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Samantha Among the
Colored Folks

"My Ideas on the Race Problem"
By

JOSIAH ALLEN'S WIFE

(MARIETTA HOLLEY)
Illustrated by E. W. KEMBLE

New York
Dodd, Mead and Company

Publishers

Copyright, 1892, 1894,

BY

DODD, MEAD & COMPANY.
A 11 rights reserved.

To all who work for the advancement
of true liberty \ irrespective of color or sex,
this book is inscribed.

MARIETTA NOLLE Y

Bonnie View
May, 1894

PUBLISHER'S NOTE.

Samantha on the Race Problem was the title
adopted for the editions of this book that were is-
sued exclusively for the subscription market.

In preparing the new edition for popular sale it
has been deemed advisable to change its title to
Samantha Among the Colored Folks as one
more in keeping with its character, Otherwise its
contents remain the same.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PACK

'* They wuz Tracts and Bibles" 7

Uncle Nate Gowdey 12

" The dumb Fools !" „ 18

A Black 21

"The old and feeble Ones" 30

"I sot demute" 34

" The dark Faces of these Apostles" 40

"With Philury's Help" 46

Character Sketch 51

"When Ury had that Fight with Sam" 56

Melinda 61

Melinda has a Fit 63

"It wuz 'Hold the Fort' he belched out in" 69

"i ketched her by her llmb" 73

Peter and Melinda Ann 77

Deacon Henzy 83

"Josiah's bald Head and Mine" 86

The Colored Children 93

Old Dr. Cork . . 99

The Slave Woman who poisoned the Child 104

Madeline 110

Colonel Seybert 122

" low, brutal, envious mlnd" 128

Defending his Home 133

The Leader v 138

Felix and the Teacher 143

4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

"The Old, the Feeble" 149

"His Overseer" 153

"A little tumble-down Cottage" 155

Cleopatra 156

Rosy 161

" He wuz glad to set down" 167

The old Negro 172

"Gawge Perkins am Daid" 176

One of the Mourners... 179

"You can repair your Dwellin' House 185

" And I have got the Pans" 189

" i am needed there" i92

" The Butter-Maker up in Zoar" 194

" Josiah give up " 196

Deacon Huffer 208

41 Under the white Cross" . . 211

The Jonesvillians 215

" Boy laughed" 220

Raymond Fairfax Coleman 223

11 With a jumpin' Toothache" 225

" The Relation on Maggie's Side" 230

Babe 237

"My Tone riz up" 239

"I had been out a walkin' " 242

A Poor White 244

Rosy's Baby 254

Ury 256

• Some Neighbors 258

Aunt Mela 264

"Despatched to get Buttermilk" 271

"The big Piazza" 277

"a perfect dagon" 0.... - 279

A Ku-Kluxer. 291

*' Pilot a helpless Unionist" 296

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 5

PAGK

M Set down in our Swamp" 301

" He hastened off" 30s

"To kiss Snow and Boy good-night" 308

"And killed her Hens" 312

"Onexpected Company" 316

" Misery'*. 320

M Wherefoah, Bredren, let us pray" 322

Abe 326

u He wuz a walkin' up and down7' 331

"This dark Earth Valley" 334

Hiram Wiggins's two Daughters 338

" A clear River running through" 343

M Everything wuz ready" 347

44 In the Chair of the Ruler" 353

" Faced the Gang of masked Men" 360

"When the Moon had risen" 363

u Exiled Birds" 369

Victor 373

44 Makin' Speeches" 375,

Father Gasperin 37S

" Felix, his Wife and Little Ned" 380

" I sot out on the Stoop" 384

" THEY WUZ TRACTS AND BIBLES."

CHAPTER 1.

IT was entirely onexpected and onlooked for.
But I took it as a Decree, and done as
well as I could, which is jest as well as any-
body ought to be expected to do under any
circumstances, either on my side or on hisen.
It was one of the relations on his side that come
on to us entirely onexpected and on the evenin' stage
that runs from Jonesville to Loontown. He was a
passin' through this part of the country on business,
so he stopped off at Jonesville to see us.

He come with his portmanty and a satchel, and
I mistrusted, after consultin' them signs in the pri-
vacy of my own mind, that he had come to stay for
quite a spell.

8

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

But I found in the fulness of time that my worst

apprehensions wuz' not realized.

I found instead of pantaloons and vests and things
which I suspected wuz in the big satchel, I found
out they wuz tracts and Bibles.

Why, I wuz fairly took aback when I discovered
this fact, and felt guilty to think I had been cast
down, and spozed things that wuzn't so.

But whether they are on his side or on your own,
visitors that come when you are deep in house-
cleanin', and most all your carpets took up, and
your beds oncorded, and your buttery shelves dry
and arid, can't be welcomed with quite the cordiality
you would show one in more different and prosper-
ous times.

But we found out after a little conversation that
Cousin John Richard Allen wuz a colporter, and
didn't lay out to stay only one night. So, as I say,
I done the best I could with him, and felt my con-
science justified.

He had a dretful good look to his face, for all
mebby he wouldn't be called beautiful. His eyes
wuz deep and brilliant and clear, with a meanin' in
'em that comes from a pure life and a high endeavor
— a generous, lovin' soul.

Yes, though it wuz one on his side instid of mine,
justice makes me say he seemed to be a good feller,
and smart as a whip, too. And he seemed to feel real
friendly and cousinly towards us, though I had never
laid eyes on him more than once or twice before.
Josiah had known him when they wuz boys.

He had lived in Vermont, and had been educated
high, been through college, and preachin' schools

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

9

of the best kind, and had sot out in life as a minis-
ter, but bein* broke up with quinsy, and havin' a
desire to be in some Christian work, he took to col-
porterin*, and had been down in the Southern States
to work amongst the freedmen for years.

He went not long after the war closed. I guess
he hated to give up preachin', for I believe my soul
that he wanted to do good, and bein' so awful smart
it wuz a cross, I know — and once in -a while he
would kind o' forget himself, and fall into a sort o'
preachin', eloquent style of talking even when he
wuz conversin' on such subjects as butter, and hens,
and farming and such. But I know he did it entirely
onbeknown to himself.

And to the table — the blessin' he asked wuz as
likely a one as I ever sec run at anybody's table,
but it wuz middlin' lengthy, as long about as a small-
sized sermon.

Josiah squirmed — I see he did. he squirmed hard,
though he is a good Christian man. He wuz afraid the
cream biscuit would be spilte by the delay ; they are
his favorites, and though I am fur from bein' the one
that ought to speak of it, my biscuit are called deli-
cious.

And though I hate to say it, hate to show any on-
willingness to be blessed to any length by so good a
man and so smart a one — yet I must say them bis-
cuit wuzn't the biscuit they would have been had
the blessin' been more briefer, and they had been eat
earlier.

Howsomever, they wuz pretty good ones after
all, and Cousin John Richard partook of five right
along one after the other, and seemed to enjoy the

io SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

fifth one jest as well as he did the earlier editions.
They wuzn't very large, but light, and tender.

Wall, after supper, he and ray pardner sot down
in the settin'-room, while I wuz a washin' up the
dishes, and a settin' the sponge for my griddle-cakes
for breakfast.

And I hearn 'em a talkin' about Uncle Noah, and
Uncle Darius, and Cousin Melinda, and Sophronia
Ann, and Aunt Marrier and her children — and lots
more that I had never hearn of, or had forgot if I had.

They seemed to be a takin' solid comfort, though
I see that Cousin John Richard every time he got a
chance would kinder preach on 'em.

If there wuz a death amongst 'em that they talked
Dver, John Richard would, I see, instinctively and
onbeknown to himself preach a little funeral sermon
on 'em, a first-rate one, too, though flowery, and
draw quite a lot of morals. Wall, I thought to my-
self, they are a takin' sights of comfort 'together, and
I am glad on it. I dearly love to see my pardner
happy.

When all of a sudden, jest as I had got my sponge
ail wet up, and everything slick, and I wuz a wash-
in' my hands to the sink, I see there wuz a more
excited, voyalent axent a ringin' out in my pardner's
voice, I see he wuz a gettin' het up in some argu-
ment or other, and I hurried and changed my ging-
ham bib apron for a white one, and took my knittin'
work and hastened into the room, bein' anxious to
avert horstilities, and work for peace.

And I see I wuz only jest in time ; for my com-
panion wuz a gettin' agitated and excited to a high
degree, and Cousin John Richard all rousted up.

SAMAXTHA OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

1 1

And the very first words I hearn after I went in
wuz these offensive and quarrelsome words that do
so much to stir up strife and dessensions —

They have madded me time and agin. They
proceeded out of my companion's mouth, and the
words wuz ;

" Oh shaw !"

I see in a minute that John Richard couldn't brook
'em. And I wunk to Josiah Allen to stop, and let
Cousin John Richard go on and say what he wuz a
minter, both as a visiter, who wuz goin' to remain
with us but a short period, and also a relation, and
a ex-minister.

My wink said all of this, and more. And my
companion wuz affected bv it. But like a child a
cryin' hard after bein' spanked, he couldn't stop
short off all to once.

So he went on, but in fur mellerer axents, and
more long-sufferin'er ones :

" Wall, I say there is more talk than there is any
need of. I don't believe things are to such a pass
in the South. I don't take much stock in this Race
Problem anyway. The Government whipped the
South and freed the niggers. And there it is, all
finished and done with. And everything seems
quiet so fur as I can hear on.

II I hain't heard nuthin' about any difficulty to speak
on, nor I don't believe Uncle Nate Gowdey has,
or Sime Bently. And if there wuz much of any-
thing wrong goin' on, one of us three would have
been apt to have hearn on it.

" For we are, some of us, down to the corners about
every night, and get all the news there is a stirrin'.

12 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

" Of course there is some fightin' everywhere.
Uncle Nate hearn of a new fight last night, over to
Loontown. We get holt of everything. And I
don't believe there is any trouble down South, and
if there is, they will get along well enough if they
are left alone, if there hain't too much said."

UNCLE NATE GOWDEY,

Sez John Richard, " I have lived in the South for
years, and I know what I am talking about. And
I say that you Northern people, and in fact all the
nation, are like folks sitting on the outside of a vol-
cano, laughing and talking in your gay indifference,
and thinking the whole nation is in safety, when
the flames and the lava torrents of destruction are

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 1 3

liable to burst out at any time and overwhelm this
land in ruin/'

And then agin, though I hate to set it down —
then agin did my pardner give vent to them dan-
gerous and quarrelsome sentiments before I could
reach him with a wink or any other precautionary
measures. That rash man said agin :

" Oh shaw !"

And I see, devoted Christian as John Richard
wuz, the words gaulded him almost more than he
could endure, and he broke out in almost heated
axents, and his keen dark eye a flashin', and says
he:

11 I tell you the storm is brewing ! I have watched
it coming up and spreading over the land, and unless
it is averted, destruction awaits this people. "

His tone wuz a very preachin' one, very, and I
felt considerable impressed by it ; but Josiah Allen
spoke up pert as a peacock, and sez he :

" Why don't the Southern folks behave themselves,
then?"

And sez John Richard :

" Do you blame the Southern white folks exclu-
sively ?"

" Yes," sez Josiah, in them same pert axents;
" yes, of course I do/'

" Then that shows how short-sighted you are,
how blind !"

11 I can see as well as you can !" sez Josiah, all
wrought up — " I don't have to wear goggles."

Oh, how mortified, how mortified I felt ! John
Richard did wear blue goggles when he wuz travel-
lin\ But what a breach of manners to twit a visiter

14 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

of such a thing ! Twit 'em of goggles, blue ones
too ! I felt as if I should sink.

But I didn't know Cousin John Richard Allen.
He hadn't give up ease and comfort and the joys of
a fireside, for principle's sake, for nuthin'. No per-
sonal allusions could touch him. The goggles fell
onto him harmlessly, and fell off agin. He didn't
notice 'em no more'n if they hadn't been throwed.

And he went on growin' more and more sort o*
lifted up and inspired-lookin', and a not mindin*
what or who wuz round him. And sez he :

" I tell you again the storm is rising; I hear its
mutterings in the distance, and it is coming nearer
and nearer all the time."

Josiah kinder craned his neck and looked out of
the winder in a sort of a brisk way. He misunder-
stood him a purpose, and acted as if John Richard
meant a common thunder-storm.

But Cousin John Richard never minded him, bein*
took up and intent on what his own mind wuz a
lookin' at onbeknown to us —

" I have been amongst this people night and day
for years ; I have been in the mansions of the rich,
the ruins of the beautiful homes ruined by the war,
and in the cabins of the poor. I have been in their
schools and their churches, and the halls where the
law is misadministered — I have been through the
Southern land from one end to the other — and I
know what I am talking about.

" I went there to try to help the freedmen. I
knew these people so lately enslaved were poor and
ignorant, and I thought I could help them.

" But I was almost as ignorant as you are of the

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 1 5

real state of affairs in the South. But I have been
there and seen for myself, and I tell you, and I tell
this nation, that we are on the eve of another war if
something is not done to avert it."

My pardner wuz jest a openin' his mouth in a de-
risive remark, but I hitched my chair along and trod
on his foot, and onbeknown to me it wuz the foot on
which he wuz raisin' a large corn, and his derisive
remark wuz changed to a low groan, and Cousin
John Richard went on onhendered.

M I went South with good motives, God knows.
I knew this newly enfranchised race was sorely in
want of knowledge, Christian knowledge most of all.

" I thought, as so many others do, that Christianity
and education would solve this problem. I never
stopped to think that the white race, of whose
cruelty the negroes complained, had enjoyed the
benefits of Christianity for hundreds of years, and
those whose minds were enriched by choicest cul-
ture had hearts encased in bitterest prejudices, and
it was from the efforts of their avarice and selfishness
that I was trying to rescue the freedmen. We ac-
complished much, but I expected, as so many others
have, choicer Christian fruits to spring from this
barren soil, that has grown in the rich garden culti-
vated for centuries.

" Education has done and will do much — Chris-
tianity more ; but neither can sound a soundless deep,
nor turn black night into day.

" But I never thought of this. I worked hard
and meant well, Heaven knows. I thought at first
I could do marvellous things ; later, when many
failures had made me more humble, I thought if I

l6 samantha on the race problem.

could help only one soul my labor would not be in
vain. For who knows/' sez John Richard dreamily,
" who knows the tremendous train of influences one
sets in motion when he is under God enabled to turn
one life about from the path of destruction towards
the good and the right ?

" Who knows but he is helping to kindle a light
that shall yet lighten the pathway of a Toussaint
L'Ouverture or a Fred Douglass on to victory, and
a world be helped by the means ?

" And if only one soul is helped, does not the
Lord of the harvest say, * He that turns one man
from the error of his ways has saved a soul from
death'?"

Cousin John Richard's eye looked now as if he
wuz a gazin' deep into the past—the past of eager
and earnest endeavor, and way beyend it into the
past that held a happy home, and the light from that
forsaken fireside seemed to be a shinin' up into his
face, divinely sad, bitter sweet, as he went on :

" I loved my wife and children as well as another
man, but I left them and my happy, happy home to
go where duty called.

" My wife could not endure that hot climate, and
she lay dying when I was so far South that I could
not get to her till she had got so far down in the
Valle}^ that she could not hear my voice when I
spoke to her. "

Ah ! the waves of memory wuz a dashin' hard
aginst Cousin John Richard then, as we could see.
It splashed some of the spray up into his bright
eyes.

But he kept on : " I was rich enough then to put

SAM AX TH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 17

my children to school, which I did, and then re-
turned to my labors.

" I loved my work — I felt for it that enthusiasm and
devotion that nerves the heart to endure any trials —
and I don't speak of the persecutions I under-
went in that work as being harder than what many
others endured.

1 4 You know what they passed through who
preached the higher truth in Jerusalem. The Book
says, ' They were persecuted, afflicted, tormented,
had cruel buffetings and scourgings, were burned,
were tortured, not accepting deliverance. '

" In the earlv days after the war, in some parts ol
the South there were hardly any indignities that
could be inflicted upon us that we were not called
upon to endure. We had our poor houses burned
down over our heads, our Bible and spelling-books
thrown into the flames ; we have had rifles pointed
at our breasts, and were ordered to leave on peril
of death.

" And many, many more than you Northerners
have any idea of met their death in the dark cypress
forests and in the dreary, sandy by-ways of the
Southern States.

" They died, 1 not accepting deliverance ' by cow-
ardly flight. How many of them thus laid down
their lives for conscience' sake will never be known
till that hour when He comes to make up His jewels.

" I bear the marks upon me to-day, and shall carry
them to my grave, of the tortures inflicted upon me
to make me give up my work of trying to help the
weak and seek and save them that were lost."

" The dumb fools !" hollered out Josiah. " What

1 8 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

did they act so like idiots for — and villains ? The
Southerners always did act like the Old Harry any-
way.

My dear companion is fervid and impassioned in
his feelin's and easily wrought on, and he felt what

" THE DUMB FOOLS !"

he said. John Richard wuz a relation on his own
side, and he could not calmly brook the idee of his
sufferin's.

But Cousin John didn't look mad, nor excited,
nor anything. He had a sort of a patient look onto
his face, and as if he had tried to reason things out
for some time.

" Such a state of affairs was inevitable,' ' sez he.

SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 19

" Then you don't blame the cussed fools, do
you?" yelled out Josiah, fearfully wrought up and
agitated.

Oh, what a word to use, and to a minister too —
" cussed" ! I felt as if I should sink right down into
the suller — I wuz about over the potato ben — and I
didn't much care if I did sink, I felt so worked
up.

But Cousin John Richard didn't seem to mind it
at all. He had got up into a higher region than my
soul wuz a sailin' round in — he had got up so high
that little buzzin', stingin' insects that worried me
didn't touch him ; he had got up into a calm, pure
atmosphire where they couldn't fly round.

lie went on calm as a full moon on a clear night,
and sez he :

It is difficult to put the blame for this state of
affairs on any one class, the evil is so far spread.
The evil root was planted centuries ago, and we are
partaking of its poison fruit to-day.

" In looking on such a gigantic wrong we must
look on it on other sides than the one whose jagged
edges have struck and bruised us — we must look on
it on every side in order to be just.

" After years and years of haughty supremacy, am-
bition and pride growing rankly, as they must in
such a soil, fostered, it would seem, by Northern indo-
lence and indifference, the South was conquered by
armed force — brought down to the humiliation of
defeat by a successful, if generous foe.

And then, what was far harder for them to endure,
a race of people that they had looked upon much as
you look upon your herd of cattle was suddenly

20 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

raised from a condition of servitude to one of legal
equality, and in many cases of supremacy.

" It was hard for this hot-blooded, misguided,
warm-hearted Southern people to lose at once all
their brilliant dreams of an independent, aristocratic
Confederacy — it was hard for them to lose home,
and country, and wealth, and ambition at one blow.

" It was hard for their proud, ambitious leader to
have his beautiful old country home, full of aristo-
cratic associations and sweet memories, turned into
the national graveyard.

" And this one tragedy that changed this sweet
home into a mausoleum is not a bad illustration of
what the Southern people endured.

"No matter what brought this thing about — no
matter where the blame rested — it was hard for them
to stand by the graves of their loved ones, who fell
fighting for the lost cause — to stand amongst the
ruins of their dismantled homes, and know that their
proud, ambitious dreams were all ended.

" But this they could endure — it was the fortune of
war, and they had to submit. But to this other in-
dignity, as they called it, they would not submit.

" Through centuries of hereditary influences and
teachings this belief was ingrained, born in them,
bone of their bone, flesh of their flesh, soul of their
soul, implanted first by nature, then hardened and
made invulnerable by centuries of habits, beliefs,
and influences — this instinctive, hereditary contempt
and aversion for the black race only as servants.

" And they would not endure to have them made
their equals.

" Now, no preaching, be it with the tongue of men

SAM AX TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

or angels, could vanquish this ingrained, inexorable
toe, this silent, overmastering force that rose up on
every side to set at naught our preaching.

A BLACK.

M After twenty-five years of Christian effort it re-
mains the same, and at the end of a century of Gos-
pel work it will still be there just the same.

" And those who do not take into consideration

■22 SAMANTIIA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

this overwhelming power of antagonism between
the races when they are considering the Southern
question are fools.

" The whites will not look upon the negroes as
their equals, and you cannot make them — "

" Wall, they be!" hollered out Josiah. t% The
Proclamation made 'em free and equal, jest as we
wuz made in the War of 1812."

" But oh, what a difference !" sez Cousin John
Richard sadly.

" The American colonies were the peers of the
mother country. It was only a quarrel between
children and mother. The same blood ran in their
veins, they had the same traits, the same minds, the
same looks, they were truly equal.

" But in this case it was an entirely different race,
necessarily inferior by their long years of degrada-
tion, brought up at one bound from the depths of
ignorance and servitude to take at once the full
rights awarded to intellect and character.

" It was a great blunder ; it was a sad thing for
the white race and for the black race !,;

Josiah wuz jest a openin' his mouth to speak in
reply to Cousin John Richard's last words, when all
of a sudden we heard a knock at the door, and I
went and opened it, and there stood Miss Eben Gar*
lock, and I asked her to come in, and sot her a chain

I never over and above liked Miss Eben Garlock,
though she is a likely woman enough so fur as I
know.

But she is one of the kind of wimmen who orni-
ment the outside of their heads more than the inside,
and so on with their hearts and souls, etc.

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 23

She is a great case for artificial flowers, and rib-
bin loops, and fringes. And the flowers that wuz
a blowin' out on her bunnet that day would have
gone a good ways towards fillin' a half-bushel basket.
And the loops that wuz a hangin' all round her bod-
dist waist would have straightened out into half a
mile of ribbin, I do believe.

The ribbin wuz kinder rusty, and she had pinned
on a bunch of faded red poppies on to the left side
of her boddist waist, pretty nigh, I should judge,
over her heart.

Which goes to prove what I said about her trim-
min' off the outside of her heart and soul.

Her clothes are always of pretty cheap material,
but showy, and made after sort o' foamin' patterns,
with streamers, and her favorite loops and such.
And they always have a look as if they wuz in dan-
ger of fallin' off of her. She uses pins a good deal,
and they drop out considerable and leave gaps.

Wall, I always use her well ; so, as I say, I sot her
a chair and introduced her to Cousin John Richard,
and he bowed polite to her, and then leaned back in
his chair and seemed restin'. Good land ! I should
thought he'd wanted to.

Miss Garlock seemed real agitated and excited,
and I remembered hearin' that forenoon that they
had lost a relation considerable distant to 'em. He
lived some fifteen or sixteen miles away.

He and Eben Garlock's folks had never agreed ;
in fact, they had hated each other the worst kind.
But now Miss Garlock, bein* made as she wuz, wuz
all nerved up to make a good appearance to the
funeral and show off.

24

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

She had come to borry my mournin' suit that I
had used to mourn for Josiah's mother in ; and I
am that careful of my clothes that they wuz as good
as new, though I had mourned in 'em for a year.
Mournin' for some folks hain't half so hard on
clothes as mournin' for others ; tears spots black
crape awful, and sithes are dretful hard on whale-
bones ; my clothes wuz good, good as new.

But I am a eppisodin', and to resoom.

Miss Garlock wanted to borry my hull suit down
to shoes and stocking for Eben's mother, who lived
with her. She herself wuz a goin' to borry Miss
Slimpsey's dress — she that wuz Betsey Bobbets — it
wuz trimmed more and more foam in' lookin'. Tut
she wanted my black fan for herself, and my mourn-
in' handkerchief pin, it bein' a very showy one. Ury
had gin it to me, and I never had mourned in it
but once, and then not over two hours, at a church
social, for I felt it wuz too dressy for me. But
Miss Garlock had seen it on that occasion and ad-
mired it.

And then, after I had told her she could have all
these things in welcome, she kinder took me out to
one side and asked me "if I had jest as lives lend
her a Bible for a few days. She thought like as not
the minister would call to talk with Eben's mother,
and she felt that she should be mortified if he should
call for a Bible, for they had all run out of Bibles/'
she said.

" The last one they had by 'em had jest been chawed
up by a pup Eben wuz a raisin' ; she had ketched
him a worryin' it out under the back stoop. She
said he had chawed it all up but a part o' the Old

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

Testament, and he wuz a worryin' and gnawin'
Malekv when she got it away from him."

Wall, I told her she could have the Bible, and she
asked me to have the things done up bv the time
they got back from Miss Slimpsey's, and I told her
I would, and I did.

Wall, if you'd believe it, I had hardly got them
things done up in a bundle and laid 'em on the table
ready for Miss Garlock, when that blessed man,
John Richard, commenced agin right where he left
off, and sez he, a repeatin' his last words as calm!jT
as if there had been no Garlock eppisode

" It was a great blunder, a sad thing for the white
race and the black race."

" Wall, what would you have done ?" sez Josiah.

" I don't know," sez Cousin John sadly — " 1 don't
know ; perhaps mistakes were inevitable. The
question was so great and momentous, and the dan-
ger and the difficulties seemed so impenetrable on
every side."

" Lincoln did the best he could," sez Josiah
sturdily ; " and I know it."

''And so do I know it," sez Cousin John.
" That wise, great heart could not make any other
mistake only a mistake of judgment, and he was sore! v
tried to know what was best to do. The burden
weighed down upon him so, T fancy he was glad to
lay it down in any way.

" The times were so dark that any measure adopt-
ed for safety was only groping towards the light,
only catching at the first rope of safety that seemed
to lower itself through the heavy clouds of war.

'* The heavy eyes and true hearts watching

26

SAM AN THA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

through those black hours will never be forgotten
by this republic.

" And now, in looking back and criticising the
errors of that time, it is like the talk of those who are
watching a storm at sea, when, in order to save the
ship, wrong ropes may be seized, and life-boats cast
out into the stormy waves may be swept down and
lost. But if the ship is saved, let the survivors of
the crew forever bless and praise the brave hands
and hearts that dared the storm and the peril.

"But when the sky is clearer you can see more
plainly than when the tempest is whirling about
you and death and ruin are riding on the gale.

" You can see plainer and you can see farther.

*' Now, it was a great and charitable idea, looking
at it from one side, to let those who had tried their
best to ruin the Union at once take an equal place
with those who had perilled life and property to save
it — to give them at once the same rights in making
the laws they had set at defiance.

" It was a generous and charitable idea, looking
on it from one side, but from another side it looked
risky, very risky, and it looked dangerous to the
further peace and perpetuity of that Union.

" A little delay might not have done any harm — a
little delay in giving them the full rights of citizen-
ship.

" And it might, Heaven knows, have been as well
if the slaves had had a gradual bringing up of mind
and character to meet the needs of legal responsi-
bility, if they had not been at once invested with all
the rights and responsibilities which well-trained
Christian scholars find it so difficult to assume, if

SAMANTHA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 27

they had not been required to solve by the ballot
deep questions of statesmanship, the names of which
they could not spell out in the newspaper.

11 Could such ignorance make them otherwise than
a dangerous element in politics, dangerous to them-
selves and dangerous to the welfare of the Union ?

" Tossed back and forth as they were between
two conflicting parties, in their helplessness and
ignorance becoming the prev of the strongest fac-
tion, compelled, at the point of the sword and the
muzzle of the revolver, to vote as the white man
made them — the law of Might victorious over the
Right — it was a terrible thing for the victim, and a
still worse one for the victor.

11 What could happen in such a state of affairs only
trouble and misery, evasions and perversions of the
law, uprisings of the oppressed, secret bands of
armed men intent on deeds of violence, whose only
motives were to set at naught the law, to fight
secretlv against the power they had been openly
forced to yield to.

" What could happen save warfare, bloodshed,
burning discontent, and secret nursing of wrongs
amongst the blacks ; hatred towards the Union
amongst the whites, towards the successful foe who
had humiliated them so beyond endurance by this last
blow of forcing them into a position of equality
towards their former slaves, and rousing up in them
a more bitter animosity towards the poor blacks who
had been the innocent cause of their humiliation."

" Wall, what could have been done?" sez Josiah.

M It is hard to tell," sez John Richard. " It is a
hard problem to solve ; and perhaps," sez Cousin

28

SAMANTHA ON THE 'RACE PROBLEM.

John, lookin' some distance off — " perhaps it was
GocTs own way of dealing with this people.

"You know, after the children of Israel had
broken the chains of their bondage and passed
through the Red Sea, they were encamped in the
Avilderness for forty years before they reached the
Land of Promise.

<J Maybe it is God's way of dealing with this
people, to make them willing to press forward
through the wilderness of their almost unendurable
trials and go forward into their own country, from
whence their fathers were stolen by these pale faces,
and there, in that free, fresh land to found a new re-
public of their own.

" And with all the education and civilization they
have gathered during these long, miserable years of
slavery, helped by all they have learned, taught by
their losses as well as their gains, found a new re-
public that shall yet take its place as one of the great
nations of the world — yes, perhaps lead the nations,
and reveal God's glory in higher, grander forms
than colder-blooded races have ever dreamed of.
For it has seemed as if this people have been pecul-
iarly under His protection and care.

" All through this long, bloody War of the Rebel-
lion, when it would seem as if the black race must
be crushed between either the upper or lower mill-
stone of raging sectional warfare, they simply, as if
bidden by a higher power than was seen marching
with the armies, * stood still and saw the salvation
of the Lord.' "

" Where would you have 'em set up for them-
selves ?" sez Josiah, a lookin' some sleepy, but hold-

SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 29

in', as it were, his eyes open with a effort. " Would
you have 'em go to Mexico, or Brazil, or where?"

" To Africa," sez Cousin John Richard, " or that
is what is in my own mind. I don't know that it
would be better than another place, but I think so."

" But, good land !" sez Josiah, lookin' more wake-
ful, " think of the cost. Why, it would run the
Government in debt to that extent that it never
would get over it." He looked skairt at the idee.
But Cousin John didn't ; he wuz calm and serene as
he went on :

" Thousands and thousands would be able and
willing to go on their own account. But if this na-
tion took them all back at its own expense, is it not
a lawful debt ? Who brought them here in the first
place ? They did not come of their own accord ; no,
they were stolen, hunted like beasts of prey amongst
their own fields and forests, felled like wild animals,
and dragged, bleeding from their wounds, into slave
ships to be packed into a living cargo of sweltering
agony, and brought off from friends and home and
native land for our selfishness' sake, to add to our
wealth.

" It seems to me we owe them a debt that we
should pay for our own conscience' sake as a na-
tion."

" But the Government couldn't afford it ; it would
cost too much." Josiah is very close.

u As I said," sez Cousin John Richard, " thou-
sands of the more intelligent ones who have prop-
erty of their own would go at their own expense for
the sake of founding free, peaceful homes, where
their children could have the advantages of inde-

o

"the old and feeble ones."

&AMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 31

pendence, freed from the baleful effects of class an-
tagonism and race prejudices.

" Many of the old and feeble ones, and those who
were prosperous and well off, would not go at alL
And of those who remained, if the Government
should transport them and support them there for a
year it would not cost a twentieth part so much as
to carry on a civil war.

" And I tell you war will come, Josiah Allen, if
something is not done to avert the storm."

And agin John Richard's eyes took on that fur-off
look, as if he wuz lookin' at things dretful some dis-
tance off.

1 ' Amongst the lower classes you can hear muttered
curses and half-veiled threats, and you feel their
passion and their burning hatred towards the race
that gave them the Indian gift of freedom — gave it,
and then snatched it out of their hands, and instead
of liberty gave them injustice and worse oppression.

" And the storm is coming up. Evil spirits are in
the atmosphere. Over the better feelings of the
white race, dominating them, are the black shapes
of contempt and repulsion towards the race once their
servants, made their equals by a wordy fiction of
their enemies, but still under their feet.

" And in their haughty breasts, as of old, only
stronger, is the determination to have their own
way, to rule this ' ignorant rabble/ to circumvent
the cowardly will of their Northern foe, who had
brought this thing to pass, to still rule them in one
way if not in another — rule or ruin.

" And the storm is coming up the heavens. The
lightning is being stored, and the tempest of hail,

3^ SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

I

the burning lightning, and deafening thunder peals
are awaiting this day of wrath when' the storm shall
burst.

" And you sit on in your ease and will not be-,
lieveit."

His eyes wuz bent on my pardner's form, who
wuz leanin' back in a almost luxurious attitude in his
soft copper-plate-covered rockin' chair, but I see he
didn't mean him in particeler ; no, his eyes had in
'em a wide, deep look that took in the hull country,
North and South, and he went on in almost eloquent
axents :

" The Northern soldier who twenty-five years ago
hung up his old rifle and powder-horn with a sigh of
content that the war against oppression and slavery
had been won still sits under them in content and
self-admiration of his prowess, and heeds not at all
the signs in the heavens.

" And the wise men in the National Capital sit
peacefully in their high places and read over com-
placently the words they wrote down a quarter of a
century ago :

" ' All slaves are free/

" And the bandage that Justice wears, having
slipped too far down over their wise eyes, they have
not seen the handcuffs and chains that have weighed
down the still enslaved.

'* And they read these words :

" 4 We proclaim peace in all your borders.'

" And lost in triumphant thoughts of what they
had done, they did not heed this truth, that instead
of peace hovering down upon the borders of the fair
Southern land, they had blindly and ignorantly, no

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

33

doubt, let loose the bitter, corroding, wearing curse
of animosity and ignorant misrule.

" Yes, those wise men had launched these turbu-
lent spirits instead of peace on the heads of the free
and enlightened, if bigoted white people of the
South, and upon the black race.

" And never stopped to think, so it would seem,
whether three millions strong* of an ignorant, su-
perstitious, long-degraded people, the majority of
whom could not read nor write, and were ignorant
of the first principles of truth and justice, could sud-
denly be lifted up to become the peers, and in man)'
cases the superiors, of a cultured and refined people
who had had long ages of culture and education be-
hind them, and, above all, class prejudices.

M Thev never paused to ask themselves whether it
was in reality just to the white race, or whether
this superior class would quietly submit to the legal
equality and rule of the inferior.

" The difficulty of this problem did not seem to
strike them, whether bv any miracle the white race
would at once forget its pride and its prejudices.

" Whether by a legal enactment a peacock could
be made to change its plumage for the sober habit
of a dove, or an eagle develop the humility of a snail.

" The wise men expected to do more than this, and
failed.

" And thev never seemed to ponder this side of
the question : Whether it was not cruelty to the
weaker class to thus raise up to a greater strength
the prejudice and animosity of the dominant race.

" And whether this premature responsibility thev
had caused them to assume was not as cruel as to

34 SAM AN TH A ON TNE RACE PROBLEM.

put knives and rifles into the hands of babies, and
send them out to fight a battle with giants — fight or
die.

" And so these wise men, having done their best,

M I SOT DEMUTE."

it would seem, to rouse the blind passions and in-
tensify the ignorant prejudice and class hatred of
the blacks, sit at their ease.

" And so the farce has been played out before a

s

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. $5

pitying heaven, and has been for a quarter of a cen-
tury, growing more pitiful to look at year by year.

44 The farce of slave and tyrant masquerading in
the robes of liberty and equality, and the poor
Northern zealot playing well his part with a fool's
cap and bells. The weak crushed and trodden under
foot, the strong shot down by secret violence — mur-
der, rapine, and misrule taking the part of law, and
both races swept along to their ruin like a vision of
the night."

Why, John Richard's talk wuz such, he looked on
things so different from what I ever had, he put such
new and strange idees into my head that I can truly
say that he skairt me most to death. I sot demute ;
I didn't even think to look to see how my pardner
wuz affected by the startlin' views he wuz promul-
gatin'. I dropped stitches, I seamed where I hadn't
ought to seam ; I wuz extremely nerved up and agi-
tated, and he went on a talkin' more stranger and
startlinger than ever, if possible.

" And still these wise men sit and hardly lift their
wise eyes. But what the storm bursts sez Cousin
John Richard, in a louder voice than he had used,
and more threatenin' like and prophetic — " when the
storm bursts, methinks these wise men will look up,
will get up if there is enough left of them to stand
after the shock and the violence of the tempest has
torn and dashed over them. For the clouds will fill
with vengeance, the storm will burst if something is
not done soon to avert the fury of its course.

" Now, this nation can solve this great question
peacefully if it will. "

And I sez in agitated axents :

3^

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

" How ?"

I wuz fearful wrought up. I never had mistrust-
ed there wuz such a state of things anywhere ; it
come all onbeknown onto me, and sort o' paralyzed
my faculties. I had forgot by this time, if you'll
believe it, whether I wuz a knittin' or a tattin'.
Why, I shouldn't have been surprised if somebody
had spoke up and said I wuz a shearin' a sheep or
pickin' a goose. I shouldn't have sensed it, as I
know of, I wuz so dumbfoundered and lost and by
the side of myself.

Sez I, " How?"

And sez he, " Let the colored race go into a home
and a country of their own. Let them leave the
people and the influences that paralyze and hinder
their best efforts. Let them leave a race that they
burden and hamper and oppress, for injustice reacts
worse upon the victor than upon the victim. The
two races cannot live together harmoniously ; they
have tried the experiment for hundreds of }^ears, and
failed/'

I murmured almost mechanically :

" Won't religion and education make 'em har-
moniouser?"

But before John Richard could answer my ques-
tion, Eben Garlock come in for the moumin' bundle,
and I gin it to him.

He said he couldn't set down, but still he didn't
seem ready to go

Everybody has such visitors that don't want to
go and don't want to stay, and you have to use
head work to get 'em started either way.

Eben is different from his wife ; he is more sincere

SAM A NTH A 0Ar THE RACE PROBLEM. 37

and open-hearted, and hain't so affected. He speaks
out more than she duz, and finally he told us what
wuz on his mind.

I see he had on a good new black overcoat, and
the case wuz he wanted to swop with Josiah for the
dav of the funeral, and take his old London brown
overcoat.

And I sez, " For the land's sake ! Why ?'

M Wall," sez he, a lookin' real candid and sincere
as he said it, " the fact is, you know the corpse and
I never agreed with each other, and everybody
knows it ; and I don'tt want to act as if I wuz a
mournin' too much. I hate deceit," sez he.

" Wall," sez I, " if that is how you feel you can
take the coat in welcome."

And Josiah sez, " Yes, of course you can have it."

And Eben took off his glossy new black overcoat
and put on Josiah's old shabby brown one and sot
off. And I don't know how he and his wife settled
it, and I don't much care.

Wall, if you'll believe it, Eben hadn't much more'n
got into his buggy at the gate when Cousin John
Richard began agin, took up his remarks jest where
he had laid 'em down. I don't spoze he sensed Eben's
comin' in hardly any.

I spoze it wuz some as if a fly should light on the
nose of a Fourth of July oritor, it would be brushed
off without noticin' it, and the oration would go
right on.

Sez John Richard, " All the religion and educa-
tion in the world cannot make the two races unite
harmoniously and become one people, with kindred
tastes and united hearts and interests."

38 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Sez I agin, speakin' mechanically, " You think the
foot is too big for the shoe ?"

" Yes, exactly," sez he. " The shoe is a good
sound one, but the foot is too big ; it won't go
into it."

' ' But, " sez I, ' ' as Josiah remarked to you, wouldn't
it cost awfully ?"

" Will it cost any less ten years from now ? The
colored population of the South increases at the rate
of five hundred every twenty-four hours.

" By the most careful estimates it has been found
that in less than twenty years the black race will out-
number the whites to the number of a million.
What will be done then ? Will the white man leave
this country to make room for the negro ? It is plain
that there will not be room for both."

And I murmured almost entirely onbeknown to
myself, " No, I don't spoze he would."

" No, indeed," sez Cousin John Richard. " The
Anglo-Saxon will not leave this country, his in-
heritance, for the sake of peace or to make room
for another race; then what will be done? I hear
the voice of the Lord," sez John Richard solemnly,
"I hear His voice saying, ' Let my people go.' "
The silence seemed solemn ; it seemed some like the
pauses that come in a protracted meetin' between
two powerful speakers. I felt queer.

But I did speak up almost entirely onbeknown to
myself, and sez I, " Could they take care of
themselves in a colony of their own ? Do they
know enough ?"

Sez John Richard, "A race that has accumulated
property to the extent of six millions of dollars in

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

39

one Southern State since the war, under all the
well-nigh unendurable drawbacks and persecutions
that have beset it, will be able, I believe, to at least
jo as much, when these hampering and oppressive
influences are withdrawn and the colored man has a
clear field, in an atmosphere of strength and courage
and encouragement — where in this air of liberty he
can enjoy the rewards of his labor and behold the
upbuilding of his race.

" And what a band of missionaries and teachers
will go out from this new republic, upon every side
of them, in darkest Africa, to preach the peaceful
doctrine of the cross !

" In these same dark forests, where their ances-
tors were hewn down and shot down like so many
wild beasts, and dragged, maimed and bleeding, to
become burden bearers and chained slaves to an
alien race —

" Under the same dim shadows of these lofty
trees will these men stand and reveal to the igno-
rant tribes the knowledge they learned in the tortur-
ing school of slavery.

" The dark baptism wherewith they were baptized
will set them apart and fit them for this great work.
They will speak with the fellowship of suffering
which touches hearts and enkindles holy flames.

" Their teachings will have the supreme consecra-
tion of agony and martyrdom. They will speak
with the pathos of grief, the earnestness and knowl-
edge born through suffering and ' the constant
anguish of patience. p

'* It is such agenc!ej as these that God has always
blessed to the upbuilding of His kingdom. And

40 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

will not the dwarfed natures about them gradually
be transformed by the teachings of these apostles
into a civilized, God-fearing people ?

" Methinks the dark faces of these apostles will
shine with the glowing image of God's love and
providence — the providence that watched over

" THE DARK FACES OF THESE APOSTLES.''

them and kept them in a strange land, and then
brought them back in safety, fitted to tell the story
of God's love and power, and His mercy that had
redeemed them and made them free.

" And when the lowest and most unknowing one
shall ask, * Who are these ?' methinks the answer

SAMANTHA OAT THE RACE PROBLEM,

4*

will be as it was to St. John : * These are they who
come out of great tribulations.' 99

I wuz demute, and didn't say nuthin', and John
Richard sez, in a deep axent and a earnest one,
" But wrill this Government be warned by past
judgments and past experience and be wise in time ?

M I don't know," sez he, a answerin' himself ; for
truly I didn't know what to say nor how to say it.

" You spoke just now of the expense. It will cost
less now to avert an evil than it will cost for its over-
throw, when time, and national follies, and men's
bad passions, and inevitable causes have matured it,
and the red cloud has burst in its livid fury over a
doomed land. But time will tell.

" But while delays go on, the mills of the gods
are grinding on ; time nor tide cannot stop them.
And if this nation sits down at its ease for a decade
longer, woe to this republic !"

I wuz so thrilled, and skairt, and enthused by
Cousin John Richard's eloquence and strange and
fiery words and flowery language that when I sort
o' come to myself I looked up, a expectin' to see
Josiah bathed in tears, for he weeps easy.

But even as I looked, I heard a low, peaceful
snore. And I see that Josiah Allen had so fur for-
got good manners and what wuz due to high princi-
ples and horspitality as to set there fast asleep.
Yes, sleepin' as sweet as a babe in its mother's arms.

I looked mortified, I know.

But Cousin John Richard took it all historically —
nuthin' personal could touch him, so it seemed.

And sez he to me. " There is a fair instance of
what I have told you, cousin — a plain illustration

42 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

of the indifference and unbelief of the North as to
the state of affairs in the Southern States."

" Wall," sez I, " Josiah has been broke of his rest
some durin' the year with newraligy, and you must
overlook it in him."

And, wantin' to change the subject, I asked him
if he wouldn't like a glass of new milk before retirin'
and goin' to bed.

And he said he would ; and I brung it in to him
with a little plate of crackers on a tray. And as I
come by Josiah Allen I made calculation ahead to
hit him axidentally on his bald head with my el-
bow.

And he started up, with his face nearly covered
with smiles and mortification, and sez he :

" That last remark of yours, Cousin John Rich
ard, wuz very convincin' and eloquent."

The remark wuz, " I like new milk very much."

But I wouldn't throw that milk into his face,
And Cousin John received the milk and the remark
with composure.

And I kep' them two men down on to relations,
and sheep, and such like subjects till I got 'em off to
bed.

I give John Richard a good dose of spignut syrup,
for he complained of a sore throat, and he wuz
hoarse as a frog. Good land 1 I should have
thought he would be, talkin' as much as he had,
and eloquent too.

Eloquence is dretful tuckerin' ; I know well its
effects on the system, though mebby I hadn't ort
to be the one to say it.

Wall, in the mornin' Cousin John Richard wuz

SA MANTUA ON THE KACE PROBLEM.

43

weak as a cat. All tired out. He couldn't hardly
get round. And I made him lay down on the lounge
in the settin' room, and I give him spignut syrup
once a hour most all day, and kep' him warm, and
lumps of maple sugar for his cough.

And by night he seemed like a new man — that
spignut syrup is wonderful ; few people know the
properties of it.

Wall, Josiah and I both took such a likin' to that
good onselfish eloquent creeter that we prevailed on
him to stay a week with us right along.

And we took him to see the children, and Josiah
took him up to Uncle Thomas'es, and Cousin So-
phronia's on his own side, and we done well by him.

And I fixed up his clothes with Philury's help —
they wuz good ones, but they needed a woman.
But we mended 'em and rubbed 'em up with am-
monia where it wuz needed, and they wuz in good
condition when he went back to his work.

Good land ! wild oxen, nor camels, nor nuthin'
couldn't have kep' him from that " field" of hisen.

But when it come the mornin' for him to leave, he
hated to go — hated to like a dog.

And we hated to have him go, we liked him the
best that ever wuz. And we tried to make him
promise to come to see us agin. But he seemed to
feel dubersome about it ; he said he would have to
go where his work called him.

His bizness now up North wuz to see about some
money that had been subscribed for a freedmen's
school and meetin' house. But he promised to write
to us now and then, and he spoke with deep feelin'
about the "sweet rest he had had there," and

44 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

how he never should forget it ; he talked real elo*
quent about it, and flowery, but he meant every
word, we could see he did.

It happened curius about the chapter Josiah read
that mornin' — he most always reads the first one he
opens to. And it wuz the one where Paul tells
about his hard work and trials, and how the Lord
had brought him out of 'em all.

How he wuz beaten with rods, and stuned, and
wuz in perils of waters, and perils by his own coun-
trymen, and perils by the heathen, and in the wilder-
ness, and amongst false brethren, in weariness, and
painfulness, and hunger and thirst, and cold and
nakedness.

And how he gloried in his weakness and infirmi-
ties, if so God's strength should be made perfect
and His will be accomplished.

I declare for it, I couldn't help thinkin' of Cousin
John Richard, though mebby it hain't right to com-
pare one of our relations to Paul, and then agin I
didn't spoze Paul would care. I knew they both
on 'em wuz good, faithful, earnest creeters any-
way.

Then Cousin John Richard prayed a prayer that
almost caught us up to the gates of Paradise, it wuz
so full of heavenly love, and tenderness, and affec-
tion for us, and devotion to his work, and every-
thing good, and half saintly.

And then most imegiatly he went away on the
mornin' stage.

And at the very last, when most every other man
would be a thinkin' of umberells or shawl straps, he
took our hands in hisen and sez :

SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 45

" Stand fast in the faith ! be strong !" And then
he bid us 11 good-bye, and God bless us !" and wuz
gone.

Good, faithful, hard-workin* creeter. The views
he had promulgated to us wuz new and startling and
Josiah and he couldn't agree on 'em ; but where is
there two folks who think alike on every subject?

But whether they wuz true or false, I knew that
John Richard believed every word he had said
about the state of affairs in the South.

CHAPTER II.

VOSIAH had to go to Shackville with a
hemlock saw log that day, so he went off
most imegiatly after Cousin John Rich-
ard departed.

And I resoomed the occupation I had
laid down for the last week, and did a
big day's work, with Philury's help, a cleanin*
house.

But I had a good warm supper when my compan-
ion returned. I always will, work or no work,
have meals on time, and good -ones too — though I
oughtn't to boast over such doin's.

We had cleaned the kitchen that day, papered it
all over new and bright, and put down three
breadths of a new rag carpet, acrost the west end.

And I had put up some pretty new curtains of
cream-colored and red cheese cloth, one breadth of

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

47

each to a winder, and looped 'em back with some
red lute-string ribbon.

And I had hung my canary-cage in between the
two south winders, over the stand of house plants ;
and the plants had done dretful well, they wuz in
full blow.

And then I brung in the two big easy-chairs cov-
ered with handsome new copper plate — one for
Josiah and one for me.

And when I had set the supper-table, covered
with a snowy cloth, in front of the south winders,
the place looked well. We had took the carpet up
in the dinin' room and had to set the table there.
But it looked well enough for anybody.

And bavin' had Philury to do the heaviest of the
work, I didn't feel so very beat out, and I changed
my dress and sot quiet and peaceful and very calm
in my frame a waitin' for my companion, while the
grateful odor of broiled chicken, and cream biscuit,
and the rich coffee riz up and permeated the room.

Josiah duz love a cup of hot, fragrant coffee with
cream into it when he has been to work in the cold
all day. And it wuz quite cold for the time of year.

Wall, I had put on a good new gingham dress and
a white apron, and I had a lace ruffle round my
neck ; and though I hain't vain, nor never wuz
called so, only by the envious, still I knew I looked
well.

And I could read this truth in my companion's
eyes as he come home cold and cross and hungry—
come into that warm, pleasant room and into the
presence of his devoted pardner.

At once and imegiatly his cares, his crossness.

48 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

and his troubled mean dropped from him like a gar-
ment he wuz tired of, and he felt well.

And his appetite was good — excellent.

And it wuzn't till after the dishes wuz all washed
up, and we wuz a settin' on each side of the stand,
which had a bright cloth and a clean lamp on it, I
with my knittin' work and he with his World, that he
resoomed and took up the conversation about Cousin
John Richard's beliefs.

And I see, jest what I had seen, that as well as he
liked John Richard, that worthy creeter had not
convinced him ; and he even felt inclined, now the
magnetism of his presence wuz withdrawn, to pow
at his earnest beliefs and sentiments.

I waved off Josiah's talk ; I tried to evade his elo-
quence (or what he called eloquence). For some-
how John Richard's talk had made more impression
onto me than it had onto Josiah, and I could not
bear to hear the cherished beliefs of that good man
set all to naut.

So I tried to turn off Josiah's attention by allusions
to the tariff, the calves, the national debt, to Ury's
new suit of clothes, to the washboard, to Tirzah
Ann's married life, and to the excellencies and beau-
ties of our two little granddaughters Babe and Snow
—Tirzah Ann's and Thomas Jefferson's little girls.

But though this last subject wuz like a shinin' bait,
and he ketched on it and hung there for some time,
a descantin' on the rare excellencies of them two
wonderful children, yet anon, or nearly so, he wrig-
gled away from that glitterin' bait and swung back
to the subject that he had heard descanted on so
powerfully the night John Richard come.

SAM AN TH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

49

And in spite of all my nearly frenzied but peaceful
efforts — for when he wuz so tired and beat out I
wouldn't use voyalence — he would resoom the sub-
ject.

And sez he for the third or fourth time :
" John Richard is a crackin' good feller — they
most all of 'em are that are on my side — but for all
that I don't believe a word of what he said about the
South."

I kep' demute, and wouldn't say what I did be-
lieve or what I didn't, for I felt tired some myself ;
and I felt if he insisted and went on, I should be led
into arguin' with him.

For Cousin John Richard's talk had fell into mel-
ler ground in my brain, and I more than mistrusted
it wuz a springin' up there onbeknown to me.

Josiah Allen and I never did, and I spoze never
will, think alike about things, and I am fur more
mejum than he is.

And then he sort o' satisfies himself by lookin' at
one side of a idee, while I always want to walk
round it and see what is on the other side on it, and
turn it over and see what is under it, etc., etc.

But anon he bust out agin, and his axent was one
that must be replied to ; I felt it wouldn't do to
ignore it any longer.

Sez he, " I am dead sick of all this talk about the
Race Problem."

" Then why," sez I, mildly but firmly, " why do
you insist on talkin' on it ?"

M I want to tell you my feelin's, " sez he.

Sez I, " I know 'em, Josiah Allen."

And then I sot demute, and hoped I had averte

So SA MA NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

the storm — or, ruther, I would call it the squall,
for I didn't expect a hard tempest, more of a drizzle.

So I knit fast, and sot in hope.

But anon he begun agin :

" I am sick on't. I believe more'n half the talk is
for effect. I don't believe the South is a bleedin' ;
I hain't seen no blood. I don't believe the niggers
are a rizen, I hain't seen 'em a gettin' up. I believe
it is all folderol. "

And then I sez, a lookin' up from my knittin'
work :

" Be mejum, Josiah Allen ; you don't live there.
You hain't so good a judge as if you lived in the
South ; you hain't so good a judge as John Richard
is, for he has lived right there."

And he snapped out real snappish :

" Wall, there is lots of places I never lived in,
hain't there ? But anybody can know sunthin',
whether they live anywhere or not."

But I kep' on real mejum and a talkin' deep rea-
son, I know well.

" When anybody is a passin' through deep waters,
Josiah Allen, they can feel the cold waves and the
chill as nobody can who is on dry land."

And then Josiah said them inflammatory words
agin that he had hurled at the head of John Rich-
ard, and that had gaulded him so. . He sez in a loud,
defiant axent, " Oh shaw !"

And I sez, " You hain't there, Josiah Allen, and
you hain't so well qualified to shaw, and shaw ac-
cordin' to principle, as if you wuz there."

M Wall, I say, and contend for it," sez he, almost
hotly, " that there is too much dumb talk. Why

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 5 1

don't the niggers behave
themselves, and why don't the
Southerners treat 'em as I
treat Ury ?

" Ury has worked for me
upwards of seven years, and
he hain't riz, has he ? And
I hain't been a howlin' at him,
and a whippin' him, and a

shootin' at him, and a ridin'
him out on a rail, and a burnin*

him to the stake if he wouldn't vote me in Presi-
dent ; and he hain't been a massecreein' us, not that
I have ever hearn on, or a rapinin' round, and I
hain't rapined Philury, have I ?

If there is any truth in these stories, why don't
the South foller on and do as I do ? That would
end their troubles to once.

44 Let the Southerners act as I do, and the niggers
act like Ury, and that would end up the Race Prob-
lem pretty sudden."

Sez I, in pretty lofty axents, for I begun to feel
eloquent and by the side of myself, 44 How many
generations has it took to make you honest and con-
siderate, and Ury faithful and patient ? How long
has it took, Josiah Allen ?"

44 Why, about seven years or thereabouts. He
come in the middle of winter, and now it is spring. "

Sez I, 44 It has took hundreds and hundreds of
years, Josiah Allen."

And I went on more noble and deep :

M Ury's parents and grandparents, and back as
fur as he knows, wuz good, hard- working honest

52 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

men — so wuz yours. You are both the children of
freedom and liberty. You haven't been saddled
with a burden of ignorance and moral and physical
helplessness and want. He has no lurid back-
ground of abuse and wrongs and arrogance to in-
flame his fevered fancies.

" You might as well say that you could gather as
good grain down in your old swamp that has never
been tilled sence the memory of man, as you can in
your best wheat field, that has been ploughed, and
harrowed, and enriched for year after year.

" The old swamp can be made to yield good grain,
Josiah Allen, but it has got to be burned over, and
drained, and ploughed, and sown with good grain.

" There is a Hand that is able to do this, Josiah
Allen. And," sez I, lookin' off some distance be-
yend him and Jonesville, " there is a Hand that I be-
lieve is a dealin' with that precious soil in which
saints and heroes are made, and where the beauteous
flower of freedom blows out.

" Has not the South been ploughed with the
deep plough of God's purpose — burned with the
lightnin' of His own meanin', enriched with the
blood of martyrs and heroes? Has not the cries of
His afflicted ones rose to the heavens while onbe-
known to 'em the chariot of Freedom wuz march-
in' down towards the Red Sea, to go ahead on 'em
through the dretful sea of bloodshed and tribula-
tions, while the black clouds of battle riz up and hid
the armies of Slavery and Freedom, hid the oppress-
ors and the oppressed ?

" But the sea opened before 'em, and they passed
through on dry land.

SAMANTHA OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

M Now they are encamped in the wilderness, and
the tall, dark shapes of Ignorance and Hereditary
Weakness and Vice are a stalkin' along by their
sides, and coverin' 'em with their black shadows.
The stumps are thick in their way. The old trees
of Custom and Habit, though their haughty tops
may have been cut off a little by the lightnin' of
war, yet the black, solid, onbroken stumps stand
thick in their way — so thick they can't force their
way through 'em — and the black mud of Open
Enmity, and Arrogance, and Prejudice is on one side
of 'em, and on the other the shifting treacherous
quicksands of Mistaken Counsel.

" Their way is blocked up, and the light is dim
over their heads. Religion and Education is the
light that is goin' ahead on 'em ; but that piller of
fire is some ways ahead of 'em, and its rays are
hindered by the branchin' shadows over their heads.
And who will be the Moses to lead 'em out of this
wilderness into their own land ?"

I wuz almost entirely by the side of myself with
deep emotions of pity and sympathy and a desire to
help 'em, and I felt riz up, too, in my mind — awful
riz up — and I spoke out agin, entirely onbeknown to
myself :

" Who will be the Moses to lead 'em into the
Promised Land ?"

M Wall, it won't be me," sez Josiah. 44 I am
goin' out to bed down the horses."

I wuz took aback, and brung down too sudden
from the Mount of Eloquence I had been standin'
on.

And I put on my nightcap and went to bed.

54 SA MA NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Now, I don't spoze you would believe it — most
anybody wouldn't — but the very next mornin' Josiah
Allen resoomed and took up that conversation agin,
that I fondly hoped he had thrown down for good
when he so suddenly departed to the horse barn.

But if you can believe it, before I got breakfast
ready, while he was a wipin' his hands to the sink
on the roller towel, he broke out agin as fresh seem-
ingly in debate as ever.

If I had mistrusted it ahead I should have made
extra preparation for breakfast, for the purpose of
quellin' him down, but I hadn't dreamed of his re-
soomin' it agin ; and I only get my common run cf
brekfasses, though it wuz very good and appe-
tizin\

I had some potatoes warmed up in cream, and
some lamb-chops broiled brown and yet juicy, some
hot muffins light as a feather, and some delicious
coffee — it wuz good enough for a King or a Zar — ■
but then it wuzn't one of my choice efforts, for prin-
ciple's sake, which I often have to make in the
cookin' lire and — good land ! — which every other
human woman has to make who has a man to deal
with.

We can't vote, and we have to do sunthin' or
other to get our own way.

Wall, as I wuz a sayin'. he broke out anew, and
sez he :

ct I am sick as a dog of all this talk about the Race
Problem."

And then agin I uttered them wise words I had
spoken the night before ; they wuz jest heavy with
wisdom if he had only known it ; and sez I :

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM,

55

44 What makes you keep a bringm' it up, then
and a talkin' about it ?"

And agin he sez, " He done it to let me know-
how he felt about it/'

And agin I sez, 44 I knew it before/'

And I silently but smoothly poured my sweet
cream over my sliced potatoes, and turned my lamb-
chops and drawed my coffee forwards so it would
come to a bile.

And he repeated, " I believe in lettin' things
alone that don't consarn us ; it hain't none of our
bizness. "

And seem' he wuz bound on talkin' on it, why, I
felt a feelin' that I must roust up and set him right
where I see he wuz wrong ; I see it was my duty as
a devoted pardner. And so, after we had got down
to the table, and he sez agin in more powerful and
even high-headed axents, 44 that it wuz none of our
bizness," then I spunked up and sez, 44 It seems to
me, Josiah Allen, that the cause of eternal truth is
always our bizness."

44 Oh, wall ! it hain't best to meddle ; that is my
idee, and that is my practice. Don't you know that
when Urv had that fight with Sam Shelmadine, I
said I wouldn't either make nor break? I said I
won't meddle, and I didn't meddle. It wuzn't my
bizness. "

44 But you found it wuz your bizness before vou
got through with it — you lost Ury's help six weeks
in your hurryenst time, when he wuz away to the
lawsuit, etc., etc. And it made Philury sick, and you
and I had to be up with her more or less, and you
took cold there one night, and had a sickness that

SAM AN TH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 57

lasted you for weeks and almost killed you ; and if
3'ou had died," sez I in deep tones of affection and
pathos, "if you had left your devoted pardner for-
ever, could you have looked me in the face and said
that this trouble of theirs wuzn't nuthin' that affect-
ed us ? No ; when a black cloud comes up the sky
you can't tell where the lightnin' is a goin' to hit — -
whether it will strike saint or sinner/' I see he
wuz affected by my tender and eloquent allusion to
his passin* away ; for a moment he looked softened
and almost as if he wuz a goin' to lay down the
argument somewhere and leave it there. But anon
his lmement clouded up, and he assumed the ex-
pression of doggy obstinacy his sect knows so well
how to assume, and sez he :

" But this is sunthin' entirely different. There
hain't no earthly possibility that this nigger question
can affect us one way or another ; there hain't no
way for it to," sez he.

Sez I, " Hain't you got a heart, Josiah Allen, to
help others who are in trouble and jeopardy, and
don't know which way to turn to get the right
help?"

" I have got a heart to help Number One — to help
Josiah Allen — and I have got a heart to mind my
own bizness, and I am a goin' to."

And he passed over his cup agin for the third
cup of coffee. t That man drinks too much coffee — it
hain't good for him ; but I can't help it ; and my
coffee is delicious anyway, and the cream is thick
and sweet, and he loves it too well, as I say ; but as
good as it wuz, it couldn't draw his mind from his
own idees.

58 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Sez he agin, in louder axents and more decideder
ones :

" There hain't no possible way that we can be
affected by the Race Problem one way or another/'

And I begun to feel myself a growin' real elo-
quent. I don't love to get so eloquent that time of
the day, but mebby it wuz the effect of that gauldin'
tone of hisen. Anyway, I sez :

" It is impossible to guard one's self aginst the
effects of a mighty wrong.

** The links that weld humanity together are such
curius ones, wove out of so many strands, visible
and invisible, strong as steel and relentless as death,
and that reach out so fur', so fur on every side, how
can any one tell whether a great strain and voya-
lence inflicted on the lowest link of that chain may
not shatter and corrode and destroy the very high-
est and brightest one ?

" The hull chain of humanity is held in one hand,
and we are bein' pulled along by that mighty, inex-
orable hand into we know not what.

" The link that shines the brightest to-day may be
rusty to-morrow, the strongest one may be torn in
pieces by some sudden and voyalent wrench, or
some slow, wearin' strain comin' from beneath.

" How can we tell, and how dast we say that a
evil that affects one class of humanity can never
reach us — how do we know it won't ?"

" Because we do know it !" hollered Josiah. " I
know it is jest as I tell you, that that dumb nigger
question can't never touch us anyway. I've said
it, and I'll stick to it."

But I still felt real eloquent, and I went right on

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 59

and drew some metafors, as I most always do when
I get to goin', I can't seem to help it.

Sez I, 44 The temperate man may say the liquor
question will never affect him, but some day he
gathers his sober children about him, and finds one
is missin' — the pet of them all driven down in the
street to death by a drunken driver.

44 A Christian woman sez, 1 This question of So-
cial Purity cannot affect me, for I am pure and come
from a pure ancestry/ But there comes a day
when she finds the lamb of her flock overtaken and
slain by this evil she thought could never touch her.

44 The rich capitalist sets back in his luxurious
chair and reads of the grim want that is howlin'
about the hovels of the poor laborers, the deaths by
exposure and starvation. The graves of these
starved victims seem fur off to him. They can
never affect him, he thinks, so fur is he removed in
his luxurious surrounding from all sights of woe
and squalor.

*' But even as he sets there thinkin' this, in his
curtained ease, a bullet aimed by the gaunt, fren-
zied hand of some starvin' child of labor strikes his
heart, and he finds in death the same level that the
victims of want found by starvation.

" The mighty chain of humanity has drawn 'em
on together, the high and the low, down to the
equality of the grave.

44 The hull chain of humanity is held in one hand
anyway, and is beyend our control in its conse-
quences.

143 And how dast we to say with blind confidence
that we know thus and so ; that the evils that affect

60 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

our brothers will not some time come to us ; that the
shadows that lay so heavy on their heads will not
some time fall on us ?"

" They hain't our brothers," hollered out Josiah
in fearful axents. He wuzn't melted down at all by
my eloquent remarks ; no, fur from it.

" They hain't my brothers, and I know these
dumb doin's in the South won't affect us, nor can't,
and you can't make it," sez he.

The idee of my wantin' to ! But that is the nater
of men — wantin' to say sunthin' to kinder blame a
female. And truly he acted mad as a hen to think
I should venter to talk back, or even speak on the
subject.

Oh, short-sighted man that he wuz — when the
darkness wuz even then gatherin' in the distance
onbeknown to us, to take the shape of the big
shadow that wuz to fall on his poor old heart and
mine — the shadow reachin' from the Southern sky
even unto the North, and that would blot out all the
sunshine for us for many and many a weary day,
and that we must set down under for all the rest of
4 our lives !

But I am a eppisodin'.

MELINDA,

CHAPTER III.

ALL, it never rains but it pours,
duz it ? And it has been my
experience durin' quite a mid-
dim' long life (jest how long,
hain't no matter, as I know on, to anybody but
the man who takes our senses).

But as I wuz savin* , it has always been my ex-
perience that if company gets to comin' either on
my side or hisen, they keep a comin'.

And it wuz only a short time after John Richard's
departure and exodus that I got a letter from a
aunt on my side kinder askin' and proposin' to have
her daughter Melinda Ann come to Jonesville to
make us a long visit.

And only a little while after this, one of hisen writ
to the same effect.

b2

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

And we had 'em both here to one time.

It wuz hard, but it seemed providential, and
couldn't be helped, and it worked out a onexpected
good in the end that paid us some for it. But I
wouldn't go through it agin for a dollar bill.

You see the way on't is, I sot out in married life
determined to do as well or better by the relations
on his side than I did by them on my own side. I
wuz bound to do well by the hull on 'em, jest
bound to.

But I made up my mind like iron that I would
stand more, take more sass, be more obleegin', and
suffer and be calm more from hisen than from mine,
and I would do awful, awful well by both sides.

And it wuz these beliefs carried out and spread
out into practice that caused my agonies and my
sufferin's that I went through for weeks.

The way on't wuz, I had a letter from the city
from my great-aunt Melinda Lyons, a tellin' me that
ner oldest girl, Melinda Ann (a old maiden), wuz
all run down with nervous prostration, nervous fits
and things, and she asked me if I would be willin* to
have her come down into the country and stay a
lew weeks with me.

Wall, Aunt Melinda had done a good many good
turns by me when I wuz a girl, and then I set quite
a good deal of store by Melinda Ann, she and I wuz
jest about of a age, and I talked it over with Josiah,
and we give our consents and writ the letter, and
the next week Melinda Ann come on, bag and bag-
gage. A leather trunk and a bag for baggage.

Wall, we found Melinda Ann wuz very good dispo-
sitioned and a Christian, but hard to get along with.

1QELXNDA HAS A FIT.

64 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

The least thing we could do or say that wuz no*
jest so would throw her into a fit — a nervous fit you
know — she would have spazzums, and all sally
away, and faint like, and act.

And then I would have to soothe her with cat-
nip, and bring her up with mustard poultices, and
apply a soap-stone to her.

Why, one night Josiah happened to throw he
bootjack down kinder hard (he had a corn and hit
it, bein' the cause).

Wall, I stood over Melinda more'n two hours
after that, three poultices bein' applied in vain for
relief, till arneky softened the blow to her.

And one night the slats came out of the hired
man's bed, jest acrost the hall from hern, and it
took more'n a quart of catnip to make her hull
agin.

And the cat fell through the suller winder — we
have got a blind cat that acts like fury, always a fall-
in' round and a prowlin* — wall, I thought Melinda
Ann would never come to.

She thought it wuz Injuns ; and the cat did
scream awful, I'll admit ; it fell onto some tin ware
piled up onto a table under the winder, and it skairt
even the cat almost to death, so you can imagine
the condition it throwed Melinda into. I thought it
wuz ghosts, and so did Josiah, and felt riz up in my
mind and full of or.

But I am a eppisodin', and to resoom.

Wall, I guess Melinda Ann had been there about
a week, and as well as I liked Aunt Melinda, and as
well as I loved duty, I wuz a beginnin' to feel per-
fectly beat out and fearfully run down in my mind

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 65

and depressted, for fits is depresstin', no matter how
much duty and nobility of soul you may bring to
bear onto 'em, or catnip.

Wall, I wuz a beginnin' to look bad, and so wuz
Josiah, although Josiah, though I am fur from ap-
provin' of his course, yet it is the truth that he
seemed to find some relief in givin' vent to his feel-
in's out on one side, and blowin' round and groanin'
out to the barn and in the woodhouse, more than I
did, who took it calm, and considered it a dispensa-
tion from the first, and took it as such.

Wall, if you'll believe it, right on the top of these
sufferin's come a letter from a relation of Josiah's, a
widowed man by the name of Peter Tweedle.

He wuz a distant relation of Josiah Allen — lived
about two hundred miles away.

He writ that he wuz lonesome — he had lost his
companion for the third time, and it wore on him.
He felt that the country air would do him good.
(We found out afterwards that he had rented his
house sence his bereavement and had lived in a
boarding-house, and had been warned out by the
crazed landlady and the infuriated boarders, owing
to reasons which will appear hereafter, and had to
move on).

Wall, he wanted to come and visit round to our
house first, and then to the other relations.

And I sez to myself, it is one of 'em on his side,
and not one word will I say agin the idee, not if
I fall down in my tracks.

And Josiah was so kinder beat out with Melinda,
and depressted and wore out by havin' to go round
in his stockin' feet so much and whisperin', that he

66 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

said, " That any change would be a agreeable one,
and he should write for Peter to come."

And I, buoyed up by my principle, never said a
word agin the idee, only jest this :

" Think well on it, Josiah Allen, before you make
the move."

And sez Josiah, " It will be a comfort to make a
move of any kind."

He had been kep' awful still, I'll admit. But I
couldn't see how it wuz goin' to make it any better
to have another relation let in, on whomsoever's side
they wuz.

Howsomever, I see that Josiah wuz determined,
and I felt a delicacy about interfering knowin' well
that I had one of the relations on my own side in
the house. Who wuz I, I sez to myself — who be
I, to set up agin hisen ? No, I never will. So the
letter of acceptance wuz writ, and in less than a
week's time Peter Tweedle come.

We spozed he would bring a satchel bag with
him ; mebby a big one, but — good land ! Josiah
had to go after his baggage with the Democrat
wagon. We see he had come to stay ; it wuzn't a
evenescent visit, but a long campane.

We didn't know at the time that they wuz most all
musical instruments ; we thought they wuz clothes.

I see a black shadder come over my companion's
face as he shouldered the fifth trunk and took it up
two flights of stairs into the attick.

He had filled the bedroom and hall.

Wall, I guess Peter Tweedle hadn't been in the
house over half an hour before he walked up to the
organ and asked me if it wuz in good repair.

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

^7

I sez, " I guess so."

Sez he, 44 How many banks of reeds is in it ?"
I sez, " I don't know."

Sez he, " Have you any objections to my trvin'
it?"

I sez, " No."

Sez he, " Sence my last affliction I have turned
my mind agin towards music, I find it soothes." Sez
he, " After my first bereavement I took up the
pickelo — I still play on it at intervals ; I learned
that and the snare drum durin1 them dark hours,"
sez he. " And I still play on 'em in lonesome mo-
ments. I have 'em both with me," sez he.

" Durin' my next affliction I learned the clari-
net, the fife, and the base violin. Now," sez he,
" I am turnin' my mind onto the brass horn in
various keys. But I have brought all my instru-
ments with me," sez he, in a encouragin' axent.
" I frequently turn from one to another. When I
get lonesome in the night," sez he, " I frequently
run from one to another till I have exhausted the
capabilities of each, so to speak."

I sithed and couldn't help it, but I held firm on
the outside, and he turned to the organ.

" I love the organ," sez he ; and with that he sot
down on the music-stool, opened up all the loud
bases, the double octave coupler, blowed hard, and
bust out in sons;.

Wall, it all come jest as sudden onto Melinda as a
thunder-clap out of a parlor ceilin', or a tornado out
of a teacup, it wuz as perfectly onexpected and on-
looked for as they would be, and jest as skairful.

For this wuz one of her bad days, and bein' a old

68 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

maid, we thought mebby it would excite her too
much to know a widower wuz in the house, so we
had kep' it from her.

And the first intimation she had of Peter'ses pres-
ence wuz this awful loud blast of sound.

His voice wuz loud in the extreme, and it wuz
" Coronation" he bust out in.

He is pious, there hain't a doubt on't, but still
%t Coronation" is the loudest him in the him-book.

Wall, the very first' time he blasted forth I knew
jest as well as I knew afterwards what the result
would be.

I hastened upstairs, and there she wuz, there sot
Melinda Ann in a fit ; she hadn't had time to get
onto the bed, and there she sot bolt upright in her
rockin' chair in a historical fit. We had better let
her known he wuz there.

Wall, I histed her onto the bed as quick as I
could, and hollered down the back stairs for catnip.

And as soon as I had brung her to a little, she
would clench right into me, and groan and choke,
and sort o' froth to the mouth.

And I'll be hanged if I didn't feel like it myself,
for right down under our feet I heard that loud,
thunderin' organ, for his legs avuz strong, and he
blowed hard.

But yet so curius is human nater, specially
wimmen's human nater — right there in my agony I
couldn't help bein' proud o' that instrument. I had
no idee, I said to myself, not a idee, that it had such
a volume of sound.

But loud as it wuz, Peter'ses clarion voice rung
out loud and high above it.

SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 69

It wuz a fearful time, very. But even at that
moment I sez to myself agin :

" He is a relation on his side — be calm I" and I
wuz calm.

Wall, I rubbed Melinda Ann and explained it to
her, and poulticed her, and got her kinder settled
down.

And I see it took up her mind some. She didn't
seem to dislike it now, after the first shock wuz over.

And I left her propped up on her piller a listening
and went down and got supper.

7o

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Wall, it wuz all I could do to get that man away
from the instrument long enough to eat.

He seemed to be kinder absent-minded and lost
like till he got back to it agin.

Wall, it had been still for some time ; you couldn't
hear a thing from the dinin' room up in Melinda's
room. And when he bust out agin imegiatly after
supper, it wuz too much, too much, for I spoze she
had been in a drowze.

It wuz " Hold the Fort''' he belched out in, with
all the steam on. He had a way, Peter had, of bust-
in' out loudest when he begun, and then kinder
dwindle down towards the last of the piece. (But it
wuz one of 'em on his side, and I didn't murmur,
not out loud, I didn't.)

Wall, I knew what wuz before me at the first vol-
ley of sound. I sez to myself :

" Melinda Ann ! Melinda Ann !" and hurried up-
stairs.

And there she wuz lay in' back on her piller with
her eyes rolled up in her head and fixed, and her
nuckels clenched.

Wall, I brung her to agin after a long and tejus
process, and then agin I see that she sort o' enjoyed
it ; and I left her propped up and went down and
helped do up the work.

Wall, Peter never stopped playin' till a late bedtime.

And then I might have slept some at first, only
Josiah begun a noise where he left off, a scoldin' and
a jawin'.

And oh ! my sufferin's that I suffered with that
man. I reminded him that Peter wuz a relation on
his side — no avail.

SAM AN TH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

7i

I brung up his lonesome state.

Josiah said, " He'd ought to be lonesome ! He'd
ought to be fur away in the middle of the desert or
on a island in the depths of the seas. Alone !
alone Vs

He raved, he swore, he said, " Dumb him !" re-
peatedly.

You see Josiah hated music anyway, only the
very softest, lowest kind ; and Peter'ses wuz powerful
— powerful and continuous.

But I reminded Josiah Allen in the cause of duty
that he had complained that the house wuz too still
sence Melinda Ann had come, and he wanted a
noise.

" I never wanted to be in a Lunatick Asylum,*' sez
he ; "I didn't hanker for Bedlam," he yelled.

Wall, suffice it to say that I never got a wink of
sleep till past midnight. And mebby it wuz about
one o'clock, when all of a sudden we wuz all waked
up by a low, rumblin' noise, strange and weird.

My first thought was a earthquake, and then a
cyclone.

But Josiah Allen had waked up first and got his
senses before I did, and sez he :

" It is that dumb fool a playin' on a base viol."

And that wuz what it proved to be. He had got
lonesome in the night, and got up and onpacked the
base viol, and wuz playin' a low, mournful piece on
it, so's not to wake us up.

He said in the mornin' that he held it in for that
purpose.

He is a good-natured creeter, and a mourner,
there hain't no doubt on't, and so I told Josiah.

72 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

And he snapped out enough to take my head off :
" He'd ought to mourn ! I mourn/' sez he,
* Heaven knows I do. But I shan't mourn after the
first ray of daylight, for I'll take his trunks and throw
'em outdoors, and him on top of 'em. And I'll cast
out Melinda Ann like a viper," sez he. " I'll empty
the house of the hull crew of fools and lunaticks ! I'll
do it," sez he, " if I have a breath left in my body."

When he sez this I thought of Melinda Ann. Had
she got a breath left ? Wuz she alive ? Or wuz
she not ?

I jest sprung over Josiah Allen, I trompled on
him, I won't deny it, in my haste to get up, and I
left him groanin' and a sayin' in a low, mournful
axent :

" That foot could never be stepped on agin by
him. "

But I didn't stop to comfort him ; no, my mind
wuz too much took up with the relation on my side.

I hastened upstairs, and there wuz my worst fears
realized.

Melinda Ann wuz wild as a hen hawk.

She had got the winder up and wuz jest a spring-
in' out. I ketched her by her limb and hollered for
Josiah. Before he got there she had got her hands
clenched into my hair and wuz a try in' to choke me.

But, good land ! she didn't know what she wuz a
doin'.

Wall, Josiah Allen by main strength got her into
the house agin, and after a tussle we got her onto
the bed. And then I begun to doctor her up.

But I never tried to go to bed agin that night, foi
it wuz daylight before I got her quieted down.

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

73

Wall, Josiah had to go off that mornin' early on
bizness, to be gone all day. And I wuz glad on't,
for I wuz afraid, in spite of all I could do, he would

f< I KETCHED HER BY HER LIMB.'

do sunthin' to disgrace himself in the eyes of both
sides. His last words to me wuz :

" If I find either of them cussed fools in the house

74 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

when I get back, Til burn the house down over their
heads. "

But I knew he wouldn't, I knew he would quiet
down while he wuz gone, and he did.

But my sufferin's through that day can't never be
told or sung. And the martyrs that I called on,
and the groans and sithes that I smothered in my
breast waist, couldn't be told.

But jest as I expected, when Peter first blasted
out on the clarinet loud and strong, not bein' afraid
of wakin' anybody up, I had to drop everything and
go right up to Melinda Ann. But the attack wuz
light, and, as usual, after she got over the first shock
she enjoyed it.

And I happened to mention — havin' that pride I
have spoke of, of havin' the relations on his side
stand on their best foot before mine— I happened to
mention that Peter got up and played in the night
because he wuz lonesome, and that he said he would
give half his property (he wuz well off) if he had
somebody to play the organ while he played the
clarinet.

I see she grew more meller-lookin' and brightened
up, and she sez :

" I used to be a good player."

And if you'll believe it — I don't spoze you will,
for Josiah wouldn't when I told him that night —

But when Josiah Allen came home that night they
wuz a playin' together like a pair of turkle doves,
she a playin' the organ, and he a settin' by her a
tootin', both as happy as kings.

And from that time out she never got skairt agin
when he bust out sudden in song or begun gradual.

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

And her fits grew lighter and lighter and fur sel-
domer.

And though our sufferin's wuz heavy and severe
to hear that organ and clarinet, or base viol, or
pickelo, or brass horn a goin' day and night, yet I
seemed to see what wuz a comin' on't, and I held
Josiah by main force to stand still and let providen-
tial circumstances have a straight path to move
on in.

Wall, after two weeks of sufferin' on our part
almost onexampled in history, ancient or modern,
the end come.

Peter Tweedle took Josiah out one side and told
him, as bein' the only male relation Melinda Ann
had handy to get at, " that he had it in his mind to
marry her quietly and take her at once to his home
in the city," and he asked Josiah ' ' if he had any ob-
jections."

And Josiah told me that he spoke out fervently
and earnestly, and sez, " No ! Heaven knows I
hain't."

And he urged Peter warm to have the weddin'
sudden and to once, that very day and hour, and
offered to get the minister there inside of twenty
minutes.

But I wuz bound to have things carried on decent.
So I sot the day most a week off, and I sent for
Aunt Melinda and his children that wuz married,
and the single one, and we had a quiet little wed-
din', or it would have been, only the last thing that
they done in the house before they left wuz to get
the hull crew on 'em to bust out in a weddin' song
loud enough almost to raise the ruff.

7^ SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Wall, Peter writ to Josiah that he hadn't been
lonesome sence it took place, not a minute.

And Melinda Ann writ to me that she hadn't had
a fit sence, nor a spazzum.

So, as I told Josiah Allen, our suffering brung
about good to two lonesome and onhappy and fitty
creeters, and we ort to be thankful when we look
back on our troubles and afflictions with 'em.

And he looked at me enough to take my head ofl
if a look could guletine, and sez he :

" Thankful ! Oh, my gracious Heaven ! hea:
her ! Thankful !"

And his tone wuz such that I hain't dasted to
bring up the subject sence. No, I don't dast to,
but I do inside of me feel paid for all I went
through.

PETER AND MELINDA ANN.

CHAPTER IV.

ALL, it wuzn't more than a few days
after the marriage and departure of
Peter and Melinda Ann, when I got
a letter from Cousin John Richard
— he wuz then in South Carolina, hard at work agin,
literally follerin' the example of Him who went
about doin' good.

The letter wuz writ in pure friendship, and 'then
he wanted to find out the ingredients of that spignut
syrup I had give him when he wuz at Jonesville,
his throat wuz a botherin' him agin, and he said that
had helped him.

That is a good syrup, very, though mebby I hadn't
ort to say it. It is one that I made up out of my
own head, and is a success.

Yeller dock, and dandelion roots, and spignut,
steeped up strong, and sweetened with honey.

I sent it to him to once, with some spignut roots by
mail ; I wuz afraid he couldn't get 'em in the Souttu

7$ SAM ANTRA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

And in my letter I asked him out of politeness,
as it were, how he wuz a gettin' along colporterin',
and if things looked any brighter to him in the South.

And such a answer as I got — such a letter ! why,
it wuz a sermon almost. Jest as skairful, jest as
earnest, and jest as flowery as the talk he had talked
to us when he wuz with us.

Why, it fairly sent the cold chills over me as I
read it.

But it madded Josiah. He wuz mad as a hen to
hear it, and he said agin that he believed Cousin
John Richard (Josiah knew he wuz jest as good as
gold, and he wouldn't brook a word from anybody
else agin him), but he said he believed he wuz a
losin' his faculties.

He didn't believe a word on't. He didn't believe
there wuz any danger nor any trouble ; if folks would
only let the South alone and mind their own biz-
ness, it would get along well enough. But some
folks had always got to be a putterin' around, and
a meddlin', and he shouldn't wonder a mite if John
Richard wuz a doin' jest such a work as that.

And I sez mildly, " Sometimes things have to be
meddled with in order to get ahead any."

M Wall," sez he, " don't you know how, if there
is any trouble in a family, the meddlers and inter-
ferers are the ones that do the most mischief ?"

M But," sez I, " teachin' religion and distributin1
tracts and spellin' books hadn't ort to do any hurt."

" Wall, I d'no," sez Josiah. " I d'no what kind
of tracts he is a circulating mebby they are inflami-
tory. If they are offen a piece with some of his talk
here, I should think the South would ride him out/"

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

79

And so Josiah went on a runnin' John Richard's
work and belief down to the lowest notch ; and I
wuz glad enough when Deacon Henzy come in on a
errant, for I wuz indeed in hopes that this would
change the subject.

But my hopes, as all earthly expectations are
liable to be, wuz blasted. For Josiah went right on
with his inflamed speeches and his unbelief about
any danger a threatenin' the nation from the South.

And I truly found myself in the condition of the
one mentioned in Scripture (only different sex and
circumstances), where it sez the last state of that
man wuz worse than the first. For while my pard-
ner's talk had consisted mostly of the sin of unbelief,
Deacon Henzy's remarks wuz full of a bitter hatred
and horstility towards the ex-slaveholders of the
Southern States.

He truly had no bowels of compassion for 'em,
not one.

He come from radical abolitionist stock on both
sides, and wuz brung up under the constant throw-
in' of stuns, throwed by parents and 'grandparents
at them they considered greater sinners than them^
selves.

And Deacon Henzy had gathered up them stuns
and set 'em in a settin' of personal obstinacy and
bigotry, and wore 'em for a breastplate.

And hard it wuz to hit any soft place under them
rocky layers of prejudices inherited and acquired.

And he and his folks before him didn't know
what the word mejum wuz, not by personal experi-
ence.

It needed only a word to set him off. Josiab

So SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

spoke that word, and the wheel begun to turn and
grind out denunciations of the Southerners as a
class and as a people.

Oh, how he rolled out big-soundin* terms of
scathin' reproaches and burnin' rebukes, and the
horrible wickedness of one human bein' enslavin'
another one and enrichin' himself on the unpaid
labor of a brother man !

Why, it wuz fairly skairful to hear him go on, fur
skairfuller than Josiah's talk.

He had always talked rampant on the subject I
knew, but as rampant as he had always been he wuz
now fur rampanter than I had ever known him
to be.

But as I found out most imegiatly, he wuz agitat-
ed and excited on this occasion almost more than he
could bear, when he first come in.

For he soon went on and told us all about it.

A boy he had took — Zekiel Place by name— had
run away and left him ; or, that is, he had made all
his preparations to go when the Deacon found it out,
and the boy give him the chance of lettin' him go or
keepin' him and payin' him wages for his work.

Now, Deacon Henzy, like so many other human
creeters, wuz so intent on findin* out and stunin'
other folks'es faults, that he didn't have time to set
down and find out about his own sins and stun him-
self, so to speak.

He never had thought, so I spoze, what a hard
master he wuz, and how he had treated Zekiel Place.

But I knew it ; and all the while he went on a
talkin' about "the ignorance and wastefulness and
shiftlessness of this class of boys, an 1 how impossi-

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 3 1

ble it wuz to manage 'em and keep 'em down in their
places ; how you had to set down on 'em and set
heavy if you didn't want to be bairded to your face
and run over by 'em ; how if you give 'em an inch
they would take a ell, and destroy and waste more
than their necks wuz worth," etc., etc., etc. —

All the while he wuz a goin' on and asayin' all this
I kep' up a thinkin', for I knew that Zekiel was a
middlin' good boy, and had been misused by the
Deacon, so I had hearn — had been worked beyend
his strength, and whipped, and didn't get enough to
eat, so the boy said.

The Deacon had took him for his board and
clothes ; but his board wuz hard indeed, and very
knotty, and his clothes wuz very light, very.

And so, beirf , as I spoze, sort o' drove to it, he
riz. And as I say, the Deacon was madder than any
hen I ever see, wet or dry

"The idee/' sez he, "of that boy, that I have
took care on ever sence he wuz a child, took care on
him in health, and nussed him, and doctored him
when he wuz sick" (lobelia and a little catnip wuz
every mite of medicine he ever give him, and a lit-
tle paregoric, so I have been told) — 44 the idee of
that boy a leavin' me — a rizin' up and a sayin' as pert
as a piper, 4 If you don't want to hire me, let me
go.' "

44 Wall, which did you do, Deacon ?" sez I.
4 4 Why, I hired the dumb upstart ! I couldn't get
along without his work, and he knew it."

The laborer,' Deacon Henzy," sez I, solemn,
4 is worthy of his hire.' "

" Wall, didn't I lay out to pay him ? I laid out

82 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

this very fall to get him a pair of pantaloons and a
vest and a cravat. I laid out to pay him richly.
And he had better a trusted to me, who have been
a perfect father and gardeen to him, than to have
riz up and demanded his pay. But," sez he, " there
is no use of talkin' about it now, it only excites me
and onmans me, and I come in merely to borry a
augur and have a little neighborly visit.

And then wanting I spoze, to take his mind off en
his own troubles, he sort o' launched off agin onto
his favorite theme of runnin' down the Southerners.

M The Southern people,' ' sez he, " are a mass of
overbearing tyrannical slave-drivers, selfish, without
principles or consciences, crackin' their whips over
the blacks, drivin' 'em to work, refusin' 'em any jus-
tice."

" Why," sez I, " the slaves are liberated, Deacon
Henzy."

" Wall, why be they ?" sez he. " It wuzn't from
any good will on the part of the bloated aristocracy
of the South. They liberated 'em because they had
to. Why didn't they free 'em because it wuz right
to free 'em ? because it wuz right and just to the
slaves ? because it wuz a wicked sin that cried up to
the heavens to make 'em labor, and not pay 'em
for it ?"

Why, he went on in fearful axents of wrath and
skorn about it, and finally bein' so wrought up, he
said, "that them that upholded 'em wuz as bad as
they wuz."

Why, we had never dreamed of upholdin' 'em,
nor thought on't ; but he felt so.

He threw stuns fearful at the South, and at Josiah

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 83

and me because we didn't jine in with him and rip
and tear as he did.

And them stuns kinder hurt me after a while ; and
so, when he asked me for the seventh time :

DEACON HENZY.

" Why didn't the}' free their slaves before they
wuz obleeged to ?"

Then I sez, " It wuz probable for the same reason
that you didn't liberate Zekiel — mostly selfish-
ness !"

84 SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

" What ! what did you say ?" He could not be-
lieve his ear ; he craned his neck, he turned the
other ear. He wuz browbeat and stunted ; and
agin he sez : " What did you say ?"

And I sez agin, calm as cream, but sharp and
keen as a simiter, " I said it wuz selfishness, Dea-
con, and the power of old custom — jest the reasons
why you didn't free Zekiel. "

His linement fell more'n a inch. Like the Queen
of Sheba before Solomon (only different sex) he had
no spirit left in him.

He never had mistrusted ; it made him feel so
awful good to run the South further down than any-
thing or anybody wuz ever run— he never mistrust-
ed that he had ever done anything onjust, or mean,
or selfish.

He loved to deplore Southern sins, but never
looked to see if Northerners wuzn't committin' jest
as ojeus ones.

I mean good, well-meanin, Christian men, not to
say anything about our white slaves in the cities
who make shirts for five cents apiece, and sign their
contracts with their blood.

Nor the old young children who are shut away
from God's sunshine and air in Northern manufac-
tories and mines, and who are never free to be out
under the beautiful sky till the sun has gone down
or the grass is growin' between it and their hollow,
pitiful faces.

Nor the droves of street ruffians and beggars
whose souls and bodies suffer and hunger jest as
much under the Northern Star as under the South-
ern Cross.

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 85

No, I didn't mean any of these, but jest respect-
able church-goers like Deacon Henzy.

And he, like so many others, wuz jest as blind to
the idee as if he had been born with leather specta-
cles on and had wore 'em ever sence.

It is a good thing for folks North or South to
have their blinders tilted up a little now and then,
and get a glimpse of daylight into their orbs. I had
tilted up hisen, and wuzn't sorry a mite, not a mite.
He had been a throwin' stuns powerful, and he had
got hit from one.

And pretty soon, after settin' demute for quite a
spell, he got up and left for home, feelin' and actin*
quite meek and humble-sperited for him.

And I have hearn sence, and it comes straight to
me — Zekiel's mother told Miss Biddlecom's Liza,
and Liza's sister-in-law told it to the Editor of the
Augur ses wife's mother-in-law, and she told it to she
that wuz Celestine Gowdey, and she that wuz Celes-
tine told old Miss Minkley, and she told me — it
come straight — that Deacon Henzy give Zekiel that
very night a dollar bill, and from what I hear he has
mellered up and used him first rate ever sence.

Yes, that man wuz blind asabatand blinder. He had
been for years a hackin' at the beams that riz up on the
Southern brethren's eyes, and there he wuz a growin'
a hull crop of motes, and payin' no attention to 'em.

But selfishness and injustice grows up jest as rank
under Northern skies as Southern ones, and motes
and beams flourish equally rank in both sections.

And Christians North and Christians South have
to tussle with that same old man the Bible speaks of,
and anon or oftener they get throwed by him.

"JOSIAHS BALD HEAD AND MINE.'

CHAPTER V.

Iwuz a strange thing to come most imegi<
atly after Cousin John Richard's visit, and
our almost excited interview with Deacon
Henzy — that Thomas J. should make the
dicker he did make, and havm' made it, to
think that before a very long time had passed over
Josiah Allen's bald head and mine (it wuz his head
that wuz bald, not mine) that we two, Josiah Allen
and me, should be started for where we wuz started
for, to come back we knew not when.

Yes, it happened curius, curius as anything I
ever see — that is, as some folks count curosity. As
for me, I feel that our ways are ordered and our
paths marked out ahead on us.

You know when the country is new, somebody
will go ahead through the forests and " blaze' ' the
trees, so the settlers can foller on the path and not
get lost.

Wall, I always feel that we poor mortals are sot
down here in a new country — and a strange one,
God knows — and the wilderness stretches out round

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

us on everj- side, and we are likely to get lost, dret-
ful likely.

But there is Somebody who goes ahead on us and
marks out our pathway. He makes marks that His
true children can see if they only look sharp enough,
if they put on the specks of Faith and the blinders
of Onworldliness, and look keen. And, above all,
reach out their hands through the shadows, and
Keep close hold of the hand that guides 'era.

And all along the way, though dark shadows
inay be hoverin' nigh, there is light, and glory, and
peace, and pretty soon, bimeby they will come out
into a large place, the fair open ground of Beauty
and Desire, into all that they had hoped and longed
tor.

But I am a eppisodin' fearful, and to resoom.

As I say, to the outside observer it seemed queer,
queer as a dog, that after all our talk on the subject
(and it seemed as if Providence had jest been a pre-
parin* us for what wuz to come), that I myself,
Josiah Allen's wife, should go with my faithful pard-
ner down South to stay for we knew not how long.

Wall, the way on't wuz, our son Thomas Jefferson,
who is doin' a powerful big bizness, made a dicker
with a man from the South for a big piece of land of
hisen, a old plantation that used to be splendid and
prosperous before the war, but wuz now run down.
The name of the place — for as near as I can make out
they have a practice of namin' them old plantations —
wuz Belle Fanchon, a sort of a French name, I wuz
told.

Wall, Thomas J., in the way of bizness, had got
in his hands a summer hotef at a fashionable resort,

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

and this man wanted to trade with him. He hadn't
owned this plantation long — it had come into his
hands on a mortgage.

Wall, Thomas Jefferson was offered good terms,
and he made the trad

And early in the fall Maggie, our son's wife, got
kinder run down (she had a young child), and corn-
in' from a sort of a consumptive family on her fa-
ther's side, the doctor ordered her to go South for
the winter.

He said, in her state of health (she had been weak
as a cat for months) he wouldn't like to resk the cold
of our Northern winter.

Wall, of course when the doctor said this (Thomas
Jefferson jest worships Maggie anyway) he thought
at once of that old plantation of hisen, for he had
made the bargain and took the place, a calculatin'
to sell it agin or rent it out.

And the upshot of the matter wuz that along the
last of October, when Nater seemed all rigged out
in her holiday colors of red and orange to bid 'em
good-bye, our son Thomas Jefferson and Maggie,
and little Snow, and the baby boy that had come to
'em a few months before, all set sail for Belle Fan-
chon, their plantation in Georgia.

Yes, the old girl (Nater) seemed to be a standin' up
on every hill-top a wavin' her gorgeous bandana
handkerchief to 'em in good-bye ; and her blue
gauze veil that floated from her forwerd looked
some as if it had tears on it, it looked sort o' dim
like and hazy.

Josiah and I went to the depot with 'em, and on
our way home Nater didn't look very gay and fes-

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

tive to us neither, though she wuz dressed up in
pretty bright colors— no, indeed !

Her gorgeous robes looked very misty and droop-
in' to me. I didn't weep, I wouldn't be so simple
as that. The tears sort o' run down my face some,
but I wouldn't weep — I wouldn't be so foolish when
I knew that they wuz comin' home in the spring,
God willin\

But the kisses they had all left on my face seemed
to kinder draw me after 'em. And I felt that quite
a number of things might happen between that time
and the time when Nater and I would dress up agin
to meet 'em — she in her pale green mantilly, and I
in my good old London brown, and we would both
sally out to welcome 'em home.

But I didn't say much, I jest kep' calm and de-
mute on the outside, and got my pardner jest as
good a dinner as if my heart wuzn't a achin'.

I felt that I had to be serene anyway, for Josiah
Allen was fearfully onstrung, and I knew that my
influence (and vittles) wuz about the only things
that could string him up agin.

So I biled my potatoes and briled my steak with
a almost marble brow, and got a good, a extra good
dinner for him as I say, and the vittles seemed to
comfort him considerable.

Wall, time rolled along, as it has a way of
doin\

Good land ! no skein of yarn, no matter how
smooth it is, and no matter how neat the swifts run,
nor how fast the winder is— nuthin' of that kind can
compare with the skein of life hung onto the swifts
of time — how fast they run, how the threads fly, how

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

impossible it is to stop 'em or make 'em go slower,
or faster, or anything !

They jest turn, and turn, and turn, and the day's
reel offen the swifts, and the months and the
years.

Why, if you jest stopped still in your tracks and
meditated on it, it would be enough to make you
half crazy with the idee — of that noiseless skein of
life that Somebody somewhere is a windin' — Some-
body a settin' back in the shadows out of sight, a
payin' no attention to you if you try to find out who
it is, and why he is a winding and how long he cal-
culates to keep the skein a goin', and what the yarn
is a goin' to be used for anyway, and why, and how,
and what.

No answer can you get, no matter how hard you
may holler, or how out of breath you may get a try-
in' to run round and find out.

You have got to jest set down and let it go on.
And all the time you know the threads are a run-
nin' without stoppin*, and a bein' wound up by
Somebody — Somebody who is able to hold all the
innumerable threads and not get 'em mixed up any,
and knows the meanin' of every one of 'em, till
bimeby the thread breaks, and the swifts stop.

But I am a eppisodin'. Wall, as I said, time rolled
along till they had been down South most two
months, and Thomas Jefferson wrote me that Mag-
gie seemed a good deal better, and he wuz encour-
aged by the change in her.

When all of a sudden on a cold December evenin'
we got a letter from Maggie. Thomas Jefferson
wuz took down sick, and the little girl.

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 91

And there wuz Maggie, that little delicate thing,
there alone amongst strangers in a strange land.

And sez she, " Mother, what shall I do ?"

That wuz about all she said in the way of com-
plaint or agony. She wuzn't one to pile up words,
our daughter Maggie wuzn't. But that wuz
enough.

" Mother, what shall I do ? what can I do ?"

I illustrated the text, as artists say, while I wuz a
readin\ I see her pale and patient face a bendin'
over the cradle of the infant, and little Snow, and
over my boy, my Thomas Jefferson, who laid on my
heart in his childhood till his image wuz engraved
there for all time, and for eternity too, / think.

Wall, my mind wuz made up before I read the
last words : "Your loving and sorrowful daughter,
Maggie. "

Yes, my mind wtuz all made up firm as a rock ;
and to give Josiah Allen credit, where credit is due,
so wuz hisen — his mind wuz made up too.

He blowed his nose hard, and used his bandana
on that, and his two eyes, and he said, " Them
specks of hisen wuz jest a spilin' his eyes."

And I took up my gingham apron and wiped my
eyes.

My spectacles sort o' hurt my eyes, or sunthin',
and my first words wuz, " How soon can we start ?"

And Josiah's first words wuz, "I'll go and talk
it over with Ury. I guess to-morrow or next day."

Wall, Ury and Philury moved right in and took
charge of things and helped us off, and in less than
a week's time we wuz on our way down through the
snow-drifts and icickles of the North to the green-

92

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

ness and bloom of the orange-trees and magnolias.
Down from the ice-bound rivers of the North to the
merry, leapin' rivulets of Belle Fanchon. Down
from the cold peace and calm of our Jonesville
farm, down to the beauty and bloom of our boy's
home in the South land, the sorrow and pathos of
his love- watched sick-bed, and our little Snow's
white-faced gladness.

We got there jest as the sun set. The country
through which we had been a passin' all day and for
some time past wuz a hard and forbidden-lookin'
country — sand, sand, sand, on every side on us, and
piled up in sand-heaps, and stretched out white
and smooth and dreary-lookin'.

Anon, or mebby oftener, we would go by some
places sort o' sot out with orange-trees, so I spozed,
and some other green trees. And once in a while
we would see a house set back from the highway
with a piazza a runnin' round it, and mebby two on
'em.

And the children a playin' round 'em, and the
children a wanderin' along the railroad-track and
hangin' about the depots wuz more than half on 'em
black as a coal.

A contrast, I can tell you, to our own little Jones-
Lillians, with their freckled white faces and their
tow locks a hangin' over their forwerds.

The hair of these little boys and girls wuzn't hair,
it wuz wool, and it curled tight round their black
forwerds. And their clothes wuz airy and unpre-
tentious in the extreme ; some on 'em had only jest
enough on to hide their nakedness, and some on 'em
hadn't enough.

THE COLORED CHILDREN.

94 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

But our boy's place wuz beautiful. It looked like
a picture of fairy land, as we see it bathed in the red
western light. And though we felt that we might
on closter inspection see some faults in it, we
couldn't seem to see any then.

It wuz a big house, sort o' light grey in color,
with a piazza a runnin' clear round it, and up on the
next story another piazza jest as big, reared up and
runnin' all round — a verandy they called it.

And both stories of the piazza wuz almost covered
with beautiful blossomin' vines, great big sweet
roses, and lots of other fragrant posies that I didn't
know the name of, but liked their looks first rate.

There wuz a little rivulet a runnin' along at one
side of the front yard, and its pleasant gurglin' sound
seemed dretful sort o' friendly and pleasant to us.

The yard — the lawn they called it — wuz awful big.
It wuz as big as from our house over to Deacon
Gowdey's, and acrost over to Submit Danker'ses,
and I don't know but bigger, and all sorts of gay
tropical plants wuz sot out in bunches on the green
grass, and there wuz lots of big beautiful trees a
standin' alone and in clusters, and a wide path led up
from the gate to the front door, bordered with beau-
tiful trees with shinin' leaves, and there in the front
door stood our daughter Maggie, white-faced, and
gladder-lookin' than I ever see her before.

How she did kiss me and her Pa too! She
couldn't seem to tell us enough, how glad she wuz
to see us and to have us there.

And my boy, Thomas Jefferson, cried, he wuz so
glad to see us.

He didn't boohoo right cut, but the tears come into

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 95

his eyes fast — he wuz very weak yet ; and I kissed
them tears right often his cheeks, and his Pa kissed
him too. Thomas Jefferson wuz very weak, he wuz
a sick boy. And I tell you, seem' him lay there so
white and thin put us both in mind, his Pa and me,
what Jonesville and the world would be to us if our
boy had slipped out of it.

We knew it would be like a playhouse with the
lights all put out, and the best performer dumb and
silent.

It would be like the world with the sun darkened,
and the moon a refusin' to give its light. We think
enough of Thomas Jefferson — yes, indeed.

Oh, how glad little Snow wuz to see us ! And
right here, while I am a talkin' about her, I may as
well tell sunthin' about her, for it has got to be told.

Snow is a beautiful child ; she becomes her name
well, though she wuzn't named for real snow, but
for her mother's sirname. I say it without a mite
of partiality. Some grandparents are so partial to
their own offsprings that it is fairly sickenin\

But if this child wuz the born granddaughter of
the Zar of Russia or a French surf, I should say
jest what I do say, that she is a wonderful child,
both in beauty and demeanor.

She has got big violet blue eyes — not jest the color
of her Pa's, but jest the expression, soft and bright,
and very deep-lookin'. Their gaze is so deep that
no line has ever been found to measure its deepness.

When you meet their calm, direct look you see fur
into 'em, and through 'em into another realm than
ourn, a more beautiful and peaceful one, and one
more riz up like, and inspired.

g6 SA MA NTH A OJV THE RACE PROBLEM,

I often used to wonder what the child wuz a look*
in' for, her eyes seemed to be a lookin' so fur, fur
away, and always as if in search of sunthin\ I
d^Vt know what it wuz, but I knew it wuzn't nuth-
in' light and triflin', from her looks.

Some picture of holiness and beauty, and yet sort
o' grand like, seemed before her rapt vision. But I
couldn't see what it wuz, nor Josiah, nor her Pa,
nor her Ma.

Her hair is a light golden color, not yeller, nor
yet orbun, but the color of the pure pale shiny gold
you sometimes see in the western heavens when the
sky is bright and glowin'.

It looked luminous, as if a light from some other
land wuz a shinin' on it onbeknown to us, and a
lightin' it up. You know how the sun sometimes,
when it gets where we can't see it, will shine out
onto some pink and white cloud, and look as if the
color wuz almost alive — so her hair looked round the
rose pink and white of her pretty face.

Her little soU mouth seemed always jest on the
pint of speakin' some wonderful words of heavenly
wisdom, the look on it wuz such, made in jest that
way.

Not that she ever give utterance to any remark of
national importance or anything of that kind.

But the expression wuz such you seemed to sort
o' look for it ; and I always knew she had it in her
to talk like a minister if she only sot out to.

And she did, in my opinion, make some very wise
remarks, very. Josiah spoke to me about 'em sev-
eral times, and said she went %ahead of any minister
or politician he ever see in the deepness of her mind.

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 97

And I told him he must be very careful and not
show that he wuz partial to her on account of rela-
tionship. And I sez :

" Look at me ; I never do. I always look at her
with perfectly impartial and onprejudiced eyes, and
therefore, therefore, Josiah, I can feel free to say
that there never wuz such a child on earth before,
and probable never will be agin and sez I, " if J
wuz partial to her at all I shouldn't dast to say that. "

" Wall," sez he, "I dast to say what I am a
minter ; and I know that for deep argument and
hard horse sense she will go ahead of any man on
earth, no matter where he is or who he is, President,
or Bishop, or anything."

Josiah Allen has excellent judgment in such
things ; I feel that he has, and I knew he wuz simply
statin' the facts of the case.

Ever sence she wuz a very young infant, little
Snow has made a practice of settin' for hours and
hours at a time a talkin' to somebody that wuzn't
there ; or, to state the truth plainer and truthfuller,
somebody that we couldn't see.

And she would smile up at 'em and seem to enjoy
their company first rate before she could talk even,
and when she begun to talk she would talk to 'em.

And I used to wonder if there wuz angels en-
camped round about her and neighborin' with her ;
and I thought to myself I shouldn't wonder a mite
if there wuz.

Why, when she wuzn't more than several months
old she would jest lay in her little crib, with her
short golden hair makin' a sort of a halo round her
white forwerd, and them wonderful heavenly eyes

98 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

of hern lookin' up, up — fur off — fur off — and a smil-
in* at somebody or other, and a reachin' out her lit-
tle hands to somebody, a wavin' 'em a greetin' or a
good-bye.

Curius ! Who it wuz I'd gin a dollar bill any time,
and more too, to have ketched a glimpse of the
Form she see, and hearn the whispers or the music
that fell on her ears, too fine and pure for our more
earthly senses.

And most probable I never wuz any madder in my
hull life than I wuz when old Dr. Cork, who wuz
doctorin' her Ma at that time, told me ' ' It wuz wind. ' '

Wind ! That is jest as much as he knew. But he
wuz an old man, and I never laid it up aginst him, and
I never said a word back, only jest this little triflin'
remark. I sez, sez I :

" The divine breath of Eden bio win' down into
pure souls below, inspirit 'em and makin' 'em talk
with tongues and see visions and dream dreams, has
always been called ' wind ' in the past, and I spoze
it will be in the future, by fools."

This little remark wuz everything that I said, and
for all the world he looked and acted real meachin',
and meached off with his saddle-bags.

But now little Snow's golden hair wuz a shinin'
out from the piller of sickness, the big prophetic
eyes wuz shot up, and the forwerd wuz pale and
wan.

But when she heard my voice she opened her eyes
and tried to lift up her little snowflake of a hand — a
little pretty gesture of greetin' she always had — and
her smile wuz sweet with all the sweetness of the
love she had for me.

OLD DR. CORK.

ICO

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

And she sez, as I took her into my arms gently
and kissed her poor little pale face time and agin,
she sez :

" My own Grandma !" Now jest see the deep-
ness and pure wisdom of that remark !

Now, fools might say that because I wuz her
father's stepmother that I wuzn't her own Grand-
mother.

But she see further down ; she see into the eternal
truth of things. She knew that by all the divine
rights of a pure unselfish love and the kinship of
congenial souls, that her Pa wuz my own boy, and
she wuz my own, heart of my heart, soul of my
soul.

Yes, there it wuz, jest as she had always done,
goin' right down into any deep subject or conun-
drum and gettin' the right answer to it imegiatly
and to once.

Curius, hain't it? and she not more'n four and a
half — exceedingly curius and beautiful.

And as I bent there over her, she put up her little
thin hand to my cheek and touched it with a soft
caress, then brushed my hair back with the lily soft
fingers, and then touched my cheek agin lightly but
lovingly.

It wuz as good as a kiss, or several of 'em, I don't
know which I would ruther have, if I had been told
to chuse between 'em at the pint of the bayonet —
some kisses, or these caressin' little fingers on my
face.

They wuz both sweet as sweet could be, and ten-
der and lovin'. And she wuz " my own sweet little
baby," as I told her morn'n a dozen times.

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 10 1

I loved her and she loved me ; and when you have
said that you have said a good deal ; you have said
about all there is to say.

And I felt that I wuz glad enough that I could
take holt and help take care on her, and win her back
to health and strength agin, if it lay in human power.

There wuz a tall, handsome girl in the room when
I went in, and I spozed, from her ladylike mean,
that she wuz one of the neighbors, and she wuz
there a neighborin' with my daughter Maggie, fur
she seemed to be a doin' everything she could to
help.

And I spozed, and kep' on a spozin' for more than
a hour, that she wuz a neighborin', till after she went
out of the room for a few minutes, Maggie said she
wuz a young colored girl, a " quadroon" she called
her, that she had hired to help take care of Snow.

Sez I in deep amaze :

" That girl colored ?"

M Yes," sez Maggie.

" Wall," sez I, she is handsomer than any girl I
ever sot eves on that wuz oncolored."

Yes," sez Maggie, " Genny is a beautiful girl,
and jest as good as she is pretty."

" Wall," sez I, " that is savin' a good deal."

Maggie told me her name was Genieve, but they
called her Genny.

Wall, my daughter Maggie had spells all that
evenin' and the next day of comin' and puttin' her
arms round me, and sort o' leanin' up aginst me>
as if she wuz so glad to lean up aginst sunthin' that
wouldn't break down under her head. I see she
had been dretful skairt and nervous about Thomas

102 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Jefferson and Snow, and I don't blame her, for they
wuz very sick children, very. And there she (in
her own enjoyment of poor health too) had had all
the care and responsibility on her own self.

But I tell you she seemed real contented when
her head sort o' rested and lay up aginst my shoul-
der, or breast-bone, or arm, or wherever it happened
to lay.

And she sez, and kep' a sayin', with a voice that
come from her heart, I knew :

" Oh, Mother ! how glad, how thankful I am you
have come !"

And Thomas Jefferson felt jest so, only more so.
He would reach out his weak white hand towards
me, and I would take it in both of my warm strong
ones, and then he would shet up his eyes and look real
peaceful, as if he wuz safe and could rest.

And he sez more than once, " Mother, I am goin'
to get well now you have come/'

And I sez, cheerful and chirk as could be, " Of
course you be. "

I'd say it, happy actin' as could be on the outside,
but on the inside my heart kep' a sinkin' several
inches, for he looked dretf ul sick, dretf ul. ,

Maggie, the weak one when they left Jonesville,
wuz the strongest one now except the young babe,
that wuz flourishin' and as rosy as the roses that
grew round the balcony where he used to lay in his
little crib durin* the hot days.

As soon as I got rested enough I took sights of
comfort a walkin' round the grounds and a smellin'
the sweet breath of the posies on every side of
me.

SAMAXTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 1 03

And watchin* the gay birds a flutterin' back and
forth like big livin' blossoms on wing.

And a listenin' to the song of the little rivulet as it
wound its way round amongst the pretty shrubs and
flowers, as if it wuz loath to leave so beautiful a place.

Yes, I see that our son Thomas Jefferson had done
well to make the dicker he had made and get this
place for his own.

There wuz several little hills or rises of ground
on the lawn, and you could see from them the roofs
and chimneys of two little villages a layin' on each
side of Belle Fanchon, and back of the house some
distance riz up a low mountain, with trees a growin'
up clear to the top. It wuz over that mountain that
we used to see the sun come up (when we did see it ;
there wuzn't many of us that see that act of hisen,
but it paid us when we did — paid us well).

First, there would be a faint pink tinge behind the
tall green branches of the trees, then golden rays
would shoot up like a flight of gold arrows out over
the tree-tops, and then pink and yellow and pinkish
white big fleecy clouds of light would roll up and
tinge the hull east, and then the sun would slowly
come in sight, and the world would be lit up agin.

Down the western side of Belle Fanchon stretched
the fair country for a long ways — trees and green
fields, and anon, or oftener, a handsome house, and
fur off the silvery glimpse of a river, where I spoze
our little rivulet wuz a hurryin' away to jine in with
it and journey to the sea.

Yes, it wuz a fair seen, a fair seen. I never see a
prettier place than Belle Fanchon, and don't expect
to agin.

104 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

The way it come to be named Belle Fanchon wuz
as follows — Maggie told me about it the very next
day after I arrived and got there :

She said the man that used to own it had one lit-
tle girl, the very apple of his eye, who wuz killed
by poison give to her by a slave woman, out of re-

THE SLAVE WOMAN WHO POISONED THE CHILD.

venge for her own child bein' sold away from hen
But it wuz done by the overseer ; her Pa wuz inno-
cent as a babe, but his heart was broke all the same.

The little girl's name wuz Fannie — named after
the girlish wife he lost at her birth. And he bein'
a foreigner, so they say, he called her all sorts of

SAMANTHA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 105

pretty names in different languages, but most of alL
he called her Belle Fanchon.

And when the little girl died in this terrible way,
though he had a housefull of boys — her half brothers
— yet they said her Pa's head wuz always bowed in
grief after that. He jest shet himself up in the big
old house, or wandered through the shadowy gar-
dens, a dreamin' of the little one he had loyed and
lost.

And he giye her name to the place, and clung to
it as long as he stayed there for her sake.

It is a kind of a pretty name, I thought when I
first heard it, and I think so still.

The little girl lay buried on a low hill at one side of
the grounds, amongst some eyergreens, and tall rose
bushes clasping round the little white cross oyer her
pretty head, and the riyulet made a bend here and
lay round one side of the hill where the little graye
wuz, like a living lovin' arm claspin' it round to-
keep it safe. And its song wuz dretful low and
sweet and sort o' sad too, as it swept along here
through the green shadows and then out into the
sunshine agin.

It wuz a place where the little girl used to
play and think a sight of, so they said. And it
wuz spozed that her Pa meant to be laid by her
Bide.

But the fortunes of war swept him out of the
beautiful old place and his shadowy, peaceful gar-
den, him and his boys too, and they fill soldiers'
grayes in the places where the fortune of war took
'em, and her Pa couldn't get back to his little girl.
And Belle Fanchon slept on alone under the whis-

I06 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

perm' pines — slept on in sunlight and moonlight, in
peace and war.

Sleepin' jest as sweet at one time as the other —
when the roar of cannon swept along through the
pines that wuz above her, as when the birds' song
made music in their rustlin' tops.

And jest as calm and onafraid as if her kindred lay
by her side.

Though it seemed kinder pitiful to me, when I
looked at the small white headstone and thought
how the darlin' of the household, who had been so
tenderly loved and protected, should lay there all
alone under dark skies and tempests.

Nobody nigh her, poor little thing ! and an alien
people ownin' the very land where her grave wuz
made.

Poor little creeter ! But that is how the place
come to be named.

Snow loved to play there in that corner when she
wuz well ; she seemed to like it as well as the little
one that used to play there.

As for Boy, he wuz too young to know what he
did want or what he didn't.

He used to spend a good deal of his time a layin*
in his little cradle out in the veranda, and Genieve
used to set there by him when she wuzn't needed in
the sick-rooms.

And I declare for it if it wuzn't a picture worth
lookin' at, after comin', as I had, from the bareness
and icy whiteness of a Jonesville winter and the
prim humblyness of most of the Jonesville females,
especially when they wuz arrayed in their woollen

SAMANTHA ON THE KstCE PROBLEM. IOJ

shawls and grey hoods and mittens. To be jest
transplanted from scenes like them, and such females
a shinin' out from a background of icickles and bare
apple-trees and snow-drifts.

And then to shet your eyes in Jonesville, as it
were, and open 'em on a balcony all wreathed round
with clamberin' roses, and set up aginst a back-
ground of orange-trees hangin' full of oranges and
orange blossoms too, and in front of that balcony to
see a little white crib with some soft lace over the
top, and a perfectly beautiful male child a layin' on
it, and by the side of him a girl with a slender ligure
as graceful as any of the tall white flowers that wuz
a swayin' and bendin' beneath the balmy South
wind, under the warm blue sky.

A face of a fair oval, with full, sweet lips, and an
expression heavenly sweet and yet sort o' sad in it,
and in the big dark eyes.

They wuz as beautiful eyes as I ever had seen, and
I have seen some dretful pretty eyes in my time, but
none more beautiful than these.

And there wuz a look into 'em as if she had been
a studyin' on things for some time that wuz sort o'
pitiful and kind o' strange.

As if she had been a tryin' to get the answer to
some momentous question and deep conundrum,
and hadn't got it yet, and didn't seem to know when
she would get it.

Dretful sad eyes, and yet sort o' prophetic and
hopeful eyes too, once in a while.

Them eyes fairly drawed my attention offen the
young babe, and I found that I wuz, in spite of my-

108 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

self, a payin' more attention to the nurse than I did
to the child, though he is a beautiful boy, beautiful
and very forward.

Wall, I entered into conversation with Genieve,
and I found that she had lived in that neighborhood
ever sence she wuz a small child, her mother havin'
owned a small place not fur from Belle Fanchon.

Her mother had gone out nursin' the sick, and
Genieve had learnt the trade of her ; and then she
had, poor child, plenty of time to practice it in her
own home, for her mother wuz sick a long time, and
sence her death Genieve had gone out to take care
of little children and sick people, and she still lived
on at the little cottage where her mother died, an
old colored woman and her boy livin' with her.

There wuz a few acres of land round the cottage
that had fruit trees and berry bushes and vines on it,
and a good garden. And the sale of the fruit and
berries and Genieve's earnin's give 'em all a good
livin*.

Old Mammy and Cato the boy took care of the
garden, with an occasional day's work hired, when
horses wuz required.

The fruit and vegetables Cato carried to a neigh-
borin' plantation, where they wuz carried away to
market with the farmer's own big loads.

And there Genieve had lived, and lived still, a
goin' out deeply respected, and at seventy-five cents
to a dollar a day.

I felt dretfully interested in her from the very
first ; and though it is hitchin' several wagons be-
fore the horses' heads, I may as well tell sunthin' of
her mother's history now as to keep it along till

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 109

bimeby. As long as it has got to be told I may as
well tell it now as any time, as fur as 1 know.

Maggie told it to me, and it wuz told to her by a
woman that knew what she wuz a savin'.

Genieve's mother wuz a very beautiful quadroon
who had been brought up well by an indulgent and
good-natured mistress, and a religious one too.
There are as good wimmen in the South as in the
North, and men too. She had educated Madeline
and made a sort of a companion of her. She wuz
rich, she could do as she wuz a mind to ; and bein*
a widder, she had no one to say to her " Why do
ye do so ?"

So she had brought up Madeline as a sort of a
pet, and thought her eves of her.

Wall, this mistress had some rich and high-born
French relatives, and one of 'em — a young man —
come over here on a visit, and fell in love the first
thing with Madeline, the beautiful quadroon com-
panion of his aunt.

And she loved him so well that in the end her
love wuz stronger than the principles of religion
that the old ladv had instilled into her, for she ran
away with this Monseur De Chasseny, and, forget-
tin' its wickedness, they lived an ideally happy life
for years in a shootin' lodge of hisen in the heart of
a fragrant pine forest in South Carolina. They
lived this happy life till his father found him, and
by means of family pride, and ambition, and the love
of keepin' his own word and his father's pledges,
he got him to leave his idvllic life and- go back to
the duties of his rank and his family in the old coun-
try.

SA MAX 7 HA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. HI

He had pledged his word to marry a rich heiress,
and great trouble to both sides of their noble fami-
lies wuz goin' to take place and ensue if he did not
go, and his own family wuz goin' to be disgraced and
dishonored if he did not keep his word.

Wall, men are often led to do things that at first
they shrink from in mortal horror — yes, and wim-
men are too.

De Chasseny vowed that he would not leave the
woman he loved and the little girl they both wor-
shipped, not for any reason — not for father, nor
pride, nor for honor.

But he did. He left her, with plenty of money
though, as it wuz spozed, and a broken heart, a
ruined life, and a hoard of bitter-sweet and agoniz-
in' memories to haunt her for the rest of her days.

She wuz a lovin'-hearted woman bound up in the
man she loved — the man she had forsaken honor and
peace of mind for.

There wuz no marriage — there could be none be-
tween a white man and a woman with any colored
blood in her veins.

So in the eves of the world and the law he wuz
not guilty when he left her and married a pure
young girl.

Whether he wuz found guilty at that other bar
where the naked souls of men and wimmen stand to
be judged, I don't spoze his rich and titled friends
ever thought to ask themselves.

Anyway, he left Madeline and little Genieve — for
so he had named the child after an old friend of
his— he left them and sailed off for France and the
new life to be lived out in the eyes of the world,

H2 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

where Happiness and gratified Ambition seemed to
carry the torches to light him on his way.

Whether there wuz any other attendants who
waited on him, a holdin' up dim-burnin' lamps to
light him as he walked down Memory's aisles, I
don't know, but I should dare presume to say there
wuz.

I should presume to say that in the still night
hours, when the palace lights burned low and the
garlands and the feast robes put away for a spell,
and his fair young wife wuz sleepin' peacefully at
his side — I should presume to say that these black-
robed attendants, that are used to lightin' folks down
dark pathways, led him back to love — first, true,
sweet love — and Madeline, and that under their
cold, onsympathizin* eyes he stayed there for some
time.

As for Madeline, she wuz stunned and almost
senseless by the blow, and wuz for a long time.
Then she had a long sickness, and when she come to
herself she seemed to be ponderin' some deep
thought all to herself.

The nurse who was watchin' with her testified
that she dropped to sleep one mornin' before day-
light, and when she woke up her patient wuz gone,
and the child.

She had some money that her old mistress had
give her from time to time, and that she had never
had to use ; that wuz taken, with some valuable
jewelry too that that kind old friend had give her —
for she had loved to set off her favorite's dark
beauty with the light of precious stones — all these
wuz taken ; but every article that Monseur De

SAM AX TH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

Chasseny had give her wuz left. And all the money
that he left for her not a penny wuz ever called for.
She disappeared as if she had never been ; lawyers
and detectives, hired, it wuz spozed, by De Chas-
senv, could find no trace of her.

There wuz a good, fatherly old missionary in the
little settlement near by who might perhaps have
given some information if he had wanted to ; but
thev never thought of askin' him, and thev would
have been no wiser if they had, most probable.

But about this time a woman in deep mournin',
with a beautiful young child, come to the little ham-
let near Belle Fanchon.

She said she wuz a colored woman, though no one
would have believed it.

The good priest in charge of the Mission — Father
Gasperin — he seemed to know sunthin' about her ;
he had a brother who wuz a priest in South Caro-
lina. He got her employment as a nurse after her
health improved a little.

She bought a little cottage and lived greatly re-
spected by all classes, black and white, and nursed
'em both to the best of her abilities — some for nuth-
in' and some at about a dollar a day.

But her earnest sympathies, her heartfelt affection
wuz with the black race. She worked for their
good and advancement in every way with a zeal
that looked almost as if she wuz tryin' to atone for
some awful mistake in the past — as if she wuz tryin'
to earn forgiveness for forsakin' her mother's race
for the white people, who wuz always faithless to
her race, only when selfishness guided them — who
would take the service of their whole life and

114 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

strength, as if it belonged to 'em ; who would take
them up as a plaything to divert an hour's leisure,
and then throw the worthless thing down agin.

Her whole heart wuz bent upon the good of her
mother's people. She worked constantly for their
advancement and regeneration. She bore their in-
tolerable burdens for 'em, she agonized under their
unexampled wrongs. She exhorted 'em to become
Christians, to study, to learn to guide themselves
aright ; she besought 'em to elevate themselves by
all means in their power.

She became a very earnest Christian ; she went
about doin' good ; she studied her Bible much.
The Book that in her bright days of happiness she
had slighted became to her now the lamp of her
life.

Most of all did this heart-broken soul, who had
bid good-bye to all earthly happiness, love the
weird prophecies of St. John the Evangelist.

She loved to read of the Beloved City, and the
sights that he saw, to her become realities. She
said she saw visions in the night as she looked up
from dyin' faces into the high heavens — she foretold
events. Her prophetic sayin's became almost as
inspired revelations to them about her.

She said she heard voices talkin' to her out of the
skies and the darkness, and I don't know but she
did — I don't feel like disputin' it either way ; besides,
I wuzn't there.

But as I wuz a sayin', from what I wuz told, the
little girl, Genieve, inheritin' as she did her moth-
er's imaginative nature and her father's bright mind
and wit, and contemplatin' her mother's daily life of

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 115

duty and self-sacrifice, and bein' brought up as she
wuz under the very eaves of the New Jerusalem her
mother wuz always readin* about, it is no wonder
that she grew up like a posy — that while its roots
are in the earth its tall flowers open and wave in the
air of Eden.

The other world, the land unseen but near, be-
came more of a reality to her than this. " The
voices" her mother said she heard was to her real
and true as the voice of good Father Gasperin, who
preached in the little chapel every month.

The future of her mothers race wuz to her plain
and distinct, lit with light fallin' from the new
heavens on the new earth that she felt awaited her
people.

The inspired prophecies to her pointed to their
redemption and the upbuilding of a New Republic,
where this warm-hearted, emotional, beauty lovin*
race should come to their own, and, civilized and
enlightened, become a great people, a nation truly
brought out of great tribulations.

She grew up unlike any other girl, more beautiful
than any other — so said every one who saw her. A
mind different from any other — impractical perhaps,
but prophetic, impassioned, delicate, sorrowful, in-
spired.

When she became old enough she followed her
mother's callin' of nursin' the sick, and it seemed
indeed as if her slight hands held the gift of healin*
in them, so successful wuz she.

Guarded by her mother as daintily as if she wuz
the daughter of a queen, she grew up to womanhood
as innocent as Eve wuz when the garden wuz new.

Ii6 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

She turned away almost in disgust from the atten-
tion of young men, white or colored.

But about a year before I went to Belle Fanchon
she had met her king. And to her, truly, Victor
wuz a crowned monarch. And the love that sprung
up in both their hearts the moment they looked in
each other's eyes wuz as high and pure and ideal an
attachment as wuz ever felt by man or woman.

Victor wuz the son of a white man and a colored
woman, but he showed the trace of his mother's
ancestry as little as did Genieve.

His mother wuz a handsome mulatto woman, the
nurse and constant attendant of the wife of Col.
Seybert, whose handsome place, Seybert Court,
could jest be seen from the veranda of Belle Fan-
chon.

Col. Seybert owned this plantation, but he had
been abroad with his family many years, and in the
States further South, where he also owned property.

He had come back to Seybert Court only a few
months before Thomas J. bought Belle Fanchon.

Mrs. Seybert wuz a good woman, and in a long
illness she had soon after her marriage she had been
nursed so faithfully by Phyllis, Victor's mother, that
she had become greatly attached to her ; and Phyllis
and her only child, Victor, had attended the Colonel
and his wife in all their wanderings. Indeed, Mrs.
Seybert often said and felt, Heaven knows, that she
could not live if Phyllis left her.

And Victor wuz his mother's idol, and to be near
her and give her comfort wuz one of the reasons
why he endured his hard life with Col. Seybert.

For his master wuz not a good man. He wuz

SAM A NTH A O.V THE RACE PROBLEM. 117

hard, haughty, implacable. He wuz attached to
Victor much as a manufacturer would be to an extra
good piece of machinery by which his gains wuz
enhanced.

Victor wuz an exceptionally good servant ; he
watched over his employer's interests, he wuz hon-
est amongst a retinue of dishonest ones. He saved
his employer's money when many of his feller-ser-
vants seemed to love to throw it away. His keen
intelligence and native loyalty and honesty found
many ways of advancin' his master's interests, and
he helped him in so many ways that Col. Seybert
had come to consider his services invaluable to him.

Still, and perhaps he thought it wuz the best way
to make Victor feel his place and not consider him-
self of more consequence than he wuz — and it wuzn't
in the nater of Col. Seybert to be anything but
mean, mean as pusley, and meaner —

Anyway, he treated Victor with extreme inso-
lence, and cruelty, and brutality. Mebby he thought
that if he didn't " hold the lines tight," as he called
it, Victor might make disagreeable demands upon
his purse, or his time, or in some way seek for a
just recognition of his services.

Col. Seybert, too, drank heavily, which might
perhaps be some excuse for his brutality, but made
it no easier for Victor to endure.

At such times Col. Seybert wuz wont to address
Victor as " his noble brother/' and order his " noble
brother" to take off his boots, or put them on, or
carry him upstairs, or perform still more menial ser-
vices for him, he swearin' at him roundly all the
time, and mixin' his oaths with whatever vile and

Il8 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

contemptible epithets he could think of — and he
could think of a good many.

And perhaps it did not make it easier for Victor
to obey him that he told the truth in his drunken
babble. Victor wuz his brother, and they two wuz
the only descendants of the gallant old Gen. Sey-
bert, the handsomest, the wittiest, the bravest and
the most courtly man of his day.

He went down to the grave the owner of many
hundred slaves, the husband of a fair young bride,
and the father of two children, one the only son of
his pretty Northern bride, the other the son of his
mother's maid.

And what made matters still more complicated
and hard to understand, to this unowned, despised
son had descended all the bright wit and philosophi-
cal mind, and suave, gentle, courteous manners of
this fine gentleman Gen. Seybert ; and to the son
and legal heir of all his wealth, not a bit of his
father's sense, bright mind, and good manners.

One of his maternal great-uncles had been a rich,
new-made man of low tastes and swaggering ag-
gressive manners. It wuz a sad thing that these
inherited traits and tastes should just bound over
one gentlemanly generation and swoop down upon
the downy, lace-festooned cradle of this only son and
heir — but they did.

All the nobility of mind, the grace, the kindly
consideration for others, and the manly beauty, all
fell as a dower to the little lonely baby smuggled
away like an accursed thing, in his maternal grand-
mother's little whitewashed cabin.

To the young heir, Reginald, fell some hundreds

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 119

of thousands of dollars, two or three plantations,
and an honored name and place in society, the tastes
of a pot-boy, the mind and habits of a clown, the
swaggerin', boastin' cruelty of an American Nero.

Col. Seybert drove and swore, and threatened his
negroes as his great- uncle Wiggins drove the white
operatives in his big Northern factor)-, kept them at
starvation wages, and piled up his money-bags over
the prostrate forms of gaunt, overworked men and
women, and old young children, who earned his
money out of their own hopeless youth ; with one
hand dropped gold into his coffers, and with the
other dug shallow graves that they filled too soon.

Northern cupidity and avarice, Southern avarice
and cupidity, equally ugly in God's sight, so we
believe.

It wuz indeed strange that to Reginald should
descend all the great- uncle's traits and none of his
father's, only the passionate impulses that marred
an otherwise almost faultless character ; and to
Victor, the cast-off, ignored son, should descend all
the courtly graces inherited from a long line of illus-
trious ancestors, and all the brilliant qualities of
mind too that made old Gen. Seybert's name re-
spected and admired wherever known.

His sin in regard to Victor's mother wuz a sin
directly traceable to the influence of Slavery. As
the deeds a man commits when in liquor can be
followed back to that source, so could this cryin' sin
be traced directly back to the Slave regime.

It wuz but one berry off of the poisonous Upas-
tree of Slavery that gloomily shadowed the beauti-
ful South land, and darkens it yet, Heaven knows.

120 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

The top of this tree may have been lowered a lit-
tle by the burnin' fires of war, but the deep roots
remain ; and as time and a false sense of security
relaxes the watch kept over it, the poison shoots
spring up and the land is plagued by its thorny
branches, its impassable, thick undergrowth.

The tree may be felled to the earth before it
springs up agin with a more dangerous, vigorous
growth and destroys the hull nation.

So Cousin John Richard said ; but I don't know
whether it will or not, and Josiah don't.

But I am a eppisodin', and to resoom and con-
tinue on.

Reginald Seybert wuz tolerably good-lookin' in an
aggressive, florid style, and he had plenty of bold-
ness and wealth. And some, or all of these quali-
ties, made it possible for him to marry a good wom-
an of an impoverished but aristocratic Southern
family.

The marriage wuz a sudden one — he did not give
the young lady time to change her mind. He met
her at a fashionable watering-place where they wuz
both strangers, and, as I said, he give her no time
to repent her choice.

After the honeymoon trip and her husband
brought her to his home, she heard many strange
things she had been kept in ignorance of — amongst
them this pitiful story of Victor and his mother —
and being what she wuz, a good, tender-hearted
woman, with high ideals and pure and charitable im-
pulses— perhaps it wuz this that made her so good
to Victor's mother, so thoughtful and considerate
of him, and that made her, during her husband's

SAMANTHA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 121

long absences on his wild sprees, give him every
benefit of teachers and opportunity to study.

And Victor almost worshipped his gentle mis-
tress, his unhappy mistress, for it could not be
otherwise, that after she knew him well, her feelin's
for her husband could hardly have been stronger
than pity. Perhaps after a time aversion and dis-
gust crept in, and as she had no children or brothers
of her own, she grew strongly attached to Phyllis
and to Victor, the only relative — for so this strange
woman called him in her thoughts — the only relative
near her who wuz kind to her.

For as her beauty faded, worn away by the an-
guished, feverish beatings of a sad heart, Col. Sey-
bert grew cruel and brutal to her also. It was not
in his nature to be kind to anything, or to value any-
thing that did not minister to his selfishness. He
lived only for the gratification of his appetites and
his ambition.

He prized Victor, as we said, as a manufacturer
would prize an extra good loom, on which valuable
cloth might be woven, and which would bear any
amount of extra pressure on occasion.

Victor's loyal affection and gratitude to his mis-
tress, and his determination to shield her all he could
from her husband's brutality, and his love for his
mother, made him conceal from them all he could
the fiendish cruelties his master sometimes inflicted
upon him.

Old Gen. Seybert had been noted all his brilliant
life for his tender consideration and thoughtful
courtesy towards women, and his desire to shield
them from all possible annoyance.

122 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

His son Victor had this trait also, added to the
warm-hearted gratitude of his mother's race towards
one who befriends them.

Many a time did he carry a scarred back and a

COLONEL SEYBERT.

smilin' face into the presence of his mother and
mistress.

Many a time did he voluntarily absent himself
from them for days, or until the bruises had healed
that some too skilfully aimed missile had inflicted
upon him.

But soon after he came to Belle Fanchon, and

1

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 123

after he had met and loved Genieve, Col. Seybert's
treatment became so unendurable that Victor begged
of his mother to go away with him, tellin' her he
could now earn a good livin' for her ; and he had
dreams, hardly formulated to himself then, of the
future of his mother's race. They lay in his heart
as seeds lie in the dark ground, waitin' for the time
to spring up — they were germinatin', waitin' for the
dawn to waken them to rich luxuriance.

But his mother felt that she could not leave her
kind mistress in her lonely troubles, and she entreat-
ed him prayerfully that he would not leave her,
" and she could not go away and leave Miss Alice
with that tyrant and murderer" — for so she called
Col. Seybert in her wrath.

And his mistress's anguished entreaties that he
would not leave her, for she felt that she had but a
little time to live, her health was failin' all the time —

" And the blessed lamb would die without us any-
way," his mother would say to Victor —

And all these arguments added to his loyal desire
to befriend this gentle mistress who had educated
him and done for him all she could have done for
son or brother — all these arguments caused him to
stay on.

But after comin' to Seybert Court, Victor had
given Col. Seybert another opportunity to empty
the vials of his wrath upon him.

Victor had a bosom friend, a young man in about
the same circumstances that he wuz — only this friend,
Felix Ward, had lived with a kind master and mis-
tress durin' his childhood and early youth.

His father and mother wuz both dead ; his father

124 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

bein' killed in the war, and his mother soon follow-
in' him.

He wuz an intelligent negro, with no white blood
in his veins, so far as he knew. Felix, for so he had
been named when he looked like a tiny black doll,
by his young mistress, to whom the world looked
so happ}^ and prosperous that everything assumed a
roseate hue to her.

Her faithful servant, his mother, brought the lit-
tle image in ebony to her room to show it to her, jest
after she had read the letter from the man she loved
askin' her to be his wife.

She wuz happy ; the world looked bright and
prosperous to her. She gave the little pickaninny
this name for a good omen — Felix : happy, prosper-
ous.

But alas ! though the pretty young mistress pros-
pered well in her love and her life while it lasted,
the poor little baby she had named had better have
been called Infelix, so infelicitous had been his life —
or, that is, the latter part of it.

For awhile, while he wuz quite young, it seemed
as if his name would stand him in good stead and
bring good fortune with it. For being owned till
her death by this same gentle young mistress and
her husband, both, like so many Southerners, so
much better than the system they represented, they
helped him, seem* his brightness and intelligence, to
an education, and afterwards through their influence
he wuz placed at Hampton School, and at their
death, which occurred very suddenly in a scourge
of yeller fever, they left him a little money.

At Hampton School he got a good education, and

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 125

iearned the carpenter's trade. And it wuz at Seybert
Court, which wuz bein' repaired, and he wuz one of
the workmen, that Victor and he become such close
friends.

Victor had come on to superintend some of the
work that wuz bein' done there to fit the place for
the reception of his master's family, who wuz at
that time in New Orleans. And these two young
men wuz together several months and become close
friends. They wuz related on their mother's side,
and thev wuz joined together in that closer, subtler
relationship of kindred tastes, feelings, and aspira-
tions.

He finally bought a little carpenter's shop and
settled down to work at his trade in the little ham-
let of Eden Centre, where he soon after married a
pretty mulatto girl, the particular friend of Ge-
nieve.

With the remains of the money his mistress had left
him he bought a little cottage — or, that is, this
money partly paid for it, and he thought that with
his good health and good trade he could soon finish
up the payment and own his own home.

It wuz a pretty cottage, but fallen into disorder
and ruinous looks, through poor tenants ; but his
skilful hands and his labor of love soon made it over
into a perfect gem of a cottage.

And there he and his pretty young wife Hester
had spent two most happy years, when Col. Seybert
come into the neighborhood to live, and his roamin'
fancy soon singled out Hester for a victim.

She had been lady's maid in a wealthy, refined
family, and her ladylike manners and pretty ways

126 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

wuz as attractive as her face. She loved her hus-
band, and wuz constant to him with all the fidelity
of a lovin' woman's heart, and Col. Seybert she de-
tested with all the force of her nature ; but CoL
Seybert wuz not one to give way to such a slight
obstacle as a lawful husband.

He thought if Felix wuz out of the way the course
of his untrue love would run comparatively smooth.
Why, it seemed to him to be the height of absurdity
that a ' ' nigger' ' should stand in the way of his
wishes.

Why, it wuz aginst all the traditions of his race
and the entire Southern Aristocracy that so slight
things as a husband's honor and wife's loyalty should
dare oppose the lawless passions of a white gentle-
man.

Of course, so reasoned CoL Seybert ; the war had
made a difference in terms and enactments, but that
wuz about all. The white race wuz still uncon-
quered in their passion and their arrogance, and the
black race wuz still under their feet ; he could testify
to the truth of this by his own lawless life full of
deeds of unbridled license and cruelty.

So, wantin' Victor out of the way, and bein' ex-
ceedingly wroth aginst him, it wuz easy to persuade
certain ignorant poor whites, and the dispensers of
what they called law, that Felix wuz altogether too
successful for a nigger.

He owned a horse, too, an almost capital offence
in some parts of the South.

He had worked overhours to buy this pet animal
for Hester's use as well as his own. Many a hun-
dred hard hours' labor, when he wuz already tired

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

12]

out. had he given for the purchase money of this lit-
tle animal.

It wuz a pretty, cream-colored creeter, so gentle
that it would come up to the palin' and eat little bits
that Hester would carry out to it after every meal,
with little Ned toddlin' along by her side ; and it
wuz one of the baby boy's choicest rewards for good
behavior to be lifted up by the side of the kind-
faced creeter and pat the glossy skin with his little
fat hands.

This horse seemed to Felix and Hester to be en-
dowed with an almost human intelligence, and come
next to little Ned, their only child, in their hearts.

And Hester had herself taken in work and helped
to pay for the plain buggy in which she rode out
with her bov, and carried Felix to and from his
work when he wuz employed some distance from
his home.

But no matter how honestly he had earned this
added comfort, no matter how hard they had both
worked for it and how they enjoyed it —

" It wuz puttin' on too much damned style for a
nigger !"

This wuz Col. Seybert's decree, echoed by many
a low, brutal, envious mind about him, encased in
black and white bodies.

And one moruin', when Hester went out in the
bright May sunshine to carry Posy its mornin' bit
of food from the breakfast-table, with little Ned fol-
lowin' behind with his bit of sugar for it, the pretty
creeter had jest enough strength to drag itself up
to its mistress and fix its pitiful eyes on her in help-
less appeal, and dropped dead at her feet.

£28 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

They found the remains of a poisoned cake in the
pasture, and on the fence wuz pinned a placard bear-
in' the inscription —

" LOW, BRUTAL, ENVIOUS MIND."

" No damned niggers can ride wile wit foaks wak
afut — so good buy an* take warninV

They did not try to keep a horse after this. Felix
took his long mornin' and evenin' walks with a sore,

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

indignant heart that dragged down his tired limbs
still more.

And Hester wiped away the tears of little Ned,
and tried to explain to his bewildered mind why his
pretty favorite could not come up to him when he
called it so long and patiently, holdin' out the tempt-
in' lump of sugar that had always hastened its fleet
step.

And she wiped away her own tears, and tried to
find poor comfort in the thought that so many wuz
worse off than herself.

She had Felix and Ned left, and her pretty
home.

But in the little black settlement of Cedar Hill,
not fur away, where her mother's relations lived,
destitution wuz reignin'.

For on one pretext or another their crops that
they worked so hard for wuz taken from them. The
most infamous laws wuz made whereby the white
man could take the black man's earnings.

The negro had the name of bein' a freedman, but
in reality he wuz a worse slave than ever, for in the
old times he had but one master who did in most
cases take tolerable care of him, for selfishness' sake,
if no other, and protected him from the selfishness of
other people.

But now every one who could take advantage of
his ignorance of law did so, and on one pretext or
another robbed him of his hard-earned savings.

And it wuz not considered lawful and right by
these higher powers for a nigger to get much prop-
erty. It wuz looked upon as an insult to the supe-
rior race about him who had nuthin', and it wuz

130 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

considered dangerous to the old-established law of
Might over Right.

It wuz a dangerous precedent, and not to be con-
doned. So it wuz nuthin' oncommon if a colored
man succeeded by hard work and economy in get-
tin' a better house, and had good crops and stock,
for a band of masked men to surround the house
at midnight and order its inhabitants, on pain of
death, to leave it all and flee out of the country be-
fore daylight.

And if they appealed to the law, it wuz a slender
reed indeed to lean upon, and would break under
the slightest pressure.

Indeed, what good could law do, what would de-
crees and enactments avail in the face of this terri-
ble armed power, secret but invincible, that closed
round this helpless race like the waves of the
treacherous whirlpool about a twig that wuz cast
into its seethin' waters ?

The reign of Terrorism, of Lynch Law, of Might
aginst Right wuz rampant, and if they wanted to
save even their poor hunted bodies they had learned
to submit.

So, poor old men and wimmen would rise up from
the ruins of their homes, the homes they had built
with so much hard toil. Feeble wimmen and chil-
dren, as well as youth and strength, would rise up
and move on, often with sharp, stingin' lashes to
hasten their footsteps.

Move on to another place to have the same scenes
enacted over and over agin.

The crops and stock that wuz left fell as a reward
to the victors in the fray.

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. IJI

And if there wuz a pretty girl amongst the fugitives
she too wuz often and often bound to the conqueror's
chariot wheels till the chariot got tired of this add-
ed ornament, then she fell down before it and the
heavy wheels passed over her. And so exit pretty
girl.

But the world wuz full of them ; what mattered
one more or less ? It wuz no more than if a fly
should be brushed away by a too heavy hand, and
have its wings broken. There are plenty more, and
of what account is one poor insect ?

Many a poor aged one died broken-hearted in the
toilsome exodus from their homes and treasures.

But there wuz plenty more white-headed old
negroes-— why, one could hardly tell one from an-
other— of what use wuz it to mention the failure of
one or two ?

Many a young and eager one with white blood
throbbin' in his insulted and tortured breast stood
up and fought for home, and dear ones, and liberty,
all that makes life sweet to prince or peasant.

What became of them ? Let the dark forests re-
veal if they can what took place in their shadows.

Let the calm heavens speak out and tell of the
anguished cries that swept up on the midnight air
from tortured ones. How the stingin' whip-lash
mingled with vain cries for mercy. How frenzied
appeals wuz cut short by the sharp crack of a rifle
or the swing of a noose let down from some tree-
branch.

How often Death come as a friend to hush the
lips of intolerable pain and torture !

Sometimes this tyrannical foe felt the vengeance

J 32 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

he had called forth by his cowardly deeds, and a
white man or woman fell a victim to the vengeance
of the black race.

Then the Associated Press sent the tidings through
an appalled and horrified country —

" Terrible deed of a black brute — the justly in-
censed citizens hung the wretch up to the nearest
tree — so perish all the enemies of law and order."

And the hull country applauded the deed.

The black man had no reporters in the daily
papers ; if he had, their pens would have been worn
down to the stump by a tithe of the unrecorded
deeds that are yet, we believe, put down on a
record that is onbought and as free to the poorest
class as to the highest, and is not influenced by
political bias.

But these accounts are not open yet, and the full
history of these tragedies are as yet unread by the
public.

More awful tragedies than ever took place or ever
could take place under any other circumstances,
only where one alien and hated race wuz pitted
aginst the other.

Ignorance on both sides, inherited prejudices, and
personal spite, and animosities blossomin' out in its
fruit of horror.

" They were burnt at the stake ; they were sawed
asunder ; they were destitute, afflicted, tormented/'

Your soul burns within you as you read of these
deeds that took place in Jerusalem ; your heart
aches for them who wandered about tormented,
hunted down on every side ; you lavish your sym-
pathy upon them ; but then you think it wuz a sav-

DEFENDING HIS HOME.

134 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM,

age age, this wuz one of its brutalities, and you
congratulate yourself upon livin' in an age of Chris-
tian enlightenment.

You think such deeds are impossible in a land over
which the Star of Bethlehem has shone for eighteen
hundred years.

Down in many a Southern bayou, in the depths of
many a cypress swamp, near the remains of a vio-
lated home, lies a heap of ashes — all that remains of
a man who died fightm* for his home and his loved
ones.

That wuz his only crime — he expiated it with his
life. But his liberated soul soared upwards jest as
joyfully, let us hope, as if his body received the full
sacrament of sorrowful respect.

One of the laws enacted of late in the South per-
mits a white man to kill a black man for a crime
committed aginst his honor, and if the white man com-
mits the same crime and the black man takes the
sp,me revenge, he is killed at once accordin' to law —
one man liberated with rejoicings, the other shot
down like a dog. Do you say the black man is more
ignorant ? That is a bad plea.

And wantin' to act dretful lawful, a short time ago
a gang of white law-makers dug up the dead body
of a dark-complexioned husband they had murdered
accordin* to law, and after breakin' its bones, hung
it over agin.

He could find in the law no help to defend his
home or protect his honor, no refuge in the grave
to which the law had sent him.

I wonder if his freed soul has found some little
safe corner in space fenced round by justice and

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 135

compassion, where it can hide itself forever from
the laws and civilization of this 19th Century, in
this great and glorious country of the free.

To select this one instance of cruel wrong and in-
justice from the innumerable ones similar to it is
like takin' up a grain of sand from the seashore and
contemplatin' it — the broad seashore that stretches
out on either hand is full of them.

And why should not wrongs, and crimes, and
woes be inevitable — why, indeed ?

A race but lately slaves, with the responsible gift
of freedom dropped too soon into their weak hands —

The race so lately the dominant and all-powerful
one through the nation, by the fiction of law dropped
down under the legal rule of these so long down-
trodden, oppressed, ignorant masses, what could the
result be ?

And the law-makers who had proclaimed peace
and liberty, on paper, sot afar contemplatin' the
great work they had done, and left the Reign of
Horror to be enacted by the victors and the vic-
tims.

Poor colored man ! poor white man ! both to be
pitied with a pity beyend words.

It wuz not their fault, it wuz but the fallin' hail
and lightnin' and tempest out of clouds that had
been gatherin' for ages.

But after the tempest cometh peace. And the
eyes of Faith beholds through the mists and the
darkness the sunshine of a calmer time, the peace
and the rest of a fair country, and a free one.

God grant more wisdom to the great common-
wealth of this nation, those whose wills are spoken

136 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM,

out by their ballots, to the makers and the doers of
law.

But I am a eppisodin', and to resoom, and con-
tinue on.

Felix and Hester, by some good chance, or by the
grace of God, had not been obliged yet to leave
their pretty home, so they worked on, tryin' to be
so peaceable and friendly that no fault could be
found with them.

Col. Seybert's attention when he wuz at Seybert
Court wuz very annoym* to Hester, but she dared
not tell Felix, fearin' that he would avenge himself
on the Colonel, and bloodshed would result.

So she tried to be very careful. She had an old
negro woman stay with her ; she took in work all
she could at home, and when she went out to work
she wuz prudent and watchful, and, fortunately for
her peace of mind, the Colonel made short stays at his
home — he found more potent attractions elsewhere.

wSo stood matters when Felix wuz appointed Jus-
tice of the Peace at Eden Centre.

He wuz honestly appointed and honestly elected.

Victor had always declined any office, and had
Felix taken his advice he would also have refused
the office.

But perhaps Felix had some ambition. And
maybe he had some curiosity to see what honesty
and a pure purpose could accomplish in political
matters, to see what such a marvellous thing could
amount to.

Anyway, he accepted the nomination and received
the office.

And the night after he wuz elected he and Hester

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 137

talked the matter over with some pardonable pride
as they sot in the door of their pretty little parlor
in the warm moonlight.

The creepin' vines on the trellis cast pleasant
shadows of leaf and blossom down over their heads
and on the pretty carpet at their feet.

This carpet Hester had bought with her own
money and wuz proud of.

The moonlight lay there warm and bright, weav-
in* its magic tapestry of rose leaf and swingin'
vine tendrils long after they wuz asleep in their lit-
tle white-draped room near by.

Baby Ned lay fast asleep, with a smile on his moist,
flushed face, in his love-guarded cradle near them.

The little boy did not dream of anything less sweet
and peaceful than his mother's good-night kiss that
had been his last wakin' remembrance.

But about midnight other shadows, black and ter-
rible ones, trod out and defaced the swayin', trem-
blin* rose images and silvery moonlight on the floor.

Tall men in black masks, a rough, brutal gang,
surrounded the place and crashed in the door of the
little cottage.

Amongst the foremost wuz Nick Burley, a low,
brutal fellow, one of Col. Seybert's overseers and
boon companions.

He had wanted the office, and his friends greatly
desired it for him, thinkin* no doubt it would prove
many times a great convenience to them.

But Felix won it honorably. He got the majority
of votes and wuz honestly elected.

But Burley and his choice crew of secret Regu-
lators could not brook such an insult as to have one

138 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

of a race of slaves preferred to him, so they pro-
ceeded to mete out the punishment to him fit for
such offenders.

They tore Felix from his bed, leavin' Hester in a
faintin' fit, and the little child screamm* with fright.

THE LEADER.

Took him out in the swamp, bound him to a tree,
and whipped him till he had only a breath of life left
in him ; then they put him into a crazy old boat, and
launched him out on the river, tellin' him " if he
ever dared to step his foot into his native State agin
they would burn him alive. "

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 139

And this happened in our free country, in a coun-
try where impassioned oritors, on the day set apart
to celebrate our nation's freedom, make their voices
heard even above the roar of blatant cannons, so
full of eloquence and patriotism are they, as they
eulogize our country's liberty, justice, and inde-
pendence.

M The only clime under God's free sky," they say,
" where the law protects all classes alike, and the
vote of the poorest man is as potent as the loftiest, in
moulding our perfect institutions. Where. the low-
est and the highest have full and equal civil and
political rights."

Oh, it would have been a goodly sight for our
American eagle, proud emblem of liberty, to
have witnessed this midnight scene we have been
describin' ; methinks such a spectacle would almost
have magnetism to draw him from his lofty lair on
Capitol Hill to swoop down into this cypress swamp,
and perchin' upon some lofty tree-top, look down
and witness this administration of justice and equal
rights, to mark how these beneficent free laws en-
wrap all the people and protect them from foreign
invasion and home foes, to see how this nation loves
its children, its black children, who dumbly endured
generations of unexampled wrongs and indignities
at its hands, and then in its peril bared their patient
breasts and risked their lives to save it.

How this bird of freedom must laugh in a parrot-
like glee, if so grave and dignified a fowl wuz ever
known to indulge in unseemly mirth, to see the play go
on, the masquerade of Folly and Brutality in the garb
of Wisdom and Order, holding such high carnival

140 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

After thus sendin' Felix half dead from his brutal
usage adrift on the turbid river waves that they felt
assured would float him down to a sure and swift
death, the gang of ruffians returned to the cottage
to complete their night's work.

Col. Seybert had dealt out plenty of bad whiskey
to them to keep up their courage ; and Nick Burley,
besides satisfying his own vengeance upon Felix,
had been offered a very handsome reward by his
master for gettin' him out of the way and takin'
Hester to a lonely old cabin of his in the depths
of the big forest.

But they found the pretty cottage empty, and
the}T could only show their disapprobation of the
fact by despoilin' and ruinin' the cozy nest from
which the bird had flown.

Hester had recovered from her faintin' fit jest as
they wuz takin' Felix to the river ; she discovered
by their shouts which way they had gone, followed
them at a safe distance, and when they had disap-
peared she by almost a miracle swam out to the
boat which had drifted into a bayou, brought it to
shore, and nursed him back to life agin.

And for weeks they remained in hidin', not darin'
to return to their dear old home that they had
earned so hardly, and Felix not dreamm* of claimm'
his honest rights as a duly elected Justice of the
Peace.

No, he felt that he had had enough of political
honors and preferments— if he could only escape
with his life and keep his wife and boy wuz all he

asked.

At last he got a note to Victor, who aided him in

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 141

his flight to another State, where he patiently com-
menced life agin with what courage and ambition
he might bring to bear on it, with his mind forever
dwellin' on his bitter wrongs and humiliation, and
on memories of the old home left forever behind him
— that pretty home with the few acres of orchard
and garden about it. And remembered how he and
Hester delighted in every dollar they paid towards
it, and how they had a little feast, and invited in
their friends that sunny June day when the last dol-
lar wuz paid, and it wuz their own.

And remembered how proudly they had labored
to finish and furnish the little home. How Hester
had worked at washin' and ironin' and bought the
paper and paint, and pretty curtains and carpet,
and how infinitely happy they had been in it.

How after his hard day's work he would work in
the little sunshiny garden and orchard settin' out
fruit trees, plantin' berry bushes and grape-vines,
and how they had together gloried over all their
small successes, and thought that they had the very
coziest and happiest home in the world.

Wall, they had lost it all. The honor of bein' an
American citizen bore down pretty heavy on him,
and he had to give it up.

Wall, twice did Felix try to get a home for him-
self and his wife in the Southern States.

But both times, on one pretext or another, did
the dominant power deprive him of his earnings,
and take his home from him.

Felix had a good heart ; and once, the last time
he tried to make a home under Southern skies, this
good heart wuz the cause ol his overthrow.

142 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

He barely escaped with his life for darin' to har-
bor a white teacher who had left his home and gone
down South, followin' the Bible precepts " to seek
and save them that was lost, and preach the Gospel
to every creature."

He taught a small colored school week days and
preached in an old empty barn on Sundays.

Little Ned went to his school and wuz greatly at-
tached to him.

But when he wuz ordered to leave the State
within twenty-four hours, because " he wuz tryin'
to teach them brute cattle jest as if they wuz
humans" —

Bern' frightened and made sick by the violence
of his discharge and the stingin' arguments with
which they enforced their orders, Felix opened his
poor cabin-door and sheltered him ; then agin his
home wuz surrounded with a band of armed, masked
men, and they only managed to escape with their
lives, and Felix agin left all his poor little improve-
ments on his home behind him.

He and his family and the white teacher, bruised
but undaunted, got to the railroad by walkin'
almost all night, and so escaped out of their hands.

The young teacher married soon after a rich
Northern woman with kindred tastes to his own,
and they both betook themselves imegiatly after
their marriage to a part of the South a little less
ardent in hatred to the Freedmen's Bureau, where
they are doin' a good work still in teachin' a col-
ored school.

But the next time Felix made a start in life he
commenced it in a Northern city.

SAMAXTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. I43

There the best thing he could get in the way of a
home for his wife and child wuz a room way up on
the top of a crazy old tenement-house tenanted by
noisy, drunken, profane men and women.

For drunkenness, and brawls, and sickenin' hor-

FELIX AND THE TEACHER.

rors are not confined to Southern soil ; they are
also indigenous to the North.

And the gaunt wolves of Sin and Want howl to
the moon under the Northern skies as well as
Southern.

And stayin' there — not livin' — workin' hard as he
did through the day, and uninvitin' as his home

144 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

wuz after his labor wuz over, he could set down for
a few minutes with Hester, only to have their quiet
broken by drunken brawls, and oaths, and fights,
and all sounds and sights of woe and squalor.

In such circumstances as these the teachings and
importunate words of Victor about colonization fell
upon a willin' ear.

For the seeds that had laid in Victor's heart, wait-
in' only the warm sun to bring them to life, had
sprung up into full vigor and bloom under the influ-
ence of Genieve's prophetic words, and afterwards
by his own observation and study.

Victor come to believe with his whole soul and
heart that the future of his race depended upon their
leavin' this land and goin' fur away from all the
cursed influences that had fettered them so long here
and found a new home and country for themselves
— a New Republic.

And as Felix, with whom Victor had been in con-
stant correspondence, read these glowin' words and
arguments, they fell upon good ground.

Truly the soil in Felix' breast had been turned,
and ploughed, and made ready for the seed of lib-
erty to be planted and spring up.

All of the time while he wuz gettin' his education
so hardly, spendin' every hour he could possibly
spare from his work in endeavorin' to fit himself for
a future of freedom and usefulness — all this while he
had been told, been taught in sermons and religious
and secular literature, and read it in law books and
statutes, that merit wuz the only patent of nobility
in this country, that merit would win the prizes of
life.

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 145

To this end he had worked, had shaped his own
life to habits of honesty and industry ; he had sur-
rounded himself with all the safeguards possible to
keep him in the right path, chose for his intimate
friends young men who cherished the same lofty
ideals that he did.

He attended church constantly, became an ear-
nest Christian, had obtained an excellent education,
and then it wuz not strange that he should look
about him to try to behold the rewards that merit
wins. One illustration of this reward of merit we
have jest given — when he wuz elected Justice ot
the Peace.

That wuz a fair sample of the rewards of merit
offered to his race.

He wuz not alone in it ; no, he looked about him,
and he saw thousands and thousands of young col-
ored men who had studied jest as hard as he had —
they too had dreams of this great truth that had
been dinned in their ears so long — that Christian-
ity, education, and merit will win all the prizes of
life.

They studied, they worked hard, they pursued
lofty ideals, and when they left their schools they
wuz Christians, they wuz educated, they wuz meri-
torious. Their minds wuz bright and well equipped,
their tastes wuz refined, they wuz good.

Of what avail wuz it all, so Felix asked himself,
when they wuz pushed back to the wall by brazen
audacity and ignorance — and intolerance and igno-
rance and immorality, if encased in a white skin,
might snatch all the prizes out of their hands and
take their places in the front ranks of life.

146 SA MA NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

In many States in the South they could not get
the place of a policeman if it depended upon the in-
tegrity of the ballot.

What sort of an education, a finishing school, wuz
this for the young colored man of the South ? Wuz
such unblushin' fraud, and lies, and cheating and
heart-burnings, and sickenin' disappointments, and
deeds of violence, a wholesome atmosphere for
young people to learn morals in ?

Felix, as he looked about him and saw the thou-
sands and thousands and thousands of young men,
graduates of schools and members of churches, in
jest the same condition as he himself wuz — he might
be pardoned if he asked himself if the long horror of
the War had been in vain.

If Lincoln and Grant and all the other pure souls
had toiled and died in vain.

If the millions of dollars given by Northern philan-
thropy, and the noble lives of sacrifice in teachin'
and preachin', had been given in vain.

He might be pardoned if he said :

" Give these young colored people new doctrines
or new laws ; teach them less Christianity by book
and a little more practical religion and justice by
object lesson ; give these law-abiding, native-born
citizens of this Republic a tithe of the rights and
privileges enjoyed by the lowest criminal foreigner
newly landed on our shores, or else let this addition
be made to their creeds :

" * Merit has nothing to do in determining a man's
future life.'

M ' Injustice shall conquer in the end/

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 147

" 1 Fraud shall be victor over honest and Chris-
tian endeavor. '

" * The colored mans by reason of his dark com-
plexion, shall be forever deprived of all the blessings
and privileges of the Government he lisked his life
to save/

Put this into the creeds you teach the young col-
ored men and women, and they will at least respect
you for bein' sincere and truthful.

Felix felt all this, and more too — more than I
could set down if my pen wuz as long as from here
to the moon, and longer.

And feelin' as he did, is it any wonder that all his
mind and heart wuz sot on this skeme of Victor's,
and all his hopes and aims pinted towards a new
home, where he could take his wife and child and
be free ? where he felt that he could own them and
own a right to make a home for 'em — a home
where the American eagle, proud bird of Liberty,
could nevermore tear him with her talons, or claw
his trustin' eyes out with her sharp bill?

He felt this, but the eagle wuzn't to blame — it
wuz her keepers, if he had only known it. The
eagle wuz in a hard place. I felt real sorry for the
fowl, and have for a number of times. She has been
in many a tight place before now — places where it
wuz all she could do to squeeze out her wings and
shake 'em a mite.

Wall, Felix worked hard, and so did Hester, with
this end in view — to go fur away and be at rest.

Felix, after many efforts, got a place as workman
on a big buildin' that wuz bein' put up ; and Hester

148

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

got a place as fine washerwoman and laundress with
good wages.

They lived cheap as they could, and at the time
when I first hearn about 'em (from Genieve) they
had got about the amount saved that Victor thought
they would require.

Felix wanted at least four or five hundred dollars
to start with. You see, he and Victor could look
ahead, which is more than some of their mother's
race can do.

Felix knew he had got to have something to live
on for the first year after he got to the Promised
Land. He didn't mean to pin his faith onto any-
body or anything. He felt that his family's safety
and well-bein' depended on him, and he wuz bound
to labor with that end in view.

And Victor wuz workin' as hard as Felix ; work-
in' quietly and secretly as possible, deemin' that the
best way to avert danger from them and make suc-
cess possible.

He wuz workin' as a standard-bearer, a tryin' to
make his people hear his cry to move forward into
the Promised Land, into their own land, from
whence they had been torn with violence, but to
which they should return with knowledge and wis-
dom learned in the hard school of martyrdom and
slavery.

He knew that to preach this doctrine to all his
people would be like tryin' to stop the course of the
wind by a shout.

The old, the feeble, and those who wuz attached by
strong ties of love or gratitude to this Western land
— and Heaven knows there wuz many such who had

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 1 49

received such kind treatment from the dominant
race (if kindness is possible in slavery) that their
hearts wuz knit to the spot where their old masters
and mistresses wuz —

These people he did not seek to disturb with

" THE OLD, THE FEEBLE."

dreams of new homes in a freer land — love makes
labor light — they wuzn't unhappy.

And then there wuz many who had got peaceful
homes in settlements and cities who wuz contented
and doin' well — or, that is, what they thought well —
these Victor did not seek to change.

But for the young, the educated, the resolute, the

15° SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

ambitious he tried to influence their eager, active
minds with his own ideal of a New Republic.

Where his people, so long down-trodden, might
have a chance to become a great nation, with a future
glorious with a grandeur the colder white race
never dreamed of.

When Victor heard scoffin' prophecies of the
negro's incapacity to govern himself or others, he
thought of the example of that hero saint, Toussaint
L'Ouverture. How he, a pure negro, with no white
blood in his veins, carved out the freedom of his
race.

How, brave as a lion, this untaught man fought
aginst overwhelmin' odds, and won battles that the
best-trained soldier would almost have despaired
of ; surmounted difficulties and won victories that
would have proved well-nigh impossible to a Wash-
ington or a Napoleon. How, untaught in diplo-
macy, he reconciled conflictin' interests that would
have baffled our wisest statesmen.

Clement and merciful, for he always shrank from
causin' bloodshed till war or ruin wuz inevitable.

Generous, for when the storm burst his first
thought wuz to save his master's family.

Wise and prudent, he founded and ruled over a
peaceful and prosperous republic till he wuz be-
trayed to his ruin — not by the black race, but by the
cupidity, and treachery, and envy of the white race.

Perished by starvation in a dungeon for the sole
fault of bein' superior and nobler than the white
people who envied his success and sought his over-
throw,

Victor thought if one of his own race could do this

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 151

marvellous thing, amidst such warrin' and diverse
elements and opposin' races, what would it not be
possible for his people to do in a new and free coun-
try, in a state of peace and quiet, with only the in-
terests and advancement of this one race to look
after.

He dreamed in his hopeful visions of a fresh new
civilization springin' up anew in the soil that had
nurtured the first civilization.

For in the East, where the star had first shone
and travelled on to the West, then back agin to the
mystical wonder-laden East — thither did Victor's
rapt eyes follow it. And Genieve, too, how she
dreamed and longed for that new kingdom !

All through their dreary servitude, tortured and
wretched, it seemed as if God gave to the believers
amongst this people songs in the night, as if His spirit
breathed through the simple hymns they sung to
lighten the hours of bondage.

Some spirit, some inspiration seemed to breathe
through their songs that brought tears to eyes un-
used to weepin'.

The most cultured, the most refined found, in spite
of themselves, that they had wet cheeks and beatin'
hearts after listenin' to these simple strains.

It could not have been for their musical worth —
for they had little ; it could not have been for their
literary value — for they had none.

What could it have been in them that charmed
alike prince and peasant but the spirit of the Most
High, who come down to speak hope and cheer to
His too burdened and hopeless ones and lighten
their captivity ?

152 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Genieve thought that when this people, whom
God chose to honor in this way, and whom He had
led in such strange ways out of the jungles of igno-
rance in Africa, through the hard school of Ameri-
can slavery, out into liberty — she dreamed it was for
the express purpose of educating her race so they
might go back and redeem this dark land ; and then
she fancied that the Presence that had stayed with
them through the dark night of sorrow would in
the full day of their civilization shine out with a
marvellous light, and they would be peculiarly
under His care.

She dreamed that this child- like, warm-hearted
race would indeed " see God" as the colder and
more philosophical races could not.

So, as I begun to say — but what a hand to eppi-
sode I am, and what a digressor I be — and I believe
my soul it grows on me —

Wall, as I begun to say raore'n half an hour ago, if
it wuz a minute,

Col. Seybert thought he had another cause of
enmity aginst Victor, for he had strong proofs that it
wuz he who had helped release Hester from his
clutches.

And although it wuz kept secret as possible, yet
rumors had reached Col. Seybert of Victor's dreams
of the colonization of his race.

And to this Col. Seybert wuz opposed with all the
selfishness and haughty arrogance of his nature.
Why, who would work his big plantations if it wuz
not for the blacks ? And if this movement should suc-
ceed he knew it would draw off the best, and most
intelligent, and industrious element, and the ones

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 153

left in the South would charge double wages, so he
reasoned.

And as to Victor, he vowed to himself with a big

11 HIS OVERSEER."

round oath that he should not go. He should not
leave him.

Why, who would look after his interests as he
always had — who would keep his affairs from goin?

154 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

to ruin durin' his long sprees ? Where could be
found another servant with his absolute honesty,
and intelligence, and care for his interests ?

Why, as he thought of it, all the old slaveholdin*
instinct of compellin' his inferiors, the hereditary
impulse to rule or ruin rose in him, and his face
grew red with wrath, and he vowed agin, with a
still more sonorous oath, " That Victor should not
go," and he added, with a true slave-driver's em-
phasis, " not alive."

His overseer and kindred spirit, Nick Burley,
hated Victor; for, added to the hated knowledge
that Victor wuz his superior in every way, wuz the
belief that he had befriended Felix. At all events,
Victor and Felix wuz close friends always, and Bur-
ley hated Felix worse if possible than he did Victor.

But to Victor and Genieve all these shadows lay
fur away on the horizon almost unseen, and anyway
almost forgotten in the clear sunshine of their happi-
ness.

For true love will make sunshine everywhere.

M & LITTLE TUMBLE-DOWN COTTAGE."

CHAPTER VI.

BOUT half a mile from Belle Fanchon,
on the road that led to Eden Centre,
stood a little tumble-down cottage
where an old colored woman lived
with her granddaughter and grandson.
Cleopatra, shortened into Aunt Clo', wuz pic-
turesque-lookin' even in her rags. She wuz taller
by far than common wimmen, with a portly figure,
that did not show any marks of privation, although
it wuz difficult to tell what the family lived on, for
it wuz the exception instead of the rule to see any
one of 'em employed in any useful labor.

Once in a great while Aunt Clo' would go out for
a day's work washin' or cleanin' house, or any
other work she could perform.

At such times, although she professed to have
great " misery* ' in her back, her arms, her legs, and,
in fact, "all her bones/' yet she did a good day's
work, but with groanings scarcely to be uttered.

She always seemed serenely gracious in receivin'
anything that Maggie gave her, evidently consider-
in' it wuz only her due.

But although her day's works wuz exceedingly
unfrequent, and her granddaughter Rosy and the

iS6 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

boy Abe wuz hardly ever seen to perform any labor,
yet they showed no signs of starvation, certainly.

As a reason for this state of things the neighbors*
hen-roosts and corn-fields might have given evL
dence.

Rosy, the young granddaughter, wuz utterly
without morals of any savin* kind. She wuz rathei

CLEOPATRA.

pretty for a full-blooded African. A empty-headed,
gigglin', utterly depraved study in black.

Not one of the family could read or write, or
hardly tell the time of day. Two large dogs formed
part of their household, and they seemingly pos-
sessed more intelligence than either of the human
residents.

Rosy used often to come to Maggie's kitchen to
ask for things they wanted. For one peculiarity of

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 157

this family wuz that they seemed only serenely per-
formin' their duty when they begged for anything
they wanted.

One day, as she sot before me arrayed in cheap,
dirty finery, I said to her : ,

" Rosy, can you read or write ?"

" Xo, missy. "

" Wouldn't you like to learn to ?"
" I d'no, missy."

M There is a colored school only a little ways from
here, where a good many of your people are learp-
irT to be good scholars. Why don't you go to it?'

" I d'no, missy."

" If you will go I will give you the books yon
will want. Will you go if I will get them for you ?**
" Yes, missy."

A most unblushin' falsehood, as I learned after-
wards. For she sold the books as soon as I gave
them to her at the little store at the Corners, sold
them for a string of yellow glass beads and a cheap
cotton lace collar.

And when I taxed her with this, she denied it at
once.

And when I told her that I saw the books at the
store myself, she said she had lost the books on her
way to school, and the beads and collar had been
given her.

'Fore de Lawd dey had."

What could any one do with such ignorance, and
falsehood, and utter lack of principle ?

And as Maggie said, " The South is overrun with
just such characters as these."

Not all of them about there wuz so, she said, not

158 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM,

by any means ; some of them wuz earnest Chris-
tians, good scholars, good inhabitants.

But thousands and thousands of those who wuz
slaves, bred to "concealment and lies in self-defence,
taught all kinds of vice%by the system under which
they wuz born and nurtured, seem to have no sense
of what is right and what is wrong ; they will steal
with no compunction of conscience ; lie when the
truth would serve them better ; will only work
when compelled to, and are low and depraved every
way.

"What is to be done with them?" sez L And
Maggie said and I thought there wuz but one an-
swer to this, wherever they be, for movin' their
bodies round won't purify their souls to once nor
quicken their intellects imegiatly.

Give them the Bible, teach them, arouse them
from the dark sleep of sin and ignorance, learn them
to stand upright and then to walk.

Givin' such men the right to vote and control by
their greater numbers the educated race is as sim-
ple as it would be to set a baby that had never took
a step to runnin' a race for a prize with an athlete.

The baby has got to stand on its feet first, get a
little strength in its soft, unused muscles, then it has
got to learn to walk, then to run, and so on ; after
long patience and teachin', it can mebby win its race
by runnin' and leapin' ; but not at first, not before
it can creep.

Why, for a time after I first went South things
looked so new and strange to me, and mv daughter
Maggie wuz so firm in her belief, that I seemed to
think jest as she did, and we would talk for hours

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

159

and hours, and agree jest as well as two human
creeters could agree. And I guess I even outdone
her in drawin' metafors, and drawin' 'em to great
distances, as my way is.

For I am always one to speak out and tell how
things look to me to-day ; if they look different to-
morrow under the light of some different knowl-
edge, why, then I'll speak out agin and tell that
when the time comes.

And some of these beliefs Maggie and I pro-
mulgated to each other, I believe now jest as strong
as I did then, and some of my idees got sort o' modi-
fied down in the course of time. Of this more and
anon.

But then Maggie would talk to me, and I'd sav to
Maggie :

Why, lettin' such ignorant and onexperienced
men rule the country, rule free, educated, cultured
men and wimmen, is as foolish as it would be to put a
blind man onto a wild, onbroke horse, and tell him
to guide it safe when it wuz led right along by pits,
and canyons, and kasems, and helpless ones and
infants are layin' right in its path, and lots of mean,
ugly creeters ready to ketch holt of the bits and
back him off out of their way.

Why, that blind man couldn't do it. Why ? be-
cause he hain't got any eyes, that is why.

He don't know which line to pull on, for he
hain't got no eyes to see which way the danger lavs,
nor which side on him folks are a layin' in his track.

He hain't to blame, that blind man hain't, nor
the horse hain't to blame, nor the helpless ones he is
a tromplin' over and a stompin' and a kickin'.

l6o SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

" Who is to blame ?" Why, the ones that lifted
him onto the horse.

Wall, say some, the blind man wuz lifted onto the
horse in the first place to get him out of danger ; he
wuz jest on the pint of sinkin' down into the deep
mud and quicksand ; he wuz lifted onto the horse as
a war measure, a way of safety to him out of his
danger.

Wall, I sez, that wuz all right ; I presume
they thought the horse could bear him out safely
amongst the pitfalls a layin' on every side of him,
and I dare presume to say they didn't realize that
the man wuz so blind, or that so many wuz goin' to
be trompled on by the heels of the horse.

But now, I say, they have gin it a fair trial,
they see it didn't work ; they see that a blind man
can't ride a wild horse over a dangerous road with
safet}7 to himself, or the horse, or the helpless ones
in his way.

" Wall, what will you do ?" you say.

Wall, Maggie spozed the case, and I did ; we
said, spozin' the ones that lifted that blind man up
onto the horse should take him off on it a spell as easy
as they could, so's not to hurt his feelin's, and then
go to doctorin' the man's eyes, to try to get him so
he can see ; hold the horse for him till he can see ;
curb the horse down so it will go smoother some ;
encourage the man by tellin' hirn the truth that you
are a keepin' the horse for him, and he is a goin' to
get up onto him a^in and ride him as soon as he can
see, and the sooner he gets his eyesight the sooner
he can ride.

Give him the sure cure for his blindness, and then

ROSY.

1 62 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

if he won't lay holt and cure himself, let him go
afoot as long as the world stands.

Give the black man and the poor whites plenty of
means for study and self-improvement. Give them
the Bible and good schools, plenty of religious and
seckular teachers, and I believe they will improve,
will become safe guides to foller and to guide them*
selves, whether in this land or in another, wherever
their future may lay.

Sez Thomas Jefferson : " The same rule would
work well to the North as well as the South."

" Heaven knows it would," sez I. It hain't be-
comin' in us to cast motes and forget beams.
Heaven knows that our criminals, and paupers, and
drunkards, and the foreign convicts and jail-birds
landed on our shores are not safe gardeens to trust
our life and liberties to.

This mass of ignorance and vice, native and for
eign, that swarms to the polls, bought for a measure
of whiskey, ought to be dealt with in the same way

Men who can't read the names on the ballots can'
see deep enough into the urena of political life to be
safe guides to foller, to be safe gardeens to the help
less wimmen and children committed to their care.

Liberty is too priceless a jewel to be committed
into such vile hands, such weak hands, hands that
would and do barter it away to the highest bidder.

Liberty and Freedom sold for a glass of beer
The right of suffrage, the patent of our American
nobility, to be squandered and degraded for a pipe
ful of tobacco. The idee !

And kneelin' in churches, sez I, and settin' apart
in their own homes are royal souls, grand, educated

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 163

lovers of their country and their kind, who would
for duty's sake reach out one hand to take the bal-
lot, and cling with the other to the cross of the
Crucified.

Them who have agonized over the woes and
wrongs of the world, and tried with anointed vision
to find out the true wisdom of life and right livin' —
have spent their whole noble lives for the good of
poor humanity —

Thev must kneel on in silence, and stay in seclu-
sion, and see the freedom of their children and the
children of humanity bought and sold, and sunk in
the dirt, and trailed in the mire by them who have
never given a thought to righteousness and right
livin'.

The black man would never have been freed from
his chains of bondage had not a necessity arisen.
God's great opportunity comes on down the ages ;
let us be ready for it. He sees wrongs, and woes,
and incomparable sufferings plead to Him for re-
dress.

The heavens are very still. The pray in' ones
hear no reply to their tears, their lamentations, their
despairin' cries.

The heavens are very calm, and blue, and fur
awav.

But at last man's necessity, God's great oppor-
tunity comes ; the oppressors are driven into some
corner by their own deeds, till the only way for them
to get out in safety is to answer the prayers of cen-
turies and let the oppressed go free.

Man's necessity has come ; they endure plague
after plague, and depend on their own strength and

164 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

keep up their own proud wills, and harden their
hearts, and refuse to answer the pleadings of justice.

But bimeby the plagues increase, their troubles
grow greater and greater, they encompass them
about, there is no way out only to liberate the
great throng that stands between them and safety.
And bimeby, when there is a dead one in every
house, and weepin' is on every side, and the mourn-
ers go about the street, and the mountains are be-
hind, and the sea in front, and there is no way out
only to liberate the oppressed, why, then there is a
" military necessity/'

God's opportunity has come. Rather than perish
themselves they will let justice be done, let the op-
pressed go free.

Now, here is another Egypt. A long-oppressed,
ignorant race is set up too sudden as a ruler over an
educated, intelligent, intolerant one, for in many
places the white race is in the minority.

But it will not yield to the misrule of ignorance.

The white people are bitter, arrogant, and op-
pressive under their new conditions.

The blacks, nursin' their old and new wrongs,
are burnin' for vengeance on their oppressors.
They will not suffer much longer and be still

A great struggle is impendin'. I spoze the Nation
thinks— and it is naterel for anybody to think — that
the black vote cannot be put down legally sence the
right of suffrage wuz gin 'em. They think it
couldn't be taken from them for a long time without
a war followin' ; they think they would fight their
way to the poles, and it would seem naterel that
they should, sez I, and so sez Maggie.

SAM AX TH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. I 65

11 Then what can be done ?" sez Maggie ; and then
wuz the time that I sez, and I felt real riz up when
I sez it :

There is one thing that might be tried — give the
ballot to the white women of the South, and to
the black women too, if they can come up to the
standpoint of intelligence. Let a certain amount of
education and intelligence be the qualification to
the ballot.

This is your peaceful passin' through the Red Sea
of the present. The waves may stand up pretty
high on each side ; loud talk, and fears for womanly
modesty, fears for man's supremacy, fears for the
dignity of the ballot will blow up pretty high waves
on both sides.

But, sez I solemnly, if the Lord is the Leader,
if He stands in front of the army, and it is His hand
that beckons us forward, and He who passes over in
front of the army, we shall pass through in safety, and
the nation will be saved.

The supremacy will remain in the hands of the
educated men and women of the South till the illit-
erates become safe leaders to themselves and others
by education and the civilizing influences of the
Bible and good teachers.

The supremacy would be taken out of the whis-
key bathed hands of the loafer rabble in Northern
cities, and remain in the safer hands of educated
men and women, till the lower classes rise up
by the same safe means of education and en-
lightenment, when they too will become safe leaders
and teachers of the best. And I sez, How will
this Nation find any safer means, any fairer way ?

1 66 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

It offers safety to the imperilled present, it offers
a hope, an incentive for the strugglin' future.

The poorest boy> and the poorest girl would have
this hope, this incentive to learn— for the royal road
is free for all, beggar or child of wealth. The path
opens right up from the alley to the President's
chair, from the tenement to the Capitol, jest as sure
as from the mansion house or the university.

It is safe another way, so it seems to me, because
it is right and just.

Justice may seem to lead through strange ways
sometimes — thorny roads, steep and rugged mounts,
and deep, dark wildernesses, while the path of ex-
pedience and pleasant selfishness may seem to open
up a flowery way.

But every time, every single time, Justice is the
safe one to foller. And it is she who will lead you
out into a safe place, while the rosy clouds that hang
over the path of selfish expedience will anon, or
even sooner, turn black, and lower down, and close
up the way in darkness and despair.

This seems to me a safe way for the imperilled
South while it is passin' through this crisis, and the
light shines jest as fair and fresh in the newer day
that gleams in the distance. It is shinin' in the eyes
of them that see fur off, fair and beautiful, the New
Republic, where there are equal rights, educated
suffrage, co-operative labor. Oh ! blessed land be-
yend the swellin' waves of the unquiet Present !

Genieve sees it plain, and so duz Victor. And
thousands and thousands of the educated and mor-
ally riz up of the colored race see it to-day, and are
a strivin towards it.

"he wuz glad to set down/'

CHAPTER VII.

ONE mornin' I sot off for a walk^ bein'
set so much of the time, and used as I
wuz to bein' on my feet.
I told Josiah I believed I'd lose
the use of my lims if I didn't walk

round some.

" Wall," he said, " for his part, he wuz glad to
set down, and set there."

That man has always sot more or less. He hain't
never worked the hours that I have, but I wouldn't
want him told that I said it. Good land ! it would only
agrevate him ; he wouldn't give in that it wuz so.

But anyway, as I say, I sot out most imegiatly
after breakfast. I left Maggie pretty as a pink, a
takin' care of the children with Genieve's help.
And my Josiah a setting jest a settin' down, and
nothin' else.

But I didn't care if he growed to the chair, I felt

1 68 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

that I must use my lims, must walk off somewhere
and move round, and I had it in my mind where I
wuz a goin\

I knew there wuz a little settlement of colored
folks not fur from Belle Fanchon by the name of
Eden Centre. Good land, what a name !

But I spoze that they wuz so tickled after the War,
when they spozed they wuz free, and had got hud-
dled down in a little settlement of their own, that
they thought it would be a good deal like Paradise
to 'em. So they named it Eden Centre.

As if to say, this hain't the outskirts and suburbs
of Paradise — not at all. It is the very centre of
felicity, the very heart of the garden of happiness,
Eden Centre.

Wall, I thought I'd set out and walk that way.

So I wended my way onwards at a pretty good
jog with my faithf ul umberell spread abroad over my
head to keep the too ardent rays of the sun away
from my foretop and my new bunnet.

Part of the way the road led through a thicket of
fragrant pines, and anon, or oftener, would come out
into a clearin' where there would be a house a stand-
in' back in the midst of some cultivated fields, and
anon I would see a orange grove, more or less pros-
perous-lookin'.

Jest a little way out of Eden Centre I come to the
remains of a large buildin' burned down, so nothin'
but some shapeless ruins and one tall black chimbly
remained, dumbly pintin' upwards towards the sky ;
and owin' to a bend in it, it wuz shaped some like a
big black interrogation mark, a risin' upwards aginst
the background of the clear blue sky.

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 169

It looked curius.

And jest as I wuz a standin' still in my tracks, a
ponderin' over the meanin' of it, and a leanin' on the
rough fence that run along by the roadside, a old
darkey come along with a mule hitched onto a rickety
buggy with a rope. And 1 akosted him, and asked
him what wuz the meanin' of that big black chimbly
a standin' up in that curius way.

He seemed awful ready to stop and talk. It wuz
the hot weather, I spoze. And the mule had called
for sights of labor to get him along, I could see that
— and he sez :

" De Cadimy used to stand dar. "

Sez I, " The school-house for the colored people ?"

" Yes," sez he.

" How did it come to be burned down ?" sez I.
" De white folks buhnt it down," sez he calmly.
" What for?" sez I.

" 'Cause dey didn't want it dere," sez he. " Dat'&
what I spoze wuz de influential reason."

And then he went on and told me the hull story,
and mebby I'd better tell it a little faster than he
did. It took place some years before, but he had
lived right there in Eden Centre, and wuz knowin'
to the hull thing.

A white minister had come down from the North,
a man who had some property, and wuz a good
man, and seem' the grievous need of schools for
the black man, had used his own money to build the
academy.

He tried to get land for the school nearer the city,,
where more could be helped by it, but nobody would
sell land for such a purpose.

170 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Finally, he come here, and on this poor tract of
land that the negroes owned he put up his buildings.

It took about all the money he had to build the
house and get the school started.

He had jest got it started, and had fifty pupils —
grown people and children of the freedmen — when
some ruffians come one stormy night and set it on
fire.

The white prejudice wuz so strong aginst havm'
the colored race taught, that they burned down the
buildings, destroyed all the property that that good
man had spent there.

It wuz on a cold, stormy night. His wife wuz ill
in bed when the fire broke out ; the fright and ex-
posure of that night killed her.

Not a white man dast open his door to take the
family in, though the white Baptist preacher at
Wyandotte, when he hearn on it, he jest riz right
up in his pulpit the next Sunday night, mad with a
holy wrath at what had been done in their midst.

He riz right up and told his flock right to their
faces what he thought of such doin's.

They said he stood there with his handsome head
th rowed back, and sez he, brave as a lion (and fur
better-lookin'), sez he :

" Such outrages are a shame to humanity. Men
wrar against principles and issues, not against helpless
women and children and sez he, " If they had fled
to me for safety, I would have opened my doors and
taken them in. "

Oh, how they glared at him, and how the threat-
enin', scowlin' faces seemed to close round him, and
his wife's heart almost stopped beatin' ; she could

SAM AX TH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 171

fairly hear the report of the pistol-shot and feel the
sharp knife of the assassin.

When all to once his little girl, only three years
old, who had come to church that night, she see the
black looks and heard the muttered threats aginst her
papa. And she slipped down unnoticed and come
up to him, and pressed up close aginst him, and tried
to creep up into his arms as if she wanted to protect
him, the pretty creeter.

He sez, " Hush, darling, you mustn't come to
papa."

But she wouldn't go ; she made him take her up
in his arms, and from that safe refuge she shook her
tiny fist at the crowd, and cries out :

" You just let my papa be ; you shan't hurt my
good papa."

Wall, the tears je^t run down that preacher's face,
he wuz that wrought up with divine fervor and prin-
ciples before, and this capped the sheef.

Wall, they jest about worshipped that child, the
hull flock did, and they loved their minister and his
wife ; and men love bravery and admire courage,
and they felt the power and pathos of the scene, and
the tears stood in many a eye that had flashed with
threatenin' anger only a minute before.

And so that storm lulled away and died down.

(I have been leadin' this horse behind the wagon,
as it were.) Maggie told me this little incident
afterwards (and now to hitch my horses agin wThere
they belong, side by side, and in front of the mule)
(metafor).

After the buildings wuz destroyed and the threats
aginst them so awful and skairful, this poor man and

* 7 2 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

his sick wife and child jest run for their lives ; no
body dast to take 'em in ; they went from place to
place, only to be driven away, in the peltin' storm

THE OLD NEGRO.

too, till at last they found a poor refuge in a black
man's cabin, where the baby died the next day.
But so bitter wuz the feelin' aginst these teachers
that this black man who took them in wuz found

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 173

lyin' dead a few days after with a bullet through his
heart.

Finally, they succeeded in gettin' to the cars and
gettin' back North, where the wife died within a
week's time.

And the sorrow over this loss, the exposure and
agitation of that time, and the failure of his life plans
jest killed that good man too. He died broken-
hearted within a year.

All they had meant, all they had wanted wuz to
carry out the Saviour's principle, " Carry the Gos*
pel to every creature."

Then why didn't they have a chance to do it ? I
couldn't tell, nor Josiah couldn't, nor nobody. No
wonder the tall black chimbly stood there a pintin*
up into the heavens like a great interrogation mark,
a askin' this solemn and unanswered conundrum :

" Why evil is allowed to flourish and the good to
be overthrown ?"

Yes. it wuz a conundrum that I couldn't get the
right answer to ; but I thought more'n probable the
Lord could answer it, and would in His own good
time.

And as I looked at it I thought mebby that onbe-
known to me, or Josiah, or anybody, that tall black
ruin was doin' a silent work in the hearts of Victor
and Felix and many other of the young, intelligent,
and resolute amongst this dark race.

Felix livin', as he had, under the very shadder of
it, so to speak, who could tell what influence it had
in carvin' this wrong down on the livin' tablet of his
heart, so it might be answered in all the work he
might do in the future amongst his people ?

174 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

And Victor, how often had his sad eyes rested on
it, who knew how such an object lesson wuz strikin'
deep truths in his great heart. Bible truths such as —

" A house divided against itself cannot stand."

And how it stood up black before him a askin*
him this everlastin' and momentous question :

** How long his people could endure such .cruel
wrong and outrage ?"

And mebby sometimes, as the moon shone bright
on it, it loomed up in front of him some like a pillar,
and he heard a voice fallin' out of the clear illu-
mined sky :

" I have seen, I have seen the afflictions of my
people which are in Egypt ; and lo, I am come to
deliver them." " Get thee out of this land !" " Lo,
I will send thee."

But I am a eppisodin', and to resoom.

I have only put down the heads of the old darkey's
remarks, jest the bald heads — he flowered off the sub-
ject with various metafors and many big words, not
always in the right place, nor pronounced as the
world's people pronounce them, but with deep ear-
nestness.

And then I asked him about Eden Centre and how
affairs had gone there.

And he told me with more flourishes and elocution
all the hard trials they had gone through, with perils
from foes and perils from false friends, from igno-
rance, from avarice, and etc., etc., etc.

It wuz deeply interestin' to me and to him too,
but finally he glanced up at the sun, and straightened
up in the buggy-seat, and told the old mule and me
at the same time

SAM AX TH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 175

" That they must hurry or they would be too late
for the funeral."

And I asked him where the funeral wuz to be, and
he stood up in the rickety buggy and pinted with
his whip to a little cluster of houses only a short dis-
tance away.

And I made up my mind then and there that I
would jest go acrost lots and attend to that funeral
myself.

So I made my way through a broken place in the
fence and sot out for the funeral.

I got there after a short walk through the ruther
sandy path, though some flower-besprinkled. 1
knew which wuz the mournin* cabin by the mules
and old horses hitched along the fence in front of it.

I went in and obtained a seat near the door. It
seemed that it wuz the funeral of a young man taken
sick at the place where he worked and come home
to die. He had been waiter in a hotel at Wyan-
dotte. The mournin' was evidently sincere ; cer-
tainly it wuz loud and powerful.

The minister seemed to want to administer con-
solation to the mournin' group ; his text wuz choze
with distinct reference to it, and his words wuz
meant to cheer. But he got his metafors mixed up
and his consolation twisted.

But mebby they took it all straight and right, and
if they did it wuz all the same to them.

His text wuz choze from the story of the child's
death in the Old Testament, and the words wuz
these :

" We shall go to him, but he shall not return
to us."

176 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

The minister wuz a short, thickset negro, with a
high standing collar, seemin' to prop up his head,
and a benevolent look in his eyes and his good-
natured mouth.

" GAWGE PERKINS AM DAID.

He axed his eyes upon the congregation after he
had repeated the text, and sez :

" Gawge Perkins am daid ; he wuz a waitah at
Wyandotte, an' of cose he died."

It seemed that to him this wuz a clear case of
cause and effect, which he did' not explain to his
audience.

" Of cose he died. Now, dar am in dis audnance
many no doubt dat tink dey have got riches, an'
honoh, an' fame ; but Gawge Perkins am daid, an'
you have to go and see Gawge Perkins.

SAM A NTH A OY THE RACE PROBLEM, I 77

44 An* you may tink you are gay, an* happy, an' in
high sperits ; but dis fac' remains, an' you can't get
round dis fac', Gawge Perkins am daid, an' you
have got to go and see Gawge Perkins.

" But dar am one consolation, Gawge Perkins
can't come back to us."

Durin' the sermon he spoke of the last day and
the sureness of its comin', and the impossibility of
tellin' when it would come.

Why, ' ' sez he, ' ' it hain' t known on earth, nor in
heaven ; de angels am not awaih of de time ; why,
Michael Angelo himself don't know it."

But through the whole sermon he dwelt on this
great truth — that they must all go to see George Per-
kins, and, crowning consolation, George Perkins
could not come back to them !

The mourners seemed edified and instructed by
his talk, so I spoze there wuz some subtle good and
power in it that mebby I wuzn't good enough to
see.

And I have felt jest so many a time when I have
heard a white preacher hold forth for two hours at
a Jonesville funeral till my limbs wuz paralyzed and
my brain reeled ; and the mourners had added to
their other affliction, almost the num palsy. Their
legs would go to sleep anyway, and so forget their
troubles (the legs).

As the colored graveyard wuz only a little ways
from the cabin, I followed the mourners at a short
distance, and saw George Perkins laid in the ground
to take his long sleep, with tears and honest grief to
hallow the spot.

What more, sez I to myself, could an emperor

178 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

want, or a zar ? A quiet spot to rest in, and a
place in the hearts left behind.

After the funeral crowd had dispersed I sot down
under a pine-tree with spreading branches, and
thought I would rest awhile.

And even as I sot there another funeral wended
its way into the old yard, which did not surprise me
so much, nor would it any deep philosopher of
human nater. For we well know when things get
to happenm' they will keep right on.

Human events go by waves, as it wuz — suicides,
joys, broken dishes, griefs, visitors, etc., etc. So I
sot there a moralizin' some on the queerness of this
world, as I see the rough coffin a bein' lowered into
the ground.

But one thing struck me as being singular — there
wuz no mourners to be seen.

After a while I got up and asked a cheerful-lookin'
negro " where the mourners wuz ?"

" Wall, misses," sez he, " I spoze I am about as
much of a mourner as there is."

He looked anything but mournful, but he went on :

44 I married dis ole man's stepdaughter, an' con-
sequentially she died. An* den dis ole man got a
kick from a mule, an' laid he flat on his back ; den he
got his head stove in with a chimbly fallin' on it ;
den de airysipples sot in, an* de rheumaticks, an*
nurality, an* foh years desese has jes' fed on him,
an' de ultamatim of it wuz he died. An' I spoze I
am jes' about as much of a mourner heah as you'll
find."

And sayin' this, the radiant-faced mourner turned
away and joined some fcbicb

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 179

As I turned back I met the colored preacher and
his wife, who wuz evidently takin' a short road
home acrost the graveyard.

She wuz a good-lookin' mulatto woman, and I

ONE OF THE MOURNERS.

passed the time of day with her by savin', " How do
you do ?" and etc.

And bein' one that is always on the search for
information, I fell into talk with her and her hus-

itc SA MA NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

band, and likin* their looks, I finally asked him what
his name wuz.

And he said, " My name is Mary Johnson."

Sez I, " You mean your wife's name is Mary."

" No," sez he, " my name is Mary."

And then he went on and told me that he wuz the
youngest of twelve boys, and his father wuz so mad
at his havin' been a boy that he named him, jest in
spite, Mary.

Wall, we had quite a good visit there, but short.

He told me he had been a slave in his young days.

And I asked him if his master had abused him,
and he told me, and evidently believed every word
he said, that his master wuz the best man this side
of heaven.

And sez he, " Freedom or not, I never would
have left him, never. If he had lived/' sez he,
" I would have worked for him till I dropped
down." And then he went on and related instances
of his master's kindness and good-hearted gener-
osity, that made me stronger than ever in the belief
I had always had, that there are good men and bad
men everywhere and under all skies.

And he told me about how, after his master died,
and the grand old plantation broken up, the splen-
did mansion spoiled by the contendin' hosts, and
everything dear and sacred scattered to the winds —
how his young master, the only one left of the happy
family, had gone up North and wuz a doctor there.

Buryin* in his heart the scenes of his old happy
life, and the overthrow of all his ambitious dreams,
he wuz patiently workin' on to make a home and a
livelihood fur from all he had loved and lost.

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 181

I declare for 't, I most cried to hear him go on,
and his wife joinin' in now and then ; they told the
truth, and are Christians, both on 'em, I hain't a
doubt.

Finally, we launched off on other subjects — on re-
ligion, etc. — and at the last he made a remark that
gin me sunthin' to think on all my way home to
Belle Fanchon.

For I give up goin' to Eden Centre that day.
Good land ! I had talked too much — I am afraid it is
a weakness with me — anyway, there wuzn't any time.

We wuz a talkin' on religion, and faith, and the
power of prayer, etc., and he sez :

" I enjoy religion, but I have got too much con-
fidence in God."

Sez I, " You mean you lack confidence in
God."

" Yes, that is it, I lack confidence in God, for I
find that when I pray to Him for anything, if I don't
get an answer to it to once I make other arraing-
ments. "

And I thought as I wended my way home, " Oh,
io\v much, how much is Samantha and the hull
human race like Mary Johnson ; we besiege the
throne of grace for some boon heart longed for and
dear, and if the Lord does not answer at once our
impassioned pleadin's, we make other arraingments.

But I am a eppisodin'.

When I got back from my walk I went into the
kitchen to get some cool water to put some posies in
I had picked by the way, and there sot old Aunt
Clo', and most imegiatly after my entrance she an-
nounced to rae that Rosy, her granddaughter, had

182 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

got a little boy, and that Dan, Maggie's colored
coachman, wuz the father of it.

Aunt Clo' did not seem to be excited in any way
about it ; she simply told it as a bit of news, rather
onpleasant than otherwise, as it necessitated more
work on her part.

As for the immorality, the wrong-doing connected
with it, she showed no signs of feelin'.

But Maggie wuz aroused ; there wuz a pink spot
on both cheeks when I told her about it.

She wuz settin' in her pretty room, and near her
lay Boy asleep on some cushions on the sofa. She
wuz readin' a love letter from Thomas Jefferson, for
he wuz away for a few days, and his letters to her
wuz always love letters.

There she sot in her safe and happy love-guarded
home, by the side of Boy, whom she held clost in
her heart because he wuz the image of her lover hus-
band, Thomas J. Allen.

There she sot in her pretty white dress, with her
pure, happy face — the flower, so I told myself as I
looked at her, of long years of culture and refine-
ment, and I couldn't help comparin' her in my mind
with the ignorant and onthinkin' soul that another
boy had been give to.

But I told Maggie, for I thought I had ought to,
and her eyes grew darker, and a red spot shone on
both cheeks ; and sez she the first thing :

" Dan must marry her at once/'

Sez I, " Mebby he won't."

" Why, he must," sez Maggie ; V it is right that
he should ; I shall make him."

" Wall," sez I, " you must do what you think is

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM 1 83

right. I am fairly dumbfounded, and don't know
what to do/' sez L

Maggie got up sort o' quick and rung the bell,
and asked to have Dan sent up to her room.

And pretty soon he come in, a tall, hulkin' chap,
good-natered but utterly irresponsible, so he seemed
to me, black as a coal.

And Maggie laid his sins down before him as soft
as she could and still be just, and ended by tellin*
him that he must marry Rosy.

This seemed to astound him that she should ask
it ; he looked injured and aggrieved.

But Maggie pressed the point. He stood twirlin'
his old cap in his hand in silence.

He did not deny his guilt at all, but he wuz sur-
prised at the punishment she meted out to him.

Final]}' he spoke. " I tell you what, Miss Mar-
garet, it is mighty hard on a fellah if you make a
fellah marry everybody he pays attentions to."

He looked the picture of aggrieved innocence in
black.

But Maggie persisted. She told him he could
move into a little buildin' standin' on the grounds ;
and as he was fairly faithful and hard-workin', Mag-
gie thought he would get a good livin' for his wife
and son.

"And you will love your child," sez Maggie,
lookin' down into Boy's sleepin' face.

Finally, after long arguments and persuasions on
Maggie's part, Dan promised to marry Rosy.

And to do him justice he did marry her in a
week's time, and they moved into a little thatched
cabin at the bottom of the grounds.

184 SA M A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM,

Dan wuz good-natered, as I said, and a good
coachman and gardener when he chose to work ;
and Maggie and I took solid happiness in fittin' up
the little rooms so they looked quite pleasant and
homelike.

Rosy, as her little baby grew and thrived, mani-
fested a degree of love for it that wuz surprisin'
when one took into consideration the utter barren-
ness and poverty of the soil in which the sweet plant
of affection grew.

And it actually seemed as if the love she had for
the child awakened a soul in her. Frivolous and
empty-headed enough she wuz to be sure, but still
there wuz an improvement in her datin' from the
hour when her baby first became a delight to her.

Dan too grew more settled in his behavior. His
drinkin' spells, which he had always had periodi-
cally, grew further and further apart, and with the
dignity of a father and householder added to him, it
seemed to add cubits to his moral stature.

Ignorant enough, and careless and onthinkin'
enough, Heaven knows, but still there wuz a change
for the better.

Little Snow, sweet angel that she wuz, never tired
of flittin' down the pleasant path bordered with
glossy-leaved oleanders and magnolias, to the little
whitewashed cottage, to carry dainties to Rosy sent
by Maggie, and to baby Dan ' when he got large
enough to comprehend her kindness.

And it wuz a pretty sight to see Snow's rose-sweet
face and golden curls nestlin' down by baby Dan's
little ebony countenance.

YOU CAN REPAIR YOUR DWELLIN HOUSE.

CHAPTER VIII.

OW true it is that though you may
move the body round from place to
place, you can't move round or move
away from the emotions of the soul
that are firm and stabled.
You can change your climate, you can repair your
dwellin' house, you can fill your teeth and color
your hair, but you can't make a ardent, enthusiastic
man into a sedate and stiddy one, or chain down a
ambitious one and make him forget his goles.

Now, Josiah Allen had been happy as a king ever
sence he had come South to our son's beautiful home.

He had seemed to enjoy the change of scene, the
balmy climate, and the freedom from care and labor.

But that very freedom from toil, that very on-
broken repose wuz what give him and me a sore
trial, as you can see by the incident I will tell and
recapitulate to you.

1 86 S4MA IVTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

You see, Josiah Allen, not havin' any of his usual
work to do, and not bein' any hand to sew on fine
sewin', or knit tattin', or embroider tidies and
splashers, etc., he read a sight — read from mornin'
till night almost.

And with his ardent, enthusiastic nater he got
led off " by many windy doctrines, " as the text
reads.

He would be rampant as rampant could be on first
one thing and then another — on the tariff, the silver
bill, and silo's, and air ships, etc., etc.

And he would air all his new doctrines onto me
jest as a doctor would try all his new medicines on
his wife to see if they wuz dangerous or not. Wall
I spoze it wuz right, bein' the pardner who took
him for worse as well as better.

And for family reasons I ever preferred that he
should ventilate his views in my indulgent ear be
fore he let 'em loose onto society.

And one mornin', havin* read late the night be
fore and bein' asleep when I come to bed, he begun
promulgatin' a new idee to me as he stood by the
washstand a washin' him in the early mornin' sun
shine.

He wuz full of enthusiasm and eagerness, and did
not brook anything of the beautiful mornin' scene
that wuz spread out in the open winder before him.

The cool, sweet mornin' air- a comin' in through
the clusters of climbin' roses, and through the tall
boughs of a big old orange-tree that stood between
him and the sunshine.

Its glossy green leaves wuz new washed by a
shower that had fell oyer night, and it looked like a

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 187

bride decked for her husband, with garlands of white
and pink posies, and anon the round, shinin' globes
of the ripe fruit hangin' like apples of gold right in
amongst the sweet blows and green leaves.

And way beyend the fields and orchards of Belle
Fanchon stood the tree-crowned mountain, and the
sun wuz jest over the top, so the pine-trees stood
out dressed in livin' green aginst the glowin' sky.

It wuz a fair seen, a fair seen.

But my companion heeded it not. He had read
some eloquent and powerful speech the evenin' be-
fore, and his mind had started off on a new tact.

His ambition was rousted up agin to do and to
dare, as it had been so many times before (see ac-
counts of summer boarders, tenants, political honors,
etc., etc., etc., etc., and so forth).

And sez he, a holdin' the towel dreamily in his
hands, " Samantha, my mind is made up.,,

I had not roze up yet, and I sez calmly from my
piller, where I lay a drinkin' in the fair mornin'
scene :

" It wuzn't a very hefty job, wuz it ?" .

Sez he, with about as much agin dignity as he had
used before :

" You can comment on the size of my mind all
you want to, but you will probable think different
about the heft of it before I get through with the
skeme I am jest about to embark on. "

And he waved the towel some like a banner and
wiped his whiskers out in a aggressive way, and
stood up his few hairs over his foretop in a sort of a
helmet way, and I see by his axent and demeanors
that he really wuz in earnest about sunthin' or

1 38 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

other, and I beset him to tell me what it wuz. For
I am deathly afraid of his plans, and have been for
some time.

But he wouldn't tell me for quite a spell. But at
last as he opened the chamber-door for a minute,
and the grateful odor of the rich coffee and the ten-
der, brown steak come up from below, and wuz
wafted into his brain and gently stimulated it, he
sort o' melted down and told me all about it.

He wanted to jine the Pan American Congress as
a delegate and a worker.

Sez he, " Samantha, I want to go and be a Pan
American. I want to like a dog."

' ' What for?" sez 1. "What do you want to
embark into this enterprise for, Josiah Allen ?"

" Wall," sez he, " I will tell you what for. I want
to enter into this project because I am fitted for it,"
sez he, " I have got the intellect for it, and I have
got the pans."

Wall, I see there wuz some truth in this latter
statement. For the spring before, nuthin' to do but
Josiah had to go and get pans instead of pails to use
in a new strip of sugar bush we had bought on.

I wanted him not to, but he wouldn't give in.
And of course they wuz so onhandy he couldn't use
'em much of any, and there we wuz left with our
pans on our hands — immense ones, fourteen-quart
pans. The idee !

Wall, the pans wuzn't of any earthly use to us,
only I could make a few on 'em come handy about
the house, and I had give a few on 'em to the girls,
Tirzah Ann and Maggie.

And then they wuz packed away up on the store-

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 189

«-oom shelves — most seven dozen of 'em ; and truly,
take them with our dairy pans, why I do spoze we had
more pans than anybody for miles round either way.

Wall, he wuz jest bound to go ; he said he felt a
call. Sez he, " There is things a goin' on there
amongst them Pan Americans that ought to be broke
up ; and," sez he, " they need a firm, noble, manly

190 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM,

mind to grapple with 'em. Most the hull talk of all
of 'em that come from different countries is about
our pleasant relations with one another ; and they
own up that their chief aim is to draw our relations
closter together. Samantha, that has got to be
stopped."

And he went on with a look of stern determina-
tion onto his eyebrow that it seldom wore.

" No man begun life with a firmer determination
than I did to do well by the relations on your side,
and as for the relations on my own side, I laid out
to jest pamper 'em if I had the chance ; but," sez
he, as a gloomy shadder settled down onto his
countenance, " enuff is enuff. I have had Lodema
Trumble fourteen weeks at one hitch ; I have had
Cousin Peter on my side, and Cousin Melinda Ann
on yours, and aunts of all sorts and sizes, and have
been grandsoned till 1 am sick on't, and uncled till I
despise the name ; and as for cousinin', why I've had
'em, first, and second, and third, and fourth, up to
sixth and seventh ; I have been scolded at, com-
plained on, groaned over, and prayed at, and sung
to, and tromboned, and pickelowed, and nagged,
and fluted, and preached at — "

Sez I sternly, " Don't you go to sayin' a word
aginst John Richard Allen, that angel man."

" I hain't said nothin' aginst that angel man, have
I ? Dumb him, he'd talk anybody to death."

" What are you doin* now, this minute, Josiah
Allen ?"

" I am a talkin' sense, hard horse sense, and you
know that I have been fifed, and base-drummed, and
harrowed, and worried, and eat up, and picked to

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 19 1

pieces down to my very bones by relations on both
of our two sides, and I have stood it like a man. I
hain't never complained one word."

I groaned aloud here at this awful story.

" Wall, I hain't never complained much of any
But when the Nation takes it in hand and wants to
draw our relations closter and closter, then I will
interfere. For that is their main talk and effect,
from wrhat I can make out from this speech,' ' sez he,
a pintin' to a newspaper.

" I will interfere, Samantha Allen, and you can't
keep me from it. I will stop it if a mortal man can.
Anyway, I will boldly wade in and tell 'em my har-
rowin' experience, and do all I can to break it up.
For as I told you, Samantha Allen, I have had more
experience with relations than any other human bein'
on the face of the globe ; I have got the intellect and
I have got the pans."

Oh, how I did have to talk to Josiah Allen to try
to diswaide him from this rash enterprise !

" Why," sez I, "this meetin' hain't a goin' on
now ; you are mistook."

But he knew he wuz in the right on't. And any-
way, he said he could tell his trials to some of the
high officers of that enterprise and influence 'em.

M I want to influence somebody, Samantha/' sez
he, " before it is too late."

And so he kep' on ; he didn't say nuthin' before
our son and daughter, but every time he would get
me alone, whether it wuz in the seclusion of our
bed-chamber, or in a buggy, or on the beautiful
grounds of Belle Fanchon, then he would begin and
talk, and talk, and talk.

192 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

The family never mistrusted what wuz a goin' on.
Lots of times to the table, or anywhere, when the
subject came round anywhere nigh to that that wuz
uppermost in his brain, he would give me a wink, or
step on my foot under the table.

" I AM NEEDED THERE.'

They never noticed the wink, and their feet didn't
feel the crunch of his boot toe — no, I bore it in
silence and alone.

For how could they see the tall mountain peaks of
ambition that loomed up in front of that peaceful,

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 193

bald-headed man — precipitous mounts that he wuz
in fancy scalin', with the eyes of a admirin' world
lookin' up to him ?

No ; how little can them a settin' with us round
the same table see the scenes that is passin' before the
mental vision of each. No, they can't do it ; the
human breast hain't made with a winder in it, or
even a swing door.

No ; I alone knew what wuz a passin* and a goin'
on in that beloved breast.

To me, as he always had, he revealed the high
bubbles he wuz a throwin' up over his head, and
had always throwed ever and anon, and even oftener,
bubbles wrought out of the foamin' suds of hope
and ambition, and propelled upwards out of the long-
stailed pipe of his fancy, floated by the gusty wind
of his vain efforts.

And it wuz to me he turned for comfort and
solace when them bubbles bust over his head in a
damp drizzle (metafor).

But to resoom and continue on.

He talked, and he talked, and he talked ; he said
he wuz bound to start for Washington, D. C.

Sez I, " Are you crazy ?"

Sez he, " It hain't no further from here than it
is from Jonesville, and I am needed there/'

Sez he, " I am goin' there to offer my services as
a International Delegate, as a Delegate Extraordi-
nary," sez he.

And I sez, " I should think as much ; I should
think you would be a extraordinary one/'

" Wall," sez he, " in national crysisses they have
delegates by that name — I have read of 'em."

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 195

"Wall," sez I, "they couldn't find a more ex-
traordinary one than you are if they combed the
hull country over with a rubber comb."

Wall, the upshot of the matter wuz that I had to
call in the help of Thomas Jefferson. I knew he
wuz all in the family and would hush it up, jest as
much as I would.

He interfered jest as his father wuz a packin' his
portmanty to start for Washington, D. C, to offer
his services as a extraordinary delegate, and set up
as a Pan American.

Thomas J. argued with his Pa for more than a
hour. He brung up papers to convince him he wuz
in the wrong on't. He argued deep, and bein' a
lawyer by perfession, he knew how to talk rapid and
fluent. And finally, after a long time, by our two
united efforts, we quelled him down, and he on-
packed his shirt and nightcap from his portmanty
and settled down agin into a private citizen.

And owin' to Thomas J.'s efforts and mine, under-
took at once by letter (for we feared the effects of
delay), we sold the most of them pans at a good
price to the butter-maker up in Zoar, and a letter
wuz writ to Ury and Philury to deliver 'em.

So, some good come out of the evil of my skair
and my pardner's skeme.

✓

"JOSIAH GIVE UP."

CHAPTER IX.

WALL, Josiah give up and crumpled
down along the middle of the fore-
noon, and he looked happy as a
king after he give up his project (it
wuz only ambition that wuz a goarin' him and a
leadin' him around).

And he and Snow (the darlin' !) had gone out a
walkin' in the grounds —

And I wuz a settin' alone on the veranda by the
side of Boy's cradle, Genieve havin* gone to the
village to get some thread —

When Victor come over on a errant. He come to
bring a note over from Mrs. Seybert to my daughter
Maggie, and T told him I would give it to her jest as
soon as she returned and come back. She had gone
out ridin' with Thomas Jefferson.

And I, feelin' kinder opset and mauger through
what I had went through with my pardner, thought

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 197

it would sort o' take up my mind and recooperate
me to talk a little with Victor (I had always liked
him from the first minute I see him).

And so at my request he sot down on the veranda,
and we had a little talk. I guess, too, he was dret-
ful willin' to talk with me, so's to sort to waste the
time and linger till Genieve got back.

And before some time had passed away I turned
the conversation onto that skeme of hisen. I had
hearn a sight about it first and last, and kinder han-
kered to-day (for reasons given prior and beforehand)
to hear more.

And he went on perfectly eloquent about it — he
couldn't help gettin' all worked up about it every
time he got to talkin' about it ; and yet he talked
with good sound sense, and he see all the dangers
and difficulties in the way, and his mind wuz sot on
the best way of surmountin' and gettin' over 'em.

Genieve's mind wuz such she naterelly looked so
sort o' high that she couldn't see much besides the
sun-lit glorified mountains of the high lands and the
beauty of the Gole.

But Victor see the rough road that led down
through rocky defiles and through the deep wilder-
ness ; he see and counted all the lions that wruz in the
path between this and the Promised Land, and his
hull mind wuz sot on gettin' by 'em and slayin' 'em ;
but he heard their roars plain, every one of 'em.
The name of the two biggest lions that lay in the
road ahead of him a roarin' at him wuz Ignorance
and Greed.

One of 'em had black skin, black as a coal, and the
other wuz light-complected.

198 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

How to get by them lions wuz his first thought, for
they lay watchin' every move he made at the very
beginnin' of the road that led out to Canaan.

The animal Ignorance wuz too gross and heavy
and sensual to even try to get out of the path where
it must have known it wuz in danger of bein' crushed
to death and trampled down ; it wuz too thick-head-
ed to even lift its eyes and look off into a more sun-
lighted place ; it lay there, down in the dark mud,
as heavy, as lifeless, as filthy as the dark soil in
which it crouched.

Its huge black form filled up the way ; how could
Victor and them like him lift it up, put life and am-
bition in its big, heavy carcass, and make it move off
and let the hosts go forward ?

The beast Greed lifted its long neck and fastened
its fiery eyes on Victor and his peers, and its mighty
arms, tipped with a thousand sharp claws and
talons, wuz lifted up to keep them back — force them
back into the prison pens of servitude.

Victor see all this that Genieve couldn't see, not
bein' made in that way ; he see it, but, like Chris-
tian in his march to the Beautiful City, he wuz de-
termined to press forward.

And as I sot there and looked at him and hearn
him talk, I declare for't I got all rousted up myself
with his project, and I felt ready, and told him so,
to help him all I could consistently with my duties
as a pardner and a member of the Methodist meetin*
house.

And as I hearn him talk, I seemed to be riz up
more and more, and able to see further than I had
seen, and I felt a feelin' that Victor wuz in the right

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 199

on't. I thought back on how eloquent Maggie and
I had growed on the race question, and I felt that 1
wouldn't take it back. No ; I had spoke my mind as
things seemed to me then, and if the two races wuz
goin' to be sot down together side by side, I felt
that the idees we had promulgated to each other
wuz right idees ; but the more Victor talked the
more I felt that his idees wuz right to separate the
two races, if it wuz possible to do it.

His talk made a deep impression onto me, and I
went on in my mind and drew some metafors fur-
ther, it seemed to me, than I had ever drawed any,
and eppisoded to myself more eloquent than I had
ever eppisoded.

I hain't one to go half way into any undertakin',
and I made up my mind then and there that if Vic-
tor and Genieve married and sot off for this colony
in Africa, that I would set 'em out with a bushel of
my best dried apples, and mebby more. ' And some
dried peaches, and a dozen of them pans — I thought
they would come handy in Africa to ketch cocoanut
milk, or sunthin'.

And I said I would give 'em a couple of hens in
welcome, and a male hen and a pair of ducks, if he
spozed he would get water enough to keep 'em con-
tented. Somehow I kep' thinkin' of the Desert of
Sarah — I couldn't seem to keep Sarah out of my
mind.

But he said there wuz plenty of water where they
wuz goin'. And he sot and promulgated his idees
to me for some time. And I looked on him with
admiration and a considerable amount of deep re-
spect.

2 00 SAM ANTRA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

He wuz a tall, broad-shouldered, handsome feV
low, with very courteous, winnin' manners.

He had a clear-cut, resolute face, and silky brown
hair that fell down over a broad white forwerd, and
a mustache of the same color.

His eyes would fairly melt sometimes, and be soft
as a woman's, and then agin they would look you
through and through and seem to be piercin' through
the hull dark path ahead out into the light of safety.

And his lips, that wuz resolute and firm enough
sometimes, could anon, or oftener, grow tremulous
with feelin' and eloquence.

He wuz a earnest Christian, a professor of religion,
and, what is fur better, a practicer of the same.

He give his idees to me in full that day in con-
fidence (and a desire to linger till Genieve got back).

Some of these idees he got from Genieve, some
on 'em he learned from books, and kindred minds,
and close observation, and remembrance of talks he
had hearn when such things sunk deep in his heart,
and some on 'em sprung up from seeds God had
planted in his soul, onbeknown to him ; in a woman
we call it intuition.

But anyway, no matter by what name we call
these seeds, they lay in the soul till the Sun of Oc-
casion warms 'em into life, and then they open their
star flowers and find the way to the Right and the
True.

To Victor the welfare of his mother's people lay
nearer to his heart than even Genieve, much as he
loved her — than his own life, sacred as he held it,
holding, as he believed it did, a mission for humanity.

It wuz his idee to transplant the Africans to some

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 201

place where they could live out their full lives with-
out interference or meddlin' with from another peo-
ple, that must, in the nature of things, be always an
alien race and one opposed to the black race instinc-
tively and beyend remedy.

I see jest how it wuz ; I see that nobody, no mat-
ter how strong you should fix the medicine and how
powerful the doses you might give, could cure this
distemper, this instinctive, deep-rooted feelin' of
antipathy and repulsion towards the negro.

I see that no amount of pills and plasters wuz a
goin' to make the negro feel free and easy with the
white race.

There is a deep-rooted difference of opinion, and
difference of feelin', difference of aims, and desires,
and everything between the two races.

It is as deep down as creation, and as endless as
eternity, and can't be doctored, or tackled up in any
way and made to jine and become one.

It can't be did, so there is no use in tryin'.

And any amount of flowery speeches or proclama-
tions, or enactments, or anything, hain't a goin' to
amalgamate the two races and make 'em blend into
another and be a hull one.

No ; a law may contain every big law word, and
" to wit" and " be it enacted" and every clause that
ever wuz claused, and every amendment that wuz
ever amended, but it hain't a goin' to make any
difference with this law that wuz made in a higher
court than any they have in Washington, D. C.

And a speech may contain the hull floral tribe, all
the flowers that wuz ever heard on ; it may soar up
in eloquence as fur up as anybody can go, and

202 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

dwindle down into pathos as deep as ever wuz
went.

But it is a goin' to blow over the subject jest like
any whiff of wind ; it hain't a goin' to do the job of
makin' the two races come any nigher to each other.

Why, you see when anybody is a tryin' to do this,
he hain't a fightin' aginst flesh and blood only, the
real black and white flesh of the present, but he is a
fightin' aginst principalities and powers, the powers
of the long kingdom of the past, the viewless but
unfightable principalities of long centuries of con-
centrated opinions and hereditary influences, the
ingrained contempt and scorn of the superior race
towards the inferior in any other condition only servi-
tude— the inbred feelin's of slavery, of lookin' up with
a blended humility and hatred, admiration and envy,
into the face of the dominant race.

The race difference lays like a gulf between the
two people. You can't step over it, your legs hain't
long enough ; you can't bridge it over, there hain't
no boards to be found strong enough ; there it yawns,
a deep gulf, and always will between the two races.

And when the Nation expected to jine these two
forces and hitch 'em side by side to the car of free-
dom by a piece of paper with writin' on it, expect-
in' they would draw it along easy and stiddy, that
wuz the time the Nation wuz a fool.

It would be jest as reasonable- to hitch a wild lion
from the jungles by the side of a sheep, and set 'em
to drawin' the milk to the factory.

They might expect that if the team got to the fac-
tory at all, the sheep would be inside of the lion,
and the milk too.

*

SAM AN TH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 203

It won't do no good to go too hard aginst Nater.
She is one, Nater is, that can't be went aginst not
with any safety.

Mebby after centuries of trainin' and education,
the lion might be learnt to trot along by the side
of the sheep and dump the milk out all right at the
factory door. . But centuries after this had been
done, the same instinctive race war would be a goin*
on between the black people and the white.

You cannot make a soap-stun into a runnin' vine,
or a flat-iron blossom out with dewy roses, or a
thistle bear pound sweet apples — it can't be done,
no matter how hard you work, or how pure your
motives are.

So these things bein' settled and positive, Victor
thought — and I'll be hanged if I could blame him for
thinkin' — that the sooner his people got into a place
of their own, away from the white race that had
fettered them, and they had fettered so long, the
better it would be for them.

He reasoned it out like this : " The Anglo-Saxons
vvuz here before we wuz, and the}' are a powerful
nation of their own. They won't go ; so what re-
mains but to take ourselves away, and the sooner
the better," he thought.

He had read, as I said, many books on the sub-
ject ; but of all the books he had read, Stanley's de-
scription of some parts of Africa pleased him best.

He shrank from takin' his people into a colder cli-
mate ; he had read long and elaborate arguments as
to what cold wuz to do in changin' and improvin'
the African.

But his common sense taught him that the Lord

204 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

knew better than the authors of these tracts as to
what climate wuz best for His people.

He felt that it wuz useless to graft a pomegranate
or a banana bush onto the North Pole. He felt that
it wouldn't do the pole any good, and the grafts
would freeze up and drop off — why, they would
have to, they couldn't help it, and the pole couldn't
help it either — the pole had to be froze, it wuz
made so.

So he never had favored the colonization of his
race in the colder Western States.

Nor had he quite liked the idee of their findin' a
new home in the far South or in South America.

They would be still in an alien land, alien races
would press clost aginst 'em.

No, a home in Africa pleased him best — in that
land the Lord had placed the black people — it wuz
their home accordin' to all the laws of God and man.

And if it hadn't been the best place for 'em, if
they hadn't been fitted by nater for that climate,
why he reasoned it out that they wouldn't have
been born there in the first place.

He didn't believe God had made a mistake ; he
didn't believe He could.

Why, way down in the dark earth there never wuz
known to be any mistake made, a wheat seed never
sprung up into a cowcumber, a lily seed never
blowed out into a daffodil.

No, there seemed to be a eternal law that pre-
vented all mistakes and blunders.

And havin' sot down the black man in Africa,
Victor felt that it wuz pretty sure to be the right and
best place for him.

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 205

Stanley said that there wuz room enough in one
section of the Upper Congo basin to locate double
the number of negroes in the United States, without
disturbm' a single tribe that now inhabits it ; that
every one of these seven million negroes might be-
come owner of nearly a quarter square mile of land.
Five acres of this planted with bananas and plantains
would furnish every soul with sufficient food and
drink.

The remainder of the twenty-seven acres of his
estate would furnish him with timber, rubber, gums,
dye stuffs, etc., for sale.

There is a clear stream every few hundred yards,
the climate is healthy and agreeable.

Eight navigable rivers course through it. Hills
and ridges diversif v the scenery and give magnificent
prospects.

To the negroes of the South it would be a re-
minder of their own plantations without the swamps
and depressin' influence of cypress forests.

Anything and everything might be grown in it,
from the oranges, guavas, sugar-cane and cotton of
sub-tropical lands, to the wheat of California and the
rice of South Carolina.

If the emigration wuz prudentlv conceived and
carried out, the glowin' accounts sent home by the
first settlers would soon dissipate all fear and reluc-
tance on the part of the others.

But to make this available, it would have to be
undertaken at once, says Stanley. For if it hain't
taken advantage of by the American negro, the rail-
ways towards that favored land will be constructed,
steamers will float on the Congo, and the beautiful

206 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

forest land will be closed to such emigration by the
rule, first come first served.

And then this beautiful, hopeful chance will be
lost forever.

Victor read this, and more, from Stanley's pen,
and felt deeply the beautiful reasonableness of the
skeme.

With all the eloquence of which he wuz master he
tried to bring these facts home to his people, and
tried to arouse in them something of his own en-
thusiasm.

As for himself he wuz bound to go — as teacher, as
missionary, as leader — as soon as he could ; his moth-
er's health wuz failing — his unhappy mistress needed
him sorely — his preparations wuz not all completed
yet.

There wuz several hundred young, intelligent
negroes, most of them with families, who wuz work-
in' hard to get the money Victor thought would be
necessary for a successful venture.

For besides the cost of transportation, Victor
wanted them to be placed beyend the possibility of
sufferin' and hardship while they wuz preparin' their
land for cultivation.

But I sez, " Most probable this Nation will fit out
some ships and carry you back to your old home."
Sez I, " More than probable Uncle Sam will be glad
of the chance to pay some of his debts, and clear
the slate that hangs up behind the Capitol door, of
one of the worst and meanest debts it ever had
ciphered out on it, and held up aginst him."

But Victor smiled ruther sadly and looked duber-
some.

SA MANTUA 0Ar THE RACE PROBLEM. 207

He thought after the colony there wuz a assured
success, thousands and thousands would go with
their own money and help poorer ones to new homes
there ; but he didn't seem to put much dependence
on Uncle Samuel's ever hitchin' up his steamships
and carryin' 'em over.

But I sez real warmly, for I cannot bear any
animyversions aginst that poor old man (only what I
make myself in the cause of Duty) — sez I, " You
wrong Uncle Samuel sez I, 44 You'll find out that
he will brace up and do the right thing if the case is
presented to him in the right light, and he brings his
spectacles to bear on it.

44 Why," sez I, 44 if I borry a cup of tea of Miss
Gowdey, do 1 spoze that she will trapise over to my
house after it? — and the same with flat-irons, press-
boards, bluin' bags, etc.

44 No, I carry 'em back agin, honorable.

44 And if Josiah Allen borrys a plough or a fannin*
mill, do you spoze he expects the neighborin' men
he borrys 'em of to harness up and come after 'em ?
No, he carries 'em back.

" And how much more would he feel obligated if he
had stole 'em, and me too ; why we should expect to
carry 'em back, or else get shot up, and good
enough for us.

44 Now," sez I, " you and your people wuz stole
from Africa by Uncle Samuel, or, I don't spoze the
old man did the stealin' with his own hands, but he
stood by and see it done and winked at it, and
allowed it ; and so, he is responsible, bein' the head
of the family.

" And if that old man ever calculates to make any

DEACON HUFFER.

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 209

appearance at all before the nations of the earth, if
he ever calculates to neighbor with 'em to any ad-
vantage, he will jest carry them stolen creeters back
and put 'em down onharmed on the sile he dragged
'em from.

" Good land ! it won't be no job for him ; it won't
be no more for him than it would for my companion
to take back a hen he had borryed from Deacon
Huffer up to Zoar — or stole from him, I spoze I ort
to say, in order to carry out the metafor as metafors
ort to be carried."

I sez this in a real enthusiastic axent, and a very
friendly one too towards Uncle Samuel ; for I love
that noble-minded but sometimes misguided old
creeter — I love him dearly.

But Victor smiled agin that sort of a amused
smile, and yet a sort of a sad one too. And sez he :

M I am afraid this Nation has not got your sense
of honor."

He couldn't help, I see, a kinder wishin' that the
Government would brace up and take over a few
cargoes of 'em.

But he wuz dubersome.

But anyway he wuz bound they should get there
some way. And I had a feelin', as I looked at him,
that the dark waves in front of him would part some
way, and he would pass over into the light, he and
his race.

Wall, jest about as he finished up his idees to me,
Genieve come in lookin' as pretty as a pink, and I
got up and carried the thread into the house, willin'
to leave 'em alone for a little while, and I spoze — I
spoze they wuz willin' to have me go.

2IO SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Yes, I hadn't forgot what courtship wuz, when
Josiah Allen come over to see me, sheepish but
affectionate.

And I remember well how he would brighten up
when Mother Smith would be obleeged to go out to
get supper, or to strain the milk, or sunthin' or
other.

No, I hain't forgot it, and most probable never
shall.

UNDER THE WHITE CROSS.

CHAPTER X.

ITTLE Snow wuz always askin' about
the little girl who wuz a lyin' un-
der the white cross and the rose-
trees down in the corner of the gar-
den at Belle Fanchon.

And she would ask me sights of
questions about her. She would ask " if Belle
Fanchon used to walk about and run as she did
through the paths of the old garden, and pick the
roses, and stand under the orange-trees, and hear
the birds sing, and the laugh of the brook as it
wound along amongst the flowers ?"
And I would say, " Yes, I spoze so."
And then she would say, " What made her leave
it all and go and lie down there under the grass ?"
And I would say, " The Lord wanted her."
And she would say, " Will He want me ?"
And I would hold her clost to my heart, and say,
" Oh, no, darlin', Grandma hopes not, not for a

212 SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

long, long time, not till these old eyes are closed
many and many a year/' I would say.

" But if He should want me," she would go on to
say earnestly, " I want to lie down by the little girl
in the garden. She wouldn't be so lonesome then
in dark nights, would she, if she had another little
girl close by her ?"

And then she would go on and describe it to me
in her own pretty language : How when the moon
shone silver bright and the shadows lay long and
white over the little girl's grave like a big, lovin'
hand, it would cover 'em both, and how on warm,
sunshiny mornin's the birds would sing to both of
'em, and the roses and tall lilies bend down over
both, and the rivulet would talk to 'em as it went
dancin' by, and —

M Don't talk so, darlin'," I would say, " Grandma
don't love to hear you."

And then mebby she would see the shadow on
my face, and she would put up her little hand in that
tender caress that wuz better than kisses, lay it on
my cheek, and brush my hair back, and then touch
my cheek agin.

And mebby the very next minute she would be a
askin' me some deep question about Jack the Giant
Killer or the Sleepin' Beauty.

She had a very active mind, very.

And she wuz a beautiful child. Josiah said, and
said well, that she went fur beyend anything on the
globe for beauty, and smartness, and goodness.
And Josiah Allen is a excellent judge of children,
excellent.

But, as I wuz a sayin', Snow loved to talk about

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 213

the little girl who had been mistress of this pretty
place so long ago. She talked about her a sight.
And if she had her way she would always go there
to play, by the little grave — carry her dollies down
there — Samantha Maggie Tirzah Ann, and the hull
caboodle of 'em — she had as many as fourteen of
'em, anyway — and her dolls' cradles, and wagons,
and everything. And she wuz never so happy as
when she wuz settled down there in that corner.

Wall, it wuz pleasant as it could be. How clost
the little rivulet did seem to hold the child's grave
in its dimpled arm, and its song never said to me :

M My arm is warm and faithful, and is reaching
out and reaching out to fold it round another of the
nearest ones and dearest, and guard it, hold it safe-
lv from danger and from trouble."

No, I never heard this in its song, and I never
heard any undertone of pity for hearts that would
break with a new grief.

No, I only heard low murmurs of compassion in
its liquid tones for the achin' hearts that had bent
over this one little grave long ago.

But the trees alwavs did seem to cast greener,
softer shadows here, and the sunshine and moon-
light to rest more lovingly on it than on any other
spot in the hull grounds. And I didn't wonder at
all at little Snow's fancv for it.

Oh, what a judgment that child showed in every-
thing— it was a sight !

One mornin' I wuz a settin' out on the veranda,
and I see her as usual a settin' out for that corner,
Snow with her arms full of toys, and Genieve wheel-
in' Bov in his cart, and the front of that full of

214 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Snow's babies settin' up stiff and straight, a starin*
back with their round, blank eyes at Boy's pretty,
laughin' face.

It wuz a lovely mornin\

The dew sparkled on the grass, and the walks of
white shinin' shells which had been washed clean
by a brisk, short rain the night before, shone white
and silvery through the fresh, green grass borderin'
'em on each side.

And the trees tosted out their shinin' green
branches, and the glossy-leaved shrubs shook out
their sweet-scented flowers on the balmy air.

The climbin' roses bloomed out sweet and pink,
the orange-trees gleamed with the round globes of
gold, and anon clusters of posys amongst the shinin'
green leaves.

It wuz a fair seen, a fair seen.

And I sot enjoyin' it to the full, and as is the de-
praved and curius nater of men and wimmen, a enjoy-
in' it still more as I turned to it from the pages of a
voluminous letter I had jest got and received from
Philury.

Yes, as I read of the snow piles, and the dirty
slosh of snow and mud that the Jonesvillians had to
wade through under gray skies and cotton umberells,
I sot with a deeper gratitude and a happier frame to
my mind under the clear blue skies of the balmy
South land, amongst the beauties and summer fra-
grance of Belle Fanchon.

There wuz another letter I hadn't read yet a lay-
in' in my lap, and my joyful meditation and my
comparisons that I had drawed, and drawed so fur,
had took my mind from it.

SAM AX TH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

But anon, as I turned back from the sight of Mag-
gie and Thomas Jefferson a ridin' off through the
sunshine towards the depot, T took up the other let-

THE J ONES VILLI ANS.

ter, and as I opened it I involuntarily uttered them
words which have sounded out from my lips in so
many crysisses of joy or pain. I sez :

2 lb SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

" Good land ! good land I"

The letter wuz from John Richard Allen, writ for
him by a friend. It seems that he had seen in the
village paper that we wuz in the South and where
we wuz ; and he lay sick and a dyin', as they said,
in a little hamlet not a dozen miles away.

I read the letter, and then went imegiatly— for to
think and to act is but a second or third nater to
me — and waked up my pardner, who was stretched
out on a bamboo couch on the other end of the
piazza fast asleep, with the World a lay in' outstretched
and abject at his feet. And I then told him the
startlin' truth that his own relation on his own side
lay sick unto death less than a dozen miles from us.

Wall, that noble man riz right up as I would have
had him rozen to meet the exigencies of the occasion.

He sez, " The minute our children get back we
will take the pony and drive over and see him.,,

As I said, they had gone to the depot to meet
visitors from Delaware— a very distinguished cousin
of Maggie's on her own side, who had writ that he
wuz a goin' to pass through here on his way further
South, and he would stop off a day or two with 'em
— he and his little boy, if it wuz agreeable to them.

I had hearn a sight about this rich Senator Cole-
man— Maggie's father, old Squire Snow, wuz dret-
ful proud of him.

He had made himself mostly— or, that is, had fin-
ished himself off.

He went to Delaware as a teacher, and married a
Miss Fairfax, a very rich young woman down there,
settled down in her home, went into business, got
independent rich, wuz sent to Congress and Senate,

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM

217

and had a hand in makin' all the laws of his State, so
I hearn.

He wuz now takin' a tower through the Southern
States with his motherless boy, little Raymond Fair-
fax Coleman, so he writ (he thought his eyes on him,
and jest worshipped the memory of his wife).

Maggie and Thomas J. had met him in Washing-
ton the winter before, and they sort o' took to each
other. And so he wuz a goin' to stop off a few days
with 'em.

Wall, that program of Josiah Allen's wuz carried
out to the very letter. When Thomas J. and Mag-
gie come back (the Senator didn't come, he wuz de-
layed, and sent a telegram he should be there in a
week or two), we sot off, a preparin' to come back
the next day if John Richard wuz better, but a lay-
in' out to stay several days if necessary.

We took clothes and things, and I a not forgettin',
you may be sure, a bottle full of my far-famed spig-
nut syrup.

Maggie see that we had a early dinner but a good
one, and we sot sail about one o'clock — Snow a rid-
in' with us as fur as we dasted to take her, and a
walkin' back agin, watched by her Ma from the gate.

Thomas J. and Maggie told us to bring John
Richard right back with us if he wuz well enough
to come, and they would help take care of him.

Wall, we got to the picturesque little place called
Howletts Bridge about four o'clock, and imegiatly
made inquiries for the relation on his side, and found
out where he wuz stavin'.

He wuz boardin' with a likely Methodist Episcopal
couple, elderly, and poor but well-principled.

2l8 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

And indeed we found him sick enough.

Miss Elderkin — that wuz the folkses name he wuz a
boardin' with, good creeters as I ever see, if they
wuz Southerners, and aristocratic too, brung down
by loss of property and etc. — she told me that
Cousin John Richard had been comin' down with
this lung difficulty for years — overwork, and hard
fare, and neglect of his own comfort makin' his sick-
ness harder and more difficult to manage.

Sez she, " He is one of the saints on earth, if
there ever was one."

And her husband said the same thing, which I
felt that I could indeed depend upon, for as a gen-
eral thing men don't get so diffuse a praisin' up each
other, and callin' each other angels and saints, etc.,
and men hain't drawed away by their pities and
their sympathies so easy as wimmen be, nor drawed
so fur.

Wall, Mr. Elderkin put our pony in the barn, and
she made us comfortable with a cup of tea and some
toast with a poached egg on top of it. And then we
went in to see the patient.

He wuz layin' in a front room, ruther bare-lookin',
for the Elderkins wuz poor enough so fur as this
world's goods go, but rich in the spirit.

And the bare floor, and whitewashed walls, and
green paper curtains looked anything but luxurious,
but everything wuz clean.

And on a clean, poor bed lay the relation on his
side.

He looked wan — wanner fur than I expected to
see him look, though I wuz prepared for wanness.
His cheeks wuz fell in, and his eyes wuz holler, but

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 219

bright still with that glowin' fire that always seemed
to be built up in 'em. But the light of that fire
seemed to be a burnin' down pretty low now. And
he looked up and see us and smiled.

It wuz the smile of a homesick child fur away to
school, when he sees his own folks a comin' towards
him in the school-room.

Poor John Richard ! His school wuz hard, his
lessons had been severe, but he had tried to learn
'era all jest as perfect as he could, and the Master
wuz pleased with his work.

But now he wuz sick. He wuz a sick man.

As I said, he smiled as he see Josiah and me ad-
vancin' onto him, and he held out his weak hands,
and took holt of ourn, and kep' 'em in hisen for
some time, and sez he :

" I am glad — glad to see you."

He wuz interrupted anon, and even oftener, by his
awful cough and short, painful breathin'. But he
gin us to understand that he wuz dretful glad to see
us once more before he passed away.

He wuzn't afraid to die — no, indeed ! There
wuz a deep, sweet smile in his eyes, and his lips
seemed to hold some happy and divine secret as he
sez :

" I am glad to go home ; I am glad to rest."

But I sez in a cheerful axent, " Cousin John
Richard, you hain't a goin' to die ;" sez I, " By the
help of God and my good spignut syrup I believe
you will be brung up agin."

But he shet up his eyes. And I see plain, by the
look of his face, that though he wuz willin' to live
and work if it wuz God's will, he wuz still more

22o SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

ready to depart and be with Christ, which he telt
would be fur better.

But it wuzn't my way to stand and argue with a
sick man back and forth as to whether he wuz a
gpin' to die or not.

No, I laid to, helped by my trusty Josiah. And

"boy laughed."

in an hour's time we see a difference in his breathing
and anon he fell into a sweet sleep.

And when he waked up that man looked and acted
better. And three days and nights did we stay by
him, a doctorin' him up and a gettin* him nourishin'
things to eat, and a talkin' encouragin' and pleasant

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 221

things to him (good land ! the soul and mind has
got to be fed as well as the body if you don't want
to starve to death inwardly). And lo and behold !
when we left Howletts Bridge and returned to Belle
Fanchon, who should accompany us thither but
Cousin John Richard Allen !

He had consented, after a deep parley, to go there
and rest off for a few weeks.

Maggie and Thomas J. took to him from the very
first, and give him a hearty welcome and the best
bedroom. They appreciated the noble, martyrous
life he had led, and honored him for it.

And the children acted dretful tickled to see him.
You needn't tell me but what Boy knew all about it
when I introduced Cousin John Richard to him.
To be sure, he wuzn't only six months old.

But if he didn't know him, and if he wuzn't glad
to see the relation on his grandmother's side, what
made him laugh all over his face, eyes and all ?

I presume the Doctor would have called it
u wind." But I called it perfect courtesy and good
manners towards a honored and onexpected guest.
That is what I called it. He acted like a perfect
little gentleman, and I wuz proud of him.

Snow, the sweet darlin', went right up to him,
with her little snowflake of a hand held out in a
warm welcome, and kissed him jest as she did her
Grandpa. Oh, what a child — what a child for be-
havior ! I never see her equal, and don't expect
to — nor Josiah don't either.

Wall, Cousin John Richard jest settled down in
that sweet, lovin' home into a perfect, happy rest —
to all appearances— and gained every day.

22 2 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Victor and Genieve thought everything of him
from the first time they laid eyes on him. And they
couldn't do enough for him seemingly. They had
heard about his life and labor amongst their own
people, and they tried in every way to show their
gratitude and affection.

Victor and he talked together for hours, and so
did he and Genieve about the plans for the colony.
And first I knew, Cousin John Richard told Josiah
and me that he had made up his mind to go with
them to Africa.

The Doctor had told him that a long sea voyage
would be the best of anything for his lungs. And
so, as he wuz bound to spend his life for this people,
I couldn't see, and Josiah couldn't, why it shouldn't
be in Africa as well as America, specially as he had
a better chance to live by goin' there.

And so we gin our consents in our own minds,
and showed our two willingnesses to him, and the
matter wuz settled.

He had only two children left now, and they wuz
married and settled down in homes of their own,
and in a good business. So he had no hamperm'
ties to bind him to this land. And he felt that the
Lord wuz a pintin' out to him the path of Duty over
the sea.

And I wuzn't the one to dispute him — no, indeed !
And I felt that his calm good sense and undaunted
Christian spirit and Gospel teachings would be a per-
fect boon to the colony.

So it wuz settled. And I imegiatly went to work,
Maggie and I, to make him a full dozen of shirts,
twelve day ones and six nights.

SAMANTHA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 223

And we prepared him a better assortment of socks
and handkerchiefs, and collars, and cuffs, and such
than he had ever dremp of, I'll venture to say, sence
he lost his companion, anyway.

Wall, it wuzn't more'n several days after this that
the relation of Maggie's — Senator Coleman — bein'
sot free from hampers, writ agin, and also tele-

RAYMOND FAIRFAX COLEMAN.

grafted, that he would be at the station that day at
five o'clock.

So, Maggie and Thomas J. rid over agin, and bein'
luckier this time, they come a ridin* back in due
time with her relation a settin' up by her side, big
as life, and the boy, Raymond Fairfax Coleman, a
settin' on the front seat by Thomas Jefferson.

The boy's name seemed bigger than he wuz, bein'
a little, pale runt of a child with long, silky hair and
a black velvet suit — dretful small for his age, about

224 SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

seven years old. But I spoze his long curls of light
hair and his lace collar made him seem younger,
and his childish way of talkin' — he had been babied
a good deal I could see. And when he would fix his
big blue eyes on you with that sort of a confidin',
perplexed, childish look in 'em, I declare for't he
didn't look so old as Boy.

But he wuz seven years old, so his Pa told me.

His Pa wuz as big and important-lookin' as Ray
mond wuz insignificant. And I sez to Josiah the first
chance I got, out to one side, sez I :

" I've hearn a sight from old Judge Snow about
this relation of hisen bein' a self-made man ;" and
sez I, " If he did make himself, he did up the job in
quite a good shape, didn't he ?"

Josiah can't bear to have me praise up any man
married or single, bond or free, only jest himself
and he sez :

" If I had made him I would have put in some
improvements on him. I wouldn't have had him so
cussed big feelin' for one thing."

I wuz deeply mortified to hear him use that
wicked word, and told him so.

But I couldn't help seein' that Josiah wuz right in
thinkin' Senator Coleman wuz proud and high-head-
ed, for truly he wuz. His head wuz right up in the
air, and he sort o' leaned back when he walked, and
over his portly stomach hung a glitterin' watch-chain
that he sort o' fingered and played with as he walked
about, and he had some diamonds a flashin' on his
little finger, and his shirt-front, and cuffs.

His eyes wuz a bright blue and as bold and pierc-
in' looking as P lymond's wuz gentle and helpless,

SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 225

and his mustache and short hair wuz a sort of a iron
gray ; and his face bein' florid and his features good,
he made a handsome appearance ; and Maggie, I

could see, wuz quite proud of the relation on her
side.

Wall, we had a good warm supper all ready for

226 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

'em, Maggie's cook beirT sort o' helpless that day
with a jumpin' toothache (it jumped worse after
Maggie went away and she see in me a willingness
to help her get supper).

I laid holt and got the most of the supper myself,
and it wuz a good one, if I hadn't ort to say it.

Two plump spring fowls roasted to a delicate
brown, some sliced potatoes warmed up in cream,
some hot cream biscuit ; and I had splendid luck
with 'em — they wuz jest as light and flaky and tender
as they could be. And some perfectly delicious
coffee. I thought the fragrance of that coffee would
steam up invitingly into Senator Coleman's nostrils,
after a hard day's journey.

And if the relation had been on Thomas Jeffer-
son's side I couldn't have set out to do better by
him ; I am good to my daughter-in-law — anybody
will tell you so that has seen me behave to her.

Aunt Mela, the cook, by bendin' all her energies
onto 'em, had made a tomato salad and some veal
croquettes. I hain't partial to 'em, but want every-
body to be suited in the line of vittles, and Maggie
loves 'em.

And then on the sideboard wuz cake, and jellies,
and fresh berries heaped up in crimson beauty on
some china plates, and the table had posys on it and
looked well.

The cook's teeth stopped achin' about the time the
supper wuz all ready — it seemed to give its last hard
jump about the time I made the biscuit. I had pro-
posed to have her make 'em, but I see it wouldn't do.

Wall, Maggie wuz delighted with the supper, and
her relation eat more than wuz good for him, I

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 227

wuz afraid — five wuz the number of the biscuit he
consumed (they wuzn't so very large), and' three cups
of coffee kep' 'em company.

Maggie told him who made 'em, and he compli-
mented me so warmly (though still high-headed)
that Josiah looked cross as a bear.

Wall, the Senator seemed to like it at Belle Fan-
chon first rate ; and as for Raymond Fairfax Cole-
man, he jest revelled in the warm home atmosphere
and the lovin' attentions that wuz showered down
onto him.

Poor little motherless cre'eter ! He played with
Snow, lugged her dolls round for her, and dragged
Boy in his little covered carriage, and seemed to be
jest about as much of a baby as our Boy.

If you think our boy didn't have any other name
than Boy, there is where you are mistaken. His
name wuz Robert Josiah from his birth — after his
two grandpas ; but Thomas Jefferson wuz so pleased
to think he wuz a boy that he got in the habit of
callin' him Boy, and we all joined in and followed
on after him, as is the habit of human bein's or
sheep. You know how the him reads :

" First a daughter and then a son,
Then the world is well begun."

I spoze Thomas J. had this in mind when he wuz
so tickled at the birth of Boy.

But howsomever and tenny rate, we all called him
Boy. And he knew the name, and would laugh and
dimple all over in his pretty glee when we would
call him.

Wall, I would take little Raymond up on my lap,

228 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

and tell him stories, and pet him, and Maggie would
mother him jest as she would Snow, and we wuz
both on us sorry for him as sorry could be to think
of his forlorn little state.

Riches, and fame, and even his big name couldn't
make up for the loss of the tender counsels and
broodin' love of a mother.

His father jest thought his eyes on him. But he
couldn't seem to stop fumblin' that watch-chain of
hisen, and stop a talkin' them big words, and de-
scend from his ambitious plans of self-advancement
to come down to his little boy's level and talk to him
in a lovin' way.

Little Raymond looked up to his Pa with a sort
of a admirin' awe, jest about as the Jonesville chil-
dren would to the President.

I believe Senator Coleman had ambitions to be
one. I believe my soul he did. Anyway, his am-
bitions wuz all personal. Havin' made himself so
fur, he wuz bound to put all the adornin's and em-
bellishin's onto his work that he could.

I see that he wanted to be made President to
once, and the thought that the nation wouldn't do it
rankled in him.

And the fear that somebody else wuz a goin' to
get higher than he wuz in political life wore on him.

His sharp, piercin' eyes wuz a watchin' the ever-
shiftin' horizon of our national affairs, the ever-
changin' winds of public favor, hopin' they would
blow him up into greater prominence, fearin' they
would dash him down into a lower place.

The feverishness of perpetual onrest seemed to be
a burnin' him all the time, and the fear that he

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 229

should do or say sunthin' to incur the displeasure
of the multitude.

What a time, what a time he wuz a havin' !

You could see it all in his linement ; yes, ambi-
tion and selfishness had ploughed lots of lines in his
handsome face, and ploughed 'em deep.

I used to look at him and then at Cousin John
Richard Allen, and contrast the two men in my
own mind, and the contrast wuz a big and hefty
one.

Now, Cousin John Richard's face wuz peaceful
and serene, though considerable worn-lookin'. He
had gin his hull life for the True and Right, had
gone right on, no matter how much he wuz misunder-
stood and despised of men, and labored in season
and out of season for the poor and downtrodden of
earth, without any hope of earthly reward — nay,
with the certainty of the world's contempt and criti-
cism.

But the blame or praise of the multitude seemed
so fur off to him that he could scarcely hear it ; the
confusin' babble seemed to him only like a distant
murmurous background for the close voice of the
Master, who walked with him, and told him what to
do from day to day and from hour to hour.

" Blessed are ye if ye hear my voice."

"Ye that are strong, bear the burdens of the
weak."

" If ye love me feed my lambs."
" And lo, I am with you to the end of the world."
These wuz some of the words Cousin John Rich-
ard heard, and his face shone as he listened to 'em.
He had not sent out his ships on earthly waters ;

"the relation on maggte's side."

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 231

and so, let the winds blow high or the winds blow
low, he did not fear any tempestuous waves and
storms reachin' their sails.

Xo, he had sent his ships into a safer harbor ; they
wuz anchored in that divine sea where no storms
can ever come.

And his face wuz calm with the heavenly calm-
ness and peace of that sure harbor, that waveless
sea.

Wall, the relation on Maggie's side seemed to
take a good deal of comfort a walkin' round with
his head up and his hand a playin' with that heavy
gold chain.

Good land ! I should have thought he would
have wore it out — he would if it hadn't been made
of good stuff.

And he would converse with Thomas Jefferson
about political matters, and talk some with my
Josiah and Cousin John — not much with the latter,
because they wuzn't congenial, as I have hinted at ;
and Cousin John Richard seemed to take as much
agin comfort a bein' off with the children, or a lay-
in" in the green grass a watchin' the butterflies, or a
talkin' with Genieve and Victor.

And the Senator would compliment Maggie up to
the skies. He wuz more'n polite to females, as is
the way with such men ; and he would write letters
by the bushel, and get as many of 'em or more, and
telegrams, and such. And little Raymond, poor lit-
tle creeter, I believe took more comfort than he had
before for some time.

He wuzn't very deep, as I could see, he didn't act
over and above smart ; but then, I sez to myself real

232 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

ironikle, mebby this dulness is caused by lookin' at
the sun so much (his Pa used as a metafor).

And then what could you expect of a child of
seven ? he wuzn't much more'n a baby. Good land !
I used to hold Thomas Jefferson in my lap and baby
him till he wuz nine or ten years old, and his legs
dragged on the floor, he wuz so tall.

I thought like as not Raymond Fairfax Coleman
would take a turn after a while and live up to the
privileges of his name and be quite smart.

He took a great fancy to Rosy's baby, and it was
as cunnin, a little black image as I ever see, jest a
beginnm' to be playful and full of laugh.

Raymond would carry it down candy and oranges,
and give him nickels and little silver pieces to put
into his savings-bank.

I gin that bank myself to little Thomas Jefferson
Washington, for that wuz the name his Pa and Ma
had gin him — we called him Tommy. They gin
him the name of Thomas Jefferson, I spoze, to honor
the name of my son, and then put on the Washing-
ton to kinder prop up the memory of the Father of
our Country, or so I spoze.

I gin him that bank to try to give his Pa and Ma
some idee of savin' for a rainy day, and days when
it didn't rain.

It wuz very nice, in the form of a meetin'
house — you put the money down through the stee-
ple.

I thought mebby, bein* it wuz in this shape, it
would sort o' turn their minds onto meetin' houses
and such moral idees.

Well, finally, one mornin' early we heard, clear

SAM ANTRA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 233

up in our room, Senator Coleman makin' a great hue
and cry.

We hearn his voice lifted up high in agitation and
exhortation, and I sez to my pardner :

" What under the sun is the matter with the rela-
tion on Maggie's side ?"

And Josiah said, and it pains me to record it :

" He didn't know, and he didn't care a dumb.''

He never liked Senator Coleman for a minute.

But as we descended down to breakfast we soon
found out and discovered what wuz the matter.
Little Raymond (poor little babyish creeter !), a not
mistrustin' its real value, had took a valuable dia-
mond locket and gin it to little Tommy.

It wuz a very valuable locket, with seven great
diamonds in it. It wuz one that the Senator's dead
wife had gin him when thev wuz first married, and
had their two names writ on it, and inside a lock ot
their two hairs.

It wuz one of the most precious things in the
Senator's hull possessions ; and thinkin' so much of
it, he couldn't make up his mind to leave it to his
banker's with the rest of his jewelry and plate, but
he kept it with him, with a little ivory miniature of
sweet Kate Fairfax when she first become his girl-
ish bride.

The relation on Maggie's side did have one or
two soft spots in his nater, and one of 'em wuz his
adoration of his dead wife, and his clingin' love for
anything that had belonged to her, and the other
wuz his love for his child — more because it wuz her
child, I do believe, than because it wuz his own.

Them two soft places wuz oasis'es, as you may

234 SAMANTHA ON THE /caL£ PROBLEM.

say, in his nater. All the desert round 'em wuz full
of the rocky, sandy soil of ambition, feverish ex-
pectations, and aims and plans for political advance-
ment.

Wall, Raymond had took this locket and gin it to
Rosy's baby. His Pa had told him it would be
hisen some time, and he thought it wuz hisen now.

Poor little creeter ! he didn't have no more idee
of the value on't than a Hottentot has of snow
ploughs, or than we have as to what the folks up in
Jupiter are a havin' for dinner.

And he sot by the winder a cry in* as if his poor
little childish heart would break, and the Senator
wuz hoppin' mad.

But neither the tears nor the anger could bring
back the jewel — it wuz lost. Thomas J. of course
had gone down to the coachman's cottage to make
inquiries about it, accompanied by the distracted
statesman. But of course Rosy had lied about it ;
she said little Tom, three days before, jest after
Raymond had gin it to him, had dropped it into the
river.

But nobody believed it. How could that infant
have dropped it into the river more'n a mile off ?

No ; we all spozed that Rosy, a naterel thief and
liar, had passed it on to some other thief, and it wuz
all broke to pieces and the diamonds hid away and
passed on out of reach.

The strictest search hadn't amounted to nuthin'.
Wall, I didn't say much about it till after breakfast
— my manners wuz too perfect for that, and then I
wuz hungry myself. And I felt that I had some
things I wanted to say, and I didn't want to say 'em

SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 235

on a empty stomach, and didn't want 'em hearn on
one.

After breakfast the Senator begun agin on the
subject, and kep' it up. And I did feel sorry for
him from the bottom of my heart, for, if you'll be-
lieve it, as we sot there alone in the settin' room
after breakfast, that man cried — or, that is, the tears
come fast into his eyes when he talked about it.

And I gin the man credit where credit wuz due ;
it wuzn't the money worth of the gem that he cared
for, though it wuz very valuable.

No ; it wuz the memory of lovely Kate Fairfax,
and the blendin' of their two names on it, and a part
of their two selves, as you may say — the curl of her
golden hair twisted in with his dark locks. And all
the tender memories of the happy time when she
gin him this jewel with her first true love, and he
gin her his hull heart. Memories bitter-sweet now
as he mourned his losses.

Wall, I see the Senator wuz all melted down and
broke up ; and as is my way, havin' the good of the
human race on my mind and heart, and havin' to do
for 'em all the while, I see that now wuz the very
time for me to tackle the relation from Delaware
about a matter that I had long wanted to tackle him
on, concernin' a law of his own State —

A statute so full of burnin' injustice, and shame,
and disgrace that it wuz a wonder to me, and had
been for some time, that the very stuns along the
banks of the Delaware didn't cry out to its Senators
as they passed along to and from their law-makin'
expeditions.

And when he wuz a goin' on the very worst about

236 SAMANTHA OAT THE RACE PROBLEM.

Raymond's doin' such a dretful thing, and what a
irreparable loss it wuz, I spoke up, and sez I, 44 Why,
Raymond had a right to it, didn't he ?"

"A right ?" he thundered out in his agitation,
" a right to throw away this priceless jewel ? What
do you mean, madam ?"

"Why," sez I calmly (for I wuz a workin' for
Duty and Right ; and they always brace me up and
keep me calm), 44 Raymond has passed the age of
consent, hasn't he?" He wuz a few days over
seven years old.

44 What ! ! !" cries the Senator, " what do you
mean ?"

" Why, children in your State can consent to
their own ruin if they are over seven."

44 It is girls that can do this," hollered the Senator
from Delaware, 44 it hain't boys."

But I went on calm as I could :

" What are a few diamonds, that can be bought
and sold, to be compared to the downfall of all hope
and happiness, the contempt and derision of the
world, the ruin of a life, and the loss of a immortal
soul ? And your laws grant this privilege to chil-
dren if they are a day or two over seven."

44 That law was made for girls," cried the Sena-
tor agin in stentorian axents.

44 Yes," sez I, 44 men made that law, and girls and
wimmen have to stand it. But," sez I, lookin' and
actin' considerable fierce, as the mighty shame and
disgrace of that law come over me, 44 it is a law so
infamus that I should think the old Atlantic herself
(bein' a female, as is spozed) would jest rare herself
up and wash over the hull land, to try to wipe out

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 237

or bury the horrible disgrace that has been put upon
her sect — would swash up and cover your little
State completely up — it ort to, and hide it forever
from the heavens and the eye of females."

That man begun to quail, I see he did. But the
thought of Snow, the darlin', and our dear Babe at
Jonesville nerved me up agin — the thought of them,

BABE.

our own treasures, and the hosts of pretty children
all over our land, beloved by some hearts jest as
dearly as our children wuz.

And I went on more fiery than I had went, as I
thought, why Babe is old enough now, and Snow
will be in a little while, to lay their sweet little lives
down under this Jugernut built up by the vile pas-

238 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

sions of men, and goin' ahead of Isaac, lay them-
selves on the altar, take their own lives, and build
up the fire to consume 'em.

" The idee of law-makers who call themselves
wise makin' such laws as these !"

He stopped a handlin' that watch-chain of 'hisen,
his head drooped, his hands dropped demutely into
his lap. He murmured sunthin' almost mechani-
cally about " the law being on the statute-book/'

" I know it is," sez I. "I know the law is there.
But let wimmen have a chance to vote ; let a few
mothers and grandmothers get holt of that statute-
book, and see where that law would be."

Sez I eloquently, " No spring cleanin' and scour-
in* wuz ever done by females so thorough as they
would cleanse out them old law books and let a lit-
tle of God's purity and justice shine into their musty
old pages."

Sez I, " You made a great ado about Raymond
losin' that locket because it wuz precious with the
memories of your lost wife — you treasured it as your
most dear possession because it held a lock of her
hair, because she gin it to you, and her love and
tenderness seemed shinin' out of every jewel in it.

" But how would it be with a child that a mother
left as a souvenir of her deathless love, a part of her
own life left to a broken-hearted husband ? Would
a man who held such a child, such a little daughter
to his achin' heart, do and make a law by which the
child could be lost and ruined forever ?

" No ; the men that make these laws make 'em
for other folks'es children, not their own. It is
other fathers' girls that they doom to ruin, When

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 239

they license shameful houses it hain't their own
pretty daughters that they picture under the in-
famus ruffs, despised playthings for brutality and
lust. No ; it is some other parents' daughters."

My tone had been awful eloquent and riz up, for
nobody but the Lord knew how deeply I felt all I

MY TONE RIZ UP.

had said, and more than I ever could say on the
subject.

And I spoze I looked lofty and noble in my mean
— I spoze so.

Anyway, Senator Coleman quailed to a extent
that I hardly ever see quailed in my hull life, and I

240 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

have seen lots of quailin' in my day. And I pressed
home the charge.

Sez I, " You say this law wuz made for girls ; but
what if this boy that your sweet Kate Fairfax left
you had happened to be a girl, and had gin away all
that makes life worth living, how , would you have
felt then, Senator Coleman ?

" How would you feel a thinkin' that you had got
to meet her lovin', questionin' eyes up in heaven,
and when she asked you what you had done with
her child you would have to say that you had spent
all your life a tryin* to pass laws that wuz the ruina-
tion of her darlin' ; that you had done your best to
frame laws so that them that prey upon innocence
and childish ignorance could go unpunished, and
that the blood of these souls, the agony of breakin'
hearts wuz a layin' at your door ?

" How could you meet them sweet, lovin' eyes
and have to tell her this ?"

He jest crumpled right down, and almost buried
his face in his white linen handkerchief, and give
vent to some low groans that wuz damp with tears.

That man had never had the truth brung right
home to him before, and he trembled and he shrunk
before it.

And he promised me then and there that he would
turn right round and do his very best to make laws
to protect innocence and ignorance and to purify
the hull statute-book all he could ; and I felt that he
had tackled a hard job, but I believed he would try
his best. I guess he means to tell the truth.

And I wuz almost overpolite to him after this, not
wantin' to do or say a thing to break up his good

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 24 1

intentions ; and when he went away he gin me a
dretful meanin', earnest look, and sez he :

" You can depend upon me to keep my word."

And I believed he would.

Poor little Raymond cried when he went away,
cried and wept.

But the Senator promised to let him come back
before a great while for a good long visit — that com-
forted him a little. And we all kissed him and made
much of him ; and Snow, with the tears a standin' in
her sweet eyes, offered to gin him the doll she loves
best — Samantha Maggie Tirzah Ann— if it would be
any help to him. But he said he had ruther have
her keep it. And I believe he told the truth.

He is a good child.

"I HAD BEEN OUT A WALKInV

CHAPTER XL

HAD been out a walkin' one day, and
when I got back and went into the set-
tin* room, I see there wuz a visitor there,
and, lo and behold, when I wuz introduced
to him it wuz Col. Seybert !

He wuz dretful polite— and I know well
what belongs to good manners — and so I didn't
turn my back to him and walk off with my cap-
strings a wavin' back in a indignant, scornful way.

No ; he wuz a neighbor, and my son and daughter
wuz a neighborm' with him, so I treated him polite
but cool, and shook his hand back and forth mebby
once or twice, and sez :

" I am well, and I hope 1 find you the same."
Oh, I know how to appear.

I then went and sot down some distance from
him.

Genieve wuz a settin* in the next room holdin*

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM,

243

Boy in her arms — he wuzn't over and above well
that day (cuttin' teeth). And I looked out and
smiled at 'em both ; I then went to knittin'.

If I should be obleeged to kiss the Bible and tell
jest what I thought about Col. Seybert, I should say
that I didn't like his looks a mite, not a mite.

He looked bold, and brassy, and self-assertive,
and dissipated — he looked right down mean. And
1 should have said so if I hadn't never hearn a word
about his treatment of Victor, or his deviltry about
Hester, or anything.

You know in some foreign countries the officers
have to give you a passport to pass through the
country. And when you are a travellin' you have
to show your papers, and show up who you be and
what you be.

Wall, I spoze that custom is follered from one of
Nater's. She always fills out her papers and signs
'em with her own hand, so that folks that watch can
tell travellers a passin' through this world.

Nater had signed Col. Seybert's passport, had writ
it down in the gross, sensual, yet sneerin' lips, in
the cold, cruel look in his eyes, in his loud, boastin',
aggressive manner.

Yet he wuz a neighbor, and I felt that we must
neighbor with him.

After I come into the room, he begun, I spoze out
of politeness, to sort o' address himself to me in his
remarks. And he seemed to be a resoomin' the con-
versation my comin' in had interrupted.

And anon, he begun to went on about the colored
people perfectly shameful.

And as my mind roamed back and recalled the

244 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

various things I had heard of his doin', I most
imegiatly made up my mind that, neighbor or not,
if this thing kep' on I should have to gin him a
piece of my mind.

And there Genieve sot, the good, pretty, patient
creeter, a hearin' her own people run down to the

/

POOR WHITE.

lowest notch. I felt as if I should sink, but felt that
before I did sink I should speak.

He went on to tell what a dretful state the coun-
try wuz in, and all a owin' to the colored race ; and
sez he :

" The niggers don't take any interest in the wel-

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 245

fare of the country. What do they care what be-
comes of the nation if they can get their pan of
bacon and hominy ?

" A mule stands up before their eyes higher than
any idea of Justice or Liberty.

44 They are liars, they are thieves, they are lazy,
they are hangers-on to the skirts of civilization, they
can never stand upright, they have got to be carried
all their days. And it is this mass of ignorance, and
superstition, and vice that you Northerners want to
see ruling us white men of the South.

44 They can't read nor write, nor understand an
intelligible remark hardly ; and yet these are the
men that you want to have vote and get put in as
rulers over us.

44 Well, we will not submit to it, that is all there
is about it ; and if war comes, the sooner the better,
for we will die fighting for our freedom. It is bad
enough for us Southerners to be ruled by Northern
men, but when it comes to being ruled by beasts,
animals that are no higher than brutes, we will not
submit."

Sez I, for I would speak up, and I did :

44 Hain't there plenty of intelligent educated col-
ored people now, graduates of schools and colleges
— lawyers, teachers, ministers, etc., etc. ?"

44 Oh, yes, a few," he admitted reluctantly.

I knew there wuz a hundred thousand of 'em, if
there wuz one.

And I sez, 44 Hain't the condition of your poor
whites here in the South about as bad as the
negroes, mentally and morally and physically ?"

44 Well, yes," he admitted that it wuz. 44 But/'

246 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

sez he, "that don't alter the dangerous state of
affairs. The interests of a community cannot be
placed in the hands of an ignorant, vicious rabble
without terrible peril and danger. And when it is too
late the country will awake to this truth."

His axent wuz very skairful, and reproachful, and
rebukin', and despairing and everything. And so,
thinkses I, I will ventilate some of them views that
had gone through my mind when I first begin to
muse on the Race Problem, before I had heard so
much of Victor and Genieve's talk and Cousin John
Richards'es.

Thinkses I, "It won't do no hurt to promulgate
'em anyway," for I truly felt that if they wouldn't
do no good, they wouldn't be apt to do no hurt.

And then, when there is a big conundrum gin out
to a individual or a nation, it stands to reason that
there must be more than one answer to it — or, that
is, folks will try to answer it in more than fifty ways.

And anyway, this wuz part of one answer to the
conundrum, though folks might be dubersome of its
bein' the right one ; anyway, I sez, sez I :

" Hain't your Southern wimmen of the higher
classes high-minded and educated ladies ?"

4< Yes, God bless them," sez he, " they are as pure,
and good, and high minded as angels ; and to think
of these lofty-souled, spiritual creatures being under
the rule of these beasts of burden."

(Thinkses I, no thanks to him if they are good and
pure, the mean, miserable snipe.)

But I sez, " If these wimmen are so good and
noble, of course you wouldn't be afraid to trust 'em.
Why not let 'em vote, why not have a educated,

SAMANTHA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 247

moral vote, that would take the power out of the
hands of the low and vile, black and white, and
place it in the hands of the educated and moral, and
whether in this country or another" (sez I, as I
thought to mj'self of Victor's plan), " whether in
this Republic or a new colony, it would be a right
way, a safe way."

" I don't believe in women voting," sez Col. Sey-
bert, with a strong, witherin' emphasis. " I don't
believe in it — and they don't ; you couldn't get our
women to vote."

" How do you know they wouldn't? You say
they are high-minded and pure as angels. Now, an
angel, if she see that the best good of the greatest
number depended on her votin', she would jest lift
her wings right up and sail off to the pole and vote.
I believe it as much as I believe I am alive.

" If the wimmen of the South are as lofty princi-
pled as you say they are, and they wuz convinced
that they could rescue their beloved land from
danger by sacrincin' their own feelin's if necessary,
to keep the balance of power in the educated classes,
why, they would walk up and vote. I believe it jest
as much as I believe I am standin' here.

" The same bravery that met the terrible reverses
of the War with a smile hidin' a breakin' heart,
that endured privation, and almost starvation, for
their love to the cause, that same spirit hain't a
goin' to falter now. Let them know that they can
do great good to the imperilled South. Let them
know that the country wants an intelligent, educated
vote. Let the test of intelligence and a certain
amount of education and morality be required. And

248 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

then let every one of 'em vote, male or female, bond
or free, black or white.

" I don't spoze you could bring up, if you should
hunt for weeks, any good reason aginst this plan.
I don't spoze you would find any skairful and dan-
gerous objection to it. 1 don't spoze, really and
honestly, that it could be apt to do any harm. And
then, on the other hand, you could bring up lots of
reasons as to why it might do good ; lots of 'em
hefty reasons too — and good sound moral ones,
every one of 'em.

" The supremacy would for years and years, or
as long as safety demanded, remain in the hands of
the white race." (I didn't, in my mind, come out
aginst Victor's plans, but I knew that this would be
a good thing lor them that wuz left behind in the
exodus and them that went too, a helpful, encour-
agin' thing.)

" And jest as soon as the negro and the poor
whites get fit for it, as soon as they had fitted them-
selves morally and intellectually for the right of
suffrage, why it is only justice that they should
have it.

" It would ensure safety to the South to-day, and
it would open a bright and fair to-morrow, whether
in this land or any other, where the colored men and
wimmen can stand free and equal with the white race,
where the low, ignorant ones of the white people
can come up on another plane and a higher one,
where they can read this text a shinin' with the gold
letters of Justice and Common Sense, where they
glitter now with the sham gildin* of absurdity—

" ' All men are free and equal.'

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM,

249

M For a low, vicious, ignorant person, be he black
or be he white, is not equal to a high-minded, intelli-
gent one. And the law that sets them two up side
by side is an unjust and foolish law.

44 But the light of the fair to-morrow is a shinin*
down ; its light beckons, it inspires, it helps for-
ward.

44 It is a sure thing. Jest as soon as a man or
woman is fit to vote they can vote. If they prepare
themselves in ten years, there the golden prize is a
waitin' for 'em. If they fit themselves in one year
to reach it, so much the better.

*' It is a premium set upon effort for men and
wimmen, black and white, upon noble endeavor,
upon all that lifts a man above the animals that
perish.

44 To make one of the rulers of a great republic, a
great country, what can stimulate a young man or a
young woman more than this ? And every prize
that is open to the cultured and educated now will
in that time be open to them ; they can aspire to the
highest place jest as soon as they become worthy
of it.

"All the teachers in colored schools testify that
the ability of the colored boys and girls is fully equal
to the white. In Jonesville," sez I, 44 my own native
place, a little colored boy led the roll of honor, wuz
more perfect in school than the children of ministers
or judges, and they white as snow, and he as black
as a little ace of spades. ' '

Sez I, 44 The idees I have promulgated to you
would be apt to light up one side of the Race Prob-
lem."

250 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM

" You have got to put the niggers down/' sez
Col. Seybert, as onconvinced as ever, so I see.
" That is the only way to get along with them."

Sez 1, " That time has gone by, Col. Seybert.

" The time when it wuz possible to do this has
passed ; if you want to make a man, black or white,
stay in a dark dungeon, you mustn't break his chains
and show him the stairs that climb up to the sun-
shine and to liberty.

" If he has dropped his chains onto the damp,
mouldy pavement, if he has stood on the very low-
est of them steps and seen way up over his head the
warm sun a shinin' and heard the song of birds and
the distant rushin' of clear waters, you never can
put him back down into that dark, damp dungeon
agin, and slip his hands into the fetters and keep
him there.

" No ; he has had a glimpse of the wideness and
glory of liberty, and you never can smother it
agin.

"If this Nation had wanted to keep on a Nation
of slaveholders and slaves, it ortn't to have let the
light of Christianity and education shine down onto
'em at all ; it ortn't to have broke their chains and
called 'em free.

" They will never resign that glorious hope, Col.
Seybert ; they will press forward.

" They have crouched down and wore their fet-
ters long enough ; they are a goin' to stand up and
be free men and free wimmen.

"And for you or for me to try to put our puny
strengths in the way of God's everlastin' decree and
providence would be puttin* up our hands and

SAM AN TH A OA7 THE RACE PROBLEM. 251

tryin' to stop a whirlwind. It would whirl us out
of the way, but its path would be onward.

" The negroes will be a free people, a powerful,
God-fearing patient, noble one."

Col. Seybert wuzn't convinced. Fur from it.
He made a motion of extreme disgust. But I turned
my head a little, and over Col. Seybert's shoulder,
back behind him, I see a face.

It wuz a face illumined, riz up, inspired, if ever a
face wuz upon earth. A noble purpose shone
through it and made it a grand face.

It wuz Victor ; he had heard every word I had
said and believed every word, only he had fitted the
words to suit his own meaning.

I felt this by the rapt expression of his counte-
nance, and also by that free-masonry of the spirit
that binds the souls of the true lovers of Humanity,
whether they be black or white on the outside.

Col. Seybert turned and follered my look, and he
see Victor, and he spoke out angrily :

" Why do you follow me, you dog you, tight to
my heels ? Can't I ever escape your watchfulness ?"

(He had been op one of his sprees, so I hearn, and
Victor had kep' watch on him, and his nerves wuz
onstrung yet, and he felt hateful.)

14 Mrs. Seybert sent me over for you."

" Why don't you say your mistress, you fool ?"

Victor wuz perfectly respectful, but he did not
change his words.

" General Lord and his son have come, and she
wanted you told at once."

44 Well, follow me immediately ; don't dawdle
now."

252 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

" Yes, sir," said Victor. And he turned at once
to follow his brother (for I would keep on a callin'
him so in my mind).

But I glanced down and see Col. Seybert a talkin*
with Maggie down on the lawn (she and Thomas J.
had been called down-stairs, and had been gone for
some time entirely onbeknown to me, I had been so
riz up and by the side of myself).

And I sez to Victor :

" You believe what I said ?"

" Yes, God knows I do ! It is true, and will be
fulfilled in His own good time ; but not in this
land," sez he.

Genieve had come in with Boy, and she and Vic-
tor gin each other a silent greetin' of the eyes — a
heart greeting dear and sweet as earthly language
cannot be.

And in her big, eloquent eyes I see too her belief
in what I had said — I see that and more too. Them
sweet eyes looked grand and prophetic. Sez she :

" The time is hastening. I have seen the glow
of that to-morrow ; its light is waking the sleep-
ers.

" Africa has been asleep for ages. She has
crouched down in her pain, her long stupor. But
she is waking up. The dead form is beginning to
move — to rise up. She will stand upon her feet
among the nations of the earth. And when this
warm-hearted, musical, beauty-loving people come
to their own, who may paint their future ?

They will be leaders among the nations. Poesy,
art, song, oratory will find in them their highest ex-
ponents. And after bending and cowering beneath

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 253

its burdens for centuries, Africa will rise and tower
up above the other nations of the earth."

Oh, how Genieve's eyes shone and glowed with
inner light as she said these words, as if she wuz de-
scribin' sunthin' she see fur off.

And I declare it gin me such a feelin', sunthin'
like a cold chill, only more riz up like, that I didn't
know but she did see it.

And I don't know now but she did, and then agin
I don't know as she did. But anon the illumination
sort o' faded out of her eyes agin.

The old patient, brave look come over Victor's
face, and he followed Col. Seybert home ; and lo
and behold ! by the time Maggie come in to
ask about Boy the rapt prophetess Genieve had
changed agin into the faithful, quiet, patient nurse
Genny.

Wall, Boy grew pretty every day — not a pretti-
ness like Snow's, delicate and spiritual, but a sort of
a healthy, happy boy pretty. Bold, bright blue
eyes, rosy cheeks, and a mouth that seemed made
for smiles and kisses, and cheeks that wuz perfect
rose nests for dimples — short brown curls begun to
lengthen on his round little head.

And he wuz altogether a very pretty boy, very.

But Snow, the darlin', wuz the very light of our
eyes, the joy of our lives.

A sweeter child never lived, and that I know.
She twined round our hearts as it seemed as if no
other child ever had or ever could.

Her Pa and Ma watched her grow in beauty and
goodness with love-glorified eyes ; and as for her
Grandpa, I should have said he acted fairly foolish

254 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

if it wuz on any other subject than this that he wuz
so carried away on.

But I could see plain that every word he said in

rosy's baby.

commendation and praise of that child wuz Gospel
truth.

There never wuz such a beautiful child before,

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 255

either in America, or Asia, or Africa, or the Islands
of the Sea. And bein' entirely onprejudiced my-
self, of course I could see that he wuz in the right
on't.

That man wuz jest led round by her like a lamb
by the shearer, only the lamb might mebby be on-
willin' and Josiah Allen went happy and smilin', the
shearer wuz so awfully smart and pretty. (That
metafor don't quite fit into my meanin', but I guess
I will let it go. It is hard work sometimes to find
metafors a layin' round handy all rounded off to suit
round holes in your conversation, and square ones
to fit the square places, etc.)

But as I wuz a sayin', I never see a man take more
solid comfort than my pardner did a walkin' round,
and a talkin', and a playin* with that beautiful, beau-
tiful child.

And I too the same, and likewise.

And the help all jest about worshipped her, and
they couldn't do enough for her, from Genieve down
to Rosy and Rosy's baby.

That little ebony image would seem to laugh
louder and show his white teeth and the whites of
his little eyes like two pearl buttons sot in black
beads, and babble his baby talk faster and faster, if
she come in his sight.

Mebby it wuz her oncommon beauty and worth,
and then, agin, mebby it wuz the little nice bits she
always carried him — candy, and nuts, and cakes,
and such, and lots of her toys that she had sort o*
outgrown.

I want to be exact and truthful as a historian, and
so I say, mebby it wuz this and mebby it wuz that.

URY.

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 257

Wall, now that they wuz all well agin and oncora-
mon prosperous, Josiah and me begun to talk about
goin' back to Jonesville and our duties there.

But our children wouldn't hear a word to it
They said nuthin' hendered us from stayin* and tak-
in' a good rest, as Ury took good care of every-
thing, and we had worked hard, and ort to rest off
for a long time.

So we kep' on a stayin\ There wuzn't no reason
why we shouldn't, to tell the truth — Ury wuz a doin'
better with the farm than Josiah Allen could, or full
as well anyway. And Philury took care of every-
thing inside, and I knew I could trust her with
ontold gold, if I had any ontold gold ; so we
stayed on.

SOME NEIGHBORS.

CHAPTER XII.

T wuz a dretful curiosity to me and a never-
failin' source of interest to watch the ways
and habits of the Southern people about
Belle Fanchon, both white and colored.
The neighborhood wuzn't very thickly
settled with white people. But still there wuz quite
a number of neighbors, and they wuz about all of
'em kind-hearted, generous, hospitable people to
their equals.

They seemed to like their own folks the best, the
Southern folks ; but still they wuz very kind to my
son and his wife, and seemed willin' and glad to
neighbor with 'em. While there wuz so much sick-
ness in the house, they seemed anxious to help ; and
I see that they wuz warm-hearted, ready to take
trouble for other folks, ready to give all the help
they could.

And they wuz very polite to Josiah Allen and me,

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 259

and pleasant to talk with. But let the subject of the
freedmen come up, or the Freedmen's Bureau, I
could see in a minute that they hated that bureau —
hated it like a dog.

I hit aginst that bureau quite a number of times
in my talk with them neighbors, and I could see
that it creaked awfully in their ears ; its draws
drawed mighty heavy to 'em, and the hull structure
wuz hated by 'em worse than any gulontine wuz
ever hated by Imperialists.

And colored schools, of course there wuz excep-
tions to it, but, as a rule, them neighbors despised
the idee of schools for the " niggers/' despised the
teachers and the hull runnin' gear of the institu-
tion.

The colored men and wimmen they seemed to
look upon about as Josiah and me looked onto our
dairy, though mebby not quite so favorably, for
there wuz one young yearlin' heifer and one three-
year-old Jersey that I always said knew enough to
vote.

They had wonderful minds, both on 'em, so I
always said, and I petted 'em a sight and thought
evervthino* on 'em.

J o

But the " niggers" in their eyes wuz nuthin' and
never could be anything but slaves ; in that capacity
they wuz willin' to do anything for 'em — doctor 'em
when they wuz sick, and clothe 'em and take care
on 'em.

They wuz willin' to call 'em Uncle and Aunt and
Mammy, but to call 'em Mr. or Mrs. wuz a abomi-
nation to 'em ; and one woman rebuked me hard for
callin' a old black preacher Mr. Peters.

*6o SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Sez she, " I wouldn't think you would call a low-
down nigger 1 Mr.' "

But I sez, " I heard you call him Uncle, and that
is goin' ahead of me ; for much as I respect him for
his good, Christian qualities, I wouldn't go so fur as
to tell a wrong story in order to claim relationship
with him. He hain't no kin to me, and so I am
more distant to him and call him Mister."

But Mrs. Stanwood (that wuz her name) tosted
her head, and I see my deep, powerful argument
hadn't convinced her.

And most imegiatly after she begun to run down
the white teachers in the colored schools and run the
idee of their puttin' themselves down on a equality
with niggers and bein' so intimate with 'em.

" But," sez I, " you have told me that your little
girl always sleeps with her colored nurse, and you
did with yours when you wuz a child. And, ' sez
I, " that seems to me about as intimate as anybody
can get, to sleep in the same bed ; and when both are
a layin' down, they seem to be pretty much on a
equality — that is," sez I, reasonable, " if their pil-
lers are of the same height and bigness."

And I resoomed — " I never hearn of any white
teacher bein' in that state of equality with the col-
ored people," sez I ; " they are a laborin' for their
souls and minds mostly, and you can't seem to get
on such intimate terms with them, if you try, as you
can with bodies."

Miss Stanwood tosted her head fearful high at
this, and didn't seem impressed by the depth and
solidity of my argument no more than if it had been
a whiff of wind from a alkelie desert. It wuz offen-

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 261

sive to her. And she never seemed to care about
conversin' with me on them topics agin.

But I wuz dretful polite to her, and shouldn't
have said this if she hadn't opened the subject.

But from all my observations, I see the Southern-
ers felt pretty much alike on this subject, they wuz
about unanimous on it — though, as there always must
be everywhere, there wuz a few that thought differ-
ent.

There must be a little salt scattered everywhere,
else how could the old earth get salted ?

But I couldn't bear to hear too much skairful talk
from Southerners about the two races bein' intimate
with each other. I couldn't bear to hear too many
forebodin's on the subject, for I know and every-
body knows that ever sence slavery existed the two
races had been about as intimate with each other as
they could be— in some ways ; and the white man
to blame for it, in most every case.

And I couldn't seem to think the Bible and the
spellin' book wuz a goin' to add any dangerous fea-
tures to the case ; no, indeed. I know it wuz goin* to
be exactly the reverse and opposite.

But as interestin' as the white folks wuz to me to
behold and observe down in them Southern States,
the colored people themselves wuz still more of a
curiosity to me.

To me, who had always lived up North and had
never neighbored with anybody darker complex-
ioned than myself (my complexion is good, only some
tanned) — it wuz a constant source of interest and in-
struction to me " to look about and find out," as the
poet has so well remarked.

262 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

And I see, as I took my notes, that Victor and
Genieve wuz no more to be compared with the rest
of the race about them than a eagle and a white dove
wuz to be compared with ground birds.

These two seemed to be the very blossoms of the
crushed vine of black humanity, pure high blossoms
lifted up above the trompled stalks and tendrils of
the bruised and bleeding vine that had so long run
along the ground all over the South land, for any foot
to stamp on, for every bad influence of earth and
sky to centre on and debase.

(That hain't a over and above good metafor ; but
I'll let it go, bein' I am in some of a hurry.)

I spozed then, and I spoze still, that all over the
land, wherever this thick, bleeding, tangled under-
growth lingered and suffered, there wuz, anon and
even oftener, pure, fair posys lifted up to the sky.

I spozed there wuz hundreds and thousands of
bright, intelligent lives reachin' up out of the dark-
ness into the light, minds jest as bright as the white
race could boast, lives jest as pure and consecrated.
And I spozed then, and spoze now, that faster and
faster as the days go by, and the means of culture
and advancement are widening, will these souls be
lifted up nigher and nigher to the heavens they
aspire to.

A race that has given to the world a Fred Doug-
lass, and that sublime figure of Toussaint L'Ouver-
ture, that form that towers higher than any white
saint or hero — and he risin' to that almost divine
height by his own unaided powers, without culture
or education — what may it not hope to aspire to,
helped by these aids ?

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

263

Truly the future is glorious with hope and prom-
ise for the negro.

But to resoom and continue the epistol I com-
menced.

The most of the colored people about Belle Fan-
chon wuz fur different from Victor and Genieve.
But a close observer could trace back their faults
and weaknesses to their source.

Maggie's cook wuz a old black woman who wuzn't
over and above neat in her kitchen (it didn't look
much like the kitchen of a certain person whose
home wuz in Jonesville — no, incleed\ but who got up
awful good dinners and suppers and brekfusses.

She wuz tall and big-boneded, and black as jet.
Her hair, which wuz wool and partly white, wuz
twisted up on top of her head and surmounted b}' a
wonderful structure which she called a turben.

Sometimes this wuz constructed of a gorgeous
red and yeller handkerchief, and sometimes it wuz
white as snow ; and when she wore this, she always
wore a clean white neckerchief crossed on her
breast, and a large white apron. She wore glasses
too, which gave her a more dignified appearance.
Evidently she wore these for effect, as she always
looked over them, even when she took up a paper
or book and pretended to be readin' it ; she could
not read or write.

Indeed, when she had heavy work on hand, such
as washin', which made the situation of her best
glasses perilous, I have seen her wear a heavy pair
of bows, with no glasses in them whatever.

She evidently felt that these ornaments to her face
added both grace and dignity.

/I

AUNT MELA.

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 265

Her figure wuz a little bent with years, but the
fire of youth seemed burnin' still in her black eyes.

She boasted of havin' lived in the best families in
the South, and took great pride in relatin' instances
of the grandeur and wealth of the family she wuz
raised in.

The name she went by wuz Aunt Mela.

I spoze her name wuz or should have been
Amelia, but there wuzn't no law violated, as I knows
on, by her callin' herself " Mela." It wuz some
easier to speak anyway.

I used to go down into the kitchen and talk quite
a good deal with Aunt Mela.

At first she didn't seem to relish the idee of my
meddlm' with her, but as days went on and she see
that I wuz inclined to mind my own business, and
to help her once in a while when she wuz in a bad
place, she seemed to get easier in her mind, and
would talk considerable free with me.

But she never thought anything of me compared
to what she did of Maggie. She jest worshipped
her ; and Maggie wuz dretful good to her, gin her
a sight besides her wages, and took care on her
when she wuz sick, jest as faithful and good as she
would of her own Ma or of me.

And Aunt Mela had sick spells often with what
she called " misery in her back and misery in her
head."

I spoze it wuz backache and headache, that is
what I spoze.

Wall, Aunt Mela sot store by Maggie, for the rea-
sons I have stated, and then she liked her. And you
can't always parse that wTord and get the real true

266 SAM AN TH A ON THE It ACE PROBLEM.

meamn' of the why and the wherefore, why we jest
take to some folks and can't help it.

Wall, as I said, Aunt Mela wuz a wonderful good
cook, a Baptist by persuasion, and 1 guess she meant
to be as good as she could be, and honest. I believe
she tried to be.

She had tried to keep the Commandments, or the
biggest heft of 'em, ever sence she had jined the
meetin' house ; and then she loved Maggie so well
that she hated to wrong her in any way. But old
influences and habits wuz strong in her, and she
had common sense enough and honesty enough to
recognize their power.

One day Maggie and I went out into the vege-
table garden back of the house, and she had stopped
in the kitchen for sunthin', and she left the keys of
the store-room in the lock.

And Aunt Mela come a hurryin' after us into the
garden with the keys in her hand.

" Miss Maggie, chile, hain't I tole you not to lef
dem keys in de lock, an' now you've dun it agin."

She wuz fairly tremblin' with her earnestness, her
white turben a flutterin' in the mornin' breeze and
the air of her agitation.

" Why, Aunt Mela, you was there ; what hurt
would it do for me to leave them ? You are honest,
you wouldn't take anything."

" Miss Maggie, honey, chile, 'don' you leave dem
keys dah no moah. You say I'm hones', an' so I
hopes I am. But den agin I don' know. But when
anybody can't do sumpin', den dey don do it, an'
don' you leave dem keys dah no moah."

" Why, Aunt Mela, I trust you," sez Maggie in

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 267

her sweet voice. 14 I know you wouldn't do any-
thing to hurt me."

" To hurt you ? No, honey. But den how can I
tell when ole Mars Saten will jes' rise up an' try to
hurt ole Mela ? He may jes' make me do sumpin'
mean jes' to spite me for turnin' my back on him.
He jes* hates Massa Jesus, ole Saten duz, an' he's
tried to spite me ebery way sense I jine him.

" So you jes' keep dem keys, Miss Maggie, and if
ole Saten tells me to get sumpin' outen dat stow
room to teck to my sister down to Eden Centifc, I'll
say :

" 1 You jes' go 'long ! I can't do it nohow, for
Miss Maggie done got de keys.' "

Maggie took the keys and tried to keep them
after this.

But she told me that many times Aunt Mela had
warned her in the same way.

One day she had been tellin' me a good deal about
her trials and labors sence the War, and how she and
her sister had worked to get them a little home, and
how many times they had been cheated and imposed
upon, and made to pay over bills time and agin, owin'
to their ignorance of business.

And I asked her if she thought she wuz any bet-
ter off now than when she wuz a slave.

She straightened up her tall figure, put her hands
on her hips, and looked at me over the top of her
glasses.

" Betteh off, you say? You go lay down in de
dahk, tied to de floah ; if dat floah is cahpeted wid
velvet an' sahten, you'd feel betteh to get up an' go
wa>- out on de sand, or de ston' — you feel free —

268

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

you holt yur haid up — you breeve long brefs — you
are free !"

" But,"sez I, " the floor of slavery wuzn't covered
with velvet, wuz it ?"

" It wuz covered wid blood an' misery. De dun-
geon house wuz heavy wid groans, an' teahs, an'
agonies.

" My missy wuz good to me, as good as she could
be to a slave. But all my chillen, one aftah anoder,
wuz stole away from me.

' 1 Aftah havin' fo'teen chillen, lubbin' ebery one
ob 'em, like I would die ef dey wuz tuck away from
me — aftah holdin' dem fo'teen clost to my heart, so
dey couldn't be tuck nohow, I foun' my ole ahms
empty."

She stretched out her gaunt old arms with a inde-
scribable gesture of loneliness and woe, and went on
in a voice full of the tears and misery of that old
time : " I wuz kep' jes' to raise chillen for de
mahket, dat wuz my business. An' when I gin dem
chillen my heart's lub, dat wuz goin' beyent my
business.

" Slaves don' hab no call to be humans nohow ;
if dey had hearts dey wuz wrung clear outen der
bodies ; if dey had goodness dey los' it quick nuff.

" To try to be a good woman and true to your ole
man wuz goin' beyent yur business.

Ci Dey sole him too, de fader ob leben ob my chil-
len. He lubbed dem chillen too, jes* as well Massy
Allen lub little Missy Snow.

44 He had to leab 'em — toah off, covered wid
blood an' gashes, for he fit for us, fit to stay wid me
— we had libbed togedder sense I wuz fo'teen.

SAM AN THA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 269

" I neber see him agin. He wuz killed way
down in ole Kaintuck. He turned ugly aftah bein'
tuck from us, an' den he wuz whipped, an' he grew
weak an' homesick for us an' his ole home. An*
den dey whip him moah to meek him wuck.

" And he daid off one day right when dey wuz a
lashin' him up, Didn't see he wuz daid, kep' on a
whippin' his cole daid body/'

Here Aunt Mela sunk down in a chair and cov-
ered her face in a corner of her apron, and rocked
to and fro.

And I hain't ashamed to say that I took out my
white linen handkerchief and cried with her.

But pretty soon Aunt Mela wiped her eyes, ad-
justed her glasses agin, and went about her prepara-
tions for dinner.

And I jest hurried out of the kitchen, for my
heart wuz full, full and runnin' over.

And I gin her that very afternoon a bran new
gingham apron, chocolate and white checks, all
made up and trimmed acrost the bottom with as
many as seven rows of white braid.

And I didn't give her that apron a thinkin' it
would make up for the loss of her companion — no,
indeed ! What would store clothes be to me to take
the place of my Josiah ?

But I gin it to her to show my friendliness to her
and to show her that I liked her, and to remind her
that after she had been tosted and tore by the ragin'
billows she had got into a good harbor now, and a
well-meanin' one.

So I gin her the apron

There wuz another family of colored folks who

2JO SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

lived pretty nigh to Belle Fanchon, and I got to
know considerable about them because they used to
come after so many things to my son's house.

Every day they came after milk or buttermilk — one
little black face after another did I see there in the
kitchen ; but they all belonged to the same family, so
I wuz told, and seemed to be of all ages between six
and twenty. I could see they must take after the
Bible some, for all of the children had Skripter
names — Silus, and Barnibas, and Elikum, and Jede-
diah, and St. Luke, and more'n a dozen others, so it
seemed to me.

Aunt Mela didn't seem to think much on 'em. She
said they wuz " lazy, no account, low-down niggers."

But still, when we hearn that the mother wuz sick
(the father wuz always sick, or said he wuz), I went
to see her, and see she needed a dress bad — why,
Aunt Mela took holt and showed quite a interest in
our makin' it.

We bought some good calico, chocolate ground
with a red sot flower on it, and got her measure,
and then we made it up as quick as we could, for
she hadn't a dress to her back, only the old ragged
one that she had on.

Wall, we made it the easiest way we could ; we
started it for a sort of a blouse waist and a skirt, but
Aunt Mela told us if we let 'em go that way she
never would keep the skirt and waist together —
there would always be a strip between 'em, for she
wuz too lazy to keep 'em pinned together.

So we thought we would put some buttons on to
fasten the skirt to the waist, and then we made a
belt to go on over it of the same.

''despatched to get buttermilk."

272 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

And as we wuz in a huny, and knew the buttons
wouldn't show under the belt, we used some odd
buttons out of Maggie's button-bag, no two of a size
or color, most of 'em pantaloons buttons, but some
on 'em red ones, and one or two wruz white.

It looked like fury, but we knew the belt would
cover it.

Wall, we made it, and I carried it down to her
and explained the urgent necessity of the belt to her.
And the very next day she wore it up to our house
on a errant in the mornin\ I happened to be in the
kitchen, and when she come in there I see the full row
of pantaloons buttons a shinin' out all round her
waist, from the size of a dollar down to a pea.

As I looked on it, I know I looked strange.

And she asked me anxiously " if I wuz sick ?"

And sez I, " Yes, sick unto death/'

She wuz too lazy and shiftless to put on that belt.

Sez I pretty severe like in axent, " Dinah, why
didn't you put on that belt ?"

" Foh Gord, Missy, I cleen don fo'get it.

" Wall, what good duz it do for us to work and
make you a dress, if you are too shiftless to put it
on ?"

" Foh Gord, Missy, I dun no ; spect nobody
duz."

No," sez I in a despairin' axent, " nobody duz."
The father could earn good -wages at his trade,
which wuz paintin' and whitewashing and the
mother wuz a good cook and laundress. And the
boys wuz strong and healthy. But they would none
of them work only jest enough to get a little some-
thing to eat and a few articles of clothin', and then

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 273

thev would stop all labor, and none of the family
work another day's work till that wuz all used up.

Wall, she told me that day that her husband wuz
sick agin, and they hadn't any provisions ; so we sent
them down a sack of flour and a few pounds of
butter.

They wuz sent about the middle 01 the iorenoon
and St. Luke wuz imegiatly despatched to get but
termilk— he wanted to get a good deal, he said, for
thev wanted enough to make a good many messes
of biscuit. And Barnabas w^uz sent out to borry
some soda.

I sez to St. LuKe, " Why don't your Ma make riz
bread ? it would make the flour last as long agin,
and then it would be fur more wholesome."

And he told me that they didn't love it so well.

Wall, we sent the buttermilk.

That night Thomas Jefferson wuz kep' out late on
business, and he passed their cabin at twrelve o'clock
at night, and he see the family all up, seated round
the table eatin'.

And I asked Barnaby the next day, wrhen he
come on his usual errant for milk, if they wuz sick
in the night.

And he told me that they wuzn't sick, but his
father got hungry in the night, and his mother got
up and made some warm biscuit, and called 'em all
up, and they had supper in the night — warm biscuit,
and butter and preserves.

And I said to Maggie out to one side :
" They couldn't seem to eat up their provisions
fast enough in the daytime, so they had to set up
nights to do it."

274 SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

And she said, " So it seemed. "

Wall, the man's sickness wuz mostly in his stomach
— pain in his stomach, so his wife told me.

And that wuz the reason she told me that she
made warm biscuit so much.

And I told her it wuz the worst thing she could
cook for him, for his health and his pocket.

But she said he loved 'em so well, and he wuz so
kinder sick, she humored him dretfully ; she said if
anything should happen she shouldn't have re-
flexions.

She said she always made a five-gallon jar of
strawberry preserves ; she worked out to get the
sugar and she picked the strawberries herself, and
she said they wuzn't set on the table hardly any.
When he didn't feel well in the night, he would get
up and take a spoon and eat out of that jar. And she
ended agin by sayin' :

I shouldn't hab no 'flexions to cast onto myself
if any ting should happen to my ole man."

" Wall," sez I in deep earnest, " if you keep on in
this way you'll find that sunthin' will happen, for
no livin' stomach can stand such a strain cast onto
it, unless it is," sez I reasonably, " a goat or a mule.
I have hearn that they can digest stove-pipe and tin
cans. But a human stomach must break down
under it. And I'd advise you to feed him on good
plain bread and toast till he gets well, and keep
your preserves for meal-times and company. And
I'd advise you to set them great boys of yourn to
work stiddy, and not by fits and starts, and you'll
have as much agin comfort in your house, and health
too

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

But, good land ! I might jest as well have talked
to the wind, or better. For the wind, even if it
didn't pay no attention to my remarks — as it proba-
bly wouldn't, specially if it wuz blowin' hard — it
wouldn't get mad. It would jest blow right on, and
blow my remarks right away, and blow jest as friend-
ly as ever.

But she got mad — mad as a hen. And she didn't
send after milk for as much as three days. But it
didn't hold out ; she sent on the fourth day.

But it didn't change their course any. He kep' on
a eatin' hot biscuit and butter and preserves, when
they had 'em, night and day, and they all would.
And when they hadn't anything to eat, and couldn't
get anything in any other way, why, they would go
without till they wuz most starved, and then they
would sally out and work a day or two, and then
the same scenes would be enacted right over agin.

Good land ! there didn't seem to be no use of talk-
in', and still I sort o' kep' on.

There wuz one bov amongst 'em, and that wuz
St. Luke, and mebby it wuz because he wuz named
after that likely old apostel, and then, agin, mebby
it wuzn't ; but anyway, he did seem to have a little
more pride and a little more sense and gumption
than the rest.

And I kep' a naggin' at him, and his Pa and Ma,
and Thomas J. and Maggie, and Josiah, till with a
tremendus effort I did get that boy into a new suit
of clothes and started him off to work for his board
and go to school at a place about three miles off.
And though he run away five times in as many
weeks — twice to come home and three times to go a

276 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

fishm' — I kep' on, and by argument, and persuasion,
and a new jack-knife, and a coaxin' him up, and per-
suadin' the folks to try him a little longer, I got him
quelled down, and he begun to go easier in the har-
ness, and stiddier. And his teacher sez " he will
make a smart boy yet."

So I see jest what I always knew wuz a fact, " that
while the lamp holds out to burn the vilest sinner
may return."

And if I wuz a goin' to sing that him, I would
omit two words in the last stanza, and for the words
" vilest sinner'' I would sing shiftless creeter."

For these two words are what will apply to his
hull family, root and branch, specially the roots.
Shiftless, ornary, no account, father and mother
both ; and bein' full of shiftless, no account qualities,
and bein' married, what could they do, or be expect-
ed to do, but bring into the world a lot of still shift-
lesser, no accounter creeters ?

Inheritm' shiftlessness, and lazyness, and improvi-
dence on both sides, with their own individual lazy-
ness and no accountness added, what can we expect
of these offsprings ?

But still I see in the case of St. Luke, as in the
words of the him I quoted, that there is in educa-
tion and the wholesome restraints of proper livin'
and trainin' a hope for them — for the poor blacks
and the poor whites, for the poor whites are jest as
shiftless, jest as ignorant, and jest as no account.

CHAPTER XIII.

Cv NE mornin' we wuz all a settin' out
V\ on the big piazza, for it wuz a cloud-
) less day, and it wuz exceedingly
J J pleasant out there.
i/ Snow wuz a settin' to one side a

playin' with her little dolly that I
had carried down to her — a nice one, with real hair,
and very round blue eyes and red cheeks.

I bought it at Loontown, at a expense of over
seventy-live cents, and dressed it myself, with a little
of Philury's help about the boddist waist.

Its dress wuz pink cambrick trimmed heavy with
white linen lace — it wuz some I had on a nightcap,
but it wuz so firm it had wore the nightcap out. It
wuz a very good and amiable-lookin' doll when we
had got it all trimmed off, and Snow thought her
eyes on it.

She had named it to once Samantha Maggie Tir-
zah Ann.

278 SAM AN TH A OAT THE RACE PROBLEM.

" After the hull caboodle on us," as Josiah said ;
but at my request she called it Dolly.

Good land ! I thought I never could hear her a goin*
round a talkin' about Samantha Maggie Tirzah Ann.
The idee ! It would have been too much for
her.

Wall, she wuz a settin' a playin* with Dolly, and
anon sort o' lookin* up and talkin' to somebody she
didn't see. Wuzn't it queer how she would always
do this, and smile confidential at 'em, and wave her
little white hand to 'em sometimes, as if in greetin' or
good-bye ?

Queer, but pretty in her, so I always thought.

I wish I knew who she had in her mind when she
done it, or if she see anybody or hearn anybody.
For once in a while she would sort o' lift up her lit-
tle smilin' face and seem to listen — listen.

Wall, she wuz a beautiful child — and every child
has its pretty ways and its dretful curius ones, its
angel traits and its tuther ones. Bless their sweet
hearts, wherever they be ! I love the hull on 'em,
and can't help it.

Boy wuz a layin' in his little crib, and Genieve
wuz a settin' by it a mindin' the child. And my son
and daughter, Thomas Jefferson and Maggie, wuz a
settin' near each other (that is where they would
always be if they had their own way).

Thomas J. was readin' a little to her out of a new
book that come in a box of books the night before,
and Maggie wuz a sewin' on a little white dress for
Boy.

Cousin John Richard wuz partly a layin' down on
a bamboo couch with a lot of pillows to his back — he

*A PERFECT DAGON."

280 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

had had a dretful backache for a day or two. But
he wuz a lookin' some more comfortable than he
had, and not quite so wan, but he wuz still fur
wanner than I loved to see him. I myself wuz a
knittin' and occasionally a liftin' my eyes to look
over the path that led to the village, for my com-
panion had walked down there to get a pair of new
suspenders.

I knew it wuzn't time for him to get back yet ; but
such is woman's love, I kep' watch of the track on
which I expected to see the beloved form approach-
in' bimeby.

That man is almost my idol.

It hain't right to worship a human creeter I know ;
and then agin, sometimes, when I would meditate
on the wickedness of my bein' so completely
wrapped up in him, I have tried to exonerate my-
self by this thought :

The children of Israel wuz commanded not to
worship anything that wuz like anything else in
heaven or on earth. And I have sometimes felt that
I would get clear on that head if I knelt to him every
day and burned incense under him, and made a per-
feet Dagon of him.

For my dear companion is truly onlike anything I
ever see or hearn on ; his demeaners is different, and
his acts and his talk under excitement. And his
linement looks fur different from any other iolks'es
linements.

But I am a digressing and to resoom.

We sot there as happy as a nest full of turkle
doves, when all of a sudden the girl come up with a
card on a little silver server, and handed it to Mag-

SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 2S1

gie as if it wuz a cracker or a cup of tea, and Mag-
gie took it and read out :
" Colonel Seybert."

And Thomas J. spoke up and told the girl to ask
the Colonel out there where we wuz ; and so she
did, and sot him a chair by Thomas J., out amongst
the rose-vines.

He come in as polite as ever, and accosted us all
in a very genteel way. He had brought Maggie a
great bunch of orchids, and said " the Madam had
sent them to her with her compliments."

He meant his wife — he most always called her so.

The posys he brought wuz very rare. They grow
on air mostly, and only have the very slightest soil
to connect 'em with the earth.

And from all accounts (I thought to myself) that
wuz the way that his angel of a wife lived herself.
Almost all of the roots of her sweet nater wuz in
heaven. Jest enough connection with this world so
all could see the brightness and bloom and size of
the divine flower of holiness that sprung up out of
her lone, unhappy life.

Maggie took the flowers and thanked him, and
told him to tell Mrs. Seybert how much she prized
her kind thoughtfulness, and how sorr}^ she wuz to
hear of her continued ill health.

That woman, from all I hear, hain't long for this
world.

Wall, they all passed the time of day in politeness
and general conversation, till — for my life I can't
hardly tell how it begun — but I believe Col. Sey-
bert had had some trouble with his colored help
— but anyway and tenny rate, Col. Seybert launched

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

out into a perfect tirade of abuse of the black
race.

He didn't notice Genieve a settin' there no more'n
a ice-cold avalanche would stay its course for a idle-
wiss blossom — no ; it would crunch right along
down and crush the blossom without any pity or
compunction.

Good land ! you don't look for pity, or considera-
tion, or any other of the soft, warm-souled graces in
a avalanche of snow and ice, or the nater of a bad
man.

But I jest think my eyes of Genieve, and so duz
Maggie and all on us, and we every one on us tried
to turn the conversation into more peaceful chan-
nels.

Why, I myself brung up religion, turnips, catnip,
the tariff, the Dismal Swamp, and oranges, a tryin*
to get his mind off.

And Maggie brung up as many, if not more'n {
did, and Thomas J. the same, and etcetery.

And even little Snow, seemin' to understand what
wuz incumbent on her to do as a little lady, brung
up the doll and showed her to the Colonel, and
called her by her hull name, Samantha Maggie Tir-
zah Ann.

As for Cousin John Richard, we didn't expect no
outlay of strength from him, feelin', as he did, in
pain all the time.

But Maggie, seein', I spoze, our efforts wuz futiler
than we could hope, tried to make another diversion
by orderin' in a pitcher of drink made from the juice
of oranges and pineapples, very sweet and delicious.
But he drinked it right off and went on ; it seemed

SAMANTHA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 283

to jest refresh him and renew his strength to talk —
we see he couldn't be stopped nohow.

And seem* he wuz a neighbor, and seem' tha*
Genieve sot there jest as calm as a mornin' in June,
and didn't seem to care a mite about his talk, why.
we had to let him take his swing and talk his talk
out.

But before several minutes had passed I jest found
myself a soarin' up onbeknown to myself, and I felt
that I must, if he went on much longer, jest wade
in and give him a piece of my mind, and I felt that
I shouldn't scrimp him in the piece nuther.

Why, his talk wuz scandalous.

He talked as if the blacks wuz of no more conse-
quence than so many black ants on a ant-hill, and it
seemed as if he would love to jest walk right over
'em and crush 'em all down under his heel.

Why, he showed such a deadlv horstility, and
contempt, and sco.n to 'em and to everything con-
nected with 'em, that at last I had to speak out.

And sez I, " If you fee! like that, I shouldn't think
you would oppose 'em in their skeme of coloniza-
tion." (I knew jest how bitter he had been about
his brother Victor goin', and the rest of his laborers.^)

Sez I, " I should think, if vou had such a opinion
of 'em, the sooner vou could get rid of the hull
caboodle of 'em the better vou would like it."

He fairlv sco wled, he looked so mad.

But the thought of Genieve sort o' boved me up,
and duty, and I didn't care for his black looks, not
a mite.

And I felt that bein' a visitor myself, I could
branch out and argue with him to a better advantage

284 SA MA NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

to the laws of horspitality than if I wuz master or
mistress of the house. So, as I sez, seem' him de-
termined to cut and slash, I jest boldly waded in.

But, good land ! of all the talk, he did go on and
talk about the deep and stupendous folly of coloniza-
tion.

Why, he brung up every argument he could think
on aginst the idee, and piled 'em up in front of me.
But I jest sot there calmly a knittin', a seamin' two
and one, and a not bein' skairt by any of 'em.

And pretty soon — I spoze it wuz seem' that I
looked as calm as a summer day — he sort o' curbed
himself in, as it were, and begun to talk some calmer
and composeder.

And sez he, " If there wuz no other insurmountable
objection, look at the expense, the enormous cost of
taking the blacks to Africa and supporting 'em there
till they could become self-supporting."

And I sez, " Will it make the conundrum any
easier to get the answer to, to wait till the black peo-
ple are twice as numerous ? They obey the Bible
strictly when it tells 'em to multiply and replenish
the earth. In less than twenty years they will out-
number the white race here by a million or more.
What will be done then ?"

" Keep them under," sez he. " Let them keep
their place, the place the Lord designed them for, as
servants to the white man. And then," sez he, " one
white man could control a hundred of the beasts."

But I sez, " To say nuthin' of the right or wrong
of that matter, that day has gone by. They have
tasted the air of freedom, and that sweet air always
blows out the flower of liberty, not slavery. You

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 285

can't put 'em back in their chains agin. Education
and culture and the Emancipation Proclamation has
forever done away with that.

" You can never make 'em slaves agin, but you
can be their slaves. The white race, so long domi-
nant, if it still cultivates the habits of tyranny, and
cruelty, and injustice, it can be made slaves to the
dominant black race ; for it is, as you well know,
only a question of a few years when they will out-
number the white people here.

"And which would you ruther have, the black
shadow growm' deeper and deeper every year on
this continent, and sectional hatred and race preju-
dice, and fear, and distrust, and jealousy, and alarm,
and a constant variance all the time, onrest, and de-
spair, and helplessness— which would you ruther
have, them cruel spirits to camp down by you for
good, and a growin? worse all the time, or to make
a big effort and heave the load off for good, and clear
the air of all the bad atmosphere of internal and
inevitable war, and let Peace settle down on this
onhappy land agin ? For it would be jest as great
a relief to the oppressor as to the oppressed. Lots
of good folks South have all their life groaned under
this problem of what to do with this burden laid
upon their backs by their ancestors.

" They wanted to do right, but didn't see their
way clear. They wanted to solve this problem, but
it wuz too big for 'em."

Then Maggie, bless her sweet soul, spoke up, and
sez she, " / believe in the great power of Christian-
ity and education."

And Col. Seybert sez, " They have got too much

2&6 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

education now ; that is what ails the brutish up-
starts. In the old times, when they couldn't read
nor write nor put on any of their cursed airs, you
could get along as well again with them."

Cousin John Richard bent on him a look that held
in each eye a hull Sermon on the Mount and the
Ten Commandments, besides lots of Gospel, and
pity, and a sort of contempt too.

It wuz a strange look.

But I wouldn't demean myself by even answerin*
him, but replied to my daughter, and sez :

" I don't see how any one can help thinkin' that
Christianity and education are the best solutions of
this problem that can possibly be found if the black
man remains here," or wherever he is, I added rea-
sonably, in my own mind.

These, with an educated sufferage, that includes
the best of black and white, male and female, bond
and free, is, in my opinion, the only hope of this
Nation under these circumstances.

But," sez I, " religion, though it can do almost
anything, yet there are some things it hain't never
done, and I don't spoze ever will do : it hain't never
took the spots offen a leopard's back or made a
jackal coo like a dove or a serpent walk upright, or
a turkle dove mate with a tiger.

" The One who made all nater and true religion,
who holds the heavens and earth and seas in His
hands, has laid down certain laws ever sence the
creation of the world. And it is perfectly impossi-
ble for us to break down them laws, or climb over
'em, or creep under 'em.

" There they are, firm, immutible, not to be stirred

SA MA NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 287

one jot or tittle by all the strength that can be
brought to bear aginst 'em. And Hypocrisy and
Cant hain't a goin' to help any by sayin' that Re-
ligion is a doin' sunthin' that it can't do.

So, what can we do ? All we have got to do in
this matter is to acknowledge them laws and submit
to 'em ; ignorin' 'em or walkin' by 'em with our heads
up in the air a pretendin' we don't see 'em don't
amount to anything at all, only we are liable to
stumble and fall down ourselves.

"And one of these laws is the inherient difference
between the black and the white races.

There is no use a arguin' on it and a sayin' that it
is onreasonable, and it ort to be overcome, etc.

Who sez it is reasonable ? I don't. It would be
awful convenient sometimes if water would run up
hill ; but it won't. And I have to accept the plain
fact and lug the water up hill in a pail. For me to
stand on top of the hill and holler for it to come up
would be foolish. I might yell all my life, and
couldn't start a drop up hill, and my lungs would be
tired out for nuthin'. And you might think some-
times that a good old childless cat might adopt a
mouse ; but she won't, only in one way. Mebby it
hain't Christian in her, but she wuz made that- way.
If she accepts it at all, it will be inside of her. I
can't help it, and she can't. She wruz made that way
before the mountains wuz formed, like as not.

Religion can do much, but it never has made
black white or put the nater of a eagle into a snail,
or the virtues of a angel under the hide of a bear.

"And the spellin' book is extremely desirable and
good, and highly worthy, and to be praised. But

288

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

then there are things too strong for education to
overcome. For instance, to draw up the simely
that I have drawed before — it hain't poetick, but one
which is familiar to men or wimmen : Education
can't put a number seven foot into a number three
shoe.

No, it can't be did, and education may orate to
them big toes in Greek or Latin, and it may read
essays to 'em in words of seven or eight syllables,
and quote all the poets to 'em, livin' or dead, but it
hain't a goin' to quell 'em down, and make 'em any
smaller. It hain't a goin' to get 'em into that
shoe.

"And when folks talk too much about the sud-
den miracles that education and Christian teachin'
is going to do to the black race, and seem to expect
'em to become perfect all to once, I want to ask 'em
why it hain't made our own race perfect ?

" The white race has had the benefit of Christian-
ity and Education for hundreds of years, and all the
means of culture, and it hain't hendered 'em from
bein' as mean as the Old Harry to the black man,
and they despise and wrong the negro jest as much
to-day as if St. Paul had never preached or Jesus
had not died for the world."

(I meant some on 'em — I didn't mean all ; but I
wuz kinder carried away by my own eloquence.)

Now," sez I, " it is a settled thing, and can't
be got round, this inherient, instinctive difference
between the black and white races — if they would,
they never can amalgamate and be a united people.

I have said it and repeated it time and agin, and
it is true every time, and will keep on bein' true

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

289

1 after my poor, feeble, falterin* tongue lies silent in
the grave/ M

I sez this in a kinder him axent, very strikin' and
touchin', but Col. Seybert wuzn't touched nor struck
by it, as I could see ; but I kep' on all the same.

"As I have said, time and agin, this law has
stood ever sence creation ; and so what is the use of
thinkin' it can be broke up by writin' on a little slip
of paper at Washington, D. C. ?

" Good land ! angels and principalities, and
powers, and things present and things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creeter has
never made any difference in that law, nor never
will.

"And then how silly to think a little mite of
paper, made out of old rags and straw, mebby, and
wrote over with a few man-made words by a steel
pen, is a goin' to overcome this law and vanquish it !
Why, it can't be done. And your talk, and my talk,
and talk from all the pulpits and legislators in the
world is only a few whiffs of air a blowin' over this
law — a refreshin' of it, so to speak.

Xow, this is a settled thing, and it only remains
for us to deal with it the best way we can."

Col. Seybert, I believe, wuz fairly orowbeat and
stunted to hear such remarkable eloquence from a
female ; but he wouldn't demean himself by ownin'
it — in fact, he wanted to give me a rebuke for ven-
turin' out of what he considered a woman's spear.

He did not dain a reply to me, but he kinder
wheeled round in his chair and accosted Cousin
John Richard. He hadn't said a word to him — only
when he wuz introduced to h; 111 lie passed the usual

2QC SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

compliments. But he had hearn about him a sight,
I know, and his labors amongst the freedmen, and I
spoze mebby half of his mean talk had been aimed
at that good creeter a layin' there on the lounge with
a rug over his feet and three plasters onto his dear
achin' back.

And then he didn't want to hear me talk any more
— I could see that, and he branched right off onto
another branch of the subject, and sez he to John
Richard :

I should think your preaching would have some
effect if you are a preacher of Christ. You ought to
teach the niggers to depend on the consolation of
the Gospel, and you ought to preach the Gospel of
Peace ; and that means, I should think, to-have the
niggers obey their masters, and so save war and
bloodshed, instead of inciting them to rebellion and
putting absurd ideas into their heads about coloniza-
tion and a country of their own." He spoke in a
dretful sneering disagreeable tone, that madded
me moren considerable ; but John Richard's face
wuz as serene as new milk, and he answered calmly,
in a voice kinder low from sickness, but clear as
a silver bell :

" The Book says, ' There is a time for peace and a
time to resist oppression.' "

And I spoke up agin, bein' bound to take John
Richard's part, and keep him from talkin' all I
could, sick as he wuz, and thern plasters all a
drawin'.

I sez, " No doubt the colonies wuz preached to to
set down in chains and enjoy religion, and give up
all idees of independence ; but our old 4 fathers

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 291

wouldn't be made to feel so. They seemed to feel
that the time had come when the Lord wuz a goin'
to lead 'em out mto freedom. And they felt they
wuz a preachin' the Gospel of Liberty and Freedom,
the backbones of Christianity, Avhen they struck out
for Indeoendence."

A KU-KLUXER.

Cousin John Richard looked real satisfied to me,
though wan, as I went on, and sez he :

" Yes, to resist intolerable and unjust laws has
always been considered lawful and right."

" But," sez Col. Seybert, " the Bible commands
you, if you are smitten on one cheek to turn the
other also."

" Then why don't you do it?" sez I, all wrought
up. " Your race has had centuries of Christianity

292 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

to civilize and Christianize it, and why don't you set
a example to the ignorant ones ? Mark out a sam-
pler that they can foller on and copy. Why don't
your Regulators and your Ku-Kluxers turn their
right cheeks ? I'd love to have 'em turn 'em to me
a spell," sez I darkly.

Col. Seybert kinder snorted out sunthin' that I
didn't quite hear. I believe, and always shall, that
there wuz a cuss word in it ; but I didn't care, and
before I could speak agin, Cousin John Richard's
calm voice riz up a sayin' :

" You say this race is totally ignorant and brutish,
and yet you expect high qualities from them — ex-
traordinary virtues. You expect patience more
perfect than long years of training has given the
white race. You expect endurance, nobility, for-
bearance, forgiveness of injuries and wrongs — in fact,
you expect the goodness of angels and the wisdom
of Solomon, and expect an insolvable problem to be
solved by those you rank with your cattle.

It is a strange thing," sez Cousin John Richard,
as he lay back agin on his cushions. But I went up
and gin him a spoonful of spignut before I let him
speak agin.

Col. Seybert waved off John Richard's noble re-
buke, and went on on his old ground :

Your teachers and preachers have overrun the
South ever since the War, with your carpet-bags full
of Bibles and hymn-books, and tracts, and spelling-
books. Why don't you sit down now and wait and
see the fruit of your labors ripen about you instead
of encouraging them in this preposterous idea of
colonization ?"

SAM AN THA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 293

But Cousin John Richard sez gently but strongly :

" Perhaps this is the fruit that the Lord of the
harvest is causing to spring up from the seeds plant-
ed in the hearts of this people. Perhaps the full
ripening of this fruit depends upon the sunshine of
another and a calmer sky."

" Yes," sez I, " who knows but this race, who
stood harmless and patient durin' the War, while
the first half of their chains wuz bein' struck offen
'em, who showed such a spectacle of remarkable
magnanimity and wisdom that the hull world ad-
mired and wondered, and who used their first weak
strength to fight for the safety of the race that had
held them in bondage — the race that could do
this," sez I, " has got the strength and the divine
nobilitv and wisdom to get their full liberty in a
nation of their own without the sound of a gun or
the liftin' of an arm in warfare.

They will do it, too," sez I, carried away and en-
thused by the thought of how this people had stood
still and see the salvation of the Lord.

Sez I, " They will not turn into a brutal, blood-
thirst}' mob now, after 1 Thus far the Lord hath led
them on/ "

I repeated these last words in my melodius him
axents : but Col. Sevbert wuzn't melted by it — no,
indeed.

He went on in witherin' axents aginst the idee of
colonization ; sez he in conclusion :

If there was not any other insurmountable ob-
jection to the project, the expense would be so enor-
mous that the Government never would nor never
could undertake it."

294 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM,

" As to the never could, we might leave that
out," sez I, " and deal with the never would. For
the never could hain't true. If a war should break
out to-morrow between this country and England,
do you believe that this country never could furnish
the means to carry it on ? Why, it would seem the
easiest thing in the world to raise millions on mill-
ions of dollars.

It would seem the only thing and the right
thing to do to imegiatly and to once raise ten times
the amount that would be necessary to take the hull
black race to the Congo Valley and support 'era
there for a year.

" They would do this because public safety de-
manded it ; and I can tell 'em plain that they will
most probable see the day, and pretty soon too, that
the public safety demands 'em to do as they'd ort to
in this case.

Who got the black race here? They didn't
want to come — no, fur from it. This nation got 'em
here ; and now, as the two races can't live together
in peace, and the land is gettin' too small for both of
'em, if the white race don't want to leave the coun-
try themselves, let 'em carry this people back to the
land they stole 'em from.

" They wouldn't all go ; it hain't probable nor
possible to suppose such a thing.

" There are many who would* be perfectly willin'
to remain here, and who would perhaps be better
off by doin' so— many aged ones who would choose
to stay here and go to heaven from the land of their
adoption, many who have a flourishin' business, and

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 295

are doin' well here, and who do not wish an im-
mediate change.

" But the Race Problem would be solved if the
main body of the host passed over into the New Re-
public. The few that remained would not endanger
the commonwealth, and would most likely, in the
fulness of time, and as the glowin' story of the New
Republic reached their ears, be gathered into the
Land of Promise, to become leaders there, and help-
ers of the weak."

Sez Col. Seybert, " They would starve there.
They are a low, degraded, helpless, lazy set. They
had rather lay in the sun and do nothing than to
work."

As Col. Seybert said this he lay back in his chair
in a still more lazy and luxurious manner, and
stretched out his long legs in the sun.

(What wuz he doin' himself, I'd like to know ?
Talk about laziness ! the idee !)

And I sez, " Wall, it's easier for most folks to
rest than it is for 'em to work. As to their entire
helplessness and ignorance, twenty-five years ago
there wuz never an escapin' Union prisoner who
found a negro so low and ignorant that he could not
help him to escape ; or so destitute of resources and
influence that he could not command the help of
other black men.

In fact, there wuz a great silent army kep' up
under the surface, a systematic underground rail-
road, maintained and controlled in the most efficient
and prudent manner by this despised people all
through the War. Twenty-five years of partial

SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 297

education and partial freedom has not weakened this
foresight and caution.

" If they could carry on this secret and most dan-
gerous enterprise right under the eyes of their ene-
mies without violence or bloodshed, if they could,
under peril of detection and death, pilot a helpless
Unionist through a network of dangers — Confed-
erate soldiers, spies, pickets, false friends, and foes
— out into safety, it seems as if they might conduct
their own selves through the environing camps of
ignorance and need, out into safety and prosperity.

" Specially, as they would be out from under the
paralyzin' gaze of enemies, out where they wuz
breathin' free air, and amongst friends.

I have been spozin'," sez I, " that the Nation
should do as it ort to, and when it borrys a thing
take it back home agin, jest as J would do if I bor-
ryed a cat of Miss Gowdey, or Josiah would do if
he borrved a horse.

We should carry 'em back when we got through
with 'em, specially if we stole 'em (though you
wouldn't ketch us at it).

I have been spozin' that Uncle Sam should rig
out a few ships and put some money in his pockets,
and take back a few shiploads of this people, and
start 'em to livin' in the beautiful Congo Valley.

I should think as much agin of him if he would.
And he would think more of himself, I would bet.

He would stand riz up in the eyes of the othef
admirin' nations of the world as a man that wuz hon-
est and laid out to do as he had ort to do, and as
he would be done by.

Why, if Uncle Sam had been stole away from

2gS SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

his home and his faithful Columbia, and had been
worked to death, and whipped, and abused every-
way, wouldn't he be glad to be took back to his own
home agin, and wouldn't he expect the ones that
stole him to do it ?
" Yes, indeed.

" Then why hain't he willin' to do as he would be
done by ?

But as I say, I have been spozin' this, that
Uncle Sam should turn honest and do this ; but
some think the colored people would do it them-
selves.

" They have amassed millions of dollars sence the
War, in the face of the almost intolerable drawbacks
put upon 'em. You will find thousands of 'em
ownin' their houses and lands ; you will find thou-
sands and thousands of wealthy ones ; you will find
a hundred thousand graduates of schools and col-
leges, and fillin' every station — lawyers, clergymen,
senators, and every place where merit can win, and
the law couldn't keep them down-- they have found
their way. That don't look like entire helplessness
and ignorance, duz it ? for they have done all this
with the tide settin' full aginst 'em, right in the
face of class prejudice, and unjust laws, and customs,
and rivalry, and hatred.''

" Well, of course," sez Col. Seybert, " there are
some intelligent niggers, and industrious ones ; but
look at the mass, the ignorant, depraved, totally in-
competent ones."

And I sez, " There has been a few in our own
race, ignorant, shiftless, lazy, and depraved, who has
learnt the colored men to be vicious for 200 years.

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 299

And as for laziness, it seems as if there had to be
some drones amongst the hive of busy workers.
Nater has seemed to plan it so for some reason, I
can't tell why, nor Josiah can't.

Now, with our bees, there are sights of drones
that don't do nuthin' — only steal and eat up what the
workers work so hard for.

I don't see why it is so ; it is one of Nater's
mysterys.

" And in all communities there has got to be some
lazy, shiftless hangers-on. And the strong will have
to do till the end of time, so far as I can see, what
the Bible tells 'em to : * Bear the burdens of the
weak.'

I don't know as there will ever be any change,"
sez I, lookin' dreamily off beyend Col. Seybert into
the everlastin' strangeness of things present and
things to come — " I don't know as there will ever be
any change in that particiler, for the Bible sez ex-
pressly :

The poor you always have with you.'
" And always means always, I spoze ; and poor
means poor in every sense of the word, I have cal-
culated.

" And that text applies to black and white folks
alike.

But as I have said prior and heretofore, if the
colored people have done so well in the last twenty-
five years, in spite of all the burdens and hindrances
of race prejudice and the weights that unjust laws
impose on 'em, by the hatred and envy of them that
can't bear to see their prosperity — if they have done
so well in the chill and the dark, as yon may say,

3OO SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

what can't they do when they come out in the light
and the warmth of a place where sure rewards wait
upon honest labor — where the atmosphere is helpful,
and inspiring and hopeful, instead of icy, and drag-
gin' down, and choking and stiflin'.

" Where their color is fashionable, and not a
badge of disgrace.

" Where their rulers will be them that love 'em
and seek their best good, their own people, their
peers, only wiser and more helpful than they be— as
the Declaration of Independence sez free men must
be, in a free land, judged by their peers, their equals.

" Where there will not be dishonest members of
an alien and dominant race to step in and steal their
first poor earnings in the name of law or might, or
both.

" Where their daughters, if beautiful, will be free
from their ruler's lust, and their small possessions
safe from his avarice.

If in the last quarter of a century in this perse-
cuted, hampered state they have been able to ac-
cumulate, in one of the worst States of the Union
for them, six million dollars' worth of property,
what can they do in the next twenty years, when
their labor and their persons will be protected by
the law, and they will be encouraged by wise ad-
vice, and their intellects and reason enriched and
broadened by education and means of culture?"

Genieve's dark, beautiful eyes jest brightened and
glowed as i talked ; she fairly hung onto my words,
as I could see.

" But," sez Col. Seybert, " they don't want to
go."

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM, 301

Thomas J. leaned back in his chair in deep enjoy-
ment of his Ma's talk, as I could see plain ; and he
says to Col. Seybert :

14 How do you know they don't want to go T

" SET DOWN IN OUR SWAMP."

" Because I do know it," sez he. " They say
they are not Africans now, but Americans ; they have
a right here ; they have just as good right here now
as we have."

Wall, I don't dispute that idee," sez I.

" I have got a right to go and set down in oui

302 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

swamp and set there ; but I should be dretful apt to
get all covered with mud and mire, I couldn't see
nuthin' but dirt and slosh ; the bad, nasty air would
make me deathly sick, to say nuthin* of my bein' bit
to death by muskeeters and run over by snakes and
toads, etc.

It hain't a question of right — nobody could dis-
pute that I would have a right to stay there if I wuz
a m inter ; but the question is, would it be as well for
me as it would to move up on the higher ground out
of the filth, and darkness, and sickly, deathly air and
influences, etc., etc., etc.?"

Col. Seybert waved off these noble and convincm'
remarks of mine, and kep' on a sayin' his former say.
And he spoke the words in the axent of one who has
settled the matter and put on the final argument.

They don't want to go, that is a reason nobody
can get round."

He looked triumphant, as if lie had settled the hull
matter ; but he hadn't.

I sez, " I d'no whether they do or not ; you say
they don't, somebody else may say they do. But
anyway, I don't know as that is much of a reason,"
sez I ; for my mind is such that as I hearn Col. Sey-
bert's big, swellin' talk, my mind seemed to look at
the matter from Genieve's and Victor's eyes more
and more — I am made so, jest so sort o' curius.

But I am all made now, and .can't help it ; I have
got to take myself as I am.

And I sez, " I don't know as that is very much of
a reason about their not wantin' to go. I don't be-
lieve there has ever been any blows struck for free-
dom and liberty sence the world begun but what

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 303

theie has been some that the blows wuz a bein* dealt
for, to hang onto the axe-helve and beg the choppers
to stop.

"4 There has always been them who had, as Mr.
Shakespeare sez, 4 Ruther endure the ills they
have than fly round to others that they don't know
so much about, ' sort o' oncertain.

" Strikin' blows for freedom hain't like cuttin'
down a tree. You know what you are a strikin'
when you hit into a maple or a ellum. The axe hits
aginst sunthin' solid, and the chips fly.

" But strikin' out for freedom is sometimes a hit-
tin' out aginst emptiness in the dark. You know
your cause is good, you know you are a fightin' for
the most precious thing in the world, but you can't
exactly see before you, and you don't feel anything
solid, and you don't see the chips fly — it is sort o'
oncertain and resky.

" You can't seem to see the immediate result of
your blows. And so it hain't no wonder to me that
lots of weak ones, and skairt ones, and so-called
prudent ones, cry out and hang onto the axe and
try to stop the noble chopper's hands. They don't
want a change. The old Torys in the Revolution
didn't want a change. It wuz strikin' out in the
darkness and bringin' dangers and war onto their
heads. , They didn't want to go away from English
rule.

" But the noble band of choppers kep' on a hack-
in' the tree of tyranny till it crashed down and they
walked over its prostrate trunk into freedom ; and
the weak ones wuz glad enough when the dangers
wuz all past, and they sot down under the joy bells

$C4 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

of 1776 and leaned their backs up aginst Bunker
Hill, and enjoyed themselves first rate.

" The Israelites didn't want a change. They
didn't want to go out of the land of bondage. Lots
of livin' ties united 'em to the land of their birth,
and lots of onseen ones too- The graves of their
ancestors, and memories, and loves, and joys, and
sorrows all hung onto their heart-strings, and they
didn't want to go.

" But Moses wuz in the right on't. And they
come out at last into a land flowin' with milk and
honey.

" And they wuz glad they went.

" The Unbelievers didn't want Jesus for a King
and a Ruler — they didn't want a change. They fit
aginst God's plan for 'em, and conquered, so they
thought. But they didn't, and now the world is
glad on't, as it stands under the glow a fallin' from
the glorious twentieth century.

" Ask the United Christian Nations of the World
if it hain't a blessed change. Ask 'em if they
hain't glad they went out of the superstitions and
bondage of the old dispensation, out into the glorious
liberty of the Gospel, out under the blessed rule of
the Prince of Peace.

" No, Col. Seybert, I don't think it is much of a
reason, even if it is true, to say that the negroes
don't want to go. In all these cases I have brung
up — and I might go on a bringin' 'em up and a layin'
'em down in front of you for hours and hours if it
would do any good — but in all on 'em, as in these
supreme cases I have mentioned, what difference
did it make in the end wj^ether the majority wuz

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 305

willin' or not to be saved, only in the discourage-
ment and trouble it made the noble few who see
clear from the beginnin' to the end ?

" What difference did their onwillingness make?
The best, the right wuz done. The minority wuz

"he hastened off."

wise and the majority wrong, as is dretful apt to be
the case in this world. And the people wuz led
through darkness, and sorrow, and onwillingness out
into the broad sunshine. Led through Jordan's
stormy waves, out into ' Canaan's fair and happy land,
where their possessions lay.' "

I had fell into that kinder melodius axent of mine
almost entirely onbeknown to me, for it wuz from a

3o6

S A MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

him that I wuz quotin'. But it didn't seem to im-
press Col. Seybert as I wanted it to.

He looked at his watch, and sez he :

" I have got a pressing engagement in just five
minutes by my watch ; I will bid you good-day."

And he hastened off, and Thomas Jefferson
laughed, and sez he :

" You talked him out, mother ; but," sez he, " I
didn't know as you believed so strongly in coloniza-
tion ; I never heard you talk just in this way be-
fore.

" Wall/' sez I, "the Race Problem is such a
enormous conundrum that it is hard to know jest
how to get the right answer to it. But," sez I, " I
wuz a talkin' jest now from Genieve's platform, I
wuz a viewin' the subject from her standpoint, and
from Victor's, and also," sez I, glancin' to where
that dear man lay, lookin' pleasant as ever, " from
Cousin John Richard'ses ;" and I added, "consid-
erable from my own." And sez I, a turnin' to
Genieve where she sot quietly with Boy in her arms,
" You don't feel any oncertainty as to this conun-
drum, do you ? You see your way clear to a right
answer ?"

" Yes," sez she. And her eyes wuz as clear as
two wells of pure water on which the stars wuz a
shinin'.

" Yes, I knozv what is best and what will take
place in God's own time."

There it wuz, no more doubt in her mind about
the negroes havin* a country and a nation of their
own some time than there wuz to Moses as he stood
on the mountain-top and looked over Jordan**

SA MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 307

stormy banks into the land that should be the home
of his weary and sorrowful people.

Genieve stood upon some invisible mountain-top ;
we couldn't see this rise of ground, our eyes wuz
too weak, but her feet wuz placed there. And she
see over the rollin' billows of turbulent factions, and
swellin' hatred, and mistaken zeal, and perils from
friends, and perils from foes, and perils from high
places, and perils from low ones, and the black
waters of ignorance, and laziness, and discontent,
and old habits and customs a breakin' up and a
dashin' their spray here and there, and all the hor-
ror and woe and danger of an uprisin' and a exodus
— she see over all these swellin' waves into the fair
country that lay beyend.

We couldn't see the calm sunshine that lit the
Promised Land, but we could see a faint glow from
its radiance in Genieve's inspired eyes.

She didn't say much, but her look spoke volumes
and volumes.

"to kiss snow and boy goodnight.'*

CHAPTER XIV.

HAT very night I went into Genieve's
room to kiss Snow and Boy good-
night.

But both the darlin's wuz fast asleep,
Snow in her little white bed and Boy
in his crib. Their faces looked like fresh roses
aginst their white pillers, and I did kiss 'em both,
but light, so as not to wake 'em up.

Sweet little creeters, I think my eyes on 'em.
Genieve, I see, when I went in wuz a readin' some
book, and as I looked closter at it I see it wuz the
Bible. I see she wuz a readin* about her favorite
topick, the old prophets and their doin's and their
sayin's.

And as I sot down a few minutes by the side of
my sweet darlin's she begun to talk to me about
Daniel, and St. John, and some of the rest of them
good, faithful old prophets.

Why, she wuz brung up with 'em, as you may say.

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 309

She had sot under them old prophets ever sence
she had sot at all.

And why shouldn't she went on about 'em and
love 'em when she had fairly drinked in their weird,
fascinatin' influence with her mother's milk?

She wuz a readin' about Daniel jest as I went in—
about how Daniel stood by the deep waters and
heard a voice sayin' to him :

" Understand."

And sez she, with her great, beautiful eyes all
aglow, " Don't you think that we who stand by deep
waters to-day can hear the voice if we listen ?"

" Yes," sez I, 14 I believe it from the bottom ol
my heart ; if we do as Daniel did, ' set our hearts to
understand,' we can be kep' from perils as he wuz,
and we can hear that Divine Voice a biddin' us to
understand and to be strong."

Sez I, " I believe that Voice almost always comes
to us in the supreme moments of our greatest need.
When we have been mournin' as Daniel had, and
1 eaten no pleasant bread,' and lay with our faces on
the ground by the deep waters, then comes One
to us, onseen by them about us, and touches our
bowed heads and sez :

" ' Beloved, fear not. Peace be unto thee. Be
strong. Yea, be strong.' "

And then we went on and talked considerable, and
she told me how her mother had read to her, as soon
as she wuz able to understand am-thing, all about
the prophets, and how she had always loved to
think about 'em and their divine work.

And I told her I felt jest so ; 1 thought they wuz
likelv old creeters, them and their wives too.

3IO SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

And Genieve looked up dretful startled and sur-
prised, and said she had never thought about their
wives, not at all.

And I sez, " Like enough, nobody duz. Nobody
ever did think anything about old Miss Daniel, or
Miss Zekiel, or any of 'em. Nobody ever thought
of givin' the wimmen any credit, but they deserve
it," sez I. "I believe they wuz likely old females,
every one of 'em."

Genieve still looked dretful wonderin', and as if I
had put a bran new idee into her head. As much
as she had pondered and studied them prophets, she
never had gin a thought to them good old females —
faithful, hard-workin' creeters, I believe they wuz.

And she sez, sez she, " I never thought anything
about them, whether they had any troubles or not."

" No," sez I, " I spoze not, but I believe they had
'em, and I believe they had a tuckerin' time on't
more'n half the time.

" Why," sez I, "it stands to reason they had.
While their husbands wuz a sallyin' out a prophesy-
in', somebody had to stay to home and work, split
kindlin' wood, etc."

Genieve looked kinder shocked, and I sez warmly :

"Not but what I think a sight of them old
prophets, sights of 'em. My soul burns within me,
or almost burns, a thinkin' of them old men of whom
the world wuz not worthy, who had to tell the
secret things that the Lord had revealed to 'em to
the ears of a blasphemin' and gainsayin' world. I
jest about worship 'em when I think of their trials,
their persecutions, their death for duty's sake.

" But while I honor them old men up to the very

SAMANTffA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 311

highest pint honor can go in a human breast, still I
have feelin's for their wives — I can't help feelin*
sorry for them poor old creeters.

" Not a word do we hear about them, and it makes
me feel bad to see my sect so overlooked and brought
down to nort.

" And I'll bet (or would bet if it wuzn't for princi-
ple) that old Miss Daniel, and Miss Zekiel, and
Miss Hosey, and Miss Maleky, and all the rest of
them old female wimmen had a tough time on't.

'k Why, if there wuzn't anything else to trouble 'em,
it wuz enough to kill any woman to see the torment
and persecutions that follered on after the man she
loved. To see 'em wanderin' about in sheepskin
and goatskin, and bein' afflicted, and destitute, and
tormented.

That wuz enough to break down any woman's
happiness ; but they had to buckle to and work head
work most likely to take care of themselves and
their children.

Destitute 1 means privation and starvation for
old Miss Prophet and the children, as well as for
the husband and father.

f< And I'll bet that old Miss Hosey and Miss Maleky
jest put to it and worked and made perfect slaves of
themselves.

" And with all this work, and care, and privation
on their minds and hearts, thev couldn't have got
such a dretful sight of sympathy and companion-
ship out of their husbands, to say nuthin' of help and
out-door chores.

" For though the old prophets wuz jest as likely as
likely could be and did what wuz perfectly necessary

312

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

and right, still while they wuz out in the streets a
hollerin' ' Woe ! woe ! to this wicked city !' etc.,
etc., they couldn't at the same time be to home a
talkin' affectionate to their pardners or a sawin'

" AND KILLED HER .HENS,

wood. I'll bet old Miss Maleky picked up more than
half she burned, and split pretty nigh all her own
kindlin' wood, and killed her hens, and sot 'em,
etc., etc.

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

313

u Them days seem a good ways off to us, and things
seen through the misty, hazy atmosphere of so many
years seem sort o' easy to us.

" But I don't spoze water would bile then without
a fire no more than it would now. And I spoze the
dishes, or whatever they kep' their vittles in then,
had to be washed.

" And I spoze the goatskins and sheepskins that
them good old men wandered round in had to be
cleaned every now and then — it stands to reason they
did. And I don't believe them prophets did it ; no,
I don't believe they had the time to, even if they
thought on't.

" No ; I dare presume to say that every time you
found a prophet you would find some woman a tak-
in' care on him, so he could have the freedom of
mind and the absence of domestic cares neces-
sary to keep his soul the calm medium through
which divine truth could pour down upon a sinful
world.

" The sieve must be held right end up or you can't
sift through it ; hold it sideways or bottom end up,
and where be you ?

" No ; old Miss Hosey and Miss Maleky, I dare
presume to say, jest wrastled round with house-
hold cares and left them old men as free as they
could.

" I'll bet the minds of them good old prophets
wuzn't opset with pickin' geese and ketchin' gob-
blers, or makin' hens set, or fastenin' down the tent
stakes if the wind come up sudden in the night.

" No ; I'll bet Miss Hosey, that good old creeter,
got up herself and hung onto them flappin' ends and

314 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

drove down the stakes herself, so's Mr. Hosey could
get a Vttle sleep. Or if little Isaac, or Lemuel, or
Rebeckah Hosey wuz took sudden with the croup
or infantum, I'll bet it wuzn't old Mr. Hosey that
got up and hunted round for the goose oil, or groped
his way round and started up a fire, and steeped
catnip, and heat cloths, and applied 'em.

" No ; it wuz that good old female creeter every
time, I wouldn't be afraid to say it wuz.

" And ten to one if her pardner didn't wake up and
ask her ' what she wuz makin' such a noise for in
the middle of the night, and tell her she wuz jest
spilin' them children a indulgin' 'em so, and if she
had kep' their sandals on, they wouldn't have took
cold,' etc., etc., etc.

" And then if she got into bed agin with cold feet
he complained bitterly of that.

4 ' And so, I dare presume to say Miss Hosey or
Miss Maleky, as the case might be, sot up with them
children, pulled one way by her devoted affection
for 'em, and the other way by her wifely love, and
tried to keep 'em as still as she could, and shet up
them babies if they went to cry, for her husband's
sake, and tried to doctor 'em up for their own sake,
and felt meachin' through it all, borne down by the
weight of her husband's onmerited blame and fault-
findin'.

"And the next mornin', I dare presume to say,
she went round with a headache, and got as good a
breakfast as she could with what she had to do with ;
and if her husband waked up feelin' kind o' chirk
and said a kind word to her, or kissed her, I dare
say she forgot all her troubles and thought she had

SAMANTHA OAT THE RACE PROBLEM. JI>

the best husband in the world, and she wouldn't
change places with anybody on earth.

M For female human nater is about the same from
Eve down to she that wuz Samantha Smith.

" And then I dare presume to say that as bad as
she felt, and as much as she needed a nap, she jest
helped him off on his prophesying trip, did every-
thing she could for his comfort before he went,
brushed his goatskin, and mebby cleaned it, and
took care of the children till he come back, fed the
camels, and watered the goats, and I dare presume
to say got kicked by 'em, as bad as she felt.

" Made her butter — like as not she had a big
cburnin* — or a baggin' I don't know but it ort to be
called — I spoze they used a bag instead of a churn.

" And then mebby she had lots of little young
goats and camels to bring up by hand. I shouldn't
wonder if she had a camel corset that took lots of
care,

44 And then mebby she had a lot of onexpected
company come onto her — old Miss Aminidab and
her daughter-in-law, and old Miss Jethro, and Miss
Lemuel and her children, a perfect tent full, and she
had to buckle to and get dinner for 'em, and mebby
dinner and supper ; and it would be jest like 'em to
stay all night, the hull caboodle of 'em, and mebby
she had to pound every mite of corn herself before
she cooked for 'em.

" And she all the while with a splittin' headache,
and her back a achin' as if it would break in two.

" And then jest as they got onto their camels and
sot out home agin, then like as not old Mr. Hosey
would come home all wore out and onsfrung from

316 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

" ONEXPECTED COMPANY."

the persecutions he had had to contend with, and
that good old female, as beat out as she wuz, would
have to go to work to string him up agin, and soothe
him, and encourage him to go on with his prophesy-
in' agin.

" But who thinks anything of these old female
wimmen's labors and sufferin's ? Nobody.

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 317

" Who thinks of their martyrdom, their efforts in
the good cause, and the help they gin the old male
prophets ? Nobody, not one.

" I spoze the account of these things bein' writ
down by males and translated by 'em makes a differ-
ence ; it's sort o' naterel to stand up for your own
sect

" But folks ort to own up, male or female ; and
them old females ort to have justice done 'em.

" And though it is pretty late in the day— thou-
sands of years have flown by, and the dust of the
desert lays deep over their modest, unassumin'
graves, where they have lain unnoticed and over-
looked by everybody —

" But here is one in Jonesville that is goin' to
brush away the thick dust that has drifted down
over their memory, and tell my opinion of 'em.

" It is too late now to tell them old Miss Prophets
what I think of 'em, thousands of years too late to
chirk 'em up, and lighten their achin' hearts, and
brighten their sad eyes by lettin' 'em know the deep
sympathy and affection I feel for 'em.

" I can't make 'em hear my words, the dust lays
too thick over their ears.

" But yet I am a goin' to say them words jest out
of a love for justice.

" Justice has stood for ages with the bandage on
tight over her eyes on one side, on the side of wim-
men, and her scales held out, blind as a bat to what
them old females done and suffered.

" But she has got a little corner lifted now on the
side of wimmen ; Justice is a beginnin' to peek out
and notice that 1 male and female created He them.'

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

" Bern' so blind, and believin' jest what wuz told
her, Justice had got it into her head that it read :
(i ' Male created He them.'

" Justice never so much as hearn the name of wim-
men mentioned, so we spoze.

" But she is a liftin' up her bandage and lookhr
out ; and it stands to reason she can weigh as well
agin when she can see how the notches stand.

" Jest even, so I figger it out, jest even, men and
wimmen, one weighin' jest as much as the other.

" If there are some ingregiencies in one of 'em
that are a little better, that weigh a few ounces
more, lo and behold ! in the other one's nater and
soul are a few ounces of different goodness that even
it up, that weigh enough more to make it even.

" If Justice takes my advice — and I spoze mebby
she will, knowin' I am a female that always wished
her well, even in her blind days — if Justice takes my
advice she won't put on her bandages agin, she will
look out calm and keen and try to weigh things
right by the notch, try to hold her steelyards stiddy.

" And no matter what is put into 'em — men, wim-
men, colored folks or white ones — get the right
weight to 'em, the hull caboodle of 'em, black or
white, rich or poor, bond or free.

" She will get along as well agin, and take more
comfort herself.

" It must have been a tejus job for her to be a
standin' up there a weighin' things as blind as a
bat."

But sez I, as I kinder come to myself, and glanced
up at the little clock over the bureau :

" I am a eppisodin', a eppisodin' out loud, and to

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 319

a greater extent than I ort to, and it is bedtime,"
sez L

Genieve looked sort o' bewildered and strange,
and said " she had enjoyed my talk," and I dare pre-
sume to say she had, for she hain't one to lie.

But it wuz bedtime, and I went to my own peace-
ful room. My beloved pardner wuz fast asleep and
a dreamin' most likely about the farm and Ury ; and
if he dreamed some about Philury, I didn't care, I
hain't one of the jealous kind. And I knew his
dreams would be perfectly moral and well-behaved
ones anywav.

MISERY.

CHAPTER XV.

A BOUT five months after Rosy's mar-
J\\ riage her old grandmother's " mis-

\ \ ery" become greater than she could
IT \\ endure, or ruther a sudden cold
_J[^ \ V which she took proved fatal to her,
and she took to her bed, and after a
week's illness passed away.

She wuz stayin' with Rosy when she wuz took
sick, and Maggie and I did everything we could do
to relieve her wants and help her ; but I see the first
time I put my eyes on her face after her seizure that
we could not help her — it wuz pneumonia ; it carried
her off after a few days of sufferin'.

The night before her death I went down to her
cabin with a basket of jelly and broth and fruit, but
she wuz beyend takin' any nourishment.

She wuz propped up on pillows, her black face in
marked contrast to the snowy linen that Maggie
;had furnished for her bed.

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 321

Genieve, patient nurse, wuz settin' by her, her
beautiful face wearin' its usual look of triumphant
sorrow, joyful ignominy, or — I don't know as I can
describe the look in words, but, anyway, she had the
look she always had, different from anybody else's,
more sorrowful, more riz up, more inspired.

The Book of books wuz in her hand ; she had
been readin' to her till she had fallen asleep.

At last Aunt Clo opened her eyes and looked up
long and thoughtfully into the beautiful and pityin'
face bent above her, and finally she said to Genieve :

" Honey, did you come down out'n de Beloved
City dat you read me about ?"

" Oh, no, Aunt Clo. Don't you know me? I am
Genieve, your old friend Genieve."

" 1 done thought I see a light round your fore-
head, honey. It seems like I did see de light ; sure
you hain't one of dern angels ?"

" Oh, no, Aunt Clo ; you know me, don't you ?"

And Genieve lifted her head and gave her a
spoonful of the hot broth I had brought.

She sunk back on the pillow, and after a minute
said, with the old persistency that Aunt Dinah wuz
wont to cling to any idee she had formed :

" It jess seems as if I did see de light a shinm'
down out of your eyes, honey, into my ole heart."

A more peaceful look settled down upon the face
that had been drawn and seamed with " the misery."
And when she fell into her last sleep the sam~ ex
pression remained.

And I wondered if indeed Genieve's sweet sou.
did not by some magnetism of attraction draw down
a band of bright spirits whose heavenly looks wuz

322 SAM AN THA ON THE RAO* PiWBLEM.

" WHEREFOAH, BREDREN, LET US PRAY."

reflected upon her own, and if indeed a glow from
, the heavens she tried to picture to the old black
woman might not be reflected dimly into her poor
old heart.

But we see through a glass darkly ; we may not
see clearly into the beauties and wonders of the
Beloved City.

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 323

Genieve stayed and rendered all the assistance she
could. She stayed as long as she wuz needed.

But as soon as the news got out that Aunt Clo
wuz dead, a crowd of her relations, near and distant,
come in and took possession of the cottage and
begun preparations for an elaborate funeral.

A colored minister wuz sent for, and he preached
a long sermon in which her virtues wuz held up as a
pattern, and her sudden death as a warnin' for 'em
all to be ready for " de Master's call, which might
come in de night time, or in de heat and burden of
de day, but wuz shuah to come. Shuah, young,
careless girl ; shuah, gay, happefyin' young man,
for de trumpet must sound, and de dead must go at
de bugle call of de Reapeh.

" He reaps de flowehs of de gahden," sez he,
pintin' to the grave of Belle Fanchon, which wuz
not fur from the cabin-door.

M He reaps de flowehs in all deir beauty, an' de
ripe grain an' de wheat. Dis wheat we lay in de
grave to-day, knowin' dat de incorruption will rise
up incorruptible, an' de glory will come up glorious,
an' we shall all see it in de twinklin' of de eye — an*
wherefoah, bredren, let us pray."

And he knelt down and offered up a prayer full of
faith, and pathos, and the wise ignorance of his
childlike race.

Rising up from his knees, he directed the mourn-
ers to pass in front of the coffin and view the re-
mains, which they did with loud groanings and many
tears and exclamations of grief.

Then the coffin wuz closed, and the minister stood
up in front of it and sez :

3M SAM A NTH A ON THE RA CM PROBLEM,

" Christians, fall into line."

And the church-members silently fell into line two
by two till they wuz all in their places.

Then he sez, " Sinners, fall into line."

And the irreligious came forward jest as calmly
and took their places, and the procession moved off,
and Aunt Clo wuz carried away to her last sleep, in
a little colored graveyard some mile and a half
away.

I told Josiah about it after I got home ; I sez :
" The good and the bad always f oiler on after
every departed friend ; but I never see 'em sorted
out so careful before, and I never see such a calm
willingness to be put amongst the goats as I see
there."

" Wall," sez he, " they knew they wuz goats, so
what wuz the use of kickin' ?"

" Wall," sez I, " I have seen white folks lots of
times that must have known they wuz goats, but
they didn't love to be sorted out on the left side,
and no money could have made 'em walk up and fall
into a sinner's line."

Sez he, " If they be sinners, why can't they own
up to it ? I would if I wuz a sinner."

But I felt that it wuz ofttimes hard work to tell
the difference ; and I sez :

" I am glad it hain't me that has to do the sepa-
ratin' between the good and the bad, for I shouldn't
know where to lay holt, appearances are so deceit-
ful sometimes. Sheepskins are wore often over
goats, and anon a sheep puts on the skin and horns of
a goat to face the world in and fight with it. T
shouldn't know where begin or leggo."

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 325

" Wall, that is because you are a woman/' sez
Josiah. " Wimraen never know where or how to lay
holt of any hard work or head work. I could do it
in a minute, and any man could that wuz used to
horned cattle."

I sithed and thought to myself the thought I had
entertained more or less ever sence I stood up with
Josiah Allen at the altar. How different, how differ-
ent my pardner and I looked on some things, and
how impossible it wuz seemingly for us to ever get
the same view on 'em.

But I didn't multiply any more words with him,
knowin' it wouldn't be of any use ; and then agin, as
I looked clost at him, I see a shade of serious pensive-
ness, and even sadness, as it were, a shadin' down
onto his eyebrow.

And my talk didn't seem to lighten it any as I
went on and told him that they said that this cus-
tom of dividin', as it were, the sheep and the goats
wuz practised a good deal in different parts of the
South.

But I still see the shadowy shade on his foretop,
and went on more cheerful, and told him that the lit-
tle boy Abe wuz goin' to be took into the family of
the good colored preacher, so he wuz sure of a good
home and good treatment.

But in vain wuz all my cheerful perambulations of
conversation. I see that he looked demute, and
broodin' over some idee ; and finally he spoke out :

" Samantha, goin' to funerals, or hearin' about
'em, puts folks to thinkin'."

" Yes, it duz, Josiah ;" and sez I, in quite a solemn
axent, " it stands us all in hand to be prepared."

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 327

Sez he, M I wuzn't thinkin' of that side of the
subject, Samantha ; but it brings back to me that
old thought and fear that has been growin' on me
for years more or less. Samantha," sez he, " I
worry, and have worried for years, for fear that you
will some time be left a relict with nuthin' to lean on. "

I glanced up at him, and the thought come to me
instinctively that it would be the ondoin' of us both
if I should try to lean heavy on him now, for my
weight is great, and he is small-boneded, and I knew
that he would crumple right down under the weight
of 200 pounds heft.

But I didn't speak my thoughts — oh, no ; I merely
looked at him real affectionate, and I took up a sock
I wuz mendin' for him (we wuz in our own room),
and I attackted it as socks should be attackted if you
lay out to make 'em good and sound. And he went
on still more confidential and confidin', and told me
several things he thought I had ort to do if I wuz
ever left a relict of him.

It wuz real touchin', and I wuz considerable affect-
ed by it — not to tears — no ; I thought I wouldn't
shed any tears if I could help it, for darnin' is close
work, and it calls for all the ej-esight you have
got ; and then I had on a new gray lawn dress that I
felt would spot easy ; so I restrained my emotions
with a almost marble composure, and anon I sez to
him as "he wuz a goin' on in that affectin' way, and
sez I :

" I may be took first, Josiah Allen."

And he admitted that that might be the case,
though he couldn't ^ear to think on't, he said, it gin
him such awful feelin's.

328 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

He said he had never been able to think on*t with
any composure. But after a while he talked more
diffuse on the subject, and owned up that he had
thought on't ; and sez he, in a still more confidin'
and affectionate way :

" For years, Samantha, I have had it in my head
what I would put on your tombstun if I should live
to stand up under the hard, hard blow of havin' to
rare one up over you.

" I have thought I should have it read as follers,
and to wit, namely :

" ■ Here lies Samantha, wife of Deacon Josiah
Allen, Esquire, of Jonesville. Deacon in the Meth-
odist Church, salesman in the Jonesville cheese fac-
tory, and a man beloved and respected by every one
who knows him but to love him, and names him but
to praise/

" Its endin' in poetry, Samantha, wuz jest what I
knew wuz touchin', dumb touchin', and would be
apt to please you ; and it is always a man's aim to
write the obituarys of his former deceased pardner
in a way that would suit her and be pleasin' to her/'

Sez I calmly, " Yes, I should know a man wrote
that if I read it in the darkest night that ever rolled,
and I wuz blindfolded."

" Wall," sez he anxiously, "don't it suit you ?
Don't you think it is uneek, sunthin' new and
strikin' ?"

" Oh, no," sez I, "no, it hain't nuthin' new at
all ; but mebby it is strikin' — or that is," sez I, "it
depends on who is struck."

" Wall," sez he, * ' it is dumb* discouraging after a
man racks his brains to try to get up sunthin' strong

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM 329

and beautiful, to think a woman can't be tickled and
animated with it."

Sez I calmly, " I hain't said that I wuzn't suited
with it." And sez I with still more severe axents,
for I see he looked disappointed, 14 I will say
further, Josiah, that it meets my expectations fully ;
it is jest what I should expect a male pardner to
write. "

"Wall," sez he, lookin' pleaseder and more sat-
isfieder, " I thought you would appreciate it after
you thought it over for a spell."

" I do, Josiah,^ sez I, turnin' over the sock I wuz
a mendin' and attacktin' a new weak spot in the
heel, " I do appreciate it fully."

Josiah looked real tickled and sort o' proud, and
I kep' on in calm axents and a darnin' too, *or the
hole wuz big, and night wuz a descendin' down onto
us. And I could hear Aunt Mela's preparations for
supper down below, and I wanted to get the sock
done before I went down-stairs. So 1 sez, sez I :

" I have thought about it sometimes too, Josiah,
and I have got it kinder fixed out in my mind what I
would have on your tombstun — if I lived through it,"
sez I with a deep sithe.

"What wuz it ?" sez he in a contented tone,
for he knows I love him. "It is poetry, hain't
it ?"

" Yes," sez I calmly, " I laid out to end it with a
verse of poetry ; it wuz to run as toilers : v Here lies
Josiah Allen, husband of Samantha Allen, and — ' "

" Hold on !" sez Josiah, gettin' right up and look-
in' threatenin'. " Hold on right there where you
be ; no such words as them is a goin' on my tomb-

33° SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

stun while I have a breath left in my body. Hus-
band of — Josiah, husband of — I won't have no
such truck as that, and I can tell you that I won't."

" Be calm, Josiah," sez I, "be calm and set
down," for he looked so bad and voyalent that I
feared apperplexy or some other fit. Sez I, "Be
calm, or you will bring sunthin' onto yourself."

" I won't be calm, and I don't care what I bring
on, and I tell you I ruther bring it on than not, a
good deal ruther. The idee ! Josiah Allen, husband
of— It has got to a great pass if a man has got
down to that — to be a husband of — "

" Why," sez I, lookin' up into his face stiddily, as
he stood over me in a wild and threatenin' attitude
— and some wimmen would have been skairt and
showed it out; but I vvuzn't. Good land ! don't I
know Josiah Allen, and through him the hull race
of mankind ? I knew he wouldn't hurt a hair of my
foretop, but he would like to skair me out of the
idee, that I knew.

But sez I in a reasonable axent, " You had got it
all fixed out ' Samantha, wife of Josiah — ' "

" Wall, that is the way !" sez he, hollerin' enough
almost to crack my ear-pan — " that is the way every
man has it on his pardners headstun. Go through
the hull land and see if it hain't ; you can look on
every stun." ,

Oh, how that "stun" rolled through my head!
And sez I, " I am not deef, Josiah Allen, neither am
I in Shackville, or Loontown, or the barn. Do you
want to raise a panick in your son's household ?
Moderate your voice or you will harm your own
insides. I know it is the way every man has wrote

332 SAMANTHA ON THE RAGE PROBLEM.

it about their pardners, and it seemed so popular
amongst men I thought I would try it."

" Wall, you won't try it on me !" he hollered as
loud as ever. " You won't try it on me, and don't
you undertake it. Why, ruther than to have them
words rared up over me I would — I would ruther
not die at all. ' Josiah Allen, husband of — ' No, mom,
you don't come no such game over me ; you don't
demean me down into a * husband of — ' !"

" Why," sez I, lookin' calmly into his face (for I
see I must be calm), " don't you know how I have
wrote my name for years and years, ' Josiah Allen's
Wife'?"

" Wall, that wuz the way to write it ; it wuz styl-
ish," he yelled. Oh, how he yelled ! Why, that
" stylish" almost broke a hole through my ear-pan ;
the pan jest jarred, it wuz so voyalent.

Sez I, " Set down, Josiah, and less argue on it."

" I won't argue on it, it is too dumb foolish ; I am
goin' out to walk in the back garden before supper."

And he ketched down his hat and drawed it down
over his ears enough to break 'em off if they hadn't
been well sot on, and slammed the door so one of
them panels is weak to this day — it wuz a little loose
to start with.

And I went and stood in the winder with my hand
over my eyes, and watched him all the while he
wuz a walkin' up and down them walks, for I wuz
most afraid he would totter and fall over, or mebby
he would start off a bee-line for the crick and
drown himself, he wuz so rousted up and agitated.
And I hain't dasted to open my head sence on
the subject — I don't dast to, not knowin' what it

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 333

would bring onto him. At the table they noticed
my pardner's excited and riz up mean — they couldn't
help it.

And Maggie asked him M if he wuzn't feelin' well."

And I spoke right up, such is a female's devoted
love for her companion — T spoke right up and sez :

" We have been a talkin* over funerals and such,
and your Pa got agitated."

I spoze I told the truth — I spoze I did ; I didn't
tell what the " such" wuz that he had been a talkin'
about ; I don't know as I wuz obleeged to.

"this dark earth valley."

CHAPTER XVI.

T wuz dretful sudden, as we count sudden-
ness. But then we don't know down here
in this dark Earth Valley, with high moun-
tains a towerin' up on each side on us that
we can't see through — we can't really tell
what to call the onexpected, or the expected.

I spoze if we wuz high enough up to see the light
and beauty of the Divine Plan, we shouldn't call any-
thing the onexpected.

But it seemed dretful sudden to us that Miss Sey-
bert should be took down voyalent with a fever that
wuz a prevailin' round Eden Centre, and should die
off the second day after the attack.

And for all the world it would seem as if bavin*
waited on her through all time, and she laid out to
go on a doin* it through all eternity, old Phyllis,
Victor's mother, jest follered right on after her the
next day.

Some say she took the disease a hangin* over her
bed and a waitin' on her. ,

SA MANTUA OX THE RACE PROBLEM,

555

But anyway, she passed away the very next day,
and wuz buried right at the feet of her beloved
" Miss Alice."

Col. Seybert wuz away on one of his annual wild-
cat excursions, so her wishes wuz carried out. And
she had her old friend nigh her through the long
sleep, jest as she always had had her durin' her fitful
sleep for years. But they both slept well now, and
wuzn't no more to be disturbed by drunken abuse
nor mournful forebodings. No, they slept sound
and sweet.

Victor mourned deep, deep for 'em both — it would
be hard to tell which he mourned for most.

But after the first shock of his heart-felt grief had
passed away, he felt that the last ties had been broke
now that bound him to this land.

He felt that God had showed him more plain by
this dispensation what He wanted him to do.

And as everything wuz ripe for the exodus, and
he felt that he could not remain an hour under Col.
Seybert's roof, now that the necessity for his remain-
in' had been removed, everything pointed to an imme-
diate departure for Africa.

The party who wuz to go with him wuz all ready,
eager, resolute, prepared, only waitin' for the word
of their leader.

And he wuz ready to go. But first he must be
married to the light of his eyes, the desire of his
heart. And under the circumstances of the case
we could not counsel any great delay.

And though, as I said, Victor wuz a mourner, and
a deep mourner for his mother and sister mistress,
still it wuz mebby parti)' for that reason that he wuz

336 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

so happy in the thought of havin' a sweet wife and a
sweet home of his own.

And it wuz a pretty sight to witness the love of
Victor and Genieve. And though we all hated to
lose her, we wuz happy in the thought of her happi-
ness and her approachin' marriage.

As for me, though mebby I didn't say so much, I
did the more. I wuz a knittin' some of the very finest
linen edgin' out of number ninety thread to trim a
hull suit of underclothes for her. And if any one
would examine close the fineness of the thread, they
could see the delicacy and tenderness of my feelin's
for her, and the strength.

1 had bought some of the ver}" finest muslin I
could get to make the garments of. So, as I say, if
I didn't say so much, mebby I did the more, and
acted.

Maggie and Thomas J. wuz goin' to get her a
bedroom set in pretty light wood, and Maggie wuz
embroiderin' some beautiful covers for the bureau,
and washstand, and table.

It wuz a pattern of pink and pale blue mornin'
glories on a sort of a cream-colored ground.

They wuz goin' to be lovely.

Little Snow wanted to do sunthin', and I told her
she should.

So I, myself, cut her out some little linen napkins,
and let her fringe out the edges,- and I laid out to
orniment 'em myself for her in cat stitch. Cat is a
very handsome stitch.

And as I sez, we wuz all happy in witnessin*
Genieve's happiness, which wuz glowin' and radiant,
and Victor's calm, deep bliss. For he could not undo

SAM AN TH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM.

337

the past. And the Bible sez a man shall leave all and
cleave to his wife. And he wuz only a followin' the
Skripter.

He had been a good son, no better could be found
— a good, faithful helper and friend to his mistress ;
and I felt that he could leave 'em in their peaceful
graves and walk off into the Eden road of his happy
love with no reflections, and with the desire of his
heart.

Col. Seybert wuz ragin', as we knew, at the
thought that his trusty servant wuz goin' to leave
him. He wuz invaluable to him in so many ways.
He had no other man in his employ so trustworthy ;
no one else who would take care of his business
durin' the frequent intervals when he wuz incapable
of it ; no one else who wuz so honest, so reliable, so
intelligent ; for Victor wuz one who would do his
duty, and do a good day's woik, if he wuz workin'
for Xero or the Old Harry himself, though you
wouldn't ketch him a workin' for this last-named
personage — no, indeed.

Col. Seybert raged over the idee of Victor's leav-
in' him ; he had alwavs ruled evervthing about him,
bent everything to his wishes.

And now " this black dog," as he named Victor
in his scornful wrath, had dared to defy him. And
worse still, the very best and most intelligent of his
hands, nearly all the younger ones, had been influ-
enced by Victor's purpose and teachin's, and wuz
makin' preparations to leave this sin-cursed South,
that had held only misery and humiliation for them,
and join him in his colonv in Africa.

Col. Seybert knew, through his spy Burley. that

338 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

they wuz secretly and quietly makin' preparations
to leave him and go to the New Republic— some of
them to go with Victor and his party, some of them
to go with the next party fitted out.

Deep in his heart and loudly to his chosen friends
did Col. Seybert curse Victor — his long-sufferin%
brother, as I would and did call him in my mind — I

would.

Why, good land ! if Victor had been translated
to the court of some mighty kingdom and been pro-
claimed king, wouldn't Col. Seybert have claimed
relationship with him pretty quick ?

Yes, cupidity and ambition would have propped
him up on both sides, and he would have proclaimed

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 339

the fact through his brother's kingdom that he wuz
brother to the king.

Wall, if he wuz his brother under one set of cir-
cumstances, I say he wuz under any other.

He wuz his half-brother ; if every other evidence
had failed to assure the relationship, the portrait of
old Gen. Seybert down in the long drawin' room
of Seybert Court would have proclaimed the fact to
a gainsaying world. He wuz a fur truer son to Gen.
Seybert than Reginald wuz. For by all the ties of
congenial tastes, mind, and spirit, he wuz the court-
ly old Southerner's true son and heir.

Reginald had always been and always would be
true son and heir of Hiram Wiggins, the manufac-
ture tailor. Although as relationships go in this
world, he wuz only his grandnephew.

But he had laid claim, and wuz the only possessor
of all his crafty, cruel, brutal, aggressive nature, his
low habits and tastes, his insolent, half bold, half
meachin' manners.

Hiram Wiggins'es own children wuz two old
maid daughters, so meek they could hardly say their
souls wuz their own.

They worked samplers, copied from their moth-
ers, and regulated their behavior on this model
which wuz a eminently Christian one, and did much
good in a modest, unassumin' way with the wealth
their father had heaped up. They wuz the children
of their mother, and their cousin Reginald, true son
of their father.

But I am a eppisodin', and to resoom.

Col. Seybert, like all men of his class, had some
choice spirits that copied his manners and carried

34° SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

out his plans. And among them all who toadied to
him and carried out his base plans, the foremost one
wuz Nick Burley, as we have said prior and before
this.

He hated Victor as much as Col. Seybert did.
One of the causes of Burley's dislike was what feeds
enmity so often in base natures — Victor wuz so
superior to him that Burley wuz always oncomfort-
able in his presence..

To be with a young man who neither drank,
swore, nor tore the characters of women to tatters,
and boasted of great deeds in love and valor, wuz to
Burley incomprehensible. What wtuz mysterious
must be wrong.

And then Victor evidently shunned the society of
Burley, and avoided him whenever he could. And
as Burley wuz a white man and Victor " a damned
nigger," such a state of things wuz not to be borne.

Col. Seybert had, we may be sure, fanned the
coals of hatred to a still greater heat, till at last they
wuz at a white glow, and Nick Burley wuz ready
to do any act that Col. Seybert recommended, any-
thing for vengeance and " to show that cussed black
dog not to feel above a gentleman and a white
man."

And Col. Seybert and Burley had subtly played
upon the ignorance and superstition of the lower
black element about them, so they had come to look
upon Victor as their enemy and the enemy of his
people.

He who had all his life long sought only the good
of his race, planned through long, wakeful nights
for their advancement, and had labored early and

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 34 1

late for an education, mainly for the reason that he
could help them better — so ignorant wuz they that
they could see nothin' of this, and looked at him
through the hate-prejudiced eyes of his enemies.

His preachin' to his people to be patient under
their wrongs and to return good for evil ; his warn-
ings to them aginst their habits of lawlessness, and
laziness, and theft ; his pleadings with them to turn
in their evil ways and try to become decent citi-
zens ; his admonitions that their future lay in their
own hands, and they could become, by the grace of
God and by hard work and education, whatever
they chose to be, had been mistaken by these more
ignorant ones. And subtly wrought upon by Col.
Seybert and Burley, they looked upon Victor as one
who, while he taught them lessons of patience, and
meekness, and unselfishness, wuz himself carryin' on
a secret plan for their humiliation and his own per-
sonal wealth and ambition.

Victor knew something of this secret antagonism
towards him from the lower black element and his
revengeful white enemies, but he hardly knew how
strong it wuz.

And so the mills of the gods wuz turnin' slowly
but surely, and slavery, and oppression, and class
hatred, and personal spite, and bitterness, and
social contempt, and ignorance wuz gettin' ready to
be ground out into the food whereby Vengeance
and Horror should be sated.

Very quickly but very surely wuz the prepara-
tions goin' on for Victor's departure for the colony.

Nearly all of them who wuz goin' with him had
been able to get a little money ahead.

342 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

On an average, they had about five hundred dol-
lars each.

Some had more than this, and wuz takin' out
wife, or children, or parents, who had less ; so that
the actual amount each member of the colony would
have would be about five hundred dollars.

Victor had planned that, with careful and prudent
management in that warm climate, where no extra
amount wuz needed for fuel or heavy clothin', where
food of a certain kind could be obtained almost by
pickin' it off the trees about them, where a very sim-
ple and cheap cabin would be all the shelter and
protection they might need —

He thought that this money, in the hands of intel-
ligent and prudent managers, would keep the
colony fed and clothed, buy necessary tools and
stock, and keep them in comfort till they could
raise crops in their own home.

Father Gasperin, the good missionary who had
labored all his life amongst the black people, wuz
goin' with them, and he, havin' the love and confi-
dence of them all, Victor had made chief adviser and
treasurer of the company.

Father Gasperin had a good deal of influence with
them high in authority (he had renounced a high
name and estate to dwell amongst and labor for the
poor and lowly). He had made all the necessary
arrangements with parties in Africa, and the site of
the location wuz already chosen.

When Cousin John Henry decided to cast in his
lot with the colonists, Victor wuz overjoyed, for he
felt that the good he would accomplish could hardly

SA MAXIMA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 343

oe estimated in teaching and preaching and helpin'
the colony in every way.

Their future home wuz a beautiful valley lyin*
between two low, heavily wooded mountain ranges,
and a clear river runnin' through it to the sea.

A sheltered, lovely spot, but with pure air flowin'
in from the east and the west along the course of
the sparklin' river.

This river they looked to as bein' for the present

11 A CLEAR RIVER RUNNING THROUGH.*1

their highway out to the nearest town, some twenty
miles away.

And already in his mind Victor saw the white
sails of their boats bearin' away the fruit of their
hands to be exchanged for articles of necessity and
comfort.

He could see the little wharf where these boats
should come back laden with comforts for his peo-
ple and news from the great world.

He imagined Genieve and himself standin' at the
door of their tiny cottage, in the golden sunset or

344 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

the golden dawn, lookin' down this sparklin' high-
way fringed with glistenin' palm-trees.

He could almost hear the song of the gayly hued
birds as they called out to their mates in the glossy
foliage overhead.

Here wuz home, here wuz peace, here wuz inde-
pendence for a long-enslaved and tortured people.

Hard work he knew there must be, and perhaps
hard fare for a time ; but the reward would be so
sweet that it would sweeten toil. It would not be
like the hopeless, onthanked-for, onrewarded drudg-
ery for them who returned insults and curses for
patient labor, and too often blows and stingin' lashes.

Felix and Hester wuz makin' all preparations to
go with Victor. On him Victor counted as one who
could be relied upon to help the weaker ones, to be
a guide and an example of what the black man
could do and be.

For Felix, so far as he knew, had not a drop of
white blood in his veins, and he wuz faithful, hon-
est, hard-workin' and intelligent.

Three times he had had his home broken up and
his earnings stolen from him by this cursed, unslain
spirit of slavery.

But he had agin, by his industry and frugality
and by Hester's help, earned and laid by the sum
Victor thought necessary for each colonist to pos
sess, and he and Hester wuz ready to make another
start in the New Republic.

He had decided not to build another home in the
soil guarded by the American eagle.

He knew the fowl to be largely boasted about as
bein' the first and noblest bird beneath the skies.

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 345

But he felt that he had been pecked by its too sharp
bill, he had been clawed by its talons, he had beer
wearied by its loud, boastin', resonant voice.

No, he would make no more homes under the
skies where that eagle built its nest,

He wuz ready for a newer republic.

He felt that he would ruther dare the soft em-
braces of the biggest African serpents than be en-
folded about by our beneficent civilization.

He wuz embittered, that wuz a fact. But when
we see what he had gone through, I don't know as
anybody could blame him.

But anyway, he wuz ready to go.

And so the days rolled by one after another, as
they always will, whether you are gay or sorrowful,
whether the hours seem weighted down with lead
or tipped with fleet sunbeams.

And to Genieve and Victor all sadness and shad-
ows lay fur away like a faint cloud in the horizon,
almost unseen and forgotten in the clear sunshine
of their happiness. For true love will make happi-
ness everywhere. Everything looked prosperous,
and I had got my edgin' done, and Maggie and I
had made the nice linen garments and ornimented
'em with the lace.

They looked beautiful.

Little Snow's work on the napkins wuz done, and
the cat stitch almost completed — a few stitches only
of the cat remained to do, then they would be
done.

Maggie had completed her pretty embroidered
covers, and they lay folded up on top of a pretty
sashay -bag of sweet perfumery in the bureau-draws oi

346 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

the handsome chamber set, and that wuz all packed
away in a strong box ready for the voyage.

The weddin' dress had come home all fini hed,
even to the pretty lace in the neck and sleeves.

It wuz white mull, and I knew Genieve would
look like a picture in it.

"everything wuz ready."

CHAPTER XVII.

/\ T last the time come, as every time

l/\\ will come if you wait long enough

II \ \ for it— the time had come when

^y^H \ the colony wuz to embark for their

II \ \ new home.

^ Victor and Genieve wuz to be

married the mornin, they started, Cousin John Rich-
ard a performin' the ceremony in the parlor at Belle
Fanchon, and Father Gasperin a layin' out to make
a good prayer on the occasion.

And the evenin' before everything wuz ready.
In Genieve's room, acrost the white bed lay the
simple grey travellin' dress and wrap she wuz a goin'
to wear on her journey, with a little grey velvet tur-
ban by the side of it, and the heavy travellin' cloak
she would most probable need on her long sea voy-
age.

The little grey gloves and the handkerchief and

348

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

the well-filled travellin' bag lay all ready to take up
at a minute's notice, for we knew there wouldn't be
any too much time in the mornin'.

The pretty plain white dress she wuz a goin' to
wear to enter her new life in, and which would be a
good dress for years, and handy where she wuz a
goin', lay acrost two chairs, ready for her to put on
the first thing in the mornin\

Yes, everything wuz ready in Genieve's room.
And in the kitchen, though I am fur, fur from bein'
the one to speak on't (as I had done the most of the
cookin'), wuz as good vittles as I ever see in my
hull life.

Aunt Mela done well and done considerable ; but
1 wanted Victor and Genieve and Cousin John Rich-
ard to have some of my own particular Jonesville
cookin', and everything had turned out jest right.

Every cake had riz up in good form, ready for the
icing ; not one lop-sided or heavy cake wuz there in
the hull collection.

And the roast fowls wuz jest the right brown, not
a speck of scorch on one of 'em.

The jellys wuz firm and clear as so many moulds
of rose and amber ice. And the posys had all been
picked, and Maggie had arranged 'em in great crys-
tal bowls and vases of sweetness and beauty.

The table wuz all sot. We thought we would
arrange it the night before, when we had plenty of
time, so it would suit us.

And we had got everything ready, and though I
dare presume to say I ortn't to say it, it looked
good enough to eat, vittles, table-cloth, posys, and
all.

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 349

(Though it is fur from me to propose eatin' stun
china and table-cloths ; but I use this simely to let
you know the exceedin' loveliness of the spectacle.)

Genieve went in to see it after it wuz all ready.
We wouldn't let her do much, knowin' what a jour-
ney wuz ahead on her.

But when she went in to look at it she looked as
if she wuz in a dream, a happy dream. And she
wuz pleased with every single thing we had done
for her. Snow, the dear little lamb, follered Genieve
round tight to her all the time ; she knew she wuz a
goin' away from us, and she couldn't bear the
thought ; but we had tried to reason with her and
tell her how happy Genieve wuz a goin' to be, and
she, havin* such a deep mind, seemed to be middlm'
reconciled.

Boy wuz of course too small to realize anything.
And it wuz on Genieve's heart that the tug of part-
in* with him come hardest. She wanted him in her
arms all the time, a most. And as happy as she
wuz, I see more than one tear drop down on his
little short brown curls and dimpled cheeks and on
Snow's golden locks.

But I looked forward to the time when Genieve,
sweet, tender heart, would hold a child of her own
in her arms, and give it some of the love she lav-
ished on everything round her.

Wall, as evenin' drew on and the mockm' birds
begun singin' to their mates down under the mag-
nolias, we see Victor's tall figure a comin* along the
well-known path, and Genieve went out to meet him
for the last time as a maiden.

The next time she went out to meet him it would

35° SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

be as his wife. And I spoze they both thought of
that with a sort of a sad rapture, for they both loved
Belle Fanchon and the folks that lived there.

And they knew it would be on the soil of a strange
land when she next sot out to meet him in the starry
dusk of the evenin' shadows.

And the birds that would be a singin' over their
heads would not be the mockin' birds of old Georgia.
And different stars would be a shinin' down on
'em, and it would be in a new world.

I spoze they thought of all this, I spoze so, as
they slowly wended their way up to the house in
the soft glow of the semi-twilight amidst the odor
and bloom of the blossomin' flowers, and the melan-
choly, sweet notes of the mockin' birds.

They come into the settin' room, and Victor sot
down as usual and took Boy up in his arms — he
loved the child.

Genieve went up into her room to tend to some
last thing she wanted done, and we sot there in the
settin* room, and visited for a spell back and forth.

Josiah and Cousin John Richard had walked down
to the village, and Thomas Jefferson hadn't come
home yet.

Genieve found a letter from Hester a layin' on
her table, and she opened it and read it in the last
faint rosy glow of the daylight. Hester and Felix
wuz to meet them where they embarked. Hester's
letter wuz full of joyful anticipation about the new
home to which she wuz a goin\ Poor thing ! bein*
so tosted about and misused as she had been, it is
no wonder.

She and Felix wuz lookin' forward with such de-

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

351

light and happiness towards the new home that their
fervor thrilled Genieve's heart anew, and she sot
there after she had read the letter and looked ofl
into the rosy light of the sunset, and she dreamed a
dream.

It wuz a still twilight. The flowers about her
window stood sweet and motionless against the
glowin' light.

The last golden rays come through the vine-
wreathed casement and fell on the letter lyin' open
in her lap, and as she sot there with her beautiful
head leanin' back against the old carved chair-back,
the shinin' rays seemed to move and get mixed with
the shadows of the vine leaves.

They moved, they shone, they took form, and as
she sot there Genieve saw — whether in the body or
out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth — but she
saw her future home in the New Republic.

She saw a fair land lyin' under a clearer, softer
skv, but it bent down on strange foliage — giant
palm-trees cleaved the blue sky, and birds, like great
crimson and golden blossoms, were flyin' back and
forth in and out of the green, shinin' branches.

Crystal rivers wuz flowin' through that land,
whose clear waves wuz dotted with the sails of a
busy commerce.

She looked on these heavily freighted ships and
see that the commanders and officers, as well as
crews, wuz her own dark-skinned race.

By the side of these blue crystal highways for the
Republic's wealth wuz flourishin' towns in which
stood great manufactories and workshops for all
useful and valuable purposes. She looked into these

352 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

busy places, and she saw at the loom, and the forge,
and the work-bench her own people, and also in the
countin' rooms, and offices, and the superintendent's
rooms — all wore the dark livery of the sun. And
she saw that none wuz very rich and none wuz
poor, for the work wuz co-operative, and all wuz
paid livin' wages, and all owned a share, even if a
small one, in these large undertakings ; and she saw
that none of the toilers looked haggard and over-
worked, for their hours of labor wuz short enough
to give them all a chance for bodily rest and recrea-
tion.

She looked into the pulpits of the beautiful
churches whose spires rose from the glitterin'
foliage, and wuz scattered over this new land.

Colored men and colored wimmen stood in the
pulpits and sot in the pews.

Large, noble universities and a multitude of pub-
lic schools dotted the land of this New Republic ;
colored men and colored wimmen wuz presidents,
professors, teachers. The old lessons learned by
their ancestors with many a heartache in the Old
World wuz bearin' its rich fruit in the new.

She saw great museums, lecture rooms, art gal-
leries, all filled with the glowin' imagery of the race
that tried to orniment and wreathe the chains of
servitude with some pitiful blossoms of crude
beauty ; she beheld these gorgeous fancies trained
into magnificent results. The walls wuz glowin*
with beauty and bold magnificence that the tamer,
colder-blooded races never dreamed of.

She entered the halls of song, free for all, rich or
poor, and heard melodious sounds such as she had

354 SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

njsver dreamed of hearin' this side of heaven. And
the musicians wuz all of her own music-lovm' race,
and the melody almost seemed to have the secret of
Paradise in it, so heavenly sweet it wuz.

All through this favored land out in the rich coun-
try wtuz immense co-operative farms stocked with
sleek herds, and worked with new and wonderful
machinery invented by her own people.

And in the Capitol, in the chair of the ruler, sot one
of her own race, wise and beneficent. And all the
offices and chairs of State wuz filled by the colored
people.

Over all the land wuz prosperity, over all the land
wuz peace, for there wuz no confiictin' elements of
diverse and alien races and interests mixed up in it ;
and purified by past sufferings, grown wise by the
direct teachings of God, the rulers ruled wisely, the
people listened gladly, and the teachings of the
Christ who more than two thousand years before
come upon earth wuz fulfilled to His chosen people,
whom He had brought up out of the depths to show
His glory to the heathens.

She saw — for her vision wuz ontrammelled by
time or space — she saw the wise and kind influences
of the Republic stretching out like the rays from a
star into the darkest corners and deepest jungles of
this great Eastern Hemisphere— she saw the light
slowly dawning in these depths."

She saw missionaries ever goin' into these places
from this New Republic with the Bible in their hands
and its sweet wisdom in their lives, and then ever
goin' back with some new recruits gathered from
the lowest places, to be in time educated in all good

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 355

things, and then sent back as missionaries to their
own tribes.

And the sunlight lay lovingly on this land like the
love of God long hidden under the cloud of His
judgments, but now seeming the sweeter from what
had gone before.

And from all these cozy homes in city and in coun-
try she heard the steady tread, tread of the children
walkin' along to the music of the future, the future
of accomplishment, of education, of promise. She
saw them forever learnin' new things, the newer
things that wuz forever displacin' the old — newer,
grander, broader views and aims. For heaven and
earth wuz drawin' nearer to each other, and the era
of peace on earth, good- will to man had come.

Long did Genieve set there wrapped in the glory
of what she saw — whether in the body or out of the
body I do not know. God knoweth.

At last the voice of little Snow aroused her, and
she took her up in her arms.

But the light remained in her face.

Little Snow come into our room in a few minutes,
and she sez, " Genny took me up in her lap, and hei
face shined."

And I sez, " Like enough, darlin'. She is one of
the Lord's anointed, anyway/*

And Josiah sez — he had come back, and wuz a lay-
in' on the lounge — " Probable the sun wuz a shinin'
into her face."

And Snow sez, " The sun had gone down ; it
wasn't shinin' into her room."

" Wall," sez Josiah, " it wuz most probable th^
lamp."

35 6 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

" She hadn't lighted one," sez Snow.
" Wall, it wuz most probable sunthin'," sez
Josiah.

And I sez, " I presume so."
And I felt that it wuz.

Wall, while this happy glow wuz still a shinin' in
Genieve's eyes, Victor wuz a settin' down below.
Genieve had gone across the garden to bid baby
Tommy good-bye.

When I went down agin Victor wuz a settin' by
the open window of the settin' room.

It wuz a lovely night, as I could see plain, for the
big windows wuz wide open and the moon shone
bright in the east, while yet the rosy glow had not
faded out of the western sky.

I sot down with my knittin' work, and as I sot
there a peacefully seamin' three and one on Josiah's
sock, I see a little white bird come a flyin' along
from towards the clump of roses and magnolias that
riz up over little Belle Fanchon's grave.

It flew along most to the window, and settled
down on a wavin' rose branch, and there it swung
back and forth and sung a sweet sort of a invitin'
song. And into its liquid notes seemed to be blent
sunthin' sad and sort o' comforting and sunthin'
high, and inspiring and glad.

I thought I had seen and hearn most every kind
of song bird sence I had been South ; but thinkses I
to myself, I don't believe I ever see a bird that
looked exactly like that, or heard a song that wuz
quite so sweet, so sad.

It sot there for all the world as if it wuz a waitin'
for sunthin'

SAMANTHA OX TK '2 RACE PROBLEM. 357

( didn't say nuthin', but I couldn't help watchin*
it I felt queer.

Bimeby Victor came up the steps and come in —
he; had been down on the lawn for a flower for
Gcnieve— and bein' startled by him, I spoze, the
bird flew up a little ways onto a branch that hung
over the porch, and kep' on with that same plaintive,
sweet song, and it had that same air as if it wuz a
waiting waitin' for somebody or sunthin\

But pretty soon Maggie come in, and Victor
begun to tell us how all his preparations wuz com-
pleted, and about his plans, and his hopes, etc., and
I got all took up with 'em, and then I had to set my
heel — or ruther Josiah's heel, and that takes up
sights of mind and intellect to do it jest right.

And jest as I got it set, in come Snow, the pre-
cious darlin', with her youngest dolly in her arms.

She made me kiss it good-night. I didn't really
want to, its face wuz pasty and bare in patches,
but I done it, and got two kisses from Snow's sweet
little lips to take the taste out of my mouth.

And as I had kissed the doll affectionate and ac-
cordin' to her wrishes, she put up her little hand to
my face in that sweet caress she always gin me
when she wuz real satisfied and happy with wrhat I
had done, or when I felt bad about anything.

And as I bent my head for that lovin' and tender
caress, oh, how joyful and clear that bird's song
did sound through the twilight ; it rung out as if
whatever it wuz waitin' for had come nigh it, and
its little lonesome heart wuz full of content and
joy.

And after she left my side, Snow kissed her mam.

358 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

ma and then went up to bid Victor good-night. She
loved Victor, and he loved her dearly. And know-
in' it would be the last time he would ever have the
chance agin most likely, he felt agitated and sorry,
and took the dear little creeter up in his arms, dolly
and all.

As he did so I thought I heard the sound of steps
in the garden, but I glanced out past Victor and
couldn't hear anything more, only that plaintive bird
song, low, and strange, and thrillin\

And I kep' on with my work. But agin we all
thought we heard steps, and we listened for a min-
ute, but everything wuz still. But sunthin' drawed
my eyes to look up at little Snow, and even as I
looked a ball come crashin' through the window and
went right through that baby's breast.

Victor sprung to his feet and sez :

" That wuz meant for me !"

And as he looked down on Snow he cried out :

" My God ! has it killed the child ?"

But he laid her down on the lounge right by him,
and, bold as a lion, and as if to shield us all from fur-
ther harm, he sprang out on the piazza and from
there to the ground, and faced the gang of masked
men we could see surroundin' him.

But we couldn't foller him with any of our
thoughts ; all of our hearts wuz centred on our lit-
tle lamb.

She lay there white as death where Victor put her.
She lay there still, with her big blue eyes lookin'
up — up — and what did they see ? Wuz the Form a
bendin' over her? We thought so, from hci face —
such a look of content, and understandin', 2>id corr-

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 359

prehension of sunthin' that wuz beyend our poor
knowledge.

For a minute she looked up with that rapt look on
her face, and then she tried to lift her little white
hand in that pretty gesture of greetin' somebody we
couldn't see.

And then she slowly turned her look onto all of
us, full of love — love and pity ; and then she wuz
gone from us ; we had only the beautiful little bod}'
left.

We couldn't believe it ; we wuz stunned and
almost killed with the suddenness of it, the terrible-
ness, the onheard-of agony and pity of it.

But it wuz so. When we had come to ourselves
a little, and sent for the doctor, and worked over
her. and wept over her till fur into the night, we
had to believe it — dear little Snow had gone.

Victor, full of thought for Genieve, for us all, led
the gang away under a clump of magnolias in a dis-
tant part of the grounds, nigh to the little tomb of
Belle Fanchon.

They faced him, their faces full of brutal anger,
and low envy, and all bad passions. Led on by the
cruel lies and influence of Col. Seybert, and their
own low distrust and dislike of superiority in one of
their own class, their own besotted ideas of their
personal freedom —

They told Victor they would give him a chance
for life. Let him give up his ideas of colonization,
let him give up his plans of enrichin' himself on the
earnings of the poor, let him show he wuz one of his
own people by goin' back to his work again to Col.
Seybert's — they would give him this one chance.

WHEN THE MOON HAD RISEN."

CHAPTER XVIII.

' HEN the moon had risen a
little higher and its direct
rays fell down through the
glossy leaves onto that
white, kingly face, another

shadow fell on the green, blossomin' sward, and a pale
face looked through the branches, and Genieve stood
there by the dead form of the man she worshipped.

It wuz all over. She could do nothin* — wimmen
seldom can in tragedys arisin' from grave political
difficulties.

But there is one thing she can do— she is used to
it — she can suffer. Genieve could throw herself
down upon the silent, cold body of her lover, while
like a confused dream the whole past rushed through
her mind. Her glowing hopes cut short, her life's
happiness all slain by the enemies of truth. She
could lie there and try to think of the years between
her and death. How could she live them ?

As she lies there prone in her helpless and hope-
less wretchedness, she is not a bad symbol of her race.

SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 361

Victor turned his deep, pitiful eyes on the imbrut-
ed forms before him, some black and some white,
but all covered with the blackness of ignorance, and
superstition, and causeless anger, and brutality —

And he sez to them, " My friends and brothers, I
have only wanted to do you good. Heaven is my
witness I have only sought out a better way for you.
And I have been willing to spend my life and strength
to help you. This country is no place for us."

It wuz good nuff for our faders and muders,
and, 'fore Gawd, it is good nuff for us," shouted out
some one in the crowd.

I have wanted to help you all — to help myself
to a better way of living. The evils we have about
us are not of our own making nor of this generation —
thev are old and heavy with sorrow and iniquity.
This land is burdened, and cries out under this load
of woe, and perplexity, and sin. I have tried the
old way — we all have — we have been burdened
more than we could bear in the old paths. I have
onlv sought to lead my people out into a safer,
broader place, where we could be free from some of
the worst evils that beset us here, and where there
is a chance for us to have a home and a country of
our own."

" Curse you ! shet up your jaw !" sung out one
burly ruffian, in the thick tones of semi-intoxication.
For Col. Sevbert had not failed to prime up their
courage with bad whiskey. " We have heard
enough of your yawp ! Will you give up your
plans or not ?"

" Never !" said Victor. " I will never give up
this hope, this work while I live."

362 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM,

" Then you may die, curse you !" said one voice.
And another voice rose up in venomous, brutal
tones :

" You have preached your damned sermons about
patience, and forgiveness, and all that bosh, and you
have been all the time a carryin' on your under-
handed stealin', and featherin' your own nest out of
the hard-earned wages of the black men. And they
say," went on this voice, which wuz evidently the
voice of a white man, " they say that you are a
goin' to sell the hull crew you take over for slaves
and line your own pockets with the blood-money of
your brothers — you traitor you !"

Victor raised his arms mutely to the heavens as if
to plead aginst the injustice of men.

And as his clasped hands wuz raised, a bullet
struck that noble heart, and he fell, breathin' out
that old prayer :

" Lord, lay not this sin to their charge/'

364

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Heart-broken, agonized through the ages, helpless
to avenge her wrongs, too hopeless and heart-broken
to attempt it if she could.

Her life ruin brought about by the foolishness of
preachin' what is wrong.

The happiness or the wretchedness of one colored
woman is of too little account to make it a factor in
the settlement of grave political affairs.

The tragedy in the magnolia shadows is nothin*
unusual ; such things must occur in such environ-
ment— statesmen expect it.

And after all, they may reason, it is only the
takin' off of one of the surplus inhabitants. Indeed,
some contend that the speedy extinction of all newly
made citizens, colored, and troublesome, either
South or West, is the surest and safest solution of
the vexed problem.

And this is only one the less of an inferior race.

And yet as he lays there, his wide-open eyes look
up into the bending heaven as if demanding justice
and pity from Him who left thrones and divine
glory to dwell with the poor and despised, who
wept with them over their dead, and who is now
gone into the heavens to plead their cause aginst
their oppressors.

As he lays there his face is wet with tears of a very
human anguish.

Somehow this easy answer is not workin* well in
ihis case.

And up in the mansion house grief wails for the
eternal losses caused by this same blunder.

There are the innocent sufferin, for the guilty.
The old puzzle unfoldin' itself anew — of the close

SAMANTHA OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 365

(inks bindin' human brotherhood. And how the
rough breakin' of one link is hazardous to all the
golden rings of the chain that binds humanity to-
gether.

Poor Josiah Allen ! the doctrine he preached so
long — that if you let an evil alone it will do you no
harm — wuz all broke down and crushed to pieces.
Poor old man ! mournin' over the sweet bud that
too ontimely perished in its first bloom.

Poor man ! poor, broken-hearted old Grandpa — ■
with the silver voice that used to make a music of
that name stilled forever.

How can any pen, no matter how touched with
flame from the altar, how can it picture that night?
Maggie layin' like death, passin' from one faintin*
fit into another.

Thomas Jefferson, poor, poor boy, lookin' up into
my face with dumb pleadin' for the comfort he
could not find there.

No, I couldn't comfort him at that time, for what
wuz I a thinkin' of, in the impatience of my agony,
the onreasonableness of my bewildered, rebellious
pain ?

I said in them first hours, and I turned mv face
away from the light as I said it, " Darkness and de-
spair is over the hull world. Snow is dead !"

And I thought to myself bitterly, what if the
South duz rise up out of its dark dreams into a
glorious awakenin', a peaceful, prosperous future — ■
what of it ? Our darlin', the light of our eyes, has
gone forever. What can any sunshine do, no mat-
ter how bright, only to pour down vainly upon the
sweet blue eyes that will never open again ? And

366 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

fur in the East a grand republic may rise holdin' in
its newer life the completed knowledge of the older
civilizations. But Snow is dead !

Yes, I sez to myself, as did another, " If they
want a new song for their Africa free, let none look
to me," I sez, " my old heart cannot raise to an-
thems of joy and glory."

No ; my heart is bendin' over a little cold form.
Between the sun-bright glory of that new and free
land stands a little tender form with a bleedin' stain
on its bosom.

Or is it beckonin' ? Was it the glow from them
shinin' curls that lightened the eastern sky ? Duz
she speak in the pathos and beauty of our hearts'
desire for a race's freedom ? Dear little soul, so
pitiful of all sufferin\ duz she help them who loved
her to be patient with ignorance, and intolerance,
squalor, and power ? Patient with all and every
form of error and woe ?

She lays under a flowery mound in the summer
grounds of Belle Fanchon, close to the grave of the
other little sleeper that slept so long there alone.
The rivulet wraps its warm, lovin' arms close about
both little graves.

Near by, just across the valley, reposes the form
of Victor the king. Victor over ignorance, over
wickedness, victor over his enemies, for he died
blessin' them. How else could he get the victory
over his murderers ?

Ah ! the flowers from these graves risin' up to-
gether, will they not sweeten and purify the soil
that nourishes them — subtle perfume risin' out of

SAM AN TB A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 367

the black soil and darkness, sweet and priceless
aroma risin' to the heavens ?

Upon the ancient altars the ripe fruit wuz laid,
and the flowers.

God knows best ! Oh, achin' heart, where the
silken head rested, and which will be empty and
achin' forevermore ; oh, streamin* eyes, tear-blind-
ed and anguished, that will never again see the
sweetest form, the loveliest face that earth ever
held, what can they say but this — God knows best !

And they can think through the long days and
nights of hopelessness and emptiness, that her sweet,
prophetic eves have found the Realities made visible
to her onknown to the coarser minds about her.

The Form that bent over her cradle and whis-
pered to her has taken her now to a close and guard-
in' embrace.

Wuz it some fair, sweet messenger, some gentle
angel guide, or wuz there in the hands held out to
her the mark of the nails ?

The glow that lit up her shinin' hair from some
radiant realm onbeknown to us wraps her round in
its pure radiance.

Little Snow has gone into the Beloved City ; but
alas for the hearts that strive to follow her and can-
not !

But her sweet little body is a Iayin* close by the
side of the little girl who went to sleep there thirty
years ago.

Over her is a small headstone bearin' this inscrip-
tion : " Little Snow/' and under it are the only
words that can give any comfort when they are cut

368

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM,

in the marble over a child's grave : " He carries the
lambs in His bosom/ '

And so as the years go on the leaves and blossoms
will rustle in the soft mornin' breeze over the , two
little girls sleepin' in peace side by side in the old
garden.

I wonder if they have found each other up in the
other garden that our faith looks up to — if they have
made garlands of the sweet flowers that have no
earthly taint on 'em and don't fade away, and
crowned each other's pretty heads. I wonder if
they ever lean over the battlements of Heaven and
drop any of them sweet posies on the bare, hard
pathways their friends that they left below have to
walk in.

Mebby so ; mebby, when in our hard, toilsome
day marches, a hint of some strange brightness and
glory touches our poor tired spirits, when some
strange comfort and warmth seem to come sudden
and sweet onto us, comin' from we know not where
— mebby, who knows, but it is from the glowin'
warmth and beauty of them sweet invisible flowers
that we cannot see, but yet are a lyin' in our path-
way, droppin' on our poor tired heads and hearts.

I don't know as it is so, and then, agin, I don't
know as it hain't so.

• EXILED BIRDS.

CHAPTER XIX.

HEX a long flight of exiled birds stand
ready to leave the South land for their
old home again, whence they fled be-
fore the stormy blasts —
As they are drawn up in a line, high in the morn-
in' sky waitin1 for the leader's signal to raise their
wings and strike out northward through the pathless
fields of blue —

If some cruel shot strikes down that gallant lead-
er, the hull flock is bewildered and full of panic and
distress for a time.

But a new leader takes his place, and the solid
phalanx rises up and takes wing for their old home,
which is again to them the new.

The flight goes on just the same, and perhaps no
one but his mate feels the loneliness and emptiness
of the clear blue sky.

Though mebby, if she is so blessed, she may feel
the waftin' of shadow wings beside her, and a nearer
presence than the livin'.

Felix took the place of leader in the enterprise,
and though it wuz delayed for a little time, it went
on to success. Though the great heart that planned
it lay silent in death.

370 MANTUA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

Perhaps Genieve felt that his influence wuz still
guidin' her, that he wuz helpin' the colony still ;
that bowin' down in the presence of the Crucified,
he brought gifts of surer success to his people than he
could if he wuz still with them in the mortal body.

Felix wuz a favorite with the company, and though
he had not Victor's genius nor the native gifts of
prudence and foresight that he had possessed, his
long apprenticeship to sorrow and peril had made
him wise and patient.

He wuz helped, too, greatly by the calm fortitude
and Christian principle of Cousin John Richard and
the fervid devotion of Father Gasperin.

There wuz a rumor that the Government wuz
bein' importuned by one in high authority, and wuz
only waitin' to learn the success of this venture, to
send Government vessels over with the freedmen,
with help to maintain the poorer ones for a year and
get them started in their new life. But it might
have been only a rumor. As I said, Victor's death
made a delay in the exodus, and it wuz durin' those
weeks of delay that Genieve received a large packet
of law letters.

Her father had died in France, and Genieve had
been left his heiress. A goodly sum had been left
to this lawyer if he wuz successful in findin' his
child. Perhaps by reason of this the search had
proved successful.

Genieve wuz a great heiress, for Monseur De
Chasseny had no children by his French marriage—
his lawful wife wuz dead. And the memory of the
great love of his life wuz with him to the last. Tn a
will made on his death-bed, he left all his large for*

SAM A NTH A OX THE RACE PROBLEM. 371

tune to Genieve, 1 1 the child of the only woman he
had ever loved/'

So said a letter left in the same package with the
will.

This wealth enabled her to do much for the
colony, helpin' them to good schools, good books,
good food and clothing and the teachin' and the
trainin' that would make them self-supportin'.

Genieve studied harder than ever, worked harder
than ever for the good of her people, after the livin'
Victor passed from her life. The immortal Victor,
the saint, the hero Victor, always stood beside her.
He would not let her sink into the gloom and inac-
tivity of hopeless sorrow. He nerved her to new
activities. He held her hand that wrote stirrin' ap-
peals, and helpful, encouragin' words for the New
Republic. He inspired the vision that saw it risin'
fair and proud from the ashes of a dead past.

She studied history that she might help make a
noble history for the new land ; she studied law, and
literature, and music, all with this sole ambition of
helpin' her mother's race.

The children of the colony almost idolized her,
and in their love and constant companionship she
found her greatest earthly comfort.

She taught them all that she learned herself,
taught them with the present love of all her lovin'
heart, and with the fur-seem' eye of one who sees in
this new generation the future blessing and regenera-
tion of her people.

And above all other lessons she taught them the
Bible with the childlike faith of one who sits at the
feet of the Christy

37 2 SAM A NTH A 0Ar THE RACE PROBLEM.

She studied it_ and taught it with the rapt vision
and earnestness of a prophet who saw that the best
future of her beloved New Land rested upon the
victories of the bloodless armies of the cross.

She had the faith that Paul had when he gave
utterance to these incomparable words, and she saw
through faith that her race should " subdue king-
doms, work righteousness, stop the mouth of lions,
out of weakness be made strong/'

Her people needed her ; she wuz in no hurry to
lay down her life-work. She wuz willin' to stay in
the vineyard and work as long as the Master willed.

But she felt that when the starry nightfall come
and the workers wuz dismissed, the rest would be
sweet. And oh ! how wistfully she looked forward
to that land that lay beyend the New Republic,
where she should receive " her dead raised to life
again." When on the threshold of the new life Vic-
tor would meet her and lead her forward to Him
that wuz slain. Where she would dwell with him
forever in that continum* city which by faith she
saw while yet in the body.

VICTOR.

CHAPTER XX.

Jy I \j HE relation on Maggie's side is dead.
I m Some said of heart failure, others

A f said of a broken heart caused by disap-

^ pointed ambition.

e 1 Yes, somebody else got higher than

he wuz, and he fit too hard. Goin' round election*
eerin', makin' speeches by night, travellin' by day,
pullin' wires here and pullin' wires there, bam-
boozlin' this man, hirin* that man, bribin' the other
man, and talkin*, talkin', talkin* to every one on 'em.
Climbm' hard every minute to get up the high mount
of his ambition, slippin' back agin anon, or oftener,
and mad and bitter all the time to see his hated rival
a gettin' nearer the prize than he wuz.

Xo wonder his heart failed. I should have thought
it would.

So little Raymond Fairfax Coleman wuz left a
orphan. And in his father's will, made jest after

374 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM

that visit to my son Thomas Jefferson, he left direc-
tions that Raymond should live with his Cousin
Maggie and her husband till he wuz old enough to
be sent to college, and Thomas J. wuz to be his
gardeen, with a big, handsome salary for takin' care
of him.

There wuzn't nuthin' little and clost about the re-
lation on Maggie's side, and as near as I could make
out from what I hearn he kep* his promise to me.
And I respected him for that and for some other
things about him. And we all loved little Ray-
mond ; and though he mourned his Pa, that child
had a happier home than he ever had, in my opinion.

And I believe he will grow up a good, noble man —
mebby in answer to the prayers of sweet Kate Fair-
fax, his pretty young mother.

She wuz a Christian, I have been told, in full
communion with the Episcopal Church. And though
the ministers in that meetin' house wear longer
clothes than ourn duz, and fur lighter colored ones,
and though they chant considerable and get up and
down more'n I see any need of, specially when I am
stiff with rheumatiz, still I believe they are a re-
ligious sect, and I respect 'em.

Wall, little Raymond looked like a different creeter
before he had been with us a month. We made him
stay out-doors all we could ; he had a little garden
of his own that he took care of, and Thomas J. got
him a little pony. And he cantered out on't every
pleasant day, sometimes with Boy in front of him —
he thinks his eyes of Boy. And before long his lit-
tle pale cheeks begun to fill out and grow rosy, and
his dull eyes to have some light in 'em.

"MAKIN' SPEECHES. "

J 76 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

He is used well, there hain't a doubt of that.
And he and Babe are the greatest friends that ever
wuz. They are jest the same age— born the same
day. Hain't it queer? And they are both very
handsome and smart. They are a good deal alike
anyway ; the same good dispositions, and their two
little tastes seem to be congenial.

And Josiah sez I look ahead ! But, good land ! I
don't It hain't no such thing! The idee! when
they are both of 'em under eight.

But they like to be together, and I am willin' they
should ; they are both on 'em as good as gold.

And on Babe's next birthday, which comes in
September, I am goin' to get, or ruther have my
companion get her a little pony jest like Raymond's.
I have got my plans laid deep to extort the money
out of him. Good vittles is some of the plan, but
more added to it.

I shall get the pony, or ruther it will he got. And
if them two blessed little creeters can take comfort
a ridin' round the presinks of Jonesville on their
own two little ponys, they are goin' to take it.

Life is short, and if you don't begin early to take
some comfort you won't take much.

But to resoom. The relation on Maggie's side
has passed away, but the relation on Josiah's side is
still in this world, if it can be called bein' in this
world when your heart and spirit are a soarin' up
to the land that lays beyend.

But 1 guess it would be called bein' in this world,
sence his labor is a bein' spent here, and his hull
time and strength all ready to be gin to them who
are in need.

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

377

He is doin' a blessed good work in Victor, for so
their colony is named, after the noble hero who laid
down his life for it.

And the place is prosperin' beyend any tellin\
All that Genieve dreamed about it is a comin' true.

And she is a helpin' it on ; she spends her money
like water for the best good of her people.

She didn't raise no stun monument to Victor ;
qo, the monument she raised up to his memory
wuz built up in the grateful hearts of his people.

Upon them, his greatest care and thought when
here, she spends all her life and her wealth.

She felt that she would ruther and he would
ruther she would carve in these livin' lives the words
Love and Duty than to dig out stun flowers on a
monument.

And she felt that if she wuz enabled to cleanse
these poor souls so the rays of a divine life could
stream down into 'em, it wuz more comfort to her
than all the colors that wuz ever made in stained
glass.

She might have done what so many do — and they
have a right to do it, there hain't a mite of harm in
it, and the law bears 'em out —

She might have had lofty memorial winders
wrought out of stained glass, with gorgeous designs
representin' Moses leadiii' his brethren through the
Red Sea, or our Saviour helpin' sinners to better
lives —

And white glass angels a bendin' down over red
glass mourners, and rays of glass light a brightenin'
and warmin' glass children below 'em.

There hain't a mite of harm in this ; and if it is a

378 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

comfort to mourners, Genieve hadn't no objection,
and I hain't. And the more beauty there is, natural
or boughten, the better it is for this sad old world any-
way.

But for her part, Genieve felt that she had ruther
spend the wealth of her love and her help upon them
that suffered for it.

Upon little children, who, though mebby they
didn't shine so much as the glass ones did, but who

FATHER GASPERIN.

wuz human, and sorrowful, and needy. Little hearts
that knew how to ache, and to aspire , innocent,
ignorant souls whose destiny lay to a great extent
in the ones about 'em ; little- blunderin' footsteps
that she could help step heavenward.

By the side of the plain but large and comfortable
church in the colony there wuz a low white cross
bearin' Victor's name.

But within the church, in the hundreds of souls

SAM A NTH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 379

who met there to worship God, his name and infiu^
ence wuz carved in deeper lines than any that wuz
ever carved in stun.

It wuz engraved deep in the aspirin' lives of them
who come here to be taught, and then went out to
teach the savage tribes about them.

Many, many learned to live, helped by his mem-
ory and his influence ; many learned how to die,
helped bv his memory and his example.

Good Father Gasperin, who went with the colony,
has passed away. He preached the word in season
and out of season. And his death wuz only like the
steopin' out of the vestibule of a church into the
warm and lighted radiance of the interior.

He knew whom he had believed. He had seen
the good seed he had sown spring up an hundred
fold, and ripenin' to the harvest, that sown agin
and agin might yield blessed sheaves to the Lord
of the harvest.

And when the summons come he wuz glad to lay
down his prunin' knife and his sickle and rest.

The same sunset that gilds the mound under
which he sleeps looks down upon a low cottage not
very fur away.

It stands under the droopin', graceful boughs of a
group of palm-trees that rise about it, its low bamboo
walls shinin' out from the dark green screen of
leaves.

An open veranda runs round it half shaded with
gorgeous creepin' vines glowin' and odorous, more
beautiful than our colder climate ever saw.

Inside it is simple but neat. The bare floors have
a few rugs spread upon them, a few pictures are on

*' FELIX. HIS WIFE AND LITTLE NED

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 381

the walls. A round table stands spread in a small
dinin' room, with a snowy cloth woven of the flax of
old Georgia upon it.

Round the table are grouped Felix, his wife and
little Xed. In a cradle near by lies a baby boy born
in the New Republic ; his name is Victor, and he is
the pet of Genieve, whose cottage, much like this,
stands not fur away.

Through the open lattice Felix sits and looks out
upon his fields. It is a small farm, but it yields him
a bountiful support.

He and Hester have all they want to eat, drink,
and wear, and their children are bein' educated, and
they are free.

The vision that Genieve saw in the sunset light at
Belle Fanchon has not fully come yet, but it is corn-
in', it is comin' fast. Little Victor may see it.

Genieve and Felix and Hester write to us often,
and specially to Thomas Jefferson, who has been
able to help the colony in many ways, and wuz glad
to do it.

For Thomas Jefferson, poor boy, though I say it
that mebby shouldn't, grows better and better every
day ; but then I hain't the only one that sez it. He
found poured out into his achin' heart the baptism
of anguish that in such naters as hisen is changed
into a fountain of love and helpfulness towards the
world.

His poor, big, achin' heart longed to help other
fathers and mothers from feelin' the arrow that
rankled in his own.

His bright wit become sanctified into more divine
uses. His fur-seein' eyes tried to solve the prob-

3^2 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

lems of sad lives, and found many a answer in peace
and blessedness for others that reflected back into
his own.

More and more every day did the memory of lit-
tle Snow, so heart-breakin' at first, become a bene-
diction to him, and a inspiration to a godlier livin'.
He could not entertain a wilful sin in the depths of
the heart where he felt them pure, soul-searchin' eyes
wuz lookin' now.

He couldn't turn his back onto the Beloved City,
where he felt that she wuz waitin' for him. No, he
would make himself worthy of bein' the father of an
angel. He must make his life helpful to all who
needed help.

And to them that she felt so pitiful towards, most
of all the dark lives full of sin and pain, he must help
to light up and sweeten by all means in his power.
And Maggie felt jest like him, only less intenser and
more mejum, as her nater wuz.

Thomas Jefferson and Maggie jined the Methodist
meetin' house on probation, the very summer after
little Snow left them.

And, what wuz fur better, they entered into such
a sweet, helpful Christian life that they are blessings
and inspirations to everybody that looks on and sees
'em.

To Raymond and Robbie they give the wisest and
tenderest care. The poor all over Jonesvilk, and
out as fur as Loontown and Shackville, bless their
names.

And at Belle Fanchon, where they always lay out
to spend their winters, their comin' is hailed as the
comin' of the spring sun is by the waitin' earth.

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 383

The errin* ones, them from whom the robes of
Pharisees are drawed away, and at whom noses are
upturned, these find in my boy Thomas Jefferson
and his wife true helpers and friends. They find
somebody that meets 'em on their own ground — not
a reachin' down a finger to 'em from a steeple or a
platform, but a standin' on the ground with 'em, a
reachin' out their hands in brotherly and sisterly
helpfulness, pity, and affection.

Dear little Snow, do you see it ? As the tears of
gratitude moisten your Pa's and Ma's hands, do you
bend down and see it all ? Is it your sweet little
voice that whispers to 'em to do thus and so?
Blessed baby, I sometimes think it is.

Mebby you turn away from all the ineffable glories
that surround the pathway of the ransomed throng,
to hover near the sad old earth you dwelt in once
and the hearts that held you nearer than their own
lives. Mebby it is so ; I can't help thinkin' it is
sometimes.

I said that the relation on Josiah's side is still in
the world, and I believe it, because we had a letter
from him no longer ago than last night. I got it jest
before sundown, and after Josiah handed it to me
he went to the barn to onharness — he had been to
Jonesville.

I sot out on the stoop under the clear, soft twilight
sky of June, and the last red rays of the sinkin' sun
lay on the letter like a benediction. And under that
golden and rosy light I read these wTords :

" My DEAR COUSIN : Here in this distant iand,
where my last days will be spent, my human heart
yearns over my far-off kindred.

384 SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

" And I send you this greeting and memorial to
testify that the Lord has been gracious to me. He
has permitted me to see the desire of my heart. He
has blessed my failing vision with the blessed light
of this Land of Promise

" I SOT OUT ON THE STOOP.'*

" I sit here as I write on the banks of a clear river
that runs towards the South land/

" My little cabin stands on its banks, and I sit liter-
ally under my own vine and fig-tree, and I can say of
my home as the prophet of old said of a fair city :
* It is planted in a pleasant place. '

"As my eyes grow dim to earthly things I catch

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM. 385

more vividly the meaning of immortal things hid-
den from me in my more eager and impetuous
days.

" I am now willing to abide God's will.

" I see, in looking back to those old days, that I
was impatient, trying to mould humanity according
to my poor crude conception.

" I am now willing to wait God's will.

" I see it plainly working out the great prob-
lem which vexed me so sorely.

" How slowly, how surely has this plan been un-
folding, even in those long days of slavery, when the
eager and impetuous ones distrusted God's mercy
and scouted at His wisdom.

" But how else was it possible to have taken these
ignorant ones from the jungles of Africa and made
of them teachers and missionaries of Christianity
and civilization to their own people ?

" How else could the story of Christ's life and
Christ's sufferings and risen glory have been so
clearly revealed to them as when they were pass-
ing through deep waters and coming up out of great
tribulations ?

" Out of the wrath of men He made his will
known. While they suffered they learned the fel-
lowship of suffering as they could not by any tongue
of missionary or teacher.

" While they were in bonds they learned some-
thing of the patience and long suffering of Him who
endured.

" While the war was raging on each side of them
and they passed unharmed out through the Red Sea,
while the contending hosts fell about them on every

3^6 SAMANTHA ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

side, they learned of the strength of the Lord, the
sureness of His protecting care.

4< While they were encamped in the dark wilder-
ness between the house of bondage and the Prom-
ised Land, they learned to wait on the Lord.

" And in that long waiting they brightened up the
sword of wisdom and the spirit so they could van-
quish the hosts of ignorance surrounding the land
from whence they were taken in their black igno-
rance, and to which they returned rejoicing, ready
to work for Him who had redeemed them.

" I look into the future and I see the hosts of igno-
rance, and superstition, and idolatry falling before
the peaceful warfare of these soldiers of the cross.

" I see the idols of superstition and bestial igno-
rance falling and the white cross lifted up and shed-
ding its pure, awakening light over the hordes of
savage men and savage women brought in, washed
and made clean, to the marriage supper of the Lord.

" As for myself, I truly care not how long I may
wait my Master's call. For whatever pathway I
may tread, in this world or the other, 1 know that He
that is risen will go before me ; so I fear not the way
by land, however long, nor the swelling of Jordan.

" And either in the body or out of the body, God
knoweth best. I shall see the fulfilment of His
promises, I shall see the working out of His plan as
it draws nearer and nearer to its perfect fulfilment/ '

I dropped the hands that held that letter into my
lap, and sot there in silence.

The sun had gone down, but the west wuz a
glowin' sea of pale golden light, and above it a large

SAM AN TH A ON THE RACE PROBLEM.

387

clear star shone like a soul lookin' down into this
world, a soul that had got above its troubles and
perplexities, but yet one that took a near and dear
interest in the old world yet.

Fur off, away over the peaceful green fields, I
could hear the cow-bells a tinklin' and a soundin'
low and sweet, as the herds wended their way home
through the starry dusk.

Everything wuz quiet and serene.

And as I sot there my heart sort o' waked up, and
memories heavenly sweet, heavenly sad, come to
thrill my soul as they must always do while I stay
here below, till my day of pilgrimage is over.

But as I sot there with tears on my cheeks and a
smile on my lips — for I wuzn't onhappy, not at all,
though the tears wuz in my eyes through thinkin'
of such a number of things — all at once a light low
breeze swept up gently from the south or down from
the glowin' heavens — anyway it come — and swept
lovingly and kind o' lingeringly, as if with some old
lovin' memory, over the posies in the door-yard, and
sort o' waved the sweet bells of the mornin' glories,
and fell on my forehead and cheek like a soft, con-
solin' little hand.

It sort o' stayed there and caressed me, and
brushed my hair back, and then touched my cheek,
and then — wuz gone.