Semi-weekly herald., 1910-09-19
BOOKER WASHINGTON IN LONDON
"A MESSENGER OF HOPE.

Booker Washington hag been visit
ing in London. and the sights that he
has witnessed. the welcome that he
lighted to honor him suggest certain
strange contrasts that bring their mes
sage of cheer and hope TO those Who
dwell amid the most appalling scenes
of human misery.
London, the largest city in the world
is second to none in good works, v
should guard against speaking OF II
with an air of superior virtue and god
illness, but ii is a fact that travellers
whose sensibilities are not OF the fin
est are shocked by Its awful displays
OF brutality and degradation Truly
in that great laboratory where the
souls of millions are tested vice is a
monster of frightful mien. There is
squalor indesofibable, nauseating
coarseness and vulgarity Abandoned
women fill the streets. the drunken
ness to which both sexes and al ages
succumb is horrible; the deprayity Of
men, women and children Is so much
In evidence that the merely curious
onlooker feels sense Of loathing and
longs to escape from the TOO distress,
ing drama of poverty, misfortune, sin
and despair.
Enter now the mulatto, the exslave
from America He was born the chat.
fa1 of I, Vi,.uinfa MA antay II{o rnothn,.
gave him the strain of negro blood.
his father was a white man. He came
into the world doubly marked as q
social outoast. His inheritance. so far
as could be seen in that year, 1858.
was work under the lash, home in a
filthy, dilapidoted cabin. such food as
a master might provide for men or
swine, the companionshlp of poor crea.
lures who could hardly understand the
meaning of morality and thrift.
He who, as it thus appeared. was
pledestined TO be an outcast in Amer
lea comes to the outeasts of London,
and il the vision of 1868 had been
fulfilled the slave borne across the
water and cast helpless among them
would have sunk quickly to the bottom
of the pit Not even the color line
knows no color line; the bestiality
the drunkenness, the degradation to a
still lower estate would have been
freely offered him.
nrrf In. u 10 II. n.
out from slavery as free laborer in
furnace and mine, and then he took
his fate in his own hands The "po.
culiar institution" of the south was
DESTROYED forever; the question was,
Had he the making of a man in him 2
Could he accomplish not as much as
but far more than the exemplary poor
boy OF the story bookss Could he
not only earn living, but overcome
the scorn of society, acquire an edu,
cation, advance like Others who were
not weighted with his special bur.
dens?
We know now that he triumphed
and that his triumph is one OF the elo-
ries Of his time. Society has accept.
ed him even in his own country, where
old prejudices against his color stnl
linger. He is more than educated: /:
he is a successful educator. the orig.
tnator and the upbuilder from the
smallest beginnings of noble edu.
cational establishment, the helper and
the hope of his race
And he appears in London as a
student of social conditions. With a
heart for those who suffer, with fine
Intelligence, with knowledge derived
from most instructive experience. he
realizes the tragedy of the submerged
tenth and appreciates to the full the
devoted efforts of Londons life-savins
and soul-saving crews.
Society receives him with open arms
cabinet minister is his guide, ant
here other contrasts crowd upon Us
to make us thankful for the day ii
which we live Who is tins cabinet
minister He. too, is The child OF pov
erty, IL not OF slavery He once saiC
that he came into the world with I
struggle and that he was strugglinl
still. He Is John Burns, born in tina
very year, 1858, when Booker Wash
ington first saw the light Like Wash
inston, he was forced to hard laho
when he was a child. But he belonge,
from the first to the great city.
Could not a writer of books joii
these two lives in one striking nara
tive of the worlds promise TO men o
sterling worth, and show by the ca
feers of the despised plantation dark,
and the poor little London factor,
hand that there are the richest re
wards for character, for consecratIol
OF the highest ideals. rewards with
out the reservations, the sneers an,
the hate that make bitter the sweet
OF a sordid success gained by ques
tionable means Record-Herald.
A WEiGHTY DECISION.