I HAD been out a walkin’ one day, and when I got back and went into the
settin’ 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 neighborin’ 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 I 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’ 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 I 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 conversation 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 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 lowest notch. I felt as if I should sink, but
felt that before I _did_ sink I should speak.
[Illustration:
POOR WHITE.
]
He went on to tell what a dretful state the country wuz in, and all a
owin’ to the colored race; and sez he:
“The niggers don’t take any interest in the welfare of the country. What
do they care what becomes 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.
“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.
“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.
“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:
“Hain’t there plenty of intelligent educated colored people now,
graduates of schools and colleges—lawyers, teachers, ministers, etc.,
etc.?”
“Oh, yes, a few,” he admitted reluctantly.
I knew there wuz a hundred thousand of ’em, if there wuz one.
And I sez, “Hain’t the condition of your poor whites here in the South
about as bad as the negroes, mentally and morally and physically?”
“Well, yes,” he admitted that it wuz. “But,” 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
despairin’, 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?”
“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, 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 myself 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. Seybert, 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 principled as you say they are,
and they wuz convinced that they could rescue their beloved land from
danger by sacrificin’ 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 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 dangerous objection to it. I 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 for
them that wuz left behind in the exodus and them that went too, a
helpful, encouragin’ thing.)
“And jest as soon as the negro and the poor whites get fit for it, as
soon as they had fitted themselves 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.’
“For a low, vicious, ignorant person, be he black or be he white, is
_not_ equal to a high-minded, intelligent one. And the law that sets
them two up side by side is an unjust and foolish law.
“But the light of the fair to-morrow is a shinin’ down; its light
beckons, it inspires, it helps forward.
“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.
“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, “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, “The idees I have promulgated to you would be apt to light up one
side of 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 I, “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 sunshine and to
liberty.
“If he has dropped his chains onto the damp, mouldy pavement, if he has
stood on the very lowest 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 fetters 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 like puttin’ up our
hands and 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-fearin’, 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 countenance, 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 on one of his sprees, so I hearn, and Victor had kep’ watch
on him, and his nerves wuz onstrung yet, and he felt hateful.)
“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.”
“Well, follow me immediately; don’t dawdle now.”
“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 Victor gin each other a silent
greetin’ of the eyes—a heart greetin’, 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 sleepers.
“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 exponents. And after bending and cowering
beneath 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 describin’ 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 prettiness 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 if it wuz on any other subject than this that he wuz so
carried away on.
[Illustration:
ROSY’S BABY.
]
But I could see plain that every word he said in commendation and praise
of that child wuz Gospel truth.
There never wuz such a beautiful child before, either in America, or
Asia, or Africa, or the Islands of the Sea. And bein’ entirely
onprejudiced myself, 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 onwillin’ 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, beautiful 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.
[Illustration:
URY.
]
Wall, now that they wuz all well agin and oncommon 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 takin’ a good rest, as Ury took good care of
everything, 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 everything
inside, and I knew I could trust her with ontold gold, if I had any
ontold gold; so we stayed on.
[Illustration:
SOME NEIGHBORS.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------