o be the proper one to the foregoing proposition. Under our
present Constitution, yes; the "ignorant and non-property-holding
Negro" ought to vote.

TOPIC VI.

IS THE CRIMINAL NEGRO JUSTLY DEALT WITH IN THE COURTS OF THE SOUTH?

BY ATTORNEY R. S. SMITH.

[Illustration: Atty. R. S. Smith]

ATTORNEY REUBEN S. SMITH.

Reuben S. Smith, attorney-at-law, No. 420 Fifth Street, N.
W., Washington, D. C., was born in Jackson County, Florida,
April 1, 1854. He received his early education in the common
schools of Marianna, in that county, and at Howard
University, Washington, D. C. Before coming to Washington he
taught school for a time and in 1876 served as an alternate
delegate-at-large from Florida to the National Republican
Convention, held at Cincinnati, Ohio. As a resident of the
national capital he served as a clerk in the United States
Treasury Department, in the office of the sixth auditor and
in that of the second auditor. He was also Washington
correspondent of several newspapers, but after graduating
from the law department of the Howard University, in 1883,
was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the District
of Columbia, and has since been successfully employed in the
practice of his profession. He has not only established a
lucrative private business, but has acted as attorney for a
life insurance company and other corporations. In November,
1899, he was unanimously elected moderator of the conference
of the Congregational churches of Virginia, Maryland, West
Virginia and the District of Columbia, and is Superintendent
of the Lincoln Memorial Congregational Church Sunday School.

Mr. Smith was a delegate to the National Republican
Convention held at Chicago in 1880, and a special agent of
the eleventh census of the United States (1890), assigned to
the work of collecting the statistics of the recorded
indebtedness of the State of Florida. It is therefore
evident that he is a man of versatility as well as
ability.--_Biographical Encyclopedia of the United States_.

The subject of this sketch also served as assistant
sergeant-at-arms of the Philadelphia National Republican
Convention of 1900. He has been attorney in several
important cases in the Supreme Court of the District of
Columbia, involving damage