The Colorado statesman., 1912-07-06

novel and reading II in daily install
ments.
Through his music teaching the au-
thor became acquainted with the best
class of colored people in Jackson
VILE" adding that this was really"
his entrance Into the race" Not only
does he write strongly of the upward
struggle of the negroes, but In his &C
count of conditions in Jacksonville and
In other cities, he gives an unusual
picture of well-to-do, well-educated ne
gro society. AS for the negroes in the
south he declares that they may be
roughly divided into three classes. not
so much in respect to themselves as
In respect to their relations with the
whites. The first class which he de-
scribes are the lowest, that from which
the criminals chiefly come. 1t is class
which he declares to represent but
small proportion of the colored people
although unfortunately it often domi-
mates public opinion concerning the
whole race. This class of blacks he
writes, hates everything covered by
white skin and in regard they are
loathed by the whites" The second
class, as he divides them, comprises
the servants, the washwomen, the wait
ers, the cooks, all, in n word, who are
connected with the whites by domestic
service, and between this class of the
blacks and the whites he declares there
is little or no friction. His third
class is composed of the Independent
workmen and tradesmen and of the
well-to-do and educated colored people,
and he adds that for directly oppo-
site reason they are as far removed
from the whites as the members of
the first class These people live in
little world of their own and he points
out that whereas the proudest of
southern women could, with propriety,
and undoubtedly would in fact, go to
the cabin of Aunt Mary, her cook, If
Aunt Mary was sick, and minister to
her comfort with her own hands, IF
on the other hand. Aunt Mary's daugh-
ter who used 10 hang around the kitch-
en-, but who has received an education
and married a prosperous young col
ordcd man, We're at deaths door, the
white woman would no more think of
crossing the threshold of the daugh-
ter's cottage than she would of going
into a barroom for a drink"
From Jacksonville, on the closing of
the cigar factory the author drifted to
New York. and the esult is a descrip-
tion of the negro underworld" of the
metropolis such as probably has never
been written before. The young man
with little money in his pocket was
taken about by negro friends to vari-
Gus resorts, including a gambling club,
frequented by negro sports" and the
like. together with white persons of
certain sorts Although vivid the de-
scription is in no sGse abhorrent, al
though a Zola might, indeed, have
envy of it as the basis of a picture to
be filled out by the unrelenting addf-
ton of details. AS it is, the reader is
introduced to clubs and restaurants
where negro jockeys, flushed with
their winnings on the turf, buy vine
recklessly for all who sit aaround be-
meath the colored celebrities upon the
wall. Frederick Douglass to Jack
Johnson, and the like. From this gas
light existence, as he well describes 1t.
the author was rescued through his
musical ability. In one of these re-
sorts he had his first Introduction to
"rag-time" music which was then un-
| known With his classical education
In music he was able to develop and
adapt the negro melodies. and on the
other hand to play classical music In
ragtime. In the end he became
professor" at the piano in negro
resort, and there was taken up by
white man of wealth and leisure In
search of novelty, who employed him
to play at Bohemian dinners and I'M
ally took him abroad as companion,
giving him opportunities in France
and Germany to pick up not only the
languages but more musical knowl-
edge.
1t was at Berlin that after having
played some ragtime music at gath
ering of musical people, the author
gained what for the time he conceived
to be the inspiration of his life work.
He had hardly finished his ragtime
when an enthusiastic German brushed
him off the stool and taking the same
theme varied and developed 1t through
every known musical form. Il had
been turning classical music into rag
time, a comparatively easy task; and
this man had taken ragtime and made
1t classical" The thought flashed
into his mind that there was his op-
portunity, that the music of America
might be developed from the negro
melodies. He then determined to
leave his leisure loving companion and
go back to the United States to work
as negro composer. The decision
made, he returned to the country and
began his labors among the southern
negroes in collecting their melodies,
and the chapter in which he tells of
this work will prove one of excep-