Surely, if a classification of passengers on trains was at
all desirable, it might be made upon some more logical and considerate
basis than a mere arbitrary, tactless, and, by the very nature of
things, brutal drawing of a color line. It was a veritable bed of
Procrustes, this standard which the whites had set for the negroes.
Those who grew above it must have their heads cut off, figuratively
speaking,--must be forced back to the level assigned to their race;
those who fell beneath the standard set had their necks stretched,
literally enough, as the ghastly record in the daily papers gave
conclusive evidence.
Miller breathed more freely when the lively crowd got off at the next
station, after a short ride. Moreover, he had a light heart, a
conscience void of offense, and was only thirty years old. His
philosophy had become somewhat jaded on this journey, but he pulled it
together for a final effort. Was it not, after all, a wise provision of
nature that had given to a race, destined to a long servitude and a slow
emergence therefrom, a cheerfulness of spirit which enabled them to
catch pleasure on the wing, and endure with equanimity the ills that
seemed inevitable? The ability to live and thrive under adverse
circumstances is the surest guaranty of the future. The race which at
the last shall inherit the earth--the residuary legatee of
civilization--will be the race which remains longest upon it. The negro
was here before the Anglo-Saxon was evolved, and his thick lips and
heavy-lidded eyes looked out from the inscrutable face of the Sphinx
across the sands of Egypt while yet the ancestors of those who now
oppress him were living in caves, practicing human sacrifice, and
painting themselves with woad--and the negro is here yet.
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