RACE PREJUDICE.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43106, 18 June 1907, Page 4

RACE PREJUDICE.

Major Taylor, the famous American cyclist, who has ridden in England, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, was, it will be remembered, expelled from a Paris hotel because he happened to be a negro. This drastic step was taken at the instance of a number of Americans.

Details in the London papers show that Major Taylor, who< is a superior type of Southern negrOj educated, and with a certain amount of refinement, arrived in Paris a few days before, to try his luck on the Paris racing tracks. He was accompanied by his wife and child. They put up at a moderate hotel in the Ninth Arrondissement, but, as it so< happened, several American tourists were staying at the same establishment. The first morning at breakfast the latter expressed astonishment at seeing a “nigger,” as they phrased it, seated at the principal table. They refused to seat themselves at the table with Major Taylor, and after breakfast informed the landlord that they would not stay in the same hotel as an American negro, and that if the colored oerson did not go, they would.

The landlord tried to soothe their ruffled feelings by pointing out that there was no necessity for their associating with the cyclist. But this did not appease them, so the manager told Major Taylor that he must leave at once. The latter packed up his belongings, and left with his wife and child. They found refuge in a pension at Neuilly, where there are no other Americans. The proprietor of the hotel, whom the Daily Chronicle correspondent saw, said that he had no fault to find with his late guest, who was most courteous and well-behaved, and, moreover, spoke excellent French. The incident serves to show how far the race prejudice goes in America.