Twentieth century Negro literature (part 3 of 4)

Twentieth century Negro literature (part 3 of 4)

Dr. Francis was appointed in 1894 by the Secretary of the Interior to the position of first assistant surgeon of the Freedman's Hospital, with a salary of $1,800. He instituted several needed reforms in the treatment of patients. He installed the present training school for nurses, and, indeed, was so active in his reformation of affairs in the institution that those who know the facts admit that Dr. Francis, more than any other man, is responsible for the opening of the new era of the Freedman's Hospital, which led to its present flourishing condition. He is now, and has been for several years past, the obstetrician to the hospital.

He is the sole owner and manager of a private sanitarium on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C. This institution has proven to be a panacea to the best element of Colored citizens.

It is a noteworthy fact that Dr. and Mrs. Francis have both served as members of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia.

In the study of the causes and remedy for the great mortality among the colored people of Southern cities I shall not waste time and words in an attempt to prove, by much statistical evidence, that which is already too well known to us as an admitted fact, viz.: a mortality of colored people in cities of the South, very largely in excess of that of the white people of the same communities.

I am fully justified, in the face of our present enlightenment, in entering, at once, into the discussion as to its causes.

If it be true that the animal organism is intended by nature to pass through a cycle, and that natural death is not a disease, but a completion of the process of life, it follows that the organism, with exceptions, as to any particular class of people born in health, is constructed to pass through this cycle and is not of itself,--that is to say, by its own organism,--capable of giving origin to any of the phenomena to which we apply the term disease. We must, therefore, seek for origins of the phenomena in causes lying outside the body, and affecting it in such manner as to either render the natural actions and processes irregular, or to excite actions and processes that are altogether new.

Writing out in correct lists all the groups of phenomena that make up the term disease, we will find that they invariably come from without. From my point of view all the groups of diseases are in truth accidents; exposure to some influence or influences that pervert function or create new motion. I must first refer to the cause to which at various times has been ascribed the responsibility for this excessive mortality, viz.: that innate vital weakness exists in the colored population of this country as a result of amalgamation. On this theory the black race when mixed with the Caucasian is the only one which produces with the latter a progeny of weakened innate vitality. I have never seen this statement supported by any trustworthy knowledge or information. On the other hand it has always been accompanied by the most absurd arguments which invariably tend to expose the mind of the writer as being prejudiced to the intermingling and the intermarriage between the two races. It is among the possibilities that physiological peculiarities account for dispositions to disease belonging to typical classes of the human family. No one has as yet been able to determine what those peculiarities are. Whether they are primitively impressed on a race, or are acquired is a question that can be answered only when the exact relationships of diseases to race are discovered. My own view is, that acquired and transmitted qualities and specific existing social peculiarities are sufficient agencies for the production of all the known variations of vitality belonging to peculiar races.

I am now thoroughly convinced that the causes of this great mortality of the colored people of the cities of the South are poverty, prejudice, and ignorance. For obvious reasons I will submit them in the following arrangement:

1. POVERTY:

a. Contagious Diseases (close contact).--Diphtheria, scarlet fever, small-pox, tuberculosis, syphilis, etc.

b. Unsanitary Nuisances (11,705 abated in the District of Columbia for year ending June 30, 1900).--Filthy alleys, cellars, bad drainage, garbage, filthy gutters, hog pens, filthy houses, filthy lots, stagnant water, filthy privies, leaky roofs, sewers, filthy yards, filthy streets, wells, etc.

c. Unsanitary Homes.--Only those houses that are refused or abandoned by the white people are offered to the colored people for dwellings.

d. Impure Food.--The large quantity annually condemned in the District of Columbia is an indication of that to which the poor is subjected.

e. Impure Air.--Bad design and construction (small rooms) and unhealthy location.

f. Impure Water.--Unhealthy sources, cheap, shallow and unhealthy wells, etc.

g. Infantile Mortality.--Unusually large from poverty alone.

2. PREJUDICE:

a. Idleness and Crime.--Late hours, broken rest, depraved association, tobacco, alcohol, syphilis, other diseases, etc.

b. A Destitute Laboring Class.--Prejudiced employers, poor pay, excess of work, deficient rest, worry combined with physical exhaustion, unsanitary rooms, etc.

c. Defective Homes.--Small rooms, poor ventilation, either no water supply, or a very bad one, neglect of sanitary measures by both landlord and agent, all the nuisances enumerated above, etc.

3. IGNORANCE:

a. Diseases from bad hygiene (public, home, and personal).

b. Induced diseases from physical strain.

c. Diseases from combination of physical and mental strain.

d. Disease from the influence of the passions.

e. Disease from sloth and idleness.

f. Disease from late hours and broken rest.

g. Disease from food.

h. Disease from water.

i. Disease from alcohol.

j. Disease from tobacco.

k. Disease from errors of dress.

l. Children of parents diseased or weakened from various causes.

The space allowed for this article will not permit the discussion of all the causes mentioned above. There are, however, a few that are worthy of our special consideration. For the purpose of condensation, I will attempt the elucidation of the importance of such causes as demand our most serious attention by incorporating them in the following discussion of the most important part of this article: "How is this great mortality to be lessened?"

In my opinion the remedy for this alarming condition exists in education and money. In other words our remedy is the same as that of other races. The only difference is that the barriers we must surmount are so very peculiar and so very much greater than that of other peoples we must do our best to, at once, recognize the fact and begin the work. I believe the goal is ours and if we will only struggle manfully and hopefully onward we will soon reach it. With

EDUCATION AND MONEY

as the remedy, the colored people must be taught that the first step towards the reduction of disease is to begin at the beginning, to provide for the health of the unborn. The error, commonly entertained, that marriageable men and women have nothing to consider except money, station, or social relationships demands correction.

The offspring of marriage, the most precious of all fortunes, deserves surely as much forethought as is bestowed upon the offspring of the lower animals.

It is well that we teach, in the school room and from the pulpit, about the condition that exists in the parental line, maternal and paternal. The necessity for such instruction is somewhat indicated, in the effect upon the prenatal state, of such conditions as scrofula or struma, of various forms of tuberculosis and syphilis, of epilepsy, of rheumatism, and of insanity. These are only a few. We have to contend even with hereditary proclivity to some forms of the acute communicable diseases, such as diphtheria and scarlet fever and also to immunity from the same.

We must furnish, by all available means and through every possible channel of information, persistent and systematic instruction in public, home and personal hygiene. We should utilize especially the power of the pulpit and influence the public school authorities to institute, in the colored schools throughout the South, special instruction on these subjects. The importance of such instruction is evident in the agitation which is now occurring among the educators in the schools of the Eastern states. If it is needed there then the need of it in the colored schools of the South must be urgent indeed.

We must give such education as will tend to a better general knowledge, especially of the two diseases which, I believe, more than any, should be the most dreaded as being the most prolific of injury to mankind and especially to the colored people on account of their ignorance of the communicability of disease combined with their poverty. I refer to the contagious maladies tuberculosis and the one called "specific" or syphilis, the moral as well as the physical blot on all civilized life. The former is well known nowadays to be one, if not the worst contagion to which the human family is subjected. In its various forms it is responsible, probably, for more deaths among the colored people than any one disease with a definite phenomenon. As less is known about the latter disease, syphilis, I must mention it a little more forcibly, however unpleasant and brief the utterance. The poison of the malady once engrafted into the living body, and producing its effect there, leaves, according to my professional experience, and observation, organic evils which are never completely removed. Various forms of disease of the skin; some forms of consumption; some phases of struma or scrofula; many forms of cachectic feebleness and impaired physical build--what are denominated delicate states of constitution--these and other types of disease are so directly or indirectly connected with the "specific" taint, it becomes impossible to be too careful in tracing it out, or in measuring the degree to which it extends in the field of morbid phenomenon, in our efforts to improve the vitality of the colored people and to enlighten them upon this class of diseases.

The widespread encouragement of thrift, industry and efforts among the colored people to gain a livelihood or, to put it more boldly, to get money and keep it, thereby obtaining the means with which to supply themselves with the necessaries of life, and possibly, with some of its comforts, will materially wipe out a large percentage of that class of diseases and death that proceed from such causes as worry, excess of work, physical and mental strain, late hours, broken rest, etc.

Washington, D. C., is considered a very clean city. It is, therefore, significant that the 11,705 nuisances, referred to in the foregoing, are an indication as to the great risk, from this source throughout the South. It is obvious at once that the colored people, who form the bulk of the poor class, are the principal victims to that which escapes official inspection.

Notwithstanding the fact that the colored population of the District of Columbia is less than one-third of that of the whites, in the year 1899-1900, there died in the homes located in the back alleys of the city 411 colored persons and eleven white persons, indicating to what extent these unsanitary homes are occupied by the colored people.

Space will not permit the further elucidation of the foregoing causes and remedies, which I have done nothing more than to touch upon. However, I cannot close without giving further emphasis to my views by offering in evidence the conditions, as to vitality, of the Jews. The facts are that this race, from some cause or causes, presents an endurance against disease that does not belong to any other portion of the civilized communities amongst which its members dwell. We do not have far to go to find many causes for this high vitality. The causes are simply summed up in the term "soberness of life." The Jew drinks less than the Christian; he takes, as a rule, better food; he marries earlier; he rears the children he has brought into the world with greater personal care; he tends the aged more thoughtfully; he takes better care of the poor; he takes better care of himself; he does not boast of to-morrow, but he provides for it; and he holds tenaciously to all he gets. It may be true that he carries these virtues too far, but I do most earnestly plead that if the colored people will only emulate the Jew, they, like the Jew, will win, like him they will become strong, and like him in scorning boisterous mirth and passion, will become comparatively happy and healthy.

FOURTH PAPER.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF THE GREAT MORTALITY AMONG THE NEGROES IN THE CITIES OF THE SOUTH, AND HOW IS THAT MORTALITY TO BE LESSENED?

BY JAMES RANDALL WILDER, M. D., PHAR. D.

JAMES RANDALL WILDER, M. D., PHAR. D.

James Randall Wilder was born at Columbia, S. C., and is the son of Charles M. Wilder, who was postmaster at Columbia for many years. His mother was Marla Coleman, also a native of the Palmetto State.

Dr. Wilder is a man of spotless character, and enjoys a striking appearance, a magnetic personality, and a brilliant and versatile mind. His early training was received in the public schools of his native city. He spent a season in the classical department of Howard University, and from there he went to Howard Medical College, from which he graduated in the year 1888. Availing himself of the unrivalled opportunities afforded by the Freedman's Hospital, he rapidly acquired both theoretical and practical knowledge, so that when he stepped into the world he possessed a preparation seldom equaled by the young practitioner. He has also the degree of Phar. D. from Howard.

He located in Washington, the capital of the nation, where today he enjoys a large and lucrative practice. His modest, sympathetic nature makes him an ideal man for the sick room. His ability has won professional recognition not only for himself but for others. He was for many years physician to the National Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children, and is today the examining surgeon for a number of benevolent and charitable organizations. He has been prominently connected with many of the business ventures of the colored people in the District of Columbia for the past ten years, and is ranked as a broad-minded, solid, public-spirited citizen--a grand object lesson for what is best and most progressive in the community. He has invested his earnings judiciously, so that today he has a competency seldom attained by a man of his years. The success gained, the making the most of himself, renders him the best advocate of truth, and a potent factor in the growth and development of the race. This plain, honest, earnest young man is a type of the generation since citizenship came--a splendid example of worth since the selfhood of the race has been partially recognized, and the members have been permitted to add their quota to the sum of human advancement and achievement. The hour calls for fact, not fancy--for flesh-and-blood examples of what has been done by the young manhood of the country. The interest here and now is due to the fact that he has had somewhat to say on a subject of vital moment, and has said it vigorously and eloquently. Here he is the champion of truth, performing a service in a dignified, scholarly manner, and so winning the praise and gratitude of all lovers of truth. His article must call a halt to those inconsiderate ones who persistently repeat what through haste and insufficient data has been given to the world as fact--as logical inference from scientific investigation.

Dr. Wilder has collected a large library of professional and literary works, and has never ceased to be a hard student. His home shows the taste of the scholar and wide-awake practitioner. He married Miss Sallie C. Pearson of Columbia, S. C., and to them have been born two children--Charles McDuffie and Susan Maceo.

Dr. Wilder belongs to that class of quiet, earnest souls who pursue the "even tenor of their way" and are doing most to establish truth, to refute error, content to let the "deeds, though mute, speak loud the doer."

The American Negro finds himself, at the beginning of the twentieth century, seriously embarrassed by the many false and damaging accusations that have been made against him, not least of which is the charge of physical inferiority. The charge has been wholesale that the Negro differs from the white man physically, and that he is ethnically and strongly predisposed to certain fatal and contagious diseases. This stigma of disease has been placed upon him and repeatedly emphasized, but despite the fact that the effort has been made for years, by men learned in anthropology to find and prove the inherent inferiority of the Negro, based upon anatomical, physiological and biostatic peculiarity, to-day the bare statistical fact of his high mortality alone supports the calumnious fabrication. It is true that according to official statistics the Negro's death rate in this country is relatively high, but the causes of disparity are extrinsic and remedial and he was not stamped thus ab initio, but by the fiat of the Creative-will.

The Negro, identified as he is with the great human family, is subject to the same deteriorating influences that affect his fellow-man. Hence impure air and water, polluted soil from defective sewerage, adulterated food-stuffs, and the unhealthful conditions imposed during the school-going period of life--which are questions of public hygiene and general concern--contribute, in no small degree, to his mortality. But aside from these influences, common to all people, he is subject to others peculiar to himself, on account of the environments that govern him. The proverbial unreliability of statistics justifies the assumption that the Negro's death-rate is not as great as it is said to be. The occupations of the Negro tend to keep him in the back-ground and to encourage a neglect on the part of the census enumerator to record accurately all of the Negroes in a certain locality. But the Negro dies faster than the white man, and it is not my purpose to deny it, but to recite a few of the real causes of the disparity in the cities of the South, and to show how that mortality is to be lessened.

(1) American slavery, with its unparalleled cruelty and bestiality has injured the Negro, intellectually, physically and morally. It has been claimed that the admixture of the Negro with the Caucasian has given us a resulting mulatto, weaker physically than either of the parent stock, but this statement is based upon hypothesis, and is not borne out by the facts in the case. It is true, however, that a resulting lowering of vitality has followed the admixture of "kindred blood," which was almost unavoidable during the days of slavery as the result of certain well-known procreative practices that obtained on the part of the master, and on account of the itineracy of the Negro incident to his chattelism. In "those dark days" it was hard enough for the Negro to recognize his near kin on his maternal side, and it was infinitely impossible for him to trace the "family tree" from the paternal side. The evil effects of this consequent admixture of "similar" blood cannot be denied, and must bear a modicum of responsibility for the excessive mortality of the Negro of to-day.

(2) The fact that the great majority of the Negro women in the cities of the South are compelled to work steadily even while they are enceinte, doubtless often interferes with the normal development of the internal organs of their offspring, causing a lack of vitality which is not apparent to the casual observer, but which must make them an easy victim to disease.

(3) The same social and economic conditions that keep the expectant mother busy with her daily labors, also abbreviate her "lying-in-period," which not only weakens her physically, but deprives her newly-born offspring of its natural food--thus consigning it to an infant's grave, or so debilitating it that it succumbs to the first disease with which it becomes affected. It is bad enough to be bottle-fed, physiologists tell us, but it is infinitely worse to be hand-fed. The majority of the Negroes in the Southland are hand-fed from birth with food decidedly improper both as to quality and quantity, thus making defective the very substructure of their being. Is it any wonder that such a people die faster than another people, who nurse their young or have it done, or who give them pure cow's milk modified scientifically, or other artificial infant food prepared skilfully amid the best sanitary environments?

(4) The early motherhood of the Negro has its evil effects. The proper age for a woman to become a mother is at twenty-five years and usually before that time development is not complete, and the whole organism is in a transition state. It is equally true that the use of any organ before it has attained its complete growth or development is damaging to that organ and interferes with its normal function, and "we cannot but believe that children developed in immature sexual organs must be deficient in true vital force and energy. It is often noticeable that a child apparently strong and vigorous, may have but little power to resist disease, or may even be strongly predisposed to some infirmity." The colored women in the section under discussion who become mothers, are usually multiporæ long before the twenty-fifth year.

(5) The element of overwork must come in for its increment of responsibility in the excessive mortality of the Negro. While deficiency in exercise favors a lack of nutrition conducive to wasting in size, on the other hand too much work favors hypertrophy of vital organs and tissue degeneration. The average healthy man should work about eight hours per day and "should do work to the equivalent of 150 foot-tons daily." The American Negro's working hours, as a rule, are regulated, if at all, by the exigencies of the work to be performed, as it appears to an exacting employer.

(6) The kind of work performed by the Negroes in the Southern cities includes all menial occupations, which conduce to accident and exposure. The death-rate among the laboring class of any community, irrespective and independent of its nationality, is necessarily greater than that of the well-to-do leisure class.

(7) The manner of living of the majority of the colored people in the cities of the South--which is sometimes the progeny of ignorance, but oftener the result of necessity--is responsible, in a large measure, for their high mortality. They are crowded together on back streets, in lanes and ill-smelling bottoms, near ponds of stagnant water, on the banks of rivers--wherever their scanty means consign them. The ignorant among them, like the ignorant among any other people, ignore the teachings of hygiene, because they are ignorant, and not because they are black. They do not know the value of fresh air and sunlight and cleanliness, and hence are ignorant of the fatality attached to the unholy trinity--darkness, dampness and dirt, which is responsible for the tuberculosis that is charged to their "inherent tendencies." The pittance that is paid to the Negro in the name of wages forces him to crowd together in narrow and ill-ventilated sleeping apartments, which is decidedly unhealthful and favors the spread of contagious diseases. Thus smallpox spreads rapidly in a Negro settlement, not because they are Negroes, but because their manner of living brings them into the most intimate contact with one another, so that whatever disease attacks one, rapidly spreads to all of the others who are not immune.

The lack of suitable clothing and proper food, as a result of poverty, weakens the Negro physically. The neglect of the bath through lack of time, is responsible for much of the heart, kidney and skin diseases so prevalent among the laboring classes of the colored people. It takes time to keep clean, and the laborer has no leisure. Ignorance of the seriousness of certain diseases like syphilis, scrofula and rheumatism, has played an important role in the drama of his mortality.

(8) Another fruitful cause of his excessive mortality arises out of his struggle for existence. The exigencies of life are such with him that he does not heed the admonitions of nature made manifest in the early symptoms of disease, so that unwittingly he becomes habituated to discomfort and pain. When the common Negro laborer lays aside his implements of labor on account of sickness, the disease with which he is affected is well founded and passed beyond the abortive and often the curative stage, and very frequently when medical advice is obtained, it is of the dispensary or "physician to the poor" type, which too often savors of unconcern, inexperience and incompetency.

(9) The prevalent habit among the colored people of taking patented cure-all nostrums, which contain narcotics that insidiously benumb the sensibilities and mask the symptoms of disease, would naturally contribute to the mortality of any people.

(10) Not the least fruitful of all of the causes of the Negro's excessive mortality, is a lack of resistance to disease, engendered by the social conditions that obtain in the Southland. There he is so oppressed and persecuted that he finds himself not only an easy prey to disease, but an early victim to death. He has little to live for, and his religion promises him much after death, which, in a sense, he welcomes as a relief from his trials and troubles. This statement will not appear exaggerated when one considers the powerful influence that the mind has over the body. A cheerful, hopeful, contented mind, predisposes to a healthy body, and conversely, a discontented and despairful mind, interferes with the vital functions and invites disease and death.

(11) Lastly, in a consideration of the relatively high mortality of the Negro in the cities of the South, considerable weight must be given to the contracted death-rate of the whites due to their superior social and financial condition. Their environments are, as a rule, as healthful as education can suggest and as money can obtain, and when disease overtakes them, they combat it not only with the skill of science, but with the power of will. The incentives of life, so lacking for the colored people, are theirs in all of their plenitude. The earth is theirs and the fullness thereof, and there is no power therein that they may not covet. This feeling, this knowledge, becomes vis-a-mente that proves a potential factor in their struggle with disease. Despite this powerful influence however, and because of it, the morbidity of the white man in this country is great. I venture the assertion that his morbidity far exceeds that of the Negro--not because he is more prone to disease, but because he is enabled to live longer with disease on account of the influences to which allusion has already been made. The plain fact is, the Negro dies sooner and the white man lives longer with disease, which presents the unique question: Is it not more advantageous to the public good to die of a disease and be buried safely and deeply beneath the soil than to live with it and thus increase the opportunities of disseminating it?

(12) The remedies for the excessive mortality of the Negro in the cities of the South are self-evident. He is a man and identical with other men structurally, so that whatever is health-giving and life-lengthening for other civilized peoples, is health-giving and life-lengthening for him. To be specific, his greatest need is an increase of knowledge along the line of hygiene, and a studious application of that knowledge. He must not only be taught to run the race of life intelligently, but he must not be hindered in the process of his running. He must know the life to lead, and then lead it. In this he must have the liberal co-operation of his employer, and his brother-in-white generally. He must be paid in accordance with the labor that he performs and must be allowed an equitable participation in the every-day affairs of life. Actuated by the hopes and aspirations that actuate other men, and given a man's chance in the struggle of life, his industry and genius will soon improve his condition and bring him material prosperity, upon which depends, in a measure, the development of moral, intellectual and physical growth. Leisure and opportunity, comfort and freedom from sordid cares and anxieties regarding the immediate necessities of life, must be secured, if a race is to find time for study and thought, and to develop its best moral and physical life. May not the Negro justly find some consolation in his excessive mortality of to-day? May he not believe that "death is the philosophy of life?" May he not feel that his race is being strengthened by the dying of the weak, just as a tree is strengthened by losing its unsound branches? If so, then the future Negro in this country will be the fittest of "the survival of the fittest," and will represent the grandest type of physical manhood that the world has ever known.

FIFTH PAPER.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF THE GREAT MORTALITY AMONG THE NEGROES IN THE CITIES OF THE SOUTH, AND HOW IS THAT MORTALITY TO BE LESSENED?

BY DR. R. F. BOYD.

R. F. BOYD, M. D., D. D. S.

Dr. R. F. Boyd has clearly demonstrated by energy, pluck, ability and upright dealing with his fellowman, the possibility of rising from poverty's hard estate to honor's golden prize. Dr. R. F. Boyd was born and partly reared on a farm in Giles County, Tennessee, where he learned to hoe, to plow, to reap and to mow. When quite a boy he worked for the famous surgeon, Dr. Paul F. Eve, in Nashville, and attended as best he could night school in the old Fisk buildings on Knowles street. He taught his first school at College Grove, Tennessee. The Doctor would teach a school and at its close re-enter Fisk University or Central Tennessee College. In 1882 he graduated from Meharry Medical College, with the degree of M. D. He went to Mississippi and taught a high school at New Albany and practiced his profession till the fall of 1882, when he re-entered the Central Tennessee College to complete his college course, receiving at the same time an adjunct Professorship in Chemistry at Meharry and made teacher of Physiology and Hygiene in Central Tennessee by which he was able to pay his college expenses. In 1883 he was made Professor of Physiology in Meharry, which position, together with a position in the Literary Department, he held till he graduated from the College Department of Central Tennessee College, in 1886. In 1887 he graduated from the Dental Department of Meharry, receiving the degree of D. D. S., teaching in the school at the same time. In June, 1887, he opened his office in Nashville, where so many had tried and failed. In 1888 Dr. Boyd was made Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Meharry; in 1890 he attended the Post-graduate School of Medicine at Chicago, from which he received a diploma. In 1890 he was made Professor of Hygiene, Physiology and Clinical Medicine, which position he held until 1893, when he was made Professor of the Diseases of Women and Clinical Medicine, which chair he still holds. In 1892 he took a special course in the Post-graduate Medical School and Hospital of Chicago, on the diseases of women and children, among whom the greater portion of his practice is. One of the greatest needs of the colored people in the South is well regulated hospitals, where trained nurses can handle and care for the sick under skilled physicians. Until Mercy Hospital was instituted, there was no place of this kind in the South. It was Dr. R. F. Boyd who established and instituted this the largest and most complete hospital owned and controlled by colored people. There surgeons of our race do all kinds of operations and trained and graduate nurses of the race care for the sick under their management.

It is in this institution where the graduates of Meharry in the Medical and Nurse-Training Departments get their practical work. It is the great center to which colored physicians of the South may send cases to be operated upon by skilled physicians and handled by trained nurses. The death rate of this institution has been less than three per cent from all causes.

Besides this work, Dr. Boyd has taken a great interest in secret societies. As an Immaculate, he has gained a National reputation and has filled nearly all of the offices in the Supreme Lodge. As a Pythian he has served the Grand Lodge as Grand Medical Register, and has been honored by the Supreme Lodge as Supreme Medical Register, and is Surgeon General of the Military or Uniform Rank of that Order. The Ancient United Sons and Daughters of Africa is a creation of his own brain and he is at present Supreme Secretary of that Order. As a business man he ranks among the foremost of the race. He owns some of the best realty of the city, among which is the Boyd Building, 417-419-421-423 Cedar Street. This building has four business fronts, a hotel and restaurant, offices of various kinds and four large society halls, in which about forty societies meet. The Mercy Hospital was purchased by him solely, at a cash value of $6,000. Besides this he is the owner of other valuable property of Nashville and suburbs.

This is a question of vital importance to us as a race and to the nation as well. Much thought has been given to it by the best thinkers of both races and many articles have been written by friend and foes. All kinds of solutions have been proposed and yet the great death-rate goes on. In the larger cities of the South our people die from two to three times as fast as the whites.

The number of premature deaths is on the increase; the infant death-rate is appalling; and consumption, a hitherto unknown disease among our people, is credited with one-fourth the victims of all ages.

All the powers of science and art are being taxed to the utmost to afford a complete solution to this problem. Every large city in the South is being awakened to the sense of the importance of this subject. And well they may; for the ignorance, the vice, the poverty, the habitation and the food that cause this alarming death-rate effect the whole community.

A proper knowledge and observance of the laws of health will give happiness to all.

Man is as subject to the organic laws as the inanimate bodies about him are to mechanical and chemical laws, and we as little escape the consequences of the neglect or violation of these natural laws, which affect the organic life, through the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the clothes we wear, and the circumstances surrounding our habitation, as the stone projected from the hand, or the shot from the mouth of the cannon can escape the bounds of gravitation.

What we need is the gospel of the physical health to be preached from every pulpit, and in every school room and in every home. All strong motives of religion and the eternal world are taught from the pulpit and the Sunday school to enforce certain duties that are no more important to the well-being of man than the laws of health, which are so widely disregarded. These laws are God's laws as truly as any inscribed by Him on the Table of Stones.

The boards of health of our cities prescribe rules and regulations to insure the peace and happiness of the individual and the longevity of life which must apply to all in order that they might live out the expected term of life. What is the natural term of life? Physiologists have fixed it at a hundred years. Florens at five times the time required to perfectly develop the skeleton. David says: "The days of man's life are three score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be four score years, yet indeed is his strength labor and sorrow."

Under modern hygienic rules and regulations the days of man have been increased in civilized countries. Carefully prepared statistics show that while the maximum age has not increased in many centuries, the number of persons who survive infancy and reap a ripe old age is greatly increased.

According to the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of New York City, civilization largely interferes with the laws of evolution, by survivorship and by encouraging the waste which arises from it. We know that a human being soundly constituted continues in good health until he reaps a ripe old age, provided certain conditions are observed and no injurious accident befall him.

We might learn a lesson from the early Jews, or the ancient Greeks or Romans, if we had at our command statistics of their mortality. Doubtless they had a small death-rate! For they were strong and vigorous and observed the laws of hygiene. When these laws are properly observed, they decrease mortality and bring about greater health, comfort and happiness to the individual and to the country at large. Those who would preserve health in themselves and in the community in which they live, who would reap the greatest benefits of earth, and live out the appointed time, must strictly conform to these essentials:

1. A constant supply of pure air.

2. Cleanliness of person and surroundings.

3. Sufficient nourishing food properly prepared and properly taken.

4. Sufficient exercise of the various organs of the body.

5. The proper amount of rest and sleep.

6. Right temperature.

7. Proper clothing.

8. Sufficient, cheerful, innocent enjoyment.

9. Exemption from harassing cares.

Conform strictly to these rules and all avoidable disease will be annihilated. On the other hand, where hygienic and sanitary science is not enforced, filth, decay and putrifying matter is sure to accumulate. In this we have suitable material for the propagation of disease germs, which cause all communicable and contagious diseases. These minute organisms exist in the atmosphere everywhere, and multiply by their own peculiar method of procreation; such as filth, heat and moisture.

A population under the influence of vice, poverty, filth, debauchery, foul air, poorly prepared food and crowded dwellings, or in low, damp localities, with no rule regulating their eating or sleeping, clothing or exercise, is sure to have a great degree of mortality.

With our thorough knowledge of how to prevent epidemics, most of the diseases that enter the body through the respiratory, digestive, cutaneous, circulatory, nervous, and genito-urinary systems should be less frequent. Taking the facts which I have here given into account one may see that not only do health and longevity depend upon laws which we can understand and successfully operate, but man has it in his power to modify to a great extent the circumstances in which he lives, with a view to the promotion of his well-being and preservation.

We know that the draining of a marsh pond banishes malaria; a change from the city to the country reinvigorates, and that those who live in the high, well drained portions of our cities have the smallest degree of mortality and that the greater comforts possessed by the affluent secure for them longer life than the poor who are not so favored. To diminish the mortality in the Southern cities will depend upon both the individual and social efforts as well as upon the public measures of the legally constituted authorities.

The dirty neglected portions of our city where refuse and rubbish, animal and vegetable matters are deposited and allowed to rest and send up their poisonous odors from house to house, must be looked after. The dwellings of our people must be improved. The old, dilapidated stables, in the narrow, filthy alleys; the low, damp basements and dark cellars, often below the ground, with an insufficiency of both light and air; the clusters of homes built in the bottom and low places, closely pent up, back to back so as to prevent ventilation with only one entrance to each, and a privy between; the over-crowded conditions of these uninhabitable quarters and the quality of the food taken by those who live in these disgraceful dwellings must be looked after.

Habits of living must be corrected and a crusade against ignorance and vice begun by society. I don't think I would miss it very far when I say that one-third of the colored people in our cities live in just such dwellings as I have described here; while most of the white population live in well-built houses in the healthy portions of the cities. Is there any surprise that there should be so great a disproportion in the mortality of the races? Compare the statistics of all the large cities and you will find that under similar conditions, this same proportion in mortality exists in the Northern and foreign cities, where the food and dwelling of the poor have the same difference. But this same difference exists nowhere in the world as it does in the South. It is almost impossible for a colored man to rent a respectable house anywhere in the cities; but the dark, low, damp, confined, ill-ventilated cellars and alley houses are rented for as much as comfortable quarters ought to bring. I don't wonder that the mortality of the Negro is so great; but I do wonder that it is not greater. Any other race of people would have been exterminated in twenty years.

The remedy for the high death-rate is the enactment, and enforcement of laws against allowing the people to sleep in basements, cellars, old stables, alley houses, in low malarial sections of the cities, and making the penalty against the landlords so great, that they will not rent such places for dwellings. Regulate the kind of tenement houses and the number of persons who shall sleep in one room, the kind of food and rules for its preparation; break up these late church meetings in poorly ventilated houses, and the problem will be solved.

The infant mortality will be reduced one-half when our people learn that the care of a good conscientious physician is necessary, from generation to development, and through the entire stage of adolescence; not so much to cure, as to prevent disease. Our whole system of medicine is now turning upon prevention rather than cure. When the public is educated up to the point of paying physicians to prevent as well as cure diseases, then, there will be less sickness and fewer epidemics.

Then sanitary science, under the strict observance of hygiene, will reach perfection; the rude, gross habits of living will be corrected; a system of perfect drainage and ventilation will be inaugurated; pure air and fresh water supply will be furnished to every public and private house; only pure, unadulterated foods will be on the markets; every hotel, private and boarding-house will furnish properly prepared diets, and universal cleanliness will be the law.

Last, but by no means least, I call your attention to another most potent remedy for the diminishing of the great mortality of the race in the South. Besides the city hospitals, the whites have many other hospitals and infirmaries, supported by church and benevolent organizations where those that pay are at the hospitals because they can receive the constant attention of a physician and nurse. We need and should have such hospitals. The benevolently disposed people, the churches and societies of the cities could establish and well support them. In them, there would be pay wards and charitable wards. Each church and society supporting the hospitals could send their indigent sick to the charity wards and those who can pay, to the private apartments.

These hospitals would afford a much needed opportunity for young women of the race to prepare for trained nurses and afford better facilities for the physicians to practice surgery and study remedies.

We have established in the city of Nashville, the Mercy Hospital under the care and management of the Board of Trustees, composed of some of the best citizens and heads of our great universities. Among the directors are, Hon. J. C. Napier, President; W. T. Hightower, Treasurer; Dr. G. W. Hubbard, Dean of Meherry Medical College; Dr. P. B. Guernsey, President of Roger Williams University; Prof. H. H. Wright, Fisk University, and Dr. R. H. Boyd, President of the National Baptist Publishing Board.

The hospital is located at 811 S. Sherry street, Nashville, Tenn., in one of the most quiet, beautiful and healthful localities of the city. The site is high and well drained; the building large and commodious and up-to-date in all its apartments. There are two large wards; one for male and one for female, and private rooms, to which good pay patients are assigned where they will come in contact with no one but their physician and the nurse.

In this hospital great care is given to surgical work of all kinds and especially to abdominal surgery and gynecology. Colored physicians all over the South may send or bring their surgical cases here and get every advantage that can be provided by the best first-class hospitals and infirmaries all over the country. We have the best graduate-trained nurses in constant attendance and the resident physicians are men of the race who have made marvelous progress for two decades in all branches of their work.

Since the establishment of the hospital we have had a record of which few similar institutions can boast. During the first year we have had more than 140 surgical cases, including abdominal section and other major operations and yet the death-rate was less than 3 per cent from all causes.

Our operating room is well appointed, with an abundance of sunlight by day and gas light at night. Many of the physicians of the South have sent us cases for which we are very grateful. We have had cases from Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, Kentucky, Missouri, Florida, and Georgia. Until the other cities of the South are able to afford the facilities and accommodations and the skill and experience of the Mercy Hospital we feel that it is the duty and should be the great pleasure of every colored physician to send his surgical cases to this hospital. I consider this one of the great factors to solve this vexed problem.

The causes of the great mortality among the Negroes of the large cities of the South are due to ignorance; vice; debauchery; poor food, illy prepared; unsanitary environments; their habitation in the over-crowded tenement houses; in old stables; damp cellars; and low, damp sections and in narrow, filthy alleys, where the foul air, improper nourishment, poor ventilation and the want of personal cleanliness, furnish the proper condition for the development of disease and death. Correct these conditions and educate the people up to a thorough knowledge of and a strict compliance of the laws of health and the problem is solved. The death-rate among our people will not only be lessened, but I believe the Negro will outlive any other people on earth.

SIXTH PAPER.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF THE GREAT MORTALITY AMONG THE NEGROES IN THE CITIES OF THE SOUTH, AND HOW IS THAT MORTALITY TO BE LESSENED?

BY HENRY R. BUTLER, A. M., M. D.

HENRY R. BUTLER, A. M., M. D.

Dr. Butler was born in Cumberland county, North Carolina, April 11, 1862. His early life was spent on the farm, during which time he received at odd times three months' free school instruction.

In 1874 his parents moved to Wilmington; there he worked in saw mills, lumber yards, with the cotton compresses and as a stevedore. He spent his nights studying under Prof. E. E. Green, now Dr. E. E. Green of Macon, Ga. January 3, through the assistance of his instructor, he entered Lincoln University, Pa., and was graduated June 18, 1887, receiving the degree of A. B.; October, the same year, he matriculated in Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn., graduating with the degree of M. D. February 27, 1890. The same year the degree of A. M. was conferred on him by Lincoln University. While at Nashville he won the H. T. Noel gold medal for proficiency in operative surgery and dissecting. He arrived in Atlanta March, 1890, and began the practice of medicine. He was one of the organizers of the first drug store owned and operated by colored men in Georgia. It was known as Butler, Slater & Co. He was organizer and first president of the Empire State Medical Association of colored physicians. He was appointed surgeon of the Second Georgia Battalion, colored volunteers, in 1891, with rank of first lieutenant, by the Honorable W. J. Northern, then governor.

May 5, 1893, he married Miss Salina May Sloan of Atlanta, a graduate of Spellman Seminary, who has been a most faithful, loving and helpful companion. He took a special course in the diseases of children in 1894 at the Harvard School of Medicine, Boston, Mass. In 1895, in the same school he took a special course in surgery. November 1, 1900, H. R. Butler, Jr. came, adding new blessings and happiness to his home and life. Dr. Butler is the first and so far the only colored man to be a regular contributor to the great Southern daily, The Atlanta Constitution. He has held that position since 1895. He was three years president of the Y. M. C. A. of colored men. He was four years physician and surgeon in charge at Spellman Seminary, and is now holding a similar position in Morris Brown College, and is organizing a nurse training department to that institution. He owns some valuable real-estate, besides a beautiful home on Auburn avenue. He has a large and lucrative practice. He is Grand Master of Masons of the Jurisdiction Georgia, is grand Medical Register of the Knights of Pythias. His life is truly full, every moment of his time is taken.

The causes of excessive mortality among the colored people in Southern cities are said to be many and have been discussed from just as many points of view by students of the social status of this people.

But after several years of professional service among these colored people, which service gave me an opportunity to more closely study them, their faults, habits, needs, methods of living and their knowledge of hygiene and its laws, I have calmly reached the conclusion that the want of money is the main cause of the excessive mortality of this people. It is true that there are several minor causes, but all have their origin in the one mentioned.

Among the most prominent of these minor causes may be mentioned Ignorance and Poverty. Let us briefly consider the first of these.

The colored people have made wonderful progress in the acquirement of knowledge since emancipation, and this improvement has played no small part in reducing their excessive death-rate. Yet from this height we look down and see the great masses of these people still held in the death-like grip of ignorance. To these, education has taken no knowledge of clean homes, pure air, ventilation, soap and water and other things conducive to good health. These are they who to-day are falling so rapidly before the great reaper, death.

It is a truth known to the profession, health departments and students of this subject that most of the deaths of the great human family occur between birth and the ages of five years. The children of the colored race are not an exception to the above statement.

If the children of the intelligent, good, better and best die fast, it stands to reason that those of the ignorant, bad and poor would die even faster, and this is just what I have found to be the case.

Ofttimes, among the lowly masses, ignorance is the first to take charge of the babies at birth; it sticks a slice of fat meat in their innocent little mouths immediately after birth; it rocks the cradle; it fills their little stomachs with all kinds of decoctions, of teas and whiskies to bring out the "hives;" yea, ignorance feeds these little ones on all kinds of solid foods before they are able to digest them, until it finally feeds the grave with the bodies of its little victims.

Even when manhood and womanhood are reached, ignorance, ghost-like, stands forbidding the ventilation and cleaning of homes; it says: "It's too cold to bathe;" it sends men and women to bed in wet and damp clothes and does many other acts that multiply the graves in the old church-yard on the hill.

We come now to consider poverty. Oh, what an enemy it is, and has been, to the human family! It makes its home mostly among the ignorant, and especially among the masses. In the cities of the South the great masses are colored people. Hence it is among these that poverty sits enthroned--a sceptered king ruling amid disease and death. It retards the masses of the race in their march to the city of improvement; it prevents them from having larger and cleaner and better homes; with its bony fingers it points them to the cheap renting huts in alleys, dens, dives and basements of cities, and commands them to enter and die; it follows them into the market places and fills their baskets with cheap adulterated and semi-decayed food-stuffs; aided by prejudice and man's inhumanity to man, it drives the colored people from the healthy country districts into the crowded, sickly settlements of the Southern cities, where they soon sicken and die.

Poverty, supplemented by ignorance, and the want of the true Christian spirit, stands in the doorways of the public hospitals, infirmaries and libraries where aids to health are to be found and forbids these people to enter either on account of their color or the "want of space." Poverty keeps these people from building such institutions for themselves.

Again, the colored people of Southern cities constitute the great labor force, hence most of the diseases that result from exposure are more prevalent among them than they are among the white race.

Those diseases that result from improper foods, poor sanitation, want of pure air, need of better homes and want of public parks and baths, together with those untimely deaths due to the want of proper medical attention, good nursing and surgical operations at the right time are more extensive among the colored masses because they are the ones that suffer the privations mentioned to a greater extent than any other people.

Along with the observations already mentioned on this subject, and which observations have led me to reach the conclusion that "the want of money" is at the base of this excessive mortality, is this encouraging fact--that the colored people are not dying now as fast as they were even a decade ago. The reason of this is not far to seek. The truth of the matter is, these people are growing in wealth and intelligence and in proportion as they have acquired these essential qualities their mortality has decreased.

I have observed in my practice that those who live in good, clean, well ventilated homes have no more sickness and deaths than white citizens of equal intelligence and wealth. I now call to mind, here in Atlanta twenty homes of colored citizens which are fitted and furnished with all modern conveniences, including heating and baths. The owners are well-educated and spend much time and money in keeping their homes and yards clean and in good sanitary condition. What I wish to say is this, in twelve years' time only two deaths have occurred in that circle of twenty homes, and one of these was a baby whose death was due to an accident, and the other was an aged person whose death was the result of Bright's disease. Does not this speak volumes to prove the truth of my position? What I have observed here in Atlanta relative to the real causes and prevention of this excessive mortality is true in other Southern cities.

It is no doubt plain to the reader that I have not mentioned here a single cause upon which this excessive mortality rests, but that which money can remove. That being true, what is the conclusion of the whole matter? It is simply this:

1st. Pay the masses sufficient wages to remove their ignorance and poverty, to build better homes and to furnish and equip them with baths and other things necessary and conducive to good health, to purchase proper food-stuffs, fuel and comfortable clothing.

2d. The cities should enlarge their present hospital facilities, or build others especially for these people, cities and towns that have no such facilities should provide them at once, parks, public baths and libraries should be opened by the cities for the poor.

It is simply a matter of money, before that mighty king, ignorance and poverty, together with all their allies, take flight.

TOPIC XIII.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEGRO'S ATTITUDE IN POLITICS?

BY HON. GEORGE H. WHITE.

HON. GEORGE H. WHITE, LL. D.

Mr. White was born in a log cabin, located at the confluence of "Richland Branch" and "Slap Swamp" in Bladen County, North Carolina, near the line of Columbus County, remote from cities and towns. His maternal grandmother was half-Indian and his paternal grandmother was Irish, full-blood. His other admixture is facetiously described as "mostly Negro." His early boyhood was a struggle for bread and a very little butter, his schooling being necessarily neglected. He usually attended two or three months in the year. Later, by dint of toil, and saving a few dollars, he was able to secure training under Prof. D. P. Allen, President of the Whitten Normal School at Lumberton, N. C., and afterwards entered Howard University at Washington, graduating from the eclectic department in 1877. Believing that he could best serve his race and himself as an advocate of justice, he read law while taking the academic course, completing his reading under Judge William J. Clarke, of North Carolina, and was licensed to practice in all courts of that State by the Supreme Court in 1879.

Although Mr. White has won marked success in several walks of life, as lawyer, teacher and business man, it is his political achievements that have won for him not only a national reputation, but have evoked no small degree of comment from the press and diplomats of many of the countries of the old world. It is worthy of remark that up to this time, at the age of forty-nine, he has never held an appointive office, his commissions coming invariably from the hands of the sovereign people direct. He was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1880, and to the State Senate in 1884; was elected solicitor and prosecuting attorney for the second judicial district of North Carolina for four years in 1886, and for a like term in 1890; was nominated for Congress in 1894, but withdrew in the interest of harmony in his party. He made the race for Congress in 1896 and was triumphantly elected by a majority of 4,000, reversing a normal democratic majority of over 5,000--a change of fully 9,000 votes, indicating in no uncertain tone the confidence and esteem in which he was held by his friends and neighbors. He was re-elected in 1898. His services as a legislator were conscientious and valuable. At the close of his second term, he delivered a valedictory to the country, which was universally praised as the best, truest and most timely expression of the Negro's plea for equality of citizenship that ever rang through the halls of Congress. The speech was widely circulated, and was favorably commented upon by the leading newspapers of the nation.

Mr. White has accumulated quite a handsome fortune, his wealth being estimated at from $20,000 to $30,000. His personal popularity and the respect for his ability are attested by the fact that several honorary degrees have been conferred upon him by a number of the noted educational institutions of the land.

Mr. White is a thirty-third degree Mason. For six years he was Grand Master of Masons for the State of North Carolina, having filled most of the subordinate offices in that body before his elevation to the Grand Mastership.

Since his retirement from Congress, Mr. White has been engaged in the practice of law in Washington, D. C., and so favorably has he impressed his qualifications upon the bench and bar of the national capital that one of the judges publicly, and without precedent, complimented him in open court and set his methods up as an example for other lawyers who practice there. Eminent as are his abilities, Mr. White is proverbially modest. Of strong character, well-balanced mind and an unswerving sense of justice, liberal in views upon all subjects, political, social or religious, companionable in private life, unostentatious in manner of living or in the bestowal of charity, ready to sacrifice personal convenience to serve the worthy, Mr. White is indeed a typical American. The Negro people, in slavery or freedom, as serfs or citizens, offer no model more inspiring, no picture more inviting.

In presenting this subject to the public, I shall endeavor to treat it from a broad and liberal standpoint, eliminating all selfishness or individual political bias, and viewing the situation from the standpoint of an American citizen.

The first prerequisite to good government in a republic, is purity in the ballot. No stream can be pure unless its source is pure; neither can a republic hope for just and fair laws and the administration and execution of them, unless there is purity and fairness in the sources from whence these cardinal principles of government spring. Laws should be enacted for the whole people and not for individuals, races or sections--thereby securing the support and retaining the confidence of all the parts of our heterogeneous compact, to the end that a homogeneous whole may move in the same direction for the good of all concerned.

The Negroes ask for--and as a part of this republic--have a right to demand the perpetuation of these basic principles of our government. While we are young in citizenship, and admit having made many political mistakes, yet we are willing that the search-light of reason be thrown upon our acts, and a fair and impartial verdict rendered as to our conduct, when all the circumstances surrounding our variegated political history are taken into consideration. Liberated, enfranchised and turned loose among our former masters, who could not take kindly to our new citizenship, we naturally sought friendship and political alliance with those claiming to be our best friends--those who had been instrumental in obtaining our freedom. These new friends came largely from the Federal army, interspersed with many adventurers who followed in the wake of that army, seeking strange fields in which to ply their vocations. Many of these new-comers proved to be true friends to the Negro of the South and led us on and taught us as a faithful guardian would teach and care for his wards. But the great majority of them were wholly unscrupulous and worked upon the ignorance, inexperience and gullibility of the Negro, overtime, to place themselves into positions where they had unlimited sway. The result that followed was most natural--the use of public trust for private gain, the looting of many of the Southern states, the political degradation of the Negro, and the complete estrangement between him and his former neighbors. When all these things were accomplished, these human cormorants betook themselves to their Northern homes to live in ease and splendor on the results of their pillage, while the black man was left in the South to endure disfranchisement, torture and murder on account of the malice and hatred begotten from his first political experience.

Surrounded by such environments, the suppression of his right of franchise, the open and notorious examples of fraud, ballot-box stuffing and intimidation practiced in every Southern election for the last thirty years, on the one hand, and the unfaithfulness, "Jingoism," the free offering of bribes and the continued practice of duplicity, on the part of those claiming to be his friends, on the other hand, no fair-minded man would expect to find complete political perfection among a people thus treated. Thus has the Negro been obstructed, not only in politics, but his civil rights have been denied him, and the doors of many industries are closed against him.

But let us turn our faces away from all the horrors of slavery, reconstruction and all kindred wrongs which have been heaped upon us, and stand up, measuring the full statue of an American citizen, upon the threshold of the new century as a New Man. The slave who has grown out of the ashes of thirty-five years ago, is inducted into the political and social system, cast into the arena of manhood, where he constitutes a new element and becomes a competitor for all its emoluments. He is put upon trial, to test his ability to be accounted worthy of freedom, worthy of the elective franchise. After all these years of struggle against almost insurmountable odds, under conditions but little removed from slavery itself, he asks a fair and just judgment, not of those whose prejudice has endeavored to forestall--to frustrate--his every forward movement; rather those who have lent a helping hand that he might demonstrate the truth of "The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man."

In a nation like ours, blessed with peace, plenty and full of prosperity; filled with the spirit of "Expansion," sound money and a protective tariff; when there is a disposition to forget all sectional lines, and to know no North, no South, no East, no West, but having all to stand out in bold relief as one reunited whole, when one political party slaps the other upon the shoulder with a knowing look and a smile indicating the fraternal feeling everywhere present, the question naturally comes home to every colored American, "What should be the Negro's attitude in politics?" Constituting as we do, one-eighth of the entire population of this Nation, the Negro's political attitude should be a firm stand for the right, the support of honest men for office, the advocacy of strong, pure American policies, an unceasing contention for fair elections, a pure ballot, a complete repudiation of any party or man who seeks to bribe, or in any way to hamper or degrade him politically. Should he become self-effaced, politically? No, never! He should, at all times, contend wisely, firmly for every right accorded to other American citizens under the organic laws of the nation. He should identify himself with that political party which proves to be the most friendly towards him. There is very little in a name. Results should be sought, and the Negro should never waver until they are obtained. This will necessitate a division of the Negro vote. No fixed rule can be established as a political guide for him, any more than it can be done for any other people. The location, environment, men and measures sought to be obtained, should guide him. The political pathway for the future may seem dark and discouraging, but nothing daunted, we should continue to press forward, contending for every inch of our rights--no right which man enjoys aside from his own household should be guarded more sacredly than his right of franchise--a right which makes each one a sovereign in himself; a right which determines what laws shall govern us, who shall construe them and execute them.

I am not unmindful of the fact that the views here expressed, may sound rather Utopian. But in this age of rush and bustle for place, preferment and national gain, by individuals and the nation; and in an age when anarchists, lynchers and murderers set at defiance all law and government; in an age when, in certain sections of the country, the ballot-box ceases to stand as an exponent of the registered will of the people, but stands rather as a political cesspool of reeking rottenness, impregnating the national atmosphere with germs of discord that may yet stagnate and throttle the Union; in such an age, it is quite necessary that a halt should be called; a reckoning had, and that these small, though dangerous political sores should be lanced from the body politic before they develop into putrifying cancers that will destroy the life of the republic.

From any view that may be taken of the present political situation, it is apparent that the time is ripe for the colored American to think and act for himself. If he reasons correctly, he will certainly reach the conclusion that right must some day prevail; and in order that he may enjoy the resultant blessings flowing from a pure ballot, the colored man must set the pace, and thereby place himself in a position to command respect and proper recognition. "He who would have equity must first do equity."

The Negro's loyalty to his friends, his impressionable soul, his devotion to church, his yearning for education and enlightenment, his thrift, industry, devotion to country, fidelity to the flag shown upon hundreds of battle-fields, must be admitted and command the admiration of all fair-minded men. Let him add to all these attributes, purity in all things; let him cultivate a love for justice and fair play, live as an example for his neighbors, ally himself with the best men in the community or state where he lives, and the day must certainly come when his rights--political and civil--will be conceded to him.

Let us learn what is right and then dare to do the right; ever pressing forward to higher and nobler things; never lagging, but remember, "That constant effort will remove the mountain, and that continued dripping will wear away the stone."

SECOND PAPER.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEGRO'S ATTITUDE IN POLITICS?

BY T. T. FORTUNE

TIMOTHY THOMAS FORTUNE.

Timothy Thomas fortune, the subject of this sketch, is an author, a journalist, an agitator and a lecturer.

Mr. Fortune's grandmother was a mulatto, and his grandfather a Seminole Indian. Thomas was born of slave parents in Florida in 1856. His father took an important and active part in the reconstruction of Florida, being a delegate in the Constitutional Convention that framed the present constitution of Florida, and a member of the first five sessions of the reconstituted Florida Legislature.

During the Ku Klux Klan period, which followed, the father of Thomas had to stand for his life, which he manfully did by preparing his house to receive the night marauders. The father finally moved with his family to Jacksonville, Florida. Here young Thomas soon found a position as a printer's "devil," which was the first step to that high position which he now occupies. He left his printer's "case" for two years in order to attend school and to work in the Jacksonville city postoffice.

In 1874 he was appointed mail route agent between Jacksonville and Chattahoochee; but he was soon promoted to the position of special inspector of customs for the first district of Delaware. A year later, 1876, young Fortune entered that school which has been an inspiration to so many negro youths, Howard University. After two years' study in this school he returned to the printer's trade. While in Washington he married Miss Smiley of Florida.

In 1878 Mr. Fortune returned to Florida to try his hand at school teaching. After a year's experience at this work, he again returned to his first love, the printer's trade, but this time he went to New York City. Of course the other compositors objected to working with a "Nigger," but by the manly stand of the publisher, Mr. John Dougall, the "Nigger" remained, and after a short strike the white compositors were glad to return.

Mr. Fortune's real career as a journalist began in 1880, when, with two friends, he began the publication of the Rumor, which, after two years, was changed to the New York Globe. After four years the paper was forced to suspend. Mr. Fortune immediately began the publication of the New York Freeman. A year later, 1885, the name of the paper was changed to the New York Age, of which Mr. Fortune is still editor.

His writings are, however, not confined to the editing of his paper. He is the author of several books, but "Black and White" and "The Negro in Politics" are perhaps the most noted.

Mr. Fortune was the first to suggest the Afro-American League, an organization in the interest of the Negro race. He was the president of the first convention of this league, which met in Chicago in 1890. His address as president of the convention was a scathing arraignment of the South.

Mr. Fortune was also elected chairman of the executive committee of the National Afro-American Press Association which met in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1890.

The National Negro Business League was the outcome of a conversation between Booker T. Washington and Mr. Fortune. Mr. Fortune was elected chairman of the executive committee of the National Negro Business League which met in Boston in 1900, and also at its meeting in Chicago in 1901.

Mr. Fortune is, as might be suspected, a Republican in politics. In the presidential election of 1900 he took an active part in the political canvas of that year. He spoke in Indiana and in Missouri, advocating the re-election of President McKinley.

The whole energy of his life is devoted to the interests of the Negro race in America. He wields a sharp rapier. He is the complement of Booker T. Washington. Each is doing his own work in his own way; the one supplements the other's work.

There are some questions which, it seems to me, need no discussion, because the truths in them are self-evident; and yet, so perverse is the human understanding, that unanimity upon any subject of common interest is rare in social ethics; and by social ethics I mean the philosophy of organized government in all of its multifarious life.

How intricate and perplexing these questions are; even the uninitiated intuitively understand, although they cannot explain them; while ignorant and learned alike wrangle and often fight over the means to reach ends upon which there is no disagreement. There is, therefore, no phase of the Afro-American problem upon the proper solution of which there is not a substantial agreement among members of the race. The processes by which the solution shall be reached are the bases of the disagreements and discussions, which often defeat the common wish and aim.

"What should be the Afro-American's attitude in politics?" is a sophomoric, rather than a practical, question. What he should do at a given crisis is answered by what he has done ever since the right to vote was conferred upon him by the adoption of the war amendments to the Federal Constitution. Neither threats, fire, rope, nor bullet has been powerful enough to swerve him from pursuing the course made mandatory by his self interests. He may have pursued this course by the intricate process of reasoning employed by educated men, or of intuition employed by the unlettered. The fact remains that his attitude has been one of sympathy and helpfulness towards those who were unmistakably sympathetic and friendly towards him and as unmistakably antagonistic and troublesome to those who were antagonistic to him. With him, as with the rest of mankind, "self-preservation is the first law of nature." What his attitude in politics should be now will be what it has been--governed absolutely by his self interests.

There will be nothing gained in the proper education and comprehension of the subject under discussion by holding up holy hands of horror at the statement that selfishness, pure and simple, has governed and will govern the attitude of the Afro-American in politics. The purists, who prate of the common interest and loyalty to the flag as the first and highest duty of the citizen, are entitled to their view of the matter, but the fact remains and is true of the people of every ancient and modern government that self-interest will govern the actions of the voter. One of the components which is discriminated against and oppressed by legal enactment through popular clamor will invariably produce substantial unanimity of thought and action on the part of the pariah against the common interest, and, in the last analysis, against the flag itself, as the emblem of governmental discrimination and oppression. The Helots of Sparta and the Jews under the Pharaohs were of this sort. The Jews in Russia and Germany and the Irish in Great Britain are modern examples. The first concern of every man and of his own race is his own concern. He will oppose those who oppose him, whether as individual or state; he will look to his interests first and to those of his neighbor afterwards. The Afro-American is just like other people in this, as well as in all respects, despite the puerile contention of some, even of his own household, that he is not as other men. He will not love those who hate him nor pray for those who despitefully use him, although enjoined to do so in thunderous tones from every pulpit in Christendom. And, therefore, the Afro-American's attitude in politics will be governed, as it has been, by his selfish interests. And, why not? The banker's attitude in politics is governed by the policy that serves his selfish interests best; the manufacturer's attitude is the same. The same rule of conduct governs all men in their social and civil relations to the state.

In a republic, government by party is the fundamental basis of it. There must be parties or there can be no government; this is equally true of democracies and limited monarchies. The primary is the basis of party government. His selfish interests, of whatever sort, make it necessary for every citizen, who wishes to conserve those interests, to belong to some one party. Unless he is permitted to enjoy the rights and benefits of the primary, or party referendum, he cannot hope to enjoy the rights and benefits of the party of his choice--enjoy them to their fullest extent--for the right to vote, which does not carry with it the right to be voted for, leaves the citizen in a voiceless condition as to those specific interests in which he is concerned, and which can only be secured from the state through the action of his party. No man can speak for another as he can speak for himself, hence, in every party, men and special interests, such as railroad, bank, manufacturing and the like interests, habitually seek to put in control persons who will represent them, speak for them and vote for them upon any question of legislation which arises. It is because of this that there is great rejoicing among Afro-Americans when any man of theirs is put forward for his party in any official capacity whatever, and it is because of this that so few of them have been, and are put forward.

Wherever an Afro-American is found supporting, by his lung-power and ballot, a party which denies him participation in its primary (basis of party) government, then you have found a man who does not know what his attitude in politics should be; and, whether he should be pitied or despised, must remain a question for each individual to decide. The democratic party is the only party in the United States which denies to the Afro-American this basic right in party government. Logically enough, it is the only party in the United States which has always sought to prevent him from enjoying the rights of the elective franchise, the right to vote and to be voted for, and which has necessarily, to justify this policy, always sought in every conceivable way to degrade his manhood to the brute standard. A voteless citizen is always a social and political outcast; a voteless race in a composite citizenship will always constitute a problem more or less dangerous to the state--enemies, fostered in the bosom, as Cleopatra's asp, only to wound to the death. It has been the way of the world since the dawn of history.

It is creditable to the good sense and the manhood of the Afro-American people that they have constantly recognized and acted upon the theory I have here laid down, as the consistent one in politics. Their attitude has been manly and consistent; they have stood by their friends and defied their enemies, even when their friends have been lukewarm, or brutally indifferent, and this has been the attitude of their friends since 1870.

Through good and evil report they have refused to be seduced from their allegiance to the party of freedom, and their enemies have wreaked their vengeance, without hindrance, so that the attitude books of every Southern state bristle with a code of laws as infamous and oppressive as the slave code. But that does not affect the principle in the least, and the principle is the thing; it is the essence of all life. He who clings to it, though he may die, as the poor Indian has done, deserves and receives the respect of mankind. When it has been said of him that he was corrupt, purchasable, unreliable in politics and that the franchise should be denied to him by fair or foul means, because of this, by the kuklux klan terrorists, or red shirt brutalists--sufficient answer to it all, in my mind, has been that if he could have been seduced from his best interests, from his friends in party politics, without violence towards him, none would have molested him or made him afraid. That is a self-evident proposition in partisan ethics.

We do not terrorize and shoot and defraud people who vote with us. No, the Afro-American has instinctively distrusted his political enemies, even when they came to him bearing grapes in their hands and honey on their tongues. His attitude has been one of manly protest, wherever he was allowed to vote, or made to sulk in silence and indignation. And here has been and here is the rub. When you cannot coax a man against his will, as Jonathan did David, or purchase his birthright as Jacob did Esau, if you have the power you terrorize and shoot him into compliance. That is what the political enemies of the Afro-American have done and are doing, but patient as the ass and with the faith of Job, which passes all understanding, he sticks to his principle of self-interest and waits; and the good proverb says, "All things come to him who waits." I believe it. And if every man of the race had the alternative of being shot in his tracks for clinging to his principles or life eternal for deserting them, the part of manhood and honor would be to stand up and be shot. As a matter of fact, thousands upon thousands of Afro-Americans have been shot to death by their political enemies since 1868, and perhaps thousands more will be shot in the future in the same way, and for the same reason and by the same heartless enemies, before the nation reaches the conclusion that an Afro-American citizen should have as much protection under the Federal Constitution as any other citizen with a white skin, despite the fact that the whole matter is largely one of state control and regulation. When cancers get on the body politic like this of disfranchisement and debasement of an entire element of the citizenship, they are usually cut out, as that of slavery, and its exceeding horrors, were.

Steadfastness, therefore, in the faith that moves mountains and patience which overcomes a world of wrong and injustice, will bring the reward as it has so often done with the race in the past. The reward is perfect equality under the laws of the Federal Government and of the several states. But our attitude must be one of absolute fidelity to the priceless sacred trust of citizenship, which comes to us out of the agonies of the greatest war of modern times. If we be true to ourselves, the great republic will be true to us "in God's way and time."

THIRD PAPER.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEGRO'S ATTITUDE IN POLITICS?

BY HON. GEORGE W. MURRAY.

GEORGE WASHINGTON MURRAY.

George Washington Murray was born September 22, 1853, of slave parents, near Rembert, Sumter County, S. C. Emancipation found him a lad of eleven summers, bereft of both parents. Without a friend upon whom to rely for either aid or advice in an impoverishing section, he entered upon the fierce combat then in progress for the indispensable bread of life. Among the waifs of his neighborhood in 1866, he learned the alphabet and acquired an imperfect pronunciation of monosyllables. In efforts to improve his meager stock of knowledge during the succeeding five years, he so industriously applied himself that in January, 1871, he entered a day school, while in session, for the first time, but as teacher, not scholar.

He taught until the Fall of 1874, when he successfully passed a competitive examination and secured a scholarship as sub-freshman in the reconstructed University of South Carolina. He was successfully employed as a teacher until February, 1890, when he secured an appointment as inspector of customs at the port of Charleston, S. C.

Entering the political arena in the contest for the Republican nomination for Congress in 1892, he successfully won the stake and was placed in the general election against Gen. E. W. Moise, one of the most brilliant, wealthy and popular Democrats in the State, whom he finally defeated and was declared elected to the Fifty-third Congress.

He was again elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress, and counted out, but contested and was finally seated. He was again elected to the Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses, and counted out, and failed to be seated after strong contests.

Since his retirement from congressional contests, seeing the primary and crying need of his race is a larger per cent of the ownership of homes, and the impossibility of securing them in the desired space of time, under the prevailing circumstances, where the necessaries of life and rents consume the entire resources year after year, he has applied himself to the development of a scheme of buying large estates and cutting them into small holdings, and giving long periods of time in which to pay for homes, receiving about the usual rents as payments.

He now has about 200 families located on about 9,000 acres of land, and is adding from 2,000 to 3,000 acres to his territory each year.

He has already secured twelve letters patent on a multiple farming machine, that is destined to revolutionize farming methods.

Without his request upon the demand of the President himself, he was recently appointed Division Internal Revenue Deputy Collector for the district of South Carolina.

To the casual observer the above query is easy of solution, but it is at the same time engaging the profoundest attention and thought of the wisest statesmen, and the greatest philanthropists and humanitarians.

It is especially difficult to the black victims of present political environments.

With a proportionate share of all the elements of strength, intelligence, wealth, business and character--the Negro's attitude politically should, and would, be the same as that of the other members of society.

The writer presume that in dealing with the question at issue, he is territorially restricted to the ex-slaveholding portions of the United States, as the Negro's political status in the rest of the territorial limits of the country differs so little from that of other members of society.

As we see it, the mistake of the nineteenth century was the attempt to make the ex-slave a governor, before he had learned to be governed.

It seems that members of the race have not even yet learned that governments have their origin and growth in the necessities originating in the business and wealth of mankind, and have attained their greatest perfection where there is most business and wealth.

The naked, wandering savage has the lowest order of governments, because, in that state, he has need for no other, and could not support any higher.

It twenty intelligent and progressive men settle down in the midst of a hundred thousand such savages, they will immediately set about establishing business, accumulating wealth, and will very naturally organize in self-defense, and in time rule the ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and eighty others.

When just emerging from the shambles of two and a half centuries of slavery and inforced ignorance, penniless and without experience, it was a serious blunder to have placed the Negroes in such a position as to make them responsible for the government.

They were not only without the necessary intelligence and experience for its successful operation, but all the resources essential to its maintenance were in the hands of the minority class, and they were without the ability to compel any contribution for its support.

Placed upon the wrong track in the primary stages of emancipation, the race spent its energy in trying to control the kind of government that other people's business and resources made necessary, instead of trying to acquire the elements which would have made it welcome as part owners and rulers of that government.

Such conditions as resulted from the plans and policies pursued in the rehabilitation of civil government, after the War of the Rebellion, very naturally created great friction between the former master-class, possessing practically all the business, wealth and experience, though in the minority in many localities, and the former slave-class, without business, wealth and experience, on the other hand.

The master-class determined that in self defense it had to organize to repossess itself of governmental control, which was then in the hands of the slave-class, and withheld its support from the government, which the latter class was helpless to compel without the strong compelling arm of the Federal government, which the peaceful and considerate judgment of mankind would no longer sustain in maintaining such conditions.

Whereupon all over the South where the ex-slave class controlled merely, by reason of numbers, its power and influence failed, until to-day it finds itself absolutely shorn of power, even so much as is necessary to protect its property, family and life.

While it may be both unjust and unwise for a class in the condition of the former slave class to absolutely control a government made necessary by the resources of others, yet it is a cruel wrong to deprive it even of that influence that is absolutely necessary for the protection of family, property and life.

The paramount issue of Southern Negroes should not be political office, but the possession of such political influence as is necessary for the protection of their property and lives.

While it is desirable that as many Negroes as possible be provided for at the official pie-counter, the all important issue, in my humble judgment, is the equality of civil and political rights, without which we are in some measure worse off than slaves.

Deprived of that influence, which selfish interests always impel the master-class to give in defense of his property rights, the emancipated-class must possess a counter voting power somewhere within its own personality, which an untrammelled ballot alone affords.

Wisdom dictates that the Negro should speedily assume the task of producing such conditions as will give the needed influence.

This brings us to the question at issue, What should be the Negro's attitude politically?

In short, whatever attitude would prove most beneficial to him the Negro should adapt himself to it, until he shall have acquired sufficient strength along all lines to occupy and maintain an independent position, and shape the course of action to suit his fancy and convenience.

The difference in the treatment of colored men North and South is not half so much on account of a difference in the education and customs of the white people in the respective sections, as from the difference between the business, intellectual and political status of the members of the colored race itself in the two sections, coupled with the fact that the white man possessing practically all the business, wealth, culture and experience in the North, is divided into political camps, each controlling influence sufficient to protect each constituent member, however weak, while in the South he is united in one political party, which wholly destroys the colored man's influence and partially his own.

In fact, in the North, the combined wealth, culture and influence of the entire party with which he is allied overshadows and protects his rights, both public and private, and this brings us to the question at issue, What should be the Negro's attitude politically?

Upon this question there are as many opinions as there were colors in Joseph's coat.

Some advise that we solidly vote the Republican ticket.

Others that we should all vote the Democratic ticket; still another class advise us to divide our vote, and another class advise us not to vote at all.

There may be a grain of truth in each one of the above theories, but for all times and occasions each one is essentially false.

Under present environments it appears that we accomplish nothing by voting the Republican ticket, and gain no more by voting the Democratic ticket than we would by not voting at all.

To us the all important task is to find a way to make our ballot effective.

Though, throughout the South, a cruel and savage spirit seems triumphant, let the Negro take courage, for God is still ruling, and the very machinery that has been set in motion for his political destruction is hastening the day of his political regeneration.

The reduction of the Negro's vote to an insignificant fraction which does away with the possibility of absolute Negro control, is not an unmixed evil, as it entirely destroys the foundation of the scarecrow of Negro supremacy, which has been used as a great welding hammer to forge the white race, with so many divergent views and opinions, into one political mass, while the standards of wealth and intelligence raised as a bar to his progress are causing the Negro, as never before, to bestir himself in efforts to reach them.

Thus it is seen that his would-be enemy destroys the welding hammer at one fell blow; sets in motion irresistible currents that will inevitably find outlets in the broad ocean of the political freedom of both races, and arouse in the Negro, by the standards set up, the very desirable incentive to make preparation for the enjoyment of the destined freedom which the fates seem bent on bringing him.

Once more the wonderful hand of Providence is using man's malice and prejudice as His own marvelous highway of hope to bring good results from evil intentions.

Let the poor, desponding Negro, way down in the valley of degradation and oppression, continue to be industrious, honest and frugal, and pray, and God will again hitch His own all powerful steeds of hope to his chariot of despondency and oppression, and, riding over the mountains of man's folly, manifested in unjust rules and practices, in defiance of His will, will draw him upon the broad eminence of joy, gladness and hope.

TOPIC XIV.

IS THE NEGRO AS MORALLY DEPRAVED AS HE IS REPUTED TO BE?

BY PROF. B. H. PETERSON.

PROF. B. H. PETERSON.

Butler Harrison Peterson, the subject of this sketch, is a native of the State of Florida. He was born of slave parents, just in time to be spared the horrible experiences of that slave system which swept over this country with such direful results.

When the war clouds of the Civil War passed over, he was sent to an ex-slave for private instruction. Shortly after the public school system was introduced into the state of Florida he entered as a regular attendant. Three very profitable and successful sessions were spent in these schools. Soon after entering upon the fourth term his mother moved to another part of the state, leaving him in the care of an aunt, who, loving money rather than education, took him out of school and hired him to a law firm as office boy, for $1.50 per month. This lasted for nearly two years. He then took a position as porter in a dry goods store, and then a clerkship in a small grocery store, owned and controlled by a colored man, the Rev. William Bell.

During this time Mr. Peterson showed signs of a thirst for knowledge. He had now become a member of the Baptist Church and was actively engaged in Sunday-school work. Having attracted the attention of a few friends, among them Mr. John J. Montth, an opportunity soon presented itself, which Mr. Peterson eagerly seized. This opportunity opened the doors of Cookman Institute, Jacksonville, Fla. at which place he remained two years. Mr. Peterson next found himself for three years a student of the St. Augustine Normal and Collegiate Institute, Raleigh, N. C. In 1883 Mr. Peterson entered Lincoln University, Chester County. Pa., passing successfully through the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years. He tarried yet three years longer at Lincoln, taking the full theological course; and in 1889 returned home to begin work. His first position was as principal of the Oakland Graded School, Jacksonville, Fla. During the two years spent here, he was offered the chair of "ancient languages," Selma University, Selma, Ala., which he accepted and held for two years to the satisfaction of the President, Dr. C. L. Purse, D. D., and the Board of Trustees.

At this time matters over which he had no control so shaped themselves that this very pleasant and profitable work had to be given up. In 1893 Mr. Peterson became the first assistant teacher in the Phelps Bell Bible Training School, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Ala., and in connection with this work he is instructor in the Normal Department of Mental and Moral Science and Primary Mathematics. He is still here at work.

He is also a pastor of one of the churches of the town of Tuskegee and spends a part of his vacations at the Summer Schools of the Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute and the University of Chicago.

In this brief sketch no reference is made to ways or means, but only the results are announced, the rosebush, however, has thorns as well as roses.

The conclusion reached in this discussion will depend in part upon the viewpoint of the observation, upon the character of the judges and upon the logic employed. In considering any subject it is always best, fair and proper, to admit freely and fully the well known facts in the case. The book of books, which is an infallible code of morals, says that "there is none good, no not one." But there is none as depraved as he could be. In either direction, progression is possible.

Unfortunately, immorality is not a stranger to any people; and that it is to be found among the Negroes, should not excite wonder and amazement; for it grows out of their previous condition of servitude.

The horrible system of slavery, with its direful effects, is still felt to a greater or less degree by the American Negro. And the ex-slaveholders, from the very nature of the case, could not make their escape from its awful consequences. The market still has fruit from this system.

There can be little doubt that the arrangement which places one man or any number of men at the entire disposal and control of another, subject to his absolute and irresponsible will and power, is a system of things not the most favorable to moral excellence, whether of the master or the slave. The exercise of such authority must, from the very nature of the case, tend to foster the spirit of pride and arrogance, to make a man overbearing and haughty in temper, quick and irascible, impatient of restraint and contradiction. The passions of our nature, the animal propensities, ever ready to assume the mastery, and requiring to be kept in check with a firm hand, finding now no barriers to their indulgence but those which are self imposed, will be likely to break over those feeble barriers, and acquire unrestrained course and dominion. The tendency of the system to these results in morals, so far as the master is concerned, is inevitable. There may be some honorable exceptions, but the tendency is ever the same. It must and will be so while human nature is what it is. The temptation to the abuse of power over those who cannot or dare not resist to undue severity of punishment, where the passions of the master are aroused, and there is no one to say, What doest thou? to the gratification of the baser appetites in their various forms, must be too great for ordinary and unaided human virtue. The tendency of such a system must ever be, not to progressive self refinement and moral culture, but to barbarism. We should expect to find in connection with such a civil polity, a state of society, of religion and morals somewhat peculiar--acts of violence and barbarity not infrequent, the street affray, the duel, the murderous assault, the unrestrained indulgence of the animal appetites. It would be quite natural and reasonable under such a state of affairs to expect this; and such, unless all history and experience be false, we find the world over, to be the general state and tendency of things wherever the system of slavery prevails.

Nor is the effect on the morals of the slave more favorable; on the contrary, it is even more disastrous. In proportion as the feeling of self respect and self dependence is taken away, and a man is taught to look upon himself as merely the tool in the hands of another, the instrument of another's will and pleasure, without responsibility of his own, just in that proportion the foundation of moral character is undermined. Nothing can be more demoralizing in its effect upon the character. Strip a man of all that constitutes manhood; of all self reliance and self respect; of all the rights which nature has conferred upon him, and all the faculties with which God has endowed him; take away from him all control and disposal of himself, all ownership of himself and all that can stimulate to activity, and incite to noble attainment and excellence, is gone at once. He sinks down to the level of the brute. What inducement is there for him to hope or strive for anything further or better than his present lot, and enjoyment which the moment may bring with it? He becomes as a matter of course improvident and reckless, content with the gratification, so far as may be, of his merely animal appetites; indolent, for why should he be otherwise?

Deceptive and dishonest, for what motive has he to be honest? He is governed only by fear of the lash, with little thought of anything future, with little knowledge of that hereafter whence are derived the most powerful motives to present virtue. His mind is shrouded in ignorance, his moral nature almost wholly uncultivated, his condition is little above that of the beast with whom he toils, and with whom he perishes. As in the case of the master, so in the case of the slave; some will rise above the influence that surround and drag them down, and, in spite of all these depressing and demoralizing influences, will maintain their integrity. But such is not the rule, such is not the tendency of the system. No one who has either reflected on the matter or observed the actual working of the system can honestly suppose that it is. It is a notorious fact that, as a general rule, wherever this system exists, the slave is indolent, deceptive, dishonest, improvident, not to be trusted away from the eyes of honest people.

Such a system having a growth of two hundred and fifty years, would it be reasonable to expect that thirty-five years could eradicate entirely the work done during the two hundred and fifty years? While this is all true, can any one with so many facts and figures all about him, entertain a doubt as to the Negro's progress along all lines of human activity and toil? The Negro has either advanced, morally and religiously, or the proud Anglo-Saxon's standard of morals and religion is a hopeless failure. Considering the depths from which he came, the fact that he has come at all, or any part of the way, shows at least some progress.

A journey through this country, especially the South, the home of the Negroes, and an inspection of the homes and surroundings, and coming into near contact with them, will serve to change a great many baseless and unfair criticisms found afloat among a certain class of people, of whom Mr. Wm. Hannibal Thomas' book, entitled "The American Negro," is the mouthpiece. One room log huts, dirty floor, the home of the Negro, for large families during the period when slavery existed, are giving away to neat little cottages, sometimes two-story buildings, with rooms, furniture and surroundings sufficient to make each member of the family comfortable, and secluded enough to avoid the temptation to immoral conduct. And these homes, together with lands attached, in great many cases are owned by the colored people whose morals are called in question. Some of the most fashionable weddings of the day are celebrated among the Negroes. Births out of wedlock, the plurality of wives and divorced cases, have decreased among the Negroes 65 per cent. Womanhood, virtue and honor are defended at any cost, at the proper time and place.

The Negro got the idea imbedded in him during his servitude that religion and morality, like the Jews and Samaritans, had no dealings with each other. To-day this idea has lost its power and influence. The professors of religion and leaders of the people stand first and foremost with the people, and are expected to take the lead in all matters of reform. The church property owned and controlled by the Negro tells its own story. The Sermon on the Mount is taking a hold of the Negro as never before. If I should offer an adverse criticism on the Negro's religion, it would be that, as he understands it, he has a surplus of religion. But he is surely grasping the idea that God is a Spirit, and "they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." There are to be found among the Negroes those whose words are as good as gold. The true significance of morality is being better understood and practiced by the Negro. The newspaper gossip and sophistical reasoning to the effect that some Negroes have been apprehended for immoral conduct, and therefore all Negroes are immoral, would astonish all creation if applied to the white race. Let us be fair and try the Negro by the same logic that the white man is tried by.

A very sure and hopeful sign is the fact that the Negro is ashamed of any immoral conduct which he hears has been committed by any member of his race. The mere desire of better things is indicative of a better state of affairs. A straw often shows which way the wind is blowing. It is a historical fact that any race which has been subdued and ruled over by another race will imbibe, imitate and copy after the dominant race, and especially is this true if the conquered race live in and among the conquering race. It follows, then, that if the Negro is wholly immoral, his white neighbor needs to move a pace in the moral world.

Other causes might have been assigned accounting for the Negro's previous immorality, but slavery comprehends them all. But for the sake of emphasis and showing the contrast, let us note the following: Granting that the Negro as a mass is ignorant. Is he as ignorant as he was? If he is, then in what light shall we regard the philanthropists of this country North and South who have done and are doing so much for the Negro's elevation? The public school system, so well organized and maintained throughout this country, and patronized so largely by the Negro youth, either means the Negro's advancement morally or a lack of wisdom on the part of those who administer the nation's affairs. I realize that a people could advance intellectually without advancing morally at the same time. But such is not possible in this country where the Bible is made the basis of our education. A mere reference to this topic is all that is needed.

The Negro is poverty stricken, this needs no demonstration. But is he as poor as he has been? The banks, county records and business enterprises of the country are living witnesses to the Negro's advancement along this line. How could a man wholly depraved come into such relationship with a moral man and get along so well? "How can two walk together except they be abreed," asks the faithful prophet.

The time was when the Negro could not take out a policy in a life insurance company, because he was regarded immoral, and would soon die out and bring the company under obligations to his estate. To-day the Negro can hold a policy in almost any insurance company of whatever nature it may be. This is a case where the Negro's advancement in morals is admitted and he himself not a judge in the case. Negro lawyers consult with white lawyers, Negro doctors consult with white doctors, Negro teachers consult with white teachers, Negro preachers consult with white preachers, Negro workmen of whatever kind confer with the whites of like occupation, and, sometimes, the process is reversed, the white mechanics go to the Negro mechanics for counsel. In all of this, the Negro's upward march is admitted. And there is no advancement worthy of the name of advancement that does not include moral strength, worth and improvement.

We hail with joy the rapidly approaching time, under the sunlight of civilization and Christianity, when the color of the skin and the texture of the hair will not be badges of reproach, humiliation, degradation and contempt. True merit will yet be the worth of the man, under the wise and just government of a beneficent God and Father, who "of one blood made all nations for to dwell upon the face of all the earth." The poet Burns labored under no misapprehension when he wrote the following lines:

"Is there for honest poverty Wha hangs his head, and a' that? The coward slave! we pass him by; We dare be poor for a' that-- For a' that, and a' that, Our toils obscure, and a' that! The rank is but the guinea's stamp-- The man's the gowd for a' that.

"What, though on hamely fare we dine, Wear hodden pray, and a' that? Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine; A man's a man for a' that-- For a' that, and a' that, Their tinsel show, and a' that; The honest man, though e'er sae poor, Is king o' men for a' that.

"A prince can mak a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a' that; But an honest man's aboon his might-- Guid faith, he maunna fa' that! For a' that, and a' that, Their dignities and a' that; The pith o' sense and pride o' worth Are higher ranks than a' that.

"Then let us pray that come it may-- As come it will, for a' that-- That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, May bend the gree, and a' that. For a' that, and a' that, Its coming yet, for a' that-- When man to man, the world o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that!"

SECOND PAPER

IS THE NEGRO AS MORALLY DEPRAVED AS HE IS REPUTED TO BE?

BY PROF. A. U. FRIERSON.

AUGUSTUS ULYSSES FRIERSON, D. D.

Mr. A. U. Frierson was born in the State of South Carolina a few years before the Civil War. His parents were slaves, and, of course, were uneducated. After some preparation in the public schools, he entered Biddle University, from which he graduated with honor in 1885. The same year he entered the theological department of the same university, graduating therefrom in 1888.

The Summer of 1885 was spent as teacher and preacher to the ex-slaves of the Choctaw Indians, Indian Territory. He worked under the Freedman's Board of the Presbyterian Church. For several years he acted as pastor of different Presbyterian churches in North and South Carolina.

In 1891 he was called to the chair of Greek language and literature at Biddle University, which position he holds at this writing.

In 1893, his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of D. D.

A question so pertinent, so comprehensive, so thoroughly charged with what must give rank and standing to a people in the eyes of the world, ought not to be superficially considered, nor lightly and rashly answered. On the surface it would seem to involve a simple yes or no. But slight reflection reveals the fact that the yes or no fails to satisfy the conditions. That the answer to this question has long since been removed from the realm of the simple negative and affirmative, becomes very evident from what has been, and is still being, said pro and con.

The moral status of the Negro of the United States has long since given rise to a debated question. This debate waxes hotter and hotter, and the lines are more closely drawn as the years go by. For it is impossible to think of the future of the Negro apart from his moral status. His future will be bright, gloomy, or blighted, in proportion as he is able or not able to set to his account true moral worth. I speak of the Negro by limitations as I feel that only the American Negro, and that, too, of the United States, can be contemplated by the query under consideration; hence by the discussion.

That my answer will be in line of an emphatic negative will appear from what follows. I know full well the tremendous task I have set myself by this position. In doing this, I must take up the defensive as well as offensive alike against a large per cent of people, outside of the Negro race, who set themselves up as an authority on all questions affecting the Negro, and, mark you, from their decision there is no appeal; as also against the know-alls within the ranks of the race. But I am not deterred by this, since I feel that I owe it to the friends of the race; to those of the race who honestly strive to do what is right, and to myself, to utter no uncertain sound in responding to this important question.

For the encouragement of a weak and struggling people and their friends, for the better enlightenment of mankind in general, touching the moral status of the Negro, I place in evidence and offer in support of my negative the following considerations:

First: As far as my knowledge goes, the sum total of the considerations and discussions tending to show and set forth the moral turpitude of the Negro, leave out, if they do not ignore wholly, a most vital element. Any conclusion, therefore, reached, must eliminate the same, and in the degree that this element is important, the conclusion will be inconclusive and defective.

I contend, in the outset, that any just and charitable answer to this question must take into account the fact that the Negro is not unlike the other children of Adam, in that he is possessed of an inherent immoral tendency. Yet how many, speaking to this subject, reckon from this point? I think all sane people, at least, are agreed that since the fall, conformity to the moral standard, as set up by our Creator, is relative and not absolute. I think it would be a very light task to prove this assertion true, on the best authority known to man--the Bible. A single instance will suffice to put to silence all dissenters. David, "the man after God's own heart," gives us a life whose complexity at once presents the elements of passion, tenderness, generosity, and fierceness. From this life flowed a character blackened by adultery and murder. Rather checkered, measured by a perfect moral standard.

Grant that the Negro is a child of Adam, and I score one of the most important points on the side of my negative. Weighed in the balance of a perfect moral scale, "There is none good, but one, and that is God."

Second: When talking or writing on this subject, men seem to forget also that this inherent or natural immoral tendency in the Negro has had the impetus of the most debasing influences of a baser system of slavery, covering a period of two and a half centuries. This is not a defense, nor by any means an apology, for the shortcomings of the Negro, which are too many by far, but it is a plea for fairness in making up a verdict which is very far-reaching in its consequences.

In my humble opinion this thought is sufficient to temper, at least, the criticisms of the most rabid and reckless assailants of Negro morals. Let friends and foes alike think, if they can, what two hundred and fifty years of training means in a system whose principal tenet was that a Negro had no wish or will of his own--either morally or otherwise--a mere thing, acting only as it is acted upon. Under this system the next most natural thing would be and was the breaking down and beating back of every bar to the baser passions, except when its observance, perchance, contributed to the physical vigor and resistance of the Negro, thus rendering him more valuable and indispensable to his master. Add to this, if you please, the fact that there were few, if any, formal marriages; the "shanty" system instead of home; no responsibility in the training of boys and girls that naturally came to the so-called homes; no safeguard thrown around the morals of the tender years of boyhood and girlhood, but, on the other hand, everything most favorable and conducive to the development of bad morals. Out of this condition, unless the superior--the master--had a very high moral sense, which was highly improbable, if not impossible, under the existing circumstances, little could justly be expected of the inferior--the Negro. Yet, in spite of all this, the Negro gave the world a very few rapists of whom we hear so much nowadays, and on whose account we are so often called upon to defend him from the viewpoint of our question.

As regards this particular crime, I digress here to say that my faith is small. For this reason, there was a time when the commission of it was more opportune and easy than now. For example, during the Civil War, when it was scarcely, if ever, heard of. I have introduced this subject here simply to say this, that human nature is one and the same in mankind, and the argument that natural tendencies do not assert themselves alike in a slave and a freeman under like favorable conditions, is open to serious objections, if not in a degree fallacious. The pertinence of this reference will also appear when attention is drawn to the fact that the tendency of the rate to criminality, hence, to moral worthlessness, is more largely hypothecated upon this than upon any other single crime. By a similar process of reasoning it would not be difficult to show that all the races of the world are moral reprobates. For what escape would there be for any measured by its criminal class? I, therefore, contend, finally, that the standard by which the Negro is measured is seriously at fault, if not wholly wrong. Coming out of the most untoward circumstances, with less than a half century in which to outlive and unlearn the deadly doings of two hundred and fifty years, who can lay claim to more or to so much as the Negro? Measure him by the depths from which he came as well as by the heights which you would have him attain, when taking his moral pulse.

Third: I note the work of the press, which is largely in the hands of, and controlled by, those least friendly to the Negro's progress. Hence, a magnificent contribution is daily made from this quarter, to his moral impeachment. I think it is never, perhaps, properly considered, that the class generally held up by the press is one and the same with that already noticed under the preceding head--the criminal. Further, news gatherers are at great pains to ferret out and dole out to the public daily whatever serves to excite, and especially whatever shows the moral crookedness of the Negro, and that the years of freedom already enjoyed by him have simply brought forth a generation of vipers. Too often, from the lowest to the highest court, the records are so manipulated as to show the moral obliquity of the Negro. It is a potent fact that public opinion of the Negro is largely, if not wholly, based upon press reports, whether it pertains to religion, politics, morality, or otherwise. I hold, therefore, that it is largely misinformation that brings the Negro into bad odor in this regard, and earns for him the opinion that he is on the decline or "moral lapse," if you please. Then, too, the dying testimony of what is commonly called the worthless Negro, is given wider publicity and greater credence than the precept and example of ten thousand living, straightforward, upright Negroes. I say this because the opinion obtains so widely that the Negro is growing worse.

Fourth: That the Negro is not as morally depraved as he is generally reputed to be, and that those who are foremost to note and proclaim it do not believe it themselves, I place in evidence the following: 1st. A considerable number of Southern states has passed laws restrictive, if not prohibitive, of the removal of the Negro from his holy (?) confines, and this, too, where most is seen and known of him. What! Make it a misdemeanor to influence to emigrate or to deport a people whose presence is a standing menace to the good morals of those who enact measures and those who uphold them? Do not they make themselves liable to mild criticism? Other countries and sections of countries seek to rid themselves of all incubus of whatever kind. Of this we have numerous examples in the scum from Europe and other parts of the world unloaded upon our shores annually. 2d. Let the Negro with all his moral depravity initiate any movement looking toward his withdrawal even from one part of our country to another. The scene of such activities attracts special attention, and unsought advice is poured upon his "worthless" head; words of warning flow apace, and direct steps are taken to defeat the end in view. In view of this fact, the Negro is seldom allowed to organize, secretly, for mutual protection and helpfulness, in some sections; and, when organized, he is always looked upon with grave suspicions. That people should go so far out of the way to circumvent the legitimate endeavors of the undeserving, to my mind, is the most unnatural thing to be sure. "Consistency, thou art a jewel!"

Fifth: What people regard as a most discouraging sign touching the Negro of this country, I consider a most portentous and hopeful one. I refer to it here, because it bears decidedly upon my answer, and is strictly in line therewith. As shown by the census of 1890 and 1900, the increase of the Negro has suffered a positive check, if not back-set. In explanation of this, one theory and another has been advanced. Some have seen that he, like the American Indian, is on the road to a kindred fate--final and utter extinction. Others have consigned him to this or that destiny, according as they have felt kindly or unkindly towards him. True, he has increased less rapidly, but more surely, because of his stricter observance and growing regard for the proper and God-appointed channels to this end. His propagation by marriage, in which case one man is the husband of one woman, and one woman the wife of one man, would naturally lend to this.

I might record and add to what has already been said, a rich and varied experience, growing out of actual contact with, and work for, my people covering twenty-four years--a period in which no year has passed without leaving something done or suffered. But time and space will not permit.

Finally, out of the unfavorable moral conditions to which the Negro as a child of Adam is heir; out of the most untoward circumstances, surrounding him in the dark days of his enslavement; out of the traductions to which he is exposed at the hands of a most cruel and relentless foe--the printing press; out of the mock trials and false convictions visited upon him by the courts, too often manned by his oppressors; out of the barriers put in the way of his withdrawal from the midst of those who pronounce him without moral worth; out of the glaring inconsistency of all dissenters; out of the pure and spotless lives of ten thousand women--the wives, mothers, sisters, and lovers--of as high souled and moral men as the world ever saw or produced, I here and now once again and forever record my most unconditioned and emphatic no to the query I have in some measure tried to answer.

I have attempted no fine analysis of the case, but simply tried to point out a few facts more or less familiar to all.

THIRD PAPER.

IS THE NEGRO AS MORALLY DEPRAVED AS HE IS REPUTED TO BE?

BY MRS. M. E. C. SMITH

MRS. MARY E. C. SMITH.

Mrs. Mary E. C. Smith, daughter of Peter H. Day, was a native of New York city. Her education was provided for by her energetic widowed mother, to whom she ascribes the secret of her success. From early childhood she showed strong power of mind, and inherited from her mother that force and determination of purpose which prefigure success in whatever is undertaken. As a pupil, she was prompt and energetic, and never failed to win one of the Ridgeway prizes for good scholarship, which were given annually to successful contestants. She was an excellent Bible student, and when ten years old was elected a teacher in the Sunday-school. At this age she was impressed with the idea that it was her duty to go to the South to instruct her people, who were just emerging from bondage.

By a strange coincidence she was led to Florida, when she had finished her school course, the very place she had named when in an outburst of childish enthusiasm, while preparing a geography lesson, she had said: "O, mother, how I long to go there and teach my people!" The "land of flowers" has been the principal field of her labors as a teacher. Her ability as a teacher was soon discovered, and in 1890 she became principal of the Normal Department of the Edward Waters College, under the presidency of Prof. B. W. Arnett, Jr. Hundreds of students are better citizens because of her faithful teaching and Christian influence. As a church and Sunday-school worker she has few equals. The earnestness of purpose with which she performs the slightest duty is an example worthy of imitation.

This question is as grave as it is suggestive. There being a marked difference between character and reputation, its discussion naturally leads to a consideration of the Negro as he really is, and not as he is represented. The delineation of the Negro's true character is one of the most effectual means of refuting the columnious epithets so constantly hurled at him--a veritable blasphemy against his higher and better nature.

Has the Negro a higher and better nature? We shall see.

To separate him from the rest of the human family would be to dispute the great truth, that has been so long accepted, by all thoroughly Christianized nations--the Fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man. "Of one blood God formed all nations, for to dwell upon the face of the earth." Man, in his first estate, was supremely moral, being created in the righteous image of his Maker; had man continued in this condition, he would have been perfectly innocent and happy, favored with the exalted privilege of direct communion with God, inspired only by Him who is the Great Source, all light and perfection, from whom emanates nothing dark, unholy or unclean.

But man fell, and was driven from Eden. Hence, he began to wander away from God, in spirit and purpose; the tempter had been admitted and man's heart grew very deceitful and desperately wicked. The command of God, however, as written in Genesis, 1st chap., 28th verse, was inviolable. The earth must be peopled; thus man continued to wander, and his heart became proud and defiant, even to the resistance of the will and purpose or God. So far did the distance become between man and his Maker and so greatly abounded his wickedness, that at last God gave him over to his own evil imaginations.

The inhabitants of the antediluvian world, as a consequence of man's first transgression, fell lower and lower in the scale of good morals. They became so confirmed in wickedness, so totally depraved, that God destroyed them all, save one man and his family, whom He accounted as righteous, for the sake of his faithful obedience, and whose seed He preserved for the repeopling of the earth. The races, whether Semitic, Hamitic or Japhetic, as springing from the three sons of Noah, all partook of some of the natural proclivities of their revered and ancient grand-sire. What Canaan lacked in the line of perfection in the moral ethics of his day, may be directly attributed to heredity. The lineage of the Negro has been directly traced through Cush to Ham; hence, to argue the total moral depravity of the sons of Ham is but to concede the total moral depravity of the entire human race, as emanated from Noah in the postdiluvian age.

To assert that the Negro has no defects, and is morally good, would be to deny him as one of the legitimate heirs of the family of Noah, and deprive him of his natural inheritance. On the contrary, the Negro is joint-heir to all the virtues and all the infirmities of the other members of the human family. He is just as good and equally as bad as his fairer-complexioned brothers.

"Multiply and replenish the earth," was the eternal fiat. The subsequent confusion of tongues, and the dispersion of the people even to the remotest parts of the globe, were but links in the chain of God's design. The entire globe must be peopled, not a portion of it; hence the sons of man continued their migration until they were lost to each other.

The history of civilization discloses to us the land of the Hamites, as the cradle from whence sprang all learning, literature and arts, but man's heart still being deceitful, proud and wicked, continued to wander away from the true God; and, notwithstanding his acquired knowledge, and the very high state of civilization to which he had attained, he forgot God, and was allowed to drift into pagan darkness and superstition. These people were scattered, and their land despoiled, and they fled for refuge far into the wilderness where they were left in thick darkness:

"Grouping in ignorance, dark as the night," with "No blessed Bible to give them the light."

Had any other division of the human family been subjected to the influences of the same depressing climate, for an equal length of time, as were the Hamites, and surrounded by the same degrading circumstances, having no light without the assistance of divine counsel, their degeneration would have been equally as great as these descendants of Ham, when first began their involuntary migration into this country. The subsequent training which the Negro received in the school of bondage, while, in some respects, may have been a very potent lever in raising them from the pit of darkness and superstition, was not that which would best serve in the development of his higher moral nature.

Prior to the beginning of colonial slave traffic, the Negro, as found in his original home, the dark continent, was innocent and simple in his habits, possessed of a very high regard for truth and virtue. And, though very ignorant and superstitious, the result of his paganistic worship, vice and immorality was to him almost unknown. He was a lover of the beautiful, and in disposition easily entreated; and, because of these very tractile elements in his character, he fell an easy prey to the machinations of his more wily and crafty brother Japhet.

A study of the American Negro since his most remarkable advent into this country, after being decoyed from his fatherland, portrays him as a mild, impressionable and submissive being--extremely imitative and very easily led or controlled. Those who speculated upon him, as human chattel, very often took advantage of his traits of character in order to further their own interests, and perpetuate the abominable institution of slavery.

The Negro was so tractile in disposition and so easily trained for good or bad that he was frequently developed in the practice of deceit, hypocrisy, tattling and numerous other weaknesses, as the result of the course of training which he received from those who were directly responsible for his physical and moral well being. That peculiar nature of his education in the school of bondage, which taught him that his owner's will was supreme, divested him of his very high regard for virtue; and, wherever resistance was presumed, coercion soon forced him to yield, and he instinctively bowed to the inevitable. Thus, the females drifted into the belief that their bodies were the absolute property of their owners, and that they had no sacred personal rights which he, their self-imposed master, was bound to respect. But, like begets like. What wonder, then, that the seed of unrighteousness, which was implanted in the modern American Negro, before his birth, should spring up and bring forth abundantly of the same kind? Whatever is immoral about the American Negro of to-day was bequeathed to him by his unrighteous ancestors of fairer hue.

A closer inspection of the Negro's home life reveals him as an upright, religious character, and, even under the most adverse circumstances of his unholy environments, he was in many instances so tenacious of his preconceived standard of good morals that he defended his principles even to the extent of yielding his life.

The Negro's native integrity and fidelity were so thoroughly relied upon that during the Civil War, which arrayed in fratricidal strife the two sections of our beloved country, the heroes of the South left their homes and went forth to battle, feeling perfectly secure in entrusting their wives, their daughters, and, in many instances, their fortunes, in the hands of their faithful Negro servants, who remained true to their trusts, caring for, and defending, their precious charges, even at the risk of their own lives. To their credit, it may be inscribed that, although they were aware that victory for the South and the return of their masters meant the prolongation, if not the perpetuation, of their unjust bondage, they swerved not from their posts of duty, and took no advantage of the situation, thus proving the high standard of their moral character.

In the darkest days of thralldom the dominant powers relied upon the Negro's higher moral sense; to the nurse was entrusted almost the entire care of their offspring, and numerous other duties of great responsibility were frequently imposed upon their male and female Negro servants, who invariably proved their high sense of honor, based upon their highest conception of good morals.

Notwithstanding the efforts made to keep the Negro ignorant and degraded, ever and anon, the scintillations from his superior nature would flash out like a burning meteor and exhibit him as he was designed by God his Father, who is no respector of persons. In this connection, we cannot help referring to the beautiful character of Phyllis Wheatley, whose life was absolutely pure, and who was so remarkably inspired by the poetic muse that, even in the darkest days of Negro bondage, she forced the recognition of mankind. Her genius flashed forth as a beacon light to her benighted brethren as a token of assurance to them of the fulfillment of the promise, "Ethiopia shall again stretch forth her hand unto God." Benjamin Banneker, the great mathematician and astronomer, was another instance, in those remote days of darkness, that the Great Dispenser of all light, and truth, imparted His gifts alike to all; and there were others, but for our purpose, these names must forever stand as exponents of that higher and better life that was pent up within the Negro's breast, as a dimly-lighted torch, enshrouded under the mantle of slavery, which needed only the removal of the garment to be clearly seen; and thus, surrounded by the igniting influences of the atmosphere of liberty, would burst forth into all the effulgency of a brilliant light.

As a rule, the modern Negro of America, since his liberation from the shackles of his unjust bondage, has put forth strenuous efforts to uplift himself. And he has succeeded beyond his own most sanguine expectations; having had so many obstacles to overcome, he should not be measured by the heights he has attained, but by the depths from which he came. Out of the depths cried the Negro unto God; and He heard him! A few have arisen far above the masses, and are by their noble examples beckoning the others to come on. The general response is, "We are coming," up out of the cesspool of darkness, ignorance and immorality to the higher plane of virtue, knowledge, purity, and true righteousness which exalteth nations.

That there are dark sides to the picture of the Negro's career since his emergency from that dreary school of bondage, must be admitted, but many of his defects are directly traceable to his imitative propensity. To his own sorrow, he imitates the BAD, as well as the good.

Like the Indian, the fire-water which he has learned to imbibe has divested him of his manhood, and robbed him of his virtue, and it is a sad truth that he is encouraged in this personal debasement of himself by his brother in white, who is still, in many instances, taking advantages of his weak traits, offering him every inducement to continue in his course of self-degradation.

Thirty-six years of light and privilege have wrought wonders for the Negro, but these are scarcely a day, when compared with the long night of over two hundred years of bondage; it is impossible for him in this short period to have totally eradicated the evils for which he was not wholly responsible, but which were entailed upon him at his birth.

Those deflections in the Negro's practice of his code of good morals, which are so often exhibited as an argument against the entire race, are but the results of the development of his weaknesses, by the methods of former years, which he now, finds it so hard to overcome. But those who transgress the general rule of uplifting are the exceptions. To God be the glory for the present Negro, measured, not by the few, who have overlooked their most sacred rights and privileges, but by the many who are daily demonstrating, by honest toil and labor, that they have the highest regard for all that is pure, ennobling, and virtuous.

The Negro's inspiration for poetry, music and the fine arts, proves conclusively that there dwells within him a higher and better nature, which needs only to be developed to its fullest capacity to convince the world beyond the possibility of a successful contradiction that his standard of good morals is as elevated as that of mankind in general. As it is impossible for any fountain to pour forth pure and impure water at the same time, so is it impossible for total depravity to exist in the same mind where dwells that finer sense or appreciation of the beautiful, which originates music, poetry and the fine arts. Again, we refer the world to such beautiful examples as our own dear Edmonia Lewis, B. T. Tanner, now abroad; Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Frances W. Harper, Madam Salika, Flora Batsen Bergen, Nellie Brown Mitchell, Virginia Adele Montgomery, Hallie Quinn Brown, and scores of others; some, perhaps not quite so famous as those mentioned, but who along the line of the higher inspiration of the Negro, refute any argument that may be opposed. As an ensign of the very high standard of Christian ethics attainable by the race, we mention with heart-felt gratitude our dear Amanda Smith, the leader among hundreds of other noble Christian women, who have given not only their lives to God and their race, but feel themselves responsible for the general uplifting of mankind wherever found, knowing that there is no difference with Him, for whom they labor, "whether Greek or Jew." There is no difference, whether high or low, rich or poor, bond or free, white or black; all have a part in the common salvation of Him who came to lift the world up to its original standard of morality by sacrificing His own pure life, and who said, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." The essential need of the human family is charity. Our Saviour said of the Christian graces, "And now abideth these three, Faith, Hope and Charity, but the greatest of these is CHARITY." The time was when there was very little, if any, faith in the Negro's ability to rise and equip himself as a man; afterwards there came a faint glimmer of hope, which commingled with the slowly but gradually increasing faith, proved a blessed and powerful agent in the line of effectual assistance. The Negro began to rise, and he has, with the omnipotent aid of God, his Father, continued his rising until the present, with wonderfully good results, as must be conceded by all minds unbiased by prejudice.

Still there is much land to be possessed, and one thing is yet lacking in the attitude of those who scrutinize him daily for the purpose of rendering an unfavorable judgment. "Charity suffereth long and is kind." Suffer in this connection means to bear; those who claim to have attained a higher standard of morality should bear patiently the infirmities of the Negro, while he is rising, knowing full well that his inherent weaknesses are not of his own begetting, and that it will require some time to overcome the inertia of wrong instruction and practice. But "thanks be unto God, who giveth the victory," to all who obey Him, the Negro as well, God requires simply the earnest effort on his part, and then accomplishes the work Himself.

The highest type of morality is that which generates a disposition on the part of its possessor to have compassion for the lowly and extend a helping hand toward the elevation, comfort and restoration of their inferiors. It has been wisely asserted that "an idle brain is the devil's work-shop." In view of this truism it is wisdom to keep the hand and brain well employed. Booker T. Washington comprehended this fully when he commenced the great work which he is now so successfully prosecuting at Tuskegee. Like the sainted bishop, Daniel A. Payne's, Booker T. Washington's standard of true morality was far above the average of his race. The range of his vision being so extensive, he saw clearly the situation of his people, and without hesitation undertook, in his own way, the work of ameliorating the condition of the masses with the hope of uplifting them to a higher plane of truth and virtue. His motives being pure, his success has been thus far commensurate with the scope of his prodigious undertaking. Notwithstanding his being misunderstood and misinterpreted by many, he has, with unswerving purpose, pursued the trend of his own honest convictions, proved his fidelity to the race, and convinced the world of his unshaken faith in the ultimate success of his enterprise. He is still practically demonstrating his obedience to the Moral Law, as summed up in the Divine command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Many noble women, also of the race, having outrun their less-favored sisters and reached the highest standard, are now extending their hands to assist others in making their ascent into the more etherial atmosphere of that highest sense of good morals. Thousands, with organization as their watchword, have banded themselves into associations and federations under the significant motto, "Lifting as we climb." The Negro race, under the combined influence of its army of noble workers, both male and female, is fast journeying the upward way of truth and virtue; new heights it is gaining every day.

The little leaven of purity will be unceasingly applied until the whole lump of Negro humanity is raised upon the lofty plane which will force the recognition of his antagonistic brother and convince him that the same high sense of morality governs the Negro as does the Caucasian, or any other highly civilized race upon the globe.

God grant that the refining fires of truth may burn until all the dross of prejudice shall be melted and consumed, when,

"Man to man united, The whole world shall be lighted, As Eden was of old."

TOPIC XV.

IS THE YOUNG NEGRO AN IMPROVEMENT, MORALLY, ON HIS FATHER?

BY EDWARD MACKNIGHT BRAWLEY, A. M., D. D.

REV. EDWARD MacKNIGHT BRAWLEY, A. M., D. D.

Edward MacKnight Brawley was born at Charleston, S. C., March 18, 1851. His parents, James M. and Ann L. Brawley, were both free. Before the Civil War, in order that he might secure good educational advantages, he was sent to Philadelphia, Pa., where he passed through the grammar school; then he entered the Colored High School, of which Prof. E. D. Bassett was principal, and there prepared for college. In the fall of 1871 he entered Bucknell University, where he was graduated Bachelor of Arts in the class of 1875. During his college course he also pursued theological studies and was ordained for the ministry on the day after his graduation, by a council composed largely of professors of the university. He was the first colored student to attend Bucknell, and in 1878 he secured from his college the degree of Master of Arts. In 1885 the State University of Louisville, Ky., conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and Rev. E. M. Brawley has this distinction, that he has held this degree for a longer time than any other living colored Baptist minister. For eight years he was State Missionary in South Carolina for the American Baptist Publication Society.

In 1883 he was called to the presidency of Selma University, Selma, Ala., and devoted several years to educational work. He then became District Secretary for the South for the American Baptist Publication Society, which work he resigned in 1890 to accept the call to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Petersburg, Va., the oldest colored Baptist Church in the country, which he subsequently left to go back to the work of the Society, at its earnest solicitation. He has also served in the pastorate at Greenville, S. C., Darien, Ga., and Palatka, Fla. He has done considerable newspaper work, and has devoted much time to religious writing, many pamphlets and books along race and denominational lines having been written by him. He is now Editorial Secretary of the National Baptist Publishing Board, of Nashville, Tenn., under the auspices of the National Baptist Convention. Dr. Brawley's qualifications and experience well fit him for his present position, for he has made a specialty of Sunday-school and denominational literature.

A generation has come since the passing away of the period to which the old Negro belonged, and this generation has lived in the period of the new Negro. Is this new Negro an improvement morally on his father? Zealous friends of the race stoutly maintain that he is; while enemies assert that he is not as good. It is the purpose of this article to present some facts which will prove that the young Negro, in spite of his dreadful inheritance, has, by the aid of generous friends and the grace of God, lifted himself to a higher moral plane than that upon which his unfortunate father stood.

It is well, however, to note carefully at the very beginning, that we are not dealing with exceptions in this discussion, but with the race as a whole. At a river bank the water sometimes appears to run up stream, while if one will but look in the middle, he will see the river in full force gliding smoothly on to the ocean. So in all matters belonging to the realm of morals we must discard the narrow vision, and, taking the broad view of the Christian philosopher, sweep the entire horizon.

Let us first, as an antecedent matter, consider some reasons why the young Negro should be expected to be better than his father.

1. His father had no moral training. His very person was the victim of a prodigious theft, and his labor was daily stolen. Could such a man be effectively taught honesty? To have taught the slave the elements of morals meant the quickening not only of his moral, but also of his intellectual nature; and such a thing would ultimately have developed resistance on the part of the slave. No true instruction in morals was possible in a condition of slavery. Look over the entire moral code as set forth in the Ten Commandments, and the impossibility of teaching effectively those great truths to slaves--American slaves--becomes apparent. The old enslaved Negro was destitute of true moral training; and very much of what was offered to him as such was nothing more than "sounding brass," and he knew it and could not profit by it.

2. And while the old Negro did not have true moral training, he did have positive training in the opposite direction. For the very system under which he lived was a training in evil. His ancestors had been stolen; he himself was stolen; his civil liberty was stolen. Could he form any adequate conception of property rights? And is it now a matter of surprise to us that the old man sometimes did a little stealing himself in order to relieve a hungry stomach? He was not taught the sacredness of the married life. Indeed, he was not taught to marry at all. He was, as a rule, simply told to live with a woman whom he might call his wife, and when the good pleasure or the necessities of his master demanded that she should be sold away, to take another woman and live with her and call her wife, also. He was not allowed to develop the idea of fatherhood toward his children, for they were not his, but rather mere chattel, to be sold at the pleasure of his master. The two great vices charged against the Negro race are theft and adultery. Whatever truth there is in this charge is due to the long training slavery gave. Indeed, slavery was largely a training in moral evil. Antecedently, therefore, we expect the old Negro to be worse than his son.

But, now, what are the positive arguments to prove that the young Negro is an improvement morally on his father?

1. Slavery has been abolished, and the young Negro has not felt it. He has, therefore, missed its direct evil training. It is not denied that he is damaged because he was trained by a father who was brought up in slavery; but it is claimed that he has not received from his father, and cannot receive, as much injury as his father received from the system of slavery.

2. The young Negro now has the gospel. The many thousands who came to Christ in the days of slavery, and are now at rest from their earthly toils and sufferings, are not forgotten. That they were saved is due to the fact that, owing to God's infinite goodness and mercy, a little knowledge and a little faith can save a sinner; and God pitied our fathers. But the young Negro now has the gospel in its fullness. He gets it from the pulpit, from the Sunday-school, and daily in scores of our highest literary institutions. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and our youth, constantly learning it, have in large numbers been made to feel its power. Their lives having thus been purified and ennobled, beautiful and strong Christian characters have resulted.

3. Many young Negroes have been thoroughly trained for the ministry, who have led strictly upright lives and have taught others to do the same; and many others, not ministers, have enjoyed systematic training in ethics. Is it conceivable that the combined work of this class of our young people has accomplished nothing in the moral uplifting of the race? Such work must and does count powerfully on the right side, or else the gospel is a failure. Just as heathen nations have been redeemed and regenerated, having put away their savage life and accepted civilization and Christ because the gospel was preached to them, even so has our race been saved; and just as no other people ever received the gospel without being immeasurably blessed and lifted up, so also is that true of the Negro. And it is further true of all men that the more gospel privileges they enjoy, the better will be their condition. For the kingdom of evil is sure to be overthrown, and the kingdom of Christ established on the earth. And thus the young Negro cannot help being a better man morally than his father.

4. The young Negro is living in an age of higher morals and necessarily partakes of its superior advantages. The age of brute force is fast passing away. When after our great civil war the adjustment of our troubles with England was arranged by arbitration rather than settled by war, an immense stride in civilization, men say, was made. Very true, but why not say that the men in control of the two great nations involved were moved to act as they did because of their strong ethical principles? And from that time until now the moral advance of the world has been rapid and steady. The new Negro is living in this higher and better age, and his moral constitution has been built up and made strong because of it. The principles of international comity are fast spreading among the nations. And just as the economic principles of the trust are being applied to religious organizations, even so the stronger ethical principles that are moving the nations are inducing Christian white men to come nearer to their brethren in black, and to treat them more as men, brethren, than has ever been done before. And thus both external and internal forces have combined to make the young Negro morally better than his father.

5. And, last of all, the young Negro is turning his social and political disadvantages to his best interest by relying calmly upon the justice and wisdom of God's moral government. Life is, indeed, but a conflict of forces, but the intelligent young Christian Negro knows that the universe does not operate by chance. He feels the full force of what Charles Sumner said in his eulogy on Abraham Lincoln: "In the providence of God there is no accident--from the fall of a sparrow, to the fall of an empire or the sweep of a planet, all is controlled by divine law." And thus he lives undisturbed by the wrathful elements that are at play around him. His full confidence in God at this trying hour, and his firm belief that the wrath of man will yet be turned to his advantage, are but the evidence that he trusts intelligently; and the fact that he does so, and does not become an anarchist, is the proof of his higher moral life. If it be said that his father did not become an anarchist, the answer may be that slavery had dispirited him. But the young Negro is not dispirited. He knows enough and has spirit enough to make this country tremble; but whatever knowledge and spirit he has which could be used for evil, he has restrained and will yet further restrain, because he has abiding confidence in God, and knows that "giant right is more than might;" and this confidence has aided in making him a better man than his father.

SECOND PAPER.

IS THE YOUNG NEGRO AN IMPROVEMENT, MORALLY, ON HIS FATHER?

BY REV. J. S. FLIPPER.

REV. J. SIMEON FLIPPER, D. D.

The subject of this sketch was among the first to enter Atlanta University the first day it opened, 1869, and there remained until 1876. He taught school in Georgia for several years. He was converted in 1877 and joined the A. M. E. Church at Thomasville, Ga. He was licensed both to exhort and to preach. In January, 1880, he joined the Georgia Annual Conference. In 1882 was elected secretary of the Georgia Conference, which position he held for five consecutive years. In this same year he was ordained a Deacon by Bishop W. F. Dickerson and sent to Darien, Ga., where he prepared for and took care of the session of the Georgia Conference.

In 1884 he met the Georgia Conference at Valdosta, Ga., and was ordained an Elder by Bishop W. F. Dickerson, and was stationed at Quitman, Ga., remaining there two years. In January, 1886, he was transferred by Bishop James A. Shorter to the North Georgia Conference and stationed at Big Bethel A. M. E. Church, Atlanta, Ga., the city in which he was born. His mother had been a member of this church and its old members knew him when a boy. There he remained four years with great success, raising the largest amount of dollar money that had up to that time been raised in the State: by this he became one of the dollar money kings of the connection for 1886 and was awarded a gold badge by the Financial Department of the A. M. E. Church. Thus, in six years after entering the ministry, he became pastor of the largest church in the State at the age of twenty-seven years. In 1889 he was assigned to Pierce's Chapel, Athens, Ga., and served it three years. In 1892 he was made Presiding Elder of the Athens District, which place he filled for three years. In 1893 he preached the annual sermon to the students of Allen University, Columbia, S. C., when the faculty and Trustee Board conferred on him the title of Doctor of Divinity. In 1892 he was a delegate to the General Conference of the A. M. E. Church, which met in Philadelphia, and served as a member on the committee on statistics.

In 1895 he was stationed a second time in Atlanta, at Allen Temple, A. M. E. Church, remaining here four years with great success and entertaining the session of the North Georgia Conference in his last year. He was elected again to the General Conference, which met at Wilmington, N. C., in May, 1896, and served on the committee on revision of discipline.

In 1899 he was elected not only a delegate but the leader of his delegation to the General Conference, which met at Columbus, Ohio, in May, 1900. Here he was elected without opposition chairman of the Episcopal Committee, the most important committee of the church; it is composed of all the leaders of the delegations from all parts of the church, and before this committee the Bishops appear for an examination in their moral, religious and official character; it fixes the boundaries of the districts and assigns the Bishops to their fields of labor.

He is now a trustee of Morris Brown College, Secretary of the Trustee and Executive Boards, Treasurer of the Theological Fund, Chairman and treasurer of the dollar money committee of the Atlanta, Ga., Conference, Book Steward, Chairman of Committee on Fourth Year's Studies. He is a prominent craftsman and for one year was Deputy Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Union Grand Lodge, A. F. and A. M. of Georgia, Grand Representative of the Stringer Grand Lodge of Mississippi to the Grand East of Georgia, with the rank of Grand Senior Warden. He is now a Trustee of the W. E. Terry Masonic Orphan and Widows' Home and Industrial School, located at Americus, Ga., Associate Editor of the "Voice of Missions," the missionary organ of the A. M. E. Church, published in New York.

One of the greatest events of his life was the receiving of Rev. Jas. M. D'wane of the Ethiopian Church from Pretoria, Transvaal Republic, South Africa, into the A. M. E. Church, and through him eighty preachers and two thousand eight hundred members.

The difficulty of considering this question deepens as we consider the young Negro from every phase of life. Universally it cannot be answered in the affirmative, for the Negro is divided into classes as well as are other races, and as no people are universally, morally good, so such cannot be expected of the Negro.

The Negro possesses an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class, and in a consideration of these classes we shall look for an answer to the question. The upper class consists of those who have made extraordinary progress, morally, religiously, mentally and materially; who have outstripped their fellows in the race of life and attained a standard of civilization commensurate with their opportunities and proved to the civilized world that under favorable circumstances the Negro is as capable of a high development in civilization as any other race. This class is an improvement, morally, upon their fathers. For their opportunities have been such as to render them more capable of a higher conception of morality and of their duties to their fellowmen, and in proportion as a man is enlightened on morality does he improve in morality, other things being equal, and reaches a higher type of manhood. Morality is always affected by one's religious views. The moral binds us to our fellowmen, and the religious to our God; and a man may in many respects be better than his fellowman but he can never be better than his God. If a man has low and meagre ideas of God his ideas of man will be low and meagre whatever may be his conceptions of the law, government, and the character of his Creator will be his ideas of duty to wife, children, neighbors and country.

The educational qualifications on moral and religious lines must furnish some of the rules by which the standard can be gauged for the man who has by liberal and extensive educational facilities gotten the capacity to know his God and His moral government over His creatures must rise in moral improvement and stand out as the towering mountain above the plain that surrounds it. And on this line the upper class of Negroes, by reason of religious and educational advantages, are an improvement morally on their fathers, whose opportunities for moral improvement were very meagre, indeed.

The middle class of Negroes are not equal to the upper class in attainments. Their educational advantages have not been so great as those of the upper class, and yet their moral development has been correspondingly as great. The moral law of God has been heard as distinctly by them as by the upper, but they have not that discriminating judgment that enables them in every instance to distinguish between the morally wrong and the morally right, and yet there has been awakened in them a consciousness of certain things due to their fellowman and to their God that has kept them in a way that they could not be charged with wilful moral wrong, and their conservatism has placed them in a manner nearer to the morally right than to the morally wrong. And the young Negroes of this class are an improvement morally on their fathers. Solomon hath said, "As a man thinketh, so is he." Good character cannot arise out of low thoughts, but it must emanate from pure, noble, God-fearing and elevating thoughts and ideas. Correct ideas of life practically embodied in conduct can lift man above the low, sensual, evil walks of life. Now that there are many young Negroes with correct ideas of life cannot be denied. Now the lower class of Negroes are those whose ideas are distorted; who are conscience-seared, and who have no regard for God nor man; and as the upper and middle classes have ascended in the scale of moral civilization, so the bad class of Negroes have descended in the scale, their finer sensibilities having become blunted by vice and crime, so that education on moral and religious lines has no charms for them. Sinai's majestic summit and moral law are as chaff to them, and as freedom has given a greater and better opportunity for the morally good to improve and rise, so it has given the same for this class to descend and become more and more corrupt. Indeed, they have gone lower than their fathers on this line. But the character of a race is not to be judged by its degraded element, but by the upper and middle classes, which form the major portion of any race and give it a standing along the line of moral and religious civilization. We conclude by saying that the young Negro is an improvement morally upon his father.

First, because freedom has given to the young Negro aspirations for a purer life, which his father did not have.

Second. The moral atmosphere of the young Negro's home life is better than that of the old Negro.

Third. The young Negro's educational advantages give him higher conceptions of life and duty than those had by his father.

Fourth. The young Negro has a more enlightened pulpit than his father had to preach a broader and more comprehensive gospel to him, and to thus give him more correct ideas of life.

Now these superior advantages, which the young Negro has, make it possible for him to outstrip his father in moral accomplishments, and the arguments of his enemies to the contrary notwithstanding, the educated young Negro presents a striking contrast in point of morality to the old Negro.

THIRD PAPER.

IS THE YOUNG NEGRO AN IMPROVEMENT, MORALLY, ON HIS FATHER?

BY REV. E. C. MORRIS, D. D.

REV. E. C. MORRIS, D. D.

On May 7, 1855, near Springplace on the Connesauga, in the chestnut hills of North Georgia, of slave parentage, was born E. C. Morris, now the President of the National Baptist Convention, which is the largest deliberative body of Negroes in the world, the editor-in-chief of the Sunday School series issued by the National Baptist Publishing Board, the President of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, and pastor of the Centennial Baptist Church of Helena, Arkansas. His early education was through the common school, but practically from nature and necessity. From earliest childhood he was peculiarly interested in men and things; hence, now possesses a large stock of knowledge concerning human nature, is an advocate of prudence, conservatism and manliness in all affairs bearing upon the relation of the races in this country. He stands for self-help and racial integrity and believes that when man has acknowledged his inability and failure to ameliorate the ill conditions in this country, God will settle the same and cause the deserved recognition of all men, black and white.

He saw with his father the first train that passed through North Georgia, though the spectacle was quite an amusing draft on his youthful nerve, for, says he, "Had I been older than five years, it is questionable that my father, by whose hand I was led, could have detained me from the urgent business I felt I had back home when that mysteriously terrible locomotive came rushing down the track seemingly intent upon spending its fury upon no one else but me."

When Elias was ten years old, his parents, James and Cora Morris, moved into Alabama, settling at the little town of Stevenson. But Elias had a short while before begun living with the late Rev. Robert Caver, his brother-in-law, at Stevenson, and so lived until he arrived at the age of twenty-one. Mr. Caver taught the young man the shoemaker's trade and the latter earned his bread upon the shoemaker's bench until thirty and three years old. He felt a call to the gospel ministry immediately upon his conversion at the age of nineteen, which took place just at the time when he had grown so inimical and impatient toward a revival that had been going on for several days in the church at Stevenson that he had plotted mischievous disturbance of the meeting.

He grew in grace and general ability, and in 1879 accepted a call to the pastorate of the Centennial Baptist Church of Helena, Arkansas, which position he has held continuously to the present time. His ability as an organizer is fully recognized among his people. He established and for the first two years edited the first religious paper published by the Negroes in the State of Arkansas. In 1884, he organized the Arkansas Baptist College and for sixteen years has been Chairman of its Board of Trustees. For nineteen consecutive years he has been annually elected President of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. In 1894 he was elected President of the National Baptist Convention, whose constituency numbers about a million and a half, and has been elected every year since to the same position. Under his leadership, this society has been firmly unified and has enjoyed the greatest prosperity in its history. It was his address before this Convention at Washington, in 1893, that inspired an indomitable and uncompromising determination in the minds of the colored Baptists to begin publishing interests of their own. It was his active brain that conceived the idea of the National Baptist Young People's Union Board, which Board is located at Nashville. And so his progressive acts have multiplied as he has advanced in age and responsibility. Dr. Morris is an acknowledged adviser of the colored people of his community, in all matters relating to their general uplift. He is a friend to humanity and a lover of his race. He is a possessor and advocate of wholeheartedness and sincerity, being charitable to a difference or a fault. His influence begins at home and spreads abroad, and all distinctions that he bears are borne with gentlemanly modesty, believing leadership to him a duty rather than an honor.

The subject of this article is a very important and delicate one; important because it forms the base from which all the advancement made by the race for the last past thirty-six years must be measured, and delicate because it makes comparison between father and son. If there has been no improvement in the race, morally, since its emancipation from slavery, then no real advancement has been made; and to say that the Negro has made no advancement would be sufficient to call forth universal derision.

It must be admitted in the beginning that to do full justice to the subject, much study and space is required. In the absence of comprehensive statistics on the subject and the time in which to compile the same, several standpoints of reasoning must be assumed, and these will be taken up in no regular order, one being important as the others. I do not attempt to go upon or set up a system of scientific theories either, but simply to state and connect obvious facts. The past and present moral status of the race is involved, but I shall not go beyond that period in which the race was emancipated, and will include, as the fathers, such as were the heads of families at that time and those who were born about that time, constituting largely the heads of families now, as the respective parties to the comparison.

What is here said in comparison of father and son is not intended as unfavorable criticism even where the language may appear uncomplimentary, but rather to make a truthful statement of the virtues found in both. I wish also to be understood as placing myself with those who have faith in the race, to the extent that I believe a large majority of the freedmen and their descendants are moral, and should be counted with the good and upright in heart. Such a decision cannot be reached, however, from a surface examination or outward appearances. For it is a notorious fact that in all the years of the Negro's life in this country, he has been subjected to the most menial occupations such as would, in a large measure, prejudice the disinterested observer against any high opinion of his morals. The subject is by no means a new one, but has been investigated and discussed for a long time by great writers and thinkers. Opinions have been expressed which are by no means favorable to the race--by no means favorable because of the ignorance of the party expressing the opinion. Many of these opinions have been formed and influenced by what is seen of the Negro in the crowded streets of great cities, at railroad depots, or at steamboat landings; or upon the great cotton, rice and sugar plantations, where thousands of Negroes who are employed only as day laborers, meet. But these do not represent the majority of the Negroes. Nor should opinions be formed, of the moral status of this people, out of what may be seen of them at such places as above referred to, any more than the morals of a great city like New York or Chicago should be judged by what is seen of the motley crowds that gather about the wharfs and in the congested streets and other places where the lowest element of society is to be seen in the majority. The Negro fathers of forty years ago were as good as the circumstances and conditions of that day required, and many of them showed themselves to be superior to the requirement. It is to be admitted that environment and teaching have much to do with moral development, and that neither of these were, as a rule, favorable to the fathers. The contraband life of the Negroes during the war was perhaps the best that could be provided at that time. But it was far from being conducive to good morals, and was not, in a moral sense, an improvement upon the plantation life prior to the war, when almost all the slaves were huddled by families in one room cabins of what was known as "the quarters." It was fortunate for the race and the fathers that the contraband life was of short duration, and the heads of families among the Negroes, as fast as they could get their loved ones together, began to settle in families all over the Southland. The privilege of being a free man, to come and go at will, had its evil effect upon the fathers for a few years, but they soon became enveloped with the desire that their children become educated and otherwise cultured, as were the children of their white neighbors.

The desire to educate and accumulate for the good of the children became the restraining point in the lives of the fathers, and a very appreciable change for better morals was noticeable in the latter sixties and early seventies.

Immediately following the close of the war, a great many missionary agencies set to work among the Negroes for the purpose of improving them morally and intellectually. These agencies operated among the old and young alike, but not with the same results; for it soon became known that very little change could be wrought among the aged ones whose superstitious notions of religious worship and peculiar ideas about "white folks' religion" made it a difficult task to teach them. Notwithstanding their superstition, the aged Negroes were singularly kind and respectful to their white neighbors and permitted the white teachers--for nearly all teachers were white at that time--to have absolute control of their children both as to home and school life.

One of the attributes of morality is a happy conscience, or happiness, for there can be no true happiness where there is no morality. Hence, there existed an appreciable element of morality among the fathers, for, as a rule, no happier or more contented people could be found anywhere. I speak of the whole race. One may be a good servant, or a good neighbor, and yet not a good man. Opportunities have much to do with developing the attributes of the soul. Many of those noble qualities which go to make a good man were latent in the fathers, for there had been no opportunity for the development of these qualities.

The home is the foundation place of all that is good and grand in a race or nation. Wisdom and virtue are inseparable from a good home. Hence, to make the comparison which my subject calls for, we must inquire into the home and religious life of the present generation. The young men from eighteen to twenty-one years of age who are, so to speak, in embryo with respect to questions affecting the progress of the race, are not included in the summary we make and should not be considered directly, in measuring the moral status of the race. As to the homes of the fathers forty years ago, very little can be said. But late statistics show that there are over three hundred thousand homes and farms owned by the Negroes in the United States, which indicates that nearly two millions of the nine million of our people live in their own homes. The figures are very significant when it is remembered that the race started forty years ago, four million and a half in number of individuals, with practically no homes. The property value of the homes now owned is conservatively put at one billion dollars--not a bad showing for a people who commenced forty years ago at zero in wealth. But the accumulation of wealth does not always mean that the owner is moral, yet the accumulation and maintenance of good homes present a better argument in favor of the good moral inclination of the people accumulating and maintaining these homes than can be produced in words. These mean more than the mere ownership of a house and lot, or a sixty acre farm; a respect for the first institution set up by the Creator is thereby shown and that in that institution (the family) is one to love and honor; and that there an altar is to be erected around which all are to kneel and worship God; they mean that morality, the foundation of all true greatness, is to be enthroned there. The establishment and maintenance of so many Christian homes among our people has brought forward a demand which is a barometer of the moral changes, and shows conclusively that the race is improving morally. This demand is for the right kind of men as preachers and teachers. The time was when a man who could read and write, no matter what his character, could find a place to preach and teach among our people. This does not obtain now so much as before, and the people are demanding that their teachers and spiritual advisers be men and women whose lives and characters are living epistles of virtue. If proof of this point were necessary, one would need only to refer to the continued upheavals in various communities, in the schools and churches, where war has been made upon those persons whose lives have been such as to arouse suspicion that they were unworthy the offices held. The fact that these demands are being made for a pure ministry and a competent and worthy corps of teachers is encouraging.

In passing judgment upon the moral status of the young Negro, or in comparing this status with that of the father who has gone from the stage, we will necessarily have to apply the multiplication process, for it will require a life fully lived in all its details to constitute the sum total of a well built character. Therefore, the whole truth about the morals of the present generation will be known only to the next. The processes used in the moral development of the race have been gradual and almost imperceptible in progress, but they have been in progress, nevertheless, and promise great results. The man who sowed his seeds yesterday does not expect to reap a harvest to-morrow. Cultivation is to follow planting. The warm spring rains, the hot rays of a summer sun are to come and moisten and warm the soil around the roots, cause the blade to shoot forth and then harden the stalk and the grain. These are to be followed by the cool winds and frosts of autumn before harvest comes. The planting of moral principles in the present generation of Negroes has been done; the cultivating process is now going on by means of the buying of homes, entering into business and agricultural pursuits, building churches and schools and in educating the youth. These facts point to the moral trend of the mind of the present generation, but perhaps none of them in the same degree as the religious desire of the colored man.

A larger per cent of the Negroes in this country are members of the Christian churches than of any other race of people. Notwithstanding the criticism to the contrary, they are as practical in their Christianity as any set of people. The matter of divorce has been a great problem to many of the most thoughtful men of the race, and the frequent resort to the courts to obtain divorces has been used as an argument against the growth of the moral sentiment in the race. But the very fact that such meets with opposition and is disapproved by the good people is evidence in favor of the Negro's morals. Then again, the class of Negroes who have but little respect for the marriage vow are, as a rule, those who are indolent, worthless and without a home and making no effort to obtain one. But, happily, this class form but a small minority.

Another virtue in the Negro's character which comes only from a moral sentiment is gratitude. He loves his benefactors and would gladly repay them for all they have done for him, if he were able to do so. If the mind was filled with sensuality, deception, hatred and like vices, there would be no room for that noble characteristic, gratitude, which is so prominent in the present generation. His gratitude extends beyond the individual benefactor to the flag of his country; overlooking present conditions and remembering past favors, he is always ready to dare and die for his country's honor. We conclude by saying that the fathers who came up out of slavery, unlettered and untrained, did well. The present generation of fathers, or heads of families, by reason of superior advantages, are doing far better. The race as a whole for the last past thirty-six years has made a history for itself which will form the apex of its glory when it has passed through a century of training under its changed condition from slavery to freedom.

FOURTH PAPER.

IS THE YOUNG NEGRO AN IMPROVEMENT, MORALLY, ON HIS FATHER?

BY MRS. ARIEL S. BOWEN.

MRS. ARIEL SERENA HEDGES BOWEN.

Mrs. Ariel Serena Hedges Bowen, wife of Dr. J. W. E. Bowen of Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., was born in Newark, N. J. Her father was a Presbyterian clergyman in that city. He had graduated from Lincoln University, Pa., and had organized churches in New York State. Her mother represents one of the oldest Presbyterian families of that State. Her grandfather was a bugler in the Mexican war, and was a Guard of Honor when Lafayette revisited the United States. Her parents removed early to Pittsburg, Pa., where she attended the Avery Institute. She completed the Academic course of this school. Her parents then moved to Baltimore, Md., where her father became pastor of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, and finally of Grace Presbyterian Church. She was sent to the High School of Springfield, Mass., where she remained and graduated with honor in a large class in 1885. She also took the Teachers' Course and Examination and passed a creditable examination and was favorably considered as teacher for one of the schools of that city. She was then called to teach History and English Language in the Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala., under Prof. B. T. Washington.

In the year 1886 she was married to Dr. J. W. E. Bowen. She became a Life Member of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She removed to Atlanta with her husband in 1893. She became Professor of Music in Clark University in 1895. She is the State President of the Georgia W. C. T. U., No. 2. She has written very largely, among which may be mentioned, "Music in the Home," "The Ethics of Reform," etc. She is an accomplished vocalist and musician with the piano and pipe organ. She is busily engaged in temperance and reform work, together with training and fitting her family of one boy and three girls for life. She is regarded as one of the foremost and best cultured women of her race. She reads Greek, Latin and German with facility, and is a superb housekeeper.

The most important and vital factors in the development of a race are physical strength, intelligence and morality, these three, but the greatest of these is morality.

The individual or the race possessed of either or both of the first two, and that utterly ignores the third, can never attain to the full status of man, nor reach the zenith of full racial development or the pinnacle of civilization. To-day we hear much about the survival of the fittest and the "superior race and the inferior races." The earnest, thoughtful student of life and its affairs immediately raises the question, To whom do such titles "fittest," "superior" and "inferior" refer, and why? The history of a people shows the advance and growth of that people. Their development can be traced from the crude barbarous or semi-barbarous state in which physical prowess predominated through the period of intellectual development where the mind begins to grasp new ideas and where new ideals of higher and nobler purposes are sought after. Then came the greater perfection, the nobler aspiration, the purer, higher civilization, growing out of the purer thought and purer life of a purified people. This is true of all races, therefore the Negro race is no exception, and is entitled to the same justice that is accorded to every race that has had its rise and fall.

The writer takes it that the young "Negro" and his father are to represent only the ante-bellum and the post-bellum Negro. To go beyond that, to take him in his earlier state in the native wilds of his fatherland, before the Anglo-Saxon missionary reached him and gave to the world a true picture of his morality, would be to present to the world some startling facts that would not only put to shame the "young Negro," but also the hosts of men of all nations who glory in the progress they have made in morals.

It can be proven by the best authorities that many of the heathen Africans, though crude in ethics, were pure morally.

But the discussion resolves itself into two very important questions. What was the moral condition of the Negro before the war, and what is his moral condition to-day? Before the war, what a picture comes before us at these words, what a panorama of deeds passes before our mind's eye. Years of gross darkness, darkness that deepens into the blackness of the pit, those days that seem like a hideous nightmare to the hoary headed, and the story of which sounds to the youth like a heart-rending and nauseating recital. Yet, it was not all dark, some would say; perhaps not, but the bright spots only tended to intensify the darkness.

What morals were chattels expected to have, and who gave to these chattels their moral code? It was certainly not of their own making. What could be the moral condition of a race to whom family rights were forbidden and whose business, next to labor, was to propagate solely for the master's gain? The words mother, father, were used only in the language of the "big house."

Womanhood, the foundation stone of moral eminence, passed through a crucial ordeal, and it is to be greatly wondered at that the Negro woman emerged with even the crudest type of moral capacity.

Every line on every page of the history of those dark days teem and reek with the abandon of licentiousness, nor could this be otherwise. It was the natural sequence of a debasing system. It is no disparagement upon the noble few whose garments were kept unspotted, nor upon those who would have reached towards higher ideals, if they had been masters of themselves, to say that the ante-bellum Negro did not possess a great degree of morality. There can be no other conclusion drawn from such demoralizing conditions.

The moral status of the Negro is to-day an all-absorbing theme, and is discussed pro and con by friend and enemy in other races, and by the optimist and pessimist of his own. Comparisons concerning his morals and moral growth are made as all other comparisons are made concerning him, not between his present and former condition, nor between his condition and that of any other people at the same stage of development, under the same conditions and environments. On the contrary, inconsistency is ever present in the attempts to show the world existing facts. Whenever an attack was made upon the system of slavery, the defenders of the system immediately pointed to the poor slaveholder and the dearth of Negro criminals as points in favor of a time when the Negro enjoyed the blessings of a "mild and humane system."

When the progress of the black race in America is placed in the balance, the lowest and most degraded and careless of the masses who have not come out of a state of inertia are brought into comparison with the noblest types that have ascended the scale of life. What wonder then that there is so much adverse criticism; what is needed is a search for facts and an unprejudiced putting of all that appertains to the Negro, and a just acknowledgment of the results attained.

That the American Negro has made an advance along all lines that make for the higher development of a people cannot be denied. He has improved morally in a corresponding way. The limit of this paper will not permit a statistical comparison, but a few points may be noticed in passing. His moral instinct is quickened and his moral nature asserts itself in higher forms of life under the new conditions. He has started at the fountainhead and the purity of his home and hearthstone is a magnificent memorial to the purity of the black woman.

Were it possible to give in numbers the correct estimate of these beautiful homes and their characters, even the most bitter of his enemies and the pessimists of his own race would look with doubt upon the pernicious libels disseminated in the periodical literature of the day. The dark picture of the Negro's shortcomings is thrown on the canvas and so familiar has it become that not a few seldom think that there is another picture which the Negro himself knows to be truer to life and more prophetic of his real nature, taken from real life, and one that ought to give inspiration and hope to all seekers after facts.

The Negro ministry has made rapid and marked progress in moral achievements for itself and also for the race in their wide influence upon the same. There is a constant and ever-increasing demand coming from the people for a higher and nobler service in the pulpit, and the demand is being met in a comparative measure. Moreover there are professional men whose lives prove the possessors' estimate of virtue and are being spent in bringing others up to these lofty ideals.

The noble army of teachers, most of whom are women, are not to be overlooked or underestimated. Next to the faithful mother, these noble women have lived and worked for the race. They have proved themselves ever against untoward conditions. Their work and worth should not be reflected against because of the few whose lives are not up to the standards of true womanhood. It is undeniably true that the virtues of Solomon's virtuous women may be duplicated in multitudes of our women teachers.

A word concerning the criminal record of the Negro might be worth considering. It is here that the moral weakness of the race is said to be most manifest. We are told that figures do not lie, and an appeal from the records is not to be considered for a moment. Yet, he who wants facts and is in search of the truth must appeal and must make personal investigation.

As yet statistics, the press and history, have not given a truthful, unbiased record of the Negro of to-day as he really is. One side has been faithfully followed, and elaborately and painfully portrayed, but of the other side only here and there an item, a reference and a charitable surmise rewards the seeker after knowledge. A careful study of the environments of the so-called criminal class, also the courts of justice before which the criminals are arraigned, would develop some interesting, not to say startling, facts; for example, "it has been shown by Prof. Branson, of the Georgia State Normal School, that while the illiterate Negro population of the state furnish three convicts per thousand, the Negroes who have profited by the public schools furnish only one convict per thousand." Many of the criminals start from the court-room and are the victims of injustice.

Such untoward conditions serve rather to stamp out every vestige of nobility rather than inspire to a reaching out after higher ideals.

The young or post-bellum Negro is steadily improving morally. In the face of strong opposition, in his moral development, just as he does in mental, financial and civil growth, against all the opposing forces that would hinder his growth and relegate him to the lowest stratum of mankind, he is forcing his way up the stream. His spiritual and moral nature is beating under the animal nature which for so long a time held him as a slave. He now does right for right's sake, and loves the pure and good. He honors the women of his race and is raising her to nobler plains in his thoughts and life.

The Negro woman is asserting herself also and is building for herself a character that rests upon a foundation of personal purity. This she is doing not only for herself, but for others. The building up of pure homes is her chief concern and in them she reigns with womanly queenliness.

Social reform receives her attention, and in these walks she may be found teaching the young the single standard of purity for both sexes. Her way is the roughest, her path most closely beset with snares, but her works show for themselves.

If there had been no advancement along moral lines, the Negro's material and intellectual attainments would count for very little in the world of affairs, for he would degenerate to a mere mechanical factor in human society and become a tool in every case in the hands of a stronger race. But he has added to his material and intellectual strength a greater and higher force, viz., that of moral worth, which at once raises him to higher planes in the social and civil world, and brings him into contact with his enemies and oppressors.

The Negro has met and overcome the great barriers to his progress one by one. Despite the snares that are all about his path, and their hidden evils that seek to hold him in thralldom, yet he bursts his chains and marches forward with renewed purpose and greater zeal.

Yes, the young Negro is embodying nobler ideas in his nature and reaching forward after higher ideals because of his superior advantages. He is to face a future pregnant with struggles of a higher order and of a more diverse character, than the struggles of an earlier day. He enters into competition, not with one race only, but with all the races of mankind. As the knowledge of the fierceness of the battle comes to him, he raises himself from his lethargy and in the strength of his manhood he goes forward.

He who doubts not the Negro's growth and development along intellectual and financial lines cannot gainsay his steady and sturdy growth in moral and social power.

TOPIC XVI.

THE NEGRO AS A WRITER.

BY REV. J. Q. JOHNSON, D. D.

REV. J. Q. JOHNSON, D. D.

Rev. J. Q. Johnson, D. D., was graduated from the Collegiate Department, of Fisk University in 1890; from the Hartford Theological Seminary in 1893. He taught mathematics at Tuskegee for one year; the John P. Slater fund published his report of the fifth Tuskegee Negro Conference in its series of "Occasional Papers." He has been President of Allen University, Columbia, S. C. His pastoral work has embraced some of the strongest and most influential churches in the A. M. E. connection. Associated with him was his brilliant and cultured wife--Mrs. Halle Tanner Johnson--the first woman who ever passed the State Medical Board of Examiners of Alabama. Her recent death was a loss to the race.

Dr. Johnson is among the foremost men of his church. He is among the best read men of the race. He is an able preacher and a strong, forceful writer. One of his characteristic points is his ability to say much in little. He goes right to the point without wasting time with needless words. He received Doctor's degree from Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga. He studied two years as a post-graduate student at Princeton University.

It would be extravagant to set up any claims of greatness in behalf of Negro writers. The Negro has yet his contribution to make to the literature of mankind. We fully believe that he has a message to deliver. The making of a writer is a matter of centuries. England was a long time producing a Shakespeare or a Milton, Italy a Dante, Russia a Tolstoi, France a Hugo or a Dumas, Germany a Goethe and a Schiller. America, active in invention and commerce, has not yet produced a name worthy to stand by the side of those just mentioned. All really great writers have not only a national or racial, but also a universal quality in their productions. So far the greater part of our literary effort has been of historical compilations. We have accumulated a large mass of material for the future historians. Williams' "History of the Negro Race" is an example of this kind. In this way we have recorded the deeds of distinguished Negroes in every avenue of life. Such works have kept alive the hope and kindled the aspirations of the race. A most interesting work of this kind is that of Prof. E. H. Crogman, "The White Side of a Black Subject." In this book we have the serious and earnest efforts of the race recorded. Here we learn of educators like Booker T. Washington and J. W. E. Bowen, lawyers like T. McCants Stewart and S. A. McElwee, women physicians like Halle T. Johnson and Georgia Washington. Books of this kind are in almost every Negro home in the land.

The Negro as a writer of prose is nowhere seen to a better advantage than in Dr. Blyden's "Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race." Here we find the Negro in command of the best English style. Whatever may be said of his opinions, his mastery of a forcible, spirited, nervous expression reminds one of Macauly and Addison. Probably the best book from the standpoint of scientific, historical investigation is the work of Dr. DuBois on "The Suppression of the African Slave Trade."

Bishop B. T. Tanner, in his "Dispensations in the Church," has made a real contribution to our race literature. In this he establishes the Hamitic origin of the ancient Egyptians and shows that Ham is not one whit behind Japheth and Shem in achievement. Dr. R. L. Perry's work, "The Cushite," is a very excellent work along the same line. In this department there is yet much work for the Negro scholar.

In Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the race has struck its highest note in song. A high and worthy tribute has been paid this writer by William Dean Howells. His lyrics have not only a genuine race flavor, but at the same time they appeal to the universal heart. Dunbar's work is of the first class. He has made a real contribution to the literature of the country. His name must now appear in any Manual of American Literature. The success of this writer is a matter of note. His poems and stories are in most of the popular magazines and his books on all news stands. It is clear from this that, whenever a Negro writes anything worth reading, his productions will be in constant demand.

Mention must here be made of the commendable work of Chas. W. Chestnutt, another popular writer of the race. The lamented Dr. A. A. Whitman and Mrs. Frances W. Harper are two poets well-known to the public. Some think that Whitman is a greater poet than Dunbar.

In a short sketch like this, it is impossible to do justice to the literary achievements of the race. A whole volume might be written on the great work done by the Negro press. Here we have many strong writers--men of such mould as Fortune, Stewart, Mitchell and H. T. Johnson. Then, too, there are noted names as magazine writers--Scarborough, Kelly Miller, D. W. Culp and B. T. Washington and H. T. Kealing.

The Negro has been a failure nowhere. In war, there stands Toussaint L'Overture and Maceo; in education, B. T. Washington; in oratory, Frederick Douglas; in art, H. O. Tanner; in letters, Phyllis Wheatley and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. These and others like them are our prophets of the future. Being thus judged by our best men, it doth not yet appear what we shall be. The Greeks are great in a large measure because they wrote of themselves. So the Anglo Saxon, and any race for that matter. The Negro must do the same. His story will not be adequately told till it is done by himself. The Negro poet, novelist and historian have a vast wealth of material before them. Every southern city and plantation are vocal with the past history of our race. From the past and the present, from our achievements and our suffering, the Negro writer, whether poet, novelist or historian, will deliver our message to the world.

SECOND PAPER.

THE NEGRO AS A WRITER.

BY WALTER I. LEWIS.

WALTER I. LEWIS.

Walter I. Lewis was born near Chester, S. C. No record having been kept, it is not possible to determine the date of his birth. Walter is the third of seven children that were born to William Charles and Mollie Lewis who were slaves to a man by the name of W. T. Gilmore.

He successfully passed from the common schools to the preparatory department of Biddle University.

Walter I. Lewis graduated with the second honor of his class of five from Biddle University, in Charlotte, N. C., and at once began his life-work, public school teaching, at Spartanburg, S. C.

After teaching in that city for three years, two of which he succeeded in securing a sufficient donation from the Peabody Fund to have the school term increased from five to nine months, he accepted an appointment under the Freedmen's Board of the Presbyterian Church, to take charge of their parochial school in Columbia, Tenn.

Special inducements were offered him to take a position in the newly organized graded schools of that city, and he resigned the parochial school after serving one year, and accepted work with the graded school. This he found congenial and won special distinction in using the phonetic method of teaching primary pupils, that system being newly introduced there then.

Having a turn for political contests he vigorously entered local political campaigns, generally on the winning side, and won some distinction as a campaign orator.

Mr. Lewis came to Florida in 1890, as corresponding secretary of the Afro-American Chautauqua Association, whose president was the lamented Dr. J. C. Price.

The failure of that enterprise was a withering blow to Mr. Lewis.

After remaining in Florida for nearly a year, at Tallahassee, Mr. Lewis became field correspondent and agent for the Florida Sentinel, then published in Gainesville.

In 1892, Mr. Lewis got a position as city editor on the Labor Union Recorder of Savannah. For a time his activity seemed to be equal to the task of redeeming that paper, but, the entailments of indebtedness were too great. It went under.

He was urged to go to Jacksonville to enter the office of the Jacksonville "Advocate"; the inducements being flattering he went. He served the "Advocate" until the "Daily American" was established. He was on the "Daily American" as its city editor, and was on deck when that sheet went down.

In the winter of 1895-96, necessity demanded a better daily news for the colored people of Jacksonville. This was secured at the office of the "Metropolis," one of the most successful afternoon papers that is published in the whole South.

Mr. Lewis was put on as reporter for his race, on the staff of the "Metropolis," and has held this place continuously ever since.

He is a firm believer in the survival of the fittest in all things, and declares this is the key to the solution of the race problem.

On the stage, on the platform, in the pulpit and in conversation, the Negro has demonstrated a power in the use of speech that has well won him a merited distinction. This fluency and force of language, so often found in striking disparity to his other attainments, has armed critics and students of his racial peculiarities with the opinion that talking is his peculiar forte.

Such an opinion does not obtain, however, in the face of noble examples of this race who have the art of forcibly and correctly writing great thoughts.

The great cause of the Christian religion has furnished the field for more writers of this race than any other. This is noted, not as a fault, but rather to confirm the fact that since the emancipation, the training of the Negro, both at school and in his home, has been largely religious, owing to his inborn susceptibility to religious impressions, and his well known proneness to abide by the teachings of his fathers; it is no marvel that the major portion of his written thoughts should be deeply tinged with religious ideas.

Even in his occasional contributions to current literature, and when he is making an attack or a defense, right often does the religious effusion predominate.

Until about twenty years ago, rare were the instances where Negro writers had produced books and other productions on other than religious subjects. And even at the present the number of secular writers is not large, considering the opportunities for writers of this class and the profits available. There are certain advantages, strange to relate, that the Negro has, that might be called natural. The great realm of thought, through which fiction and mental analysis holds undisputed sway, is not circumscribed by caste and other invidious discriminations as are most other avenues, through which the bravest souls essay to traverse, but are either crushed down or are ejected. Perhaps this is why, in cases that have doubtless come under the observation of all readers of the productions of Negro writers, there is a tendency toward recklessness.

But it will be equitable and fair to take under consideration only those Negro writers, who have won more or less distinction as such, while discussing the Negro as a writer.

From Alexander Dumas to the latest celebrity among Negro writers, the close observer of racial traits is furnished with vivid evidences of methods of thought that are peculiar to this people. In imagery, there is that floridity that goes dazzling to the sublime with a brilliancy that is captivating. If sorrow is depicted, his course through its horrible depths brings a shudder over the most listless reader. If happiness is to be portrayed, the coziest nook in Elysium is laid bare. If anger pleads for expression, no bolt from Vulcan's anvil has ever fallen with so crushing a clang.

The Negro writer is prolific in detail. Situation follows situation in rapid success, demanding close attention to keep clear of the meshes of involvement. The writings of the Negro are full of soul. If, at times, there is a lacking of aptness in conventional adjustments, the hiatus is beautifully abridged with a freshness and wealth of expression that fully atones.

The Negro writer has it largely in his power to demonstrate the higher possibilities and capabilities of his race. As long as there is a Charles W. Chestnut, or a Paul Lawrence Dunbar, a T. Thomas Fortune, and others, whose writings are read by the thousands of literary people of this country and England, so long will there be an irrefutable argument for the intellectual worth of the Negro race.

It is within the power of the Negro writer to practically and profitably demonstrate the oft repeated aphorism, "Genius is not the plant of any particular soil."

It should be a matter of some congratulation to the Negro that the great publishing houses of this country are not, and never will be, located at the great centers of race prejudice. A manuscript of merit can easily find publication. Within recent years it has been noticed that the vein of seriousness that has run through the writings of Negro authors is fading away, and a jollity that is his own is taking its place. Most of the men and women of the race, who have written enough to win public notice, are known to be persons of a cheerful and jovial disposition. For such a person to live in the role of the miserable is at least a misrepresentation.

The Negro's aptness in detecting the facetious, even in things that are serious; his laughing soul that places a bouquet of joy and sunshine where the somber draping of woe would so often be found, is his God-given stock in trade upon which he can do business for generations to come. This secret is being discovered by him. This discovery will yet furnish the great world of letters with men and women of this race, who will place millions under tribute to graciously acknowledge the beneficence.

The way to favor and preferment for the Negro writer is to be made by himself. The epic of his race awaits a writer. The drama of an unwritten history covering about four centuries will welcome the facile pen of some gifted son or daughter. The well nigh inexhaustible field of folk-lore of his own people is ready to be told to the world, whether in the crude dialect of the race, or in Americanized English, it matters little. It will make no difference. The English speaking people of both continents will read it if it is written by a master. It is not at all taken for granted, admitted, or intimated, that the Negro writer of the present century is oblivious to any of these facts. Just as the "coon" melodies have captured the musical realms of this country, and will remain in the saddle for some time yet; just as Negro singers and actors are honorably invading the progressive end of the American stage, so will Negro writers swarm in the great field of writers, bringing with them a supply of freshness of genius, that will rejuvenate and give fresh life to the literature of this country.

This is a domain that mocks at legislative restrictions, caste, exclusionism and what not. Those who will enter and maintain their ground will be few. All of the stars in the heavens are not fast flying meteors. There never was such a thing as an army of sages.

Mindful of the fact that his antecedence is small in the world of letters, the Negro writer is the more ardently inspired when he looks beyond and catches sight of golden fields into which no swarthy hand has thrust a sickle.

The world wants more joy; the world cries for more sunshine; the world begs for a laugh. Mankind gloats over the depiction of deeds both noble and ignoble. The world delights in that which is novel. The Negro is a son of caloric. His presence is sunshine. He tells a story leaving nothing out. He is himself a novelty, and it will not be too far in the twentieth century before he will take pity on the world and mankind and write them what they like.

THIRD PAPER.

THE NEGRO AS A WRITER.

BY G. M. McClellan.

GEORGE MARION McCLELLAN.

The objection is often raised against schools of higher education for the Negro race that these people need instruction, not in Latin, history, geometry and moral science, but in scientific farming and geometric bed making. The leaven of truth in this assertion makes a plump denial hard to return; while its leaven of error is a reminder of the old antislavery assumption that till the end of time the Negro must be a hewer of wood and drawer of water, with no mental life to speak of. This error is best confuted by proof of the race's actually wide range of intellectual demands, imaginative sympathies, moral questionings; and for this reason, if for no other, one thanks Mr. George Marion McClellan for venturing on the publication of his verses. This gentleman is a graduate of Fisk University, as he tells us in the interesting and modest preface to his volume. Thus he belongs to the first generation since the War. His parents, he indicates, were slaves, and his early home was upon the "Highland Rim" of Tennessee, amid the poverty of a freedman father's little farm. These things well weighed, the refined love of nature, the purity of sentiment, the large philosophy, the delicacy of expression which his poems display, are sufficiently marvelous. One must, perhaps, deny him the title of "poet" in these days when verse writers are many. His ear for rhythm is fatally defective, while, so far as one may judge from the few dates appended to the poems, the later productions seem not to be the best. Nevertheless, his little volume stimulates to large reviews and fair anticipations. It is a far cry from "Swing low, sweet chariot"--an articulate stirring of poetic fancy, but hardly more than that--to Mr. McClellan's "September Night, in Mississippi":

"Begirt with cotton fields, Anguilla sits, Half birdlike, dreaming on her summer nest Amid her spreading figs and roses still In bloom with all their spring and summer hues. Pomegranates hang with dapple cheeks full ripe, And over all the town a dreamy haze Drops down. The great plantations stretching far Away are plains of cotton, downy white. Oh, glorious is this night of joyous sounds. Too full for sleep Aromas wild and sweet From muscadine, late-booming jessamine And roses all the heavy air suffuse. Faint bellows from the alligators come From swamps afar where sluggish lagoons give To them a peaceful home. The katydids Make ceaseless cries. Ten thousand insects' wings Stir in the moonlight haze, and joyous shouts Of Negro song and mirth awake hard by The cabin dance. Oh, glorious is the night! The summer sweetness fills my heart with songs. I cannot sing; with loves I cannot speak."

If many thoughts and feelings such as these lie folded in Southern cabins, let us not deny, for their unfolding, the genial influences of literature and history and the sciences. The race that possesses such powers, even though undeveloped in the great majority of its members, needs Fisk and Atlanta educated pastors and teachers.

"The pen is mightier than the sword." It would have seemed idle to have said this at the mouth of the mountain pass at Thermopylæ with Leonidas and his immortal Spartan heroes all lying dead amid the wreck made by the mighty host of Xerxes. A century afterward, at Cannæ, one sixth of the whole population of Rome lay dead on the battlefield by the sword thrust. Where was the might of the pen to compare with this? The might of the sword at Thermopylæ, together with the concluding events at Salamis, turned back the Persian hordes and thereby saved the Greek civilization for Europe. Again, after the blood of Cannæ, at Zama, Hannibal was utterly broken and Carthage, with her attending civilization, was doomed to everlasting death, while Rome, her mighty adversary, with her eagles and short sword, carried her dominion and her splendid civilization from England to India. One more great movement in the world illustrating the power of the sword is too tempting to pass by in this connection. From the deserts of Arabia a fanatical dreamer came forth claiming a new revelation from God and as a chosen prophet to give the world a new religion. His pretentions at first caused his expulsion from Mecca, together with a small and insignificant band of followers. Yet because of these it was not long until there came from out the desert the sound of the marching of a mighty host, heralding the approach of the Arab, the despising and despised. Before these barbarous hordes the principalities of the East were doomed to crumble and yield up their accumulated treasures of the ages, and so triumphant were these invaders from the desert they decided to appropriate for themselves the whole world, and from this they were not dissuaded until Charles Martel sent them back from Tours and out of Europe, together with their hateful civilization. So it would seem from these and all other mighty movements of races and tribes, men and nations, the sword has ever been the arbiter. Yet over all the mighty sweep of events and the stupendous results of the sword-thrust throughout the ages, comes this insinuating claim, "The pen is mightier than the sword." And when we consider the whole of accumulated philosophy, the onward march of science and human thought, and the consequent development of the human race, the comparative might of the sword becomes insignificant before the less demonstrative power of the conquering pen. And here comes the question, which in some phase or other comes up in all great questions of America, "What part has the Negro in the might of the pen?" Nobody doubts that the great movements of the world at present, let their primary manifestations be military or political, scientific or industrial, have any other great lever than knowledge and sentiment brought into notice and activity by writers.

The chief agencies for the dissemination of thought and discoveries are the newspapers, magazines, literary journals and books of fiction. The newspapers have the most immediate and controlling influence over the action of men in the business and political world. To undertake to estimate with anything like exactness the part the Negro has in molding sentiment through the press and giving the consequent direction to the action of men would be a task impossible in the very nature of the case.

It shall be, then, the purpose of this article to discuss in a general way the Negro as a writer in all lines in which he has essayed to express thought. It would be easy to dispose of the question in two ways. One would be to separate all that he has done as far as that would be possible, and put it over against the production of the white race and thus so minimize it by comparison that its power would likely to be underrated. Another way would be to magnify all that has been done as especially praiseworthy, because the production comes from the Negro, thus overrating its significance, forgetting that whatever power any writing can have can only be in proportion to its real merit in the thought-world, regardless of all source from which it came. Overrating the Negro as a writer is more likely to be done in passing on his attempts in literary art than in any other field. But in literary lines the number who can command attention and be worthy of notice is very small. One does not have to go far to see that the most effective work, so far as creating sentiment is concerned, and thereby wielding power in the great moving forces of this age, the Negro as a writer is best evinced by the Negro press. We have many newspapers, and after thirty years we have not been able to produce one single great newspaper, nor for many good reasons one single great editor who is a power in the land. Indeed, the most of the many papers of ours that come from the press have but little in them that can attract the intelligent minds of the race. There is, however, among us too great a tendency to ridicule the Negro press unreservedly, and though much of the ridicule may be deserved it remains true that the accumulative power of the Negro press is hardly appreciated as it deserves to be. They who write for us and fight our battles are essentially our only spokesmen, and as ignored as our articles and editorials would seem to be by the white press, it is true nevertheless that the white newspapers take close notice of what the Negro writers have to say. They may not ordinarily deign to appear to take notice, but let any publication be made in our most humble sheets that seems to them to be dangerous or too presumptuous to let pass, and it will be seen then that the white press takes notice and the power of the colored press will become apparent. I have said that we have not yet produced one single great paper, nor one great editor, as white papers and editors are great, and to this I think there can be justly no exceptions taken, for we are lacking in nearly all the accessories to make such greatness possible, but we do have a few papers and editors of marked power. The two most exceptional papers of power that have come under my notice are the New York Age, edited by Mr. T. Thomas Fortune, and the Richmond Planet, edited by Mr. Mitchell. These two papers and their editors have been, and are yet, valiant warriors for the race and of incalculable benefit to the race. As a terse, caustic and biting editorial writer Mr. Fortune is hardly surpassed by any one, and his paper for years has been uncompromising in fighting all adverse issues in the race question. Almost the same thing can be said of the Richmond Planet, and more than any other, perhaps, has this paper been valiant in waging war against lynching. These two papers, together with a host of others, have set forth the power of the pen and have accomplished far more to offset the adverse sentiment created by the white press than can ever be fully determined. There is another class of Negro writers than those I have mentioned that gets an occasional hearing in the white papers of the South and is of great value to the race. Any one familiar with the strictures of the South, knows that the Negroes themselves have essentially no chance to discuss through the white newspapers the great questions which are ever to the front concerning them, and their position in the South, and also but very little more in the newspapers of the North, unless in the South the Negroes write some articles to say amen, and highly sanction the white man's dictums and positions on the Negro questions that happen to be up. But there are a few who are able to write on some questions in our defense without compromise, and yet so skillfully as not to offend. In speaking of the attitude of the white press, and its representations, it is not assumed that there is no disposition of fairness on the part of the writers of the white press. Many of the great editors mean to be fair from their standpoint. The Southern white people are prejudiced and supersensitive on some points beyond all reason, and in all questions between the Negro and the white man, as man to man, the assumptions, without an exception, are arrogant beyond all naming, so that it comes about at any point of issue, where men differing, usually would permit the opponent his views as fitting from his side of the question, what the Negro has to say, if he is emphatic and decided, is called impudence. The writer must be skillful, then, to write uncompromisingly and yet not be of the "impudent." There are a few men among us who are able to write for the Southern white papers with reserve, yet without compromise, greatly to our advantage. Among those few, prominent are Prof. G. W. Henderson, of Straight University, New Orleans, and President W. H. Councill, of the College, Normal and Industrial School at Normal, Alabama. Prof. Henderson is a graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont, and Yale Theological Seminary, having taken the fellowship from that institution and studied in Germany two years. His writings show his scholarship and refinement. He has been persistent and valiant in all race matters, especially in educational lines in Louisiana, and his articles, though uncompromising, have from time to time found a hearing and forced respect from the great dailies of New Orleans. President Councill is the most widely accepted in the Southern white press of all Negroes. On some points of disagreement between the Negroes and the white people he concedes more to some of the white man's claims than any other Negro who writes. Secondly, he is truly a great man, and has gained his right to a hearing in intelligent sources. As a writer, pure and simple, he is forcible; and while the whole of his attitude may not be accepted generally by his own race, there is no doubt about his uncompromising attitude and loyalty to his own race first and last, and any one who has followed his articles in newspapers and leading magazines have surely seen that the apparently sometimes too generous bouquet throwing to the white brother is fully offset by the terrible blows given that same white brother for his sins against the Negro race. This is especially seen in his symposium article in the April number of the Arena, 1899. It would be impossible in the limitation of this article to mention the many Negro writers who are acceptable in leading magazines, and to a greater extent in the great weekly journals of this country. Only one or two can be mentioned: Rev. H. H. Proctor, pastor of the First Congregational Church at Atlanta, Ga., is a graduate of Fisk University and Yale Theological Seminary, and he is a young man of exceptional ability as a writer on timely questions, but as an article writer is often seen in the Outlook, the New York Independent, and such papers. Above them all is Bishop Tanner, of Philadelphia. For diction, fine style, conciseness and logical conclusions, one must go far to find his superior. In the way of history, text books on various subjects, and scientific presentation, not much has yet been done among us. Mr. Geo. W. Williams, the Negro historian, has done more in that field than any other. Dr. D. W. Culp has written a treatise on consumption and other medical subjects that have attracted attention and favorable criticism.

It now remains to speak of the writers in literary art. In this field there are many who have certainly made praiseworthy attempts, and of the ladies who cannot be classed with those who have truly made a place among successful literary artists, but whose writing has attracted attention and in character is literary, most complimentary things can be said of Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper, of Philadelphia; of Mrs. Fanny Barrier Williams, of Chicago; of Miss Edna Matthews, of New York, and of Mrs. Cooper, Washington, D. C. Mrs. Cooper's book, "A Voice from the South," is a work in purpose and execution of decided merit. In real literary art, perhaps there are only two in the whole race who have reached a place of genuine high rank among the critics, namely, Dunbar and Chestnut. There are four poets, however, who have attracted much attention and favorable criticism, and of these I will speak in turn. It is in order to speak of Mr. A. A. Whitman first, because he appeared first of all and in one particular of excellency he is first of all four. His "Rape of Florida" is truly poetry and as a sustained effort, as an attempt in great lines, it surpasses in true merit anything yet done by a Negro, and this assertion without one qualifying word. He failed as a poet? Certainly. Mr. Whitman made attempts in lines in which Shelley, Keats and Spenser triumphed, and with such mediocrity only possible to him in such a highway, what else could follow beyond a passing notice, though his "Rape of Florida" is a production of much more than passing merit. Aside from the mediocrity of the work attempted in Spenserian lines the man himself in his lack of learning, in his expressible egotism, was derogatory to his ultimate success, and his styling himself as the William Cullen Bryant of the Negro race was sickening in the extreme. Mr. Whitman died recently, but not before he had done all in literary excellence that could be hoped from him. It remains true, however, that he was worthy of a much better place than is accorded him as a Negro poet, and it is to be regretted that his work is so little known among us.

Ten years after Mr. Whitman, Paul Dunbar came forth as a new singer, and got the first real recognition as a poet. As a poet, pure and simple, as a refined verse maker in all directions, Mr. Dunbar surpasses Mr. Whitman by far in the truest significance in the term poet, and he is justly assigned the first place among Negro poets. For many reasons Mr. Dunbar is famous, and to enter into any extended discussion of his work in this connection is needless. Mr. Dunbar is the first Negro to attempt poetic art in Negro dialect. To speak the truth, however, it must be said that there is no such thing as a Negro dialect, but in the bad English called Negro dialect Mr. Dunbar has in verse chosen to interpret the Negro in his general character, in his philosophy of life, in his rich humor and good nature, and the world knows how well he has succeeded. Robert Burns has shown how the immortal life of all beautiful things can be handed down for all time in dialect, but it can scarcely be believed by any one that great poetry can ever be clothed in the garb known as Negro dialect. But for some pathos and to put the Negro forward at his best in his humorous and good natured characteristics the so-called dialect is the best vehicle, and in these lines, and these lines only, is Mr. Dunbar by far greater than all others. Out of those lines he is still the first poet, Whitman not excepted, but he is first with nothing like the difference in real merit and the fame he has above all others. But in passing from him, here is Dunbar at his best, dialectic and otherwise:

"When de co'n pone's hot-- Dey is a time in life when nature Seems to slip a cog an' go, Jes' a-rattling down creation, Lak an ocean's overflow; When de worl' jes' stahts a-spinnin' Lak a pickaninny's top, An' you feel jes' lak a racah, Dat is trainin' fu' to trot-- When yo' mammy says de blessin' An' de co'n pone's hot.

"When you set down at de table, Kin' o' weary lak an' sad, An' you's jes' a little tiwhed An' purhaps a little mad; How yo' gloom tu'ns into gladness, How yo' joy drives out de doubt, When de oven do' is opened, An' de smell comes po'in out; Why, de 'lectric light o' Heaven Seems to settle on de spot, When yo' mammy says de blessin' An' de co'n pone's hot.

"When de cabbage pot is steamin' An' de bacon good an' fat, When de chittlins is a-spuller'n' So's to show you whah dey's at; Tek away yo' sody biscut, Tek away yo' cake an' pie, Fu' de glory time is comin', An' it's 'proachin' mighty nigh, An' yo' want to jump an' hollah, Dough you know you'd bettah not When yo' mammy says de blessin', An' de co'n pone's hot.

"I have hyeahd o' lots o' sermons, An' I've hyeahd o' lots o' prayers, An' I've listened to some singin' Dat has tuck me up de stairs Of de Glory-lan' an' set me Jes' below de mahstah's th'one, An' lef' my hea't a-singin' In a happy aftah tone; But dem wu'ds so sweetly murmured Seemed to tech de softes' spot, When my mammy says de blessin', An' de co'n pone's hot."

This is not so great a poem as the "Cotter's Saturday Night" by Burns, because the spiritual element and the whole scope of the tenderest concerns of the family and of life in that poem are left out of this. But in Dunbar's poem, where only the festival is pictured, the scene is so intensified that one feels the warmth and sees the glow of the evening fire and inhales the appetizing odors of the coming homely cheer, and can see back of these the tender care and ineffable love of the "Mammy," who puts the crowning touch upon her love with the blessing. As far as it goes, "When the co'n pone's hot" is great precisely in the same lines that the "Cotter's Saturday Night" is great.

Mr. Dunbar has also written a number of novels and short stories. It has not been my good fortune to see "The Stories from Dixie;" but the novels I have bought and read. If there were no Charles Chestnut, Mr. Dunbar's novels would have to be discussed in this connection, and he would have to be put down as the very first Negro novel writer, mainly, however, because there would be no other; but with Mr. Chestnut in the field, no true admirer of Mr. Dunbar will ever discuss the prolific diffusions of his, bearing the name novels, in any connection with Dunbar, the poet. There is only enough space left in this article for the poets, to barely mention the names of Mr. Daniel Webster Davis, of Manchester, Virginia, and Mr. James D. Corrothers of Red Bank, New Jersey, and to give a selection from each and let their poems speak for them as writers. Both of them have received notice in the best magazines and favorable criticism elsewhere. Both owe their distinction mainly to their work in dialectic verse which, I fear, is too much like the "ragtime" music, considered quite the proper dressing for Negro distinction in the poetic art.

Here is to "De Biggis' Piece ub Pie," by Mr. Davis:

"When I was a little boy I set me down to cry, Bekase my little brudder Had de biggis' piece ub pie. But when I had become a man I made my min' to try An' hustle roun' to git myself De biggis' piece ub pie.

"An' like in bygone chil'ish days, De worl' is hustlin' roun' To git darselbes de biggis' slice Ub honor an' renown; An' ef I fails to do my bes', But stan' aroun' an' cry, Dis ol' worl' will git away Wid bof de plate an' pie.

"An' eben should I git a slice I mus' not cease to try, But keep a-movin' fas' es life To hol' my piece ub pie. Dis ruff ol' worl' has little use Fur dem dat chance to fall, An' while youze gittin' up ag'in 'Twill take de plate an' all."

The one more selection from Mr. Davis will show him as a poet outside of dialect:

A ROSE.

"The rose of the garden is given to me, And, to double its value, 'twas given by thee; Its lovely bright tints to my eyesight is borne, Like the kiss of a fairy or blush of morn.

"Too soon must this scent-laden flower decay, Its bright leaves will wither, its bloom die away; But in memory 'twill linger; the joy that it bore Will live with me still, tho' the flower's no more."

Mr. James D. Corrothers writes:

"A THANKSGIVIN' TURKEY.

"Cindy, reach dah 'hine yo' back. 'N han' me dat ah Almanac; W'y, land! t'morrer's Thanksgivin'! Got to git out an' make hay-- Don't keer whut de preachah say-- We mus' eat Thanksgivin' day, Uz sho' uz you's a-libbin.

"You know whah Mahs Hudson libs? Dey's a turkey dah dat gibs Me a heap o' trouble. Some day Hudson g'ine to miss Dat owdashus fowl o' his; I's g'ine ober dah an' twis' 'At gobbler's nake plumb double.

"Goin' pas' dah t' othah day, Turkey strutted up an' say, 'A-gobble, gobble, gobble,' Much uz ef he mout remahk, 'Don' you wish 'at it wuz dahk? Ain't I temptin'?' S' I, 'you hah'k, Er else dey'll be a squabble.

"'Take an' wring yo' nake righ' quick, Light on yo' lak a thousan' brick, 'N you won't know whut befell you.' 'N I went on. Yet evah day When I goes by that a-way, 'At fowl has too much to say; 'N I'm tiahd uv it, I tell you.

"G'ine to go dis bressed night An' put out dat turkey's light, 'N I'll nail him lak a cobblah. Take keer, 'Cindy, lemme pass, Ain't a-g'ine to take no sass Off no man's turkey gobblah."

And now for the last and the greatest Roman of them all in literary art--Mr. Charles W. Chestnut, of Cleveland, Ohio. I have never seen him, and at present the only personal acquaintance I have with him, is a brief letter of a dozen or more lines; but Mr. Chestnut, revealed by his novels, I know well. The chief distinction one finds in reading Mr. Chestnut from all other Negro story-writers, so far as there are such, is that he is truly an artist and that his art is fine art. Secondly, and this is of the greatest concern to Negroes in any thought of the Negro as a writer, he is the best delineator of Negro life and character, thought and feeling, of any who has attracted notice by writing. It is not possible to give in this connection any quotations from Mr. Chestnut's work that may speak for him, but it is fitting in this article to speak of the character of some of Mr. Chestnut's stories, and, as far as possible, suggest the ground and purpose of his fiction. Perhaps, to mention the stories, "The Wife of His Youth," "The Wheel of Progress," and "The House Behind the Cedars," would serve best for this occasion. There are some situations of the Negroes too full of ineffable pity for utterance. Who has not sat at some time in a Negro church and heard read the pitiful inquiry for a mother, or a child, or a father, husband or wife, all lost in the sales and separations of slavery times--loved ones as completely swallowed up in the past (yet in this life they still live) as if the grave had received them. At such a reading, though it was given with unconcern, one heard the faithful cry of faithful love coming out of the dark on its sorrowful mission.

And in this realm Mr. Chestnut tells us of a mulatto boy who marries a woman of Negro type, and who was old enough for the boy's mother, but had, at that time, youth enough left to make the disparity of age at the time of little objection, especially in the times and situation where there was little objection to marriages of any sort. But the youth escapes from slavery and in the far North receives education, development and culture, and in time earns a competence that makes life desirable and opens up vistas to new happiness, for the old life is now only a memory of what the new man once was, and the new man is on the borderland of new love and marriage befitting all his advancements, while the mulatto slave boy, the slave girl, the black slave-wife and the slave connections are left forever behind. But in all these twenty-five years the black slave wife is still living, still ignorant and yielding all the while to age until she is an old woman. But there was one thing that did not yield to age and time, and that was her love for her boy husband, and, what was more, her sublime and unwavering faith in the constancy of her "Yaller Sam," after whom she sends inquiry after inquiry, and year after year tramps from place to place in her search, with faith and love divine ever leading her on, until one day in a Northern city, to which place she had finally traced him, she stopped at his very door to humbly inquire of the strange gentleman she saw for her "Yaller Sam," never dreaming that it was he to whom she spoke, though he knew her and had to face the bitter tragedy of it all. But Mr. Chestnut's art enables him to take care of so sorrowful a case satisfactorily.

"The Wheel of Progress" touches another phase of pathetic situations arising out of the mixture of people and sentiments in the South. The story tells of an ostracized Northern white teacher who, from young womanhood, labors away her life for the Negroes, until her age and health reach that degree of disadvantage that her position as teacher, once her medium of charity, becomes her only means for a living. In the meantime the Negroes whom she and others helped to uplift and develop, and to whom, because of race distinction, most all avenues outside of menial labor are closed, except preaching and teaching, had become her competitors. In the conflict that arose over the reappointment of the white missionary teacher and a young Negro to the place the pitiful situation is again taken care of by Mr. Chestnut's fine art. "The House Behind the Cedars," until his latest, "The Marrow of Tradition," was his most ambitious attempt. In this book the story of an Octoroon family is put forth in all the pathos and tragedy that is the lot of so many Negroes who belong wholly to neither race.

Mr. Chestnut's latest book, "The Marrow of Tradition," is a strong and vigorous presentation of the colored man's case against the South in the form of a dramatic novel. This book especially deserves a wide reading among the Negroes, who have none too many friends to plead their cause. Mr. Chestnut, as one truly high-rank novelist among us, ought to have such a hearing among the eight millions that would give him all the advantages of a successful novelist from a financial standpoint as a return for his labor, which is by no means for himself alone.

In closing, it is but fair to say, while the artists of high rank among us are few in number, in an article discussing the Negro as a writer, in mentioning names at all, it must necessarily follow that there are very many names not here mentioned that would deserve to be if in such an article as this there were any intention or necessity to mention the whole list of Negro writers who write well and with power in every department of letters.

TOPIC XVII.

DID THE AMERICAN NEGRO PROVE, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, THAT HE IS INTELLECTUALLY EQUAL TO THE WHITE MAN?

BY M. W. GILBERT, D. D.

REV. M. W. GILBERT, D. D.

The subject of this sketch was born July 25, 1862, at Mechanicsville, Sumter County, South Carolina. His parents were slaves and his father, a Baptist minister, is still alive. Mr. Gilbert began his early school life during the reconstruction period, at Mechanicsville, and continued it at Mannville, in an adjoining township, until 1879, when he entered Benedict College (then Benedict Institute) at Columbia, South Carolina. He remained in Benedict till the spring of 1883, when he graduated from a classical course specially designed to fit him for a Northern college. In the fall of 1883, after a searching examination, he entered the freshman class of Colgate University and remained in that institution four years, until his graduation in 1887 with the degree of A. B. During his college course Mr. Gilbert particularly distinguished himself in the languages and oratory. During his sophomore year he won in an oratorical contest the First Kingsford Prize. Although the only colored man in his class, yet he was so highly esteemed by his classmates that he enjoyed the unique distinction of being elected every three months for four years as Class Secretary and Treasurer. In addition to this he was elected Class Historian in his senior year. His alma mater conferred on him the degree of A. M. in 1890. Immediately after his graduation Mr. Gilbert was called to the pastorate of the First Colored Baptist Church at Nashville, Tenn. He remained in this position three years and a half and then he accepted the call of the Bethel Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla. He was not permitted by his denomination to remain long in this pastorate; for after one year in it, on the nomination of the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York, he was elected to lead in the educational work among the colored Baptists of Florida. He presided one year over the Florida Institute at Live Oak, and he led in 1892 in the founding of the Florida Baptist Academy (now college) at Jacksonville, Fla. The cares and anxiety involved in this work threatened his health and in 1894 he resigned this position to accept the pastorate of a young church organization in Savannah, Ga., having in the meantime declined an election to the presidency of State University at Louisville, Ky. In 1894 he was elected Vice-President and Professor of History, Political Science, and Modern Languages, in the Colored State College at Orangeburg, S. C. He served in this capacity two years and after re-election for a third year he resigned to re-enter upon his life-work in the gospel ministry. He served a few months after this in the office of General Missionary and Corresponding Secretary of the Baptist State Convention of South Carolina, but this work militating against his health he gave up to enter upon the pastorate of the Central Baptist Church at Charleston, S. C., where he now is. Mr. Gilbert received three years ago the degree of D. D. from Guadalupe College of Seguin, Tex. In 1883 Dr. Gilbert was married in Columbia, S. C., to Miss Agnes Boozer. Seven children have been born to them, five of whom are still living. Dr. Gilbert is much in demand as a public speaker on great occasions and his services are frequently sought by some of the best churches of his denomination.

The necessity for asserting and maintaining the affirmative of the above question is due to the deep-seated prejudice against the Negro, which prejudice is the unfortunate fruit of the Negro's past enslavement. It is not surprising that those who for centuries held the Negro as a chattel should regard him as a being essentially inferior to themselves, and time is required, in the changed condition of affairs, to completely eradicate this idea. Even now, despite the remarkable development of the Negro since his emancipation, occasionally some Rip Van Winkle, awaking from a long sleep, essays to deny the complete humanity of the Negro race. A true believer in the Scriptures must be equally a believer in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of all men. For the divine record declares that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." Language, physiology and psychology confirm the truthfulness of Scripture on this issue. The mission of Christianity to preach the gospel over the inhabited world is based upon this great idea. Science and Holy Writ assert the intellectual equality of all men of whatever race or color, so far as real capacity and possibilities are concerned.

The position and relative importance of a race or nation in the world's history are determined more by its antecedents and environments than by the original endowments of each individual that constitutes it. Two different races, having the same antecedents and subject to the same environments, will produce the same results. In answering the question as to whether the Negro has demonstrated his intellectual equality with the white man during the century just closed, our inquiry must necessarily be confined to the closing third of that century; for prior to the emancipation of the race the colored people were generally in an enslaved condition. Opportunities for education, citizenship, and the development of manhood, were few, and at best could apply to but few of the race. Although our inquiry is limited to only one-third of the century just closed, nevertheless we can safely assert that in that short period the Negro has demonstrated by actual results his intellectual equality with the white man.

1. The Negro has demonstrated in thirty-five years a capacity for education equal to that of the white man. This remark does not apply alone to his primary education, but also to the highest. He has entered already every intellectual field that is open to him, and he is achieving success in every one that he has entered. Within a third of a century one hundred and fifty-six institutions for the higher education of the Negroes have been founded, and from these and Northern colleges there have been more than seventeen thousand graduates. These colleges are located chiefly in the South, and their courses of studies are as high as their neighboring white colleges; in some instances they are higher. Some of these graduates have evinced great ability and brilliancy in mastering the most difficult studies included in the curriculum. The existence of Negro colleges and the successful graduation of Negroes therefrom is a strong argument for his intellectual equality. Nor has the Negro simply demonstrated his ability to master the literary courses of the college, but also his capacity to acquire the knowledge and training to fit him for life in the various professions. Within a third of a century the race has produced thirty thousand teachers, five hundred physicians, two hundred and fifty lawyers, and a large number of others who have entered the ministry, politics, and editorial life. If there is doubt on the demonstration of the Negro's ability to acquire education in his own colleges, we need only to mention the fact that his ambition has led him to some of the leading Northern universities where he studied at the side of white men, and even there he has demonstrated his essential intellectual equality with the white man by winning, in several well-known instances, some of their highest honors for scholarship, proficiency and oratory.

2. The Negro has demonstrated his capacity for imparting an education to others after he has himself received it. He is an essential and established factor in the public school system of the South. It is he that is intrusted with the primary education of his people, and it is due largely to him that his people in thirty-five years have reduced their illiteracy 45 per cent. During those thirty-five years he has become professor of law, medicine, theology, mathematics, the sciences, and languages. In the colleges devoted to the education of the colored men, there are colored professors who have become eminent in their departments and who would fill with credit similar chairs in white institutions of learning. All of the colored state colleges of the South are under the management of Negroes as presidents and professors.

3. The Negro has also demonstrated his productivity in the field of authorship. In this particular he has shown a white man's capacity. In calling attention to the Negro's achievement in this particular, it may be well to note the fact that the Negro's white neighbor, although he lives in a clime similar to that which produced in Greece, philosophers like Plato and Aristotle and poets like Homer, Euripides, and Sophocles, and in Italy poets like Virgil and Horace, has not produced a philosopher or a first-class poet, with all the leisure he enjoyed while the Negro has been engaged in enforced labor for him. In the highest field of thought as in philosophy and the works of imagination the South presents a barren field. In the sphere of authorship usually entered by white men the Negro has already worked his way. He has already produced meritorious books on mathematics, sociology, theology, history, poetry, travels, sermons, languages, and biographies. There have been three hundred books written by Negroes.

4. Nor has the Negro's mind followed slavishly in the beaten path of imitation. He has demonstrated that he possesses also a high order of intellect by his inventive genius. The "lubricator" now being used on nearly all the railroad engines in the United States was invented by a colored man, Mr. E. McCoy, of Detroit, Michigan. Eugene Burkins, a Negro, was inventor of the Burkins' Automatic Machine Gun, concerning which Admiral Dewey said it was "by far the best machine gun ever made." Many other useful inventions in the country are credited by the Patent Office to the Negro.

5. The Negro has also demonstrated in thirty-five years his capacity for organizing, controlling, and directing great and diversified interests. Capacity to organize, maintain, and direct presupposes a high order of mind. Executive ability requires accompanying intellectual ability and not mere brilliancy. Unaided and alone the Negro has set on foot great ecclesiastical organizations which he is maintaining and developing with much credit to himself. In all these organizations, leadership to the few has been cheerfully conceded by the masses. As a church builder, with little means at his command, the Negro stands without a peer. Within the last thirty-five years of the nineteenth century the Negro has founded high schools, academies and colleges, and he is successfully supporting and managing them. If it is fair to estimate the ability and worth of men by real achievements, then it must be conceded that the foremost man for real ability throughout the entire South is a Negro, and we refer to the eminent founder and developer of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. It is unquestionable in our mind that the greatest enterprise conceived and executed by any one mind, in the entire South, during the past forty years, was that conceived in the brains of a single Negro, the child of a slave mother, that resulted in the world-renowned Tuskegee Institute. The results at Tuskegee will demonstrate that the highest order of mind in the South, as well as the most famous, is in the keeping of the Negro. The leading Presbyterian institution of learning in the South for the education of colored men is now managed successfully by Negro scholars. We refer here to Biddle University.

6. In business and politics the Negro, despite the odds arrayed against him, is succeeding reasonably well. He is constantly undertaking new business enterprises, and wherever the government or state has intrusted him with official position the intelligent Negro has discharged his public functions with credit to the government and glory for himself. Whenever failure is recorded against the Negro it is not due to his lacking the mental endowments equal to that of the white man, but because he was denied the white man's favorable past, and because a white man's opportunity is denied him. Equality of opportunities and equality before the laws should be cheerfully granted him. Criticism against him is savage and un-Christian, if these doors are closed against him.

TOPIC XVIII.

WHAT PROGRESS DID THE AMERICAN WHITE MAN MAKE, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, ALONG THE LINE OF CONCEDING TO THE NEGRO HIS RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL, AND CIVIL RIGHTS?

BY JOHN W. CROMWELL.

JOHN WESLEY CROMWELL.

John Wesley Cromwell, the twelfth child and seventh son of Willis H. and Elizabeth Carney Cromwell, was born at Portsmouth, Va., September 5, 1846. In 1851 the family moved to Philadelphia, where he entered the public schools and subsequently the Institute for Colored Youth, graduating in 1864.

He taught at Columbia, Pa., after which he established a private school in his native town. Under the auspices of Northern charitable associations he taught at Spanish Neck and Little Gunpowder in Maryland, Providence Church, Scott Farm, Charlotte County and Wytheville, Va. On the inauguration of the public school system he became principal of the Dill's Bakery School in Richmond, Va., and in the following summer taught near the scene of the Nat Turner Insurrection in Southampton County in the same State.

Mr. Cromwell took an active part in the reconstruction of Virginia, was delegate to the first State Republican Convention, did jury service in the United States Court for the term at which the case of Jefferson Davis was calendared, and was a clerk in the reconstruction Constitutional Convention. A shot, fired with deadly intent, grazed his clothing while at Spanish Neck, Md., where the church in which the school was taught was burned to the ground, and he was twice forced to face the muzzles of revolvers in Virginia, because of his work as an educator.

In 1871 he entered the law department of Howard University, graduating therefrom in 1874. In 1872, after a competitive examination, having distanced two hundred and forty applicants, he received a $1,200 appointment in the Treasury Department, in which he was twice promoted, by the same method, within twenty months. In 1885, in the early days of the Cleveland administration, he was removed as an offensive partisan, having established and conducted since 1876 "The People's Advocate," a weekly journal of more than local influence. He then began the practice of law in connection with his journalistic work. In 1889 he was tendered and he accepted a principalship of one of the grammar schools of Washington, D. C., the position he still holds.

In 1875 he was chosen at Richmond the president of the Virginia Educational and Historical Association and was four times re-elected. He has served two terms as the president of the "Bethel Literary," with which he has been officially connected for twenty years. He was one of the original members of the American Negro Academy founded by Rev. Alexander Crummell, and is its corresponding secretary.

In 1873 he was married to Miss Lucy A. McGuinn, of Richmond, Va. Six children survive of that marriage, the eldest being Miss Otelia Cromwell, the first Colored graduate (1900) of Smith College, Mass. In 1892 he married Miss Annie E. Conn, of Mechanicsburg, Pa.

In 1887 he became a member of the Metropolitan A. M. E. Church under the pastorate of Rev., now Chaplain, T. G. Steward.

Among his addresses and papers are "The Negro in Business," "The Colored Church in America," "Nat Turner, a Historical Sketch," "Benjamin Banneker," "The Negro as a Journalist," and other historical and statistical studies. The first named, published for a syndicate of metropolitan newspapers in 1886, found its way in one form or other in nearly all the representative papers of the land.

The status of the Negro at the close of the eighteenth and the opening of the nineteenth centuries was substantially the same, North and South. These well-defined geographical sections on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line were not as extensive then as now. Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee were the only states west of the Alleghanies; Florida was a foreign possession, Alabama and the region beyond were to be numbered with the United States at a subsequent period.

The colored population in 1800 was 1,001,436, free and slave, or 18.88 per cent of the entire population; 893,041 were slaves, of whom there were in round numbers 30,000 in the states of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware; 20,000 were in New York alone. In 1900 the total population is 76,303,387, with 8,840,789 persons of Negro descent, or 11.5 of the aggregate population.

The year 1800 marks the beginning of an epoch of increasing hardship for the Negro, both in church and state. It was also characterized by fierce aggressiveness by the slave power, stimulated by the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney and the impetus which it gave to the growth and importation of cotton. The acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase from France added to the possible domain of slave territory and affected the current of political action for more than half a century.

During this period the Negro was a most important figure, both in church and state, the occasion if not the cause of perplexing problems. In the field of religion and politics, especially, has his status attracted world-wide attention.

At a very early day the Methodist and Baptist churches had the largest number of colored followers in both town and city; but these as yet were not assembled in distinctive organizations. The right of the Negro, not only to govern but to direct his religious instruction, was bitterly contested, sometimes by force, at other times by law. The high-handed manner in which the ordinary rights of worship were denied the Negro led to the withdrawal of the majority of colored Methodists in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and South Carolina, and ultimately to the formation of the two denominations, the African Methodist Episcopal and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Churches, that became independent before the end of the first quarter of the last century.

As to the recognition of the right of colored Baptists to church fellowship, the white Baptists were more liberal, for we find an association of white churches recognizing the existence of a colored Baptist church at Williamsburg, in 1790.

The first colored Episcopal society was received into membership on the express condition that no delegate was to be admitted in any of the diocesan conventions.[1] As early as 1801 Rev. John Chavis, a Negro of North Carolina, was licensed by the Hanover Presbytery of Virginia as a missionary to his own people.[2] The incompatibility of an ordained minister of the same denomination being a slave was recognized in the manumission of Rev. John Gloucester, the slave of Rev. Gideon Blackburn, of Tennessee, on the organization of the first colored Presbyterian church of the country, at Philadelphia, in 1807, and the subsequent settlement of Rev. Gloucester as its pastor.[3]

That the white Baptists really manifested greater liberality in this period is obvious, because we also find Jacob Bishop, a Negro, the pastor of the First Baptist church of Portsmouth, Virginia, for a few years.[4] The church was a large and influential one, and the predecessor of Bishop, Rev. Thomas Armistead, had served with distinction as a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary War.

To-day at all the general conferences of the M. E. and M. E. South--both white--and of the A. M. E., A. M. E. Zion, and C. M. E. denominations--all colored--fraternal delegations are exchanged with all the courtesies bestowed by the two former on the two latter that should prevail among brethren. A further concession is seen in the fact of the elections of colored ministers of recognized scholarship and fitness to important secretaryships and an editorship by the powerful M. E. Church. Another illustration is the organization about thirty years ago by the M. E. Church South of its colored membership into the C. M. E. denomination and the liberal provision made by the former connection for secondary education in the Payne Institute, at Augusta, Georgia.

The Protestant Episcopal Church that forbade St. Thomas, Philadelphia, and St. Phillips, New York, to aspire to membership in diocesan conventions repealed this resolution after the breaking out of the Civil War and delegates from these and other colored parishes throughout the North and West, at least, find free admission.

Sixty years ago the application of so promising and talented a young man as Alexander Crummell to be matriculated as a student in any of the Episcopal divinity schools created a great shock in church circles, and his rejection is set forth at length in Bishop Wilberforce's History of American Episcopalianism; yet both at the New York and Philadelphia theological seminaries numerous colored clergymen, Episcopalian and others, now graduate with honor and distinction.

To-day in the House of Bishops there are two colored prelates of African descent, Rt. Rev. S. D. Ferguson, the Bishop of Africa, and the Rt. Rev. James Theodore Holly, the Bishop of Hayti; the former a native of South Carolina, the latter of the District of Columbia. Their welcome to the pulpits of many of the most exclusive Episcopal Churches and to the homes of their parishioners is in marked contrast to the greeting of the Negro by the same communion only two generations previously.

In the general assemblies of the Presbyterian Church to-day the presence of colored commissioners is no novelty, and the faculty of Biddle University, composed of colored professors, by the will of the Presbyterian Board of Education, shows what this conservative body has done in the recognition of Negro scholarship.

The conventions and associations of the Baptist Church in the South, where the bulk of the black race dwell, are still on the color line, yet there is progress towards true fraternal feeling here. Some years since "The Religious Herald," of Richmond, Virginia, the leading journal of that denomination in the South, announced among its paid contributors the name of a prominent colored divine.

It must be said, nevertheless, that during the first half of the nineteenth century the record of the white church on the Negro shows not only a temporizing, but a cowardly spirit. This was true in some respects of the Congregational Church;[5] instead of leading, the church followed the state. The anti-slavery sentiment which was unmistaken in the later years of the eighteenth century became with the growth of commercialism and national expansion, quiescent and subservient to the slave power. The right to vote, which in colonial days was generally exercised by colored freeholders, was subsequently either restricted or wholly denied. North Carolina, Maryland and Tennessee in the South, and Pennsylvania in the North, disfranchised their colored suffragists. The wave of disfranchisement then, as on the threshold of the twentieth century, dashed from one state to another. In the North repeated efforts were made to concede to the Negro his complete political and civil rights. Though the sentiment in his behalf became stronger at every trial of strength, yet with a single exception--Wisconsin--each result was decisive against the concession of the franchise to the Negro. It was only after a bloody civil war, in which thousands of lives were sacrificed and billions of treasure were expended, that the nation conceded to the Negro, first, his freedom, next his civil rights, finally his political franchise.

One hundred years ago there were but few colored schools, even in the free states, and these only in the larger towns and cities. Philadelphia was in the lead, with New York a second and Boston a third.

Connecticut, in the third decade of the nineteenth century, would not permit Prudence Crandall to maintain a school of colored girls. The means employed to break it up stands a blot on the name of the commonwealth. A resolution of the National Convention of Colored Men, held at Philadelphia, to establish a college for the education of colored youths, at New Haven occasioned both fierce excitement and bitter hostility.

Negroes could ride only on the top of the stagecoach when traveling, and Jim Crow cars prevailed on the introduction of railroads. Angry mobs were frequent. Churches and schools were the common target of attack. In the opening of the West to settlement public sentiment there against the Negroes found emphatic expression in Black Laws forbidding with heavy penalties their permanent abode in that section. These laws have only been removed in the memory of men still living. In many communities, however, these laws were a dead letter, just as to-day there are isolated localities in Indiana and Illinois, as in Georgia and Texas, where no Negro is permitted to permanently abide.

Through the Anti-Slavery and Abolition agitation, carried on by such reformers as William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass, John G. Whittier and Horace Greeley, the organizations of the colored people themselves, and their appreciation of the meager educational advantages afforded them prior to Appomattox, the sentiment of the country yielded one by one the rights and privileges of citizens, until colored members of state legislatures in more than half a dozen Northern states, delegates to city councils, a judgeship each in Massachusetts and Michigan, and state elective officers in Kansas--in none of which communities was the colored voting population of itself sufficiently numerous to elect--evidences the remarkable revolution in public opinion towards the Negro throughout the North.

In the South, since 1867, there have been more than a score of congressmen, including two senators, state legislators by the hundreds, councilmen, police officers, city and county officials without number; but nearly all of these were obtained by the numerical preponderance of the Negro rather than any liberalizing of dominant white sentiment.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. Samuel Wilberforce.

[2] History of Education in North Carolina.--United States Bureau of Education.

[3] Semi-Centenary Discourses.--Rev. William T. Catto.

[4] Rise of the Baptists.--R. B. Semple.

[5] Slavery and Anti-Slavery.--Wm. Goodell.

SECOND PAPER.

WHAT PROGRESS DID THE AMERICAN WHITE MAN MAKE, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, ALONG THE LINE OF CONCEDING TO THE NEGRO HIS RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL, AND CIVIL RIGHTS?

BY REV. J. M. COX, D. D.

JAMES MONROE COX.

James Monroe Cox was born in Chambers County, Alabama, February 26, 1860. While he was yet a boy his parents moved to Atlanta, Ga., and in the public schools of that city he received his first educational training. Having a desire to go to college and receive the best training possible for life's work, he entered Clark University. He took high rank in his studies, completing the classical course in 1884, and graduated from Gammon Theological Seminary in 1886, being the first student to receive the degree of B. D. from that institution. The year following his graduation from Gammon he was appointed teacher of ancient languages in Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Ark. In the fall of 1887 he was married to Miss Hattie W. Robinson, a young woman of culture and refinement, who after graduating from Clark University in 1885, taught two years in the public schools of Macon, Ga. They have five interesting children, and their married life has been singularly happy and helpful. After a professorship of eleven years in Philander Smith College he was appointed president of the institution. As president he has served for five years, and under his administration the school has had a strong, healthy growth, until now it numbers almost five hundred students. A much-needed addition to the main building has been completed at a cost of fourteen thousand dollars, the faculty has been increased, and through the efforts of the students he has raised some money, which forms the nucleus of a fund for a trades school. He is a member of the Little Rock conference of the M. E. Church, and has twice represented his brethren as delegate to the General Conference,--at Omaha, Neb., in 1892 and at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1896. His influence over the young people committed to his care is great, and he is striving to send out strong, well-rounded, Christian characters, and thus erect monuments more enduring than granite or marble. Last year Gammon honored him with the degree of D. D.

The very language of our subject assumes that the Negro is entitled to religious, political and civil rights, and limits our task to showing the extent these rights have been conceded to him by the American white man. In considering this, as well as other subjects that concern the race, it is well to bear in mind the fact that men make conditions and conditions also make men. The truth of this statement is strikingly demonstrated in the reactionary influence which slavery had upon the American white man. The chains that bound the Negro and made him a chattel, also fettered the mind and soul of the white man and caused him to become narrow and selfish. Lincoln's proclamation gave freedom alike to slave and master, and now the progress made by each along all lines of human development will depend upon the extent he leaves behind slavery conditions and thinks on purer and higher things. Living in the past, meditating upon the time when he was owner of men and women, the white man must still be a slaveholder. If he can not hold in subjugation human beings, he will arrogate unto himself the rights of others and use them to further his own selfish ends. The Negro also must get away from slavery conditions, if he hopes ever to be a man in the truest sense of the word and have accorded him the rights of a man. Time and growth are determining factors in what is known as the Negro problem. The white man must grow out of, and above, his prejudice, learn to measure men by their manly and Christian virtues rather than by the color of their skin and the texture of their hair. The Negro must devote himself to character-making, wealth-getting, and to the faithful performance of all duties that belong to him as a man and a citizen, for, he may only hope to receive his rights to the extent that he impresses the white man that he is worthy and deserving of them. We repeat, it will take time to accomplish these things, but when they are accomplished, rights which now the white man withholds, and which it seems he will never concede, will, like Virgil's golden branch, follow of their own accord. Viewing the subject in the light of the above stated facts, we believe that much progress was made by the American white man in the nineteenth century along the line of conceding to the Negro his religious, political, and civil rights.

In fact, the progress made in this direction stands without a parallel in the annals of history. It surpasses the most sanguine expectation of the Negro's friends, and even of the Negro himself. Although the white man is not entirely rid of his prejudice in religion and the color line is written over the entrance to many of his temples of worship, yet he recognizes the Negro as a man and a brother and accords to him religious rights and privileges. The Negro worships God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and the laws of the land protect him in this worship. He is a potent factor in all religious and reformatory movements and works side by side with his brother in white for the overthrow of vice and sin and for the hastening of the time when man and nations shall live and act in harmony with the principles of the Christian religion. He sits in the councils of the leading denominations of the country and assists in making their laws and determining their polity. He is accorded a place on the programs of the different young people's gatherings and is listened to with the same attention which other speakers receive. He bears fraternal greetings from his to white denominations, and is courteously received and royally entertained. In international assemblies and ecumenical conferences he enjoys every right and receives the same attention that others enjoy and receive.

But this progress is further evidenced by the profound interest manifested by the white man in the Negro's religious and moral development and by the strong pleas on the part of the nation's best and ablest men for the complete obliteration of the color line in religion and for dealing with the Negro as with any other man. Millions of dollars have been given for the building of churches and schools and hundreds of noble men and women have toiled and suffered that the Negro might be elevated. The bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, representing two and a half million members, said in their address to the General Conference, at Omaha, in 1892: "We have always affirmed them (the Negroes) to be our brothers of the same blood and stock of all the races which compose one common humanity. As such, we have claimed for them the same rights and privileges which belong to all other branches of the common family."

His political rights. He, who but yesterday was a slave, is now a citizen, clothed with the elective franchise. This is marvelous, and all the more so, because the ballot is a wonderful force. It is the ground element of our American civilization. In its exercise the poor man counts as much as the rich, the ignorant as much as the learned, and the black as much as the white. Indeed, the free and untrammeled use of the ballot makes its possessor a veritable sovereign and gives him power over men and their possessions. Opinion is divided as to the wisdom of giving the Negro citizenship at the time it was given him. We think no mistake was made. It came at the time the Negro needed it most. It was the weapon with which he defended himself when he had but few friends. The Negro has not been a failure in politics. The very leaders who urge our young men to let alone politics, will, on the other hand, point out Bruce, Douglass, Pinchback and others as the most worthy and conspicuous characters of the race. That a reaction has set in, and the Negro is being deprived of the ballot, should occasion no alarm and little surprise.

The grandfather clause in the different state constitutions will serve as a check to the white man's progress along educational lines, but a spur to urge us on. These seeming setbacks in the concession of political rights I count as progress, and place it to the white man's credit.

The decision of the Supreme Court at Washington against the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 has had its effect, and to-day we find the Negro more discriminated against in his civil than in any other class of rights. Then, too, the social bugbear has had much to do with this discrimination. However, progress has been made. It has been slow, of course, because of the channel (public opinion) through which it has been compelled to come. In many sections of the country the Negro enjoys the most of his civil rights. He is admitted to the hotels, theaters, and other public places, and on public conveyances he is furnished fair accommodations. We believe in the ultimate triumph of right. Let us be patient. There is a disposition on the part of the better class of white people to do the fair and just thing by the Negro. This class will continue to increase, and some day the Negro will enjoy all of his rights, and our fair country will indeed be the land of the free, as well as the home of the brave.

TOPIC XIX.

THE NEGRO AS A LABORER.

BY N. W. HARLLEE.

N. W. HARLLEE, A. M., A. B.

The subject of this sketch was born a slave in Robeson county, near Lumberton, North Carolina, July 15th, 1852. His father was a Methodist preacher who exhorted the plantation slaves, and was noted as "a natural mathematician." His mother was deeply religious.

Mr. Harllee is a self-made man, for he taught himself to read and write after being taught to spell about a third through Webster's blue-back spelling book, and with this small beginning he laid the foundation for a collegiate education and for the active work of life.

In 1881 he was elected register of deeds in Richmond county, N. C., where he had taught school for a number of years, and in 1882 was appointed United States postal clerk on the Carolina Central Railway and transferred to Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railway, which position he held till 1885. In 1879 he was graduated at the Biddle University, Charlotte, N. C., with honors. In 1885 he went to Texas and engaged in the profession of teaching, and served for a number of years as principal of the Grammar School No. 2 of Dallas, Texas. Afterward he was promoted to the principalship of the Colored High School of the Dallas City Public Schools, which position he now holds.

Professor Harllee has taken an active part in the educational work of his state, and has served as president and secretary of the Teachers' State Association of the state of Texas; he has also held the position of Superintendent of the Colored Department of the Texas State Fair for eight years, and still holds that position. He is a practical staff reporter on the Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Tex.

Mr. Harllee was married to Miss Florence Belle Coleman of Dallas, Tex., 1891, and has three children, Lucretia, Chauncey Depew and Norman W., Jr.

He is author of "Harllee's Tree of History," a new and graphic method of teaching history; also Harllee's "Simplified Long Division," a new graphic method of teaching long division; also Harllee's "Diagram System of Geography."

He has for a number of years advocated the establishment of a State University for the youth of Texas, and is also working with the Rev. W. Lomas and D. Rowens to establish an industrial school for his people at Dallas.

He is also chairman of the Y. M. C. A. board of education of Dallas, and along with Messrs. Rice, Darrell, Polk, Weems and Anderson is conducting a successful Y. M. C. A. night school for all ages and sexes.

For two hundred and fifty years the American Negro has been a drawer of water and a hewer of wood. He felled the trees and turned the forest into fields of cotton and corn; he drained the swamps and turned them into fields of rice; he graded the highways and made them possible for railroad transit and traffic. In summer he was to the white man, his owner, an umbrella; in winter, to the same owner, he was his winter wood, and always a ready servant with hand and brawn, as bread and meat and shelter.

The question of labor is one of bread and meat. To the bread-winner it means much; to the unemployed it often lends a charm for crime; for after all, the unemployed needs food, clothing, medicine, a shelter and employment alike for body and mind.

But the subject of labor is not a new one, and, indeed, it has been made a question of many complex phases introduced by prejudice from white trade unions. Also, climate makes an important factor, hence the different sections of our country employ to a large extent different kinds of labor, suited to the prevailing industries, thrift and enterprises.

We may consider at once the two general classes of labor, the crude and the skilled. For generations the black man, as a crude laborer, raised "King Cotton" in the cottonfields of the South. He has had no competition as a crude laborer; he still holds a trust on the fleecy staple; his right there is none to dispute.

But to-day a new and brighter era opens before us. We are to manufacture cotton as well as raise it. We are to advance and keep pace with the mental training of our children and provide employment for them in every avenue. As the Turk weaves his carpet and darns his shawl and as the Chinese prepares his silk, so the black youth must be trained to change cotton into cloth.

Trained hands and trained minds are inseparable companions. If we educate our boys and girls, we create in them a desire, we thrust upon them a stimulus which pushes them out into the active world, and, if only with polished brain and soft hands, they wander from place to place seeking the shady side of active, stern reality.

Since we, by educating our boys and girls, create new appetites, new desires, new activities, we set in motion new forces; then we ought the more to create new enterprises, open new avenues, establish new business or improve the old so as to meet the new relations, the awakened appetites, the growing activities and the employment of the new forces in the culture of cotton and the establishment of cotton mills.

We commit a crime by creating appetites and then failing to appease them.

The education of our children should no longer be a mere theory, but a matter of real practical nature, such as will benefit the bread-winner, the home-seeker, the higher citizenship, the welfare of the greatest number.

While I favor the higher education of the youth of the nation, I also think the youth ought to learn trades, to wear the overalls at the forge, at the work-bench, to adjust the machinery in the work-shop and the factory. I would have the youth able to design and build a house as well as to live in one, to raise potatoes as well as to eat them, to produce as well as consume. For many years the great majority of the youth must be common laborers, whatever their education, whatever their social condition or station; then it follows as the day follows the night that they should be educated with the trend of the mind and in connection with environment.

In the days of slavery many of our young men and women were trained along certain lines; the young men such as skilled carpenters, blacksmiths, stone masons, bricklayers, and the like, and the young women were trained in dressmaking and the like, and these boys and girls grew up having a kind of monopoly in their respective lines, although controlled by their owners. But for a quarter of a century very little attention has been paid to trade learning in many sections of the South.

This condition confronts us to-day; however, it is claimed that it is no fault of the children that they do not learn trades, and it is further urged by many parents that the blame does not lie at their hands; but that it is the fault of the times, of conditions and circumstances; and still others claim that the trade unions are the main cause. Many claim that, if their children are trained along certain lines, they will be debarred by the opposition of the trade unions. But these excuses seem too trivial. The opposition of the labor organizations should urge greater activity in superior trade learning in every pursuit, so that when the white striker walks out of the shops the black man, skilled, trusted and tried, should walk in and demonstrate his ability to do better and more work than the outgoing striker.

We are to take no steps backward in industrial and intellectual progress in the opening days in the dawn of the new century. A thinking people is a prosperous people. We are to be measured by what we can accomplish, not by the color of the skin, the texture of the hair, the color of the eye or the contour of the head. But we are to be measured as skilled farmers, mechanics, printers, artists and scholars.

This age demands substantial progress in every department of industry, in the home, at the fireside, in the shop and on the farm. To labor with skill, to facilitate and hasten its benign results with trained hands and cultivated brain, must ever be the fiery incentive of our people, in order that they may keep abreast of the times in all practical operations as skilled laborers, and, as such, vindicate their usefulness as citizens.

As laborers and citizens, the black face must stand for integrity in the community, the emblem of sterling worth, the black diamond intrinsic in value.

The time has come when one person ceases to employ another because he is of color, but he employs the one who can give more than value received. The race needs to bring the hand and the head nearer together.

The boy who has completed a college education should, in the course of time, raise more corn to the acre, if he be a farmer, than his uneducated father; for his knowledge of geology should better fit him to know the condition and nature of the soil; if a mechanic, his knowledge of geometry and of physics should enable him to be an adept.

The question of labor during the last few years has become, in many respects, intensely sectional. North of Mason and Dixon's line, the color of the skin has to do with the employment of the colored man along certain lines of skilled labor. While this is true in the South, the prejudice is not so rank as in the North, except where the colored laborer comes in contact with the Yankee or the foreigner.

SECOND PAPER.

THE NEGRO AS A LABORER.

BY PROF. R. G. ROBINSON, B. L.

PROF. R. G. ROBINSON.

Prof. R. G. Robinson, B. L., the subject of our sketch, was born in Hamilton, Bermuda Islands, B. W. I., February 16, 1873. In pursuit of education he came to the United States at the early age of eleven, going directly to New Hampshire. In the fall of '85 he entered Dow Academy in Franconia, N. H. By economy and thrift he maintained himself in this institution for eight years, graduating in 1893, second in his class. During this course he was several times elected president of the Autonomation Literary Society. His conduct and standing was very tersely stated by one of his professors, when he said that "he was courteous and obliging under all circumstances, clear and logical in his deductions and conscientious as a Christian."

He immediately entered Dartmouth College in the class of '97. During his college course he was prominent in athletics, at the same time holding a good position in his class. Despite the fact he was one of the two colored men in a class of a hundred and twenty-eight, yet at the close of Freshman year he was unanimously elected class auditor for the ensuing year. He was a charter member of the Ruskin Society, a society for the cultivation of the histrionic art in Dartmouth College. In 1897 Dartmouth gave him the degree of Bachelor of Letters. Says President Tucker of Dartmouth: "He is a man of clear and earnest purpose, possessing tact and good executive ability."

After graduation he was elected to the chair of English language and literature in the Tuskegee Institute, but resigned at the close of the year and was elected principal of one of the city schools of Montgomery, Ala., which position he held until elected by the Freedmen's Aid and Southern Educational Society as principal of the La Grange Academy, La Grange, Ga.

In 1899 he was married to Lily Belle, the daughter of Wm. Hill, the wealthy truck gardener of Montgomery. Mrs. Robinson is a graduate of the A. & M. College at Normal, Alabama. They have a son, Mason Francis.

Prof. Robinson has a brother who is a member of the Boston Bar. He graduated from Dow Academy in Franconia, N. H., in 1893; attended Oberlin College and received the degree of LL. B. from Boston University. In 1898 he was a member of the Boston Common Council.

So artful is nature that she does not permit man to break one of her laws for his pleasure without a sacrifice on his part; that for every action there is a corresponding reaction; and so the laws of compensation hold good in the dealings of man with man, races with races, and nations with nations. Slavery, as ignominious as it was, had a dual effect. The master race, forming what might be termed a landed aristocracy, looked upon manual labor as degrading; while it of necessity became the natural sphere of the weaker. Thus the spirit of work became engrafted into the very being of the Negro. This is the path all races have trod.

The basis of the South's industrial system was Negro labor; and although the Emancipation Proclamation changed the whole structure from a base of slave labor to that of free labor, nevertheless the Negro remained virtually in the same position, but with enlarged opportunities. This was a legacy greater than the ballot, for it is vastly more important to a man to be able to earn an honest living than to be privileged to cast a ballot, and doubly so if the element of doubt as to its being counted enters into the privilege. It was a cruel change from that of an irresponsible creature to that of a man clothed with the responsibility of self-support and of American citizenship--a change that would have staggered any race, but the Negro has acted nobly his part.

To say that the Negro is a valuable citizen, and a necessity in the development of the South, is to put it mildly. It can best be appreciated when we remember that since the war the Negro has earned seventy-five billions of dollars, and out of this vast amount he has saved the pitiful sum of five hundred millions; thus contributing to the wealth of the South seventy-four billions and a half of dollars. It is estimated that four-fifths of the labor done in the South is done by the Negro. The theory advanced by those who claim themselves to be immunes from that dreaded disease of Negrophobia is, that the industrial education of the Negro will inevitably inspire a similar movement for the industrial training of the poor whites, and the resultant competition means a further complication of the race problem, which will only be solved by the ultimate separation of the races. This theory is as unique as it is original, and bids fair to revolutionize the laws of economics. But to the contrary the laws of trade and labor are as imperious as all the enactments of necessity. The South is fast regaining her lost treasures and bids fair to become not only an agricultural section, but with her wonderful oil and mineral resources to be the rival of the North. Coupled with her wonderful resources is the free Negro labor, which is the cheapest in the world outside of Asia, and will not only be in demand but will ultimately enter into all industries, driving all before it. It is a certainty that capital will inevitably seek and secure the cheapest labor. Besides cheapness, other qualifications have made, and will continue to make, him indispensable to the South's development and make him far superior to the foreign element for which a few seem to clamor.

Coming out of slavery ignorant, irresponsible, no name, no home, no "mule," there is no better way to measure the influence of Christian education than by the increased ability to earn, to save and to wisely invest money. The spirit of home-getting and the eagerness for education are very hopeful signs. We proudly quote from a lengthy editorial in a recent issue of the Atlanta Constitution: "The building up of wealth follows a sharpening of intellect. If the untutored colored man of the past quarter of a century could amass nearly a half a billion of dollars, why may not the educated Negro, during the next quarter of a century, quadruple the amount?"

As a skilled laborer it will take time for the race to make a mark, because here he will meet with sharper competition. This is the opportunity of the industrial school. The lack of sufficient numbers of skilled colored mechanics and because of the existence of prejudice, the employer shows timidity in attempting to supplant white labor with Negro labor. This fear will decrease as the supply increases. We indorse industrial training for the masses, but as efficient as it is, it is not sufficient. The tendency of these schools is to make the training of the hand of primary importance and that of the brain secondary. This might suffice for a while, but in this age of progress, of invention, when the genius of the age seems to have directed all its power to the invention of labor-saving machines, the demand for brainy mechanics is increasing so rapidly that the industrial school of to-day will wake up to-morrow only to find itself behind the times.

The Northern section of our country, with its large manufacturing interests and the constant demand for skilled labor, has encouraged the combining of labor into trades unions as a means of protection against the encroachments of capital. Because of the social side of these organizations the Negro has been debarred, with some exceptions. The unions will operate against him just as long as the interests of the unions are not in jeopardy and the supply of skilled colored mechanics is insufficient. But in the South, where Negro labor is plenty and agriculture is the chief occupation, the Negro will always have a practical monopoly, and his opportunities in all the trades in the North, as well as in the South, will increase in proportion as he becomes an educated, thrifty, law-abiding land-owner. The time has come when the Negro can no longer afford to play upon the sympathies of his friends, but as a man among men he must be pre-eminently fitted for his place; fitted in intellect, in the knowledge of his craft and in sobriety.

As a common laborer the Negro in his ignorance has had to battle against great odds. Too often his employer, who built the courts, run them and owns them, but who made the Negro shoulder the expense, feeling that he has the right of way and in his eagerness to get something for nothing, has forced the Negro through necessity to do the very thing for which he condemns him. Despite these great odds, industry and uprightness in any man, be he white or black, makes him a valuable member of any community.

THIRD PAPER.

THE NEGRO AS A LABORER.

BY MISS LENA T. JACKSON.

LENA TERRELL JACKSON, M. A.

Lena Terrell Jackson was born December 25, 1865, in Gallatin, Sumner County, Tenn. Her father died in her early childhood; hence the responsibility of her support and education fell upon her mother.

This mother determined to give her daughter the advantage of a good education. Accordingly at the age of seven years the daughter was placed in a private school and remained there until the autumn of 1876, when, having finished the course of study in the private school, she was entered as a pupil in the Belle View City School and remained there three consecutive years.

She completed the course of study in the Nashville City Schools in June, 1879. In September, 1879, she entered the Middle Preparatory Class of Fisk University and remained at Fisk six years, graduating from the Collegiate Department in 1885.

During the six years spent at Fisk she taught school during the summer months in the rural districts and with the money thus earned helped to support her mother and maintain herself in school. She also assisted her mother in her family work after school hours.

After graduation, in 1885, she was elected as a teacher in the Nashville Public Schools, having resigned two similar positions, the one at Birmingham, Ala., and the other at Chattanooga, Tenn., to accept the Nashville appointment.

In 1894 she was assigned to the Junior Grade in the colored High School and two years later to the Chair of Latin in the High School, which position she is still filling.

Following out the principles of economy that are so thoroughly inculcated in the minds of Fisk students, her first thought after completing her course of study was turned towards the acquisition of real estate and the purchase of a home for her mother, who through so many struggles and sacrifices had made it possible for her to obtain a college education.

Her hopes in this direction have been realized to some extent; and she has secured not only a home, but considerable other real estate.

The wide scope of this subject, and the limited time given for research, together with the absence of statistics, make it impossible at this time to present more than a brief sketch. I propose to continue my research and investigation and at some later date to present the subject in a very much enlarged form, giving the condition of the Negro as a laborer in all the leading cities of the United States. In the present sketch mention will be made of only a few cities.

The Southern cities, with their stately residences and business houses that were constructed in ante-bellum days, bear emphatic testimony to the skill of the Negro in the mechanic arts. All of the labor of the South at that time was done almost exclusively by the Negro. Plantation owners trained their own blacksmiths, wheelwrights, painters and carpenters. The Negro was seen as a foreman on many Southern plantations during ante-bellum days. Education has greatly improved his ability to labor, and to-day in every vocation he is found as a laborer, competing successfully with other laborers. Notwithstanding the fact that prejudice and labor organizations are arrayed against him, the character of his work is such, and his disposition as a laborer such, that his services will always be in great demand.

Negro laborers are given employment on large buildings alongside of white laborers, and generally give entire satisfaction. In the city of Nashville, Tenn., during the present year, in the construction of the Polk Flats, two Negro laborers were employed with a number of white laborers; a strong pressure was brought to bear upon the foreman to displace the two Negro laborers and fill their places with white men. The request was promptly denied. This is conclusive proof that had the character of the Negroes' work not been eminently satisfactory the reverse would have been the result.

The Negro is found in all the occupations that are characteristic of a progressive people, namely, barbers, blacksmiths, brick and stone masons, carpenters, coachmen, domestic servants, firemen, farm laborers, mail carriers, merchants (grocers), millers, shoemakers and repairers, waiters, nurses, seamstresses, housewives, washerwomen and milliners.

Trades and Industries.--As stone and brick masons the wages range from $2 to $3 per day. Huntsville, Ala., has a brickyard that is owned and controlled by Negroes. This firm secures the contract for a large number of houses in Huntsville and the adjoining towns.

There is a town in the northern part of Virginia in which the entire brickmaking business is in the hands of a colored man, a freedman, who bought his own and his family's freedom, purchased his master's estate, and eventually hired his master to work for him. He owns a thousand acres or more of land and considerable town property. In his brickyard he hires about fifteen hands, mostly boys from sixteen to twenty years of age, and runs five or six months a year, making from 200,000 to 300,000 brick. Probably over one-half the brick houses of the place are built of brick made in his establishment, and he has repeatedly driven white competitors out of business.

As firemen the Negro has shown himself courageous and faithful to his trust. During a great fire in Nashville, Tenn., a few years ago, it was conceded by all that the progress of a disastrous fire was checked and much valuable property saved by the heroic efforts of the colored fire company. Unfortunately, however, the captain of the company and two of his comrades were sacrificed. In all the large cities colored fire companies are to be found, and in every case they are making a good record.

In some sections of Texas and Mississippi Negro plantation owners are often found.

Just after the close of the war the highest ambition of the Negro was the ministry. But there has been a remarkable change in that direction and Negroes are now found in all the professions. The Negro physician has made an enviable record. One of the leading surgeons in the West is a colored physician. He is the founder of a large hospital in a western town, and is also surgeon-in-chief of one of the largest hospitals in the country. The Negro has also gained some distinction at the bar. A large number of Negroes are teachers, and an increasing number of these are young women.

Clerical Work.--Negroes are given employment as clerks in the government service at Washington, D. C. There is a large number of railway-mail clerks, with salaries ranging from one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars a year. Nashville, Tenn., has three mail clerks who have held their respective routes for more than ten years.

Common Laborers.--This class includes porters, janitors, teamsters, laborers in foundries and factories. The usual wages paid for this class of work is $1 a day.

The barbering and restaurant businesses, toward which the Negro naturally turned just after emancipation, for which their training as home servants seemed especially to fit them, are not so largely followed now owing to the fact that the best talent of the race have entered the professions. Yet, however, in some places the Negro restaurant keeper does a thriving business. In Chicago, Illinois, there were two fine up to date restaurants which did a good business. One of these employed white help exclusively.

The Negro blacksmiths and wheelwrights do a good business, sometimes taking in from $5 to $8 a day.

As shoemakers and repairers, and furniture repairers and silversmiths, the Negro is successful, and is kept busy. In painting there is a colored contractor in Nashville who does business on a large scale. He is proprietor of his own shop, employs a large number of men, and secures the contract for a large number of fine dwellings. His patronage is confined mostly to white people.

Nashville has a steam laundry owned and operated entirely by colored men, and it has a large white patronage. In the rural districts most of the Negroes devote themselves to farming, either working on the farms of others or are themselves proprietors of farms.

Domestic Service.--In this field of labor both men and women are found. The average wages paid the men is $15 a month and board. The women receive from $5 to $12 a month, according to age and work. In addition to their wages they also receive lodging, cast-off clothes, and are trained in matters of household economy and taste. At present there is considerable dissatisfaction and discussion over the state of domestic service. Many Negroes often look upon menial labor as degrading and only enter it from utter necessity, and then as a temporary make-shift. This state of affairs is annoying to employers who find an increasing number of careless and impudent young people who neglect their work, and in some cases show vicious tendencies.

The low schedule for such work is due to two causes: One is, that from custom many Southern families hire help for which they cannot afford to pay much; another reason is that they do not consider the service rendered worth any more. This may not be the open conscious thought of the better elements of such laborers, but it is the unconscious tendency of the present situation, which makes one species of honorable and necessary labor difficult to buy or sell without loss of self-respect on one side or the other.

Day Service.--A large number of single women and housewives work out regularly in families, or take washing into their homes; and, like house servants, are paid by the week, or if they work by the day from 30 to 50 cents a day. This absence of mothers from home not only occasions a neglect of their household duties but also of their children, especially of girls. Aside from house servants and washerwomen, many of the women are seamstresses and readily find employment in white families. Some do a remunerative business in their own homes. The Negro woman is especially successful as a trained nurse, and a considerable number of the brightest and most intelligent among the young women are entering upon that calling. Conclusion.--The closing years of the nineteenth century indicate remarkable advancement on the part of the Negro in all industrial lines; but the twentieth century will doubtless furnish opportunities which will enable him to carry these beginnings to their legitimate fruition.

TOPIC XX.

THE NEGRO AS A CHRISTIAN.

BY REV. WILLIAM E. PARTEE, D. D.

WILLIAM E. PARTEE, D. D.

Rev. William E. Partee, D. D., was born at Concord, N. C., of Christian parents in the year 1860 and at an early age placed in the common schools of his native town. He was left an orphan at the age of ten, but by determination and the help of friends he gained an education. When but sixteen years of age he taught a country school. He was graduated from the collegiate and theological departments of Biddle University and was licensed to preach in 1883 and ordained in 1884 by the Presbytery of Catawba and entered upon his life work by serving as pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church at Concord, N. C., for more than three years, among his early playmates and companions.

In the year 1887 he took charge of a mission church and school at Gainesville, Fla., serving acceptably in that work for more than four years and standing faithfully by his people during that memorable epidemic of yellow fever in 1888. In 1892 he was called to the pastorate of Laura Street Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Fla., which position he occupied for nearly seven years. During two years of that time he was also principal of one of the city graded schools. In 1896 he was sent as commissioner from the Presbytery of East Florida to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Saratoga.

In 1898 he resigned from his work in Jacksonville to take charge of the First Presbyterian Church of Richmond, Va. Thus he has been engaged for many years in the active work of the ministry, always doing earnest and faithful work and held in high esteem by the people of every community in which he has labored.

He was married in 1886 to Miss Edith I. Smith, of Lynchburg, Va., who proved a worthy and efficient helper in his work, and uncomplainingly shared with him the trials and vicissitudes which fall to the preacher's lot in life for fourteen years. Then the Master called her to rest from her labors.

To form a correct estimate of the Negro as a Christian we must take into account the "depths from which he came."

Back of his forty years of freedom lie more than two hundred years of bondage, in which he was forced to obey the will of another absolutely and kept in ignorance. All real manhood was repressed and every ambition curbed. Though under the control of the Christian Church and people of the South, and living on the farms and in the homes and families of their masters, mingling in their lives and their society, and subject to their moulding influence, yet, as a rule, the moral principles and qualities necessary to a religious life were not taught him, neither was he encouraged to cultivate them.

There was no lawful marriage, no true home, but husband and wife were the property of a master who used or abused either as he chose; their children grew up under the same conditions and were encouraged or forced into unchastity, lying, stealing and betraying of one another under the teaching that there was no moral wrong to them since they were the property of another who was responsible for their acts. There could be no growth in morals, and there can be no true religion without morals. To say the least they came out of bondage with a dwarfed moral nature, and to this day suffer more or less from the effects of it. The carnality of slavery has not yet ceased to bear fruit, as we all know. Ever and anon it shows itself in those horrible acts which the newspapers report in full.

It takes long and weary years to root out of a race or nation evils that have become fixed in its nature. But while there is much to be deplored as to laxity in morals among the masses there has been constant and steady improvement in this regard. It is no doubt true that any race, kept in bondage under similar conditions, and for the same length of time as the Negro was, would come out of it in no better condition, and would, perhaps, show no better record in forty years than this race has shown, and especially so if that bondage were preceded by heathenism.

Dr. Haygood has said, "The hope of the African race in this country is largely in its pulpit. No people can rise above their religion; no people's religion can rise above the doctrines preached and lived by their ministry."

The Negro began almost unaided and alone in this particular. As to their religion they were very largely left to themselves during slavery. Their ministers were ignorant and unlettered. Many of them were pious, but many were ungodly and unscrupulous. So theirs was a religion largely without the Bible. It consisted of bits of Scripture here and there, of glowing imaginations, of dreams and of superstitions; yet it was the best they knew.

Then many years of freedom had passed by before fully equipped ministers could be provided them. During those years faithful servants of God, unlettered, did their best to be the true religious leaders of the people (all honor to them), but they necessarily came short in many respects and could not carry the people up to the higher plane of religious life.

With these things before our minds we say that the race has shown a remarkable growth in the essentials of true Christian manhood. Their notions may, in some things, be crude; their conceptions of truth may be realistic; they may be more emotional than ethical; they may show many imperfections in their religious development; nevertheless is it true that their religion is their most striking formative characteristic. So susceptible are they that no other influence has had so much to do in shaping their better character, and what they are to become in their future development will be largely determined by their religion.

While in their church and social life there are some elements of evil and superstition, some of which are the inheritance of past ages in the fatherland, while others have been developed in this country by the conditions of life during the years of slavery, still any fairminded person who takes the pains to correctly inform himself will acknowledge that these are being gradually but surely eradicated.

As a Christian he commends himself in his faith and devotion. Though his religion may sometimes be defective in its practical application to the principles of right conduct and living, God, heaven, hell and the judgment day are realities to him. He believes the truths of the Bible to be real, and thus he is sound in the faith so far as he understands it, and that is more than can be said of many who are better informed than he. What a rare thing to find one an infidel! Where can you find a people more susceptible to religious teaching?

The emotional nature is highly developed, and they are quick to respond to whatever appeals to their sympathies and affections. Emotion has its place in religion and is not to be ignored, but to be properly used and controlled and directed. To move any one we must first reach the feelings; if these can be aroused they may develop into a conviction that the subject of them should adopt a given course of action, and he accordingly does so. I am not sure after all that we should seek to repress such to any great extent. It may be a point in his favor, for since he is easily and powerfully impressed by strong appeals, he is the more readily brought under the influence of the wise teacher or leader. It is true in some cases that mere physical excitement is mistaken for being "filled with the spirit," and thus some swing to the extreme in this direction. It is noticeable, however, that this is being rapidly outgrown and more self-control is being practiced. After all it does seem that being easily moved and swayed may furnish the lever by which the wise and prudent may begin to lift them to the higher ground of religious life. No doubt in most cases there is deep down beneath the easily overwrought feelings a true religious disposition, with much spirituality and divine energy.

Benevolence is rightly regarded as an important matter in Christian living. In proportion to his means the Negro excels in this. Hundreds of churches, and many schools and colleges have been built out of their poverty. To sum up and place on record their gifts for the extension of Christ's kingdom would perhaps show to the world an unequalled record of self-sacrifice and devotion to a cause. Show that a cause is a worthy one and they are ready to give according to their ability to help that cause. To give help to ministers of the gospel and other Christian workers is not only regarded as a duty but as an honor and a pleasure. On the whole they are kind at heart, generous to the distressed, obliging and considerate. Love to friends and forgiveness of enemies are marked characteristics.

The statement has been often made that loose notions as to morals are held. To some extent this may be true. Let us bear in mind that the large majority are poor and are common laborers, and more than half the race are illiterate. Compare them with this class of any race in this or any other country and I dare say they will suffer but little by the comparison. Some have made much of the fact that in many places whole families by necessity live in one or two-room cabins. While this is unfortunate and to be regretted, it is nevertheless true that you can find even in such conditions in the majority of instances that purity and virtue are as much respected as among those who live in roomy homes where every privacy is afforded. They are not any worse, certainly, and, perhaps, are better in this respect than the multitudes of other races who live in the cellars and attics of crowded tenements in our great cities.

Let us not make the mistake of including all in one general class, and that the worst, but while acknowledging that there is great room for improvement, let us recognize in the vast mass of multitude who, in education, morals and religion, are the equals of any people.

The correspondence between the profession of the heart and the outward life is often not what it should be, but is not that true also of many Christians of any race? There are Christians of highest education who enjoy abundant and varied opportunities of enlightenment and culture who fail to show in all their outward life what they profess in their heart to be. Some do fall into the error of trying to separate between the religion of the heart and that of the life, but generally they are learning the better way. Where so large a percentage of the people cannot read and write, how can you expect of them the highest degree of moral and religious life? Taking into account the disadvantages and limitations under which they labor, you rather wonder that they have reached so high as they have in Christian living. We must consider the past history of the race, its present disadvantages, environment and opportunity, if we would justly estimate its Christianity. We must base our judgment upon the developed Negro if we would be fair. Education helps us to be better Christians just as it helps others and, and as we get more knowledge of Bible truths such as education can give us we will be better Christians. Educated ministers are fast displacing the uneducated, and those whose moral and Christian character fall below the standard are being crowded out, and schools and colleges are sending out every year hundreds of educated Christian men and women who raise the standard of right living in any community where their lot is cast.

The material prosperity of the Negro may be placed in evidence as to his Christianity. With all the odds against them and starting up from absolute poverty, the race now owns farms, homes, schools, churches, bank accounts and personal property amounting to five hundred and fifty million dollars. It is remarkable that this has been acquired in forty years. God's word teaches that nations prosper in material things as they get close to God.

Thus looking upon the brighter side we are led to commend in many things the Christianity of the Negro race and to believe that as a people higher ground is aimed at. Though yet a long way off from perfection, yet ever onward and upward are they tending.

SECOND PAPER.

THE NEGRO AS A CHRISTIAN.

BY REV. L. B. ELLERSON, A. B., A. M.

REV. L. B. ELLERSON.

Rev. L. B. Ellerson, A. M., was born at Cheraw, S. C., in 1869. Mr. Ellerson's father having died when the son was but an infant, Mr. Ellerson was left to be reared under the fostering care of his mother alone. He spent his youthful days in the public schools of his native town until he was sixteen years old. At that time he was happily converted to Christ and received the impressions that he was called to the gospel ministry. At the same time he united with the Presbyterian Church. In 1886, Mr. Ellerson entered Biddle University at Charlotte, N. C., to pursue such a course as would prepare him for the ministry. He remained at Biddle University until 1893, when he graduated from the classical course with honor, taking the Philosophical Oration. In '92 Mr. Ellerson was the successful contestant for the medal given by the Alumni to the Junior Class. During his course at Biddle, Mr. Ellerson spent his summer vacations, teaching in the district schools of North and South Carolina. In June, 1893, Mr. Ellerson was employed to do missionary work near Asheville, N. C. He continued in this work until September, 1893, at which time he entered the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church at Princeton, N. J., for the purpose of completing his course for the ministry. During the first two years of his course of Theology at Princeton he continued to come South in summer and engage in teaching during vacations. He graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1896. He and two others being the only colored students in a class of sixty-nine young men. Besides keeping up the studies of the last year, Mr. Ellerson supplied the pulpit of Dwight's Chapel at Englewood, New Jersey. Here he remained until September, 1896, when he came to South Carolina and was ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry by the Fairfield Presbytery, the same Presbytery having licensed him the preceding year.

During Rev. Ellerson's course at Princeton he was at one time engaged to supply the pulpit of Siloam Presbyterian Church at Elizabeth, N. J. At another time he was employed to assist the Rev. H. G. Miller, pastor of Mt. Taber Presbyterian Church, in New York City, during the illness of the pastor. Upon his ordination by Fairfield Presbytery in 1896, Rev. Ellerson was placed in charge of the church and school work at Manning, S. C. Here he worked very successfully preaching and teaching until November, 1898, when he was called to the pastorate of Berean Presbyterian Church at Beaufort, S. C. At the same time he was made principal of Harbison Institute. Rev. Ellerson labored with a marked degree of success on the Beaufort field from November, 1898 to April, 1901, when he was urged to accept a call from the Laura Street Presbyterian Church at Jacksonville, Fla., where he is at present prosecuting the work of his church with success. For a young man of his age, Rev. Ellerson evidently stands high in the estimation of his fellow Presbyters. This is evinced by the fact that he has already filled some of the highest offices in the gift of his brethren. In 1898 he was unanimously chosen moderator of Fairfield Presbytery at Camden, S. C. In 1899 he was made the choice of Atlantic Synod for moderator at Columbia, S. C., and in 1900 he was unanimously elected to represent the Presbytery of Atlantic in the General Assembly which met in St. Louis, Mo.

He has filled each of these offices with credit and ability. The degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Biddle University, his Alma Mater in 1900.

If it is true that man is naturally a religious being, then it is pre-eminently true in the case of the Negro. If the Negro is anything at all he is religious. It matters not in what walk of life you find him or what may be his personal or individual character, it is a very rare case indeed when you find a Negro who indulges in doubt as to the existence of a supreme being or the existence of a future state of rewards and punishments. With him these are fixed points of belief. But as much as may be justly said regarding the Negro's natural piety, it must be observed and admitted by all who know the Negro best that his religion is very much defective in its practical application to the principles of right conduct and living. And this, we perceive, is the main point at issue, for when we discuss the Negro as a Christian we must of necessity feel called upon to distinguish between his native piety and his applied Christianity. We wish it understood, too, that the general observations made here refer to the masses of Negroes rather than to the individual.

We unhesitatingly affirm that individuals of our race have risen to as true and as high a Christian status as has mankind anywhere. And although we know and confess that the masses of our race have not yet come up to the genuine standard of the New Testament Christianity--even in apprehension--yet it must be observed that their religion contains many features that are highly commendable. Chief among these features are, first, his simple, child-like, unwavering faith in God. Nor can this condition be wholly attributed to ignorance or thoughtlessness, as some might hold; for, indeed, we have produced some men of as rare ability as move among the human throng; yet it is almost as difficult to find an atheist, an agnostic, or an infidel of any sort among us as it is to find a "needle in a haystack." The Negro believes in the God of the Bible.

Second. Because the Negro is naturally emotional he is usually earnest and fervent in the exercise of his religious worship, as far as that goes. He likes the strong, passionate appeal which for the time being, at least, tickles him into laughter or moves him to tears and sweeps him off his feet in its flight. The earnestness and fervency are all right but too often these run to the extreme and so constitute by far too large a portion of his Christianity.

Third. Again, the Negro's religion is characterized by benevolence. I believe that history has no record of a people who, out of their want and poverty, have given so much to benevolent causes as have the Negroes in this country. Is it not wonderful to reckon the millions of dollars that have been given by us for erecting and maintaining church edifices, schools and other benevolent institutions since emancipation? It is perfectly safe to affirm that no people have exceeded us along this line. But with all of these good things that can be justly said to the credit of our religion, the fair-minded must still admit that when we come to the daily application of the principles and practices of Bible Christianity we are lacking. If this be true, there is a cause. What is it? We believe that the cause was stated in part when we referred to the natural emotional element in our makeup. That element too often causes us to run off with the sentiment, having left the substance behind. Another cause, and, perhaps the main one, is to be found doubtless in the same way in which we find the causes of defects in our race along other lines, i. e., from defective leadership and instruction along this particular line. We would be understood. The crying need of our race to-day is and has been a competent ministry to lead and instruct the masses in the application of the principles of right life and conduct from the standpoint of Bible Christianity. To-day the church, especially in our race, is the center of both our social and Christian life. Like priests, like people. All honor to the pioneers who did their best in their circumstances and who served well their day and generation. But this is another age; this, a brighter day--one that demands improvement along all lines, and especially in the pulpit of my race. The pew is advancing, hence the pulpit had better push on. The key to the situation, then, is nothing more nor less than a more consecrated and intelligent Christian ministry for our race throughout the length and breadth of this land. And we are hopeful; for the "signs of the times" portend the coming of better things. Already bright streaks of gray high up upon the eastern horizon herald the dawn of a new and brighter day. Every branch of the Christian church in our race is putting forth strenuous efforts to supply the pulpits of the race with competent ministers. Let this glorious day be hastened and soon Ethiopia will stretch out her hands to God.

THIRD PAPER.

THE NEGRO AS A CHRISTIAN.

BY REV. WALTER H. BROOKS, D. D.

REV. WALTER H. BROOKS, D. D.

Rev. Walter H. Brooks, D. D., has a very unusual and interesting history. He was born a slave in Richmond, Va., August 30, 1851, his parents belonging to different masters. In 1859 his mother's master died, and arrangements were made to sell her and her six children, she being allowed to select a purchaser if she could find one. Through a white friend his father bought Dr. Brooks' mother, together with two of the youngest children. Walter H. Brooks and an elder brother were bought by a large tobacco manufacturing firm in Richmond. In 1861 the breaking out of the war affected the tobacco trade, and many of the tobacconists were obliged to sell or hire out their slaves. Walter and his brother David were hired by their mother, who, each quarter of the year, managed to pay the amount agreed upon. For the next three years both of the boys worked, thereby aiding their mother in paying their hire. After the war Walter H. Brooks, for a short time, attended a primary school in Richmond, taught by a young lady from the North.

In October, 1866, he had received one year's instruction when he went to Lincoln University, Chester County, Pa. He remained there seven years, graduating in 1872, and then entered a theological class for one year. During the second year of his seminary life he was converted and became an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He expected to become a Presbyterian preacher, but in 1873 his ideas having made him a subject to baptism, he joined the First African Baptist Church of Richmond, Va.

For a short time he was a clerk in the postoffice at Richmond, Va., but in 1874, having resigned his position, he entered the service of the American Baptist Publication Society in the State of Virginia. Having been ordained in December, 1876, in April, 1877, he accepted the pastorship of the Second Baptist Church of Richmond, Va., where he succeeded in paying off the entire debt of the church. In June, 1880, he was sent as a delegate for the Virginia Baptist State Convention to the Baptist General Association in session at Petersburg, and he was the first Colored delegate received by that body. In September, 1880, he resigned the charge of the church and went to New Orleans, La., to commence work in the American Baptist Publication Society's employ, but his wife's failing health caused him to return to Virginia in 1882.

In November, 1882, he was called to the pastorship of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church of Washington, D. C., where he has been ever since.

Roger Williams University, Nashville, Tenn., and State University, Louisville, Ky., both honored him with the title of Doctor of Divinity; while his alma mater, in June, 1883, conferred upon him the degree of M. A.

Recently he was elected a trustee of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, to represent the Colored Baptists of the world.

Dr. Brooks has distinguished himself as a temperance advocate, and for a number of years has been the Chaplain of the Anti-Saloon League of the District of Columbia.

His article, printed some years since in the "National Baptist" of Philadelphia, Pa., on "George Liele, the Black Apostle," and his more recent paper on the "Beginnings of Negro Churches in America," have won for him many praises.

For twenty-eight years Dr. Brooks has been in public life, and his power as a speaker still gives him a commanding influence in the pulpit and on the platform.

Dr. Brooks married Miss Eva Holmes, of the family of Rev. James H. Holmes, of Richmond, Va., and this union resulted in the birth of ten children--eight of whom are living, four boys and four girls--the oldest born being 27 years of age, the youngest four years.

The Christian religion is eminently adapted to the wants of humanity. It has always had a charm for lowly and oppressed peoples. It was, therefore, the one thing, above all others, which gave comfort and hope to the American Negro during the night of his long bondage.

The story of the enslavement and marvelous deliverance of God's ancient people; of Daniel, the prophet, and the Hebrew youths, whom God protected and honored in the house of their bondage; the psalms of David, the sweet singer of Israel; the inspired narratives of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God; the Biblical account of the faith, sufferings and triumphs of the apostles; and the manifold promises of God, made to all who served Him in truth, and patiently wait for their fulfillment, could not fail in influencing the conduct and life of America's Negro slaves. It was in circumstances like these the Christian Negro, many years ago, sang out his hopes, his sorrows, and his soul-yearnings in melodies peculiarly his own, whose plaintive strains have been echoing around the globe for a generation and more.

The balm of Gilead was never so soothing to the wounds of an Israelite as the Gospel of Jesus Christ was, in the dark days of slavery, to the oppressed and sorrowing soul of the unfortunate Negro. It is not surprising, therefore, that at least one-fourth of the entire Negro population of the country was devout Christians forty years ago, while the entire Negro population was nominally believers in the living and true God, and in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

Whether the Negro Christian has lost some of his old-time love for Christ, and his zeal for the sanctuary, is, in the minds of some, an open question. We, however, believe that the Savior and the sanctuary are dearer to the Negro than ever. Indeed, so far as the census, which was taken by the United States in 1890, proves anything as to the matter of religion, the Negro is the most religious citizen of the country. Here is an extract from that report: "The Negro population of the country, exclusive of Indian territory and Alaska, according to the census of 1890, is 7,470,040. As the churches report 2,673,197 Negro communicants, exclusive of Indian territory and Alaska, it follows that one person in every 2.79 of the Negro population is a communicant. Excluding Indian Territory and Alaska, the total population is 62,622,250, and the total of communicants 20,568,679. The proportion here is 1 communicant in every 3.04 of the population. In other words, while all denominations have 328.46 communicants in every 1,000 of the total population, the colored organizations reported have 357.86 communicants in every 1,000 of the Negro population." According to this showing, more than a third of the entire Negro population of the country was enrolled as active members of the churches, ten years ago. At the same time, less than a third of the white population was connected with the churches of the land.

It remains to be seen whether the census of the United States, which is now in process of completion, will show any change in the relative strength of the Negro and white churches of the country.

It is certain that the Negro Christian is displaying commendable zeal in erecting spacious houses of worship; in acquiring school property; in giving the Gospel to the heathen in Africa, and in other parts of the world; in raising funds for the cause of education, and in providing himself with a religious literature of his own making.

In the quality of his religion, we dare say, there is room for improvement. But the changes mostly needed for his highest good are intellectual, material, social, commercial and political in nature, rather than religious.

The Negro Christian is as a rule as good as he knows how to be. He often errs, not knowing the Scriptures. He sometimes plunges headlong into the ditch of shame, because his spiritual adviser and instructor is a "blind leader of the blind."

Christian schools, however, are giving us better leaders every year, and the time is hastening when the Negro Christian of America shall be respected and loved because of his intelligence, his Christian piety, his zeal for God's cause, his manly bearing, his general worth as a moral and material contributor to the well being, both of the state and of the country which claim him as a citizen, and because of his excellent spirit and gentlemanly deportment.

FOURTH PAPER.

THE NEGRO AS A CHRISTIAN.

BY REV. H. H. PROCTOR.

REV. HENRY H. PROCTOR, B. A.

Henry Hugh Proctor was born near Fayetteville, Tennessee, December 8, 1868. After completing the public school course of his native town he studied in Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., from which school he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, June, 1891. That fall he entered the Divinity School of Yale University, graduating three years later. He was assigned by the faculty to the post of honor among the chosen orators of the class. He at once entered upon the pastorate of the First Congregational Church of Atlanta, Ga.

Mr. Proctor has lectured extensively in many parts of the country, his best-known lecture being "The Black Man's Burden." He has been active in preventing legislation in Georgia adverse to the colored race, especially measures designed to restrict the franchise and cut down public school facilities of the Negro. He is correspondent for a number of Northern periodicals, and extracts from his sermons are published weekly in the "Atlanta Constitution," the leading daily of the South. At his recent seventh anniversary as pastor many letters of congratulation came from all parts of the country, one being from Principal Booker T. Washington, whose esteem and friendship he enjoys.

In the historic development of Christianity race and religion have had a reciprocal relation. Conversion has involved a mutual conquest. The religion has modified the race, and the race has modified the religion. Every race that has embraced Christianity has, by developing that element of truth for which it has affinity, brought to the system its own peculiar contribution.

In the Semitic race, the high priest of humanity, Christianity, was born. "Salvation is of the Jews." Israel's code of ethics was the highest known to antiquity. It was but natural that the Hebrew should leave upon the new-born system the impress of his genius for ethics.

Hellenism may be regarded as the complement and contrast of Hebraism. Hebraism revealed the transcendence of Jehovah. Hellenism declared the divinity of man. The Greek, pre-eminent, in philosophy as a pagan, became, as a Christian, pre-eminent in theology. He blended the complemental conceptions of divinity and humanity. If the contribution of the Hebrew was ethical, that of the Greek was theological.

The Latin mind, practical rather than speculative, political rather than theological, established the Civitas Dei where once stood the Civitas Roma. This ecclesiastical masterpiece of human wisdom "may still exist in undiminished vigor," says Macaulay, "when some traveler from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's." Truly the Church of Rome has left upon Christianity an ineffaceable political impress.

The Teutonic mind--fresh, vigorous, even childlike in its simplicity and love of reality, accustomed to enjoy the freedom peculiar to lands where the national will is the highest law--would not brook the inflexible dogmatism of the Greek nor the iron ecclesiasticism of the Roman. The Teuton loved liberty in religion as well as in other things, and asserted his right to stand before his God for himself. The free spirit revealed in Christianity through Luther can never die. "Christianity as an authoritative letter is Roman; as a free spirit it is Teutonic."

The Saxon, pre-eminent in capacity for developing ideas, has so assimilated Christianity as to become its noblest representative. Enterprise and energy, vigor and thrift, striking characteristics of this great race, are becoming part and parcel of our Christianity. This is the missionary age, and it is the enterprising Saxon, unchecked and undaunted by sword, flame or flood, that is encircling the globe with a girdle of divine light.

And yet our Christianity is not complete. Notwithstanding its moral stamina, its philosophic basis and its organic solidarity, its free spirit and its robust energy, do we not feel there is something lacking still? Does not our Christianity lack in its gentler virtues? To what nation shall we look for the desideratum? Shall it not be to the vast unknown continent? If the Jew has modified our religion by his ethics, the Greek by his philosophy, the Roman by his polity, the Teuton by his love of liberty, and the Saxon by his enterprise, shall not the African, by his characteristic qualities of heart, bring a new and peculiar contribution to Christianity?

The Negro is nothing if not religious. His religion touches his heart and moves him to action. The result of his peculiarly partial contact with Christianity in America is but an earnest of what his full contribution may be confidently expected to be. The African's mission in the past has been that of service. "Servant of all" is his title. He has hewn the wood and drawn the water of others with a fidelity that is wonderful and a patience that is marvelous. As an example of patient fidelity to humble duty he stands without a peer.

His conduct in the late war, which resulted in his freedom, was as rare a bit of magnanimity as the world ever saw. The helpless ones of his oppressor in his power, he nobly stayed his hand from vengeance. And at last, when he held up his hands that his bonds might be removed, his emancipator found them scarred with toil unrequited, but free from the blood of man save that shed in open, honorable battle.

His religious songs are indicative of his real character. These songs embodied and expressed the only public utterance of a people who had suffered two and a half centuries of unatoned insult, yet in them all there has not been found a trace of ill will. History presents no parallel to this. David, oppressed by his foes, called down fire, smoke and burning wind to consume his enemies from the face of the earth. But no such malediction as that ever fell from the lips of the typical American slave; oppressed, like the Man of Sorrows, he opened not his mouth.

Truth is stranger than fiction. Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom" was more than a character of fiction. He was a real representative of the Christian slave. Recall that scene between Cassy and Uncle Tom. Unsuccessful in her attempts to urge him to kill their inhuman master, Cassy determines to do it herself. With flashing eyes, her blood boiling with indignation long suppressed, the much-abused Creole woman exclaims: "His time's come. I'll have his heart's blood!" "No, no, no," says Uncle Tom; "No, ye poor lost soul, that ye must not do! Our Lord never shed no blood but his own, and that he poured out for us when we was his enemies. The good Lord help us to follow his steps and love our enemies." Uncle Tom's words are not unworthy of immortality.

"Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 'Tis only noble to be good; Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood."

Humility, fidelity, patience, large-heartedness, love--this is Africa's contribution to Christianity. If the contribution of the Saxon is Pauline, that of the African is Johanine. Paul, with his consuming energy, carrying the Gospel to the uttermost parts, stands for the white man; John, the man of love, leaning on his Master's bosom, is typical of the black. The white man and the black are contrasts, not contraries; complementary opposites, not irreconcilable opponents.

The Jew has given us ethics; the Greek, philosophy; the Roman, law; the Teuton, liberty. These the Saxon combines. But the African--"latest called of nations, called to the crown of thorns, the scourge, the bloody sweat, the cross of agony"--the African, I say, has the deep, gushing wealth of love which is yet to move the great heart of humanity.

FIFTH PAPER.

THE NEGRO AS A CHRISTIAN.

BY REV. S. KERR.

REV. S. KERR.

To give anything like a true sketch of Mr. Kerr's life and labors both in and out of the ministry would fill a good-sized volume rather than a page of this book, as his life has been replete with thrilling, romantic incidents. The Rev. Mr. Kerr graduated with honors, having received the degree of A. B. from Rawden College, Leeds, England. He returned at once to the West Indies, where he labored three years.

In 1859 he did extensive missionary work in the Turks and Caicos Islands, where, in 1860, he accepted the appointment of Registrar of Births and Deaths. In 1863 he accepted the appointment of Assistant Master of the Government Schools at Grand Turk, and was afterwards appointed Head Master. In 1864 he filled the dual role of Inspector of Schools and missionary, and he passed unscathed through the great hurricane of 1866 which devastated the whole colony, destroyed all the schools and public buildings, as well as 2,500 dwelling houses, including Mr. Kerr's personal property. In 1867 he was sent as missionary to Hayti, where, as everywhere, he did good work. In 1873 he was appointed professor in the National Lyceum College for boys and young ladies, where he did effective and extensive missionary work in Cape Hatien, Grande Riviere and Dondon, and maintained considerable influence with the Haytien officials and authorities.

In 1880 he was advanced to the Priesthood of the Episcopal Church of America, by the Rt. Rev. J. Th. Holly, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of Hayti. In 1882 he was delegated to represent the Episcopal Church in the United States, and to collect funds for the building of the same in Hayti. On landing in New York, his reception by Bishop Horatio Potter was cordial in the extreme--the same by Bishops Littlejohn, of Long Island; T. A. Starkey, of Northern New Jersey; T. M. Clark, of Warwick, R. I.; M. A. De Wolf Howe, Central Pennsylvania; William C. Doane, Albany; Alfred Lee, Primate, Delaware; W. B. Stevens, Pennsylvania; H. A. Neely, of Maine; A. C. Coxe, Western New York. He occupied the pulpits of the leading Episcopal Churches in New York--Old Trinity, Grace Church, St. Chrysostom's, St. Paul's, St. Philip's and others. The leading churches in Brooklyn, Yonkers, Newport, R. I., Newark, N. J., Orange, N. J., Syracuse, Saratoga Springs, Utica, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Newburg, Poughkeepsie, Sing Sing, Barrytown, Tarrytown, Philadelphia, Germantown, Ashebourne, Reading, Cheltenham and many others.

In 1883 be was sent to Jamaica, W. I., and the following year he was appointed by the Provincial Synod (under the auspices of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel--London. Eng.) Rector of the Panama Railroad Church and Arch-deacon of the Church of England Mission, and Chaplain to the Panama Canal Company. In 1889 he made an extensive missionary tour through Central America, where he performed religious services at the opening of the Nicaragua Canal, coming in touch with several Indian tribes, and gaining considerable knowledge of their manners and customs in their crude condition.

In 1890 he returned to the West Indies and was transferred to the Diocese of Florida and made Rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Key West, where he has a large parish and congregation and where he is highly esteemed by all classes, white and colored.

My purpose in writing upon this subject is to investigate God's disciplinary and retributive economy in races and nations, with a hope of arriving at some clear conclusion concerning the Negro as a Christian.

First, it may be just and proper to view the races of mankind in respect to growth and mastery. The principles of growth and mastery in a race, a nation, or a people, are the same all over the globe. The same great agencies needed for one quarter of the globe, and in one period of time, are needed for all quarters of the globe, for all people and for all time, and consequently needed for this American nation.

The children of Africa in America are in no way different from any other people in respect to Christianity. Many of the differences of races are accidental and oftentimes become obliterated by circumstances, position and religion.

Go back to a period in the history of England, when its rude inhabitants lived in caves and huts, when they fed on bark and roots, when their dress was the skins of animals. Then look at the eminent Englishman of the present day--cultivated, graceful, refined, Christianized. When we remember that his distant ancestors were wild and bloody savages, and that it took centuries to change his forefathers from rudeness and brutality into enlightened, civilized Christians, there is no room to doubt the susceptibility of the Negro to Christianity.

The same great general laws of growth continue unchangeable. The Almighty neither alters nor diminishes these laws for the convenience of a people, of whatever race they may be. The Negro race is equally susceptible of growth in Christianity as in civilization.

At once the question arises--Is the Negro race doomed to destruction? Or, does it possess those qualities which will enable it to reach a high degree of moral and Christian civilization? To the first of these questions I reply that the Negro race is by no means doomed to destruction. It is now over five hundred years since the breath of the civilized world touched powerfully, for the first time, the mighty masses of the pagan world in America, in Africa and the isles of the sea, and we see everywhere that the weak heathen tribes of the earth have gone down before the civilized world; tribe and nation have dispersed before its presence. The Iroquois, the Pequods, the brave Mohawks, the once refined Aztecs and others have gone, nevermore to be ranked among the tribes of men. In the scattered islands of the Pacific seas, like the stars of the heavens, the sad fact remains that from many of them their populations have departed like the morning cloud. They did not retain God in their knowledge. Just the reverse with the Negro. Destructive elements, wave after wave, have swept over his head, yet he has stood unimpaired.

Even this falls short of the full reality of the Negro as a Christian, for civilization at numerous places has displaced ancestral heathenism, and the standard of the cross, uplifted on the banks of its great river, showing that the heralds of the cross have begun the glorious conquests of their glorious King. Vital Christian power has become the property of the Negro. Does God despise the weak? No, the Providence of God intervenes for the training and preservation of such people.

But has the Negro race any of those qualities which emanate from Christianity? Let us see. The flexibility of the Negro character is universally admitted. The race is possessed of a nature more easily moulded than that of any other class of men. Unlike the Indian, the Negro yields to circumstances and flows with the current of events, hence afflictions, however terrible, have failed to crush him; his facile nature wards them off, or else through the inspiration of hope their influence is neutralized. These peculiarities of the Negro character render him susceptible to imitation. Burke tells us that "imitation is the second passion belonging to society, and this passion arises from much the same cause as sympathy." This is one of the strongest links of society. It forms our manners, our opinions, our lives. Indeed, civilization is carried down from generation to generation, or handed over from a superior to an inferior, by means of imitation. A people devoid of imitation is incapable of progress or advancement, and must retrograde. If it remains stagnant, it must of necessity bring its own decay. The quality of imitation has been the grand preservative of the Negro in all lands. Indeed, the Negro is a superior man to-day to what he was three centuries ago.

I feel fortified in the principles I have advanced by the opinions of great, scrutinizing thinkers. In his treatise on Emancipation, written in 1880, Dr. Channing says: "The Negro is one of the best races of the human family; he is among the mildest and gentlest of men; he is singularly susceptible to improvement." Kinmont declares in his "Lecture on Man" that "The sweet graces of the Christian religion appears almost too tropical and tender plants to grow in the soil of the Caucasian mind; they require a character of the human nature of which you can see the rude lineaments in the Ethiopian, to be implanted in and grow naturally and beautifully withal." Adamson, the traveler who visited Senegal in 1754, said: "The Negroes are sociable, humane, obliging and hospitable, and they have generally preserved an estimable simplicity of domestic manners. They are distinguished by their tenderness for their parents, and great respect for the aged--a patriarchal virtue which, in our day, is too little known." Dr. Raleigh, also, at a great meeting in London, said: "There is in these people a hitherto undiscovered mine of love, the development of which will be for the amazing welfare of the world. * * * Greece gave us beauty; Rome gave us power; the Anglo-Saxon unites and mingles these, but in the African people there is the great gushing wealth of love, which will develop wonders for the world."

I feel that the Almighty, who is interested in all the great problems of civilization, is interested in the Negro problem. He has carried the Negro through the wilderness of disasters, and at last put him in a large open place of liberty. There is not the shadow of a doubt that this work which God has begun, and is carrying on, is for the mental and spiritual elevation of the Negro.

TOPIC XXI.

DOES THE NORTH AFFORD TO THE NEGRO BETTER OPPORTUNITIES OF MAKING A LIVING THAN THE SOUTH?

BY REV. J. H. ANDERSON.

REV. J. H. ANDERSON, D. D.

Rev. J. H. Anderson was born June 30, 1848, in Frederick, Md. Dr. Anderson is what is called a self-made man, he having attended school only six months in his life and studied a short time under a private tutor. By hard, persistent efforts and close application to books, Dr. Anderson has risen to a point in scholarship and prominence that only a few college Negroes have reached. He is noted as a pulpit orator and platform speaker. He has attained to some prominence as a writer and takes front rank as a preacher in his denomination. For his scholarly attainments and usefulness as a minister of the gospel, Livingstone College conferred upon him, in 1896, the degree of doctor of divinity. Dr. Anderson was one of those heroic liberty-loving souls who went to the battlefield in the Civil War to fight for their and their race's freedom.

Colonization is a condition of cosmopolitan society as it is of races. As "birds of a feather flock together," so the different races in the American civilization form settlements or colonies, as far as possible. The truthfulness of this statement is seen in the thickly-settled German, Irish, Jewish and Italian communities in the North. Their race affinities produce natural and social relations promotive of their varied interests. The Negro's civil and social privileges are more restricted in the South than in the North, owing to which fact the Negroes of the South are more united than the Negroes of the North. In the North a few individuals may rise to intellectual, professional, business and mechanical distinctions, but from general employment in the skilled industries, business enterprises and political preferment he is debarred, and, being cheaply and conveniently accommodated in almost every respect by the whites, he is not under the same necessity as the Southern Negro to establish and operate business enterprises. It is rather inconvenient to establish and maintain Negro business enterprises and schools in the North, for the reason that there are no thickly settled communities. A Negro lawyer, doctor, dressmaker, music teacher, hair dresser and mechanic do well in some instances, because they receive patronage from the whites. It is not so much the prejudice of the whites nor the indifference of the Negro as it is the peculiar conditions of the North that prevent the Negro from enjoying the business enterprises and founding race institutions. The few new institutions and even churches in the North are largely sustained by donations from the whites. Renting houses and purchasing property and living in the North are commensurate with the large scale and competition along all lines of industry, and social life is so active that the most rigid economy and business tact are essential to success in any kind of business in the North.

The Negro who embarks in business in the North has not only to compete with his own people, but with the shrewd Yankee, who seeks to monopolize all interests that have money in them. The Negro of the North for the most part appears to be content with his superior civil and social privileges. He breathes the air with more perfect liberty, enjoys life free from violence, is vindicated and redressed at law and recognized in his citizen rights, and, like the Pharisee, thanks God that he is not like the ex-slave of the South, and this is the height of his ambition. Three-fourths of the freeholding and tax-paying Negroes in the North are from the South, and Southern Negro labor is preferred in the North as in the South. Waiters, domestic servants, janitors, teamsters, laundry men and coachmen from the South can find employment in the North. Any industrious Southern Negro can find common labor to do in the North.

Before the formation of labor unions and federations in the North, the Negro skilled laborer found employment, but after deciding to exclude the Negro from membership these unions became an effective dictating power to employ when Negroes applied to them for work.

The tax-payers in many Northern sections favor mixed schools because it is less expensive to have them. They would not be justified in maintaining separate schools for the few Negro pupils. Of course, race favoritism, competition and prejudice, combine to exclude Negro teachers, and yet a few Negro teachers are employed to teach in the mixed schools. That Negro children, procuring their education by Negro teachers in the Negro schools, can better appreciate race efficiency and dignity there can be no question. The Northern Negro is ill fitted for living in the South, it being difficult for him to adapt himself to the conditions of the South, yet it is quite easy for the Southern Negro to adapt himself to the North where full and free expression is equally accorded to all, and where no legal discriminations are made and where the social question is left for adjustment by the parties nearest concerned. In the North the Negro has the opportunity of advocating the interests of his Southern brother in a way that would not be tolerated in the South, and thus the Northern Negro can assist in the formation of a proper sentiment in his favor. The Northern Negro is, therefore, a necessity to the Southern Negroes, and vice versa. The Negro's destiny is to be worked out in the South because he has greater numerical strength and superior advantages in the South, notwithstanding the civil, social and legal restrictions upon him. The lesson of self-dependence and self-effort is forced upon the Southern Negro as not upon the Northern Negro.

When the Southern Negro was emancipated, his first thought was education, and, adhering steadfastly to this idea, he has made a progressive education since his emancipation that has astounded the civilized world. No school-loving race can be kept down or back. Brought here a heathen, the Negro soon exchanged fetichism for Christianity, and, having been trained in the school of servile labor for centuries, he learned how to labor so that when his emancipation came he was prepared to strike out on lines of self development, and he has made in thirty-six years a progress in the acquisition of wealth that is without a parallel in history.

The prejudices of the whites against the Negro have rather helped him, in that they have stimulated him to make greater efforts to reach the independence of the white man.

Having lived in both sections of our country, I am prepared to say that the Negro can do better towards working out his destiny in the South than in the North.

SECOND PAPER.

DOES THE NORTH AFFORD TO THE NEGRO BETTER OPPORTUNITIES OF MAKING A LIVING THAN THE SOUTH?

BY PROF. W. H. COUNCILL.

PROF. W. H. COUNCILL, PH. D.

W. H. Councill was born in Fayetteville, N. C., in 1848, and was carried to Alabama by the traders in 1857, through the famous Richmond Slave Pen. In Alabama he worked in the fields with the other slaves. He is a self-made man, having had only few school advantages. He attended one of the first schools opened by kind Northern friends at Stevenson, Ala., in 1865. Here he remained about three years, and this is the basis of his education. He has been a close and earnest student ever since, often spending much of the night in study. He has accumulated quite an excellent library, and the best books of the best masters are his constant companions, as well as a large supply of the best current literature. By private instruction and almost incessant study, he gained a fair knowledge of some of the languages, higher mathematics, and the sciences. He was Enrolling Clerk of the Alabama House of Representatives in 1872-4. He was appointed by President Grant Receiver of the Land Office for the Northern District of Alabama in 1875. He was founder and editor of the "Huntsville Herald" from 1877 to 1884. He founded the great educational institution, Normal, of which he is president, and has been for a quarter of a century. He read law and was admitted to the Supreme Court of Alabama in 1883. But he has never left the profession of teaching, although flattering political positions have been held out to him. He has occupied high positions in church and other religious, temperance, and charitable organizations, and has no mean standing as a public speaker.

Prof. Councill has traveled quite extensively in Europe, and was warmly received and entertained by the Hon. W. E. Gladstone and His Majesty, King Leopold, of Belgium.

And thus by earnest toil, self-denial, hard study, he has made himself, built up one of the largest institutions in the South, and educated scores of young people at his own expense.

Prof. Councill is proud to be known as a friend to Africa. He is co-operating with Bishop Turner in the redemption and civilization of that continent. Normal, under Prof. Councill, is educating native Africans for this purpose. He has received the degree of Ph. D. from Morris Brown College.

Prof. Councill is author of "The Lamp of Wisdom." He writes extensively for the leading magazines and newspapers of the country.

A comparison of the opportunities which different sections hold out to any class of our fellow citizens should not be regarded as hostile criticism. No man, no country suffers by the truth.

We cannot answer this question by yes or no. The North affords the better opportunities in some things, while in others the South gives the Negro the better opportunity for making a living. If we are correct in putting a broad and educated mind as the foundation for every useful superstructure, we are forced to admit that the opportunity for laying this foundation is better in the North, where a century of thought on popular education has developed the finest public school system in the world. While this brings the Northern Negro in contact with the great Anglo-Saxon mind, and fits him for making a living and for business in that atmosphere, he has to undergo a kind of mental acclimatization before he can effectively and usefully enter into work in the South, where the atmosphere at every turn is different from that in the North. For twenty-five years I have been brought in direct contact with Negroes reared or educated in the North, and I do not recall one who did not have to un-Northernize himself in many respects before he could harmonize to usefulness in the South. It is to the credit of our Northern brethren that they are thus willing to sacrifice a part of their individualism in order to serve their race in the South. In my long experience I have not met a quarter dozen who have not cheerfully put aside their selfishness for the common good of their associates and their work. Indeed, I have found my Northern brethren more willing and helpful in this regard, perhaps, than Southern Negroes, who are more self-assertive and persistent in their make-up, a spirit imbibed from the general character of independence and domineering found in the South. But the Southern Negro, reared in harmony with Southern institutions, having assimilated prejudices and counter-prejudices, can use to greater advantage his small amount of education and training.

In a country where competition is sharp, as in this country, and where any kind of excitement is resorted to in order to give advantage to the competitors, the minority race, especially in inferior circumstances, must suffer along lines of battle for bread in which, the masses engage. Thus it is, while the Northern Negro enjoys high privileges of an intellectual character among the classes, he is bumped, shunned, and pushed to the rear among the quarreling, scrambling masses.

There are scattered far and wide a few Negroes in the North who are doing well in business. They get the patronage of their white neighbors. There are few communities in the North where the Negro population is strong enough to support a Negro in business, if the race lines were drawn in business. I think the voluntary collections of like tribes and races of men, as Italians, Jews, Chinese, Poles, Norwegians, Swedes, and the like, in settlements in our large cities and some country districts, show clearly the gregarious disposition of like peoples; and from time out of mind each tribe, clan or race, has depended upon itself for patronage and support. In order for the Negro to succeed in any considerable degree in business in the North, it would be necessary to increase the Negro population in that section. As I have intimated above, there are few fields for operation in the North for Negroes, regardless of their ability to succeed, for there are few cases where Negro patronage is not limited to the Negro population. While occasionally a few Negroes may get patronage from the other clans and tribes it is nevertheless true that as a general rule the aim is to keep the trade in the family, as it were. Every whip of tribal differentiation and prejudice is applied to enforce a rigid observance of this general rule. I think that we may logically conclude that the opportunity for that training and education which could make the Northern Negro immediately useful to the mass of the race, and the opportunity to gather material wealth, are not ideal in the North.

Ninety-two per cent of the Negro population reside in the South, where slavery left them. Under normal conditions there should be ninety-two per cent of Negro wealth, thrift and energy in the South. The opportunity to accumulate wealth and the accumulation are different. The Southern Negro is a wealth producer. He does four-fifths of the agricultural labor of the South and thereby adds four-fifths to the wealth of the South derived from agriculture, the leading Southern industry. If the whole of the billion dollars to the credit of the Negro race were placed to the credit of the Southern Negro alone, it would be less than half of what he should have saved since the war. The Negroes of the South handle more money than New England did one hundred years ago, and yet New England would be glad to place her barrels of gold and silver at nominal interest--so rich has she grown, although in the chilly winds of the Northeast.

The opportunities for the Southern Negro are as good for material gain as are enjoyed by any other people in this country. The census of 1890 shows two hundred and twenty-four occupations followed by the wage-earners of the United States. The Negroes are represented in every one of these occupations--grouped under five heads: Professional, Agriculture, trade and transportation, manufactures and personal service. The Southern Negro, while not in all of them, occupies in the South the vantage ground in those that bring the most independence in living. We must not forget that agriculture is what we might call the staple industry of the South.

I am indebted to Hon. Judson W. Lyons, register of the United States Treasury, for the following statistics, showing the wonderful influence of Negro labor in the commercial industries of the world: More cotton is exported from the United States than any other article. In the last ten years, 30,000,000,000 pounds of cotton, valued at $225,000,000 have been exported. The United States produces more cotton than all the balance of the world. The cotton manufactories of Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, and Italy depend upon our cotton exports. Ten years ago, $354,000,000 were invested in cotton manufactories, employing 221,585 operatives, who received for wages $67,489,000 per annum. The South produced from 1880 to 1890, 620,000,000 bushels of corn, 78,000,000 bushels of wheat, and 97,000,000 bushels of oats. The Negro performed four-fifths of the labor of the South, as we have seen. Therefore, his share in the average annual production in the last ten years would be 6,988,000 bales of cotton, valued at $209,640,000. In the last ten years the Negro's part of the production of corn, wheat, oats and cotton was $431,320,000 per annum. The entire cotton acreage of the South would form an area of 40,000 square miles. Negro labor cultivates 32,000 square miles of this space.

Fifty-seven per cent of the Negro race are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and 31 per cent are engaged in personal service. Therefore, 88 per cent of the wage-earners of the race in the South are engaged in these two pursuits, or, in other words, 88 per cent of the wage-earners of the race have opportunity for profitable employment.

Where the masses of the Negroes are found and can get paying work, as they can in the South, there we must expect the greatest prosperity among Negroes. Our expectation is highly gratified in this case in the South. No doubt if the ninety-two per cent Negro population were to exchange places with the eight per cent, the opportunities now held out in the South would be transferred to the North. Our opportunities over those enjoyed by our Northern brethren are the creatures of accidents rather than of our meritorious invention.

The opportunities to win character and wealth afforded the Negroes of the South by agriculture and domestic service are probably better than are enjoyed by any other class of people in the world. The field is broad and ripe and the Negro must now see and seize these opportunities or they will pass from the race forever. No peasant population ever had more favorable environments. The Negro does not only do four-fifths of the agricultural labor of the South, but he has the opportunity to own four-fifths of the land he cultivates. This opportunity is not enjoyed by any other peasant class in the world. As I see it, the greatest success for the Negro race in America lies in the farm. There he meets the least resistance and obtains the greatest sustenance. There color prejudice is almost unknown, while everywhere in the mechanic arts, prejudice is bitter, competition is sharp, and the chances for success are small. This is a matter which the Negro must seriously consider now, or weep over his procrastination. The drift to the cities to exchange the free, honest, healthful, plenteous conditions of farm life for the miserable slums, sin, and squalor of city life must be checked. Our boys and girls must be educated for the farm.

It would be hard to find a people better suited for domestic and personal service than the Negro. In all the elements which are necessary for personal and domestic service, the Negro cannot be excelled. He is not treacherous. He forms no plots and schemes to entrap his master. He resorts to no violent incendiary measures of avenging himself against his master, but he humbly and tamely submits to the conditions, ever looking for betterment through superhuman agencies. If the South would only look this matter squarely in the face, it would admit that it has the best service on earth, and would vote liberal appropriations for the development of Negro education of every character.

It may seem to persons not informed incredible, but it is no less a fact that where racial prejudice runs highest in the South and the demarcation between the races is most distinct along social lines, there the Negro is most prosperous, and, strange to say, advances most rapidly in material wealth. Self-help, self-dependence, faith in self, seem to spur to success as nothing else does. The drug store is the creature of Anglo-Saxon prejudice in denying Negroes accommodations at the soda-water fountains run by white men. In a score of channels the Negro is pushed on to success by Anglo-Saxon discrimination. What seems a curse is in reality a blessing to the race. Anglo-Saxon prejudice forces the Negro to take advantage of his great opportunity to get rich.

TOPIC XXII.

WHAT IS THE NEGRO TEACHER DOING IN THE MATTER OF UPLIFTING HIS RACE?

BY PROF. A. ST. GEORGE RICHARDSON.

PROF. ARTHUR ST. GEORGE RICHARDSON.

Far out in mid-Atlantic ocean about 700 miles east of New York lies the group of sunny isles known as the Bermudas. On one of these beautiful coral formations called St. Georges was born, July 5, 1863, the subject of this writing. Arthur was sent to Canada in 1878 to attend the public schools of St. Johns, N. B. Being an apt pupil he soon finished the curriculum of studies of the grammar schools and in 1880 entered the high school from which in three years' time he was graduated.

Not considering his education complete at this point, Arthur matriculated at the University of New Brunswick at Fredericton, in the fall of the same year, being the first and only colored young man to enter this institution of higher learning. As in the high school so now in college young Arthur distinguished himself among his classmates by winning a scholarship and at times leading his class in Greek. He was graduated from the university with honors in classics, June, 1886.

He was then elected principal of the Wilberforce Collegiate Institute at Chatham, Ont., where he served one year, increasing the attendance, and greatly improving the work of the school. The following year, 1887, he returned to his native home and visited his parents from whom he had been separated nine years. The next year after his return to Canada he was invited by Bishop W. J. Gaines to come to Georgia and assume the principalship of Morris Brown College in Atlanta. After much hesitancy, Mr. Richardson accepted the invitation and took charge of Morris Brown College when it was a school of small proportions and modest pretensions. Here Professor Richardson served ten successive years, each year adding something to the fame and increasing popularity of the school.

In 1898 he was offered the Presidency of Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Fla., by Bishop W. J. Gaines, who felt that the educational work in Florida then needed just such a person as Professor Richardson had proven himself to be in Georgia. Resigning his position in Atlanta he came to Florida and at once set to work to restore Edward Waters College to the confidence of the people. In a year's time the school was again assuming the flourishing condition that it once had.

The great fire of Jacksonville, May 3, 1901, caused him to lose all his possessions in the destruction of the college buildings, nevertheless he has held on unflinchingly to the work and at great sacrifice and loss has kept the school together, and is now serving his fourth year at the head of this institution.

An examination into the earliest records of history will reveal a fact that is not observant to the casual reader--that man, as an individual, has ever been groping in darkness, seeking hither and thither to find a ray of light that would safely guide him and lead him through the mystic vale of doubt and uncertainty--be a "light to his pathway, a lantern to his feet."

To this end he has lent all his energies and directed all his forces. Long and tedious have been the ways and the journeys, yet onward and upward has he continued to travel, through storm and tempest, amid trials and vexations, until finally, after many centuries of progressive endeavor and honorable achievements, he has reached the loftiest pinnacle of fame, and there, on its rugged summit, has inscribed in letters of gold the result of his many conquests in literature, science and art, in religion, philosophy and commerce.

We use the generic term man as embracing all the various descendants of the sons of Noah. For each race-variety has in its turn played its part in producing the high degree of civilization that it is now our heritage and privilege to enjoy. Each has been an important factor in the development of some element that is essentially its own.

In thus reviewing the early history of the world we also find that the peoples who sat in darkness were brought to the light only through the agency of the teachers of the times in which they lived. Who made Egypt renowned? Were they not her great teachers, whose pupils came from far and near to learn, as it were, the foundation steps of our great civilization? Who in China is better known to the world than the great teacher Confucius? Who gave to Greece her renown for philosophy and art? Was it not Aristotle and Plato? Mention Rome, and the names of Quintilian and Cicero are recalled to our minds as the foremost educators. The Israelites had their prophets to instruct them, until the Great Teacher came to earth to enlighten all mankind. What was best and noblest in the systems of the famous teachers before the advent of Christ was crystallized into the method adopted by the Son of Man. He came to elevate the whole man, to shed light into his whole being--his mind, his body, and his soul.

Many and various have been the devices of mortal man to imitate the plan of the Master; and yet, after centuries of earnest endeavor, we have but recently begun to recognize the fact that complete success in the education of man lies in the secret of training the whole man--mind, body and soul.

Passing over the long period of scholastic apathy in European history, we come to a more recent epoch of intellectual awakening in the founding of great universities and stately colleges. These several institutions, through the instructions given by their most eminent teachers, have of themselves made the respective places of their establishment famous in both hemispheres.

Between the periods of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars in America, educational interests seemed to be centered mainly in the cultivation of the intellect as the only part of man that required special training.

The abolition of slavery and the consequent endeavor to enlighten the freedmen gave rise to a new phase of educational activity. This new ideal was the training of the body and the soul along with that of the mind. This system naturally reduced the length of time usually devoted to mind culture in proportion as time was required for the training of the hand and the cultivation of the moral side of man.

Foremost among the early teachers to inaugurate this system were Mrs. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Mrs. Sarah J. Early, and Bishop John M. Brown. As a result of their efforts in this direction we have Wilberforce University, the first school by Negro teachers to follow the plan of the Great Teacher. Since the establishment of Wilberforce in the North, many similar institutions have been founded in order to give the "brother in black" an opportunity to show to the world what the Negro teacher is doing and can do towards uplifting his race.

It is a difficult matter to estimate the good that a true teacher can do, be he of whatever race-variety. But to calculate on the noble work of the majority of the self-sacrificing and virtuous Negro teachers is a task beyond the ability of man. Bishop Daniel A. Payne, the apostle of an educated ministry, is known throughout the country for the noble work he did in teaching the people at large as well as his immediate pupils both how to live and how to die. Almost every educated Negro preacher has at some period of his scholastic career served in the capacity of a teacher, and therefore, after his advent to the gospel, ministry has continued to instruct the people under the same principles of teaching.

To be a teacher in the strict sense of the word requires the possession of certain qualities of mind and soul, and the power to exercise these qualities in such a manner as to awaken in the mind of another thoughts similar to those of the person assuming to teach, and thereby causing the mental activity on the part of the learner to become knowledge and power. We, therefore, hold that the Negro teacher has acted along the method here described, and has thus been the means of enlightening the masses of the colored people that lay claim to any degree of education whatever. What the Negro teacher has accomplished has been done not from a selfish motive or a mercenary point of view, but primarily because he has endeavored to do his part toward elevating the race with which he is identified. If it is true that the salvation of the Negro lies in his being educated, then to the Negro teacher must be attributed the greater portion of his salvation.

Again, the majority of the Negro teachers are Christian men and women of high moral character, and as such are shining lights in the community in which they may be engaged in teaching. The good they thus do is not confined to the school or class-room, but permeates every sphere of society, ennobling and enriching the thoughts and minds of all with whom they may have dealings, both by their chaste conversation and by their upright and godly lives. The Negro teacher, therefore, wields an influence for good, not only by precept, but what is considered far better, also by example. Furthermore, the Negro teacher in the day school invariably becomes a teacher in the Sunday-school of the town where he happens to be living. And here again he exerts a power for good, confirming and strengthening the teachings of the past week.

Aside from his professional duties, the Negro teacher is often called upon to decide on matters of grave importance. In many cases he is the attorney for individuals who are unable to secure the services of a competent lawyer. In this capacity he often acts as justice of the peace, as well as a peacemaker, thereby allaying strife and contention. From early morn till late at night the Negro teacher is besieged by questions of every sort and kind, which he must satisfactorily answer to the benefit of the inquirer, be he farmer or blacksmith, preacher or vagrant. In fact, the Negro teacher in the rural districts answers the purposes of a bureau of information.

Such is the lot of the average Negro teacher. That there are exceptions need not here be stated. From what he has done on a small scale may be inferred what is being done on a larger basis of operation by the best and most renowned of the Negro teachers.

In nearly every Southern state of the Union may be found some one or two famous educators and teachers of Negro descent. Prof. Jno. R. Hawkins of North Carolina, Commissioner of Education of the A. M. E. Church, has established Kittrell College. Prof. J. C. Price gave us Livingston College in North Carolina. Prof. E. A. Johnson of Virginia has written a worthy history of the Negro race, now in use as a text-book in many public schools. In South Carolina we find results of the great work in science by Prof. J. W. Hoffman. Georgia is proud of Prof. R. R. Wright, President of the State Industrial College at Savannah, orator and historian; also Prof. W. H. Crogman, scholar and author. In Florida the names of Prof. T. de S. Tucker, Prof. T. V. Gibbs, and Prof. T. W. Talley stand high as eminent scholars and professional teachers. Alabama is rich in having the foremost men of the race as her great teachers--Prof. B. T. Washington, founder and principal of Tuskegee Institute, and Prof. W. H. Councill, President of the State Normal and Industrial College at Normal. And thus we might mention each state and her eminent Negro teachers; but it is not necessary; the above suffices our purpose. And yet we would not conclude without referring to the noble work of Prof. W. S. Scarborough, of Wilberforce, Ohio. He has gone a step beyond the ordinary and given us a Greek text-book that has been adopted in many schools. Moreover, his contributions to the leading magazines and periodicals are eagerly sought and read by the best scholars of the day, without reference to race.

With this accumulated force of intelligence, radiating its numerous beams of light in every section of the land, one need not seek far to find an answer to the query: "What is the Negro teacher doing in the matter of uplifting his race?"

As we endeavored to show in the beginning that it was through the instrumentality of their teachers that many countries acquired fame and gave to posterity a name honorable and glorious, so now the Negro teacher in his weak strength is laying the foundation for successive generations to build upon--a foundation more durable than stone or granite, more valuable than rubies or diamonds--the cultivation of the morals, the training of the hand, and the enlightenment of the mind. With an informed mind, a skillful hand, and an upright conduct, there is no reason why the Negro should not take his place upon the stage of action; play well his part in the drama of life, and meritoriously receive the plaudits of the gazing nations of the world.

SECOND PAPER.

WHAT IS THE NEGRO TEACHER DOING IN THE MATTER OF UPLIFTING HIS RACE?

BY PROF. E. L. BLACKSHEAR.

PROF. E. L. BLACKSHEAR.

Prof. E. L. Blackshear was born in Montgomery. Ala., in 1862. He was educated in the negro public schools of Montgomery. So rapid had been his progress that he graduated from Tabor College at the age of eighteen.

Prof. Blackshear is now principal of Prairie View State Normal School and Industrial College of Texas.

The following is the testimony of Prof. Blackshear concerning his grandmother. These words give us a glimpse of the bright side of slave life, and of the ideal "mammy" of the ante-bellum Southern plantation home.

"My grandmother was a remarkable woman. She idolized my mother, the only child that slavery had allowed her to keep. When grandma was sold from Georgia to Alabama, the humanity of her Georgia owners caused them to sell mother and child to the same people.

"My grandmother, although ignorant, had a profound belief in education. But if she knew absolutely nothing of the world of letters, she had something as good, perhaps better--a warm, honest, loving heart and Christian principles. She had genuine hatred for dirt and disorder, a regard, amounting to a fearful reverence, for white people of 'quality,' and a great and ill-disguised contempt for common, shiftless, 'darkies,' and low-bred whites. She was the best type of the faithful and efficient slave. But it was as a cook that 'Grandma's' reputation was known in two States. To my youthful imagination she was a magician; things she cooked for the white folks seemed so good to me. I think now of the batter-cakes, the light rolls, the syllabub, the sally-lunn, the ship-ships and the wafers grandma made. The light-bread she made is made no more. It is a lost art, an art that died with grandma."

When the Negroes were set free the first aim of thousands was to learn to read and write. Gray-haired veterans of the plantations sat side by side in the day schools as well as in the night schools with the smallest pickaninnies. And all seemed eager to learn the mysterious arts of the schoolroom. The school-book, in the eyes of the unlettered slave, was a sort of fetich to which he attributed the power of the white man. The young slave could follow his master to the door of the schoolhouse, but thus far and no farther. The mysterious rites and ceremonies which went on within were forbidden him. Human nature has ever been curious to know that the knowledge of which is prohibited, and so the slave had a great curiosity to master the printed page and to be admitted to the privileges of the schoolroom. It was not surprising that the whole race tried to go to school, and it need not surprise us if, in the enthusiasm for book-learning, from which the race had been so strictly debarred, too much stress may have been placed on mere book learning and too much confidence placed in the formal processes of the schoolroom. But, better even this exaggerated enthusiasm than indifference to all education of the schoolroom. The race would soon learn that the blue-back Webster's Speller was not the magic wand that would turn all troubles and difficulties into success and prosperity; that the ability to spell B-a-Ba, k-e-r-ker, baker, would buy no bread of the baker; while the power to read, "Do we go up by it!" with painful praiseworthy effort, would help the ex-slave but little as he strove to "go up by" the dangers ahead of him.

But they went to school, all of them at first, or all that could possibly do so, either by day or by night. It is not recorded that the chickens of that time had rest, but it must be that they did, for verily, in the first mad rush of letters, even chickens must have been forgotten by a race whose predilection for them has furnished the point for many a joke, as well as the occasion for painful if not indignant regret on the part of those whose fowls may have been abstracted. And it is a hopeful sign for the future of the Negro that while his first wild enthusiasm for the school-house has been moderated, his real desire for educational improvement continues strong and steady. He will go to school--the public school--when he can, and the higher institutions for his race are all filled to their capacity and are expanding. Will not this thirst for knowledge on the part of a so lately savage race bear good fruit both for the Negro and for humanity?

But who were to teach these black fanatics, seeking initiation for the first time, in the long and gloomy history of their race, into the mysteries, elusinian, of a modern, and, to them, totally foreign cult? A faithful band of Christian missionary white women gave answer by coming in the face of an inevitable social ostracism to light the torch of thought in a region hitherto unblessed by a single ray of education's light. The first Negro schools were taught by these white ladies at Charleston, at Atlanta, at Montgomery, at New Orleans, at Austin, and at the other great centers of the South's Negro population. The success of the first labors of this devoted band led to the foundation of permanent institutions for the elementary and later for the normal and collegiate instruction of the Negro youth. At Nashville, at Atlanta, at Raleigh, at Memphis, and at New Orleans institutions were founded which have become great schools and have contributed beyond measure to the process of civilizing the Negro as a mass--a process confessedly still far from completion. Complicated and annoying as the race problem assuredly is and will be for years to come at the South, it would be far worse--much farther away from even a hopeful degree of solution--but for the work done by the missionary colleges.

The missionary schools, of which Fisk, Atlanta, Straight, Roger Williams and Central Tennessee may be taken as types, furnished the first Negro school teachers and the Negro owes to these schools, founded and maintained in the spirit of the purest Christian philanthropy, a debt he can never repay in either kind or equivalence. The nearest like payment he can make is to imitate the beautiful, pure, devoted, lives of the missionary teachers. Too much cannot be said in praise of their labors. Perhaps if only the missionary Christian teachers had come and the political missionaries had remained at home, all might have been better.

But the missionary schools could reach but few. How was the great mass of the colored population to be educated? This was the question, and it was a most serious one. But the answer came not from the federal government, as some expected--that source from which so many had looked to get the mythical "mule" and the legendary "forty acres"--it came from the South, from the wasted resources of the former master. History furnishes no precedent as it affords no parallel to the action of the ex-slaveholders--a dominant race--in entering at once--before any opportunity had been afforded for recuperation from the losses of the Civil War--on the expensive work of giving a public school system to their former slaves--now technically, at least, their political equals. And nothing can be gained by the Negro in refusing gratitude to the South for this most magnanimous act and policy. An instance of this unselfish policy of the South in its attitude toward Negro education is seen in the history of Texas, the most liberal as well as the most progressive of the Southern commonwealths. The Constitutional Convention of 1876, which of course was Democratic, framed the present state constitution of Texas, and in it absolutely equal provision is made for both the elementary and the higher education of the Negro youth of Texas. And it is to the credit of Texas as an enlightened state as well as fortunate for her Negro population, that in the distribution of the magnificent school fund of the state, no discrimination is made between the races.

The Negro public schools are doing a great work for the elevation of the colored people. In a silent, unobtrusive way, these schools are leavening the thought and life of the race. The status and progress of the Negro are too commonly gauged by the deeds of the loafing and criminal element. The honest, law-abiding Negro who has a home, is getting a little property, has a small bank account, and is educating his children to useful citizenship, attracts little or no attention. But a race that has in a generation since chattel slavery gotten property worth by reliable estimate upward of $400,000,000 has been doing something. All of such a race are not either lazy, vicious, or immoral. The public school is doing effective work for the Negroes of the South in awakening in them a desire for better ways of living and higher ideals of conduct. Much remains to be done but that already accomplished is an earnest of better work yet to be done.

The Negro public school teacher has been more than a mere schoolkeeper. No class of educators in any race has done more, all things considered. The colored teacher has been a herald of civilization to the youth of his people. His superior culture and character have acted as a powerful stimulus to the easily roused imagination of the colored youth, and the black boy feels, in the presence of the black "professah," to him the embodiment of learning, that he too can become "something." At first he does not know what that something is, but he determines to be "somebody" and to make a place and a standing for himself in the world. In this way the colored school teacher is leading his race "up from slavery;" that is from the slavery of ignorance and superstition, of intellectual and moral inertia, of aimlessness and shiftlessness, into the freedom of intelligence, of energy, ambition and industry. Lincoln removed the formal yoke of a legal bondage, but the colored teacher is helping his race to get free a second time from a bondage just as galling--the bondage of intellectual and moral blindness and of industrial independence. Booker T. Washington is such a teacher--a teacher, indeed, and the leader of a race. And what Mr. Washington, himself a product of the missionary schools, is doing in a large way as the teacher and leader of the entire Negro race in America, hundreds, yea, thousands, of colored teachers in city and village, in the malarial river bottoms and among the pine-clad hills, are doing in a local but no less effective, though less comprehensive way. These colored men and women, many of whom are people of genuine culture and character, are giving their lives to the upbuilding of a race. And it is for them a labor of love.

These teachers teach by example as well as by precept. Their homes are models in neatness and refinement that are readily imitated by the other colored people of the community. It is to the credit of the colored teacher that he is, with rare exceptions, a model in his moral conduct and home life, and sets a high standard for his race, which they invariably--some of them--seek to follow. The colored teacher, too, has always been conservative and has been the wise adviser of his people. Himself dependent on the sentiment of the best white people of the community, he has usually won the confidence and respect of the white people, and they in turn have given him their moral support in the work of improving the minds, morals, and habits of the Negro youth of the community. In this way it is throughout the entire South--the best white people of the community by maintaining public schools for the Negro youth and by co-operation with the colored teacher, and often by personal interest in the work of both teacher and pupil, are actually aiding most effectively if not really directing the educational development of the colored race.

It is also greatly to the credit of the colored teacher in the South that he has not gotten above his race or tried to leave them, but has remained at his post and in his place doing the duty Providence has assigned and content to leave results to God and the future.

THIRD PAPER.

WHAT IS THE NEGRO TEACHER DOING IN THE MATTER OF UPLIFTING HIS RACE?

BY T. W. TALLEY.

PROF. THOMAS WASHINGTON TALLEY.

Thomas Washington Talley is a native of Bedford County, Tenn. His boyhood was spent upon his father's farm where he imbibed a love for nature. Some of the experiments made by him, as a child, with some of the lower animals, have proven most valuable aids in answering scientific problems encountered in later years.

In 1883 he entered the preparatory department of Fisk University, and after three years of study was admitted to college.

He began teaching in the public schools of his native state at the age of twelve. By teaching during his summer vacations, and by obtaining state scholarships through competitive examinations, he secured the larger portion of the means necessary for his support in college. He graduated from the classical course of Fisk University in 1890, receiving the degree of A. B. From 1890 to 1891 he was a member of the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, who raised funds for the building of the Fisk Theological Seminary. In this company it was his duty aside from singing, to present the needs of the school. This he did with much eloquence and his appeals were always answered by liberal contributions.

In 1892 he received the degree A. M. from his alma mater for special work done in Natural Philosophy, Latin and German.

On October 1, 1896, he matriculated in the Graduate Department of Central Tennessee College (now Walden University), having spent the two preceding summers in resident work along the lines indicated by his courses of study in the institution. He selected courses leading to the degree of Doctor of Science.

He has been chiefly engaged in educational work and has held the following positions: Instructor in Mathematics and Music, Alcorn A. & M. College, Westside, Miss., two years; Professor of Natural Sciences, five years, and Vice-President two years in the State N. & I. College, Tallahassee, Fla. He at present occupies the chair of Natural Philosophy and General, Analytical and Industrial Chemistry in the Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala.

He is a member of the American Ornithologists Union, the Michigan Ornithological Club, a Vice-president of the Florida Audubon Society, and a Fellow of the American Negro Academy. He is considered an authority in Biology and Chemistry.

As soon as the clouds of the Civil War had cleared from our country and the Negro had become a free man, the question immediately presented itself as to how he could be made worthy of citizenship and capable of exercising the rights and privileges of free government.

Free government exists through intelligence and integrity in citizens. The whole system of slavery in which the Negro had been schooled was such as to leave him without either intelligence or integrity. It rather taught him that deception was a better way to recognition than decency; and that whatever supplied his wants, regardless of its nature, was the means to be used. As the Negro stepped forth from the darkness of bondage into the light of freedom, the eye of his mind accustomed to the blackest and lowest was not ready to exercise the function thus suddenly thrust upon it. It was blinded and needed treatment that it might be so reconstructed as to guide and lead aright in this new atmosphere to which it had suddenly gained admission. The Negro came from slavery in want of training, and training is requisite to citizenship.

A man, to be trained symmetrically, must be trained mentally, morally and physically. Although this symmetrical training is much a result of personal effort, the effort must be directed by an intelligent, interested teaching. It is to such teaching that the Negro school teacher has directed and is directing his efforts.

The first schools established distinctively for Negroes in our country were supported and taught by philanthropic white people of the North. At the date of the founding of these schools there were practically no Negro teachers, but in these institutions, fostered by consecrated white men and women, Negro boys and girls began to receive training through which they developed into the first teachers of the race.

These schools, begun by philanthropy (although at first they did primary work) have developed into the Negro colleges, normal schools and industrial schools of the South. These schools of higher learning are still manned largely by white men and women. Thus the work of the Negro teacher is almost entirely limited to a few state colleges and to the public schools of the Southern cities and of the country districts. The especial point of excellence which characterizes the work of the Negro teacher is its interestedness. Whatever may be the sentiment in other sections, in the South--the real home of the Negro--every Negro's standing is gauged by the standing of the whole race in case of those who are most kindly disposed to him, while those who are illy disposed judge all by the lowest of the race. There is little or no recognition of individual merit except in so far as it meets the approval of his Southern white neighbor. Such being the case, the Negro teacher, realizing that their own elevation comes only through and in so far as the whole race is elevated, have a double stimulus for zealously doing their best work; first their love for the race which naturally springs up between those of the same blood and of the same descent, and second a selfish reason--their personal elevation, which only comes through the elevation of the whole race. Such interested teaching is not without its effect. Illiteracy is disappearing from day to day. A consultation of the latest census reports, and a contrasting of them with those previously taken, will show that the Negro has wiped out some of his illiteracy and is increasing in wealth, intelligence, etc.--yes, in all that which will finally force his recognition as a full-fledged American citizen without any "ifs," except that he be as any other man in possessions, in mind, and in character.

The Negro teachers are more and more studying the needs of their race and are shaping their work to meet the demands of the times. The Negro race formerly sang, and still sings, with much fervor of spirit: "You may have all this world; Give me Jesus." In the days of its ignorance, the Negro race observed this beautiful song in letter, but not in spirit. The Negro teachers have caught the spirit and are beginning to spread it among the ignorant masses. These teachers go into the Sunday schools and there teach the race to keep the spirit, "You may have all this world; Give me Jesus." They teach them that Christ is far above and is to be preferred to the whole world, but they also teach them that which is equally good, and that is, getting a hold on a portion of the goods of this world is a splendid preparation for getting a hold upon the things which lead up to heaven. In other words, the Negro teachers have become the great preachers of wealth getting, not because they would have the race carnally-minded, but because they know that no race of paupers can ever amount to anything or enjoy the full rights of citizens.

To the end of replenishing the empty treasury of the race the Negro teachers are encouraging their fellows to gain a skillful use of the hand. Many of them are enthusiastic to the extent that they would see every Negro school in the land teaching skill in the trades and in the tilling of soil. In this movement for the education of the hand the Negro teacher is meeting with encouragement on all sides. Such an education cannot fail to work great benefit for the race, and help to give it standing. Given an intelligent Negro mass, masters of the trades and of science of agriculture, there need be no fear for the Negro's future. The only mistake which it seems that the Negro teachers may possibly make at this time is, that having pictured in their minds the benefit of having a mass skilled in industry, and noting the present popularity of industrial training, they may lose sight of the fact that the skilled hand must be backed by and rest upon a mind trained to logical thinking. Industrial training does much indeed toward mental training, but by no means does it, nor can it, do all. There is quite a tendency at present aside from industrial training to limit the mental training of the race to the "3 r's," viz., reading, writing and arithmetic. The highest industrial attainment is not possible with such a limitation. The making, the repairing and the manipulation of machinery calls for a knowledge of natural philosophy and higher mathematics. The masterly tilling of the soil demands one learned in chemistry and botany--botany, which we know is not even a stranger to Latin. So we might go through every industry and point out that its perfection is conditioned on the highest mental training. Let the Negro teacher, while loving industrial training for his race, not learn to despise that which appears on the surface to be merely a mental gymnastic, but which, when examined more carefully, proves to be that only which furnishes a condition for the best and the highest even in that which he may most love.

Since social conditions in the South are such as to necessitate a system of separate schools for whites and Negroes, and since this necessitates the establishment of a large number of extra schools, it inevitably results in the shortening of school terms and the cutting down of the salaries of teachers. I have found some Negro country schools in Alabama paying the teachers from twelve to fifteen dollars per month, and the length of the school term was only four months. In these cases I did not find the teachers worrying over the small salary, but they were working to have the Negro patrons, from their own scanty purses, lengthen the school term. In not a few cases the Negro teachers observed were thus lengthening out the school term from one to two months every year.

The Negro teacher is also here and there founding institutions of higher learning. He is getting a hold on the churches, the state, benevolent societies, and individuals, and is causing them to contribute money and goods to educational centers which are to prove most potent levers in lifting the race to a higher level.

The fact that at present a large number of the states of the Union are basing suffrage upon an educational qualification enhances the value of the literary work to be done by the Negro teacher. In some states in the South the educational qualification is avowedly adopted by the whites to eliminate the Negro from the body politic. The Negro teachers are not sleeping over the interests of their race in this matter. They are working quietly, but earnestly. Most of them have the resolution which I heard expressed during the past summer by a Negro country school teacher, viz.: "I intend that all my pupils shall learn to read, write, and have the qualifications for voting if nothing more."

This, then, is what the Negro teacher is doing in the matter of uplifting his race: he is giving to it literary training, teaching it to skillfully use the hand, and encouraging it to accumulate property. He is lengthening school terms and founding institutions of learning. He is entering into the inner life of his people; and is implanting ideas and ideals there which will make them strong and respected by all the races of mankind.

FOURTH PAPER.

WHAT IS THE NEGRO TEACHER DOING IN THE MATTER OF UPLIFTING HIS RACE?

BY PROF. H. L. WALKER.

PROF. H. L. WALKER, A. B.

Prof. H. L. Walker was born near the city of Augusta, Ga., in the year of 1859. His parents, Wesley and Adline Walker, were the property of slave owners to whom they rendered allegiance until 1864 and 1865, when Sherman took his triumphal march through Georgia and the Carolinas. At the fall of the Confederacy young Henry went with his parents to Wilmington, N. C., where they spent about a year, during which time young Henry for the first time saw the inside of a school, taught by those pioneering teachers from the North. At the close of this year the family left Wilmington and went to Augusta, Ga., which city has been the scene of our subject's boyhood and the basis of his literary career. The public schools of Augusta were completed by 1874 and upon the recommendation of all of his teachers young "Henry," as he was familiarly called, was matriculated at the Atlanta University, one of the most noted of Negro colleges in the South. In this institution he studied for eight years, coming out in 1882 with the class honor and the degree of A. B. His parents died during his early boyhood, even before he had entered the Atlanta University, so that in his efforts to complete his collegiate career he had to rely largely upon his own resources, and the very kind assistance of his foster parents, and other friends whose protege he was.

Prepared for his life work, he left school in June, 1882, and was immediately elected principal of the Mitchell Street Graded School, Atlanta, Ga., his examination papers being the best offered for this position. In the following month--July--he was also elected President of the Georgia State Teachers' Association for Colored Teachers, of which body more will be said later. As a student at College our subject was studious, popular with professors and students, and acquired that assiduity and strict adherence to business that has since characterized all his subsequent life. In the profession of teaching he continued to rise higher and higher each year, holding positions of trust and honor under each of the State's superintendents of education down to the present incumbent. For eighteen years he has held sway in the public school of the city of Augusta, during which time Mr. Walker has officered the Second Ward Grammar School, the famous Ware High School and at present the First Ward High School, which position he still fills with dignity and credit to himself and race. As Peabody expert, Mr. Walker, by appointment of the successive State superintendents of education, has occupied the lecture platform in all parts of the State, with the best lecturers, white and Colored, that money could command, and they have all cheerfully conceded his ripe ability to master and handle successfully such subjects as have been assigned him from year to year. As a practical school man and well-informed scholar, Mr. Walker is always at home. As a Peabody lecturer he has often been pronounced one of the best in the State. Every Summer his services are in demand in various parts of the State. For ten years Mr. Walker was the honored President of the Georgia State Teachers' Association, Colored, and no man has since filled that honored chair whose administration has in any way rivaled the success of Mr. Walker. During his ten years the association was built up as it has never been since. The intelligence of the State--white and Colored--came together in these annual meetings and made this gathering of educators and leaders the most representative body in the State.

Mr. Walker is easy of address and modest in all things, never contending for honors. Several years ago, at its annual exercises, his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of A. M. as a deserved tribute and recognition of the literary work he has accomplished. As a polished orator Mr. Walker has been heard with profit and delight in all parts of the State. Some of his addresses before the State Teachers' Association are considered real gems of literature.

After a lapse of some thirty-eight years, or a little better than a generation, we are asking the question, "What is the Negro Teacher doing in the matter of uplifting his race?" In so brief a period of years it would seem to savor of arrogance to ask a question so seemingly fraught with significance, so inopportune and, too, about a people so recently freed from bondage that they have not yet had the time to grow a generation of teachers. It took England more than a generation to grow an Arnold at Rugby. It took France more than several generations to produce a Guizot, and Pestalozzi, whose reputation as a teacher widens with the universe, is the product of years of experimental accumulations of Swiss ingenuity. And yet it may be pardonable arrogance on our part to say that at this first milestone in our educational career we pause here long enough to take an inventory of what the Negro teacher has done and is still doing in the matter of uplifting his people. In the pioneering or experimental period of Negro education there were no Negro teachers, but it is safe to say that as early as 1875 a few Negroes, daring to rush in where angels would fear to tread, began the profession of school teaching. It is from this date that we may safely begin to reckon the services of the Negro teachers as a class. I make bold to lay down the proposition that wherever God has ordained intellect that intellect is capable of the highest development; for mental ability is a divine endowment. The intellect may be the possession of an Indian, a Mongolian, an Arab, a Negro, a Hindoo or a Caucasian. Textures may differ, but all mental organisms are the same in color, fiber, and mode of operation and development. It must then follow that the proper training of the intellect must produce the same results upon all races when properly applied. That training which has made the Mongolian, or the German, or the Caucasian race great and powerful will of necessity, under similar conditions, produce like results in the Negro race. Let us now see what the facts show. It is largely through the instrumentality of our schools that Negroes have been taught to place a higher and a proper valuation upon their citizenship, and the importance of the ballot when it is wielded for the maintenance and perpetuation of good government. As a class of citizens Negroes are peaceable and law-abiding, and must not be reckoned with the migratory hordes of anarchists, nihilists, and the wreckers of law and order that infest our Eastern and Western shores. In our schools, too, Negroes have learned that it is theirs to petition respectfully for the enjoyment of their rights, and the redress of grievances so often unjustly imposed upon them. In the last two decades the influence of the schools, colleges and industrial institutions and seminaries of all kinds has wrought wonderful changes in the home life of the Negro race. Purer homes now abound; intemperance is giving way to sobriety and economy; love and order have driven out hate and confusion; the golden rule and the Bible are taken as the measurement of conduct; and, where-ever Negro communities are found, cozy little cottages, and often palatial homes with thoughtful and convenient appointments, have taken the place of the very many little one-room huts in which all the whole range of domestic life was wont to be performed. In these new homes a better and more intelligent class of children is being reared to fit in the scheme of our advancing civilization. These are very hopeful signs of a better generation and a brighter day for the American Negro.

Our Negro teachers and leaders have instilled into the race a desire for the accumulation of property and wealth, and the keeping of bank accounts. "Put money in thy purse," "Put money in thy purse." This advice from Shakespeare is ripening in the minds of all thoughtful Negroes, and the results are being universally manifested. In the United States the valuation of Negro property runs far into the millions. In the state of Georgia alone Negroes are paying taxes on $15,629,811 worth of property; of this amount $1,000,000 represents the increase of a single year--1900 to 1901.

In the domain of literature and the varied professions the education of the Negro has furnished us as lawyers, Hon. D. Augustus Straker, Detroit, Michigan; Hon. R. B. Elliott, late of Columbia, South Carolina; Hon. Jno. R. Lynch, Washington, D. C., paymaster United States Army; Hon. J. W. Lyons, Augusta, Georgia, register Treasury, Washington, D. C.; Hon. H. M. Porter, Augusta, Georgia, lawyer at the bar.

As statesmen Negro education has produced Hon. Frederick Douglass, "The old man eloquent," late of Washington, D. C.; Hon. B. C. Bruce, ex-registrar Treasury, late of Washington, D. C.; Hon. Geo. W. Murray, ex-member Congress, Columbia, D. C.; Hon. Geo. H. White, ex-member Congress, North Carolina.

As poets, Mrs. Frances E. N. Harper and Paul Lawrence Dunbar are samples of a splendid class.

As musicians it might suffice to say that Blind Tom, Black Patti and Madam Selika are only samples of a large class.

Negro education has furnished us pulpits better filled with intelligent men, devout and pious; and with modern churches that are in harmony with the Christian demands of the age. In the Ecumenical Conference recently held in London, the Negro clergy represented there were from all parts of the civilized world, and the high tribute paid to their ability and ecclesiastical character was the comment of all the English papers. Our bishops and eminent pulpit divines are largely young men, the product of our Negro schools. Dr. C. T. Walker, now of the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, New York, and the foremost pulpit orator in all the Baptist ranks, perhaps, is a native of Georgia soil, and a product of our Georgia schools. But I must not prolong this account with a long list of bishops, D. D's., LL. D's., M. D's., diplomats, artists, painters, mechanics, inventors, and successful business men, who are the product of Negro education, but before closing this humble effort it is but proper that we should make mention of some of the men who are universally regarded as masters in the profession of teaching, and who in themselves are great benefactors of the Negro race. The following educators have wrought much in the matter of elevating their race in all the essentials of right-living. The most conspicuous figure just now in the firmament of Negro educators is President Booker T. Washington, who has at his command both the hand and the heart of the American people. The far-reaching influences of his work at Tuskegee, Alabama, where, perhaps, more than 1,300 Negro youths are taught all the useful and honorable methods of labor, are too well understood to merit further comment here. President J. H. Lewis, president of Wilberforce University, Ohio, has and is still doing a work that will tell on ages and tell for God in the matter of developing Negro ability along the lines of higher intellectual manhood. Prof. R. R. Wright, president of the State Industrial College, Savannah, Georgia, is a pioneer in the work of uplifting the Negro youth, and his excellent work recently begun at the state college is already teeming with fruit. Miss Lucy C. Laney is a woman of rare and well-developed intellectual attainments. The Haines Normal and Industrial School, with all of its influence for good, will ever be an imperishable monument to her memory. Her reputation as a woman of ability and culture is universal. Prof. W. H. Council, of Alabama, is hardly second to President B. T. Washington in his noble work in Alabama of uplifting Negro youth.

In professors, W. S. Scarborough, who holds the chair of Latin and Greek in Wilberforce University, Ohio; Prof. W. H. Crogman, chair of Latin and Greek, Clark University, Atlanta, Georgia; Prof. Kelly Miller, chair of mathematics, Howard University, Washington, D. C.; Prof. J. W. Gilbert, chair of Latin and Greek, Paine College, Augusta, Georgia; and Prof. W. E. B. DuBois, chair of science and economics, Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia, we have the ripest examples of high-class scholarship. These men, steeped in the love and sciences of all ages and people, have won respect and recognition in all the institutions, and among all educators of world-wide reputation, both European and American. They are only samples of a large class of educated Negroes who have given a very high literary tone to Negro intelligence. In an account like this, which necessarily must be brief, it must not be expected that we could elaborate into details about any one of the features above mentioned. In mentioning them thus briefly it is only our purpose to call attention to the great work now being accomplished by the Negro teachers.

In closing these brief lines it might be well to consider several charges made against the educated Negro. It is charged that education teaches Negroes how to commit crime, etc. Because some educated Negroes commit crime and do wrong that is no more of an argument against the education of the Negro race than it would be an argument against the education of the Caucasian race, because some educated white men commit crime and do wrong. If a man has indigestion from eating the wrong kind of food that ought not to be taken as an argument against eating. Educated Negroes as a class are among our best American citizens.

Again, there are still some "back numbers" belonging to the old school of thought who still charge a lack of ability on the part of Negro scholars to absorb and assimilate the same amount of intelligence that the Caucasian race does.

In our humble school career in the state of Georgia we have sat on the same seat with the boys and girls of the Caucasian race, and, often, in the recitation room, under the same professor in the higher classics and sciences, we have shared the same book with them, and yet at the time of reckoning term standing we have seen those white professors give the members of these mixed classes their class rating in their various subjects, and the average percentage of Caucasian and Negro pupils in all these subjects would be a matter of significant comment.

In many instances like these, both in the North and South, the ability of our Negro scholars is so forcibly demonstrated; and what the Negro teachers may yet do for their race and for civilization will be left as a rich inheritance for the enjoyment of an advancing civilization. Of all teachers it may be said that he who shapes a soul and fits it for an eternal habitation in the blissful Beyond has erected for himself a monument that eclipses in grandeur and architectural beauty all the conceptions of a Solomon, though Solomon was the wisest of men.

TOPIC XXIII.

IS THE NEGRO NEWSPAPER AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE ELEVATION OF THE NEGRO?

BY DR. D. W. ONLEY.

DR. D. WATSON ONLEY.

Dr. D. Watson Onley, the eldest child of John E. and Mary J. R. Onley (nee Wheele), was born in Newark, N. J. When but two years old his parents moved to Brooklyn, N. Y. He was early taught to read and write by his mother, afterward he was sent to the Raymond Street public school, Prof. Chas. A. Dorsey, principal. Here he showed a capable mind, by his easy mastery of all the subjects assigned him, and by his standing among his fellows.

At the age of thirteen, by force of circumstances, his progress in school was checked, his parents having changed residence, going to Florida, transferred him to entirely new scenes, environments and conditions. After attending school in Jacksonville, Fla., for three years, he entered the college preparatory course of Atlanta University.

In 1876, returning North, he entered and took a collegiate course in Lincoln University, after which he took two years' technical course in Boston, Mass.

In 1880 he married an accomplished young lady of one of the first families of Charleston, S. C., Miss Ella L. Drayton. Two charming and accomplished daughters of this happy union are Charlotte E. and Mary M., the elder one a graduate of the Normal school at Washington, D. C., and a teacher in its public school. The younger daughter is at present a pupil in Normal School.

In 1885 he returned to Jacksonville, Fla., began business as architect and builder. After three years of prosperous business, he launched upon the world the first steam saw and planing mill, owned and operated entirely by colored men to manufacture lumber in all its forms for house building. The plant grew rapidly, increasing in facilities and continued prosperous until by the hand of an incendiary it was swept by fire. The State Normal and Industrial College of the State needing a practical and efficient man to take charge of their technical department, solicited his services, where he taught all branches of architectural and mechanical drawing, manual training, uses and care of wood-working machinery and steam engine.

Not being thoroughly satisfied with his surrounding conditions, he struck out for a new line of work, that of dentistry, which, after three years of hard study, struggle and sacrifice, with the cares and responsibilities of a family upon him all the while, he finished at Howard University, dental department, and immediately opened an office in Washington, D. C. where he enjoys a lucrative practice. His life has been a busy one, and his success only represents what many have accomplished who have on hand a good stock of push.

In answer to this question I would say that the press next to the school has done more for the intellectual advancement, hence, elevation, of the Negro, than anything else. When I say press, I mean specifically the Negro press, which is an integral part of the American press of the country. It is his positive mouthpiece, effective when other audiences are denied him. Before Negro newspapers, the Negro had nothing to set forth his claims and true status. The race consequently speaks through the press to plead its cause.

Reviewing the history and growth of the Negro press of this country since it was launched by John B. Russwurm in New York City, March 30, 1827, to the present, comparing style of form, character of matter, increase of circulation, widespread and universal interest, the great host of contemporaries that have joined in making a vast throng of channels through which we can advocate our cause without fear of having it misrepresented or smoothed over, but bringing forth our opinions to truly enlighten the world. The general support given speaks volumes for the good it has done in elevating the Negro.

In conducting the Negro newspaper of to-day as compared with fifteen years ago there is a marked change. The success then in maintaining and increasing the circulation depended largely in appealing to the vanities of the subscribers in parading their name in print, calling attention to many things of no consequence to the public, less to themselves; but to-day in a very large degree that is changed; it has become distasteful, which is a very healthful sign along the lines of improvement of taste.

While it is true the majority of Negroes care little but for local news, doings of their own race, care but little for the news of the great wide world, it must be conceded a step far in the right direction if they can be interested at all. The Negro press, like all others, had to begin at the bottom and grow, not patterned particularly after any other paper, but fashioned to suit the tastes, conditions and interests of its customers. It is the privilege of the editor, not only to shape public opinion, pointing out the policy that alone will conserve to our best and lasting interest, but to develop the tastes, and so elevate the race which he serves. Through the press the editor sees that the interests, as far as our freedom and rights are concerned, are in no wise abridged, circumscribed or destroyed. In a large measure this has been one of the great benefits to the race; through the medium of the press we have been awakened to our condition, and our rights, and we jealously guard and clamor for their enjoyment and recognition. Although dark clouds of prejudice and lawlessness obscure our pathway, yet we are surely though slowly moving on in the pathway already blazed before us.

In the hands of the Negro, the press has been an educator to the whites as well as to the Negro, reflecting his manhood and capacity; this, too, has elevated the Negro's appreciation of manhood and appreciable standing among men.

Before Negro newspapers we were unknown in history, art and science. Like the Negro exhibits at all the great fairs, they have served to open the eyes of the blind, and to remove an ignorant prejudice which was against us.

To-day we find the leading journals of this country clipping and editorially commenting upon topics discussed and articles appearing originally in Negro newspapers, and more than this, find the Negro newspapers for sale on the principal stands where newspapers are to be had, indicating the demand. In this city it would be hard not to find the "Colored American" and "Washington Bee" at the newsdealer's. "Yes, we keep them," I have heard to the query about the above papers; "they are good sellers." Now what is true in this city is no doubt true in other places where the local papers have secured recognition from their standing and worth.

The Negro newspaper has taken such a stand that its columns are read by white patrons, many of whom take pride and interest in noting the advancement of their brother in black.

Many newspapers published by whites have taken advantage of this condition, and the Negro's interest in the press, and have set aside columns devoted to his individual interest; have procured competent Negro reporters to gather all facts and doings of the race of special interest to it, and are published daily.

This has increased the circulation by thousands of new subscribers who eagerly seek to know just what is going on among them. The causes of non-support of the Negro press is no argument that the press has not been elevating, nor any argument against its possibilities. This is largely a condition due to poverty, illiteracy and inferiority of paper, but time will bring about a change. In the hands of the Negro the press has been a success. Failure in management and poor financial profit have been to one and all engaged in the pursuit, yet the net result shows success, not failure; and its success demonstrates the possibilities of the race, notwithstanding the lack of encouragement.

SECOND PAPER.

IS THE NEGRO NEWSPAPER AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE ELEVATION OF THE NEGRO?

BY WALTER N. WALLACE.

WALTER N. WALLACE.

Walter N. Wallace, the organizer of the Colored Co-operative Publishing Company, of Boston, Mass., publishers of the "Colored American Magazine" and many other race publications, was born at Boydton, Mecklenburg County, Va., in 1874.

His mother was Nannie J. Ellerson, who has the distinction of being one of the first graduates of the Hampton Normal School. Mr. Wallace is the oldest grandchild of that institution. His father Merritt Wallace was also a student of Hampton, and after leaving that school he settled in Boydton, in educational work, where he became one of the most prominent and energetic citizens of his community. He was at one time Deputy Treasurer and Commissioner of Revenue for the county.

At nine years of age Mr. W. Wallace was sent to school in Richmond, where he completed the grammar course, then spending two years preliminary training at the High, before entering the State College (Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institution, at Petersburg), where he spent another two years. While at this college he was prominent in athletics and a member of the institute band.

Later, determining upon the study of medicine, he entered the Leonard Medical College, where he spent two years in theory, then turning his face northwards he came to Boston in 1896, where he secured a position as prescription clerk in a prominent drug store, there becoming more practically acquainted with medicines.

In May, 1901, he launched his pet scheme, the "Colored American Magazine," and under his editorial care there is now no question of its future, as it has passed far beyond the experimental stage, and is now an assurity.

The confidence which has been displayed by him and his associates in the belief "that a man is what he makes himself," is wonderful, for they have, through strenuous effort, brought the magazine up to an actual circulation of over twenty thousand copies per month, with a steady increase each month, besides publishing many Race books, which are the equal of any in merit and mechanical makeup.

Personally, Mr. Wallace is of a kind and modest disposition and hardly realizes that he has accomplished within such a short while a thorough new departure in Negro journalism. If ever persuaded to forget for a moment, and be drawn from his business cares, you will find him a pleasant entertainer, both in music and conversation, for beneath his seeming austere countenance there lies an urbane streak of humor, piquant with wit and pleasant cynicisms, much to be enjoyed.

In its entirety, yes. The power of the press is indisputable. To the Negro youth of the land it should be put, as a beneficent educator, next to our schools. In its pages they should be able to read the good being accomplished by our prominent race-men in this glorious fight now on; this will cultivate a desire to emulate them. They will read of the bad being daily done and will learn to abhor such dastardly actions. With such a mission to perform our newspapers should contain the essence of truth and good and sensible instructions; for its power of assimilating bad influences is equal to the good which would accrue.

The Negro journal is an important factor, because it is a source through which the younger generation should and must become acquainted with the good accomplished by members of the race, with the possible exception of a favored few whom the ordinary press seems to think is all that is worth speaking of. Important because the rank and file is utterly ignored and positively unnoticed by the American white press (except as an example of the demonstrative inability to be an intelligent and thrifty citizen), and from which they pick from day to day the lowest as a type of Negro capabilities.

In order to fully explain the position taken in this matter we will be compelled to deviate from the main question.

To rightly diagnose the cause, for the seemingly apathetic manner in which the race appreciates its journals we must place the blame upon the right parties.

A few hundred dollars, a set of type and a press do not make a newspaper. A man with an education does not always make an editor. Many of our editors grow discouraged over their failure to arouse a support to their journals, blaming the race for non-appreciation, when the fault lies with themselves. Do they give their readers news? If a local sheet, they deal in stale generalities. If a general sheet, they confine themselves to locals of no general interest.

Let our journals arise, procure competent help, give the news, regardless of class, as the newspaper is for the masses. Make a business of the paper, run it on strict business plan, have good printing, be careful with proofs, avoid all mistakes as nearly as possible; study their patrons' tastes and cater to them, for it is not dealing fairly to require the masses to purchase for race pride when they should receive the worth of their money.

Petty animosities should not fill their pages with vituperation, which is shocking to refined sensibilities; neither should the reading public be forced to search for original matter with a microscope. He should ever be on the alert to champion the Negro's cause and never wholly sink his originality within the narrow confines of party bounds. Stand up for truth, and censure wherein, in his wide judgment, he feels it necessary so to do. Never let his paper travel in a rut, plenty of room for expenditure of gray matter.

We have many Negro journals which should be a source of pride to the race at large, others, we are sorry to say, do not deserve support and should make room for those which do.

A press association should be formed and the happenings sent from one to the other and used in brief by out-of-town journals and be fully detailed by local journals. More unity is needed and is a thing to be encouraged and maintained. Our journals depend too much upon chance MSS. than upon active reporters for their news.

Much could be said of the many sacrifices and labors of many of our editors, but we believe that the most good can be accomplished by fewer and better newspapers, than with "quantity without quality."

In our article we place great stress upon truth; we believe the goal for which all the Negro journals are laboring is to find "the means for the best good of the race," and way waste energy in useless toil?

THIRD PAPER.

IS THE NEGRO NEWSPAPER AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE ELEVATION OF THE NEGRO?

BY RICHARD W. THOMPSON.

RICHARD W. THOMPSON.

Richard W. Thompson stands in the front rank of those who are making history for the Negro race in this century. A native of Kentucky, he has spent most of his life in Indiana and was educated in the common and high schools of Indianapolis. His career of thirty-five years is quite an interesting one, abounding in well-directed efforts that have done much to give character and dignity to the Afro-American youth of the land. At an early age he evinced a remarkable aptitude for public affairs, and at school showed proficiency of the highest order in such studies as political economy, civil government, history, literature. He was especially happy in the art of English composition, his papers on current problems attracting wide attention in his home community. Losing his father when very young, he was largely dependent upon his own exertions for a livelihood and throughout his school days worked at a variety of pursuits.

In 1879 he became associated with Messrs Bagby & Co., in the publication of The Indianapolis Leader, the first journalistic venture launched in the Hoosier State, and later on mastered the trade of printing. Taking as naturally to newspaper work as "a duck to water," he made himself an indispensable quantity on the Leader staff and at seventeen, was city editor. At the same time in connection with his school duties, he kept books for Dr. F. M. Ferree, secretary of the Marion County Board of Health. When The Indianapolis World was launched in 1883, Mr. Thompson took charge of the city department and at different times during the palmy days of that sheet, held nearly every position on it from work at the case to foreman of the mechanical department and managing editor. He was the first managing editor of The Indianapolis Freeman, in which position he was a marked success. Later, as editor of the Washington Colored American, he won national fame as an accomplished journalist, a graceful, versatile and forcible writer and a clear and courageous thinker upon all questions that affect the Negro's social, political and industrial development. He leads rather than follows popular sentiment, and at no time while the editorial tripod was in his hands did he take a stand upon any issue that failed to meet the hearty endorsement of the race and which was not accepted as the expression of the best thought and principle of our people. In argument his style is logical and conservative. As a spicy paragrapher, originator of attractive news features, and as a keen observer of popular tastes, he has few equals and no superiors in the army of Afro-American journalists. He has done special work for prominent papers of both races, and furnished much "copy" for private individuals, always giving complete satisfaction.

Mr. Thompson has been fortunate in the matter of official recognition. At the age of fifteen he served as page in the Indiana Legislature, being the first colored boy so appointed. After attaining his majority he became a clerk in the Marion County Auditor's office, and in 1888 he led a class of seventy-five in a civil service examination, earning an appointment as letter carrier. He came to Washington in 1894 and was appointed clerk in the counting division of the Government Printing Office, enjoying the distinction of being the first colored man to be assigned to a clerical position in that department. Mr. Thompson is now connected with the United States Census Bureau and is regarded as a faithful and efficient assistant.

Busy as Mr. Thompson must necessarily be, he has time to aid in promoting race movements and organizations, being an active spirit in the National Afro-American Council, the Pen and Pencil Club, and St. Luke's P. E. Church. He is now serving his third term as President of the Second Baptist Lyceum, a cosmopolitan debating forum that has won a national reputation.

The question is both pertinent and timely. In the past two decades the necessity for the preacher, the teacher, the lawyer, and the doctor has not been open to dispute. Every father and mother, no matter what their social standing or their worldly means, have striven honestly, faithfully and persistently to enroll their favorite boy in the ranks of one or the other of these callings, as if they were the only open highways toward distinction, or the goal denominated "success."

In contemplating the professions which make for racial grandeur, racial opportunities, and protection from assault, many of us forget the importance of the Negro press as a factor in the elevation of the masses. It is not too much to say, in this connection, that of the primary levers to which the race must look for support, none contribute more toward endurance, permanency, and virility than the press. We have the pulpit, the schoolhouse, the field of politics, and the arena of business. Each has its bearing in the development of a larger life and a more perfect manhood for the Afro-American; but, conceding all due respect to the noble men and women who stand in the vanguard of each of these missions, no one of them is more potent or far reaching in its effect than the press. From the pulpit comes the precepts that direct moral and religious thought; the schoolhouse stands for a broader intellectual culture; the field of politics gives us our practical experience in the science of government, affording us an opportunity for actual participation in the shaping of legislation and in giving vitality to public policies. The press, however, occupies a most unique position with reference to all of them. It is the fulcrum upon which all these activities must depend for useful service. The press is the concentrated voice of the masses; the mouthpiece of the age; the universal censor--directed by popular opinion--from whose verdict there is no appeal. The press is the medium through which the great work of the church is disseminated over land and sea, and gives to the world the sweetening influence that the spoken word offers only to a single parish. It magnifies the labors of educational leaders and is itself an indispensable adjunct to the growth of intelligence. In the political field the press has long been recognized as an institution more powerful than any individual, and from the post of messenger or handmaiden of the people--a mere purveyor of current happenings--it has come to be the master mind in the economy of nations. To the business world it is a "guide, counselor and friend," and correctly analyzes the ingredients that bring material prosperity to the civic organization, of which all of us are a part. That distinguished autocrat of autocrats, Napoleon, once exclaimed, with a bitterness born of impending destruction: "Hostile newspapers are more to be feared than bayonets." And why not? It holds in its grasp the power of life and death, success and failure, happiness and misery.

These facts amply justify the assertion that the Negro newspaper is an all-important factor in the elevation of the race. Caucasian journals, while general in their news features, too often lack breadth in their opinion department, when the race question is a burning issue, just as religious denominations, the trades and political parties require "class" papers for the exploitation of their particular lines of thought, the Negro has found that only through his own "class organ" can he obtain a sturdy defense of his character, the record of his laudable achievements, and the advocacy of his rights as a man and a citizen. So the Negro journal came, and it is here to stay. The Negro journal had its origin in the direst necessity, and that necessity was never more apparent than at the opening of the twentieth century when the Declaration of Independence seems not broad enough to include the colored American, when the Constitution of the United States is perverted from the sacred intent of its framers and the spirit of disfranchisement is rampant throughout the land.

This demand for a Negro journal was first met between 1827 and 1834 by unpretentious sheets in and about New York City. But it was not until 1847 that race journalism became a positive factor, when that intrepid spirit, Frederick Douglass, launched "The North Star." This great man built up a circulation upon two continents and wielded an influence not exceeded by any subsequent race venture. That paper blazed a wide path, and in its path followed enterprise after enterprise, developing the sentiment for liberty and keeping in touch with the newer requirements of the hour. No reliable census of the many race journals has been kept. They have sprung from every state and section, but their span of life in most cases has been so brief and sporadic that only rough estimates have been attempted. To-day, perhaps, three hundred are in existence, a few taking high rank in literary quality--others struggling desperately for maintenance. The majority are printed at a positive loss, as regards dollars and cents. It is doubtful if any of the survivors are supported exclusively from revenues derived from subscriptions and advertising. It is a stinging indictment of our much-lauded "race pride" that the greater proportion of our Negro journalists are compelled to depend for a living upon teaching, preaching, law, medicine, office-holding, or upon some outside business investment. In character and make-up, these papers are as widely varied as the localities and environments from which they spring. Many are crude specimens of the "art preservative," dealing heavily in "boiler plate"--to use a professional term--and very lightly in original matter. A few have taken steps out of the beaten path and are giving striking evidence of what the resourceful and energetic Negro journalist could do under circumstances more encouraging. Our editors are, for the most part, men of strong personality, with standing and influence in their respective "bailiwicks." Without notable exception they speak for manhood, for race elevation, and for material development in every avenue of industry.

How many of us have paused and candidly considered just what Negro journalism is doing for the uplift of the masses? Notwithstanding the hard fact that the editorial work of many writers is done late at night, after protracted hours of labor in other fields; and notwithstanding that where a journalist is able to give his entire time to the business, he is often sole solicitor, clerk, compositor, pressman, collector, office boy, and editorial staff combined--despite all these disadvantages, the beneficent effect of the Negro press is felt all over the land. The dozens of able men and women who are engaged in this noble work, most of them doing so at a tremendous sacrifice, are true patriots, bearing burdens from which the timid shrink, leading cheerily where none but the brave dare follow, contending with malicious opposers, every inch of ground, this sturdy band struggles on year after year, hoping patiently for the "joy that cometh in the morning." Through their efforts Negro writers have been given a fair hearing, and, while the Caucasian journal is giving space to the police court episodes of our lower orders, the alert Negro sentinel finds in the church, the schoolroom, the inventor's studio, the author's desk, and in honorable political or social station, a most fertile field for his operations. Negro newspapers have aroused in us the commercial and industrial spirit, and are giving employment to hundreds of young colored men and women as bookkeepers, stenographers and canvassers. They are lending practical aid in solving the race's labor problem by yearly instructing and providing employment to printers, book-binders, pressmen and other artisans. They are building up a market for Negro labor, and neutralizing to a great extent the baleful influence of the trades unions' hostility. The Negro editor has increased the self-respect of the race by collating and publishing the creditable achievements of our people, furnishing a periodical compendium of history and placing the Negro in his most favorable light before the critics of the world. The truly representative Negro journal reflects the sober judgment of the race upon topics of general interest. It largely fixes our status as thinkers and philosophers of the times. The rights of no people can be ruthlessly invaded whose press is fearless, pure, upright, and patriotic. No people can forever be denounced as ignorant, vicious, and shiftless who support a press that is intelligent, moral, and thrifty.

Let it be remembered here, however, that the picture has its somber tints. Negro journalism, speaking generally, is not a paying investment. The fault does not lie wholly with either the public or the publisher. As a mass we are not a reading people and the bulk of us neither know nor appreciate the value of the work that the race paper is doing. Some of us take and pay for Caucasian journals for their news features--which is eminently fitting and proper--but the Negro journal should not be made to suffer in the unequal competition, for the latter fills a want which the former cannot or does not reach. One dollar to the race paper is often worth as much as ten to the wealthy corporation behind our great metropolitan dailies. It is not alone our illiterates who fail to support our journals. The educated classes are not as loyal to the cause as their means, learning, political interest and race pride suggest that they should be. True, it frequently happens that our papers fall into the hands of characterless adventurers who are "anything for a dollar," and it is felt that the best method of rebuking their self-constituted and erratic leadership is to treat them with silent contempt. To this no thinker can offer a reasonable objection. A journal that does not represent the highest impulses of a community does not deserve support. The personal organ, the scandalmonging sheet, the political and social blackmailer, the confidence-destroying campaign dodger, and the subsidized traitor to racial manhood are all under a ban, and should have no place in the homes of self-respecting Negroes. In this category should also be classed the colorless journal, that smirks in the recesses of cowardice. We should be faithful, however, to those that are honest and straightforward. We should strengthen their arms by our moral and financial resources. Booker T. Washington aptly points out how difficult it is for a needy man to resist the temptation of the bribe-giver, and tells pathetically of the uphill work of making a Christian out of a hungry mortal. Support the right kind of editors and the result will be a press that is progressive, healthful, and fearless--an institution of which all may justly be proud.

Is the ideal race journal attainable? I say, YES--when the two elements necessary to the transaction--the public and the publisher--are able to meet on a common ground, in the spirit of co-operation and fair dealing. The chasm between the journalist and his rightful constituency must be bridged by mutual confidence and mutual sympathy, or neither can reap the great benefits that lie in concentration of forces.

The ideal journal is that one which places racial weal above private gain--which exalts patriotism above pelf. It is controlled by men big enough and broad enough to eschew petty personalities and to avoid cheap sensationalism. It is piloted by men who breathe the atmosphere of freedom, whose inspiration is not drawn from the committee rooms of political parties, and whose course is not dictated by scheming politicians. It is the antithesis of sycophancy. The ideal journal is backed up by men who are far-sighted enough to perceive that success through trickery is short lived, and that character is the only foundation upon which an enduring structure can be built. It is conducted by men who know by experience that genuine worth will ultimately be appreciated, and that refined taste, sound judgment, and a saving sense of proportion will produce a newspaper that may stand as a model to posterity.

Journals of this type, sincere, earnest, and consistent--and in the future their names will be legion--are without question the key-stone in the arch of those forces which make for the permanent elevation of the Negro people. Such journals are prime factors in the race problem.

TOPIC XXIV.

ARE OTHER THAN BAPTIST AND METHODIST CHURCHES ADAPTED TO THE PRESENT NEGRO?

BY REV. GEORGE F. BRAGG, JR.,

REV. GEORGE F. BRAGG, JR.

George Freeman Bragg, Junior, Priest and Rector, was born in Warrenton, N. C., January 25, 1863. Shortly after his birth his parents, George F. and Mary Bragg, removed to Petersburg, Va. It was in this latter place that their son was reared and educated; remaining there until ordained to the Episcopal Ministry, he left to take charge of his first work in Norfolk, Va. Mr. Bragg was educated, first, in the Episcopal Parochial School, then in the St. Stephen's Normal School, and in the Bishop Payne Divinity School, all of Petersburg, Va. His education, however, was supplemented by private tuition by a master in languages, under whom he studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew and philosophy. In 1881 he was appointed a page in the Virginia Legislature, and a little later, by the Speaker, promoted as the postmaster of that body. In 1882, though not of age, he founded and edited the "Virginia Lancet," the first Colored weekly published in the "Black Belt" of Virginia. This newspaper he conducted for some four or five years, and on January 12, 1887, in St. Stephen's Church, Petersburg, Va., he was ordained Deacon by Bishop Whittle of Virginia. He immediately left for Norfolk, Va., where he began his ministry at the head of the little Episcopal Mission of that city. He remained in Norfolk for nearly five years, and during that time formally organized Grace Church, secured the lot, built a new church and rectory and improved the old school building. A very large day Industrial School was carried on by Mr. Bragg in connection with his work. While here, in June, 1887, Governor Fitzhugh Lee, of Virginia, appointed him one of the State's Trustees of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, where he served for four years, resigning only because of leaving the State.

In December, 1888, he was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Whittle in St. Luke's Church, Norfolk, Va. In the Fall of 1891 he accepted an invitation to become the Rector of St. James' Church, Baltimore, Md. The church, although one of the oldest of the connection, had been very much run down. During a ministry there of ten years, he has wrought remarkable improvement. He has increased the communicant list from sixty-three to nearly two hundred, and advanced the church well-nigh to complete self-support. The old church, which was in a Jewish neighborhood, has been sold during the present year, and a handsome brick structure erected in another section of the city. Mr. Bragg, during his residence in Baltimore, has founded a splendid charitable institution, the Maryland Home for Friendless Colored Children, and two young men have been sent into the ministry of the church directly through his efforts. For many years the Rev. Mr. Bragg was Secretary of the Annual Conference of Episcopal Church Workers among the Colored people. And in addition to his many other arduous labors he has found time to edit the "Afro-American Ledger," a weekly of this city, the "Church Advocate," and the "Maryland Home," monthly publications.

Mr. Bragg is a well known figure in all public movements for race amelioration, and is a veteran newspaper man, having been Secretary of the National Press Convention for four years, beginning with the presidency of the late Rev. Dr. W. J. Simmons.

At first the asking of this question is a most natural one, seeing that the great body of Negroes are attached to either one of the above churches, and it would seem at a first glance that these religious organizations are pre-eminently suited to the Negro race. But, we hope to show that not only are other churches adapted to the "present Negro," but one of these other churches meets the Negro's need better than either one of those above mentioned. Of course it is hardly necessary for me to state that our showing is conceived in the very best spirit, and with the fullness of Christian love towards our Baptist and Methodist brethren. Did I not believe that the church of which I am a member is best suited for the Negro, I would at once renounce attachment thereto and embrace most lovingly the one which I thought more efficiently equipped to minister to the complexed and diversified needs of my race. On account of a multitude of reasons, not necessary to state here, Negroes naturally drifted into that form of Christianity presented by the Baptist and Methodist churches. With the innate feeling and strong tendency to warmth, fervor, animation and excitement, it is not at all surprising that people so strongly emotional should gravitate in that direction. Whatever may be my own criticisms with respect to the defects in these two systems, which render them inferior to the church of which I am a member, and therefore less suitable to the needs of the race, I much prefer stating my side of the question and leaving my readers free to draw their own conclusions. That portion of the Universal Church, known in this country as the Episcopal Church, to my mind, is better suited and equipped for the amelioration of the condition of the Negro than any other.

The Negro is specially fond of "regularity" in religious as well as political affairs. In this respect the Episcopal Church comes to him not as something new but as the living exponent of the old-time religion and the old church which has actually descended to him, through all the ages past from the very hands of Christ down to this present time. It has historic continuity and claims none less than the Blessed Master as its founder. She is not founded upon the Bible, for she gave to the world this blessed book. Her sons inspired of God wrote it. And the claim of historic continuity can be established and proven in the ordinary way that we attest other historical facts. The church, then, that Jesus Christ founded and concerning which He said the "Gates of hell should not prevail against it," must of necessity be "adapted to the present Negro."

The Negro needs the faith once delivered to the saints, not in shreds or left to pick it out for himself, but the whole faith. This the Episcopal Church offers him. A complete faith, naturally, is to be found in a comprehensive church. The Episcopal Church is most comprehensive. She believes more in turning in than in turning out. Men are not brought into the fold to be "turned out" for every little thing, but they are brought in to be built up, established and rooted and grounded in Him. The church, then, is adapted to the present Negro because she gives him not opinions and theories, but the living faith of the ages and a living Christ as potential to-day as when He trod this earth clothed in flesh. And this church is most comprehensive, taking in all sorts and conditions of men, and by grace dispensed through sacraments, ordained by Christ Himself, seeks to bring to the fullness of stature as realized in Jesus Christ.

The Episcopal Church is pre-eminently adapted to the present Negro, for the present Negro is most eager to learn, and, above all other religious bodies, she is a teaching church. More Scripture is read at one Episcopal service than is ofttimes read in a month in the services of other churches. She has a liturgy which is the sum total of all that is good and grand in the ages past, and the constant and almost imperceptible influence of her most excellent system of public worship, as indicated in the Book of Common Prayer, silently but effectively issues, in moulding and mellowing good Christian character. She teaches not only through the prayer book, but by the yearly round of feast, festival and fast, of which, like a great panorama the acts and incidents in the life of her Lord are constantly set forth before those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. More than that, she teaches through symbolism. Many persons, and a considerable number of Negroes are here included, are endowed with but little brain. But they have eyes, and what they take in with their eyes help to rivet and fasten in their memories what they seize upon with what brain they possess. Our children begin to take in the surrounding objects with their eyes long before their minds are sufficiently developed to act, and the same is true in the present matter. The Episcopal Church, therefore, is especially adapted to the present Negro because she is adequately and sufficiently equipped to touch him at that portion of his being which will respond in unison with what she has to offer for his improvement. Her service addresses itself to his natural senses, as well as to his mental powers, however strong or weak they may be.

The Episcopal Church is adapted to the Negro because her worship is hearty, beautiful, uplifting and inspiring, though simple and easy, furnishing the greatest opportunity for active participation therein by the ignorant as well as the learned. The worship of the Episcopal Church harmonizes most beautifully with the strong religious fervor of the Negro, and as a vehicle for offering up those intense longings and aspirations of his heart, is without an equal.

The Episcopal Church is adapted to the Negro because she believes so persistently and thoroughly in "a change of heart." Of all religious bodies not one lays such emphasis on the absolute necessity of "a change of heart" as does the Episcopal Church. Stamped upon every page of her divine liturgy, and permeating the beautiful prayers of her offices, and inwrought in her hymnology, is this deep and firm recognition and teaching with respect to a change of heart. All her sacraments, disciplinary offices, instructions and the like, are with the design of helping her children, through the aid of the Divine Spirit, in proving the genuineness of their change of heart by a conspicuous, powerful and beautiful change of life.

The Episcopal Church is adapted to the Negro because she offers a government that is congenial and pleasant to his sunshiny nature, and which, while it amply protects him in the enjoyment of all the blessed privileges of religious culture, saves him the disaster and confusion of a democracy, which, when realized, is but another name for anarchy and confusion.

The government of the Episcopal Church is jointly shared by her clergymen and laymen, and the stability and security of its government is firmly attested by the past ages of experience and notable achievements.

In conclusion the Episcopal Church is the church for the Negro, because she is both willing and able to supply his every need, and under her loving nurture and constant training in the end will graduate him into a well-rounded Christian man of symmetrical character and beauty.

SECOND PAPER.

ARE OTHER THAN BAPTIST AND METHODIST CHURCHES ADAPTED TO THE PRESENT NEGRO?

BY REV. JOHN W. WHITTAKER.

REV. JOHN W. WHITTAKER.

Rev. John W. Whittaker, A. M., a prominent Congregational pastor, was a poor boy who made his way up through many hardships. He was born at Atlanta, Ga., December 23, 1860. Of his father he knows very little. His mother was a devoted Christian whose life greatly influenced his character. When old enough, he was put to work to help support the family. While an office boy at Atlanta he met a young man, Lewis G. Watts, a thorough Christian and fond of reading, who cultivated Mr. Whittaker's friendship and took a great interest in him. Whenever with Mr. Whittaker he questioned him in arithmetic, grammar and the news of the day.

In this way a desire for an education was awakened in Mr. Whittaker. He decided to go to school. He began his education in the summer of 1876 in a country school in a suburb of Atlanta. From here he went to the Starr's Grammar School. His examination revealed the fact that he had considerable general information, but it was so unsystematic that it was very difficult to tell to what grade he belonged. He was, however, classified as a senior with conditions and was graduated with honor at the close of the school year. Then he matriculated in Atlanta University, where he studied seven years, completing the college course in 1884. He studied theology at the Hartford Seminary, graduating in 1887.

During these years of study Mr. Whittaker partly supported himself by teaching in the summer and working out of school hours, which was an immense drain upon his strength, and once he broke down under it. Through the kindness of friends he was enabled to spend two summers in the North farming. This change, he feels, was the saving of his life. June 1, 1887, at Springfield, Mass., where he held his first charge, he was ordained. In 1888 he was married to Miss Anna J. Connover, of Hartford, Conn.

Mr. Whittaker educated himself to labor for his people in the South. He was not content to remain in the North. After a very successful year at Springfield, he resigned to accept a call to the Knowles Street Congregational Church of Nashville, Tenn. For three years he was chaplain of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. For seven years and four months he was pastor of the First Congregational Church of New Orleans, La., and three years he had charge of the First Congregational Church of Savannah, Ga. Recently he has been recalled to Tuskegee to be the Financial Secretary of the Tuskegee Institute.

Mr. Whittaker is a preacher of force and power. In every place he pastored he was remarkably successful. He has often been honored by his church with positions of trust and responsibility. He was one of the Louisiana Commissioners of the Negro Department for the Atlanta and Cotton States Exposition.

It would seem from the immense following of these churches that this question would require a negative answer, but it is only in appearance and can be accounted for.

In the days of slavery the Methodist and Baptist churches predominated in the South. The great mass of the slaves attended these churches with their masters and there they were converted and became members. They were thoroughly indoctrinated in the teachings of these churches. At the same time, there were other denominations existing among the slaves: Catholic, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian. In some portions of the United States, where these denominations were in the lead, they have a very large Negro following, whose attachment to these religious sects is so strong that they could be satisfied in no other. They belong to these denominations by birth and training. All that is sacred and dear to them is wrapped up in the history of these bodies. At the present time, it is a fact that the Negro is found in every religious denomination known among men. So it can not be said with truth that no other than Baptist and Methodist churches are adapted to the Negro. The needs of the Negro, from a religious point of view, demand all sects.

How does it come about then that the Baptist and Methodist so largely predominate to-day? These denominations, just after the War of the Rebellion, required no educational qualification for the ministry; and missions were opened by them everywhere an opening was to be found, and every man, learned or ignorant, who felt himself called to preach, was licensed and sent forth to preach in his way and to build up churches. These men were for the most part ignorant and superstitious, with very vague ideas of religion. Their chief object was to draw the people and every other consideration was sacrificed to that end. They pandered to the ignorant and superstitious notions of the Negro, ridiculed intelligence, and prejudiced their followers against it. They had no thought of progress, but taught the people to be satisfied with what their fathers before them did and had; not to believe in this Bible religion which has sprung up since the war; to prefer the old-time preacher who, without any learning, gets up and opens his mouth and lets God fill it with words to utter.

Back of all this there was one ever present motive--the pastor's support, the running expenses of the church, and the keeping up of a house of worship. All this had to be collected from the congregation. Hence the preacher's position hung upon his getting and holding a congregation. In the Methodist Church, a clergyman's advancement depends chiefly upon his ability to increase his membership and to raise money. Therefore, every Baptist and Methodist pastor felt the very great necessity there was upon him of getting as great a crowd as possible and gathering all the finance he could from it. This many did, regardless of the method employed.

Thus it was that these two denominations got hold of the masses and preoccupied the field.

The other denominations went to work in an entirely different way. They did not seek in the first place the spread of their sects, but the elevation of the Negro. They realized that the Negro needed to be developed into strong, self-reliant, and independent characters; that the masses were not moved by duty and did not appreciate the obligation of duty. They are a prey to their feelings, which sway them to the right hand and to the left. They live on their feelings. So engrossed are they in their feelings that they neglect duties and ignore obligations. That is why the religion of so many is such sad rubbish. God gave man reason to rule over his actions. But it was plain that, in the great mass of the Negro, reason is yet a child, ruled over by its playmates--the feelings, passions, and appetites. This is not the kind of foundation upon which to build a true religious life.

Therefore, these denominations went to work to educate the Negro. They put the emphasis on education. Schools instead of churches were established. Their theory was that men should not only be converted, but they also should be educated and made intelligent Christians. They did not discount brains, did not consider ignorance in itself a mark of virtue, nor that learning disqualified a disciple of God for the best service of his Lord and Master. In their polity, the school and the church stood side by side. In their view, an example of higher and better things must be set. Men of intelligence, power, thought, and strong characters, filled with the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, must be raised up from among the people to lead them and to teach them.

They were slow in establishing churches. Whatever churches they set up were pastored by men of learning and character. They were unwilling to stoop to the people, but sought to bring the people up to them. Everything was done according to the custom of the most intelligent and cultured. The preaching was of a high order, yet adapted to the needs of the people. The music was the very best. Thus a model church was set up, suited to the needs of its communicants. As fast as men were trained and prepared for the work of the gospel ministry, they were sent forth to take charge of newly-organized fields. This work went on with considerable opposition, but the influence that went out from these churches and schools was felt in the whole community. They were centers of light and wholesome Christian instruction. They were Mt. Sinais from which the laws of liberty, education, and progress were sent out to the people far and near.

These churches were, in intelligence, far removed from the masses. There was very little effort put forth to reach them. That was not the object now. That work was to come on later. The members of, and the attendance upon, these churches were mainly those who had been sufficiently taught to appreciate them.

The ignorant and prejudiced dubbed these churches high-tone. They said: "Only the educated and well-dressed can go there. The people in that church have no religion. They have only book religion. You must know how to read to go there. Why, you can't shout or say amen. I don't want anything to do with that church. It's too cold for me." Thus there grew up in the minds of the masses generally a prejudice against these denominations. And the fact that these churches were for a long time in the hands of white pastors was used to stir up opposition to them. The clergymen of the Methodists and Baptists made much of it to tear them down and to build up themselves.

Then, again, the members of these educated churches did a great deal to widen the breach by such remarks as this: "We do not want any head handkerchief people in our churches." They often spoke in a way which gave the impression that they felt themselves better than the commonality of their brethren; and whenever visitors came to these churches, the members did not extend them that cordial welcome which makes one feel at home and want to come again. This was often done unconsciously. These members had been apt students, who faithfully copied their instructors. The very atmosphere of these churches was New England, which was cold and formal as compared with our Southern ways. Thus our untrained brethren did not feel at home in their midst.

As time goes on and education becomes more general, these hindrances and difficulties to the progress of the other denominations begin to pass away. The prejudice against them wanes. The Baptist and Methodist are forced to change their tactics; their people begin to clamor for a more intelligent ministry. The churches of the other denominations fell into the hands of young colored men who had been educated and trained to take these places.

The passing of these churches into the hands of the native pastors was the beginning of a new era in our Southern church history. The North had set the standard and carried out its purpose to raise up educated men and women to take up the work. The labor of these churches heretofore was one of education and preparation. Now it becomes one of development and expansion. Up to this time, they cared for the few. Now they are to reach out for the masses. Previously these churches had been in great measure supported by Northern aid, but now they have to deal with all the problems connected with running a church, such as gathering and holding a congregation, securing pastor's support, and all the expense of keeping up and maintaining a house of worship. Hence the necessity is upon them to reach the masses if they expect to exist, not only to save souls, but also that their forces may be strengthened and made more efficient; and they stand to-day as good a chance in this race as do the Methodists or Baptists. Their past work in an educational line in behalf of the Negro in general has given them a lasting hold upon the hearts of the people, who feel that they owe these denominations a debt of gratitude which can never be paid. Most of the Methodist and Baptist leaders of to-day were trained in the schools of these denominations. So they enjoy the best wishes of the communities in which they exist, with very few exceptions. The way is open to them to grow if they will only seize it and use it for all it is worth.

[Note by the Editor.--We assume that the membership of neither the Baptist nor the Methodist churches would claim for a moment that theirs is the only church suitable to the Negro race. But we think it would be unfair to leave the discussion of this topic without correcting an erroneous impression given by the Rev. J. W. Whitaker in the paper above. Perhaps not more than one other church has done more for the education of its Negro ministers and membership than has the Methodist Episcopal Church through its Freedmen's Aid Society and by other methods. This education commenced immediately after the war. We have reason to believe that the Baptist is a close second to the Methodist Church in this matter of educating the Negro. It is possible that some of the Negro Baptist and Methodist Churches that are entirely separated from the white churches of the same denomination may come under the category of especially ignorant ministry and membership; but even these exclusively Negro churches began the work of education soon after emancipation. We suspect that the two churches under criticism as given above preferred not to wait until the freedmen became cultured before attempting to save them.]

THIRD PAPER.

ARE OTHER THAN BAPTIST AND METHODIST CHURCHES ADAPTED TO THE PRESENT NEGRO?

BY REV. O. M. WALLER.

REV. OWEN M. WALLER.

Rev. Owen Meredith Waller, rector of St. Luke's P. E. Church, Washington, D. C.; Associate of Arts of Oxford University, England; Graduate of the General Theological Seminary, New York, was born in Eastville, Va., in 1868. When but five years old his parents settled in Baltimore, where he was sent at an early age to the St. Mary's Academy. In 1881 he went to Oxford, England, where he entered St. John's Classical School, pursuing studies there until 1889, when he returned to New York city. He graduated from the General Episcopal Theological Seminary in 1892, and was ordained to the Deaconate by Bishop Potter, after which he accepted a call as assistant rector to St. Phillip's Church, New York.

He declined the principalship of Hoffman Hall of Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., to accept a call to St. Thomas' Church, Philadelphia. Having passed all examinations before reaching the required age to enter the priesthood, it was only after his election to St. Thomas' that he became eligible for advancement.

Bishop Potter arranged for the ordination to take place in the Colonial Church of St. John, Washington, D. C. Here in the presence of the Chief Justice, Cabinet Officers, Senators and other men of national note, Mr. Waller was formally elevated to the priesthood. After a rectorship of three years' successful work in this historic parish, during which its centennial was celebrated, Mr. Waller was elected rector of St. Luke's Church, Washington, D. C., in succession to the Rev. Dr. Crumwell.

In size he is above the medium and of athletic build. He is a perfect type of the physical manhood of his race, graceful in manner and address and is clear and eloquent in his style of oratory.

Success has crowned his work from the beginning. Mr. Waller combines all the essentials necessary of a leader of men along religious lines. He understands humanity. His methods inspire the confidence of men, and they reverence his gospel. He appeals to the intelligence and reason, never to passion and prejudice. He has the faculty of saying much in little, and saying it with directness and force.

Mr. Waller was married in 1893 to Miss Lillian M. Ray, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Three bright boys have blessed this union by their advent into the home.

I have no hesitancy in saying that not only are there other churches adapted to the training of the Negro than the Methodist and Baptist churches, but, in my opinion, some are better suited to the present needs of the Negro, and chief, if not indeed the first, among these is that branch of the Apostolic Catholic Church known as the Protestant Episcopal Church. I advance the following arguments to sustain this statement:

First, the Negro is under a spell of religiosity; a conception of religion that freely recognizes and imbibes its sentiment, but just as frankly rejects its stern practical duties and obligations. The Negro's religion is a poem--a sentiment--indeed, a velvet-lined yoke. He, therefore, stands sadly in need of an influence that will regulate his super-emotional nature, and not one that adds fuel to an existing conflagration that threatens to forever consume the only power in the human being that can ultimately work out his salvation, viz., the human will.

His religiosity needs to be directed to the deep channels of true religion, and there harnessed as a mighty Niagara to produce practical righteousness in daily living. No church is better adapted to this end than the Protestant Episcopal. (a) She seeks after the example of her Master's method to develop the permanent power of the will, rather than the unstable prop of emotionalism. This is evidenced in her majestic liturgies and dignified but helpful services. (b) In doctrine, discipline and worship the Protestant Episcopal Church is the school of mental, moral and spiritual training, that a people but now coming to the light from the darkness and degradation of bondage so terribly need. (c) Again, her ministry, bishops, priests and deacons are her people's leaders; secure in the tenure of their office from factional machinations, they are fearless in the advocacy of righteousness; not with their ears to the ground, but with eyes looking upward, their pulpits speak plainly "Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." Nothing at this stage does the Negro stand in greater need of than fearless and positive guidance in the "ways of righteousness."

Second: The present Negro needs opportunity and latitude for self-development in a church where he must measure himself with the highest standard of Anglo-evolution. As long as the Negro is content to compare himself, in Negro associations, with himself, he must be satisfied to know only that things equal to the same thing are equal to one another. But, both in the lay membership and in the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Negro coming into contact with the best results of modern forces, not only rises up to higher standards, but is saved from the insidious evils of conceitedness by ever seeing the vistas beyond him. Withal, the doors are open to the Negro, here more truly so than in any church of like prestige and heritage. Two Negroes are on the bench of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Nearly a hundred have been elevated to the diaconate and priesthood, meeting all requirements and thereby teaching the same level as other men. Such a showing cannot be made by any church of like history.

Third: We have been told of late to teach the Negro history, and I add that no lesson will be so potent as identification with a historic church that has come down the centuries to us, in unbroken integrity, from the hands of Christ through the spiritual loins of the Apostles. I advance the following argument to show that the Protestant Episcopal Church will meet this need of the Negro: At Acts 11:42, we read as follows: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayers."

It may be readily seen from these words, drawn as they are directly from the scholarly Greek of St. Luke, that the Apostolic Church was distinctly marked by four observances or characteristics:

(a) Their steadfastness in the Apostles' doctrine.

(b) Their steadfastness in the Apostles' fellowship, dealings, doings, ministry or form of government.

(c) Their steadfastness in the breaking of the bread, or the Holy Communion; Holy Baptism being included in the Apostolic doctrine.

(d) Their steadfastness in the Apostles' manner of praying or in the set forms of prayer, at first, for twenty-five years in the Temple and the synagogues of the Jews.

These being the four marks of the church at that time, is there now in existence any church having these selfsame marks? Without any doubt, Christ was the founder of that visible body of Christians, the church in Acts II. Does that church exist to-day? It must, because Christ said: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it."--Matt. 16:18.

THEN WHICH IS IT, AND WHERE IS IT?

The church is certainly a visible body of Christians, not founded by a man or men, but by Jesus Christ. Having a divine founder it is then a divine society, seeking men to save them from the degrading power of sin and everlasting punishment in hell. It is not then, as is so commonly and popularly thought, a human society founded by Luther, 1530; Calvin, 1541; Knox, 1560; Robert Brown, 1582; Roger Williams, 1639; John Wesley, 1739; or Swedenborg, 1783. In brief, the church founded by Jesus Christ is the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, as Christ so often described it (Matthew 13:47, 5:19, 13:44); endowed with power from on high transmitted through her unbroken line of the Apostolic ministry, but obedient to her Divine Founder, who is at the right hand of God in heaven.

This church of four distinct marks in the Acts existed before the completion of the New Testament at least some sixty years, and it was the church that by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit pronounced the New Testament inspired, and rejected other books claiming to set forth the life of Christ, three hundred years after it was founded. The Old Testament is the document of the Jewish Church, that church having been in existence for a thousand years before its document was completed. Therefore, this church of the Acts cannot be set aside for one claimed to be founded upon the Bible.

For three hundred years then, this Apostolic Church existed with Apostolic doctrine, ministry, sacraments, and prayers before she gave the New Testament to the world with her certificate that it was the Inspired Word of God.

The Protestant Episcopal Church of America as the daughter of the Church of England, has ever possessed, and does now possess and hold more sacred, these four marks that identify her unmistakably with the primitive and Apostolic Church, as a true branch of the same.

First, as to doctrine this church holds and defends the pure teaching of the early church, without taking from or adding to the same. There are few, indeed, who would question this.

The Holy Trinity (John 14:16, 26; Acts 2:33; Gal. 4:6).

The Incarnation of God's Son (Luke 1:35; John 1:14; Matt. 1:23).

The Redemption of Man by Christ Jesus (Matt. 1:21, 20:28; Gal. 1:4).

Regeneration and Holy Baptism (Titus 3:5; Rom. 6:4; Gal. 3:27).

The Holy Communion (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20).

Confirmation (Acts 8; Heb. 6:2).

The Resurrection of the Dead (Luke 14:14; John 11:23).

The Judgment (Acts 17:31; Heb. 9:27).

Belief in these statements and other fundamental teaching of Holy Scripture is in accord with the mind of the Apostolic Church.

Secondly, as to the unbroken line of bishops, priests and deacons, who have succeeded for more than eighteen centuries other ministers Apostolically ordained, that has been most jealously guarded and maintained by the Episcopal Church.

There may be some who have never given any study to the Apostolic succession of ministers in the church founded by Christ. No one could well doubt the fact or deny the doctrine who had patiently investigated the matter. The New Testament is itself witness to the fact that the Apostles appointed others to do Apostolic work and to be their successors; at least thirty Apostles are mentioned in the New Testament. Among them were Paul, Matthew, Barnabas, Andronicus, Silas, Luke, Titus, whom St. Paul appointed Bishop of Crete, and Timothy, whom he appointed Bishop of Ephesus. There were also at least ten others whose names are recorded, space does not permit us to mention.

Now, if the original twelve could have eighteen successors, certainly they could, and have had a continual line of successors down the centuries. The titles of the three orders of the ministry may, at first, mislead the unlearned.

(1) In the New Testament the highest order was Apostles. The second, "ordained in every city," were Presbyters (Presters or Priests), also called Bishops and the lowest order Deacons.

As the Apostles began to die off, the title "Apostle" was limited to them and to their successors who had probably seen Christ, at the same time the title "Bishop" was set apart to denote the highest order which succeeded the original Apostles. This is stated by Clement of Alexandria in the second, and Jerome in the fourth century. While Theodoret, writing in 440, says: "The same persons were in ancient times called either presbyters or bishops, at which time, those who are now called bishops were called Apostles. In process of time, the name of Apostles was left to those who were sent directly by Christ, and the name of Bishop was confined to those who were anciently called 'Apostles.'" From Palestine the church spread to Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Spain and England, carrying with her the Apostles' doctrine, ministry, sacraments and prayer.

In 597, when Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, sent Augustine to England, he found there the church with the four marks. After awhile the Bishop of Rome, by political methods, gained great influence over the English Church in so much that he was receiving from England greater revenues than the king. When the tremendous revolt against the papacy came about in Europe in the sixteenth century the English people simply ejected the pope's emissaries and with them, Italian influence and corruption from England and the English Church, the church remained essentially the same she had been for centuries.

The word "Reformation" signifies the footing of something into a new shape. It is therefore not the destruction of the old and the substituting of the new, but rather the reshaping, cleansing and revivifying of the old. The melting down of the family silver and the reshaping it on new models is not to acquire new silver. Perhaps it was so distorted by abuse that it required new shaping. This was very much the case with the Church of England.

The reformation in England was effected on very different lines from that on the continent of Europe. Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, and others were individuals attracting to themselves multitudes of other individuals and together they establish societies of Christians. The Apostolical churches on the continent did not, as such, participate in the reformation movement. In England the reformation, i. e., the reshaping, restoring and cleansing, was more wisely conducted. The church there had existed since the days of the Apostles. For six hundred years it remained independent of the Roman world power, and it was only after the Norman Conquest that the papal authority became well established in England. When a reformation seemed necessary, it was conducted, not by individuals leaving the national church, but by the whole Church of England. In A. D. 1532 the quarrel of Henry the Eighth with the pope led to the overthrow of the Roman power in England. Henry is not to be credited as a reformer, much less as the founder of any church. He never made any attempt to found a church. When he was born, in 1491, he found the church existing in England, and when he died, in 1547, he left the same church, but cleansed and independent. The ancient church was not changed, and the old religion did not give place to the new. The papacy was opposed to the independence of the national churches for which the Church of England had always contended.

Accordingly, when the power of the pope was broken and thrust out of England, the church was at liberty to restore Apostolic purity and freedom to the nation and the individual.

Parliament prohibited the payment of money to the pope and appealing from English to papal courts. In 1539 the Bible was given to the people to read in their native tongue. The services were read in English instead of Latin. The chalice was given to the laity. The worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary was abolished and praying to departed saints forbidden. These reforms were conducted by the archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons and laity, i. e., by the whole church. The pope was not without his adherents during this period, who opposed these changes most vehemently. But these traitors to the Church of England found they could not stem the tide for an open Bible and pure religion. In 1569 Pope Pius Fifth created the great sin of schism by commanding all in favor of papal power in England to withdraw from the English Church and form an Italian party. In 1685 the Italian Church supplied this party with a bishop. To-day the Italian mission in England is doing all in its power to make headway against the Church of England, but in vain.

We can now come briefly to the Episcopal Church in America. She was established in the American Colonies under the oversight of the Bishop of London. In 1609 the Church of England planted her first church on American shores at Jamestown, Virginia. After the Revolution, the church in this country became the American Episcopal Church, receiving the Apostolic ministry from the ancient Apostolic Church of England. Samuel Seabury of Connecticut, was consecrated at Aberdeen in 1784 and William White of Philadelphia, and Samuel Provoost of New York were consecrated at Lambeth Palace in 1787. These were the first three bishops with jurisdiction, and thus was the Apostolic Succession maintained in the Episcopal Church in unbroken line from the days of the Apostles.

In conclusion, the Protestant Episcopal Church has ever continued steadfast in the sacraments of prayers, and by these four undeniable and unmistakable marks shows that she is a true branch of the same church described in Acts 2.

The question for the Negro now becomes, not which church do I like or prefer, not to which church did my parents belong, but which church did Christ found for me to be trained in.

TOPIC XXV.

THE NEGRO AS A BUSINESS MAN.

An Address Before the National Negro Business League.

BY T. W. JONES.

HON. THEODORE W. JONES.

The Hon. Theodore W. Jones was born during the temporary residence of his parents in the beautiful city of Hamilton, Ontario, September 19, 1853. His parents soon returned to New York, their native State, and there remained until he was twelve years old. In 1865 this family decided to make Illinois their home and settled in Chicago.

Mr. Jones was one of a very large family; his parents were poor and unable to give him even a common school education. Compelled to support himself, at the age of fifteen years he was driving an express wagon. He was an industrious boy, full of pluck and energy. Without money and by his own unaided efforts, step by step, he pressed on and soon built up a most successful express and moving business.

Discouraged by no difficulty, the ambitious young expressman turned his attention toward acquiring an education. He was a diligent student. Through the aid of private tutors and the "midnight oil," he was able, when twenty-five years of age, to enter Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill., where he remained three years. Leaving college, he returned to his business in Chicago and has been exceedingly prosperous.

Mr. Jones is the owner of a large brick storage warehouse, Twenty-ninth Street and Shields Avenue, and other valuable property in this city. In his employ are three lady clerks and about fifty men, all colored.

In 1894, Theodore W. Jones was elected on the Republican ticket to the responsible position of County Commissioner of Cook County, Ill. He ably and well performed the duties of this office.

That he labored earnestly and unselfishly to advance the interests of the colored people we need relate only the following fact: During Mr. Jones' term of office the colored people of Cook County drew $50,000 yearly salary. This was about seven times the amount paid into the county treasury by our race.

He is a valued member of the National Negro Business League. He was present in Boston at the organisation and has organised a branch league in Chicago, known as the Business Men's League of Cook County. This league entertained the National League in Chicago, August 21, 22, 23, 1901.

There has been so much controversy concerning the Negro, so much said and written about his alleged inferiority, such an attempt made to establish relationship between him and the monkey, that even in this new century there exists, in some quarters, grave doubts as to his origin, and a general misapprehension as to his nature, capabilities and purposes. But research into the primeval history of man evinces the fact, beyond the possibility of skepticism, that mankind had only one common origin. We are taught that in the beginning God created man in His own image, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and that man became a living soul. The closest and most thorough analysis of the blood of different races fails to detect the slightest difference in the color, size, shape or quality of its corpuscles. The fact that one people are white, another yellow, another red, another brown, and yet another black has its cause in the workings of a law of nature which we do not fully understand. Sacred history plainly teaches that the Negro is a man like other men and that of one blood God created all nations; hence there can be no racial barrier to a successful business career, in the general constitution of a black man.

What was the business of the Negro in the land of his nativity, or at the time of his emancipation in this country, does not so much interest us now, except as it may help us to appreciate his capacity for business at present.

Life for our forefathers in Africa was very plain and very simple. The multitude was engaged with problems little more difficult than the acquirement of food and drink and rest, raiment not being a necessity; hence their only business, aside from frequent wars with kindred tribes, was to explore a way to the fruit tree, the water brook and the shade, and so their years were principally filled up with the business of merely satisfying those three physical wants--hunger, thirst, and rest.

When human slavery was established in the colonies, those of our race, either fortunate or unfortunate enough to be brought to these shores were instructed mainly in the care of cotton, tobacco and rice crops; and from these few Southern industries we could not turn aside. Slavery deprived the Negro of the little responsibility devolving upon him in his savage state--that of providing food and drink and finding rest. No responsibility was allowed to devolve upon him, other than to perform allotted work, not even the selection of his wife; and when children were born to him, he was not confronted with the problem of how he should provide food and shelter for them, nor wherewith they should be clothed. He and his issue being the property of his master, like swine or cattle, their issue were alike stalled and fed by the owner. With but few exceptions, this was the condition of the Negro when the Proclamation of Emancipation was issued, thirty-eight years ago.

From that eventful day onward, the mighty aspiration of the ex-slave for education and material development has written a new page in the history of the world's progress. Let us now examine the record made, and call to our assistance the statistics of the Government that we may truthfully answer the question, can the Negro succeed as a business man? We are indebted to ex-Congressman George H. White for the information that since the dawn of our freedom the race has reduced its illiteracy at least 45 per cent; that we have written and published nearly 500 books; have edited fully 300 newspapers; have 2,000 lawyers at the bar, a corresponding number of practicing physicians, and 32,000 school teachers. We own 140,000 homes and have real and personal property valued at $920,000,000. The census of 1890 shows that 20,020 persons of African descent were engaged in business, and there were more than 17,000 barbers not included in those figures; and be it remembered that this showing was made more than ten years ago.

It is true that we have produced no skilled master mechanics or great speculators; no commercial princes or merchant kings. These are beyond our immediate reach and reserved for later growth. But we have today, on the floor of this convention, colored men who represent nearly every business enumerated in the census reports--wagon-makers, watch-makers, grocers, druggists, bankers, brokers, bakers, barbers, hotel keepers, caterers, undertakers, builders, contractors, printers, publishers, decorators, manufacturers, tailors, insurance agents, coal dealers, real estate agents, collectors, the proprietor of a brick yard, the owners of a cotton factory, and the president of a coal mine. The number engaged, and the capital invested, may not reach very pretentious figures, but the beginning has been made. Aside from the above, we have produced soldiers whose valor has reached world-wide reputation, poets, artists, teachers and professional men and women of recognized ability. There are hordes of others pursuing the humbler walks of life eager to acquire by education a higher ideal of manliness and womanliness, and to learn the ways of advanced civilization and approved citizenship. These achievements have been wrought by us under the most adverse conditions. We have wearily toiled by day and by night; have made bricks without straw; helped ourselves and taken advantage of small opportunities; though these are days of increasing combinations of capital, growing corporations and gigantic trusts, which greatly lessen the possibilities of individual success. Surely there is in the black man the same capacity for business, the self-same spirit, purpose and aspiration that there is to be found in the white man, and he is as much entitled to the blessings of life, and to share its honors and rewards, as the descendants of other races, notwithstanding Senator Tillman's recent plea for lynching Negroes, and the plaudits and acclaim of a Wisconsin audience.

Despite the fact that the door of nearly every large factory, shop and department store is closed against us, despite the fact that prejudice stalks our business streets with unblushing tread and dominates in all the commercial centers of our common country--yet we are not here today pleading for special legislation in our behalf; we are not here whining to be given a chance; we are not here, even to complain of our hard lot, or to find fault with conditions which we cannot change. This, we conceive, would be a very poor programme to attract the attention of the business world, but we are here, representing hundreds of thousands of dollars, thus demonstrating that we have achieved, at least in a small measure, one of the things which, by common consent, is taken as evidence of progress, ability and worth. We have made money, have saved money, and are succeeding in many profitable business enterprises which require the possession of skill and executive ability to direct and control.

The Jew traces the industrial strides of his people from the first footsore peddler to their present position of affluence in the financial world, and so without reciting further the early struggles and hindrances experienced by our pioneers in business, sufficient is it to say that we have men who should be placed in the class with Nelson Morris, A. M. Rothschild and Mandel Bros. Not that they can compare with these men in the sum total of their wealth; no one expects this. But that they began life without a dollar, have accumulated property and acquired influence, and are today men of public affairs, able to stand, persevere and prevail in the fierce struggles and competitions of business life. These mercantile strides the members of our race are taking in the face of proscription and oppression, in the face of the administration of unjust laws and in the face of disfranchisement and barbarous lynchings, such as no other men ever had to face. In fact we are prospering under conditions which would not only fill other business men with hopelessness and despair, but would surely drive them into bankruptcy.

It is not true that the business patronage of the Negro is confined to his own race, nor is it true that he is a cringer, and solicits patronage among the whites because of the fact that he is a colored man. We have long since learned that we are entitled to no more consideration because we are black than other men are who chance to have red hair, big mouths, or mis-shapen feet. If you will pardon personal mention, I would say that in my business as a furniture mover, few customers, indeed, have I among my own people; nor do I ask to remove any man's goods because of the color of my complexion or the texture of my hair; but because I have put brains into my humble calling and made the business of moving furniture a science. What is true in this instance is true in all others, where progress is made. We are grasping opportunities and compelling adverse circumstances and forces to work together for our profit. Under the wise leadership of Booker T. Washington, we are finding our bearings and casting anchor in the dark and muddy waters of industrial conditions in which we were sent adrift without rudder, compass or means of existence less than thirty-eight years ago.

It is not strange that, as business men, we have made some failures. It is a long way from the depth of the valley to the summit of the mountain; from a barbarian to a master mechanic; from the jungles of Africa to a successful business career, and from the slave cabin to the professor's chair. We have not all outgrown the feeling of dependence instilled in us by more than 250 years of chattel bondage; many of us yet shrink from responsibility, and lack the requisite amount of ambition. We recognize our shortcomings, our peculiar environments and the limitations of our experience and powers. We are beginning to learn that if the Negro is to become more and more a factor in the business world he must take a more active part in all of the trades, competitions, industries and occupations of life. Again, he is learning, slowly perhaps, but surely, that he must outgrow the weakness and confusion resulting from distracted purposes; that he must have one aim, and be one thing all the time. He must stop doing things in a slipshod and half-way manner and become more thorough. He must put the force of a strong character and a determined will power into whatever he undertakes, and he must stop stumbling and falling over impediments, especially of his own placing.

The Negro is, however, affected by nothing now which education and personal endeavor will not in time remove. For example, we take the liberty to refer to our honored President, Booker T. Washington, who about forty-two years ago was born a slave in Virginia. At an early age he began the battle for himself untutored and untrained in all the ways of life. What he has since accomplished is a sufficient answer to those who claim that the Negro is void of any capacity for doing business, and that his offspring has no chance to rise in the world. For twenty years Booker T. Washington has not only been president of a great industrial institution, but has had very largely the acquisition, management, investment and expenditure of its finances. In recent years there has scarcely been a month in which he has not been offered positions in important and influential business enterprises, as well as in the affairs of government. His career is evidence that there is plenty of room at the top for Negro boys who have sense enough to rise to the level of their opportunities. The lack is not so much of opportunities as of men. It is a fact which cannot be gainsaid that success still is, and most likely always will be, a question determined very largely by the individual. For the man or woman who has made thorough preparation and is willing to do hard work a place will always be waiting, irrespective of race or color.

The tone of this convention clearly indicates that the Negro will succeed as a business man in proportion as he learns that manhood and womanhood are qualities of his own making, and that no external force can either give or take them away. It demonstrates that intelligence, punctuality, industry and integrity are the conquering forces in the business and commercial world, as well as in all the affairs of human life. Permit me, in closing, to quote the language of President McKinley addressed to the students at the Tuskegee Institute, "Integrity and industry," he said, "are the best possessions which any man can have, and every man can have them. No man who has them ever gets into the police court or before the grand jury or in the work-house or the chain gang. They are indispensable to success. The merchant requires the clerk whom he employs to have them; the railroad corporation inquires whether the man seeking employment possesses them. Every avenue of human endeavor welcomes them. They are the only keys to open with certainty the door of opportunity to struggling manhood. If you do not already have them, get them."

For our encouragement, reference has been made to a portion of the history of the distinguished President of this convention, and also, for the same purpose, quotation has been made from a speech of the honored President of his country. We thus have before us the example of the former and the precept of the latter--each a leader in his own sphere, the one black and the other white. By following the example of the one and the advice of the other, the Negro will not only succeed as a business man, but the early dawn of the present century will yet witness the best achievements and the loftiest conceptions of a once enslaved race.

SECOND PAPER

THE NEGRO AS A BUSINESS MAN.

BY ANDREW F. HILYER.

ANDREW FRANKLIN HILYER.

The subject of this sketch was born in slavery near Monroe, Walton county, Georgia, August 14, 1858. In the early fifties his maternal grandfather, Overton Johnson, was set free, given some money and sent North. He went to Cincinnati and began a free man's life as a cook and steward in a hotel. In a short time, by strict economy, he had saved some money from his earnings. This, with the money brought from the South, enabled him to open "The Dumas House," well known to the older residents of Cincinnati. In 1862 he sold this business, moved to St. Louis and opened a hotel in that city, where he was at the close of the war. In 1866 he sent for the remainder of his family in the South, consisting of his youngest son and a daughter and her four children, the eldest of whom was Andrew Franklin Hilyer.

About the time of their arrival in St. Louis business reverses threw the now enlarged family upon their own resources, and young Andrew, though but eight years old, was "hired out." He early developed a burning desire for an education, and took advantage of every opportunity that he could find to study and to learn. He soon learned to read. With this key he opened up to his enquiring mind a wide vista of knowledge and saw through many things which before had seemed dark. The family remained in St. Louis two years, but in very poor circumstances. During this period Andrew was able to attend school but little, yet he was so anxious to learn several persons gladly gave him instruction. It was during these struggles that he formed his purposes in life. He solemnly resolved to make a man of himself and to graduate from college.

In 1868 the entire family moved to Omaha, Neb., where their circumstances gradually improved and Andrew was enabled to attend school a part of each year. His mother died in 1871, and the next year he went to Minneapolis, Minn. Here was located the State University, and his opportunity to go to college had now come. To make this possible he learned the trade of a barber and pursued his studies, graduating from the Minneapolis High School in 1878 and from the University of Minnesota in 1882.

He soon came to Washington, entered the service of the Government and took up the study of law and in 1885 graduated from the Howard Law School.

Mr. Hilyer takes an active interest in the progress of his race along all lines, but he has especially urged upon their attention skilled labor and business as very important factors in the progress of the race.

In 1886 he married Miss Mamie E. Nichols, a descendant of one of the older Washington families, who graces a happy home. They have been blessed with two boys, whom they are trying to rear and educate to become good men.

The resistance of the white people to the progress of the colored people is least along the line of business. The colored people themselves have only to develop a larger spirit of race help in business and a magnificent future is just ahead for them.

In addition to little capital and much inexperience the colored merchant has to contend against a hostile public opinion, which seems to resent his efforts to improve his own condition and that of his own race, when he assumes to tear himself away from the mass of his fellow laborers and attempts to keep store like a white man.

Strange enough this hostile feeling is shared in, more by the colored than by the white people, especially along certain lines of business not of a semi-social nature. It is a matter of common complaint by colored business men in those classes of business in which they must compete with white merchants that they do not get their share of the trade of their own race and that their patronage comes very largely from the white race. At present the pathway of the colored man to success in business is very much handicapped by this unfriendly public opinion. His problem is to win the confidence of the public in his ability and purpose to serve them as well as or better than his competitors.

Individuals, here and there, have won this public confidence to a surprising degree and are demonstrating day by day the ability of men and women to do business according to approved business methods. The hostility of the whites is but another manifestation of the general feeling of race prejudice; but the hostility of the masses of their own race can only be attributed to envy and ignorance. For every colored man, woman and child should rejoice in the success or upward step of any colored person, because it is an inspiration and a hope to thousands of others to follow his example. Only the strongest and most progressive few of any race can be successful pioneers. The masses of all races are LED to attempt only what they see persons of their own kind doing. Every community of colored people needs, as a powerful uplifting force, a few captains of industry who will lead his people along the pathway of home-getting and the undertaking of business enterprises. For business will develop their sense of independence and personal responsibility and give strength and symmetry to character. No better service can be performed for the race at this time than to turn the light upon those successful business men and women of the colored race in every community, so that our youth may see them, know them, and take inspiration and courage from their example.

The real leaders of the race are those who lead in doing. It has been said that ninety per cent of all business enterprises among the highly favored white race finally fail in the lifetime of their promoters. The conditions of success in business for the white race are so exacting, uncertain, changeable and inscrutable that only ten per cent retire from the contest victorious. When we recall the fact that the colored people have come so recently from savagery, through the barbarism and debasing effects of American slavery, into the light of the present-day civilization, we should expect them to be slow in getting a footing in the shifting and ever-changing sands of the business world, while in slavery they were deprived of every opportunity to learn anything about the art of business or even to drink in its spirit. It was one of the essential conditions of the slave system that they should be taught to distrust each other; and they learned this lesson well. We must expect that it will take some time to unlearn it. Along with this blighting feeling of distrust the seeds of envy and jealousy were carefully sown. These seeds must have fallen in good soil, for they sprang up and increased wonderfully, and now constitute the thorns and weeds in the pathway of the colored man's success in business.

In view of their economic, educational and political history, we should naturally expect the colored race to make in the first generation of their freedom more progress in education and general culture, more progress in the building of churches and in the acquisition of homes and lands than in the exacting arena of business. At any rate such has been the fact. The entire race is passing through a hard and severe economic struggle. The whole nation is in the throes of a great social distress, on account of the presence of this colored race with physical aspects so different from the main body of the people. The colored people are being put to a severe test. They are being tried as it were by fire. They are face to face and in competition with the most efficient, the most exacting people the world has ever seen. The dross is being driven off. The race is being purified and strengthened for the contests which are to follow. The colored man or woman who would succeed in business must meet not only the competition of his white neighbor with his superior capital and training, but also the blight of distrust and the jealousy and envy of many of his own race. His course is by no means plain sailing. He has foes within his race as well as foes without; enemies in front and enemies in the rear. And yet, in spite of all these adverse conditions a very creditable beginning has already been made in the business world--a beginning that promises well for the future. The business movement among the colored people has not as yet attained great volume, but its foundations have been laid broad and deep. The number of persons engaged in business is quite large, and the classes already invaded by individuals of the colored race cover almost every class of business in which persons of the white race are engaged.

THE CAPITAL OWNED BY NEGROES.

The colored people are rapidly acquiring property. This is a matter of common, every-day observation. The value of property owned by them is no less than five hundred millions of dollars. In Georgia alone, where separate records are kept, their assessed valuation exceeds fifteen millions, one million of which was added in the past year. The assessed valuation is only about forty per cent of the actual value. From all over the country equally encouraging reports are sent out of the steady progress of this people in the acquisition of landed property. Although tens of thousands are shiftless, thousands are saving money. It is being stored up slowly but surely for future use. Much of it is already invested in business. A larger part of this property and money will be turned into business channels as fast as the race, by its patronage and support, evidences its desire to advance this business movement.

THE EXTENT OF THE BUSINESS MOVEMENT AMONG THE NEGROES.

In order to obtain reliable data for a study of the progress of the colored people in the skilled trades, in business, in getting homes and in building churches and other institutions, the United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 sent out the writer in February of that year as an expert agent to visit the chief industrial centers of the South and secure the data for the purpose of making the facts collected, a feature of the Negro exhibit. In every city or town visited the colored people took great pride in showing their successful business establishments; and they all had some to show. In every place a beginning had been made. The writer personally visited, inspected and collected data from one hundred and forty-three business establishments of considerable importance owned and conducted by colored men and women. They range from a grocery store, with stock and fixtures of the value of five hundred dollars, to a bank, which, on the day of my visit, had a cash balance in its vault of $82,000. Only the best business places were visited. There were hundreds of small shops in the cities and towns visited, all of which evidenced the breadth of the business movement of the people.

THE ATLANTA UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE.

The results of this hurried trip corroborates in a remarkable degree the report of the Atlanta University Conference. "The Report of the Negro in Business" was made in 1899. In that year the conference made an investigation of this subject under the direction of Prof. W. E. B. DuBois, professor of sociology in that university. This report is a most valuable contribution to the study of the race problem. Prof. DuBois has shown commendable zeal in studying the race problem, while so many others are content to discuss it. The data for his study were collected principally by the alumni of Atlanta University and are thus entitled to a high degree of credibility.

Reports were received from one thousand nine hundred and six colored men and women in business, showing the kind of business, time in business, and the amount of capital invested. Almost every kind of business carried on by white people was represented, thus evidencing a desire and a reaching out on the part of the Negro that will produce great results in years to come. Only establishments of considerable importance were solicited and reported.

Time in business: Four-fifths had been established five years or more; one-fifth more than twenty years. Sixty-seven more than thirty years. This shows a remarkable longevity in business that is highly gratifying.

Capital invested: Complete returns were not received from all; only 1,736 establishments reported capital. Their aggregate capital was $5,631,137. Prof. DuBois estimated that the total amount invested by American Negroes in business managed by themselves in 1899 was $8,784,000. Compared with the immense sum of money invested in business in the United States, this seems meager enough; but when we consider the poverty of the colored people at the beginning of their freedom, the saving and investment of nearly $9,000,000 in business enterprises conducted by themselves in one generation is a most creditable showing.

By far the larger part of the capital of the colored people is as yet invested in enterprises conducted by white persons. In the city of Washington, where the idea of the advantage to the race in having a number of successful business enterprises has been very much agitated, only about one-fifth of its wealthy colored people have any investments in enterprises conducted by colored men, as shown in the report of the Hampton Conference for 1898. A like proportion will doubtless be found in other cities.

THE CENSUS OF 1890 ON NEGRO BUSINESS.

According to the census of 1890 (the returns from the census of 1900 on this subject not being available at this writing), taken twenty-five years after the war, the colored people had representatives engaged in every business listed in the census schedules. It is true that the number of persons engaged and the capital engaged in some branches of business were not imposing, yet an effort had been made--a start, a beginning had been made in every branch of business carried on in this country. The census of 1890 does not in all cases make a distinction between "proprietor" and occupation. Hence, it is not always easy to pick out the "proprietors." The tables have been gone over very carefully. Only those occupations have been selected about which there can be no doubt that the persons listed are "proprietors." The total number of persons of Negro descent engaged in business in 1890 was 20,020.

It is obvious to any one who has paid even a little attention to it that there has been a considerable increase since 1890, in the number of such business ventures and in the capital employed.

THE NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE.

As an evidence that the race is rapidly advancing along business lines, a conference or convention of colored business men was called by Mr. Booker T. Washington to meet in Boston August 23-24, 1900, for the purpose of making a showing of the progress of the race in business and to give encouragement and impetus to the business movement. The success of this convention was a pleasant surprise to many persons. Over two hundred delegates reported in person, and nearly two hundred additional reported by letter. The tone of the reports they brought from their several localities was uniformly hopeful. Most of the delegates present lived outside of New England, some coming from as far south as Florida and Texas, and as far west as Nebraska. A permanent organization was formed, called The National Negro Business League, the purpose of which is to keep its members in touch with one another. Their "Proceedings" were published by Mr. J. R. Hamm of No. 46 Howard street, Boston, in a handsome volume of two hundred and eighty pages, and constitutes one of the most valuable contributions to the study of the progress of the colored people.

This business league held its second annual convention in Chicago in August, 1901. This meeting also was a great success in every way, and received, if possible, more attention and space from the public press than the previous meeting in Boston.

A recent study of the colored business enterprises of Washington, published by the writer, shows that there are in the National capital 1,302 colored "proprietors" in all kinds of business and professions. Their capital exceeds seven hundred thousand dollars, and they transact more than two million dollars worth of business annually, affording employment to 3,030 persons.

Among the more conspicuous examples of successful enterprises conducted by colored men in the United States may be mentioned the following: Thirteen building and loan associations, seven banks, about one hundred life insurance and benefit companies, several mining companies, one street railway company, one iron foundry, one cotton mill, one silk mill, three book and tract publication houses, one of them having a plant valued at $45,000; over two hundred newspapers and three magazines. One of these newspapers has 5,000 subscribers and a plant costing $10,000. One firm of truck gardeners, near Charleston, South Carolina, over 500 acres under cultivation, has been in the business over 30 years and ships several carloads of garden truck to Northern markets every week. The railroad company considers its trade of such importance that it has built a siding to their farm and the cars are loaded directly from their warehouses. This is probably the most extensive individual or partnership business carried on by colored men anywhere in the United States. Noisette Bros. is the name of the firm. Near Kansas City, Kansas, there is a colored man, Mr. J. K. Graves, who owns and cultivates over 400 acres of land. He has been engaged principally in raising potatoes. His crop last year was over 75,000 bushels, which, with the other things raised and sold, was worth about $25,000. Within a radius of thirty-five miles of his farm, he says that there are 312 Negro farmers, horticulturists, gardeners, truckers, potato growers and dealers, most of whom are up to date and have all modern appliances necessary to carry on their business.

Mr. C. C. Leslie, a dealer in fish in Charleston, South Carolina, has $30,000 invested in the business, in nets, boats, ice-houses, real estate, etc., and ships to Northern markets from three to five carloads of fish per week during the busy season.

In Charleston the most prosperous butchers are colored men. In Columbus, Mississippi, there is a colored butcher who owns his abattoir and supplies the best trade of his town with meat. Some of the most prosperous fish, produce and poultry dealers in the markets of Washington are colored men. One firm has been in business continuously over thirty years, the sons succeeding the father in the business. Several have maintained their stands over twenty years.

A pawnbroker in Augusta, Georgia, has $5,000 capital. The largest and best equipped drug store in Anniston, Alabama, is owned by a colored physician. He has a considerable wholesale trade in patent medicines and druggists' sundries.

One of the best equipped ready-made clothing stores in Columbia, South Carolina, is owned by a colored man. He carries a stock of ten thousand dollars.

A stock breeder in Knoxville, Tennessee, is worth $100,000, and has $50,000 invested in blooded horses.

A photographer in St. Paul, Minnesota, does a business of $20,000 a year. Another in New Bedford, Massachusetts, began as an errand boy, learned the photographic art thoroughly, saved his money, bought out the white proprietor, and now conducts the leading studio in that old and aristocratic city.

The caterers of Philadelphia and Baltimore have long been noted for their success in business, although they have lost some ground from white competition during the last few years. There are yet several with capital above $5,000.

The caterer at the great naval banquet at Newport in honor of Admiral Sampson and our navy upon its return from the victories in the war with Spain, where the very unusual task was accomplished of serving one thousand men in a very satisfactory manner, was a colored man.

The foregoing are only a few of the many examples of success that individuals of the colored people have achieved in business. They are cited by way of "a bill of specifications." They show conclusively that, in spite of many adverse conditions, it is possible for a colored person, by perseverance and honesty, to succeed in business.

THIRD PAPER.

THE NEGRO AS A BUSINESS MAN.

BY REV. J. H. MORGAN.

REV. J. H. MORGAN.

Rev. J. H. Morgan was born in Philadelphia, Pa., November 15, 1843. His father was Rev. John R. V. Morgan. His mother's maiden name was Mary Ann Harmon. At his mother's death, which occurred when he was fourteen years old, he was adopted into the family of James T. Robinson of Philadelphia. Becoming dissatisfied at some fancied slight, he left without authority, determined to provide for himself, and be his own man. He soon found that the job was not so easily done, as thought about, nevertheless he was determined to win out, so he kept at it, and being of a jovial disposition he soon made friends, and had the happy faculty of keeping them. He started in the business of selling home-made pies and cakes along the wharves. After a short time he gave up this business for that of cabin boy on a passenger boat plying between Philadelphia and Bristol, Pa., making Bristol his home. At the breaking out of the Civil War he was very anxious to enlist as a soldier, but they informed him at Trenton, that it was a white man's war and they were not taking colored men, as their ankles set so near the middle of their feet, that when they said forward march, they would be as likely to go backward as forward, so he hired as a cook in an officers' mess and went to the front with Company C First Regiment N. J. V. six months' men. He was not down there long before he lost all his desire to become a soldier, when the opportunity came for him to enlist. While in Alexandria, Va., he started in to learn the barber trade, and on his return home worked as a journeyman at his trade until he set up in business for himself.

In 1876 he organized a mission at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and being young and enthusiastic, he requested at the next conference to be sent to the mission to build it up. Bishop Payne demurred, but after his persistence in the matter, he consented, saying, "Well I will let you make your own appointment this time, but will be expecting to hear from you before the year is out, asking for a change." So after ordaining him an Elder in Sullivan Street Church, May 12, 1878, he was stationed at Poughkeepsie. There he had some misunderstanding with the people, which caused them to promise to "cut his bread and butter short," which promise he says was the only one that they made, that they faithfully carried out. One day they fed his family on wind pudding, air sauce and balloon trimmings, and right here Bishop D. A. Payne became a prophet, because he heard from him, and his time was short, as in a few days after he received an appointment to Albany, N. Y., and was returned the following year on account of effective service done. At the following conference he was elected as delegate to the General Conference at St. Louis with Rev. W. F. Dickerson, John F. Thomas and C. T. Shaffer. On his return from the conference he was transferred to N. J. Conference and stationed at Princeton, N. J., and with the exception of four years spent in the N. E. Conference, one in the N. Y. Conference, he has remained in the N. J. Conference. Rev. Morgan is the recognized historian of the conference, and was its secretary for a number of years, and was the Vice-President of the first Board of Church Extension. The Reverend is known in his conference under the cognomen of "The Only Morgan"--his description of things and events gaining for him this title. He was made Presiding Elder by Bishop H. M. Turner, and he thus describes his return from the Presiding Eldership to one of the weakest appointments in another conference: "Milton, or some one, says that the devil was nine days falling from heaven to hell; I made the trip in less than twenty minutes." Bishop H. M. Turner's second wife and the subject of this sketch were converted in and became members of the same church at Bristol, Pa. He was considered an exceptionally good superintendent of the Sabbath school before he was a member of the church. It was during the time that he was a local preacher at this church that he learned the lesson of his life. "I had a fair smattering of an education and, being in business, I was always consulted in the affairs of the church."

It becomes more and more evident every day of our existence, as individuals, and as a race, that a grave mistake has been made by those who have heretofore, or may be now, making claim to leadership of making higher education the main and only route to the full development of the race. The higher education is in the order of specials. It is true that we need the artistic structure, but we need first a foundation upon which to rest it. We seem to have started with the idea that the structure has already been laid, which is true as concerns the other man. But we have not laid one foot ourselves, but are endeavoring to build upon another's, and as often as we build and finish the structure, the other man, by virtue of owning the foundation and that upon which it rests, claims and takes all (under the fixed rule that the people who own the land will rule it), and the last state is worse than the first, unless this happens at a time of life when the experience will become a lesson, well learned, and time allotted for a new start along the proper lines. It is, therefore, very evident that the essential thing in the line of individual and race development, is business. Business, we discover, when properly defined, leads in its various ramifications to all roads to success.

Business defined.--"The state of being anxious; anxiety; care. The act of engaging industriously in certain occupations. The act of forming mercantile or financial bargains, more generally an abundance of such acts done by separate individuals."

Crabb thus distinguishes between business, occupation, employment, engagement, and avocation: "Business occupies all of a person's thoughts, as well as his time and powers; occupation and employment occupy only his time and strength; the first is most regular--it is the object of his choice; the second is causal--it depends on the will of another. Engagement is a partial employment; avocation a particular engagement; an engagement prevents us from doing anything else; an avocation calls off or prevents us from doing what we wish. A person who is busy has much to attend to, and attends to it closely; a person who is occupied has a full share of business without any pressure; he is opposed to one who is idle; a person who is employed has the present moment filled up; he is not in a state of inaction; the person who is engaged is not at liberty to be otherwise employed--his time is not his own--he is opposed to one at leisure."

Business, trade, profession, and art are thus discriminated: "The words are synonymous in the sense of a calling, for the purpose of a livelihood; business is general; business, trade and profession are particular; all trade is business, but all business is not trade. Buying and selling of merchandise is inseparable from trade; but the exercise of one's knowledge and experience, for the purpose of gain, constitutes a business; when particular skill is required, it is a profession; and when there is a particular exercise of art, it is an art; every shopkeeper and retail dealer carries on a trade; brokers, manufacturers, bankers, and others, carry on a business; clergymen, medical or military men follow a profession; musicians and painters follow an art."

The distinction between business, office, and duty: "Business is what one prescribes to one's self; office is prescribed by another; duty is prescribed or enjoined by a fixed rule of propriety; mercantile concerns are the business which a man takes upon himself; the management of parish concerns is an office imposed upon him, often much against his inclination; the maintenance of his family is a duty which his conscience enjoins upon him to perform. Business and duty are public or private; office is mostly of a public nature; a minister of state, by virtue of office, has always public business to perform; but men in general have only private business to transact; a minister of religion has always public duties to perform in his ministerial capacity; every other man has personal or relative duties which he is called upon to discharge according to his station."--Crabb: Eng. Synon.

There has been a vast number of theories advanced as regards the solving of the Negro problem. But the idea of business seems to have only a minor place, which, to our mind, should be one of the leading factors. It seems that the race has been educated away from itself. It is not an uncommon thing to see young men who have splendid educational abilities, versed in the languages, with check aprons on, scrubbing marble steps, and doing other menial labor. Their plea is, when questioned along this line, "I cannot get anything else to do." To what advantage then, has the hard earned money of their parents and friends been expended to educate them? Their fathers did as well as, if not better, than they without it, and cannot this man, with the advantage of education, "turn up something"? There is something radically wrong with the plan of education. The old man could plod over the farm in his antiquated way, and earn money enough to keep things going, and educate his son, but when that son's education has been completed, he has not the ability, or business tact, with modern improvements, to build upon the foundation laid by his less cultured father. Let this cultured boy get down to business. For him, here is the route laid down.

Secretary of Agriculture, Hon. Mr. Wilson, in discussing the productive possibilities of the South and the problem of Negro labor, makes the following observations: "The pressing question is, what is the laborer down South who has been growing cotton, and is not getting enough for his product, to do in the future to enable him to live comfortably, not to speak of the improvement of his condition, education, and all that?"

The cotton crop leaves very little that is valuable for domestic animals after the picking is done, thus differing from the corn crop of the Northwestern states. There is a by-product, the cotton seed, that is exceedingly valuable, and much good work is being done by scientists at experiment stations to show how valuable cotton seed is for feeding purposes.

The nitrogen element in cotton-seed is greater than that of any of the grains; it is richer in nitrogenous matter than peas or beans; richer than gluten, meat or oil cake. The Northern feeder and the European feeder have been using this by-product of the cottonfields with great advantage, while the loss of its fertilizing qualities to the South has been very great.

The South has more marked advantages over the North with regard to production. It has heat and moisture, the two great factors of production, and if the cotton grower is to diversify his crops, he must use those natural advantages. The dairy cow and mutton sheep would succeed admirably in the South, but something for them to eat must be provided first. The winters in the South are mild, grasses, grains, legumen can be sown in the fall and grow abundantly in the winter, upon which the dairy cow and mutton sheep may thrive and prosper. From one-fifth to one-fourth of all the fat of the milk on the farms of the United States is lost because people do not thoroughly understand when to churn cream. The churning process is an art, having much science underlying it. But the cotton grower of the South only needs to learn the way, while the man who teaches him can understand the science. Much yet remains to be discovered in the art of breeding animals, but enough is known to indicate to the instructor of the colored cotton grower of the South, who is to be diverted into work of this kind, to enable him to breed his herd intelligently. The South can prepare the spring lamb much earlier than the North can. The Southern land owner understands horse raising. There is always a greater demand for saddle horses than is supplied. The world wants carriage and draft horses, and good roadsters. Early spring chickens--the broilers--can be produced down there because of the milder winters, and milder springs than we have, and the Northern market can be supplied. Should the market be over supplied we can send this product abroad in the refrigerating compartments of steamships.

The colored man is learning the trades at Tuskegee; he is mining coal, and working the manufacture of iron at Birmingham. We quote this gentleman, who is without doubt authority on this special line, and therefore worthy of serious and careful consideration, to support the point we make, that this problem must be worked out along lines, especially along business lines.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES.

Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Philippines are absolutely ours. The Philippines are said to be as large as the New England States, including New York and New Jersey; Hawaii about the size of New England; Porto Rico the size of Connecticut. Hawaii, with a population of 109,000; Porto Rico, 900,000; Philippines, 8,000,000, and very few whites; a climate in which the Anglo Saxon, it is said, cannot stay for any great length of time. And it is rich in all those thing which are desirable by the white man. These acquisitions must be developed by American genius and capital, and as the white American cannot stay there the year round to develop the same, what better agent to do this work than the Afro-American who has been schooled in American ideas and customs and usages. Is not this an opportunity given by Providence to commence business building? The race should cease pleading to be "The Wards of the Nation;" cease waiting for something to turn up, or have somebody to do something for them, but should unite their forces and turn up something for themselves. The people who own the country, if intelligent and thrifty, will rule and run it. What Coleman has done in North Carolina in a business way, could be done in a majority of the states to a greater or less extent. Small factories could be arranged for, where our people could be employed in producing the commodities of life. Some time ago it was said that a large tract of land had been arranged for, backed by a number of Tammany Hall capitalists; factories were to be built to give employment to the settlers, deeds for lots were to be given at a nominal cost. The project was opposed by some of our so-called leaders, because it was backed by Tammany; but it is the very thing needed, no matter who backs it up; it is the business men who run the country; it is they who put the millions to work and keep the mighty dollar in circulation; we must enter the business world and by pluck, tact and thrift, live while we are living, and die when we cannot do otherwise. The man who thanks Almighty God when the news of disaster comes from land or sea that no loss comes to him is not so wise in the sight of God, or man, as he who can thank God that the interest on accrued stock had advanced an hundred fold before the crash came.

TOPIC XXVI.

THE NEGRO AS A FARMER

BY PROF. GEORGE W. CARVER.

PROF. GEORGE W. CARVER, M. AG.

A few years ago there was graduated at the Iowa Agricultural College a young colored man of unusual promise. His name was G. W. Carver, and his specialty the care and production of plants. Not long after graduation he was engaged by Booker T. Washington as a teacher and assistant in his famous industrial school, and to-day the young man is Mr. Washington's most trusted adviser, while his reputation has gone abroad as a scientist and an original investigator of no mean order.

Born during the period of the Civil War, he was separated from his parents when but six weeks old, they having been sold to some distant slaveholders. The infant was puny and ailing, and his master regarded him as worthless. A family named Carver took the babe and his brother, a little older. It was with them the child had a home for nine years. About that time the little black boy developed a remarkable love for plants, and so much knowledge of their structure and life, that he was given the name of "the plant doctor." Mr. and Mrs. Carver were proud of the boy's talents and made much of him, and it was their evident satisfaction in him that aroused the jealousy of their own children, who at last drove the two colored boys away from home. Northward they turned their faces, to the land where white and black have equal chances in life, as they fondly believed. The little "plant doctor," who had picked up the elements of an education, wanted, above all else, to enter some good school. The boys were driven from pillar to post, but, being devotedly attached to each other they held together, until in Kansas they thought best to separate.

During these years, young Carver had tried many kinds of work. At length he found himself at Winterset, Iowa. It was there the wife of a physician encouraged him to go to Indianola where she thought he could enter college and earn his way by doing laundry work. He went there, but didn't get the work, and it was while there that a young lady, a well known Iowa artist, became interested in him. Under the pretext of securing his help in correcting some drawings, she went to the mean quarters he occupied and found him starving to death. There was no work for him, no money. For weeks, he had subsisted upon corn bread and tallow. She then arranged for him to go to the Iowa Agricultural College, where she had influential friends and where she believed he would have a chance.

But, even at the Agricultural College of Iowa the color line was sharply drawn by the students. Persecution and ill-treatment were resorted to. But young Carver said, "I will bear it. I must get an education. Here I can get work and I will suffer anything rather than give up the one chance of my life to obtain a schooling." His old and intimate knowledge of plants stood him in hand, and he was given charge of the greenhouses. True, he was shunned by many, his place at table was with the servants, but he had warm friends and he was, by force of character, winning the good will of all. One day an Indianola lady, who had come to know him before he left that place, went to visit him at his college. Dressed in her best, she accompanied him, though against his protestation, to dinner, taking a seat at the servants' table.

The next time this lady visited the college the colored student sat at the table with the faculty. In the military drill he had taken the highest honors. When he was graduated it was with distinction. He wrote the class poem. He had succeeded in winning and holding friends.

Some time ago he spent several weeks in Washington, D. C., and there the most kindly attention was extended to him by Secretary Wilson, who never fails to recognize merit wherever he may find it.

The name of G. W. Carver is now enrolled on the fellowship list of more than one scientific Institution.

The above subject is by no means an easy one to discuss, as reliable data are fragmentary and widely scattered; yet I am sure that I have been able to collect some interesting and valuable facts and figures bearing upon this important question. There is no doubt that the Negro as a tenant farmer is a failure; this we are forced to admit, but we do so with a justly proud feeling that it is not an inherent race characteristic, but the result of conditions over which we had little or no control. Failure is inevitably and indelibly stamped in the foreheads of any class of average tenant farmers, regardless of race or color.

In American agriculture the Negro has always held, and is yet holding, an important place; in fact, far more, as a rule, than has been accredited to him. Lest our judgment be too harsh in this particular, I have thought it wise to briefly scan the beginning and development of agriculture in the United States. In 1492 the first settlers found the Indians carrying on agriculture in a crude and limited way, by the women; their farm machinery consisting of their fingers, a pointed stick for planting, and the bones of animals and the shell of the clam for a hoe; with nothing more than a squatter's right as a voucher for the ownership of their farms. Prof. McMaster's History of the People of the United States, George K. Holmes, assistant statistician of the United States Department of Agriculture, in his "Progress of Agriculture in the United States," and other high authorities, tell us that the white man came, poor in the materials of wealth, a stranger in a strange land with a strange climate. His tools were but little, if any, improvement on those of the Indians, and agriculture as we know it to-day was an idealistic dream. The plow was an exceedingly crude thing and but little used, the hoe forming the principal implement of industry. After a piece of land had been continuously "cropped" until worn out, it was abandoned, or the cows turned upon it for a while. It is further said that the poor whites, who had formerly been indentured servants, were the most lazy, the most idle, the most shiftless and the most worthless of men. Their huts were scarcely better than Negro cabins, the chimneys were of logs, the chinks being filled with clay. The walls had no plaster, the windows had no glass, and the furniture was such as they themselves made.

The grain was threshed by driving horses over it in the open field. When they ground it they used a rude pestle and mortar, or placed it in the hollow of one stone and beat it with another. Beef or pork, generally salted, salt fish, dried apples, bread made of rye or Indian meal, milk, and a very limited variety of vegetables, constituted the food throughout the year. When night came on his light was derived from a few candles of home manufacture. The farmer and his family wore homespun. If linen was wanted, the flax was sown and weeded, pulled and retted, then broken and swingled, for all of which processes nearly a year was required before the flax was ready for the spinners, bleaching on the grass, and making and wearing. If woolens were wanted, sheep were sheared and the wool was dyed and spun and woven at home.

It was almost invariably true of all the settlers that the use and value of manures was little regarded. The barn was sometimes removed to get it out of the way of heaps of manure, because the owner would not go to the expense of removing the accumulations and putting them upon his fields. Such were the dreary conditions of the farmer's life in colonial days, living all the time very closely upon the margin of subsistence. Those conditions continued for some time after the Republic had been established, and were not measurably ameliorated until the present century had well advanced, until an improved intelligence--the dissemination of information, and the work of the inventor, had begun to take effect.

From the above we see how strikingly similar were the life, methods of agriculture, and the results obtained from the sturdy New Englander, who represented the best blood, bone and sinew of the old world, with its almost prehistoric civilization, to that of the American Negro, whose intellectual star is just beginning to rise above the horizon. Over two centuries and a half ago the Negro found his way as a slave to America, in a little Dutch trading vessel, cheap labor being the chief motive which prompted such a gigantic scheme. The experiment flourished and grew, and at about the close of the eighteenth century six million slaves had been brought to this country. The major part of all the cotton, corn, cane, potatoes, tobacco, and other agricultural products, were planted, cultivated, harvested and prepared for, and, not infrequently, marketed by, the slaves. In fact, they were the agricultural backbone of the South. Since cotton forms the largest, and has been the most important agricultural product in the South, I think a hundred and nine years of its production will prove interesting and valuable: In 1791, 8,889 bales were produced, and the second cotton mill built at Providence, Rhode Island! the first one being built at Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1787. From this time on the acreage planted, the output and the number of cotton mills and spindles increased. The estimated area planted in cotton alone in 1852, 6,300,000 acres, and the census report of 1860 showed 1,262 cotton mills and 5,235,727 spindles in the United States, with an output of 4,861,292 bales. Despite the depressing effect of the four years of civil strife, it took only five years to almost completely regain the highest point reached in previous years. In 1889 and 1890 we find in the United States 19,569,000 acres planted, giving an output of 7,311,322 bales, with 905 cotton mills operating 14,088,103 spindles. In 1898-99 the acreage increases to nearly 25,000,000, with an output of 11,189,205 bales, representing a money value of $305,467,041. Such is the history, production and growth of the cotton industry in the United States, and were we to trace the other staple products we would find them none the less interesting, since they were produced largely by Negroes as slaves before the war, and as freedmen after the war. This applies especially to Southern products.

Whatever of truth there is in Mr. Van de Graff's grave apprehensions for the Negro, he with us must admit that the ills of the black tenant farmer are simply the ills of the Southern farmer in a more or less aggravated form. It is also true that the curse of such a system falls the heaviest on the smallest and most ignorant tenant farmer, who is the least capable of self-defense. For years we have been content to let the preachers preach, the lawyers argue, the philosophers predict, the teachers and the doctors practice with scarcely a question as to our priority of right. We have, in the face of the many oppositions which come to every race similarly situated, labored with endurance, patience and forbearance, until the birth of the twentieth century dawns upon us, steadily marching on, with something over $263,000,000 worth of unencumbered property to our credit. Now as to the number owning farms and following agricultural pursuits as a livelihood, we are pleased to submit some figures from the last census report, from Crogman, in his "Progress of a Race," and from other authorities. Beginning with the little District of Columbia, with an aggregate area of 8,489 acres and 269 farms, there are seventeen Negro farmers, five of which own their land in whole or in part. Their farms contain 29 acres, of which 25 are improved. The total value of the land is $23,300, and the appurtenant buildings are worth $390; live stock to the value of $489; and farm incomes for 1899 amounting to $4,244. Ten farms, aggregating 258 acres, are operated by Negroes as cash tenants. The reported values are, land, $114,600; buildings, $9,200; implements and machinery, $1,200; and live stock, $1,383. The total incomes for these farms in 1899 were $10,300. Two farms, together consisting of 21 acres, valued at $149,630, are operated by Negroes as salaried managers. Of the 17 farms operated by Negroes, only 1 contains less than three acres; 7 contain from 3 to 9 acres; 5 from 10 to 19 acres; 2 from 20 to 49 acres; and 2 from 50 to 99 acres, giving an average size for all of 18.1 acres.

In the state of Delaware the farms constitute 85 per cent of the total land surface of the state, which is divided up into 9,687 farms, of which 8,869, or 91.6 per cent, are operated by whites, and 818, or 8.4 per cent, by Negroes. Of the latter class 297 are operated by owners, and 35 by part owners. The value of their farms, including implements, machinery and live stock, together with the value of implements, machinery and live stock on the farms which other Negroes operate as tenants, is $495,187.

In Arizona we find that three Negro farmers operate their farms as salaried managers. Twelve own farms containing 1,511 acres, with farm property valued at $60,422; one leases a 39-acre farm for cash, and has implements and live stock worth $130. The total investment by Negroes in agriculture, exclusive of farms owned by them and leased to others, is, therefore, $60,552, which is a rather encouraging showing for Arizona.

Messrs. Walker and Fitch, graduates of Hampton Institute, in 1896, made a careful canvass of one congressional district in Virginia, and found as follows: Out of a total acreage of 1,944,359 acres, one fifteenth, or 125,597 acres, is owned by the Colored people, roughly estimated at $1,000,000. These figures mean farm owning chiefly, as $79,611 represent the total city property. They also report that in Gloucester county, 25 years from the above date, the Colored people owned less than 100 acres of land. To-day they own 13,000 acres of land free from any encumbrance. Mr. Fitch further adds that he has traveled quite thoroughly through more than ten counties of Virginia, with horse and buggy, during the present year (1896), and that in no county through which he traveled did the Colored people own less than 5,000 acres of land. He found also that much of the improved farming was being done by Colored men, and that the strong public sentiment against moving to cities was having the desired effect.

Again, the statistician reports, in 1890, 12,690,152 homes and farms in the United States, and of this number the Negroes own 234,747 free from all encumbrance, and 29,541 mortgaged; giving the percentage of mortgaged property owned by Negroes as 10.71, while the whole percentage of mortgaged property for the whole country is 38.97. It is further stated that of all the property held by Negroes, 88.58 per cent is owned without encumbrance. Since so much has been accomplished in the Negro's pioneer days of freedom, may we not predict with a considerable degree of assurance that the next decade and a half will far exceed our most sanguine hope? The virgin fertility of our soils, and the vast amount of cheap and unskilled labor, have been a curse rather than a blessing to agriculture. This exhaustive system of cultivation, the destruction of forests, the rapid and almost constant decomposition of organic matter, together with the great multiplicity of insect and fungus diseases that appear every year, make the Southern agricultural problem one requiring more brains than that of the North, East or West. The advance of civilization has brought, and is constantly bringing, about a more healthy form of competition. The markets are becoming more fastidious, and he who puts such a product upon the market as it demands, controls that market, regardless of color. It is simply a survival of the fittest.

We are also aware that the demands upon agriculture were never so exacting as they are now. All other trades and professions are holding out their inducements to the young men and women who are ready and willing to grapple with life's responsibilities. One says, "Come and I will make you a Gould." Another, a Rockefeller; still another, an Astor--with all the luxuries their names suggest. Too many of our own farmers illy prepare their land, cultivate, harvest and market the scanty and inferior crop, selling the same for less than it cost to produce it. I need not tell you that the above conditions imperatively suggest the proverbial mule, implements more or less primitive, with frequently a vast territory of barren and furrowed hillsides and wasted valleys. Instead of the veritable Klondyke, of which their dreams are made sweet, another mortgage has been added as an unpleasant reminder of the year's hard labor. With this inevitable doom staring them in the face, is it any wonder that so many of the youth of our land flock to the cities with the hope of seeking some occupation other than farming? The above conditions, together with the seemingly higher civilization of the city folk, I claim, are largely responsible for this. But be this as it may, in the light of what has been accomplished, I see for us a very bright star of hope in the education of two-thirds of the brightest and best of our youth in scientific agriculture.

The many excellent schools, colleges, nature study leaflets, farmers' bulletins and reading courses, conferences, convocations, congresses, fairs, and the like, are all powerful educational factors designed to lead the race into higher agricultural activities. The agricultural schools, and higher institutions of that character, are wisely laying much stress upon stock raising, dairying, horticulture, landscape gardening, poultry raising, and every manipulation incident to the successful operation of this great industry. These subjects have been taught almost wholly to young men, but recent experience has taught, not only in this, but in other countries, that many of these studies seem especially suited to women; and many are taking the advantages offered by schools in the matter of learning the technique of poultry raising, dairying, horticulture, landscape gardening, and the related sciences, along with their academy or college work, and as a reward are finding pleasant, profitable and healthful employment. Nature study, with the first principles of agriculture, is compulsory in many of the primary schools, and ere another decade is indelibly placed upon the historical records of the greatest events of the greatest century, it will find us wonderfully in advance in this particular.

Every year we see a perceptible increase in the funds for public education, and magnificent schools and colleges, with better paid professors, springing up here and there, stand out as beacon lights to this new and wonderful epoch. The wisdom of spending these ever-increasing millions upon the youth of our land becomes from year to year a matter of less concern as we seek to give our boys and girls a broader education than that of a pure scientist. It is very encouraging to note the course taken by our young men and women who have gone out from those institutions--the way they have acquired land, built homes, and are devoting their entire time and talent in that direction. I have no fears but what we, in the course of time, will do our part both nobly and well in the matter of feeding a hungry world.

SECOND PAPER.

THE NEGRO AS A FARMER.

BY H. A. HUNT.

PROF. HENRY A. HUNT.

Henry A. Hunt was born in Hancock County, Ga., in 1866. He attended the public schools of Sparta, the county seat, until 1882, when he entered Atlanta University and was graduated from the college course in 1890. He also completed the course of instruction given in the Industrial Department of that university. He kept up his expenses, in a measure, by working as a carpenter during his vacations and during his spare hours while in school. He was considered a most promising young man and a thorough scholar by his professors and schoolmates. He became a professing Christian while pursuing his college course. In all of the athletic sports of the university he took an active part and served as captain of the base ball team for several years. He graduated with the highest honors of his class. Through a most flattering recommendation from the Superintendent of the Public Schools of Atlanta, Ga., he was called, in 1891, to the principalship of the Charlotte Graded School, which position he filled acceptably, until he resigned, during the same year, to accept the superintendency of the Industrial Department of Biddle University, Charlotte. N. C. In 1896 he was given, in addition to his industrial work, the superintendency of the Boarding Department of Biddle University. These two positions he is now filling in a most acceptable manner. Mr. Hunt's work and close touch with the young men of the university have been most gratifying. He encourages and takes part with them in all of their sports, being the leading spirit in their athletic association. He is a noble example of the manly man and his influence over the students for straightforward and manly endeavor has been truly helpful. The respect and esteem in which he is held by the graduates and undergraduates are most noteworthy. In August, 1900, Mr. Hunt called together the farmers of Mecklenburg and surrounding counties for the purpose of holding a farmers' conference. A permanent organization was effected, of which he was made president. The influence of these annual conferences is far-reaching and will no doubt result in great good to the farming class of western North Carolina. He was for several years the president of the Queen City Real Estate Company of Charlotte, N. C., an organization designed to help those wishing to obtain homes. He was forced to relinquish this work because of other duties. Mr. Hunt is a strong and courageous young man, he is firm in his convictions and believes the royal road to success is attained through the faithful performance of each day's duties. His sympathies are near to the interests of the working classes. As a college-bred man he urges his people to become skilled artisans and to build up reliable business enterprises and thus become independent. His kindness of heart and plain honest dealing with his fellow-man, along with his intellectual attainment, have won for him a host of friends and made him a popular man with all the people.

While attending Atlanta University, Mr. Hunt met the girl--Miss Florence S. Johnson, of Raleigh, N. C.--who in the year 1893 became his wife and to whom much of whatever success he has attained is attributable. To them there have been three bright and beautiful children born--two girls and a boy.

In a chapter on this subject it may not be out of place to give some little attention to the early history of the Negro as a farmer in America.

Without stopping to discuss the motives of the sea captain who brought over the first load of Negroes to America, or why the Northern colonists discontinued, at a comparatively early date, the use of slave labor, let us note a few things about the Negro in the South.

The fact that they could easily endure the summer sun of the cotton belt; that they learned quickly the simple methods of farming used in the cultivation of cotton, rice, sugar-cane, and tobacco; that they required but little in the way of food, clothing, housing and medical attention, and the further fact that they possessed a peculiarly happy and light-hearted disposition, all tended to make them especially valuable to the Southern planters.

It seems that slave labor was looked upon, at a comparatively early date, as being not only desirable, but absolutely necessary to the growth and development of the Southern colonies.

For several years after the settlement of Georgia no slaves were allowed to be used in that colony, but, finding that the colony seemed to be doomed to failure, the "trustees" permitted the introduction of slaves and the colony began immediately to prosper.

The following lines attributed to George Whitefield--the famous minister--in referring to his plantations in Georgia and South Carolina, give a fair idea of the feelings of the Southern colonists on the subject of slave labor at that time. He speaks thus about his Georgia plantation: "Upward of five thousand pounds have been expended in the undertaking, and yet very little proficiency made in the cultivation of my tract of land, and that entirely owing to the necessity I lay under of making use of white hands. Had a Negro been allowed I should now have had a sufficiency to support a great many orphans, without expending above half the sum which has been laid out." How different are his expressions concerning his South Carolina plantation, where slavery existed: "Blessed be God! This plantation has succeeded; and, though at present I have only eight working hands, yet, in all probability, there will be more raised in one year, and without a quarter of the expense, than had been produced at Bethesda for several years past. This confirms me in the opinion I have entertained for a long time that Georgia never can or will be a flourishing province without Negroes are allowed."

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