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diff --git a/36033-h/36033-h.htm b/36033-h/36033-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6df833 --- /dev/null +++ b/36033-h/36033-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5339 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Overshadowed, by Sutton E. Griggs</title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Overshadowed, by Sutton E. Griggs</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Overshadowed</p> +<p> A Novel</p> +<p>Author: Sutton E. Griggs</p> +<p>Release Date: May 5, 2011 [eBook #36033]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OVERSHADOWED***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan,<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> + from page images generously made available by<br /> + Internet Archive/American Libraries<br /> + (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americana">http://www.archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/overshadowednove00grigrich"> + http://www.archive.org/details/overshadowednove00grigrich</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1>OVERSHADOWED.</h1> + +<h3>A NOVEL.</h3> + +<h2>BY SUTTON E. GRIGGS</h2> + +<h3>AUTHOR OF "IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO."</h3> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h3>NASHVILLE, TENN.:<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Orion Publishing Co.</span><br /> +1901.</h3> + +<h3>COPYRIGHTED</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Sutton E. Griggs</span><br /> +1901.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>DEDICATION.<br /> +To the Memory of<br /> +ALBERTA,<br /> +Who, in the absence of this her oldest<br /> +brother, crossed over the dark stream, smiling<br /> +as she went, this volume is most<br /> +affectionately dedicated by<br /> +THE AUTHOR.</h3> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AUTHORS_PREFACE" id="AUTHORS_PREFACE"></a>AUTHOR'S PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>The task assigned to the Negroes of the United States is unique in the +history of mankind.</p> + +<p>He whose grandfather was a savage and whose father was a slave has been +bidden to participate in a highly complex civilization on terms of +equality with the most cultured, aggressive and virile type of all +times, the Anglo-Saxon.</p> + +<p>The stupendous character of the task is apparent when it is called to +mind that the civilization in which they are to work out their +respective destinies is fitted to the nature of the Anglo-Saxon, because +he evolved it; while, on the other hand, the nature of the Negro <i>must +be fitted to the civilization</i>, thus necessitating the casting aside of +all that he had evolved.</p> + +<p>This attempt on the part of the infant child of modern civilization to +keep pace with the hale and hearty parent thereof, has served to +contribute its quota of tragedies to the countless myriads that have +been enacted under the sun, since the Cosmic forces first broke forth +out of night into light, and began their upward, sightless, or shall we +rather say, full visioned tread in quest of the "music of the spheres" +and the higher purposes of the GREAT BEYOND.</p> + +<p>What part in the great final programme these Cosmic forces have assigned +to the attempt of the Negro to journey by the side of the white man, +none are yet able to say, the situation being still in process of +unfoldment.</p> + +<p>While we watch with becoming reverence and muse thereon, we catch up our +lyre to sing to the memory of those slain in their name, if not by their +order.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Very respectfully yours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The Author.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#AUTHORS_PREFACE">AUTHOR'S PREFACE.</a><br /> +<a href="#PROEM">PROEM.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. A Girl Perplexed</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. The Cause Revealed but not Removed</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. Other Actors</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. A Lady who did not know that she was a Lady</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. What a Kiss Did</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. Up to Date Aristocracy in a Negro Church</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. Rev. Josiah Nerve, D. D. S.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. He Narrowly Escapes</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. The Pit is Dug</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. The Victims</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. Murder</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. The Visit of a Policeman</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. Backward, then Forward</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. As Least Expected</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. An Awful Resolve</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. A Political Trick</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. Paving the Way</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. John Wysong Confesses</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. Added Sorrows</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. Speaker Lanier</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. The Hanging</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. Worse than Death</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. Full of Joy</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. Opposing the Wedding</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV. Erma and an Assassin</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI. Name the Chapter After you Read It</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII. The Funeral</a><br /> +<a href="#EPILOGUE">EPILOGUE.</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PROEM" id="PROEM"></a>PROEM.</h2> + + +<p>A farmer who is planting corn in a fertile field, halts beneath the +shade of a huge oak to rest at noon.</p> + +<p>Accidentally a grain of corn drops from his bag, finds lodgement in the +soil, and in time begins to grow.</p> + +<p>The grains that fell in the field will have their difficulties in +reaching maturity.</p> + +<p>There is the danger of too much water, of the drought, of the coming +worms.</p> + +<p>But the grain that came to life under the oak has its <i>peculiar</i> +struggles.</p> + +<p>It must contend for sustenance with the roots of the oak.</p> + +<p>It must wrestle with the shade of the oak.</p> + +<p>The life of this isolated grain of corn is one continuous tragedy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Overshadowed</span> is the story of this grain of corn, the Anglo-Saxon being +the oak, and the Negro the plant struggling for existence.</p> + +<p>To be true to life, the story must indeed be a sombre one.</p> + +<p>So, <span class="smcap">Overshadowed</span> is a tragedy—a story of sorrow and suffering.</p> + +<p>Yet the gloom is enlivened by the presence of a heroic figure, a +beautiful, noble girl, who stands unabashed in the presence of every +ill.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Overshadowed</span> does not point the way out of the dungeon which it +describes, but it clearly indicates the task before the reformer when he +comes.</p> + +<p>If you have time and inclination for such a recital—the curtain rises +and the play begins.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="OVERSHADOWED" id="OVERSHADOWED"></a>OVERSHADOWED.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>A GIRL, PERPLEXED.</h3> + + +<p>To-and-fro, to-and-fro, with hurried, restless tread, Erma Wysong walked +her parlor floor, forgetful of the young man who sat in a corner and +gazed at her, with all of his powers of sight apparently doing double +duty. Her hair, slightly coarse of thread, glistening as if in pride of +its extreme blackness, was combed away from a brow that was exceedingly +pretty and formed a part of a head that forewarned you to expect the +possessor thereof to have an intellect of a very high order. A few +unruly locks of her glossy hair had escaped from the grasp confining the +others backward, and were hanging forward as if to peep into her tender +brown eyes so full of soul; or, to tantalize a very prettily formed +nose; or, to tempt a bite from a row of pearls even and gleamingly +white; or, to nestle upon a cheek the tenderness and ruddiness of which +were standing invitations for gentle pressure.</p> + +<p>Erma, nearly tall, a happy medium between the plump and the lithe, the +perfection of symmetry, her whole frame a series of divinely fashioned +curves, paced to and fro, her beautiful face wearing a look of mental +perplexity. First her right hand and then her left tossed back with a +nervous jerk the straying locks.</p> + +<p>Astral Herndon, a tall and exceedingly handsome young man, who was +paying her a call, sat in an armchair in a corner of the small room, +and, with body bent forward, was looking intently at Erma, as has been +stated, his entire soul ablaze with curiosity to know what had so +operated upon the mind of the erstwhile winsome, laughing, merry Erma, +as to cause her to break off abruptly an ordinary conversation and begin +her restless journeyings to-and-fro across her parlor floor, vouchsafing +to him not a word of apology or explanation, and apparently oblivious of +his presence. The transition from the lively gay to the deathly sad, was +so quick, so queer, so utterly inconsistent with all that he had +hitherto known of Erma—it was so far from anything warranted by the +rather commonplace conversation in which they had been engaged, that he +was very naturally in the depths of wonderland, staring with all his +might. He saw her thin, red lips quiver, as if with deep emotion. He saw +repressed by a would-be secret bite of the lips, an entire flood of +tears, save a truant one, that would steal its way down anyhow. He saw a +clasping, a griping of the hands as though the fair one was being +hurried to the verge of despair. He could, as it were, trace in her +actions the progress that her mind was making toward a precipice, +reluctant to go and yet impelled by some irresistible force.</p> + +<p>Astral Herndon sat watching her, his surprise and curiosity deepening +into concern and anxiety. At length, when he could bear it no longer, he +arose and said in a low, sweet voice that trembled with emotion, "Erma!" +Something in his voice went straight to Erma's wandering soul, and, as +though not of herself, she turned slowly around and mechanically lifted +her gaze to meet the dark, glowing eyes of Astral Herndon. She felt her +soul leave her with a rush and run to embrace a mate that was coming +forth from the eyes before her, and she cried, "Oh! I see! Oh! I see! +Oh! I see!" and unconsciously stretched out her arms toward Astral as if +to receive him. Astral advanced toward Erma, but this movement on his +part broke the spell and she shrank away from him and sat down.</p> + +<p>Astral was now more mystified than ever. He vaguely felt that somehow he +was intermingled with Erma's thoughts, but as to how it had come about, +or as to what was the nature of her thoughts regarding him, he was in +absolute ignorance. Erma, now fully conscious of how she had been +acting, vainly sought to redeem herself by an endeavor to conduct an +animated conversation, not offering, however, to Astral any explanation +of her seeming rudeness to him. But after a heroic struggle to keep up +the conversation, she blurted out, all of a sudden, "Mr. Herndon, do you +not, can you not see that I am in the deepest sort of trouble? Why do +you not get up and go home?" Saying this, she fell to sobbing violently, +burying her face in her hands. Astral arose and got his hat and went on +tiptoe to the door. Just before he went out, he cast a look of deepest +love at the weeping girl. If he had only gone to her and lifted her to a +resting place on his bosom—but the <span class="smcap">Unseen</span> power that ordains that two +souls shall journey through earth together, also chooses, it would seem, +the hallowed spot; chooses the precious and never to be forgotten +<i>moment</i> when soul is unveiled to soul; chooses the exact degree of the +development that shall exist in each at the hour of the mating.</p> + +<p>So, the <span class="smcap">Unseen</span> sent Astral <i>forth</i> and not <i>to</i> Erma's side. +As he stepped out upon the doorstep, the queen of the night wrapped his +noble brow with her silver cords in wanton playfulness. The city clock +was striking the hour of ten, rather dolefully, he thought. He slowly +wended his way toward his home, stopping ever and anon to cast a look of +love, mingled with perplexity, in the direction of Erma's residence. +"Strange, sweet girl," he murmured softly to himself, "I thought that I +knew her." Time and again he stopped, and, looking in her direction, +repeated this monologue. At last he reached home, and throughout the +sleepless night uttered the self-same words.</p> + +<p>As for Erma, she sat in the exact attitude in which he left her. The +hours of the night, aided by the light of the moon, groped their way +through a sleeping world. At length the birds, ere they went forth in +quest of their daily bread, held their morning praise service, as if to +rebuke the prayerless man. From their little hearts and throats +quivering with joyous emotions, they told the God of the sparrow how +glad they were that they were yet allowed to flit about in his glorious +world. The sun, remembering his many unfinished tasks of the previous +day, and suspicious ever of the work of the night, came bolting upward +and hurled his myriad pointed spear to strike down the morning mists +that sulkily obscured his vision. The awakened world came rushing forth +from the land of sleep and dream.</p> + +<p>But Erma, beautiful morning glory, bruised over night and failing to +respond to the greeting kiss of the returning Sun, began the performance +of her duties, perplexed in mind, sad at heart, weary from much +thinking, desponding of a solution of the problems that fretted her +spirit.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>THE CAUSE REVEALED BUT NOT REMOVED.</h3> + + +<p>The scene of the opening of our story was Richmond, Va., the far famed +capital of the ill-fated Southern Confederacy. To all intents and +purposes, Erma Wysong was an orphan. Her mother, a Negro woman, was now +dead, having passed away two years since. Though her parents had been +silent on the subject, Erma now knew from the color of her skin and the +texture of her hair that her father must have been white. As to who he +was or where he was, whether living or dead, she did not know, and had +no means of ascertaining. A few years after Erma's birth her mother +married a very worthy Negro man, who generously overlooked the previous +sin of his wife, never once in all their wedded life alluding to it. +Upon a foundation of repentance and forgiveness this Negro family, like +unto many others, had its beginning. Unto this repentant wife and +forgiving husband a son was born whom they named John. This son, now +about eighteen years of age, is the only support left to Erma, her +stepfather having gone to his grave shortly after the demise of his +wife. So Erma was practically an orphan girl, alone in the world, +relying for support and protection upon her brother John, who dearly +loved his "Erm," as he called her. He was working at the machinist's +trade in the Bilgal Iron Works of Richmond, Va., and was receiving two +dollars and a half per day; and with this was supporting himself and +sister and laying by money to lift the remainder of the mortgage +encumbering their modest little home. Erma was a student of exceptional +brightness when in school and had been graduated at an early age from +the Richmond Colored High School, carrying off the highest honors of her +class. After graduating from the high school at Richmond she went to the +Tuskegee Industrial Institute at Tuskegee, Alabama, whence she was +recalled by the death of her mother. You now have her history, briefly +told, up to the time of the opening of our story.</p> + +<p>Astral Herndon had been a schoolmate of hers in the Richmond public +schools, graduating in the class immediately preceding her class. These +two had from childhood, a fondness for the society of each other, though +for a long time neither Astral nor Erma stopped to analyze this feeling. +Astral was the first to awake to the real situation as it concerned +himself, and in his shy, untutored way had sought to arouse in Erma +emotions similar to his own; but she did not understand life as yet, +(for a knowledge of love is a knowledge of life) and Astral remained the +same "Astry" to her.</p> + +<p>Astral finally decided that his constant association with Erma ever +since childhood was a bar to his progress toward winning her love, and +he had decided to go away and spend a number of years in school, free +from Erma's notice. He had determined to obtain a thorough college +education and return to woo as a comparative stranger, the heart of +Erma. In the midst of an ordinary conversation he had mentioned to Erma +his proposed going away, and the rude shock had awakened the sleeping +love of her heart. Not knowing the meaning of that strange fire in her +bosom, she leaped to her feet and began her restless journeying with +which we found her engaged in our opening chapter. Her mind kept saying, +"Astral, going away! He will be a college graduate! He will be a learned +man! He will be far above me when he comes back! He may not come back at +all! But what difference does it all make to me?" Over and over she +revolved these thoughts in her mind, her perplexity growing deeper and +deeper and her heart aching more and more. When Astral called her and +she looked into his eyes, she stood revealed to herself; her love had +broken its chrysalis. "But what of Astral! Does he love me?" she asked +herself and shrank away from him instinctively. She did not wish for him +to come to her again as the Astral of old. Her soul craving for solitude +to contemplate its new found joy, and fearful of giving its precious +secret away too soon, she dismissed Astral. When he was gone, Cupid went +busily to work in her mind, weaving a web, every cord of which was a +string from her heart—a web to catch and hold fast her soul's one mate. +These things were certain: Astral was going away, would advance in +studies, would occupy a more exalted station in life than she. It was +her task to maintain an equality of station between them; how she was to +do it was the great question, she being a moneyless orphan. But, having +discovered the full extent that her very existence was wrapped up in +Astral, she was determined to surmount all obstacles of whatever +nature—determined to find a way to keep pace with him in training, to +prepare ever for companionship with him, to hold herself through all the +years of waiting, pure, noble, undefiled, a worthy queen for her +glorious king—her Astral!</p> + +<p>She knew that she would never openly seek his love; never knowingly +reveal her passion; but Love ever feels that he has the right of way +through the earth; that all things will move at his beck and call; and +Erma firmly trusted this subtle might of Love to accompany Astral on his +long journey, and doubted not but that it would bring him back to her.</p> + +<p>Satisfied on that score, Erma undertook the task of self-improvement. +Poor, poor girl! Could she have caught sight of the large, the cruel, +the unfeeling thorns in her pathway; could she have felt for a brief +instant but a small fraction of the mountain-like burden ordained for +her shoulders; could she have but dipped her tongue into the bitter gall +poured out for her; could she have but dreamed of the nameless sorrows +that were to plow wide furrows in her storm-swept and tempest-driven +soul, how she would have trembled and shivered and groaned at the awful +prospect before her. Yet, being a woman and being in love, she would +have gone forth just the same, foreseeing all. Wonder not that God +refused to make woman out of dust.</p> + +<p>If you can so master your feelings as to be a spectator to a fight +between a poor, beautiful, motherless Negro maiden and an array of foes +that would warrant Michael in sending for reinforcements before giving +battle, we can safely ask you to follow our narrative.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>OTHER ACTORS.</h3> + + +<p>Two giants, clad in the full panoply of war, have met and are battling +with each other for a kingdom. The struggle, while fierce, fast and +furious, is conducted with infinite wariness on the part of each +combatant, for previous battles between these foemen, fought with +varying successes in every clime of earth, have taught them to respect +the skill and prowess of each other.</p> + +<p>The domain for which these two giants are battling is the mind of a +young white man of high social standing, a member of a family of great +renown. The name of one giant is "Love of self," and of the other, "Love +of others," or Egoism and Altruism, respectively. The battle has been +raging for many months and is now entering upon its final stages.</p> + +<p>The door of the young man's room is locked, the window shutters closed, +the curtains drawn. He is sitting in a chair in a sprawling attitude, +his chin resting upon his bosom, his hat pulled low over his brow, his +eyes closed, his hands clasped behind his head, a pained expression upon +his handsome face. One hand slowly descends to his vest pocket, from +which he extracts a richly bejewelled watch.</p> + +<p>"Only nine o'clock. The night is young yet. Three full hours more of +this agony! Then I must act. Well, let me employ the intervening time in +a full review of the case."</p> + +<p>So saying, he began the following soliloquy:</p> + +<p>"Beauty of face, of form, of mind, when found in woman, exact homage of +all men. That woman, whose peculiar combination of the attributes of +loveliness, pleases a man's inherent taste in a manner such as no other +can—that woman, becomes his queen.</p> + +<p>"I have met the queen of my heart, but I dare not breathe her name into +mortal ear! I dare not! I dare not! It is not because I think her charms +open to debate that I thus guard her name. No, no, no! None can gain-say +those eyes, so full of soul; none that grace of carriage; none that +beautiful form, granted by mother nature in a moment of unwonted +happiness. But, she is only one-half Caucasian!</p> + +<p>"That does not grate so harshly on <i>my</i> ear! I find it in my heart to +ignore that fact altogether, so I do, so I do. If left to myself—now, +let only God, my Creator, hear what I have to say—if left to myself, I +would marry that girl and count myself highly favored of Heaven for the +privilege.</p> + +<p>"But <i>society</i> tells me I shall not marry her! On what do they base +their objections? Not, I am sure, upon the emotions of this tumultuous +heart of mine, for every heart throb is a cry of love. Why, then, may I +not claim her for my own? 'For the benefit of the species,' they say, +'We must preserve our racial identity. There must be no mesalliance. Our +own glory, the cause of civilization, the good of the world, demands +that Anglo-Saxon blood be not contaminated with the blood of inferior +races.' This is the social dictum. Do you see how that I, the +individual, am left out of that programme? The individual, then, is to +have no consideration, I suppose. I have only the one life, tragic in +its brevity, beset with many ills at best; and yet the philosophers and +ethical writers crowd about me and tell me in insistent tones that I am +to surrender the best part of that life for the sake of the species.</p> + +<p>"Well might Tennyson, in the night of his sorrow, sing:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Are God and nature then at strife<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That nature lends such evil dreams?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So careful of the type she seems<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So careless of the single life.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Society, I yield to your mandates! I will not ask you to sanction, +through legal forms, that which would be for my individual good, but +would, you say, result in your injury. I will not marry the girl!"</p> + +<p>Thus far society seems to have won. Altruism seems to have triumphed +over Egoism. But not so; Egoism returns to the struggle. The young man +resumes his soliloquy.</p> + +<p>"Is society sincere in its demand? There are in the United States nearly +two million people—mulattoes, begotten contrary to the written code. +There must be an unwritten code that permits individuals to ignore the +demands of society and mate according to choice. Shall I avail myself of +the provisions of this unwritten code? Shall I, or shall I not? Shall I +ask that pure girl to go counter to the requirements of all civilized +communities and enter a union devoid of legal sanction? Shall I, or +shall I not? Shall I, or shall I not?" Over and over the young man asks +himself the question. At last he cries out, "These interminable codes +and counter codes! To the deuce with them all! <span class="smcap">Erma</span> shall be mine!" So +saying, he sprang to his feet, Egoism in triumph, Altruism put to +inglorious rout.</p> + +<p>He glances at his watch, arranges his toilet, secures a mask with which +he covers his face, steals forth from the home of his parents, as the +hands on the clock are nearing the hour of midnight. Choosing dark and +less frequented streets and alleyways, he proceeded on his journey, +arriving, at length at a very handsome, two-story brick building. He +looks about him with quick, hurried glances and then gives a slight +knock, thrice repeated in rapid succession. He is evidently expected, as +the door opens at once and he is ushered into a long, dark hallway. +Thence he is led into a large parlor in the far end of which a gas jet +is dimly burning, giving a weird, ghostly appearance to everything. The +woman who had opened the door for him, bade him to be seated, she taking +a seat at some distance from him.</p> + +<p>The woman in question was a Negro, brown of skin, with a fat, round +face, small eyes, very corpulent, and short of stature.</p> + +<p>The young man begins:</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Smith (Dolly Smith is her name): you have been highly recommended +to me as a party fully capable of attending to delicate matters."</p> + +<p>"Many thanks to my unknown sponsor," remarked Dolly Smith, her little +eyes, accustomed to the dark, making a close scrutiny of the young man's +features, he having removed his mask in the belief that the darkness of +the room would suffice to conceal his identity.</p> + +<p>The young man continued, "You will understand, of course, that our +relations are confidential and whatever is done is to be without +prejudice to the good name of any one concerned."</p> + +<p>"Pardon the uncouthness of the remark, but please bear in mind that I am +no butcher. Reputations that could not stand a whiff of the air of +suspicion have been entrusted to my care, and neither my skill nor +integrity in preserving them have ever been called into question. +Remember, too, if you please, that I am a woman of standing in my own +race, and it is of great personal interest to me to be discreet in all +my doings," was Dolly Smith's spirited rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"It pleases me much, Mrs. Smith, to hear you discourse thus. The affair +which I wish for you to conduct for me, concerns a young woman of high +standing in your race and I do not desire that any understanding which +she and I may reach shall affect her status with her own people," added +the young man.</p> + +<p>"Have no fear on that score. A number of girls in this very city are +even now leading the double life to which I presume you to be referring. +Owing to the fact that the social life of the two races is distinct, you +may be the lowest strata in the one and the very highest in the other, +without so much as occasioning a suspicion. If there be no objection on +your part, I should be pleased to have you state specifically what +brings me the favor of your visit."</p> + +<p>"Thank you for the hint to come to the point. I desire that you be of +service to me in forming the acquaintance of one Erma Wysong."</p> + +<p>A look of pain passed over the sensual features of Dolly Smith and her +hands clutched her chair convulsively. Her lips breathed a soft +exclamation, "My God." The darkness of the room prevented the young +man's detecting these signs of excitement.</p> + +<p>In a voice that trembled slightly with suppressed emotion Dolly Smith +enquired, "How far have you proceeded in the matter yourself?"</p> + +<p>The young man thought that he detected a faint note of anxiety in the +question, but it was not sufficiently pronounced to make a distinct +impression. He answered:</p> + +<p>"Oh, I have not so much as spoken to the girl. In company with a number +of other white people I attended the exercises of the High School on the +evening of her graduation. On that occasion, dressed in a snowy white +garment, her hair tastefully decorated with a few choice roses, she sang +like a nightingale and read a graduating essay that revealed a mind of +singular beauty, culture and strength, yet possessed of that distinct +charm which man associates with woman. From that hour I have been her +slave, though no one save myself has known it. The time that has elapsed +since her graduation, I have spent in earnest combat against the +powerful current that has been bearing me upon its bosom to an unknown +port. You may judge the strength of my attachment."</p> + +<p>This speech had a reassuring effect on Dolly. She thought within +herself, "I will get his money and save Erma as well. If I have to +choose between money and Erma, I pity poor Erma. The integrity of Negro +girls stands but a poor chance for life in the presence of such wolves +as myself. But heaven forfend that I be reduced to such a choice. For +money I must have, money I must have; for my enemy nears his grave +unscathed by my revenge." Such were the inward reflections of Dolly +Smith.</p> + +<p>To the young man, Dolly replied, "I suppose you know that the +inveiglement of a girl of Erma's stamp requires time, patient and +skillful handling, and often much expense," the last two words being +pronounced with considerable emphasis.</p> + +<p>"Mark Anthony surrendered a throne for voluptuous Cleopatra. Surely +virtuous Erma is entitled to the small pittance of a few thousands if +there be need."</p> + +<p>Dolly Smith could scarcely refrain from bounding from her seat as a +result of uncontrollable joy produced by the speech of the young man, +whom she now set apart in her heart as her gold mine to be thoroughly +exploited.</p> + +<p>The young man arose and approached Dolly Smith, handing to her a one +hundred dollar note, saying as he did so, "This is but an earnest of my +good intentions toward you. Do me faithful service and you shall be +happy. You shall know me as Elbridge Noral. Address me at P. O. Box 40. +I trust that you will have pleasant news for me soon."</p> + +<p>"Rely upon me to do my best, Mr. Noral."</p> + +<p>Mr. Noral, as we shall call him until better informed, now left the +parlor, followed by Dolly. She opens the street door and Mr. Noral goes +forth from the house where he has formed the first unholy alliance of +his life. When the door was closed on his retreating form, Dolly Smith +threw the one hundred dollar note upon the floor and danced around it a +gay, voluptuous dance.</p> + +<p>"There, there, I am forgetting myself!" So saying she darted into a +secret closet in the side of the hallway, quickly stuffed herself into a +large pair of pants, put on a vest and a coat, seized a large hat and +plunged into the street to follow Noral. The arrangements of the streets +in that neighborhood furnished but one outlet from Dolly's house, for +some distance, so Dolly had no trouble in pursuing him. Though very +corpulent, Dolly was strong and active and by alternately walking and +trotting, puffing and blowing, she soon came in sight of Noral, whom she +followed at a safe distance, he and she both keeping as much as possible +in the dark. Noral took such a course as led him by Erma Wysong's little +home. Here he paused and gazed long and lovingly at the little cottage +in which Erma lay dreaming of Astral. Dolly was an interested spectator +of this night scene which Noral supposed to be enacted only in the sight +of the silent stars, sympathizing angels, and an Allwise Creator. Even +the callous heart of Dolly Smith was momentarily touched, and she +muttered to herself:</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow! It is indeed a tragedy of the soul that that young fellow +is denied all honorable approach to that girl and must resort to me, +vile woman. Ha! Ha! Dolly Smith, the trusted emissary of a love in its +original form as pure as any that ever took root in the human heart! +Tut, tut, a few more ennobling reflections and I would be a good woman, +which thing is manifestly an impossibility."</p> + +<p>Noral moved on, reached the fashionable part of the city and, to Dolly's +utter amazement, entered the home of occupants well known to her. She +recalled the features of her visitor and said:</p> + +<p>"I might have known it! I might have known it! Have I struck the right +trail at last? If I have, oh, Satan, prince of Evil, I crave your help." +Knitting her brows she shook her clinched fist in rage at the house into +which the young man had gone. Having done this to her satisfaction, she +started home at a rapid pace arriving there in an exhausted condition. +As soon as she was sufficiently recovered from her exhaustion to permit +it, she danced a wild, joyous sort of dance, uttering a succession of +savage like shrieks of delight.</p> + +<p>Sleep, the tender nurse in the employ of nature, soon folded Dolly Smith +in her arms and lulled her to rest as soothingly as she did the innocent +girl Erma, who now became the storm center of the elements. Let us not +find fault with nature because she will not become a party to these +human strifes of ours. She but follows the behests of the great Unknown, +whose ways are past finding out.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>A LADY WHO DID NOT KNOW THAT SHE WAS A LADY.</h3> + + +<p>"Ellen! Ellen! Oh, Ellen! Ellen Sanders!" Ellen Sanders, a belle in +Negro society, had just sat down to partake of a 10:30 A. M. breakfast +when she heard this call. She arose hastily and rushed to the diningroom +door that opened into the yard, and saw Margaret Marston, another Negro +society belle, leaning over the fence that separated her home from that +of Ellen. Margaret was holding a newspaper in one hand, one arm being +thrown over the paling to hold her up, as she was standing with her feet +upon the lower railing to which the palings were nailed. The look of her +eye, the appearance of her face, the shaking newspaper, and her almost +hysterical shrieks for Ellen, all betokened a high degree of excitement.</p> + +<p>"Pray, Margaret! what on earth can be the matter? Why, you frightened me +nearly to death, girl. What on earth is it?"</p> + +<p>"Ellen, do just come here. There is something in this paper that is just +too awful for anything."</p> + +<p>"Let me see it," said Ellen, running to where Margaret stood. "Is +somebody dead?" she asked in anxious tones.</p> + +<p>"Worse than that," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>"I don't see anything, Margaret," said Ellen, scanning the paper with +the haste born of eagerness and excitement.</p> + +<p>"Look up there at the top of the column headed, 'Situations wanted,' at +the very first advertisement. Oh Ellen, it is just dreadful," said +Margaret, as though her heart was about to break.</p> + +<p>Ellen read the piece pointed out to her. The paper fell from her hand, +and without saying a word, she staggered backwards until she reached the +porch to the dining room from which she had come. She dropped down upon +the floor of the porch in a sitting posture, as though what she had read +had robbed her of all strength, and had shattered her nervous system. +Finally, drawing a long breath, she said:</p> + +<p>"Well, well, well, did you ever! But I always did tell you that Erma +Wysong would come to some bad end. And just think! you used to like her +so well, too."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did, Ellen. But I am done now. Just think! she was the head of +our class when we were graduated at the High School, and thus she brings +disgrace upon our entire class. Ah, me! It is just too dreadful to think +about. It has actually made me sick. I really fear that I shall have to +go to bed from the shock," remarked Margaret.</p> + +<p>"I don't feel like eating another mouthful of breakfast," said Ellen. +"But it may be that it is not our Erma," she continued.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but it is! Don't you see that the advertisement refers you to her +street, number and all," replied Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Well, all that I can say is, she is disgraced forever; and as for my +part, I don't purpose to ever speak to her again!"</p> + +<p>"Speak to her! Of course not! If we recognize her, that will make us as +bad as she is—'<i>particeps criminis</i>', the Latins would say. I just wish +I could see her so that I could pass her and turn away my head without +speaking. I could go five miles out of my way, just to catch her eye and +then look away from her in disdain," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Have you told your mamma?" queried Ellen.</p> + +<p>"No," said Margaret. "Give me the paper. I had forgotten that."</p> + +<p>Ellen arose, walked to the paper, picked it up from the ground and +handed it over the fence. Margaret took it and hurried around the house +to the place where her mother was. As fast as she goes, let us precede +her there, and find out what we can of Mrs. Marston. It is now about +eleven o'clock in the day, and Mrs. Mollie Marston, Margaret's mother, +is standing before a washtub, with huge piles of dirty clothes all about +her. A piece of white cloth is tied about her head; her sleeves are +pushed beyond her elbows, and she is wearily rubbing away at the +clothes, a settled look of pain being upon her fast wrinkling face. She +is now fifty-five years of age, and her whole life—both the part that +lies in the time of slavery and the part that has come afterwards—her +whole life has been one long day of toil, with no prospect of a sunset +and an hour of rest before the coming of the eternal sleep. By "taking +in washing" from wealthy white people, she had aided her husband in his +attempts to own a little home. When Margaret was old enough to go to +school, she had sent her, and had managed to keep her there, well clad +and supplied with books, only by the hardest sort of toil. Before day +dawned on a Monday morning, and while night yet frowned his blackest on +Saturday night, she was found either at the washtub or ironing board, +striving to make her "pints meet." She had denied herself all +ornamentation and pleasures of whatever sort involving the expenditure +of money. The barest necessities of life were all that she allowed +herself. Thus we find her at work when Margaret rushes around and says, +"Mamma, mamma, let me read something to you in the morning paper." Mrs. +Marston straightened up as though the effort gave her pain; she had been +bending over the tub in one position so long. With a smile of admiration +on her face, she turned toward Margaret and prepared to listen. +Margaret, knowing her mother's pride in her accomplishments, cleared her +throat in order to read in her most pleasing and effective voice the +statement that had so horrified her and her classmate:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"SITUATIONS WANTED—<span class="smcap">Female Help</span>.</p> + +<p>"A young Negro woman, Erma Wysong, desires a position as cook, +washerwoman, nurse or housemaid in a white family. The best of +references. Address 202 Sylvanus Street."</p></blockquote> + +<p>"Now, mamma, did you ever think THAT of Erma Wysong? After her poor +mamma and papa, both of whom are now dead, worked so hard to educate +her, she is going to throw that education away in the washtub, in the +kitchen, or rolling some white woman's baby about. If her dead mother +only knew how Erma was about to disgrace her education, she could not +rest easy in her grave. Of course there is no other kind of work open +for her to do just now, but if she had only held herself up for two or +three years, she might have gotten a school to teach when some of the +other teachers died or got married. But as it is, she has just gone and +ruined herself forever. Well, mamma, I promise you faithfully that while +you are alive, and after you are dead, I'll starve before I bring +disgrace upon the education which you and papa have worked so hard to +give me. I'll never throw my education away by bending over a washtub or +by moving about in a white man's kitchen. No, indeed! Depend upon that, +mamma, you dear, kind mamma," said Margaret, with many an emphatic toss +of her head. She gave her mamma a resounding kiss, and leaving the much +overburdened woman in the midst of huge piles of clothes, she went to +renew her gossip with Ellen.</p> + +<p>"What does your mamma think of it, Margaret," asked Ellen.</p> + +<p>"Oh, mamma was just so struck that she could not say a word. It is just +dreadful. Why, it will have a tendency to stop parents from educating +their children, if they are to act like that," remarked Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Yes," joined in Ellen, "and it might make some of our weak-minded +parents think that we educated girls ought to cook and wash clothes and +scrub floors at home."</p> + +<p>"That would be too horrid. Why, we would then be no higher in life than +our slave time mothers who did such work. White girls occupying the +social station in their race that we do in our race would suffer +themselves to be carried out of their homes dead before they would +perform such menial tasks. And, Ellen, we must hold up our race just as +they do their race. Why, just think, if we educated girls go to work, it +can be truthfully said that our race has no first-class society."</p> + +<p>"Margaret, the more I think of what Erma has done, the worse I feel. Let +us go out and tell all the other educated girls about it before any of +them chance to meet Erma and speak to her as cordially as ever. She is +the first Negro girl that has disgraced her education by offering to go +to work, and we must all pounce down upon her so fast and hard that she +will be the last; all of our set must snub her right and left. It may +bring her to her senses, too."</p> + +<p>"That is a capital idea, Ellen! Let us get ready at once."</p> + +<p>So saying, they went to their respective rooms, dressed themselves in +the finest articles of wear in their wardrobes, and sallied forth to +spread everywhere the news of the <i>disgrace</i>, as they termed it, of +their classmate.</p> + +<p>As Mrs. Marston said nothing to Margaret let us not follow these girls +in their crusade, but rather let us linger to catch a glimpse of her +simple but honest mind and heart. As soon as Margaret had gone the dear +old woman, prematurely aged by excessively hard toiling, stopped work, +took up her pipe and sat down to smoke, as was her wont whenever she had +a knotty problem to solve. Erma Wysong's case was troubling her +exceedingly, for she had been a favorite girl with her. On her way from +school, Erma would always stop in to see "Dear Aunt Mollie" and have a +gay chat. Thus, she had learned to love her. As Erma grew older, her +modest, lady-like bearing the more deeply impressed Mrs. Marston, who +sought in every way to cement the tie of friendship between her daughter +and Erma, knowing that continued association with her was a decided gain +for Margaret. In all of Erma's life Mrs. Marston had never known her to +be guilty of a wrong, or indiscreet, act, and we put it mildly when we +say that she was shocked over the news just imparted to her concerning +Erma. As the advertisement was just out, she felt sure that she could +find Erma yet at home, and might after all succeed in preventing her +from taking the contemplated step, so fatal to her standing in 's'iety.' +With such thoughts coursing through her mind she took the white rag from +her head, pulled down her sleeves, put on a stiff white apron and a +broad brimmed straw hat and went forth to save Erma.</p> + +<p>Heroic soul! Perhaps no monument will ever be reared to those noble +Negro women who, emerging from slavery, were at once enslaved again by +their children and bore their heavy burdens uncomplainingly, in a vain +attempt to build up upon their poor bruised shoulders an aristocracy +such as they had left behind, their educated children to be the +aristocrats. Their like will hardly be seen on earth again!</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marston, on reaching Erma's home found her singing gaily and moving +about the room dusting and setting things aright. Erma received her so +joyfully that she felt a lump rise in her throat each time she attempted +to state the purpose of her visit. At length she said, "Miss Erm, whut +erbout all dis awfil news gwine 'round 'bout you?"</p> + +<p>Erma's smile died away suddenly, her breath came quick and fast and she +began to tremble all over. She said in tones that showed great anxiety, +"I have not heard any bad news about myself, Mrs. Marston. What can it +be?"</p> + +<p>"Thar now! I had my doubts 'bout it frum de fust. Wy de pore chile doan +no nuthin 'bout it," poured forth Mrs. Marston.</p> + +<p>Erma felt a chill creeping over her frame, she was so full of fear as to +the nature of the charge against her. Some children that have not been +burned dread the fire. If the charge involved anything sinful she knew +beforehand that she was innocent; but it was a terror to her pure soul +to have to even contemplate the passing within the limits of the +<i>shadow</i> of wrong. She awaited Mrs. Marston's further utterances with a +nervous twitching of her thin, beautiful lips.</p> + +<p>"Wal, Miss Erm—I mus 'call you Miss, es you is now er young 'oman; but +I knowed you wen you wuz er tiny gal—I allus lubbed you powerfil much, +yes, powerfil much, Miss Erm. Yer mammy which is dead, wucked hard ter +git you an edification an den dide, pore soul. 'Do I ain't been tellin' +whut wuz runnin' in my min', I hez been stud'in' 'bout you fir de +longis', puzzlin' my pore noddle ter try ter help you. But I hez been +hard prest myself. You see, Miss Erm, Margie is a 'siety young 'oman +now, and hez de doctors and lieyers and skule teachers ter cum ter call +on her; and it wucks me powerfil hard ter dress her fit ter go in 'siety +and look es good es eny udder 'siety gal, white er black. Den, pianners +is all de rage now, and me and my old man has got her one ub dem. Den +she has ter go off fir vakashun ub summers lack de white 'siety belles. +All dese tings, Miss Erm, makes it powerfil hard fir me ter make buckle +and tongue meet. You see her daddy and me am bof gittin' ole and kain't +wuck lack we uster. My back is kinder stiff an' weak an' I had ter quit +washin' fir Mrs. Mayo las' week caus' I hed too much ter do fir my +present strenf. Ef it wuzn't fir all dis I wuz tinking powerfil hard ub +'doptin you fir my own gal ter hab wid me. My Margie ain't so steddy as +she mout be, and you would be sich good soshasun fir her. But more'n one +'siety gal on my hans just now 'ud be more'n I could stan' up ter. +Howsomever, I hes lubbed you jes' de same an' I is powerfil glad, +powerfil glad it ain't so whut I hearn read." Thus spoke Mrs. Marston, +about as much to herself as to Erma, her head bent forward, her eyes +cast down and her hand to her cheek, as if lost in deep meditation.</p> + +<p>In trembling tones, Erma said, "But, Mrs. Marston, you have not told me +what was being said against me."</p> + +<p>"Ain't I? Laws a mussy on my furgitful soul. 'Skuse me. I hes bin +stud'in' so powerfil hard. Wal, Miss Erm, dey tole me—min' you, I ain't +said <i>whut</i> dey—dey tole me you wus gwine ter hire out ter white folks +ter scrub an' wash an' i'ne an' nuss babies an' do all sich disgracefil +tings for an edicated 'siety lady."</p> + +<p>"Is that the crime that is alleged against me?" asked Erma, drawing a +good long breath after her prolonged suspense.</p> + +<p>"I doan' know 'bout bein' 'leged agin' you, whutsomever dat mout be. But +dey is sayin' dat whut I hez tole you is so, and dey is sayin' it +powerfil strong. An' dat is 'zactly whut brung me here fir ter see you."</p> + +<p>With a joyful laugh, Erma sprang over to Mrs. Marston and well nigh +smothered her with an avalanche of kisses. Sitting on one of Mrs. +Marston's knees, with an arm thrown fondly about her neck, Erma spoke as +follows:</p> + +<p>"My dear Aunt Mollie, because our race has borrowed the white man's +language, manner of dress, religion, ideas of home, philosophy of life, +we have apparently decided that everything that the white man does is +good for us to imitate. We do not stop to think that the white race has +deep, ingrained faults as a race; and thus we proceed to imitate faults +and virtues alike, indiscriminately and instinctively. We unhesitatingly +adopt even those erroneous traits in the white man's character that have +oppressed us. Now, Aunt Mollie, one of the most baneful evils that +slavery has left us is the idea that physical labor is a badge of +disgrace, and that a condition of luxurious idleness is the most +exalted, the most honorable, the ideal existence. The Southern white +people are the parents of the idea that physical labor is disgraceful, +and, being such an imitative people, we have accepted without question, +their standard of what is honorable. Aunt Mollie, the insidious +influence of that idea is what makes the rising generation of Negro +youths so idle and so averse to physical labor. They are imitating the +wealthy young white man, who cites the fact that he does not have to +work as proof positive that he is a gentleman. The young Negro decides +that he can and must be a gentleman like the young white man. This idea +that work is disgraceful is destined to ruin thousands of Negro girls +who are going to try to play 'lady' and abstain from employment. No, no, +Aunt Mollie, labor is not in the least degree degrading, even if the +white people do seem to think so. Believe me, Aunty, there is no +disgrace connected with the doing of any work that is honest. Work, +hard, hard work, has not stained your soul, dear Aunt Mollie. You are as +much a true woman as any queen, as much a lady as that woman who has +never deigned to stoop to tie her own shoe."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marston shook her head as though Erma's way of looking at things +was beyond her comprehension.</p> + +<p>But Erma continued, coming nearer home in her argument:</p> + +<p>"If Margaret were to take her place by your side day by day and do what +you do it would not corrupt her soul any more than it has corrupted +yours. And so long as the soul is pure God loves you, and who dares +despise what God loves? God loves an honest heart, even when the frame +that contains it is bending over the washtub. It would be so grand, Aunt +Mollie, if you could get Margaret out of that false notion of life, +borrowed from white people in the South. She would be so much help to +your overburdened frame. I could scarcely repress my tears as you told +me how you, an aged, feeble woman labored so hard for that young, strong +and vigorous girl to sustain her in a false notion of life. Yes, yes, +Mrs. Marston, I am going to hire out. There is a little mortgage on our +home that must be paid. Then, too, I wish to earn money enough to enable +me to finish my education. These ends being honorable and desirable, I +am willing to perform any task that is honorable, though menial to +attain them. Now, Aunt Mollie, I have an engagement at four o'clock and +must leave you. Pray for me, for I shall be most viciously assailed by +my own people who feel that the stand they take against me has a +parallel in the white race where the common laborer is shut out from +social recognition by the well-to-do element. And you know how hard a +Negro will throw a stone at another if he feels that he has the sanction +of the white people. Nevertheless, I shall strive in my humble way to +prove that labor is not inimical to ladyhood."</p> + +<p>"Pray for you! God bless yer pew soul! Dat I will, Erm, dat I will," +said Aunt Mollie, brushing away with her horny hands the tears from her +eyes. She continued, "Disgrace or no disgrace, dere is powerfil few lack +you, Erm, powerfil few. Ef you eber needs a home, come to your Aunt +Mollie Marston's. Good day. So long, chile, God bless you."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marston walked homeward, musing over Erma's sayings. "Wal, I hez +notused dat dem northun wimmin es cums doun here doos wuck. I 'specks +dese Suverners hes got us blevin' wrong ter tink dat a washtub spiles +yer ladyship. Mebbe arter all I hez been a lady and didunt know it all +dis whiul. Been cheated outen my standing in life foolin' arter dese +Suverners! I declar' it begins ter peer ter me dat Erm is right, 'do I +'fess I didunt ketch on ter all de pints in her argifikashun. One pint +she made 'prest me powerfil much. It mout not hurt Margie so much ef she +would help her ole mammy er bit. It is gitting hard fir me ter liff and +tote dem big tubs like I hez ter do, fir dey shuah air heavy. I uster +help my mammy ter liff hern. Margie mout do a little ub de cookin' and +i'nin' and let her pore mammy rest some. I hez been wuckin' so hard all +my days and I hez nebber had no rest. But I ain't here fir much longer. +Frum de way my rheumatis feels, Jesus will be callin' me soon." Thinking +thus, she went back to her work. As she labored, the sweet face and +tender brown eyes of Erma were peeping up through the soapsuds and the +sight thereof made her happy and her task the lighter. Strange to say, +and perhaps not strange after all, her mind did not once go out to her +own daughter, who, in company with Ellen Sanders, was stirring up the +entire city against an orphan girl whose only offense was that she had +decided to obey the Bible injunction to labor six days in the week.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>WHAT A KISS DID.</h3> + + +<p>We are within the folds of night, and Elbridge Noral is once more a +visitor at the home of Dolly Smith. We have the same dimly lighted room +and the same parties to the conversation.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Smith," began Noral very excitedly, "I come to ask you in the name +of heaven to prevent a catastrophe and to unravel a puzzle that racks my +brain. I wish for you to prevent Erma Wysong from becoming a servant +girl; and I further beg of you to tell me why she seeks to become one."</p> + +<p>"Explain, Mr. Noral, wherein becoming a servant girl is such a +catastrophe. Is not work honorable?" asked Dolly, in evident +astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, but ah! the atmosphere surrounding the Negro service girl! +She is away from her own people, not allowed social contact with the +family of her employer, and usually resides in solitude in a little +house in the back yard, with alleyways as the only approach. Such a +state of affairs puts a premium on male companionship, which may be ever +so frequent, or at improper hours, without the fear of any adverse +comment thereon, and, in fact, without its being known. This condition +of things, as might reasonably be expected, generates a great deal of +immorality. While there are service girls of sterling worth, a bad odor +attaches to the calling. If Erma goes into service in such fashion, the +very atmosphere will breed insults for her. White youths will feel that +she has no further claims to respectability, and will proceed to deal +with her accordingly. So much for the catastrophe. The puzzling thing to +me is as to why Erma should contemplate such a course." These remarks +were delivered by Noral with unwonted energy.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Noral, Erma simply needs money, I presume, to supply her +natural wants and satisfy reasonable and legitimate desire. Such +stations as her talents peculiarly fit her for are denied to her because +she is a Negro girl. There is no honorable course open to her save the +one that she has pursued. Away goes the puzzle. As to the catastrophe, +Mr. Noral, opinions may differ, according to the view point. I fancy +that I see in her determination to enter service the surest means to the +accomplishment of your purpose."</p> + +<p>Noral's face betokened a wrathful storm; his voice gave sign of its +coming.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Smith, do I understand you to intimate that I am such a sensual +degenerate that I am willing to see Erma degraded by others as a sort of +preparation for me?"</p> + +<p>"Be calm, Mr. Noral. My meaning was far from that, as you will soon +discover. My plan of action is as follows: Now that Erma is determined +to enter service, you select a place where you may become a frequent +visitor and can contrive to see Erma without exciting her suspicions as +to your ultimate purposes. Erma is one of the purest girls in the world, +and you must first establish yourself in her good graces as a necessary +prelude to my part of the work. If you can inspire regard, I will give +the necessary downward turn."</p> + +<p>"A capital idea, Dolly, a capital idea! Now, let me see where Erma might +go."</p> + +<p>"How about Mrs. Turner who lives adjoining you?"</p> + +<p>"What!" said Noral, rising to his feet hurriedly. "Where do I live? Who +told you where I lived?" he said, retreating from Dolly as he spoke, and +adjusting his mask to his face. Dolly saw at once that she had committed +a monstrous error, and was much perplexed, for a moment, as to how to +extricate herself.</p> + +<p>"To tell you the truth, Mr. Noral, I have known who you were from the +very first."</p> + +<p>"Known me from the first! Have you had spies tracking me, you she +devil?"</p> + +<p>"She devil, heh! she devil!" hissed Dolly Smith in a tone that was full +of venom. Her head shaking with violent emotion, she walked up to Noral +and said: "She devil, did you say? But who made me a she devil? Who +destroyed my soul? Who first started me on the damnable mission of +polluting the entire stream of the virtue of my race? Who did this? Will +you tell me? say, will you tell me? Oh, you don't know, do you? Well, +you shall know, James Benson Lawson! Yes, you shall know!"</p> + +<p>Lawson's anger disappeared in his surprise at the torrent of invective +that Dolly Smith poured upon him. He answered not a word, but stood with +folded arms, looking at Dolly Smith. He discovered that he had a tigress +to deal with, and that at the bottom of the heart of this cold-blooded, +callous schemer there were fires as hot as those of the reputed lower +regions, and it did not take much fanning to cause them to blaze up. +Then, too, her remarks seemed to have been intended for him +individually, and were not mere ravings against the world at large. The +more he thought, the more puzzled he was. Dolly Smith, after this +violent outburst, grew very calm, and inwardly chided herself for having +allowed her temper to perhaps frighten away from her hook a fish on +whose capture all the soul that she had was set. She summoned all of her +adroitness and cunning in an endeavor to regain lost ground. Pushing +open the folding doors, and disappearing in the adjoining room, she +returned shortly, bearing in her hand a photograph. She brought it to +Lawson and said, "Here is the spy that tracked you. Go look at it." +Lawson took it to the gaslight and, turning on the light, examined the +picture.</p> + +<p>"You see that it is a picture of your father. As Governor of this State, +he was more popular with the colored people than any other governor +before or since his time. True, he is a Democrat, but the colored people +love him, and his picture is in almost every Negro home. As soon as I +saw you the other night, though the room was dark, I recognized the +likeness. I knew where you lived, as the papers have been printing +pictures of the old Lawson Mansion as it has been repaired to receive +your father, just returned from his post as minister to Germany. Now, +that is the sort of spying I have done. Don't mistrust me, Mr. Lawson. +Your honor is safe in my hands. I hold some of the most terrible secrets +of your most noted families in this city, and they are as safe with me +as though they were in the grave, locked in the bosom of the dead."</p> + +<p>Dolly Smith eyed Lawson keenly as she talked, trying to discern the +impression that her words were making. She saw that she had not +succeeded in reaching the main current of his thoughts and she planned +another effort.</p> + +<p>"The vigor of my remarks a while ago naturally astonished you. Well, I +was once a pure girl and not wholly uneducated. Nor was I homely, +either. This corpulence has come from drinking excessively. Well, a +white woman encompassed my fall. She taught me to drink. She was such a +great white lady, I thought that if she could drink I could do so as +well. I got drunk in public and was forever disgraced. She got drunk +frequently, but the newspapers always said that she fainted or was +attacked with nervous prostration. Her wealth allows her to maintain her +social standing, among her people, while I am an outcast among mine. She +started me in this business. I hate her, though I confess I get a great +deal of fun, excitement and money out of my profession. I know I am a +she devil, but when one calls me that, I get angry from thinking of that +woman. All of this occurred when I lived in another city. My previous +history is unknown here."</p> + +<p>Lawson was profoundly interested in Dolly Smith's recital. He had not +dreamed that a woman so depraved ever allowed her mind to wander back to +the days of purity. In fact, he did not conceive of her ever having had +such days. Thus, with these adroitly constructed fabrications, she +lulled Lawson's suspicions to sleep.</p> + +<p>"Dolly Smith, I beg your pardon. Don't you know, I always supposed +people of your type were born destitute of moral nature. But I begin to +believe that humanity at its worst is not as bad as it seems."</p> + +<p>Dolly Smith now saw that she had recaptured him.</p> + +<p>"All right, Dolly, quarrelling aside, let's get down to business. Let me +see; where were we," says Noral.</p> + +<p>"My idea is that some way ought to be found to have Erma Wysong in the +employ of Mrs. Turner, your next door neighbor. She has no male member +in her family," put in Dolly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but she has a servant," replied Lawson.</p> + +<p>"And you have money. The servant went there for money, and will come +away for money. Pay her a few months' wages in advance. Ask her to get +Erma Wysong and take her to Mrs. Turner's to fill her place, and the +work is done," said Dolly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are a daisy," said Lawson, and in his excess of joy at the +prospective success of his scheme, he seized Dolly Smith about the waist +and kissed her. That kiss awakened every demon in Dolly's nature. It +took her mind back to the days when the blue of her sky was interwoven +with the blackest of clouds, and the lightnings of trouble flashed forth +therefrom, ripping open her every vein, and spilling beyond recall all +the blood of her life. And she pledged in her soul, shaking like a +decayed and tottering building in the grasp of the wind, to crush James +Benson Lawson in her fall.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>UP TO DATE ARISTOCRACY IN A NEGRO CHURCH.</h3> + + +<p>Erma Wysong was now happily located at Mrs. Turner's, little dreaming, +innocent soul, of the motives and midnight plottings that had brought +her there. Ignorant of all this, she was giving God thanks for having +secured for her such an ideal place of service. In this happy, joyous, +light-hearted frame of mind, she clads herself in her most lovely +apparel on the Sabbath and goes forth to church. While she is on her way +there, let us acquaint ourselves with the preparations made to receive +her.</p> + +<p>The fact that Erma Wysong, a graduate of the High School, had entered +service, shocked the Negro population of the city. Educated members of +the race, the school teachers, the doctors, the lawyers and the recent +girl graduates were simply enraged. Ellen Sanders and Margaret Marston +had canvassed the whole city and had persuaded the entire circle of +educated colored persons in the city to come out to Erma's church to aid +them in giving her such a snubbing as had never as yet been administered +to a mortal. This was their ambition's end just now, the complete +snubbing, crushing of Erma for "throwing away her education in a most +shameful and disgraceful way by going to work." Their plan was to have +the educated and professional people to sit together in that section of +the church where Erma usually sat; and she was to be thus forced out of +her seat and out of their midst. If by any means she got a seat near +them they were to get up in a body and move to another part of the +church. So, on Sunday morning this group was out early and in full +force. As the hour of the service drew on they grew restless from +thinking over the stinging rebuke that they were about to administer to +Erma. Ellen Sanders had turned her head and shoulders completely around +from facing the pulpit and her large flashing eyes were keeping guard on +the door so that she might see Erma when she first appeared in the +doorway.</p> + +<p>"There she is," said Ellen, flopping herself around, assuming an +attitude apparently as stiff and immovable as a granite cliff.</p> + +<p>All turned to look and then snatched their eyes away in disdain. Erma +came forward unsuspectingly, a sweet smile upon her lovely face. Her +glistening black hair nestled in lovely coils on her queenly head. Her +brown eyes, resting complacently beneath lovely eyebrows, sparkled with +a quiet glow and a tenderness known only to the innocent and happy at +heart. Her dress was a flawless fit and brought out all the graces of +her divinely moulded form. This pure, blushing, aspiring, orphan girl +went up the aisle of her church and stopped opposite her accustomed +seat, expecting the occupants to make room for her. Instead of doing +this, they got closer together.</p> + +<p>Erma, astonished, looked about her, and the angry, scornful looks cast +at her caused a stinging sensation in her face as though it had been +stuck by so many sharp needles. In her confusion she mechanically tried +to enter seat after seat, but was barricaded out. Finding it to be their +intention to prevent her from sitting anywhere in that section of the +church, she went forward to the "Amen corner," and finding a vacant seat +there, she sat down.</p> + +<p>The fact that Erma Wysong, a servant, had taken an "Amen corner" seat in +the Leigh Street Church stirred the group to fever heat. Ellen gave a +faint shriek of horror—one about the size to express righteous +indignation in a Christian church on the Sabbath day. A Negro doctor got +up and went to two of the ushers and said, "Sirs, I appeal to you! The +dignity of this church is outraged! Look yonder where that servant girl +sits! The idea! This is the most aristocratic Negro church in this city +and yet you allow that girl to sit there!"</p> + +<p>"We didn't know that she was going to sit there," said an usher, +obsequiously.</p> + +<p>"Well, now you know it, sir! Do you think that the white folks would +allow a white servant girl to sit on the front pew in their church? We +shall never amount to anything as a race until we learn to do as white +people," said the indignant doctor.</p> + +<p>"Well, what would you say do, doctor?" inquired the same obsequious +usher.</p> + +<p>"What do! what do! Why, what would white people do? Put her out! Put her +out!" exclaimed the doctor.</p> + +<p>The ushers nearly tumbled over each other to get to Erma to do what they +supposed white people would do to a white servant girl under similar +circumstances. Between these two ushers, Erma was escorted out of the +church, her face burning with shame. They did not turn her loose until +she was full on the sidewalk, when they left her, returning to worship +the God of the Nazarene carpenter lad.</p> + +<p>Erma looked up and down the street in a lost sort of way. A single pair +of tears came into her eyes and a sob was forced out of her throat by +her throbbing heart. Thoughts of her lonely, unprotected condition in +the world crowded upon her; visions of her departed mother floated +before her eyes; the thought of being ejected from God's house in +seeming disgrace came down upon her with terrific force and the poor +girl sobbed bitterly, burying her face in her handkerchief. She felt an +arm steal around her neck and heard a voice murmur, "Pore chile, pore +chile." It was the arm and voice of Aunt Mollie Marston, who had +followed Erma out of the church.</p> + +<p>She said, "I hearn dat niggah doctah tell em ter put you out kase white +folks would hab dun it. Now, I 'grees wid you fully, Miss Erm. We is +lettin dese white folks teach us too much. Our church hez dun away wid +dem good ole soul-stirrin' himes in which my soul jes' 'peared ter float +right up ter God, and now we hez got a choir whut sings de himes which +gibs de feelin's of white people's souls which ain't allus lack ourn. +An' our elder is done quit preachin' an' gwine ter readin' de Gospil ter +us, an' de Speerit hes firsaken him. An' dey hez been tellin' us ter do +lack white folks an' let our feelin's stay damned up, wen it do feel so +good ter let um out. An' chile, bless yer soul, dey doa'n' let me shout +at church fir fear white folks would laugh at 'um, an' fir fear dey +would lose de name ub ''Ristocrats.' But, bless yer soul, hunny, I +shouts at home."</p> + +<p>So saying, Aunt Mollie drew her arm tighter about Erma's waist, and +these two religious outcasts went marching home, Erma crying and Aunt +Mollie singing all the while,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"De ole time relijun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">De ole time relijun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">De ole time relijun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Am good ernuff fir me."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>REV. JOSIAH NERVE, D. D. S.</h3> + + +<p>Erma Wysong was sitting in her own home on the following evening (her +employers, Mrs. Turner and daughter, having left the city for a vacation +of a few days duration), lost in a reverie, musing over her experience +on the Sunday just gone, when she heard a sort of hesitating knock at +her door. She went to the door, opened it, and found standing before her +a very dark man, low of stature, of medium size, dressed in a "Prince +Albert" coat and vest that had "seen better days." His bow legs were +incased in a pair of linen breeches that desired to pass for white, and +were very much wrinkled. A broad grin, that showed nearly all of his +teeth and well nigh shut up his small eyes, was upon his face. He opened +his eyes slowly to take a full look at Erma, and the grin depreciated in +value about fifty per cent (if its value depended upon its size). +Satisfied with the result of his inspection, the grin, like the cat, +came back, and the eyes again took up their abode in the "partial +eclipse." After grinning at Erma a length of time sufficient, as he +thought, to impress her with his geniality, he was ready to announce +himself.</p> + +<p>"Huh," he grunted; "you-don't-know-me, do-you?" said he in the deep +guttural, rolling tone so generally affected by a certain class of Negro +preachers.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," replied Erma, "I have heard you preach on several occasions."</p> + +<p>"Huh," he grunted again. With a yet broader grin than his greeting one, +he asked, in that tone which was never known to forsake him (his wife +states that he even snores in that tone), "What-is-my-name?"</p> + +<p>"Really, I have forgotten that."</p> + +<p>"Huh," he grunted, "my-name-is-Rev.-Josiah-Nerve,-D.-D.-S." His grin +increased in anticipation of the effect the information just imparted +was to produce.</p> + +<p>"Will you not come in, Rev. Mr. Nerve?"</p> + +<p>"Huh," said Rev. Josiah Nerve, still grinning broadly and walking in, +lifting his feet in his walk a little higher than do ordinary mortals.</p> + +<p>"Take a seat, please."</p> + +<p>He sat down, taking infinite pains, with all due deliberation, to +arrange his coat tails so that he would not rumple them as his +predecessor in the ownership of them had already evidently done +overmuch. Holding his hat in his hand, he sat staring at Erma, +alternately lessening his grin so as to look, and his look so as to +grin, as his grin ordinarily closed his eyes nearly, and as a full look +materially reduced his grin. His white teeth and red gums managed to +keep in sight, however, during the fiercest of the fight between the +grin and the look. Having allowed sufficient time for his amiability to +become thoroughly apparent through these facial gymnastics, he began:</p> + +<p>"Miss-Wysong,-I-have-come-to-sympathize-with-you, huh."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Rev. Mr. Nerve. On account of what am I to be favored with +your sympathy?"</p> + +<p>"Huh,-on-account-of-what-them-blue-vein, +educated-niggers-did-to-you-yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Let me understand you, please."</p> + +<p>"Huh. In-that-church-out-of-which-you were-put-yesterday,-all-of-the- +mulattoes, whose-skins-are-such-that-their-blue-blood shows,-have- +decided-to-form-an-aristocracy. If you-are-yellow-and-don't-work-any- +with-your hands,-you-are-all-right. That-is-condition number-one. If- +you-are-black-and-don't-work any-with-your-hands-and-are-smarter-than-the +whole-lot-of-them-blue-veiners-put-together, you-will-be-accepted-until- +they-get-something on-you. That-is-condition-number-two. You were-light- +enough-for-them,-but-you-worked with-your-hands. I-did-not-work-with-my +hands,-but-I-was-not-smart-enough. So,-being-black,-they-put-me-out."</p> + +<p>"Put you out?" queried Erma.</p> + +<p>"Huh,-yes,-miss. Before-you-was-born,-I was-pastor-of-that-church. +That-blue-veined crowd-dumped-me,-huh."</p> + +<p>"I fear that you are prejudiced against them and judge them harshly," +interposed Erma. "Surely a people who have been so sorely oppressed on +account of their color would not dream of drawing the color line among +themselves."</p> + +<p>"Huh,-huh,-miss,-you-don't-know. The color-line-is-drawn-tighter-within- +the-race than-ever-it-was-on-the-outside,-and-the-original-bony-fidy +(bona fide)-members-of-the-race don't-draw-the-line. It-is-the-first- +time-that-I ever-knew-of-a-people-who-slipped-into-a-race through-a-back- +door-sitting-on-the-front-piazza and-hollowing-to-the-honest-born-chaps- +to-stay in-the-kitchen. Well,-it-is-like-a-prison,-I-suppose. The-rascal- +who-gets-in-there-for-committing-the-worst-crime-is-the-leader-and-hero +of-the-prison.</p> + +<p>"I am sure that you are sour over some unpleasant experiences with +certain light-skinned people, and it has so warped your judgment that +you pass a severe sentence upon the entire class, which is manifestly +unjust. Pardon me, but I would much prefer the discussion of some other +topic."</p> + +<p>"Huh,-excuse-me-then. Huh,-both-of-us having-been-put-out-by-that-blue- +vein-crowd, I-had-a-fellow-feeling. Miss-Wysong,-I-want your-aid-in-a- +little-matter."</p> + +<p>"I shall be pleased to serve you in any way that I can."</p> + +<p>"Huh,-thank-you,-miss. My-congregation-is made-up-of-all-the-shouting- +sisters-from-all the-other-churches,-who-have-been-driven-away by- +manuscripts,-which-things-they-hate-worse than-the-Apostle-Peter-hated- +the-rooster-that crowed-and-told-on-him. I-preach-to-them-in-the good- +old-time-way. I-have-never-quit-spreading a-good-supply-of-the-gravy-of- +feeling-on-the gospel-biscuits-which-I-hand-down-every-Sabbath. Because- +I-won't-grieve-the-Spirit-by setting-him-aside-for-a-manuscript,-the- +other preachers-are-mad-at-me,-and-won't-let-me-get D.-D.,-which-my- +people-want-me-to-have."</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, but I understood you to say that you were the Rev. Josiah +Nerve, D.-D.-S."</p> + +<p>"Huh,-you-don't-understand;-D.-D.-S.-is-not D.-D.,-as-I-shall-presently- +make-plain. My-people kept-on-growling-about-my-not-having-a-title. Of- +course,-I-had-no-learning. I-can-only-talk straight-by-calling-one-word- +at-a-time,-as-you must-have-noticed-already,-and-even-at-that-it is-as- +much-as-I-can-do-to-keep-my-tongue-from twisting-back-to-the-old-time- +nigger-dialect which-I-spoke-for-thirty-years,-with-much-more pleasure- +than-I-do-this. My-people-kept-on growling,-and-asking-me-if-there-was- +nothing they-could-do. One-day-when-a-number-of-us preachers-were- +visiting-the-High-School,-the teacher-asked-a-little-girl-to-conjugate- +the-verb <i>to-be</i>-in-Latin,-showing-off-before-us. She-began-like-this: +"<i>Sum,-es,-est</i>." I-am-good-at catching-on,-but-to-be-sure,-I-stood- +around-the street-corner,-near-this-little-girl's-home-and waited- +until-she-came-from-school,-when-I asked-her-what-did-<i>sum</i>-mean. She- +said-it-was the-Latin-verb-<i>to be</i>. I-then-called-my-church +together,-and-told-them-that-there-was-a-title that-they-could-confer- +upon-me. By-a-unanimous vote,-my-church-conferred-upon-me-the-degree of- +D.-D.-S. That-is-D.D., <i>-to-be</i>. Now-I-often think-how-true- +that-Scripture-is-which-says, "A little-child-shall-lead-them.""</p> + +<p>Erma could not repress a smile of amusement at the novel and ingenious +way in which the Rev. Josiah Nerve came in possession of the coveted +title.</p> + +<p>"Huh," continued the parson, "I-have-a-fine plan-for-getting-my-full- +honors. You-can-help me. I-want-to-have-the-'S.'-dropped."</p> + +<p>"I am sure you do not expect me to give you the degree?"</p> + +<p>"Huh,-no-no. But-you-can-teach-me-English grammar,-geography,-and-the- +alphabets-of-the Greek,-Latin-and-Hebrew-languages. With these-things,-I- +can-wear-my-degree-with-dignity when-it-comes. I-have-got-my-plan-laid- +to-bring it. You-see,-I-know-what-it-takes-to-scoop-a D.D.-from-the-very- +best-nigger-colleges. I-know one-preacher-who-got-his-degree-by-buying-a +barrel-of-salt-herrings-for-a-nigger-college,-and sat-on-the-barrel-in- +the-front-yard,-threatening to-take-the-barrel-of-herrings-home-in-case- +the trustees-did-not-give-him-the-degree. My-plans are-more-dignified- +than-that. I've-got-them laid-and-I-want-you-to-help-me-to-be-prepared +for-my-coming-honor."</p> + +<p>"Rev. Mr. Nerve, I am very sorry to be compelled to tell you that your +ambitions are in the wrong direction. The mere attaching to yourself the +degree will not make you the equal of the white preachers whom you are +seeking to imitate. For one, I very much question the wisdom of the +system of degreeing preachers, though practiced by all of the leading +white institutions of learning. Oh! Mr. Nerve, as I have had occasion to +remark before, we must learn to quit accepting customs as good and +grand, simply because the white people have adopted them. They are but +human and can err, even in a body as a race. Aside from my convictions +as to the uselessness of a title in your case, my time is so much taken +up with other duties that I would not have the time to instruct you. But +let me impress this one fact upon you. Your ambition should sink deeper +than merely to appear and be esteemed wise and learned. Degrees, mere +outside appendages, would do you no good."</p> + +<p>"Huh, miss,-you-are-young-yet. Our-race has-been-so-severely-criticised- +that-it-has-developed-the-faculty-of-appearing. Our-folks will-forgive- +you-for-not-being-up-to-white-folks,-but-a-man-that-can't-put-up-a-bold- +<i>front</i> has-no-forgiveness. The-word-now-is, 'Be-what you-please,-but- +don't-let-the-white-folks-know it.' You-just-look-about-you-and-see-if- +the-criticisms-of-the-white-people,-often-unjust,-are-not-developing-the- +faculty-of-deception-and-white-washing,-just-like-the-child-that-is- +whipped-the-most-for-its-faults-learns-to-hide-them-far quicker-than-to- +correct-them. No,-no,-Miss Wysong,-a-covering-will-do-for-me. Niggers +can't-pull-off-the-covering-and-look-at-my-filthy rags-of-knowledge- +because-they-don't-know enough;-and-white-people-can't,-because-I ain't- +going-to-let-them-get-close-enough-to peep-under-my-covering. I-agree- +with-you that-it-is-bad-that-our-people-want-everything just-like-white- +people. That-is-what-makes me-have-to-hustle-to-get-D.-D. And-if-I-don't +get-it-somehow-before-too-long,-my-people-will dump-me-just-like-them- +blue-veiners-did."</p> + +<p>"Oh! the blue veiners, then, are not the only colored people desiring to +be like white people. The most of your people are pure blacks and they +are trying to be like white people, too, I understand."</p> + +<p>"Huh, of-course. That-is-what-makes-the blue-veiners-so-proud. They-see- +that-they-are near-and-nearing-the-place-where-the-blacks are-almost- +dying-to-get-to. Nowadays-you never-hear-of-two-coal-black-persons- +marrying each-other. The-black-man-is-pushing-the black-woman-aside-to- +grab-the-yellow-woman; and-the-black-woman is-pushing-the-black-man aside- +to-grab-the-yellow-man. I-know-a-number-of-black-mothers-with-black- +daughters that-have-sworn-they-will-poison-their-daughters-if-they- +attempt-to-marry-black-men. Besides-don't-black-women-with-short-hair-rob +horses'-tails,-billy-goats-and-graveyards-to-get hair-like-that-of-white- +folks. I-wish-a-sensible girl-like-you-would-join-my-church-and-stop +white-folks-ideas-from-cropping-in-faster-than we-fellows-can-keep-up- +with-them. They-have got-me-out-now-hunting-for-a-D.-D.,-just-like white- +folks,-when-neither-me-nor-them-know any-more-about-what-D.-D.-means- +than-Sam Smith's-old-mule."</p> + +<p>"Seriously, Rev. Mr. Nerve, might I join your church? I feel that I owe +my race an apology for having somewhat deserted them. Because their +language was broken and their customs crude and queer, I, together with +other members of my race, have not mingled with them as much as we +should have done. I assure you that my failure to do so was not due to +pride nor to color prejudice. It was due simply to a lack of similarity +of tastes, ideals, habits, customs, manner of speech, etc. I think that +a great amount of what you class as color prejudice may be reduced to +that, after all."</p> + +<p>"Huh,-huh,-huh,-Miss-Wysong,-<i>you</i>-are-all right. I-have-been-watching- +you-for-years. You-always-speak-to-us-blacks-politely-and never-snub-us. +But-don't-you-tell-me-about them-other-blue-veiners. I-knows-um,-I-know +them-thar-now,-see-how-my-tongue-gits,-my tongue-gets-to-slippin',-to- +slipping-some-times. It-is-nothin'-but-plum-nigger-foolishness-to keep- +me-cramped-down-to-all-this-grammar talk-I-am-doing. If-my-people-did- +not-insist upon-me-using-language-just-like-white-people I-would-go- +back-to-the-plain-nigger-dialect just-suited-to-a-big-mouth-and-stiff- +tongue-like mine."</p> + +<p>"You have failed to answer my question, Rev. Mr. Nerve. May I join your +church?"</p> + +<p>"Huh,-bless-God,-yes. My-people-are-black, yet,-as-I-have-made-plain,- +they-like-yellow folks. You-are-not-exactly-yellow;-you-are-a pretty- +brown-skin,-a-mighty-pretty-brown-skin. I-really-think-what-makes-blue- +veiners-so-aristocratic-is-that-we-blacks-like-them,-the-white folks- +like-them,-and-they-like-themselves;-leaving-nobody-to-like-us-blacks. +If-we-ever-turn-to liking-black-faces-it-will-only-be-after-the whites- +turn-that-way. The-whites-regulate-all of-our-tastes-even-to-telling-us- +who-are-our greatest-men-among-us. We-just-won't-acknowledge-a-man-is- +great-until-the-whites-have done-so. Our-slave-mammies-had-no-thought +from-morning-till-night,-year-in-and-year-out, except-the-thought-of- +pleasing-master-and mistress. I-guess-that-is-how-doing-everything +to-please-white-people-became-ingrained-in-our nature. You-will-know- +more-about-this-when you-get-to-be-a-married-woman-like-I-am,-huh, huh.</p> + +<p>"Good-day,-Miss-Wysong,-good-day,-I-see you-are-restless-and-tired-of- +an-old-man's-gab. Remember-that-I-have-not-promised-you-that-I would-not- +be-a-D.-D. My-plans-are-all-laid. Remember-you-are-to-join-my-church. +Good day. I-did-not-promise-that-I-would-not-be-no D.-D.,-huh,-huh-huh."</p> + +<p>Bowing and grinning and grunting, Rev. Josiah Nerve, D. D. S., backed +out of the door and out of the gate, and, hat in hand, went strutting +proudly down the street, not forgetting that in walking, his feet should +come up a little higher from the ground than do the feet of plain every +day human beings. Poor deluded soul, contented to grasp with a death +clutch at the <i>shadow</i> of Anglo-Saxon civilization. His brethren are +many. In due time the whole city came out to view the first step of Rev. +Josiah Nerve, D. D. S., toward becoming Rev. Josiah Nerve, D. D.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>HE NARROWLY ESCAPED.</h3> + + +<p>Fire! fire!! fire!!! Lurid flames leaping in their mad fury through the +roof of a huge frame church building situated on Laurel Street had +attracted the attention of a Negro woman who had a basket of clothes on +her head. Putting the basket of clothes down on the sidewalk and +expanding her chest, she had thrown her shoulders back and was screaming +as fast and as loudly as she could; for it was the edifice of the church +of which she was a member that was afire. She was a poor, unlettered +woman, but next to God, she loved her church. Having to labor +incessantly from before daylight Monday morning until late Saturday +night, and having neither a nice dwelling nor costly dresses, about her +only pleasure was going to church on Sunday. She felt that here she +heard directly from God out of that mysterious book on the stand, doubly +dear to her, being shrouded in mystery and containing glowing promises +of coming joys. Imagine then the horror, excitement, pathos, despair, +astonishment that this Negro woman threw into her screams on that +midday. No one who heard those screams ever forgot them. Soon the street +was thronged with excited spectators. As fast as the colored "sisters" +came in sight of the burning building they would break forth into loud +piercing screams.</p> + +<p>"Good Laws a mussy, de Lawd am lettin' de house ub God burn up," said +one, her hands akimbo on her hips, her eyes bleared, her very soul lost +in amazement at such a sight.</p> + +<p>"My Lawd, judgment muss shuah dun cum. You had better pray, sinners!" +shouted another over and over again in a loud voice.</p> + +<p>The "sister" who had first screamed ran to the front door and threw +herself violently against it. It gave way and she dashed down the aisle. +She thought she saw a long tail coat disappearing out of a rear window. +She had no time to think of that, however. Her mind was intent on +getting the pulpit Bible. She snatched this from the altar and started +for the door. A burning rafter fell, barely missing her head and +striking her on the shoulder, dislocating her arm. The Bible was knocked +out of her hands. One of the firemen who had now arrived on the scene, +hearing that a woman was in the burning building ran in, in order to +rescue her. He caught her by the dislocated arm and was pulling her +along, giving her excruciating pain. She said to the fireman, "Lemme go. +Git de Bible. Save de Wurd ub God. Save de Wurd."</p> + +<p>"The Wurd be blanked," said the irate fireman. "Come along or you will +burn up, old woman." The oath from the lips of the fireman erased every +thought of the fire from her mind. She forgot the Bible. Her excitement +was all gone. She was wondering to herself how a human being could speak +so slightly about the Bible.</p> + +<p>"Dese white folks is er sight. I kain't see how dey ken eber 'speck to +git ter hebun. Dat feller done 'saulted my rebrunce fur de Bible. Dey is +enuf ter spile eny body's 'ligion. Ef niggers stay heah in dis country +wid dese cole hearted white folks we woan hab no 'ligion 'tall." Such +were her inward musings, and that too, without a knowledge of the higher +critics. The fire had no more interest for that "sister." She was +thinking of that other and hotter fire sure, as she thought, to get the +irreverent fireman who could "cuss a Bible in a burnin' church."</p> + +<p>The crowd swelled, the "sisters" screamed, the fire raged, the firemen +worked valiantly but all to no avail. The flames, glad at being turned +loose in the world once more, refused to release their grasp and +insisted on licking up into their million insatiable little mouths every +piece of timber. Just before the walls crumbled Rev. Josiah Nerve, D. D. +S., came dashing into the crowd. The "sisters" all gathered around the +parson for he was their "parster." He put his handkerchief to his eyes +as though the sight was too sad to behold. With his face buried in his +handkerchief, his lips were moving, giving voice to the sentiments of +his heart. "Thank God! Thank God! or the devil even!!"</p> + +<p>The excitement over, the crowd dwindled down, leaving the ashes to the +parson and the "sisters," the brethren being at their work.</p> + +<p>"Elder Nerve, look at de bottom ub yer pants' leg." The parson looked +down and saw a large rent made in his pants and a wide-spread stain.</p> + +<p>"Dat surely is kerosene oil," said another "sister."</p> + +<p>Parson Nerve now exhibited an unwonted degree of confusion. The +"sisters" attributed it, however, to the embarrassment of the parson at +having his spick and span attire disarranged by a snag and an oil stain.</p> + +<p>"Whar did you git it?" said another "sister," stooping to look at it.</p> + +<p>"Huh, ah,-I-could-not-say,-ay,-Sister Jones," said the parson, again on +his dignity.</p> + +<p>"Whar wuz you wen our house got kotched er fire, Elder?" The parson's +dignity suffered a considerable collapse again. "Huh!-Ah! Huh,-huh,-let- +me-see. Why,-sister,-I-am-so troubled-about-our-house-of-worship-that +my-memory-is-sort-of-affected-that-quick. Huh!-ah!-huh! Don't-think- +about-me,-sisters, think-of-your-church! What-are-we-to-do-about that?" +Much to Parson Nerve's relief the "sisters" turned to the discussion of +that theme, the greatest on earth to them. They began thus early to lay +plans for their future.</p> + +<p>Parson Nerve soon found a way of absenting himself from the group and +repaired to his study where he secluded himself. "Ha!-ha! ha!" laughed +he in his deep resounding voice. "I-have-got-them-on-the-hip-now. +I've-got them,-ha!-ha!-ha! I-have-been-a-sly-slick-duck, sure. There- +are-now-forty-four-fine-brick churches-owned-by-Negroes-in-this-city. +They are-very-fine,-but-mine-shall-be-finer,-finer,-finer, ha!-ha!-ha! +I-have-been-a-slick-duck. The other-preachers-thought-I-couldn't-build,- +but-I was-waiting-until-the-last-of-them-built,-so-I could-beat-them-all. +Oh!-I-knew-I-would-get old-Spalding. I-will-show-him-what-Old-Man +Nerve-can-do. Won't-he-rave-when-he-sees-my church-going-up-finer-than- +his? He-beats-the balance,-but-I'll-beat-him. Not-only-will-I-beat the- +niggers, but-I-shall-also-beat-the-white-folks. I-shall-then-have-the- +finest-church-house-in-the city,-white-or-colored. Ninety-thousand-dollars +will-be-the-cost. Then,-Good-God! Then-I'll get-my-D.-D. Not-a-nigger- +college-in-the-world will-refuse-me-D.-D.,-when-I-finish-a-building that- +costs-that-much. Oh,-I-knew-I-would-get old-Spalding. He-is-only-a-B.-D. +But-I-will-be a-D.-D.,-Rev.-Josiah-Nerve,-D.-D. No-more-'S.' Well,-I- +deserve-it. Few-men-would-have-had the-grace-to-wait-until-all-the-other- +chaps-were done. And,-then,-think-of-the-risk-I-ran-in-getting-that-old- +house-out-of-the-way. Let-me-look at-that-statute-again."</p> + +<p>Going to his desk the parson opened a code of criminal laws and turned +to the desired place. "Arson-from-two-to-twenty-years-in-the +penitentiary,-two-to-twenty,-two-to-twenty. Now,-who-on-earth-would-say- +that-a-man who-would-run-such-a-risk-for-a-house-for God-ought-not-to- +have-D.-D.,-D.-D.,-D.-D., Rev.-Josiah-Nerve,-D.-D.</p> + +<p>"Come in," said Parson Nerve, in response to a knock at his study door.</p> + +<p>A policeman stepped into the parson's study. The parson dropped into a +chair quickly and hid his torn pants' leg behind the other, that grin of +his entirely gone for once. The policeman failed to observe the parson's +hiding one leg behind the other. He began, "Parson, somebody burned your +church house down. We know that you and your people are much grieved +about it and would like to apprehend the scoundrel. I came to tell you +that we are on his track." The parson looked at the policeman but could +not speak. He saw a gulf opening its yawning jaws to receive him and he +could not even hollow. He stole a glance at the open code.</p> + +<p>"Yes," continued the policeman, "we shall get him before night. They are +measuring his tracks now from the rear window of the church out of which +some one caught a glimpse of him jumping. A bloodhound from a near by +city will be brought over on the five train and he will certainly run +him down." The policeman looked over to Rev. Josiah Nerve to hear him +express sentiments of gratification at the vigilance of the police and +the bright prospect of the early capture of the criminal. The Rev. Mr. +Nerve looked at the policeman stupidly, frozen with fear.</p> + +<p>"See here!" said the policeman, drawing a bit of torn cloth from his +vest pocket and holding it up to view. "This is a piece of his pants' +leg. When he is found this will identify him beyond question. We found +this hanging to a nail in a fence by which he must have run in making +his escape." Rev. Josiah Nerve neither spoke nor moved. He pressed the +torn pants' leg harder against its protector.</p> + +<p>The policeman, anxious to secure some expression of elation from Rev. +Josiah Nerve, and disappointed that he had not thus far secured such, +said, "From the way the people are talking, if the scamp is caught he +will be lynched. The white people like you and your church. Yours is the +only congregation in town that has not joined the craze to have churches +finer than those of the white people. Thus they think well of you and +are sorry for your misfortune. I am a policeman sworn to uphold the +majesty of the law, but I will join a mob to help lynch the scoundrel +that burned your church down. Well, I see you are too grieved to discuss +the matter. Good day, parson," said the policeman, rising to go.</p> + +<p>Rev. Josiah Nerve felt a little strength return and he managed to say to +the policeman, in a husky tone, "Good day," and <i>sotto voce</i>, "Good by." +The policeman walked away musing to himself, "Surely niggers must have +an immense amount of religion or of something. Now, that darkey preacher +is so grieved about that plaguy barn, that he can't talk."</p> + +<p>While the policeman was thus musing as he walked along, Rev. Josiah +Nerve was packing a valise. In the middle of that afternoon, some +farmers not far distant from the city, saw a man wearing a long tail +coat, which was slapping at the wind, his hat in one hand and a valise +in the other, making for the woods at a rapid rate. Rev. Josiah Nerve, +D. D. S., was not heard from in Richmond again. Perhaps he at last +succeeded in dropping the despised "S," and lost his identity in the +numerous throng of the veneered.</p> + +<p>The tragic, not the humorous in the experiences of Rev. Josiah Nerve, +appealed to Erma. Had she even then a premonition that she, too, had +been singled out by the wheels of the Juggernaut; that she, too, was to +be the epitome of all that was tragic in the attempts of the Negro and +Anglo-Saxon to journey side by side on the terms elected?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>THE PIT IS DUG.</h3> + + +<p>Night again, and at the home of Dolly Smith. Dolly Smith and James B. +Lawson, alias Elbridge Noral, feel that they know each other now, and +the gas jet is turned full on. The room is supplied with furniture of a +most costly and gorgeous sort. Lawson, fresh from a home of +magnificence, is dazzled by the splendor of Dolly Smith's parlor.</p> + +<p>"Dolly, you are certainly finely fitted up, finely! I must say that I +have not seen better."</p> + +<p>"It ought to be fine, Mr. Lawson. It is the price that was paid for the +virtue of my race. How are matters progressing with you and Erma now?"</p> + +<p>"Slowly, Dolly, slowly."</p> + +<p>"Have you gotten an opportunity to speak to her yet?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! I see her and converse with her nearly every day."</p> + +<p>"Do you call that progressing slowly?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and dangerously slow. You see, my excuse for calling at Mrs. +Turner's is to see Franzetta Turner, her daughter, while my reason is to +catch a glimpse of Erma. Now, if I keep on going to see Miss Turner as +regularly as I have been, why, I will just have to propose marriage to +her. There will be no way for me to back out. And I did not bargain for +all that. So, you see, I am interested in matters coming to a crisis for +a twofold reason. First, my soul is lost to Erma Wysong, and will never +be found until I have her love and devotion. Secondly, I am not +overanxious to fall into the clutches of Old Maid Franzetta."</p> + +<p>"How did you happen to get so many conversations with Erma? Explain the +situation to me fully, so that I may know the next step for you to +take," Dolly Smith said. She now concentrated her soul in her sight and +ears. The realization of her life's purpose depended upon the depth of +the passion of the man before her. As Lawson's evil genius would have +it, he chose this woman of all other people on earth to whom to tell the +story of his love.</p> + +<p>Lawson ran his hands through his gold colored locks of hair, bowed his +head as if in meditation, and began his recital, more as a man musing to +himself than as one talking to an auditor. Therefore he held nothing +back.</p> + +<p>"Well, Dolly, it was this way. A few days after Erma Wysong went to Mrs. +Turner's, I called over there, ostensibly to see Miss Franzetta Turner, +but in reality to catch a glimpse of Erma. I spoke to Miss Turner in the +midst of our conversation as follows:</p> + +<p>"'Miss Turner, my barber tells me that your servant girl is a belle in +Negro society, and has occasioned about as much ado among her people by +becoming a servant girl as your entering a factory to work would do +among us.'</p> + +<p>"'Is that true, Mr. Lawson? If she is a belle, she is a worthy one. I +would give a million for her form. It is symmetry itself.'</p> + +<p>"'You underrate your own charms, and overrate those of your servant,' is +the unpardonable lie that escaped from my lips, after sticking to my +throat for a century, it seemed.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, don't attempt to flatter me by any such outrageous comparisons, +Mr. Lawson. For beauty, I am not to be mentioned in the same breath with +that girl.' This expression was so true that, upon my word, I could not +dispute with my tongue that which my heart acknowledged with every +throb. I sat in silence, eager for more words of praise of Erma. 'And, +strange to say,' she continued, 'the girl is so charming in mind and +manner. She has a smile that somehow reveals all the sweetness there is +in her soul.' I cursed my soul for that luck that had robbed me of one +of those smiles. 'She has so many ways of arranging that glossy, black +hair. Every way she changes it makes her appear more beautiful. Of +course, the thread of her hair is a little coarse.' I could have slapped +Miss Franzetta for even intimating that coarse hair, such as Erma had, +was a defect. 'And the girl plays superbly.' I could stand it no longer. +I should have been destroyed by the process of spontaneous combustion if +I had not said, 'Invite her in and let her play.'</p> + +<p>"Miss Turner looked at me inquiringly, to see if I really intended that +she should call the Negro girl to entertain us. Intend it! Of course I +intended it. Was not that why the girl and I both were there? I repeated +my request, hiding my emotion, of course. The greatest currents of the +human heart, whether good or bad, seek subterranean passages. Miss +Turner rose to call Erma, and, wretch that I am, I actually muttered a +prayer of thanks to God. Erma followed Miss Turner into the room, and +smiling such a smile as actually lighted that whole room, she made me +forget everything else. I arose to be introduced. Erma looked just as +much at home and as unembarrassed as though she had been accustomed to +such scenes all her days.</p> + +<p>"'Mr. Lawson, let me present to you Miss Erma Wysong.'</p> + +<p>"'The son of the popular Ex-Governor of our State?' asked Erma of Miss +Turner.</p> + +<p>"'It is he,' was the reply.</p> + +<p>"Erma then came toward me and gave me her hand. Her touch thrilled me, +and I actually could not return her greeting, 'I am pleased to know you, +Mr. Lawson.'</p> + +<p>"'Mr. Lawson wishes you to play some for us, Erma.'</p> + +<p>"Erma looked at me, and I nodded slowly, as I did not care for her to +lift those tender brown eyes away from me too soon. Seeing that it was +my wish, Erma went at once to the piano. Erma did not <i>play</i>. No! such +music as she gave was not <i>playing</i>. She just dropped bits of her heart +and soul on that keyboard, and the keys cried out in sympathetic tones, +and we sat and listened in awe. Since that time I have wondered why +people can say <i>play</i> music. Music is too serious a matter to be called +play.</p> + +<p>"Dolly, that girl has a load of some sort on her heart! Lover-like, I +took it to be the cry of a bird for its mate, and I said all through the +piece, 'Here am I.' When she was through, she politely bowed and left +the room—without a word. I did so much wish it had been Miss Franzetta +to go out. After that day I had Miss Franzetta to call Erma in as often +as I could without arousing suspicion. Often Miss Franzetta would have +occasion to leave the room on some errand or other, and then Erma would +have to talk to me. I would just sit and listen to her talk and gaze +into the depths of her soulful eyes.</p> + +<p>"Now, Dolly, that is as far as I have ever gotten. It seems to me that +all unholy thoughts die in her presence. There is something in the very +atmosphere around her that has the effect of destroying the very germs +of evil. I have been told that white men have no hesitancy about making +improper approaches to just any colored woman, as there is no way for +insults to be avenged. For, if a Negro murdered a white man of standing +for any such cause as insulting a Negro woman, he would be lynched. +Notwithstanding this immunity of the white man from punishment and the +protection of the mob spirit accorded him, I would like to see the white +man with the smallest instinct of the gentleman who could wrongfully +approach that girl. You won't find the man this side of the lower +regions that can look into those tender, brown eyes, and feel the loving +warmth of the pure soul that they bring forth, and then part his lips in +an attempt to besmirch such innocence. The way for a woman to keep pure +is to be pure. It is an atmosphere that man knows not how to enter.</p> + +<p>"By heavens, Dolly, I can't, I can't. I just can't say the word. And +yet, love for that girl is consuming my soul. If I could only get a word +of love! If she would only kiss me once! If she would but stroke my hair +tenderly—but—ah, Dolly, I am a lost man!"</p> + +<p>Lawson buried his face in his hands, and his frame shook with the +violence of his emotions. Dolly Smith stood over him and looked the +tigress that she was, about to spring upon her prey. She repressed all +these feelings of exultation, and taking a seat, said, "Cheer up, Mr. +Lawson. I have discovered a sure plan of action."</p> + +<p>Lawson remained in the same despondent attitude, saying, "Dolly, I can't +carry out the plan after you propose it."</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> won't have to carry it out," replied Dolly.</p> + +<p>"<i>Who</i>, then, will?" said Lawson, raising his head quickly, and flashing +fire from his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Be cool Mr. Lawson, be cool. Erma shall be your friend and the friend +of none other. I am Dolly Smith, and my word never fails. My plan is +simply this: If you can't approach Erma, Erma must approach you."</p> + +<p>"Erma approach me!" bawled Lawson, excitedly.</p> + +<p>"Calm, now, calm. Yes, Erma shall approach you."</p> + +<p>"How is that to be, Dolly? I am sure you are crazy, but then go ahead."</p> + +<p>"We shall see who is crazy. Erma is to be brought to sin through +poverty. We must in a most merciless manner drive her to want; if need +be, drive her to the very door of starvation. Open but one door for her +to walk out, and let that be the door of sin. She will be less than +human if she fails to come out. Set riches before her, and there can be +no failure."</p> + +<p>"That would be terrible. I would hate to see the poor girl suffer so."</p> + +<p>"Very true. But it will be better for her in the end. Your love will +sustain her and your money support her while she lives. She well might +climb the rugged side of the mountain for the sake of the glimpse of +glory from its crest."</p> + +<p>"Well, what is your plan, Dolly?" asked Lawson.</p> + +<p>"I shall present the details to you in a few days. Do not be uneasy. I +pledge you solemnly that they shall bring Erma to her knees. Remember +that Erma is a woman, and that it is not impossible to get a woman to do +as her mother and grandmother did. She is no angel. Now, all that you +are to do for the present is to see Erma alone once more if you can, and +say to her: 'Miss Wysong, if ever you need a friend, remember me.' That +is all that you are required to do in the matter now. You shall hear +from me soon."</p> + +<p>"Well, good night, or day, rather, now, Dolly. This is a terrible +business, but I suppose it can't be helped."</p> + +<p>"Good night, or day, whichever it is, Mr. Lawson."</p> + +<p>When Mr. Lawson was gone, Dolly Smith began at once to indulge in her +dance of joy. She was more jubilant than ever, and danced until she was +thoroughly exhausted and fell down on the floor. Had her exhaustion +ended in death, our story would have been different.</p> + +<p>Erma was at Mrs. Turner's, faithfully performing her work and +ingratiating herself in the heart of her employer. She was happy and +prosperous. The pendulum chooses the highest point of its journey as the +proper place to turn back.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>THE VICTIMS.</h3> + + +<p>"John Wysong, you will please call at my office at the noon hour."</p> + +<p>The foreman of the Bilgal Iron Works, a white man, addressed these words +to John Wysong, Erma's brother, at work in these shops as you have been +told. John's heart gave a joyous bound, as he felt sure that he would be +informed that he had been reported on account of the splendid record he +had worked so hard to make. John had received enough of Erma's +confidence to guess the remainder of her secret, and he was working +doubly hard to make a good record and to receive a promotion so that he +could earn money the faster to pay off the mortgage on their little +home, sell it, and let Erma go off to school by means of the proceeds of +the sale. The mortgage was now overdue, but the holder was a +kind-hearted man, well known to John's father and mother, and no +uneasiness was felt on that score. But John and Erma were very anxious +to pay it off for the reason named above. So John experienced much joy +between eight o'clock and twelve, after being spoken to by the foreman. +He was saying to himself, "After all, it was well for me to have +sacrificed a literary education in order to learn a trade, for teaching +is now an overcrowded profession and there is nothing else in that line +to do. Now, I think I am about to be promoted and will then get four +dollars per day. I <i>know</i> I am going to be promoted, for there are only +two reasons for which men are called to the office as I was, either to +be promoted or turned off. I am glad that my record has been such that I +know I won't be turned off. That was a bully thing in me to stand at the +head of the list for the last quarter." John went on with his work, +whistling and singing and planning great things out of his four dollars +per day.</p> + +<p>The noon hour came and John went hurriedly to the office of the foreman. +He looked so grave that John had some slight misgivings that all was not +going to go so well. The foreman was busy arranging some papers, and did +not speak at once. At length he said, "John, you have been a good +faithful workman and we have all liked both you and your work, you have +been so polite, industrious, punctual and painstaking."</p> + +<p>John felt reassured by these words and said, "Thank you. Thank you, +indeed. I certainly have striven hard to deserve your good opinion."</p> + +<p>When John was through, the foreman resumed, "But I am very sorry to say +that I have bad news for you."</p> + +<p>John's hat, which he was holding in his hands, dropped to the floor and +he grew weak from the shock of disappointment. He said to himself, "I am +not promoted. I shall have to work along at the same old figure."</p> + +<p>The foreman paused before delivering the next blow. "The bad news that I +have to tell you, John, is that you cannot work for us any more."</p> + +<p>"Who has been lying to you on me? Let me face my accuser," said John +aroused, excited.</p> + +<p>"No one has spoken ill of you, John. There is not a man in the shop but +is your friend. It is not that we find fault with your work that you +have to go."</p> + +<p>"What on earth then is it?" asked John.</p> + +<p>"The Labor Union has ordered us to discharge you."</p> + +<p>"The Labor Union! I thought that the Bilgal works belonged to Messrs. +Morrison and Brown."</p> + +<p>"They do, John, they do. But it is this way. The Labor Union will order +all of its members throughout the country to quit working for any shop +that will employ any man to work who is not a member of the Union. All +of the men in our shop, except yourself, belong to the organization, and +it has sent us word that they will be called out on a strike unless you +are discharged. You see you are not a member and they will not let their +members work with non-union men."</p> + +<p>"Is that all there is to the matter? Why, I will just join the Union, +then; that will settle the whole matter."</p> + +<p>The foreman smiled a sad sort of smile, saying, "I wish you could, John, +I wish you could. But you cannot. You are a colored man."</p> + +<p>John dropped into the seat nearest him and he felt his heart rising up +into his throat as though to choke him. He said in a husky sort of +voice, "I suppose you will give me a recommendation, will you not?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, John, with the seal of the firm affixed. But it will do you no +good to have it. This Union controls all the shops in the land, and what +you meet here you will meet everywhere."</p> + +<p>John struggled to his feet and, picking up his hat, pulled it down over +his eyes and ran his hands into his pants' pockets. He then looked upon +the foreman like a lion at bay. He said in a voice that creaked with the +emotion of desperation, "Must I finish the day?"</p> + +<p>"No, John," said the foreman. "We were ordered to get rid of you before +one o'clock to-day. We put it off till the last moment. John, before you +go, let me inform you of something. For some cause or other you have a +powerful enemy somewhere—a white man. Our men did not report you. They +all liked you and were sorry that you were reported. But we cannot help +ourselves. Good day, John. Watch that enemy."</p> + +<p>John walked moodily homeward and when he arrived, found Erma there. This +astonished him as it was about the hour for her to be busy at Mrs. +Turner's. Forgetting all about himself, he said, "Erm, how is this, +darling, I find you at home?"</p> + +<p>"John, I have been discharged!" said Erma, falling on his shoulder and +bursting into tears. Erma, sobbing, said, "Mrs. Turner drove me out of +her house as though I was a dog. She dared me to apply for employment +anywhere else in Richmond; and she would not even tell me why I was +discharged. And I was doing so well, too. Franzetta was aiding me so +much in my studies."</p> + +<p>John did what he could to soothe Erma. As soon as he thought it was +safe, he told her of his own misfortune. They sat upon the sofa with +their hands clasped, silent. The road of life was becoming rugged. The +mail man's whistle blew and Erma went to the door and was handed a +letter which, upon being opened, told of the foreclosure of the mortgage +on their home. Erma looked at John and John looked at Erma.</p> + +<p>Dolly Smith was carrying out her promise.</p> + +<p>A party had approached the original holder of the mortgage with a view +to the purchase thereof. The mortgagee disposed of his claim after being +assured that the purchaser would deal leniently with John and Erma. This +pledge was unscrupulously broken and John and Erma were soon turned +adrift upon the streets, penniless and homeless. Erma remembered Aunt +Mollie's invitation and went to dwell with her. John went to a lumber +yard for shelter at night.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>MURDER!</h3> + + +<p>It is Labor Day. Business houses are closed, buildings are decorated, +excursionists are present by the thousands from neighboring cities, the +roads leading from rural districts are alive with buggies, wagons and +carts, all full of people, crowding into Richmond. As a consequence, +Richmond is all agog with excitement. There is to be a grand parade of +all the local Labor Unions, together with delegations from Unions in +neighboring cities.</p> + +<p>To add zest to the occasion, the Master Workman of the Labor Union of +the United States is present and will make a speech that all are looking +forward to with burning interest. The day's celebration is to wind up +with a banquet, which is to rival in brilliancy any that the South has +ever known. The excitement of the people of Richmond is keyed to the +very highest pitch.</p> + +<p>A carriage drove up to the hotel door, where the Master Workman was +stopping, and he and the Mayor of the city got in, to be driven to the +starting point of the parade, to ride at the head of the procession. +John Wysong was the driver of this carriage. Being shut out from all of +the departments of skilled labor on account of his color, he had been +forced to join the large army of unskilled laborers, grabbing here and +there in a desultory manner at every little job of work that appeared, +having no steady employment. The greater part of his time he was idle, +the labor market among the colored men being glutted. On account of the +abnormal demand for carriages on this occasion, scores of men were +pressed into service as drivers. Thus John happens to be a carriage +driver on this day, and the Master Workman of the Labor Union and the +Mayor are to occupy the carriage which he drives.</p> + +<p>Surely, there must be somewhere in the universe a powerful, +conscienceless being, who delights in bringing together the two beings +who, more than any others of the millions of the earth, ought to be +untold miles apart, and brings them together at that moment which of all +others in the cycle of time is the most inappropriate. Either that, or +there is a Providence who permits this disastrous meeting of uncongenial +spirits, in order that out of the collision, evil in itself, there may +come a spark of light, as when a negative pole meets a positive, and the +electric spark results.</p> + +<p>Fit or unfit, John Wysong is the driver of the carriage of the Master +Workman of the Labor Union. Thus the chief officer of an organization +whose hand had fallen heavier upon the head of John Wysong than upon any +other individual in Richmond, filling his heart with a brood of vipers, +to be fed and kept alive by continued misfortunes, is committed to his +care.</p> + +<p>The parade commences and winds from street to street, the Master Workman +and the Mayor riding at the head of the procession. Finally, they came +to a magnificent brick edifice in the course of erection. The Mayor +pointed over to the building, and said, "Now, Master Workman, that +building is a potent example of how well we have the labor situation in +hand in the South. That church edifice is one of the very finest in the +city, and is being erected by a congregation of poor Negroes, and yet, +not a brick is being laid, nor a nail being driven by a Negro. Our Labor +Union controls exclusively the work of the race to which it belongs and +has just as absolute control of the work of the other race. Our +factories make their shoes, our tailors their clothes, our machinists +their stoves, our brick-layers build their houses. Our clerks sell them +supplies, and at the same time we exclude them from all such +employment." This remark precipitated a discussion of the relation of +the Labor Union to Negro labor, and as to why the Negroes were debarred.</p> + +<p>The Master Workman, a Northerner, the honored guest of a Southern city +(an honor rarely accorded to men of the North), riding with an +ex-General of the Confederate Army, the Mayor, out-Heroded Herod in his +denunciation of Negroes, and expressed unalterable opposition to their +ever being allowed to enter the Unions. He said, "The home, the +fireside, is the dearest spot to the Anglo-Saxon, and in his family all +his pride centers. Through centuries the Anglo-Saxon has been evolving +his ideals and sentiments concerning home life and the place it should +occupy socially in the congregation of other homes. In order to sustain +these ideals a larger amount of money is needed than is needed to +sustain the home life of the Negro with his ideals at their present +stage of evolution. Hence, we cannot afford to enter into competition +with the Negro. For it would not be a question of dollars. It would be a +question of home against home. So we of the Labor Unions have decided +that either our homes must be crushed out or the Negro. And you know +what the Anglo-Saxon does to a weaker foe that does not accept his +standard. He simply destroys him."</p> + +<p>Here he paused for an instant, and then resumed, "But the greatest +objection we have to the Negro is that his nature does not seem to have +in it the seditious element to any appreciable degree. He will move +along patiently, enduring evils and debating his right—actually his +right—to rebel against oppression. He has an abnormal respect for +constituted authority. He does not admit to himself the inherent right +to throw off the hand of an oppressor. He stands and looks pleadingly at +him, waiting for the time to come when the better sense of the oppressor +will assert itself. He really expects for the tyrannous spirit to +develop forces within that will overthrow itself. Ignorant of history, +he does not know that the spirit of oppression will yield only to force +or the fear of it. The Anglo-Saxon has never gotten anything for which +he did not fight, or impress the party concerned that he was ready to +fight for it.</p> + +<p>"Now, our Union wants it distinctly understood that what we labor for WE +MUST HAVE. We shall have it if we ignore all laws, defy all constituted +authority, overthrow all government, violate all tradition. Our end MUST +be attained, at whatever cost. If a foe stands in our way, and nothing +will dislodge him but death, then he must die. That is the dictum of the +Anglo-Saxon. The Negro, lacking this spirit, has no place in our ranks."</p> + +<p>John Wysong had heard every word of the conversation up to this point, +but his mind could go no further. It was in a whirl. Over and over again +the words of the Master Workman rang in his ears: "If a foe stands in +our way and nothing will dislodge him but death, then he must die." The +clatter of the horses' hoofs seemed to say this; the revolving wheels of +the carriage seemed to repeat it over and over, and the hum and noise of +the city seemed to be but a loud echo of the sentiment that had fallen +into Wysong's already disordered brain. Time and again he had to be +hallooed to by the policemen to keep in the line mapped out for the +parade. His hands trembled with nervous excitement, and his eyes were +red and wild-looking.</p> + +<p>At length the parade was over. The Mayor suggested that the Master +Workman go to the City Hall and enter the tower, rising two hundred feet +in the air, so that he could have a view of the entire city. John Wysong +heard the suggestion and it made him tremble all the more violently, his +heart thumping loudly the while. "If a foe stands in our way and nothing +will dislodge him but death, then he must die," kept ringing in his +ears.</p> + +<p>The Reception Committee, in a carriage following that of the Master +Workman, went with him to the City Hall. They entered that magnificent +building and went from floor to floor, John Wysong following them, +unnoticed. They entered the tower and ascended to the small, dark room +at the very top, having a large window with a low window sill, through +which window a person looking out could command a view of the city. The +news spread that the Master Workman was going to the tower, and crowds +of holiday loungers gathered about to cheer him when he appeared at the +tower window. Others gathered to find out the meaning of this crowd, so +the throng swelled and swelled. The Master Workman and his group are now +in the small tower room. All the members of the group stand back to +allow him to look out of the large, open window. When the crowd below +sees his stalwart form appear at this window, it raises cheer after +cheer. The remainder of the group rush to the window to look out over +the Master Workman's shoulders to see the meaning of the noise and the +crowd.</p> + +<p>John Wysong, who had stood just outside of the door of the tower, saw +the rush to the window, and, the soil being prepared, the seed of murder +dropped into his heart. His breath came hot and fast. He stepped with +the stealthiness of a cat toward the group surrounding the Master +Workman. They were all intent upon the cheering crowd beneath, and did +not notice him. He pressed for room, but those he touched, having their +heads out of the window, supposed it to be a fellow committeeman, and +did not look round. John stooped down and as quick as a flash seized +hold of the Master Workman's ankles, and gave him a quick, powerful, +upward jerk that threw him forward, out of the window. As he went +tossing out, a committeeman seized his coat and held him thus for an +instant. But it was only for an instant. The committeeman pressed his +side against the window facing and held to the coat; but it began to +rip, aided by the violent, but fruitless clutching of the Master +Workman. Slowly but surely the coat was ripping.</p> + +<p>Two hundred feet below, the people were paralyzed with horror. They saw +the form of the man whom they were so wildly cheering a moment before +suspended in mid-air, sustained by a ripping coat. A thousand hearts +stood still; a thousand voices were mute; a thousand chills of terror +crept over men's shuddering frames. The coat gave way and the Master +Workman started down on his awful journey. The people turned their heads +away from the sickening sight to follow. Fifty feet from the top of the +tower the body struck a protuberance, bounded outward, and fell plump +upon the iron palings two hundred feet below, and they ran their narrow +shaped heads through his body as unconcernedly as though they were +stationed there from all eternity to receive him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>THE VISIT OF A POLICEMAN.</h3> + + +<p>The friends of the Master Workman will take his body and bury it with +all the pomp and honor due his exalted station. <i>Requiescat.</i> But we go +in quest of the young man with the awful stain of murder upon his soul. +John Wysong was not suspected of the murder. Without stopping to even +debate the matter, it was decided that in the jostle of the committeemen +to see below, the Master Workman had been accidently pushed out. There +are times when all of the attention of an entire group is focused on a +given point and such was the case when the crime just recorded was +committed. The Mayor stayed to care for the terribly mangled form of the +Master Workman and John Wysong drove the carriage to the stable, put up, +and went home. Early the next morning he went out and got a newspaper to +learn the accepted theory of the death. No thought of murder was found +in the long thrilling recital. John now felt partially relieved.</p> + +<p>Yet, though undiscovered and apparently safe on the very scene of his +crime, John was not altogether easy in mind. His conscience troubled +him. He and God were the sole partners in a terrible secret. The world +passed him by, ignorant of his deed. But it seemed to him that the +terrible load could be the more easily borne if only some one knew it +with him. He could not endure that solitary companionship with God. +Whenever he wondered if the crime would ever be known, his mind could +not run out variously to this, that or the other possible source of +detection. No, it ran straight to God; and John would not have been +surprised to hear God tell the world of his crime any day. If God had +had a subordinate, a human being to tell it, John might have thought +that God would not concern himself about making it known. As it was, the +responsibility of telling it was with God; and John looked for it to be +told any day. After God did not tell it, John began to think that God +was waiting on him to tell it. If he did not tell it he felt that his +punishment would be twofold. But fear of his awful fate restrained him.</p> + +<p>Thus, John Wysong wandered hopelessly about the streets of Richmond day +and night. He began to grow thin and Erma soon discovered that some +sorrow was eating away his heart. She did what she could to cheer him, +but all to no avail. Erma was still at Aunt Mollie's, "taking in +washing" for a living. It barely kept her alive and caused her clothes +to be of somewhat inferior quality. John would come to see Erma, and, +sitting in front of her, seeing her working so hard, so poorly paid, so +poorly clad, would burst into tears. This would unnerve Erma and set her +to crying. She would go to John and throw her arms around him and beg +him to cheer up and not to break her heart. Her tears would serve to +cause John to quit yielding to his feelings.</p> + +<p>One day John came to Mrs. Marston's to see Erma. It was now winter and +she was in the kitchen washing out a tub of clothes. She and John were +in there alone. Her sleeves were rolled up beyond her elbows, laying +bare arms that were perfectly rounded and that tapered with exquisite +beauty. Her long black hair had become unpinned and had fallen down over +her shoulders, allowing two shapely ears to peep out; and they seemed +content with just that much liberty and just that much bondage to +anything so beautifully black as Erma's hair. Her shirt waist was +unbuttoned slightly at the throat, granting a glimpse of a neck full +worthy of partnership with that charming face and well shaped, well +poised head. Though at work she was laughing and chatting and joking +with John, trying to make him lose his moodiness. Suddenly, the kitchen +door was unceremoniously opened and a policeman stood in the doorway. +His eyes first fell on John. Absolute and unqualified terror seized John +and he shrank into a helpless heap on his chair, showing every sign of +guiltiness of a crime. Erma's heart stood still. She saw the look of +terror in John's eye and wondered what crime could be laid at his door. +Womanlike she vowed to be John's friend to the last, though knowing not +his crime. The policeman saw John looking so guiltily that he could +scarcely refrain from taking him, though, he came upon another errand. +His mission was with Erma. He turned his gaze reluctantly from John's +crouching form as though he was losing "game" rightfully his, as he +would put it. He looked Erma full in the face, not a line, not a muscle +escaping his bold gaze. As Erma's full beauty dawned upon him, he pulled +off his hat, so instinctive is man's homage to beauty. At length, having +finished his survey of Erma, he handed her a warrant summoning her to +appear in court on the morrow in a case of forgery, (the State <i>vs.</i> +James B. Lawson) as a witness for the defendant, the said James B. +Lawson. If her dead mother had stood before her she could not have been +more astounded.</p> + +<p>The policeman having fulfilled his errand turned to go. He paused to +cast a parting look at John, whom curiosity had somewhat bolstered up, +when he discovered that the policeman had business with Erma. But the +returning gaze of the policeman made him collapse again, and the +policeman never disliked anything in all his professional career so much +as he did the fact that he now had to leave that house without John +Wysong. Ever after that when he would see John on the street he would +eye him keenly as much as to say, "You belong to me," and John would +slink cowardly away. But we are just now concerned about Erma.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>BACKWARD, THEN FORWARD.</h3> + + +<p>A clear understanding of the events to transpire in the courtroom on +to-morrow, necessitates the bringing to light of some incidents that +occurred many years previous.</p> + +<p>One beautiful day two Negro girls, sisters, sauntered forth from home to +make the rounds of the dry goods stores. It was their custom to go from +store to store, inspecting fine garments, whether they had or did not +have the money to make purchases. Looking at the fine displays of goods +seemed to give these poor girls as much satisfaction as the actual +possession of them would have done. Upon returning home they would +delightedly discuss all that they had seen. As this was about the only +novelty of their humdrum existence, the mother, deeply engrossed in +aiding her husband supply the necessities of life, never interposed any +objection.</p> + +<p>At this time Ex-Governor Lawson was a young man, and was employed as +clerk in one of the clothing stores visited by these two young girls. +One of the girls impressed him as being more than ordinarily +good-looking, and he had some curiosity to know how much her looks could +be enhanced by proper attire. He made both of them presents of very +elegant and costly costumes on the condition that they should not inform +their parents as to the true source of the gift, and he further +stipulated that they should return on the morrow clad in the attire +given them by him.</p> + +<p>The taste for fine dressing having been whetted to abnormal proportions, +the girls, otherwise honest, accepted the gifts and began the first +deceptions of their lives. The beautiful girl looked like a veritable +queen when she appeared the next day. Little by little they were led on +and on, until Lawson and the girl that interested him were meeting +clandestinely, through the co-operation of her sister. It was not long +before public disgrace overtook the erring girl through the birth of a +child. That child was Erma Wysong.</p> + +<p>Dolly Smith was the sister that abetted Erma's mother in her sinful +course. The disgrace was too severe a blow for the mother of the two +girls, and she soon died of grief. The enraged father drove them away +from his house. Cast off, they appealed to the partner in their guilt +for help. He spurned them from him, and threatened to have them +imprisoned if they besought aid of him again. This action was the +occasion of Dolly Smith's vow to consecrate her whole life to the +wreaking of vengeance on the wrecker of their happiness.</p> + +<p>The clerk rose rapidly in the scale of life, soon was a merchant +himself, and later was triumphantly elected Governor of Virginia, and +more recently was appointed minister to Germany. Dolly Smith never lost +sight of him nor faltered in her purpose. Imagine, then, her wolfish joy +when his son commits his fortunes into her keeping. She feels that she +can wreck the father through the child.</p> + +<p>We now pass from the father to the son. While Erma was at Mrs. Turner's, +young Lawson became familiar with her handwriting, she having aided +Franzetta Turner and himself in addressing invitations on several +occasions. Dolly Smith knew of this, and had been faithfully laboring to +imitate Erma's handwriting. She was entirely successful, and could write +so that it would require microscopic inspection to distinguish between +the two.</p> + +<p>It was a forged letter to young Lawson that caused Mrs. Turner to +summarily dismiss Erma from her service, offering no opportunity for an +understanding. The imitation was so perfect that both Mrs. Turner and +Franzetta regarded the matter as beyond question.</p> + +<p>Now that Erma was lost to Lawson's view, Dolly began to correspond with +him, using Erma's name and handwriting. These letters represented Erma +as making advances toward Lawson, professing love for him and expressing +a desire for lifetime companionship. These letters rendered Lawson wild +with joy. He felt that the greatest blessing that the world had in store +for him, Erma's love, was at last attained.</p> + +<p>Dolly made Erma to say in these forged letters that she desired that he +settle upon her a sum of money sufficient to care for her for life in +the event that he should die or his affections should wane. Young Lawson +assured her that his love was immortal, and that she did not need +insurance against the possible loss of that. Yet he deemed it but an act +of justice to make ample provisions for her, so that she would never be +in want under any circumstances that might arise.</p> + +<p>Young Lawson at this time had only five thousand dollars in his own +right, though the prospective heir to a great fortune. He desired to +settle ten thousand dollars on Erma. He prepared a note, forged the +endorsement of a well-known firm, had the note discounted, hoping to +save enough from his liberal quarterly allowances to redeem the note at +maturity. The money was paid over to parties named, Dolly Smith having +most skillfully arranged this part of the programme. This done, the +fictitious correspondence with Erma suddenly ceased, and young Lawson +was enraged at what appeared to him to be Erma's duplicity.</p> + +<p>Dolly Smith immediately employed a business agency to institute a secret +inquiry into young Lawson's financial standing, she being confident that +he would have to resort to irregularities of some kind to raise the sum +of ten thousand dollars. This inquiry soon brought to the notice of the +firm whose signature was forged, the note of young Lawson, which +otherwise would have been unmolested until the time of maturity, so high +and unquestioned was the standing of all parties concerned in the note +transaction. Exposure and the arrest of young Lawson followed, and we +are now to attend upon his trial.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>AS LEAST EXPECTED.</h3> + + +<p>Long before the hour set for the opening of the court, a great crowd of +Richmond's most distinguished people, men and women, had gathered at the +door of the court room. They were discussing from one to the other the +alleged forgery, seeking to fathom the motive thereof, and speculating +as to the effect it would have on the family name.</p> + +<p>The attorneys for the defense had given no intimation as to their +proposed course, and speculation was rife as to what the character of +the defense would be; what, if any, would be the pleadings in mitigation +of the offense. The Commonwealth's attorney was well known to be the +bitter political enemy of the Ex-Governor, and it was thought that he +might be relied on to do all in his power to see the son suffer +according to the requirements of the law.</p> + +<p>The door of the court room was opened and every seat quickly seized upon +by the eager throng, those not getting seats content to find standing +room. Court was duly opened and the case of the State <i>vs.</i> James Benson +Lawson, charged with the forgery of the signature of the firm, Linton & +Stern, was called.</p> + +<p>Young Lawson was stationed between his mother and father, on the one +side, and his lawyers on the other. In response to a summons from the +Judge, he arose and entered the plea of "Not guilty," for the purpose, +as was afterwards explained, of having the opportunity to introduce +testimony that would provoke sympathy, though not disproving guilt.</p> + +<p>The State proceeded to make out its case, submitting the note in +question, the real signature of the firm, the testimony of experts, and +such other evidence as clearly established the fact of the forgery and +the guilt of the defendant. Thereupon the State rested its case.</p> + +<p>The defense began its presentation by introducing witnesses to testify +to the previous good standing of the defendant. Nothing more in the way +of testimonials could be desired, than the tributes paid young Lawson's +virtues by these witnesses. The impression created was that some +powerful impulsion was necessary to deflect such a worthy young man from +the path of virtue. "The motive, the motive, what was the motive?" was +the query that was engaging the thoughts of all.</p> + +<p>The name of Erma Wysong was called as a witness. A murmur of +astonishment ran around the court room, "A woman in the case! A woman in +the case!" The door of the witness room opened and Erma Wysong stepped +out of it into the court room, the cynosure of all eyes. Her surpassing +beauty at once stilled the buzzing in the room. Her hair was combed back +from her brow as if to demonstrate that that face needed no sort of +background to enhance its beauty. A plain but well-fitting dress allowed +her form to appear in its native beauty and symmetry. Erma's eyes were +opened slightly wider than usual, as if in innocent fright. If she had +suddenly developed wings and flown, the transition would have been in +keeping with the tenor of the emotions of all, prevailing for the +moment, for she possessed the charm of person which is ever associated +with the angelic. Erma had not been apprised as to the nature of the +case before the court nor as to the part she was expected to play. +Unaccustomed to court duties of any character, she was ill at ease on +this occasion, but her apparent bewilderment lent interest to her +charms.</p> + +<p>The attorneys for the defense were highly gratified at the profound +impression that Erma's beauty had made. She was escorted to the witness +chair. The tenor of the questions asked gave the public the first clue +to the probable course of the defense. Young Lawson was to be a Mark +Antony in the meshes of a Cleopatra.</p> + +<p>Erma was asked to give specimens of her penmanship, which she did +readily. She was also asked as to who wrote certain detached words and +sentences that were placed before her. She stated that they had every +appearance of being her handwriting. With the way thus paved, the +letters which Dolly Smith had written to young Lawson in Erma's name, +were produced. They were masterpieces of ingenuity and were evidently +written by a woman who knew all of the inner workings of the heart of +man. Erma sat listening in amazement at the revelation of the adroit +effort to capture young Lawson's heart, she being designated as the +culpable party.</p> + +<p>When Erma's beauty was taken into account, together with the brilliancy +and power of insinuation found in the correspondence, the auditors were +prepared to account for the downfall of young Lawson. The defense here +rested its case. To the surprise of all, the Commonwealth's attorney +signified his purpose to offer testimony in rebuttal. He also suggested +to the attorneys for the defense, in a whispered conference, that Mrs. +Lawson, the wife of the Ex-Governor, be requested to retire in view of +disclosures to be made. The retirement of Mrs. Lawson brought excitement +to the highest pitch, and sensational developments were momentarily +expected.</p> + +<p>Dolly Smith is called as a witness and takes her seat. She casts a look +of malicious triumph in the direction of the Ex-Governor. The +Commonwealth's attorney questions her as follows:</p> + +<p>"Are you acquainted with one Erma Wysong?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," was Dolly's reply.</p> + +<p>"Are you acquainted with the young woman who has just left the witness +chair?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well, is not that Erma Wysong?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. That is Erma Lawson, daughter of the Hon. Mr. Lawson, +Ex-Governor of Virginia, and Ex-Minister to Germany."</p> + +<p>The blood forsook the face of the Ex-Governor, and he looked first to +Dolly and then to Erma in a dazed sort of way. The eyes of the auditors +flashed from Erma to the Ex-Governor and back again, evidently making +comparisons. The audience was of one mind in believing that Dolly had +spoken the truth, only a cursory glance being needed to see, after the +suggestion had been once made, that Ex-Governor Lawson and Erma were +father and child. They were astonished that they had not made the +comparison on their own initiative.</p> + +<p>"Are you acquainted with the prisoner at the bar?" resumed the lawyer.</p> + +<p>"I am."</p> + +<p>"State the circumstances under which you formed his acquaintance."</p> + +<p>Dolly now entered into a detailed statement of all her dealings with +Lawson, setting forth his purposes with regard to Erma.</p> + +<p>"Who wrote those letters read here to-day?"</p> + +<p>"I wrote them. Erma knew nothing of them until she heard them in this +trial."</p> + +<p>"Erma, then, has not been a party to the inveiglement of this young +man?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. On the contrary, he endeavored to make a victim out of her, +and he has been victimized."</p> + +<p>"How did young Lawson happen to approach you?"</p> + +<p>"Many years ago I first acted as procuress for his father, my own sister +being the victim. Perhaps information as to what I could do came to him +from his exemplary father."</p> + +<p>The Commonwealth here stated that the evidence was all in, and if +agreeable to the defense, the case would be submitted to the jury +without argument. The defense, however, desired to make one speech, the +prosecution waiving its right to make reply. The speech as prepared by +the leading counsel for the defense was not delivered. The case of his +client was ignored altogether, and a stirring invective was delivered +against Dolly Smith.</p> + +<p>As torrent after torrent of scathing rebuke rolled forth from the lips +of the speaker, Dolly Smith writhed as one under the severest physical +torture. Feeling unable to longer endure the ordeal, she arose and fled +toward the door. As if by a common impulse, the throng of spectators +surged about her.</p> + +<p>"Tar and feathers!" some one suggested.</p> + +<p>The cry was taken up, and soon all were loudly clamoring for "tar and +feathers!" Tar and feathers were procured and applied to Dolly, who was +now screaming at the top of her voice and striking wildly in the air. +She was soon overpowered and, followed by a hooting mob of men and boys, +was led to the railway station, where she was placed upon the first +outgoing train, with emphatic instructions to never again show her face +in Richmond.</p> + +<p>The train went rumbling out, bearing its unpopular burden. While the +train was crossing a high bridge a few miles from Richmond, Dolly rushed +upon the platform of the car in which she had been riding, huddled into +one corner, and, leaping into the air, descended upon the unyielding +rocks at the bottom of a deep gorge, whereupon her soul bade her body an +eternal farewell, leaving it as food for such fowls of the air as should +see fit to feed thereon.</p> + +<p>To return to the trial, young Lawson, after conviction, was solemnly +sentenced by the Judge to a term in the State prison. The Ex-Governor +experienced such a shock from the occurrences that his mind became +unbalanced. He went forth from the court room a complete mental wreck, +and wandered aimlessly about the streets of Richmond, piteously +repeating to any one who would take time to listen: "The fathers have +eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."</p> + +<p>It developed that Dolly Smith was the purchaser of the home of Erma and +John, and, through a provision in her will, it was now restored unto +them. The storm of life bursting over their heads experiences a lull. +But be not deceived thereby. The Storm King is crafty.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>AN AWFUL RESOLVE.</h3> + + +<p>Erma is reinstated at Mrs. Turner's. That lady's heart is now drawn to +Erma with peculiar warmth, as if in atonement for her previous harsh +judgment and maltreatment. Mrs. Turner is a firm believer in the +transcendant greatness of the aristocratic blood of the South, and the +presence of Ex-Governor Lawson's blood in Erma's veins doubly endeared +Erma to her. Thus it came about that Erma was treated more on the order +of one under Mrs. Turner's special care than as a servant. Very +frequently the white citizens of Richmond called at Mrs. Turner's in +order to see the beautiful Negro girl that was said to be the daughter +of Ex-Governor Lawson. Erma was so clever in conversation that all went +away admiring her, but ascribing her cleverness to her white parentage, +an appropriation that is often made whenever a notable performance comes +from a person of mixed blood. But amid all this, Erma Wysong was by no +means a happy girl. Her brother had at last confessed to her his awful +crime and had thus rolled that crushing stone upon her heart. In +addition to her sorrow over the fact that John, <i>her</i> John, was a +murderer, he had left it with her to tell him what steps to take.</p> + +<p>After his confession to Erma, John's weight on his own heart materially +lessened. He had put the matter into the hands of Erma and he felt that +Erma's love for him and her love for God would effect such a compromise +as to bring him back to favor with God. While naturally deeply concerned +as to what Erma was to have him do, yet he felt that somehow all would +be well, because ERMA had the matter in charge. Two or three times a +week he would visit her, saying nothing of his crime, but hoping that +she was ready with her decision. Her loving heart was touched with this +childlike trust on the part of her brother. Erma also felt that the eyes +of her mother were looking down upon her from the skies watching every +step that she was taking concerning John, whom her mother had commended +to her care with her latest breath. "Be faithful to John's soul, Erma," +were the last words that escaped the lips of the dying mother. Then, +too, Erma felt that the eyes of God were upon her. And yet again she +remembered that she was a member of organized society; was in possession +of the knowledge of an awful crime against society and therefore owed +something to society. How much? was the great question. Thus, in +settling this terrible matter she had to deal with her own heart full of +love for John; had to deal with John's simple, trusting soul; with the +sacred memory of her mother; with the will of God; with the demands of +organized society calling loudly for her guilty brother.</p> + +<p>Sleepless nights, weary tossings, the all-night prayers, the tear-bathed +pillows were testimonials to the terrific conflict raging within Erma's +bosom. At one time she had about argued her brother innocent to her +satisfaction. She reasoned thus: The Labor Union drove her brother from +employment at the Bilgal works, debarred him from leaving the city to +find other work of the kind, drove him to the seat on the carriage where +he overheard the Labor Union argument which corrupted his soul. Then she +argued that the policy of the Union was nothing more nor less than a +cold-blooded attempt at murder by starvation, as its principles +universally applied would result in the starvation of all Negroes. Her +brother's blow, then, was a blow in self-defense, a blow to strike down +that being that was driving him to the water's edge and threatening to +overwhelm him therein. But these arguments were destined to be soon +overthrown in her mind.</p> + +<p>Announcement was made that Booker T. Washington, her former teacher at +Tuskegee, would lecture in Richmond on the "Race Problem." Erma went to +this lecture. Mr. Washington delivered a strong address showing how the +situation of the Negro was not altogether a hopeless one, and showing +the audience how the Negro could, if he would, pull up with all the odds +against him; how that there was no need for moping and despondent +brooding. This Erma felt was a home thrust for John, for it was just +this that had made his soul ripe for his crime. As Mr. Washington drew +to the close of his remarks, his voice began to change from the earnest +to the passionate. In tones full of the passionate fire of the orator, +coupled with the pathos welling up out of a grieved soul, he said by way +of peroration,</p> + +<p>"After all, after all, it may be that the Negro has chosen the best +weapon for the attainment of his rights and privileges. The Nihilist of +Russia appeals to his bomb of dynamite; the American Indian to his +tomahawk; but the American Negro has dropped upon his knees in his one +room cabin and has sent up a prayer to God. After all, may it not be +that his anguish torn face and sorrow-laden prayer of faith are better +weapons than the bomb of the Russian Nihilist and the tomahawk of the +Indian?"</p> + +<p>This one remark determined Erma. As she now saw it, John's error was in +adopting the motto of that Anglo-Saxon Master Workman, "If a foe stands +in our way and nothing will dislodge him but death, then he must die." +Then the thought flashed over her mind that the Anglo-Saxon race, whose +every advancing footstep had been planted in a pool of blood, was about +to impart its mercilessness to the Negro, a being of another mould. And +John was the first victim over whom the bloody shadow had cast itself. +She was determined to return John into the ways of his fathers. He was +to renounce the pathway of blood and have recourse to God. Erma +determined to have John Wysong confess his crime and take his chances +before a court of justice, trusting to God to befriend her and him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>A POLITICAL TRICK.</h3> + + +<p>"Hello, Christian, old boy. I am truly glad to see you back."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, friend Stewart, thank you. I confess that I am much more +than glad to be back. I would not have missed being here this year for +anything. Why, we are to have a Railroad Bill before us and the question +of electing a United States Senator, and nobody wants to miss good +things like those."</p> + +<p>"You are right. But from the way the papers read, you were having a hot +time of it, and we all gave you up as a gone chap, once. How on earth +did you pull through?"</p> + +<p>Horace Christian's face took on a serious expression, and he looked +around and around anxiously, and said, "Come with me over to my room, +Stewart, and I will tell you the whole story. The thing isn't altogether +to my credit, but I can trust a chap like you."</p> + +<p>Such was a conversation that took place in front of the State Capitol at +Richmond at the close of the first day's session of the Legislature. The +sun was just down and flashing a defiant look backward on coming night. +The speakers were two members of the House of Delegates. The time is but +a short period subsequent to John Wysong's confession to Erma.</p> + +<p>Horace Christian was slightly below the medium in stature, had dark eyes +and facial features of the most commonplace type. There was no marked +peculiarity about him, nothing that would so impress you that you could +point him out again if you saw him in a crowd. The two locked arms and +went walking out of the Capitol yard, and over to Christian's room in +Ford's Hotel. Once there, they locked the door to his room and took +seats at a table in the center of the room. Christian offered +Stewart a cigar, and taking one himself, lighted it, and leaning back in +his chair, threw one leg over the table. Sitting thus, his hat on his +head, he began his story, the gloom of evening fast creeping on.</p> + +<p>"Well, Stewart, my election came about in this way. You know my district +is a very close one, and a fellow's election is determined by a very few +votes. On previous occasions I had paid out a little money and bought up +the Negro vote to such an extent as to secure my election. But this time +the Republicans put up as their candidate an ex-general in the +Confederate Army. An Ex-Confederate who confesses to the error of his +ways and joins the Republicans can always rely on the Negroes killing +the fatted calf for him. So my opponent was just sweeping things before +him. I began to look upon my candidacy as a forlorn hope, until an idea, +which I regarded as a brilliant one, flashed into my mind.</p> + +<p>"You know, Stewart, the Negro's weak point is gratitude to the white +man. That point in the Negro race is over developed. I have noticed that +a merchant can keep a Negro's trade forever by merely speaking to him +kindly. The Negro seems to feel that he owes the white man his trade for +that friendly greeting, and he will not quit trading with him to trade +with a member of his own race. A smile from a white man will go farther +toward getting a Negro's trade than a day's pleasant conversation from +another Negro, the Negro feels so grateful for the condescension of the +white man. If a white man cuts off a Negro's leg, expresses sorrow for +it, and gives him a cork one, accompanied with a kindly pat on his +shoulder, that Negro feels under a debt of gratitude to that white man +all his days. I reasoned, then, that my only salvation lay in doing +something to get the gratitude of the Negro. Just now all the gratitude +of the Negroes is lavished upon Southern whites who denounce lynching. I +decided to get an anti-lynching record. But I could not get that record +without a lynching. If I was to get to the Legislature and have a finger +in the pie, I must have a lynching. The question had reduced itself to +this simple proposition; no lynching, no seat in the Legislature, or a +lynching and a seat in the Legislature. I argued with myself that it +would not matter so much with the universe if one more innocent Negro +were lynched. Just one more name to the long list of innocents slain +would not be such a great addition. Besides, I argued, if the lynching +spirit goes on, some innocent Negro will soon be lynched and nothing +gained, but in my case there is something to gain—a seat in the +Assembly at a most opportune time.</p> + +<p>"Having toned my conscience down, I began to concoct my scheme. Of +course, that was the easiest part of the job. You know that in the +chivalrous South whenever a white woman throws out a hint against a +Negro, he might as well make his will. I decided to take advantage of +this chivalrous feeling and make it serve my purposes. A false charge +was trumped up against a Negro, and he was soon in the hands of a mob. +According to prearranged plans, the Negro was being led forth to the +place where he was to be hanged, when I came upon the scene and besought +the mob to halt. This they did, and listened to remarks from me, +denunciatory of their proposed actions. Only the leaders knew of my true +relation to the whole affair.</p> + +<p>"The fury of the mob had been aroused to such a pitch that nothing could +induce them to desist. That Negro did look at me so appealingly, +evidently regarding me as his only possible hope. Finally the crowd +became impatient at listening to my harangue. They started off with the +Negro. I then drew my pistol as if about to kill and be killed for his +sake. I was overpowered in short order; but that one deed, the drawing +of that pistol, has made me solid forever. The poor Negro was taken near +the scene of the alleged crime and was hanged and riddled with bullets.</p> + +<p>"That night I could not sleep. About twelve o'clock I got out of the bed +and dressed. The moon was gleaming down upon the earth. Something drew +me irresistibly to the scene of the lynching. The murdered Negro was yet +hanging there, and by the light of the moon struggling through the +treetops and falling in spangles over his form, I saw a horrible sight. +The face was ploughed up with bullets, his eyes were bulging out, his +stomach was ripped open and his entrails were visible. On his breast +there was a placard, and an inward voice seemed to say to me, 'Read!' +With my hair rising on my head and the strangest feeling I ever had in +my life stealing over me, I crept up to the body. I could not see +distinctly, so I struck a match and read these words: 'Whatsoever a man +soweth, that shall he also reap.' I looked up at the bulging eyes, and +they seemed to be trying to speak to me and say, 'Thou art the man.' My +strength failed me, and I fell forward, and, clutching at anything to +keep from striking the ground, caught hold of the dead Negro. My weight, +added to his, broke the rope, and we fell down together, my head getting +caught under his mangled form.</p> + +<p>"But, Stewart, the story is too uncanny. I can't go on with it!" His +voice now grew loud and wild. "I would like to tell you about my dream. +Oh! it was awful. But I can't tell it to you! That queer feeling is +stealing over me. My hair is rising now. Don't you hear my teeth +chattering! Light the lamp! Light the lamp, Stewart!" Christian was now +standing up, grasping the table in terror, and shaking like an aspen +leaf.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a rap was heard at the door. Christian cried out with the +terror of a child, "Oh, don't open that door, Stewart, don't! That +nigger will come in!" Stewart lighted the lamp, and this had the effect +of restoring Christian to his normal condition. Christian now went to +the door and opened it himself.</p> + +<p>"Why, Speaker Lanier! Come in, Mr. Speaker, come in; your call does me a +signal honor," he said. Mr. Lanier was a large, tall man, of grave +aspect, and of a commanding appearance. "Be seated, Mr. Lanier, be +seated." Speaker Lanier sat down and let his eyes rove around the room. +He caught sight of the grave look on Stewart's face, and inquired the +cause.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing, Mr. Speaker. A nigger stood in the way of my coming to the +Legislature, so I just killed him. I have been telling Stewart about +it," said Christian.</p> + +<p>"In cold blood?" asked Lanier.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's a small matter about the sort of blood," laughed Christian. +"Killing a nigger does not amount to anything. A man isn't popular these +days unless he kills a nigger. I have got mine." Lanier looked at +Christian contemptuously. The subject was so disgusting that he hastened +to discard it at once.</p> + +<p>"Say, boys," said Lanier. "I have just come from the house of Ex-Mayor +Turner's wife, and she has sent me to you all on the queerest mission +possible. It comes about in this way.</p> + +<p>"You know she has staying with her, a Negro girl, Erma Wysong, who is +currently believed to be the daughter of Ex-Governor Lawson. This girl +has so favorably impressed Mrs. Turner and has so elevated the opinion +of the people as to the capabilities of Negroes, that Mrs. Turner has +decided to use a number of Negro girls to kill off inimical legislation +relative to the Negro race, which legislation threatens them at this +session. You know a determined effort will be made to pass a separate +coach bill; and also a law so dividing the school funds that Negro +children shall get only that proportion of school money that comes from +taxes paid on Negro property. Of course that means death to the Negro +schools. Well, Mrs. Turner wishes to defeat these bills and desires to +have the credit of the performance. Here is her idea. She holds that the +social tie has been the assuager of all racial antagonisms in history +and that what makes the Negro Race Problem so hard of solution is that +the social factor is missing and ever shall be.</p> + +<p>"She has decided to employ this idea of the power of social influence in +dealing with the pending legislation. She wishes to hold at her house a +number of fetes at which no one shall be present but about twenty young +Negro women of the very purest and highest type in their race, together +with an equal number of the leaders in the Legislature. She wishes to +bring you all together in this secret way for a purpose which she +regards as lofty, even to the sublime.</p> + +<p>"Of course, as Speaker, I am not supposed to influence legislation too +strongly in a partisan way, so I shall not be asked to the fetes. But +you fellows can go to talk with and listen to the girls. One thing, +coming in contact with the better element of the race, you can form a +more correct opinion of it. What say you, boys?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am in for it, Hon. Mr. Speaker, I am in for it. I need something +to divert my mind this session. What do you say, Stewart?" remarked +Christian.</p> + +<p>"Well, after your weird tale, I need a diversion, too. So put me down as +all right. When the music starts, I will be there to dance."</p> + +<p>"One thing, boys, I was asked to say to you, by all means. You are asked +to pledge your most sacred honor to me on two things: first, you are not +to breathe the matter to your warmest friends; second, as the honor of +Mrs. Turner's house is at stake, you are implored by her to pledge me +upon <i>your honor</i> to treat the girls as ladies. They come from the best +homes, and a misfortune would be a most damaging and blighting affair. +Do you promise?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; we promise you faithfully," said Christian, winking slyly at +Stewart.</p> + +<p>"Well, that is all settled, then," said Lanier. "By the way," he +continued, "you will find that Erma Wysong a gem. She is as beautiful as +a mermaid and as gifted as any girl I ever met. She made a strange +request of me just as I was leaving. She caught hold of my hand and +said, excitedly, with a pleading look in her eyes, 'Mr. Lanier, they +tell me that you are a great man, a man of wide influence. Will you +promise an orphan girl, sorely troubled at heart, that you will use your +powerful influence in her behalf if ever she stands in need of it and if +such action will not violate your sense of right?' A man with a heart of +stone could not have resisted such pleadings as that from such a source. +I gave my most solemn word, and when the time comes, be it soon or late, +I shall redeem it. Well, boys, I must hurry away. I have an appointment +with the Lieutenant Governor as to some matters to come up in the Senate +to-morrow. Remember your pledges. Good night."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>PAVING THE WAY.</h3> + + +<p>Because Erma Wysong had found favor in the eyes of the rich white people +of Richmond, the colored girls were now ready to receive her back with +open arms, though in their hearts opposed to her. True, they grumbled +about white folks honoring a servant girl and felt that they, the +"anti-workers," the brain force, should have been recognized as +representatives of the highest type of Negro womanhood. But grumble as +much as they might, they bowed to the decree of the whites exalting +Erma. So, when Erma came to them with Mrs. Turner's proposal concerning +social fetes with the legislators, they received her kindly. The +clandestine meeting with the legislators, though for a most worthy +cause, looked decidedly shady to these girls, but when they remembered +that the widow of the Ex-Mayor suggested it and would be in it +throughout, they threw qualms of conscience to the winds and decided to +embark upon the enterprise.</p> + +<p>The affair was not at all to Erma's liking, but four things influenced +her. First, she had the most implicit confidence in Mrs. Turner, and +from experience had learned that her motives were always pure and +exalted and her judgment usually sound. Second, she was profoundly +concerned about the education of the Negro children and felt that that +was a matter that had the right to command any sacrifice not involving +the loss of character. Third, she was anxious for the moulders of public +sentiment to meet, if not but for the once, the purity and intelligence +of the race, the character of a people being so largely judged by their +women. Fourth, the overshadowing thought that swept away the last +vestige of resistance was Erma's hope that she could use these fetes as +a place where she could extend her influence over men of high standing +and great influence who could be of service to her and to John when he +was to walk at her bidding within the shadow of the gallows. So the +affair was launched upon a grand scale, though conducted with the +greatest secrecy. The young legislators responded with alacrity to each +of the numerous calls that Mrs. Turner made. The girls would attend the +Legislature each day, listen to the various speeches, and at the fetes +discuss them intelligently with the young men.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Turner was delighted with her scheme, and noticed how respectful, +deferential and truly gallant were the young men. No personal appeals +were made to any of them to change their votes, but these fetes afforded +the Negro girls the opportunity of putting the questions from the view +point of their race. This could not be done on the floor of the +Legislature as the Negroes had no representation there. Erma with her +quiet, sweet, genial, charming face moved about among them winning the +deepest regard of all. Margaret Marston, a girl whom you have met before +in our story, was one of the twenty, and distinguished herself by her +costly attire. Her costumes were incomparably finer than those worn by +any of the other girls.</p> + +<p>At length the day for voting on the two measures came. All Richmond and +the State at large were aroused over the question of dividing the school +fund and the providing of separate coaches for colored people. The +debate waxed warm and furious. Excitement ran high as man after man +arose and spoke in ringing tones in denunciation of the measures. When +the measures in their turn were submitted to a vote they were defeated +by safe majorities. Loud and long was the applause, (especially so in +one corner of the ladies' gallery) when the result of the vote was +announced. It was conceded by all that the speech of the day was +delivered by the Hon. Horace Christian. He spoke with so much eloquence +and power and so far excelled his every previous effort, that friend and +foe united in giving him unstinted praise. Mrs. Turner gave a fete of +extraordinary brilliancy in commemoration of the fact that her end had +been achieved, for she was indeed happy. That was a happy occasion that +night. The very atmosphere seemed charged with joy.</p> + +<p>There are spots on the sun.</p> + +<p>In one corner of the room on a divan sat Margaret Marston and Horace +Christian. Margaret's womanly form was wearing its most lovely drapery +on this occasion. Her rounded forehead and black curly hair were +befitting capstones of this splendid specimen of physical beauty. +Margaret's large, lustrous, eyes are now cast down upon her fan, with +which she is toying nervously. She is speaking in a somewhat low tone to +Mr. Christian. She half murmurs, "Yes, Mr. Christian I have been trying +ever so hard to get near you all the evening. I must, Oh I must +congratulate you on that speech. It was most masterly." Her manner and +her tones, not her words, awakened sinister thoughts in Mr. Christian. +He looked down at Margaret, intently, searchingly. Her eyes would not +meet his. She continued, "Oh, it was just grand! I could have-could +have-just-just kissed you. There, now, it is out." So saying she arose +and casting a timid look in his direction went to another part of the +room and avoided his gaze the rest of the evening. The party broke up +joyously, and happy people went home to peaceful slumbers. But the +serpent had crept into the Garden of Eden. These fetes went on during +the entire session, Mrs. Turner fearing that an attempt might be made to +resurrect the bills and pass them. It was afterwards remembered that on +two or three occasions all of the young women were present but Margaret +and that on these same occasions Horace Christian was likewise away.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>JOHN WYSONG CONFESSES.</h3> + + +<p>The session of the Legislature came to a close, leaving the separate +coach law and the bill for dividing the school funds buried under +adverse votes. During the session Erma had won the esteem and friendship +of persons high up in business, social and political life, and she felt +that she could rely upon them to do all within their power to give John +Wysong a fair and impartial trial, and felt that they would co-operate +with her to secure for him the very lightest sentence possible.</p> + +<p>Erma had John to come to her room. She told him of the long list of her +influential friends, and showed him how each one could be of service to +them in the time of need. She then told him that as he had violated the +laws of organized society, which laws the Bible commanded him to obey, +he ought to suffer for his crime. She told him that by going to the +authorities and surrendering he would commend himself to their sympathy. +She felt, too, that the Master Workman's treatment of John, if brought +out in court, would serve to mitigate the heinousness of the offense in +the eyes of the jury. Thus John, willing to suffer many years' +imprisonment for a crime which his soul had so long since repudiated, +hopeful of a merciful sentence, having faith in Erma and her friends, +trusting in God, went down to the police station and electrified the +nation with the full confession of his crime. He was placed under arrest +and remanded to jail for trial.</p> + +<p>At first the tone of the daily press was somewhat sympathetic; and +thereupon the various Labor Unions became enraged. The printers +belonging to the Unions and working for these newspapers refused to set +up articles calculated to create sentiment in John Wysong's favor. They +even threatened to strike and boycott the papers showing friendliness to +the Negro that had murdered their Master Workman. The newspapers, +finding the current of public sentiment too strong to breast, turned, +and their columns began to be filled with inflammatory articles. Even +the vicious element of the city was aroused and Erma's group of personal +friends became powerless. Mr. Lanier, the Speaker, worked like a Trojan +in a quiet way, but his efforts were of no avail. The case drifted into +a race question and not one of justice and mercy, a happening that so +often occurs where two distinct races live together.</p> + +<p>At length the day for the trial of John Wysong came. He was duly +arraigned, tried and convicted of murder in the first degree, the jury +(nine of them being Union men and all being white) not leaving its seat. +The penalty was assessed at death on the gallows and sentence was duly +passed that John Wysong, thirty days from that date, be hanged by the +neck until dead.</p> + +<p>Poor Erma.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>ADDED SORROWS.</h3> + + +<p>Gentle reader, we could not if we would, and we would not if we could, +lead you through the darkened chambers of Erma's soul on the days +succeeding the trial and sentence of her brother. The aching of the +cords of love that bound her to John, the fear of the reproach of her +dead mother, the jubilation of the mob, the seeming abandonment of her +by Providence, were too much for her human frame, and she fell +dangerously ill, adding bodily to spiritual afflictions. It was anguish +to those whose duty it was to sit by her bedside at her home. One day +when Erma was resting a little more quietly than usual, those in +attendance upon her handed her a sealed letter, the envelope being one +of mourning. Erma looked at the letter fearfully, and turned her eyes, +now full of tears, up to God, as if in reproach of the way he was +allowing the millstones to grind her to powder. Erma was trembling as +she tore open the letter and sought first of all for the signature. The +letter was from Margaret Marston. It read thus:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Erma</span>:</p> + +<p>"Our family physician came to see me this morning, and he tells +me that I am a ruined girl. I know only too well that all he +says is true. So I am going to New York to do I know not what. +I write you this letter to beg you to forgive me for a wrong +which I perpetrated against you long since. You will remember +that our doctor, who was here to witness my disgrace this +morning, had you put out of church because you went to work. I +was the one who worked up that sentiment against you and caused +your ejection. I, the one who was above work, trying to act +like the white society girl, should have been thrown out +instead of yourself. It was my idleness, my failure to earn +money, my attempt to keep up with the fashions set by the +wealthy that has wrought my ruin. Horace Christian, whom we met +at Mrs. Turner's fete, won my love. My love of him, coupled +with my desire to dress, my poverty, my failure to seek such +work as abounded, my idleness and that peculiar influence which +a distinguished man of a distinguished race exercises over a +poor girl too appreciative of what appears to her a +condescension—these things were forces too powerful for me to +resist, and so I fell. Erma, never allow Mrs. Turner to bring +our girls into such contact again, as a young white man has +nothing on earth to deter him from wrecking our homes. There is +no penalty for his offense before the law nor in society. No +sort of ostracism overtakes him anywhere for taking advantage +of the weaknesses of Negro girls. How free the young white man +feels under existing social conditions to prey upon our morals! +Our families are so filled with contempt over our disgrace that +they seek not to avenge our fall. So, I go on my downward +journey, and Mr. Christian moves upward to the highest places +within the gift of his people. Do what you can, Erma, to see +that a similar fate overtakes not another girl. Farewell.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Margaret.</span>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>"Let me up! Let me up!" cried Erma, springing from the couch on which +she lay.</p> + +<p>Despite the protests and the determined resistance of her attendants, +Erma was soon dressed and walking rapidly toward Mrs. Turner's. Her +attendants, thinking that the shock had perhaps cured Erma of her +troubles, which were more mental than physical, contented themselves +with following her at a distance. She entered Mrs. Turner's home, and +said, "Mrs. Turner, I trusted your word that you were introducing us to +gentlemen. Now behold the work of Horace Christian." She thereupon +handed Mrs. Turner the letter, and waited anxiously for her comment.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Turner's face flushed with anger as she read of the baseness of +Horace Christian. She said, "Erma, I cannot recall Margaret Marston to a +pure existence, 'tis true, but I shall see to it that the same +punishment is meted to that scoundrel Christian that would befall him if +Margaret were my own daughter Franzetta. The honor of my home is +involved, and be assured that we have come upon one white man, the +despoiler of a Negro home, that shall not escape unpunished. Trust that +to me. Ah, Erma! I fear that the social factor must be ever missing in +the solution of your race problem. Wherever and whenever, in other +countries, race problems have arisen (and there have been many such to +arise), the softening influences of the marriage tie and social +intermingling have acted upon the icebergs of race prejudice like a +southern sun. But my efforts prove that this factor must ever be +missing. It is sad, sad, sad, but it is inevitable. The marriage tie we +do not want. All social functions gravitate in that direction, we see; +the two cannot be disassociated. As we do not desire the one, we must +not tolerate the other, I find at so sad a cost. I wash my hands of the +attempt. God knows that my heart was true. But, Christian! Christian! +Tremble, wretch, wherever you are! Stay, Erma, I wish to call up Mr. +Lanier." She went to the telephone and called up Mr. Lanier, urging him +to come to her house at once. He came, and Erma retired to another room +while they talked. They were thus engaged for about three hours. +Finally, they called in Erma. There was a happy, relieved look on Mrs. +Turner's face, and a grave one on Lanier's.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lanier said, "Miss Wysong, Mrs. Turner has told me all. By the heart +of my sainted mother, and upon the honor of my virgin sister, I swear to +you that Margaret Marston shall be avenged. Again, let me say that, to +my mind, your brother is entitled to mercy, and he shall not hang."</p> + +<p>Erma sprang to Mr. Lanier's side, grasped him by the arm and looked +searchingly into his face, but he said no more. Bidding the two adieu, +he left, haunted by Erma's beautiful face, where all the sorrow of the +world seemed to have taken up its abode.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3>SPEAKER LANIER.</h3> + + +<p>Lanier walked forth from Mrs. Turner's house an enraged man. Horace +Christian's slighting reference to his (Christian's) having killed a +Negro came back to him now. Christian's utter disregard of the solemn +promise made to him relative to treating the Negro girls as ladies +intensified Lanier's contempt for his moral nature. Before taking any +action he decided to find out all about each of these crimes of +Christian, the killing of the Negro and the betrayal of Margaret +Marston.</p> + +<p>Christian had not gone away from Richmond as yet, though the Legislature +had adjourned. Lanier called to see him and at first engaged him in a +conversation on subjects of minor importance to throw him off his guard. +Later he found it convenient to address him as follows: "By the way, +Christian, you have never told me about that frolic you had with that +Negro. You were telling Stewart about it when I called to see you at the +first of the legislative session just closed."</p> + +<p>Christian said, "Excuse me, Mr. Lanier, but the deed was too +cold-blooded to be mentioned. The darky had never done me a bit of harm +and I have never gotten over what I did."</p> + +<p>"I suppose that that is what made you so gay this session. I have heard +of your little intrigue with Margaret Marston."</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha, ha! Have you heard of that? I did not know it was out. I +suppose there will soon be a young African calling me daddy. Ha! Ha! +Ha!"</p> + +<p>Lanier was so disgusted with Christian that he could hardly repress +manifestations of his repugnance. He found some way of excusing himself +and went to his own room. He locked himself up in his room and walked to +and fro. He had two great problems on his hands. One was to save John +Wysong from the gallows, the other was to kill Horace Christian. At +length a plan suggested itself to him, and he grasped his hat to examine +into its feasibility. He went down to the jail in which John Wysong was +incarcerated, and being an intimate acquaintance of the jailer, he was +allowed to visit John privately in his cell. In fact, the jailer owed +his appointment to Lanier's influence. Lanier had John Wysong to stand +up. He eyed him closely from head to foot. He then had John to turn his +back to him, which Lanier examined thoroughly. He next examined his +hands and his feet. He reached in his vest pocket and drew out a tape +line with which he measured John accurately and thoroughly, taking a +record of the measurements. Having obtained the information he desired +he started to leave, when he caught sight of a burned place behind +John's ear. He stopped and looked at that closely. He then said to John, +"If the jailer seeks to cut off your hair you must not let him. Plead +with him to the very last. Your life depends upon it." So saying he gave +another scrutinizing look at John and then left. From the jail he went +to the tailor shop where a number of the legislators always had their +clothes made. He took the book in which the tailor kept the measurements +of his regular customers and on the pretence of copying his own +measurements, copied those of Christian. He now took these to his room +and placed them before him, by the side of those of John Wysong. He was +astonished at how the two ran together, only differing by half and +quarter inches. He paid Christian a visit and while they indulged in +ordinary chat he noticed every feature of Christian's face. John +Wysong's lips were larger than those of Christian, while their noses +were about the same size. There was just a shade of difference in the +color of their eyes. Christian's cheeks were not quite as full as those +of John. Other than this, if Christian were black there would be +scarcely anything to distinguish him from John, as John was a Negro of +the most common place type as to features and Christian was a white man +of the same mould. Of course there was a world of difference as to their +hair. Lanier was now convinced that shrewd management would enable him +to carry out his plans.</p> + +<p>Knowing where the jailer's mother lived he boarded a train and went to +that place. Lanier found a person suited to his purpose and left in his +possession a telegram to the jailer informing him that a dying mother +desired to see him. This telegram was dated the day before John Wysong +was to be executed and was to be sent on that day in time for the jailer +to catch the afternoon train leaving for his mother's home. By another +device he so arranged as to get the death watch who had had special care +of John out of the way. He next bought a quantity of a solution which is +said to be used by burglars and criminals in general of the white race, +who at any time desire to pass for Negroes. The secret of the compound +was guarded so closely that Lanier experienced considerable difficulty +in getting hold of it. But he secured a large quantity of it, as well as +the counter solution enabling him to cleanse himself quickly and thus +become white again. He now goes to Christian on the day before John +Wysong was to be hanged and said:</p> + +<p>"Christian, let us have a little frolic to-night; let us get our hair +cut real close, paint ourselves black all over, using a solution which I +have. I have another solution which will cleanse us immediately. Let us +go among the darky belles and have a good time."</p> + +<p>"Bully, Lanier, bully. I am in for it. Since Margaret left I have had +the blues. I want a little fun. But say, you are a sly chap. With your +grave looks we would not have thought anything like this was in you. +Yes, I am in for it. What time will you be here?"</p> + +<p>"At about ten o'clock. Don't fail me, now," replied Lanier.</p> + +<p>"I won't. I wish it was night now," said Christian.</p> + +<p>Lanier listened out for the news from his telegram. It came in and the +jailer went speeding out of town, but not before Lanier had gotten a +permit to see John Wysong at any time. Thanks to his other device the +regular death watch was out of the way also. That night at Christian's +room Lanier and Christian transformed themselves into "Negroes" and went +forth.</p> + +<p>Lanier said, "Christian, if we happen to get drunk to-night and are put +in the lockup you must not squeal. You must play "darky" to the last or +our enemies will get hold of it and we will be done for politically."</p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid of my squealing. I'll play darky all right. I won't +mind getting arrested and paying a fine, for the sake of the novelty of +experiencing just what a darky does go through."</p> + +<p>"All right; now, Christian, be merry. Play your part like a man."</p> + +<p>The two go to a house of ill-fame, where Christian gets beastly drunk. +Lanier slips out and goes to a place for which he had arranged +beforehand. He undresses, applies his solution and is white again. He +grasps a valise in which he has a number of things and returns to where +he left Christian. He gets him by the arm and leads him until he comes +to the jail in which John Wysong was incarcerated. He aroused the +substitute jailer and, showing him his pass, was allowed to come in. He +told the jail officials that he brought along a fellow who was going to +do a kindly act for John's sister. The two, Lanier and Christian, were +allowed to go into John Wysong's cell. Lanier left Christian in a +drunken stupor in the cell and took the jailer and death watchman <i>pro +tem</i> aside and supplied them with whiskey to drink. It was drugged and +they were both very soon unconscious. Lanier seeing that they were sound +asleep returned to John Wysong's cell. He took out a pair of clippers +and soon had all of John Wysong's hair clipped off to the scalp. He got +from his valise a wig made of Negro hair just like John's, and carefully +adjusted it to Christian's head. He took out a syringe and injected a +poison in Christian's upper lip which caused it to swell slightly. He +looked from Christian to John to see how the likeness grew. He next +injected a small quantity of the fluid into each of Christian's cheeks +and they came out. He was astonished himself at the resemblance +Christian now bore to John. He had omitted to fix the lower lip which he +now did and stood off and surveyed his work.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lanier and John together then undressed Christian, putting +Christian's clothes on John and John's clothes on Christian. Lanier now +examined the wig again and saw to it that it was so closely connected +with the scalp that only the most rigid examination would reveal that it +was a wig. He observed that the representation of the scar behind John's +neck was in exactly the right place, in the adjustment of the wig to +Christian's head. Christian's feet were somewhat smaller than John's, +but shoes were exchanged anyway, John cutting Christian's open to get +his feet into them. John did all of this without question, Erma having +so often praised Mr. Lanier and having led him to believe that he would +be largely instrumental in saving him. How little did she dream of the +way in which it was to be done. Lanier now goes back to the drunken +jailer and watchman, takes his seat as though he had never moved and +finally arouses them from their slumber, joking them about being able to +stand only a little drinking. After awhile he signifies his intention of +leaving. John Wysong, acting as drunken Christian had acted on coming +in, sat in the jail corridor waiting for Lanier. The jailer, watchman +and Lanier walked down the corridor, glancing into Wysong's cell as they +passed. The jail door was opened and Lanier and John Wysong walked +forth, leaving Christian in the cell of the doomed to die. The death +watchman drowsily took his seat by the side of the cell in which Horace +Christian was sleeping his last sleep on earth.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3>THE HANGING.</h3> + + +<p>On the night preceding the day set for John Wysong's execution, Erma did +not retire to rest. She paced to-and-fro, wringing her hands in despair. +She accused herself of having needlessly murdered her own brother, of +having cast him into the midst of ravenous beasts, destitute of +conscience and of feeling. She felt that Lanier had treated her +shamefully to hold out to her a ray of hope, only to snatch it away and +make the darkness all the more dark. She had not seen him nor heard from +him since the day he made her such a faithful promise at Mrs. Turner's +residence, whither she had gone concerning Margaret. This brought +Margaret to her mind. She accused herself of being responsible for that +poor child's ruin, in that she had allowed herself to be drawn into +those social fetes in the hope of saving her brother. Instead of saving +him, she had lost him, and destroyed that girl as well, she thought. As +the night wore on, her agony became more and more intense.</p> + +<p>Despair! despair! despair! Night of the soul. At the bottom of the pit +of sorrow, millions and millions, deep, Erma crawled about, bitten by +vipers put there, eyeless, to bite all the children of men whom God, for +any cause, sends to them. Upward from the bottom of this pit Erma lifted +her eyes, but the darkness was so intense that even night would have +been swallowed up and lost therein. Yes, though in her room, Erma was +nevertheless in this pit.</p> + +<p>Eventually, and without apparent cause, a calm stole over Erma, her +burden rolled away. As to why this was the case, she could not tell and +did not know. All that she knew was, the burden had gone, and a calm had +settled down upon her soul. She opened her front door and let the night +air sweep down and kiss her fevered brow.</p> + +<p>The moon, one-quarter full, was now half-way between the zenith and the +horizon. The morning star was near at hand, evidently endeavoring to +outshine its queen. The moon, not fearful of her throne, shone on in +unprovoked beauty, and the stars were watching the contest, forgetful of +the fact that the sun was soon to come forth. At length the sun burst +upon the scene; the unfinished battle was deferred until the coming +night, as more tragic scenes were to be enacted.</p> + +<p>If you wish, gentle reader, you may stay in Erma's company on the day of +the execution, but we prefer to hasten away. Early in the morning, the +newspaper reporters gathered at the jail in great numbers. They were +allowed inside, and stationed themselves where they could see through +the bars of John Wysong's cell. At length Horace Christian awoke from +his drunken stupor, and gazed blankly around him. At first he did not +know what to make of his surroundings. Glancing at his hands, he noticed +that they were black. Then it all came to him, how that he was playing +"darky" on the night previous. In all likelihood he had gotten into a +drunken brawl, and had been arrested, he thought. He decided to play +"darky" all the way through. He looked through the bars and saw the +group of reporters gathered there, but he did not know how to account +for their presence. Happening to rub his hand over his head, it came in +contact with hair, and he remembered distinctly of having cut his off. +He now felt that Lanier had put that hair on his head while he was +drunk, as a joke, and having escaped himself, had sent the reporters +down in order to play a prank of some sort on him. He decided that +nothing should induce him to betray his identity, preferring to take a +somewhat severe penalty first. The joke of sending the reporters was not +exactly to his liking, but he was in it, and would stick. He chuckled to +himself as he thought of the antics he was going to play, and the witty +sayings that he would throw out in the police court at his trial that +morning.</p> + +<p>"Have you any message to give to the world through our paper?" asked a +reporter.</p> + +<p>"Yes, tell 'em dat you saw me, but you didunt see me saw."</p> + +<p>"Can you talk with such levity on an occasion like this?" asked another.</p> + +<p>"Boss, I don't know nuthin' 'bout yer levity. But I knows erbout dese +erkasions mos' much. De police court air my headquarters."</p> + +<p>Breakfast was brought in, and it was such a splendid repast that +Christian now knew that Lanier was playing him a joke. The jailer <i>pro +tem.</i>, acting in the place of the real jailer, gone to his mother, +brought in a new suit of clothes. Knowing that ordinary prisoners were +not treated thus, Christian feared that his identity had been disclosed, +and that they were treating him with such marked courtesy on account of +his distinction. One thing puzzled him. He could not tell where he got +that suit which he had just pulled off to put on the new one brought by +the jailer. After a while he was handcuffed and marched out of the jail, +the reading of the death warrant having been dispensed with. Here he met +a throng, numbering well up in the thousands. He began to curse Lanier +inwardly, thinking he had put an account of the episode in the papers, +and that, as a consequence, all Richmond was out to see the Hon. Horace +Christian. He bit his lip and inwardly defied any man to make him +acknowledge that he was white. He would defy Lanier himself. They +started on their march, and when they got to the corner where, turning +one way, they could go to the Police Court, much to Christian's +surprise, they turned in an opposite direction, the crowd following +them.</p> + +<p>Christian said, "Say, boss, you air gwine to de police coat by a +roundabout way." The jailer looked at him contemptuously. They soon came +in sight of an open field, in the center of which there was erected a +large gallows. People stood about it on every side as far out as the eye +could reach. A clearing had been kept open so that the jailer and his +ward might go through to the gallows uninterrupted. Christian now felt +an uneasy sensation in his bosom, that mysterious monitor that wafts to +our ears the notes of the death knell even before they are struck. +Christian walked in the direction of the gallows hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"Come along, John, come along. You must die game, you know," said the +jailer, urging him along.</p> + +<p>"Hold on, jailer," said Christian; "what does this mean?"</p> + +<p>"There is where you are going to be hanged, John. Cheer up. Don't be +uneasy. Die game."</p> + +<p>"Hanged! hanged! what in the name of God are you going to hang me for? +Do you hang a fellow for a little midnight fun?" asked Christian, +thoroughly aroused and terrified.</p> + +<p>"John, that is why you are going to be hanged. You looked upon murder as +a matter of fun."</p> + +<p>The picture of the Negro tramp whose murder he had caused for political +purposes, crowded before his gaze. He shook tremblingly and began to +stagger. "Say," he gasped, "who told on me?"</p> + +<p>"Why, you told on yourself, John."</p> + +<p>"I was a blamed fool for telling it. I must have been drunk. But say," +he continued, "are they going to mob a white man for killing a nigger +tramp?"</p> + +<p>"You mean, are they going to mob a nigger tramp for killing a white +man."</p> + +<p>"I am no Negro; I am a white man" exclaimed Christian.</p> + +<p>"That's enough. Come on." They were now at the foot of the gallows, and +Christian was the very embodiment of abject terror. He attempted to +cling to the railing on the steps leading up to the platform of the +gallows. He was whining piteously, saying, "I am a white man, I killed a +nigger; I am a white man, I killed a nigger."</p> + +<p>His complete breakdown filled the people with disgust, and they howled +in derision.</p> + +<p>"It took a cowardly wretch to commit a crime like his," said a member of +the throng. The trembling man was hurried to the trapdoor, the noose was +adjusted, the black cap put on, the trap sprung, all as quickly as +possible, the victim kicking, scratching, clawing, the little that he +could, and bellowing, "I killed a nigger! I killed a nigger!" As his +body shot down, his last words were "O God, I killed a—." The +sentence was finished in the other world. A few convulsive jerks, and +the murderer of an innocent fellow being and the despoiler of virtue had +gone to his reward.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3>WORSE THAN DEATH.</h3> + + +<p>The astounding fact brought to light in our foregoing chapter, the +successful substitution of Horace Christian, a white man, for a Negro, +John Wysong, would not, perhaps, have been so easy of accomplishment, if +its sole reliance had been the likeness which Lanier had created and the +circumstances already set forth. There were other factors that +contributed to the success of the scheme, which factors we shall now +mention in order that so remarkable an occurrence may be the more fully +understood.</p> + +<p>As a result of the Civil war, four million Negroes who had not been +permitted individual self-management or family management, who had been +rigorously prevented from developing and using collective wisdom—four +million illiterate Negroes of this description were practically given +control of State Governments that called for a high degree of +self-mastery on the part of the units of the governing force; that +demanded ability to legislate in a manner that could command the respect +of the collective wisdom of an antagonistic group, rich in examples of +exalted statesmanship.</p> + +<p>The outcome of the situation was a wedding between Thomas Jefferson and +Charles Darwin, the truism of the household thus formed being, "All men +are created equal, but the fittest survive." In order to dislodge their +former field hands who were sitting in the seats formerly occupied by +Thomas Jefferson and John C. Calhoun, the more scrupulous among the +whites were allowed to take back seats, while the less scrupulous +resorted to violence and fraud to restore the government to the hands of +its former rulers, a <i>result</i> well pleasing to all of them.</p> + +<p>It can readily be seen that conditions were propitious for the exercise +of talents not anywhere, in normal times, considered as desirable. With +the highest needs of a community apparently calling for lawlessness and +knavery; with virtue stating that she would be forever destroyed without +the protection of vice—under such conditions, in some sections of the +South, the reins of government fell into the hands of evil men and the +taint of party politics affected everything that these men touched.</p> + +<p>In this period of transition even the judiciary was sometimes +honeycombed with politics. The same blighting shadow cast itself over +the prison system where appointees were selected with regard to their +"political pull." This state of affairs will account to you for the +latitude allowed to the successful politician, Lanier, a product of his +times, in his dealing with the condemned Negro, John Wysong.</p> + +<p>Another factor in rendering the substitution so successful, was as +follows: Under the system of slavery, the whites, being interested in +the Negroes from many points of view, habitually scrutinized their +features and were adepts at distinguishing one Negro from another. When +freedom came, the necessity for close inspection passed away. The +altered demeanor of the former slave begat a species of contempt in the +former master. Thus, while self-interest under slavery led the white +man's eyes to the Negro, contempt for what he regarded as insolence led +his eyes away from him after the coming of freedom. The white woman who +coined the phrase, "All niggers look alike to me," is but an +illustration of what is here set forth.</p> + +<p>Inasmuch as that the white people generally were indisposed to give +close scrutiny to Negro countenances and were consequently deficient in +ability to readily distinguish them, Lanier, knowing these things, felt +confident of carrying out his plan of substituting Horace Christian for +John Wysong.</p> + +<p>There was one other thing that he had to fear, but the situation +contained a remedy for that, he thought. He realized that Christian upon +finding himself on the way to the gallows, would seek to inspire in the +minds of the jail officials, a doubt as to his being the proper victim. +But Lanier knew that the populace would regard it as a mere ruse to gain +time and would take the prisoner and hang him forth-with, should the +officials hesitate.</p> + +<p>Due to the foregoing circumstances, Lanier's jail delivery was eminently +successful. He had at last redeemed his pledge to Erma and had executed +his vow to mete out punishment to Horace Christian. But his work was not +yet complete. He had to make some disposition of John Wysong. His first +step was to remove John as far as possible from the scene of the crime, +and, in keeping with this desire, he and John Wysong took a train for +Florida the same night of the jail delivery.</p> + +<p>Arriving at a city in the central part of Florida, Lanier repaired to a +hotel, carrying John Wysong with him as a servant, under an assumed +name. He went to the room assigned to him, accompanied by John. Lanier +lighted a cigar, took a seat near a table on which he rested his crossed +legs. This was a favorite attitude with him when endeavoring to solve a +peculiarly knotty problem.</p> + +<p>"I have a miniature race problem on my hands," was his first reflection. +"What must be done with John Wysong?" With that as a starting point his +thoughts ran as follows:</p> + +<p>"John Wysong has taken human life. There was no personal ill will +between him and his victim. He regarded the Master Workman as the +embodiment of a principle that narrowed his horizon; that turned his +face from the hope of prosperity in the direction of starvation. His +attack was directed at the principle and not the human being embodying +it. This much in explanation of his crime. His error lay in +appropriating to his own use the very principle from the effects of +which he believed himself to be suffering. On account of the color of +his skin and the attendant delimitations begotten thereby, he felt that +other avenues for redress were closed and that he must have recourse to +revolution.</p> + +<p>"In view of all the circumstances surrounding the murder, I feel called +upon to do full justice to society and yet exercise clemency in the case +of this youth, holding in especial view the fact that he regarded the +act as committed in self-defense."</p> + +<p>"John," said Lanier to the former, who was sitting in a corner of the +room, "I have saved you from the gallows, yet you must suffer in a +manner commensurate with your offense. The penalty which I am to affix +must affect your whole life. The murderous instinct is not a part of +your being. It is merely an accretion that has come to you because of +your environments which you were too feeble to alter. You are not fit +for the rigors of civilized life in America. The pace is too swift for +you. I decree your banishment from civilization and require you to spend +the remainder of your days in Africa, a punishment not lacking in +severity to one who has had a taste of civilization. To Africa you shall +go."</p> + +<p>The look of terror that overspread John's face at this announcement +could not have been greater had Lanier decreed that he was to be burned +alive at the stake within the next five minutes. His agony was so +apparent and intense that Lanier was touched.</p> + +<p>He said, "John, you do not seem to like my verdict."</p> + +<p>"I shall do what you say," said John, in tones of utter despair, +dropping his head upon his chest.</p> + +<p>"Strange! strange! strange! I thought that the one point of cheer in my +verdict would be love of his fatherland," mused Lanier, who had now +arisen and was gazing upon the picture of woe before him. "But love of +the fatherland is all gone, all gone. His love is for a soil where he +must run an unequal race and where divers persecutions and injustices +must necessarily befall him," thought Lanier, as he continued to gaze +upon John. Aloud he said, "Well, John, what would be more to your +liking?"</p> + +<p>A ray of hope shot through John's darkened soul, and with a face lighted +up with joyous expectancy, he cried, "Arrange it so that I can go to the +penitentiary for a long, long term of years. I do not wish to leave this +country. I must not put an ocean between me and Erma."</p> + +<p>"Ah," replied Lanier, "but you must never see Erma again. She does not +know of your escape from the gallows nor the method thereof, and because +of this latter fact you and I both had better beware. The dear girl is +so deuced conscientious."</p> + +<p>"Just let me stay in this country! Send me to prison for as long a term +of years as you will."</p> + +<p>"How can you manage that?" inquired Lanier.</p> + +<p>"Manage it!" exclaimed John, "That's so, you have never been a Negro. +Why, it is the easiest thing imaginable for a Negro to get into the +penitentiary."</p> + +<p>"Well, John, you shall have your way. Change your name. Never allude to +your past life. When and how shall you start?"</p> + +<p>"To-night," was John's prompt reply.</p> + +<p>That night John was caught by a policeman while in a feigned attempt at +burglarizing a store. He was arraigned, duly tried, convicted, and +sentenced to ten years in the Florida penitentiary. He was taken to the +city not far away, where there was what is known as the "Stockade." Here +he found three hundred Negro men, women, boys and girls chained +together, with an iron ring around each neck and a pick around the ankle +of each. John was added to the gang. They were awaiting the convict +"auction day."</p> + +<p>The day came and capitalists from all over the South poured into the +city to bid on the lot of convicts. A syndicate that operated turpentine +forests in Florida was the highest bidder and the convicts were turned +over to it. They were marched down to the train and crowded into cattle +cars and borne into the swamps of the turpentine establishments. They +were put in charge of white bosses, who had been selected because of +their known cruelty, on the hypothesis that it took such characters to +keep in subjection a colony of Negro convicts.</p> + +<p>Necessarily a series of hardships followed, but amid all, John was +happy, for he was not in Africa and was in the same land with Erma. +Notwithstanding Lanier's prohibition, he intended seeing his sister +again, feeling assured that it could not possibly result in any harm to +any of the parties concerned. Sustained by this hope he witnessed and +endured all manner of hardships. He saw women of his race forced to +labor side by side with men hardened in crime. With these same hardened +criminals the small boys and girls, present in the convict camp for +their first offenses, had to labor. The Negro women were sometimes the +victims of outrages committed by their white bosses. Illegitimate +offsprings born in prison were taken possession of and doomed to +perpetual slavery.</p> + +<p>Men, women and children slept together like a herd of cattle, as many as +sixty being crowded into a room eighteen feet square, with a ceiling +seven feet high, there being no ventilation whatever. After hard days' +work the convicts had to cook their own food, fat bacon and corn bread, +on small fires made on the ground. A downpour of rain would not induce +the bosses to allow the convicts to quit work and seek shelter. Slight +offenses were punished by brutal whippings; and one aged Negro, in the +prison for stealing food for a starving family, was beaten until he +died; beaten because he expressed an opinion as to the decency of the +conduct of one white boss toward a Negro woman, his niece, in the +penitentiary as accessory to his crime.</p> + +<p>Whenever showers of rain drenched the entire lot of convicts they did +not have changing garments, but had to wear and even sleep in their wet +clothing until they dried upon them. When the few small houses were +filled to their utmost capacities, a tent was spread and all fresh +comers were assigned to sleep beneath this on the bare ground. If some +convict, more adroit than his fellows, made his escape, the bloodhounds +would soon be on his trail and ere long would have their fangs buried in +his quivering flesh.</p> + +<p>Filth abounded on every hand, vermin covered everything in the convict +quarters, and sanitation was a thing unheard of. Disease walked boldly +into their midst and bade Death mow down with his scythe twenty out of +each hundred, this being the proportion of those who died.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +Consumption took up its abode in John's bosom and began to eat away his +life. John dwelt amid all these sickening, these blood-curdling horrors +with death gnawing at his own vitals. But through it all, a smile of joy +was ever upon his face, hope was alive within his bosom. The thought +that he might one day see Erma again was his sun that beat back the +shades of eternal night that were seeking to engulf the vital spark left +within him. How incomplete would have been the soul of man, how +powerless to cope with this mysterious thing which we call life, were it +not that its soil is never impervious to the growth of that fragrant +flower, which sends pleasing odors even into the nostrils of the dying, +Hope! immortal Hope!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3>FULL OF JOY.</h3> + + +<p>Astral's school life is now over, and he is homeward bound. During all +the years of his separation from Erma he has stifled with great effort +the cry of his heart to make a bold declaration of love to her. But now +the courage of desperation seizes him and he has made a solemn vow to +declare his passion immediately upon his arrival at Richmond. The train +that bore him on to Richmond, Astral was ready to swear before a notary +public, was no faster than the slimy animal known as the snail. He grew +to hate the brakeman who persisted in calling the name of every station +save Richmond. Having once resolved upon making his declaration and +ascertaining his fate, any person that would have suggested that +patience ever possessed a virtue would have been in danger of +incarceration in the insane asylum, if Astral's ardent wish could have +accomplished that result. The train reaches Richmond at last. As soon as +properly attired, he proceeds toward Erma's home, having given her due +notice of his coming to see her.</p> + +<p>Since the day of the intended hanging of her brother John, Erma has +lived continuously at her own little home. Aunt Mollie Marston, who has +now lost her husband, dwells there with her, and Erma has taken the +place in her heart left vacant by Margaret's dropping out. Erma has told +Mrs. Marston the secret of her love and informed her of Astral's +intended visit. The dear old soul has done her best at dressing Erma for +this occasion, and has retired to a back room to pray, while Erma sits +in her cosy little parlor to receive Astral. For a while she indulges in +a reverie, her mind going back over her past life. The thoughts are too +sombre, however, and she dismisses them.</p> + +<p>The twilight of a mild summer eve creeps over the earth. The evening +star peeps above the horizon, in order to see and report as to whether +the sky is clear of the sun, so that the timid moon may rise. Erma's +parlor window, commanding a view of the street on which her home fronts, +is thrown open, and Erma is stationed there; and, with her beautiful +hands, is holding apart the thick-clustered vines, so that she may catch +a glimpse of Astral when he reaches her gate. Erma is clad in black, +which is only relieved by a lovely white ribbon about her neck, vying +with her face as to beauty, but doing nothing more than enhancing the +beauty of the face, by affording it this opportunity to triumph over +such a lovely foe. Her hair was rolled in coils, and sat in grandeur on +the rear of her head. A portion of her hair, cut short, was allowed to +bend forward, as if threatening to hide her pretty, rounded forehead. +This hair, standing guard over her bewitching eyebrows, was parted on +one side, and added delightfully to the charm of Erma's face. Sitting +sideways to the window, bending slightly forward, her small foot, +incased in a low-quarter shoe, protruded slightly from her black silk +skirt.</p> + +<p>It was thus that Erma sat awaiting the coming of the man she loved so +dearly, and to be worthy of whom she had suffered so much and toiled so +hard. A slight cry escaped her lips. Astral is at her gate. He is +changed, and for the better. His handsome face, a shade darker than that +of Erma, has a splendid set of side-burns, something that was not the +case when he went away. On his upper lip there rests a mustache that +comports well with a set of thick eyebrows. The form is tall and manly. +He is clad in a suit of beautiful black, and a brown felt hat rests on +his full, large head. His look is more grave than when we last saw him. +Astral's heart is beating a wild, tumultuous wedding march, and he +cannot calm it, try as much as he may. He is now about to meet Erma, and +though he has been planning his little speech for the occasion for +years, it is now all gone from him, and he is trembling with excitement +and abusing his mind for going to pieces just at the wrong time. Erma +has arisen from her seat, and is walking about her room nervously, +wondering how Astral is going to meet her, and what she is going to do +and say.</p> + +<p>How a painter would have gloried to have caught sight of this bundle of +beautiful confusion! Astral rapped on the door, and his heart stood +still. Erma opened it and stepped back to let Astral in. He looked at +Erma and his heart gave a bound, as though to leave his body. Erma cast +at Astral a timid glance which comprehended his entire frame and being +in a flash, and her soul was satisfied with the verdict. Turning her +head away somewhat bashfully, she said, "Walk in, Mr. Herndon." Astral +followed Erma into the parlor. Erma had walked to the further side of +the room, and was now turned with her face toward Astral. Poor girl! Her +soul was in her eyes. She knew it, but could not avoid it. She tried to +keep from looking at Astral, but she could not do that, either. Instead +of sitting down, Astral started over toward Erma. With every step that +he took his heart grew bolder, until when he came to the spot where she +was, he threw an arm around her waist, strained her to his heaving +bosom, and bent down to press a kiss upon her willing lips, and the +years of waiting were over.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3>OPPOSING THE WEDDING.</h3> + + +<p>News of the betrothal of Astral and Erma was not slow in finding its way +through the city, as society is well supplied with couriers that delight +to inform mankind whenever two individuals conclude to form a home, the +unit of civilization. On a matter of such fundamental importance, +society reserves the right to freely express its opinion.</p> + +<p>The comment on the proposed marriage was quite varied in character. As +to the worthiness of the two contracting parties all were agreed, but +from that point onward there was much divergence of opinion. Astral's +complexion was not as light as that of Erma, so some were of the opinion +that she was making a slight mistake on that score.</p> + +<p>Astral was criticised by some on the score that he had chosen a wife of +mixed blood when there were so many girls in the city of pure Negro +extraction. Others insisted that he had acted wisely, on the theory that +each succeeding generation should be as far removed as possible from the +original color which had so many ills chargeable to it. Still another +group was found that bitterly opposed the union on the ground that class +distinctions were highly essential to the welfare of the race, which +distinctions Astral's course was calculated to obliterate, in that he, +who was to earn his livelihood by mental exertion, was to marry a girl +who had deserted that pathway and resorted to menial labor.</p> + +<p>Opposed to these were those who agreed with Burns in his teaching's, to +the effect that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Rank is but the guinea's stamp;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A man's the gowd for a' that."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Thus the conflict of sentiment raged, eventuating in no action, however, +save in the case which we are now about to record.</p> + +<p>Ellen Sanders, true to her conception of ladyship, had declined all +employment that involved physical labor. Time after time she had made +attempts to be elected teacher in the city schools, but some one else of +the great number of applicants had always secured the prize. Repeated +failure had somewhat dampened her hope, but had not altered her +determination to "cling to her ladyship to the last." Of late she had +been turning her attention to the subject of marriage as a possible +solution. One by one the professional men of the city had been favored +with her smiles, but all to no avail thus far, though her smiles had +grown to have the appearance of artificiality from such faithful and +constant service. There was one last string to her bow, upon which she +relied to bring her success; and as her case was growing desperate, she +had decided not to allow mere formalities to stand in her way.</p> + +<p>The hope that had survived, had Astral for its basis. She had been his +schoolmate, had received some slight attention from him in those days, +and now felt that the friendship of childhood could be easily +transformed into love. She had not known of Astral's attachment for Erma +and consequently apprehended no opposition from that source. Imagine her +chagrin and dismay when the news that Astral and Erma were to wed +reached her ears. The first effect was to rob her of all inclination to +act, but this feeling of stupefaction was succeeded by a grim +determination to win at all hazards. Her first move was to bring +influences to bear on Astral to dissuade him from the contemplated step. +In the city there were a number of young men who could not be said to +follow any vocation, who were without visible means of support, and yet +dressed well and lived in idleness. There was much speculation as to how +they were maintained, but no positive evidence on hand. There was a +well-defined suspicion to the effect that they received their meals +through the rear windows of kitchens where Negro girls were in service +to white people, and their clothes, which were good but never new, were +supposed to come from the same source. As to where they lodged, it would +perhaps not be well to state, though here and there rumors were afloat +to the effect that they were seen jumping over back fences into +alleyways in the early hours of the morning. Though these social +Melchizedeks were involved in much mystery they were greatly in evidence +and ready for any scheme that seemed to promise any money, provided +always and only that no physical exertion was involved.</p> + +<p>Such a personage was E. Moses Smith, Esq., and to him Ellen Sanders now +resorts. He readily accepts the money which Ellen brings him and agrees +to undertake the work of influencing Astral against Erma. On divers +occasions he intrudes himself in Astral's company, seeking to win his +friendship.</p> + +<p>Astral is now pleased with all the world because he has Erma's love, and +E. Moses Smith Esq., very naturally fell into the mistake of supposing +himself deeper in his graces than he really was, so cordially was Astral +receiving him. Eventually he concluded that he was far enough advanced +in Astral's favor to begin the task assigned him. He had charge of an +office consisting of two rooms, which office a white lawyer, then on a +tour of Europe, had committed to his care. To this office he invited +Astral, with a view to approaching him on the subject of his +contemplated marriage.</p> + +<p>Ellen Sanders being informed of the plan begged to be allowed to occupy +the rear room so that she might overhear the conversation and know how +to gauge her hopes.</p> + +<p>At the appointed hour Astral stepped in and was received in a most +effusive manner by the young man. Ellen's eye was to the keyhole and her +heart gave a bound as she looked upon Astral's handsome face and noble +form.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Herndon," he began after the usual exchange of greetings, "you are +a much discussed man in our town."</p> + +<p>Astral understood the reference to be to his approaching marriage and +smiled his thanks.</p> + +<p>Ellen saw the smile and grew faint; it betokened so much happiness in +the heart of Astral. "Ah me!" she sighed.</p> + +<p>The young man resumed, "Never in years has a proposed marriage been so +much discussed as this one."</p> + +<p>"The people do me a signal honor, I am sure," was Astral's reply.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but not in the way that you suppose, Mr. Herndon," was his +response.</p> + +<p>"The comment is <i>unfavorable</i> to me, then, I presume," Astral remarked.</p> + +<p>The young man felt that his time had arrived so he reared back in his +chair and closed his eyes preparatory to the delivery of his speech +which Ellen had helped him to compose.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Herndon, the comment is decidedly against you. Society confers +upon all men certain blessings otherwise unattainable. What would any +man's life be worth without the blessings which society confers! In +return for these blessings society establishes certain laws and customs +which all are expected to obey."</p> + +<p>Here he slightly opened his eyes to see the effect his argument was +having on Astral. Noting nothing decisive he closed them again.</p> + +<p>Ellen murmured to herself, "Good! Go on!"</p> + +<p>The young man resumed, "Some of its requirements society enacts into +laws and compels obedience thereto. Others are left to the influence of +public sentiment. Every true member of a community, I hold, is in duty +bound to yield to every demand of enlightened public sentiment."</p> + +<p>A scowl now appeared on Astral's face as he perceived the drift of his +remarks, but the latters' eyes being closed, he did not see it.</p> + +<p>The young man continues, "Especially is this true on the question of +matrimony, as from the home, society draws material for its +construction. My opinion is that no man should enter a marriage contract +over the vigorous protest of society."</p> + +<p>Astral was now a very angry man and none too safe to deal with.</p> + +<p>Ellen saw that there was danger ahead and was anxious for E. Moses +Smith, Esq., to open his eyes so that he might take note of the +gathering storm and seek for shelter by a change of course. She had no +means of communicating her fears without discovering her own presence, +so the young man remained unwarned.</p> + +<p>Continuing, he said, "You, Mr. Herndon, are a very worthy man, but Erma +Wysong—"</p> + +<p>"Say it, you cur!" thundered Astral, rising and drawing himself to his +full height, wrathful indignation depicted on every feature.</p> + +<p>The astounded E. Moses Smith, Esq., opened wide his eyes and one glance +at Astral explained the situation, whereupon in great terror, he fled +precipitately to the room in the rear, Ellen having opened the door to +readily receive him. Having locked the door, he thought himself safe, +and proceeded to conclude his remarks through the keyhole.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Herndon, you are unduly angry, sir. I was not going to say anything +derogatory of Erma Wysong, further than that she had been a service girl +and as a consequence, was unworthy of so grand a man as yourself."</p> + +<p>When Astral heard the word unworthy applied to Erma he proceeded to the +door and with one kick wrested it from its hinges. The young man, who +had seen him approaching, had jumped behind Ellen, with a view to +keeping her between the irate Astral and himself. But the frightened +girl tore herself from his grasp and ran through the aperture, a thick +veil concealing her identity. When Astral entered the room in quest of +the young man he found society's advocate coiled on the floor, making +oft repeated pleas for mercy, interspersed with cries of fire, murder, +robber, and such other words as, in his frenzy, he thought would bring +others to the scene. Astral looked down upon him in contempt and strode +out of the room, leaving him unharmed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3>ERMA AND AN ASSASSIN.</h3> + + +<p>The purpose of Ellen Sanders was by no means altered by the defeat of +her plans; to the contrary, she was rendered the more determined. She +saw that there was no prospect of estranging Astral from Erma; in fact, +no prospect of drawing him into a discussion of the subject. She decided +to address her attention to Erma. Her knowledge of Erma led her to the +firm conclusion that it was needless to attempt the use of argument in +her case. Yet she must be gotten out of the way, was Ellen's unalterable +determination. Aside from the fact that she desired Astral for her +husband, she possessed no love for Erma, who had been an object of +contempt ever since the moment she had entered service.</p> + +<p>Self-interest and hatred are two powerful forces when operating in the +bosom of a woman rankling with disappointment. Ellen determined upon +Erma's murder. When Ellen was a very young child, her parents had as a +neighbor a widow whose name was Corella Ross, the mother of seven +children, the oldest of whom was called Sam. Mrs. Ross went about doing +housework for various white families and left her children at home to +take care of themselves as best they might. Sam, being the oldest, +roamed the city at will, returning in time to be on hand at night when +his mother arrived, contriving by bits of candy and direful threatening +to maintain the silence of his little brothers and sisters on the +subject of his meanderings. Thus left to himself, he became a youth of +vicious character. But he was ever fond of Ellen, and carried his +affections with him in undiminished force in his downward drift.</p> + +<p>Ellen decided upon employing Sam Ross to put Erma out of her way. One +dark night, soon after the incidents described in our last chapter, +Ellen thickly veiled her face, threw a large shawl about herself so as +to conceal her form, and thus attired, made her way to a section of the +town known as "Hell's Half Acre." This settlement contained numerous +saloons, all conducted by white men and sustained by Negroes.</p> + +<p>Knowing of the extraordinary value that a certain class of Negroes +attached to social contact with white men, some white saloon keepers +utilized this sentiment to foster their business. By a pat on the +shoulder, a friendly tussle, an exchange of jokes, or some such mark of +fellowship, numbers of the more ignorant Negroes were held in bondage to +these resorts. Sam Ross was one of these victims, and Ellen is on her +way to his favorite resort in the hope of finding him there. When she +reaches the place she opens the door a little to see if Sam is in there. +There he was in the middle of the floor, dancing what is known as the +clog dance, keeping time to the music of a fiddle in the hands of +another Negro perched upon an empty whiskey barrel in the corner. Sam's +dancing was eliciting much applause from the motley crowd of debauchees +who were present in great numbers.</p> + +<p>"Sam!" called Ellen.</p> + +<p>Sam danced around until he faced the door, and nodded to the veiled face +that showed itself therein.</p> + +<p>"Sam, I would like to see you," said Ellen.</p> + +<p>Much to the delectation of the spectators, Sam danced all the way to the +door, performing some of his most notable feats. Reaching the door, he +bowed profoundly, and stepped out, amid shouts of approval from his +fellows.</p> + +<p>The appearance of a woman for Sam did not excite any unusual attention, +such occurrences in the case of others being very frequent.</p> + +<p>"Sam," said Ellen, "come with me; I want you to do me a kindness."</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Ellen! Whut on earth brung you here?" said Sam in great +astonishment.</p> + +<p>"I have an enemy, Sam, that is seeking to do me great injury, and I need +your help."</p> + +<p>"All right, Ellen; I'm your man. I'll kill any nigger that does you +harm," said Sam.</p> + +<p>"Don't say that, Sam, unless you mean it," said Ellen.</p> + +<p>"Try me," was Sam's laconic response.</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll see. Sam, my enemy is a woman."</p> + +<p>"A woman! I don't like the idea of killing a woman, but if you say so, +I'll do it. I've done many a shady thing, but I ain't come to that yet."</p> + +<p>"I thought you would back out, Sam."</p> + +<p>"Back out! who said I'd back out? Not this chap. Of course, I'll kill +the gal; but a fellow has got a little conscience, and has to feel bad a +little bit. Who is she?"</p> + +<p>"Come with me. I will show you where she lives, and stand there until +you are through. There is no one in the room with her, and you are not +in the slightest danger." So saying, she led the way until at length +they arrived at Erma's house. After assuring themselves that there was +no one else near, they entered the yard, and very stealthily approached +the window to Erma's room.</p> + +<p>Sam had had previous experience in house-breaking and soon had the +blinds removed and an opening made in the window. He noiselessly +clambered into Erma's room, having his long, keen knife in his hand. The +lamp was dimly burning on a stand near the head of the bed. By the side +of the lamp was a bouquet of beautiful flowers which Astral had given +Erma that evening, and which she had placed where she could see them in +the night if she should awake. She also desired that they should be the +first object on which her eyes should fall on awaking the next day.</p> + +<p>Sam drew near the bed with uplifted knife.</p> + +<p>There Erma lay in all her beauty, a lovely smile upon her face, even in +her sleep. Her hair was lying carelessly about her brow, and caused her +to present the appearance of wild loveliness.</p> + +<p>Sam halted, so beautiful was the image before him. His arm descended to +his side, and he continued to gaze. He said to himself, "If I kill that +girl, it will have to be with my eyes shut." He closes his eyes and +creeps closer to the bedside. He lifts his hand again to strike, and +opens his eyes to note the spot where a blow delivered would reach her +heart. Again Erma's beauty charms him.</p> + +<p>Sam mutters to himself, "Ellen told me she wanted me to kill a woman, +and, dad gum it, this is an angel." So saying, he turned around and got +back out of the window.</p> + +<p>"Is she dead?" asked Ellen, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Naw, dad gum it, she ain't dead. And another thing, if ever any harm +befalls that girl, I'll tell about this night's work, and I'll kill you +besides." So saying, he walked away, carrying in his mind a picture of +the beautiful Erma.</p> + +<p>Ellen, thoroughly dejected and full of fear as to the revelations that +Sam might make, returned to her home.</p> + +<p>When, some weeks later, word was brought to her that Erma Wysong had +passed away, and that it was happy Erma <i>Herndon</i> now; when word came +that Astral Herndon had declared himself in favor of building a monument +to the skies in honor of Cupid for having brought him so glorious a +prize—when these facts were brought to her ladyship, Ellen Sanders, she +remembered Sam Ross—and said nothing.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<h3>NAME THE CHAPTER AFTER YOU READ IT.</h3> + + +<p>Eternity has clasped a few more of her romping children, the mad +galloping years, to her eager bosom since you last gazed upon the +countenances of the principal actors in our little drama. Winter, the +frozen love of God, is upon its annual visit to earth, and Astral and +Erma Wysong Herndon are spending the winter eve in their cosy, modestly +furnished home before a grate full of live, glowing coals, while little +Astral Herndon, Jr., a pretty, precocious child of seven summers is +astride his fond papa's knee, gazing thoughtfully out of his pretty +brown eyes into the fire. Erma, yet wearing black for her brother John, +has grown more beautiful with the years and, her rounded, matronly form +presents fresh beauties to Astral's eyes each time he looks in her +direction, which be assured is not seldom. She is now holding a book +before her face and is supposed to be reading, but in reality she is +furtively watching her boy, and notes, with a heaving bosom, the manlike +sobriety on his face.</p> + +<p>There were strange experiences connected with the birth of that child. +It was on this wise: When Erma knew that God would bless her with an +offspring she besought Astral to allow her to leave Richmond and stay +until her child was born. She asked to be separated from him and from +the world until God had fully wrought upon the human being whom he was +shortly to introduce into the world through her. The volcanic eruptions +that had, from time to time, hurled forth their smoke and lava upon +Erma's soul, had left huge craters in her heart so deep as to be +unfathomable by means of mortal measuring lines; so wide that human ken +could not span from side to side. Astral knew and felt this and learned +to look upon his wife as a being in an especial sense the handmaid of +God. So, while not understanding the full meaning of Erma's request, he +stood ready to grant it. Erma, escorted by her husband, hied away to the +mountains of West Virginia and took up her abode on Nutall's Mountain. +Here Astral left her, to spend those great days with the plain and +simple folk of the mountain fastnesses, honest and sturdy and fearless.</p> + +<p>At the foot of Nutall's Mountain, a few miles distant from the crest, +lies the Kanawha River, whose waters quarrel as they tumble over the +rocks in the river bed on their way to the sea. The path downward from +the mountain crest to the river, followed alongside of a deep canyon, +that wound its way serpent-like around the mountain side, piloting the +mountain streams to their common mother, the Kanawha River. As long as +health would permit, Erma would rise in the morning, just before +daybreak, and descend this long, winding, rocky pathway to the river, +delighting to look through the green foliage of the trees rising up from +the sides and bottom of the deep gorge mentioned. Sometimes she would +sit upon a huge boulder near at hand, and, surrounded on all sides by +the green foliage, drink in the wild, untamed beauty of the mountains, +and commune with the Spirit of recklessness and fury that evidently +makes the mountain his favorite resort. Also, at night time Erma would +steal forth, and, hunting the highest mountain peak, would stand and +look by the light of the moon from silent, sullen range to silent sullen +range, and marvel at their stillness. At these times Erma's soul seemed +to feel the magnetic sweep of the queenly moon as this lovely woman of +the skies, gathering her robes about her, sped swiftly but noiselessly +along. The ears of her soul caught the far-off patter of the footfalls +of the tiny stars as they journeyed silently on to God. The purpose of +these protracted communings with the sublime side of nature, Erma never +disclosed to mortal, and as soon as Astral Herndon, Jr., was born and +she was able to travel, she yielded herself to the yearning arms of her +husband, who was now present to carry her home.</p> + +<p>Erma watched her child as it grew, with more than a mother's interest +and noticed with eagerness every expression upon the child's face and +every utterance from its childish lips. Astral soon discovered this +preternatural interest in the child and contented himself with watching +Erma while she watched the child. Thus it is to-night: the child gazes, +Erma watches it, and Astral watches Erma. A fierce snowstorm is raging +without. The mad heavens seem determined to whiten the black earth, +nothing daunted that all previous efforts in that direction have ended +in the slushy mire; something of the fate that has sometimes attended +the efforts of reformers to whiten the civic life of humanity. The +winds, seemingly, would deter the snowflakes from their fruitless task +of whitening the earth, catching them just before they reached the +ground and whirling them around and around until the snowflakes, nimbly +twisting out of the hands of the wind, fall exhausted upon the earth to +learn from experience the treatment often accorded those who would do +good. The snowstorm continues, the child muses, the mother watches. +Astral is an onlooker. The look of earnestness on the child's brow +deepens and deepens, and Erma's bosom heaves, her lips move as if in +prayer, and the book trembles in her hand. By and by the child opens its +lips to speak, Erma leans forward, her eyes aglow with strange fire. +Astral feels the fever rising in his veins and somehow regards himself +as face to face with a crisis in two souls. He realizes that soon his +wife and her child shall stand revealed unto each other, and a feeling +of awe creeps over him.</p> + +<p>"Papa," says the child, "what do you want me to be when I am a man?"</p> + +<p>Astral can say nothing. Erma's soul is in her eyes and her heart is +thumping as though it would come out. The child lifts its eyes and gazes +at the burning orbs of its mamma. In its simple way, it said, quietly:</p> + +<p>"Mamma, I am going to be what you want me to be. I can tell that that is +what you are looking at me so for."</p> + +<p>With a scream of joy Erma sprang over to her husband and clasped her boy +to her bosom, while she nestled her throbbing temples on Astral's +shoulder. The soul of the mother had met that of the child and each had +discovered its true inward self to the other, and Erma felt her every +prayer answered and her every wish attained.</p> + +<p>Erma said, "Astral, it now makes no difference to the world how soon I +leave it; and God may take me at any time."</p> + +<p>A feeling of terror, that caused his innermost soul to shudder, stole +over Astral as he heard these solemn words come forth from Erma's +lips—words that foreshadowed her untimely end. Verily, verily, coming +events cast their shadows before them.</p> + +<p>A loud knock at the door, succeeded by a dull thud as of a falling body, +caused Astral and Erma to spring to their feet. Taking a lamp in his +hand, Astral went out into the hallway and to the front door. He opened +the door and a gust of wind blew off the lamp chimney and put out the +light, the chimney falling to the floor and breaking. Lighting a lantern +he saw the form of a man half buried in the drift of snow before his +door. Astral, being a man of considerable strength, stooped down, lifted +the man into his arms and bore him into the room where his wife and +child stood in open-eyed astonishment.</p> + +<p>The man was unconscious and Astral lay him in the middle of the floor +and sought to restore him to consciousness. The man had on a long rubber +ulster, which was buttoned from top to bottom. This Astral unbuttoned +and made the exciting discovery that the man was dressed in the striped +clothes of a convict. This drew Erma to him, and she now aided Astral in +the work of resuscitating him. At length the man opened his eyes and +languidly fastened his gaze on Erma, who experienced a strange thrill as +she looked into the eyes of this nearly frozen convict. The longer she +looked, the more and more her feelings began to assume definite form, +and a sensation of terror crept over her until she had to get up and +move away. The eyes of the convict followed her and continued to affect +her strangely.</p> + +<p>Astral did not take note of his wife's discomfiture. He asked the man, +"Where did you come from?"</p> + +<p>He replied in husky tones, "I have come from Hell and am going to +Heaven." The man made an effort to rise and Astral aided him. He asks, +"Is that your wife and child?" Astral nodded assent.</p> + +<p>"Send them out of the room or take me out, as I have something to say to +you."</p> + +<p>Erma grasped up Astral Herndon, Jr., and went up stairs, leaving the +convict to talk with her husband. But a deep conviction was settling +upon her mind and she could not stay there. She put her boy down and +crept down stairs, drawn by an indefinable something to the room where +the convict was. She did not enter but paced restlessly to and fro in +the cold hallway.</p> + +<p>Soon Astral came out with the look of a man thoroughly dumfounded. He +grasped Erma by the hand and led her upstairs to her bedroom. They sit +down and stare at each other. Astral does not know how to break the news +to Erma. At length he says, "Erma, your brother was never hanged. He is +downstairs now."</p> + +<p>With a mad leap Erma broke out of the room, rushed downstairs, crying, +"John! John!! John!!!" When she neared his seat she stopped suddenly, +her voice ceased abruptly. John's head lay limp upon his bosom, for his +soul had forsaken his body. Becalmed by a more than human power, Erma +knelt before his chair in which sat the lifeless form and passionately +kissed the mute lips that had passed under the ban of eternal silence.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she gasped, clapping a hand to her heart. She attempted to rise, +but fell forward, her head finding a resting place on her dead brother's +knee. Erma's beautiful eyelids closed, opened again as if to give a last +view, and then closed, alas, forever. Her heart ceased to beat, and her +soul stole noiselessly out of her body to return no more.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<h3>THE FUNERAL.</h3> + + +<p>Death, the subtle, crafty, relentless foe of human life, who lurks +within the gloomy shadows which fringe the borderland where time fades +away into eternity; Death, who, bursting from his sunless home, mouldy +with the dew of darkness, springs upon the unwary traveler, and bears +him swiftly to the spirit land—this Death, walking with ceaseless tread +along his dismal pathway, has a strange and, to us, uncanny taste for +music. When he has borne his victim away, he returns to the homes of the +bereft, wearing a mystic veil, plucks with wild abandon at the heart +strings of the sorrowing; and with avidity and in ecstasy drinks in the +plaintive notes, the time beat of which is kept by the steady, perpetual +fall of drops of blood from the heart. However terrible the wail, +however loud the cry, it is but sweet music to the ear of death.</p> + +<p>But surely, surely, soulless Death, for once in his awful journeyings, +had even <i>his</i> unholy taste for the music of agony fully satisfied, as +with his ear to Astral's throbbing heart he drank in its anguished notes +and heard that overburdened thing of grief make its futile attempts to +burst through the walls that confined it. Added to and intensifying his +feeling of blighting personal loss, his soul was charged with the +thought that fate had so needlessly reared a ladder to the unspotted +blue of his sky, and climbing there, had fanned out the sun of his +firmament, leaving in its stead the sombre shadows, the inky hues, the +gruesome forms of the dread midnight.</p> + +<p>Stunned, bewildered, dazed, Astral cast a look of anguish upon the +lifeless form of Erma and turned away petrified with sorrow. He +staggered out of the room into the hallway and to the door opening upon +the street. This he managed to open, and stood with bared head, facing +the storm and welcoming the fury of the elements. Motionless, +speechless, gazing into the dark abyss beyond, Astral stood as if rooted +to the spot, the fury of the skies unconsciously affording congenial +association to the wild ragings and frozen sorrows within. Sulkily the +night rolled onward. The snowstorm, as if grieved to longer beat upon +the brow of one in the iron grasp of fate, gradually ceased. A hush fell +upon the winds, and they began to speak in whispers, afterwards not at +all.</p> + +<p>The remaining hours of the night, hearing the ever approaching footfall +of the coming dawn, leapt over the bars of time and sank into eternity. +The dawn came, cold and cheerless. The sun struggled from behind an +embankment of clouds, and feebly cast a few sickly rays of light over +the snow-covered earth, and, as if ashamed of the feebleness of the +effort, quickly lifted the clouds to again hide his face. And yet Astral +stood in the doorway, as motionless as a stone statue, silent as the +Sphinx.</p> + +<p>An officer of the law, clad in blue, and wearing the insignia of his +office, came trudging along on his way to his "beat." When he came +opposite to Astral, he cast a look of earnest inquiry upon the +snow-covered man in the doorway. The gaze of the policeman, in keeping +with the well-known hypnotic influence of the human eye, had its effect +upon Astral. Suddenly casting his eyes upon the policeman, Astral sprang +toward him, grasping him by the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Sir!" cried he, "Enter my home! Enter, I say, and see the havoc which +living side by side with your race has wrought! Enter, enter, I say!"</p> + +<p>The startled policeman tried to extricate himself from Astral's grasp, +but he continued to drag him to his door. The policeman drew his pistol, +but Astral took no notice of this action.</p> + +<p>Perceiving from Astral's repeated exhortations that he really desired +him to see something and intended him no harm, the policeman ceased +resisting and allowed himself to be pulled to the door of the room where +the dead lay. When his eye fell upon the rigid body of the convict on +the chair and beheld the form of the beautiful Erma—it, too, rigid in +death—in terror at the sight, he began to struggle to get out of the +house. Astral seemed equally determined to have him drink in the horror +of the situation fully. The policeman, now completely terror-stricken, +raised the cry of "Murder! murder!" and struck Astral a violent blow on +the head. As if robbed of life, Astral fell unconscious upon the floor. +The noise of the struggle, and the cries of the policeman drew a large +crowd to the house. News of the tragic scenes enacted in that little +home spread to the remotest quarters of the city. All this while Astral +lay unconscious on the floor. Friends now bore his body to his room.</p> + +<p>A coroner's jury was summoned and an inquest was held. John Wysong's +emaciated appearance soon removed all doubt as to what had caused his +death. The absence of all marks of violence upon Erma, the calm, sweet +look upon her face, even in death, predisposed the jury to look for +natural causes for her demise. Before entering upon the task of finding +the cause of her death, they all stood and gazed long at her loveliness +and a hush of awe fell upon them. When at length the doctor had made the +necessary examination, and pronounced her death due to heart failure, +the jury filed out. Before going, each juror had cast a parting look at +the departed queen of beauty, and the last of the official dealings of +the Anglo-Saxons with Erma were over.</p> + +<p>Friends of Astral now took charge of affairs and began to arrange for +the interment, he being yet unconscious. Upon his recovery from the +swoon, he was wildly delirious. When made aware by the attending +physician that a protracted illness was likely to ensue in Astral's +case, friends saw that it was unwise to delay the funeral services and +interment until he could attend.</p> + +<p>As is well known to the reader, Erma had an unusually large number of +friends among the white people of Richmond, and these friends petitioned +that an opportunity be given them to publicly manifest their esteem. In +deference to their wishes, the funeral services were held at the +Tabernacle, a mammoth structure built for interdenominational use and +for union gospel meetings. White and colored people by the thousands +flocked to the Tabernacle to witness the exercises over the remains of +Erma. The services proceeded in the usual way, tributes of the very +highest nature being paid to the character of the deceased. Resolutions +of respect, signed by one hundred of Richmond's truest white women, were +read, extolling the name of Erma Wysong Herndon.</p> + +<p>The last words had been said, the organ was playing the final funeral +march, the pall-bearers were half-way down the aisle bearing the coffin +to the hearse, when, lo, a loud, commanding voice cried, "Halt," and the +tall form of Astral was seen standing in the doorway. "Bear that coffin +back to the front, gentlemen," said he, and with icy clearness. All +recognized his rights in the matter, and the coffin was borne to the +front again. Astral, wild-eyed, fresh from a bed of affliction, followed +with head bowed and with measured tread, mechanically performed. Taking +a position in full view of the entire audience, he spoke as follows, in +a clear, calm manner, but with a calmness evidently produced by the +suppression of powerful emotions:</p> + +<p>"Ladies and Gentlemen: On such an occasion as this, only the language of +the heart should be heard, and it is my purpose to deliver to you a +message from my innermost self. First of all, I wish to give audible +expression to the thankfulness that I feel over the tribute of respect +paid to my deceased wife by this vast outpouring of citizens of both +races.</p> + +<p>"It is your purpose, I perceive, to bear her remains to your cemetery, +where her body will obey the summons of nature to return unto the dust +whence it came. Before I can give my sanction to this step, there is a +question that must be disposed of in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. +Erma Wysong Herndon was brilliant and true as a girl, devoted and worthy +as a wife and mother, seeking to alter none of your cherished customs, +aspiring ever and only to live out that life which her soul taught her +to be the best. Yet she suffered countless ills. Her heart, unable +longer to bear the strain, gave up the struggle and ceased its +pulsations while her feet were yet treading that portion of life's +pathway that lies within the summer of man's existence. I utter not +these words by way of reproach, believe me. I but recall facts well +known by you to be such, that you may grasp the full purport of what I +am now to lay before you.</p> + +<p>"You now desire that her body shall go to enrich this soil. Should I +allow you to proceed, will this land which her dust would help to +compose—will this land render to the son of another mother more than it +will to the son that she leaves behind, though the two be equal in +virtue, in intelligence, in thrift, in all that goes to comprise +vigorous and aggressive manhood? I pause for an answer."</p> + +<p>The silence was oppressive. Astral resumed: "By your silence I +understand that you are unable to assure me that her son shall not be +confronted with the same unequal conditions that she so often +encountered. Under these circumstances, ladies and gentlemen, as much as +I love this land, I must refuse to allow my wife to be interred therein. +I bid it an eternal farewell."</p> + +<p>He ceased speaking, and, strong man that he was, fell upon Erma's +coffin, his face buried in his hands. One mighty sob forced its way +through the bars that held the others back. Making a supreme effort at +self-control, he arose and gave notice to proceed. The pall-bearers +lifted their burden again and moved slowly out of the building, followed +by Astral and his son.</p> + +<p>The great audience continued in silence, soberly pondering over the +strange and solemn scenes. When the hearse had been driven off, and the +sound of the hoofs of the horses had died away in the distance, the +people arose and silently left the building, departing to their several +homes.</p> + +<p>Twilight had come, and the dusk of the evening soon enveloped the city, +drawing closer and closer the curtains of night.</p> + +<p>That night, Astral, watched by the blinking stars, exhumed the body of +John Wysong, and carried it to his home, placing it by the side of Erma. +With the room dimly lighted, Astral took a seat between the two coffins, +to await the coming of day. In the middle of the night, he heard a +tapping at the window shutters of the room in which he sat, keeping +company with the dead. He arose, opened the window, and bade the party +tapping to enter. The invitation was accepted, and in stepped a large, +tall white man, of very commanding aspect.</p> + +<p>"As I expected," the man remarked in a low tone. Aloud, to Astral, he +said: "Mr. Herndon, you are not acquainted with me, but your wife was. +At one time she committed a very grave trust to me, and I was faithful +thereto, but under such circumstances that I dared not to give an +account of my stewardship. Will you let me see the face of this dead man +whom you have by her side?" Astral assented, and Lanier, for it was he, +stepped to the side of the coffin and gazed long at the features before +him. He said to himself, as he continued to look: "Yes, yes, yes; that +is John. I cannot be mistaken. One more secret that by his death is now +assuredly reserved for the Day of Judgment." Heaving a sigh of relief, +he turned away and dropped into a chair.</p> + +<p>Astral had resumed his post between the dead. Lanier now addressed him.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Herndon, this is indeed an ill-chosen occasion on which to approach +you on a subject uppermost in my mind. Yet, I must do so now, if at all; +for it is with a view of preventing an action that you contemplate in +the near future. You propose leaving us, I learned at the funeral +to-day."</p> + +<p>"Your impression is correct," was Astral's response.</p> + +<p>"For the sake of your wife's son, hear me for a moment," Lanier +requested.</p> + +<p>"Proceed. I shall give you such attention as is possible for a man in my +situation," Astral replied.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Herndon, with all its faults, this country is by far the greatest +on earth. You are not now in a condition to decide upon a matter +involving your future and the whole life of your child. I, therefore, +make a personal appeal to you to abide here and flee not to ills that +are certainly worse." Here he paused, but as Astral gave no reply he +resumed.</p> + +<p>"Your status here is but due to conditions inherent in the situation. +Why not bow to the inevitable, accept conditions as you find them, +extract from life as much good as can come from well-directed efforts, +and beyond this point have no yearnings? Develop character, earn money, +contribute to the industrial development of the country, exercise your +wonderful capacity for humility, move continuously in the line of least +resistance and, somehow, all will be well."</p> + +<p>Astral now lifted his head and, gazing earnestly at Lanier, said;</p> + +<p>"I am very grateful to you, kind sir, for your solicitude. One of the +most oppressive of the 'conditions, <i>inherent</i> in the situation,' <i>you</i> +say, is the fact that one must ever be listening to a sermon on his +condition. We cannot be guided by the light of our own genius, but are +the subjects of unending advice. The absence of the right of choice—a +right which your presence here to-night denies—is irksome, so irksome.</p> + +<p>"You, kind sir, have solved the problem of life to your own +satisfaction; let me do the like, will you, especially when I seek not +to alter your conditions but to abandon them? Without the least purpose +or desire to be discourteous, may I regard our interview at a close?" +Astral's very soul was in these words and were delivered in such a +manner as to startle Lanier into greater admiration.</p> + +<p>"No, sir, Mr. Herndon, not until I state that your remarks have won my +most profound respect. I appreciate the desire of your soul for silence, +which, in your case, amounts to a need. I abandon the purpose of my +visit. In whatever direction you may go, my good-will follows you," +Lanier said most feelingly. So saying, he arose, extended to Astral his +hand and bade him a cordial adieu.</p> + +<p>Astral resumed his solitary watch with his dead. When day came, he began +his projected journey, accompanied by his son and the bodies of his wife +and her brother. He went to New York, with the purpose of boarding an +outward bound vessel.</p> + +<p>"Are you returning to your fatherland?" anxious friends, gathered at the +pier, inquired.</p> + +<p>Astral replied, "It, too, is overshadowed. Aliens possess it."</p> + +<p>"Where, then, are you going?" Astral faintly smiled as if in farewell, +but gave no reply. He hurried aboard the vessel and was soon speeding +away from the land of his birth.</p> + +<p>When in mid-ocean, he summoned his fellow passengers about him to +participate in a burial service. The caskets containing the remains of +the two departed were gently lowered into the depths of the ocean and +committed to the keeping of the waves.</p> + +<p>Astral then stationed his son upon a chair in the center of the deck of +the ship, and, standing by his side, with solemn mien and head +uncovered, made the following deliverance in the presence of the +assembled passengers, who had heard previously from his lips the story +of Erma's life:</p> + +<p>"My son," said he, "your mother has been buried in these domains, +because here there abides no social group in which conditions operate +toward the overshadowing of such elements as are not deemed assimilable. +And now, I, Astral Herndon, hereby and forever renounce all citizenship +in all lands whatsoever, and constitute myself A CITIZEN OF THE OCEAN, +and ordain that this title shall be entailed upon my progeny unto all +generations, until such time as the shadows which now envelope the +darker races in all lands shall have passed away, away and away!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE"></a>EPILOGUE.</h2> + +<h3>A LAY TO THE COMING KING.</h3> + + +<p>Erma is dead, and disconsolate Astral is adrift upon the ocean.</p> + +<p>We who have followed their fortunes, lo, these many days, are loth to +leave them until our minds can fasten on some circumstance external to +our being, to confirm the thought that perennially rises within and bids +us believe that their lives have not been spent in vain; that "somehow +good will be the final goal of ill."</p> + +<p>Those who seek for assurance of this hope would do well to recall the +romantic circumstances attendant upon the birth of Erma's son; recall +how that on the last night of Erma's abode on earth the spirits of the +mother and son went forth to meet and stand revealed unto each other.</p> + +<p>These circumstances are pregnant with hope and kindle within one the +spirit of prophecy.</p> + +<p>The spell is upon us! We don the garb of the seer, wrest the veil from +the face of the future and read in her countenance tokens of the +irrevocable decrees written by her in the book of fate.</p> + +<p>We behold that she hath decreed that Astral Herndon, Jr., shall not long +abide on the ocean; that he shall, ere long, make a landing and give +evidence that the mountain-imbued son of a handmaid of God is a +genius—one of those few colossal, immeasurable spirits that have been +permitted, from time to time, to dwell among men for a season; whose +presence is made manifest through the trembling of the frail earth +beneath their ponderous tread.</p> + +<p>Under the influences which this child of destiny shall generate, the +Negro shall emerge from his centuries of gloom, with a hope-emblazoned +brow, a heart freighted with courage, and a chisel in his hand to carve, +whether you will or not, his name in the hall of fame.</p> + +<p>"Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all +these things be done."</p> + +<p>In this hope we calmly abide the coming of Erma's son, Astral Herndon, +Jr. In that day, pleasing thought, Erma shall live again in the wondrous +workings of the child whom she has brought to earth. All hail to Erma!</p> + + +<p> </p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> It would be nothing short of a crime against humanity for +an author to allow his imagination to create such a picture as is here +drawn, unless the portraiture was true to life. In simple justice to +himself, the writer cites as his authority the July, 1899, issue of +"<i>The Missionary Review of the World</i>."</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OVERSHADOWED***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 36033-h.txt or 36033-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/0/3/36033">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/0/3/36033</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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