Part 8 (1/2)

Young men, creation would be incomplete without you. From the beginning G.o.d made you ruler over every living thing. Do you properly appreciate the kingdom over which you reign? We know that these thoughts do not take hold of you in boyhood, but there is a time when they are fully realized and yet neglected. G.o.d has called you because you are strong. Then exercise that strength, both spiritually and temporally. (A. C. Davis, Rome, Ga.)

We have no great reason to be discouraged, cast down, or hopeless about our future, because of the many unfavorable happenings; we must not expect to be entirely free from the struggles necessary to be encountered to reach true greatness. It is our duty to use every possible and legitimate effort to avert dangers and troubles. We are earnestly persuaded to believe that the brightness of the future glory of the Negro of America is heightened by the darkness of the present clouds. All our sad experiences exhort us to proceed and inspire us with animating hopes of success, should we seek to ”lay the foundation well.” (Mrs. Julia A. Hooks, Memphis, Tenn.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: SUGAR PLANTATION OF EDWARD BUTLER, POTASH, LA.

One of the largest sugar cane growers in the state.]

There is a future before the race--a great and useful future, a future fraught with results which shall touch every phase of the world's life and bring men into sweeter harmony with each other and with G.o.d. (Rev.

George C. Rowe, Charleston, S. C.)

As soon as slavery ceased to be beneficial to the Negro, as soon as slavery lifted the Negro as high as it could lift him, G.o.d came and abolished it. When he was prepared for his deliverance the yoke of bondage pa.s.sed away. The race then pa.s.sed into the glorious suns.h.i.+ne of freedom, which has been getting more glorious every day since his emanc.i.p.ation. (W. H. Council, Normal, Ala.)

I am exceedingly anxious that every young colored man and woman should keep a hopeful and cheerful spirit as to the future. Despite all of our disadvantages and hards.h.i.+ps, ever since our forefathers set foot upon American soil as slaves our pathway has been marked by progress.

Think of it. We went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery a piece of property; we came out American citizens.

We went into slavery without a language; we came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon tongue. We went into slavery with slave chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands. (Prof. B. T. Was.h.i.+ngton.)

We are scarcely willing to admit the fact that our own prejudices and lack of self-a.s.sertion are largely responsible for our separation from the women who move the world by their intelligent progressiveness. If we would join these women in good works, we should at least meet them halfway by ridding ourselves of preconceived notions of their hostility and prejudice against us. It would add much to our strength and dignity of character and to our sense of importance among women if we could understand that white women can be strengthened in their generous impulses and made more exalted in their outlook to help weak and struggling women if they knew more of our condition, capabilities, and aspirations. The cause of women in all things needs the co-operation of all women of all races and colors in order to work out the conditions that all need and devoutly wish for. (Fannie Barrier Williams.)

I most confidently affirm that no man can fail of hopefulness as to the future of our race in this land who has broadly studied the problems and the progress of human liberty and civil justice in the world during the last three or four centuries. There has been a constant warfare and many reverses, together with long seasons of gloomy doubt: but the dominant fact in the whole record is that throughout the long contest, on the forum, in the sacred pulpit, in the hall of legislation, and on countless fields of b.l.o.o.d.y carnage, the struggle has been substantially the same: a struggle for larger liberty for the oppressed mult.i.tude, a better chance for the average man. And this further, that in every century--aye, in almost every generation--of this mighty conflict something has been gained for the right. This gain, once made, has never been lost. These things being so, it is foolish to say that these victories and this strifeful gain are matters of merely racial application. It is not so. (Bishop Embry.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: REV. M. VANN, D.D., CHATTANOOGA, TENN.]

I predict that the time will come and that it is not far off when we will have a negro poet from the South. He will set the magnificent splendor of the ”Sunny South” to music. His muse will touch the lyre, and you will hear the sweet murmur of the stream, the rippling waters, and we shall see the beauty of that country as it was never seen before. It will come; and after him other still greater men. But it takes labor to become a great man just as it takes centuries to make a great nation. Great men are not fas.h.i.+oned in heaven and thrown from the hand of the Almighty to become potentates here on earth, nor are they born rich. I admit that there is, in some parts of this country, a prejudice against you on account of your color and former condition.

In my opinion, the best way to overcome this is to show your capability of doing everything that a white man does, and do it just as well or better than he does. If a white man scorns you, show him that you are too high-bred, too n.o.ble-hearted, to take notice of it; and the first opportunity you have do him a favor, and I warrant you that he will feel ashamed of himself, and never again will he make an exhibition of his prejudice. The future is yours, and you have it in which to rise to the heights or descend to the depths. (Senator John A. Logan.)

At one time a s.h.i.+p was lost at sea for many days, when it hove in sight of a friendly vessel. The signal of the distressed vessel was at once hoisted, which read: ”We want water; we die of thirst.” The answering signal read, ”Cast down your bucket where you are;” but a second time the distressed vessel signaled, ”We want water, water,”

and a second time the other vessel answered: ”Cast down your bucket where you are.” A third and fourth time the distressed vessel signaled, ”We want water, water; we die of thirst,” and as many times was answered: ”Cast down your bucket where you are.” At last the command was obeyed, the bucket was cast down where the vessel stood, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the Amazon River.

My friends, we are failing to cast down our buckets for the help that is right about us, and spend too much time in signaling for help that is far off. Let us cast down our buckets here in our own Sunny South, cast them down in agriculture, in truck gardening, dairying, poultry raising, hog raising, laundrying, cooking, sewing, mechanical and professional life, and the help that we think is far off will come, and we will soon grow independent and useful. (Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton.)

Song is the music of the soul, the harmonious vibrations of the deep chords of the heart, and the melodies of the spirit life. It involves the elevation of the affections and the utterances of the lips, by which some theme, doctrine, or topic is proclaimed aloud and exultingly before and in the presence of others. It is the divinity in man rising to G.o.d. It is the better and higher nature of man springing forward and leaping heavenward. It is the soul plodding the deep blue sea upon its fiery pinions in search after G.o.d, its Maker, ”who giveth songs in the night.” (Bishop Holsey.)

If the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, the home is a great field for woman. The Negro race needs homes, not hovels and pens.

Christian character is built most largely there. Beautify the home, make it cheerful and cultured. Be economical in expenditures.

Cultivate economy in all lines. Be thrifty and industrious housewives.