Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-02-05
Gbe Anti- 9Iaperp Buole.
From street Thought by Rev Henry H. Dexter of Boston
9HE COLOR OF GENTLEMEN.

because saw you In such company yester'
day"
,'You saw me in no company yesterday, that was
not good and reputable"
~ saw you walking yesterday in close and ap
parenty interested and congenial intercourse, with
'ngger' as black the darkest night, when the
moon doesn't shine because it can't push any shine
through tho clouds, and the street.lamps don't
shine out Of poteness to the moon,"
''Granted. Yet your implied assertion, that you
saw me in bad company, remains unproven-
Black is hardly Synonymous with bad"
~ wouldn't have been seen in the streets in that
condition"
II have seen you in worse"
Stake care Edward. What do you mean ?"
IL mean, William, that have many times met
you on Washington Street. walking arm in arm,
we'll pleased, with both gentlemen and ladies. as
they are popularity called of vastly less intelligence
and moral worth than the individual whom you
are pleased TO style 'nigger,' and with whom you
saw me conversng"
IL don't care il he were an angel. wouldn't
be seen publicly d.sgracing myself by contact with
him. If / must swallow such black dose, would
keep it, as the doctors sometimes direct their med
icines containing iodine to be kept, in congo
nially dark corner"
"Pray, William, where is the disgrace of being
seen to treat gentlemanly person who has black
skin as a gentleman ?"
"Gentleman A Niger gentleman! l should
think you had better emigrato to Liberia at once
knew you were a rabid Republican, but didn't
know you had gone clean over to the Amalgama.
tionists."
II beg pardon, William but you haven't ans
wered my question"
"What question :"
"Why agentlemanly negro is not as really gem
tleman as gentlemanly white person %
II tell you the idea is absurd"
"Still you don't answer. Do you, from your an.
eient "reminiscences as schoolmaser happen to
remember Webster's definition of gentleman p
II can't say that do"
"Let me refresh your memory "a man of edu
cation and good breeding, of any occupation, or
something like that in short, man who is reputa
bic in character and courteous in manners, as dis
tingushed from the reverse. Nowhere does such
definition necessarily exclude the negro2 Is be
not q man? And, being man, may he not SC
culture himself to come up most fully to the re
quirements of such definition ?"
'He isn't man."
Il know that remarkable person who once un
rolled mummy before a Boston audience, with
some of his Scientific friends, and, lattcrly, the
Supreme Court would like to make people believe
that; yet you don't believe it. though you say it,
.You can't prore that he is man."
"You used to teach Physiology, presume. Lee
me remind you that the only essential physical
difference between yourself and the person witt
whom you me walking yesterday, is, tha
there is little more cooring matter in the cells OF
the under side of his cuticle, than there is in thu
corresponding cells on the under side of your own
You are dark brown in complexion the granule
of your underskiD are something more than amber
colored; those of his are a dark copper colored =
that is all the difference between you. You are
white man, and he is a negro in consequence
1t. But are you ready to assert that the mere ply
sicia difference of degree or two in the depth o.
coloring'mater in these. epidermal cells-all Other
component parts of the animal and mental and
moral organism remaining identical between the
two-cons.tutes difference as between manhood
and beasthood?"
"Well, if negro is man, he isn't q gentle
man."
"Not unless he behaves like one. If he does
why is he notf"
'Sooety doesn't recognize him as SUCH"
"Socety doesn't do great many things il
ought"
''Socety is my rule"
at is not mine, nor Gods. Its rule is iron, and
not golden"
"Such as it is we are bound to keep it."
''By what authority 7"
"That of necessity"
&C. that in a sociatu Of nirataa vou wnnld hA ,
piratef"
~ others do"
"Suppose yourself in negroes place,
il be little matterf"
'You poster me with questions"
"You annoy me with answers. The fact s,Will
fam, you have been untrue to yourself and you
better nature in all that you have said. You know
shat negro is a man, and may be a gentleman
and that when he is so he ought to be treated a
euch, just as we'll as do. You know that societ
10 mean, as well as wrong, in thus consenting &
bs unjust to the weak out of courtesy to the strong
OF sourss.nons OF ps advocate the superior desira
blsness Of intimate association between black an
white, as general thing; but we do urge, tha
when black man has brain, and uses it, and cul
tures himself to position equal, or superior to ou
own, he ought to have the credit of it, and tn
courtesy that belongs to it,-and the man who j
afraid to accord il to him, through fear of what SO
eisty will say, is pellucid poltroon. So say s.
says your inner soul!
And so said we, as We alighted from the omni
bus in which we had been an interested listener Il
the dialogue thus far
Mr.. Phillip Jeesse, the oldest inhabitant Of Vir
Rinia, died at New Garden, Russell county, las
month, aged 100 years,