The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-04-02


was consuming the elementary branches
and looking forward with glad antlcipa-
ton TO the time when he would march up
to All and cause her to capitulate, colleges
intellectual fountains from which con-
tinual streams of knowledge flow out to
the ignorant masses are built; within
their classic halls negroes arc graphing
with Greek verbs and dliferential and IN
tegral calculus, and here and there in the
North where he has had an equal educa-
tional advantage, | see him covering him
self with glory and walking oil with the
laurels thus demonstrating his ability to
do whatever others can do.
Again il was said that educating him
made HIM thriftless and that he would be-
come eventually a menace TO the govern
ment; meanwhile this was solved, for the
negro saw that everybody could not get
"kid gloven position. Hence he knew
that he could not rise above his environ
ments, and accordingly set about buying
land and other property. he saw tnat
education and money we're running
things" and he resolved to get both. That
he has been in a measure great lmltator,
goes without saying, SO did Rome, she
modelled after the Greeks, and other
nations have done the same. intellectual
improvements are noted all along the line.
The negro edits and publishes to-day
more newspapers than his former master
did. He has more institutions of learning
of an high order on the same territory
than had his former owner. He can boast
of more college-bred young men and
women than could his master 80 years
ago, And on the credit side OF this TO HIM,
again he poses as president of many of
these institutions OF learning. And be IT
| further said to his credit that the young
men and women that are ushered from
these beacon light houses are in turn diff
| fusing light in every hamlet and in the
| rural districts throughout the South.
| | repeatedly refer to the South for the
| reasons that there my people are progress
| ing, and because they are nearly all in the
| South and manage largely their own edu-
| catonal interest. But he has not confined
himself to this narrow sphere of teaching.
| Hundreds graduate annually from medi-
| cal, law and theological institutions and
are lights in the county and state medical
associations; and talk legal lore from the
| police to the supreme courts; and are
giants on the sacred rostrums as promul-
gators of the everlasting words of truth.
Just now a great deal of attention is be-
| ing paid TO business and mechanical edu-
| cation. These have not had the atten-
| ton they merited, but the sad school OF
experience has demonstrated their worth.
| and they are now receiving more atten-
| ton. Aside from n great number who
| contribute to the leading American
| monthlles, bi-monthlies and quarter les,
negroes have contributed to the American
ca talogues of books more than 80 vol
| uIlNSs 1uSSc CONtE idl ~ ldiES Va
| thought and CONSIST of poetry, which is
| usually nations debut-hlstory, biogra-
| ply, autobiography, arithmetic, algebra,
| grammar. methods of teaching, ethnol-
| ogy. music, theology, treatises on dis
| eases, Greek lessons, fiction and PAM
phlcts. etc. but the negroes books do not
| find a cordial welcome, as do other au-
| thors, with libraries of Americans. There
| is prejudice even against his books. Yet
they are not black. 1t was the same with
all American books, however, during the
/ revolutionary war. 1t was sneeringly
asked then: "Who reads an American
| book?' But when that array of great
men contemporary with Webster, Emer-
| son. Holmes and others came upon the
| stage of mental activity, opinions changed
in England and everywhere else with ref
erence TO American authors, and our men,
tai products.
| Ii is the writer's opinion that were the
| American people 10 give more considera-
ton to the mental product of the negro,
| and to estimate his worth thereby, n bet
| ter understanding of him would follow,
| and different opinion respecting him
| would be found. As it Is, all negroes are
| "thrown into the same boa" regardless
| of refinement, culture, wealth, morals or
| intellect. The college professor. the re-
fined and cultured pastor arc regarded
| as about the same as the fellow who takes
care of the horses and does chores about
| the place. by nature they are the same,
but different by practically development.
by way of recapitulation let me say that
| the negro is not, then, n mental monstros-
| ity. lie has not made intellectual adj
vancement in one line at the expense of
| the others.
| Within the short space of so years he
has by dint of hard work contributed ma
| terially to tho literature OF his country.
| As nations are rated by the character of
| their literature. 50 is he willing 10 be
measured by that which he has produced.
| The percentage of llliterates is greatly on
the decrease, even exceeding that of the
| Caucasian. for in numerous instances the
enumerators do not record their illlteracy
| Having taken the United States census in
1880 in large and densely populated dis
trict, know whereof | speak. 1t con-
sisted of about 20 per cent. white and 30
per cent. colored population.
| As his education and bank account in
crease so do his morals and love for the
stars and stripes, notwithstanding his
manhood is often abridged and his con-
sututional rights a misnomer.
IL may be permitted TO hoist the cur
tains of the future and TO judge the same
by the history of the past, / would say,
truly the dusty sons and daughters of