THE CAUSE REVEALED BUT NOT REMOVED.
The scene of the opening of our story was Richmond, Va., the far famed
capital of the ill-fated Southern Confederacy. To all intents and
purposes, Erma Wysong was an orphan. Her mother, a Negro woman, was now
dead, having passed away two years since. Though her parents had been
silent on the subject, Erma now knew from the color of her skin and the
texture of her hair that her father must have been white. As to who he
was or where he was, whether living or dead, she did not know, and had
no means of ascertaining. A few years after Erma's birth her mother
married a very worthy Negro man, who generously overlooked the previous
sin of his wife, never once in all their wedded life alluding to it.
Upon a foundation of repentance and forgiveness this Negro family, like
unto many others, had its beginning. Unto this repentant wife and
forgiving husband a son was born whom they named John. This son, now
about eighteen years of age, is the only support left to Erma, her
stepfather having gone to his grave shortly after the demise of his
wife. So Erma was practically an orphan girl, alone in the world,
relying for support and protection upon her brother John, who dearly
loved his "Erm," as he called her. He was working at the machinist's
trade in the Bilgal Iron Works of Richmond, Va., and was receiving two
dollars and a half per day; and with this was supporting himself and
sister and laying by money to lift the remainder of the mortgage
encumbering their modest little home. Erma was a student of exceptional
brightness when in school and had been graduated at an early age from
the Richmond Colored High School, carrying off the highest honors of her
class. After graduating from the high school at Richmond she went to the
Tuskegee Industrial Institute at Tuskegee, Alabama, whence she was
recalled by the death of her mother. You now have her history, briefly
told, up to the time of the opening of our story.
Astral Herndon had been a schoolmate of hers in the Richmond public
schools, graduating in the class immediately preceding her class. These
two had from childhood, a fondness for the society of each other, though
for a long time neither Astral nor Erma stopped to analyze this feeling.
Astral was the first to awake to the real situation as it concerned
himself, and in his shy, untutored way had sought to arouse in Erma
emotions similar to his own; but she did not understand life as yet,
(for a knowledge of love is a knowledge of life) and Astral remained the
same "Astry" to her.
Astral finally decided that his constant association with Erma ever
since childhood was a bar to his progress toward winning her love, and
he had decided to go away and spend a number of years in school, free
from Erma's notice. He had determined to obtain a thorough college
education and return to woo as a comparative stranger, the heart of
Erma. In the midst of an ordinary conversation he had mentioned to Erma
his proposed going away, and the rude shock had awakened the sleeping
love of her heart. Not knowing the meaning of that strange fire in her
bosom, she leaped to her feet and began her restless journeying with
which we found her engaged in our opening chapter. Her mind kept saying,
"Astral, going away! He will be a college graduate! He will be a learned
man! He will be far above me when he comes back! He may not come back at
all! But what difference does it all make to me?" Over and over she
revolved these thoughts in her mind, her perplexity growing deeper and
deeper and her heart aching more and more. When Astral called her and
she looked into his eyes, she stood revealed to herself; her love had
broken its chrysalis. "But what of Astral! Does he love me?" she asked
herself and shrank away from him instinctively. She did not wish for him
to come to her again as the Astral of old. Her soul craving for solitude
to contemplate its new found joy, and fearful of giving its precious
secret away too soon, she dismissed Astral. When he was gone, Cupid went
busily to work in her mind, weaving a web, every cord of which was a
string from her heart--a web to catch and hold fast her soul's one mate.
These things were certain: Astral was going away, would advance in
studies, would occupy a more exalted station in life than she. It was
her task to maintain an equality of station between them; how she was to
do it was the great question, she being a moneyless orphan. But, having
discovered the full extent that her very existence was wrapped up in
Astral, she was determined to surmount all obstacles of whatever
nature--determined to find a way to keep pace with him in training, to
prepare ever for companionship with him, to hold herself through all the
years of waiting, pure, noble, undefiled, a worthy queen for her
glorious king--her Astral!
She knew that she would never openly seek his love; never knowingly
reveal her passion; but Love ever feels that he has the right of way
through the earth; that all things will move at his beck and call; and
Erma firmly trusted this subtle might of Love to accompany Astral on his
long journey, and doubted not but that it would bring him back to her.
Satisfied on that score, Erma undertook the task of self-improvement.
Poor, poor girl! Could she have caught sight of the large, the cruel,
the unfeeling thorns in her pathway; could she have felt for a brief
instant but a small fraction of the mountain-like burden ordained for
her shoulders; could she have but dipped her tongue into the bitter gall
poured out for her; could she have but dreamed of the nameless sorrows
that were to plow wide furrows in her storm-swept and tempest-driven
soul, how she would have trembled and shivered and groaned at the awful
prospect before her. Yet, being a woman and being in love, she would
have gone forth just the same, foreseeing all. Wonder not that God
refused to make woman out of dust.
If you can so master your feelings as to be a spectator to a fight
between a poor, beautiful, motherless Negro maiden and an array of foes
that would warrant Michael in sending for reinforcements before giving
battle, we can safely ask you to follow our narrative.