Having made myself somewhat presentable upon leaving the steerage of the
steamer, my trunk on a dray, I proceeded to an unprepossessing hotel
kept by a colored man on Kearny street. The cursory view from the
outside, and the further inspection on the inside, reminded me of the
old lady's description of her watch, for she said, "it might look pretty
hard on the outside, but the inside works were all right." And so
thought its jolly patrons. Seated at tables, well supplied with piles of
gold and silver, where numerous disciples of that ancient trickster
Pharaoh, being dubious perhaps of the propriety of adopting the literal
orthography of his name, and abbreviated it to Faro.
Getting something for nothing, or risking the smaller in hope of
obtaining the greater, seems a passion inherent in human nature,
requiring a calm survey of the probabilities, and oftimes the baneful
effects to attain a moral resistance. It is the "ignis fatuus" that has
lured many promising ones and wrecked the future of many lives.
The effervescent happiness of some of the worshipers at this shrine was
conspicuous. The future to them seemed cloudless. It was not so with me.
I had a secret not at all complacent, for it seemed anxious to get out,
and while unhappy from its presence, I thought it wise to retain it.
When I approached the bar I asked for accommodation, and my trunk was
brought in. While awaiting this preparatory step to domicile, and gazing
at the prints and pictures more or less "blaser" that adorned the bar,
my eye caught a notice, prominently placed, in gilt letters. I see it
now, "Board twelve dollars a week in advance." It was not the price, but
the stipulation demanded that appalled me. Had I looked through a
magnifying glass the letters could not have appeared larger. With the
brilliancy of a search light they seemed to ask "Who are you and how are
you fixed?" I responded by "staring fate in the face," and going up to
the bar asked for a cigar. How much? Ten cents. I had sixty cents when I
landed; had paid fifty for trunk drayage, and I was now a moneyless
man--hence my secret.
Would there be strict enforcement of conditions mentioned in that
ominous card. I was unacquainted with the Bohemian "song and dance"
parlance in such extremities, and wondered would letting my secret come
out let a dinner come in. Possibly, I may have often been deceived when
appealed to, but that experience has often been fruitful to friendless
hunger.
Finally the bell rang, and a polite invitation from the landlord placed
me at the table. There is nothing so helpful to a disconsolate man as a
good dinner. It dissipates melancholy and stimulates persistency. Never
preach high moral rectitude or the possibilities of industry to a hungry
man. First give him something to eat, then should there be a vulnerable
spot to such admonition you will succeed. If not, he is an incorrigible.
After dinner I immediately went out, and after many attempts to seek
employment of any kind, I approached a house in course of construction
and applied to the contractor for work. He replied he did not need help.
I asked the price of wages. Ten dollars a day. I said you would much
oblige me by giving me, if only a few days' work, as I have just
arrived. After a few moments thought, during which mayhap charity and
gain held conference, which succumbed, it is needless to premise, for we
sometimes ascribe selfish motives to kindly acts, he said that if I
choose to come for nine dollars a day I might. It is unnecessary for me
to add that I chose to come.
When I got outside the building an appalling thought presented itself;
whoever heard of a carpenter announcing himself ready for work without
his tools. A minister may be without piety, a lawyer without clients, a
politician impolitic, but a carpenter without tools, never! It would be
prima facia evidence of an imposter. I went back and asked what tools I
must bring upon the morrow; he told me and I left. But the tools, the
tools, how was I to get them. My only acquaintance in the city was my
landlord. But prospects were too bright to reveal to him my secret. I
wended my way to a large tent having an assortment of hardware and was
shown the tools needed. I then told the merchant that I had no money,
and of the place I had to work the next morning. He said nothing for a
moment, looked me over, and then said: "All right take them." I felt
great relief when I paid the merchant and my landlord on the following
Saturday.
Why do I detail to such length these items of endeavor; experiences
which have had similarity in many lives? For the reason that they seem
to contain data for a moral, which if observed may be useful. Never
disclose your poverty until the last gleam of hope has sunk beneath the
horizon of your best effort, remembering that invincible determination
holds the key to success, while advice and assistance hitherto laggard,
now with hasty steps greets you within the door.
I was not allowed to long pursue carpentering. White employees finding
me at work on the same building would "strike." On one occasion the
contractor came to me and said, "I expect you will have to stop, for
this house must be finished in the time specified; but, if you can get
six or eight equally good workmen, I will let these fellows go. Not that
I have any special liking for your people. I am giving these men all the
wages they demand, and I am not willing to submit to the tyranny of
their dictation if I can help it." This episode, the moral of which is
as pertinent today as then, and more apparent, intensifies the necessity
of greater desire upon the part of our young men and women to acquire
knowledge in skilled handicraft, reference to which I have hitherto
made. But my convictions are so pronounced that I cannot forbear the
reiteration. For while it is ennobling to the individual, giving
independence of character and more financial ability, the reflex
influence is so helpful in giving the race a higher status in the
industrial activities of a commonwealth. Ignorance of such activities
compel our people mostly to engage in the lower and less remunerative
pursuits. I could not find the men he wanted or subsequent employment of
that kind.
All classes of labor were highly remunerative, blacking boots not
excepted.
I after engaged in this, and other like humble employments, part of
which was for Hon. John C. Fremont, "the pathfinder overland to
California."
[Illustration: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
"The Sage of Tuskegee."
The Leader of Leaders For Negro Advancement.]
Saving my earnings, I joined a firm already established in the clothing
business. After a year or more so engaged, I became a partner in the
firm of Lester & Gibbs, importers of fine boots and shoes. Just here a
thought occurs which may be of advantage to ambitious but impecunious
young men. Do not hesitate when you are without choice to accept the
most humble and menial employment. It will be a source of pleasure, if
by self-denial, saving your earnings, you keep a fixed intent to make it
the stepping stone to something higher.
The genius of our institutions, and the noblest of mankind will estimate
you by the ratio of distance from the humblest beginning to your present
attainment; the greater the distance the greater the luster; the more
fitting the meed of praise.
Our establishment on Clay street, known as the "Emporium for fine boots
and shoes, imported from Philadelphia, London and Paris," having a
reputation for keeping the best and finest in the State, was well
patronized, our patrons extending to Oregon and lower California. The
business, wholesale and retail, was profitable and maintained for a
number of years. Mr. Lester, my partner, being a practical bootmaker,
his step to a merchant in that line was easy and lucrative.
Thanks to the evolution of events and march of liberal ideas the colored
men in California have now a recognized citizenship, and equality before
the law. It was not so at the period of which I write. With thrift and
a wise circumspection financially, their opportunities were good; from
every other point of view they were ostracised, assaulted without
redress, disfranchised and denied their oath in a court of justice.
One occasion will be typical of the condition. One of two mutual friends
(both our customers) came in looking over and admiring a display of
newly arrived stock, tried on a pair of boots, was pleased with them,
but said he did not think he needed them then; lay them aside and he
would think about it. A short time after his friend came in, was shown
the pair the former had admired; would he like such a pair? He tried on
several and then asked to try on his friend's selection; they only
suited, and he insisted on taking them; we objected, but he had them on,
and said we need not have fear, he would clear us of blame, and walked
out. Knowing they were close friends we were content. Possibly, in a
humorous mood, he went straight to his friend, for shortly they both
came back, the first asking for his boots; he would receive no
explanation (while the cause of the trouble stood mute), and with vile
epithets, using a heavy cane, again and again assaulted my partner, who
was compelled tamely to submit, for had he raised his hand he would have
been shot, and no redress. I would not have been allowed to attest to
"the deep damnation of his taking off."
The Magna Charter, granted by King John, at Runney Mead, to the Barons
of England, in the twelfth century, followed by the Petition of Right by
Charles I, has been rigidly preserved and consecrated as foundation for
civil liberty. The Continental Congress led the van for the United
States, who oftimes tardy in its conservatism, is disposed to give
audience to merit and finally justice to pertinacity of purpose.
In 1851, Jonas P. Townsend, W. H. Newby, and other colored men with
myself, drew up and published in the "Alto California," the leading
paper of the State, a preamble and resolutions protesting against being
disfranchised and denied the right of oath, and our determination to use
all moral means to secure legal claim to all the rights and privileges
of American citizens.
It being the first pronouncement from the colored people of the State,
who were supposed to be content with their status, the announcement
caused much comment and discussion among the dominant class. For down
deep in the heart of every man is a conception of right. He cannot
extinguish it, or separate it from its comparative. What would I have
others do to me? Pride, interest, adverse contact, all with specious
argument may strive to dissipate the comparison, but the pulsations of a
common humanity, keeping time with the verities of God never ceased to
trouble, and thus the moral pebble thrown on the bosom of the hitherto
placid sea of public opinion, like its physical prototype, creating
undulations which go on and on to beat against the rock and make sandy
shores, so this our earnest but feeble protest contributed its humble
share in the rebuilding of a commonwealth where "a man's a man for all
that."
The committee above named, with G. W. Dennis and James Brown, the same
year formed a company, established and published the "Mirror of the
Times," the first periodical issued in the State for the advocacy of
equal rights for all Americans. It has been followed by a score of
kindred that have assiduously maintained and ably contended for the
rights and privileges claimed by their zealous leader.
State conventions were held in 1854, '55 and '57, resolutions and
petitions passed and presented to the Legislature of Sacramento. We had
friends to offer them and foes to move they be thrown out the window. It
is ever thus, "that men go to fierce extremes rather than rest upon the
quiet flow of truths that soften hatred and temper strife." There was
that unknown quantity, present in all legislative bodies, composed of
good "little men" without courage of conviction, others of the Dickens'
"devilish sly" type, who put out their plant-like tendrils for support;
others "who bent the pliant servile knee that thrift may follow
fawning"--all these the make-weight of a necessary constituent in
representative government conservatism. The conservative majority laid
our petition on the table, most likely with the tacit understanding that
it was to be "taken up" by the janitor, and as such action on his part
is not matter for record, we will in this happier day with "charity to
all," over this episode on memory's leaf, simply wrote "lost or stolen."
Among the occasions continually occurring demanding protests against
injustice was the imposition of the "poll tax." It was demanded of our
firm, and we refused to pay. A sufficient quantity of our goods to pay
tax and costs were levied upon, and published for sale, and on what
account.
I wrote with a fervor as cool as the circumstances would permit, and
published a card from a disfranchised oath-denied standpoint, closing
with the avowal that the great State of California might annually
confiscate our goods, but we would never pay the voters tax. The card
attracted attention, the injustice seemed glaring, the goods were
offered. We learned that we had several friends at the sale, one in
particular a Southern man. Now there was this peculiarity about the
Southern white man, he would work a Negro for fifty years for his
victuals and clothes, and shoot a white man for cheating the same Negro,
as he considered the latter the height of meanness. This friend quietly
and persistently moved through the crowd, telling them why our goods
were there, and advising to give them a "terrible letting alone." The
auctioneer stated on what account they were there, to be sold, asked for
bidders, winked his eye and said "no bidders." Our goods were sent back
to our store. This law, in the words of a distinguished Statesman, was
then allowed to relapse "into innocuous desuetude." No further attempts
to enforce it upon colored men were made.
[Illustration: BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER
Born in Newberry, S. C.--Ordained Bishop in 1880--President of Bishop
Council. Home and Foreign Missionary Society and Sunday School Union of
the A. M. E. Church.--From Slave to Statesman--As Soldier, Editor,
Author, Legislator, Orator, and African Explorer--For Vitality and
Ability, Courage and Fidelity, Along so Many Lines, He Stands Without a
Peer.]