r him when he was arranging to
take Vice-President Roosevelt to Tuskegee and Montgomery and Atlanta
this fall, and they were eager to co-operate with him in entertaining
such a distinguished visitor. They still hope to have President
Roosevelt visit the South, and if he goes he will go as the guest of
Booker T. Washington.

The President knows, too, that the real leaders of the South, white
Democrats, do not sympathize with this hue and cry of Southern editors
because Washington was a guest at the White House. Today the President
has received many messages from Southern men, urging him to pay no
attention to the yawp of the bourbon editors, who have not been able to
get over the old habit of historical discussion of "social equality."
Southern men called at the White House today as usual to ask for favors
at the hands of the President, and they are not afraid of contamination
by meeting the man who "ate with a nigger."

AMUSES THE PRESIDENT.

President Roosevelt cannot help seeing the humorous side of the
situation he has created by asking his friend to dinner, and he is
pursuing the even tenor of his way as President without worrying over
the outcome. He has, in the last two weeks, given cause for much
excitement in the South. The first was when he appointed a Democrat to
office and ignored the professional Republican politicians, who claimed
to carry the "nigger" vote in their pocket. He was not disturbed by the
threats of the Southern Republican politicians over that incident, and
he is not disturbed by the threats of the Southern Democratic editors
over this incident.

As to the Southern objection to dining, with a Negro, Opie Read, of
Chicago, tells a story about M. W. Gibbs, who has just resigned his
position as United States Consul at Tamatave, Madagascar. Gibbs is now
in Washington on his way home to Little Rock. He resigned to give a
younger man a chance to serve his country as a Consul. Here is the story
Opie Read told about Gibbs dining with white men at a banquet in honor
of General Grant in Little Rock:

In the reconstruction days a Negro by the name of Mifflin Wistar Gibbs
located in Little Rock, Ark. He showed the community that he was keener
than a whole lot of its leading citizens, who had kept the offices in
their families for generations. Under the new order of things he was
appointed Attorney of Pulaski County. His ability and the considerate
manner in which he conducted his relationship with