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+The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995 Etext Anthology Memorial*
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+January, 1995  [Etext #206]
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+
+
+The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial Issue.
+
+
+
+Table of Contents
+-----------------
+
+Sojourner Truth, the Libyan Sibyl.............Harriet Beecher Stowe
+Reconstruction................................Frederick Douglass
+An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage..Frederick Douglas
+The Negro Exodus..............................James B. Runnion
+My Escape from Slavery........................Frederick Douglass
+The Goophered Grapevine.......................Charles W. Chesnutt
+Po' Sandy.....................................Charles W. Chesnutt
+Dave's Neckliss...............................Charles W. Chesnutt
+The Awakening of the Negro....................Booker T. Washington
+The Story of Uncle Tom's Cabin................Charles Dudley Warner
+Strivings of the Negro People.................W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
+The Wife of his Youth.........................Charles W. Chesnutt
+The Bouquet...................................Charles W. Chesnutt
+The Case of the Negro.........................Booker T. Washington
+Hot-Foot Hannibal.............................Charles W. Chesnutt
+A Negro Schoolmaster in the New South.........W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
+The Capture of a Slaver.......................J. Taylor Wood
+Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt's Stories.............W. D. Howells
+Paths of Hope for the Negro
+Practical Suggestions of a Southerner.........Jerome Dowd
+Signs of Progress Among the Negroes...........Booker T. Washington
+The March of Progress.........................Charles W. Chesnutt
+The Freedmen's Bureau.........................W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
+Of the Training of Black Men..................W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
+The Fruits of Industrial Training.............Booker T. Washington
+The Negro in the Regular Army.................Oswald Garrison Villard
+Baxter's Procrustes...........................Charles W. Chesnutt
+The Heart of the Race Problem.................Quincy Ewing
+Negro Suffrage in a Democracy.................Ray Stannard Baker
+
+Bibliography of Sources
+
+
+
+
+
+SOJOURNER TRUTH, THE LIBYAN SIBYL
+by Harriet Beecher Stowe
+
+
+Many years ago, the few readers of radical Abolitionist papers
+must often have seen the singular name of Sojourner Truth,
+announced as a frequent speaker at Anti-Slavery meetings, and as
+travelling on a sort of self-appointed agency through the country.
+I had myself often remarked the name, but never met the
+individual.  On one occasion, when our house was filled with
+company, several eminent clergymen being our guests, notice was
+brought up to me that Sojourner Truth was below, and requested an
+interview.  Knowing nothing of her but her singular name, I went
+down, prepared to make the interview short, as the pressure of
+many other engagements demanded.
+
+When I went into the room, a tall, spare form arose to meet me.
+She was evidently a full-blooded African, and though now aged and
+worn with many hardships, still gave the impression of a physical
+development which in early youth must have been as fine a specimen
+of the torrid zone as Cumberworth's celebrated statuette of the
+Negro Woman at the Fountain.  Indeed, she so strongly reminded me
+of that figure, that, when I recall the events of her life, as she
+narrated them to me, I imagine her as a living, breathing
+impersonation of that work of art. 
+ 
+I do not recollect ever to have been conversant with any one who
+had more of that silent and subtle power which we call personal
+presence than this woman.  In the modern Spiritualistic
+phraseology, she would be described as having a strong sphere. 
+Her tall form, as she rose up before me, is still vivid to my
+mind.  She was dressed in some stout, grayish stuff, neat and
+clean, though dusty from travel.  On her head, she wore a bright
+Madras handkerchief, arranged as a turban, after the manner of her
+race.  She seemed perfectly self-possessed and at her ease,--in
+fact, there was almost an unconscious superiority, not unmixed
+with a solemn twinkle of humor, in the odd, composed manner in
+which she looked down on me.  Her whole air had at times a gloomy
+sort of drollery which impressed one strangely. 
+ 
+"So this is YOU," she said. 
+ 
+"Yes," I answered. 
+ 
+"Well, honey, de Lord bless ye!  I jes' thought I'd like to come
+an' have a look at ye.  You's heerd o' me, I reckon?" she added. 
+ 
+"Yes, I think I have.  You go about lecturing, do you not?" 
+ 
+"Yes, honey, that's what I do.  The Lord has made me a sign unto
+this nation, an' I go round a'testifyin', an' showin' on 'em their
+sins agin my people." 
+ 
+So saying, she took a seat, and, stooping over and crossing her
+arms on her knees, she looked down on the floor, and appeared to
+fall into a sort of reverie.  Her great gloomy eyes and her dark
+face seemed to work with some undercurrent of feeling; she sighed
+deeply, and occasionally broke out,-- 
+ 
+"O Lord!  O Lord!  Oh, the tears, an' the groans, an' the moans! 
+O Lord!" 
+ 
+I should have said that she was accompanied by a little grandson
+of ten years,--the fattest, jolliest woolly-headed little specimen
+of Africa that one can imagine.  He was grinning and showing his
+glistening white teeth in a state of perpetual merriment, and at
+this moment broke out into an audible giggle, which disturbed the
+reverie into which his relative was falling. 
+ 
+She looked at him with an indulgent sadness, and then at me. 
+ 
+"Laws, Ma'am, HE don't know nothin' about it--HE don't.  Why, I've
+seen them poor critters, beat an' 'bused an' hunted, brought in
+all torn,--ears hangin' all in rags, where the dogs been a'bitin'
+of 'em!" 
+ 
+This set off our little African Puck into another giggle, in which
+he seemed perfectly convulsed. 
+ 
+She surveyed him soberly, without the slightest irritation. 
+ 
+"Well, you may bless the Lord you CAN laugh; but I tell you, 't
+wa'n't no laughin' matter." 
+ 
+By this time I thought her manner so original that it might be
+worth while to call down my friends; and she seemed perfectly well
+pleased with the idea.  An audience was what she wanted,--it
+mattered not whether high or low, learned or ignorant.  She had
+things to say, and was ready to say them at all times, and to any
+one. 
+ 
+I called down Dr. Beecher, Professor Allen, and two or three other
+clergymen, who, together with my husband and family, made a
+roomful.  No princess could have received a drawing-room with more
+composed dignity than Sojourner her audience.  She stood among
+them, calm and erect, as one of her own native palm-trees waving
+alone in the desert.  I presented one after another to her, and at
+last said,--
+ 
+"Sojourner, this is Dr. Beecher.  He is a very celebrated
+preacher." 
+ 
+"IS he?" she said, offering her hand in a condescending manner,
+and looking down on his white head.  "Ye dear lamb, I'm glad to
+see ye!  De Lord bless ye!  I loves preachers.  I'm a kind o'
+preacher myself." 
+ 
+"You are?" said Dr. Beecher.  "Do you preach from the Bible?" 
+ 
+"No, honey, can't preach from de Bible,--can't read a letter." 
+ 
+"Why, Sojourner, what do you preach from, then?" 
+ 
+Her answer was given with a solemn power of voice, peculiar to
+herself, that hushed every one in the room. 
+ 
+"When I preaches, I has jest one text to preach from, an' I always
+preaches from this one.  MY text is, 'WHEN I FOUND JESUS.'" 
+
+"Well, you couldn't have a better one," said one of the ministers. 
+ 
+She paid no attention to him, but stood and seemed swelling with
+her own thoughts, and then began this narration:-- 
+ 
+"Well, now, I'll jest have to go back, an' tell ye all about it. 
+Ye see, we was all brought over from Africa, father an' mother an'
+I, an' a lot more of us; an' we was sold up an' down, an' hither
+an' yon; an' I can 'member, when I was a little thing, not bigger
+than this 'ere," pointing to her grandson, "how my ole mammy would
+sit out o' doors in the evenin', an' look up at the stars an'
+groan.  She'd groan an' groan, an' says I to her,-- 
+ 
+"'Mammy, what makes you groan so?' 
+ 
+"an' she'd say,-- 
+ 
+"'Matter enough, chile!  I'm groanin' to think o' my poor
+children: they don't know where I be, an' I don't know where they
+be; they looks up at the stars, an' I looks up at the stars, but I
+can't tell where they be.
+ 
+"'Now,' she said, 'chile, when you're grown up, you may be sold
+away from your mother an' all your ole friends, an' have great
+troubles come on ye; an' when you has these troubles come on ye,
+ye jes' go to God, an' He'll help ye.' 
+ 
+"An' says I to her,-- 
+ 
+"'Who is God, anyhow, mammy?' 
+ 
+"An' says she,-- 
+ 
+"'Why, chile, you jes' look up DAR!  It's Him that made all DEM!" 
+ 
+"Well, I didn't mind much 'bout God in them days.  I grew up
+pretty lively an' strong, an' could row a boat, or ride a horse,
+or work round, an' do 'most anything. 
+ 
+"At last I got sold away to a real hard massa an' missis.  Oh, I
+tell you, they WAS hard!  'Peared like I couldn't please 'em,
+nohow.  An' then I thought o' what my old mammy told me about God;
+an' I thought I'd got into trouble, sure enough, an' I wanted to
+find God, an' I heerd some one tell a story about a man that met
+God on a threshin'-floor, an' I thought, 'Well an' good, I'll have
+a threshin'-floor, too.'  So I went down in the lot, an' I
+threshed down a place real hard, an' I used to go down there every
+day, an' pray an' cry with all my might, a-prayin' to the Lord to
+make my massa an' missis better, but it didn't seem to do no good;
+an' so says I, one day,-- 
+ 
+"'O God, I been a-askin' ye, an' askin' ye, an' askin' ye, for all
+this long time, to make my massa an' missis better, an' you don't
+do it, an' what CAN be the reason?  Why, maybe you CAN'T.  Well, I
+shouldn't wonder ef you couldn't.  Well, now, I tell you, I'll
+make a bargain with you.  Ef you'll help me to git away from my
+massa an' missis, I'll agree to be good; but ef you don't help me,
+I really don't think I can be.  Now,' says I, 'I want to git away;
+but the trouble's jest here: ef I try to git away in the night, I
+can't see; an' ef I try to git away in the daytime, they'll see
+me, an' be after me.' 
+ 
+"Then the Lord said to me, 'Git up two or three hours afore
+daylight, an' start off.' 
+ 
+"An' says I, 'Thank 'ee, Lord! that's a good thought.' 
+ 
+"So up I got, about three o'clock in the mornin', an' I started
+an' travelled pretty fast, till, when the sun rose, I was clear
+away from our place an' our folks, an' out o' sight.  An' then I
+begun to think I didn't know nothin' where to go.  So I kneeled
+down, and says I,-- 
+ 
+"'Well, Lord, you've started me out, an' now please to show me
+where to go.' 
+ 
+"Then the Lord made a house appear to me, an' He said to me that I
+was to walk on till I saw that house, an' then go in an' ask the
+people to take me.  An' I travelled all day, an' didn't come to
+the house till late at night; but when I saw it, sure enough, I
+went in, an' I told the folks that the Lord sent me; an' they was
+Quakers, an' real kind they was to me.  They jes' took me in, an'
+did for me as kind as ef I'd been one of 'em; an' after they'd giv
+me supper, they took me into a room where there was a great, tall,
+white bed; an' they told me to sleep there.  Well, honey, I was
+kind o' skeered when they left me alone with that great white bed;
+'cause I never had been in a bed in my life.  It never came into
+my mind they could mean me to sleep in it.  An' so I jes' camped
+down under it, on the floor, an' then I slep' pretty well.  In the
+mornin', when they came in, they asked me ef I hadn't been asleep;
+an' I said, 'Yes, I never slep' better.'  An' they said, 'Why, you
+haven't been in the bed!'  An' says I, 'Laws, you didn't think o'
+such a thing as my sleepin' in dat 'ar' BED, did you?  I never
+heerd o' such a thing in my life.' 
+ 
+"Well, ye see, honey, I stayed an' lived with 'em.  An' now jes'
+look here: instead o' keepin' my promise an' bein' good, as I told
+the Lord I would, jest as soon as everything got a'goin' easy, I
+FORGOT ALL ABOUT GOD. 
+ 
+"Pretty well don't need no help; an' I gin up prayin.'  I lived
+there two or three years, an' then the slaves in New York were all
+set free, an' ole massa came to our home to make a visit, an' he
+asked me ef I didn't want to go back an' see the folks on the ole
+place.  An' I told him I did.  So he said, ef I'd jes' git into
+the wagon with him, he'd carry me over.  Well, jest as I was goin'
+out to git into the wagon, I MET GOD! an' says I, 'O God, I didn't
+know as you was so great!' An' I turned right round an' come into
+the house, an' set down in my room; for 't was God all around me. 
+I could feel it burnin', burnin', burnin' all around me, an' goin'
+through me; an' I saw I was so wicked, it seemed as ef it would
+burn me up.  An' I said, 'O somebody, somebody, stand between God
+an' me! for it burns me!'  Then, honey, when I said so, I felt as
+it were somethin' like an amberill [umbrella] that came between me
+an' the light, an' I felt it was SOMEBODY,--somebody that stood
+between me an' God; an' it felt cool, like a shade; an' says I,
+'Who's this that stands between me an' God?  Is it old Cato?'  He
+was a pious old preacher; but then I seemed to see Cato in the
+light, an' he was all polluted an' vile, like me; an' I said, 'Is
+it old Sally?' an' then I saw her, an' she seemed jes' so.  An'
+then says I, 'WHO is this?'  An' then, honey, for a while it was
+like the sun shinin' in a pail o' water, when it moves up an'
+down; for I begun to feel 't was somebody that loved me; an' I
+tried to know him.  An' I said, 'I know you!  I know you!  I know
+you!'--an' then I said, 'I don't know you!  I don't know you!  I
+don't know you!'  An' when I said, 'I know you, I know you,' the
+light came; an' when I said, 'I don't know you, I don't know you,'
+it went, jes' like the sun in a pail o' water.  An' finally
+somethin' spoke out in me an' said, 'THIS IS JESUS!'  An' I spoke
+out with all my might, an' says I, 'THIS IS JESUS! Glory be to
+God!'  An' then the whole world grew bright, an' the trees they
+waved an' waved in glory, an' every little bit o' stone on the
+ground shone like glass; an' I shouted an' said, 'Praise, praise,
+praise to the Lord!'  An' I begun to feel such a love in my soul
+as I never felt before,--love to all creatures.  An' then, all of
+a sudden, it stopped, an' I said, 'Dar's de white folks, that have
+abused you an' beat you an' abused your people,--think o' them!' 
+But then there came another rush of love through my soul, an' I
+cried out loud,--'Lord, Lord, I can love EVEN DE WHITE FOLKS!' 
+ 
+"Honey, I jes' walked round an' round in a dream.  Jesus loved me! 
+I knowed it,--I felt it.  Jesus was my Jesus.  Jesus would love me
+always.  I didn't dare tell nobody; 't was a great secret. 
+Everything had been got away from me that I ever had; an' I
+thought that ef I let white folks know about this, maybe they'd
+get HIM away,--so I said, 'I'll keep this close.  I won't let any
+one know.'"
+ 
+"But, Sojourner, had you never been told about Jesus Christ?" 
+ 
+"No, honey.  I hadn't heerd no preachin',--been to no meetin'. 
+Nobody hadn't told me.  I'd kind o' heerd of Jesus, but thought he
+was like Gineral Lafayette, or some o' them.  But one night there
+was a Methodist meetin' somewhere in our parts, an' I went; an'
+they got up an' begun for to tell der 'speriences; an' de fust one
+begun to speak.  I started, 'cause he told about Jesus.  'Why,'
+says I to myself, 'dat man's found him, too!'  An' another got up
+an' spoke, an I said, 'He's found him, too!'  An' finally I said,
+'Why, they all know him!'  I was so happy!  An' then they sung
+this hymn": (Here Sojourner sang, in a strange, cracked voice, but
+evidently with all her soul and might, mispronouncing the English,
+but seeming to derive as much elevation and comfort from bad
+English as from good):-- 
+ 
+ 
+          'There is a holy city, 
+             A world of light above, 
+           Above the stairs and regions,*
+             Built by the God of Love. 
+ 
+          "An Everlasting temple, 
+             And saints arrayed in white 
+           There serve their great Redeemer 
+             And dwell with him in light. 
+ 
+          "The meanest child of glory 
+             Outshines the radiant sun; 
+           But who can speak the splendor 
+             Of Jesus on his throne? 
+ 
+          "Is this the man of sorrows 
+             Who stood at Pilate's bar, 
+           Condemned by haughty Herod 
+             And by his men of war? 
+ 
+          "He seems a mighty conqueror, 
+             Who spoiled the powers below, 
+           And ransomed many captives 
+             From everlasting woe.
+ 
+          "The hosts of saints around him 
+             Proclaim his work of grace, 
+           The patriarchs and prophets, 
+             And all the godly race, 
+ 
+          "Who speak of fiery trials 
+             And tortures on their way; 
+           They came from tribulation 
+             To everlasting day. 
+ 
+          "And what shall be my journey, 
+             How long I'll stay below, 
+           Or what shall be my trials, 
+             Are not for me to know. 
+ 
+          "In every day of trouble 
+             I'll raise my thoughts on high, 
+           I'll think of that bright temple 
+             And crowns above the sky." 
+
+* Starry regions. 
+
+ 
+I put in this whole hymn, because Sojourner, carried away with her
+own feeling, sang it from beginning to end with a triumphant
+energy that held the whole circle around her intently listening. 
+She sang with the strong barbaric accent of the native African,
+and with those indescribable upward turns and those deep gutturals
+which give such a wild, peculiar power to the negro singing,--but
+above all, with such an overwhelming energy of personal
+appropriation that the hymn seemed to be fused in the furnace of
+her feelings and come out recrystallized as a production of her
+own. 
+ 
+It is said that Rachel was wont to chant the "Marseillaise" in a
+manner that made her seem, for the time, the very spirit and
+impersonation of the gaunt, wild, hungry, avenging mob which rose
+against aristocratic oppression; and in like manner, Sojourner,
+singing this hymn, seemed to impersonate the fervor of Ethiopia,
+wild, savage, hunted of all nations, but burning after God in her
+tropic heart, and stretching her scarred hands towards the glory
+to be revealed. 
+ 
+"Well, den ye see, after a while, I thought I'd go back an' see de
+folks on de ole place.  Well, you know, de law had passed dat de
+culled folks was all free; an' my old missis, she had a daughter
+married about dis time who went to live in Alabama,--an' what did
+she do but give her my son, a boy about de age of dis yer, for her
+to take down to Alabama?  When I got back to de ole place, they
+told me about it, an' I went right up to see ole missis, an' says
+I,-- 
+ 
+"'Missis, have you been an' sent my son away down to Alabama?' 
+ 
+"'Yes, I have,' says she; 'he's gone to live with your young
+missis.' 
+ 
+"'Oh, Missis,' says I, 'how could you do it?' 
+ 
+"'Poh!' says she, 'what a fuss you make about a little nigger! 
+Got more of 'em now than you know what to do with.' 
+
+"I tell you, I stretched up.  I felt as tall as the world! 
+ 
+"'Missis,' says I, 'I'LL HAVE MY SON BACK AGIN!' 
+ 
+"She laughed. 
+ 
+"'YOU will, you nigger?  How you goin' to do it?  You ha'n't got
+no money." 
+ 
+"'No, Missis,--but GOD has,--an' you'll see He'll help me!'--an' I
+turned round an' went out. 
+ 
+"Oh, but I WAS angry to have her speak to me so haughty an' so
+scornful, as ef my chile wasn't worth anything.  I said to God, 'O
+Lord, render unto her double!'  It was a dreadful prayer, an' I
+didn't know how true it would come. 
+ 
+"Well, I didn't rightly know which way to turn; but I went to the
+Lord, an' I said to Him, 'O Lord, ef I was as rich as you be, an'
+you was as poor as I be, I'd help you,--you KNOW I would; and, oh,
+do help me!'  An' I felt sure then that He would.
+ 
+"Well, I talked with people, an' they said I must git the case
+before a grand jury.  So I went into the town when they was
+holdin' a court, to see ef I could find any grand jury.  An' I
+stood round the court-house, an' when they was a-comin' out, I
+walked right up to the grandest-lookin' one I could see, an' says
+I to him,-- 
+ 
+"'Sir, be you a grand jury?' 
+ 
+"An' then he wanted to know why I asked, an' I told him all about
+it; an' he asked me all sorts of questions, an' finally he says to
+me,-- 
+ 
+"'I think, ef you pay me ten dollars, that I'd agree to git your
+son for you.'  An' says he, pointin' to a house over the way, 'You
+go 'long an' tell your story to the folks in that house, an' I
+guess they'll give you the money.' 
+ 
+"Well, I went, an' I told them, an' they gave me twenty dollars;
+an' then I thought to myself, 'Ef ten dollars will git him, twenty
+dollars will git him SARTIN.'  So I carried it to the man all out,
+an' said,-- 
+ 
+"'Take it all,--only be sure an' git him.' 
+ 
+"Well, finally they got the boy brought back; an' then they tried
+to frighten him, an' to make him say that I wasn't his mammy, an'
+that he didn't know me; but they couldn't make it out.  They gave
+him to me, an' I took him an' carried him home; an' when I came to
+take off his clothes, there was his poor little back all covered
+with scars an' hard lumps, where they'd flogged him. 
+ 
+"Well, you see, honey, I told you how I prayed the Lord to render
+unto her double.  Well, it came true; for I was up at ole missis'
+house not long after, an' I heerd 'em readin' a letter to her how
+her daughter's husband had murdered her,--how he'd thrown her down
+an' stamped the life out of her, when he was in liquor; an' my ole
+missis, she giv a screech, an' fell flat on the floor.  Then says
+I, 'O Lord, I didn't mean all that!  You took me up too quick.' 
+ 
+"Well, I went in an' tended that poor critter all night.  She was
+out of her mind,--a-cryin', an' callin' for her daughter; an' I
+held her poor ole head on my arm, an' watched for her as ef she'd
+been my babby.  An' I watched by her, an' took care on her all
+through her sickness after that, an' she died in my arms, poor
+thing!" 
+ 
+"Well, Sojourner, did you always go by this name?" 
+ 
+"No, 'deed!  My name was Isabella; but when I left the house of
+bondage, I left everything behind.  I wa'n't goin' to keep nothin'
+of Egypt on me, an' so I went to the Lord an' asked Him to give me
+a new name.  And the Lord gave me Sojourner, because I was to
+travel up an' down the land, showin' the people their sins, an'
+bein' a sign unto them.  Afterwards I told the Lord I wanted
+another name, 'cause everybody else had two names; and the Lord
+gave me Truth, because I was to declare the truth to the people. 
+ 
+"Ye see some ladies have given me a white satin banner," she said,
+pulling out of her pocket and unfolding a white banner, printed
+with many texts, such as, "Proclaim liberty throughout all the
+land unto all the inhabitants thereof," and others of like nature.
+"Well," she said, "I journeys round to camp-meetins, an' wherever
+folks is, an' I sets up my banner, an' then I sings, an' then
+folks always comes up round me, an' then I preaches to 'em.  I
+tells 'em about Jesus, an' I tells 'em about the sins of this
+people.  A great many always comes to hear me; an' they're right
+good to me, too, an' say they want to hear me agin." 
+ 
+We all thought it likely; and as the company left her, they shook
+hands with her, and thanked her for her very original sermon; and
+one of the ministers was overheard to say to another, "There's
+more of the gospel in that story than in most sermons." 
+ 
+Sojourner stayed several days with us, a welcome guest.  Her
+conversation was so strong, simple, shrewd, and with such a droll
+flavoring of humor, that the Professor was wont to say of an
+evening, "Come, I am dull, can't you get Sojourner up here to talk
+a little?"  She would come up into the parlor, and sit among
+pictures and ornaments, in her simple stuff gown, with her heavy
+travelling-shoes, the central object of attention both to parents
+and children, always ready to talk or to sing, and putting into
+the common flow of conversation the keen edge of some shrewd
+remark. 
+ 
+"Sojourner, what do you think of Women's Rights?" 
+ 
+"Well, honey, I's ben to der meetins, an' harked a good deal.  Dey
+wanted me for to speak.  So I got up.  Says I,--'Sisters, I a'n't
+clear what you'd be after.  Ef women want any rights more 'n dey's
+got, why don't dey jes' TAKE 'EM, an' not be talkin' about it?' 
+Some on 'em came round me, an' asked why I didn't wear Bloomers. 
+An' I told 'em I had Bloomers enough when I was in bondage.  You
+see," she said, "dey used to weave what dey called nigger-cloth,
+an' each one of us got jes' sech a strip, an' had to wear it
+width-wise.  Them that was short got along pretty well, but as for
+me"--She gave an indescribably droll glance at her long limbs
+and then at us, and added,--"Tell YOU, I had enough of Bloomers in
+them days." 
+ 
+Sojourner then proceeded to give her views of the relative
+capacity of the sexes, in her own way. 
+ 
+"S'pose a man's mind holds a quart, an' a woman's don't hold but a
+pint; ef her pint is FULL, it's as good as his quart." 
+ 
+Sojourner was fond of singing an extraordinary lyric, commencing,-- 
+ 
+ 
+      "I'm on my way to Canada, 
+          That cold, but happy land; 
+       The dire effects of Slavery 
+          I can no longer stand. 
+       O righteous Father, 
+          Do look down on me, 
+       And help me on to Canada, 
+          Where colored folks are free!" 
+ 
+ 
+The lyric ran on to state, that, when the fugitive crosses the
+Canada line, 
+ 
+ 
+      "The Queen comes down unto the shore, 
+          With arms extended wide,
+       To welcome the poor fugitive 
+          Safe onto Freedom's side." 
+ 
+ 
+In the truth thus set forth she seemed to have the most simple
+faith. 
+ 
+But her chief delight was to talk of "glory," and to sing hymns
+whose burden was,-- 
+ 
+ 
+      "O glory, glory, glory, 
+          Won't you come along with me?" 
+ 
+and when left to herself, she would often hum these with great
+delight, nodding her head. 
+ 
+On one occasion, I remember her sitting at a window singing and
+fervently keeping time with her head, the little black Puck of a
+grandson meanwhile amusing himself with ornamenting her red-and-
+yellow turban with green dandelion-curls, which shook and trembled
+with her emotions, causing him perfect convulsions of delight. 
+ 
+"Sojourner," said the Professor to her, one day, when he heard her
+singing, "you seem to be very sure about heaven." 
+ 
+"Well, I be," she answered, triumphantly. 
+ 
+"What makes you so sure there is any heaven?" 
+ 
+"Well, 'cause I got such a hankerin' arter it in here," she said,--
+giving a thump on her breast with her usual energy. 
+ 
+There was at the time an invalid in the house, and Sojourner, on
+learning it, felt a mission to go and comfort her.  It was curious
+to see the tall, gaunt, dusky figure stalk up to the bed with such
+an air of conscious authority, and take on herself the office of
+consoler with such a mixture of authority and tenderness.  She
+talked as from above,--and at the same time, if a pillow needed
+changing or any office to be rendered, she did it with a strength
+and handiness that inspired trust.  One felt as if the dark,
+strange woman were quite able to take up the invalid in her bosom,
+and bear her as a lamb, both physically and spiritually.  There
+was both power and sweetness in that great warm soul and that
+vigorous frame. 
+ 
+At length, Sojourner, true to her name, departed.  She had her
+mission elsewhere.  Where now she is I know not; but she left deep
+memories behind her. 
+ 
+To these recollections of my own I will add one more anecdote,
+related by Wendell Phillips. 
+ 
+Speaking of the power of Rachel to move and bear down a whole
+audience by a few simple words, he said he never knew but one
+other human being that had that power, and that other was
+Sojourner Truth.  He related a scene of which he was witness.  It
+was at a crowded public meeting in Faneuil Hall, where Frederick
+Douglas was one of the chief speakers.  Douglas had been
+describing the wrongs of the black race, and as he proceeded, he
+grew more and more excited, and finally ended by saying that they
+had no hope of justice from the whites, no possible hope except in
+their own right arms.  It must come to blood; they must fight for
+themselves, and redeem themselves, or it would never be done. 
+ 
+Sojourner was sitting, tall and dark, on the very front seat,
+facing the platform; and in the hush of deep feeling, after
+Douglas sat down, she spoke out in her deep, peculiar voice, heard
+all over the house,-- 
+ 
+"Frederick, IS GOD DEAD?" 
+ 
+The effect was perfectly electrical, and thrilled through the
+whole house, changing as by a flash the whole feeling of the
+audience.  Not another word she said or needed to say; it was
+enough. 
+ 
+It is with a sad feeling that one contemplates noble minds and
+bodies, nobly and grandly formed human beings, that have come to
+us cramped, scarred, maimed, out of the prison-house of bondage. 
+One longs to know what such beings might have become, if suffered
+to unfold and expand under the kindly developing influences of
+education. 
+
+It is the theory of some writers, that to the African is reserved,
+in the later and palmier days of the earth, the full and
+harmonious development of the religious element in man.  The
+African seems to seize on the tropical fervor and luxuriance of
+Scripture imagery as something native; he appears to feel himself
+to be of the same blood with those old burning, simple souls, the
+patriarchs, prophets, and seers, whose impassioned words seem only
+grafted as foreign plants on the cooler stock of the Occidental
+mind. 
+ 
+I cannot but think that Sojourner with the same culture might have
+spoken words as eloquent and undying as those of the African Saint
+Augustine or Tertullian.  How grand and queenly a woman she might
+have been, with her wonderful physical vigor, her great heaving
+sea of emotion, her power of spiritual conception, her quick
+penetration, and her boundless energy!  We might conceive an
+African type of woman so largely made and moulded, so much fuller
+in all the elements of life, physical and spiritual, that the dark
+hue of the skin should seem only to add an appropriate charm,--as
+Milton says of his Penseroso, whom he imagines 
+
+ 
+               "Black, but such as in esteem
+          Prince Memnon's sister might beseem, 
+          Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove 
+          To set her beauty's praise above 
+          The sea-nymph's." 
+ 
+ 
+But though Sojourner Truth has passed away from among us as a wave
+of the sea, her memory still lives in one of the loftiest and most
+original works of modern art, the Libyan Sibyl, by Mr. Story,
+which attracted so much attention in the late World's Exhibition. 
+Some years ago, when visiting Rome, I related Sojourner's history
+to Mr. Story at a breakfast at his house.  Already had his mind
+begun to turn to Egypt in search of a type of art which should
+represent a larger and more vigorous development of nature than
+the cold elegance of Greek lines.  His glorious Cleopatra was then
+in process of evolution, and his mind was working out the problem
+of her broadly developed nature, of all that slumbering weight and
+fulness of passion with which this statue seems charged, as a
+heavy thunder-cloud is charged with electricity.
+ 
+The history of Sojourner Truth worked in his mind and led him into
+the deeper recesses of the African nature,--those unexplored
+depths of being and feeling, mighty and dark as the gigantic
+depths of tropical forests, mysterious as the hidden rivers and
+mines of that burning continent whose life-history is yet to be. 
+A few days after, he told me that he had conceived the idea of a
+statue which he should call the Libyan Sibyl.  Two years
+subsequently, I revisited Rome, and found the gorgeous Cleopatra
+finished, a thing to marvel at, as the creation of a new style of
+beauty, a new manner of art.  Mr. Story requested me to come and
+repeat to him the history of Sojourner Truth, saying that the
+conception had never left him.  I did so; and a day or two after,
+he showed me the clay model of the Libyan Sibyl.  I have never
+seen the marble statue; but am told by those who have, that it was
+by far the most impressive work of art at the Exhibition. 
+ 
+A notice of the two statues from the London "Athenaeum" must
+supply a description which I cannot give. 
+ 
+
+"The Cleopatra and the Sibyl are seated, partly draped, with the
+characteristic Egyptian gown, that gathers about the torso and
+falls freely around the limbs; the first is covered to the bosom,
+the second bare to the hips.  Queenly Cleopatra rests back against
+her chair in meditative ease, leaning her cheek against one hand,
+whose elbow the rail of the seat sustains; the other is
+outstretched upon her knee, nipping its forefinger upon the thumb
+thoughtfully, as though some firm, wilful purpose filled her
+brain, as it seems to set those luxurious features to a smile as
+if the whole woman 'would.'  Upon her head is the coif, bearing in
+front the mystic uraeus, or twining basilisk of sovereignty, while
+from its sides depend the wide Egyptian lappels, or wings, that
+fall upon her shoulders.  The Sibilla Libica has crossed her
+knees,--an action universally held amongst the ancients as
+indicative of reticence or secrecy, and of power to bind.  A
+secret-keeping looking dame she is, in the full-bloom proportions
+of ripe womanhood, wherein choosing to place his figure the
+sculptor has deftly gone between the disputed point whether these
+women were blooming and wise in youth, or deeply furrowed with age
+and burdened with the knowledge of centuries, as Virgil, Livy, and
+Gellius say.  Good artistic example might be quoted on both sides.
+Her forward elbow is propped upon one knee; and to keep her
+secrets close, for this Libyan woman is the closest of all the
+Sibyls, she rests her shut mouth upon one closed palm, as if
+holding the African mystery deep in the brooding brain that looks
+out through mournful, warning eyes, seen under the wide shade of
+the strange horned (ammonite) crest, that bears the mystery of the
+Tetragrammaton upon its upturned front.  Over her full bosom,
+mother of myriads as she was, hangs the same symbol.  Her face has
+a Nubian cast, her hair wavy and plaited, as is meet."
+
+
+We hope to see the day when copies both of the Cleopatra and the
+Libyan Sibyl shall adorn the Capitol at Washington.
+
+
+
+RECONSTRUCTION
+by Frederick Douglass
+
+
+The assembling of the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress
+may very properly be made the occasion of a few earnest words on
+the already much-worn topic of reconstruction.
+
+Seldom has any legislative body been the subject of a solicitude
+more intense, or of aspirations more sincere and ardent.  There
+are the best of reasons for this profound interest.  Questions of
+vast moment, left undecided by the last session of Congress, must
+be manfully grappled with by this.  No political skirmishing will
+avail.  The occasion demands statesmanship.
+
+Whether the tremendous war so heroically fought and so
+victoriously ended shall pass into history a miserable failure,
+barren of permanent results,--a scandalous and shocking waste of
+blood and treasure,--a strife for empire, as Earl Russell
+characterized it, of no value to liberty or civilization,--an
+attempt to re-establish a Union by force, which must be the merest
+mockery of a Union,--an effort to bring under Federal authority
+States into which no loyal man from the North may safely enter,
+and to bring men into the national councils who deliberate with
+daggers and vote with revolvers, and who do not even conceal their
+deadly hate of the country that conquered them; or whether, on the
+other hand, we shall, as the rightful reward of victory over
+treason, have a solid nation, entirely delivered from all
+contradictions and social antagonisms, based upon loyalty,
+liberty, and equality, must be determined one way or the other by
+the present session of Congress.  The last session really did
+nothing which can be considered final as to these questions.  The
+Civil Rights Bill and the Freedmen's Bureau Bill and the proposed
+constitutional amendments, with the amendment already adopted and
+recognized as the law of the land, do not reach the difficulty,
+and cannot, unless the whole structure of the government is
+changed from a government by States to something like a despotic
+central government, with power to control even the municipal
+regulations of States, and to make them conform to its own
+despotic will.  While there remains such an idea as the right of
+each State to control its own local affairs,--an idea, by the way,
+more deeply rooted in the minds of men of all sections of the
+country than perhaps any one other political idea,--no general
+assertion of human rights can be of any practical value.  To
+change the character of the government at this point is neither
+possible nor desirable.  All that is necessary to be done is to
+make the government consistent with itself, and render the rights
+of the States compatible with the sacred rights of human nature. 
+ 
+The arm of the Federal government is long, but it is far too short
+to protect the rights of individuals in the interior of distant
+States.  They must have the power to protect themselves, or they
+will go unprotected, spite of all the laws the Federal government
+can put upon the national statute-book. 
+ 
+Slavery, like all other great systems of wrong, founded in the
+depths of human selfishness, and existing for ages, has not
+neglected its own conservation.  It has steadily exerted an
+influence upon all around it favorable to its own continuance. 
+And to-day it is so strong that it could exist, not only without
+law, but even against law.  Custom, manners, morals, religion, are
+all on its side everywhere in the South; and when you add the
+ignorance and servility of the ex-slave to the intelligence and
+accustomed authority of the master, you have the conditions, not
+out of which slavery will again grow, but under which it is
+impossible for the Federal government to wholly destroy it, unless
+the Federal government be armed with despotic power, to blot out
+State authority, and to station a Federal officer at every cross- 
+road.  This, of course, cannot be done, and ought not even if it
+could.  The true way and the easiest way is to make our government
+entirely consistent with itself, and give to every loyal citizen
+the elective franchise,--a right and power which will be ever
+present, and will form a wall of fire for his protection. 
+ 
+One of the invaluable compensations of the late Rebellion is the
+highly instructive disclosure it made of the true source of danger
+to republican government.  Whatever may be tolerated in
+monarchical and despotic governments, no republic is safe that
+tolerates a privileged class, or denies to any of its citizens
+equal rights and equal means to maintain them.  What was theory
+before the war has been made fact by the war. 
+ 
+There is cause to be thankful even for rebellion.  It is an
+impressive teacher, though a stern and terrible one.  In both
+characters it has come to us, and it was perhaps needed in both. 
+It is an instructor never a day before its time, for it comes only
+when all other means of progress and enlightenment have failed. 
+Whether the oppressed and despairing bondman, no longer able to
+repress his deep yearnings for manhood, or the tyrant, in his
+pride and impatience, takes the initiative, and strikes the blow
+for a firmer hold and a longer lease of oppression, the result is
+the same,--society is instructed, or may be. 
+ 
+Such are the limitations of the common mind, and so thoroughly
+engrossing are the cares of common life, that only the few among
+men can discern through the glitter and dazzle of present
+prosperity the dark outlines of approaching disasters, even though
+they may have come up to our very gates, and are already within
+striking distance.  The yawning seam and corroded bolt conceal
+their defects from the mariner until the storm calls all hands to
+the pumps.  Prophets, indeed, were abundant before the war; but
+who cares for prophets while their predictions remain unfulfilled,
+and the calamities of which they tell are masked behind a blinding
+blaze of national prosperity? 
+ 
+It is asked, said Henry Clay, on a memorable occasion, Will
+slavery never come to an end?  That question, said he, was asked
+fifty years ago, and it has been answered by fifty years of
+unprecedented prosperity.  Spite of the eloquence of the earnest
+Abolitionists,--poured out against slavery during thirty years,--
+even they must confess, that, in all the probabilities of the
+case, that system of barbarism would have continued its horrors
+far beyond the limits of the nineteenth century but for the
+Rebellion, and perhaps only have disappeared at last in a fiery
+conflict, even more fierce and bloody than that which has now been
+suppressed. 
+ 
+It is no disparagement to truth, that it can only prevail where
+reason prevails.  War begins where reason ends.  The thing worse
+than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.  What that
+thing is, we have been taught to our cost.  It remains now to be
+seen whether we have the needed courage to have that cause
+entirely removed from the Republic.  At any rate, to this grand
+work of national regeneration and entire purification Congress
+must now address Itself, with full purpose that the work shall
+this time be thoroughly done.  The deadly upas, root and branch,
+leaf and fibre, body and sap, must be utterly destroyed.  The
+country is evidently not in a condition to listen patiently to
+pleas for postponement, however plausible, nor will it permit the
+responsibility to be shifted to other shoulders.  Authority and
+power are here commensurate with the duty imposed.  There are no
+cloud-flung shadows to obscure the way.  Truth shines with
+brighter light and intenser heat at every moment, and a country
+torn and rent and bleeding implores relief from its distress and
+agony. 
+ 
+If time was at first needed, Congress has now had time.  All the
+requisite materials from which to form an intelligent judgment are
+now before it.  Whether its members look at the origin, the
+progress, the termination of the war, or at the mockery of a peace
+now existing, they will find only one unbroken chain of argument
+in favor of a radical policy of reconstruction.  For the omissions
+of the last session, some excuses may be allowed.  A treacherous
+President stood in the way; and it can be easily seen how
+reluctant good men might be to admit an apostasy which involved so
+much of baseness and ingratitude.  It was natural that they should
+seek to save him by bending to him even when he leaned to the side
+of error.  But all is changed now.  Congress knows now that it
+must go on without his aid, and even against his machinations. 
+The advantage of the present session over the last is immense. 
+Where that investigated, this has the facts.  Where that walked by
+faith, this may walk by sight.  Where that halted, this must go
+forward, and where that failed, this must succeed, giving the
+country whole measures where that gave us half-measures, merely as
+a means of saving the elections in a few doubtful districts.  That
+Congress saw what was right, but distrusted the enlightenment of
+the loyal masses; but what was forborne in distrust of the people
+must now be done with a full knowledge that the people expect and
+require it.  The members go to Washington fresh from the inspiring
+presence of the people.  In every considerable public meeting, and
+in almost every conceivable way, whether at court-house, school- 
+house, or cross-roads, in doors and out, the subject has been
+discussed, and the people have emphatically pronounced in favor of
+a radical policy.  Listening to the doctrines of expediency and
+compromise with pity, impatience, and disgust, they have
+everywhere broken into demonstrations of the wildest enthusiasm
+when a brave word has been spoken in favor of equal rights and
+impartial suffrage.  Radicalism, so far from being odious, is not
+the popular passport to power.  The men most bitterly charged with
+it go to Congress with the largest majorities, while the timid and
+doubtful are sent by lean majorities, or else left at home.  The
+strange controversy between the President and the Congress, at one
+time so threatening, is disposed of by the people.  The high
+reconstructive powers which he so confidently, ostentatiously, and
+haughtily claimed, have been disallowed, denounced, and utterly
+repudiated; while those claimed by Congress have been confirmed. 
+ 
+Of the spirit and magnitude of the canvass nothing need be said. 
+The appeal was to the people, and the verdict was worthy of the
+tribunal.  Upon an occasion of his own selection, with the advice
+and approval of his astute Secretary, soon after the members of
+the Congress had returned to their constituents, the President
+quitted the executive mansion, sandwiched himself between two
+recognized heroes,--men whom the whole country delighted to
+honor,--and, with all the advantage which such company could give
+him, stumped the country from the Atlantic to the Mississippi,
+advocating everywhere his policy as against that of Congress.  It
+was a strange sight, and perhaps the most disgraceful exhibition
+ever made by any President; but, as no evil is entirely unmixed,
+good has come of this, as from many others.  Ambitious,
+unscrupulous, energetic, indefatigable, voluble, and plausible,--a
+political gladiator, ready for a "set-to" in any crowd,--he is
+beaten in his own chosen field, and stands to-day before the
+country as a convicted usurper, a political criminal, guilty of a
+bold and persistent attempt to possess himself of the legislative
+powers solemnly secured to Congress by the Constitution.  No
+vindication could be more complete, no condemnation could be more
+absolute and humiliating.  Unless reopened by the sword, as
+recklessly threatened in some circles, this question is now closed
+for all time. 
+ 
+Without attempting to settle here the metaphysical and somewhat
+theological question (about which so much has already been said
+and written), whether once in the Union means always in the
+Union,--agreeably to the formula, Once in grace always in grace,--
+it is obvious to common sense that the rebellious States stand to-
+day, in point of law, precisely where they stood when, exhausted,
+beaten, conquered, they fell powerless at the feet of Federal
+authority.  Their State governments were overthrown, and the lives
+and property of the leaders of the Rebellion were forfeited.  In
+reconstructing the institutions of these shattered and overthrown
+States, Congress should begin with a clean slate, and make clean
+work of it.  Let there be no hesitation.  It would be a cowardly
+deference to a defeated and treacherous President, if any account
+were made of the illegitimate, one-sided, sham governments hurried
+into existence for a malign purpose in the absence of Congress. 
+These pretended governments, which were never submitted to the
+people, and from participation in which four millions of the loyal
+people were excluded by Presidential order, should now be treated
+according to their true character, as shams and impositions, and
+supplanted by true and legitimate governments, in the formation of
+which loyal men, black and white, shall participate. 
+ 
+It is not, however, within the scope of this paper to point out
+the precise steps to be taken, and the means to be employed.  The
+people are less concerned about these than the grand end to be
+attained.  They demand such a reconstruction as shall put an end
+to the present anarchical state of things in the late rebellious
+States,--where frightful murders and wholesale massacres are
+perpetrated in the very presence of Federal soldiers.  This
+horrible business they require shall cease.  They want a
+reconstruction such as will protect loyal men, black and white, in
+their persons and property; such a one as will cause Northern
+industry, Northern capital, and Northern civilization to flow into
+the South, and make a man from New England as much at home in
+Carolina as elsewhere in the Republic.  No Chinese wall can now be
+tolerated.  The South must be opened to the light of law and
+liberty, and this session of Congress is relied upon to accomplish
+this important work. 
+ 
+The plain, common-sense way of doing this work, as intimated at
+the beginning, is simply to establish in the South one law, one
+government, one administration of justice, one condition to the
+exercise of the elective franchise, for men of all races and
+colors alike.  This great measure is sought as earnestly by loyal
+white men as by loyal blacks, and is needed alike by both.  Let
+sound political prescience but take the place of an unreasoning
+prejudice, and this will be done. 
+ 
+Men denounce the negro for his prominence in this discussion; but
+it is no fault of his that in peace as in war, that in conquering
+Rebel armies as in reconstructing the rebellious States, the right
+of the negro is the true solution of our national troubles.  The
+stern logic of events, which goes directly to the point,
+disdaining all concern for the color or features of men, has
+determined the interests of the country as identical with and
+inseparable from those of the negro. 
+ 
+The policy that emancipated and armed the negro--now seen to have
+been wise and proper by the dullest--was not certainly more
+sternly demanded than is now the policy of enfranchisement.  If
+with the negro was success in war, and without him failure, so in
+peace it will be found that the nation must fall or flourish with
+the negro. 
+ 
+Fortunately, the Constitution of the United States knows no
+distinction between citizens on account of color.  Neither does it
+know any difference between a citizen of a State and a citizen of
+the United States.  Citizenship evidently includes all the rights
+of citizens, whether State or national.  If the Constitution knows
+none, it is clearly no part of the duty of a Republican Congress
+now to institute one.  The mistake of the last session was the
+attempt to do this very thing, by a renunciation of its power to
+secure political rights to any class of citizens, with the obvious
+purpose to allow the rebellious States to disfranchise, if they
+should see fit, their colored citizens.  This unfortunate blunder
+must now be retrieved, and the emasculated citizenship given to
+the negro supplanted by that contemplated in the Constitution of
+the United States, which declares that the citizens of each State
+shall enjoy all the rights and immunities of citizens of the
+several States,--so that a legal voter in any State shall be a
+legal voter in all the States. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+AN APPEAL TO CONGRESS FOR IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE 
+by Frederick Douglas 
+ 
+ 
+A very limited statement of the argument for impartial suffrage,
+and for including the negro in the body politic, would require
+more space than can be reasonably asked here.  It is supported by
+reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the
+wants of society.  Man is the only government-making animal in the
+world.  His right to a participation in the production and
+operation of government is an inference from his nature, as direct
+and self-evident as is his right to acquire property or education. 
+It is no less a crime against the manhood of a man, to declare
+that he shall not share in the making and directing of the
+government under which he lives, than to say that he shall not
+acquire property and education.  The fundamental and unanswerable
+argument in favor of the enfranchisement of the negro is found in
+the undisputed fact of his manhood.  He is a man, and by every
+fact and argument by which any man can sustain his right to vote,
+the negro can sustain his right equally.  It is plain that, if the
+right belongs to any, it belongs to all.  The doctrine that some
+men have no rights that others are bound to respect, is a doctrine
+which we must banish as we have banished slavery, from which it
+emanated.  If black men have no rights in the eyes of white men,
+of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks.  The
+result is a war of races, and the annihilation of all proper human
+relations. 
+ 
+But suffrage for the negro, while easily sustained upon abstract
+principles, demands consideration upon what are recognized as the
+urgent necessities of the case.  It is a measure of relief,--a
+shield to break the force of a blow already descending with
+violence, and render it harmless.  The work of destruction has
+already been set in motion all over the South.  Peace to the
+country has literally meant war to the loyal men of the South,
+white and black; and negro suffrage is the measure to arrest and
+put an end to that dreadful strife. 
+ 
+Something then, not by way of argument, (for that has been done by
+Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith,
+and other able men,) but rather of statement and appeal. 
+ 
+For better or for worse, (as in some of the old marriage
+ceremonies,) the negroes are evidently a permanent part of the
+American population.  They are too numerous and useful to be
+colonized, and too enduring and self-perpetuating to disappear by
+natural causes.  Here they are, four millions of them, and, for
+weal or for woe, here they must remain.  Their history is parallel
+to that of the country; but while the history of the latter has
+been cheerful and bright with blessings, theirs has been heavy and
+dark with agonies and curses.  What O'Connell said of the history
+of Ireland may with greater truth be said of the negro's.  It may
+be "traced like a wounded man through a crowd, by the blood."  Yet
+the negroes have marvellously survived all the exterminating
+forces of slavery, and have emerged at the end of two hundred and
+fifty years of bondage, not morose, misanthropic, and revengeful,
+but cheerful, hopeful, and forgiving.  They now stand before
+Congress and the country, not complaining of the past, but simply
+asking for a better future.  The spectacle of these dusky millions
+thus imploring, not demanding, is touching; and if American
+statesmen could be moved by a simple appeal to the nobler elements
+of human nature, if they had not fallen, seemingly, into the
+incurable habit of weighing and measuring every proposition of
+reform by some standard of profit and loss, doing wrong from
+choice, and right only from necessity or some urgent demand of
+human selfishness, it would be enough to plead for the negroes on
+the score of past services and sufferings.  But no such appeal
+shall be relied on here.  Hardships, services, sufferings, and
+sacrifices are all waived.  It is true that they came to the
+relief of the country at the hour of its extremest need.  It is
+true that, in many of the rebellious States, they were almost the
+only reliable friends the nation had throughout the whole
+tremendous war.  It is true that, notwithstanding their alleged
+ignorance, they were wiser than their masters, and knew enough to
+be loyal, while those masters only knew enough to be rebels and
+traitors.  It is true that they fought side by side in the loyal
+cause with our gallant and patriotic white soldiers, and that, but
+for their help,--divided as the loyal States were,--the Rebels
+might have succeeded in breaking up the Union, thereby entailing
+border wars and troubles of unknown duration and incalculable
+calamity.  All this and more is true of these loyal negroes.  Many
+daring exploits will be told to their credit.  Impartial history
+will paint them as men who deserved well of their country.  It
+will tell how they forded and swam rivers, with what consummate
+address they evaded the sharp-eyed Rebel pickets, how they toiled
+in the darkness of night through the tangled marshes of briers and
+thorns, barefooted and weary, running the risk of losing their
+lives, to warn our generals of Rebel schemes to surprise and
+destroy our loyal army.  It will tell how these poor people, whose
+rights we still despised, behaved to our wounded soldiers, when
+found cold, hungry, and bleeding on the deserted battle-field; how
+they assisted our escaping prisoners from Andersonville, Belle
+Isle, Castle Thunder, and elsewhere, sharing with them their
+wretched crusts, and otherwise affording them aid and comfort; how
+they promptly responded to the trumpet call for their services,
+fighting against a foe that denied them the rights of civilized
+warfare, and for a government which was without the courage to
+assert those rights and avenge their violation in their behalf;
+with what gallantry they flung themselves upon Rebel
+fortifications, meeting death as fearlessly as any other troops in
+the service.  But upon none of these things is reliance placed. 
+These facts speak to the better dispositions of the human heart;
+but they seem of little weight with the opponents of impartial
+suffrage. 
+ 
+It is true that a strong plea for equal suffrage might be
+addressed to the national sense of honor.  Something, too, might
+be said of national gratitude.  A nation might well hesitate
+before the temptation to betray its allies.  There is something
+immeasurably mean, to say nothing of the cruelty, in placing the
+loyal negroes of the South under the political power of their
+Rebel masters.  To make peace with our enemies is all well enough;
+but to prefer our enemies and sacrifice our friends,--to exalt our
+enemies and cast down our friends,--to clothe our enemies, who
+sought the destruction of the government, with all political
+power, and leave our friends powerless in their hands,--is an act
+which need not be characterized here.  We asked the negroes to
+espouse our cause, to be our friends, to fight for us, and against
+their masters; and now, after they have done all that we asked
+them to do,--helped us to conquer their masters, and thereby
+directed toward themselves the furious hate of the vanquished,--it
+is proposed in some quarters to turn them over to the political
+control of the common enemy of the government and of the negro. 
+But of this let nothing be said in this place.  Waiving humanity,
+national honor, the claims of gratitude, the precious satisfaction
+arising from deeds of charity and justice to the weak and
+defenceless,--the appeal for impartial suffrage addresses itself
+with great pertinency to the darkest, coldest, and flintiest side
+of the human heart, and would wring righteousness from the
+unfeeling calculations of human selfishness. 
+ 
+For in respect to this grand measure it is the good fortune of the
+negro that enlightened selfishness, not less than justice, fights
+on his side.  National interest and national duty, if elsewhere
+separated, are firmly united here.  The American people can,
+perhaps, afford to brave the censure of surrounding nations for
+the manifest injustice and meanness of excluding its faithful
+black soldiers from the ballot-box, but it cannot afford to allow
+the moral and mental energies of rapidly increasing millions to be
+consigned to hopeless degradation. 
+ 
+Strong as we are, we need the energy that slumbers in the black
+man's arm to make us stronger.  We want no longer any heavy-
+footed, melancholy service from the negro.  We want the cheerful
+activity of the quickened manhood of these sable millions.  Nor
+can we afford to endure the moral blight which the existence of a
+degraded and hated class must necessarily inflict upon any people
+among whom such a class may exist.  Exclude the negroes as a class
+from political rights,--teach them that the high and manly
+privilege of suffrage is to be enjoyed by white citizens only,--
+that they may bear the burdens of the state, but that they are to
+have no part in its direction or its honors,--and you at once
+deprive them of one of the main incentives to manly character and
+patriotic devotion to the interests of the government; in a word,
+you stamp them as a degraded caste,--you teach them to despise
+themselves, and all others to despise them.  Men are so
+constituted that they largely derive their ideas of their
+abilities and their possibilities from the settled judgments of
+their fellow-men, and especially from such as they read in the
+institutions under which they live.  If these bless them, they are
+blest indeed; but if these blast them, they are blasted indeed. 
+Give the negro the elective franchise, and you give him at once a
+powerful motive for all noble exertion, and make him a man among
+men.  A character is demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand
+favors supply.  It is nothing against this reasoning that all men
+who vote are not good men or good citizens.  It is enough that the
+possession and exercise of the elective franchise is in itself an
+appeal to the nobler elements of manhood, and imposes education as
+essential to the safety of society. 
+ 
+To appreciate the full force of this argument, it must be
+observed, that disfranchisement in a republican government based
+upon the idea of human equality and universal suffrage, is a very
+different thing from disfranchisement in governments based upon
+the idea of the divine right of kings, or the entire subjugation
+of the masses.  Masses of men can take care of themselves. 
+Besides, the disabilities imposed upon all are necessarily without
+that bitter and stinging element of invidiousness which attaches  
+to disfranchisement in a republic.  What is common to all works no
+special sense of degradation to any.  But in a country like ours,
+where men of all nations, kindred, and tongues are freely
+enfranchised, and allowed to vote, to say to the negro, You shall
+not vote, is to deal his manhood a staggering blow, and to burn
+into his soul a bitter and goading sense of wrong, or else work in
+him a stupid indifference to all the elements of a manly
+character.  As a nation, we cannot afford to have amongst us
+either this indifference and stupidity, or that burning sense of
+wrong.  These sable millions are too powerful to be allowed to
+remain either indifferent or discontented.  Enfranchise them, and
+they become self-respecting and country-loving citizens. 
+Disfranchise them, and the mark of Cain is set upon them less
+mercifully than upon the first murderer, for no man was to hurt
+him.  But this mark of inferiority--all the more palpable because
+of a difference of color--not only dooms the negro to be a
+vagabond, but makes him the prey of insult and outrage everywhere. 
+While nothing may be urged here as to the past services of the
+negro, it is quite within the line of this appeal to remind the
+nation of the possibility that a time may come when the services
+of the negro may be a second time required.  History is said to
+repeat itself, and, if so, having wanted the negro once, we may
+want him again.  Can that statesmanship be wise which would leave
+the negro good ground to hesitate, when the exigencies of the
+country required his prompt assistance?  Can that be sound
+statesmanship which leaves millions of men in gloomy discontent,
+and possibly in a state of alienation in the day of national
+trouble?  Was not the nation stronger when two hundred thousand
+sable soldiers were hurled against the Rebel fortifications, than
+it would have been without them?  Arming the negro was an urgent
+military necessity three years ago,--are we sure that another
+quite as pressing may not await us?  Casting aside all thought of
+justice and magnanimity, is it wise to impose upon the negro all
+the burdens involved in sustaining government against foes within
+and foes without, to make him equal sharer in all sacrifices for
+the public good, to tax him in peace and conscript him in war, and
+then coldly exclude him from the ballot-box? 
+ 
+Look across the sea.  Is Ireland, in her present condition,
+fretful, discontented, compelled to support an establishment in
+which she does not believe, and which the vast majority of her
+people abhor, a source of power or of weakness to Great Britain? 
+Is not Austria wise in removing all ground of complaint against
+her on the part of Hungary?  And does not the Emperor of Russia
+act wisely, as well as generously, when he not only breaks up the
+bondage of the serf, but extends him all the advantages of Russian
+citizenship?  Is the present movement in England in favor of
+manhood suffrage--for the purpose of bringing four millions of
+British subjects into full sympathy and co-operation with the
+British government--a wise and humane movement, or otherwise?  Is
+the existence of a rebellious element in our borders--which New
+Orleans, Memphis, and Texas show to be only disarmed, but at heart
+as malignant as ever, only waiting for an opportunity to reassert
+itself with fire and sword--a reason for leaving four millions of
+the nation's truest friends with just cause of complaint against
+the Federal government?  If the doctrine that taxation should go
+hand in hand with representation can be appealed to in behalf of
+recent traitors and rebels, may it not properly be asserted in
+behalf of a people who have ever been loyal and faithful to the
+government?  The answers to these questions are too obvious to
+require statement.  Disguise it as we may, we are still a divided
+nation.  The Rebel States have still an anti-national policy.
+Massachusetts and South Carolina may draw tears from the eyes of
+our tender-hearted President by walking arm in arm into his
+Philadelphia Convention, but a citizen of Massachusetts is still
+an alien in the Palmetto State.  There is that, all over the
+South, which frightens Yankee industry, capital, and skill from
+its borders.  We have crushed the Rebellion, but not its hopes or
+its malign purposes.  The South fought for perfect and permanent
+control over the Southern laborer.  It was a war of the rich
+against the poor.  They who waged it had no objection to the
+government, while they could use it as a means of confirming their
+power over the laborer.  They fought the government, not because
+they hated the government as such, but because they found it, as
+they thought, in the way between them and their one grand purpose
+of rendering permanent and indestructible their authority and
+power over the Southern laborer.  Though the battle is for the
+present lost, the hope of gaining this object still exists, and
+pervades the whole South with a feverish excitement.  We have thus
+far only gained a Union without unity, marriage without love,
+victory without peace.  The hope of gaining by politics what they
+lost by the sword, is the secret of all this Southern unrest; and
+that hope must be extinguished before national ideas and objects
+can take full possession of the Southern mind.  There is but one
+safe and constitutional way to banish that mischievous hope from
+the South, and that is by lifting the laborer beyond the
+unfriendly political designs of his former master.  Give the negro
+the elective franchise, and you at once destroy the purely
+sectional policy, and wheel the Southern States into line with
+national interests and national objects.  The last and shrewdest
+turn of Southern politics is a recognition of the necessity of
+getting into Congress immediately, and at any price.  The South
+will comply with any conditions but suffrage for the negro.  It
+will swallow all the unconstitutional test oaths, repeal all the
+ordinances of Secession, repudiate the Rebel debt, promise to pay
+the debt incurred in conquering its people, pass all the
+constitutional amendments, if only it can have the negro left
+under its political control.  The proposition is as modest as that
+made on the mountain: "All these things will I give unto thee if
+thou wilt fall down and worship me." 
+ 
+But why are the Southerners so willing to make these sacrifices? 
+The answer plainly is, they see in this policy the only hope of
+saving something of their old sectional peculiarities and power. 
+Once firmly seated in Congress, their alliance with Northern
+Democrats re-established, their States restored to their former
+position inside the Union, they can easily find means of keeping
+the Federal government entirely too busy with other important
+matters to pay much attention to the local affairs of the Southern
+States.  Under the potent shield of State Rights, the game would
+be in their own hands.  Does any sane man doubt for a moment that
+the men who followed Jefferson Davis through the late terrible
+Rebellion, often marching barefooted and hungry, naked and
+penniless, and who now only profess an enforced loyalty, would
+plunge this country into a foreign war to-day, if they could
+thereby gain their coveted independence, and their still more
+coveted mastery over the negroes?  Plainly enough, the peace not
+less than the prosperity of this country is involved in the great
+measure of impartial suffrage.  King Cotton is deposed, but only
+deposed, and is ready to-day to reassert all his ancient
+pretensions upon the first favorable opportunity.  Foreign
+countries abound with his agents.  They are able, vigilant,
+devoted.  The young men of the South burn with the desire to
+regain what they call the lost cause; the women are noisily
+malignant towards the Federal government.  In fact, all the
+elements of treason and rebellion are there under the thinnest
+disguise which necessity can impose. 
+ 
+What, then, is the work before Congress?  It is to save the people
+of the South from themselves, and the nation from detriment on
+their account.  Congress must supplant the evident sectional
+tendencies of the South by national dispositions and tendencies. 
+It must cause national ideas and objects to take the lead and
+control the politics of those States.  It must cease to recognize
+the old slave-masters as the only competent persons to rule the
+South.  In a word, it must enfranchise the negro, and by means of
+the loyal negroes and the loyal white men of the South build up a
+national party there, and in time bridge the chasm between North
+and South, so that our country may have a common liberty and a
+common civilization.  The new wine must be put into new bottles. 
+The lamb may not be trusted with the wolf.  Loyalty is hardly safe
+with traitors. 
+ 
+Statesmen of America! beware what you do.  The ploughshare of
+rebellion has gone through the land beam-deep.  The soil is in
+readiness, and the seed-time has come.  Nations, not less than
+individuals, reap as they sow.  The dreadful calamities of the
+past few years came not by accident, nor unbidden, from the
+ground.  You shudder to-day at the harvest of blood sown in the
+spring-time of the Republic by your patriot fathers.  The
+principle of slavery, which they tolerated under the erroneous
+impression that it would soon die out, became at last the dominant
+principle and power at the South.  It early mastered the
+Constitution, became superior to the Union, and enthroned itself
+above the law. 
+ 
+Freedom of speech and of the press it slowly but successfully
+banished from the South, dictated its own code of honor and
+manners to the nation, brandished the bludgeon and the bowie-knife
+over Congressional debate, sapped the foundations of loyalty,
+dried up the springs of patriotism, blotted out the testimonies of
+the fathers against oppression, padlocked the pulpit, expelled
+liberty from its literature, invented nonsensical theories about
+master-races and slave-races of men, and in due season produced a
+Rebellion fierce, foul, and bloody. 
+ 
+This evil principle again seeks admission into our body politic. 
+It comes now in shape of a denial of political rights to four
+million loyal colored people.  The South does not now ask for
+slavery.  It only asks for a large degraded caste, which shall
+have no political rights.  This ends the case.  Statesmen, beware
+what you do.  The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is
+in your hands.  Will you repeat the mistake of your fathers, who
+sinned ignorantly? or will you profit by the blood-bought wisdom
+all round you, and forever expel every vestige of the old
+abomination from our national borders?  As you members of the
+Thirty-ninth Congress decide, will the country be peaceful,
+united, and happy, or troubled, divided, and miserable. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE NEGRO EXODUS 
+by James B. Runnion 
+ 
+ 
+A recent sojourn in the South for a few weeks, chiefly in
+Louisiana and Mississippi, gave the writer an opportunity to
+inquire into what has been so aptly called "the negro exodus." 
+The emigration of blacks to Kansas began early in the spring of
+this year.  For a time there was a stampede from two or three of
+the river parishes in Louisiana and as many counties opposite in
+Mississippi.  Several thousand negroes (certainly not fewer than
+five thousand, and variously estimated as high as ten thousand)
+had left their cabins before the rush could be stayed or the
+excitement lulled.  Early in May most of the negroes who had quit
+work for the purpose of emigrating, but had not succeeded in
+getting off, were persuaded to return to the plantations, and from
+that time on there have been only straggling families and groups
+that have watched for and seized the first opportunity for
+transportation to the North.  There is no doubt, however, that
+there is still a consuming desire among the negroes of the cotton
+districts in these two States to seek new homes, and there are the
+best reasons for believing that the exodus will take a new start
+next spring, after the gathering and conversion of the growing
+crop.  Hundreds of negroes who returned from the river-banks for
+lack of transportation, and thousands of others infected with the
+ruling discontent, are working harder in the fields this summer,
+and practicing more economy and self-denial than ever before, in
+order to have the means next winter and spring to pay their way to
+the "promised land." 
+ 
+"We've been working for fourteen long years," said an intelligent
+negro, in reply to a question as to the cause of the prevailing
+discontent, "and we ain't no better off than we was when we
+commenced."  This is the negro version of the trouble, which is
+elaborated on occasion into a harrowing story of oppression and
+plunder. 
+ 
+"I tell you it's all owing to the radical politicians at the
+North," explained a representative of the type known as the
+Bourbons; "they've had their emissaries down here, and deluded the
+'niggers' into a very fever of emigration, with the purpose of
+reducing our basis of representation in Congress and increasing
+that of the Northern States." 
+ 
+These are the two extremes of opinion at the South.  The first is
+certainly the more reasonable and truthful, though it implies that
+all the blame rests upon the whites, which is not the case; the
+second, preposterous as it will appear to Northern readers, is
+religiously believed by large numbers of the "unreconciled." 
+Between these two extremes there is an infinite variety of
+theories, all more or less governed by the political faction to
+which the various theorizers belong; there are at least a dozen of
+these factions, such as the Bourbons, the conservatives, the
+native white republicans, the carpet-bag republicans, the negro
+republicans, etc.  There is a political tinge in almost everything
+in the extreme Southern States.  The fact seems to be that the
+emigration movement among the blacks was spontaneous to the extent
+that they were ready and anxious to go.  The immediate notion of
+going may have been inculcated by such circulars, issued by
+railroads and land companies, as are common enough at emigrant
+centres in the North and West, and the exaggeration characteristic
+of such literature may have stimulated the imagination of the
+negroes far beyond anything they are likely to realize in their
+new homes.  Kansas was naturally the favorite goal of the negro
+emigre, for it was associated in his mind with the names of Jim
+Lane and John Brown, which are hallowed to him.  The timid learned
+that they could escape what they have come to regard as a second
+bondage, and they flocked together to gain the moral support which
+comes from numbers. 
+ 
+Diligent inquiry among representative men, of all classes and from
+all parts of Louisiana, who were in attendance at the
+constitutional convention in New Orleans, and careful observation
+along the river among the land owners and field hands in both
+Louisiana and Mississippi, left a vivid impression of some
+material and political conditions which fully account for the
+negro exodus.  I have dropped the social conditions out of the
+consideration, because I became convinced that the race troubles
+at the South can be solved to the satisfaction of both whites and
+blacks without cultivating any closer social relations than those
+which now prevail.  The material conditions which I have in mind
+are less familiar than the political conditions; they are mainly
+the land-tenure and credit systems, and mere modifications
+(scarcely for the better) of the peculiar plantation system of
+slavery days. 
+ 
+The cotton lands at the South are owned now, as they were before
+the war, in large tracts.  The land was about all that most of the
+Southern whites had left to them after the war, and they kept it
+when they could, at the first, in the hope that it would yield
+them a living through the labor of the blacks; of late years they
+have not been able to sell their plantations at any fair price, if
+they desired to do so.  The white men with capital who went to the
+South from the North after the war seemed to acquire the true
+Southern ambition to be large land owners and planters; and when
+the ante-bellum owners lost their plantations the land usually
+went in bulk to the city factors who had made them advances from
+year to year, and had taken mortgages on their crops and broad
+acres.  As a consequence, the land has never been distributed
+among the people who inhabit and cultivate it, and agricultural
+labor in the Southern States approaches the condition of the
+factory labor in England and the Eastern States more nearly than
+it does the farm labor of the North and West.  Nearly every
+agricultural laborer north of Mason and Dixon's line, if not the
+actual possessor of the land he plows, looks forward to owning a
+farm some time; at the South such an ambition is rare, and small
+ownership still more an exception.  The practice of paying day
+wages was first tried after the war; this practice is still in
+vogue in the sugar and rice districts, where laborers are paid
+from fifty to seventy cents per day, with quarters furnished and
+living guaranteed them at nine or ten cents a day.  In sections
+where the wages system prevails, and where there have been no
+political disturbances, the negroes seem to be perfectly
+contented; at all events, the emigration fever has not spread
+among them.  But it was found impracticable to maintain the wage
+system in the cotton districts.  The negroes themselves fought
+against it, because it reminded them too much of the slave-gang,
+driven out at daybreak and home at sundown.  In many cases the
+planters were forced to abandon it, because they had not the means
+to carry on such huge farming, and they could not secure the same
+liberal advances from capitalists as when they were able to
+mortgage a growing "crop of niggers."  Then the system of working
+on shares was tried.  This was reasonably fair, and the negro
+laborers were satisfied as long as it lasted.  The owners of the
+land, under this system, would furnish the indispensable mule and
+the farming implements, and take one half the product.  The
+planters themselves relinquished this system.  Some of them
+contend that the laziness and indifference of the negro made the
+partnership undesirable; many others admit that they were not able
+to advance the negro tenant his supplies pending the growth of the
+year's crop, as it was necessary they should do under the sharing
+system.  Now the renting system is almost universal.  It yields
+the land owner a certainty, endangered only by the death,
+sickness, or desertion of the negro tenant; but it throws the
+latter upon his own responsibility, and frequently makes him the
+victim of his own ignorance and the rapacity of the white man. 
+The rent of land, on a money basis, varies from six to ten dollars
+an acre per year, while the same land can be bought in large
+quantities all the way from fifteen to thirty dollars per acre,
+according to location, clearing, improvement, richness, etc.  When
+paid in product, the rent varies from eighty to one hundred pounds
+of lint cotton per acre for land that produces from two hundred to
+four hundred pounds of cotton per acre; the tenant undertakes to
+pay from one quarter to one half--perhaps an average of one third--
+of his crop for the use of the land, without stock, tools, or
+assistance of any kind.  The land owners usually claim that they
+make no money even at these exorbitant figures.  If they do not,
+it is because only a portion of their vast possessions is under
+cultivation, because they do no work themselves, and in some cases
+because the negroes do not cultivate and gather as large a crop as
+they could and ought to harvest.  It is very certain that the
+negro tenants, as a class, make no money; if they are out of debt
+at the end of a season, they have reason to rejoice. 
+ 
+The credit system, which is as universal as the renting system, is
+even more illogical and oppressive.  The utter viciousness of both
+systems in their mutual dependence is sufficiently illustrated by
+the single fact that, after fourteen years of freedom and labor on
+their own account, the great mass of the negroes depend for their
+living on an advance of supplies (as they need food, clothing, or
+tools during the year) upon the pledge of their growing crop. 
+This is a generic imitation of the white man's improvidence during
+the slavery times; then the planters mortgaged their crops and
+negroes, and where one used the advances to extend his plantation,
+ten squandered the money.  The negro's necessities have developed
+an offensive race, called merchants by courtesy, who keep supply
+stores at the cross-roads and steamboat landings, and live upon
+extortion.  These people would be called sharks, harpies, and
+vampires in any Northwestern agricultural community, and they
+would not survive more than one season.  The country merchant
+advances the negro tenant such supplies as the negro wants up to a
+certain amount, previously fixed by contract, and charges the
+negro at least double the value of every article sold to him. 
+There is no concealment about the extortion; every store-keeper
+has his cash price and his credit price, and in nearly all cases
+the latter is one hundred per cent. higher than the former.  The
+extortion is justified by those who practice it on the ground that
+their losses by bad debts, though their advances are always
+secured by mortgage on the growing crop, overbalance the profits;
+this assertion is scarcely borne out by the comparative opulence
+of the "merchant" and the pitiful poverty of the laborer.  Some of
+the largest and wealthiest planters have sought to protect their
+tenants from the merciless clutches of the contrary merchant, who
+is more frequently than not an Israelite, by advancing supplies of
+necessary articles at reasonable prices.  But the necessities of
+the planter, if not his greed, often betray him into plundering
+the negro.  The planter himself is generally a victim to usury. 
+He still draws on the city factor to the extent of ten dollars a
+bale upon his estimated crop.  He pays this factor two and one
+half per cent. commission for the advance, eight per cent.
+interest for the money, two and one half per cent. more for
+disposing of the crop when consigned to him, and sometimes still
+another commission for the purchase of the supplies.  The planter
+who furnishes his tenants with supplies on credit is usually
+paying an interest of fifteen to eighteen per cent. himself, and
+necessarily takes some risk in advancing upon an uncertain crop
+and to a laborer whom he believes to be neither scrupulous nor
+industrious; these conditions necessitate more than the ordinary
+profit, and in many cases suggest exorbitant and unreasonable
+charges.  But whether the negro deals with the merchant or the
+land owner, his extravagance almost invariably exhausts his
+credit, even if it be large.  The negro is a sensuous creature,
+and luxurious in his way.  The male is an enormous consumer of
+tobacco and whisky; the female has an inordinate love for
+flummery; both are fond of sardines, potted meats, and canned
+goods generally, and they indulge themselves without any other
+restraint than the refusal of their merchant to sell to them.  The
+man who advances supplies watches his negro customers constantly;
+if they are working well and their crop promises to be large, he
+will permit and even encourage them to draw upon him liberally; it
+is only a partial failure of the crop, or some intimation of the
+negro's intention to shirk his obligations, that induces his
+country factor to preach the virtue of self-restraint, or moralize
+upon the advantages of economy. 
+ 
+The land owner's rent and the merchant's advances are both secured
+by a chattel mortgage on the tenant's personal property, and by a
+pledge of the growing crop.  The hired laborer (for it is common
+for negroes to work for wages for other negroes who rent lands)
+has also a lien upon the growing crops second only to the land
+owner's; but as the law requires that the liens shall be recorded,
+which the ignorant laborer usually neglects and the shrewd
+merchant never fails to do, the former is generally cheated of his
+security.  Among those who usually work for hire are the women,
+who are expert cotton pickers, and the loss of wages which so many
+of them have suffered by reason of the prior lien gained by
+landlord and merchant has helped to make them earnest and
+effective advocates of emigration.  The Western farmer considers
+it hard enough to struggle under one mortgage at a reasonable
+interest; the negro tenant begins his season with three mortgages,
+covering all he owns, his labor for the coming year, and all he
+expects to acquire during that period.  He pays one third his
+product for the use of the land; he pays double the value of all
+he consumes; he pays an exorbitant fee for recording the contract
+by which he pledges his pound of flesh; he is charged two or three
+times as much as he ought to pay for ginning his cotton; and,
+finally, he turns over his crop to be eaten up in commissions, if
+anything still be left to him.  It is easy to understand why the
+negro rarely gets ahead in the world.  This mortgaging of future
+services, which is practically what a pledge of the growing crop
+amounts to, is in the nature of bondage.  It has a tendency to
+make the negro extravagant, reckless, and unscrupulous; he has
+become convinced from previous experience that nothing will be
+coming to him on the day of settlement, and he is frequently
+actuated by the purpose of getting as much as possible and working
+as little as possible.  Cases are numerous in which the negro
+abandons his own crop at picking time, because he knows that he
+has already eaten up its full value; and so he goes to picking for
+wages on some other plantation.  In other cases, where negroes
+have acquired mules and farming implements upon which a merchant
+has secured a mortgage in the manner described, they are
+practically bound to that merchant from year to year, in order to
+retain their property; if he removes from one section to another,
+they must follow him, and rent and cultivate lands in his
+neighborhood.  It is only the ignorance, the improvidence, and the
+happy disposition of the negro, under the influence of the lazy,
+drowsy climate, to which he is so well adapted physically, that
+have enabled him to endure these hardships so long.  And, though
+the negro is the loser, the white man is not often the gainer,
+from this false plantation and mercantile system.  The incidental
+risk may not be so large as the planter and merchant pretend, but
+the condition of the people is an evidence that the extortion they
+practice yields no better profit in the long run than would be
+gained by competition in fair prices on a cash system; and in
+leading up to a general emigration of the laboring population the
+abuses described will eventually ruin and impoverish those who
+have heretofore been the only beneficiaries thereof.  The decay of
+improvements inevitable under annual rentings, the lack of
+sufficient labor to cultivate all the good land, and the universal
+idleness of the rural whites have kept the land owners
+comparatively poor; the partial failure of crops and the
+unscrupulousness of the negro debtor, engendered by the infamous
+exactions of his creditor, have prevented the merchants, as a
+class, from prospering as much as might be supposed; and, finally,
+the uniform injustice to the laborers induces them to fly to ills
+they know not of, rather than bear those they have.  It is a
+blessing to the negro that the laws do not yet provide for a
+detention of the person in the case of debt, or escape would be
+shut off entirely; as it is, various influences and circumstances
+appertaining to the system in vogue have been used to prevent the
+easy flight of those who desire to go, and have detained thousands
+of blacks for a time who are fretting to quit the country. 
+ 
+Political oppression has contributed largely to the discontent
+which is the prime cause of the exodus.  "Bulldozing" is the term
+by which all forms of this oppression are known.  The native
+whites are generally indisposed to confess that the negroes are
+quitting the country on account of political injustice and
+persecution; even those who freely admit and fitly characterize
+the abuses already described seek to deny, or at least belittle,
+the political abuses.  The fact that a large number of negroes
+have emigrated from Madison Parish, Louisiana, where there has
+never been any bulldozing, and where the negroes are in full and
+undisputed political control, is cited as proof that political
+disturbances cut no figure in the case.  But the town of Delta, in
+Madison Parish, is at once on the river and the terminus of a
+railroad that runs back through the interior of the State; thus
+Madison Parish would furnish the natural exit for the fugitives
+from the adjoining counties, where there have been political
+disturbances.  It would be just as reasonable to contend that the
+plundering of the negroes has had no influence in driving them
+away, since many of those who have emigrated were among the most
+prosperous of the blacks, as to deny the agency of political
+persecution.  Families that had been able to accumulate a certain
+amount of personal property, in spite of the extortionate
+practices, sold their mules, their implements, their cows, their
+pigs, their sheep, and their household goods for anything they
+would bring,--frequently as low as one sixth of their value,--in
+order that they might improve an immediate opportunity to go away;
+it is evident that there must have been some cause outside of
+extortion in their case.  There are candid native whites who do
+not deny, but justify, the violent methods which have been
+employed to disfranchise the negroes, or compel them to vote under
+white dictation, in many parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, on
+the ground that the men who pay the taxes should vote them and
+control the disbursement of the public moneys.  The gentlemen who
+advance this argument seem to ignore the fact that the very
+Northerner whom they are seeking to convert to "the Mississippi
+plan" may himself be a taxpayer in some Northern city, where
+public affairs are controlled by a class of voters in every way as
+ignorant and irresponsible as the blacks, but where bulldozing has
+never yet been suggested as a remedy.  For the rest, the evidences
+of political oppression are abundant and convincing.  The
+bulldozers as a class are more impecunious and irresponsible than
+the negroes, and, unlike the negroes, they will not work.  There
+has been more of the "night-riding," the whippings, the mysterious
+disappearances, the hangings, and the terrorism comprehended in
+the term bulldozing than has been reported by those "abstracts and
+brief chronicles of the time," the Southern newspapers, which are
+now all of one party, and defer to the ruling sentiment among the
+whites.  The exodus has wrung from two or three of the more candid
+and independent journals, however, a virtual confession of the
+fiendish practices of bulldozing in their insistance that these
+practices must be abandoned.  The non-resident land owners and the
+resident planters, the city factors and the country merchants of
+means and respectability, have taken no personal part in the
+terrorizing of the negro, but they have tolerated it, and
+sometimes encouraged it, in order to gratify their preference for
+"white government."  The negroes have suffered the more because
+they have not resisted and defended themselves; now they have
+begun to convince those who have persecuted them that, if they
+will not strike back, they can and will run away.  No one who is
+at all familiar with the freedman can doubt that the abridgment of
+his political rights has been one of the main causes of the
+exodus.  Voting is widely regarded at the North as a disagreeable
+duty, but the negro looks upon it as the highest privilege in
+life; to be frightened out of the exercise of this privilege, or
+compelled to exercise it in conflict with his convictions and
+preferences, is to suffer from a cruel injustice, which the negro
+will now try to escape, since he has learned that escape is
+possible.  The women, though free from personal assaults, suffer
+from the terrorism that prevails in certain districts as much as
+the men.  "We might as well starve or freeze to death in Kansas,"
+they say, "as to be shot-gunned here."  If they talk to you in
+confidence, they declare that the ruling purpose is to escape from
+the "slaughter-pens" of the South.  Political persecution, and
+not the extortion they suffer, is the refrain of all the speakers
+at negro meetings that are held in encouragement and aid of the
+emigration.  It is idle to deny that the varied injustice which
+the negroes have suffered as voters is accountable for a large
+part of their universal yearning for new homes, and it will be
+folly for the responsible classes at the South to ignore this
+fact. 
+ 
+As it is the negroes who are fleeing from the South, it is natural
+to look among the dominant class for the injustice which is
+driving them away; but it would be unfair to conclude that the
+blame rests entirely upon the whites, and still more so to leave
+the impression that there is no extenuation for the mistakes and
+abuses for which the whites are responsible.  Much of the
+intimidation of the blacks has been tolerated, if not suggested,
+by a fear of negro uprisings.  The apprehension is a legacy from
+the days of slavery, and is more unreasonable now than it was
+then; but still it exists.  This is not an excuse, but an
+explanation.  The Pharaohs of the time of Moses were in constant
+dread lest the Hebrews under their rule should go over to their
+enemies, and their dread doubtless increased the cruelty of the
+Egyptians; but, while this dread was an extenuation in the eyes of
+the persecutors, it did not prevent the Hebrews from fleeing the
+persecution.  So the blacks are going without regard to the
+justification which the whites may set up for their treatment; the
+only difference between the old and new exodus is that, as the
+writer heard one negro speaker express it, "every black man is his
+own Moses in this exodus."  The negro may be lazy; it seems
+impossible to be otherwise in the Southern climate.  He may not be
+willing to work on Saturdays, no matter how urgent the necessity;
+the indulgence in holidays is said to be one of the chief
+drawbacks to the advancement of the emancipated serfs of Russia. 
+The blacks are certainly extravagant in their way, though the word
+seems to be almost misused in connection with a race who live
+largely on pork and molasses, and rarely wear more than half a
+dollar's worth of clothes at one time.  They have not the instinct
+of home as it prevails among the whites, but incline to a crude
+and unsystematic communism; the negro quarters of the old
+plantations are all huddled together in the centre, and, except
+where the land owners have interfered to encourage a different
+life, there is still too much promiscuousness in the relation of
+the sexes.  The negro, as a rule, has no ambition to become a land
+owner; he prefers to invest his surplus money, when he has any, in
+personal and movable property.  In most cases where the blacks
+have been given the opportunity of buying land on long time, and
+paying yearly installments out of the proceeds of their annual
+crops, they have tired of the bargain after a year or two, and
+abandoned the contract.  The negro politicians and preachers are
+not all that reformers and moralists would have them; the
+imitative faculty of the African has betrayed the black politician
+into many of the vicious ways of the white politician, and the
+colored preacher is frequently not above "the pomps and vanity of
+this wicked world."  All this is the more unfortunate, as the
+blacks have a child-like confidence in their chosen leaders,
+founded partly on their primitive character, and partly on their
+distrust of the native whites.  Both their politicians and their
+preachers have given abundant evidence of their insincerity during
+the excitement of emigration by blowing hot and blowing cold; by
+talking to the negroes one way, and to the whites another; and
+even to the extent, in some instances, of taking money to use
+their influence for discouraging and impeding emigration.  These
+are some of the faults and misfortunes on the part of the blacks
+which enter into the race troubles.  The chief blame which
+attaches to the whites is the failure to make a persistent effort,
+by education and kind treatment, to overcome the distrust and cure
+the faults of the negroes.  The whites control, because they
+constitute the "property and intelligence" of the South, to use
+the words of a democratic statesman; this power should have been
+used to gain the confidence of the blacks.  Had such a course been
+taken, there would not have been the fear of reenslavement, which
+actually prevails to a considerable extent among the negroes.  So
+long as a portion of the whites entertain the conviction that the
+war of the sections will be renewed within a few years, as is the
+case, the negroes will suspect and dread the class who would treat
+them as enemies in case the war should come, and will seek to
+escape to a section of the country where they would not be so
+treated.  Perhaps, too, there would have been a voluntary
+political division among the black voters, had the whites used
+more pacific means to bring it about, and had they themselves set
+the example.  And last, but not least, in making up the sum of
+blame that the whites must bear, is their own unwillingness to
+labor, which gives the rural population too much time for mischief
+and too little sympathy with the working classes. 
+ 
+As we have traced the causes that have led to the exodus, and
+described the conditions which warrant the belief that there will
+be a renewal of the emigration on a more extended scale next
+spring, and endeavored to distribute the responsibility for the
+troubles equitably among whites and blacks, remedies have
+naturally suggested themselves to the reader; in fact, they are
+more easily to be thought out than accomplished.  A few general
+reflections may be added, however, in order to indicate the
+probable solution of the race troubles that have brought about the
+exodus, if, indeed, the whites and blacks of the South are ever
+going to live together in peace. 
+ 
+(1.)  It is certain that negro labor is the best the South can
+have, and equally certain that the climate and natural conditions
+of the South are better suited to the negro than any others on
+this continent.  The alluvial lands, which many persons believe
+the negroes alone can cultivate, on account of climatic
+conditions, are so rich that it might literally be said it is only
+necessary to tickle them with a hoe to make them laugh back a
+harvest.  The common prosperity of the country--the agricultural
+interests of the South and the commercial interests of the North-- 
+will be best served, therefore, by the continued residence and
+labor of the blacks in the cotton States. 
+ 
+(2.)  The fact stated in the foregoing paragraph is so well
+understood at the North that the Southern people should dismiss
+the idea that there is any scheming among the Northern people,
+political or otherwise, to draw the black labor away from its
+natural home.  The same fact should also influence the people at
+the North not to be misled by any professional philanthropists who
+may have some self-interest in soliciting aid to facilitate negro
+emigration from the South.  The duty of the North in this matter
+is simply to extend protection and assure safe-conduct to the
+negroes, if the Southern whites attempt to impede voluntary
+emigration by either law or violence.  Any other course might be
+cruel to the negro in encouraging him to enter on a new life in a
+strange climate, as well as an injustice to the white land owners
+of the South. 
+ 
+(3.)  There is danger that the Southern whites will, as a rule,
+misinterpret the meaning of the exodus.  Many are inclined to
+underrate its importance, and those who appreciate its
+significance are apt to look for temporary and superficial
+remedies.  The vague promises made at the Vicksburg convention,
+which was controlled by the whites, and called to consider the
+emigration movement, have had no influence with the negroes,
+because they have heard such promises before.  Had the convention
+adopted some definite plan of action, such as ex-Governor Foote,
+of Mississippi, submitted, its session might not have been in
+vain.  This plan was to establish a committee in every county,
+composed of men who have the confidence of both whites and blacks,
+that should be auxiliary to the public authorities, listen to
+complaints, and arbitrate, advise, conciliate, or prosecute, as
+each case should demand.  It is short-sighted for the Southern
+people to make mere temporary concessions, such as have been made
+in some cases this year, for that course would establish an annual
+strike.  It is folly for them to suppose they can stem the tide of
+emigration by influencing the regular lines of steamboats not to
+carry the refugees, for the people of the North will see that the
+blacks shall not be detained in the South against their will.  It
+is unwise for them to devise schemes for importing Chinese, or
+encouraging the immigration of white labor as a substitute for
+negro labor, when they may much better bestir themselves to make
+the present effective labor content. 
+ 
+(4.)  Education will be the most useful agent to employ in the
+permanent harmonizing of the two races, and the redemption of both
+from the faults and follies which constitute their troubles.  It
+is not the education of the negro alone, whose ambition for
+learning is increasing notably with every new generation, but the
+education of the mass of the young whites, that is needed to
+inculcate more tolerance of color and opinion, to give them an
+aspiration beyond that of riding a horse and hanging a "nigger,"
+and to enable them to set a better example to the imitative blacks
+in the way of work and frugality.  The blacks need the education
+to protect them from designing white men; the whites need it to
+teach them that their own interests will be best served by
+abandoning bulldozing of all kinds. 
+ 
+(5.)  Reform in the land tenure, by converting the plantation
+monopolies into small holdings; abolition of the credit system, by
+abandoning the laws which sustain it; a diversification of crops;
+and attention to new manufacturing, maritime, and commercial
+enterprises,--these are the material changes that are most needed. 
+They can be secured only through the active and earnest efforts of
+the whites.  The blacks will be found responsive. 
+ 
+(6.)  The hope of the negro exodus at its present stage, or even
+if it shall continue another season, is that the actual loss of
+the valuable labor that has gone, and the prospective loss of more
+labor that is anxious to go, will induce the intelligent and
+responsible classes at the South to overcome their own prejudices,
+and to compel the extremists, irreconcilables, and politicians
+generally, of all parties, to abandon agitation, and give the
+South equal peace and equal chance for black and white. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY 
+by Frederick Douglass 
+ 
+ 
+In the first narrative of my experience in slavery, written nearly
+forty years ago, and in various writings since, I have given the
+public what I considered very good reasons for withholding the
+manner of my escape.  In substance these reasons were, first, that
+such publication at any time during the existence of slavery might
+be used by the master against the slave, and prevent the future
+escape of any who might adopt the same means that I did.  The
+second reason was, if possible, still more binding to silence: the
+publication of details would certainly have put in peril the
+persons and property of those who assisted.  Murder itself was not
+more sternly and certainly punished in the State of Maryland than
+that of aiding and abetting the escape of a slave.  Many colored
+men, for no other crime than that of giving aid to a fugitive
+slave, have, like Charles T. Torrey, perished in prison.  The
+abolition of slavery in my native State and throughout the
+country, and the lapse of time, render the caution hitherto
+observed no longer necessary.  But even since the abolition of
+slavery, I have sometimes thought it well enough to baffle
+curiosity by saying that while slavery existed there were good
+reasons for not telling the manner of my escape, and since slavery
+had ceased to exist, there was no reason for telling it.  I shall
+now, however, cease to avail myself of this formula, and, as far
+as I can, endeavor to satisfy this very natural curiosity.  I
+should, perhaps, have yielded to that feeling sooner, had there
+been anything very heroic or thrilling in the incidents connected
+with my escape, for I am sorry to say I have nothing of that sort
+to tell; and yet the courage that could risk betrayal and the
+bravery which was ready to encounter death, if need be, in pursuit
+of freedom, were essential features in the undertaking.  My
+success was due to address rather than courage, to good luck
+rather than bravery.  My means of escape were provided for me by
+the very men who were making laws to hold and bind me more
+securely in slavery. 
+ 
+It was the custom in the State of Maryland to require the free
+colored people to have what were called free papers.  These
+instruments they were required to renew very often, and by
+charging a fee for this writing, considerable sums from time to
+time were collected by the State.  In these papers the name, age,
+color, height, and form of the freeman were described, together
+with any scars or other marks upon his person which could assist
+in his identification.  This device in some measure defeated
+itself--since more than one man could be found to answer the same
+general description.  Hence many slaves could escape by
+personating the owner of one set of papers; and this was often
+done as follows: A slave, nearly or sufficiently answering the
+description set forth in the papers, would borrow or hire them
+till by means of them he could escape to a free State, and then,
+by mail or otherwise, would return them to the owner.  The
+operation was a hazardous one for the lender as well as for the
+borrower.  A failure on the part of the fugitive to send back the
+papers would imperil his benefactor, and the discovery of the
+papers in possession of the wrong man would imperil both the
+fugitive and his friend.  It was, therefore, an act of supreme
+trust on the part of a freeman of color thus to put in jeopardy
+his own liberty that another might be free.  It was, however, not
+unfrequently bravely done, and was seldom discovered.  I was not
+so fortunate as to resemble any of my free acquaintances
+sufficiently to answer the description of their papers.  But I had
+a friend--a sailor--who owned a sailor's protection, which
+answered somewhat the purpose of free papers--describing his
+person, and certifying to the fact that he was a free American
+sailor.  The instrument had at its head the American eagle, which
+gave it the appearance at once of an authorized document.  This
+protection, when in my hands, did not describe its bearer very
+accurately.  Indeed, it called for a man much darker than myself,
+and close examination of it would have caused my arrest at the
+start. 
+ 
+In order to avoid this fatal scrutiny on the part of railroad
+officials, I arranged with Isaac Rolls, a Baltimore hackman, to
+bring my baggage to the Philadelphia train just on the moment of
+starting, and jumped upon the car myself when the train was in
+motion.  Had I gone into the station and offered to purchase a
+ticket, I should have been instantly and carefully examined, and
+undoubtedly arrested.  In choosing this plan I considered the
+jostle of the train, and the natural haste of the conductor, in a
+train crowded with passengers, and relied upon my skill and
+address in playing the sailor, as described in my protection, to
+do the rest.  One element in my favor was the kind feeling which
+prevailed in Baltimore and other sea-ports at the time, toward
+"those who go down to the sea in ships."  "Free trade and sailors'
+rights" just then expressed the sentiment of the country.  In my
+clothing I was rigged out in sailor style.  I had on a red shirt
+and a tarpaulin hat, and a black cravat tied in sailor fashion
+carelessly and loosely about my neck.  My knowledge of ships and
+sailor's talk came much to my assistance, for I knew a ship from
+stem to stern, and from keelson to cross-trees, and could talk
+sailor like an "old salt."  I was well on the way to Havre de
+Grace before the conductor came into the negro car to collect
+tickets and examine the papers of his black passengers.  This was
+a critical moment in the drama.  My whole future depended upon the
+decision of this conductor.  Agitated though I was while this
+ceremony was proceeding, still, externally, at least, I was
+apparently calm and self-possessed.  He went on with his duty-- 
+examining several colored passengers before reaching me.  He was
+somewhat harsh in tome and peremptory in manner until he reached
+me, when, strange enough, and to my surprise and relief, his whole
+manner changed.  Seeing that I did not readily produce my free
+papers, as the other colored persons in the car had done, he said
+to me, in friendly contrast with his bearing toward the others: 
+ 
+"I suppose you have your free papers?" 
+ 
+To which I answered: 
+ 
+"No sir; I never carry my free papers to sea with me." 
+ 
+"But you have something to show that you are a freeman, haven't
+you?" 
+ 
+"Yes, sir," I answered; "I have a paper with the American Eagle on
+it, and that will carry me around the world." 
+ 
+With this I drew from my deep sailor's pocket my seaman's
+protection, as before described.  The merest glance at the paper
+satisfied him, and he took my fare and went on about his business. 
+This moment of time was one of the most anxious I ever
+experienced.  Had the conductor looked closely at the paper, he
+could not have failed to discover that it called for a very
+different-looking person from myself, and in that case it would
+have been his duty to arrest me on the instant, and send me back
+to Baltimore from the first station.  When he left me with the
+assurance that I was all right, though much relieved, I realized
+that I was still in great danger: I was still in Maryland, and
+subject to arrest at any moment.  I saw on the train several
+persons who would have known me in any other clothes, and I feared
+they might recognize me, even in my sailor "rig," and report me to
+the conductor, who would then subject me to a closer examination,
+which I knew well would be fatal to me. 
+ 
+Though I was not a murderer fleeing from justice, I felt perhaps
+quite as miserable as such a criminal.  The train was moving at a
+very high rate of speed for that epoch of railroad travel, but to
+my anxious mind it was moving far too slowly.  Minutes were hours,
+and hours were days during this part of my flight.  After
+Maryland, I was to pass through Delaware--another slave State,
+where slave-catchers generally awaited their prey, for it was not
+in the interior of the State, but on its borders, that these human
+hounds were most vigilant and active.  The border lines between
+slavery and freedom were the dangerous ones for the fugitives. 
+The heart of no fox or deer, with hungry hounds on his trail in
+full chase, could have beaten more anxiously or noisily than did
+mine from the time I left Baltimore till I reached Philadelphia. 
+The passage of the Susquehanna River at Havre de Grace was at that
+time made by ferry-boat, on board of which I met a young colored
+man by the name of Nichols, who came very near betraying me.  He
+was a "hand" on the boat, but, instead of minding his business, he
+insisted upon knowing me, and asking me dangerous questions as to
+where I was going, when I was coming back, etc.  I got away from
+my old and inconvenient acquaintance as soon as I could decently
+do so, and went to another part of the boat.  Once across the
+river, I encountered a new danger.  Only a few days before, I had
+been at work on a revenue cutter, in Mr. Price's ship-yard in
+Baltimore, under the care of Captain McGowan.  On the meeting at
+this point of the two trains, the one going south stopped on the
+track just opposite to the one going north, and it so happened
+that this Captain McGowan sat at a window where he could see me
+very distinctly, and would certainly have recognized me had he
+looked at me but for a second.  Fortunately, in the hurry of the
+moment, he did not see me; and the trains soon passed each other
+on their respective ways.  But this was not my only hair-breadth
+escape.  A German blacksmith whom I knew well was on the train
+with me, and looked at me very intently, as if he thought he had
+seen me somewhere before in his travels.  I really believe he knew
+me, but had no heart to betray me.  At any rate, he saw me
+escaping and held his peace. 
+ 
+The last point of imminent danger, and the one I dreaded most, was
+Wilmington.  Here we left the train and took the steam-boat for
+Philadelphia.  In making the change here I again apprehended
+arrest, but no one disturbed me, and I was soon on the broad and
+beautiful Delaware, speeding away to the Quaker City.  On reaching
+Philadelphia in the afternoon, I inquired of a colored man how I
+could get on to New York.  He directed me to the William-street
+depot, and thither I went, taking the train that night.  I reached
+New York Tuesday morning, having completed the journey in less
+than twenty-four hours. 
+ 
+My free life began on the third of September, 1838.  On the
+morning of the fourth of that month, after an anxious and most
+perilous but safe journey, I found myself in the big city of New
+York, a FREE MAN--one more added to the mighty throng which, like
+the confused waves of the troubled sea, surged to and fro between
+the lofty walls of Broadway.  Though dazzled with the wonders
+which met me on every hand, my thoughts could not be much
+withdrawn from my strange situation.  For the moment, the dreams
+of my youth and the hopes of my manhood were completely fulfilled. 
+The bonds that had held me to "old master" were broken.  No man
+now had a right to call me his slave or assert mastery over me.  I
+was in the rough and tumble of an outdoor world, to take my chance
+with the rest of its busy number.  I have often been asked how I
+felt when first I found myself on free soil.  There is scarcely
+anything in my experience about which I could not give a more
+satisfactory answer.  A new world had opened upon me.  If life is
+more than breath and the "quick round of blood," I lived more in
+that one day than in a year of my slave life.  It was a time of
+joyous excitement which words can but tamely describe.  In a
+letter written to a friend soon after reaching New York, I said:
+"I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions." 
+Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but
+gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or
+pencil.  During ten or fifteen years I had been, as it were,
+dragging a heavy chain which no strength of mine could break; I
+was not only a slave, but a slave for life.  I might become a
+husband, a father, an aged man, but through all, from birth to
+death, from the cradle to the grave, I had felt myself doomed. 
+All efforts I had previously made to secure my freedom had not
+only failed, but had seemed only to rivet my fetters the more
+firmly, and to render my escape more difficult.  Baffled,
+entangled, and discouraged, I had at times asked myself the
+question, May not my condition after all be God's work, and
+ordered for a wise purpose, and if so, Is not submission my duty? 
+A contest had in fact been going on in my mind for a long time,
+between the clear consciousness of right and the plausible make-
+shifts of theology and superstition.  The one held me an abject
+slave--a prisoner for life, punished for some transgression in
+which I had no lot nor part; and the other counseled me to manly
+endeavor to secure my freedom.  This contest was now ended; my
+chains were broken, and the victory brought me unspeakable joy. 
+ 
+But my gladness was short-lived, for I was not yet out of the
+reach and power of the slave-holders.  I soon found that New York
+was not quite so free or so safe a refuge as I had supposed, and a
+sense of loneliness and insecurity again oppressed me most sadly. 
+I chanced to meet on the street, a few hours after my landing, a
+fugitive slave whom I had once known well in slavery.  The
+information received from him alarmed me.  The fugitive in
+question was known in Baltimore as "Allender's Jake," but in New
+York he wore the more respectable name of "William Dixon."  Jake,
+in law, was the property of Doctor Allender, and Tolly Allender,
+the son of the doctor, had once made an effort to recapture MR.
+DIXON, but had failed for want of evidence to support his claim. 
+Jake told me the circumstances of this attempt, and how narrowly
+he escaped being sent back to slavery and torture.  He told me
+that New York was then full of Southerners returning from the
+Northern watering-places; that the colored people of New York
+were not to be trusted; that there were hired men of my own color
+who would betray me for a few dollars; that there were hired men
+ever on the lookout for fugitives; that I must trust no man with
+my secret; that I must not think of going either upon the wharves
+or into any colored boarding-house, for all such places were
+closely watched; that he was himself unable to help me; and, in
+fact, he seemed while speaking to me to fear lest I myself might
+be a spy and a betrayer.  Under this apprehension, as I suppose,
+he showed signs of wishing to be rid of me, and with whitewash
+brush in hand, in search of work, he soon disappeared. 
+ 
+This picture, given by poor "Jake," of New York, was a damper to
+my enthusiasm.  My little store of money would soon be exhausted,
+and since it would be unsafe for me to go on the wharves for work,
+and I had no introductions elsewhere, the prospect for me was far
+from cheerful.  I saw the wisdom of keeping away from the ship- 
+yards, for, if pursued, as I felt certain I should be, Mr. Auld,
+my "master," would naturally seek me there among the calkers. 
+Every door seemed closed against me.  I was in the midst of an
+ocean of my fellow-men, and yet a perfect stranger to every one. 
+I was without home, without acquaintance, without money, without
+credit, without work, and without any definite knowledge as to
+what course to take, or where to look for succor.  In such an
+extremity, a man had something besides his new-born freedom to
+think of.  While wandering about the streets of New York, and
+lodging at least one night among the barrels on one of the
+wharves, I was indeed free--from slavery, but free from food and
+shelter as well.  I kept my secret to myself as long as I could,
+but I was compelled at last to seek some one who would befriend me
+without taking advantage of my destitution to betray me.  Such a
+person I found in a sailor named Stuart, a warm-hearted and
+generous fellow, who, from his humble home on Centre street, saw
+me standing on the opposite sidewalk, near the Tombs prison.  As
+he approached me, I ventured a remark to him which at once
+enlisted his interest in me.  He took me to his home to spend the
+night, and in the morning went with me to Mr. David Ruggles, the
+secretary of the New York Vigilance Committee, a co-worker with
+Isaac T. Hopper, Lewis and Arthur Tappan, Theodore S. Wright,
+Samuel Cornish, Thomas Downing, Philip A. Bell, and other true men
+of their time.  All these (save Mr. Bell, who still lives, and is
+editor and publisher of a paper called the "Elevator," in San
+Francisco) have finished their work on earth.  Once in the hands
+of these brave and wise men, I felt comparatively safe.  With Mr.
+Ruggles, on the corner of Lispenard and Church streets, I was
+hidden several days, during which time my intended wife came on
+from Baltimore at my call, to share the burdens of life with me. 
+She was a free woman, and came at once on getting the good news of
+my safety.  We were married by Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, then a
+well-known and respected Presbyterian minister.  I had no money
+with which to pay the marriage fee, but he seemed well pleased
+with our thanks. 
+ 
+Mr. Ruggles was the first officer on the "Underground Railroad"
+whom I met after coming North, and was, indeed, the only one with
+whom I had anything to do till I became such an officer myself. 
+Learning that my trade was that of a calker, he promptly decided
+that the best place for me was in New Bedford, Mass.  He told me
+that many ships for whaling voyages were fitted out there, and
+that I might there find work at my trade and make a good living. 
+So, on the day of the marriage ceremony, we took our little
+luggage to the steamer JOHN W. RICHMOND, which, at that time, was
+one of the line running between New York and Newport, R. I. 
+Forty-three years ago colored travelers were not permitted in the
+cabin, nor allowed abaft the paddle-wheels of a steam vessel. 
+They were compelled, whatever the weather might be,--whether cold
+or hot, wet or dry,--to spend the night on deck.  Unjust as this
+regulation was, it did not trouble us much; we had fared much
+harder before.  We arrived at Newport the next morning, and soon
+after an old fashioned stage-coach, with "New Bedford" in large
+yellow letters on its sides, came down to the wharf.  I had not
+money enough to pay our fare, and stood hesitating what to do. 
+Fortunately for us, there were two Quaker gentlemen who were about
+to take passage on the stage,--Friends William C. Taber and Joseph
+Ricketson,--who at once discerned our true situation, and, in a
+peculiarly quiet way, addressing me, Mr. Taber said: "Thee get
+in."  I never obeyed an order with more alacrity, and we were soon
+on our way to our new home.  When we reached "Stone Bridge" the
+passengers alighted for breakfast, and paid their fares to the
+driver.  We took no breakfast, and, when asked for our fares, I
+told the driver I would make it right with him when we reached New
+Bedford.  I expected some objection to this on his part, but he
+made none.  When, however, we reached New Bedford, he took our
+baggage, including three music-books,--two of them collections by
+Dyer, and one by Shaw,--and held them until I was able to redeem
+them by paying to him the amount due for our rides.  This was soon
+done, for Mr. Nathan Johnson not only received me kindly and
+hospitably, but, on being informed about our baggage, at once
+loaned me the two dollars with which to square accounts with the
+stage-driver.  Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Johnson reached a good old age,
+and now rest from their labors.  I am under many grateful
+obligations to them.  They not only "took me in when a stranger"
+and "fed me when hungry," but taught me how to make an honest
+living.  Thus, in a fortnight after my flight from Maryland, I was
+safe in New Bedford, a citizen of the grand old commonwealth of
+Massachusetts. 
+ 
+Once initiated into my new life of freedom and assured by Mr.
+Johnson that I need not fear recapture in that city, a
+comparatively unimportant question arose as to the name by which I
+should be known thereafter in my new relation as a free man.  The
+name given me by my dear mother was no less pretentious and long
+than Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey.  I had, however, while
+living in Maryland, dispensed with the Augustus Washington, and
+retained only Frederick Bailey.  Between Baltimore and New
+Bedford, the better to conceal myself from the slave-hunters, I
+had parted with Bailey and called myself Johnson; but in New
+Bedford I found that the Johnson family was already so numerous as
+to cause some confusion in distinguishing them, hence a change in
+this name seemed desirable.  Nathan Johnson, mine host, placed
+great emphasis upon this necessity, and wished me to allow him to
+select a name for me.  I consented, and he called me by my present
+name--the one by which I have been known for three and forty
+years--Frederick Douglass.  Mr. Johnson had just been reading the
+"Lady of the Lake," and so pleased was he with its great character
+that he wished me to bear his name.  Since reading that charming
+poem myself, I have often thought that, considering the noble
+hospitality and manly character of Nathan Johnson--black man
+though he was--he, far more than I, illustrated the virtues of the
+Douglas of Scotland.  Sure am I that, if any slave-catcher had
+entered his domicile with a view to my recapture, Johnson would
+have shown himself like him of the "stalwart hand." 
+ 
+The reader may be surprised at the impressions I had in some way
+conceived of the social and material condition of the people at
+the North.  I had no proper idea of the wealth, refinement,
+enterprise, and high civilization of this section of the country. 
+My "Columbian Orator," almost my only book, had done nothing to
+enlighten me concerning Northern society.  I had been taught that
+slavery was the bottom fact of all wealth.  With this foundation
+idea, I came naturally to the conclusion that poverty must be the
+general condition of the people of the free States.  In the
+country from which I came, a white man holding no slaves was
+usually an ignorant and poverty-stricken man, and men of this
+class were contemptuously called "poor white trash."  Hence I
+supposed that, since the non-slave-holders at the South were
+ignorant, poor, and degraded as a class, the non-slave-holders at
+the North must be in a similar condition.  I could have landed in
+no part of the United States where I should have found a more
+striking and gratifying contrast, not only to life generally in
+the South, but in the condition of the colored people there, than
+in New Bedford.  I was amazed when Mr. Johnson told me that there
+was nothing in the laws or constitution of Massachusetts that
+would prevent a colored man from being governor of the State, if
+the people should see fit to elect him.  There, too, the black
+man's children attended the public schools with the white man's
+children, and apparently without objection from any quarter.  To
+impress me with my security from recapture and return to slavery,
+Mr. Johnson assured me that no slave-holder could take a slave out
+of New Bedford; that there were men there who would lay down their
+lives to save me from such a fate. 
+ 
+The fifth day after my arrival, I put on the clothes of a common
+laborer, and went upon the wharves in search of work.  On my way
+down Union street I saw a large pile of coal in front of the house
+of Rev. Ephraim Peabody, the Unitarian minister.  I went to the
+kitchen door and asked the privilege of bringing in and putting
+away this coal.  "What will you charge?" said the lady.  "I will
+leave that to you, madam."  "You may put it away," she said.  I
+was not long in accomplishing the job, when the dear lady put into
+my hand TWO SILVER HALF-DOLLARS.  To understand the emotion which
+swelled my heart as I clasped this money, realizing that I had no
+master who could take it from me,--THAT IT WAS MINE--THAT MY HANDS
+WERE MY OWN, and could earn more of the precious coin,--one must
+have been in some sense himself a slave.  My next job was stowing
+a sloop at Uncle Gid. Howland's wharf with a cargo of oil for New
+York.  I was not only a freeman, but a free working-man, and no
+"master" stood ready at the end of the week to seize my hard
+earnings. 
+ 
+The season was growing late and work was plenty.  Ships were being
+fitted out for whaling, and much wood was used in storing them. 
+The sawing this wood was considered a good job.  With the help of
+old Friend Johnson (blessings on his memory) I got a saw and
+"buck," and went at it.  When I went into a store to buy a cord
+with which to brace up my saw in the frame, I asked for a "fip's"
+worth of cord.  The man behind the counter looked rather sharply
+at me, and said with equal sharpness, "You don't belong about
+here."  I was alarmed, and thought I had betrayed myself.  A fip
+in Maryland was six and a quarter cents, called fourpence in
+Massachusetts.  But no harm came from the "fi'penny-bit" blunder,
+and I confidently and cheerfully went to work with my saw and
+buck.  It was new business to me, but I never did better work, or
+more of it, in the same space of time on the plantation for Covey,
+the negro-breaker, than I did for myself in these earliest years
+of my freedom. 
+ 
+Notwithstanding the just and humane sentiment of New Bedford three
+and forty years ago, the place was not entirely free from race and
+color prejudice.  The good influence of the Roaches, Rodmans,
+Arnolds, Grinnells, and Robesons did not pervade all classes of
+its people.  The test of the real civilization of the community
+came when I applied for work at my trade, and then my repulse was
+emphatic and decisive.  It so happened that Mr. Rodney French, a
+wealthy and enterprising citizen, distinguished as an anti-slavery
+man, was fitting out a vessel for a whaling voyage, upon which
+there was a heavy job of calking and coppering to be done.  I had
+some skill in both branches, and applied to Mr. French for work. 
+He, generous man that he was, told me he would employ me, and I
+might go at once to the vessel.  I obeyed him, but upon reaching
+the float-stage, where others [sic] calkers were at work, I was
+told that every white man would leave the ship, in her unfinished
+condition, if I struck a blow at my trade upon her.  This uncivil,
+inhuman, and selfish treatment was not so shocking and scandalous
+in my eyes at the time as it now appears to me.  Slavery had
+inured me to hardships that made ordinary trouble sit lightly upon
+me.  Could I have worked at my trade I could have earned two
+dollars a day, but as a common laborer I received but one dollar. 
+The difference was of great importance to me, but if I could not
+get two dollars, I was glad to get one; and so I went to work for
+Mr. French as a common laborer.  The consciousness that I was
+free--no longer a slave--kept me cheerful under this, and many
+similar proscriptions, which I was destined to meet in New Bedford
+and elsewhere on the free soil of Massachusetts.  For instance,
+though colored children attended the schools, and were treated
+kindly by their teachers, the New Bedford Lyceum refused, till
+several years after my residence in that city, to allow any
+colored person to attend the lectures delivered in its hall.  Not
+until such men as Charles Sumner, Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo
+Emerson, and Horace Mann refused to lecture in their course while
+there was such a restriction, was it abandoned. 
+ 
+Becoming satisfied that I could not rely on my trade in New
+Bedford to give me a living, I prepared myself to do any kind of
+work that came to hand.  I sawed wood, shoveled coal, dug cellars,
+moved rubbish from back yards, worked on the wharves, loaded and
+unloaded vessels, and scoured their cabins. 
+ 
+I afterward got steady work at the brass-foundry owned by Mr.
+Richmond.  My duty here was to blow the bellows, swing the crane,
+and empty the flasks in which castings were made; and at times
+this was hot and heavy work.  The articles produced here were
+mostly for ship work, and in the busy season the foundry was in
+operation night and day.  I have often worked two nights and every
+working day of the week.  My foreman, Mr. Cobb, was a good man,
+and more than once protected me from abuse that one or more of the
+hands was disposed to throw upon me.  While in this situation I
+had little time for mental improvement.  Hard work, night and day,
+over a furnace hot enough to keep the metal running like water,
+was more favorable to action than thought; yet here I often nailed
+a newspaper to the post near my bellows, and read while I was
+performing the up and down motion of the heavy beam by which the
+bellows was inflated and discharged.  It was the pursuit of
+knowledge under difficulties, and I look back to it now, after so
+many years, with some complacency and a little wonder that I could
+have been so earnest and persevering in any pursuit other than for
+my daily bread.  I certainly saw nothing in the conduct of those
+around to inspire me with such interest: they were all devoted
+exclusively to what their hands found to do.  I am glad to be able
+to say that, during my engagement in this foundry, no complaint
+was ever made against me that I did not do my work, and do it
+well.  The bellows which I worked by main strength was, after I
+left, moved by a steam-engine. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE GOOPHERED GRAPEVINE 
+by Charles W. Chesnutt 
+ 
+ 
+About ten years ago my wife was in poor health, and our family
+doctor, in whose skill and honesty I had implicit confidence,
+advised a change of climate.  I was engaged in grape-culture in
+northern Ohio, and decided to look for a locality suitable for
+carrying on the same business in some Southern State.  I wrote to
+a cousin who had gone into the turpentine business in central
+North Carolina, and he assured me that no better place could be
+found in the South than the State and neighborhood in which he
+lived: climate and soil were all that could be asked for, and land
+could be bought for a mere song.  A cordial invitation to visit
+him while I looked into the matter was accepted.  We found the
+weather delightful at that season, the end of the summer, and were
+most hospitably entertained.  Our host placed a horse and buggy at
+our disposal, and himself acted as guide until I got somewhat
+familiar with the country. 
+ 
+I went several times to look at a place which I thought might suit
+me.  It had been at one time a thriving plantation, but shiftless
+cultivation had well-night exhausted the soil.  There had been a
+vineyard of some extent on the place, but it had not been attended
+to since the war, and had fallen into utter neglect.  The vines-- 
+here partly supported by decayed and broken-down arbors, there
+twining themselves among the branches of the slender saplings
+which had sprung up among them--grew in wild and unpruned
+luxuriance, and the few scanty grapes which they bore were the
+undisputed prey of the first comer.  The site was admirably
+adapted to grape-raising; the soil, with a little attention, could
+not have been better; and with the native grape, the luscious
+scuppernong, mainly to rely upon, I felt sure that I could
+introduce and cultivate successfully a number of other varieties. 
+ 
+One day I went over with my wife, to show her the place.  We drove
+between the decayed gate-posts--the gate itself had long since
+disappeared--and up the straight, sandy lane to the open space
+where a dwelling-house had once stood.  But the house had fallen a
+victim to the fortunes of war, and nothing remained of it except
+the brick pillars upon which the sills had rested.  We alighted,
+and walked about the place for a while; but on Annie's complaining
+of weariness I led the way back to the yard, where a pine log,
+lying under a spreading elm, formed a shady though somewhat hard
+seat.  One end of the log was already occupied by a venerable- 
+looking colored man.  He held on his knees a hat full of grapes,
+over which he was smacking his lips with great gusto, and a pile
+of grape-skins near him indicated that the performance was no new
+thing.  He respectfully rose as we approached, and was moving
+away, when I begged him to keep his seat. 
+ 
+"Don't let us disturb you," I said.  "There's plenty of room for
+us all." 
+ 
+He resumed his seat with somewhat of embarrassment. 
+ 
+"Do you live around here?" I asked, anxious to put him at his
+ease. 
+ 
+"Yas, suh.  I lives des ober yander, behine de nex' san'-hill, on
+de Lumberton plank-road." 
+ 
+"Do you know anything about the time when this vineyard was
+cultivated?" 
+ 
+"Lawd bless yer, suh, I knows all about it.  Dey ain' na'er a man
+in dis settlement w'at won' tell yer ole Julius McAdoo 'uz bawn
+an' raise' on dis yer same plantation.  Is you de Norv'n gemman
+w'at's gwine ter buy de ole vimya'd?" 
+ 
+"I am looking at it," I replied; "but I don't know that I shall
+care to buy unless I can be reasonably sure of making something
+out of it." 
+ 
+"Well, suh, you is a stranger ter me, en I is a stranger ter you,
+en we is bofe strangers ter one anudder, but 'f I 'uz in yo'
+place, I wouldn' buy dis vimya'd." 
+ 
+"Why not?" I asked. 
+ 
+"Well, I dunner whe'r you b'lieves in cunj'in er not,--some er de
+w'ite folks don't, er says dey don't,--but de truf er de matter is
+dat dis yer ole vimya'd is goophered." 
+ 
+"Is what?" I asked, not grasping the meaning of this unfamiliar
+word. 
+ 
+"Is goophered, cunju'd, bewitch'." 
+ 
+He imparted this information with such solemn earnestness, and
+with such an air of confidential mystery, that I felt somewhat
+interested, while Annie was evidently much impressed, and drew
+closer to me. 
+ 
+"How do you know it is bewitched?" I asked. 
+ 
+"I wouldn' spec' fer you ter b'lieve me 'less you know all 'bout
+de fac's.  But ef you en young miss dere doan' min' lis'n'in' ter
+a ole nigger run on a minute er two w'ile you er restin', I kin
+'splain to yer how it all happen'." 
+ 
+We assured him that we would be glad to hear how it all happened,
+and he began to tell us.  At first the current of his memory--or
+imagination--seemed somewhat sluggish; but as his embarrassment
+wore off, his language flowed more freely, and the story acquired
+perspective and coherence.  As he became more and more absorbed in
+the narrative, his eyes assumed a dreamy expression, and he seemed
+to lose sight of his auditors, and to be living over again in
+monologue his life on the old plantation. 
+ 
+"Ole Mars Dugal' McAdoo bought dis place long many years befo' de
+wah, en I 'member well w'en he sot out all dis yer part er de
+plantation in scuppernon's.  De vimes growed monst'us fas', en
+Mars Dugal' made a thousan' gallon er scuppernon' wine eve'y year. 
+ 
+"Now, ef dey's an'thing a nigger lub, nex' ter 'possum, en
+chick'n, en watermillyums, it's scuppernon's.  Dey ain' nuffin dat
+kin stan' up side'n de scuppernon' fer sweetness; sugar ain't a
+suckumstance ter scuppernon'.  W'en de season is nigh 'bout ober,
+en de grapes begin ter swivel up des a little wid de wrinkles er
+ole age,--w'en de skin git sof' en brown,--den de scuppernon' make
+you smack yo' lip en roll yo' eye en wush fer mo'; so I reckon it
+ain' very 'stonishin' dat niggers lub scuppernon'. 
+ 
+"Dey wuz a sight er niggers in de naberhood er de vimya'd.  Dere
+wuz ole Mars Henry Brayboy's niggers, en ole Mars Dunkin McLean's
+niggers, en Mars Dugal's own niggers; den dey wuz a settlement er
+free niggers en po' buckrahs down by de Wim'l'ton Road, en Mars
+Dugal' had de only vimya'd in de naberhood.  I reckon it ain' so
+much so nowadays, but befo' de wah, in slab'ry times, er nigger
+didn' mine goin' fi' er ten mile in a night, w'en dey wuz sump'n
+good ter eat at de yuther een. 
+ 
+"So atter a w'ile Mars Dugal' begin ter miss his scuppernon's. 
+Co'se he 'cuse' de niggers er it, but dey all 'nied it ter de
+las'.  Mars Dugal' sot spring guns en steel traps, en he en de
+oberseah sot up nights once't er twice't, tel one night Mars
+Dugal'--he 'uz a monst'us keerless man--got his leg shot full er
+cow-peas.  But somehow er nudder dey couldn' nebber ketch none er
+de niggers.  I dunner how it happen, but it happen des like I tell
+yer, en de grapes kep' on a-goin des de same. 
+ 
+"But bimeby ole Mars Dugal' fix' up a plan ter stop it.  Dey 'uz a
+cunjuh 'ooman livin' down mongs' de free niggers on de Wim'l'ton
+Road, en all de darkies fum Rockfish ter Beaver Crick wuz feared
+uv her.  She could wuk de mos' powerfulles' kind er goopher,-- 
+could make people hab fits er rheumatiz, er make 'em des dwinel
+away en die; en dey say she went out ridin' de niggers at night,
+for she wuz a witch 'sides bein' a cunjuh 'ooman.  Mars Dugal'
+hearn 'bout Aun' Peggy's doin's, en begun ter 'flect whe'r er no
+he couldn' git her ter he'p him keep de niggers off'n de
+grapevimes.  One day in de spring er de year, ole miss pack' up a
+basket er chick'n en poun'-cake, en a bottle er scuppernon' wine,
+en Mars Dugal' tuk it in his buggy en driv ober ter Aun' Peggy's
+cabin.  He tuk de basket in, en had a long talk wid Aun' Peggy. 
+De nex' day Aun' Peggy come up ter de vimya'd.  De niggers seed
+her slippin' 'roun', en dey soon foun' out what she 'uz doin'
+dere.  Mars Dugal' had hi'ed her ter goopher de grapevimes.  She
+sa'ntered 'roun' mongs' de vimes, en tuk a leaf fum dis one, en a
+grape-hull fum dat one, en a grape-seed fum anudder one; en den a
+little twig fum here, en a little pinch er dirt fum dere,--en put
+it all in a big black bottle, wid a snake's toof en a speckle'
+hen's gall en some ha'rs fum a black cat's tail, en den fill' de
+bottle wid scuppernon' wine.  W'en she got de goopher all ready en
+fix', she tuk 'n went out in de woods en buried it under de root
+uv a red oak tree, en den come back en tole one er de niggers she
+done goopher de grapevimes, en a'er a nigger w'at eat dem grapes
+'ud be sho ter die inside'n twel' mont's. 
+ 
+"Atter dat de niggers let de scuppernon's 'lone, en Mars Dugal'
+didn' hab no 'casion ter fine no mo' fault; en de season wuz mos'
+gone, w'en a strange gemman stop at de plantation one night ter
+see Mars Dugal' on some business; en his coachman, seein' de
+scuppernon's growin' so nice en sweet, slip 'roun' behine de
+smoke-house, en et all de scuppernon's he could hole.  Nobody
+didn' notice it at de time, but dat night, on de way home, de
+gemman's hoss runned away en kill' de coachman.  W'en we hearn de
+noos, Aun' Lucy, de cook, she up 'n say she seed de strange nigger
+eat'n' er de scuppernon's behine de smoke-house; en den we knowed
+de goopher had b'en er wukkin.  Den one er de nigger chilluns
+runned away fum de quarters one day, en got in de scuppernon's, en
+died de nex' week.  W'ite folks say he die' er de fevuh, but de
+niggers knowed it wuz de goopher.  So you k'n be sho de darkies
+didn' hab much ter do wid dem scuppernon' vimes. 
+ 
+"W'en de scuppernon' season 'uz ober fer dat year, Mars Dugal'
+foun' he had made fifteen hund'ed gallon er wine; en one er de
+niggers hearn him laffin' wid de oberseah fit ter kill, en sayin'
+dem fifteen hund'ed gallon er wine wuz monst'us good intrus' on de
+ten dollars he laid out on de vimya'd.  So I 'low ez he paid Aun'
+Peggy ten dollars fer to goopher de grapevimes. 
+ 
+"De goopher didn' wuk no mo' tel de nex' summer, w'en 'long to'ds
+de middle er de season one er de fiel' han's died; en ez dat lef'
+Mars Dugal' sho't er han's, he went off ter town fer ter buy
+anudder.  He fotch de noo nigger home wid 'im.  He wuz er ole
+nigger, er de color er a gingy-cake, en ball ez a hoss-apple on de
+top er his head.  He wuz a peart ole nigger, do', en could do a
+big day's wuk. 
+ 
+"Now it happen dat one er de niggers on de nex' plantation, one er
+ole Mars Henry Brayboy's niggers, had runned away de day befo', en
+tuk ter de swamp, en ole Mars Dugal' en some er de yuther nabor
+w'ite folks had gone out wid dere guns en dere dogs fer ter he'p
+'em hunt fer de nigger; en de han's on our own plantation wuz all
+so flusterated dat we fuhgot ter tell de noo han' 'bout de goopher
+on de scuppernon' vimes.  Co'se he smell de grapes en see de
+vimes, an atter dahk de fus' thing he done wuz ter slip off ter de
+grapevimes 'dout sayin' nuffin ter nobody.  Nex' mawnin' he tole
+some er de niggers 'bout de fine bait er scuppernon' he et de
+night befo'. 
+ 
+"W'en dey tole 'im 'bout de goopher on de grapevimes, he 'uz dat
+tarrified dat he turn pale, en look des like he gwine ter die
+right in his tracks.  De oberseah come up en axed w'at 'uz de
+matter; en w'en dey tole 'im Henry be'n eatin' er de scuppernon's,
+en got de goopher on 'im, he gin Henry a big drink er w'iskey, en
+'low dat de nex' rainy day he take 'im ober ter Aun' Peggy's, en
+see ef she wouldn' take de goopher off'n him, seein' ez he didn'
+know nuffin erbout it tel he done et de grapes. 
+ 
+"Sho nuff, it rain de nex' day, en de oberseah went ober ter Aun'
+Peggy's wid Henry.  En Aun' Peggy say dat bein' ez Henry didn'
+know 'bout de goopher, en et de grapes in ign'ance er de
+quinseconces, she reckon she mought be able fer ter take de
+goopher off'n him.  So she fotch out er bottle wid some cunjuh
+medicine in it, en po'd some out in a go'd fer Henry ter drink. 
+He manage ter git it down; he say it tas'e like whiskey wid sump'n
+bitter in it.  She 'lowed dat 'ud keep de goopher off'n him tel de
+spring; but w'en de sap begin ter rise in de grapevimes he ha' ter
+come en see her agin, en she tell him w'at e's ter do. 
+ 
+"Nex' spring, w'en de sap commence' ter rise in de scuppernon'
+vime, Henry tuk a ham one night.  Whar'd he git de ham?  I doan
+know; dey wa'nt no hams on de plantation 'cep'n' w'at 'uz in de
+smoke-house, but I never see Henry 'bout de smoke-house.  But ez I
+wuz a-sayin', he tuk de ham ober ter Aun' Peggy's; en Aun' Peggy
+tole 'im dat w'en Mars Dugal' begin ter prume de grapevimes, he
+mus' go en take 'n scrape off de sap whar it ooze out'n de cut
+een's er de vimes, en 'n'int his ball head wid it; en ef he do dat
+once't a year de goopher wouldn' wuk agin 'im long ez he done it. 
+En bein' ez he fotch her de ham, she fix' it so he kin eat all de
+scuppernon' he want. 
+ 
+"So Henry 'n'int his head wid de sap out'n de big grapevime des
+ha'f way 'twix' de quarters en de big house, en de goopher nebber
+wuk agin him dat summer.  But de beatenes' thing you eber see
+happen ter Henry.  Up ter dat time he wuz ez ball ez a sweeten'
+'tater, but des ez soon ez de young leaves begun ter come out on
+de grapevimes de ha'r begun ter grow out on Henry's head, en by de
+middle er de summer he had de bigges' head er ha'r on de
+plantation.  Befo' dat, Henry had tol'able good ha'r 'roun de
+aidges, but soon ez de young grapes begun ter come Henry's ha'r
+begun ter quirl all up in little balls, des like dis yer reg'lar
+grapy ha'r, en by de time de grapes got ripe his head look des
+like a bunch er grapes.  Combin' it didn' do no good; he wuk at it
+ha'f de night wid er Jim Crow[1], en think he git it straighten'
+out, but in de mawnin' de grapes 'ud be dere des de same.  So he
+gin it up, en tried ter keep de grapes down by havin' his ha'r cut
+sho't. 
+ 
+[1] A small card, resembling a curry-comb in construction, and
+used by negroes in the rural districts instead of a comb. 
+ 
+"But dat wa'nt de quares' thing 'bout de goopher.  When Henry come
+ter de plantation, he wuz gittin' a little ole an stiff in de
+j'ints.  But dat summer he got des ez spry en libely ez any young
+nigger on de plantation; fac' he got so biggity dat Mars Jackson,
+de oberseah, ha' ter th'eaten ter whip 'im, ef he didn' stop
+cuttin' up his didos en behave hisse'f.  But de mos' cur'ouses'
+thing happen' in de fall, when de sap begin ter go down in de
+grapevimes.  Fus', when de grapes 'uz gethered, de knots begun ter
+straighten out'n Henry's h'ar; en w'en de leaves begin ter fall,
+Henry's ha'r begin ter drap out; en w'en de vimes 'uz b'ar,
+Henry's head wuz baller 'n it wuz in de spring, en he begin ter
+git ole en stiff in de j'ints ag'in, en paid no mo' tention ter de
+gals dyoin' er de whole winter.  En nex' spring, w'en he rub de
+sap on ag'in, he got young ag'in, en so soopl en libely dat none
+er de young niggers on de plantation couldn' jump, ner dance, ner
+hoe ez much cotton ez Henry.  But in de fall er de year his grapes
+begun ter straighten out, en his j'ints ter git stiff, en his ha'r
+drap off, en de rheumatiz begin ter wrastle wid 'im. 
+ 
+"Now, ef you'd a knowed ole Mars Dugal' McAdoo, you'd a knowed dat
+it ha' ter be a mighty rainy day when he couldn' fine sump'n fer
+his niggers ter do, en it ha' ter be a mighty little hole he
+couldn' crawl thoo, en ha' ter be a monst'us cloudy night w'en a
+dollar git by him in de dahkness; en w'en he see how Henry git
+young in de spring en ole in de fall, he 'lowed ter hisse'f ez how
+he could make mo' money outen Henry dan by wukkin' him in de
+cotton fiel'.  'Long de nex' spring, atter de sap commence' ter
+rise, en Henry 'n'int 'is head en commence fer ter git young en
+soopl, Mars Dugal' up 'n tuk Henry ter town, en sole 'im fer
+fifteen hunder' dollars.  Co'se de man w'at bought Henry didn'
+know nuffin 'bout de goopher, en Mars Dugal' didn' see no 'casion
+fer ter tell 'im.  Long to'ds de fall, w'en de sap went down,
+Henry begin ter git ole again same ez yuzhal, en his noo marster
+begin ter git skeered les'n he gwine ter lose his fifteen-hunder'- 
+dollar nigger.  He sent fer a mighty fine doctor, but de med'cine
+didn' 'pear ter do no good; de goopher had a good holt.  Henry
+tole de doctor 'bout de goopher, but de doctor des laff at 'im. 
+ 
+"One day in de winter Mars Dugal' went ter town, en wuz santerin'
+'long de Main Street, when who should he meet but Henry's noo
+marster.  Dey said 'Hoddy,' en Mars Dugal' ax 'im ter hab a
+seegyar; en atter dey run on awhile 'bout de craps en de weather,
+Mars Dugal' ax 'im, sorter keerless, like ez ef he des thought of
+it,-- 
+ 
+"'How you like de nigger I sole you las' spring?' 
+ 
+"Henry's marster shuck his head en knock de ashes off'n his
+seegyar. 
+ 
+"'Spec' I made a bad bahgin when I bought dat nigger.  Henry done
+good wuk all de summer, but sence de fall set in he 'pears ter be
+sorter pinin' away.  Dey ain' nuffin pertickler de matter wid 'im--
+leastways de doctor say so--'cep'n' a tech er de rheumatiz; but
+his ha'r is all fell out, en ef he don't pick up his strenk mighty
+soon, I spec' I'm gwine ter lose 'im." 
+ 
+"Dey smoked on awhile, en bimeby ole mars say, 'Well, a bahgin's a
+bahgin, but you en me is good fren's, en I doan wan' ter see you
+lose all de money you paid fer dat digger [sic]; en ef w'at you
+say is so, en I ain't 'sputin' it, he ain't wuf much now.  I
+spec's you wukked him too ha'd dis summer, er e'se de swamps down
+here don't agree wid de san'-hill nigger.  So you des lemme know,
+en ef he gits any wusser I'll be willin' ter gib yer five hund'ed
+dollars fer 'im, en take my chances on his livin'.' 
+ 
+"Sho nuff, when Henry begun ter draw up wid de rheumatiz en it
+look like he gwine ter die fer sho, his noo marster sen' fer Mars
+Dugal', en Mars Dugal' gin him what he promus, en brung Henry home
+ag'in.  He tuk good keer uv 'im dyoin' er de winter,--give 'im
+w'iskey ter rub his rheumatiz, en terbacker ter smoke, en all he
+want ter eat,--'caze a nigger w'at he could make a thousan'
+dollars a year off'n didn' grow on eve'y huckleberry bush. 
+ 
+"Nex' spring, w'en de sap ris en Henry's ha'r commence' ter
+sprout, Mars Dugal' sole 'im ag'in, down in Robeson County dis
+time; en he kep' dat sellin' business up fer five year er mo'. 
+Henry nebber say nuffin 'bout de goopher ter his noo marsters,
+'caze he know he gwine ter be tuk good keer uv de nex' winter,
+w'en Mars Dugal' buy him back.  En Mars Dugal' made 'nuff money  
+off'n Henry ter buy anudder plantation ober on Beaver Crick. 
+ 
+"But long 'bout de een' er dat five year dey come a stranger ter
+stop at de plantation.  De fus' day he 'uz dere he went out wid
+Mars Dugal' en spent all de mawnin' lookin' ober de vimya'd, en
+atter dinner dey spent all de evenin' playin' kya'ds.  De niggers
+soon 'skiver' dat he wuz a Yankee, en dat he come down ter Norf
+C'lina fer ter learn de w'ite folks how to raise grapes en make
+wine.  He promus Mars Dugal' he cud make de grapevimes b'ar
+twice't ez many grapes, en dat de noo wine-press he wuz a-sellin'
+would make mo' d'n twice't ez many gallons er wine.  En ole Mars
+Dugal' des drunk it all in, des 'peared ter be bewitched wit dat
+Yankee.  W'en de darkies see dat Yankee runnin' 'roun de vimya'd
+en diggin' under de grapevimes, dey shuk dere heads, en 'lowed dat
+dey feared Mars Dugal' losin' his min'.  Mars Dugal' had all de
+dirt dug away fum under de roots er all de scuppernon' vimes, an'
+let 'em stan' dat away fer a week er mo'.  Den dat Yankee made de
+niggers fix up a mixtry er lime en ashes en manyo, en po' it roun'
+de roots er de grapevimes.  Den he 'vise' Mars Dugal' fer ter trim
+de vimes close't, en Mars Dugal' tuck 'n done eve'ything de Yankee
+tole him ter do.  Dyoin' all er dis time, mind yer, 'e wuz libbin'
+off'n de fat er de lan', at de big house, en playin' kyards wid
+Mars Dugal' eve'y night; en dey say Mars Dugal' los' mo'n a
+thousan' dollars dyoin' er de week dat Yankee wuz a runnin' de
+grapevimes. 
+ 
+"W'en de sap ris nex' spring, ole Henry 'n'inted his head ez
+yuzhal, en his ha'r commence' ter grow des de same ez it done
+eve'y year.  De scuppernon' vimes growed monst's fas', en de
+leaves wuz greener en thicker dan dey eber be'n dyowin my
+rememb'ance; en Henry's ha'r growed out thicker dan eber, en he
+'peared ter git younger 'n younger, en soopler 'n soopler; en
+seein' ez he wuz sho't er han's dat spring, havin' tuk in
+consid'able noo groun', Mars Dugal' 'cluded he wouldn' sell Henry
+'tel he git de crap in en de cotton chop'.  So he kep' Henry on de
+plantation. 
+ 
+"But 'long 'bout time fer de grapes ter come on de scuppernon'
+vimes, dey 'peared ter come a change ober dem; de leaves wivered
+en swivel' up, en de young grapes turn' yaller, en bimeby
+eve'ybody on de plantation could see dat de whole vimya'd wuz
+dyin'.  Mars Dugal' tuck 'n water de vimes en done all he could,
+but 't wan' no use: dat Yankee done bus' de watermillyum.  One
+time de vimes picked up a bit, en Mars Dugal' thought dey wuz
+gwine ter come out ag'in; but dat Yankee done dug too close unde'
+de roots, en prune de branches too close ter de vime, en all dat
+lime en ashes done burn' de life outen de vimes, en dey des kep' a
+with'in' en a swivelin'. 
+ 
+"All dis time de goopher wuz a-wukkin'.  W'en de vimes commence'
+ter wither, Henry commence' ter complain er his rheumatiz, en when
+de leaves begin ter dry up his ha'r commence' ter drap out.  When
+de vimes fresh up a bit Henry 'ud git peart agin, en when de vimes
+wither agin Henry 'ud git ole agin, en des kep' gittin' mo' en mo'
+fitten fer nuffin; he des pined away, en fine'ly tuk ter his
+cabin; en when de big vime whar he got de sap ter 'n'int his head
+withered en turned yaller en died, Henry died too,--des went out
+sorter like a cannel.  Dey didn't 'pear ter be nuffin de matter
+wid 'im, 'cep'n de rheumatiz, but his strenk des dwinel' away 'tel
+he didn' hab ernuff lef' ter draw his bref.  De goopher had got de
+under holt, en th'owed Henry fer good en all dat time. 
+ 
+"Mars Dugal' tuk on might'ly 'bout losin' his vimes en his nigger
+in de same year; en he swo' dat ef he could git hold er dat Yankee
+he'd wear 'im ter a frazzle, en den chaw up de frazzle; en he'd
+done it, too, for Mars Dugal' 'uz a monst'us brash man w'en he
+once git started.  He sot de vimya'd out ober agin, but it wuz
+th'ee er fo' year befo' de vimes got ter b'arin' any scuppernon's. 
+ 
+"W'en de wah broke out, Mars Dugal' raise' a comp'ny, en went off
+ter fight de Yankees.  He saw he wuz mighty glad dat wah come, en
+he des want ter kill a Yankee fer eve'y dollar he los' 'long er
+dat grape-raisin' Yankee.  En I 'spec' he would a done it, too, ef
+de Yankees hadn' s'picioned sump'n, en killed him fus'.  Atter de
+s'render ole miss move' ter town, de niggers all scattered 'way
+fum de plantation, en de vimya'd ain' be'n cultervated sence." 
+ 
+"Is that story true?" asked Annie, doubtfully, but seriously, as
+the old man concluded his narrative. 
+ 
+"It's des ez true ez I'm a-settin' here, miss.  Dey's a easy way
+ter prove it: I kin lead de way right ter Henry's grave ober
+yander in de plantation buryin'-groun'.  En I tell yer w'at,
+marster, I wouldn' 'vise yer to buy dis yer ole vimya'd, 'caze de
+goopher's on it yit, en dey ain' no tellin' w'en it's gwine ter
+crap out." 
+ 
+"But I thought you said all the old vines died." 
+ 
+"Dey did 'pear ter die, but a few ov 'em come out ag'in, en is
+mixed in mongs' de yuthers.  I ain' skeered ter eat de grapes,
+'caze I knows de old vimes fum de noo ones; but wid strangers dey
+ain' no tellin' w'at might happen.  I wouldn' 'vise yer ter buy
+dis vimya'd." 
+ 
+I bought the vineyard, nevertheless, and it has been for a long
+time in a thriving condition, and is referred to by the local
+press as a striking illustration of the opportunities open to
+Northern capital in the development of Southern industries.  The
+luscious scuppernong holds first rank among our grapes, though we
+cultivate a great many other varieties, and our income from grapes
+packed and shipped to the Northern markets is quite considerable. 
+I have not noticed any developments of the goopher in the
+vineyard, although I have a mild suspicion that our colored
+assistants do not suffer from want of grapes during the season. 
+ 
+I found, when I bought the vineyard, that Uncle Julius had
+occupied a cabin on the place for many years, and derived a
+respectable revenue from the neglected grapevines.  This,
+doubtless, accounted for his advice to me not to buy the vineyard,
+though whether it inspired the goopher story I am unable to state. 
+I believe, however, that the wages I pay him for his services are
+more than an equivalent for anything he lost by the sale of the
+vineyard. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+PO' SANDY 
+by Charles W. Chesnutt 
+ 
+ 
+On the northeast corner of my vineyard in central North Carolina,
+and fronting on the Lumberton plank-road, there stood a small
+frame house, of the simplest construction.  It was built of pine
+lumber, and contained but one room, to which one window gave light
+and one door admission.  Its weather-beaten sides revealed a
+virgin innocence of paint.  Against one end of the house, and
+occupying half its width, there stood a huge brick chimney: the
+crumbling mortar had left large cracks between the bricks; the
+bricks themselves had begun to scale off in large flakes, leaving
+the chimney sprinkled with unsightly blotches.  These evidences of
+decay were but partially concealed by a creeping vine, which
+extended its slender branches hither and thither in an ambitious
+but futile attempt to cover the whole chimney.  The wooden
+shutter, which had once protected the unglazed window, had fallen
+from its hinges, and lay rotting in the rank grass and jimson- 
+weeds beneath.  This building, I learned when I bought the place,
+had been used as a school-house for several years prior to the
+breaking out of the war, since which time it had remained
+unoccupied, save when some stray cow or vagrant hog had sought
+shelter within its walls from the chill rains and nipping winds of
+winter. 
+ 
+One day my wife requested me to build her a new kitchen.  The
+house erected by us, when we first came to live upon the vineyard,
+contained a very conveniently arranged kitchen; but for some
+occult reason my wife wanted a kitchen in the back yard, apart
+from the dwelling-house, after the usual Southern fashion.  Of
+course I had to build it. 
+ 
+To save expense, I decided to tear down the old school-house, and
+use the lumber, which was in a good state of preservation, in the
+construction of the new kitchen.  Before demolishing the old
+house, however, I made an estimate of the amount of material
+contained in it, and found that I would have to buy several
+hundred feet of new lumber in order to build the new kitchen
+according to my wife's plan. 
+ 
+One morning old Julius McAdoo, our colored coachman, harnessed the
+gray mare to the rockaway, and drove my wife and me over to the
+saw-mill from which I meant to order the new lumber.  We drove
+down the long lane which led from our house to the plank-road;
+following the plank-road for about a mile, we turned into a road
+running through the forest and across the swamp to the sawmill
+beyond.  Our carriage jolted over the half-rotted corduroy road
+which traversed the swamp, and then climbed the long hill leading
+to the saw-mill.  When we reached the mill, the foreman had gone
+over to a neighboring farm-house, probably to smoke or gossip, and
+we were compelled to await his return before we could transact our
+business.  We remained seated in the carriage, a few rods from the
+mill, and watched the leisurely movements of the mill-hands.  We
+had not waited long before a huge pine log was placed in position,
+the machinery of the mill was set in motion, and the circular saw
+began to eat its way through the log, with a loud whirr which
+resounded throughout the vicinity of the mill.  The sound rose and
+fell in a sort of rhythmic cadence, which, heard from where we
+sat, was not unpleasing, and not loud enough to prevent
+conversation.  When the saw started on its second journey through
+the log, Julius observed, in a lugubrious tone, and with a
+perceptible shudder:-- 
+ 
+"Ugh! but dat des do cuddle my blood!" 
+ 
+"What's the matter, Uncle Julius?" inquired my wife, who is of a
+very sympathetic turn of mind.  "Does the noise affect your
+nerves?" 
+ 
+"No, Miss Annie," replied the old man, with emotion, "I ain'
+narvous; but dat saw, a-cuttin' en grindin' thoo dat stick er
+timber, en moanin', en groanin', en sweekin', kyars my 'memb'ance
+back ter ole times, en 'min's me er po' Sandy."  The pathetic
+intonation with which he lengthened out the "po' Sandy" touched a
+responsive chord in our own hearts." 
+ 
+"And who was poor Sandy?" asked my wife, who takes a deep interest
+in the stories of plantation life which she hears from the lips of
+the older colored people.  Some of these stories are quaintly
+humorous; others wildly extravagant, revealing the Oriental cast
+of the negro's imagination; while others, poured freely into the
+sympathetic ear of a Northern-bred woman, disclose many a tragic
+incident of the darker side of slavery. 
+ 
+"Sandy," said Julius, in reply to my wife's question, "was a
+nigger w'at useter b'long ter ole Mars Marrabo McSwayne.  Mars
+Marrabo's place wuz on de yuther side'n de swamp, right nex' ter
+yo' place.  Sandy wuz a monst'us good nigger, en could do so many
+things erbout a plantation, en alluz 'ten ter his wuk so well, dat
+w'en Mars Marrabo's chilluns growed up en married off, dey all un
+'em wanted dey daddy fer ter gin 'em Sandy fer a weddin' present. 
+But Mars Marrabo knowed de res' wouldn' be satisfied ef he gin
+Sandy ter a'er one un 'em; so w'en dey wuz all done married, he
+fix it by 'lowin' one er his chilluns ter take Sandy fer a mont'
+er so, en den ernudder for a mont' er so, en so on dat erway tel
+dey had all had 'im de same lenk er time; en den dey would all
+take him roun' ag'in, 'cep'n oncet in a w'ile w'en Mars Marrabo
+would len' 'im ter some er his yuther kinfolks 'roun' de country,
+w'en dey wuz short er han's; tel bimeby it go so Sandy didn'
+hardly knowed whar he wuz gwine ter stay fum one week's een ter de
+yuther. 
+ 
+"One time w'en Sandy wuz lent out ez yushal, a spekilater come
+erlong wid a lot er niggers, en Mars Marrabo swap' Sandy's wife
+off fer a noo 'oman.  W'en Sandy come back, Mars Marrabo gin 'im a
+dollar, en 'lowed he wuz monst'us sorry fer ter break up de
+fambly, but de spekilater had gin 'im big boot, en times wuz hard
+en money skase, en so he wuz bleedst ter make de trade.  Sandy tuk
+on some 'bout losin' his wife, but he soon seed dey want no use
+cryin' ober spilt merlasses; en bein' ez he lacked de looks er de
+noo 'ooman, he tuk up wid her atter she b'n on de plantation a
+mont' er so. 
+ 
+"Sandy en his noo wife got on mighty well tergedder, en de niggers
+all 'mence' ter talk about how lovin' dey wuz.  W'en Tenie wuz tuk
+sick oncet, Sandy useter set up all night wid 'er, en den go ter
+wuk in de mawnin' des lack he had his reg'lar sleep; en Tenie
+would 'a done anythin' in de worl' for her Sandy. 
+ 
+"Sandy en Tenie hadn' b'en libbin' tergedder fer mo' d'n two
+mont's befo' Mars Marrabo's old uncle, w'at libbed down in Robeson
+County, sent up ter fine out ef Mars Marrabo couldn' len' 'im er
+hire 'im a good han' fer a mont' er so.  Sandy's marster wuz one
+er dese yer easy-gwine folks w'at wanter please eve'ybody, en he
+says yas, he could len' 'im Sandy.  En Mars Marrabo tole Sandy fer
+ter git ready ter go down ter Robeson nex' day, fer ter stay a
+mont' er so. 
+ 
+"Hit wuz monst'us hard on Sandy fer ter take 'im 'way fum Tenie. 
+Hit wuz so fur down ter Robeson dat he didn' hab no chance er
+comin' back ter see her tel de time wuz up; he wouldn' a' mine
+comin' ten er fifteen mile at night ter see Tenie, but Mars
+Marrabo's uncle's plantation wuz mo' d'n forty mile off.  Sandy
+wuz mighty sad en cas' down atter w'at Mars Marrabo tole 'im, en
+he says ter Tenie, sezee:-- 
+ 
+"'I'm gittin monstus ti'ed er dish yer gwine roun' so much.  Here
+I is lent ter Mars Jeems dis mont', en I got ter do so-en-so; en
+ter Mars Archie de nex' mont', en I got ter do so-en-so; den I got
+ter go ter Miss Jinnie's: en hit's Sandy dis en Sandy dat, en
+Sandy yer en Sandy dere, tel it 'pears ter me I ain' got no home,
+ner no marster, ner no mistiss, ner no nuffin'.  I can't eben keep
+a wife: my yuther ole 'oman wuz sole away widout my gittin' a
+chance fer ter tell her good-by; en now I got ter go off en leab
+you, Tenie, en I dunno whe'r I'm eber gwine ter see yer ag'in er
+no.  I wisht I wuz a tree, er a stump, er a rock, er sump'n w'at
+could stay on de plantation fer a w'ile.' 
+ 
+"Atter Sandy got thoo talkin', Tenie didn' say naer word, but des
+sot dere by de fier, studyin' en studyin'.  Bimeby she up'n says:--
+ 
+ 
+"'Sandy, is I eber tole you I wuz a cunjuh-'ooman?' 
+ 
+"Co'se Sandy hadn' nebber dremp' er nuffin lack dat, en he made a
+great miration w'en he hear w'at Tenie say.  Bimeby Tenie went
+on:-- 
+ 
+"'I ain' goophered nobody, ner done no cunjuh-wuk fer fifteen yer
+er mo; en w'en I got religion I made up my mine I wouldn' wuk no
+mo' goopher.  But dey is some things I doan b'lieve it's no sin
+fer ter do; en ef you doan wanter be sent roun' fum pillar ter
+pos', en ef you doan wanter go down ter Robeson, I kin fix things
+so yer won't haf ter.  Ef you'll des say de word, I kin turn yer
+ter w'ateber yer wanter be, en yer kin stay right whar yer wanter,
+ez long ez yer mineter.' 
+ 
+"Sandy say he doan keer; he's willin' fer ter do anythin' fer ter
+stay close ter Tenie.  Den Tenie ax 'im ef he doan wanter be turnt
+inter a rabbit. 
+ 
+"Sandy say, 'No, de dogs mout git atter me.' 
+ 
+"'Shill I turn yer ter a wolf?' sez Tenie. 
+ 
+"'No, eve'ybody's skeered er a wolf, en I doan want nobody ter be
+skeered er me.' 
+ 
+"'Shill I turn yer ter a mawkin'-bird?' 
+ 
+"'No, a hawk mout ketch me.  I wanter be turnt inter sump'n
+w'at'll stay in one place.' 
+ 
+"'I kin turn yer ter a tree,' sez Tenie.  'You won't hab no mouf
+ner years, but I kin turn yer back oncet in a w'ile, so yer kin
+git sump'n ter eat, en hear w'at's gwine on.' 
+ 
+"Well, Sandy say dat'll do.  En so Tenie tuk 'im down by de aidge
+er de swamp, not fur fum de quarters, en turnt 'im inter a big
+pine-tree, en sot 'im out mongs' some yuther trees.  En de nex'
+mawnin', ez some er de fiel' han's wuz gwine long dere, dey seed a
+tree w'at dey didn' 'member er habbin' seed befo; it wuz monst'us
+quare, en dey wuz bleedst ter 'low dat dey hadn' 'membered right,
+er e'se one er de saplin's had be'n growin' monst'us fas'. 
+ 
+"W'en Mars Marrabo 'skiver' dat Sandy wuz gone, he 'lowed Sandy
+had runned away.  He got de dogs out, but de las' place dey could
+track Sandy ter wuz de foot er dat pine-tree.  En dere de dogs
+stood en barked, en bayed, en pawed at de tree, en tried ter climb
+up on it; en w'en dey wuz tuk roun' thoo de swamp ter look fer de
+scent, dey broke loose en made fer dat tree ag'in.  It wuz de
+beatenis' thing de w'ite folks eber hearn of, en Mars Marrabo
+'lowed dat Sandy must a' clim' up on de tree en jump' off on a
+mule er sump'n, en rid fur 'nuff fer ter spile de scent.  Mars
+Marrabo wanted ter 'cuse some er de yuther niggers er heppin Sandy
+off, but dey all 'nied it ter de las'; en eve'ybody knowed Tenie
+sot too much by Sandy fer ter he'p 'im run away whar she couldn'
+nebber see 'im no mo'. 
+ 
+"W'en Sandy had be'n gone long 'nuff fer folks ter think he done
+got clean away, Tenie useter go down ter de woods at night en turn
+'im back, en den dey'd slip up ter de cabin en set by de fire en
+talk.  But dey ha' ter be monst'us keerful, er e'se somebody would
+a seed 'em, en dat would a spile de whole thing; so Tenie alluz
+turnt Sandy back in de mawnin' early, befo' anybody wuz
+a'stirrin'. 
+ 
+"But Sandy didn' git erlong widout his trials en tribberlations. 
+One day a woodpecker come erlong en 'mence' ter peck at de tree;
+en de nex' time Sandy wuz turnt back he had a little roun' hole in
+his arm, des lack a sharp stick be'n stuck in it.  Atter dat Tenie
+sot a sparrer-hawk fer ter watch de tree; en w'en de woodpecker
+come erlong nex' mawnin' fer ter finish his nes', he got gobble'
+up mos' fo' he stuck his bill in de bark. 
+ 
+"Nudder time, Mars Marrabo sent a nigger out in de woods fer ter
+chop tuppentime boxes.  De man chop a box in dish yer tree, en
+hack' de bark up two er th'ee feet, fer ter let de tuppentime run. 
+De nex' time Sandy wuz turnt back he had a big skyar on his lef'
+leg, des lack it be'n skunt; en it tuk Tenie nigh 'bout all night
+fer ter fix a mixtry ter kyo it up.  Atter dat, Tenie sot a hawnet
+fer ter watch de tree; en w'en de nigger come back ag'in fer ter
+cut ernudder box on de yuther side'n de tree, de hawnet stung 'im
+so hard dat de ax slip en cut his foot nigh 'bout off. 
+ 
+"W'en Tenie see so many things happenin' ter de tree, she 'cluded
+she'd ha' ter turn Sandy ter sump'n e'se; en atter studyin' de
+matter ober, en talkin' wid Sandy one ebenin', she made up her
+mine fer ter fix up a goopher mixtry w'at would turn herse'f en
+Sandy ter foxes, er sump'n, so dey could run away en go some'rs
+whar dey could be free en lib lack w'ite folks. 
+ 
+"But dey ain' no tellin' w'at's gwine ter happen in dis worl'. 
+Tenie had got de night sot fer her en Sandy ter run away, w'en dat
+ve'y day one er Mars Marrabo's sons rid up ter de big house in his
+buggy, en say his wife wuz monst'us sick, en he want his mammy ter
+len' 'im a 'ooman fer ter nuss his wife.  Tenie's mistiss say sen
+Tenie; she wuz a good nuss.  Young mars wuz in a tarrible hurry
+fer ter git back home.  Tenie wuz washin' at de big house dat day,
+en her mistiss say she should go right 'long wid her young
+marster.  Tenie tried ter make some 'scuse fer ter git away en
+hide tel night, w'en she would have eve'ything fix' up fer her en
+Sandy; she say she wanter go ter her cabin fer ter git her bonnet. 
+Her mistiss say it doan matter 'bout de bonnet; her head-hankcher
+wuz good 'nuff.  Den Tenie say she wanter git her bes' frock; her
+mistiss say no, she doan need no mo' frock, en w'en dat one got
+dirty she could git a clean one whar she wuz gwine.  So Tenie had
+ter git in de buggy en go 'long wid young Mars Dunkin ter his
+plantation, w'ich wuz mo' d'n twenty mile away; en dey want no
+chance er her seein' Sandy no mo' tel she come back home.  De po'
+gal felt monst'us bad erbout de way things wuz gwine on, en she
+knowed Sandy mus' be a wond'rin' why she didn' come en turn 'im
+back no mo'. 
+ 
+"W'iles Tenie wuz away nussin' young Mars Dunkin's wife, Mars
+Marrabo tuk a notion fer ter buil' 'im a noo kitchen; en bein' ez
+he had lots er timber on his place, he begun ter look 'roun' fer a
+tree ter hab de lumber sawed out'n.  En I dunno how it come to be
+so, but he happen fer ter hit on de ve'y tree w'at Sandy wuz turnt
+inter.  Tenie wuz gone, en dey wa'n't nobody ner nuffin' fer ter
+watch de tree. 
+ 
+"De two men w'at cut de tree down say dey nebber had sech a time
+wid a tree befo': dey axes would glansh off, en didn' 'pear ter
+make no progress thoo de wood; en of all de creakin', en shakin',
+en wobblin' you eber see, dat tree done it w'en it commence' ter
+fall.  It wuz de beatenis' thing! 
+ 
+"W'en dey got de tree all trim' up, dey chain it up ter a timber
+waggin, en start fer de saw-mill.  But dey had a hard time gittin'
+de log dere: fus' dey got stuck in de mud w'en dey wuz gwine
+crosst de swamp, en it wuz two er th'ee hours befo' dey could git
+out.  W'en dey start' on ag'in, de chain kep' a-comin' loose, en
+dey had ter keep a-stoppin' en a-stoppin' fer ter hitch de log up
+ag'in.  W'en dey commence' ter climb de hill ter de saw-mill, de
+log broke loose, en roll down de hill en in mongs' de trees, en
+hit tuk nigh 'bout half a day mo' ter git it haul' up ter de saw- 
+mill. 
+ 
+"De nex' mawnin' atter de day de tree wuz haul' ter de saw-mill,
+Tenie come home.  W'en she got back ter her cabin, de fus' thing
+she done wuz ter run down ter de woods en see how Sandy wuz
+gittin' on.  W'en she seed de stump standin' dere, wid de sap
+runnin' out'n it, en de limbs layin' scattered roun', she nigh
+'bout went out'n her mine.  She run ter her cabin, en got her
+goopher mixtry, en den foller de track er de timber waggin ter de
+saw-mill.  She knowed Sandy couldn' lib mo' d'n a minute er so ef
+she turn' him back, fer he wuz all chop' up so he'd a be'n bleedst
+ter die.  But she wanted ter turn 'im back long ernuff fer ter
+'splain ter 'im dat she hadn' went off a-purpose, en lef' 'im ter
+be chop' down en sawed up.  She didn' want Sandy ter die wid no
+hard feelin's to'ds her. 
+ 
+"De han's at de saw-mill had des got de big log on de kerridge, en
+wuz startin' up de saw, w'en dey seed a 'oman runnin up de hill,
+all out er bref, cryin' en gwine on des lack she wuz plumb
+'stracted.  It wuz Tenie; she come right inter de mill, en th'owed
+herse'f on de log, right in front er de saw, a-hollerin' en cryin'
+ter her Sandy ter fergib her, en not ter think hard er her, fer it
+wa'n't no fault er hern.  Den Tenie 'membered de tree didn' hab no
+years, en she wuz gittin' ready fer ter wuk her goopher mixtry so
+ez ter turn Sandy back, w'en de mill-hands kotch holt er her en
+tied her arms wid a rope, en fasten' her to one er de posts in de
+saw-mill; en den dey started de saw up ag'in, en cut de log up
+inter bo'ds en scantlin's right befo' her eyes.  But it wuz mighty
+hard wuk; fer of all de sweekin', en moanin', en groanin', dat log
+done it w'iles de saw wuz a-cuttin' thoo it.  De saw wuz one er
+dese yer ole-timey, up-en-down saws, en hit tuk longer dem days
+ter saw a log 'en it do now.  Dey greased de saw, but dat didn'
+stop de fuss; hit kep' right on, tel finely dey got de log all
+sawed up. 
+ 
+"W'en de oberseah w'at run de saw-mill come fum brekfas', de han's
+up en tell him 'bout de crazy 'ooman--ez dey s'posed she wuz-- 
+w'at had come runnin' in de saw-mill, a-hollerin' en gwine on, en
+tried ter th'ow herse'f befo' de saw.  En de oberseah sent two er
+th'ee er de han's fer ter take Tenie back ter her marster's
+plantation. 
+ 
+"Tenie 'peared ter be out'n her mine fer a long time, en her
+marster ha' ter lock her up in de smoke-'ouse tel she got ober her
+spells.  Mars Marrabo wuz monst'us mad, en hit would a made yo'
+flesh crawl fer ter hear him cuss, caze he say de spekilater w'at
+he got Tenie fum had fooled 'im by wukkin' a crazy 'oman off on
+him.  Wiles Tenie wuz lock up in de smoke-'ouse, Mars Marrabo
+tuk'n' haul de lumber fum de saw-mill, en put up his noo kitchen. 
+ 
+"W'en Tenie got quiet' down, so she could be 'lowed ter go 'roun'
+de plantation, she up'n tole her marster all erbout Sandy en de
+pine-tree; en w'en Mars Marrabo hearn it, he 'lowed she wuz de
+wuss 'stracted nigger he eber hearn of.  He didn' know w'at ter do
+wid Tenie: fus' he thought he'd put her in de po'-house; but
+finely, seein' ez she didn' do no harm ter nobody ner nuffin', but
+des went roun' moanin', en groanin', en shakin' her head, he
+'cluded ter let her stay on de plantation en nuss de little nigger
+chilluns w'en dey mammies wuz ter wuk in de cotton-fiel'. 
+ 
+"De noo kitchen Mars Marrabo buil' wuzn' much use, fer it hadn'
+be'n put up long befo' de niggers 'mence' ter notice quare things
+erbout it.  Dey could hear sump'n moanin' en groanin' 'bout de
+kitchen in de night-time, en w'en de win' would blow dey could
+hear sump'n a-hollerin' en sweekin' lack hit wuz in great pain en
+sufferin'.  En hit got so atter a w'ile dat hit wuz all Mars
+Marrabo's wife could do ter git a 'ooman ter stay in de kitchen in
+de daytime long ernuff ter do de cookin'; en dey wa'n't naer
+nigger on de plantation w'at wouldn' rudder take forty dan ter go
+'bout dat kitchen atter dark,--dat is, 'cep'n Tenie; she didn'
+pear ter mine de ha'nts.  She useter slip 'roun' at night, en set
+on de kitchen steps, en lean up agin de do'-jamb, en run on ter
+herse'f wid some kine er foolishness w'at nobody couldn' make out;
+fer Mars Marrabo had th'eaten' ter sen' her off'n de plantation ef
+she say anything ter any er de yuther niggers 'bout de pine-tree. 
+But somehow er nudder de niggers foun' out all 'bout it, en dey
+knowed de kitchen wuz ha'anted by Sandy's sperrit.  En bimeby hit
+got so Mars Marrabo's wife herse'f wuz skeered ter go out in de
+yard atter dark. 
+ 
+"W'en it come ter dat, Mars Marrabo tuk 'n' to' de kitchen down,
+en use' de lumber fer ter buil' dat ole school-'ouse w'at youer
+talkin' 'bout pullin' down.  De school-'ouse wuzn' use' 'cep'n' in
+de daytime, en on dark nights folks gwine 'long de road would hear
+quare soun's en see quare things.  Po' ole Tenie useter go down
+dere at night, en wander 'roun' de school-'ouse; en de niggers all
+'lowed she went fer ter talk wid Sandy's sperrit.  En one winter
+mawnin', w'en one er de boys went ter school early fer ter start
+de fire, w'at should he fine but po' ole Tenie, layin' on de flo',
+stiff, en cole, en dead.  Dere didn' 'pear ter be nuffin'
+pertickler de matter wid her,--she had des grieve' herse'f ter def
+fer her Sandy.  Mars Marrabo didn' shed no tears.  He thought
+Tenie wuz crazy, en dey wa'n't no tellin' w'at she mout do nex';
+en dey ain' much room in dis worl' fer crazy w'ite folks, let
+'lone a crazy nigger. 
+ 
+"Hit wa'n't long atter dat befo' Mars Marrabo sole a piece er his
+track er lan' ter Mars Dugal' McAdoo,--MY ole marster,--en dat's
+how de ole school-house happen to be on yo' place.  W'en de wah
+broke out, de school stop', en de ole school-'ouse be'n stannin'
+empty ever sence,--dat is, 'cep'n' fer de ha'nts.  En folks sez
+dat de ole school-'ouse, er any yuther house w'at got any er dat
+lumber in it w'at wuz sawed out'n de tree w'at Sandy wuz turnt
+inter, is gwine ter be ha'nted tel de las' piece er plank is
+rotted en crumble' inter dus'." 
+ 
+Annie had listened to this gruesome narrative with strained
+attention. 
+ 
+"What a system it was," she exclaimed, when Julius had finished,
+"under which such things were possible!" 
+ 
+"What things?" I asked, in amazement.  "Are you seriously
+considering the possibility of a man's being turned into a tree?" 
+ 
+"Oh, no," she replied quickly, "not that;" and then she added
+absently, and with a dim look in her fine eyes, "Poor Tenie!" 
+ 
+We ordered the lumber, and returned home.  That night, after we
+had gone to bed, and my wife had to all appearances been sound
+asleep for half an hour, she startled me out of an incipient doze
+by exclaiming suddenly,-- 
+ 
+"John, I don't believe I want my new kitchen built out of the
+lumber in that old school-house." 
+ 
+"You wouldn't for a moment allow yourself," I replied, with some
+asperity, "to be influenced by that absurdly impossible yarn which
+Julius was spinning to-day?" 
+ 
+"I know the story is absurd," she replied dreamily, "and I am not
+so silly as to believe it.  But I don't think I should ever be
+able to take any pleasure in that kitchen if it were built out of
+that lumber.  Besides, I think the kitchen would look better and
+last longer if the lumber were all new." 
+ 
+Of course she had her way.  I bought the new lumber, though not
+without grumbling.  A week or two later I was called away from
+home on business.  On my return, after an absence of several days,
+my wife remarked to me,-- 
+ 
+"John, there has been a split in the Sandy Run Colored Baptist
+Church, on the temperance question.  About half the members have
+come out from the main body, and set up for themselves.  Uncle
+Julius is one of the seceders, and he came to me yesterday and
+asked if they might not hold their meetings in the old school- 
+house for the present." 
+ 
+"I hope you didn't let the old rascal have it," I returned, with
+some warmth.  I had just received a bill for the new lumber I had
+bought. 
+ 
+"Well," she replied, "I could not refuse him the use of the house
+for so good a purpose." 
+ 
+"And I'll venture to say," I continued, "that you subscribed
+something toward the support of the new church?" 
+ 
+She did not attempt to deny it. 
+ 
+"What are they going to do about the ghost?" I asked, somewhat
+curious to know how Julius would get around this obstacle. 
+ 
+"Oh," replied Annie, "Uncle Julius says that ghosts never disturb
+religious worship, but that if Sandy's spirit SHOULD happen to
+stray into meeting by mistake, no doubt the preaching would do it
+good." 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+DAVE'S NECKLISS 
+by Charles W. Chesnutt 
+ 
+ 
+"Have some dinner, Uncle Julius?" said my wife. 
+ 
+It was a Sunday afternoon in early autumn.  Our two women-
+servants had gone to a camp-meeting some miles away, and would not
+return until evening.  My wife had served the dinner, and we were
+just rising from the table, when Julius came up the lane, and,
+taking off his hat, seated himself on the piazza. 
+ 
+The old man glanced through the open door at the dinner-table, and
+his eyes rested lovingly upon a large sugar-cured ham, from which
+several slices had been cut, exposing a rich pink expanse that
+would have appealed strongly to the appetite of any hungry
+Christian. 
+ 
+"Thanky, Miss Annie," he said, after a momentary hesitation, "I
+dunno ez I keers ef I does tas'e a piece er dat ham, ef yer'll cut
+me off a slice un it." 
+ 
+"No," said Annie, "I won't.  Just sit down to the table and help
+yourself; eat all you want, and don't be bashful." 
+ 
+Julius drew a chair up to the table, while my wife and I went out
+on the piazza.  Julius was in my employment; he took his meals
+with his own family, but when he happened to be about our house at
+meal-times, my wife never let him go away hungry. 
+ 
+I threw myself into a hammock, from which I could see Julius
+through an open window.  He ate with evident relish, devoting his
+attention chiefly to the ham, slice after slice of which
+disappeared in the spacious cavity of his mouth.  At first the old
+man ate rapidly, but after the edge of his appetite had been taken
+off he proceeded in a more leisurely manner.  When he had cut the
+sixth slice of ham (I kept count of them from a lazy curiosity to
+see how much he COULD eat) I saw him lay it on his plate; as he
+adjusted the knife and fork to cut it into smaller pieces, he
+paused, as if struck by a sudden thought, and a tear rolled down
+his rugged cheek and fell upon the slice of ham before him.  But
+the emotion, whatever the thought that caused it, was transitory,
+and in a moment he continued his dinner.  When he was through
+eating, he came out on the porch, and resumed his seat with the
+satisfied expression of countenance that usually follows a good
+dinner. 
+ 
+"Julius," I said, "you seemed to be affected by something, a
+moment ago.  Was the mustard so strong that it moved you to
+tears?" 
+ 
+"No, suh, it wa'n't de mustard; I wuz studyin' 'bout Dave." 
+ 
+"Who was Dave, and what about him?" I asked. 
+ 
+The conditions were all favorable to story-telling.  There was an
+autumnal languor in the air, and a dreamy haze softened the dark
+green of the distant pines and the deep blue of the Southern sky. 
+The generous meal he had made had put the old man in a very good
+humor.  He was not always so, for his curiously undeveloped nature
+was subject to moods which were almost childish in their
+variableness.  It was only now and then that we were able to
+study, through the medium of his recollection, the simple but
+intensely human inner life of slavery.  His way of looking at the
+past seemed very strange to us; his view of certain sides of life
+was essentially different from ours.  He never indulged in any
+regrets for the Arcadian joyousness and irresponsibility which was
+a somewhat popular conception of slavery; his had not been the lot
+of the petted house-servant, but that of the toiling field-hand. 
+While he mentioned with a warm appreciation the acts of kindness
+which those in authority had shown to him and his people, he would
+speak of a cruel deed, not with the indignation of one accustomed
+to quick feeling and spontaneous expression, but with a furtive
+disapproval which suggested to us a doubt in his own mind as to
+whether he had a right to think or to feel, and presented to us
+the curious psychological spectacle of a mind enslaved long after
+the shackles had been struck off from the limbs of its possessor. 
+Whether the sacred name of liberty ever set his soul aglow with a
+generous fire; whether he had more than the most elementary ideas
+of love, friendship, patriotism, religion,--things which are half,
+and the better half, of life to us; whether he even realized,
+except in a vague, uncertain way, his own degradation, I do not
+know.  I fear not; and if not, then centuries of repression had
+borne their legitimate fruit.  But in the simple human feeling,
+and still more in the undertone of sadness, which pervaded his
+stories, I thought I could see a spark which, fanned by favoring
+breezes and fed by the memories of the past, might become in his
+children's children a glowing flame of sensibility, alive to every
+thrill of human happiness or human woe. 
+ 
+"Dave use' ter b'long ter my ole marster," said Julius; "he wuz
+raise' on dis yer plantation, en I kin 'member all erbout 'im, fer
+I wuz ole 'nuff ter chop cotton w'en it all happen'.  Dave wuz a
+tall man, en monst'us strong: he could do mo' wuk in a day dan any
+yuther two niggers on de plantation.  He wuz one er dese yer
+solemn kine er men, en nebber run on wid much foolishness, like de
+yuther darkies.  He use' ter go out in de woods en pray; en w'en
+he hear de han's on de plantation cussin' en gwine on wid dere
+dancin' en foolishness, he use' ter tell 'em 'bout religion en
+jedgmen'-day, w'en dey would haf ter gin account fer eve'y idle
+word en all dey yuther sinful kyarin's-on. 
+ 
+"Dave had l'arn' how ter read de Bible.  Dey wuz a free nigger boy
+in de settlement w'at wuz monst'us smart, en could write en
+cipher, en wuz alluz readin' books er papers.  En Dave had hi'ed
+dis free boy fer ter l'arn 'im how ter read.  Hit wuz 'g'in de
+law, but co'se none er de niggers didn' say nuffin ter de w'ite
+folks 'bout it.  Howsomedever, one day Mars Walker--he wuz de
+oberseah--foun' out Dave could read.  Mars Walker wa'n't nuffin
+but a po' bockrah, en folks said he couldn' read ner write
+hisse'f, en co'se he didn' lack ter see a nigger w'at knowed mo'
+d'n he did; so he went en tole Mars Dugal'.  Mars Dugal' sont fer
+Dave, en ax' 'im 'bout it. 
+ 
+"Dave didn't hardly knowed w'at ter do; but he couldn' tell no
+lie, so he 'fessed he could read de Bible a little by spellin' out
+de words.  Mars Dugal' look' mighty solemn. 
+ 
+"'Dis yer is a se'ious matter,' sezee; 'it's 'g'in de law ter
+l'arn niggers how ter read, er 'low 'em ter hab books.  But w'at
+yer l'arn out'n dat Bible, Dave?' 
+ 
+"Dave wa'n't no fool, ef he wuz a nigger, en sezee:-- 
+ 
+"'Marster, I l'arns dat it's a sin fer ter steal, er ter lie, er
+fer ter want w'at doan b'long ter yer; en I l'arns fer ter love de
+Lawd en ter 'bey my marster.' 
+ 
+"Mars Dugal' sorter smile' en laf' ter hisse'f, like he 'uz
+might'ly tickle' 'bout sump'n, en sezee:-- 
+ 
+"'Doan 'pear ter me lack readin' de Bible done yer much harm,
+Dave.  Dat's w'at I wants all my niggers fer ter know.  Yer keep
+right on readin', en tell de yuther han's w'at yer be'n tellin'
+me.  How would yer lack fer ter preach ter de niggers on Sunday?' 
+ 
+"Dave say he'd be glad fer ter do w'at he could.  So Mars Dugal'
+tole de oberseah fer ter let Dave preach ter de niggers, en tell
+'em w'at wuz in de Bible, en it would he'p ter keep 'em fum
+stealin' er runnin' erway. 
+ 
+"So Dave 'mence' ter preach, en done de han's on de plantation a
+heap er good, en most un 'em lef' off dey wicked ways, en 'mence'
+ter love ter hear 'bout God, en religion, en de Bible; en dey done
+dey wuk better, en didn' gib de oberseah but mighty little trouble
+fer ter manage 'em. 
+ 
+"Dave wuz one er dese yer men w'at didn' keer much fer de gals,-- 
+leastways he didn' tel Dilsey come ter de plantation.  Dilsey wuz
+a monst'us peart, good-lookin', gingybread-colored gal,--one er
+dese yer high-steppin' gals w'at hol's dey heads up, en won' stan'
+no foolishness fum no man.  She had b'long' ter a gemman over on
+Rockfish, w'at died, en whose 'state ha' ter be sol' fer ter pay
+his debts.  En Mars Dugal' had b'en ter de oction, en w'en he seed
+dis gal a-cryin' en gwine on 'bout bein' sol' erway fum her ole
+mammy, Aun' Mahaly, Mars Dugal' bid 'em bofe in, en fotch 'em ober
+ter our plantation. 
+ 
+"De young nigger men on de plantation wuz des wil' atter Dilsey,
+but it didn' do no good, en none un 'em couldn' git Dilsey fer dey
+junesey,[1] 'tel Dave 'mence' fer ter go roun' Aun' Mahaly's
+cabin.  Dey wuz a fine-lookin' couple, Dave en Dilsey wuz, bofe
+tall, en well-shape', en soopl'.  En dey sot a heap by one
+ernudder.  Mars Dugal' seed 'em tergedder one Sunday, en de nex'
+time he seed Dave atter dat, sezee:-- 
+ 
+ 
+[1] Sweetheart. 
+ 
+ 
+"Dave, w'en yer en Dilsey gits ready fer ter git married, I ain'
+got no rejections.  Dey's a poun' er so er chawin'-terbacker up at
+de house, en I reckon yo' mist'iss kin fine a frock en a ribbin er
+two fer Dilsey.  Youer bofe good niggers, en yer neenter be feared
+er bein' sol' 'way fum one ernudder long ez I owns dis plantation;
+en I 'spec's ter own it fer a long time yit.' 
+ 
+"But dere wuz one man on de plantation w'at didn' lack ter see
+Dave en Dilsey tergedder ez much ez ole marster did.  W'en Mars
+Dugal' went ter de sale whar he got Dilsey en Mahaly, he bought
+ernudder han', by de name er Wiley.  Wiley wuz one er dese yer
+shiny-eyed, double-headed little niggers, sha'p ez a steel trap,
+en sly ez de fox w'at keep out'n it.  Dis yer Wiley had be'n
+pesterin' Dilsey 'fo' she come ter our plantation, en had nigh
+'bout worried de life out'n her.  She didn' keer nuffin fer 'im,
+but he pestered her so she ha' ter th'eaten ter tell her marster
+fer ter make Wiley let her 'lone.  W'en he come ober to our place
+it wuz des ez bad, 'tel bimeby Wiley seed dat Dilsey had got ter
+thinkin' a heap 'bout Dave, en den he sorter hilt off aw'ile, en
+purten' lack he gin Dilsey up.  But he wuz one er dese yer
+'ceitful niggers, en w'ile he wuz laffin' en jokin' wid de yuther
+han's 'bout Dave en Dilsey, he wuz settin' a trap fer ter ketch
+Dave en git Dilsey back fer hisse'f. 
+ 
+"Dave en Dilsey made up dere min's fer ter git married long 'bout
+Christmas time, w'en dey'd hab mo' time fer a weddin'.  But 'long
+'bout two weeks befo' dat time ole mars 'mence' ter lose a heap er
+bacon.  Eve'y night er so somebody 'ud steal a side er bacon, er a
+ham, er a shoulder, er sump'n, fum one er de smoke-'ouses.  De
+smoke-'ouses wuz lock', but somebody had a key, en manage' ter git
+in some way er 'nudder.  Dey's mo' ways 'n one ter skin a cat, en
+dey's mo' d'n one way ter git in a smoke-'ouse,--leastways dat's
+w'at I hearn say.  Folks w'at had bacon fer ter sell didn' hab no
+trouble 'bout gittin' rid un it.  Hit wuz 'g'in' de law fer ter
+buy things fum slabes; but Lawd! dat law didn' 'mount ter a hill
+er peas.  Eve'y week er so one er dese yer big covered waggins
+would come 'long de road, peddlin' terbacker en w'iskey.  Dey wuz
+a sight er room in one er dem big waggins, en it wuz monst'us easy
+fer ter swop off bacon fer sump'n ter chaw er ter wa'm yer up in
+de winter-time.  I s'pose de peddlers didn' knowed dey wuz
+breakin' de law, caze de niggers alluz went at night, en stayed on
+de dark side er de waggin; en it wuz mighty hard fer ter tell W'AT
+kine er folks dey wuz. 
+ 
+"Atter two er th'ee hund'ed er meat had be'n stole', Mars Walker
+call all de niggers up one ebenin', en tol' 'em dat de fus' nigger
+he cot stealin' bacon on dat plantation would git sump'n fer ter
+'member it by long ez he lib'.  En he say he'd gin fi' dollars ter
+de nigger w'at 'skiver' de rogue.  Mars Walker say he s'picion'
+one er two er de niggers, but he couldn' tell fer sho, en co'se
+dey all 'nied it w'en he 'cuse em un it. 
+ 
+"Dey wa'n't no bacon stole' fer a week er so, 'tel one dark night
+w'en somebody tuk a ham fum one er de smoke-'ouses.  Mars Walker
+des cusst awful w'en he foun' out de ham wuz gone, en say he gwine
+ter sarch all de niggers' cabins; w'en dis yer Wiley I wuz tellin'
+yer 'bout up'n say he s'picion' who tuk de ham, fer he seed Dave
+comin' 'cross de plantation fum to'ds de smoke-'ouse de night
+befo'.  W'en Mars Walker hearn dis fum Wiley, he went en sarch'
+Dave's cabin, en foun' de ham hid under de flo'. 
+ 
+"Eve'ybody wuz 'stonish'; but dere wuz de ham.  Co'se Dave 'nied
+it ter de las', but dere wuz de ham.  Mars Walker say it wuz des
+ez he 'spected: he didn' b'lieve in dese yer readin' en prayin'
+niggers; it wuz all 'pocrisy, en sarve' Mars Dugal' right fer
+'lowin' Dave ter be readin' books w'en it wuz 'g'in de law. 
+ 
+"W'en Mars Dugal' hearn 'bout de ham, he say he wuz might'ly
+'ceived en disapp'inted in Dave.  He say he wouldn' nebber hab no
+mo' conferdence in no nigger, en Mars Walker could do des ez he
+wuz a mineter wid Dave er any er de res' er de niggers.  So Mars
+Walker tuk'n tied Dave up en gin 'im forty; en den he got some er
+dis yer wire clof w'at dey uses fer ter make sifters out'n, en
+tuk'n wrap' it roun' de ham en fasten it tergedder at de little
+een'.  Den he tuk Dave down ter de blacksmif-shop, en had Unker
+Silas, de plantation black-smif, fasten a chain ter de ham, en den
+fasten de yuther een' er de chain roun' Dave's neck.  En den he
+says ter Dave, sezee:-- 
+ 
+"'Now, suh, yer'll wear dat neckliss fer de nex' six mont's; en I
+'spec's yer ner none er de yuther niggers on dis plantation won'
+steal no mo' bacon dyoin' er dat time.' 
+ 
+"Well, it des 'peared ez if fum dat time Dave didn' hab nuffin but
+trouble.  De niggers all turnt ag'in' 'im, caze he be'n de 'casion
+er Mars Dugal' turnin' 'em all ober ter Mars Walker.  Mars Dugal'
+wa'n't a bad marster hisse'f, but Mars Walker wuz hard ez a rock. 
+Dave kep' on sayin' he didn' take de ham, but none un 'em didn'
+b'lieve 'im. 
+ 
+"Dilsey wa'n't on de plantation w'en Dave wuz 'cused er stealin'
+de bacon.  Ole mist'iss had sont her ter town fer a week er so fer
+ter wait on one er her darters w'at had a young baby, en she didn'
+fine out nuffin 'bout Dave's trouble 'tel she got back ter de
+plantation.  Dave had patien'ly endyoed de finger er scawn, en all
+de hard words w'at de niggers pile' on 'im, caze he wuz sho'
+Dilsey would stan' by 'im, en wouldn' b'lieve he wuz a rogue, ner
+none er de yuther tales de darkies wuz tellin' 'bout 'im. 
+ 
+"W'en Dilsey come back fum town, en got down fum behine de buggy
+whar she be'n ridin' wid ole mars, de fus' nigger 'ooman she met
+says ter her,-- 
+ 
+"'Is yer seed Dave, Dilsey?' 
+ 
+"No, I ain' seed Dave,' says Dilsey. 
+ 
+"'Yer des oughter look at dat nigger; reckon yer wouldn' want 'im
+fer yo' junesey no mo'.  Mars Walker cotch 'im stealin' bacon, en
+gone en fasten' a ham roun' his neck, so he can't git it off'n
+hisse'f.  He sut'nly do look quare.'  En den de 'ooman bus' out
+laffin' fit ter kill herse'f.  W'en she got thoo laffin' she up'n
+tole Dilsey all 'bout de ham, en all de yuther lies w'at de
+niggers be'n tellin' on Dave. 
+ 
+"W'en Dilsey started down ter de quarters, who should she meet but
+Dave, comin' in fum de cotton-fiel'.  She turnt her head ter one
+side, en purten' lack she didn' seed Dave. 
+ 
+"'Dilsey!' sezee. 
+ 
+"Dilsey walk' right on, en didn' notice 'im. 
+ 
+"'OH, Dilsey!' 
+ 
+"Dilsey didn' paid no 'tention ter 'im, en den Dave knowed some er
+de niggers be'n tellin' her 'bout de ham.  He felt monst'us bad,
+but he 'lowed ef he could des git Dilsey fer ter listen ter 'im
+fer a minute er so, he could make her b'lieve he didn' stole de
+bacon.  It wuz a week er two befo' he could git a chance ter speak
+ter her ag'in; but fine'ly he cotch her down by de spring one day,
+en sezee:-- 
+ 
+"'Dilsey, w'at fer yer won' speak ter me, en purten' lack yer doan
+see me?  Dilsey, yer knows me too well fer ter b'lieve I'd steal,
+er do dis yuther wick'ness de niggers is all layin' ter me,--yer
+KNOWS I wouldn' do dat, Dilsey.  Yer ain' gwine back on yo' Dave,
+is yer?' 
+ 
+"But w'at Dave say didn' hab no 'fec' on Dilsey.  Dem lies folks
+b'en tellin' her had p'isen' her min' 'g'in' Dave. 
+ 
+"'I doan wanter talk ter no nigger,' says she, 'w'at be'n whip'
+fer stealin', en w'at gwine roun' wid sich a lookin' thing ez dat
+hung roun' his neck.  I's a 'spectable gal, I is.  W'at yer call
+dat, Dave?  Is dat a cha'm fer ter keep off witches, er is it a
+noo kine er neckliss yer got?' 
+ 
+"Po' Dave didn' knowed w'at ter do.  De las' one he had 'pended on
+fer ter stan' by 'im had gone back on 'im, en dey didn' 'pear ter
+be nuffin mo' wuf libbin' fer.  He couldn' hol' no mo' pra'r- 
+meetin's, fer Mars Walker wouldn' 'low 'im ter preach, en de
+darkies wouldn' 'a' listen' ter 'im ef he had preach'.  He didn'
+eben hab his Bible fer ter comfort hisse'f wid, fer Mars Walker
+had tuk it erway fum 'im en burnt it up, en say ef he ketch any
+mo' niggers wid Bibles on de plantation he'd do 'em wuss'n he done
+Dave. 
+ 
+"En ter make it still harder fer Dave, Dilsey tuk up wid Wiley. 
+Dave could see him gwine up ter Aun' Mahaly's cabin, en settin'
+out on de bench in de moonlight wid Dilsey, en singin' sinful
+songs en playin' de banjer.  Dave use' ter scrouch down behine de
+bushes, en wonder w'at de Lawd sen' 'im all dem tribberlations
+fer. 
+ 
+"But all er Dave's yuther troubles wa'n't nuffin side er dat ham. 
+He had wrap' de chain roun' wid a rag, so it didn' hurt his neck;
+but w'eneber he went ter wuk, dat ham would be in his way; he had
+ter do his task, howsomedever, des de same ez ef he didn' hab de
+ham.  W'eneber he went ter lay down, dat ham would be in de way. 
+Ef he turn ober in his sleep, dat ham would be tuggin' at his
+neck.  It wuz de las' thing he seed at night, en de fus' thing he
+seed in de mawnin'.  W'eneber he met a stranger, de ham would be
+de fus' thing de stranger would see.  Most un 'em would 'mence'
+ter laf, en whareber Dave went he could see folks p'intin' at him,
+en year 'em sayin:-- 
+ 
+"'W'at kine er collar dat nigger got roun' his neck?' er, ef dey
+knowed 'im, 'Is yer stole any mo' hams lately?' er 'W'at yer take
+fer yo' neckliss, Dave?' er some joke er 'nuther 'bout dat ham. 
+ 
+"Fus' Dave didn' mine it so much, caze he knowed he hadn' done
+nuffin.  But bimeby he got so he couldn' stan' it no longer, en
+he'd hide hisse'f in de bushes w'eneber he seed anybody comin', en
+alluz kep' hisse'f shet up in his cabin atter he come in fum wuk. 
+ 
+"It wuz monst'us hard on Dave, en bimeby, w'at wid dat ham
+eberlastin' en etarnally draggin' roun' his neck, he 'mence' fer
+ter do en say quare things, en make de niggers wonder ef he wa'n't
+gittin' out'n his mine.  He got ter gwine roun' talkin' ter
+hisse'f, en singin' corn-shuckin' songs, en laffin' fit ter kill
+'bout nuffin.  En one day he tole one er de niggers he had
+'skivered a noo way fer ter raise hams,--gwine ter pick 'em off'n
+trees, en save de expense er smoke-'ouses by kyoin' 'em in de sun. 
+En one day he up'n tole Mars Walker he got sump'n pertickler fer
+ter say ter 'im; en he tuk Mars Walker off ter one side, en tole
+'im he wuz gwine ter show 'im a place in de swamp whar dey wuz a
+whole trac' er lan' covered wid ham-trees. 
+ 
+"W'en Mars Walker hearn Dave talkin' dis kine er fool-talk, en
+w'en he seed how Dave wuz 'mencin' ter git behine in his wuk, en
+w'en he ax' de niggers en dey tole 'im how Dave be'n gwine on, he
+'lowed he reckon' he'd punish' Dave ernuff, en it mou't do mo'
+harm dan good fer ter keep de ham on his neck any longer.  So he
+sont Dave down ter de blacksmif-shop en had de ham tak off.  Dey
+wa'n't much er de ham lef' by dat time, fer de sun had melt all de
+fat, en de lean had all swivel' up, so dey wa'n't but th'ee er fo'
+poun's lef'. 
+ 
+"W'en de ham had be'n tuk off'n Dave, folks kinder stopped talkin'
+'bout 'im so much.  But de ham had be'n on his neck so long dat
+Dave had sorter got use' ter it.  He look des lack he'd los'
+sump'n fer a day er so atter de ham wuz tuk off, en didn' 'pear
+ter know w'at ter do wid hisse'f; en fine'ly he up'n tuk'n tied a
+lightered-knot ter a string, en hid it under de flo' er his cabin,
+en w'en nobody wuzn' lookin' he'd take it out en hang it roun' his
+neck, en go off in de woods en holler en sing; en he allus tied it
+roun' his neck w'en he went ter sleep.  Fac', it 'peared lack Dave
+done gone clean out'n his mine.  En atter a w'ile he got one er de
+quarest notions you eber hearn tell un.  It wuz 'bout dat time dat
+I come back ter de plantation fer ter wuk,--I had be'n out ter
+Mars Dugal's yuther place on Beaver Crick for a mont' er so.  I
+had hearn 'bout Dave en de bacon, en 'bout w'at wuz gwine on on de
+plantation; but I didn' b'lieve w'at dey all say 'bout Dave, fer I
+knowed Dave wa'n't dat kine er man.  One day atter I come back,
+me'n Dave wuz choppin' cotton tergedder, w'en Dave lean' on his
+hoe, en motion' fer me ter come ober close ter 'im; en den he
+retch' ober en w'ispered ter me. 
+ 
+"'Julius', [sic] sezee, 'did yer knowed yer wuz wukkin' long yer
+wid a ham?' 
+ 
+"I couldn 'magine w'at he meant.  'G'way fum yer, Dave,' says I. 
+'Yer ain' wearin' no ham no mo'; try en fergit 'bout dat; 't ain'
+gwine ter do yer no good fer ter 'member it.' 
+ 
+"Look a-yer, Julius,' sezee, 'kin yer keep a secret?' 
+ 
+"'Co'se I kin, Dave,' says I.  'I doan go roun' tellin' people
+w'at yuther folks says ter me.' 
+ 
+"'Kin I trus' yer, Julius?  Will yer cross yo' heart?' 
+ 
+"I cross' my heart.  'Wush I may die ef I tells a soul,' says I. 
+ 
+"Dave look' at me des lack he wuz lookin' thoo me en 'way on de
+yuther side er me, en sezee:-- 
+ 
+"'Did yer knowed I wuz turnin' ter a ham, Julius?' 
+ 
+"I tried ter 'suade Dave dat dat wuz all foolishness, en dat he
+oughtn't ter be talkin' dat-a-way,--hit wa'n't right.  En I tole
+'im ef he'd des be patien', de time would sho'ly come w'en
+eve'ything would be straighten' out, en folks would fine out who
+de rale rogue wuz w'at stole de bacon.  Dave 'peared ter listen
+ter w'at I say, en promise' ter do better, en stop gwine on dat-a- 
+way; en it seem lack he pick' up a bit w'en he seed dey wuz one
+pusson didn' b'lieve dem tales 'bout 'im. 
+ 
+"Hit wa'n't long atter dat befo' Mars Archie McIntyre, ober on de
+Wimbleton road, 'mence' ter complain 'bout somebody stealin'
+chickens fum his hen-'ouse.  De chickens kip' on gwine, en at las'
+Mars Archie tole de han's on his plantation dat he gwine ter shoot
+de fus' man he ketch in his hen-'ouse.  In less'n a week atter he
+gin dis warnin', he cotch a nigger in de hen-'ouse, en fill' 'im
+full er squir'l-shot.  W'en he got a light, he 'skivered it wuz a
+strange nigger; en w'en he call' one er his own sarven's, de
+nigger tole 'im it wuz our Wiley.  W'en Mars Archie foun' dat out,
+he sont ober ter our plantation fer ter tell Mars Dugal' he had
+shot one er his niggers, en dat he could sen' ober dere en git
+w'at wuz lef' un 'im. 
+ 
+"Mars Dugal' wuz mad at fus'; but w'en he got ober dere en hearn
+how it all happen', he didn' hab much ter say.  Wiley wuz shot so
+bad he wuz sho' he wuz gwine ter die, so he up'n says ter ole
+marster:-- 
+ 
+"'Mars Dugal',' sezee, 'I knows I's be'n a monst'us bad nigger,
+but befo' I go I wanter git sump'n off'n my mine.  Dave didn'
+steal dat bacon w'at wuz tuk out'n de smoke-'ouse.  I stole it
+all, en I hid de ham under Dave's cabin fer ter th'ow de blame on
+him--en may de good Lawd fergib me fer it.' 
+ 
+"Mars Dugal' had Wiley tuk back ter de plantation, en sont fer a
+doctor fer ter pick de shot out'n 'im.  En de ve'y nex' mawnin'
+Mars Dugal' sont fer Dave ter come up ter de big house; he felt
+kinder sorry fer de way Dave had be'n treated.  Co'se it wa'n't no
+fault er Mars Dugal's, but he wuz gwine ter do w'at he could fer
+ter make up fer it.  So he sont word down ter de quarters fer Dave
+en all de yuther han's ter 'semble up in de yard befo' de big
+house at sun-up nex' mawnin'. 
+ 
+"yearly in de mawnin' de niggers all swarm' up in de yard.  Mars
+Dugal' wuz feelin' so kine dat he had brung up a bairl er cider,
+en tole de niggers all fer ter he'p deyselves. 
+ 
+"All dey han's on de plantation come but Dave; en bimeby, w'en it
+seem lack he wa'n't comin', Mars Dugal' sont a nigger down ter de
+quarters ter look fer 'im.  De sun wuz gittin' up, en dey wuz a
+heap er wuk ter be done, en Mars Dugal' sorter got ti'ed waitin';
+so he up'n says:-- 
+ 
+"'Well, boys en gals, I sont fer yer all up yer fer ter tell yer
+dat all dat 'bout Dave's stealin' er de bacon wuz a mistake, ez I
+s'pose yer all done hearn befo' now, en I's mighty sorry it
+happen'.  I wants ter treat all my niggers right, en I wants yer
+all ter know dat I sets a heap by all er my han's w'at is hones'
+en smart.  En I want yer all ter treat Dave des lack yer did befo'
+dis thing happen', en mine w'at he preach ter yer; fer Dave is a
+good nigger, en has had a hard row ter hoe.  En de fus' one I
+ketch sayin' anythin' 'g'in Dave, I'll tell Mister Walker ter gin
+'im forty.  Now take ernudder drink er cider all roun', en den git
+at dat cotton, fer I wanter git dat Persimmon Hill trac' all pick'
+ober ter-day.' 
+ 
+"W'en de niggers wuz gwine 'way, Mars Dugal' tole me fer ter go en
+hunt up Dave, en bring 'im up ter de house.  I went down ter
+Dave's cabin, but couldn' fine 'im dere.  Den I look' roun' de
+plantation, en in de aidge er de woods, en 'long de road; but I
+couldn' fine no sign er Dave.  I wuz 'bout ter gin up de sarch,
+w'en I happen' fer ter run 'cross a foot-track w'at look' lack
+Dave's.  I had wukked 'long wid Dave so much dat I knowed his
+tracks: he had a monst'us long foot, wid a holler instep, w'ich
+wuz sump'n skase 'mongs' black folks.  So I follered dat track
+'cross de fiel' fum de quarters 'tel I got ter de smoke-'ouse.  De
+fus' thing I notice' wuz smoke comin' out'n de cracks: it wuz
+cu'ous, caze dey hadn' be'n no hogs kill' on de plantation fer six
+mont' er so, en all de bacon in de smoke-'ouse wuz done kyoed.  I
+couldn' 'magine fer ter sabe my life w'at Dave wuz doin' in dat
+smoke-'ouse.  I went up ter de do' en hollered:-- 
+ 
+"'Dave!' 
+ 
+"Dey didn' nobody answer.  I didn' wanter open de do', fer w'ite
+folks is monst'us pertickler 'bout dey smoke-'ouses; en ef de
+oberseah had a-come up en cotch me in dere, he mou't not wanter
+b'lieve I wuz des lookin' fer Dave.  So I sorter knock at de do'
+en call' out ag'in:-- 
+ 
+"'O Dave, hit's me--Julius!  Doan be skeered.  Mars Dugal' wants
+yer ter come up ter de big house,--he done 'skivered who stole de
+ham.' 
+ 
+"But Dave didn' answer.  En w'en I look' roun' ag'in en didn' seed
+none er his tracks gwine way fum de smoke-'ouse, I knowed he wuz
+in dere yit, en I wuz 'termine' fer ter fetch 'im out; so I push
+de do' open en look in. 
+ 
+"Dey wuz a pile er bark burnin' in de middle er de flo', en right
+ober de fier, hangin' fum one er de rafters, wuz Dave; dey wuz a
+rope roun' his neck, en I didn' haf ter look at his face mo' d'n
+once fer ter see he wuz dead. 
+ 
+"Den I knowed how it all happen'.  Dave had kep' on gittin' wusser
+en wusser in his mine, 'tel he des got ter b'lievin' he wuz all
+done turnt ter a ham; en den he had gone en built a fier, en tied
+a rope roun' his neck, des lack de hams wuz tied, en had hung
+hisse'f up in de smoke-'ouse fer ter kyo. 
+ 
+"Dave wuz buried down by de swamp, in de plantation buryin'-
+groun'.  Wiley didn' died fum de woun' he got in Mars McIntyre's
+hen-'ouse; he got well atter a w'ile, but Dilsey wouldn' hab
+nuffin mo' ter do wid 'im, en 't wa'n't long 'fo' Mars Dugal' sol'
+'im ter a spekilater on his way souf,--he say he didn' want no
+sich a nigger on de plantation, ner in de county, ef he could he'p
+it.  En w'en de een' er de year come, Mars Dugal' turnt Mars
+Walker off, en run de plantation hisse'f atter dat. 
+ 
+"Eber sence den," said Julius in conclusion, "w'eneber I eats ham,
+it min's me er Dave.  I lacks ham, but I nebber kin eat mo' d'n
+two er th'ee poun's befo' I gits ter studyin' 'bout Dave, en den I
+has ter stop en leab de res' fer ernudder time." 
+ 
+There was a short silence after the old man had finished his
+story, and then my wife began to talk to him about the weather, on
+which subject he was an authority.  I went into the house.  When I
+came out, half an hour later, I saw Julius disappearing down the
+lane, with a basket on his arm. 
+ 
+At breakfast, next morning, it occurred to me that I should like a
+slice of ham.  I said as much to my wife. 
+ 
+"Oh, no, John," she responded, "you shouldn't eat anything so
+heavy for breakfast." 
+ 
+I insisted. 
+ 
+"The fact is," she said, pensively, "I couldn't have eaten any
+more of that ham, and so I gave it to Julius." 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE AWAKENING OF THE NEGRO 
+by Booker T. Washington 
+ 
+ 
+When a mere boy, I saw a young colored man, who had spent several
+years in school, sitting in a common cabin in the South, studying
+a French grammar.  I noted the poverty, the untidiness, the want
+of system and thrift, that existed about the cabin,
+notwithstanding his knowledge of French and other academic
+subjects.  Another time, when riding on the outer edges of a town
+in the South, I heard the sound of a piano coming from a cabin of
+the same kind.  Contriving some excuse, I entered, and began a
+conversation with the young colored woman who was playing, and who
+had recently returned from a boarding-school, where she had been
+studying instrumental music among other things.  Despite the fact
+that her parents were living in a rented cabin, eating poorly
+cooked food, surrounded with poverty, and having almost none of
+the conveniences of life, she had persuaded them to rent a piano
+for four or five dollars per month.  Many such instances as these,
+in connection with my own struggles, impressed upon me the
+importance of making a study of our needs as a race, and applying
+the remedy accordingly. 
+ 
+Some one may be tempted to ask, Has not the negro boy or girl as
+good a right to study a French grammar and instrumental music as
+the white youth?  I answer, Yes, but in the present condition of
+the negro race in this country there is need of something more. 
+Perhaps I may be forgiven for the seeming egotism if I mention the
+expansion of my own life partly as an example of what I mean.  My
+earliest recollection is of a small one-room log hut on a large
+slave plantation in Virginia.  After the close of the war, while
+working in the coal-mines of West Virginia for the support of my
+mother, I heart in some accidental way of the Hampton Institute. 
+When I learned that it was an institution where a black boy could
+study, could have a chance to work for his board, and at the same
+time be taught how to work and to realize the dignity of labor, I
+resolved to go there.  Bidding my mother good-by, I started out
+one morning to find my way to Hampton, though I was almost
+penniless and had no definite idea where Hampton was.  By walking,
+begging rides, and paying for a portion of the journey on the
+steam-cars, I finally succeeded in reaching the city of Richmond,
+Virginia.  I was without money or friends.  I slept under a
+sidewalk, and by working on a vessel next day I earned money to
+continue my way to the institute, where I arrived with a surplus
+of fifty cents.  At Hampton I found the opportunity--in the way of
+buildings, teachers, and industries provided by the generous--to
+get training in the class-room and by practical touch with
+industrial life, to learn thrift, economy, and push.  I was
+surrounded by an atmosphere of business, Christian influence, and
+a spirit of self-help that seemed to have awakened every faculty
+in me, and caused me for the first time to realize what it meant
+to be a man instead of a piece of property. 
+ 
+While there I resolved that when I had finished the course of
+training I would go into the far South, into the Black Belt of the
+South, and give my life to providing the same kind of opportunity
+for self-reliance and self-awakening that I had found provided for
+me at Hampton.  My work began at Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1881, in a
+small shanty and church, with one teacher and thirty students,
+without a dollar's worth of property.  The spirit of work and of
+industrial thrift, with aid from the State and generosity from the
+North, has enabled us to develop an institution of eight hundred
+students gathered from nineteen States, with seventy-nine
+instructors, fourteen hundred acres of land, and thirty buildings,
+including large and small; in all, property valued at $280,000. 
+Twenty-five industries have been organized, and the whole work is
+carried on at an annual cost of about $80,000 in cash; two fifths
+of the annual expense so far has gone into permanent plant. 
+ 
+What is the object of all this outlay?  First, it must be borne in
+mind that we have in the South a peculiar and unprecedented state
+of things.  It is of the utmost importance that our energy be
+given to meeting conditions that exist right about us rather than
+conditions that existed centuries ago or that exist in countries a
+thousand miles away.  What are the cardinal needs among the seven
+millions of colored people in the South, most of whom are to be
+found on the plantations?  Roughly, these needs may be stated as
+food, clothing, shelter, education, proper habits, and a
+settlement of race relations.  The seven millions of colored
+people of the South cannot be reached directly by any missionary
+agency, but they can be reached by sending out among them strong
+selected young men and women, with the proper training of head,
+hand, and heart, who will live among these masses and show them
+how to lift themselves up. 
+ 
+The problem that the Tuskegee Institute keeps before itself
+constantly is how to prepare these leaders.  From the outset, in
+connection with religious and academic training, it has emphasized
+industrial or hand training as a means of finding the way out of
+present conditions.  First, we have found the industrial teaching
+useful in giving the student a chance to work out a portion of his
+expenses while in school.  Second, the school furnishes labor that
+has an economic value, and at the same time gives the student a
+chance to acquire knowledge and skill while performing the labor. 
+Most of all, we find the industrial system valuable in teaching
+economy, thrift, and the dignity of labor, and in giving moral
+backbone to students.  The fact that a student goes out into the
+world conscious of his power to build a house or a wagon, or to
+make a harness, gives him a certain confidence and moral
+independence that he would not possess without such training. 
+ 
+A more detailed example of our methods at Tuskegee may be of
+interest.  For example, we cultivate by student labor six hundred
+and fifty acres of land.  The object is not only to cultivate the
+land in a way to make it pay our boarding department, but at the
+same time to teach the students, in addition to the practical
+work, something of the chemistry of the soil, the best methods of
+drainage, dairying, the cultivation of fruit, the care of
+livestock and tools, and scores of other lessons needed by a
+people whose main dependence is on agriculture.  Notwithstanding
+that eighty-five per cent of the colored people in the South live
+by agriculture in some form, aside from what has been done by
+Hampton, Tuskegee, and one or two other institutions practically
+nothing has been attempted in the direction of teaching them about
+the very industry from which the masses of our people must get
+their subsistence.  Friends have recently provided means for the
+erection of a large new chapel at Tuskegee.  Our students have
+made the bricks for this chapel.  A large part of the timber is
+sawed by students at our own sawmill, the plans are drawn by our
+teacher of architecture and mechanical drawing, and students do
+the brick-masonry, plastering, painting, carpentry work, tinning,
+slating, and make most of the furniture.  Practically, the whole
+chapel will be built and furnished by student labor; in the end
+the school will have the building for permanent use, and the
+students will have a knowledge of the trades employed in its
+construction.  In this way all but three of the thirty buildings
+on the grounds have been erected.  While the young men do the
+kinds of work I have mentioned, the young women to a large extent
+make, mend, and launder the clothing of the young men, and thus
+are taught important industries. 
+ 
+One of the objections sometimes urged against industrial education
+for the negro is that it aims merely to teach him to work on the
+same plan that he was made to follow when in slavery.  This is far
+from being the object at Tuskegee.  At the head of each of the
+twenty-five industrial departments we have an intelligent and
+competent instructor, just as we have in our history classes, so
+that the student is taught not only practical brick-masonry, for
+example, but also the underlying principles of that industry, the
+mathematics and the mechanical and architectural drawing.  Or he
+is taught how to become master of the forces of nature so that,
+instead of cultivating corn in the old way, he can use a corn
+cultivator, that lays off the furrows, drops the corn into them,
+and covers it, and in this way he can do more work than three men
+by the old process of corn-planting; at the same time much of the
+toil is eliminated and labor is dignified.  In a word, the
+constant aim is to show the student how to put brains into every
+process of labor; how to bring his knowledge of mathematics and
+the sciences into farming, carpentry, forging, foundry work; how
+to dispense as soon as possible with the old form of ante-bellum
+labor.  In the erection of the chapel just referred to, instead of
+letting the money which was given us go into outside hands, we
+make it accomplish three objects: first, it provides the chapel;
+second, it gives the students a chance to get a practical
+knowledge of the trades connected with building; and third, it
+enables them to earn something toward the payment of board while
+receiving academic and industrial training. 
+ 
+Having been fortified at Tuskegee by education of mind, skill of
+hand, Christian character, ideas of thrift, economy, and push, and
+a spirit of independence, the student is sent out to become a
+centre of influence and light in showing the masses of our people
+in the Black Belt of the South how to lift themselves up.  How can
+this be done?  I give but one or two examples.  Ten years ago a
+young colored man came to the institute from one of the large
+plantation districts; he studied in the class-room a portion of
+the time, and received practical and theoretical training on the
+farm the remainder of the time.  Having finished his course at
+Tuskegee, he returned to his plantation home, which was in a
+county where the colored people outnumber the whites six to one,
+as is true of many of the counties in the Black Belt of the South. 
+He found the negroes in debt.  Ever since the war they had been
+mortgaging their crops for the food on which to live while the
+crops were growing.  The majority of them were living from hand to
+mouth on rented land, in small, one-room log cabins, and
+attempting to pay a rate of interest on their advances that ranged
+from fifteen to forty per cent per annum.  The school had been
+taught in a wreck of a log cabin, with no apparatus, and had never
+been in session longer than three months out of twelve.  With as
+many as eight or ten persons of all ages and conditions and of
+both sexes huddled together in one cabin year after year, and with
+a minister whose only aim was to work upon the emotions of the
+people, one can imagine something of the moral and religious state
+of the community. 
+ 
+But the remedy.  In spite of the evil, the negro got the habit of
+work from slavery.  The rank and file of the race, especially
+those on the Southern plantations, work hard, but the trouble is,
+what they earn gets away from them in high rents, crop mortgages,
+whiskey, snuff, cheap jewelry, and the like.  The young man just
+referred to had been trained at Tuskegee, as most of our graduates
+are, to meet just this condition of things.  He took the three
+months' public school as a nucleus for his work.  Then he
+organized the older people into a club, or conference, that held
+meetings every week.  In these meetings he taught the people in a
+plain, simple manner how to save their money, how to farm in a
+better way, how to sacrifice,--to live on bread and potatoes, if
+need be, till they could get out of debt, and begin the buying of
+lands. 
+ 
+Soon a large proportion of the people were in condition to make
+contracts for the buying of homes (land is very cheap in the
+South), and to live without mortgaging their crops.  Not only
+this: under the guidance and leadership of this teacher, the first
+year that he was among them they learned how, by contributions in
+money and labor, to build a neat, comfortable schoolhouse that
+replaced the wreck of a log cabin formerly used.  The following
+year the weekly meetings were continued, and two months were added
+to the original three months of school.  The next year two more
+months were added.  The improvement has gone on, until now these
+people have every year an eight months' school. 
+ 
+I wish my readers could have the chance that I have had of going
+into this community.  I wish they could look into the faces of the
+people and see them beaming with hope and delight.  I wish they
+could see the two or three room cottages that have taken the place
+of the usual one-room cabin, the well-cultivated farms, and the
+religious life of the people that now means something more than
+the name.  The teacher has a good cottage and a well-kept farm
+that serve as models.  In a word, a complete revolution has been
+wrought in the industrial, educational, and religious life of this
+whole community by reason of the fact that they have had this
+leader, this guide and object-lesson, to show them how to take the
+money and effort that had hitherto been scattered to the wind in
+mortgages and high rents, in whiskey and gewgaws, and concentrate
+them in the direction of their own uplifting.  One community on
+its feet presents an object-lesson for the adjoining communities,
+and soon improvements show themselves in other places. 
+ 
+Another student who received academic and industrial training at
+Tuskegee established himself, three years ago, as a blacksmith and
+wheelwright in a community, and, in addition to the influence of
+his successful business enterprise, he is fast making the same
+kind of changes in the life of the people about him that I have
+just recounted.  It would be easy for me to fill many pages
+describing the influence of the Tuskegee graduates in every part
+of the South.  We keep it constantly in the minds of our students
+and graduates that the industrial or material condition of the
+masses of our people must be improved, as well as the
+intellectual, before there can be any permanent change in their
+moral and religious life.  We find it a pretty hard thing to make
+a good Christian of a hungry man.  No matter how much our people
+"get happy" and "shout" in church, if they go home at night from
+church hungry, they are tempted to find something before morning. 
+This is a principle of human nature, and is not confined to the
+negro. 
+ 
+The negro has within him immense power for self-uplifting, but for
+years it will be necessary to guide and stimulate him.  The
+recognition of this power led us to organize, five years ago, what
+is now known as the Tuskegee Negro Conference,--a gathering that
+meets every February, and is composed of about eight hundred
+representative colored men and women from all sections of the
+Black Belt.  They come in ox-carts, mule-carts, buggies, on
+muleback and horseback, on foot, by railroad: some traveling all
+night in order to be present.  The matters considered at the
+conferences are those that the colored people have it within their
+own power to control: such as the evils of the mortgage system,
+the one-room cabin, buying on credit, the importance of owning a
+home and of putting money in the bank, how to build schoolhouses
+and prolong the school term, and how to improve their moral and
+religious condition. 
+ 
+As a single example of the results, one delegate reported that
+since the conferences were started five years ago eleven people in
+his neighborhood had bought homes, fourteen had got out of debt,
+and a number had stopped mortgaging their crops.  Moreover, a
+schoolhouse had been built by the people themselves, and the
+school term had been extended from three to six months; and with a
+look of triumph he exclaimed, "We is done stopped libin' in de
+ashes!" 
+ 
+Besides this Negro Conference for the masses of the people, we now
+have a gathering at the same time known as the Workers'
+Conference, composed of the officers and instructors in the
+leading colored schools of the South.  After listening to the
+story of the conditions and needs from the people themselves, the
+Workers' Conference finds much food for thought and discussion. 
+ 
+Nothing else so soon brings about right relations between the two
+races in the South as the industrial progress of the negro. 
+Friction between the races will pass away in proportion as the
+black man, by reason of his skill, intelligence, and character,
+can produce something that the white man wants or respects in the
+commercial world.  This is another reason why at Tuskegee we push
+the industrial training.  We find that as every year we put into a
+Southern community colored men who can start a brick-yard, a
+sawmill, a tin-shop, or a printing-office,--men who produce
+something that makes the white man partly dependent upon the
+negro, instead of all the dependence being on the other side,--a
+change takes place in the relations of the races. 
+ 
+Let us go on for a few more years knitting our business and
+industrial relations into those of the white man, till a black man
+gets a mortgage on a white man's house that he can foreclose at
+will.  The white man on whose house the mortgage rests will not
+try to prevent that negro from voting when he goes to the polls. 
+It is through the dairy farm, the truck garden, the trades, and
+commercial life, largely, that the negro is to find his way to the
+enjoyment of all his rights.  Whether he will or not, a white man
+respects a negro who owns a two-story brick house. 
+ 
+What is the permanent value of the Tuskegee system of training to
+the South in a broader sense?  In connection with this, it is well
+to bear in mind that slavery taught the white man that labor with
+the hands was something fit for the negro only, and something for
+the white man to come into contact with just as little as
+possible.  It is true that there was a large class of poor white
+people who labored with the hands, but they did it because they
+were not able to secure negroes to work for them; and these poor
+whites were constantly trying to imitate the slave-holding class
+in escaping labor, and they too regarded it as anything but
+elevating.  The negro in turn looked down upon the poor whites
+with a certain contempt because they had to work.  The negro, it
+is to be borne in mind, worked under constant protest, because he
+felt that his labor was being unjustly required, and he spent
+almost as much effort in planning how to escape work as in
+learning how to work.  Labor with him was a badge of degradation. 
+The white man was held up before him as the highest type of
+civilization, but the negro noted that this highest type of
+civilization himself did no labor; hence he argued that the less
+work he did, the more nearly he would be like a white man.  Then,
+in addition to these influences, the slave system discouraged
+labor-saving machinery.  To use labor-saving machinery
+intelligence was required, and intelligence and slavery were not
+on friendly terms; hence the negro always associated labor with
+toil, drudgery, something to be escaped.  When the negro first
+became free, his idea of education was that it was something that
+would soon put him in the same position as regards work that his
+recent master had occupied.  Out of these conditions grew the
+Southern habit of putting off till to-morrow and the day after the
+duty that should be done promptly to-day.  The leaky house was not
+repaired while the sun shone, for then the rain did not come
+through.  While the rain was falling, no one cared to expose
+himself to stop the leak.  The plough, on the same principle, was
+left where the last furrow was run, to rot and rust in the field
+during the winter.  There was no need to repair the wooden chimney
+that was exposed to the fire, because water could be thrown on it
+when it was on fire.  There was no need to trouble about the
+payment of a debt to-day, for it could just as well be paid next
+week or next year.  Besides these conditions, the whole South, at
+the close of the war, was without proper food, clothing, and
+shelter,--was in need of habits of thrift and economy and of
+something laid up for a rainy day. 
+ 
+To me it seemed perfectly plain that here was a condition of
+things that could not be met by the ordinary process of education. 
+At Tuskegee we became convinced that the thing to do was to make a
+careful systematic study of the condition and needs of the South,
+especially the Black Belt, and to bend our efforts in the
+direction of meeting these needs, whether we were following a
+well-beaten track, or were hewing out a new path to meet
+conditions probably without a parallel in the world.  After
+fourteen years of experience and observation, what is the result? 
+Gradually but surely, we find that all through the South the
+disposition to look upon labor as a disgrace is on the wane, and
+the parents who themselves sought to escape work are so anxious to
+give their children training in intelligent labor that every
+institution which gives training in the handicrafts is crowded,
+and many (among them Tuskegee) have to refuse admission to
+hundreds of applicants.  The influence of the Tuskegee system is
+shown again by the fact that almost every little school at the
+remotest cross-roads is anxious to be known as an industrial
+school, or, as some of the colored people call it, an "industrus"
+school. 
+ 
+The social lines that were once sharply drawn between those who
+labored with the hand and those who did not are disappearing. 
+Those who formerly sought to escape labor, now when they see that
+brains and skill rob labor of the toil and drudgery once
+associated with it, instead of trying to avoid it are willing to
+pay to be taught how to engage in it.  The South is beginning to
+see labor raised up, dignified and beautified, and in this sees
+its salvation.  In proportion as the love of labor grows, the
+large idle class which has long been one of the curses of the
+South disappears.  As its members become absorbed in occupations,
+they have less time to attend to everybody else's business, and
+more time for their own. 
+ 
+The South is still an undeveloped and unsettled country, and for
+the next half century and more the greater part of the energy of
+the masses will be needed to develop its material opportunities. 
+Any force that brings the rank and file of the people to a greater
+love of industry is therefore especially valuable.  This result
+industrial education is surely bringing about.  It stimulates
+production and increases trade,--trade between the races,--and in
+this new and engrossing relation both forget the past.  The white
+man respects the vote of the colored man who does $10,000 worth of
+business, and the more business the colored man has, the more
+careful he is how he votes. 
+ 
+Immediately after the war, there was a large class of Southern
+people who feared that the opening of the free schools to the
+freedmen and the poor whites--the education of the head alone--
+would result merely in increasing the class who sought to escape
+labor, and that the South would soon be overrun by the idle and
+vicious.  But as the results of industrial combined with academic
+training begin to show themselves in hundreds of communities that
+have been lifted up through the medium of the Tuskegee system,
+these former prejudices against education are being removed.  Many
+of those who a few years ago opposed general education are now
+among its warmest advocates. 
+ 
+This industrial training, emphasizing as it does the idea of
+economic production, is gradually bringing the South to the point
+where it is feeding itself.  Before the war, and long after it,
+the South made what little profit was received from the cotton
+crop, and sent its earnings out of the South to purchase food
+supplies,--meat, bread, canned vegetables, and the like; but the
+improved methods of agriculture are fast changing this habit. 
+With the newer methods of labor, which teach promptness and
+system, and emphasize the worth of the beautiful,--the moral value
+of the well-painted house, and the fence with every paling and
+nail in its place,--we are bringing to bear upon the South an
+influence that is making it a new country in industry, education,
+and religion. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE STORY OF UNCLE TOM'S CABIN 
+by Charles Dudley Warner 
+ 
+ 
+On the 29th of June, 1852, Henry Clay died.  In that month the two
+great political parties, in their national conventions, had
+accepted as a finality all the compromise measures of 1850, and
+the last hours of the Kentucky statesman were brightened by the
+thought that his efforts had secured the perpetuity of the Union. 
+ 
+But on the 20th of March, 1852, there had been an event, the
+significance of which was not taken into account by the political
+conventions or by Clay, which was to test the conscience of the
+nation.  This was the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Was this
+only an "event," the advent of a new force in politics; was the
+book merely an abolition pamphlet, or was it a novel, one of the
+few great masterpieces of fiction that the world has produced? 
+After the lapse of forty-four years and the disappearance of
+African slavery on this continent, it is perhaps possible to
+consider this question dispassionately. 
+ 
+The compromise of 1850 satisfied neither the North nor the South. 
+The admission of California as a free State was regarded by
+Calhoun as fatal to the balance between the free and the slave
+States, and thereafter a fierce agitation sprang up for the
+recovery of this loss of balance, and ultimately for Southern
+preponderance, which resulted in the repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska war, and the civil war.  The
+fugitive slave law was hateful to the North not only because it
+was cruel and degrading, but because it was seen to be a move
+formed for nationalizing slavery.  It was unsatisfactory to the
+South because it was deemed inadequate in its provisions, and
+because the South did not believe the North would execute it in
+good faith.  So unstable did the compromise seem that in less than
+a year after the passage of all its measures, Henry Clay and
+forty-four Senators and Representatives united in a manifesto
+declaring that they would support no man for office who was not
+known to be opposed to any disturbance of the settlements of the
+compromise.  When, in February, 1851, the recaptured fugitive
+slave, Burns, was rescued from the United States officers in
+Boston, Clay urged the investment of the President with
+extraordinary power to enforce the law. 
+ 
+Henry Clay was a patriot, a typical American.  The republic and
+its preservation were the passions of his life.  Like Lincoln, who
+was born in the State of his adoption, he was willing to make
+almost any sacrifice for the maintenance of the Union.  He had no
+sympathy with the system of slavery.  There is no doubt that he
+would have been happy in the belief that it was in the way of
+gradual and peaceful extinction.  With him, it was always the
+Union before state rights and before slavery.  Unlike Lincoln, he
+had not the clear vision to see that the republic could not endure
+half slave and half free.  He believed that the South, appealing
+to the compromises of the Constitution, would sacrifice the Union
+before it would give up slavery, and in fear of this menace he
+begged the North to conquer its prejudices.  We are not liable to
+overrate his influence as a compromising pacificator from 1832 to
+1852.  History will no doubt say that it was largely due to him
+that the war on the Union was postponed to a date when its success
+was impossible. 
+ 
+It was the fugitive slave law that brought the North face to face
+with slavery nationalized, and it was the fugitive slave law that
+produced Uncle Tom's Cabin.  The effect of this story was
+immediate and electric.  It went straight to the hearts of tens of
+thousands of people who had never before considered slavery except
+as a political institution for which they had no personal
+responsibility.  What was this book, and how did it happen to
+produce such an effect?  It is true that it struck into a time of
+great irritation and agitation, but in one sense there was nothing
+new in it.  The facts had all been published.  For twenty years
+abolition tracts, pamphlets, newspapers, and books had left little
+to be revealed, to those who cared to read, as to the nature of
+slavery or its economic aspects.  The evidence was practically all
+in,--supplied largely by the advertisements of Southern newspapers
+and by the legislation of the slaveholding States,--but it did not
+carry conviction; that is, the sort of conviction that results in
+action.  The subject had to be carried home to the conscience. 
+Pamphleteering, convention-holding, sermons, had failed to do
+this.  Even the degrading requirements of the fugitive slave law,
+which brought shame and humiliation, had not sufficed to fuse the
+public conscience, emphasize the necessity of obedience to the
+moral law, and compel recognition of the responsibility of the
+North for slavery.  Evidence had not done this, passionate appeals
+had not done it, vituperation had not done it.  What sort of
+presentation of the case would gain the public ear and go to the
+heart?  If Mrs. Stowe, in all her fervor, had put forth first the
+facts in The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, which so buttressed her
+romance, the book would have had no more effect than had followed
+the like compilations and arraignments.  What was needed?  If we
+can discover this, we shall have the secret of this epoch-making
+novel. 
+ 
+The story of this book has often been told.  It is in the nature
+of a dramatic incident of which the reader never tires any more
+than the son of Massachusetts does of the minutest details of that
+famous scene in the Senate Chamber when Webster replied to Hayne. 
+ 
+At the age of twenty-four the author was married and went to live
+in Cincinnati, where her husband held a chair in the Lane
+Theological Seminary.  There for the first time she was brought
+into relations with the African race and saw the effects of
+slavery.  She visited slaveholders in Kentucky and had friends
+among them.  In some homes she saw the "patriarchal" institution
+at its best.  The Beecher family were anti-slavery, but they had
+not been identified with the abolitionists, except perhaps Edward,
+who was associated with the murdered Lovejoy.  It was long a
+reproach brought by the abolitionists against Henry Ward Beecher
+that he held entirely aloof from their movement.  At Cincinnati,
+however, the personal aspects of the case were brought home to
+Mrs. Stowe.  She learned the capacities and peculiarities of the
+negro race.  They were her servants; she taught some of them;
+hunted fugitives applied to her; she ransomed some by her own
+efforts; every day there came to her knowledge stories of the
+hunger for freedom, of the ruthless separation of man and wife and
+mother and child, and of the heroic sufferings of those who ran
+away from the fearful doom of those "sold down South."  These
+things crowded upon her mind and awoke her deepest compassion. 
+But what could she do against all the laws, the political and
+commercial interests, the great public apathy?  Relieve a case
+here and there, yes.  But to dwell upon the gigantic evil, with no
+means of making head against it, was to invite insanity. 
+ 
+As late as 1850, when Professor Stowe was called to Bowdoin
+College, and the family removed to Brunswick, Maine, Mrs. Stowe
+had not felt impelled to the duty she afterwards undertook.  "In
+fact, it was a sort of general impression upon her mind, as upon
+that of many humane people in those days, that the subject was so
+dark and painful a one, so involved in difficulty and obscurity,
+so utterly beyond human hope or help, that it was of no use to
+read, or think, or distress one's self about it."  But when she
+reached New England the excitement over the fugitive slave law was
+at its height.  There was a panic in Boston among the colored
+people settled there, who were daily fleeing to Canada.  Every
+mail brought her pitiful letters from Boston, from Illinois, and
+elsewhere, of the terror and despair caused by the law.  Still
+more was the impressed by the apathy of the Christian world at the
+North, and surely, she said, the people did not understand what
+the "system" was.  Appeals were made to her, who had some personal
+knowledge of the subject, to take up her pen.  The task seemed
+beyond her in every way.  She was not strong, she was in the midst
+of heavy domestic cares, with a young infant, with pupils to whom
+she was giving daily lessons, and the limited income of the family
+required the strictest economy.  The dependence was upon the small
+salary of Professor Stowe, and the few dollars she could earn by
+an occasional newspaper or magazine article.  But the theme burned
+in her mind, and finally took this shape: at least she would write
+some sketches and show the Christian world what slavery really
+was, and what the system was that they were defending.  She wanted
+to do this with entire fairness, showing all the mitigations of
+the "patriarchal" system, and all that individuals concerned in it
+could do to alleviate its misery.  While pondering this she came
+by chance, in a volume of an anti-slavery magazine, upon the
+authenticated account of the escape of a woman with her child on
+the ice across the Ohio River from Kentucky.  She began to
+meditate.  The faithful slave husband in Kentucky, who had refused
+to escape from a master who trusted him, when he was about to be
+sold "down river," came to her as a pattern of Uncle Tom, and the
+scenes of the story began to form themselves in her mind.  "The
+first part of the book ever committed to writing [this is the
+statement of Mrs. Stowe] was the death of Uncle Tom.  This scene
+presented itself almost as a tangible vision to her mind while
+sitting at the communion-table in the little church in Brunswick. 
+She was perfectly overcome by it, and could scarcely restrain the
+convulsion of tears and sobbings that shook her frame.  She
+hastened home and wrote it, and her husband being away, read it to
+her two sons of ten and twelve years of age.  The little fellows
+broke out into convulsions of weeping, one of them saying through
+his sobs, 'Oh, mamma, slavery is the most cursed thing in the
+world!'  From that time the story can less be said to have been
+composed by her than imposed upon her.  Scenes, incidents,
+conversations rushed upon her with a vividness and importunity
+that would not be denied.  The book insisted upon getting itself
+into being, and would take no denial." 
+ 
+When two or three chapters were written she wrote to her friend,
+Dr. Bailey, of Washington, the editor of The National Era, to
+which she had contributed, that she was planning a story that
+might run through several numbers of the Era.  The story was at
+once applied for, and thereafter weekly installments were sent on
+regularly, in spite of all cares and distractions.  The
+installments were mostly written during the morning, on a little
+desk in a corner of the dining-room of the cottage in Brunswick,
+subject to all the interruptions of house-keeping, her children
+bursting into the room continually with the importunity of
+childhood.  But they did not break the spell or destroy her
+abstraction.  With a smile and a word and a motion of the hand she
+would wave them off, and keep on in her magician's work.  Long
+afterwards they recalled this, dimly understood at the time, and
+wondered at her power of concentration.  Usually at night the
+chapters were read to the family, who followed the story with
+intense feeling.  The narrative ran on for nine months, exciting
+great interest among the limited readers of the Era, and gaining
+sympathetic words from the anti-slavery people, but without making
+any wide impression on the public. 
+ 
+We may pause here in the narrative to note two things: the story
+was not the work of a novice, and it was written out of abundant
+experience and from an immense mass of accumulated thought and
+material.  Mrs. Stowe was in her fortieth year.  She had been
+using her pen since she was twelve years old, in extensive
+correspondence, in occasional essays, in short stories and
+sketches, some of which appeared in a volume called The Mayflower,
+published in 1843, and for many years her writing for newspapers
+and periodicals had added appreciably to the small family income. 
+She was in the maturity of her intellectual powers, she was
+trained in the art of writing, and she had, as Walter Scott had
+when he began the Waverley Novels at the age of forty-three,
+abundant store of materials on which to draw.  To be sure, she was
+on fire with a moral purpose, but she had the dramatic instinct,
+and she felt that her object would not be reached by writing an
+abolition tract. 
+ 
+"In shaping her material the author had but one purpose, to show
+the institution of slavery truly, just as it existed.  She had
+visited in Kentucky; had formed the acquaintance of people who
+were just, upright, and generous, and yet slave-holders.  She had
+heard their views, and appreciated their situation; she felt that
+justice required that their difficulties should be recognized and
+their virtues acknowledged.  It was her object to show that the
+evils of slavery were the inherent evils of a bad system, and not
+always the fault of those who had become involved in it and were
+its actual administrators.  Then she was convinced that the
+presentation of slavery alone, in its most dreadful forms, would
+be a picture of such unrelieved horror and darkness as nobody
+could be induced to look at.  Of set purpose, she sought to light
+up the darkness by humorous and grotesque episodes, and the
+presentation of the milder and more amusing phases of slavery, for
+which her recollection of the never-failing wit and drollery of
+her former colored friends in Ohio gave her abundant material." 
+ 
+This is her own account of the process, years after.  But it is
+evident that, whether consciously or unconsciously, she did but
+follow the inevitable law of all great dramatic creators and true
+story-tellers since literature began. 
+ 
+For this story Mrs. Stowe received from the Era the sum of three
+hundred dollars.  Before it was finished it attracted the
+attention of Mr. J. P. Jewett, of Boston, a young and then unknown
+publisher, who offered to issue it in book form.  His offer was
+accepted, but as the tale ran on he became alarmed at its length,
+and wrote to the author that she was making the story too long for
+a one-volume novel; that the subject was unpopular; that people
+would not willingly hear much about it; that one short volume
+might possibly sell, but that if it grew to two that might prove a
+fatal obstacle to its success.  Mrs. Stowe replied that she did
+not make the story, that the story made itself, and that she could
+not stop it till it was done.  The publisher hesitated.  It is
+said that a competent literary critic to whom he submitted it sat
+up all night with the novel, and then reported, "The story has
+life in it; it will sell."  Mr. Jewett proposed to Professor Stowe
+to publish it on half profits if he would share the expenses. 
+This offer was declined, for the Stowes had no money to advance,
+and the common royalty of ten per cent on the sales was accepted. 
+ 
+Mrs. Stowe was not interested in this business transaction.  She
+was thinking only of having the book circulated for the effect she
+had at heart.  The intense absorption in the story held her until
+the virtual end in the death of Uncle Tom, and then it seemed as
+if the whole vital force had left her.  She sank into a profound
+discouragement.  Would this appeal, which she had written with her
+heart's blood, go for nothing, as all the prayers and tears and
+strivings had already gone?  When the last proof sheets left her
+hands, "it seemed to her that there was no hope; that nobody would
+read, nobody would pity; that this frightful system, which had
+already pursued its victims into the free States, might at last
+even threaten them in Canada."  Resolved to leave nothing undone
+to attract attention to her cause, she wrote letters and ordered
+copies of her novel sent to men of prominence who had been known
+for their anti-slavery sympathies,--to Prince Albert, Macaulay,
+Charles Dickens, Charles Kingsley, and Lord Carlisle.  Then she
+waited for the result. 
+ 
+She had not long to wait.  The success of the book was immediate. 
+Three thousand copies were sold the first day, within a few days
+ten thousand copies had gone, on the 1st of April a second edition
+went to press, and thereafter eight presses running day and night
+were barely able to keep pace with the demand for it.  Within a
+year three hundred thousand copies were sold.  No work of fiction
+ever spread more quickly throughout the reading community or
+awakened a greater amount of public feeling.  It was read by
+everybody, learned and unlearned, high and low, for it was an
+appeal to universal human sympathy, and the kindling of this
+spread the book like wildfire.  At first it seemed to go by
+acclamation.  But this was not altogether owing to sympathy with
+the theme.  I believe that it was its power as a novel that
+carried it largely.  The community was generally apathetic when it
+was not hostile to any real effort to be rid of slavery.  This
+presently appeared.  At first there were few dissenting voices
+from the chorus of praise.  But when the effect of the book began
+to be evident it met with an opposition fiercer and more personal
+than the great wave of affectionate thankfulness which greeted it
+at first.  The South and the defenders and apologists of slavery
+everywhere were up in arms.  It was denounced in pulpit and in
+press, and some of the severest things were said of it at the
+North.  The leading religious newspaper of the country, published
+in New York, declared that it was "anti-Christian." 
+ 
+Mrs. Stowe was twice astonished: first by its extraordinary sale,
+and second by the quarter from which the assault on it came.  She
+herself says that her expectations were strikingly different from
+the facts.  "She had painted slaveholders as amiable, generous,
+and just.  She had shown examples among them of the noblest and
+most beautiful traits of character; had admitted fully their
+temptations, their perplexities, and their difficulties, so that a
+friend of hers who had many relatives in the South wrote to her:
+'Your book is going to be the great pacificator; it will unite
+both North and South.'  Her expectation was that the professed
+abolitionists would denounce it as altogether too mild in its
+dealings with slaveholders.  To her astonishment, it was the
+extreme abolitionists who received, and the entire South who rose
+up against it." 
+ 
+There is something almost amusing in Mrs. Stowe's honest
+expectation that the deadliest blow the system ever suffered
+should have been received thankfully by those whose traditions,
+education, and interests were all bound up in it.  And yet from
+her point of view it was not altogether unreasonable.  Her
+blackest villain and most loathsome agent of the system, Legree,
+was a native of Vermont.  All her wrath falls upon the slave- 
+traders, the auctioneers, the public whippers, and the overseers,
+and all these persons and classes were detested by the Southerners
+to the point of loathing, and were social outcasts.  The slave- 
+traders and the overseers were tolerated as perhaps necessary in
+the system, but they were never admitted into respectable society. 
+This feeling Mrs. Stowe regarded as a condemnation of the system. 
+ 
+Pecuniary reward was the last thing that Mrs. Stowe expected for
+her disinterested labor, but it suits the world's notion of the
+fitness of things that this was not altogether wanting.  For the
+millions of copies of Uncle Tom scattered over the world the
+author could expect nothing, but in her own country her copyright
+yielded her a moderate return that lifted her out of poverty and
+enabled her to pursue her philanthropic and literary career.  Four
+months after the publication of the book Professor Stowe was in
+the publisher's office, and Mr. Jewett asked him how much he
+expected to receive.  "I hope," said Professor Stowe, with a
+whimsical smile, "that it will be enough to buy my wife a silk
+dress."  The publisher handed him a check for ten thousand
+dollars. 
+ 
+Before Mrs. Stowe had a response to the letters accompanying the
+books privately sent to England, the novel was getting known
+there.  Its career in Great Britain paralleled its success in
+America.  In April a copy reached London in the hands of a
+gentleman who had taken it on the steamer to read.  He gave it to
+Mr. Henry Vizetelly, who submitted it to Mr. David Bogue, a man
+known for his shrewdness and enterprise.  He took a night to
+consider it, and then declined it, although it was offered to him
+for five pounds.  A Mr. Gilpin also declined it.  It was then
+submitted to Mr. Salisbury, a printer.  This taster for the public
+sat up with the book till four o'clock in the morning, alternately
+weeping and laughing.  Fearing, however, that this result was due
+to his own weakness, he woke up his wife, whom he describes as a
+rather strong-minded woman, and finding that the story kept her
+awake and made her also laugh and cry, he thought it might safely
+be printed.  It seems, therefore, that Mr. Vizetelly ventured to
+risk five pounds, and the volume was brought out through the
+nominal agency of Clarke & Company.  In the first week an edition
+of seven thousand was worked off.  It made no great stir until the
+middle of June, but during July it sold at the rate of one
+thousand a week.  By the 20th of August the demand for it was
+overwhelming.  The printing firm was then employing four hundred
+people in getting it out, and seventeen printing-machines, besides
+hand-presses.  Already one hundred and fifty thousand copies were
+sold.  Mr. Vizetelly disposed of his interest, and a new printing
+firm began to issue monster editions.  About this time the
+publishers awoke to the fact that any one was at liberty to
+reprint the book, and the era of cheap literature was initiated,
+founded on American reprints which cost the publisher no royalty. 
+A shilling edition followed the one-and-sixpence, and then one
+complete for sixpence.  As to the total sale, Mr. Sampson Low
+reports: "From April to December, 1852, twelve different editions
+(not reissues) were published, and within the twelve months of its
+first appearance eighteen different London publishing houses were
+engaged in supplying the great demand that had set in, the total
+number of editions being forty, varying from fine illustrated
+editions at 15s., 10s., and 7s. 6d. to the cheap popular editions
+of 1s. 9d. and 6d.  After carefully analyzing these editions and
+weighing probabilities with ascertained facts, I am able pretty
+confidently to say that the aggregate number of copies circulated
+in Great Britain and the colonies exceeds one and a half
+millions."  Later, abridgments were published. 
+ 
+Almost simultaneously with this furor in England the book made its
+way on the Continent.  Several translations appeared in Germany
+and France, and for the authorized French edition Mrs. Stowe wrote
+a new preface, which served thereafter for most of the European
+editions.  I find no record of the order of the translations of
+the book into foreign languages, but those into some of the
+Oriental tongues did not appear till several years after the great
+excitement.  The ascertained translations are into twenty-three
+tongues, namely: Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch,
+Finnish, Flemish, French, German, Hungarian, Illyrian, Italian,
+Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, modern Greek, Russian, Servian,
+Siamese, Spanish, Swedish, Wallachian, and Welsh.  Into some of
+these languages several translations were made.  In 1878 the
+British Museum contained thirty-five editions of the original
+text, and eight editions of abridgments or adaptations. 
+ 
+The story was dramatized in the United States in August, 1852,
+without the consent or knowledge of the author, and was played
+most successfully in the leading cities, and subsequently was
+acted in every capital in Europe.  Mrs. Stowe had neglected to
+secure the dramatic rights, and she derived no benefit from the
+great popularity of a drama which still holds the stage.  From the
+phenomenal sale of a book which was literally read by the whole
+world, the author received only the ten per cent on the American
+editions, and by the laws of her own country her copyright expired
+before her death. 
+ 
+ 
+The narrative of the rise and fortunes of this book would be
+incomplete without some reference to the response that the author
+received from England and the Continent, and of her triumphant
+progress through the British Isles.  Her letters accompanying the
+special copies were almost immediately replied to, generally in
+terms of enthusiastic and fervent thankfulness for the book, and
+before midsummer her mail contained letters from all classes of
+English society.  In some of them appeared a curious evidence of
+the English sensitiveness to criticism.  Lord Carlisle and Sir
+Arthur Helps supplemented their admiration by a protest against
+the remark in the mouth of one of the characters that "slaves are
+better off than a large class of the population of England."  This
+occurred in the defense of the institution by St. Clare, but it
+was treated by the British correspondents as the opinion of Mrs.
+Stowe.  The charge was disposed of in Mrs. Stowe's reply: "The
+remark on that subject occurs in the dramatic part of the book, in
+the mouth of an intelligent Southerner.  As a fair-minded person,
+bound to state for both sides all that could be said, in the
+person of St. Clare, the best that could be said on that point,
+and what I know IS in fact constantly reiterated, namely, that the
+laboring class of the South are in many respects, as to physical
+comfort, in a better condition than the poor in England.  This is
+the slaveholder's stereo-typed apology; a defense it cannot be,
+unless two wrongs make one right." 
+ 
+In April, 1853, Mr. and Mrs. Stowe and the latter's brother,
+Charles Beecher, sailed for Europe.  Her reception there was like
+a royal progress.  She was met everywhere by deputations and
+addresses, and the enthusiasm her presence called forth was
+thoroughly democratic, extending from the highest in rank to the
+lowest.  At Edinburgh there was presented to her a national penny
+offering, consisting of a thousand golden sovereigns on a
+magnificent silver salver, an unsolicited contribution in small
+sums by the people. 
+ 
+At a reception in Stafford House, London, the Duchess of
+Sutherland presented her with a massive gold bracelet, which has
+an interesting history.  It is made of ten oval links in imitation
+of slave fetters.  On two of the links were the inscriptions
+"March 25, 1807," the date of the abolition of the slave-trade,
+and "August 1, 1838," the date of the abolition of slavery in all
+British territory.  The third inscription is "562,848--March 19,
+1853," the date of the address of the women of England to the
+women of America on slavery, and the number of the women who
+signed.  It was Mrs. Stowe's privilege to add to these
+inscriptions the following: "Emancipation D. C. Apl. 16, '62;"
+"President's Proclamation Jan. 1, '63;" "Maryland free Oct. 13,
+'64;" "Missouri free Jan. 11, '65;" and on the clasp link,
+"Constitution amended by Congress Jan. 31, '65.  Constitutional
+Amendment ratified."  Two of the links are vacant.  What will the
+progress of civilization in America offer for the links nine and
+ten? 
+ 
+One of the most remarkable documents which resulted from Uncle Tom
+was an address from the women of England to the women of America,
+acknowledging the complicity in slavery of England, but praying
+aid in removing from the world "our common crimes and common
+dishonor," which was presented to Mrs. Stowe in 1853.  It was the
+result of a meeting at Stafford House, and the address, composed
+by Lord Shaftesbury, was put into the hands of canvassers in
+England and on the Continent, and as far as Jerusalem.  The
+signatures of 562,848 women were obtained, with their occupations
+and residences, from the nobility on the steps of the throne down
+to maids in the kitchen.  The address is handsomely engrossed on
+vellum.  The names are contained in twenty-six massive volumes,
+each fourteen inches high by nine in breadth and three inches
+thick, inclosed in an oak case.  It is believed that this is the
+most numerously signed address in existence.  The value of the
+address, with so many names collected in haphazard fashion, was
+much questioned, but its use was apparent in the height of the
+civil war, when Mrs. Stowe replied to it in one of the most
+vigorous and noble appeals that ever came from her pen.  This
+powerful reply made a profound impression in England. 
+ 
+This is in brief the story of the book.  It is still read, and
+read the world over, with tears and with laughter; it is still
+played to excited audiences.  Is it a great novel, or was it only
+an event of an era of agitation and passion?  Has it the real
+dramatic quality--the poet's visualizing of human life--that makes
+works of fiction, of imagination, live?  Till recently, I had not
+read the book since 1852.  I feared to renew acquaintance with it
+lest I should find only the shell of an exploded cartridge.  I
+took it up at the beginning of a three-hours' railway journey.  To
+my surprise the journey did not seem to last half an hour, and
+half the time I could not keep back the tears from my eyes.  A
+London critic, full of sympathy with Mrs. Stowe and her work,
+recently said, "Yet she was not an artist, she was not a great
+woman."  What is greatness?  What is art?  In 1862 probably no one
+who knew General Grant would have called him a great man.  But he
+took Vicksburg.  This woman did something with her pen,--on the
+whole, the most remarkable and effective book in her generation. 
+How did she do it?  Without art?  George Sand said, "In matters of
+art there is but one rule, to paint and to move.  And where shall
+we find conditions more complete, types more vivid, situations
+more touching, more original, than in Uncle Tom?"  If there is not
+room in our art for such a book, I think we shall have to stretch
+our art a little.  "Women, too, are here judged and painted with a
+master hand."  This subtle critic, in her overpoweringly tender
+and enthusiastic review, had already inquired about the capacity
+of this writer.  "Mrs. Stowe is all instinct; it is the very
+reason that she appears to some not to have talent.  Has she not
+talent?  What is talent?  Nothing, doubtless, compared to genius;
+but has she genius?  I cannot say that she has talent as one
+understands it in the world of letters, but she has genius as
+humanity feels the need of genius,--the genius of goodness, not
+that of the man of letters, but of the saint."  It is admitted
+that Mrs. Stowe was not a woman of letters in the common
+acceptation of that term, and it is plain that in the French
+tribunal, where form is of the substance of the achievement, and
+which reluctantly overlooked the crudeness of Walter Scott, in
+France where the best English novel seems a violation of
+established canons, Uncle Tom would seem to belong where some
+modern critics place it, with works of the heart, and not of the
+head.  The reviewer is, however, candid: "For a long time we have
+striven in France against the prolix explanations of Walter Scott. 
+We have cried out against those of Balzac, but on consideration
+have perceived that the painter of manners and character has never
+done too much, that every stroke of the pencil was needed for the
+general effect.  Let us learn then to appreciate all kinds of
+treatment, where the effect is good, and where they bear the seal
+of a master hand." 
+ 
+It must be admitted to the art critic that the book is defective
+according to the rules of the modern French romance; that Mrs.
+Stowe was possessed by her subject, and let her fervid interest in
+it be felt; that she had a definite purpose.  That purpose was to
+quicken the sense of responsibility of the North by showing the
+real character of slavery, and to touch the South by showing that
+the inevitable wrong of it lay in the system rather than in those
+involved in it.  Abundant material was in her hands, and the
+author burned to make it serviceable.  What should she do?  She
+might have done what she did afterwards in The Key, presented to
+the public a mass of statistics, of legal documents.  The evidence
+would have been unanswerable, but the jury might not have been
+moved by it; they would have balanced it by considerations of
+political and commercial expediency.  I presume that Mrs. Stowe
+made no calculation of this kind.  She felt her course, and went
+on in it.  What would an artist have done, animated by her purpose
+and with her material?  He would have done what Cervantes did,
+what Tourgenieff did, what Mrs. Stowe did.  He would have
+dramatized his facts in living personalities, in effective scenes,
+in vivid pictures of life.  Mrs. Stowe exhibited the system of
+slavery by a succession of dramatized pictures, not always
+artistically welded together, but always effective as an
+exhibition of the system.  Cervantes also showed a fading feudal
+romantic condition by a series of amusing and pathetic adventures,
+grouped rather loosely about a singularly fascinating figure. 
+ 
+Tourgenieff, a more consummate artist, in his hunting scenes
+exhibited the effect of serfdom upon society, in a series of
+scenes with no necessary central figure, without comment, and with
+absolute concealment of any motive.  I believe the three writers
+followed their instincts, without an analytic argument as to the
+method, as the great painter follows his when he puts an idea upon
+canvas.  He may invent a theory about it afterwards; if he does
+not, some one else will invent it for him.  There are degrees of
+art.  One painter will put in unnecessary accessories, another
+will exhibit his sympathy too openly, the technique or the
+composition of another can be criticised.  But the question is, is
+the picture great and effective? 
+ 
+Mrs. Stowe had not Tourgenieff's artistic calmness.  Her mind was
+fused into a white heat with her message.  Yet, how did she begin
+her story?  Like an artist, by a highly dramatized scene, in which
+the actors, by a few strokes of the pen, appear as distinct and
+unmistakable personalities, marked by individual peculiarities of
+manner, speech, motive, character, living persons in natural
+attitudes.  The reader becomes interested in a shrewd study of
+human nature, of a section of life, with its various refinement,
+coarseness, fastidiousness and vulgarity, its humor and pathos. 
+As he goes on he discovers that every character has been perfectly
+visualized, accurately limned from the first; that a type has been
+created which remains consistent, which is never deflected from
+its integrity by any exigencies of plot.  This clear conception of
+character (not of earmarks and peculiarities adopted as labels),
+and faithful adhesion to it in all vicissitudes, is one of the
+rarest and highest attributes of genius.  All the chief characters
+in the book follow this line of absolutely consistent development,
+from Uncle Tom and Legree down to the most aggravating and
+contemptible of all, Marie St. Clare.  The selfish and hysterical
+woman has never been so faithfully depicted by any other author. 
+ 
+Distinguished as the novel is by its character-drawing and its
+pathos, I doubt if it would have captivated the world without its
+humor.  This is of the old-fashioned kind, the large humor of
+Scott, and again of Cervantes, not verbal pleasantry, not the
+felicities of Lamb, but the humor of character in action, of
+situations elaborated with great freedom, and with what may be
+called a hilarious conception.  This quality is never wanting in
+the book, either for the reader's entertainment by the way, or to
+heighten the pathos of the narrative by contrast.  The
+introduction of Topsy into the New Orleans household saves us in
+the dangerous approach to melodrama in the religious passages
+between Tom and St. Clare.  Considering the opportunities of the
+subject, the book has very little melodrama; one is apt to hear
+low music on the entrance of little Eva, but we are convinced of
+the wholesome sanity of the sweet child.  And it is to be remarked
+that some of the most exciting episodes, such as that of Eliza
+crossing the Ohio River on the floating ice (of which Mr. Ruskin
+did not approve), are based upon authentic occurrences.  The want
+of unity in construction of which the critics complain is
+partially explained by the necessity of exhibiting the effect of
+slavery in its entirety.  The parallel plots, one running to
+Louisiana and the other to Canada, are tied together by this
+consideration, and not by any real necessity to each other. 
+ 
+There is no doubt that Mrs. Stowe was wholly possessed by her
+theme, rapt away like a prophet in a vision, and that, in her
+feeling at the time, it was written through her quite as much as
+by her.  This idea grew upon her mind in the retrospective light
+of the tremendous stir the story made in the world, so that in her
+later years she came to regard herself as a providential
+instrument, and frankly to declare that she did not write the
+book; "God wrote it."  In her own account, when she reached the
+death of Uncle Tom, "the whole vital force left her."  The
+inspiration there left her, and the end of the story, the weaving
+together of all the loose ends of the plot, in the joining
+together almost by miracle the long separated, and the discovery
+of the relationships, is the conscious invention of the novelist. 
+ 
+It would be perhaps going beyond the province of the critic to
+remark upon what the author considered the central power of the
+story, and its power to move the world, the faith of Uncle Tom in
+the Bible.  This appeal to the emotion of millions of readers
+cannot, however, be overlooked.  Many regard the book as effective
+in regions remote from our perplexities by reason of this grace. 
+When the work was translated into Siamese, the perusal of it by
+one of the ladies of the court induced her to liberate all her
+slaves, men, women, and children, one hundred and thirty in all. 
+"Hidden Perfume," for that was the English equivalent of her name,
+said she was wishful to be good like Harriet Beecher Stowe.  And
+as to the standpoint of Uncle Tom and the Bible, nothing more
+significant can be cited than this passage from one of the latest
+writings of Heinrich Heine:-- 
+ 
+"The reawakening of my religious feelings I owe to that holy book
+the Bible.  Astonishing that after I have whirled about all my
+life over all the dance-floors of philosophy, and yielded myself
+to all the orgies of the intellect, and paid my addresses to all
+possible systems, without satisfaction like Messalina after a
+licentious night, I now find myself on the same standpoint where
+poor Uncle Tom stands,--on that of the Bible!  I kneel down by my
+black brother in the same prayer!  What a humiliation!  With all
+my science I have come no further than the poor ignorant negro who
+has scarce learned to spell.  Poor Tom, indeed, seems to have seen
+deeper things in the holy book than I. . . .  Tom, perhaps,
+understands them better than I, because more flogging occurs in
+them; that is to say, those ceaseless blows of the whip which have
+aesthetically disgusted me in reading the Gospels and the Acts. 
+But a poor negro slave reads with his back, and understands better
+than we do.  But I, who used to make citations from Homer, now
+begin to quote the Bible as Uncle Tom does." 
+ 
+The one indispensable requisite of a great work of imaginative
+fiction is its universality, its conception and construction so
+that it will appeal to universal human nature in all races and
+situations and climates.  Uncle Tom's Cabin does that. 
+Considering certain artistic deficiencies, which the French
+writers perceived, we might say that it was the timeliness of its
+theme that gave it currency in England and America.  But that
+argument falls before the world-wide interest in it as a mere
+story, in so many languages, by races unaffected by our own
+relation to slavery. 
+ 
+It was the opinion of James Russell Lowell that the anti-slavery
+element in Uncle Tom and Dred stood in the way of a full
+appreciation, at least in her own country, of the remarkable
+genius of Mrs. Stowe.  Writing in 1859, he said, "From my habits
+and the tendency of my studies I cannot help looking at things
+purely from an aesthetic point of view, and what I valued in Uncle
+Tom was the genius, and not the moral."  This had been his
+impression when he read the book in Paris, long after the whirl of
+excitement produced by its publication had subsided, and far
+removed by distance from local influences.  Subsequently, in a
+review, he wrote, "We felt then, and we believe now, that the
+secret of Mrs. Stowe's power lay in that same genius by which the
+great successes in creative literature have always been achieved,--
+the genius that instinctively goes to the organic elements of
+human nature, whether under a white skin or a black, and which
+disregards as trivial the conventions and fictitious notions which
+make so large a part both of our thinking and feeling. . . .  The
+creative faculty of Mrs. Stowe, like that of Cervantes in Don
+Quixote and of Fielding in Joseph Andrews, overpowered the narrow
+specialty of her design, and expanded a local and temporary theme
+with the cosmopolitanism of genius." 
+ 
+A half-century is not much in the life of a people; it is in time
+an inadequate test of the staying power of a book.  Nothing is
+more futile than prophecy on contemporary literary work.  It is
+safe, however, to say that Uncle Tom's Cabin has the fundamental
+qualities, the sure insight into human nature, and the fidelity to
+the facts of its own time which have from age to age preserved
+works of genius. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+STRIVINGS OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE 
+by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois 
+ 
+ 
+Berween me and the other world there is ever an unasked question:
+unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through
+the difficulty of rightly framing it.  All, nevertheless, flutter
+round it.  They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me
+curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying
+directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an
+excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville;
+or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil?  At these
+I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as
+the occasion may require.  To the real question, How does it feel
+to be a problem? I answer seldom a word. 
+ 
+And yet, being a problem is a strange experience,--peculiar even
+for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood
+and in Europe.  It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that
+the revelation first bursts upon one, all in a day, as it were.  I
+remember well when the shadow swept across me.  I was a little
+thing, away up in the hills of New England, where the dark
+Housatonic winds between Hoosac and Taghanic to the sea.  In a wee
+wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys' and girls'
+heads to buy gorgeous visiting-cards--ten cents a package--and
+exchange.  The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer,
+refused my card,--refused it peremptorily, with a glance.  Then it
+dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from
+the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but
+shut out from their world by a vast veil.  I had thereafter no
+desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond
+it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky
+and great wandering shadows.  That sky was bluest when I could
+beat my mates at examination-time, or beat them at a foot-race, or
+even beat their stringy heads.  Alas, with the years all this fine
+contempt began to fade; for the world I longed for, and all its
+dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine.  But they should
+not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them. 
+Just how I would do it I could never decide: by reading law, by
+healing the sick, by telling the wonderful tales that swam in my
+head,--some way.  With other black boys the strife was not so
+fiercely sunny: their youth shrunk into tasteless sycophancy, or
+into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking
+distrust of everything white; or wasted itself in a bitter cry. 
+Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house? 
+The "shades of the prison-house" closed round about us all: walls
+strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall,
+and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in
+resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or
+steadily, half hopelessly watch the streak of blue above. 
+ 
+After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and
+Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil,
+and gifted with second-sight in this American world,--a world
+which yields him no self-consciousness, but only lets him see
+himself through the revelation of the other world.  It is a
+peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of
+always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of
+measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in
+amused contempt and pity.  One ever feels his two-ness,--an
+American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled
+strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged
+strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.  The history of
+the American Negro is the history of this strife,--this longing to
+attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a
+better and truer self.  In this merging he wishes neither of the
+older selves to be lost.  He does not wish to Africanize America,
+for America has too much to teach the world and Africa; he does
+not wish to bleach his Negro blood in a flood of white
+Americanism, for he believes--foolishly, perhaps, but fervently-- 
+that Negro blood has yet a message for the world.  He simply
+wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an
+American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows,
+without losing the opportunity of self-development. 
+ 
+This is the end of his striving: to be a co-worker in the kingdom
+of culture, to escape both death and isolation, and to husband and
+use his best powers.  These powers, of body and of mind, have in
+the past been so wasted and dispersed as to lose all
+effectiveness, and to seem like absence of all power, like
+weakness.  The double-aimed struggle of the black artisan, on the
+one hand to escape white contempt for a nation of mere hewers of
+wood and drawers of water, and on the other hand to plough and
+nail and dig for a poverty-stricken horde, could only result in
+making him a poor craftsman, for he had but half a heart in either
+cause.  By the poverty and ignorance of his people the Negro
+lawyer or doctor was pushed toward quackery and demagogism, and by
+the criticism of the other world toward an elaborate preparation
+that overfitted him for his lowly tasks.  The would-be black
+savant was confronted by the paradox that the knowledge his people
+needed was a twice-told tale to his white neighbors, while the
+knowledge which would teach the white world was Greek to his own
+flesh and blood.  The innate love of harmony and beauty that set
+the ruder souls of his people a-dancing, a-singing, and a-laughing
+raised but confusion and doubt in the soul of the black artist;
+for the beauty revealed to him was the soul-beauty of a race which
+his larger audience despised, and he could not articulate the
+message of another people. 
+ 
+This waste of double aims, this seeking to satisfy two
+unreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and
+faith and deeds of eight thousand thousand people, has sent them
+often wooing false gods and invoking false means of salvation, and
+has even at times seemed destined to make them ashamed of
+themselves.  In the days of bondage they thought to see in one
+divine event the end of all doubt and disappointment; eighteenth-
+century Rousseauism never worshiped freedom with half the
+unquestioning faith that the American Negro did for two centuries. 
+To him slavery was, indeed, the sum of all villainies, the cause
+of all sorrow, the root of all prejudice; emancipation was the key
+to a promised land of sweeter beauty than ever stretched before
+the eyes of wearied Israelites.  In his songs and exhortations
+swelled one refrain, liberty; in his tears and curses the god he
+implored had freedom in his right hand.  At last it came,-- 
+suddenly, fearfully, like a dream.  With one wild carnival of
+blood and passion came the message in his own plaintive cadences:--
+ 
+ 
+ 
+         "Shout, O children! 
+            Shout, you're free! 
+          The Lord has bought your liberty!" 
+ 
+ 
+Years have passed away, ten, twenty, thirty.  Thirty years of
+national life, thirty years of renewal and development, and yet
+the swarthy ghost of Banquo sits in its old place at the national
+feast.  In vain does the nation cry to its vastest problem,-- 
+ 
+"Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves  Shall never
+tremble!" 
+ 
+The freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land. 
+Whatever of lesser good may have come in these years of change,
+the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people,-- 
+a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal
+was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a lowly folk. 
+ 
+The first decade was merely a prolongation of the vain search for
+freedom, the boom that seemed ever barely to elude their grasp,-- 
+like a tantalizing will-o'-the-wisp, maddening and misleading the
+headless host.  The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Kuklux
+Klan, the lies of carpet-baggers, the disorganization of industry,
+and the contradictory advice of friends and foes left the
+bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for
+freedom.  As the decade closed, however, he began to grasp a new
+idea.  The ideal of liberty demanded for its attainment powerful
+means, and these the Fifteenth Amendment gave him.  The ballot,
+which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he
+now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the
+liberty with which war had partially endowed him.  And why not? 
+Had not votes made war and emancipated millions?  Had not votes
+enfranchised the freedmen?  Was anything impossible to a power
+that had done all this?  A million black men started with renewed
+zeal to vote themselves into the kingdom.  The decade fled away,-- 
+a decade containing, to the freedman's mind, nothing but
+suppressed votes, stuffed ballot-boxes, and election outrages that
+nullified his vaunted right of suffrage.  And yet that decade from
+1875 to 1885 held another powerful movement, the rise of another
+ideal to guide the unguided, another pillar of fire by night after
+a clouded day.  It was the ideal of "book-learning;" the
+curiosity, born of compulsory ignorance, to know and test the
+power of the cabalistic letters of the white man, the longing to
+know.  Mission and night schools began in the smoke of battle, ran
+the gauntlet of reconstruction, and at last developed into
+permanent foundations.  Here at last seemed to have been
+discovered the mountain path to Canaan; longer than the highway of
+emancipation and law, steep and rugged, but straight, leading to
+heights high enough to overlook life. 
+ 
+Up the new path the advance guard toiled, slowly, heavily,
+doggedly; only those who have watched and guided the faltering
+feet, the misty minds, the dull understandings of the dark pupils
+of these schools know how faithfully, how piteously, this people
+strove to learn.  It was weary work.  The cold statistician wrote
+down the inches of progress here and there, noted also where here
+and there a foot had slipped or some one had fallen.  To the tired
+climbers, the horizon was ever dark, the mists were often cold,
+the Canaan was always dim and far away.  If, however, the vistas
+disclosed as yet no goal, no resting-place, little but flattery
+and criticism, the journey at least gave leisure for reflection
+and self-examination; it changed the child of emancipation to the
+youth with dawning self-consciousness, self-realization, self- 
+respect.  In those sombre forests of his striving his own soul
+rose before him, and he saw himself,--darkly as through a veil;
+and yet he saw in himself some faint revelation of his power, of
+his mission.  He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his
+place in the world, he must be himself, and not another.  For the
+first time he sought to analyze the burden he bore upon his back,
+that dead-weight of social degradation partially masked behind a
+half-named Negro problem.  He felt his poverty; without a cent,
+without a home, without land, tools, or savings, he had entered
+into competition with rich, landed, skilled neighbors.  To be a
+poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is
+the very bottom of hardships.  He felt the weight of his
+ignorance,--not simply of letters, but of life, of business, of
+the humanities; the accumulated sloth and shirking and awkwardness
+of decades and centuries shackled his hands and feet.  Nor was his
+burden all poverty and ignorance.  The red stain of bastardy,
+which two centuries of systematic legal defilement of Negro women
+had stamped upon his race, meant not only the loss of ancient
+African chastity, but also the hereditary weight of a mass of
+filth from white whoremongers and adulterers, threatening almost
+the obliteration of the Negro home. 
+ 
+A people thus handicapped ought not to be asked to race with the
+world, but rather allowed to give all its time and thought to its
+own social problems.  But alas! while sociologists gleefully count
+his bastards and his prostitutes, the very soul of the toiling,
+sweating black man is darkened by the shadow of a vast despair. 
+Men call the shadow prejudice, and learnedly explain it as the
+natural defense of culture against barbarism, learning against
+ignorance, purity against crime, the "higher" against the "lower"
+races.  To which the Negro cries Amen! and swears that to so much
+of this strange prejudice as is founded on just homage to
+civilization, culture, righteousness, and progress he humbly bows
+and meekly does obeisance.  But before that nameless prejudice
+that leaps beyond all this he stands helpless, dismayed, and well- 
+nigh speechless; before that personal disrespect and mockery, the
+ridicule and systematic humiliation, the distortion of fact and
+wanton license of fancy, the cynical ignoring of the better and
+boisterous welcoming of the worse, the all-pervading desire to
+inculcate disdain for everything black, from Toussaint to the
+devil,--before this there rises a sickening despair that would
+disarm and discourage any nation save that black host to whom
+"discouragement" is an unwritten word. 
+ 
+They still press on, they still nurse the dogged hope,--not a hope
+of nauseating patronage, not a hope of reception into charmed
+social circles of stock-jobbers, pork-packers, and earl-hunters,
+but the hope of a higher synthesis of civilization and humanity, a
+true progress, with which the chorus 
+ 
+ 
+        "Peace, good will to men," 
+        "May make one music as before, 
+         But vaster." 
+ 
+ 
+Thus the second decade of the American Negro's freedom was a
+period of conflict, of inspiration and doubt, of faith and vain
+questionings, of Sturm and Drang.  The ideals of physical freedom,
+of political power, of school training, as separate all-
+sufficient panaceas for social ills, became in the third decade
+dim and overcast.  They were the vain dreams of credulous race
+childhood; not wrong, but incomplete and over-simple.  The
+training of the schools we need to-day more than ever,--the
+training of deft hands, quick eyes and ears, and the broader,
+deeper, higher culture of gifted minds.  The power of the ballot
+we need in sheer self-defense, and as a guarantee of good faith. 
+We may misuse it, but we can scarce do worse in this respect than
+our whilom masters.  Freedom, too, the long-sought, we still
+seek,--the freedom of life and limb, the freedom to work and
+think.  Work, culture, and liberty,--all these we need, not
+singly, but together; for to-day these ideals among the Negro
+people are gradually coalescing, and finding a higher meaning in
+the unifying ideal of race,--the ideal of fostering the traits and
+talents of the Negro, not in opposition to, but in conformity
+with, the greater ideals of the American republic, in order that
+some day, on American soil, two world races may give each to each
+those characteristics which both so sadly lack.  Already we come
+not altogether empty-handed: there is to-day no true American
+music but the sweet wild melodies of the Negro slave; the American
+fairy tales are Indian and African; we are the sole oasis of
+simple faith and reverence in a dusty desert of dollars and
+smartness.  Will America be poorer if she replace her brutal,
+dyspeptic blundering with the light-hearted but determined Negro
+humility; or her coarse, cruel wit with loving, jovial good humor;
+or her Annie Rooney with Steal Away? 
+ 
+Merely a stern concrete test of the underlying principles of the
+great republic is the Negro problem, and the spiritual striving of
+the freedmen's sons is the travail of souls whose burden is almost
+beyond the measure of their strength, but who bear it in the name
+of an historic race, in the name of this land of their fathers'
+fathers, and in the name of human opportunity. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE WIFE OF HIS YOUTH 
+by Charles W. Chesnutt 
+ 
+ 
+I. 
+ 
+Mr. Ryder was going to give a ball.  There were several reasons
+why this was an opportune time for such an event. 
+ 
+Mr. Ryder might aptly be called the dean of the Blue Veins.  The
+original Blue Veins were a little society of colored persons
+organized in a certain Northern city shortly after the war.  Its
+purpose was to establish and maintain correct social standards
+among a people whose social condition presented almost unlimited
+room  for improvement.  By accident, combined perhaps with some
+natural affinity, the society consisted of individuals who were,
+generally speaking, more white than black.  Some envious outsider
+made the suggestion that no one was eligible for membership who
+was not white enough to show blue veins.  The suggestion was
+readily adopted by those who were not of the favored few, and
+since that time the society, though possessing a longer and more
+pretentious name, had been known far and wide as the "Blue Vein
+Society," and its members as the "Blue Veins." 
+ 
+The Blue Veins did not allow that any such requirement existed for
+admission to their circle, but, on the contrary, declared that 
+character and culture were the only things considered; and that if
+most of their members were light-colored, it was because such
+persons, as a rule, had had better opportunities to qualify
+themselves for membership.  Opinions differed, too, as to the
+usefulness of the society.  There  were those who had been known
+to assail it violently as a glaring example of the very prejudice
+from which the colored race had suffered most; and later, when
+such critics had succeeded in getting on the inside, they had been
+heard to maintain with zeal and earnestness that the society was a
+life-boat, an anchor, a bulwark and a shield, a pillar of cloud by
+day and of fire by night, to guide their people through the social  
+wilderness. Another alleged prerequisite for Blue Vein membership
+was that of free birth; and while there was really no such
+requirement,  it is doubtless true that very few of the members
+would have been unable to meet it if there had been.  If there
+were one or two of the older members who had come up from the
+South and from slavery, their history presented enough romantic
+circumstances to rob their servile origin of its grosser aspects.   
+While there were no such tests of eligibility, it is true that the
+Blue Veins had their notions on these subjects, and that not all
+of them were equally liberal in regard to the things they
+collectively disclaimed.  Mr. Ryder was one of the most
+conservative.  Though he had not been among the founders of the
+society, but had come in some years later, his genius for social
+leadership was such that he had speedily become its recognized
+adviser and head, the custodian of its standards, and the
+preserver of its traditions.  He shaped its social policy, was
+active in providing for its entertainment, and when the interest
+fell off, as it sometimes did, he  fanned the embers until they
+burst again into a cheerful flame.     There were still other
+reasons for his popularity.  While he was not as white as some of
+the Blue Veins, his appearance was such as to confer distinction
+upon them.  His features were of a refined type, his hair was
+almost straight; he was always neatly dressed; his manners were
+irreproachable, and his morals above suspicion.  He had come to
+Groveland a young man, and obtaining employment in the office of a
+railroad company as messenger had in time worked himself up to the
+position of stationery clerk, having charge of the distribution of
+the office supplies for the whole company.  Although the lack of
+early training had hindered the orderly development of a naturally
+fine mind, it had not prevented him from doing a great deal of
+reading or from forming decidedly literary tastes.  Poetry was his
+passion.  He could repeat whole pages of the great English poets ;
+and if his pronunciation was sometimes faulty, his eye, his voice,
+his gestures, would respond to the changing sentiment with a
+precision that revealed a poetic soul, and disarm criticism.  He
+was economical, and had saved money; he owned and occupied a very
+comfortable house on a respectable street.  His residence was
+handsomely furnished, containing among other things a good
+library, especially rich in poetry, a piano, and some choice
+engravings.  He generally shared his house with some young couple,
+who looked after his wants and were company for him; for Mr. Ryder
+was a single man.  In the early days of his connection with the
+Blue Veins he had been regarded as quite a catch, and ladies and
+their mothers had manoeuvred with much ingenuity to capture him. 
+Not, however, until Mrs. Molly Dixon visited Groveland had any
+woman ever made him wish to change his condition to that of a
+married man. 
+ 
+Mrs. Dixon had come to Groveland from Washington in the spring,
+and before the summer was over she had won Mr. Ryder's heart.  She
+possessed many attractive qualities.  She was much younger than
+he; in  fact, he was old enough to have been her father, though no
+one knew exactly how old he was.  She was whiter than he, and
+better educated.  She had moved in the best colored society of the
+country, at Washington, and had taught in the schools of that
+city.  Such a superior person had been eagerly welcomed to the
+Blue Vein Society, and had taken a leading part in its activities. 
+Mr. Ryder had at first been attracted by her charms of person, for
+she was very good looking and not over twenty-five; then by her
+refined manners and by the vivacity of her wit.  Her husband had
+been a government clerk, and at his death had left a considerable
+life insurance.  She was visiting friends in Groveland, and,
+finding the town and the people to her liking, had prolonged her
+stay indefinitely.  She had not seemed displeased at Mr. Ryder's
+attentions, but on the contrary had given him every proper
+encouragement; indeed, a younger and less cautious man would long
+since have spoken.  But he had made up his mind, and had only to
+determine the time when he would ask her to be his wife.  He
+decided to give a ball in her honor, and at some time during the
+evening of the ball to offer her his heart and hand.  He had no
+special fears about the outcotme, but, with a little touch of
+romance, he wanted the surroundings to be in harmony with his own
+feelings when he should have received the answer he expected. 
+ 
+Mr. Ryder resolved that this ball should mark an epoch in the
+social history of Groveland.  He knew, of course,--no one could
+know better,--the entertainments that had taken place in past
+years, and what must be done to surpass them.  His ball must be
+worthy of the lady in whose honor it was to be given, and must, by
+the quality of its guests, set an example for the future.  He had
+observed of late a growing liberality, almost a laxity, in social
+matters, even among members of his own set, and had several times
+been forced to meet in a social way persons whose complexions and
+callings in life were hardly up to the standard which he
+considered proper for the society to maintain.  He had a theory of
+his own. 
+ 
+"I have no race prejudice," he would say, "but we people of mixed
+blood are ground between the upper and the nether millstone.  Our
+fate lies between absorption by the white race and extinction in
+the black.  The one doesn't want us yet, but may take us in time. 
+The other would welcome us, but it would be for us a backward
+step.  'With malice towards none, with charity for all,' we must
+do the best we can for ourselves and those who are to follow us. 
+Self-preservation is the first law of nature." 
+ 
+His ball would serve by its exclusiveness to counteract leveling
+tendencies, and his marriage with Mrs. Dixon would help to further
+the upward process of absorption he had been wishing and waiting
+for.    
+ 
+ 
+ 
+II. 
+ 
+ 
+The ball was to take place on Friday night.  The house had been
+put in order, the carpets covered with canvas, the halls and
+stairs decorated with palms and potted plants; and in the
+afternoon Mr. Ryder sat on his front porch, which the shade of a
+vine running up over a wire netting made a cool and pleasant
+lounging-place.  He expected to respond to the toast "The Ladies,"
+at the supper, and from a volume of Tennyson--his favorite poet
+--was fortifying himself with apt quotations.  The volume was
+open at A Dream of Fair Women.  His eyes fell on these lines, and
+he read them aloud to judge better of their effect:-- 
+ 
+"At length I saw a lady within call.    Stiller than chisell'd
+marble, standing there; A daughter of the gods, divinely tall,   
+And most divinely fair." 
+ 
+He marked the verse, and turning the page read the stanza
+beginning,-- 
+ 
+ 
+     "O sweet pale Margaret, 
+        O rare pale Margaret." 
+ 
+ 
+He weighed the passage a moment, and decided that it would not do. 
+Mrs. Dixon was the palest lady he expected at the ball, and she
+was of a rather ruddy complexion, and of lively disposition and
+buxom build.  So he ran over the leaves until his eye rested on
+the description of Queen Guinevere:-- 
+ 
+ 
+        "She seem'd a part of joyous Spring: 
+     A gown of grass-green silk she wore, 
+     Buckled with golden clasps before; 
+     A light-green tuft of plumes she bore 
+         Closed in a golden ring. 
+ 
+     .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 
+ 
+    "She look'd so lovely, as she sway'd 
+         The rein with dainty finger-tips, 
+     A man had given all other bliss, 
+     And all his worldly worth for this, 
+     To waste his whole heart in one kiss 
+         Upon her perfect lips." 
+ 
+ 
+As Mr. Ryder murmured these words audibly, with an appreciative
+thrill, he heard the latch of his gate click, and a light footfall
+sounding on the steps.  He turned his head, and saw a woman
+standing before the door. 
+ 
+She was a little woman, not five feet tall, and proportioned to
+her height.  Although she stood erect, and looked around her with
+very bright and restless eyes, she seemed quite old; for her face
+was crossed and recrossed with a hundred wrinkles, and around the
+edges of her bonnet could be seen protruding here and there a tuft
+of short gray wool.  She wore a blue calico gown of ancient cut, a
+little red shawl fastened around her shoulders with an old-
+fashioned brass brooch, and a large bonnet profusely ornamented
+with faded red and yellow artificial flowers.  And she was very
+black--so black that her toothless gums, revealed when she
+opened her mouth to speak, were not red, but blue.  She looked
+like a bit of the old plantation life, summoned up from the past
+by the wave of a magician's wand, as the poet's fancy had called
+into being the gracious shapes of which Mr. Ryder had just been
+reading. 
+ 
+He rose from his chair and came over to where she stood. 
+ 
+"Good-afternoon, madam," he said. 
+ 
+"Good-evenin', suh," she answered, ducking suddenly with a quaint
+curtsy.  Her voice was shrill and piping, but softened somewhat by
+age.  "Is dis yere whar Mistuh Ryduh lib, suh?" she asked, looking
+around her doubtfully, and glancing into the open windows, through
+which some of the preparations for the evening were visible. 
+ 
+"Yes," he replied, with an air of kindly patronage, unconsciously
+flattered by her manner, "I am Mr. Ryder.  Did you want to see
+me?" 
+ 
+"Yas, suh, ef I ain't 'sturbin' of you too much." 
+ 
+"Not at all.  Have a seat over here behind the vine, where it is
+cool.  What can I do for you?" 
+ 
+"'Scuse me, suh," she continued, when she had sat down on the edge
+of a chair, "'scuse me, suh, I's lookin' for my husban'.  I heerd
+you wuz a big man an' had libbed heah a long time, an' I 'lowed
+you wouldn't min' ef I'd come roun' an' ax you ef you'd eber heerd
+of a merlatter man by de name er Sam Taylor 'quirin' roun' in de
+chu'ches ermongs' de people fer his wife 'Liza Jane?" 
+ 
+Mr. Ryder seemed to think for a moment. 
+ 
+"There used to be many such cases right after the war," he said,
+"but it has been so long that I have forgotten them.  There are
+very few now.  But tell me your story, and it may refresh my
+memory." 
+ 
+She sat back farther in her chair so as to be more comfortable,
+and folded her withered hands in her lap. 
+ 
+"My name's 'Liza," she began, "'Liza Jane.  Wen I wuz young I
+us'ter b'long ter Marse Bob Smif, down in old Missourn.  I wuz
+bawn down dere.  W'en I wuz a gal I wuz married ter a man named
+Jim.  But Jim died, an' after dat I married a merlatter man named
+Sam Taylor.  Sam wuz free-bawn, but his mammy and daddy died, an'
+de w'ite folks 'prenticed him ter my marster fer ter work fer 'im
+'tel he wuz growed up.  Sam worked in de fiel', an' I wuz de cook. 
+One day Ma'y Ann, ole miss's maid, come rushin' out ter de
+kitchen, an' says she, ''Liza Jane, ole marse gwine sell yo' Sam
+down de ribber.' 
+ 
+"'Go way f'm yere,' says I; 'my husban's free!' 
+ 
+"'Don' make no diff'ence.  I heerd ole marse tell ole miss he wuz
+gwine take yo' Sam 'way wid 'im ter-morrow, fer he needed money,
+an' he knowed whar he could git a t'ousan' dollars fer Sam an' no
+questions axed.' 
+ 
+"W'en Sam come home f'm de fiel', dat night, I tole him 'bout ole
+marse gwine steal 'im, an' Sam run erway.  His time wuz mos' up,
+an' he swo' dat w'en he wuz twenty-one he would come back an' he'p
+me run erway, er else save up de money ter buy my freedom.  An' I
+know he'd 'a' done it, fer he thought a heap er me, Sam did.  But
+w'en he come back he didn' fin' me, fer I wuzn' dere.  Ole marse
+had heerd dat I warned Sam, so he had me whip' an' sol' down de
+ribber. 
+ 
+"Den de wah broke out, an' w'en it wuz ober de cullud folks wuz
+scattered.  I went back ter de ole home; but Sam wuzn' dere, an' I
+couldn' l'arn nuffin' 'bout 'im.  But I knowed he'd be'n dere to
+look fer me an' hadn' foun' me, an' had gone erway ter hunt fer
+me. 
+ 
+"I's be'n lookin' fer 'im eber sence," she added simply, as though
+twenty-five years were but a couple of weeks, "an' I knows he's
+be'n lookin' fer me.  Fer he sot a heap er sto' by me, Sam did,
+an' I know he's be'n huntin' fer me all dese years,--'less'n he's
+be'n sick er sump'n, so he couldn' work, er out'n his head, so he
+couldn' 'member his promise.  I went back down de ribber, fer I
+'lowed he'd gone down dere lookin' fer me.  I's be'n ter Noo
+Orleens, an' Atlanty, an' Charleston, an' Richmon'; an' w'en I'd
+be'n all ober de Souf I come ter de Norf.  Fer I knows I'll fin'
+'im some er dese days," she added softly, "er he'll fin' me, an'
+den we'll bofe be as happy in freedom as we wuz in de ole days
+befo' de wah."  A smile stole over her withered countenance as she
+paused a moment, and her bright eyes softened into a far-away
+look. 
+ 
+This was the substance of the old woman's story.  She had wandered
+a little here and there.  Mr. Ryder was looking at her curiously
+when she finished. 
+ 
+"How have you lived all these years?" he asked. 
+ 
+"Cookin', suh.  I's a good cook.  Does you know anybody w'at needs
+a good cook, suh?  I's stoppin' wid a cullud fam'ly roun' de
+corner yonder 'tel I kin fin' a place." 
+ 
+"Do you really expect to find your husband?  He may be dead long
+ago." 
+ 
+She shook her head emphatically.  "Oh no, he ain' dead.  De signs
+an' de tokens tells me.  I dremp three nights runnin' on'y dis
+las' week dat I foun' him." 
+ 
+"He may have married another woman.  Your slave marriage would not
+have prevented him, for you never lived with him after the war,
+and without that your marriage doesn't count." 
+ 
+"Wouldn' make no diff'ence wid Sam.  He wouldn' marry no yuther
+'ooman 'tel he foun' out 'bout me.  I knows it," she added. 
+"Sump'n's be'n tellin' me all dese years dat I's gwine fin' Sam
+'fo I dies." 
+ 
+"Perhaps he's outgrown you, and climbed up in the world where he
+wouldn't care to have you find him." 
+ 
+"No, indeed, suh," she replied, "Sam ain' dat kin' er man.  He wuz
+good ter me, Sam wuz, but he wuzn' much good ter nobody e'se, fer
+he wuz one er de triflin'es' han's on de plantation.  I 'spec's
+ter haf ter suppo't 'im w'en I fin' 'im, fer he nebber would work
+'less'n he had ter.  But den he wuz free, an' he didn' git no pay
+fer his work, an' I don' blame 'im much.  Mebbe he's done better
+sence he run erway, but I ain' 'spectin' much." 
+ 
+"You may have passed him on the street a hundred times during the
+twenty-five years, and not have known him; time works great
+changes." 
+ 
+She smiled incredulously.  "I'd know 'im 'mongs' a hund'ed men. 
+Fer dey wuzn' no yuther merlatter man like my man Sam, an' I
+couldn' be mistook.  I's toted his picture roun' wid me twenty- 
+five years." 
+ 
+"May I see it?" asked Mr. Ryder.  "It might help me to remember
+whether I have seen the original." 
+ 
+As she drew a small parcel from her bosom, he saw that it was
+fastened to a string that went around her neck.  Removing several
+wrappers, she brought to light an old-fashioned daguerreotype in a
+black case.  He looked long and intently at the portrait.  It was
+faded with time, but the features were still distinct, and it was
+easy to see what manner of man it had represented. 
+ 
+He closed the case, and with a slow movement handed it back to
+her. 
+ 
+"I don't know of any man in town who goes by that name," he said,
+"nor have I heard of any one making such inquiries.  But if you
+will leave me your address, I will give the matter some attention,
+and if I find out anything I will let you know." 
+ 
+She gave him the number of a house in the neighborhood, and went
+away, after thanking him warmly. 
+ 
+He wrote down the address on the flyleaf of the volume of
+Tennyson, and, when she had gone, rose to his feet and stood
+looking after her curiously.  As she walked down the street with
+mincing step, he saw several persons whom she passed turn and look
+back at her with a smile of kindly amusement.  When she had turned
+the corner, he went upstairs to his bedroom, and stood for a long
+time before the mirror of his dressing-case, gazing thoughtfully
+at the reflection of his own face.    
+ 
+ 
+ 
+III. 
+ 
+ 
+At eight o'clock the ballroom was a blaze of light and the guests
+had begun to assemble; for there was a literary programme and some
+routine business of the society to be gone through with before the
+dancing.  A black servant in evening dress waited at the door and
+directed the guests to the dressing-rooms. 
+ 
+The occasion was long memorable among the colored people of the
+city; not alone for the dress and display, but for the high
+average of intelligence and culture that distinguished the
+gathering as a whole.  There were a number of school-teachers,
+several young doctors, three or four lawyers, some professional
+singers, an editor, a lieutenant in the United States army
+spending his furlough in the city, and others in various polite
+callings; these were colored, though most of them would not have
+attracted even a casual glance because of any marked difference
+from white people.  Most of the ladies were in evening costume,
+and dress coats and dancing-pumps were the rule among the men.  A
+band of string music, stationed in an alcove behind a row of
+palms, played popular airs while the guests were gathering. 
+ 
+The dancing began at half past nine.  At eleven o'clock supper was
+served.  Mr. Ryder had left the ballroom some little time before
+the intermission, but reappeared at the supper-table.  The spread
+was worthy of the occasion, and the guests did full justice to it. 
+When the coffee had been served, the toastmaster, Mr. Solomon
+Sadler, rapped for order.  He made a brief introductory speech,
+complimenting host and guests, and then presented in their order
+the toasts of the evening.  They were responded to with a very
+fair display of after-dinner wit. 
+ 
+"The last toast," said the toast-master, when he reached the end
+of the list, "is one which must appeal to us all.  There is no one
+of us of the sterner sex who is not at some time dependent upon
+woman,--in infancy for protection, in manhood for companionship,
+in old age for care and comforting.  Our good host has been trying
+to live alone, but the fair faces I see around me to-night prove
+that he too is largely dependent upon the gentler sex for most
+that makes life worth living,--the society and love of friends,-- 
+and rumor is at fault if he does not soon yield entire subjection
+to one of them.  Mr. Ryder will now respond to the toast,--The
+Ladies." 
+ 
+There was a pensive look in Mr. Ryder's eyes as he took the floor
+and adjusted his eyeglasses.  He began by speaking of woman as the
+gift of Heaven to man, and after some general observations on the
+relations of the sexes he said: "But perhaps the quality which
+most distinguishes woman is her fidelity and devotion to those she
+loves.  History is full of examples, but has recorded none more
+striking than one which only to-day came under my notice." 
+ 
+He then related, simply but effectively, the story told by his
+visitor of the afternoon.  He told it in the same soft dialect,
+which came readily to his lips, while the company listened
+attentively and sympathetically.  For the story had awakened a
+responsive thrill in many hearts.  There were some present who had
+seen, and others who had heard their fathers and grandfathers
+tell, the wrongs and sufferings of this past generation, and all
+of them still felt, in their darker moments, the shadow hanging
+over them.  Mr. Ryder went on:-- 
+ 
+"Such devotion and such confidence are rare even among women. 
+There are many who would have searched a year, some who would have
+waited five years, a few who might have hoped ten years; but for
+twenty-five years this woman has retained her affection for and
+her faith in a man she has not seen or heard of in all that time. 
+ 
+"She came to me to-day in the hope that I might be able to help
+her find this long-lost husband.  And when she was gone I gave my
+fancy rein, and imagined a case I will put to you. 
+ 
+"Suppose that this husband, soon after his escape, had learned
+that his wife had been sold away, and that such inquiries as he
+could make brought no information of her whereabouts.  Suppose
+that he was young, and she much older than he; that he was light,
+and she was black; that their marriage was a slave marriage, and
+legally binding only if they chose to make it so after the war. 
+Suppose, too, that he made his way to the North, as some of us
+have done, and there, where he had larger opportunities, had
+improved them, and had in the course of all these years grown to
+be as different from the ignorant boy who ran away from fear of
+slavery as the day is from the night.  Suppose, even, that he had
+qualified himself, by industry, by thrift, and by study, to win
+the friendship and be considered worthy the society of such people
+as these I see around me to-night, gracing my board and filling my
+heart with gladness; for I am old enough to remember the day when
+such a gathering would not have been possible in this land. 
+Suppose, too, that, as the years went by, this man's memory of the
+past grew more and more indistinct, until at last it was rarely,
+except in his dreams, that any image of this bygone period rose
+before his mind.  And then suppose that accident should bring to
+his knowledge the fact that the wife of his youth, the wife he had
+left behind him,--not one who had walked by his side and kept pace
+with him in his upward struggle, but one upon whom advancing years
+and a laborious life had set their mark,--was alive and seeking
+him, but that he was absolutely safe from recognition or
+discovery, unless he chose to reveal himself.  My friends, what
+would the man do?  I will suppose that he was one who loved honor,
+and tried to deal justly with all men.  I will even carry the case
+further, and suppose that perhaps he had set his heart upon
+another, whom he had hoped to call his own.  What would he do, or
+rather what ought he to do, in such a crisis of a lifetime? 
+ 
+"It seemed to me that he might hesitate, and I imagined that I was
+an old friend, a near friend, and that he had come to me for
+advice; and I argued the case with him.  I tried to discuss it
+impartially.  After we had looked upon the matter from every point
+of view, I said to him, in words that we all know: 
+ 
+ 
+     'This above all: to thine own self be true, 
+      And it must follow, as the night the day, 
+      Thou canst not then be false to any man.' 
+ 
+ 
+Then, finally, I put the question to him, 'Shall you acknowledge
+her?' 
+ 
+"And now, ladies and gentlemen, friends and companions, I ask you,
+what should he have done?" 
+ 
+There was something in Mr. Ryder's voice that stirred the hearts
+of those who sat around him.  It suggested more than mere sympathy
+with an imaginary situation; it seemed rather in the nature of a
+personal appeal.  It was observed, too, that his look rested more
+especially upon Mrs. Dixon, with a mingled expression of
+renunciation and inquiry. 
+ 
+She had listened, with parted lips and streaming eyes.  She was
+the first to speak: "He should have acknowledged her." 
+ 
+"Yes," they all echoed, "he should have acknowledged her." 
+ 
+"My friends and companions," responded Mr. Ryder, "I thank you,
+one and all.  It is the answer I expected, for I knew your
+hearts." 
+ 
+He turned and walked toward the closed door of an adjoining room,
+while every eye followed him in wondering curiosity.  He came back
+in a moment, leading by the hand his visitor of the afternoon, who
+stood startled and trembling at the sudden plunge into this scene
+of brilliant gayety.  She was neatly dressed in gray, and wore the
+white cap of an elderly woman. 
+ 
+"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "this is the woman, and I am the
+man, whose story I have told you.  Permit me to introduce to you
+the wife of my youth." 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE BOUQUET 
+by Charles W. Chesnutt 
+ 
+ 
+Mary Myrover's friends were somewhat surprised when she began to
+teach a colored school.  Miss Myrover's friends are mentioned
+here, because nowhere more than in a Southern town is public
+opinion a force which cannot be lightly contravened.  Public
+opinion, however, did not oppose Miss Myrover's teaching colored
+children; in fact, all the colored public schools in town--and
+there were several--were taught by white teachers, and had been so
+taught since the state had undertaken to provide free public
+instruction for all children within its boundaries.  Previous to
+that time there had been a Freedman's Bureau school and a
+Presbyterian missionary school, but these had been withdrawn when
+the need for them became less pressing.  The colored people of the
+town had been for some time agitating their right to teach their
+own schools, but as yet the claim had not been conceded. 
+ 
+The reason Miss Myrover's course created some surprise was not,
+therefore, the fact that a Southern white woman should teach a
+colored school; it lay in the fact that up to this time no woman
+of just her quality had taken up such work.  Most of the teachers
+of colored schools were not of those who had constituted the
+aristocracy of the old regime; they might be said rather to
+represent the new order of things, in which labor was in time to
+become honorable, and men were, after a somewhat longer time, to
+depend, for their place in society, upon themselves rather than
+upon their ancestors.  But Mary Myrover belonged to one of the
+proudest of the old families.  Her ancestors had been people of
+distinction in Virginia before a collateral branch of the main
+stock had settled in North Carolina.  Before the war they had been
+able to live up to their pedigree.  But the war brought sad
+changes.  Miss Myrover's father--the Colonel Myrover who led a
+gallant but desperate charge at Vicksburg--had fallen on the
+battlefield, and his tomb in the white cemetery was a shrine for
+the family.  On the Confederate Memorial Day no other grave was so
+profusely decorated with flowers, and in the oration pronounced
+the name of Colonel Myrover was always used to illustrate the
+highest type of patriotic devotion and self-sacrifice.  Miss
+Myrover's brother, too, had fallen in the conflict; but his bones
+lay in some unknown trench, with those of a thousand others who
+had fallen on the same field.  Ay, more, her lover, who had hoped
+to come home in the full tide of victory and claim his bride as a
+reward for gallantry, had shared the fate of her father and
+brother.  When the war was over, the remnant of the family found
+itself involved in the common ruin,--more deeply involved, indeed,
+than some others; for Colonel Myrover had believed in the ultimate
+triumph of his cause, and had invested most of his wealth in
+Confederate bonds, which were now only so much waste paper. 
+ 
+There had been a little left.  Mrs. Myrover was thrifty, and had
+laid by a few hundred dollars, which she kept in the house to meet
+unforeseen contingencies.  There remained, too, their home, with
+an ample garden and a well-stocked orchard, besides a considerable
+tract of country land, partly cleared, but productive of very
+little revenue. 
+ 
+With their shrunken resources, Miss Myrover and her mother were
+able to hold up their heads without embarrassment for some years
+after the close of the war.  But when things were adjusted to the
+changed conditions, and the stream of life began to flow more
+vigorously in the new channels, they saw themselves in danger of
+dropping behind, unless in some way they could add to their meagre
+income.  Miss Myrover looked over the field of employment, never
+very wide for women in the South, and found it occupied.  The only
+available position she could be supposed prepared to fill, and
+which she could take without distinct loss of caste, was that of a
+teacher, and there was no vacancy except in one of the colored
+schools.  Even teaching was a doubtful experiment; it was not what
+she would have preferred, but it was the best that could be done. 
+ 
+"I don't like it, Mary," said her mother.  "It's a long step from
+owning such people to teaching them.  What do they need with
+education?  It will only make them unfit for work." 
+ 
+"They're free now, mother, and perhaps they'll work better if
+they're taught something.  Besides, it's only a business
+arrangement, and doesn't involve any closer contact than we have
+with our servants." 
+ 
+"Well, I should say not!" sniffed the old lady.  "Not one of them
+will ever dare to presume on your position to take any liberties
+with us.  I'll see to that." 
+ 
+Miss Myrover began her work as a teacher in the autumn, at the
+opening of the school year.  It was a novel experience at first. 
+Though there always had been negro servants in the house, and
+though on the streets colored people were more numerous than her
+own people, and though she was so familiar with their dialect that
+she might almost be said to speak it, barring certain
+characteristic grammatical inaccuracies, she had never been
+brought in personal contact with so many of them at once as when
+she confronted the fifty or sixty faces--of colors ranging from a
+white almost as clear as her own to the darkest livery of the sun--
+which were gathered in the schoolroom on the morning when she
+began her duties.  Some of the inherited prejudice of her caste,
+too, made itself felt, though she tried to repress any outward
+sign of it; and she could perceive that the children were not
+altogether responsive; they, likewise, were not entirely free from
+antagonism.  The work was unfamiliar to her.  She was not
+physically very strong, and at the close of the first day she went
+home with a splitting headache.  If she could have resigned then
+and there without causing comment or annoyance to others, she
+would have felt it a privilege to do so.  But a night's rest
+banished her headache and improved her spirits, and the next
+morning she went to her work with renewed vigor, fortified by the
+experience of the first day. 
+ 
+Miss Myrover's second day was more satisfactory.  She had some
+natural talent for organization, though she had never known it,
+and in the course of the day she got her classes formed and
+lessons under way.  In a week or two she began to classify her
+pupils in her own mind, as bright or stupid, mischievous or well
+behaved, lazy or industrious, as the case might be, and to
+regulate her discipline accordingly.  That she had come of a long
+line of ancestors who had exercised authority and mastership was
+perhaps not without its effect upon her character, and enabled her
+more readily to maintain good order in the school.  When she was
+fairly broken in she found the work rather to her liking, and
+derived much pleasure from such success as she achieved as a
+teacher. 
+ 
+It was natural that she should be more attracted to some of her
+pupils than to others.  Perhaps her favorite--or rather, the one
+she liked best, for she was too fair and just for conscious
+favoritism--was Sophy Tucker.  Just the ground for the teacher's
+liking for Sophy might not at first be apparent.  The girl was far
+from the whitest of Miss Myrover's pupils; in fact, she was one of
+the darker ones.  She was not the brightest in intellect, though
+she always tried to learn her lessons.  She was not the best
+dressed, for her mother was a poor widow, who went out washing and
+scrubbing for a living.  Perhaps the real tie between them was
+Sophy's intense devotion to the teacher.  It had manifested itself
+almost from the first day of the school, in the rapt look of
+admiration Miss Myrover always saw on the little black face turned
+toward her.  In it there was nothing of envy, nothing of regret;
+nothing but worship for the beautiful white lady--she was not
+especially handsome, but to Sophy her beauty was almost divine-- 
+who had come to teach her.  If Miss Myrover dropped a book, Sophy
+was the first to spring and pick it up; if she wished a chair
+moved, Sophy seemed to anticipate her wish; and so of all the
+numberless little services that can be rendered in a school-room. 
+ 
+Miss Myrover was fond of flowers, and liked to have them about
+her.  The children soon learned of this taste of hers, and kept
+the vases on her desk filled with blossoms during their season. 
+Sophy was perhaps the most active in providing them.  If she could
+not get garden flowers, she would make excursions to the woods in
+the early morning, and bring in great dew-laden bunches of bay, or
+jasmine, or some other fragrant forest flower which she knew the
+teacher loved. 
+ 
+"When I die, Sophy," Miss Myrover said to the child one day, "I
+want to be covered with roses.  And when they bury me, I'm sure I
+shall rest better if my grave is banked with flowers, and roses
+are planted at my head and at my feet." 
+ 
+Miss Myrover was at first amused at Sophy's devotion; but when she
+grew more accustomed to it, she found it rather to her liking.  It
+had a sort of flavor of the old regime, and she felt, when she
+bestowed her kindly notice upon her little black attendant, some
+of the feudal condescension of the mistress toward the slave.  She
+was kind to Sophy, and permitted her to play the role she had
+assumed, which caused sometimes a little jealousy among the other
+girls.  Once she gave Sophy a yellow ribbon which she took from
+her own hair.  The child carried it home, and cherished it as a
+priceless treasure, to be worn only on the greatest occasions. 
+ 
+Sophy had a rival in her attachment to the teacher, but the
+rivalry was altogether friendly.  Miss Myrover had a little dog, a
+white spaniel, answering to the name of Prince.  Prince was a dog
+of high degree, and would have very little to do with the children
+of the school; he made an exception, however, in the case of
+Sophy, whose devotion for his mistress he seemed to comprehend. 
+He was a clever dog, and could fetch and carry, sit up on his
+haunches, extend his paw to shake hands, and possessed several
+other canine accomplishments.  He was very fond of his mistress,
+and always, unless shut up at home, accompanied her to school,
+where he spent most of his time lying under the teacher's desk,
+or, in cold weather, by the stove, except when he would go out now
+and then and chase an imaginary rabbit round the yard, presumably
+for exercise. 
+ 
+At school Sophy and Prince vied with each other in their
+attentions to Miss Myrover.  But when school was over, Prince went
+away with her, and Sophy stayed behind; for Miss Myrover was white
+and Sophy was black, which they both understood perfectly well. 
+Miss Myrover taught the colored children, but she could not be
+seen with them in public.  If they occasionally met her on the
+street, they did not expect her to speak to them, unless she
+happened to be alone and no other white person was in sight.  If
+any of the children felt slighted, she was not aware of it, for
+she intended no slight; she had not been brought up to speak to
+negroes on the street, and she could not act differently from
+other people.  And though she was a woman of sentiment and capable
+of deep feeling, her training had been such that she hardly
+expected to find in those of darker hue than herself the same
+susceptibility--varying in degree, perhaps, but yet the same in
+kind--that gave to her own life the alternations of feeling that
+made it most worth living. 
+ 
+Once Miss Myrover wished to carry home a parcel of books.  She had
+the bundle in her hand when Sophy came up. 
+ 
+"Lemme tote yo' bundle fer yer, Miss Ma'y?" she asked eagerly. 
+"I'm gwine yo' way." 
+ 
+"Thank you, Sophy," was the reply.  "I'll be glad if you will." 
+ 
+Sophy followed the teacher at a respectful distance.  When they
+reached Miss Myrover's home Sophy carried the bundle to the
+doorstep, where Miss Myrover took it and thanked her. 
+ 
+Mrs. Myrover came out on the piazza as Sophy was moving away.  She
+said, in the child's hearing, and perhaps with the intention that
+she should hear: "Mary, I wish you wouldn't let those little
+darkies follow you to the house.  I don't want them in the yard. 
+I should think you'd have enough of them all day." 
+ 
+"Very well, mother," replied her daughter.  "I won't bring any
+more of them.  The child was only doing me a favor." 
+ 
+Mrs. Myrover was an invalid, and opposition or irritation of any
+kind brought on nervous paroxysms that made her miserable, and
+made life a burden to the rest of the household; so that Mary
+seldom crossed her whims.  She did not bring Sophy to the house
+again, nor did Sophy again offer her services as porter. 
+ 
+One day in spring Sophy brought her teacher a bouquet of yellow
+roses. 
+ 
+"Dey come off'n my own bush, Miss Ma'y," she said proudly, "an' I
+didn' let nobody e'se pull 'em, but saved 'em all fer you, 'cause
+I know you likes roses so much.  I'm gwine bring 'em all ter you
+as long as dey las'." 
+ 
+"Thank you, Sophy," said the teacher; "you are a very good girl." 
+ 
+For another year Mary Myrover taught the colored school, and did
+excellent service.  The children made rapid progress under her
+tuition, and learned to love her well; for they saw and
+appreciated, as well as children could, her fidelity to a trust
+that she might have slighted, as some others did, without much
+fear of criticism.  Toward the end of her second year she
+sickened, and after a brief illness died. 
+ 
+Old Mrs. Myrover was inconsolable.  She ascribed her daughter's
+death to her labors as teacher of negro children.  Just how the
+color of the pupils had produced the fatal effects she did not
+stop to explain.  But she was too old, and had suffered too deeply
+from the war, in body and mind and estate, ever to reconcile
+herself to the changed order of things following the return of
+peace; and with an unsound yet not unnatural logic, she visited
+some of her displeasure upon those who had profited most, though
+passively, by her losses. 
+ 
+"I always feared something would happen to Mary," she said.  "It
+seemed unnatural for her to be wearing herself out teaching little
+negroes who ought to have been working for her.  But the world has
+hardly been a fit place to live in since the war, and when I
+follow her, as I must before long, I shall not be sorry to go." 
+ 
+She gave strict orders that no colored people should be admitted
+to the house.  Some of her friends heard of this, and
+remonstrated.  They knew the teacher was loved by the pupils, and
+felt that sincere respect from the humble would be a worthy
+tribute to the proudest.  But Mrs. Myrover was obdurate. 
+ 
+"They had my daughter when she was alive," she said, "and they've
+killed her.  But she's mine now, and I won't have them come near
+her.  I don't want one of them at the funeral or anywhere around." 
+ 
+For a month before Miss Myrover's death Sophy had been watching
+her rosebush--the one that bore the yellow roses--for the first
+buds of spring, and when these appeared had awaited impatiently
+their gradual unfolding.  But not until her teacher's death had
+they become full-blown roses.  When Miss Myrover died, Sophy
+determined to pluck the roses and lay them on her coffin. 
+Perhaps, she thought, they might even put them in her hand or on
+her breast.  For Sophy remembered Miss Myrover's thanks and praise
+when she had brought her the yellow roses the spring before. 
+ 
+On the morning of the day set for the funeral Sophy washed her
+face until it shone, combed and brushed her hair with painful
+conscientiousness, put on her best frock, plucked her yellow
+roses, and, tying them with the treasured ribbon her teacher had
+given her, set out for Miss Myrover's home. 
+ 
+She went round to the side gate--the house stood on a corner--and
+stole up the path to the kitchen.  A colored woman, whom she did
+not know, came to the door. 
+ 
+"W'at yer want, chile?" she inquired. 
+ 
+"Kin I see Miss Ma'y?" asked Sophy timidly. 
+ 
+"I don' know, honey.  Ole Miss Myrover say she don' want no cullud
+folks roun' de house endyoin' dis fun'al.  I'll look an' see if
+she's roun' de front room, whar de co'pse is.  You sed-down heah
+an' keep still, an' ef she's upstairs maybe I kin git yer in dere
+a minute.  Ef I can't, I kin put yo' bokay 'mongs' de res', whar
+she won't know nuthin' erbout it." 
+ 
+A moment after she had gone there was a step in the hall, and old
+Mrs. Myrover came into the kitchen. 
+ 
+"Dinah!" she said in a peevish tone.  "Dinah!" 
+ 
+Receiving no answer, Mrs. Myrover peered around the kitchen, and
+caught sight of Sophy. 
+ 
+"What are you doing here?" she demanded. 
+ 
+"I--I'm-m waitin' ter see de cook, ma'am," stammered Sophy. 
+ 
+"The cook isn't here now.  I don't know where she is.  Besides, my
+daughter is to be buried to-day, and I won't have any one visiting
+the servants until the funeral is over.  Come back some other day,
+or see the cook at her own home in the evening." 
+ 
+She stood waiting for the child to go, and under the keen glance
+of her eyes Sophy, feeling as though she had been caught in some
+disgraceful act, hurried down the walk and out of the gate, with
+her bouquet in her hand. 
+ 
+"Dinah," said Mrs. Myrover, when the cook came back, "I don't want
+any strange people admitted here to-day.  The house will be full
+of our friends, and we have no room for others." 
+ 
+"Yas'm," said the cook.  She understood perfectly what her
+mistress meant; and what the cook thought about her mistress was a
+matter of no consequence. 
+ 
+The funeral services were held at St. John's Episcopal Church,
+where the Myrovers had always worshiped.  Quite a number of Miss
+Myrover's pupils went to the church to attend the services.  The
+church was not a large one.  There was a small gallery at the
+rear, to which colored people were admitted, if they chose to
+come, at ordinary services; and those who wished to be present at
+the funeral supposed that the usual custom would prevail.  They
+were therefore surprised, when they went to the side entrance, by
+which colored people gained access to the gallery stairs, to be
+met by an usher who barred their passage. 
+ 
+"I'm sorry," he said, "but I have had orders to admit no one until
+the friends of the family have all been seated.  If you wish to
+wait until the white people have all gone in, and there's any room
+left, you may be able to get into the back part of the gallery. 
+Of course I can't tell yet whether there'll be any room or not." 
+ 
+Now the statement of the usher was a very reasonable one; but,
+strange to say, none of the colored people chose to remain except
+Sophy.  She still hoped to use her floral offering for its
+destined end, in some way, though she did not know just how.  She
+waited in the yard until the church was filled with white people,
+and a number who could not gain admittance were standing about the
+doors.  Then she went round to the side of the church, and,
+depositing her bouquet carefully on an old mossy gravestone,
+climbed up on the projecting sill of a window near the chancel. 
+The window was of stained glass, of somewhat ancient make.  The
+church was old, had indeed been built in colonial times, and the
+stained glass had been brought from England.  The design of the
+window showed Jesus blessing little children.  Time had dealt
+gently with the window; but just at the feet of the figure of
+Jesus a small triangular piece of glass had been broken out.  To
+this aperture Sophy applied her eyes, and through it saw and heard
+what she could of the services within. 
+ 
+Before the chancel, on trestles draped in black, stood the sombre
+casket in which lay all that was mortal of her dear teacher.  The
+top of the casket was covered with flowers; and lying stretched
+out underneath it she saw Miss Myrover's little white dog, Prince. 
+He had followed the body to the church, and, slipping in unnoticed
+among the mourners, had taken his place, from which no one had the
+heart to remove him. 
+ 
+The white-robed rector read the solemn service for the dead, and
+then delivered a brief address, in which he spoke of the
+uncertainty of life, and, to the believer, the certain blessedness
+of eternity.  He spoke of Miss Myrover's kindly spirit, and, as an
+illustration of her love and self-sacrifice for others, referred
+to her labors as a teacher of the poor ignorant negroes who had
+been placed in their midst by an all-wise Providence, and whom it
+was their duty to guide and direct in the station in which God had
+put them.  Then the organ pealed, a prayer was said, and the long
+cortege moved from the church to the cemetery, about half a mile
+away, where the body was to be interred. 
+ 
+When the services were over, Sophy sprang down from her perch,
+and, taking her flowers, followed the procession.  She did not
+walk with the rest, but at a proper and respectful distance from
+the last mourner.  No one noticed the little black girl with the
+bunch of yellow flowers, or thought of her as interested in the
+funeral. 
+ 
+The cortege reached the cemetery and filed slowly through the
+gate; but Sophy stood outside, looking at a small sign in white
+letters on a black background:-- 
+ 
+"NOTICE.  This cemetery is for white people only.  Others please
+keep out." 
+ 
+Sophy, thanks to Miss Myrover's painstaking instruction, could
+read this sign very distinctly.  In fact, she had often read it
+before.  For Sophy was a child who loved beauty, in a blind,
+groping sort of way, and had sometimes stood by the fence of the
+cemetery and looked through at the green mounds and shaded walks
+and blooming flowers within, and wished that she could walk among
+them.  She knew, too, that the little sign on the gate, though so
+courteously worded, was no mere formality; for she had heard how a
+colored man, who had wandered into the cemetery on a hot night and
+fallen asleep on the flat top of a tomb, had been arrested as a
+vagrant and fined five dollars, which he had worked out on the
+streets, with a ball-and-chain attachment, at twenty-five cents a
+day.  Since that time the cemetery gate had been locked at night. 
+ 
+So Sophy stayed outside, and looked through the fence.  Her poor
+bouquet had begun to droop by this time, and the yellow ribbon had
+lost some of its freshness.  Sophy could see the rector standing
+by the grave, the mourners gathered round; she could faintly
+distinguish the solemn words with which ashes were committed to
+ashes, and dust to dust.  She heard the hollow thud of the earth
+falling on the coffin; and she leaned against the iron fence,
+sobbing softly, until the grave was filled and rounded off, and
+the wreaths and other floral pieces were disposed upon it.  When
+the mourners began to move toward the gate, Sophy walked slowly
+down the street, in a direction opposite to that taken by most of
+the people who came out. 
+ 
+When they had all gone away, and the sexton had come out and
+locked the gate behind him, Sophy crept back.  Her roses were
+faded now, and from some of them the petals had fallen.  She stood
+there irresolute, loath to leave with her heart's desire
+unsatisfied, when, as her eyes fell upon the teacher's last
+resting place, she saw lying beside the new-made grave what looked
+like a small bundle of white wool.  Sophy's eyes lighted up with a
+sudden glow. 
+ 
+"Prince!  Here, Prince!" she called. 
+ 
+The little dog rose, and trotted down to the gate.  Sophy pushed
+the poor bouquet between the iron bars.  "Take that ter Miss Ma'y,
+Prince," she said, "that's a good doggie." 
+ 
+The dog wagged his tail intelligently, took the bouquet carefully
+in his mouth, carried it to his mistress's grave, and laid it
+among the other flowers.  The bunch of roses was so small that
+from where she stood Sophy could see only a dash of yellow against
+the white background of the mass of flowers. 
+ 
+When Prince had performed his mission he turned his eyes toward
+Sophy inquiringly, and when she gave him a nod of approval lay
+down and resumed his watch by the graveside.  Sophy looked at him
+a moment with a feeling very much like envy, and then turned and
+moved slowly away. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE CASE OF THE NEGRO 
+by Booker T. Washington 
+ 
+ 
+All attempts to settle the question of the Negro in the South by
+his removal from this country have so far failed, and I think that
+they are likely to fail.  The next census will probably show that
+we have nearly ten million black people in the United States,
+about eight millions of whom are in the Southern states.  In fact,
+we have almost a nation within a nation.  The Negro population in
+the United States lacks but two millions of being as large as the
+whole population of Mexico, and is nearly twice as large as that
+of Canada.  Our black people equal in number the combined
+populations of Switzerland, Greece, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba,
+Uraguay [sic], Santo Domingo, Paraguay, and Costa Rica.  When we
+consider, in connection with these facts, that the race has
+doubled itself since its freedom, and is still increasing, it
+hardly seems possible for any one to take seriously any scheme of
+emigration from America as a method of solution.  At most, even if
+the government were to provide the means, but a few hundred
+thousand could be transported each year.  The yearly increase in
+population would more than likely overbalance the number
+transported.  Even if it did not, the time required to get rid of
+the Negro by this method would perhaps be fifty or seventy-five
+years. 
+ 
+Some have advised that the Negro leave the South, and take up his
+residence in the Northern states.  I question whether this would
+make him any better off than he is in the South, when all things
+are considered.  It has been my privilege to study the condition
+of our people in nearly every part of America; and I say without
+hesitation that, with some exceptional cases, the Negro is at his
+best in the Southern states.  While he enjoys certain privileges
+in the North that he does not have in the South, when it comes to
+the matter of securing property, enjoying business advantages and
+employment, the South presents a far better opportunity than the
+North.  Few colored men from the South are as yet able to stand up
+against the severe and increasing competition that exists in the
+North, to say nothing of the unfriendly influence of labor
+organizations, which in some way prevents black men in the North,
+as a rule, from securing occupation in the line of skilled labor. 
+ 
+Another point of great danger for the colored man who goes North
+is the matter of morals, owing to the numerous temptations by
+which he finds himself surrounded.  More ways offer in which he
+can spend money than in the South, but fewer avenues of employment
+for earning money are open to him.  The fact that at the North the
+Negro is almost confined to one line of occupation often tends to
+discourage and demoralize the strongest who go from the South, and
+makes them an easy prey for temptation.  A few years ago, I made
+an examination into the condition of a settlement of Negroes who
+left the South and went into Kansas about twenty years since, when
+there was a good deal of excitement in the South concerning
+emigration from the West, and found it much below the standard of
+that of similar communities in the South.  The only conclusion
+which any one can reach, from this and like instances, is that the
+Negroes are to remain in the Southern states.  As a race they do
+not want to leave the South, and the Southern white people do not
+want them to leave.  We must therefore find some basis of
+settlement that will be constitutional, just, manly; that will be
+fair to both races in the South and to the whole country.  This
+cannot be done in a day, a year, or any short period of time.  We
+can, however, with the present light, decide upon a reasonably
+safe method of solving the problem, and turn our strength and
+effort in that direction.  In doing this, I would not have the
+Negro deprived of any privilege guaranteed to him by the
+Constitution of the United States.  It is not best for the Negro
+that he relinquish any of his constitutional rights; it is not
+best for the Southern white man that he should, as I shall attempt
+to show in this article. 
+ 
+In order that we may concentrate our forces upon a wise object,
+without loss of time or effort, I want to suggest what seems to me
+and many others the wisest policy to be pursued.  I have reached
+these conclusions not only by reason of my own observations and
+experience, but after eighteen years of direct contact with
+leading and influential colored and white men in most parts of our
+country.  But I wish first to mention some elements of danger in
+the present situation, which all who desire the permanent welfare
+of both races in the South should carefully take into account. 
+ 
+First.  There is danger that a certain class of impatient
+extremists among the Negroes in the North, who have little
+knowledge of the actual conditions in the South, may do the entire
+race injury by attempting to advise their brethren in the South to
+resort to armed resistance or the use of the torch, in order to
+secure justice.  All intelligent and well-considered discussion of
+any important question, or condemnation of any wrong, whether in
+the North or the South, from the public platform and through the
+press, is to be commended and encouraged; but ill-considered and
+incendiary utterances from black men in the North will tend to add
+to the burdens of our people in the South rather than to relieve
+them.  We must not fall into the temptation of believing that we
+can raise ourselves by abusing some one else. 
+ 
+Second.  Another danger in the South which should be guarded
+against is that the whole white South, including the wise,
+conservative, law-abiding element, may find itself represented
+before the bar of public opinion by the mob or lawless element,
+which gives expression to its feelings and tendency in a manner
+that advertises the South throughout the world; while too often
+those who have no sympathy with such disregard of law are either
+silent, or fail to speak in a sufficiently emphatic manner to
+offset in any large degree the unfortunate reputation which the
+lawless have made for many portions of the South. 
+ 
+Third.  No race or people ever got upon its feet without severe
+and constant struggle, often in the face of the greatest
+discouragement.  While passing through the present trying period
+of its history, there is danger that a large and valuable element
+of the Negro race may become discouraged in the effort to better
+its condition.  Every possible influence should be exerted to
+prevent this. 
+ 
+Fourth.  There is a possibility that harm may be done to the South
+and to the Negro by exaggerated newspaper articles which are
+written near the scene or in the midst of specially aggravating
+occurrences.  Often these reports are written by newspaper men,
+who give the impression that there is a race conflict throughout
+the South, and that all Southern white people are opposed to the
+Negro's progress; overlooking the fact that though in some
+sections there is trouble, in most parts of the South, if matters
+are not yet in all respects as we would have them, there is
+nevertheless a very large measure of peace, good will, and mutual
+helpfulness.  In the same relation, much can be done to retard the
+progress of the Negro by a certain class of Southern white people,
+who in the midst of excitement speak or write in a manner that
+gives the impression that all Negroes are lawless, untrustworthy,
+and shiftless.  For example, a Southern writer said, not long ago,
+in a communication to the New York Independent: "Even in small
+towns the husband cannot venture to leave his wife alone for an
+hour at night.  At no time, in no place, is the white woman safe
+from the insults and assaults of these creatures."  These
+statements, I presume, represented the feelings and the conditions
+that existed, at the time of the writing, in one community or
+county in the South; but thousands of Southern white men and women
+would be ready to testify that this is not the condition
+throughout the South, nor throughout any Southern state. 
+ 
+Fifth.  Owing to the lack of school opportunities for the Negro in
+the rural districts of the South, there is danger that ignorance
+and idleness may increase to the extent of giving the Negro race a
+reputation for crime, and that immorality may eat its way into the
+fibre of the race so as to retard its progress for many years.  In
+judging the Negro we must not be too harsh.  We must remember that
+it has been only within the last thirty-four years that the black
+father and mother have had the responsibility, and consequently
+the experience, of training their own children.  That perfection
+has not been reached in one generation, with the obstacles that
+the parents have been compelled to overcome, is not to be wondered
+at. 
+ 
+Sixth.  Finally, I would mention my fear that some of the white
+people of the South may be led to feel that the way to settle the
+race problem is to repress the aspirations of the Negro by
+legislation of a kind that confers certain legal or political
+privileges upon an ignorant and poor white man, and withholds the
+same privileges from a black man in a similar condition.  Such
+legislation injures and retards the progress of both races.  It is
+an injustice to the poor white man, because it takes from him
+incentive to secure education and property as prerequisites for
+voting.  He feels that because he is a white man, regardless of
+his possessions, a way will be found for him to vote.  I would
+label all such measures "laws to keep the poor white man in
+ignorance and poverty." 
+ 
+The Talladega News Reporter, a Democratic newspaper of Alabama,
+recently said: "But it is a weak cry when the white man asks odds
+on intelligence over the Negro.  When nature has already so
+handicapped the African in the race for knowledge, the cry of the
+boasted Anglo-Saxon for still further odds seems babyish.  What
+wonder that the world looks on in surprise, if not disgust?  It
+cannot help but say, If our contention be true that the Negro is
+an inferior race, then the odds ought to be on the other side, if
+any are to be given.  And why not?  No; the thing to do--the only
+thing that will stand the test of time--is to do right, exactly
+right, let come what will.  And that right thing, as it seems to
+us, is to place a fair educational qualification before every
+citizen,--one that is self-testing, and not dependent on the
+wishes of weak men,--letting all who pass the test stand in the
+proud ranks of American voters, whose votes shall be counted as
+cast, and whose sovereign will shall be maintained as law by all
+the powers that be.  Nothing short of this will do.  Every
+exemption, on whatsoever ground, is an outrage that can only rob
+some legitimate voter of his rights." 
+ 
+Such laws have been made,--in Mississippi, for example,--with the
+"understanding" clause, hold out a temptation for the election
+officer to perjure and degrade himself by too often deciding that
+the ignorant white man does understand the Constitution when it is
+read to him, and that the ignorant black man does not.  By such a
+law, the state not only commits a wrong against its black
+citizens; it injures the morals of its white citizens by
+conferring such a power upon any white man who may happen to be a
+judge of elections. 
+ 
+Such laws are hurtful, again, because they keep alive in the heart
+of the black man the feeling that the white man means to oppress
+him.  The only safe way out is to set a high standard as a test of
+citizenship, and require blacks and whites alike to come up to it. 
+When this is done, both will have a higher respect for the
+election laws, and for those who make them.  I do not believe
+that, with his centuries of advantage over the Negro in the
+opportunity to acquire property and education as prerequisites for
+voting, the average white man in the South desires that any
+special law be passed to give him further advantage over one who
+has had but a little more than thirty years in which to prepare
+himself for citizenship.  In this relation, another point of
+danger is that the Negro has been made to feel that it is his duty
+continually to oppose the Southern white man in politics, even in
+matters where no principle is involved; and that he is only loyal
+to his own race and acting in a manly way in thus opposing the
+white man.  Such a policy has proved very hurtful to both races. 
+Where it is a matter of principle, where a question of right or
+wrong is involved, I would advise the Negro to stand by principle
+at all hazards.  A Southern white man has no respect for or
+confidence in a Negro who acts merely for policy's sake; but there
+are many cases, and the number is growing, where the Negro has
+nothing to gain, and much to lose, by opposing the Southern white
+man in matters that relate to government. 
+ 
+Under the foregoing six heads I believe I have stated some of the
+main points which, all high-minded white men and black men, North
+and South, will agree, need our most earnest and thoughtful
+consideration, if we would hasten, and not hinder, the progress of
+our country. 
+ 
+Now as to the policy that should be pursued.  On this subject I
+claim to possess no superior wisdom or unusual insight.  I may be
+wrong; I may be in some degree right. 
+ 
+In the future we want to impress upon the Negro, more than we have
+done in the past, the importance of identifying himself more
+closely with the interests of the South; of making himself part of
+the South, and at home in it.  Heretofore, for reasons which were
+natural, and for which no one is especially to blame, the colored
+people have been too much like a foreign nation residing in the
+midst of another nation.  If William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell
+Phillips, or George L. Stearns were alive to-day, I feel sure that
+he would advise the Negroes to identify their interests as closely
+as possible with those of their white neighbors,--always
+understanding that no question of right and wrong is involved.  In
+no other way, it seems to me, can we get a foundation for peace
+and progress.  He who advises against this policy will advise the
+Negro to do that which no people in history, who have succeeded,
+have done.  The white man, North or South, who advises the Negro
+against it advises him to do that which he himself has not done. 
+The bed rock upon which every individual rests his chances for
+success in life is the friendship, the confidence, the respect, of
+his next-door neighbor in the little community in which he lives. 
+The problem of the Negro in the South turns on whether he can make
+himself of such indispensable service to his neighbor and the
+community that no one can fill his place better in the body
+politic.  There is at present no other safe course for the black
+man to pursue.  If the Negro in the South has a friend in his
+white neighbor, and a still larger number of friends in his own
+community, he has a protection and a guarantee of his rights that
+will be more potent and more lasting than any our Federal Congress
+or any outside power can confer. 
+ 
+The London Times, in a recent editorial discussing affairs in the
+Transvaal, where Englishmen have been denied certain privileges by
+the Boers, says: "England is too sagacious not to prefer a gradual
+reform from within, even should it be less rapid than most of us
+might wish, to the most sweeping redress of grievances imposed
+from without.  Our object is to obtain fair play for the
+Outlanders, but the best way to do it is to enable them to help
+themselves."  This policy, I think, is equally safe when applied
+to conditions in the South.  The foreigner who comes to America
+identifies himself as soon as possible, in business, education,
+and politics, with the community in which he settles.  We have a
+conspicuous example of this in the case of the Jews, who in the
+South, as well as in other parts of our country, have not always
+been justly treated; but the Jews have so woven themselves into
+the business and patriotic interests of the communities in which
+they live, have made themselves so valuable as citizens, that they
+have won a place in the South which they could have obtained in no
+other way.  The Negro in Cuba has practically settled the race
+question there, because he has made himself a part of Cuba in
+thought and action. 
+ 
+What I have tried to indicate cannot be accomplished by any sudden
+revolution of methods, but it does seem that the tendency should
+be more and more in this direction.  Let me emphasize this by a
+practical example.  The North sends thousands of dollars into the
+South every year for the education of the Negro.  The teachers in
+most of the Southern schools supported by the North are Northern
+men and women of the highest Christian culture and most unselfish
+devotion.  The Negro owes them a debt of gratitude which can never
+be paid.  The various missionary societies in the North have done
+a work which to a large degree has proved the salvation of the
+South, and the results of it will appear more in future
+generations than in this.  We have now reached the point, in the
+South, where, I believe, great good could be accomplished in
+changing the attitude of the white people toward the Negro, and of
+the Negro toward the whites, if a few Southern white teachers, of
+high character, would take an active interest in the work of our
+higher schools.  Can this be done?  Yes.  The medical school
+connected with Shaw University at Raleigh, North Carolina, has
+from the first had as instructors and professors almost
+exclusively Southern white doctors who reside in Raleigh, and they
+have given the highest satisfaction.  This gives the people of
+Raleigh the feeling that the school is theirs, and not something
+located in, but not a part of, the South.  In Augusta, Georgia,
+the Payne Institute, one of the best colleges for our people, is
+officered and taught almost wholly by Southern white men and
+women.  The Presbyterian Theological School at Tuscaloosa,
+Alabama, has only Southern white men as instructors.  Some time
+ago, at the Calhoun School in Alabama, one of the leading white
+men in the county was given an important position; since then the
+feeling of the white people in the county has greatly changed
+toward the school. 
+ 
+We must admit the stern fact that at present the Negro, through no
+choice of his own, is living in the midst of another race, which
+is far ahead of him in education, property, and experience; and
+further, that the Negro's present condition makes him dependent
+upon the white people for most of the things necessary to sustain
+life, as well as, in a large measure, for his education.  In all
+history, those who have possessed the property and intelligence
+have exercised the greatest control in government, regardless of
+color, race, or geographical location.  This being the case, how
+can the black man in the South improve his estate?  And does the
+Southern white man want him to improve it?  The latter part of
+this question I shall attempt to answer later in this article. 
+ 
+The Negro in the South has it within his power, if he properly
+utilizes the forces at land, to make of himself such a valuable
+factor in the life of the South that for the most part he need not
+seek privileges, but they will be conferred upon him.  To bring
+this about, the Negro must begin at the bottom and lay a sure
+foundation, and not be lured by any temptation into trying to rise
+on a false footing.  While the Negro is laying this foundation, he
+will need help and sympathy and justice from the law.  Progress by
+any other method will be but temporary and superficial, and the
+end of it will be worse than the beginning.  American slavery was
+a great curse to both races, and I should be the last to apologize
+for it; but in the providence of God I believe that slavery laid
+the foundation for the solution of the problem that is now before
+us in the South.  Under slavery, the Negro was taught every trade,
+every industry, that furnishes the means of earning a living.  Now
+if on this foundation, laid in a rather crude way, it is true, but
+a foundation nevertheless, we can gradually grow and improve, the
+future for us is bright.  Let me be more specific.  Agriculture is
+or has been the basic industry of nearly every race or nation that
+has succeeded.  The Negro got a knowledge of this under slavery:
+hence in a large measure he is in possession of this industry in
+the South to-day.  Taking the whole South, I should say that
+eighty per cent of the Negroes live by agriculture in some form,
+though it is often a very primitive and crude form.  The Negro can
+buy land in the South, as a rule, wherever the white man can buy
+it, and at very low prices.  Now, since the bulk of our people
+already have a foundation in agriculture, are at their best when
+living in the country engaged in agricultural pursuits, plainly,
+the best thing, the logical thing, is to turn the larger part of
+our strength in a direction that will put the Negroes among the
+most skilled agricultural people in the world.  The man who has
+learned to do something better than any one else, has learned to
+do a common thing in an uncommon manner, has power and influence
+which no adverse surroundings can take from him.  It is better to
+show a man how to make a place for himself than to put him in one
+that some one else has made for him.  The Negro who can make
+himself so conspicuous as a successful farmer, a large taxpayer, a
+wise helper of his fellow men, as to be placed in a position of
+trust and honor by natural selection, whether the position be
+political or not, is a hundredfold more secure in that position
+than one placed there by mere outside force or pressure.  I know a
+Negro, Hon. Isaiah T. Montgomery, in Mississippi, who is mayor of
+a town; it is true that the town is composed almost wholly of
+Negroes.  Mr. Montgomery is mayor of this town because his genius,
+thrift, and foresight have created it; and he is held and
+supported in his office by a charter granted by the state of
+Mississippi, and by the vote and public sentiment of the community
+in which he lives. 
+ 
+Let us help the Negro by every means possible to acquire such an
+education in farming, dairying, stock-raising, horticulture, etc.,
+as will place him near the top in these industries, and the race
+problem will in a large part be settled, or at least stripped of
+many of its most perplexing elements.  This policy would also tend
+to keep the Negro in the country and smaller towns, where he
+succeeds best, and stop the influx into the large cities, where he
+does not succeed so well.  The race, like the individual, which
+produces something of superior worth that has a common human
+interest, wins a permanent place, and is bound to be recognized. 
+ 
+At a county fair in the South, not long ago, I saw a Negro awarded
+the first prize, by a jury of white men, over white competitors,
+for the production of the best specimen of Indian corn.  Every
+white man at the fair seemed to be proud of the achievement of the
+Negro, because it was apparent that he had done something that
+would add to the wealth and comfort of the people of both races in
+that county.  At the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, in
+Alabama, we have a department devoted to training men along the
+lines of agriculture that I have named; but what we are doing is
+small when compared with what should be done in Tuskegee, and at
+other educational centres.  In a material sense the South is still
+an undeveloped country.  While in some other affairs race
+prejudice is strongly marked, in the matter of business, of
+commercial and industrial development, there are few obstacles in
+the Negro's way.  A Negro who produces or has for sale something
+that the community wants finds customers among white people as
+well as black.  Upon equal security, a Negro can borrow money at
+the bank as readily as a white man can.  A bank in Birmingham,
+Alabama, which has existed ten years, is officered and controlled
+wholly by Negroes.  This bank has white borrowers and white
+depositors.  A graduate of the Tuskegee Institute keeps a well- 
+appointed grocery store in Tuskegee, and he tells me that he sells
+about as many goods to one race as to the other.  What I have said
+of the opening that awaits the Negro in the business of
+agriculture is almost equally true of mechanics, manufacturing,
+and all the domestic arts.  The field is before him and right
+about him.  Will he seize upon it?  Will he "cast down his bucket  
+where he is"?  Will his friends, North and South, encourage him
+and prepare him to occupy it?  Every city in the South, for
+example, would give support to a first-class architect or
+housebuilder or contractor of our race.  The architect or
+contractor would not only receive support, but through his example
+numbers of young colored men would learn such trades as carpentry,
+brickmasonry, plastering, painting, etc., and the race would be
+put into a position to hold on to many of the industries which it
+is now in danger of losing, because in too many cases brain,
+skill, and dignity are not imparted to the common occupations. 
+Any individual or race that does not fit itself to occupy in the
+best manner the field or service that is right about it will
+sooner or later be asked to move on and let another take it. 
+ 
+But I may be asked, Would you confine the Negro to agriculture,
+mechanics, the domestic arts, etc.?  Not at all; but just now and
+for a number of years the stress should be laid along the lines
+that I have mentioned.  We shall need and must have many teachers
+and ministers, some doctors and lawyers and statesmen, but these
+professional men will have a constituency or a foundation from
+which to draw support just in proportion as the race prospers
+along the economic lines that I have pointed out.  During the
+first fifty or one hundred years of the life of any people, are
+not the economic occupations always given the greater attention? 
+This is not only the historic, but, I think, the common-sense
+view.  If this generation will lay the material foundation, it
+will be the quickest and surest way for enabling later generations
+to succeed in the cultivation of the fine arts, and to surround
+themselves with some of the luxuries of life, if desired.  What
+the race most needs now, in my opinion, is a whole army of men and
+women well-trained to lead, and at the same time devote
+themselves to agriculture, mechanics, domestic employment, and
+business.  As to the mental training that these educated leaders
+should be equipped with, I should say, give them all the mental
+training and culture that the circumstances of individuals will
+allow,--the more the better.  No race can permanently succeed
+until its mind is awakened and strengthened by the ripest thought. 
+But I would constantly have it kept in the minds of those who are
+educated in books that a large proportion of those who are
+educated should be so trained in hand that they can bring this
+mental strength and knowledge to bear upon the physical conditions
+in the South, which I have tried to emphasize. 
+ 
+Frederick Douglass, of sainted memory, once, in addressing his
+race, used these words:  "We are to prove that we can better our
+own condition.  One way to do this is to accumulate property. 
+This may sound to you like a new gospel.  You have been accustomed
+to hear that money is the root of all evil, etc.; on the other
+hand, property, money, if you please, will purchase for us the
+only condition by which any people can rise to the dignity of
+genuine manhood; for without property there can be no leisure,
+without leisure there can be no thought, without thought there can
+be no invention, without invention there can be no progress." 
+ 
+The Negro should be taught that material development is not an
+end, but merely a means to an end.  As professor W. E. B. Du Bois
+puts it, the idea should not be simply to make men carpenters, but
+to make carpenters men.  The Negro has a highly religious
+temperament; but what he needs more and more is to be convinced of
+the importance of weaving his religion and morality into the
+practical affairs of daily life.  Equally does he need to be
+taught to put so much intelligence into his labor that he will see
+dignity and beauty in the occupation, and love it for its own
+sake.  The Negro needs to be taught to apply more of the religion
+that manifests itself in his happiness in prayer meeting to the
+performance of his daily task.  The man who owns a home, and is in
+the possession of the elements by which he is sure of a daily
+living, has a great aid to a moral and religious life.  What
+bearing will all this have upon the Negro's place in the South, as
+a citizen and in the enjoyment of the privileges which our
+government confers? 
+ 
+To state in detail just what place the black man will occupy in
+the South as a citizen, when he has developed in the direction
+named, is beyond the wisdom of any one.  Much will depend upon the
+sense of justice which can be kept alive in the breast of the
+American people; almost as much will depend upon the good sense of
+the Negro himself.  That question, I confess, does not give me the
+most concern just now.  The important and pressing question is,
+Will the Negro, with his own help and that of his friends, take
+advantage of the opportunities that surround him?  When he has
+done this, I believe, speaking of his future in general terms,
+that he will be treated with justice, be given the protection of
+the law and the recognition which his usefulness and ability
+warrant.  If, fifty years ago, one had predicted that the Negro
+would receive the recognition and honor which individuals have
+already received, he would have been laughed at as an idle
+dreamer.  Time, patience, and constant achievement are great
+factors in the rise of a race. 
+ 
+I do not believe that the world ever takes a race seriously, in
+its desire to share in the government of a nation, until a large
+number of individual members of that race have demonstrated beyond
+question their ability to control and develop their own business
+enterprises.  Once a number of Negroes rise to the point where
+they own and operate the most successful farms, are among the
+largest taxpayers in their county, are moral and intelligent, I do
+not believe that in many portions of the South such men need long
+be denied the right of saying by their votes how they prefer their
+property to be taxed, and who are to make and administer the laws. 
+ 
+I was walking the street of a certain town in the South lately in
+company with the most prominent Negro there.  While we were
+together, the mayor of the town sought out the black man, and
+said, "Next week we are going to vote on the question of issuing
+bonds to secure water-works; you must be sure to vote on the day
+of election."  The mayor did not suggest whether he should vote
+yes or no; but he knew that the very fact of this Negro's owning
+nearly a block of the most valuable property in the town was a
+guarantee that he would cast a safe, wise vote on this important
+proposition.  The white man knew that because of this Negro's
+property interests he would cast his vote in the way he thought
+would benefit every white and black citizen in the town, and not
+be controlled by influences a thousand miles away.  But a short
+time ago I read letters from nearly every prominent white man in
+Birmingham, Alabama, asking that the Rev. W. R. Pettiford, a
+Negro, be appointed to a certain important federal office.  What
+is the explanation of this?  For nine years Mr. Pettiford has been
+the president of the Negro bank in Birmingham, to which I have
+alluded.  During these nine years, the white citizens have had the
+opportunity of seeing that Mr. Pettiford can manage successfully a
+private business, and that he has proved himself a conservative,
+thoughtful citizen, and they are willing to trust him in a public
+office.  Such individual examples will have to be multiplied, till
+they become more nearly the rule than the exception they now are. 
+While we are multiplying these examples, the Negro must keep a
+strong and courageous heart.  He cannot improve his condition by
+any short-cut course or by artificial methods.  Above all, he must
+not be deluded into believing that his condition can be
+permanently bettered by a mere battledoor [sic] and shuttlecock of
+words, or by any process of mere mental gymnastics or oratory. 
+What is desired along with a logical defense of his cause are
+deeds, results,--continued results, in the direction of building
+himself up, so as to leave no doubt in the mind of any one of his
+ability to succeed. 
+ 
+An important question often asked is, Does the white man in the
+South want the Negro to improve his present condition?  I say yes. 
+From the Montgomery (Alabama) Daily Advertiser I clip the
+following in reference to the closing of a colored school in a
+town in Alabama:-- 
+ 
+"EUFALA, May 25, 1899.  The closing exercises of the city colored
+public school were held at St. Luke's A. M. E. Church last night,
+and were witnessed by a large gathering, including many whites. 
+The recitations by the pupils were excellent, and the music was
+also an interesting feature.  Rev. R. T. Pollard delivered the
+address, which was quite an able one, and the certificates were
+presented by Professor T. L. McCoy, white, of the Sanford Street
+School.  The success of the exercises reflects great credit on
+Professor S. M. Murphy, the principal, who enjoys a deserved good
+reputation as a capable and efficient educator." 
+ 
+I quote this report, not because it is the exception, but because
+such marks of interest in the education of the Negro on the part
+of the Southern white people may be seen almost every day in the
+local papers.  Why should white people, by their presence, words,
+and actions, encourage the black man to get education, if they do
+not desire him to improve his condition? 
+ 
+The Payne Institute, an excellent college, to which I have already
+referred, is supported almost wholly by the Southern white
+Methodist church.  The Southern white Presbyterians support a
+theological school for Negroes at Tuscaloosa.  For a number of
+years the Southern white Baptists have contributed toward Negro
+education.  Other denominations have done the same.  If these
+people do not want the Negro educated to a higher standard, there
+is no reason why they should pretend they do. 
+ 
+Though some of the lynchings in the South have indicated a
+barbarous feeling toward Negroes, Southern white men here and
+there, as well as newspapers, have spoken out strongly against
+lynching.  I quote from the address of the Rev. Mr. Vance, of
+Nashville, Tennessee, delivered before the National Sunday School
+Union, in Atlanta, not long since, as an example:-- 
+ 
+"And yet, as I stand here to-night, a Southerner speaking for my
+section and addressing an audience from all sections, there is one
+foul blot upon the fair fame of the South, at the bare mention of
+which the heart turns sick and the cheek is crimsoned with shame. 
+I want to lift my voice to-night in loud and long and indignant
+protest against the awful horror of mob violence, which the other
+day reached the climax of its madness and infamy in a deed as
+black and brutal and barbarous as can be found in the annals of
+human crime. 
+ 
+"I have a right to speak on the subject, and I propose to be
+heard.  The time has come for every lover of the South to set the
+might of an angered and resolute manhood against the shame and
+peril of the lynch demon.  These people whose fiendish glee taunts
+their victim as his flesh crackles in the flames do not represent
+the South.  I have not a syllable of apology for the sickening
+crime they meant to avenge.  But it is high time we were learning
+that lawlessness is no remedy for crime.  For one, I dare to
+believe that the people of my section are able to cope with crime,
+however treacherous and defiant, through their courts of justice;
+and I plead for the masterful sway of a righteous and exalted
+public sentiment that shall class lynch law in the category with
+crime." 
+ 
+It is a notable and encouraging fact that no Negro educated in any
+of our larger institutions of learning in the South has been
+charged with any of the recent crimes connected with assaults upon
+women. 
+ 
+If we go on making progress in the directions that I have tried to
+indicate, more and more the South will be drawn to one course.  As  
+I have already said, it is not to the best interests of the white
+race of the South that the Negro be deprived of any privilege
+guaranteed him by the Constitution of the United States.  This
+would put upon the South a burden under which no government could
+stand and prosper.  Every article in our Federal Constitution was
+placed there with a view of stimulating and encouraging the
+highest type of citizenship.  To continue to tax the Negro without
+giving him the right to vote, as fast as he qualifies himself in
+education and property for voting, would insure the alienation of
+the affections of the Negro from the state in which he lives, and
+would be the reversal of the fundamental principles of government
+for which our states have stood.  In other ways than this the
+injury would be as great to the white man as to the Negro. 
+Taxation without the hope of becoming voters would take away from
+one third of the citizens of the Gulf states their interest in
+government, and a stimulus to become taxpayers or to secure
+education, and thus be able and willing to bear their share of the
+cost of education and government, which now rests so heavily upon
+the white taxpayers of the South.  The more the Negro is
+stimulated and encouraged, the sooner will he be able to bear a
+larger share of the burdens of the South.  We have recently had
+before us an example, in the case of Spain, of a government that
+left a large portion of its citizens in ignorance, and neglected
+their highest interests. 
+ 
+As I have said elsewhere: "There is no escape, through law of man
+or God, from the inevitable. 
+ 
+ 
+     'The laws of changeless justice bind 
+        Oppressor with oppressed; 
+      And close as sin and suffering joined 
+        We march to fate abreast.' 
+ 
+ 
+Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load
+upwards, or they will pull the load downwards against you.  We
+shall constitute one third and more of the ignorance and crime of
+the South, or one third of its intelligence and progress; we shall
+contribute one third to the business and industrial prosperity of
+the South, or we shall prove a veritable body of death,
+stagnating, depressing, retarding every effort to advance the body
+politic." 
+ 
+My own feeling is that the South will gradually reach the point
+where it will see the wisdom and the justice of enacting an
+educational or property qualification, or both, for voting, that
+shall be made to apply honestly to both races.  The industrial
+development of the Negro in connection with education and
+Christian character will help to hasten this end.  When this is
+done, we shall have a foundation, in my opinion, upon which to
+build a government that is honest, and that will be in a high
+degree satisfactory to both races. 
+ 
+I do not suffer myself to take too optimistic a view of the
+conditions in the South.  The problem is a large and serious one,
+and will require the patient help, sympathy, and advice of our
+most patriotic citizens, North and South, for years to come.  But
+I believe that if the principles which I have tried to indicate
+are followed, a solution of the question will come.  So long as
+the Negro is permitted to get education, acquire property, and
+secure employment, and is treated with respect in the business
+world, as is now true in the greater part of the South, I shall
+have the greatest faith in his working out his own destiny in our
+Southern states.  The education and preparation for citizenship of
+nearly eight millions of people is a tremendous task, and every
+lover of humanity should count it a privilege to help in the
+solution of a problem for which our whole country is responsible. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+HOT-FOOT HANNIBAL
+by Charles W. Chesnutt
+
+
+"I hate and despise you!  I wish never to see you or speak to you
+again!"
+
+"Very well; I will take care that henceforth you have no
+opportunity to do either." 
+ 
+These words--the first in the passionately vibrant tones of my
+sister-in-law, and the latter in the deeper and more restrained
+accents of an angry man--startled me from my nap.  I had been
+dozing in my hammock on the front piazza, behind the honeysuckle
+vine.  I had been faintly aware of a buzz of conversation in the
+parlor, but had not at all awakened to its import until these
+sentences fell, or, I might rather say, were hurled upon my ear. 
+I presume the young people had either not seen me lying there,-- 
+the Venetian blinds opening from the parlor windows upon the
+piazza were partly closed on account of the heat,--or else in
+their excitement they had forgotten my proximity. 
+ 
+I felt somewhat concerned.  The young man, I had remarked, was
+proud, firm, jealous of the point of honor, and, from my
+observation of him, quite likely to resent to the bitter end what
+he deemed a slight or an injustice.  The girl, I knew, was quite
+as high-spirited as young Murchison.  I feared she was not so
+just, and hoped she would prove more yielding.  I knew that her
+affections were strong and enduring, but that her temperament was
+capricious, and her sunniest moods easily overcast by some small
+cloud of jealousy or pique.  I had never imagined, however, that
+she was capable of such intensity as was revealed by these few
+words of hers.  As I say, I felt concerned.  I had learned to like
+Malcolm Murchison, and had heartily consented to his marriage with
+my ward; for it was in that capacity that I had stood for a year
+or two to my wife's younger sister, Mabel.  The match thus rudely
+broken off had promised to be another link binding me to the
+kindly Southern people among whom I had not long before taken up
+my residence. 
+ 
+Young Murchison came out of the door, cleared the piazza in two
+strides without seeming aware of my presence, and went off down
+the lane at a furious pace.  A few moments later Mabel began
+playing the piano loudly, with a touch that indicated anger and
+pride and independence and a dash of exultation, as though she
+were really glad that she had driven away forever the young man
+whom the day before she had loved with all the ardor of a first
+passion. 
+ 
+I hoped that time might heal the breach and bring the two young
+people together again.  I told my wife what I had overheard.  In
+return she gave me Mabel's version of the affair. 
+ 
+"I do not see how it can ever be settled," my wife said.  "It is
+something more than a mere lovers' quarrel.  It began, it is true,
+because she found fault with him for going to church with that
+hateful Branson girl.  But before it ended there were things said
+that no woman of any spirit could stand.  I am afraid it is all
+over between them." 
+ 
+I was sorry to hear this.  In spite of the very firm attitude
+taken by my wife and her sister, I still hoped that the quarrel
+would be made up within a day or two.  Nevertheless, when a week
+had passed with no word from young Murchison, and with no sign of
+relenting on Mabel's part, I began to think myself mistaken. 
+ 
+One pleasant afternoon, about ten days after the rupture, old
+Julius drove the rockaway up to the piazza, and my wife, Mabel,
+and I took our seats for a drive to a neighbor's vineyard, over on
+the Lumberton plankroad. 
+ 
+"Which way shall we go," I asked,--"the short road or the long
+one?" 
+ 
+"I guess we had better take the short road," answered my wife. 
+"We will get there sooner." 
+ 
+"It's a mighty fine dribe roun' by de big road, Mis' Annie,"
+observed Julius, "en it doan take much longer to git dere." 
+ 
+"No," said my wife, "I think we will go by the short road.  There
+is a bay tree in blossom near the mineral spring, and I wish to
+get some of the flowers." 
+ 
+"I 'spec's you'd find some bay trees 'long de big road, ma'am,"
+said Julius. 
+ 
+"But I know about the flowers on the short road, and they are the
+ones I want." 
+ 
+We drove down the lane to the highway, and soon struck into the
+short road leading past the mineral spring.  Our route lay partly
+through a swamp, and on each side the dark, umbrageous foliage,
+unbroken by any clearing, lent to the road solemnity, and to the
+air a refreshing coolness.  About half a mile from the house, and
+about halfway to the mineral spring, we stopped at the tree of
+which my wife had spoken, and reaching up to the low-hanging
+boughs I gathered a dozen of the fragrant white flowers.  When I
+resumed my seat in the rockaway, Julius started the mare.  She
+went on for a few rods, until we had reached the edge of a branch
+crossing the road, when she stopped short. 
+ 
+"Why did you stop, Julius?" I asked. 
+ 
+"I didn', suh," he replied.  "'T wuz de mare stop'.  G' 'long
+dere, Lucy!  W'at you mean by dis foolis'ness?" 
+ 
+Julius jerked the reins and applied the whip lightly, but the mare
+did not stir. 
+ 
+"Perhaps you had better get down and lead her," I suggested.  "If
+you get her started, you can cross on the log and keep your feet
+dry." 
+ 
+Julius alighted, took hold of the bridle, and vainly essayed to
+make the mare move.  She planted her feet with even more evident
+obstinacy. 
+ 
+"I don't know what to make of this," I said.  "I have never known
+her to balk before.  Have you, Julius?" 
+ 
+"No, suh," replied the old man, "I nebber has.  It's a cu'ous
+thing ter me, suh." 
+ 
+"What's the best way to make her go?" 
+ 
+"I 'spec's, suh, dat ef I'd tu'n her roun' she'd go de udder way." 
+ 
+"But we want her to go this way." 
+ 
+"Well, suh, I 'low ef we des set heah fo' er fibe minutes, she'll
+sta't up by herse'f." 
+ 
+"All right," I rejoined, "it is cooler here than any place I have
+struck to-day.  We'll let her stand for a while, and see what she
+does." 
+ 
+We had sat in silence for a few minutes, when Julius suddenly
+ejaculated, "Uh huh!  I knows w'y dis mare doan go.  It des flash
+'cross my reccommemb'ance." 
+ 
+"Why is it, Julius?" I inquired. 
+ 
+"Ca'se she sees Chloe." 
+ 
+"Where is Chloe?" I demanded. 
+ 
+"Chloe's done be'n dead dese fo'ty years er mo'," the old man
+returned.  "Her ha'nt is settin' ober yander on de udder side er
+de branch, unner dat willer tree, dis blessed minute." 
+ 
+"Why, Julius!" said my wife, "do you see the haunt?" 
+ 
+"No'm," he answered, shaking his head, "I doan see 'er, but de
+mare sees 'er." 
+ 
+"How do you know?" I inquired. 
+ 
+"Well, suh, dis yer is a gray hoss, en dis yer is a Friday; en a
+gray hoss kin alluz see a ha'nt w'at walks on Friday." 
+ 
+"Who was Chloe?" said Mabel. 
+ 
+"And why does Chloe's haunt walk?" asked my wife. 
+ 
+"It's all in de tale, ma'am," Julius replied, with a deep sigh. 
+"It's all in de tale." 
+ 
+"Tell us the tale," I said.  "Perhaps, by the time you get
+through, the haunt will go away and the mare will cross." 
+ 
+I was willing to humor the old man's fancy.  He had not told us a
+story for some time; and the dark and solemn swamp around us; the
+amber-colored stream flowing silently and sluggishly at our feet,
+like the waters of Lethe; the heavy, aromatic scent of the bays,
+faintly suggestive of funeral wreaths,--all made the place an
+ideal one for a ghost story. 
+ 
+"Chloe," Julius began in a subdued tone, "use' ter b'long ter ole
+Mars' Dugal' McAdoo--my ole marster.  She wuz a ladly gal en a
+smart gal, en ole mis' tuk her up ter de big house, en l'arnt her
+ter wait on de w'ite folks, 'tel bimeby she come ter be mis's own
+maid, en 'peared ter 'low she run de house herse'f, ter heah her
+talk erbout it.  I wuz a young boy den, en use' ter wuk about de
+stables, so I knowed ev'ythin' dat wuz gwine on roun' de
+plantation. 
+ 
+"Well, one time Mars' Dugal' wanted a house boy, en sont down ter
+de qua'ters fer hab Jeff en Hannibal come up ter de big house nex'
+mawnin'.  Ole marster en ole mis' look' de two boys ober, en
+'sco'sed wid deyse'ves fer a little w'ile, en den Mars' Dugal'
+sez, sezee:-- 
+ 
+"'We laks Hannibal de bes', en we gwine ter keep him.  Heah,
+Hannibal, you'll wuk at de house fum now on.  En ef you're a good
+nigger en min's yo' bizness, I'll gib you Chloe fer a wife nex'
+spring.  You other nigger, you Jeff, you kin go back ter de
+qua'ters.  We ain' gwine ter need you.' 
+ 
+"Now Chloe had be'n standin' dere behin' ole mis' dyoin' all er
+dis yer talk, en Chloe made up her min' fum de ve'y fus' minute
+she sot eyes on dem two dat she didn' lak dat nigger Hannibal, en
+wa'n't nebber gwine keer fer 'im, en she wuz des ez sho' dat she
+lak Jeff, en wuz gwine ter set sto' by 'im, whuther Mars' Dugal'
+tuk 'im in de big house er no; en so co'se Chloe wuz monst'us
+sorry w'en ole Mars' Dugal' tuk Hannibal en sont Jeff back.  So
+she slip' roun' de house en waylaid Jeff on de way back ter de
+qua'ters en tol' 'im not ter be downhea'ted, fer she wuz gwine ter
+see ef she couldn' fin' some way er 'nuther ter git rid er dat
+nigger Hannibal, en git Jeff up ter de house in his place. 
+ 
+"De noo house boy kotch on monst'us fas', en it wa'n't no time
+ha'dly befo' Mars' Dugal' en ole mis' bofe 'mence' ter 'low
+Hannibal wuz de bes' house boy dey eber had.  He wuz peart en
+soopl', quick ez lightnin', en sha'p ez a razor.  But Chloe didn'
+lak his ways.  He wuz so sho' he wuz gwine ter git 'er in de
+spring, dat he didn' 'pear ter 'low he had ter do any co'tin', en
+w'en he'd run 'cross Chloe 'bout de house, he'd swell roun' 'er in
+a biggity way en say: 
+ 
+"'Come heah en kiss me, honey.  You gwine ter be mine in de
+spring.  You doan 'pear ter be ez fon' er me ez you oughter be.' 
+ 
+"Chloe didn' keer nuffin' fer Hannibal, en hadn' keered nuffin'
+fer 'im, en she sot des ez much sto' by Jeff ez she did de day she
+fus' laid eyes on 'im.  En de mo' fermilyus dis yer Hannibal got,
+de mo' Chloe let her min' run on Jeff, en one ebenin' she went
+down ter de qua'ters en watch', 'tel she got a chance fer ter talk
+wid 'im by hisse'f.  En she tol' Jeff fer ter go down en see ole
+Aun' Peggy, de cunjuh-'oman down by de Wim'l'ton Road, en ax her
+fer ter gib 'im sump'n ter he'p git Hannibal out'n de big house,
+so de w'ite folks 'u'd sen' fer Jeff ag'in.  En bein' ez Jeff
+didn' hab nuffin' ter gib Aun' Peggy, Chloe gun i'm a silber
+dollah en a silk han'kercher fer ter pay her wid, fer Aun' Peggy
+nebber lak ter wuk fer nobody fer nuffin'. 
+ 
+"So Jeff slip' off down ter Aun' Peggy's one night, en gun 'er de
+presents he brung, en tol' er all 'bout 'im en Chloe en Hannibal,
+en ax' 'er ter he'p 'im out.  Aun' Peggy tol' 'im she'd wuk 'er
+roots, en fer 'im ter come back de nex' night, en she'd tell 'im
+w'at she c'd do fer 'im. 
+ 
+"So de nex' night Jeff went back, en Aun' Peggy gun 'im a baby- 
+doll, wid a body made out'n a piece er co'n-stalk, en wid
+splinters fer a'ms en legs, en a head made out'n elderberry peth,
+en two little red peppers fer feet. 
+ 
+"'Dis yer baby-doll,' sez she, 'is Hannibal.  Dis yer peth head is
+Hannibal's head, en dese yer pepper feet is Hannibal's feet.  You
+take dis en hide it unner de house, on de sill unner de do', whar
+Hannibal'll hafter walk ober it ev'y day.  En ez long ez Hannibal
+comes anywhar nigh dis baby-doll, he'll be des lak it is--light- 
+headed en hot-footed; en ef dem two things doan git 'im inter
+trouble mighty soon, den I'm no cunjuh-'oman.  But w'en you git
+Hannibal out'n de house, en git all thoo wid dis baby-doll, you
+mus' fetch it back ter me, fer it's monst'us powerful goopher, en
+is liable ter make mo' trouble ef you leabe it layin' roun'.' 
+ 
+"Well, Jeff tuk de baby-doll, en slip' up ter de big house, en
+whistle' ter Chloe, en w'en she come out he tol' 'er w'at ole Aun'
+Peggy had said.  En Chloe showed 'im how ter git unner de house,
+en w'en he had put de cunjuh-doll on de sill he went 'long back
+ter de qua'ters--en des waited. 
+ 
+"Nex' day, sho' 'nuff, de goopher 'mence' ter wuk.  Hannibal
+sta'ted in de house soon in de mawnin' wid a armful er wood ter
+make a fier, en he hadn' mo' d'n got 'cross de do'sill befo' his
+feet begun ter bu'n so dat he drap' de armful er wood on de flo'
+en woke ole mis' up an hour sooner'n yuzhal, en co'se ole mis'
+didn' lak dat, en spoke sha'p erbout it. 
+ 
+"W'en dinner-time come, en Hannibal wuz help'n de cook kyar de
+dinner f'm de kitchen inter de big house, en wuz gittin' close ter
+de do' what he had ter go in, his feet sta'ted ter bu'n en his
+head begun ter swim, en he let de big dish er chicken en dumplin's
+fall right down in de dirt, in de middle er de ya'd, en de w'ite
+folks had ter make dey dinner dat day off'n col' ham en sweet
+pertaters. 
+ 
+"De nex' mawnin' he overslep' hisse'f, en got inter mo' trouble. 
+Atter breakfus', Mars' Dugal' sont 'im ober ter Mars' Marrabo
+Utley's fer ter borry a monkey wrench.  He oughter be'n back in
+ha'f an hour, but he come pokin' home 'bout dinner'time wid a
+screw-driver stidder a monkey wrench.  Mars' Dugal' sont ernudder
+nigger back wid de screw-driver, en Hannibal didn' git no dinner. 
+'Long in de atternoon, ole mis' sot Hannibal ter weedin' de
+flowers in de front gyahden, en Hannibal dug up all de bulbs ole
+mis' had sont erway fer, en paid a lot er money fer, en tuk 'em
+down ter de hawg-pen by de ba'nya'd, en fed 'em ter de hawgs. 
+W'en ole mis' come out in de cool er de ebenin', en seed w'at
+Hannibal had done, she wuz mos' crazy, en she wrote a note en sont
+Hannibal down ter de obserseah wid it. 
+ 
+"But w'at Hannibal got fum de oberseah didn' 'pear ter do no good. 
+Ev'y now en den 'is feet'd 'mence ter torment 'im, en 'is min'
+'u'd git all mix' up, en his conduc' kep' gittin' wusser en
+wusser, 'tel fin'ly de w'ite folks couldn' stan' it no longer, en
+Mars' Dugal' tuk Hannibal back down ter de qua'ters. 
+ 
+"'Mr. Smif,' sez Mars' Dugal' ter de oberseah, 'dis yer nigger has
+tu'nt out so triflin' yer lately, dat we can't keep 'im at de
+house no mo', en I's fotch' 'im ter you ter be straighten' up. 
+You's had 'casion ter deal wid 'im once, so he knows w'at ter
+expec'.  You des take 'im in han', en lemme know how he tu'ns out. 
+En w'en de han's comes in fum de fiel' dis ebenin' you kin sen'
+dat yaller nigger Jeff up ter de house.  I'll try 'im, en see ef
+he's any better'n Hannibal.'
+ 
+"So Jeff went up ter de big house, en pleas' Mars' Dugal' en ole
+mis' en de res' er de fambly so well dat dey all got ter lakin'
+'im fus'rate, en dey'd 'a' fergot all 'bout Hannibal ef it hadn'
+be'n fer de bad repo'ts w'at come up fum de qua'ters 'bout 'im fer
+a mont' er so.  Fac' is dat Chloe en Jeff wuz so int'rusted in one
+ernudder since Jeff be'n up ter de house, dat dey fergot all about
+takin' de baby-doll back ter Aun' Peggy, en it kep' wukkin fer a
+w'ile, en makin' Hannibal's feet bu'n mo' er less, 'tel all de
+folks on de plantation got ter callin' 'im Hot-Foot Hannibal.  He
+kep' gittin' mo' en mo' triflin', 'tel he got de name er bein' de
+mos' no 'countes' nigger on de plantation, en Mars' Dugal' had ter
+th'eaten ter sell 'im in de spring; w'en bimeby de goopher quit
+wukkin', en Hannibal 'mence' ter pick up some en make folks set a
+little mo' sto' by 'im. 
+ 
+"Now, dis yer Hannibal was a monst'us sma't nigger, en w'en he got
+rid er dem so' feet his min' kep' runnin' on 'is udder troubles. 
+Heah th'ee er fo' weeks befo' he'd had a' easy job, waitin' on de
+w'ite folks, libbin off'n de fat er de lan', en promus' de fines'
+gal on de plantation fer a wife in de spring, en now heah he wuz
+back in de co'nfiel', wid de oberseah a-cussin' en a r'arin' ef he
+didn' get a ha'd tas' done; wid nuffin' but co'n bread en bacon en
+merlasses ter eat; en all de fiel-han's makin' rema'ks, en pokin'
+fun at 'im ca'se he be'n sont back fum de big house ter de fiel'. 
+En de mo' Hannibal studied 'bout it de mo' madder he got, 'tel he
+fin'ly swo' he wuz gwine ter git eben wid Jeff en Chloe ef it wuz
+de las' ac'. 
+ 
+"So Hannibal slipped 'way fum de qua'ters one Sunday en hid in de
+co'n up close ter de big house, 'tel he see Chloe gwine down de
+road.  He waylaid her, en sezee:-- 
+ 
+"'Hoddy, Chloe?' 
+ 
+"'I ain't got no time fer ter fool wid fiel'-han's,' sez Chloe,
+tossin' her head; 'W'at you want wid me, Hot-Foot?' 
+ 
+"'I wants ter know how you en Jeff is gittin' 'long.' 
+ 
+"'I 'lows dat's none er yo' bizness, nigger.  I doan see w'at
+'casion any common fiel'-han' has got ter mix in wid de 'fairs er
+folks w'at libs in de big house.  But ef it'll do you any good ter
+know, I mought say dat me en Jeff is gittin' 'long mighty well, en
+we gwine ter git married in de spring, en you ain' gwine ter be
+'vited ter de weddin' nuther.' 
+ 
+"'No, no!' sezee, 'I wouldn' 'spec' ter be 'vited ter de weddin',--
+a common, low-down fiel'-han' lak I is.  But I's glad ter heah
+you en Jeff is gittin' 'long so well.  I didn' knowed but w'at he
+had 'mence' ter be a little ti'ed.' 
+ 
+"'Ti'ed er me?  Dat's rediklus!' sez Chloe.  'W'y, dat nigger lubs
+me so I b'liebe he'd go th'oo fier en water fer me.  Dat nigger is
+des wrop' up in me.' 
+ 
+"'Uh huh,' sez Hannibal, 'den I reckon is mus' be some udder
+nigger w'at meets a 'oman down by de crick in de swamp ev'y Sunday
+ebenin', ter say nuffin' 'bout two er th'ee times a week.' 
+ 
+"'Yas, hit is ernudder nigger, en you is a liah w'en you say it
+wuz Jeff.' 
+ 
+"'Mebbe I is a liah, en mebbe I ain' got good eyes.  But 'less'n I
+IS a liah, en 'less'n I AIN' got good eyes, Jeff is gwine ter meet
+dat 'oman dis ebenin' long 'bout eight o'clock right down dere by
+de crick in de swamp 'bout halfway betwix' dis plantation en Mars'
+Marrabo Utley's.' 
+ 
+"Well, Chloe tol' Hannibal she didn' b'liebe a wud he said, en
+call' 'im a low-down nigger who wuz tryin' ter slander Jeff 'ca'se
+he wuz mo' luckier'n he wuz.  But all de same, she couldn' keep
+her min' fum runnin' on w'at Hannibal had said.  She 'membered
+she'd heared one er de niggers say dey wuz a gal ober at Mars'
+Marrabo Utley's plantation w'at Jeff use' ter go wid some befo' he
+got 'quainted wid Chloe.  Den she 'mence' ter figger back, en sho'
+'nuff, dey wuz two er th'ee times in de las' week w'en she'd be'n
+he'p'n de ladies wid dey dressin' en udder fixin's in de ebenin',
+en Jeff mought 'a' gone down ter de swamp widout her knowin' 'bout
+it at all.  En den she 'mence' ter 'member little things w'at she
+hadn' tuk no notice of befo', en w'at 'u'd make it 'pear lak Jeff
+had sump'n on his min'. 
+ 
+"Chloe set a monst'us heap er sto' by Jeff, en would 'a' done mos'
+anythin' fer 'im, so long ez he stuck ter her.  But Chloe wuz a
+mighty jealous 'oman, en w'iles she didn' b'liebe w'at Hannibal
+said, she seed how it COULD 'a' be'n so, en she 'termine' fer ter
+fin' out fer herse'f whuther it WUZ so er no. 
+ 
+"Now, Chloe hadn' seed Jeff all day, fer Mars' Dugal' had sont
+Jeff ober ter his daughter's house, young Mis' Ma'g'ret's, w'at
+libbed 'bout fo' miles fum Mars' Dugal's, en Jeff wuzn' 'spected
+home 'tel ebenin'.  But des atter supper wuz ober, en w'iles de
+ladies wuz settin' out on de piazzer, Chloe slip' off fum de house
+en run down de road,--dis yer same road we come; en w'en she got
+mos' ter de crick--dis yer same crick right befo' us--she kin' er
+kip' in de bushes at de side er de road, 'tel fin'ly she seed Jeff
+settin' on de back on de udder side er de crick,--right under dat
+ole willer tree droopin' ober de watah yander.  En ev'y now en den
+he'd git up en look up de road to'ds Mars' Marrabo's on de udder
+side er de swamp. 
+ 
+"Fus' Chloe felt lak she'd go right ober de crick en gib Jeff a
+piece er her min'.  Den she 'lowed she better be sho' befo' she
+done anythin'.  So she helt herse'f in de bes' she could, gittin'
+madder en madder ev'ry minute, 'tel bimeby she seed a 'oman comin'
+down de road on de udder side fum to'ds Mars' Marrabo Utley's
+plantation.  En w'en she seed Jeff jump up en run to'ds dat 'oman,
+en th'ow his a'ms roun' her neck, po' Chloe didn' stop ter see no
+mo', but des tu'nt roun' en run up ter de house, en rush' up on de
+piazzer, en up en tol' Mars' Dugal' en ole mis' all 'bout de baby-
+doll, en all 'bout Jeff gittin' de goopher fum Aun' Peggy, en
+'bout w'at de goopher had done ter Hannibal. 
+ 
+"Mars' Dugal' wuz monst'us mad.  He didn' let on at fus' lak he
+b'liebed Chloe, but w'en she tuk en showed 'im whar ter fin' de
+baby-doll, Mars' Dugal' tu'nt w'ite ez chalk. 
+ 
+"'What debil's wuk is dis?' sezee.  'No wonder de po' nigger's
+feet eetched.  Sump'n got ter be done ter l'arn dat ole witch ter
+keep her han's off'n my niggers.  En ez fer dis yer Jeff, I'm
+gwine ter do des w'at I promus', so de darkies on dis
+plantation'll know I means w'at I sez.' 
+ 
+"Fer Mars' Dugal' had warned de han's befo' 'bout foolin' wid
+cunju'ation; fac', he had los' one er two niggers hisse'f fum dey
+bein' goophered, en he would 'a' had ole Aun' Peggy whip' long
+ago, on'y Aun' Peggy wuz a free 'oman, en he wuz 'feard she'd
+cunjuh him.  En wi'les Mars' Dugal' say he didn' b'liebe in
+cunj'in' en sich, he 'peared ter 'low it wuz bes' ter be on de
+safe side, en let Aun' Peggy alone. 
+ 
+"So Mars' Dugal' done des ez he say.  Ef ole mis' had ple'd fer
+Jeff he mought 'a' kep' 'im.  But ole mis' hadn' got ober losin'
+dem bulbs yit, en she nebber said a wud.  Mars' Dugal' tuk Jeff
+ter town nex' day en' sol' 'im ter a spekilater, who sta'ted down
+de ribber wid 'im nex' mawnin' on a steamboat, fer ter take 'im
+ter Alabama. 
+ 
+"Now, w'en Chloe tol' ole Mars' Dugal' 'bout dis yer baby-doll en
+dis udder goopher, she hadn' ha'dly 'lowed Mars' Dugal' would sell
+Jeff down Souf.  Howsomeber, she wuz so mad wid Jeff dat she
+'suaded herse'f she didn' keer; en so she hilt her head up en went
+roun' lookin' lak she wuz rale glad 'bout it.  But one day she wuz
+walkin' down de road, w'en who sh'd come 'long but dis yer
+Hannibal. 
+ 
+"W'en Hannibal seed 'er he bus' out laffin' fittin' fer ter kill:
+'Yah, yah, yah! ho, ho, ho! ha, ha, ha!  Oh, hol' me, honey, hol'
+me, er I'll laf myse'f ter def.  I ain' nebber laf' so much sence
+I be'n bawn.' 
+ 
+"'W'at you laffin' at, Hot-Foot?' 
+ 
+"'Yah, yah, yah!  W'at I laffin' at?  W'y, I's laffin' at myse'f,
+tooby sho',--laffin' ter think w'at a fine 'oman I made.' 
+ 
+"Chloe tu'nt pale, en her hea't come up in her mouf. 
+ 
+"'W'at you mean, nigger?' sez she, ketchin' holt er a bush by de
+road fer ter stiddy herse'f.  'W'at you mean by de kin' er 'oman
+you made?' 
+ 
+"W'at do I mean?  I means dat I got squared up wid you fer
+treatin' me de way you done, en I got eben wid dat yaller nigger
+Jeff fer cuttin' me out.  Now, he's gwine ter know w'at it is ter
+eat co'n bread en merlasses once mo', en wuk fum daylight ter
+da'k, en ter hab a oberseah dribin' 'im fum one day's een' ter de
+udder.  I means dat I sont wud ter Jeff dat Sunday dat you wuz
+gwine ter be ober ter Mars' Marrabo's visitin' dat ebenin', en you
+want i'm ter meet you down by de crick on de way home en go de
+rest er de road wid you.  En den I put on a frock en a sun-bonnet
+en fix' myse'f up ter look lak a 'oman; en w'en Jeff seed me
+comin' he run ter meet me, en you seed 'im,--fer I had be'n
+watchin' in de bushes befo' en 'skivered you comin' down de road. 
+En now I reckon you en Jeff bofe knows w'at it means ter mess wid
+a nigger lak me.' 
+ 
+"Po' Chloe hadn' heared mo' d'n half er de las' part er w'at
+Hannibal said, but she had heared 'nuff to l'arn dat dis nigger
+had fooler her en Jeff, en dat po' Jeff hadn' done nuffin', en dat
+fer lovin' her too much en goin' ter meet her she had cause' 'im
+ter be sol' erway whar she'd nebber, nebber see 'im no mo'.  De
+sun mought shine by day, de moon by night, de flowers mought
+bloom, en de mawkin'-birds mought sing, but po' Jeff wuz done los'
+ter her fereber en fereber. 
+ 
+"Hannibal hadn' mo' d'n finish' w'at he had ter say, w'en Chloe's
+knees gun 'way unner her, en she fell down in de road, en lay dere
+half a' hour er so befo' she come to.  W'en she did, she crep' up
+ter de house des ez pale ez a ghos'.  En fer a mont' er so she
+crawled roun' de house, en 'peared ter be so po'ly dat Mars'
+Dugal' sont fer a doctor; en de doctor kep' on axin' her questions
+'tel he foun' she wuz des pinin' erway fer Jeff. 
+ 
+"W'en he tol' Mars' Dugal', Mars' Dugal' lafft, en said he'd fix
+dat.  She could hab de noo house boy fer a husban'.  But ole mis'
+say, no, Chloe ain' dat kinder gal, en dat Mars' Dugal' should buy
+Jeff back. 
+ 
+"So Mars' Dugal' writ a letter ter dis yer spekilater down ter
+Wim'l'ton, en tol' ef he ain' done sol' dat nigger Souf w'at he
+bought fum 'im, he'd lak ter buy 'm back ag'in.  Chloe 'mence' ter
+pick up a little w'en ole mis' tol' her 'bout dis letter. 
+Howsomeber, bimeby Mars' Dugal' got a' answer fum de spekilater,
+who said he wuz monst'us sorry, but Jeff had fell ove'boa'd er
+jumped off'n de steamboat on de way ter Wim'l'ton, en got
+drownded, en co'se he couldn' sell 'im back, much ez he'd lak ter
+'bleedge Mars' Dugal'. 
+ 
+"Well, atter Chloe heared dis she pu'tended ter do her wuk, en ole
+mis' wa'n't much mo' use ter nobody.  She put up wid her, en hed
+de doctor gib her medicine, en let 'er go ter de circus, en all
+so'ts er things fer ter take her min' off'n her troubles.  But dey
+didn' none un 'em do no good.  Chloe got ter slippin' down here in
+de ebenin' des lak she 'uz comin' ter meet Jeff, en she'd set dere
+unner dat willer tree on de udder side, en wait fer 'im, night
+atter night.  Bimeby she got so bad de w'ite folks sont her ober
+ter young Mis' Ma'g'ret's fer ter gib her a change; but she runned
+erway de fus' night, en w'en dey looked fer 'er nex' mawnin' dey
+foun' her co'pse layin' in de branch yander, right 'cross fum whar
+we're settin' now. 
+ 
+"Eber sence den," said Julius in conclusion, "Chloe's ha'nt comes
+eve'y ebenin' en sets down unner dat willer tree en waits fer
+Jeff, er e'se walks up en down de road yander, lookin' en lookin',
+en' [sic] waitin' en waitin', fer her sweethea't w'at ain' nebber,
+nebber come back ter her no mo'." 
+ 
+There was silence when the old man had finished, and I am sure I
+saw a tear in my wife's eye, and more than one in Mabel's. 
+ 
+"I think, Julius," said my wife after a moment, "that you may turn
+the mare around and go by the long road." 
+ 
+The old man obeyed with alacrity, and I noticed no reluctance on
+the mare's part. 
+ 
+"You are not afraid of Chloe's haunt, are you?" I asked jocularly. 
+ 
+My mood was not responded to, and neither of the ladies smiled. 
+ 
+"Oh no," said Annie, "but I've changed my mind.  I prefer the
+other route." 
+ 
+When we had reached the main road and had proceeded along it for a
+short distance, we met a cart driven by a young negro, and on the
+cart were a trunk and a valise.  We recognized the man as Malcolm
+Murchison's servant, and drew up a moment to speak to him. 
+ 
+"Who's going away, Marshall?" I inquired. 
+ 
+"Young Mistah Ma'colm gwine 'way on de boat ter Noo Yo'k dis
+ebenin', suh, en I'm takin' his things down ter de wharf, suh." 
+ 
+This was news to me, and I heard it with regret.  My wife looked
+sorry, too, and I could see that Mabel was trying hard to hide her
+concern. 
+ 
+"He's comin' 'long behin', suh, en I 'spec's you'll meet 'im up de
+road a piece.  He's gwine ter walk down ez fur ez Mistah Jim
+Williams's, en take de buggy fum dere ter town.  He 'spec's ter be
+gone a long time, suh, en say prob'ly he ain' nebber comin' back." 
+ 
+The man drove on.  There were a few words exchanged in an
+undertone between my wife and Mabel, which I did not catch.  Then
+Annie said: "Julius, you may stop the rockaway a moment.  There
+are some trumpet-flowers by the road there that I want.  Will you
+get them for me, John?" 
+ 
+I sprang into the underbrush, and soon returned with a great bunch
+of scarlet blossoms. 
+ 
+"Where is Mabel?" I asked, noting her absence. 
+ 
+"She has walked on ahead.  We shall overtake her in a few
+minutes." 
+ 
+The carriage had gone only a short distance when my wife
+discovered that she had dropped her fan. 
+ 
+"I had it where we were stopping.  Julius, will you go back and
+get it for me?" 
+ 
+Julius got down and went back for the fan.  He was an
+unconscionably long time finding it.  After we got started again
+we had gone only a little way, when we saw Mabel and young
+Murchison coming toward us.  They were walking arm in arm, and
+their faces were aglow with the light of love. 
+ 
+ 
+I do not know whether or not Julius had a previous understanding
+with Malcolm Murchison by which he was to drive us round by the
+long road that day, nor do I know exactly what motive influenced
+the old man's exertions in the matter.  He was fond of Mabel, but
+I was old enough, and knew Julius well enough, to be skeptical of
+his motives.  It is certain that a most excellent understanding
+existed between him and Murchison after the reconciliation, and
+that when the young people set up housekeeping over at the old
+Murchison place Julius had an opportunity to enter their service. 
+For some reason or other, however, he preferred to remain with us. 
+The mare, I might add, was never known to balk again. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+A NEGRO SCHOOLMASTER IN THE NEW SOUTH 
+by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois 
+ 
+ 
+Once upon a time I taught school in the hills of Tennessee, where
+the broad dark vale of the Mississippi begins to roll and crumple
+to greet the Alleghanies.  I was a Fisk student then, and all Fisk
+men think that Tennessee--beyond the Veil--is theirs alone, and in
+vacation time they sally forth in lusty bands to meet the county
+school commissioners.  Young and happy, I too went, and I shall
+not soon forget that summer, ten years ago. 
+ 
+First, there was a teachers' Institute at the county-seat; and
+there distinguished guests of the superintendent taught the
+teachers fractions and spelling and other mysteries,--white
+teachers in the morning, Negroes at night.  A picnic now and then,
+and a supper, and the rough world was softened by laughter and
+song.  I remember how--But I wander. 
+ 
+There came a day when all the teachers left the Institute, and
+began the hunt for schools.  I learn from hearsay (for my mother
+was mortally afraid of firearms) that the hunting of ducks and
+bears and men is wonderfully interesting, but I am sure that the
+man who has never hunted a country school has something to learn
+of the pleasures of the chase.  I see now the white, hot roads
+lazily rise and fall and wind before me under the burning July
+sun; I feel the deep weariness of heart and limb, as ten, eight,
+six miles stretch relentlessly ahead; I feel my heart sink heavily
+as I hear again and again, "Got a teacher?  Yes."  So I walked on
+and on,--horses were too expensive,--until I had wandered beyond
+railways, beyond stage lines, to a land of "varmints" and
+rattlesnakes, where the coming of a stranger was an event, and men
+lived and died in the shadow of one blue hill. 
+ 
+Sprinkled over hill and dale lay cabins and farmhouses, shut out
+from the world by the forests and the rolling hills toward the
+east.  There I found at last a little school.  Josie told me of
+it; she was a thin, homely girl of twenty, with a dark brown face
+and thick, hard hair.  I had crossed the stream at Watertown, and
+rested under the great willows; then I had gone to the little
+cabin in the lot where Josie was resting on her way to town.  The
+gaunt farmer made me welcome, and Josie, hearing my errand, told
+me anxiously that they wanted a school over the hill; that but
+once since the war had a teacher been there; that she herself
+longed to learn,--and thus she ran on, talking fast and loud, with
+much earnestness and energy. 
+ 
+Next morning I crossed the tall round hill, lingered to look at
+the blue and yellow mountains stretching toward the Carolinas;
+then I plunged into the wood, and came out at Josie's home.  It
+was a dull frame cottage with four rooms, perched just below the
+brow of the hill, amid peach trees.  The father was a quiet,
+simple soul, calmly ignorant, with no touch of vulgarity.  The
+mother was different,--strong, bustling, and energetic, with a
+quick, restless tongue, and an ambition to live "like folks." 
+There was a crowd of children.  Two boys had gone away.  There
+remained two growing girls; a shy midget of eight; John, tall,
+awkward, and eighteen; Jim, younger, quicker, and better looking;
+and two babies of indefinite age.  Then there was Josie herself. 
+She seemed to be the centre of the family: always busy at service
+or at home, or berry-picking; a little nervous and inclined to
+scold, like her mother, yet faithful, too, like her father.  She
+had about her a certain fineness, the shadow of an unconscious
+moral heroism that would willingly give all of life to make life
+broader, deeper, and fuller for her and hers.  I saw much of this
+family afterward, and grew to love them for their honest efforts
+to be decent and comfortable, and for their knowledge of their own
+ignorance.  There was with them no affectation.  The mother would
+scold the father for being so "easy;" Josie would roundly rate the
+boys for carelessness; and all knew that it was a hard thing to
+dig a living out of a rocky side hill. 
+ 
+I secured the school.  I remember the day I rode horseback out to
+the commissioner's house, with a pleasant young white fellow, who
+wanted the white school.  The road ran down the bed of a stream;
+the sun laughed and the water jingled, and we rode on.  "Come in,"
+said the commissioner,--"come in.  Have a seat.  Yes, that
+certificate will do.  Stay to dinner.  What do you want a month?" 
+Oh, thought I, this is lucky; but even then fell the awful shadow
+of the Veil, for they ate first, then I--alone. 
+ 
+The schoolhouse was a log hut, where Colonel Wheeler used to
+shelter his corn.  It sat in a lot behind a rail fence and thorn
+bushes, near the sweetest of springs.  There was an entrance where
+a door once was, and within, a massive rickety fireplace; great
+chinks between the logs served as windows.  Furniture was scarce. 
+A pale blackboard crouched in the corner.  My desk was made of
+three boards, reinforced at critical points, and my chair,
+borrowed from the landlady, had to be returned every night.  Seats
+for the children,--these puzzled me much.  I was haunted by a New
+England vision of neat little desks and chairs, but, alas, the
+reality was rough plank benches without backs, and at times
+without legs.  They had the one virtue of making naps dangerous,-- 
+possibly fatal, for the floor was not to be trusted. 
+ 
+It was a hot morning late in July when the school opened.  I
+trembled when I heard the patter of little feet down the dusty
+road, and saw the growing row of dark solemn faces and bright
+eager eyes facing me.  First came Josie and her brothers and
+sisters.  The longing to know, to be a student in the great school
+at Nashville, hovered like a star above this child woman amid her
+work and worry, and she studied doggedly.  There were the Dowells
+from their farm over toward Alexandria: Fanny, with her smooth
+black face and wondering eyes; Martha, brown and dull; the pretty
+girl wife of a brother, and the younger brood.  There were the
+Burkes, two brown and yellow lads, and a tiny haughty-eyed girl. 
+Fat Reuben's little chubby girl came, with golden face and old
+gold hair, faithful and solemn.  'Thenie was on hand early,--a
+jolly, ugly, good-hearted girl, who slyly dipped snuff and looked
+after her little bow-legged brother.  When her mother could spare
+her, 'Tildy came,--a midnight beauty, with starry eyes and
+tapering limbs; and her brother, correspondingly homely.  And then
+the big boys: the hulking Lawrences; the lazy Neills, unfathered
+sons of mother and daughter; Hickman, with a stoop in his
+shoulders; and the rest. 
+ 
+There they sat, nearly thirty of them, on the rough benches, their
+faces shading from a pale cream to a deep brown, the little feet
+bare and swinging, the eyes full of expectation, with here and
+there a twinkle of mischief, and the hands grasping Webster's  
+blue-back spelling-book.  I loved my school, and the fine faith
+the children had in the wisdom of their teacher was truly
+marvelous.  We read and spelled together, wrote a little, picked
+flowers, sang, and listened to stories of the world beyond the
+hill.  At times the school would dwindle away, and I would start
+out.  I would visit Mun Eddings, who lived in two very dirty
+rooms, and ask why little Lugene, whose flaming face seemed ever
+ablaze with the dark red hair uncombed, was absent all last week,
+or why I missed so often the inimitable rags of Mack and Ed.  Then
+the father, who worked Colonel Wheeler's farm on shares, would
+tell me how the crops needed the boys; and the thin, slovenly
+mother, whose face was pretty when washed, assured me that Lugene
+must mind the baby.  "But we'll start them again next week."  When
+the Lawrences stopped, I knew that the doubts of the old folks
+about book-learning had conquered again, and so, toiling up the
+hill, and getting as far into the cabin as possible, I put Cicero
+pro Archia Poeta into the simplest English with local
+applications, and usually convinced them--for a week or so. 
+ 
+On Friday nights I often went home with some of the children;
+sometimes to Doc Burke's farm.  He was a great, loud, thin Black,
+ever working, and trying to buy the seventy-five acres of hill and
+dale where he lived; but people said that he would surely fail,
+and the "white folks would get it all."  His wife was a
+magnificent Amazon, with saffron face and shining hair, uncorseted
+and barefooted, and the children were strong and beautiful.  They
+lived in a one-and-a-half-room cabin in the hollow of the farm,
+near the spring.  The front room was full of great fat white beds,
+scrupulously neat; and there were bad chromos on the walls, and a
+tired centre-table.  In the tiny back kitchen I was often invited
+to "take out and help" myself to fried chicken and wheat biscuit,
+"meat" and corn pone, string beans and berries.  At first I used
+to be a little alarmed at the approach of bed-time in the one lone
+bedroom, but embarrassment was very deftly avoided.  First, all
+the children nodded and slept, and were stowed away in one great
+pile of goose feathers; next, the mother and the father discreetly
+slipped away to the kitchen while I went to bed; then, blowing out
+the dim light, they retired in the dark.  In the morning all were
+up and away before I thought of awaking.  Across the road, where
+fat Reuben lived, they all went outdoors while the teacher
+retired, because they did not boast the luxury of a kitchen. 
+ 
+I liked to stay with the Dowells, for they had four rooms and
+plenty of good country fare.  Uncle Bird had a small, rough farm,
+all woods and hills, miles from the big road; but he was full of
+tales,--he preached now and then,--and with his children, berries,
+horses, and wheat he was happy and prosperous.  Often, to keep the
+peace, I must go where life was less lovely; for instance,
+'Tildy's mother was incorrigibly dirty, Reuben's larder was
+limited seriously, and herds of untamed bedbugs wandered over the
+Eddingses' beds.  Best of all I loved to go to Josie's, and sit on
+the porch, eating peaches, while the mother bustled and talked:
+how Josie had bought the sewing-machine; how Josie worked at
+service in winter, but that four dollars a month was "mighty
+little" wages; how Josie longed to go away to school, but that it
+"looked like" they never could get far enough ahead to let her;
+how the crops failed and the well was yet unfinished; and,
+finally, how "mean" some of the white folks were. 
+ 
+For two summers I lived in this little world; it was dull and
+humdrum.  The girls looked at the hill in wistful longing, and the
+boys fretted, and haunted Alexandria.  Alexandria was "town,"--a
+straggling, lazy village of houses, churches, and shops, and an
+aristocracy of Toms, Dicks, and Captains.  Cuddled on the hill to
+the north was the village of the colored folks, who lived in three
+or four room unpainted cottages, some neat and homelike, and some
+dirty.  The dwellings were scattered rather aimlessly, but they
+centred about the twin temples of the hamlet, the Methodist and
+the Hard-Shell Baptist churches.  These, in turn, leaned gingerly
+on a sad-colored schoolhouse.  Hither my little world wended its
+crooked way on Sunday to meet other worlds, and gossip, and
+wonder, and make the weekly sacrifice with frenzied priest at the
+altar of the "old-time religion."  Then the soft melody and mighty
+cadences of Negro song fluttered and thundered. 
+ 
+I have called my tiny community a world, and so its isolation made
+it; and yet there was among us but a half-awakened common
+consciousness, sprung from common joy and grief, at burial, birth,
+or wedding; from a common hardship in poverty, poor land, and low
+wages; and, above all, from the sight of the Veil that hung
+between us and Opportunity.  All this caused us to think some
+thoughts together; but these, when ripe for speech, were spoken in
+various languages.  Those whose eyes thirty and more years before
+had seen "the glory of the coming of the Lord" saw in every
+present hindrance or help a dark fatalism bound to bring all
+things right in His own good time.  The mass of those to whom
+slavery was a dim recollection of childhood found the world a
+puzzling thing: it asked little of them, and they answered with
+little, and yet it ridiculed their offering.  Such a paradox they
+could not understand, and therefore sank into listless
+indifference, or shiftlessness, or reckless bravado.  There were,
+however, some such as Josie, Jim, and Ben,--they to whom War,
+Hell, and Slavery were but childhood tales, whose young appetites
+had been whetted to an edge by school and story and half-awakened
+thought.  Ill could they be content, born without and beyond the
+World.  And their weak wings beat against their barriers,-- 
+barriers of caste, of youth, of life; at last, in dangerous
+moments, against everything that opposed even a whim. 
+ 
+ 
+The ten years that follow youth, the years when first the
+realization comes that life is leading somewhere,--these were the
+years that passed after I left my little school.  When they were
+past, I came by chance once more to the walls of Fisk University,
+to the halls of the chapel of melody.  As I lingered there in the
+joy and pain of meeting old school friends, there swept over me a
+sudden longing to pass again beyond the blue hill, and to see the
+homes and the school of other days, and to learn how life had gone
+with my school-children; and I went. 
+ 
+Josie was dead, and the gray-haired mother said simply, "We've had
+a heap of trouble since you've been away."  I had feared for Jim. 
+With a cultured parentage and a social caste to uphold him, he
+might have made a venturesome merchant or a West Point cadet.  But
+here he was, angry with life and reckless; and when Farmer Durham
+charged him with stealing wheat, the old man had to ride fast to
+escape the stones which the furious fool hurled after him.  They
+told Jim to run away; but he would not run, and the constable came
+that afternoon.  It grieved Josie, and great awkward John walked
+nine miles every day to see his little brother through the bars of
+Lebanon jail.  At last the two came back together in the dark
+night.  The mother cooked supper, and Josie emptied her purse, and
+the boys stole away.  Josie grew thin and silent, yet worked the
+more.  The hill became steep for the quiet old father, and with
+the boys away there was little to do in the valley.  Josie helped
+them sell the old farm, and they moved nearer town.  Brother
+Dennis, the carpenter, built a new house with six rooms; Josie
+toiled a year in Nashville, and brought back ninety dollars to
+furnish the house and change it to a home. 
+ 
+When the spring came, and the birds twittered, and the stream ran
+proud and full, little sister Lizzie, bold and thoughtless,
+flushed with the passion of youth, bestowed herself on the
+tempter, and brought home a nameless child.  Josie shivered, and
+worked on, with the vision of schooldays all fled, with a face wan
+and tired,--worked until, on a summer's day, some one married
+another; then Josie crept to her mother like a hurt child, and
+slept--and sleeps. 
+ 
+I paused to scent the breeze as I entered the valley.  The
+Lawrences have gone; father and son forever, and the other son
+lazily digs in the earth to live.  A new young widow rents out
+their cabin to fat Reuben.  Reuben is a Baptist preacher now, but
+I fear as lazy as ever, though his cabin has three rooms; and
+little Ella has grown into a bouncing woman, and is ploughing corn
+on the hot hillside.  There are babies a plenty, and one half-
+witted girl.  Across the valley is a house I did not know before,
+and there I found, rocking one baby and expecting another, one of
+my schoolgirls, a daughter of Uncle Bird Dowell.  She looked
+somewhat worried with her new duties, but soon bristled into pride
+over her neat cabin, and the tale of her thrifty husband, the
+horse and cow, and the farm they were planning to buy. 
+ 
+My log schoolhouse was gone.  In its place stood Progress, and
+Progress, I understand, is necessarily ugly.  The crazy foundation
+stones still marked the former site of my poor little cabin, and
+not far away, on six weary boulders, perched a jaunty board house,
+perhaps twenty by thirty feet, with three windows and a door that
+locked.  Some of the window glass was broken, and part of an old
+iron stove lay mournfully under the house.  I peeped through the
+window half reverently, and found things that were more familiar. 
+The blackboard had grown by about two feet, and the seats were
+still without backs.  The county owns the lot now, I hear, and
+every year there is a session of school.  As I sat by the spring
+and looked on the Old and the New I felt glad, very glad, and yet--
+ 
+ 
+After two long drinks I started on.  There was the great double
+log house on the corner.  I remembered the broken, blighted family
+that used to live there.  The strong, hard face of the mother,
+with its wilderness of hair, rose before me.  She had driven her
+husband away, and while I taught school a strange man lived there,
+big and jovial, and people talked.  I felt sure that Ben and
+'Tildy would come to naught from such a home.  But this is an odd
+world; for Ben is a busy farmer in Smith County, "doing well,
+too," they say, and he had cared for little 'Tildy until last
+spring, when a lover married her.  A hard life the lad had led,
+toiling for meat, and laughed at because he was homely and
+crooked.  There was Sam Carlon, an impudent old skinflint, who had
+definite notions about niggers, and hired Ben a summer and would
+not pay him.  Then the hungry boy gathered his sacks together, and
+in broad daylight went into Carlon's corn; and when the hard- 
+fisted farmer set upon him, the angry boy flew at him like a
+beast.  Doc Burke saved a murder and a lynching that day. 
+ 
+The story reminded me again of the Burkes, and an impatience
+seized me to know who won in the battle, Doc or the seventy-five
+acres.  For it is a hard thing to make a farm out of nothing, even
+in fifteen years.  So I hurried on, thinking of the Burkes.  They
+used to have a certain magnificent barbarism about them that I
+liked.  They were never vulgar, never immoral, but rather rough
+and primitive, with an unconventionality that spent itself in loud
+guffaws, slaps on the back, and naps in the corner.  I hurried by
+the cottage of the misborn Neill boys.  It was empty, and they
+were grown into fat, lazy farm hands.  I saw the home of the
+Hickmans, but Albert, with his stooping shoulders, had passed from
+the world.  Then I came to the Burkes' gate and peered through;
+the inclosure looked rough and untrimmed, and yet there were the
+same fences around the old farm save to the left, where lay
+twenty-five other acres.  And lo! the cabin in the hollow had
+climbed the hill and swollen to a half-finished six-room cottage. 
+ 
+The Burkes held a hundred acres, but they were still in debt. 
+Indeed, the gaunt father who toiled night and day would scarcely
+be happy out of debt, being so used to it.  Some day he must stop,
+for his massive frame is showing decline.  The mother wore shoes,
+but the lionlike physique of other days was broken.  The children
+had grown up.  Rob, the image of his father, was loud and rough
+with laughter.  Birdie, my school baby of six, had grown to a
+picture of maiden beauty, tall and tawny.  "Edgar is gone," said
+the mother, with head half bowed,--"gone to work in Nashville; he
+and his father couldn't agree." 
+ 
+Little Doc, the boy born since the time of my school, took me
+horseback down the creek next morning toward Farmer Dowell's.  The
+road and the stream were battling for mastery, and the stream had
+the better of it.  We splashed and waded, and the merry boy,
+perched behind me, chattered and laughed.  He showed me where
+Simon Thompson had bought a bit of ground and a home; but his
+daughter Lana, a plump, brown, slow girl, was not there.  She had
+married a man and a farm twenty miles away.  We wound on down the
+stream till we came to a gate that I did not recognize, but the
+boy insisted that it was "Uncle Bird's."  The farm was fat with
+the growing crop.  In that little valley was a strange stillness
+as I rode up; for death and marriage had stolen youth, and left
+age and childhood there.  We sat and talked that night, after the
+chores were done.  Uncle Bird was grayer, and his eyes did not see
+so well, but he was still jovial.  We talked of the acres bought,--
+one hundred and twenty-five,--of the new guest chamber added, of
+Martha's marrying.  Then we talked of death: Fanny and Fred were
+gone; a shadow hung over the other daughter, and when it lifted
+she was to go to Nashville to school.  At last we spoke of the
+neighbors, and as night fell Uncle Bird told me how, on a night
+like that, 'Thenie came wandering back to her home over yonder, to  
+escape the blows of her husband.  And next morning she died in the
+home that her little bow-legged brother, working and saving, had
+bought for their widowed mother. 
+ 
+My journey was done, and behind me lay hill and dale, and Life and
+Death.  How shall man measure Progress there where the dark-faced
+Josie lies?  How many heartfuls of sorrow shall balance a bushel
+of wheat?  How hard a thing is life to the lowly, and yet how
+human and real!  And all this life and love and strife and
+failure,--is it the twilight of nightfall or the flush of some
+faint-dawning day? 
+ 
+Thus sadly musing, I rode to Nashville in the Jim Crow car. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE CAPTURE OF A SLAVER 
+by J. Taylor Wood 
+ 
+ 
+From 1830 to 1850 both Great Britain and the United States, by
+joint convention, kept on the coast of Africa at least eighty guns
+afloat for the suppression of the slave trade.  Most of the
+vessels so employed were small corvettes, brigs, or schooners;
+steam at that time was just being introduced into the navies of
+the world. 
+ 
+Nearly fifty years ago I was midshipman on the United States brig
+Porpoise, of ten guns.  Some of my readers may remember these
+little ten-gun coffins, as many of them proved to be to their
+crews.  The Porpoise was a fair sample of the type; a full-rigged
+brig of one hundred and thirty tons, heavily sparred, deep
+waisted, and carrying a battery of eight twenty-four-pound
+carronades and two long chasers; so wet that even in a moderate
+breeze or sea it was necessary to batten down; and so tender that
+she required careful watching; only five feet between decks, her
+quarters were necessarily cramped and uncomfortable, and, as far
+as possible, we lived on deck.  With a crew of eighty all told,
+Lieutenant Thompson was in command, Lieutenant Bukett executive
+officer, and two midshipmen were the line officers.  She was so
+slow that we could hardly hope for a prize except by a fluke. 
+Repeatedly we had chased suspicious craft only to be out-sailed. 
+ 
+At this time the traffic in slaves was very brisk; the demand in
+the Brazils, in Cuba, and in other Spanish West Indies was urgent,
+and the profit of the business so great that two or three
+successful ventures would enrich any one.  The slavers were
+generally small, handy craft; fast, of course; usually schooner-
+rigged, and carrying flying topsails and forecourse.  Many were
+built in England or elsewhere purposely for the business, without,
+of course, the knowledge of the builders, ostensibly as yachts or
+traders.  The Spaniards and Portuguese were the principal
+offenders, with occasionally an English-speaking renegade. 
+ 
+The slave depots, or barracoons, were generally located some miles
+up a river.  Here the slaver was secure from capture and could
+embark his live cargo at his leisure.  Keeping a sharp lookout on
+the coast, the dealers were able to follow the movements of the
+cruisers, and by means of smoke, or in other ways, signal when the
+coast was clear for the coming down the river and sailing of the
+loaded craft.  Before taking in the cargoes they were always
+fortified with all the necessary papers and documents to show they
+were engaged in legitimate commerce, so it was only when caught in
+flagrante delicto that we could hold them. 
+ 
+We had been cruising off the coast of Liberia doing nothing, when
+we were ordered to the Gulf of Guinea to watch the Bonny and
+Cameroons mouths of the great Niger River.  Our consort was H.M.
+schooner Bright, a beautiful craft about our tonnage, but with
+half our crew, and able to sail three miles to our two.  She was
+an old slaver, captured and adapted as a cruiser.  She had been
+very successful, making several important captures of full
+cargoes, and twice or thrice her commanding officer and others had
+been promoted.  Working our way slowly down the coast in company
+with the Bright, we would occasionally send a boat on shore to
+reconnoitre or gather any information we could from the natives
+through our Krooman interpreter.  A few glasses of rum or a string
+of beads would loosen the tongue of almost any one.  At Little
+Bonny we heard that two vessels were some miles up the river,
+ready to sail, and were only waiting until the coast was clear. 
+Captain James, of the Bright, thought that one, if not both, would
+sail from another outlet of the river, about thirty miles to the
+southward, and determined to watch it. 
+ 
+We both stood to that direction.  Of course we were watched from
+the shore, and the slavers were kept posted as to our movements. 
+They supposed we had both gone to the Cameroons, leaving Little
+Bonny open; but after dark, with a light land breeze, we wore
+round and stood to the northward, keeping offshore some distance,
+so that captains leaving the river might have sufficient offing to
+prevent their reaching port again or beaching their craft.  At
+daybreak, as far as we could judge, we were about twenty miles
+offshore to the northward and westward of Little Bonny, in the
+track of any vessel bound for the West Indies.  The night was dark
+with occasional rain squalls, when the heavens would open and the
+water come down in a flood.  Anxiously we all watched for
+daylight, which comes under the equator with a suddenness very
+different from the prolonged twilight of higher latitudes.  At the
+first glimmer in the east every eye was strained on the horizon,
+all eager, all anxious to be the first to sight anything within
+our vision.  The darkness soon gave way to gray morn.  Day was
+dawning, when suddenly a Krooman by my side seized my hand and,
+without saying a word, pointed inshore.  I looked, but could see
+nothing.  All eyes were focused in that direction, and in a few
+minutes the faint outline of a vessel appeared against the sky. 
+She was some miles inshore of us, and as the day brightened we
+made her out to be a brigantine (an uncommon rig in those days),
+standing across our bows, with all studding sails set on the
+starboard side, indeed everything that could pull, including water
+sails and save-all.  We were on the same tack heading to the
+northward.  We set everything that would draw, and kept off two
+points, bringing the wind abeam so as to head her off. 
+ 
+The breeze was light and off the land.  We had not yet been seen
+against the darker western horizon, but we knew it could only be a
+few minutes longer before their sharp eyes would make us out. 
+Soon we saw the studding sails and all kites come down by the run
+and her yards braced up sharp on the same tack as ours.  We also
+hauled by the wind.  At sunrise she was four points on our weather
+bow, distant about four miles.  We soon perceived that she could
+outsail our brig and if the wind held would escape.  Gradually she
+drew away from us until she was hull down.  Our only hope now was
+that the land breeze would cease and the sea breeze come in.  As
+the sun rose we gladly noticed the wind lessening, until at eleven
+o'clock it was calm.  Not a breath ruffled the surface of the sea;
+the sun's rays in the zenith were reflected as from a mirror; the
+waters seemed like molten lead. 
+ 
+I know of nothing more depressing than a calm in the tropics,--a
+raging sun overhead, around an endless expanse of dead sea, and a
+feeling of utter helplessness that is overpowering.  What if this
+should last? what a fate!  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner comes
+to our mind.  Come storm and tempest, come hurricanes and
+blizzards, anything but an endless stagnation.  For some hours we
+watched earnestly the horizon to the westward, looking for the
+first dark break on the smooth sea.  Not a cloud was in the
+heavens.  The brig appeared to be leaving us either by towing or
+by sweeps; only her topgallant sail was above the horizon.  It
+looked as if the sea breeze would desert us.  It usually came in
+about one o'clock, but that hour and another had passed and yet we
+watched for the first change.  Without a breeze our chances of
+overhauling the stranger were gone.  Only a white speck like the
+wing of a gull now marked her whereabouts on the edge of the
+horizon, and in another hour she would be invisible even from the
+masthead. 
+ 
+When we were about to despair, our head Krooman drew the captain's
+attention to the westward and said the breeze was coming.  We saw
+no signs of it, but his quick eye had noticed light feathery
+clouds rising to the westward, a sure indication of the coming
+breeze.  Soon we could see the glassy surface ruffled at different
+points as the breeze danced over it, coming on like an advancing
+line of skirmishers; and as we felt its first gentle movement on
+our parched faces, it was welcome indeed, putting new life into
+all of us.  The crew needed no encouragement to spring to their
+work.  As the little brig felt the breeze and gathered
+steerageway, she was headed for the chase, bringing the wind on
+her starboard quarter.  In less than five minutes all the studding
+sails that would draw were set, as well as everything that would
+pull.  The best quartermaster was sent to the wheel, with orders
+to keep the chase directly over the weather end of the spritsail
+yard.  The captain ordered the sails wet, an expedient I never had
+much faith in, unless the sails are very old.  But as if to
+recompense us for the delay, the breeze came in strong and steady. 
+Our one hope now was to follow it up close, and to carry it within
+gunshot of the brig, for if she caught it before we were within
+range she would certainly escape.  All hands were piped to
+quarters, and the long eighteen-pounder on the forecastle was
+loaded with a full service charge; on this piece we relied to
+cripple the chase.  We were now rapidly raising her, and I was
+sent aloft on the fore topsail yard, with a good glass to watch
+her movements.  Her hull was in sight and she was still becalmed,
+though her head was pointed in the right direction, and everything
+was set to catch the coming breeze.  She carried a boat on each
+side at the davits like a man-of-war, and I reported that I could
+make out men securing them.  They had been towing her, and only
+stopped when they saw us drawing near. 
+ 
+Anxiously we watched the breeze on the water as it narrowed the
+sheen between us, and we were yet two miles or more distant when
+she first felt the breeze.  As she did so we hoisted the English
+blue ensign,--for the fleet at this time was under a Rear Admiral
+of the Blue,--and fired a weather gun, but no response was made. 
+Fortunately the wind continued to freshen and the Porpoise was
+doing wonderfully well.  We were rapidly closing the distance
+between us.  We fired another gun, but no attention was paid to
+it.  I noticed from the movements of the crew of the brig that
+they were getting ready for some manoeuvre, and reported to the
+captain.  He divined at once what the manoeuvre would be, and
+ordered the braces be led along, hands by the studding-sail
+halyards and tacks, and everything ready to haul by the wind.  We
+felt certain now of the character of our friend, and the men were
+already calculating the amount of their prize money.  We were now
+within range, and must clip her wings if possible. 
+ 
+The first lieutenant was ordered to open fire with the eighteen- 
+pounder.  Carefully the gun was laid, and as the order "fire" was
+given, down came our English flag, and the stop of the Stars and
+Stripes was broken at the gaff.  The first shot touched the water
+abeam of the chase and ricochetted ahead of her.  She showed the
+Spanish flag.  The captain of the gun was ordered to elevate a
+little more and try again.  The second shot let daylight through
+her fore topsail, but the third was wide again. 
+ 
+Then the sharp, quick order of the captain, "Fore topsail yard
+there, come down on deck, sir!" brought me down on the run.  "Have
+both cutters cleared away and ready for lowering," were my orders
+as I reached the quarter-deck.  Practice from the bow chasers
+continued, but the smoke that drifted ahead of us interfered with
+the accuracy of the firing, and no vital part was touched, though
+a number of shots went through her sails.  The captain in the main
+rigging never took his eye from the Spaniard, evidently expecting
+that as a fox when hard pressed doubles on the hounds, the chase
+would attempt the same thing.  And he was not disappointed, for
+when we had come within easy range of her, the smoke hid her from
+view for a few minutes, and as it dispersed the first glimpse
+showed the captain that her studding sails had all gone, and that
+she had hauled by the wind, standing across our weather bow.  Her
+captain had lost no time in taking in his studding sails;
+halyards, tacks, and sheets had all been cut together and dropped
+overboard. 
+ 
+It was a bold and well-executed manoeuvre, and we could not help
+admiring the skill with which she was handled.  However, we had
+been prepared for this move.  "Ease down your helm."  "Lower away. 
+Haul down the studding sails."  "Ease away the weather braces. 
+Brace up."  "Trim down the head sheets," were the orders which
+followed in rapid succession, and were as quickly executed.  The
+Spaniard was now broad on our lee bow, distant not more than half
+a mile, but as she felt the wind which we brought down she fairly
+spun through the water, exposing her bright copper.  She was both
+head-reaching and outsailing us; in half an hour she would have
+been right ahead of us, and in an hour the sun would be down.  It
+was now or never.  We could bring nothing to bear except the gun
+on the forecastle.  Fortunately it continued smooth, and we were
+no longer troubled with smoke.  Shot after shot went hissing
+through the air after her; a number tore through the sails or
+rigging, but not a spar was touched nor an important rope cut.  We
+could see some of her crew aloft reeving and stopping braces and
+ready to repair any damage done, working as coolly under fire as
+old man-of-war's men.  But while we were looking, down came the
+gaff of her mainsail, and the gaff-topsail fell all adrift; a
+lucky shot had cut her peak halyards.  Our crew cheered with a
+will.  "Well done, Hobson; try it again!" called the captain to
+the boatswain's mate, who was captain of the gun. 
+ 
+After the next shot, the topgallant yard swayed for a few minutes
+and fell forward.  The order was given to cease firing; she was at
+our mercy.  We were rapidly nearing the chase, when she backed her
+topsail.  We kept off, and when within easy range of the
+carronades "hove to" to windward.  Lieutenant Bukett was ordered
+to board her in the first cutter and take charge.  I followed in
+the second cutter, with orders to bring the captain on board with
+his papers.  A few strokes sent us alongside of a brig about our
+tonnage, but with a low rail and a flush deck.  The crew, some
+eighteen or twenty fine-looking seamen, were forward eagerly
+discussing the situation of affairs.  The captain was aft with his
+two officers, talking to Lieutenant Bukett.  He was fair, with
+light hair curling all over his head, beard cut short, about forty
+years of age, well set up, with a frame like a Roman wrestler,
+evidently a tough customer in a rough-and-ready scrimmage. 
+ 
+He spoke fairly good English, and was violently denouncing the
+outrage done to his flag; his government would demand instant
+satisfaction for firing upon a legitimate trader on the high seas. 
+I have the lieutenant Captain Thompson's orders, to bring the
+captain and his papers on board at once.  His harangue was cut
+short by orders to get on board my boat.  He swore with a terrible
+oath that he would never leave his vessel.  "Come on board, men,"
+said I, and twenty of our crew were on deck in a jiffy.  I
+stationed my coxswain, Parker, at the cabin companion way with
+orders to allow no one to pass.  "Now," said Lieutenant Bukett to
+the Spaniard, "I will take you on board in irons unless you go
+quietly."  He hesitated a moment, then said he would come as soon
+as he had gone below to bring up his papers.  "No, never mind your
+papers; I will find them," said the lieutenant, for he saw the
+devil in the Spaniard's eyes, and knew he meant mischief.  Our
+captive made one bound for the companion way, however, and seizing
+Parker by the throat hurled him into the water ways as if he had
+been a rag baby.  But fortunately he slipped on a small grating
+and fell on his knees, and before he could recover himself two of
+our men threw themselves upon him. 
+ 
+I closed the companion way.  The struggle was desperate for a few
+minutes, for the Spaniard seemed possessed of the furies, and his
+efforts were almost superhuman.  Twice he threw the men from him
+across the deck, but they were reinforced by Parker, who, smarting
+under his discomfiture, rushed in, determined to down him.  I was
+anxious to end it with my pistol, but Lieutenant Bukett would not
+consent.  The Spaniard's officers and men made some demonstration
+to assist, but they were quickly disposed of: his two mates were
+put in irons and the crew driven forward.  Struggling, fighting,
+every limb and every muscle at work, the captain was overpowered;
+a piece of the signal halyards brought his hands together, and
+handcuffs were slipped on his wrists.  Only then he succumbed, and
+begged Lieutenant Bukett to blow out his brains, for he had been
+treated like a pirate. 
+ 
+Without doubt if he had reached the cabin he would have blown up
+the vessel, for in a locker over the transom were two open kegs of
+powder.  I led him to my boat, assisted him in, and returned to
+the Porpoise.  As soon as the Spaniard reached the deck the
+captain ordered his irons removed, and expressed his regret that
+it had been necessary to use force.  The prisoner only bowed and
+said nothing.  The captain asked him what his cargo consisted of. 
+He replied, "About four hundred blacks bound to the Brazils." 
+ 
+I was then ordered to return to the brig, bring on board her crew,
+leaving only the cook and steward, and to take charge of the prize
+as Lieutenant Bukett, our first lieutenant, was not yet wholly
+recovered from an attack of African fever.  The crew of twenty
+men, when brought on board, consisted of Spaniards, Greeks,
+Malays, Arabs, white and black, but had not one Anglo-Saxon.  They
+were ironed in pairs and put under guard. 
+ 
+From the time we first got on board we had heard moans, cries, and
+rumblings coming from below, and as soon as the captain and crew
+were removed, the hatches had been taken off, when there arose a
+hot blast as from a charnel house, sickening and overpowering.  In
+the hold were three or four hundred human beings, gasping,
+struggling for breath, dying; their bodies, limbs, faces, all
+expressing terrible suffering.  In their agonizing fight for life,
+some had torn or wounded themselves or their neighbors dreadfully;
+some were stiffened in the most unnatural positions.  As soon as I
+knew the condition of things I sent the boat back for the doctor
+and some whiskey.  It returned bringing Captain Thompson, and for
+an hour or more we were all hard at work lifting and helping the
+poor creatures on deck, where they were laid out in rows.  A
+little water and stimulant revived most of them; some, however,
+were dead or too far gone to be resuscitated.  The doctor worked
+earnestly over each one, but seventeen were beyond human skill. 
+As fast as he pronounced them dead they were quickly dropped
+overboard. 
+ 
+Night closed in with our decks covered so thickly with the ebony
+bodies that with difficulty we could move about; fortunately they
+were as quiet as so many snakes.  In the meantime the first
+officer, Mr. Block, was sending up a new topgallant yard, reeving
+new rigging, repairing the sails, and getting everything ataunto
+aloft.  The Kroomen were busy washing out and fumigating the hold,
+getting ready for our cargo again.  It would have been a very
+anxious night, except that I felt relieved by the presence of the
+brig which kept within hail.  Soon after daybreak Captain Thompson
+came on board again, and we made a count of the captives as they
+were sent below; 188 men and boys, and 166 women and girls. 
+Seeing everything snug and in order the captain returned to the
+brig, giving me final orders to proceed with all possible dispatch
+to Monrovia, Liberia, land the negroes, then sail for Porto Praya,
+Cape de Verde Islands, and report to the commodore.  As the brig
+hauled to the wind and stood to the southward and eastward I
+dipped my colors, when her crew jumped into the rigging and gave
+us three cheers, which we returned. 
+ 
+As she drew away from us I began to realize my position and
+responsibility: a young midshipman, yet in my teens, commanding a
+prize, with three hundred and fifty prisoners on board, two or
+three weeks' sail from port, with only a small crew.  From the
+first I kept all hands aft except two men on the lookout, and the
+weather was so warm that we could all sleep on deck.  I also
+ordered the men never to lay aside their pistols or cutlasses,
+except when working aloft, but my chief reliance was in my
+knowledge of the negro,--of his patient, docile disposition.  Born
+and bred a slave he never thought of any other condition, and he
+accepted the situation without a murmur.  I had never heard of
+blacks rising or attempting to gain their freedom on board a
+slaver. 
+ 
+My charges were all of a deep black; from fifteen to twenty-five
+years of age, and, with a few exceptions, nude, unless copper or
+brass rings on their ankles or necklaces of cowries can be
+described as articles of dress.  All were slashed, or had the
+scars of branding on their foreheads and cheeks; these marks were
+the distinguishing features of different tribes or families.  The
+men's hair had been cut short, and their heads looked in some
+cases as if they had been shaven.  The women, on the contrary,
+wore their hair "a la pompadour;" the coarse kinky locks were
+sometimes a foot or more above their heads, and trained square or
+round like a boxwood bush.  Their features were of the pronounced  
+African type, but, notwithstanding this disfigurement, were not
+unpleasing in appearance.  The figures of all were very good,
+straight, well developed, some of the young men having bodies that
+would have graced a Mercury or an Apollo.  Their hands were small,
+showing no evidences of work, only the cruel marks of shackles. 
+These in some cases had worn deep furrows on their wrists or
+ankles. 
+ 
+They were obedient to all orders as far as they understood them,
+and would, I believe, have jumped overboard if told to do so.  I
+forbade the men to treat them harshly or cruelly.  I had the sick
+separated from the others, and allowed them to remain on deck all
+the time, and in this way I partly gained their confidence.  I was
+anxious to learn their story.  Fortunately one of the Kroomen
+found among the prisoners a native of a tribe living near the
+coast, and with him as interpreter was able to make himself
+understood.  After a good deal of questioning I learned that most
+of them were from a long distance in the interior, some having
+been one and some two moons on the way, traveling partly by land
+and partly by river until they reached the coast.  They had been
+sold by their kings or by their parents to the Arab trader for
+firearms or for rum.  Once at the depots near the coast, they were
+sold by the Arabs or other traders to the slave captains for from
+twenty-five to fifty dollars a head.  In the Brazils or West
+Indies they were worth from two to five hundred dollars.  This
+wide margin, of course, attracted unscrupulous and greedy
+adventurers, who if they succeeded in running a few cargoes would
+enrich themselves. 
+ 
+Our daily routine was simple.  At six in the morning the rope
+netting over the main hatch which admitted light and air was taken
+off, and twenty-five of each sex were brought up, and seated in
+two circles, one on each side of the deck.  A large pan of boiled
+paddy was then placed in the centre by the cook and all went to
+work with their hands.  A few minutes sufficed to dispose of every
+grain; then one of the Kroomen gave each of them a cup of water
+from a bucket.  For half an hour after the meal they had the
+liberty of the deck, except the poop, for exercise, to wash and to
+sun themselves; for sunshine to a negro is meat and drink.  At the
+end of this time they were sent below and another fifty brought
+up, and so on until all had been fed and watered.  Paddy or rice
+was the staple article of food.  At dinner boiled yams were given
+with the rice.  Our passengers were quartered on a flying deck
+extending from the foremast to a point twenty feet abaft the main
+hatch from which came light and air.  The height was about five
+feet; the men had one side and the women the other.  Of course
+there was no furnishing of any kind, but all lay prone upon the
+bare deck in rows. 
+ 
+Every morning after breakfast the Kroomen would rig the force
+pump, screw on the hose and drench them all, washing out
+thoroughly between decks.  They appeared to enjoy this, and it was
+cooling, for be it remembered we were close under the equator, the
+thermometer dancing about 90 deg.  As the water was sluiced over
+them they would rub and scrub each other.  Only the girls would
+try not to get their hair wet, for they were at all times
+particular about their headdress.  It may be that this was the
+only part of their toilet that gave them any concern. 
+ 
+The winds were baffling and light, so we made but slow progress. 
+Fortunately frequent rains, with sometimes a genuine tropical
+downpour or cloud-burst, gave us an opportunity of replenishing
+our water casks, and by spreading the awnings we were able to get
+a good supply.  I found on inspection that there were at least
+thirty days' provisions on board, so on this score and that of
+water I felt easy.  I lived on deck, seldom using the cabin, which
+was a veritable arsenal, with racks of muskets and cutlasses on
+two sides, many more than the captain needed to arm his crew,
+evidently intended for barter.  Two or three prints of his
+favorite saints, ornamented with sharks' teeth, hung on one
+bulkhead.  A well-thrummed mandolin and a number of French novels
+proved him to be a musical and literary fellow, who could probably
+play a bolero while making a troublesome slave walk a plank.  I
+found also some choice vintages from the Douro and Bordeaux snugly
+stowed in his spirit locker, which proved good medicines for some
+of our captives, who required stimulants.  Several of the girls
+were much reduced, refused nearly all food, and were only kept
+alive by a little wine and water.  Two finally died of mere
+inanition.  Their death did not in the least affect their fellows,
+who appeared perfectly indifferent and callous to all their
+surroundings, showing not the least sympathy or desire to help or
+wait on one another. 
+ 
+The fifth day after parting from the brig we encountered a
+tropical storm.  The sun rose red and angry, and owing to the
+great refraction appeared three times its natural size.  It
+climbed lazily to the zenith, and at noon we were shadowless.  The
+sky was as calm as a vault, and the surface of the water was like
+burnished steel.  The heat became so stifling that even the
+Africans were gasping for breath, and we envied them their freedom
+from all impediments.  The least exertion was irksome, and
+attended with extreme lassitude.  During the afternoon thin cirri
+clouds, flying very high, spread out over the western heavens like
+a fan.  As the day lengthened they thickened to resemble the
+scales of a fish, bringing to mind the old saying, "A mackerel sky
+and a mare's tail," etc.  The signs were all unmistakable, and
+even the gulls recognized a change, and, screaming, sought shelter
+on our spars.  Mr. Block was ordered to send down all the light
+yards and sails; to take in and furl everything, using storm
+gaskets, except on the fore and main storm staysails; to lash
+everything on deck; to batten down the hatches, except one square
+of the main; see all the shifting boards in place, so that our
+living cargo would not be thrown to leeward higgledy-piggledy, and
+to take four or five of the worst cases of the sick into the cabin
+and lay them on the floor. 
+ 
+The sun disappeared behind a mountainous mass of leaden-colored
+clouds which rose rapidly in the southern and western quarters. 
+To the eastward, also, the signs were threatening.  Night came on
+suddenly as it does in the tropics.  Soon the darkness enveloped
+us, a palpable veil.  A noise like the march of a mighty host was
+heard, which proved to be the approach of a tropical flood,
+heralded by drops as large as marbles.  It churned the still
+waters into a phosphorescent foam which rendered the darkness only
+more oppressive.  The rain came down as it can come only in the
+Bight of Benin.  The avalanche cooled us, reducing the temperature
+ten or fifteen degrees, giving us new life, and relieving our
+fevered blood.  I told Mr. Block to throw back the tarpaulin over  
+the main hatch and let our dusky friends get some benefit of it. 
+In half an hour the rain ceased, but it was as calm and ominous as
+ever. 
+ 
+I knew this was but the forerunner of something worse to follow,
+and we had not long to wait, for suddenly a blinding flash of
+lightning darted through the gloom from east to west, followed by
+one in the opposite direction.  Without intermission, one blaze
+after another and thunder crashing until our eyes were blinded and
+our ears deafened, a thousand times ten thousand pieces of
+artillery thundered away.  We seemed utterly helpless and
+insignificant.  "How wonderful are Thy works," came to my mind. 
+Still no wind; the brig lay helpless. 
+ 
+Suddenly, as a slap in the face, the wind struck us,--on the
+starboard quarter, fortunately.  "Hard-a-starboard."  "Hanl aft
+port fore staysail sheet," I called.  But before she could gather
+way she was thrown down by the wind like a reed.  She was "coming
+to" instead of "going off," and I tried to get the main storm
+staysail down but could not make myself heard.  She was lying on
+her broadside.  Luckily the water was smooth as yet.  The main
+staysail shot out of the boltropes with a report like a twelve-
+pounder, and this eased her so that if the fore staysail would
+only hold she would go off.  For a few minutes all we could do was
+to hold on, our lee rail in the water; but the plucky little brig
+rallied a little, her head went off inch by inch, and as she
+gathered way she righted, and catching the wind on our quarter we
+were off like a shot out of a gun.  I knew we were too near the
+vortex of the disturbance for the wind to hang long in one
+quarter, so watched anxiously for a change.  The sea rose rapidly
+while we were running to the northward on her course, and after a
+lull of a few minutes the wind opened from the eastward, butt end
+foremost, a change of eight points.  Nothing was to be done but
+heave to, and this in a cross sea where pitch, weather roll, lee
+lurch, followed one another in such earnest that it was a wonder
+her masts were not switched out of her. 
+ 
+I passed an anxious night, most concerned about the poor creatures
+under hatches, whose sufferings must have been terrible.  To
+prevent their suffocating I kept two men at the main hatch with
+orders to lift one corner of the tarpaulin whenever possible, even
+if some water did go below.  Toward morning the wind and the sea
+went down rapidly, and as the sun rose it chased the clouds off,
+giving us the promise of a fine day.  When the cook brought me a
+cup of coffee, I do not know that I ever enjoyed anything more. 
+Hatches off, I jumped down into the hold to look after my
+prisoners.  Battered and bruised they lay around in heaps.  Only
+the shifting boards had kept them from being beaten into an
+indistinguishable mass.  As fast as possible they were sent on
+deck, and the sun's rays, with a few buckets of water that were
+thrown over them, accomplished wonders in bringing them to life
+and starting them to care for their sore limbs and bruises. 
+ 
+One boy, when I motioned for him to go on deck, pointed quietly to
+his leg, and upon examination I found a fracture just above the
+knee.  Swelling had already commenced.  I had seen limbs set, and
+had some rough idea how it should be done.  So while getting some
+splints of keg staves and bandages ready, I kept a stream of water
+pouring on the fracture, and then ordered two men to pull the limb
+in place, and it took all their strength.  That done I put on the
+splints and wrapped the bandages tightly.  Three weeks later I
+landed him in a fair way of recovery. 
+ 
+Gradually I allowed a larger number of the blacks to remain on
+deck, a privilege which they greatly enjoyed.  To lie basking in
+the sun like saurians, half sleeping, half waking, appeared to
+satisfy all their wishes.  They were perfectly docile and
+obedient, and not by word, gesture, or look did they express any
+dissatisfaction with orders given them.  But again for any little
+acts of kindness they expressed no kind of appreciation or
+gratitude.  Physically they were men and women, but otherwise as
+far removed from the Anglo-Saxon as the oyster from the baboon, or
+the mole from the horse. 
+ 
+On the fourteenth day from parting with the brig we made the palms
+on Cape Mesurado, the entrance to Monrovia Harbor.  A light sea
+breath wafted us to the anchorage, a mile from the town, and when
+the anchor dropped from the bows and the chain ran through the
+hawse pipe, it was sweet music to my ears; for the strain had been
+great, and I felt years older than when I parted from my
+messmates.  A great responsibility seemed lifted from my
+shoulders, and I enjoyed a long and refreshing sleep for the first
+time in a fortnight.  At nine the next morning I went on shore and
+reported to the authorities, the officials of Liberia, of which
+Monrovia is the capital. 
+ 
+This part of the African coast had been selected by the United
+States government as the home of emancipated slaves; for prior to
+the abolition excitement which culminated in the war, numbers of
+slaves in the South had been manumitted by their masters with the
+understanding that they should be deported to Liberia, and the
+Colonization Society, an influential body, comprising some of the
+leading men, like Madison, Webster, and Clay, had assisted in the
+same work.  The passages of the negroes were paid; each family was
+given a tract of land and sufficient means to build a house. 
+Several thousand had been sent out, most of whom had settled at
+Monrovia, and a few at other places on the coast.  They had made
+no impression on the natives.  On the contrary, many of them had
+intermarried with the natives, and the off-spring of these unions
+had lost the use of the English tongue, and had even gone back to
+the life and customs of their ancestors, sans clothing, sans
+habitations, and worship of a fetich. 
+ 
+Of course there were some notable exceptions, especially President
+Roberts, who proved himself a safe and prudent ruler, taking into
+consideration his surroundings and the material with which he had
+to work.  The form of government was modeled after that of the
+United States, but it was top-heavy.  Honorables, colonels, and
+judges were thicker than in Georgia.  Only privates were scarce;
+for nothing delights a negro more than a little show or a gaudy
+uniform.  On landing I was met by a dark mulatto, dressed in a
+straw hat, blue tail coat, silver epaulettes, linen trousers, with
+bare feet, and a heavy cavalry sabre hanging by his side.  With
+him were three or four others in the same rig, except the
+epaulettes.  He introduced himself as Colonel Harrison, chief of
+police.  I asked to be directed to the custom house. 
+ 
+The collector proved to be an old negro from Raleigh, N. C., gray
+as a badger, spectacled, with manners of Lord Grandison and
+language of Mrs. Malaprop.  I reported my arrival, and asked
+permission to land my cargo as soon as possible.  He replied that
+in a matter of so much importance, devolving questions of
+momentous interest, it would be obligatory on him to consult the
+Secretary of the Treasury.  I said I trusted he would so
+facilitate affairs that I might at an early hour disembarrass
+myself of my involuntary prisoners.  I returned on board, and the
+day passed without any answer.  The next morning I determined to
+go at once to headquarters and find out the cause of the delay by
+calling on the President. 
+ 
+He received me without any formality.  I made my case as strong as
+possible, and pressed for an immediate answer.  In reply he
+assured me he would consult with other members of his cabinet, and
+give me a final answer the next morning.  That evening I dined
+with him en famille, and recognized some old Virginia dishes on
+the table.  The next morning I waited impatiently for his
+decision, having made up my mind however, if it was unfavorable,
+to land my poor captives, be the consequences what they might. 
+ 
+About eleven o'clock a boat came off with an officer in full
+uniform, who introduced himself as Colonel Royal, bearer of
+dispatches from his Excellency the President.  He handed me a
+letter couched in diplomatic language, as long as some of his
+brother presidents' messages on this side of the Atlantic.  I had
+hardly patience to read it.  The gist of it was, I might not land
+the captives at Monrovia, but might land them at Grand Bassa,
+about a hundred and fifty miles to the eastward; that Colonel
+Royal would accompany me with orders to the governor there to
+receive them.  This was something I had not anticipated, and
+outside of my instructions.  However, I thought it best to comply
+with the wishes of the government of our only colony. 
+ 
+Getting under way we stood to the southward and eastward, taking
+advantage of the light land and sea breeze, keeping the coast
+close aboard.  The colonel had come on board without any
+impediments, and I wondered if he intended to make the voyage in
+his cocked hat, epaulettes, sword, etc.  But soon after we had
+started he disappeared and emerged from the cabin bareheaded,
+barefooted, and without clothing except a blue dungaree shirt and
+trousers.  Like a provident negro, having stowed away all his
+trappings, he appeared as a roustabout on a Western steamer.  But
+he had not laid aside with his toggery any of his important and
+consequential airs.  He ran foul of Mr. Block, who called him Mr.
+Cuffy, and ordered him to give him a pull with the main sheet. 
+The colonel complained to me that he was not addressed by his name
+or title, and that he was not treated as a representative of his
+government should be.  I reprimanded Mr. Block, and told him to
+give the visitor all his title.  "All right, sir, but the colonel
+must keep off the weather side of the deck," growled the officer. 
+The cook, the crew, and even the Kroomen, all took their cue from
+the first officer, and the colonel's lot was made most unhappy. 
+ 
+On the third day we reached Grand Bassa, and anchored off the
+beach about two miles, along which the surf was breaking so high
+that any attempt to land would be hazardous.  Toward evening it
+moderated, and a canoe with three naked natives came off.  One I
+found could speak a little English.  I told him to say to the
+governor that I would come on shore in the morning and see him,
+and land my cargo at the same time. 
+ 
+The next morning at sunrise we were boarded by a party of natives
+headed by one wearing a black hat half covered with a tarnished
+silver band, an old navy frock coat, much too small, between the
+buttons of which his well-oiled skin showed clearly.  A pair of
+blue flannel trousers completed his outfit.  An interpreter
+introduced him as King George of Grand Bassa.  With him were about
+a dozen followers, each one wearing a different sort of garment-- 
+and seldom more than a single one--representing old uniforms of
+many countries.  Two coats I noticed were buttoned up the back. 
+ 
+The king began by saying that he was and always had been a friend
+of the Americans; that he was a big man, had plenty of men and
+five wives, etc.  While he was speaking, a white-bearded old
+colored gentleman came over the gangway, dressed in a linen
+roundabout and trousers, with a wide-brimmed straw hat.  At the
+same time Colonel Royal came up from the cabin in grande tenue and
+introduced us to the Hon. Mr. Marshall, governor of Bassa,
+formerly of Kentucky. 
+ 
+In a few minutes he explained the situation.  With a few settlers
+he was located at this place, on the frontier of the colony, and
+they were there on sufferance only from the natives.  I told him
+Colonel Royal would explain my mission to him and the king.  The
+colonel, bowing low to the king, the governor, and myself, and
+bringing his sword down with a thud on the deck, drew from between
+the bursting buttons of his coat the formidable document I had
+seen at Monrovia, and with most impressive voice and gesture
+commenced to read it.  The king listened for a few minutes, and
+then interrupted him.  I asked the interpreter what he said.  He
+replied, "King say he fool nigger; if he comes on shore he give
+him to Voodoo women."  Then turning his back he walked forward. 
+The colonel dropped his paper, and drawing his sword, in the most
+dramatic manner claimed protection in the name of the government,
+declaring that he had been insulted.  I told him to keep cool,
+since he was certainly safe as long as he was on board my ship. 
+He grumbled and muttered terrible things, but subsided gradually
+like the departing thunder of a summer storm. 
+ 
+I arranged the landing of the passengers with Governor Marshall,
+whom I found a sensible, clear-headed old man, ready to cooperate
+in every way.  But he suggested that I had better consult the king
+before doing anything.  I did so, and he at once said they could
+not land.  I told the interpreter to say they would be landed at
+once and put under the protection of the governor; that if the
+king or his people hurt them or ran them off I would report it to
+our commodore, who would certainly punish him severely.  Finding
+me determined, he began to temporize, and asked that the landing
+be put off until the next day, that he might consult with his head
+people, for if I sent them on shore before he had done so they
+would kill them.  "If that is the case," I replied, "I will hold
+you on board as a hostage for their good behavior."  This threat
+surprised him, and he changed his tactics.  After a little powwow
+with some of his followers, he said that if I would give him fifty
+muskets, twenty pounds of powder, the colonel's sword, and some
+red cloth for his wives, I might land them.  I replied that I had
+not a musket to spare nor an ounce of powder, that the colonel was
+a high officer of his government, and that he of course would not
+give up his uniform.  Fortunately the colonel had retired to the
+cabin and did not hear this modest demand, or he would have been
+as much outraged as if his sable Majesty had asked for him to be
+served "roti a l'Ashantee."  However, I told the king I would send
+his wives some cloth and buttons.  He grunted his approval but
+returned again to the charge, and asked that he might choose a few
+of the captives for his own use, before landing.  "Certainly not,"
+I answered, "neither on board nor on shore," and added that he
+would be held accountable for their good treatment as free men and
+women.  He left thoroughly disappointed and bent on mischief. 
+ 
+In the meantime Mr. Block had made all preparations for landing,
+and had the boats lowered and ranged alongside, with sufficient
+rice to last the blacks a week or ten days.  The men and boys were
+sent first.  When they were called up from the hold and ordered
+into the boats not one of them moved.  They evidently divined what
+had been going on and dreaded leaving the vessel, though our
+Kroomen tried to explain that they would be safe and free on
+shore.  The explanation was without effect, however, and they
+refused to move.  The could only understand that they were
+changing masters, and they preferred the present ones.  Sending
+three or four men down, I told them to pass up the negroes one at
+a time.  Only a passive resistance was offered, such as one often
+sees exhibited by cattle being loaded on the cars or on a steamer,
+and were silent, not uttering a word of complaint.  By noon the
+men were all on shore, and then we began with the girls.  They
+were more demonstrative than the men, and by their looks and
+gestures begged not to be taken out of the vessel.  I was much
+moved, for it was a painful duty, and I had become interested in
+these beings, so utterly helpless, so childlike in their
+dependence on those around them.  And I could not help thinking
+what their fate would be, thrown upon the shore hundreds of miles
+from their homes, and among a people strange to them in language. 
+ 
+Even Mr. Block was deeply stirred.  "He had not shipped," he said,
+"for such work."  I went to my cabin and left him in charge.  In
+the course of an hour he reported, "All ashore, sir."  I told him
+to have the gig manned and I would go on shore with Colonel Royal,
+and get a receipt from Governor Marshall for my late cargo.  The
+colonel declined to accompany me, alleging sickness and requesting
+me to get the necessary papers signed.  No doubt he felt safer on
+board than within reach of King George. 
+ 
+We landed through the surf on a sandy beach, on which the waves of
+the Atlantic were fretting.  Near by was a thick grove of cocoanut
+trees, under which in groups of four and five were those who had
+just been landed.  They were seated on the ground, their heads
+resting on their knees, in a position of utter abnegation,
+surrounded by three or four hundred chattering savages of all
+ages, headed by the king.  With the exception of him and a few of
+his head men, the clothing of the company would not have covered a
+rag baby.  They were no doubt discussing the appearance of the
+strangers and making their selections. 
+ 
+I found the governor's house and the houses of the few settlers
+some distance back on a slight elevation.  The governor was
+comfortably, though plainly situated, with a large family around
+him.  He gave me a receipt for the number of blacks landed, but
+said it would be impossible for him to prevent the natives from
+taking and enslaving them.  I agreed with him, and said he must
+repeat to the king what I had told him.  Then bidding him good-by
+I returned on board, sad and weary as one often feels after being
+relieved of a great burden.  At the same time I wondered whether
+the fate of these people would have been any worse if the captain
+of the slaver had succeeded in landing them in the Brazils or the
+West Indies.  Sierra Leone being a crown colony, the English could
+land all their captives there and provide for them until they were
+able to work for themselves.  In this respect they had a great
+advantage over us. 
+ 
+Getting under way, I proceeded to Monrovia to land Colonel Royal,
+and then to Porto Praya, our squadron's headquarters.  There I
+found Commodore Gregory in the flagship corvette Portsmouth, and
+reported to him.  Soon after the Porpoise came in, and I joined my
+old craft, giving up my command of the captured slaver rather
+reluctantly. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+MR. CHARLES W. CHESNUTT'S STORIES 
+by W. D. Howells 
+ 
+ 
+The critical reader of the story called The Wife of his Youth,
+which appeared in these pages two years ago, must have noticed
+uncommon traits in what was altogether a remarkable piece of work. 
+The first was the novelty of the material; for the writer dealt
+not only with people who were not white, but with people who were
+not black enough to contrast grotesquely with white people,--who
+in fact were of that near approach to the ordinary American in
+race and color which leaves, at the last degree, every one but the
+connoisseur in doubt whether they are Anglo-Saxon or Anglo- 
+African.  Quite as striking as this novelty of the material was
+the author's thorough mastery of it, and his unerring knowledge of
+the life he had chosen in its peculiar racial characteristics. 
+But above all, the story was notable for the passionless handling
+of a phase of our common life which is tense with potential
+tragedy; for the attitude, almost ironical, in which the artist
+observes the play of contesting emotions in the drama under his
+eyes; and for his apparently reluctant, apparently helpless
+consent to let the spectator know his real feeling in the matter. 
+Any one accustomed to study methods in fiction, to distinguish
+between good and bad art, to feel the joy which the delicate skill
+possible only from a love of truth can give, must have known a
+high pleasure in the quiet self-restraint of the performance; and
+such a reader would probably have decided that the social
+situation in the piece was studied wholly from the outside, by an
+observer with special opportunities for knowing it, who was, as it
+were, surprised into final sympathy. 
+ 
+Now, however, it is known that the author of this story is of
+negro blood,--diluted, indeed, in such measure that if he did not
+admit this descent few would imagine it, but still quite of that
+middle world which lies next, though wholly outside, our own. 
+Since his first story appeared he has contributed several others
+to these pages, and he now makes a showing palpable to criticism
+in a volume called The Wife of his Youth, and Other Stories of the
+Color Line; a volume of Southern sketches called The Conjure
+Woman; and a short life of Frederick Douglass, in the Beacon
+Series of biographies.  The last is a simple, solid, straight
+piece of work, not remarkable above many other biographical
+studies by people entirely white, and yet important as the work of
+a man not entirely white treating of a great man of his
+inalienable race.  But the volumes of fiction ARE remarkable above
+many, above most short stories by people entirely white, and would
+be worthy of unusual notice if they were not the work of a man not
+entirely white. 
+ 
+It is not from their racial interest that we could first wish to
+speak of them, though that must have a very great and very just
+claim upon the critic.  It is much more simply and directly, as
+works of art, that they make their appeal, and we must allow the
+force of this quite independently of the other interest.  Yet it
+cannot always be allowed.  There are times in each of the stories
+of the first volume when the simplicity lapses, and the effect is
+as of a weak and uninstructed touch.  There are other times when
+the attitude, severely impartial and studiously aloof, accuses
+itself of a little pompousness.  There are still other times when
+the literature is a little too ornate for beauty, and the diction
+is journalistic, reporteristic.  But it is right to add that these
+are the exceptional times, and that for far the greatest part Mr.
+Chesnutt seems to know quite as well what he wants to do in a
+given case as Maupassant, or Tourguenief, or Mr. James, or Miss
+Jewett, or Miss Wilkins, in other given cases, and has done it
+with an art of kindred quiet and force.  He belongs, in other
+words, to the good school, the only school, all aberrations from
+nature being so much truancy and anarchy.  He sees his people very
+clearly, very justly, and he shows them as he sees them, leaving
+the reader to divine the depth of his feeling for them.  He
+touches all the stops, and with equal delicacy in stories of real
+tragedy and comedy and pathos, so that it would be hard to say
+which is the finest in such admirably rendered effects as The Web
+of Circumstance, The Bouquet, and Uncle Wellington's Wives.  In
+some others the comedy degenerates into satire, with a look in the
+reader's direction which the author's friend must deplore. 
+ 
+As these stories are of our own time and country, and as there is
+not a swashbuckler of the seventeenth century, or a sentimentalist
+of this, or a princess of an imaginary kingdom, in any of them,
+they will possibly not reach half a million readers in six months,
+but in twelve months possibly more readers will remember them than
+if they had reached the half million.  They are new and fresh and
+strong, as life always is, and fable never is; and the stories of
+The Conjure Woman have a wild, indigenous poetry, the creation of
+sincere and original imagination, which is imparted with a tender
+humorousness and a very artistic reticence.  As far as his race is
+concerned, or his sixteenth part of a race, it does not greatly
+matter whether Mr. Chesnutt invented their motives, or found them,
+as he feigns, among his distant cousins of the Southern cabins. 
+In either case, the wonder of their beauty is the same; and
+whatever is primitive and sylvan or campestral in the reader's
+heart is touched by the spells thrown on the simple black lives in
+these enchanting tales.  Character, the most precious thing in
+fiction, is as faithfully portrayed against the poetic background
+as in the setting of the Stories of the Color Line. 
+ 
+Yet these stories, after all, are Mr. Chesnutt's most important
+work, whether we consider them merely as realistic fiction, apart
+from their author, or as studies of that middle world of which he
+is naturally and voluntarily a citizen.  We had known the
+nethermost world of the grotesque and comical negro and the
+terrible and tragic negro through the white observer on the
+outside, and black character in its lyrical moods we had known
+from such an inside witness as Mr. Paul Dunbar; but it had
+remained for Mr. Chesnutt to acquaint us with those regions where
+the paler shades dwell as hopelessly, with relation to ourselves,
+as the blackest negro.  He has not shown the dwellers there as
+very different from ourselves.  They have within their own circles
+the same social ambitions and prejudices; they intrigue and
+truckle and crawl, and are snobs, like ourselves, both of the
+snobs that snub and the snobs that are snubbed.  We may choose to
+think them droll in their parody of pure white society, but
+perhaps it would be wiser to recognize that they are like us
+because they are of our blood by more than a half, or three
+quarters, or nine tenths.  It is not, in such cases, their negro
+blood that characterizes them; but it is their negro blood that
+excludes them, and that will imaginably fortify them and exalt
+them.  Bound in that sad solidarity from which there is no hope of
+entrance into polite white society for them, they may create a
+civilization of their own, which need not lack the highest
+quality.  They need not be ashamed of the race from which they
+have sprung, and whose exile they share; for in many of the arts
+it has already shown, during a single generation of freedom, gifts
+which slavery apparently only obscured.  With Mr. Booker
+Washington the first American orator of our time, fresh upon the
+time of Frederick Douglass; with Mr. Dunbar among the truest of
+our poets; with Mr. Tanner, a black American, among the only three
+Americans from whom the French government ever bought a picture,
+Mr. Chesnutt may well be willing to own his color. 
+ 
+But that is his personal affair.  Our own more universal interest
+in him arises from the more than promise he has given in a
+department of literature where Americans hold the foremost place. 
+In this there is, happily, no color line; and if he has it in him
+to go forward on the way which he has traced for himself, to be
+true to life as he has known it, to deny himself the glories of
+the cheap success which awaits the charlatan in fiction, one of
+the places at the top is open to him.  He has sounded a fresh
+note, boldly, not blatantly, and he has won the ear of the more
+intelligent public. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+PATHS OF HOPE FOR THE NEGRO 
+PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS OF A SOUTHERNER 
+by Jerome Dowd 
+ 
+ 
+It is too late in the day to discuss whether it would have been
+better had the Negro never been brought into the Southern States. 
+If his presence here has been beneficial, or is ever to prove so,
+the price of the benefit has already been dearly paid for.  He was
+the occasion of the deadliest and most expensive war in modern
+times.  In the next place, his presence has corrupted politics and
+has limited statesmanship to a mere question of race supremacy. 
+Great problems concerning the political, industrial, and moral
+life of the people have been subordinated or overshadowed, so
+that, while important strides have been made elsewhere in the
+investigation of social conditions and in the administration of
+State and municipal affairs, in civil-service reform, in the
+management of penal and charitable institutions, and in the field
+of education, the South has lagged behind. 
+ 
+On the charts of illiteracy and crime the South is represented by
+an immense black spot.  Such are a few items of the account.  It
+will require millions more of dollars and generations more of
+earnest work before the total cost is met of bringing the black
+man to this side of the globe.  But the debt has been incurred and
+must be liquidated. 
+ 
+The welfare of the Negro is bound up with that of the white man in
+many important particulars: 
+ 
+First, the low standard of living among the blacks keeps down the
+wages of all classes of whites.  So long as the Negroes are
+content to live in miserable huts, wear rags, and subsist upon hog
+fat and cow-pease, so long must the wages of white people in the
+same kind of work be pressed toward the same level.  The higher we
+raise the standard of living among the Negroes, the higher will be
+the wages of the white people in the same occupations.  The low
+standard of the Negroes is the result of low productive power. 
+The less intelligent and skilled the Negroes are, the less they
+can produce, whether working for themselves or others, and hence,
+the less will be the total wealth of the country. 
+ 
+But it may be asked, When the standard of living of the Negroes is
+raised, will not wages go up, and will not that be a drawback? 
+Certainly wages will go up, because the income of all classes will
+be increased.  High wages generally indicate high productive power
+and general wealth, while low wages indicate the opposite.  Only
+benefits can arise from better wages. 
+ 
+In the next place, the Negro's propensity to crime tends to excite
+the criminal tendencies of the white man.  The South enjoys the
+distinction of having the highest percentage of crime in all the
+civilized world, and the reason is that the crimes of the one race
+provoke counter-crimes in the other. 
+ 
+The physical well-being of the one race has such a conspicuous
+influence upon that of the other that the subject requires no
+elaboration.  The uncleanliness of person and habits of the
+Negroes in their homes and in the homes of their employers tends
+to propagate diseases, and thus impairs the health and increases
+the death-rate of the whole population. 
+ 
+Again, the lack of refinement in intellect, manners, and dress
+among the Negroes is an obstacle to the cultivated life of the
+whites.  Ignorance and the absence of taste and self-respect in
+servants result in badly kept homes and yards, destruction of
+furniture and ware, ill-prepared food, poor table service, and a
+general lowering of the standard of living.  Furthermore, the
+corrupt, coarse, and vulgar language of the Negroes is largely
+responsible for the jumbled and distorted English spoken by many
+of the Southern whites. 
+ 
+Seeing that the degradation of the Negro is an impediment to the
+progress and civilization of the white man, how may we effect an
+improvement in his condition? 
+ 
+First, municipalities should give more attention to the streets
+and alleys that traverse Negro settlements.  In almost every town
+in the South there are settlements, known by such names as "New
+Africa," "Haiti," "Log Town," "Smoky Hollow," or "Snow Hill,"
+exclusively inhabited by Negroes.  These settlements are often
+outside the corporate limits.  The houses are built along narrow,
+crooked, and dirty lanes, and the community is without sanitary
+regulations or oversight.  These quarters should be brought under
+municipal control, the lanes widened into streets and cleaned, and
+provision made to guard against the opening of similar ones in the
+future. 
+ 
+In the next place, property-owners should build better houses for
+the Negroes to live in.  The weakness in the civilization of the
+Negroes is most pronounced in their family life.  But improvement
+in this respect is not possible without an improvement in the
+character and the comforts of the houses they live in.  Bad houses
+breed bad people and bad neighborhoods.  There is no more
+distinctive form of crime than the building and renting of houses
+unfit for human habitation. 
+ 
+Scarcely second in importance to improvements in house
+architecture is the need among Negroes of more time to spend with
+their families.  Employers of Negro labor should be less exacting
+in the number of hours required for a day's work.  Many domestic
+servants now work from six in the morning until nine and ten
+o'clock at night.  The Southern habit of keeping open shopping-
+places until late at night encourages late suppers, retains cooks,
+butlers, and nurses until bedtime, and robs them of all home life. 
+If the merchants would close their shops at six o'clock, as is the
+custom in the North, the welfare of both races would be greatly
+promoted. 
+ 
+Again, a revolution is needed in the character of the Negro's  
+religion.  At present it is too largely an affair of the emotions. 
+He needs to be taught that the religious life is something to grow
+into by the perfection of personality, and not to be jumped into
+or sweated into at camp-meetings.  The theological seminaries and
+the graduate preachers should assume the task of grafting upon the
+religion of the Negro that much sanity at least. 
+ 
+A reform is as much needed in the methods and aims of Negro
+education.  Up to the present Negro education has shared with that
+of the white man the fault of being top-heavy.  Colleges and
+universities have developed out of proportion to, and at the
+expense of, common schools.  Then, the kind of education afforded
+the Negro has not been fitted to his capacities and needs.  He has
+been made to pursue courses of study parallel to those prescribed
+for the whites, as though the individuals of both races had to
+fill the same positions in life.  Much of the Negro's education
+has had nothing to do with his real life-work.  It has only made
+him discontented and disinclined to unfold his arms.  The survival
+of the Negroes in the race for existence depends upon their
+retaining possession of the few bread-winning occupations now open
+to them.  But instead of better qualifying themselves for these
+occupations they have been poring over dead languages and working
+problems in mathematics.  In the meantime the Chinaman and the
+steam-laundry have abolished the Negro's wash-tub, trained white
+"tonsorial artists" have taken away his barber's chair, and
+skilled painters and plasterers and mechanics have taken away his
+paint-brushes and tool-chests.  Every year the number of
+occupations open to him becomes fewer because of his lack of
+progress in them.  Unless a radical change takes place in the
+scope of his education, so that he may learn better how to do his
+work, a tide of white immigration will set in and force him out of
+his last stronghold, domestic service, and limit his sphere to the
+farm. 
+ 
+All primary schools for the Negroes should be equipped for
+industrial training in such work as sewing, cooking, laundering,
+carpentry, and house-cleaning, and, in rural districts, in
+elementary agriculture. 
+ 
+Secondary schools should add to the literary courses a more
+advanced course in industrial training, so as to approach as
+nearly as possible the objects and methods of the Tuskegee and
+Hampton Industrial and Normal Schools.  Too much cannot be said in
+behalf of the revolution in the life of the Negro which the work
+of these schools promises and, in part, has already wrought.  The
+writer is fully aware that education has a value aside from and
+above its bread-winning results, and he would not dissuade the
+Negro from seeking the highest culture that he may be capable of;
+but it is folly for him to wing his way through the higher realms
+of the intellect without some acquaintance with the requirements
+and duties of life. 
+ 
+Changes are needed in the methods of Negro education as well as in
+its scope.  Educators should take into account, more than they
+have yet done, the differences in the mental characteristics of
+the two races.  It is a well-established fact that, while the
+lower races possess marked capacity to deal with simple, concrete
+ideas, they lack power of generalization, and soon fatigue in the
+realm of the abstract.  It is also well known that the inferior
+races, being deficient in generalization, which is a subjective
+process, are absorbed almost entirely in the things that are
+objective.  They have strong and alert eyesight, and are
+susceptible to impressions through the medium of the eye to an
+extent that is impossible to any of the white races.  This fact is
+evidenced in the great number of pictures found in the homes of
+the Negroes.  In default of anything better, they will paper their
+walls with advertisements of the theater and the circus, and even
+with pictures from vicious newspapers.  They delight in street
+pageantry, fancy costumes, theatrical performances, and similar
+spectacles.  Factories employing Negroes generally find it
+necessary to suspend operations on "circus day."  They love
+stories of adventure and any fiction that gives play to their
+imaginations.  All their tastes lie in the realm of the objective
+and the concrete. 
+ 
+Hence, in the school-room stress should be laid on those studies
+that appeal to the eye and the imagination.  Lessons should be
+given in sketching, painting, drawing, and casting.  Reprints of
+the popular works of art should be placed before the Negroes, that
+their love for art may be gratified and their taste cultivated at
+the same time.  Fancy needlework, dress-making, and home
+decorations should also have an important place.  These studies,
+while not contributing directly to bread-winning, have a refining
+and softening influence upon character, and inspire efforts to
+make the home more attractive.  The more interest we can make the
+Negro take in his personal appearance and in the comforts of his
+home, the more we shall strengthen and promote his family life and
+raise the level of his civilization. 
+ 
+The literary education of the Negro should consist of carefully
+selected poems and novels that appeal to his imagination and
+produce clear images upon his mind, excluding such literature as
+is in the nature of psychological or moral research.  Recitations
+and dialogues should be more generally and more frequently
+required.  In history emphasis should be given to what is
+picturesque, dramatic, and biographical. 
+ 
+Coming to the political phase of the Negro problem, there is a
+general agreement among white men that the Southern States cannot
+keep pace with the progress of the world as long as they are
+menaced by Negro domination, and that, therefore, it is necessary
+to eliminate the Negro vote from politics.  When the Negroes
+become intelligent factors in society, when they become thrifty
+and accumulate wealth, they will find the way to larger exercise
+of citizenship.  They can never sit upon juries to pass upon life
+and property until they are property-owners themselves, and they
+can never hold the reins of government by reason of mere
+superiority of numbers.  Before they can take on larger political
+responsibilities they must demonstrate their ability to meet them. 
+ 
+The Negroes will never be allowed to control State governments so
+long as they vote at every election upon the basis of color,
+without regard whatever to political issues or private
+convictions.  If the Negroes would divide their votes according to
+their individual opinions, as the lamented Charles Price, one of
+their best leaders, advised, there would be no danger of Negro
+domination and no objection to their holding offices which they
+might be competent to fill.  But as there is no present prospect
+of their voting upon any other basis than that of color, the white
+people are forced to accept the situation and protect themselves
+accordingly.  Years of bitter and costly experience have
+demonstrated over and over again that Negro rule is not only
+incompetent and corrupt, but a menace to civilization.  Some
+people imagine that there is something anomalous, peculiar, or
+local in the race prejudice that binds all Negroes together; but
+this clan spirit is a characteristic of all savage and semi- 
+civilized peoples. 
+ 
+It should be well understood by this time that no foreign race
+inhabiting this country and acting together politically can
+dominate the native whites.  To permit an inferior race, holding
+less than one tenth of the property of the community, to take the
+reins of government in its hands, by reason of mere numerical
+strength, would be to renounce civilization.  Our national
+government, in making laws for Hawaii, has carefully provided for
+white supremacy by an educational qualification for suffrage that
+excludes the semi-civilized natives.  No sane man, let us hope,
+would think of placing Manila under the control of a government of
+the Philippine Islands based upon universal suffrage.  Yet the
+problem in the South and the problem in the Philippines and in
+Hawaii differ only in degree. 
+ 
+The only proper safeguard against Negro rule in States where the
+blacks outnumber or approximate in number the whites lies in
+constitutional provisions establishing an educational test for
+suffrage applicable to black and white alike.  If the suffrage is
+not thus limited it is necessary for the whites to resort to
+technicalities and ballot laws, to bribery or intimidation.  To
+set up an educational test with a "grandfather clause," making the
+test apply for a certain time to the blacks only, seems to an
+outsider unnecessary, arbitrary, and unjust.  The reason for such
+a clause arises from the belief that no constitutional amendment
+could ever carry if it immediately disfranchised the illiterate
+whites, as many property-holding whites belong to that class.  But
+the writer does not believe in the principle nor in the necessity
+for a "grandfather clause."  If constitutional amendments were to
+be submitted in North Carolina and Virginia applying the
+educational test to both races alike after 1908, the question
+would be lifted above the level of party gain, and would receive
+the support of white men of all parties and the approbation of the
+moral sentiment of the American people.  A white man who would
+disfranchise a Negro because of his color or for mere party
+advantage is himself unworthy of the suffrage.  With the suffrage
+question adjusted upon an educational basis the Negroes would have
+the power to work out their political emancipation, the white
+people having made education necessary and provided the means for
+attaining it. 
+ 
+When the question of Negro domination is settled the path of
+progress of both races will be very much cleared.  Race conflicts
+will then be less frequent and race feeling less bitter.  With
+more friendly relations growing up, and with more concentration of
+energy on the part of the Negroes in industrial lines, the
+opportunities for them will be widened and the task of finding
+industrial adjustment in the struggle for life made easier.  The
+wisest and best leaders among the Negroes, such as Booker
+Washington and the late Charles Price, have tried to turn the
+attention of the Negroes from politics to the more profitable
+pursuits of industry, and if the professional politician would
+cease inspiring the Negroes to seek salvation in political
+domination over the whites, the race issue would soon cease to
+exist. 
+ 
+The field is broad enough in the South for both races to attain
+all that is possible to them.  In spite of the periodic political
+conflicts and occasional local riots and acts of individual
+violence, the relations between the races, in respect to nine
+tenths of the population, are very friendly.  The general
+condition has been too often judged by the acts of a small
+minority.  The Southern people understand the Negroes, and feel a
+real fondness for those that are thrifty and well behaved.  When
+fairly treated the Negro has a strong affection for his employer. 
+He seldom forgets a kindness, and is quick to forget a wrong.  If
+he does not stay long at one place, it is not that he dislikes his
+employer so much as that he has a restless temperament and craves
+change.  His disposition is full of mirth and sunshine, and not a
+little of the fine flavor of Southern wit and humor is due to his
+influence.  His nature is plastic, and while he is easily molded
+into a monster, he is also capable of a high degree of culture. 
+Many Negroes are thoroughly honest, notwithstanding their bad
+environment and hereditary disposition to steal.  Negro servants
+are trusted with the keys to households to an extent that,
+probably, is not the case among domestics elsewhere in the
+civilized world. 
+ 
+It is strange that two races working side by side should possess
+so many opposite traits of character.  The white man has strong
+will and convictions and is set in his ways.  He lives an indoor,
+monotonous life, restrains himself like a Puritan, and is inclined
+to melancholy.  The prevalence of Populism throughout the South is
+nothing but the outcome of this morbid tendency.  Farmers and
+merchants are entirely absorbed in their business, and the women,
+especially the married women, contrast with the women of France,
+Germany, and even England, in their indoor life and disinclination
+to mingle with the world outside.  Public parks and public
+concerts, such as are found in Europe, which call out husband,
+wife, and children for a few hours of rest and communion with
+their friends, are almost unknown in the South.  The few
+entertainments that receive sanction generally exclude all but the
+well-to-do by the cost of admission.  The life of the poor in town
+and country is bleak and bare to the last degree. 
+ 
+Contrasting with this tendency is the free-and-easy life of the
+blacks.  The burdens of the present and the future weigh lightly
+upon their shoulders.  They love all the worldly amusements; in
+their homes they are free entertainers, and in their fondness for
+conversation and love of street life they are equal to the French
+or Italians. 
+ 
+May we not hope that the conflict of these two opposite races is
+working out some advantages to both, and that the final result
+will justify all that the conflict has cost? 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+SIGNS OF PROGRESS AMONG THE NEGROES 
+by Booker T. Washington 
+ 
+ 
+In addition to the problem of educating eight million negroes in
+our Southern States and ingrafting them into American citizenship,
+we now have the additional responsibility, either directly or
+indirectly, of educating and elevating about eight hundred
+thousand others of African descent in Cuba and Porto Rico, to say
+nothing of the white people of these islands, many of whom are in
+a condition about as deplorable as that of the negroes.  We have,
+however, one advantage in approaching the question of the
+education of our new neighbors. 
+ 
+The experience that we have passed through in the Southern States
+during the last thirty years in the education of my race, whose
+history and needs are not very different from the history and
+needs of the Cubans and Porto Ricans, will prove most valuable in
+elevating the blacks of the West Indian Islands.  To tell what has
+already been accomplished in the South under most difficult
+circumstances is to tell what may be done in Cuba and Porto Rico. 
+ 
+To this end let me tell a story. 
+ 
+In what is known as the black belt of the South--that is, where
+the negroes outnumber the whites--there lived before the Civil War
+a white man who owned some two hundred slaves, and was prosperous. 
+At the close of the war he found his fortune gone, except that
+which was represented in land, of which he owned several thousand
+acres.  Of the two hundred slaves a large proportion decided,
+after their freedom, to continue on the plantation of their former
+owner. 
+ 
+Some years after the war a young black boy, who seemed to have
+"rained down," was discovered on the plantation by Mr. S-----, the
+owner.  In daily rides through the plantation Mr. S----- saw this
+boy sitting by the roadside, and his condition awakened his pity,
+for, from want of care, he was covered from head to foot with
+sores, and Mr. S----- soon grew into the habit of tossing him a
+nickel or a dime as he rode by.  In some way this boy heard of the
+Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, and of the
+advantages which it offered poor but deserving colored men and
+women to secure an education through their own labor while taking
+the course of study.  This boy, whose name was William, made known
+to the plantation hands his wish to go to the Tuskegee school.  By
+each one "chipping in," and through the efforts of the boy
+himself, a few decent pieces of clothing were secured, and a
+little money, but not enough to pay his railroad fare, so the boy
+resolved to walk to Tuskegee, a distance of about one hundred and
+fifty miles.  Strange to say, he made the long distance with an
+expenditure of only twenty cents in cash.  He frankly told every
+one with whom he came in contact where he was going and what he
+was seeking.  Both white and colored people along the route gave
+him food and a place to sleep free of cost, and even the usually
+exacting ferrymen were so impressed with the young negro's desire
+for an education that, except in one case, he was given free
+ferriage across the creeks and rivers. 
+ 
+One can easily imagine his appearance when he first arrived at
+Tuskegee, with his blistered feet and small white bundle, which
+contained all the clothing he possessed. 
+ 
+On being shown into my office his first words were: "I's come. 
+S'pose you been lookin' for me, but I didn't come on de railroad." 
+Looking up the records, it was found that this young man had been
+given permission to come several months ago, but the
+correspondence had long since been forgotten. 
+ 
+After being sent to the bath-room and provided with a tooth-
+brush,--for the tooth-brush at Tuskegee is the emblem of
+civilization,--William was assigned to a room, and was given work
+on the school farm of fourteen hundred acres, seven hundred of
+which are cultivated by student labor.  During his first year at
+Tuskegee William worked on the farm during the day, where he soon
+learned to take a deep interest in all that the school was doing
+to teach the students the best and most improved methods of
+farming, and studied for two hours at night in the class-room
+after his hard day's work was over.  At first he seemed drowsy and
+dull in the night-school, and would now and then fall asleep while
+trying to study; but he did not grow discouraged.  The new
+machinery that he was compelled to use on the farm interested him
+because it taught him that the farm work could be stripped of much
+of the old-time drudgery and toil, and seemed to awaken his
+sleeping intellect.  Soon he began asking the farm-instructors
+such questions as where the Jersey and Holstein cattle came from,
+and why they produced more milk and butter than the common long- 
+tailed and long-horned cows that he had seen at home. 
+ 
+His night-school teachers found that he ceased to sleep in school,
+and began asking questions about his lessons, and was soon able to
+calculate the number of square yards in an acre and to tell the
+number of peach-trees required to plant an acre of land.  After he
+had been at Tuskegee two or three months the farm-manager came
+into my office on a cold, rainy day, and said that William was
+virtually barefooted, the soles of his shoes having separated from
+the uppers, though William had fastened them together as best he
+could with bits of wire.  In this condition the farm-instructor
+found him plowing without a word of complaint.  A pair of second-
+hand shoes was secured for him, and he was soon very happy. 
+ 
+I will not take this part of the story further except to say that
+at the end of his first year at Tuskegee this young man, having
+made a start in his books, and having saved a small sum of money
+above the cost of his board, which was credited to his account,
+entered the next year our regular day-classes, though still
+dividing his time between the class-room and work on the farm. 
+ 
+Toward the end of the year he found himself in need of money with
+which to buy books, clothing, etc., and so wrote a carefully
+worded letter to Mr. S-----, the white man on whose plantation he
+had lived, and who had been, in slavery, the owner of his mother. 
+ 
+In the letter he told Mr. S----- how he got to Tuskegee, what he
+was doing, and what his needs were, and asked Mr. S----- to lend
+him fifteen dollars.  Before receiving this letter Mr. S----- had
+not thought once about the boy during his two years' absence; in
+fact, did not know that he had left the plantation. 
+ 
+Mr. S----- was a good deal shocked, as well as amused, over such a
+request from such a source.  The letter went to the wastebasket
+without being answered.  A few weeks later William sent a second
+letter, in which he took it for granted that the first letter had
+not been received.  The second letter shared the same fate as the
+first.  A third letter reached Mr. S----- in a few weeks, making
+the same request.  In answer to the third letter Mr. S----- told
+me that, moved by some impulse which he himself never understood,
+he sent William the fifteen dollars. 
+ 
+Two or three years passed, and Mr. S----- had about forgotten
+William and the fifteen dollars; but one morning while sitting
+upon his porch a bright young colored man walked up and introduced
+himself as William, the boy to whom he used to toss small pieces
+of money, and the one to whom he had sent fifteen dollars. 
+ 
+William paid Mr. S----- the fifteen dollars with interest, which
+he had earned while teaching school after leaving Tuskegee. 
+ 
+This simple experience with this young colored man made a new and
+different person of Mr. S-----, so far as the negro was concerned. 
+ 
+He began to think.  He thought of the long past, but he thought
+most of the future, and of his duty toward the hundreds of colored
+people on his plantation and in his community.  After careful
+thought he asked William Edwards to open a school on his
+plantation in a vacant log cabin.  That was seven years ago.  On
+this same plantation at Snow Hill, Wilcox county, Alabama, a
+county where, according to the last census, there are twenty-four
+thousand colored people and about six thousand whites, there is
+now a school with two hundred pupils, five teachers from Tuskegee,
+and three school buildings.  The school has forty acres of land. 
+In addition to the text-book lessons, the boys are taught farming
+and carpentry, and the girls sewing and general house-keeping, and
+the school is now in the act of starting a blacksmith and
+wheelwright department.  This school owes its existence almost
+wholly to Mr. S-----, who gave to the trustees the forty acres of
+land, and has contributed liberally to the building fund, as well
+as to the pay of the teachers.  Gifts from a few friends in the
+North have been received, and the colored people have given their
+labor and small sums in cash.  When the people cannot find money
+to give, they have often given corn, chickens, and eggs.  The
+school has grown so popular that almost every leading white man in
+the community is willing to make a small gift toward its
+maintenance. 
+ 
+In addition to the work done directly in the school for the
+children, the teachers in the Snow Hill school have organized a
+kind of university extension movement.  The farmers are organized
+into conferences, which hold meetings each month.  In these
+meetings they are taught better methods of agriculture, how to buy
+land, how to economize and keep out of debt, how to stop
+mortgaging, how to build school-houses and dwelling-houses with
+more than one room, how to bring about a higher moral and
+religious standing, and are warned against buying cheap jewelry,
+snuff, and whisky. 
+ 
+No one is a more interested visitor at these meetings than Mr. S-----
+himself.  The matter does not end in mere talk and advice. 
+The women teachers go right into the cabins of the people and show
+them how to keep them clean, how to dust, sweep, and cook. 
+ 
+When William Edwards left this community a few years ago for the
+Tuskegee school, he left the larger proportion in debt, mortgaging
+their crops every year for the food on which to live.  Most of
+them were living on rented land in small one-room log cabins, and
+attempting to pay an enormous rate of interest on the value of
+their food advances.  As one old colored man expressed it, "I
+ain't got but six feet of land, and I is got to die to git dat." 
+The little school taught in a cabin lasted only three or four
+months in the year.  The religion was largely a matter of the
+emotions, with almost no practical ideas of morality.  It was the
+white man for himself and the negro for himself, each in too many
+cases trying to take advantage of the other.  The situation was
+pretty well described by a black man who said to me: "I tells you
+how we votes.  We always watches de white man, and we keeps
+watchin' de white man.  De nearer it gits to 'lection-time de more
+we watches de white man.  We keeps watchin' de white man till we
+find out which way he gwine to vote; den we votes 'zactly de odder
+way.  Den we knows we is right." 
+ 
+Now how changed is all at Snow Hill, and how it is gradually
+changing each year!  Instead of the hopelessness and dejection
+that were there a few years ago, there are now light and buoyancy
+in the countenances and movements of the people.  The negroes are
+getting out of debt and buying land, ceasing to mortgage their
+crops, building houses with two or three rooms, and a higher moral
+and religious standard has been established. 
+ 
+Last May, on the day that the school had its closing exercises,
+there were present, besides the hundreds of colored-people, about
+fifty of the leading white men and women of the county, and these
+white people seemed as much interested in the work of the school
+as the people of my own race. 
+ 
+Only a few years ago in the State of Alabama the law in reference
+to the education of the negro read as follows: "Any person or
+persons who shall attempt to teach any free person of color or
+slave to spell, read, or write shall, upon conviction thereof by
+indictment, be fined in a sum not less than two hundred and fifty
+dollars nor more than five hundred dollars." 
+ 
+Within half a dozen years I have heard Dr. J. L. M. Curry, a
+brave, honest ex-Confederate officer, in addressing both the
+Alabama and Georgia State legislatures, say to those bodies in the
+most emphatic manner that it was as much the duty of the State to
+educate the negro children as the white children, and in each case
+Dr. Curry's words were cheered. 
+ 
+Here at Snow Hill is the foundation for the solution of the legal
+and political difficulties that exist in the South, and the
+improvement of the industrial condition of the negro in Cuba and
+Porto Rico.  This solution will not come all at once, but
+gradually.  The foundation must exist in the commercial and
+industrial development of the people of my race in the South and
+in the West Indian Islands. 
+ 
+The most intelligent whites are beginning to realize that they
+cannot go much higher than they lift the negro at the same time. 
+When a black man owns and cultivates the best farm to be found in  
+his county he will have the confidence and respect of most of the
+white people in that county.  When a black man is the largest
+taxpayer in his community his white neighbor will not object very
+long to his voting, and having that vote honestly counted.  Even
+now a black man who has five hundred dollars to lend has no
+trouble in finding a white man who is willing to borrow his money. 
+The negro who is a large stockholder in a railroad company will
+always be treated with justice on that railroad. 
+ 
+Many of the most intelligent colored people are learning that
+while there are many bad white men in the South, there are
+Southern whites who have the highest interests of the negro just
+as closely at heart as have any other people in any part of the
+country.  Many of the negroes are learning that it is folly not to
+cultivate in every honorable way the friendship of the white man
+who is their next-door neighbor. 
+ 
+To describe the work being done in connection with the public
+schools by graduates of Tuskegee and other institutions in the
+South, at such places as Mount Meigs, under Miss Cornelia Bowen;
+Denmark, South Carolina; Abbeville and Newville, Alabama;
+Christiansburg, Virginia, and numbers of other places in the Gulf
+States, would be only to repeat in a larger or smaller degree what
+I have said of Snow Hill. 
+ 
+Not very long after the last national election I visited a town in
+the South, to speak at a meeting which had for its object the
+raising of money to complete the school-house.  The audience was
+about equally divided between white men and women and black men
+and women.  When the time for the collection came it was intensely
+satisfactory to observe that the white side of the audience was
+just as eager to make its small contributions as were the members
+of my own race.  But I was anxious to see how the late election
+had been conducted in that community.  I soon found out that the
+Republican party, composed almost wholly of the black people, was
+represented by an election officer in the person of one of the
+best-educated colored men in the town, that both the Democratic
+and Populist parties were equally well represented, and that there
+was no suspicion of unfairness. 
+ 
+But I wished to go a little deeper, and I soon found that one of
+the leading stores in this community was owned by a colored man;
+that a cotton-gin was owned by a colored man; that the sawmill was
+owned by another colored man.  Colored men had mortgages on white
+men's crops, and vice versa, and colored people not only owned
+land, but in several cases were renting land to white men.  Black
+men were in debt to white men, and white men were in debt to black
+men.  In a word, the industrial and commercial relations of the
+races were interwoven just as if all had been of one race. 
+ 
+An object-lesson in civilization is more potent in compelling
+people to act right than a law compelling them to do so.  Some
+years ago a colored woman who had graduated at Tuskegee began her  
+life-work in a Southern community where the force of white public
+sentiment was opposed to the starting of what was termed a "nigger
+school."  At first this girl was tempted to abuse her white
+sister, but she remembered that perhaps the white woman had been
+taught from her earliest childhood, through reading and
+conversation, that education was not good for the negro, that it
+would result only in trouble to the community, and that no amount
+of abuse could change this prejudice. 
+ 
+After a while this colored teacher was married to an educated
+colored man, and they built a little cottage, which, in connection
+with her husband's farm, was a model.  One morning one of the
+white women who had been most intense in her feelings was passing
+this cottage, and her attention was attracted to the colored woman
+who was at work in her beautiful flower-garden.  A conversation
+took place concerning the flowers.  At another time this same
+white woman was so attracted by this flower-garden that she came
+inside the yard, and from the yard she went into the sitting-room
+and examined the books and papers. 
+ 
+This acquaintance has now ripened and broadened, so that to-day
+there are few people in that community more highly respected than
+this colored family.  What did it all?  This object-lesson.  No
+one could explain that away.  One such object-lesson in every
+community in the South is more powerful than all the laws Congress
+can pass in the direction of bringing about right relations
+between blacks and whites. 
+ 
+A few months ago an agricultural county fair, the first ever held
+in that county, was organized and held at Calhoun, Alabama, by the
+teachers in the Calhoun School, which is an offshoot of the
+Hampton Institute.  Both the colored people and numbers of white
+visitors were astonished at the creditable exhibits made by the
+colored people.  Most of these white people saw the school work at
+Calhoun for the first time.  Perhaps no amount of abstract talk or
+advice could have brought them to this school, but the best hog,
+the largest pumpkin, or the most valuable bale of cotton possessed
+a common interest, and it has been a comparatively easy thing to
+extend their interest from the best hog to the work being done in
+the school-room.  Further, this fair convinced these white people,
+as almost nothing else could have done, that education was making
+the negroes better citizens rather than worse; that the people
+were not being educated away from themselves, but with their
+elevation the conditions about them were being lifted in a manner
+that possessed an interest and value for both races. 
+ 
+It was after speaking, not long ago, to the colored people at such
+a county fair in North Carolina that I was asked the next morning
+to speak to the white students at their college, who gave me as
+hearty a greeting as I have ever received at Northern colleges. 
+ 
+But such forces as I have described--forces that are gradually
+regenerating the entire South and will regenerate Cuba and Porto
+Rico--are not started and kept in motion without a central plant-- 
+a power-house, where the power is generated.  I cannot describe
+all these places of power.  Perhaps the whole South and the whole
+country are most indebted to the Hampton Institute in Virginia. 
+Then there is Fisk University at Nashville, Tennessee; Talladega
+College at Talladega, Alabama; Spelman Seminary, Atlanta
+University, and Atlanta Baptist College at Atlanta; Biddle
+University in North Carolina; Claflin University at Orangeburg,
+South Carolina; and Knoxville College at Knoxville, Tennessee. 
+Some of these do a different grade of work, but one much needed. 
+ 
+At Tuskegee, Alabama, starting fifteen years ago in a little
+shanty with one teacher and thirty students, with no property,
+there has grown up an industrial and educational village where the
+ideas that I have referred to are put into the heads, hearts, and
+hands of an army of colored men and women, with the purpose of
+having them become centers of light and civilization in every part
+of the South.  One visiting the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
+Institute to-day will find eight hundred and fifty students
+gathered from twenty-four States, with eighty-eight teachers and
+officers training these students in literary, religious, and
+industrial work. 
+ 
+Counting the students and the families of the instructors, the
+visitor will find a black village of about twelve hundred people. 
+Instead of the old, worn-out plantation that was there fifteen
+years ago, there is a modern farm of seven hundred acres
+cultivated by student labor.  There are Jersey and Holstein cows
+and Berkshire pigs, and the butter used is made by the most modern
+process. 
+ 
+Aside from the dozens of neat, comfortable cottages owned by
+individual teachers and other persons, who have settled in this
+village for the purpose of educating their children, he will find
+thirty-six buildings of various kinds and sizes, owned and built
+by the school, property valued at three hundred thousand dollars. 
+Perhaps the most interesting thing in connection with these
+buildings is that, with the exception of three, they have been
+built by student labor.  The friends of the school have furnished
+money to pay the teachers and for material. 
+ 
+When a building is to be erected, the teacher in charge of the
+mechanical and architectural drawing department gives to the class
+in drawing a general description of the building desired, and then
+there is a competition to see whose plan will be accepted.  These
+same students in most cases help do the practical work of putting
+up the building--some at the sawmill, the brick-yard, or in the
+carpentry, brickmaking, plastering, painting, and tinsmithing
+departments.  At the same time care is taken to see not only that
+the building goes up properly, but that the students, who are
+under intelligent instructors in their special branch, are taught
+at the same time the principles as well as the practical part of  
+the trade. 
+ 
+The school has the building in the end, and the students have the
+knowledge of the trade.  This same principle applies, whether in
+the laundry, where the washing for seven or eight hundred people
+is done, or in the sewing-room, where a large part of the clothing
+for this colony is made and repaired, or in the wheelwright and
+blacksmith departments, where all the wagons and buggies used by
+the school, besides a large number for the outside public, are
+manufactured, or in the printing-office, where a large part of the
+printing for the white and colored people in this region is done. 
+Twenty-six different industries are here in constant operation. 
+ 
+When the student is through with his course of training he goes
+out feeling that it is just as honorable to labor with the hand as
+with the head, and instead of his having to look for a place, the
+place usually seeks him, because he has to give that which the
+South wants.  One other thing should not be overlooked in our
+efforts to develop the black man.  As bad as slavery was, almost
+every large plantation in the South during that time was, in a
+measure, an industrial school.  It had its farming department, its
+blacksmith, wheelwright, brickmaking, carpentry, and sewing
+departments.  Thus at the close of the war our people were in
+possession of all the common and skilled labor in the South.  For
+nearly twenty years after the war we overlooked the value of the
+ante-bellum training, and no one was trained to replace these
+skilled men and women who were soon to pass away; and now, as
+skilled laborers from foreign countries, with not only educated
+hands but trained brains, begin to come into the South and take
+these positions once held by us, we are gradually waking up to the
+fact that we must compete with the white man in the industrial
+world if we would hold our own.  No one understands his value in
+the labor world better than the old colored man.  Recently, when a
+convention was held in the South by the white people for the
+purpose of inducing white settlers from the North and West to
+settle in the South, one of these colored men said to the
+president of the convention: "'Fore de Lord, boss, we's got as
+many white people down here now as we niggers can support." 
+ 
+The negro in the South has another advantage.  While there is
+prejudice against him along certain lines,--in the matter of
+business in general, and the trades especially,--there is
+virtually no prejudice so far as the native Southern white man is
+concerned.  White men and black men work at the same carpenter's
+bench and on the same brick wall.  Sometimes the white man is the
+"boss," sometimes the black man is the boss. 
+ 
+Some one chaffed a colored man recently because, when he got
+through with a contract for building a house, he cleared just ten
+cents; but he said: "All right, boss; it was worth ten cents to be
+de boss of dem white men."  If a Southern white man has a contract
+to let for the building of a house, he prefers the black
+contractor, because he has been used to doing business of this
+character with a negro rather than with a white man. 
+ 
+The negro will find his way up as a man just in proportion as he
+makes himself valuable, possesses something that a white man
+wants, can do something as well as, or better than, a white man. 
+ 
+I would not have my readers get the thought that the problem in
+the South is settled, that there is nothing else to be done; far
+from this.  Long years of patient, hard work will be required for
+the betterment of the condition of the negro in the South, as well
+as for the betterment of the condition of the negro in the West
+Indies. 
+ 
+There are bright spots here and there that point the way.  Perhaps
+the most that we have accomplished in the last thirty years is to
+show the North and the South how the fourteen slaves landed a few
+hundred years ago at Jamestown, Virginia,--now nearly eight
+millions of freemen in the South alone,--are to be made a safe and
+useful part of our democratic and Christian institutions. 
+ 
+The main thing that is now needed to bring about a solution of the
+difficulties in the South is money in large sums, to be used
+largely for Christian, technical, and industrial education. 
+ 
+For more than thirty years we have been trying to solve one of the
+most serious problems in the history of the world largely by
+passing around a hat in the North.  Out of their poverty the
+Southern States have done well in assisting; many more millions
+are needed, and these millions will have to come before the
+question as to the negro in the South is settled. 
+ 
+There never was a greater opportunity for men of wealth to place a
+few million dollars where they could be used in lifting up and
+regenerating a whole race; and let it always be borne in mind that
+every dollar given for the proper education of the negro in the
+South is almost as much help to the Southern white man as to the
+negro himself.  So long as the whites in the South are surrounded
+by a race that is, in a large measure, in ignorance and poverty,
+so long will this ignorance and poverty of the negro in a score of
+ways prevent the highest development of the white man. 
+ 
+The problem of lifting up the negro in Cuba and Porto Rico is an
+easier one in one respect, even if it proves more difficult in
+others.  It will be less difficult, because there is the absence
+of that higher degree of race feeling which exists in many parts
+of the United States.  Both the white Cuban and the white Spaniard
+have treated the people of African descent, in civil, political,
+military, and business matters, very much as they have treated
+others of their own race.  Oppression has not cowed and unmanned
+the Cuban negro in certain respects as it has the American negro. 
+ 
+In only a few instances is the color-line drawn.  How Americans
+will treat the negro Cuban, and what will be the tendency of
+American influences in the matter of the relation of the races,
+remains an interesting and open question.  Certainly it will place
+this country in an awkward position to have gone to war to free a
+people from Spanish cruelty, and then as soon as it gets them
+within its power to treat a large proportion of the population
+worse than did even Spain herself, simply on account of color. 
+ 
+While in the matter of the relation of the races the problem
+before us in the West Indies is easier, in respect to the
+industrial, moral, and religious sides it is more difficult.  The
+negroes on these islands are largely an agricultural people, and
+for this reason, in addition to a higher degree of mental and
+religious training, they need the same agricultural, mechanical,
+and domestic training that is fast helping the negroes in our
+Southern States.  Industrial training will not only help them to
+the ownership of property, habits of thrift and economy, but the
+acquiring of these elements of strength will go further than
+anything else in improving the moral and religious condition of
+the masses, just as has been and is true of my people in the
+Southern States. 
+ 
+With the idea of getting the methods of industrial education
+pursued at Hampton and Tuskegee permanently and rightly started in
+Cuba and Porto Rico, a few of the most promising men and women
+from these islands have been brought to the Tuskegee Normal and
+Industrial Institute, and educated with the view of having them
+return and take the lead in affording industrial training on these
+islands, where the training can best be given to the masses. 
+ 
+The emphasis that I have placed upon an industrial education does
+not mean that the negro is to be excluded from the higher
+interests of life, but it does mean that in proportion as the
+negro gets the foundation,--the useful before the ornamental,--in
+the same proportion will he accelerate his progress in acquiring
+those elements which do not pertain so directly to the
+utilitarian. 
+ 
+Phillips Brooks once said, "One generation gathers the material,
+and the next builds the palaces."  Very largely this must be the
+material-gathering generation of black people, but in due time the
+palaces will come if we are patient. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE MARCH OF PROGRESS 
+by Charles W. Chesnutt 
+ 
+ 
+The colored people of Patesville had at length gained the object
+they had for a long time been seeking--the appointment of a
+committee of themselves to manage the colored schools of the town. 
+They had argued, with some show of reason, that they were most
+interested in the education of their own children, and in a
+position to know, better than any committee of white men could,
+what was best for their children's needs.  The appointments had
+been made by the county commissioners during the latter part of
+the summer, and a week later a meeting was called for the purpose
+of electing a teacher to take charge of the grammar school at the
+beginning of the fall term. 
+ 
+The committee consisted of Frank Gillespie, or "Glaspy," a barber,
+who took an active part in local politics; Bob Cotten, a
+blacksmith, who owned several houses and was looked upon as a
+substantial citizen; and Abe Johnson, commonly called "Ole Abe" or
+"Uncle Abe," who had a large family, and drove a dray, and did odd
+jobs of hauling; he was also a class-leader in the Methodist
+church.  The committee had been chosen from among a number of
+candidates--Gillespie on account of his political standing, Cotten
+as representing the solid element of the colored population, and
+Old Abe, with democratic impartiality, as likely to satisfy the
+humbler class of a humble people.  While the choice had not
+pleased everybody,--for instance, some of the other applicants,-- 
+it was acquiesced in with general satisfaction.  The first meeting
+of the new committee was of great public interest, partly by
+reason of its novelty, but chiefly because there were two
+candidates for the position of teacher of the grammar school. 
+ 
+The former teacher, Miss Henrietta Noble, had applied for the
+school.  She had taught the colored children of Patesville for
+fifteen years.  When the Freedmen's Bureau, after the military
+occupation of North Carolina, had called for volunteers to teach
+the children of the freedmen, Henrietta Nobel had offered her
+services.  Brought up in a New England household by parents who
+taught her to fear God and love her fellow-men, she had seen her
+father's body brought home from a Southern battle-field and laid
+to rest in the village cemetery; and a short six months later she
+had buried her mother by his side.  Henrietta had no brothers or
+sisters, and her nearest relatives were cousins living in the far
+West.  The only human being in whom she felt any special personal
+interest was a certain captain in her father's regiment, who had
+paid her some attention.  She had loved this man deeply, in a
+maidenly, modest way; but he had gone away without speaking, and
+had not since written.  He had escaped the fate of many others,
+and at the close of the war was alive and well, stationed in some
+Southern garrison. 
+ 
+When her mother died, Henrietta had found herself possessed only
+of the house where she lived and the furniture it contained,
+neither being of much value, and she was thrown upon her own
+resources for a livelihood.  She had a fair education and had read
+many good books.  It was not easy to find employment such as she
+desired.  She wrote to her Western cousins, and they advised her
+to come to them, as they thought they could do something for her
+if she were there.  She had almost decided to accept their offer,
+when the demand arose for teachers in the South.  Whether impelled
+by some strain of adventurous blood from a Pilgrim ancestry, or by
+a sensitive pride that shrank from dependence, or by some dim and
+unacknowledged hope that she might sometime, somewhere, somehow
+meet Captain Carey--whether from one of these motives or a
+combination of them all, joined to something of the missionary
+spirit, she decided to go South, and wrote to her cousins
+declining their friendly offer. 
+ 
+She had come to Patesville when the children were mostly a mob of
+dirty little beggars.  She had distributed among them the cast-
+off clothing that came from their friends in the North; she had
+taught them to wash their faces and to comb their hair; and
+patiently, year after year, she had labored to instruct them in
+the rudiments of learning and the first principles of religion and
+morality.  And she had not wrought in vain.  Other agencies, it is
+true, had in time cooperated with her efforts, but any one who had
+watched the current of events must have been compelled to admit
+that the very fair progress of the colored people of Patesville in
+the fifteen years following emancipation had been due chiefly to
+the unselfish labors of Henrietta Noble, and that her nature did
+not belie her name. 
+ 
+Fifteen years is a long time.  Miss Noble had never met Captain
+Carey; and when she learned later that he had married a Southern
+girl in the neighborhood of his post, she had shed her tears in
+secret and banished his image from her heart.  She had lived a
+lonely life.  The white people of the town, though they learned in
+time to respect her and to value her work, had never recognized
+her existence by more than the mere external courtesy shown by any
+community to one who lives in the midst of it.  The situation was
+at first, of course, so strained that she did not expect sympathy
+from the white people; and later, when time had smoothed over some  
+of the asperities of war, her work had so engaged her that she had
+not had time to pine over her social exclusion.  Once or twice
+nature had asserted itself, and she had longed for her own kind,
+and had visited her New England home.  But her circle of friends
+was broken up, and she did not find much pleasure in boarding- 
+house life; and on her last visit to the North but one, she had
+felt so lonely that she had longed for the dark faces of her
+pupils, and had welcomed with pleasure the hour when her task
+should be resumed. 
+ 
+But for several reasons the school at Patesville was of more
+importance to Miss Noble at this particular time than it ever had
+been before.  During the last few years her health had not been
+good.  An affection of the heart similar to that from which her
+mother had died, while not interfering perceptibly with her work,
+had grown from bad to worse, aggravated by close application to
+her duties, until it had caused her grave alarm.  She did not have
+perfect confidence in the skill of the Patesville physicians, and
+to obtain the best medical advice had gone to New York during the
+summer, remaining there a month under the treatment of an eminent
+specialist.  This, of course, had been expensive and had absorbed
+the savings of years from a small salary; and when the time came
+for her to return to Patesville, she was reduced, after paying her
+traveling expenses, to her last ten-dollar note. 
+ 
+"It is very fortunate," the great man had said at her last visit,
+"that circumstances permit you to live in the South, for I am
+afraid you could not endure a Northern winter.  You are getting
+along very well now, and if you will take care of yourself and
+avoid excitement, you will be better."  He said to himself as she
+went away: "It's only a matter of time, but that is true about us
+all; and a wise physician does as much good by what he withholds
+as by what he tells." 
+ 
+Miss Noble had not anticipated any trouble about the school.  When
+she went away the same committee of white men was in charge that
+had controlled the school since it had become part of the public- 
+school system of the State on the withdrawal of support from the
+Freedmen's Bureau.  While there had been no formal engagement made
+for the next year, when she had last seen the chairman before she
+went away, he had remarked that she was looking rather fagged out,
+had bidden her good-by, and had hoped to see her much improved
+when she returned.  She had left her house in the care of the
+colored woman who lived with her and did her housework, assuming,
+of course, that she would take up her work again in the autumn. 
+ 
+She was much surprised at first, and later alarmed, to find a
+rival for her position as teacher of the grammar school.  Many of
+her friends and pupils had called on her since her return, and she
+had met a number of the people at the colored Methodist church,
+where she taught in the Sunday-school.  She had many friends and
+supporters, but she soon found out that her opponent had
+considerable strength.  There had been a time when she would have
+withdrawn and left him a clear field, but at the present moment it
+was almost a matter of life and death to her--certainly the matter
+of earning a living--to secure the appointment. 
+ 
+The other candidate was a young man who in former years had been
+one of Miss Noble's brightest pupils.  When he had finished his
+course in the grammar school, his parents, with considerable
+sacrifice, had sent him to a college for colored youth.  He had
+studied diligently, had worked industriously during his vacations,
+sometimes at manual labor, sometimes teaching a country school,
+and in due time had been graduated from his college with honors. 
+He had come home at the end of his school life, and was very
+naturally seeking the employment for which he had fitted himself. 
+He was a "bright" mulatto, with straight hair, an intelligent
+face, and a well-set figure.  He had acquired some of the marks of
+culture, wore a frock-coat and a high collar, parted his hair in
+the middle, and showed by his manner that he thought a good deal
+of himself.  He was the popular candidate among the progressive
+element of his people, and rather confidently expected the
+appointment. 
+ 
+The meeting of the committee was held in the Methodist church,
+where, in fact, the grammar school was taught, for want of a
+separate school-house.  After the preliminary steps to effect an
+organization, Mr. Gillespie, who had been elected chairman, took
+the floor. 
+ 
+"The principal business to be brought befo' the meet'n' this
+evenin'," he said, "is the selection of a teacher for our grammar
+school for the ensuin' year.  Two candidates have filed
+applications, which, if there is no objection, I will read to the
+committee.  The first is from Miss Noble, who has been the teacher
+ever since the grammar school was started." 
+ 
+He then read Miss Noble's letter, in which she called attention to
+her long years of service, to her need of the position, and to her
+affection for the pupils, and made formal application for the
+school for the next year.  She did not, from motives of self- 
+respect, make known the extremity of her need; nor did she mention
+the condition of her health, as it might have been used as an
+argument against her retention. 
+ 
+Mr. Gillespie then read the application of the other candidate,
+Andrew J. Williams.  Mr. Williams set out in detail his
+qualifications for the position: his degree from Riddle
+University; his familiarity with the dead and living languages and
+the higher mathematics; his views of discipline; and a peroration
+in which he expressed the desire to devote himself to the
+elevation of his race and assist the march of progress through the
+medium of the Patesville grammar school.  The letter was well
+written in a bold, round hand, with many flourishes, and looked
+very aggressive and overbearing as it lay on the table by the side
+of the sheet of small note-paper in Miss Noble's faint and
+somewhat cramped handwriting. 
+ 
+"You have heard the readin' of the applications," said the
+chairman.  "Gentlemen, what is yo' pleasure?" 
+ 
+There being no immediate response, the chairman continued: 
+ 
+"As this is a matter of consid'able importance, involvin' not only
+the welfare of our schools, but the progress of our race, an' as
+our action is liable to be criticized, whatever we decide, perhaps
+we had better discuss the subjec' befo' we act.  If nobody else
+has anything to obse've, I will make a few remarks." 
+ 
+Mr. Gillespie cleared his throat, and, assuming an oratorical
+attitude, proceeded: 
+ 
+"The time has come in the history of our people when we should
+stand together.  In this age of organization the march of progress
+requires that we help ourselves, or be forever left behind.  Ever
+since the war we have been sendin' our child'n to school an'
+educatin' 'em; an' now the time has come when they are leavin' the
+schools an' colleges, an' are ready to go to work.  An' what are
+they goin' to do?  The white people won't hire 'em as clerks in
+their sto's an' factories an' mills, an' we have no sto's or
+factories or mills of our own.  They can't be lawyers or doctors
+yet, because we haven't got the money to send 'em to medical
+colleges an' law schools.  We can't elect many of 'em to office,
+for various reasons.  There's just two things they can find to do--
+to preach in our own pulpits, an' teach in our own schools.  If
+it wasn't for that, they'd have to go on forever waitin' on white
+folks, like their fo'fathers have done, because they couldn't help
+it.  If we expect our race to progress, we must educate our young
+men an' women.  If we want to encourage 'em to get education, we
+must find 'em employment when they are educated.  We have now an
+opportunity to do this in the case of our young friend an' fellow-
+citizen, Mr. Williams, whose eloquent an' fine-lookin' letter
+ought to make us feel proud of him an' of our race. 
+ 
+"Of co'se there are two sides to the question.  We have got to
+consider the claims of Miss Noble.  She has been with us a long
+time an' has done much good work for our people, an' we'll never
+forget her work an' frien'ship.  But, after all, she has been paid
+for it; she has got her salary regularly an' for a long time, an'
+she has probably saved somethin', for we all know she hasn't lived
+high; an', for all we know, she may have had somethin' left her by
+her parents.  An' then again, she's white, an' has got her own
+people to look after her; they've got all the money an' all the
+offices an' all the everythin',--all that they've made an' all
+that we've made for fo' hundred years,--an' they sho'ly would look
+out for her.  If she don't get this school, there's probably a
+dozen others she can get at the North.  An' another thing: she is
+gettin' rather feeble, an' it 'pears to me she's hardly able to
+stand teachin' so many child'n, an' a long rest might be the best
+thing in the world for her. 
+ 
+"Now, gentlemen, that's the situation.  Shall we keep Miss Noble,
+or shall we stand by our own people?  It seems to me there can
+hardly be but one answer.  Self-preservation is the first law of
+nature.  Are there any other remarks?" 
+ 
+Old Abe was moving restlessly in his seat.  He did not say
+anything, however, and the chairman turned to the other member. 
+ 
+"Brother Cotten, what is yo' opinion of the question befo' the
+board?" 
+ 
+Mr. Cotten rose with the slowness and dignity becoming a
+substantial citizen, and observed: 
+ 
+"I think the remarks of the chairman have great weight.  We all
+have nothin' but kind feelin's fer Miss Noble, an' I came here to- 
+night somewhat undecided how to vote on this question.  But after
+listenin' to the just an' forcible arguments of Brother Glaspy, it
+'pears to me that, after all, the question befo' us is not a
+matter of feelin', but of business.  As a business man, I am
+inclined to think Brother Glaspy is right.  If we don't help
+ourselves when we get a chance, who is goin' to help us?" 
+ 
+"That bein' the case," said the chairman, "shall we proceed to a
+vote?  All who favor the election of Brother Williams--" 
+ 
+At this point Old Abe, with much preliminary shuffling, stood up
+in his place and interrupted the speaker. 
+ 
+"Mr. Chuhman," he said, "I s'pose I has a right ter speak in dis
+meet'n?  I S'POSE I is a member er dis committee?" 
+ 
+"Certainly, Brother Johnson, certainly; we shall be glad to hear
+from you." 
+ 
+"I s'pose I's got a right ter speak my min', ef I is po' an'
+black, an' don' weah as good clo's as some other members er de
+committee?" 
+ 
+"Most assuredly, Brother Johnson," answered the chairman, with a
+barber's suavity, "you have as much right to be heard as any one
+else.  There was no intention of cuttin' you off." 
+ 
+"I s'pose," continued Abe, "dat a man wid fo'teen child'n kin be
+'lowed ter hab somethin' ter say 'bout de schools er dis town?" 
+ 
+"I am sorry, Brother Johnson, that you should feel slighted, but
+there was no intention to igno' yo' rights.  The committee will be
+please' to have you ventilate yo' views." 
+ 
+"Ef it's all be'n an' done reco'nized an' 'cided dat I's got de
+right ter be heared in dis meet'n', I'll say w'at I has ter say,
+an' it won't take me long ter say it.  Ef I should try ter tell
+all de things dat Miss Noble has done fer de niggers er dis town,
+it'd take me till ter-morrer mawnin'.  Fer fifteen long yeahs I
+has watched her incomin's an' her outgoin's.  Her daddy was a
+Yankee kunnel, who died fighting fer ou' freedom.  She come heah
+when we--yas, Mr. Chuhman, when you an' Br'er Cotten--was jes sot
+free, an' when none er us didn' have a rag ter ou' backs.  She
+come heah, an' she tuk yo' child'n an' my child'n, an' she teached
+'em sense an' manners an' religion an' book-l'arnin'.  When she
+come heah we didn' hab no chu'ch.  Who writ up No'th an' got a
+preacher sent to us, an' de fun's ter buil' dis same chu'ch-house
+we're settin' in ter-night?  Who got de money f'm de Bureau to
+s'port de school?  An' when dat was stop', who got de money f'm de
+Peabody Fun'?  Talk about Miss Noble gittin' a sal'ry!  Who paid
+dat sal'ry up ter five years ago?  Not one dollah of it come outer
+ou' pockets! 
+ 
+"An' den, w'at did she git fer de yuther things she done?  Who
+paid her fer de gals she kep' f'm throwin' deyse'ves away?  Who
+paid fer de boys she kep' outer jail?  I had a son dat seemed to
+hab made up his min' ter go straight ter hell.  I made him go ter
+Sunday-school, an' somethin' dat woman said teched his heart, an'
+he behaved hisse'f, an' I ain' got no reason fer ter be 'shame' er
+'im.  An' I can 'member, Br'er Cotten, when you didn' own fo'
+houses an' a fahm.  An' when yo' fus wife was sick, who sot by her
+bedside an' read de Good Book ter 'er, w'en dey wuzn' nobody else
+knowed how ter read it, an' comforted her on her way across de
+col', dahk ribber?  An' dat ain' all I kin 'member, Mr. Chuhman! 
+When yo' gal Fanny was a baby, an' sick, an' nobody knowed what
+was de matter wid 'er, who sent fer a doctor, an' paid 'im fer
+comin', an' who he'ped nuss dat chile, an' tol' yo' wife w'at ter
+do, an' save' dat chile's life, jes as sho' as de Lawd has save'
+my soul? 
+ 
+"An' now, aftuh fifteen yeahs o' slavin' fer us, who ain't got no
+claim on her, aftuh fifteen yeahs dat she has libbed 'mongs' us
+an' made herse'f one of us, an' endyoed havin' her own people look
+down on her, aftuh she has growed ole an' gray wukkin' fer us an'
+our child'n, we talk erbout turnin' 'er out like a' ole hoss ter
+die!  It 'pears ter me some folks has po' mem'ries!  Whar would we
+'a' be'n ef her folks at de No'th hadn' 'membered us no bettuh? 
+An' we hadn' done nothin', neither, fer dem to 'member us fer.  De
+man dat kin fergit w'at Miss Noble has done fer dis town is
+unworthy de name er nigger!  He oughter die an' make room fer some
+'spectable dog! 
+ 
+"Br'er Glaspy says we got a' educated young man, an' we mus' gib
+him sump'n' ter do.  Let him wait; ef I reads de signs right he
+won't hab ter wait long fer dis job.  Let him teach in de primary
+schools, er in de country; an' ef he can't do dat, let 'im work
+awhile.  It don't hahm a' educated man ter work a little; his
+fo'fathers has worked fer hund'eds of years, an' we's worked, an'
+we're heah yet, an' we're free, an' we's gettin' ou' own houses
+an' lots an' hosses an' cows--an' ou' educated young men.  But
+don't let de fus thing we do as a committee be somethin' we ought
+ter be 'shamed of as long as we lib.  I votes fer Miss Noble, fus,
+las', an' all de time!" 
+ 
+When Old Abe sat down the chairman's face bore a troubled look. 
+He remembered how his baby girl, the first of his children that he
+could really call his own, that no master could hold a prior claim
+upon, lay dying in the arms of his distracted young wife, and how
+the thin, homely, and short-sighted white teacher had come like an
+angel into his cabin, and had brought back the little one from the
+verge of the grave.  The child was a young woman now, and
+Gillespie had well-founded hopes of securing the superior young
+Williams for a son-in-law; and he realized with something of shame
+that this later ambition had so dazzled his eyes for a moment as
+to obscure the memory of earlier days. 
+ 
+Mr. Cotten, too, had not been unmoved, and there were tears in his
+eyes as he recalled how his first wife, Nancy, who had borne with
+him the privations of slavery, had passed away, with the teacher's
+hand in hers, before she had been able to enjoy the fruits of
+liberty.  For they had loved one another much, and her death had
+been to them both a hard and bitter thing.  And, as Old Abe spoke,
+he could remember, as distinctly as though they had been spoken
+but an hour before, the words of comfort that the teacher had
+whispered to Nancy in her dying hour and to him in his
+bereavement. 
+ 
+"On consideration, Mr. Chairman," he said, with an effort to hide
+a suspicious tremor in his voice and to speak with the dignity
+consistent with his character as a substantial citizen, "I wish to
+record my vote fer Miss Noble." 
+ 
+"The chair," said Gillespie, yielding gracefully to the majority,
+and greatly relieved that the responsibility of his candidate's
+defeat lay elsewhere, "will make the vote unanimous, and will
+appoint Brother Cotten and Brother Johnson a committee to step
+round the corner to Miss Noble's and notify her of her election." 
+ 
+The two committeemen put on their hats, and, accompanied by
+several people who had been waiting at the door to hear the result
+of the meeting, went around the corner to Miss Noble's house, a
+distance of a block or two away.  The house was lighted, so they
+knew she had not gone to bed.  They went in at the gate, and
+Cotten knocked at the door. 
+ 
+The colored maid opened it. 
+ 
+"Is Miss Noble home?" said Cotten. 
+ 
+'Yes; come in.  She's waitin' ter hear from the committee." 
+ 
+The woman showed them into the parlor.  Miss Noble rose from her
+seat by the table, where she had been reading, and came forward to
+meet them.  They did not for a moment observe, as she took a step
+toward them, that her footsteps wavered.  In her agitation she was
+scarcely aware of it herself. 
+ 
+"Miss Noble," announced Cotten, "we have come to let you know that
+you have be'n 'lected teacher of the grammar school fer the next
+year." 
+ 
+"Thank you; oh, thank you so much!" she said.  "I am very glad. 
+Mary"--she put her hand to her side suddenly and tottered--"Mary,
+will you--" 
+ 
+A spasm of pain contracted her face and cut short her speech.  She
+would have fallen had Old Abe not caught her and, with Mary's
+help, laid her on a couch. 
+ 
+The remedies applied by Mary, and by the physician who was hastily
+summoned, proved unavailing.  The teacher did not regain
+consciousness. 
+ 
+If it be given to those whose eyes have closed in death to linger
+regretfully for a while about their earthly tenement, or from some
+higher vantage-ground to look down upon it, then Henrietta Noble's
+tolerant spirit must have felt, mingling with its regret, a
+compensating thrill of pleasure; for not only those for whom she
+had labored sorrowed for her, but the people of her own race, many
+of whom, in the blindness of their pride, would not admit during
+her life that she served them also, saw so much clearer now that
+they took charge of her poor clay, and did it gentle reverence,
+and laid it tenderly away amid the dust of their own loved and
+honored dead. 
+ 
+TWO weeks after Miss Noble's funeral the other candidate took
+charge of the grammar school, which went on without any further
+obstacles to the march of progress. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU 
+by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois 
+ 
+ 
+The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color
+line; the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in
+Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.  It was a
+phase of this problem that caused the Civil War; and however much
+they who marched south and north in 1861 may have fixed on the
+technical points of union and local autonomy as a shibboleth, all
+nevertheless knew, as we know, that the question of Negro slavery
+was the deeper cause of the conflict.  Curious it was, too, how
+this deeper question ever forced itself to the surface, despite
+effort and disclaimer.  No sooner had Northern armies touched
+Southern soil than this old question, newly guised, sprang from
+the earth,--What shall be done with slaves?  Peremptory military
+commands, this way and that, could not answer the query; the
+Emancipation Proclamation seemed but to broaden and intensify the
+difficulties; and so at last there arose in the South a government
+of men called the Freedmen's Bureau, which lasted, legally, from
+1865 to 1872, but in a sense from 1861 to 1876, and which sought
+to settle the Negro problems in the United States of America. 
+ 
+It is the aim of this essay to study the Freedmen's Bureau,--the
+occasion of its rise, the character of its work, and its final
+success and failure,--not only as a part of American history, but
+above all as one of the most singular and interesting of the
+attempts made by a great nation to grapple with vast problems of
+race and social condition. 
+ 
+No sooner had the armies, east and west, penetrated Virginia and
+Tennessee than fugitive slaves appeared within their lines.  They
+came at night, when the flickering camp fires of the blue hosts
+shone like vast unsteady stars along the black horizon: old men,
+and thin, with gray and tufted hair; women with frightened eyes,
+dragging whimpering, hungry children; men and girls, stalwart and
+gaunt,--a horde of starving vagabonds, homeless, helpless, and
+pitiable in their dark distress.  Two methods of treating these
+newcomers seemed equally logical to opposite sorts of minds.  Said
+some, "We have nothing to do with slaves."  "Hereafter," commanded
+Halleck, "no slaves should be allowed to come into your lines at
+all; if any come without your knowledge, when owners call for
+them, deliver them."  But others said, "We take grain and fowl;
+why not slaves?"  Whereupon Fremont, as early as August, 1861,
+declared the slaves of Missouri rebels free.  Such radical action
+was quickly countermanded, but at the same time the opposite
+policy could not be enforced; some of the black refugees declared
+themselves freemen, others showed their masters had deserted them,
+and still others were captured with forts and plantations. 
+Evidently, too, slaves were a source of strength to the
+Confederacy, and were being used as laborers and producers.  "They
+constitute a military resource," wrote the Secretary of War, late
+in 1861; "and being such, that they should not be turned over to
+the enemy is too plain to discuss."  So the tone of the army
+chiefs changed, Congress forbade the rendition of fugitives, and
+Butler's "contrabands" were welcomed as military laborers.  This
+complicated rather than solved the problem; for now the scattering
+fugitives became a steady stream, which flowed faster as the
+armies marched. 
+ 
+Then the long-headed man, with care-chiseled face, who sat in the
+White House, saw the inevitable, and emancipated the slaves of
+rebels on New Year's, 1863.  A month later Congress called
+earnestly for the Negro soldiers whom the act of July, 1862, had
+half grudgingly allowed to enlist.  Thus the barriers were
+leveled, and the deed was done.  The stream of fugitives swelled
+to a flood, and anxious officers kept inquiring: "What must be
+done with slaves arriving almost daily?  Am I to find food and
+shelter for women and children?" 
+ 
+It was a Pierce of Boston who pointed out the way, and thus became
+in a sense the founder of the Freedmen's Bureau.  Being specially
+detailed from the ranks to care for the freedmen at Fortress
+Monroe, he afterward founded the celebrated Port Royal experiment
+and started the Freedmen's Aid Societies.  Thus, under the timid
+Treasury officials and bold army officers, Pierce's plan widened
+and developed.  At first, the able-bodied men were enlisted as
+soldiers or hired as laborers, the women and children were herded
+into central camps under guard, and "superintendents of
+contrabands" multiplied here and there.  Centres of massed
+freedmen arose at Fortress Monroe, Va., Washington, D. C.,
+Beaufort and Port Royal, S. C., New Orleans, La., Vicksburg and
+Corinth, Miss., Columbus, Ky., Cairo, Ill., and elsewhere, and the
+army chaplains found here new and fruitful fields. 
+ 
+Then came the Freedmen's Aid Societies, born of the touching
+appeals for relief and help from these centres of distress.  There
+was the American Missionary Association, sprung from the Amistad,
+and now full grown for work, the various church organizations, the
+National Freedmen's Relief Association, the American Freedmen's
+Union, the Western Freedmen's Aid Commission,--in all fifty or
+more active organizations, which sent clothes, money, school- 
+books, and teachers southward.  All they did was needed, for the
+destitution of the freedmen was often reported as "too appalling
+for belief," and the situation was growing daily worse rather than
+better. 
+ 
+And daily, too, it seemed more plain that this was no ordinary
+matter of temporary relief, but a national crisis; for here loomed
+a labor problem of vast dimensions.  Masses of Negroes stood idle,
+or, if they worked spasmodically, were never sure of pay; and if
+perchance they received pay, squandered the new thing
+thoughtlessly.  In these and in other ways were camp life and the
+new liberty demoralizing the freedmen.  The broader economic
+organization thus clearly demanded sprang up here and there as
+accident and local conditions determined.  Here again Pierce's
+Port Royal plan of leased plantations and guided workmen pointed
+out the rough way.  In Washington, the military governor, at the
+urgent appeal of the superintendent, opened confiscated estates to
+the cultivation of the fugitives, and there in the shadow of the
+dome gathered black farm villages.  General Dix gave over estates
+to the freedmen of Fortress Monroe, and so on through the South. 
+The government and the benevolent societies furnished the means of
+cultivation, and the Negro turned again slowly to work.  The
+systems of control, thus started, rapidly grew, here and there,
+into strange little governments, like that of General Banks in
+Louisiana, with its 90,000 black subjects, its 50,000 guided
+laborers, and its annual budget of $100,000 and more.  It made out
+4000 pay rolls, registered all freedmen, inquired into grievances
+and redressed them, laid and collected taxes, and established a
+system of public schools.  So too Colonel Eaton, the
+superintendent of Tennessee and Arkansas, ruled over 100,000,
+leased and cultivated 7000 acres of cotton land, and furnished
+food for 10,000 paupers.  In South Carolina was General Saxton,
+with his deep interest in black folk.  He succeeded Pierce and the
+Treasury officials, and sold forfeited estates, leased abandoned
+plantations, encouraged schools, and received from Sherman, after
+the terribly picturesque march to the sea, thousands of the
+wretched camp followers. 
+ 
+Three characteristic things one might have seen in Sherman's raid
+through Georgia, which threw the new situation in deep and shadowy
+relief: the Conqueror, the Conquered, and the Negro.  Some see all
+significance in the grim front of the destroyer, and some in the
+bitter sufferers of the lost cause.  But to me neither soldier nor
+fugitive speaks with so deep a meaning as that dark and human
+cloud that clung like remorse on the rear of those swift columns,
+swelling at times to half their size, almost engulfing and choking
+them.  In vain were they ordered back, in vain were bridges hewn
+from beneath their feet; on they trudged and writhed and surged,
+until they rolled into Savannah, a starved and naked horde of tens
+of thousands.  There too came the characteristic military remedy:
+"The islands from Charleston south, the abandoned ricefields along
+the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country
+bordering the St. John's River, Florida, are reserved and set
+apart for the settlement of Negroes now made free by act of war." 
+So read the celebrated field order. 
+ 
+All these experiments, orders, and systems were bound to attract
+and perplex the government and the nation.  Directly after the
+Emancipation Proclamation, Representative Eliot had introduced a
+bill creating a Bureau of Emancipation, but it was never reported. 
+The following June, a committee of inquiry, appointed by the
+Secretary of War, reported in favor of a temporary bureau for the
+"improvement, protection, and employment of refugee freedmen," on
+much the same lines as were afterward followed.  Petitions came in
+to President Lincoln from distinguished citizens and
+organizations, strongly urging a comprehensive and unified plan of
+dealing with the freedmen, under a bureau which should be "charged
+with the study of plans and execution of measures for easily
+guiding, and in every way judiciously and humanely aiding, the
+passage of our emancipated and yet to be emancipated blacks from
+the old condition of forced labor to their new state of voluntary
+industry." 
+ 
+Some half-hearted steps were early taken by the government to put
+both freedmen and abandoned estates under the supervision of the
+Treasury officials.  Laws of 1863 and 1864 directed them to take
+charge of and lease abandoned lands for periods not exceeding
+twelve months, and to "provide in such leases or otherwise for the
+employment and general welfare" of the freedmen.  Most of the army
+officers looked upon this as a welcome relief from perplexing
+"Negro affairs;" but the Treasury hesitated and blundered, and
+although it leased large quantities of land and employed many
+Negroes, especially along the Mississippi, yet it left the virtual
+control of the laborers and their relations to their neighbors in
+the hands of the army. 
+ 
+In March, 1864, Congress at last turned its attention to the
+subject, and the House passed a bill, by a majority of two,
+establishing a Bureau for Freedmen in the War Department.  Senator
+Sumner, who had charge of the bill in the Senate, argued that
+freedmen and abandoned lands ought to be under the same
+department, and reported a substitute for the House bill,
+attaching the Bureau to the Treasury Department.  This bill
+passed, but too late for action in the House.  The debate wandered
+over the whole policy of the administration and the general
+question of slavery, without touching very closely the specific
+merits of the measure in hand. 
+ 
+Meantime the election took place, and the administration,
+returning from the country with a vote of renewed confidence,
+addressed itself to the matter more seriously.  A conference
+between the houses agreed upon a carefully drawn measure which
+contained the chief provisions of Charles Sumner's bill, but made
+the proposed organization a department independent of both the War
+and Treasury officials.  The bill was conservative, giving the new
+department "general superintendence of all freedmen."  It was to
+"establish regulations" for them, protect them, lease them lands,
+adjust their wages, and appear in civil and military courts as
+their "next friend."  There were many limitations attached to the
+powers thus granted, and the organization was made permanent. 
+Nevertheless, the Senate defeated the bill, and a new conference
+committee was appointed.  This committee reported a new bill,
+February 28, which was whirled through just as the session closed,
+and which became the act of 1865 establishing in the War
+Department a "Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands." 
+ 
+This last compromise was a hasty bit of legislation, vague and
+uncertain in outline.  A Bureau was created, "to continue during
+the present War of Rebellion, and for one year thereafter," to
+which was given "the supervision and management of all abandoned
+lands, and the control of all subjects relating to refugees and
+freedmen," under "such rules and regulations as may be presented
+by the head of the Bureau and approved by the President."  A
+commissioner, appointed by the President and Senate, was to
+control the Bureau, with an office force not exceeding ten clerks. 
+The President might also appoint commissioners in the seceded
+states, and to all these offices military officials might be
+detailed at regular pay.  The Secretary of War could issue
+rations, clothing, and fuel to the destitute, and all abandoned
+property was placed in the hands of the Bureau for eventual lease
+and sale to ex-slaves in forty-acre parcels. 
+ 
+Thus did the United States government definitely assume charge of
+the emancipated Negro as the ward of the nation.  It was a
+tremendous undertaking.  Here, at a stroke of the pen, was erected
+a government of millions of men,--and not ordinary men, either,
+but black men emasculated by a peculiarly complete system of
+slavery, centuries old; and now, suddenly, violently, they come
+into a new birthright, at a time of war and passion, in the midst
+of the stricken, embittered population of their former masters. 
+Any man might well have hesitated to assume charge of such a work,
+with vast responsibilities, indefinite powers, and limited
+resources.  Probably no one but a soldier would have answered such
+a call promptly; and indeed no one but a soldier could be called,
+for Congress had appropriated no money for salaries and expenses. 
+ 
+Less than a month after the weary emancipator passed to his rest,
+his successor assigned Major General Oliver O. Howard to duty as
+commissioner of the new Bureau.  He was a Maine man, then only
+thirty-five years of age.  He had marched with Sherman to the sea,
+had fought well at Gettysburg, and had but a year before been
+assigned to the command of the Department of Tennessee.  An honest
+and sincere men, with rather too much faith in human nature,
+little aptitude for systematic business and intricate detail, he
+was nevertheless conservative, hard-working, and, above all,
+acquainted at first-hand with much of the work before him.  And of
+that work it has been truly said, "No approximately correct
+history of civilization can ever be written which does not throw
+out in bold relief, as one of the great landmarks of political and
+social progress, the organization and administration of the
+Freedmen's Bureau." 
+ 
+On May 12, 1865, Howard was appointed, and he assumed the duties
+of his office promptly on the 15th, and began examining the field
+of work.  A curious mess he looked upon: little despotisms,
+communistic experiments, slavery, peonage, business speculations,
+organized charity, unorganized almsgiving,--all reeling on under
+the guise of helping the freedman, and all enshrined in the smoke
+and blood of war and the cursing and silence of angry men.  On May
+19 the new government--for a government it really was--issued its
+constitution; commissioners were to be appointed in each of the
+seceded states, who were to take charge of "all subjects relating
+to refugees and freedmen," and all relief and rations were to be
+given by their consent alone.  The Bureau invited continued
+cooperation with benevolent societies, and declared, "It will be
+the object of all commissioners to introduce practicable systems
+of compensated labor," and to establish schools.  Forthwith nine
+assistant commissioners were appointed.  They were to hasten to
+their fields of work; seek gradually to close relief
+establishments, and make the destitute self-supporting; act as
+courts of law where there were no courts, or where Negroes were
+not recognized in them as free; establish the institution of
+marriage among ex-slaves, and keep records; see that freedmen were
+free to choose their employers, and help in making fair contracts
+for them; and finally, the circular said, "Simple good faith, for
+which we hope on all hands for those concerned in the passing away
+of slavery, will especially relieve the assistant commissioners in
+the discharge of their duties toward the freedmen, as well as
+promote the general welfare." 
+ 
+No sooner was the work thus started, and the general system and
+local organization in some measure begun, than two grave
+difficulties appeared which changed largely the theory and outcome
+of Bureau work.  First, there were the abandoned lands of the
+South.  It had long been the more or less definitely expressed
+theory of the North that all the chief problems of emancipation
+might be settled by establishing the slaves on the forfeited lands
+of their masters,--a sort of poetic justice, said some.  But this
+poetry done into solemn prose meant either wholesale confiscation
+of private property in the South, or vast appropriations.  Now
+Congress had not appropriated a cent, and no sooner did the
+proclamations of general amnesty appear than the 800,000 acres of
+abandoned lands in the hands of the Freedmen's Bureau melted
+quickly away.  The second difficulty lay in perfecting the local
+organization of the Bureau throughout the wide field of work. 
+Making a new machine and sending out officials of duly ascertained
+fitness for a great work of social reform is no child's task; but
+this task was even harder, for a new central organization had to
+be fitted on a heterogeneous and confused but already existing
+system of relief and control of ex-slaves; and the agents
+available for this work must be sought for in an army still busy
+with war operations,--men in the very nature of the case ill
+fitted for delicate social work,--or among the questionable camp
+followers of an invading host.  Thus, after a year's work,
+vigorously as it was pushed, the problem looked even more
+difficult to grasp and solve than at the beginning.  Nevertheless,
+three things that year's work did, well worth the doing: it
+relieved a vast amount of physical suffering; it transported 7000
+fugitives from congested centres back to the farm; and, best of
+all, it inaugurated the crusade of the New England schoolma'am. 
+ 
+The annals of this Ninth Crusade are yet to be written, the tale
+of a mission that seemed to our age far more quixotic than the
+quest of St. Louis seemed to his.  Behind the mists of ruin and
+rapine waved the calico dresses of women who dared, and after the
+hoarse mouthings of the field guns rang the rhythm of the
+alphabet.  Rich and poor they were, serious and curious.  Bereaved
+now of a father, now of a brother, now of more than these, they
+came seeking a life work in planting New England schoolhouses
+among the white and black of the South.  They did their work well. 
+In that first year they taught 100,000 souls, and more. 
+ 
+Evidently, Congress must soon legislate again on the hastily
+organized Bureau, which had so quickly grown into wide
+significance and vast possibilities.  An institution such as that
+was well-nigh as difficult to end as to begin.  Early in 1866
+Congress took up the matter, when Senator Trumbull, of Illinois,
+introduced a bill to extend the Bureau and enlarge its powers. 
+This measure received, at the hands of Congress, far more thorough
+discussion and attention than its predecessor.  The war cloud had
+thinned enough to allow a clearer conception of the work of
+emancipation.  The champions of the bill argued that the
+strengthening of the Freedmen's Bureau was still a military
+necessity; that it was needed for the proper carrying out of the
+Thirteenth Amendment, and was a work of sheer justice to the ex- 
+slave, at a trifling cost to the government.  The opponents of the
+measure declared that the war was over, and the necessity for war
+measures past; that the Bureau, by reason of its extraordinary
+powers, was clearly unconstitutional in time of peace, and was
+destined to irritate the South and pauperize the freedmen, at a
+final cost of possibly hundreds of millions.  Two of these
+arguments were unanswered, and indeed unanswerable: the one that
+the extraordinary powers of the Bureau threatened the civil rights
+of all citizens; and the other that the government must have power
+to do what manifestly must be done, and that present abandonment
+of the freedmen meant their practical enslavement.  The bill which
+finally passed enlarged and made permanent the Freedmen's Bureau. 
+It was promptly vetoed by President Johnson, as
+"unconstitutional," "unnecessary," and "extrajudicial," and failed
+of passage over the veto.  Meantime, however, the breach between
+Congress and the President began to broaden, and a modified form
+of the lost bill was finally passed over the President's second
+veto, July 16. 
+ 
+The act of 1866 gave the Freedmen's Bureau its final form,--the
+form by which it will be known to posterity and judged of men.  It
+extended the existence of the Bureau to July, 1868; it authorized
+additional assistant commissioners, the retention of army officers
+mustered out of regular service, the sale of certain forfeited
+lands to freedmen on nominal terms, the sale of Confederate public
+property for Negro schools, and a wider field of judicial
+interpretation and cognizance.  The government of the un-
+reconstructed South was thus put very largely in the hands of the
+Freedmen's Bureau, especially as in many cases the departmental
+military commander was now made also assistant commissioner.  It
+was thus that the Freedmen's Bureau became a full-fledged
+government of men.  It made laws, executed them and interpreted
+them; it laid and collected taxes, defined and punished crime,
+maintained and used military force, and dictated such measures as
+it thought necessary and proper for the accomplishment of its
+varied ends.  Naturally, all these powers were not exercised
+continuously nor to their fullest extent; and yet, as General
+Howard has said, "scarcely any subject that has to be legislated
+upon in civil society failed, at one time or another, to demand
+the action of this singular Bureau." 
+ 
+To understand and criticise intelligently so vast a work, one must
+not forget an instant the drift of things in the later sixties:
+Lee had surrendered, Lincoln was dead, and Johnson and Congress
+were at loggerheads; the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted, the
+Fourteenth pending, and the Fifteenth declared in force in 1870. 
+Guerrilla raiding, the ever present flickering after-flame of war,
+was spending its force against the Negroes, and all the Southern
+land was awakening as from some wild dream to poverty and social
+revolution.  In a time of perfect calm, amid willing neighbors and
+streaming wealth, the social uplifting of 4,000,000 slaves to an
+assured and self-sustaining place in the body politic and economic
+would have been an herculean task; but when to the inherent
+difficulties of so delicate and nice a social operation were added
+the spite and hate of conflict, the Hell of War; when suspicion
+and cruelty were rife, and gaunt Hunger wept beside Bereavement,-- 
+in such a case, the work of any instrument of social regeneration
+was in large part foredoomed to failure.  The very name of the
+Bureau stood for a thing in the South which for two centuries and
+better men had refused even to argue,--that life amid free Negroes
+was simply unthinkable, the maddest of experiments.  The agents
+which the Bureau could command varied all the way from unselfish
+philanthropists to narrow-minded busybodies and thieves; and even
+though it be true that the average was far better than the worst,
+it was the one fly that helped to spoil the ointment.  Then, amid
+all this crouched the freed slave, bewildered between friend and
+foe.  He had emerged from slavery: not the worst slavery in the
+world, not a slavery that made all life unbearable,--rather, a
+slavery that had here and there much of kindliness, fidelity, and
+happiness,--but withal slavery, which, so far as human aspiration
+and desert were concerned, classed the black man and the ox
+together.  And the Negro knew full well that, whatever their
+deeper convictions may have been, Southern men had fought with
+desperate energy to perpetuate this slavery, under which the black
+masses, with half-articulate thought, had writhed and shivered. 
+They welcomed freedom with a cry.  They fled to the friends that
+had freed them.  They shrank from the master who still strove for
+their chains.  So the cleft between the white and black South
+grew.  Idle to say it never should have been; it was as inevitable
+as its results were pitiable.  Curiously incongruous elements were
+left arrayed against each other: the North, the government, the
+carpetbagger, and the slave, here; and there, all the South that
+was white, whether gentleman or vagabond, honest man or rascal,
+lawless murderer or martyr to duty. 
+ 
+Thus it is doubly difficult to write of this period calmly, so
+intense was the feeling, so mighty the human passions, that swayed
+and blinded men.  Amid it all two figures ever stand to typify
+that day to coming men: the one a gray-haired gentleman, whose
+fathers had quit themselves like men, whose sons lay in nameless
+graves, who bowed to the evil of slavery because its abolition
+boded untold ill to all; who stood at last, in the evening of
+life, a blighted, ruined form, with hate in his eyes.  And the
+other, a form hovering dark and mother-like, her awful face black
+with the mists of centuries, had aforetime bent in love over her
+white master's cradle, rocked his sons and daughters to sleep, and
+closed in death the sunken eyes of his wife to the world; ay, too,
+had laid herself low to his lust and borne a tawny man child to
+the world, only to see her dark boy's limbs scattered to the winds
+by midnight marauders riding after Damned Niggers.  These were the
+saddest sights of that woeful day; and no man clasped the hands of
+these two passing figures of the present-past; but hating they
+went to their long home, and hating their children's children live
+to-day. 
+ 
+Here, then, was the field of work for the Freedmen's Bureau; and
+since, with some hesitation, it was continued by the act of 1868
+till 1869, let us look upon four years of its work as a whole. 
+There were, in 1868, 900 Bureau officials scattered from
+Washington to Texas, ruling, directly and indirectly, many
+millions of men.  And the deeds of these rulers fall mainly under
+seven heads,--the relief of physical suffering, the overseeing of
+the beginnings of free labor, the buying and selling of land, the
+establishment of schools, the paying of bounties, the
+administration of justice, and the financiering of all these
+activities.  Up to June, 1869, over half a million patients had
+been treated by Bureau physicians and surgeons, and sixty
+hospitals and asylums had been in operation.  In fifty months of
+work 21,000,000 free rations were distributed at a cost of over
+$4,000,000,--beginning at the rate of 30,000 rations a day in
+1865, and discontinuing in 1869.  Next came the difficult question
+of labor.  First, 30,000 black men were transported from the
+refuges and relief stations back to the farms, back to the
+critical trial of a new way of working.  Plain, simple
+instructions went out from Washington,--the freedom of laborers to
+choose employers, no fixed rates of wages, no peonage or forced
+labor.  So far so good; but where local agents differed toto coelo
+in capacity and character, where the personnel was continually
+changing, the outcome was varied.  The largest element of success
+lay in the fact that the majority of the freedmen were willing,
+often eager, to work.  So contracts were written,--50,000 in a
+single state,--laborers advised, wages guaranteed, and employers
+supplied.  In truth, the organization became a vast labor bureau;
+not perfect, indeed,--notably defective here and there,--but on
+the whole, considering the situation, successful beyond the dreams
+of thoughtful men.  The two great obstacles which confronted the
+officers at every turn were the tyrant and the idler: the
+slaveholder, who believed slavery was right, and was determined to
+perpetuate it under another name; and the freedman, who regarded
+freedom as perpetual rest.  These were the Devil and the Deep Sea. 
+ 
+In the work of establishing the Negroes as peasant proprietors the
+Bureau was severely handicapped, as I have shown.  Nevertheless,
+something was done.  Abandoned lands were leased so long as they
+remained in the hands of the Bureau, and a total revenue of
+$400,000 derived from black tenants.  Some other lands to which
+the nation had gained title were sold, and public lands were
+opened for the settlement of the few blacks who had tools and
+capital.  The vision of landowning, however, the righteous and
+reasonable ambition for forty acres and a mule which filled the
+freedmen's dreams, was doomed in most cases to disappointment. 
+And those men of marvelous hind-sight, who to-day are seeking to
+preach the Negro back to the soil, know well, or ought to know,
+that it was here, in 1865, that the finest opportunity of binding
+the black peasant to the soil was lost.  Yet, with help and
+striving, the Negro gained some land, and by 1874, in the one
+state of Georgia, owned near 350,000 acres. 
+ 
+The greatest success of the Freedmen's Bureau lay in the planting
+of the free school among Negroes, and the idea of free elementary
+education among all classes in the South.  It not only called the
+schoolmistress through the benevolent agencies, and built them
+schoolhouses, but it helped discover and support such apostles of
+human development as Edmund Ware, Erastus Cravath, and Samuel
+Armstrong.  State superintendents of education were appointed, and
+by 1870 150,000 children were in school.  The opposition to Negro
+education was bitter in the South, for the South believed an
+educated Negro to be a dangerous Negro.  And the South was not
+wholly wrong; for education among all kinds of men always has had,
+and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of
+dissatisfaction and discontent.  Nevertheless, men strive to know. 
+It was some inkling of this paradox, even in the unquiet days of
+the Bureau, that allayed an opposition to human training, which
+still to-day lies smouldering, but not flaming.  Fisk, Atlanta,
+Howard, and Hampton were founded in these days, and nearly
+$6,000,000 was expended in five years for educational work,
+$750,000 of which came from the freedmen themselves. 
+ 
+Such contributions, together with the buying of land and various
+other enterprises, showed that the ex-slave was handling some free
+capital already.  The chief initial source of this was labor in
+the army, and his pay and bounty as a soldier.  Payments to Negro
+soldiers were at first complicated by the ignorance of the
+recipients, and the fact that the quotas of colored regiments from
+Northern states were largely filled by recruits from the South,
+unknown to their fellow soldiers.  Consequently, payments were
+accompanied by such frauds that Congress, by joint resolution in
+1867, put the whole matter in the hands of the Freedmen's Bureau. 
+In two years $6,000,000 was thus distributed to 5000 claimants,
+and in the end the sum exceeded $8,000,000.  Even in this system,
+fraud was frequent; but still the work put needed capital in the
+hands of practical paupers, and some, at least, was well spent. 
+ 
+The most perplexing and least successful part of the Bureau's work
+lay in the exercise of its judicial functions.  In a distracted
+land where slavery had hardly fallen, to keep the strong from
+wanton abuse of the weak, and the weak from gloating insolently
+over the half-shorn strength of the strong, was a thankless,
+hopeless task.  The former masters of the land were peremptorily
+ordered about, seized and imprisoned, and punished over and again,
+with scant courtesy from army officers.  The former slaves were
+intimidated, beaten, raped, and butchered by angry and revengeful
+men.  Bureau courts tended to become centres simply for punishing
+whites, while the regular civil courts tended to become solely
+institutions for perpetuating the slavery of blacks.  Almost every
+law and method ingenuity could devise was employed by the
+legislatures to reduce the Negroes to serfdom,--to make them the
+slaves of the state, if not of individual owners; while the Bureau
+officials too often were found striving to put the "bottom rail on
+top," and give the freedmen a power and independence which they
+could not yet use.  It is all well enough for us of another
+generation to wax wise with advice to those who bore the burden in
+the heat of the day.  It is full easy now to see that the man who
+lost home, fortune, and family at a stroke, and saw his land ruled
+by "mules and niggers," was really benefited by the passing of
+slavery.  It is not difficult now to say to the young freedman,
+cheated and cuffed about, who has seen his father's head beaten to
+a jelly and his own mother namelessly assaulted, that the meek
+shall inherit the earth.  Above all, nothing is more convenient
+than to heap on the Freedmen's Bureau all the evils of that evil
+day, and damn it utterly for every mistake and blunder that was
+made. 
+ 
+All this is easy, but it is neither sensible nor just.  Some one
+had blundered, but that was long before Oliver Howard was born;
+there was criminal aggression and heedless neglect, but without
+some system of control there would have been far more than there
+was.  Had that control been from within, the Negro would have been
+reenslaved, to all intents and purposes.  Coming as the control
+did from without, perfect men and methods would have bettered all
+things; and even with imperfect agents and questionable methods,
+the work accomplished was not undeserving of much commendation. 
+The regular Bureau court consisted of one representative of the
+employer, one of the Negro, and one of the Bureau.  If the Bureau
+could have maintained a perfectly judicial attitude, this
+arrangement would have been ideal, and must in time have gained
+confidence; but the nature of its other activities and the
+character of its personnel prejudiced the Bureau in favor of the
+black litigants, and led without doubt to much injustice and
+annoyance.  On the other hand, to leave the Negro in the hands of
+Southern courts was impossible. 
+ 
+What the Freedmen's Bureau cost the nation is difficult to
+determine accurately.  Its methods of bookkeeping were not good,
+and the whole system of its work and records partook of the hurry
+and turmoil of the time.  General Howard himself disbursed some
+$15,000,000 during his incumbency; but this includes the bounties
+paid colored soldiers, which perhaps should not be counted as an
+expense of the Bureau.  In bounties, prize money, and all other
+expenses, the Bureau disbursed over $20,000,000 before all of its
+departments were finally closed.  To this ought to be added the
+large expenses of the various departments of Negro affairs before
+1865; but these are hardly extricable from war expenditures, nor
+can we estimate with any accuracy the contributions of benevolent
+societies during all these years. 
+ 
+ 
+Such was the work of the Freedmen's Bureau.  To sum it up in
+brief, we may say: it set going a system of free labor; it
+established the black peasant proprietor; it secured the
+recognition of black freemen before courts of law; it founded the
+free public school in the South.  On the other hand, it failed to
+establish good will between ex-masters and freedmen; to guard its
+work wholly from paternalistic methods that discouraged self-
+reliance; to make Negroes landholders in any considerable numbers. 
+Its successes were the result of hard work, supplemented by the
+aid of philanthropists and the eager striving of black men.  Its
+failures were the result of bad local agents, inherent
+difficulties of the work, and national neglect.  The Freedmen's
+Bureau expired by limitation in 1869, save its educational and
+bounty departments.  The educational work came to an end in 1872,
+and General Howard's connection with the Bureau ceased at that
+time.  The work of paying bounties was transferred to the adjutant
+general's office, where it was continued three or four years
+longer. 
+ 
+Such an institution, from its wide powers, great responsibilities,
+large control of moneys, and generally conspicuous position, was
+naturally open to repeated and bitter attacks.  It sustained a
+searching congressional investigation at the instance of Fernando
+Wood in 1870.  It was, with blunt discourtesy, transferred from
+Howard's control, in his absence, to the supervision of Secretary
+of War Belknap in 1872, on the Secretary's recommendation. 
+Finally, in consequence of grave intimations of wrongdoing made by
+the Secretary and his subordinates, General Howard was court- 
+martialed in 1874.  In each of these trials, and in other attacks,
+the commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau was exonerated from any
+willful misdoing, and his work heartily commended.  Nevertheless,
+many unpleasant things were brought to light: the methods of
+transacting the business of the Bureau were faulty; several cases
+of defalcation among officials in the field were proven, and
+further frauds hinted at; there were some business transactions
+which savored of dangerous speculation, if not dishonesty; and,
+above all, the smirch of the Freedmen's Bank, which, while legally
+distinct from, was morally and practically a part of the Bureau,
+will ever blacken the record of this great institution.  Not even
+ten additional years of slavery could have done as much to
+throttle the thrift of the freedmen as the mismanagement and
+bankruptcy of the savings bank chartered by the nation for their
+especial aid.  Yet it is but fair to say that the perfect honesty
+of purpose and unselfish devotion of General Howard have passed
+untarnished through the fire of criticism.  Not so with all his
+subordinates, although in the case of the great majority of these
+there were shown bravery and devotion to duty, even though
+sometimes linked to narrowness and incompetency. 
+ 
+The most bitter attacks on the Freedmen's Bureau were aimed not so
+much at its conduct or policy under the law as at the necessity
+for any such organization at all.  Such attacks came naturally
+from the border states and the South, and they were summed up by
+Senator Davis, of Kentucky, when he moved to entitle the act of
+1866 a bill "to promote strife and conflict between the white and
+black races . . . by a grant of unconstitutional power."  The
+argument was of tremendous strength, but its very strength was its
+weakness.  For, argued the plain common sense of the nation, if it
+is unconstitutional, unpracticable, and futile for the nation to
+stand guardian over its helpless wards, then there is left but one
+alternative: to make those wards their own guardians by arming
+them with the ballot.  The alternative offered the nation then was
+not between full and restricted Negro suffrage; else every
+sensible man, black and white, would easily have chosen the
+latter.  It was rather a choice between suffrage and slavery,
+after endless blood and gold had flowed to sweep human bondage
+away.  Not a single Southern legislature stood ready to admit a
+Negro, under any conditions, to the polls; not a single Southern
+legislature believed free Negro labor was possible without a
+system of restrictions that took all its freedom away; there was
+scarcely a white man in the South who did not honestly regard
+emancipation as a crime, and its practical nullification as a
+duty.  In such a situation, the granting of the ballot to the
+black man was a necessity, the very least a guilty nation could
+grant a wronged race.  Had the opposition to government
+guardianship of Negroes been less bitter, and the attachment to
+the slave system less strong, the social seer can well imagine a
+far better policy: a permanent Freedmen's Bureau, with a national
+system of Negro schools; a carefully supervised employment and
+labor office; a system of impartial protection before the regular
+courts; and such institutions for social betterment as savings
+banks, land and building associations, and social settlements. 
+All this vast expenditure of money and brains might have formed a
+great school of prospective citizenship, and solved in a way we
+have not yet solved the most perplexing and persistent of the
+Negro problems. 
+ 
+That such an institution was unthinkable in 1870 was due in part
+to certain acts of the Freedmen's Bureau itself.  It came to
+regard its work as merely temporary, and Negro suffrage as a final
+answer to all present perplexities.  The political ambition of
+many of its agents and proteges led it far afield into
+questionable activities, until the South, nursing its own deep
+prejudices, came easily to ignore all the good deeds of the
+Bureau, and hate its very name with perfect hatred.  So the
+Freedmen's Bureau died, and its child was the Fifteenth Amendment. 
+ 
+The passing of a great human institution before its work is done,
+like the untimely passing of a single soul, but leaves a legacy of
+striving for other men.  The legacy of the Freedmen's Bureau is
+the heavy heritage of this generation.  Today, when new and vaster
+problems are destined to strain every fibre of the national mind
+and soul, would it not be well to count this legacy honestly and
+carefully?  For this much all men know: despite compromise,
+struggle, war, and struggle, the Negro is not free.  In the
+backwoods of the Gulf states, for miles and miles, he may not
+leave the plantation of his birth; in well-nigh the whole rural
+South the black farmers are peons, bound by law and custom to an
+economic slavery, from which the only escape is death or the
+penitentiary.  In the most cultured sections and cities of the
+South the Negroes are a segregated servile caste, with restricted
+rights and privileges.  Before the courts, both in law and custom,
+they stand on a different and peculiar basis.  Taxation without
+representation is the rule of their political life.  And the
+result of all this is, and in nature must have been, lawlessness
+and crime.  That is the large legacy of the Freedmen's Bureau, the
+work it did not do because it could not. 
+ 
+ 
+I have seen a land right merry with the sun; where children sing,
+and rolling hills lie like passioned women, wanton with harvest. 
+And there in the King's Highway sat and sits a figure, veiled and
+bowed, by which the traveler's footsteps hasten as they go.  On
+the tainted air broods fear.  Three centuries' thought has been
+the raising and unveiling of that bowed human heart, and now,
+behold, my fellows, a century new for the duty and the deed.  The
+problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+OF THE TRAINING OF BLACK MEN 
+by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois 
+ 
+ 
+From the shimmering swirl of waters where many, many thoughts ago
+the slave-ship first saw the square tower of Jamestown have flowed
+down to our day three streams of thinking: one from the larger
+world here and over-seas, saying, the multiplying of human wants
+in culture lands calls for the world-wide co-operation of men in
+satisfying them.  Hence arises a new human unity, pulling the ends
+of earth nearer, and all men, black, yellow, and white.  The
+larger humanity strives to feel in this contact of living nations
+and sleeping hordes a thrill of new life in the world, crying, If
+the contact of Life and Sleep be Death, shame on such Life.  To be
+sure, behind this thought lurks the afterthought of force and
+dominion,--the making of brown men to delve when the temptation of
+beads and red calico cloys. 
+ 
+The second thought streaming from the death-ship and the curving
+river is the thought of the older South: the sincere and
+passionate belief that somewhere between men and cattle God
+created a tertium quid, and called it a Negro,--a clownish, simple
+creature, at times even lovable within its limitations, but
+straitly foreordained to walk within the Veil.  To be sure, behind
+the thought lurks the afterthought,--some of them with favoring
+chance might become men, but in sheer self-defense we dare not let
+them, and build about them walls so high, and hang between them
+and the light a veil so thick, that they shall not even think of
+breaking through. 
+ 
+And last of all there trickles down that third and darker thought,
+the thought of the things themselves, the confused half-conscious
+mutter of men who are black and whitened, crying Liberty, Freedom,
+Opportunity--vouchsafe to us, O boastful World, the chance of
+living men!  To be sure, behind the thought lurks the
+afterthought: suppose, after all, the World is right and we are
+less than men?  Suppose this mad impulse within is all wrong, some
+mock mirage from the untrue? 
+ 
+So here we stand among thoughts of human unity, even through
+conquest and slavery; the inferiority of black men, even if forced
+by fraud; a shriek in the night for the freedom of men who
+themselves are not yet sure of their right to demand it.  This is
+the tangle of thought and afterthought wherein we are called to
+solve the problem of training men for life. 
+ 
+Behind all its curiousness, so attractive alike to sage and
+dilettante, lie its dim dangers, throwing across us shadows at
+once grotesque and awful.  Plain it is to us that what the world
+seeks through desert and wild we have within our threshold;--a
+stalwart laboring force, suited to the semi-tropics; if, deaf to
+the voice of the Zeitgeist, we refuse to use and develop these
+men, we risk poverty and loss.  If, on the other hand, seized by
+the brutal afterthought, we debauch the race thus caught in our
+talons, selfishly sucking their blood and brains in the future as
+in the past, what shall save us from national decadence?  Only
+that saner selfishness which, Education teaches men, can find the
+rights of all in the whirl of work. 
+ 
+Again, we may decry the color prejudice of the South, yet it
+remains a heavy fact.  Such curious kinks of the human mind exist
+and must be reckoned with soberly.  They cannot be laughed away,
+nor always successfully stormed at, nor easily abolished by act of
+legislature.  And yet they cannot be encouraged by being let
+alone.  They must be recognized as facts, but unpleasant facts;
+things that stand in the way of civilization and religion and
+common decency.  They can be met in but one way: by the breadth
+and broadening of human reason, by catholicity of taste and
+culture.  And so, too, the native ambition and aspiration of men,
+even though they be black, backward, and ungraceful, must not
+lightly be dealt with.  To stimulate wildly weak and untrained
+minds is to play with mighty fires; to flout their striving idly
+is to welcome a harvest of brutish crime and shameless lethargy in
+our very laps.  The guiding of thought and the deft coordination
+of deed is at once the path of honor and humanity. 
+ 
+And so, in this great question of reconciling three vast and
+partially contradictory streams of thought, the one panacea of
+Education leaps to the lips of all; such human training as will
+best use the labor of all men without enslaving or brutalizing;
+such training as will give us poise to encourage the prejudices
+that bulwark society, and stamp out those that in sheer barbarity
+deafen us to the wail of prisoned souls within the Veil, and the
+mounting fury of shackled men. 
+ 
+But when we have vaguely said Education will set this tangle
+straight, what have we uttered but a truism?  Training for life
+teaches living; but what training for the profitable living
+together of black men and white?  Two hundred years ago our task
+would have seemed easier.  Then Dr. Johnson blandly assured us
+that education was needed solely for the embellishments of life,
+and was useless for ordinary vermin.  To-day we have climbed to
+heights where we would open at least the outer courts of knowledge
+to all, display its treasures to many, and select the few to whom
+its mystery of Truth is revealed, not wholly by truth or the
+accidents of the stock market, but at least in part according to
+deftness and aim, talent and character.  This programme, however,
+we are sorely puzzled in carrying out through that part of the
+land where the blight of slavery fell hardest, and where we are
+dealing with two backward peoples.  To make here in human
+education that ever necessary combination of the permanent and the
+contingent--of the ideal and the practical in workable
+equilibrium--has been there, as it ever must be in every age and
+place, a matter of infinite experiment and frequent mistakes. 
+ 
+In rough approximation we may point out four varying decades of
+work in Southern education since the Civil War.  From the close of
+the war until 1876 was the period of uncertain groping and
+temporary relief.  There were army schools, mission schools, and
+schools of the Freedmen's Bureau in chaotic disarrangement,
+seeking system and cooperation.  Then followed ten years of
+constructive definite effort toward the building of complete
+school systems in the South.  Normal schools and colleges were
+founded for the freedmen, and teachers trained there to man the
+public schools.  There was the inevitable tendency of war to
+underestimate the prejudice of the master and the ignorance of the
+slave, and all seemed clear sailing out of the wreckage of the
+storm.  Meantime, starting in this decade yet especially
+developing from 1885 to 1895, began the industrial revolution of
+the South.  The land saw glimpses of a new destiny and the
+stirring of new ideals.  The educational system striving to
+complete itself saw new obstacles and a field of work ever broader
+and deeper.  The Negro colleges, hurriedly founded, were
+inadequately equipped, illogically distributed, and of varying
+efficiency and grade; the normal and high schools were doing
+little more than common school work, and the common schools were
+training but a third of the children who ought to be in them, and
+training these too often poorly.  At the same time the white
+South, by reason of its sudden conversion from the slavery ideal,
+by so much the more became set and strengthened in its racial
+prejudice, and crystallized it into harsh law and harsher custom;
+while the marvelous pushing forward of the poor white daily
+threatened to take even bread and butter from the mouths of the
+heavily handicapped sons of the freedmen.  In the midst, then, of
+the larger problem of Negro education sprang up the more practical
+question of work, the inevitable economic quandary that faces a
+people in the transition from slavery to freedom, and especially
+those who make that change amid hate and prejudice, lawlessness
+and ruthless competition. 
+ 
+The industrial school springing to notice in this decade, but
+coming to full recognition in the decade beginning with 1895, was
+the proffered answer to this combined educational and economic
+crisis, and an answer of singular wisdom and timeliness.  From the
+very first in nearly all the schools some attention had been given
+to training in handiwork, but now was this training first raised
+to a dignity that brought it in direct touch with the South's
+magnificent industrial development, and given an emphasis which
+reminded black folk that before the Temple of Knowledge swing the
+Gates of Toil. 
+ 
+Yet after all they are but gates, and when turning our eyes from
+the temporary and the contingent in the Negro problem to the
+broader question of the permanent uplifting and civilization of
+black men in America, we have a right to inquire, as this
+enthusiasm for material advancement mounts to its height, if after
+all the industrial school is the final and sufficient answer in
+the training of the Negro race; and to ask gently, but in all
+sincerity, the ever recurring query of the ages, Is not life more
+than meat, and the body more than raiment?  And men ask this to- 
+day all the more eagerly because of sinister signs in recent
+educational movements.  The tendency is here born of slavery and
+quickened to renewed life by the crazy imperialism of the day, to
+regard human beings as among the material resources of a land to
+be trained with an eye single to future dividends.  Race
+prejudices, which keep brown and black men in their "places," we
+are coming to regard as useful allies with such a theory, no
+matter how much they may dull the ambition and sicken the hearts
+of struggling human beings.  And above all, we daily hear that an
+education that encourages aspiration, that sets the loftiest of
+ideals and seeks as an end culture and character than bread- 
+winning, is the privilege of white men and the danger and delusion
+of black. 
+ 
+Especially has criticism been directed against the former
+educational efforts to aid the Negro.  In the four periods I have
+mentioned, we find first boundless, planless enthusiasm and
+sacrifice; then the preparation of teachers for a vast public
+school system; then the launching and expansion of that school
+system amid increasing difficulties; and finally the training of
+workmen for the new and growing industries.  This development has
+been sharply ridiculed as a logical anomaly and flat reversal of
+nature.  Soothly we have been told that first industrial and
+manual training should have taught the Negro to work, then simple
+schools should have taught him to read and write, and finally,
+after years, high and normal schools could have completed the
+system, as intelligence and wealth demanded. 
+ 
+That a system logically so complete was historically impossible,
+it needs but a little thought to prove.  Progress in human affairs
+is more often a pull than a push, surging forward of the
+exceptional man, and the lifting of his duller brethren slowly and
+painfully to his vantage ground.  Thus it was no accident that
+gave birth to universities centuries before the common schools,
+that made fair Harvard the first flower of our wilderness.  So in
+the South: the mass of the freedmen at the end of the war lacked
+the intelligence so necessary to modern workingmen.  They must
+first have the common school to teach them to read, write, and
+cipher.  The white teachers who flocked South went to establish
+such a common school system.  They had no idea of founding
+colleges; they themselves at first would have laughed at the idea. 
+But they faced, as all men since them have faced, that central
+paradox of the South, the social separation of the races.  Then it
+was the sudden volcanic rupture of nearly all relations between
+black and white, in work and government and family life.  Since
+then a new adjustment of relations in economic and political
+affairs has grown up,--an adjustment subtle and difficult to
+grasp, yet singularly ingenious, which leaves still that frightful
+chasm at the color line across which men pass at their peril. 
+Thus, then and now, there stand in the South two separate worlds;
+and separate not simply in the higher realms of social
+intercourse, but also in church and school, on railway and street
+car, in hotels and theatres, in streets and city sections, in
+books and newspapers, in asylums and jails, in hospitals and
+graveyards.  There is still enough of contact for large economic
+and group cooperation, but the separation is so thorough and deep,
+that it absolutely precludes for the present between the races
+anything like that sympathetic and effective group training and
+leadership of the one by the other, such as the American Negro and
+all backward peoples must have for effectual progress. 
+ 
+This the missionaries of '68 soon saw; and if effective industrial
+and trade schools were impractical before the establishment of a
+common school system, just as certainly no adequate common schools
+could be founded until there were teachers to teach them. 
+Southern whites would not teach them; Northern whites in
+sufficient numbers could not be had.  If the Negro was to learn,
+he must teach himself, and the most effective help that could be
+given him was the establishment of schools to train Negro
+teachers.  This conclusion was slowly but surely reached by every
+student of the situation until simultaneously, in widely separated
+regions, without consultation or systematic plan, there arose a
+series of institutions designed to furnish teachers for the
+untaught.  Above the sneers of critics at the obvious defects of
+this procedure must ever stand its one crushing rejoinder: in a
+single generation they put thirty thousand black teachers in the
+South; they wiped out the illiteracy of the majority of the black
+people of the land, and they made Tuskegee possible. 
+ 
+Such higher training schools tended naturally to deepen broader
+development: at first they were common and grammar schools, then
+some became high schools.  And finally, by 1900, some thirty-four
+had one year or more of studies of college grade.  This
+development was reached with different degrees of speed in
+different institutions: Hampton is still a high school, while Fisk
+University started her college in 1871, and Spelman Seminary about
+1896.  In all cases the aim was identical: to maintain the
+standards of the lower training by giving teachers and leaders the
+best practicable training; and above all to furnish the black
+world with adequate standards of human culture and lofty ideals of
+life.  It was not enough that the teachers of teachers should be
+trained in technical normal methods; they must also, so far as
+possible, be broad-minded, cultured men and women, to scatter
+civilization among a people whose ignorance was not simply of
+letters, but of life itself. 
+ 
+It can thus be seen that the work of education in the South began
+with higher institutions of training, which threw off as their
+foliage common schools, and later industrial schools, and at the
+same time strove to shoot their roots ever deeper toward college
+and university training.  That this was an inevitable and
+necessary development, sooner or later, goes without saying; but
+there has been, and still is, a question in many minds if the
+natural growth was not forced, and if the higher training was not
+either overdone or done with cheap and unsound methods.  Among
+white Southerners this feeling is widespread and positive.  A
+prominent Southern journal voiced this in a recent editorial: 
+ 
+"The experiment that has been made to give the colored students
+classical training has not been satisfactory.  Even though many
+were able to pursue the course, most of them did so in a parrot- 
+like way, learning what was taught, but not seeming to appropriate
+the truth and import of their instruction, and graduating without
+sensible aim or valuable occupation for their future.  The whole
+scheme has proved a waste of time, efforts, and the money of the
+state." 
+ 
+While most far-minded men would recognize this as extreme and
+overdrawn, still without doubt many are asking, Are there a
+sufficient number of Negroes ready for college training to warrant
+the undertaking?  Are not too many students prematurely forced
+into this work?  Does it not have the effect of dissatisfying the
+young Negro with his environment?  And do these graduates succeed
+in real life?  Such natural questions cannot be evaded, nor on the
+other hand must a nation naturally skeptical as to Negro ability
+assume an unfavorable answer without careful inquiry and patient
+openness to conviction.  We must not forget that most Americans
+answer all queries regarding the Negro a priori, and that the
+least that human courtesy can do is to listen to evidence. 
+ 
+The advocates of the higher education of the Negro would be the
+last to deny the incompleteness and glaring defects of the present
+system: too many institutions have attempted to do college work,
+the work in some cases has not been thoroughly done, and quantity
+rather than quality has sometimes been sought.  But all this can
+be said of higher education throughout the land: it is the almost
+inevitable incident of educational growth, and leaves the deeper
+question of the legitimate demand for the higher training of
+Negroes untouched.  And this latter question can be settled in but
+one way--by a first-hand study of the facts.  If we leave out of
+view all institutions which have not actually graduated students
+from a course higher than that of a New England high school, even
+though they be called colleges; if then we take the thirty-four
+remaining institutions, we may clear up many misapprehensions by
+asking searchingly, What kind of institutions are they, what do
+they teach, and what sort of men do they graduate? 
+ 
+And first we may say that this type of college, including Atlanta,
+Fisk and Howard, Wilberforce and Lincoln, Biddle, Shaw, and the
+rest, is peculiar, almost unique.  Through the shining trees that
+whisper before me as I write, I catch glimpses of a boulder of New
+England granite, covering a grave, which graduates of Atlanta
+University have placed there:--
+ 
+ 
+               "IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THEIR 
+                FORMER TEACHER AND FRIEND 
+                AND OF THE UNSELFISH LIFE HE 
+                LIVED, AND THE NOBLE WORK HE 
+                WROUGHT; THAT THEY, THEIR 
+                CHILDREN, AND THEIR CHIL- 
+                DREN'S CHILDREN MIGHT BE 
+                        BLESSED."
+ 
+ 
+This was the gift of New England to the freed Negro: not alms, but
+a friend; not cash, but character.  It was not and is not money
+these seething millions want, but love and sympathy, the pulse of
+hearts beating with red blood; a gift which to-day only their own
+kindred and race can bring to the masses, but which once saintly
+souls brought to their favored children in the crusade of the
+sixties, that finest thing in American history, and one of the few
+things untainted by sordid greed and cheap vainglory.  The
+teachers in these institutions came not to keep the Negroes in
+their place, but to raise them out of their places where the filth
+of slavery had wallowed them.  The colleges they founded were
+social settlements; homes where the best of the sons of the
+freedmen came in close and sympathetic touch with the best
+traditions of New England.  They lived and ate together, studies
+and worked, hoped and harkened in the dawning light.  In actual
+formal content their curriculum was doubtless old-fashioned, but
+in educational power it was supreme, for it was the contact of
+living souls. 
+ 
+From such schools about two thousand Negroes have gone forth with
+the bachelor's degree.  The number in itself is enough to put at
+rest the argument that too large a proportion of Negroes are
+receiving higher training.  If the ratio to population of all
+Negro students throughout the land, in both college and secondary
+training, be counted, Commissioner Harris assures us "it must be
+increased to five times its present average" to equal the average
+of the land. 
+ 
+Fifty years ago the ability of Negro students in any appreciable
+numbers to master a modern college course would have been
+difficult to prove.  To-day it is proved by the fact that four
+hundred Negroes, many of whom have been reported as brilliant
+students, have received the bachelor's degree from Harvard, Yale,
+Oberlin, and seventy other leading colleges.  Here we have, then,
+nearly twenty-five hundred Negro graduates, of whom the crucial
+query must be made.  How far did their training fit them for life? 
+It is of course extremely difficult to collect satisfactory data
+on such a point,--difficult to reach the men, to get trustworthy
+testimony, and to gauge that testimony by any generally acceptable
+criterion of success.  In 1900, the Conference at Atlanta
+University undertook to study these graduates, and published the
+results.  First they sought to know what these graduates were
+doing, and succeeded in getting answers from nearly two thirds of
+the living.  The direct testimony was in almost all cases
+corroborated by the reports of the colleges where they graduated,
+so that in the main the reports were worthy of credence.  Fifty-
+three per cent of these graduates were teachers,--presidents of
+institutions, heads of normal schools, principals of city school
+systems, and the like.  Seventeen per cent were clergymen; another
+seventeen per cent were in the professions, chiefly as physicians. 
+Over six per cent were merchants, farmers, and artisans, and four
+per cent were in the government civil service.  Granting even that
+a considerable proportion of the third unheard from are
+unsuccessful, this is a record of usefulness.  Personally I know
+many hundreds of these graduates and have corresponded with more
+than a thousand; through others I have followed carefully the
+life-work of scores; I have taught some of them and some of the
+pupils whom they have taught, lived in homes which they have
+builded, and looked at life through their eyes.  Comparing them as
+a class with my fellow students in New England and in Europe, I
+cannot hesitate in saying that nowhere have I met men and women
+with a broader spirit of helpfulness, with deeper devotion to
+their life-work, or with more consecrated determination to succeed
+in the face of bitter difficulties than among Negro college-bred
+men.  They have, to be sure, their proportion of ne'er-do-weels,
+their pedants and lettered fools, but they have a surprisingly
+small proportion of them; they have not that culture of manner
+which we instinctively associate with university men, forgetting
+that in reality it is the heritage from cultured homes, and that
+no people a generation removed from slavery can escape a certain
+unpleasant rawness and gaucherie, despite the best of training. 
+ 
+With all their larger vision and deeper sensibility, these men
+have usually been conservative, careful leaders.  They have seldom
+been agitators, have withstood the temptation to head the mob, and
+have worked steadily and faithfully in a thousand communities in
+the South.  As teachers they have given the South a commendable
+system of city schools and large numbers of private normal schools
+and academies.  Colored college-bred men have worked side by side
+with white college graduates at Hampton; almost from the beginning
+the backbone of Tuskegee's teaching force has been formed of
+graduates from Fisk and Atlanta.  And to-day the institute is
+filled with college graduates, from the energetic wife of the
+principal down to the teacher of agriculture, including nearly
+half of the executive council and a majority of the heads of
+departments.  In the professions, college men are slowly but
+surely leavening the Negro church, are healing and preventing the
+devastations of disease, and beginning to furnish legal protection
+for the liberty and property of the toiling masses.  All this is
+needful work.  Who would do it if Negroes did not?  How could
+Negroes do it if they were not trained carefully for it?  If white
+people need colleges to furnish teachers, ministers, lawyers, and
+doctors, do black people need nothing of the sort? 
+ 
+If it be true that there are an appreciable number of Negro youth
+in the land capable by character and talent to receive that higher
+training, the end of which is culture, and if the two and a half
+thousand who have had something of this training in the past have
+in the main proved themselves useful to their race and generation,
+the question then comes, What place in the future development of
+the South might the Negro college and college-bred man to occupy? 
+That the present social separation and acute race sensitiveness
+must eventually yield to the influences of culture as the South
+grows civilized is clear.  But such transformation calls for
+singular wisdom and patience.  If, while the healing of this vast
+sore is progressing, the races are to live for many years side by
+side, united in economic effort, obeying a common government,
+sensitive to mutual thought and feeling, yet subtly and silently
+separate in many matters of deeper human intimacy--if this unusual
+and dangerous development is to progress amid peace and order,
+mutual respect and growing intelligence, it will call for social
+surgery at once the delicatest and nicest in modern history.  It
+will demand broad-minded, upright men both white and black, and in
+its final accomplishment American civilization will triumph.  So
+far as white men are concerned, this fact is to-day being
+recognized in the South, and a happy renaissance of university
+education seems imminent.  But the very voices that cry Hail! to
+this good work are, strange to relate, largely silent or
+antagonistic to the higher education of the Negro. 
+ 
+Strange to relate! for this is certain, no secure civilization can
+be built in the South with the Negro as an ignorant, turbulent
+proletariat.  Suppose we seek to remedy this by making them
+laborers and nothing more: they are not fools, they have tasted of
+the Tree of Life, and they will not cease to think, will not cease
+attempting to read the riddle of the world.  By taking away their
+best equipped teachers and leaders, by slamming the door of
+opportunity in the faces of their bolder and brighter minds, will
+you make them satisfied with their lot? or will you not rather
+transfer their leading from the hands of men taught to think to
+the hands of untrained demagogues?  We ought not to forget that
+despite the pressure of poverty, and despite the active
+discouragement and even ridicule of friends, the demand for higher
+training steadily increases among Negro youth: there were, in the
+years from 1875 to 1880, twenty-two Negro graduates from Northern
+colleges; from 1885 to 1895 there were forty-three, and from 1895
+to 1900, nearly 100 graduates.  From Southern Negro colleges there
+were, in the same three periods, 143, 413, and over 500 graduates. 
+Here, then, is the plain thirst for training; by refusing to give
+this Talented Tenth the key to knowledge can any sane man imagine
+that they will lightly lay aside their yearning and contentedly
+become hewers of wood and drawers of water? 
+ 
+No.  The dangerously clear logic of the Negro's position will more
+and more loudly assert itself in that day when increasing wealth
+and more intricate social organization preclude the South from
+being, as it so largely is, simply an armed camp for intimidating
+black folk.  Such waste of energy cannot be spared if the South is
+to catch up with civilization.  And as the black third of the land
+grows in thrift and skill, unless skillfully guided in its larger
+philosophy, it must more and more brood over the red past and the
+creeping, crooked present, until it grasps a gospel of revolt and
+revenge and throws its new-found energies athwart the current of
+advance.  Even to-day the masses of the Negroes see all too
+clearly the anomalies of their position and the moral crookedness
+of yours.  You may marshal strong indictments against them, but
+their counter-cries, lacking though they be in formal logic, have
+burning truths within them which you may not wholly ignore, O
+Southern Gentlemen!  If you deplore their presence here, they ask,
+Who brought us?  When you shriek, Deliver us from the vision of
+intermarriage, they answer, that legal marriage is infinitely
+better than systematic concubinage and prostitution.  And if in
+just fury you accuse their vagabonds of violating women, they also
+in fury quite as just may wail: the rape which your gentlemen have
+done against helpless black women in defiance of your own laws is
+written on the foreheads of two millions of mulattoes, and written
+in ineffaceable blood.  And finally, when you fasten crime upon
+this race as its peculiar trait, they answer that slavery was the
+arch-crime, and lynching and lawlessness its twin abortion; that
+color and race are not crimes, and yet they it is which in this
+land receive most unceasing condemnation, North, East, South, and
+West. 
+ 
+I will not say such arguments are wholly justified--I will not
+insist that there is no other side to the shield; but I do say
+that of the nine millions of Negroes in this nation, there is
+scarcely one out of the cradle to whom these arguments do not
+daily present themselves in the guise of terrible truth.  I insist
+that the question of the future is how best to keep these millions
+from brooding over the wrongs of the past and the difficulties of
+the present, so that all their energies may be bent toward a
+cheerful striving and cooperation with their white neighbors
+toward a larger, juster, and fuller future.  That one wise method
+of doing this lies in the closer knitting of the Negro to the
+great industrial possibilities of the South is a great truth.  And
+this the common schools and the manual training and trade schools
+are working to accomplish.  But these alone are not enough.  The
+foundations of knowledge in this race, as in others, must be sunk
+deep in the college and university if we would build a solid,
+permanent structure.  Internal problems of social advance must
+inevitably come,--problems of work and wages, of families and
+homes, of morals and the true valuing of the things of life; and
+all these and other inevitable problems of civilization the Negro
+must meet and solve largely for himself, by reason of his
+isolation; and can there be any possible solution other than by
+study and thought and an appeal to the rich experience of the
+past?  Is there not, with such a group and in such a crisis,
+infinitely more danger to be apprehended from half-trained minds
+and shallow thinking than from over-education and over-refinement? 
+Surely we have wit enough to found a Negro college so manned and
+equipped as to steer successfully between the dilettante and the
+fool.  We shall hardly induce black men to believe that if their
+bellies be full it matters little about their brains.  They
+already dimly perceive that the paths of peace winding between
+honest toil and dignified manhood call for the guidance of skilled
+thinkers, the loving, reverent comradeship between the black lowly
+and black men emancipated by training and culture. 
+ 
+The function of the Negro college then is clear: it must maintain
+the standards of popular education, it must seek the social
+regeneration of the Negro, and it must help in the solution of
+problems of race contact and cooperation.  And finally, beyond all
+this, it must develop men.  Above our modern socialism, and out of
+the worship of the mass, must persist and evolve that higher
+individualism which the centres of culture protect; there must
+come a loftier respect for the sovereign human soul that seeks to
+know itself and the world about it; that seeks a freedom for
+expansion and self-development; that will love and hate and labor
+in its own way, untrammeled alike by old and new.  Such souls
+aforetime have inspired and guided worlds, and if we be not wholly
+bewitched by our Rhine-gold, they shall again.  Herein the longing
+of black men must have respect: the rich and bitter depth of their
+experience, the unknown treasures of their inner life, the strange
+rendings of nature they have seen, may give the world new points
+of view and make their loving, living, and doing precious to all
+human hearts.  And to themselves in these the days that try their
+souls the chance to soar in the dim blue air above the smoke is to
+their finer spirits boon and guerdon for what they lose on earth
+by being black. 
+ 
+ 
+I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not.  Across the color line I
+move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and
+welcoming women glide in gilded halls.  From out the caves of
+Evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the tracery
+of the stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I
+will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor
+condescension.  So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil.  Is
+this the life you grudge us, O knightly America?  Is this the life
+you long to change into the dull red hideousness of Georgia?  Are
+you so afraid lest peering from this high Pisgah, between
+Philistine and Amalekite, we sight the Promised Land? 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE FRUITS OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 
+by Booker T. Washington 
+ 
+ 
+The political, educational, social, and economic evolution through
+which the South passed during, say, the first fifteen or twenty
+years after the close of the civil war furnishes one of the most
+interesting periods that any country has passed through. 
+ 
+A large share of the thought and activity of the white South, of
+the black South, and of that section of the North especially
+interested in my race, was directed during the years of the
+Reconstruction period toward politics, or toward matters bearing
+upon what were termed civil or social rights.  The work of
+education was rather slow, and covered a large section of the
+South; still I think I am justified in saying that in the public
+mind the Negro's relation to politics overshadowed nearly every
+other interest.  The education of the race was conducted quietly,
+and attracted comparatively little attention, just as is true at
+the present time.  The appointment of one Negro postmaster at a
+third or fourth rate post office will be given wider publicity
+through the daily press than the founding of a school, or some
+important discovery in science. 
+ 
+With reference to the black man's political relation to the state
+and Federal governments, I think I am safe in saying that for many
+years after the civil war there were sharp and antagonistic views
+between the North and the South, as well as between the white
+South and the black South.  At practically every point where there
+was a political question to be decided in the South the blacks
+would array themselves on one side and the whites on the other.  I
+remember that very soon after I began teaching school in Alabama
+an old colored man came to me just prior to an election.  He said:
+"You can read de newspapers and most of us can't, but dar is one
+thing dat we knows dat you don't, and dat is how to vote down
+here; and we wants you to vote as we does."  He added: "I tell you
+how we does.  We watches de white man; we keeps watching de white
+man; de nearer it gits to election time de more we watches de
+white man.  We watches him till we finds out which way he gwine to
+vote.  After we finds out which way he gwine to vote, den we votes
+exactly de other way; den we knows we 's right." 
+ 
+Stories on the other side might be given showing that a certain
+class of white people, both at the polls and in the Legislatures,
+voted just as unreasonably in opposing politically what they
+thought the Negro or the North wanted, no matter how much benefit
+might ensue from a contrary action.  Unfortunately such antagonism
+did not end with matters political, but in many cases affected the
+relation of the races in nearly every walk of life.  Aside from
+political strife, there was naturally deep feeling between the
+North and the South on account of the war.  On nearly every
+question growing out of the war, which was debated in Congress, or
+in political campaigns, there was the keenest difference and often
+the deepest feeling.  There was almost no question of even a semi- 
+political nature, or having a remote connection with the Negro,
+upon which there was not sharp and often bitter division between
+the North and South.  It is needless to say that in many cases the
+Negro was the sufferer.  He was being ground between the upper and
+nether millstones.  Even to this day it is well-nigh impossible,
+largely by reason of the force of habit, in certain states to
+prevent state and even local campaigns from being centred in some
+form upon the black man.  In states like Mississippi, for example,
+where the Negro ceased nearly a score of years ago, by operation
+of law, to be a determining factor in politics, he forms in some
+way the principal fuel for campaign discussion at nearly every
+election.  The sad feature of this is, that it prevents the
+presentation before the masses of the people of matters pertaining
+to local and state improvement, and to great national issues like
+finance, tariff, or foreign policies.  It prevents the masses from
+receiving the broad and helpful education which every political
+campaign should furnish, and, what is equally unfortunate, it
+prevents the youth from seeing and hearing on the platform the
+great political leaders of the two national parties.  During a
+national campaign few of the great Democratic leaders debate
+national questions in the South, because it is felt that the old
+antagonism to the Negro politically will keep the South voting one
+way.  Few of the great Republican leaders appear on Southern
+platforms, because they feel that nothing will be gained. 
+ 
+One of the saddest instances of this situation that has come
+within my knowledge occurred some years ago in a certain Southern
+state where a white friend of mine was making the race for
+Congress on the Democratic ticket in a district that was
+overwhelmingly Democratic.  I speak of this man as my friend,
+because there was no personal favor in reason which he would have
+refused me.  He was equally friendly to the race, and was generous
+in giving for its education, and in helping individuals to buy
+land.  His campaign took him into one of the "white" counties,
+where there were few colored people, and where the whites were
+unusually ignorant.  I was surprised one morning to read in the
+daily papers of a bitter attack he had made on the Negro while
+speaking in this county.  The next time I saw him I informed him
+of my surprise.  He replied that he was ashamed of what he had
+said, and that he did not himself believe much that he had stated,
+but gave as a reason for his action that he had found himself
+before an audience which had heard little for thirty years in the
+way of political discussion that did not bear upon the Negro, and
+that he therefore knew it was almost impossible to interest them
+in any other subject. 
+ 
+But this is somewhat aside from my purpose, which is, I repeat, to
+make plain that in all political matters there was for years after
+the war no meeting ground of agreement for the two races, or for
+the North and South.  Upon the question of the Negro's civil
+rights, as embodied in what was called the Civil Rights Bill,
+there was almost the same sharp line of division between the
+races, and, in theory at least, between the Northern and Southern
+whites,--largely because the former were supposed to be giving the
+blacks social recognition, and encouraging intermingling between
+the races.  The white teachers, who came from the North to work in
+missionary schools, received for years little recognition or
+encouragement from the rank and file of their own race.  The lines
+were so sharply drawn that in cities where native Southern white
+women taught Negro children in the public schools, they would have
+no dealings with Northern white women who, perhaps, taught Negro
+children from the same family in a missionary school. 
+ 
+I want to call attention here to a phase of Reconstruction policy
+which is often overlooked.  All now agree that there was much in
+Reconstruction which was unwise and unfortunate.  However we may
+regard that policy, and much as we may regret mistakes, the fact
+is too often overlooked that it was during the Reconstruction
+period that a public school system for the education of all the
+people of the South was first established in most of the states. 
+Much that was done by those in charge of Reconstruction
+legislation has been overturned, but the public school system
+still remains.  True, it has been modified and improved, but the
+system remains, and is every day growing in popularity and
+strength. 
+ 
+As to the difference of opinion between the North and the South
+regarding Negro education, I find that many people, especially in
+the North, have a wrong conception of the attitude of the Southern
+white people.  It is and has been very generally thought that what
+is termed "higher education" of the Negro has been from the first
+opposed by the white South.  This opinion is far from being
+correct.  I remember that, in 1891, when I began the work of
+establishing the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, practically all of
+the white people who talked to me on the subject took it for
+granted that instruction in the Greek, Latin, and modern languages
+would be one of the main features of our curriculum.  I heard no
+one oppose what he thought our course of study was to embrace.  In
+fact, there are many white people in the South at the present time
+who do not know that instruction in the dead languages is not
+given at the Tuskegee Institute.  In further proof of what I have
+stated, if one will go through the catalogue of the schools
+maintained by the states for Negro people, and managed by Southern
+white people, he will find in almost every case that instruction
+in the higher branches is given with the consent and approval of
+white officials.  This was true as far back as 1880.  It is not
+unusual to meet at this time Southern white people who are as
+emphatic in their belief in the value of classical education as a
+certain element of colored people themselves.  In matters relating
+to civil and political rights, the breach was broad, and without
+apparent hope of being bridged; even in the matter of religion,
+practically all of the denominations had split on the subject of
+the Negro, though I should add that there is now, and always has
+been, a closer touch and more cooperation in matters of religion
+between the white and colored people in the South than is
+generally known.  But the breach between the white churches in the
+South and North remains. 
+ 
+In matters of education the difference was much less sharp.  The
+truth is that a large element in the South had little faith in the
+efficacy of the higher or any other kind of education of the
+Negro.  They were indifferent, but did not openly oppose; on the
+other hand, there has always been a potent element of white people
+in all of the Southern states who have stood out openly and
+bravely for the education of all the people, regardless of race. 
+This element has thus far been successful in shaping and leading
+public opinion, and I think that it will continue to do so more
+and more.  This statement must not be taken to mean that there is
+as yet an equitable division of the school funds, raised by common
+taxation, between the two races in many sections of the South,
+though the Southern states deserve much credit for what has been
+done.  In discussing the small amount of direct taxes the Negro
+pays, the fact that he pays tremendous indirect taxes is often
+overlooked. 
+ 
+I wish, however, to emphasize the fact that while there was either
+open antagonism or indifference in the directions I have named, it
+was the introduction of industrial training into the Negro's
+education that seemed to furnish the first basis for anything like
+united and sympathetic interest and action between the two races
+in the South and between the whites in the North and those in the
+South.  Aside from its direct benefit to the black race,
+industrial education has furnished a basis for mutual faith and
+cooperation, which has meant more to the South, and to the work of
+education, than has been realized. 
+ 
+This was, at the least, something in the way of construction. 
+Many people, I think, fail to appreciate the difference between
+the problems now before us and those that existed previous to the
+civil war.  Slavery presented a problem of destruction; freedom
+presents a problem of construction. 
+ 
+From its first inception the white people of the South had faith
+in the theory of industrial education, because they had noted,
+what was not unnatural, that a large element of the colored people
+at first interpreted freedom to mean freedom from work with the
+hands.  They naturally had not learned to appreciate the fact that
+they had been WORKED, and that one of the great lessons for
+freemen to learn is to WORK.  They had not learned the vast
+difference between WORKING and BEING WORKED.  The white people saw
+in the movement to teach the Negro youth the dignity, beauty, and
+civilizing power of all honorable labor with the hands something
+that would lead the Negro into his new life of freedom gradually
+and sensibly, and prevent his going from one extreme of life to
+the other too suddenly.  Furthermore, industrial education
+appealed directly to the individual and community interest of the
+white people.  They saw at once that intelligence coupled with
+skill would add wealth to the community and to the state, in which
+both races would have an added share.  Crude labor in the days of
+slavery, they believed, could be handled and made in a degree
+profitable, but ignorant and unskilled labor in a state of freedom
+could not be made so.  Practically every white man in the South
+was interested in agricultural or in mechanical or in some form of
+manual labor; every white man was interested in all that related
+to the home life,--the cooking and serving of food, laundering,
+dairying, poultry-raising, and housekeeping in general.  There was
+no family whose interest in intelligent and skillful nursing was
+not now and then quickened by the presence of a trained nurse.  As
+already stated, there was general appreciation of the fact that
+the industrial education of the black people had direct, vital,
+and practical bearing upon the life of each white family in the
+South; while there was no such appreciation of the results of mere
+literary training.  If a black man became a lawyer, a doctor, a
+minister, or an ordinary teacher, his professional duties would
+not ordinarily bring him in touch with the life of the white
+portion of the community, but rather confine him almost
+exclusively to his own race.  While purely literary or
+professional education was not opposed by the white population, it
+was something in which they found little or no interest, beyond a
+confused hope that it would result in producing a higher and a
+better type of Negro manhood.  The minute it was seen that through
+industrial education the Negro youth was not only studying
+chemistry, but also how to apply the knowledge of chemistry to the
+enrichment of the soil, or to cooking, or to dairying, and that
+the student was being taught not only geometry and physics, but
+their application to blacksmithing, brickmaking, farming, and what
+not, then there began to appear for the first time a common bond
+between the two races and cooperation between North and South. 
+ 
+One of the most interesting and valuable instances of the kind
+that I know of is presented in the case of Mr. George W. Carver,
+one of our instructors in agriculture at Tuskegee Institute.  For
+some time it has been his custom to prepare articles containing
+information concerning the conditions of local crops, and warning
+the farmers against the ravages of certain insects and diseases. 
+The local white papers are always glad to publish these articles,
+and they are read by white and colored farmers. 
+ 
+Some months ago a white land-holder in Montgomery County asked Mr.
+Carver to go through his farm with him for the purpose of
+inspecting it.  While doing so Mr. Carver discovered traces of
+what he thought was a valuable mineral deposit, used in making a
+certain kind of paint.  The interests of the land-owner and the
+agricultural instructor at once became mutual.  Specimens of the
+deposits were taken to the laboratories of the Tuskegee Institute
+and analyzed by Mr. Carver.  In due time the land-owner received a
+report of the analysis, together with a statement showing the
+commercial value and application of the mineral.  I shall not go
+through the whole interesting story, except to say that a stock
+company, composed of some of the best white people in Alabama, has
+been organized, and is now preparing to build a factory for the
+purpose of putting their product on the market.  I hardly need to
+add that Mr. Carver has been freely consulted at every step, and
+his services generously recognized in the organization of the
+concern.  When the company was being formed the following
+testimonial, among others, was embodied in the printed copy of the
+circular:-- 
+ 
+"George W. Carver, Director of the Department of Agriculture,
+Tuskegee, Alabama, says:-- 
+ 
+"'The pigment is an ochreous clay.  Its value as a paint is due to
+the presence of ferric oxide, of which it contains more than any
+of the French, Australian, American, Irish, or Welsh ochres. 
+Ferric oxides have long been recognized as the essential
+constituents of such paints as Venetian red, Turkish red, oxide
+red, Indian red, and scarlet.  They are most desirable, being
+quite permanent when exposed to light and air.  As a stain they
+are most valuable.'" 
+ 
+In further proof of what I wish to emphasize, I think I am safe in
+saying that the work of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural
+Institute, under the late General S. C. Armstrong, was the first
+to receive any kind of recognition and hearty sympathy from the
+Southern white people, and General Armstrong was perhaps the first
+Northern educator of Negroes who won the confidence and
+cooperation of the white South.  The effects of General
+Armstrong's introduction of industrial education at Hampton, and
+its extension to the Tuskegee Institute in the far South, are now
+actively and helpfully apparent in the splendid work being
+accomplished for the whole South by the Southern Education Board,
+with Mr. Robert C. Ogden at its head, and by the General Education
+Board, with Mr. William H. Baldwin, Jr., as its president. 
+Without the introduction of manual training it is doubtful whether
+such work as is now being wrought through these two boards for
+both races in the South could have been possible within a quarter
+of a century to come.  Later on in the history of our country it
+will be recognized and appreciated that the far-reaching and
+statesman-like efforts of these two boards for general education
+in the South, under the guidance of the two gentlemen named, and
+with the cooperation and assistance of such men as Mr. George
+Foster Peabody, Dr. Wallace Buttrick, Mr. John D. Rockefeller, of
+the North, and Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy, Chancellor Hill, Dr.
+Alderman, Dr. McIver, Dr. Dabney, and others of the South, will
+have furnished the material for one of the brightest and most
+encouraging chapters in the history of our country.  The fact that
+we have reached the point where men and women who were so far
+apart twenty years ago can meet in the South and discuss freely
+from the same platform questions relating to the industrial,
+educational, political, moral, and religious development of the
+two races marks a great step in advance.  It is true that as yet
+the Negro has not been invited to share in these discussions. 
+ 
+Aside from the reasons I have given showing why the South favored
+industrial education, coupled with intellectual and moral
+training, many of the whites saw, for example, that the Negroes
+who were master carpenters and contractors, under the guidance of
+their owners, could become still greater factors in the
+development of the South if their children were not suddenly
+removed from the atmosphere and occupations of their fathers, and
+if they could be taught to use the thing in hand as a foundation
+for higher growth.  Many of the white people were wise enough to
+see that such education would enable some of the Negro youths to
+become more skillful carpenters and contractors, and that if they
+laid an economic foundation in this way in their generation, they
+would be laying a foundation for a more abstract education of
+their children in the future. 
+ 
+Again, a large element of people at the South favored manual
+training for the Negro because they were wise enough to see that
+the South was largely free from the restrictive influences of the
+Northern trades unions, and that such organizations would secure
+little hold in the South so long as the Negro kept abreast in
+intelligence and skill with the same class of people elsewhere. 
+Many realized that the South would be tying itself to a body of
+death if it did not help the Negro up.  In this connection I want
+to call attention to the fact that the official records show that
+within one year about one million foreigners came into the United
+States.  Notwithstanding this number, practically none went into
+the Southern states; to be more exact, the records show that in
+1892 only 2278 all told went into the states of Alabama, Arkansas,
+Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,
+Tennessee, and Virginia.  One ship sometimes brings as many to New
+York.  Various reasons are given to explain why these foreigners
+systematically avoid the South.  One is that the climate is so
+hot; and another is that they do not like the restrictions thrown
+about the ballot; and still another is the presence of the Negro
+is so large numbers.  Whatever the true reason is, the fact
+remains that foreigners avoid the South, and the South is more and
+more realizing that it cannot keep pace with the progress being
+made in other parts of the country if a third of its population is
+ignorant and without skill. 
+ 
+The South must frankly face this truth, that for a long period it
+must depend upon the black man to do for it what the foreigner is
+now doing for the great West.  If, by reason of his skill and
+knowledge, one man in Iowa learns to produce as much corn in a
+season as four men can produce in Alabama, it requires little
+reasoning to see that Alabama will buy most of her corn from Iowa. 
+ 
+Another interesting result of the introduction of industrial
+education for the Negro has been its influence upon the white
+people of the South, and, I believe, upon the whites of the North
+as well.  This phase of it has proved of interest in making hand
+training a conciliatory element between the races. 
+ 
+In 1883 I was delivering an address on industrial education before
+the colored State Teachers' Association of one of our Southern
+states.  When I had finished, some of the teachers began to ask
+the State Superintendent of Education, who was on the programme,
+some questions about the subject.  He politely but firmly stopped
+the questions by stating that he knew absolutely nothing about
+industrial training, and had never heard it discussed before.  At
+that time there was no such education being given at any white
+institution in that state.  With one or two exceptions this case
+will illustrate what was true of all the Southern states.  A
+careful investigation of the subject will show that it was not
+until after industrial education was started among the colored
+people, and its value proved, that it was taken up by the Southern
+white people. 
+ 
+Manual training or industrial and technical schools for the whites
+have, for the most part, been established under state auspices,
+and are at this time chiefly maintained by the states.  An
+investigation would also show that in securing money from the
+state legislatures for the purpose of introducing hand work, one
+of the main arguments used was the existence and success of
+industrial training among the Negroes.  It was often argued that
+the white boys and girls would be left behind unless they had the
+opportunities for securing the same kind of training that was
+being given the colored people.  Although it is, I think, not
+generally known, it is a fact that since the idea of industrial or
+technical education for white people took root within the last few
+years, much more money is spent annually for such education for
+the whites than for the colored people.  Any one who has not
+looked into the subject will be surprised to find how thorough and
+high grade the work is.  Take, for example, the state of Georgia,
+and it will be found that several times as much is being spent at
+the Industrial College for white girls at Milledgeville, and at
+the technical school for whites at Atlanta, as is being spent in
+the whole state for the industrial education of Negro youths.  I
+have met no Southern white educators who have not been generous in
+their praise of the Negro schools for taking the initiative in
+hand training.  This fact has again served to create in matters
+relating to education a bond of sympathy between the two races in
+the South.  Referring again to the influence of industrial
+training for the Negro in education, in the Northern states I
+find, while writing this article, the following announcement in
+the advertisement of what is perhaps the most high-priced and
+exclusive girls' seminary in Massachusetts:-- 
+ 
+"In planning a system of education for young ladies, with the view
+of fitting them for the greatest usefulness in life, the idea was
+conceived of supplementing the purely intellectual work by a
+practical training in the art of home management and its related
+subjects. 
+ 
+"It was the first school of high literary grade to introduce
+courses in Domestic Science into the regular curriculum. 
+ 
+"The results were so gratifying as to lead to the equipment of
+Experiment Hall, a special building, fitted for the purpose of
+studying the principles of Applied Housekeeping.  Here the girls
+do the actual work of cooking, marketing, arranging menus, and
+attend to all the affairs of a well-arranged household. 
+ 
+"Courses are arranged also in sewing, dressmaking, and millinery;
+they are conducted on a similarly practical basis, and equip the
+student with a thorough knowledge of the subject." 
+ 
+A dozen years ago I do not believe that any such announcement
+would have been made. 
+ 
+Beginning with the year 1877, the Negro in the South lost
+practically all political control; that is to say, as early as
+1885 the Negro scarcely had any members of his race in the
+national Congress or state legislatures, and long before this date
+had ceased to hold state offices.  This was true, notwithstanding
+the protests and fervent oratory of such strong race leaders as
+Frederick Douglass, B. K. Bruce, John R. Lynch, P. B. S.
+Pinchback, and John M. Langston, with a host of others.  When
+Frederick Douglass, the greatest man that the race has produced,
+died in 1895, it is safe to say that the Negro in the Southern
+states, with here and there a few exceptions, had practically no
+political control or political influence, except in sending
+delegates to national conventions, or in holding a few Federal
+positions by appointment.  It became evident to many of the wise
+Negroes that the race would have to depend for its success in the
+future less upon political agitations and the opportunity of
+holding office, and more upon something more tangible and
+substantial.  It was at this period in the Negro's development,
+when the distance between the races was greatest, and the spirit
+and ambition of the colored people most depressed, that the idea
+of industrial or business development was introduced and began to
+be made prominent.  It did not take the more level-headed members
+of the race long to see that while the Negro in the South was
+surrounded by many difficulties, there was practically no line
+drawn and little race discrimination in the world of commerce,
+banking, storekeeping, manufacturing, and the skilled trades, and
+in agriculture, and that in this lay his great opportunity.  They
+understood that, while the whites might object to a Negro's being
+a postmaster, they would not object to his being the president of
+a bank, and in the latter occupation they would give him
+assistance and encouragement.  The colored people were quick to
+see that while the negro would not be invited as a rule to attend
+the white man's prayer-meeting, he would be invited every time to
+attend the stockholders' meeting of a business concern in which he
+had an interest and that he could buy property in practically any
+portion of the South where the white man could buy it.  The white
+citizens were all the more willing to encourage the Negro in this
+economic or industrial development, because they saw that the
+prosperity of the Negro meant also the prosperity of the white
+man.  They saw, too, that when a Negro became the owner of a home
+and was a taxpayer, having a regular trade or other occupation, he
+at once became a conservative and safe citizen and voter; one who
+would consider the interests of his whole community before casting
+his ballot; and, further, one whose ballot could not be purchased. 
+ 
+One case in point is that of the twenty-eight teachers at our
+school in Tuskegee who applied for life-voting certificates under
+the new constitution of Alabama, not one was refused registration;
+and if I may be forgiven a personal reference, in my own case, the
+Board of Registers were kind enough to send me a special request
+to the effect that they wished me not to fail to register as a
+life voter.  I do not wish to convey the impression that all
+worthy colored people have been registered in Alabama, because
+there have been many inexcusable and unlawful omissions; but, with
+few exceptions, the 2700 who have been registered represent the
+best Negroes in the state. 
+ 
+Though in some parts of the country he is now misunderstood, I
+believe that the time is going to come when matters can be weighed
+soberly, and when the whole people are going to see that president
+Roosevelt is, and has been from the first, in line with this
+policy,--that of encouraging the colored people who by industry
+and economy have won their way into the confidence and respect of
+their neighbors.  Both before and since he became President I have
+had many conversations with him, and at all times I have found him
+enthusiastic over the plan that I have described. 
+ 
+The growth of the race in industrial and business directions
+within the last few years cannot perhaps be better illustrated
+than by the fact that what is now the largest secular national
+organization among the colored people is the National Negro
+Business League.  This organization brings together annually
+hundreds of men and women who have worked their way up from the
+bottom to the point where they are now in some cases bankers,
+merchants, manufacturers, planters, etc.  The sight of this body
+of men and women would surprise a large part of American citizens
+who do not really know the better side of the Negro's life. 
+ 
+It ought to be stated frankly here that at first, and for several
+years after the introduction of industrial training at such
+educational centres as Hampton and Tuskegee, there was opposition
+from colored people, and from portions of those Northern white
+people engaged in educational and missionary work among the
+colored people in the South.  Most of those who manifested such
+opposition were actuated by the highest and most honest motives. 
+From the first the rank and file of the blacks were quick to see
+the advantages of industrial training, as is shown by the fact
+that industrial schools have always been overcrowded.  Opposition
+to industrial training was based largely on the old and narrow
+ground that it was something that the Southern white people
+favored, and therefore must be against the interests of the Negro. 
+Again, others opposed it because they feared that it meant the
+abandonment of all political privileges, and the higher or
+classical education of the race.  They feared that the final
+outcome would be the materialization of the Negro, and the
+smothering of his spiritual and aesthetic nature.  Others felt
+that industrial education had for its object the limitation of the
+Negro's development, and the branding him for all time as a
+special hand-working class. 
+ 
+Now that enough time has elapsed for those who opposed it to see
+that it meant none of these things, opposition, except from a very
+few of the colored people living in Boston and Washington, has
+ceased, and this system has the enthusiastic support of the
+Negroes and of most of the whites who formerly opposed it.  All
+are beginning to see that it was never meant that ALL Negro youths
+should secure industrial education, any more than it is meant that
+ALL white youths should pass through the Massachusetts Institute
+of Technology, or the Amherst Agricultural College, to the
+exclusion of such training as is given at Harvard, Yale, or
+Dartmouth; but that in a peculiar sense a large proportion of the
+Negro youths needed to have that education which would enable them
+to secure an economic foundation, without which no people can
+succeed in any of the higher walks of life. 
+ 
+It is because of the fact that the Tuskegee Institute began at the
+bottom, with work in the soil, in wood, in iron, in leather, that
+it has now developed to the point where it is able to furnish
+employment as teachers to twenty-eight Negro graduates of the best
+colleges in the country.  This is about three times as many Negro
+college graduates as any other institution in the United States
+for the education of colored people employs, the total number of
+officers and instructors at Tuskegee being about one hundred and
+ten. 
+ 
+Those who once opposed this see now that while the Negro youth who
+becomes skilled in agriculture and a successful farmer may not be
+able himself to pass through a purely literary college, he is
+laying the foundation for his children and grandchildren to do it
+if desirable.  Industrial education in this generation is
+contributing in the highest degree to make what is called higher
+education a success.  It is now realized that in so far as the
+race has intelligent and skillful producers, the greater will be  
+the success of the minister, lawyer, doctor, and teacher. 
+Opposition has melted away, too, because all men now see that it
+will take a long time to "materialize" a race, millions of which
+hold neither houses nor railroads, nor bank stocks, nor factories,
+nor coal and gold mines. 
+ 
+Another reason for the growth of a better understanding of the
+objects and influence of industrial training is the fact, as
+before stated, that it has been taken up with such interest and
+activity by the Southern whites, and that it has been established
+at such universities as Cornell in the East, and in practically
+all of the state colleges of the great West. 
+ 
+It is now seen that the result of such education will be to help
+the black man to make for himself an independent place in our
+great American life.  It was largely the poverty of the Negro that
+made him the prey of designing politicians immediately after the
+war; and wherever poverty and lack of industry exist to-day, one
+does not find in him that deep spiritual life which the race must
+in the future possess in a higher degree. 
+ 
+To those who still express the fear that perhaps too much stress
+is put upon industrial education for the Negro I would add that I
+should emphasize the same kind of training for any people, whether
+black or white, in the same stage of development as the masses of
+the colored people. 
+ 
+For a number of years this country has looked to Germany for much
+in the way of education, and a large number of our brightest men
+and women are sent there each year.  The official reports show
+that in Saxony, Germany, alone, there are 287 industrial schools,
+or one such school to every 14,641 people.  This is true of a
+people who have back of them centuries of wealth and culture.  In
+the South I am safe in saying that there is not more than one
+effective industrial school for every 400,000 colored people. 
+ 
+A recent dispatch from Germany says that the German Emperor has
+had a kitchen fitted up in the palace for the single purpose of
+having his daughter taught cooking.  If all classes and
+nationalities, who are in most cases thousands of years ahead of
+the Negro in the arts of civilization, continue their interest in
+industrial training, I cannot understand how any reasonable person
+can object to such education for a large part of a people who are
+in the poverty-stricken condition that is true of a large element
+of my race, especially when such hand training is combined, as it
+should be, with the best education of head and heart. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE NEGRO IN THE REGULAR ARMY 
+by Oswald Garrison Villard 
+ 
+ 
+When the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment stormed Fort Wagner
+July 18, 1863, only to be driven back with the loss of its
+colonel, Robert Gould Shaw, and many of its rank and file, it
+established for all time the fact that the colored soldier would
+fight and fight well.  This had already been demonstrated in
+Louisiana by colored regiments under the command of General
+Godfrey Weitzel in the attack upon Port Hudson on May 27 of the
+same year.  On that occasion regiments composed for the greater
+part of raw recruits, plantation hands with centuries of servitude
+under the lash behind them, stormed trenches and dashed upon cold
+steel in the hands of their former masters and oppressors.  After
+that there was no more talk in the portion of the country of the
+"natural cowardice" of the negro.  But the heroic qualities of
+Colonel Shaw, his social prominence and that of his officers, and
+the comparative nearness of their battlefield to the North,
+attracted greater and more lasting attention to the daring and
+bravery of their exploit, until it finally became fixed in many
+minds as the first real baptism of fire of colored American
+soldiers. 
+ 
+After Wagner the recruiting of colored regiments, originally
+opposed by both North and South, went on apace, particularly under
+the Federal government, which organized no less than one hundred
+and fifty-four, designated as "United States Colored Troops." 
+Colonel Shaw's raising of a colored regiment aroused quite as much
+comment in the North because of the race prejudice it defied, as
+because of the novelty of the new organization.  General Weitzel
+tendered his resignation the instant General B. F. Butler assigned
+black soldiers to his brigade, and was with difficulty induced to
+serve on.  His change of mind was a wise one, and not only because
+these colored soldiers covered him with glory at Port Hudson.  It
+was his good fortune to be the central figure in one of the
+dramatic incidents of a war that must ever rank among the most
+thrilling and tragic the world has seen.  The black cavalrymen who
+rode into Richmond, the first of the Northern troops to enter the
+Southern capital, went in waving their sabres and crying to the
+negroes on the sidewalks, "We have come to set you free!"  They
+were from the division of Godfrey Weitzel, and American history
+has no more stirring moment. 
+ 
+In the South, notwithstanding the raising in 1861 of a colored
+Confederate regiment by Governor Moore of Louisiana (a magnificent
+body of educated colored men which afterwards became the First
+Louisiana National Guards of General Weitzel's brigade and the
+first colored regiment in the Federal Army), the feeling against
+negro troops was insurmountable until the last days of the
+struggle.  Then no straw could be overlooked.  When, in December,
+1863, Major-General Patrick R. Cleburne, who commanded a division
+of Hardee's Corps of the Confederate Army of the Tennessee, sent
+in a paper in which the employment of the slaves as soldiers of
+the South was vigorously advocated, Jefferson Davis indorsed it
+with the statement, "I deem it inexpedient at this time to give
+publicity to this paper, and request that it be suppressed." 
+General Cleburne urged that "freedom within a reasonable time" be
+granted to every slave remaining true to the Confederacy, and was
+moved to this action by the valor of the Fifty-fourth
+Massachusetts, saying, "If they [the negroes] can be made to face
+and fight bravely against their former masters, how much more
+probable is it that with the allurement of a higher reward, and
+led by those masters, they would submit to discipline and face
+dangers?" 
+ 
+With the ending of the civil war the regular army of the United
+States was reorganized upon a peace footing by an act of Congress
+dated July 28, 1866.  In just recognition of the bravery of the
+colored volunteers six regiments, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry and
+the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forth-first
+Infantry, were designated as colored regiments.  When the army was
+again reduced in 1869, the Thirty-eighth and Forty-first became
+the Twenty-fourth Infantry, and the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth
+became the Twenty-fifth.  This left four colored regiments in the
+regular army as it was constituted from 1870 until 1901.  There
+has never been a colored artillery organization in the regular
+service. 
+ 
+To these new regiments came a motley mixture of veterans of
+volunteer organizations, newly released slaves, and some freedmen
+of several years' standing but without military experience.  They
+were eager to learn, and soon showed the same traits which
+distinguish the black regiments to-day,--loyalty to their officers
+and to their colors, sobriety and courage, and a notable pride in
+the efficiency of their corps.  But if ever officers had to
+"father and mother" their soldiers they were the company officers
+of these regiments.  The captains in particular had to be bankers,
+secretaries, advisers, and judges for their men.  As Lieutenant
+Grote Hutcheson has stated it, "The men knew nothing, and the non-
+commissioned officers but little more.  From the very
+circumstances of their preceding life it could not be otherwise. 
+They had no independence, no self-reliance, not a thought except
+for the present, and were filled with superstition."  Yet the
+officers were determined to prove the wisdom of the experiment. 
+To do this they were forced to give their own attention to the
+minutest details of military administration, and to act as non- 
+commissioned officers.  The total lack of education among the men
+necessitated an enormous amount of writing by the officers.  In
+the Ninth Cavalry only one man was found able to write well enough
+to be sergeant-major, and not for several years was it possible to
+obtain troop clerks.  When the Tenth Cavalry was being recruited
+an officer was sent to Philadelphia with the express purpose of
+picking up educated colored men for the non-commissioned
+positions.  Difficult as the tasks of the officers thus were, most
+of them felt well repaid for their unusual labors by the
+affectionate regard in which they were held by their soldiers, and
+by the never-failing good humor with which the latter went about
+their duties. 
+ 
+As the years passed the character of the colored soldiers
+naturally changed.  In place of the war veterans, and of the men
+whose chains of servitude had just been struck off, came young men
+from the North and East with more education and more self- 
+reliance.  They depended less upon their officers, both in the
+barracks and in the field, yet they reverenced and cared for them
+as much as did their predecessors.  Their greatest faults then as
+now were gambling and quarreling.  On the other hand, the negro
+regiments speedily became favorably known because of greater
+sobriety and of fewer desertions than among the white soldiers. 
+It was the Ninth Cavalry which a few years ago astonished the army
+by reporting not a single desertion in twelve months, an unheard- 
+of and perhaps undreamed-of record.  In all that goes to make a
+good soldier, in drill, fidelity, and smartness, the negro regular
+from the first took front rank. 
+ 
+Nor was there ever any lack of the fighting quality which had
+gratified the nation at Fort Wagner, or at Fort Blakely, Ala.,
+where the Seventy-third Colored Infantry, under Colonel Henry C.
+Merriam, stormed the enemy's works, in advance of orders, in one
+of the last actions of the war.  It soon fell to the lot of the
+Ninth and Tenth Cavalry to prove that the negroes could do as well
+under fire in the Indian wars as they had when fighting for the
+freedom of their race.  While the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth
+Infantry had merely garrison work to do, the Ninth and Tenth
+Cavalry scouted for years against hostile Indians in Texas, New
+Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas, always acquitting themselves
+honorably.  In September, 1868, a little over two years after
+their organization, three troops of the Ninth Cavalry did well in
+an action against Indians at Horsehead Hills, Texas.  When General
+George A. Forsyth and his detachment of fifty scouts were
+surrounded and "corralled" by seven hundred Indians on an island
+in the Republican River, it was the troop of Captain Louis H.
+Carpenter, of the Tenth Cavalry, which first came to their rescue. 
+Similarly when Major T. T. Thornburg's command was nearly wiped
+out by Utes in 1879, it was Captain F. S. Dodge's Troop D of the
+Ninth which succeeded in reaching it in time, losing all its
+horses in so doing.  This regiment alone took part in sixty Indian
+fights between 1868 and 1890, during which time it lost three
+officers and twenty-seven men killed, and had three officers and
+thirty-four men wounded.  The Tenth Cavalry's casualties were also
+heavy during this same period, and it fought for many years over a
+most difficult country in New Mexico and Arizona, taking a
+conspicuous part in running to earth Geronimo's and Victoria's
+bands of Apaches. 
+ 
+On one of these campaigns Lieutenant Powhatan H. Clarke gave
+effective proof of the affection which the officers of colored
+regiments have for their men.  In the fight in the Pineto
+Mountains with a portion of Geronimo's forces this young
+Southerner risked his life to save a colored sergeant who had
+fallen wounded in an open space where both he and his rescuer were
+easy marks for the Apaches.  For this gallant act Lieutenant
+Clarke rightly received a medal of honor.  The Twenty-fourth
+Infantry, on the other hand, has contributed a striking instance
+of the devotion of colored soldiers to their officers.  When Major
+Joseph W. Wham, paymaster, was attacked by robbers on May 11,
+1889, his colored escort fought with such gallantry that every one
+of the soldiers was awarded a medal of honor or a certificate of
+merit.  Some of them stood their ground although badly wounded,
+notably Sergeant Benjamin Brown, who continued to fight and to
+encourage his men until shot through both arms.  In a fight
+against Apaches in the Cuchilo Negro Mountains of New Mexico on
+August 16, 1881, Moses Williams, First Sergeant of Troop I, Ninth
+Cavalry, displayed such gallantry that he was given a medal of
+honor by common consent.  When the only officer with the
+detachment, Lieutenant Gustavus Valois, had his horse shot under
+him, and was cut off from his men, Sergeant Williams promptly
+rallied the detachment, and conducted the right flank in a running
+fight for several hours with such coolness, bravery, and
+unflinching devotion to duty that he undoubtedly saved the lives
+of at least three comrades.  His action in standing by and
+rescuing Lieutenant Valois was the more noteworthy because he and
+his men were subjected, in an exposed position, to a heavy fire
+from a large number of Indians.  For splendid gallantry against
+Indians, while serving as sergeant of Troop K, Ninth Cavalry, on
+May 14, 1880, and August 12, 1881, George Jordan was also given a
+medal of honor.  Five of the medal of honor men now in the service
+are colored soldiers, while fifteen others have "certificates of
+merit" also awarded for conspicuous deeds of bravery. 
+ 
+It was not until the battle of Santiago, however, that the bulk of
+the American people realized that the standing army comprised
+regiments composed wholly of black men.  Up to that time only one
+company of colored soldiers had served at a post east of the
+Mississippi.  Even Major, later Brigadier-General, Guy V. Henry's
+gallop to the rescue of the Seventh Cavalry on December 30, 1890,
+with four troops of the Ninth Cavalry, attracted but little
+attention.  This feat was the more remarkable because Major
+Henry's command had just completed a march of more than one
+hundred miles in twenty-four hours.  But in the battle at
+Santiago, the four colored regiments won praise from all sides,
+particularly for their advance upon Kettle Hill, in which the
+Rough Riders also figured.  From the very beginning of the
+movement of the army after its landing, the negro troops were in
+the front of the fighting, and contributed largely to the
+successful result.  Although they suffered heavy losses,
+especially in officers, the men fought with the same gallantry
+they had displayed on the plains, as is attested by the honors
+awarded.  In every company there were instances of personal
+gallantry.  The first sergeants especially lived up to the
+responsibilities placed upon them.  The color sergeant of the
+Tenth Cavalry, Adam Houston, bore to the front not only his own
+flags, but those of the Third Cavalry when the latter's color
+sergeant was shot down.  In several emergencies where troops or
+companies lost their white officers, the senior sergeants took
+command and handled their men in a faultless manner, notably in
+the Tenth Cavalry. 
+ 
+Indeed, the conduct of these men has done much to dispel the old
+belief that colored soldiers will fight only when they have
+efficient white officers.  This may well have been true at one
+period of the civil war when the colored race as a whole had never
+even had the responsibilities attaching to free men.  It is
+growing less and less true as time passes and better educated men
+enter the ranks.  in recognition of their achievements at Santiago
+a number of these black non-commissioned officers were made
+commissioned officers in several of the so-called "immune"
+regiments of United States Volunteers raised in July, 1898.  None
+of these organizations were in service long enough to become
+really efficient, and a few were never properly disciplined. 
+Nevertheless, a majority of the officers promoted from the colored
+regulars bore themselves well under exceedingly trying
+circumstances.  Some of them, and a number of regular sergeants
+and corporals who had succeeded to their former places, were made
+lieutenants and captains in the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth
+Volunteer Infantry, which served in the Philippines for two years,
+and to which we shall recur later. 
+ 
+At Santiago the characteristic cheerfulness of the negro soldiers
+was as striking as their bravery.  In his little book called The
+Nth Foot In War, Lieutenant M. B. Stewart says of them:-- 
+ 
+"The negro troops were in a high good humor.  They had made the
+charge of the day; they had fought with a dash and vigor which
+forever established their reputation as fighters, and which would
+carry them down in the pages of history.  To have heard them that
+night no one would have ever thought that they had lived for
+twelve mortal hours under a galling fire.  They were laughing and
+joking over the events of the day, in the same manner they would
+have done had they been returning from a picnic. 
+ 
+"'Golly,' laughed a six-foot sergeant, 'dere was music in de air
+sho' nuff.  Dat lead was flying around in sheets, I tell you.  I
+seen a buzzard flying around in front of our line, and I says to
+myself, "Buzzard, you is in a mighty dangerous position.  You
+better git out uf dat, 'cause dey ain't room out dar for a
+muskeeter."'  Another remarked, 'Say, did you see dat man Brown;
+pity dat man been killed.  He'd a been a corporal, sho.' 
+ 
+"In the utter exhaustion of the moment all race and social
+distinctions were forgotten.  Officers lay down among their men
+and slept like logs.  The negro troops sought out soft places
+along the sides of the road and lay down with their white
+comrades.  There was a little commotion among the latter, and an
+officer was heard to yell: 'Here, you man, take your feet off my
+stomach.  Well, I'll be damned if it ain't a nigger.  Get out, you
+black rascal.'  As the commotion subsided, the negro was heard to
+remark, 'Well, if dat ain't de mos' particler man I ever see.'" 
+ 
+Characteristic also is a story of the negro cavalryman who,
+returning to the rear, said to some troops anxious to get to the
+front: "Dat's all right, gemmen; don't git in a sweat; dere's lots
+of it lef' for you.  You wants to look out for dese yere
+sharpshooters, for dey is mighty careless with dere weapons, and
+dey is specially careless when dey is officers aroun'." 
+ 
+As soon as the army settled down in the trenches before Santiago,
+smuggled musical instruments--guitars, banjos, mouth organs, and
+what not--appeared among the negro troops as if by magic, and they
+were ever in use.  It was at once a scene of cheerfulness and
+gayety, and the officers had their usual trouble in making the men
+go to sleep instead of spending the night in talking, singing, and
+gaming.  In the peaceful camp of the Third Alabama, in that state,
+the scenes were similar.  There was always "a steady hum of
+laughter and talk, dance, song, shout, and the twang of musical
+instruments."  It was "a scene full of life and fun, of jostling,
+scuffling, and racing, of clown performances and cake-walks, of
+impromptu minstrelsy, speech-making, and preaching, of deviling,
+guying, and fighting, both real and mimic."  The colonel found
+great difficulty in getting men to work alone.  Two would
+volunteer for any service.  "Colonel," said a visitor to the camp,
+"your sentinels are sociable fellows.  I saw No. 5 over at the end
+of his beat entertaining No. 6 with some fancy manual of arms. 
+Afterwards, with equal amiability, No. 6 executed a most artistic
+cake-walk for his friend."  It must be remembered here that this
+colonel's men were typical Southern negroes, literate and
+illiterate, and all new to military life. 
+ 
+In addition to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Volunteers, the
+four regular colored regiments have served in the Philippines. 
+Here the work was particularly trying and the temptations to
+misconduct many.  The Filipino women were especially attractive to
+the men because of their color, and it is on record that several
+soldiers were tempted from their allegiance to the United States. 
+Two of these, whose sympathy and liking for the Filipinos overcame
+their judgment, paid the full penalty of desertion, being hanged
+by their former comrades.  Both belonged to the Ninth Cavalry.  On
+the other hand, in a remarkable order issued by General A. S. Burt
+in relinquishing command of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, on April
+17, 1902, on his promotion to brigadier-general, he was able to
+quote the Inspector-General of the army as saying: "The Twenty- 
+fifth Infantry is the best regiment I have seen in the
+Philippines."  General Burt praised highly the excellent conduct
+of the enlisted men while in the Archipelago, which proved to his
+mind that the American negroes are "as law-abiding as any race in
+the world." 
+ 
+Three of General Burt's sergeants, Russell, McBryar, and Hoffman,
+were promoted to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Volunteers, and
+served, as lieutenants, for several months with their old
+regiment, the Twenty-fifth, until the arrival of their new
+regiments in Manila.  During this time they were frequently under
+fire.  General Burt bore high testimony to their soldierly
+bearing, their capacity and ability, and expressed great regret
+when he was forced to let them go.  McBryar had won a medal of
+honor for gallantry against Indians in Arizona in 1890.  In the
+Forty-ninth Volunteers, Company L, composed wholly of colored men,
+and commanded by Captain Edward L. Baker, a colored veteran of
+Santiago, who had served for seventeen years in the Ninth and
+Tenth Cavalry and in the Tenth "Immunes," made a wonderful record. 
+According to a statement which was widely published at the time
+and never denied, this company had on its rolls during a period of
+twelve months one hundred and six men who were fit for duty at all
+times and never lost a day on account of sickness.  No white
+company remotely approached this record.  More extraordinary still
+is the fact that during this same period not one of these men ever
+went before a court-martial.  This is surely a striking
+illustration of what can be done by colored officers.  It is
+noticeable, too, that neither the officers nor the men of any
+colored regiment have figured in the charges and counter-charges
+arising out of the use of the water-torture, except one man who at
+the time of his offense was not with his regiment.  The Forty- 
+ninth Volunteers was a very unhappy regiment during its brief
+life, but its troubles were largely due to its white officers. 
+One of these, a major, was dismissed for misconduct, and his place
+was filled by the senior captain, a colored man.  Several other
+white officers and one colored captain got into serious trouble,
+the last being dismissed.  The Forty-eighth was, on the contrary,
+a contented organization in which the colored officers were
+treated in a kindly and courteous manner by their white associates
+and superiors.  The two regiments afford a striking illustration
+of Napoleon's saying, "There are no such things as poor
+regiments,--only poor colonels." 
+ 
+The negro regiment unquestionably calls for different treatment  
+from that which would be accorded to white troops, just as the
+Indian troops of King Edward's army require different handling
+from that called for in the case of the King's Royal Rifles.  Yet
+as fighting machines, the Indian soldiers may be the equals if not
+the superiors of the Englishmen.  Major Robert L. Bullard, Twenty- 
+eighth United States Infantry who commanded the colored Third
+Alabama Volunteers, already referred to, during the war with
+Spain, discusses in a remarkable paper published in the United
+Service Magazine for July, 1901, the differences between negro and
+white soldiers.  They are so great, he says, as to require the
+military commander to treat the negro as a different species.  He
+must fit his methods of instruction and discipline to the
+characteristics of the race.  Major Bullard adds that "mistakes,
+injustices, and failures would result from his making the same
+rules and methods apply to the two races without regard to how far
+apart set by nature or separated by evolution."  But Major Bullard
+would unquestionably concede that these differences in no way
+require a treatment of the negro soldier which implies that he is
+an inferior being and which ever impresses upon him his
+inferiority.  Yet this seems to have been the case in the Forty-
+ninth United States Volunteers. 
+ 
+In the regular army, as well as in the volunteers, officers have
+frequently appealed with success to the negroes' pride of race,
+and have urged them on to greater efficiency and better behavior
+by reminding them that they have the honor of their people in
+their hands.  To such appeals there is ever a prompt response. 
+One of the most effective ways of disciplining an offender is by
+holding him up to the ridicule of his fellows.  The desire of the
+colored soldiers to amuse and to be amused gives the officers an
+easy way of obtaining a hold upon them and their affections.  The
+regimental rifle team, the baseball nine, the minstrel troupe, and
+the regimental band offer positions of importance for which the
+competition is much keener than in the white regiments.  There is
+also a friendly rivalry between companies, which is much missed
+elsewhere in the service.  The negroes are natural horsemen and
+riders.  It is a pleasure to them to take care of their mounts,
+and a matter of pride to keep their animals in good condition. 
+Personally they are clean and neat, and they take the greatest
+possible pride in their uniforms.  In no white regiment is there a
+similar feeling.  With the negroes the canteen question is of
+comparatively slight importance, not only because the men can be
+more easily amused within their barracks, but because their
+appetite for drink is by no means as strong as that of the white
+men.  Their sociability is astonishing.  They would rather sit up
+and tell stories and crack jokes than go to bed, no matter how
+hard the day has been. 
+ 
+The dark sides are, that the negro soldiers easily turn merited
+punishment into martyrdom, that their gambling propensities are
+almost beyond control, that their habit of carrying concealed
+weapons is incurable, and that there is danger of serious fighting
+when they fall out with one another.  Frequent failure to act
+honorably toward a comrade in some trifling matter is apt to cause
+scuffling and fighting until the men are well disciplined.  Women
+are another cause of quarrels, and are at all times a potent
+temptation to misconduct and neglect of duty.  It is very
+difficult to impress upon the men the value of government
+property, and duty which requires memorizing of orders is always
+the most difficult to teach.  For the study of guard duty manuals
+or of tactics they have no natural aptitude.  The non-commissioned
+officers are of very great importance, and in the regulars they
+are looked up to and obeyed implicitly, much more so than is the
+case with white troops.  It is necessary, however, for the
+officers to back up the sergeants and corporals very vigorously,
+even when they are slightly in the wrong.  Then colored men are
+more easily "rattled" by poor officers than are their white
+comrades.  There was a striking instance of this two or three
+years ago when a newly appointed and wholly untrained white
+officer lost his head at a post in Texas.  His black subordinates,
+largely recruits, followed suit, and in carrying out his
+hysterical orders imperiled many lives in the neighboring town. 
+Selections for service with colored troops should therefore be
+most carefully made.  Major Bullard declares that the officer of
+negro troops "must not only be an officer and a gentleman, but he
+must be considerate, patient, laborious, self-sacrificing, a man
+of affairs, and he must have knowledge and wisdom in a great lot
+of things not really military." 
+ 
+If the position of a white officer is a difficult one, that of the
+colored officer is still more so.  He has not the self-assumed
+superiority of the white man, naturally feels that he is on trial,
+and must worry himself incessantly about his relations to his
+white comrades of the shoulder straps.  While the United States
+Navy has hitherto been closed to negroes who aspire to be
+officers, the army has pursued a wiser and more just policy.  The
+contrast between the two services is really remarkable.  On almost
+every war vessel white and black sailors sleep and live together
+in crowded quarters without protest or friction.  But the negro
+naval officer is kept out of the service by hook or by crook for
+the avowed reason that the cramped quarters of the wardroom would
+make association with him intolerable.  In the army, on the other
+hand, the experiment of mixed regiments has never been tried.  A
+good colored soldier can nevertheless obtain a commission by going
+through West Point, or by rising from the ranks, or by being
+appointed directly from civil life. 
+ 
+Since the foundation of the Military Academy there have been
+eighteen colored boys appointed to West Point, of whom fifteen
+failed in their preliminary examinations, or were discharged after
+entering because of deficiency in studies.  Three were graduated
+and commissioned as second lieutenants of cavalry, Henry Ossian
+Flipper, John Hanks Alexander, and Charles Young.  Of these,
+Lieutenant Flipper was dismissed June 30, 1882, for "conduct
+unbecoming an officer and a gentleman."  The other two proved
+themselves excellent officers, notably Young, who is at this
+writing a captain, and a most efficient one, in the Ninth Cavalry,
+with which he recently served in the Philippines.  Lieutenant
+Alexander died suddenly in 1894.  In announcing his death in a
+regimental order his colonel spoke of him in terms of high praise,
+and did not use the customary stereotyped phrases of regret.  His
+fellow white officers all had good words for him.  There never was
+more striking testimony to the discipline and spirit of fairness
+at West Point than was afforded by the sight of Cadet Charles
+Young, who is of very dark complexion, commanding white cadets. 
+Nothing else has impressed foreign visitors at West Point half so
+much. 
+ 
+An equally remarkable happening, and one which speaks even more
+for the democratic spirit in the army, was the commissioning in
+1901 of Sergeant-Major Benjamin O. Davis, Ninth Cavalry, and of
+Corporal John E. Green, Twenty-fourth Infantry.  Both these men
+were examined by boards of white officers, who might easily have
+excluded them because of color prejudice, in which case there
+would have been no appeal from their findings.  Lieutenant Davis's
+former troop commander, a West Pointer, openly rejoiced at his
+success, and predicted that he would make an excellent officer. 
+These are the first two colored men to rise from the ranks, but
+there will be many more if the same admirable spirit of fair play
+continues to rule in the army and is not altered by outside
+prejudice.  It was thought that there would be a severe strain
+upon discipline when a colored officer rose to the rank of captain
+and to the command of white officers.  But in Captain Young's case
+his white subordinates seem to have realized that it is the
+position and rank that they are compelled to salute and obey, and
+not the individual.  This principle is at the bottom of all
+discipline.  Only too frequently do subordinates throughout the
+army have to remind themselves of this when obeying men for whose
+social qualities and character they have neither regard nor
+respect.  During the war with Spain Captain Young commanded a
+negro battalion from Ohio, which was pronounced the best drilled
+organization in the large army assembled at Camp Alger near
+Washington.  In addition to these officers, Captain John R. Lynch,
+formerly a Congressman from Mississippi, and four colored
+chaplains represent their race on the commissioned rolls of the
+army.  All of these men are doing well.  One colored chaplain was
+dismissed for drunkenness in 1894.  Beyond this their record is
+unblemished. 
+ 
+Despite the fairness shown in these appointments, there has been
+considerable very just criticism of the War Department for its
+failure to appoint to the regulars any of the colored officers who
+did well in the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Volunteers.  Every
+colonel of volunteers was allowed to designate for examination for
+appointment to the regular army the best officers in his regiment. 
+Hundreds of white officers were selected in this way, but not a
+single colored officer was given an examination,--not even
+Lieutenant McBryar, with his medal of honor, or Captain Baker. 
+Similarly fault has been found with Secretary Root because no new
+colored regiments were established under the law of February 2,
+1901, increasing the army by five regiments of infantry, five of
+cavalry, and a large number of companies of artillery.  The excuse
+most often heard is that the negroes already have sufficient
+representation in comparison with the percentage of negroes to
+white persons within the borders of the United States.  But the
+sterling characteristics of the colored soldiers, their loyalty to
+the service as shown by the statistics of desertion, and, above
+all, their splendid service in Cuba, should have entitled them to
+additional organizations.  To say the least, the decision of the
+War Department smacks considerably of ingratitude.  Nevertheless,
+the negro regiments have come to stay, both in the regulars and in
+the volunteers.  The hostilities of the last five years have
+dispelled any doubt which may have existed upon this point. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+BAXTER'S PROCRUSTES 
+by Charles W. Chesnutt 
+ 
+ 
+Baxter's Procrustes is one of the publications of the Bodleian
+Club.  The Bodleian Club is composed of gentlemen of culture, who
+are interested in books and book-collecting.  It was named, very
+obviously, after the famous library of the same name, and not only
+became in our city a sort of shrine for local worshipers of fine
+bindings and rare editions, but was visited occasionally by
+pilgrims from afar.  The Bodleian has entertained Mark Twain,
+Joseph Jefferson, and other literary and histrionic celebrities. 
+It possesses quite a collection of personal mementos of
+distinguished authors, among them a paperweight which once
+belonged to Goethe, a lead pencil used by Emerson, an autograph
+letter of Matthew Arnold, and a chip from a tree felled by Mr.
+Gladstone.  Its library contains a number of rare books, including
+a fine collection on chess, of which game several of the members
+are enthusiastic devotees. 
+ 
+The activities of the club are not, however, confined entirely to
+books.  We have a very handsome clubhouse, and much taste and
+discrimination have been exercised in its adornment.  There are
+many good paintings, including portraits of the various presidents
+of the club, which adorn the entrance hall.  After books, perhaps
+the most distinctive feature of the club is our collection of
+pipes.  In a large rack in the smoking-room--really a superfluity,
+since smoking is permitted all over the house--is as complete an
+assortment of pipes as perhaps exists in the civilized world. 
+Indeed, it is an unwritten rule of the club that no one is
+eligible for membership who cannot produce a new variety of pipe,
+which is filed with his application for membership, and, if he
+passes, deposited with the club collection, he, however, retaining
+the title in himself.  Once a year, upon the anniversary of the
+death of Sir Walter Raleigh, who it will be remembered, first
+introduced tobacco into England, the full membership of the club,
+as a rule, turns out.  A large supply of the very best smoking
+mixture is laid in.  At nine o'clock sharp each member takes his
+pipe from the rack, fills it with tobacco, and then the whole
+club, with the president at the head, all smoking furiously, march
+in solemn procession from room to room, upstairs and downstairs,
+making the tour of the clubhouse and returning to the smoking- 
+room.  The president then delivers an address, and each member is
+called upon to say something, either by way of a quotation or an
+original sentiment, in praise of the virtues of nicotine.  This
+ceremony--facetiously known as "hitting the pipe"--being thus
+concluded, the membership pipes are carefully cleaned out and
+replaced in the club rack. 
+ 
+As I have said, however, the raison d'etre of the club, and the
+feature upon which its fame chiefly rests, is its collection of
+rare books, and of these by far the most interesting are its own
+publications.  Even its catalogues are works of art, published in
+numbered editions, and sought by libraries and book-collectors. 
+Early in its history it began the occasional publication of books
+which should meet the club standard,--books in which emphasis
+should be laid upon the qualities that make a book valuable in the
+eyes of collectors.  Of these, age could not, of course, be
+imparted, but in the matter of fine and curious bindings, of hand- 
+made linen papers, of uncut or deckle edges, of wide margins and  
+limited editions, the club could control its own publications. 
+The matter of contents was, it must be confessed, a less important
+consideration.  At first it was felt by the publishing committee
+that nothing but the finest products of the human mind should be
+selected for enshrinement in the beautiful volumes which the club
+should issue.  The length of the work was an important
+consideration,--long things were not compatible with wide margins
+and graceful slenderness.  For instance, we brought out
+Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, an essay by Emerson, and another by
+Thoreau.  Our Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was Heron-Allen's
+translation of the original MS in the Bodleian Library at Oxford,
+which, though less poetical than FitzGerald's, was not so common. 
+Several years ago we began to publish the works of our own
+members.  Bascom's Essay on Pipes was a very creditable
+performance.  It was published in a limited edition of one hundred
+copies, and since it had not previously appeared elsewhere and was
+copyrighted by the club, it was sufficiently rare to be valuable
+for that reason.  The second publication of local origin was
+Baxter's Procrustes. 
+ 
+I have omitted to say that once or twice a year, at a meeting of
+which notice has been given, an auction is held at the Bodleian. 
+The members of the club send in their duplicate copies, or books
+they for any reason wish to dispose of, which are auctioned off to
+the highest bidder.  At these sales, which are well attended, the
+club's publications have of recent years formed the leading
+feature.  Three years ago, number three of Bascom's Essay on Pipes
+sold for fifteen dollars;--the original cost of publication was
+one dollar and seventy-five cents.  Later in the evening an uncut
+copy of the same brought thirty dollars.  At the next auction the
+price of the cut copy was run up to twenty-five dollars, while the
+uncut copy was knocked down at seventy-five dollars.  The club had
+always appreciated the value of uncut copies, but this financial
+indorsement enhanced their desirability immensely.  This rise in
+the Essay on Pipes was not without a sympathetic effect upon all
+the club publications.  The Emerson essay rose from three dollars
+to seventeen, and the Thoreau, being by an author less widely
+read, and, by his own confession commercially unsuccessful,
+brought a somewhat higher figure.  The prices, thus inflated, were
+not permitted to come down appreciably.  Since every member of the
+club possessed one or more of these valuable editions, they were
+all manifestly interested in keeping up the price.  The
+publication, however, which brought the highest prices, and, but
+for the sober second thought, might have wrecked the whole system,
+was Baxter's Procrustes. 
+ 
+Baxter was, perhaps, the most scholarly member of the club.  A
+graduate of Harvard, he had traveled extensively, had read widely,
+and while not so enthusiastic a collector as some of us, possessed
+as fine a private library as any man of his age in the city.  He
+was about thirty-five when he joined the club, and apparently some
+bitter experience--some disappointment in love or ambition--had
+left its mark upon his character.  With light, curly hair, fair
+complexion, and gray eyes, one would have expected Baxter to be
+genial of temper, with a tendency toward wordiness of speech.  But
+though he had occasional flashes of humor, his ordinary demeanor
+was characterized by a mild cynicism, which, with his gloomy
+pessimistic philosophy, so foreign to the temperament that should
+accompany his physical type, could only be accounted for upon the
+hypothesis of some secret sorrow such as I have suggested.  What
+it might be no one knew.  He had means and social position, and
+was an uncommonly handsome man.  The fact that he remained
+unmarried at thirty-five furnished some support for the theory of
+a disappointment in love, though this the several intimates of
+Baxter who belonged to the club were not able to verify. 
+ 
+It had occurred to me, in a vague way, that perhaps Baxter might
+be an unsuccessful author.  That he was a poet we knew very well,
+and typewritten copies of his verses had occasionally circulated
+among us.  But Baxter had always expressed such a profound
+contempt for modern literature, had always spoken in terms of such
+unmeasured pity for the slaves of the pen, who were dependent upon
+the whim of an undiscriminating public for recognition and a
+livelihood, that no one of us had ever suspected him of
+aspirations toward publication, until, as I have said, it occurred
+to me one day that Baxter's attitude with regard to publication
+might be viewed in the light of effect as well as of cause--that
+his scorn of publicity might as easily arise from failure to
+achieve it, as his never having published might be due to his
+preconceived disdain of the vulgar popularity which one must share
+with the pugilist or balloonist of the hour. 
+ 
+The notion of publishing Baxter's Procrustes did not emanate from
+Baxter,--I must do him the justice to say this.  But he had spoken
+to several of the fellows about the theme of his poem, until the
+notion that Baxter was at work upon something fine had become
+pretty well disseminated throughout our membership.  He would
+occasionally read brief passages to a small coterie of friends in
+the sitting-room or library,--never more than ten lines at once,
+or to more than five people at a time,--and these excerpts gave at
+least a few of us a pretty fair idea of the motive and scope of
+the poem.  As I, for one, gathered, it was quite along the line of
+Baxter's philosophy.  Society was the Procrustes which, like the
+Greek bandit of old, caught every man born into the world, and
+endeavored to fit him to some preconceived standard, generally to
+the one for which he was least adapted.  The world was full of men
+and women who were merely square pegs in round holes, and vice
+versa.  Most marriages were unhappy because the contracting
+parties were not properly mated.  Religion was mostly
+superstition, science for the most part sciolism, popular
+education merely a means of forcing the stupid and repressing the
+bright, so that all the youth of the rising generation might
+conform to the same dull, dead level of democratic mediocrity. 
+Life would soon become so monotonously uniform and so uniformly
+monotonous as to be scarce worth the living. 
+ 
+It was Smith, I think, who first proposed that the club publish
+Baxter's Procrustes.  The poet himself did not seem enthusiastic
+when the subject was broached; he demurred for some little time,
+protesting that the poem was not worthy of publication.  But when
+it was proposed that the edition be limited to fifty copies he
+agreed to consider the proposition.  When I suggested, having in
+mind my secret theory of Baxter's failure in authorship, that the
+edition would at least be in the hands of friends, that it would
+be difficult for a hostile critic to secure a copy, and that if it
+should not achieve success from a literary point of view, the
+extent of the failure would be limited to the size of the edition,
+Baxter was visibly impressed.  When the literary committee at
+length decided to request formally of Baxter the privilege of
+publishing his Procrustes, he consented, with evident reluctance,
+upon condition that he should supervise the printing, binding, and
+delivery of the books, merely submitting to the committee, in
+advance, the manuscript, and taking their views in regard to the  
+bookmaking. 
+ 
+The manuscript was duly presented to the literary committee. 
+Baxter having expressed the desire that the poem be not read aloud
+at a meeting of the club, as was the custom, since he wished it to
+be given to the world clad in suitable garb, the committee went
+even farther.  Having entire confidence in Baxter's taste and
+scholarship, they, with great delicacy, refrained from even
+reading the manuscript, contenting themselves with Baxter's
+statement of the general theme and the topics grouped under it. 
+The details of the bookmaking, however, were gone into thoroughly. 
+The paper was to be of hand-made linen, from the Kelmscott Mills;
+the type black-letter, with rubricated initials.  The cover, which
+was Baxter's own selection, was to be of dark green morocco, with
+a cap-and-bells border in red inlays, and doublures of maroon
+morocco with a blind-tooled design.  Baxter was authorized to
+contract with the printer and superintend the publication.  The
+whole edition of fifty numbered copies was to be disposed of at
+auction, in advance, to the highest bidder, only one copy to each,
+the proceeds to be devoted to paying for the printing and binding,
+the remainder, if any, to go into the club treasury, and Baxter
+himself to receive one copy by way of remuneration.  Baxter was
+inclined to protest at this, on the ground that his copy would
+probably be worth more than the royalties on the edition, at the
+usual ten per cent, would amount to, but was finally prevailed
+upon to accept an author's copy. 
+ 
+While the Procrustes was under consideration, some one read, at
+one of our meetings, a note from some magazine, which stated that
+a sealed copy of a new translation of Campanella's Sonnets,
+published by the Grolier Club, had been sold for three hundred
+dollars.  This impressed the members greatly.  It was a novel
+idea.  A new work might thus be enshrined in a sort of holy of
+holies, which, if the collector so desired, could be forever
+sacred from the profanation of any vulgar or unappreciative eye. 
+The possessor of such a treasure could enjoy it by the eye of
+imagination, having at the same time the exaltation of grasping
+what was for others the unattainable.  The literary committee were
+so impressed with this idea that they presented it to Baxter in
+regard to the Procrustes.  Baxter making no objection, the
+subscribers who might wish their copies delivered sealed were
+directed to notify the author.  I sent in my name.  A fine book,
+after all, was an investment, and if there was any way of
+enhancing its rarity, and therefore its value, I was quite willing
+to enjoy such an advantage. 
+ 
+When the Procrustes was ready for distribution, each subscriber
+received his copy by mail, in a neat pasteboard box.  Each number
+was wrapped in a thin and transparent but very strong paper
+through which the cover design and tooling were clearly visible. 
+The number of the copy was indorsed upon the wrapper, the folds of
+which were securely fastened at each end with sealing-wax, upon
+which was impressed, as a guaranty of its inviolateness, the
+monogram of the club. 
+ 
+At the next meeting of the Bodleian, a great deal was said about
+the Procrustes, and it was unanimously agreed that no finer
+specimen of bookmaking had ever been published by the club.  By a
+curious coincidence, no one had brought his copy with him, and the
+two club copies had not yet been received from the binder, who,
+Baxter had reported was retaining them for some extra fine work. 
+Upon resolution, offered by a member who had not subscribed for
+the volume, a committee of three was appointed to review the
+Procrustes at the next literary meeting of the club.  Of this
+committee it was my doubtful fortune to constitute one. 
+ 
+In pursuance of my duty in the premises, it of course became
+necessary for me to read the Procrustes.  In all probability I
+should have cut my own copy for this purpose, had not one of the
+club auctions intervened between my appointment and the date set
+for the discussion of the Procrustes.  At this meeting a copy of
+the book, still sealed, was offered for sale, and bought by a non-
+subscriber for the unprecedented price of one hundred and fifty
+dollars.  After this a proper regard for my own interests would
+not permit me to spoil my copy by opening it, and I was therefore
+compelled to procure my information concerning the poem from some
+other source.  As I had no desire to appear mercenary, I said
+nothing about my own copy, and made no attempt to borrow.  I did,
+however, casually remark to Baxter that I should like to look at
+his copy of the proof sheets, since I wished to make some extended
+quotations for my review, and would rather not trust my copy to a
+typist for that purpose.  Baxter assured me, with every evidence
+of regret, that he had considered them of so little importance
+that he had thrown them into the fire.  This indifference of
+Baxter to literary values struck me as just a little overdone. 
+The proof sheets of Hamlet, corrected in Shakespeare's own hand,
+would be well-nigh priceless. 
+ 
+At the next meeting of the club I observed that Thompson and
+Davis, who were with me on the reviewing committee, very soon
+brought up the question of the Procrustes in conversation in the
+smoking-room, and seemed anxious to get from the members their
+views concerning Baxter's production, I supposed upon the theory
+that the appreciation of any book review would depend more or less
+upon the degree to which it reflected the opinion of those to whom
+the review should be presented.  I presumed, of course, that
+Thompson and Davis had each read the book,--they were among the
+subscribers,--and I was desirous of getting their point of view. 
+ 
+"What do you think," I inquired, "of the passage on Social
+Systems?"  I have forgotten to say that the poem was in blank
+verse, and divided into parts, each with an appropriate title. 
+ 
+"Well," replied Davis, it seemed to me a little cautiously, "it is
+not exactly Spencerian, although it squints at the Spencerian
+view, with a slight deflection toward Hegelianism.  I should
+consider it an harmonious fusion of the best views of all the
+modern philosophers, with a strong Baxterian flavor." 
+ 
+"Yes," said Thompson, "the charm of the chapter lies in this very
+quality.  The style is an emanation from Baxter's own intellect,-- 
+he has written himself into the poem.  By knowing Baxter we are
+able to appreciate the book, and after having read the book we
+feel that we are so much the more intimately acquainted with
+Baxter,--the real Baxter." 
+ 
+Baxter had come in during this colloquy, and was standing by the
+fireplace smoking a pipe.  I was not exactly sure whether the
+faint smile which marked his face was a token of pleasure or
+cynicism; it was Baxterian, however, and I had already learned
+that Baxter's opinions upon any subject were not to be gathered
+always from his facial expression.  For instance, when the club
+porter's crippled child died Baxter remarked, it seemed to me
+unfeelingly, that the poor little devil was doubtless better off,
+and that the porter himself had certainly been relieved of a
+burden; and only a week later the porter told me in confidence
+that Baxter had paid for an expensive operation, undertaken in the
+hope of prolonging the child's life.  I therefore drew no
+conclusions from Baxter's somewhat enigmatical smile.  He left the
+room at this point in the conversation, somewhat to my relief. 
+ 
+"By the way, Jones," said Davis, addressing me, "are you impressed
+by Baxter's views on Degeneration?" 
+ 
+Having often heard Baxter express himself upon the general
+downward tendency of modern civilization, I felt safe in
+discussing his views in a broad and general manner. 
+ 
+"I think," I replied, "that they are in harmony with those of
+Schopenhauer, without his bitterness; with those of Nordau,
+without his flippancy.  His materialism is Haeckel's, presented
+with something of the charm of Omar Khayyam." 
+ 
+"Yes," chimed in Davis, "it answers the strenuous demand of our
+day,--dissatisfaction with an unjustified optimism,--and voices
+for us the courage of human philosophy facing the unknown." 
+ 
+I had a vague recollection of having read something like this
+somewhere, but so much has been written, that one can scarcely
+discuss any subject of importance without unconsciously borrowing,
+now and then, the thoughts or the language of others.  Quotation,
+like imitation, is a superior grade of flattery. 
+ 
+"The Procrustes," said Thompson, to whom the metrical review had
+been apportioned, "is couched in sonorous lines, of haunting
+melody and charm; and yet so closely inter-related as to be
+scarcely quotable with justice to the author.  To be appreciated
+the poem should be read as a whole,--I shall say as much in my
+review.  What shall you say of the letter-press?" he concluded,
+addressing me.  I was supposed to discuss the technical excellence
+of the volume from the connoisseur's viewpoint. 
+ 
+"The setting," I replied judicially, "is worthy of the gem.  The
+dark green cover, elaborately tooled, the old English lettering,
+the heavy linen paper, mark this as one of our very choicest
+publications.  The letter-press is of course De Vinne's best,-- 
+there is nothing better on this side of the Atlantic.  The text is
+a beautiful, slender stream, meandering gracefully through a wide
+meadow of margin." 
+ 
+For some reason I left the room for a minute.  As I stepped into
+the hall, I almost ran into Baxter, who was standing near the
+door, facing a hunting print of a somewhat humorous character,
+hung upon the wall, and smiling with an immensely pleased
+expression. 
+ 
+"What a ridiculous scene!" he remarked.  "Look at that fat old
+squire on that tall hunter!  I'll wager dollars to doughnuts that
+he won't get over the first fence!" 
+ 
+It was a very good bluff, but did not deceive me.  Under his mask
+of unconcern, Baxter was anxious to learn what we thought of his
+poem, and had stationed himself in the hall that he might overhear
+our discussion without embarrassing us by his presence.  He had
+covered up his delight at our appreciation by this simulated
+interest in the hunting print. 
+ 
+ 
+When the night came for the review of the Procrustes there was a
+large attendance of members, and several visitors, among them a
+young English cousin of one of the members, on his first visit to
+the United States; some of us had met him at other clubs, and in
+society, and had found him a very jolly boy, with a youthful
+exuberance of spirits and a naive ignorance of things American
+that made his views refreshing and, at times, amusing. 
+ 
+The critical essays were well considered, if a trifle vague. 
+Baxter received credit for poetic skill of a high order. 
+ 
+"Our brother Baxter," said Thompson, "should no longer bury his
+talent in a napkin.  This gem, of course, belongs to the club, but
+the same brain from which issued this exquisite emanation can
+produce others to inspire and charm an appreciative world." 
+ 
+"The author's view of life," said Davis, "as expressed in these
+beautiful lines, will help us to fit our shoulders for the heavy
+burden of life, by bringing to our realization those profound
+truths of philosophy which find hope in despair and pleasure in
+pain.  When he shall see fit to give to the wider world, in fuller
+form, the thoughts of which we have been vouchsafed this
+foretaste, let us hope that some little ray of his fame may rest
+upon the Bodleian, from which can never be taken away the proud
+privilege of saying that he was one of its members." 
+ 
+I then pointed out the beauties of the volume as a piece of
+bookmaking.  I knew, from conversation with the publication
+committee, the style of type and rubrication, and could see the
+cover through the wrapper of my sealed copy.  The dark green
+morocco, I said, in summing up, typified the author's serious view
+of life, as a thing to be endured as patiently as might be.  The
+cap-and-bells border was significant of the shams by which the
+optimist sought to delude himself into the view that life was a
+desirable thing.  The intricate blind-tooling of the doublure
+shadowed forth the blind fate which left us in ignorance of our
+future and our past, or of even what the day itself might bring
+forth.  The black-letter type, with rubricated initials, signified
+a philosophic pessimism enlightened by the conviction that in duty
+one might find, after all, an excuse for life and a hope for
+humanity.  Applying this test to the club, this work, which might
+be said to represent all that the Bodleian stood for, was in
+itself sufficient to justify the club's existence.  If the
+Bodleian had done nothing else, if it should do nothing more, it
+had produced a masterpiece. 
+ 
+There was a sealed copy of the Procrustes, belonging, I believe,
+to one of the committee, lying on the table by which I stood, and
+I had picked it up and held it in my hand for a moment, to
+emphasize one of my periods, but had laid it down immediately.  I
+noted, as I sat down, that young Hunkin, our English visitor, who
+sat on the other side of the table, had picked up the volume and
+was examining it with interest.  When the last review was read,
+and the generous applause had subsided, there were cries for
+Baxter. 
+ 
+"Baxter!  Baxter!  Author!  Author!" 
+ 
+Baxter had been sitting over in a corner during the reading of the
+reviews, and had succeeded remarkably well, it seemed to me, in
+concealing, under his mask of cynical indifference, the exultation
+which I was sure he must feel.  But this outburst of enthusiasm
+was too much even for Baxter, and it was clear that he was
+struggling with strong emotion when he rose to speak. 
+ 
+"Gentlemen, and fellow members of the Bodleian, it gives me
+unaffected pleasure--sincere pleasure--some day you may know how
+much pleasure--I cannot trust myself to say it now--to see the
+evident care with which your committee have read my poor verses,
+and the responsive sympathy with which my friends have entered
+into my views of life and conduct.  I thank you again, and again,
+and when I say that I am too full for utterance,--I'm sure you
+will excuse me from saying any more." 
+ 
+Baxter took his seat, and the applause had begun again when it was
+broken by a sudden exclamation. 
+ 
+"By Jove!" exclaimed our English visitor, who still sat behind the
+table, "what an extraordinary book!" 
+ 
+Every one gathered around him. 
+ 
+"You see," he exclaimed; holding up the volume, "you fellows said
+so much about the bally book that I wanted to see what it was
+like; so I untied the ribbon, and cut the leaves with the paper
+knife lying here, and found--and found that there wasn't a single
+line in it, don't you know!" 
+ 
+Blank consternation followed this announcement, which proved only
+too true.  Every one knew instinctively, without further
+investigation, that the club had been badly sold.  In the
+resulting confusion Baxter escaped, but later was waited upon by a
+committee, to whom he made the rather lame excuse that he had
+always regarded uncut and sealed books as tommy-rot, and that he
+had merely been curious to see how far the thing could go; and
+that the result had justified his belief that a book with nothing
+in it was just as useful to a book-collector as one embodying a
+work of genius.  He offered to pay all the bills for the sham
+Procrustes, or to replace the blank copies with the real thing, as
+we might choose.  Of course, after such an insult, the club did
+not care for the poem.  He was permitted to pay the expense,
+however, and it was more than hinted to him that his resignation
+from the club would be favorably acted upon.  He never sent it in,
+and, as he went to Europe shortly afterwards, the affair had time
+to blow over. 
+ 
+In our first disgust at Baxter's duplicity, most of us cut our
+copies of the Procrustes, some of us mailed them to Baxter with
+cutting notes, and others threw them into the fire.  A few wiser
+spirits held on to theirs, and this fact leaking out, it began to
+dawn upon the minds of the real collectors among us that the
+volume was something unique in the way of a publication. 
+ 
+"Baxter," said our president one evening to a select few of us who
+sat around the fireplace, "was wiser than we knew, or than he
+perhaps appreciated.  His Procrustes, from the collector's point
+of view, is entirely logical, and might be considered as the acme
+of bookmaking.  To the true collector, a book is a work of art, of
+which the contents are no more important than the words of an
+opera.  Fine binding is a desideratum, and, for its cost, that of
+the Procrustes could not be improved upon.  The paper is above
+criticism.  The true collector loves wide margins, and the
+Procrustes, being all margin, merely touches the vanishing point
+of the perspective.  The smaller the edition, the greater the
+collector's eagerness to acquire a copy.  There are but six uncut
+copies left, I am told, of the Procrustes, and three sealed
+copies, of one of which I am the fortunate possessor." 
+ 
+After this deliverance, it is not surprising that, at our next
+auction, a sealed copy of Baxter's Procrustes was knocked down,
+after spirited bidding, for two hundred and fifty dollars, the
+highest price ever brought by a single volume published by the
+club. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+THE HEART OF THE RACE PROBLEM 
+by Quincy Ewing 
+ 
+ 
+"And, instead of going to the Congress of the United States and
+saying there is no distinction made in Mississippi, because of
+color or previous condition of servitude, tell the truth, and say
+this: 'We tried for many years to live in Mississippi, and share
+sovereignty and dominion with the Negro, and we saw our
+institutions crumbling. . . .  We rose in the majesty and highest
+type of Anglo-Saxon manhood, and took the reins of government out
+of the hands of the carpet-bagger and the Negro, and, so help us
+God, from now on we will never share any sovereignty or dominion
+with him again.'"--Governor JAMES K. VARDAMAN, Mississippi, 1904. 
+ 
+ 
+During the past decade, newspaper and magazine articles galore,
+and not a few books, have been written on what is called the "Race
+Problem," the problem caused by the presence in this country of
+some ten millions of black and variously-shaded colored people
+known as Negroes.  But, strange as it may sound, the writer has no
+hesitation in saying that at this date there appears to be no
+clear conception anywhere, on the part of most people, as to just
+what the essential problem is which confronts the white
+inhabitants of the country because they have for fellow-citizens
+(nominally) ten million Negroes.  Ask the average man, ask even
+the average editor or professor anywhere, what the race problem
+is, the heart of it; why, in this land with its millions of
+foreigners of all nationalities, THE race problem of problems
+should be caused by ten million Negroes, not foreigners but native
+to the soil through several generations; and in all probability
+you will get some such answer as this:-- 
+ 
+"The Negroes, as a rule, are very ignorant, are very lazy, are
+very brutal, are very criminal.  But a little way removed from
+savagery, they are incapable of adopting the white man's moral
+code, of assimilating the white man's moral sentiments, of
+striving toward the white man's moral ideals.  They are creatures
+of brutal, untamed instincts, and uncontrolled feral passions,
+which give frequent expression of themselves in crimes of horrible
+ferocity.  They are, in brief, an uncivilized, semi-savage people,
+living in a civilization to which they are unequal, partaking to a
+limited degree of its benefits, performing in no degree its
+duties.  Because they are spatially in a civilization to which
+they are morally and intellectually repugnant, they cannot but be
+as a foreign irritant to the body social.  The problem is, How
+shall the body social adjust itself, daily, hourly, to this
+irritant; how feel at ease and safe in spite of it?  How shall the
+white inhabitants of the land, with their centuries of inherited
+superiority, conserve their civilization and carry it forward to a
+yet higher plane, hampered by ten million black inhabitants of the
+same land with their centuries of inherited inferiority?" 
+ 
+To the foregoing answer, this might now and again be added, or
+advanced independently in reply to our question: "Personal
+aversion on the part of the white person for the Negro; personal
+aversion accounted for by nothing the individual Negro is, or is
+not, intellectually and morally; accounted for by the fact,
+simply, that he is a Negro, that he has a black or colored skin,
+that he is different, of another kind." 
+ 
+Now, certainly, there are very few average men or philosophers, to
+whom the answer given to our question would not seem to state, or
+at any rate fairly indicate, the race problem in its essence. 
+But, however few they be, I do not hesitate to align myself with
+them as one who does not believe that the essential race problem
+as it exists in the South (whatever it be in the North) is stated,
+or even fairly indicated, in the foregoing answer.  In Northern
+and Western communities, where he is outnumbered by many thousands
+of white people, the Negro may be accounted a problem, because he
+is lazy, or ignorant, or brutal, or criminal, or all these things
+together; or because he is black and different.  But in Southern
+communities, where the Negro is not outnumbered by many thousands
+of white people, the race problem, essentially, and in its most
+acute form, is something distinct from his laziness or ignorance,
+or brutality, or criminality, or all-round intellectual and moral
+inferiority to the white man.  That problem as the South knows and
+deals with it would exist, as certainly as it does to-day, if
+there were no shadow of excuse for the conviction that the Negro
+is more lazy, or more ignorant, or more criminal, or more brutal,
+or more anything else he ought not to be, or less anything else he
+ought to be, than other men.  In other words, let it be supposed
+that the average Negro is as a matter of fact the equal, morally
+and intellectually, of the average white man of the same class,
+and the race problem declines to vanish, declines to budge.  We
+shall see why, presently.  The statements just made demand
+immediate justification.  For they are doubtless surprising to a
+degree, and to some readers may prove startling. 
+ 
+I proceed to justify them as briefly as possible, asking the
+reader to bear in mind that very much more might be said along
+this line than I allow myself space to say.    
+ 
+ 
+ 
+I 
+ 
+ 
+That the Negro is not a problem because he is lazy, because he
+declines to work, is evidenced by the patent fact that in
+virtually every Southern community he is sought as a laborer in
+fields, mills, mines, and that in very many Southern communities
+the vexing problem for employers is not too many, but too few
+Negroes.  In certain agricultural sections, notably in the
+Louisiana sugar district, quite a number of Italians ("Dagoes")
+are employed.  The reason is not dissatisfaction with Negro labor,
+but simply that there is not enough of it to meet the requirements
+of the large plantations.  There is, perhaps, not one of these
+plantations on which any able-bodied Negro could not get
+employment for the asking; and as a rule, the Negroes are given,
+not the work which demands the lowest, but that which demands the
+highest, efficiency: they are the ploughmen, the teamsters, the
+foremen.  If any one doubts that Negroes are wanted as laborers in
+Southern communities, very much wanted, let him go to any such
+community and attempt to inveigle a few dozen of the laziest away. 
+He will be likely to take his life in his hands, after the usual
+warning is disregarded!    
+ 
+ 
+ 
+II 
+ 
+ 
+The small politician's trump-card, played early and late, and in
+all seasons, that the Negro is a black shadow over the Southland
+because of his excessive criminality, serves well the politician's
+purpose,--it wins his game; but only because the game is played
+and won on a board where fictions, not facts, are dominant. 
+Nothing is easier than to offer so-called proofs of the contention
+that the Negro's tendency to crime is something peculiar to his
+race; there are the jail and penitentiary and gallows statistics,
+for instance.  But surely it should not be difficult for these so- 
+called proofs to present themselves in their true light to any one
+who takes the trouble to consider two weighty and conspicuous
+facts: this, first, that the Negroes occupy everywhere in this
+country the lowest social and industrial plane, the plane which
+everywhere else supplies the jail, the penitentiary, the gallows,
+with the greatest number of their victims; and secondly this, that
+in the section of the country where these penal statistics are
+gathered, all the machinery of justice is in the hands of white
+men. 
+ 
+No Negro is a sheriff, or judge, or justice of the peace, or grand
+or petit juryman, or member of a pardoning board.  Charged with
+crime, again and again, the black man must go to jail; he is
+unable to give bond; he is defended, not by the ablest, but by the
+poorest lawyers, often by an unwilling appointee of the court; he
+lacks the benefit of that personal appeal to judge and jury, so
+often enjoyed by other defendants, which would make them WANT to
+believe him innocent until proven guilty; he faces, on the
+contrary, a judge and jury who hold him in some measure of
+contempt as a man, regardless of his guilt or innocence.  He is
+without means, except occasionally, to fight his case through
+appeals to higher courts, and errors sleep in many a record that
+on review would upset the verdict.  In the light of such
+considerations, it would seem impossible that criminal statistics
+should not bear hard upon the Negro race, even supposing it to be
+a fact that that race of all races in the world is the LEAST
+criminal. 
+ 
+Let it be admitted without question that in most Southern
+communities the crimes and misdemeanors of the Negroes exceed
+those committed by an equal number of white people, and we have
+admitted nothing that at all explains or accounts for the race
+problem.  For is it not equally true that in every other community
+the doers of society's rough work, the recipients of its meagrest
+rewards, are chargeable, relatively, with the greatest number of
+crimes and misdemeanors?  Is it not true, as well in Massachusetts
+and Connecticut as in Louisiana and Mississippi, that the vast
+majority of those occupying prison cells are members of the social
+lowest class? that the vast majority condemned, after trial, to
+hard labor with their hands were accustomed to such labor before
+their judicial condemnation?   Nothing is more preposterous than
+the idea that the race problem means more Negroes hanged, more
+Negroes imprisoned, more Negroes in mines and chain-gangs, than
+white people!  If the Negro did not furnish the great bulk of the
+grist for the grinding of our penal machinery in the Southern
+states, he would constitute the racial miracle of this and all
+ages! 
+ 
+My own conviction is, and I speak with the experience of forty
+years' residence in Southern states, that the Negro is not more
+given to crimes and misdemeanors than the laboring population of
+any other section of the country.  But be this as it may, it is
+abundantly certain that no race of people anywhere are more easily
+controlled than the Negroes by the guardians of law and order; and
+there are none anywhere so easily punished for disobedience to the
+statutes and mandates of their economic superiors.  Courts and
+juries may be sometimes subject to just criticism for undue
+leniency toward white defendants; but that courts and juries are
+ever subject to just criticism for undue leniency in dealing with
+black defendants is the sheerest nonsense. 
+ 
+The frequent charge that the Negro's worst crimes partake of a
+brutality that is peculiarly racial, is not supported by facts.  I
+need not enlarge upon this statement further than to say that the
+Negro's worst crimes, with all their shocking accompaniments, are,
+not seldom, but often, duplicated by white men.  Let any one who
+doubts the statement observe for one week the criminal statistics
+of any cosmopolitan newspaper, and he will have his doubt removed. 
+ 
+Assuredly we do not hit upon the essence of the race problem in
+the Negro's propensity to crime!    
+ 
+ 
+ 
+III 
+ 
+ 
+Do we hit upon it in his ignorance, in the fact that an immense
+number of the black people are illiterate, not knowing the first
+from the last letter of the alphabet?  Hardly.  For, almost to a
+man, the people who most parade and most rail at the race problem
+in private conversation, on the political platform, and in the
+pages of newspapers, books, and periodicals, are disposed rather
+to lament, than to assist, the passing of the Negro's ignorance. 
+Ex-Governor Vardaman, of Mississippi, used the following language
+in a message to the legislature of that state, January, 1906:-- 
+ 
+"The startling facts revealed by the census show that those
+[Negroes] who can read and write are more criminal than the
+illiterate, which is true of no other element of our population. .
+. .  The state for many years, at great expense to the tax-payers,
+has maintained a system of Negro education which has produced
+disappointing results, and I am opposed to the perpetuation of
+this system.  My own idea is, that the character of education for  
+the Negro ought to be changed.  If, after forty years of earnest
+effort, and the expenditure of fabulous sums to educate his head,
+we have only succeeded in making a criminal of him and impairing
+his usefulness and efficiency as a laborer, wisdom would suggest
+that we make another experiment and see if we cannot improve him
+by educating his hand and his heart. . . .  Slavery is the only
+process by which he has ever been partially civilized.  God
+Almighty created the Negro for a menial, he is essentially a
+servant." 
+ 
+This is the reply of an ex-governor of one of our blackest states
+to those who contend that the negro is a problem, a "burden
+carried by the white people of the South," because of his
+ignorance and consequent inefficiency; and that the lightening of
+the burden depends upon more money spent, more earnest efforts
+made, for the schooling of the black people.  According to this
+ex-governor, and there are thousands who agree with him in and out
+of Mississippi, the race problem is heightened, rather than
+mitigated, by all attempts to increase the negro's intellectual
+efficiency.  The more ignorant he is, the less burdensome he is to
+the white man, provided his heart be good, and his hands skillful
+enough to do the service of a menial.  Nothing but slavery ever
+partially civilized him, nothing but slavery continued in some
+form can civilize him further!    
+ 
+ 
+ 
+IV 
+ 
+ 
+If we listen vainly for the heart-throb of the race problem in the
+Negro's laziness, and criminality, and brutality, and ignorance,
+and inefficiency, do we detect it with clearness and certainty in
+the personal aversion felt by the white people for the black
+people, aversion which the white people can no more help feeling
+than the black people can help exciting?  Is this the real
+trouble, the real burden, the real tragedy and sorrow of our white
+population in those sections of the country where the Negroes are
+many,--that they are compelled to dwell face to face, day by day,
+with an inferior, degraded population, repulsive to their finer
+sensibilities, obnoxious to them in countless ways inexplicable? 
+Facts are far from furnishing an affirmative answer.  However
+pronounced may be the feeling of personal aversion toward the
+Negroes in Northern communities, where they are few, or known at
+long range, or casually, there is no such thing in Southern
+communities as personal aversion for the Negro pronounced enough
+to be responsible for anything resembling a problem.  How could
+there be in the South, where from infancy we have all been as
+familiar with black faces as with white; where many of us fell
+asleep in the laps of black mammies, and had for playmates Ephrom,
+Izik, Zeke, black mammy's grandchildren; where most of us have had
+our meals prepared by black cooks, and been waited on by black
+house-servants and dining-room servants, and ridden in carriages
+and buggies with black hostlers?  We are so used to the black
+people in the South, their mere personal presence is so far from
+being responsible for our race problem, that the South would not
+seem Southern without them, as it would not without its crape
+myrtles, and live-oaks, and magnolias, its cotton and its sugar- 
+cane! 
+ 
+It is very easy to go astray in regard to the matter of personal
+aversion toward the members of alien races, to magnify greatly the
+reality and importance of it.  What seems race-aversion is
+frequently something else, namely, revulsion aroused by the
+presence of the strange, the unusual, the uncanny, the not-
+understood.  Such revulsion is aroused, not only by the members of
+alien races, alien and unfamiliar, but as certainly by strange
+animals of not more terrifying appearance than the well-loved cow
+and horse; and it would be aroused as really and as painfully,
+doubtless, by the sudden proximity of one of Milton's archangels. 
+It was not necessarily race-aversion which made Emerson, and may
+have made many another Concord philosopher, uncomfortable in the  
+presence of a Negro, any more than it is race-aversion which makes
+the Fifth Avenue boy run from the gentle farmyard cow; any more
+than it is race-aversion which would make me uncomfortable in the
+presence of Li Hung Chang.  The Negro, simply, it may be, was a
+mystery to Emerson, as the farmyard cow is a mystery to the Fifth
+Avenue boy, as the Chinaman is a mystery to me. 
+ 
+The Negro is NOT a mystery to people whom he has nursed and waited
+on, whose language he has spoken, whose ways, good and bad, he has
+copied for generations; and his personal presence does not render
+them uncomfortable, not, at any rate, uncomfortable enough to
+beget the sense of a burden or a problem. 
+ 
+It may be very difficult for Northern readers, to whom the Negro
+is in reality a stranger, a foreigner, to appreciate fully the
+force of what has just been said; but appreciated by them it must
+be, or they can never hope to realize the innermost meaning of the
+race problem in the South. 
+ 
+ 
+So much for what the race problem is not.  Let me without further
+delay state what it is.  The foundation of it, true or false, is
+the white man's conviction that the Negro as a race, and as an
+individual, is his inferior: not human in the sense that he is
+human, not entitled to the exercise of human rights in the sense
+that he is entitled to the exercise of them.  The problem itself,
+the essence of it, the heart of it, is the white man's
+determination to make good this conviction, coupled with constant
+anxiety lest, by some means, he should fail to make it good.  The
+race problem, in other words, is NOT that the Negro is what he is
+in relation to the white man, the white man's inferior; but this,
+rather: How to keep him what he is in relation to the white man;
+how to prevent his ever achieving or becoming that which would
+justify the belief on his part, or on the part of other people,
+that he and the white man stand on common human ground. 
+ 
+That such is the heart of the problem should be made evident by
+this general consideration alone: namely, that everywhere in the
+South friction between the races is entirely absent so long as the
+Negro justifies the white man's opinion of him as an inferior; is
+grateful for privileges and lays no claim to RIGHTS.  Let him seem
+content to be as the South insists he shall be, and not only is he
+not harshly treated, not abused, and never boycotted, but he is
+shown much kindness and generosity, and employment awaits him for
+the asking.  Trouble brews when he begins to manifest those
+qualities, to reveal those tastes, to give vent to those
+ambitions, which are supposed to be characteristic exclusively of
+the higher human type, and which, unless restrained, would result
+in confounding the lower with the higher.  The expression "Good
+Nigger" means everywhere in the South a real Negro, from the
+Southern standpoint, one who in no respect gets out of focus with
+that standpoint; the expression "Bad Nigger" means universally one
+who in some respect, not necessarily criminal, does get out of
+focus with it.  So, stated differently, the race problem is the
+problem how to keep the Negro in focus with the traditional
+standpoint. 
+ 
+But we are very far from needing to rely upon any general
+consideration in support of the proposition advanced above.  It is
+supported by evidences on every hand, waiting only the eye of
+recognition.  Scarcely a day passes but something is said or done
+with this end in view, to emphasize, lest they forget, the
+conviction for both white man and Negro that the latter is and
+must remain an inferior.  Let me instance a few such evidences. 
+ 
+Consider, first, the "Jim Crow" legislation in the manner of its
+enforcement.  Such legislation is supposed to have for its object
+the separation of the races in trains, street-cars, etc., to save
+the white people from occasional contact with drunken, rowdy, ill- 
+smelling Negroes, and to prevent personal encounters between the
+whites and blacks.  How is this object attained in the street cars
+of Southern cities?  Members of the different races occupy the
+same cars, separated only by absurdly inadequate little open-mesh
+wire screens, so tiny and light that a conductor can move them
+from one seat to another with the strength of his little finger. 
+Needless to add, these screens would serve to obscure neither
+sound, sight, nor smell of drunken rowdies who sat behind them! 
+In summer cars black and white passengers may be separated not
+even by a make-believe screen; they are simply required,
+respectively, to occupy certain seats in the front or the back end
+of the cars. 
+ 
+In Birmingham, Alabama, the front seats are assigned to Negroes in
+all closed cars, and the back seats in all open ones.  Why the
+front seats in the one case, and the back seats in the other, it
+is not easy to understand in the light of the letter and alleged
+spirit of the Jim Crow law!  The underlying purpose of the law is
+clearly not the separation of the races in space; for public
+sentiment does not insist upon its fulfillment to that end.  The
+underlying purpose of it would seem to be the separation of the
+races in status.  The doctrine of inequality would be attacked if
+white and black passengers rode in public conveyances on equal
+terms; therefore the Negro who rides in a public conveyance must
+do so, not as of undoubted right, but as with the white man's
+permission, subject to the white man's regulation.  "This place
+you may occupy, that other you may not, because I am I and you are
+you, lest to you or me it should be obscured that I am I and you
+are you."  Such is the real spirit of the Jim Crow laws. 
+ 
+Why is it that in every Southern city no Negro is allowed to
+witness a dramatic performance, or a baseball game, from a first-
+class seat?  In every large city, there are hundreds of Negroes
+who would gladly pay for first-class seats at the theatre and the
+baseball game, were they permitted to.  It can hardly be that
+permission is withheld because theatres and baseball games are so
+well attended by half the population that first-class seats could
+not be furnished for the other half.  As a matter of fact,
+theatre-auditoriums and baseball grand-stands are seldom crowded;
+the rule is, not all first-class seats occupied, but many vacant. 
+Surely as simple as moving from seat to seat a make-shift screen
+in a street-car, would it be to set apart a certain number of
+seats in the dress-circle of every theatre, and in the grand-stand
+of every baseball park, for Negro patrons.  The reason why this is
+not done is perfectly obvious: it would be intolerable to the
+average Southern man or woman to sit through the hours of a
+theatrical performance or a baseball game on terms of equal
+accommodation with Negroes, even with a screen between.  Negroes
+would look out of place, out of status, in the dress circle or the
+grand-stand; their place, signifying their status, is the peanut- 
+gallery, or the bleachers.  There, neither they nor others will be
+tempted to forget that as things are they must continue. 
+ 
+How shall we account for the "intense feeling" (to quote the
+language of the mayor or New Orleans) occasioned in that city one
+day, last July, when it was flashed over the wires that the first
+prize in the National Spelling Contest had been won by a Negro
+girl, in competition with white children from New Orleans and
+other Southern cities?  The indignation of at least one of the
+leading New Orleans papers verged upon hysterics; the editor's
+rhetoric visited upon some foulest crime could hardly have been
+more inflamed than in denunciation of the fact that, on the far-
+away shore of Lake Erie, New Orleans white children had competed
+at a spelling bee with a Negro girl.  The superintendent of the
+New Orleans schools was roundly denounced in many quarters for
+permitting his wards to compete with a Negro; and there were broad
+hints in "Letters from the People" to the papers that his
+resignation was in order. 
+ 
+Certainly in the days following the National Spelling Contest the
+race problem was in evidence, if it ever was, in New Orleans and
+the South!  Did it show itself, then, as the problem of Negro
+crime, or brutality, or laziness?  Assuredly not!  Of the Negro's
+personal repulsiveness?  By no means!  There was no evidence of
+Negro criminality, or brutality, or laziness in the Negro child's
+victory; and every day in the South, in their games and otherwise,
+hundreds of white children of the best families are in closer
+personal contact with little Negroes than were the white children
+who took part in the Cleveland spelling bee.  The "intense
+feeling" can be explained on one ground only: the Negro girl's
+victory was an affront to the tradition of the Negro's
+inferiority; it suggested--perhaps indicated--that, given equal
+opportunities, all Negroes are not necessarily the intellectual
+inferiors of all white people.  What other explanation is
+rationally conceivable?  If the race problem means in the South to
+its white inhabitants the burden and tragedy of having to dwell
+face to face with an intellectually and morally backward people,
+why should not the Negro girl's triumph have occasioned intense
+feeling of pleasure, rather than displeasure, by its suggestion
+that her race is not intellectually hopeless? 
+ 
+Consider further that while no Negro, no matter what his
+occupation, or personal refinement, or intellectual culture, or
+moral character, is allowed to travel in a Pullman car between
+state lines, or to enter as a guest a hotel patronized by white
+people, the blackest of Negro nurses and valets are given food and
+shelter in all first-class hotels, and occasion neither disgust,
+nor surprise in the Pullman cars.  Here again the heart of the
+race problem is laid bare.  The black nurse with a white baby in
+her arms, the black valet looking after the comfort of a white
+invalid, have the label of their inferiority conspicuously upon
+them; they understand themselves, and everybody understands them,
+to be servants, enjoying certain privileges for the sake of the
+person served.  Almost anything, the Negro may do in the South,
+and anywhere he may go, provided the manner of his doing and his
+doing is that of an inferior.  Such is the premium put upon his
+inferiority; such his inducement to maintain it. 
+ 
+The point here insisted on may be made clearer, if already it is
+not clear enough, by this consideration, that the man who would
+lose social caste for dining with an Irish street-sweeper might be
+congratulated for dining with an Irish educator; but President
+Roosevelt would scarcely have given greater offense by
+entertaining a Negro laborer at the White House than he gave by
+inviting to lunch there the Principal of Tuskegee Institute.  The
+race problem being what it is, the status of any Negro is
+logically the status of every other.  There are recognizable
+degrees of inferiority among Negroes themselves; some are vastly
+superior to others.  But there is only one degree of inferiority
+separating the Negro from the white person, attached to all
+Negroes alike.  The logic of the situation requires that to be any
+sort of black man is to be inferior to any sort of white man; and
+from this logic there is no departure in the South. 
+ 
+Inconsistent, perhaps, with what has been said may seem the defeat
+in the Louisiana Legislature (1908) of the anti-miscegenation
+bill, a measure designed to prohibit sexual cohabitation between
+white persons and Negroes; to be specific, between white men and
+Negro women.  But there was no inconsistency whatever in the
+defeat of that bill.  In all times and places, the status of that
+portion of the female population, Lecky's martyred "priestesses of
+humanity," whose existence men have demanded for the gratification
+of unlawful passion, has been that of social outcasts.  They have
+no rights that they can insist upon; they are simply privileged to
+exist by society's permission, and may be any moment legislated
+out of their vocation.  Hence the defeat of an anti-miscegenation
+measure by Southern legislators cannot be construed as a failure
+on their part to live up to their conviction of race-superiority. 
+It must be construed, rather, as legislative unwillingness to
+restrict the white man's liberty; to dictate by statute the kind
+of social outcast which he may use as a mere means to the
+gratification of his passion.  To concede to Negro women the
+status of a degraded and proscribed class, is not in any sense to
+overlook or obscure their racial inferiority, but on the contrary,
+it may be, to emphasize it.  Precisely the same principle, in a
+word, compasses the defeat of an anti-miscegenation bill which
+would compass the defeat of a measure to prohibit Negro servants
+from occupying seats in Pullman cars. 
+ 
+At the risk of reiteration, I must in concluding this article take
+sharp issue with the view of a recent very able writer, who asks
+the question, "What, essentially, is the Race Problem?" and
+answers it thus: "The race problem is the problem of living with
+human beings who are not like us, whether they are in our
+estimation our 'superiors' or inferiors, whether they have kinky
+hair or pigtails, whether they are slant-eyed, hook-nosed, or
+thick-lipped.  In its essence, it is the same problem, magnified,
+which besets every neighborhood, even every family." 
+ 
+I have contended so far, and I here repeat, that the race problem
+is essentially NOT what this writer declares it to be.  It is
+emphatically not, in the South, "the problem of living with human
+beings who are not like us, whether they are in our estimation our
+superiors or inferiors."  It may be, it probably is, that in the
+North, where the Negro is largely a stranger, a foreigner, very
+much to the same degree that the Chinese are strangers and
+foreigners in the South; and where, consequently, the Negro's
+personal repulsiveness is a much more significant force than it is
+in the South.  Assuredly there would be no race problem, anywhere,
+were there no contact with others unlike ourselves!  The
+unlikeness of the unlike is everywhere its indispensable
+foundation.  But we get nowhither unless we carefully distinguish
+between the foundation of the problem and the problem itself. 
+There is nothing in the unlikeness of the unlike that is
+necessarily problematical; it may be simply accepted and dealt
+with as a fact, like any other fact.  The problem arises only when
+the people of one race are minded to adopt and act upon some
+policy more or less oppressive or repressive in dealing with the
+people of another race.  In the absence of some such policy, there
+has never been a race problem since the world began.  It is the
+existence of such a policy become traditional, and supported by
+immovable conviction, which constitutes the race problem of the
+Southern states. 
+ 
+There was an immensely tragic race problem distressing the South
+fifty years ago; but who will suggest that it was the problem of
+"living with human beings who are not like us?"  The problem then
+was, clearly, how to make good a certain conviction concerning the
+unlike, how to maintain a certain policy in dealing with them. 
+What else is it today?  The problem, How to maintain the
+institution of chattel slavery, ceased to be at Appomattox; the
+problem, How to maintain the social, industrial, and civic
+inferiority of the descendants of chattel slaves, succeeded it,
+and is the race problem of the South at the present time.  There
+is no other. 
+ 
+Whether the policy adopted by the white South, and supported, as I
+have said, by immovable conviction, is expedient or inexpedient,
+wise or unwise, righteous or unrighteous, these are questions
+which I have not sought to answer one way or another in this
+article.  Perhaps they cannot be answered at all in our time. 
+Certain is it, that their only real and satisfactory answer will
+be many years ahead of the present generation. 
+ 
+In the mean time, nothing could be more unwarranted, than to
+suppose that the race problem of one section of this country is
+peculiar to that section, because its white inhabitants are
+themselves in some sense peculiar; because they are peculiarly
+prejudiced, because they are peculiarly behind the hour which the
+high clock of civilization has struck.  Remove the white
+inhabitants of the South, give their place to the white people of
+any other section of the United States, and, beyond a
+peradventure, the Southern race problem, as I have defined it,
+would continue to be--revealed, perhaps, in ways more perplexing,
+more intense and tragic. 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+NEGRO SUFFRAGE IN A DEMOCRACY 
+by Ray Stannard Baker 
+ 
+ 
+In this paper I endeavor to lay down the fundamental principles
+which should govern the Negro franchise in a democracy, and to
+outline a practical programme for the immediate treatment of the
+problem. 
+ 
+As I see it, the question of Negro suffrage in the United States
+presents two distinct aspects:-- 
+ 
+FIRST: the legal aspect. 
+ 
+SECOND: the practical aspect. 
+ 
+It will be admitted, I think, without argument, that all
+governments do and of a necessity must exercise the right to limit
+the number of people who are permitted to take part in the weighty
+responsibilities of the suffrage.  Some governments allow only a
+few men to vote; in an absolute monarchy there is only one voter;
+other governments, as they become more democratic, permit a larger
+proportion of the people to vote. 
+ 
+Our own government is one of the freest in the world in the matter
+of suffrage; and yet we bar out, in most states, all women; we bar
+out Mongolians, no matter how intelligent; we bar out Indians, and
+all foreigners who have not passed through a certain probationary
+stage and have not acquired a certain small amount of education. 
+We also declare--for an arbitrary limit must be placed somewhere-- 
+that no person under twenty-one years of age may exercise the
+right to vote, although some boys of eighteen are to-day better
+equipped to pass intelligently upon public questions than many
+grown men.  We even place adult white men on probation until they
+have resided for a certain length of time, often as much as two
+years, in the state or the town where they wish to cast their
+ballots.  Our registration and ballot laws eliminate hundreds of
+thousands of voters; and finally, we bar out everywhere the
+defective and criminal classes of our population.  We do not
+realize, sometimes, I think, how limited the franchise really is,
+even in America.  We forget that out of nearly ninety million
+people in the United States, fewer than fifteen million cast their
+votes for President in 1908--or about one in every six. 
+ 
+Thus the practice of a restricted suffrage is very deeply
+implanted in our system of government.  It is everywhere
+recognized that even in a democracy lines must be drawn, and that
+the ballot, the precious instrument of government, must be hedged
+about with stringent regulations.  The question is, where shall
+these lines be drawn in order that the best interests, not of any
+particular class, but of the whole nation, shall be served. 
+ 
+Upon this question, we, as free citizens, have the absolute right
+to agree or disagree with the present laws regulating suffrage;
+and if we want more people brought in as partakers in government,
+or some people who are already in, barred out, we have a right to
+organize, to agitate, to do our best to change the laws.  Powerful
+organizations of women are now agitating for the right to vote;
+there is an organization which demands the suffrage for Chinese
+and Japanese who wish to become citizens.  It is even conceivable
+that a society might be founded to lower the suffrage age-limit
+from twenty-one to nineteen years, thereby endowing a large number
+of young men with the privileges, and therefore the educational
+responsibilities, of political power.  On the other hand, a large
+number of people, chiefly in our Southern States, earnestly
+believe that the right of the Negro to vote should be curtailed,
+or even abolished. 
+ 
+Thus we disagree, and government is the resultant of all these
+diverse views and forces.  No one can say dogmatically how far
+democracy should go in distributing the enormously important
+powers of active government.  Democracy is not a dogma; it is not
+even a dogma of free suffrage.  Democracy is a life, a spirit, a
+growth.  The primal necessity of any sort of government, democracy
+or otherwise, whether it be more unjust or less unjust toward
+special groups of its citizens, is to exist, to be a going
+concern, to maintain upon the whole a stable and peaceful
+administration of affairs.  If a democracy cannot provide such
+stability, then the people go back to some form of oligarchy. 
+Having secured a fair measure of stability, a democracy proceeds
+with caution toward the extension of the suffrage to more and more
+people--trying foreigners, trying women, trying Negroes. 
+ 
+And no one can prophesy how far a democracy will ultimately go in
+the matter of suffrage.  We know only the tendency.  We know that
+in the beginning, even in America, the right to vote was a very
+limited matter.  In the early years, in New England, only church- 
+members voted; then the franchise was extended to include
+property-owners; then it was enlarged to include all white adults;
+then to include Negroes; then, in several Western States, to
+include women. 
+ 
+Thus the line has been constantly advancing, but with many
+fluctuations, eddies, and back-currents--like any other stream of
+progress.  At the present time the fundamental principles which
+underlie popular government, and especially the whole matter of
+popular suffrage, are much in the public mind.  The tendency of
+government throughout the entire civilized world is strongly in
+the direction of placing more and more power in the hands of the
+people.  In our own country we are enacting a remarkable group of
+laws providing for direct primaries in the nomination of public
+officials, for direct election of United States Senators, and for
+direct legislation by means of the initiative and referendum; and
+we are even going to the point, in many cities, of permitting the
+people to recall an elected official who is unsatisfactory.  The
+principle of local option, which is nothing but that of direct
+government by the people, is being everywhere accepted.  All these
+changes affect, fundamentally, the historic structure of our
+government, making it less republican and more democratic. 
+ 
+Still more important and far-reaching in its significance is the
+tendency of our government, especially our Federal Government, to
+regulate or to appropriate great groups of business enterprises
+formerly left wholly in private hands.  More and more, private
+business is becoming public business. 
+ 
+Now, then, as the weight of responsibility upon the popular vote
+is increased, it becomes more and more important that the ballot
+should be jealously guarded and honestly exercised.  In the last
+few years, therefore, a series of extraordinary new precautions
+have been adopted: the Australian ballot, more stringent
+registration systems, the stricter enforcement of naturalization
+laws to prevent the voting of crowds of unprepared foreigners, and
+the imposition by several states, rightly or wrongly, of
+educational and property tests.  It becomes a more and more
+serious matter every year to be an American citizen, more of an
+honor, more of a duty. 
+ 
+At the close of the Civil War, in a time of intense idealistic
+emotion, some three-quarters of a million of Negroes, the mass of
+them densely ignorant and just out of slavery, with the iron of
+slavery still in their souls, were suddenly given the political
+rights of free citizens.  A great many people, and not in the
+South alone, thought then, and still think, that it was a mistake
+to bestow the high powers and privileges of a wholly unrestricted
+ballot--a ballot which is the symbol of intelligent self-
+government--upon the Negro.  Other people, of whom I am one,
+believe that it was a necessary concomitant of the revolution; it
+was itself a revolution, not a growth, and like every other
+revolution it has had its fearful reaction.  Revolutions, indeed,
+change names, but they do not at once change human relationships. 
+Mankind is reconstructed not by proclamations, or legislation, or
+military occupation, but by time, growth, education, religion,
+thought.  At that time, then, the nation drove down the stakes of
+its idealism in government far beyond the point it was able to
+reach in the humdrum activities of everyday existence.  A reaction
+was inevitable; it was inevitable and perfectly natural that there
+should be a widespread questioning as to whether all Negroes, or
+indeed any Negroes, should properly be admitted to full political
+fellowship.  That questioning continues to this day. 
+ 
+Now, the essential principle established by the Fifteenth
+Amendment to the Constitution was not that all Negroes should
+necessarily be given an unrestricted access to the ballot; but
+that the right to vote should not be denied or abridged 'on
+account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.'  This
+amendment wiped out the color-line in politics so far as any
+written law could possibly do it. 
+ 
+Let me here express my profound conviction that the principle of
+political equality then laid down is a sound, valid, and
+absolutely essential principle in any free government; that
+restrictions upon the ballot, when necessary, should be made to
+apply equally to white and colored citizens; and that the
+Fifteenth Amendment ought not to be, and cannot be repealed. 
+Moreover, I am convinced that the principle of political equality
+is more firmly established to-day in this country than it was
+forty years ago, when it had only Northern bayonets behind it. 
+For now, however short the practice falls of reaching the legal
+standard, the principle is woven into the warp and woof of
+Southern life and Southern legislation.  Many Southern white
+leaders of thought are to-day CONVINCED, not FORCED believers in
+the principle; and that is a great omen. 
+ 
+Limitations have come about, it is true, and were to be expected
+as the back-currents of the revolution.  Laws providing for
+educational and property qualifications as a prerequisite to the
+exercise of the suffrage have been passed in all the Southern
+States, and have operated to exclude from the ballot large numbers
+of both white and colored citizens, who on account of ignorance or
+poverty are unable to meet the tests.  These provisions, whatever
+the opinion entertained as to the wisdom of such laws, are well
+within the principle laid down by the Fifteenth Amendment.  But
+several Southern States have gone a step further, and by means of
+the so-called 'grandfather laws,' have exempted certain ignorant
+white men from the necessity of meeting the educational and
+property tests.  These unfair 'grandfather laws,' however, in some
+of the states adopting them, have now expired by limitation. 
+ 
+Let me then lay down this general proposition:-- 
+ 
+Nowhere in the South to-day is the Negro cut off LEGALLY, as a
+Negro, from the ballot.  Legally, to-day, any Negro who can meet
+the comparatively slight requirements as to education, or
+property, or both, can cast his ballot on a basis of equality with
+the white man.  I have emphasized the word legally, for I know the
+PRACTICAL difficulties which confront the Negro votes in many
+parts of the South.  The point I wish to make is that legally the
+Negro is essentially the political equal of the white man; but
+that practically, in the enforcement of the law, the legislative
+ideal is still pegged out far beyond the actual performance. 
+ 
+Now, then, if we are interested in the problem of democracy, we
+have two courses open to us.  We may think the laws are unjust to
+the Negro, and incidentally to the 'poor white' man as well.  If
+we do, we have a perfect right to agitate for changes; and we can
+do much to disclose, without heat, the actual facts regarding the
+complicated and vexatious legislative situation in the South, as
+regards the suffrage.  Every change in the legislation upon this
+subject should, indeed, be jealously watched, that the principle
+of political equality between the races be not legally curtailed. 
+The doctrine laid down in the Fifteenth Amendment must, at any
+hazard, be maintained. 
+ 
+But, personally,--and I am here voicing a profound conviction,--I
+think our emphasis at present should be laid upon the practical
+rather than upon the legal aspect of the problem; I think we
+should take advantage of the widely prevalent feeling in the South
+that the question of suffrage has been settled, legally, for some
+time to come: of the desire on the part of many Southern people,
+both white and colored, to turn aside from the discussion of the
+political status of the Negro. 
+ 
+In short, let us for the time being accept the laws as they are,
+and build upward from that point.  Let us turn our attention to
+the practical task of finding out why it is that the laws we
+already have are not enforced, and how best to secure an honest
+vote for every Negro and equally for every 'poor white' man, who
+is able to meet the requirements, but who for one reason or
+another does not or cannot now exercise his rights.  I include the
+disfranchised white man as well as the Negro, because I take it
+that we are interested, first of all, in democracy, and unless we
+can arouse the spirit of democracy, South and North, we can hope
+for justice neither for Negroes, nor for the poorer class of white
+men, nor for the women of the factories and shops, nor for the
+children of the cottonmills. 
+ 
+Taking up this side of the problem we shall discover two entirely
+distinct difficulties:-- 
+ 
+First, we shall find many Negroes, and indeed hundreds of
+thousands of white men as well, who might vote, but who, through
+ignorance, or inability or unwillingness to pay the poll-taxes, or
+from mere lack of interest, disfranchise themselves. 
+ 
+The second difficulty is peculiar to the Negro.  It consists in
+open or concealed intimidation on the part of the white men who
+control the election machinery.  In many places in the South to- 
+day no Negro, how well qualified, would dare to present himself
+for registration; when he does, he is rejected for some trivial or
+illegal reason. 
+ 
+Thus we have to meet a vast amount of apathy and ignorance and
+poverty on the one hand, and the threat of intimidation on the
+other. 
+ 
+First of all, for it is the chief injustice as between white and
+colored men with which we have to deal,--an injustice which the
+law already makes illegal and punishable,--how shall we meet the
+matter of intimidation?  As I have already said, the door of the
+suffrage is everywhere legally open to the Negro, but a certain
+sort of Southerner bars the passage-way.  He stands there and, law
+or no law, keeps out many Negroes who might vote; and he
+represents in most parts of the South the prevailing public
+opinion. 
+ 
+Shall we meet this situation by force?  What force is available? 
+Shall the North go down and fight the South?  You and I know that
+the North to-day has no feeling but friendship for the South. 
+More than that--and I say it with all seriousness, because it
+represents what I have heard wherever I have gone in the North to
+make inquiries regarding the Negro problem--the North, wrongly or
+rightly, is to-day more than half convinced that the South is
+right in imposing some measure of limitation upon the franchise. 
+There is now, in short, no disposition anywhere in the North to
+interfere in internal affairs in the South--not even with the
+force of public opinion. 
+ 
+What other force, then, is to be invoked?  Shall the Negro revolt? 
+Shall he migrate?  Shall he prosecute his case in the courts?  The
+very asking of these questions suggests the inevitable reply. 
+ 
+We might as well, here and now, dismiss the idea of force, express
+or implied.  There are times of last resort which call for force;
+but this is not such a time. 
+ 
+What other alternatives are there? 
+ 
+Accepting the laws as they are, then, there are two methods of
+procedure, neither sensational nor exciting.  I have no quick cure
+to suggest, but only old and tried methods of commonplace growth. 
+ 
+The underlying causes of the trouble in the country being plainly
+ignorance and prejudice, we must meet ignorance and prejudice with
+their antidotes, education and association. 
+ 
+Every effort should be made to extend free education among both
+Negroes and white people.  A great extension of education is now
+going forward in the South.  The Negro is not by any means getting
+his full share; but, as certainly as sunshine makes things grow,
+education in the South will produce tolerance.  That there is
+already such a growing tolerance no one who has talked with the
+leading white men in the South can doubt.  The old fire-eating,
+Negro-baiting leaders of the Tillman-Vardaman type are swiftly
+passing away: a far better and broader group is coming into power. 
+ 
+In his last book, Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy, of Alabama, expresses
+this new point of view when he says,-- 
+ 
+'There is no question here as to the unrestricted admission [to
+the ballot] of the great masses of our ignorant and semi-ignorant
+blacks.  I know no advocate of such admission.  But the question
+is as to whether the individuals of the race, upon conditions or
+restrictions legally imposed and fairly administered, shall be
+admitted to adequate and increasing representation in the
+electorate.  And as that question is more seriously and more
+generally considered, many of the leading publicists of the South,
+I am glad to say, are quietly resolved that the answer shall be in
+the affirmative.' 
+ 
+From an able Southern white man, a resident of New Orleans, I
+received recently a letter containing these words:-- 
+ 
+'I believe we have reached the bottom, and a sort of quiescent
+period.  I think it most likely that from now on there will be a
+gradual increase of the Negro vote.  And I honestly believe that
+the less said about it, the surer the increase will be.' 
+ 
+Education--and by education I mean education of all sorts,
+industrial, professional, classical, in accordance with each man's
+talents--will not only produce breadth and tolerance, but will
+help to cure the apathy which now keeps so many thousands of both
+white men and Negroes from the polls: for it will show them that
+it is necessary for every man to exercise all the political rights
+within his reach.  If he fails voluntarily to take advantage of
+the rights he already has, how shall he acquire more rights? 
+ 
+And as ignorance must be met by education, so prejudice must be
+met with its antidote, which is association.  Democracy does not
+consist in mere voting, but in association, the spirit of common
+effort, of which the ballot is a mere visible expression.  When we
+come to know one another we soon find that the points of likeness
+are much more numerous than the points of difference.  And this
+human association for the common good, which is democracy, is
+difficult to bring about anywhere, whether among different classes
+of white people, or between white people and Negroes.  As one of
+the leaders of the Negro race, Dr. Du Bois, has said,-- 
+ 
+'Herein lies the tragedy of the age.  Not that men are poor: all
+men know something of poverty.  Not that men are wicked: who is
+good?  Not that men are ignorant: what is truth?  Nay, but that
+men know so little of each other.' 
+ 
+After the Atlanta riot I attended a number of conferences between
+leading white men and leading colored men.  It is true those
+meetings bore evidence of awkwardness and embarrassment, for they
+were among the first of the sort to take place in the South, but
+they were none the less valuable.  A white man told me after one
+of the meetings,-- 
+ 
+'I did not know that there were any such sensible Negroes in the
+South.' 
+ 
+And a Negro told me that it was the first time in his life that he
+had ever heard a Southern white man reason in a friendly way with
+a Negro concerning their common difficulties. 
+ 
+More and more these associations of white and colored men, at
+certain points of contact, must and will come about.  Already, in
+connection with various educational and business projects in the
+South, white and colored men meet on common grounds, and the way
+has been opened to a wider mutual understanding.  And it is common
+enough now, where it was unheard of a few years ago, for both
+white men and Negroes to speak from the same platform in the
+South.  I have attended a number of such meetings.  Thus slowly-- 
+awkwardly, at first, for two centuries of prejudice are not
+immediately overcome--the white man and Negro will come to know
+one another, not merely as master and servant, but as co-workers. 
+These things cannot be forced. 
+ 
+One reason why the white man and the Negro have not got together
+more rapidly in the South than they have, is because they have
+tried always to meet at the sorest points.  When sensible people,
+who must live together whether or no, find that there are points
+at which they cannot agree, it is the part of wisdom to avoid
+these points, and to meet upon other and common interests.  Upon
+no other terms, indeed, can a democracy exist, for in no
+imaginable future state will individuals cease to disagree with
+one another upon something less than half of all the problems of
+life. 
+ 
+'Here we all live together in a great country,' say the apostles
+of this view; 'let us all get together and develop it.  Let the
+Negro do his best to educate himself, to own his own land, and to
+buy and sell with the white people in the fairest possible way.' 
+ 
+It is wonderful, indeed, how close together men who are stooping
+to a common task soon come. 
+ 
+Now, buying and selling, land ownership and common material
+pursuits, may not be the highest points of contact between man and
+man, but they are real points, and help to give men an idea of the
+worth of their fellows, white or black.  How many times, in the
+South, I heard white men speak in high admiration of some Negro
+farmer who had been successful, or of some Negro blacksmith who
+was a worthy citizen, or of some Negro doctor who was a leader of
+his race. 
+ 
+It is curious, once a man (any man, white or black) learns to do
+his job well, how he finds himself in a democratic relationship  
+with other men.  I remember asking a prominent white citizen of a
+town in Central Georgia if he knew anything about Tuskegee.  He
+said,-- 
+ 
+'Yes: I had rather a curious experience last fall.  I was building
+a hotel and couldn't get any one to do the plastering as I wanted
+it done.  One day I saw two Negro plasterers at work in a new
+house that a friend of mine was building.  I watched them for an
+hour.  They seemed to know their trade.  I invited them to come
+over and see me.  They came, took the contract for my work, hired
+a white man to carry mortar at a dollar a day, and when they got
+through it was the best job of plastering in town.  I found that
+they had learned their trade at Tuskegee.  They averaged four
+dollars a day each in wages.  We tried to get them to locate in
+our town, but they went back to school.' 
+ 
+When I was in Mississippi a prominent banker showed me his
+business letter-heads. 
+ 
+'Good job, isn't it?' he said.  'A Negro printer did it.  He wrote
+to me asking if he might bid on my work.  I replied that although
+I had known him a long time I couldn't give him the job merely
+because he was a Negro.  He told me to forget his color, and said
+that if he couldn't do as good a job and do it as reasonably as
+any white man could, he didn't want it.  I let him try, and now he
+does most of our printing.' 
+ 
+Out of such points of contact, then, encouraged by such wise
+leaders as Booker T. Washington, will grow an ever finer and finer
+spirit of association and of common and friendly knowledge.  And
+that will inevitably lead to an extension upon the soundest
+possible basis of the Negro franchise.  I know cases where white
+men have urged intelligent Negroes to come and cast their ballots,
+and have stood sponsor for them, out of genuine respect.  As a
+result, to-day, the Negroes who vote in the South are, as a class,
+men of substance and intelligence, fully equal to the tasks of
+citizenship. 
+ 
+Thus, I have boundless confidence not only in the sense of the
+white men of the South, but in the innate capability of the Negro,
+and that once these two come really to know each other, not at
+sore points of contact, but as common workers for a common
+country, the question of suffrage will gradually solve itself
+along the lines of true democracy. 
+ 
+Another influence also will tend to change the status of the Negro
+as a voter.  That is the pending break-up of the political
+solidarity of the South.  All the signs point to a political
+realignment upon new issues in this country, both South and North. 
+Old party names may even pass away.  And that break-up, with the
+attendant struggle for votes, is certain to bring into politics
+thousands of Negroes and white men now disfranchised.  The result
+of a real division on live issues has been shown in many local
+contests in the South, as in the fight against the saloons, when
+every qualified Negro voter, and every Negro who could qualify,
+was eagerly pushed forward by one side or the other.  With such a
+division on new issues the Negro will tend to exercise more and
+more political power, dividing, not on the color line, but on the
+principles at stake. 
+ 
+Thus in spite of the difficulties which now confront the Negro, I
+cannot but look upon the situation in a spirit of optimism.  I
+think sometimes we are tempted to set a higher value upon the
+ritual of a belief than upon the spirit which underlies it.  The
+ballot is not democracy: it is merely the symbol or ritual of
+democracy, and it may be full of passionate social, yes, even
+religious significance, or it may be a mere empty and dangerous
+formalism.  What we should look to, then, primarily, is not the
+shadow, but the substance of democracy in this country.  Nor must
+we look for results too swiftly; our progress toward democracy is
+slow of growth and needs to be cultivated with patience and
+watered with faith.
+
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOURCES
+-----------------------
+
+SOJOURNER TRUTH, THE LIBYAN SIBYL
+by Harriet Beecher Stowe
+Atlantic Monthly 11 (April 1863): 473-481.
+
+RECONSTRUCTION
+by Frederick Douglass
+Atlantic Monthly 18 (1866): 761-765.
+
+AN APPEAL TO CONGRESS FOR IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE
+by Frederick Douglas
+Atlantic Monthly 19 (Jan. 1867): 112-117.
+
+THE NEGRO EXODUS
+by James B. Runnion
+Atlantic Monthly 44 (1879): 222-230.
+
+MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY
+by Frederick Douglass
+The Century Illustrated Magazine 23, n.s. 1 (Nov. 1881): 125-131.
+
+THE GOOPHERED GRAPEVINE
+by Charles W. Chesnutt
+Atlantic Monthly 60 (Aug. 1887): 254-260.
+
+PO' SANDY
+by Charles W. Chesnutt
+Atlantic Monthly 61 (1888): 605-611.
+
+DAVE'S NECKLISS
+by Charles W. Chesnutt
+Atlantic Monthly 64 (1889): 500-08.
+
+THE AWAKENING OF THE NEGRO
+by Booker T. Washington
+Atlantic Monthly 78 (1896): 322-328.
+
+THE STORY OF UNCLE TOM'S CABIN
+by Charles Dudley Warner
+Atlantic Monthly 78 (1896): 311-321.
+
+STRIVINGS OF THE NEGRO PEOPLE
+by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
+Atlantic Monthly 80 (1897): 194-198.
+
+THE WIFE OF HIS YOUTH
+by Charles W. Chesnutt
+Atlantic Monthly 82 (1898): 55-61.
+
+THE BOUQUET
+by Charles W. Chesnutt
+Atlantic Monthly 84 (1899): 648-654.
+
+THE CASE OF THE NEGRO
+by Booker T. Washington
+Atlantic Monthly 84 (1899): 577-587.
+
+HOT-FOOT HANNIBAL
+by Charles W. Chesnutt
+Atlantic Monthly 83 (1899): 49-56.
+
+A NEGRO SCHOOLMASTER IN THE NEW SOUTH
+by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
+Atlantic Monthly 83 (1899): 99-104.
+
+THE CAPTURE OF A SLAVER
+by J. Taylor Wood
+Atlantic Monthly 86 (1900): 451-463.
+
+MR. CHARLES W. CHESNUTT'S STORIES
+by W. D. Howells
+Atlantic Monthly 85 (1900): 699-701.
+
+PATHS OF HOPE FOR THE NEGRO
+PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS OF A SOUTHERNER
+by Jerome Dowd
+Century Magazine 61.2 (Dec. 1900): 278-281.
+
+SIGNS OF PROGRESS AMONG THE NEGROES
+by Booker T. Washington
+Century Magazine 59 (1900): 472-478.
+
+THE MARCH OF PROGRESS
+by Charles W. Chesnutt
+Century Magazine 61.3 (Jan. 1901): 422-428.
+
+THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU
+by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
+Atlantic Monthly 87 (1901): 354-365.
+
+OF THE TRAINING OF BLACK MEN
+by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
+Atlantic Monthly 90 (1902): 289-297.
+
+THE FRUITS OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING
+by Booker T. Washington
+Atlantic Monthly 92 (1903): 453-462.
+
+THE NEGRO IN THE REGULAR ARMY
+by Oswald Garrison Villard
+Atlantic Monthly 91 (1903): 721-729.
+
+BAXTER'S PROCRUSTES
+by Charles W. Chesnutt
+Atlantic Monthly 93 (1904): 823-830.
+
+THE HEART OF THE RACE PROBLEM
+by Quincy Ewing
+Atlantic Monthly 103 (1909): 389-397.
+
+NEGRO SUFFRAGE IN A DEMOCRACY
+by Ray Stannard Baker
+Atlantic Monthly 106 (1910): 612-619.
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of Project Gutenberg Anthology #1,
+The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1994, Memorial Issue.
+
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