ESTABLISH PATROL
IN NEGRO COLONY.
REPORTED BLACK RESIDENTS
HAVE ARMED THEMSELVES.
Arrange System of Signals to Call
for Assistance If Further At-
tempts Are Made to Dyna-
mite Houses.
Negroes who live in the vicinity of Twenty-seventh street and Highland avenue, near the vacant house at 2707 Highland which was wrecked by dynamite at 4 o'clock yesterday morning, presumably as a warning to real estate men that Twenty-seventh street is the negro's farthest point south in that portion of the Tenth ward, have organized for protection, and are reported to have armed themselves. Last night they declared they would not act hastily, but that it bodes ill for anyone to attempt to repeat the dynamiting of Monday morning.
Last night Everett Robinson, whose wife is a white woman, and G. F. Parsons patrolled the colony. They arranged a system of signals by which they could get assistance if needed.
OBJECT TO "INVASION."
White residents of that neighborhood as a rule deplore the dynamiting, but they are a unit in objecting to what they call a "negro invasion" of a white residence district, and they declare that every possible effort should be made to rid the neighborhood of the blacks.
The house dynamited yesterday morning is the property of the King Realty Company. It is the third house from the corner, and is the only vacant one of four cottages. The dynamiting was carefully planned and almost wrecked the house. The explosive was placed in the center of the house and a fuse was led through a rear window. The explosion lifted the roof, wrecked the interior and tore out a portion of the wall. Bric-a-brac and dishes in the adjoining house, occupied by G. F. Parsons, were broken.
The noise of the explosion awakened people for a block. For a time the negroes in the colony were panic-stricken. The police and firemen who arrived on the scene calmed them when they searched the house and discovered no more explosives.
WON'T BE INTIMIDATED.
During the day the negroes talked over the situation, and they made up their minds they would not be intimidated. They say they will remain in the homes which they are purchasing and that the authorities will protect them.
When these houses were finished last spring and it was learned that they were to be sold to negroes, warnings were posted on them, declaring that the negroes should not occupy them. But little attention was paid to these notices. About the same time a real estate man built a row of houses on Twenty-eighth street which he advertised for sale to negroes. A mass meeting was held and he was induced to change his mind. They have since been sold to whites.
The dynamiting yesterday morning came as a surprise to the negroes and also to the white residents of the neighborhood. So far as could be learned yesterday no active steps against the negro invasion of the neighborhood had been taken recently and it was suggested it was possible that the person who used the dynamite probably was inspired from a meeting in the Tenth ward Saturday night.
WILL PROTECT THEIR HOMES.
The negroes of Highland avenue are emphatic in asserting that they will remain in the homes which they are purchasing.
"We have to live somewhere," declared the white wife of Everett Robinson. "My husband does not make a large salary and we put what little money we had in this home. I have not heard of anyone who is anxious to give us our money back and I know that my husband is going to protect his wife and babies from an attack."
Parsons, whose home adjoins the wrecked cottage, declared that the negroes in that section are law abiding, but that they have armed themselves, and that if any further attempt is made at dynamiting it will go hard with the dynamiters.
"I am buying my home here," he declared, "and I am not going to be intimidated."
The "warning to negroes" notices which were printed in the evening newspapers was a copy of a notice tacked on a negro's door last spring. No notices of any kind have been served on the negroes since.
