
 
 16 
 
 1,162 
 
 72 63 
 
 Bad 
 
 131 
 
 35 
 
 26 72 
 
 28 
 
 1,094 
 
 39.07 
 
 Cleanliness : 
 Good 
 
 80 
 
 14 
 
 17 50 
 
 12 
 
 697 
 
 58 08 
 
 Fair 
 
 225 
 
 57 
 
 25 33 
 
 48 
 
 2 129 
 
 44 35 
 
 Bad 
 
 61 
 
 11 
 
 18 03 
 
 10 
 
 503 
 
 50.30 
 
 Outside sanitary condition: 
 Good . 
 
 116 
 
 29 
 
 25.00 
 
 27 
 
 988 
 
 36.59 
 
 Fair 
 
 78 
 
 11 
 
 14 10 
 
 11 
 
 819 
 
 74 45 
 
 Bad 
 
 172 
 
 42 
 
 24 42 
 
 32 
 
 1,522 
 
 47 56 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
OTHER CITIES-29 GROUPS. 
 
 [Three groups and three families are not included, as sanitary condition of houses was not 
 reported.] 
 
 Sanitary condition of houses. 
 
 Number 
 of 
 persons. 
 
 Persons sick dur 
 ing year. 
 
 Days of sickness. 
 
 Number. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Persons 
 report 
 ing. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Average. 
 
 Light and air: 
 Good 
 Fair 
 
 1,081 
 547 
 308 
 
 1,087 
 536 
 313 
 
 1,127 
 483 
 326 
 
 919 
 
 689 
 328 
 
 246 
 211 
 114 
 
 271 
 180 
 120 
 
 257 
 192 
 122 
 
 230 
 215 
 126 
 
 22.76 
 38.57 
 37.01 
 
 24.93 
 33.58 
 38.34 
 
 22.80 
 39.75 
 37.42 
 
 25.03 
 31.20 
 38.41 
 
 173 
 143 
 86 
 
 194 
 116 
 W 
 
 171 
 132 
 99 
 
 165 
 147 
 90 
 
 7,861 
 4,566 
 4,450 
 
 8,849 
 3,577 
 4,451 
 
 6,458 
 5,000 
 5,419 
 
 5,638 
 7,141 
 4,098 
 
 45.44 
 31.93 
 51.74 
 
 45.61 
 30.84 
 48.38 
 
 3777 
 
 3788 
 54.74 
 
 34.17 
 
 48.58 
 45.53 
 
 Bad 
 
 Ventilation : 
 Good 
 Fair 
 
 Bad 
 
 Cleanliness : 
 Good .... .... .... 
 
 Fair 
 
 Bad 
 
 Outside sanitary condition : 
 Good 
 
 Fair 
 
 Bad 
 
 
 TABLE 11. SANITARY CONDITION OF HOUSES. 
 ATLANTA, GA.-16 GROUPS. 
 
 Group number. 
 
 Number of houses having 
 
 Ligl 
 Good. 
 
 it and 
 Fair. 
 
 air. 
 Bad. 
 
 Ventilation. 
 
 Cleanliness. 
 
 Outside sanitary 
 condition. 
 
 Good. 
 
 Fair. 
 
 Bad. 
 
 Good. 
 
 Fair. 
 
 Bad. 
 
 Good. Fair. 
 
 Bad. 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 "7 
 17 
 
 "5" 
 "9 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 17 
 9 
 
 "5" 
 
 "is" 
 1 
 21 
 1 
 17 
 5 
 
 "4" 
 " 3 
 
 1 
 4 
 5 
 15 
 12 
 
 io 
 
 1 
 5 
 1 
 4 
 
 "i 
 s" 
 
 "i" 
 
 1 
 
 y 
 
 17 
 "4" 
 
 l2 
 
 is 
 
 18 
 5 
 15 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 9 
 6 
 9 
 
 "i" 
 
 18 
 5 
 11 
 6 
 3 
 
 "i" 
 
 1 
 6 
 2 
 
 4 
 12 
 
 is 
 10 
 2 
 10 
 7 
 4 
 6 
 4 
 13 
 9 
 
 1 
 4 
 5 
 3 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 18 
 9 
 
 "16 
 
 1 
 4 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 3 
 3 
 
 1 
 7 
 6 
 3 
 4 
 
 " 3 
 15 
 2 
 17 
 
 11 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 U 
 15 
 12 
 15 
 15 
 
 130 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 9 
 
 . 1 
 5 
 15 
 12 
 
 3 
 4 
 
 5 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 m 
 
 15 
 1 
 22 
 4 
 18 
 5 
 3 
 1 
 
 "3" 
 
 9 
 "5 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 15 
 ..., 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 12 
 9 
 12 
 2 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 8 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 Total 
 
 120 
 
 80 
 
 82 
 
 112 
 
 73 
 
 97 
 
 98 
 
 105 
 
 79 
 
 96 
 
 56 
 
 
 NASHVILLE, TENN.-10 GROUPS. 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 17 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 g 
 
 7 
 
 g 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 3 
 
 12 
 11 
 
 6 
 12 
 
 7 
 2 
 
 11 
 11 
 
 7 
 11 
 
 7 
 3 
 
 10 
 11 
 
 10 
 13 
 
 5 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 g 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 in 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 
 g 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 
 g 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 g 
 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 g 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 
 18 
 
 7 
 
 
 9 
 
 16 
 
 
 11 
 
 14 
 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 Total 
 
 110 
 
 93 
 
 39 
 
 107 
 
 66 
 
 69 
 
 90 
 
 74 
 
 78 
 
 98 
 
 99 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 1 GROUP. 
 
 Group number. 
 
 Number of houses having 
 
 Light and air. 
 
 Ventilation. 
 
 Cleanliness. 
 
 Outside sanitary 
 condition. 
 
 Go d. 
 
 Fair. Bad. 
 
 Go d. 
 
 Fair. 
 
 Bad 
 
 Go d. 
 
 Fair. 
 
 Bad. 
 
 Go d. 
 
 Fair. 
 
 Bad. 
 
 1 
 
 43 
 
 46 8 
 
 37 
 
 29 
 
 31 
 
 25 
 
 56 
 
 16 
 
 30 
 
 21 
 
 46 
 
 
 OTHER CITIES 32 GROUPS. 
 
 1. 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 2 . 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 
 4 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 26 
 
 1 
 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 1 
 
 2 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 9 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 9 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 11 
 3 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 8. . 
 9 
 10 
 
 6 
 11 
 
 5 
 4 
 6 
 
 6 
 1 
 
 8 
 6 
 g 
 
 3 
 9 
 
 6 
 1 
 
 8 
 10 
 1 
 
 7 
 4 
 4 
 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 10 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 12 
 
 4 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 16 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 14 
 
 6 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 13 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 14 
 
 4 
 15 
 
 
 2 
 
 A 
 
 15 
 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 15 
 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 3 
 
 4 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 3 
 
 3 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 
 j 
 
 4 
 
 
 .... 
 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 20 
 21 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 8 
 
 2 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 13 
 
 1 
 5 
 
 22 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 
 23 
 24 
 
 9 
 6 
 11 
 
 4 
 13 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 i 
 
 9 
 18 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 1 
 1 
 
 12 
 14 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 5 
 
 10 
 3 
 
 3 
 19 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 26 
 
 a 2 
 
 <>2 
 
 a4 
 
 a 3 
 
 a 1 
 
 4 
 
 a4 
 
 a2 
 
 tt2 
 
 ffll 
 
 a 7 
 
 ( ) 
 
 27 
 
 (a) 
 
 4 
 
 a 17 
 
 ol 
 
 3 
 
 a 17 
 
 a 4 
 
 a8 
 
 a9 
 
 (a) 
 
 (a) 
 
 ;, 21 
 
 28 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 
 i 
 
 29 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 30 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (6) 
 
 (&) 
 
 (6) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (&) 
 
 (/,) 
 
 31 
 
 (l)\ 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (ft) 
 
 (6) 
 
 (6) 
 
 (6) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b ) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (M 
 
 32 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (/>) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (6) 
 
 (b) 
 
 (6) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 c214 
 
 cl!6 
 
 c59 
 
 c220 
 
 clOS 
 
 c61 
 
 c235 
 
 clOl 
 
 c 53 
 
 c!83 
 
 c!45 
 
 06! 
 
 a Xot including one house, not reported. 
 
 b Not reported. 
 
 c See preceding notes. 
 
Appendix:- -B. 
 
 A compilation of data from the health reports of various cities, made by Mr. L. M. Her- 
 shaw, of Washington, D. C., an alumnus of Atlanta University, follows, and it is believed that 
 they afford very accurate information concerning the deaths, etc., in the cities for which the 
 necessary official reports were available. 
 
 Mr. Hershaw s work included the cities of Atlanta, Baltimore, Charleston, Memphis and 
 Richmond. We print in full the tables for Atlanta, one table for Charleston and one for Balti 
 more: for lack of space we omit other tables. For explanation of these tables see paper by Mr. 
 Hershaw, page 10. 
 
 This work is to be continued by Mr. Hershaw during the coining year. 
 
 TABLE a. AVERAGE ANNUAL DEATH RATE PER 1,000 AND EXCESS AND PER CENT 
 OF EXCESS OF COLORED FOR THREE PERIODS OF YE \RS, BY CITIES. 
 
 City. 
 
 First period. 
 
 Second period. 
 
 Third 
 
 period. 
 
 W ite. 
 
 Col 
 ored. 
 
 Excess of 
 colored. 
 
 W ite. 
 
 Col 
 ored. 
 
 Excess of 
 colored. 
 
 W ite. 
 
 Col 
 ored. 
 
 Excess of 
 colored. 
 
 No. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 No. 
 
 Per 1 
 cent. 
 
 No. Per 
 ! cent. 
 
 Atlanta 
 Baltimore. .. 
 Charleston . . 
 Memphis ... 
 Richmond.... 
 
 is. 22 
 
 22.60 
 25 40 
 26.08 
 22 42 
 
 37.96 
 3(5 15 
 44 08 
 43.01 
 
 40.34 
 
 19.74 
 13 5", 
 18.68 
 16.93 
 17.92 
 
 10 41 
 59.92 
 73 52 
 64.95 
 79.98 
 
 19 25 
 19 46 
 22.30 
 21.49 
 21.37 
 
 33 41 
 
 30.52 
 46.74 
 29.35 
 38.83 
 
 14.16 
 11 06 
 24.44 
 7.86 
 17.46 
 
 73.51 
 56.87 
 109.63 
 36.59 
 81.74 
 
 18.03 
 20 01 
 21.88 
 14.17 
 18.42 
 
 32.76 
 31.47 
 41 43 
 21.11 
 34.91 
 
 14.73 81.65 
 11.46 57.24 
 19.55 89.39 
 6 94 ! 48.95 
 16.49 89.54 
 
 TABLE b. POPULATION, DEATHS, AND DEATH RATE PER 1,000, ATLANTA, GA., 
 
 1882 TO 1895. 
 
 Year 
 
 Population. 
 
 Total deaths. 
 
 Deaths per 1,000. 
 
 White. 
 
 Colored. 
 
 White. 
 
 Colored. 
 
 White. 
 
 Colored. 
 
 Excess of colored. 
 
 No. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 1882 
 
 23,689 
 25,034 
 26,511 
 
 28,075 
 
 18,202 
 19.217 
 20,289 
 21,420 
 
 19,782 
 
 392 
 500 
 497 
 492 
 
 630 
 735 
 785 
 854 
 
 16.58 
 19.97 
 
 18.75 
 17.52 
 
 34 61 
 38.25 
 38.69 
 39.87 
 
 18.03 
 18.28 
 19 94 
 22.35 
 
 198.75 
 91.54 
 106.35 
 127.57 
 
 1883 
 1884 
 
 1885 
 Average 
 
 25,815 
 
 470 
 
 751 
 
 18.22 
 
 37.96 
 
 19.74 
 
 108.41 
 
 1886 
 1887 
 1888 
 1889 
 1890 
 
 Average 
 
 29,732 
 31.486 
 33,344 
 35,311 
 37,416 
 
 22,615 
 23,876 
 25,207 
 26,613 
 28,098 
 
 446 
 
 680 
 646 
 653 
 793 
 
 541 
 815 
 886 
 949 
 1,032 
 
 15.10 
 21.60 
 19.37 
 18.49 
 21.19 
 
 23.92 
 34.13 
 35.15 
 35.66 
 36 73 
 
 8.82 
 12.53 
 15.78 
 17.17 
 15.54 
 
 58.41 
 
 58.01 
 81.47 
 92.86 
 73 34 
 
 33,458 
 
 25,282 
 
 644 
 
 845 
 
 19.25 
 
 33.41 
 
 14 16 
 
 73.51 
 
 1891 
 
 39,623 
 41,961 
 44,437 
 47,058 
 49,835 
 
 29,665 
 31,319 
 33,066 
 34,910 
 36,857 
 
 827 
 805 
 813 
 691 
 884 
 
 1,167 
 1,085 
 1,107 
 947 
 1,126 
 
 20.87 
 19.18 
 18 30 
 14.68 
 17.74 
 
 39.34 
 34 64 
 33.48 
 27.13 
 30.55 
 
 18.47 
 15.46 
 15 18 
 12.45 
 12 81 
 
 88.50 
 80 60 
 82.95 
 84 81 
 72.21 
 
 1892 
 1893 .. 
 1894 
 1895 
 
 Average 
 
 44,583 
 
 33,163 
 
 804 
 
 1,086 
 
 18 03 
 
 32 76 
 
 14.73 
 
 81 65 
 
 11 
 
TABLE c. -DEATHS AND DEATH RATE PER 1,000 OF TOTAL POPULATION OF CHIL 
 DREN UNDER 5 YEARS OF AGE, ATLANTA, GA., 1882 TO 1895. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Total deaths. 
 
 Deaths per 1,000. 
 
 White. Colored. 
 
 White. 
 
 Colored. 
 
 Excess of colored. 
 
 Number. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 1882 
 
 163 
 194 
 163 
 167 
 
 264 
 339 
 319 
 329 
 
 6.90 
 7.75 
 6.15 
 5.95 
 
 14.50 
 17.64 
 15.72 
 15.36 
 
 7.60 
 9.89 
 9 57 
 9.41 
 
 110.15 
 127 61 
 155 61 
 158.15 
 
 1883 . . . 
 
 1884 
 
 1885 
 
 Average 
 
 172 
 
 313 
 
 6.65 
 
 15.81 
 
 9.16 
 
 137.74 
 
 1886... 
 
 160 
 264 
 206 
 205 
 287 
 
 257 
 332 
 337 
 364 
 451 
 
 5.38 
 8.38 
 6.18 
 5.81 
 7.67 
 
 11.36 
 13.91 
 13.37 
 13.68 
 16.05 
 
 5.98 
 5.53 
 7.19 
 7.87 
 8.38 
 
 111.15 
 165.99 
 116.34 
 135.46 
 109.26 
 
 1887 
 
 1888 
 
 1889 
 
 1890 
 
 Average 
 
 224 
 
 348 
 
 6.71 
 
 13.77 7.06 
 
 105.22 
 
 104.05 
 95.59 
 125.31 
 
 87.47 
 96 39 
 
 1891 
 
 264 
 276 
 251 
 218 
 276 
 
 403 
 403 
 421 
 303 
 401 
 
 6.66 
 6.58 
 5.65 
 4.63 
 5.54 
 
 13.59 693 
 12.87 6.29 
 12.73 7.08 
 8.68 4.05 
 10.88 5.34 
 
 1892 
 
 1893 
 
 1894 
 1895 ... . ... . . . 
 
 Average . 
 
 257 
 
 386 
 
 5.76 
 
 11.65 5.89 j 102.26 
 
 
 TABLE d. AVERAGE ANNUAL DEATH RATE PER 10,000, ATLANTA, GA., FOR THE 
 PERIODS 1882 TO 1885, 1886 TO 1890, 1891 TO 1895, BY CAUSES. 
 
 Causes. 
 
 1882 to 1885. 
 
 1886 to 1890. 
 
 1891 to 1895. 
 
 W ite. 
 
 Col 
 ored. 
 
 Excess of 
 colored. 
 
 W te. 
 
 Col 
 ored. 
 
 Excess of 
 colored. 
 
 W te. 
 
 Col 
 ored. 
 
 Excess of 
 colored . 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Consumption... 
 Pneumonia 
 
 Total 
 
 Cholera infan- 
 tum 
 Still-births 
 
 Total 
 
 Typhoid fever . . 
 Scarlet fever. . . 
 Malarial fever.. 
 Diphtheria 
 
 Total 
 Other causes . . . 
 Grand total 
 
 18.40 
 9.03 
 
 50.20 
 26.69 
 
 31.80 
 17.66 
 
 172.83 
 195.57 
 
 18.83 
 11 30 
 
 45.88 
 26.26 
 
 27.05 
 14.96 
 
 143.65 
 132.39 
 
 16.82 
 11.66 
 
 43.48J 26.66 
 32.27 20.61 
 
 158.50 
 176.76 
 
 27.43 
 
 (a) 
 () 
 
 76.89 
 
 - __ _. __ 
 
 () 
 
 (a) 
 
 49.46 
 
 (a) 
 
 () 
 
 180.31 
 
 (a) 
 (a) 
 
 30.13 
 
 12.43 
 14.35 
 
 72.14 
 
 23.10 
 32.99 
 
 42 01 
 
 10 67 
 18.64 
 
 139.43 
 
 85.84 
 129.90 
 
 28.48 
 
 7.63 
 17 36 
 
 75.75 47.27 
 
 165 98 
 
 15.26 7.63| 100.00 
 38.60J 21 24| 122.36 
 
 (a) 
 
 8~64 
 .31 
 .97 
 1.66 
 
 (a) 
 
 17.09 
 .15 
 1.92 
 .15 
 
 (a) 
 
 8 45 
 b .16 
 .95 
 61 51 
 
 (a) 
 
 26.78 
 
 10.70 
 1.25 
 1.61 
 1.02 
 
 56.09 
 
 29.31 109.45 
 
 24 99 
 
 7.31 
 1.61 
 .45 
 1.35 
 
 53 86 
 
 28.87 
 
 115.53 
 
 97.80 
 b 106.67 
 97.94 
 61,006.67 
 
 11.07 
 .32 
 
 5.46 
 32 
 
 .37; 3.46 
 6 .93J6290.63 
 3.85 239.13 
 b .706218.75 
 
 9.83 
 12 
 2.17 
 .36 
 
 2.52 
 61 49 
 1.72 
 b .99 
 
 34 47 
 61,241.67 
 882.22 
 6275.00 
 
 11.58 
 c 143.15 
 182.16 
 
 19.31 
 r>283.44 
 379.64 
 
 7.73 
 c 140. 29 
 197.48 
 
 66.75J 14 58 
 c 98. 00 121. 05 
 108.41192.64 
 
 17.17 2.59 
 188.67 67.62 
 
 17.76 
 55.86 
 73 51 
 
 10.72 
 116.15 
 180.34 
 
 12.48 
 185.50 
 327.59 
 
 1.76 
 
 16.42 
 
 69.35 
 147.25 
 
 59 71 
 81.65 
 
 334.07 
 
 141.53 
 
 a Included in "Other causes." 
 
 b Excess of white. 
 
 c Including deaths from cholera infantum and still-births. 
 
TABLE e AVERAGE ANNUAL DEATH RATE PER 10,000, CHARLESTON, S. C., FOR 
 THE PERIODS 1881 TO 1884, 1885 TO 1889, AND 1890 TO 1894, BY CAUSES. 
 
 Causes. 
 
 1881 to 1884. 
 
 1885 to 1889. 
 
 1890 to 1894. 
 
 W ite 
 
 Col 
 ored. 
 
 Excess of 
 colored. 
 
 W ite 
 
 Col- 
 ored. 
 
 Excess of 
 colored. 
 
 W ite 
 
 Col 
 ored 
 
 Excess of 
 colored. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num- Per 
 ber. j cent. 
 
 Consumption . 
 Pneumonia . . 
 
 Total 
 
 Cholera infan- 
 tum 
 
 27.52 
 
 8.18 
 
 72.20 
 19.00 
 
 44.68 
 10.82 
 
 162 35 
 132.27 
 
 20.05 
 8 32 
 
 68.08 
 18.51 
 
 48 03 
 10.19 
 
 239.55 
 122.48 
 
 17.71 
 
 6.78 
 
 57.66 
 17.06 
 
 39.95 
 10.28 
 
 225.58 
 161.62 
 
 35.70 
 
 91.20 
 
 55.50 
 
 155.46 
 
 28.37 
 
 86.59 
 
 58.22 
 
 7.53 
 9.53 
 
 205 22 
 
 24.49 
 
 74.72 
 
 50.23 
 
 205 10 
 
 (tt) 
 (a) 
 
 (a) 
 
 (a) 
 
 (a) 
 (a) 
 
 (a) 
 (a) 
 
 7.90 
 3.48 
 
 15.43 
 13.01 
 
 95.32 
 
 273.85 
 
 7.20 
 4.30 
 
 9.63 
 13.60 
 
 2.43 
 9.30 
 
 33.75 
 216.28 
 
 Convulsions. . . 
 Total 
 
 Typhoid fever 
 Malarial fever 
 Diarrhea 
 Diphtheria .. . 
 
 Total 
 
 Scrofula 
 Syphilis 
 
 Total 
 Other causes . . 
 Grand total 
 
 (a) 
 
 (a) 
 
 (a) 
 
 (a) 
 
 11.38 
 
 28.44 
 
 17.06 
 
 149.91 
 
 69.98 
 136.86 
 113.63 
 c 251.24 
 
 11.50 
 
 4.38 
 3.06 
 3.56 
 .83 
 
 23.23 
 
 6.68 
 6.23 
 9.38 
 .25 
 
 11.73 
 
 102.00 
 
 8.83 
 6.22 
 b 4.78 
 6.96 
 
 11 36 
 6.50 
 b 11 72 
 2.59 
 
 2.53 
 .28 
 b 6.94 
 c 4.37 
 
 28.65, 4.93 
 4.50 2.55 
 6145.1JW 5 43 
 C168.73J 4.25 
 
 8.38 
 6.04 
 11.60 
 1.21 
 
 3.45 
 3.49 
 6.17 
 C3.04 
 
 2.30 
 3.17 
 
 5.82 
 c .58 
 
 52.51 
 103.59 
 163.48 
 c 232.00 
 
 d26.79 
 
 rf32.17 
 
 (15.3* 
 
 d20.08 17.16 
 
 6883.33 ~4~S 
 384.09 .59 
 
 27.23 
 
 10.07 
 
 6.55 
 5 51 
 
 58.68 
 
 11.83 
 
 22.54 
 
 2.14 
 3.15 
 
 10.71 
 
 T98 
 2.32 
 
 90.53 
 
 ] 2:57. no 
 
 279.52 
 
 b .30 
 .44 
 
 &2.95 
 2.13 
 
 b 2.65 
 1.69 
 
 6.98 
 6.10 
 
 1,523.26 
 933.90 
 
 .16 
 .83 
 
 e.74 
 
 e 5.08 
 
 e 4.34 
 
 "586.49 
 /63.70] 
 
 1.02 
 
 13.08 
 
 12.06 
 
 1182.35 
 89.09 
 
 .99 
 169.96 
 
 5.29 
 
 4.30 
 118.59 
 195.56 
 
 434 34 
 
 69.78 
 
 f 190. 81 
 
 312.36 
 
 f 121. 55 
 
 li >:.(). ! 
 
 312.05 
 
 47 02 
 
 288.55 
 
 254 04 
 
 440.81 
 
 186.77 
 
 73.52 
 
 222.96 
 
 167.39 
 
 244.43 
 
 109.63 
 
 218.77 
 
 114.33 
 
 89.39 
 
 a Included in "Other causes." 
 
 b Not including deaths in 1884. 
 
 c Excess of white. 
 
 d Not including deaths from diarrhea in 1884. 
 
 c Not including deaths from scrofula in 1884. 
 
 f Including deaths from cholera infantum and convulsions,and from diarrhoea and scrofula 
 
 in 1884. 
 
 13 
 
The table following shows for each of the ten years from 1884 to 1893 the total and the illegiti - 
 mate births and the birth rate per 1,000 of total population of both white and colored ; also the 
 average births and birth rates per 1,000 for the two five-year periods 1884 to 1888 and 1889 to 1893 : 
 
 TABLE f. TOTAL AND ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS AND BIRTH RATE PER 1,000 OF TOTAL 
 POPULATION, BALTIMORE, MD., 1884 TO 1893. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Total births. 
 
 Births per 1,000. 
 
 Illegitimate 
 births. 
 
 Illegitimate births per 1000. 
 
 W ite. 
 
 Col 
 ored. 
 
 W ite. 
 
 Col 
 ored. 
 
 Excess of 
 white. 
 
 W ite. 
 
 Col 
 ored. 
 
 W ite. 
 
 0.40 
 .35 
 .31 
 .43 
 .39 
 
 Col 
 ored. 
 
 2.94 
 2.84 
 2 52 
 3.56 
 3.42 
 
 Excess of 
 colored. 
 
 Num 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Num 
 ber. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 635 
 711.4 
 712 9 
 727.9 
 776.9 
 
 1884 . . 
 1885 
 1886 
 1887 
 1888 
 
 Average 
 
 6,899 
 6,63- 
 6,481 
 7,765 
 7,500 
 
 1,136 
 1,108 
 1,213 
 1,262 
 1,225 
 
 22.18 
 20.74 
 19.72 
 22.98 
 21.59 
 
 19.31 287 
 18.41 2 33 
 19.70 .02 
 20.04 1 2.94 
 19.04 2.55 
 
 14.86 
 12 . 66 
 .10 
 14 67 
 13.39 
 
 124 
 112 
 103 
 146 
 134 
 
 173 
 171 
 155 
 224 
 
 220 
 
 2 54 
 2.49 
 2 21 
 3.13 
 3.03 
 
 7,055 1.189 
 
 21.45 
 
 19.31 
 
 2.14 
 
 11.09 124 
 
 189 
 
 .38 
 
 3.06 
 
 2.68 
 
 714.6 
 
 1889 . . 
 
 8,102 
 8,226 
 8,238 
 8,087 
 7,914 
 
 8,113 
 
 1,263 
 1,172 
 1.101 
 1,347 
 1,221 
 
 22.69 19.19 
 22.41 , 17.47 
 21.83 16.04 
 20.84 19.18 
 19.84 17.00 
 
 3.50 
 4 94 
 5.79 
 1.66 
 
 2.84 
 
 18.24 156 
 28.28 180 
 36.10 224 
 8.65 261 
 16.71 224 
 
 205 
 229 
 246 
 359 
 387 
 
 .44 
 
 .49 
 .59 
 .67 
 
 .56 
 
 3.12 
 3.41 
 3.58 
 5.11 
 5.39 
 
 2. (18 
 2.92 
 2.99 
 4.44 
 4.83 
 
 3.60 
 
 609.1 
 595.9 
 506.8 
 662 7 
 862.5 
 
 650.4 
 
 1890 
 
 1891 
 1892 
 1893 . 
 
 Average 
 
 1,221 
 
 21.48 17.76 
 
 3.72 
 
 20.93 209 
 
 285 
 
 .55 I 4.15 
 
 Of total births, the excess of births per 1,000 of population is seen to be in favor of the 
 whites. For the first five-year period this excess is 2.14, the percentage of excess being 11.09; 
 for the second five-year period the excess is 3.72, the percentage of excess being 20.93. 
 
 The illegitimate births for the colored population show a very Jarge excess over the illegiti 
 mate births for the white. While there is an increase in the excess of colored birth rate from 
 2.68 in the first five-year period to 3.60 in the second, the per cent of excess shows a decrease 
 from 714.6 in the first period to 650.4 in the second. 
 
 14 
 
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