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Title: Floyd's Flowers Or Duty and Beauty For Colored Children - Being One Hundred Short Stories Gleaned from the Storehouse - of Human Knowledge and Experience Simple Amusing Elevating
Author: Floyd, Silas X.
Language: English
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[Illustration: SILAS X. FLOYD _AUTHOR_ JOHN HENRY ADAMS _ARTIST_]
FLOYD’S FLOWERS
DUTY AND BEAUTY
FOR
COLORED CHILDREN
BEING ONE HUNDRED SHORT STORIES
GLEANED FROM THE STOREHOUSE OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE
SIMPLE AMUSING ELEVATING
BY
PROF. SILAS X. FLOYD, A. M., D. D.,
AUTHOR OF “THE GOSPEL OF SERVICE AND OTHER SERMONS,” “LIFE OF CHARLES T.
WALKER, D. D.,” “NATIONAL PERILS,” ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY
JOHN HENRY ADAMS
PROFESSOR OF ART AT MORRIS BROWN COLLEGE, ATLANTA
COPYRIGHT 1905
BY
HERTEL, JENKINS & CO.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I FEEL A PROFOUNDER REVERENCE FOR A BOY THAN A MAN. I NEVER MEET A
RAGGED BOY ON THE STREET WITHOUT FEELING THAT I OWE HIM A SALUTE, FOR I
KNOW NOT WHAT POSSIBILITIES MAY BE BUTTONED UP UNDER HIS SHABBY COAT.
—JAMES A. GARFIELD.
[Illustration: GEN. SAMUEL C. ARMSTRONG.]
PUBLISHER’S NOTE.
The publishers of this book have spared neither pains nor expense in
trying to make it as nearly perfect as a book of this kind can be. The
typographical appearance and the illustrations will speak for
themselves.
We consider ourselves fortunate in having been able to secure the
services of the Rev. Dr. Silas X. Floyd as the author of this volume.
Mr. Floyd’s life work, aside from his literary training, has made him
the ideal man to speak to the colored boys and girls of the South. Soon
after graduating from Atlanta University in 1891, Mr. Floyd became
Principal of a Public School at Augusta, Ga., and remained in that city
for five years consecutively as a teacher. In June, 1896, he was called
from the school room into the Sunday-school work, having been appointed
by the International Sunday School Convention as one of its Field
Workers throughout the South. He continued in this work for three years,
retiring from it to become Pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church, Augusta,
Ga., one of the largest churches in the South. After a year and a half
in the pastorate, he returned to the Sunday-school work, becoming
Sunday-school Missionary for Georgia and Alabama under appointment of
the American Baptist Publication Society. Two years ago, he re-entered
the school room, and is now once more Principal of a Public School at
Augusta. His school is one of the largest in the State of Georgia.
Mr. Floyd’s work, as the record shows, has been conspicuously for and in
behalf of the children, and he is known far and wide as a competent
writer and speaker on topics concerning young people. He has contributed
to the Sunday School Times, the International Evangel, the New York
Independent, The World’s Work, Lippincott’s Magazine, and many other
journals and periodicals. He is the author of a volume of sermons
published by the American Baptist Publication Society and listed in
their catalogue as among their standard works, and is also the author of
the Life of the leading colored Baptist preacher in America, published
by the National Baptist Publishing Board. From the beginning of the
Voice of the Negro, Mr. Floyd has had charge of the Wayside Department
as Editor, and his work as a humorist and writer of negro dialect is
known to many through that medium.
In 1894, Atlanta University, his alma mater, conferred upon Mr. Floyd
the degree of Master of Arts, and in 1902, Morris Brown College
conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
THE PICTURES AND WHO MADE THEM
A distinctive feature of this volume is the inclusion of more than half
a hundred of original drawings by a young artist. Every boy and every
girl delights in pictures. There is something in pictures, even though
the subjects be foreign to us, which readily takes hold of our innermost
feelings and becomes companionable to the extent that we find ourselves
loving that _something_ whatever it is:—a man, or an humble dog, or an
old homestead, or what not. We seldom think that some great mind has
been hard at work to produce that picture and that it takes years and
years of application and deep study to prepare even a genius in art.
While you are enjoying the pleasures to be derived from the “rough
sketches” in this book it is hoped that at the same time you will catch
the inspiration of the artist who made them. The negro race has produced
very few artists of note, for very few of them have made a success in
the profession. Of that few, John Henry Adams is second only to Tanner.
Coming up with little in his favor other than a determination to “win”
and the prayerfulness of loving parents, John Adams kept himself in
school until he was thoroughly prepared to enter upon life’s sea as a
thinker for and a master of himself. Acquiring his art education at The
Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, Adams returned to Atlanta and found a
place to utilize his training at the Morris Brown College, where he has
been eminently successful as a teacher, and where he is loved and
honored by all.
The lapse of twenty-six years is a very short time to begin to measure a
man’s success, but Mr. Adams has already succeeded. The demand for his
work is large and plenteous. If there is such a thing as having more
work than one can do, it applies pointedly to him. Besides the many fine
and costly paintings which Mr. Adams makes and sells, his “rough
sketches” are quite popular and “go like hot cakes.” And, with all of
this he is a regular contributor to one daily paper, two weekly papers
and a monthly magazine. This is but a glimpse of the man. His work as
trustee of city charities, his visitations to mission houses and his
liberal pocket-book show the more tender side of the artist. When a
football game is in progress there’s another side of the man—the
enthusiast. But all the way through Mr. Adams is ever the amiable
gentleman, the vigorous thinker and worker, the friend of children and a
constant source of gladness to the poor of Atlanta.
PUBLISHERS.
PREFACE.
Truly the boys and girls of to-day ought to be thankful that they are
alive. There never was such a golden age for childhood and youth as the
present. To say nothing of the rich opportunities for mental and
spiritual development, what a multitude of things have been provided for
the innocent pleasure, the wholesome recreation of the young people of
to-day; inventions that remind one of the magic of the “Arabian Nights”;
tools of sport so perfect that one cannot imagine how they could be
bettered; fascinating games, all unknown in the days gone by; books and
papers upon which science, art and literary skill have lavished modern
resources—all these and many other wonderful things have fallen to the
lot of the favored boys and girls of to-day.
And now enterprising publishers of our grand country are going to put
the boys and girls of America—and especially the colored boys and girls
of America—under obligation to them, because they have decided to add to
the list of good books for children and youths already on the market. I
use the word “good” advisedly; for from the day that I was engaged to
write this book I have had in mind constantly the thought of making it
such a book as would tell for good. It is an old saying that “evil
communications corrupt good manners,” but evil reading does more than
this: for evil reading corrupts good morals.
I have endeavored to put into this book of stories for children only
such things as might be freely admitted into the best homes of the land,
and I have written with the hope that many young minds may be elevated
by means of these stories and many hearts filled with high and holy
aspirations. Our nation has a right to expect that our boys and girls
shall turn out to be good men and good women, and this book is meant to
help in this process.
SILAS X. FLOYD.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. A SPELLING LESSON 19
II. THE TRUTH ABOUT LUCK 22
III. AN EVENING AT HOME 26
IV. THE MAKING OF A MAN 29
V. FALSE PRIDE 33
VI. THANKSGIVING AT PINEY GROVE 37
VII. THE LOUD GIRL 46
VIII. THE ROWDY BOY 51
IX. HONESTY 53
X. UNCLE NED AND THE INSURANCE SOLICITOR 56
XI. THE STRENUOUS LIFE 61
XII. A HUMBUG 64
XIII. A CANDIDATE FOR BAPTISM 66
XIV. GOING WITH THE CROWD 72
XV. MARY AND HER DOLLS 75
XVI. JAKY TOLBERT’S PLAYMATES 79
XVII. A VALENTINE PARTY 83
XVIII. “NO MONEY DOWN” 86
XIX. TOMMY’S BABY BROTHER 90
XX. KEEPING SCHOOL 93
XXI. THE SCHOOL OF THE STREET 96
XXII. THE FOX HUNT 100
XXIII. A BOLD VENTURE 105
XXIV. A HERO IN BLACK 108
XXV. THE ROAD TO SUCCESS 111
XXVI. SAMUEL C. ARMSTRONG 114
XXVII. HOW TO BE HANDSOME 117
XXVIII. PATIENCE 119
XXIX. THE BITER BIT 122
XXX. THE ALPHABET OF SUCCESS 124
XXXI. EASTER MONDAY IN WASHINGTON 125
XXXII. KEEPING ONE’S ENGAGEMENTS 129
XXXIII. A MIDNIGHT MISHAP 131
XXXIV. FREDERICK DOUGLASS 133
XXXV. OUR DUMB ANIMALS 136
XXXVI. A PLUCKY BOY 138
XXXVII. A HEART-TO-HEART TALK 141
XXXVIII. A GHOST STORY 144
XXXIX. GOOD CHEER 149
XL. LIFE A BATTLE 152
XLI. RULED BY PRIMITIVE METHODS 155
XLII. HUNTING AN EASY PLACE 159
XLIII. BURT BANKSTON’S BEQUEST 162
XLIV. THE BIG BLACK BURGLAR 166
XLV. PIN-MONEY MADE WITH THE NEEDLE 169
XLVI. SELF-HELP 173
XLVII. HENRY WARD BEECHER’S TESTIMONY 177
XLVIII. ROUNDING UP A CHICKEN THIEF 180
XLIX. SHIELDS GREEN, THE MARTYR 184
L. AIMING AT SOMETHING 186
LI. THE BLACK SHEEP OF THE REYNOLDS FAMILY 188
LII. THE HOLY BIBLE 196
LIII. ANDREW CARNEGIE’S ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN 198
LIV. DIRECTIONS FOR LITTLE GENTLEMEN 200
LV. THE LETTER OF THE LAW 202
LVI. THE BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN 204
LVII. THE RIGHT TO PLAY 207
LVIII. A CHRISTMAS PRESENT 209
LIX. DRINKING AND SMOKING 211
LX. THE NICKEL THAT BURNED IN FRANK’S POCKET 214
LXI. MONUMENT TO A BLACK MAN 217
LXII. THE BAD BOY—WHO HE IS 219
LXIII. THE BAD BOY—HOW TO HELP HIM 221
LXIV. THOMAS GREENE BETHUNE (“BLIND TOM”) 226
LXV. NOT FIT TO KNOW 229
LXVI. THE RIGHT WAY 231
LXVII. KEEPING FRIENDSHIP IN REPAIR 234
LXVIII. LITTLE ANNIE’S CHRISTMAS 236
LXIX. THE VELOCIPEDE RACE 239
LXX. FAULT-FINDING 241
LXXI. THE PURITANS’ SABBATH 244
LXXII. THE DEVIL ON AN EXCURSION 247
LXXIII. RANDOM REMARKS 250
LXXIV. BENJAMIN BANNEKER, THE NEGRO ASTRONOMER 254
LXXV. “A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM” 258
LXXVI. DIRECTIONS FOR LITTLE LADIES 264
LXXVII. THREE WORDS TO YOUNG PEOPLE 266
LXXVIII. “A LAMP UNTO MY FEET” 272
LXXIX. THE THREE BRIGADES 275
LXXX. “HOME, SWEET HOME” 277
LXXXI. EDMUND ASA WARE 280
LXXXII. AN ANTE-BELLUM NEGRO PREACHER 284
LXXXIII. PURITY OF CHARACTER 287
LXXXIV. EACH ONE OF US OF IMPORTANCE 289
LXXXV. THE POETRY OF LIFE 290
LXXXVI. ON BEING IN EARNEST 292
LXXXVII. YOUNG PEOPLE AND LIFE INSURANCE 294
LXXXVIII. THE LITTLE SAILOR CAT 297
LXXXIX. ADVICE TO LITTLE CHRISTIANS 299
XC. A WORD TO PARENTS 301
XCI. A HELPFUL MESSAGE 302
XCII. THE UNSEEN CHARMER 304
XCIII. OUR COUNTRY 307
XCIV. THE “DON’T-CARE” GIRL 309
XCV. NEGRO HEROES 312
XCVI. FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO YOUNG PEOPLE 315
XCVII. TOO HIGH A DAM 318
XCVIII. A GOOD FELLOW 320
XCIX. THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO 321
C. THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN 323
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
FRONTISPIECE.
A SPELLING CLASS 20
THAT’S A VERY PRETTY WAY TO SPELL “LOVE” 21
“HOW MANY PAPERS HAVE YOU SOLD TO-DAY, TOMMY?” 23
AN EVENING AT HOME 27
BOBBY AND HIS “MAN” 30
“HERE IS THE CARPET, YOUNG MAN; I HOPE I HAVE NOT KEPT YOU
WAITING.” 34
GRACE BEFORE GOING TO SCHOOL 38
GRACE’S GRADUATION 42
BLAB-MOUTHED AND NOISY 47
MODEST AND QUIET 49
HE STUFFS BOTH HANDS IN HIS TROUSERS POCKETS 52
“HOW MUCH FOR THE MELON?” 54
“DAT’S JES’ WHAT MY ’LIGION DOES,” SAID THE OLD MAN 57
“I DON’T BREAK EASY” 62
“O, GET OUT OF THE WAY, CAN’T YOU?” 65
“MOTHER, I’M SO HAPPY. TEACHER FORGAVE ME” 74
MARY AND HER DOLLS 76
“I’M GOING OVER TO JAKY’S, MAMMA” 80
OLD MRS. GRAY 84
“PAPA I AIN’T GOT NO LITTLE BABY BROTHER TO PLAY WITH” 91
TOOTSIE 94
LITTLE JOE 97
UNCLE HAMBRIGHT 101
“YOU ALL WAIT UNTIL I COME BACK AND THEN WE’LL PLAY AT
FOX-HUNTING” 103
“LEND ME FIVE DOLLARS” 106
A HERO IN BLACK 109
THE ROAD TO SUCCESS 112
HOW TO BE HANDSOME 118
PATIENCE 120
A BITER BIT 123
KEEPING ONE’S ENGAGEMENTS 130
A MIDNIGHT MISHAP 132
OUR DUMB ANIMALS 137
“THE BOY MARCHED STRAIGHT UP TO THE COUNTER” 140
A HEART-TO-HEART TALK 142
“HUH! HUH! THERE DON’T SEEM TO BE BUT TWO OF US HERE TO-NIGHT” 145
“CHARGED WITH KISSING A GIRL ON THE STREET” 157
“I HAVE JUST FINISHED MY COURSE IN THE HIGH SCHOOL” 161
THE GAMBLER 163
THE GAMBLER IN OLD AGE 165
THE BIG BLACK BURGLAR 168
PIN-MONEY MADE WITH THE NEEDLE 172
WASHING DOLLIE’S CLOTHES 175
“SON, IT’S A MIGHTY LUCKY THING FOR YOU AND NANNIE THAT I DIDN’T
HAVE MY GUN” 182
AIMING AT SOMETHING 187
“HE CARRIED WITH HIM SOME WILD FLOWERS AND GREEN LEAVES” 190
“WELL, JOHN, I SUPPOSE SISTER IS DEAD” 194
DIRECTIONS FOR LITTLE GENTLEMEN 201
“MAMMA TOLD ME NOT TO ASK FOR ANY MORE CREAM” 203
THE BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN 205
“MAMMA, I HEAR OLD SANTA’S BELLS, AND OF COURSE THIS IS THE
PRESENT HE BROUGHT” 210
DRINK AND TOBACCO 212
“A QUARTER, MA’AM” 215
MONUMENT TO A BLACK MAN 217
“PLAY FANTASTIC” ON THE FOURTH OF JULY 220
THE BAD BOY—HOW TO HELP HIM 222
FRANCES 229
“I GOT IN THE HALL LAST NIGHT FOR NOTHING” 232
THE TWO PATHS 235
“SHE PUT OUT HER THIN LITTLE HAND AND FELT IT” 237
THE VELOCIPEDE RACE 240
FAULT-FINDING 242
“GOODNIS GRACIOUS! I SEE DAT OLD CYCLOOM COMIN’ BACK AG’IN. HE
LOOK BLACKAH AND WUSSAH DAN HE DONE BEFO. RUN, ISAAC, RUN!” 248
“I WISH I COULD HAVE MY WAY WITH THOSE BOYS FOR ABOUT TWO MINUTES” 251
DIRECTIONS FOR LITTLE GIRLS 265
“A LAMP UNTO MY FEET” 273
MEMBERS OF THE RAINY-WEATHER BRIGADE 276
HOME, SWEET HOME 278
“SAINT PAUL WAS A MUCH BETTER MAN DAN I IS, AN’ DEY WHUPPED HIM
MOS’ EV’YWHAR HE WENT” 285
EACH ONE OF US OF IMPORTANCE 289
THE POETRY OF LIFE 290
BEING IN EARNEST 293
TAKING OUT A POLICY 295
THE LITTLE SAILOR CAT 298
ADVICE TO LITTLE CHRISTIANS 299
A WORD TO PARENTS 301
“IS—ER—ER—MR. HOPEGOOD IN?” 305
THE “DON’T-CARE” GIRL 310
NEGRO HEROES 313
FREDERICK DOUGLASS 316
[Illustration]
FLOYD’S FLOWERS
I.
A SPELLING LESSON.
The boys and girls of Public School No. 10 were glad to have a new girl,
whose name was Bertha Dent, enter their spelling class. The little
girl’s mother told the teacher that the child could probably keep up
with the First Grade in spelling, because she could spell such words as
“dog” and “hog” and “cat” and “rat” and “bat.”
It was not a great while before the teacher called the spelling class.
She asked Bertha, the new girl, to stand with the class.
“You may spell ‘dog,’ Mary,” said the teacher to one of the girls, “and
tell us what kind of noise little dogs make.”
“D-o-g, dog,” said Mary, “and our little dog says ‘bow-wow-wow!’”
“That was very well done,” said the teacher. “Now, Annie, you may spell
‘cat,’ and tell us what kind of noise little kittens make.”
“C-a-t, cat,” replied Annie, “and the little kitties sometimes say
‘mew-mew,’ and when the little doggies come ’round they bristle up and
hiss at the doggies.”
“That’s very well,” responded the teacher. “Sadie, you may spell ‘bird,’
and tell us what the little birds do.”
“B-i-r-d, bird,” said Sadie. “We have a pretty mocking bird that sings
for us all the time; most birds sing, but mama says there are some birds
which are good to keep bugs and worms off the vegetables and flowers.”
[Illustration: A SPELLING CLASS.]
“That is correct,” the teacher made answer. “Now, Bertha Dent, you may
spell ‘love’ for us, and tell us what love does.”
“Oh,” said the new pupil, “I know very well how to spell ‘love.’” And
then Bertha ran to the teacher, threw her arms around the teacher’s
neck, and gave her a sweet little kiss. “That is the way mama told me to
spell ‘love,’” said Bertha quietly, while the teacher and all the
members of the spelling class smiled.
[Illustration: THAT’S A VERY PRETTY WAY TO SPELL “LOVE.”]
“That is a very pretty way to spell ‘love,’” said the teacher. “But
don’t you know any other way to spell ‘love’?”
“Why, yes,” answered Bertha looking around. “I spell ‘love’ this way,
too.” Then she brushed a fleck of dust from the teacher’s sleeve, picked
up some papers that were scattered around on the platform and arranged
them on the desk. She, also, pulled a tiny bit of thread off the
teacher’s skirt. “I spell ‘love’” said Bertha, “by working for mama and
papa and little brother, and trying to make everybody happy.”
The teacher drew the little girl close to her side, threw one arm around
the child’s neck and said,——
“That is the very best way to spell ‘love’; but can’t you spell ‘love’
the way the book spells it?”
“Oh, yes,” said Bertha. “L-o-v-e, love.”
The teacher hugged Bertha, called her a dear little girl, and then
dismissed the class.
II.
THE TRUTH ABOUT LUCK.
[Illustration: “HOW MANY PAPERS HAVE YOU SOLD TO-DAY, TOMMY?”]
This is a world of order and system. There is nothing haphazard about
it. The sun rises and sets according to a regular and unchanging law.
The tides come in and the tides go out not by accident or chance, but in
accordance with well-defined laws. Winter and Summer, sunshine and rain,
follow each other in well-ordered succession. What is true in the
natural world is also true in the moral and business worlds. A boy reaps
that which he sows and gains the prizes for which he is willing to pay
the price in labor and self-denial. A divine law controls success and
defeat in this life and no strategem or trick can take the place of hard
work.
Some years ago, I happened to find myself near the terminal of the great
East River Bridge in New York City. Two little boys were standing near
one of the large iron posts crying their afternoon papers. I tarried
near them because I was waiting for a particular car. One little fellow
said to the other,——
“How many papers have you sold to-day, Tommie?”
“Nearly one hundred an’ fifty,” was Tommie’s quick reply.
“Honor bright?”
“Yes; honor bright.”
“Whoopee! but ain’t you in big luck, Tommie?”
“Luck!” exclaimed Tommie, wiping the perspiration from his brow. “There
ain’t no luck about it; I’ve just been everlastingly at it since four
o’clock this morning—that’s all!”
And that is the _all_ of real success. Those who achieve success are
“everlastingly at” what they are trying to do. Tommie was right in
declining to have his hard and honest work cheapened by calling the
result of it luck.
“You are the luckiest chap I ever saw,” I once heard a little boy about
sixteen years say to another boy of about the same age.
“Why do you say that?” asked the other.
“Because you have had your salary raised twice in the same year.”
“Well,” was the reply, “you may call it luck; but I don’t. I have always
done my work the very best I knew how. I have never once in the whole
year been a single minute late in getting to the office, nor have I ever
left a single minute before it was time for me to leave. When I have
worked over-time, I have not made any fuss about it. My boss said when
he raised my salary last week that he had taken these things into
account. So, I don’t see where the luck comes in.”
“All the same,” said the first boy, “some bosses wouldn’t have raised
your salary.”
“Then I would have the satisfaction of knowing that I had done my duty.”
Boys, I tell you that’s right. Nine out of ten employers know that it is
to their advantage to show appreciation of faithful work and they show
it. When this appreciation comes luck has had nothing to do with it. The
thing that passes for luck is in nearly all cases the just reward of
honest endeavor.
Do not, therefore, start out in life with the expectation that some
“lucky turn” will bring you sudden honor or wealth or position without
any effort on your part. Substitute that fine old word “_work_” for that
deceitful word “_luck_,” and base your hopes of future success and
usefulness upon the honorable labor that it is a God-given privilege for
every well and strong and right-minded boy to give his heart and hands
to performing.
III.
AN EVENING AT HOME.
Boys and girls between the ages of eleven and seventeen ought to spend
their evenings at home, as much as possible. In these busy, bustling
twentieth century days, there are many families—so much the worse for
them—that scarcely know what it is to spend an evening at home together.
Not only the young people but the older people are “on the go.” The
evenings are crowded with calls and invitations, which come from far and
near. It is nothing to go five or even ten miles to an evening concert
or social gathering, the trolley is so near, so cheap and so universal.
But I tell you, boys and girls, no matter what the pleasure or amusement
afforded—no matter what the instruction or culture received—there are no
social or similar opportunities good enough to displace the home circle.
The sooner young people realize this the happier they will be.
[Illustration: AN EVENING AT HOME.]
Boys and girls ought to plan for some evenings at home. Let other things
have a share, but do not give up all the time to other things. Once a
week the young people ought to arrange for an evening at home. Decline
everything else for that evening, the same as you would for any other
engagement. Gather the family together. Make a special place for grandma
and grandpa. Sing merry songs; play innocent and amusing games; take
time to tell the home folks about some of the things that you do and
that you have seen in the world; get acquainted with the home folks; be
delighted in their delight; by special appointment, spend one or two
cheerful hours with the folks at home each week.
The young folks themselves should take the lead in this matter. A home
is not merely a place with four walls where people meet to eat and drink
and sleep securely beneath a roof. Nay, boys and girls, a house is
reared to be a _home_—the center where a family may gather into one; to
be a serene retreat where the tenderest affections may find rest; where
love may have a dwelling place, and the _amenities_ of life gain ample
scope; where parents and children may press one another heart to heart;
where sorrows and joys may be freely shared in sacred confidence; in a
word, where the great work of training human beings for the duties of
the present life, and the perfection of another, may be begun and
carried on.
There is one special reason for making much of the evenings at home that
young people are not likely to think of. _Inevitably_ the _family_
circle will be broken up very soon. Perhaps not by death, but most
certainly by change. When Fred goes to college that is the beginning of
new ties and new associations, and the home privileges can never be
quite so complete to him again. The years of the complete unity of the
home are very few indeed. While these years are passing, young people
especially should make the most of them. My dear boys and girls, get the
benefit of these years; get their joys; store up memories of home life,
for they will be in future years the most beautiful pictures of the
heart. However some may sneer at it, the memory of home and mother is a
great power for righteousness. It has saved many a person to God and
native land and race.
“Be it ever so humble—
There’s no place like home.”
IV.
THE MAKING OF A MAN.[1]
Mr. Stamps, seated near the table, was glancing over the afternoon
paper. Mrs. Stamps, in an easy chair, was doing some fancy work. Little
Bobby, six years old, more or less, was playing with his toys on the
floor. All at once the precocious little boy stopped short in the middle
of his sport and, looking up at his mother, asked,—
“Mama, who made the world?”
“God,” replied Mrs. Stamps, sweetly.
“Who made the sea?” continued Bobby.
Mrs. Stamps answered, “God.”
“Well,” said Bobby, “did God make everything?”
“Yes, my son; the Lord made everything.”
“And did he make everybody?”
“Yes; the Lord made everybody.”
Bobby was silent for a moment. Presently he looked anxiously at his
father, and then, turning to his mother, he asked,—
“Mama, did God make papa, too?”
“Yes; God made papa also.”
After a lengthy pause Bobby asked,—
[Illustration: BOBBY AND HIS “MAN.”]
“Mama, do you think that I could make a man, if I was to try real hard?”
“You had better run out to play now, Bobby,” said Mrs. Stamps, somewhat
non-plused by her son’s curiosity.
Bobby left the room almost immediately. He went straight to the beach in
front of the house, and labored long and earnestly in piling up some wet
sand. Pretty soon he was joined in his work by two other little boys.
For some time the three little fellows worked vigorously in piling up
the mud. Mrs. Stamps called her husband to the window, so that he might
see what the boys were doing.
“Wife,” said Mr. Stamps, “I believe those little Satans are trying to
make a man.”
Toward sunset Bobby ran into the house and exclaimed with delight,—
“Mama, we’ve got our man almost finished. We didn’t have but one marble,
and we used that for one of his eyes. I came in to ask you to give me a
marble, so that we might put in his other eye.”
“It’s too late to bother now, Bobby,” said Mrs. Stamps. “Wait until
to-morrow morning; then I will give you a marble and let you finish your
man.”
The next morning, bright and early, Bobby went out to look for his man.
Lo and behold! the sea had washed the man away during the night. But,
Bobby, of course, did not suspect that. He thought that the man had gone
away of his own accord. So the little fellow spent the entire morning
looking for his man. He looked under the house; he looked in the stable;
he went up to the garret; he walked up and down the beach; he went into
the woods—looking for his man. But his man was nowhere to be found.
Two or three weeks later an African Methodist Episcopal Conference
assembled in Bobby’s town. Among the ministers present there happened to
be a short, chubby, tan-colored brother with only one eye. When Bobby
spied him he examined the man curiously and cautiously from head to
foot. The examination ended, Bobby concluded that that was his man. At
once the little fellow left his mother and went over and took a seat
beside the man. Bobby’s mother was somewhat embarrassed. The man was
evidently pleased, although, to be sure, he himself was not quite
certain why he should be an object of special interest to the little
boy. The man went to the secretary’s table to have his name
enrolled—Bobby went with him. He went into the vestibule to get a drink
of water—and Bobby followed him there. But all the while the man was
still in doubt as to the cause of the little boy’s apparent affection.
By this time, thoroughly exasperated, Bobby’s mother decided to go home.
She approached the pew in a very ladylike manner and said,—
“Bobby, dear, come; we must be going home now.”
“All right, Mama,” said Bobby in dead earnest, “but you will please let
me take my man home with me—won’t you? I just found him to-day, and you
know I’ve been looking for him for over two weeks!”
Then, for the first time, it suddenly dawned upon Mrs. Stamps what was
the matter with Bobby. In spite of herself she laughed heartily at the
boy’s perversity. Finding that his mother hesitated to reply, Bobby
turned to the man and said,—
“Come on: we’re going home now. Why did you leave before I finished
you?”
V.
FALSE PRIDE.
Once upon a time the head clerk in a carpet store requested one of his
junior clerks to go to a patron’s home to measure a room, and suggested
that he take along a five-yard sample. The junior clerk objected to
“carting” such a big bundle, as he said, “all over town,” and asked that
one of the boys be sent with it. The proprietor of the establishment,
who happened to overhear the remark, privately told the head clerk to
inform the proud young fellow that a boy would be sent on after him with
the roll. Shortly after the young man reached the house, the proprietor
of the establishment covered him with confusion by appearing at the
house in person with the roll of carpet under his arm. Handing the
bundle to the bewildered young man, the proprietor remarked:
“Here is the carpet, young man. I hope I have not kept you waiting for
it. If you have any other orders, I’ll take them now.”
* * * * *
[Illustration: “HERE IS THE CARPET, YOUNG MAN. I HOPE I HAVE NOT KEPT
YOU WAITING.”]
A young woman of my acquaintance refused to carry home a yeast cake,
though it was needed at once for the family baking and she was bound
directly homeward. She said that she wasn’t a delivery wagon, and so the
yeast cake had to be sent to her home.
A great many foolish young people are so absorbingly regardful of their
trim appearance on the street that they will never under any
circumstances carry a basket or bundle, however much inconvenience they
may cause others by refusing to do so.
* * * * *
Now, it is not proper pride or self-respect which prompts people to act
as the young folks acted whom I have just referred to. It is silliness
which prompts them to act so. Any honest work is honorable that is
honorably done, and you will notice that young people of good social
position and strength of character are above such pettiness. Only
inferior people act that way. Superior people do not act so, because
they are well aware that they cannot be compromised by doing
straightforwardly, without fuss or apology, whatever needs to be done.
Yet, I admit, that it seems to be human nature that whatever is
distasteful or supposedly menial should be done by somebody else. When
young people, or old people for that matter, are tempted to be foolish
in such things they should remember the lesson of humility that Christ
taught his disciples, when in that warm Oriental country, where only
sandals are worn, He performed the necessary service of washing the
disciples’ feet. For us to be above our business—for us to think
ourselves too good or too dainty to soil our hands with honest toil—for
us to feel that it is a lowering of our dignity to carry a bundle
through the street, is to prove by our conduct that we are not up to the
level of our business, that we are possessed of a great amount of false
pride, and, in a higher sense, it shows that we have a foolish and
wicked distaste of true service. There is nothing low, nothing
degrading, nothing disgraceful, in honest labor, in honest work of any
kind, whether it be to boil an egg properly, to sweep a floor well, to
carry a bundle or package through the streets, or bring a pail of water.
In fact, if somebody were to say that “chores” done or undone are the
making or the unmaking of boys and girls, it would be a homely way of
putting an important truth. Bringing up coal or bringing in wood,
weeding the garden bed, running errands, washing dishes, sewing seams,
dusting furniture, doing any odd jobs where there is need, cheerfully,
faithfully—these lead to the highway of greater opportunities and are
the usual avenues to the only manhood and womanhood that is worth
having. My young friends, the castle of your noblest dream is built out
of what lies nearest at hand. It is the uncommonly good use of common
things, the everyday opportunities, that makes honored lives, and helps
us, and helps us to help others, along the sun-road. “He that is
faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.” “Pride goeth
before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
VI.
THANKSGIVING AT PINEY GROVE.
The people of the Piney Grove settlement, both white and black, had been
free for nearly a generation. The whites had been freed from the curse
of being slave-holders, and the blacks had been freed from the curse of
being held in bondage. But never in the history of this little town, in
the very heart of the so-called “Black Belt” of Georgia, had the people
known anything about the proper observance of Thanksgiving Day until
189–. And in that year the revolution was brought about by a young
colored woman named Grace Wilkins.
Grace Wilkins was the only daughter of Solomon and Amanda Wilkins.
Solomon and his wife were farmers—plain, simple, ordinary country folk.
Amanda was literally her husband’s helpmeet. She went along with him
every morning to the field, and, in season, chopped as much wood, picked
as much cotton, hoed as much corn, pulled as much fodder, and plowed as
much as her husband did. Up to her fourteenth year Grace had been reared
on a farm, and had learned to do all the things that any farmer’s child
has to do—such as milking cows, feeding hogs and chickens, hoeing cotton
and corn, picking cotton, pulling fodder and the like. In her fourteenth
year, acting upon the advice of an uneducated colored preacher, her
parents sent Grace away from home to attend one of the great normal and
industrial institutes for the training of the black boys and girls of
the South.
[Illustration: GRACE BEFORE GOING TO SCHOOL.]
At first her mother and father were filled with forebodings. It was the
first time that they had ever allowed their daughter to be away from
them, and they missed her so much and longed for her so constantly that
they thought that they had made a mistake in sending her off to
“boardin’ school.” Ignorant and superstitious neighbors, though they
knew as little about such matters as did Solomon and Amanda, were loud
in saying that “Sol” and “Mandy” would live to regret the step they had
taken in sending Grace away from home. The only rays of sunshine that
came in to brighten these periods of mental unrest and gloom on the part
of Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins were found in the letters which they received
regularly from their daughter. Grace invariably informed her parents,
whenever she wrote, that she was “well an’ doin’ well.” Thus reassured
from time to time, Solomon and Amanda managed somehow to undergo the
terrible strain of having their daughter absent from them for eight
months. But meantime they were firmly of the opinion that, once they got
their hands on her again, they would never allow Grace to return to
school.
With glad and thankful hearts Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins joyously embraced
their daughter when she came home at the close of her first year in
school. With keen and genuine interest, they listened to her wonderful
accounts of the great school and of the great man at the head of it.
Grace dressed differently and talked differently; and her mother said,
speaking one day in confidence to her husband shortly after Grace’s
return, “Dat gal’s sho got a new walk on her!”
Grace Wilkins brought back a toothbrush with her from school. That was
something which she had never had before. She used that toothbrush every
morning and night. That was something that she had never done before.
She was now careful to keep her hair well combed every day. That was
something that she had been accustomed to do on Sundays only or on
special occasions. She washed her face two or three times a day now, as
her mother and father noticed. Before she went to school she had been in
the habit of giving her face, as the old people say, “a lick and a
promise” early each morning. Besides, Grace kept the house cleaner than
she had kept it before. She brought home with her a brand-new Bible
which she read regularly at home and always carried to church and Sunday
school. She also had a song book called “Jubilee Songs and Plantation
Melodies,” and it gladdened the hearts of the good “old folks at home”
to hear their daughter sing from a book some of the very songs that they
had sung all their lifetime and which were so dear to them.
All these things and others made a deep and abiding impression upon
Solomon and his wife. And finding that withal their daughter was just as
loving and kind as she had been before, and that she was just as
industrious and faithful as formerly, Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins were not long
in deciding that their daughter should go back to that school another
year, and that they would work hard and stint themselves in order that
they might keep her there until she had finished the normal course.
So back to school Grace Wilkins went—that year, and the next year, and
the next. It was the proudest day in Solomon’s and Amanda’s lives when
they sat in the magnificent chapel of the school and heard their
daughter read her graduation essay on “The Gospel of Service.” Glad
tears welled up in their eyes when they heard the principal call their
daughter’s name, and then saw Grace step up to receive her certificate
of graduation.
Coming back to Piney Grove to live, “Miss Gracie”—everybody called her
that after graduation—established a little school which she called “The
Piney Grove Academy.” It was the first public school for colored
children ever opened within the corporate limits of the little village.
Before that the schools were district schools or county schools, which
were taught about in different places for only three or four months in
the year, mainly during the summer. Miss Gracie began her school the
first day of October. By special arrangement she used the first three
months for the public term allowed by the state, and supplemented that
with a five-months term, for which the pupils were required to pay fifty
cents each per month. The plan worked well, the parents joining in
heartily in the movement, and the Piney Grove Academy soon became the
model school for the surrounding counties.
[Illustration: GRACE’S GRADUATION.]
Among other things Miss Gracie had learned at school what was the import
of our national Thanksgiving Day. At the opening of the second year of
the Piney Grove Academy she decided that she would inaugurate an annual
Thanksgiving service. Accordingly on the opening day of the second year
Miss Gracie informed the pupils of her plan, and told them that she
would begin the very next day to prepare a suitable program for the
exercises. Afterwards Miss Gracie secured the cooperation of the village
pastor—the same man who had been instrumental in having her parents send
her away to school. Through him she was permitted to talk to the people
at the church two or three times about the proposed celebration. She was
careful to tell them that the Thanksgiving festival was meant specially
to be a home festival in addition to being a time for the people to come
together in their accustomed places of worship to thank God for the
blessings of the year. She urged them, therefore, as far as they were
able without going to unnecessary expense, to have family dinners and
bring together at one time and in one place as many members of the
family as possible. She explained to them how this might be done
successfully and economically, and with pleasure and profit to all
concerned. She also urged them to be planning beforehand so that nothing
might prevent their attending church Thanksgiving Day morning. She was
going to hold the exercises in the church, because her little school was
not large enough to furnish an assembly hall for the people who would be
likely to be present.
On Thanksgiving Day nearly everybody in town went to the exercises. Many
white people attended, including the county school commissioner and the
school trustees. It was the first Thanksgiving service that any of them
had ever witnessed.
The program was made up, for the most part, of choice selections from
negro authors, composers, orators, and so forth. A selection from
Frederick Douglass on “Patriotism” was declaimed; one from Booker T.
Washington’s Atlanta Exposition speech was also delivered. Paul Laurence
Dunbar’s poem entitled “Signs of the Times” (a Thanksgiving poem) was
read by one of the pupils, and also “The Party,” another of Dunbar’s
pieces, was rendered. “The Negro National Hymn,” words by James W.
Johnson and music by his brother, Rosamond Johnson, was sung by a chorus
of fifty voices. At the opening of the service the president’s
Thanksgiving proclamation was read and appropriate remarks were made by
Miss Wilkins. The closing remarks were made by the Rev. John Jones, the
village pastor. The remarks of Mr. Jones were in the congratulatory
mood. He was naturally proud of Miss Gracie’s achievements, because he
had had something to do with putting her on the road to an education. He
spoke of the teacher as the leaven that was leavening the whole lump,
and the applause which followed the statement showed plainly the high
esteem in which the teacher was held by all the people. Everyone enjoyed
the service. None of the villagers had ever seen anything like it
before. After singing “America” all of them went away happy, many of
them, in obedience to Miss Gracie’s previous counsel, going home to eat
for the first time, well knowing what they were doing, a Thanksgiving
dinner.
At the home of Miss Wilkins there was an excellent spread of ’possum,
potatoes, rice, chicken, pickles, macaroni, bread, a precious
Thanksgiving turkey, and the inevitable mincemeat pie. Besides Miss
Gracie, there sat at the table that day her parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Solomon Wilkins, John and Joseph Wilkins, brothers of Solomon who had
come from a distance, Mary Andrews, a sister of Mrs. Wilkins, who also
came from a distance, Grandma Wilkins, Grandma and Grandpa Andrews, the
Rev. John Jones, his wife, his daughter, and his only son, Jasper Jones.
Jasper had gone to school at T—— one year after Gracie went, and, of
course, was one year later in finishing the course there. On this
Thanksgiving Day, nevertheless, he had been out of school long enough to
have successfully established himself in the business of poultry raising
and dairying.
Just before the dinner party was dismissed the Rev. Mr. Jones arose and
said:
“There is another little ceremony you’all is invited to witness befo’
you go out to see the baseball game. I am authorized by these
credentials which I hol’ in my hands to unite in the holy bonds of
matrimony Miss Grace Wilkins and Mr. Jasper Jones. If there is no
objection, these two persons will please stan’ up, an’ I’ll tie the
knot.”
Of course there were no objections. The knot was tied. And when the
villagers learned of the occurrence not long afterwards they had
additional reason for believing that they were right when they voted
that Piney Grove had never seen the like of such a Thanksgiving Day, and
that Miss Gracie Wilkins was one of the best women in all the world.
VII.
THE LOUD GIRL.
I do not know of a more sorrowful spectacle than that of a girl who is
loud in her dress, loud in her manners, and loud in her speech. It is a
great mistake for a girl to suppose that this loudness will be mistaken
by her friends and acquaintances for smartness. The desire to be
regarded as bright and witty has led many a girl into the folly of being
loud in her manners. She often cherishes the illusion that the attention
such manners attract is combined with admiration, when the truth is that
those who witness her strange conduct are simply wondering how it is
possible for her to throw to the winds that charm of all
girlhood—modesty.
One afternoon not long ago I saw a group of girls of the loud type. They
came into the street car in which I was sitting. They all wore boys’
hats. One wore a vivid red jacket with brass buttons, and another had on
a brass belt. A third one had on a most conspicuous plaid skirt. This
third one had a box of bonbons, and when the three were seated she
opened the box and offered it to her companions, saying as she did so,
in a voice loud enough and shrill enough to be heard in every part of
the car:
[Illustration: BLAB-MOUTHED AND NOISY.]
“It’s my treat; have some, chums!”
Upon this invitation one of the girls dived down into the box like a
hungry bear, and held up a piece of the candy in triumph and then dashed
it into her mouth with a great guffaw. “O, Mame!” said one of the girls,
“if you ain’t just horrid to go and take the very piece I wanted!”
“Mame” laughed and, taking the candy from her mouth, offered it to the
other girl, saying as she did so:
“Well, here it is, Lulu!”
“Lulu” struck the candy from “Mame’s” hand, and it flew across the aisle
into the lap of a lady sitting opposite the girls. This set all three of
the girls to giggling and tittering, and they seemed in danger of
convulsions when the owner of the box of candy let it fall and a part of
the candy rolled out on the floor.
The conductor came forward and picked up the box and candy and handed
them to the owner. She giggled out her thanks, and “Lulu” said: “Why
didn’t you give him a gumdrop for his trouble?”
This seemed to impress the other girls as a most brilliant witticism,
and they fell to tittering violently over it.
Presently a gentleman came in and stumbled slightly over the feet of one
of the girls thrust out into the aisle.
[Illustration: MODEST AND QUIET.]
“I beg your pardon,” said the gentleman, as he lifted his hat, whereupon
the three girls grinned and giggled and giggled and grinned
immoderately, and one of them said:
“Roxy, you had better ride out on the platform, where there is more room
for your feet!”
“Roxy” then struck “Lulu” for making this speech. “Lulu” pretended to be
much offended and flung herself over to the other side of the car, where
she made a grimace at the other girls.
The conduct of these girls during the half hour that they were on the
car was such as caused every father and mother who saw them to regard
them with pity. The loud girl, my dear readers, is always an object of
pity. She should be a sorry object for her own contemplation. An old
writer has said: “You little know what you have done when you have first
broken the bounds of modesty; you have set open the door of your fancy
to the devil, so that he can represent the same sinful pleasure to you
anew.”
Now, the loud girl may be entirely innocent of any actual wrong-doing,
but she is regarded with dislike, distrust, and even disdain, by the
better class of people. She acquires a reputation for rudeness and
coarseness, and the people of refinement will not associate with her.
Her character suffers, no matter how innocent she may be of any
intention of doing wrong. Delicacy, modesty, is the certain sign of
sweetness, purity and gentleness of character, just as indelicacy is the
certain sign of a lack of these beautiful traits.
VIII.
THE ROWDY BOY.
You can tell him wherever you see him. There are certain marks or
appearances which he carries about with him and which are never absent.
For one thing you will find him with a cigarette stuck in his mouth, and
a cigarette is one of the deadliest poisons in the world for boy or man.
He wears his hat on the side or cocked back on his head. Frequently he
stuffs both hands in his trousers’ pockets. He doesn’t attend school
regularly; sometimes he starts for school and ends at the bathing pond
or the baseball park. He is late at Sunday school, if he goes at all,
and he stands ’round on the outside at church while the service is going
on inside. He steals rides on trains and on trolley cars, and on passing
vehicles of all descriptions. He is saucy and impudent to older people,
and is always ready and willing to quarrel or fight with his mates. He
is what the boys call a “bully.”
The loud girl and the rowdy boy are two things of which we have seen
enough in this world. They are things; they are hardly worth the dignity
of being called human beings.
I saw one of these rowdy boys in his own home not a great while ago. His
mother said to him:
“Johnnie, you must always take off your hat whenever you come into the
house.”
“Good gracious alive,” he said, “I can’t do anything right. What is the
use of grabbing off your hat every time you come into your own house?”
[Illustration: HE STUFFS BOTH HANDS IN HIS TROUSERS POCKETS.]
His mother looked sad, but said nothing. Presently she discovered that
her little boy had brought some mud into the house on his shoes. In her
sweetest tones she said:
“Johnnie, you must go to the door and wipe your feet now. See how you
are tracking up the floor there!”
“Well,” said the rowdy boy with a snarl, “can’t the old floor be
scoured? You must think this old house is gold.”
Now, I am a preacher, boys, and, being a preacher, of course I am what
is called a “man of peace,” but I tell you that that was one time I came
pretty near wishing that I wasn’t a preacher so that I might have given
that boy what he deserved. I was sorry, for the time being, that he
wasn’t my son. No manly little boy will ever talk to his mother in any
such way. I suppose that boy thought it made him appear to be a very
important personage, but he was very much mistaken. Don’t be rowdy,
boys; don’t be rough; don’t be rude. You were made for better things.
IX.
HONESTY.
Early in the morning two little boys came to the market place. They
arranged their little stands and spread out their wares, and sat down to
wait for customers. One sold watermelons and fruit, and the other sold
fish and oysters. The hours passed on and both were doing well.
By-and-by Sammie had only one melon left on his stand. A gentleman came
along and said:
“What a fine, large melon! I think I will buy that one. What do you ask
for it, my boy?”
[Illustration: “HOW MUCH FOR THE MELON?”]
“This is my last melon, sir; and though it looks fair, there is an
unsound spot on the other side,” said the boy, turning the melon over.
“So there is,” said the man. “I don’t believe I’ll take it. But,” he
added, looking straight at the boy, “is it very good business for you to
point out the defects of your goods to customers?”
“Perhaps not, sir,” said the boy with becoming modesty, “but it is
better than being dishonest.”
“You are right, my boy; always speak the truth and you will find favor
with God and man. I shall not forget your little stand in the future.”
Then turning to the other boy’s stand the man asked:
“Are those fresh oysters?”
“Yes, sir,” said Freddie, “these are fresh this morning—just arrived.”
The gentleman bought them and went away.
“Sammie,” said Freddie, “you never will learn any sense. What did you
want to show that man that spot on the melon for? He never would have
looked at it until he got home. I’ve got an eye to business, myself. You
see how I got rid of those stale oysters—sold them for just the same
price as fresh oysters.”
“Freddie,” said the other boy, “I wouldn’t tell a lie, or act one
either, for twice the money we have both earned to-day. Besides I have
gained a customer and you have lost one.”
And it turned out just as Sammie said. The next day the gentleman bought
a large supply of fruit from Sammie, but he never spent another penny at
Freddie’s stand. It continued that way through all the summer. At the
close of the season he took Sammie into his store, and, after awhile,
gave him a share in the business.
X.
UNCLE NED AND THE INSURANCE SOLICITOR.[2]
Turner Tanksley, a representative of the Workingmen’s Industrial Aid
Insurance Company, called upon Edmund Grant, an elderly colored man,
with a view to getting him to insure his life.
“Good morning, Uncle Ned,” said Mr. Tanksley.
“Mawnin’, Boss,” said the old man, raising his hat and making a low
courtesy.
“Uncle Ned, do you carry any insurance?” inquired the solicitor.
“Does I car’y what?” asked Uncle Ned in great surprise.
“Do you carry any insurance? Is your life insured?” asked the solicitor
by way of explanation.
“Bless Gawd! Yas, yas,” replied the colored man, “long ago—long ago.”
Then the solicitor asked: “In what company?”
Uncle Ned answered: “I’m a Baptis’, sah; I’m a Baptis’—a deep-watah
Baptis’.”
Mr. Tanksley realized that the old man had not understood the question,
but, anyhow, he asked:
“How long has it been since you joined?”
[Illustration: “DAT’S JES’ WHAT MY ’LIGION DOES,” SAID THE OLD MAN.]
“I j’ined,” replied Uncle Ned, “de same year dat de stars fell—I reckon
you know how long dat’s been?”
“That’s a long while,” commented the insurance man; “quite a long while.
Does your company pay any dividends?”
“Boss,” said Uncle Ned with a broad grin, “dat question is plumb out uv
my reach. What is you tryin’ to git at?”
“Why, Uncle Ned,” said Mr. Tanksley, “a dividend is interest paid on
your money; and if you have been paying your money into one company for
more than thirty years surely you ought to have been receiving your
dividends long before now, especially if it’s an old-line company.”
“Well,” said Uncle Ned, “hit sho is de ole-line comp’ny—hit sho is. De
Lawd sot hit up Hisse’f ’way back yondah on Calvaree’s tree. But I ain’t
nevah hyeahed tell uv no intrus’ nor no divverdens ner nothin’ uv dat
sawt; an’ you ain’t hyeah me say nothin’ ’tall ’bout payin’ in no money
fer thirty yeahs—you know you ain’t. Salvation’s free, white man;
salvation’s free—you knows dat ez well ez I does.”
The way Uncle Ned laughed when he had delivered himself of this
remarkable speech would have done your soul good.
“Oh, I see,” said Mr. Tanksley with much condescension, “I see that I’ve
misunderstood you. You’re talking about your soul’s salvation.”
“Dat’s what I is,” chimed in Uncle Ned, “dat’s what I is.”
“I came,” resumed the solicitor, “to talk to you about insuring your
body in case of accident, sickness or death.”
“Accerdents is fer us all,” said Uncle Ned, with a far-away expression
on his face, “accerdents is fer us all, an’ dah ain’t no gittin’ ’roun’
death.”
“That’s true,” responded the patient solicitor, “that’s true; insurance
companies can’t prevent sickness and accidents and death any more than
you can, Uncle Ned, but insurance companies can and do help you to bear
your burdens in the time of trouble.”
“Dat’s jes’ what my ’ligion does,” said the old man with supreme
satisfaction, “dat’s jes’ what my ’ligion does.”
“But we do it in a different way,” persisted the solicitor.
“Well, how does y’all do?” asked Uncle Ned.
Then the solicitor went over the details of the Workingmen’s Industrial
Aid Insurance Company with his accustomed rapidity, telling about the
initiation fees, monthly premiums, accident benefits, sick benefits,
etc., etc., laying much stress especially upon the “endowment fund” that
would be paid upon the death of the insured. When he had finished the
elaborate narrative Uncle Ned, who had given the most earnest attention
to the speaker, inquired:
“Boss, who you say de money goes to w’en I dies?”
“To your wife,” answered the solicitor, “or your children, or anybody
you might name.”
“Well, Boss,” said the old man, “lemme ax you one question: Don’t you
think dat would he’p de uddah fellah mo’n hit would me?”
“What other fellow?” asked Mr. Tanksley.
“My ole ’oman’s secon’ husban’,” replied Ned; “you know des ez good ez I
does dat ef I wuz to die an’ leave my ole ’oman two hundred or three
hundred dollars, dah’d be some cullud gent’man done changed her name
’fo’ ole Ned got cole in de groun’.”
Uncle Ned’s originality made it very hard for Turner Tanksley to
suppress a smile. Without giving the solicitor a chance to speak, Uncle
Ned continued:
“An’ dah’s anuddah way to look at hit. Wimmins is mighty cu’ious. Yas,
sah; wimmins is mighty cu’ious. Ef I wuz to go into dis thing you’s
tellin’ me ’bout, I dasn’t let Dinah know hit. White man, you don’t
know—no, sah, you don’t know. Ef dat ’oman knowed she’d git all dat
money w’en I died, she would sho put a spidah in my dumplin’—she sho
would, an’ fuss thing I know I’d wake up some mawnin’ an’ fine myse’f
dead, an’ all on account uv dis thing dat you calls ’showance. No, sah,
I don’t want nothin’ to do wid hit. De Baptis’ church is good ’nuff fer
me.”
When the solicitor turned the corner he heard Uncle Ned singing some
kind of religious song with the following refrain:
“I’m Baptis’ bred, an’ Baptis’ bo’n.
An’ w’en I die, dah’s a Baptis’ gone.”
XI.
THE STRENUOUS LIFE.
They were having a rough-and-tumble time of it and Pansy was getting
some pretty hard blows. She took them all good-naturedly, nevertheless,
and tried to give as good as she received, much to the delight of her
little boy friends. A lady who was standing near, afraid for the little
girl, chided the boys and said:
“You shouldn’t handle Pansy so roughly—you might hurt her.”
And then Pansy looked up in sweet surprise and said with amusing
seriousness:
“No; they won’t hurt me. I don’t break easy.”
It was a thoroughly childlike expression, but it had more wisdom in it
than Pansy knew. She spoke out of a little girl’s experience with dolls,
some of which, as she had learned, broke very easily. Pansy knew how
delightful it was to have a doll that didn’t break so easily. Though she
was not a homely girl by any means, and though she was not a wicked
little girl, yet she wanted it understood that she was not like a piece
of china. That was why the other children liked her so much—because she
knew how to rough it without crying or complaining at every turn. Pansy
was not a cry-baby.
[Illustration: “I DON’T BREAK EASY.”]
There is all the time, my dear boys and girls, a great demand everywhere
all through life for people who don’t break easily—people who know how
to take hard knocks without going all to pieces. The game of life is
sometimes rough, even among those who mean to play fair. It is very
trying when we have to deal with people who break easily, and are always
getting hurt and spoiling the game with their tears and complaints. It
is so much better when we have to deal with people who, like little
Pansy, do not break easily. Some of them will laugh off the hardest
words without wincing at all. You can jostle them as you will, but they
don’t fall down every time you shove them, and they don’t cry every time
they are pushed aside. You can’t but like them, they take life so
heartily and so sensibly. You don’t have to hold yourself in with them
all the time. You can let yourself out freely without being on pins as
to the result. Young people of this class make good playmates or good
work-fellows, as the case may be.
So, boys and girls, you must learn to rough it a little. Don’t be a
china doll, going to smash at every hard knock. If you get hard blows
take them cheerily and as easily as you can. Even if some blow comes
when you least expect it, and knocks you off your feet for a minute,
don’t let it floor you long. Everybody likes the fellow who can get up
when he is knocked down and blink the tears away and pitch in again.
Learning to get yourself accustomed to a little hard treatment will be
good for you. Hard words and hard fortune often make us—if we don’t let
them break us. Stand up to your work or play courageously, and when you
hear words that hurt, when you are hit hard with the blunders or
misdeeds of others, when life goes roughly with you, keep right on in a
happy, companionable, courageous, helpful spirit, and let the world know
that you don’t break easily.
XII.
A HUMBUG.
A boy or girl who is pleasant and agreeable everywhere except at home is
a humbug. I know one boy who is a good deal of a humbug, although you
would never think so if you were to see him in any place outside of his
home. He is good-looking, neat and tidy, and carries himself like a
little man. I do not know of a boy who can tip his hat more gracefully
to a lady, or who can say, “I beg your pardon,” or “excuse me, please,”
more pleasantly than he can. But, for all that, he is a humbug.
I visited his home the other day. I heard his mother speak to him.
“Alexander,” she said.
“Well, what do you want?” he asked in a voice which plainly indicated
his displeasure.
“I want you to do something for me.”
“Oh, you are always wanting me to do something just when I want to be
doing something else,” said Alexander, and this time he was whining.
In departing on his errand Alexander accidentally ran against his little
sister in the hall. I expected to hear him say, “I beg your pardon” in
the pleasant way that I knew he could say it, but he snapped out
instead:
“Oh, get out of the way, can’t you?”
[Illustration: “OH, GET OUT OF THE WAY, CAN’T YOU?”]
When he returned from the postoffice Alexander’s mother was out in the
yard trimming the flowers. While Alexander was reporting to her, she
happened to drop her scissors. I expected to see her polite and dutiful
son pick them up, as he was close by when the scissors fell; but the boy
paid no attention to the scissors. When his mother said: “Please pick up
my scissors for me, Alexander,” he said:
“What did you drop ’em for?”
I spent the best part of one whole day at Alexander’s home, and never
once during all that day did I hear him speak politely to his mother or
sisters, nor did he observe the ordinary rules of courtesy and good
behavior in their presence. He was continually grumbling and complaining
and finding fault. So I think I have a right to say that this boy is a
good deal of a humbug. Any boy is a humbug who is polite and gracious to
others and in every way discourteous and disagreeable at home. Don’t you
think so, too?
XIII.
A CANDIDATE FOR BAPTISM.[3]
At the close of the regular prayer-meeting service the pastor of the New
Mount Zion Colored Baptist Church, according to custom, stepped to the
front of the platform and inquired:
“Is dar anybody present to-night who would like to jine dis church? Ef
so, please stan’ up.”
Whereupon a little girl, apparently fourteen or fifteen years old,
stood. The parson said:
“Take yo’ seat. Dah’s one; de church will set togeddah atter dismission
an’ hyeah f’um dis little lamb.”
The benediction having been pronounced, all the sinners were asked to
leave the room. Only church members are allowed to remain for these
“after meetings.” When the room was cleared of all “the goats” a
pompous-looking individual, perhaps a deacon of the church, arose and
said:
“Bruddah Pastur, de house is in ordah an’ ready fur business.”
The pastor then asked the little girl who was seeking admission to come
forward. She gave her name to a one-eyed man seated at a table in front,
who, after a laborious effort, passed it up on a piece of paper to the
preacher. The preacher, readjusting his brass-rimmed spectacles, looked
at the piece of paper for a long while, and then raised his head and
said:
“Bruddahs an’ sistahs, dis is little Queen Victoria Davis, who comes to
tell us what de Lawd has done fur her soul.” Then, turning to the girl,
he said: “My daughtah, we wants you to tell us what fuss started you to
prayin’, and how you foun’ de Lawd, an’ so on an’ so fo’th. Speak loud
so all kin hyeah.”
The little girl began as follows:
“Well, bruddahs and sistahs, what fuss started me to prayin’ was dat I
knowed dat I had a soul to save, an’ ef I didn’t git religion hell would
sho be my home.”
“True! True!” exclaimed a number of men and women in chorus.
“An’ den,” continued Queen Victoria, “I wanted to start to servin’ de
Lawd while I was young: I wanted to give Him my bes’ days.”
“Amen,” said one old brother.
“Well,” asked the pastor, “how did you feel while you was seekin’ de
Lawd?”
The girl hesitated a moment, evidently in doubt as to the exact purport
of the question. Finally she said:
“I felt like I wanted to be saved.”
This answer not exactly suiting the parson, he put the question in a
different way. Said he:
“Did you feel light er did you feel heavy while you was a-prayin’?”
“I felt both,” said the little girl in unaffected innocence. Funereal
groans of pity swept through the congregation. The preacher tried again.
This time he asked:
“Did you feel light de mos’ er did you feel heavy de mos’?”
When Queen Victoria responded, “I felt heavy de mos’,” a wave of
approval greeted the remark.
“W’en did dat heavy load leave you?” asked the parson.
“Las’ Friday night,” said Queen Victoria; “las’ Friday night. I kep’ on
a-prayin’ an’ a-prayin’, an’ I didn’t feel no bettah untell I made up my
min’ dat I was a-gwine tah fin’ de Lawd er die a-tryin’. An’ las’ Friday
night de Sperrit met me an’ spoke peace to my soul. I hyeahed a little
voice, but I saw no man, an’ de little voice said to me, ‘Go in peace
an’ sin no mo’: yo’ sins is furgiven an’ yo’ soul sot free’.”
At this everybody shouted assent. “Glory! Hallelujah!” exclaimed an
elderly sister.
“Now, my daughtah,” said the preacher, “how did you feel atter dat?”
“I felt light ez a feathah,” said the child. There was another shout of
approval, Queen Victoria having hit upon the regulation answer.
“Ef you was to die now, whar would you go?” inquired the examiner.
“To heaven,” was the reply.
“Ef you had ’a’ died in yo’ sins, whar would you ’a’ went?”
“I would ’a’ went to hell,” said the girl.
“Would Gawd ’a’ been jest in sendin’ you to hell?”
“No, sah!” exclaimed the applicant. Many of the hearers laughed. The
preacher raised his hand and said:
“Don’t laff; don’t laff; de chile is young yit, an’ she’s got to learn.”
Then by a series of leading questions, mainly concerning parental
government, the old pastor brought the child around to the point where
she saw, or where she was willing to say that she saw, that it was just
for God to send people to hell.
“Do you want to jine dis church?” continued the questioner.
“Yes, sah,” said the applicant.
“Dis is a Baptis’ church, you know,” explained the pastor; “we baptize
hyeah by putting people deep down undah de watah. Ain’t you sheered uv
cole watah in de wintah time?”
“Watah can’t git too cole fur me,” said the little girl, “I got de grace
uv Gawd in my heart.”
The people fairly whooped at this (as in their superstition they
supposed) supreme manifestation of faith.
The pastor then turned to the congregation and said:
“Is dah any uddah questions?”
An old brother near the stove arose and said:
“Bruddah Pastur, I ain’t hyeahed de chile say whar she was at w’en de
change took place.”
Queen Victoria responded:
“I was at de Bridge Street church las’ Friday night.”
The old brother nodded, as if completely satisfied with the answer. Then
he asked:
“How long is you willin’ to trus’ dis hope?”
“Tell I dies,” said the applicant. Down sat the questioner.
“Any mo’ questions?” asked the pastor.
A sister stood.
“Honey,” she said, “is you got any parrunts livin’?”
“Yas’m,” was the reply; “my ma an’ my pa is both livin’, an’ dey’s both
out in de ole fiel’ uv sin.”
“Lawd ’a’ mussy!” exclaimed several of the hearers. The sister who asked
the question sat bathed in tears.
A brother in the rear arose and said:
“I has a question dat I wants to ax: I wants to know, daughtah, ef you
was convertid at de Bridge Street church, huccom you wants to jine dis
church?”
“De Speerit sent me to dis church,” exultantly exclaimed the girl.
“Glory to Gawd!” said the pastor. “Bless de Lamb!” exclaimed someone
else. “Honah! Honah! Honah!” hallooed many others, and there was a
general shout.
The examination ended, two sisters came forward and took Queen Victoria
into the anteroom. When the applicant had been carried out a brother
arose, the same pompous individual who had originally announced the
house in “ordah an’ ready fur business.” Clearing his throat, he said:
“Bruddah Pastur, I sho b’lieves dis is de works uv grace.” There was a
loud chorus of “Amens.” “An’ I motions,” continued the speaker, “ef I
kin git a secon’, dat she be ’ceptid ez er candidate fur baptism, an’ on
baptism ’come a full membah uv dis church.”
“Secon’ de motion!” “Secon’ de motion!” exclaimed several at one and the
same time.
The motion was put and carried. Queen Victoria was brought in once more.
The pastor informed her of the unanimous vote of the church, and
instructed her to be ready for baptism the following Sunday night. Then
the meeting adjourned, the members singing as they dispersed:
“Ole sheep, you know de road,
Ole sheep, you know de road,
Ole sheep, you know de road,
Young lambs mus’ learn de way.”
XIV.
GOING WITH THE CROWD.
“But all the girls went, mother. I didn’t like to be the only one left
out. Besides, when I said I wouldn’t go they all laughed at me and said
that I was a coward.”
It was Wednesday morning, before school time, and Anna was dreading to
go back to school—dreading to meet her teacher. The day before a circus
had been in town. At recess, while the children were on the playground,
they heard the noise of the band, and one of the girls said:
“Let’s go and see the parade.”
“All right,” said Anna. “I’ll go and ask the teacher if we may.”
“No; don’t ask her—she might say no. We can get back before the bell
rings, and she will never know that we left the grounds.”
Anna and one or two other girls held back. They all knew that it was
against the rules to go off the playground at recess without permission.
“Oh, come on! Come on!” insisted one of the girls. “You’re afraid;
you’re afraid! Come on! Don’t be such a coward; all the rest are going.”
And so Anna went.
When the girls saw the parade pass one point they wanted to see it once
more, and away they went through the cross street to get to another
corner ahead of the procession. School was forgotten; and when they did
remember, recess time was long past and it was too late to go back.
The next morning, as Anna stood in the kitchen talking it over with her
mother, her little heart was very heavy. She knew she had done wrong;
she dreaded to go to school; and she was very unhappy.
“Perhaps,” said her mother, “if you had been brave about not going, the
other girls would have stayed on the school grounds too. Or, if you had
asked the teacher, I think she would have let you all go. But whether
she did or not, it is never safe to do a thing just because ‘all the
rest do it.’ Going with the crowd is not a good plan unless you are sure
that the crowd is going in the right direction. The only wise thing for
you to do is to be sure you are right, and then stick to it and never
mind what the crowd does.”
“I didn’t mean to do wrong,” said Anna, as the tears started in her
eyes.
[Illustration: “MOTHER, I’M SO HAPPY. TEACHER FORGAVE ME.”]
“I know that, my dear,” said her mother, “but you were more afraid of
being teased than you were of doing wrong. I hope you will remember from
this day forward that the brave girl is not the girl who dares to do
wrong, but the brave girl is the one who does what she knows to be
right, in spite of the taunts and jeers of her playmates.”
“What shall I tell my teacher?” asked Anna in a low voice, as she
dropped her head.
“Oh,” said her mother, kissing her, “you go right straight to your
teacher and tell her that you have done wrong, and that you are sorry
for it. Ask her to let you say so to the whole school. Be sure to beg
her pardon, and promise not to do so again.”
Little Anna did as her mother told her. That afternoon, when she came
back from school, she ran into her mother’s arms and said:
“Mother, I’m so happy. Teacher forgave me, and I mean to be good.”
And the smile on Anna’s face spoke plainly of a happy heart.
XV.
MARY AND HER DOLLS.
[Illustration: MARY AND HER DOLLS.]
Was there ever a time when the first doll was born? Was there ever a
time when little boys and girls, especially little girls, did not love
dolls and did not have something of that nature to play with? It would
appear that dolls, or playthings somewhat like unto dolls, are as old as
babies themselves—that is to say, boys and girls, that ever since there
have been little children in the world there have been little things for
them to play with. And I never saw a sane person in my life who regrets
that it is so. It is not only amusing, it is inspiring to see the little
children making merry with their dolls and their toy animals and their
little express wagons and their wooden guns and their toy steam engines
and their whistles and their balloons and their brownies and their
jumping-jacks and their hobby-horses and a hundred and one other things.
Mary had put away her dolls for the night and was cleaning the doll
house when papa came in.
“How many doll babies have you now, Mary?” he asked.
“I have five dolls now, papa,” said Mary, “but only one is a baby—that
is little Flossie. Robbie and Nell are three years old now; Mattie is
two and Jerusha is one year old. Flossie is now the only little baby.”
The Rev. Dr. Smithson smiled.
“Well,” he said after a time, “five dolls make a big family, I think.”
“I don’t,” said Mary quickly. “Rolla Mays has thirteen girls and two
boys in her doll family, and I haven’t but five in all!”
“I shouldn’t think,” said Dr. Smithson, “that Rolla would know what to
do with so many.”
“Why, papa, of course she does!”
“Mary,” said Dr. Smithson, looking thoughtfully at his little daughter,
“I have a little girl in my Sunday school class who hasn’t a single
doll. I thought you might like to give her one of yours. You could spare
one—couldn’t you?”
“Oh, papa, I couldn’t—not a one,” exclaimed Mary.
“Not one—when this poor little girl hasn’t any?”
“Oh, papa, I love my dolls so—how can I give them away?”
“You’d have four left—wouldn’t that be enough?”
Mary thought a long while before speaking. She looked distressed.
“Papa,” she said at last, “Mrs. Grant was over here the other day, and
she said that she wished you and mamma would give me to her because she
didn’t have any little girl of her own. You’ve got five children
yourself, papa—but would you give any of ’em away just because you would
have four left?”
Dr. Smithson took his little daughter in his arms and kissed her.
“No, dear,” he said; “papa wouldn’t give any one of his children away.
You may keep all of your dollies, and we’ll think of some other way to
help poor little Hattie.”
The next morning Mary said:
“Papa, I have thought it all out for Hattie. You know I have been saving
up a little money to buy me a little iron bank—but I can wait for that.
I have saved up fifty cents—don’t you think that will be enough to buy a
nice little dolly for Hattie, and let me keep my babies?”
Dr. Smithson knew that Mary had long been planning for the bank. So he
asked:
“Are you quite sure that you want to spend your money in this way?”
“Yes, papa, I’m very sure,” said Mary with a smile, though there was a
hint of sadness in her eyes.
Dr. Smithson and Mary bought Hattie a pretty doll. Hattie was overjoyed
when she saw it. Mary went back home, glad that her papa had understood
how she loved her dolls, and glad to find that not one of her beloved
children was missing.
XVI.
JAKY TOLBERT’S PLAYMATES.
“Well, Johnnie, where are you going this morning?” asked Mrs. Jones as
her little boy started towards the gate.
“I’m goin’ over to Jaky’s, mamma; you know I must go over to Jaky’s
every day.”
“What do you find at Jaky’s to make you so anxious to go over there
every day almost before you are out of bed good?”
“Oh, mamma, Jaky has the nicest playmates over to his house you ’most
ever saw.”
“Who else goes over to Jaky’s besides you?” asked Mrs. Jones.
“Jaky don’t have no reg’lar visitor but me,” said Johnnie proudly. “Me
an’ Jaky is the whole thing.”
“Well, you are saying a good deal for yourself when you say that Jaky
has the nicest playmates in the world—don’t you think so?”
[Illustration: “I’M GOING OVER TO JAKY’S, MAMMA.”]
“I didn’t mean me,” explained Johnnie. “Jaky’s playmates ain’t folks at
all. Jaky’s playmates is animals—just animals, but I do believe that
they have got as much sense as some folks I know.”
“What kind of animals?” asked Mrs. Jones, becoming interested.
Then Johnnie went on to explain. He said:
“Jaky’s got chickens and dogs and cats and birds. He’s got names for all
of ’em, and they all know their names and they just run to Jaky when he
calls them. The chickens and birds, too, will just walk right up and eat
out of Jaky’s hand. And his trained dogs and cats are just the funniest
things I ever saw. His little dog, Trip, can carry a gun and obey the
commands, “Carry arms!” “Present arms!” “Parade rest!” just like a
little soldier. One time at a fair he saw trained dogs and horses,
elephants, and even lions. Then he decided that he would train some
animals himself. And, mamma, he has done well. Why, he’s got a cat that
can spell some words. Jaky printed some letters of the alphabet on
separate cards, and he’s got a cat that will pick out the right ones
every time. One of his little dogs can play the fiddle. It may seem
strange, but he certainly can do it. He can hold the fiddle, and draw
the bow across it just the right way, and he can play a little tune.
Jaky calls it a dog tune, and I think he ought to know.
“You just ought to see Jaky’s chickens—he’s got six of ’em. He calls
them and they all come running. Then he holds out his arm, and calls
them by name, and they will jump up on his little arm, one after the
other, and will sit there until Jaky tells them to jump down. And Jaky
is so kind to his two birds that they won’t fly away when he lets them
out of their cages for a little while. He can take them up in his arms
and pat them gently, and then he puts them down, and they will lie still
right by Jaky until Jaky calls them by name and tells them to go into
the house—that is, I mean, into their cages.
“By the way, mama, I forgot to tell you. Jaky is getting up an animal
show, and he says that I am to be his manager. He’s going to print the
cards to-day. He’s going to call his circus, “JAKY TOLBERT’S GREAT
ANIMAL SHOW—THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH,” and he’s going to make me the
manager of his circus. Won’t that be fine? You’ll come and see it—won’t
you? We’re going to charge only one cent for you to come in. Oh, it’s
going to be great, and I don’t want you to miss it.”
“To be sure, I’ll come,” said Mrs. Jones. “Tell Jaky I’m glad to hear
about how much he loves the dumb animals—every manly boy ought to love
and protect them.”
“I tell you,” said Johnnie, as he hurried out of the gate, “Jaky will
fight anybody who hallooes at one of his pets or mistreats one in the
least. He’s just as kind to them as he can be. Don’t you forget the
show. It’ll come off next week.”
XVII.
A VALENTINE PARTY.
It was one week from St. Valentine’s Day, and the Berry children had
already provided a number of the tokens, comic and otherwise, which they
meant to send to their friends. Jack produced a grotesque and awfully
exaggerated caricature of a withered, stoop-shouldered old woman, with
some cruel lines of doggerel printed beneath it.
“I’m going to send this to old Mrs. Gray,” said Jack, as he exhibited
the comic picture.
Nearly all the children laughed, and said that the picture and the words
beneath it would just suit the old woman. Mrs. Gray was an old and
poverty-stricken widow woman, and many of the children of the little
village took delight in playing tricks on her on Hallowe’en and
Valentine nights. In this way, the children, especially the boys, had
made her life so miserable that the old woman often said that she hated
even the sight of a boy. In the midst of the merriment over the proposed
venture of Jack Berry, it was Lillie Berry who spoke up, saying,——
[Illustration: OLD MRS. GRAY.]
“Jack, I tell you what I think. I think we ought to give Mrs. Gray a
genuine surprise next week. She has had so many ups and downs in this
life, I really believe that we can give her a little pleasure if we give
her a true—true surprise. Of course, all the boys and girls will be
invited to join in, but it is not going to be like a regular party, but
something like the ‘surprise’ parties or donation parties that we
sometimes give the preacher; we’ll just put the things on the doorstep
and run, the way we do with valentines, you know. What do you say to
that, Jack? And what do the rest of you think?”
Very quickly the Berry children agreed with what Lillie had said, and
immediately they set about planning for the valentine party.
The night of February fourteenth was clear, cold and moonless. Across
the fields in the darkness, a throng of merry young children, with a
wagon or two (little goat wagons) piled high with baskets and bundles
and wood, slipped silently toward the little house where old Mrs. Gray
sat shivering over her scanty fire. A sudden knock at the door aroused
Mrs. Gray from her musing. She hobbled painfully to the door. Opening
it, she saw by the light of the tallow candle a basket of rosy apples
and another of potatoes. Nothing else was in sight.
A second knock followed almost as soon as the door had closed on the two
baskets which were hurriedly drawn inside. This time a can of kerosene
oil held a lonely vigil on the doorstep.
“I haven’t had a drop in my lamp for two weeks,” Jack heard the old lady
say, as she peered out eagerly into the darkness before closing the
door.
As she was busy filling her lamp, she was interrupted by a third knock,
which resulted in a basket filled with groceries in parcels in all
shapes and sizes. Great tears stood in Mrs. Gray’s eyes, and a great
lump arose in her throat.
At last knock number four revealed the real Saint Valentine—a group of
laughing boys and girls, every one of whom carried an armful either of
pine or oak wood for the stove.
“Where shall we put it?” asked Jack Berry, as eager now to help as he
had been the week before to tease. Mrs. Gray was rubbing her eyes, and
wondering if she could possibly be awake and in her right mind.
“Wish you many happy returns of Valentine’s Day!” said Lillie Berry, as
she slipped into the withered hand a small purse containing the
valentine money of the boys and girls; and before the bewildered woman
could say more than a fervent “God bless you,” her guests had melted
away in the darkness, and she was left to weep tears of thankfulness
among her new possessions.
XVIII.
“NO MONEY DOWN.”
Boys and girls, I suppose you are quite familiar with what is known as
buying things on the instalment plan. You have seen people in your own
neighborhood—perhaps in your own homes—buy things that way. Chairs,
tables, bed-steads, rugs, pictures, things for the kitchen and things to
wear, and many other things are bought that way. Most people think they
are getting a great bargain when they are able to buy things by paying a
small amount in cash as the first payment—say fifty cents or a
dollar—and then pay the balance in small weekly or monthly payments. And
especially do some of our mothers and fathers think that they are
getting a great bargain, if they are able to buy things they want for
“no money down” and so much a week. In such matters, my dear boys and
girls, your parents are making a terrible mistake and are setting you a
wrong example. They lose sight of the fact, when they fall into the
habit of buying anything and everything on the instalment plan or on the
“no money down” plan, that a day of reckoning is sure to come; that the
time comes when they must pay for everything that they have been led
into buying. Thoughtful people—wise people—prefer to pay “money down”
when they buy anything; and this habit of paying as they go helps them
in at least two ways. First, it saves money in their pockets, and,
secondly, it keeps them from running in debt.
Children, these men who come to your homes with great packs on their
backs always charge you double for whatever they may sell you on the “no
money down” plan—no matter what it is! That is why they are willing to
make the terms so “easy,” as they say. In the end they profit by their
schemes, and nobody else does profit by their schemes except these
peddlers. You ought to avoid them as you would a wild beast. You do not
know now, boys and girls, what a terrible thing debt is. I honestly hope
that you may never know, and if you will take the advice of older and
wiser persons I am sure you will always be free from the bondage of
debt.
Not long ago, I saw two women standing at the window of one of these “no
money down” or “hand-me-down” stores. One said to the other—
“I just believe I’ll get me a new cloak this winter. My cloak didn’t
cost but three dollars, and it is so old and shabby that I am ashamed to
wear it in the street. Look at that beauty over there in the corner.
Only ten dollars and ‘no money down’.”
“Yes;” said her companion, “but I guess the money will have to come down
sometime.”
“Oh, of course; but, you know, I won’t have to pay it all at once. I
could probably get it for fifty cents a week.”
“Well, why don’t you just save the fifty cents a week until you have
enough to pay ‘cash down’ for the cloak, and in that way you would save,
I am sure, three or four dollars; because you can buy that same cloak
for six dollars or seven dollars in cash.”
“Oh,” said the woman, “I’d never save it as I would if I had the cloak
and knew that I just had to pay for it.”
“But, Delia, the cloak would not really be yours until you had paid for
it, and I would feel kind of cheap wearing a cloak that didn’t belong to
me. If I were you I would stick to the old cloak until I could pay the
money down for a new one. That’s what I would do.”
And that is exactly what anybody should do who wants a new cloak. It is
what people should do, no matter what they want. I know a boy fifteen or
sixteen years old who had the courage and the manliness and the honesty
to wear a very shabby old overcoat all of last winter rather than buy
one on the “no money down” plan. It is his plan always to “pay as he
goes,” and be debtor to no one.
I heard the other day of a young fellow who goes two or three blocks out
of his way to avoid passing certain stores because he owes the
proprietors of those stores money that he cannot pay. That boy, I know,
is miserable night and day. Mr. Longfellow, in his “The Village
Blacksmith,” tells us that the honest old blacksmith could look “the
whole world in the face,” because he did not owe anybody anything—he was
out of debt. And boys and girls, if you are level-headed, you will fight
shy of the “no money down” plan. By choosing the “money down” plan, you
will save your self-respect and your good name.
XIX.
TOMMY’S BABY BROTHER.
For several months Deacon Tadpole’s little son, Tommy, had made constant
and repeated reference to the fact that he had no little baby brother or
sister to play with. One day, when he was feeling unusually sad over his
misfortune, he said to his father,——
“Papa, I ain’t got no little baby brother to play with—you might at
least buy me a little pony.”
“Papa can’t buy a pony, son;” said the deacon. “A pony costs too much. I
thought you wanted a little brother or sister.”
“I do,” said Tommy, “but if I can’t get what I want I’m willing to take
what I can get.”
“But, you would rather have a little brother than a pony, wouldn’t you?”
asked Mr. Tadpole.
Tommy thought awhile and then said he thought he would rather have a
little baby brother than to have a pony.
“You see,” he said, “it costs so much to keep a pony, and we would have
to build a stable for him, wouldn’t we, papa?”
“Yes,” answered his father, “and we haven’t got any room in the backyard
for a stable.”
“And we’d have to buy hay, too,” said the child.
“Yes,” said his father.
“Well, I’d rather have the little brother.”
[Illustration: “PAPA, I AINT GOT NO LITTLE BABY BROTHER TO PLAY WITH.”]
So the matter was left in abeyance until a month ago when little Tommy
was told one morning that a little brother had come to him.
He was delighted. He danced around in the hall and made such a racket on
the stairs that the nurse threatened to have him sent away. When he was
permitted to see the baby, Tommy went into ecstasies. He asked a
thousand questions about the little one, and was very anxious to know
why God had taken so long to send him down from heaven. He wanted to
kiss the baby, and cried because they wouldn’t let him hold it in his
arms.
But Tommy’s enthusiasm for the new baby began to wear off in about a
week’s time. It was always, “Sh-sh! Sh-sh! You’ll wake the baby,” or
“Tommy, you must be more quiet!” or “You can’t come in this room, now!”
In fact the little baby brother seemed to be interfering with little
Tommy’s fun to such an extent that he decided to go to his father and
see if some new arrangement could not be made. Tommy found his father in
the library. He ran to Deacon Tadpole and climbed upon his knee, and
said,——
“Papa, I don’t believe I want my little brother any more. I can’t have
any fun with him. I’ll tell you what let’s do. Let’s trade him for a
pony.”
“Oh, we couldn’t do that,” said the deacon.
Tommy was silent for a time. Then he said,——
“Well, I don’t suppose we could find anybody that would want to trade a
pony for him, but don’t you think you could trade him for a goat?”
XX.
KEEPING SCHOOL.
Every boy and girl in America ought to go to school. The public school
is one of the best institutions connected with the life of our nation.
But did you ever hear of a little girl who went to school to herself? I
have, and I want to tell you about it.
We will call her Tootsie.
There was no school house, and no teachers; nothing only just little
Tootsie; not even her dolls; just simply Tootsie sitting all alone on
the couch near the window. That was all there was to this little school,
so far as anybody could see.
But Tootsie said she had a large school, with some sixty pupils.
Sometimes she would say that her scholars had been naughty and that they
would have to stay in at recess; and then again she would say that they
had been promoted to a higher grade; she often talked to her pupils as
if they were real live people, telling them how they should stand and
how they should sit and giving them permission to be excused, and so on.
So you see it seemed in Tootsie’s mind very much more like a real school
than it could to us.
[Illustration: TOOTSIE.]
Every morning, when Tootsie’s sister would start for school, Tootsie
would watch her until she was out of sight, and then she would go and
sit down on the couch. Not having a true-true school book, she would
take her Christmas story books. At first she would only look at the
pictures and try to think what the story about them must be. Then she
would ask mama or grandma, or whoever happened to be nearest, what the
words of the picture-story were. She would then say the words of the
story over to herself, and look at the picture. Next day she would read
over the words of the same story as far as she could remember them, and
when she came to a word that she did not know, up she would jump and go
and ask some one what it was. When she had learned a story herself, she
would then talk to her sixty imaginary scholars about it, showing them
the picture and explaining the story to them just as though the children
were all there before her in her little school room.
In this way Tootsie went through one after another of her story books,
picking out the stories that had pleasing pictures.
But the nice thing of it all was that Tootsie was really learning to
read, and she did get so that she read real well; for she knew just what
she was reading about, and often, when she would find a story that was
funny, she would laugh right out even if she was at school, and then she
would find mama or grandma and read the funny part to them.
Maybe one reason why Tootsie learned so fast was because her school was
just like play to her and not like work. Of course, it is easier to play
than it is to work. But could you think of any better thing to play than
to play keeping school? Why not try it? It helped Tootsie wonderfully,
and I believe it would help many other boys and girls. What do you think
about it?
XXI.
THE SCHOOL OF THE STREET.
Little Joe, ten years old, had followed his business as a newsboy and
bootblack in Smutville for three or four years, and, of course, had
turned out to be a first-class little citizen of the street. He could
curse and swear, and drink and smoke, just the same as any old hardened
sinner.
One day, after Joe had finished one of his daily fights with some other
small boy, a kind-hearted gentleman stepped up to him and said,——
“My little man, do you go to school?”
“Nope,” said Joe.
“Do you go to Sunday-school?”
“Nope.”
“Well,” said the gentleman, “what do you expect to do when you are
grown?”
“I ain’t going to wait till I’m grown—I’m going to be a jockey; that’s
what I’m going to be.”
“How would you like to be bank cashier or president of a great bank?
Wouldn’t you like that better?”
“Yep,” said the boy, “but a poor boy can’t get no job like that—now you
know he couldn’t.”
“Oh, yes; he could if he were to prepare himself for it. But a poor boy,
and no other boy, will ever be a great business man if he is going to
live forever in the street—cursing and swearing and fighting and, it may
be, stealing, and having no higher ambition than to be a jockey.”
[Illustration: LITTLE JOE.]
“Are you a parson?” asked the boy, becoming interested.
“No, but I am interested in little boys. I am the secretary of the Young
Men’s Christian Association and we have a boys’ department. I want you
to join it. I have found out about your habits and your surroundings; I
was told of the death of your mother and father; and I made up my mind
to come and ask you to come over to the Young Men’s Christian
Association and live with us. You may continue to sell your papers and
black boots, but, you see, living with us, you can go to school at
night, and some day you will have a good education—and you might be a
bank cashier.”
Little Joe took this good man’s advice and went to live in the Y. M. C.
A. building. He did not turn out to be a bank cashier or president, but
what was better, Joe turned out to be a General Secretary of one of the
largest Y. M. C. A.’s among the colored people of this country, and in
that way has been instrumental in saving a great many other boys from
the gutter.
But Joe would never have amounted to anything if he had not been taken
away from the wicked influences of the street, and placed on the road to
higher things. The worst school in this world that any boy can go to is
the school of the street. The school of the street turns out the most
impure, the most dishonest and the most illiterate boys, and those boys
and girls who ever rise to be anything or anybody in the world are the
ones who leave the influences of the street in due time, as Little Joe
did. The street offers most of its work and most of its attractions at
night, as many boys can tell. The life of the street leads to no career
that is worth following. The good careers are made by those whom the
street has not had a chance to spoil, or by those who are taken out of
the streets before they become hopeless cases.
There is no greater error than the common notion that it is a good thing
to let a boy run the streets and become “hard” and “tough” and “have his
wits sharpened” and make “a little man” of himself, as some foolish
people say. A boy learns more downright mischief in one night in the
street than he can unlearn in the home in six months. And so, what will
the teaching of the home, the public school and the Sunday-school amount
to, if we are going to give our boys in their young and tender years the
freedom of the streets? If now and then a street boy—that is to say, a
boy hardened in the ways of the street—does get a good place, in most
cases he will lose it and fall back to the old, free life of the gutter.
The boys who succeed are the boys who get away from, or who are taken
away from, the influences of the street and who are surrounded by better
and more wholesome influences. Those who remain under the influences of
the street become in the course of time members of the great army of
beggars, tramps and criminals. It is a great pity that there should be
so many stories going the rounds which tell about newsboys and messenger
boys and so on rising to be bank clerks and telegraph-operators and so
forth. On the whole, these stories are misleading, and for the reason
that they seem to give the impression to many innocent boys and to many
thoughtless parents that the surest way to give a boy a good start in
life is to send him out into the streets to “rough it” and fight his way
to the front over beer bottles, games of chance, the race-track, and the
pool room, to the accompaniment of vulgar jokes, profane swearing and
evil associates. I repeat: The school of the street is the worst school
in the world, and the sooner boys get out of it the better it will be
for them.
XXII.
THE FOX HUNT.
Uncle Hambright used to pride himself upon his ability to invent amusing
games for the children. Sometimes he found it hard to think of anything
new, but the demands of the children were so insistent and his desire to
please them always was so intense that it often happened that Uncle
Hambright could almost make a way out of no way.
Dinner-time was fast approaching. All the morning, the half-dozen little
children, who were spending the day with Uncle Hambright at the
Sunday-school picnic, had been playing every conceivable sort of game
and had been enjoying every imaginable kind of story told in Uncle Ham’s
inimitable way,—but still the children were not satisfied. “Just one
more story,” or “Just one more game,” or “Give us your best game now for
the last before dinner,”—the children clamored one after another.
“Very well,” said Uncle Ham. “You all wait until I come back, and then
we’ll play fox-hunting.”
Uncle Ham went and told his sister and her husband, the parents of the
little children, to take the dinner-baskets far into the woods to the
place which they had already agreed upon as the spot where the
dinner-table should be spread. Coming back to the children, Uncle Ham
said,——
[Illustration: UNCLE HAMBRIGHT.]
“Now, we are ready. Come close and listen while I explain.”
With anxious hearts and eager faces, and clapping their glad hands, the
children gathered around Uncle Ham.
“Now,” said he, “I have a piece of chalk here in my hand. I am going to
make something like this wherever I go along.” While he was speaking he
made a round ring on the fence close by. He put marks for the ears and
feet and a mark for the tail. Then he continued: “This is the fox. I’m
going to make foxes along the path that I take into the woods—sometimes
these foxes may be on fences, sometimes on trees, sometimes on rocks, or
anywhere I wish to place them. Whenever you find a fox you will know
that you are on the right road, and you must be sure each time to follow
in the direction that the head of the fox points. Then you won’t lose
your way. You must give me a little start, because I must be out of
sight before you all begin the hunt. At the end of the hunt, if you
follow carefully, you will find a large present waiting for each one of
you. You may help yourself to whatever you like, and then we shall all
come back together, because, you know, I will be at the end myself
waiting for you when you come.”
It seemed that the ten minutes start that the children had agreed to
give Uncle Hambright would never come to an end, so eager were they to
begin the hunt. By-and-by the time came, and they were off. The first
few foxes had been drawn on the board-walk, so the hunters had easy
sailing for a little while. Pretty soon, however, one of the girls
discovered a fox on a tree, and the head of the fox pointed right into
the woods. At first the children halted. The eldest girl said finally,
after studying a few minutes,——
“Let’s go on; Uncle Hambright wouldn’t take us where anything could hurt
us, and, besides, he said he would be waiting at the end.”
Thus reassured, all of them plunged into the woods. Once in the woods
the little foxes drawn on trees and stumps carried them right along by
the side of a babbling brook for a long distance. Sometimes they would
find one fox, and then they would find it very hard to locate the next
one. It was great fun for them to scurry about in the woods, examining
trees, stumps, rocks and everything, hunting for the foxes. Finally one
of the little girls found a fox on a fence. The head of the fox pointed
upwards. The little child said,——
“This little fox seems to be pointing to heaven; I’m sure we can’t go up
there.”
“Oh, no;” said the oldest girl, again coming to the rescue,—“I think
that that little fox leads over the fence—that’s all.”
So, over the fence they jumped and continued the chase.
[Illustration: “YOU ALL WAIT UNTIL I COME BACK, AND THEN WE’LL PLAY AT
FOX-HUNTING.”]
The course proved to be zig-zag now for a few minutes, and the children
found the foxes more and more difficult to locate. They felt safe again,
when the foxes were found on stones or rocks leading up the side of a
hill. The woods began to thin out, and the children were no longer
timid. Up the hill they went with a merry laugh and a shout. Once on top
of the hill, they lost their course again. After a time, they found a
fox, though, and that fox pointed straight down the hill. The children
bravely followed. At the foot of the hill, they came suddenly upon an
open space, and close by there was a great big fox marked upon a piece
of black paste-board and standing right over a bubbling spring of water.
“Uncle Hambright must have meant for us to stop here,” said one.
“Maybe, he meant for us to stop and get some water,” said another.
One or two of the fox-hunters stopped and drank some water. Then the
oldest one said,——
“Come on now, let’s look for another fox; I guess we are most through
now.”
About twenty yards away from the spring, the children came to another
open space that was well shaded. What was their delight and surprise to
find there stretched out before them on a large white table cloth, laid
on the bare ground, a sumptuous picnic-dinner. And in the middle of the
table there was a true-true stuffed fox with a large red apple in his
mouth. For a few moments the children stood around the table in
bewilderment. But they were not to be kept in suspense a great while.
Pretty soon, Uncle Hambright and mama and papa came out of the woods
near by, and such a laugh as went around that picnic-dinner was never
heard before or since!
At the close of the meal, the children all voted that that was the best
game that Uncle Ham had played during the day.
XXIII.
A BOLD VENTURE.
“Mr. Slocum, good morning, sir; I came around to ask you to lend me five
dollars.”
Mr. Slocum, Manager of the Harlem Steamboat Company, looked up from his
desk in surprise when he heard this abrupt announcement.
“What’s that?” he asked curtly.
“Lend me five dollars,” said the little boy who had first addressed him.
“Who are you?” demanded Mr. Slocum.
“I’m nobody,” said the boy,—“nobody, but I want you to lend me five
dollars.”
Mr. Slocum, who was generally said to be a hard man to deal with, was
surprised at the boy’s presumption, yet, nevertheless, he was secretly
pleased at the boy’s frank and open manner.
“Do you know what borrowing money means?” asked Mr. Slocum, rising and
looking down upon the diminutive figure standing before him. The boy was
barefooted, held his hat in his hand, and his hair was nicely combed.
Mr. Slocum continued: “Don’t you know when a person borrows money he is
supposed to pay it back?”
“Oh, yes;” said the boy, “I know that. You lend me the money, and I’ll
pay it back all right. I only want it for three months. I’ll pay it
back.”
[Illustration: “LEND ME FIVE DOLLARS.”]
There was something about the boy’s face and general deportment that won
Mr. Slocum’s favor. He ran his hand into his pocket, pulled out a
five-dollar bill and handed it to the boy.
“Thank you, sir;” said the boy, as he turned to go,—“thank you sir; I’ll
pay it back.”
Three months later, the same little boy entered Mr. Slocum’s office.
“Here’s your five dollars, Mr. Slocum,” said the little boy. “I’m much
obliged to you, sir.”
“Who are you?” asked Mr. Slocum, as he reached out and took the money.
“I’m nobody,” said the boy.
“Well, why do you bring me this money?”
“Because I owe it to you,” explained the little fellow.
The boy told Mr. Slocum of the loan made three months before, and made
Mr. Slocum recall the transaction. Mr. Slocum asked him to have a seat.
“Well, what did you do with that money?” asked Mr. Slocum.
“Well,” said the boy, “I was hard up when I called on you. Me and my ma
had been selling papers for a living up to that time, but somehow we had
got behind with our expenses. House rent was due, and we didn’t have
nothing to eat. I had to find a friend somewhere. So, after trying two
or three places where I was known and failing to get any help, I decided
to drop in here and see you. You know the result. Well, I paid my rent
for a week; rented a little stand for my ma to sell papers on the
corner, while I continued to hustle in the street. That five dollars you
lent me give me good luck, and I’ve been going right up ever since. Me
and ma are living in a better place now; we’ve got a plenty to eat; and
we’ve got a plenty of fine customers. I told you when I came here before
that I was nobody then, but I’m somebody now, Mr. Slocum,—anyhow, I feel
so—and I want to thank you again for the help you gave me.”
The boy’s story pleased Mr. Slocum very much. It is needless to say that
he took an interest in that boy, and continued to befriend him.
This happened many years ago. To-day Tommy Tolliver—that was the boy’s
name—is the Assistant General Manager of the Harlem Steamboat Company,
and a very well-to-do man. Mr. Slocum says that there is nobody in the
world like him. Tommy’s mother died some years ago, but she lived long
enough to see her little boy taken out of the streets, put to school,
and started on his career of usefulness.
XXIV.
A HERO IN BLACK.
I read some years ago, boys and girls, a story in McClure’s Magazine,
which I think should be of interest to every boy and girl in the world.
The story was taken from the records of the Royal Humane Society of
Great Britain. It told about an obscure negro seaman whose brave deed
was discovered and honored by two of the great nations of the earth.
One tropical night, the steamer Dolphin rested almost motionless off the
Cayman rocks in Nicaragua. Crew and passengers, some twenty in all, were
asleep about the deck, for it was too hot to go below. Then came such a
squall as comes only in those Southern seas. The sails, all set,
furnished ample leverage. Within ten seconds, the Dolphin was bottom up,
her passengers and crew struggling in the water.
[Illustration: A HERO IN BLACK.]
Wilson McField, a negro and a subject of Great Britain, was the first to
come to the surface. All his twenty-seven years of life he had known
these waters, and he swam like a fish. He soon succeeded in climbing
upon the bottom of the vessel. Then he shouted to the others, and one by
one pulled up five of the crew.
Fortunately the squall was soon over, although the sea was high. After
they had drifted two hours the men heard strange sounds, like pounding
within the vessel. Some thought they heard voices. The more
superstitious were afraid. The night dragged on, and by daylight the
sounds had grown fainter. The crew concluded that men were imprisoned
within the boat, but none could devise a way to save them. Then the
negro proposed to dive under and into the ship. They assured him he
would never get out again, but carrying between his teeth one end of a
rope that had been dragging from the vessel, McField dived, passed under
the gunwale and rose in the hatch.
It was pitch-dark, and the interior of the vessel was full of the
floating cargo, but he kept on steadily. Finally concluding that he had
reached the cabin, he rose, and in an instant his head was above water.
Yet so foul was the air, and so narrow the space between the water and
the ship’s bottom, that he could hardly breathe. He could see no one,
but he heard the knocking again, and called out. Then came voices faint
but familiar.
Swimming in the direction of the sound, he found two men braced against
the cabin sides and holding their heads above water. One was a young
rubber cutter, named Mallitz, the other a native Spanish-Nicaraguan,
called Ovando. Both were panic-stricken, and McField was obliged to
threaten them with instant death if they did not obey him. He fastened
the rope round Mallitz and gave the signal to pull. McField dived into
the water along with his man. In his fright Mallitz entangled himself in
the hatchway, and precious time was lost in freeing him. When they
reached the surface Mallitz was unconscious, and McField more dead than
alive.
They pulled Mallitz aboard but McField would not follow. As soon as the
rope was free he took it in his teeth and went under, found the hatch
and entered the cabin. Ovando was almost uncontrollable with fear and
exhaustion, but McField finally secured him with the rope, and gave the
signal to pull up. This time the trip was made without accident, and
both men were drawn on board. All the men were saved.
The United States government awarded McField a medal and a sum of money
in gold, and the Royal Humane Society of Great Britain gave him a medal
of silver.
XXV.
THE ROAD TO SUCCESS.
The world is constantly looking for the man who knows the most, and it
pays little regard to those who are proficient in the usual degree in
the same things. One must excel, or, in other words, know more than his
associates in order to succeed notably. The world will bid high for you
if you know more than other men.
[Illustration: THE ROAD TO SUCCESS.]
So that boys and girls who are preparing themselves for the duties of
life should not aim simply at being as good as somebody else, but they
should aim at being the best that it is possible to be in any chosen
line of life or business. I have noticed in my short lifetime that there
is a great tendency on the part of young people to cut short their
education. Being able to shine in the intellectual and social worlds
with the small attainments made in some college or normal school or
industrial school, the average young negro man is content to stop with a
diploma or certificate from one or another of these institutions. They
will never realize what injury they have done themselves by so doing
until it is too late. On the other hand, there is another large class of
young people that stop short even before they have finished the course
in even any one of the normal or industrial schools. They must go out to
work; they know enough to make a living; what’s the use of so much
education, anyhow? This is the way some of them talk. This is what some
of them believe. Boys and girls, no man or woman with such low ideals
will ever reach the topmost round of the ladder of fame. Such boys and
girls will always play a second-rate part in the great drama of life.
The boys and girls who are going to the front—the boys and girls who are
going to have the leading parts—are the boys and girls who are willing
to take time to prepare themselves. And preparation means hard work; and
not only hard work, but hard and long-continued work. A person can learn
a good deal in one year; a person can learn a good deal in two years;
but nobody can learn enough in one or two years, or in three or four
years, to make it at all likely that he will ever be sought by the great
world.
Aside from the rudimentary training, it ought to take at least ten years
to make a good doctor, or a good lawyer, or a good electrician, or a
good preacher. Four of these years ought to be spent in college; and
four in the professional school; and the other two ought to be spent in
picking up a practical or working knowledge of the calling—whatever it
may be. The young doctor obtains this practical knowledge in hospitals
and in practice among the poor. The electrician obtains it by entering
some large electrical industry or manufactory, in which a thoroughly
practical knowledge of mechanical engineering and electricity can be
secured. It is true that some men have become distinguished in these
callings without this long preparation of which I have spoken; yet it
is, also, true that they would have been better off—they would have been
more likely to have become eminent—if they had taken the longer course.
College is a little world which every one, other things being equal,
ought to enter and pass through before launching in the great world.
XXVI.
SAMUEL C. ARMSTRONG.
Boys and girls, I wonder how many of you have heard of Samuel C.
Armstrong—General Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute in
Virginia? General Armstrong was one of the best men who ever lived, and
he was the friend of all mankind. His special services were rendered in
behalf of Indians and Negroes—the weaker races. You ought to go to
Hampton Institute sometimes and see that place, and go over to the
little cemetery in one corner of the grounds and stand uncovered by the
side of General Armstrong’s grave. He died in 1892.
You ought to get the story of his life and read it. It will bear to you
a thrilling message; for to read that book is to enter the presence of a
man of magnificent courage and indomitable faith.
A general at twenty-six, with a brilliant war record behind him, the
quality of his courage had been already proved; but the future was to
test it far more severely. The responsibility for the experiment at
Hampton was a terrible one, presenting problems which no nation had been
called upon to solve before. He had to face isolation, ignorance,
indifference, misrepresentation. At the best, after he had conquered
prejudice and won friends for the work, he had to spend half his time
begging for money, for he had to raise by personal efforts from fifty
thousand to eighty thousand dollars annually for the current expenses.
Yet in all that time and under all his burdens no one ever saw him
discouraged. He used to explain his position by a story which he called
his “rule of conduct.”
“Once there was an old colored man who could not be dissuaded from
working at an empty ’possum hole. ‘Ain’t no ’possum in dat hole? Dey’s
jest got to be, ’cause dey’s nuffin’ in de house fer supper’.” Or, as he
used to tell his children, “Once there was a woodchuck. Now woodchucks
can’t climb trees. Well, this woodchuck was chased by a dog, and came to
a tree. He knew that if he could get up this tree the dog could not
catch him. Now woodchucks can’t climb trees, but this one had to, so he
did.”
He had to, so he did, was the motto of General Armstrong’s life. “Doing
what can’t be done is the glory of living,” he once said. “For most
people,” said one of General Armstrong’s friends, “an obstacle is
something in the way to stop one from going on, but for General
Armstrong it merely meant something to climb over; and if he could not
climb all the way over, he would get up as high as possible, and then
crow!”
When you come to read the story of General Armstrong’s life you will
find that there is no finer picture in it than that of an evening when
he spoke at a little suburban church far down a side street. It was a
bitter winter night, with a driving storm of sleet, and when it was time
for the meeting to begin the audience consisted of a score or so of
humble people who evidently enough had no means to contribute, and a
dozen restless boys kicking their heels in the front pew. Then “in the
midst of the bleakness and emptiness rose the worn, gaunt soldier, as
bravely and gladly as if a multitude were hanging upon his words. His
deep-sunk eyes looked out beyond the bleakness of the scene into the
world of his ideals, and the cold little place was aglow with the fire
that was in him.”
Dangers, hardships, obstacles—upon these he had tried “his soul’s stuff”
all his life, but here was another and a more difficult test. Triumphant
in faith and unflinching in duty, he could meet even defeat in the
spirit of victory.
XXVII.
HOW TO BE HANDSOME.
Do you want to be handsome? I’ll tell you how.
First, look well to your health. Eat regularly and simply, and take
proper rest, in order to be healthy. Do not crowd the stomach. The
stomach can no more work all the time, night and day, than a horse; it
must have regular rest. The body must have proper rest also. Do not keep
late hours. Go to bed early. If you have work which must be done, it is
a good deal better to rise early in the morning and do it than it is to
sit up late at night and work.
Secondly, good teeth are essential to good looks. Brush the teeth
regularly with a soft brush morning and night, especially at night. Be
sure to go to bed at night with clean teeth.
Thirdly, look well to the ventilation of your bed-rooms. No one can have
a clear skin who breathes bad air. Fresh air is a preventive of a
multitude of diseases. Bad air is the cause of a great many premature
deaths.
Fourthly, cleanliness of the entire body is of vast importance. Some one
has said that “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” and some one else has
added, “And soap is a means of grace.” Handsome people not only eat
regularly and simply; they not only sleep regularly and look well to
proper ventilation; but handsome people will take regular baths.
Fifthly, more than all else, in order to look well you must wake up the
mind and soul. When the mind is awake, the dull, sleepy look passes away
from the eyes. Keep thinking pleasant and noble thoughts; do not read
trashy novels or books; read books which have something good in them.
Talk with people who know something. Be often in the company of those
who know more than you do. Hear lectures and sermons and profit by them.
If we listen and understand and heed, the mind and soul are awakened. So
much the better if the spiritual nature is aroused. Sometimes a plain
face is really glorified with the love of God and of man which shines
through it.
Lastly, keep a strong and vigorous body by taking plenty of wholesome
outdoor exercise, and do all the good you can.
Why not begin to grow handsome to-day?
[Illustration]
XXVIII.
PATIENCE.
[Illustration: PATIENCE.]
Patience is one of the marks of a high character. It might well be
called the habit of closing the mind against disagreeable and annoying
conditions. To acquire this habit so effectually as to hide even from
one’s self any sense of suffering or offense from contact with such
conditions is what the truly cultivated aim at. Life, it is true, is
full of trying things, but to let the mind dwell upon them only serves
to increase their offense to the feelings or the senses.
There are people, of course, who are incapable of self-concentration,
and whose imagination, if left free to gad about, seems always to fix
upon and exaggerate every element of disturbance. They live in what is
called an elementary stage of moral discipline, and are perpetually
fretting about things they cannot help. They are never able to shut down
the will against any unpleasantness. They permit merely accidental
conditions to exercise a kind of tyrannical sway over them, which, if
their minds were once bent to the practice of putting up with things,
would cease to present any annoyance whatever.
It is difficult, no doubt, to acquire this habit, but this is what
patience means in its highest sense. It is spiritual endurance, and its
chief power consists not so much in adding to the number of our joys as
in lessening the number of our sufferings. It is, therefore, a mark of
power over one’s self and a means of power over others. With patience
the outward success or failure of a man is a small thing compared with
that success which he has achieved within himself. And that kind of
success—the success which enables a man to laugh at failure and rise
superior to discouragements and difficulties—that kind of success is a
means of help and inspiration to all those about him.
If we consider the works of nature we shall see that nature’s most
beneficent operations are the results of patience. Anything which grows
must have time, and the best things in the world are generally those
things which demand the longest time for their growth and development.
The rank and short-lived weed reaches its full development in the
shortest possible time, but the oak, which is to stand for centuries,
demands the sunshine and the storm of years before its strength is fully
developed.
Now, boys and girls, one of the hardest demands which nature makes upon
people (especially upon young people, full of strength and energy and
ambition) is to wait for the results of growth. No man becomes instantly
strong morally; he must grow into strength. However great his ambition
and his zeal may be, no man becomes a scholar in a year. It takes time,
and lots of it. No man reaches at a single bound the full development of
his whole nature. He grows into strength. A good soldier cannot be made
without war, nor can a skillful seaman be made on land.
So in the race of life we must fight hard for all we get and be patient.
Whatever else may be true, or may not be true, only patient and
continued efforts—not hasty efforts—lead to success.
Before me lies a block of wood. It is full of knots. It seems to me I
can never split it. But I bravely make the attempt. The first blow makes
little impression. The axe springs back with a bound. Again and again I
strike. Then a tiny crack appears. A few more licks—and the block
yields. I have succeeded. Can you tell me which blow did the work? Was
it not the first blow and the last and all between? You have tried
something and failed. Try again. If you fail, try once more. And on and
on, keep trying until you win the victory.
XXIX.
THE BITER BIT.[4]
In the broad light of day a would-be highwayman sprang from the bushes
that skirted the “Big Road,” and with a pistol pointed at Eli’s head
commanded the wayfarer to hold up his hands. Without hesitation Eli
obeyed, grabbing his hat from his head while his hands were making the
ascent. Then he stood trembling, as if in great fear, and said:
“Lawdy, Boss, what is dat you got?”
The highwayman replied: “It’s a bulldog.”
“Kin he bark, Boss?” asked poor Eli.
“Certainly,” was the answer.
“Boss, I’ll give you a dollar des to hyeah dat dawg bark wunst,” said
humble Eli.
“Bang!” went the gun, and the ball went crashing through the woods. Eli
pulled out a silver dollar and handed it over to the would-be robber.
“Do hit ag’in, Boss,” said Eli.
A second, a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth time the dog barked, and
each time Eli paid a dollar for the fun. When the revolver had been
emptied the old negro asked pitifully:
“Boss, can’t he bark no mo’?”
On being assured that the dog could bark no more Eli said:
“Well, Boss, ain’t you got anuddah dawg?”
The robber said he was sorry, but he did not have another. Then Uncle
Eli said, as he ran his hand into his hip pocket:
[Illustration: A BITER BIT.]
“Boss, I got one uv dem dawgs myse’f, an’ I ’spec’ I’ll let you hyeah
mine bark some. Drap yo’ dawg, Boss, an’ drap hit quick,” he commanded
as he pointed his gun at the would-be robber’s head. Down went the other
man’s gun.
“Now drap dem dollars right ’long side uv dat gun. Be quick,” said Eli.
Down went the dollars.
“Now you git, an’ don’t you look back. Step lively, an’ ef you das’ to
look back you sho will hyeah sump’n impawtunt!”
XXX.
THE ALPHABET OF SUCCESS.
Attend carefully to details.
Be prompt in all things.
Consider well, then decide positively.
Dare to do right, fear to do wrong.
Endure trials patiently.
Fight life’s battles bravely.
Go not into the society of the vicious.
Hold integrity sacred.
Injure not another’s reputation.
Join hands only with the virtuous.
Keep your mind free from evil thoughts.
Lie not for any consideration.
Make few special acquaintances.
Never try to appear what you are not.
Observe good manners.
Pay your debts promptly.
Question not the veracity of a friend.
Respect the counsel of your parents.
Sacrifice money rather than principle.
Touch not, taste not, handle not, intoxicating drinks.
Use your leisure for improvement.
Venture not upon the threshold of wrong.
Watch carefully over your passions.
X-tend to everyone a kindly greeting.
Young people should read “FLOYD’S FLOWERS FOR COLORED CHILDREN.”
Zealously labor for the right, and success is certain.
XXXI.
EASTER MONDAY IN WASHINGTON.
The approach of Easter arouses delightful expectations in the hearts of
the little children in the great city of Washington, the nation’s
capital. On Easter Monday there is an event which places the day among
the great holidays of the year. The United States government is drawn
into the observance of the day because it furnishes the country’s
greatest band to play the music and the government pays the bills. The
president of the United States, whoever he may happen to be when the day
rolls around, wins the gratitude of the children, for he lets them play
in his back yard. The president’s back yard is called the White Lot; it
covers many acres, and stretches from the back porch of the White House
way out to the great white Washington monument, which towers for more
than five hundred feet in the air a half mile away. The lawns of the
White Lot are always green and inviting, and are covered with the
prettiest flowers and trees that you ever saw. The ground is not low and
level, except in spots. There are many little hills which serve to make
it a beautiful place. Really the president’s back yard is a great big
park.
Bright and early Easter Monday morning happy little groups of children
may be seen proudly marching toward the White House. Their mothers and
nurses or some grown-up sisters are with them. All the trolley cars are
filled with them, coming from every section of the city. Their little
tongues are very busy chattering about the pleasures that are in store
for them. Some, whose memories stretch back over a long, long expanse of
time, are relating some glowing incident of the year before, for those
who are yet unacquainted with the joys that are to come. The little ones
listen with open mouths and wide-open eyes, and hurry along all the
faster.
I have been in Washington on two occasions at these great
celebrations—once while the sturdy Grover Cleveland was president and
once while the great and good William McKinley occupied the White House.
In all my experience I have never seen anything that has made me feel
prouder of my country than these feast days for the children; for, in
the president’s back yard, all the children meet on a common
level—children of all races and of all classes. Neither their father’s
position nor their mother’s social standing concerns them. Two little
strangers will meet and play and romp together as if they had been
companions all their days.
All the little children carry with them little baskets and in the
baskets are the prettiest Easter eggs that can be made. Some are painted
and striped and spotted with bright colors; others are covered with
silver and gilt paper. When the merry-makers get to the great big gates,
where the policemen always stand, they march right through, because they
know the policemen won’t stop them this time. The little fellows hold
their heads high and feel very important, and the policemen smile as
they pass by. The children keep coming and coming until by-and-by the
lot is almost filled, all the way from the White House to the tall white
monument, with laughing children—and with eggs! It would seem that there
were no children left anywhere in Washington. The children are allowed
to run on the grass just as much as they please for this one day.
If you go near one of the little hills or long banks you may hear one
small girl say to another, “My egg’ll ’oll furver ’an your egg.” And the
other small girl will answer, “No; mine’ll ’oll furvest.” And then they
will start their eggs rolling down the hills and go racing after them to
see whose egg goes the farthest.
Many of the boys throw their eggs along the ground like ninepin balls,
and see whose will go the farthest. When they get tired of this they
stand a little distance apart and roll their eggs against each other’s
to see whose will break. There is another way that they try to break
each other’s eggs. One holds an egg in his hand so that the top is
uncovered, and another takes his egg and taps it gently against the
first one. He keeps hitting a little harder and harder until one of them
breaks, and the one whose egg doesn’t break is the winner.
Most of the eggs are boiled hard first, so that the children are not
very sorry, after all, if their eggs do break, because they can eat
them. And their mothers or nurses will give them crackers and salt to go
with them.
In such a great crowd, where the children are allowed to run where they
please, there are sure to be some little ones who will wander away from
their guardians. All the little “lost” children, as fast as the officers
find them, are taken to a small house in the center of the lot, and the
mothers know just where to look for them. Often there are twenty or
thirty little tots, all tired out, waiting to be claimed by their
guardians.
On the highest mound of all there is a band—the United States Marine
Band—and they play some of their nicest music on this day. So when the
little ones get weary from running after their eggs they can go and
watch the man pound the big bass drum, and listen to the music.
Sometimes, while the music is playing, the president will come out on
the back porch, high over all, and watch the festivities. A mighty
shout, from old and young alike, always greets the appearance of the
president. No wonder this is one of the big days for the little folks.
By-and-by all the eggs are broken or eaten, and then it is time for the
tired and happy little fairies to go home.
XXXII.
KEEPING ONE’S ENGAGEMENTS.
What would happen if everybody should begin to-morrow to keep all his
promises and fulfill all his engagements? I think it would make a new
world at once. There is great need that the attention of young people
should be called to the importance of keeping engagements. Much of the
confusion and annoyance and trouble of this world would be done away
with if people would learn to keep their promises. The oft-repeated
excuse, “I forgot,” is not reasonable. If the memory is in the habit of
playing tricks with you, then you ought to make notes of your
engagements, write them down in some way, so that you will not forget
them. Arnold of Rugby said: “Thoughtlessness is a crime,” and he was
right. The great Ruskin has also uttered strong words in condemnation of
thoughtlessness in youth. He said: “But what excuse can you find for
willfulness of thought at the very time when every crisis of future
fortune hangs on your decisions? A youth thoughtless! when the career of
all his days depends on the opportunity of a moment. A youth
thoughtless! when his every act is a foundation-stone of future conduct,
and every imagination a fountain of life or death. Be thoughtless in any
after years rather than now, though, indeed, there is only one place
where a man may be nobly thoughtless—his deathbed. No thinking should
ever be left to be done there.”
[Illustration: KEEPING ONE’S ENGAGEMENTS.]
And, then, boys and girls should remember that promptness should always
accompany the fulfilling of an engagement, otherwise the engagement is
not really kept. A person’s time is a valuable possession, which should
be respected by all. Who has not been exasperated by some one with
apparent indifference keeping (?) an engagement a half or three-quarters
of an hour late! And often a whole train of troubles will follow in the
wake of tardiness. The punctual boy or girl in this life is the one who
advances most rapidly. The punctual boy or girl will make a punctual man
or woman. A promise-breaker, or one who is late in keeping his
appointments, cannot in the true sense of the term be considered a
first-class person.
XXXIII.
A MIDNIGHT MISHAP.[5]
[Illustration: A MIDNIGHT MISHAP.]
Uncle Ned returned from his ’possum hunt about midnight, bringing with
him a fine, fat ’possum. He built a glowing fire, dressed the ’possum,
pared and split the sweet potatoes, and pretty soon he had the “’possum
an’ ’taters” in the oven. While the meal was cooking Uncle Ned amused
himself with his favorite old banjo. When the ’possum had been baked
brown and crisp he took it out of the oven and set it on the hearth to
give it time to cool. Mentally congratulating himself upon the glorious
repast he thought soon to enjoy, he sat silently for awhile in the old
armchair, but presently he was snugly wrapped in the arms of “tired
nature’s sweet restorer—balmy sleep.”
It happened that two young fellows who were pretty well acquainted with
Uncle Ned’s habits had been stealthily watching about the house waiting
this particular chance. As soon as they were convinced that the old man
was safe in the arms of Morpheus, they crept into the house and
hurriedly helped themselves to Uncle Ned’s supper, including even the
coffee and bread. When they finished the hasty meal, by way of
attempting to cover up their tracks, they smeared Uncle Ned’s hands and
mouth with the ’possum gravy and then beat a retreat.
After a time Uncle Ned aroused from his peaceful slumber. It is needless
to say that he had dreamed about his supper. At once he dived down to
inspect the viands, when, lo and behold, the hearth was empty! Uncle Ned
steadied himself and studied awhile.
“Well,” said he finally, “I must ’a’ et dat ’possum; I must ’a’ et dat
’possum in my sleep!”
He looked at his hands. They were greasy. He smelt his hands. As he did
so he said:
“Dat smells like ’possum grease! I sho must ’a’ et dat ’possum.”
He discovered grease on his lips. Out went his tongue.
“Dat tas’es like ’possum grease,” he said. He got up. He looked about
the house. There was no sign of intruders. He rubbed his stomach. He
resumed his seat, and, giving up all for lost, he said:
“Well, ef I did eat dat ’possum, hit sets lightah on my appertite dan
any ’possum I evah et befo’.”
XXXIV.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
In 1893 the World’s Columbian Exposition, or World’s Fair, was held in
Chicago in commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the
discovery of America. A negro man, the Hon. Frederick Douglass, attended
that exposition and delivered an address on negro day. Speaking of this
great man’s visit the Advance, one of Chicago’s great religious papers,
said:
“It was fine to see at the Congress on Africa the tall form and
magnificent head of the grand old man, Frederick Douglass, now
seventy-five years of age, perfectly erect, kindly, majestic, the
‘ancient fires of inspiration welling up through all his being yet’;
affable to all; finding it still to be as natural to be eloquent as to
speak at all; sympathetic to the core with the people of his own race,
yet none the less loyal to the common interests of all the people of his
country; neither blind to the obstacles in their path and the cruel
social injustice and meanness to which they are often exposed, nor, on
the other hand, unmindful of the friends they have in the South as also
in the North, or above all to the over-shining care and purpose of God
Himself, with the ‘far-off divine intent’ that so clearly takes in the
future of both the American and African continents. Few Americans have
had a more conspicuously providential mission than Frederick Douglass.
And hardly anything in this remarkable congress was more eloquent or
more convincing than his personal presence.”
Frederick Douglass was born a slave, and his life as a slave was one of
peculiar hardship. Of it he himself says in his autobiography:
“I suffered little from any punishment I received, except from hunger
and cold. I could get enough neither of food or clothing, but suffered
more from cold than hunger. In the heat of summer or the cold of winter
alike, I was kept almost in a state of nudity—no shoes, jackets,
trousers, or stockings—nothing but a coarse tow linen shirt reaching to
the knee. That I wore night and day. In the day time I could protect
myself by keeping on the sunny side of the house, and in bad weather in
the corner of the kitchen chimney. The great difficulty was to keep warm
at night. I had no bed. The pigs in the pen had leaves, and the horses
in the stable had straw, but the children had nothing. In very cold
weather I sometimes got down the bag in which corn was carried to the
mill and got into that. My feet have been so cracked by frost that the
pen with which I am writing might have been laid in the gashes.” With
regard to his food he said that he often disputed with the dogs over the
crumbs that fell from his master’s table.
Now this man, born so lowly and surrounded by such circumstances, turned
out to be in the course of time by hard work and self-application one of
the most influential American citizens and one of the greatest orators
that this country has ever known. Among other high offices of trust and
responsibility, he was once marshal of the District of Columbia,
recorder of deeds of the District of Columbia, and United States
minister to Hayti.
He died February 20th, 1895, at his home in Anacostia, D. C., at the age
of seventy-seven years. A monument to his memory has been erected in
Rochester, N. Y., where he once lived.
What Frederick Douglass made of himself is possible for any American boy
with grit. Every boy and girl in America should read the life of this
pre-eminent negro and strive to emulate his virtues. His memory is
worthy to be honored to the last day of time.
XXXV.
OUR DUMB ANIMALS.
Domestic animals—like horses, cats and dogs—seem to be almost as
dependent upon kind treatment and affection as human beings. Horses and
dogs especially are the most keenly intelligent of our dumb friends, and
are alike sensitive to cruelty in any form. They are influenced to an
equal degree by kind and affectionate treatment.
If there is any form of cruelty that is more reprehensible than another,
it is abuse of a faithful horse who has given his whole life to the
service of the owner. When a horse is pulling a heavy load with all his
might, doing the best he can to move under it, to strike him, spur him,
or swear at him is simply barbarous. To kick a dog around, to tie tin
cans to his tail, or strike him with sticks, just for the fun of hearing
him yelp or seeing him run, is equally barbarous. No high-minded man, no
high-minded boy or girl, would do such a thing. We should never forget
how helpless, in a large sense, dumb animals are—and how absolutely
dependent upon the humanity and kindness of their owners. They are
really the slaves of man, having no language by which to express their
feelings or needs.
[Illustration: OUR DUMB ANIMALS.]
The poet Cowper said:
“I would not enter on my list of friends,
Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility, the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.”
Every boy and girl should be willing to pledge himself to be kind to all
harmless living creatures, and every boy and girl should strive to
protect such, creatures from cruel usage on the part of others. It is
noble, boys and girls, for us to speak for those that cannot speak for
themselves, and it is noble, also, for us to protect those that cannot
protect themselves.
XXXVI.
A PLUCKY BOY.
The boy marched straight up to the counter.
“Well, my little man,” said the merchant, “what can I do for you?”
“If you please,” said the boy, “I came in to see if you wouldn’t let me
work for you.”
The boy was not yet ten years old, and he was small for his age. But
there was something in his speech, or manner that held the man’s
attention.
“Do some work for me, eh?” said the man. “What kind of work could you
do? You can hardly look over the counter.”
“Oh, yes; I can,” said the little fellow, as he stood on tiptoe and
peeped over the counter.
Out of sheer curiosity the merchant came from behind the counter, so as
to get a good look at the boy.
“Oh,” he said, “I see you’ve got copper taps on your shoes; I suppose
your mother couldn’t keep you in shoes if they didn’t have taps on
them!”
“She can’t keep me in shoes anyway, sir,” and the little boy’s voice
hesitated.
“How old are you?” asked the merchant.
“I’m older than I look; folks say that I’m small for my age.”
“Well, what is your age?”
“I’m going on ten,” said Davie, with a look of great importance. “You
see,” he continued, “my mother hasn’t anybody but me, and this morning I
saw her crying because she could not find five cents in her pocket-book,
and she thinks she must have lost it—and it was—the—last cent—that she
had—in the world; and—I—have—not—had—any—breakfast, sir.” The voice
again hesitated, and tears came into the little boy’s eyes.
“Oh, don’t cry, my little man; I guess I can help you to a breakfast.
Here, take this quarter!” He pulled a quarter from his vest pocket and
handed it to the boy. The boy shook his head.
“Mother wouldn’t let me beg,” was his simple answer.
“Humph!” said the merchant. “Where is your father?”
“We never heard of him, sir, after he went away. He was lost in the
steamer City of New York.”
“That’s too bad. But you’re a plucky little fellow, anyhow. Let me see,”
and he looked straight down into the boy’s eyes, and the boy looked
straight up at him. Turning to the head man, after awhile, the merchant
said:
“Palmer, is cash boy No. 5 still sick?”
“Dead, sir; died last night,” was the reply.
“I’m sorry; but here’s a boy you might use. Put him down in No. 5’s
place. We’ll try him for awhile, anyhow. What is your name, my little
man?” he asked, turning again to the boy.
[Illustration: “THE BOY MARCHED STRAIGHT UP TO THE COUNTER.”]
“Davie Thomas.”
“Well, Davie, we’ll give you three dollars a week to start with; you
come to-morrow morning and I’ll tell you what to do. Here’s a dollar of
your wages in advance. I’ll take it out of your first week’s pay. Do you
understand?”
“Yes, sir; I understand, and I thank you, too. I’ll be back in the
morning.”
Davie shot out of the store, and lost no time in getting home. The old
creaky steps in the old ram-shackle house fairly sang with delight as
the weight of the little boy hurried up them.
“I’ve got it, mother;” exclaimed Davie. “I’m a cash boy! The man’s going
to give me three dollars a week, and he says I’ve got pluck, too; and
here’s a dollar to get some breakfast with, and don’t you cry any more,
for I’m going to be the man of this house now.”
At first the mother was dumfounded; then she looked confused; and then
she looked—well, it passes my power to tell how she did look as she took
Davie in her arms and hugged him and kissed him, the tears streaming
down her cheeks. But they were tears of joy and thankfulness!
XXXVII.
A HEART-TO-HEART TALK.
“Henry, I asked you to remain after school a few minutes because I
wanted you to help me rearrange the desks and furniture, but I had
another reason for asking you to remain, and I think it is more
important than the one I have just stated.”
The desks had all been arranged according to the teacher’s notion, and
Henry Holt had gathered up his books to go home. It was then that his
teacher, Miss Ada Johnson, addressed him.
“Won’t you sit down here a minute, David?” she continued. “I wish to
speak to you a minute or two.”
David quietly took a seat. He was one of the largest boys in school, and
had been giving an unusual amount of trouble during the day. In fact he
had been a source of annoyance ever since the new teacher had taken
charge.
[Illustration: A HEART-TO-HEART TALK.]
“David,” the teacher went on, “I wonder if you realize how hard you have
made it for me in school to-day? Is there any reason why we cannot be
friends and work together? And I wish to be a friend to you, if you will
let me. You could help me so much and you could help your schoolmates so
much if you only would. I want to ask you if you think your conduct has
been manly to-day? Has it been kind?”
David said nothing, but hung his head.
“I heard before I came here that you were an unruly boy. People say that
you will neither study nor work, and some people say that you are a very
mean boy. Some of these things may be true, David, I am sorry to say,
but I want to tell you that you are the only hope of a widowed mother,
and I want to say, also, that I think that you are breaking her heart.”
The teacher’s voice faltered at the last words.
“I know that your father,” the low voice went on, “was a brave and noble
man; and when I hear people say, ‘It is a good thing that Henry Oliver
died before he knew what his son was coming to,’ I think what a pity it
is that they cannot say, ‘How sad it is that Henry Oliver died before he
could know what a fine, manly fellow his son would be, and what a stay
and comfort to his mother’.”
The boy’s head dropped to the desk in front of him, and he began to sob.
The teacher went over to him and said gently:
“You can be all this. It is in your power to be all that your father
would have you, all that your mother would have you. Will you not turn
over a new leaf now, not only in your behavior and work in school, but
in your whole life as well?”
David raised his head.
“I am with you—I’ll do it, teacher,” he replied, a new resolve shining
in his face. All that day he did some of the most serious thinking of
his life. And he kept his promise.
The years have been many since then. The little teacher has long since
passed to her rest, but David Oliver is a living monument to the power
of a few searching words, the potency of a little personal interest and
kindliness manifested at a critical time.
XXXVIII.
A GHOST STORY.
Uncle Mose, an old-time colored man, once said in a company of people
who were talking about ghosts that he wasn’t afraid of any ghost that
ever walked the earth.
“No, sah; not me,” he said; “I’se got my fuss time to be skeered uv
anyt’ing dat’s dead.”
Whereupon Noah Johnson told Uncle Mose that he would bet him a load of
watermelons that he couldn’t spend one night in the “Widder Smith’s
house.” Now, the Widow Smith’s house was said to be haunted, or, in
other words, it was filled with ghosts.
“Des name de night,” said Uncle Mose. “I’ll stay dar; no ha’nts won’t
bodder wid me. No, sah; no ha’nts won’t bodder wid me, an’ yo’
watermillions is des ez good ez gone already!”
The details were arranged; judges were appointed; and Uncle Mose was to
stay in the haunted house that very night. He got him some pine-knots to
keep a good blaze in the old-fashioned fireplace, carried along an extra
plug of tobacco, secured a large dry-goods box to be used for a chair,
and then he set out for the house.
[Illustration: “HUH! HUH! THERE DON’T SEEM TO BE BUT TWO OF US HERE
TO-NIGHT.”]
He made a blaze and seated himself on the pine box. For a time he sung a
number of old plantation songs for his own amusement, as well as to keep
him company. About midnight, feeling somewhat drowsy, Uncle Mose got up,
took a light and went on a tour of inspection. He examined every room in
the house. His search revealed nothing unusual. He wound up his search
chuckling to himself:
“I sho is makin’ dis load uv watermillions easy. Noah Johnsing didn’t
know who he’s foolin’ wid. I’m a man myse’f; I ain’t afeared uv
nothin’—I ain’t!”
Down he sat on the box, and pretty soon he was dozing. It was not very
long before he suddenly awoke. He was at once seized with strange and
sudden fear. He was too frightened to move. Although he did not look
around, he was conscious that there was another presence in the room.
His hair stood on ends. He felt a cold chill run up and down his back.
By that time he knew that the object in the room, whatever it was, was
moving towards him. Still he did not move, because he could not. The
ghost (for that was what all the people said it was) stood over Uncle
Mose for a little while, and then quietly sat down on the box beside
him. Uncle Mose looked straight into the fireplace, but his heart was
beating like a runaway horse. The silence in the room at that moment was
like unto the silence of death. Everything was still and solemn. Uncle
Mose could almost hear his own heart beating. The ghost finally broke
the silence by saying, with a loud sigh:
“Huh! Huh! There don’t seem to be but two of us here to-night!”
It was then that Uncle Mose looked around for the first time. As he did
so he exclaimed:
“Yas; an’ f’um dis out dah won’t be but one!” And with that he jumped
through the window, taking a part of the sash with him.
The judges had been waiting in the open air near the house, so as to
watch the proceedings. They called to the fleeing Uncle Mose, as he
passed them, and ordered him to stop. They said that they were all there
and would protect him. But Uncle Mose, as he kept on running, hallooed
back:
“I’ll see y’all later!”
He ran at the top of his speed for more than a mile, for he was well
nigh scared to death. By-and-by, from sheer exhaustion, he was compelled
to stop for a little rest. He was wet with perspiration from head to
foot, and his clothes were as limp as a wet dishrag. But the poor old
man had no sooner seated himself on a stone by the roadside than up
jumps the ghost and sits down beside him once more.
“Huh!” said the ghost. “You seem to have made pretty good time
to-night.”
“Yas,” said Uncle Mose; “but what I hase done ain’t nothin’ to what I’se
gwinter do!” And up he jumped and lit out once more.
He had not gone far on his second trip before an old rabbit ran out of
the bushes and took out down the road ahead of him. Uncle Mose hallooed
at the rabbit and said:
“Git out uv de way, rabbit, an’ let somebody run what kin run!”
On and on the poor old man, almost scared to death, ran and ran. Perhaps
he would have been running until now but for a very unfortunate
accident. About five miles from the Widow Smith’s house he came in
contact with the limb of a weeping willow tree that hung across the
road. The poor old fellow, already tired out, was knocked speechless and
senseless. Toward the break of day the judges, who had followed him,
found him lying on the ground doubled up near the tree. Dim
consciousness was slowly returning when they picked him up. They rubbed
him, and walked him around for a little while, and soon he was able to
move himself.
The first thing Uncle Mose said was:
“Tell Noah not to min’ ’bout dem watermillions. I stayed in dat house
des ez long ez I could keep my conscience quiet. My ole mammy allus tole
me dat hit wuz a sin an’ a shame to bet, an’ now I b’lieves hit!”
And to this day, boys and girls, if you want to see a really mad man,
you just ask Uncle Mose if he ever saw a ghost.
XXXIX.
GOOD CHEER.
Everybody loves the cheerful boy or girl, the cheerful man or woman; and
everybody ought to love such people. I wish all the boys and girls in
America would organize one grand SUNSHINE SOCIETY, whose chief object
should be the promotion of good feeling, good cheer, peace and happiness
among all the people everywhere. But, first, a boy or girl, man or
woman, must have sunshine in their own souls before they can communicate
sunshine to others. And, boys and girls, it would greatly assist us in
securing sunshine in our souls if we looked at our mercies with both
eyes, as I might say, and at our troubles and trials with only one eye.
What we enjoy in this world is always a good deal more than that which
we do not enjoy; but we do not magnify our blessings sufficiently. We do
not make as much of them as we ought. We do not rejoice because of them
as we ought. We ought to keep daily a record of God’s goodness and
kindness and patience and love. The Lord’s mercies are new every morning
and fresh every evening; but we do not realize that they are so, because
we do not stop to count them up; we do not think about them. If we
stopped to weigh the matter I think we should find more in our lives to
be happy about than to be sorry about. Our good fortunes always outweigh
our misfortunes; and we should find it so if we only acquired the habit
of remembering God’s goodness to us as well as the disappointments and
sorrows and afflictions which are for us all.
Then we should study contentment. We should study to be content. We must
cultivate the habit of being satisfied with what we have at present, and
we should not worry about those things which we do not possess. Worry
because of things they did not possess has made countless thousands
mourn. Let us enjoy what we have. Let us make the most of what we have.
And let us not worry about things which we do not possess. No matter how
miserable our own lot may be, there is always some one whose lot is more
miserable still. Worry kills more people than work. In fact worry unfits
a man for work. The man who has learned the philosophy of being content
in whatsoever state he is is the man who is and will be happy. One of
the things in this world that pays a hundred-fold is contentment, and
there is nothing that casts so much blight and mildew upon life’s
fairest flowers as discontent.
Again, it would help us to keep cheerful if we kept steadily engaged in
some work of usefulness. Let us go about doing good. Let us go about
seeking opportunities of doing good. Doing good makes the heart healthy,
and heart-health makes sunshine, happiness and good cheer.
A little thought will convince you, boys and girls, that your own
happiness in this world depends very largely on the way other people
bear themselves toward you. The looks and tones at your breakfast table,
the conduct of your playmates, the faithful or unreliable people that
you deal with, what people say to you on the street, the letters you
get, the friends or foes you meet—these things make up very much of the
pleasure or misery of your day. Turn the thought around, and remember
that just so much are you adding to the pleasure or misery of other
people’s days. And this is the half of the matter that you can control.
Whether any particular day shall bring to you more of happiness or of
suffering is largely beyond your power to determine. Whether each day of
your life shall give happiness or suffering to others rests with
yourself. And there is where the test of character comes. We must be
continually sacrificing our wills to the wills of others, bearing
without notice sights and sounds that annoy us, setting about this or
that task when we would rather be doing something else, persevering in
it often when we are very tired of it, keeping company for duty’s sake
when it would be a great joy to us to be by ourselves; and then there
are all the trifling and outward accidents of life, bodily pain and
weakness, it may be, long continued, losing what we value, missing what
we desire, deceit, ingratitude and treachery where we least expected
them; folly, rashness and willfulness in ourselves. All these little
worries which we meet each day may lie as stumbling-blocks across our
way, or we may make of them, if we choose, stepping-stones of grace.
I want all the little boys and girls who read this book to be
joy-makers, to be burden-bearers, to be among those who shall assist in
filling the whole world with good cheer. It is our duty to cheer and
comfort others; it is our duty to make the world not only better but
happier—happier because better—for our having lived in it. To all the
other beatitudes might well be added this one: Blessed are the cheerful
people, for they shall inherit the earth.
XL.
LIFE A BATTLE.
Boys and girls, I want to repeat to you now some words which were
delivered long ago by the Hon. Schuyler Colfax, a man who was once the
vice-president of the United States. These words are wholesome, and
should be read and considered by parents and school teachers and by
children themselves all over our land:
“Above all things, teach children what their life is. It is not
breathing, moving, playing, sleeping, simply. Life is a battle. All
thoughtful people see it so. A battle between good and evil from
childhood. Good influences, drawing us up toward the divine; bad
influences, drawing us down to the brute. Midway we stand, between the
divine and the brute. How to cultivate the good side of the nature is
the greatest lesson of life to teach. Teach children that they lead
these two lives: the life without and the life within; and that the
inside must be pure in the sight of God as well as the outside in the
sight of men.
“There are five means of learning. These are: Observation, reading,
conversation, memory, reflection.
“Educators sometimes, in their anxiety to secure a wide range of
studies, do not sufficiently impress upon their scholars the value of
memory. Now, our memory is one of the most valuable gifts God has
bestowed upon us, and one of the most mysterious. Take a tumbler and
pour water into it; by-and-by you can pour no more: it is full. It is
not so with the mind. You cannot fill it full of knowledge in a whole
lifetime. Pour in all you please, and it still thirsts for more.
“Remember this:
“Knowledge is not what you learn, but what you remember.
“It is not what you eat, but what you digest, that makes you grow.
“It is not the money you handle, but that you keep, that makes you rich.
“It is not what you study, but what you remember and reflect upon, that
makes you learned.
“One more suggestion:
“Above all things else, strive to fit the children in your charge to be
useful men and women; men and women you may be proud of in after-life.
While they are young teach them that far above physical courage, which
will lead them to face the cannon’s mouth; above wealth, which would
give them farms and houses and bank stocks and gold; is moral
courage—that courage by which they will stand fearlessly, frankly,
firmly for the right. Every man or woman who dares to stand for the
right when evil has its legions, is the true moral victor in this life
and in the land beyond the stars.”
These brave and true words were spoken by Mr. Colfax long years ago.
They were true then; they are no less true now. Every boy in America
should treasure them in his heart. Every girl in America should commit
them to memory and make them the rule of her life. Mothers and fathers,
school teachers and preachers, and all who have the care of the young in
any way would do well to study these wise counsels and reflect upon them
and strive to impress upon those for whom they are laboring.
If you would win the victory in the battle of life, my young friends,
you must watch the little things. It is said that there is a barn upon
the Alleghany Mountains so built that the rain which falls upon it
separates in such a manner that that which falls upon one side of the
roof runs into a little stream that flows into the Susquehanna and
thence into Chesapeake Bay and on into the Atlantic Ocean; that which
falls upon the other side is carried into the Alleghany River, thence
into the Ohio, and onward to the Gulf of Mexico. The point where the
waters divide is very small, but how different the course of these
waters! So it is with people, young or old. A very little thing changes
the channel of their lives. Much will depend upon the kinds of tempers
you have, boys and girls. If you are sour and cross and crabbed, no one
will love you. If you are kind and cheerful, you will have friends
wherever you go. Much will depend upon the way in which you improve your
school days; upon the kind of companions you have; and upon the kind of
habits you form. If you would win a great victory in fighting the battle
of life you must look well to the little things.
XLI.
RULED BY PRIMITIVE METHODS.[6]
I learned that the colored male citizens of Laurens County Ga., had
organized a unique “Good Government Club,” and, being anxious to learn
something of it, I called on the secretary. The secretary explained the
club to me as follows:
“Our society is a voluntary organization, and has for its object the
betterment of the race. It doesn’t cost anything to join, and any male
citizen upward of twenty-one years old may become a member by taking an
oath to be governed by our constitution and by-laws. There are no
monthly dues. Now and then we make up a purse to help a needy brother.
Our plan is to inquire into the mode of living of our members and
correct, if possible, any faults. If any member fails or refuses to
correct a fault complained of, he is then tried by a sort of
courtmartial. The man under charge is allowed to have counsel from among
the members of the organization. If he is found guilty, the punishment
is usually a flogging given in the presence of the other members. We
whip a man for a number of things: getting drunk, wife-beating,
vagrancy, selling his vote, failure to provide for his family, failure
to make an honest effort to pay his debts, using profane language and so
on.
“It was reported to the society that one man’s wife was badly in need of
a wash pot. The man was cited to show cause why he had not provided his
wife with the article. He failed to buy one before the trial came off,
and, when tried, failed to show how his wife could get along without one
and still be put to no great inconvenience. Conviction followed. He was
whipped, and ordered to get a pot within thirty days.... In riding past
the home of another man it was seen by one of our members that the front
gate had fallen down. From appearances he had made no effort to put it
up. At the trial it was proved that the gate had been down for several
weeks, and that his wife had tried many times to get him to take more
pride in the care of his home. Conviction followed and the husband will
remember a long time the flogging he got that night....”
[Illustration: “CHARGED WITH KISSING A GIRL ON THE STREET.”]
We had a man before us once charged with kissing a girl on the street.
The girl did not appear against him; we could not get her to do so; and
the man stoutly denied the charge. He told our judge that he had never
kissed a woman in his life. The judge asked him if he wasn’t married.
‘No, sah,’ he said, ‘my wife’s dead. I’m de daddy uv nine chilluns, an’
I nevah kissed a woman in my life.’ In the midst of much laughter, the
judge asked, ‘Did you never kiss your wife?’ Without a moment’s
hesitation the man said: ‘No, sah; no sah.’ Then the judge said: ‘Jim,
you’re the biggest liar in town, and I sentence you to be given
forty-nine lashes, but I’ll suspend the sentence if you’ll agree to
leave town within the next five hours.’ ‘Judge,’ said Jim, ‘I don’t want
no five hours; I’ll be gone in five minutes.’... The strangest case I
remember was the case of a man charged with beating his wife. His wife
was a hard-working washerwoman. She had complained to us three or four
times, but always repented before the time for trial, and would not
appear against her husband. When she did come to our meeting she said:
‘Now, judge, I’se a-gwine ter tell you evaht’ing.’ And she told how her
husband would get drunk and come home and curse and beat her
unmercifully. She gave a graphic account of the last whipping she had
received. The judge said: ‘I sentence this man to be given one hundred
and one lashes—the maximum of the law.’ ‘Dar, now!’ exclaimed the woman.
‘Dar now! I’se done fixed you at las’! I tol’ you ’bout beatin’ on me
like I wuz a dawg!’ Turning to the judge she said: ‘Judge, I’ll take de
whuppin’ fur him ef you’ll lemme; I ’spec’ he’ll be good atter dis.’”
XLII.
HUNTING AN EASY PLACE.
A nicely dressed young man, fifteen or sixteen years old, who had just
finished his course in the high school, stepped into the office of the
president of the Smutville Short Line Railroad.
“Well,” said the president, looking up from a mass of correspondence,
“what can I do for you, sir?”
“I have just finished my course in the high school,” the young man began
nervously, “and I thought that I might be able to secure a desirable
position with your company. I came in to talk with you about it.”
The president asked the young man to have a seat.
“So,” said the president, “you want a desirable place, eh?”
“I do, sir,” said the young man, his heart beating high with hope.
“A place,” continued the president, “that would pay you something like a
hundred dollars a month?”
“Something like that,” said the young man eagerly.
“I guess you would like it very well, too, if I could arrange it so that
you could report for work at nine o’clock in the mornings and get off
every afternoon at three or four o’clock. In other words, you want
something easy. I can see by looking at you that you are not accustomed
to hard work, and you could not fill a place that required you to report
at six o’clock every morning and work until six every afternoon. Do I
size you up correctly?”
“I think so, sir,” was the reply.
“In plain English then, you are looking for a soft place with the Short
Line?”
“I am, sir.”
“Well, sir,” said the president, smiling for the first time, “I regret
to inform you that there is only one such place on our railroad. I
occupy that place myself, and I am not thinking of resigning.”
The young man’s face flushed.
[Illustration: “I HAVE JUST FINISHED MY COURSE IN THE HIGH SCHOOL.”]
The president continued: “I hope you will not think that it is going
beyond what is right and proper for me to say, but I must tell you,
young man, that you have started out in life with the wrong notion. No
brave and strong young man is going about looking for an easy place. The
brave and true man asks only for work. And the men who are occupying
what you call the easy places in this life to-day are the men who have
climbed into them by hard work. You are very much mistaken if you think
that they have stepped into them from the high school. In fact, and
you’ll find it out soon enough for yourself, there are really no soft or
easy places in this world, and the man who goes about seeking such
places stamps himself at once as a failure. Nobody will ever employ such
a boy, and such a boy would be no good if he were employed. Let me, as a
friend, advise you, young man, that the next place you go to to apply
for a job, you ask for a chance to begin at the bottom. If it happens to
be a railroad, ask to be given a chance to do anything—firing an engine,
or cleaning cars, or laboring in the roundhouse. Be willing to begin low
down in the business, and, if you’re made out of the right stuff, you
will fight your way to the front. I started in with the Short Line as a
day laborer myself, and if I had not done so I would not be at its head
to-day. You advertise your own folly when you go and ask a sensible
business man to put you at the start at the head of something. You must
begin at the bottom and work up to the top. That is the rule everywhere,
and you will not, I am sure, prove an exception to it.”
Let us hope, boys and girls, that this young man left the president’s
office a wiser young man. Be sure not to follow his example. Don’t go
around hunting for easy places.
XLIII.
BURT BANKSTON’S BEQUEST.
Burt Bankston was a noted Kentucky gambler. Those who knew him best said
that he had some redeeming traits. He never drank whiskey; he used
tobacco in no form; and he seldom indulged in profanity. Moreover he
frequently went to church.
[Illustration: THE GAMBLER.]
But he never made any excuses for his gambling. He rather defended it,
saying that gambling was not a sport or pastime with him, but a
business. He said he gambled for the same reason that a man kept a store
or practiced law—for a living.
His wife declared that he was peaceable and quiet at home. The only
fault she found with him, according to her own testimony, was that he
kept late hours and often spent the whole night away from home. And she
begged him many times to quit the gambling table. Her appeal always fell
on deaf ears.
“Burt, I’m going to quit; I’ve got enough; this is my last night at this
kind of thing.” The speaker was Bill Mobley, one of Burt’s chums.
“All right, Bill,” said Burt, “I guess I’ll follow you in a few days;
I’m getting old now.”
The next morning Bill Mobley was found dead upon the streets of
Lecompton. Whether he had taken his own life or been sandbagged on his
way home was never found out.
From that day forward no man ever saw Burt Bankston in a gambling house.
He opened a grocery store—that failed. He started a laundry—that fell
through. He tried a peanut stand; he peddled flowers about the street.
Compared with his former high living, his existence was miserable. His
wife died after a few years. Friends said that she died of remorse, or a
broken heart, or something of that kind. She could not bear to live on
after her husband’s downfall—that is, his downfall in the eye of the
world. Soon after she died Burt was stricken with a dreadful sickness.
He came near dying. By-and-by he was restored to health, but he was
broken and bent with old age. Friends pitied him, and secured him a
place as watchman at a celebrated orphan’s home.
[Illustration: THE GAMBLER—IN OLD AGE.]
At last one day Burt Bankston died, everybody believing him to be a
pauper. When his will was probated it was found that he left an estate
worth nearly $500,000. This sum Burt designated to be divided into three
parts—one part to be devoted to the common school education of the
masses; another part to the work of the Y. M. C. A., and the third to
the orphan asylum. Among other things, in the body of the will Burt
Bankston said:
“For twenty years I was a gambler. The past twenty years I have spent
repenting. I advise all young men to let gambling alone; and I hope that
those who may be benefited by my bequest may be willing to follow the
advice of one who has passed through the fire.”
XLIV.
THE BIG BLACK BURGLAR.
One cold winter night, about midnight, my good wife called to me,
saying:
“Dan! Dan! Get up! Get up!”
“What’s the matter?” I asked with much alarm.
“Somebody’s in the dining-room; I heard them rattling the dishes just a
minute ago.”
“I don’t hear anything, wife,” I said slowly.
“There’s somebody in there sure; I heard them myself. Do get up, Dan,
before they take everything we’ve got.”
“I haven’t got a gun or any kind of weapon,” I said, still fighting for
time.
“Well, get up and make a noise—walk around heavy—that’ll frighten ’em
and make ’em leave.”
[Illustration: “THE BIG BLACK BURGLAR.”]
I got up quietly, turned up the lamp, and looked about me with a sigh.
“Be quick,” said my wife.
“In a minute,” said I.
I tipped around to the wall on the side of the bed, and took down an old
iron sword, which had done duty in the Mexican war, and which we had
preserved as an heirloom.
“Hurry, hurry, Dan!” said my wife.
“All right,” I said with meekness.
I took the sword in one hand and the lamp in the other, and moved gently
toward the door, which opened from our bed-room into the dining-room.
Pausing at the door, I said,——
“Hallo! Hallo, in there!”
The response came from my wife in bed.
“Open the door, Dan; open the door!”
Humbly I placed the lamp on the floor close by the door, caught a tight
grip on my old war-piece, and then quickly shoved the door wide open. I
intended, of course, after getting my bearings, to pick up the lamp and
enter the dining-room on a tour of inspection. But, I assure you, there
was no time for any such careful procedure. As soon as the door was
opened and the light went streaming into the dining-room, something fell
to the floor with a terrible thud, and quicker than it takes to tell it
a great big black something, that looked to me like a buffalo or
elephant, came bounding toward me. It was all so sudden that it
surprised me, and I fell back trembling. Over went the lamp. It broke.
Out came the oil. It took fire and pretty soon the lambrequin close by
took fire also. Down I snatched it and threw it into the grate. I
reached for the first thing handy, and tried to smother the fire on the
floor. In doing so, I stepped on a piece of glass and cut my foot. I
burnt my hands terribly. And, to beat it all, my night shirt caught on
fire. I ran to the bed, and sat down in order to quench the blaze. This
shows that I still had some presence of mind left, although, as a matter
of fact, this new extinguishing process scorched my legs awfully.
When all was quiet again, and I lit another lamp in order to take an
inventory, my bed-room was a sight to behold! I found that in the
struggle, my old army sword had been plunged amidship into the handsome
mirror of our dresser, and had also made havoc of a reproduction, of
Millet’s Angelus. I discovered, also, that I had used my brand-new $50
overcoat to extinguish the fire, and that many of the handsome photos of
our friends that stood on the mantle had been ruined. Altogether that
one night’s experience cost me in the neighborhood of $100, not to
mention my own personal injuries. It was a terrible night, I tell you.
And far-off in one corner, I saw, crouching in abject fear, the cause of
all my troubles—the burly black burglar. And what do you think it was?
It was nothing in the world but an old black Tom Cat, who had been a
member of our family for many years!
XLV.
PIN-MONEY MADE WITH THE NEEDLE.
Surely all young girls ought to know how to sew, and, not only sew, but
all girls, I think, ought to love the purely feminine occupation of
sewing. Since I am sure that many of the little girls who will read this
book know how to sew, I am going to tell you about some little sewing
that my wife did.
In 1903, the Ladies’ Home Journal, of Philadelphia, offered a prize of
fifty dollars for the best way to make pin-money at home. You know,
girls, that pin-money means pocket change or spending money. Many
hundreds of women all over the world sent in suggestions to the Ladies’
Home Journal, each one hoping, I am sure, that her suggestion would win
first prize. The following letter sent to my wife will tell you just how
her suggestion was received:
“THE LADIES’ HOME JOURNAL,
“Philadelphia. February 5, 1903.
“Dear Madam:
“It gives me much pleasure to tell you that among the hundreds of
letters received in response to the offer made in our January magazine
in connection with The Editor’s Want-Box, Mr. Bok has chosen your
offering as the one entitled to the first prize of fifty dollars. He
congratulates you upon your success and thanks you for the interest you
have shown.
“Our Treasurer will send you a check within a week.
Very truly yours,
“Wm. V. Alexander,
“Managing Editor.
“Mrs. Ella Floyd.”
The check came all right, girls, and my wife thought, as she said to me,
that in winning the prize she had found a new way to make pin-money—that
is, by telling others how to make pin-money at home.
Two hundred of the little articles were afterwards published from time
to time in The Ladies’ Home Journal. The first article of the series
appeared in the magazine for January, 1904, and my wife’s little story,
which won first money, was at the head of the list. I am going to give
here the whole of the little article, as published in The Ladies’ Home
Journal. Of course, I am proud that she won the prize, and I hope other
young ladies by-and-by may be the happy winners in such contests. And
here is the article:
“When one’s pin-money is all gone but twenty-five cents the question
comes as to the way to replenish it. One day when I found that I had
only that amount I invested it as follows:
1 yard of lawn .10
1 yard of lace .10
1 spool of cotton .05
———
.25
“The same day I made three baby caps as daintily as I could with these
materials. The next day I sold them for twenty-five cents each, and then
I had seventy-five cents. I then bought
1 yard of lawn .15
2½ yards of lace .25
2 yards of ribbon .25
2 tiny buckles .05
1 spool of cotton .05
———
.75
“With these materials I made two baby caps, somewhat larger than the
first ones, and trimmed more prettily. I found no trouble in selling
them for $1.50. Straightway I invested the sum in lawn, lace, ribbon,
etc., and as I had done so well with the caps I thought I would try my
hand on little bonnets. I made two. A friend offered me $5 for them
before they were finished. I accepted her offer and from that day to
this I have never been troubled about pin-money.
[Illustration: PIN-MONEY MADE WITH THE NEEDLE.]
“In four weeks’ time I made and sold twenty caps and eleven bonnets. The
material for the caps cost me $2.50—twelve and a half cents for each. I
sold them for twenty-five cents each. The material for the bonnets cost
me $8.25, or seventy-five cents each. I sold them for $2.50 each. So I
netted $21.75 for my work. The time which I devoted to this enterprise
was that which ordinarily I would have used in calling or in running up
bills for my husband to pay.
“Since the first four weeks of which I have spoken in detail I have made
more expensive caps and bonnets for babies from six months to about
three years old. The last one I made was of silk, beautifully trimmed,
tucked and hemstitched. I sold it for $6, making a clear profit of $3.
My husband says I’ll soon be in position to organize a trust.”
XLVI.
SELF-HELP.
If there is one idea for which more than any other the public school
system should stand, it is the idea of self-help. Self-help is the best
kind of help in the world, and one cannot learn this lesson too early in
life. Even little children—three, four, five, six and eight years
old—should be taught to work. Any little child is just as capable of
doing the little things in work as he is in play. Why should not the
little girl be taught to trim and wash the dress of her doll? Why should
not the little children be taught to sweep up the dirt that they have
scattered in play? Why should they not be taught to remove the dishes
from the table, brush up the crumbs, set back the chairs, pick up chips,
put the kindling wood in its place, bring the potatoes in from the
garden, help to pick over the berries, and so forth? We might argue this
question from now until doom’s day, and nobody, I think, would be able
to give any good reason why children should not be taught to do the
little things. Little children who are accustomed to having everything
done for them by others are very soon beset with the rust of laziness
and the canker of pride. Whereas, on the other hand, if children are
taught to help themselves as soon as and as much as they are able, it
will tend to improve their faculties, and will, at the same time, have a
good influence upon their dispositions.
Childhood and youth are periods of life which materially influence all
of its following periods, and whether the earlier years of one’s life be
passed in idleness and indolence, or in well-directed industry, is a
point on which greatly depends the worth or the worthlessness of human
character. Where is the man who guides his affairs with discretion, or
the woman that looketh well to the ways of her household, and yet was
not in some measure imbued with industrious and provident habits in
early life? On the other hand, who that has been treated until the age
of fifteen or twenty like a helpless infant, and had every want supplied
without being put to the necessity of either mental or bodily exertion,
was ever good for anything afterwards?
[Illustration: WASHING DOLLIE’S CLOTHES.]
The tendency of the age is by far too much in the direction of keeping
our young boys solely for the purpose of loafing about the streets, or
standing around the soda fountains on Sunday—and our young girls for
parties, social entertainments, picnics, excursions and the like. So
that by the time our boys and girls reach manhood and womanhood, they
despise honest labor and are afraid to engage in real hard work. A young
woman may know how to read and write—may understand grammar, history,
and geography—may sing sweetly and play the piano well; but, whatever
else she may know or may not know, if she does not know how to bake a
hoe-cake of bread, make her little brother or sister a pair of pants or
a plain dress, she is only half educated. In fact, every young woman
should not only know how to perform every duty connected with a
household, but every young woman should take some part in household
work. No girl need tell me that she really loves her mother if she is
willing to leave to her mother the work of washing the dishes, sweeping
and scouring the floors, caring for the little children, doing the
Monday washings, the house cleaning, and the like, while she devotes
herself to pleasure, novel reading, social calling, butterfly parties,
or playing rag-time music or singing rag-time songs.
The home and the public school are the two great agencies which are
jointly engaged, or which should be jointly engaged, in teaching
children to help themselves. If children are taught, as boys and girls,
to think for themselves, speak for themselves and act for themselves,
when they are old they will not forget the precious lesson, and will be
less likely to become burdens on the community. The highest ambition of
every American man and woman should be to be of some useful service to
the world; and the first step will be taken toward this noble end when
we have thoroughly learned the value and importance of the lesson of
self-help. First, learn to help yourself, and then you will be able to
see more clearly how to help others.
XLVII.
HENRY WARD BEECHER’S TESTIMONY.
First impressions are always most lasting. We may not recognize or
understand it at the time, but the boys and girls, the very young
people, whom God has committed to our care in the home or the
Sunday-school or the public school, gather in their early days, in the
formative and impressionable period of their lives, the inspirations and
impulses which shall guide them in after years either on the road to
good or on the road to ruin. I happen to have high testimony on this
point. It is the testimony of the grandest preacher who ever stood in an
American pulpit. I mean Henry Ward Beecher. The following testimony is
taken from a sermon of his preached in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, on
Sunday, January 18, 1874. The subject of the sermon was “Soul Power.”
Among other things, Mr. Beecher said:
“In reading the life of Goethe, written by himself, you will notice how
he marks the various stages of his self-culture, and says, ‘At this
point I met such a man, and he was of great use to me in such and such
respects.’ Goethe’s educators were living men, active and powerful,
around about him.
“I can look back upon my own early life, and see how one and another
took me, and how one prepared me for another. I can see how the largest
natures did not always get access to me. It was late in life before my
father influenced me very much. I think it was a humble woman who was in
our family that first gained any considerable control over me. I feel
the effects of her influence to this day.
“I next came under the influence of a very humble serving-man. He opened
up new directions to me, and gave me new impulses. He was a colored man;
and I am not ashamed to say that my whole life, my whole career
respecting the colored race, in the conflict which was so long carried
on in this country, was largely influenced by the effect produced on my
mind when I was between eight and ten years of age, by a poor old
colored man named Charles Smith, who worked on my father’s farm. He did
not set out to influence me; he did not know that he did it; I did not
know it until a great while afterwards; but he gave me new impulses, and
impulses which were in the right direction; for he was a Godly and
hymn-singing man, who made wine fresh every night from the cluster. He
used to lie upon his humble bed (I slept in the same room with him) and
read his Testament, unconscious apparently that I was in the room; and
he would laugh and talk about what he read, and chuckle over it with
that peculiarly unctuous throat-tone which belongs to his race. I never
had heard the Bible really read before; but there, in my presence, he
read it and talked about it, to himself and to God. He turned the New
Testament into living forms right before me. It was a revelation and an
impulse to me.”
What noble testimony this is! And from what a noble source! All of us
have what is called influence, and, consciously or unconsciously, we are
all influencing others, especially the young. It is a matter worth our
deepest and most prayerful thought. If Charles Smith, “a poor old
colored man;” if Charles Smith, “the very humble serving-man;” if
Charles Smith, “the Godly and hymn-singing man,” was used of God to give
impulses—and impulses which were in the right direction—to a little boy
who was afterwards to become the greatest preacher that America has ever
known, may not some of us be likewise used of God for the glory of our
Common Master, even Christ, and for the good of our fellow-men? I tell
you, friends, we may. And when we think of the great friend of humanity,
Henry Ward Beecher, let us not forget to think of Charles Smith, who had
so much to do, according to Beecher’s own testimony, with giving this
great man a right start.
XLVIII.
ROUNDING UP A CHICKEN THIEF.
I was not the chief actor in the story which I shall now tell. I played
only a minor part. My father-in-law was “leading man.” Soon after I
married I accepted a very cordial invitation to take up my residence
with my wife’s parents. Our bed-rooms happened to be on the same floor,
so that it was very easy for us to hear in one room any unusual noise
made in the other. My mother-in-law was a great hand at the poultry
business. She had a large number of the choicest breeds, and she found
great pleasure in looking after them. Now, the old-folk’s bed-room was
at the rear. Our room was in front. Late one night I heard a voice
calling.
“Thomas! Thomas!”
It sounded sad and far-away. At first I thought it might have been a
ghost. I raised myself up and listened. Pretty soon I heard the voice
again, calling in strangely sepulchral tones.
“Thomas! Thomas!”
And then I could not be mistaken. It was my mother calling the old man.
Father drawled out sleepily,——
“What is it?”
“There’s somebody out there at my hen house, just as sure as you’re
born. Don’t you hear the chickens calling for help?”
There was a short silence. After awhile I heard the old lady say
impetuously,——
“Thomas, why don’t you get up and go and see after them chickens?”
There was another pause. By-and-by mother spoke again,——
“Thomas, you don’t need on your top-shirt. Go on, just as you are. My
chickens are in danger. If I were a man, I wouldn’t have stopped to put
on my pants even. You’re a coward—that’s what you are!”
Next I heard the old man speak. I do not know whether he was looking out
of the window or not, but I heard his say,——
“Hi, there, look out! I’m coming out there! Look out, I’m going to blow
your daylights out!”
If the old man meant this remark to impress his wife with his bravery
the effect was certainly lost on the woman, because I heard her say
louder than ever,——
“Get out of the way, you coward baby, you! I’ll go myself! Where’s my
slippers?”
In less than a minute I heard the old lady’s voice at the back door, at
the head of the steps which ran down into the yard. She said,——
“Bring the lamp, Thomas! Bring the lamp!”
[Illustration: “SON, ITS A MIGHTY LUCKY THING FOR YOU AND NANNIE THAT I
DIDN’T HAVE MY GUN.”]
Curiosity pulled me and my wife out of bed. I stepped quietly into the
hall, and stood well in the dark, not desiring to be in any way
conspicuous in the investigations which were proceeding. My wife was by
my side—trembling, anxious. Her angelic mother had already descended the
steps, and neither of us knew what fate might befall her there. Wife
whispered that we had better go to the rescue. We started for the door
where father stood with the lamp. On the way I stumbled against a little
table and knocked off a pitcher of ice-water, which fell to the floor
with a terrific crash. It sounded louder than usual, not only on account
of the stillness of the night but also on account of the fact that our
nerves were already keyed up to a very high tension by the exciting
events then taking place. At the sound in the hall, father turned
quickly and looked behind. The light flashed into our faces. He must
have thought we were ghosts or burglars. Immediately the lamp fell out
of the old man’s hands, and he went sailing down the back stairs,
hallooing at the top of his voice,——
“They’re in the house, wife! They’re in the house!”
When wife and I reached the door father was already, as I afterwards
learned, safely buried behind the chicken house, and mother was lodged
under the steps.
“Father!” I called out. “Father!”
There was no response.
“It’s me and Nannie, mother,” I said.
Still we heard nothing.
I went back to our room, and got our lamp. My wife was following me,
foot to foot. Returning, I descended the steps and stood on the last
one. Wife remained at the head of the steps, anxious, waiting, and ready
to fly back into the house at the first outcry.
“Father!” I called again. “Father! Mother! There’s nobody in the house
but me and Nannie. I made that noise myself, father. Where are you?”
Simultaneously the old folks emerged from their hiding-places.
The old lady said,——
“Thomas, you’re the biggest coward in all the world! I’ll never speak to
you again!”
Father addressed me, ignoring his wife’s complaint. Said he,——
“Son, it’s a mighty lucky thing for you and Nannie that I didn’t have my
gun.”
XLIX.
SHIELDS GREEN, THE MARTYR.
Near the south-east corner of the cemetery in Oberlin, Ohio, there
stands an unpretentious monument of clouded marble, about eight feet in
height, bearing the following inscriptions:
S. GREEN,
Died at Charlestown, Va., Dec. 2, 1859.
Aged 23 years.
J. A. COPELAND,
Died at Charlestown, Va., Dec. 2, 1859.
Aged 25 years.
L. S. LEARY,
Died at Harper’s Ferry, Va., Oct. 20, 1859.
Aged 24 years.
These colored citizens of Oberlin,
The Heroic Associates of the Immortal
JOHN BROWN,
Gave their lives for the Slave.
Et nunc servitudo etiam mortua est, laus Deo.
In 1876, Frederick Douglass, who was once an associate and intimate
friend of John Brown, lectured at Oberlin College. Among other things,
Mr. Douglass said that Shields Green, who had once been a student of
Oberlin College, was residing in the Douglass family shortly before the
raid on Harper’s Ferry. At the call of Brown, Green went with Douglass
to an appointed spot near the borders of Virginia. There John Brown
confided to them the details of his plans, including the capture of
Harper’s Ferry. Mr. Douglass objected to the plans as unwise and
hazardous, and, finding entreaty unavailing, he withdrew from the
enterprise. Shields Green, nevertheless, followed his old commander.
When John Brown was finally surrounded, Green and one other companion
were in the mountains on some errand. When they returned, they saw at a
glance that the rescue of Brown was impossible. Green’s companion
counseled flight, and did himself escape, but Shields Green—the former
Oberlin student—replied that he preferred to “go down and die with the
old man,” meaning John Brown.
And he did.
There is scarcely a more touching incident than this in all our national
history.
L.
AIMING AT SOMETHING.
It is true, boys and girls, that it is what you hit, not what you aim
at, that counts; but, nevertheless, it is a very important thing to take
the right aim. The man who aims deliberately at the center of the target
stands a better chance, a hundred to one, than the man who shoots
without taking aim. So, in life, that boy or girl who has a purpose—who
is aiming at something—will be more successful than those boys and girls
who have no plans and who aim at nothing.
[Illustration: AIMING AT SOMETHING.]
It is not sufficient, in the moral world, to aim at something, but every
boy and girl should aim at the best things. The best and highest things
in this world are the unseen things, the eternal things, the things that
will last forever. Money is a good thing, but there is something higher
than money. A high position in the business or professional or political
world, is a good thing, but there is something higher and better than
office and position. Character is the grandest, the highest and best
thing in this world. We include in this one little word “character” a
world of things. Honor, uprightness, speaking the truth, dealing fairly
with people, being willing to help the lowly and unfortunate, paying
your debts promptly, these things, and many other things like them, are
included in the one word “character.” And these are the things that are
worth while in this world. These are the things that every boy and girl
should aim at. It may not be possible for every boy and girl to become a
millionaire; it may not be possible for every boy and girl to fill high
offices in this world, or succeed in large business enterprises; but one
thing is certain: every boy can be a good and true boy, every girl can
be a noble and beautiful girl. Beautiful as to conduct, as to words and
deeds, I mean. Good boys are the fathers of good men. Pure girls are the
mothers of pure women. For, what, after all, is a boy? And what is a
girl? What is a man? What is a woman? I will tell you. A boy is a little
man—that’s all; and a man is a grown-up boy. A girl is a little
woman—that’s all; and a woman is a grown-up girl.
It is important, then, that boys and girls should aim at the right
things, the good, the true and noble things early in life. What boys and
girls aim at, in nine cases out of ten, they will reach as men and
women. And to help you in taking the proper aim early in life, I am
going to give you something to aim at. Let every boy and girl make this
little motto his rule of life:
Know something—know it well;
Do something—do it well;—
And be Somebody!
LI.
“THE BLACK SHEEP” OF THE REYNOLDS FAMILY.
Will Reynolds was “the black sheep” of the Reynolds family. He knew it
and felt it, because he had been frequently slighted and treated with
contempt by his relatives. The only person who never lost faith in him
was his mother. She always felt that there was something good in her
wayward son, and often said that it would show itself some day. But
Will’s mother died in the early stages of his backslidings. Will’s
father married the second time, and the boy, finding it impossible to
get along with his stepmother, left home. He went from bad to worse.
Being arrested on the charge of drunkenness and vagrancy, he sent to his
two brothers, who were prosperous brokers in D. St., asking them to pay
his fine. Word came back that they would not interfere in his behalf.
His brothers sent word that he had brought the trouble upon himself and
he must get out of it the best way he could. Will was sent to the Work
House for six months. And nobody’s hand was raised to help him.
While he was serving his time, his only sister, a young woman not yet
grown, died. He knew nothing of it until about a month after it
occurred, and then he read the account in an old newspaper which he had
borrowed from a fellow prisoner. The news of his sister’s death deeply
affected him. His sentence was shortened by one month on account of his
good behaviour. The first thing he did, on coming to the city, was to
visit the family lot in Myrtle Hill Cemetery. He carried with him some
wild flowers and green leaves, being too poor to purchase a floral
offering from the dealers in such things. With uncovered head, he knelt
and placed these tokens of respect on the graves of his mother and
sister. This done, he stood in silence for a moment, and then wept like
a little child. While riveted to the spot, he made a solemn vow that he
would quit the old life and make a man of himself. “It’s in me,” he said
to himself, “and I’m going to prove it.”
[Illustration: “HE CARRIED WITH HIM SOME WILD FLOWERS AND GREEN
LEAVES.”]
Slowly he turned away from the sacred place. He went directly to the
offices of his brothers. He had been furnished with a new suit of
clothes, according to custom, upon leaving prison, and so made quite a
decent appearance. He found his oldest brother, John B. Reynolds, seated
at a desk in the front office. He entered at once and said,—
“Well, John, I suppose sister is dead?”
“How dare you,” exclaimed John, rising to his feet,—“how dare you to
speak of Annie as your sister, you jailbird, you miserable convict! Get
out of here this minute! Leave this room at once, and never set foot in
it again!”
There was fire in the man’s eye as he spoke. Will attempted to speak,
but was not permitted. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he left the
room. He had gone to tell of his new determination and ask for another
chance, and this was the reception which he met. On his way down the
steps, he came face to face with his other brother, Thomas Reynolds.
Thomas tried to pass without speaking, but Will intercepted him.
“Tom,” he said, “I’m your brother still. I’m not asking help now; I only
came to tell you that I’m going to do better. I thought you would be
glad to hear it.”
“I want to hear nothing from you,” said Thomas. “You’ve disgraced us
forever, and you can go your way; we don’t want anything to do with you;
we don’t want to see you again!”
Will went forth into the street weeping.
* * * * *
Thirty years have come and gone since Will was driven away from the
offices of his brothers. What changes have these years worked?
Soon after leaving prison Will was a constant visitor at the Railroad
Men’s Branch of the Y. M. C. A. Through the Secretary of the
Association, he soon secured a place as a day laborer in the machine
shops of the Big Bend Railroad. After securing regular employment, he
went to live in the Y. M. C. A. building. At the close of his first
year’s service with the railroad, he was promoted from a common laborer
and made an apprentice. After four or five years, he had learned the
trade and was receiving the daily wages of a machinist. After twelve
years with the company, he was made the Master Machinist. At the end of
fifteen years’ service, he was made Superintendent of Construction. Five
years later he was made a Division Superintendent. At the expiration of
more than twenty-five years of faithful service, Will Reynolds was able
to write after his name, “General Manager of the Big Bend Railroad.” He
had, also, been married for several years, and was the father of five
children.
Will’s father and brothers lost sight of him for nearly twelve years, or
until the papers announced his appointment as Master Machinist of the
Big Bend Railroad. They suddenly awoke to find that their conclusions
that he had probably long since died a drunkard’s death, or had gone off
as a tramp and had been killed, or was again serving a sentence in
prison somewhere—were wrong.
The same week that Will was made Superintendent of Construction of the
Big Bend Railroad, the newspapers spread all over the country the news
that Col. Oliver P. Reynolds had committed suicide. According to their
way, the newspapers gave all the sickening details of the tragedy,
together with the whole family history. They said that Col. Reynolds had
been driven to suicide by his wife. They said that she was much younger
than he; that she was extravagant; that she was a leader in gay society;
they told how, on her account, Col. Reynolds had driven his son away
from home fifteen years before; they declared that the old man’s life
had been a hell to him; and that his wife had brought him almost to the
verge of bankruptcy, and, in order to escape facing open disgrace, he
had murdered himself.
When Will heard of his father’s death, he hastened at once to the city,
but was denied admission to the family residence, and had to attend the
funeral in the little church around the corner not as a member of the
family but merely as an outsider.
We are not concerned in this story with the fate of Will’s stepmother.
But, as to Will’s brothers,—well, the crash came eight or ten years
after the death of Col. Reynolds, or a short while before Will became
the General Manager of the Big Bend Railroad. John B. Reynolds and
Thomas Reynolds, members of the firm of John B. Reynolds & Bro., had
been arrested and placed in the Tombs, charged with misappropriating
$175,000 of trust funds. Again the family history was rehearsed in the
newspapers. The papers did not fail to recall the suicide of Col.
Reynolds, nor did they fail to tell how these two brothers had earlier
in life turned their backs on a younger brother.
[Illustration: “WELL, JOHN, I SUPPOSE SISTER IS DEAD?”]
Will read the papers, and, saying to his wife, “Well, Mary, perhaps
they’ll be glad to see me this trip,” he went immediately to offer his
services to his brothers.
He had prophesied correctly. John and Thomas were very glad to see him.
They had no friends among those high in financial circles because they
had for many years conducted their business in such a way that business
men had no confidence in them. They had no credit and could get nobody
to go on their bonds. Will took in the situation at a glance. He had
been thoughtful enough to bring along with him the leading attorney of
the Big Bend Railroad, and he put matters straightway into his hands.
Bail was arranged, the brothers were released, and the lawyer then
turned his attention to the prosecutors. It was discovered that almost
half of the amount stolen was the property of Simon B. Nesmith,
President of the Big Bend Railroad. When Will Reynolds and the lawyer
found that their own superior officer had been so heavily hit by John B.
Reynolds & Bro., they came near fainting. Fortunately Nesmith when he
heard the whole story agreed not to prosecute, and not only said that he
would be satisfied with any settlement that the Railroad’s Attorney
might arrange but also volunteered to see the others concerned and use
his influence in having them do likewise.
In a short time matters were adjusted, and John Reynolds and Thomas
Reynolds were saved from prison. But they lost all their earthly
possessions and their brother, “the black sheep” of the family, had to
secure them for the sum of $40,000 besides.
John B. Reynolds and Thomas Reynolds came to their senses. It was their
time to cry now. Amidst great sobs they said,——
“We treated you wrongly, brother Will; we ought to have helped you many
years ago; we are so sorry we didn’t; and it was such a small matter,
too.”
But Will said,——
“Don’t talk about the past: I’m your brother still. Go and do as I did.
Start over and make men of yourselves—you’ll have enough time. That’s
all I ask.”
LII.
THE HOLY BIBLE.
I heard a minister say the other day that a mother had not necessarily
done much for her boy because she had bought him a nice Bible and put it
in his trunk, when he was about to leave home to seek his fortune in the
world. I think it wrong for anybody—minister or what not—to indulge in
such loose and flippant talk. The effect is bad—always bad, and no hair
splitting, and no higher criticism, and no curiously ingenious
explanations can mend the matter. As for me, give me the old-fashioned
mother who sends her son out into the world with a Bible in his trunk,
and give me the old-fashioned boy who reads that Bible every night with
tears in his eyes, as he thinks of the old folks at home and of their
simple lives devoted to Jesus Christ. Give me the man, woman or child,
whose hands touch the Bible reverently, instead of slinging it about as
a dictionary or some common dime novel. Give me the plain old fellow who
quickly takes leave of that circle in which critics are proceeding to
ably explain away certain chapters of the Bible.
As for me, I want no new theories about the Bible—no new versions—no new
criticisms. No man has a right to weaken the faith of others. No man has
a right to knock away the staff that supports the crippled wayfarer. And
no man has a right to tell an aged mother that it does no good to give
her boy a Bible unless he can suggest a better substitute. Destroy the
old-fashioned idea concerning the Bible, and we shall have a nation of
infidels defying God, defying the law, and repeating the licentiousness
and horrors of the French Revolution. We should make the Bible first in
all things. Make the Bible first in the family, in the Sunday-school and
church, make it first in state and society, and we shall have a Republic
that will grow brighter and brighter as the years come and go, and then
we “shall go out with joy, and be lead forth with peace: and the
mountains and the hills shall break forth before us into singing, and
all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
LIII.
ANDREW CARNEGIE’S ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN.
One of the bravest and truest friends of humanity that I know of is
Andrew Carnegie, the great iron king. He has retired from business now,
and is spending his time in giving away his money for the good of his
fellow men. In addition to smaller gifts, he has given to the city of
New York $5,200,000 for libraries for all the people. He has given
$10,000,000 to Universities in Scotland, his native country, and he has
also founded the “Carnegie Institution,” of Washington, D. C., with the
liberal sum of $10,000,000. Every colored boy and girl in America has a
special reason for thanking Mr. Carnegie for his splendid gifts to
Tuskegee and Wilberforce and other colored schools. In addition to the
$600,000 given toward Tuskegee’s endowment fund, he has given Tuskegee
and Wilberforce library buildings, costing about $20,000 each. The words
of such a humanitarian and philanthropist should carry weight
everywhere, and should be studied by all. Among other things, Mr.
Carnegie says, in speaking to young men:
“Do not make riches, but usefulness, your first aim, and let your chief
pride be that your daily occupation is in the line of progress and
development; that your work, in whatever capacity it may be, is useful
work, honestly conducted, and as such ennobles your life.
“Whatever your salary be, save a little; live within your means. The man
who saves a little from his income has given the surest indication of
the very qualities that every employer is seeking for.
“The great successes of life are made by concentration. Do not think you
have done your full duty when you have performed the work assigned you.
You will never rise if you only do this.
“You hear a good deal about poverty nowadays, and the cry goes up to
abolish poverty, but it will be the saddest day of civilization when
poverty is no longer with us. It is from the soil of poverty that all
the virtues spring. Without poverty, where will your inventor, your
artist, your philanthropist come from?
“There are three classes of young men in the world. One starts out to be
a millionaire. Another seeks reputation, perhaps at the cannon’s mouth.
A third young man, who will be successful, is he who starts out in life
with self-respect and who is true to himself and his fellow-men. He
cannot fail to win.”
LIV.
DIRECTIONS FOR LITTLE GENTLEMEN.
1. The essential part of good breeding is the practical desire to afford
pleasure and to avoid giving pain. Any boy possessing this desire
requires only opportunity and observation to become a little gentleman.
2. Never be guilty of what are called practical jokes; that is to say,
never place a pin in a chair so that somebody may come along and sit on
the pin’s point; never pull back a chair when a person is about to sit
down, and in that way cause such a person to fall on the floor. No
little gentleman will play such tricks.
3. Whenever a lady enters a room, it is proper for boys to rise, if they
are seated, but you must never offer a lady a chair from which you have
just risen, if there is another chair in the room.
4. Never engage in conversation while a person is singing. It is an
insult not only to the singer but to the company.
5. Always take off your hat when assisting a lady to or from a carriage.
6. If in a public place, you pass and re-pass persons of your
acquaintance, it is only necessary to salute them on the first occasion.
[Illustration: DIRECTIONS FOR LITTLE GENTLEMEN.]
7. Do not wear anything that is so conspicuous as to attract attention;
and, particularly, avoid the ruffian style.
8. Do not lose your temper. Particularly if you are playing innocent
games for amusement and happen to lose; avoid the exhibition of anxiety
or vexation at lack of success.
9. In all your associations, keep constantly in view the old adage, “too
much familiarity breeds contempt.”
LV.
THE LETTER OF THE LAW.
It was a bright and balmy afternoon in spring. Mrs. Anderson, in keeping
with the practice of neighborly kindness which was in vogue in the
Berkshire village, had sent a large plate of ice-cream across the street
to Mrs. Van Ingen’s. The cream was quite toothsome, and little Annie Van
Ingen, “six years old, going on seven,” felt when the plate had been
emptied that she would like to have some more.
With tears in her eyes she confided her wish to her mother. The maternal
explanation, “My darling, mama didn’t make any cream to-day,” failed to
satisfy Annie.
“Well, where did you get that we had?” she asked.
“Mrs. Anderson was kind enough to send it to us,” answered the patient
mother.
“I’m going over there and ask her for some more,” abruptly interposed
little Annie.
“No, no, no, my precious;” said Mrs. Van Ingen, “you mustn’t think of
doing such a thing. Mama doesn’t want the neighbors to know that her
little Annie is a beggar.”
[Illustration: “MAMMA TOLD ME NOT TO ASK FOR ANY MORE CREAM.”]
For reply Annie’s tears flowed fast and faster. Finally, seeing that
nothing else would avail, to pacify Annie, Mrs. Van Ingen said,——
“I’ll tell you what to do, dearie; you go over to Mrs. Anderson’s and
tell her that you’ve come to play awhile with her little girl. Now, be
careful, don’t ask her for any cream, but I’m sure she’ll offer you some
before you come back.”
The crying stopped immediately, and pretty soon Annie went tripping
across the street to play with Mrs. Anderson’s little girl.
Mrs. Anderson met her at the door and kissed her affectionately.
“I wanted some more cream,” volunteered little Annie; “the cream you
sent mama was very nice, and I wanted some more. Mama told me not to ask
you for any more, but she said that if I would come over here and play
with Bessie you would give me some more before I went back home. So, I
have come over to play with Bessie.”
And, having relieved her mind of its burden, little Annie, with perfect
delight and joyous innocence, ran hastily up the stairs to the nursery
in search of Bessie.
LVI.
THE BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN.
According to some of the most thoughtful people who have lived in this
world, a good way to deal with children in regard to the books that they
are to read is to give them the freedom of a library which contains a
few thousand of the best books in the world, and let them browse at
will. This was originally, I think, Charles Lamb’s idea. Charles Lamb
was a lovable man who wrote readable books for children. But this
statement of Lamb implies, of course, the possession of a good library.
Unfortunately many of my readers will not be found among those who live
in homes which are well-stocked with books. That is one reason why it
seems wise to make one or two suggestions as to the best books for
children to read. If you cannot have all of the best books in the world,
it is important that you should have at least a few of the best books in
the world; and I shall name a few which I believe every boy and girl in
America ought to know something about.
[Illustration: THE BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN.]
For children between the ages of six and twelve, I should put at the
head of my list Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe,” a good edition of the
“Arabian Nights,” and Hans Andersen’s fairy tales. In addition to these
I would get Hawthorne’s “Wonder Book,” Andrew Lang’s “Fairy Book” and
some book full of absurd fun like Lear’s “Nonsense Book” or “Alice in
Wonderland.” We must not forget Joel Chandler Harris’s “Uncle Remus,”
for it ought to have a place in every collection of children’s best
books. Kipling’s “Jungle Book” is good, and so is Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s
Progress.” “Tom Brown at Rugby,” Lamb’s Shakespeare Tales, and Ruskin’s
“King of the Golden River” must not be overlooked. John Burrough’s
“Birds and Beasts” might as well end the list, since I haven’t room to
give all the best books for children.
But whatever else you do, boys and girls, if you wish to widen your
spiritual horizons, do not close the windows on the emotional and
imaginative side by neglecting poetry. Somebody has said that “There is
in every one of us a poet whom the man has outlived.” “Verse and Prose
for Beginners” by Horace E. Scudder is a delightful book to have, and
another book of poems called the “Children’s Garland.”
The best books for a child are the books that widen his world. A man or
woman in middle life or old age who loves poetry and great pictures and
statues, who is familiar with Shakespeare, who has a sense of humor and
a love of nature, knows a deal about the joy of living and is full of
resources. No one can ever have these resources and that joy who has not
had them from early childhood.
LVII.
THE RIGHT TO PLAY.
The right to play is one of the divine rights of men and women, of boys
and girls, and is just as essential to the peace, happiness and
prosperity of the world as is the right to pray. Never be afraid or
ashamed, my young friends, of honest, vigorous, healthy play. Dominoes,
lawn tennis, baseball, football, ping-pong, golf, foot-racing, leaping
and jumping, boxing and wrestling, pole-vaulting, punching the bag,
swinging dumb-bells or Indian clubs, and a hundred other things are
perfectly sane and wholesome amusements for old or young. To refrain
from all forms of amusements is just as destructive of happiness and
injurious to character as is the other extreme of indulging too freely
in pleasures and pastimes. Puritan austerity and unrestrained excess are
alike to be condemned. But a certain amount of play—play of the right
kind and within proper limits—is a divine right of young people. Young
people must have fun and relaxation, and, if they do not find it in
their own homes, it will be sought in other and perhaps dangerous
places.
For myself, I believe that anybody is an enemy to young people who
desires to repress and crush out the naturally buoyant spirits of
childhood and youth, and he is a benefactor of humanity who makes it a
part of his business to see that proper places of amusement are provided
for the young people. Aside from the physical advantages of play, there
are moral advantages also. A man who helps to keep his body in good
condition by regular exercise is, in that way, beyond a doubt, adding to
the number of his days; that is to say, he will live longer than the man
who doesn’t play. But beyond and above that, he is a happier man while
he lives; he gets more joy and satisfaction out of life than the other
fellow. Sane and healthy play tends to blot out the remembrance of cares
and hardship; it gives our minds something else to think about. But
young people must be careful not to become absorbed in these things. I
believe in play; I believe in pleasure, in fun. But when I see young
people, or old people for that matter, devoting all their time to
wheeling, footballing, card parties, the giddy whirl of the dance, the
bacchanalian hilarity of the dram shop, and so on, I am forced to say
that things which may be right when taken in moderation, and as a relief
from the overtaxing burdens of life, are wrong when they become the
chief object for which one lives.
LVIII.
A CHRISTMAS PRESENT.
A forsaken little kitten wandered up and down the street on the day
before Christmas. It had no home; it had no name; it had no ribbon
around its neck; and it had no saucer of nice milk in one corner.
It began to grow dark, and colder too, and the stars came peeping out,
and the first flakes of a real Christmas snowstorm began floating down
through the air. The kitten mewed a trembling little mew, which told as
plainly as it could that it was very hungry, and it fluffed out its fur
to keep itself warm.
Now, somewhere along that street, up on top of a house (hiding behind a
chimney where he couldn’t be seen), was Santa Claus, getting everything
in shape before starting on his evening round. When old Santa saw that
lonesome little kitten strolling around he smiled—yes, old Santa Claus
smiled. He smiled because he knew that two blocks up the street a little
girl was standing with her nose pressed against the window, looking out
into the deepening night.
He had seen her as he went by. And he had also seen the poor little
supper laid out for two on the table, and heard her say to her mother,
in a quavering voice:
“Not even one present, mamma—not the teeniest little one!”
[Illustration: “MAMMA, I HEAR OLD SANTA’S BELLS AND OF COURSE THIS IS
THE PRESENT HE BROUGHT.”]
“No, Susie,” her mother had answered, “I’m sorry I couldn’t get anything
for my little girl this year, but—you know there wasn’t any money dear.”
And there was a tremble in her mother’s voice too.
Susie wiped away the tears, and turned to look out of the window.
“Perhaps,” she said to herself; “perhaps Santa Claus has something for
me after all!”
Now, the sad, really dreadful part about it was that Santa Claus didn’t
have one single thing for Susie in his pack. Perhaps it was because she
had moved into that house since last Christmas, or perhaps for once old
Santa had made a mistake. Anyway he was just saying to himself: “Why,
bless me, what shall I do about it?” when he caught sight of that
shivering little kitten.
“The very thing,” he thought. “I’ll give them to each other!” and he
chuckled till his reindeer looked around to see what was the matter.
And what happened next? Well, that kitten never knew really. It only
seemed as if there was a sudden rush and jingle of bells, which
frightened it so that it flew up the street as fast as its four little
legs could carry it, until it saw a small friendly face at a window, and
rushed up some steps nearby. Then a door opened, and two soft little
arms picked it up gently from the cold snow and a voice cried:
“Oh, mamma, see the poor little kitten—it’s so cold—oh, we’ll keep it,
won’t we, mamma! The poor little thing. Do you think it would drink
milk?”
Would it drink milk? What a question to ask about a little kitten. While
the little kitten was nearly choking itself trying to drink a saucerful
of milk and purr at the same time there was a jingle of bells outside,
and Susie said:
“Mamma, I hear old Santa’s bells, and, of course, this is the present he
brought.”
LIX.
DRINKING AND SMOKING.
There is food for reflection in a saying of somebody who lived a great
many years ago, ’way back in 1878. Here it is:
“Our government land costs one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, and
good whiskey two dollars a bottle. How many men die landless who during
their lives have swallowed whole townships—trees and all?”
Alongside of this statement might go this other one, which is equally
true:
“The young man who smokes three five-cent cigars a day—and many young
men use double the quantity at double the price—puffs away enough money
in the course of ten years to give anyone a handsome start in business,
or to provide anyone a comfortable home.”
[Illustration: DRINK AND TOBACCO.]
From a purely business standpoint, not to say anything about religion or
morals—from a purely business standpoint young people drink too much and
smoke too much. Every five cents spent for beer is five cents thrown
away. Every ten cents spent for whiskey is a total loss. It would bring
far better returns if it were put into a savings bank and laid away for
a rainy day. As for smoking, it is a silly, senseless, expensive habit.
It literally burns money up. The following figures show the expense of
smoking two cigars a day at five cents each from the age of twenty to
the end of each period of five years up to the age of seventy, 6 per
cent compound interest semi-annually being reckoned upon the money:
Two Cigars a Day at 5 Cents each.
From the age of: No. Years. Principal. Prin. & Int.
20 to 25 years 5 $ 182.50 $ 209.21
20 to 30 〃 10 365.00 490.39
20 to 35 〃 15 574.50 868.25
20 to 40 〃 20 730.00 1,376.07
20 to 45 〃 25 912.50 2,058.44
20 to 50 〃 30 1,095.00 3,094.99
20 to 55 〃 35 1,277.50 4,367.46
20 to 60 〃 40 1,460.00 6,078.73
20 to 65 〃 45 1,642.50 8,378.52
20 to 70 〃 50 1,825.00 11,469.25
Boys, I am glad to be able to put these figures down where you can see
them, and study them for yourselves. I want you to reflect upon them. It
is not what you make, but it is what you save that makes you rich. If
you ever expect to be even well-to-do men, not to speak of being rich
men, you must begin early to learn and practice the habit of saving your
money. If you will learn to leave out of your expenses the bills for
whiskey and tobacco it will not be hard for you to see then how you can
also save by cutting down your expenses for trifles, such as
knickknacks, candy, red lemonade, peanuts, etc. First in importance
among public institutions, next to the church and the school house, I
place the savings bank. No matter what your occupation, no matter what
your salary, it is possible for every young person to save something out
of his earnings, however small they may be. But if this habit of saving
is not acquired in early life it will be very hard to learn it later.
Saving is not the miser’s habit necessarily, nor is it the spirit of
avarice and parsimony. It is prudence and forethought. Money is a good
thing. It is the love of money—not money—that is the root of all evil.
LX.
THE NICKEL THAT BURNED IN FRANK’S POCKET.
Deacon Hepworth kept a little fish market.
“Do you want a boy to help you?” asked Frank Shaw one day.
“Can you give good weight to my customers and take good care of my
pennies?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Frank.
Forthwith he took his place in the little store, weighed the fish and
kept the room in order.
“A whole day for fun, fireworks and noise to-morrow!” exclaimed Frank,
as he buttoned his white apron about him the day before the Fourth of
July. A great trout was thrown down on the counter by Ned Tant, one of
Frank’s playmates.
[Illustration: “A QUARTER, MA’AM.”]
“Here’s a royal trout, Frank. I caught it myself. You may have it for
ten cents. Just hand over the money, for I’m in a hurry to buy my
firecrackers,” said Ned hurriedly.
The deacon was out, but Frank had made purchases for him before, so the
dime spun across to Ned, who was off like a shot. Just then Mrs.
Sinclair appeared.
“I want a nice trout for my dinner to-morrow. This one will do; how much
is it?” she asked as she carefully examined it.
“A quarter, ma’am,” and the fish was transferred to the lady’s basket
and the silver piece to the money drawer.
But here Frank paused.
He thought to himself: “Ten cents was very cheap for that fish. If I
tell the deacon it cost fifteen cents he’ll be satisfied, and I shall
have five cents to invest in firecrackers.”
The deacon was pleased with Frank’s bargain, and when the market was
closed each went his way for the night.
But the nickel buried in Frank’s pocket burned like a coal. He could eat
no supper, and was cross and unhappy. At last he could stand it no
longer, but, walking rapidly, tapped at the door of Deacon Hepworth’s
cottage.
The old man was seated at a table, reading the Bible. Frank’s heart
almost failed him, but he told the story and with tears of sorrow laid
the coin in the deacon’s hand.
Turning over the leaves of the Bible, the old man read:
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and
forsaketh them shall have mercy.”
“You have forgiveness, Frank,” he said. “Now go home and confess to the
Lord, and remember you must forsake as well as confess. Here, you may
keep this coin as long as you live to remind you of your first
temptation.”
LXI.
[Illustration: A MONUMENT TO A BLACK MAN]
In the city of Columbus, Georgia, there was erected in the year 1904 a
monument to the memory of a colored man named Bragg Smith. Mr. Smith
lost his life in the autumn of 1903 in an effort to save the life of the
city engineer of Columbus, who had been buried under an excavation in
the street. A large crowd of colored men was at work digging deep
trenches in which were to be placed pipes for running water about the
city. In some way the sides of the narrow trench had not been properly
supported by planks or otherwise, and by-and-by a great stretch of dirt
caved in. Unfortunately the city engineer, a white man, was caught
underneath the falling dirt. Bragg Smith did not stop to say: “Oh, it’s
a white man; let him die!” but at once jumped down into the ditch and
tried to pull the white man from under the heavy dirt. It was while he
was engaged in this work that the dirt fell from both sides a second
time, and Bragg Smith, in his effort to save the life of the white man,
lost his own life. The Bible says: “Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man will lay down his life for a friend.”
The city council at its first regular meeting after the accident voted
to erect a suitable monument to the memory of Mr. Smith. The monument
was dedicated in April, 1904. The monument is of Vermont and Georgia
marbles, and bears on one side this inscription:
“Erected by the City of Columbus to mark the last resting place of Bragg
Smith, who died on September 30, 1903, in the heroic but fruitless
effort to save the life of the city engineer.”
On the other side appears this quotation from Alexander Pope:
“Honor and fame from no conditions rise;
Act well your part; there all the honor lies.”
LXII.
THE BAD BOY—WHO HE IS.
My dear children, I am happy to say that all boys who are called bad
boys are not bad boys. There is quite a difference between a bad boy and
a merely mischievous boy. A boy is not necessarily bad because he makes
unearthly noises about the house, or now and then twists the cat’s tail
just to hear her mew, or muddies his clothes in an effort to catch
crawfish. He is not bad just because he likes to “play fantastic” on the
fourth day of July. So many people complain of their boys being bad when
they are only mischievous—that is to say, when they are only full of
life. Some people think that a good boy is one that has a pale face and
looks sickly; one that wears a sanctimonious look and moves along
through the world as though he were afraid to put one foot in front of
the other. That isn’t my kind of a boy. I do not think that kind of a
fellow is a boy at all—he is ’most a girl! A boy who never enjoys a romp
in the woods, who never climbs the apple tree before or after the apples
are ripe, who never plays ball, who will not shoot marbles, etc.—this
sort of a boy usually dies young, or he grows up to be a “male woman.” I
mean by that, that he grows up to be a man who acts like a woman; and
that kind of man is hardly fit for anything.
[Illustration: “PLAY FANTASTIC” ON THE FOURTH OF JULY.]
But there are some bad boys, I am sorry to say—really bad boys, bad in
heart and in deed. I have seen some on the chain gangs; I have seen some
hanging around the street corners—especially on Sundays, with no clean
clothes on; I have seen them smoking cigarettes—and a cigarette is
something which no manly boy will use; I have seen them in saloons,
drinking, playing pool and playing cards; I have sometimes seen them
shooting dice in the street for money. There are probably one thousand
boys in the jails, reformatories and in the penitentiaries in the single
state of Georgia. To form anything like an adequate estimate of the
total number of bad boys in the South we must add to the above number
the boys imprisoned in the other states; and, also, that much larger
number who have never been imprisoned because they happen never to have
been arrested, or who have been arrested and have had their fines paid
in money; and, finally, we must add those who have already served their
time and are again at large. So, you see, there are many thousands and
thousands of bad boys in the world, and they are very easily found. Are
you a bad boy or a good boy? Isn’t it better to be a good boy than to be
a bad boy?
LXIII.
THE BAD BOY—HOW TO HELP HIM.
[Illustration: THE BAD BOY]
Almost anybody can make something out of a boy who is naturally good,
but it takes one of very Christlike power and patience to make anything
out of a really bad boy. Yet all boys may be reclaimed, reformed, saved;
at least so I believe. And the first step in making a good man out of a
bad boy has to do with the boy’s body. The Holy Bible tells us that our
bodies are the temples—the dwelling places—of the Holy Ghost, and every
boy, and every teacher of every boy, in the home or day school or Sunday
school, should give more time and attention to the body in order to make
it a fit place for such a holy being. It is as true now as of old that
plenty of soap and water will exert a wholesome influence in making bad
boys good. Some one has said that cleanliness is next to godliness, and
somebody has added that soap is a means of grace. A boy who is taught to
bathe regularly and who is taught to keep his clothing neat and clean at
all times will in that way learn the great lesson of self-respect
quicker than in any other way; and, in my judgment, the shortest way to
the purification of a boy’s habits, a boy’s morals, a boy’s character,
is to teach him first to keep his body pure. Keep it pure not only by
baths and clean clothes, but keep it pure and sweet by keeping it free
from whiskey and tobacco in every form. Exercise, regular, and
systematic exercise, whether as work or play, will go a great way
towards keeping the body clean and healthy. Every boy is mistaken, every
parent is mistaken, who thinks that labor is unworthy, or that any kind
of honest work is degrading. The body needs to be kept alive and
vigorous by the frequent use of all its parts, and there is no better
way to keep the body vigorous than by doing some kind of work—work that
requires the use of the hands and legs and muscles, work that stimulates
the blood and makes it flow freely through the body.
Another step in the process of making a good man out of a bad boy has to
do with the mind. The body grows not alone by exercise, but the body
grows by what we put into it: the food we eat and the water we drink,
etc. We might say, I think, that the body grows on what it feeds on. It
is the same way with the mind: the mind grows on what it feeds on. If we
feed our minds on obscene pictures, on bad books, on vulgar stories,
told by ourselves or our associates, we cannot expect to have minds that
are keenly alive and active for good. Our thoughts control us, boys and
girls, whether we understand the process by which they control or not.
Our thoughts control us. If our thoughts are pure and sweet and noble,
we will be pure and sweet and noble. If our thoughts are impure, vile
and ignoble, we will be impure, vile and ignoble. Our thoughts rule us.
So every boy should guard well his thoughts; every boy should guard well
what he puts into his mind. Every boy’s mind feeds on what he puts into
it, and every boy’s mind grows on what it feeds. It goes without saying,
then, that a boy should not read “blood and thunder” detective stories,
stories about the “James Brothers” and other outlaws and bandits; nor
should a boy read filthy so-called “love stories.” All such literature
should be shunned, as a boy would shun deadly poison. A boy who desires
to become a good man should read only those things which will give him
confidence in himself that he can and may become a good man—good for the
service of God and the service of his fellow-men. Bad company must also
be left behind if a bad boy wants to become a good boy. Those boys who
tell smutty jokes and stories should not be allowed to associate with
that boy whose eyes have been opened and who wants to feed his mind on
good and wholesome food. Character, boys, in its last analysis depends
chiefly on three things: Heredity, environment and will. Now you cannot
do much to change your inherited tendencies—the tendencies you receive
from mother and father at birth, but you can do much in offsetting, in
overcoming these tendencies. You can also do much with the aid of a
generous and enlightened public to change your surroundings if they
happen to be bad. I confess that your mothers and fathers, your teachers
and pastors ought to do much more in this regard than you; but if they
will not exert themselves to get you out of evil surroundings, then, as
you value your own life and time and possibilities, by the help of God,
try to get out yourselves. The will is very largely influenced by your
surroundings. Hence you can see the importance of having good books and
good associates.
But whatever you do, boys, do not forget Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world. The highest part of your nature is
your spiritual nature, and, while you are building up the body and
building up the mind, do not forget to build up your soul. If others
will not assist you in this greater matter you can help yourselves. The
Master said: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid
them not.”
LXIV.
THOMAS GREENE BETHUNE.
(“Blind Tom.”)
I suppose there is not a little colored girl or boy in America who has
not heard of the wonderful “Blind Tom,” one of the greatest musicians of
the world. I wish that every boy and girl might have seen him and heard
him give one of his remarkable performances with the piano. I had that
high favor and privilege myself. During his life on the stage, or for
more than forty years, “Blind Tom” was seen probably by more people in
the world than any one living being. His stage career was closed
somewhere in 1900. I do not know whether he is living at present or not.
If he is still alive, and he probably is, he is very nearly sixty years
old. Everywhere, in this country and Europe, those who observed him most
closely, and attempted to understand him, pronounced him a living
miracle, unparalleled, incomprehensible, such as had not been seen
before in the world, and probably never would be seen again.
Thomas Greene Bethune, better known to the public as “Blind Tom,” was
born within a few miles of the city of Columbus, Georgia, on the
twenty-fifth day of May, 1849. He was of pure negro blood, and was born
blind. He was little less than four years old when a piano was brought
to the house of his master, for he was born a slave. As long as any one
was playing he was contented to stay in the yard and dance and caper to
the music. Sometimes he was permitted to indulge his curiosity by being
allowed to run his fingers over the keys. One night the parlor and piano
had been left open. Before day the young ladies of the family awoke and
were astounded to hear Blind Tom playing one of their pieces. The family
gathered around him to witness and wonder at his performance, which they
said was marvellously strange. Notwithstanding that this was his first
known effort at a tune, he played with both hands and used the black as
well as the white keys. Pretty soon he was allowed free access to the
piano, and began to play off-hand everything he heard. As young as he
was, he soon mastered all of that and began composing for himself. The
record of his public life is too long for me to give, but that Blind Tom
was known and honored around the world is known to everybody.
But feeling that every colored boy and girl should be justly proud of
Blind Tom’s record, I will give some words from the book of Hon. James
M. Trotter, himself a colored man. His book is called “Music and Some
Highly Musical People.” He says:
“Blind Tom is unquestionably the most wonderful musician the world has
ever known. He is an absolute master in the comprehension and retention
of all sound. You may sit down to the pianoforte and strike any note or
chord or discord, or a great number of them, and he will at once give
their proper names, and, taking your place, reproduce them. Complete
master of the pianoforte keyboard, he calls to his melodious uses, with
most consummate ease, all of its resources that are known to skillful
performers, as well as constantly discovers and applies those that are
new. Under his magnetic touch this instrument may become, at his will, a
music box, a hand organ, a harp, or a bagpipe, a “Scotch fiddle,” a
church organ, a guitar, or a banjo; it may imitate the “stump speaker”
as he delivers his glowing harangue; or, being brought back to its
legitimate tones, it may be made to sing two melodies at once, while the
performer, with his voice, delivers a third, all three in different time
and keys, all in perfect tune and time, and each one easily
distinguishable from the other! He remembers and plays fully seven
thousand pieces. Some persons, it is true, have had the temerity to say
that Blind Tom is an idiot. Out with the idea! Who ever heard of an
idiot possessing such power of memory, such fineness of musical
sensibility, such order, such method, as he displays? Let us call him
the embodiment of music, the soul of music, and there let our
investigations rest, for all else is vain speculation. No one lives, or,
so far as we know, has ever lived, that can at all be compared with
him.”
LXV.
NOT FIT TO KNOW.
[Illustration: “FRANCES.”]
Susan and Mamie and Lillian and Marjorie were always close friends. They
usually went together and played together and it was very unusual to see
one of them without the others. At school they always made it a rule to
lunch together and play together. One day at recess they were standing
in a little group all by themselves when Frances joined them.
“What are you talking about, girls?” asked Frances in cheerful tones.
“I’m telling them a secret,” said Susie, “and we will let you know, too,
Frances, if you’ll promise not to tell any one.”
“I’ll promise you not to tell anybody but my mother,” said Frances, “for
I have made it a rule to tell my mother everything.”
“No; you can’t even tell your mother,” answered Susie; “you must not
tell any one in the world.”
“Well, then, I refuse to hear it,” said Frances, as she walked away,
“for what I can’t tell my mother is not fit for me to know.”
Don’t you think Frances was right, girls? I think so. As soon as little
boys and girls begin to listen to words and stories which they would be
ashamed to repeat to their mothers they are on the road to temptation,
and nobody can tell how soon they will reach the end, which is always
disgrace and death.
I wish all the boys and girls who will read this book would make the
reply of Frances their motto: “What I cannot tell my mother is not fit
to know.” Stick to this rule through thick and thin, and you will avoid
many of the snares and pitfalls by which many of your companions and
playmates sink into shame and sin. Don’t read a note that you would be
afraid to have your mother read. Don’t look at a picture that you would
be ashamed to have your mother see. Don’t speak any word, and don’t
allow any to be spoken to you, that you would not like to have your
mother hear. A girl’s best friend is her mother. A boy’s best friend is
his mother. And, boys and girls, be very sure that if a thing isn’t fit
for your mothers to know it isn’t fit for you to know.
LXVI.
THE RIGHT WAY.
Henry Oliphant always considered himself lucky whenever he was able to
get a ride on the street cars without paying for it, or get a glass of
soda water or be admitted to some public place, where an admission fee
was charged, without paying the price. He was bragging one day to some
of his boy friends that he had not paid anything to witness the school
exhibition the night before. Frank Sewall was brave enough to chide him
for having done so. Frank was a plain-spoken boy, and Henry didn’t like
what Frank had said. He thought what he had done was all right, while
Frank had said that it was all wrong. Anyhow, Henry decided to get his
father’s opinion on the matter.
“Father,” he said, when night had come, “I got in the hall last night
for nothing.”
“How was that?”
“I just walked by the doorkeeper and he didn’t ask me for any money.”
“Did the doorkeeper see you?”
“Well, father, that was his business; he was put there for that purpose;
he ought to have seen me.”
“But I asked you, Henry, whether the doorkeeper saw you. I want you to
answer that question.”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Do you think he saw you?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Well, Henry, if he had seen you, don’t you think he would have asked
you for your money or a ticket?”
[Illustration: “FATHER,” HE SAID, WHEN NIGHT HAD COME, “I GOT IN THE
HALL LAST NIGHT FOR NOTHING.”]
“I guess so, father; but he didn’t ask me for anything.”
“Well, now, Henry, you know that a charge of ten cents was made at the
door, and that no one had a right to enter who had not paid the ten
cents. You did go in without paying. Now, whether the doorkeeper saw you
or not, do you think that that was quite honest on your part? Was that
the right way for you to act?”
“Well, I would have paid him if he asked me. I wasn’t the doorkeeper.”
“I guess the man who stole our wood last week would have paid me if I
had seen him and asked him; but we called that stealing.”
“But, father, I did not take anything from the doorkeeper.”
“Who gave you the money with which to pay your admission?”
“Mother.”
“Where is that money now?”
“I have it; but I didn’t take it from the doorkeeper.”
“But you kept it from him, Henry. It belongs to the doorkeeper. He gave
you its value. My son, the right way is, whenever you buy anything,
whether it be a ride or a glass of soda water or permission to see a
concert, whenever you buy anything you ought to pay for it. If you don’t
you are no better than a common robber. You must go to-day and give Mr.
Hall that ten cents.”
LXVII.
KEEPING FRIENDSHIP IN REPAIR.
I sometimes think that boys and girls, and even old people, are often
careless in the matter of their friendships—not careless in the matter
of selecting friends, though I am sure there is room for improvement
along that line—but careless in trying to keep the good friendships we
have already formed. We ought to keep our friendships in repair. Perhaps
you think that our friendships are not things which need to be kept in
repair. How foolish it is to think so! Does a garden need to be weeded?
Does an old fence need to be kept in repair? Do we paint our houses only
once in a century? What about the musician—does he not need to keep in
practice? Supposing that you never kept your muscles in repair by
constant use or exercise—how long would you be strong or healthy? And do
you think that your friendships, because they are in a way
intangible—you cannot see them, handle them or taste them—do you think
that they grow and thrive of their own accord, and, therefore, do not
need to be kept in repair? Slights, snubs, angry words, unpleasant
conduct, long-continued lack of association, long-continued lack of
familiar intercourse, and coldness, even where the meetings are
periodic—these things, boys and girls, will kill the warmest friendship
and choke the tenderest love. So we ought to be careful to keep our
friendships in repair. If we had no friends in this world, no playmates
and companions, no kindred spirits into whose keenest sorrows and
highest joys we entered with deep and full sympathy, and who did not
enter into our sorrows and joys in the same way—if we had no friends in
this world, with all of its wealth and splendor, we should not desire to
live very much longer. But to have friends and to be friendly goes a
long way towards making the world a beautiful and blessed place to live
in.
[Illustration: THE TWO PATHS.]
How, then, may we keep our friends? Easy enough—by cultivating them; and
we cannot keep them in any other way. We should take time to be
friendly. Little notes, little presents, little visits, little social
entertainments, little kindnesses—these things, and things like them, go
a great way in cementing our friendships, in tying people to us, as it
were, with hooks of steel. We should not neglect these means of keeping
our friendships in repair. Always give your friends a cordial welcome in
your homes, and at your little children’s parties; let them feel, make
them feel, that their coming adds to your pleasure without increasing
your burdens. Don’t be selfish and narrow; be broad-minded and liberal.
Keep your friendships in repair, and then see if you do not find your
horizon broadened, your life sweetened, and the weary weight of this sad
old world lightened.
LXVIII.
LITTLE ANNIE’S CHRISTMAS.
Christmas morning came.
Daylight was just peeping into the room.
Poor little Annie, the cripple, awoke and turned her eyes towards the
corner where she had hung her stocking the night before.
Surely, she thought, as she watched it, there could not be very much in
it, because it didn’t seem to be any larger than it was when she had
hung it up. After awhile she crept slowly to where it was.
She did not take her crutches, for fear she would disturb her mother,
who slept in the same bed with her. It was hard for her to move around
without her crutches, but she persevered and finally she reached her
stocking.
[Illustration: “SHE PUT OUT HER THIN LITTLE HAND AND FELT IT.”]
She put out her thin little hand and felt it. Yes, there was something
in it! Then she put her hand inside and took out something which seemed
round and soft. She took it out and looked at it. It was a little cake.
Poor little Annie smiled, and put her hand back into the stocking. This
time she found something which was done up in paper. She opened the
paper and found a whole dozen of gumdrops. How brightly her little eyes
flashed! She was only six years old and she had never had so much candy
at one time in all her life.
By-and-by her mother awoke. She raised her head and saw Annie’s happy
face. “Poor girl,” she thought, “how happy I would have been to have
bought something else for her, but I wasn’t able. I hope she will be
happy with what she has.”
“See, mother,” cried Annie, “I have twelve gumdrops and a cake. We will
eat half of the gumdrops to-day and save the other half for to-morrow.
You’ll eat three and I will eat three.”
“No, Annie,” said her mother, “you must eat every one by yourself.”
Annie smiled, but did not say anything.
Little Annie’s mother was a widow, and she was very, very poor; there
were many times when they had only a little dry bread and water for the
day’s food. For this bright Christmas season there were many things
besides food which she would like to have bought for her poor little
crippled child; but she did not have any money to pay for playthings or
toys.
After breakfast on this Christmas day Johnny Ray came to see them. He
brought with him a good thick shawl for Annie’s mother and four pairs of
warm stockings which his mother had sent for Annie, and, also, a large
package of nice candy.
Little Annie’s mother cried for joy.
Little Annie was too happy to speak. She had never dreamed of having so
much candy at one time!
LXIX.
THE VELOCIPEDE RACE.
One bright day Archibald mounted his velocipede and rode out into the
long green lane, where he could ride for a long distance without
interruption. He had left his coat in the house because he knew that
riding would make him very warm.
When he reached the lane the velocipede moved along so smoothly that
Archibald was very happy. By the time he had gone nearly a half mile he
was tired and stopped for a rest.
Pretty soon he heard a noise coming from behind, and he wondered what
rider it might be on the same track that beautiful spring morning. He
looked up and saw John Smith coming, riding a large velocipede and going
as fast as he could.
Archibald quickly mounted his wheel and started on a swift run, trying
to overtake the flying John. Before they reached the end of the road
they saw Clara Hempton, standing by the fence with her little
velocipede. Clara watched the boys as they flitted past. She thought
that she could keep up with John, but she was not sure that she could
ride as fast as Archibald.
[Illustration: THE VELOCIPEDE RACE.]
While she was meditating Archibald cried out:
“Clara, you wait until we finish this race, and then we three will go
back together.”
Archibald reached the end first, but John was not very far behind.
When Clara reached them Archibald said:
“Now we will all have a fair start and see who will reach the other end
first.”
So they all started on a line. Archibald knew that he was the largest
and could go the fastest, but, as he had won the other race, he did not
ride this time as fast as he could. He thought this was the right way to
give the others a fair chance.
Clara and John reached the other end of the lane at exactly the same
time, with Archibald a short distance behind them.
John and Clara were greatly delighted because they had won the race from
the big boy, Archibald. Archibald was pleased because they were pleased.
This was not the only time that Archibald had proved that he was a good
and kind boy, and that he was thoughtful of little children younger than
himself.
From this little story of the velocipede race many other little boys and
girls may learn a good lesson, I hope, that will do them good all
through life.
LXX.
FAULT-FINDING.
[Illustration: FAULT-FINDING.]
Faults are the easiest things to find in all this world. A fault is
something that can be found without looking for it. And I guess no
little boy or girl in all the world knows anything that is easier to
find than something that he or she doesn’t have to look for. Well,
faults are things that we can find without looking for them; so faults
are the easiest things to find in all the world. Yet, boys and girls,
the habit of fault-finding, or the habit of finding fault, is one of the
worst habits that anybody could form. It does nobody good, generally
speaking. Besides it stamps the person who is so easy to find fault with
everything and everybody as being a mean, low, envious, evil-hearted
person. It is a good deal better to look for something to praise than it
is to look for something to blame. Yet there are some people—some little
boys and girls—who are so constituted that they do not see any good in
anything. When it is cold, it is too cold. When it is hot, it is too
hot. They don’t like “vici kid” shoes; they want patent leathers. The
singing at church or Sunday school last Sunday was just horrid. Old Mary
Jones ought to be taken out of the choir. The preacher preaches too
long, or the deacon prays too loud. The school teacher isn’t any good—I
can beat him drawing myself. So they go on from day to day, finding
fault with everything and everybody. Nothing pleases them; nothing
delights them. If by any chance or mischance they should get to heaven
they would, I believe, find fault with the way the Lord has arranged
things up there. They are miserable people to have around—these
good-for-nothing, lazy and trifling fault-finders. If you try real hard,
boys and girls, you can find something good in everything and in
everybody. That is one reason why we do not always see the good in
people or things—we don’t look for it. We can find out what is bad—can
find out the bad things without looking for them, but if we want to see
the good things we must be on the lookout for them. If we are on the
lookout—if we make up our minds that we are going to see the good, and
only the good, we are always sure to find it.
There was an old woman once who was noted for being able to say
something good about everything and everybody. She was never heard to
speak evil of anything or anybody. Once upon a time a gambler died in
the city where she lived. He was a miserable sinner, and nobody liked
him and nobody had a good word to say for him, even after he was dead.
Aunt Maria, the good old lady, went to see him after he had been put
into his coffin. The people who were present wondered what good thing
Aunt Maria could possibly say about the dead sinner. Aunt Maria entered
the room and walked around on tiptoe. After awhile she raised her head
and said:
“Friends, I tell you, he makes a mighty nice looking corpse.”
LXXI.
THE PURITANS’ SABBATH.
If all the little boys and girls in America to-day knew how the people
in the New England states were compelled by law to keep the Sabbath day
I think they would realize how much better it is to be living in these
days and times than to have lived in those.
The laws concerning the keeping of a New England Sabbath were very
severe—that is, before the Revolutionary War, when what was called
colonial rule was in force.
No manner of work was allowed to be done; no visiting, no playing, no
gaiety of any kind was permitted; just think, boys and girls, it is said
that one man was brought to trial and fined for kissing his wife on a
Sabbath morning.
Slowly and solemnly, just as if they were going to a funeral, the
families all walked to the meeting house on Sundays, some of them having
to walk many and many miles.
On reaching the church the men took their places on one side of the
house and the women on the other—they didn’t allow men and women to sit
together. The children, also, had to sit by themselves, and there was a
man appointed to keep them quiet. This man carried a long stick with a
hard knob at one end and a little feather brush at the other. The
feather end of this stick he would use to tickle the faces of the men
and women who might chance to get sleepy and go to nodding during the
preaching. The other end he used on the children.
I guess this poor man must have kept busy all the time, for the sermons
were very long, lasting for whole hours. Sometimes a man would begin a
sermon in the morning and preach up to dinnertime; the congregation
would then go out for dinner, and come back and sit for hours during the
afternoon to hear the sermon concluded.
The men carried their muskets to church with them, so that they might
have them ready in case of an attack from the wild Indians.
The meeting houses were not warmed even in very cold weather; the people
thought that in some way it would make them better Christians if they
bore such discomforts without a murmur. Of course we know better now,
and wouldn’t think of doing such a foolish thing.
After a time the people began to carry hot bricks and stones to keep
their hands and feet from freezing, and by-and-by they carried foot
stoves. These stoves were little tin boxes, with holes in the side, a
cover, a door, and handles with which to carry them. In these boxes were
put live coals and in that way the fire would last throughout the
sermon.
I fear many and many a little boy and girl dreaded to see Sunday come,
for, as a rule, it was a long, dreary day, and I am sure that they must
have been glad when it was over.
I know you must be glad that people no longer have the idea that Sunday
should be such a dismal, sober day; and I believe that our Heavenly
Father is much more pleased to see the children spending the Lord’s day
happily in their homes with their mothers and fathers, their little
brothers and sisters.
Of course no Christian boy or girl even now believes in making Sunday a
day of riot and fun; and no Christian man or woman believes in having
the saloons open on Sunday anywhere. But most of us are away beyond the
old Puritan idea of sadness and gloom for the Sabbath.
Next Sunday, boys and girls, when you enter your pleasant Sunday school
rooms and find your schoolmates and teachers so glad to see you, and
where everything is bright and pleasant, think of those poor little
children who had no books and cards and no pretty songs and who were
made to pass the whole day without even being allowed to laugh.
LXXII.
THE DEVIL ON AN EXCURSION.
I wonder how many boys and girls have ever witnessed a cyclone—a great
big hurricane of wind and rain, of lightning and thunder, that just
knocks down all the trees and takes the roofs off all the houses.
It is a terrible thing, the cyclone is!
The other day one came to our town. We could look up into the sky and
see coming, from afar, a great big black cloud that looked for all the
world like a balloon—a great big balloon, ever so large. The wind was
blowing at a rapid rate, the dust flying, and everybody was frightened.
The roof was lifted off the school house, a church was blown down, many
houses were unroofed, and men and beasts were alike hurled right and
left. I do not think anybody was killed but a great many were frightened
nearly to death.
The cyclone took one poor little boy and landed him in the midst of a
mud puddle. The little fellow stretched out stiff and stark, as if he
had been killed. An old man ran up to the edge of the ditch and said:
“Isaac, is you dead?”
Isaac said nothing, but his eyes, were rolling in their sockets. The old
man asked again:
“Isaac, is you dead? ’Cause ef you is dead d’ain’t no use uv my comin’
in dar to try to git you out.”
This time Isaac grunted, rolled his eyes, and asked:
[Illustration: “DE GOODNIS GRACIOUS! I SEE DAT OLE CYCLOOM COMIN’ BACK
AG’IN. HE LOOK BLACKAH AND WUSSAH DAN HE DONE BEFO’. RUN, ISAAC, RUN!”]
“Where is he, Uncle Reuben?”
“Whar’s who?” asked Uncle Reuben.
“The devil,” said Isaac.
“He done gone,” said Uncle Reuben, “he done clean gone; but you bettah
git up f’um dar!”
“I can’t,” said Isaac. “I can’t; I’m ’most dead!”
Uncle Reuben studied a short while. He was planning what to do next. He
didn’t want to go into the mud and water and get his clothes soiled in
trying to rescue the little boy. By-and-by Uncle Reuben threw up his
hands, looked up the big road and said:
“De goodnis gracious! I see dat ole cycloom cornin’ back ag’in. He look
blackah and wussah dan he done befo’. Run, Isaac, run!”
You ought to have seen Isaac jump out of that hole. He got out
hallooing, and he ran and hallooed for nearly a quarter of a mile. Uncle
Reuben hallooed after him to stop, but it did no good. The poor little
fellow was well nigh scared to death.
A few days after the cyclone Uncle Reuben was telling some of his
friends about the occurrence. Among other things he said:
“Little Isaac wasn’t ready fur Judgment—dat’s all! He wasn’t ready! W’en
a man’s ready to go to judgment, he ain’t ’fraid uv nothin’. No, sah; he
ain’t ’fraid uv nothin’. Isaac wasn’t ready, an’ he hallooed an’
squealed jes like death done struck him. Mens, I tell you, dat ole
cycloom jes ’tuck de roof off’n ev’ybody’s house. Look like ev’ybody’s
house he come to he dip down an’ say, ‘Take yo’ hat off to me; don’t you
see me cornin’; ain’t you got no mannahs?’ Den he’d strike ’em an’ take
deir hats off hisse’f. He took de roof off’n de cullud school house an’
he took de roof off’n de white school house. De cycloom ain’t no
respectah uv persons—he sho ain’t. W’en little Isaac done come to his
senses an’ done got clean ovah his fright, I ax’d him what a cycloom
was. He told me dat a cycloom wa’n’t nothin’ ’tall in dis worl’ but de
debbil on a flyin’ ’scursion. The mo’ I think ’bout it, the mo’ I
b’lieve dat boy was right. De cycloom sho is de debbil on a ’scursion,
an’ w’en de debbil is a-ridin’ you’d bettah lay low.”
LXXIII.
RANDOM REMARKS.
In the olden times parents used to rule their children, but in these
days and times there are many people who believe that the children rule
their parents. So many misguided parents in these days and times believe
in sparing the rod and spoiling the child. Boys don’t get many whippings
at home nowadays, and if a boy happens to get a good flogging at school
it will cause a big row, and sometimes cause the teacher to be
threatened with arrest. Whenever my teacher used to whip me I was always
afraid to mention it at home for fear of getting another. I heard a man
say the other day: “Never whip a child; raise your boy on love and
kindness and reason!” Yes; and when that boy is twelve or thirteen years
old somebody will have to go to him and talk to him and try to persuade
him not to whip his father or mother.
[Illustration: I JUST WISH I COULD HAVE MY WAY WITH THOSE BOYS FOR ABOUT
TWO MINUTES.]
I was at church the other day and I saw two boys about ten or eleven
years old. After service they lit their cigarettes and went marching off
as big as Trip. A man of the old school looked at them for awhile, and
then, turning away, he said:
“I just wish I could have my way with those boys for about two minutes.”
I didn’t say anything, but deep down in my heart I sympathized with the
old man, and felt that both of the youngsters ought to have had a good
whipping.
Some girls are almost as bad as some boys. Girls are most too fast in
these days. As soon as they get their dresses to their shoetops they are
gone. They go crazy over their clothes, for they think that they must
keep in the fashion. They read too much trash, for they think that is
the way refined and cultured people do. Old-fashioned modesty is at a
discount. The girls don’t wait for the boys to come now—that is, many of
them don’t; they go after them. I have seen some girls running around in
these new-fashioned night gowns, and they call it a Mother Hubbard
party. If their mothers don’t allow them to go with the boys they will
slip around and meet them somewhere anyhow. And where they are allowed
to go with the boys they generally go to extremes. What business has a
little girl—ten or twelve or fourteen years old—to be locked-arms with a
little stripling of a boy, going home at night from church or some
social entertainment. It always disgusts me whenever I see it. Worse
than a mannish boy is a womanish girl. What business has a little girl,
or a larger one, to allow a man to throw his arm around her waist in the
round dance? It is immodest, to say the least, and there is not a good
mother in the land who approves it. A girl who goes to a promiscuous
ball and waltzes around with promiscuous fellows puts herself in a
promiscuous fix to be talked about by the dudes and rakes and fast young
fellows who have encircled her waist. Slander is very common, I know,
especially slander of young ladies; there are not many young ladies who
escape it; but the trouble about it is that it is not all slander—some
of it is the truth.
In the olden times when folks got married they stayed married, but
nowadays the courts are full of divorce cases. The land is spotted with
what are called “grass widows,” and in many a household there is hidden
grief over a daughter’s shame. Why is it? What causes it? Lack of proper
training and care of the young. Habits are great things—good habits or
bad habits. If girls are reared to clean their teeth and keep their
fingernails clean they will keep them clean all their lives. If boys are
reared to chew tobacco and smoke they will never quit. The same about
loving and courting and getting married. Much depends upon training,
upon habits. Young flirts make old flirts. Young devils make old devils!
LXXIV.
BENJAMIN BANNEKER, THE NEGRO ASTRONOMER.
The little colored boys and girls of America should be proud to know, as
I suppose the little white boys and girls will be surprised to learn,
that the first clock of which every portion was made in America was made
by a colored man.
The colored children will also be glad to know, I think, that among the
earliest almanacs prepared for general use in this country were those
which were published for several years by this same colored man. His
name was Benjamin Banneker. I have found a good and true account of this
wonderful man in The Atlantic Monthly for January, 1863. I am going to
give a good portion of that account in this book, because I believe
every colored person in America should be acquainted with that man’s
history. The account says:
“Benjamin Banneker was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, near the
village of Ellicott’s Mills, in the year 1732. There was not a drop of
white man’s blood in his veins. His father was born in Africa, and his
mother’s parents were both natives of Africa. What genius he had, then,
must be credited to that race. When he was approaching manhood he went,
in the intervals of toil, to an obscure and remote country school. At
this school Benjamin acquired a knowledge of reading and writing, and
advanced in arithmetic as far as ‘Double position.’ Beyond these
rudiments he was his own teacher. Young Banneker had no books at all,
but in the midst of labor for a living he so improved upon what he had
gained in arithmetic that his intelligence became a matter of general
observation. He was such an acute observer of the natural world and had
so diligently observed the signs of the times in society that it is very
doubtful whether at forty years of age this African had his superior in
Maryland.
“Perhaps the first wonder amongst his comparatively illiterate neighbors
was excited, when, about the thirtieth year of his age, Benjamin made a
clock. It is probable that this was the first clock of which every
portion was made in America; it is certain that it was purely his own
invention as if none had ever been made before. He had seen a watch, but
never a clock, such an article not being within fifty miles of him. He
used the watch as a model for his clock. He was a long time at work on
the clock,—his chief difficulty, as he used often to relate, being to
make the hour, minute, and second hands correspond in their motion. But
at last the work was completed, and raised the admiration for Banneker
to quite a high pitch among his few neighbors.
“The making of the clock proved to be of great importance in assisting
the young man to fulfill his destiny. It attracted the attention of the
Ellicott family, who had just begun a settlement at Ellicott’s Mills.
They were well-educated men, with much mechanical knowledge, and some of
them Quakers. They sought out the ingenious negro, and he could not have
fallen into better hands. In 1787 Mr. George Ellicott gave him Mayer’s
“Tables,” Ferguson’s “Astronomy,” and Leadbetter’s “Lunar Tables.” From
this time astronomy became the great object of Banneker’s life, and in
its study he almost disappeared from the sight of his neighbors. He
slept much during the day, that he might the more devotedly observe at
night the heavenly bodies whose laws he was slowly, but surely,
mastering.
“Very soon after the possession of the books already mentioned, Banneker
determined to compile an almanac, that being the most familiar use that
occurred to him of the information he had acquired. To make an almanac
then was a very different thing from what it would be now, when there is
an abundance of accurate tables and rules. Banneker had no aid whatever
from men or rules; and Mr. George Ellicott, who procured some tables and
took them to him, states that he had already advanced very far in the
preparation of the logarithms necessary for the purpose.
“The first almanac prepared by Banneker for publication was for the year
1792. By this time his acquirements had become generally known, and
among those who were attracted by them was Mr. James McHenry. Mr.
McHenry wrote to Goddard and Angell, then the almanac-publishers of
Baltimore, and procured the publication of this work, which contained
from the pen of Mr. McHenry, a brief notice of Banneker. When his first
almanac was published, Banneker was fifty-nine years old, and had
received tokens of respect from all the scientific men of the country.
Among others, Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State under George
Washington, wrote him a most flattering and complimentary letter. In his
letter Jefferson said, ‘Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs
as you exhibit, that Nature has given to our black brethren talents
equal to those of other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want
of them is owing only to the degraded condition of their existence both
in Africa and America.’
“Banneker continued to calculate and publish almanacs until 1802.
“Mr. Benjamin H. Ellicott, who was a true friend of Banneker, and
collected from various sources all the facts concerning him, wrote in a
letter as follows: ‘During the whole of his long life he lived
respectably and much esteemed by all who became acquainted with him, but
more especially by those who could fully appreciate his genius and the
extent of his acquirements.’
“Banneker’s head was covered with a thick mass of white hair, which gave
him a very dignified and venerable appearance. His dress was invariably
of superfine drab broadcloth, made in the old style of a plain coat,
with straight collar and long waistcoat, and a broad-brimmed hat. His
color was not jet black, but decidedly negro. In size and personal
appearance, the statue of Franklin at the library in Philadelphia, as
seen from the street, is a perfect likeness of him.
“Banneker died in the year 1804, beloved and respected by all who knew
him. Though no monument marks the spot where he was born and lived a
true and high life, and was buried, yet history must record that the
most original scientific intellect which the South has yet produced was
that of the pure African, Benjamin Banneker.”
The above is the story of that wonderful black man told in splendid
terms of high and well-deserved praise by a white man. Every little
black boy in America may well be fired with inspiration to do something
beyond the ordinary by reading the story of Banneker’s life.
LXXV.
“A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM.”
It is truly astonishing what a boy can do when once he has made up his
mind to do his best. Dr. Len. G. Broughton, the famous pastor of the
Tabernacle Baptist church, Atlanta, Ga., in a little book, which he
calls “The Modern Prodigal,” has told a very pathetic story about a
little boy. It is so true to life, and so typical of what a black or
white boy may do under similar circumstances, if he only decides for the
true and the right, that I have decided to reproduce the little story in
this book. It is well worth reading. Dr. Broughton says:
“Not long after I entered the ministry, I went to a certain town to hold
a series of meetings. It was one of these good old Southern towns, the
inhabitants of which banked on aristocracy and fed their souls upon the
glory of departed days. They had never known what it was to be
spiritually warm. The first night I was there I preached to a great
audience. It was in my early ministry, when I made many propositions.
The first one I made that night was for any one to stand who wanted
prayers offered for their friends. As soon as I made it a little boy got
up and walked out in the aisle, where he stood looking me square in the
face. I said, ‘God bless you, little man,’ and he sat down. I then asked
any one who wanted the prayers of God’s people to rise. That boy got out
in the aisle again and looked me in the face, and again I said, ‘God
bless you.’ I asked if there was anybody present who was willing to
accept Jesus. That boy stood up again and looked me in the face, and
again I said, ‘God bless you.’ Nobody else stood up that night, and I
began to think I had struck about the hardest and coldest crowd I had
ever run up against.
“The next night I preached as hard as I knew how to sinners, and when I
finished, I asked anybody who wanted to be prayed for to stand up. The
same little rascal popped out into the aisle, as he had done the night
before, and stood looking at me until I saw him and said, ‘God bless
you.’ I thought I’d vary the thing a little, so I asked if anybody
present was willing to come forward and give me his hand as an
indication that he would accept Jesus. That same boy came shuffling out
of his seat, straight down the aisle and gave me his hand. I saw smiles
on the faces of some in the congregation. Nobody but the boy showed any
interest, and I went off somewhat disheartened. The third night I
preached, and when I asked all who wanted prayer to rise, that boy
popped out into the aisle. The people had begun to regard it as a joke,
and they nudged each other with their elbows, while a broad smile flared
from one side of the house to the other. When I asked anybody who was
willing to accept Jesus to come and give me his hand, that boy came, and
the congregation smiled broader than before. After the meeting the
deacons came to me and told me that the boy must be stopped, as he was a
half-idiot, and was throwing a damper on the meeting. I said: ‘Stop
nothing! How are you going to throw a damper on an ice-house?’
“For the whole of that week that boy was the only person in the house
who showed any interest in the meeting. Then he wanted to join the
church. The pastor was absent, and I was to open the doors of the
church. The deacons came to me and said I must not receive that boy, as
he didn’t have sense enough to join the church. I said: ‘Look here,
brethren, I won’t take this responsibility on my hands. I’m going to put
that boy on you, and if you choose to reject him, his blood be upon your
hands.’ At the conclusion of the morning service, I invited all who
wanted to unite with the church to come forward. That boy came. I asked
him if he had accepted Christ for his personal Saviour. That’s all I
ever ask. He said he had. ‘Brethren,’ I said, ‘you hear what this boy
has to say. What will you do with him?’ An ominous silence fell on the
congregation. After a time, from ’way back by the door, I heard a
muffled and rather surly, ‘I move he be received.’ Another painful
silence followed, and then, from the middle of the church, I heard a
muffled, ‘I second the motion.’ When I put the motion, about a half
dozen members voted ‘aye’ in a tone so low that it seemed as if they
were scared. I gave the boy the right hand of Christian welcome awaiting
baptism, and then dismissed the congregation.
“The next day the boy went out to see his old grandfather, a man whose
whitened head was blossoming for the grave, and whose feet were taking
hold upon the shifting sands of eternity. ‘Grandfather,’ said he, ‘won’t
you go to church with me to-night and hear that preacher?’ We always
feel kindly towards those who are afflicted, you know, and are willing
to please them; so the old man agreed to go.
“That night I saw the boy and the old man sitting away back by the door.
When the sermon was finished, one of the members of the church arose and
said: ‘I have a request to make. We have with us to-night, Mr. Blank,
one of our oldest and most respected citizens, but he is out of Christ.
I want special prayer offered for this my special friend.’ With that he
laid his hand upon the head of the old man, down whose furrowed cheeks
the tears were streaming. The next night I saw the old man sitting about
half-way down the aisle. When all who wanted to accept Jesus were
invited to come forward and give me their hands, I saw the half-idiot
boy coming down the aisle leading the old man by the hand.
“That little boy’s father kept a saloon. The following day the child
went there, and climbing up over the high counter, he peeped down upon
his father and said: ‘Papa, won’t you go to church with me to-night to
hear that preacher?’ ‘You get out of here, child,’ said the father; ‘go
out of here; don’t you know you mustn’t come in here?’ Strange, strange,
how fathers will keep places where their children cannot go! ‘But,
papa,’ continued the boy, ‘won’t you go to church with me to-night?’
‘Yes; I’ll go, but you get out of here.’
“That night the man came with the half-idiot boy, and sat about where
the old man had sat the night before. When I asked all who would accept
Jesus to come forward, he walked down the aisle and gave me his hand. He
asked if he could make a statement, and when I said ‘Yes,’ he faced the
congregation and said: ‘My friends, you all know me, and I want to say
that so long as I live I will never sell another drop of whiskey, for I
have given my heart to God to-night, and from this day forward I propose
to serve him.’
“The meeting warmed up at last, the town was set on fire for God. Every
saloon keeper was converted and every saloon was closed. The feeling
spread and a saloon seven miles in the country was closed and the keeper
was converted to God.
“At the close of the meeting I sat on the front seat and saw the pastor
lead three generations into the baptismal waters, the old man in front,
his son behind him, and last in line the little half-idiot boy. The only
mistake that was made, to my mind, was that the boy who had led the
others to Christ should not have been first in line. Where is the little
half-idiot boy now? He has grown much brighter within the last few
years, and is now going to school. He says he wants to be and will be a
missionary.
“What a lesson for the young to-day. Persistent self-surrender, ever
doing the best we can, is a never failing way that leads to victory.”
LXXVI.
DIRECTIONS FOR LITTLE LADIES.
1. A little lady always says, “I thank you” whenever anybody assists her
in any way, and always says, “If you please,” whenever she makes any
kind of request.
2. A little lady is never loud and boisterous on the streets, in public
places, or at home. Sometimes girls are so rough that they are called
“Tom-Boys.” No Tom-Boy ever was a true little lady.
3. A true little lady will always see that her linen is clean and
spotless—collars and cuffs, aprons and dresses, handkerchiefs, and all
articles of clothing. Every true little lady hates dirt.
4. A little lady will not be guilty of idle gossip. She will not tattle;
will not go around hunting all the evil things that are said or known
about other little ladies. She closes her ears tight against the
slanderers of the town.
5. A little lady will love the Sunday-school and the church. She will
love the society of good people and the society of good books. She will
have higher notions of life than that life is something to be spent in a
merry round of pleasure.
6. A true little lady loves her mother, and she will show that she loves
her mother in various ways. She will help her about the housework. She
will be fond of going out in company with her mother often. She will not
think, that anybody else’s mother is or can be better than her own
mother.
[Illustration: DIRECTIONS FOR LITTLE GIRLS.]
7. Every true little lady will be a Christian. She will early give
herself to Jesus. She will delight to help the poor; to visit the sick,
carrying the cheer and comfort and something good to eat and flowers and
many other things. She will love everybody. Do you?
LXXVII.
THREE WORDS TO YOUNG PEOPLE.
The first word is, Be true. The second word is, Be trustworthy. The
third word is, Dare to do right.
First: Be true! Be what you seem to be or what you pretend to be; do not
be a hypocrite; be firm and steady in adhering to friends, promises or
principles. Be a true boy; be a true girl.
Secondly: Be trustworthy! Be worthy of trust; be reliable; make your
word your bond. Conduct yourself in such a way that people can depend on
you.
Thirdly: Dare to do right! Whatever comes or doesn’t come, stand by what
you believe to be right, even if you have to stand alone. Be honest,
upright, faithful, sincere, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that
which is good.
True boys and girls are scarce; they are not easily found; they do not
grow on trees. But, to tell you the truth, we need good boys and girls,
true boys and girls, much more than we do educated boys and girls. All
education without character is a dead weight!
Let me give you one or two reasons why you should be true, trustworthy,
and brave for the right. In the first place, for the sake of your
influence. Every boy and girl in this world has some influence. Every
boy in this world, white or black, rich or poor, high or low, is helping
his friends and playmates to grow better or worse, higher or lower in
the scale of being. Every girl in this world is likewise helping or
hindering others. If we are harsh and unkind, cruel and unjust—in every
wrong, every baseness, meanness, selfishness, we are harming not
ourselves alone but the whole great family of man. On the other hand,
when we speak fearlessly a brave, true word, when we perform cheerfully
a hard and trying task, whenever we are faithful, honest, earnest,
patient, pure, trustworthy, whether we know it or not, we are
strengthening the unseen impulses which make for nobility and higher
manhood and womanhood throughout the world. In the economy of God, by
his infinite wisdom, the humblest life reaches forward to the highest
and the highest life reaches backward to the lowest.
But perhaps you are saying that I am taking too much for granted.
Perhaps you think that it is not true that there is not one of the very
least of the great human family who is not every day exercising some
personal influence for good or evil upon the world. If you think so,
boys and girls, or older people, you are mistaken. No human being can
escape from the world’s atmosphere. Though you fly to the uttermost
parts of the sea or hide in the depths of the dense city, some life is
affected by your life. Not only some life is affected by your life, but
many lives are affected by your life. It is a thought of this kind that
Charles Dickens beautifully expresses in his story called “David
Copperfield.” He says:
“There is nothing—no, nothing—beautiful and good that dies and is
forgotten. An infant, a prattling child, dying in his cradle, will live
again in the better thoughts of those who loved it, and plays its part,
though its body be burned to ashes or drowned in the deepest sea. There
is not an angel added to the hosts of heaven but does its blessed work
on earth in those who loved it here. Dead! Oh, if the good deeds of
human creatures could be traced to their source, how beautiful would
even death appear. For how much charity, mercy, and purified affection
would be seen to have their growth in dusty graves!”
No, children, it is no idle dream, no fancy story that I tell when I say
that the humblest member of the human family, as well as the highest, is
exercising daily, whether he is conscious of it or not, some influence
for good or evil upon the world. Viewed in this light who can measure
the possibilities—the divine possibilities—that are wrapped up in little
boys and girls? Viewed in this light, how the slightest action, the
smallest of our little duties, takes on new importance! It was with this
thought in mind that James A. Garfield said: “I feel a profounder
reverence for a boy than a man. I never meet a ragged boy on the street
without feeling that I owe him a salute, for I know not what
possibilities may be buttoned up under his shabby coat.” Yes, boys and
girls, by every brave and cheerful effort that we put forth we are
reforming, uplifting, renewing, inspiring, hearts and souls we never
heard of, never knew, the whole world becoming stronger for every bit of
moral courage we create, sweeter for every kindly look we give, and
holier for every good deed we do. And, of course, the contrary is true.
When we fail, when we come short, when we sin, the consequences are not
ours alone—they extend to all humanity. We are all, white and black,
rich and poor, old and young, male and female, children of one family.
Just as the quivering circles from a pebble thrown into a lake stretch
on and on from shore to shore, so the silent impulse of a single life
thrills from heart to heart until the very edges of humanity are
touched.
There is another reason still why we should be true, trustworthy, brave.
That reason is that somebody else takes us as his ideal—his standard.
Poor as we are, weak as we are, as unworthy as we are, somebody else is
looking up to us—especially those of us who have been favored with
educational advantages and opportunities. And you know that the failure
of one who is invested in another’s mind with ideal qualities is a
failure beyond the actual. That is one reason why people say that, as a
rule, a preacher’s children are the worst children in the world. As a
matter of fact, they are not the worst children in the world; but, being
the children of preachers, everybody expects more of them than of
others,—they are taken as ideals, as standards—that’s all. And what
might be excused in others will not be excused in one who is taken as an
ideal. Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of America’s greatest writers, in
speaking of this truth says in his story called “The Marble Faun:”
“The character of an individual beloved one having invested itself with
all the attributes of right—that one friend being to us the symbol and
representative of whatever is good and true,—when he falls, the effect
is almost as if the sky fell with him, bringing down in chaotic ruin the
columns that upheld our faith. We struggle forth again, no doubt bruised
and bewildered. We stare wildly about us, and discover—or it may be we
never make the discovery—that it was not actually the sky that has
tumbled down but merely a frail structure of our own rearing, which
never rose higher than the housetops, and has fallen because we founded
it on nothing. But the crash, and the affright and trouble are as
overwhelming, for the time, as if the catastrophe involved the whole
moral world. Remembering these things, let them suggest one generous
motive for walking heedfully amid the defilement of earthly ways. Let us
reflect that the highest path is pointed out by the pure ideal of those
who look up to us, and who, if we tread less loftily, may never look so
high again.”
Now, I have said my three words. You see they have stretched themselves
out to a great length, but I hope the boys and girls who read this book
may profit by them. Strive to be true, strive to be trustworthy, strive
to be brave. In the long run the prizes of this world, and of that which
is to come, are won by boys and girls of strong moral character, not by
those who are merely learned or rich. But, of course, I believe in
education and I believe in money. I think you ought to strive to obtain
both—both are useful, and both are necessary; but, with all your
getting, boys and girls, be sure to get those things which will reach
beyond this world and which will count for more than money or good looks
or education or any such thing when the world is on fire, when the moon
shall be turned into blood, when the trumpet sounds, and all must go to
stand before the Great King to give an account of the deeds done in the
body.
LXXVIII.
“A LAMP UNTO MY FEET.”
Once upon a time, so it is said, a little ragged boy was carefully
printing these words with a stick upon the ground, “Thy word is a lamp
unto my feet.”
On looking up from his work, the little fellow was surprised to find a
kind-looking old man watching him.
“Where did you learn that, my boy?” asked the man.
“At Sunday-school, sir.”
“What’s your name?”
“Crawford.”
“So, Crawford, you learned that text at Sunday-school. Do you know what
it means?”
“No, sir.”
“What is a lamp?”
“A lamp? Why, sir, a lamp is a thing that gives light!”
“That’s correct. Well, what is the word that the text speaks of?”
“The Bible, sir.”
“That’s right. Now, how can the Bible be a lamp and give light?”
“I don’t know,” said the boy, “unless you light it and set it on fire.”
“There’s a better way than that, my lad. Suppose you were going down
some lonely lane on a dark night with an unlighted lantern in your hand,
and a box of matches in your pocket, what would you do?”
“Why, I’d light the lantern.”
“Why would you light it?”
“To show me the road, sir.”
“Very well. Now, suppose you were walking behind me some day, and saw me
drop a quarter; what would you do?”
[Illustration: “A LAMP UNTO MY FEET.”]
“Pick it up and give it to you, sir.”
“Wouldn’t you want to keep it yourself?”
Crawford hesitated; but he saw a smile on the old gentleman’s face, and,
smiling himself, he finally said:
“I should want to, sir; but I shouldn’t do it.”
“Why not?”
“Because it would be stealing.”
“How do you know?”
“It would be taking what wasn’t my own, and the Bible says we are not to
steal.”
“Ah!” said the old man, “so it’s the Bible that makes you honest, is
it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“If you had not heard of the Bible you would steal, I suppose?”
“Lots of boys do,” said Crawford, hanging his head.
“The Bible, then,” continued the old man, “shows you the right and safe
path—the path of honesty, does it?”
“Like the lamp!” exclaimed Crawford, seeing now what all the old man’s
questions meant. “Is that what the text means?”
“Yes, my boy,” the man answered, “there is always light in the Bible to
show us where to go and what to do. Don’t you think it would be a good
thing to take the Bible, the good old lamp, and let it light you right
through life?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you think you will be safer with it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why?”
“Because if I’m honest I will never go to prison.”
“And what else?” asked the man.
Crawford thought awhile. By-and-by he said,—
“If I mind the Bible I shall go to heaven when I die.”
“Yes, and that’s the best reason for taking the lamp. It will light you
right into heaven.”
LXXIX.
THREE BRIGADES.
There are three brigades, or three little companies, which I think ought
to be organized among the boys and girls in every Sunday-school in
America. Can’t you form them in your Sunday-school? It is a very simple
matter. It will not cost any money: only a little time and forethought,
and a will to do. One brigade is called the Rainy-Weather Brigade, and
all the little boys and girls who join this company pledge themselves to
go to Sunday-school every Sunday, when they are not sick, even if it is
raining. The second brigade is called the Front Seat Brigade, and all
the members of this company pledge themselves to occupy front seats in
the Sunday school during the opening exercises before they pass to their
classes. The third brigade is called the On-Timers’ Brigade, and the
children in this brigade pledge themselves to be present on time at the
opening hour.
[Illustration: MEMBERS OF THE RAINY-WEATHER BRIGADE.]
You can see at once how helpful these little brigades are in every
Sunday school (where they exist) to the officers and teachers. Some
children will not go to Sunday school when it is raining or when it
threatens to rain; some will not go forward and occupy front seats when
they do go; and there are others who are always tardy. What a blessing
it would be if all the little children would organize these brigades at
once in their schools, and try to get every scholar to join each one of
them.
LXXX.
“HOME, SWEET HOME.”
Go with me, boys and girls, to the gay streets and gilded saloons of the
great city of Paris far across the sea. Here is said to be the centre of
all the world’s follies and pleasures. It is at night.
An American, who has left his home and native land to view the splendors
of the wicked city, is passing along the street. He has beheld with
delight its paintings, its sculpture, and the grand and graceful
proportions of its buildings. In the midst of his keenest happiness,
when he was rejoicing most over the privileges which he possessed,
temptation assailed him. Sin was presented to him in one of its most
bewitching garbs, and he yielded to the voice of the siren. He drank
wildly and deeply of the intoxicating cup, and his draught brought
madness. Reason was overthrown and he rushed out, all his scruples
overcome, careless of what he did or how deeply he became immersed in
the hitherto unknown sea of guilt.
The cool night air settled damp and heavy upon his heated brow. Walking
on and on, not knowing or caring where he went, by-and-by strains of
music from a distance met his ear. Pretty soon, following in the
direction from which the sounds came, he was able to distinguish the
words and air of the piece. The song was well remembered. It was “Home,
Sweet Home.” Clear and sweet the voice of some singer, using his native
tongue, rose and fell on the air; and the poor wild man stopped and
listened to the soft cadences of that beloved melody.
[Illustration: HOME, SWEET HOME.]
Motionless he stood until the last note floated away, and he could hear
nothing but the ceaseless murmur of the great city. Then he turned away
slowly, with no feeling that his manhood was shamed by the tear which
fell as a bright evidence of the power of song, and also as an evidence
that he, the guilty sinner, was not yet absolutely lost beyond recall.
The demon of the wine cup had fled, and reason once more asserted her
right to control. As the soft strains of “Home, Sweet Home” had floated
to his ear, memory brought up before him the picture of his own “sweet
home.” He saw his gentle mother and heard her speak, while honest pride
beamed from her eye; she seemed to speak again of her son, in whose
nobleness and honor she could always trust. His heart smote him as he
thought how little he deserved such confidence. He remembered her last
words of love and counsel, and the tearful farewell of all those dear
ones who gladdened that far-away home with their presence. The tide of
remorse swept over his soul as he thought of what the sorrow of those at
home would have been could they have seen him but an hour before.
Subdued and penitent he retraced his steps, and with his vow never to
taste of the terrible stuff that could so excite him to madness there
was mingled a deep sense of thankfulness for his escape from further
degradation. The influence of home had protected and shielded him,
although the sea rolled between.
How strong such memories are to prevent the commission of crime! How
powerful is the spell of home! How important, then, is it to make home
pleasant and lovable! Many a time a cheerful home and smiling face will
do more to make good men and good women than all the learning and
eloquence that can be used. It has been said that the sweetest words in
our language are “Mother, Home and Heaven”; and one might almost say
that the word “Home” included the others. Who can think of home without
remembering the gentle mother who sanctified it by her presence? And is
not “Home” the dearest name for heaven? Oh, then, may our homes on earth
be as green spots in the desert, to which we can retire when weary of
the cares of life and drink the clear waters of a love which we know to
be sincere and always unfailing.
LXXXI.
EDMUND ASA WARE.
In another chapter of this book I have told you, boys and girls,
something of the story of General S. C. Armstrong, the founder of
Hampton Institute. I am now going to tell something about another white
man, who was the founder of another great school for colored people. His
name is Edmund Asa Ware, and he was the founder of Atlanta University.
Of course you know that I must love Atlanta University because I was
graduated there myself a long time ago; but I think that Atlanta
University should have a warm place in the heart of every black boy and
girl in America. It has done and is doing a great work for the higher
training of our men and women.
Mr. Ware was born in North Wrentham (now Norfolk), Mass., December 22,
1837. When fifteen years old he removed with his father’s family to
Norwich, Conn., where he entered the Norwich Free Academy. In 1859 he
entered Yale University, from which institution he was graduated four
years later. In 1865 he went to Nashville, Tenn., where he served for a
year as principal of one of the newly organized public schools of that
city. In 1866 he came to Atlanta, Ga., and under the auspices of the
American Missionary Association began the educational work to which he
devoted the rest of his life. In 1867 he was appointed superintendent of
schools for the state of Georgia under the Freedmen’s Bureau, and
traveled widely in the prosecution of that work. The same year a charter
was obtained for Atlanta University, which institution was not opened,
however, until 1869, and Mr. Ware became its first president and
continued as president until his death. He died suddenly of heart
disease September 25, 1885, in Atlanta, and was buried September 29th in
Westview Cemetery in the suburbs of the same city.
A few years later his body was removed to the campus of Atlanta
University, where it now sleeps. A huge granite bowlder was brought from
Massachusetts, his native state, by funds contributed by the graduates
of Atlanta University, and this bowlder, suitably inscribed, marks his
last resting place on earth.
At the memorial services held in honor of President Ware in Stone Hall,
Atlanta University, December 22, 1885, on the forty-eighth anniversary
of the birth of the dead president, Prof. Bumstead, who is now president
of Atlanta University, spoke the following words about Mr. Ware’s
boyhood and early life:
“It was a pleasant boyhood, and its joys were innocent and wholesome
ones. A white rabbit, a goat, and two hounds were the pets with which he
played at home. He threw the line for speckled trout in the meadow
brooks, and he rowed his boat upon the pond to gather the fragrant
waterlilies.
“It was an industrious boyhood. In summer he gathered blueberries,
huckleberries and blackberries for market. When twelve or thirteen years
old he spent his school vacations in service as a clerk in a village
store. When fourteen he cultivated and harvested thirty dollars’ worth
of vegetables.
“It was a conscientious boyhood. His mother has no recollection of his
ever being untruthful. His village teachers all commended him for his
unvarying conformity to the right in school. It is said that when he was
fifteen years old he had never been absent a day nor had a mark for
tardiness. When serving as clerk in the village store his employer
showed him a certain article which had some defect about it, not very
readily noticed, and bade him say nothing about it. He promptly told his
employer that he could obey no such instructions.
“It was an ambitious boyhood—ambitious, of course, in the best sense of
the word. He eagerly seized upon and improved every opportunity for
self-improvement. He read the best books and periodicals. He heard
lectures from such men as Beecher, Phillips, Curtis, Everett and Gough.
“In the autumn of 1859 he found himself a member of the largest Freshman
class which at that time had ever entered Yale College. Here for the
first time I grasped the hand and looked into the earnest eyes of my
friend. I remember him in those early college days for the unaffected
modesty of his bearing, the simplicity of his dress, his manifest hatred
of all pretense and shams, his keen sense of humor, and his dry wit. His
professedly religious life had been begun at the Norwich Academy but a
few months before he entered college. Both in the academy and college he
was active in religious work, and his face was set like a flint against
all forms of iniquity.”
Mr. Ware was married in 1869 to Miss Sarah Jane Twichell, of
Plantsville, Conn. His wife served with him long and faithfully at
Atlanta University, and continued to serve long after he had passed to
his rest. She was left a widow with three daughters and one son. She
herself died subsequently. The son has since been graduated from Yale
University and from Union Theological Seminary, New York City, and is
now chaplain of Atlanta University.
Mr. Ware was a good man who believed that God had made of one blood all
nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and that Christ
had redeemed us to God out of every kindred, tongue and people and
nation; he believed in the common origin and common destiny of the whole
human family, in the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and,
therefore, recognized no distinctions among men except those founded on
character or merit. Along with a host of pioneer New England
missionaries who came South to help us shortly after the war Mr. Ware’s
name deserves to be honored and revered by a grateful people to the end
of time.
LXXXII.
AN ANTE-BELLUM NEGRO PREACHER.
Once upon a time I heard Bishop Fitzgerald of the M. E. Church, South,
tell the following story.
I give it in his own words:
“The ante-bellum negro preachers were the product of the times, and
differed from the mass of their race only in the fact that they were
shrewder and more eloquent. Among them were many men of piety and good
sense and burning zeal. In others there was a combination of cunning,
superstition, excitability and volubility almost indescribable.
[Illustration: “SAINT PAUL WAS A MUCH BETTER MAN DAN I IS, AN’ DEY
WHUPPED HIM MOS’ EV’YWHAR HE WENT.”]
“To the former class belonged a noted negro preacher of Culpepper
County, Va., an old man of blameless life and venerable appearance, who
so entirely commanded the confidence of the white people, and whose
influence with the people of his own race was so wholesome, that no one
thought of enforcing against him a statute then existing which required
that in any gathering where six or more negroes were assembled a white
man should be present. Despite this statute Uncle Jack came and went as
he pleased, trusted by the whites and venerated by the blacks.
“At one of his meetings a party of mischievous young white men planned
to have a little fun at the old man’s expense. Waiting near the door of
the rustic chapel until the services were concluded the company
approached the old preacher and its spokesman said:
“‘Old man, we are officers of the law and are patrolling this beat. You
have violated the law, and we are going to whip you for it. Come along
with us.’
“They led the way to the thicket near at hand. Uncle Jack followed in
silence.
“‘Have you nothing to say, old man?’ asked the spokesman.
“‘Nothin’, Marstah,’ said Uncle Jack.
“‘Perhaps you don’t think that we really intend to whip you,’ said the
young man, ‘but we will. Have you nothing to say to that?’
“‘No, sah,’ said Uncle Jack; ‘I has nothin’ to say. De fac’ is, Marstah,
I has oftened wondar’d that I has nevah been whupped befo’. Saint Paul
was a much bettah man dan I is, an’ dey whupped him ’mos’ ev’ywhar he
went. I has preached much longah dan he did, an’ I has nevah got a
whuppin’ in my life. It seems to me dat I ought to have at leas’ a few
licks!’
“The young scapegraces looked at each other in confusion, and it is
needless to say that Uncle Jack was not whipped.”
LXXXIII.
PURITY OF CHARACTER.
Boys and girls, if you will take a plum or an apricot you will find that
over the outer coat of either one of them there glows a bloom more
beautiful than the fruit itself—a soft, delicate powder that overspreads
its rich colors. Now, if you strike your hand over that you will find
that the bloom will at once depart, and when it goes it is gone forever.
It only appears once. You go out into the flower garden early in the
morning. The flower that hangs there impearled with dew, like so many
jewels—you shake it once, so that the drops or beads will roll off. You
take that same flower, after the dew has been shaken off, and you may
sprinkle water over it as you please, yet it can never be made again
what it was when the dew fell on it so gently from heaven. Again, on a
frosty morning, you may see the panes of glass covered with landscapes,
mountains, lakes and trees, blended into a fantastic picture. Now, lay
your hand upon the glass and by the scratch of your finger or by the
warmth of the palm; all the delicate tracery will be obliterated—all the
beautiful picture will vanish, and you could not reproduce it, although
you tried for a hundred years. Once wiped out, the picture on the glass
is wiped out forever.
So there is in youth a purity of character which, when once touched and
defiled, can never be restored—a fringe more delicate than frostwork or
the dew on the flowers or the bloom on the plum or apricot. Character is
a thing which, when once stained, can never be again what it was. When a
young boy or girl leaves the home of his or her parents, with the
blessing of a mother’s tears upon the cheek or the blessing of a
father’s hand upon the head, if earthly purity of character be once lost
it is a loss that can never be made up again. Though by God’s mercy the
sin may be forgiven, yet its effects cannot but be in some way felt, and
the boy or girl will never be what he or she was before.
LXXXIV.
[Illustration: EACH ONE of US of IMPORTANCE]
Never think yourself, whoever you are, of small importance. Never think
that it is of little account whether you are good or bad, or what your
example is to others. Each mere particle of dust, every tiny grain of
sand, the minutest atom, is an active agent in the whole universe. So
each one of us is of importance in our sphere, however isolated and
insignificant that sphere may appear to be.
A few particles of dust in a watch will stop its motion; small barnacles
on a ship’s bottom will hinder its journey; and a little shifting sand
in the great river will change its current. So, little boys and girls
exercise their influence for weal or woe upon the world. Don’t you
believe for once that the world is moved only by the great forces, the
great men and the great enterprises. Little folks and little things
likewise help to move the world along. Great generals are necessary; but
what would they be without the soldiers behind them?
Every boy has his part to do in the great work of the world, and every
girl has her part to do. Every boy and girl is of importance; how
important nobody knows, and perhaps never shall know until eternity
reveals it. There ought to be in this truth great encouragement and
great comfort to all who think that they are insignificant and have no
work to do in this busy world. Perhaps in the distant future many a man
who estimated himself great shall be found to have been insignificant,
because of unfaithfulness to his trust; and many another man who perhaps
thought himself of little worth will find himself glorified because he
did what he could.
LXXXV.
[Illustration: THE POETRY OF LIFE]
Poetry is more than verse-making, more than the jingle of words, more
than the sing-song of meter.
Sunshine and flowers, brightness and joyousness, the harmonies of the
passions and the inspiration of love—these are the poetry of life.
Without poetry, life is a tread-mill; a veil of tears; a dreary waste.
Even religion is only a crucifixion—a death to sin—if we have not the
resurrection into the new life of joy.
Many of us make hard work of life by bending our backs too much. We get
dirt in our eyes by keeping them too near the dust, and we get
narrow-minded and selfish by our narrow radius of vision.
To become truly rich we must stand in the dignity of our manhood; walk
in the integrity of our calling; and run in the rhythm of a poetic
nature. Out of harmony is out of sphere. The dignity, integrity and
poetry of life are all lost by inharmony; only the ashes of
disappointment are left; but with these we can dance at our work, and
turn irksome duties into joyous privileges. Instead of moping in the
valley of the shadow of death, we may live in the sunshine, where
beautiful flowers and luscious fruits and delicious sweets grow.
Yes; yes; we might as well live in light as in darkness; make life a
joyful song as a funeral dirge; live amid glory as shame. With a radiant
countenance, a beaming eye, and a loving hand, we can do more work and
have more to do; we can get more out of life and have more life to
enjoy; we can scatter more sunshine and have more left for ourselves.
Christ came to bring to every toiler, heaven. Let us get into it
quickly. It is here—and here only—that we find the poetry of life.
LXXXVI
ON BEING IN EARNEST.
Of ten men who fail in life, nine men fail for want of zeal,
earnestness, courage, where one man fails for want of ability. This
half-heartedness, this lack of zeal, this timidity, this shrinking from
duty and hard tasks is seen on all sides and among all classes. But I
tell you, boys and girls, that the least enviable people in all the
world are those who think that nothing is particularly worth while, that
it does not matter much how a thing is done if it is only done with; who
dwaddle along in a shabby sort of a way, considering only their own
ease, with little sense of responsibility, and with no shame in being
shirks. Every boy should make up his mind to live a round, full,
earnest, intense life. Every girl should do the same. Don’t be
satisfied, boys and girls, to be jellyfishes, with only a capacity for
drawing in nourishment and lingering on until your time comes to die. Be
vertebrates, people of backbone, purpose, aim, enthusiasm, earnestness.
At a public dinner President Roosevelt asked Governor Odell of New York
if he knew anything worth doing that was not hard in the doing, and the
governor could think of nothing. As a rule perhaps there is nothing, and
yet things once hard in the doing become easy as skill is gained by
repetition. Be in earnest, be faithful and resolute, and it will act
like a tonic, giving light to the eyes, springiness to the step, and
buoyancy to the heart.
[Illustration: BEING IN EARNEST.]
Don’t be overcome by your circumstances. No matter how distracting a
man’s surroundings may be, he may yet be able to focus his powers
completely and to marshal them with certainty if he makes up his mind to
do it. If things go hard with the self-mastered man or boy, he will be
able to trample upon difficulties and to use his stumbling-blocks as
stepping-stones. If a great misfortune overtake him he will simply use
it as a starting point for a new departure, a turning point for more
determined effort. He may be weighed down with sorrow and suffering, but
he always starts anew with redoubled determination to do the thing he
has set his heart upon doing. He will not be discouraged; he will not
give up; he will fight it out to the end. Put him in prison, and he will
write the “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Deprive him of his eyesight and he will
write the “Paradise Lost.”
It was the spirit of earnestness which fired the soul of Martin Luther
at the Diet of Worms, who, after being urged to recant, said: “Here I
stand; I can do no other; God help me!” It was this spirit which
characterized William Lloyd Garrison, the champion of the abolition of
slavery, who, when he was urged to stop fighting slavery, exclaimed: “I
will not equivocate, I will not retract, I will not be moved one inch,
and I will be heard.” So be in earnest, boys and girls, at home, at
school, at work and at play. It will help you a thousand-fold.
LXXXVII.
YOUNG PEOPLE AND LIFE INSURANCE.
Every little boy and girl, and, of course, every man and woman, of the
colored race in America should carry a life insurance policy of some
kind in some reliable company. In this matter the old people, as in some
other things, ought to set the example for the young, but there are some
reasons, growing chiefly out of their previous condition of slavery, why
our mothers and fathers have not, as a rule, taken very largely to the
business of having their lives insured. But because our parents have
been negligent in this matter there is no reason why the younger
generation should be. Life insurance is a good thing, boys and girls—one
of the best things in the world. American life insurance companies alone
pay to policy-holders or estates of policy-holders over one hundred
million dollars annually. Only a very small and almost insignificant
portion of this vast sum goes into the hands of colored people, and for
the reason that very few colored people carry life insurance policies.
[Illustration: TAKING OUT A POLICY.]
Now use a little common sense about this matter. Whatever is good in
life insurance for other races is good for our race; whatever in life
insurance benefits other races will benefit our race. In business as in
education, whatever is good for a white man is good for a black man. I
would, therefore, urge every boy and girl to join a life insurance
company, and where your mothers and fathers are not insured I would urge
you to do your utmost to persuade them to join at once.
For one reason, a life insurance policy is not expensive. You might as
well talk of the expense of buying bank stock, or the expense of putting
your money into a savings bank or any other safe place as to speak of
the expense of keeping up a life insurance policy. It is accumulation
and not expense. Every dollar put into life insurance is a dollar saved
to yourself or your estate.
For another reason life insurance is a good business investment.
Carefully collected statistics on file in Washington City prove that
investments in life insurance are much safer and yield much larger
returns than money placed in a savings bank. When you are older you will
perhaps be able to make these comparisons for yourself. For the present
you can take my word for it.
A third reason, life insurance is cheap. You can in an instant create a
capital of $1,000, though you may be ever so poor, by laying aside only
a few cents a week. Young people chew up and drink up and smoke up and
frolic up more money every week than would be sufficient to protect them
against the rainy days that must come to everybody.
And, then, life insurance has a character value. It makes a young man a
better man; it makes a young woman a better woman; that is to say, it
makes them more economical, more business-like, happier, and, I believe,
it will make them live longer.
It is high time that black boys and girls were learning these things and
acting upon them. When God commanded us not to serve money as a false
god He did not say that money could not serve us, and I beseech the boys
and girls, and the old people too, to exercise the same foresight and
the same good sense about life insurance that other races exercise.
LXXXVIII.
THE LITTLE SAILOR CAT.
In September, 1893, grouped on the Fall River Line pier at the foot of
Warren Street, New York, there stood a party of twenty-three sailors
waiting for the Puritan to take them on to Boston. The central figure in
the group—a short, thickset man, with bronzed and grizzled
moustache—stood erect with arms folded over his chest. Upon the solid
foundation thus made nestled a little white kitten. The man and the
kitten were the Boston contingent of the crew of the steamship City of
Savannah, which had been wrecked the week before on Hunting Island, off
the South Carolina coast.
[Illustration: THE LITTLE SAILOR CAT.]
The story of the beaching of the steamship and of the taking off of her
crew by the City of Birmingham had been told in all the newspapers, but
nothing had been said about the cat, so the Boston Herald said. Before
the shipwreck the cat was nothing more than an ordinary ship’s cat, and
the captain had named him Mascot; but that was the end of his
distinction. After the disaster, nevertheless, all the sailors swore
that the kitten was as good a sailor as any of them.
“He’s a wonder,” said the short, thickset man, surveying the cat
proudly; “nobody thought of him in the rush, but he got there just the
same. He climbed the rigging in that gale like an old tar and held on
for hours. He wasn’t a bit frightened either. Only he would ‘caterwaul’
when he got hungry. We were on board of the boat fifty hours after she
struck before the sea was such that we could be taken off in boats. At
night the captain ordered all the crew into the rigging and made us stay
there. We each took a piece of rope and lashed ourselves on, so as to
keep from falling off when asleep. That’s what the captain said the
string was for, but I never slept at all. I don’t think many others did.
The cat got along without any rope, and she was there in the morning all
right. When we got away at last, nearly crazy with thirst and so faint
that we could hardly climb down the ‘Jacob’s ladder’ into the
Birmingham’s boats, that little fellow climbed out of his nest in the
rigging and wanted to go too. We were glad to take him.”
LXXXIX.
[Illustration: ADVICE TO LITTLE CHRISTIANS]
1. Be punctual and regular at all the services of your church.
2. Give close attention to the pastor in the public service. Good
hearers make good preachers.
3. Whenever you are aided by a sermon tell the pastor about it. In this
way you will help him more than you think possible.
4. Do not neglect morning and evening prayer at home. Pray daily for
God’s blessing upon the preaching and other labors of the pastor.
5. In the world let your light so shine before others that they may be
led to glorify your Father which is in heaven. Let your light shine.
6. Invite your friends to attend divine services. A drawing congregation
is as good as a drawing preacher. Call for your friends often.
7. Remember day by day that you are not your own, but have been “bought
with a price,” and that you are Christ’s servant. Watch and pray.
8. If any service is required of you in the church or in the Sunday
school, do not shirk it; always say: “I will try for Jesus’ sake.”
9. In the prayer meeting speak briefly and to the point. If you pray,
ask only for what you want. Be short and direct. “Ask and ye shall
receive.”
10. Never subscribe more than you are able to pay, and be sure to pay
whatever you promise. Whether much or little, give it cheerfully. “God
loveth a cheerful giver.”
11. Having found eternal life, use all appropriate means to develop
Christian character. Prayer, reading the Bible, attending church and
Sunday school, reading good books and Christian newspapers, keeping the
best company—all these will help you.
XC.
A WORD TO PARENTS.
[Illustration: A WORD TO PARENTS.]
Children are a gift from God. Children are a heritage from the Lord. It
depends largely on parents whether they become a heritage of honor and
delight or of sorrow and shame. It is not simply incumbent upon parents
that their children be well cared for, fed and clothed, properly
educated and so forth; but more than this, they are to be brought up “in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” This being true, then, the
highest aim of rearing children is not simply that they may win success
and command respect in the world. Respect and success are greatly to be
desired and sought, but beyond them and beyond everything else is the
highest and chiefest aim of parental love and care; that their children
may honor and command the righteousness of God in the life that now is
and magnify the glory of God in the life that is to be. This is the mark
and prize of their high calling.
Admitting this, then, the early conversion of children is all-important.
But if they are to be early converted, is it not wise—nay, absolutely
essential—that mothers and fathers prepare the way by restricting their
natural impulses by which they are led to desire indulgence in the gay
vanities of life? Is it not positively wrong for parents to indulge that
pernicious and destructive delusion, which some allow, of permitting
their children to have their own evil way in the hope that in due time
they will in some way see their error and turn to the right path of
their own accord? Father, you are a Christian. Mother, you are a
Christian. Now, in your home, in the management of your children, are
you doing the best you can to show what a Christian family should be?
How is it, my friends? I leave that question with you.
XCI.
A HELPFUL MESSAGE.
Life is too short to spend any time on a book that is not worth reading;
but when you read a good book you will be richly repaid if you stick a
sort of mental pin in sentences that especially impress you and return
to them again and again. If the book is your own, it is sometimes
helpful to mark it neatly here and there, and to copy some of the
nuggets of thoughts. In that way you help to fasten them in your brain,
and perhaps to engraft their meaning upon your lives. From a book of the
writings and speeches of a New York preacher, Dr. Maltbie D. Babcock,
who went a year or two ago to “the better land,” I have culled the
following sentences that hold, I think, a helpful message for boys and
girls as well as for old people.
“Look out for your choices. They run into conduct, character, destiny.
“To make the best of things is the right way to let things make the best
of you.
“Pay as little attention to discouragement as possible. This is the only
world in which a Christian can suffer.
“Whenever you feel blue remember that God loves you and think up some
kindness, if no more than sending a flower to some one or writing a
note.
“If you can help anybody, even a little, be glad.
“Do not let the good things of life rob you of the best things.
“What have you done to-day that none but a Christian would do?”
XCII.
THE UNSEEN CHARMER.
Carl Brickermann, a collection clerk in an uptown bank, in his
accustomed daily routine found it necessary, among other things, to call
by telephone the downtown brokerage firm of Hopegood & Co. One day he
missed the familiar feminine voice which had usually responded to his
calls. But the new voice seemed sweeter and much more passionately
penetrating. For two or three days Brickermann was puzzled, not only
because of the change at the other end of the ’phone, but also because
of the strange and unaccountable fascination which the new voice
possessed for him. At length one day, almost in desperation, he turned
aside from his regular business inquiries to ask:
“Where’s the other girl?”
“Which other girl?” asked the mellifluous voice over the articulate
wire.
“The one who used to answer the ’phone for the Hopegoods,” explained
Brickermann.
“Promoted,” came the response, with a merry little laugh.
“And you have her old place?” asked Brickermann, somewhat encouraged.
“Yes; for awhile,” said the same still, small voice at the other end,
and it sounded more and more sweetly to the would-be masher.
“Well,” said Brickermann, laughing the while, “I used to know her quite
well, and I should like to meet you face to face, if you don’t mind. I
am so charmed with the music of your voice I am sure I should be
perfectly entranced with the magic of your face.”
[Illustration: “IS—ER—ER—MR. HOPEGOOD IN?”]
A merry peal of laughter from the other end greeted this sally. The
young man continued:
“I used to come down some days about four o’clock to see Margie. Will
you, my Unseen Charmer, grant me the same high favor?”
“Why, certainly! Come any day,” answered the sweet voice which had so
strangely bewitched the young man. In ecstasy Brickermann shouted back:
“I’ll be down this afternoon.”
Brickermann hung up the receiver, and, chuckling with delight, he turned
to his other duties with the alacrity that a young spring chicken
displays when it suddenly discovers a big fat worm.
By three-thirty o’clock he had arranged his toilet, and stood before the
mirror giving the finishing twirl to his budding moustache. He brushed
his clothing the second time, brushed his hat, and, figuratively
speaking, arrayed in purple and fine linen, he sallied forth. He boarded
an elevated train bound for the downtown district. On his way down he
tried to picture to himself the kind of a girl he should meet at the
Hopegoods. Would she be tall or short of stature? Blonde or brunette?
Above twenty-one years of age or only sweet sixteen? The quick arrival
of the train at Park Place put a period to Brickermann’s reverie. He
went tripping across a few blocks to the place where all of his hopes
had been centered during the past few hours—in fact, days. Arrived
there, he stepped into the front office where “Margie” had formerly
presided. It was the same snug and cosy room, but he failed to behold
there the eagerly expected young lady. Instead he ran amuck a chubby
little boy, with a ruddy face and curly hair, and perhaps not more than
fourteen or fifteen years old, sitting in “Margie’s” place.
Brickermann was visibly embarrassed. He did not know where to begin or
what to say. He twitched nervously at the glove which he carried in his
hand, and finally he stammered:
“Is—er—Mr. Hopegood in?”
“No, sir,” said the boy. “Can I be of any service to you?”
Brickermann’s face turned blood red, and great drops of perspiration
stood out upon his forehead. The accents of the little boy startled him,
for they were the same that had been wafted to him almost daily along
the wire and with which he thought he had been enamored. In the midst of
his confusion he managed to say, hoping almost against hope that his
identity had not been discovered:
“Well, er—er—I’ll call again.”
And, without waiting to hear the Unseen Charmer speak again, he hastily
retired with as good grace as was possible under the circumstances.
XCIII.
OUR COUNTRY.
Boys and girls, we are all American citizens, the last one of us. This
is our country, as much as it is the country of any other race, and we
should love it and fight for it as our fathers have loved, fought and
died for it on many a battlefield. We may be the descendants of
Africans, but we are citizens of the United States. This is our home—our
country. Let us believe it, in spite of what some foolish people say.
Therefore I am going to give you one or two sentiments which you should
learn early in life in order to stimulate your patriotism.
1. May the honor of our country be without stain.
2. May the glory of America never cease to shine.
3. May every American manfully withstand corruption.
4. May reverence for the laws ever predominate in the hearts of the
American people.
5. The sons and daughters of America, may their union be cemented by
love and affection, and their offspring adorn the stations they are
destined to fill.
6. May the growth of the American union never be prevented by party
spirit.
7. The boys of America, may they be strong and virtuous, manly and
brave.
8. The girls of America, may they prove to be such in heart and life as
will make them worthy mothers of a strong and noble race.
9. Health to our president, prosperity to our people, and may Congress
direct its endeavors to the public good.
10.—
May Peace o ’er America spread her wing,
And Commerce fill her ports with gold;
May Arts and Science comfort bring,
And Liberty her sons enfold.
XCIV.
THE “DON’T-CARE” GIRL.
About the worst girl in all this world is the girl who doesn’t care what
people think or say about her conduct; the girl who goes to every “hop,”
to every party, who stays out late at night with the boys, who hangs
over the gate and talks to them, and who cuts a number of foolish
capers, and then when any one speaks to her, shoots her head ’way up in
the air, and turns up her nose, if she can, and says boldly: “Oh, I
don’t care; nobody has anything to do with me!” She is the worst girl in
the world, and she will never come to any good end. Every girl who is a
law unto herself in regard to all that she says or does is certain not
only to bring upon herself the condemnation of those whose good opinion
it is worth while to have, but she will most certainly incur the
punishment of a just God. And sometimes, I am sorry to say, I think that
when a girl proudly declares that she doesn’t care for the good opinion
of others she does so because she knows that she has already lost all
right to that good opinion.
[Illustration: THE “DON’T-CARE” GIRL.]
It is wrong, boys and girls, to undertake to run roughshod over the
so-called prejudices of the public. It is a foolish thing to take
delight in trying to shock people by your boisterous and unladylike and
unbecoming conduct. Every really wise and nice girl does care a good
deal for the good opinion of others, and particularly for the good
opinion of persons older than she is. She recognizes the fact that the
laws of conventionality and of good society are based upon what is right
and what is proper, and that no girl can with propriety set them at
naught.
Some girls go so far as to say that they “don’t care” what their own
fathers and mothers think. The wild girl who says this is setting at
defiance not only the human parental law, but also the law of God, which
plainly commands children to obey their parents.
Haven’t you ever seen a “don’t-care” girl? She is nearly always reckless
in manner and speech; she is bold and defiant; she is impudent beyond
mention; and she is very fond of ridiculing girls who do care a great
deal what others think about them.
No matter whose children they are—no matter what schools they have
attended—these “don’t care” girls are no good, and good girls ought not
to associate with them. Every day such flippant girls are treading on
dangerous ground, and some day, unless a merciful God prevents it, she
will come to open disgrace and die and go to torment. I am hoping to see
the day when all the “don’t-care” girls will have passed out of
existence, and then all our girls will be of the refined and womanly
kind who do care a great deal about their conduct, their manners and
their morals. I don’t want my daughter to associate with any other kind.
XCV.
NEGRO HEROES.
No true history of the American continent can be written without giving
due credit to the part which brave negro men have played on the field of
battle in the defense of liberty. At the head of the list of great negro
soldiers stands unquestionably Toussaint L’Ouverture, the emancipator of
Hayti, the little republic to the south of the Island of Cuba. This
black hero, who never saw a soldier until he was fifty years old,
crossed swords with the great Napoleon, who is said to be the greatest
general the world has ever known, and he outwitted that great warrior.
Wendell Phillips in a great oration places the name of Toussaint at the
head of the list of all the world’s great leaders and statesmen, above
the name of even our own George Washington.
Next comes Crispus Attucks, who was killed in the Boston massacre on the
night of March 5, 1770. His blood was the first blood shed in the cause
of American independence. John Adams and Daniel Webster both date the
beginning of American independence from that terrible massacre. Later on
when the Revolutionary War came the negro played a valiant part and many
individuals won just fame. For instance, Peter Salem and Salem Poor both
distinguished themselves at the battle of Bunker Hill, and at other
points. To-day a monument stands on Boston Common erected in honor of
Crispus Attucks, Peter Salem, Salem Poor, Samuel Maverick and James
Caldwell.
[Illustration: NEGRO HEROES.]
All the boys and girls now living know about the heroism of Antonio
Maceo in behalf of the freedom of Cuba, and how that brave general laid
down his life for his own people shortly before the United States in
1898 took up arms in defense of Cuban liberty and drove the Spanish
tyrants out. Of course there were many colored soldiers who took notable
parts in the work done by our country during that short and decisive
war. It is even claimed on good authority that the black soldiers saved
the regiment of Rough Riders, which was commanded by the intrepid
Colonel Roosevelt who afterwards became governor of New York and
president of the United States.
But before the Spanish-American War the negroes had given good account
of themselves on many a well-fought field—in the war of 1812 and again
in the great Civil War. In the Civil War, which resulted in the
restoration of the Union and the freedom of the slaves, there were
186,000 colored soldiers. To-day a monument stands on Boston Common,
also, in memory of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment of United
States soldiers. This was a colored regiment, which was commanded by a
gallant white man named Robert Gould Shaw. He and a large proportion of
his command were killed at Fort Wagner, S. C., in July, 1863.
In the Civil War we were not allowed to have our own officers, all the
officers being white. In the Spanish-American War this was changed, and
we had over two hundred officers, including some as high as colonels and
two paymasters with the rank of majors. When another war comes we are
going to have some generals as well as colonels and captains and majors.
Some of the little boys who are reading these words may be called on to
render this higher service for the country and the race. I hope, boys,
if it should be so, that you will be prepared to give as good an account
of your stewardship as those who have gone before. I hope you will learn
a good deal about the lives of the great heroes above named, and about
others whom I cannot stop to mention now. In this way you will gain
inspiration for the future.
XCVI.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS TO YOUNG PEOPLE.
Shortly before he died Frederick Douglass made a tour through the South.
Among other places he visited Atlanta University. At that place he made
an address to the young people. It is so full of hope and help that I
wanted to place it where every ambitious black boy and girl in America
can see it. It has never been published before, except in the Bulletin
of Atlanta University. Mr. Douglass said:
[Illustration: FREDERICK DOUGLASS.]
“My young friends: I see before me an assemblage of young people, full
of the blood of youth, just entering upon the voyage of life. It is an
interesting spectacle to me, as to us all, to meet such an assembly as I
see before me this morning in an institution of learning, of knowledge,
and of ethics and of Christian graces. I experience great pleasure in
what I see to-day. There is no language to describe my feelings. It was
no mere image that John saw and described in the apocalypse. It was a
new heaven and a new earth indeed. When I look back upon the time when I
was a fugitive slave I recollect the evils and cruelty of slave-hunting.
No mountain was so high, no valley was so deep, no glen so secluded, no
place so sacred to liberty that I could put my foot upon it and say I
was free! But now I am free! Contrasting my condition then and now the
change exceeds what John saw upon the isle of Patmos. A change vast and
wonderful, that came by the fulfilling of laws. We got freed by laws,
marvellous in our eyes. Men, brave men, good men, who had the courage of
their convictions, were arrested and subjected to persecutions, mobs,
lawlessness, violence. They had the conviction of truth. Simple truth
lasts forever!
“Be not discouraged. There is a future for you and a future for me. The
resistance encountered now predicates hope. The negro degraded,
indolent, lazy, indifferent to progress, is not objectionable to the
average public mind. Only as we rise in the scale of proficiency do we
encounter opposition. When we see a ship that lies rotting in the
harbor, its seams yawning, its sides broken in, taking water and
sinking, it meets with no opposition; but when its sails are spread to
the breeze, its top-sails and its royals flying, then there is
resistance. The resistance is in proportion to its speed. In Memphis
three negro men were lynched, not because they were low and degraded,
but because they knew their business and other men wanted their
business.
“I am delighted to see you all. Don’t be despondent. Don’t measure
yourselves from the white man’s standpoint; but measure yourselves by
the depths from which you have come. I measure from these depths, and I
see what Providence has done. Daniel Webster said in his speech at the
dedication of Bunker Hill monument: ‘Bunker Hill monument is completed.
There it stands, a memorial of the past, a monitor of the present, a
hope of the future. It looks, speaks, acts!’ So this assembly is a
monitor of the present, a memorial of the past, a hope of the future. I
see boys and girls around me. Boys, you will be men some day. Girls, you
will be women some day. May you become good men and women, intelligent
men and women, a credit to yourselves and your country.
“I thank you for what I have experienced to-day and I leave you
reluctantly, and shall always carry with me the pleasantest impressions
of this occasion.”
XCVII.
TOO HIGH A DAM.
Once upon a time a criminal, sentenced to a twenty-year term of
punishment, declared that his ruin was due to the fact that too high a
“dam” had been built around his early life.
He was a boy on a farm, the son of strict parents, who never unbent into
friends and comrades, but had iron ideas of parental duty along the
lines of restraints, and gave large doses of the catechism and the Ten
Commandments, interspersed with much fault-finding and complaints of the
waywardness of boys in general and their own boy in particular.
As a consequence the boy chafed against the “high dam,” burst its bounds
early and came to the city with a zest for freedom in proportion to the
restraint he had undergone and an admiration for a fast life. This was
by way of reaction from his disgust for the farm and its slow ways.
“Don’t build your dams too high,” was the brief sermon preached by this
condemned criminal and directed to parents—especially those who are
rearing children in the country or in small towns. Human nature will
continue to be human nature, and boys will continue to be boys. Youth
will long, and naturally so, for variety and amusement. The house in
which parents never unbend in sympathy with their children’s longing for
a little brightness and jollity, where work goes on in unretrieved
monotony, and home means only a place to sleep and eat in—such a home
sends its boys and girls to the city before they are panoplied to meet
its temptations; either this, or else it hardens and saddens them into
mere machines or beasts of burden.
Books, music, flowers, games, social clubs, cheerful pictures, love and
sympathy—these will bind the young heart to home and right living and
will obviate the necessity of the “high dams” of restraint.
XCVIII.
A GOOD FELLOW.
He was a good fellow.
He spent his money like a Prince.
There was nothing too good for him to do for those with whom he kept
company.
He lived rapidly, and had no thought of to-morrow. He burned the candle
of life at both ends.
To-day he is dead,—and those vampires who sucked his life’s blood and
helped him to spend his money have no time to give him one thought.
Ah, how insincere and empty is the title of “good fellow” when it is
applied to the man whose money is always on tap for those who are
desirous of having a good time! And how corrupt and undesirable are the
so-called friendships which spring from a lavish expenditure of money!
Boys, the roof over your heads covers the best friends you could
possibly have on earth. Those who slap you on the shoulder and say
hilariously, “Good boy!” are seldom ever worth their salt. They like you
for what they can get out of you—that’s all!
Real happiness in this world comes, if at all, from living right and
doing right. If you are a good fellow in the sense of giving everybody a
“good time” with your hard-earned means, I warn you that, when your
money gives out, all your friends will desert you, and when you die they
will be the last ones to come near you, and may even laugh at what a
fool you made of yourself!
XCIX.
THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO.
My dear boys and girls, I have written nearly one hundred stories for
this book and I have not said one word about the so-called Race Problem.
I have done this on purpose. I believe that the less you think about the
troubles of the race and the less you talk about them and the more time
you spend in hard and honest work, believing in God and trusting him for
the future, the better it will be for all concerned. I know, of course,
that the sufferings which are inflicted upon the colored people in this
country are many and grievous. I know that we are discriminated against
in many ways—on common carriers, in public resorts and even in private
life. The right to vote is being taken away from us in nearly all the
Southern states. Lynchings are on the increase. Not only our men but our
women also are being burned at the stake. What shall we do? There are
those who say that we must strike back—use fire and torch and sword and
shotgun ourselves. But I tell you plainly that we cannot afford to do
that. The white people have all the courts, all the railroads, all the
newspapers, all the telegraph wires, all the arms and ammunition and
double the men that we have. In every race riot the negro would get the
worst of it finally. But there is a higher reason than that. We cannot
afford to do wrong. We cannot afford to lose our decency, our
self-respect, our character. No man will ever be the superior of the man
he robs; no man will ever be the superior of the man he steals from. I
would rather be a victim than a victimizer. I would rather be wronged
than to do wrong. And no race is superior to the race it tramples upon,
robs, maltreats and murders. In spite of prejudice; in spite of
proscription; in spite of nameless insults and injuries, we cannot as a
race, afford to do wrong. But we can afford to be patient. God is not
dead. His chariots are not unwheeled. It is ordained of God that races,
as well as individuals, shall rise through tribulations. And during this
period of stress and strain through which we are passing in this country
I believe that there are unseen forces marshalled in the defense of our
long-suffering and much-oppressed people. “They that be with us are more
than they that be with them.” What should we care, then, though all the
lowlands be filled with threats, if the mountains of our hope and
courage and patience are filled with horses and chariots of Divine
rescue?
C
THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN.
My last words shall be to parents. Many parents neglect the training of
their children until the boys and girls have grown to be almost men and
women, and then they expect all at once to develop them into
well-rounded characters, as if by magic. Others fix upon a definite time
in life—say, ten or twelve years old—before which time they say it is
unnecessary to seek to make lasting impressions upon the minds of
children, all unconscious of the fact that the character may have been
long before that period biased for good or evil.
I say it deliberately—it is a deep and abiding conviction with me, that
the time to begin to shape the character of children is as soon as they
begin to know their own mothers from other mothers, or as soon as they
become awake to the events which are taking place around them. The
farmer who has the notion that his child can wait, does not dare to let
his corn and cotton wait. He has observed that there are noxious weeds
which spring up side by side with the seed he has planted, and,
marvelous to say, the weeds outgrow the plants. They must, therefore, be
cut down and kept down, or else they will ruin the crop.
Side by side with your tender babe in arms there are growing now, dear
mothers, the poisonous tares. They are rooted already in the child’s
heart, and, unless they are stricken down pretty soon, they will
dominate the child’s life. And, of course, there is only one way to
destroy evil—that is, to plant good in its stead. If there is one
untenanted chamber in your child’s heart, inhabit it, I pray you, with
nobler and purer thoughts which before long shall bring forth fruit unto
God. Satan does not wait, I assure you; he never allows a vacancy to
remain unoccupied in anybody’s heart, old or young. He rushes into empty
hearts and idle lives and sows tares thicker than the strewn leaves of
autumn. It is an old and senseless and barbarian custom which has taught
us that the child can wait or must wait. If anybody must wait at table
to be served, it is usually the little child, who may be the hungriest
of all; if some one must remain away from church or Sunday-school, it is
often the youngest child, who perhaps needs most to go; if some one must
be kept out of the day school, it is the smallest child, of course; and
during the year that he remains idle he may receive impressions and
learn lessons that will mar his whole future life. Let us have done with
this barbaric practice. Make room for the children; give them not only
the first place but the best place.
In almost any city in the South any Sunday in the year you will find
more children—more boys and girls—outside of the Sunday-schools than you
will find inside. There is a loud and crying call sounding from the past
and from the future and bidding mothers and fathers to be more diligent
in the matter of having their children embrace opportunities of growth
and spiritual culture which are almost within a stone’s throw. If
mothers and fathers will not hear and obey this clarion call I believe
that they will be brought to account for it in the day of judgment. Not
only so, but in the years to come they will be compelled to wail out
their sorrow over prodigal sons and daughters who might have proven to
be ornaments to society and to the church if their parents had devoted
half the care upon them that they expended upon colts and calves,
kittens and puppies that grew up with them!
In all earnestness I implore those to whom God has given winsome little
children to begin early, as early as thy find it possible, to train
their young lives for God and heaven. Let their little voices learn
early to lisp the precious name of Jesus and be attuned to sing His
praise. If you leave them this legacy—than which there is none
greater—there will come peace and joy to your old age, and the light of
heaven, like the golden glow of a radiant sunset, will rest on your
dying bed.
And now, as I close these stories, there comes to me across the
intervening space of silence and of tears fond memories of a sweet and
patient mother. I cannot remember when she began to talk to me of Jesus
nor read to me the word of God. I remember well when she taught me how
to read, and the old-fashioned blue back spelling-book is as plainly
before me now as in those long past days. But, long before that, I had
heard her read the Bible and raise her voice in prayer for all whom she
loved. And to-day those memories live when a thousand busy scenes of
after life lie dead. And when old age comes on—if God should spare me to
be old—the memory of my mother’s words and her reverential prayers will
be the brightest of all the joys that shall light up the evening of my
life.
THE END.
-----
Footnote 1:
Published in the Voice of the Negro.
Footnote 2:
Published in Lippincott’s Magazine.
Footnote 3:
Published in Lippincott’s Magazine.
Footnote 4:
Published in Lippincott’s.
Footnote 5:
Published in Lippincott’s.
Footnote 6:
Published in The World’s Work.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
2. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as
printed.
3. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together
at the end of the last chapter.
4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
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