PERSONAL.--(Berl Trout)
I was a member of the Imperium that ordered Belton to be slain. It
fell to my lot to be one of the five who fired the fatal shots and I
saw him fall. Oh! that I could have died in his stead!
When he fell, the spirit of conservatism in the Negro race, fell with
him. He was the last of that peculiar type of Negro heroes that could
so fondly kiss the smiting hand.
His influence, which alone had just snatched us from the edge of the
precipice of internecine war, from whose steep heights we had, in our
rage, decided to leap into the dark gulf beneath, was now gone; his
restraining hand was to be felt no more.
Henceforth Bernard Belgrave's influence would be supreme. Born of
distinguished parents, reared in luxury, gratified as to every whim,
successful in every undertaking, idolized by the people, proud,
brilliant, aspiring, deeming nothing impossible of achievement, with
Viola's tiny hand protruding from the grave pointing him to move
forward, Bernard Belgrave, President of the Imperium In Imperio, was a
man to be feared.
As Bernard stood by the side of Belton's grave and saw the stiffened
form of his dearest friend lowered to its last resting place, his
grief was of a kind too galling for tears. He laughed a fearful,
wicked laugh like unto that of a maniac, and said: "Float on proud
flag, while yet you may. Rejoice, oh! ye Anglo-Saxons, yet a little
while. Make my father ashamed to own me, his lawful son; call me a
bastard child; look upon my pure mother as a harlot; laugh at Viola
in the grave of a self-murderer; exhume Belton's body if you like and
tear your flag from around him to keep him from polluting it! Yes,
stuff your vile stomachs full of all these horrors. You shall be
richer food for the buzzards to whom I have solemnly vowed to give
your flesh."
These words struck terror to my soul. With Belton gone and this man
at our head, our well-organized, thoroughly equipped Imperium was a
serious menace to the peace of the world. A chance spark might at
any time cause a conflagration, which, unchecked, would spread
destruction, devastation and death all around.
I felt that beneath the South a mine had been dug and filled with
dynamite, and that lighted fuses were lying around in careless
profusion, where any irresponsible hand might reach them and ignite
the dynamite. I fancied that I saw a man do this very thing in a
sudden fit of uncontrollable rage. There was a dull roar as of distant
rumbling thunder. Suddenly there was a terrific explosion and houses,
fences, trees, pavement stones, and all things on earth were hurled
high into the air to come back a mass of ruins such as man never
before had seen. The only sound to be heard was a universal groan;
those who had not been killed were too badly wounded to cry out.
Such were the thoughts that passed through my mind. I was determined
to remove the possibility of such a catastrophe. I decided to prove
traitor and reveal the existence of the Imperium that it might be
broken up or watched. My deed may appear to be the act of a vile
wretch, but it is done in the name of humanity. Long ere you shall
have come to this line, I shall have met the fate of a traitor. I die
for mankind, for humanity, for civilization. If the voice of a poor
Negro, who thus gives his life, will be heard, I only ask as a return
that all mankind will join hands and help my poor down-trodden people
to secure those rights for which they organized the Imperium, which
my betrayal has now destroyed. I urge this because love of liberty is
such an inventive genius, that if you destroy one device it at once
constructs another more powerful.
When will all races and classes of men learn that men made in the
image of God will not be the slaves of another image?
THE END.