Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/218

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194
THE NEGRO

Senator Bruce and His Mississippi Farm I saw Blanche K. Bruce on the floor of the U. S. Senate the other day. He looks hardly a day older than when he walked up to be sworn in, on the arm of Roscoe Conkling. He is now devoting his time to his estate in Mississippi, and to lecturing. He has made money in both pursuits, and he told me not long ago that he was dividing up his Mississippi property into small farms, and was selling it on installments to the colored people. He has built a church and school-house on the plantation, and he believes, with Mr. Murray, that the future of the negro lies in his education, and in the accumulation of property. Ex-Senator Bruce's Marriage Ex-Senator Bruce now lives in Washington, in a fashionable part of the northwest. His wife is a beau- tiful woman, nearly as white in complexion as many of our Washington society ladies. He met her while the two were at college together at Oberlin. He mar- ried her while he was in the Senate, and the event was one of two senatorial weddings which took place at Cleveland, Ohio, one summer. Mrs. Bruce was a teacher in one of the Cleveland public schools. She had been very well educated, and she is, in fact, as accomplished a lady as you will find anywhere. She dresses well, looks well, and has great natural refine- ment. The last time I saw her was at one of Clara Barton's receptions, and she was assisting Miss Bar- ton to receive her guests. The other wedding that took place that summer was that of Senator Don Cameron, who married Miss Lizzie Sherman, the daughter of Judge Sherman, of Cleveland, and a niece of the Senator. It was a grand aiTair, and its story took up many columns in the newspapers. Mrs. Cam- eron also lives in Washington, and her old-fashioned home, just above Blaine's, is now being repaired for the coming season. Frank G. Carpenter.