* m
 
 ^ o
 
 HOLM'S 
 
 ASSIMILATION^ 
 
 OR THE 
 
 FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 A Complete Scientific Exposition of the Most Tre- 
 mendous Question that has ever confronted 
 two races in the world's history 
 
 By 
 
 PROF. JOHN JAMES HOLM 
 
 INCLUDING a Resume by the following noted Afro- Americans, 
 prepared by them for this book: 
 
 Rev. John H. White. D. D. Dr. James E. Shepard 
 
 Prof. George E. Davis, Ph. D. Prof. William Ptckens 
 
 Bishop AlexanderWalters, A. M., D. D. James E. McGirt 
 
 Anna D. Borden Sophia Cox Johnson 
 
 Bishop J. W. Smith. D. D. Rev. J. W. Wood, D. D. 
 
 Profusely Illustrated with nearly 100 Half- 
 tones, including many striking original 
 drawings by the author 
 
 Published Exclusively 
 By 
 
 J. L. NICHOLS & COMPANY 
 
 Naperville, 111. Atlanta, Ga. 
 
 AGENTS WANTED
 
 COPYRIGHTED, 1910, 
 
 BY 
 PROF. JOHN J. HOLM
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 PREFACE 15 
 
 INTRODUCTION. By Marion Edward 
 
 Church 19 
 
 I. THE BLOOD OF HAM AND JAPHETH 25 
 
 Our Position Ancient History Noah and 
 the Flood Variety and Union The Three 
 Divisions of the Races Aryan, Semitic, 
 Hamitic The Kinky-haired Hamite Was 
 Buddha a Kinky-haired Negro? The Negro 
 He Again Attains Civilization Mr. Roose- 
 velt Says That There Will be a White Africa 
 He Helped to Enslave Himself Facts 
 Briefly Stated Classifying the American 
 Negro. 
 
 II. CONFLICTING ELEMENTS OF PROGRESS. ... 45 
 
 Lack of Confidence Underground Current 
 Whites Disappointed in Them No Cheap 
 Labor Commercial Growth The Negro Dis- 
 covers He is Needed He Goes to the City 
 We Deplore the Fact A Cry for More Ef- 
 ficient Labor Foreign Immigration will Prove 
 a Blessing to the Negro The Negro Must be 
 Treated with an Object. 
 
 III. THE "SMART NEGRO" 58 
 
 How Knowledge Spread The Old Planta- 
 tion Schools Chivalrous Spirits They Are 
 Bound to Rise May As Well Confess It 
 Not Weak and Helpless Will Not Submit 
 to Wiles of White Relatives Would be No 
 Race Question The White Man's Blood 
 The White Man Stands Accused Before God 
 Negro Cannot be Deported An Endless 
 Relationship Between the Races in the South 
 Give Credit Where It Is Due Some Smart 
 Negroes. (Honorable Frederick Douglass, Dr. 
 Booker T. Washington, Honorable P. B. S. 
 Pinchback, Honorable Theophile T. Allain, 
 Rev. Henry McNeal Turner, D. D., LL. D. ; 
 Rev. Lemuel Hayes, A. M. ; Honorable 
 5 
 
 2201122
 
 6 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Josiah T. Settle, A. B., A. M., LL. B. ; Col- 
 onel Robert Harlem, Samuel Jefferson Davis, 
 Rev. Bartlett Taylor, Bishop James Varick.) 
 The Full-blooded Negro Has Talent. 
 IV. EDUCATION AND EQUALITY 87 
 
 Education in a Republic Means Equality 
 Brute Force May be Used The Japanese 
 May Own the Southern States A Great 
 Army of Children What Then? Southern 
 White Illiteracy Darkest Africa in America 
 Inequality and Education a Transparent 
 Doctrine What Japanese Think of It. 
 
 V. THE COLOR LINE 112 
 
 Do Not Champion the Negro at the Ex- 
 pense of Southern Whites Hard Things 
 Hurled at Negro's Friends A Highly Censur- 
 able Act Would Denounce Jesus The Fif- 
 teenth Amendment Gap Just as Wide Be- 
 tween Negro and White Indians and Negroes 
 Vote Tillman Does Not Want the Negro's 
 Heel on His Neck Color Line in Politics 
 They Rub in the Color Line The Negro's 
 Place Another Anti-Negro Philosopher 
 A Broad, Unbiased Investigation God's 
 Finger of Approval is Upon the Mulatto. 
 
 VI. NORTHERN PREJUDICE 134 
 
 A Scattered Few Hold Color Line in Con- 
 temptThe Color Line Fever The Color 
 Line Among Spanish War Veterans The 
 Colored Gentleman Colored Children of the 
 Gentleman A Bad Element Not a Credit. 
 VII. COLOR AGAINST WHITE 147 
 
 A Wrong Feeling A Fraternal Spirit and 
 a Tie that Binds What Can be the First 
 Cause of the Impending Social Eruption? 
 They Have Kindled Their Own Fire The 
 Dangerous Class of Negroes Secret Orders 
 Among the Negroes Fundamental Doctrine 
 The Pink-skinned Man is His Friend Love 
 Begets Love A Terrible Day for America. 
 
 VIII. CRIME, LAW AND PUNISHMENT 171 
 
 Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth The Most 
 Outrageous Practice Horrors in American 
 Prisons United States Penal System is a 
 Failure Who Makes the Criminals ? The 
 Lynch Law The Negro as a Criminal Few 
 Outrages Committed in the North Why?
 
 CONTENTS 7 
 
 OH AFTER AljIS 
 
 Who Does the Lynching in the South? The 
 Substitute for Lynch Law A Kind of Mock 
 Trial Virginia Has Such a Law State 
 Eunuch Institutions The Sterilization of 
 Criminals Contrary to Divine Law Are the 
 Jungles Calling Him Back? 
 
 IX. THE TEMPERAMENTS 200 
 
 The Mental Temperament The Vital Tem- 
 perament The Motive Temperament. 
 
 X. THE BRAIN AND THE MIND 216 
 
 The Making of a Perfect Man Brain and 
 Mind Results When Mental Dissimilarities 
 Cross Skull and Brain Growth Cranial 
 Capacity of the Races What Indicates Mental 
 Power? The Size of the Head. 
 XI. DISSEMINATION AND ATTRACTION 228 
 
 Dissimilarities Affiliate for Evolutionary 
 Growth The Law of Species The Divine 
 Plan of Man's Redemption The Garden of 
 Eden Would Experience a Calamity Dis- 
 semination Grows Stronger There is a Divine 
 Purpose in Mixing Is Outrageous, Yet Divine. 
 
 XII. RACE INTEGRITY 245 
 
 The Race Integrity Crank The Man Who 
 Is Not a Negro Would Encourage Inter- 
 marriage Nature Always Endeavors to Pro- 
 duce Her Best Was Never Taken Seriously 
 Thousands Are Not Negroes A Woman 
 Endures a Man's Embrace Race Integrity 
 'Nothing But a Fad One Race Says Maximo 
 Gomez Race Pride is a Political Issue South. 
 
 XIII. THE ANTI-MISCEGENATION MOVEMENT.. 263 
 
 Editorials From Prominent Southern Papers 
 Professor Holm Writes Hon. Harris Dick- 
 son Honorable Harris Dickson Answers 
 Membership in the Anti-Miscegenation League 
 Information Blank Professor Holm Ans- 
 wers Dickson, Defending His Position Off- 
 spring Must Constitute Legal Marriage 
 Those Who Live Together Must Marry 
 Some Whites Are Unduly Attracted Ama- 
 torially There is Plenty of Evidence. 
 
 XIV. SOCIAL VICE VERSUS LEGAL INTERMAR- 
 
 RIAGE 279 
 
 Unnatural Conditions Between the Races 
 the Cause of Vice Is Shocking, Indeed The
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PAGfi 
 
 Ethical Side Must be Considered Forbidden 
 Fruit is Sweetest All Races Melted Together 
 Here Evidences of Forty-five Years' Illicit 
 Mixing Cannot Prevent Love But Would 
 Not Advise Marriage Should be No Admix- 
 ture of Racial Stock The Men Who Are 
 Bent on Mixing Compelled to Advocate 
 Legal Intermarriage The True State of the 
 Colored Woman Frederick Douglass Saw It 
 Intermarriage Prohibitions are Degrading 
 The Colored Man Would Receive Social 
 Justice Our Marriage Laws are Outrageous 
 Where Indians and Whites Marry A Polit- 
 ical Change Means Social Elevation and Sal- 
 vation Love Between the Sexes of the Races 
 is Conducive to Home Life Why the Law is 
 Powerless. 
 
 XV. WOMAN'S PLACE AND POWER . . 333 
 
 A Perfect Posterity Should be the Aim 
 Children a Necessary Evil Single Blessed- 
 ness Women Will Propose Women's Suf- 
 frage Would Prove of Benefit to Man They 
 Will Solve the Race Question Racial Purity 
 What Is It? A Bad Kind of Mixing The 
 Greatest Thing is Love The Hope of the 
 World An Appeal to Noble Womanhood 
 Facts Are Stubborn. 
 
 XVI. SCIENTIFIC ADAPTATION OF WHITE AND 
 
 COLOR 357 
 
 A Superbly Mated Pair A Mismated Ex- 
 ample Almost a Colored Venus Examples 
 of Physical and Mental Degeneracy How 
 Much Better Not Thus Born Phrenological 
 Location of the Social Evil Offspring of 
 Right Crossing Offspring Alone Constitutes 
 True Marriage. 
 
 XVII. BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLES ILLUSTRATED 379 
 
 The Mating of Superior Dissimilarities 
 Three Generations The Progeny of the Un- 
 desirable Father. 
 
 XVIII. LOVE, OR SEX-AMALGAMATION 391 
 
 How Superior Children Are Born Who Is 
 and Who Is Not Married Right and Wrong 
 Sex-Amalgamation The Loss of Sjtamina At- 
 tributed to Unnatural Conditions What Prof. 
 Wm. A. McKeever Says of College Students 
 The Human Race Neglected Changing Coa-
 
 CONTENTS 9 
 
 CHAPTMt PAGE 
 
 ditions Change Character Parents are Crim- 
 inally Negligent A Child Well Born is 
 Trained at Birth A Mother is the Pre-natal 
 Kindergarten Teacher. 
 
 XIX. PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, OR SOUL-LIFE AND 
 
 THOUGHT FORCE 413 
 
 Soul-Life No Soul-Life Highly Developed 
 Soul-Life The Man Who Feels All is Matter 
 We May Change If We Will It We Re- 
 ceive as Much as We Believe Material Evi- 
 dence Illustrates Man is a Conscious and 
 Creative Being Parents Shape the Soul of 
 Their Children A Union of Thought-forces 
 are Irresistible The Way Out Summed Up.
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PROF. JOHN JAMES HOLM 2 
 
 REV. MARION EDWARD CHURCH 19 
 
 How SCIENCE AND PREJUDICE DIFFER IN THE LIKENESS OF 
 
 NOAH 30 
 
 THE DAIBUTSU AT UENO, JAPAN 36 
 
 THE DAIBUTSU OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN AMERICA 37 
 
 A FULL BLOODED AFRICAN 44 
 
 THE POOR MORTAL , 53 
 
 THE LOWLY IN THE BLACK BELT ON SUNDAY MORNING 60 
 
 VARDAMAN'S IDEAL OF JUSTICE : 65 
 
 STRIPES WITHOUT STARS 72 
 
 A GROUP OF SMART NEGROES, BORN DURING SLAVERY 77 
 
 PHILLIS WHEATLEY 81 
 
 MOSES MEETS PRINCESS THARBIS , 84 
 
 SCHOLARS OF A BLACK BELT DISTRICT SCHOOL 93 
 
 A STUDENT IN BROWN 96 
 
 ANTI-NEGRO PHILOSOPHER 122 
 
 HE VOMITS POLITICAL RACE DOPE 130 
 
 A GROUP OF COLORED CHILDREN OF THE GENTLEMAN 143 
 
 THE OLD BLACK MAMMY 150 
 
 A SORT OF LEECH 152 
 
 SERMON ON THE MOUNT , 162 
 
 BURNING AT THE STAKE 180 
 
 CONVICT CAMP 186 
 
 THREE PENCIL STUDIES IN CRIME BY THE AUTHOR 190 
 
 THE THREE TEMPERAMENTS 201 
 
 OLIVIA D. WASHINGTON 202 
 
 PROF. S. G. ATKINS 203 
 
 DR. JOSEPH C. PRICE 205 
 
 TEMPERAMENTS , 208 
 
 BISHOP B. W. ARNETT 211 
 
 HON. FREDERICK DOUGLASS 214 
 
 A SCIENTIFIC CHRIST 217 
 
 RESULTS WHEN MENTAL DISSIMILARITIES CROSS 222 
 
 11
 
 12 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE LAW OF SPECIES FORBIDS MIXING 239 
 
 GUILTY YET HAPPY 256 
 
 FORBIDDEN FRUIT ' 276 
 
 WHEN PAPA is AT HOME 282 
 
 CHILDREN FROM WHITE FATHER AND BROWN MOTHER 284 
 
 A SWEET, DARK BRIDE 288 
 
 CHILDREN BORN TO CAUCASIAN MOTHERS AND NEGRO FATHERS 297 
 COLORED CAUCASIAN WOMAN AND HER CHILDREN BY DARK 
 
 HUSBAND 304 
 
 PRETTY COLORED CAUCASIAN WOMEN 312 
 
 PRETTY FRENCH CREOLE LADIES 316 
 
 PRETTY BROWN AND YELLOW LADIES 322 
 
 Two COLORED BEAUTIES OF THE FAR SOUTH 324 
 
 SOCIAL EQUALITY: LOVE, EVOLUTION AND PROGRESS 329 
 
 FUTURE LEADERS OF SOCIETY 340 
 
 THREE TYPES OF COLORED WOMEN IN THE FAR SOUTH 349 
 
 AN APPEAL TO THE WORLD 354 
 
 J. ROLAND, PH. D 359 
 
 ROSALINE 361 
 
 SAM SLICK 363 
 
 LITTLE SAM 366 
 
 SAM 368 
 
 How REFORMERS Miss THE CENTER OF VICE 371 
 
 MASTER ROLAND 374 
 
 IRALINE 375 
 
 MRS. DR. SUMMER 380 
 
 DR. SUMMER 382 
 
 BETSY 383 
 
 SUMMERFIELD 384 
 
 MASTER SUMMER 335 
 
 McNAY 380 
 
 CLARA McNAY 337 
 
 MASTER McNAY % 388 
 
 THE MOTHER is THE PRE-NATAL TEACHER OF HER RACE 407 
 
 BISHOP R. ALLEN 418 
 
 A Low CLASS EAST AFRICAN SAVAGE 419 
 
 BISHOP JAMES VARICK . 420
 
 RESUME 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION 436 
 
 THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE HAM ITIC OR NEGRO RACE IN HISTORY, 
 By John H. White, D. D 438 
 
 COLOR PREJUDICE IN AMERICA AND EUROPE CAUSES. By Dr. 
 James E. Shepard 446 
 
 AN OPTIMISTIC VIEW OF THE NEGRO QUESTION. By Prof. 
 G. E. Davis, Ph. D 454 
 
 INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE RACES. By Prof. William Pickens 470 
 
 ECONOMIC LAW DEMANDS FREEDOM OF MARRIAGE. By James 
 E. McGirt , 483 
 
 MISCEGENATION AND ITS BANEFUL EFFECTS. By Bishop Alex- 
 ander Walters, A. M., D. D t 486 
 
 THE COLORED WOMAN AS SHE Is. By Anna D. Borden 489 
 
 SOME THOUGHTS FOR BOTH RACES TO PONDER OVER. By 
 Anna D. Borden 497 
 
 A COLOR LINE DIVIDES Us. Poem ^ 503 
 
 THE COLORED WOMAN ON THE PLANTATION, AND How SHE 
 is RAISED BY PROGRESS MADE. By Sophia Cox Johnson. . . 504 
 
 ALL HUMAN BLOOD is ALIKE INTERMARRIAGE. By Bishop J. 
 W. Smith, D. D 511 
 
 THE AFRO-AMERICAN AS HE WAS, Now Is AND WILL BE. 
 How HE Is BLEACHING AND WILL BECOME SOCIALLY 
 EQUAL. By Rev. J. W. Wood, D. D . 519 
 
 13
 
 RESUME 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 REV. JOHN H. WHITE, D. D 438 
 
 DR. JAMES E. SHEPARD 447 
 
 PROF. GEORGE E. DAVIS, PH. D 455 
 
 PROF. WILLIAM PICKENS AND WIFE 470 
 
 CHILDREN OF MR. AND MRS. PICKENS . v '. 473 
 
 JAMES E. McGiRT 484 
 
 BISHOP ALEXANDER WALTERS, A. M., D. D -. . 486 
 
 ANNA D. BORDEN 489 
 
 A COLOR LINE DIVIDES Us 503 
 
 SOPHIA Cox JOHNSON 507 
 
 BISHOP J. W. SMITH, D. D 512 
 
 REV. J. W. WOOD, D. D. . .520 
 
 14
 
 PREFACE 
 
 I propose to treat the race problem in America 
 from a scientific viewpoint never before attempt- 
 ed. In addressing my readers I shall use the 
 plural number, because I feel that it is not "I" 
 but "We," who are writing this book. I feel 
 the spiritual assistance of Garrison, Phillips, 
 Douglass and others, to strengthen, encourage 
 and embolden me to tell, without fear or favor, 
 the unvarnished truth. 
 
 If my reader believes that this book is written 
 in defense of the Negro he is, indeed, mistaken. 
 I, as a scientist, write in defense of justice. That 
 means that I condemn those elements in human 
 society which tend to pull apart, tear down and 
 destroy, and defend those elements which build 
 up, unite and harmonize. This book is not in- 
 tended to be. used in a praise service, nor yet in 
 an indignation meeting, but in the spacious 
 "Hall of Reason and Justice." 
 
 A scientist may predict an earthquake, not 
 because he believes in one or enjoys one, but be- 
 cause the indications of one are apparent to him. 
 This is the position I occupy. There are certain 
 unalterable natural laws that man must obey, 
 though he squirm, sputter and protest under the 
 focused heat of compulsion, he is forced to sub- 
 mit to the inevitable in the end. This, both races 
 
 15
 
 16 PREFACE 
 
 (the colored and white) must ultimately do in 
 America. 
 
 We propose to take the noose from the neck of 
 Miss Justice and let her cut and slash with her 
 flaming sword, Mr. Wrong, who sits upon the 
 throne and tramples under foot the helpless, just 
 because he is popular. I hope that we may in- 
 duce our readers to look Justice squarely in the 
 eye and stand back and reason together upon the 
 greatest problem which confronts the American 
 people, viz., legal amalgamation and social 
 justice between the races. This book may be 
 received with wailing and gnashing of teeth by 
 the wrong-doers in the pit of human depravity, 
 who flaunt in the face of justice the red rag of 
 anarchy and crime without a blush of shame; 
 but to the justice-loving citizen, white and col- 
 ored, we believe it will at least prove a prophecy, 
 or, perchance, a beacon light that will show the 
 way to that day when all men, white, black, 
 brown, red and yellow will join hands in unison 
 on a common level, for the betterment of all 
 mankind. 
 
 I wish to state positively here that I have no 
 message for the unfortunately developed souls 
 who are only able to see things through the 
 stained glass of prejudice and lewdness, and are 
 consequently not able to discern right from 
 wrong.
 
 PREFACE 17 
 
 It has been necessary for me to assume the 
 attitude of a surgeon in the examination of a 
 ghastly, putrifying cancer that must be treated 
 with scientific certainty, and be laid bare to the 
 light of day from which it was so long hid, 
 though of its existence all were aware; and 
 which has been regarded by the Church and 
 State in a cool, philosophical manner a neces- 
 sary evil. If I made any attempt to please my 
 readers I should fall far short of what I wish to 
 say, and what I believe a large number of serious- 
 minded people of both races want to know, and 
 ought to know on the questions discussed herein. 
 
 There will no doubt be objections raised by 
 the over-wrought, self-righteous personalities, in 
 regard to the influence, of a questionable kind, 
 this book may exercise over the young people of 
 both races. This is no Sunday school book for 
 little children. Those of mature years will find 
 in it instructions and advice of vital importance 
 to themselves, their posterity, and the entire 
 human family. It is my aim to place this book 
 in the hands of all intelligent young people of 
 both races, as far as possible, for nothing will 
 quicker eradicate color lines and race prejudice 
 than to show, in unmistakable language, to all 
 young Americans that the future greatness of 
 this country depends upon the peaceful assimi- 
 lation of all its people; and that it is only the 
 i
 
 18 PREFACE 
 
 silly and ignorant, the savage and barbarian, 
 who exalts himself and debases his neighbor of 
 another color. 
 
 On the other hand, I also desire to show our 
 young Americans that the variety of races in our 
 country means future greatness and unlimited 
 possibilities; and that when these races are judi- 
 ciously crossed, scientifically mated, a new man 
 will in time result, with marvelous intellectual 
 and physical powers such as the world has 
 never known. I wish to show them that the best 
 and bluest blood in the South has crossed with 
 the Negro race ever since the earliest days of 
 slavery, and inculcate a moral sense of this kin- 
 ship. I, furthermore, wish to show them that 
 illicit mixing is condemned by the civilized 
 world and the laws of Nature; but that the 
 legitimate union of two souls of marked dis- 
 similarities, when perfectly harmonized, will 
 produce a posterity superior to all others, and 
 that it is not a shame but an honor to uphold and 
 defend, in true wedlock, the affinity of their soul, 
 whether that affinity be black, brown, red, yellow 
 or white. I shall give ample scientific proof that 
 racial admixture is inevitable, that intermarriage 
 prohibition is an outrage to human justice, con- 
 trary to a fixed law of Nature, demoralizing to 
 both races .and the crowning curse of our boasted 
 civilization. THE AUTHOR.
 
 FROM hours already 
 crowded with a mul- 
 tiplicity of my public 
 duties, I snatch a few 
 minutes to write a short 
 
 introduction to this great book, and its true im- 
 port, by Prof. John James Holm. 
 
 The name of Prof. Holm is in itself a guaran- 
 tee of its soundness of logic, and the excellence 
 of the presentation of this production of his 
 richly endowed and highly cultured mind. 
 
 In this book the author discusses a subject that 
 has been a stubborn controversy for centuries. 
 To one that might at a glance of the subject 
 turn away from the book without carefully and 
 diligently reading the able, convincing argu- 
 ments it contains; let me say, he will miss an 
 opportunity of improving heart and mmd r 
 which, when he comes to realize it fully, will 
 be to him a cause for many regrets. 
 
 19
 
 20 INTRODUCTION 
 
 This great book is not a rehash of old argu- 
 ments. The learned author, by careful, laborious 
 research, brings to us arguments of originality 
 and freshness. The arguments put forth are not 
 only interesting and eloquent, but to any fair- 
 minded man convincing. It seems to me it 
 exhibits not only a thorough familiarity with 
 the facts and doctrines of the Divine Writings, 
 but a remarkable insight into their true import, 
 which seems to have been born of his reliance 
 on God for the presence of the Kfoly Spirit to 
 shed light upon his work. 
 
 I rejoice that in rapidly increasing numbers 
 we are already beginning to see more clearly 
 some of the fallacies so detrimental to our prog- 
 ress. The numerous and practical illustrations 
 with which the author has interspersed his book 
 will have a peculiar attraction for all interested 
 in this progress, which the races of America so 
 sadly need. 
 
 In my long and varied experience as a minister 
 of the great African Methodist Episcopal Zion 
 Church, I have found that for every great occa- 
 sion of local or national magnitude in the up- 
 building of my race a man or a woman of strong 
 convictions and firm faith has stepped out boldly 
 to proclaim the truth at any cost. Sometimes it 
 has been one of our race, sometimes of the white 
 race. In this case it is again a white man of the
 
 INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 old Teutonic race who has dedicated his broad 
 experience and remarkable scientific intellect to 
 the advocacy of a cause that concerns the vital 
 interests of both races in America. 
 LNothing is as strange as the unpolished truth. 
 When I had the distinguished honor to peep 
 into the manuscript of this book, my eyes were 
 opened and the scales fell, and I saw the real 
 condition of my people in the South. I was 
 convicted and convinced that we all have been 
 laboring under a bugbear and dared not stand 
 erect; but as an old adage says: "The truth 
 crushed to earth will rise again." We can no 
 longer hide our faces after a careful reading of 
 this book and plead ignorancej 
 
 There is perhaps no man in either race better 
 equipped to handle the subject of this book than 
 Prof. Holm. When but a boy he manifested a 
 great interest in psychological science. He was 
 an early student of Prof. O. S. Fowler, and has 
 ever since been a close student of human nature, 
 making extensive investigations relative to the 
 races in the South and elsewhere, covering many 
 years. A man with such a natural-born gift, who 
 has spared neither time or money to obtain the 
 truth as he presents it, must be heard. No one 
 can read this book without feeling that the heart 
 of the author is wrapped up in its every page. 
 He has been a believer in Universal Brotherhood
 
 22 INTRODUCTION 
 
 since early manhood that every man is his 
 brother and every woman his sister, regardless 
 of color or condition in life. I have often heard 
 him say that he cannot feel a social difference 
 between the respectable colored man and woman 
 and a white man or woman who is respectable. 
 His position or belief is perhaps most fully ex- 
 pressed in the closing words of a memorial 
 address, delivered in the A. M. E. Zion Church 
 at Citronelle, Alabama, in behalf of the Rt. Rev. 
 M. R. Franklin, D. D., who died last May 
 (1909). 
 
 "Live for those who love you, 
 And for your enemies too, 
 And life will prove a true success, 
 In the good that you may do." 
 
 Prof. Holm was reared in the great state of 
 Wisconsin; he did not see the face of a Negro 
 until grown; and when it was his privilege to 
 associate with colored people, he did not see 
 through the stained vision of race prejudice, but 
 as a student of human nature the Negro proved 
 very attractive material to him, and he dis- 
 covered the latent possibilities of the race and 
 became the friend of our downtrodden people. 
 Years later, after gaining considerable knowl- 
 edge from books, teachers, and by experience, it 
 was under the guidance of an all-wise and grac- 
 ious Providence that he traveled South and lived
 
 INTRODUCTION 83 
 
 near the colored people of all classes. After 
 spending more than twenty-six years of his life 
 and money in study and research he comes for- 
 ward with this book that will be instrumental, 
 more than any other thing at the present time, in 
 solving the race problem. 
 
 Yours for the cause, 
 
 MARION EDWARD CHURCH, A. B.
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE BLOOD OF HAM AND JAPHETH 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 OUR POSITION. In the following chap- 
 ters we will endeavor to present to the reader in 
 our homely, practical manner, some of the real 
 and imaginary difficulties existing between the 
 white and colored branch of the human family 
 in America. We do not aim to escape the eye 
 of the critic of this mixed family. We think 
 and reason independent of and regardless of 
 criticism and prejudice, and present the truth 
 as we have found it, plain enough and practical 
 enough to be understood by our readers. 
 
 While we unhesitatingly condemn the prev- 
 alent wrongs, we do not try to minimize or 
 obscure the grievances of the white people, and 
 especially magnify the grievances of the black 
 man, or the colored offspring of the white man. 
 We wish our readers to bear in mind, in reading 
 this book, that all the wrongs which the Cau- 
 casian has done the Negro would have been 
 reversed, if that race had been on top and the 
 white man underneath. 
 
 25
 
 26 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ANCIENT HISTORY records the fact that 
 when the dark-skinned people were on top, that 
 is, the most enlightened and civilized, they 
 treated inferior races, or rather those less power- 
 ful, with as much and even more cruelty than 
 the Negro has ever suffered under the domina- 
 tion of his white brother. The cruelties which 
 the coffee-skinned Egyptian perpetrated toward 
 the inoffensive Hebrews, is but one striking ex- 
 ample of what other races suffered, in ancient 
 times, as subjects and slaves of the dark-skinned 
 or black races, when they ruled the world. On 
 the other hand, the cruelties the Ethiopian has 
 from time to time practiced on his own race un- 
 doubtedly exceeds all wrongs he has ever en- 
 dured at the hands of other peoples. 
 
 Slavery existed among the kinky-haired peo- 
 ple from the earliest history; in fact, slavery 
 originated with the Ethiopian or so-called 
 Hamitic branch of the human family. The 
 dark people were the first who attained any 
 degree of civilization, and through warfare 
 came in possession of inferior tribes of various 
 kinds, whom they enslaved. The pink-skinned 
 man was undoubtedly among these, to serve his 
 apprenticeship in the arts of civilization as a 
 slave. ) 
 
 We have not the least doubt but that the first 
 prehistoric race of man was black complexioned.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 27 
 
 Ridpath shows in his history of the world, on 
 Race Chart No. i (showing the distribution of 
 mankind on the hypothesis of a common origin) 
 that the original stock was black, from which 
 sprang the prehistoric brown or Mongoloid, 
 from which sprang the prehistoric ruddy or 
 white. 
 
 NOAH AND THE FLOOD. We have no 
 reasons to doubt the authenticity of the Jewish 
 Bible, which records the flood and the history 
 of Noah and his sons. Science has never suc- 
 cessfully proven to the contrary, but often affirms 
 the fact that there was a universal inundation 
 at some prehistoric period; and, if there was, it 
 is just as reasonable to believe that there was a 
 Noah to battle the floods and preserve our spe- 
 cies. And if there was a Noah, it is a scientific 
 certainty that his skin was black. No white- 
 skinned people could exist in the prehistoric 
 climate of Noah's time. Prior to the flood the 
 earth was enveloped in a sheath of vapor, render- 
 ing the atmosphere very humid and hot. To 
 make ourselves understood by our readers we 
 will take an egg as an illustration: The yolk 
 represents the earth; the white, the atmosphere, 
 and the shell, the sheath of water that surrounded 
 the earth in prehistoric times, or, more correctly, 
 before the flood. The flood was simply the 
 breaking up of the envelopment of this sheath of
 
 28 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 water which surrounded the earth, and the 
 settling of it upon the same, much as we see it 
 at the present time. We have no space to devote 
 to the exposition of this theory in this book. 
 Others have devoted much time and study to this 
 subject. We believe that the sudden change in 
 animal life and vegetation, and also in climate 
 upon the earth, as geology reveals, is one of the 
 strongest proofs as to the correctness of this 
 theory of the flood. The antediluvians were 
 aware of the existence of this water envelopment 
 of the earth, so also was the writer of Genesis. 
 He speaks of it in the following manner: "And 
 God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst 
 of the waters, and let it divide the waters from 
 the waters. And God made the firmament, and 
 divided the waters which were under the firma- 
 ment from the waters which were above the 
 firmament; and it was so. And God called the 
 firmament heaven." Then the writer speaks of 
 the water and land division of the earth as fol- 
 lows: "And God said, Let the waters under the 
 heavens be gathered together unto one place, 
 and let the dry land appear : and it was so. And 
 God called the dry land Earth; and the gather- 
 ing together of the waters called he Seas." The 
 condition of the atmosphere, the writer describes 
 in the following language: "But (there being no 
 rain in that early day) there went up a mist from
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 29 
 
 the earth, and watered the whole face of the 
 ground." We can easily imagine the humidity 
 of the atmosphere, with a mist sufficiently heavy 
 to water a luxuriant tropical growth. During 
 the antediluvian period there was no place on 
 earth where irrigation was necessary. 
 
 Out of this kind of environment Noah and his 
 sons emerged when the clouds cleared away and 
 the bright sun shone for the first time in a clear, 
 crisp heaven. Prior to this time the sun had been 
 hid by the sheath which enveloped the earth, 
 causing a subdued brightness. Now it would 
 burst forth in all its glory in the morning, and 
 shine throughout the day. The writer says: 
 "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and har- 
 vest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, 
 and day and night shall not cease." 
 
 The strongest Biblical evidence we have that 
 there was "Water above the firmament," is the 
 appearance of the rainbow in the cloud after 
 the deluge. The writer of Genesis was no doubt 
 familiar with the natural cause of the rainbow. 
 
 Without the rays of the sun reflecting against 
 a rain cloud there could be no rainbow. While 
 the earth was surrounded with a shell of water 
 above the atmosphere, a "bow in the cloud" was 
 an impossibility, because there was no sun that 
 shone clearly and no cloud to reflect it. When 
 the windows of heaven were opened the water
 
 30 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 HOW SCIENCE AND PREJUDICE DIFFER IN THE LIKENESS OF NOAH.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 31 
 
 fell and the rainbow in the cloud appeared as a 
 covenant that "All flesh be cut off any more by 
 the waters of a flood; neither shall there any 
 more be a flood to destroy the earth." The 
 sudden breaking away of the water crust which 
 surrounded the entire earth between four and 
 five miles from its surface, caused a universal 
 inundation. This leaves no ground for the argu- 
 ment often put forth that all mankind was not 
 destroyed by the flood, but that some escaped on 
 dry land, among them a sort of half man and 
 half monkey, which has since evolved into what 
 is today known as the "inferior race." 
 
 All races of people in the world today have 
 their common origin in Noah and his offspring. 
 No matter how man may have originated during 
 the antediluvian period, there is not a scrap of 
 evidence in either history, science or theology, 
 that any escaped the deluge save a few of the 
 most intelligent, under the guiding hand of a 
 creative and preserving power. 
 
 VARIETY AND UNION. A variety is 
 divine, in union there is strength. Some day, 
 not far distant, mankind will realize this tre- 
 mendous fact. We want our readers to realize 
 this now. This book is not written to arouse 
 race antagonism or hatred, but to alleviate ex- 
 isting difficulties, harmonize as far as possible 
 the opposing forces, and bring about a mutual
 
 32 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 understanding between a people who are today 
 tied by many inseparable ties that must finally, 
 triumphantly, end in harmony and permanent 
 union. 
 
 We hope to present overwhelming facts that 
 will prove the truth of the above statement. We 
 wish to prove to every reader and let this book 
 go on record that race integrity in this great, 
 free America is a myth ; that it has been a myth 
 in every age of human experience, and that the 
 few advocates of it today, in both races in this 
 country, are opposing a natural law of evolution 
 and human growth that no amount of racial 
 hatred or prejudice can render inoperative. 
 
 THE THREE DIVISIONS OF THE 
 RACES. Asia was undoubtedly the birthplace 
 of mankind. It is believed that at a time far 
 back of history there lived a people in Bactra 
 that had considerable advancement in the arts 
 of civilization. These people called themselves 
 Aryas or Aryans, signifying to walk upright or 
 straight. While Asia was the birthplace of man, 
 Africa was the cradle of advanced civilization. 
 
 The Aryan branch (Japhetic), to which all 
 white-skinned people belong, has, since early 
 history, been the competitive and aggressive one. 
 The fittest among them have survived the cli- 
 matic and combative conditions, under which 
 they existed for so many ages, developing a strong 
 race of people.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 33 
 
 The Semitic branch has contributed to man- 
 kind the three great religions of the world the 
 Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan teaching 
 the worship of one God. It has also given us the 
 moral law. C. Osborn Ward says in his book, 
 "The Ancient Lowly" (1893) : 
 
 "The law of Moses had partly abolished slav- 
 ery among the Hebrews as early as B. C. 1400, 
 probably on account of the contempt for that deg- 
 radation which the Hebrews felt, after the de- 
 liverance from their protracted slavery in Egypt 
 It appears that the Hebrews were the chief 
 originators and conservators of what is now 
 known and advocated in the name socialism; 
 and their weird life, peculiar language, laws, 
 struggles and inextinguishable nationality scintil- 
 lates through many of the obscurities of history 
 in a manner to command the wonder, if not the 
 awe, of all lovers of democratic society." 
 
 The Hamitic branch, to which all the brown 
 and black races belong, has been the great 
 builder and the earliest cultivator of the soil on 
 an extensive scale. It has been remarkable for 
 its massive architecture, which yet covers the 
 tracks of these people, after thousands of years, 
 the marvel of the modern world. The building 
 proclivity of these people has only been feebly 
 imitated by succeeding ages. When modern 
 "skyscrapers" have crumbled to dust the great
 
 34 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 pyramids and ruins of the ancient Ethiopian will 
 yet be in evidence.* When all the rest of the 
 world was in darkness, this branch of mankind 
 lived in cities and was skilled in the art of work- 
 ing in wood, metal and clay. It discovered the 
 manufacture of malleable glass and the embalm- 
 ing of bodies, which today belong to the lost arts. 
 
 THE KINKY-HAIRED HAMITE. The 
 kinky-haired branch of the Hamitic race origin- 
 ally occupied but a small area in west Africa, to 
 which the parents of these people undoubtedly 
 migrated from the seat of the earliest Ethiopian 
 civilization. We have reasons to believe that 
 this kinky-haired branch scarcely existed on the 
 west coast of Africa at the time Moses led the 
 Egyptian army into Ethiopia. (See history of 
 Josephus.) 
 
 The white race has perhaps never given full 
 credit to the colored branch of the human family 
 for the complete sway it had in the world in 
 prehistoric times as well as in the earliest record- 
 ed history. Fresh proof that the ancient Ethi- 
 opians were a people of high culture and marked 
 intellectual advancement is furnished by Prof. 
 David Randall Maclver of the University of 
 Pennsylvania, who has gathered a collection of 
 antiquities from Nubia of much variety and 
 
 *See "The Footprints of the Hamitic or Negro Race in 
 History," in the resume of this book, by Rev. John H. White, 
 D. D.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 35 
 
 artistic worth, aggregating five tons in weight. 
 The articles he has gathered, Prof. Maclver says, 
 represent early Negro civilization that lasted for 
 at least seven centuries. Including among the 
 antiquities are various works of art and also some 
 Ethiopic inscriptions. Prof. Maclver adds: 
 "Our excavations have shown that the source 
 of civilization of the period \vhich our work in 
 lower Nubia covered was Ethiopian. All the 
 Negro works of art were discovered in an ex- 
 tensive cemetery lying about ten feet under 
 ground between Wady Haifa and Assouan in 
 lower Nubia." 
 
 WAS BUDDHA A KINKY-HAIRED 
 NEGRO? Buddha, one of the greatest moral 
 and religious reformers the world has ever 
 known was, for instance, at least as much a so- 
 called Negro as Frederick Douglass or Booker 
 T. Washington. In the old statues extant he re- 
 sembles often, in feature as well as in the curl of 
 his hair, a Negro. More than three million Bud- 
 dhists in Asia worship at the shrine of a Buddha 
 who has Negro features as well as the crisped 
 hair. And there are two other statues of Buddha, 
 one in Calanse and one at Ceylon, which have 
 the kinky hair and long, pendant earrings. The 
 Daibutsu, or great Buddha at Ueno, Japan, is a 
 monstrous image to which the people of Tokyo 
 resort to worship, and pay tribute for the remis-
 
 36 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 sion of their sins. We give a pen drawing of 
 the Daibutsu. 
 
 Compare the Daibutsu with the physiognomy 
 of the yellow, red or white race, and you fail to 
 
 THE DAIBUTSU AT UENO, JAPAN. 
 
 There is a striking resemblance between this ancient statue 
 and many leading men of the Afro-American race that no 
 physiognomist can overlook. There is the same high forehead, 
 the same eloquent eye, the same powerful nose, the same firm, 
 passionate mouth, the same decisive chin and the same stubborn 
 jaw we often meet in a leader of his race.
 
 OR THE FADING LEONARD'S SPOTS 37 
 
 find any resemblance; but a cross between the 
 Negro and Caucasian would produce features 
 and talents like this Buddha possessed. 
 
 THE DAIBUTSU OP INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 
 AT TUSKEGEE. ALABAMA. 
 
 THE NEGRO. The statement that the 
 Negro or Ethiopian race is a young race, is, as 
 already intimated, not really true. It is true 
 that it is young in its present undeveloped state,
 
 38 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 but this youth is its second childhood. The 
 brown race and its prototype are the oldest in 
 the world. And in passing we wish to say that 
 we believe that there was a time when curly hair 
 and a coffee-brown skin was considered a stamp 
 of royalty among a people representing the high- 
 est culture and civilization of the world. This 
 stamp of royalty was universally recognized and 
 emulated, so much so that it is to this day imi- 
 tated by many straight-haired people in the arti- 
 ficial curling of the hair. 
 
 The Ethiopian and other branches of the same 
 family spread their civilization and culture into 
 every part of the known world. They conquered 
 the then existing wild tribes in various places, 
 and amalgamated and assimilated them. Out of 
 these amalgamations other great races in time 
 sprang up, and in turn they conquered their an- 
 cient conquerers ; but finally a remarkably strong, 
 pink-skinned race made its appearance upon the 
 world's arena; and while it was rapidly tainted 
 with Ethiopian blood, it maintained its own, and 
 adopted and absorbed all the glory and civiliza- 
 tion of this wonderful dark-skinned people, who 
 then slowly passed out of the foremost ranks of 
 progress. 
 
 While a remnant of this people was in the 
 lowest depths of savagery in the steaming, blister- 
 ing jungles of equatorial Africa, thousands of
 
 OR THE FADING LEONARD'S SPOTS 39 
 
 years later, slavery was introduced on the west- 
 ern continent, and thousands of these poor, retro- 
 grated beings were brought here and to other 
 parts of the civilized world, to again toil and 
 spin like their ancient forefathers, but this time 
 not for themselves alone, but for the white- 
 skinned people whom they once knew and 
 despised as pale-faced savages. 
 
 HE AGAIN ATTAINS CIVILIZATION. 
 It is gratifying to note that the savage remnant 
 of a once advanced people are again entering 
 the ranks of civilization. Even in Abyssinia, 
 that obscure ancient Ethiopian country, all male 
 children over twelve years of age are now under 
 a compulsory educational law, the state provid- 
 ing the education and building many schools. 
 
 The dark races are advancing in all parts of 
 the world. Mr. Frank Carpenter, the noted trav- 
 eler and correspondent, has given an encourag- 
 ing report of the work Gorden college is doing 
 for the natives in the Soudan, reaching every 
 class from the Negro savage up to the more culti- 
 vated Arabian. 
 
 The law of dissemination has again, for several 
 centuries past, operated in favor of these people, 
 in that it has not only distributed thousands of 
 them in every country, but also in crossing them 
 freely with every race with whom they have 
 come in contact. This fact is fullv illustrated
 
 4% HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 in the millions of mixed blood in the United 
 States. And in Africa it is scarcely less true. 
 The blood of the white and other races is flowing 
 in the veins of thousands on that continent. It 
 has penetrated to its very center. Many Negroes 
 brought to America were of mixed stock. We 
 find many with long, wavy black hair, whose 
 skin is decidedly black. And as railroads and 
 civilization conquer the trackless forest and im- 
 penetrable jungle, the mixing process will be- 
 come more and more apparent on the dark conti- 
 nent. The day will again come when, not only 
 on this continent but in Africa, a sunburnt or 
 tan-skinned, curly-haired race will demand and 
 receive recognition. 
 
 MR. ROOSEVELT SAYS THERE WILL 
 BE A WHITE AFRICA. Ex-President 
 Roosevelt spoke at a luncheon given in his honor 
 at the African Inland Mission, an American 
 'institution at Kijabe, British East Africa, while 
 on his hunting tour. He said: "I believe with 
 all my heart that a large part of East Africa will 
 form the 'white man's country.' Make every 
 effort to build up a prosperous and numerous 
 population. 
 
 "I ask the settlers to co-operate with the mis- 
 sionaries and treat the native justly and bring 
 him to a higher level." 
 
 The Southern Statesman (white) says: " 'The
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 41 
 
 white man's country' is an expression which indi- 
 cates that it is the established policy of the white 
 settlers to eventually drive the natives out of the 
 most desirable portion of their own continent 
 and confine them to the portions in which white 
 men cannot thrive. A white Africa and a black 
 Africa are to settle the matter in the dark conti- 
 nent." 
 
 Now, we believe that the native will no more 
 be driven out of Africa, or that portion of the 
 country best suited to the white man, than he is 
 driven out of the United States. The Indian has 
 been driven out of his country by the white man ; 
 every other race of men may be driven out by 
 the white man, when he so determines ; but we 
 can find no instance in history where the Negro 
 and Caucasian settled together in large numbers, 
 where they ever again succeeded in separating. 
 These two races seem to be better adapted to live 
 together than any two extremely opposite races. 
 
 Mark what we say, when the white man set- 
 tles extensively in Africa and occupies every de- 
 sirable portion of it, so will also his colored off- 
 spring and the native full-blood occupy the same 
 ground. The result will be amalgamation there 
 as here in the United States. There will be a 
 colored Caucasian race in Africa. 
 
 Whether this will ever be called the colored 
 Caucasian race in America, we will not venture 
 to predict here, but it is its proper name.
 
 42 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 HE HELPED TO ENSLAVE HIMSELF. 
 It is well known and recorded in slave history 
 that this black, kinky-haired man was originally 
 one of the causes of the wide distribution of him- 
 self. During the flowery days of the slave traffic 
 Negroland was so completely demoralized that 
 it was appalling to behold, even to the hardened 
 slave dealers of that dark day. Every tribe, 
 every clan was against its neighbor, and on the 
 outlook to entrap and sell to the slave buyer the 
 men, women and children thus taken by violence. 
 Whole villages and towns were often taken, the 
 men who resisted were slain in cold blood, and 
 the women and children sold into bondage. 
 In many instances these black fiends did not 
 even spare their own children, but sold them 
 with the rest of the stock in hand. The Moham- 
 medans also paid especial attention to this traf- 
 fic in later years. 
 
 We find that the Negro, instead of persist- 
 ently fighting against being enslaved, often took 
 a willing hand in it, and was even anxious to 
 sell his own countrymen and kin into slavery. 
 Had he fought to the finish or to death this en- 
 slavement, like the American Indian who 
 was repeatedly tried, he would not have been 
 i>o extensively made use of and so absolutely 
 humiliated. But the Negro people, like the 
 Jews, refused to become extinct under the most
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 43 
 
 adverse circumstances. They will adjust them- 
 selves to any condition imaginable, and, unlike 
 the Jews, will consent to mix extensively with 
 other races with whom they come in contact. 
 
 FACTS BRIEFLY STATED. It was 
 avarice on the part of the savage black man who 
 often sold into slavery his own kinsmen; avarice 
 on the part of others who bought them and sold 
 them ; avarice on the part of nations who made it 
 lawful; avarice on the part of the people who 
 sanctioned it; ignorance on the part of all; and 
 finally, all <was the cause of the operation of the 
 immutable natural law of dissemination. This 
 fact we shall demonstrate fully in another part 
 of this book. 
 
 We will here, without further preliminaries, 
 concentrate our thought and attention entirely 
 upon the subject under consideration, viz., the 
 true Afro-American (of mixed blood) and his 
 prototype, both of whom are vulgarly called 
 "nigger", by an ignorant, prejudiced white popu- 
 lace in America, and by a deluded, half-savage 
 remnant of their own race. 
 
 CLASSIFYING THE AMERICAN 
 NEGRO. We would consider it unjust not to 
 classify the Afro-American in this book. The 
 true African Negro is fast disappearing. The 
 name Negro is a misnomer, in that it conveys no 
 idea whatever of the true character of the col-
 
 44 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ored Caucasian people or the Afro-Americans. 
 If statistics could be carefully taken it would 
 be found that there are less than one million 
 absolutely full-blooded Africans in this country. 
 The remaining nine or ten millions are of mixed 
 blood. Four million are decidedly of Caucasian 
 stamp, and are nothing less than Caucasians with 
 a strain of more or less Negro blood. We speak 
 of this here because we wish our readers to bear 
 this fact in mind.
 
 Phft.o. By J. C. Holmes, Mobile 
 
 It is a curiosity to see a full-blooded African in many parts 
 of this country.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 45 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 CONFLICTING ELEMENTS OF PROGRESS. 
 
 LACK OF CONFIDENCE UNDER- 
 GROUND CURRENT. Years of residence 
 and careful observation and investigation in this 
 country, designated the "Darkest South" by 
 northern friends, unacquainted with the tre- 
 mendous evolutionary process going on in this 
 great Southland, will necessarily change one's 
 preconceived conceptions concerning ten mil- 
 lion people about whom so much has been said 
 and written, yet so very little is actually known 
 by casual observers of both the North and South ; 
 and who have heretofore escaped all unbiased, 
 earnest scientific investigation. We dare say that 
 one may become a resident of any thickly settled 
 colored population in the South, for a long time, 
 and not gain its entire confidence, or become 
 acquainted with the deeper workings, the under- 
 ground current of thought, the hidden convic- 
 tions, the terrible potent influence, which dom- 
 inates a great percentage of the colored people. 
 
 WHITES DISAPPOINTED IN THEM. 
 
 We have met northern men who have come 
 
 South with the expectation of finding the Negro, 
 
 as a whole, a patient, docile animal, ready for
 
 46 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 any burden, abuse and misuse. They were dis- 
 appointed in him, and many have now no more 
 use for "niggers" than for very useless yellow 
 dogs, who hang about the kitchen in daytime 
 and bark at the moon at night. When they 
 hired colored help they found that such was 
 not always anxious to do all that was required 
 of it, or that northern white help is reputed to 
 do without so carefully calculating just the 
 amount of physical exertion, etc., it takes to per- 
 form a certain work, and the exact amount of 
 remuneration that might be forthcoming for the 
 least expenditure of strength. Should they de- 
 sire to have work done which requires a little 
 more effort than other work in the neighborhood, 
 it is possible that they may find theirs displaced 
 by an easier job. Hence it has been said that 
 the Negro of this generation is, to a great extent, 
 after an easy job, plenty of time to sport in, and 
 plenty of money to sport with. But we have, 
 indeed, found many exceptions to this rule. 
 There are many individuals of the old and new 
 South, in every community," who are hard work- 
 ing, honest, intelligent, frugal people. 
 
 NO CHEAP LABOR. We are now con- 
 cerned with the present Negro in the, and of 
 the, "Darkest South," just as we find him. We 
 have been in localities in several states where 
 it is yet possible to secure good farm labor for
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 47 
 
 fifty to seventy-five cents per day. We were 
 told that it matters very little whether the Negro 
 receives $3 or $6 per week; that he would work 
 more days for less wages, and vice versa. But 
 this statement, too, is false, as many work in one 
 place and at the same employment for many 
 years, just as steady as any man of the white 
 race. Considering their condition and state of 
 environment, as many among them save money 
 as among the white working people. Wherever 
 northern men have taken the reins of industry 
 in hand to any extent, or where any material 
 advancement has been made, wages have in- 
 creased, and a more hopeful condition has 
 opened for the Negro. 
 
 COMMERCIAL GROWTH. One cause 
 of the scarcity of labor and increase in wages 
 at times, in many localities, is the great activity 
 in the lumber and mining districts. Another 
 cause is the tremendous growth which the var- 
 ious cities and industrial centers are undergoing. 
 We quote a few statistics from Washington, con- 
 taining this information: "The commercial 
 growth of the South in the last quarter century 
 has been little short of phenomenal. 
 
 Capital invested in factories has increased 
 from $257,000,000 in 1880 to $1,500,000,000 in 
 1906. The products of factories have increased 
 in the same time from $457,000,000 to $1,750,-
 
 48 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 000,000. The farm products have grown from 
 $660,000,000 to $1,750,000,000. Capital in cot- 
 ton mills has leaped from $21,000,000 to $225,- 
 000,000. The most stupendous increase of all 
 has been from 397,000 tons of pig iron produced 
 to 3,100,000 tons, and from 179,000 barrels of 
 petroleum to 42,495,000." Later statistics show 
 that the manufacturing interests have grown to 
 $2,600,000,000, and the farm interests to $2,200,- 
 000,000. The exports from the South in 1908 
 were $648,000,000. 
 
 THE NEGRO DISCOVERS HE IS 
 NEEDED. The Negro man has discovered 
 the undisputable fact that he is needed, that he 
 is an absolute necessity, that he is a wheel of 
 great importance in the machinery of industry. 
 And there seems to be a wide-spread belief 
 among them that the white man owes them a 
 great deal for services rendered by their fore- 
 fathers, long and faithful, during slavery days. 
 And many harboring this corrupt idea are in- 
 clined to collect, promiscuously, as much of this 
 imaginary debt as they can, without arousing 
 too much animosity on the part of the unfortun- 
 ate debtor. We have found small boys who 
 religiously believe that the "white folks sure owe 
 us ones something." This sentiment undoubt- 
 edly causes a great deal of shiftless and unsatis- 
 factory service among this class, and a great deal
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 49 
 
 of the stealing to which the lower class of 
 servants are yet addicted. During slavery days 
 slaves were often compelled to steal from their 
 masters, and it is an inbred proclivity still pre- 
 valent. This is undoubtedly one reason so many 
 believe that the white folks owe them a living. 
 And it is not out of place to say here that a 
 similar sentiment prevails among a class of 
 whites, just as pernicious, who claim that 
 another class owes them a living. 
 
 In every age and in every country where so- 
 ciety is divided into two classes as in the South, 
 and especially if one of them belongs to a dif- 
 ferent race, these existing conditions have pre- 
 vailed. It is only when all have been more en- 
 lightened, and a feeling of self-respect has been 
 created, that this feeling of dependence and 
 covetousness can be removed. 
 
 HE GOES TO THE CITY. Since the city 
 offers the colored men better opportunities, they 
 have taken advantage of it, and have left the 
 plantations, where they lived in tolerable har- 
 mony with nature, under the soft southern 
 skies, for the whirl, smoke, excitement and 
 trouble-breeding environment of city life. We 
 believe that this environment, more than any 
 other one thing in the Negro race, is the cause 
 of the present restless, turbulent and degenerate 
 element among these people. We give reason*
 
 50 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 in support of the above statement in succeeding 
 chapters. They have taken it for granted that 
 all the worst vices the whites are addicted to 
 must be participated in in order to be up to date 
 in every respect like a white man and woman. 
 And this contaminating influence of the con- 
 gested city element is rapidly spreading through- 
 out the country. 
 
 WE DEPLORE THE FACT that the coun- 
 try Negro has been, and is today, allowed to 
 concentrate in the cities, and is fast accumulat- 
 ing a class of which the better men and women 
 of both races are thoroughly ashamed. We have 
 said allowed. We do not mean by this that the 
 Negro should have been kept out of the cities 
 by force, and evenly distributed throughout the 
 country. He is free, or at least should be, to 
 go where he chooses; but still that which is for 
 the best and highest interest of all concerned 
 should undoubtedly be done. We do not believe 
 that the yc'jng people, who have been brought 
 up in the crowded city quarters, could be in- 
 duced to exchange them for the green fields, and 
 the health and strength of country life until a 
 more healthy sentiment is created. Many thou- 
 sands are annually dying of consumption and 
 other fatal diseases in these festering slums, and 
 other thousands are leading lives of utter de- 
 pravity, damning both soul and body, sapping
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 51 
 
 the very vitality of the race. After careful in- 
 vestigation we are led to say with the strongest 
 emphasis, that something must be done to check 
 the downward tendency of the race in these city 
 slums. The white race is as much affected as 
 the black. A white child is exposed to the same 
 disease the colored nurse is subject to. And in 
 whatever other capacity the colored serve the 
 white, the same is true. 
 
 Sufficient inducements ought to be offered to 
 those who are yet in the country, and thereby 
 retain their services in the rural districts. As 
 Booker T. Washington and others are doing, 
 they should receive better knowledge of agri- 
 culture, be encouraged to improve their sur- 
 roundings, beautify their homes, and make their 
 habitations more comfortable and attractive, and 
 conducive to higher moral and spiritual senti- 
 ments. There are two sides to this question, as 
 to every other. The planter has in many in- 
 stances abused his power. He has made the lot 
 of the good colored man intolerable by his grab- 
 bing proclivity. It has been so with the Negro 
 in the past, and is so today work, year in, year 
 out, on the plantation, with the hope of better 
 material conditions becoming fainter and fainter 
 as he grows older, till the last ray of the setting 
 sun of his life's ambitions are obscured by the ut- 
 ter darkness of despair, and the poor mortal tot-
 
 52 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ters along in an aimless, hopeless life, until his old 
 aching bones are gathered up and dropped into 
 a hole in the ground in some obscure, weed- 
 covered, desolate graveyard. His skin is black, 
 his ideas of life are crude; yet, no man, who 
 spends a life of toil and devotion, fighting the 
 wolf of poverty continually to keep his wife and 
 little ones together in the little hut in the lane, 
 provided for him by his master, is destitute of 
 ambition; is not without a desire to achieve 
 something, if an opportunity to do so would pre- 
 sent itself in a tangible manner. Be man cul- 
 tured or uncultured, civilized or savage, black 
 or white, he has an inborn desire to achieve 
 something. This poor Negro farmer saw an 
 opportunity to leave, and he left the old planta- 
 tion behind the land of the oppressed and 
 now greater slavery threatens his children 
 moral and physical degeneracy. 
 
 A CRY- FOR MORE EFFICIENT 
 LABOR. At present a cry for more efficient 
 labor is often heard in different sections of the 
 South, especially in the rural districts, which the 
 Negro is leaving. 
 
 The planter cannot afford to pay high wages 
 for incompetent labor and make it pay. It has been 
 said that if ten million Italians and other for- 
 eigners could displace the Negro population of 
 the South, this country would soon blossom like
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 53 
 
 And the poor mortal totters along in an aimless, hopeless life until 
 his old aching bones are gathered up and dropped into a hole in the 
 ground in some obscure, weed-covered, desolate graveyard. Taken from 
 life.
 
 54 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 a rose so far exceeding present prosperity that 
 no comparison could be made. Here, it is 
 claimed, are the natural resources lumber, coal, 
 iron, and shipping facilities by rail and water; 
 agricultural possibilities, climate, etc. to make 
 it great. But we believe that the dream of popu- 
 lating the South with European labor will never 
 be fully realized. We have it from personal 
 investigation, and from men greatly interested 
 in the material progress of this country, that 
 experiments made with Italians have proven 
 destructive to the highest social, moral and po- 
 litical interests of the country. They relieve 
 the labor market where placed, it is true; but is 
 this the only interest, prompted by the avarice 
 of the large planters and others, that we should 
 deem worthy of consideration? We would far 
 rather live in an exclusively colored settlement 
 than one exclusively Italian, and we have our 
 reasons. 
 
 All that we have seen of the Italian settlements 
 points to nothing conducive to a higher mode of 
 living, and more self-pride in the beautifying 
 and building up of their surroundings, than what 
 we find among the lower class of Negroes. We 
 have also noticed that they and the Negroes 
 often mix, and it does not produce a very de- 
 sirable progeny. This country needs more Ger- 
 mans, French, Swiss, English and Scotch; first,
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 55 
 
 to take advantage of the agricultural possibil- 
 ities; and, secondly, to fill this country with a 
 reliable, thrifty stock. 
 
 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION WILL 
 PROVE A BLESSING TO THE NEGRO. 
 A far-sighted editorial appeared in the Odd 
 Fellows Journal (colored) of Philadelphia, in 
 June, 14, 1906, which inculcates a hope as well 
 as a prophetic truth, well worth repeating here. 
 It is as follows: "An attempt is made to turn 
 the tide of foreign immigration southward. We 
 hope it will succeed. Many persons seem to see 
 in it disaster for the Negro; we see in it the 
 greatest hope. There is no reason why all of 
 our race should live in one section of the country 
 any more than another. We admit that in fac- 
 tories and in the skilled mechanical trades, 
 colored men cannot find employment in the 
 North.' While this is true, it is also true that 
 the great majority of our people in the South 
 are farm hands, and there is no locality in the 
 North or West where a colored farm hand can- 
 not get larger wages than he gets anywhere in 
 the South. There is not a colored loafer in New 
 York, Philadelphia, Boston or Chicago, who 
 could not find plenty of farm work to do at good 
 wages if he would only consent to do it. It must 
 be admitted by all who have made any study of 
 the matter that the more American any locality
 
 S HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 is the greater the color prejudice that exists. The 
 South is the most American section of our 
 country, because but few foreigners have settled 
 there in more than a hundred years. 
 
 So long as the direct descendants of the pres- 
 ent southerner control the South the colored man 
 will have a hard time. If the great tide of for- 
 eign immigration shall be turned southward, in 
 another generation, by reason of the mixture of 
 blood, there will be a new southern man to all 
 intents and purposes. The foreign laborer will 
 not put up with the treatment which the colored 
 laborer receives. They will not be cheated out 
 of the crops by dishonest landlords and country 
 store keepers. They will be saving and buying 
 land. The lazy southern white man will not be 
 able to withstand their industrious competition, 
 and will have to move out or disappear as a re- 
 sult of intermarriage. All this will produce a 
 new southern white man. In this is the black 
 man's only hope. Mr. Ogden and the members 
 of the Southern Educational Board think that 
 a new man can be created out of the poor white 
 man of the South by education. We do not be- 
 lieve it. Let the foreigners come in large num- 
 bers, buy farms and plant industries, and the 
 white man who lives for the purpose of 'keeping 
 the Negro down,' will gradually disappear."
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS *C 
 
 THE NEGRO MUST BE TREATED 
 WITH AN OBJECT. We have the so-called 
 "unsurmountable obstacle" to contend with 
 the Negro folk. The most hated, abused des- 
 pised, by certain classes of whites, in these free 
 United States of any country in the world. They 
 were not found in the native African jungle as 
 they are, but were made what they are today by 
 the grace of God and the lash upon their bare 
 backs in the hands of a self-styled, domineering 
 aristocracy, and concomitant evils. It ought to 
 now be the business of every conscientious white 
 person to overlook the many faults of this des- 
 pised people, and try to do them good by firm 
 and persistent examples in the arts of justice as 
 well as industry. In nine cases out of ten you 
 will gain their confidence and best efforts in 
 usefulness by pursuing this course.
 
 68 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE "SMART NEGRO." 
 
 HOW KNOWLEDGE SPREAD. "I have 
 no use for a smart nigger." This is a common 
 phrase now often used by an irresponsible popu- 
 lace. Now, what may constitute a "smart nig- 
 ger," if there is such a being for us to introduce 
 in these pages? Is this term applied to all edu- 
 cated Afro-Americans, or to a certain class only? 
 We shall soon see. First, he is supposed to be 
 one who has come in contact with the outer 
 world; one who has left his rural surroundings, 
 the ancient traditions, the submission and obe- 
 dience to the "olci Massa in de big house on de 
 plantation befo de wah." Secondly, it is the 
 offspring of this old slave class now being edu- 
 cated and made mentally independent, and to 
 a marked degree self-reliant. The process of 
 awakening of the class above referred to has been 
 long in progress. And in this connection it is 
 well for us to remember that in case slavery had 
 been prolonged to this day it would have been 
 impossible, even under the most adverse condi- 
 tions, to keep all the Negro people in ignorance 
 and illiteracy. The history of slavery testifies 
 to this fact. These people were the quickest of
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 59 
 
 any barbarous race on earth to perceive the touch 
 of the magic rod of civilization, not excepting 
 the Japanese in their willingness to learn and 
 rise. This characteristic was discovered by the 
 great patriarchal planters long ere slavery was 
 abolished in the South. 
 
 THE OLD PLANTATION SLAVE 
 SCHOOLS. In Louisiana, for instance, they 
 conceived a plan of educating their slaves for 
 more efficient service, that was so wise and en- 
 lightened, and it is proved, so substantially bene- 
 ficial, that it would be well to take it into con- 
 sideration, at least in some particulars, in the 
 study of the present race problem. Long before 
 "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was written, and while 
 yet great slave-holding magnates regarded slav- 
 ery as an establishment beyond the reach of social 
 agitation or political vicissitude, wise and kindly 
 members of the ruling class had conceived and 
 set in motion a system whereby slavery could be 
 robbed of its most repulsive aspects, and be 
 transformed into an agency of exaltation. These 
 men were not doctrinaires, but they were human- 
 itarians. They loved their slaves, who formed 
 a large part of their active life and thought, 
 and they felt it their duty to lift them out of 
 the mire of degradation and subjection, if such 
 a thing were possible. Thus it came about that 
 schools were established on hundreds of planta-
 
 60 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 tions ; nothing like our modern schools, of course, 
 but just the plainest and simplest agencies of ex- 
 periment and observation. The main object and 
 idea were to disclose the special latent gifts, pro- 
 clivity or talent of the scholars, and to cultivate 
 and mature them to their highest degree. Special 
 gifts and tendencies were ascertained, developed, 
 perfected. And so it followed that thousands 
 of slaves became bricklayers, carpenters, black- 
 smiths, tailors, engineers, sugar bailers, artisans 
 of every kind, including even musicians. In 
 many parts of the country there may yet be found 
 ancient buildings, entirely erected by skilled 
 slave labor. They were permitted to pursue 
 their vocations in freedom, merely paying to 
 their masters a small percentage on the assessed 
 value of the individual. In all respects they 
 were at liberty. They lived where they pleased, 
 could acquire their ow r n homes if they wished, 
 and accumulate their own property; and in all 
 these respects were protected by law. It is said, 
 and no doubt true, that the Negro who dwelt 
 under this dispensation, seventy-five and more 
 years ago enjoyed more actual freedom, and re- 
 ceived more substantial and respectful considera- 
 tion, than do his descendants today, who are ex- 
 cluded from m'any branches of industry by white 
 labor. Long before the war there were a few 
 schools for Negroes in Delaware, Virginia, and
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 61 
 
 other slave states further south. Free Negro 
 children often attended the white schools. In- 
 struction was given them everywhere, often by 
 members of their master's family, even in viola- 
 tion of the existing slave laws. And where edu- 
 cation was totally denied them they still pos- 
 sessed their native capabilities, their natural 
 shrewdness, which no master could pluck out 
 of their soul. 
 
 CHIVALROUS SPIRITS. - - Chivalrous 
 spirits often manifested themselves in their inter- 
 course with their superiors, especially when 
 treated with kind consideration by them. Their 
 faithfulness was often beyond computation. Let 
 us relate just one case here to illustrate our point: 
 In South Carolina we came across seven sons 
 who own seven farms. Back of these farms is a 
 bit of history interesting to all students of human 
 nature. Before the emancipation of the slaves 
 the owner of the father of these seven sons was 
 challenged to fight a duel. The old slave heard 
 of this, and knowing his master was a poor shot, 
 went the night before and killed the man who 
 made the challenge. Upon investigation it was 
 found that the old Negro had done this on his 
 own accord. Of course there was no way to 
 save his life, and he never tried to save it. After 
 slaying the would-be slayer of his master, he 
 immediately made the confession and gave him-
 
 62 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 self up to be hanged. We abhor the crime; we 
 revolt against it; but the fact remains uppermost 
 that the poor old slave, by weighing his life and 
 the life of his master in the balance, decided 
 that the life of his master was of more im- 
 portance than that of the poor old chattel he 
 was. When the master died he willed to each 
 of the old slave's children a nice little farm, and 
 we have heard it said that he did a just deed. 
 
 THEY ARE BOUND TO RISE. Cases of 
 a similar nature could be multiplied indefin- 
 itely; and some of the most heroic deeds done 
 in the olden times were unrecorded and unre- 
 warded. Thus we maintain that a truly worthy 
 class of men, bond or free, of whatever color, 
 will rise sooner or later and come to the top, 
 and will not be downed. We recently read the 
 account of an old northern soldier, who was all 
 over this country during the war. He speaks 
 of the underground railroad and especially of 
 the remarkable accurate knowledge displayed 
 by the colored people, about "Lincum and his 
 sojes," during the war. Knowing these people 
 we can well imagine that every word spoken by 
 southern whites, concerning the then important 
 question, was carefully stowed away by slaves, 
 who made every effort to hear and learn, absorb 
 and repeat what they heard. Thus knowledge of 
 existing conditions spread, opinions were
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 63 
 
 formed, compared and passed on. Southern 
 whites, who were opposed to slavery, did some- 
 thing to help spread a knowledge of things 
 among them. Now, if these people had such 
 a fair knowledge of "Lincum and his sojes," so 
 many years ago, what knowledge of Lincum and 
 his sojes ought not their children possess today? 
 The more we investigate this matter the more 
 are we convinced that there is a process of evolu- 
 tion going on among these people that cannot 
 be ignored or suppressed; and if our colored 
 reader believes that this process ought to be 
 carelessly considered, with regard to a better 
 understanding and closer relation with the white 
 race, he had better deport himself to the haunts 
 of his fathers and shed his clothes of civilization 
 in the jungle. 
 
 MAY AS WELL CONFESS IT. We 
 (North and South) may as well make an honest 
 confession: The Negro, the Afro-American, the 
 Colored Caucasian, are fast outgrowing all 
 bounds of what a white populace in America, 
 deep down in its heart, believes they ought to 
 be. Among them are organizations of tre- 
 mendous influence and binding character. The 
 idea, if entertained by northerners, that the Ne- 
 gro is not organized, cannot make a united effort 
 in any line if he desires, is not true. When the 
 best interests of his people are at stake, he can,
 
 64 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 if he choose, stand united, organized, ready for 
 an emergency if it should arise. There is not 
 only organization, but a tremendous amount of 
 brain and executive ability back of it. 
 
 NOT WEAK AND HELPLESS. Out- 
 wardly he may yet appear weak and helpless, but 
 in years hence, when ignorance and the Leop- 
 ard's Spots have entirely disappeared, we shall 
 see him in full possession of his aspiring rights. 
 It is not the church or religion, which has done 
 and is still doing a great deal, that has alone 
 wrought these conditions. Schools bring him 
 enlightenment, and fraternal organizations, such 
 as Free Masonry, Odd Fellowship, etc., have 
 taught him the trick of how to cement his best 
 interests. Few whites have any idea of the uni- 
 versal understanding, the dominant current of 
 interest, which prevails among many of them. 
 They may be despised, abused, misused and ig- 
 nored, by the class just referred to, but as to 
 weakness in many sections of the South they 
 are not to be considered as weak and helpless 
 as may be supposed, or as may appear to a casual 
 observer on the surface. 
 
 WILL NOT SUBMIT TO WILES OF 
 WHITE RELATIVE They are by nature not 
 a vicious, treacherous people ; on the contrary we 
 find them rather open-hearted, kindly disposed, 
 sympathetic. For example, we will relate and
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 65 
 
 A WHIPPING INCIDENT. 
 "Vardaman's Ideal of Justice." Taken from life.
 
 66 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 illustrate an incident that came under our ob- 
 servation on a plantation in Alabama. A large, 
 strong Negro had committed some misdemeanor, 
 was tied to the whipping-log and whipped by his 
 boss. When he was untied he straightened up 
 and said in his most polite demeanor: "Boss, gib 
 me chew 'bacca." This is a fair sample of a 
 rural character of the black belt; but this ad- 
 mirable good humor could, of course, not be uni- 
 versally applied. The mulatto and other speci- 
 mens of the white man's paternity, which seem 
 more prominent in towns and cities, and which 
 have more nearly the characteristics of the white 
 man, do not submit so willingly to the wiles of 
 their white relatives, without feeling the blood 
 of their parentage boil in their veins. This black 
 brother may feel the same sting, but refrain from 
 manifesting it. He is the embryonic gentleman. 
 WOULD BE NO RACE QUESTION.- 
 We do not hesitate to say here that we are fully 
 convinced of the fact, that if the white man had 
 absolutely abstained from crossing with the 
 Negro on this continent, there would be no race 
 question to solve in America for many years to 
 come. An absolutely pure-blood African is hard 
 to find in many parts of the South. It is indeed 
 a case of self-approbation. The white man's 
 blood in the black man's veins cries today for, 
 and instinctively demands, recognition; and it
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 67 
 
 would be a careless observer, indeed, who does 
 not discern this fact. 
 
 THE WHITE MAN'S BLOOD. A well- 
 known business man of Mobile, Alabama, told us 
 years ago that the only tangible hope of the 
 colored man in America was "the white man's 
 blood in his veins." At the time we could not 
 yet sympathize with such a, then to us, shocking 
 view; but we have long since realized the undis- 
 putable fact conveyed in that statement viz., 
 that assimilation by amalgamation will prove 
 the only ultimate settlement of the race question 
 in this country, provided, however, that other 
 legitimate means be employed therewith, and 
 scientifically carried out. 
 
 THE WHITE MAN STANDS AC- 
 CUSED BEFORE GOD. At present the 
 southern white man stands accused before God 
 and all mankind. His colored offspring are 
 legion, and largely disowned and ignored by 
 him. A crime has been committed. The keen 
 knife of justice must at last cut to the quick! 
 The criminal has gone free, and they of innocent 
 birth have often borne the punishment at the 
 hands of the evil-doer. But, nevertheless, we 
 believe justice will ultimately prevail. History 
 repeats itself. Let such men as Tillman, Varda- 
 man, Dixon, Watson, and many others cry: 
 "Keep the nigger in his place." Let the north-
 
 68 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ern man settle throughout the South at a rapid 
 rate, as he is doing at present, and have his say. 
 A real American (smart) Negro is not imported 
 stock. It is homebred, right down in the woods, 
 on the prairie, in the city and town everywhere 
 in the broad Southland. He is a new creation, 
 as Luther Burbank would say; the result of 
 many years of intimate relations with his white 
 superiors ; and he is not a real Negro. Can these 
 superiors today ignore and condemn the result 
 of this relationship? The "smart nigger" is 
 ninety per cent a man of marked Caucasian char- 
 acteristics and not a Negro at all, in the true 
 sense of the word: but a man of color, a true 
 Colored Caucasian, the son or grandson of a 
 white parent. 
 
 To our mind the "absolute separation" of the 
 races, so much spoken of and agitated at present, 
 and believed in by some prominent colored and 
 white men, should have been absolute before so 
 many hundreds of thousands of mulattoes and 
 quadroons were born. Let us get out from be- 
 hind the mask of deceit, once for all, and tell 
 the naked truth in this regard. 
 
 NEGRO CANNOT BE DEPORTED. 
 Such talk as the deportation or absolute separa- 
 tion of the colored people is too absurd to think 
 of seriously. 
 
 A certain criminal class, dangerous and un-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 69 
 
 profitable to the State may be thus treated, but 
 not respectable citizens. The Chicago Chron- 
 icle said some time ago: "Somehow, in some 
 way, the white people of the South and the 
 Negroes have got to live together. A modus 
 vivendi must be established, for if anything is 
 certain it is that all propositions to colonize the 
 Negroes or to deport them are impracticable. 
 There is no place to which to send the Negroes, 
 and if there were such a place the Negroes 
 would not go. 
 
 Southern politicians like Senator Tillman, 
 and southern newspapers like the Charleston 
 News and Courier talk airily about the separa- 
 tion of the races, but neither Mr. Tillman nor 
 the editor of the Charleston News really believe 
 that the thing is possible. This is because any 
 rational man must realize that the task of evict- 
 ing 10,000,000 of people from the land in which 
 they were born would mean wholesale slaughter 
 slaughter so appalling that not the most rabid 
 negiophobe would invoke it. The Negroes cer- 
 tainly would resist the effort to deport them. We 
 need not "go into the right or wrong of the mat- 
 ter at all to be certain that the blacks of the 
 South, born there and citizens of the country 
 for several generations, would to a great extent 
 resist with force an effort to expatriate them. If 
 only one in ten of them resisted, the struggle to
 
 70 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 evict them would be the bloodiest in the history 
 of mankind. The hunted man defends his home 
 to the death. But all these probabilities and 
 suppositions are idle in the face of the fact that 
 there is no available place to which to deport 
 the Negroes. Liberia is too poor and weak to 
 undertake the assimilation of such a tremendous 
 new population. German South Africa has 
 enough trouble with her blacks without wanting 
 any more. The British possessions in Africa 
 are equally averse to the immigration of more 
 Negroes. 
 
 No place on the wide globe offers a welcome 
 to the American Negro, especially if he were 
 to come by hundreds of thousands. He was 
 brought to this country by compulsion, we may 
 be sure that he will not leave it through per- 
 suasion. 
 
 Moreover, in spite of Senator Tillman and his 
 newspaper echoes, the South will not permit 
 the Negroes to leave, even if they were disposed 
 to do so. Who would replace the Negro in 
 southern agriculture and manufactures? Where 
 would the South get the men to cultivate its cot- 
 ton and wheat and sugar and oats? Until these 
 questions are practically answered we may ig- 
 nore the deportation plan. 
 
 The Negro will not leave the South for two 
 reasons first, that there is nowhere for him to
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 71 
 
 go; and secondly, because the southern whites 
 would not permit him to go upon any considera- 
 tion."* 
 
 We ask this sensible question : Can any people 
 have a more legitimate claim on any country 
 than the colored man of the white race? 
 
 AN ENDLESS RELATIONSHIP BE- 
 TWEEN THE RACES IN THE SOUTH.- 
 The American Colored Caucasian is distinctly 
 a native of this country. He could not and 
 would not recognize any other. His relation- 
 ship often runs like an endless chain from his 
 white parent through succeeding generations. 
 Where could that chain be broken, should the 
 deportation scheme be inaugurated by the state 
 or government? His mother, grandmother or 
 great grandmother was a Negress, no doubt, but 
 does that make him a criminal, or a confirmed 
 anarchist to be banished from American soil? 
 No, not if there is an infinitesimal tendency to 
 justice left in the dominant white American. It 
 is too well known that the greatest men and 
 women of African descent in America, are the 
 direct or indirect offspring of some of the best 
 and bluest blood in the country. Separate all 
 these from the Negro race, to which they do no 
 more belong than to the Caucasian race, and the 
 
 *See "An Optimistic View of the Negro Question" in our 
 resum*.
 
 72 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 73 
 
 black sons of Africa, in this country, would be 
 a lonesome fraction of acquired civilization. 
 The fact is undisputable, the black man cannot 
 get along without his brown and yellow brother; 
 neither does the white brother care to separate 
 himself entirely from his colored kin. If there is to 
 be any separation, it ought to be a thorough one. 
 There ought to be a law prohibiting the black- 
 skinned Negro from intermarrying with the 
 white-skinned Caucasian Negress, and vice 
 versa. If the frequent mixing and mating of 
 these classes is not intermarriage, what is it? 
 The southern lawmaker ought to look into this 
 matter, and prevent the Negro from further mix- 
 ing with the mixed, so the mixed may only mix 
 with the mixed, that their colored offspring may 
 not lose their identity. If he prohibits one class 
 from mixing, he should be fair and prohibit all 
 mixing. 
 
 GIVE CREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE.- 
 Negro writers often misplace credit in lauding 
 men and women who have some Negro blood 
 in them, and who have achieved success in life; 
 attributing that success or intellectual ability en- 
 tirely to the race. We will take an example out 
 of a book written by a man who is himself of 
 mixed blood. He starts out in giving the gen- 
 ealogy of a certain well-known man as follows ; 
 "His father was a white man, and his mother
 
 74 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 was three parts white." He ends by saying, "He 
 was a life-long Republican, and a man of whom 
 his race should be proud." What race? His 
 own (Colored Caucasian) race; the black or 
 the white? Which? This writer has, of course, 
 the big, black race in mind. He would make the 
 reader believe that this man's talent or intellect 
 is all "black." But if he really means to convey 
 the idea that this man's own people, the Colored 
 Caucasian race, should be proud of him, then 
 he gives credit to the ability, capacity and in- 
 tellect of this wonderful new race, where credit 
 is due. 
 
 When the Negro, like any other race, is 
 mixed with Caucasian or any other foreign 
 blood, his greatness or capabilities can no more 
 be attributed to the black blood than to the for- 
 eign blood in him. When Negro writers speak 
 of the wonderful advancement of the Negro, 
 let them be fair and not palm off on a reading 
 public the remarkable intellectual growth and 
 capability of a mixed people as all "black great- 
 ness." When we speak of Negro greatness, we 
 ought to confine ourselves within the bounds of 
 genuine, unmixed magnanimity, and not sand- 
 wich in every fair-skinned man and woman the 
 southerner calls "smart nigger." 
 
 We have said before that ninety per cent of 
 the so-called "smart niggers" of superior cap-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 75 
 
 ability are of mixed breed; and that this asser- 
 tion we wish our readers to bear in mind. Also 
 the further fact that the most progressive people 
 in the world have always been more or less of 
 mixed stock that progress and commingling 
 go hand in hand. 
 
 SOME SMART NEGROES. We wish we 
 could give several hundred names, emphasizing 
 the foregoing facts, but we can only give the 
 names of a small number of men and women 
 here, owing to space. Our readers will kindly 
 remember that we give the below names merely 
 as illustrations, and that there are hundreds of 
 others equally as worthy of a place among the 
 noted men and women of mixed blood in the 
 race. 
 
 Honorable Frederick Douglass was consid- 
 ered the most note-d Negro in America. One- 
 half Caucasian. Great orator, anti-slavery editor, 
 marshal of the District of Columbia, Recorder 
 of Deeds of Columbia, a leading Republican. 
 Born about 1817, in Maryland. His second wife 
 was a white woman. 
 
 Professor Booker T. Washington, one of the 
 foremost educators in America. One-half or 
 more Caucasian. President of the Tuskegee 
 Normal and Industrial school; champion of 
 Negro industrial education, noted orator and 
 successful financier and teacher. He was born
 
 76 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 at Hale's Ford Post-office, Franklin county, Vir- 
 ginia, April 1 8, 1856. His mother was the cook 
 on the slave plantation, and named Jane Fur- 
 guson. His owner was James Borroughs. 
 
 Honorable P. B. S. Pinchback, successful 
 Negro politician. Lieutenant Governor of 
 Louisiana, United States senator, lawyer, prom- 
 inent Republican, man of wealth. His mother 
 was known as a mulatto who may have had some 
 Indian blood. His father, Major Pinchback, a 
 Mississippian, was the owner of his mother, by 
 whom he had ten children. In 1836 Major 
 Pinchback went to Philadelphia with his slave 
 wife and manumitted her. She remained with 
 him after her freedom. 
 
 Honorable Theophile T. Allain, State's sen- 
 ator of Louisiana, agitator of educational meas- 
 ures and internal improvements in his state. 
 Politician and business man. Born October ist, 
 1845, on the Australian plantation; his mother 
 being a pretty brown woman, his father, her 
 owner, was Sosthene Allain, a millionaire of 
 great culture. This gentleman set aside the cus- 
 tom of the land and treated his little brown wife 
 with the greatest respect, surrounding her with 
 all the comforts and pleasures at his command. 
 He loved his son Theophile so intensely that he 
 often refused to dine without him at the table, 
 and when traveling abroad he accompanied him.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 77 
 
 A GROUP OF "SMART NEGROES" BORN DURING SLAVERY. 
 
 1. Robert Harlan. 2. J. T. Settle. 
 
 3. P. B. S. Pinchback. 4. T. T. Allain.
 
 78 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Rev. Henry McNeal Turner, D. D. LL.D., 
 bishop of the A. M. E. Church. Philosopher, 
 politician, orator, eminent lecturer, author, in- 
 tense race man, United States chaplain, etc. He 
 was born near Newsberry Court-House, South 
 Carolina, February ist, 1833. He is the oldest 
 child of Howard and Sarah Turner. His 
 father's ancestry was but little known to him as 
 his mother was a German white woman, but on 
 his mother's side it is well known, she being the 
 youngest daughter of an African king's lineage. 
 
 Rev. Lemuel Hayes, A. M., who was born in 
 1753 of an African father and white mother, and 
 who was a distinguished theologian the first 
 titled man of Negro blood in America should 
 not be forgotten by his people or the white race 
 as a remarkable man of mixed African and Cau- 
 casian blood. A historian speaks of this early 
 admixture of the two races as follows : "A native 
 African and a white woman! 'Holy horror!' 
 cries somebody. 'How curious they did not hang 
 him.' They were honorably married and he 
 was popular. The black face was a thing of 
 beauty to his wife, who saw a man with an in- 
 tellectual soul and loved him. Love laughs at 
 locks and bars, and even the color of a man's 
 skin. Both parties will cross the line." 
 
 Honorable Joslah T. Settle, A.B., A.M., 
 LL.B. An able lawyer, eloquent orator, legis-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 79 
 
 lator. Was assistant attorney-general of Shelby 
 county, Tennessee, etc. He was born September 
 30, 1850, on Cumberland Mountains, while his 
 father and mother were en route from North 
 Carolina to Mississippi. His parents were 
 named Josiah and Nancy Settle, Nancy being 
 the slave wife of Mr. Settle, who belonged to 
 the famous Settle family of Rockingham, North 
 Carolina. He had no white wife at the time he 
 began to raise a family with his slave. After 
 a few years residence in Mississippi, he manu- 
 mitted his children and their mother. But he 
 was informed that he could not remain in Mis- 
 sissippi, as the laws of that state forbade "free 
 niggers" to reside therein. In March, 1856. he 
 carried them to Hamilton, Ohio, where he 
 bought them a house and located them, spend- 
 ing his summers with them and his winters on 
 his southern plantation. Then another difficulty 
 arose. His northern neighbors informed him 
 that he could not continue his relations with the 
 woman unless he married her. He answered: 
 "That is what I have always desired to do." In 
 1858 the mother of his children became his law- 
 ful wife in the presence of their children, and 
 by that act also legitimate. He espoused the 
 Union cause when the war broke out, and re- 
 mained with his colored wife until his death 
 in 1869. This is one of the most beautiful ex-
 
 80 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 amples of the love and loyalty of a southern 
 gentleman, for his children and their mother 
 of color, that we can find in the history of that 
 dark day. It reminds us of a number of like 
 cases, as we have found them at the present time 
 in many parts of the South. We regret to say 
 that this country is just as much in the dark 
 thraldom of slavery for the colored woman who 
 has found her affinity in a white man, as it was 
 in the days gone by, as far as a legal union is 
 concerned, and her rights before the law as a 
 legal wife. 
 
 Colonel Robert Harlan, born in Mecklenburg 
 county, Virginia, December 12, 1816. His father 
 was a white man and his mother three parts 
 white. He was a shrewd, persevering business 
 man, a legislator and public-spirited man. He 
 resided in England a number of years. 
 
 Samuel Jefferson Davis, successful business 
 man, a millionaire. Born on the Davis planta- 
 tion in Mississippi, in 1840. When Jefferson 
 Davis was chosen to the highest office in the Con- 
 federacy his slave, Sam, went to Milledgeville > 
 the first capital, with him. At the close of the 
 war, Jefferson Davis gave him $500.00 and told 
 him to move to the North to live his new life 
 as a free man. Sam obeyed and is now one of 
 the richest Negroes in the country. 
 
 Rev. Bartlett Taylor, a financier and one of
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 81 
 
 the great pioneer Christian workers in the 
 Negro race. He was born in Henderson county, 
 Kentucky, February 14, 1815. His mother be- 
 
 I7)tellect 
 
 longed to Jonathan Taylor, who was her master 
 and his father. 
 
 Bishop James Varick, the founder of the Af- 
 rican Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, was 
 born about 1750. It has been difficult to tell to
 
 82 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 what nationality he belonged. It is certain, how- 
 ever, that he was of Dutch extraction. His 
 father was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, but 
 moved to New York with his parents when a 
 child. It is certain that through the veins of 
 Bishop Varick flowed the blood of the Negro, 
 the Dutchman and the Indian. The great dome 
 of his cranium shows him to have been the pos- 
 sessor of a remarkable mind. In him seemed to 
 have centered the characteristics of three races, 
 in that early day. Rev. B. F. Wheeler, D.D., who 
 is the author of a book on the u Varick Family," 
 has this to say of James Varick's genealogy: 
 "In the history of New York city the rich and 
 distinguished Varick family has figured most 
 conspicuously in its social, political and com- 
 mercial life for the last two centuries. One of 
 the members of this cultured Varick family was 
 mayor of New York city. The Varick Bank of 
 New York city is named in honor of, and con- 
 trolled by this same strong and influential fam- 
 ily. Varick street, on which I have walked 
 many times, which runs from Clarkson street 
 to Canal, is also named after this distinguished 
 family. It is possible that Varick's mother at 
 one time was a slave in the family." This same 
 biographer of the bishop states that the hair of 
 this man was straight and his beard curly. 
 
 Among the leading colored Caucasian women
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 83 
 
 we would mention Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, 
 Mrs. Josephine St. P. Ruffin, Olivia D. Wash- 
 ington, Fannie Barrier Williams, and a host of 
 others, equally noted. 
 
 THE FULL-BLOODED NEGRO HAS 
 TALENT. In this chapter we have perhaps 
 made the impression that we do not give any 
 credit to the ability of the full-blood African 
 who has exhibited wonderful mental capacity 
 and natural capability in many instances in this 
 country. We wish to say that we give full 
 credit to the pure-blood Negro, for all that he 
 has done in the way of exhibiting his ability to 
 obtain a full grasp, in many instances, of the 
 learning of the Caucasian. He has by no means 
 been entirely exempt from becoming a "smart 
 nigger." In each succeeding generation he 
 climbs higher and comes nearer the recognized 
 standard of the Caucasian mind. 
 
 Extraordinary ability is rare in any race, and 
 it is not confined to any one race, but is about 
 equally divided. It may be latent in the full- 
 blood Negro in America, to a large extent, but 
 it is by no means absent no, not even in the 
 wildest African savage. Many African slaves 
 brought to this country had the high intellectual 
 forehead of "Uncle Tom" in Uncle Tom's Cabin, 
 and these "niggers" were always considered dan- 
 gerous by the slave dealers. Before they set their
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 MOSES MEETS PRINCESS THARBIS. 
 
 Moses, the great Hebrew law-giver, conquered, by means of 
 love, the impregnable Ethiopian stronghold and married Princess 
 Tharbis.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 85 
 
 foot on American soil they were ordained by 
 Nature to become "smart niggers." By some 
 mysterious process of evolution Nature had al- 
 ready endowed them with a marked mental ca- 
 pacity. But was it of late formation this su- 
 perior intellectuality in the savage African? We 
 think not. The same dark-skinned people had 
 possession of it before the pyramids were built. 
 
 We do not know the ancestry of Phillis 
 Wheatley, the little African slave girl, who pos- 
 sessed such a wonderful intellect. She may have 
 had the blood of Princess Tharbis, the daughter 
 of the powerful Ethiopian king whom Moses 
 married, in her veins, for all we know. 
 
 We do not know the ancestry of Toussaint 
 L'Ouverture, that Negro soldier, statesman and 
 martyr, who stands without a parallel in the 
 history of the modern Negro race. He may 
 have had the blood of a great Pharaoh coursing 
 through his veins. 
 
 From the earliest history the Nigritic or Ham- 
 itic branch of the human family has been the 
 "mixer" of the world. In Africa superior blood 
 has always mixed with the inferior, whenever 
 coming in contact with it. In America it does 
 the same. While the direct or indirect admix- 
 ture of foreign blood evidently gives superior 
 capability in the Negro race in America as well 
 as in Africa, there have been some instances in
 
 86 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 which giant intellects have developed in the ap- 
 parently pure-blood Negro of today. The 
 Negro is more capable of mental growth, taking 
 him as a whole, than any other unmixed primi- 
 tive race. But this book is not written to prove 
 to our readers that pure blood is an infallible 
 sign of mental and physical superiority. Today 
 the theory of pure-blooded superiority falls flat. 
 Any one advocating it is either prejudiced or a 
 fool, or both. This is true of the white race as 
 well as the black. It is our object to repudiate 
 this theory in this book. The civilized world 
 has outgrown it, this country proclaims it a lie; 
 ignorance and racial prejudice alone worships 
 at the altar of this egotistical, pure-blooded 
 shrine in America.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 87 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 EDUCATION AND EQUALITY 
 
 EDUCATION IN A REPUBLIC MEANS 
 EQUALITY. As long as there are some peo- 
 ple illiterate and some educated, in a republican 
 form of government not thoroughly Christian- 
 ized, so long must there necessarily be social 
 differences and a marked inequality; but in no 
 republic can there be an inequality among its 
 citizens when all have obtained an education 
 at the expense of the state. Furthermore, there 
 can be no radical race distinctions, color lines, 
 castes, etc., among its intelligent citizens, as they 
 are directly opposed to and detrimental to the 
 highest principles and ideals of a true republic. 
 
 The race hatred, as manifested at the present 
 time between the white and colored people, is 
 the drifting sand under the foundation of our 
 republic. If education will not eradicate this 
 anti-Republican spirit of race hatred, then this 
 flaw in the foundation of our country will wreck 
 it, and we shall experience a calamity! 
 
 Equal educational advantages and equal abil- 
 ity make all men equal if nothing else can, re- 
 gardless of race or color, and to contend other- 
 wise betrays rank idiocy or helpless egotism.
 
 88 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 No people have a moral right to provide educa- 
 tional advantages for another people, and then, 
 when educated, brand them as social inferiors 
 and political outcasts. When their minds have 
 been trained, redeemed, refined, made capable 
 of meeting, on intellectual ground, any man of 
 any race on earth, there can be no inequality. 
 What folly it is, indeed, to allow, or be the means 
 of allowing, the white, yellow, brown and black- 
 est Negro an education, and then become a men- 
 ace instead of a blessing to his country? The 
 prime object of education, of free schools, is to 
 make better citizens. If this object is defeated 
 education is a curse and not a blessing, and ought 
 to be prohibited for the best interests of the land. 
 We wish we could impress, with life-long in- 
 delibleness, upon the minds of all whites, North 
 and South, the tremendous fact that equal social 
 privileges must be extended to the educated 
 colored people, as well as political and industrial 
 rights, or every opportunity to obtain an educa- 
 tion must be absolutely closed to them at once. 
 Few people realize what fifty years of struggle 
 upwards have accomplished among them. At 
 the beginning of the war of the rebellion the 
 illiteracy was almost one-hundred per cent; this 
 proportion has been decreased to forty per cent 
 for the country at large and to forty-five per 
 cent in the South. Now that a firm footing has
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 89 
 
 been obtained, what will not another fifty years 
 bring forth? There will be little or no illiteracy 
 found among them at that time. We wonder 
 if there is one intelligent reader of this book, 
 no matter how embittered he may be against 
 the Negro, who believes that ten, twenty, fifty 
 million people educated American people 
 will submit to the base inferiority to which they 
 are subjected today. Show us a single instance 
 in history where such a thing was possible among 
 any people of any nation or race. There is no 
 use for the Tillman and Vardaman crowd to try 
 to convince the country that the educated Negro 
 can be "held in the tongs of the law," as the 
 Mississippian puts it. He is bound to procure an 
 equal privilege in holding the "law-tongs." A 
 horse or mule may be a silent partner in the 
 development of a country, but not a thinking, 
 educated man. An educated Negro is not a 
 mule or other beast of burden for a white man 
 to ride. If he attempts to ride him he is bound 
 to kick. 
 
 BRUTE FORCE MAY BE USED. If the 
 race prejudice on both sides is an incurable in- 
 sanity, if the method we suggest of disposing of 
 the undesirable element, and the assimilation 
 by legal amalgamation of the eligible is impos- 
 sible, then the race problem can settle or solve 
 itself only by falling back on the brute or prim-
 
 90 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 itive condition of man, when ultimately the fit- 
 test will survive. Such retrogression is possible, 
 but not allowable in this late day. The civilized 
 world would protest against the extermination 
 of the colored population in America. The 
 North would put its big foot of protest on the 
 neck of the race hating anarchist and forbid it. 
 When a crisis arrives it would not allow either 
 race to take advantage of the other. A race war 
 would be impossible with the interference of the 
 North. No matter how well the South might 
 be prepared for the struggle, its cause would go 
 down ignominiously. And in case the crisis ar- 
 rives when the United States is in a fierce com- 
 bat with the Japanese, the cause of the Negro 
 would win without the interference of any white- 
 skinned nation, and the southern states would 
 come permanently under the control of the 
 Japanese government. 
 
 THE JAPANESE MAY OWN THE 
 SOUTHERN STATES. If the educated 
 colored people of the South are permanently de- 
 prived of their citizenship and equal opportun- 
 ity by the southern whites, it will only be a mat- 
 ter of time when the southern states will fall into 
 the hands of the Japanese. The Japanese are 
 looking for a footing on American soil. Because 
 of their color they have been insulted and ex- 
 cluded from the States. Ten million colored
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 91 
 
 people are in sympathy with this yellow brother, 
 and would welcome him with open arms should 
 he decide to cast his lot with them. The Japan- 
 ese and Negro are the greatest fighters in the 
 world, of this we give scientific proof in another 
 chapter. 
 
 Should these two races ever unite and amalga- 
 mate on American soil, the most powerful na- 
 tion the world has ever known would in time 
 result. What such a union would mean to the 
 American Caucasian is easy to foresee. And, 
 for that matter, it is just as easy to foresee the 
 possibility of such a union. It is within the 
 power of the whites of the country today to pro- 
 mote or retard such a union, just as they will it. 
 The Negro will love the white man if the white 
 man will love him. If education will not fit him 
 to take up life with equal opportunities with 
 his white brother, should some unknown colored 
 brother appear and offer him equality, he will 
 accept it with a glad heart. 
 
 The southern states are peculiarly fitted to re- 
 ceive the Japanese, and they would feel at home 
 among the black, brown and yellow people al- 
 ready there, and the Negro would no longer be 
 disfranchised and held "with the tongs of the 
 law" because of his color. 
 
 The southern white man fears Negro dom- 
 ination, but if he believed in fair play toward
 
 92 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 the educated colored man, and would seek his 
 best interest along with his own, there would 
 be no reason to fear him. This fear betrays the 
 weakness of the white man on the one hand, and 
 the power of the Negro on the other. It is only 
 the sworn enemy of the colored man who fears 
 him. Mr. Jas. K. Vardaman, ex-Governor of 
 Mississippi, we have heard make a public con- 
 fession that he feared "nigger" domination. 
 He is the Negro's enemy, notwithstanding his 
 declaration that he is the "niggers' best friend." 
 The friendship he bears toward the Negro is 
 similar to that of a cat toward a mouse. He 
 likes to deride, belittle and damn them; he 
 likes to play with them to his heart's content, and 
 then "put them where they belong." 
 
 Should the Japanese obtain control of the 
 southern states these men will move out. The 
 Jap is as much of a "nigger" to these men as the 
 Afro-American. In the Vardaman state Italian 
 children were in one instance debarred from the 
 public school because of color. They also were 
 classed as "niggers," but they contested the claim 
 to a black heritage and were finally admitted 
 to a white school. 
 
 A GREAT ARMY OF CHILDREN. We 
 see with our mind's eye a great army of children 
 black, brown and yellow with bright, anx- 
 ious, eager, inquiring features thousands of
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 93
 
 94 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 them distributed all over this great Southland. 
 Many very poor, half-clad, barefooted, tramp- 
 ing miles throught heat, cold, rain and sun for 
 what purpose? To gain that pearl of great price 
 an education. Their minds are alert. They 
 feel, hear and absorb. Their brain fibre is re- 
 fined, Casuality and Comparison, the reasoning 
 faculties of the mind are enthroned, and like 
 a flood of heavenly light knowledge is poured 
 into their souls. They see visions of the future, 
 when they can take an active part in the affairs 
 of life. They have ambitions too, and want to 
 rise. One day they find themselves ready, well 
 equipped for their chosen vocations, but they 
 hear it: "Stay down there, you nigger, stay 
 down!" and they stay down a little longer. 
 
 WHAT THEN? President Gompers, of the 
 American Federation of Labor, has said: "Labor 
 today stands erect, looking the world in the face, 
 insisting upon equal treatment and equal op- 
 portunity, and resenting any attempt at injustice 
 or wrong." If you substitute "the educated 
 Negro" for labor, in reading the above quota- 
 tion, you have just what we wish to impress 
 upon your minds. This is a paramount fact. 
 The educated colored people are beginning to 
 quietly resent the indignity to which an ignor- 
 ant white populace often subjects them. These 
 whites envy the Negro an education, as they do 
 those who by thrift have accumulated property.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 95 
 
 SOUTHERN WHITE ILLITERACY. 
 
 In many parts of the South thirty-five per cent 
 of the white natives are illiterates. Many of 
 them are semi-barbarous, and live in the most 
 degraded and poverty-stricken condition im- 
 aginable. The educated and prosperous Negro 
 looks down upon these helpless creatures, and 
 believes that they are inferior to him, intel- 
 lectually and socially, which is. a sad fact. 
 
 A story is told by a traveling man who 
 crossed the country from one city to another 
 with a team and driver. After traveling all day 
 in a road torn by rains, and obstructed by high 
 stumps and fallen trees, night overtook them 
 a real southern night in the woods. After los- 
 ing their road and bearings they hopelessly 
 wandered about until they spied a light. After 
 much trouble they succeeded in reaching it, and 
 found white natives living there. Could they 
 stay over night? They most assuredly could. 
 
 Supper was prepared for them in the fire- 
 place, they never having used such a "new 
 fangled thing" as an iron cookstove. The house 
 contained two rooms, and in them a few pieces 
 of homemade, rough furniture, including a bed. 
 The travelers were tired and wondered where 
 they could sleep, there being six children and 
 the parents in the house. After supper they 
 enjoyed a very interesting, if not intellectual,
 
 96 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 A STUDENT IN BROWN.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 97 
 
 conversation with the old folks. They noticed 
 that one child after another climbed upon the 
 bed and fell asleep, and was then placed in the 
 corner of the room on the floor, until all six 
 laid there in a row. Then the old folks retired 
 to the next room and told their guests that they 
 might now "go to bed." The travelers were 
 tired and soon fast asleep. In the morning they 
 awoke early, and to their utter astonishment 
 they found themselves lying by the side of the 
 children on the floor, while the old folks were 
 snugly "tugged up" in the only bed in the house. 
 The author has never had the experience of 
 being transferred from a bed to the floor in his 
 sleep, but the rest of the story is a literal fact. 
 
 We take from the Woman's National Daily, 
 St. Louis, Mo., the following timely editorial 
 under the head of "A Story and a Moral." 
 
 "A South Carolina contemporary, in advocat- 
 ing compulsory education in that state and de- 
 nying that it would mean Negro domination, 
 goes out of his way to vouch for a little story told 
 of a woman who has spent her life as a school 
 teacher in that state. The school teacher says: 
 'On my father's plantation were two families, 
 one white and the other black, living as hired 
 laborers. The head of neither family could read 
 or write. Naturally, I tried to get the parents 
 of the white family to send their children to
 
 98 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 school. The Negro parents sent their children 
 to school voluntarily. When cotton picking time 
 came, the weighing and recording of weights, 
 even of the white family, fell to one of the Negro 
 boys who had been taught to read and write. 
 Today that Negro boy, now a man, owns land 
 and is a taxpayer. Every child of the white 
 family .is illiterate and not one owns land. I 
 have tried to get at least one of these white chil- 
 dren, now a mother, to send her children to 
 school. She, like her parents, refuses to educate 
 her children, saying that if she sent her girls 
 to school the first fruit would be love letters to 
 
 some man.' 
 
 The Southern American Weekly (white) says 
 editorially: "There are many homes among the 
 poor white people in the South today that con- 
 tain inmates who are scantily provided with the 
 bare necessities of life. The children are with- 
 out nourishing food and without proper raiment. 
 In parts of the year not a few of our white people 
 in the rural districts live without meat. It is 
 no unusual thing for them to be without flour 
 bread. They are so poor because they are so 
 ignorant, and they are ignorant because the 
 South is in the hands of an oligarchy that has 
 thought no more of the welfare of the white 
 masses than they have thought of the black 
 people.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 Did not the oligarchy defeat the Blair bill 
 for national aid to education? Did Alabama 
 need national aid for education? Let the fact 
 that out of 600,000 children of school age in 
 this state there is an attendance of about 200,000 
 in the public schools, with an average duration 
 for the year of 102 days, let this fact make 
 answer. 
 
 It is a great political system to disfranchise 
 people on account of ignorance that the dis- 
 franchising authority is the more responsible for 
 than is any one else. Heaven have mercy on the 
 oligarchy." 
 
 The fact is evident to our readers that the 
 same forces in the South which endeavor to keep 
 the Negro down and in ignorance, keeps the 
 poor white masses down and in ignorance. The 
 political machine is the master of the situation. 
 The people are not consulted. In the same pa- 
 per quoted above is the following: "There Is 
 no real populaf government in the Southern 
 states and no real democracy anywhere in the 
 South. We all know this. The masses are now, 
 and they have always been, a nonentity in the 
 South. 
 
 The oligarchy has run things in government 
 and in every other relation of things down here. 
 It is and has always been, in effect, 'the peopte 
 be damned!' And they are."
 
 100 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 These poor, degraded people do not even 
 realize that they are in the direst kind of slavery, 
 a slavery which chains the soul as well as the 
 body. And the fact that they are white makes 
 them more helpless, because of their belief in 
 their superiority over the fast advancing Negro 
 people. 
 
 While thousands of black families yet live 
 in one and two room cabins, there are many 
 hundreds of white families living in precisely 
 the same condition, and the illiteracy and pov- 
 erty is the same in both homes. It is a pitiful 
 sight to witness these white people in their pov- 
 erty, especially if one takes into consideration 
 the opportunities and advantages they have in 
 the way of improving their condition, if they 
 would. The author has witnessed the direst 
 poverty in his work in the slums of Chicago, but 
 he has never witnessed anything so hopeless as 
 a species of poverty in a country that flows with 
 milk and honey. 
 
 DARKEST AFRICA IN AMERICA. 
 There is no need of a darkest Africa in Amer- 
 ica, much less of a semi-barbarous white peo- 
 ple. The North and South spent millions of 
 money and thousands of precious lives in the war 
 of the rebellion, because of the presence of the 
 Negro. That sacrifice and devastation of both 
 sections should forever be a warning and suffi-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 101 
 
 ciency against future entangling. Both sections 
 should, long ere this, have made a more per- 
 sistent and sweeping effort to educate the masses 
 of both races in the South. 
 
 Dr. John W. Abercrombie, president of the 
 University of Alabama, a southern gentleman of 
 broad, liberal and philanthropic views, deliv- 
 ered a lecture at the Citronelle, Alabama Chau- 
 tauqua, in 1909, on "Lawlessness Its Cause and 
 Cure." He emphasized the fact that the South 
 must educate its white and colored children alike 
 in the true principles of citizenship. He con- 
 demned, in the strongest terms, the present lynch- 
 ing evil. He said that many times a Negro is 
 lynched for no other crime than that he was 
 black. He said that the schoolhouse was the 
 only avenue through which a better feeling be- 
 tween the races might be brought about. He 
 contended that the teachers in both the white 
 and colored schools of the South should inspire 
 in the children a true regard for each other. The 
 wrong influence at home, he believed, was re- 
 sponsible for a great deal of the race trouble 
 and prejudice. He said the South was too poor 
 at present to educate all its children. To tax 
 the people for sufficient money to run the schools 
 would be like confiscating their property. Under 
 these conditions he believed the whites should be 
 educated first, and educated right. If the whites
 
 102 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 received the right kind of education they would 
 educate the Negro in turn. Since the South was 
 ruined through the war, and left with millions 
 of ignorant Negroes on their hands, he believed 
 that the government ought to appropriate at 
 least three and one-half million dollars per an- 
 num for the education of the masses in the South. 
 
 We quote this gentleman because he has looked 
 deeply into this matter, and his judgment is 
 worth a hundred Tillman's and Vardaman's on 
 the race question. He does not need to tell his 
 audience that he is the "best friend the nigger 
 ever had," as ex-Governor Vardaman did a few 
 days later on the same platform. His presence 
 and manner of address is sufficient to convince 
 his hearers that he has at heart the best interest 
 of his brother in black. Would to God that the 
 South had many more such men, brave enough 
 and wise enough to tell the truth. 
 
 Dr. Abercrombie does not deny the fact, as 
 does Vardaman and others of his school, that the 
 Negro can be educated. Why has the govern- 
 ment forced the guardianship of these people 
 upon the shoulders of their unwilling former 
 masters without a provision or recompense? 
 After the South was completely wrecked and im- 
 poverished, the government left these unfor- 
 tunate ex-slaves in the hands of their unfor- 
 tunate ex-masters. These ex-masters, for the
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 103 
 
 most part, did not believe in the education of 
 the Negro, neither do their children today. For 
 some unknown reason they fear an "educated 
 nigger." Enforced guardianship, under these 
 conditions, is nothing sweet to contemplate. 
 There could be little love reciprocated between 
 the ex-slave and ex-master, and it is a wonder, 
 indeed, that any existed between them. And to 
 look at the more practical side of this question 
 what could the southern people do, when pov- 
 erty stalked in their midst in all its ghastly real- 
 ity? Was it their business to build schoolhouses 
 and hire teachers to educate the emancipated 
 slave, whom they believed could not be educat- 
 ed? That part rightfully belonged to the gov- 
 ernment who freed them, and that government 
 should be held responsible for all the semi-bar- 
 barism and illiteracy of these people. It is true, 
 some spasmodic attempts were made, as in the 
 passage of the Freedman's Bureau bill, but the 
 tremendous task of educating four and one-half 
 million people in a poverty-stricken country de 
 manded a thorough system of warfare against ig- 
 norance and superstition. If the government had 
 established 5000 small industrial schools through- 
 out the South, say, thirty-five years ago, and had 
 conducted them under strict governmental super- 
 vision (for whites and blacks alike), there would 
 be no darkest South today, and no undue preju-
 
 104 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 dice to contend with among those people, who 
 have been educated apart, if educated at all, 
 to hate each other in that bitterness born of illit- 
 eracy and racial differences. Above all, both 
 races should have been taught how to cultivate 
 the soil profitably, how to build up their homes 
 in short, how to become prosperous. All the 
 intensive farming, along scientific lines in the 
 South today, is the result of northern energy 
 and intelligence. If it were not for the energy 
 and money of the northerner in the South at the 
 present time, there would be fifty per cent more 
 poverty and illiteracy. These schools we have 
 mentioned would have brought the government 
 and the southern people together, where, as now, 
 they stand apart, and there is no love between 
 the North and South; no united interest for the 
 good of all, and the elevation and the education 
 of the Negro as well as the poor whites. On 
 the other hand, these schools would have brought 
 prosperity and independence, because of the in- 
 creased efficiency of labor, and this, in turn, 
 would have brought about a better feeling be- 
 tween the races. Nearly all the prejudice among 
 the northern people who have settled in the 
 South, against the Negro, is due to the fact, it is 
 said, that he is shiftless and incompetent as a 
 laborer, and this, as some believe, is not because 
 he wants to be thus, but more often because he
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 105 
 
 does not know how to labor for the interest of 
 his employer. Among themselves they have 
 created the impression that they must labor for 
 the money there is in it, and not for the higher 
 purpose of becoming experts in their calling. 
 We have noticed very often that those who take 
 an interest in their work, and do it well when 
 laboring for a northern man, are not only re- 
 spected and their race benefited, but they may 
 also soon demand better wages. The northern 
 man has no use for shiftless labor, and will not 
 tolerate it, in the kitchen, on the farm or in the 
 shop, and the Negro is making a fearful mistake 
 if he attempts to try it. The reason we believe 
 the work Dr. Booker T. Washington and others 
 are doing is a great one in the uplift of the race, 
 is because educated labor and efficient service 
 means respect, confidence, unity and equal priv- 
 ileges when it has been fully established. It is 
 the forerunner of future wealth and independ- 
 ence. 
 
 The thought must also occur to us here, that 
 if the government had provided for the guard- 
 ianship and education of the Negro, right after 
 the war, and had then given him full political 
 rights, and not before, the South would have 
 found little reason to kick against the political 
 and social rights of these people in a later day. 
 No man, of whatever race or color, should be
 
 106 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 granted a full citizenship in the United States 
 of America before he can read and write and is 
 familiar with our form of government. Most 
 of our political corruption is caused by the per- 
 nicious influence wrought upon the illiterate by 
 the professional politician and office seeker. 
 
 INEQUALITY AND EDUCATION A 
 TRANSPARENT DOCTRINE. As long as 
 a great mass of Negro population is illiterate 
 there can be no political, industrial or social 
 equality. While illiteracy among the whites 
 may be overlooked, among the Negro people 
 it will never be overlooked. Booker T. Wash- 
 ington and his colleagues advocate industrial 
 equality. That our readers may more fully 
 understand what they mean by this we quote 
 from a book, "The Colored American from 
 Slavery to Honorable Citizenship," in which 
 Prof. J. W. Gibson (white),. Prof. Booker T. 
 Washington, and Prof. W. H. Crogman (col- 
 ored), appear as the authors: "Does Not Crave 
 Domination, But Equality." (Page 190.) "The 
 Negro craves not domination. He simply asks 
 for equalization of rights and privileges, such 
 as belong to American citizens under the funda- 
 mental law of the land. As an American citizen 
 he cannot ask less nor be contented with less." 
 
 The educated class, which embraces the mu- 
 latto and all others of African descent, will never
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 107 
 
 be satisfied with anything less than equal oppor- 
 tunity with every other citizen of the white race. 
 And why should it be? As we so often repeat 
 in this book, the bluest blood that ever landed in 
 this country, of both the black and white races, 
 flows in their veins. And as the lower element 
 becomes more educated and mixed with this 
 higher class, it will make the same claim, and 
 demand the same rights. 
 
 If we look but a few centuries back into Euro- 
 pean history, we find that the great mass of 
 people came through the same identical process 
 of evolution there. The only difference is that 
 the dominant white politician in the South is 
 the feudal lord and the poor white and colored 
 citizen the serf. The author's great grandfather 
 witnessed, in his day, the tying to the stake of 
 the serf and the whipping of him by the lord, in 
 that country of giant intellects Germany. To- 
 day what a marvelous change! The children 
 of the colored people have a better opportunity 
 to obtain an education in the states today than 
 had the poor children of Germany and other 
 European countries a generation or two ago. 
 
 There is little sense in the cry that the Negro 
 wants social equality. There is no such a thing 
 in existence in America as social equality among 
 the whites, why, then, should it be feared be- 
 tween the two races? There are lines drawn be-
 
 108 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 tween the laboring man and professional man r 
 the professional and moneyed man, the rich and 
 poor, the high and low, the aristocrat and la- 
 borer. The various classes are pitted against 
 each other and do not live for the welfare and 
 happiness of each other. The American people 
 are too self-centered and voracious at the pres- 
 ent time to allow any altruistic sentiments to 
 unite the various classes. Society is just as much 
 shocked when it finds the daughter of an aristo- 
 crat in the company of a young laboring man, 
 as it is when it finds the daughter of a laborer 
 in the society of a decent colored man. The 
 verdict invariably is that these girls have 
 "thrown themselves away." Whereas, if they 
 marry a worthless bummer of their own class 
 it is taken as a matter of course. 
 
 Dr. Booker T. Washington and other prom- 
 inent men and women of "the Negro race have 
 been entertained by white men and women who 
 would not think of entertaining a farmer, a cross- 
 road storekeeper or a white servant girl. When 
 it comes to worth, ability, education, the color 
 line must necessarily vanish among people of 
 culture and true ethics. And in the business 
 world the selfishness of the American people 
 the love of money will, in time obliterate the 
 color line. A prominent Negro, Mr. J. H. Lewis, 
 has well said that the business world knows noth-
 
 OR TUE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 109 
 
 ing of color, that human selfishness, the desire 
 of every man to get money, would eventually 
 banish prejudice. That the almighty dollar is 
 thoroughly color blind. That money commands 
 respect. "Rare," says he, "is the merchant or 
 manufacturer who will refuse to shake hands 
 with a hundred thousand dollars." 
 
 While it is a lamentable fact that money is 
 the supreme god of the American people, and 
 that it will cover a multitude of sins, yet talents, 
 education, worth, will not long go begging 
 among a great people. True talent and persist- 
 ence of effort has always been recognized, sooner 
 or later; and the American people are, after all, 
 too great not to let justice triumph over wrong 
 in a final decision. When a president of these 
 United States can dine with a prominent mem- 
 ber of the Negro race r it is not likely that a com- 
 mon citizen will in time find it a disgrace to 
 associate, on common ground, with the respect- 
 able class of colored people. 
 
 When education and love enters, the vile devil 
 of inequality and prejudice must flee. Only 
 among the narrow and selfish can he find an 
 abiding place. We mean the right kind of edu- 
 cation, of the heart, the head, the soul. Of wrong 
 education we have a plenty. It has already 
 caused the foul spirit of anarchy to infest the 
 hearts and arouse the lower faculties of the mind
 
 110 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 to dark plots and evil deeds. We want the spirit 
 of Universal Brotherhood inculcated in the 
 minds and hearts of the American people. We 
 want it taught to every child preached to every 
 man and woman in the land. We feel that this 
 "land of the free and home of the brave" will 
 be torn asunder, limb by limb; will lay prostrate 
 in the dust, bleeding, dying, in the most terrible 
 slaughter on man's record, unless prejudice is 
 obliterated between the races in our midst. A 
 trained mind cannot submit to social inferiority. 
 
 WHAT JAPANESE THINK OF IT.- 
 The following is what Kaju Nakamura, editor 
 of the Japanese-American Commercial Weekly, 
 said of the Japanese situation: 
 
 "Of the several reasons assigned by the people 
 of California for their hostility to the Japanese, 
 the only one that is real is race prejudice, which, 
 strange to say, I have found stronger in this 
 country this land of the free than in any other 
 country in the world. It is, I believe, this race 
 prejudice, this most horrible of all diseases of 
 the human mind, that is responsible for these at- 
 tacks upon the Japanese. God, or whatever you 
 may believe to be supreme, made us, and He 
 never drew lines between each race, one race to 
 be superior over the others ; nor did He teach one 
 race to despise others, but He colored each to 
 as to best suit the climate of his abode.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 111 
 
 Negroes, Chinese, Japanese, feel hunger, 
 pain, gladness or shame just as much as Cau- 
 casians feel them. One has blood that runs as 
 warm as the other. They love their friends, 
 hate their enemies, and they cry when sad, just 
 as other people do. We Japanese are human, you 
 Americans are human. Opportunity may have 
 done more for one than for the other, but at the 
 root of things we are all alike. Could that one 
 thought be impressed on those who are most 
 loudly crying out against the Japanese today, I 
 believe that the Japanese question, if there be 
 one, would disappear like fog before the sun." 
 
 It is an open question before the thinking 
 white citizens of these States: Shall America 
 go down in history as the race hating nation of 
 the world, persecuting and trampling upon every 
 race, regardless of their ability or worth, if their 
 skin be colored?
 
 112 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 DO NOT CHAMPION THE NEGRO 
 AT THE EXPENSE OF SOUTHERN 
 WHITES. We revolt against the task of en- 
 larging upon the color line subject, and would 
 gladly refrain from discussing it in these pages 
 if we could attain the object in view in any other 
 way. But it is apparent that our work would 
 be in vain did we not expound, in unmistakable 
 language, the existing .relations between the 
 white and colored people. In discussing these 
 existing conditions, we do not wish to convey the 
 idea that we are blind to and do not respect the 
 position of the Southern people in this regard. 
 Furthermore, we do not wish to impress the 
 reader with the idea that we are championing 
 the cause of the American Negro at the expense 
 of the Southern whites. We wish to say that we 
 really champion nobody. Our only aim is, as 
 we say in our introduction, to lay bare this social 
 cancer, that we may treat it with scientific cer- 
 tainty. We love the country of our adoption and 
 the people thereof. A true Southerner is an un- 
 prejudiced, warm-hearted, kindly gentleman,
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 113 
 
 and to know him thoroughly is to love him. We 
 have no fear that he will take unkindly to what 
 we say, though he may not see just at present how 
 the reforms advocated in this book can be suc- 
 cessfully applied. 
 
 HARD THINGS HURLED AT 
 NEGROES' FRIENDS. We also wish to re- 
 mind our Southern brother that from time to 
 time very, very hard things are hurled at some 
 Northern and other friends of the Negro, who 
 unfortunately step across the color line they do 
 not discern with that inbred acuteness of the 
 Southern gentleman. This the beloved and la- 
 mented Bishop Potter did at Richmond before 
 his death. The luncheon he took with a fellow 
 colored bishop at that time was repeatedly 
 vomited up by the Southern press. It is our ob- 
 ject to throw before you, as a fit illustration, a 
 bit of this vomit at this time, as Bishop Potter 
 was a prominent Christian character, and his 
 position was a notable one. And in referring to 
 this and like instances, it matters little whether 
 they took place yesterday or ten years ago; the 
 same class of men hold precisely the same view 
 in regard to the Negro of today, they or their fa- 
 thers held forty years and more ago. This is evi- 
 dence that there has been no change of sentiment 
 or change of heart in the children of former 
 slave-holders.
 
 114 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 A HIGHLY -CENSURABLE ACT. - 
 
 (From Lynchburg News.) "Bishop and Mrs. 
 Potter, of New York, who are occupying the 
 residence at 600 West Franklin street, Rich- 
 mond, during the general convention of the 
 American Episcopal Church, this evening enter- 
 tained at luncheon Bishop Ferguson, of Africa, 
 the only Negro entitled to a seat in the house of 
 bishops. This from our Richmond advices yes- 
 terday. Thus has Bishop Potter flaunted odious 
 insult to the Southern people before the world's 
 vision. He has done this quite deliberately, 
 quite flagrantly and with a degree of callous in- 
 solence that absolutely startles and bewilders. 
 This New York Bishop is no mental incompe- 
 tent. He is no ill-informed man. He is in no posi- 
 tion to claim ignorance of social conditions in the 
 South. He knows, and knew very well, the way 
 by and through which he could offend the people 
 of this section, wound their sensibilities, arouse 
 their indignant protest. He knew no surer 
 means was at hand to accomplish this end than 
 by preaching social equality between the races, 
 or worse still, by overt act show that he embraces 
 the hated doctrine. And yet knowing all this, 
 he has consciously resorted to a procedure that 
 was unnecessary; that was brought about by the 
 bishop's own deliberate volition, and for which 
 appears no sort of reasonable excuse or explana-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 115 
 
 tion. This Bishop Potter did while in the South, 
 while the guest of a Southern city and in a resi- 
 dence of that city, temporarily leased by him 
 temporarily leased from a Richmond citizen, 
 who would doubtless regard the act of a lessee in 
 entertaining a Negro at his dining board, as 
 much an act of social vandalism as he would es- 
 teem it an act of physical vandalism had Bishop 
 Potter smashed the doors of his residence and 
 shattered its windows. This he did, knowing that 
 as a result human bitterness would be engen- 
 dered, seeds of trouble and contention sown 
 which, in due season, might produce results cal- 
 culated to rend in twain the great Episcopal 
 Church of America. * * * When Bishop Potter 
 in Richmond gave an offensive object lesson of 
 his belief in social equality between the races, he 
 has become a breeder of resentment between 
 men; a feeder to race estrangement, an agitator 
 of angry passions. Is Bishop Potter consistent 
 in his belief upon this social equality question, 
 we wonder? Is he sincere? If so, he ought not 
 to oppose its application, even though it should 
 knock at the door of his own home in New York 
 and thrust its presence and philosophy among 
 the members of his own family. Would he say 
 it nay should it thus come to him and his this 
 doctrine which he practiced in Richmond on 
 Friday? We wonder; aye, we wonder, indeed.
 
 116 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 The writer of this editorial was reared in the 
 Episcopal Church, and for more than twenty 
 years has been identified with its membership. 
 This being the case, he has viewed with no lit- 
 tle anxiety the discussion and actions of the pres- 
 ent convention in regard to the race question. 
 Present signs, we submit, point to breakers 
 ahead for American episcopacy. The church 
 must recognize the South's demands upon the 
 race question, and engraft acceptation thereof 
 upon its polity, or invite endless trouble. The 
 separation of the races in church matters, and 
 separate conventions for the white and Negroes 
 these things in the end will prove the only 
 efficacious solution of the existing problem. 
 Bishop Potter has aided in hastening the crisis, 
 when clear, definite, decisive action will be re- 
 quired. If he and men with his views are to 
 prevail upon the issue joined, then a Northern 
 episcopacy^ and a Southern episcopacy will 
 evolve from a now united church. No compro- 
 mise upon the question can live. Either the 
 South's view must be maintained or division 
 must ensue. Between these alternatives the 
 church will, before many years, be compelled 
 to choose, unfortunate and unhappy as be the 
 consequences." 
 
 WOULD DENOUNCE JESUS. The 
 writer of the above editorial says that he has
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 117 
 
 been a member of the Episcopal church for 
 twenty years. We respect him for his honesty, 
 for he does not pretend to say that he has been 
 a Christian for that length of time. An intelli- 
 gent Christian could not and would not disgrace 
 himself and the South in the use of such 
 scathing language toward the bishop of his 
 church for the performance of a noble Christian 
 duty. If Jesus of Nazareth would appear and 
 sit down to sup with a colored bishop of His 
 church, the same class of men in the South who 
 denounce such men as Bishop Potter was, would 
 denounce Him. And where can we find a true 
 Christian who does not feel in his heart that 
 Jesus Christ, the reputed Son of God, confessed 
 no recognition of a color line? Who dares say 
 that he did, in this late day? By His Father in 
 heaven all men were created free and equal, 
 man's depravity alone has wrought inequality. 
 The earth out of which the writer of the above 
 editorial and his like are formed, was taken from 
 the same heap out of which the humblest Negro 
 in the South was made, and both will return to 
 it when they die. Where is your color line there? 
 And should the writer of the above article re- 
 pent and be saved, and he and the humble Negro 
 die together, they would together knock at the 
 door of heaven, and St. Peter would open and 
 let them both in. Where is your color line there?
 
 118 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 This is the humble but fundamental doctrine 
 of the true Christian faith, is it not? To bring 
 out this fact to our readers, we have chosen this 
 appropriate incident relative to Bishop Potter. 
 This and many other similar incidents show the 
 reader that many southern whites, who, for the 
 most part claim to be an intensely religious people, 
 have even drawn a sharp color line in religion. 
 A smart colored woman told the author that she 
 asked a southern white lady whether the colored 
 folks would be like the white people in heaven. 
 "No," she answered, "they will be servants of 
 the white people there the same as they are here." 
 The author, too, has heard this same statement 
 more than once from the lips of very pious 
 southerners. So, while it is now admitted that 
 the Negro may have a soul, he is eternally 
 doomed to serve the southern white people in 
 heaven. We think it very kind of the southern 
 Christian theologian to give his black brother 
 and sister, and his colored offspring, a chance 
 to at least enter heaven as a servant. It is better 
 to get there as a servant than not to get there 
 at all. 
 
 THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.- 
 "But," they say, "you don't understand. The 'nig- 
 ger' must be kept down." Let us see. Here we 
 have it: "I favor unqualifiedly and without re- 
 serve the abrogation of the Fifteenth Amend-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 119 
 
 ment of the Constitution, and it is my hope 
 through the United States Senate, to demonstrate 
 to the nation that there is only one practical way 
 of settling this matter, and that is by plainly 
 showing the Negro his proper place in our sys- 
 tem of government. The race question must be 
 settled, and that soon. It cannot be disposed 
 of, however, until the nation as a whole has 
 been convinced that there is a distinction be- 
 tween the white and the black. 
 
 GAP JUST AS WIDE BETWEEN 
 NEGRO AND WHITE. "The laws now 
 specifically recognize the difference between the 
 white man and the Indian, the Chinaman, Es- 
 quimo or the Malay. There is just as wide a gap 
 between the white man and the Negro.* 
 
 The Negroes of the South are becoming more 
 criminal every day. Notwithstanding the mil- 
 lions of dollars we have spent in attempting to 
 educate them, they are becoming more disre- 
 spectful of law and more animal like in their 
 characters and desires. * * * The abrogation of 
 the Fifteenth Amendment will place the Negro 
 where he belongs. * * * If I get to the Senate 
 there will be an opportunity to speak to the en- 
 tire nation. The North will know what the 
 South already knows, that the climax is at hand. 
 It will come to appreciate that Thomas Jeffer- 
 
 *See Chapter XIV, "Where Indians and whites marry."
 
 120 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 son was not speaking of the Negro when he 
 said that all men were created free and equal. 
 He knew that the Negro was a mere chattel. 
 
 * * The crisis is nearly due. The matter of 
 white supremacy or black domination in the 
 South is at fever heat, and the sooner the North 
 and West realize it the better it will be for the 
 nation." Ex-Governor Vardaman of Missis- 
 sippi. 
 
 The southern whites fear "black domination," 
 but it is really the domination of their colored 
 progeny, backed by the black, that they fear. 
 Let readers remember this fact. 
 
 INDIANS AND NEGROES VOTE. We 
 think we now understand. ( ?) But the argument 
 that the laws now specifically recognize the dif- 
 ference between the Indian and the white man, 
 is, we fear, at least a weak one, so far as Okla- 
 homa is concerned, which has become a state 
 since the above was first spoken. Oklahoma has 
 a full suffrage clause in its constitution, covering 
 every man, white, red, yellow and black. The con- 
 stitution w,as adopted by a majority of 109,000. 
 The vote against it was 75,000. The Indian 
 population of the state is the largest in the Union, 
 being 75,000, of .these about 15,000 are voters. 
 
 TILLMAN DOES NOT WANT THE 
 NEGRO'S HEEL ON HIS NECK. (From 
 a c peech in the senate) "I am not opposed to
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 131 
 
 Negro education at all, provided it is of the 
 right kind, knowing that education increases in- 
 telligence and intelligence increases the useful- 
 ness of the citizens. What I said and meant and 
 by which I stick is this: That the Republican 
 policy of the last forty years has been to compel 
 the South to recognize the political equality of 
 the Negro. That in its essence would mean the 
 domination of the Negro in South Carolina and 
 Mississippi and many parts of other southern 
 states. We have disfranchised every Negro we 
 could under the Fifteenth Amendment, and the 
 only instrumentality available was to require an 
 educational qualification. There is now an agi- 
 tation in South Carolina for compulsory educa- 
 tion. That would mean a heavy burden to pro- 
 vide more schools which the white tax payers 
 would have to bear, and there could be no dis- 
 crimination against the Negro on account of 
 race or color. (He does not believe that labor 
 produces wealth and pays taxes). Hence we 
 would present the spectacle of educating the 
 Negro at a very heavy expense to hurry forward 
 the contest for supremacy between the two races, 
 as soon as we should have given them the neces- 
 sary qualifications to vote, and be undoing what 
 we found absolutely necessary to preserve our 
 civilization. We never intend to be governed 
 by Negroes, whether educated or uneducated.
 
 122 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ANTI-NEGRO PHILOSOPHER.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 123 
 
 The Republican party is now seeking to debauch 
 the South through Mr. Taft, who offers us two 
 offices in every thousand of our population and 
 a pretended advancement of our material inter- 
 ests to join that party. If the Republicans will 
 throw down and abandon, once for all, their ef- 
 forts to compel the South to recognize the joint 
 equality of the Caucasian and African by re- 
 pealing the Fifteenth Amendment, we can then 
 have the control of our state affairs, and can then 
 train them to make better citizens and aid in that 
 'uplift' which Mr. Taft is so anxious to see 
 brought about. But we never expect to 'lift' 
 them high enough ourselves, and allow anybody 
 else to lift them high enough to put their heels 
 on our necks or govern us again, and the conflict 
 of the races, which seems to me inevitable, will 
 only be hastened by such talk as Mr. Taft in- 
 dulges in." 
 
 COLOR LINE IN POLITICS. An edi- 
 torial appeared in the Mobile Register, referring 
 to the famous Dr. Crum case, that caused so 
 much debate in the United States senate. Here 
 is fully expressed the South's idea of color in 
 politics. It matters little how competent and 
 faithful a man may be in the performance of 
 his duty, if he has a trace of Negro blood in his 
 veins he cannot "properly represent the govern- 
 ment." The editorial is as follows: "The rule 
 in the appointment of men to federal office
 
 124 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 should be: to appoint that person only who by 
 common report is of such standing that the peo- 
 ple might, if they were called on, elect such per- 
 son to the designated office. Where it is well 
 known that by no possible combination of cir- 
 cumstances such persons would be chosen by 
 the community the appointment should not be 
 made or even thought of. Under this rule, no 
 colored man would be placed in an important 
 public office in the South, such as the collector- 
 ship of a port, as was done in Charleston. The 
 collector is not simply a clerk of the government, 
 to receive and be responsible for revenues of the 
 port; he is also a representative of the govern- 
 ment, and, by virtue of his office, ought to as- 
 sume and be accorded a high position, officially, 
 commercially and socially. Whatever are the 
 qualities of Dr. Crum, the collector of Charles- 
 ton, or his ability to care for the collection and 
 delivery of the revenues, and even to look after 
 the commercial interests of the port, it must be 
 admitted that, by reason of his color, he cannot 
 associate on equal terms 'with the business men 
 of the community, and is wholly cut off from the 
 exercise of all social functions whatever. He 
 does not, therefore, properly represent the gov- 
 ernment, and the government is without a repre- 
 sentative in Charleston, except in the limited 
 sense that it has there a curator of its revenues. 
 The protest of the Charleston people has been
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 125 
 
 steadfastly presented to the attention of the presi- 
 dent (Mr. Roosevelt), but to him it appears to 
 be the product of racial prejudice, and, accord- 
 ingly, not worthy of being heeded. If the presi- 
 dent could entertain the hope that, by persistence 
 in keeping Dr. Crum in the position of collector, 
 he could overcome the opposition and obtain 
 for Dr. Crum the recognition every collector 
 should have, there might be some sense in per- 
 sistence; but the president has no such hope. 
 The mental habit of the 'white community is not 
 going to change, even though a thousand Crums 
 are appointed to office. The senate has the power 
 of rejecting the re-appointment of Dr. Crum, 
 and, it is reported, will reject it. In so doing it 
 will be of good service, for the appointee does 
 not possess all the qualifications for the office, 
 and ought not to hold the office." 
 
 THEY RUB IN THE COLOR LINE. 
 We are conscious of the fact that there are men 
 throughout the South today who take advantage 
 of every opportunity to rub in the color line sub- 
 ject. Such men as Senator Tillman, for instance, 
 have made it a paying business to lecture on the 
 race question; or, to be more explicit, "rave on 
 it." This class, as we intimate elsewhere, that 
 does not even spare a bishop in the exercise of 
 his private rights, does not represent the true 
 sentiment of any country or any people. They 
 are the remnant of a defunct aristocracy, or their
 
 126 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 on-hangers, and die hard. They are a set of 
 blatant, blasphemous anarchists who inflame the 
 hearts of an ignorant, self-conceited southern 
 populace to mob violence and hellish crimes 
 against a poor, defenseless people, who have been 
 kicked and cuffed and tongue-lashed by these 
 crack-brained enemies of our free institutions 
 and Republican form of government, without 
 a blush of shame. They never will submit to 
 the changing conditions, or see anything better 
 in the Negro than a chattel. We sincerely sym- 
 pathize with them. They have undergone tre- 
 mendous, unrestorable losses through the eman- 
 cipation of the slave, and a lifetime will scarcely 
 eradicate the bitterness thereof among these poor 
 children of men. 
 
 THE NEGRO'S PLACE. The most de- 
 plorable thing about it is that they persist in 
 treating the race question in such an unscientific 
 manner, that it is merely a species of fault-find- 
 ing. The desire to "plainly show the Negro his 
 proper place in our system of government," is no 
 treatment of the question under discussion. The 
 Negro, as a whole, has no proper place where 
 all may be justly located in our system of gov- 
 ernment: While some of them are not yet fully 
 competent to exercise the rights of full citizen- 
 ship, as is so often contended, the majority are 
 as competent as any foreigners that ever landed 
 on our shores; and some are as competent as a
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 127 
 
 Vardaman to fill a senatorial chair in our na- 
 tional capitol. And of this fact true Americans 
 need not be ashamed, but intensely proud, as it 
 shows the world that the mixed American peo- 
 ple are the most progressive, intellectual and in- 
 vincible people on the earth; and that the whole 
 world will be drawn into the united American 
 races before the trumpet of Gabriel sounds. We 
 here refer to the union of all races ; and we shall 
 show the reader in this book that such a union 
 is inevitable. 
 
 THEIR MINDS ARE WARPED. Vol- 
 taire once said that he had been so busy in grind- 
 ing out natural laws, for so many years, that his 
 mind had lost its power to reason correctly upon 
 moral subjects, and this same fact is applicable 
 to these southerners, who are born and raised to 
 "keep the nigger in his place." Their minds are 
 deficient in those mental elements which create 
 the moral feelings that recognize and sense the 
 highest Christian and humane law of Universal 
 Brotherhood, as taught by Jesus and other great 
 leaders of religious and moral thought of ancient 
 and modern times. They are the dare-devil- 
 spirits who work for effect, and their own selfish 
 ends, regardless of consequences or moral de- 
 cency. They belie and damn the entire colored 
 race just because they can. Like a wicked boy, 
 spoiled in the raising, they set a big dog upon a 
 small, defenseless one. They indulge in this
 
 128 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 immoral sport with a wicked eye and the craving 
 of an abnormal nature. The degeneracy and 
 sensuality of the old slave master is, as the Scrip- 
 tures say, visited upon the descendants of that 
 master. All sensible men and women of both 
 races should pity these poor, deluded mortals. 
 To hate them would be a crime, because they 
 are irresponsible. 
 
 ANOTHER ANTI-NEGRO PHILOSO- 
 PHER. Thomas H. Norwood of Georgia, a 
 former United States Senator and a city judge, 
 when retiring from the bench which he had oc- 
 cupied twelve years, delivered an address on 
 the race question. The judge said that after in- 
 vestigation and long contact with the Negro as a 
 defendant in his court, he had reached the con- 
 clusion that the Negro is incapable of receiving 
 and using more than the rudiments of an edu- 
 cation. The Negro as a slave was cared for by 
 the white man, he said, but the present genera- 
 tion is retrograding to the status of the savage 
 and rule by force. This is shown by the constant 
 disregard of laws, repeated resistance of arrest 
 and shooting down of white men who attempt to 
 control them. The mulatto is the curse of both 
 the white man and the Negro race in the South, 
 said Judge Norwood. They stir the others to 
 deeds of violence and create discord. Illicit 
 miscegenation he held, should be repressed by 
 the most vigorous laws. It should be made a
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 129 
 
 capital offense, the guilty man hanged and the 
 woman sent to the penitentiary for life. 
 
 This man claims he has studied or investigated 
 the Negro for a long time in his court as a de- 
 fendant. Has he ever made careful investiga- 
 tions out of his court as a friend? Is it possible 
 to investigate and study ten millions of people 
 by the few hundred miserable examples that are 
 brought before the bench of a city judge? A 
 man must have the wisdom exceeding that of 
 Solomon, to thus draw conclusions of any value 
 whatever. And as regards resisting arrest, to 
 which Judge Norwood referred as evidence of 
 retrogression ; the facts are as follows : When a 
 Negro is arrested in the South for any crime 
 from chicken stealing to murder, there is im- 
 minent danger of lynching without trial or a 
 fair chance of defense, and rather than submit 
 to such a painful and ignominious end, he fights 
 when cornered and dies like a man. Let the 
 officers of the law guarantee safety and a fair 
 trial to their colored prisoners, and there would 
 soon be a decrease in resisting arrest. 
 
 A BROAD, UNBIASED INVESTIGA- 
 TION. What do we think, who have also in- 
 vestigated the Negro and race question, not from 
 the standpoint of inbred prejudice or in a city 
 court, but in the homes of the poor, the humble, 
 the cultured, the professional, in school, among 
 children, in church, in society, everywhere, as
 
 130 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 HE VOMITS POLITICAL RACE DOPE.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 131 
 
 an unbiased, careful student of human nature. 
 What do these wide-mouthed philosophers know 
 about the Negro anyhow? Have they the con- 
 fidence, respect and heart-secrets of the intelli- 
 gent colored folk? Have they entered their lives, 
 thought their thoughts and experienced their 
 hopes and fears, their joys and tears, and felt 
 the burning, choking sensations of humiliation, 
 to which they are so often subjected without re- 
 dress or a word of complaint? 
 
 Do these agitators realize that they will be 
 regarded the fools of this age a hundred years 
 hence that they are treading a mill that will 
 grind long after their mortal bodies have been 
 given over to the worms and have returned to 
 dust; and that it will grind so fine that their im- 
 mortal self (if they have not lost their identity) 
 will be in danger of hell-burning remorse? The 
 paramount question will soon confront America 
 What shall we do with the white color line 
 maniac of the country? 
 
 GOD'S FINGER OF APPROVAL IS UP- 
 ON THE MULATTO. If this man from 
 Georgia and others like him mean that the aver- 
 age West African Negro in his native jungle is 
 not capable of receiving more than the rudi- 
 ments of an education, they may be partially 
 right; but when they say this of the American 
 Negro, they are wrong. And when they say that 
 the present generation is retrograding to savage-
 
 132 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ry, they are decidedly wrong. When they say 
 the mulatto is the curse of both the white man 
 and the Negro race in the South, they say right. 
 The mulatto is the greatest curse (?) that God 
 Almighty has ever raised for the purpose of 
 lifting up a whole race of people, and to lay 
 bare the hidden foulness of the prevailing wrong 
 social condition in this country. These state- 
 ments may sound radical, and out of place in 
 a work given to science, reason and justice 
 rather than religious sentiment; but we shall 
 give you plenty of sound, scientific evidence 
 to back up every statement made, before 
 you close this book; and if we can impart 
 to you a glimpse of Divine Providence in 
 the marvelous evolutionary process that dom- 
 inates the American Negro, as we proceed, we 
 believe you will be better prepared to draw your 
 final conclusions when all has been said and 
 done. We say that God has placed his finger 
 of approval upon the colored Caucasian, and 
 that this race is destined to become one of the 
 intellectual and industrial giants of America 
 and the civilized world. This is why the mulatto 
 is considered such a curse to the South today, 
 is it not? 
 
 Ninety per cent of all the great people ia 
 the world's history, of whom we have any record, 
 have been of a mixed origin ; perhaps this is why 
 the mulatto is a curse.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 133 
 
 A beautiful conception of the Rev. Dr. Dixon, 
 author of "The Leopard's Spots."
 
 134 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 NORTHERN PREJUDICE 
 
 A SCATTERED FEW HOLD COLOR 
 LINE IN CONTEMPT. We have said con- 
 siderable about the so-called "smart nigger," as 
 the enlightened colored gentleman is designated. 
 We shall have occasion to mention him again. 
 But before we speak of him further in this chap- 
 ter we shall take up northern prejudice in order 
 to convey more clearly the chain of thought be- 
 gun in the preceding discussion. There is an 
 old proverb, "Never trouble trouble till trouble 
 troubles you." The southerners have long had 
 a serious trouble, and this same trouble is now 
 confronting the northern Yankee in the South. 
 We honor every northern sympathizer with our 
 work, who believes in and champions the cause 
 of the poor, down-trodden, despised colored 
 race. We have in mind, while we write these 
 lines, several persons of ability and influence 
 who would willingly give their best thought and 
 energy to untangle, adjust and alleviate the dif- 
 ficulties of the colored people, if they had in 
 their possession the key that unlocks the door 
 to the "Hall of Reason," so that the light thereof 
 might illuminate the black caverns of mental
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 135 
 
 ebscurity in the white man's boasted canopy of 
 human justice, and knock the prancing steed 
 from under the proud parader of heaven-born 
 supremacy. Unless there is a decided change 
 in the attitude toward the colored race, of many 
 northern people in the North and of many who 
 settle in the South, \ve have not the slightest hope 
 that a better sentiment will be created, beneficial 
 to the race, intellectually, socially, industrially 
 or morally, as far as they are concerned. We do 
 not mean to say, though, that the Negro is desti- 
 tute of the friendship or sympathy of northern 
 people who have settled in the South. But it is 
 only among the scattered few who take a broader 
 interest in and a more substantial view of life 
 and the human race; and who have cast aside 
 the narrow, self-centered religious and material 
 interests, and look forward to a better condition 
 for all mankind, who welcome and love the good 
 colored people. By many of these the color 
 line is held in profound contempt; and for rea- 
 sons founded on their religious faith and a true 
 understanding of the law of human progress and 
 justice. In the North, where the bad Negro 
 element is not conspicuous to warp the faith in 
 the race, this class is vastly in the majority. We 
 are sorry to say, though, that one bad Negro 
 sometimes may turn one-half of a northern com- 
 munity against the race. The big riot at Spring-
 
 136 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 field, 111., some time ago, is a fair example. 
 There is a class of Negro haters in the North, 
 composed of the scum of society, that is ever 
 ready to hang and burn ; but if the Negro were 
 displaced by the Jap or Chinaman, the result 
 would be the same. This unstable element is, 
 in some parts of the North, as plentiful, or in 
 proportion as numerous, as the Negro in the 
 South. But don't let our readers be deceived 
 by any false statements; the millions of substan- 
 tial northern people are the best friends the Afro- 
 American race has on this side of the Atlantic 
 ocean. Any colored man or woman first travel- 
 ing in the North, will 1 at once feel the spirit of 
 liberty that pervades everything. 
 
 THE COLOR LINE FEVER. That the 
 blind, silly pretentions of the common populace, 
 with regard to the color line, should be repu- 
 diated by substantial citizens is no wonder; for 
 it is sickening, indeed, to hear the opinions of 
 many of these base pretenders when they speak 
 of the "nigger," and especially when one knows 
 that these very ones are of less credit to the moral 
 tone of a community, than even the least respect- 
 able Negroes in it. Scientific investigation has 
 convinced us that the insane prejudice of this 
 class is but a symptom of a deep-seated moral 
 disease, with which they are afflicted; for among 
 the morally sound whites, North and South, we
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 137 
 
 have scarcely ever heard a single word said 
 against the colored race as a whole or the color 
 line, but have always found more sympathy than 
 complaint, often with the addition of a hope ex- 
 pressed that a better day might dawn for the 
 race. 
 
 We have knowledge of many instances where 
 northern whites, of most respectable Christian 
 character, invited their colored help to eat with 
 them at the family table after settling in the 
 South. The color line hubbub of today is not 
 simply a harmless fad, indulged in by such as 
 have no higher employment for their shallow 
 minds, but it is a serious, deep-seated affair, that 
 does not only belittle and snub the best colored 
 man, but works permanent injury to the highest 
 interests of both races. The growing sentiment 
 among the present generation of whites, that 
 the Negro is not wanted, is the outgrowth of this 
 color line cry, and consequently the strained con- 
 dition between the races becomes more acute. 
 We give just one instance here to show you how 
 it works among northern people in the far 
 South, who have contracted the color line fever. 
 We quote from a local newspaper: 
 
 "Fairhope is doing what Citronelle did several 
 years ago turning down Negro excursions. The 
 Bay Steamship Company has an excursion billed 
 to land at Fairhope next Monday. Fairhope
 
 138 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 owns their own wharf, and say that they shall not 
 land." Fairhope like Citronelle is essentially a 
 northern town. It was built and is inhabited 
 by a single tax colony. A people who should 
 be broadminded enough to welcome any folk 
 who desire to spend a day of recreation and en- 
 joyment in their vicinity. These Mobile excur- 
 sions are made up of a promiscuous crowd. 
 Sometimes a little shooting fracas happens 
 among them, and one of their number may be 
 killed, as was the case in Citronelle a few years 
 ago, but in the main it is a good-natured crowd, 
 out for a good time. Now, the idea we wish to 
 convey here, without undue reflection on these 
 towns or people, is this : A certain class of north- 
 ern people in the South do not wish to be incon- 
 venienced or bothered with the "nigger." In 
 other words, they have no use for colored folks, 
 they do not want them around if they can get 
 along without them. They have not gained their 
 confidence, and know absolutely nothing about 
 these peculiar, interesting children of men. This 
 seems to be the prevailing sentiment wherever 
 a northern community is found, if not openly 
 expressed, as in the towns above named, it is 
 nevertheless quietly assumed. Now, the reason 
 is not so much on account of color, with many 
 of these northern friends, as on account of the 
 fact that the Negro today is not what the average
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 139 
 
 American white man and woman believes he 
 ought to be, as we have said in a preceding chap- 
 ter. This color line cry has undoubtedly become 
 acute on account of the forces in existence, which 
 move the masses of the colored race upwards, 
 round by round, into the higher intellectual and 
 social scales of civilization. In some instances 
 the colored man has the highest and holiest fra- 
 ternal feelings in his heart, when he expresses 
 a desire to at least under some circumstances, ob- 
 literate the color line. Such a desire was expressed 
 by a camp of colored Spanish war veterans. We 
 give it as editorially commented upon by an old 
 prominent southern paper. And in connection 
 with the following editorial comes to our mind 
 a statement Booker T. Washington made in his 
 speech in the Auditorium, during the Jubilee 
 week in Chicago, after the Spanish-American 
 war. He said: 
 
 "We can celebrate the era of peace in no more 
 effectual way than by a firm resolve on the part 
 of northern men and southern men, black men 
 and white men, that the trenches that we together 
 dug around Santiago shall be the eternal burial 
 place of all that which separates us in our busi- 
 ness and civil relations. Let us be generous in 
 peace as we have been in battle. Until we thus 
 conquer ourselves, I make no empty statement 
 when I say, that we shall have a cancer gnawing
 
 140 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 at the heart of the republic that shall one day 
 prove as dangerous as an attack from an army 
 without or within." 
 
 After all these years have passed the following 
 incident shows that Booker T. Washington's 
 words have fallen upon barren soil. 
 
 THE COLOR LINE AMONG SPANISH 
 WAR VETERANS. "Recently a camp of 
 Spanish war veterans in Washington, composed 
 entirely of Negroes, proposed consolidation with 
 a white camp. The proposition was repelled 
 with energy. Not content with that attempt to 
 obliterate the color line, Past Commander Wor- 
 rell Ball renewed the effort the other night at 
 a reception to National Commander-in-Chief 
 Walter Scott Hale, at Grand Army Hall, where 
 both white and Negro veterans had gathered, by 
 declaring that "the color line does not exist in 
 the Spanish War Veterans." His declaration 
 was not only hissed, but many whites left the 
 hall. The color line is definitely drawn every- 
 where. Its eradication is impossible. All effort 
 in that direction is not only futile, but operates 
 as a positive injury to the Negro, as it tends to 
 arouse race antagonism." 
 
 This editor says that the color line is definitely 
 drawn everywhere, and that the eradication of it 
 is impossible, and wherever attempted it "oper- 
 ates as a positive injury to the Negro."
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 141 
 
 First, why? Because it "tends to arouse race 
 antagonism." 
 
 Secondly, how? By giving him the shadow 
 of a hope of social equality. 
 
 Thirdly, because his skin is dark or black, his 
 hair kinky, and he has once been a slave, and 
 by the law of "might makes right," must be 
 eternally doomed to the realms of an inferior 
 being. 
 
 Fourthly, to sum up the whole matter, the com- 
 mon phrase of the South is appliable "The 
 nigger must be kept down." 
 
 The editor does not say all this in the above 
 comment, but he who runs may read between 
 the lines all that is meant to be conveyed in 
 every reference to this subject. 
 
 THE COLORED GENTLEMAN. Once 
 upon a time he may have crawled up to his 
 master, and kissed the dust from his feet in hum- 
 ble submission, but conditions have changed. 
 The "smart nigger," the enlightened colored 
 gentleman of today is a different psychological 
 product. While he may have inherited some of 
 the worst elements in two races, he also decid- 
 edly inherited the noble qualities which form 
 the foundation upon which a noble race may 
 well be founded. 
 
 We are prepared to meet the criticism of the 
 biased. We have knowledge of instances of the
 
 142 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 noblest sacrifices, the bravest deeds of heroism r 
 and the chivalrous characteristics so well marked 
 in him, that to dispute this point would be non- 
 sense, or rather indicate a sad lack of informa- 
 tion on the part of the investigator. Space does 
 not permit us to give illustrations here, but a 
 little investigation on the part of the reader will 
 prove to him the truth of our statement. 
 
 COLORED CHILDREN OF THE 
 GENTLEMAN. Should we compare the 
 children of this class with those of the northern 
 whites, we find a marked contrast and a heavy 
 balance on their side in many cases, in regard 
 to obedience to parents and respect for both 
 whites and blacks of mature years. 
 
 Any unbiased southerners will testify to this 
 fact. This has been to us one of the most pleas- 
 ing qualities found in these people. It counts 
 for much. And then when we find that these 
 children are also taught to be thrifty and in- 
 dustrious and make something of themselves, we 
 feel a sensation of hope and brighter days for 
 the American colored folk. When we stop and 
 think of the contrast between these little folks 
 of color, who are for the most part kept busy 
 in the field and home, or at something in the 
 city or in school, and then are reminded of the 
 great army of white boys and girls, North and 
 South, who idle away so much of their time that
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 143 
 
 GROUP OF COLORED CHILDREN OF THE 
 COLORED GENTLEMAN.
 
 144 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 could be devoted to some useful as well as in- 
 structive vocation, we cannot help but believe 
 that these little dark people are on the right 
 road to future moral and industrial greatness. 
 We admonish parents to ever keep before them 
 the duty of teaching their children to be indus- 
 trious. It is with a philanthropic feeling, un- 
 doubtedly well-meaning and genuine, that time 
 and money are at present spent in northern cities 
 for the establishment of well-equipped, extensive 
 playgrounds for children. This is all good and 
 well for the smaller ones, but that larger chil- 
 dren should thus idle away their time in play, 
 is not conducive to good morals or future good 
 citizenship. The foundation for usefulness and 
 industry must be laid early in a child's life. In 
 other words, it must be taught early to do some- 
 thing and form the habit of doing something. 
 It is with great pleasure and profound admira- 
 tion that we often watch the little brown hands 
 do useful things and a great variety of things, 
 and the little minds ever busy to conjure up some 
 way in which the thing in hand might be done a 
 little quicker and a little better. As for intel- 
 ligence; these children certainly deserve great 
 credit. But it is phrenologically known that 
 Negroes are generally bright in early childhood, 
 and in the cross breeds none of this native alert- 
 ness seems to be lost; neither have we found that
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 145 
 
 the stamina of the Negro is lost in the children 
 of the fairer parents, or in the offspring of a 
 white man and a fair colored woman. The re- 
 sult of such crossing depends invariably upon 
 the constitution and health of the parties who 
 thus cross, as it does with people of the same 
 race. 
 
 We do not give illustrations to prove these 
 statements here, but have simply touched upon 
 this matter in passing, to prepare the reader for 
 a fuller discourse. 
 
 A BAD ELEMENT, NOT A CREDIT.- 
 It is not the colored man's fault that he is not 
 what the whites would wish him to be. The 
 power that moves and controls the destiny of 
 all mankind, includes him and shapes him as 
 well as every other creature in the evolutionary 
 process. There is an element among them, to 
 be sure, that is not a credit to the race or to our 
 age. And we are convinced that the southern 
 states must, in the near future, provide means to 
 rid themselves of this degenerate, criminal class. 
 Why such men as Senator Tillman, ex-Gov- 
 ernor Vardaman and others should so hopelessly 
 lose themselves in the race question, is more than 
 we can comprehend. An incredible amount of 
 harm is done the South by such men. They do 
 not represent the real sentiment of their country, 
 or any country, but arouse the devilish, groveling 
 
 10
 
 146 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 instinct of the bloodthirsty beast of prey, with- 
 out a shadow of justice or reason. Let human 
 justice step in, calm, considerate, and the race 
 question will be solved and settled for all time, 
 and a superior people will be the result; and 
 this great Southland will blossom like a rose, 
 and its dusky citizens will prove indispensable 
 to the greatest of all countries on earth. 
 
 We here ask, is it fair, is it just that the en- 
 lightened, respectable colored people of the 
 South should be classed with their unfortunate, 
 depraved black brothers? Should those who 
 have striven against mountains of obstacles, and 
 have risen in spite of them, be thus classed? 
 Should any white man, North or South, with 
 any sense of decency, of justice, ever open his 
 mouth and say "all Negroes are alike?"
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 147 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 COLOR AGAINST WHITE 
 
 A WRONG FEELING. A feeling pre- 
 vails among a scattered class of colored people 
 in the South and elsewhere, that the whites are 
 invariably opposed to them socially that there 
 can never exist a feeling between them to the ex- 
 tent of co-operation in business, society and re- 
 ligion visiting and returning visits, and in other 
 ways cultivate the Christian spirit, as becomes 
 a free people of a free country. 
 
 Now, while we have found that the common 
 run of whites, which constitutes a majority, are 
 opposed to and prejudiced against socially, in- 
 dustrially, politically or religiously mingling 
 with color; we have discovered, and are aware 
 of, a spirit of liberality or toleration in a 
 cultured few in nearly every neighborhood 
 throughout the country, that points toward a 
 better fraternal feeling and the social emancipa- 
 tion of at least the better class of people of color 
 in the near future. Furthermore, it cannot be 
 denied that the colored people themselves are 
 to blame for a great deal of the nefarious color- 
 phobia contagion prevalent in America. When 
 we started out to prepare this book we promised
 
 148 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ourselves and all concerned that we would tell 
 the truth, so help us God, and that promise 
 stands. 
 
 The Negro cannot forever fall back on the 
 fact that he has been a slave, and consequently 
 is irresponsible. That he was taught to steal 
 and must steal still ; that he was taught, by cruel 
 treatment, to hate the white man, and that he 
 must hate him still; that he was in poverty, 
 superstition and ignorance, and must continue 
 to plead poverty, ignorance and immunity from 
 all responsibility. We tell an absolute truth 
 when we say that there exists as much prejudice 
 of color against white today, as white has ever 
 harbored against color. We have made numerous 
 experiments along this line, and have, for the most 
 part, found that the better class of Negroes have 
 no fraternal feeling or sociability toward the 
 white man in the South. No matter how kind 
 the white man may be toward them, or how far he 
 may press his society upon them, there is gen- 
 erally little or no response, and he is made to 
 feel that he is none too welcome among them. 
 Yet, we have heard the complaint by this class, 
 that the white man will not recognize them or 
 treat them with respect, socially. 
 
 A FRATERNAL SPIRIT AND A TIE 
 THAT BINDS. Not long ago a refined, in- 
 telligent southern gentleman, who has been a
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 149 
 
 confederate soldier, told us that in all his long life 
 and varied experiences with the "darkey," he 
 could sincerely say that he would far rather 
 have a good colored family for a close neighbor, 
 and his intimate friends, to any whites. He 
 could call upon them at any time, in case of need 
 or emergency, and they would generally stand 
 ready and willing to assist you and do what they 
 could for you. And these old southerners do 
 not speak thus flippantly, or without tangible 
 reasons. Perchance, their thoughts sometimes 
 revert to the "dear old plantation, 'way befo de 
 wah," and they once more feel themselves 
 nestled in the big, soft arms, against the broad, 
 heaving bosom, beneath which the throbbing 
 of a big, loving heart could be felt; and they 
 again catch the broad smile, and see the row of 
 glittering white teeth, and the play of sunshine 
 light up that big, black, maternal face; and they 
 again hear the cooing of the old plantation mel- 
 odies, as they are gently rocked to and fro, until 
 they lose themselves once more in the dreamland 
 of slumber on the arms of their old black mammy, 
 their dear old mammy, long since gone to the 
 dreamland from whence there is no return. No 
 monument may shade her lonely grave, telling 
 of her life of love and devotion to the holy cause 
 of rearing some of the greatest men and women 
 of their generation, yet she was a heroine.
 
 150 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 THE OLD BLACK MAMMY.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 151 
 
 In all human associations there are some ties 
 that bind they are in the blood that no 
 amount of succeeding prejudice or growing 
 chasms of reversed conditions, or upheavals of 
 social controversy, or man's inhumanity to man 
 can sever. Such a tie, if we look for it, we 
 still find underneath all the hubbub and rubbish 
 of late years' degeneracy of both whites and 
 blacks in the South. It is often asserted that 
 this lofty sentiment, so strongly rooted in the 
 hearts of the true southern gentleman, expresses 
 only his appreciation of the faithfulness of the 
 Negro as a servant; but that it is not meant to 
 convey any thought of equality. This is un- 
 doubtedly true in most cases, but where this good 
 will is exercised between the races, there can be 
 but a short step left to a final social understand- 
 ing. Many men and women, North and South, 
 who have the kindest feeling toward the Negro, 
 dare not express their sympathy for fear of pub- 
 lic ridicule and social ostracism. They are 
 justly branded as moral cowards; but the Negro 
 who believes that all white men are his enemies, 
 and are trying to "keep the Negro in his place," 
 is not only a coward, but a breeder of dissension 
 and an enemy of his race as well. 
 
 WHAT CAN BE THE FIRST CAUSE 
 OF THE IMPENDING SOCIAL ERUP- 
 TION? What can be at the bottom of or the
 
 152 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 first cause of the present impending social erup- 
 tion between the races? This question is often 
 asked. The Negro illiterate is a silent figure and 
 a harmless one, so far as he has not been inocu- 
 lated with the poison of dissension by the per- 
 nicious agitator. There are Vardamans and 
 Tillmans in the Negro race as well as in the 
 white race; men who do more harm than good. 
 We believe in healthy agitation, and encourage 
 it everywhere; but we condemn a spirit of hat- 
 red and prejudice wherever we meet it. 
 
 Now the facts we have before us are these: 
 The enlightened Negro has education and in- 
 telligence enough to know right from wrong, 
 and that he ought to condemn the wrong and up- 
 hold the right in both races. The white man 
 has long and faithfully fought the battles of the 
 Negro. He has spilt his blood and generously 
 sacrificed his life for him; he has spent millions 
 upon millions of his money to educate him and 
 better his conditions; he has not even hesitated 
 to enter the jungles of his native haunts to bring 
 light and the gospel of truth to the dark con- 
 tinent. The best brain and the greatest minds 
 of the white race in America are even today 
 championing the cause of the Negro. Should 
 not the Afro-American turn about and stop the 
 boastful spirit of bragism of what he has done 
 since his emancipation and give credit to the
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 153 
 
 faithful men and women of the white race who 
 have assisted him, and without whom he could 
 have done but little under prevailing conditions 
 worthy of his great race? We contend that the 
 Negro has not done more than he ought to have 
 done; and today he is not doing half as much as 
 he ought to do in the way of bettering his con- 
 ditions. Again, in connection with this thought, 
 we have the fact that nearly all the people of 
 mixed blood are leaders of the race, and that 
 this relationship which exists between the caces 
 ought to be a means of cementing them instead 
 of separating them. This process of cementing, 
 if it may be called that, is going on at a tre- 
 mendous rate in many parts of the country, as 
 we prove elsewhere. So it cannot be that racial 
 hatred on the part of the colored man, exists 
 because of ignorance or paternal relationship. 
 The first cause must be traced elsewhere. It lies 
 not in the lack of intelligence or education, or 
 in the lack of blood admixture ; but in the mental 
 habit of finding the flaws and shortcomings of 
 the white man. Naturally imaginative in his 
 make-up, he often pictures to himself, and 
 argues the point with others, that all men with 
 white faces are his enemies. And it is curious, 
 sometimes his own face is nearly as white as 
 his father's!
 
 154 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 He is a sort of leech that lives by other men's toil. The result 
 of cigarettes and "dope."
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 155 
 
 THEY HAVE KINDLED THEIR OWN 
 FIRE. The fire of their own kindling is roar- 
 ing, and the soup in their own domestic pot is 
 boiling over. They are stirring with their might, 
 and are endeavoring to inhere the unattainable 
 without a semblance of qualification, in many 
 instances. 
 
 These same people of color who so vigorously 
 stir their pot, are harping continually on one 
 string, trying to convince us, meanwhile, that 
 they are innocent angel-martyrs, and absolutely 
 irresponsible for the present unsatisfactory con- 
 dition between the races; and yet, they are the 
 shapers of their own future the architects of 
 their own fortune. They stand today in a posi- 
 tion where they can prove themselves a true 
 brother to the white man, and finally compel 
 him to recognize them as such, if they will it. 
 On the other hand they can show a spirit of ha- 
 tred and importance that will forever rupture 
 the relations and future welfare of a great, mixed 
 American people. 
 
 THE MOST DANGEROUS CLASS OF 
 NEGROES. We now have in mind a class of 
 Negroes who do not think deeper of or have a 
 more tender regard for a white man, than that 
 prompted by avarice. We have often come in 
 contact with this hog. He covets the very ground 
 upon which a white man walks, and works his
 
 156 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ruin wherever he may. He is the greatest enemy 
 the race has today. If the white man would not 
 find for him employment and the means of live- 
 lihood, he would exercise very little care for the 
 welfare of his white brother. It is the mighty 
 dollar that prompts him to be on friendly terms 
 with the whites. Those from whom he cannot 
 so well succeed in getting this coveted United 
 States currency, are not considered .his friends. 
 He is also a devotee of the tipping evil. The 
 white man who slips a dollar into his palm is 
 a fine gentleman. He likes to get something 
 for nothing from the white people. He is a sort 
 of leech that lives by the blood of other men's 
 toil. The same spirit of avarice that prompted 
 his remote ancestors, to sell into slavery their 
 own children, is here manifested. He will sell 
 his own wife and daughters into a life of shame, 
 This is by all odds the most dangerous Negro 
 we have. He is the man who believes that the 
 white man owes him something. He claims that 
 the South does by right belong to him, as his 
 forefathers, when slaves, fought the wilderness 
 and under the master's lash subdued it and made 
 it inhabitable, and an inheritance that he must 
 some day claim as his own by right of the sub- 
 jugation of his progenitors. We have heard 
 him express the hope that some day when the un- 
 avoidable crisis is due, England, France, or some
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 157 
 
 other great foreign power would intervene, and 
 he would then gain full possession of all the 
 wealth of the South. 
 
 But the crowning sign of mental decrepitude 
 manifests itself in the total absence of regard for 
 all whites and even for his own people, and in 
 the hateful "let me alone" spirit of independence 
 of a poisonous, reptilian nature. Only so far 
 as he is compelled to associate with the whites 
 to get their money or means of subsistence, will 
 he consent to submit to the social customs of 
 courtesy and decent behavior in their presence, 
 and were it not for fear we doubt whether even 
 that much of good humor would be forthcoming. 
 No confidence in and no respect for all whites, 
 and for his own people whom he calls "niggers," 
 is the accepted rule of his social calibre, and 
 consequently no social harmony is emitted from 
 this sort of being. Every respectable colored 
 man and woman should openly repudiate him 
 and censure him on every hand. 
 
 He is a stumbling block to his own people, 
 and a snare, deception, and imposition to all 
 with whom he comes in contact. In his scien- 
 tific research the author has had more trouble 
 in obtaining a true diagnosis of this class than 
 any other. He met with more cunning, sham, 
 and hypocracy in this scattered class than in the 
 class of the sin-steeped black quarters of large
 
 158 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 cities. It does not take very much of the wrong 
 agitation extant, to incense this class to all kinds 
 of violence. Injustice breeds contempt and red- 
 dens a hand in anarchy. 
 
 SECRET ORDERS AMONG THE NE- 
 GROES. The many secret orders among the 
 Negroes, we believe, should inculcate a spirit of 
 patriotism and love of country, that would root 
 out all wrong impressions and desires to become 
 traitors of a great country and a great people, 
 who have given them educational advantages 
 and freedom in such vast numbers as no other 
 country in the history of the world has ever done 
 before. 
 
 We do not say that the secret orders are creat- 
 ing anti-American sentiments among the Ne- 
 groes; but we do say that there can be, and to 
 some extent undoubtedly is, unconsciously creat- 
 ed such a danger. The hundreds of thousands 
 of members of the various secret orders are today 
 the shapers of the destiny of the colored people 
 in America; no intelligent member of the race 
 will deny this. They are even more potent at 
 present than the church and school. We do not 
 speak carelessly when we say that the military 
 training in many of these societies is one of the 
 greatest impending dangers to which the peace 
 of the country, the welfare -of the race, and the 
 loyalty of the Negro is exposed.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 159 
 
 We have been told by some of the leading 
 ministry of the colored church that the Negro 
 is society cursed that the secret orders are dis- 
 placing the interest in, and crippling the vitality 
 of, the Christian church. No man, not even a 
 Negro can, at a dollar or a dollar and a half 
 per day, belong to two or three secret orders and 
 at the same time be a live member of a church, 
 and support a family in the bargain. Somebody 
 is going to suffer as a consequence. His wife 
 may have to take in extra washing or more con- 
 genial work in order to keep all dues paid, and 
 wear herself out in the effort, as many a brave 
 and devoted colored woman is doing. 
 
 But, you say, what has this to do with the sub- 
 ject under consideration? Just this: The Negro 
 is an extremist. He will go into a thing he likes 
 up to his ears, and suffer as a consequence. The 
 show, mystery and discipline of many secret 
 orders are attractive to him, and he goes into 
 them with the blind enthusiasm of his emotional 
 nature, without first counting the cost. And with 
 guns and swords, and other parapharnalia of 
 martial warfare at hand in some of these orders, 
 and an exaggerated consciousness of their effi- 
 cacy, it would be an easy matter to incense him 
 to commit wholesale murder throughout the en- 
 tire South, at a time when some black bastards 
 and white imbeciles will cause a general race
 
 160 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 feeling. Guns and swords are to fight with. We 
 have never found any other legitimate use for 
 them. Every Negro family in the entire South 
 is well supplied with fire-arms. The entire col- 
 ored press and pulpit should condemn the use 
 of fire-arms as a dangerous plaything, detri- 
 mental to the best interests of the race, and have 
 them displaced by the spelling book and reader. 
 Guns and swords are relics of barbarism, and 
 any people, white or black, who hoard them are 
 designers of iniquity and in league with hell! 
 Every state in the union should have a law, com- 
 pelling the owner of a fire-arm to be registered 
 and pay a license fee of not less than fifty dollars 
 per annum. And for the violation of this law 
 a penalty of three years' hard labor on a state or 
 county road should be provided. 
 
 All, or nearly all, secret orders claim their 
 foundation in the Christian religion. Let us 
 see whether this claim is a substantial one, or 
 whether it is only a supposition after all. Our 
 purpose is to show the reader of both races that 
 if the secret orders are based upon the true Chris- 
 tian religion, they ought to constitute a tie that 
 should bind the two races so firmly together that 
 no trouble, of whatever nature, could possibly 
 rupture that relationship. No fake brotherhood 
 can tie the two races and make them one. 
 
 FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE. Inorder
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 161 
 
 to illustrate our point we will take out of the 
 Sermon on the Mount the fundamental doctrine 
 of Universal Brotherhood, which every Chris- 
 tian church and brotherhood, founded upon the 
 teachings of Christ, must follow: "Ye have 
 heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, 
 and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you, That 
 ye resist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee 
 on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 
 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take 
 away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And 
 whoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with 
 him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and 
 from him that would borrow of thee turn not 
 thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been 
 said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate 
 thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your en- 
 emies, bless them that curse you, do good to them 
 that hate you, and pray for them which despite- 
 fully use you, and persecute you." 
 
 For what purpose are we commanded and 
 persuaded by Jesus to do thus? For this sublime 
 purpose: "That ye may be (regardless of race, 
 color, poverty or riches) the children of your 
 Father which is in heaven; (here he gives us 
 tangible reason) for He maketh His sun to rise 
 on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain 
 on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them 
 which love you, (those of your particular race, 
 
 11
 
 162 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 e mre 
 
 ers: for they shall" be eg/fed the 
 i/dren of God? 
 
 ** ^ , O ; 
 
 SERMON ON THE MOUNT.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 163 
 
 color or clan only) what reward have ye? Do 
 not even the publicans the same? And if ye 
 salute your brethren only, (those of your par- 
 ticular lodge or church or society) what do ye 
 more than others? Do not even the publicans 
 so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
 which is in heaven is perfect." 
 
 We would like to quote more extensively, the 
 religion of Jesus as taught by Himself in the 
 Sermon on the Mount; but every reader who is 
 willing may turn to the fifth chapter of Mat- 
 thew, and obtain for himself the true doctrine, 
 pertaining to the Christian religion. All other 
 so-called Christian doctrines vanish into noth- 
 ingness when compared with those of the foun- 
 tain head. 
 
 The secret orders may all be founded upon 
 the Bible everything, good and, bad, is founded 
 upon that but the religion of Jesus stands for 
 a Universal Brotherhood, so broad and far- 
 reaching that it tolerates no sect, secret order, 
 class, race or clan "do not even the publicans 
 so?" His religion makes every man a brother 
 and every woman a sister. 
 
 Let these principles of Universal Brotherhood 
 be taught from every pulpit and in every school 
 in the land, both white and colored, and a great 
 people, whose voice would truly be the voice 
 of God, would be the ultimate result. And what
 
 164 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 a magnificent country these United States would 
 be with such a people, and such boundless re- 
 sources at their command? 
 
 THE PINK-SKINNED MAN IS HIS 
 FRIEND. There are some things that the 
 Afro-American must remember. The best friend 
 the Negro ever had, since his pre-historic ances- 
 tors were driven into or entered the steaming 
 jungles of Africa, is the man of pink skin. Then, 
 again, remember that the Negro has always been 
 the greatest enemy of himself, from the earliest 
 recorded history to the present day. And that 
 the treatment received at the hands of his white 
 superiors during the darkest days of American 
 slavery, never exceeded the atrocity practiced 
 upon himself as a naked savage in the jungles 
 of Africa. Let us remember also, above all else, 
 that this white enslaver has left his mark on the 
 black enslaved; and that through his failings he 
 has humiliated himself, in the blood that courses 
 through the veins of the Afro-American. But 
 for this and their existence on the western conti- 
 nent, ten million more savages would still be 
 groping in the trackless jungles, perhaps hunting 
 their fellow man for food, sucking his blood and 
 devouring his quivering flesh. 
 
 We have often heard the complaint that all 
 white folks judge the colored folks by the stand- 
 ard of the criminal class. We know they do not.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 165 
 
 Many of the colored race inspire hatred toward 
 the white race through their children, by many 
 careless and pernicious remarks in their presence. 
 How much of the present race feeling is thus 
 created in the young of both races is hard to 
 determine. It is often said that white children 
 are born in the South to keep the Negro down. 
 How many Negro children are born to make 
 trouble for the whites is hard to estimate. 
 
 It is contended that the ignorance of the Negro 
 and the bad treatment received by the whites, 
 is the cause of the present bad feeling toward 
 the Caucasian. But the intelligent Negro knows 
 very well that it, too, is ignorance on the part 
 of^the whites which causes the race feeling; and 
 that this ignorance and lack of fraternal feeling 
 is the cause of a great deal of the prejudice to- 
 day. If the white and colored in this country 
 could be educated up to the fact that each must 
 live for all, and that the mistakes of one must 
 not be held up before the other, color line and 
 prejudice would soon die. And, naturally, we 
 would live happy together. 
 
 LOVE BEGETS LOVE. Booker T. Wash- 
 ington has well said: "Both races will grow 
 strong, useful and generous in proportion as they 
 learn to love each other instead of hating each 
 other." 
 
 Love is manifest in all Nature's handiwork.
 
 166 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 When man learns to understand the infinite wis- 
 dom of human variety, his happiness is assured. 
 He will then fully comprehend the fact that 
 every man is his brother and every woman his 
 sister that the God of Nature has in His in- 
 finite love and wisdom given a variety of hues 
 to the skin of man for a divine purpose that 
 we have mental and physical dissimilarities for 
 evolutionary growth. 
 
 What a creature is man that he should revolt 
 against the inevitable? Should he not bow in 
 humble submission to the Infinite? Should he 
 not rather thank Him for such beautiful var- 
 ieties of colors, bodies and minds for our im- 
 provement, elevation, enjoyment and happiness? 
 
 The repetition of my race, my color, my clan 
 breeds contention and hatred, uncalled for in this 
 age of enlightenment. It should find no lodge- 
 ment in the minds of true American citizens. 
 We are "a people" and "the people," and not 
 this race and that a white and a black, a yellow 
 and a brown. Those who insist upon the recog- 
 nition of "my race and my people," are the un- 
 mitigated enemies and traitors of our country, 
 our God and our future welfare. 
 
 "United we stand, divided we fall," should 
 be the watchword of all the people. If the peo- 
 ple insist upon absolute color lines and marked 
 separation in the future, our union cannot sur-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 167 
 
 vive the onslaught of Father Time. And for 
 whom would it be darkest, should a race rup- 
 ture dismantle the spirit of calmness in this great 
 Southland? For none other that the man of 
 color. Let him plunge into a race war, and he 
 is doomed! What forty years and more of 
 bloodless warfare against ignorance and poverty 
 has wrought, one year of martial warfare would 
 hopelessly cripple. 
 
 Tell it again; scatter the seed abroad to every 
 man, woman and child that Love is all-powerful, 
 and that the flames thereof burn to the quick 
 the foulest enemy that ever crawled on God's 
 green earth ; and that the bite of serpents and the 
 sting of scorpions of the human kind cannot 
 harm those who put on the armor of Universal 
 Brotherhood. 
 
 A TERRIBLE DAY FOR AMERICA.- 
 Capt. Richmond P. Hobson, gives a graphic de- 
 scription in Cosmopolitan magazine for Septem- 
 ber, 1908, as a possible outcome of war with 
 Japan. We quote him as follows: 
 
 "If, through delay in the arrival of our new 
 fleet, (after the first one had been destroyed) 
 Japan had time to repair and prepare her in- 
 jured fleet, and our new fleet upon arrival, fool- 
 ishly crossed the ocean and met disaster, then 
 Japan would come into permanent control of 
 the sea, and the Pacific coast would be invaded
 
 168 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 in force. Our nation would be turned into an 
 army, but only reverses would attend attempts 
 to dislodge the Japanese in full control of the 
 slope from the coast to the mountains. The one 
 sure way to proceed, the one that would be ulti- 
 mately adopted, would be to draw upon our vast 
 resources, quickly build a new fleet of great pre- 
 ponderance, and send it around. 
 
 "Its approach would signal the loss of control 
 of the sea to the Japanese, and their forces would 
 retire. With the mainland clear, our next move 
 would be an expedition to recover Hawaii. This 
 would involve a great transport service, but we 
 would have created it in advance. After reduc- 
 ing Hawaii and occupying it in force, our next 
 move would be a great expedition against the 
 Philippines. The stupendous army and the 
 transport service would be at hand, and the 
 Philippines would fall. Our next move would 
 be an even greater expedition against Japan * * * 
 America's ultimate victory would be complete, 
 but it would be bought at a terrible price, not 
 only because of the fabulous cost of armament 
 and of pensions for a hundred years, not only 
 because of the suffering and death of hundreds 
 of thousands even millions of men, and the 
 misery of their families, but the years of warfare 
 and hatred would leave us a nation of soldiers, 
 with militarism in complete control ; our free in-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 169 
 
 stitutions would totter, and liberty for mankind 
 would be delayed for long centuries to come." 
 
 Now, we would cautiously remark that Mr. 
 Hobson does not make a single allusion to the 
 ten million colored people already in our midst, 
 whose sympathy would easily be enlisted with 
 the little yellow man, who has, like the Negro, 
 suffered humiliation and exclusion at the hands 
 of the dominant, money grabbing, race hating 
 American. The war Hobson has in mind would 
 not be a war of nations as much as one of races 
 the colored races pitted against the white. Japan 
 and China are a kin if it comes to that, and the 
 Afro-American, who has tasted of the sweets of 
 civilization, is also a distant relative. All of 
 them, when once united, would stand man to man 
 in defense of equality with the white-skinned 
 man; and who dare prophesy that they would 
 not get it? 
 
 The Chinaman and Japanese have for centur- 
 ies been taught that they are heaven-born 
 descended from the gods and they will, when 
 once powerful enough in a thorough union, 
 demonstrate to the world that this assertion of 
 their superiority must stand. The Negro, or 
 rather colored Caucasian of America, through 
 whose veins flows the blue blood of the south- 
 ern aristocracy, is also ready to demonstrate that 
 he is as good as his white father or grand parent. 
 And the black man is catching the same spirit.
 
 170 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 If that terrible day should dawn in America, 
 that would find the nation crippled and bleed- 
 ing when color is pitted against white it 
 would remember, as never a people remembered 
 before, that no republic can live, no modern na- 
 tion survive, in which race prejudice and color 
 lines exist. America must stand united or die 
 divided. A legal amalgamation of the races 
 is essential to our national life.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 171 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 CRIME, LAW AND PUNISHMENT 
 
 EYE FOR EYE, TOOTH FOR TOOTH. 
 
 The elements of crime are the same in essen- 
 tial, features in every part of the civilized world. 
 Since the tablets of stone were handed down from 
 Mount Sinai there have been certain acts recog- 
 nized by almost the whole human family as in- 
 imical to social order or individual rights. 
 
 In the various stages of human development 
 divers forms of punishment for crimes com- 
 mitted have been devised and inflicted on the 
 guilty. 
 
 False notions of religions have, for instance, 
 been instrumental in some misguided, semi-civil- 
 ized peoples in promoting crime, and also in 
 applying methods of punishments, shocking in 
 the extreme to all highly developed and more 
 sensitive minds. 
 
 Many men, in different ages, have taken spe- 
 cial delight in administering punishments for 
 real or imaginary crimes committed by certain 
 defenseless people. The Mosiac principles of 
 punishment eye for eye, tooth for tooth has 
 adhered to the practice of courts and juries 
 throughout all the intervening centuries with
 
 172 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 wonderful persistence. It is only within recent 
 years that some states in America have ventured 
 to relax the law of a life for a life in the case of 
 murder. 
 
 It is not within the scope of this book to enter 
 upon a thorough discussion of the law of crime 
 and criminal procedure. Fact is, the writer is 
 so absolutely opposed to the common method 
 employed in the punishment of the criminal 
 class, that to enlarge upon this subject would 
 bring up a question that would require more 
 space than could be allotted to it here. 
 
 THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS PRAC- 
 TICE. It is hardly necessary to say that we are 
 opposed to capital punishment for crimes com- 
 mitted. Our opposition is based upon scientific 
 reasons. 
 
 First, we maintain that most crime, for which 
 punishment is inflicted, is committed by beings 
 who are unfortunately developed, mentally and 
 physically, and are consequently more or less 
 irresponsible. To take their lives does not im- 
 prove the morals of a people, while, if justly 
 considered, it adds only another crime to the 
 one perpetrated by the criminals. 
 
 Secondly, we maintain that crime is the result 
 of the abnormal development of certain mental 
 faculties in the brain of the criminal, and that 
 all men possess these same mental ekments in
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 173 
 
 a weaker or stronger degree, counter-balanced 
 by other faculties promoting good, and that if 
 a criminal, who is on the wrong side of mental 
 balance, or out of self-control, is killed, the 
 higher elements of his mind are also murdered. 
 In other words, the good man in the criminal is 
 killed along with the bad one. And no class of 
 men, state or government, has a moral right to 
 kill the good in the supreme economy of life, to 
 rid themselves or society of the evil thereof. 
 
 Furthermore, we maintain that no human be- 
 ing should be thrust into a dungeon or locked 
 into a prison for any considerable length of time. 
 We consider this the most outrageous practice 
 that has ever been contrived by monsters in hu- 
 man form. If there is a purgatory anywhere in 
 God's universe, it has its counterpart most glar- 
 ingly portrayed in the black dungeon and iron 
 cage of the ancient and modern prison system. 
 
 HORRORS IN AMERICAN PRISONS. 
 A report published by the American Prison 
 association is in effect an arraignment of the 
 whole prison system in the United States. Two 
 hundred and ninety institutions in 37 states were 
 visited and carefully inspected. With a few ex- 
 ceptions it was found that all sorts of horrors 
 existed which could not be justified under any 
 statute ever enacted. Prisons were hotbeds of 
 disease, dangerous not only to the inmates but
 
 174 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 to the outside public. The character of the food 
 and the way of serving it were revolting and de- 
 moralizing. Overcrowding was a frightful evil. 
 In Birmingham, Ala, 240 men were found in 
 seventy-two cells, and twenty-five women in ten 
 cells. In Los Angeles 135 men were found in 
 eighty-eight cells. One person to a cell, the 
 prison association says, is all that should be al- 
 lowed. "It is a strong temptation," says the re- 
 port, "to specify particular cities where nameless 
 abuses exist; where little children are kept in 
 rooms with polluted and diseased adults; where 
 a poor insane victim of brain disorder howls all 
 night in company with ruffians ; where an honest 
 fellow, unable to pay a fine for a spree, is locked 
 in with thieves. These are not pictures from 
 novels; they are bald prosaic facts set down by 
 honest eyewitnesses in answer to printed ques- 
 tions." Imprisonment without occupation, the 
 report declares, is a straight path to insanity. In 
 143 jails the men prisoners have no occupation, 
 while in 155 the women prisoners have nothing 
 to do. The association is strongly in favor of 
 labor colonies where persons may be taught in 
 an intelligent way to lead better and useful lives. 
 It favors keeping prisoners until their reform 
 is reasonably assured, but it is insistent that 
 where no effort at reform is made, the whole in- 
 fluence of jails is debasing. In many jails in-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 175 
 
 fluences for good are meager, if not wholly lack- 
 ing. Twenty-five jails do not provide any read- 
 ing matter for prisoners. In eighty-eight no re- 
 ligious services of any kind are ever held. Un- 
 doubtedly American prisons need investigation 
 and reform as badly as any institution in the 
 country. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES PENAL SYS- 
 TEM IS A FAILURE. Brand Whitlock, the 
 Toledo, Ohio reform mayor says: "Our penal 
 system is a failure; only we do not know it yet. 
 Governments have tried it for thousands of years, 
 and our government is reported as saying that 
 the tendency to crime still exists. Our penal 
 system only hurts and never helps its victims, 
 directly or indirectly, whether they are innocent 
 or guilty. It deters some from committing crime 
 and makes hypocrites of more, and it wholly ig- 
 nores economic or social causes for crime and 
 makes no allowance for personality. It is a fail- 
 ure because it is founded in fear and hatred, and 
 cruelty and cowardice. It mercilessly grinds the 
 poor and the weak in the interest of the strong. 
 It oroceeds from and dwells on the bad in man, 
 not the good.* We shall have a system that will 
 
 Judge McKenzie Cleland says : "By this system crime has in- 
 creased so rapidly that the authorities are now, in this year of our 
 Lord nineteen hundred and nine, afraid to publish the facts, afraid 
 to make known the truth. The last Government statistics on 
 crime were published in 1890. two decades ago. In 1000 the 
 figures were gathered, but the Government suppressed them."
 
 176 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 do good only when society recognizes its own re- 
 sponsibility for crime and lives up to it, and 
 when it dwells upon and develops the good in 
 man instead of the bad. * * * It might be well 
 for the government to get out some statistics 
 showing why there is more crime after financial 
 panics and industrial depressions than in good 
 times. Why the hold-up man and purse- 
 snatcher always turns up with the first cold 
 weather, and why, when the mills shut down, 
 there are more hoboes and yeggs on freight 
 trains. You might pursue all these little crimes 
 to their original source and cause. It would not 
 be long before there would be no necessity for 
 statistics on crime, and then, in some idle hour, 
 the clerks in the statistical bureau might occupy 
 themselves with tracing the relation between the 
 vulgar crimes of force and violence and the ar- 
 tistic crimes of craft and cunning artistic 
 crimes which do not have to break laws because 
 they make the laws to suit themselves." 
 
 WHO MAKES THE CRIMINAL? Let 
 us ask you here who makes the criminal and 
 how does he originate? In chapter eighteen of 
 this book we give a full scientific answer. 
 
 Can we accuse the Author of all life for 
 crimes committed by His erring subjects ? Such 
 a doctrine has never found great prominence. 
 Man has, since the dawn of reason, believed in
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 177 
 
 the influence of an evil spirit devil the author 
 of all evil. This belief has been prominent in 
 every age; but today, in this age of spiritual 
 illumination and reason, man has come closer to 
 the heaving bosom of the Almighty, giver and 
 preserver of all life, and as a consequence he 
 has knocked the horns from off his majesty, the 
 devil, and the clattering noise of his cloven hoof 
 is no longer discernable. Man has gained a 
 clearer conception of the natural laws under- 
 lying and dominating human kind. We are 
 now beginning to realize that the evil we have 
 to fight, the devils we have to combat, are the 
 conflicting elements in human nature. In the 
 complicated machinery of our minds we find 
 the elements of Destructiveness, of Combative- 
 ness, Amativeness, etc., on the one hand, and the 
 elements Benevolence, Spirituality, Human Na- 
 ture, etc., on the other. These elements are 
 necessary in our mental make-up as free moral 
 agents. Because of Combativeness, Secretiveness, 
 Amativeness, Destructiveness, etc., we do not 
 cut off our arm that strikes, or leg that kicks, or 
 cut out our tongue because of blasphemy or ly- 
 ing. What do we do? We try by the counter- 
 balance of Human Nature, Benevolence, Con- 
 scientiousness, Spirituality, etc., to control our 
 tongue, elevate and poise ourselves. In the com- 
 plicated machinery of society the same elements 
 
 12
 
 178 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 of so-called good and evil exist. Why must the 
 evil thereof be forever strangled, beheaded, or 
 indungeoned? Why not make other provisions 
 for the safe-keeping of the bad element of so- 
 ciety, and still others that will ultimately prevent 
 the existence of said element, so that society, like 
 the individual, may finally be balanced? We 
 shall show the reader that the criminal must be 
 scientifically dealt with, if society is to be saved 
 and humanity is to be improved. 
 
 THE LYNCH LAW. The southern people 
 have for many years resorted to the lawless prac- 
 tice of lynching Negroes without trial and con- 
 viction. At first this lawless method of punish- 
 ment was designed for those only whb had com- 
 mitted rape on white women; later it was re- 
 sorted to for other grave crimes like murder, 
 while at the present time any Negro who is ac- 
 cused of burning a building or stealing a chicken, 
 may be lynched, shot or burned by an organized 
 "law and order league," or by a mob organized 
 on the spot for a lynching bee. About twelve 
 years ago it was generally believed that this 
 atrocity was about nearing its end, but notwith- 
 standing previous agitation by such noted persons 
 as Judge Tourgee, Dr. Morehouse, Ida Wells- 
 Barnett, Frederick Douglass and others, the evil 
 seems to be deeper rooted in the depraved hearts 
 of the offspring of lynch-advocates today than it
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 179 
 
 ever was in the hearts of their parents. We sup- 
 pose the law of heredity is not dormant in this 
 regard. As a small white boy said to his father 
 not long since: "Papa, I have seen one nigger 
 shot, one nigger lynched, and now I want to see 
 one burned." Of the 5,000 lynchings in the last 
 twenty-five years, ninety-five per cent were 
 Negroes charged with assaults on white women 
 and girls. It has been noted that these killings 
 have become more cruel and on slighter reported 
 excuses. Burning at the stake, which was begun 
 in Texas sixteen years ago has been more fre- 
 quent than shooting and almost as frequent as 
 lynching. It is a hard matter to get a correct 
 figure of the actual number of Negro killings 
 throughout the South per year, as we are aware 
 of the fact that many such killings are never re- 
 ported to the newspapers. Five thousand in the 
 last twenty-five years, we consider far too conser- 
 vative to cover the actual number murdered by 
 white outlaws. It is the terrible debasing effect 
 these killings produce in the community, that the 
 people must some day reckon with. When laws 
 are openly defied, anarchy may at any time de- 
 bauch the country. 
 
 Within the radius of thirty-five miles of the 
 writer's former home there were five killings 
 within two years. Three were lynched for rape. 
 One of them was accused of this crime by a white
 
 180 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 BURNING AT THE STAKE.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 181 
 
 woman in order to shield a relative, who, she 
 later confessed, was the real culprit who threat- 
 ened to kill her. One was lynched for killing a 
 man, and the other one was murdered by white 
 fiends while peacefully slumbering by the road- 
 side, for no other crime than that he was black. 
 The night-rider outrages were but other features 
 of the same lawless tendency, manifested by the 
 same class of w r hites. 
 
 THE NEGRO AS A CRIMINAL.- 
 "There is too much crime among us," says 
 Booker T. Washington, in his book, "My Life 
 and Works." "The figures for a given period 
 show that in the United States thirty per cent of 
 all the crime committed is by Negroes, while 
 they constitute only twelve per cent of the entire 
 population."* 
 
 Everybody who has seriously studied the 
 Negro question is aware of this; and no one 
 could give a better reason for the existence of 
 this undesirable condition than Mr. Washington. 
 He says, "A large amount of crime among us 
 grows out of the idleness of our young men and 
 women." This is a true statement as far as an 
 ordinary surface observation is concerned. We 
 contend that the sporting proclivity in the pres- 
 
 *Without doubt Okolona has a larger Negro population than 
 than any other North Mississippi town, yet crime here is almost 
 unknown." Okolona Sun.
 
 182 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ent generation is too intensely cultivated, owing 
 to favorable opportunities brought about by the 
 changing conditions throughout the South. 
 
 When a young Negro sport can earn as much 
 money in a city in one week as his father used to 
 earn on a plantation in a month, he is generally a 
 candidate for partial idleness and crime. He is 
 a stumbling block to the honest colored man who 
 deserves decent wages, and who works hard to 
 maintain a respectable home and educate his 
 children. 
 
 The idleness of the young men and women of 
 the race is often traced to the criminal neglect of 
 a certain class of shiftless parents, who fail to 
 rear their children by precept and example in 
 the ways of respectability and industry. Parents 
 of this class who steal from their white neighbors 
 as well as their black, cannot expect their sons 
 and daughters to refrain from stealing, and com- 
 mitting graver crimes when opportunity per- 
 mits. 
 
 We fully expound in chapter eighteen, that 
 like begets like a thief begets a thief, a rapist at 
 heart begets a real rapist, a murderer at heart 
 begets a real murderer, etc. 
 
 Booker T. Washington says: "I condemn 
 with all the indignation of my soul the beast in 
 human form guilty of assaulting a woman. Let 
 us all be alike in this particular."
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 183 
 
 We wish to remind Mr. Washington of the 
 fact that a "beast in human form" must be con- 
 ceived, born'and reared, before it can commit the 
 unspeakable crime on a woman. Why not go 
 back a little and attack the cause, the source of 
 the beast nature, and condemn it first with "all 
 the indignation of our soul?" Is not the parent 
 of an ill-begotten child responsible for the result 
 of that issue, be he white or black? As two con- 
 sumptive parents will beget children with con- 
 sumptive tendencies, so, too, will criminal par- 
 ents beget criminally inclined children. It is 
 nothing but the penned-up beast nature in the 
 parents that breaks out in their children. This 
 beast nature was first cultivated in the African 
 slave in America by the unbridled beast passions 
 of the slave-master 'who owned them, and has 
 now become a second nature in both races. Only 
 by refinement and a cultivation of the higher 
 faculties in the races, as they commingle, can this 
 beast nature be ultimately restored to its normal 
 channel. We condemn, in the strongest English 
 at our command, the hell-born custom of Amer- 
 ica, which forbids the commingling of the races 
 for moral and religious culture, while it tolerates 
 the mixing for evil purposes; thus utterly cor- 
 rupting both people. As long as there is no re- 
 spect for the colored womanhood of America, 
 by the white man of the country, so long will it
 
 184 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 be impossible to cultivate and infuse a higher 
 moral tone in the race. We wish to impress, in- 
 delibly, upon the readers' minds that as soon 
 as legal intermarriage displaces the old custom 
 of illicit mixing, the beast in both races will dis- 
 appear. 
 
 FEW OUTRAGES COMMITTED IN 
 THE NORTH WHY? How often do we 
 hear of Negro outrages committed on white 
 women in such great Negro centers as Chicago, 
 New York, Philadelphia, and other places in the 
 free states of the North? Very seldom. And 
 those Negroes are not unlike the southern Negro, 
 as they have largely migrated there from the 
 South in recent years. It is in the old slave 
 states that nearly all assaults on white women are 
 reported to transpire ; and just where the unnat- 
 ural social relations between the races are strong- 
 est these outrages are most frequent. This goes 
 to prove, without further argument here, that it 
 is not so much the Negro, or the colored man, 
 or the beast in both races after all that is to 
 blame, as the unnatural relations maintained be- 
 tween them, which gives all the privileges to one, 
 and none of the advantages to the other. A re- 
 spectable colored man, who has married a white 
 wife, cannot travel with her in these old slave 
 states without being in imminent danger of ar- 
 rest and mob lynching. We know of several
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 185 
 
 cases where black men, who had married white 
 colored women, got themselves into trouble when 
 their wives' Negro blood was unknown. In such 
 portions of the South where foreign influence 
 has somewhat changed conditions, these outrages 
 on women seldom occur, and a colored man is 
 there safest with a white wife, or apparently 
 white, as also is a white man with a colored wife. 
 So w r e say again, in this connection, that the beast 
 in both races can best be eliminated from our 
 midst, by displacing the old custom of illicit 
 mixing with a legal intermarriage provision in 
 the entire country. 
 
 WHO DOES THE LYNCHING IN THE 
 SOUTH? It is a wrong supposition that these 
 lynchers are always composed of the scum of so- 
 ciety. They often represent men of intelligence 
 and high moral (?) standing in the community. 
 The reason they resort to this method of lawless 
 execution is self-evident. The Negro is a poor, 
 most often defenseless creature, and to kill him 
 means just one less in the community, that is all. 
 It is yet so deep-seated in the mind of the old 
 South that swift and certain death, regardless of 
 the offense, must befall the Negro (for any real 
 or imaginary crime committed for which the 
 lynch law seems to be provided), that to think 
 of saving the valuable energy of that human be- 
 ing for the good of the State, has not, it seems,
 
 186 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 even occurred to them. With all the wisdom 
 and moral sentiment of the South, no provisions 
 for the real Negro criminals of this class have 
 been made other than death, and consequently 
 that much loss of valuable energy to the State 
 has incurred, that cannot be replaced. Why not 
 make provisions for the establishment of State 
 Eunuch Institutions, where this energy may be 
 turned to good account? Instead of making 
 such provisions, all kinds of schemes are con- 
 cocted to exterminate this class of criminals. 
 And as the cause is not removed, they will not 
 run short of material on which to practice and 
 wreak vengeance, and by which to inculcate fear 
 in those who may be next executed. A very 
 credible editorial discourse is given in a promi- 
 nent southern Alabama newspaper, which por- 
 trays well the highest sentiment on this subject. 
 We give it below, as it will be of value in connec- 
 tion with what we say: 
 
 THE SUBSTITUTE FOR LYNCH LAW. 
 "Although lynch law maybe accepted by some 
 as the best available remedy for the prevention 
 of certain forms of crime, no one, we think, can 
 regard its permanency as an institution with any 
 but greatest apprehension, as being in essence a 
 violation of the constitution under which we 
 live, and therefore destructive of good govern- 
 ment. Should we not attempt to devise a method
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 187 
 
 of procedure that, while meeting the special ex- 
 igencies of life, will conform to law? There ap- 
 pear to be two influences at work in bringing 
 lynchings to pass. One is the feeling that in 
 many localities there is actually no police pro- 
 tection; and, therefore, lives must be protected 
 by an invisible entity, a fear inspired by the sud- 
 den appearance and violent action of the vigi- 
 lance committee, or of the mob. It is sought to 
 impress upon the minds of the evil-disposed that, 
 although no policeman be present, and the inhab- 
 itant is alone and unguarded, there yet exists a 
 force within call, that when aroused, is vengeful 
 and strong. The other influence is the repug- 
 nance that all honorable men have in bringing 
 into public view the victims of brutal assaults, 
 forcing them, in accordance with the forms of 
 law, to attend an open trial whereat the criminal 
 is tried for his crime. A third influence, al- 
 though a less one, is the desire for the satisfaction 
 of the hatred and revenge that are aroused when 
 a crime of brutality is committed. Taken gen- 
 erally, lynchings are performed with a cold 
 determination, showing that the two greater in- 
 fluences are at work. How shall we accommo- 
 date our laws so that persons in isolated situa- 
 tions will be secure, and the tender and delicate 
 victims shall be spared the humiliation of having 
 their woes publicly exposed, yet no principle of 
 human right be disregarded?
 
 188 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 A KIND OF MOCK TRIAL. "It would 
 seem that the way to go about it is to change the 
 forms of law so as to give them some of the fea- 
 tures of lynch law, i. e., immediate arraignment, 
 swift trial, and punishment without delay; and 
 all, without the publicity that attends our regular 
 procedure. There should be legal provision for 
 immediate arraignment, with special forms of 
 trial, so that it will be assured that in a very short 
 time the whole matter will be disposed of; and 
 there need be no publicity, provided that there 
 is assurance of a fair trial. The object of pub- 
 licity is to prevent injustice, unfair trials, and 
 despotic infliction of punishments; but in these 
 days of general information and civic freedom, 
 it is possible to bar out the public without sus- 
 picion that anything unfair will be practiced at 
 the expense of the accused. Why, indeed, 
 should the victim of a brute's criminal lust be 
 brought into court at all, or forced to testify 
 about so horrid an experience? The accused 
 must be confronted by his accuser, if the prin- 
 ciple of our laws is to be obeyed, but is it at all 
 necessary that this should be in open court, or in 
 any court at all? It can be as well done in the 
 privacy of the home, with judge and jury only 
 present as the guarantors of the observance of the 
 legal form. 
 
 VIRGINIA HAS SUCH A LAW. "We
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 189 
 
 understand that Virginia has a special statute af- 
 fording speedy trial, with private procedure in 
 certain cases, and that since that statute was 
 passed there has not been a lynching in the state. 
 We might as well study such a law and see 
 how far it may be adopted for use here. We 
 should eagerly seek out the best remedy for our 
 unhappy situation and apply it; for the situation 
 is truly unhappy, and it is growing worse instead 
 of better, and is already well nigh intolerable. 
 Let us arrange so that the Law shall be the ex- 
 pression of the absolute needs of the time, and 
 it will then be found, we believe, that we will 
 enlist in its enforcement all sorts and conditions 
 of men, regardless of color. The result cannot 
 fail to be to our great advantage." Mobile 
 Register. 
 
 STATE EUNUCH INSTITUTIONS. 
 We have intimated the establishment of State 
 Eunuch Institutions. We believe that every 
 state should have its penal farms; and that espe- 
 cially here in the South the Negro criminal 
 should be taken care of on such farms. Missis- 
 sippi has its penal farms which are far in ad- 
 vance of penitentiaries or prison walls. Though 
 only as yet in a crude, experimental stage, a num- 
 ber of abuses being reported, they have been 
 made to pay the state a revenue besides all run- 
 ning expenses. Georgia has also abolished her
 
 190 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 THREE PENCIL STUDIES IN CRIME BY THE AUTHOR.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 191 
 
 unspeakable peonage system, and is falling in line 
 with Mississippi. The occupants of penal farms 
 cannot only support themselves, but could be 
 made to do splendid service for the people of the 
 state in the way of building public roads. 
 "Prominent men," of the vigilance committee, 
 will bump over country roads that are a disgrace 
 to a Hottentot and resort to lynching bees, and 
 help to kill several hundred powerful Negro 
 men annually, whose energy might be utilized in 
 bettering the highways of the state. We contend 
 that every southern state should set aside and 
 equip a farm for the reception of Negro crim- 
 inals of a class that should be rendered sterile by 
 the authority of the state; and that this author- 
 ity should extend to white criminals of a like 
 class. We contend that the lynching of Negroes 
 for any crime committed is inhuman and bar- 
 barous; and that all law abiding people of both 
 races should demand of the officers of the law 
 that the perpetrators of this crime against justice 
 be apprehended and severely punished. During 
 the campaign President Taft said to an audience 
 of colored ministers concerning the lynching 
 evil : "The best remedy, and the necessary one, 
 is an improvement in the administration of our 
 common laws, and the holding to strict account of 
 officers of the law who do not use all possible 
 means to prevent and suppress such outbreaks."
 
 192 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 We know positively that at some lynchings 
 the officers of the law are in sympathy with the 
 mob, and assist instead of retarding it. We be- 
 lieve that the federal government ought to step 
 in and inquire into these lynching outrages, and 
 bring the law-breakers of these mobs to justice. 
 When the state will not protect its citizens the 
 government must. 
 
 THE STERILIZATION OF CRIMI- 
 NALS. The criminal class is a class to be de- 
 plored, but not hated. Hate is born of igno- 
 rance and breeds corruption. A deluded, venge- 
 ance-wreaked mob which hangs or burns a crim- 
 inal is as deplorable a criminal class as the crim- 
 inal himself. This particular criminal class is 
 the outgrowth of a corrupt social system in the 
 South and elsewhere, and now, since it is with us 
 and increasing, it must be scientifically dealt with 
 the only just method to rid the country of it. 
 
 In this enlightened age any race of people can 
 be improved in any desired direction by proper 
 means. A progressive farmer does not hesitate 
 to cut off an unruly, vicious, unprofitable portion 
 of his flock, in order to produce the desired re- 
 sults. What the intelligent farmer does, the state, 
 in the case of unruly members, must do. But 
 the South has done little to curb the Negro or 
 white criminal class. Promiscuous cohabiting 
 among them and with the whites increases this
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 193 
 
 class to an alarming degree. There is also noth- 
 ing effective done to check the spread of tuber- 
 culosis, which claims many thousands annually. 
 In fact, nothing effective is done among this peo- 
 ple by the southern states to build up and im- 
 prove their conditions to any extent along social, 
 moral or physical lines. The sterilization of the 
 criminal and degenerate class would inflict no 
 hardship upon it, and would prove a great bless- 
 ing to both races. We do not believe that any 
 serious objections would arise among the better 
 class of colored people, should this measure be 
 inaugurated throughout the South. The daugh- 
 ters and wives of the better families among them, 
 as well as the lower class, are exposed to the de- 
 pravity of these inhuman beings, and the white 
 man's law is generally of non-effect when it per- 
 tains to these people. We are aware that no col- 
 ored maiden can hardly obtain justice or protec- 
 tion at law, be her paramour white or black. If 
 a law, providing for the sterilization of the 
 feebleminded, degenerates and criminals is re- 
 puted to be needed in Wisconsin, of all the world 
 it is most needed right here in the South. We 
 are proud of Wisconsin, and especially of ex- 
 Assemblyman Mr. Elver, of the Wisconsin Leg- 
 islature, for so bravely fighting for a measure 
 several years ago that means so much, that is of 
 such vast importance to mankind, especially
 
 194 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 when once adopted among the mixed southern 
 people. Be it "cruel, inhuman, contrary to di- 
 vine law and unconstitutional," as legislative op- 
 ponents in Wisconsin have argued, it is neverthe- 
 less eternally right. "Lead us not into tempta- 
 tion, but deliver us from evil" is of non-effect, 
 if we continue to allow evil to be bred by the 
 wholesale and let hell multiply. We are glad 
 that several northern states discourage evil prop- 
 .agation. 
 
 The American Prison Association in session at 
 Seattle, Washington, in August (1909), spent 
 most of its open session in a heated debate on a 
 paper written by Dr. H. C. Sharp, formerly sur- 
 geon in the Indianapolis Reformatory, on the 
 "Indiana Plan" of performing surgical opera- 
 tions on hopeless idiots and confirmed criminals. 
 A delegate moved that Dr. Sharp's paper be sup- 
 pressed on the ground that the Indiana plan was 
 contrary to the Bible. One delegate objected to 
 the debate being continued before women, who 
 composed at least one-third of the audience. 
 Thereupon the women delegates at once took the 
 lead in the controversy, led by Mrs. Weeks, pres- 
 ident of the Philadelphia Social Purity League. 
 Mrs. L. R. Eastwood of South Dakota, advo- 
 cated chloroforming idiots and that made the 
 delegates laugh. 
 
 During the debate it was announced that Con-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 195 
 
 necticut and California had followed Indiana. 
 The motion to suppress the paper was not put to 
 a vote. President Gilmore said it would not have 
 received three votes. 
 
 The debate on the "Indiana plan," for pre- 
 venting the propagation of criminals and idiots, 
 developed almost unanimous sentiment for the 
 plan. The discussion, according to President 
 Gilmore, of Toronto, Canada, was one of the 
 most profitable the association has held for years. 
 
 Judge B. R. Lindsey, of juvenile court fame, 
 said among other things: 
 
 "Our criminal law, as it came down to us 
 through feudalism, was an instrumentality of 
 government far from perfect. * * * The 
 time may come, however far in the future it may 
 be, or, however unprepared we may be for it, 
 even now, when the state will come to deal with 
 a criminal much as we now do with the insane." 
 
 CONTRARY TO DIVINE LAW. Talk 
 about the effort to improve the human race being 
 contrary to divine law? Can anything be more 
 absurd and shallow? Does not man possess the 
 wisdom and power to co-operate with his Cre- 
 ator in improving, by crossing and recrossing the 
 various species of plant and animal life? And 
 he has not hesitated to employ this power to its 
 full extent. Not even felt that he was violating 
 a divine law and a constitution. Luther Bur-
 
 196 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 bank must be an unpardonable sinner, for he has 
 done such an inestimable amount of work in the 
 improvement of plants. 
 
 In the improvement of the human race every 
 legitimate means should be employed; and noth- 
 ing is more effective than the sterilization of that 
 class, absolutely unfit to multiply, which popu- 
 lates the world with misery, gloom, despair, hell ! 
 Should any people hesitate to adopt this measure 
 when it concerns only a class, absolutely unfit, 
 upon whom it works no hardship whatever, 
 while an unspeakable amount of benefit is at once 
 conferred upon the eligible and upon all people? 
 
 ARE THE JUNGLES CALLING HIM 
 BACK? In his great lecture on "Rape" at the 
 Citronelle, Alabama Chautauqua, ex-Governor 
 Vardaman, in his dramatic voice cried: "The 
 jungle is calling him back, the jungle is calling 
 him back!" 
 
 Now, any one who has lived among the Afri- 
 cans in their native country can testify to the fact 
 that sexual purity is one of the finest character- 
 istics of the race. The writer in the book, "The 
 Colored American from Slavery to Honorable 
 Citizenship," says: 
 
 "Among the heathen Africans, whatever else 
 may be said about them, the world will have to 
 admit that they are the purest people, outside of 
 polygamy, in their connubial and virgin morals,
 
 . 
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 197 
 
 upon the face of the globe. White women to 
 my personal knowledge, hundreds of miles inte- 
 riorward in Africa, can remain in their midst and 
 teach school for years without being insulted, 
 which proves to a demonstration' that where our 
 natures have not been distorted and abnormal- 
 ized we are the most honorable custodians of fe- 
 male virtue now under Heaven. 
 
 "It is not the nature of the black man to out- 
 rage white women, unless it is one of our Ameri- 
 can retrogessive abnormalities, which has possi- 
 bly grown out of the degradation entailed upon 
 us by the singular prejudice and degrading con- 
 ditions under which we exist. The whole range of 
 West India Islands show by their records that 
 only one rape has been charged upon a black 
 man since 1832, and that occurred twenty years 
 ago, while eleven rapes were charged upon white 
 men, nine of which were perpetrated upon black 
 women and two upon white women." 
 
 Then the writer touches, in a short paragraph, 
 upon the same causes to which we attribute the 
 deplorable state of affairs we find in these states 
 
 -"It may, however, be due to the fact that there 
 the laws and institutions recognize the black man 
 as a full-fledged citizen and gentleman, and his 
 pride of character and sense of dignity are not 
 degraded, and self-respect imparts a higher 
 prompting and gentlemanly bearing to his man-
 
 I 
 
 198 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 hood, and makes him a better citizen and inspires 
 him with more gallantry and nobler principles. 
 For like begets like." Then he goes on to say: 
 "While, in this country, we are degraded by the 
 public press, degraded by the courts of the coun- 
 try from the United States Supreme Court down, 
 degraded on the railroads after purchasing first 
 class tickets, degraded at the hotels and barber 
 shops, degraded in many states at the ballot-box, 
 degraded in some of the large cities by being 
 compelled to rent houses in the alleys and the 
 most disreputable streets. Thus we are degraded 
 in so many respects that all the starch of respec- 
 tability is taken out of the manhood of millions 
 of our people, and as degradation begets degra- 
 dation, it is very possible that in many instances 
 we are guilty of doing a series of infamous things 
 that we would not be guilty of if our environ- 
 ments were different." 
 
 Abnormal characters of both races, born under 
 the "South's policy." will necessarily come under 
 the law of restraint, even should this "policy" be 
 abolished when the oligarchy of these states re- 
 ceives its final sentence of political death by the 
 people. But we predict that it would not take, 
 longer than a few generations before all the taint 
 of thi? cursed "policy" would have vanished 
 among the colored people. The nature of these 
 people is so pliable that a "right policy" will
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 199 
 
 effect them as favorably as a wrong one has ef- 
 fected them unfavorably. 
 
 The Negro man is by nature a gentleman, 
 using that word in its true sense, and the colored 
 man of African descent will prove himself a gen- 
 tleman if environments will give him half a 
 gentleman's chance.
 
 200 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE TEMPERAMENTS 
 
 THE MENTAL TEMPERAMENT. 
 
 The Mental Temperament has its constitutional 
 basis in the brain and nervous system. Its pre- 
 dominance in the organization is due to inherit- 
 ance, and if moderately inclined to be prominent 
 at birth, it may be strengthened by training and 
 culture, so that its place may become primary in 
 the life of the individual thus born. It is char- 
 acterized by a body comparatively slight, and a 
 head that is large in proportion to the frame that 
 supports it. The face is oval and forehead large 
 and broad in the upper part. The physiognomy 
 is delicately molded if not sharply drawn, and 
 the countenance is prominent and expressive, the 
 skull delicate and thin and the hair fine and soft. 
 The body is not strongly marked as in the Motive 
 Temperament; the muscles are small and com- 
 pact, being adapted to rapid actions rather than 
 to great strength. In short, the whole system is 
 high-strung. 
 
 We believe that we meet with no contradiction 
 when we say that the Mental Temperament is 
 almost an unknown quality among the native 
 African Negroes. There may be a few excep-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 201 
 
 tions ; if there are, we have not found them. We 
 have met with many cases of the Vital-Mental 
 
 TEMPERAMENT is a condition of the mind. When certain 
 brain organs, through which the mental faculties of the mind act, 
 predominate, then we have, what we call, either a Mental, Motive 
 or Vital Temperament. We illustrate this in the above drawing, 
 where the three localities of the Temperaments are shown. When 
 all three are equally developed we have a Harmonious Tempera- 
 ment. When two predominate we have, for instance, the Mental- 
 Motive, the Motive-Vital or the Vital-Mental Temperament, 
 These facts must be borne in mind in connection with the follow- 
 ing portraits of the Temperaments :
 
 202 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Temperament, even among the decidedly dark, 
 but none that approached the purely mental, 
 save in those who were of pronounced Caucasian 
 blood, like Prof. Atkins, Olivia D. Washington 
 
 OliVta. D. W 
 
 Mental Temperament. Colored Caucasian. 
 Second wife of Booker T. Washington, de- 
 ceased. 
 
 and others. Phillis Wheatly, and others of her 
 type may have represented the purely mental. 
 When this Temperament predominates, and 
 there is a good degree of vitality to sustain it, 
 the person may exhibit remarkable capabilities,
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 203 
 
 for the reason that the very nature of this Tem- 
 perament indicates a special activity of the 
 mental faculties through the large, refined, culti- 
 vated brain organs. When the upper or coronal 
 
 Mental Temperament, Colored Caucasian, 
 Fine scholar and instructor. 
 
 organs of the brain are largely developed and 
 those of the base of the brain but moderately so, 
 the tastes and delicacy of feelings, and refinement 
 of manners, of such persons, may easily be dis- 
 tinguished from all others. Such are rarely 
 found among the criminal class, and when they
 
 204 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 are they owe their degradation to the most ter- 
 rible adverse circumstances. Persons of this 
 Temperament may be found in sedentary occu- 
 pations which require more brain than bodily 
 exercise. Teachers, artists, authors, and the var- 
 ious other professions which require brain-work 
 are filled by them. Women who have this Tem- 
 perament lack plumpness and the delicately 
 rounded, symmetrical figure, so much admi red by 
 men in women, yet they have a beauty of delicacy 
 and refinement that eharms and attracts all men 
 of a robust, rough, vigorous constitution. This 
 is well illustrated in Dr. and Mrs. Sumner, chap- 
 ter seventeen. It is apparent that this class of 
 white women are on the increase in this country, 
 and while they are charming, intellectual com- 
 panions, they can, under most maternal circum- 
 stances, not become the mothers of fine, vigorous, 
 healthy children. Only by scientific crossing 
 with robust constitutions, in which the Vital 
 Temperament predominates, can they become a 
 blessing to posterity and true wives and mothers. 
 And the same fact holds true in the case of Ro- 
 land, Ph.D., whom we illustrate and describe 
 in chapter sixteen. In connection with the illus- 
 trations here given we have named these ex- 
 amples, as they fully convey our idea of the Men- 
 tal Temperament in whites, and how, by scien- 
 tific intermarriage, these top-heavy conditions
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 205 
 
 may be beautifully modified in their progeny, if 
 it is so desired. 
 
 THE VITAL TEMPERAMENT. The 
 Vital Temperament has its constitutional basis 
 in the nutritive system, that is in the organs of 
 
 DR. JOSEPH C. PRICE 
 
 Vital Temperament, Afro- American. Great ed- 
 ucator and noted orator. 
 
 digestion, respiration and circulation. The 
 stature is generally above the medium, and the 
 chest is full, the abdomen rounded, the limbs 
 plump and tapering, and the hands and feet rela- 
 tively small, while the neck is comparatively
 
 206 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 short and thick and the shoulders broad and 
 round. The head and face correspond with the 
 other parts of the body, in that both are well 
 filled out with adipose tissue, while the expres- 
 sion is cheerful, frank and happy. 
 
 In the Vital Temperament we often find rep- 
 resented the mulatto and other fairer breeds as 
 well as the dark and full-blood Negro. In those 
 of a fair color we may sometimes find eyes of 
 gray-blue or brown color and hair of brown or 
 red tinge, but the darker or black generally have 
 the close, kinky hair and black eyes. In the dark 
 or black, bilious elements enter that confer more 
 physical endurance than is possessed by the fairer 
 ones, or the sanguine type of the Vital ; but the 
 latter class, however, possess more activity and 
 sprightlines^ and consequently are the moving 
 spirits in the American Negro race those who 
 have the most push, the ability to push, and push 
 the hardest. If we compare them with the full- 
 blood Caucasian, they are found to possess, for 
 the most part, more endurance; and if their san- 
 itary conditions and mode of life were improved, 
 they would be decidedly so. There is no race 
 of people on earth that can adapt themselves to 
 and stand as varied a condition of life as the Af- 
 rican Negro and his descendants of mixed blood. 
 The absolute squalor and disregard for all rules 
 of health and moral stimulation in many homes
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 207 
 
 of the poor southern Negro, would undermine 
 and exterminate our Caucasian race; yet the 
 breeding capacity of these people is tremendous, 
 and were it not for the deplorable condition of 
 life among them, that is the cause of removing 
 so many thousands annually by consumption and 
 other diseases, they would ultimately take the 
 entire South by sheer numbers. Whether they 
 will or not is yet an open question. 
 
 The Vital Temperament seems to predominate 
 in the race, therefore it is the strongest, though 
 not the longest lived people, whose descendants 
 will, without doubt, be numerous throughout this 
 world when the white-skinned people have be- 
 come extinct. We find in a book called, "Self- 
 Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology," by 
 the well known authorities, O. S. and L. N. 
 Fowler, revised by the not less famous Nelson 
 Sizer, the following statement: "All black an- 
 imals are powerful, of which the bear, Morgan 
 horse, black snake, etc., furnish examples. So 
 black fruits, as blackberry, black raspberry, 
 whortle berry, black Tartarian cherry, etc., are 
 highly flavored and full of rich juices. So also 
 the dark races, as Indians and Africans are 
 strong, muscular, and very tough." 
 The Vital Temperament is most common 
 among the colored women, while among the 
 white American females the Mental Tempera-
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 MotWe. ' i Balanced. 
 
 TEMPERAMENTS.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 209 
 
 ment is fast displacing it, and consequently is 
 disqualifying them as breeders of a superior pos- 
 terity. Excessive mental training saps the con- 
 stitution of its sacred, magnetic, feminine quali- 
 ties, and leaves the subject in a cold, reasoning 
 atmosphere, instead of in the warm, attractive, 
 magnetic feminality. No truly superior man of 
 ability looks for an encyclopedia, a library or 
 bookstore, in the brain of a woman, when looking 
 for the mother of his future children. The 
 woman of today who is so top-heavy or exces- 
 sively loaded with these things, that it over- 
 shadows and shrivels her feminality, or genera- 
 tive functions, is not the fit mother of a superior 
 race. Education in women is not only desirable 
 but necessary, even if only for congenial compan- 
 ionship to her husband, but if it robs her of the 
 sexual or animal qualities necessary for the per- 
 petuation and improvement of the human race, 
 then it were better if she remained illiterate and 
 thereby fulfilled her mission and be blessed by 
 succeeding generations. Excessive mental de- 
 velopment also retards marriage, and often the 
 best years of a woman's bearing period slips by 
 before she enters the state of motherhood. 
 Negro and colored Caucasian women of the 
 Vital Temperament ripen young, marry young, 
 and leave off bearing younger than those of a 
 Mental or Motive Temperament. They of the 
 
 14
 
 210 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Vital Temperament are very passionate, both 
 men and women, but changeable in mood ; lively, 
 cheerful, amiable, frank, and candid, fond of 
 good living, play and sport; and at the same time 
 apt to fall into habits of eating and drinking that 
 are injurious. Thus, with strong social affections, 
 they are more liable to irregularities in the way 
 of frivolity and dissipation than persons of the 
 Motive Temperament. When, however, the 
 moral principles are developed to restrain or 
 regulate their conduct, they generally lead very 
 happy, useful lives, enjoying and promoting en- 
 joyment. 
 
 THE MOTIVE TEMPERAMENT. The 
 Motive Temperament has its constitutional basis 
 in the bony and muscular system. We find it in 
 some Negroes, but most generally leaning more 
 or less toward the Vital. The Motive Temper- 
 ament is the result of climatic and geographical 
 conditions. We find it most fully represented in 
 people of high or mountainous latitudes, but 
 rarely met with in low, hot climates. All fight- 
 ing races are good representatives of this Tem- 
 perament; the North American Indian being an 
 excellent example, as are also the various Euro- 
 pean and some Asiatic races. But as we have 
 just intimated, we find the Motive Temperament 
 in the Negro not the Roman nose and promi- 
 nent features of the Caucasian or the Indian rep-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 211 
 
 Motive Temperament. Colored Caucasian. Prominent Divine 
 of the A. M. E. church.
 
 212 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 resentatives ; it being a class by itself, of which 
 the Jap and Chinaman are akin. Should we 
 select an army for a long, desperate and fierce 
 conflict, we would invariably choose one from 
 the Negro or Mongolian races, and our first 
 choice would be the Negro. The Negro and 
 Mongolian representatives have not the com- 
 bative and other fighting qualifications as prom- 
 inently developed as is found in some other races, 
 but W 7 hen thoroughly trained as soldiers, they 
 have a toughness and tenacity in battle that chal- 
 lenges every other race of fighters in the world. 
 The Jap has, we think, already demonstrated this 
 scientific fact, and give the Negro training and a 
 fair chance and he will do the same; and every 
 race and clan, including the proud Anglo-Saxon, 
 would stand aghast, bewildered and confounded, 
 with open eye and mouth, like a suckling babe! 
 Let the American Negro and colored Caucasian 
 take better care of their health, refrain from all 
 immoral, debilitating influences, lift up the 
 moral standard of their women, and then, some 
 day, they will be fully equipped to demonstrate 
 their power, and reap laurels that will set upon 
 their kinky-haired head with eternal glory and 
 honor. The shambling, shiftless, snivelling be- 
 ing of today may have \vithin him the making of 
 a man of tomorrow. It is all a matter of latent 
 possibilities that count in the future of a race,
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 213 
 
 and not the high-strung, overwrought capabili- 
 ties of today that may break tomorrow, and fall 
 to the ground exhausted. 
 
 There is a height, a great height, that man can 
 reach if he will ; but if once reached he must, by 
 the unalterable law of growth and decay, stub 
 his toe on the pinnacle of fame, and fall back to 
 mother earth from whence he rose. This is the 
 way Nature maintains equilibrium at whatever 
 cost. The wonderful blending of the various 
 branches of the Aryan race with itself and other 
 races in America, produces results never hereto- 
 fore attained in the history of man. America is 
 the battle ground of the races. It is the place 
 assigned by our all-wise Ruler to be the gathering 
 place for all people, and the feeble cry raised 
 against the amalgamation of the races is but the 
 whine of past glory that dies hard. The Cau- 
 casian race yet stands supreme. If this people, 
 who is destined to elevate all mankind, fears the 
 inroad of foreign blood, it battles against its 
 highest interests, casts a shadow of disapproval 
 upon its path of unsurpassed triumphs, and tolls 
 the bell of its own doom. Japan was a barbarous 
 country not long since; today it demands the re- 
 spect and cordial treatment of every nation, and 
 woe to the one who gives it not. The Afro- 
 American has the same constitutional qualities 
 yet undeveloped, and to continue the enmity be-
 
 214 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Mulatto. Motive-Mental Temperament.
 
 OR THE "FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 215 
 
 tween the races indefinitely, would prove fatal 
 to all. To insure the continued supremacy of 
 the Caucasian in America, it is not only advis- 
 able, but necessary, to absorb all the other races 
 who have come here, even at the expense of the 
 loss of pure blood thus incurred. A mixed race 
 is the greatest race ; none excepted. The Motive 
 Temperament is characterized in the Caucasian 
 by large bones, strong, hard muscles, prominent 
 joints, and an angular figure; and the height is 
 rather above the average. In the Negro the 
 shoulders are broad, the abdomen is moderately 
 full, the face oblong, the cheek bones rather high, 
 the jaw large, the teeth strong, the features in 
 general rugged, the nose large and broad, and 
 very little superfluous adipose tissue is found in 
 his face or body. The head is rather broad from 
 ear to ear and high in the region of Firmness and 
 Self-Esteem, while the forehead of the blackest 
 is generally receding, and those of mixed breed 
 may be more or less prominently developed in 
 the Receptive, Reflective and Cognative, above 
 the average Negro of little foreign blood.
 
 216 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE BRAIN AND THE MIND 
 
 THE MAKING OF A PERFECT MAN. 
 Nature has paramount objects in the crossing 
 of the various peoples and races of marked dis- 
 similarities, physically and mentally. These 
 objects are; first, to elevate the lower; second, 
 to produce a finer, more symmetrical body; third, 
 to produce a finer-grained, higher developed 
 brain, through which the mental faculties of the 
 omnipotent, omnipresent, omnitient Mind 
 (God) can act more freely; and finally, to bring 
 about equilibrium. 
 
 Thomas Martin McWhinney, D. D., in "Rea- 
 son and Revelation," published in 1886, touches 
 upon this profound thought when he says: 
 "Man's mission on earth is to find out the divine 
 methods, and to bring himself into harmony with 
 their administration. And if through indiffer- 
 ence or stupidity he fails to find out God's or- 
 dained means of development and glory, but 
 substitutes those of his own foolish imagination, 
 then, at best, he can only hope to be evolved into 
 an imbecile or a monstrosity. The infinite Cre- 
 ator's ideal man will never be forthcoming. * *
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPA.RD'S SPOTS 
 
 217 
 
 He that would make life a grand success, death a 
 triumphant victory, and heaven a glorious real- 
 ity, must consent to the fact that his chief busi- 
 ness on earth is, by persistent strivings, to bring 
 himself into harmony with the administration of 
 
 From a drawing by the author many years ago. 
 
 heaven's plan of bringing him out into full stature 
 of a perfect man. God's method of making a 
 symmetrical and perfect man ever was, is now, 
 and we are led to believe, always will be the 
 same."
 
 218 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 That any race of men can be "bred-up" men- 
 tally and physically, as well as any domesticated 
 animal, is self-evident. 
 
 Go throughout the South today, where the 
 promiscuous mixing of the Caucasian and Afri- 
 can has taken place to such a bewildering extent, 
 and you will soon see evidences of this fact; 
 though by many of the black race it may be de- 
 nied, and also by the white race, the Afro-Amer- 
 ican family has thus been evolved into its present 
 state, and the process is not yet finished. And 
 the question cannot but occur to us at this time, 
 that if henceforth this mixing would be legally 
 and intelligently conducted, disrobing it of all 
 the baseness attached thereto at the present time, 
 a marvelous stride for human betterment would 
 transpire, beyond our wildest computation. 
 
 In the following pages we shall discuss in a 
 plain, fearless manner, how better results may be 
 attained in the crossing of the two races, scientifi- 
 cally conducted, displacing the illicit mixing in 
 the dark and its concomitant evils. 
 
 BRAIN AND MIND. A certain noted 
 physician of the North said some time ago, when 
 discussing the Negro question, that the skull had 
 nothing to do with the development of the mind; 
 and that the heads of children could be shaped 
 when young as desired without mental impair- 
 ment. Now, this process of reasoning should be
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 219 
 
 relegated to the past. It may seem plausible 
 enough to those who believe that brain is just 
 brain, as a city-bred man may look upon a bushel 
 of potatoes as mere potatoes, without regard to 
 variety or quality. We say in plain English that 
 brain is more than mere matter. Quality is of 
 more importance than quantity. For instance, the 
 brain of Booker T. Washington is infinitely finer 
 in quality than the brain of Sam, whose like- 
 ness appears in this book; yet the brain of Sam 
 may weigh more than that of Washington. A 
 simple comparison would be fine flour to coarse 
 sawdust. Yet such educated colored men as Dr. 
 H. Roger Williams, of Mobile, Alabama, have 
 argued with the author that a wild savage in the 
 jungles of Africa is as capable of mental develop- 
 ment as any man of any race. The jungles have 
 produced a few remarkable characters,we do not 
 dispute, but we contend that it takes a certain 
 amount of breeding-up, of at least several gen- 
 erations, before a true quality and capability can 
 be produced; and it is universally conceded by 
 unbiased students of anthropology that if this 
 breeding-up process is accompanied with a cer- 
 tain amount of foreign blood of a superior and 
 similar kind, the process is more rapid and satis- 
 factory. 
 
 The brain contains at least forty-two known 
 organs or centers, and the mind of as many fac-
 
 220 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ulties that act through them. Every one of these 
 mind faculties acts only through the correspond- 
 ing brain organ, and if this brain organ is small 
 or undeveloped, the corresponding mind faculty 
 can only act through it in a limited, imperfect 
 manner; or, if certain brain organs do not exist, 
 as is the case in lower animals, the corresponding 
 mind faculties cannot manifest themselves at all. 
 Take, for instance, the reasoning brain organs 
 which are absent in lower animals, deprive them 
 of the corresponding mind faculties which alone 
 can reason. Mind is not matter, hence it (He) 
 can only manifest itself through the organs of 
 the material brain, such as is found in animal 
 life. Now, if the shape of the head and the 
 quality of the brain had nothing to do with the 
 manifestation of the mind through it, all brains 
 in man and animal, of the same weight, would 
 receive the same amount of mentation. In other 
 words, if brain organs did not exist, animals like 
 the elephant, with plenty of brain, but only a 
 limited number of brain centers, would be cap- 
 able of as great intellectuality as man. It is a 
 psychological fact that the mind (the united 
 mental faculties) needs no development, and 
 thinking of it, independent of the brain organs 
 through which it acts, our conception of it 
 (Him) is naught but perfect. The united mind 
 elements, independent of the material, are omni-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 221 
 
 potent, omniscient, omnipresent God; but they 
 have never manifested themselves through any 
 material brain in a perfect manner, unless it was 
 through the brain of the Christ, who is reputed 
 to have been "God manifest in the flesh." We 
 experience only imperfect manifestations of the 
 mind in man at his best, yet we know of no phys- 
 ical organism as perfect as the human brain. 
 The mind is the soul, the soul is life, and life is 
 God. 
 
 RESULTS WHEN MENTAL DISSIMI- 
 LARITIES CROSS. We present a drawing 
 in this chapter, which is the combined profiles 
 of three people, representing mother, son and 
 father The mother, a simple Negress, who 
 was once a slave in the household of the man 
 who is the father of her son, is a sample of a 
 common type West Afrfcan; and for that matter 
 we do not consider the father a very desirable 
 white specimen. He had a dominant, sensitive, 
 cunning, jealous disposition, she had not, and 
 consequently the crossing produced an admir- 
 able, almost harmonious brain development in 
 their progeny. 
 
 Now u we have made this drawing of these 
 people; first, to show in a definite manner that 
 even the lowest type of the American Negro has 
 in the past often produced fine results when 
 crossed with a strong Caucasian of a Mental
 
 222 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Motive Temperament. Secondly, we also de- 
 sire to show that the shape of the head, the thick- 
 ness of the skull, and the fineness or quality of 
 the brain, has everything to do with the develop- 
 ment of the intellect. Had it not, Betsey would 
 
 Results when Mental Dissimilarities cross. 
 
 be just as capable of becoming a doctor of divin- 
 ity as her son, Dr. Sumner. Had she been 
 trained, mentally, from youth up, her thick re- 
 ceding skull would have changed perceptably, 
 directly in the upper portion of the forehead, 
 and the brain organs through which Causality
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 223 
 
 and Comparison act, would have undergone a 
 process of refining and growth, as well as the 
 other brain centers; but fifty years of incessant 
 mental gymnastics would not have produced the 
 results we see in her offspring by Summerfield. 
 SKULL AND BRAIN GROWTH. We 
 do not mean to convey the idea that a full- 
 blooded African people of low order cannot 
 progress, mentally. It is true, their skull is 
 thick and of cast-iron quality and hard to ex- 
 pand, but it is a well known fact that the physi- 
 cal body is constantly changing, that is, old tis- 
 sues waste away and new ones take their place, 
 and this process makes a perceptable skull- 
 growth possible, even in the short.space of two 
 years, and consequently also the brain under- 
 neath it. Had Betsey received mental training 
 and married a Negro man of like training, their 
 children would have been a decided improve- 
 ment, mentally; and if such a process is con- 
 tinued for several generations, their expansion 
 of the skull, and the refinement of the entire or- 
 ganism would equal that of any other people 
 who have gone through a similar process. Such 
 a course must necessarily be pursued in some 
 parts of Africa, but here nearly all Negroes have 
 gone through a slight, and many through a full 
 process of mental growth, or, more correctly, 
 physical refinement; and as 6,000,000, are of
 
 224 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 pronounced Caucasian blood, and many are 
 highly cultured, the only rational and ethical 
 thing to do, and that the two races will finally 
 be compelled to do, is to take each other by the 
 hand and say : "Your blood flows in my veins, 
 and my people are yours, and your people are 
 mine 'United we stand, divided we fall.' ' 
 
 First, to produce a higher and better type of 
 man; secondly, to infuse new blood into a top- 
 heavy, depleted portion of the white American ; 
 and thirdly, to prevent future serious rupture 
 between these related peoples, by instituting a 
 tie that binds for time and eternity. 
 
 You say this is irrational, unscientific, out- 
 rageous! we say that it is not. The plain state- 
 ments just made are based upon the unalterable, 
 unchangeable natural laws of our Creator. We 
 hold ourselves responsible for every statement 
 we make, and we are prepared to back it all up 
 with a multitude of undisputable facts; and 
 truth must finally triumph over every falsehood. 
 We have stated above that a slow process of 
 mental development must necessarily take place 
 in Africa, among the natives; yet we must not 
 lose sight of the fact, as mentioned in the first 
 chapter of this book, that foreign blood and in- 
 fluence are reaching into the very heart of Africa, 
 and will, within a very short time, revolutionize 
 conditions there. We predict that fifty years
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 225 
 
 hence there will not be a naked savage roaming 
 the jungles of Africa. A network of railroads 
 will penetrate the darkest spot, and bring with 
 it Caucasian civilization and industry, confirm- 
 ing the plan of the ages that all people will be- 
 come a united family. 
 
 CRANIAL CAPACITY OF THE RACES. 
 It is not easy to procure the brains of the var- 
 ious race branches for the purpose of weighing 
 and comparing them. The following table has 
 been published at various times, and is no doubt 
 a true estimation of the cranial cavity. Hun- 
 dreds of skulls were collected of the various races 
 and filled with dry sand, which is given as fol- 
 lows in cubic inches. 
 Races. Cubic Inches. 
 
 Swedes 100.00 
 
 Anglo-Saxons 96.00 
 
 Finns 95-oo 
 
 Anglo-Americans 94-3O 
 
 Esquimaux 86.32 
 
 North American Indians 84.00 
 
 Native Africans 83.70 
 
 Mexicans 81.70 
 
 American Negroes 80.80 
 
 Peruvians and Hottentots 75-3O 
 
 Australians 75oo 
 
 Gorilla, adult 34-5 
 
 Idiot 22.57 
 
 15
 
 226 HOLM'S RACE -ASSIMILATION 
 
 WHAT INDICATES MENTAL POWER 
 -The weight of the human brain varies from 
 40 to 70 ounces; that of idiots from 12 to 36 
 ounces. It appears that neither the absolute nor 
 relative .size of the cerebrum, but the amount of 
 gray matter it contains, is the criterion of men- 
 tal power. While a large cerebrum generally 
 indicates the presence of more gray matter than 
 a small one, yet it is ascertained that the gray 
 substance depends upon the number, and depth 
 of the convolutions of the brain and the deeper 
 its fissures, the more abundant is this tissue. 
 The gray matter of the brain seems to be the 
 source of thought, or the physical substance 
 through which the mind can generate thought, 
 while the white substance is the reservoir of im- 
 pressions. While quantity generally indicates 
 power, quality is the absolute source of mental 
 power, and as we say in this chapter under the 
 heading, Brain and Mind, it takes a certain 
 amount of cross-breeding and breeding-up to 
 obtain the highest mental quality. Soft, fine 
 hair, fine intellectual features, and a gen- 
 eral physical refinement, invariably accompany 
 mental power. . 
 
 THE SIZE OF THE HEAD. We never 
 rely on the size of the head as an indication of 
 special mental capacity, unless we find quality 
 along with size. When we have both quality
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 227 
 
 and size, we have a certain indication of power. 
 Though tape measurements taken around the 
 head, from Eventuality to Parental Love, gives 
 some idea of the size of the brain, the fact that 
 some heads are round, others long, some low, and 
 others high, so modifies the measurements that 
 they do not convey any very correct idea of the 
 actual quantity of the brain. 
 
 The following measurements were given out 
 some years ago by the Fowlers and others, and 
 are generally considered as right: 
 
 Inches to occipital Opening of ear to 
 
 Circumference of Adult weight in spine below Par- opening of ear 
 head in inches. pounds. ental Love. over Firmness. 
 
 19 100 9 9 
 
 19^ 110 10}4 10 to 11 
 
 20 120 lift 11 to 12 
 
 21 130 12 12y 2 
 
 22 150 U U l / 2 
 
 23 175 15 15J^ 
 
 24 195 15 16 
 
 Female heads are about half an inch to an 
 inch smaller than the figures given above. Their 
 weight is also considerably less. The heads of 
 children are larger as compared with the weight 
 of their body.
 
 228 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 DISSEMINATION AND ATTRACTION 
 
 DISSIMILARITIES AFFILIATE FOR 
 EVOLUTIONARY GROWTH. The nat- 
 ural law of dissemination was in operation when 
 the African Negro was transported to American 
 soil. Camille Flammarion, the eminent 
 French astronomer, says, "Progress is an abso- 
 lute, irresistable law." The law of progress and 
 dissemination are identical. This same law we 
 find in operation in all history, ever since dis- 
 similarities existed. It is true, like attracts like. 
 "Birds of a feather flock together;" yet all birds 
 of the same species differ, males from the fe- 
 males. The author has often watched fowls in 
 the selection of their favorite mates. He once 
 obtained three high-bred, imported geese. The 
 gander had been mated with one of the females 
 for several years. He then obtained a native 
 male and female, much smaller and inferior. 
 The two ganders at once engaged in a fierce com- 
 bat until they had to be separated to keep the 
 native from killing the fullblood. As soon as 
 separated the high-bred gander proceeded to 
 court the native goose desperately, When the 
 ganders were again put in the same pen the bat-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 229 
 
 tie continued. The native gander had to be 
 killed. The high-bred gander continued his 
 loVe for the native goose, and entirely neglected 
 the two beautiful females of his own breed. 
 Does Nature make a mistake? We think not. 
 The offspring of the two geese were larger than 
 the female and hardier than the male. The na- 
 tive cattle are now bred up in precisely the same 
 manner throughout the South. 
 
 All animals mix only with their kind. All. 
 races and tribes of men have, in the past, mixed 
 with their kind more exclusively than with any 
 other. In the environment of primitive man it 
 could not be otherwise. There are yet obscure sav- 
 age tribes in some parts of Africa and elsewhere, 
 where it is not considered wrong and where no 
 evil effects follow close family marriages. But 
 in all such environments there is no advance- 
 ment whatever. 
 
 The dark races have as much right to mix 
 with the white race as it has with the dark or 
 black. Nature does not forbid such comming- 
 ling of racial blood, because all blood of all 
 races is alike. 
 
 Bishop Alexander Walters well said in the 
 conference on the status of the American Negro, 
 held in New York in May, 1909: 
 
 "In the scriptures we read that the man 
 (Adam) called his wife's name Eve because she
 
 230 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 was the mother of all living (to live). St. Paul, 
 the eminent divine and philosopher, has declared 
 that 'God hath made of one blood all the n*a- 
 tions of men to dwell on all the face of the 
 earth,' and the best authority on physiological 
 subjects declare that there is not a particle of 
 difference in human blood. And yet blood is 
 one of the most varied substances in nature. In 
 no two kinds of animals is it alike." 
 
 As the blood of an African cannot be distin- 
 guished from that of a Caucasian, it follows in 
 the course of correct reasoning that both races 
 have a common origin, as already inferred, that 
 environment alone has caused the difference we 
 observe today. And as Nature demands a dif- 
 ference of physical and mental make-up in mar- 
 ried persons, the mating of extreme opposites, as 
 in the Hamitic and Japhetic, produces the great- 
 est physical pleasure and mutual love between 
 the sexes thus mated. This is the reason why 
 offspring are possible between the colored and 
 white men and women when neither can produce 
 with their own. 
 
 In our inquiry we heard an intelligent colored 
 woman say, who has a white husband: "Mix- 
 ing is so sweet, how foolish both races are to try 
 to deprive us of this God-given privilege." 
 
 Dr. J. W. Bate says in his book, "Marriage 
 Guide," "It may be safely affirmed that a dif-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 231 
 
 ference of physical temperament between mar- 
 ried persons is conducive not only to mutual af- 
 fection, but to fertility. Nature appears to de- 
 sire marriages between different families and na- 
 tions, because such crossings of the various races 
 improve and invigorate the species. Humboldt 
 and others have observed that the offspring of 
 Europeans and Ethiopians are peculiarly robust 
 and active. From numerous observations of a 
 similar nature, he argues that the best mode of 
 eradicating hereditary diseases, gout, scrofula, 
 consumption, epilepsy, madness, etc., in their in- 
 cipient stages, is by the commixture of the species 
 in marriage; the mutual antagonism of physical 
 elements thus blended preventing the transmis- 
 sion of disease to the next generation. 
 
 "The mental weakness of the European royal 
 families, who have been for generations the pro- 
 duct of marriages almost incestuous in the degree 
 of consanguinity of parents, is strongly confirma- 
 tory of the truth of these principles. Walker, 
 in his admirable and interesting work "On In- 
 termarriage," proves beyond the possibility of 
 caval, that insanity, idiocy, and numerous phys- 
 ical ailments occur four times above the average 
 proportion in the offspring of "family mar- 
 riages." When persisted in for some genera- 
 tions the race usually becomes extinct. Nor is 
 this confined to man alone the rule extends.
 
 232 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 from man downward through the whole realm 
 of animated nature." 
 
 It is astonishing, indeed, that the various 
 races in America should make any serious at- 
 tempt to "keep the races separate," when all 
 must live side by side and mix in their every-day 
 lives as one people. All breathe the same at- 
 mosphere of liberty and all ought to enjoy it 
 alike. It is here not a question of the obscure 
 savage and the refined civilized. All forces 
 here in operation now promote, and will con- 
 tinue to promote, racial admixture. 
 
 Savage tribes do not mix as readily as civil- 
 ized with the savage. Nature's object in mixing 
 is growth; where that cannot be obtained there 
 is no commingling. The civilized have always 
 mixed with and absorbed the savage, and this 
 process will continue until all races have been 
 elevated. 
 
 We find men who will reason that the law of 
 attraction, for the preservation of species is un- 
 alterable, and must not be violated. That like 
 must affiliate with like, at least as far as man is 
 concerned. That we may "tinker" with plants- 
 and animals, and try to improve upon Nature, 
 but that man must religiously adhere to his own 
 race, clan or people, and refuse to mix or asso- 
 ciate with any others on equal terms. This idea 
 is founded upon the illusive belief that there is
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS '233 
 
 more than one species of man. Such reasoning 
 is decidedly narrow, and betrays a lack of insight 
 and investigation into Nature's laws, and the hu- 
 man family. Nature endeavors to maintain 
 equilibrium throughout all her productions and 
 functions. 
 
 To illustrate, we will take history and say that 
 we have three distinctly, separate peoples or 
 races, who have no intercourse with each other, 
 who even hate each other. One dwells in Af- 
 rica, one in Europe and one in Asia. One is a 
 low-cast, barbarous race, one semi-civilized, and 
 the other is crammed with temples of learning, 
 libraries, high culture, and is admirably civil- 
 ized, as ancient civilizations go. Now, PRO- 
 PORTION IS A PARAMOUNT NAT- 
 URAL LAW. We find as we carefully follow 
 the history of these three nations or races, that 
 the barbarous is lifted up, the over-cultured 
 pulled down, and that finally the semi-civilized 
 raises its great, broad, bushy head and assimilates 
 both and swells, grows and devours, until it be- 
 comes a monstrosity, when in turn it, too, is ab- 
 sorbed by others. Thus the process will con- 
 tinue in the future history of man in spite of all 
 reasoning to the contrary. 
 
 Prof. O. S. Fowler said many years ago: 
 "The acknowledged Anglo-Saxon superiority 
 is directly traceable to the wholesale interming-
 
 234 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ling of the ancient Briton, Picts, Celts and Ro- 
 mans, both with each other, and the Normans, 
 Danes and others. We find in nearly every in- 
 stance where nations are not thus crossed they 
 are either stationary or on the decline; like 
 Spain, Africa and Eastern nations. The influx 
 of foreigners from all Europe, Asia and Africa, 
 into our country, is indeed the most auspicious 
 omen of future development and greatness." 
 
 Nature does and can by the union of opposites, 
 instead of similarities, effect astonishing im- 
 provements. And it is well known to up-to-date 
 scientists that if dissimilarities did not exist; if 
 there were no two dissimilar procreative attract- 
 ing poles in the human family, there could be no 
 evolutionary process, and consequently no hu- 
 man advancement. 
 
 THE LAW OF SPECIES. The law of spe- 
 cific procreative attraction exists for the perpet- 
 uation of the various species of plant and ani- 
 mal life. It is the law of species. The law of 
 attraction, for the opposite sexual poles in repro- 
 duction and growth, is a co-partner with the 
 law of dissemination (scattering) in the econ- 
 omy of life. The absence of either would cause 
 a chaotic condition. With the law of procrea- 
 tive attraction, for the reproduction of species, 
 only in operation we would find all the thou- 
 sands of separate plants and animals in so many
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 235 
 
 separate localities on earth. For example, there 
 would be thousands of acres of wheat in one part, 
 separate from all others. We would find large 
 wooded places; every species alone. Immense 
 orchards of single varieties would cover millions 
 of acres; and close by might be found thousands 
 of acres of poisonous ivy, deathly nightshade, 
 apple-fern and hundreds of other loathsome 
 plants. Should a man by accident stray from his 
 habitation and run into such a bewildering mass 
 of poisonous growth, escape would be impos- 
 sible. 
 
 On the other hand, should he run across the 
 several hundred miles of the snake habitation, he 
 would be shocked out of his identity. Then, 
 again, he might encounter an ant hill several 
 miles high, containing all the ants on earth. Or 
 he might run into the various animal territories, 
 and escape under all circumstances would be al- 
 most impossible. 
 
 THE DIVINE PLAN OF MAN'S RE- 
 DEMPTION. The above arrangement, on a 
 small scale, would be an ideal paradise to dwell 
 in. But the law of scattering drove man and 
 animal out of the Garden of Eden, whatever and 
 wherever that may have been, to populate the 
 world. The law of f ruitfulness was based upon 
 the law of scattering, for without scattering there 
 could be no multiplication and growth. Soil,
 
 230 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 food and climate, in various parts of the world, 
 were instrumental in producing the various 
 physical types, temperaments and colors of skin. 
 Ham, Shem and Japhet were not black, yellow 
 and white; dissemination caused their posterity 
 to gradually assume these types. 
 
 We here touch upon a profound thought 
 viz., the Divine plan of man's redemption: 
 First, the scattering, for the purpose of multi- 
 plying and creating a variety of races; secondly, 
 the gathering together of these races again into 
 one family, for the purpose of final extinction. 
 
 Continual inbreeding deteriorates, cross- 
 breeding enhances; causes fruitfulness and 
 growth. The savage African would remain a 
 savage still, another thousand years or two, did 
 he not sooner come in contact with other races. 
 As a race he is in his second childhood, and 
 cannot hope to rise independent of all foreign 
 blood, and rule his people. 
 
 The various branches of the Caucasian family 
 in America are, even in this early day, threat- 
 ened with race suicide. How long will it be be- 
 fore scarcely one puny child will arrive in 
 every white home in America? We have on 
 record numerous cases where one or two weakly 
 offspring would be born to a white man by his 
 white wife, and ten bright, vigorous ones by a 
 colored woman.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 237 
 
 We wish our readers to hold the thought that 
 mental and physical dissimilarities cross for 
 evolutionary growth and f ruitfulness. When all 
 differences in the human family have disap- 
 peared in extreme physical refinement, a general 
 decline in population, and final extinction will 
 ensue. Do our readers catch the thought we 
 wish to convey? The time will come, and is 
 comparatively near, when men will not worry 
 about over-population, but a positive decline in 
 our white population. The government then in 
 control will advocate a scientific system of fruit- 
 ful marriages, as a matter of self-preservation. 
 It may then even invite the indomitable Jap and 
 the darkest man in existence as our son-in-law. 
 
 Races can no longer stand apart and advocate 
 their integrity and live. A bewildering amount 
 of mixing covers the entire past history, when 
 there was no means of communication, how can 
 now be prevented the final union of all the races, 
 when commerce and traveling by land and water 
 makes every race, clan and color our next door 
 neighbor? We are coming to it fast the final 
 union of the children of Noah. 
 
 THE GARDEN OF EDEN. We are led 
 to believe that there was a time in the history of 
 this world, when plant and animal life was first 
 introduced, when the law of dissemination was 
 not yet in operation. If the Garden of Eden
 
 238 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 was governed without scattering influence, 
 Adam had an ideal habitation. Moses plainly 
 speaks of the time in Gen. VI., ist to 9th verses, 
 when the sons of Noah feared the law of scat- 
 tering. These early people tried to resist the 
 operation of this law, but it scattered them 
 abroad on the earth, and caused them to even 
 speak different languages. This process was ab- 
 solutely necessary in o.rder to create dissimi- 
 larities in the human family, essential to per- 
 petuate the race. 
 
 It is evident that had the race continued to 
 live in the same place the ultimate plan of 
 human growth would have been defeated, and 
 man would have early become extinct. That 
 an oak tree, for example, should spring up spon- 
 taneously over the entire earth at the same time, 
 without first a seed being planted, is beyond an 
 ordinary mind to comprehend. It seems far 
 more rational to believe that the first oak and 
 man existed in a specific place; for a specific 
 purpose, until the law of scattering became 
 operative. 
 
 WOULD EXPERIENCE A CALAMITY. 
 Should the law for the perpetuation of the 
 species be dropped from the category of natural 
 laws, and the law of dissemination alone remain 
 in operation, this world would experience even 
 a greater calamity than that just described. A
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 239 
 
 f Spectes Forbids 
 Mixing. 
 
 The new lot of chickens in his barnyard would quack like a 
 duck, yet not look like one, while a strange lot of ducks might 
 cackle like hens and crow like cocks.
 
 240 HOLMS RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 farmer would sow a certain kind of grain, but 
 would invariably reap strange combinations of 
 other grains and weeds he never knew or sowed 
 before. The new lot of chickens in his barnyard 
 would quack like a duck, yet not look like one, 
 while a strange lot of ducks might cackle like 
 hens and crow like cocks. Strange beings would 
 be born, undreamed of monstrosities, living, 
 crawling, creeping things, unnamed and un- 
 nameable; beautiful, poetic, symmetrical dreams 
 of perfection; winged and unwinged angels 
 would fly and run swifter than the wind, then 
 disappear to give rise to yet other beings, other 
 freaks for still others to play with, until all 
 would be a loathsome, unspeakable confusion. 
 Man could not long survive. 
 
 DISSEMINATION GROWING 
 STRONGER. We believe that the law of dis- 
 semination is growing stronger and more active 
 as the world grows older. We see evidences of 
 this in the animal and vegetable world. Strange 
 plants and animals have been distributed and 
 successfully raised in many parts formerly un-. 
 known. And the same fact is true of man. 
 Birds who carry seeds of plants from one coun- 
 try to another unconsciously pbey this law, so 
 also did the slavers who brought the Negro here 
 and throughout the world. Phillis Wheatley, 
 the inspired Negro girl poet, undoubtedly re-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 241 
 
 ceived a true impression of this fact when she 
 wrote : 
 
 "'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan Land, 
 Taught my benighted soul to understand 
 That there's a God that there's a Saviour too ; 
 Once I redemption neither sought nor knew." 
 
 In the workings of Almighty God there is no 
 thread broken, save by erring man, in the great 
 plan of human redemption of the final reunion 
 of all nations and races into one people, one gov- 
 ernment, one tongue. The world is getting 
 smaller rapidly. Every thinking man and 
 woman knows that, at the present ratfc of prog- 
 ress, the day will soon arrive when the entire 
 map of the world will be changed. This will 
 come about in a peaceful manner, accompanied 
 by wonderful progress, or else war and extermi- 
 nation will bring it about, just as man may will 
 it in the final process of growth and decay. 
 
 THERE IS A DIVINE PURPOSE IN 
 MIXING. In the mixing of the Negro and 
 Caucasian in the South we see a divine purpose. 
 Let us be frank with ourselves. Had this mix- 
 ing not taken place to the extent it has, or nor 
 at all, what would today become of the pure- 
 blood African in our midst? We expect a strong 
 contradiction here, but the fact remains true; 
 were it not for the millions of mixed blood, the 
 hope in the heart of the pure-blooded black man 
 would be faint indeed ; not because he is destitute 
 
 16
 
 242 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 of ability to rise, for he is not, but because of the 
 evidence that would then exist that he belonged 
 to another race of beings with which human 
 beings could not mix. We contend that the evi- 
 dence of his extensive mixing with the white and 
 other races, puts him in the front rank of future 
 human progress, and on an equal footing with 
 all people. Our friend, Rev. John H. White, 
 D. D., (see Resume) is right when he says: 
 "The Negro has always figured in the history of 
 the world. His blood has entered strongly into 
 that of fhe dominant and conquering Roman, 
 into the- Latin races of Europe France, Spain, 
 Italy." 
 
 Moses, the greatest lawgiver and moral re- 
 former the world has ever known, would not 
 have married an Ethiopian woman, had that 
 race then been considered of an inferior and un- 
 mixable kind, as it is considered in these States 
 today, in spite of all mixing that is now taking 
 place; and has there ever been more than now? 
 
 IS OUTRAGEOUS, YET DIVINE. This 
 is outrageous! A divine purpose in the most 
 glaring sin committed? If it is, then the im- 
 mutable laws of God are outrageous, yet they are 
 just. 
 
 When a fierce storm sweeps over a portion of 
 our country and leaves wreck and ruin, death 
 and destruction in its path, the superstitious say
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 243 
 
 it is the work of the devil, or the wrath of God, 
 or a punishment of the wicked, while reason and 
 science say that it is but a law of the elements 
 and a necessary cleansing and readjusting pro- 
 cess, designed by a Wise Ruler in the economy 
 of the world, for the preservation of plant and 
 animal life. Did not these disturbances occur 
 over land and sea, stagnation and death would 
 soon take place, and leave the earth a silent 
 cemetery. 
 
 Had not Frederick Douglass, Booker T. 
 Washington and nearly all the other great men 
 of the American Negro race been of mixed 
 blood, this people and this world would be just 
 that much worse off. The manner of their birth 
 has been criticised and condemned, and no doubt 
 justly in the light of modern ethics, but, never- 
 theless, the law of dissemination or mixing was 
 obeyed under adverse conditions, and the wrong 
 here involved can only be laid at the door of 
 human ignorance and depravity. 
 
 Here again, as in the natural process of puri-, 
 fying the atmosphere as in the storm, poor 
 humanity has been outwitted and a greater in- 
 telligence has taken in hand the destiny of a 
 people. All the man-made laws and adverse 
 criticism cannot change the inevitable. Why 
 should the moral heroism and the great intel- 
 lectual illumination of this free age longer per-
 
 244 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 / 
 
 mit the inhuman procedure, discussed in this 
 book, when the proper legislation would wash 
 away this horrible stain, this unmitigated curse, 
 and give to both races a moral tone, a Christian 
 purity, as behooves a civilized people. The fol- 
 lowing analyses of the blending of the two races 
 must convince all skeptical and prejudiced that 
 legal amalgamation and the removing of preju- 
 dice is the paramount race issue.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 245 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 RACE INTEGRITY 
 
 THE RACE INTEGRITY CRANK. 
 In every age of mankind the demand for race 
 integrity was manifested among the various 
 tribes and nations of the world; and among peo- 
 ple the most barbarous and exclusive the demand 
 has been most strenuous. In fact, the most bar- 
 barous often pride themselves most on their race 
 purity. Ignorance is invariably the father of 
 race prejudice, and the source of belief in race 
 integrity. And this absurd, childish proclivity 
 manifests itself in a peculiar manner, under 
 peculiar circumstances, at the present time. We 
 say absurd, childish what else, think you, is it? 
 The absolute inconsistency of many who cry the 
 loudest for race integrity is abominable! We 
 do not deny that illicit miscegenation prevails 
 throughout the South among the lowest classes 
 of the races; but when men of influence and 
 social prominence everywhere step up to us and 
 damn the entire "nigger race," and demand race 
 integrity, while their pale-faced sons and daugh- 
 ters and their dark-faced "concubines" (?) are 
 fed and housed by them, this race integrity busi- 
 ness becomes a very serious proposition.
 
 246 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 When the modern Moses of America makes 
 laws, forbidding the "children of Israel" to 
 commingle with all other races, while he per- 
 sistently sticks to his black honey Ethiopian 
 wife, in spite of all the protests, arguments and 
 prejudice of his brother Aaron and sister Marion, 
 we think it is time we take a good, square look 
 at this "sacred" race purity doctrine. What we 
 say is not meant to reflect unkindly upon those 
 who very seriously believe in their own breed, 
 and champion that particular kind of breed to 
 which they belong. They have that privilege 
 all men have that privilege. Most men believe 
 that they are the only pure-bred animal on earth 
 (the tree-climbing, cocoanut-headed pigmy be- 
 lieves that), consequently they are extremely 
 anxious to populate the world with their partic- 
 ular "species," to the exclusion of all others. We 
 have profound respect for this class of men and 
 women, although they may be a little self-cen- 
 tered, unreasonable. But, if we made it our 
 business to hate any mortal being on earth, it 
 would assuredly be the bold-faced hypocrite, the 
 race integrity crank; the man with a "ga" at 
 
 the end of Negro, and a "d " in front. Our 
 
 country is at present infested with this kind of 
 human monstrosity. 
 
 THE MAN WHO IS NOT A NEGRO. 
 We would not deny that some day, yet far dis-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 247 
 
 tant, the presence of a pure-blooded Caucasian 
 will be a rare curiosity in some sections of the 
 Southland ; but the real Negro will also be con- 
 spicuous for his absence. Indeed, as we assert 
 in several parts of this book, the true Negro 
 will, within a comparatively short time, be ex- 
 tinct, unless recruited from Africa. 
 
 While the amalgamating process is more 
 noticeable in cities, there are many instances in 
 rural districts where some white planters have 
 their "mistresses." You may call the progeny of 
 this class white Negroes, you may continue to 
 call all people of African descent Negroes; but 
 they are, nevertheless, as far removed from a 
 Negro as an Irishman is from an Indian. On 
 short notice a goodly crowd of this class of so- 
 called Negroes, who are as white as many south- 
 erners, may be picked up in most localities. Of 
 course, if they prefer to call themselves Negroes 
 to anything else, that is their business; scien- 
 tifically speaking, we cannot class these with the 
 Negro race, as they have lost their Negro char- 
 acteristics to too marked an extent. Any man 
 with more foreign blood than a mulatto is not a 
 Negro, and the fact that he is called one, or calls 
 himself one, is absurd. He could, with more 
 propriety, be called a hybrid or mongrel, for he 
 is nothing else. If anthropology teaches any 
 truth, it must teach that a man of mixed blood
 
 248 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 belongs to the race of nearest kin. Anything 
 else is neither science nor justice, but prejudice. 
 
 The scientific truth here conveyed is indis- 
 putable: Can a man take a glass of wine, drink 
 one-half of it, refill with \vater and then claim 
 that it is wine, without telling a falsehood? But, 
 you say, he may pass it for "thin wine." Very 
 well. But suppose he again drinks one-half, and 
 again refills the glass with water, and then swears 
 that it is still wine? That man is a liar! 
 
 Any man who claims to be a Negro, though it 
 may be very respectable to be one, when he is 
 not one ; any man who calls another man a Negro 
 who is not one commits the same crime as does 
 the man who calls water wine. It is a sin against 
 the accepted law of evolution, and against the 
 highest sense of justice to do so. Why do we 
 put it this way? Because as long as a class of 
 people of this kind call themselves Negroes, 
 they will continue to be called "niggers," and 
 will continue to live under the ban of a sham. A 
 sham is a counterfeit, a counterfeit is but a 
 shadow of the real thing. 
 
 This diversion in our discourse is necessary 
 here in order to make plain a few following 
 facts : First, that the southern whites and others, 
 who amalgamate with and are assimilated into a 
 people just mentioned, will not leave the world 
 any worse off for such a fusion. Secondly, that
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 249 
 
 we fail to find in the average southerner any- 
 thing that indicates the presence of a superior 
 stock. There are the baser (so-called trash) class, 
 the growing middle class and the top-heavy, 
 superfine class. The baser class is considerably 
 below the middle colored class in many cases 
 as low as the lowest Negro class. The superfine 
 class is the ornamental, the aristocratic; while 
 the middle class represents the real backbone of 
 southern industry and stability and this class 
 is intermarrying with northern and other settlers 
 very rapidly. 
 
 WOULD ENCOURAGE INTERMAR- 
 RIAGE. The Wisconsin State Journal, com- 
 menting upon our lamented-Governor Johnson's 
 speech some time ago, draws a true picture with 
 regard to this fact, as northern people see it. It 
 is as follows: "Gov. Johnson, of Minnesota, hit 
 the nail pretty squarely on the head when in a 
 recent speech in the South he explained how it 
 was that the North had left the South so far be- 
 hind in the march of material progress. The 
 war devastated this country sadly, but the war 
 was not the only cause for the long period of 
 stagnation. Lack of hard work did much to re- 
 tard the South's regeneration. Here people did 
 not know how to turn to and work. If our peo- 
 ple of the northwest had this region they would 
 have put it on its feet again in a very few years,"
 
 250 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 said he. "We have been accustomed to work. 
 We had no servants to wait on us in the north- 
 west. Our women folks, too, knew how to work. 
 My wife did her own housework almost up to 
 the time I became governor. She cooked the 
 dinner for her guests and washed the dishes. It 
 is these habits of industry that give life and 
 strength to a nation, especially to a people in a 
 crisis." The South has long realized the truth 
 of the governor's statements. The southern habit 
 of leaving to "niggers" the common work of the 
 field and household has produced an enervated 
 people lacking in initiative and self-reliance. 
 Even now, it is northern capital and push that 
 is bringing the Southout of the lethargy imposed 
 by the war. On the other hand, accustomed to 
 doing their own work the people of the North, 
 men and women alike, have developed a sturdier, 
 more independent race. They built their cabins 
 and cleared their lands themselves, thus adding 
 steadily to the aggregate wealth of the section 
 and producing at the same time brain and brawn 
 to meet and overcome emergencies and be pre- 
 pared to seize opportunities. We have heard 
 it said by substantial, sensible men that they 
 would prefer their daughters marrying indus- 
 trious mulattoes to a class of the lank, shiftless, 
 loose-jointed southerners. Not long since one of 
 these tired, long-faced fellows, not by any means
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 251 
 
 void of intelligence in a way, frankly admitted 
 to us that his race had "well nigh run out," just 
 as the native cattle in the backwoods; and the 
 only hope he held out was the crossing of his 
 children with foreign blood, like German or 
 Scandinavian. 
 
 NATURE ALWAYS ENDEAVORS TO 
 PRODUCE HER BEST. This is the scien- 
 tific reason why so many of these men have af- 
 filiated with the strong, Vital Temperament in 
 the industrous Negro race; thus raising their 
 progeny in a marked degree, in many instances. 
 In parts of the South where foreigners have not 
 yet settled to take up the industrial side of life, 
 a great deal of the energy put forth is produced 
 by this progeny. We know of instances where 
 the planter's children, by his "mistress," are the 
 main stay of the establishment. Of course, this 
 fact is denied by the prejudiced. To admit this 
 truth would amount to a confession, and over- 
 throw the prevailing custom. To show you the 
 established, narrow, prejudiced belief in this re- 
 gard, we will quote a recognized authority of 
 some note, D. G. Brinton. He says in his book, 
 "Races and Peoples, "published in 1890: "There 
 can be no doubt but that any white mixed race 
 is lower in the scale of intelligence than the pure 
 white race. A white man entails indelible deg- 
 radation on his descendants who takes in mar-
 
 252 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 riage a woman of a darker race. * * * Still 
 more to be deplored is the woman of a white 
 race who unites herself with a man of a lower 
 ethnic type. That philanthropy is false, 
 
 that religion is rotten, which would sanction a 
 white woman enduring the embrace of a colored 
 man!' 
 
 If Mr. Brinton had investigated, free from 
 prejudice, the results of normal crossings of 
 white and colored people, he would have ex- 
 claimed with us: "Behold! what hath Nature 
 wrought?" Supposing the white mixed race 
 average lower in the accepted scales of accom- 
 plishments (which is not true), what of it? 
 Should that be the only grounds upon which to 
 condemn commingling, or the lawful amalgama- 
 tion of the races? Never. We must consider 
 the whole man thus crossed, his physical appear- 
 ance, his latent capabilities, his inherent tenacity, 
 etc., before we can pass judgment upon this very 
 important matter. 
 
 To show you that this narrow, one-sided view 
 is old in this country as old as slavery itself 
 we will quote a writer in De Bows Commercial 
 Magazine, published in 1866 in New Orleans. 
 He said: "We think that every humane man, 
 who will carefully examine the subject for him- 
 self, will arrive at the same conclusion as the 
 writer of these few suggestions and facts, viz. :
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 253 
 
 that to encourage amalgamation is to encourage 
 commission of crime and cruelty, the increase of 
 ignorance and misery, and to insure the destruc- 
 tion of two races in attempting to elevate one." 
 If the writer refers to the kind of amalgamation 
 which has corrupted both races in the South, 
 the only kind known to the people, then we say 
 this quotation contains considerable truth. This 
 subject is so thoroughly treated elsewhere in this 
 book, that we shall not discuss it further here. 
 
 WAS NEVER TAKEN SERIOUSLY. 
 Such utterances, whether written or spoken, to- 
 day or any other day, have never been taken very 
 seriously by the people. The Hebrew history is, 
 for instance, a very striking example. Among 
 them commingling was forbidden by an un- 
 written law, yet nearly all of their greatest men 
 had Ethiopian and other foreign wives not of 
 their race, Christ himself being of such extrac- 
 tion. 
 
 Some of us remember having read an abstract 
 of Abraham Lincoln's speech, delivered on Sept. 
 1 8th, 1858, during the debates between him and 
 Douglass. Wade Hamton referred to this in the 
 Forum for June, 1888. Mr. Lincoln said: 
 "While at the hotel today an elderly gentleman 
 called upon me to know whether I really was 
 in favor of producing perfect equality between 
 the Negroes and white people. * * -* I will
 
 254 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in 
 favor of bringing about in any way the social 
 and political equality of the white and black 
 races ; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor 
 of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of 
 qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry 
 with white people; and I will say, in addition 
 to this, that there is a physical difference be- 
 tween the white and black races which, I be- 
 lieve, will forever forbid the two races living to- 
 gether on terms of social and political equality." 
 
 We have just spoken of the "physical differ- 
 ence" Mr. Lincoln referred to, and we venture 
 to say that if he had taken pains to investigate, 
 he would have found the dissimilarities quite as 
 great in the Negro race of these states as be- 
 tween the white and black races. When men, 
 white and colored, speak about the races they 
 generally forget that the existing relationship be- 
 tween them in America, is closer than between 
 any absolute unlike races on earth. This applies 
 to Cuba and South America as well. 
 
 MILLIONS ARE NOT NEGROES. 
 When they say "Negro," they fail to consider 
 justly the millions who are not Negroes- only 
 in name. We do not doubt the sincerity of 
 Abraham Lincoln. There were in that early day, 
 among the abolitionists, persons who saw the evil 
 of illicit mixing, and strongly advocated legal
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 255 
 
 intermarriage. Mr. Lincoln not being an in- 
 vestigator, although possessing a smattering of 
 anthropology, was unfamiliar with the natural 
 laws which govern the mixing of the human 
 family; took the common stand of his race, be- 
 lieved in the eternal superiority of his breed, and 
 did not hesitate to say so. He was honest in his 
 convictions ; others were honest, then as now. 
 
 It is the "awful" dissimilarity between the 
 Caucasian and Negro that is, by many people, 
 considered an insurmountable obstacle in the 
 way; yet this barrier has long since become sur- 
 mountable. There are now only 4,000,000 de- 
 cidedly dark and black people left in these states, 
 while 6,000,000 or more range from the mulatto 
 to pure white. This beautiful blending of the 
 two races is a fascinating study to any one not 
 blinded with the poison of race prejudice. The 
 fact that the pure-blooded Negro invariably 
 mixes with the mixed, is sufficient proof to any 
 investigator that the real Negro will disappear 
 in a very few generations. This will gradually 
 lessen the physical differences between the races 
 Mr. Lincoln referred to. And from overwhelm- 
 ing evidences we see on every hand the white 
 man does, naturally, not object to this striking 
 difference. It is not a natural antipathy between 
 the black and white races that has created a re- 
 pulsive feeling among many whites, but rather
 
 256 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 GUILTY, YET HAPPY
 
 OR THE FADIXG LEOPARD'S SPOTS 257 
 
 the inborn prejudice and contempt for an unde- 
 veloped people who once were slaves. Brinton 
 fully shares this feeling when he said that "that 
 philanthropy is false, that religion is rotten, 
 which would sanction a white woman enduring 
 the embrace of a colored man." No impartial, 
 scientific man could say this. 
 
 A WOMAN ENDURES A MAN'S EM- 
 BRACE. Many a white woman has endured 
 the embrace of a white man whose embrace stung 
 her like the fangs of a deathly serpent. Color 
 has little to do with it only love and the man. 
 
 We have knowledge of a good, industrious 
 woman, who became acquainted with and fell in 
 love with a nice, respectable colored man in the 
 North. They "promised each other," and were 
 about to be married. Friends and relatives op- 
 posed the match and broke it up. Later she 
 married a white man who soon proved himself 
 a drunken brute. Years of pain, disappointment 
 and sorrow followed, as the wife of a drunkard, 
 when finally her wretched home was entirely 
 broken up, and herself and children were thrown 
 upon a cold, friendless world. 
 
 It is the embrace of a man, not a brute, that 
 a woman, white or colored, "endures" and such 
 endurance brings to her the thrill of exquisite 
 happiness, surpassed by every other emotion of 
 her bein<y. 
 
 17
 
 258 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 We claim that philanthropy false, that religion 
 a lie, that repudiates the voice of Almighty God 
 in the law of our being, when choosing the af- 
 finity of our soul, and the partner of our natural 
 life. 
 
 Go into a colored assemblage anywhere, and 
 in nine cases out of ten, where conditions permit 
 it, the brown, tan and white colored women are 
 mated to the dark and black men, and vice versa. 
 It is as natural for some white women to "en- 
 dure" the embrace of colored men, as it is for 
 these fair and white colored women, who crave 
 that endurance. Why do not all these prefer 
 their own color in their mates? 
 
 Answer: Because Nature says no. 
 
 Prof. O. S. Fowler, whom we consider an au- 
 thority on this subject, says in his book on Crea- 
 tive and Sexual Science: 
 
 "So great is the power of love to unite two of 
 even opposing temperament, fuse those naturally 
 uncongenial, amalgamate those actually repel- 
 lant, and harmonize even civilized with savage." 
 
 RACE INTEGRITY NOTHING BUT A 
 FAD. It is not necessary to produce further 
 overwhelming evidence in support of our posi- 
 tion. It is clear to the unbiased reader that race 
 integrity is nothing but a fad; that there is no 
 race, of any consequence in the world, that can 
 boast of absolute purity. All advanced Euro-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 259 
 
 peans have a variety of complexions. Such pure- 
 blooded people as the American Indian, Es- 
 quimaux and some African and Asiatic tribes, are 
 looked down upon with scorn by the mixed peo- 
 ple of a higher order; and the same fact will re- 
 main true here as long as the Negro is a factor 
 in the Afro-American race. Any Negro who 
 boasts of the purity of his blood in these states 
 is his own greatest enemy, not because of the fact 
 that he is pure, but because the anti-Negro senti- 
 ment is thereby incensed. 
 
 Rub in the fact that the American Negro, the 
 Afro-American, the Colored Caucasian, is homo- 
 geneous, related by an inseparable tie to the 
 white race, and is bound to remain inseparable, 
 and as sure as there is a wise, overruling Provi- 
 dence, peaceful and happy relations will ensue. 
 
 Agitate the "my race and your race" feeling, 
 enlarge upon this dangerous and pernicious prac- 
 tice of inborn hatred, and instead of a calm there 
 will be a storm; instead of sunshine and song 
 there will be darkness and despair; instead of 
 love and happiness there will be pain and sorrow. 
 
 As we reiterate in this book, Nature main- 
 tains equilibrium throughout all her marvelous 
 works ; and does not recognize any race of people 
 on earth as her elect. If she did, such a people 
 would be compelled to remain intact from the 
 inroad of all foreign blood. That would make
 
 260 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 it a distinct race; as distinct as the horse is from 
 the ox, and amalgamation would be forbidden by 
 Nature. 
 
 There is but one race of people with many dis- 
 similarities, necessary in the evolutionary process 
 of human kind and how marvelous to behold is 
 this process at work! 
 
 ONE RACE SAYS MAXIMO GOMEZ.- 
 In closing this chapter we wish to present to the 
 reader that memorable letter, written by Maximo 
 Gomez, the great Cuban patriot, to Roman 
 Blanco, the Spanish commander, when the same 
 proposed a union of the revolutionary forces 
 with the Spanish army, to drive out the Amer- 
 ican invaders. 
 
 "Senor: Your audacity in again offering terms 
 of peace astonishes me, knowing as you do that 
 Cuban and Spaniard can never again live peace- 
 ably on Cuban soil. You represent on this con- 
 tinent an old and bloodstained monarchy; we 
 fight for* American principles that of Wash- 
 ington and Bolivar. You say we belong to the 
 same race, and you invite me to combat the for- 
 eign invader, but you are again mistaken. There 
 is no difference in blood and race. / believe there 
 is only one race of humanity, and for me there 
 are but good and wicked nations. Spain has 
 been up to the present a wicked nation. The 
 United States is endeavoring to fill toward Cuba 
 the duty of humanity and civilization.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOBARD'S SPOTS 261 
 
 "Among classes and races, from the savage In- 
 dian to the cultured European, a man is only 
 worthy of respect according to his humanity and 
 noble sentiments. In this light I view nations. 
 I have only admiration for the United States. I 
 have written to President McKinley and general 
 Miles, thanking them for American intervention 
 in Cuba. 
 
 "I do not see the danger to us from the United 
 States to which you refer. If it should so hap- 
 pen, then history will pronounce her judgment. 
 For the present I have only to repeat that it is 
 too late for co-operation between your army and 
 mine. Su atento servidor, 
 
 MAXIMO GOMEZ/' 
 
 RACE PRIDE IS A POLITICAL ISSUE 
 SOUTH. Collier's Weekly says : "Probably it 
 would be impossible to prophesy a day more un- 
 happy for this continent than the one in which 
 the southern white should abate one iota of his 
 race pride." Maximo Gomez, whose letter we 
 quote above, perhaps expresses the feelings of 
 the southern republics better on this question 
 than any one else. While there is considerable 
 individual race pride among the various classes 
 in the southern republics, it has never ripened or 
 formed into a political body or become a polit- 
 ical issue as in the southern states. The southern 
 politician realizes that to "abate one iota of his
 
 262 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 race pride" means political death. He is bound 
 to keep up the race integrity cry for political 
 reasons. And it has so far been comparatively 
 easy to rub it into the blind intellect of an igno- 
 rant populace and make it "a go." Even the 
 black Negro (married to a yellow woman) has 
 contracted the disease and now begins to set up 
 a race integrity howl. If the Negro would be- 
 long to the same political faith as the southern 
 oligarchy, and be useful as a political boost, it 
 would pat him on the back and call him a good 
 brother and race integrity would never find its 
 way into politics. 
 
 The race integrity politician has filled the 
 South with yellow babies, and is the parent of 
 several millions of colored people, thousands of 
 whom he has disfranchised, because the son is 
 wiser than his father and will not yield to his 
 political wishes stay out of politics and let papa 
 run things. 
 
 The race pride of the South is rotten in the 
 face of this fact! Its politics are rotten because 
 of it. It is utterly degraded! 
 
 Can a just God have mercy on a man who dis- 
 . franchises his own son and degrades his own 
 sweet-faced daughter because their skin is dark? 
 No calamity is too great for a people or a coun- 
 try that tolerates such an outrage!
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 263 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE ANTI-MISCEGENATION MOVEMENT 
 
 EDITORIALS FROM PROMINENT 
 SOUTHERN PAPERS. "Judge Harris 
 Dickson, who was one of the leaders in a suc- 
 cessful movement to give the city of Vicksburg 
 a clean government after years of abuses, is now 
 engaged with other men of equally high stand- 
 ing in a well organized effort to build up a more 
 healthy demand for racial integrity; to prevent 
 the practice of miscegenation and to punish 
 offenders of both races who commit such crimes 
 against decency. The Anti-Miscegenation 
 League of Vicksburg is extending its sphere of 
 influence over surrounding towns, and, as the 
 need for some such work as the league has under- 
 taken is very evident, the growth of the move- 
 ment may well be expected to reach great pro- 
 portions; not only in the southern states, which 
 have statutes against intermarriage between 
 the races, but also in the states of the North, 
 which permit the marriage of whites with 
 Negroes. In his speeches on the subject the Vicks- 
 burg novelist, journalist and lawyer has used 
 very plain language, and, indeed, the question is 
 one for plain discussion among men, with little
 
 264 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 place for oratory or flowers of rhetoric. There 
 are laws enough in the southern states to punish 
 offenders against the rules of decency which 
 should protect the country against amalgamation 
 of the races, but there has not been heretofore 
 any general awakening of the better elements in 
 the white race to root out existing evils threaten- 
 ing racial purity. One of the methods of the 
 Anti-Miscegenation League to secure evidence 
 against offenders is the distribution among its 
 members, and others in sympathy with its ob- 
 jects, of printed blanks to be filled in with the 
 names, addresses and habits of persons coming 
 under observation who practice such misde- 
 meanors as the league hopes to prevent, and to 
 punish. While this may be effective in a meas- 
 ure, those who are leading the movement realize 
 that the greatest good must be accomplished by 
 appeals to the higher instincts of 'white men and 
 by changing the current of their thoughts from 
 self-gratification to race knowledge and the im- 
 pulse of racial protection. When the thought- 
 less have been made to seriously think, half of 
 the battle will have been won for the maintenance 
 of the integrity of the Caucasian tribes in Amer- 
 ica." Mobile Register. 
 
 The following editorial comments by the New 
 Orleans Times-Democrat show how the move- 
 ment is taking hold and demanding attention
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 265 
 
 elsewhere than in Mississippi: "At a mass 
 meeting held last Tuesday night under the 
 auspices of the Port Gibson, Miss., Law and 
 Order League, emphatic resolutions denouncing 
 miscegenation were adopted, and the members 
 of the league pledged themselves to a vigorous 
 crusade for the protection of race purity. Those 
 who addressed the meeting discussed this dis- 
 gusting evil in plain terms. No attempt was 
 made to condone the faults of white men who 
 are degrading themselves and their race by 
 the practice. The attitude of the Mississippi 
 leaguers is uncompromising. In attacking the 
 vile offense they evidently intend to strike at 
 white offenders as well as black. Anti-mis- 
 cegenation sentiment, instinct 'with right think- 
 ing men and women everywhere, is at last find- 
 ing voice. The written and spoken denuncia- 
 tions of the crime against race have found 
 prompt and universal response. The audible 
 protest is rapidly increasing in volume. Race 
 purity is no longer a theory, it has become an 
 issue. Not long ago the citizens of St. Francis- 
 ville, La., in mass meeting assembled, declared 
 themselves for its suppression. A vigorous anti- 
 miscegenation league has been organized at 
 Vicksburg, and now at Port Gibson the standard 
 of revolt has been raised against the intolerable 
 condition which undeniably exists. Having at-
 
 266 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 tained the dignity of an issue, it can be no longer 
 ignored in the present campaign nor by the 
 Louisiana legislature soon to be elected. The 
 secret influences which have strangled previous 
 anti-miscegenation measures will find this work 
 dangerous in the light of the present indignant 
 sentiment of the decent white people of Louis- 
 iana. No man, or any set of men in official posi- 
 tion, will dare oppose an anti-miscegenation bill 
 openly.* None can deny that the revolting prac- 
 tice exists in Louisiana, or that it threatens, not 
 alone untold damage to the living, but future 
 disaster. The evil is repulsive enough as we see 
 it today, but the logical consequence of its con- 
 tinuance and tolerance must appall even those 
 degraded by its practice. There is no defense for 
 miscegenation, nor even a semblance of apology. 
 The ca'ncer has eaten its way to the surface. It 
 is hard to speak plainly upon such a subject, but 
 now that the manhood of the South has found 
 courage to voice its views and attack the evil in 
 open forum, there can be little doubt of the issue. 
 Louisiana needs a law against miscegenation, 
 with adequate and equal penalties for white and 
 black violators. If every white voter of the 
 state, who loves his home, regards the welfare 
 
 *The reader will here observe that all such anti-miscegenation 
 legislation is not designed to elevate but further degrade the 
 colored race. Legal intermarriage would stop all illicit mixing 
 and elevate both races.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 267 
 
 of his children and glories in the pure strain of 
 his blood will take the field for the enactment 
 and enforcement of a law to protect race purity 
 and to enforce respect for common decency, the 
 long step toward the preservation of a white 
 Louisiana will be taken at the next regular ses- 
 sion of the legislature. Once we secure the law, 
 we shall undoubtedly find means for its enforce- 
 ment'' 
 
 PROFESSOR HOLM WRITES HON. 
 HARRIS DICKSON.- 
 
 "Hon. Harris Dickson, 
 Vicksburg, Miss. 
 
 Dear Sir: I have seen something in the 
 papers concerning the Anti-Miscegenation move- 
 ment which you and others represent. As a 
 scientist and investigator, I feel a deep interest 
 in this, and would thank you very much if you 
 would let me know what is being done to check 
 illicit miscegenation in the South. If you have 
 any literature on the subject that would help to 
 enlighten me, I would feel grateful to you for 
 sending it to me or for informing me where I 
 might obtain it. 
 
 "Wishing you the best of success in your en- 
 deavor to bring about better conditions, I am 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 John J. Holm."
 
 268 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 HONORABLE HARRIS DICKSON 
 ANSWERS. 
 
 "Prof. John J. Holm, 
 C , Ala. 
 
 Dear Sir: I have your letter of the izth inst., 
 inquiring about the- Anti-Miscegenation move- 
 ment. 
 
 "Like yourself, I feel a deep interest in this 
 matter, and have been somewhat active in stir- 
 ring up public sentiment on the subject. Sev- 
 eral public meetings were held here in Vicks- 
 burg, and a league formed for the purpose of 
 gathering information and instituting prosecu- 
 tions. jWe have thought it best, however, to 
 make haste slowly, and build up such a resent- 
 ment against this practice as will find expression 
 in the jury boxesl 
 
 "I am enclosing you herewith blanks for sig- 
 natures of the members; also what is known as 
 an 'information blank.' These information 
 blanks were sent out to all who signed the mem- 
 bership blanks, with the idea of gathering in- 
 formation from every quarter which can be used. 
 While this has met with some success, it has not 
 been as thorough and complete as I should have 
 liked to see it. It has, though, had the effect of 
 breaking up numbers of cases which were very
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 269 
 
 flagrant, the people evidently fearing prosecu- 
 tion. 
 
 jj'My own opinion is that it will take years of 
 agitation before our people can be aroused to 
 treat seriously a condition which has been re- 
 garded as somewhat a matter of course amongst 
 the lowest class of whites] 
 
 "I shall be very glad to give you in the future 
 any possible information on the subject. 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 Harris Dickson." 
 
 MEMBERSHIP IN THE ANTI-MIS- 
 CEGENATION LEAGUE. "It being cur- 
 rent rumor in Vicksburg and Warren county 
 that certain degraded white men are living 
 notoriously in illicit relationship with Negro 
 women to the debasement of both races and the 
 outrage of common decency; 
 
 "And it being my firm belief that if such in- 
 famous practice exists that it should be stamped 
 out by punishing the guilty ones according to 
 law and exposing them to that universal con- 
 tempt which they deserve, 
 
 "I, therefore, agree to become a member of 
 the Anti-Miscegenation League and to furnish 
 the Executive Committee thereof with such in- 
 formation as I may now have, or which by rea- 
 sonable inquiry I may hereafter obtain.
 
 270 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 "And I further pledge myself to do everything 
 in my power to arouse public sentiment so that 
 the laws prohibiting this revolting crime may 
 be rigidly enforced." 
 
 NAME. 
 
 POST OFFICE ADDRESS. 
 
 INFORMATION BLANK 
 
 Fill out as best you can, and wherever possible insert the names of 
 
 witnesses who will swear to each fact. Then mail promptly to 
 
 Executive Committee, Lock Box 164, Vicksburg, Miss. 
 
 Name of man 
 
 Name of woman 
 
 Age, personal appearance and color of woman 
 
 Age of man 
 
 Exact location of house 
 
 Neighbors on either side and opposite. Particularly the 
 women 
 
 Where do they buy groceries 
 
 Does woman buy on man' s credit 
 
 Who delivers milk Bread 
 
 Groceries 
 
 Where was the furniture bought 
 
 Who paid for it 
 
 Have they ever lived together in any other house 
 When does the man enter and leave the house. . 
 
 Does any other man visit the house so frequently. 
 
 Who owns the house 
 
 Who pays the rent 
 
 How many rooms in the house.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 271 
 
 INFORMATION BLANK -Continued 
 
 Exact number and location of beds 
 
 Have they ever been seen in bed together 
 
 By whom 
 
 Have they ever been seen undressed together 
 
 Do they take their meals together 
 
 What is their manner and behavior towards each other 
 
 What other means of support has the woman 
 
 Has the man any other home 
 
 In whose employ is the man 
 
 Has the woman any children -Their color 
 
 Whom do they resemble 
 
 How does the man treat the children 
 
 Has he ever acknowledged them 
 
 Does the woman boast of him as "her man" 
 
 Does she say they are his children 
 
 Have the parties ever been arrested for this offense 
 
 Who were the witnesses 
 
 What became of the case 
 
 Has the woman ever been arrested for any other offense 
 
 Who paid her fine 
 
 Who went her bond 
 
 PROFESSOR HOLM ANSWERS DICK- 
 SON, DEFENDING HIS POSITION.- 
 
 "Hon. Harris Dickson, 
 Vicksburg, Miss. 
 
 Dear Sir: I thank you very much for the in- 
 formation you have so kindly given me on the 
 Anti-Miscegenation movement, and especially 
 for your proffered assistance in the future, 
 
 I must beg you to have a little patience with
 
 272 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 me in this letter, as I propose to go somewhat 
 into this very perplexing question with you. 
 
 First, I must tell you that I am a Wisconsin 
 reared man, and have studied the Negro in that 
 section; then coming South, some years ago, I 
 have spent a small fortune and considerable time 
 in study and research along scientific lines in 
 various sections of the South, covering every 
 phase of the Negro question. The result of my 
 work, if Providence permits, will appear in book 
 form in due time; and should our people of the 
 Southland reject to inaugurate the reforms we 
 advocate, I am, with many thinking men and 
 women of both races, nevertheless, persuaded 
 that it would be a rational and scientific solution 
 of the race question. 
 
 How far you and I agree is hard to determine 
 at present, but in essentials we are bound to agree. 
 
 Facts, you know, are such stubborn things, 
 and you and I, and all of us, North and South, 
 who run against them must heed them. 
 
 You are indeed right when you say that 'We 
 have thought it best to make haste slowly.' I 
 agree with you that it will take years to arouse 
 the southern people, to treat seriously this de- 
 plorable state of affairs; and, to be frank with 
 you, I must say that from scientific observations, 
 I have become firmly convinced that conditions 
 are bound to become worse instead of better, in 
 this regard, under the existing social order.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 273 
 
 I am not a pessimist by any means, but I be- 
 lieve that it is easier and more practicable to 
 tunnel a mountain in the construction of a rail- 
 road than to go by detour a thousand miles. 
 
 In short, I am convinced that laws must be 
 enacted that will conform to the laws of Nature, 
 and then be rigidly applied to this glaring social 
 evil between the races. 
 
 Unscientific agitation creates discord and 
 enmity, and God knows too much of that kind of 
 crime has already been committed by the Amer- 
 ican people. 
 
 OFFSPRING MUST CONSTITUTE 
 LEGAL MARRIAGE. First, and above all, 
 we (the southern states), must have a law that 
 offspring, under all circumstances, will consti- 
 tute a legal marriage. What could be done under 
 such a law, which is based upon natural prin- 
 ciples, is easy to determine. 
 
 Under such a law all white men throughout 
 this wide country who have a white wife and 
 children, and who are besides maintaining one 
 or more families by Negro women, can be pros- 
 ecuted for bigamy and be punished accordingly, 
 besides being rendered sterile through the opera- 
 tion of another law, which should provide this 
 measure for all Negro and white criminals who 
 commit certain social and other crimes against 
 society. 
 
 as
 
 274 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 THOSE WHO LIVE TOGETHER 
 MUST MARRY. Secondly, another law 
 should provide for the legal union of all white 
 men and women with Negro men and women, 
 with whom they are determined to live. They 
 should be compelled to marry instead of being 
 forced to separate. No MAN OR STATE ON 
 GOD'S GREEN EARTH HAS A MORAL RIGHT TO 
 SEPARATE A FAMILY. 
 
 In fact, by a higher natural law -these cannot 
 be compelled to separate. It would be an un- 
 pardonable crime against Nature's God. 'What 
 God hath joined let no man put asunder.' 
 
 No haphazard, unscientific attempt at reform 
 can be made along this line, without aggravating 
 this social cancer and thereby creating a far 
 worse condition. That the Caucasian race 
 would be threatened with extinction, or that any 
 serious complication would arise, if legal unions 
 of this kind were enforced, is all nonsense. 
 
 Why not make lawful that which is sanctioned 
 by Nature? 
 
 If Wisconsin, for instance, had a Negro pop- 
 ulation of 300,000 instead of 5,000, the laws there 
 in operation would prove just as effective in this 
 regard, and no evil would ensue. 
 
 The laws, or rather lack of laws, in this re- 
 spect, gives the unscrupulous whites and blacks 
 in the South a free license to commit this social
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 275 
 
 crime, while the Negro girls of culture, as well 
 as the lowest of the race, are rendered absolute- 
 ly unprotected. 
 
 And when we consider this, is it any wonder 
 that the Negro race is not morally progressing 
 more rapidly, when the devil of lust in both 
 races of the South is in relentless pursuit of every 
 atom of virginity in it? 
 
 It makes every drop of my Teutonic blood 
 boil when I see these innocent, sweet-faced 
 creatures led, as it were, to the slaughter, by the 
 men of both races! 
 
 My Dear Sir, I beg your pardon, but I am in 
 earnest. I wish to call your attention to another 
 matter, which may be considered the reverse of 
 what I have just said. 
 
 SOME WHITES ARE UNDULY AT- 
 TRACTED AMATORIALLY. In my in- 
 vestigations I have come across white men and 
 women, North and South, who are unduly at- 
 tracted, amatorially, to certain members of the 
 Negro race. I could give scientific reasons for 
 this natural attraction. That these should be 
 classed among the "lowest whites" is an injustice 
 that should find no lodgment in the minds of 
 true, free Americans, who are supposed to be en- 
 dowed by their Creator with inalienable rights 
 of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and 
 advocate the same for their fellow man.
 
 276 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 FORBIDDEN FRUIT. 
 
 "The claim for natural antipathy between the races is not well 
 founded." Professor William Pickens.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 277 
 
 Speaking without race prejudice, as a scientist, 
 I find that there is a fundamental cause, a divine 
 designation, if you please, that promotes such at- 
 traction, apart from the baser, mere animal grat- 
 ifications. I have nearly always found these 
 superbly adapted to those thus naturally at- 
 tracted. We find paramount reasons for this in 
 the natural law of dissemination or mixing. 
 
 I know of white women who found their af- 
 finity among and were married to colored men, 
 who were as cultured and refined as the accom- 
 plished Cora Marie Arnold, who became the 
 bride of a Pueblo Indian chief in New Mexico 
 who could not speak English; but I can here 
 give you only examples of a few men out of many 
 hundreds: Case No. i, a man, the son of one of 
 Alabama's greatest doctors of divinity, who oc- 
 cupies a very prominent and responsible posi- 
 tion, is cultured, refined, educated. Has for 
 years supported and lived with a colored woman. 
 He loves her from all appearances, and has no 
 white woman in marriage relation. He belongs 
 to the old southern aristocratic stock. 
 
 Case No. 2, a man of fine mental training, 
 reared in the North, came South, was at the head 
 of a school; married openly a cultured colored 
 girl, and maintained her creditably, and in 
 honest wedlock lived before the people of a large 
 southern city in the far South.
 
 278 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 THERE IS PLENTY OF EVIDENCE.- 
 
 Now, I am sure that if you are out for a thorough 
 reformation, and a quick and rational solution 
 of this complicated question, you will have 
 plenty of evidence along this line at hand to con- 
 vince you, as I have been, that we must do just 
 the reverse of what has heretofore been at- 
 tempted in ignorance, with prejudice and ven- 
 geance for a guide, instead of reason and justice. 
 
 I hope you will not misunderstand me. I have 
 stateq 1 "my case" from personal observations long 
 drawn out, and if you have any evidence to the 
 contrary that may modify or change my view, I 
 shall be more than glad to conform my belief to 
 any newly discovered truth that will help to un- 
 ravel the mystery of the race question. 
 
 I thank you for your patience in the pursuance 
 of this long epistle. I have written thus, because 
 I feel that you are deeply interested in the mat- 
 ters touched upon, and your judgment is of deep 
 interest and value to me. 
 
 Hoping to hear from you again, I remain, 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 John James Holm."
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 279 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SOCIAL VICE VERSUS LEGAL INTERMARRIAGE 
 
 UNNATURAL CONDITIONS BE- 
 TWEEN THE RACES THE CAUSE OF 
 VICE. We have found by careful investiga- 
 tion that more than five children are born perv 
 annum, in every one thousand Negro popula- 
 tion in the South, the progeny of a white parent. 
 From the mayor and other influential men down 
 to the common citizen are supporting and rear- 
 ing families by colored women in one of the 
 prominent cities of the Gulf, and in many other 
 places similar conditions exist, yet the laws 
 strictly forbid intermarriage with color. /Many 
 of the colored children of these white fathers 
 are sent to the best white and Negro schools in 
 the country, and are the best educated ofjmy 
 race.l 
 
 "-V"^ J 
 
 [Ninety per cent of all the leaders of the race \s 
 are the offspring of the Caucasianjjyet intermar- 
 riage is prohibited by law in many parts of the 
 country. The white man has a free license, un- 
 der these prevailing conditions to rob a colored 
 girl, at will, of her virtue, and prepare her for 
 connection with vice, corrupting her morals, be- 
 coming the mother of crime and criminals such
 
 280 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 as a mob would delight to lynch and burn. We 
 have seen the tears and heard the sobs of moth- 
 ers, whose wayward daughters in short skirts 
 had brought to their hearth white babies, and 
 who are now the inmates of the red light dis- 
 tricts, there to reach the lowest pit of shame and 
 moral degradation. 
 
 We contend that the colored woman DE- 
 MANDS SEXUAL PROTECTION FOR 
 HER DAUGHTERS. Legal intermarriage 
 would strike the vital spot that curses both races 
 in America. This book tells how and why. 
 
 pn the writer's former home in the far South a 
 white woman was the mother of four colored 
 children, and three colored girls became the 
 mothers of white children in one year, in a 
 Negro population of less than seven hundred! 
 The Negro is not becoming more and more 
 criminal every day, as ex-Governor Vardaman 
 says; but the wrong conditions under which he 
 has lived so long are becoming more and more 
 acute each day. The time for a decided change 
 is drawing near, no one can dispute this fact. 
 
 IS SHOCKING, INDEED. It must be 
 apparent to all who have investigated and given 
 any serious thought to the race question, that it 
 would be a safeguard against immorality, and 
 for the highest good of both whites and blacks, 
 if equal sexual protection was extended to both
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 281 
 
 races, and vigorously enforced in every section 
 of the country. As long as the sexual relations 
 with and among these people are ignored in a 
 large section of thickly settled Negro popula- 
 tion, it is practically impossible to infuse a bet- 
 ter moral tone among them and the white men 
 and women who are bent on mixing. In the 
 congested quarters of some southern cities liber- 
 tinism has become a vocation among them and 
 the whites that must be appalling, even to the 
 sophisticated. And that white women should 
 brazenly set the debasing example in plying 
 their unholy vocation, is shocking indeed! To 
 illustrate, we will take but one case in a Gulf 
 city from personal investigation. From their 
 quarters in this city white women employ Negro 
 men to go about the public square and solicit 
 "trade," and to conduct men by carriages to the 
 dens of infamy of these degraded white women. 
 And this "business" is said to be under the city's 
 authority! 
 
 The statement of a prominent Chicago news- 
 paper man that southern cities are more moral 
 than northern cities is far from being true if one 
 compares them size for size. In this way col- 
 ored men and women have been brutally taught 
 the lessons of vice, and as a consequence have a 
 low opinion of all whites in this regard. South- 
 ern cities have houses of illfame frequented by
 
 282 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 WHEN PAPA IS AT HOME. 
 
 Beautiful homes are found in which love and happiness reign 
 supreme, presided over by sweet-faced brown women, whose children 
 are fathered by white gentlemen of culture.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 283 
 
 white men who are not only patronizing those of 
 white women, but are degrading themselves with 
 the foulest scum of Negro depravity; poisoning 
 their bodies and damning their souls! 
 
 There are certain men and women of both 
 races who are bent on mixing there is a natural 
 law that seems to impel them to seek their affin- 
 ity among a people not of their race. But in the 
 South there is no hope of them living in true 
 w r edlock and respectability together. These are 
 consequently encouraged to drop into the foul 
 stream and land somewhere at the bottom. Do 
 our readers catch the thought we wish to con- 
 vey? A respectable white man and colored 
 woman, or a colored man and white woman, 
 cannot walk the streets of many southern cities 
 together without being arrested and imprisoned. 
 It does not matter whether the officers of the law 
 are themselves supporting a colored woman and 
 children; the law must be upheld and the color 
 line observed. This crookedness is the cause of 
 so much moral debauchery. Neither the white 
 man nor the colored woman (saying nothing 
 about the colored man and white woman) have 
 the least encouragement to live a good moral 
 life together; on the contrary the vials of hell 
 and all the angels thereof are poured upon them, 
 should they attempt to defy the existing custom 
 of illicit mixing and proclaim themselves man
 
 284 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Beautiful white children born to brown mother and full Cau- 
 casian father in Alabama. The lower one has beautiful golden 
 hair and sky-blue eyes.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 285 
 
 and wife. There is no other place in the civil- 
 ized world today, save in these United States, 
 where intelligent men and women of two races 
 are prohibited to enter the holy bond of matri- 
 mony, and are thereby encouraged to live a life 
 of shame together. In the southern republics 
 there is not even such a vile prohibition. In 
 fact, the Catholic Church has always exhibited 
 a liberal spirit in this regard, and where she 
 dominates a more intimate and natural relation 
 exists between the races. This fact is evident 
 in the rising republic, Brazil, in whose capital 
 many of the wealthiest, most influential and aris- 
 tocratic people have Negro blood in their veins. 
 JEven in New Orleans, Mobile and other cities 
 where Catholics are strong, the races have suc- 
 ceeded in mixing more naturally than in the 
 more Protestant centers of the South] And not 
 only this, there has been considerable less fric- 
 tion between them where the Catholic religion 
 has more closely united them, instead of divid- 
 ing them, as is the case in Protestant denomina- 
 tions. The Catholic Church is the only one we 
 know of where both colors can worship together 
 in the same building in the old slave states. 
 
 THE ETHICAL SIDE MUST BE CON- 
 SIDERED. Solomon, the wise man of old, 
 said, "To every thing there is a season." The 
 men who run the political machinery in the
 
 286 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 South have passed laws prohibiting the mixing 
 of the races, yet the mixing process has con- 
 tinued, in some cases by the law makers as well 
 as the people whom they serve. It has been 
 found that such prohibition does not prohibit, 
 but rather encourages and invites both races to 
 degrade their morals. The most urgent need is 
 a general reformation in both races. They have 
 gone far enough, and the time has come, we be- 
 lieve, when there ought to be brought about a 
 reaction. The old relations have been tried and 
 found wanting. Both races stand guilty before 
 the ethical world ; the white more than the col- 
 ored. It is a pity, indeed, if they do not feel 
 a sense of shame! Now, let the right relations 
 be tried. Let all whites and colored who affil- 
 iate be brought under a special marriage pro- 
 vision, and let the immoral features of the amal- 
 gamation process be abolished. 
 
 Our position is the true, ethical one, and will 
 be universally conceded as right by all people of 
 moral principles. 
 
 FORBIDDEN FRUIT IS SWEETEST. 
 -There is more true philosophy in this than ap- 
 parent at first thought. Forbidden fruit is al- 
 ways sweetest. Says the author, George Barr 
 McCutcheon:'* "Tell a young man that he shall 
 not marry a young woman outside of a certain 
 limited class or group, and he is less than hu-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 28? 
 
 man if he does not promptly fall in love with a 
 girl who belongs to the forbidden multitude. 
 And it is quite natural that a high spirited girl, 
 who is elected by the laws of her royal or aris- 
 tocratic station to marry a certain man, should 
 find another man of a different station, far more 
 attractive." 
 
 While the American people, especially of the 
 South, are sorely afflicted with colorphobia, the 
 fact has never been disputed that the "colored 
 fruit" is both sweet and pretty. We have often 
 heard it said that all "niggers are alike," but we 
 do not remember having heard that all Negroes 
 are homely. The Creole, and other women of 
 mixed blood in the South, are the prettiest in 
 America. They may lose their beauty much 
 younger than women of northern states, but 
 while young they excel all others in vivacity and 
 feminine magnetism. And there is a class of the 
 black type with delicately shaped, small mouth, 
 high narrow nose, large expressive black eyes 
 and a mass of long, wavy black hair, who would 
 be considered beautiful anywhere where a black 
 skin is not a disgrace. Indeed, their black skin 
 seems to heighten their beauty and enhance their 
 charms. They have finely carved figures and 
 are generally strong in body and well sexed. 
 
 We believe that the dreaded time will come 
 when many more respectable white men will find
 
 288 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 A SWEET, DARK BRIDE. 
 Now, let the right relations be tried.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 289 
 
 their affinities among these women, and when 
 such affiliations will be legalized and made re- 
 spectable. And why not? The illicit mixing 
 must be stopped. Is rendering this respectable 
 a greater crime than the present commingling in 
 the dark? It must be a depraved soul indeed 
 who winks at the present illicit mixing, and af- 
 firms it the only possible method to "keep the 
 races separated." Will the South forever cling 
 to the old, debasing traditions? If this be so, 
 then it must finally be swept aside by a tidal wave 
 of progress and a higher ethical standard, that 
 will usher in a new order of things. 
 
 ALL RACES MELTED TOGETHER 
 HERE. There are other times, other peoples 
 and other conditions, as the world moves on into 
 other ages. Lord Rosebery said in a speech be- 
 fore the Philosophical Institution in Edin- 
 burgh, Scotland, some time ago: "The United 
 States is a great crucible in which the metals of 
 every race and nation under the sun are being 
 melted together. Will this result in the produc- 
 tion of the perfect man of the future or in an 
 entirely new type hitherto unknown to anthro- 
 pologists, which will be the subject of study by 
 the older races of the globe? We are in a quasi- 
 paternal position to look forward to the develop- 
 ment of the experiment with almost breathless 
 expectancy." 
 
 19
 
 290 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Who can tell? The amalgamation of the 
 races in America may finally produce, scientifi- 
 cally, a new race of men. It is up to the people 
 of this country whether the Afro-American shall 
 be included in the production of this new race 
 of men by a legal intermarriage, or by illicit 
 mixing. 
 
 Those who believe that this mixing process 
 will cease when the Negro has attained higher 
 educational advantages, do not know the signs 
 of the times. We fully demonstrate elsew r here 
 in this work that the law of dissemination will 
 continue to scatter the races of the world, and 
 finally assimilate all. This little globe will soon 
 prove too small to keep any certain class or race 
 separate and distinct from all others And in 
 these United States, where all classes and races 
 have gathered, it is a gross folly to prohibit in- 
 termarriage in any shape or form. Nature al- 
 ways endeavors to produce her best. Let the 
 state guard against the propagation of the crim- 
 inal, imbecile, insane and idiot, which a wrong 
 social condition has produced, and we shall soon 
 evidence an all-round improvement. When the 
 laws of man do not interfere with the operation 
 of Nature's laws, man will prosper in the pro- 
 duction of better and higher types of physical 
 and mental perfection in the crossing of the 
 races. As an example, we will say that if the
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 291 
 
 white Negroes (those of very little Negro blood) 
 were prohibited from mixing with the black 
 Negro, as many believe they ought to be, 
 Nature's method of dissemination would be de- 
 feated, and rapid degeneracy would result 
 among them. In nine cases out of ten, those of 
 slight Negro taint are not physically adapted to 
 each other in marriage. If they follow the voice 
 or inclination of their inner nature, they invar- 
 iably find their affinity among the intensely 
 black. Nature prompts them to do so, and it 
 is right. Their offspring are, in most cases, 
 superior to either the black or yellow who pro- 
 duce together. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon is not the product of a few 
 generations, neither will the colored Caucasian 
 be. The complete assimilation of various races 
 consumes centuries. The black skin will not 
 disappear as rapidly as some may suppose. In 
 the melting together of the races, variety is the 
 greatest charm; and the country which possesses 
 such a variety today is indeed rich in future, 
 possible development. Any country which can 
 boast of but one race of people is in danger of 
 retrogression. It is the melting together of var- 
 ious races that insures future stamina and prog- 
 ress. Germany is dying with cancer, France is 
 facing sterility in her women. Of the 20,000,000 
 people inhabiting Spain, only about thirty-five
 
 292 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 per cent can read and write; another two and 
 one-half per cent of the population can read 
 without being able to write, but the remaining 
 sixty-two and one-half per cent are absolute ill- 
 iterates. The Afro-American is assured of a 
 greater future than the Spaniard, the French- 
 man or the German at home. His blood will 
 course through millions of people when the old 
 races of Europe have long been absorbed by 
 other rising races of foreign blood. 
 
 We have made these foregoing remarks to 
 show the reader that the future welfare of our 
 country demands a general reformation of the 
 sex-relations between the races. Nearly fifty 
 years of unlawful cohabiting between the eman- 
 cipated slave and dominant race has caused 
 enough shame and misery to be forever rele- 
 gated to the ignorance and licentiousness of the 
 past. 
 
 EVIDENCES OF FORTY-FIVE YEARS 
 ILLICIT MIXING. There are many people 
 in the South who deny that mixing takes place 
 to any extent, but all evidences point to the con- 
 trary. We have made careful inquiry in many 
 places. In a certain large city we found about 
 one-fourth of the Negro population apparently 
 full-blood, or at least dark; and one-half ranged 
 from brown to a yellow, while one-fourth ranged 
 from yellow to white. We found a large num-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 293 
 
 her of white men rearing families by colored 
 women, from the most influential citizen down to 
 the common resident. Some of these women lived 
 in beautiful houses surrounded by wealth and 
 luxury, their children receiving the best school- 
 ing obtainable in leading white and Negro col- 
 leges. We found these women true to their 
 men, and kind, lovable mothers. On the other 
 hand we saw the evil side of this process of mix- 
 ing hundreds of girls in their teens with white 
 babies! At the close of the war, we were told> 
 there were very few "bright mulattoes" in the 
 city, the great bulk of Negro population being 
 black. This, we believe, points strongly toward 
 the fact that there must have been an unusual 
 amount of illicit miscegenation since the war. 
 Fifty years hence there will be no black Negroes, 
 as far as this city is concerned, if the present rate 
 of mixing continues. What is the use of deny- 
 ing these things? The evidences of this deplor- 
 able condition are met in every city, hamlet and 
 cross road. 
 
 We want legal intermarriages, not because we 
 desire them, but because there is no other way 
 out of the present deplorable condition. A judge, 
 who presided over a municipal court in Georgia, 
 believes that the man who mixes ought to be 
 hung and the woman put in prison for life. 
 Supposing the South undertook to establish
 
 294 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 such a barbarous law, would that prevent mis- 
 cegenation? Never. When a doctor is called 
 in to treat a sick man, if he is a wise, up-to-date 
 physician, he will say: "I will assist Nature all 
 1 can and let her run her course, and he will 
 come out all right ; if not, God alone can save. To 
 give him drastic medicine powerful poison- 
 may kill him and I would be the cause of his 
 death." A state, like a wise physician, must let 
 Nature run her course, applying such remedies 
 (laws) as may best eliminate the wrongs of so- 
 ciety, and bring about harmony, purity and 
 peace. If the state meddles with the inherent 
 rights of the subject, in the destruction of his 
 peace and happiness, making unlawful that 
 which he considers essential to his individual 
 well-being, causing him to commit crime in ob- 
 taining his end, then the state is administering 
 powerful poisons which may kill the body pol- 
 itic and cause anarchy and death to reign. 
 
 In the above argument we do not mean to con- 
 vey the idea that we would sanction or encour- 
 age the black brute, or for that matter the white 
 one, to obtain any legal sexual relation with a 
 white or colored woman. We do not believe in 
 the propagation of brutes in human form, white 
 or black. 
 
 We believe in a sanctified sexual relation, for 
 the purpose of procreation only. Any other
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 295 
 
 sexual relation is prostitution, and the state ought 
 to punish this crime and protect society against 
 it. But we believe it is the basest outrage for 
 any state in the Union to prohibit any respect- 
 able man and woman of any two races in it to 
 unite in legal marriage, classing them with the 
 lewd and vicious, causing social ostracism and 
 a legal persecution that tends to debasement and 
 criminality. We believe this country would be 
 far better off without any marriage laws than to 
 have pernicious ones that encourage crime. 
 
 The American people, who ought to be the 
 most democratic on earth, are the narrowest, 
 most selfish, unreasonable creatures of any civ- 
 ilized beings in the world today. They are 
 more exclusive and prejudiced than were the 
 ancient Hebrews against foreign races, yet they 
 cross-breed more extensively! 
 
 CANNOT PREVENT LOVE BUT 
 WOULD NOT ADVISE MARRIAGE.- 
 We refer to Miss Ovington, a white woman of 
 the Negro settlement work in New York, as re- 
 ported by an interviewer after the famous dinner 
 for whites and blacks at the Cosmopolitan Club, 
 which was so extensively discussed in the south- 
 ern newspapers in 1908. She was asked: "Do 
 you believe in intermarriage of the whites and 
 blacks?" "No," she said, "I do not believe in 
 the marriage of blacks and whites. I do not go
 
 296 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 that far. But I do advocate the freest mingling 
 of the races. There is no reason why white per- 
 sons should not meet cultured Negro men and 
 women on terms of absolute equality. How can 
 you better arrive at a solution of the Negro 
 problem than by consultation and co-operation 
 with the intelligent blacks? 
 
 "But I would not hesitate to accept an invita- 
 tion to dine with a Negro, just as I would not 
 hesitate to meet with a Japanese, although I 
 think marriage with a Japanese is as physically 
 bad as with a Negro." 
 
 "So if a young Negro met and fell in love 
 with a white girl of the tenement you would not 
 advocate their manage?" was asked. 
 
 "No, it would not be 'judicious,' " was her 
 answer. 
 
 If Miss Ovington believes it is not judicious for 
 a colored man and white girl, who love each 
 other, to marry, what does she mean? Is she, 
 a northern woman, a believer in the custom of 
 illicit mixing prevalent in the South? Must 
 they live together out of wedlock? Is that her 
 idea? Or does she advocate the barbarous 
 method of stifling the affections, the blighting 
 of two lives, the tearing apart of two souls, just 
 because there is a difference in the color of their 
 skin? 
 
 Miss Ovington does not know the up-to-date.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 297 
 
 Children born to Caucasian mothers and Negro fathers in 
 Alabama. Notice the cranium capacity of the boy baby.
 
 298 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 independent woman, who will have her own 
 way in the choice of her affinity and husband, be 
 he a Negro, Chinaman, Japanese or English 
 nobleman. 
 
 The very idea of depriving the new American 
 woman of the right to choose, whom she intui- 
 tively knows is, the man she wants! 
 
 The Jap has been debarred from this country 
 there are influences at work which try to ex- 
 clude him entirely yet within the last few 
 years there have been more intermarriages be- 
 tween white American w r omen and the "dear lit- 
 tle yellow man" than ever before. Among many 
 are Dorothy Russell, the daughter of Lillian 
 Russell, the prima dona, who astonished her 
 friends by marrying a wealthy Japanese, for- 
 merly of New York. More recently Miss Helen 
 Gladys Emery, the accomplished daughter of 
 Archbishop Emery, traveled a thousand miles to 
 marry a middle class Japanese, a former servant 
 of her fathers house. California prohibits in- 
 termarriage with Japanese, but she found the 
 usual way in going to another state more Amer- 
 ican. We have not space to give further illus- 
 trations. Newspapers report many cases through- 
 out the country. 
 
 SHOULD BE NO ADMIXTURE OF 
 RACIAL STOCK. Now comes to the front 
 the retired President Eliot, of Harvard Uni-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 209 
 
 versity, declaring at Montgomery, Alabama, 
 while traveling through the South, that "there 
 should be no admixture of racial stock" and 
 that in the face of the fact that the races have 
 mixed throughout all the history of the world, 
 and that he himself is the product of such admix- 
 ture. He further is reported to have said: "I 
 believe, for example, that the Irish should not 
 intermarry with the American of English de- 
 scent (they are already mixed) ; that the Ger- 
 mans should not marry the Italians, that the 
 Jews should not marry the French. The ex- 
 perience of civilization shows that racial stocks 
 are never mixed with profit, and that such un- 
 ions do not bring forth the best and strongest 
 children." If this statement were true then the 
 Anglo-Saxon must be a very unprofitable nation 
 of imbeciles, for any small schoolboy can tell 
 Dr. Eliot out of what material the Anglo-Saxon 
 race is built. At one time, so history says, the 
 Romans found an unmixed savage race in Great 
 Britain, of such a low, degraded order that they 
 thought such poor stock would never make de- 
 cent slaves. Out of that degraded human ani- 
 mal the present proud, dominant Anglo-Saxon 
 evolved by the admixture of yarious foreign 
 blood, viz., Roman, German, Dane, etc. 
 
 Dr. Eliot says further: "There is no reason, 
 however, why the races cannot live together,
 
 300 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 side by side, in perfect peace and unity. In the 
 case of the Negroes and the whites, the races 
 should be kept apart in every respect. The 
 South has a 'wise policy." How little this gen- 
 tleman knows about the South and her policy, 
 or the tendencies of the races thereof? 
 
 It is a beautiful theory the various races in 
 America living side by side in sweet harmony, 
 yet "be kept apart in every respect." Angels 
 might be induced to live thus man never. 
 When Eve offered the forbidden fruit to Adam, 
 "He did eat." Nature ordained it so, God 
 willed it, man obeyed. If the pink-skinned, 
 so-called white race, considers it a crime in the 
 South to pass intermarriage laws for a particular 
 class of white and colored people, the present 
 custom of illicit mixing is a far greater crime. 
 Rather than to continue this crime, the lesser one 
 of a legal union would prove a virtue that the 
 world of today and the future generations of 
 this embittered Southland would applaud. 
 
 This "hair-splitting," race dividing business is 
 often ridiculous to behold. Many times the 
 conductors on the street cars and trains must ask 
 the passengers, "Are you white or colored?" 
 Sometimes a dark man, who goes out walking 
 with a white colored woman, is arrested for 
 walking with a white woman. He is held in 
 prison until it is proven, beyond all doubt, that
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 301 
 
 she has two and one-half drops of Negro blood 
 in her veins and is a "nigger." This "mixed 
 race stock" can intermarry with the blackest 
 Negro man or woman in the South, but with the 
 pure blood whites ( ?) this stock must only "mix 
 in the dark." 
 
 The long haired Mississippian contends that 
 "the Negro is bent on raping white women, be- 
 cause he wants social equality." This state- 
 ment is not a true one. He has in his own race 
 a wide range of color, from the whitest to the 
 blackest woman, and has no urgent desire to 
 marry a full Caucasian woman. 
 
 Where it is necessary to resort to this hair- 
 splitting race division, is it possible, as Dr. Eliot 
 says, that the races "be kept apart in every re- 
 spect?" 
 
 THE MEN WHO ARE BENT ON MIX- 
 ING. It is not the northern yankee who feels 
 called upon to mix with the colored races. The 
 French have mixed more with the Indians of the 
 northern states, Gulf coast and Canada, than all 
 other races put together. The yankee has mixed 
 extensively with the Irish, German, Scotch and 
 others, whose parents came to the United States 
 within the last hundred years. The progeny of 
 the New England yankee and the German is the 
 finest stock in America. It has the shrewd char- 
 acteristics of the yankee and the plodding, 
 thrifty, saving of the German.
 
 302 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 In the southern states there has been very little 
 admixture of blood for several hundred years, 
 save with the Negro and Indian. Only within 
 recent years, since migration from the northern 
 states has become general, has the mixing pro- 
 cess with foreign Caucasian blood commenced. 
 Because of the mixing with the Negro for so 
 many generations, many southern men have in- 
 herited an irresistible desire for illicit sexual 
 connection with the Negress, or with any other 
 dark race, such as the Indian. 
 
 To illustrate this point we will recite just one 
 case here. A South Carolinian went to Mon- 
 tana to make his home. He missed the Negro 
 there, but found the Indian. He at once pro- 
 ceeded to make love to a pretty Indian maiden, 
 named Mary La Brecka, of the Blackfoot In- 
 dians. She would not consent to the southern 
 method of illicit union he was accustomed to with 
 the Negress. He was determined to have her 
 so he married her. Then his trouble began, for 
 he had a white wife in another place who soon 
 discovered his exploits. He was arrested and 
 prosecuted for bigamy. His white wife pro- 
 cured a divorce, and besides a fine and imprison- 
 ment he was sentenced by the judge to "remarry 
 the Indian woman." He did this without a 
 protest. 
 
 This example of the northwest gives us a clear
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 303 
 
 idea of what the southern states might accom- 
 plish in the way of a moral uplift, if the same 
 laws were here in force and faithfully applied, 
 as did Judge Hunt of Montana. 
 
 Supposing this little Indian maiden had been 
 a resident of South Carolina, and had been se- 
 duced by a white rascal as thousands of colored 
 maidens are every year in that and all the other 
 southern states, what would have been the re- 
 sults? She would have been an outcast, blighted, 
 disgraced, brokenhearted being, with a white 
 baby in her arms, that is all. No protection by 
 law, no redress, nothing, nothing. The law of 
 that state says the colored and white races must 
 not marry, as it does in the other un-American 
 states of our free ( ?) country. The weak, inno- 
 cent, defenseless may suffer that's nothing. We 
 must preserve the integrity of our race at any 
 cost. 
 
 COMPELLED TO ADVOCATE LEGAL 
 INTERMARRIAGE. As a careful student 
 of man, and as a scientist without prejudice we 
 are compelled to advocate, as the lesser evil, 
 legal intermarriage. On the other hand all his- 
 tory testifies that the mixed races of the world 
 have been the foremost, and that Nature com- 
 pels mixing for evolutionary growth; that the 
 Anglo-Saxon is but one example in many of such 
 a growth, evolved out of one of the most unprom-
 
 304 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ising savage races as its foundation. Again, any 
 one who has investigated the conditions in the 
 South, and has found, many times, the love, fidel- 
 ity and absolute devotion between the good men 
 and women of the races, cannot, with a heart for 
 love of liberty and justice, advocate a system or 
 uphold a law that will tear asunder hearts and 
 families and homes that God Almighty has es- 
 tablished and blessed. If the South is today 
 pursuing a just policy, its crop of illicit births 
 testify that it is founded on hell! To continue 
 to advocate the South's policy of separation in 
 the day and mixing in the dark, will in time en- 
 tirely obliterate every atom of moral sense in 
 both races, and both will sink into hopeless de- 
 pravity. 
 
 If a colored woman is good enough to co- 
 habit with, she is good enough to become the 
 lawful wife of the white man. He must marry 
 her as does the colored man his white wife in 
 the North. 
 
 THE TRUE STATE OF THE COL- 
 ORED WOMAN. Our object here is to lay 
 before the reader the true state many colored 
 women are in today, and the conditions under 
 which they are forced to live. 
 
 We are conscious of the fact that the two 
 races are mixing more today than ever before. 
 The race of mulattoes is increasing. And while
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 305 
 
 this is true the same custom which existed dur- 
 ing slavery times still prevails, and the colored 
 woman is a slave to it. With all her wisdom, 
 refinement and intelligence acquired during the 
 past forty-five years, she has not yet exercised 
 herself, with few exceptions, in the demand of 
 a legal union with her paramour of another 
 color. She is still content to remain the tool of 
 the passions of more than twenty-five per cent of 
 the white men of the South, with whom she has 
 criminal sexual connections. She is still con- 
 tent to be branded before the civilized world as 
 the mother of a race of bastards. She has all 
 the attributes which go to make an ideal wife 
 and mother, but she has not the moral stamina to 
 make one under the present terrible adverse con- 
 ditions. These conditions have so depleted her 
 moral sense of decency that she has only a flick- 
 ering idea of sexual purity. Is not our civiliza- 
 tion to blame, that has made her what she is? 
 
 She is religious very religious, but all her 
 religious exercises and exaltations do not incul- 
 cate in her the necessity of moral purity, which 
 should prevent her from indulging sexual con- 
 nections with more than one man, or only with 
 the colored or white man she loves. This is 
 true with many exceptions of the higher, respon- 
 sible class. 
 
 When some leading men and women of the 
 
 20
 
 306 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 races are asked to give their opinion as to the 
 best method that might be pursued to rid the 
 races of this degrading condition which will 
 finally land both into utter ruin, the majority 
 exclaim "Why!" Then they will explain to 
 you that they do not advocate social equality, or 
 miscegenation, or amalgamation, or any other 
 thing that will in any way interfere with the 
 present debasing practices between them. 
 
 There is a fearful spirit manifested here that 
 does not become the men and women who have 
 proven themselves heroic along other lines of 
 endeavor. 
 
 Something must be done. 
 
 Here is the gist of all the blighting curse en- 
 gendered: Aside from this strange union and 
 sexual satisfaction the colored woman will love 
 the white man, and the white man the colored 
 woman; but this fact must be carefully hid by 
 her in most cases as well as by him. Both thus 
 necessarily harbor a sneaking sense of watchful- 
 ness and cunning, and the children born under 
 this state of mind generally inherit the same 
 sneaking, sexual craving; thus increasing the 
 present growing class of born reprobates. And 
 it does not matter whether her lover be the 
 father of her children, or whether he be white 
 or black, the same results will follow. A white 
 man who keeps company with a colored woman
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 307 
 
 while raising a family with his white wife, is 
 liable to curse his white children likewise. 
 
 Loose marriage relations in both races are 
 more liable to result in poor offspring than oth- 
 erwise. 
 
 Under these conditions the hand that rocks 
 the cradle damns a nation! 
 
 The blight which rests upon the issue of il- 
 licit sexual intercourse between the races can only 
 be removed by a legal intermarriage, or a ren- 
 dering respectable by public consent. And ren- 
 dering this respectable need not embrace social 
 equality. The object to be attained is to liber- 
 ate the colored woman from sexual slavery, as 
 well as the white woman who finds her affinity 
 in the colored race, and thereby produce a better 
 offspring and law abiding citizen for this great 
 republic. 
 
 No radical racial improvement can take place 
 as long as a sneaking sexual secrecy is main- 
 tained between the races in this country. The 
 white South as well as the black is already 
 steeped in moral depravity because of it. If 
 there were no marriage prohibitions between the 
 races a more natural condition would soon be 
 brought about. An open, legal union, with a 
 natural, modulated separation of the races, 'with- 
 out any state interference, is the only policy our 
 nation can pursue if growth instead of decay is 
 to be our lot.
 
 308 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 FREDERICK DOUGLASS SAW IT. 
 
 Frederick Douglass, that man of clear fore- 
 sight and iron will, saw the day when a firm 
 stand must be taken to prevent utter sexual cor- 
 ruption between the races. He saw that the two 
 races could not forever live together and not 
 amalgamate lawfully. He saw that the custom 
 of illicit mixing of the former slave master with 
 his female chattels could not forever be endured 
 i>y a free, refined, educated colored womanhood. 
 He took the step, he set the example, though he 
 was mocked, derided and met with a storm of 
 protests by influential members of his race. He 
 stepped out like a man and married the white 
 woman who was willing to love him and marry 
 him. Who has ever thought him a coward? 
 The coward belongs to the other class the 
 sneaking \vhite man who slips into the home of 
 his colored woman after dark and out before 
 daylight, and the colored woman who loves him 
 but does not insist on their legal union. If she 
 would follow the example of the little Indian 
 girl referred to above, he would travel a thou- 
 sand miles with her in order to make her his 
 legal wife in a free state, or he would let her 
 alone. 
 
 As long as the colored woman is considered 
 so cheap, so common, the men of her own race 
 as well as white men will fool with her and seek
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 309 
 
 her degradation, and consider her common 
 property, in other words, a sexual slave. 
 
 We care little for the adverse opinions of 
 black men or white men, or of mixed men jus- 
 tice, that's what we want, what we demand. We 
 stand for the moral uplift of the colored woman- 
 hood, the white manhood their freedom from 
 the cursed custom of illicit mixing of slavery 
 times! The laws must be so changed that there 
 is no occasion for illicit mixing. And when a 
 colored man is found in the society of a white 
 woman, with her consent, there shall be no lynch- 
 ing, neither prosecution, but marriage. 
 
 You may call this social equality, you may 
 call it an outrage to the white race especially 
 the white woman; but it is neither! It is noth- 
 ing but justice justice in an equal sexual op- 
 portunity and protection between the races, as 
 they live and move and have their being to- 
 gether in this great Southland and every other 
 part of our union. 
 
 INTERMARRIAGE PROHIBITIONS 
 ARE DEGRADING. We have seen in the 
 foregoing that intermarriage prohibitions are 
 absolutely degrading between the races in this 
 country. First, that such prohibitions cannot 
 be enforced; secondly, that such prohibitions 
 are contrary to human nature, reason and jus- 
 tice. It is contended by a certain class of south-
 
 310 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 erners that if no marriage prohibitions did exist 
 in the South, the Negro would force his way 
 into the parlor of the white man and insist in 
 keeping company with his daughter. 
 
 What a silly argument. In the crowded 
 Negro centers of many northern cities where 
 marriage is not forbidden, the same kind of 
 Negro lives that exists in the South, and the 
 white man has never found cause for such a com- 
 plaint. No, it is not that. It is the political 
 boss, the law-maker, the feudal lord of the South, 
 who lives in illicit relationship with Negro 
 women, who wants to keep her thus in ignorance 
 as his sexual slave, who is the bitterest opponent 
 of legal intermarriage. The better class of men 
 of means who have colored wives would wel- 
 come nothing more fervently than a law that 
 would legalize their offspring and make respect- 
 able their pretty little wives and family. We 
 could recite a number of cases where these men 
 came in conflict with this demagogue, because 
 they insisted on living as respectable and openly 
 as possible with their colored wives and family. 
 
 THE COLORED MAN WOULD RE- 
 CEIVE SOCIAL JUSTICE. With the over- 
 throw of this political gang that rules the South 
 the colored man would receive social justice, 
 When a bad white woman accuses him wrong- 
 fully, he would then not be thrust into prison
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 311 
 
 without a fair trial. A number of such cases 
 have come under our observation. The colored 
 man is by no means always guilty when accused 
 by a white woman. We will give a few ex- 
 amples to show the reader why. A southern 
 white woman had kept company with a Negro 
 man for more than two years. She one day de- 
 manded money of him which he could not sup- 
 ply just at the time. She got him in a compromis- 
 ing position with herself, when she suddenly 
 gave a fierce alarm. He was caught, narrowly 
 escaped lynching, was prosecuted and sent to 
 the coal mines for life. At this writing there is 
 a colored man in an Alabama prison who came 
 to grief in nearly the same manner. Seemingly 
 a northern woman, who had not been long in the 
 city, became acquainted with this man and en- 
 couraged him. At various times he sent her 
 flowers and fruit, etc., until one day a note from 
 him fell into the hands of the woman with whom 
 she was boarding. This woman gave the note to 
 her husband who made inquiry of the woman 
 boarder. When she saw that she was about to 
 be exposed she denied any friendship with the 
 Negro, and said it was very impudent of him, 
 etc. The man, in true southern chivalry, ad- 
 vised her to notify the police. This she did, and 
 now her dark lover is in prison. He produced 
 evidence of their intimacy in the shape of several
 
 312 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 PRETTY COLORED CAUCASIAN WOMEN FROM THE GULF.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 313 
 
 check stubs, which were made out to her, and 
 the checks of which she had cashed in a city 
 bank. But all evidence he might produce will 
 undoubtedly avail him nothing. But there are 
 places in the far South where sentiment is 
 stronger than the law. We have knowledge of 
 a case in Tampa, Florida. A white woman got 
 her Negro man into trouble of a like nature, but 
 the colored man proved by white and colored 
 witnesses that she had lived with him ten years. 
 She was ordered out of town and he was released 
 from prison. In some parts of Florida intermar- 
 riage is very common, and the existing law op- 
 posing it is a dead letter. Cubans and others ar- 
 rive in that state with black wives, and many 
 others also have colored wives and families. 
 
 In relating the above cases we do not attempt 
 to prove that all white women will deny their 
 relationship with colored men, for many good 
 and brave white women do not. A case came 
 to our notice not long since, where a white 
 woman arrived in a southern town with her col- 
 ored husband. As soon as they were discovered 
 he was thrown into prison by the brave (?) offi- 
 cer of the law, who never recognizes a colored 
 woman while the sun shines. She fought for her 
 swarthy husband like a little heroine she was. 
 She demanded of the judge to "let her husband 
 go ;" that he was hers, and that they had no right
 
 314 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 to imprison or detain him. She produced their 
 marriage certificate and the fact that they were 
 legally married in a free state and were not 
 slaves. Finally the court ruled that the woman 
 was of a very low, degraded character f and that 
 the "nigger" should be released and both be 
 compelled to leave within twenty-four hours. 
 
 A very amusing case is related of a bishop of 
 the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. 
 He had a very fair wife, in fact so fair that an 
 expert could not tell that she was colored. While 
 holding conference in a Mississippi town he was 
 arrested for being with a white woman. It was 
 necessary for them to produce proof from their 
 native town that she was there known as colored. 
 
 Now, it is evident that all this silly persecu- 
 tion of the colored man with regard to the white 
 woman would cease, just as soon as the dominat- 
 ing set of political vagabonds in the South is cast 
 out of office, and, if possible out of the country. 
 The two races cannot live in peace and happi- 
 ness together as long as this set of race hating, 
 bulldozing anarchists rule the South. We have 
 reasons to believe that their days are numbered. 
 There is a hand writing on the wall. 
 
 OUR MARRIAGE LAWS ARE OUT- 
 RAGEOUS. There is no country on earth to- 
 day, that makes any pretense at civilization or 
 the social regulation of its citizens, that has as
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 315 
 
 varied and conflicting a set of marriage laws as 
 have these United States. A foreigner coming 
 to our country and looking over our marriage 
 statutes in the various states for the first time, 
 must, indeed, feel that he is beholding a "crazy- 
 quilt" in law-making that must ever disgrace the 
 framers of them in the eyes of our future, great, 
 mixed population. In some states, like Illi- 
 nois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, etc., 
 there are no race prohibitions. In others, like 
 Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, Mississippi, 
 Louisiana, Texas, and all the other southern and 
 some western states, marriage between Negroes 
 and whites is prohibited. Some of them have 
 prohibitions between Indians and whites and 
 Mongolians and whites. California is one of 
 the states prohibiting marriage between whites 
 and Negroes, Mongolians and mulattoes. Other 
 states, like Arizona, have prohibitions between 
 Indians and whites or Chinese and whites. Yet 
 another state, like Oklahoma, encourages mar- 
 riage between Indians and whites, while with 
 even the refined Negro it is considered a disgrace 
 and unlawful. In some states where marriage 
 with the African descent or Indian is prohibited, 
 there are few Negroes or Indians. For instance, 
 Maine has an Indian population of less than 700, 
 but prohibits marriage with them, while Okla- 
 homa has the largest in the United States (75,- 
 ooo) and endeavors to amalgamate them.
 
 316 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 PRETTY FRENCH CREOLE LADIES.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 317 
 
 Again, Nevada has less than 200 Afro-Amer- 
 icans, but has an intermarriage prohibition, 
 while Pennsylvania, with more than 175,000, 
 New York, with more than 100,000, Ohio, with 
 more than 100,000, Illinois with more than 100,- 
 ooo, have no marriage prohibitions. 
 
 The very fact that the law in some states says 
 that there shall be no marriage between the Cau- 
 casian and the mulatto, is a confession that the 
 mulatto actually exists. Furthermore, the law, by 
 making this restriction on the one hand, silently 
 grants the existence of illicit mixing on the 
 other; or, perhaps more correctly, is too im- 
 potent to cope with it. 
 
 The same class of Indians and Negroes may be 
 found in all the states and also the same class of 
 whites, and yet there exists this difference in our 
 marriage laws of the various states. 
 
 This goes to show that no state can justly and 
 successfully legislate on matters pertaining to the 
 affairs of the heart of its sane and law-abiding 
 citizens whom they shall or shall not marry 
 and that there should be no statute in any state 
 prohibiting intermarriage, and thereby encour- 
 aging crime. 
 
 Our marriage laws are an outrage to our civ- 
 ilization. 
 
 WHERE INDIANS AND WHITES 
 MARRY. We take the following interesting
 
 318 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 reading from a southern newspaper, "The Me- 
 ridian Dispatch," a strong Mississippi daily, 
 which proves the fact that the southern people 
 are interested in a question which, even this early 
 day, confronts them and demands attention 
 throughout the South. This article says: 
 
 "While the new State of Oklahoma is more 
 southern than western, and while the Negro is 
 accorded no social equality, the Indian, if he be 
 educated and possessed of property, is on an 
 equal footing with the whites. Oklahoma 
 boasts of thousands of prosperous American cit- 
 izens who trace their ancestry on one or both 
 sides to the aborigines. 
 
 "For example, an Indian is attorney for one of 
 the biggest western railroads, is a graduate of 
 an eastern university and a man of influence in 
 the state. His wife, a charming white woman, 
 is as proud of her husband's red ancestry as is 
 many a New Yorker of descent from the De 
 Lanceys or Livingstones. 
 
 "No social stigma attaches to the intermar- 
 riage of whites and Indians, at least when the 
 latter are of the better class. An illustration of 
 this state of affairs was the experience of a New 
 York woman traveling last winter in Oklahoma. 
 
 "On my way from Muskogee to a near-by 
 city," she said, "I met in the Pullman car an 
 intelligent, well-appearing young white woman
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 319 
 
 who chatted with me about the people. I dis- 
 played my tenderfoot ignorance by asking her if 
 many Indians in the state were civilized. 
 
 "My neighbor smiled at me indulgently, and 
 answered: "Oh, yes, many of our finest men 
 are Indians, or part Indian. My husband," she 
 added, holding her head a little higher, "is a 
 member of the Chickasaw nation." 
 
 "My husband's father," she went 'on to ex- 
 plain, "was a white man, a physician. He sent 
 his son to Yale, and when he died he left a good 
 
 property in M . My own people were early" 
 
 comers to Oklahoma,' and I have lived here all 
 my life. My husband's mother, a full-blooded 
 Chickasaw, is still living, and owns one of the 
 
 handsomest homes in M . She has a great 
 
 many Indian relics, of which we are very 
 proud. I suppose you know that the two prin- 
 cipal tribes here are the Choctaw and the Chick- 
 asaw. Every member of these tribes has land 
 apportioned to him by the government. My lit- 
 tle daughter, five years old, as a member of the 
 Chickasaw nation, has land which brings her an 
 income of $750 a year. My husband and I are 
 putting this money in the bank to her account, 
 and when she is old enough it will be sufficient 
 to send her to an eastern college. My husband 
 also has holdings in the Chickasaw lands, and the 
 law gives me, as an 'intermarried citizen,' an 
 equal amount."
 
 320 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Dr. Booker T. Washington says of his visit to 
 Oklahoma: "It was in the fall that I spent a 
 week in Oklahoma. During the course of my 
 visit I had an opportunity for the first time to 
 see the three races the Negro, the Indian, and 
 the white man living side by side, each in suf- 
 ficient numbers to make their influence felt in 
 the community of which they were a part, and in 
 the territory as a whole. It was not my first 
 acquaintance with the Indian. During the last 
 years of my stay at Hampton Institute I had 
 charge of the Indian students there, and had 
 come to have a high respect both for their char- 
 acter and intelligence, so that I was particularly 
 interested to see them in their own country, 
 where they still preserved to some extent their 
 native institutions. I was all the more impressed, 
 on that acount, with the fact that in the cities 
 that I visited I rarely caught sight of a genuine 
 native Indian. When I inquired, as I frequently 
 did, for the 'natives,' it almost invariably hap- 
 pened that I was introduced, not to an Indian, 
 but to a Negro. During my visit to the city of 
 Muskogee I stopped at the home of one of the 
 prominent 'natives' of the Creek Nation, the 
 Hon. C. W. Sango, superintendent of the Tulla- 
 hasse Mission. But he was a Negro. : The 
 Negroes who are known in that locality as "na- 
 tives" are the descendents of slaves that the In-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 321 
 
 dians brought with them from Alabama and 
 Mississippi, when they migrated to this territory 
 about the middle of the last century. I was in- 
 troduced later to one or two other 'natives' who 
 were not Negroes, but neither were they, as far 
 as my observation went, Indians. They were, 
 on the contrary, white men. 'But where,' I 
 asked at length, 'are the Indians?'' 
 
 "Oh! the Indians," was the reply, "they have 
 gone" with a wave of the hand in the direction 
 of the horizon "they have gone back!" 
 * * "One cannot escape the impression, in 
 traveling through Indian Territory, that the In- 
 dians, who own practically all the lands, and 
 until recently had the local government largely 
 in their hands, are to a very large extent regarded 
 by the white settlers, who are rapidly filling up 
 the country, as almost a negligible quantity. To 
 such an extent is this true that the constitution of 
 Oklahoma, as I understand it, takes no account 
 of the Indians in drawing its distinctions among 
 the races. For the constitution there exists only 
 the Negro and the white man. The reason 
 seems to be that the Indians have either receded 
 "gone back," as the saying in that region is 
 on the advance of the white race, or they have 
 intermarried with and become absorbed with it. 
 Indeed, so rapidly has this intermarriage of the 
 two races gone on, and so great has been the de- 
 
 21
 
 322 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 PRETTY BROWN AND YELLOW LADIES.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 323 
 
 mand for Indian wives, that in some of the na- 
 tions, I was informed, the price of marriage li- 
 cense has gone as high as $1,000." 
 
 It will be readily seen by our readers that this 
 rapid amalgamating process between the white 
 and red races is not because of special worth or 
 superior physical beauty, but because of a 
 pecuniary consideration on the white man's part 
 in most cases. Many white men became "squaw 
 men" in Indian Territory years ago, not because 
 she was pretty, civilized, intelligent, or refined, 
 but because she possessed "something substantial 
 worth looking after." While the full-blooded 
 Indian woman is rarely attractive, she has al- 
 ways made a very faithful and dutiful wife and 
 mother to the white man, and her children by 
 him have nearly always possessed superior phys- 
 ical beauty. Some of the best looking women in 
 Oklahoma have Indian blood in their veins, and 
 many men now prefer these to a pure-blooded 
 white woman, and vice versa. But, while we 
 say this, let the reader remember that the woman 
 of Negro descent, in Oklahoma and elsewhere in 
 the South, in whose veins often flows the blood 
 of both the white and red races, if she be edu- 
 cated, has the most charming and magnetic per- 
 sonality of any woman on the American conti- 
 nent. If she were placed in the same position 
 as the Indian woman of Oklahoma occupies,.
 
 324 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 TWO COLORED BEAUTIES OF THE FAR SOUTH. 
 "When the wind blows cold."
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 325 
 
 white men in every station in life would take her 
 as a legal wife. And the same is true of the col- 
 ored men. We have never heard a white woman 
 say that an Indian man possessed any degree of 
 physical beauty, or, in other words, a pleasing 
 physiognomy, while many cultured Negro men 
 are pronounced handsome by the best feminine 
 judges in such matters. 
 
 If the Negro did not occupy such an unfavor- 
 able political position in this country, and the 
 stigma of his former bondage were removed, 
 there would be little objections by the law-mak- 
 ers to legal intermarriage with the refined and 
 educated class of African blood. And, as we 
 have already said, there is a better class of white 
 men in the South who would fervently welcome 
 a legal union between the races in these states, in 
 spite of all prejudice, and forever remove the 
 degrading conditions as they now are. From 
 these men we shall undoubtedly hear in some 
 future day. 
 
 A POLITICAL CHANGE MEANS SO- 
 CIAL ELEVATION AND SALVATION. 
 Right here we want our readers to bear in 
 mind that a political change in the South is a 
 necessity, before social elevation and salvation 
 is possible in the white as well as the black race. 
 As long as a set of self-centered men can obtain 
 and maintain political life in the South, by pit-
 
 326 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ting one race against the other, so long will the 
 masses of both races "go begging." The best 
 interest of both races in the South is identical. 
 As soon as the better class of both races discover 
 this fact they will unite and obtain control of the 
 South. As soon as this control has been obtained, 
 the marriage laws now on the statute books of 
 the southern states will be so changed that the 
 social relations between the races will become 
 elevating, tending to a pure home life and a legal 
 union between the sexes of the races. And here 
 we touch upon one more thought, and we are 
 done: 
 
 LOVE BETWEEN THE SEXES OF THE 
 RACES IS CONDUCIVE TO HOME- 
 LIFE. The love which exists between the men 
 and women of the two races in thousands of in- 
 stances is conducive to pure home-life, good 
 morals and splendid citizenship, if it were legal- 
 ized and made respectable, as in the case of the 
 Indians and whites in Oklahoma. 
 
 Love, though elevating and purifying in its 
 attributes under natural conditions, may be 
 dragged in the mire and be made disreputable 
 between the sanest and most respectable citi- 
 zens of two races, when the laws oppose and 
 customs forbid. A white woman, though 
 pure and good, is pronounced low and de- 
 graded when she unites in love and marriage
 
 OR THE FADING LEONARD'S SPOTS 327 
 
 with a colored man. A white man, though 
 he may keep company with a colored woman as 
 a matter of course, is ostracized by society if he 
 claims her as his legal wife. She even is pro- 
 nounced low and degraded by her own race, 
 though she has never known a man but him. 
 The Negro's mind is warped in this by the south- 
 ern white man as in many other respects. His 
 narrowness and stupid race pride cause him to 
 rather degrade the womanhood of his race than 
 to champion her rights as a woman among 
 women. The day will come when the colored 
 women, who now step out boldly and proclaim 
 their love for and fidelity to white men, will be 
 revered by the race as champions of liberty and 
 mothers of justice. 
 
 Prof. O. S. Fowler, our revered teacher, has 
 long since proclaimed this fundamental law of 
 love as overruling all human law: 
 
 "When God's 'higher law' conflicts with man's 
 lower, the higher should annul and overrule the 
 lower. His laws alone are right, and create 
 right. Human law cannot make that right 
 which His natural law interdicts; nor that 
 wrong which Divine law sanctions; for all hu- 
 man laws derive their obligability from their 
 being rescripts of the Divine. Natural law en- 
 acts that physical and mental love go hand in 
 hand together. The injuries and agonies of love
 
 328 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 interrupted or disappointed are caused solely by 
 violating this law; and can arrest only thus: 
 STOP LOVING, OR ELSE COHABIT 
 AND PROCREATE TOGETHER." 
 
 The peculiar attractiveness between the races, 
 who will forever live side by side, will become 
 more and more aggravated as the Afro-Ameri- 
 can moves upward into the higher realms of 
 mental and moral attainments ; and the two races 
 will not "STOP LOVING," nor yet stop pro- 
 creating together. Intellectual and moral at- 
 tainments will not stop this loving and procreat- 
 ing, but is bound to legalize it. Men and women 
 of enlightenment and civilization, the world 
 over, hate slavery in this age of tremendous evo- 
 lutions, especially that kind of slavery which 
 prescribes to them strong, sane, intelligent citi- 
 zens what kind of sexual life-mates they shall 
 or shall not select for their individual happiness 
 and wellbeing. 
 
 The race question is not and never will be 
 solved, until legal intermarriage can take place 
 in all the states without a shadow of prejudice 
 or social ostracism. This fact is well illustrated 
 in the following newspaper clipping from the 
 New Orleans Picayune. Such places as here 
 referred to have never experienced mob violence 
 or lynchings, but nearly always possessed the 
 sweetest harmony and good fellowship between 
 the races.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 329 
 
 SOCIAL EQUALITY, EVOLUTION AND PROGRESS.
 
 330 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 "WHY THE LAW IS POWERLESS. 
 
 Where White Swear They are Black, Convic- 
 tion is Impossible. 'She's my wife. We have 
 lived together thirty-eight years. The law can- 
 not estrange us.' Thus spoke Joseph Lawrence, 
 a white farmer, in the second criminal court at 
 New Orleans, La., recently, while he was wait- 
 ing trial on the charge of marrying a colored 
 woman. Through the arrest of Lawrence and 
 his colored wife the police discovered a hard 
 situation. All around Lee Station the white 
 farmers and fishermen and other classes have 
 intermarried with colored people and reared 
 large families, regardless of the law against such. 
 A number of arrests have been made, but it has 
 been impossible to convict one for the reason 
 that the white parties all went on the stand and 
 swore they were colored. Just what the prose- 
 cuting attorney can do remains to be seen." 
 
 It remains to be seen, as the Picayune says, 
 what the law can do with men and women of the 
 two races who will "not stop loving" or procre- 
 ating together. This community, as many others 
 in the South, shows that love between the sexes 
 of the races is conducive to harmony, good 
 home-life, good citizenship, etc., when it is 
 allowed to culminate in legal intermarriage, but 
 that it, on the other hand, degrades and brutal- 
 izes when the offending parties are continually
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 331 
 
 dragged into court and subjected to the sense- 
 less prejudice of the dominating class, or when 
 this dominating class is allowed, by the old cus- 
 tom of the South, to take the advantage of the 
 defenseless colored women. 
 
 The Martin case, which has recently gone the 
 rounds in the newspapers, is but a fair example. 
 The Martins are reported to be rich planters 
 who live near Crenshaw, Mississippi. The 
 Oliver girl, who is a beautiful octoroon, had 
 been living at the Martin household for six 
 months. She went there as a servant, but young 
 Martin took her out of the chambers, gowned 
 her in costly clothes and openly rode about the 
 neighborhood with her. Angry and heart- 
 broken at the ruin of her beautiful daughter, 
 Mrs. Oliver, in whose veins ran the blood of a 
 chivalrous white race, went to the Martin house 
 in company with another daughter and de- 
 manded that her daughter return with her. 
 Young Martin heard the demands of the women 
 from his room, he walked out to the gallery with 
 a gun and fired four shots into the women, who 
 fell dead. There is nothing extraordinary about 
 this case. Such cases are an everyday occur- 
 rence in this country. Had it not been for the 
 killing of the two women connected with the 
 case, the Oliver girl would have remained the 
 mistress of Arthur Martin as long as she woull
 
 332 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 have pleased him, but no legal union would have 
 been possible, even had they both desired it. 
 
 We have related the above cases, because we 
 wish our readers to compare the two systems 
 the Lee Station system and the Martin system 
 and then determine which is the most civilized, 
 ethical and Christian,
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 333 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 WOMAN'S PLACE AND POWER 
 
 A PERFECT POSTERITY SHOULD BE 
 THE AIM. In this age of reason and en- 
 lightenment man cannot afford to drift on in 
 primitive customs and laws. It is now general- 
 ly conceded that man is here for a definite pur- 
 pose, viz., the betterment of his kind, the im- 
 provement of his material environments, and 
 lastly, but not least, the possible acquisition of 
 immortality. These are the fundamental prin- 
 ciples upon which a true Christian civilization 
 rests. First, and above all, he must, this day, in 
 the light of reason, consider his kind. An edu- 
 cator has recently said that he would rather be 
 a hog than a man at the present time, in this 
 country, as the government paid more attention 
 to the hog, its diseases, cultivation, care, etc., 
 than to man. - A well-bred pig is of more con- 
 sequence to the government than a well-bred 
 babe. A thoroughbred, or rather, perfect babe 
 is not even dreamed of, notwithstanding the fact 
 that self-improvement or the betterment of the 
 human race, is the highest duty of man and the 
 governments of men. The question under dis- 
 cussion calls for at least a little space here, and 
 some thought on the subject of proper marriage.
 
 334 -. HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 There is really very little attention paid to the 
 proper mating of the sexes by the young men 
 and women who contemplate marriage, with a 
 view of becoming the parents of the best bred 
 children obtainable. Although the highest duty 
 of man, this is sadly ignored by nearly all. 
 Young men and women come together in a hap- 
 hazard way, for most any purpose save the true 
 one. There is as little scientific judgment and 
 reason used by most, in this regard, as by the 
 beasts in the field who mate and have their young 
 as nature prompts them to do. 
 
 CHILDREN A NECESSARY EVIL.- 
 All for better conveniences, social, financial rea- 
 sons, fleeting passions, all kinds of make-beliefs, 
 nothing more. Children? they are only a nec- 
 essary evil if they come, and by all means let 
 them be only a few and far between if they can- 
 not be entirely avoided. It is considered ill-bred 
 for refined white women to be the proud pos- 
 sessors of eight or ten strong, healthy, vigorous 
 little animals, growing up into fine men and 
 women. 
 
 Statistics show that the number of children of 
 school age have decreased within the last few 
 years in our native state, Wisconsin, confirming 
 the danger of race suicide, notwithstanding the 
 encouragement given by ex-President Roosevelt 
 to the contrary. That there will be no children
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 336 
 
 left if the present race suicide tendencies con- 
 tinue during the next century throughout the 
 civilized world, was the prediction made by 
 Prof. Walter P. Wilcox, before a class in sani- 
 tary science and public health, at Cornell uni- 
 versity. Wilcox does not accept the theory that 
 the advance in civilization, or the spread of dis- 
 ease, is responsible for the decrease in the birth 
 rate. He said: 
 
 "The true reason for the fall in the birth rate 
 is that in modern times, mainly in the last half 
 'century, births, and the birth rate have come 
 under the control of the human will and choice 
 in a sense and to a degree never before true. 
 This power to control the increase has been used 
 and is being used today far too exclusively with 
 reference to private economic advantage, and 
 far too little with due consideration to social 
 welfare and progress." 
 
 SINGLE BLESSEDNESS. What? Let 
 the inferior take your place while you, who are 
 so well fitted to become mothers, parade in sin- 
 gle blessedness? 
 
 You have not been asked? Pick out the best 
 man you can find and ask him. Why not? Is 
 it a disgrace to obey God and denounce a bar- 
 barous custom? Never. 
 
 All creation shouts and sings, Nature claps its 
 hands in glee, angels proclaim the glad tidings
 
 336 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 of great joy, for, behold, the highest created be- 
 ing has arrived- a babe! 
 
 Every knee bows before maternity, but not 
 one before enforced sterility or single blessed- 
 ness not one. You may desire no homage, 
 many do. 
 
 WOMEN WILL PROPOSE. Let us not 
 forget that the social custom which still pre- 
 vails, which gives the "lord of creation" the sole 
 right to propose, has shipwrecked many a sweet 
 sou-l of strong maternal desires, well fitted to ful- 
 fill their rightful mission, but helpless and 
 powerless to do so. Condemn these? God for- 
 bid. We feel for them and are their best friends. 
 As long as men are the sole proposers and women 
 the sole disposers, divorce courts will continue 
 to grow fat. 
 
 The time is at hand when women will have a 
 social right to propose, to choose and ask the 
 men of their choice to become their life-mates 
 and the fathers of their children. This right 
 belongs to her by the highest law. She is the 
 mother of the most perfect created being the 
 likeness of God. She must obey the command 
 of her Creator and bring forth children. She 
 cannot, in the light of this divine law, rely upon 
 the man of the present age, under existing social 
 customs, to come to her and ask her to be his 
 mate, just when she is in her best physical and
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 337 
 
 mental condition. If he come, he may be 
 either too soon or too late in her life. There 
 was a time when all women were married at an 
 early age (in Eastern countries this custom still 
 prevails), and when single women were the rare 
 exceptions. But in such a crude state of society 
 women were often mere chattels ; but conditions 
 have so changed in America and Europe that it 
 should no longer be immodest, but entirely 
 chaste and honorable for any nice, right-think- 
 ing up-to-date young woman, white or colored, 
 to propose. Should he refuse, what then? She 
 can, with propriety, soothe her wounded heart 
 and try once more, and perchance she may find 
 one who can love her better and be a better 
 father to her children. We are pleased to know 
 that some prominent men and women have al- 
 ready taken in hand this "proposal reform," and 
 will undoubtedly succeed, in due time, to intro- 
 duce this very desirable as well as righteous 
 custom. 
 
 Mrs. Harriet J. Wood, a New York lawyer, 
 who is an advocate of this reform says: "Since 
 the object to be attained is the perfection of the 
 human race, mothers should choose the fathers 
 of their children." 
 
 We would add that we look for no mentally 
 and physically perfect children until this is done, 
 and done with a full knowledge of scientific 
 
 22
 
 338 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 adaptation and the natural, intuitive sense of 
 woman. 
 
 "There is no doubt that the selection of the 
 husband should really rest with the woman," 
 says Dr. Denslow Lewis. "In the animal world 
 it is invariably the female that chooses her mate. 
 Only in the human race is the right of selection 
 arbitrarily given to the male. Left to herself, 
 and with no hampering conventions to interfere, 
 the woman would be the most discriminating 
 chooser. With all sorts of men to select from 
 she would be in no hurry to mate with the first 
 little man that popped the question. Women 
 love physical perfection. With her right to 
 select unquestioned, a woman would pick out the 
 man of her own physical ideal, woo him with all 
 her varied arts and fascinations at her disposal, 
 and nine times out of ten get him. Physically 
 the race would be greatly benefitted. There are 
 many thousands of women in this country who 
 have married men just because they have been 
 'asked and who now live the lives of housekeeping 
 drudges, bound to the so-called home only by the 
 stern dictates of duty." 
 
 "The right of man alone to put the all-im- 
 portant question of her life to the woman he 
 selects," says James Grant, "has come into 
 fashion only with the advent of civilization, 
 which is, as we know, but a relative term."
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 339 
 
 "The exclusive right of proposing marriage 
 did not always belong to the lords of creation, 
 and since it has become his special privilege, 
 men," says Dr. Westermarck, the eminent Ger- 
 man ethnologist, "have deteriorated in physical 
 worth. Even now, among those races which dis- 
 tinguish woman by giving her the right to select 
 the man who is to preserve the species which she 
 is to mother, the finest specimens of physical 
 manhood are to be found. Among primitive 
 races, modern as well as ancient, the right of 
 selecting her mate was always given to the 
 
 woman." 
 
 "Primitive societies were intelligent enough," 
 says M. Dromart, "to allow the law of compen- 
 sation to work. They realized that the species 
 could only be preserved in its original excel- 
 lence by allowing the female the right to exer- 
 cise her discretion as to who should be allowed 
 to mate with her. The law of all primitive 
 societies allowed her to choose, and, in the ma- 
 jority of cases, severely penalized the occasional 
 aggressor who forced his attentions upon an un- 
 willing woman. What was the result? A race 
 of perfect men grew into being. All the males 
 in the tribe strove by their accomplishments in 
 feats of strength and endurance to win the at- 
 traction of the women, whose choice was there- 
 fore fixed according to the highest criterion of
 
 340 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 My 
 
 GIRLS OF THE GULF FUTURE LEADERS IN SOCIETY.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 341 
 
 physical manliness. Nowadays, however, it is 
 often the men who are the least athletic, and in 
 most cases the least worthy physically, who show 
 the greatest pretensions, or who devote most 
 time to attracting the attention of the opposite 
 sex. The consequence is that we see undersized 
 and often almost decrepit men mated with 
 women of magnificent physical proportions, all 
 the disparities reappearing, particularly in re- 
 gard to their detrimental aspect in the offspring, 
 which is more often than not unequal and unen- 
 during." 
 
 WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE WOULD 
 PROVE OF BENEFIT TO MAN. Esther 
 F. Boland says: "Most persons accept as true 
 the statement by Plato, 'The woman's cause is 
 man's; they rise or sink together, dwarfed or 
 God-like, bond or free,' and suffragists, there- 
 fore, deem it simply necessary to show that 
 woman's cause would be advanced by her en- 
 franchisement since, if this can be proved, it 
 follows that the measure would benefit men. 
 Unfortunately, the cause of woman's rights, so- 
 called, has been largely concerned with woman's 
 wrongs, and in the effort to right these wrongs 
 it has been impossible to avoid a seeming antag- 
 onism towards men. However, with the partial 
 attainment of much which women strove for in 
 the early days, such as the equalization of the
 
 342 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 property rights of husband and wife, the higher 
 education of women, the enlargement of the 
 sphere of their industrial activities, and so on, 
 the movement to obtain enfranchisement has as- 
 sumed a somewhat different aspect. We now 
 more often than otherwise hear the reform urged 
 as a method of securing co-operation between 
 men and women who are working for the moral 
 elevation of society, and as a means of rendering 
 the influence of women in public affairs more 
 effective. It is also claimed that women suf- 
 frage would strengthen the bond between hus- 
 band and wife by adding one more common in- 
 terest, and that it would increase woman's gen- 
 eral intelligence by enlarging her outlook and 
 imposing responsibility in important affairs of 
 government, thus making her a more intelligent 
 companion to her husband. Furthermore, it is 
 held that the removal of the stigma of political 
 disability would strengthen a mother's hold 
 upon her sons, and that she would be better qual- 
 ified to inculcate high standards of public in- 
 tegrity. Suffragists believe that a dispassionate 
 consideration of this question in its present as- 
 spects would lead to the conclusion that al- 
 though designed primarily to confer upon 
 women the power and dignity which attaches to 
 self-government, yet woman suffrage would ac- 
 complish much more than this, and that it is a
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 34* 
 
 beneficent measure from which right-minded 
 men would be great gainers." 
 
 THEY WILL SOLVE THE RACE 
 QUESTION. Women of both races are ad- 
 vancing rapidly at the present time, and are 
 fully alive to all that is for their betterment, and 
 for the highest and best interest of the human 
 race. 
 
 Mrs. Susa Young Gates, the famous daughter 
 of Brigham Young, says: "It is impossible that 
 any intelligent person should be ignorant of the 
 fact that women of all classes and in every civ- 
 ilized country have become a force in the his- 
 tory of nations. The most progressive are wide 
 awake to the tremendous possibilities for them- 
 selves as a sex and as individuals. But this is not 
 all. Women of every class and color are rubbing 
 the sleep out of their eyes and trying to catch a 
 hint of the glorious color scheme which paints 
 the dawn of this new era for womanhood." 
 
 The age of frivolousness and butterflyism 
 among them is fast passing away. They are now 
 taking hold of the real, tangible things in their 
 lives. They are fast becoming more indepen- 
 dent, physically and mentally. This is true of 
 the South as well as the North. No where can 
 be found prettier and more robust and healthier 
 white and colored women than in the far South. 
 It is apparent everywhere here that the pale.
 
 344 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 babied, sickly, incubated white lady of Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin is fast passing away. While the 
 corset evil and other relics of barbarism have not 
 yet disappeared, we are convinced that the laws 
 of health will be better understood and observed 
 as knowledge increases. 
 
 As the old saying is, "time makes changes." 
 Not only in the physical world is this true, but 
 also in the mental, as regards beliefs and cus- 
 toms. That which one age finds absolutely re- 
 pugnant is all the rage in the next. 
 
 We are just giving hints, without examples 
 being necessary, upon the rapid strides women 
 are making, forward and upward, in every de- 
 partment of life and activities, and what future 
 results may bring forth. 
 
 Women have done things that men hesitate to 
 do, and they will do them again. The very fact 
 that they are progressing so rapidly leads us to 
 believe that they will, North and South, take a 
 very prominent part in the settlement of the 
 Negro question. All over the North and South 
 there is a fair sprinkling of white women who 
 have taken colored husbands, many of whom are 
 cultured and refined. At present these may be 
 looked down upon, because of the color line and 
 race prejudice; but remove this, and let it be- 
 come respectable instead of a social crime to in- 
 termarry with color, and a decided change will
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 345- 
 
 take place, so much so, that not only the inde- 
 pendent will find their affinity or life-mate 
 among the colored, but the more timid as well. 
 How horrid this sounds, but it is the truth. 
 
 What the past fifty years could not possibly 
 accomplish, the next fifty will easily bring about 
 viz., the removal of the race prejudice and the 
 beginning the wholesale intermarriage with the 
 enlightened, refined colored. And this the inde- 
 pendent women of both races can and will large- 
 ly accomplish. They will not only be instru- 
 mental in but will be the means of solving the 
 race question. We have not the least doubt 
 about this. 
 
 RACIAL PURITY WHAT IS IT?- 
 We hear much in these days from orators and 
 magazine writers about keeping the races pure 
 and making intermarriages of white with the 
 colored races impossible ; but we know very well, 
 and every fair-minded, intelligent man and 
 woman knows, that where various races dwell 
 together, no man-made laws, notwithstanding 
 their severity, can make impossible, or of non- 
 effect, the immutable law of dissemination, or of 
 the mixing of the races. We are obliged to re- 
 iterate this fact in this book. One of the severest 
 brain-storms that infests the minds of many men 
 and women of both races today, is the persistent 
 cry for racial purity.
 
 346 HOLM'S RACE 'ASSIMILATION 
 
 What is race purity? 
 
 The cocoanut-headed imp may cry for it, and 
 he assuredly has tangible reasons. Reread our 
 chapter on race integrity and compare with the 
 following : 
 
 Racial purity is this: A beautiful, strong, 
 symmetrical body, a lofty intellect, and a pure, 
 moral, humane and worshipful spirit. They who 
 possess not this harmonious combination of char- 
 acter must all likewise perish, regardless of the 
 color of their skin. The "Harry Thaw char- 
 acters" of the so-called aristocratic or "elect 
 class," in both America and Europe, may be 
 blue blooded and idiotic enough to represent a 
 race, but not one to be eternally held up and 
 lauded as pure, or to be proud of. 
 
 God, in His marvelous and mysterious work- 
 shop of nature, has ways and means by which 
 and through which He tears down and builds up 
 the various branches of the human family, re- 
 gardless of the feeble sputterings of the foolish, 
 and the harsh cries of the wicked, law-befuddled 
 egotists. 
 
 We have profound respect for all womankind, 
 and we could not point the ringer of accusation 
 at any of them, knowing that the wrongs of soci- 
 ety have always fallen most heavily upon her 
 shoulders. But to show the reader here the abso- 
 lute inability to cope with the social evil in the
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 347 
 
 South by the wrong, unnatural, damnable legis- 
 lation of the present, we must, in this connection, 
 speak of a matter that has been brought to our' 
 attention. Perhaps careful readers will think 
 that the following discovery ought to have been 
 placed in the chapter on "Vice Versus Legal In- 
 termarriage," or perhaps not have found a place 
 in this book at all; but it is our object to weave 
 closely together all evidences leading to certain 
 conclusions in these chapters, so the reader, when 
 he has finished, will have a clear conception of 
 all that we have said, and be ready to render his 
 own judgment. 
 
 A BAD KIND OF MIXING. It was sev- 
 eral years ago that a white clergyman in Georgia 
 made a discovery over which people grew hyster- 
 ical. He found that one of the great causes, and 
 secret agencies, promoting the mixing of the 
 races, was illegitimate children born to white 
 women, and given by them to colored women 
 to raise as colored children, in order that their 
 shame might not be discovered. We have found 
 that both white and colored children, thus born 
 to white women, are disposed of in this manner. 
 
 And here again we come face to face with the 
 same paramount question: Shall illegitimate 
 parentage in the South and elsewhere be dis- 
 placed by lawful intermarriage and a legal pro- 
 tection for both races or not?
 
 348 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Who can resist God Almighty, when His 
 voice comes from the heaving bosom of a 
 wronged, outraged womanhood? The same 
 political system that downs the Negro outrages 
 and enslaves the southern white woman. 
 
 THE GREATEST THING IS LOVE.- 
 We have abundance of positive proof of cases 
 where very respectable white girls and women, 
 who unfortunately found affinities among col- 
 ored men in the South, were led to commit hor- 
 rible crimes because of the hellish customs of a 
 depraved white race, which forbids the legal 
 union of two hearts whose every throb beats in 
 unison with all their desires, hopes and aspira- 
 tions in life. We have further proof that there 
 exists a love between some white men and col- 
 ored women, and between some white women 
 and colored men, who have found each other, that 
 surpasses almost any love possible between men 
 and women of the same race. There is a deep- 
 seated love, an irresistible passion, which unites 
 them, that positively cannot be experienced by 
 any not absolutely dissimilar in their make-up. 
 The greatest thing on earth is love. It is the 
 agent that moves and rules all mankind, and 
 bids him to humbly bow at the feet of woman- 
 kind; and whether her skin be white or black. 
 This same woman, who tempted Adam, has the 
 charm to entice, the power to hold, the ability to
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 349 
 
 THREE TYPES OP COLORED WOMEN IN THE FAR 
 Mental, Motive and Vital Temperament.
 
 350 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 lead the sons of Adam, if she will, into the high- 
 way of progress for her own liberation, and the 
 future good of the human race, or down into the 
 pit of darkness and despair. 
 
 THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. Profes- 
 sor Guy Carlton Lee of Johns Hopkins Uni- 
 versity, voices the same sentiment we have in 
 mind when he says: "The man who searches 
 effect for cause must find his goal most often in 
 the influence of a woman. Not always for good : 
 that could not be. But it would seem that all 
 that has endured has been for good, and that 
 the evil which has been wrought by woman and 
 it has not been slight has been ephemeral in 
 all respects. I know of no enduring evil that 
 can be traced to a woman as its source; but I 
 know of no constant good which did not find 
 either its beginning or its fostering in a woman's 
 thought or work. Poppaea leaves but a name; 
 Agrippina leaves an example. It may be true 
 of men that the evil that they do lives after them, 
 while the good is oft interred with their bones; 
 but it is not true of women. Of course, there is 
 a sense in which it is true in the descent from 
 mother to son of the spirit of the unrighteous 
 mother; but even this would not seem to hold as 
 a rule, and the effects are often modified by the 
 influence of a love for a higher nature. The sum 
 of woman's influence upon the destinies of the
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 351 
 
 world is good, the balance inclines steadily 
 toward the best. Woman is the hope of the 
 world." Maud Ballington Booth has said : "One 
 thing is certain. Whenever pain, sorrow, sick- 
 ness or misfortune has laid its hand on man, 
 he needs woman's touch to help him bear it." 
 
 What has woman not done for temperance? 
 What she did for temperance she can do for the 
 solution of the race question. It is not impossible 
 that a Frances Willard, or, perchance, a Carrie 
 Nation may arise and proclaim the social equal- 
 ity of her cultured, colored husband and her 
 pretty, intelligent children by him? How would 
 she fare? Just like a Joan of Arc, a Susan An- 
 thony or a Carrie Nation. But, as in the case of 
 all moral heroines, the human tide of thought, 
 of sentiment, of belief, must finally turn and 
 sweep all opposing forces before them, and 
 usher in another era, another history-making 
 epoch. We reiterate the fact that women have 
 done things that men hesitate to do, and they will 
 do them again. 
 
 Gentle reader, what a crying need! What a 
 tremendous opportunity! What a field of con- 
 quest for the fearless, believing, brave women 
 of both races ! 
 
 Two sure can who both are free, 
 Though a color line divides them,
 
 352 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Join their hands and hearts in work, 
 That none can do besides them. 
 Why not smash that line for good? 
 It's all that now divides them. 
 Let them boldly do what's right, 
 Though friend and foe derides them. 
 
 Ice of prejudice must break, 
 
 Though worldly people despise them ; 
 
 With God, home, and native land, 
 
 Who is there that defies them? 
 
 It's silly to spurn a love 
 
 Twixt colored and white God made them, 
 
 "What God hath joined let no man part," 
 
 Let life's sweet days just fade them. 
 
 AN APPEAL TO NOBLE WOMAN- 
 HOOD. We appeal to the noble womanhood 
 of our white race. We pray that her sympathetic 
 heart may be moved in behalf of the oppressed, 
 despised, wronged colored sister in the South, 
 who is struggling up the thorny path to the 
 higher standard of purity and virtue; but which 
 path is frequented by so many wolves in sheep- 
 skin to detain her, deceive her, entrap her and 
 then cast her aside as worthless, with blasted 
 hopes and a broken heart. We appeal to her to 
 obliterate the color line in behalf of the girlhood 
 of the Negro race, the buds of promise, the
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 35$ 
 
 future woman. How can she rise to the level she 
 aspires, and we hope for, as long as old laws and 
 customs pronounce her inferior, debase her and 
 make her the victim of, and a by-word for, all 
 men. She it is. who rocks the cradle of the race, 
 may we not heed well how the cradle of ten mil- 
 lion and more people is rocked? She it is who 
 holds the destiny of a future great people in her 
 hands, may we not take those hands into our own 
 and say my sister? It was Miss Sarah Forten- 
 who addressed a touching appeal to the white 
 women to co-operate with an organization of 
 Anti-Slavery Free Women of America in 1831, 
 and the same is appliable today. She wrote: 
 
 "We are sisters. God has truly said 
 That of one blood all nations 
 
 He has made. 
 
 O Christian woman! in a Christian land, 
 Canst thou unblushingly read 
 
 This great command? 
 
 Suffer the wrongs which wring our inmost heart, 
 To draw one throb of pity on thy part? 
 Our skins may differ, but from thee we claim 
 A sister's privilege and a sister's name." 
 
 FACTS ARE STUBBORN. Facts are 
 
 stubborn things to encounter. It was the white 
 man who took advantage of the poor, enslaved 
 Negro woman from the day slavery was intro-
 
 354 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 AN APPEAL TO THE WORLD. 
 
 There are now six million men, women and children IMng in 
 tfcie country the direct offspring of white and black.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 365 
 
 duced to this hour. Emancipation did not check 
 him or emancipate her. What he could not do 
 by force he has done by cunning. And this one 
 fact stands today without a parallel, that the 
 African woman has gone with the white man 
 through an enforced vale of tears, degradation 
 and shame, and has not once shrunk from the 
 care, responsibility and duty of rearing, to the 
 best of her ability, her illegitimate children by 
 him. She unreservedly deserves the laurels of a 
 superior womanhood for so faithfully and lov- 
 ingly, under the most trying circumstances, caring 
 for her white babies and thereby improving her 
 race. She has done more than her duty. Her 
 daughters now demand a legal union' with their 
 white paramours, and this demand shall not long 
 be disregarded. To back out now is not only 
 cowardly on his. part, but an abominable, un- 
 pardonable crime against God and the colored 
 race of which his children are a part. 
 
 Pass laws against miscegenation ; pile up your 
 infamy against a wronged progeny by such bar- 
 barous procedure; drone to sleep the last pang 
 of conscience, and envelop the individual in 
 holy sanctimony; but the glaring evidence will 
 not decamp, and a cure for a moral disease will 
 not be found. What then the cure ? 
 
 Confess your sins and own up. 
 
 How?
 
 356 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 By legalizing intermarriage between the races 
 in the entire country, and by the removal of race 
 prejudice from your colored children. Tens of 
 thousands of these children in every hamlet, 
 every town, every city and obscure corner in the 
 South demand this. These words we address 
 to him who is the enemy of moral progress and 
 social purity, in the advocacy of race integrity, 
 thereby promoting the pernicious practice of 
 illicit union and illegal children.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 357 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 SCIENTIFIC ADAPTATION OF WHITE AND COLOR 
 
 A SUPERBLY MATED PAIR. A su- 
 perbly mated pair is well illustrated in J. Roland, 
 Ph. D., a slight, pale, nervous Mental Tempera- 
 ment, and Rosaline, a strong, dark Vital Tem- 
 perament. He is vitally deplete, and consequently 
 rendered powerless, physically, to sustain his 
 large, fine-grained, sensitive brain; while hers is 
 rather coarse, sluggish, slow to act, easygoing, 
 but with considerable latent powers. In his 
 presence her strong animal magnetism attracts 
 him. He is vitalized, strengthened and enam- 
 oured powerfully by being with her, while she 
 is equally benefited by him. He draws her up 
 to a higher mental plane ; causes her to refine her 
 habits, increase her mentation, and build up a 
 finer brain fibre in her thick African skull. This 
 makes her more attractive generally, and espec- 
 ially to him, as her eye grows brighter, and her 
 whole physiognomy glows with the intense in- 
 terest she takes in their daily affairs with each 
 other. She draws him down to her. He absorbs 
 considerable of her surplus animal magnetism, 
 which builds up his wasted frame, and causes 
 new blood to course through his body as a conse- 
 quence.
 
 358 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 His fine brain becomes more active, and he 
 some day discovers himself performing an unus- 
 ual amount of mental and physical labor, such 
 as he has not done in years. Both are immensely 
 benefited by being scientifically mated to each 
 other. Although he has all the signs of weak 
 lungs and general debility, he is a man of con- 
 siderable talent. Look at that high, protruding 
 forehead, with the strong indication of large 
 faculties of Comparison and Causality, the rea- 
 soning faculties of the mind. Also see the per- 
 ceptive faculties well developed, and the con- 
 structive also well in the lead. This makes him 
 a mechanical genius, a profound thinker with 
 literary ability, and a very useful member of 
 society. He is deficient in vitality. His back- 
 head shows him to be more feminine than mas- 
 culine in general characteristics, therefore he 
 has strong love for children and home; but his 
 procreative functions are too feeble to have any, 
 save with one with an over-surplus of the animal 
 nature to draw him to her and arouse and 
 strengthen his enfeebled sexuality. 
 
 A MISMATED EXAMPLE. As J. 
 Roland, Ph. D., is naturally an attractive, re- 
 fined gentleman, he would have had no difficulty 
 in gaining the attention and finally also a kind of 
 deeper regard and feeling in the heart of the fine, 
 sensitive, Mrs. Dr. Summer.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 359
 
 360 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Now for the sake of an argument, let us sup- 
 pose that like likes like, and that he, as many 
 other men of his type do, believed himself in love 
 with her, regardless of their incompatibility, and 
 proposed to her and she accepted him, as thou- 
 sands before her have done and will do again. 
 They get married. Bells are tolled, 
 friends wish them a prosperous, happy journey 
 through life; none wish them a happy prosper- 
 ous lot of children. That would be immodest, 
 vulgar, something to be ashamed of a shower 
 of rice and old shoes, and they are gone. In 
 just one week he wishes himself back to his 
 bachelor quarters, or something worse; and she 
 just wishes she were dead! But then they are 
 married, and must play married before the 
 world, and make-believe. They are in this case 
 too sensible not to remain friends, even real 
 chums; but that is all. There could positively 
 be no amatory attraction between these strong, 
 Mental Temperaments, consequently no children 
 can bless their union; and were it possible that 
 a few were born, they would very likely be 
 angels before their maturity, or live a little 
 longer, a wretched martyr's life, paying the full 
 penalty for their parents' sins. This is the old, 
 old story of mismating, either through ignorance 
 or else coolly, deliberately planned for conveni- 
 ence on the part of one or both. It would be
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 361
 
 362 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 infinitely better if such men and women as these 
 would remain single rather than join in such 
 mock-matrimony. 
 
 ALMOST A COLORED VENUS. Let us 
 take a look at Rosaline. She is a colored matron, 
 two-thirds Negro, of a typical physiognomy. 
 Her face beams with her warm, lovable, sunny 
 disposition. She is not highly educated; is no 
 college graduate, but has a fair knowledge of 
 the common English branches, taught in a col- 
 ored village school such as we find in many parts 
 of the South. Physically she would almost pass 
 for a colored Venus, but not quite. She is a 
 trifle too stout, and displays a little more of the 
 vital or animal nature in her make-up than a 
 Venus should; yet being so superbly sexed, this 
 extra supply of the vital forces is no fault. Her 
 waist is rather short and her limbs straight and 
 beautifully curved, with her calfs rather high, 
 disclosing the well-defined mark of her Negro 
 origin; but this does not detract from, or mar 
 the physical beauty of her powerful, well-shaped 
 legs. Her arms are a magnificent network of 
 muscles, displaying their latent strength at every 
 movement; yet they are not ugly, though they 
 remind one of masculinity, their strong outlines 
 are well supported and superbly adapted to her 
 body. Her chest is deep, and she has an ample 
 breathing capacity that has never been cramped
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 363
 
 364 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 to any extent by the corset, and this, too, indi- 
 cates a powerful constitution. Her breasts are a 
 bit large, but they are not fleshy or dormant, but 
 perfectly adapted to supply her young with an 
 abundance of good, rich milk. The kinky mass 
 of her beautiful, glossy hair has been so ar- 
 ranged as to reveal her feminine qualities, 
 phrenologically. To use a homely English 
 phrase, she is not so "low natured" as prejudiced 
 minds would make us believe. Look at that fine 
 backhead. There is no depravity, brutishness or 
 degeneracy there. To phrenological scientists this 
 head indicates everything that is so dear, so holy, 
 so divine, so worshipful to the soul of every good 
 man in every good woman, of whatever color or 
 race. It makes one think of "Home sweet 
 home," even were it nothing more than "One 
 little hut among de bushes, one dat I love." 
 There is something divine the altar of all hu- 
 man affections, true and good located there. 
 "Mid pleasures and palaces, though we may 
 roam, Be it ever so humble there's no place like 
 home; A charm from the skies seems to hallow 
 us there, Which seek through the world, is not 
 met with elsewhere." It is a positive truth, such 
 divine attributes of womanhood, of motherhood, 
 are not met with elsewhere. The "Charm from 
 the skies" which hallows all mankind there, is 
 found nowhere else save in a true home, where
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 365 
 
 mother's love (of whatever race or color), 
 mother's sacrifice, mother's devotion to her fam- 
 ily, are well nigh supreme. 
 
 No government can build on a safer founda- 
 tion than this, and none can endure who do not 
 thus build. Intense love for children, she for 
 him, he for her and both for the spot in which 
 they dwell, are the only incentives for the exist- 
 ence of any home. This colored woman has all 
 three strongly marked in her makeup. She could 
 love most any man, even if only for the love of 
 children, but all men would by no means be 
 scientifically adapted to her, either physically 
 or mentally. 
 
 EXAMPLES OF PHYSICAL AND MEN- 
 TAL DEGENERACY. Supposing Rosaline 
 would have mated with a Negro like Sam 
 Slick, what would have been the result? Both 
 are passionate. He would not have raised her 
 up to a higher moral and mental plane, because 
 he is lower than she. He would even have 
 pulled her down, and caused her to be more ex- 
 travagant in the indulgence of the animal pas- 
 sion. It would have proven a calamity to this 
 sweet-faced colored woman, as it has to other 
 thousands before her. There is no greater slav- 
 ery on earth than that endured by the wife of 
 the lazy, shiftless, good-for-nothing black repro- 
 bate of the South today. And to her children
 
 366 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 with him it would, indeed, have been a dire mis- 
 fortune! They would have been lower than 
 both, mentally and physically, in the scale of 
 humanity. They would have been more animal 
 than human, as far as the social passions are con- 
 cerned. Take a careful look at Little Sam, he 
 
 is the product of just such a union. He is a 
 rapist, a sneak-thief; in short, a Negro degen- 
 erate. He is but one of thousands, born in the 
 South every year, the result of criminal and de- 
 generate unions among themselves, and with 
 others mismated.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOEARD'S SPOTS 367 
 
 We have intimated elsewhere that in his na- 
 tive or primitive conditions in Africa, the Negro 
 can procreate without any marked deterioration 
 in his offspring. An instance has come under 
 the writer's observation where a brother and sis- 
 ter became separated during the war, grew to 
 manhood and womanhood, met and married in 
 the East, and after a number of years, when they 
 had a large family of children together, dis- 
 covered through investigation that they were re- 
 lated. Their children were as good as any, but 
 this proves nothing. Many instances have been 
 found where brothers and sisters produced as 
 fine offspring together, as they did with others 
 ' not related to them ; but the American Negro has 
 undergone such a process of evolution, and has 
 been crossed to such an extent with the Cauca- 
 sian, that careful selections are of far more im- 
 portance among them, than among any race of 
 people on earth. And it is not improper 
 to say here, that Little Sam belongs to 
 that class of Negroes, absolutely unfit to. pro- 
 create with any kind, of any race. And to 
 prevent such from further demoralizing the hu- 
 man race, it is proper and just, in the sight of 
 God and man, that they be rendered sterile, Do 
 not misunderstand us. We do not mean that 
 they should have this inflicted upon them as a 
 punishment for crimes perpetrated. Scientifi-
 
 368 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 SAM,
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 369 
 
 cally speaking, they are not guilty of any crime 
 committed, no matter how shocking or horrible. 
 They take to certain crimes as naturally as a 
 duck does to water. They may hang them, roast 
 them alive, or by degrees hack and slice them 
 up, as a butcher does a carcass ; as a mob of poor, 
 deluded creatures has sometimes done in this 
 highly civilized country (?) ; yet as far as we 
 phrenological scientists are concerned, there is 
 no more reason, no more justice, in such horri- 
 ble, outrageous procedure than there is in deal- 
 ing out justice to a duck, by cutting off her head, 
 because she persists in taking to the pond in the 
 back lot. As all others, these beings are creatures 
 of circumstances. They are not what they are by 
 choice but by nature; the result of ignorance on 
 the part of mankind. 
 
 HOW MUCH BETTER NOT THUS 
 BORN. A great deal of training from early 
 childhood of the undeveloped moral faculties 
 would be of marked benefit to them, as a con- 
 stant supply of blood to these faculties, or that 
 portion of the brain where they are located, de- 
 creases the amount of stimulation to that part 
 which is abnormally developed, and, conse- 
 quently, decreases this intense, undesirable men- 
 tal operation; but this scientific training is not 
 intelligently given, and so no results may be 
 looked for in that direction to any marked extent.
 
 370 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 And in case this method of treatment would be 
 adopted generally, the blessings thus conferred 
 upon mankind would after all not be much 
 greater than at present, as the mischief of this 
 class cannot be curbed by all mental gymnastics 
 within the reach of this or any other age. Where 
 it has been tried the old thing has cropped out 
 again in such creatures of misfortune, even in 
 remote generations. 
 
 It is much easier to stop up a leak in a boat 
 than to bail out the water as fast as it comes in. 
 Some children, of every race and color, thus un- 
 fortunately developed will undoubtedly always 
 be born ; but how much better, how much more 
 humane not to let more be born than is absolutely 
 necessary, to grow up, commit a social crime and 
 then be imprisoned or executed by the people 
 who allow this condition of things to exist from 
 lack of knowledge? 
 
 PHRENOLOGICAL LOCATION OF 
 THE SOCIAL EVIL. Our lamented friend, 
 Prof. L. A. Vaught, the author of "Vaught's 
 Practical Character Reader," has so well illus- 
 trated this point, that we are induced to give his 
 drawing and timely explanation, such as we have 
 in mind. He says: "The social evil is a fact. 
 Many good and learned people are trying to 
 check, modify or suppress it. Their intentions 
 are good. They shoot at it with tongue and pen.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 371 
 
 That is, they suppose they shoot at it. They 
 shoot, but, unfortunately, they do not shoot any 
 more definitely at it than if they stepped out of 
 their homes upon a dark night when the moon 
 was down, electric lights out, and shot into space 
 
 HOW REFORMERS MISS THE CENTER 
 OF VICE. 
 
 in hope of hitting a burglar. Why don't they 
 draw a bead on it? Answer: They do not know 
 the location of it. They do not know the nature 
 of it. They do not know the source of it. They 
 do not know that it is a single element of the
 
 ST= HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 mind. They do not know when nor where to 
 commence to correct it. They ought to know. 
 They can know. They can know exactly. They 
 can know very soon after the babe is born. They 
 can, if they will, learn the location of the faculty 
 in the brain. Observe the illustration. Not one 
 of the marksmen has hit the 'bull's eye.' Every 
 shot has missed. What a deplorable waste of 
 time, energy and arrows! They have hit the in- 
 tellect, which is in front, the moral faculties, 
 which are in the tophead, pride and vanity, 
 which are in the back crown of the head, but not 
 a single one has even come close to the exact 
 source of the evil. They have not even crippled 
 it. How could they cripple it till they hit it? 
 How can they hit it till they know where it is? 
 It is located in the little brain directly back of 
 the two bony prominences that may be found 
 and felt behind the ears. When very strong in 
 child, woman or man, this region will be decid- 
 edly full or convex in form. It is immediately 
 below a fissure that runs horizontally above it, 
 and partly separates the little brain from the big 
 brain, or, in other words, the cerebellum from 
 the cerebrum. Its name is Amativeness. We 
 now have it 'spotted!' ' 
 
 Does it not occur to you, dear reader, that the 
 brute for brute method so long resorted to, when 
 taken from this sound scientific viewpoint, is but
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 373 
 
 the aftermath of a savage nature, the eye for eye 
 and tooth for tooth system of injustice, practiced 
 in the past ages of barbarism? 
 
 Can you justly criticise us for the strong con- 
 demnation of such inhuman outrages as are per- 
 petrated in this country upon such unfortunate, 
 irresponsible beings? How much more rational 
 would it be, do you not admit, to inaugurate the 
 scientific system we expound in this book, and 
 hit the "bull's eye," and render unnecessary all 
 mob violence and their debasing, demoralizing 
 effect upon our civilization? 
 
 OFFSPRING OF RIGHT CROSSING.- 
 Now, let us resume the actual occurrence with 
 regard to J. Roland, Ph. D., and Rosaline, his 
 mate. Roland had a fair knowledge of scientific 
 adaptation and the assimilation by amalgama- 
 tion of the American Hamite, and also realized 
 that, for his own personal benefit, it was a wise 
 step to affiliate with a dark complexioned, strong, 
 robust maiden; and he found in Rosaline his 
 affinity. What was the result with regard to 
 their offspring? In Master Roland we have a 
 fine likeness of their oldest son, and the young- 
 est are still better. Notice the large mental 
 capacity of this child, and the ample physique 
 to sustain it a fine large brain, on a fine larg* 
 body to support it. His physiognomy is mort 
 like that of his mother than his father, and, in-
 
 374 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 deed, we find that this is nearly always the case 
 in such crossings; yet we can clearly discern the 
 broad, high forehead of his father in this lad, as 
 well as his chin; while the mouth and nose are 
 more like his mother's. If you will notice the 
 
 receding forehead of the mother, and compare 
 it with the high, broad one of the son ; and could 
 then also compare the body of the poor father 
 with that of the child, you could not help but 
 marvel at the wonderful improvement Nature 
 has here wrought in this fortunate boy. Fortu-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 375 
 
 nate? Alas, he is only a "little nigger" in the 
 eyes of America today. His ability is unrecog- 
 nized. 
 
 In little Iraline we have drawn a good like- 
 ness of their daughter. What a ravishing beauty, 
 
 what a magnificent specimen of human anatomy! 
 Such a physiognomy as artists should rave over. 
 Just enough of the Negro tinge to make her so 
 cute and lovable and, indeed, she is lovable. 
 She has a fine feminine head and figure to make 
 her so. Some day she will make an ideal wife
 
 376 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 for the right kind of man, if her education as 
 well as her fascinating beauty is not neglected. 
 
 But what are you leading to? Call a "nigger" 
 beautiful? Precisely so. 
 
 Science knows no prejudice, is not biased; 
 gives credit where credit is due. 
 
 Produce your white charmers, and compare 
 them with thousands of these dark beauties, and 
 let science determine the best equipped, the best 
 fitted for maternity. That is the "rub," that is 
 the paramount question. 
 
 Maternal fitness makes all girls charming, all 
 women attractive to all men, without it none. 
 
 OFFSPRING ALONE CONSTITUTES 
 TRUE MARRIAGE. You say we are wrong, 
 that mental ability, mental accomplishments, too, 
 attract. So they do ; but mental attraction alone 
 knows no sex; is simply cool admiration in both 
 men and women among themselves and in each 
 other. Feminine qualities, maternal fitness in 
 woman, alone can render her truly charming 
 and magnetic to the opposite sex. Therefore it 
 now follows that only maternal and paternal fit- 
 ness should constitute true marriage. It is a 
 natural law that only man disobeys. All ani- 
 mals thus fitted mate only, none others. All men 
 and women not thus equipped cannot enter into 
 true marriage, but only mere partnerships, which 
 ought to be made 'solvent by the parties con-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 377 
 
 cerned, should they wish to permanently sepa- 
 rate at any time, like any other partnership. 
 
 When offspring alone constitutes true mar- 
 riage, no illegitimate children will be born, and 
 every man will be compelled to stick to his -affin- 
 ity, of whatever color or race. This, as we have 
 just intimated, is in harmony with the procrea- 
 tive law, the highest and noblest act of Nature; 
 and we believe that no people or country can 
 reach its highest state of civilization before they 
 heed this, the highest of all God's command- 
 ments. 
 
 Talk about the possibility of making the 
 marriage and divorce laws of this country uni- 
 form. There is no ground upon which such 
 uniformity is possible, save that just stated. 
 When offspring alone constitutes true marriage, 
 and all other unions are recognized by law as 
 mere partnerships, this important question will 
 soon settle itself rightly. 
 
 Take heed, all who have the best interest of 
 mankind at heart. Let not this generation pass 
 away before public sentiment demands this ra- 
 tional change in our marriage relations. 
 
 We have spoken of this here, especially for the 
 benefit of the colored women of the South. We 
 feel as though we would like to plead for them 
 in this regard, for we know only too well what 
 vast benefit they would derive from the inaug-
 
 378 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 uration of such marriage reform. And would 
 it not also prove equally beneficial to all classes 
 of whites? The present marriage and divorce 
 system of our civilization is a mortal stain that 
 ought to be eradicated.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 379 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLES ILLUSTRATED 
 
 THE MATING OF SUPERIOR DIS- 
 SIMILARITIES. Mrs. Dr. Summer had a 
 knowledge of scientific mating, and abhorred the 
 vulgar sentiment prevalent among a certain de- 
 graded populace in this country, concerning the 
 eligibility of the upper class of colored people. 
 She, like other women of advanced ideas and 
 large mental capacity, believed that the woman 
 who can leave strong, well developed children, 
 mentally and physically, by affiliating with a 
 race of marked dissimilarities, bestows upon 
 mankind the highest and noblest gift. She had 
 a taste for the dark, vital, powerful masculinity. 
 She could have found one of such characteris- 
 tics among the whites, but repudiated all preju- 
 dice and decided in favor of a colored gentle- 
 man, Mr. Summer, who attended school in her 
 native town in the North. She met him, was 
 attracted, and found that she had not only met 
 her intellectual equal, but also an ideal father of 
 her future children, although they would be 
 tinged with dark blood. Prohibit such a splen- 
 did union? Nonsense. Behold! what hath 
 God wrought? Her children, to be sure, are
 
 380 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 dark-skinned, curly-headed, pretty little mis- 
 chiefs. They are remarkably fine; they will be 
 the progenitors of other fine people of another,
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 381 
 
 greater age as the world moves on. Far better 
 these with new blood, new affinities, and a 
 definite mission of sublime importance before 
 them, than none, or a puny few, with no future 
 of any consequence. 
 
 In Master Summer we have a good likeness of 
 their oldest child; and this portrait speaks for it- 
 self. He is fine beyond computation. Now, the 
 father, Dr. Summer, of the child is a true mu- 
 latto. His mother was a well-proportioned 
 black, though simple woman, of whom we pro- 
 duce a drawing in Betsey; while his father was 
 a southern planter, of whom we also produce a 
 likeness in Summerfield, whose father came to 
 Alabama in the early days, and belonged to the 
 sturdy, old Virginia, aristocratic stock. 
 
 THREE GENERATIONS. Little Master 
 Summer's grandfather was a true type of the old 
 southern aristocracy (a defender of his race), 
 while his grandmother was a black servant in 
 his grandfather's household. We therefore here 
 produce the third generation. In the first cross- 
 ing the mother was a full Negress and the father 
 a full Caucasian, while in the second the father 
 was one-half white and the mother a full Cauca- 
 sian; which makes this boy two-thirds white, 
 and as fine a specimen of physical and intellect- 
 ual boyhood as can be found among any people, 
 of any race. On his father's side he inherited
 
 382 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 383 
 
 the strong, vital or animal qualities of his black 
 grandmother, and the fine, sensitive, cunning, 
 intellectual characteristics of his white grand- 
 father; and on his mother's side he obtained the 
 strong moral and religious faculties, which, al- 
 
 together, give him the fine proportioned head, 
 so admirably balanced. He is not a genius, 
 which is invariably one prominently developed 
 in the genius producing faculties. For instance, 
 like J, Roland, whose progeny with Rosaline 
 inherited them, and provided them with power-
 
 384 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ful, tenacious qualities, capable of an enormous 
 amount of mental work, as so well illustrated in 
 Master Roland. In Master Summer we have a 
 character of substantial qualities, so well bal- 
 anced mentally and physically, that he will live 
 
 to a ripe old age, and fill a place in life of a 
 religious and educational character with great 
 credit. His father prepared for the ministry, 
 but while he is a fine logical speaker he has not 
 the spiritual and moral qualities his son inher- 
 ited from his mother, consequently he would
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 385 
 
 have made a better lawyer than he is preacher. 
 Timely phrenological advice would have pre- 
 vented this error in the choice of his vocation. 
 
 Look at the likeness of the black mother, 
 Betsey, and then at her son and grandson, Master 
 
 //a steP 2 u. m m & i*. 
 
 Summer; and if you are at all cognizant of men- 
 tal development you will observe the phenom- 
 enal advancement in the scale of human intellect, 
 without the slightest physical loss, but rather 
 gain. 
 
 Now, this process need never deteriorate, but 
 
 25
 
 386 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 on the contrary can still undergo greater im- 
 provements in the succeeding generations. If 
 the next crossing is again with a white woman 
 in Master Summer's case; and if this woman is, 
 like his mother, of a Nervous-Mental Tempera- 
 ment, their children will be capable of still 
 
 greater mental accomplishment, provided the 
 law of sex-amalgamation is not violated. These 
 should then fall back on their grandmother's 
 side, and again intermarry with intelligent mu- 
 lattoes or others of a dark, Vital Temperament. 
 This would then again produce offspring like
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARP'S SPOTS 387 
 
 their grandfather, Master Summer, only a great 
 deal finer, both mentally and physically. Thus 
 the process can be continued for a number of 
 generations, until the Negro is entirely assim- 
 ilated by this scientific method of amalgamation. 
 
 THE PROGENY OF THE UNRELI- 
 ABLE FATHER. In McNay we have a 
 Scotchman of a Vital Temperament and light 
 complexion. He is a large, powerful man of 
 extravagant affections and plodding character. 
 He married Clara McNay, a colored maiden, 
 a trifle more white than black, yet quite dark.
 
 388 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 She is very nicely mated to him; being rather 
 tall and slender, yet not too slight. She has a 
 beautiful form for her type of womanhood. She 
 is rather short waisted, with broad hips and long 
 well-developed limbs. She would not be called 
 a beauty by many men, yet she is not homely. 
 
 Met/ay. 
 
 She is of a type we often meet throughout the 
 South, and which is in a measure quite charm- 
 ing, and belongs, generally, to a class of the 
 most reliable and industrious people, therefore 
 this class has been most desired by white men to 
 affiliate with in various sections of the country.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 38 
 
 She has eyes that are remarkably expressive and 
 magnetic. Such eyes "haunt" McNay night 
 and day when they have once looked into his 
 half-closed amatory optics. He is not a very re- 
 liable husband, as his affections are easily trans- 
 ferred from one charmer to another, yet such 
 eyes will control him and keep his affections in 
 the "straight and narrow way" better than any 
 other human power. Those eyes also indicate a 
 soulful character, active intellect, and a reliable,' 
 faithful wife and mother. Their children are 
 exceptionally fine. They exhibit a great deal of 
 their father's vitality, and also a fair share of 
 their mother's soulful characteristics. They are 
 better than either. 
 
 We give scientific reasons: He is unreliable 
 in his affections, they being mainly of the ama- 
 tory sort, and he is strong in imparting these 
 undesirable qualities to his offspring. She op- 
 poses them on her side by her powerful conjugal 
 and parental love, which are very strong in many 
 of her class of women of color. And, indeed, 
 were it not, she would not be the possessor of 
 such open, bright, pretty eyes. 
 
 All her love is wrapped up in him and the 
 children by him; and these strong affections are 
 bound to be transmitted to her children, while 
 his superior intellect is also well marked, conse- 
 quently, this produces the beautiful blending,
 
 390 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 perfect amalgamation in their superior posterity, 
 as illustrated in Master McNay. This boy re- 
 sembles his father in the strong chin, powerful 
 jaw, neck and body generally, and also has his 
 superior mental development, but he resembles 
 his mother (beside the African strain) in his 
 open eye, indicating the same characteristics she 
 possesses viz., the soulful, spiritual qualities, 
 and higher moral attributes, that his sensual 
 father does not possess. 
 
 Thus we could give scores of examples that 
 have come under our observation, where unruly, 
 or rather immoral men affiliated with the purer 
 class of girls of color, without transmitting all 
 their undesirable qualities; and in such cases we 
 have also found that the mental capabilities were 
 invariably improved in the progeny of such 
 crossings. On the other hand, we have found 
 that a low type of white man, thus crossing with 
 a woman of a low moral nature, generally trans- 
 mit all their vicious characteristics to their off- 
 spring, which makes a very undesirable class, be- 
 ing in some instances minus all that is most de- 
 sirable in a man or woman. The same fact is 
 applicable to vicious, immoral whites; and in 
 both cases such unions should be prohibited by 
 means advocated in this work. We give reasons 
 why such crossings result in inferior progeny, in 
 the succeeding chapter.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 391 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 LOVE, OR SEX-AMALGAMATION 
 
 HOW SUPERIOR CHILDREN ARE 
 BORN. We have spoken of the harmonious 
 attachment between Roland, Rosaline and others 
 in preceding chapters, and the admirable results 
 attained in their progeny. Can these results be 
 alone attributed to the fact that they are naturally 
 adapted to each other? We would not be fair 
 with our readers if we said, yes. There is an- 
 other cause, another law which alone can, in 
 connection with natural affiliation, produce the 
 best and most perfect offspring obtainable; and 
 that is a Right Love-State. A blighted, im- 
 paired or passive love-state in one or both par- 
 ents produces inferior offspring, while a right 
 state produces superior; and the more perfect 
 and harmonious love is maintained between well 
 adapted parents, the more perfection and su- 
 periority may be found in their children. This 
 all-important fact we wish the reader to bear in 
 mind, in connection with the assimilation by 
 amalgamation of the Afro-American. Children 
 of parents of whom one is colored and who are 
 in a loving-state, are harmonious and homo-
 
 392 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 geneous, and invariably better than their parents, 
 because they inherit the excellent qualities of 
 both; while those who are imperfectly blended 
 are both inferior to their parents and self-con- 
 tradictory. 
 
 To illustrate this point, we may say that par- 
 ents can be likened unto two metals, partially or 
 improperly melted and thrown together. The 
 result is imperfect amalgamation ; leaving all of 
 one metal in one place, and all of the other in 
 another. Excessive passions on his side, and 
 passivity on hers, render their progeny mostly 
 like him, and consequently there is no marked 
 improvement, and vice versa. But if both are 
 thoroughly roused, and in a fine, loving condi- 
 tion, but not sensual, the magnificent blending, 
 the absolute oneness of themselves, will be fully 
 transmitted to their offspring; and thus a su- 
 perior child, mentally and physically, is the re- 
 sult. We have observed this fact in thousands 
 of cases; both in the crossings of the colored and 
 whites, and in the mulatto and other fairer ones 
 with the dark and black, as well as in two whites. 
 You can find hundreds of families, where either 
 mother or father is dark or black, in which one 
 child may be beautifully blended, and, conse- 
 quently, superior to its parents ; another may be 
 black like one of its parents, and mentally in- 
 ferior, but physically superior; still another may
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 393 
 
 be fair like one of its parents, and mentally 
 superior, but physically inferior. Now, it is 
 said that this one takes after its father, that one 
 after its mother, and another after both. But, 
 why? For no other reason than that just stated. 
 If parents, of whatever race or color, would ob- 
 serve this creative law of amalgamation, and 
 enter, and remain per-petually in a loving, blend- 
 ing, harmonious state; and not fuss, wound, in- 
 flame, impair and deaden their love, during the 
 years in which their children are born, what a 
 marvelous evolutionary process would not the 
 colored as well as the white race undergo. 
 
 Inferior parents often have superior children, 
 while superior ones have inferior. This is be- 
 cause the former often maintain a lovable con- 
 dition, while the latter wound, inflame and disap- 
 point their love-state most often; because the 
 higher organized the more sensitive, and the 
 easier impaired. While parents, who live in a 
 beautiful blended state of love, transmit all the 
 highest and noblest qualities of their characters 
 to their children, just the reverse is true of those 
 who live in a sensual, crabby, sour, disappointed 
 love-state. 
 
 All lovers, all parents, take heed! Do not 
 cheat yourselves and the world out of the high- 
 est and noblest that Nature has in store for you. 
 This is holy ground; they who tread thereon
 
 394 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 must be pure, sanctified and elevated, or become 
 debased and debasers robbers of virtue, hounds 
 of impurity, blasphemers, thieves, liars, bums 
 and cut-throats all, all have their origin here. 
 
 There may be a blemish, a weakness, a flaw 
 in your character; "cut it out" by getting into a 
 pure, sweet, blended love-state with your life- 
 companion, with your lover, before you trans- 
 mit such a blemish or weak tendency to your off- 
 spring. No human being has a moral right be- 
 fore God to propagate, who is not thus prepared 
 for this holy office. Unfortunate development 
 of the mental faculties (or more correctly speak- 
 ing brain organs in children) may thus be 
 averted, and only thus, as well as many physical 
 defects. 
 
 In the present transmutation of the Negro 
 race in America from the primitive to the higher 
 realms of civilization, we must heed the warn- 
 ing and see the impending dangers about us, and 
 seek salvation from both physical and spiritual 
 bondage, in a wiser and better progeny. 
 
 WHO IS AND WHO IS NOT MAR- 
 RIED. We reiterate the fact that "like pro- 
 duces like," and that no human being has a 
 moral right to propagate, who is not sanctified 
 and prepared for this holy office. No married 
 couple, though married a thousand times by the 
 laws of the land is married by the laws of God,
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 395 
 
 if their union is a loveless one; and they commit 
 a crime against society, and against Nature's 
 God, if they bring loveless, . inferior children 
 into the world. They have no more right to 
 propagate than the vilest criminal. When they 
 cohabit they commit adultery, and their chil- 
 dren are born bastards. Only those who har- 
 monize and are in a right love-state can cohabit 
 without committing a sin against Nature's God, 
 and against their own offspring. Marriage 
 ceremonies have little to do with it. Those 
 morally corrupt cannot approach the sweet, 
 sacred union of true wedlock; of a right sex- 
 amalgamation. When love ceases true marriage 
 is at an end. Nature recognizes marriage only 
 in love, and offspring is the culmination of love 
 and marriage. Nature repudiates and condemns 
 marriage, or the union of the sexes without love, 
 in the production of an inferior progeny. Mar- 
 riage without love is a legal prostitution. It 
 contradicts the Divine command viz., to be 
 "one flesh" and to multiply. 
 
 First, the twain must be made one-flesh love; 
 and secondly, the fruit of love must be realized 
 in the child. This is the beginning, the aim 
 and end of so-called marriage in the economy of 
 physical life. 
 
 For the above reasons we believe that the mat- 
 ing of the sexes is a Divine institution, because
 
 396 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Love is Divine in that it demands offspring 
 marriage may not. 
 
 RIGHT AND WRONG SEX-AMALGA- 
 MATION. Why was not more of the unde- 
 sirable mental condition of McNay, in chapter 
 seventeen, transmitted to his son, Master Mc- 
 Nay in the same chapter? Answer: Because 
 Clara McNay, his mate, was so completely 
 enamored with him, and her higher personality 
 was so admirably blended with his, that a per- 
 fect amalgamation took place. Had not this 
 been the case, the reverse would have been true. 
 Master McNay would have inherited all of his 
 father's animal passions as well as those of his 
 mother's and he would, in consequence, have 
 been a very undesirable character to run at large. 
 
 What about the statement made in a preceding 
 chapter, that if Rosaline had mated with Sam 
 Slick, the resulting offspring would have been 
 like Little Sam? Are we sure of our assertion? 
 
 Yes, absolutely sure. Hundreds of observa- 
 tions confirm this statement, and these drawings, 
 taken from life by the author, are living testi- 
 monies. How else could so many degenerates 
 be born and exist among these people and the 
 whites? There certainly is a cause for every 
 effect, and in this regard it is especially true. 
 Rosaline and Sam Slick could not produce the 
 right temperature necessary for a complete
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 397 
 
 fusion. Their excessive passions produce an 
 "over-heated" state, and consequently burn out 
 all the higher mental qualities, and only transmit 
 these in a weak, flickering quantity, while all 
 that part which pertains to the cunning, shrewd, 
 deceitful, revengeful, lustful, is intensely exag- 
 gerated and flogged into abnormal action. The 
 very fact of their being together lashes their ani- 
 mal passions into abnormal, inflamed action; 
 lowers all their desires, and the resulting issue 
 cannot be but unmanageable and fiery, vicious 
 and low. They experience no spiritual cohabit- 
 ing with the physical. We give ample proof in 
 this work to confirm this fact; and this is the sole 
 reason why we advocate the sterilization of the 
 vicious, uncontrollable, criminal and degenerate 
 class. There is no other efficient method to elim- 
 inate this crowning evil among all the races of 
 man; if there is we would like to know it. What 
 else can we do with the progeny of the absolutely 
 unfit, that are crowding in upon us, and are con- 
 taminating the masses of this great age? Be- 
 tween Roland and Rosaline there is scarcely a 
 shadow of possibility for criminal issue, under 
 ordinary conditions. With him Rosaline's pas- 
 sions are prolonged; and thus a complete and 
 beautiful amalgamation alone can and has pro- 
 duced the many admirable types of half and 
 quarter breeds, and others of African origin we 
 meet with and so often refer to in this work.
 
 398 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 THE LOSS OF STAMINA ATTRIB- 
 UTED TO UNNATURAL CONDI- 
 TIONS. Now, it has so often been stated, and 
 at times by men of some authority, that the 
 Negro, when crossing with whites the resulting 
 offspring, or those further remote from the Afri- 
 can, lose their native stamina. In connection with 
 what we have said above, this subject naturally 
 presents itself to us, and we are no doubt ex- 
 pected to say what we have found to be facts, 
 in this regard. What we shall say on this so- 
 called important question will be short, to the 
 point, free from bias the result of careful 
 study. We shall not juggle words or waste valu- 
 able space. In the first place, we do not deem 
 this question of such paramount importance as 
 may be supposed. Prejudice has here as every- 
 where, set its iron heel. We will ask you the 
 following question to ponder over; it will go a 
 long way toward giving you an idea of the situ- 
 ation: Who pushes the wheel of progress the 
 hardest, spends the most energy and carries the 
 heaviest responsibilities in the colored race? 
 
 Answer: The man of color,- in whose veins 
 throbs the blood of a Caucasian. All through 
 this work we reiterate this fact. 
 
 When the process of amalgamation is prop- 
 erly, lawfully, scientifically carried on, there 
 is not an iota of danger from loss of native
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 399 
 
 stamina in the immediate or remote progeny of 
 the crossings of whites with the darkest skinned, 
 or with any of the intervening types, all the way 
 from a full Ethiopian to the slightest trace of 
 African blood. The fact that the half-breeds, 
 quarter-breeds, etc., of the race, are the main- 
 stay, or, in other words, the real backbone of the 
 Afro-American, is sufficient proof to most any 
 thoughtful, enquiring man, that there must not 
 only often be a greater mental capacity, but also 
 a decided supply of nerve energy to sustain the 
 remarkable display of intellectual and physical 
 ability and durability in them. Reader, use your 
 judgment; is it not rather astonishing that 
 the offspring of, many times the basest kind of 
 white man and the commonest kind of Negress, 
 have not proven more direful than they have? 
 
 Root out the danger that lies in the wake of 
 this class, and a powerful, recuperating influ- 
 ence will permeate the race. And then let in- 
 telligent men and women of -the race (the hog 
 will wallow in the mire) make proper selections 
 among themselves and affiliate also with the de- 
 sirable whites wherever advisable, and practice 
 the love-state that produces perfect amalgama- 
 tion, and the result will be ultimate mental and 
 physical elevation. 
 
 The depleted physical condition, or, in other 
 words, the lack of metal, which is apparent in
 
 400 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 many of the lower and middle classes of colored 
 men, is almost entirely due: First, to an un- 
 natural state of conception and birth; and, sec- 
 ondly, to the abuse of the generative organs, the 
 use of cigarettes and whiskey, and a life void of 
 purpose, system or proper rules of health. In 
 our chapter on social vice we have already 
 spoken somewhat of this matter. It suffices here 
 to say that all the debasing and life-sapping 
 practices the whites are addicted to, are partici- 
 pated in by the colored. And these social vices 
 have, we admit and deplore, already seriously 
 impaired the physical and moral health of the 
 race. And, we have reasons to believe, from ob- 
 servations made, that the white American youth 
 .is on the same "slippery slough of destruction. ' r 
 WHAT PROFESSOR WM. A. MC- 
 KEEVER SAYS OF COLLEGE STU- 
 DENTS. William A. McKeever, professor 
 of philosophy in the Kansas State University, 
 who has made a study of this matter among the 
 whites, has this to say: "There are in the Kan- 
 sas State Agricultural college today about half 
 a hundred students who are worthless as such, 
 and who really ought to be dismissed and put at 
 work. Some of them have been sent to college 
 with the hope that, with the new opportunities 
 offered, they would 'brace up.' Others are mis- 
 leading their fond, credulous parents in the be-
 
 V 
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 401 
 
 lief that creditable college work really is being 
 done. Doubtless every large institution similar 
 to this one has its same question of delinquents. 
 But if sent back home, or elsewhere, with the 
 thought of their engaging in something really 
 worth while, the majority of these young per- 
 sons young women of such character are much 
 fewer than young men would show the same 
 characteristics of dependence and shiftlessness. 
 There is much evidence that they have been 
 'spoiled in the raising' rather than low born." 
 
 He asks: "What, of scientific value, do we 
 know about developing character in the young?" 
 We would remind the professor of the fact that 
 phrenological science has long "known," and 
 its students and practitioners have long preached 
 "about developing character in the young," 
 scientifically. But he speaks with such good 
 judgment and his suggestions are of such value 
 to both white and colored, that we shall here 
 quote him more lengthily: "Why cannot there 
 be instituted by legal enactment a standing com- 
 mittee of experts of eminent ability and unques- 
 tioned authority to make experiments and in- 
 quiries extending over a wide field, with a view 
 to acquiring some scientific knowledge on the 
 subject of child training in the home? There 
 is today no such service being performed. 
 
 26
 
 402 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 THE HUMAN RACE NEGLECTED. 
 
 "Other matters of less importance, such as sheep 
 raising, have long ago been reduced to a science, 
 but parents go on rearing their children as of 
 old, guided only by instinct, tradition and preju- 
 dice. As a result there are among us today thou- 
 sands of criminals, paupers and genteel depend- 
 ents whose lives might have been made useful 
 through intelligent training in childhood. Ac- 
 tual experiments could be carried on in orphan 
 asylums, reform schools and in ordinary homes 
 where there might be a willingness to co-operate 
 in the work. The field of inquiry would be the 
 country at large, while, the results in all cases 
 would be carefully tabulated. In every state in 
 the union there has been established a station 
 for experimentation in matters that pertain to the 
 productiveness of the soil and to animal hus- 
 bandry. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are 
 being expended annually in an effort to enable 
 the producer to realize more satisfactorily upon 
 his investments in every type of agricultural ani- 
 mal from the 'beef steer and his sister to the 
 helpful hen.' The government at Washington 
 keeps hundreds of experts employed in the 
 bureau of plant industry. Many of these are 
 stationed in various parts of the country, while 
 others are traveling abroad in the interest of 
 studying and collecting cereals and grasses that
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 403 
 
 might be successfully propagated in the United 
 States. All this work is contributing immensely 
 to the country's wealth, and especially to the 
 material well-being of the agricultural classes. 
 The results of all these investigations and ex- 
 periments are worked out on the basis of mathe- 
 matical science. Tabulated bulletins are being 
 sent out by the hundred to those interested, so 
 that scientific methods of farming and stock- 
 raising are fast supplanting the old-fashioned, 
 wasteful practices. If a farmer has a three-year- 
 old horse that balks or a yearling calf that acts 
 a little queer, he can appeal to the experiment 
 station and receive, free of cost, a scientific bul- 
 letin and a lengthy personal letter covering the 
 case. But if the balky or queer-acting creature 
 chances to be his sixteen-year-old son or his 
 fledgling daughter, he must fight the case out 
 alone, or assisted only by a despairing wife. 
 
 CHANGING CONDITIONS CHANGE 
 CHARACTER. "Hearsay and traditional 
 methods of training children have been in use so 
 long as a mere matter of course that it is difficult 
 for us to realize the need of a change. Time 
 was when pioneer conditions were so common 
 throughout this country that the mere attending 
 circumstances could be depended upon to bring 
 out forceful and effective traits of character. But 
 in these modern, prosperous times such condi-
 
 404 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 tions have almost entirely disappeared. The 
 people are becoming more and more closely 
 massed and the allurements to exciting experi- 
 ences are becoming correspondingly more 
 numerous in the child's environment. Our old- 
 fashioned methods of training the young are no 
 longer adequate to cope with these changing con- 
 ditions. The child gets into the exciting situa- 
 tion before he has had enough practice in self- 
 restraint to enable him to combat it successfully. 
 We have on our hands today thousands of young 
 women and men who have been well born, but 
 ignorantly reared, and who, as a consequence, 
 are deficient in morals and economically useless. 
 Of the many in the college where I teach, who 
 fail in their classes, very few are naturally dull 
 and inapt in their studies. Most of them were 
 born with bright minds and quick wits in poten- 
 tiality, and they are the children of industrious, 
 prosperous parents; but they are pathetically in- 
 efficient because of overindulgence in purely im- 
 pulsive and spontaneous forms of activity during 
 the years of childhood and adolescence, and an 
 almost complete lack of experience in sustained, 
 purposive effort. This same condition exists in 
 all our schools and colleges. We have all around 
 us parents who themselves have been^efficient 
 largely through the rigorous experiences that are 
 incident to pioneer life, but who are more or less
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 405 
 
 ignorant of the source of their own strength of 
 character. 
 
 PARENTS ARE CRIMINALLY NEG- 
 LIGENT. "The wealthy centers of the coun- 
 try are full of Harry Thaws minus the shoot- 
 ing incident, of course. These over-indulged, 
 sickly sentimental young men are driven to every 
 conceivable kind of depravity by the insatiable 
 craving of an abnormal nature. As times grow 
 more prosperous this dissolute manner of rearing 
 the young will become our greatest example of 
 criminal negligence, unless we develop some 
 scientific means of correcting the evil. This evil 
 is greatly aggravated by virtue of the fact that 
 our newspaper publicity often makes one of these 
 dissipated youths the chief player in a great na- 
 tional theater. Witness the Thaw case. Thou- 
 sands of such young men and there always will 
 be found a young woman to match each one- 
 will risk their bankrupt reputations and even 
 their necks in the interest of getting into the lime- 
 light and securing the applause. And so it might 
 seem advisable to establish throughout the land 
 a number of experiment stations for child culture 
 with the same exact methods of investigation and 
 issuing bulletins that characterize the agricul- 
 tural stations." 
 
 A CHILD WELL BORN IS TRAINED 
 AT BIRTH. We believe that we have made it
 
 406 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 clear to all readers that the loss of stamina, if any 
 in the Negro race, is not due to the amalgama- 
 tion of it with a dissimilar one, but to the evil 
 causes which follow in the wake of it. We have 
 just seen that "changing conditions change 
 characters." The fact that marvelous material 
 improvements and multiplications of wealth 
 have been wrought by industry in the past de- 
 cade, did not, in itself, produce the insatiable 
 cravings of an abnormal nature; but the changed 
 condition wrought an untried state among these 
 whites, and changing conditions among the col- 
 ored, of whatever nature, produces like results. 
 Rapid changes in environments among people 
 of every race and age have produced abnormal 
 characters for a time, being thus born. In some 
 instances whole nations have gone down, who 
 failed to regain their equilibrium before nat- 
 ional corruption ensued. And so if Professor 
 McKeever will go down to the bottom, the very 
 source of delinquency in his students, he will in- 
 variably find that unnatural, improper sex-amal- 
 gamation, is the first cause of all the Thaw char- 
 acteristics and delinquency in the wide world. 
 How else could two children of the same par- 
 ents, reared in exactly the same environments, 
 differ so widely that one may be wholly respect- 
 able, industrious, energetic even a preacher of 
 the Gospel while the other is a black sheep, a
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 407 
 
 veritable Thaw character, or like a Thaw vic- 
 tim? Like produces like. This is an unchang- 
 able natural law, and no parents can cheat or 
 defraud nature. One child born in a harmoni- 
 ous love-state, and another under a reversed con- 
 
 TEACHER 
 
 ^(^ Of 0v 
 HER RACE. 
 
 dition, cannot be alike; and no training in the 
 home, or any other kind of training, can make 
 them alike. We, of course, believe in giving all 
 children a thorough home-training, and especi- 
 ally in harmony with phrenological science, if 
 it were possible; but we maintain that a child
 
 408 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 rightly born is already trained at birth, and needs 
 only a little additional cultivation and care, like 
 a vigorous plant, to make it thrive and mature 
 beautifully. We believe in the method of child 
 culture experiments Professor McKeever advo- 
 cates or suggests ; and we are now convinced that 
 it would do a vast amount of good in the im- 
 provement of the human race ; but we also believe 
 that the source, the first cause, the wrong birth, 
 should especially receive the attention of our 
 government; and this evil should be eliminated 
 by it as far as possible, among both white and 
 colored, by the scientific methods we advocate, 
 and by a thorough educational campaign, such 
 as Professor McKeever suggests. 
 
 A MOTHER IS THE PRE-NATAL 
 KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. But this 
 is terrible! 
 
 Let the government teach us how to conceive 
 and bear better children? Why not? 
 
 Does it not teach us how to improve our stock, 
 our farm product and our soil; and are our own 
 offspring of less importance than our farms and 
 stock? Should not self-improvement, or the bet- 
 terment of mankind, be our highest aim in life? 
 We have already touched upon this subject. We 
 will add that the right conception and birth of 
 a child, of whatever color, overshadows and out- 
 weighs all other reforms put together; and that
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 409 
 
 the government has not given the races within 
 our borders the privilege of attaining a scientific 
 knowledge of this subject, in this age of marvel- 
 ous achievement, is a moral outrage to the masses 
 of people of our great civilization. When every 
 conceivable kind of improvement is contemplated 
 and executed, why not this? Would not the peo- 
 ple pay for it and the country be benefitted 
 thereby? 
 
 A mother should not only be in a quiet, happy 
 mood during pregnancy, but her mind should 
 be occupied with useful, studious and delightful 
 thoughts; and her hands with such labor as may 
 be congenial to her, and of sufficient importance 
 to occupy her entire attention when thus em- 
 ployed. She is Nature's kindergarten teacher 
 of the embryo and child unborn the making of 
 a man. What a solemn trust hath God conferred 
 upon you? O, mother of the human family! 
 Violate this sacred trust, and the verdict guilty 
 is written upon your own flesh and blood, your 
 own darling babe, and naught on earth has power 
 to erase that sin which you taught it, which you 
 committed, while it was alone with you in the 
 sanctuary of your soul. The evil thus transmit- 
 ted from mother to child is monstrous! terrible 
 to contemplate it baffles human understanding. 
 Yet, how little is being done to counterbalance 
 the, evil thus wrought?
 
 410 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Prospective mothers, do you take a leap into 
 the dark as regards the character of your own 
 future child? You need not. You can, if you 
 will, know the character, the future profession, 
 trade or occupation, etc., of your unborn child. 
 You can predict its future career if you will. 
 You can say with positive knowledge: 
 "This my child, I have caused to be born thus, 
 and its life-work will be that; the other one I 
 have caused to be born thus, and its life-work and 
 character will be like this," etc. 
 
 But, how? 
 
 By your own effort. You can mould the 
 future character of your child like a potter his 
 clay, if you will it. But you must positively will 
 it. The author has made hundreds of observa- 
 tions which fully confirm this fact; and others 
 who have investigated along this line have come 
 to like conclusions. To illustrate, we will give 
 but one case which will convey to you the im- 
 portance and truthfulness of our statement, es- 
 pecially if we assure you that it is but a common 
 occurrence we have met with, among both white 
 and colored, in our many years of observations : 
 The first child, a boy of this case, was more like 
 its father than its mother, and not superior to 
 either. The next, a girl, born under nearly the 
 same conditions, was again more like him than 
 her. The third, again a boy, was unlike the
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 411 
 
 older children and unlike either parent, in that 
 its upper frontal brain lobes were more de- 
 veloped in the region of Causality and Compari- 
 son, and its features were more refined and the 
 quality of its brain apparently finer. When en- 
 quiring the cause of this phenomenon we, of 
 course, were as usually met with bland igno- 
 rance and simple curiosity. But, we ask, did you 
 not read or study something before this child 
 was born; just think and see? "Oh, lordy, yes," 
 she exclaimed, "I sure is Fs readin ebery day 
 and studen som mo in de night, cause I's gowin 
 to be edicated like all de good culued folks." 
 Therein lies the secret of mental or brain de- 
 velopment, and the unusual brightness of some 
 unpromising-looking boys and girls of the black, 
 ignorant class of Negroes. This poor, simple- 
 minded, good hearted little black mother was 
 educating her unborn babe, unknown to herself, 
 and was thus unconsciously preparing it for a 
 life of greater service and more efficient useful- 
 ness to her race. The influence of the mind over 
 matter, when intelligently directed, is all-power-, 
 ful; and for this reason should Negro mothers 
 cultivate and use this wonderful knowledge for 
 the betterment of the race. Lazy, "shiftless 
 mothers cannot thus cultivate their children. It 
 takes some effort and intense application in the 
 direction the child is desired to be developed.
 
 412 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Whatever trade or profession the child is to ex- 
 cel in, must be taken up by the mother and 
 thoroughly absorbed, especially during the later 
 half of pregnancy, or the effect produced will 
 not be satisfactory. And, above all, the moral 
 nature of the mother must be trained and inten- 
 sified.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 413 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 PSYCHIC EVOLUTION, OR SOUL-LIFE AND THOUGHT 
 
 FORCE 
 
 SOUL-LIFE. We not only believe, but we 
 know that if there is any soul-life for man, that 
 that life is, through Providence, the result of 
 man's own psychic achievement. Science has so 
 far failed to find any trace of a heaven or a 
 spirit-life, save the one that man has created for 
 himself. That man cannot create for himself a 
 soul-life, cannot be denied by either theology or 
 science. The highest theological thought has, in 
 fact, supported this truth in late years. God, 
 the psychic power of the universe, has so created 
 man that soul-life is within his reach a part of 
 his heritage, if he wills it. 
 
 We know that any one who has the positive 
 knowledge within himself that he is immortal, 
 and can hold that thought, has the key to heaven 
 a spirit-life. When we view this important 
 subject in this advanced light, we have a far 
 clearer conception of soul-life than we have ever 
 had before; and this fact should be a stimulant 
 to all who know, to develop their own spiritual 
 selves. 
 
 We speak as a scientist, not as a theologian.
 
 414 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 It is evident that all men do not possess a soul- 
 life. It is a well-known fact to psychologists 
 that "AS A MAN THINKETH IN HIS HEART SO IS 
 HE." 
 
 It is your belief that holds you, and you not 
 your belief. It is your belief that makes you 
 what you are. It is your belief that determines 
 the shape of your head to a marked extent, and 
 also the shape of your body. It causes your face 
 to shine with intelligence, morality, benevolence 
 and spirituality, if your intellectual, moral and 
 spiritual faculties in the brain have been culti- 
 vated. On the other hand it stamps upon the 
 face cruelty, deceitfulness, licentiousness and 
 murder. 
 
 Those of us who know can read all men like 
 an open book, and never fail to detect their 
 dominant beliefs. 
 
 We believe that the time will come when all 
 children at our public schools may be able to 
 obtain a scientific knowledge of human nature. 
 We believe that the time will come when all may 
 understand and know their fellow men. 
 ' Let us draw your thoughts to the Invisible 
 Power which has complete control of all things. 
 That part of you which is variously called In- 
 telligence, Consciousness, Mind, Soul, Spirit, 
 Ego, Divine Principle, etc. That part of you 
 which no other animal has so fully developed,
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 415 
 
 is the part of you which can make you immortal, 
 which can make you an independent, conscious 
 spirit-being, if you will it; which can make you 
 a god, a creator, all-powerful, if you will it. 
 
 For advocating this tremendous truth the 
 Nazarene philosopher was crucified by the mate- 
 rialistic Jews who believed in a materialistic 
 god. 
 
 We could prove from a scriptural standpoint 
 that our position is a true one; but we are not 
 trying to prove any thing by the Bible or any 
 other book, but from experience. But in regard 
 to the teachings of Christ we will say that He 
 taught that He was in the Father, and that by 
 father He meant Ruler, Creator, God, etc., and 
 that the Father was in Him, and that He and the 
 Father were united or one. He taught that the 
 Creative Life was in Him, and that He could 
 create or destroy, the very thing we are trying 
 to bring out viz., that the power to create or 
 destroy is in man, and that no man is finished 
 until he has created within himself the charac- 
 ter of a s'oul-life. 
 
 The power to create a soul-life is in all men, 
 but a knowledge of this power is not always 
 present. John Wesley, George Whitfield, and 
 many others had remarkable spiritual faculties, 
 still it was quite late in their lives before they re- 
 ceived a positive knowledge of soul-life.
 
 416 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 NO SOUL-LIFE. The statement of Christ 
 that the kingdom of God (of life) is within us, 
 is a scientific fact. He often complained of the 
 materialistic tendencies of his day. He often 
 said, they will not come to me, they will not hear 
 me, that they may have life spirit-life, soul- 
 life, immortality. 
 
 As long as a man is not in possession of the 
 positive knowledge of soul-life, so long does he 
 exist on the animal plane of life; so long is he a 
 part of the animal world, where we have no evi- 
 dence of a soul-life, save of the reincarnation 
 order. 
 
 It is contrary to the teachings of the Nazarene, 
 contrary to a fixed psychic law of life to believe 
 that a man, civilized or savage, will enter a 
 spirit-life when he dies, in direct opposition to 
 his life and controlling beliefs. 
 
 Every man is transplanted in the act of pro- 
 creation, reappearing in his offspring, until he 
 has reached a stage in his existence when his 
 soul-life is developed, at which time he passes 
 out of the generative into the regenerative or 
 spirit-life. Then, and not until then, is a man 
 finished the very image of his maker an im- 
 mortal spirit-being, obtained through the perfect 
 model or ideal Christ. 
 
 To know God, to know the Creative Power of 
 the universe, is soul-life in the spirit-world.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 417 
 
 THE REALIZATION AND SENSING OF IMMOR- 
 TALITY IS IMMORTALITY. You can no more 
 send the soul of a man to heaven, who 
 does not believe in a heaven, and has no 
 perception of one, than you can send a 
 goose into a f ryingpan, that does not believe in a 
 roast. You can no more send the soul of a man 
 to heaven, who does not believe in a soul or 
 heaven, than you can make an ass trot up hill 
 that has a strong inclination to stay down. You 
 cannot send a thing into spirit-life that does not 
 exist, or that is not finished for a spiritual exist- 
 ence. You can project a shaft of light into dark- 
 ness, but you cannot project darkness into light. 
 HIGHLY DEVELOPED SOUL-LIFE.- 
 Permit us to draw the physical likeness of a 
 highly developed soul-life. The top-head is 
 high and fully developed. He feels through 
 every fibre of his physical being that he is spirit. 
 He has developed a fixed sense. He is not only 
 conscious of immortality, but he is sometimes 
 clairvoyant. He is one of a class who some- 
 times puzzles psychic scientists with unexplain- 
 able phenomenon. There is generally a vast dif- 
 ference between him and professional spirit- 
 mediums. He is a living fact. He does not per- 
 form wonderful slate writing miracles, or any 
 other marvelous spirit feats. He may believe 
 in professional spirit mediums and be deceived 
 
 27
 
 418 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 BISHOP R. 
 
 Founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He 
 had a wonderful development of spirituality, veneration and hope 
 a beautiful, sensitive nature.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 419 
 
 by them, especially if he be weak in the percep- 
 tive faculties ; but Conscientiousness is too strong 
 in him, and Secretiveness and the other selfish 
 mental faculties are too weakly represented in 
 his brain to allow him to pose as a fraud, or de- 
 ceive people in any way. Some brains may be 
 large, but they are as coarse as sawdust; his 
 
 JMECAT(VEL 
 
 SPIRITUALITY, 
 
 iCVENERATION. 
 /"F'^LAffifiA. 
 
 A LOW-CLASS EAST AFRICAN SAVAGE. 
 (From a photograph.) 
 
 In this animal-man the higher or transcendental brain organs, 
 through which veneration and spirituality act, are almost absent. 
 The light outline shows his profile, the dotted line shows 
 difference between the cranium development of Bishop James 
 Varick and this savage. This man needs a great deal of patient 
 training in order to develop a conscious soul-life.
 
 430 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 brain is as fine as silk. It is reported that while 
 John Wesley was in a mob at one time, a man 
 raised his arm to strike him, but suddenly 
 dropped it and stroked his head, saying, "What 
 soft hair he has!" Wesley was one of those who 
 had a remarkable fine brain, through which his 
 mind could express itself with marked results, 
 but Swedenburg's was the greatest we know of. 
 
 BISHOP JAMES VARICK. 
 
 Founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. 
 Large brain, practical thinker, a leader of men. He had a stub- 
 born, determined nature, toned down by large human nature, 
 benevolence, spirituality and veneration.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 421 
 
 We wish to be plainly understood. Some are 
 better developed than others from childhood, 
 but all who have ever achieved any degree of 
 power, have passed through a painful process of 
 evolution. 
 
 We give you the positive assurance that you 
 have the power within yourself to develop the 
 body in which you live, and shape it, and ex- 
 press yourself through it, and through all mate- 
 rial things about you, as you please. 
 
 You can create within yourself any belief you 
 please; and it is your dominant belief that 
 makes you what you are. 
 
 You should shape your own destiny and not be 
 a creature of circumstances. If you do not know 
 yourself, but carelessly drift along in the current 
 of circumstances, you will retain the undesir- 
 able position of a "negative," and you will never 
 become the moulder of society, a captain of in- 
 dustry, the governor of a people, or any other 
 positive pole. 
 
 THE MAN WHO FEELS ALL IS MAT- 
 TER. Now, we shall draw the outline of a 
 man who feels through his whole being that "all 
 is matter." His head is low and broad. He is 
 intensely materialistic. 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes says : "It is such a sad 
 thing to be born a sneaking fellow, so much worse 
 than to inherit a humpback or a couple of club
 
 422 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 feet, that I sometimes feel as if we ought to love 
 the crippled souls, if I may use this expression, 
 with a certain tenderness we need not waste on 
 noble natures. One who is born with such con- 
 genital incapacity that nothing can make a gen- 
 tleman of him is entitled not to our wrath, but 
 to our profoundest sympathy." 
 
 It is just possible for him to grasp the idea of 
 spiritual and moral laws. His moral and spirit- 
 ual faculties are all negative. His selfish fac- 
 ulties are all highly developed. He enjoys a 
 prize-fight, a cock-fight and every other kind of 
 a fight. He lives on the animal plane of life. 
 If you put any trust in him he is likely, to take 
 advantage of you. He is a monster when 
 aroused and capable of committing any deed. 
 He is a licentious brute, who has not yet created 
 within himself the possibility of a soul-life. He 
 has talents, but they are of a cunning, selfish 
 nature, and not productive of soul-life. Ama- 
 tiveness may cause him to be very pleasing at 
 times, especially to ladies, but we pity any 
 woman who ever comes within the circle of his 
 influence or force, and vice versa. He is void of 
 virtue and animal-like. 
 
 WE MAY CHANGE IF WE WILL. 
 From this most unfortunate state of mind up to 
 the highest we find a great variety of characters, 
 always depending upon the degree of develop-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 423 
 
 ment in the brain of the forty-two faculties of 
 which the Mind is composed. 
 
 Those faculties of the Mind which are most 
 highly developed are the ones that determine 
 the man's character, the shape of his head, his 
 face and body. But if you have knowledge of 
 yourself, you will realize the fact that your phy- 
 sical brain is as plastic as clay in a potter's hands, 
 and that you can shape it, and create within it 
 the belief essential to a soul-life, and all other 
 desirable qualities, if you positively will it. You 
 have within you the power to change the shape 
 of your cranium, the shape of your face and the 
 shape of your whole physical being, and express 
 yourself through it as you please. As we state 
 elsewhere, a criminal or unfortunately de- 
 veloped man cannot be trained to overcome self, 
 until he has knowledge of the power within and 
 wills it. 
 
 We shall now make a statement relative to 
 what has already been said, and then we shall 
 show you the truth of it: 
 
 WE RECEIVE AS MUCH AS WE BE- 
 LIEVE. "Whatsoever you ask, believing that 
 you will receive it, you have it." 
 
 This psychic law never fails to respond just 
 as far as we comply with its conditions. If you 
 will look about you with your eye of understand- 
 ing, you will see the operation of this law on
 
 424 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 every hand. There is nothing on earth that man 
 has ever done, that is not the result of the opera- 
 tion of this psychic law. 
 
 There is nothing, no matter how easy it may 
 be, that a man can do, unless he believes that he 
 can do it. And it is often the case that a man 
 does not know how to create a belief in himself 
 to do a certain thing, and consequently cannot 
 do it. This is commonly known as failure 
 failure to do a certain thing undertaken. Many 
 men fail in everything they undertake to do. 
 They never succeed. They are sick. It's a dis- 
 ease. They are deficient in certain elementary 
 qualities of the mind. They ought to be treated 
 for success. They could make a success in their 
 right calling in life, if they knew themselves and 
 could create the necessary belief in themselves 
 essential to success. It is true, some succeed in 
 what they do, without knowing why, but every 
 one of them has unconsciously created the thing 
 essential to success. The man who knows him- 
 self, and is conscious of the power within him, 
 and knows how to use it, is sure of success, while 
 the other fellow gropes about in the dark, know- 
 ing not "whence he cometh or whither he goeth." 
 And the same thing is true in regard to soul-life. 
 A man may unconsciously cultivate a soul-life 
 for himself, and get to heaven without knowing 
 how he got there, and walk the golden streets
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 425 
 
 with his boots on, and eat the fruit of life with 
 his smutty mouth and dirty face, but everything 
 is against him the whole world of darkness, 
 ignorance, sin and wrong beliefs and nothing 
 is for him to which he can cling, as long as he is 
 unconscious of the Creative Power within him- 
 self, as long as he is not "Born of the spirit." 
 
 The realization and sensing of immortality is 
 immortality. 
 
 MATERIAL EVIDENCE ILLUS- 
 TRATES. But let us not* depart from the 
 thought we hold at present. Let us look at the 
 material evidence for a few moments, that we 
 may prove, beyond the least shadow of doubt, 
 the truth of our position. 
 
 There was no one who believed that the Alps 
 in Switzerland could be crossed by rail, until the 
 germ of faith was generated in an engineer's 
 mind, and behold! it was done. There was no 
 one who believed that steam navigation could 
 be employed to any great extent until Robert 
 Fulton, that marvelous inventive mind demon- 
 strated in 1803 on the Seine, and in 1807 on the 
 Hudson, that it could be done. The wonder- 
 ful progress made in this direction in a century 
 borders the miraculous. The Atlantic Liner 
 Mauretania, the queen of the seas, now makes 
 the transatlantic trip in four days and seventeen 
 hours; an average speed of 25.55 knqts per hour,-
 
 426 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 against the heavy winter sea, and it is believed 
 that this even can be excelled. To do this she 
 converts 1,000 tons of coal a day into ashes. The 
 coal put on board forgone trip requires twenty- 
 two coal trains of thirty trucks each, if each truck 
 carries ten tons. She can accommodate 500 first- 
 class passengers, 500 second-class and 1,300 
 third-class. To sail the ship and look after the 
 various wants of the ocean voyagers there are 
 seventy officers and men in the sailing depart- 
 ment, 350 stewards and fifty cooks, 390 in the 
 engineer's department, besides the band and a 
 good sized company of telephone and telegraph 
 operators, printers for a daily newspaper and 
 various attendants a total of from 800 to 900 
 men makes up the crew equal to an average 
 regiment of infantry. 
 
 Who was there in the wide world with the 
 faintest belief that any other communication 
 could ever be established between this country 
 and Europe than by the slow-going ships, before 
 Cyrus W. Field stepped upon the arena and 
 said, "It can be done?" All the mountains of 
 difficulties were swept aside, and today that be- 
 lief stands a grand monument to preceding ages, 
 of the marvelous power of the mind over mat- 
 ter. And yet again has loomed up before us an- 
 other belief, in the same direction, which was 
 born and nursed in the mind of Marconi and
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 427 
 
 others who have since demonstrated before all 
 men, that it is possible to communicate with the 
 world, without wire or cable, by electricity. 
 
 Electricity was very little thought of until 
 Prof. Morse began to use it as a telegraphic 
 medium, and after that wonderful invention it 
 was thought to have reached its highest useful- 
 ness, and nothing more was done. But as time 
 went on there appeared upon the scene Thomas 
 Edison. In that mind began to grow a belief in 
 the future of electricity that baffles all descrip- 
 tion. Mr. Edison actually dared to believe in 
 greater possibilities than have ever been achieved 
 by mortal man, and today we have most every 
 convenience we can think of coming from this 
 unseen force. 
 
 MAN IS A CONSCIOUS AND CREA- 
 TIVE BEING. And thus we could follow 
 up achievement after achievement, discovery 
 after discovery, invention after invention, until 
 we have circumscribed the whole territory of 
 man's activities, from a wooden plow to a flying 
 machine and a visit to the North Pole, and still 
 not find a single instance in which man has done 
 anything that was not the result of the Creative 
 Propensity of his being. And we wish to reit- 
 erate the fact, that Man is the only being on 
 earth who has the full consciousness of life, and 
 the power to create whatsoever he desires.
 
 428 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 < 
 
 "But," you may ask here, "are there not lim- 
 its?" We answer, certainly there are. Man's 
 powers like all other things are limited. There 
 never was a beginning without an end, but who 
 has ever measured the creative power of man 
 from his beginning to his end. 
 
 Who has ever measured God from His be- 
 ginning to His end? 
 
 God and man are one, IF MAN WILLS IT. 
 
 Some day all men will learn the highest law 
 of their being the power to create and the 
 power to destroy. 
 
 PARENTS SHAPE THE SOUL OF 
 THEIR CHILD. On the other hand it has 
 been argued by those who believe in universal 
 salvation who believe that all men have spirit- 
 life and are either saved or unsaved that if our 
 position is a true one, all irresponsible children 
 who die are without conscious soul-life, and con- 
 sequently lost. "And," they say, "Jesus said, 'Of 
 such is the kingdom of heaven.' ' A lack of 
 knowledge of this psychic law has caused man 
 to stumble and fall into all kinds of errors on his 
 long, painful march from the swamps of the ani- 
 mal life, to the mountain top of a conscious, fin- 
 ished soul. 
 
 Let us mark closely what recent psychological 
 research has brought to light. We have already 
 touched upon this in a former chapter.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 429 
 
 We find that parents have within their reach 
 the power to shape the destiny of their offspring. 
 
 We find that the father and mother can con- 
 ceive and mould the soul of their unborn child as 
 they please, shaping it either in purity and im- 
 mortality, or in depravity and degradation. 
 
 O man! O woman! you hold the destiny of 
 your child in your hand. You can bring your 
 babe before the throne of the Immortal to be 
 blest, or cast it into the dark pit of spiritual un- 
 consciousness, as you please or will. 
 
 You have within you the power to curse, the 
 power to create, the power to bless, and the 
 power to destroy. 
 
 Man has no more right to populate this beau- 
 tiful world with drunkards, idiots, outlaws and 
 vagabonds, than he has to kill his neighbor or 
 curse his God. 
 
 The beautiful practice of dedicating infants 
 to God, the Father of all, has a far greater sig- 
 nificance to us, since it has proven of scientific 
 importance, than it has ever had before. 
 
 Procreation with no other object than the grat- 
 ification of lust, is the crowning curse of race 
 mixing and modern civilization. 
 
 The libertinism and gross licentiousness of to- 
 day in both races, is a reproach to all existing 
 institutions in America. 
 
 Let the union of two souls of any two races
 
 430 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 enter the sanctuary of the immortal-self, and the 
 child the man of the future be he considered 
 mixed or pure, when he drops the body of clay, 
 will be positive of a conscious, independent 
 spirit state. 
 
 The gross error and superstition of the past r 
 born in the mental darkness of man's early morn- 
 ing is fast breaking away, and the golden ray of 
 a noonday sun is penetrating to the quick in all 
 its infinite glory, enlightening and broadening 
 his vision, leading up, and up, to a full realiza- 
 tion of a pure, beautiful, perfect, finished, con- 
 scious soul-life. 
 
 In procreation the spiritual as well as the phy- 
 sical man and woman must unite in the produc- 
 tion of a God-child a child with a perfect body 
 as well as a developed soul-life. 
 
 Thus, and thus alone, can be created a "New 
 heaven and a new earth" in which immortal 
 souls can live and commune with the Father of 
 all, in love and harmony, in peace and happiness, 
 above race, above hatred, above the crime of 
 war. 
 
 A UNION OF THOUGHT-FORCES 
 IS IRRESISTIBLE. The greatest and wisest 
 philosopher the world has ever known once 
 asked, "Where is your faith?" (Luke. 8, 25). 
 
 A union of thought-force or faith has always 
 proved irresistible. The world, with all its wis-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 431 
 
 dom today, has not yet fully discovered the ter- 
 rible potency of combined thought-force. Here- 
 in lies the greatest weakness of the Negro 
 race today. This fact we wish to impress especi- 
 ally upon our colored readers in these closing 
 remarks. The Afro-American and Colored Cau- 
 casian does not exercise sufficient combined 
 thought-force to bring about results most desir- 
 able, with his white co-workers. There are too 
 many leading men of fine education and broad 
 culture in the race who make actual confessions 
 to the dominant forces that they are inferior be- 
 ings; and others who do not do this retire with 
 all their acquired and God-given talents into a 
 gloomy, pessimistic atmosphere. 
 
 Now, whatsoever a union of thought-force 
 DEMANDS, that shall come to pass. This fact 
 was fully illustrated in the emancipation move- 
 ment. All the power of thought of a handful of 
 men and women was centered upon the demand 
 that "slavery shall be abolished," and the civil- 
 ized world echoed in a hypnotic sleep "slavery 
 shall be abolished," and it was abolished. 
 
 We received a letter from a man of learning 
 and great mental capacity, of African descent, 
 as white as any Caucasian. We quote him here, 
 as it bears upon the thought we hold. He says 
 in part: "You see that nothing we can propose 
 or do will avail anything unless the white race
 
 432 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 approves. Now the white race is a great race r 
 and they have mastered a larger body of truth 
 than any other race. But as a race they have 
 'willed on the race question that they will be 
 utterly inaccessible to any plea or argument that 
 conflicts with their settled determination on the 
 race question. We can find an easy solution for 
 this question in the Bible, but even the Bible is 
 ruled out where it comes into conflict with this 
 settled determination. If the Bible and free 
 speech could be tolerated we could easily find 
 "the way out," but with these barred it is use- 
 less to speak at all. * * * But for this 
 "settled determination" not to follow or tolerate 
 truth except so far, this question could be easily 
 solved, as have been all the great questions of 
 human progress during the centuries." 
 
 A great plutocratic politician once said, "The 
 people be damned," when speaking of their 
 rights, and this is equally appliable to this 
 "settled determination" of which our corre- 
 spondent speaks. Such "settled determination" 
 is doomed as soon as an irresistible union of 
 thought-force is centered upon the prevalent 
 wrongs and sears them with the eternal Spirit 
 of Truth. 
 
 This "settled determination" by the white race 
 in regard to the race question, is but a psychic 
 disorder as we say elsewhere. Our correspond-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 433 
 
 ent, whom we quote, says that "the white race 
 has mastered a larger body of truth than any 
 other race." While it has done this it has not yet 
 received sufficient psychic enlightenment, or 
 "Spirit of Truth," to be healed of this serious 
 mental disorder, and subjugate the selfish, ani- 
 mal propensity. 
 
 This "settled determination" of the white race 
 is based upon the selfish animal nature in man, 
 and therefore cannot endure the glare of science 
 or exact reasoning. The animal nature in man 
 cannot reason, and consequently cannot discern 
 right from wrong. It has no more regard for 
 the Christian religion or the truth the Bible con- 
 tains than a cow, horse or dog. 
 
 It is the selfish animal in the white man that 
 will cause him to disfranchise his own son, and 
 curse his own daughter, and ignore their mother, 
 because of color. This same selfish propensity 
 has caused Mr. Tillman to say that he will not 
 allow the heel of the Negro on his neck; and 
 has caused Vardaman to say that the "saddle 
 horse at Tuskegee does not know as much about 
 our form of government as a white man from 
 the back woods who cannot read or write." 
 
 This same selfish beast propensity causes an 
 irresponsible populace in this country to snub, 
 belittle and damn the people of color; it causes 
 all the mob violence and lynching and deprives 
 the Negro of his rights as a citizen, 
 
 28
 
 434 
 
 This lower element in human nature is an ele- 
 ment of cowardice when it faces the Sermon on 
 the Mount. It has caused all wars and blood- 
 shed; it has caused one race to enslave another; 
 it rules by physical force and not by love or rea- 
 son; but in every age of the world's history it 
 has cowered in the dust when the spiritual ele- 
 ment in human nature has exerted itself in a 
 union of thought-force, in the presentation of 
 truth and justice. 
 
 Thought takes form in action. We receive as 
 much as we believe. Hammer a truth into a 
 people by persistent repetition and that truth 
 will take form in action. The psychic law that 
 a "little leaven will leaven the whole lump" will 
 endure the ages until time is no more. A truth, 
 though it be regarded as small as a mustard seed, 
 when planted will grow and become a tree so the 
 birds of the air (the little children at the 
 mother's knee) may recognize it and roost 
 therein. 
 
 THE WAY OUT SUMMED UP. AN 
 
 OPEN, UNPREJUDICED INTERMARRIAGE UNION, 
 SCIENTIFIC CARE OF THE CRIMINAL CLASS OF 
 BOTH RACES, WITH A NATURAL, MODULATED SEPA- 
 RATION OF THE RACES, WITHOUT ANY STATE IN- 
 TERFERENCE, JUST AS THE CONSCIENCE AND 
 RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS MAY DICTATE TO THE 
 MEN AND WOMEN OF A FREE COUNTRY, AND AN
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 435 
 
 EDUCATION ON THE BROAD BASIS OF UNIVERSAL 
 BROTHERHOOD THESE ARE THE ESSENTIALS IN 
 OVERCOMING CLANNISHNESS AND COLOR LINES 
 AND IN ESTABLISHING A UNITED PEOPLE IN THESE 
 UNITED STATES.
 
 436 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 RESUME 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The following writers scarcely need an intro- 
 duction. They have all made their mark in the 
 upbuilding of their race, some of them attaining 
 international reputation. We have spared 
 neither time nor expense in selecting them for 
 this book, as to differences in age, the amount of 
 Negro blood, and other striking physical and 
 mental contrasts. 
 
 The student of human nature will find in them 
 a variety in thought and mental make-up, both 
 pleasing and profitable to pursue. They touch 
 upon nearly every subject we discuss in this 
 work. 
 
 Beginning with the ripe, scholarly minister, 
 Rev. John H. White, D. D., whose essay corre- 
 sponds with our first chapter. Next comes Dr. 
 James Shepard on "Prejudice," followed by an 
 "Optimistic View," by a not less cultured gentle- 
 man, Prof. Davis, very different in physical 
 and mental characteristics. Then comes an in- 
 teresting paper, giving a general survey, by Prof. 
 William Pickens, the rising young linguist, un- 
 like either of the preceding writers. Without 
 either writer knowing what the next one will 
 say, or who the next one will be, James E. Me-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 437 
 
 Girt, the magazine editor and writer on 
 economy, picks up a thread where Prof. Pick- 
 ens drops it, and says just what the reader would 
 expect him to say to complete an argument. 
 
 No one will fail to note the next writer, who 
 says just what he wants to say without "beating 
 about the bush" Bishop Alexander Walters, 
 the fearless soldier of truth and justice, the 
 recognized leader of the Afro-American people. 
 The little leaven he puts into his paper is so 
 powerful, it leavens a whole lump of readers. 
 And right at his heels comes a little brown 
 woman, in the person of Anna D. Borden, a fear- 
 less and outspoken woman of the Negro race. 
 Though small and delicate physically, she is a 
 veritable bundle of energy, surpassing nearly 
 every other woman who has ever stood for the 
 uplift and liberty of womanhood. Following 
 this lady comes Sophia Cox Johnson, giving a 
 graphic description of how the Negro woman 
 is advancing right in the heart of the Black Belt. 
 
 Next we meet with a pleasant surprise in the 
 department of logical reasoning, flowing from 
 the magnetic pen of that able, fascinating, force- 
 ful writer of the A. M. E. Zion Church, Bishop 
 J. W. Smith. No man or woman, with any men- 
 tal capacity whatever, can escape this writer, 
 without being seriously impressed with the 
 truth of his arguments.
 
 438 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Following Bishop Smith we meet with an- 
 other writer of natural ability, Rev. J. W. Wood, 
 whose wonderful oratory is heard in one of the 
 largest and most cultured churches on the Gulf 
 coast, which he is pastoring at the present time. 
 His view of the race question is in harmony with 
 our idea of human evolution. He has had 
 broad experience both North and South, and he 
 testifies to the fact, we so often reiterate in this 
 book, that the cultured and educated of both 
 races, and not the lower element, will eventually 
 bring about social equality between the races. 
 
 J.J. H. 
 
 THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE HAMITIC 
 OR NEGRO RACE IN HISTORY 
 
 BY JOHN H. WHITE, D. D. 
 
 (Contributed for this book.) 
 
 A certain writer said "That the best evidence 
 of a race's being on earth is the mark left behind 
 in the wake of its tread." Historians differ as to 
 the origin of the Negro or Black Race, that is, 
 the modern historians of the American and Eng- 
 lish, and, to some extent, the German schools; 
 but we leave them with profound pity to their
 
 JOHN H. WHITE, D. D. 
 Colored Caucasian.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 439 
 
 racial prejudice, and turn to the oldest history 
 that the world knows, the Bible, from which we 
 read the historical account, the origin of the 
 Black Race in Genesis, tenth chapter, sixth to 
 twentieth verses. I presume that Moses, or the 
 compiler of this historical account, knew the 
 ethnological distinctions, and racial divisions of 
 the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japhet, I 
 suppose the ancient Greek historians, authors, 
 philosophers, and travelers, who were deeply 
 interested in Egypt, were proud to ascribe to 
 that country their origin and the source from 
 which they derived their religion and art. I 
 presume that Herodotus, Diodorus, Josephus 
 and Strabo, and, in fact, the best Greek author- 
 ities and historians, the best and most reliable 
 Latin, Babylonian and Egyptian historians, with 
 Rollins and other impartial and unprejudiced 
 writers among the moderns, knew more as to the 
 ethnology of the Hamitic or Negro race, than 
 all the critics and enemies of the black race, of 
 the present generation put together. 
 
 The traveler who crosses the plains of Asia, 
 and goes along the course of the River Eu- 
 phrates, and then passes down the valley of the 
 Nile in Africa, and looks about him, and sees the 
 ruins of magnificent temples, public buildings 
 and tombs, or mausoleums for the dead, the 
 Sphinx and the towering pyramids, will behold a
 
 440 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 marvelous evidence of the genius of a people, of 
 a race who lived in the ages gone by, who pro- 
 duced a civilization that was the pioneer of every 
 other in the development of the world's history, 
 and to whom the modern nations owe a debt that 
 they can never pay the people who inhabited 
 these countries. 
 
 I. THE NEGRO ETHNOLOGICALLY 
 CONSIDERED. TheVord Negro is of Latin 
 origin, and signifies black, brown or swarthy, 
 derived from the Latin word Niger, as now ap- 
 plied to the races of the African continent, and 
 their descendants in the United States, the West 
 Indies and other parts of the world. Some 
 American historians like Ridpath, and other 
 small imitators, do not class the Egyptians and 
 Ethiopians, or Abyssinians of northern Africa 
 as Negroes; but the old Greek and Latin writ- 
 ers, and many of the most eminent and scholarly 
 modern historians, put the ancient Egyptians, 
 the Ethiopians or modern Abyssinian into the 
 black or brown column, and call them Hamites 
 or black. Egypt was called the black land, and 
 the Egyptians called their country Kem, or the 
 land of the black people. The Ethiopians, the 
 present Abyssinians, the swarthy land or the land 
 of the sunburnt. The Bible, the best history, 
 asks an important question, "Can the Ethiopian 
 change his skin?"
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 441 
 
 II. THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE 
 HAM1TIC OR BLACK RACE IN THE 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD. In an article 
 in the "Arena" of September, 1896, Prof. Boy- 
 ton, of Ohio University, says: "The black race 
 has a history; in fact all history is full of traces 
 of the black element. It is now recognized as 
 the oldest race of which we have any knowledge. 
 The wanderings of the people since pre-historic 
 times began, have not been confined to the Afri- 
 can continent. In Paleolithic times the black 
 race roamed at will over the fairest portion of 
 the old world. Europe as well as Asia and Af- 
 rica acknowledged his sway. No white man 
 had yet appeared to dispute his authority in the 
 vine-clad valleys of France and Germany, or 
 upon the classic hills of Greece and Rome. The 
 black man preceded all others, and carried Pal- 
 eolithic culture to every height." 
 
 All honor to this unbiased and impartial his- 
 torian; so much so, because he is a white man, 
 and an American. 
 
 III. NOTICE, BLACK OR HAMITIC 
 RACE A FUNDAMENTAL RACE. (a) 
 The Hamitic Negro race is a fundamental ele- 
 ment in origin; not only the primitive races of 
 Southern Europe, but of all the civilized coun- 
 tries of antiquity. History begins, it may be 
 said, in Ancient Egypt, and recedes into the dim
 
 442 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 past. Just as far as records and inscriptions give 
 us light, in the valley of the Nile, along its 
 banks we find civilization that has drawn from 
 all the world and succeeding ages expressions 
 of wonder and admiration. 
 
 (b) The Ancient Egyptians were a remark- 
 able people; the ruling tribes are called Hami- 
 tics. "The Sunburnt Family," says Dr. Win- 
 chel, "Of Nigritic Origin," says Rawlinson; but 
 the ancient Greek historians tell us that back of 
 the ruling Hamites were a gay, goodnatured, 
 pleasant people. 
 
 (c) Says Dr. Taylor, an authority on eth- 
 nology, "These people lived peaceably in these 
 regions two thousand years before the advent of 
 the Asiatic invaders. Suggestive as they seem, 
 these terms are truly descriptive of the inhab- 
 itants whom we expect to find in the Valley of 
 the Nile in ancient times. They were as purely 
 Nigritic as the great mass of the American 
 Negro or Afro-Americans. 
 
 IV. A RULING RACE (a) When the 
 Hamite and their descendants were at the height 
 of their power, their influence extended far 
 wider than generally supposed. They passed 
 on to the confines of Europe; and took posses- 
 sion of Iberia, Modern Spain. Dr. Winchel 
 says: (North American Review) "They entered 
 Spain by the pillars of Hercules, the strait of
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 443 
 
 Gibraltar. They came from Northern Africa, 
 and overran the Spanish Peninsula, founded 
 cities, built a navy, carried on commerce and ex- 
 tended their Empire over Italy and Sicanes." 
 
 When Rome was founded, before the siege 
 and sack of Italy, these Hamites or Nigritic peo- 
 ple passed into Sicily. 
 
 (b) The Pelasgic Empire was at its height 
 as early as 2,000 years B. C. These people came 
 from the Island of the Aegean Sea, and more 
 remotely from Asia Minor. They were origin- 
 ally a branch of the Sunburnt Hamitics or 
 Nigritic Stock that laid the foundation of civi- 
 lization in Canaan, Mespotamia, Zion and Tyre. 
 They passed on back to Africa and founded 
 Carthage, the head of the Carthaginian Empire. 
 Great Rome itself was of Pelasgian or Hamitic 
 stock up to 428 B. C., until the Pelasgic stock 
 became amalgamated with neighboring people 
 and thus produced the Roman Conqueror of the 
 world. 
 
 (c) The ancient Greeks were a mixture of 
 Hamitic and Japhetic blood. The Hellens were 
 the first Aryans to be brought into contact with 
 the Sunburnt Hamitics. The Hamatics of 
 Greece, who are described by the prejudiced 
 historian as "white," were as strongly Nigritic 
 as the Afro-American of the United States. 
 
 These Hellenes were savages and barbarians,
 
 444 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 and the Hamites were cultured, learned and civ- 
 ilized, possessing knowledge of the arts and 
 sciences; Aryan or Japhetic push and energy 
 were brought in contact with Hamitic culture 
 and civilization. 
 
 Then began the great struggle of the centuries 
 for social equality between the Blonde Aryan or 
 descendant of Japhet, and the Brunette Pelas- 
 gian or descendant of Ham, who had brought 
 science and culture to Greece in the remote ages 
 of the past from Egypt. 
 
 Had it not been for the mixture of the dark 
 blood of the Brunette Pelasgian, the dark child 
 of the soil in the Greek compositions, Demos- 
 thenes, Eschylus, Sophocles, Socrates and hosts 
 of Greek poets, orators, artists and philosophers 
 would never have existed. 
 
 V. THE HAMITE OR NEGRO HAS 
 FIGURED CONSPICUOUSLY IN ALL 
 THE WORLD'S RACES. (a) The Negro 
 has always figured in the history of the world. 
 His blood has entered strongly into that of the 
 dominant and conquering Roman, into the Latin 
 races of Europe France, Spain and Italy. This 
 Nigritic blood had much to do with the build- 
 ing up of the great English nation, from the 
 Phoenician mingling the blood of the Hamite 
 with that of the Celt, Saxon, Dane and Norman 
 French, and in every country on this continent 
 his blood mingles with the greatest in the land.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 446 
 
 VI. HAMITE AS A CIVILIZER. (a) 
 As a civilizer, the Hamite has not had his equal, 
 or has not been equalled by his other brethren, 
 the Semitic or Japhetic races. Long before 
 Rome was founded, or Greece flourished, the 
 descendants of Ham in Egypt had given to the 
 world the highest possibilities for civilization 
 and culture. To those who deny the Negro in 
 general, and especially in this country the possi- 
 bilities of culture and development, we point to 
 the slow progress of the "Aryan Races," so 
 called by many writers on ethnology; but es- 
 pecially so designed by Prof. Max Muller. 
 
 Who could have foreseen the strength and 
 power of the Aryan or so-called "White Race?" 
 For thousands of years that race roamed the 
 woods and forests of Asia and Europe, and were 
 as ignorant and barbarous as the African in his 
 native jungle. 
 
 (b) When at length the proper time of its 
 development was furnished by Providence, this 
 great energetic, pushing, grasping race sprang 
 into splendid development, and has long since 
 passed its fellows in the race of progress and 
 civilization. When in the order of God's prov- 
 idence the same favorable conditions and en- 
 vironments shall be supplied to the descendants 
 of Ham in this country, and especially when 
 'The Door of Hope is fully opened," shall mean
 
 446 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 more than words, when "A Square Deal" shall 
 be a fact and not a fiction, then shall the Negro 
 or Afro-American respond to the opportunities 
 given, and develop into a great, progressive race, 
 and lead again in the development of the 
 World's History. 
 
 Camden, N. J. 
 
 COLOR PREJUDICE IN AMERICA AND 
 EUROPE CAUSES 
 
 BY JAMES E. SHEPARD 
 
 President of the National Religious Training School and Chau- 
 tauqua, located at Durham, N. C. 
 
 (Contributed for this book.) 
 
 There is a prejudice in America against peo- 
 ple of color. This prejudice is seen in acts of 
 disbarments from public schools, in discrimina- 
 tion on vehicles used as public carriers, where 
 the same price is paid by all in public accommo- 
 dations, and in laws which are partially admin- 
 istered in many instances. Color prejudice in 
 America is due to two direct causes. First, the 
 Anglo-Saxon's innate belief that he is superior to 
 all other races. This was plainly shown in the 
 attitude of the Japanese, who are colored people. 
 
 Admitting the fact that in many instances the 
 Anglo-Saxon is superior, the superiority ought
 
 OR THE "FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 447 
 
 Afro- American.
 
 448 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 to be shown in the broadness of views, justice 
 and kindness to all men, which, whenever shown, 
 denotes true greatness and the highest superior- 
 ity. The fact also is lost sight of that three- 
 fourths of the world's population can rightly be 
 classed as colored people, and in fact, from early 
 antiquity there has been such a mixture of blood 
 between all nations, that it is hard to draw a di- 
 viding line which is absolutely correct. 
 
 Second, the prejudice toward the Negro espe- 
 cially is due to the first statement, and to the 
 further fact that the Negro was formerly held 
 in bondage. After the emancipation, so great 
 was the prejudice held by some that they could 
 not endure to live in a country where former 
 slaves had been placed on terms of equal citi- 
 zenship, and many southerners went to Brazil in 
 South America, so that they could still hold their 
 fellow men in slavery. 
 
 Justice was not asleep. It was not long be- 
 fore slavery was abolished in Brazil, and those 
 who fled from the United States on account of 
 the emancipation of the slaves had to face the 
 same conditions in South America, and even 
 face, in the beginning, a greater equality than 
 has ever existed in the United States. What a 
 cruel irony of fate! 
 
 The further fact is lost sight of, that if the 
 prejudice is due to former slavery, then this
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 44 
 
 would be a just cause for a world-wide hatred, 
 for at one time or another every nation was in 
 bondage to some other nation. The prejudice 
 cannot be charged to illiteracy, for every day 
 steamships are pouring upon American soil a 
 teeming horde of illiterate people who are out 
 of harmony with the spirit and conditions of the 
 country; so the only reason that we can ascribe 
 the American prejudice to is color. 
 
 In America this color prejudice is decidedly 
 inimical to the growth of a republic, especially 
 a republic which in its very preamble sets forth 
 the fact that all men are born equal and en- 
 dowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
 rights, the principal ones being the right to life, 
 liberty and the pursuits of happiness. In Amer- 
 ica civil rights have not been separated from the 
 right to live, to acquire education and to pursue 
 business and to participate in the affairs of the 
 government. To the close observer it would 
 seem passing strange that all the rights set out 
 by the above should be made subservient to so- 
 cial rights, and yet it is the case. 
 
 States, in their extreme eagerness to regulate 
 so-called social rights, have lost sight of the fact 
 that every individual has a right to live and to 
 hope, and any other spirit is beneath the notice 
 of a republic founded upon liberty and justice. 
 The State has no right to regulate the social 
 
 29
 
 450 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 status of the individuals; the social right in 
 every case can be regulated by the individuals 
 concerned. A particular class has the right to 
 exclude another from the social privileges which 
 they enjoy, but the State never! The case has 
 been stated fairly so far as America is concerned. 
 Prejudice, to some extent exists in Great Britain. 
 The smaller prejudice is of color; the larger is 
 of class. The smaller prejudice of color that 
 exists in Great Britain is due to the American 
 influence. 
 
 I pen these remarks with regret but it is abso- 
 lutely true. In a tour through Great Britain, 
 in places little visited by Americans I found no 
 prejudice. In towns visited by Americans there 
 is prejudice, although veiled to a large extent. 
 There is a broad and deep sympathy in the 
 hearts of Englishmen for the colored race in 
 America; and this is shown in many ways. In 
 fact the English people have always been the 
 friend of liberty in their effort to put down the 
 slave traffic. England paid Portugal 300,000 
 and paid Spain 400,000. They kept a squadron 
 on the West coast of Africa at an actual cost esti- 
 mated by Mr. Gladstone, when he was Chancel- 
 lor of the Exchequer, of 700,000 per year and 
 a great sacrifice of valuable lives. They paid to 
 the West Indies and Mauritius 20,000,000 to 
 free their slaves, and altogether the efforts of
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 451 
 
 England to put down this abominable traffic cost 
 the country between fifty and one hundred 
 million pounds. The treatment of the Kaffirs 
 in South Africa is altogether different, and 
 neither the conditions nor the people are the 
 same as in America. 
 
 In Great Britain the larger prejudice is due to 
 the ancient feudal system of master and servant 
 and land tenure founded upon the King's favor, 
 and special grants of landed estates were handed 
 down from father to son, or nearest kin. This 
 class distinction or prejudice will exist so long 
 as Great Britain has the present system of entail. 
 Land, except in very few instances, cannot be 
 bought; it can only be given as an estate for 
 years or lease, and after the expiration of the 
 same, the estate with all its appurtenances re- 
 verts to the original owner. The City of Lon- 
 don has acquired a great deal of land and leases 
 it out, at an excessively high and even oppressive 
 rental. To those who advocate municipal own- 
 ership, a careful study of that will produce a 
 change, or at least cause them to modify their 
 opinion. 
 
 Class prejudice is bad, but it cannot be com- 
 pared with color prejudice. In many instances 
 there is social intercourse between the landlord 
 and the tenant, and in many cases even if the 
 blood is wanting and money is in abundance, the
 
 452 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 walls of separation are largely broken down. 
 France presents the truest and best example of 
 what a republic should be in the treatment of 
 all classes, of any large republic on earth, with 
 the possible exception of Brazil. I speak of the 
 masses and not of the classes. The Dreyfus in- 
 cident could happen in America. In France a 
 man is a man, absolutely free. Color plays no 
 part in the recognition of a person in any of the 
 walks of life. Money more than anything else 
 is the open sesame in France. The color preju- 
 dice is entirely absent. The average Frenchman 
 would not give up his easy-going habit to disturb 
 himself over the fact as to whether his neighbor 
 was black or white. They are undoubtedly, tak- 
 ing everything into consideration, the most polite 
 people on earth. 
 
 The electorate system is different from Amer- 
 ica, but every class of its citizens can, in some 
 way, register his wish and have that wish ex- 
 pressed. There are two things an intelligent 
 Frenchman cannot understand: First, the re- 
 publican form of government as expressed by 
 the United States, in its treatment of the colored 
 races. Second, why such a rich country cavils 
 at the payment of claims against it which have 
 been approved. When they point out to the 
 traveler massive and historic buildings, dating 
 back in the centuries long ago gone by, and show
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 453 
 
 us magnificent ruins, even in their fallen grand- 
 eur sublime, we point with pride to the achieve- 
 ments of a nation born but yesterday. That is 
 looking toward the rising and not the setting sun. 
 They admit that and then ask about the treat- 
 ment of the colored people, and why such a 
 great and rich nation will not pay its honest and 
 approved debts. Then it is that we hang our 
 heads in shame and admit the soundness of their 
 argument. 
 
 In Italy, since the adoption of the constitution, 
 the people enjoy freedom almost equal to a re- 
 public; in fact, the Italians will tell you they 
 are the most free people on earth, but I would 
 certainly question that. There is no color preju- 
 dice in Italy by the native Italian. Some col- 
 ored people fought with Garibaldi's army for 
 the freedom of Italy. In Germany a similar 
 condition as exists in Great Britain largely ob-. 
 tains. Negroes are not found to a large extent 
 in Europe. Several have obtained prominence 
 and international reputation as artists, novelists, 
 writers, soldiers and musicians. The argument 
 may be advanced that if the Negroes were not 
 in such large numbers in America, and steadily 
 increasing, conditions would be different. The 
 presence of the large numbers should call forth 
 no injustice and wrong treatment. Treat a man 
 like a brute and the brute element within him
 
 454 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 will eventually gain complete mastery and the 
 man becomes a brute; but treat him like a man 
 and a man he will prove. I believe that every- 
 one who has the higher power of thought should 
 have the political education and commercial 
 rights that belong to America excelling on 
 all other lines, should try to excel all other na- 
 tions in its broad and magnanimous treatment 
 of all colored people, and the prompt payment 
 of all its just and approved debts. When this 
 is done, its citizens traveling abroad will never 
 have cause to hang their heads in shame for their 
 beloved land. 
 
 Durham, N. C. 
 
 AN OPTIMISTIC VIEW OF THE 
 NEGRO QUESTION 
 
 Part of an address delivered before the faculty and students of 
 
 Shaw University, by Prof. G. E. Davis, Ph. D., 
 
 Dean of Biddle University. 
 
 (Contributed for this book.) 
 
 "The question may be asked what is our 
 greatest problem? There are several great prob- 
 lems that constantly present themselves to the 
 American people. Education, Temperance, 
 Labor and Capital, Trusts and Railroads, Im- 
 perialism and foreign immigration. Then, last 
 but not least, "The Negro Problem," or, better
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 456 
 
 PROFESSOR G. E- DAVIS, PH. D.
 
 456 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 stated, "The Problem of the Races." This last 
 is the greatest because it touches and influences 
 all the others. It touches American life at every 
 point. My only apology for bringing before you 
 a subject with which most of you are no doubt as 
 familiar as I am, is that my view may not lead 
 altogether in the beaten track. My line of de- 
 parture may be different. Innumerable reapers 
 have put their sickle into the sunny field, but the 
 harvest is so abundant that even the search of a 
 wayward gleaner may be rewarded with a sheaf. 
 
 Today, no man is courageous enough to say 
 with confidence what the ultimate solution will 
 be. He who asserts it is either an idiot or a fool. 
 
 It is being more generally accepted as a fact 
 that in contributing a degree of light upon the 
 subject, that the Negro is the only one of the 
 darker races that has proven capable of looking 
 the Anglo-Saxon in the face at short range and 
 continuing to live in a progressive manner. It 
 is a question to be determined if the rising 
 tawny national powers of the East upon the 
 higher and broader plane of nationality can 
 withstand what by many is held to be the in- 
 evitable contest for supremacy. We believe the 
 results will be determined by the measure in 
 which the Christian religion is embraced. In 
 our own land it seems to be certain that there 
 can never be absolute separation of the Negro
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 457 
 
 from the white race, fundamentally,' because 
 they have the same religion. Their forms and 
 object of worship are identical and their creeds 
 and creedal sources are the same. The sameness 
 of social, civil and political institutions of the 
 country also have a significant and important 
 bearing upon the question. The true and only 
 solution of our greatest problem is worthy of 
 consideration. 
 
 I hold that it is to be found only in the Bible 
 and the principles of which Jesus Christ is the 
 embodiment. Looked at in the light of experi- 
 ence, which has been sufficiently varied, we find 
 sufficient grounds for our conclusions. 
 
 (i) Political methods have not accom- 
 plished the results contemplated, although they 
 have not been failures or barren of beneficent 
 results. When the Negro was given the right of 
 franchise, it was hoped that a weapon was put 
 into his hands with which he might fight his 
 way to the heights of citizenship ; but in the South 
 his vote was counted as suited the convenience 
 of political exigency of the Democratic Party 
 as is attested by the suffrage clauses of the South- 
 ern States' Constitutions and Election Laws, 
 enacted in harmony therewith. 
 
 The white South showed its opposition: (a) 
 By the Black Code enacted under the policy of 
 Andrew Jackson, (b) By the KuKlux organi-
 
 458 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 zations during reconstruction, (c) By fraud 
 and as little violence as possible from 1878 to 
 1895, when it was discovered by Southern polit- 
 ical leaders that the Federal Government was 
 not strong enough to enforce the constitution in 
 the interests of the whole people alike. 
 
 (2) It has been proposed to colonize the 
 Negro. To this both the Negro and his white 
 fellow citizen will offer stubborn resistance 
 even if a territory in which to colonize him 
 could be found a thing practically impossible 
 for several reasons, so evident they will not be 
 mentioned. 
 
 It is no longer a question if the black man and 
 the white man can live together here in the 
 South on terms of civil v and political equality. 
 God, by His providence, seems to say they must. 
 The white man will be helped to be more chari- 
 table and less fearful of the bugbear of social 
 equality if he will take time to study the better 
 side of Negro life. The records of the courts 
 are not the only places to go for statistics. 
 
 We have our criminal class far too numer- 
 ous, we admit. But there are others. 
 
 The Negro cannot be colonized because of 
 his relation to the industrial forces of the coun- 
 try. The South boasts of a civilization instinct 
 with dignity and grace. The New South, 
 springing Phoenix like, from the ashes of the
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 459 
 
 old, is forging fast forward to the very front rank 
 in industrial and economic importance. A fair 
 minded and Christian people will be slow to 
 forget that, beneath all her glory, past, present 
 and to come, has been and will continue to be the 
 Negro's brawny arm. It is his toil that has 
 cleared the forests, cultivated her fields, covered 
 her hills with fleecy whiteness, and her plains 
 and valleys with golden grain. 
 
 The causes which bind us to the South are 
 stronger than were the bonds of slavery; they are 
 not only social and political; they are ethnic and 
 climatic. The one unalterable element on the 
 industrial side of the problem is climate. State 
 and national political bodies cannot legislate it 
 out of existence. 
 
 The white races of the globe have never 
 labored successfully and continuously upon 
 fields where the snow seldom falls. In all the 
 countries of the globe south of the Tropic of 
 Cancer, one of the cardinal canons of the white 
 man's faith is the ability to live without physical 
 toil. It was this more than any other cause, 
 that made the South cling so tenaciously to the 
 institution of slavery. All the subtropical coun- 
 tries of the globe present similar industrial prob- 
 lems. Great Britain has a similar one in India. 
 Egypt and the Israelites had it in ancient times. 
 The cancer of caste seems to cling to the Tropic
 
 460 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 of Cancer. When the white man can change the 
 climate, it will be time enough for us to fear the 
 colonization of the Negro and the importation 
 of white field labor. A vertical sunbeam makes 
 the white man inert physically. It is upon the 
 darker races, therefore that the South must de- 
 pend for physical strength in the development 
 of her great natural resources. It is to his physi- 
 cal prowess that she must look for the mining 
 of her coal, iron and copper, for the building of 
 her great railroads, for the draining of her 
 swamps and the building of her great inland 
 water ways, which will soon make the South the 
 richest part of the Union, and for the cultivation 
 of her farm lands, hundreds of acres of which 
 are being abandoned every year by the "poor 
 whites," who are swarming into the factories 
 springing up all over the South. Not only on 
 the farm, but in other lines of industry and 
 artisan skill, the Negro is demonstrating his 
 skill. The cities of the South, with their resi- 
 dences of grace and beauty, now almost ven- 
 erated with age, are standing monuments to the 
 Negro's mechanical skill, while yet a slave, and 
 his hand has not yet forgot its cunning. 
 
 Let it be said with credit to the South, that 
 the black man is given employment and excellent 
 wages as a mechanic. In the city of Charlotte, 
 the largest hotel between Atlanta and Baltimore
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 461 
 
 is largely the work of colored mechanics. These 
 privileges are denied us at the North. 
 
 I think I have shown that the interests of the 
 two races are so indissolubly bound together that 
 they ought to strive to know each other better. 
 When men like Henry Watterson and Governor 
 Hughes make such public utterances in defence 
 of the rights of the Negro as were made the 
 other day, I think there is ground for encourage- 
 ment. It is a hopeful sign of the times that in- 
 telligent and law-abiding Negroes may come to- 
 gether in such assemblies as this, even in the 
 Capital of the State, under the shadow of the 
 temple of justice, and freely and fearlessly dis- 
 cuss such questions as affect his progress and 
 relations to the republic of which he forms a 
 part. 
 
 It has not always been thus, and even when 
 such opportunity has come, often more harm 
 than good has been done by harsh and in- 
 temperate orators, who have sought to impress 
 upon a credulous public their own astuteness 
 rather than the lasting good. It is not altogether 
 in our favor that we are a race of orators. There 
 are too many who want to pose as leaders and 
 too few are willing to work in a circumscribed 
 sphere, achieving permanent and beneficial re- 
 sults as individuals. 
 
 I come now to state another reason why colon-
 
 46fc HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ization cannot be thought of. Not only will the 
 white South oppose it for reasons given, but the 
 Negro himself, will not consent to it. I do not 
 stand here as an apologist for the wrongs suffered 
 here by my people. 
 
 There are a few who are disposed to deny that 
 the Negro has his full quota of troubles 
 troubles that come to him because of his contact 
 with the dominant race in whose midst he lives. 
 .1 am not here tonight to speak harshly of the ex- 
 slaveholder nor of his immediate successor, in 
 whose midst we are today. I am loyal to the 
 South. * * The Southern born Negro 
 
 does not know how to hate his white fellow-citi- 
 zen. He would not if he could. We are going 
 to work out our destiny here. I verily believe 
 that, whatever may be the storms that ruffle the 
 surface, there is a genuine feeling of regard and 
 interest on the part of the educated and thought- 
 ful white people of the South for the Negroes 
 who are striving day by day, to rise above the 
 tyranny of "low birth" and "iron fortune." 
 
 The thoughtful student of history will not 
 wonder that the white South regarded the 
 Negro, at the time of his emancipation, as the 
 cause of all his woes. Yet, time will eradicate 
 that bitterness. 
 
 Even as it is, he sells our town lot and our 
 farms; he contributes of his means for the sup-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 463 
 
 port of our churches. The Negro's note is good 
 at the white man's bank. He has accumulated 
 in the South, 187,000 farms. From poverty and 
 penury he has advanced to the possession of 
 $450,000,000 worth of farm lands and $170,000,- 
 ooo worth of personal property, making a total 
 of $620,000,000. Most of this wealth is in the 
 South. 
 
 He has been able to do this or much of it on ac- 
 count of the tolerance and friendship of the best 
 and most representative business men of the 
 country. We see, therefore, that both races have 
 a duty to perform. The white man should 
 encourage the Negro and it is our duty to do all 
 we can, by all honorable means, to win and re- 
 tain the respect and confidence of our well dis- 
 posed neighbor. 
 
 We will never leave the South. We are a 
 part of its civilization. The black man of the 
 South says to the white man of the South, in the 
 language of Ruth to Naomi: "Whither thou 
 goest I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will 
 lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy 
 God my God; where thou diest I will die and 
 there will I be buried." 
 
 To the white race wisdom should suggest that 
 they encourage the Negro by removing from his 
 path every barrier to his material and educa- 
 tional advancement, safe-guard his home and his
 
 464 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 citizen-rights and make him to feel that he is 
 not an alien in the land that gave him birth. 
 
 The black man's efficiency and usefulness will 
 be in direct proportion to his happy and con- 
 tented condition. The race has at its command 
 a certain amount of vitality. Just in proportion 
 as that energy is expended over legal disabil- 
 ities, unjust laws, unequal educational oppor- 
 tunities and restrictions in the battle for bread 
 in that larger sense in which "the life is more 
 than meat and the body than raiment" will he be 
 rendered less efficient in the output of useful 
 labor. I am optimistic enough to believe this 
 kind of encouragement will come. 
 
 With the relative advance of both races in the 
 civic virtues and material progress, there is a 
 growing mutual respect which lessens friction. 
 Chief reliance though for the accomplishment of 
 this result must be put upon the reign of Christ 
 in the hearts of men. 
 
 There will always be racial peculiarities and 
 distinctions and these may be insisted upon, and 
 yet it must remain forever true that two peoples, 
 living side by side, speaking the same language, 
 nurtured in the same faith and looking loyally 
 and lovingly into the face of Jesus Christ, will 
 live harmoniously and peacefully together. 
 
 I bring you, therefore, my friends, tonight, a 
 message of optimism. There is much to make
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 465 
 
 the present bright the future hopeful. Let us 
 not be pessimists! Leaders among us put too 
 much stress on unfortunate conditions which at 
 the present time surround us. God cannot use 
 a discouraged people. Too much emphasis here 
 produces a morbid and dissatisfied condition. 
 The Negro is better situated here than in any 
 other part of the world. We must not expect 
 too much. The Afro-American's progress is un- 
 precedented in all the annals of history. 
 
 (1) In education. Illiteracy has been re- 
 duced from 100 per cent to 44 per cent. 
 
 (2) In material development. 
 
 (3) Religious progress. In reaching this 
 vantage ground, it is but fair to state that we 
 have been more effectually aided than other peo- 
 ples have been. ( i ) By being in touch with an 
 advanced civilization. (2) By the combined 
 effort of Christian people through schools and 
 churches. (3) By the reactionary forces of op- 
 position. And this last has not been the least 
 important agent in the Negro's advancement, as 
 it is a crucial test of his right to be and to share 
 benefits of civilization. 
 
 A writer has said: "Were I to choose a fam- 
 ily that would live, I would have it endure hard- 
 ships and persecutions, were I to choose one to 
 die, I would give it pleasure and luxury." 
 
 The Jew, scourged in every land under 
 
 30
 
 466 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Heaven, robbed of his lands, driven from his 
 pastoral life by relentless persecution, has yet ad- 
 vanced and prospered and multiplied, in every 
 clime and under every form of government in 
 the world. The Negro must not expect to be an 
 exception. The Saxon has arrived through 
 blood and toil and hardship. 
 
 History is full of movements that are big with 
 injustice. The progress of mankind has been 
 through head winds. The course has seldom 
 been a straight one as man planned, but a 
 crooked one, as man made it, like a ship beat- 
 ing its way against hard and furious weather, 
 she does not always point to the goal, but there 
 is gain in the stretch. The movement is zig- 
 zag but the resultant is progress toward the final 
 goal. 
 
 The law of struggle is the law of life; a severe 
 law, but the providence of God, and, in the long 
 run, the law through which comes all human 
 achievement and progress. 
 
 Our lot in this country is indeed a hard one 
 and a grave responsibility rests upon the edu- 
 cated class among us. To all such I wish to say 
 there is much we can do to make our condition 
 more tolerable. By tact and courtesy, by judici- 
 ous avoidance of topics that arouse useless con- 
 tention, by quietly developing along these lines 
 where there is no conflict, by the acquisition of
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 467 
 
 wealth and education, by untiring and unob- 
 trusive expression of good feeling and by the 
 sedulous cultivation of the law of Christian love, 
 let us endeavor to win over those who are our 
 enemies because they think we are theirs. Let 
 no man imagine that I condone or encourage or 
 advise voluntary humiliation. Every one con- 
 demns the frown-fearing, smile-courting, hat-in- 
 hand Negro. 
 
 True manliness is respected in white and black 
 alike. Our hard and rugged pathway is not our 
 greatest calamity. England beheaded its kings. 
 Cromwell had his wars. France had its Bar- 
 tholomew and its Reign of Terror. The rivers 
 of Germany ran red with human blood. 
 
 And, now, a concluding word by way of appli- 
 cation. I sometimes fear that the greatest danger 
 of the Negro's failure is more internal than ex- 
 ternal. His conduct in public places is often far 
 from what it should be. 
 
 The refined and respectable members of the 
 race are humiliated and disgraced by a class of 
 lawless ruffianswho infest our depots and coaches 
 set aside for colored people, who have no respect 
 for law. We are ashamed of them but helpless. 
 The unjust and cruel law which forces upon us 
 the "Jim Crow" car law would be a little more 
 tolerable if there were some way of getting rid 
 of the "Jim Crow" Negro who seems never 
 happier than when loitering around the stations.
 
 468 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 Another internal trouble: In nearly all our 
 cities there are among our people lodges and 
 burial associations, good and of great value 
 when properly conducted. But I confess it pains 
 me to see our people living in squalor and being 
 buried in luxury. It is a mistake to give a one 
 hundred dollar funeral to a fifty cent Negro. 
 
 Again, there is another serious drawback, in 
 the existence of a class of easy-going citizens, 
 who infest the town and live by the sweat and 
 toil of wife, mother or daughter over wash tubs 
 or in cook rooms, while they live as gentlemen 
 (?) of leisure or furnish the courts with crim- 
 inals. Let us give no tolerance to these idle and 
 vicious people. They do the race irreparable 
 harm. 
 
 In his business life the Negro has many les- 
 sons to learn. Whatever may be said of his mis- 
 fortune in politics his failure in business and 
 professional life is due to himself. It is true 
 that the failure of the Freedman's Saving Bank, 
 officiated at the time by Negroes, but really mis- 
 managed by heartless white men from the North, 
 created a distrust for banks in general and col- 
 ored banks in particular, which more than 
 twenty-five years have not served to eradicate. 
 The result has been that funds have been with- 
 held which, if properly invested, would have 
 helped the race on material lines. We have yet
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 46 
 
 to learn the advantages of partnership and of 
 mutual support. 
 
 Respect for our professional men: We have 
 not yet come to a proper realization of the im- 
 portance of properly supporting our professional 
 men. * * * In the ultimate analysis, it is 
 in the home that the Negro's status is to be solved. 
 The girls and women of the race will fix the 
 destiny and the character of the race. "She who 
 rocks the cradle rules the race." Well may it 
 be said: "The soul's armor is never well set 
 to the soul unless braced by the hand of a woman,, 
 and it is only when she braces it loosely that the 
 vigor of manhood fails." Let us do what we can 
 to preserve the purity of our women. It is a 
 shameful truth that in some cities, at least, there 
 are Negro men driving vehicles of public utility, 
 with no visible support, who are agents of barter 
 and sale of the virtue of our women. 
 
 We must exercise more care in the selection of 
 associates for our children, and social lines must 
 be drawn. 
 
 I have spoken thus freely, perhaps too freely 
 for some, because the educated class among us 
 feel the burden of these shortcomings. The great 
 mass of our people are so steeped in ignorance 
 that they do not feel the burden. The cultured 
 class read, think, judge and philosophize and 
 their sufferings are too often seen in the deep 
 lines of anxiety on cheek and brow.
 
 470 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 We are looking, my friends, for the dawn of 
 a brighter day. Truth must win. Orwe de- 
 veloped it remained stationary for ages. The 
 sun may be obscured by the clouds for a month, 
 but the vegetation does not go back into the 
 ground. It remains and waits the certain coming 
 of the genial sun. 
 
 ' 'Some of these days all skies will be brighter, 
 Some of these days all the burdens be lighter, 
 Hearts will be happier, souls will be whiter, 
 Some of these days. 
 
 "Some of these days, in deserts uprising, 
 Fountains shall flash while the joy bells are ringing, 
 And the world with its sweetest of birds shall go singing, 
 Some of these days. 
 
 "Some of these days, let us bear with our sorrow, 
 Faith in the future its light we may borrow, 
 There will be joy in the garden tomorrow 
 Some of these days." 
 
 INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE RACES 
 
 (Contributed for this book.) 
 
 BY PROF. WILLIAM PICKENS, 
 
 The leading young Negro linguist in America. 
 
 This is a modification of one of the sub- 
 jects that was suggested to me. Carnal 
 intercourse, thank heaven, is not the only 
 variety of contact possible between two races 
 that live together as the white and black
 
 Mr. and Mrs. William Pickens present one of the many striking 
 examples of intermarriage in the South between the dark-skinned 
 Negro and the white-skinned colored Caucasian, confirming our as- 
 sertion that dissimilarities cross for evolutionary growth.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 471 
 
 races live in the United States. It is pos- 
 sible for the two races to have more good re- 
 lations than bad ones. I was asked if illicit inter- 
 course was equally hurtful to the morals of both 
 races. That is like asking if the same thing that 
 will hurt a white man, will also hurt a black 
 man. It reminds me of Shylock. I know of no 
 such difference in the natural make-up of a black 
 person or a white person, that will make either 
 one physically, morally or intellectually invul- 
 nerable where the other is vulnerable. Any sort 
 of illicit commerce between the races must have 
 the same effect on each. Neither reason nor 
 recorded experience indicates any other conclu- 
 sion. Some one might conclude, before taking a 
 second thought, that as such intercourse is prac- 
 ticed in America it hurts only the manhood of 
 the white race, while it harms the womanhood 
 of the black race. But now for the "second 
 thought" what about the white womanhood of 
 the future, and the black manhood of the future? 
 Will not the future white womanhood come out 
 of the present white manhood, and will not the 
 future black manhood depend for its moral 
 stamina upon the present black womanhood? 
 
 But there is also much good intercourse be- 
 tween the races. An increase in such good inter- 
 course would increase good opinion of each other 
 and would thereby tend to decrease the different
 
 472 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 species of bad intercourse. It is a strange fact of 
 individual human nature that the lower one 
 esteems certain other persons, the less careful will 
 he be in his conduct toward them and with them. 
 It is a high respect for our neighbors that helps 
 to brace our own characters. It seems to be put- 
 ting the cause for the effect, but there is less 
 illicit intercourse between those classes of the 
 races which each recognizes as the "better class" 
 of the other. It is a case where the effect is par- 
 tial cause and the cause partial effect. Bad inter- 
 course, however intimate it may be, does not 
 tend to clear up misunderstanding between the 
 races. Good, legitimate, cordial relations would 
 occasion better understanding. And misunder- 
 standing is the mother of a good deal of mischief. 
 One of the reasons why a white man gets along 
 better with a white man than he gets along with 
 a Negro is that the white man understands a 
 white man better. Perfect understanding does 
 not exist in the same race even. Some mind took 
 a pessimistic turn and described the world of men 
 as a number of little human islands screaming 
 across oceans of misunderstanding. It is perhaps 
 not quite so bad as that in all the world, but it is 
 somewhat like that between the two races in the 
 United States. The condition undermines mutual 
 confidence. How often have I, in conversation 
 with intelligent Negroes, found it necessary to
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 473 
 
 MASTER WM. PICKENS AND HIS LITTLE; SISTER, HATTIE IDA. 
 
 Striking contrast in parents nearly always means superior 
 offspring in the Negro race. Like should never marry like in the 
 Negro or any other race.
 
 474 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 defend the simple proposition "that there are 
 some just and fair and trustworthy white people 
 in the world"! And how often have you, white 
 reader, heard such a discussion, respecting the 
 entire Negro race, carried on by intelligent white 
 people ! It simply shows what thoughts and feel- 
 ings our ignorance of each other can engender. 
 
 A little contact between the better elements of 
 the two races helps even the strongest-minded of 
 us. We are all influenced alike by ignorance of 
 one another. We are all equally subject to the 
 laws of God and nature, whatever inequalities 
 might be written into the laws of man. I myself 
 get a better opinion of the white race whenever 
 I shake hands and have a cordial conversation 
 with a first-class member of the white race. And 
 sometimes I am in sore need of such improve- 
 ment of opinion. And many a time after such 
 a conversation have I heard the white person 
 say, "Ah, you greatly encourage me"! Many a 
 time after speaking to white audiences in the 
 North or mixed audiences in the South the white 
 people have come forward to say, "You have 
 done great good today; if we could only hear 
 such talks oftener, we should understand so much 
 better." There are white people in my town 
 whose best knowledge of the Negro race is 
 limited to the very ordinary and sometimes not 
 very honest person who cooks their food or drives
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 475 
 
 their carriage or blacks their boots. Such a white 
 person has the great misfortune of not knowing 
 the Negro race at all and the greater misfortune 
 of thinking that he knows it very well. There 
 is the white man who never entered a Negro 
 home except to ferret out some rascal and take 
 him to jail, and of course, that white man feels 
 sure that "Negroes are criminals." Ignorance is 
 the mother of most of our illwords and illwill. 
 
 Mere physical contact of buying and selling 
 over counters, of using the same streets and to a 
 certain extent, the same public places, of riding 
 on the same train in our "separate" cars and of 
 jostling each other on our crowded thorough- 
 fares, is not a good basis for many important 
 conclusions respecting each other. .And yet this 
 is the whole content of many a white man's mind 
 when he says, "I know the Negro; I have lived 
 with 'em for years." I have lived thus with thou- 
 sands of people whom I never shall know. A 
 certain white man in Alabama whom I see nearly 
 every day, is not as well known to me as a certain 
 white man in New York whom I have seen just 
 once. 
 
 Our industrial relations make us a little better 
 acquainted. In the "independent trades," like 
 brick masonry, carpentry, etc., blacks and whites 
 have worked side by side for years. In the de- 
 pendent trades, factory work, etc., the white em-
 
 476 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ployer has separated the whites and blacks or cut 
 the blacks out altogether. The fact that the in- 
 dustrial classes of the two races work together 
 harmoniously when they are independent of any 
 employer seems to contradict the frequent asser- 
 tion that the main opposition to the Negro is 
 from this class of whites. It is very probable that 
 the white leaders, especially the politicians, by 
 their policies and speeches often cause bad feel- 
 ing where good relations would otherwise exist 
 between the simple, plain people of the two 
 races. In different parts of the South I have 
 seen the "common people" of the two races 
 mingling at street fairs with much cheer and 
 laughter, where a thirty minutes' harangue from 
 an office-hunter with a lot of "social equality" 
 dope in his bag, would raise a cry for human 
 blood. 
 
 Causes which are perfectly understood when 
 looked at historically, have given the Negro a 
 much better industrial opportunity in the South 
 than in the North. There are places in the North 
 where the Negro is at full liberty to spend his 
 money in first-class theaters, hotels, etc., but his 
 privilege to earn money is limited to the most 
 menial positions. There are places in the South 
 w 7 hich present the opposite condition, the Negro 
 having practically unlimited industrial oppor- 
 tunities, but being very much restricted at pres-
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 477 
 
 ent in his opportunities to spend well what he 
 earns. As between the two evils I should choose 
 the Southern one, for a people that are allowed 
 to earn money will finally create their own op- 
 portunities to spend it, while those who are re- 
 stricted in their right to earn cannot always main- 
 tain their privilege to spend. There are some in 
 the North who do not object to the rights of the 
 Negro in any particular, but who object to his 
 physical presence. They simply do not want him 
 in their community, that is all. Their love for 
 the Negro increases directly as the square of the 
 distance between them and the Negro. The 
 Negro's case is full of humorous contradictions. 
 A heathen from Africa or Asia, after listen- 
 ing ta one of our missionaries preach, would 
 naturally expect to find in America a very cor- 
 dial religious association between the races. But 
 alas for the uninitiated heathen! Some of our 
 religious principles do not include the other fel- 
 low any more than the Jews included the 
 Samaritans. By a sort of loose interpretation of 
 the fierce and direct words of Jesus Christ we 
 have narrowed "the brotherhood of man" to a 
 dry figure of speech, something said for the want 
 of something better to say. The Nazarene might 
 have said thus and so, but he did not mean what 
 he said. Before his plain words we have set a 
 labyrinth of theology, so that the smartest of us
 
 478 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 cannot find our way to the essential truth. When 
 the Bible was interpreted consistently with 
 slavery it was all right for white persons and 
 black persons to worship together sometimes, but 
 it is not best in the case of free Negroes. One of 
 the best missionary opportunities ever lost was 
 the ex-master's opportunity for the spiritual ele- 
 vation of the ex-slave. The separate church or- 
 ganization is best for the Negro race, but the 
 interest of white churches should not have been 
 so early and so completely withdrawn. The 
 Southern Methodist Church did well to keep 
 up a long-continued interest in its Negro mem- 
 bership. Many Negroes can be reached through 
 religion who cannot be reached in any other way. 
 
 A somewhat similar opportunity in the educa- 
 tion of the race was lost. Separate schools, of 
 course, were the only thing that would work, 
 and a statesman is never justified in trying to 
 make a thing work which he knows will not 
 work. If the religious and educational contact 
 had been maintained, the Negro would have been 
 greatly helped by the white man's experience and 
 attainment and the white man would have been 
 greatly blessed by really knowing and sympa- 
 thizing with the best that is in the Negro race. 
 
 The political future of this section, too, would 
 be much brighter if the Negro should be trained 
 into a normal relation to the politics of his own
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 479 
 
 section rather than shoved aside according to the 
 present system, a system which it is utterly im- 
 possible to maintain forever or for very long. 
 
 And what do you suppose it is that has caused 
 sensible American people to lose so many golden 
 opportunities and to create such a strained, un- 
 natural and half -barbarous situation? It is an 
 undefined and indefinable something called "so- 
 cial equality." It is comic enough to make the 
 thoughtless laugh, and tragic enough to make the 
 thoughtful weep. What is "social equality"? I 
 do not like to make sport of the apparently deep 
 feelings of other people, but, seriously, I have 
 lived in the South for twenty-eight years, but I 
 have never seen or heard a definition of the term. 
 I have often known white people to say that "so- 
 cial equality" is something that they do not want, 
 but that seems to me to be too broad a definition 
 to enable me to tell it from a rattlesnake, a case 
 of yellow fever or a Negro President. What 
 does it mean? If it means bad intercourse be- 
 tween the races, then I am with the white man 
 no "social equality" for me. If it means all inter- 
 course, both good and bad, opposition to it is 
 futile; for some sort of intercourse between these 
 two races there will be, regardless of the wishes 
 of individuals. The only effect that the human 
 will can produce is to determine WHAT KIND 
 OF INTERCOURSE it shall be. Let us have 
 relations of the mutually ennobling sort.
 
 480 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 The next generation is not bound to respect 
 our wishes. And the word "always" ought never 
 to be used in reference to the American race 
 conditions, especially where the Negro is con- 
 cerned. What the slave-owners of 1849 called 
 perpetual, the people of 1909 call ancient. But 
 for the present we are two races, and all of us 
 who are now living can feel sure that we shall die 
 and leave two races. The claim for "natural 
 antipathy" between the races is not well founded. 
 An instinctive antipathy would at least be con- 
 sistent. And I do not need to point out to you 
 the inconsistencies in the so-called natural an- 
 tipathy of the races, especially when it comes to 
 the "bad intercourse." In some courts where 
 legal sexual intercourse between the races has 
 been declared a statutory crime, immoral sexual 
 intercourse is hardly punished as a misdemeanor. 
 A strange reversal of the laws of God and nature. 
 
 "Social equality" is a phrase to conjure with, 
 it is the one invisible god to whom almost all 
 heads bow. It even dominates to an extent the 
 thinking of the Negro, whenever a Negro begins 
 to speak for the rights of his race he feels it 
 necessary to tell the world that he is not an 
 aspirant after "social equality" or a defender 
 thereof. 
 
 And I would not abate one whit from the 
 white man's pride of race. I would add to it.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 481 
 
 I would make him so proud of his own race that 
 he would scorn to do injustice to any other race. 
 I would make him so proud of his own family 
 that he would honor the very name of family in 
 all races and classes, so fond of his own chil- 
 dren that he would concede a black boy a chance 
 for life. 
 
 The Negro's presence in this country has cer- 
 tainly created certain opportunities for both 
 races. I am not discussing the question as to 
 whether it was a good thing on the whole, or a 
 bad thing for both races, that the Negro was 
 brought here. That is a very foolish question, 
 for whether it be answered in the affirmative or 
 in the negative, the fact remains the same that 
 the NEGRO IS HERE NOW. That would 
 have been a profitable question to discuss pre- 
 vious to 1619. But now that the Negro is here, 
 the only thing worth considering is, how can we 
 make the best of it, of a bad bargain, if you will? 
 Time is worse than wasted in foolish wailing 
 about the fact that the Negro was brought here. 
 Spilt milk can sooner be gathered from sand into 
 the pail again than the Negro race of the United 
 States can ever be gathered again into its father- 
 land, or rather into its MOTHERland, for the 
 FATHERland of a large part of the race is 
 Europe. 
 
 The presence of the Negro in the South offers 
 
 31
 
 482 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 to Southern industries a better supply of labor 
 suited to those industries than has any other 
 country of similar industries anywhere else in 
 the world. We have heard much talk of immi- 
 gration but there is no immigration from any- 
 where that will soon take the Negro's place 
 in the South. To the Negro is offered the 
 best opportunity he has anywhere in the 
 world for a high degree of industrial efficiency. 
 
 To the Christian Church is offered an unsur- 
 passed opportunity for practical versus theoretic 
 BROTHERHOOD, or to prove that the 
 whole thing is all talk. 
 
 To the American Government is offered the 
 best test of the principles that underlie its foun- 
 dation. Or is that all talk? 
 
 The Negro race is strong and will grow 
 stronger in this country, thus offering to the 
 white race its best chance to measure its strength 
 by the strength of another, and not by the weak- 
 ness of another, a chance to be the strongest of 
 the strong, and not merely the least weak of the 
 weak, a real chance to prove the white man's 
 real superiority. Or is that all talk? 
 
 WM. PlCKENS, 
 
 Talladega College, Talladega, Ala.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 483 
 
 ECONOiMIC LAW DEMANDS FREE- 
 DOM OF MARRIAGE 
 
 BY JAMES E. MCGIRT 
 
 Scholar, Author, Editor of McGirt's Magazine. 
 
 You ask that I write you a paper on the sub- 
 ject: "Do you believe that the illicit mixing Of 
 the races ought to be abolished, and a legal mar- 
 riage provision take its place in the entire coun- 
 try?" and "Do you believe that intermarriage, 
 instead of illicit mixing, would improve the 
 morals of both races? 
 
 While you ask me to do this, I must state that 
 it comes in a most inopportune time, therefore 
 it is impossible 'for me to write on them at 
 length; however, I shall state my position in a 
 few words. I shall approach the subject fairly 
 and squarely without expressing the opinion or 
 caring for the prejudices of black or white men 
 and from the viewpoint of the student of society. 
 
 The science of economy teaches that economic 
 freedom is absolutely necessary for the highest 
 development of any people, and that a nation 
 which does not give the highest economic free- 
 dom, or tries to interfere with that freedom, may 
 succeed for a time but eventually must fail of 
 its highest development. 
 
 There are seven kinds of economic freedom 
 which are accepted by the leading countries, and
 
 484 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 JAMES E. McGIRT.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 486 
 
 while these are accepted by the United States, 
 the Negro is excluded from some of them and 
 especially from the first and most important, 
 namely, freedom of marriage and association. 
 From this viewpoint, it is not hazarding too 
 much to say that economic progress demands 
 that these limitations be done away with. 
 
 The country cannot get the best out of itself 
 or out of the Negro so long as these limitations 
 are allowed. They are un-economic, therefore 
 unnatural and despite laws and prejudices, 
 MUST GO. To show how important the law 
 is, let us illustrate: Economy says that "any 
 sane man and woman of some character, if they 
 both be willing without outside pressure on the 
 part of the State, should marry," in other words, 
 there should be freedom of marriage. "Negroes 
 and whites shall not marry," says the law. Now, 
 marriage, economically speaking, is a mating of 
 males and females, and its chief purpose is to 
 increase and preserve the population. To have 
 children is the chief aim of marriage from the 
 viewpoint of the economist. But the law steps in 
 and says that "there shall be no marriage be- 
 tween the colored and white people." > But what 
 does it accomplish? Nothing, only to retard the 
 working of economic law. For it indeed pro- 
 hibits marriage but does not prevent children. 
 The fact that the race of mulattoes is constantly
 
 486 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 increasing and increasing more today than ever 
 before, is ample evidence of the impotency of 
 legislative statutes to prohibit the mating of men 
 and women of different classes and the birth of 
 children from their intercourse. 
 
 This is why I do not advocate social equality 
 or amalgamation or miscegenation or any other 
 such unnecessary thing; for it does no more good 
 to advocate or oppose these than it does to op- 
 pose or advocate gravitation or evolution or the 
 course of the stars. They are fixed by higher 
 laws than those made by human legislation. 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 MISCEGENATION AND ITS BANEFUL 
 EFFECTS 
 
 BY BISHOP ALEXANDER WALTERS, A. M., D. D. 
 
 (Contributed for this book.) 
 
 One of the greatest crimes committed against 
 the Negro race has been the degradation of its 
 women by white men, often of intelligence, 
 wealth and influence. And the saddest part of 
 it is that the men of the boasted superior race 
 with all the advantages in their favor, have been 
 protected in this nefarious business by drastic 
 legislation.
 
 BISHOP ALEXANDER WALTERS.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 487 
 
 In this Christian civilization, this boasted 
 "Home of the brave and land of the free," one 
 whole section of this land has made every child 
 born of a colored woman by a white father an 
 illegitimate child, no matter how desirous the 
 parties are of being united in holy wedlock. 
 
 Laws which prohibit such marriages are con- 
 trary to the laws of nature and the law of God 
 as embodied in the Golden Rule, and they are 
 inimical to the best interests of mankind. 
 
 The good people of this country should be- 
 gin at once to create sentiment, where they have 
 not done so, for the repeal of such laws. 
 
 A wise Providence has overruled a great deal 
 of this wickedness to the good of our land. 
 
 Some of the brightest intellects of our country 
 are the product of concubinage. I could name 
 some of the greatest and most useful men of our 
 country who were and are of illegitimate birth, 
 such as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Wash- 
 ington, etc. 
 
 ^Amalgamation between whites and blacks and 
 its frequency throughout the American Republic 
 are the best arguments that can be produced 
 that the white man considers the black woman 
 his equal, and ought to forever set at rest this 
 question which every now and then bobs up that 
 the Negro is a beast and hasn't any soul. Surely 
 white men of intelligence, wealth and influence
 
 488 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 would not have sexual intercourse in such a 
 wholesale manner with beastsTj 
 
 THESE LAWS FORBIDDING INTERMARRIAGE OF 
 THE RACES AND THE INJUSTICES RESULTING 
 THEREFROM ARE CRIMES WHICH ARE CALLING 
 ALOUD TO ALMIGHTY GOD FOR VENGEANCE, AND 
 WE ARE COMPELLED TO SUFFER AS A NATION UN- 
 TIL SUCH WRONGS ARE RIGHTED. 
 
 I do not think we ought longer to compromise 
 on this grave question, but ought to begin a 
 crusade against it and continue until the laws 
 are changed and men and women allowed to 
 marry whomsoever they please. 
 
 None but Almighty God and the women of 
 the Negro race know the baneful effects which 
 colored women have to suffer by such prohibi- 
 tory laws. [Speaking with a colored woman 
 not long ago she said there is nothing so grind- 
 ing, so crushing as to look into the face of a 
 white woman and have her say by a sarcastic 
 and withering look, "You are nothing but a 
 'thing' to be used by our men the laws are 
 against vou and all because of your color and 
 race.'^) " 
 
 I say again that prohibitory marriage laws, 
 such as I have mentioned above, are a sad blot 
 on the escutcheon of our land. 
 
 A. WALTERS. 
 
 New York City.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 the lives of 
 individuals 
 
 as in the lives of nations 
 there is a central point 
 from which radiates all 
 inspiration to reach the 
 (contributed for MS book.-) higher attainments of 
 
 moral, mental and physical existence, or from 
 which the tendency in motion is down toward 
 lethargy and degradation, by the relaxing of 
 those forces which lead in the opposite direction. 
 The previous social and moral condition of 
 the Negro woman, her complete subjugation to 
 the brute nature or animal passions of men of all 
 stations in the society of both races, is too well 
 known by students of social ethics to demand any 
 lengthy discussion here. Yet, as these facts pre-
 
 490 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 sent fundamental relations to the subject of this 
 contribution, it is really necessary to at least pay 
 a passing notice to the principles here involved. 
 
 Slavery, the most bitter and destructive in- 
 stitution of any government, the most satanic and 
 degrading influence with which human society 
 has had to do, formed and flourished in this 
 country from .1619 until the boys of blue and 
 gray met upon the field of mortal combat and 
 drenched the land in human blood. 
 
 The colored woman pulling through the night 
 of slavery with hands chained to the plow, with 
 mind chained to darkness and morals chained to 
 the wicked lusts of the South's frightful horde 
 of demoralized white and black men, found her- 
 self on the morn of freedom, 
 
 "A storm-beaten ark wildly hurled, 
 O'er the whirlpool of time 
 With the wrecks of a world." 
 
 If in all this land there is a woman deserving 
 the very highest commendation of the world, it 
 is the colored woman. She has had the most dis- 
 couraging obstacles of any woman in history 
 placed so continuously in her pathway, until in 
 the words of Edgar Allan Poe she cried 
 
 "Like that unhappy master, 
 Whom unmerciful disaster 
 Follows fast and follows faster."
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 491 
 
 She is climbing with unfaltering steps the 
 rugged path that leads to the sun-kissed moun- 
 tain peak of liberty and glory, looking hopefully 
 to the right and left for just one ray of the light, 
 of righteousness, of justice, and encouragement; 
 knowing that life is a series of successive heights 
 to be climbed, the vantage of one reached bring- 
 ing to view another height and a continued 
 stepping stone to its attainment. 
 
 The colored woman, as she is, when compared 
 with her white sister who has thrown around 
 her all the protection that bravery, courage, and 
 heroism have been able to produce, and all the 
 wealth, culture and refinement of ages at her 
 feet represents a shipwrecked mariner drift- 
 ing around on the waves of social darkness, out 
 on the sea of national criticism, bravely pressing 
 on toward the harbor of peace and higher moral 
 and intellectual culture. 
 
 She stands today tempted and tried as was 
 Christ on the Mount, unaided, unprotected by 
 the laws of the land, working out her own sal- 
 vation, and the salvation of her people whose 
 future connection with the highest attainments 
 of human genius is as certain as it .is that the 
 majestic Mississippi will flow to the gulf until 
 
 "The sun himself grows dim with age, 
 And Nature sinks in years."
 
 492 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 She is the only woman today, in all this broad 
 land, of whom it is not supposed, by a certain 
 class of lawmakers and officers of the law of 
 many of our states, that virtue and purity is 
 prayed for and desired by her, as the mother of 
 a great race of future American citizens. 
 
 The question arises, therefore, after forty-five 
 years of American semi-freedom What is the 
 present status of the Negro woman? 
 
 I wish to say emphatically that the colored 
 woman is beyond all reasonable doubts a fixity 
 in the social economy of the nation; that in re- 
 ligion, education and moral reformation she is 
 contributing daily to the progress of the greatest 
 age in the history of man. The home, which is 
 the foundation of good government, is advancing 
 from the one room cabin to the comfortable cot- 
 tage, modern and sanitary in all its appoint- 
 ments. The parlor contains the most modern 
 musical instruments, books on music, art, liter- 
 ature and science. The dining room and bed 
 chamber are neat and attractive, suggestive of 
 the most improved sense; and the whole home 
 shows a work of improvement and progress 
 along all lines. The art of music and painting, 
 fancy-work and drapery have claimed such a 
 large part of the Negro maidens' education, 
 until we now have a refined, sensitive, neat-ap- 
 pearing woman indeed, a new woman with a
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 493 
 
 new idea. All over the South we now find 
 academies and high schools whose curriculums 
 are abreast of the times. Many are especially 
 designed for everyday business and professional 
 usefulness, the walls of which are crowded with 
 an army of colored girls thirsting for knowledge 
 and anxious to undergo any honorable experi- 
 ence, to assume any burdensome responsibility, 
 only to reach the highest .attainments in the 
 bounds of possible opportunity. 
 
 The Negro woman as a teacher in the com- 
 mon and higher schools of the South has proven 
 a success. As a business woman she surprises 
 the country. Many girls are now compounding 
 medicine in drug stores run by Negroes, or are 
 watching patients as trained nurses, and going 
 on the rostrum as lecturers and organizers of 
 clubs, etc., whose purpose it is to destroy the 
 influence of error and establish the everlasting 
 doctrine of the principles of truth. The educa- 
 tion of the Negro woman along moral and in- 
 tellectual lines has indeed been gratifying. 
 * * * * 
 
 She has had the saddest experience of any 
 mortal in the world's history. She has passed 
 through that dark, immoral, rapacious age, when 
 virtue to her was a perfect stranger and morality 
 sounded like a mockery. She was forced in some 
 cases to be brutalized without the hope of redress
 
 494 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 for the wrongs heaped upon her, thereby sowing 
 the seeds of immorality and degeneracy, and 
 committing (not at first by voluntary wishes) 
 the unpardonable crime against law and society. 
 But thank God her time has come; just beyond 
 the hills of night we faintly see the daylight 
 breaking. She will lift her voice and be heard, 
 and demand her rights as an American woman. 
 [Sooner or later, by renouncing the horrible 
 practice of illicit mixing of the past, she will be 
 respected, regardless of her color. There is al- 
 ready a decided concert of action on the part of 
 Negro women everywhere, to remove the past 
 with all its evil influences and illicit unions with 
 white men of every class; and to regard any 
 approach of white men as an unpardonable af- 
 front to any decent woman. Unless the laws are 
 so reformed, she may demand a legal union in 
 spite of themj 
 
 At the present rate of education and moral 
 reformation she will some day reach the highest 
 round in the ladder of womanly womanhood, 
 virtue and intelligence. 
 
 Let us start a movement today that may revo- 
 lutionize the laws of some of our un-American 
 states; revolutionize public sentiment. "Ah," 
 you say, "you are ahead of the times! That is 
 a perilous task!" I admit that it is. Better a
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 495 
 
 perilous task to individuals than further degrade 
 the manhood of the white _jace and the woman- 
 hood of the colored race.^ Somebody must take 
 the lead. This horrible tide of immorality must 
 be more successfully checked. THE COL- 
 ORED WOMEN OF THIS COUNTRY 
 MUST BE COMPLETELY EMANCIPA- 
 TED FROM THE THRALLDOM OF THE 
 PAST. 
 
 I may be criticised, yes, severely so, for the 
 stand I have taken in this matter; not only by 
 members of the white race but by my own as 
 well. However, that is a small matter to me, 
 for every man and woman who has ever ad- 
 vanced a new idea, or has advanced the interests 
 of all the people, have always been severely 
 criticised by friend and foe alikey 
 
 Just as William Lloyd Garrison was when he 
 heralded to the world the great issue of freeing 
 the slaves. He was told his was an impossible 
 task; that the state of the country did not admit 
 it; that he would find opposition everywhere, 
 north, south, east and west. Did he give up in 
 despair? No. What did he do? He buckled 
 on the armor of manhood, truth and justice, went 
 out on the battle field of injustice, hatred and 
 oppression of a downtrodden race, and won the 
 victory as did David of old, when he went forth 
 and slew the giant, Goliath. The true and good
 
 496 HOLM'S RACE \SSIMILATION 
 
 men and women of both races must go forth and 
 slay the great Goliath of moral depravity between 
 the races, and bring about a condition that will 
 give justice to the colored woman, and protect 
 her as the mother of a race and as a woman. 
 
 Before our great country can reach that broad 
 plane of fairness and justice to all its citizens, 
 without regard to race or color, the statesman- 
 ship of the nation must rise pre-eminent to the 
 unholy and sordid ambitions of politicians; must 
 rise above the pitiful weakness of human preju- 
 dice, into that bright haven of sunlight and 
 righteousness, where men can look justice 
 squarely in the face, and declare from hill-top 
 and mountain peak that right is a principle as 
 bright as the face of the sun, as everlasting as the 
 throne of Jehovah. 
 
 Then will the colored woman shake off her 
 mantle of semi-slavery and take her proper place 
 in the world's society; contributing to the glory 
 of Christian civilization, and expand all reforms 
 until the influence of peace, happiness and com- 
 plete freedom shall spread and cover this broad 
 land as the waters cover the mighty deep. 
 
 Then, when the consumation of all time is near 
 at hand, and the lion is ready to lay down with 
 the lamb, God grant that I may look upon 
 yonder deep blue sky and see in letters of gold 
 "ONE GOD, ONE FLAG, ONE PEOPLE."
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 497 
 
 SOME THOUGHTS FOR BOTH RACES 
 TO PONDER OVER 
 
 BY ANNA D. BORDEN 
 
 (Contributed for this book.) 
 
 It is strange and peculiarly interesting how 
 some of our leading women claim they are igno- 
 rant of existing social conditions. If we are 
 standing sure and steadfast, if we are so far re- 
 moved from unpleasant social conditions that 
 there need be no alarm sounded, "What meaneth 
 then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and 
 the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" What 
 meaneth then the many thousands of mulattoes 
 annually born in the black race of the South? 
 [Even some of those who claim to be entirely 
 ignorant of these conditions are mulattoes and 
 quadroons themselves, and need to investigate 
 why they are thus, and from whence came their 
 foreign blood ?J I am sure they will find food 
 
 for thought. 
 
 * * * 
 
 I have heard some of our leading men proudly 
 state, "I am three-fourths white, only one-fourth 
 black," or, "my father is white, therefore I am 
 only one-half Negro." If that be true, please 
 explain the conditions under which you became 
 three-fourths or one-half white? In what atti- 
 tude will that place the dearest person on earth 
 
 32
 
 498 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 to you? Was she legally united to your father? 
 Do you, as her child, lay a claim to legal inter- 
 marriage? Remember, our parents cannot give 
 us what they do not possess. 
 
 * * 
 
 The leaders of the race, both men and women, 
 are strangely, yes, deathly silent along reform 
 lines of this kind. [Some will readily condemn 
 the mother of a mulatto yet marry that same 
 mother's daughter and feel immensely proud 
 of their yellow or white complexion. If you 
 condemn the mother for illegal union condemn 
 also the child of illegal amalgamated blood, and 
 illegally brought into our race and society. If 
 you are proud of your black face do not amal- 
 gamate with a yellow or white complexioned col- 
 ored woman and thereby "degrade" your off- 
 spring with foreign blood, and vice versa] 
 
 A few drops of Negro blood does not make a 
 Caucasian a Negro, no more than a few drops 
 of Caucasian blood makes a Negro white. It 
 is inconsistent and cowardly to condemn amal- 
 gamation and then amalgamate at the same time. 
 "But," you say "the child is not to blame." I 
 do not claim it is; but when a thing is wrong in 
 one place it is wrong in another; and if you will 
 sit quietly for just a short while and think deeply 
 over this matter, you will agree with me that 
 there is something radically wrong with our
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 499 
 
 race and the society of the white race, and that 
 a thorough reformation is needed to raise the 
 Negro woman to a higher plane of truth and vir- 
 tue, and responsible, recognized womanhood. 
 
 * * * 
 
 j "What! would you, a Negro woman, advocate 
 amalgamation?" I do not. Amalgamation 
 needs no advocacy^ That process has long 
 taken care of itself. When you glance over this 
 race of ours you will admit this, I am sure. I 
 advocate a reform to legalize it, or condemn it 
 altogether, although such condemnation avails 
 nothing. As a race we cannot longer silently 
 endure the curse which this illicit mixing en- 
 genders. 
 
 Every man and woman should enjoy the God- 
 given privilege of choosing whom they will for 
 their life companion, whether the person chosen 
 be white or colored. No colored man or woman 
 should be condemned by our race if they find 
 and choose their affinity in the white race, if 
 there be a mutual consent between them, and if 
 they can legally obtain such a union anywhere 
 in the world. It is their business and not the 
 people's, if they are sane and responsible citi- 
 zens. 
 
 # # # 
 
 /^Sortie of our leaders claim that only the lower 
 element of both races crave for mixing. With 
 them I cannot agreej
 
 500 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 ^Frederick Douglass, the greatest statesman the 
 race has produced, with a race of all colors to 
 choose from, stepped over the line and took unto 
 himself a white woman, thereby proving to the 
 world his beHef in complete freedom from race 
 prejudice freedom, individually as well as col- 
 lectively?J That was his individual choice and 
 by the laws of God he had a right to choose 
 
 whom he desired. 
 
 * * * 
 
 A great majority of the substantial class of 
 colored women believe as I do along this line, 
 although they may only possess a vague idea of 
 what ought to be and may be done to alleviate 
 our condition. We have a number of letters 
 bearing upon this subject, written by colored 
 women who have had experience enough to 
 know that a legal union with the opposite race 
 would at once lift our womanhood out of the 
 mire and clay into which we have been sunk by 
 the lusts of men. The horde of immoral men 
 in the South would hesitate to accost and insult 
 a decent colored woman on the streets and else- 
 where, if she were equally protected by law with 
 her white sister. 
 
 We have not space to submit in whole the let- 
 ters in our possession, written to us by colored 
 women, but we will quote a few paragraphs 
 from several. One woman says :
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 501 
 
 believe the colored woman cannot rise un- 
 til she demands recognition, and a legal union 
 with her paramour, be he white or black.'j She 
 also says: "To social equality, will say that 
 white men give the colored women social equal- 
 ity in the dark, and it is the Negro woman's duty 
 to rise and DEMAND a legal union." 
 
 Another woman says: "I think we should be 
 married to a white man that wants us, the same 
 as a white woman. Why do white men want us 
 if they don't want us to keep house for them and 
 have a home with them and^raise our children 
 in a decent, married way?" |J[ know white men 
 are not all to blame. So many of our colored 
 women and girls in towns are after white men 
 to get their money. That's all they care for 
 them; and they think we are all alike, but we 
 are not. Many of us want good homes to take 
 care of, and some one to love and care for 
 
 One writer says: "I am a colored woman 
 who has never had the least inclination toward 
 a white man, but I know that we could only mix 
 through a demoralizing method. I don't be- 
 lieve in being unlawfully mixed up with any 
 man, white or black; but do think that it was 
 intended from the creation that we marry. As 
 the case is today, there is no law to protect us in 
 marrying a white man. * * [~I truly believe 
 it (intermarriage) will help each race to be a
 
 502 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 better people, and s|pp much of the inhuman 
 things that now exist.j 
 
 Another one writes : i"I feel that if we could 
 be equally protected by law with white women, 
 many of us would prefer white men, because we 
 know very well that our race can only be really 
 improved and elevated morally that way/| etc., 
 
 etc. 
 
 * * * 
 
 [From all the bother, heartache and sorrow 
 the white men give the colored women through- 
 out the country, it seems to me that there must be 
 something fascinating about us that they fail to 
 find in women of their own race; yet it seems 
 that many of their own women appear charm- 
 ing and attractive. There must be something 
 really valuable about us, for from all appear- 
 ances their affection for us is in most cases gen- 
 uine. A poem written to a yellow Negro girl 
 by a talented white man fell into our hands, 
 which, we believe, testifies to this fact without 
 further arguments being necessary here. The 
 author has consented to publish it on the follow- 
 ing page with an appropriate illustration.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 
 
 503 
 
 YOU'RE the only one most precious, 
 
 In this weary, toilsome strife; 
 
 When you gather summer flowers, 
 
 Gather one into my life, 
 
 Let my soul attune and sing it, 
 
 You are sweeter than a rose ; 
 
 But the color line divides us 
 
 How sad my heart, nobody knows, nobody knows!
 
 504 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 OH ! pray tell me, little treasure, 
 
 Is there sure no sweet relief? 
 
 Is the way closed, can it open, 
 
 Are we barred by our belief? 
 
 Must I depart leave you alone 
 
 Or this matter right dispose? 
 
 For a color line divides us 
 
 How sad my heart, nobody knows, nobody knows! 
 
 YOU are a bright little colored girl, 
 
 One who my soul can adore. 
 
 If I would say good-bye to you, 
 
 I ne'er would see you any more; 
 
 Would you be glad, I wonder, 
 
 My little yellow rose ? 
 
 For a color line divides us 
 
 How sad my heart, nobody knows, nobody knows ! I 
 
 THE COLORED WOMAN ON THE 
 PLANTATION 
 
 AND How SHE is RAISED BY PROGRESS MADE 
 
 BY SOPHIA COX JOHNSON 
 
 (Contributed for this book.) 
 
 We are in the Black Belt where it is said that 
 for every white person you meet there are four 
 colored. On every hand the one-roomed cabin 
 appears utterly filled with children who peep at 
 you from behind half-open doors and shutter
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 506 
 
 windows, while father is plowing and mother 
 and the older ones are "howin in de fiel." 
 
 Some eighteen years ago the idea of gather* 
 ing the mothers of children taught in the mis- 
 sion school together and forming, what is known 
 as the Mothers' Meeting, was advanced by a 
 worker who had been sent as a missionary. We 
 are told by those competent to judge that a 
 stream can rise no higher than its source hence, 
 to have intelligent, honest children the parents 
 must be reached in some manner. 
 
 After considerable visiting and agitation, dur- 
 ing which time some had gotten over their fear 
 of "meetin dem teachers," the organization was 
 formed. Lessons were assigned them in read- 
 ing and writing and plans were outlined for dis- 
 cussing subjects dear to .every woman's heart. 
 Can we understand enough of their condition 
 to sympathize with these mothers; who had 
 come from homes where nothing was known 
 save "plowin and howin cotton, corn, 'taters, 
 sugarcane and penders," often until Saturday 
 noon, then knocking off to do the family wash- 
 ing? No time to cook a decent meal even if it 
 were known how. 
 
 These mothers from the time they were large 
 enough to hoe in their father's crop had the am- 
 bition only to be the lead-hand in the field. And 
 when married they had taken their turn at the
 
 506 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 plow and scattering fertilizer and hoeing, often 
 carrying the baby to the field and covering it 
 under a shade tree while the work went on until 
 the bell rang for noon. When all had gotten 
 out, she must gather and cook her greens or 
 fried meat'and bread ere the bell rang for return 
 to work. 
 
 Their social life, if such it might be called, 
 consisted during the leisure season of tramping 
 from house to house eating peanuts and sugar 
 cane, roasting potatoes and gossiping, with 
 merry quiltings at which time young and old 
 frolicked together for more than half the night. 
 
 As for the men, after the strenuous days of 
 plowing and planting were over, they were con- 
 stantly hunting, squirrels by day and raccoons 
 and opossums by night. Even in their churches 
 religion consisted of learning the latest mourn, 
 a kind of wierd sound echoing and re-echoing 
 through the windowless shack, and trying to 
 see who could shout the loudest and hold out 
 the longest. 
 
 Some women there were, too, who came from 
 homes where the father of the children was not 
 the husband, and the mother was known as the 
 cook of that particular man, while some mothers 
 who as real wives, looked askance at their neigh- 
 bors, because their husbands were as often at one 
 house as at another.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 507 
 
 SOPHIA COX JOHNSON.
 
 508 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 And what differences in the color of the fam- 
 ilies! Even as we so often achingly notice in 
 many places. Brothers and sisters from the 
 darkest shades of ebony to the fairest of the fair 
 calling the same woman mother! Any who get 
 close to humanity, either on the plantation or in 
 the city, see enough to fully realize the condi- 
 tions. Such then were the homes from whence 
 these women came to learn to read and write; 
 to hear talks concerning their home life; how 
 to wash dishes; the necessity for having more 
 than one room and how the house should be 
 cleaned before going to work; care of the 
 garden, chickens and cows, together with raising 
 their children. 
 
 Let us now notice some results of this work 
 among the mothers. 
 
 Several years later as we chance to be passing 
 this way, we see a gray haired woman carrying 
 a large printed Bible on her way to the Mothers' 
 School. She has learned to read the precious 
 Word which is the leading study, and many 
 verses have been committed to memory. On 
 entering her home we find in addition to that 
 Bible, the "Life of Sister Moore" and her book 
 "For Mother." There is a large class of such 
 women now and several letters have been 
 laboriously written to the same Sister Moore, 
 and the hearts of the writers gladdened by
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 509 
 
 answers to them. What means this addition to 
 the house? One of the mothers has been seen 
 cutting logs to build another room. On visiting 
 another we find her bedroom divided by a cur- 
 tain, thus providing another room for the chil- 
 dren; still another has taken a box and with a 
 curtain in front and shelves inside has a com- 
 modious closet for storing away loose articles 
 otherwise thrown under the bed or behind the 
 door. 
 
 At the close of the sessions of these winter 
 schools for women open performances are given 
 by the scholars who recite, read essays and de- 
 bate on subjects pertaining to the home-life, 
 often inviting the fathers to join. These 
 mothers are now better members of the church. 
 By learning to read the Word of God and com- 
 mitting it to memory, they are able to follow the 
 minister in his preaching and help greatly in 
 selecting intelligent men as pastors. They pay 
 their church dues willingly and aid in the re- 
 pairs and painting of their own churches. As 
 for education, they resolve that their children 
 shall have what they see they failed to get. Even 
 those who will not anger the ministers of the 
 church, who have forbidden their attending the 
 mothers' meetings because led by members of 
 another denomination, will do double duty in 
 the field that their children may be educated by
 
 510 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 competent teachers. Time enough has passed 
 to show the results of such efforts on the chil- 
 dren. Many of these plantation mothers are 
 made happy by the receipt of letters containing 
 gifts of money from daughters who are teach- 
 ing. These daughters, many of whom have 
 been trained, even in the homes of the mission- 
 aries, having been turned over to them from 
 their own homes, contribute their share to the 
 uplift of the rest of the family of children. 
 
 What is the social standing now? Homes con- 
 sisting of from three to five rooms are neatly 
 kept, for what planter would want to part with 
 a tenant who respects himself and family? So 
 he thus provides homes as demanded by pro- 
 gress made. 
 
 Instrumental and vocal music may be heard 
 after a hard day's labor;, socials with quiet 
 games and refreshments are held by the young 
 people, and fathers and mothers are rapidly 
 learning to converse on intelligent subjects. 
 
 And now concerning those yet living in sin. 
 The members of this same mothers' meeting 
 during the past year together with other good 
 women not members, signed up a petition ask- 
 ing the landlord to help them in some way to rid 
 the plantation of such transgressors of the law. 
 He looking upon it with favor, decided with 
 them that for the sake of those who do live right
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 511 
 
 and are endeavoring to train their children, as 
 well as for the children born in sin, something 
 should be done. 
 
 So though ignorance and denominational 
 prejudice are rife, yet now and then, we may see 
 evidences of the Day dawning on the plantation. 
 
 SOPHIA Cox JOHSON, 
 
 Millers Ferry, Ala. 
 
 ALL HUMAN BLOOD IS ALIKE IN- 
 TERMARRIAGE 
 
 BY BISHOP J. W. SMITH, D. D. 
 
 (Contributed for this book.) 
 
 That the Negro is one of the great races of 
 the human family is a fact as solid as Gibraltar. 
 Why Jehovah made men of various colors is not 
 only unexplainable but His business. It is a 
 fact beyond truthful contradiction that He did 
 not make a white Adam, a black Adam, a red 
 Adam and a yellow Adam. 
 
 All mankind descended from one Adam and 
 Eve. The origin of the human family is one, 
 for the Apostle Paul in Acts, 17:26 says God 
 "hath made of one blood all nations of men for 
 to dwell on all the face of the earth." After 
 careful chemical examination of the blood of 
 human beings and that of animals the scientists
 
 512 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 BISHOP J. W. SMITH, D. D.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 513 
 
 have found a difference; but in the blood of 
 human beings, irrespective of color, they declare 
 they have found no difference whatever. 
 
 The late and famous Dr. T. Dewitt Talmage 
 agreeing with Paul says, "That is if for some 
 reason general phlebotomy were ordered, and 
 standing in a row were an American, an English- 
 man, a Scotchman, an Italian, a Frenchman, a 
 German, a Norwegian, an Icelander, a Spaniard, 
 a Negro, a Russian, and these and repre- 
 sentatives of all other nationalities bared their 
 right arm and a lancet were stuck into it, the 
 blood let out would have the same characteris- 
 tics, for it would be red, complex, fibrine, 
 globulins, chlorine and contain sulphuric acid, 
 potassium, phosphate of magnesia and so on. 
 All the scientific doctors, allopathic, homeo- 
 pathic, hydropathic and electic would also agree 
 with Paul's declaration on Mars Hill. The 
 countenances of the five races of the human fam- 
 ily may be different as a result of climate or edu- 
 cation or habits, but the blood is the same and 
 indicates that they all had one origin." 
 
 Any one who doubts the truthfulness of the 
 foregoing facts simply pushes his reason to the 
 back of his mind and gives imagination, igno- 
 rance and prejudice full swing. Colorphobia is 
 the offspring of the devil and is born in hell! 
 While thousands of white people admire colors 
 
 33
 
 514 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 of all kinds, admire a black horse, a black cat, 
 a black dress, yet when black is seen in a Negro, 
 it becomes as detestable to them as the gates of 
 hell or a hissing serpent! Why? Because they 
 look upon black in a human being as a badge of 
 inferiority. If their foresight were as good and 
 clear as their hindsight, so as to let sentiment 
 give way to common sense they would at once 
 see that black is no more a disgrace in a human 
 being than in an animal or clothes. 
 
 A Negro may be as black as Egyptian dark- 
 ness, which was said to be so dark and thick as 
 to be felt with your fingers, but if he has intelli- 
 gence and moral character, he is as honorable 
 in the sight of God as the whitest person with 
 intelligence and character that walks this earth. 
 Thomas Jefferson was right when he wrote in 
 the Declaration of Independence that "God cre- 
 ated all men free and equal." That does not 
 mean that they are equal physically, in mental 
 equipment and wealth, but that they are equal 
 in the sight of God and righteous civil law in 
 their inalienable rights to "life, liberty and the 
 pursuit of happiness." If God created all men 
 free and equal, and all colors are alike honor- 
 able in the sight of God, no race because of a 
 lighter complexion or any other advantage has 
 any right to rule or enslave the Negro because 
 he is black. Every inch of progress made by
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 515 
 
 the black race in this and foreign lands has been 
 similar to the progress made by all other races 
 which climbed from ignorance to enlighten- 
 ment, and this proves conclusively the common 
 origin of the races, and logically shows that the 
 black race is entitled to enjoy the same rights 
 and privileges that other races enjoy. 
 
 I have been asked if I believe that amalgarrxa- 
 tion or miscegenation between the white and 
 black races will solve the Negro problem. No 
 sir. There is no such thing as amalgamation or 
 miscegenation between human beings. The de- 
 finition of each word means to mix, intermingle. 
 Since the entire human race has been made of 
 one blood, there can be no mixing. If a human 
 being and an animal were to associate which, ac- 
 cording to the law of God would mean death to 
 both man and beast, and according to the law of 
 the land, would mean fine and imprisonment, 
 that would be amalgamation, for all doctors and 
 scientists unanimously agree that the blood of 
 human beings and beasts differ. Where there 
 is amalgamation or a mixing of different bloods, 
 no offspring result. 
 
 If white and black people cohabit, children 
 are born, and this is incontrovertible proof that 
 the black race is not a beast, did not descend 
 from the ape or monkey, but is of the same 
 blood as the Anglo-Saxon and other races and
 
 516 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 belongs to the universal equality of the human 
 family of which Adam is their ancestor and Eve 
 their ancestress. 
 
 While I would not marry outside of my race, 
 yet I consider it entirely within the range of 
 propriety to say that I register no protest against 
 intermarriage, since the Negro race is made of 
 the same blood as the other four human races. 
 The Bible does not prohibit it and civil law 
 made by that class of prejudiced and hateful 
 lawmakers who diligently use the muck brush 
 to besmear filth over the good name and" 
 progress of the black race has no right to regu- 
 late the affections of human beings. Abraham, 
 Jacob's sons, Moses, Boaz, David and Solomon 
 intermarried. Moses married an Ethiopian 
 woman and when his prejudiced relatives 
 "kicked" about it, Jehovah smote the "kickers" 
 with leprosy. "What God (not civil law) hath 
 joined together (Matthew 19:4) let no man 
 put asunder." From Noah's day until the 
 present time the five races have been mingling 
 and marrying. 
 
 It is better to intermarry than to practice the 
 so-called amalgamation or miscegenation which 
 when boiled down to its quintessence is nothing 
 but fornication and adultery between unprin- 
 cipled white and black people. Amalgamation 
 is the actual odor of this unsavory kettle of fish,
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 517 
 
 and to argue the reverse would be as absurd as 
 it would be for a man to shut his eyes on a lamp 
 and try to turn his eyes inward to find out 
 whether there were any image painted on the 
 retina. The best and surest remedy to break up 
 this lust, lewdness, paramour and sexual inter- 
 course business which goes on yet between the 
 lower strata of the white and black races is mar- 
 riage; and since there is not one precept in the 
 Bible forbidding white and colored marrying, 
 these words in Hebrews, 13: 4, then come with 
 double force: "Marriage is honorable in all, 
 and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and 
 adulterers God will judge." 
 
 Rather than violate the moral law of God 
 which applies alike to all persons or races, the 
 foundation of that law being justice, and feeling 
 that no prejudiced relative or friend has any- 
 thing to do with their affections, each one hav- 
 ing married to suit himself or herself, there are 
 living hundreds of white and colored people hap- 
 pily married, living lovingly together in cities 
 like Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Bos- 
 ton and Chicago; and voices of fair play and 
 common justice of those who have come into 
 heritage of a nobler view of this and kindred 
 subjects, relative to the colored people, have not 
 become sufficiently loud enough yet to ring out 
 like a fire alarm in the late hours of night. The
 
 518 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 following press association item is an instance 
 published recently in the leading white news- 
 papers of the country, of a prominent Southern 
 white man who rather than live in adultery 
 with my aunt honorably and legally married 
 her. 
 
 WED NEGRESS LEGALLY 
 
 Death of White Man Recalls Remarkable Case 
 in North Carolina. 
 
 (Special to Washington Herald.) 
 
 Fayetteville, N. C., Sept 17. G. Thornton, 
 a prominent and wealthy Republican politician 
 in reconstruction days and who, by military 
 authority, married Elsie Hargrove, a Negro 
 woman, in 1866, and has since lived as a mem- 
 ber of his wife's race, died at his home here to- 
 day. 
 
 The marriage of Thornton to a negress is the 
 only case of miscegenation of record in North 
 Carolina, so far as known. The marriage, after 
 being allowed by military authority of the dis- 
 trict, was legalized by the constitutional conven- 
 tion, which met two years later. Thornton, who 
 was eighty-five years of age, is survived by his 
 wife and five children. He will be buried from 
 the leading Negro church in Fayetteville." 
 Washington, D. C.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 519 
 
 THE AFRO-AMERICAN, AS HE WAS, 
 NOW IS AND WILL BE 
 
 How HE Is BLEACHING AND WILL BECOME 
 SOCIALLY EQUAL 
 
 BY REV. J. W. WOOD, D. D. 
 
 Pastor of A. M. E. Zion (State. St.) Church, Mobile, Ala. 
 (Contributed for this book) 
 
 I. My purpose is to discuss the Afro-Ameri- 
 can Negro as he was, as he is now, and as he will 
 be in the future; his social relations to other 
 races than his own, and the final end of the 
 present-day "bickering." 
 
 During two hundred and seventy-five years 
 the Negro was a slave to his white brother, and 
 during this long period of severe hardship and 
 oppression he was not allowed to read or write. 
 This was the white man's law, and if a Negro 
 was found with a book he was severely punished. 
 The poor Negro was ignorant and was kept in 
 ignorance for the sake of the institution of 
 slavery. In those days of his sore affliction the 
 Negro woman was seduced, assaulted and rav- 
 ished by the white man. Negro women gave 
 birth to mulatto children. This practice, on the 
 part of the white man, continued throughout the 
 shameful and disgraceful period of slavery. 
 
 Since the Civil War the intermixing of whites
 
 520 
 
 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 REV. J. W. WOOD, D. D.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SP.OTS 521 
 
 and blacks has abated but little in some sections 
 of the South, and the habit continues just as it 
 did in the days of slavery. The relations of 
 whites and blacks in this respect, in some com- 
 munities of the South, are inseparable. There 
 is no legislation or physical force that can keep 
 them apart or entirely segregated. 
 
 The art of love-making is prevalent between 
 the races, and it is puzzling to know when it 
 will end. 
 
 2. To understand the situation more fully 
 we shall now speak, secondly, of the Afro-Amer- 
 ican as he is now. At the close of the war the 
 1 3th, I4th and i5th amendment of the Con- 
 stitution purported to give the Negro all 
 rights as an American citizen. Freedom dawned 
 upon the race at the time when it was entirely 
 unprepared to appreciate its real worth and 
 meaning, because of previous conditions and 
 ignorance. Northern philanthropists just at 
 this time were eager to lend a helping hand to the 
 unfortunate blacks. They sent missionaries and 
 teachers to the Southland for the purpose of edu- 
 cating the Negro and lifting him from the gut- 
 ter of vice and immorality, to make him a clean 
 and responsible citizen, to prepare him for the 
 responsibilities of American citizenship, to teach 
 him the worth of the ballot, to train him to 
 handle the affairs of state and government, to
 
 522 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 be legislators, governors, representatives, con- 
 gressmen; to prepare him to meet every political 
 issue intelligently and to install in him self-re- 
 liance, moral culture and that refinement so 
 characteristic of the Anglo-American. For this 
 and other purposes the northern white man has 
 given millions of dollars. 
 
 Education has made the Negro a mighty unit 
 in the present-day history of the American na- 
 tion. His refinement and great depth of learn- 
 ing and high moral character has lifted him to 
 the high standard of America's best citizens. 
 Now, this being true, the Negro who is worthy 
 should be accorded every right that belongs to 
 him as a citizen. No civil, political or social 
 rights should be denied him because of his color. 
 If he has the ability and ambition to be a teacher, 
 minister, lawyer, physician, legislator, congress- 
 man or President of these United States, his 
 color should not stand in the way of his progress. 
 
 But the Anglo-American says he is inferior, 
 and not even fit for American citizenship. .And 
 that he is wholly unprepared to cast a ballot, or 
 to have a voice in the law-making bodies of the 
 country. They tell us by the enactment of dis- 
 criminating laws that we are not fit to ride in the 
 same car with white men, unfit to ride in a sleep- 
 ing car in the South, unfit to put up at the same 
 hotel, unfit to dine at the same table, unfit to 
 drink from the same fount, to sit together in
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 523 
 
 theatres, to amuse ourselves together in public 
 places and the like. 
 
 There are colored men and women whose lives 
 are above reproach, and whose refinement and 
 good behavior is equal to the best Caucasian 
 blood on American soil, and yet they are denied 
 the rights of citizens and discriminated against 
 in almost every walk of life. 
 
 We have only one hope, we know that Provi- 
 dence is not asleep, Justice will awake in favor 
 of the dark-skinned man. Chinese, Japanese 
 and all Asiatic races come to our country and 
 are accorded the privilege of American citizen- 
 ship and social equality, and many of these are 
 no better than the Negro race and some morally 
 not as good. 
 
 Whilewe must admit that wehave some friends 
 in the South who rejoice in the progress of the 
 Negro, the spirit of the South is to keep the 
 Negro in the background, and in political 
 slavery. The South predicted the downfall of 
 the government, but their fondest expectations 
 failed and their cause was lost. God has decreed 
 otherwise that the Negro should be free. This 
 same God lives today, and we believe that He 
 will do right. 
 
 3. I shall now speak of the Afro-American 
 Negro as he will be in the future. 
 
 Every indication points to a happy solution 
 of the vexed race problem. His wonderful
 
 524 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 achievement since his physical emancipation has 
 been phenomenal. He has been able through 
 efforts of his own and the assistance of the 
 philanthropist to reduce his ignorance sixty per 
 cent. The vast accumulation of property, the 
 improvements in the home-life, the educational 
 and religious advancement and economic and 
 industrial progress that have been made within 
 the last few years are indicative of the fact that 
 ere long the Negro will find his place just a lit- 
 tle higher up in the social world. The future 
 is pregnant and freighted with political and 
 social rights of the Afro-American Negro. 
 
 The Negro's Star of Social Emancipation has 
 been seen upon the horizon of the times. We 
 may have bitter experiences, the race may suffer 
 much as a result of mob violence; doors may be 
 closed in our faces, but it matters not what the 
 discriminations nor how severe the punishment, 
 the day is coming when the rights of every man 
 will be respected, whether he be white, yellow, 
 brown or black. The time will come when the 
 white man and the black man will stand upon 
 terms of social equality in all things. As he 
 has admitted the Chinese, the Japanese, the 
 Malays and all other Asiatic races to social 
 equality, he will in time admit the Negro and 
 they will be brothers, working together for the 
 betterment and the advancement of the Master's 
 Kingdom.
 
 OR THE FADING LEOPARD'S SPOTS 525 
 
 4. In my concluding remarks I shall speak 
 of the Afro-American ; his social relations with 
 other races than his own, and the final end of the 
 present-day bickering. It is a known fact that 
 the Anglo-American throughout the country 
 offers no social inducements to the Negro, es- 
 pecially in the Southland. Forces are at work 
 in every section of the country to keep the two 
 races apart socially, but regardless of what may 
 be done or said, this barrier is being broken 
 down by the individual man and woman. While 
 we know that discrimination and color castes is 
 a sin and is wrong, we also know that the ques- 
 tion of social equality will in time adjust itself 
 eventually it will force itself upon both races, 
 each race will be a victim within itself, and 
 prejudice and color line will, from circum- 
 stances or necessity, have to be entirely wiped 
 out. Old Father Time is gradually bleaching the 
 Negro race and is removing stainspots from the 
 character of the race. Ignorance is giving place 
 to intelligence, wretchedness and wickedness is 
 giving place to righteousness and justice, pov- 
 erty is giving place to wealth, and prejudice is 
 giving place to love of freedom and good will 
 toward all men. This we believe to be the 
 course of Divine Providence. We have noticed 
 too, that white men have greater respect for the 
 educated and more intelligent members of the
 
 526 HOLM'S RACE ASSIMILATION 
 
 race, than they have for the unlearned and lower 
 classes. 
 
 It seems that the best white people are eager 
 to come into closer relations with the better class 
 of Negroes. It is plain to us all that education 
 has not driven the whites and blacks apart to any 
 alarming extent, but on the other hand has 
 brought them closer together in a social way. 
 SOCIAL EQUALITY IS AS SURE TO COME AS THERE 
 IS A GOD. It will begin to exert itself among the 
 more intelligent -of both races, and in proportion 
 to the real moral worth and intelligence of the 
 race, just in that proportion will social equality 
 dawn upon it. 
 
 Again, an investigation will reveal the fact 
 that the Negro is growing brighter with each 
 succeeding generation, and this of itself will in 
 time equalize the races socially. I visited one 
 of our institutions of learning last year and to 
 my utter surprise, out of two hundred pupils in 
 the school building that day, there were only six 
 black children, all the rest were from a dark 
 brown to white! In the course of time the 
 Negro race will be a race of "white Negroes," 
 and so mixed by cross-blood and intermixing 
 that the question of social equality and equal 
 rights will settle itself and the present-day bick- 
 ering will come to an end. 
 
 JOHN W. WOOD.
 
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