University of California Berkeley ' Pointing the Way BY SUTTON E. GRIGGS NASHVILLE, TENN. THE ORION PUBLISHING COMPANY 1908 COPYRIGHTED BY BUTTON E. GRIGGS, NASHVILLE, TENN. DEDICATION. AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO MY WIFE, IN THE HOPE THAT SHE MAY FIND HEREIN SOMEWHAT OF AN EXPLANATION OF THAT OCCASIONAL FAR-AWAY LOOK IN THE EYES, OF WHICH, IN HER WIFELY SOLICITUDE, SHE HAS FROM TIME TO TIME QUITE PROPERLY MADE COMPLAINT. THE AUTHOR. BOOKS BY SUTTON E. GRIGGS: "IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO" "OVERSHADOWED" "UNFETTERED" "THE HINDERED HAND" 'THE ONE GREAT QUESTION" "POINTING THE WAY" CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE. A FACE OF MYSTERY 7 CHAPTER II. A PUZZLED LAWYER 18 CHAPTER III. OBJECTIONS TO A MARRIAGE 29 CHAPTER IV. THE VISIT Is MADE 35 CHAPTER V. YET DEBATING 44 CHAPTER VI. SHE INVESTIGATES 54 CHAPTER VII. THE PARSON FLEES 61 CHAPTER VIII. UNCLE JACK'S CONVERSION 69 CHAPTER IX. THE MAN APPEARS 74 CHAPTER X. CONROE DRISCOLL 79 CHAPTER XI. EINA BEGINS TO PLAN 87 CHAPTER XII. THAT Is THE QUESTION 95 CHAPTER XIII. EINA AND BAUG 100 CHAPTER XIV. A STRANGE LETTER 104 CHAPTER XV. SHE INSISTS in CHAPTER XVI. THE CRUX 1 16 CHAPTER XVII. MOLAIR ON THE ALERT 125 CHAPTER XVIII. KICKED OUT 132 6 CONTENTS CHAPTER XIX. PAGE. TIGHT PLACE FOR UNCLE JACK 138 CHAPTER XX. FUNERAL OF A LIVE MAN 146 CHAPTER XXL THE BREAK 151 CHAPTER XXII. LIGHT COMES 158 CHAPTER XXIII. QUITE UNEXPECTED 163 CHAPTER XXIV. BAUG SEARCHING FOR EINA 166 CHAPTER XXV. CLEAR SAILING 174 CHAPTER XXVI. DESIRES HER WILL CHANGED 178 CHAPTER XXVII. MOLAIR AT WORK 184 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH 190 CHAPTER XXIX. MOLAIR AND AN OLD FRIEND 194 CHAPTER XXX. THE RUDOLF FIRE 200 CHAPTER XXXI. A FORTUNE SPURNED 204 CHAPTER XXXII. A BADLY NEEDED OPENING 207 CHAPTER XXXIII. SUNSHINE AND STORM 212 CHAPTER XXXIV. A CHINESE LADY 220 CHAPTER XXXV. A FRIGHTENED JUSTICE 224 CHAPTER XXXVI. DlSFRANCHISEMENT FORGOTTEN 22 CHAPTER I. A FACE OF MYSTERY. HY, dear, what on earth " The question thus begun was never finished. As to why the questioner felt im- pelled to begin the query only to drop it uncere- moniously in its unfinished state it will presently appear. It was midday, and a midsummer sun of the Southern skies was beating down fiercely upon that loveliest of all Southern cities, Belrose, the very mention of whose name recalls to those who have seen it, visions of a cleanly, hustling business center, well-regulated streets, beautiful but not ostentatious suburban homes, an amplitude of trees with rich green foliage, rows of magnolias, testifying by leaf and flower to the exuberance of the gifts of soil and air; recalls that air of seren- ity that pervades the city at eventide as the hum of business grows less, as night begins to deftly weave her robe of gloom, as the glare of the elec- tric lights comes forth to aid a shirking moon and the timid stars. But we must get back to the hot, sultry day, and not be tempted from our recital by the phys- ical charms. of the city of Belrose. The extreme heat of the day was indicated by swiftly moving fans and upraised parasols in the hands of the 8 POINTING THE WAY. lady pedestrians on the streets, by the holding of hats in their hands and coats on their arms on the part of the men, and by the almost religious zeal with which shady spots were sought by those whose missions called upon them to wait. On the faces of all there was a half -encouraged, half -resisted look of worriment. One fat, rotund man, rather low of stature, came toddling along, his collar and his handkerchief drenched with perspiration, while his good nature made a last grand stand against the eif orts of the atmosphere to vex him beyond measure. To a leaner com- panion walking by his side he said : "By gosh, Jim, this is about the best time I'll get, don't you think?" "For what?" asked his companion. "For croaking. I guess it's all settled where a rounder like me is to go when he pegs out. I was just thinking that if I could drop out of Bel- rose to-day and land at once in His Satanic Majesty's big kitchen, the change of atmosphere would not be so violent as to upset my delicate system. See?" Among the vehicles passing along Broadway was a phaeton occupied by two young women, one of them being closely veiled; the other was driv- ing. Suddenly the young lady who was driving lowered the phaeton top and thus invited a more direct contact with the rays of the zealous sun. The lady with the veil had just arrived in Bel- rose from more northerly regions, and the heat, A FACE OP MYSTERY. 9 oppressive to the native Belrosans, was doubly so to her. Imagine, therefore, her surprise at the seemingly purposeless lowering of the phaeton top, which act on the part of her friend begot the un- finished query to which we have just listened. But, as we have said, the question was not finished, for at that instant the eye of the veiled lady wan- dered to the near street corner to the left, just ahead of them, and something there seemed to arouse in her a sharp, deep interest. Abandoning the unfinished question the veiled lady propounded another. Looking straight ahead, she said quickly : "Clo- tille, be circumspect about it, but let the horse walk slowly, and look at that man standing on the near corner to your left. Who is he?" Clotille did as directed, and said: "To be sure, I see several men on the corner, Eina." "Oh, I mean the man, the man with his hat in one hand and a handkerchief in the other." Clotille cautiously stole a second glance in the direction indicated. A merry laugh with an un- dercurrent of satisfaction that did not escape Eina's acute ear, and which in later days she so vividly recalled, came from Clotille, somewhat to Eina's confusion. "Now, Clotille, at what are you laughing? Is the gent in question Belrose's all-conquering gal- lant? And do you think that I have fallen a vic- tim to his charms and at sight, too? Why, Clo- 10 POINTING THE WAY. tille Strange!" said Eina, in loving, reproachful tones. "Oh, be fair to me, Eina. Cannot your friend, Clotille, indulge in a tiny laugh when Eina of the cold heart (when it comes to the sterner sex) happens to see a strange, handsome young man, and takes so much as even a passing interest in him? Is it not time for me to sit up and take notice?" "Eina changeth not, Clotille." "My dear, dear girl, I do not misjudge you. I know only too well of the steel casing about your heart," said Clotille, dropping her playful tone. "Well, back to that little laugh of yours, Clotille. Why did you laugh when I made my inquiry con- cerning the man with his hat in his hand ? There was something behind that laugh, Clotille." "Let us take up things in their order, Eina. We will come to the smile by and by, but let us first deal with the man." "All right, the man, then," rejoined Eina. "The man's name is Baug Peppers." "Why, Clotiller exclaimed Eina, almost rising from the buggy seat. "You must be mistaken. No being with a head, and face, and eyes such as that man has could ever have so unpoetic a name. Baug! Peppers! It is simply ridiculous," said Eina, with evident warmth, her sense of the eter- nal fitness of things being grievously outraged. "Well, that is his name, just the same," said Clotille. A FACE OF MYSTERY. 11 "Clotille, you may think so, he may think so, but as assuredly as your name is Clotille Strange, that man's real name is not Baug Peppers. I know it is not." "Well, we will waive that question for the time being. Now that you know what his name is at least said to be, what have you further to say?" asked Clotille. "His mind has certainly written itself on his face.. He is brainy and true. One can see that at a glance. It seems to me that I have seen him before," said Eina. "When? Where?" asked Clotille. "I don't just recall," said Eina. "I will give you a few moments in which to recall just when and where you met him, and will not disturb you with my chatter while you reflect," said Clotille. Eina now leaned back in the phaeton and gave herself up to an earnest effort to recall just when, where, and under what circumstances she had seen this Mr. Baug Peppers before. The thing that puzzled her most was that Mr. Peppers was a man of such a striking personal appearance that people generally would be supposed to have no difficulty in recalling having seen or met him, but here she was, almost positive that she had seen him before, and yet utterly unable to in any manner trace the impression. By and by Eina said: "Clotille, I give it up. Every now and then it seems as though my 12 POINTING THE WAY. mind is upon the point of grasping the solution as to his face, whereupon it nimbly slips by and eludes me/' "Now, I will explain my smile," said Clotille. "The impression created by that man's face is Belrose's standing mystery, and is a most unique phenomenon. To begin with, the face seems to impress every one. We Belrosans all like to look at it, it matters not how often we have seen it. Visitors invariably pay special attention to it, and it always arouses the thought in them that they have seen it before or some face that greatly re- sembles it. But we have yet to find the person who has stated that he has satisfied his own conscious- ness as to the identity of the other face suggested by this face. So there comes into the minds of strangers and there lives in our minds a sug- gested personality that ever remains nameless." "How very, very queer," said Eina, quietly, still trying to condense the nebulous thought that had been sent floating through her mind by the face. "At times," continued Clotille, "we have had conventions of national scope to assemble here, and have entertained groups of delegates at social gatherings; and it was at one time a source of much amusement to us to have our guests one after another go through the same series of ques- tions and answers that you and I in the first in- stance indulged in to-day with regard to that face until the matter became so tiresome to Baug that A FACE OF MYSTERY. 13 he began to avoid all social gatherings at which strangers were likely to be present." "He knows, then, of the peculiar impression made by his face," remarked Eina. "Oh, yes, and he has gotten so that, when introduced, he quietly remarks before the stranger gets an opportunity to make the stereotyped com- ment which he knows is forthcoming, 'Of course you think you have seen me before, or think you have seen someone that looks like me, but for the life of you, you can't tell where you saw me nor who it is that I resemble, so let us pass all that by/ " said Clotille. "Decidedly interesting, and I, Eina Rapona, am going to try to find an answer to the puzzle. Somehow I feel that something great, some- thing tremendous lies behind this Belrose phe- nomenon. I am not a prophetess, nor the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, but I venture the prediction that I shall furnish an explanation of this phenomenon, and that, upon discovery, it will excite more interest than it does as a mys- tery. Mark my words, I feel it. I know not why. I am not a sentimentalist at all, but there is something great betokened by that man's face and some tremendous fact lies behind it," Eina re- marked. Had Eina been observing Clotille's face closely she ought to have been able to see that this re- solve on her part was for some reason giving Clo- tille a deep measure of satisfaction. 14 POINTING THE WAY. "Well, I must explain another little matter to you," said Clotille. "Mr. Peppers has solemnly vowed that he will wed the girl that unravels this mystery. Now, will you permit me to smile to my heart's content, since you, the queen of the anti-marriage brigade, have so diligently resolved upon earning your title to a husband?" asked Clo- tille, laughingly. "Dear me ! Forewarned is forearmed. That is a game in which at least two have a say. You don't balk me, Clotille. I must solve this riddle, just the same, do you hear?" "Well, Eina, you are welcome to your task, but as to how you are going to even start about this matter I don't know. If you succeed, I shall crown you queen of detectives." "Oh, say," added Clotille, "Mr. Peppers in for- mer days took a deep interest in some phases of politics, and once formed part of a delegation that called upon a President of the United States. And, don't you know, even the President singled him out and made the usual remarks to him. After all, as you say, there may be something back of such a universal conception." "Indeed! Indeed! I simply must know why it is that I feel within that I have seen this man before. I simply must," said Eina. At last Clotille and Eina reached the cottage where the latter was to dwell. There it sat crown- ing a hill, far out on the outskirts of Belrose, com- manding a splendid view of the city and of all A FACE OF MYSTERY. 15 the surrounding territory. As Eina entered the cottage yard she was thrilled with the beauty of the scene before her. "Oh, Clotille, you are a born artist. Just look at that rich green grass; at the lovely arrange- ment of the rose bushes ; at the star-shaped beds from which those tiny flowers, of every tint and hue, peep at one so sweetly ! Look at those pretty ferns. They haven't the petals of the flowers, but they seem to know their beauty and are careful to display it." Lifting her eyes to the beautifully shaped cottage, she gazed at the profusion of honeysuckles that clambered over and fully covered the cottage walls. "Oh, I share with you your love of the snug cot- tage, you dear clinging honeysuckles. It would seem to me that if I were dead and should pass this way, this beautiful spot would awaken my soul and call me back to life again/' said Eina, her bosom heaving with the delight that surged up from her heart. Tears of joy stood in Clotille's eyes, for upon her had fallen the whole task of choosing and arranging this home for her wealthy friend, and she was therefore highly gratified that her friend seemed so well pleased. As they stood making a survey of the place, the Negro servant, a tall, aged man, came walking around the house. He had an erect, soldierly carriage, which was somewhat modified by the 16 POINTING THE WAY. humble carrying of his hat in his hand and the deferential inclining of his head slightly forward, a combination of dignity and humility. His mus- tache, beard and hair were white, and his solemn face thus enveloped would have been a little awe- some but for the kindly light that gleamed in his eyes. Clotille whispered to Eina, saying, 'That old man is as honest as a monk, as solemn as an owl, and as keen a lover of the humorous as you ever saw." "Indeed! He does not look it," said Eina. When the servant had approached as near as an attitude of profound deference would permit, Clotille said, "Uncle Jack, this is Miss Eina Ra- pona, who is to be your landlady." Uncle Jack bowed low, and a look of pleasure came into his black face. He was very sensitive on the point as to the class of people he was to serve, and was a keen judge of what he called "quality folks." This pleased look was due to the fact that Eina had stood the test of his keen intuition. Clotille, who had secured Uncle Jack to serve Eina, eyed him closely, and was delighted at the signals of pleasure that her friend had caused to appear in the countenance of this veteran Negro connoisseur of faces. It was very vital to Clotille's plans that Eina should please Uncle Jack, for in the schemes that she had before her she had need of him. A FACE OP MYSTERY. 17 When Clotille had escorted Eina into the house and had gone from room to room, showing how she had fitted it up for Eina's comfort, she then left her friend and drove back toward Belrose, a smile of happiness on her lips, the light of joy in her eyes. "Well, sir, it worked like a charm. It worked like a charm." Such was the happy reflection that came and came again to, or, speaking more accu- rately, that abode in, Clotille's mind. CHAPTER II. A PUZZLED LAWYER. (HROUGHOUT the somewhat restless night which Eina spent in her new home, whether * waking or sleeping, the face of Baug Pep- pers, the face of mystery, with its elusive sug- gestiveness, haunted her. When, on the morn- ing following, Eina arose to greet the new day, and threw open her blinds to let in the cheering light of the sun, this face of mystery was still the uninvited but persistent guest of her mind. Could Clotille but have known just how much Eina's thoughts were occupied with this new, strange face that had suddenly thrust itself across the pathway of her life, she would perhaps have felt inclined to regard it as a stroke of genius on her part to have hit upon such a successful plan for the furtherance of her purposes. Incident to Eina's making Belrose her home, there were some business matters that had to be adjusted, and Clotille had arranged for Eina to call that morning at the office of one Seth Molair. When, therefore, the dainty breakfast prepared by Uncle Jack was over, Eina repaired to her room to attire herself for that business call. Of course Eina would not have admitted it, would have denied it to her own consciousness, but it is never- theless true that the possibility that she might A PUZZLED LAWYER. 19 meet the man with the mysterious face influenced her in the matter of her toilet. From her earliest youth the world had tal^en pains to inform Eina over and over again as to how beautiful she was, but hitherto she had been rather indifferent to the fact of nature's rich en- dowment, and none ever thought to call her vain. But as she now stood before her mirror taking an inventory of what might be termed her charms, there was in her eyes, in this privacy of her dress- ing room, the plainest sort of hungering for the beautiful in herself. "Has the world judged aright? Am I beau- tiful?" asked Eina of herself. She lifted her bared, rounded arms, tapering so exquisitely at the wrists, and gazed at them for a few seconds, then lowered them. Eina now turned her atten- tion to her face, neither oval nor long, perfectly proportioned, her features mouth, nose, ears, forehead each a work of art in itself. And well did her wealth of hair, black at a distance, but brown at close range, grace her head. And well might her eyes, those wondrously expressive, beau- tiful black eyes, matching well the long, dark brown eyelashes and heavy eyebrows well might her eyes, the dominating center of a realm of beauty, gleam with that subtle, inexplicable charm that made a friend of every one who gazed into their soulful depths. Gifted with a rare taste in choosing and blend- ing those colors which best suited and accentuated 20 POINTING THE WAY. her beauty, Eina, when ready for her trip into the city, was beyond all cavil a vision of loveliness. "It is one uv my rights, miss, ter 'spress myself 'bout de looks uv de lady folks uv my f amblys whar I wuks. I doan' wuk fur none but quality folks. Yer air de puttiest lady I evah wukked fur/' said Uncle Jack, with a paternal pride in Eina's ap- pearance, as he drove her to the city. Bubbling over with good humor, Uncle Jack talked to Eina as they rode along, giving her scraps of history of Belrose. When Eina arrived at Seth Molair's office, in- stead of being at once ushered into his presence, as was to have been expected in view of the char- acter of the business engagement that she had with him, she was kept waiting in the ante-room for some considerable time. In the office in which Eina sat there was a large, magnificent mirror. Seth Molair, the occu- pant of the suite of rooms, desiring to have an opportunity to study clients unobserved by them, so arranged the chairs in his waiting-room that this mirror recorded likenesses at such an angle that he could, by the use of a strong opera glass, constructed in the partition between the two offices, get a splendid view of people without their suspecting that he was observing them. The explanation of Molair's prolonged delay in admitting Eina was that he was both charmed and puzzled. Eina, as we have seen, had taken special pains with her toilet, and Molair was A PUZZLED LAWYER. 21 struck with the amazing beauty of the girl, who impressed him as being undoubtedly the most beautiful woman upon whom his eyes had ever fallen. He was sorely puzzled, too, as to Eina's nationality, a consideration which, in Belrose, as in all Southern cities, counted for a great deal. Eina's complexion had been the bane of many an artist's life, portrait painters having despaired of reproducing its beautiful tints, defying, as they did, the power of the brush and pen. She was light enough of complexion to pass among the whites for a white girl, had just enough of the dark in her complexion to permit her to pass as a colored woman if she so elected, while the underglow of red in her complexion, coupled with her beautiful black eyes and the ap- pearance of her hair, suggested that Indian blood was not altogether missing from her veins. "Of whatever nationality, it would seem that the races of mankind have united to make this girl the composite beauty of the human family," reflected Molair. At length Molair opened the door of his private office and bade Eina to enter. After a formal in- troduction, the two settled down to the business on hand. Seth Molair was noted for his dispatch in business matters, but it must be confessed that in this particular instance he did not live up to his reputation. He did not overly prolong the inter- view, but simply proceeded with marked delibera- tion, regarding it as a genuine treat to have the 22 POINTING THE WAY. privilege* to merely contemplate the exquisite beauty of the face before him. The question of Eina's nationality continued to give Molair concern. There were, to be sure, the European features and the stamp of European cul- ture and spirit, but there was that faint, pic- turesque tinge of the dark that might or might not be due to a distant connection with the land that chose to make sable her sons and daughters. Mo- lair resolved to discover Eina's racial affiliation before the interview was over, and began to manoeuver to attain that end. He had been told that in every light person having a vestige of Negro blood in their veins there was a slight mud- diness behind their ears. Pretending to have business across the room to the rear of Eina, Mo- lair managed to get behind her and to glance at her ears. "No special mark there," was his mental note as he gazed upon Eina's pretty neck and ears. Molair had heard that at the roots of the finger nails there was always to be found a telltale sign that betrayed the presence of Negro blood when all other indications failed, but Eina had on gloves, which prevented a resort to that test. However, Molair decided to overcome this obstacle. Excusing himself rather abruptly, he entered his outer office, closed the door, and had the white girl who was his stenographer to come to him at the office window, where he took a look at the roots of her finger nails and at his own. Having A PUZZLED LAWYER. 23 familiarized himself with the appearance of the finger nails of himself and his stenographer, he re-entered the office to plan for testing Eina. When the time came for Eina to slign the papers incident to their business transaction, Molair had her take a seat at a small table in the center of the room, the table being just large enough to hold the papers to be signed, but not large enough for the inkstand in addition thereto. Molair stood near her, holding the inkstand in his hand, and leaned over ostensibly to point out just where she was to sign. In so doing, in keep- ing with his plan, he spilled the ink upon Eina's glove. "Clumsy! Clumsy! Clumsy! I beg a thousand pardons," said Molair. Eina looked up, her mind in perfect accord with Molair's suggestion that he was clumsy. She gave him a reassuring smile, however, to drive away his embarrassment, and said, "I should have taken off my gloves to write, anyway, so the fault is mine, not yours/' "That is quite generous in you, Miss Rapona, but I do not pardon myself. Miss Grainger," called Molair, to his stenographer, who now en- tered, "Take that glove off of Miss Rapona's hand, step across the street to the store, and bring us another pair." Miss Grainger approached to draw off the glove and Molair, at the risk of being thought rude, stood so as to be able to see the finger nails as the 24 POINTING THE WAY. glove left the hand. In his conference with his stenographer he had told her of his plan, and had asked her to be as deliberate as possible in getting the glove off of the finger tips, that he might have as good an opportunity as possible to see the finger nails. Slowly the glove came off, Molair's eager eyes following every inch of its progress. When at last the finger nails stood revealed, and Molair's keen gaze was directed towards them, he heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Heaven be praised!" The finger nail roots were normal. Eina looked at Molair inquiringly, unable to account for his exclamation. Molair caught the meaning of the look, but proffered no explanation. When the papers had all been signed, Molair broached the question that had been uppermost in his mind, feeling free to do so, since Miss Rapona was able by any test to be classified as white. "Miss Rapona," began he, "the white people of the South are not individualists. With the possibility of racial antagonisms on the one hand and social commingling on the other always con- fronting us, we are more or less in a chronic state of spiritual war, and, just as in time of war you do not allow the individual soldiers personal lib- erty, we withhold a great measure of personal lib- erty from all Southern people, white and colored, and maintain certain well-defined customs." Eina became all interest and waited breath- lessly Molair's deliverances. A PUZZLED LAWYER. 25 "You are from Boston, where social freedom the thing that people are trying to say when they say social equality exists. In the South social freedom is not permitted, for reasons that I need not discuss just here. Whoever affiliates socially with the one race in the South is denied the social life of the other. Will you regard it as a piece of impertinence on my part to ask you as to where you are to cast your lot socially?" "You mean to say that there is no such thing as being allowed to treat all upon the score of individual merit?" remarked Eina. "Exactly. Choice, in the South, lies not be- tween individuals, but between races. Moreover, if you have once passed as a white person, you will not be allowed to drop into the colored race. On the other hand, if you are once classed as a colored person, you can never change to the white race where that fact is known," replied Molair. "Would you white people of the South accept me?" asked Eina. "Pardon me, but what is your blood?" asked Molair. "I am of English, Spanish and Indian descent. Of course you know that the Spaniards drew the dark in their complexion from the Moors, who of course are Africans. By both my Spanish and Indian blood, which, however, is all but lost in the English strain, I am connected with the colored races of the world." "Now let us see," said Molair. "We of the 26 POINTING THE WAY. South place no ban upon intermarriage with the Spanish people. The glorious history of Spain has baptized her slight swarthiness, and we for- get the Moor. As for the Indians, our President has advised their absorption into our blood. Ac- cording to prevailing standards you would find no barrier to your entrance into the white race. "On the other hand, there is the tinge of the dark in your complexion which will permit you to classify yourself as colored if you so desire. There are hundreds of people right here in Belrose even lighter than you are, lighter than thousands of whites, who are classed as colored." "I find myself, therefore, in the unique position of being allowed to choose for myself my racial home. For most people that is a thing entirely beyond their control," said Eina, smiling sadly. "Before you make your choice, Miss Rapona, would you kindly allow me to canvass the whole situation with you?" asked Molair, speaking with evident earnestness. "I know of nothing that would give me greater pleasure, Mr. Molair," said Eina, much pleased at a prospective arrangement that would give her a glance into the heart of the South, that willy- nilly had written itself into her Boston's daily thought and nightly dream. Molair paused awhile, hesitating as to whether to say what he had in mind, and searching for the best form in which to put what he would like to say. A PUZZLED LAWYER. 27 Noting his embarrassment, Eina said, "Feel free, Mr. Molair, to speak your mind to me." "I could, Miss Rapona, discuss these matters with you here, but somehow, when the deeper issues of life are involved, I like to get away from this office, be free from its atmosphere altogether. Here, in an honorable way, I hope, I look after my personal interests by trying to faithfully serve my clients. Elsewhere I am an unfettered man, the human being." "Why can you not come to my home?" asked Eina. "There is the rub. For the present at least you wish to keep the question of your social alignment open. It is well known in Belrose that I make no professional visits. My clients all come to me. If I call to see you it will be surmised that I call to see you socially, and if it became known to the colored people that I so visit you, you can never thereafter reach their best social life, perhaps," said Molair. "Why cannot I call at your home, then?" asked Eina. "If you enter my home as a social visitor to my mother, you take rank as a white person. If you once assume rank as a white person, you can never in the South drop into the life of the colored people unless you can show clear title to Negro blood. We don't allow it," said Molair. "Who stays with you at your home, Miss Rapona?" asked Molair. 28 POINTING THE WAY. "One Jack Morris; Uncle Jack they call him," replied Eina. "Uncle Jack! Why, I know Uncle Jack, and a truer soul never lived," said Molair. "I was about to suggest, Mr. Molair, that Uncle Jack might bring you to my home unobserved. I feel that it means so much to be permitted to hear what you have to say," said Eina. "That is about the only way in which all objec- tions can be met," said Molair. So it was agreed that, under the chaperonage of Uncle Jack, Molair was to clandestinely visit Eina. "By the way, is the man with the face of mys- tery a colored man or a white man? I did not think to ask Clotille," mused Eina, as, sitting by the side of Uncle Jack, she journeyed back to her home out from Belrose. CHAPTER III. OBJECTIONS TO A MARRIAGE. EFORE Molair pays the promised visit to Eina with a view to influencing her social alignment, it is perhaps expedient that we learn something of the influences that brought her to Belrose, something of the situation, to play a vital part in which she had come, so that, as we stand with her in the momentous hour of her choice of race we may be the better prepared to sit in judgment on her course. In order that we may get into this position of vantage, it is necessary for us to go back and catch up a thread that by and by merges into the situation presented at the point where this drama of human life first unfolds itself to your view. In the days of slavery two Negro sisters, with the doings, more or less, of whose descendants we shall have to deal, were assigned diverse destinies, the one of them choosing a mate within the Negro race and becoming the maternal antecedent of a line of people of dark complexion, while the other became the maternal founder of a line of people of mixed blood. When freedom came, Constantine Gilbreath, the white man involved in the alignment mentioned, did not abandon nor suffer to depart the Negro woman whose companion he had been in slavery, but continued the relationship. 30 POINTING THE WAY. Among their children was Letitia Gilbreath, who was born to them a few years after the close of the civil war. Upon the death of Constantine Gilbreath, his fortune, which was considerable, was apportioned among the members of his Negro family. Letitia Gilbreath inherited from her father a marked commercial talent and love of gain, which faculty she devoted to the increase of the holdings bequeathed to her, and as a result grew to be a fairly wealthy woman, as wealth went in the Southland. Miss Letitia declined all offers of matrimony, grew to be regarded as an eccentric old maid, de- voted her entire thought to her possessions, and seemed to shut out from her heart all her fellow- men and women with two exceptions, as follows: A daughter of her mother's sister married and became the mother of a beautiful dark girl whose pretty face and black appealing eyes had somehow reached the soft spot in Miss Letitia's heart. She applied to her cousin, Mrs. Hannah Strange, for this beautiful dark child, Clotille, reared and edu- cated it. She had resolved, should the girl marry in a manner that pleased her, to make a bridal present of one-half of her fortune, and to provide in her will that Clotille should come into posses- sion of the other half upon the testator's death. Miss Letitia's fancy had likewise gone out for Baug Peppers, as a boy, and she had resolved upon him as a husband for Clotille, the fact that Baug was very light of complexion counting OBJECTIONS TO A MARRIAGE. 31 greatly in his favor, this in truth being a deter- mining consideration. Miss Letitia, herself a mulatto, would have denied most vehemently that she was at all preju- diced as to color, and would have cited the fact that her mother and her favorite adopted cousin were dark as proofs positive that she could not have color prejudice. But Miss Letitia was a great believer in the white people, and the fact that they seemed to be growing farther and farther away from the Negroes made her pessimistic as to the future of the colored people as a distinct racial element in American life. She had become a convert to the theory that the only hope of the American Negro lay in finally losing himself in the white race, in being utterly absorbed. She had no sym- pathy, however, for such Negroes of light com- plexion as illegally affiliated with the white race or surreptitiously entered that race, holding that all persons with the blood of the colored race in their veins should remain within the ranks of the Negroes until the race as a whole was whitened. On the other hand she viewed it in the light of a shocking crime for two dark persons to marry each other, holding that every newly born dark child but prolonged the agony. She felt that Providence now purposed to overrule the evil of miscegenation during the days of slavery, and to thus bring good out of evil by making use of the light complexion contributed to the race to lighten 32 POINTING THE WAY. its complexion from generation to generation until it finally lost its dark hue. She was a believer in the white man's temperament, traditions, char- acter and civilization, and did not care to see these altered by a sudden infusion of Negro blood, but felt that by the time the Negro race was ready to vanish through her gradual process of whitening, that the race would be so fundament- ally metamorphosed, and the infusion so diluted that it would in no wise materially affect the base of the white man's make-up. Miss Letitia felt that she occupied unassailable ground, as the white people could not reasonably object to her making use of the white blood which they pushed off to her side of the color line. Such was the basis of her choice of a husband for her cousin Clotille. Baug and Clotille knew full well that they did not and would not love each other, but knowing Miss Letitia's hopes and plans, they did not jar her by raising the issue before it had to be raised, each desiring to keep the wealthy woman's favor. Operating under this modus vivendi, all seemed to be moving along nicely, neither Clotille nor Baug desiring to make a move, until one morning, as Clotille sat in her seat in the assembly room of Clinton College, noting the boys as they filed in to take their respective seats, she observed in those ranks a tall, handsome fellow of princely form, whose frank, open face, intellectual brow and head of splendid shape, demanded of her a second OBJECTIONS TO A MARRIAGE. 33 look and a third. An acquaintanceship followed in the due course of events and the exchange of sentiments in the days that followed ripened their mutual admiration into love. One beautiful May day, a day that Clotille never forgot, in that short distance from the baseball grounds to the girls' dormitory, Conroe had poured into her ear the story of his love, and had gained from her lips, and from the depths of her tender, dark eyes the information that he was loved in return. But here is where the trouble arose Conroe was dark. From the day that Clotille discovered that her heart had gone out to Conroe, she be- gan to plan to overcome Miss Letitia's ob- jections to him. She saw clearly that her first step was to get Baug Peppers out of the way. So long as Baug was available as a possibility for a husband, Miss Letitia, Clotille knew, would be for him against the world. The next step, as Clotille viewed the matter, was to convert the white people of Belrose to a more kindly attitude toward the colored people, for Miss Letitia was in her heart a worshipper of the whites of Belrose; felt that they were the most aristocratic people on earth. If, therefore, Bel- rose could be brought to the point of according the colored people the full measure of citizenship rights and privileges, it would, according to Clo- tille's way of thinking, operate to make Miss Le- titia less pessimistic, more hopeful of the colored 34 POINTING THE WAY. man's future as a colored man, and therefore less hostile to the marriage of dark couples. "The elimination of Baug and the providing of a healthy local atmosphere for the diseased mind of Cousin Letitia is my problem, then," reasoned Clotille. "Now, I don't know which is the harder task, the marrying off of Baug or the causing of Cousin Letitia to think that the door of hope has at last come open to the dark man/' said Clotille to her- self. Time passed away, Conroe and Clotille were graduated from college, the former entering a medical school, while the latter went to Boston to perfect herself in music. In Boston, Clotille met and studied Eina, and felt convinced that she had at last come upon the girl that could wrest from Baug the control of his heart. Eina, who was an orphan, grew to be fond of Clotille, and expressed a desire to come to Belrose to live. This was exactly what Clotille desired, and shortly after her return home she wrote, tell- ing Eina to come. Now that we have seen how Eina came to Bel- rose, Mr. Molair may proceed to pay his visit. CHAPTER IV. THE VISIT IS MADE. LOWLY, languidly, and with ever reddening orb the sun was sinking toward its rest, making way for that eventful night in the life of Eina, when Molair was to visit her home and discuss with her the question of her racial alignment. Hitherto Eina had looked upon the human family as one, but now was to make her choice of caste, or have the choice made for her. "According to what Mr. Molair says, I am to half die to-night, to limit the full, free rush of my soul to the one or the other group of my fellow- beings. Whether I will or not, the choice must be made." So reflected Eina, as she sat upon her porch waiting for the set of sun which was to bring to her door Seth Molair, in charge of Uncle Jack. When there comes the time in the life of a hu- man being that the fate of the eternal years seems crowded into a brief space for determination, an effort on the part of the soul is put forth to burst out of its prison and ramble through the halls of nature in search of superior wisdom for a decision. So Eina looked out upon the landscape before her and said, "Mother earth, what have you to say to your daughter in this solemn hour?" 36 POINTING THE WAY. The slope that began a few hundred yards in front of her porch seemed to say "Follow me" as it gradually fell away down to a valley in which there stood a few trees scattered here and there lining a small stream that flowed leisurely along en route to the far, far distant sea. In her imagination the meditating Eina fol- lowed the waters of this little stream, passed with them under culverts, through the city of Belrose and into the Ambrose River that skirted that city, followed the waters by the cornfields, on and on through the land of cotton, then the land of sugar- cane, by the busy wharf, by the quiet village, on and on and on to the great, great deep. As in her imagination the waters swept out into the mighty ocean, Eina shuddered, folded her arms a little tighter as if it were she that was making the sweep into the boundless deep. "No comfort comes to me in that line of thought," said Eina to herself, now lifting her sad eyes to the evening sky, in which the sun was all but set. But no relief was there, for the sun seemed to say, "I, too, must battle for my life." Eina gazed at the cloud through which the sun was feebly shooting his failing rays, then looked at a heavier cloud hovering immediately beneath the fighting, dying king of day, ready to engulf him when his reign was over. At last he sank into this dark cloud into which there then came a rift through which he shot a flood of parting brilliance as if to say, "I go down, but go THE VISIT IS MADE. 37 in the fullness of my powers. I shall rise again." The sun was set. The spirit of Eina, yet hungry for comfort, now sought solace in the little yard before her. Ris- ing from her chair she bent over the banister of her porch and in the gloaming looked from tree to tree and from flower to flower. The trees moved their limbs only in the feeblest manner, as if in respect for her meditation. Little birds flitted noiselessly by to their nests. Even the crickets in the grass seemed to seek to subdue their voices. "Oh, this is too solemn. I gain strength no where. I must fight out life's great battle alone," said Eina, leaving the porch and entering her parlor. At length Uncle Jack arrived, and with due pomp and ceremony escorted his distinguished companion into Eina's reception room. As Molair's eye noted the carpet on the floor, the furniture, the pictures on the wall and all the little touches of art in the articles and ar- rangement of the room, his sense of harmony was thoroughly pleased and he said inwardly: "No, I make no mistake when I invite this lady of refined tastes to membership in the race to which she properly belongs by every consideration of right and blood." When the greetings of the day had been passed and a few moments occupied in conversation on general questions, Eina opened the discussion on the matter uppermost in the mind of each, and 38 POINTING THE WAY. to Mr. Molair's surprise, at once put him on the defensive. "You have come to-night to ask me to choose my social atmosphere, my spiritual home. Will you allow me to probe somewhat deeply into the matter and ask some questions that may appear impertinent?" asked Eina. "I do not shrink from any feature of the case. I can in perfect coolness canvass the entire situa- tion, past, present and prospective," said Molair. "I am glad to hear you say that, Mr. Molair; so very glad. A matter so grave needs the very freest discussion. I am so glad you will not take offense. I have heard that the Southern white people were so sensitive," said Eina. "Mr. Molair," Eina continued, "I believe the richest inheritance of a race to be its spirit. Did not slavery taint your racial spirit, and do not all who enter your portals pass under the shadow of the blight?" "Upon the great mass of mankind, Miss Rapona, environing influences have a marked effect, but there are natures that rise superior to their en- vironments, just as the lily in all of its beauty and cleanliness rises from the slush and slime," began Molair, in reply. "My ancestors owned slaves, but were not in any manner demoralized by the institution. They were kind to their slaves, did not resort to cor- poral punishment, taught the sanctity of the mar- riage relation, insisted on good moral conduct on THE VISIT IS MADE. 39 the plantation, never through sales separated a family, and from time to time emancipated such slaves as showed that they had attained unto the full stature of industrious, civilized, moral beings. In short, to my ancestors, whatever else it was to others, slavery was a civilizing school, and to deal honorably by those helpless people was a family principle, sacredly transmitted from one genera- tion to another." "Were not your people favorable to the war of secession, which, whatever its mainspring, would have resulted in buttressing the institution of slavery?" asked Eina. "The institution of slavery was not, of course, of Southern origin. It was with us an inheritance from a world-wide custom. We happened to get a larger dose of it than any other part of the world, as our home was near the latitude of the original home of the enslaved race. My family believed the institution wrong and harmful in the large, but felt that the South could better work out the problem of getting rid of the insti- tution alone rather than in connection with another section lacking the sympathetic con- sideration that flows from immediate touch with a problem," responded Molair. "Well, you have stood your examination very well, Mr. Molair. Right gladly will I hear what you have to say," said Eina earnestly. "Truly, Miss Rapona, there is not a spark of prejudice behind what I am to say. I confess to 40 POINTING THE WAY. having strong pride of race but not to prejudice. Of course prejudice is here, but thus far it has not inoculated me." Eina nodded her acceptance of this assurance. "Miss Rapona, was there ever in all the world a more pitiable spectacle than that which the presence of the colored man in America consti- tutes to-day? His return to Africa is precluded by the fact that Africa is projected on a lower economic and spiritual plane than that to which the Negro is willing to fall back, nor would the economic forces of the South quietly submit to a general exodus even if the Negro desired. So the Negro is riveted here by the economic conditions within and without. "In the South there is a pronounced feeling against the absorption of the race into the po- litical and social fabric, and he is a political and social Ishmaelite, with his hand against every one and every one's hand against him by the very logic of the situation. The door of hope is closed to him. There are no stars, no moons, no suns to light up his dark skies, so far as the body politic is concerned, and his spirit must struggle with all the darkness and briers and bogs of the spiritual jungle without the cheering light of hope, which, even when unrealized, serves to make men better. To work, to eat, to sleep, to die is the utmost programme that organized so- ciety in the South offers this race." THE VISIT IS MADE. 41 Mr. Molair now paused for an instant as if to allow his words to sink into Eina's heart. "But, Mr. Molair, is there no hope?" asked Eina. "The one thing needed in the South is political co-operation between the better elements of whites and the Negroes, but the manner of the coming of emancipation, enfranchisement and elevation to high public station seems to have riveted the Negro into one party, while the terror of being ruled by an alien and backward race have chained the real strength of the white race into an opposing party. You can see at a glance the utter depths of the sentiments, passions, and interests involved and what labor it will require to emancipate both races. I see no forces at work looking to the blending of the political interests of the white and colored people, and so my voice at this stage of the storm is simply 'no land in sight/ As long as there is to be a bitter political war between the Negroes and the whites of the South, how can the condition change?" On and on the discussion ran, Eina asking ques- tions and Molair seeking with the utmost candor to enlighten her from his viewpoint. After the question had been fully canvassed Molair said : "Now, Miss Rapona, you have the situation be- fore you. Two worlds call you to-night. Which will you enter?" Molair now stood up and bent his gaze upon the bowed head of the troubled girl before him. In an absent-minded sort of way Eina looked up into 42 POINTING THE WAY. Molair's face, while her thoughts ran out into the wide, wide world to all that this strong, vigorous young scion of the white race typified. As Eina sat reflecting, thus ran her thoughts: "Here stands before me power, an offshoot of that force that bade its flag keep pace with all the journeyings of the sun. Power and glory, such as the Anglo-Saxons can give, await me. Centuries of power call unto me. "Over against this picture stands a tragic situa- tion and present day weakness, whatever else the future may hold. In this tragic situation is my dear, dear friend. If I enter it, I shall at least have the consolation to know that I do not per- sonally deserve whatever of suffering comes to me. Is it better for the souls of men to be under a load that is crushing, or wittingly or unwitting- ly a part of the crushing load?" Eina now arose and the two stood silent for a few moments. Each felt the awful gravity of the situation. "Just a personal word, Miss Rapona, before you decide. Permit me to testify to my respectful admiration of you, drawn from my two interviews with you. Perhaps I seem to go too far, but when nature has the conception that what is to be done must be done quickly, it works in a hurry. Note the proverbial precociousness of the child that is not to dwell on earth very long. I would much enjoy the cultivation of your acquaintance, and feel that I would be blessed with your friendship, THE VISIT IS MADE. 43 simply. Of course, if you choose to cast your lot with the colored people, you dig between us that unfathomable Southern gulf which is not on the maps, but which is far deeper and wider than those that are," said Molair. "On which side of this gulf is the man with the face of mystery?" was the thought that now came into Eina's mind. Was it fate that sug- gested it? Lifting her perplexed and all but tearful gaze to Molair she said : "Give me time to decide." "Very well. If you claim your place in the white race, I hope to see you again. If you choose to cast your lot with the colored people farewell forever," said Molair, his voice falling to a sol- emn whisper. Eina shuddered. "Good-night," she said, ling- ering on the words. With her hand to her cheek, lost in meditation, Eina stood long on the spot where Molair left her. CHAPTER V. YET DEBATING. N the night of Seth Molair's visit to Eina, his mother sat in the library awaiting his return, as was her custom when he was out at night. "You are a little late to-night, Seth," said Mrs. Molair, as she received her son's greeting kiss. "Yes, mother; I have just left the home of the most beautiful, the most attractive girl that ever I saw." Mrs. Molair's heart gave a wild leap of joy. Over her life there was but the one dark shadow. Seth was her only child, was unmarried, seemed to have never thought of matrimony for himself, and as a consequence of his course had raised the fear in her mind that their branch of the historic Molair family was near its end a thought that was far from pleasing to her. More than any- thing else in the wide world, this threatened ex- tinction of the Molair name gave her deep con- cern. Imagine, therefore, the rapture of her mother heart when she heard the cool, impassive Molair grow enthusiastic over the charms of a young woman. "Describe her to me, Seth," said Mrs. Molair, laying aside a book which she had been reading, and looking approvingly at the idol of her heart. YET DEBATING. 45 "You would really have to see her to get a prop- er idea of her beauty, mother. As rich as is the English language, it really has no words that fit- tingly portray the charms of that girl." Mrs. Molair felt like kissing Seth rapturously, so happy was she to find him, as she thought, thus enamored of one of the gentler sex. "Where on earth has she been, Seth, that I have never seen her?" "Oh, she has just arrived." "Do your best at describing her," requested Mrs. Molair with enthusiasm. Molair now attempted a description of Eina, and the picture that he drew served to stimulate Mrs. Molair's interest in the girl. "Oh, may it be that kind heaven has at last sent me a wife for my son," was the inward prayer of Mrs. Molair. "But, mother," said Molair, a look of deep se- riousness on his manly face ; "there is danger that she will cast her lot with, and pass as one of, the colored people." "The stars above!" exclaimed Mrs. Molair, holding up her hands in an attitude of horror and repugnance. "Really white?" she asked. "Her complexion is lighter than that of many whites whom we call our friends, and she can pass the finger nail test all right," replied Molair. "Where does she come from?" "Boston." 46 POINTING THE WAY. "That Boston! Seth we must save this girl. We must not allow a calamity like that to befall her." "I have been to see her and sought to dissuade her. I have not thus far succeeded, however," said Molair. "I'll see her," said Mrs. Molair, "and when I have finished talking to her she will be in her right mind." It was agreed upon by Seth and his mother that she was to go to see Eina early the as black as he is, marrying Clotille. It's a shame. It has almost broken my heart." "Black as he is! Who in the thunder is this Clotille that you object to her marrying a black man? Is she white?" asked Molair. "White! Of course not. There is where the outrage comes in. She is black. The idea of two black people marrying each other in America when they have got a chance to marry lighter!" Molair now laid down his pen and looked in- tently at Miss Letitia, it beginning to dawn upon him as to what the true situation was. "Do you mean to say that you are going to dis- inherit this dark girl because she has decided to marry a man with a complexion similar to her own?" asked Molair. "That is exactly what I am going to do, sir. I shall cut her off without a penny. Who wants to always be a problem? Who wants some one else to always have his foot on your neck? Amer- ica hasn't got enough of the grace of God in her heart to treat a black man as she would a white man. Her life is a living lie. And I want every drop of the despised blood sucked into her veins. I want her to eat up the race she hates. You have set the colored man's house on fire, you pour oil on it every day and keep it burning. Don't rats leave a sinking ship? Don't lice crawl off DESIRES HER WILL CHANGED. 181 of the scalp of a dying person? Don't we bury corpses ? Sure, I'll disinherit that girl for marry- ing so as to perpetuate the black face, the seed of discord. I'll cut her off without a copper and wish that I could will for her to beg bread from door to door, so help me Moses." Molair reflected awhile and then said: "Now, I am a Southern white man, and believe in the preservation of both races. I do not care, even in a professional way, to be connected with your notion of the absorption of the blood of your race into ours." "Aha! Aha!" said Miss Letitia, rising, "you disfranchise, you ostracize, you jim crow, you lynch, you burn a man because he is colored, then hold up your hands in holy horror because he seeks, by honorable means, to get away from being colored. If you want a man to stay colored, why in the name of God don't you treat him right as colored? That fool Clotille has gone back on me, but don't you forget the leaven is at work, and if you don't treat the colored people right in every way, in the ages to come, you are not going to have any colored people." Drawing near to Molair, Miss Letitia pointed her finger at him and said : "You tell the Negro- hater among the whites to keep on building the fires of prejudice, keep on jim crowing Negroes, keep on disfranchising, keep on painting the sky as black as midnight! Aha, keep on! Mil- lions have crossed into your race already and 182 POINTING THE WAY. millions are to follow, yes millions are to follow. Put that in your pipe, great sir, and smoke it! We will all be white one day, and it won't be by intermarriage, either." With her head thrown high in the air, Miss Gilbreath swept majestically out of Molair's office. When Miss Letitia had gone, Molair sat with knitted brow toying with his pencil, giving earn- est thought to the situation presented by her at- titude. "Indirect amalgamation is this woman's game, I see. But I want no amalgamation, direct or in- direct, immediate or remote. I want no incorpor- ation of the Negro blood into our race even after that blood has been so diluted as to lose its power of pigmentation. I don't want Negro blood in the blood of our race even though it be in the pro- portion to the waters of Lake Erie to those of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans combined." Such were Molair's thoughts as he contemplated Miss Letitia's course. "Now what am I to do to balk this game? We toss all mulattoes to the Negroes. We cannot pass a law forbidding them to intermarry with the Negroes and forcing them to intermarry among themselves. And if we did force them to intermarry among themselves exclusively, would we not soon have a large white race of them ready for surreptitious disappearance into our ranks?" reflected Molair. Reaching for his telephone Molair called up DESIRES HER WILL CHANGED. 183 the more prominent members of the Belrose bar and asked them as an act of professional court- esy to him to refuse to draw up a will for one Letitia Gilbreath, colored, who might call upon them for such service. Molair had divined that Miss Letitia was of that class of colored people of an aristocratic turn of mind, whose sympa- thies were with the more aristocratic element of whites, and he felt assured that she would not call upon the Negro attorneys nor the more hum- ble white lawyers for service, but upon the white lawyers of eminence, locally. So correctly had he gauged Miss Letitia that she entered no law office but that his message had preceded her. Every- where, therefore, she met with a polite but posi- tive refusal to do the work that she desired done. Thoroughly enraged, Miss Letitia returned to her home vowing that she would draw the will herself, and to that end began the purchase of law books, and the study of law. It was an in- teresting sight to behold her with her eye glasses sitting high upon her nose poring over authorities on wills. "Yes, sir; I'll have me a will that will disin- herit a Driscoll to the ten-thousandth generation and I won't consult them poor white lawyers nor the colored ones either. I'll draw the will my- self if it takes me a lifetime to get it straight," was Miss Letitia's emphatic boast. CHAPTER XXVII. MOLAIR AT WORK. HE more Molair reflected on the situation of Conroe and Clotille, as disclosed by his interview with Miss Letitia, the more he found his sympathies going out to them. "Here," said Molair to himself, "is a test of my sincerity on this matter of preserving racial integ- rity. I must see to it that this couple does not lose by the course they have pursued and this woman must be converted, just must be. How can we hope to deal with this great question in the large if we can't handle it in small bits?" Molair now entered upon a close study of Miss Letitia, not hesitating to call upon her and to engage her in close conversation, searching for the mainspring of the benumbing pessimism that held her within its grasp. Discovering incidentally what a great admiration Miss Letitia had for fire fighters, it occurred to Molair that it might be possible to have Conroe ingratiate himself into her good graces through service in this department. The man at the head of the colored fire com- pany, having had no previous experience in deal- ing with men as subordinates, was not giving en- tire satisfaction, and Mayor Molair, anxious that this initial experiment should prove to be eminent- ly successful, had been casting about for a more competent man for a captain. Inquiry concerning MOLAIR AT WORK. 185 Conroe convinced Molair that he was a man of the type desired, so he sent for Conroe and made him a tender of the position. To Conroe, Molair put the matter in the follow- ing light: "We are inaugurating a new era in Belrose, and what we do here may spread over the South. The Negroes who honestly seek to work with us in a patriotic manner are to be encouraged. So much depends upon how we start off. I know that it will not pay you as well financially to be a captain of a fire department as to be a phy- sician; nor in the eyes of the public will as much dignity attach to the post. But surely it is a cause well worthy of a sacrifice, the paving of the way for the utilization of members of your race in the public service." Thus appealed to, Conroe gave up the promise of a successful medical career to take charge of the colored fire company. Clotille at first de- murred, then thinking of what a splendid oppor- tunity was thus afforded Conroe to win Miss Le- titia's favor, she gave her assent. It was thus that Conroe entered the Belrose fire department. And just as was expected, Conroe's stalwart fig- ure fighting the flames from time to time appealed to the imagination of Miss Letitia, and her atti- tude toward him began to soften so that Clotille's hopes began to rise. B'ut in order that he might be able to present to the diseased mind of Miss Letitia overwhelm- 186 POINTING THE WAY. ing evidence that a brighter day was ahead, Mo- lair decided to branch out in every needful di- rection where he had cause to think that he would effect a result that would serve as oil on the hinges of the door of hope. The one thing in the South that had caused Molair's heart to quake with fear because of the ocean of possi- bilities bound up in it, was the "bad Negro" ele- ment with its power to summon from their sleep long discarded savage instincts. Molair therefore now gave thought to this "bad Negro" question. Thus one morning as the ministers of the col- ored churches of Belrose were in the midst of their weekly meeting in one of their church edi- fices, Molair unexpectedly put in his appearance. As white men now very rarely attended Negro meetings the coming of Molair was a genuine surprise. As an act of courtesy to the Mayor, the sus- pension of the regular order was moved that the body might hear whatever the Mayor might have to say. Molair went forward and said: "Members of the Conference, a matter of deep concern brings me to you this morning." On the faces of all there came the most intent expression as a result of this remark. "What on earth can it be now?" was the thought of the colored men who, like the whites, were ever on the alert, always apprehensive as to what was to come next. MOLAIR AT WORK. 187 "Since I have been your Mayor I have been passing over Belrose, noting the condition of your people. Many, very many, of you are going up, up, up, and I am proud of this very evident prog- ress. (Applause.) "But side by side with this upward movement on the part of many, there is, I have observed, an appalling downward movement. Evidently hope and self-respect have broken loose in a num- ber of your race and they are sinking, sinking to awful depths. Just think of what is called 'Hell's Half Acre/ and that settlement surrounding the building known as the 'Ark.' I doubt that, this side of the hell of which you preach, you will find such terrible degradation elsewhere." "The slums of New York," a voice interposed. "Yes, yes. But, at any rate, let us keep our minds on Belrose just now." (Applause.) "Now, as to how much my people, the Southern white people, have contributed to this degeneracy by tolerating things that smacked of hostility to your race, I have not come this morning to argue. Nor am I unmindful of the fact that a measure of the aloofness of your upper classes toward this decaying element is in part due, perhaps to the fact that it has been preached to them that the bad Negro keeps the good Negro back. Thus taught, the less spiritual among you have perhaps grown to hate your submerged fellows." "That doctrine has had its effect," spoke up one. "I have come here to assure you as the Mayor of Belrose that I shall stand for exact justice, the 188 POINTING THE WAY. impartial enforcement of the law and the encour- agement of all elements of our population to look upward and not downward. So now you good Negro Belrosans need not regard yourselves as having any personal problems because of your race, so far as I can remedy matters." (Pro- longed applause.) "Now, I have a favor to ask of you. You are going to find, I think, that the aspiring Negro will have much less of a problem concerning him- self, so far as we whites are concerned. In this coming new day of hopefulness, nay, even before it is full upon you, can we not have you turn your thoughts, not away from your rights, but more toward these congested centers of vice, popu- lated by your people? They breed disease, hold down real estate values, mar the beauty of our city, and they do you inestimable damage in the eyes of Northern visitors who are daily in our midst." This last remark went home with great force. The maintaining of the respect and sympathy of the North, the author of freedom and enfran- chisement, was a matter of deep concern to the Negroes, as Molair knew, and he had in him enough of the politician to pull on that chord for what he deemed a worthy purpose. Continuing Mr. Molair said: "Is this not pe- culiarly your problem? Ties of blood link you to these denizens of an earthly hell. We may build a glorious structure here in Belrose, but MOLAIR AT WORK. 189 from these depths can come the volcanic fires of evil in ferment that will overturn all that we create." As a result of Molair's talk a meeting was ar- ranged between the white and colored ministers and plans inaugurated for a vigorous crusade for the redemption of the centers of vice. Hopeful of the mitigation of this menace to the peace of both races, that in an evil moment might summon base passions that would overturn the work of ten thousand self-sacrificing lives, Molair now turned his thoughts in another direction. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. ECOGNIZING the fact that the outside world, whether the South so willed or not, could by needlessly stirring up resentments within its borders, materially affect that whole- some atmosphere which he was now desirous of creating, Molair decided to accept an urgent invi- tation to a private interview which had been ex- tended to him a short while back by the President of the United States, who had heard of the Belrose movement. With a view, therefore, to enlisting the President's co-operation in a policy that would aid him much in his work of atmosphere making, Molair took his journey to Washington and the White House. "Mr. Molair, you have no idea of the profound satisfaction that we of the North have that a man of your type has caught hold of the out- stretched hand of the better element of colored people," said the President, grasping Molair's hand warmly. "Thank you, Mr. President," said Molair sim- ply, preferring to have the President declare him- self fully before having much to say himself. "Now, I think that you people of the South have misunderstood me greatly as to my attitude toward the colored race, and I would like to lay bare my heart to you," said the President. THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 191 "I trust that you will, Mr. President. There should be the utmost candor in this matter." "Well, to begin with, the great bulk of the col- ored people voted for me, their taxes help to pay my salary, and as Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy I bear a direct relation to their patriotism which is a part of our reliance for the defense of the flag." "All very true," said Molair. "I am a proud man, permit me to say, to this extent I do not wish any man or set of men to do any more for me than I do for them. I do not like being, even to an infinitesimal extent, a pauper, living off of the unrequited bounty of others. As President, as the head of the na- tion, therefore, I have simply tried to give official recognition to this element of our population," said the President. Continuing the President said : "I am no spe- cial friend of the Negroes, and if the necessity ever arises I will show you that I am not. I do not believe that the colored people should have spe- cial favors because they are colored, nor on the other hand, should they have special burdens be- cause of their color. "America is a great Darwinian field, dedicated by fate to the cause of genuine democracy, the rule of the united judgment of men. Here we are to have the wild, grand play of universally and absolutely unfettered forces, and out of the stren- uous struggling the fittest are to survive, and the 192 POINTING THE WAY. final man is to be evolved. I believe simply in giving the colored man the same chance in this great Darwinian field that other men are given, no more, no less. Now what have you to say to that?" "Absolutely nothing, Mr. President," said Mo- lair. "So far as I am concerned I ask nothing for me and mine that I begrudge to the colored man. What I have come to ask of you is along another line. Your party, I fear, has sometimes been a little insincere in some of its utterances, has made declarations for political effect, simply. Hereafter confine your party utterances to just such things as you really mean to do. For heav- en's sake don't make our race question a political football. The issues are too grave. "Inflame the masses of the South by meaning- less baits to the Negro voter if you choose, but remember that this course vitally affects the wel- fare of the race concerning which interest is pro- fessed. For out of this inflamed mass we have to draw policemen, constables, sheriffs, legislators and juries. If we of the South can just get rid of that part of the entanglement which is only po- litical by-play, the insincere part of the pro- gramme, not much trouble will be caused by what your earnest, high-minded men and women have to advise." In great detail Molair now went into the South- ern situation and cited move after move, the insin- cerity of which was subsequently demonstrated, THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 193 but which was in the public eye long enough to do great harm to the South and the Negro. The showing made a marked impression on the President, who now said: "I regard your request, Mr. Molair, as a rea- sonable one and I pledge you my support in try- ing to have my party deal sacredly with this ques- tion; say nothing but what it means. Now, Mr. Molair, will you agree to do as much in the South? In cases where there has been abso- lutely no cause to fear the Negro a hue and cry of Negro domination has often been raised by men in your section. Cannot both sections rise to the plane where we will not make a football out of this helpless, unarmed race, Mr. Molair?" "Yes, yes, I will do all that I can/* responded Molair, aware of the great task before him. The interview now came to a close and as Molair left the White House he said to himself, "When political by-play is eliminated North and South much that produces pessimistic Letitia Gilbreaths will then disappear. With the President work- ing to that end in the North and the house of Molair committed to that policy in the South, who will say that we shall not win?" CHAPTER XXIX. MOLAIR AND AN OLD FRIEND. ROM Washington, Molair now journeyed to the city of New York in quest of a former Belrose boy, a boon companion of his younger days, who had plunged into the commer- cial life of the great metropolis and won for him- self the title of multi-millionaire. As Molair drew near the magnificent Fifth Avenue mansion of this former Belrose boy, Herbert Rogan, he paused for a moment's meditation. "Yes, I'll go. It is not for myself. I know Herbert's heart is yet warm with love for the South. We never forget," said Molair. Reaching Rogan 's home Molair was admitted by a servant and escorted to the waiting room. While sitting here his eye quietly wandered around the room noting the evidences of great wealth everywhere abundant. "Why hello, Seth! If you were only the hun- dredth part of a lady I would kiss you, I am so glad to see you, boy," said Rogan with great cor- diality. "No more glad to see me than I am to see you, Herbert," said Molair soberly but feelingly. The genuine warmth of the greeting of his boyhood friend who had become one of the world's richest men deeply touched Molair, for he had MOLAIR AND AN OLD FRIEND. 195 somewhat feared that great riches might have, to some degree, affected the warm, open Southern heart of Herbert. The two now retired to Herbert's private den where they could engage in a heart-to-heart. "Well, Rogan," began Molair, "I disagreed rad- ically with your course in coming north hunting for the golden fleece, but you came and now here I am at your feet." "No, no, Molair, it is I who am at your feet. How often have I recalled your words to me, urg- ing me to not enter the mad, mad, American race for wealth. I did not heed your voice and have gained my millions. I hope that I escaped the drain on my soul which you feared, and if I have I owe it to the exhortation that you gave me to take care of the Herbert that was within me. So, I say I am at your feet." "I am so glad that the warm-hearted, patriotic Southern heart is not dead in you, Herbert, for just now we have need of you," said Molair. A mere suggestion that the South needed him was sufficient at any time to quicken Rogan's in- terest, and he said, "Out with it, Seth. I am ready for the bugle blast at any moment." "Now my mission is this, Herbert. We of the South have been cruel to our poor whites. In the days of slavery we kept them back by making use of slave labor. In those days there sprang up an animosity between the sleek, well-fed Negro slave and the poor whites who accused the Ne- 196 POINTING THE WAY. groes of keeping them poor by working for noth- ing. This element of whites has been emanci- pated by the freer conditions of labor that came after the war, is fast finding itself and is march- ing to the front to take charge of affairs. It has discovered its power and is going to use it." "You have sized the situation up exactly. It was partly because I saw the coming of this re- gime that I fled the South, Molair. I saw that our day was over, that the day of the common man was on in the South. But go on," interposed Rogan. "Now there came over from slavery," resumed Molair, "the inherited feeling of the poor white toward the Negro, which feeling is accentuated by the fact that the Negro is yet his industrial rival. Here then is a veritable gold mine for the demagogue. In return for office he tosses to this element the Negro, hobbled, gagged or quartered according as he thinks will most please this ele- ment." "A sad, sad situation," said Rogan. "Now our hope is to free the South from that man whose chief stock in trade is hatred of a weak and despised class. We may not convert or deter the demagogue, but we can lift our people beyond his reach." "A stupendous task, a long drawn out strug- gle," said Rogan. "That is true, very true. The fact that in the South we have a double school system adds to the MOLAIR AND AN OLD FRIEND. 197 size of the problem of education. I have come to ask you, Herbert, to devote some of your millions to the education of our neglected white popula- tion." Without indicating whether Molair's request met with favor or disfavor, Rogan arose and said : "Come with me to my office, Seth." On the way to the office Rogan was silent. His mind was once more in Dixie. He was playing by the side of the babbling brooks, gathering daff- odils from her fields, chasing lightning bugs in the gloaming, speeding over her country roads in buggies seated by the side of Dixie's fair daugh- ters, listening to the plantation melodies of the Negroes surging from their warm, emotional hearts. Turning his head from Molair he dashed away a tear. When the men entered the office, Rogan opened his safe, took out his books, and recounted his holdings to Molair, demonstrating to him that he was far wealthier than what the outside world estimated. Finally Rogan said : "Now, there is my fortune, Molair. I say to you in all sincerity that I stand ready as far as is within my power to respond to any call that you may make. Our poor, strug- gling section, with the most complicated problem of all of human history must have culture, must have culture." Molair was deeply touched by the confidence in his consideration and judgment shown by the 198 POINTING THE WAY. most unusual offer of Herbert, and it was with difficulty that he could keep back the tears. "Now Seth, since that point is settled, there is a matter in which I am interested to which I would like to call your attention," said Rogan. "Say on Herbert, I do hope that I can help you." "I have watched with great interest your re- cent efforts to bring political peace between the white and colored people of the South. I hope that you will succeed. The war of spirits in the South is fast affecting the whole country. It is bringing to the North hundreds of thousands of Negroes utterly unprepared for Northern life, and the suffering among them is something fierce. In some sections they have aroused a hostility far more intense than anything we have in the South. So the coming of the unprepared is bad for them- selves and bad for their race. "Moreover, politicians hostile to the economic needs of the South, use these Negroes to make po- litically hostile states that could at one time be re- lied upon to now and then join hands with the South. If you will study the distribution of the colored population and take into account the nor- mal alignment of white voters it will be apparent that the colored people can in normal times prac- tically veto all of the South 's national aspirations, and absolutely forbid policies suitable to the eco- nomic needs of the South. In close elections they are the balance of power. From our viewpoint this is an unpleasant fact, but it is nevertheless a MOLAIR AND AN OLD FRIEND. 199 fact. Now the Negro is naturally a home lover, a patriot. If you can honorably do so, make terms with him in the South and word will come northward that will break up this solid mass of hostility to the South," said Rogan. "Yes, yes, another serious complication, but in Belrose we have learned to get together and be- fore many years you may expect to find the col- ored people working enthusiastically for a South- ern man for President," said Molair. Now that political and philanthropic forces gave promise of turning their faces in the right direc- tion so far as the South was concerned, Molair re- turned to Belrose feeling assured that the outlook was bright for the killing of the destructive germs to be found in minds on the order of that of Miss Letitia. But as we shall now shortly see fate had a far different way of curing Miss Letitia's pessimism. CHAPTER XXX. THE RUDOLF FIRE. NE evening about the set of sun, the city of Belrose was aroused by the ringing of the central fire bell. The people of the city, wherever they chanced to be, paused to count the strokes of the gong, that they might, with the aid of the signal, consult their charts and thus locate the fire. "Near Rudolf's!" Such was the startling piece of information that passed from lip to lip. Rudolf's was by all odds the finest store in the city, and perhaps the finest in the South. As for Mr. Rudolf himself, he was a man of genial per- sonality, a patriotic citizen, anxious for the city's growth, and he possessed in a marked degree the spirit of philanthropy. As a consequence he had won the esteem and affection of the entire popula- tion of Belrose, without regard to class or race. So, when it was noised abroad that the fire was near Rudolf's, great anxiety was created, and there was a universal rush for the scene of the conflagration. The first engine to arrive on the scene was that of the colored company. The building which was on fire was not Rudolf's but the one across the alley from it. The firemen went gallantly to work to combat the flames, but the fire continued to make rapid THE RUDOLF FIRE. 201 headway. Like so many great hungry tongues, the flames leapt out of the windows of the burning structure and seemed to knowingly lick at the Ru- dolf building across the way. As Conroe stood looking at the menacing, rag- ing flames, many thoughts came surging to his mind. "All Belrose is out to-night, and all Belrose will talk of what is done here. The South knows of our fathers, knows how that in peace and war they followed the call of duty. We can this night demonstrate that we are the sons of our fathers," reflected Conroe. "The only way to save the Rudolf is to mount its walls and fight the flames from the roof, but that is a great risk," thought Conroe. Further and further out reached the tongues of fire, their failure to reach the Rudolf seeming to enrage them, and each effort appeared to be more strenuous than its predecessor. "The Rudolf is doomed," was the thought in the minds of all. "A ladder! a ladder!" shouted Conroe. A lad- der was brought and placed beside the wall of the Rudolf. Conroe put one foot and a hand on the ladder, turned to his comrades and shouted : "Men, there is danger on this wall. I will not order you to go, but who will volunteer to follow me?" Two men hurried to his side and, amid the cheers of thousands, they ascended the ladder and ranged themselves on the wall. 202 POINTING THE WAY. Of course Miss Letitia was there, for when had she missed a fire since there had been col- ored firemen? "My, ain't that grand! Ain't that inspiring! Now, ain't that grand!" Such were the exclama- tions arising from Miss Letitia, as, with hat thrown back on her head, her face wearing a rapt expression, she gazed upon the three men fighting the flames. When gusts of smoke would engulf the men she would stand with clenched fists, the picture of distress, but when they again stood out in bold relief in the glare of the flames, she would heave a sigh of relief. "Look out! Look out! Look out!" "Down! Come down!" Such were the cries that came like a mighty roar from the throats of thousands of people who had seen the wall of the burning building spring and get ready for a fall. The men on the wall of the Rudolf did not comprehend the meaning of the shout, so kept on fighting the flames. "Down ! Come down !" the multitude continued to shout. Miss Letitia had seen the danger and had madly struggled through the crowd until she reached the ladder planted against the wall. "Dont, woman! For God's sake, don't!" shouted the throng, while one man put a restrain- ing hand upon her shoulder. "Let me alone! I'll not let these brave fellows die," said Miss Letitia, springing up the ladder with the agility of a lad. THE RUDOLF FIRE. 203 Mounting the roof, Miss Letitia screamed, "Men, come down. The wall is about to fall!" Seeing that they heard her, Miss Letitia turned and began the descent. The men made a rush toward the ladder, but it was too late. Full against the Rudolf the wall of the burning building came with mighty force. A roar of horror arose from the throats of the assembled thousands, but Miss Letitia and the fire- men who had gone with the wall heard it not. Their ears had become attuned to the music or the noises of another world. CHAPTER XXXI. A FORTUNE SPURNED. HAVE sinned! I have sinned!" With the tears pouring down her cheeks, and her frame shaking with the emotions that swept through her being with cyclonic force, Clotille stood thus addressing Baug, who had called to express his profound sorrow over the loss of his friend and her husband, Conroe. "Bear up; be brave/' said Baug, comfortingly. "How can I, Baug, when Conroe is dead, and I must bear the responsibility of his death?" "Clotille, you are in no wise responsible for Conroe's sad end. He died a death that any one might well envy died in the line of duty." "Ah! but you don't know, Baug! Baug, this commercial age sent a part of its atmosphere into my heart. I thought too much of a fortune. When I found it standing between me and Conroe I should have spurned it at once ; should never have dallied with it. I always meant to spurn it if it sought finally to block our pathway, but I waited too long, too long." Clotille sobbed so violently that she had to pause. Resuming, she said : "The fact that I dallied with this fortune, allowed it to postpone my ac- ceptance of Conroe, caused him to feel that I A FORTUNE SPURNED. 205 greatly desired it. It was largely in the hope of softening Cousin Letitia's heart that he gave up his profession and entered the fire department, and now now poor Conroe is dead dead and shall never more open his lips to cheer my heart with a message of love." "Take a seat," said Baug, leading Clotille to a chair. When she was more composed she said: "It has been discovered that Cousin Letitia did not carry out her purpose to disinherit me. An un- finished will which she was trying to draw herself was found by the side of the one which she had made in my favor but was planning to alter. So ker death has brought me her fortune." Clotille lifted her eyes to Baug's face and said : "If anyone had told me two days ago that I could despise money, I would have denied it. But to- day I despise it! I despise it with all my heart. Before God, I shall never touch a penny of my cousin's money for myself. It is blood money! It is blood money!" Clotille now broke forth into weeping afresh, followed by a long period of silence. At last she said : "Come, Baug, let us look at him." The two now entered the room where Conroe's body lay in a coffin ready for its journey to its narrow home. Baug looked down upon the face of his friend so serene in death, and murmured : "Happy boy; free at last." "Baug, in this sacred presence, I want you to 206 POINTING THE WAY. promise me that you will take one-half of this money that will come to me and use it to help bring to the colored man a man's chance as a colored man. I want to see to it that no other dark couple has the struggle that Conroe and I had. "I shall not use the other half, but why I re- tain it will appear later. Will you do this for me? It will be something of an atonement for my sin," said Clotille, softly, sadly, earnestly. Baug extended his hand across the bier to grasp the outstretched hand of Clotille, and the two looked into the face of Conroe, who seemed to smile his assent. Baug said: "Clotille, I will do as you say and will consecrate the fund to the lifting of the shadow." CHAPTER XXXII. A BADLY NEEDED OPENING. 'N a corner of the part of the Belrose depot designated for the use of colored patrons, Uncle Jack and Baug sat awaiting the com- ing of the train that was to bear the former to the state of Alabama for the purpose of inaugurating a test of the clause of the recently adopted state constitution that provided for the elimination of the illiterate Negro voter without affecting to the same degree the illiterate white voter. "I would not have you think, Uncle Jack, that I am using you for a personal service, purely. It is true that the pressing of this case will in all likelihood bring me once more under the same roof with Ema under circumstances that will per- mit my speaking to her without inviting mob vio- lence, but beyond that, what we are doing is in keeping with a vital need of the hour. "It is often asserted, Uncle Jack, that our rights came to us amid the lingering passions of war and should not be taken as the sober sense of the American people. If we can get an authoritative expression from our highest court in this sober day of peace, it will count for so much/' said Baug. "Uv co'se I doan' 'zackly understan' de full uv de high falutin' pints yer make, Baug, but I hez my idees on de qusshun. I ain't goin' into dis 208 POINTING THE WAY. heah testin' businiss jes' ter bring yer an* Miss Eina nigh ter each udder, while dat is part uv whut I am atter. But I hez had time ter thort out dis thing, an' heah is my thorts. "Dey says dat Abe Linktum said dat Ameriky coulden' be kep' part one thing an* part er nudder, an' I sees dat dis whole country is one day goin' ter drink outen one spoon 'bout de cullud man. Ez er cullud man it is my lookout ter see ef dis one spoon is ter be er brass spoon er er silvah one. "Den ergin er ill littered white man is my or- rival. I got ter work wid him, got ter go ter law wid him, an' sometimes got ter sass an' ter fight wid him, perhaps. Now ef yer let er ill littered white man vote, an' doan' let me vote yer give him dat much ekvantage uv me. Now I doan' want er ekvantage uv nobotty, but in jestice ter myself I doan' want nobotty ter git er ekvantage uv me." "Well, Uncle Jack, I am glad that you see in your way the deep issues involved. Of course, I don't know just what your plan is, as it was Miss Rapona's desire that I not know, but I am sure that she consulted some eminent authority before she advised you as to the course to pursue. All I have to say to you, Uncle Jack, is that I love you as dearly as I ever could have loved a father had I known one, and I want no harm to come to you. Be careful of yourself." The tremor in Baug's voice warned Uncle Jack that the conversation was taking too serious a A BADLY NEEDED OPENING. 209 turn, so he decided to have a hearty laugh in an effort to cheer somewhat Baug's spirit. "Doan' be uneasy, Baug. I knows de white peo- ple putty well, an' knows how ter not git in too tight er fix," said Uncle Jack. "I hope so, certainly, Uncle Jack. I crave to have these laws overthrown, I crave to see Eina, but I want dear old Uncle Jack to live, too," said Baug feelingly. "Speakin' uv tight fixes 'minds me uv er time wunst w'en I wuz er gardenin' fur a white fam- bly," began Uncle Jack, determined to have a last laugh with Baug before they separated. "My room wuz out in de yard an' de cook staid in de main house ovah de dinin' room. Wai, hard times kinder struck de country an' throwed er lot er men out uv wuk. Dis heah cook wuz er good gal, all right, but she pinched off er leetul ter help her beau keep frum gittin' hungry durin' uv de hard times. Dis beau had er way uv creepin' ter dis gal's room jes' fo' breakfas' an' havin' her bring him up sumpin' ter eat. "Wai, one mornin' he wuz up stairs eatin' er- way, an' his eatin's run out fo' he wuz through. He heered some one walkin' in de dinin' room un- der him, an' he thort it wuz de cook, but it wuz de white lady. He says, says he, 'Honey, bring me up ernudder cup uv coffee an' ernudder hot bis- cuit." De white 'oman stopped ter listen, an' de feller thinkin' dat de cook didunt quite heah said er leetul louder, 'Say, honey, bring me up er nud- 210 POINTING THE WAY. der cup uv coffee an* er nudder one uv dem white folkses nice warm biscuits/ "De white 'oman went back an* tol' her husban' whut she heered." "Hah! hah! hah!" laughed Uncle Jack. "It makes me laf ter think erbout it," said he. "Wai, de white man got er good cow hide an' creeped up de stairs atter dis cullud feller. Kaint yer 'magine how his eyes bucked w'en dat white man come in dat room an* seed him eatin' his grub? De cullud feller managed by skummishin' 'roun' to git 'tween de white man an* de door, an* down de stairs he run, de white man right atter him. "De cullud feller thort he would run right outen de back gate, but it wuz shet. So he kep' right on 'roun' de hous', hopin' ter gain ernough distance ter git time ter open de gate w'en he passed de nex' time. But w'en he retched de gate de secon' time, de white man wuz still pushin' him mighty close. "By dis time de noise 'tracted me, an' I come out ter see whut wuz de mattah. Ez I wuz stand- in' dare lookin' heah comes de cullud feller fur de third time, runnin' an' puffin' an' blowin', an' de white man right atter him, cuttin' at him wid de cow hide fur ev'ry step he wuz takin'. "As de cullud man swep' by me lak er lightin' 'spress he shouted back, 'Say, mistah gardener, please sah, if yer please, please sah, hab dat gate wide open by de time I gits dare on my nex' roun'.' A BADLY NEEDED OPENING. 211 When the laugh that followed the anecdote was over, Uncle Jack added : "Yer see, Baug, I under- stand de white people, an' I'll try ter have de gate open whenevah I sets down ter eat grub dat dey doan' want me ter eat." At length the Alabama train was called out, and Uncle Jack was escorted by Baug to the gate lead- ing to the train. A hearty hand shake, a steady looking into each other's eyes, and Uncle Jack was off. Peace be to his good intentions whatever may betide his bones. CHAPTER XXXIII. SUNSHINE AND STORM. S was its wont, the election at the Oak Cliff precinct, a few miles out from the city of Birmingham, Ala., was proceeding orderly, the voters arriving, depositing their ballots and quietly returning to their several homes. An hour or so before the time for the polls to close, Uncle Jack, who had taken up his residence in that State and section, came sauntering up to the door of the small store-room in which the election was being held. The all-day watching on the part of the election officials of the depositing of ballots in an unex- citing election had been a rather tedious affair, and as they caught sight of Uncle Jack a smile of pleasant anticipation appeared upon their faces. They thought to beguile away the time with a few anecdotes from Uncle Jack, who during his residence there had from time to time enlivened groups of white and colored men with his humor- ous stories to such an extent as to establish his reputation as an entertainer. "Come in, Uncle Jack, come in," said the elec- tion judge sitting immediately behind the table on which stood the ballot box. Uncle Jack did as bidden, and took a seat that was proffered him. SUNSHINE AND STORM. 213 "Say, old fellow, tell us something," said the election judge who had extended the invitation, tilting back his chair, a merry twinkle in his eye. The other election officials joined in the re- quest, and Uncle Jack yielded to the demand. "It is er great wonder ter me how times do change. Frum whut I kin fin' out dey now got yer white folks doin' whut yer all once had us doin'," began Uncle Jack. Judging that this was a pre- cursor of some humorous incident, Uncle Jack was asked encouragingly to explain himself. "Sometimes er man wants ter do whut he thinks is right, but on ercount uv some one else he doos whut he doos, an' then hez ter tell er fib erbout it. Now, yer white folks is goin' ter want dis heah 'lection to 'pear ter be in keepin' wid de United States Constertution w'en it ain't." "What on earth is there funny about that, Uncle? We are looking to you for a joke, not a lecture on constitutional law," said the judge. "I is gittin' down ter de joke part. Yer see I coulden' help frum thinkin' how yer all hez ter scramble 'roun' an' stretch de trufe er leetul lak we use ter have ter do. Dey say it made us bad an' sneaky. Ef it did, I hopes it won't do de same fur yer all." "Now you are lecturing us on morals. Get down to the joke." "All right den. Speakin' 'bout how er man hez ter some times scramble ter git outen er thing 'min's me uv ole Joe, whut use ter b'long ter my 214 POINTING THE WAY. ole massa. Ole Joe jes' would steal hogs. He would say dat his labor fed de hogs, an* dat his stomick wuz jes' kerlectin* honis' debts whut ole massa failed ter pay. His stomick wuz er shuah 'nough good kerlecter, too. "Wai, ole massa kinder caught on ter ole Joe an* one night er short while atter he heered er pig squeal, he started towards ole Joe's cabin. Ole Joe had spies out whut whistled er long ways off ter let him know dat massa wuz comin'. Quick ez er flash ole Joe grabbed his leetul baby gal dat wuz in de cradle, handed it ter his ole 'oman, an* sent her runnin' out uv de cabin wid it. Ole Joe den took de pig, slapped him in de cradle, kivered him up, an* swep' de scraped off hair uv de pig back in er corner uv de room. "Wen massa come in de cabin ole Joe wuz sittin' down by de cradle jes' ez meek ez er lamb, rockin' it an* singin' " 'Rock er bye baby in de tree top, Wen de win' blows der cradle will rock; W'en de tree breaks de cradle 'ull fall, An' down 'ull come baby an' cradle an' all.' " 'Whut is de mattah dare?' axed massa. " 'My baby is mighty sick, mighty sick, massa,' said ole Joe. " 'Dat's too bad. Lemme take er look at her,' said massa. "Ole Joe's eyes bucked wide, he wuz so skeert. " 'Naw, naw, massa ; Granny White says dat ef SUNSHINE AND STORM. 215 de air straks dis baby gal er mine it'll shuah kill it, shuah kill it, massa, shuah kill it. " 'I'll not keep de kiver up long, Joe. I jes' wants ter see how de baby looks. A leetul air mout he'p de baby/ said massa. " 'Now, massa, Granny White pintedly says dat jes' one breaf uv air will kill de pore thing. I been kinder f eered ter breathe fur fear er gust uv breaf mout reach de leetul one an' kill it,' said Joe, makin' out he wuz 'bout ter cry and pattin' de pig right sof ' an' tender lak an' tryin' ter look ez ef his heart wuz erbout ter break. " 'Dat song yer wuz singin' wuz stirrin' up air,' said massa. " 'Uv co'se, massa, yer kin out argify er pore slave lak me, but yer kaint keep me frum havin' er tender heart fur my young un,' whined ole Joe. " 'Wai, I am jes' goin' ter look at dis baby, ennyhow,' said massa, walkin' towards de cradle. "Ole Joe got up an' inched towards de door, saying, 'Wai, massa, yer is boss, an' whut yer says hez ter go. Ef yer jes' will kill my baby by lookin' at it, an' lettin' de air strak it, an' I jes' kaint 'suade yer ter not lif ' de kiver frum it, I ain't got de heart ter stan' by ter see it die. So goodbye ter de baby an' goodbye ter yer.' So isayin', ole Joe lit out an' fairly flew, fur he knowed dat de sick baby wuz one uv massa's fat shoat pigs wid his throat cut frum year to year. "Now fur my pint. Dis 'lection box heah ain't no more got ballits in it 'cordin' ter de constertu- tion dan dat cradle had er baby in it." 216 POINTING THE WAY. A hearty laugh followed Uncle Jack's joke. "Come give me your hand, Uncle. That is a good one," said the man behind the election box. Uncle Jack approached the man as if to grasp the proffered hand, but when over the box dropped therein a ballot which he had all the while kept concealed, watching for an opportunity to cast it. "What have you done? You are not a regis- tered voter," angrily spoke the election judge, who had invited the hand shake. "I will 'splain ter yer, sah," began Uncle Jack. "I is er ill-littered man an' my grandaddy wuz er slave. Dey wouldn't put my name on de reg- 'stration books 'cause my grandaddy couldn't vote. Ez my grandaddy wuz kept frum votin' cause uv his color an' cause he wuz er slave, it is stretchin' color an' slavery down ter me terday fur me ter be shet out on 'count uv my grandaddy's short- comin's. Ter stretch color an' slav'ry lak dat is pintedly 'gainst de constertution uv de United States. Ez I wuz shet out uv de reg'stration by unfair means, I done come straight ter de 'lection." "You have violated the law, sir, and you will be jailed," angrily shouted the election judge. "Now dat is whut I am aimin' at. I done voted. I wants ter see ef de S'preme Coat will stan' fur me bein* punished fur not 'beyin' er law whut doan' itself 'bey de constertution." "Take that, you scoundrel, trying to overthrow the law of the sovereign State of Alabama," said SUNSHINE AND STORM. 217 the election judge, shooting his fist with great force squarely into Uncle Jack's face. The old man tottered back, then fell, his head striking the wall of the narrow room with great force. Being badly injured by the fall, Uncle Jack was rendered unconscious and could not rise. A wagon was summoned and the wounded man placed therein. He was rapidly conveyed to Bir- mingham, where he was turned over to ttie United States Marshal on the charge of illegal voting. Medical aid had been summoned as soon as Bir- mingham was reached, but an examination of the fracture of Uncle Jack's skull caused by the fall revealed the fact that he had but a short while to live. The news of Uncle Jack's exploit reached the newspaper offices and a bevy of reporters, ever on the lookout for the fulfillment of that stand- ing dream of a Negro uprising, rushed down to see him to get an interview, if possible, but Uncle Jack was found to be in no condition to be interviewed. He remained unconscious throughout the night, but on the morrow his mind became clearer. Uncle Jack was apprised of the fact that he did not have long to live, and was asked whether he had any statement he desired to make. He sig- nied his willingness to talk, and the reporters and jail officials gathered in his room in the hospital ward to hear his dying statement. His dark, sober face and whitened hair inspired a feeling 218 POINTING THE WAY. of awe in those who gazed upon him as he sat propped up in bed. Uncle Jack began : "All uv my days, gemmens, I hez been er cullud man dat tried ter git er long wid de white folks. I allus jes' nachally laked white folks. I laked de gran' way dey walked an* talked. I laked de way dey wern't skeert uv no botty. I laked 'urn fur f eelin' lak purtectin' de wimmin folks. Ter make er long story short I jes' nachally laked white folks. "I didun't allus 'gree wid 'urn, but I allus could sepurate dare civil acts frum dare pussonal ones. Pussonally dey wuz fur me. Civully dey wuz er gin me. We got er long cause w'en I met de pussonul man I could furgit fur de time bein' de civul man. Now, I hopes dat de white folks will sepurate me de same way. Whut I hez done ain't pussonul, but civul. Make dat ez plain ez de nose on yer faces, gemmens. "Tell de white folks dat ez er slave I done my bes'. Tell 'um how I keered fur my missus an' her dorters in de war times. Tell 'um dat I nevah done er crimial ack in my life, an' dat I died tryin' ter keep frum bein' blamed fur whut my gran- daddy coulden't do, 'cause he wuz er slave. Tell 'um dat I died in jail. I wuz tryin' ter git my case ter de S'preme Coat uv de United States, but frum whut dey tells me my case is goin' even higher dan dat, goin' ter de S'preme Coat erbove." Uncle Jack paused awhile as if meditating. Re- suming, he said: "I ain't sorry. I feels shuah SUNSHINE AND STORM. 219 dat I'll git jestice up dare. Yes, git jestice up dare." Uncle Jack's eyes now closed, and seeing that his little strength was rapidly failing, he was laid down again. Ever and anon he would look from one face to another as if hunting for some look of sympathy, but those about his bedside all hap- pened to be out of sympathy with his aspira- tions. "Gemmen, could yer let some cullud pusson come in? I'm lonesome," said Uncle Jack, feebly. The jail cook, who was a colored man, was sum- moned, and when Uncle Jack caught sight of him with his white cap and apron and looked into his large dark face, he smiled contentedly. The day had been cloudy, but the clouds now stepped from the face of the sun and its rays struggled through the iron bars to the floor near the foot of Uncle Jack's couch. With his eyes fastened on these few streams of light and a happy smile upon his face, Uncle Jack, at heart the friend of all men, breathed his last. CHAPTER XXXIV. A CHINESE LADY. IME wore on. Days, weeks, months, and a few short years which seemed to Baug an eternity passed away. In the chamber of the Supreme Court of the United States, on the morning set for the hearing of the suit brought according to plans mapped out by Baug to have declared null and void the clauses of the Constitution of a certain Southern State intended to grant to illiterate whites privileges denied to illiterate Negroes on the same general level, Baug Peppers sat in such a manner as to have a commanding view of each entrance and of the audience. He was on hand early, in fact, was the first to arrive, and was determined to thor- oughly scrutinize the face of every woman to be seen in the court room that day, for he felt that here was his one last certain opportunity to find Eina Rapona. As the hour for the hearing of the case drew near, the audience-room began to fill, and Baug was kept busy looking from face to face in the hope of beholding the one face. At length the room was filled, every seat being taken save one that had been reserved for the wife of the Chi- nese minister. Baug's heart grew heavy. The question as to A CHINESE LADY. 221 whether the great American nation was to make good her grant of equality of citizenship to the race of darker hue was now to be argued by him, and he felt the need of being in the best possible mood to present the case. But, with no Eina present, the weight of ten thousand worlds seemed to be upon him. Although Baug knew that the one vacant seat was for the wife of the Chinese minister, the fact that any seat was yet empty was a slight source of comfort, the drowning man's straw. Presently there was a rustling of silks down an aisle as a lady, clothed in the Chinese garb and thickly veiled, came straight to the one vacant seat. All hope now departed from Baug, and despair set- tled over his soul. "Poor, poor millions in need of an advocate this day ! Upon a broken reed, upon a lacerated heart, upon a crushed spirit, upon a dead man who yet breathes, your hope at this hour is made to depend. But, I will do my best! I will do my best!" So reflected Baug as he sat awaiting the filing in of the Justices. At length the Justices marched in, walked to their respective seats, and the famous case was ready to be called. Baug now left his seat and took his place among the law- yers connected with the case. Just behind where Baug had been sitting was Clotille, holding in her lap chubby little Conroe, who had entered the world shortly after his fa- 222 POINTING THE WAY. ther's death. Baug had been in the direct line of vision between the lady with the Chinese garb and Clotille, so that this lady did not see Clo- tille and the boy until Baug arose to leave. "She has fainted! She has fainted!" said a woman near the lady of the Chinese garb, and two or three neighboring women rushed to her as- sistance. In their efforts to resuscitate her, they lifted the veil from her face, and when Clotille, who had observed the lady faint, caught sight of the face thus revealed she uttered a slight scream and rushed across the room. It was the long lost Eina! Eina was soon restored to consciousness, and insisting that there was no danger of a recurrence of the trouble, retained her seat. "See my little boy yonder, Conroe, Jr.? That was all a mistake," whispered Clotille, who then returned to her seat, and with a mother's pride, stood her little boy in her lap so that Eina might see him. All this while Baug had been busy conferring with the lawyers, and had not seen what was transpiring behind him. So absentminded was he that one of his associate attorneys said to another : "What a dullard. How can a race of people amount to anything so long as it commits the leadership to such stupid fellows as this?" Baug, having been looking around all the morn- ing, from force of habit, now took another last A CHINESE LADY. 223 look at the audience. Etna's veil was now lifted, and as Baug caught sight of her beautiful face, of those eyes that had ever been with him night and day, he grew dizzy and clutched the railing near which he sat. CHAPTER XXXV. A FRIGHTENED JUSTICE. VERY vestige of despair now left Baug's face, the shadows lifted from his spirit, and with the wine of a great love stirring his heart, he felt that he could that day plead the cause of a hundred million people. As Baug arose to speak, practically every per- son in the audience was inclined to turn to his neighbor and ask, "Who is that fellow? It seems as though I have seen him before." One of the Justices turned pale, trembled vio- lently from head to foot, and eyed Baug with ev- ery symptom of an overpowering fear. One lady remarked to Clotille, "That Justice with the very bald head seems afraid of that fellow. Wonder why? He doesn't look dangerous." When Baug uttered his first words, this justice arose and in a voice quaking with fear, said : "For good and sufficient cause, and in the name of high heaven, I move the adjournment of this court for a few moments, to decide in private a momentous question of procedure." The strange request and the very evident agi- tation of the Justice created a sensation in the court room. The motion was allowed by the court, and the Justices retired, the terror strick- A FRIGHTENED JUSTICE. 225 en Justice looking back eyeing Baug all the way as he passed out. "Justice Morrow, we will hear from you," said the Chief Justice, addressing the frightened Jus- tice. "I wish to know, sir, if it is to be the policy of this court to permit men long since dead to practice before it. Are we going to recognize spiritualism to that extent?" The Justices looked amazed. "Explain yourself," said the Chief Justice. "When I was a lad," said Justice Morrow, "a certain American statesman visited my home, played with me as a boy and gave me my first great impulse for the public service. He worked upon every fiber of my being, and his principles have shaped my innermost thoughts. He after- wards became of our nation, and wrought well both in domestic and international affairs. His name is indellibly written in the life of the na- tion, his likeness adorns all our walls, his picture is in all of our school books. Show me the palatial residence or the humble hovel for that matter, that lacks his likeness. Sirs, he died years ago, but he lives vividly in my mind, for he made me. Sirs," said Justice Morrow rising, "he is out yon- der now, and though long dead, is opening this case this morning. He can't fool me. I see he calls himself Baug Peppers, but he is none other than ." It was thought best to humor Justice Morrow, '5 226 POINTING THE WAY. so Baug was summoned before the Justices for his satisfaction. "Have I ever seen you before?" asked Justice Morrow of Baug, knitting his brow and directing toward him his most piercing look, taking pains however, to stand some distance away and put as many Justices as possible between himself and Baug. "I do not know, sir. Practically every man I have met in my life has said that it seems as though he has seen me before, but I have yet to see one who could tell me when or where," said Baug. "Who is your father?" asked Justice Morrow, putting a little greater distance between Baug and himself. "I know not. He may have been hanged for aught I know," said Baug. "Sir, you are the spirit of ," said Justice Morrow, backing still farther away. The Chief Justice took Baug in hand and said : "You say every one seems to have seen or met you before?" "Yes," replied Baug. "No one is able to state when or where?" "Absolutely no one," said Baug. "Gentlemen, I tell you I am right," interposed Justice Morrow now ready to leave the room en- tirely. "It is too uncanny. I like my Supreme Court duties but not well enough to hobnob with the dead," he said. A FRIGHTENED JUSTICE. 227 "By the way, I think I have the solution/' said the Chief Justice. "Don't you recall, gentlemen,, that had a son who was the very image of his father and was disinherited. Evidently this colored man is an offspring of that boy. Because of this man's membership in the colored race, peo- ple have not thought to associate him with 's family. The universality of the impres- sion is due to the wide circulation of 's like- ness. being white and having occupied the position that he did, the profound respect for the office has hitherto prevented the minds of the peo- ple from crossing over and making the com- parison that would have explained all. It has been the case of a human puzzle picture. Trace that disinherited son, and I predict that you will find your journey's end in this man with the mys- terious face." Justice Morrow was somewhat mollified by this explanation, but decided to keep his eye on Baug just the same. The Justices now returned to the audience room and Baug resumed his speech. In that short conference another great shadow had been lifted from Baug's soul. He had found what he regarded as a clue to his parentage, a possible solution to the mystery of his face. With that shadow lifted, and inspired by the presence of Eina, whom he hoped to meet after his speech was over, Baug made a plea of such power, that the opinion of the Chief Justice that 's blood coursed in his veins was fully con- firmed. 228 POINTING THE WAY. In the course of Baug's pleading, one remark particularly had seemed to catch the fancy of the justices and the audience as well : "Sirs/' said he, "if Anglo-Saxon blood lacks a champion on the other side of this case, let me for a moment step across the line and take up a cudgel in its defense, In its name I repudiate the thought of asking a handicap for the colored man in its race with him. I bring to you the message the true white South- erner would have me deliver : 'I want no laws of indulgence for me and mine. I spurn the thought of a lower test for Anglo-Saxon blood. If my son with a thousand years of civilization behind him cannot stand up in an equal fight with the great- grandson of a heathen and a savage, if he must be pampered and coddled with special laws, then I say with all my soul let him go to the wall/ " CHAPTER XXXVI. DISFRANCHISEMENT FORGOTTEN. HEN the argument in the great case was over and the Justices began to file out, scores in the audience pressed forward to grasp Baug's hand to congratulate him upon his effort. As that audience had listened to and had been swayed by his eloquence and the bril- liance of his intellect it was the common thought that regardless of what the decision of the Su- preme Court might or might not be, no human code could be made effective against the Baug Peppers type of men. As for Baug, he could not show proper appre- ciation of the attentions being showered upon him at the conclusion of his speech for keeping his eyes on Eina, who neither came forward nor yet moved to go out. Now that she knew the truth with regard to Baug and Clotille, she did not care to share a hand shake with him with the rest of the throng, but desired him all to herself for a talk, and yet she was not conscious of one word that she had to say. She simply craved to be alone with him. Clotille, divining what was now to happen, was only too glad to hurry away so that she might no longer be in Baug an