I HAD been out a walkin’ one day, and when I got back and went into the settin’ room, I see there wuz a visitor there, and, lo and behold, when I wuz introduced to him it wuz Col. Seybert!
He wuz dretful polite—and I know well what belongs to good manners—and so I didn’t turn my back to him and walk off with my cap-strings a wavin’ back in a indignant, scornful way.
No; he wuz a neighbor, and my son and daughter wuz a neighborin’ with him, so I treated him polite but cool, and shook his hand back and forth mebby once or twice, and sez:
“I am well, and I hope I find you the same.”
Oh, I know how to appear.
I then went and sot down some distance from him.
Genieve wuz a settin’ in the next room holdin’ Boy in her arms—he wuzn’t over and above well that day (cuttin’ teeth). And I looked out and smiled at ’em both; I then went to knittin’.
If I should be obleeged to kiss the Bible and tell jest what I thought about Col. Seybert, I should say that I didn’t like his looks a mite, not a mite.
He looked bold, and brassy, and self-assertive, and dissipated—he looked right down mean. And I should have said so if I hadn’t never hearn a word about his treatment of Victor, or his deviltry about Hester, or anything.
You know in some foreign countries the officers have to give you a passport to pass through the country. And when you are a travellin’ you have to show your papers, and show up who you be and what you be.
Wall, I spoze that custom is follered from one of Nater’s. She always fills out her papers and signs ’em with her own hand, so that folks that watch can tell travellers a passin’ through this world.
Nater had signed Col. Seybert’s passport, had writ it down in the gross, sensual, yet sneerin’ lips, in the cold, cruel look in his eyes, in his loud, boastin’, aggressive manner.
Yet he wuz a neighbor, and I felt that we must neighbor with him.
After I come into the room, he begun, I spoze out of politeness, to sort o’ address himself to me in his remarks. And he seemed to be a resoomin’ the conversation my comin’ in had interrupted.
And anon, he begun to went on about the colored people perfectly shameful.
And as my mind roamed back and recalled the various things I had heard of his doin’, I most imegiatly made up my mind that, neighbor or not, if this thing kep’ on I should have to gin him a piece of my mind.
And there Genieve sot, the good, pretty, patient creeter, a hearin’ her own people run down to the lowest notch. I felt as if I should sink, but felt that before I did sink I should speak.
POOR WHITE.
He went on to tell what a dretful state the country wuz in, and all a owin’ to the colored race; and sez he:
“The niggers don’t take any interest in the welfare of the country. What do they care what becomes of the nation if they can get their pan of bacon and hominy?
“A mule stands up before their eyes higher than any idea of Justice or Liberty.
“They are liars, they are thieves, they are lazy, they are hangers-on to the skirts of civilization, they can never stand upright, they have got to be carried all their days. And it is this mass of ignorance, and superstition, and vice that you Northerners want to see ruling us white men of the South.
“They can’t read nor write, nor understand an intelligible remark hardly; and yet these are the men that you want to have vote and get put in as rulers over us.
“Well, we will not submit to it, that is all there is about it; and if war comes, the sooner the better, for we will die fighting for our freedom. It is bad enough for us Southerners to be ruled by Northern men, but when it comes to being ruled by beasts, animals that are no higher than brutes, we will not submit.”
Sez I, for I would speak up, and I did:
“Hain’t there plenty of intelligent educated colored people now, graduates of schools and colleges—lawyers, teachers, ministers, etc., etc.?”
“Oh, yes, a few,” he admitted reluctantly.
I knew there wuz a hundred thousand of ’em, if there wuz one.
And I sez, “Hain’t the condition of your poor whites here in the South about as bad as the negroes, mentally and morally and physically?”
“Well, yes,” he admitted that it wuz. “But,” sez he, “that don’t alter the dangerous state of affairs. The interests of a community cannot be placed in the hands of an ignorant, vicious rabble without terrible peril and danger. And when it is too late the country will awake to this truth.”
His axent wuz very skairful, and reproachful, and rebukin’, and despairin’, and everything. And so, thinkses I, I will ventilate some of them views that had gone through my mind when I first begin to muse on the Race Problem, before I had heard so much of Victor and Genieve’s talk and Cousin John Richards’es.
Thinkses I, “It won’t do no hurt to promulgate ’em anyway,” for I truly felt that if they wouldn’t do no good, they wouldn’t be apt to do no hurt.
And then, when there is a big conundrum gin out to a individual or a nation, it stands to reason that there must be more than one answer to it—or, that is, folks will try to answer it in more than fifty ways.
And anyway, this wuz part of one answer to the conundrum, though folks might be dubersome of its bein’ the right one; anyway, I sez, sez I:
“Hain’t your Southern wimmen of the higher classes high-minded and educated ladies?”
“Yes, God bless them,” sez he, “they are as pure, and good, and high-minded as angels; and to think of these lofty-souled, spiritual creatures being under the rule of these beasts of burden.”
(Thinkses I, no thanks to him if they are good and pure, the mean, miserable snipe.)
But I sez, “If these wimmen are so good and noble, of course you wouldn’t be afraid to trust ’em. Why not let ’em vote, why not have a educated, moral vote, that would take the power out of the hands of the low and vile, black and white, and place it in the hands of the educated and moral, and whether in this country or another” (sez I, as I thought to myself of Victor’s plan), “whether in this Republic or a new colony, it would be a right way, a safe way.”
“I don’t believe in women voting,” sez Col. Seybert, with a strong, witherin’ emphasis. “I don’t believe in it—and they don’t; you couldn’t get our women to vote.”
“How do you know they wouldn’t? You say they are high-minded and pure as angels. Now, an angel, if she see that the best good of the greatest number depended on her votin’, she would jest lift her wings right up and sail off to the pole and vote. I believe it as much as I believe I am alive.
“If the wimmen of the South are as lofty principled as you say they are, and they wuz convinced that they could rescue their beloved land from danger by sacrificin’ their own feelin’s if necessary, to keep the balance of power in the educated classes, why, they would walk up and vote. I believe it jest as much as I believe I am standin’ here.
“The same bravery that met the terrible reverses of the War with a smile hidin’ a breakin’ heart, that endured privation, and almost starvation, for their love to the cause, that same spirit hain’t a goin’ to falter now. Let them know that they can do great good to the imperilled South. Let them know that the country wants an intelligent, educated vote. Let the test of intelligence and a certain amount of education and morality be required. And then let every one of ’em vote, male or female, bond or free, black or white.
“I don’t spoze you could bring up, if you should hunt for weeks, any good reason aginst this plan. I don’t spoze you would find any skairful and dangerous objection to it. I don’t spoze, really and honestly, that it could be apt to do any harm. And then, on the other hand, you could bring up lots of reasons as to why it might do good; lots of ’em hefty reasons too—and good sound moral ones, every one of ’em.
“The supremacy would for years and years, or as long as safety demanded, remain in the hands of the white race.” (I didn’t, in my mind, come out aginst Victor’s plans, but I knew that this would be a good thing for them that wuz left behind in the exodus and them that went too, a helpful, encouragin’ thing.)
“And jest as soon as the negro and the poor whites get fit for it, as soon as they had fitted themselves morally and intellectually for the right of suffrage, why it is only justice that they should have it.
“It would ensure safety to the South to-day, and it would open a bright and fair to-morrow, whether in this land or any other, where the colored men and wimmen can stand free and equal with the white race, where the low, ignorant ones of the white people can come up on another plane and a higher one, where they can read this text a shinin’ with the gold letters of Justice and Common Sense, where they glitter now with the sham gildin’ of absurdity—
“‘All men are free and equal.’
“For a low, vicious, ignorant person, be he black or be he white, is not equal to a high-minded, intelligent one. And the law that sets them two up side by side is an unjust and foolish law.
“But the light of the fair to-morrow is a shinin’ down; its light beckons, it inspires, it helps forward.
“It is a sure thing. Jest as soon as a man or woman is fit to vote they can vote. If they prepare themselves in ten years, there the golden prize is a waitin’ for ’em. If they fit themselves in one year to reach it, so much the better.
“It is a premium set upon effort for men and wimmen, black and white, upon noble endeavor, upon all that lifts a man above the animals that perish.
“To make one of the rulers of a great republic, a great country, what can stimulate a young man or a young woman more than this? And every prize that is open to the cultured and educated now will in that time be open to them; they can aspire to the highest place jest as soon as they become worthy of it.
“All the teachers in colored schools testify that the ability of the colored boys and girls is fully equal to the white. In Jonesville,” sez I, “my own native place, a little colored boy led the roll of honor, wuz more perfect in school than the children of ministers or judges, and they white as snow, and he as black as a little ace of spades.”
Sez I, “The idees I have promulgated to you would be apt to light up one side of the Race Problem.”
“You have got to put the niggers down,” sez Col. Seybert, as onconvinced as ever, so I see. “That is the only way to get along with them.”
Sez I, “That time has gone by, Col. Seybert.
“The time when it wuz possible to do this has passed; if you want to make a man, black or white, stay in a dark dungeon, you mustn’t break his chains and show him the stairs that climb up to the sunshine and to liberty.
“If he has dropped his chains onto the damp, mouldy pavement, if he has stood on the very lowest of them steps and seen way up over his head the warm sun a shinin’ and heard the song of birds and the distant rushin’ of clear waters, you never can put him back down into that dark, damp dungeon agin, and slip his hands into the fetters and keep him there.
“No; he has had a glimpse of the wideness and glory of liberty, and you never can smother it agin.
“If this Nation had wanted to keep on a Nation of slaveholders and slaves, it ortn’t to have let the light of Christianity and education shine down onto ’em at all; it ortn’t to have broke their chains and called ’em free.
“They will never resign that glorious hope, Col. Seybert; they will press forward.
“They have crouched down and wore their fetters long enough; they are a goin’ to stand up and be free men and free wimmen.
“And for you or for me to try to put our puny strengths in the way of God’s everlastin’ decree and providence would be like puttin’ up our hands and tryin’ to stop a whirlwind. It would whirl us out of the way, but its path would be onward.
“The negroes will be a free people, a powerful, God-fearin’, patient, noble one.”
Col. Seybert wuzn’t convinced. Fur from it. He made a motion of extreme disgust. But I turned my head a little, and over Col. Seybert’s shoulder, back behind him, I see a face.
It wuz a face illumined, riz up, inspired, if ever a face wuz upon earth. A noble purpose shone through it and made it a grand face.
It wuz Victor; he had heard every word I had said and believed every word, only he had fitted the words to suit his own meaning.
I felt this by the rapt expression of his countenance, and also by that free-masonry of the spirit that binds the souls of the true lovers of Humanity, whether they be black or white on the outside.
Col. Seybert turned and follered my look, and he see Victor, and he spoke out angrily:
“Why do you follow me, you dog you, tight to my heels? Can’t I ever escape your watchfulness?”
(He had been on one of his sprees, so I hearn, and Victor had kep’ watch on him, and his nerves wuz onstrung yet, and he felt hateful.)
“Mrs. Seybert sent me over for you.”
“Why don’t you say your mistress, you fool?”
Victor wuz perfectly respectful, but he did not change his words.
“General Lord and his son have come, and she wanted you told at once.”
“Well, follow me immediately; don’t dawdle now.”
“Yes, sir,” said Victor. And he turned at once to follow his brother (for I would keep on a callin’ him so in my mind).
But I glanced down and see Col. Seybert a talkin’ with Maggie down on the lawn (she and Thomas J. had been called down-stairs, and had been gone for some time entirely onbeknown to me, I had been so riz up and by the side of myself).
And I sez to Victor:
“You believe what I said?”
“Yes, God knows I do! It is true, and will be fulfilled in His own good time; but not in this land,” sez he.
Genieve had come in with Boy, and she and Victor gin each other a silent greetin’ of the eyes—a heart greetin’, dear and sweet as earthly language cannot be.
And in her big, eloquent eyes I see too her belief in what I had said—I see that and more too. Them sweet eyes looked grand and prophetic. Sez she:
“The time is hastening. I have seen the glow of that to-morrow; its light is waking the sleepers.
“Africa has been asleep for ages. She has crouched down in her pain, her long stupor. But she is waking up. The dead form is beginning to move—to rise up. She will stand upon her feet among the nations of the earth. And when this warm-hearted, musical, beauty-loving people come to their own, who may paint their future?
“They will be leaders among the nations. Poesy, art, song, oratory will find in them their highest exponents. And after bending and cowering beneath its burdens for centuries, Africa will rise and tower up above the other nations of the earth.”
Oh, how Genieve’s eyes shone and glowed with inner light as she said these words, as if she wuz describin’ sunthin’ she see fur off.
And I declare it gin me such a feelin’, sunthin’ like a cold chill, only more riz up like, that I didn’t know but she did see it.
And I don’t know now but she did, and then agin I don’t know as she did. But anon the illumination sort o’ faded out of her eyes agin.
The old patient, brave look come over Victor’s face, and he followed Col. Seybert home; and lo and behold! by the time Maggie come in to ask about Boy the rapt prophetess Genieve had changed agin into the faithful, quiet, patient nurse Genny.
Wall, Boy grew pretty every day—not a prettiness like Snow’s, delicate and spiritual, but a sort of a healthy, happy boy pretty. Bold, bright blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and a mouth that seemed made for smiles and kisses, and cheeks that wuz perfect rose nests for dimples—short brown curls begun to lengthen on his round little head.
And he wuz altogether a very pretty boy, very.
But Snow, the darlin’, wuz the very light of our eyes, the joy of our lives.
A sweeter child never lived, and that I know. She twined round our hearts as it seemed as if no other child ever had or ever could.
Her Pa and Ma watched her grow in beauty and goodness with love-glorified eyes; and as for her Grandpa, I should have said he acted fairly foolish if it wuz on any other subject than this that he wuz so carried away on.
ROSY’S BABY.
But I could see plain that every word he said in commendation and praise of that child wuz Gospel truth.
There never wuz such a beautiful child before, either in America, or Asia, or Africa, or the Islands of the Sea. And bein’ entirely onprejudiced myself, of course I could see that he wuz in the right on’t.
That man wuz jest led round by her like a lamb by the shearer, only the lamb might mebby be onwillin’ and Josiah Allen went happy and smilin’, the shearer wuz so awfully smart and pretty. (That metafor don’t quite fit into my meanin’, but I guess I will let it go. It is hard work sometimes to find metafors a layin’ round handy all rounded off to suit round holes in your conversation, and square ones to fit the square places, etc.)
But as I wuz a sayin’, I never see a man take more solid comfort than my pardner did a walkin’ round, and a talkin’, and a playin’ with that beautiful, beautiful child.
And I too the same, and likewise.
And the help all jest about worshipped her, and they couldn’t do enough for her, from Genieve down to Rosy and Rosy’s baby.
That little ebony image would seem to laugh louder and show his white teeth and the whites of his little eyes like two pearl buttons sot in black beads, and babble his baby talk faster and faster, if she come in his sight.
Mebby it wuz her oncommon beauty and worth, and then, agin, mebby it wuz the little nice bits she always carried him—candy, and nuts, and cakes, and such, and lots of her toys that she had sort o’ outgrown.
I want to be exact and truthful as a historian, and so I say, mebby it wuz this and mebby it wuz that.
Wall, now that they wuz all well agin and oncommon prosperous, Josiah and me begun to talk about goin’ back to Jonesville and our duties there.
But our children wouldn’t hear a word to it. They said nuthin’ hendered us from stayin’ and takin’ a good rest, as Ury took good care of everything, and we had worked hard, and ort to rest off for a long time.
So we kep’ on a stayin’. There wuzn’t no reason why we shouldn’t, to tell the truth—Ury wuz a doin’ better with the farm than Josiah Allen could, or full as well anyway. And Philury took care of everything inside, and I knew I could trust her with ontold gold, if I had any ontold gold; so we stayed on.
