"Jim Crow" Law To Be Tested

The restrictions of Jim Crow laws are tested by Virginia's Pamunkey Indians.

"JIM CROW" LAW TO BE TESTED.

Virginia's Pamunkey Indians Indignant at Being Classed with Negroes.

Special to The New York Times.

RICHMOND, Aug. 3. - The validity of Virginia's new "Jim Crow" law is to be tested in the highest courts of the State. A case has just been made up. Growing out of the refusal of a conductor on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway to permit a guard having a negro prisoner in charge to enter a white coach on that line. The officer insisted upon his right to carry the black convict with him into the coach set apart for the whites. Upon the conductor's refusal to permit this the State guard left the train with his prisoner. The railway company will now carry the case into the courts, where the validity of the law will be passed upon.

The Pamunkey Indians are already raising the question whether they can be legally classed with negroes in assigning them to the coaches given that race. Some of the most aristocratic families in the Old Dominion are proud to claim that they are the descendants of Pocahontas and other historic aborigines. This being the case, the Pamunkey chieftains do not see why the law should place upon members of that tribe the indignity of being classed with negroes when they come to ride on railroads in this State.

The decision in this case will be looked forward to with no little interest.