Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-24

the other fellow do the grumbling." said
Washington, lis the race that gets ahead"
He told OF a man who, while fishing.
Jumped into the river to save boy from
was that boy relative of yours?'' he
was asked
mo, san
well. perhaps you loved him like a son.
No. sab; ali KANT say as ah loves him
pcrtickerler."
well. then. why did you risk your life
to save him from drowning?
We'll, you see, sab, de troof OF de matter
are dat he had all de bait in his pocket.
II you want people to take an interest IN
you" continued the speaker. you must
get Just az much Of the bait In your pocket
A somewhat similar story was told by one
Of the visitors. 9. negro. who Is carrying on
school elsewhere.
''There was a colored man." he said. who
used to drink good deal. but one day he
swore of and did not go near the saloon
for many months. One day the barkeeper
met him and asked, Why dent you come
into the saloon any more and take a socia-
BILE drink as you used tor
Well, you see, can't. I've got a hard
lump in my side now, and II came into
the saloon and leaned up against the bar
might hurt it,
Cant you get IT cured? asked the bar
keeper. What kind OF lump is 1T?
I amt particular about getting 1t cured
replied the negro. Here's the kind Of
lump 1t is,' and he pulled a roll of green
backs from his vest pocket"
Instances Of Self Denial.
What did you do without when you were
paying for your land?' Mr.. Washington
asked of one farmer.
Most everything was the answer.
well, you see," he explained, 81 had the
good fortune to marry a woman who had
cow and we Just about lived on the milk
from that cow for one season.
A man from Louisiana, who now owns
$4,000 worth of sugar land, besides much
other land, and confesses to a bank ac-
count and a block OF houses In New Or
leans, fed his family during one lean winter
corn which his wife ground by hand and
made into bread.
The necessity of acquiring property was
illustrated by the story of Jerry and the
the requisite 8 cents for paying the fare
across a river went to a negro by the name
Of Jerry and asked for loan of the
amount.
No. sab. ah won't let you have IT, re-
piled Jerry, "for white man who hain't
got cents is just as well Off on one side
Of the river as on the other And 80 1t is"
continued the speaker. with niger who
haint got cents. It don't make much
difference which side Of the river he's
on!'
Robert L. Smith Of Texas, before refer
red to. told Of how he was elected to the
state legislature, and them" said he, II
thought the race problem was solved!'
The Progress of Forty Years.
This same speaker advised his hearers
when they felt respondent to look back
forty years and then they would regard
the present as happy and the future as
glowing with promise. The Tuskegee
method he characterized as 1.-THE jack-screw
idea" The figure may have been apt
enough as applied to the leaders but the
thoughtful man who visits this place, espe-
cial1y at the time of the annual conference,
will go away with the conviction that this
negro is responding wonderfully to the
efforts which are being made by the lead
ers Of his own blood to upraise him.
Get money, get useful skill, get char
acter, these are the things that he Is
learning very rapidly-more rapidly than
he ts generally given credit for. If airy
one doesn't believe this let him come down
to Tuskegee and look around. And he has,
moreover, If any race ever had 1t In the
history of the world, Moses who IS the
equal Of any Of the worlds great race lead
ers. There are pessimists who think that
all this makes the race problem all the
more alarming; but we should not forget
that pessimism usually turns out to be the
wrong attitude in the end.
GEORGE HORTON.